Class #516

Theraband Strengthening

60 min - Class
100 likes

Description

Join Meredith for this Theraband-inspired class that will challenge your center, your flexibility, and your upper back extensors. Meredith focuses on fluid concentrated movements and rewards the students in class with plenty of delicious stretches.
What You'll Need: Mat, Theraband

About This Video

Sep 13, 2011
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Transcript

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Is there any, is there anything that anyone needs, I mean we're obviously going to do the band and um, do we need stretching? The what? [inaudible] you just want me to tell you what to do. That's what I always want. When I come to take a class. I just want to be told what to do. All right, well in that case, sit up and take your band and just hold it out in front of you for a moment.

I'm gonna sit however you're comfortable at this point. If it feels better to you to drop your knees open, do that. If you're happier with straight legs, do that. Then we're just going to be sitting in for a second. So bringing the band out in front and lifting up through the spine.

We're just going to take a couple of breasts here. So we're gonna inhale and spread the band. Feel the ribs spreading like the band spreading. And the next I'll let the band contract and feel the waist gently contract and then he'll spread the bands is tapping into our upper back muscles and XL. Just contracting through the waist. Let everything narrow and we go again.

Breathing, lifting the back and breathing. How does he pull the abdominal then and support this spy and breathing. How am I going to do one more like that's a right in the band and then back. Now take the van and bring it up overhead. Just go to where your limit is without over arching the back and then bring the band down so some of us won't go even near our ears.

Some of us will go behind our ears, but what we want to make sure that we're doing is keeping the trunk pretty sto. As you inhale, that's when we're moving the abandons. Find the stretch the band a little bit is that occurs and XL to come down. If you're into it, you could come all the way up and then you could exhale behind. If you're not gonna go behind, just stay where you are and then come back and forward and come up again and stretch the band as it goes behind you and bring it back up and allow it to loosen. As it comes down in front.

I just lift your upper back a little bit. There you are. Inhale up. Exhale back. Inhale up and exhale back. Let's do that one more time. We're reaching up, feeling the openness in the shoulder joint and see expansion that allows through the chest, back and forward. All right, everybody. Bend your knees. Starting here. We're going to roll back and as we roll back we're going to pull apart the band, so here we go. Rounding, rounding, rounding, rounding. Okay. As we inhale, we pause, we exhale and bring our bodies forward. Open up the knees, reach the arms up and the spine up. Drop the band in front.

Start to close the knees back round, back through the spy. Inhale, just pause there. Exhale, start curling back up. Allow the knees to open. Lift the body in the arms and stretch the shoulders. Reach the arms back forward. Close the knees, roll back. I'm going to do this same pattern one more time. We inhale, we exhale to curl forward, allowing the knees to open, expanding the body as we stretch up and then bringing the band back. Exhale, take the body back, pausing at the bottom. Inhale, just the arms up and exhale, just the arms down and inhale, just the arms as high or as low as you wish to annex. Oh, just the arms down.

Fill the abdominals, draw down as the arms go overhead and deeper as the arms. Press down last two times in your pull the belly down and exhale, press down. One more to go. Reaching up and coming back. We take one full inhale and exhale to come all the way out. Turn in my direction. Just keep the arms right in front of the shoulders. Exhale, roll back through the spine. Inhale, raise the arms up.

Exhale, lower the arms down and lift the spine back on that rotational turn and come center. Go the other way. We inhale to twist. Exhale, moving the pelvis out from underneath us so we flex the low back. Inhale, arms. Exhale, arms and spine comes up. That same exhale, come back to center. Turn again, XL to a role. Keep the knees lined up in center, tried to energize the feet into the floor, reaching the arms down, coming all the way back up, staying in rotation as you lift the spine and return to center. One more time around. Exhale, we roll back in here. We lift the arms, we lower the arms down, and we're going to roll it back from here. Take the band and hook it around your feet.

Stretch your legs all the way out long. And then just sit up. The closer you hold towards the feet, the more help the band is going to give you. So what I want us to think about is, uh, let's just round the spine. So keep the shoulders over the pelvis, but curl back so you're in a long see shake, shoulders down marina and Shannon. As you exhale, start to peel the spine down.

Now the idea that I started to talk about the it didn't is cow, can we lift the head and chest? Use the band to help us go deeper, right? So it's helping us through the movement. Stay round at the top. The band will let go a little Xcel as we start to roll back, manipulating through the spy, coming all the way down, lifting the head and chest. Now our abdominals resist the forward pole of the band, so it's almost like you're trying to stay on the ground. As the band pulls you up and forward. Keep going. Exhale to roll back. Shoulder blades pressing down towards the waist, abdominals working deeply into the spine. Back at the head touches it.

Comes right back up and we curve the spine, my change or just a little bit. Here's how it's going to go. Roll back and roll at when you arrived at the top. Start Round and then start to turn the palms up. And as you bring your elbows back, lift your backups straight. Allow the arms to reach forth. Start flexing the spine. Now we're going to move a little quicker. We roll back, I mean all the way down.

Lift back up, curve through this spine. When the shoulders arrive over the hips, we start to move the arms, lifting the back straight. We reach forward and we roll the hips, letting the head come down, lifting up, rolling up, keeping the shoulders pressing towards the pelvis, pull the band back, expand through the chest as you lift up, reach forward with the arms and do that two more times. So we rocked back. Feel each bone individually into the ground as you place it down, lift up and then peel like you're pulling tape off the ground. One bone at a time and then we lift. Pulling the arms back are rising up through the spine and reaching back as the arm straight in the pelvis starts to move.

Shoulders are heavy coming all the way down. I like that Deb good. That was doing something on her own. Looking for even more backward. Even still stay at the top. We're just going to row so we pulled back and reach forward and pull back. Get the rotation through the shoulders and reach forward to the palm.

Start down. They rotate up and we Paul and rich and Paul as an elbows go back. The chest reaches forward and last five and reaching forward and four reaching forward and three and two and one. So if anyone's had any experience on the Cadillac, we're going to recreate the mini curl. If you haven't, you just come with me. It's real easy to do. So find your way down just to your shoulder blades. The band will help to hold you up somewhat from there.

Keep the knees a little bit more bent marina, and then drop the pelvis into neutral. And then we're just going to curl very little bit forward to the bottom side of the pelvis in Dab. Curl forward to the bottom side of the pelvis and gum back. Find an energy in both directions, meaning don't just lie down so it's not just working on the way up. We curve the body and then feel a sense of stretching the abs and curve the body and stretch the ABS. Dow last three. Curl up, stretch down, curl up, stretch down.

We're going to come all the way up on this one. So we're rolling all the way up. When you get to the top, stretch up the spine and bring the arms out and back and forward and out and back. Lots of upper back work you can be prepared for today. Lisa, if it you need to put your band down at anytime you will last you. If this doesn't feel good for your neck for any reason, but the band away, roll back again, keeping the knees bent. Now rotate your chest so that the band furthest away from me comes just over the the outside leg and then we just curl up that side of the body and down and ah, keep checking in with your shoulders. Keep your knees bent and up. Check in with the pelvis. You should see it level.

You should see your knees facing straight up last five and four working in both direction. Here comes three and [inaudible] and two. We're going to roll up this side. Find your way to center. Sit Tall and press down and back and a chest expansion. Action down in, back, pressing the chest up and forward. Last two and last one with the arms forward. We rock back the pelvis, roll down, keeping the knees bent, find the bottom of the rib cage, turn your body the opposite direction and hollow out the abs as you lift and lower and lower and lower. Again, don't let the band do your work for you.

You use it to find additional challenge within last five and four. Yes, three, two and one. So we roll up that side. We're going to head back to the center. Here's our next action. So we're going to go into a rowing that also involves flection. So roll back, start to bend the on closest to me and twist down on that side. Sit all the way up, bringing your arm straight. Exhale as you come back.

Pull back with that back arm. Inhale to sit up. Exhale, pulling back with the yarn, but deep, deep, deeply pulling in through the eye. Then inhale and exhale contraction around back and inhaler. I'm going to do two more [inaudible] each side here. Here's one and [inaudible] and one and up and two and uh, and two. And I take the band off the feet. Slide your feet pretty close to your body.

Reach your arms out in front of you without the band. We just are without the band on the feet. We roll all the way back. Positioning the feet for a pelvic roll. We're going to situate the band just over the shoulders. Inhaling, prepare as you exhale, start to hollow out through the abdominals. Peel the pelvis up into the air. Press up with the backs of the legs. Inhale, stretch the arms overhead. You can pull on your band a little if you want to.

Exhale, roll back down all way through the spine and bring the arms over the shoulders. On the inhale, exhale, we curl up your hands. Get tired. Take a break. Put the band down. Inhale, arms overhead. Exhale, peel down. Feel the shoulder blades glide in the direction that the spine is moving. Inhale the arms over the children's XL to lift again.

Inhale arms overhead and exhale to hollow out. Rolling down and arms over the shoulders. Last one, I tell him to lift that we're going to stay up at the top this time. Leave the right leg on the ground. Pick up the left leg, try to touch the need of the band. Inhale, reach down, tap the toes. Exhale, pull the knee up and precedent to the band. Inhale down. Exhale, lift. Inhale down. Exhale, lift last two times last one time. Let the light come down. We're gonna re shift. Find Stabilization and straight.

Pick up the other leg and he comes into the band and it goes down and it comes into the feel good. When you push on the band, you're pushing with your abs, not with your thigh. Last two times last one time. Place the foot down, roll through it. Take a breath, reach the arms overhead and peel the body down. Flexing, enjoying that movement. Take the arms just over the shoulders. Again, we're just going to use the band as a marker here. So if your hands are tired and I was a good time to just let it kind of rest there. Pick up the legs one at a time. Inhale, twist the pelvis towards me. Keep the arms totally still. Exhale, come back through center and he'll twist the legs the other way.

And XL, come back through center and we rocked gently over the sides of the pelvis and center and to the other side and center. I'm going to do two more to either side and again and last one. Gently twisting the back, twisting the waist. Come back through center. Curl your head and chest up and try to reach the band way out towards the ankles. Inhale, stretch the legs out. The arms go overhead. Exhale, we pull back. Inhale, reach out. You're going to pull on the band. Pull it now as your arms come down over your legs. Inhale out marina. Try to curl a little higher through your chest. That's it. Inhale out and exhale back and inhale and exhale back.

We feel the expansion of the body, the back flat. We pull deeply in. We're doing three more coming home. Two more, bringing it back. Last one and bringing it back. Bring your knees into your chest. Just wrap the round band around your legs. From there, we're going to press the legs into the band, curling ourselves back up again. Take the on and create like a barrier with your legs.

Elvis pointed down towards the ground. Stretch your right leg out in. Press the left knee into the band. So a little move like a trampoline. And we pull press and pull, press and pull a press. Feel how the abdominals were deeper as you work those deep hip flexors to press into the band, press and press and press and press about one more set. Starting now, bend both knees, take the band overhead as you lie your body down, coming up for a rotational movement. So we lift up for us, taking the band over the bull shins. Stretch the leg furthest away from me, and then reach the band over across towards that opposite ankle end chain reach.

So now you're not pulling on the band much, you're just using it as a marker. Turning the body. So you rotate. Come towards the bent knee marina. So move your body towards the knee that's coming towards your body. That's it. You got it to reach across the bed. Any of the other leg is reaching out in space. How about, I don't know, how many more are you guys? Two more. Yeah. All righty.

And on and on. One, brewing the legs in and stretch the arms overhead. One more exercise to go here and then we'll have a little ab break. So with the band in your hand, curl your head and chest up. Stretch your legs forward. Inhale, spread the [inaudible]. Exhale, let it go. Inhale, spread the band. Exhale, let it go.

Keep it lifted up off the shoulders and he'll spread the band. This can be done with bent knees with the band over the top. It can be done with the head on the ground and the legs out straight. You decide what works best for you. Opening the ribs and closing the reps and opening and closing as you open the band, try to curl a little higher and back.

Go in three more times a one and two at z and three and exhale. Bend the knees and place the feet down. Take the band and wrap it around your left foot. Check for stability in the pelvis or a straight pelvis and then stretch the leg down onto the ground and to do a leg circle here. What's nice about the band. I'm first pull the leg back and then draw the elbows down into the ground like a rowing motion. So you feel the upper back on.

We're going to take the leg across the body. We're going to swing it down, around and up. So now we use the band. We've all done lakes circles before, but with the, with the help of the band, we can find a little freedom in the hip. So let's look for that. Don't forget to keep the bottom leg strong. It presses into the ground. It's our last one.

Reach to the heel of that upward leg so that you get the stretch through the whole leg. We go the other way. Cross the by, lifting it back into the body. So feel even with the hands holding the band that it's the abdominals that bring the leg inwards. Make the circle as big as you want, but also keep in mind that stabilization is the key component here. So you want to make a big enough circle that makes it feel free, but a small enough circle that you feel in controlled pause at the top. Walk your hands a bit higher on your band.

Pull the leg back to the point where you're feeling a stretch, but the pelvis isn't going crooked. Then bend the knee. As you exhale, pull down, widen the elbows as you press the leg back into the band. And here we bend. Exhale, the upper back pulls as we stretch the leg into the Bannon. Inhale and exhale to oppress and inhale and exhale to press and in hand. Last two times. Hold down and press into the band one more time. And then just holding there and maybe guide the leg a little further back.

Intensifying the stretch here. Okay, I'll let the leg come away. Bend the leg that's free. We're not changing yet. Take the opposite leg, the one that's still in the band and lower. And so it's about knee level with the opposite leg. Lift your head up, roll through your spine, reaching your spine, bend your elbows at the top end and lift the back. Start to stretch the arms. And as you do so, start to round the spine. Roll down. Think control. And until your head comes all the way down, lift the head and chest.

Start to curl the spine forward, looking for control there. Once you're starting to straighten, the back comes into involvement and we bend the elbows wide. Lovely. Reaching forward. We rock back in the head. Come down. It's a nice way to practice the teaser. Curling, Huh? Bringing the chest Sta and reaching forward and coming down.

All right, bring that leg up and take it out of the band. Place the right foot in the band. Now stretch the left leg down along the ground. Check for a level pelvis and then guide the leg back to where you feel like it will be challenging and bring the elbows into the mat. Press the shoulders back into the mat. Here comes our circle. We crossed the body, we swing it around and catch it at the top.

Cross the body swinging around and catch it. The top [inaudible] Guy Anika sledding. That femur bone spiral around within the hip joint and a visual of that bones are circulating within that hip socket. Last too. One more anchor with the bottom leg, pressing it into the ground. We pause at the top and we go the other way. Swinging the leg around.

Don't be afraid to cross the body fully so you get a stretch in the outer hip. Keep both elbow points down on the ground as you come through. Center. Guide that like further back to your body every time. Last three, the last two. One more. Okay, so here comes our single leg teaser prep. We bend in the bottom leg. Take the leg that's in the band and lower it so it's about me level.

Lift the head. Use Your abdominals. Don't use the band yet to curl up. The man will help a little. Once you arrive up to where you're going to start to straighten and pull back on the band and lift. I forgot the hamstring stretches. Let's go down and do them. Oh cool. Okay, here we go. Sorry guys. Stretch out the bottom leg.

Hold a little higher on the band. That's going to help us with our teas or too, we're just going to bend the knee, bring it close to the body. Keep it close to the body as far as the thigh goes. And then pull down on the band as you stretch. And you know, we bet XL the abdominals drag down. And as we pull the band, pressing the leg to the sky and bend and stretch and bend and stir last too. And when that Ben in the bottom leg snap, now take that top leg and bring it forward. Lift up. Oh, how much more does that ban hope when you've got a little more attention on it?

Lifting the back, brewing the elbows wide, reach the arms forward, roll back. So the pelvis moves looking for stability as we unwind into the ground, lifting the head and chest. Curl the spine forward. So you want to think about rounding. When the shoulders come about over the hips, that's when we start to lengthen the body up. And then we stretch forward and rock back. This can be our last one.

We're going to pause at the top or we're going to finish at the top anyway. So we lift, we roll forward, starting to bend the arms as the back goes into extension. And then we release the arms and set the foot down. All right, so slide the legs out straight. This is spine stretch forward. I know you're going to take your band. Everyone's hands. Okay, good. Okay. I said good and cool at the same time.

It came out ghoul wasn't loud enough for you to hear. So I thought I'd say louder anyway. Um, sit up. More trademark would, it's cool. Alright, so here comes spine stretch forward and here this is what we're gonna do. So you should have a great deal of tension on the bandy yet. Breathe in. As you breathe out, allow your head to go forward, pull the ribs backwards and the going gonna lose a little tension as you round your body forward. And just to let the arms spread out, guide the spine forward towards the center of the feet and breathe in. As you exhale, start to stack your spine.

Now we begin to find resistance as our back stacks against the pull of the band. Inhaling at the top, tapping into the upper back muscles. The head goes down the ribs, draw it down and back, guiding the spine forward. Let the arms spread out so you just keep the band in your hands. Inhale and exhale to come up.

I'm going to do that one more time. Here it is rolling forward. Broadening the arms as the back broadens and rolling a taking it through extension. So exhale to find your way down to that same movement. And then once you get to the bottom and your full flection, start to turn the elbows down, bend them and lifts the chest long and then stretch the arms forward to bring the body back up. There's our pattern. We'll move a little quicker. XL, take the body forward and he'll bend the elbows. Point them towards the floor and rise up through the spine on the diagonal.

Nice. Reach the arms forward and articulate the spine back up against the light resistance that the band gives you. Rolling back forward. Bending the arms. We send the spine upward. Yes. Oh, that feels good. When you reach forward and we roll back up.

[inaudible] one more time like so. Rolling the spine, bending the arms, lifting the back, and we're reaching back forward. Once you get there, just take the band off your feet and let it rest at your feet and roll yourself up. Bringing your arms out to the side. We're going to take it through the side. We turn towards me. Guide your body forward over that front leg. Lengthen it out and up and come back to center. Inhale, as you twist, exhale. As you reach forward, lengthen out and up marina. Your feet could be a little wider and center and turn, rising upwards. Reach [inaudible] lengthen out and up and come back to center.

Shannon, watch the movement of the feet. Keep them as still as you possibly can. Rising up and coming center two more times around. We spiral. We do the abdominals. Pull back. We now lift up and come back, spiral and die a lifter and come back.

One more. Turn and reach a little lift up and back and turn to reach to lengthen up and bring it home. Take your hands behind you fingers where I'm going to do a, an arm balance. So just do what you need to do. Some pelvic cross. Lisa's um, has a neck injury, so she's modifying just in case you're worried. Okay, so you got your arm straight. We're going to do some bridging. So we're at bending our knees want you to press into your feet and as you lift your pelvis, send energy of of the knees going over the feet. That's it. Try to really pick the hips up so the knees are in line with the shoulders and then sit down. So it's a straight up bridging. You lift up Lisa, you can get that. Yeah, exactly.

And Straight and lift. Marina, turn your fingers out. Outs. Oh, you can go this way. That's where that was coming out of my mouth and down. So it's is, does that feel better? Good. And then we go back, we're gonna do two more. So lift up, barely. We barely touched the pelvis. It's like it's just kissing the mat as it comes down.

And now from here you're gonna Round your spine, put weight into your arms. And we're going to bend the elbows and straight and bent and straight and bent on street and bed and straight and keep going. Pull the abdominals. It's like, try to feel like you're sucking yourself down to the floor with your stomach and I don't know. Let's do five more. One and shoulder blades down. Two, three, four and five. Come all the way down and set and sit up. Stretching the legs back out for a twist. So we pick up the band again, taking the arms out in front of the body, flex the feet and turn and come back.

So at the moment all we're doing is keeping a rectangular shape between our shoulders and our hands and come back and turn and come back and lifting the chest taller and turn hold here. Then the elbows in. Pull the band into the chest, stretch the arms back forward and come back to center. It's up to you. Turn, pull into the chest, elbows wide, reach back forward and come back to center. Spiral upwards. As you turn, bring the elbows back, stretch the arms forward and come back. Turning the body, pulling the elbows back. The just reaches even more forward as the band comes towards it. Last to both sides, reaching forward and coming back. And again, pulling back for us in forward and coming home.

Sit even taller. This is our last one. Let's make it our best. We draw the chest into the band, we keep the chest lifted as the band reaches and then we come back. Turn again last time for the day. Reach and come back. Okay, now you're sitting up. Take the band and tie it around your legs.

Just going to create a little resistance with it and then turn towards me onto one side. I do have another band, shall I happen so I have over and get it. We're too powerful for our own good, right? All right, lie down. So we've got our knees bent, Herman, align heels up with the hip with this sacral area or with the tailbone and then lay all the way down. Okay, so just put your hand right here on your pelvis and feel the bones at the front and the back. They should be neutral. Take the top, like up and down and up and out, and we want to really tap into that gluteal muscle. So we're turning within the hip joint. Again, we can visualize the movement of the bone in within the joint.

Everything else, by the way, is things super solid. We're going to do four more and three and two and one. Now we're going to go up, we're going to pick up the foot so that the knee turns down towards the bottom. [inaudible] press up into the band up like, I dunno, I'm vision envisioning kind of a donkey kick, not the prettiest visual, but it works and lasts for three, two, one, stretch the leg out and pull it back slightly and then press back against the ban. So now we're working the connection of the gluten hamstring that that back back then maybe five more, three to one, stretching both legs out, not really using the band anymore. It just happens to be, they're going into the side lift. We just pick up the legs that stretch away from us and they go down partway and they stretch away from us. You. If you wanted to challenge your balance, you can bring your arm into the air and reach and reach. Last too, and last one.

Now take the hand and slide it down along the thigh. As you lift your legs, slide your hand up, lifting into that sideways with the hand reaching for the knee. Inhale to come all the way down. So we lift, reaching and we inhale to come down. And again [inaudible] and back and again and back last two times and the last one. Okay. Does everyone feel like they're bands still tied enough? Good. Come up, bend the knees and just swing them around to the other side. So lying down on the opposite side with the knees bent, pelvis neutral had done on your arm. Now we just lifted top leg, rotating within the hip joint and down on the left.

And a good place to challenge or not challenge, it's not an abdominal challenge, but to think about the ABS. So if we can say really strong in our center that that movement or that work is going to stabilize our spine as we work our hips, which is also stabilize our spine and we'll do four more. So here's one and bring it down and two and bring it down and three and four. So from there we tick, take up the foot, turn the knee down, make sure that the pelvis doesn't turn with the leg and it's just an up and back kick. Good. Kind of on the diagonal in squeezing the muscle. You want to feel I'm not and I'm kind of leaving it in exactly the same bent and just moving the entire thigh and we'll do two more. One more take now the leg straight, pull it slightly backwards so it's behind her or level with the pelvis and press into the band backwards. Oh Wow. If your hip flexors are tight enough, you'll get a stretch. Anyone else feeling a stretch?

Yeah, me and Lisa were the lucky ones. Last four, three, two and one. Let's bend the knee and come up. We didn't, we didn't, we didn't do the side less. Let's stretch back down, pick up just the legs. So long reach the arm can be balancing in the air or can be on the mat if that's what preferable. And it's a reach-out. And so all of our energy, the moment is focused into this waste use. Just having the band around your legs to remind you to keep the inner thighs strong.

We've got one more to go. Here it is. And then take the arm and rest it along the side. As the legs lifted again, we stretch up, reaching the fingertips down towards the knees and then come back and then we lift up again. Yeah. And then come back and let again to make it small. Three more to go. Reaching out, lowering down, lifting, lowering down.

And here's our last one for the day. So we come all the way down, bend the knees, come up and remove yourself from your band. Untie it. Now we might, we're gonna want it again later, but we're not gonna use it for a little while. Okay. And then sit up all the way. We're going to do the mermaid. So we've got one foot up against the opposite thigh, perfectly set and we're all going to be going in this way, which is full.

So we inhale and hinge out towards the parking lot. The hand comes down as you exhale. Start right away, engage deeply through the abdominals and take that opposite the under round. Now holding here, lift the chest like you're trying to bring your chest above your arms and then curve this spine. Open that free arm back out to the side. Use Your obliques to pick your body up. Take that supporting arm up off the ground and stretch to this side.

Lift your body back up. Arms come into a t. We in Jab, I'm pushing this foot into this leg and then we're reaching out and then with gentle pressure into the floor, we guide the spine for like you're yawning through the whole spine. Round the body. Come back, rise up, top arm goes, or the bottom arm comes up at whatever, however you see it as the top of the bottom and we lift up and we go one more time out, down around. Inhale, lift, exhale, flex. Inhale, open. Exhale left. Take the arm up over towards the ear and bend over. Now we're going to take the whole body and reach forward into flection.

Continue to spiral around the body. Put the hand back down on the Mat. Press up so you're lifting up onto your knees. We're pressing into our hip now, right the top arm over. They had to make three with it. Letting the head just relax. Looking for a range of motion in the shoulder, pressing the pelvis forward. The arms going to end over the head again.

We're going to start to sit down and as you do so, start to bring the chest towards the bottom of thigh. Bring your body back around to the side and over into the side stretch. Got a little bit more room. Now lift all the way up and just change the position of the legs. So sitting up tall. In the perfect world, both hips are down.

So if you can achieve that, that's great. Hinge, a hand comes down guiding the spine around the front and hand. Gently comes to the mat and here's where we look for a little bit of back extension. Re round the spine. Tuck the pelvis open and back to the side. Lift up from that sideways. Take the top arm up, stretch over using the obliques. We lift back up. It's almost like we're waitlist open out hand comes down. Guide your body around Lincoln. The body out and forward.

Re round the spine. Open back out to the sides of your facing forward. Lift up arm comes up and we stretch over. Got One more to go here. Here it has. Lift up arms app. Hinge out, hand down, guiding the spine around. Lifting the back through the arms. Rounding the back, opening to the side or to the front and take the top arm up. Reach it across. Now we bend at the waist.

We guide the entire spine forward. That hand, the one that's moving through space comes to the mat. The opposite arm lifts into the air. As we press forward into the hip joint. Let the arm just go in a gentle, relaxed circle around exploring the range of the shoulder joint. Can I take the arm back overhead? We're going to bend forward, sitting in the pelvis down, and we're going to come all the way back around and stretch over to the side once more. Okay. Are we going to do some arm supported work? So if you'd just come onto your, how are you with that, please? Okay, I'm gonna pull up my pants, which don't seem to stay on me and I'm hands on the ground, so we're just going to step back into a plank position to start.

I'm looking for strong abdominals, strong legs, and then picking the pelvis up. We press the feet down into the ground. Now start to move the hips, the forward towards the chin. So we curve the body, lowering the body back down into plank. Once again, lead with the hips. So come back into a flat back. Press the heels into the ground. This is where we're going to start stretching a little bit. We still have to use our abs as we curl back forward.

Shoulders dropping away from the ears and lift the hits. It's an undulating feeling in my mind and curl and left in curl. Okay. Dropping the knees down, coming into the cat stretch. So the knees are just underneath the hips. We breathe into prepare. We flex the lower spine rounding.

Inhale as we send it back to straight. Exhale as you lift through the upper spine. Very similar to what we just did in the twist. So just keeping the pelvis still and back and flex the lower spine. Allow the eyes to generally look down between the thighs.

Inhale to a neutral spine or a flat back. Exhale to extend just the upper portion of the spine. Inhale to come back one more time through flexing the spine, bringing it back, extending the spine and bringing it back. I'm gonna come back through plank and it point, the right foot lifts the right leg. Marina, drop your hips a little bit. That's it. Lift up Debra. Drop your hips a little bit and up and up. And I don't now hold round the spine.

Bring the knee close to the mat as you bring it into the chest and stretch back out and pull in and stretch out and pull in. Dropping the pelvis into a straight line as you come through your plank. Last two and back. One more and back. Place the foot down. Place the knees down and sit back on your feet for a moment.

Roll back through your spine, coming back up onto your hands. Slide one leg out, followed by the other bodies in a straight line. Here we are. Point the left foot in reach. It's straight-A. Tap Straight. Tap the top of the foot on the mat. Here's three. We did five and here's five. We now, then the spine, bringing the knee up into the chest and lengthen and bend the spine. Bring the knee up into the chest on lengthen and three reaching hollowing out through the ABS. As the knee comes into the chest, here's one. And reach out, dropping to the knees and sitting all the way back onto the feet. Once again, take a moment here. Okay, cool. We're rolling up through this spine. One more arm supported.

So with that we stretch the legs back. So what we just did with one leg, we're going to do with both legs. We're going to curve the spine, press the knees down towards the ground and stretch the back and stretch the legs. Curve the spine or reached the knees into the ground and stretch the back in the legs and curve to draw up and lengthen out and curve to Jura and lengthen out. Last two times last one time. And then just bend the knees.

Sit back on your feet, but sit up. Take the arms out in front and just do little Flamenco. Russ mobilizing through the rest and let's do the other direction and then come all the way down onto your abdominals. That's sliding the spine down into the ground. Bring your arms out into a goalpost shape. Place the forehead down on the mat.

Going to inhale and pick up the hands and the forums, keeping the elbows connected to the ground. Exhale, let the head and chest float. Oops. Anyway, I'm sorry I messed it up. Come down, elbows wide. Inhale hands in forms. Exhale, elbows. Now the head and chest. Now stretch the arms on a s like diagonal overhead. Lizzie, you could go to your sides. Fold the elbows back in. Lower the forehead, lower the elbows. Feel the rotation in the shoulders and lower the hands. Okay, so we go hands for us. Hands and forearms up off the ground.

Then the elbows come up off the floor. Then the forehead and chest hover. Then the arms stretch its nicely and now pull the shoulder blades down the back. As you bring your elbows back, bring the forehead down, bring the elbows down, bring the forearms down. Lots of movement in the shoulder. Doing. Here we go again. Forearms first, then elbows, then had in chest. As you go towards the overhead, try to keep the hands energetically higher than the elbows in space. Bring the elbows back, lower the forehead, lower the elbows, lower the hands. We're going to go one more time for arms. First, elbows, head, chest stretch, light arms, heavy shoulder blades, heavy shoulder blades, maybe even heavy arms at this point. Forehead, elbows, hands, rest for a moment.

Bring the arms down at your sides. So the palms are now going to be on the mat. I'm turning my head at your forehead can just be down. Okay, so what I want you to do here is press into the mat with your hands to pull the shoulders back. Yup. It a little more depth, just not higher, but just more back with the arms. That's it. Then just hover the chest and then hovered the arms so that the pinky fingers touch the sides of the legs. Inhale, bring the arms to the sides and exhale. Bring the arms back, touching the pinky fingers in towards the legs. Inhale, looking down at the ground. Marina.

Perfect and back and handheld. Open and exhale. Imagine someone's pulling on your arms back and pressing them into your legs. So inhale and exhale back and just chin down a little bit more. Marina and inhale and exhale back.

Let's do one more inhale to reach. Exhale to come back. Lower your body down. Rest when you're ready to come up. Come all the way up into rest position. Okay. Grabbing your band again. We're going to do a grand finale teaser. Here we go.

Do you think openly rockers possible with Sudan? Yes, I do too. I do too. Let's do the teaser first. Okay, so shift back and what I mean by that and that I didn't say very well. Sit position your body, so your behind your pelvis, behind your tailbone. Lift the legs up. Don't try to go super high with your legs. Just send them out. The elbows can be straight or bent.

We're going to roll the body down all the way. Let's just go to the shoulders and then roll up, up, up, up and bend the arms, lifting the chest and straighten the arms and now bend the arm closest to me and rotate and come back. Bend the arm furthest from me and rotate and come back and move the pelvis rolling down just to the shoulder blades today I think and rolling up. Let the legs be light for once. They usually feel so heavy or we're going both arms first and then we're going to go and we're going to bend the arm closest to me in turn the body and center.

Go the other way. Turning the body and center one more time through rounding down, enrolling [inaudible] so that rounding down, here's, oops, sorry, I missed it. Both arms at the same time. So I just started my rotation. But if you're catching up with me, go ahead. Okay, so this position right? And that go back, bend your knees. And that rocking of the pelvis is essentially what we're doing in the open rocker. So let's spread out the feet.

Lean again. So you're able to pick your feet up off the ground. I'm worried I'm not going to have, I'm going to fall off my mat. Okay. And then we stretch the legs again. Okay. So put a little pressure into the band on the outside. Put a little pressure into your upper back. Now rock back through the pole.

This yes rock. Ah, I left. It's definitely possible, isn't it? Rock back then. Rock up and left. Okay. It's really good. What I like about it is it's really challenging me to try to keep my upper back on. So just moving the pelvis. That's what creates our rocking energy and then up and the shoulders have never even curled. We just extend sue two more and left. Nice. Last one.

Oh, and the left. Bend the knees. Take the band away. I think we deserve a little stretching. Stretch out the legs. Take the leg all. Let's go the right leg. Let's put it up against the right knee or the sorry, the left knee or the left thigh, wherever it feels comfortable to you. Look down at your pelvis, make sure it's squared forward, and then gently rotate your body so it's facing just over that straight leg. We're going to walk forward over that leg so you just end where are you in, but wherever you do, hold on and then use your arms to help yourself go further forward.

Pressing the back of the knee into the ground. From here, we're going to keep holding on with the left arm, but we're going to let the right arm go. Reach the right arm further. Carry the spine with it and start to spiral open through the right rib cage, opening the body around to the side. Keep opening, opening, opening, maybe even more than you think you can. And then come all the way back. Guide yourself forward for one more moment. Let go of the leg and gently roll yourself up. Stretch the right leg out, bend the left knee. Look down at the pole vis.

It should be facing forward. Now turn the body so the chest is facing just over that sigh and walk forward and hold on and guide yourself a little further into the stretch. And this time it's the left arm that's going to let go. And as you reach further forward with the arm and carries the body with you, then we start to turn the left ribs open towards the sky. Check in with your hipbones. They should stay still in level.

Keep spiraling, opening up through the body. We come all the way back guiding ourselves forward for one more moment and then we're going to come up and then we're gonna swing the feet around and come up onto our knees taking, let's say the left leg forward. I need my hands to just position my back leg. Good. Well I'm coming just in front of my kneecap and then I'm going to, we're all gonna press just forward into the hip joint there. Okay. If that's not enough for you to start to come up onto the thigh with the hands and you never want to bare down into the stretch, always want to try to rise up out of it.

And by doing that we're going to create a more functional stretch, but B, I think we'll all feel it a little bit more. Take the, you're going to turn towards the bent knee, so just start to bring both hands around and just guide yourself around a little bit closer or a little bit further. And then coming back through center. Take the hands back to the ground, walk that foot inwards when you can. It's going to drop down and open. Then you can just kind of guide that straight leg away from you. So you've got a few options here. You can stay upright, which is enough for some, or you can come down onto your elbows. I'm just breathing into the stretch there.

So think about the hip that you feel stretching the sit bone of that hip, pulling backwards and down towards the bottom incl and then just start to help yourself, uh, use your hands to take pressure off that stretch and then slide the leg back and bring the other leg forward. Bringing the hands to the ground, position yourself just forward of the knee and then press into the hip from there. And then when you're ready, if you want to just start to lift up, remember if you're already feeling like you're bearing down, fill the difference between that and going lightly upwards. You're still pressing forward into the hip, just not sinking down into it. Pulling up on the ABS, lifting the spine and chest. Let me just gently twist towards that bent knee using arms for assistance and then we come back and the hands are going to come back to the ground. Just going to heal to that foot in or pick it up and put it down.

Whatever works for you. Let me just sit down into the hip. [inaudible] every time I train goes by. Now after a Lolita's workshop, I get this picture of her and my mind going. Cute. I love that. Okay, so let me just breathe the stretch and we're going to come back I guess in the hands that ease our way off the hip. Come up on the knees. Face me.

I'm just rolling through the spine. I'm going to reach the arms up. I'm gonna dive. Bending at the spine forward, reached the hands towards the ground, sync back a little bit towards the fee. Drag the fingertips along the ground. Start to press the hips forward, but in the arms of lightly reach up or just to the sides and then bending at the waist, reaching for sinking back enough so you feel your spine flexing. Let the fingertips drag along the floor, raise the arms up, feeling the freedom in the shoulder joint, rounding forward. Oh, lifting up, and then just allow the arms to drop down to our sides.

Let's do one big more big circle, just the arms and down the sides and we're done.

Comments

Really enjoyed this workout Meredith, thought the cues were excellant. Thanks
Loved your class. Not having any of the large pilates equipment, it is fun using props like the theraband to do pilates exercises.
Yummy!
Would this be safe with osteoporosis? I'd love to try it. Might I need some modifications to the side (spinal) twist? It looks safe to me.
Just enough band to challenge & NOT fatigue your hands. Especially loved the variation on mermaid & side leg series. Fantastic - can't wait to use some of this with my students! You rock
This class was soooo TERRIFIC. I did it it 2x. I love your delivery on each exercise.
THANK YOU !!!!
I felt really "open" throughout the class. Nice workout. Lots of great stretching too!
I love this class Meredith! Great all around and your cues are subtle yet powerful at the same time.
Great class Merideth, I'm from Auckland New Zealand. Great flow & cueing, I was using my iPad so had to listen at times & it was easy! Thanks DonnaB
Great class Merideth! Loved using the band while doing the exercises!
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