Class #540

BASI Flow™ Technique

55 min - Class
40 likes

Description

Sarah Bertucelli is back to teach a Mat Class for us. This basic class is taught in the style of BASI Flow™ Technique. Each exercise transitions into the next offering a fluid class covering enough exercises to know you had a good workout. Let Sarah's enthusiasm and helpful cues guide you through this fun and effective workout. The end of class utilizes a towel to facilitate stretching.
What You'll Need: Mat, Towel

About This Video

Oct 24, 2011
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Transcript

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Okay, well there you go then. Fabulous. All right. With your feet, right underneath your hips, I just want you to settle in for a couple moments to your body. So you're, you're lengthening up through the crown of the head. I want you to roll your, uh, your thumbs open, essentially enrolling your rear underarms together a little bit. Feel the openness through your chest. Take a breath here and just tilt your head forward, keeping your abdominal muscles and allow your shoulders to roll forward. And then notice, do you have weight, um, in the balls of the feet? Okay. In the balls of the feet in the heels. Now, um, if it, if your back isn't completely happy with you doing a roll down, you can simply bend your knees. If you are comfortable with knees straight, then you're just going to continue to roll forward, allowing your head to relax, rounding through the upper part of your back, the low part of your back.

And then you feel this place where your spine is dangling. Your head is heavy. Yeah. And again, bend in the knees here would be a perfectly fine option for anyone who needs that. Feel that you have equal weight on both of your feet here. And then take a breath, dry your abs in first and stack your spine and visualize your spine starting from the lowest part of your spine up through the middle part of your spine, the upper spine, the headstocks on the spine, like a baseball, like a baseball on a pencil. And then kind of open through your chest and shoulders just a little bit. Rolling those rear under arms slightly together. And just one more like that.

Rolling forward head first, nice and slow. Just kinda checking out the body. Do we have any kings? How do we feel? Allow your head to be heavy here. So the spine is long, a little bit of traction. And then first draw your abdominals in, stacking your spine, one vertebrae at a time. Again, feel free at any time to bend the knees a little bit. That alleviates that. The hamstrings, which often takes the stress away from the low back a little bit there and lengthening up through the crown of the head. Now you go ahead and stay there. We're going to roll down one last time. I'm just going to get, find my place on my mat and roll down here. Okay.

And this time when we rolled down, I'd like you to stay down. Go ahead and bend your knees, walk your hands out to the on the floor and come to your hands and knees. So we're in a quadric head position here. Yeah, so your hands are underneath your shoulders. Your knees are underneath your hips. So we're open through the chest in your head's not hanging low.

Your abs are drawing in words. You've got that navel to spine feeling here. Now inhale, exhale, round through the low part of the spine. Allow the head to react so you're in a nice rounded low back and return to neutral. Let's do that same movement again. Exhale, drawing the abdominals in, rounding through the low back, keeping some weight in the arms there and return to neutral. And one last time. Rounding through the low part of the spine, the head reacts really hollowing out that abdominal wall just a little bit more and then return to neutral. So moving the upper back here, the lower backs basically going to stay still or the low spine stays. Still Open your chest and shoulders and I want you to pull your sternum forward a little bit. Looking forward, slightly, trying to access the upper back muscles and return to neutral.

Keep the abdominals working. Exhale, pulling forward. Chest and shoulders are open. Find those upper back muscles and return to neutral. And just one more time like that, please exhale, finding those upper back muscles were returned to neutral. Now this is a tricky transition that I still like to work with.

We're going to cross the ankles behind you now as long as our hips allow us to, we're going to roll over our feet and take our legs out in front of us and wow, look at that fancy class. Cool. Excuse me. Forward just a little bit. So now any prompts you're going to need for your head. We'll be back there and ready for you. Your feet are going to be toward the front edge of your mat, hands on the backs of the legs, sitting up nice and tall. Inhale here. Exhale, draw the abdominals in and let's just take a journey down all the way down. Release the hands if you need to, or you'd like to, and roll all the way down and drawing your feet a bit closer to your bottom.

Your head is now down and your arms are heavy by your side. So feel open through your chest and shoulders and be mindful of where your feet are in space. So the, the feet should be pretty close to your bottom here and about hip width, distance apart. Exhale, first, draw your navel to your spine or your abs in. Lift your hips and articulate through your spine. So we're moving into a pelvic curl. You're gonna press those hips up nice and high, but you should feel that the pubic bone is higher than the hip bones and then lower down one vertebra at a time.

Returning to neutral position. Exhale. First, draw your abdominals in, flattening your low back and then move through the pelvic curl, pressing those hips nice and high. The chest and shoulders are open. The belly is in, and gently lower down. So we're using two breaths for that pattern. Inhale, exhale. Tapiola. Feel that your neck is long, your arms are long by your side. Take a breath there. Exhale to lower your spine, one vertebrae at a time.

Lengthening until the pelvis returns to neutral. We look good. Exhale to peel up again, so holding that lifted position for a moment. I want you to be here for a little bit. After this, the backs of your legs feel open through your chest. Draw those abdominals in a little more and then think about weighting your right leg just a little bit more and lifting the right hip up just ever so slightly toward the ceiling, keeping your abdominals pulling inward and then return to neutral with the pelvis. Now you're going to weight your left leg a little more and lift that hip ups.

You're actually opening through the hip joint just a little and then return to neutral and lower your spine. Now if you feel your hamstrings in your glutes cramp there, I should say your hamstrings cramp there. Just do a little less shifting. Exhale to peel up. Feel the openness through your chest and shoulders, pressing that pelvis up nice and high. Feel most of your weight on your right leg. You're going to lift the hip up just a little higher.

Feel a nice openness through the front of that hip and switch legs, so a little more weight on the left leg. Draw those abdominals in, returned to neutral, and then lower your pelvis. One Vertebra at a time. Here I'd like you to bring your knees and feet together. Reach your hands up to the ceiling and slide your shoulder blades down onto the mat there so you feel them quite well weighted. And then open your arms, palms facing one another here. Open your arms out to the side to make a [inaudible] position. If you have, if you're limited on space, lower your hands just a little bit toward your legs so that you have room. But otherwise the arms are in a t position here I want you to feel the openness through the front of your body as you take your legs first to the right, so one leg is stacked up on the other and we're just taking a nice stretch through the spine there.

Dig deep into the abdominals and then pull those legs back to neutral legs. Go the other direction. So I'm going to take those legs to the left. Now keeping the shoulder blades down, the arms stretched, dig deep into the gabs and pull those legs back to neutral again, we're still just kind of warming up the spine right now. Go the other direction. Big Stretch. Now before you pull the legs back, I want you to be aware if you talk to your pelvis and see if you can just drop your tail kind of a little teeny bit away from you, connecting a little more with the ads, perhaps a little multifidus, and then gently pull back. And last time to the left. So the legs go over shoulder blade, stay down. Find that tiny pelvis movement, digging deep into the abdominals.

Pull those legs back to neutral. Now here we're going to keep our arms here. Float one leg to tabletop, organizing your abdominals to stabilize. Float the other leg, same movement, but legs lifted. Makes it more challenging. Inhale to the right and exhale to pull back to neutral in hell to the left and exhale to pull back to neutral. So we're going to do our best to keep our knees and feet glued together.

Also try to keep those knees bent at a 90 degree angle. And I'm, I'm choosing to put my hands over a head right now just so that my arms don't have to be hanging off the edge of the entire time anyone could certainly choose to do and it's actually a bit more challenging. And just one last time please. We're on the left here, drawing those abdominals in. Find neutral alignment and gently place your feet down. So everybody, take your hands behind your head for me and I'm going to ask you to clasp your fingers together and rest the weight of your head in your hands. Take a breath and we're gonna move into some abdominal curls. Exhale, lift the head and chest, looking in the direction of your legs or your pubic bone. Basically, try to really rest the weight of your head in your hands here. Intensify the curl and gently lower down. Inhale, exhale, draw abs in. Lift, head and chest.

Feel the fold underneath the ribs here. Take another breath, lift a little higher. Nice neutral pelvis and lower down. Beautiful. Exhale to lift this time hold. Bring your hands around to your legs. Lift your body up just a little higher. Get that stretch through that upper back that you so desperately need. Right middle back.

Really I should say low back opening through the chest and shoulders here. Draw the belly muscles in and move your pelvis around. Just a little. See if you can find that Nice, neutral pelvis, which means the tip of our, I should say, actually the flat spot just above the tailbone is down. Gently place your hands behind your head, holding the height of the curl lower down. Again, exhale to lift. Bring your hands to your legs. Lift your body up just a little bit higher. Fine, a little bit more height.

Their chest is open. Pelvis is nice and neutral, and go ahead and take those hands up and behind your head. Rest the weight of the head and the hands and lower down. One more time please. Exhale to lift. Bring your hands to your legs. Lift up just a little higher. Chest and shoulders open. Tailbone down, and gently glide those arms behind your head. This time. Maintain the height of the curl.

Twist to the right X. Inhale back to neutral. Exhale, twist to the left. Inhale back to neutral. Keep your elbows wide. Tourists. Beautiful staying lifted as you pass through center one last time. Return to neutral. Bring your hands to your legs. Lift up just a little bit more. Drop that tailbone down. Draw those abs in, hands behind your head, and gently lower down.

Stretch your arms and legs long on the floor. So arms overhead, legs long. Give those shoulders a little bit of a stretch back here and see if you can actually get those arms to go all the way down behind you without flaring the ribs too terribly much. I like that. Nice Lat stretch back there. Oh, am I really going to try a roll up right now? Let's see. Lift your head and chest, looking towards your feet for me. Draw those belly muscles in. Now if you're like me in the roll up, the first one is so hard. I want you to lift one leg, hold onto the back of the leg.

I want you to round and use those abs to get yourself up. Beautiful. So by part in the legs just a little bit. It'll make it slightly easier for anybody who has a hard time rolling up completely. Um, start sitting up nice and tall for me and then feel that real length out through the crown of the head as you move into the roundness or the the the t curve if you will. And that's kind of the key there. Making sure you're not collapsing. Woo. A little cramp in my ads. Inhale here. Exhale, stay long and round through your low back. And let's roll down one vertebra at a time.

Stretch those arms behind you. Lift that head and chest. Exhale to roll all the way up to a sitting position, staying around and through that low spine and exhale to peel back. Try to keep those shoulders from hiking up by your ears. Too much. Inhale to lift the head and chest. Exhale to round up to the sitting position, staying around it right here. Draw those belly muscles in. Slot the shoulders into your back pockets and exhale to peel down.

I'm telling you, it's the squishy mat that makes my role up. Look good. Now XLT around and roll up. I want to work on this mount more often and Xcel to be peel back. Okay, I'm having fun. And one last time please. Ah, it feels good. I'm telling you, you need to try it on here. You really do. I assure you.

Scoop forward on your mat just a bit people. Okay. Now this exercise rolling like a ball you don't want to do on here. It's like sand. So here's what I'd like you to do. I'd like you to put your toes down, dry your legs close to you. Okay. Pretty close. So I'm going to ask you to hold your hands separately, right?

So they're not going to class today and sit up nice and tall. Open through the chest. Okay. Now, right here, draw those belly muscles in first without moving back much. I want you to round your low back and look down, okay? Now I'd like you to not have to lean back, although most of us are gonna have to lean a little, but I'd like it if you don't have to lean back at all. Dig deep into the abs and just hover those legs in.

Now stay connected to the ABS. Perhaps walk your hands a little closer to your feet. That's ultimately what I'd like. It's all about abs here. Inhale to roll back. Exhale to find your balance. And again, keep the knees together if you can. Try not to let your feet lead the way. What I mean by that is you're not going to kick up with the feet too much.

They stay close to your bottom. Let's see what we got going on around here. Beautiful. Rolling. My friends. Inhaling to roll back and as you exhale and find the balance, can you go deeper into that lumbar curve? So dry your adds in a little more, but shoulders away from your ears for me. Beautiful. Go again. And it's Wendy, right, my friend, my role up friend Wendy. Okay, one more time. Balance on your tail and hold here. So stay for a moment. Don't give up.

Stay right where you are till I can join you. Draw that navel to spine a little more. Release your hands. Take your shins parallel to the ceiling. Take your hands to the backs of your legs and take a breath. We're going to exhale to peel back one vertebra at a time. Nice and gracefully.

Drawing those legs into tabletop position as you do hold here. Glue those in her legs together for me. Take your arms by your side. Now we're going to do a hundred stretch your legs to straight and here we go. Inhale. With each exhale there. Think about folding underneath the ribs, staying lifted through your chest. Beautiful.

I would like it if you were down a little bit more for your a hundred. Perfect. Now I love it. Focus on your ads here. Chest Open. Fantastic. Have we done 150 yet? It wouldn't be the end of the world if we did. How about three more breaths? Oh, I'm so mean. Okay, and two, one more breath so I can get us all together. Exhale out and whole drama belly muscles in.

Dry your knees to your chest and lower your head down. Place your feet on the floor, starting with your knees and feet together and then separate your knees and feet just a bit. The feet should be kind of close to your bottom right now. Yeah, with your arms by your side. Revisit that pelvic curl. Exhale, peel lap one vertebrae. At a time pressing those hips up nice and high, feeling that space through the front of your leg. So the hip flexors are actually getting a stretch because your glutes and hamstrings are working here as well as your abdominals. Now holding on for a moment. I just want you to think about your right leg right now and lift your right heel away from the floor. Just the, he'll be there for a moment.

Bear into the other leg and just feel that hamstring glute connection switch sides. So the pelvis isn't shifting this time. So now I'm, I'm bearing into my right leg. I'm feeling the connection on the back of the body while abs work and I'm just lifting the other heel away for a moment and then switch. So it's like a little Francy dance. Yeah. And switch and switched out. Here's the breath and hill. Inhale. Exhale, exhale, switch and switch. And exhale. Exhale. Inhale.

Inhale, exhale. Exhale. One more breath heating up those hamstrings and feet flat. Lower your spine. Beautiful. Let's go ahead and draw the right leg into the chest. Slide the other leg long on the floor. So holding that right, like you know, I want you to feel the release on the other leg there, the release in the hip flexor, okay.

And then fine tabletop with your right leg for me, have abdominal Zarin and then go ahead and straighten that right leg and hopefully we're at a 90 degree here. Okay, Ben the knee, straighten it and try to add a little bit of a hamstring stretch here. So you're going to just loosen up a little bit. The hamstring. So again, we're going to bend and straighten. Exhale, and one last time. Go ahead and straight to the leg and hold there. Release your hands, place them by your side. Chest Open. Flex the right ankle sewer in a nice flexed foot position. And that's where we're going to do our leg circles today. Inward circles first, use an inhale to make a circle and an exhale, loosening up the hip joint and an inhale and an exhale.

Neck and shoulders void of tension. Inhale, ah, it's a nice little dance. One more breath. Exhale and we reverse and an inhale, loose hip, powerful powerhouse. Inhale and exhale. Beautiful work, a straighter legs. If you can. Last one here and one last time. That's your exhale. Hold point through that foot.

Bend the knee across the body and feel that wonderful spine twist. Feel free to stretch the right arm out to the side, which will maximize the stretch through the front of the chest here, or just be where it feels good. Remember that these stretches should feel good and you want to find it in your own body. Nice work. Draw that right leg in. Bring the left leg up to join. Give your body a little hug here and kind of neutralize your spine for a moment.

Holding onto the left leg, slide the other leg down. Feel the release to the hip flexor there and really allow it to be long, heavy leg. So left leg now comes to tabletop position. And just hold there for a moment. Try to feel your, your, your, your pieces if you will. And then holding onto the legs, straighten the left leg and bend. And again, we're straightening, trying to keep a nice neutral pelvis but getting a little more hamstrings, stretch and Ben. So it's important that you have a certain amount of hamstring flexibility to allow for the legs circle to feel kind of relaxed in the leg, which is ultimately what I'd like to see today. Straighten the leg and hold there. Gently release your hands, flex your ankle, take your arms by your side, and we go inward first.

Inhale and exhale. Inhale. So feel the looseness of the circle, the strength in the ABS. One more full breath here. And then let's go ahead and reverse. Inhale and exhale. Beautiful. Try to work on straightening that leg just a little more and have just a short pause where you would get that hamstring stretch. So this up position, pause and just one more. Full breath and pause here.

Point to your foot. Bend your knee and move into a nice spinal rotation here. Mm. Breathing in and breathing out. Dry Your top leg in first and your bottom light comes into follow.

So the legs are in tabletop position. Let's take the hands to the backs of the thighs and lift the head and chest. Using the abs to powerfully find that lift here. Now feel the fold underneath the ribs. The chest and shoulders are open. We're gonna move into a single leg stretch today.

And I'd like you to go ahead and hold onto your right leg just above the knee there. Stretch the other leg out. Exhale to switch and switch. Beautiful. So keeping those abdominals on and that fold underneath the ribs. See if you can sink the belly in a little bit more each time. So with [inaudible] we like to usually keep that knee directly over the hip as you come in. But sometimes it's okay to shift that around a little bit. Various different people like to do it different ways.

So today I'd like you to work on keeping the knee more over the ankle and just barely coming in for that little hip stretch. One last time I said knee over the ankle. Deny the knee over the hip. One last time. Each side, please draw both knees into your chest and lower your head down. Place your feet on the floor. We're going to play with my vortex exercise. Hands are behind your head. Exhale to lift your head and chest.

Basic chest curl, float your right leg to tabletop position. And just go with me on this. Bring your hands to your thigh, your right Fi, and lift your body up just a little bit. But now find that nice neutral pelvis. So tailbone is down. Really it's not the tailbone, right? Bring both hands to the outside of the right leg and you're going to twist and lift at the same time. So what I'm looking for is the vortex of the left rib, right rib going to that same, that right hit right?

So your arms are assisting you with that. Now can you drop your opposing hip down a little bit more? Straighten your other leg up to the ceiling. There you go. Good at. So the other leg will be at a 45 degree angle and this one's bent. Now maintain the height of that curl as you place one hand behind your head.

Dig deep in your abs and try to place the other hand behind your head. Hold it. Good. So stay twisted for me. Perfect. Draw your belly in and breathe. Good place one foot down the other foot down. And then lower your head. All right. It gets better by the third one. I'll talk through this one. I won't do it. Exhale to lift your head and chest, please float your left leg to tabletop position.

Left leg everybody bring your hand to your left by and lift your body up. Bring your hands to the outside of the left thigh and use your arms to twist a little more. So want to deepen your rotation today. Yeah. Can you even twist a little bit more now? Feel your opposing hip. Your right hip is down. Yeah. Now straight in the other leg at 45 degrees with the body.

So we're talking about the one that was on the floor. Perfect. Perfect. Good. Now hold that position perfectly. Placed one hand behind your head. Maintain the rotation. Place the other hand behind your head. Maintain the height of the curl. Breathe belly is in. Dry in a little bit more and then rest, foot, foot and head. Okay, we're already feeling it. Yeah, let's feel it.

A little more exhale to lift your head and chest. Float your right leg to tabletop position. Same pieces. Bring your hands to your right leg, lift your body up again. Really feel the fold underneath your ribs first. Then take both hands to the outside to find the twist.

Now I'm looking for this idea of lifting a little bit more with that twist to see if you can maximize that. Straighten your left leg, 45 degrees with your body. Listen, close the gap between your legs, adductors on maintain his position perfectly and try putting one hand behind the head. If you can't keep it perfectly, then hold on. Put the other hand behind your head. Draw those abs in. Beautiful, beautiful, and really draw those abs in a little more gorgeous. Okay, and rest, everything. Fantastic. Other side. Exhale. First, lift your head and chest. Float the left leg to tabletop. Bring your hands to your thigh and then lift your body up a little. Feel that fold underneath those ribs.

Bring both hands to the outside of the leg and twist a little bit more. Now really think about where you can go here. A little more. Twist a little more lift. Your arms are there to help straighten the other leg. The one that's on the floor. Close the gap between your legs. Perfect. Hold. Draw those abs in. Put one hand behind your head. Only if you can keep it here.

Put the other hand behind your head. Beautiful. Dig Deep. Beautiful. Dig Deep. I just want to give you the same thing on the other side. Oh yes. Arrest. One more. We add a little tweak. Exhale to lift your head and chest. Float your right leg to tabletop position.

Bring your hands first to your leg and lift your body up a little bit more. Take your hands to the outside of the leg and twist a little bit more, but keep the idea of the fold. Now straight in the other leg at 45 degrees with your body. This is a little tweak. Okay? I want you to imagine you could lift your legs that you're holding onto slightly up toward the ceiling. Don't unbend it.

Just think of lifting the knee up to the ceiling. Yeah, yeah. Place one hand behind your head. Hold it there. Try placing the other hand behind your head. It's not really going anywhere. When I say lift the leg, right? It's the energy of going on. Breathe, breathe, breathe. Breath is life harassed. Please. Last one, I promise. Okay. Exhale to lift your head and chest float.

Then your left leg to tabletop. Bring your both hip, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Bring your hands to your leg and lift your up. Lift up a little more and then take the hands to the outside. So you're going to feel the push in the pool. As you twist with that fold. Draw those abs in a little more. As you straight in the other leg, close the gap. Think about the leg you're holding onto. It's not really going to go anywhere, but as if you can pull the knee up towards the ceiling. That was brilliant.

What you just did. I saw that it was gorgeous. Now place your hands behind your head and hold it absolutely beautiful. Now elbows wide and then make me really happy. Yeah, but stay twisted please. And Are we still breathing? I hope and gently rest, rest and rest. Ah, stretch your arms and legs long and I'll stay sitting since I'm going to ask you to roll up to sitting now. So go ahead and lift your head and chest and roll up to a sitting position if you need a little assistance. I'm always cool with it. Good.

Let's move into some, um, some prone work. So I'm going to have you skip back. Let's arrange ourselves a little bit. First, the towel is gonna wa I want you to use your towel underneath your forehead, so have it be in front of you because our heads are going to be in center pretty soon. Okay, so have it, have it be there. And then if you scoot back a little bit, I would love to work on this transition again where we roll over the legs. If you need to adjust it, then adjust it, that's fine with me. But if your hips and knees allow you to, you roll over the legs onto the hands and knees and or find yourself in a quadruped head position here. Okay.

So your hands should be underneath your shoulders and your knees should be underneath your hips. Open through your chest and shoulders a little so you can engage those back muscles and feel those abdominals pulling in the whole time. Slide one leg back so the ball of the foot is down and feel the length through the front of the hip. And it doesn't matter which, which leg is straight right now. Just one slide the other leg back. So you're in a plank position. Feel those abdominals working to support. Watch since your head's not hanging low in the feeding trough and just be here for a couple more moments. Feel the length through the of your hips, lengthening out through the crown of the head, simultaneously out through the heels. Just point your right toes.

Just your right foot comes up and you're just pointing at, I want you to think of lifting yet. I just want you to lengthen and switch sides so you're just gonna point your left foot. Lengthen, lengthen, lengthen. Good abs on. Put the foot down. Gently lower yourselves to the floor so you're on your belly. Place your forehead on your towel. So start with your arms by your side. Okay. Long by your side, your foreheads resting on the towel. So that gives some space for your nose.

I want you to draw your shoulder blades just a little bit together. And I'm not looking for a pinched shoulder blade, but what I want you to be aware of is if you're not active in your upper back, your shoulders will be hunching forward, right? So you want to pull the front of the shoulder away from the mat and just be here for a moment. So I'm just gonna look around for a moment. I love what I see. So work on nice straight arms and just being active in your upper back here. First dry rub dominoes inward.

And in doing so can you think about resting your pelvis, your pubic bone, and your hip bones heavy on the mat. Feel the length through the front of your hips here. Yeah. So I'm not looking yet for you to lift your legs, but I want length through your legs right now here. I just want you to think of relaxing your sternum down, your trust, your chest bone or your breastbone down a little bit. As you pull your shoulders a little bit more together and down.

Brilliant. Now Hover the head. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. So I realized with most of you that the head needs to lift. Before we go, stirred him down next time. Hold for a moment. Draw those ads in a little more. Can you lengthen your legs and now hover your legs away from the floor, feeling the backs of your legs working, not your low back, cranky.

Keep the idea of upper back muscles quite active. Here we're in the sole lightest bit of upper back extension, but nothing major, nothing major. Can you simply glide your arms out to a t shape with your body and hopefully we have just enough space. We do. Palms are going to be grazing the floor, fingertips touching the floor but not resting yet. Here I want you to think of your shoulder blade still drawing slightly together and away from your ears. And then I'd like you to just touch the floor and lift. So the arms go down and lift and down.

I'm looking for some rear deltoid engagement. So that's the back of the shoulder. And I'm also looking for upper back work. So a little shoulder blades before the arm. Good though. Again. Brilliant. So don't look very high. Think about this as that catalyst. That was brilliant. One last time like that.

And bring your arms down by your side and we'll take a short rest there. Your head can recce so where are we all able to feel some upper back work there? Yeah. Okay. So that's what I want most. I don't want neck tension or low back discomfort, right? So as we move on, that's, that's what we need to bear in mind. Okay.

So let's do it again, but add a little bit to it. If you feel comfortable today. So with your arm belong by your side, open through your chest and shoulders and feel your head just kind of resting right now. Okay. Lengthen through the front of the hips. ABS are in. You can go ahead and have her the legs right from the get go if that suits you. But all by all means you can also keep your legs down. Let's close the gap between the legs and try to glue them together.

So adductors are working here. Now I want you to really think of the sternum going down as you hover the head. So we're in like the highest part of the thoracic spine or the upper spine and the lower part of the neck essentially is like what I want you to think about, right? But it's really the upper part of the thoracic spine. Now decide slide. If you want to lift just a little bigger, staying totally connected to the apps and then take your arms out to that t shape, pull those shoulder balls in depth to talk it there and lower the hands toward the floor as you lift up. 10, eight and seven. I like what I see and six beautiful. So we've graduated a little bigger. Beautiful.

And of course I started looking, which meant I stopped counting. I'm going to guess two more. Last one. Swoop your arms down by your side. Bring your hands underneath your shoulders, push yourselves to your hands and knees and sit back in your, on your feet for just a breath or two there. Really Nice work. Shift back to your hands and knees. So you're in your quadramed position again. No, no, no. Work with the backs of the legs a little bit and your leg pull.

So slide your right leg back to straight for me first. Okay. And hold there. So just the right leg is back, head is in alignment with the spine. Really support with your abs here and just point your right toes. Okay? And I want you to lift the leg up and down just a couple of times. Now don't think about it as a big leg movement. Think about it as, can I access the back of my leg, my gluten, my hamstrings? Okay.

And one more time. Lift and hold. Now I'd like you to flex your foot and externally rotate. That means you're turning your toe and your knee out. Now here's the part where it gets a little tricky. Can you take your leg out to the side as far as you can go and pull it back in and again, out to the side as far as you can go and pull it back in and out to the side as far as you can go. Hold here. Draw your belly in. Lift that leg up, point the toes, pull the leg back where it came from. And we switched sides.

So slide the left leg back and try to access the gluten, the hamstring. I think more glute right now on that left leg. We lift up and to and hold here using your breath. We flex the ankle. Externally rotate. I think we did more on the other side, didn't we? Hmm. Oh well take your leg out to the side and pull it back. And again, take it out to the side and pull it back in.

And two more like that and pull it back in. And one more time. Pull it back in and go out and hold. Now we lift that leg up. Five, four, three, two and one. Take the leg back. Bring yourselves back onto your knees to both knees or down.

I'm changing my mind. Slide one leg back, slide the other leg back and lower yourselves to the floor. So take your hands so that they're, your elbows are bent in your hands or outside of your shoulders. Dry your shoulder blades. Again, I'm not looking for them being pinched together, but I do want you to be active in your upper back, so you're going to draw them a little bit together to pull the shoulders away from the floor and down into your back pockets. Feel that length through the front of your hip. Inhale, so that very same upper back extension we just found earlier. I don't care whether or not your legs are working too much right now, so I'm fine with them being relaxed.

Now here I want you to bear some weight into your hands and your elbows continue to pull your body forward slightly, but maximize that upper back extension. So I'm bringing my sternum forward and up as I try to get a little more upper back extension and lower down. And again, inhaling to an upper back extension. The head shifts, the sternum goes down. So let's all stay there for just a moment and really think about this sinking into the mat. Yes, in order to then give me a little more beautiful. Good to stay for a moment longer. I think a little bit more about sinking. Don't go up yet. Go down a little right here. Yes.

So I want that opposition here. Shoulders down. Good. Everybody lower down. Okay, I'm ready to add on in health to that same upper back extension. Dry your shoulder blade flighty together and into your back pockets as you pull forward and up a little more. Maximizing your upper back extension. Stay here. Feel the length through the front of your hips and hover your legs, lengthening through the legs. Feel those hamstrings in blues. Straighten a little more through those needs.

Let's go ahead and bend the right knee. Straighten it, bend the left knee, straighten it. Think about lifting your thighs higher as you bend the knee. Ah, straighten, lift your thigh higher as you bend the knee. Oh, I love it. One more time. Each side. Good, good, good, good. Both legs are straight. Gently take a rest. So I'm totally excited to do that more quickly, but I wanted to really play with the um, the intensity of the upper back extension before we go into that single leg kick. Okay, so we'll do the same upper back position, but pick up the pace with the legs this time. Here we go. Inhale to upper back extension. Exhale, pull forward and up.

So we're not going to take the arms out in front of us. I want you to feel those upper back muscles working with a little support from the arms, however those lights and we're going to do a little pulse, right and left and inhale and inhale and exhale and exhale. Chest is open. Inhale and exhale and exhale and try to keep your upper body and lower body. Nice.

Since stable. Beautiful. One more. Full breath and exhale and exhale. Both legs are straight and lower the body down. Tuck the toes under, push to the hands and knees. Sit back on your feet for one moment.

Hmm. And then we're going to come onto our knees. So we all are keeping on the knees for a few moments with the padding that you have like to play with some lateral flection from the news if possible. So if you'll come, um, so that you're facing me and what we'll do is we'll all go to your right first. So you're going to want to make sure you have enough room essentially for your hand to get down eventually your legs. So come the middle of your mat.

Let's be in the, about the middle of your mat. You have longer, you have long legs and arms probably. So there you go. Take your arms and we'll figure it out. Take your arms out to the side ever so slightly in front of you. Okay. These lights make it very warm up here. I'll say that. So you want to feel that you're standing on your knees right now, but you're waiting. I'm going to come forward so I can have more weight.

But you're actually weighted as best as possible through the shins and through the tops of the feet too. That was a beautiful correction, but you're standing on your knees now. Can you slightly tuck your pelvis in your mind so your pubic bone comes just a little forward and access the glutes and hamstrings there. Bam. Now we're standing up as tall as we can here. Inhale. With the exhale, we're going to go up and over to the right and look at the floor and without letting your hips sink back at all. Look at the floor and dream about touching the floor with your fingertip. Reach up through the other arm. Touch, touch, touch, try and lift back up. Beautiful. Inhale, exhale. Up and over. We're going to reach up simultaneously as we reached down.

Take another breath and we lift back up. Try not to let your hips go back and exhale up and over and we're going to hold here. Take another breath, reach, reach, reach, reach into that bottom hand and you're going to cartwheel into it. Take the top leg in front, the bottom leg underneath, chest open hold. So we're going to want to move you forward a little bit more on your mat so that both feet can be down. Perfect. That's all I want. Just that one moment right there. ABS, bend the knee, have a seat. We take a stretch. That was nice.

I'll take it. I'll definitely take it. So there's no reason we have to put both legs straight, but I, I had a wild moment there and thought that you all could handle it for a moment. Um, and you did, you handled it quite well. Um, we're going to come back to that and just have, have one arm and one leg be down, but we'll try the other side first. Okay. So here we go. Chest is open, Belize in. Feel the length up through the crown of the head.

A little bit more weight in those knees in your mind, but still pushing through the shins, right? Take a breath and exhale up and over. Look down at your hand and dream about touching. Oh, reach up simultaneously and we come back up. It's a two breath movement. Okay. Inhale. Exhale. Up and over. Take a breath, intensify reaching deeper, reaching up, come back up and one last time x hell hole. You're going to cart really essentially into that hand. Top leg goes in front, flex the ankle. Bottom leg goes behind.

Now if that feels too uncomfortable for you, just keep that bottom knee down. If it feels vulnerable for you. Right here we are. Just a moment. Open through the chest, pull the belly in. Feel the length through the crown of the head. We are powerful. Here we are. Good. Good. Bend the bottom knee. Bring the other knee in.

Have a seat. Oh, you can adjust your hand here. I usually like to have my on my arms on the diagonal, which is probably a good choice. Ah, it's one of my favorite side stretches there, so okay. Deciding whether I'm lying to you or not. We're going to do it one more time. Okay. For the side stretch. If for no other reason, yeah, press the pelvis forward.

Pull the belly and I think we're going to get some hip work in there too though. Okay. Exhale up and over. Feel that big stretch, reaching up, up, up, left up. Do you notice how after you've done both sides, it's just slightly easier to get into the position? Oh good one last time please. Okay. Now we're just gonna reach over cartwheel down. So your right hand is down. I want you to keep the other leg exactly where it is and just put your, uh, your, your top foot out. Okay.

Probably we point the toe cause it'll just look pretty. All right. So as much weight as you want on your knee or your hand, I'd like it to be sort of equal. Okay. Per that pelvis forward. So you're getting a nice stretch through the hip here. Keep pressing the pelvis forward. Open the chest into the smile across the cheeks.

Cause remember Palladia should be fun. Okay. Dream about it. My friends dream about it. You're gonna lift your, uh, your straight leg up. Oh, lower it down and you're going to lift it up for me. Oh, I don't care how high it goes and just two more lifted and one more time please. And we lifted up. Now you're going to bend the knee, have a seat, take a stretch. There's no reason I should [inaudible] yeah, I can't even think of the word I wanted to say. There's no reason I should be let you miss the opportunity to have a stretch with, but there was another, there's one word that could have kind of embodied all that, but that's okay. It happens. It happens often. Press your pelvis forward.

Pull your belly into that. Feel kind of Nice though. Yeah, it's hard, but it's nice, right? Okay. Up and over, big stretch. We did three on the other side and this is my tighter side and up and over. Ah, and one more time. This time we caught rollover feeling powerful and that arm keep the right out the bottom leg, so it's your left leg. Put the other leg out and just be here for a moment.

Feel the energy through all four of your limbs here, including through the crown of your head. Got a little hair malfunction here. Open through your chest and shoulders, reaching up through that other hand and just lift that leg up. We're going to do five of them. One big hip opener to keep pressing forward through that supporting leg. So that's your left hip, right? Four I think. And Five, draw your knee in. Have a seat. Oh, and walk yourselves.

So is there anything missing right now in your [inaudible] life that you're feeling like we absolutely have to do or do I still get to be completely in charge? I thought I'd ask. I'll give you the opportunity to, I do take requests at times. I don't always honor them, but I try. Okay. So we're going to start sitting again. We're going to return to sitting, I should say. Um, let's use our towels. Put them back where you'll be able to reach them. Huh?

We'll use our towels. Hold onto the backs of your legs. You're gonna want your pillow for your head cause we are gonna get back eventually. Yeah. If you need a head pillow, take a breath here and exhale to peel back. Let's just go straight all the way back because I think that you'll all appreciate the stretch more than anything. So let's take this towel and let's just go ahead and hook it around your right leg. Okay. And it's kind of Nice actually that it's there. Big towels cause you can just hook it around your whole right foot for me, which will sort of force you to be in a little bit of a flex position, which is kind of Nice if you want to force the flex a little more, um, on the heel. But on the ball of the foot.

I kinda like it around my whole foot though. Okay. So to maximize the stretch, the other leg is going to be straight. Okay. And, and do those, the, the length of this tower, your, your arms are just going to be sort of hanging heavy here, right? And how to bend your knee. Exhale. I want you to actually push through your heel as you straighten your knee. Oh, that good in how to bend your knee and exhale to push through your heel as you straighten your knee. And one last time like that, push through the heel, straighten the knee and hold for a moment. So I'm in a nice neutral spine position.

Hopefully I think it's pretty good here. I'd like you to think a little bit about your foot for me. Can you curl your toes slightly? And what I mean by that is not pull them toward you, but actually curl them away from you. And now in this same position, relax your ankle. So you're really trying to access the muscles on the front of the Shin.

Did anybody feel the stretch? Get pretty much more intense? I hope slightly released that flat. Keep the toes just slightly curled and flex again. So I don't want you to pull your foot flex with the towel as much as I want you to actively flex your ankle, but straighten your knee and one last time. Now we're going to hold that position in, in a way that is bearable for you.

So adjust it slightly if needed, and take that same leg ever so slightly across the body. But do me a favor and keep the [inaudible] the same hip down. So my right side of my pelvis stays anchored as I take my leg a little bit across the body. Hello, return to neutral and go across the body again. Mm. I'm a fan actually sometimes of moaning and groaning because then I know you're breathing right. Uh, feels good.

And let's go ahead and release that so we can switch legs. So you're going to choose the towel position that best suits you. I kinda liked the idea of it covering my whole foot, but I also, I took it off earlier just so that you, uh, those of you at home could see what was going on there. So here, slide the right leg to straight and be in that nice neutral pelvis, neutral spine position. Feel that you're void of tension in the neck. Bend the knee just a bit and as you straight to, and I want you to really push up through the heel. So what's nice about using the towel rather than like a theraband today, is that you actually have a little something to push against that doesn't give.

And I kinda liked that in how to bend your knee and XLM. I'm just pushing a little bit into that towel and it's not stretching. I'm having to work a little and we'll do two more just like that. I'm really pushing through my heel. Nice stretch. And one more time keeping the leg nice and straight.

Let's think about what the foot is doing. So I want you to curl your toes slightly. That means your, I'll just show again. So those of you that need to see can just a slight curl of the toe and then really try to flex the ankle there and release and for flex the ankle there. So again, it's just a different way to work with the foot today. Tomorrow I might do it differently and one last time, find a position that is comfortable for you.

So I want the knee to be straight. I want the foot to be slightly flexed and take that leg across the body. Nice stretch not too far cause we want to keep the pelvis neutral and come back into neutral with the leg and then the leg goes across the body and I'm looking for no rotation in the pelvis. I guess that's a better way to say it here and one last time across the body. Take that leg back up. Remove your towel, will draw both legs into your chest for me and just give those legs a little head. You can hold wherever it feels good to you.

Breathing in and breathing out, holding the right leg in, stretch the other leg long and move into one final spine twist. Really opening through the front of the body. What I mean by that is letting the chest stay open to the ceiling as you bring that leg across your body and maximize your spine, twist for you. Many people like to keep their foot connected to something which there's definitely value to that. I find myself really enjoying letting the weight of my leg bring me into a slightly deeper twist, but it really needs to be for your comfort today and then go ahead and release that drying first.

The top leg in the bottom like follows and switching sides. Take that leg gently across the body. Arm is stretched out. Again, you can keep your foot connected to the leg. For a lot of people, that's a much better choice. I'm taking advantage of the fact that I'm elevated here and just allowing my leg to hang heavy and breathing out. Yeah. Your body coming to a calm, dry your top leg in first.

Your bottom leg comes to follow [inaudible]. Well, I'm going to recommend today easing yourself onto one side. Okay. And then bringing yourselves up to a sitting position in whatever way seems comfortable to you. And I thank you all so very much for playing Ms. Lovely.

Lovely to teach you.

Comments

Great class!
Hello Sarah: Fun class..luv the flow!
great class, Sarah. I also enjoy the view!!
Pele
Great instructor but I found it more of a deliberate pace. Didn't feel very much. Good for relaxing.
Thank you Sarah, like the precesion & great preps & explanation of the movement! Enjoyed it a lot!
Great class love the flow.....you are very well spoken.
1 person likes this.
Have done the class twice. Love the curled toe part. Thank you.
Did this class on a Sunday evening. It really felt great! Sarah I can tell you really love teaching!
Great workout. Especially liked the twists. The criss cross was the best ab and oblique workout!
I really enjoyed your style of teaching.
Thank you
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