Quick 20-Minute Mat

Hi, Melissa Logan. And today, we're doing an express mat workout. Some of the exercises will be advanced, but I will supplement options for you to do that are more in meet intermediate we're gonna have a lot of fun. So let's get moving. Come to the front of your mat. Lower down however you like.

I like to cross one ankle over the other and lower myself down lying to your back Bring your knees into your chest, easier as hands underneath your hips. Harder is gonna be hands behind your head. Push your head into your hands. Push the legs out with the heels together toes apart and pull them in. So as those legs go out, the chest has got to stay exactly where it is.

If it starts to lower and lift, then we wanna reset ourselves up because we've lost some connections. Let's do two more. Last one and then turn the knees together, flex ankles curl the toes, footwork arches. So, you know, just bring a little reformer exercise to our map practice. Double check your elbows are wide. Your heads pushing back into your hands.

3 more. If you need to take a break after these next two, go ahead. Otherwise, you flex your ankles, you pull your toes back, and you do five footwork reaching the heels forward. Lax your shoulders out of your ears. Last Wednesday out there. Point the toes. Turn them out.

Flex and point, flex and point, and then bend your knees at, woo, I hope you're nice and warmed up. Because now we're gonna do our 100. Squeeze your legs tight together. Take those arms overhead. Only as far back as your shoulders and ribs can stay on the mat. And then you lift your head, chest, and legs up, pump your arms vigorously, inhale for 5 pumps and exhale.

If you need your legs higher than I have mine, that is fine. You can take them up all the way to the ceiling if you have to, or you can take them as low as toes in line with the eyes. Bigger pumps than you think. We're gonna get our blood flowing. We're gonna get all of the muscles hit. 3 more cycles of breathing.

After this next one, you'll exhale lower your head, chest, and legs, flexy ankles, arms overhead, take a deep breath in, exhale over your legs. Oh my god. It's hard on the first one. If you struggled like I did, it's okay. You get a second chance. Here we go. That's it. Sometimes the first one is a little bit of hard.

The second and third, you get more connections. So as you round forward, pulse three times, and roll all the way down. Let's do 2 more. If you can keep the arms by your ears as you roll down, that makes it harder. Arm staying in front of you makes it a little easier. Take your arms down by your side, lift a leg up, flex the ankle of the foot that's on the floor and push it down. And then 5 circles across down around and up.

So if you wanna make these ovals, meaning you don't go all the way to the ceiling, that is a great option, especially if as your leg goes up to the sky, you hike a hip, reverse your circles. Breathe into those low ribs. Your ribs and shoulders can stay in the mat. Just because we're doing express mat doesn't mean we don't need to keep all of our connections, lower the leg down, lift the other one up, and 5 circles. So I like to go cross my body first, It lets me gather up my strength before my leg has to go out to the side, and I gotta hold on to it and then reverse.

After 5 of these, we're gonna do a full roll up for a rolling like a ball. So lower the leg down. Arms come up. We do that roll up. Dispend your knees. Stay where you are on your mat.

Grab your ankles or behind your thighs. Push the shins into your hands, hands into the shins roll back and up. So if you roll back in balance 12, It's gonna challenge you and prepare you for future overhead exercises. If you're like, what balance? Don't worry. That's okay.

We have our whole lifetime. It's fine. Squeezes heels together, pull the shoulders on your back one last time. Alright. Here's the deal. We're gonna go into the app series. And because we're gonna express mat.

We're not taking a break, but you can take a break anytime you need. So grab your shin with both hands, pull the knee into your chest, stretch the other leg out and roll down to the tips of your shoulder blades. Find that nice hundreds curl there. Pull on this leg two times for a single leg stretch. Pull pull. Pull pull and pull pull.

We have one more time each side. We go right into our double leg stretch, heels together toes apart. Reach arms by your ears, circle around pull in. Again, reach chest up, legs long, and in how far back can your arms go with your chest up? Pull it in, single straight leg stretch, grab one ankle, push the leg into your hands so much. You can feel your shoulders, pull off the mat, and then find your low ribs, and then pull pull switch. So we get a little opposition there.

You push that leg into your hands as you pull on it. You'll get more hamstring. After three, both hands behind your head Push your head into your hands. Hands into your head as your legs lower for double straight leg stretch. Squeeze those heels tight together.

One more. We go right into our crisscross, and then we get to take a moment. Twist, curl up and over and twist. One knee pulls in armpit to me. And armpit to me. We got one more time each side. Never have I ever wanted a spine search for it more in my life. Sit all the way up.

Legs as wide as your mat. Hands between the legs, sit up nice and tall and dig those heels in, and then round forward, sliding the hands on the mat pulse 1, Stretch your tailbone to the mat, 2, pulse a third time, and roll it up. And, again, round 12, and 3, and lift. So it's not how far you can stretch your hands past your feet. It's how much can you round your spine over your legs. So how long can you make this round shape. We'll do one more and you can stick with this or add a twist. Arms wide to the side.

Twist to the right, round forward, and pulse for your saw 1, 2, 3 roll up in the twist, and then unwind and twist, and reach pulse 1, 2, 3, lift up tall, and then unwind twist and reach. If your hips like to shimmy across your mat. The opposite at pulling down from where you're twisting is what you wanna do. So we'll do one more time as I twist to the right, I pull my left tip down and back. And that helps me anchor.

And then as I twist the left, I pulled the right hip down and back. Awesome. Alright. Let's slip on our stomachs for our swan. So if you wanna do a little swan prep, hands underneath the forehead, legs long, you can. Otherwise, take your hands underneath your shoulders and then a little wider than your mat. Roll your shoulders back, reach your tailbone long, and then pull the heart forward.

And lower. And, again, pull the heart forward and down Now let's add a little drop, catch him, pull the heart forward, shoot the arms out, catch, shoot the arms out wide, catch yourself. And again, So you can stick with that. Bend your knees for a second windshield wiper your legs, or we're gonna do a whole dive series ready. 3 to 5 dives. Pull the heart forward, shoot the arms out, and rock front to back 3 to 5 times, and then place your hands on the mat SIP back.

You can do a child's pose, or you can put your head to the floor, grab your ankles, lift your waist. It's an upside down rolling like a ball to stretch. And then we come out onto our stomach for our single leg kick. You're gonna kick one heel towards your seat two times, then the other kick kick. Pull the shoulders back and kick kick.

2 more times each side feel that hamstring curl. Last one, and then sit back onto your knees for your thigh stretch. So knees and feet are fist distance apart. Arms go up high. Lower the arms as you lean back thigh stretch and lift up.

If you can't be on your knees today, shoulder bridge is a really great option. Right? As you lower the arms till your collar bones go wide and then push your feet into the mat, bring your hips over your knees. Two more. Last one. Alright. Lucky you.

I'm not gonna make you do a neck pull. That would be next. But instead, we are gonna go into our shoulder bridge. So we'll meet some of you there. Press your arms down.

Feet and knees are hip distance apart. And you'll roll the hips up and roll down. So you can just stick with this where you roll up and down articulating through the spine, Or you roll up, stay up. Hold it here. Reach your telephone long. Pull your shoulders wide on the back.

Slide 1 foot 4. Point the foot to go up. Flex to lower it down. Point up, flex down. Oh, can you lift the leg up with the how the hip dropping? We'll find out on the other side. Right? Take the leg out. Point it up.

And flex it down up and down one more time, place the foot down, roll the spine down, stretch the legs out, another attempt at that roll up. Let's see how we're doing. Now that we're nice and warmed up. Oh, that was nice. Sit on up for your spine twist. So squeeze those legs tight together and twist to the right, twist a little bit more, and a little bit more, and unwind, and twist to the left and a little deeper. And a little deeper.

So as you're twisting, squeeze those legs tight, tight together, really get your outer hips on. And then as you twist, we're not pulsing, you just go a little bit more and more. One more time each way. And last one. Awesome. Jack knife, if you are skipping overhead exercises, please replace it with an exercise challenge you the most.

Double straight leg stretch would be a great one. Press the arms down by the side. Take your legs overhead parallel to the floor, then up to the sky. Stand on your arms. And then roll your waist down, reaching your toes over the eyes the whole time, and then stretch the legs down. And, again, they go over up So play with that rhythm, how fast can you go parallel it up without cheating?

And then take your time stretching the legs away. That's fun. Let's do one more. Awesome. Okay. Side leg kicks, lie on one side of the back edge of your mat, elbow in line with your shoulders and your hips, and then feet come to the front edge of your mat. Easier to place your hands in front of your center, or you can take the hand behind your head. It's a little harder.

Reach the top leg long and then kick to the front one. Too. So the leg pulse is there. You reach it back and back. So we kick to the front a lot. Then we go back a little bit, kick forward. We go back a lot.

A little forward back. And, again, kick, kick back back. Push your bottom foot down. Pull your shoulders out of your ears. 2 more. Last one. Take the leg back.

Hold it there. Little circles. 3 to 5 little circles back here in each direction and rest flip over do the other side. So hip in line with elbow and shoulder, feet to the front of your mat, top hand doing what it did in the first side. And here we go. Kick kick.

Back back. So if your bottom side has a hard time, in life. My left side is the weaker one. It means it's harder when my left side is actually the base because I don't have as much strength and foundation. So just be aware that one of your sides is gonna love this and the other side is gonna not so much. Hold the leg back there.

Do those little circles. And reverse. And great. Okay. Teaser. So I like to think of teaser as a train.

It has 3 stops. You can stay at any stop you want, or You can do rolling like a ball into teaser or just rolling like a ball. Right? Choose what your body needs right now. Otherwise, lie on your back. Take your arms overhead and your legs long, squeeze them together, take a deep breath in, exhale come up into a teaser, lift the arms up, lower the upper body down for 1. It doesn't have to go all the way down. That's the goal, but if you go halfway, And that's where you have to stop.

That's where you stop today. After the third one, here's our next stop lower and lift the legs three times. It's easier if you smile. I don't think so, but it's more fun that way. Lower everything down, lift it up.

T's are 3. Lower it down, come past the 100 and come up. One more. Hold it here. Take your arms back.

Go ahead and take a moment. I do wanna do hip circles. I skipped corkscrew. So if you wanna do corkscrew and said you can. The hands ideally go behind us, but I like taking my hands a little bit wider can be on your fingertips that's easier or palms flat.

Send the legs out, squeeze the heels together, 3 circles in each direction, I promise you slow and steady does not win the race here. You wanted to have a little bit of zest as you circle these legs. Why? It's why it's important that it's in the express workout. Makes it easier just to move through it. And then reach Darren's forward, find your teaser, lower it down. Alright. Let's rent that out with some swimmate. So arms along in front of you.

Legs long behind you. Reach your tailbone away. Lift everything up and then lift the opposite arm and leg as you inhale and exhale. How high can your arms get How high can your inner thighs get? Last cycle of breathing, sit back, child's pose, head to the knees if you want, stretch the back, and then come out into a plank for some leg pulls.

So if you just wanna hold playing here, you can, or you can be on your forearms, lift one leg up, rock back forward switch. Rock back forward switch. 2 more times. And then rest. If you know the fancy transition, you can do it. Otherwise, you can just flip over. It's fine. Take your hands behind your back facing you.

Knees bent is a little easier. Legs straight is harder. Lift those hips up. Hold it. Or kick a leg forward.

Three times each leg. Alright. When you're even, lower everything down, turn to one hip. I do wanna do some side bend. So you can do a side plank on your forearm.

Or you'll do a straight arm, and then you'll take your feet, stack them as easier or sorry, stack them as harder. Stagger is a little easier. Lift your arm up overhead and find your side bend, come all the way down. Lift your hip up with your hips, not your shoulder. Right? Our shoulders can only hold us here.

Our hips lift us higher. And then kick those legs to the other side. Here we go. And up, reach, and down. And all the way up, the shoulders on the back hips high, and down one more time.

Reach. Squeeze those legs together. Awesome. Okay. Alright. Let's do some seal. Take your hands and dive them through. If seal's not in your practice, rolling like a ball is really great.

You're gonna grab the feet, pull your shoulders on the back, and then you'll beat your feet open and close three times. And then you rock to your shoulders, hold it up here, and maybe you beat one time, or maybe you get 3 beats. And then we have some fun. Okay? So it's a little bit like you're showing off, like, Look at me. I can balance right here. And then look at me. I can balance back here. And you're just rolling.

The beats only happen when you're balancing. Let's do one more because it's so fun. Awesome. Okay. We're gonna flip on to our stomach and do some rocking. If this back bend is more than what your practice is doing right now, double leg kick is a great replacement or anything we've done on our stomach. So bend your knees, reach back, grab the ankles, and then rest down for a moment, let your shoulders come on your back, and try to squeeze your knees towards each other.

If you can't grab your ankles, but you wanna try rocking, then just reach for your legs and lift your knees up. Okay? Otherwise, grab on, bend your elbows and pull 1, 2, 3 with the shoulders connected to your back, push your feet into your hands. Go ahead and come back down. Reset will do one more of those preps, and you can hold that or lift your legs, lift your chest. And just rock back and forth.

And then rest sit back, give yourself a child's pose, and we're going to do our push ups. So come up to standing, roll all the way up. We're into a whole little series here. So take the arms up to the sky, circle them around, head comes down. This is like a roll up we did at the beginning of the mat. Let your head hang. Walk out 1, 2, 3, 4.

Bend the elbows one time back behind you. The head comes in, lift the waist up, walk your hands back, all the way to your feet. Arms by your ears come all the way up. Circle the arms around. Hands in front of your feet.

Let your head hang. Lifter ribs walk 1, 2, 3, 4, 2 elbow bends. Head in, lift the ribs so much one hand comes back then the other, then we get all the way to the feet. Roll it up. Last one. Hands come down.

Let that head hang. Once you find your plank, 3 elbow bits. Head in. Walk your hands back to your feet. Arms by your ears, reverse your roll up, and then come standing. Take one arm over the other.

And then relax your shoulders down your back. Bring one knee up, place the foot down, then the other knee up, place the foot down. So we're gonna do a little marching, And the idea is you can start slow to kinda get your bearings, and then you try to speed it up. We want the legs to lift high and fast without shifting our weight. And if you're slower and lower, that's fine. You continue to work up and up and up and up.

This is a great way to challenge your balance and get your whole body ready for what you're gonna do after this. One more time each side, he'll see other toes apart hands behind your head, push your head into your hands, and rise up under the balls of your feet and reach the heels down 4 more. After these next three, bring your arms down by your side. And then pat yourself on the back use an express mat workout. Thank you so much for letting me teach you. I hope it was fun and sweaty and challenge you to not be perfect because this is a practice. Have an amazing day.