Class #5531

Pelvic Floor Cadillac

50 min - Class
82 likes

Description

Join Leah Stewart for a fun and playful class on the Cadillac focusing on the pelvic floor. This class encourages joyful and celebratory movement while also incorporating classic Pilates exercises. Get ready to build stability and mobility throughout the pelvis!

Please Note: some exercises will have you hanging off the Mat of the Cadillac to allow for full body extension.

If you would like to learn more about the pelvic floor, check out Leah's Pelvic Floor Tutorial here!
What You'll Need: Cadillac

About This Video

May 08, 2024
(Log In to track)

Transcript

Read Full Transcript

Hello there. And Leah Stewart here, I'm going to be giving you a fun class today on the Cadillac. Where we are going to explore some playful movement with the pelvis, but we're also going to revisit some of our just traditional tried and true Pilates exercises here on the Cadillac as well. So before we get started, I wanna tell you how you're gonna set up your Cadillac very simple. So I want you to have one blue spring, if you can, for your top, for your push through bar, one red or blue spring at the bottom, and of course, your safety strap for when we load it from the bottom. And then we're going to have our roll up bar on your crossbar here, you can set it wherever you prefer. If you like it all the way up, if you like it a little bit down, that is totally up to you.

Then I want you to have nearby one hip spring available, for when we do our hip work. So that's gonna be it. If you have a half trap like I do, at my studio, You can just load it all, have it all ready to load on the one side. You can do this class without a full Cadillac 100%. Absolutely. So again, we're gonna be talking about joyful, fun, celebratory movement, but exploring that beautiful dynamic of moving in the pelvis. So let's go ahead and get started.

We're gonna start with a roll up. So I want you to grab your roll up bar, and we're gonna spend quite a bit of time here at the beginning of our class, just exploring different types of movement for the pelvis here. So taking your breath in, I want you to activate your shoulders and sit up as straight as you can. And you can roll your fingers around or keep them straight whatever you prefer. So breath in to prepare and exhale flex your feet as you come into a posterior tilt of the pelvis, getting that nice rounding of the lower spine, and then inhale straighten up. Excel flex, push energy through the heels, and inhale.

So notice that my shoulders are staying right over my hips as I just start to warm up the spine and articulate there. Let's go again 2 more exhale And inhale. Last one beautiful curve in the lower spine. And inhale holding it up. So now I want you to just tip over toward me a little lateral flexion of the torso Keep the opposite hip down and allow the roll up bar to tip with you and come up.

So very simple. Just as you're warming yourself up, getting your body prepared for the class. Inhale, and exhale, and trying to get as deep of a side bend as you can, as you alternate sides. Keeping those shoulders square, we're gonna do 2 more sets, so toward me, and away from me. One more set. Nice and simple.

Now holding here, I want you to turn your pump so that they're facing up. And just very simple drawing your elbows in and just mobilizing the scapula, but the stimulus add the feet again. Let's flex. Just to keep it a little bit more interesting. So the spine does not move.

2 more, you're just feeling the scapula glide across your back. You're feeling those elbows glide now. You're gonna carry on, but you're gonna add a little bit of upper back extension. And reach. Just being gentle with your movement, not so concerned with having a huge range of motion at this time, just mobilizing and warming up one more time and drawing it. And slowly take your hands back so they're facing down.

Now this time, you're gonna bow forward drawing the bar down to the shin and reaching up. Arms stay straight so you're moving from your shoulders here, allowing your elbows and your wrists to stay steady. And rather than moving my pelvis first, I feel like I'm gliding my rib cage down toward my hips. 2 more exhale. Inhale up.

Last one. And inhale. Now I'm gonna take you right into a roll up. So rolling down and finding that position all the way down on your mat. Take your breath in, gliding those hips underneath you, and keeping that nice beautiful c curve over, breathe in, and roll down. So before we go into the playful movement here, again, we're gonna spend some of the time revisiting just some of our classic, exercises. Because we don't wanna negate that even in our classic repertoire, we have a lot of beautiful pelvic movement.

We wanna make sure that we honor and remember those exercises too. So notice how I, my pelvis goes deep into the post steer your tilt here, and then I just let it soften at the bottom. I come back into the posterior tilt. I keep that curve as I come over, breathe in, and roll. And one more time before we transition into a little variation of it.

So from here, a probably variation that's very familiar to you. You're gonna tip over toward me. You're gonna roll down That side of your back. Come through the center, and you're gonna roll up. We're gonna do 3 on each side.

And down. Now, I don't mind if you move with this beautiful sort of rhythm and harmony here, but I also want you to focus on getting as much initiation from your pelvis as you roll down, it's gonna just soften through the middle relax And then it comes back up into that posterior tilt. Now suspend here at the top. Find your center. Find your beautiful c curve.

Recognize that the back of your neck is long and away from me. Inhale. All the way around and a long exhale. To come up. Inhale. All the way.

And exhale to come up. And just notice how your pelvis is just gliding and moving. And all the way up. Holding here. Now you're gonna roll down. Rolling You're gonna find your position here where your pelvis in this in this deep posterior tilt, your lower back is into the mat, and I want you to bend your knees.

And we're gonna play with a little bit of abdominal warm up here continuing to add warm up. You're gonna come up exhale 1. Just nice and basic. 2. Now you have the support of the roll up part here, which is fantastic.

So what that allows you to do is it really allows you to focus on that stability of your pelvis. You should look down and see that that triangle pubic bone, hip bones, is not moving. And you're just a deepening the flexion of your spine, and you're getting a little bit of a hinge at your hip as you come up. 2 more, and then come up all the way. So now we're gonna with a little different variation of that as you roll down, finding that position hold the torso where it is, come up a little bit higher.

So you have a little hinge at your hip. Now arc your back. So your pelvis goes into an anterior tilt. You feel how it lifts you higher. You have the support of the roll up bar, and now you get to roll back to the position initiating from the pelvis.

Inhale. Fill it up. 2 sits bones are widening here, and then draw it back into the posterior tilt. Again, inhale, and exhale. So as you go into this anterior tilt, everything is expanded, stretch pelvic floor your abdominals are nice and lengthened, and then everything contracts and shortens as you come in, and inhale reach, open, lengthen, and exhale contract. And draw it in.

3 more inhale. And exhale. Last two inhale. And exhale. One more inhale. You should feel that beautiful. Actually, quite a lot of movement in your pelvis here.

And then hinge up just for a little bit of a moment. As you roll down, you're gonna glide your front leg out. You're gonna open it to the width of your table here, of your bed here. Now you're gonna do the same thing. You're gonna hinge up a little bit. Now you're gonna reach the pelvis out and that leg is gonna reach out.

Kind of an interesting position here. Keep this leg straight. Fill that extension and then glide it in. From the pelvis and you'll feel that leg start to come back and your, torso start to square off again. So initiate from the pelvis, I'm gonna let my gaze go to that direction.

So there's this light little bit of the energy of rotation, and then I'm gonna draw it back in. Almost like I'm putting that femur, that thigh bone right back into the pelvis. Inhale reach and exhale drawing it in. Inhale reach, exhale drawing it in, and we love that we have The partnership of the role at Bar here to help support our bodies that can really focus on that playful Movement of the pelvis. Come back to the center.

Find it here. Give me 3 little pulses. 1, 2, 3. Hold it. Extend that leg out. Now from the pelvis initiate as you come up, little bit of energy of rotation and exhale draw it back in, come into the posterior tilt. Inhale. Reach from the pelvis. Expand. Exhale.

Inhale. Two more. Inhale. One more. And slowly bring it in.

Bring those legs together. Shoot the legs out. Find some rest here at the bottom. You do feel a little bit of work probably in your hands and your shoulders, but hang on to it if you can for me. Let's do another roll up. Inhale. Exhale all the way.

Breath in and exhale down. So we're gonna give ourself a little bit of a retreat from that position. We're gonna come into a bridge. So hands are down. Bar right on top of the thighs.

Take your breath in. And start to roll up. Roll up. Find that bridge position. Take your breath in and roll down.

Let's do two more just like that just in the center breath in, exhale rolling up. Up you go all the way to the top. Breath in and roll. All the way down. One more time.

So at the top here, I want you to bring your legs together. If you can take your hands to the outside, you can support yourself a little bit there of your bar. Now bring your feet in a little closer to your bottom. Glide your front leg out as you bend your elbows and bring, the bar towards your chest and coming up. Other side, gliding out and bringing up. So the point here is to keep your pelvis floating in the air So when we think of pelvic play, my first thought is always to go into, like, mobilizing the pelvis and ooey gooey movement. But we also wanna play with stability.

So if you were balancing two glasses of water on your hit bones here, They might shake a little bit, but would they fall over and drawing? One more time each way. Exhale. Inhale and exhale and inhale hold this position here. Take your breath in, roll down. But as you roll down, start to lift your head up and let the springs help you, as you come up here. So going into a little bit of a fun variation here, I'm gonna talk you through this slowly, and then we'll start to increase the rhythm here.

So I want you to come to the front edge of your mat. So scoot back have a little bit more support from your roll up bar. So I'm gonna start you in this position because I want you to find sort of the splits here. Your foot's gonna go down, and the end position is gonna be this beautiful high arc. I mean, that's just glorious and so pretty and wonderful, but we have to move. So we're gonna find this. Now, You're gonna bring your knee in.

You're gonna sweep it up. So you're hearing this like sort of pike position. You're gonna extend the leg You're gonna sweep it around as you allow the springs to lift you up. Bring your leg around. And then press back. Now, when you're in this position, I'm gonna let you be the judge.

You can soften your knee, or if you feel like you have the hip extension, you could really extend that knee. But the key here is to initiate from the pelvis. Find that position there. Sweep it around, let it fly back, and then arc. And drawing it in.

All the way, extend the leg, sweep it around, and draw it back. 2 more drawing it in. And reach and let that side of your pelvis sit off the edge of the bed as you reach back. One more. Gliding it in.

Reach around. Up and finding that beautiful arc. And one more time drawing it in, finding the position there. So carrying on, before we do the other side, we're gonna come into a sideline position. So my legs are in like a scissor here, both one foot on either side, front and back of the bed there.

My hand right in the middle of the bar. So from this position, you're gonna roll forward and you're gonna bring your leg down. So when you bring your leg down off of the, toward the floor here, I want you to allow your pelvis to rotate. So you're sort of hanging off, but you have a lot of support here. Then you're gonna bring it back around, rotate the body, and come up. So this hand can stay down to support when my pelvis is in this nice tech position, poster your tail and I'm here.

You glide it underneath the springs. You sweep it around. Allow the springs to port you as you let your pelvis drip and melt over. You have this wonderful rotation. Then draw your leg back. Rotate and up, bringing it, reaching all the way, just feeling this wonderful movement initiated and coming from your pelvis. Allow yourself to hang here.

You have this great shoulder stretch, bringing it around, filling the control and the obliques. And, you might be sliding down a little bit like I am, and that's fine. Just keep going. Unreach feel that control as you hang off. And then from the obliques, reaching the arm out, allowing the pelvis to roll, come up, and reach to come down.

Kind of fun, right? So let's go ahead and do the other side. So let's find our position here. On the edge. Now ideally, again, you've just have this side of your pelvis anchored on the bed. You have that back leg straight and you find that high arc position, breathing in, you sweep it in, finding your pike position. Take the leg out in front of you, circle it around, come up straight, Glide the foot back, anchor it, and then find your arc. I'm gonna slide back just a little bit.

I have a little bit more support from my spring and curving in. So again, the purpose of using that support of the spring you can really feel the slow movements you can control in your pelvis. You have an anterior tilt here. And drawing it in from the middle body, allowing the rest of the spine to respond. Circle.

Bring it down and arc. 2 more drawing it in. In ballet, we call this a Goran dejang all the way around. Don't worry about looking like a ballerina. Just enjoy the movement.

All the way. Around and finding that beautiful stretch. And to the side movement. So top arm stays. Remember, you're gonna glide down just a little bit.

So your legs are open. One foot in the back, one foot in the front, finding the position here. You sweep the back leg forward letting the spring support you come forward, allowing the pelvis to rotate and hang off, the edge of the mat, then bringing it around, using those obliques, anchoring with that bottom hand, you come up. And reaching out. Lay coming forward, allowing the pelvis to drip forward here.

That position should feel really good. When you find it, it feels great. It feels like you're expanding that pelvis. Now reach, feel that powerful work through the torso. And Reaching down, swinging forward.

And, reach just allowing you to focus on the repetition of it and around expanding And one more. Reach. Enjoy this moment right here. That wonderful stretch and around. Feeling the power of the movement, reaching up, and slowly, gum down.

Nice work. So we're gonna stay with our roll up bar, and we're gonna Neil. Now we're gonna be a little less controlled a little bit more free. So we'll start with a little bit of arm movement, and we'll complement the stability with the mobility. You can choose. You can keep your hands on the side of your roll up bar or on the inside.

Whatever you prefer, get to a distance that feels good for you, and we're gonna press the bar in. XL 1. 5 of them. 2. Now the reason I want you to do this is thinking of keeping the hip extension using those hip extensors to press your pelvis forward. Complementing it with the posterior direction of your pelvis. Now from here, you're gonna come into an arc.

You're gonna arc back. Now I'm not gonna make you go very far and you're gonna tuck the pelvis underneath you. And this will be our test run because we might need to move back a little bit to get a little bit more support through the roll up bar, but we might not. Now, I love this because you don't have an absolute anchor and stability here. You have to use your muscles to control it. From this position, and leave in mind if your feet come up a little bit.

So you find this sort of cat stretch position, and then we're gonna just go the opposite. We're gonna roll back through. So we draw the pelvis underneath us. We roll through to the high arc, and then we hinge to come back up. So this is our adjustment time, my friends, if you wanna go a little further back, now's the time to do it. You press the arms down, connect with the lats, lift the sternum up, start to draw back, draw back, drawback, drawback, and then sweep underneath dive down find the position here. A little bit unsteady.

That's exactly what I want. And then draw it back in. And lift the sternum up and then hinge up. Draw the arms in. Connect. Notice how I lift my sternum up, and that's my initiator.

That's my initiator. My hips are saying forward. And then boom, from the pelvis. I articulate down. And then I reach out nice and strong. Find that balance.

And then sweep it back in, drawing it up, find that beautiful high arc, and reach one more time, slide back a little bit if you slid forward, depending on the pants you're wearing, all the way, and rule and reach. So from here, I want you to find now. You can notice. Now what happens when we have this unstable element here of the roll up bar, I'm not gonna get your hips directly over your knees as if we were doing a normal four point or if we were being supported by the push through bar. So a little bit different here. But what I want you to do now is you want you to grab onto the outside of your roll up bar.

I want you to keep your back straight and I want you to bend your elbows and sit your pelvis toward me. So kind of a funny, like, funny weird position here. And then you're gonna reach back out, alternate, sit down away from you, keep that bar nice and straight, nice and square. And reach out. Now, notice how I'm not doing a posterior tilt in my pelvis. I'm hinging at my hip, keeping a neutral pelvis and a neutral spine.

And bend. But, oh my goodness, if I could just tell you all of the beautiful dynamic work that's happening deeping your pelvic floor, it's amazing. And reaching out and let's go back away from me. And reach out. Let's add to it, my friends. So let's go down, circle around. And reach.

Down circle around and reach for in each direction. So feel the challenge with the stability of your shoulders and your torso, but then we have this beautiful dynamic play that's going on in the pelvis and reach out one more down and reach out find your center position, hold it, and sit back to the way for me. Circle around flat back. Don't forget to keep that energy, that line radiating through your spine. As you feel the challenge of this exercise, and sit back.

Long neck, relaxed jaw, and last one and reach. Holding it here. Sweep the pelvis underneath you. Take your time. Take your time.

Lifting up as if you're doing a pelvic curl, find the high arc. And hinge all the way up. That should feel really good. We're gonna gently let the roll up bar go down, and we're gonna come over to our push through bar. We're gonna load it with one blue spring here.

Very, very classic Pilates. We're gonna go into our push through sitting forward and our spirals here. So take your breath in, and down. So here's a pelvic curl. As I come through, hinging, take your breath in and roll up. So now as we do something very simple and familiar as this exercise, Can you feel how much more movement you're getting in your pelvis? Because we've been playing with the pelvis and mobilizing the pelvis, and the lower back is ready to respond to the pelvic movement.

The abdominals are ready to help initiate and, join in that movement as well. The hips are prepared for it as well. And even the shoulders are all working together so that the pelvis can have its day in the sun. And there can be lots of wonderful movement. So from here, I want you to bring your hands a little closer together.

Now this time, you get to slide a little bit deeper into that posterior tilt. You release the front hand, and you rotate. Ever since I went through my certification process years ago. This and the pelvic curl have been some of my favorite sizes. So feel that rotation and come back exhale and inhale.

Rolling down just a few of these to get us going, that deep, deep posterior tilt of the pelvis, and up one more away from me and reach So now rather than keeping our pelvis anchored down, we're gonna let it move. So we're gonna come into the posterior tilt. And make sure you're holding her nice and tight. As you go out, I want you to push with the ball of the foot against that bar and reach out and then draw it back in. Flex the foot and up.

Rolling back. Release the arm and push. Reach to the ball of the foot. Allow the pelvis to push forward. Allow it to rotate.

You're not losing your posterior tilt completely but you're almost there, and then you draw it and allow the obliques to come in and up. And down. Reaching starting here, drawing this full line, not missing a spot. Reach. And then it's almost like you wanna hold on to something, but your body's pulling you back.

The o's obliques are engaging. The pelvis is underneath you. And up and drawing down. So put more energy than you even think is needed for this exercise. And pull back resisting it, resisting it as you come back, allowing the pelvis to melt.

And up one more time each way and rolling, pressing expanding and resisting back. And up one more. I hope that you're feeling that wonderful work in the pelvis, in the spine. And coming up, adjusting yourself there, pushing the bar up, hinging forward for just a moment, feeling that extension through your back, Transitioning into our last exercise here. I want you to slide toward the front of the bed here, of the mat.

This foot is gonna be free. You're gonna hold on to the closest edge here on your roll up bar. Or, excuse me, your push through bar. Now We're going to be hanging our pelvis off the side of the bed here. So I want you to be very careful that you don't fall off. Use your arms to support you. I'll try not to fall off.

We'll do it together, but I want to exaggerate your movement as much as you can because that's where the the fun beauty of the exercise is. So we're gonna hang here. So we're we're stable here. Use this foot to anchor the outside foot here. Now we're gonna drop just get yourself ready.

We're gonna drop that side of the pelvis off the bed, and we're gonna rotate that thigh in. And you get this beautiful lateral flexion and this great connection of the pelvis here. Now you're gonna reach that leg, rotate the pelvis to come back up. We're gonna keep it very simple, but it's so good. Keep your back straight and a hinge on a diagonal reaching forward, testing the limits there, and then pull that leg out, feel that hip rotation, as you pick your pelvis back up and reach.

Yes. You're gonna feel pressure on your sits bones on the bed. That's fine. And reaching up. That's 3. We're gonna go for 5. And coming here. Inhale.

Exhale. Up one more time and inhale. And excel reaching up, finding that position at the top, and rest. 5 is usually pretty good for that. Because there's a lot of pressure there.

But as we sit here on the other side, and you prepare yourselves to come right to the edge. Can you feel sort of that expansion and that stretch and that opening that occurred in your pelvis? So let's play with it on this side so you find the hinge You roll to adjust so you can roll and hang off. Allow that side to inwardly rotate allow yourself almost like you're trying to peek around the corner and look at something. And then you rotate and pick yourself up.

I can feel a lot of really good wonderful oblique work because I'm having a lateral tilt of my pelvis as I go down here so that, my left side of my pelvis is coming up to my left rib cage, And then I externally rotate that leg, and I feel that length in that expansion, 3 more, and rolling. Keeping the back nice and straight, peeking around the corner to look at something, and then drawing yourself. Back 2 more and reach. Inhale. And exhale.

Reach up. Last one. Inhale. Inwardly rotate. And exhale coming up. So kind of fun and simple there. So we'll stay on this side of our Cadillac. We're gonna bring our safety strap around.

And get ourselves set up here. And we're gonna go 1 red spring, and we're gonna visit the tower here for a minute. So let's get ourselves set up. Nice and safe underneath arms are straight. So we use tower for wonderful spinal articulation.

And I wanna do that certainly, but I wanna play a little bit more with the pelvis as well. But we'll go into 2. Just good classic tower. So I flex and point on the inhale. I roll up. Exhale.

Inhale. Bend the knees. Exhale extend and roll down. All the way, keeping the shoulders nice and soft. Anchored, let the pelvis kiss the mat and then flex and point exhale picking the pelvis up. Rolling up, just imagine that because the spine is rolling up, the legs are pushing the bar up, but the legs are not doing the work here.

Is all through the spine, rolling down, rolling down. Okay. Let's have a little fun now. Flex and point and roll up. Bend your knees and hold. Now in this position, inhale draw the pelvis down.

It's like you're gonna take your tailbone and let it. Oh my goodness. Can I get it close to the mat? I'm sure it's far away, but it feels close. Then I'm gonna draw it back underneath me. And inhale 3 of these allow the pelvis to go into much of an anterior tilt as you can, and then draw it underneath into a deep posterior tilt. Last one. Inhale.

Opening, expanding that pelvic floor, and then drawing it all together, straighten the knees and roll down. We're gonna add on to that. Inhale. Flex and point. Excel rolling up. And then the knees.

Down, you're going to release the front leg. You're gonna draw the knee out to the side. Rotate the pelvis, rotate the pelvis, and draw it back in, connect, find it on the bar, release the other leg, rotate the pelvis as you draw the leg out to the side, and then bring it back. 3 sets like that. Rotate the pelvis.

Feel nice and wide. And then draw it back, connect with the posterior tilt and release the back leg, rotating, expanding the pelvis, filling the control and then drawing back in one more time each side. Rotating, rotating, and imposeterior tilts as you come back in. Keep the strong connection with the arms. Rotate and drawing it back in, extend those legs, and roll down.

We're not quite done. We're almost there. Flex and point rolling up. Bend. Release the leg.

Now you're gonna extend the leg and bring the other leg out so it's pointed. And I want you to roll down the front side of your back Allow your leg to travel to the side. So here, I'm in rotation here. My front side or my right side of my hip is down, My left side of my pelvis is up, so I have this beautiful rotation in my pelvis. I'm gonna draw the leg around, square it, So I have this l shape here and bring it up, flex, and point This is very demanding on your spine.

You have to keep your pelvic floor connected, bend, and extend, release the leg open and start to roll down. The backside of your spine for me is the left side. Feel the rotation. Fill that expansion. Keep reaching.

Keep reaching to the l shape. Square those hips. Keep the abdominal connection and flex. And point, we'll do one more time each side. Inhale, bend, stretch, release, and start to roll down.

Roll down open nice and wide with the legs, and roll the pelvis to the center. And bring it up. Last one, flex, and points rolling up. Bend, extend, and leg comes out roll. Use your breath, roll down, sweep the leg around, feel how the pelvis reconnects in square position, bring it up, and we'll just sort of square it all out with one more.

Basic tower exhale up, bend, extend, and roll down. Roll down, find it all the way. Stretch Slowly bring your knees in. Carefully take the bar. Down. Roll onto one side, and we're gonna release this come up carefully if you need to, just in the interest of you're back.

We're gonna come to the other end of the Cadillac here, and I want you to pick up your hip spring here and load it straight in the center. So it's up to you. You can leave your roll up bar there. We're gonna be moving this way, so it shouldn't be a problem here. Now I'm gonna leave my crossbar where it is, and just hope that it's a good position for me.

I might wanna bring it down a little bit lower. So go ahead and adjust it if you need to. But we're gonna load that top leg into the spring or into the strap, and we're gonna find ourselves just directly in the center here. So rather than because this is a pelvic play class, rather than focusing on our leg doing the initiating of the work, we're gonna focus on the pelvis. So we're gonna keep that bottom leg nice and straight. So in this position, you're gonna draw the pelvis in and you're gonna come as far in as you can.

Now we've extended those hamstrings. You should be able to get that leg very far. So I visited some of this movement earlier, so we're gonna kinda use it in a different capacity. So I have that beautiful posterior tilt to the pelvis. Bring your top hand full, once you have a little bit of support, you're gonna reach that leg out, and you're gonna rotate rotate, rotate in this position. So now my leg is down.

My pelvis is nice and wide. Now I'm gonna hold that position, and I'm gonna come all the way back with the leg into this nice sort of hip extension position, then I'm gonna swirl and bring it all the way back around. And poster your tilt to the pelvis as you come in. Now I'm gonna cue it a little bit differently this time. I want you to think of initiating by drawing that top pelvis down, then allow it to rotate and the leg to respond.

And I'm gonna kiss the bed of the Cadillac with that hip bone right there. Then I'm gonna hold that steady use my leg. Keep that shoulder soft, that top shoulder soft, to come back to this. And then I'll spiral back. Very simple. We're just gonna keep doing this.

So I draw the pelvis in, feel the beautiful stretch that you get through the lower back through the hip here. Come as far forward as you can. Now hip pelvis pelvis first, bringing it down, and then rotate it. And find that position there and reach the leg back, feel that hip extension, feel that need to stabilizing your torso, and then rotate back. So good.

And drawing forward. Drawing forward, feeling that beautiful stretch. This is number 4. Rolling down, rolling down, and then finish with the pelvis here. Fill that expansion.

And then reaching back, feeling that control the pelvic floor, connects, and energizes for stability, and rotate back one more drawing all the way feel that beautiful stretch and then imagine that you're rolling your hips forward. Continue to roll them and allow the leg to respond because of the pelvis. And then draw the leg back. Feel that wonderful connection. And spiral.

And then draw the knee in. And I just want you to sit here for just a moment. And breathe. Slowly and carefully come onto your back, release that foot, and we'll switch to the other side. So you're gonna load the top fill leg or top foot Feel nice and secure.

Get your sideline position. I'm going to. Sorry. Not very eloquent. Slide down here a little bit. Okay. So we have the top arm just gently grasping onto the edge of the Cadillac here.

So the leg is secured. The hips are nice and long. The waist is nice and long. Post your tilt to the pelvis. As you draw that leg in, we're doing 5 of these.

Do not let that leg get out of control. Keep that control draw as far forward as you can. Now you're gonna roll that hip forward. Roll that hip forward, then continue to roll until that top hip kisses the bed here of the Cadillac. Then you draw the leg behind keeping the torso where it is and spiral.

To come to the center. This initiative is not from the leg, but from the pelvis, reaching forward, feeling that stretch feeling that stretch. Go a little further if you can. Then start to let the pelvis roll. Continue to let it roll as you kiss the mat there. Now use your hip extensors and your pelvic control.

To bring it back and then spiral. Back to the center, 3 more, tuck the pelvis underneath you, and forward. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. You fill that little bit of hip connection, and then keep bringing the leg back. Keeping it low and steady and controlled.

And back. Last two here, drawing forward. And reach reaching feeling the widening of the pelvis, the widening of those 2 hip bones, and then feeling the control, feeling like the pelvic floor muscles are engaging care to help you stabilize, and then reach the energy of that top leg out. Last one, drawing in all the way, rolling forward, and reach span the pelvis there. Draw the leg back.

And all the way. To the side. Connect there, and then draw the knees in. Draw the spine in. And rest here for a moment.

Breath in? Breath out. Breath in? Breath out. Carefully onto your back, Release your spring.

And onto one side, and we're gonna get right up we're gonna stand up. And we're gonna finish our class here. If you have a tower like I do, you can do everything that I'm gonna do holding on to the edge of the tower or to the side here, but I'm gonna go ahead and hold on to the top bars here. So with my hands gripped around my feet together, I'm gonna hinge back and I'm gonna just shake the pelvis side to side. Finding a nice grip here, and I'm gonna roll through the pelvis extending the body up, and then hinging to go down, fill the stretch, rolling up.

Extending up, feeling that gorgeous stretch right there, and then hinge. To come down. Last two, rolling up. All the way. And his To come down, last one, rolling.

And hinge. Here. Shake the hips. Bend the knees. And gently come down.

And let's do one roll down together. And that will be the end of our class, taking your breath in, and rolling down. Breath in at the bottom, Exhale rolling up. All the way. And as we sit here, I want you to just slowly kind of rock your hips back and forth. And just sort of spiraling back.

I love pelvic movement. I think it's so fantastic. I have a tutorial on pelvic floor, where we talk about just the importance of balance in the musculature of the pelvic floor. I hope that you'll go and visit that and learn a little bit more of the anatomy of the pelvic floor. But there's so much movement exploration that we've done when we play with the pelvis, and I hope that you enjoyed this class.

I hope you thought it was playful and that you just feel that wonderful, joyful, ness of moving our body. Thank you so much for joining me today. Take care.

Comments

Z A
very excited to try this class☺️
1 person likes this.
I love this class! So creative, lots of yummy spinal articulation and hip articulation.  Such a good idea to go over the side of the table!
I loved to explore with you although some pretty demanding exercises, - for example the towerpart... but always good to find a challenge! My hips feel great now, thank you Leah!
Such an interesting class. Wonderful! thank you.!!!
Odalis M
1 person likes this.
Nice stretches but I do not see any advance in this class.
Thanks Leah, it was an absolute delight. I did it with my Tower and it works just fine. Such good ideas for my students as well. Thanks again!
Yes Leah!!!!! So playful and innovative. The dancer in me is so greatful. I had no idea the Cadillac could be used in such a manner… hip off the bed in a supported and free manner. What a joy. Thank you!
Elizabeth S
Shoot, I sure thought this was challenging, but most of all, different and FUN!!!  I feel so graceful.  My pelvis and lower spine feel supple and open.    The tower is so much fun; we need more tower/Cadillac classes. 

You need to be a subscriber to post a comment.

Please Log In or Create an Account to start your free trial.

Footer Pilates Anytime Logo

Move With Us

Experience Pilates. Experience life.

Let's Begin