Class #560

Mat for Runners

35 min - Class
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Monica takes our Pilates Anytime cameraman Perry White through a Mat workout tailored for someone that recently finished a long-distance run or some other vigorous cardiovascular exercise. The focus in class is on great, deep stretches and engaging the core. Enjoy!
What You'll Need: Mat

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All right Perry. Well I'm excited. We're, we just finished a run so we're going to have a good stretch while really working. It's something maybe that I like to do after playing a game of soccer or running. Then I'll do some stretches first and then really get into workout. It's not going to be very long, but um, I think it's really important to stretch out and just keep yourself ready in balance for the rest of the day. So why don't we come to the front of the Mat and you just want to go ahead and sit down and anyway, no, no way. No particular way scoop so that your, the full length of the mat.

There you go. Good. Nice. And just reach your arms up. Good. And like I like to imagine there's a horse on each limb and there, cause I'm Peruvian and they used to, the Spaniards came and tortured them that way they can cause so you just pull in four different directions. Just really stretching. You want to feel energy out your fingertips, how your fingertips never straining, right. You don't want to strain any muscles, but try to use all of your muscles, not, we're so used to using our major muscle groups as athletes that you want to just try to see if you can wake up any other muscles here and just stretch. And then let's bring your legs together and maybe even bend the knees and put your feet flat on that mat a little closer to you. Great. And then inhale, bring your arms up to the ceiling and exhale, bring them down by your side.

Good. And now they should be resting on the mat. Great. And I want you to think about your spine and imagine this blue mat, like a wet slab of cement. Okay. You want to be able to imprint every bone in your spine on that mat. So I want you to take a, just leaving the arms there, the legs there, everything stays there and you're just going to be breathing. So taking a big breath and exhaling.

So go ahead and inhale and I'm, while you're breathing, trying to exhale and press every bone down. I'm going to grab a pillow for your head cause I think we could use just a little lift to make sure that back is nice and flat. So we're gonna lift up your head great and put it down. Wonderful. That's a little bit better with the alignment of your spine especially. We get tight in the thoracic. So right here.

So you want to take a big breath and as you exhale, think about the bottom of your shoulder blades and just let those sink. Nice. Good. And again, big breath. So the most important part is kind of from the bottom of your shoulder blades down your waistband. You want all of those bones on the mat. And the next exhale I want you to make sure they're flat so that you're using your stomach to anchor and down on the mat and bring your right knee into your chest so that we can just stretch. Hug it in. Good. So you want to just relax that flood. That's a tough thing.

And just stretch moto shoulders and you're going to straighten your leg up. But make sure it's straightened a little bit forward because it's going to be hard to straighten it straight to the ceiling. Okay, so straighten it kind of towards me. Good. And now watch the alignment of your foot. First of all, relaxing the foot. Don't stop the energy right there. Now look at the knee and the hip. So we don't want the near the hip to be pointing towards the center you want.

I'm kinda torn out to the side. That's much better. And I'm going to lower it still, but I'll lower that hip just a bit more. And turning out that knee. Turn it and point at the yes. And now I'm going to stretch. Okay, so this hip still, you can exactly rest your arms down. We're still rolling up on you. So I'm going to bring it down your leg. And now it's long.

Great, good. And we're just going to take a breath and exhale and I'm gonna stretch you. Excellent. So if you wanted to do this one on your own, you could just put your hands behind your thigh and try to be aware that you're not pulling your hip up with you, but just a little leg. Good. And then why don't you go ahead and reach it up to the ceiling and anchoring your stomach. Lower that leg down, kinda like you're lengthening your whole lower back and pull it back up. Good. Really make sure that knee doesn't roll in. Turn it down and going, ah, your stomachs anchoring your back and down up I me and they'll reach for the ceiling with those toes and reach out.

Really like stretch your lower back all the way out and pull it up. That was really great. And hug that knee into your chest. Good. And then put that foot right next to your left and pull your stomach in and bring your left knee in. Good. And extend that like forward so that yes. Excellent. You already fixed that hipsy quick study. I like it.

And we're going to just stop God, but take a breath and this is actually a passive stretch. So just drop your ribs and try not to work so hard at it. Yeah, you're actually pretty flexible there, especially on this left leg. And now I want you to keep this hip right where it is, and your stomach angry into your back and reaching up. Go ahead and reach forward and out. Yeah, and pull it right back up. Good. This knee is going to be right up to the ceiling and reach down the middle of your body and pull it right back up from your stomach.

One more time. So pull your belly away from me. Don't let your knee fall out. Keep yourself centered and anchored. Good. And then hug your knee into your chest. Good. And then let's do a stretch that a lot of people call them before stretch, where you're going to put this ankle over the knee or the thigh, I should say. And now just reach through and grab this behind this leg.

So [inaudible] wrong leg, sorry. Go reach through and grab behind this leg. So yeah, but bring the lake to you instead of you did the leg. So you're going to rest your head. And this puts gonna come up to, to do to there. Okay. And it's just relaxed. Try to keep it at a tabletop would be awesome. So parallel to the floor instead of letting it dangle. That's great.

So you just start like that right now our shoulders are all skew. If you can straighten them out better. And then once that doesn't feel like a tough stretch, then take this hand and push the thigh away here. So now you have your right hand pulling. Careful to avoid the knee a little higher and push the flyway.

So one's pulling and one's pushing. And that's a big stretch after you run. Yeah, could definitely is that. So he searched the hamstrings and we're stretching now deeper into the hips. Pretty good. Yeah. Good. We're gonna hug both knees into your chest on crossing them.

And now it's switch it. You don't have to put this foot down. Just cross reached through and grabbed behind this thigh. So you're gonna take your right arm and reach the root. Excellent. And rest your head. Yeah. And while you're resting, you're just thinking about your shoulders being square. And when that doesn't feel too strong of a stretch, you can take your right hand and push her right thigh away as you pull with the left.

Good. Very nice. And then we're going to hug your knees back in again and do one quick on each side again. So you're gonna take care. Yep. Excellent. Okay. Hey, take your left hand and push your left thigh away. Wonderful. So now you're gonna add this to your routine, right? Yeah. It feels pretty good.

Yeah. And then hug and amen. And that. So that stretches your lower back and then you're going to switch. So the only muscle that I have, we haven't stretched quite yet. That may be one. Once we finish, um, is your quadricep, and that one's probably gonna tighten up a little bit while we're working out. So even if you don't get exercises perfectly, you still want to keep flowing through them because otherwise your muscles will just strain and tighten up against you in your workout and you're trying to just loosen up.

So w focus more on the flow than on complete precision. Okay. So perfect. We're going to now hug both knees into your chest. Now we're pretty comfortable with that. Our backs pretty flat. We're gonna press. Use our stomach to anchor our back down and lift your head up.

It's like an upper stomach crunch. Reach your arms long and strong and pump. Inhale two, three, four, five and exhale or just think about taking a big breath, pumping a little faster and exhale as long as you can. That's great, and keep going. Now I'm desk. I want you to think of the stomach and keep doing a nice contraction in your stomach. Really pulling in the size of your stomach and pressing your navel down. Good, especially on the exhale and then we're going to lengthen the legs away from you as you keep that waistband down. That's really great. Right about here is probably challenging for your stomach.

You feel like your stomach can still control. Yeah. Good. And I keep that up and pumping a little faster. Inhale two, three, [inaudible] good. And make that stomach disappear. Really, I love seeing a lot of wrinkles in that shirt. That's it. Big Breath. That's perfect. I had exhale, scoop. Scoop. Scoop. Scoop. Good again. Good. We're going to do a last set of 20 I'm going to challenge you and make you straighten your legs. So keep it up. Turn out those knees and feet. Turn out.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. And pull in more and more. Yeah. Give me one more like that. Big Breath and Xcel. Look everywhere you're doing a lot. He's all right. Hugging your knees. That's awesome. Very good. And then you're going to use those legs to just rock up to a seated position and you're perfect. Your feet are going to be flat. Yep.

And then put your hands under your knees and then round your back as much as you can. Not Straight but round like a letter C. I'll look at your belly button and pull your belly button away from your legs and roll down your waistband. Huh? And stay there. Use your arms to help you pull in and around. Forward. Good. So try to get your waistband before the bottom of your shoulder blades onto the mat. So pull the navel in and pull back your waist with excellent. And then exhale and use your arms. And your stomach to really, really round your spine. Great.

So we're just trying to roll down one bone at a time and in a straight line. Very important. So roll down the lower back, roll through the middle back. Let's slide down your thighs with your hands and go to your shoulder blades and come right back up. See if you can lift one at a time. Good. You're doing pretty good. I'm going to give you a little bit more awareness back here.

So my foot is going to be right here. Press down this one and this one. Pull into me more. Press into me and set, pulling away. See, feel my toe there. So I want you to really press into it. That's it. That's it. Go on down, take a breath and exhale. Pull your belly in and come forward. And wonderful. Really good, good. And one more like that.

And keep this here and move this. Yes, perfect. Stay there. Take a breath. And now exhale. And you're going to keep this here, but move this and this and this. Excellent. Now I want you to kind of, um, keep your knees bent, but we're going to roll all the way down. Okay. So again, we're gonna try to keep this here, but if this, yes, look down at it to helps and go all the way down to your head. Good. Inhale, lift your head up, looking at your stomach, and exhale, create as many wrinkles as you come up. Wrinkles, wrinkles, right about here. Straighten your legs and reach for your ankles with your head down.

Good. And when you start rolling back, I want you to start bending the knees, feet on the mat, and roll down again from here. Excellent. Well, like all the way down, touch your head. Inhale, lift up your head to look at your stomach. Exhale, wrinkles in your shirt. Reach your legs straight and stretch. Excellent. Let's see if we can double time that tempo, making it nice and smooth. Bend your knees, putting your feet flat, and inhale to start an exhale all the way down. Inhale to lift your head. Exhale, pull in wrinkles, wrinkles, wrinkles, straight. Your legs reach. Good. Inhale, we're going to start rolling back. Bending an exhale. Exhale, blow out all your air. One more. Inhale, lift up your head. Exhale. Aligned goals. Yes. Straighten your legs. Excellent. And stretch.

Head down. No tension in that net. Good. And Inhale, rolling back. Bending the knees, right and lead with your lower back. Nice. And you're ready for the next exercise. Rest your arms by your side and we're going to bend the right knee into your chest and you're a straighten it up to the ceiling and watch the hip. You're going to, Aha. Excellent. The whole thing.

You just need to think about that hip. Press your arms down and you're going to reach through the thigh to the ceiling to do a quick circle. Give you an idea. It's to your nose. Huh? Cross. What's that hip doing? Oh yeah. There you go. Cross around, up. Cross around it. There you go. I want you to do three more. Cross around, lift.

Cross around, up. One more. Cross around. Go the other way. Down. Round. Stop at center. Where set are you? Think yes, down around. Cross center. Good. Now down around. Reach through the toes as if it's a sharp pencil. Drawing a circle on the ceiling down around sharp pencil pointed up, cross down, around, up. You got to, I just don't like those toes pulled back.

That's it. One more. Pull it right back. Stop Center. And now use your stomach to bring that leg up higher. Oh yeah, that's what I wanted. How'd that knee into your chest? Very good. Put that foot down next to the other one a little bit straighter with this leg I'm going to so it doesn't want to be too bent in and I'll bring this leg in. Hug It, straighten it up to the ceiling. So see how this is flexed. Tended as a sharp point.

Carving the circle on the ceiling. You're going to beautiful stomach pulling it in. Cross around, up, cross around. Fabulous. Just keep pointing up. Cross around, lift. Cross the body around up. Wonderful. Last one, make sure you don't go out too far. So I'm going to stand so you don't go the other way and we're going to go down instead it over there? Yes. Down around and up.

Down around. Cross it up. Two more. Reach around. Great job with that leg. One more down around and hugging in that knee. Good. Put the foot down. Now you did these beautifully, but now they get a little harder when we lie down. Want you to inhale and look at your stomach. Exhale. Roll up with many wrinkles in your shirt. Come on. Good.

Now stay right there with the stomach. Look at it. It's beautiful. Put your hands under your knees and see if you can lift up your right foot. Just an inch off the mat. Good. Now can you keep your stomach like that and lift this foot up? Wonderful. Let's work on some balance work.

So I want you to roll like a ball. You're going to roll back and roll right back up, and your hands stay under your knees and your stomach pulls away. That's it. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. So Perry, you're keep pulling in more. You're really flexible actually. So I want you to put your hands on your ankles, but point them to each other. Yep. And pull the heels to your bottom. Bending your elbows.

[inaudible] inhale and exhale. Good and rule. And can you hold this position with your stomach in and two more? Roll and pull up. Hold that stem again. One more. I think you could do better with your stomach more. Yes, that's it. Rest your feet down and roll down. Just your back.

Great. So I knew you could do better because you showed me a few, many times here that you can do. So we're going to lift up your head and look at your stomach. And how many wrinkles can you create in that shirt? Reach your arms long away so your upper body always feels like an upper stomach crunch. Okay, so curl up more. Yes. And now use your lower stomach to bring your right knee into your chest.

Put your hands on your leg, just grab it. Try not to lace the fingers. One on top. The other is fine, whatever. And we're gonna now reach this one away. Now let's switch. Pull in your left. Good. Not too low. Try not to try it. There we go. And switch. It's all about the stomach and switch.

And I want you to keep moving. And I want you to think about this though. Watch these feet. There you go. And switch. You could do this all day with your quads and your hip flexors, but you want to do with your stomach. So try to turn, burn your muscles off in your legs and use the muscles in your stomach. Awesome. To touch your ear with that knee and to touch your ear with that knee. Yeah, and to pull it in and in and in. And one more sec. You can do it. It's really good with your stomach pulling it.

And now we're in both legs and, and rest your head. Excellent. So that was called single leg stretch. And we're going to just do the double version of it. Okay. Always messes people up though. Like it's a whole new exercise. So I'm going to move your legs and I want you to just reach your arms straight up to the ceiling. Perpendicular to the floor, right? All right, so hands on your ankles. Inhale, lift your head up and look at your stomach again.

That's an upper stomach crunch, right? Don't move your upper body at all except for your arms that we're now going to go perpendicular to the floor. Go ahead and reach up and now use your stomach to bring your hands back to your ankles and the breathing is inhale up and exhale. Pull it all together. Inhale up. Exhale, pull it all together. I'm going to let go. Inhale up. Exhale, pull it all together. Inhale, try to point those toes instead of flex them. Exhale, pull it all together from here, from here, nice, relaxed. Inhale, reach, exhale. Pull it all together. You got one more.

Inhale, press that back down. Exhale, pull it out together and rest your head down. Nice. Now sit up. Just use your legs to sit up and you're going to straighten your legs on the floor and then open them a little wider than your shoulders. Keith got wider shoulders that you're pretty broad so you want them almost wider than you want them wider than the mat. There we go. Alright, you've got great broad shoulders and now we're going to always support our back with our stomach. Then try to actually grow taller. How tall are you, Perry? Okay, we're going to go for six, five today. Pull up, up, up, up.

Reach your strong arms forward. Take a big breath, and exhale. Bring just your head forward now your shoulders. Now the middle back, the good. And just try to keep going as forward as you can. Wonderful. And now look at your stomach and try to pull it in to Rola. Yes. Shoulder blades go down and your head rolls up. Good. Tall. Six, five, lift and exhale forward. So you start from the top, rolling off an imaginary wall. The stomach hugs into the back. Good.

Now stay here and grab the inside of your arches. Good. Take a breath. Staying here and exhale. Just pull into your back more. Keep a hold of your arches. Hold on the inside of your foot. Yeah. Now I want you to actually, um, bend your knees, keeping a hold of your feet behind. You're going to pull your feet towards you. Good. Inhale, look up. All right.

Because I want you to increase this curve. So as you exhale, you're going to press your belly into my hand while straightening your legs. Okay. And it's really hard to press your belly into my hand if you're looking up. So when you're going to excel, you're going to look down at your belly. Okay, so take a big breath. So look at your belly and press into my head. Oh, you let go of your feet. So try that again. There we go. Inhale and exhale. Press into me. Come. I'm more into here. Into it.

Yeah, that's awesome. Inhale, bend your knees. Where do that one more time. Big Breath and exhale. Press into me more, more, more. This is the curve I want. Good. No, leave those. Let him legs there and roll up one bone at a time. Taller through here. You'll see the arm straight up. See if you can get, I'm sorry, straight forward. See if you can get that again without holding on. So take a big breath and exhale.

Head comes down and you're going to keep reaching forward yet forward, but you're going to really pull that belly into there. That's awesome. Great. And inhale. Roll on up. Very good. Good. Go ahead and relax those arms. Nice. Very nice. How do you feel so far? Good. I also think we should do a little bit of, um, uh, more teaser. So what we're going to do is bring your legs together and bend your knees and put your feet flat on the Mat. Nice. And roll down through your back.

God. Good, good, good, good. And I want you to go ahead and, um, hands behind underneath your knee. You're gonna, they're going to go towards your knees. All right, so we're going to inhale, bring your head up and exhale. Roll on up. There you go. Good. Stop there. Take a breath and exhale. Roll down. Lower back, middle and upper right. Good. Inhale, lift your head up. Exhale, roll up one bone at a time. Nice head. Take a breath and exhale to roll down. Scoop in more wrinkles in that shirt please. There you go.

Now we're going to just straighten your right leg. It's going to be right at the same straight trade and take a breath and exhale, hold it on your own and come up. Lots of wrinkles. That's it. Take a breath and exhale, roll down. Good. Again, big breath and exhale, pull in. Good, nice. Take a breath and exhale, roll down. When you flex his foot, it really activates that quad. Bend the knee.

But this whip down and now this like up and wow and in the air and exhale, roll up. You got it. You can press this foot down into the mat and take a breath and exhale, scoop in. But don't flex that foot. That's not okay. And again, inhale, lift up your head and exhale, scoop in. Good. There we go. Yeah, sometimes you just got to go for it and lift up that leg. Take a breath and exhale. Roll down. Scoop, scoop, scoop. Good. Now you're going to extend both, but I'm right here.

So you're going to do apply standards. Just toes apart, heels together. There you go. Good. And you're going to be here. If you were at home, you want to try this without me. You can put your feet on the wall. Inhale, lift up your head. And now look at your shirt and Rennie. No, no, no, no. Arms. But the good news is I'm actually gonna pull you up, but you concentrate on wrinkling up that shirt for me. Nice. I love this. Inhale and exhale because I really stretch my back out. Go ahead and roll down when I pull my stomach in this much to my back.

As I ruled out, I want you to really stretch your back. Inhale, lift up your head and exhale. Let me pull you up and you fight me with your stomach. Wonderful. Take a breath and exhale. Pull me down with your stomach. Now I like that you're not trying to pull me down with your upper body strength cause that's a whole different thing. Inhale, lift up your head and exhale, pull. I'll pull you up. That's it. Nice fighting.

Now you know how strong your stomach can work. Big Breath and exhale. Pull me down with your stomach and now one on your own. With that everbody inhale and exhale. Come and touch my shoulders, shoulder, shoulders, shoulders, inhale and exhale. Roll away. Let me see that stomach work as hard as it did earlier and hug in those knees to your chest. Awesome. We're going to swing your legs around a little bit in sidekicks to stretch out the muscles. So you're going to lie on your left side. Okay.

Line up completely on the back edge of the mat. Not off of it, but on it. Yeah, you slide all the way out and straighten this arm out. Good. And we're going to bring these, just the legs forward to this edge. Voila. Good. Now you can bend your left arm and rest your head on it. Great. Doing good. This one's a kickstand.

It also reminds you that your stomach shouldn't touch it, so when you feel your stomach touching it, that means you have to engage more. Okay. And we try to keep, this is challenging because we're not just flat on the ground anymore. We have to keep our box still square without rocking and rolling. Okay. The more you keep it stable, the more stretch you'll get out of this leg, which you need after you run. Yeah, so we're going to bring this leg up. I don't usually do have my men do too much sidekicks, but I think after you run it's really good to free up that leg.

So with your stomach and try to just kick it forward towards your nose and then go back. Now the back is the most important thing I think for you. So keep your stomach in, find your hamstrings and glutes and see how far you can take that leg without rolling forward. So your right shoulder. Ah Huh. So you need to take it back and back and that's a big stretch through here. Use your stomach to swing it forward and take it back as far as you can. Now hold you here to give you an awareness and forward.

We're going to do it seven more times and back trying to keep it kind of at the same level each time and forward so it doesn't go up higher and back. Keep supporting Aha. Straight leg and forward. Yeah, that's great. And back and forward and back and forward. You can keep it straight or when you go back straight up, it's bending. One more.

Great Perry and straight legs together. Actually now, um, a little bit forward. Good. We're going to keep this again, but now we're going to lift this leg as if it's going to kick your ear. Okay. So try to lift it up and then bring it back down. Good. Think of a huge stack of books that you have to lift up, up, and then a really heavy weight to squeeze down home. Squeeze me down. Find those inner thigh Mafia. Great job. Push up, squeeze down. Great up. And imagine this leg getting longer than your bottom.

Like two more up and squeeze. But reach it longer and not behind. One more. Up and reaching, reaching, reaching. And now turn the knee up a little bit with that reach stub again. Stomach, stomach, stomach. Awesome. We're going to do circle one, two, three, four, five and go the other way on your own. Again, just trying to free up those muscles in the leg and rest.

Great job. Good. Sit Up and swing your legs that way. And you get to do the other side. So I'm just trying to loosen up those leg muscles. Bring those [inaudible] kickstand. Oh, can I stab you anymore? You're right there. Didn't make you bleed. Okay.

And we're going to lift this leg up a little bit. Try to keep, I'm not hiding the inner thigh. Turn it up a little bit and now kick it forward and take it back. Great. And forward and back and keep it just flowing. A lot of times my clients will say, can I just hold this position or get it a little bit more? Understand it more.

But you really just want to go through it cause otherwise you'll tighten up and overanalyze. And so I just want you to reach through that foot. Use your stomach to support your back. Try not to flex that foot point through. Aha. And give me one more and that does a lot of good and legs together. Good.

And now we're going to try to kick up your ear and go up and it's really squeezing media. Good. Push me up. Nice. Squeeze me down. Good. Now do that with your stomach working up and reach out longer than lower leg too and reach out longer. One more this time. Make sure your leg goes up on top of the other one, not behind it. So reaching, stay there and five circles. Circle one, two. You got it. Reached longer, longer and go the other way quickly and pointing that foot, right? Not.

Ah Huh. Yeah, one more and lower it down. Good job. All right. I want you to sit up facing this way. I'm ready to do one more balancing thing at the end with some and you can use this if you want. Huh? Look at that multi-functional pillow. All right. Come forward a bit. And this is similar to rolling like a ball. Keep your feet together, but you're gonna let your knees open, shoulder with and your arms are going to dive down, palms up and then we're going to put them underneath your ankles. Great.

Try to look at your belly and use your stomach to kind of pull all of your body weight back to lift up your feet. And we're going to balance balance with the feet up. Nice. But look down curve and relax. Awesome. Just stay there for a second. Feet or up. Right stomach is supporting you. This is arched. I need you to do the opposite. Yeah.

All right, good. You a football fan. Yup. So football season starting, right. So bounce huge thing. If they went to like defend and they just were going that way, play would be over. Right. And so they have to be able to defend but then bounce back this way.

So here's what we're doing. We're balancing. Okay. So I want you to hold that and then see if you can roll back and come right back up without lowering your feet. So we'll back and roll right back up. Good. No lower and back and Rola.

Good though. Nice thing about this exercise. It is more free. Sten rolling like a ball so you actually can take your legs and you can reach behind you. Instead of having them just stay in front of you. Go ahead and let them straighten behind you. So reach that set and then come back up. Good. No, but that's the idea. It's Kinda like rolling that rolling ball, bowling ball over that, those games at the carnivals and rolling back and roll up stomach.

Use your upper stomach to come up. Oh, look at that. Fabulous. Two more roll back. Exhale up. You got it. One more roll back. Exhale up. Good. Now stand on up and turn around and try to stand up nice and tall and reach your arms up to the ceiling. And instead of just sticking your bottom out behind you, try to imagine you're against a wall and use your belly to roll off an imaginary wall and come walk out. Took pushup position. Fairly important. We're gonna keep your feet there. Good. Walk your, Huh. Perfect.

Perfect plank position is what we're looking for with length in the neck. A little bit. Shoulders in line with hips. If you can get in your heels together for PyLadies even better. Thank you. Good. Squeeze the glutes. Tighten the stomach. And now elbows come straight back to graze the ribs. Bending for five.

Ben didn't bend the elbows one. [inaudible]. Yup. [inaudible] and come back up. So see how you go out. You want it straight back? Ain't not funny, Huh? Pull up good and down. Up and pull up three. Come on. Don't leave your stomach there. Pull it up first. Oh, we're leaving it too more. Pull this up first. Yes. One more.

Pull this up first. Good job. And now lift your bottom up with your stomach. Look at your [inaudible] feet and walked back to your feet. Good. Look down. Good. Now I just want you to grab onto your ankle. Okay. So we're going to try, this is really important. We're going to keep this box okay. And I'm going to, you're going to do your ride. I'll do my left.

And you're just going to try to grab the top of your foot or your ankle. Okay? Okay. Anything hurt there? Your knee or anything? Hip. Cause I know you're a healthy individual. Some of this really kills. Try to keep your balance. You can do it. It's hard to talk while doing it. You're making me look good, Perry. All right, so pull your stomach in. Good.

And then you're gonna try to bring your thighs together. This isn't very fair. Put your foot down. Come over here. Put your hand on the wall. Usually I would have a client hold on. So it's not really fair. Shoulders are at everything. Our Square. Let's grab that one first. Good. All right. So most important things you keep your plot is box.

That means we're not going to throw our hips back. We're not gonna do this. Their shoulders. Okay. So keeping our box then next thing, thighs together. Good. Then if you can keep your thighs together and your box, try to pull the knee back with the other knee. Good. But we just did this, right? Yeah. So keep that and just the thigh.

Don't move those shoulders. Lift up your chest instead. Yes. Are we getting a good stretch right now? Yeah. Oh old and put the foot down. Turn around so you can put your other hand. Good. Grab on. Good. So I'm going to hold your shoulders. Good. So thighs together first.

Then see if you can pull the knee without moving your box. Good. Even still want you to keep your hip here. I know. Hold and put that foot down. Turn it around for the other side. Just one morning each side. And you're ready to go conquer that day. So shoulders, great stomachs. Nice and hips are good.

So we're going to keep the hip here and you pull the knee back. Let's try that again. Bring that right here. Don't move the buttock and the hip, just the thigh there. That's better. I know. Not many good pains, but this is a good pain stretch ant. Bring that foot down. As long as you're not feeling it in your knee or your back, which is very common. Good.

And keeping that hip there and your stomach and chest up Slido for three, two, and lower your foot. But you should have stretched all this out, stretched out your hamstrings, and you feel good. All right. Good job. Nice work. Nice. All right.

Comments

Kirsty H
Brilliant! Well done Perry (and Monica as always). It would be great to see the progression......
Your first exercise and stretch helped me the most! I know they have just finished a wonderful workout with the roller on this pilates sight but would like more exercises learning how to stretching those tight muscles before and after along walk, run bike ride ect..
Great Idea
Question why did you turn out the feet (leg) when you did supine hamstring stretch?
Monica: This was right on. Challenged him but didn't "kill" him. And protected the neck. Well done.
Pele
Not a whole lot of mat work in this one. very deliberate.
I normally take longer, more challenging classes but chose this b/c I've been sick with a cold and needed to ease back into working out now that I'm feeling better. It was perfect for that reason. Plus it never hurts to go back to the basics. Thank you!
I love the way you think Colleen!
Monica Wilson
Hi everyone,
Very excited to read all of your comments. Kirsty, I would love to work with Perry again and keep progressing him further. Stay tuned! Kay, to answer your question about turning out the leg, the goal is to keep the hips even and straight across. When an athlete, or any stiff individual, attempts to stretch their leg towards them, they most commonly lift that hip significantly higher losing their Pilates Frame or Box. One then engages the hip flexors and quadriceps more and loses the stretch in the hamstrings and work in the hip muscles. In the video, it appears as if I really tweaked his leg but it should be just slightly turned out, as if the knee and toes are pointing towards the same shoulder and not towards his sternum. Hope that helps! Keep the comments and questions coming! Love, Monica
Monica. I had asked why you Turned Perry's leg out from your class 560, you were kind enough to answer and I would love to tell you that today I got to use that same stretch on one of my students, I got to see what you were talking about first hand.
Thank you it worked.
My only other question is that same student a male and has done other Pilates classes (not with me ,this was our first) but he complained about low back pain and not just in my class, but every time he has done Pilates.
Any thoughts? ( My first thought was tight hamstrings) what do you think.
Any thoughts would be great and I also know that this may take some time to figure out.
Thank you again
Kay

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