Planting The Seed

Hi. My name is Brett Howard, and today we're going to do a basic mat, and I have Chloe with me today. And I call this planting the seed. So a lot of the work that we're gonna do today are foundational exercises. And we're gonna slowly build on top of those exercises with some later classes. So Chloe, we're gonna start with an exercise called the roll down, but before we start, I always like to give a little bit of, a little speech here. So, main thing we're gonna work today is what I call the powerhouse.

So if you ever hear me talk about the powerhouse, I'm talking about this area right here. And if you bring your hands onto your waist there, you can either laugh or cough. Do you feel something going like that? So that's what I call the transverse abdominis that you're feeling right there. That's your most deep abdominal muscle. So when I'm working the powerhouse, I'm always thinking of that muscles.

I'm always thinking of the naval pulling in and up to the spine there. You might hear me say something called plottie stance. Plottie stance is heels together, toes apart. And so in this position here, you want a nice rotation at the top of the leg here. So you don't want the knees to be facing forward with the feet rotated outward. You wanna really initiate that from the top.

Also, we could have it parallel together or parallel hip width. Last thing you might hear me say is navel to spine. That's, again, just engaging that powerhouse, or you might hear me say scoop. So I'm gonna have you start seated with your soles of feet flat on the mat, feet together, knees together. I'm sorry. Let's go parallel hip width.

Now thumbs with fingers, you're gonna hold on to the back of your thighs. You're gonna have nice wide elbows out to the side, and then you're gonna start with a nice tall back. You're gonna initiate from your tailbone. You're gonna curl under one vertebra at a time, opening up the lower back. Great. When the arms get to full extent, you're gonna hold there.

You're gonna lead with the crown of the head. You're gonna round forward, and you're gonna bring your nose towards the knees as you do that nice wide elbows. Then from there, I wanna just want you to imagine there is a wall behind you. Roll up against that wall, tailbone, lower back, middle back, upper back, neck, and head. Then let's start with the tailbone again.

Curl the tailbone under. Sacred under. Lower back under, keeping the hands nice and fixed there. Yes. Lead with the crown of the head, round forward, bring nose towards the knees. Then, that flat wall behind you, roll up tailbone all the way up to the crown of the head.

Let's do that again, curling under, tailbone under, sacrum under, lower back. Yes. Now, in this position, let the head just fold and drop forward there. Yes. Lead with the crown of the head wide elbows, bring the head towards the knees good. Then rolling up tailbone, lower back, middle back, upper back, neck head. And let's go for three more of those.

Tailbone under, sacrum under, lower back under, then leading with the crown of the head rounding forward, then from the lowest point of the spine, all the way up to the crown of the head, twice more. Now as you roll down, think of your feet spreading on the mat like pancake batter on a skillet, then round forward, then roll up tailbone up to the crown of the head. Last time, inhale as you go down. And exhale to a full extension of the arms, inhale round forward, and exhale rolling up through the spine. Great. Now, we're gonna start the same way. You're gonna curl under with the tailbone, roll down one vertebra at a time, but hold there.

You're gonna reach the arms straight out and hold for three. Hold two. Hold one, curl the lower back under roll one more inch down and hold for three. Hold two. Hold one. One more inch down.

Hold for three. Hold two, hold one roll all the way down, and you can feel that tremor of truth there. Power Health was working. So you're gonna bring your feet together, knees together, slide the feet towards you a little bit. Then you're gonna bring the hands down onto the mat. Now, the temptation is gonna be to lift your hands up.

Try not to let the hands lift. Keep the hands on the mat. You're gonna roll the head neck and shoulders up and reach the fingertips along the mat towards me reach That's actually very good. I didn't want you to come up that high, but that's good and roll down. You have strong power outs there.

And again, round forward and reach. Let's just go right there. Now, in this position, thinking of keeping these hips nice and relaxed. There we go. Yes. And then you can feel a little bit more work there. And then rolling down. Good one more.

Slide the fingertips forward and reach. Yes. Good reach. And round all the way down. Great. Now what you're gonna do is you're gonna bring both knees into the chest. Then curl the head neck and shoulders up. Float the arms a little bit above the waist, zipper through the abdominals, extend the legs out towards me. Now, we're gonna rotate the pilates stands, and then hold here for three.

I'm gonna lift you just a little higher here too. So soften the knees just a little bit. One, then rotate parallel, bend the knees, rest your head. Okay. I want you to bring your left hand onto your side here. Now just pump up and down.

Do you feel that muscle in your hand there? So this is the muscle we wanna initiate from. Now, you're going to keep the knees into the chest. Hands go down onto the mat. And in this position, this is okay, but just bend the knees in just a little bit more. So this is nice and relaxed there. Now slide the fingertips forward.

Roll the head neck and shoulders and go forward forward forward, lift the arms up, then extend the legs out to me. Hold that position. You're gonna start pumping up and down as you breathe in for five counts. And breathe out two three four five inhale. An exhale three four five in two three four five exhale three four five in with the air.

An exhale three four five inhaling. An exhale three four fifty, bend the knees in, rest heads, which it's gonna do 50 for today. Now, you can rest the arms down. I'm gonna have you bring the soles of the feet flat onto the mat here. Great.

Now it might be a little hard because you have some treads on the bottom of your feet, but if it gets a little sticky, that's okay. You're gonna just float the arms straight up to the ceiling. Great. I'm gonna have you simultaneously. You're gonna roll the upper body forward as you stretch the legs straight. That said, and then reach forward, making a letter c with your body can let the head drop here. I call that c curve. Now, roll down as you roll down bend the knees slide the feet in.

Great. And round all the way down. Then from there, you're gonna reach the arms a little bit back, but only as far back as you can keeping the rib cage. Then arms are gonna go straight to the ceiling. Now I call this a good morning roll up, roll up, stretch the thing of the legs forward, and reach into c curve. Good roll back. As you roll back, bend the knees sliding the feet in, arms are gonna go a little bit overhead. One more arms to ceiling, roll up as you roll up, you're gonna stretch the legs, then roll down simultaneous movement of upper body and lower body half and reach.

Very nice. You can bring the arms down by the sides. You're gonna scoot down towards me a little bit, and you're gonna bring your feet underneath the strap here. Good. Now, you're gonna lie down, scoot back so you have tension on the strap here. Then you're gonna float both arms straight up to the ceiling. I'm gonna hand you the spar.

Do you have this? Alright. I'm gonna let that go. Don't let that drop. Then from there, imagine this is a window. You're gonna look through the window, rolling the head neck and shoulders up.

I'm sorry. Not through that window, but through this window here. And roll up. I need to be more specific. And then you're gonna reach forward and stretch. Then from there, tailbone under. Sacred under. Lower back under.

You're gonna roll all the way down. Arms gonna go back only as you can maintaining that very nice. Arms straight up to the ceiling. Head goes through that and round forward and reach reach reach. See curve. Roll down, may give you a little bit of resistance, roll down, and you can pull into me. Good.

And roll all the way down. Arms to ceiling. You can also think of this as a picture frame. Arms to the ceiling. That's the frame. Head goes through. That's your portrait, and then reach.

And stretch stretch stretch this pull okay. You're gonna roll back one vertebra at a time all the way down down down and then arms reach over, then arms go straight up to the ceiling, I have this. You can let that go. Then from there, I'm gonna have you bring soles of your feet flat onto the mat so you could take your feet out of that strap. Good. Bring the feet just a little bit back. Good. I want you to bring one hand underneath one hip, then the other hand underneath the other hip. Good.

You wanna have equal weight here on right hand and left hand. So our goal here is to not let more weight go into either hand. You're going to open your right knee only as much as you can without increasing weight on that right hand. Then close the knee. Open the right leg Once again, you're gonna use the opposing muscles here to control that and close. One more. Now, this I call operation, don't touch either one of my hands. Open.

Good and close. Now let's switch. You're gonna open the left leg. Don't touch either one of my hands or gonna get buzz there and then close. And again, open sit into that right hip just a little bit more and close.

Good one more. And open. Don't touch that and close it. Now, I want you to extend this right leg knee to knee. Good. And then let's lift this here. We're gonna do the same thing.

This leg doesn't move, you open the leg only as far as you can without moving the pelvis and close. And again, open. Let's play operation again here and close. That's it. One more time, open equaled on both hands. And close it. Bend this knee.

Let's switch other leg. Good. Open and close. I don't know if those hip states ground that last one. And then open That was better. And close one more time. And open more weight on that right hand. Yes. And close the leg. Then bend the knee. Now, let's extend the right leg once again.

That this time, you're gonna lower the leg. Then let's open to where we can keeping equal weight on both hands and center. Lower down two, round and center. One more time lower, and you can feel that work in your core to control the pelvis. Let's reverse it. Go a little out, circle down, up knee to knee. A little out, circle down, knee to knee.

One more time a little out, circle down, knee to knee very nice, Chloe, bend that knee. Let's switch legs, left leg extends. Then we lower straight down. You circle out And centers of this side, you have to work harder on. Yes, circle out and center. Use those right oblique muscles a little more as you circle out. Reverse.

Go out. Circle down and up, so you imagine your pelvis is on a double pan balance scale. Make sure the scale stays nice and balanced. Don't let it tip. Good. Very nice, and then bend the knee. Great.

You can remove the hands. Then from there, you're gonna take the right knee, bend the knee into the chest. Give yourself a gentle pull, then extend this leg. Great. I'm gonna take this ball, and you're going to now hug down on this.

Relax there. You're gonna bring your hands down onto the mat. You're gonna have nine points of pressure into the mat. Hands will be two. Shoulders will be four. Head five. Behind the naval six.

Hips eight. Ninth point will be this left leg. What you're gonna do is you're gonna make a little circle, circle round and up. And actually, it's gonna be more like a letter D. And come up, capital d.

It's curved line straight line. Let's reverse it straight line. Curved line. Straight line down, and across. One more. Down, and across. Good. Now, keep this, rotate the leg parallel. Rotate the leg out, and parallel. Rotate the leg out.

Hold there. Keep the rotation. Relax this foot here, and then same idea. Cross. And up. Cross.

And up. One more. Cross. And up. Good. Now imagine this knee has an eyeball on it. Make sure it looks the same direction the whole time. And across. Down. And across one more time down.

And across could rotate, parallel. I'm gonna take this. Then from there, this leg extends to the ceiling. Good. How's that on your hamstring? Now, I want you to turn the leg out. Turn parallel.

Turn out. Turn parallel. Turn out. Once again, we draw a letter d on the ceiling. Go across. Straight up, hump of the d, straight line on your own, cross, and up, inhale across, exhale up, one more time across.

And up. Let's reverse it straight down and across. We're still keeping that scale nice and balanced, right and left side and across and down. And across, one more time, inhale, exhale across, rotate this leg parallel, bend the knee, and give yourself a gentle pull inward. Good. Bring the sole of that foot flat.

Then take your left knee and pull it in. Great. Now extend the right leg out onto the mat. Then from there, let's take this ball, hug that. Then nine points of pressure into the mat, hands, shoulders. Head behind the navel, hips and right leg.

Then from there, keeping that anchored or rooted, you're gonna go across and straight up into the body and up. Into the body, and up, let's reverse it down, and across two. And across one more time, inhale, exhale. Then from there, rotate the leg. Parallel. Rotate.

And parallel, one more time. Rotate. Keep that rotation. That eye is gonna look to the corner the whole time as you go across and up. And across and up, one more inhale exhale, let's reverse it down and across. To the eyes get a little bit ugly there.

And down, that's better and across. Now, I'll take this from you. Parallel the leg, leg up to the ceiling. Now externally rotate parallel. Externally rotate parallel. Externally rotate hold.

Remember that eye is gonna always face that corner. We draw a letter d on the ceiling. Cross and straight up. Cross and up. Inhale.

Exhale very nice. Nine points of pressure, anchoring one more cross and up reverse down and across. Two. Yes. So it's that body that controls the leg. We wanna make sure it's not the leg controlling the body very nice. And across one more time, inhale down, exhale across. Good.

Rotate the leg parallel, bend the knee, and take a gentle pull inward. Then from there, you're gonna extend that leg out onto the mat. You're gonna reach both arms to the ceiling. You're gonna bring those inner thighs together and roll up through your spine for five four three two one. Good. Now, you're gonna bring the soles of the feet flat onto the mat, legs parallel hip width just like we did in the very beginning. Thumbs with fingers, hold the back of the thighs.

Then from there, you're gonna roll down, bringing the lower back into the mat, curve curve curve. Good. And then round forward. This time, as you roll down, roll back again, you're gonna make sure You're gonna stop right when you feel like your heels are gonna your toes are gonna wanna lift. That's it. Good. And round forward. One more.

Rolling back, tailbone under, sacrum under, lower back under, when you feel the toes, when you lift hold there. This time, stay there. Now, don't change the body. Let your feet lift and make a tabletop with your shin bones. Good. Nice and wide with the elbows.

Head and tail are gonna reach towards each other. Then naval's gonna pull back. You're gonna pull up through the pubic bone under through the tail. You're gonna rock backwards. And come right back up into this position.

So you're gonna Sorry. You're gonna roll back and roll back up. Good. And again, roll back two and roll up one more. Roll three. Now, as you come up, the ribs, yep, come up, are like the bricks of the card. Don't let that come too far forward. Now, bend your knees heels together.

But keep the hands right where they are. Open the knees a little bit wider. Now, the distance between your shoulder and your knee will stay the same. You're gonna roll backwards. And come back up and balance.

Now as you roll back, keep the eyes on the belly button. Roll back. And roll up, that was good. One more. Roll back and roll up. Now, hands are gonna go right to the top of your shin bones.

Good. Same thing. Rock back. And roll up. Very nice. Since you do that so well, let's now bring the hands to the middle of the shin bones. Nice and broad, rock back, and roll up.

Very good. So since you're doing well with that, let's try the hands on your ankles. Tight little ball position. Mhmm. That's good. Roll back. And roll up, naval back.

Those are the breaks. Excellent. And you can lie down onto your back. Great. I'm gonna bring you just a little bit to your right so the negative space on either side of the mat is the same. You're gonna bring both, maybe hips can go a little left, though. Perfect. Now both knees are gonna go into the chest.

Great. So for the next exercise, you can just rest your feet onto my knees here. I'm gonna bend in a little bit, how's it on your hip and your knees? Alright? You're going to bring your right hand on your right ankle. Left hand is gonna go onto your right knee. Then we switch left hand and ankle, right hand and knee.

Switch right hand and ankle left hand and knee. I'll mirror you. Left hand and ankle right hand and knee. One more time. Right hand and ankle.

Change left hand and ankle. Great. Hand on top of hand. Bring that behind the base of the head. Curl the head neck and shoulders up, up, up, Now imagine your legs are like a bone arrow. I'm an archery target.

Pull the ball back. Shoot the arrow forward. Hit the target. Change. Hit the target.

Hit the target. Hit the target. Hit the target, hit the target, hit the target, hold. Now let's combine it right hand and ankle. Left hand on your right knee, pull the leg in, as the leg pulls in, you reach to me, hit the target, change.

Pull that leg in, but let's have a left hand and ankle right hand and knee. There we go change. And now, right hand and ankle left hand and knee. Other right hand and ankle. There we go change.

Left hand and ankle right hand and knee. Yes. And change. Right hand and ankle change. Left hand and ankle change. Right.

Change. Oh, that wasn't quite right. There we go. Right. Change. And left. Change two more sets. Hit the target. Change.

Hit the target. Change. Hit the target. Yes. Hit the target, knees in. Rest your head. Good. Two, three. Now, you can rest your feet onto me again. Nice and easy here.

Hands are gonna go onto your ankles. Now, you can just rest the head there. You're gonna reach the arms towards your ears. You're gonna circle the arms. You're gonna grab a hold of your ankles.

Take a gentle pull inward. Yes. And then reach. And circle, come in, and pull. One more time, inhale, and exhale circle in and pull, then hand on top of hand behind the base of your head, curl the head neck and shoulders up, then hit the target and come back in. And again, reach forward and hit the target. And come in on your own, and hit the target.

And come in now hands on your ankles. We're gonna do a simultaneous action. Arms back legs reach forward combining it now. Circle the arms, bend the knees second, grab ahold of the ankles and give yourself a good pull. And again, simultaneously reach and circle in and pull.

Inhale reach and exhale in and pull. Inhale reach for, exhale in and pull. Let's go for two more inhale stretch, exhale circle in and pull one more time inhale reach, exhale in and pull. Rest your head back. Good. Then from there, soles of the feet are gonna go flat onto the mat, then stretch the legs out on the mat.

Arms are gonna float up to the ceiling shoulder width shoulder height. Five counts. Let's roll up. Roll up five, four, three, two, one. Nice. You're gonna open the legs and bring the heels in the center of each of the blocks in the as you might need to skip back a little bit.

Good. You're gonna bring your fingertips on the mat in front of you. Then from there, you're gonna lift nice and tall here. You're gonna slide the fingertips forward along the mat and just peel off of me and drop that head forward and reach, reach, reach. Good. Then I'm gonna start with the tailbone roll up against my leg. Imagine that it's a flat wall and roll up one vertebra at a time. Head will be the last thing against the wall.

This time, do the same thing as you did. Head drops forward. Then peel one vertebra at a time off that wall. But when you get to the bottom ribs right here, you're gonna push everything that's against the wall. Into my leg. But everything that's off the wall, think of it reaching forward.

Yes. So you have two posing forces. This is pulling back. This is reaching front. And roll up against one vertebra at a time. To a nice tall straight back.

One more. Sliding forward and reach, reach, reach, pushing into my leg, but really spine stretching from the bottom ribs up. Very nice and roll up one vertebra at a time. Nice, float the arms shoulder width shoulder height. Now I want you to engage your bottom, lift the spine, touch my hand that's above your head. Yes, and release.

And again, engage the glutes. Touch my hand. Now hold there. I'm gonna give that barbecue sauce out soon though because those ribs are working a little bit too much. That's better. And release. One more. Engage the bottom and lift That's it. Now, you're gonna do the same movement.

You're gonna round forward off the wall as the hands go forward. The stomach's gonna go backwards. The heels of the feet go forward but the balls of the feet are gonna go backwards. The head is gonna reach to the floor. Then from there, roll up against that imaginary flat wall tailbone, lower back, middle back, upper back, neck, head is last. And again, engage the bottom, lift, round over an imaginary beach ball.

Hands forward. Imagine the hands are on a table top, and let the hand slide on that table as you round over the beach ball. There's sand in front of you. Touch the head into the sand. Then, imagine your spine as a pearl necklace, roll up stack one pearl on top of another pearl.

Pearl, by pearl, up against that nice flat wall. Good. Let's go for one more. Round over the beach ball, slide the hands on the table top and exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale. Exhale, then roll up against the flat wall, stringing pearl on top of pearl, one vertebrae at a time up to nice tall straight back.

Good. Relax the arms down. And, Chloe, you are done for today. Good work. And we are done for today.