Class #597

Precise Theraband

50 min - Class
52 likes

Description

Rebekah starts class with a gentle stretch of the neck with the Theraband. Moving down to the floor Rebekah continues to offer her insightful cues to help you access your powerhouse deeply and specifically. Modifications are offered throughout class creating options for increased challenge and precision.
What You'll Need: Mat, Overball, Theraband

About This Video

Dec 26, 2011
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Transcript

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So we're going to start off with a little stretch here today for our mat class. You're going to grab hold of your band, and what I'd like you to do is grab hold of either end and place your foot in it. Now Bend your knees to choke up on the reins and now let your right shoulder drop. So you're holding both sides of the bandwidth one hand, and it's your right foot that's placed in it. Great. And now let your head fall away from the band. So Yup, there you go. Relax your neck. Relax.

I should say your shoulder and look downward. Breathe in there. Now look upward. So you're looking up to the right. There you go. You might feel the stretch to the front of your neck and let's try it on the other side. So we've been our knees and then we place the other foot in the band and grab both straps, both sides of the band, I should say with your left hand, and let your head fall to the other side.

You guys feel that stretch on the side of your neck here. Now to be sure that you're not looking straight down yet. You're looking straight forward. Yeah. So it changes again the angle and see if you can soften that shoulder a little bit. Ah, that's, it makes a big difference. And now look down. So you're looking down to the right, breathe in and exhale and look up to the left.

And again we changed the angle of the stretch here and relax. Alright, so let's, let's sit down and I'd like to start seated today and you can place your little band by your side here. So hopefully your neck feels a little bit looser. Just look to side and side to side. See if you can feel that difference. It feels nice. Now let's place the ball behind us. Breathe in here and exhale.

We're going to Tuck the lower part of your spine so the tail under and inhale, sit up and exhale exactly so that we fill out, lift in the belly and then it's like we have wheels on our pelvis as if there's a rotisserie stick that's going out and we roll that pelvis back, roll the wheels back. And now returning back up, sitting nice and tall, and exhale, begin with the motion of the wheels rolling back so you don't lie, you don't lean that far back, just a little bit here. Good. Inhale and Exhale, rolling forward. And then the wheels roll forward at end. So here's the sequence, the wheels roll back, then we start to roll back through our spine. Then we roll our spine forward, and then the wheels of the pelvis roll forward. So we roll the wheels back first like a tongue twister, and then we start to roll back through our spine, the rest of our spine.

And don't go too far back, not very far back. Yes, even a little bit further forward here. There you go. Now hollowing out the belly, roll forward through the chest and then roll forward through the wheels. One last time. Inhale and exhale. Yeah, and don't let your ball roll away from you and back. So we keep the wheels rolled back and then we bring our chest rolling over and then the wheels of the pelvis will up.

Now let's move the ball a little bit further back. And let's have our middle portion of our back resting here. Now bring your hands behind your head, making sure your knees are bent. Inhale, lean back, and exhale, drop the Chin to allow the ribs to drop back into the ball. So let's be very specific here to begin. The ball is not in the lower back. So everybody sit up for a second.

I want you to make sure that the ball is around the bra line, or you could think of it as just, or for the men or the men. The bow would be just underneath the shoulder blades. So that could be a cue that everybody could use. Okay? So again, it's not underneath the small, the back. I want to be very clear about that. So hands behind the head theatre, planted hip distance apart. Inhaling back and exhale.

So as you come up for this chest, lift the ribs drop down into the ball. That's what propels your head up rather than your tin jotting forward, okay? That's how you're gonna reduce the strain in your neck. And again, inhale, lean back. Exhale, drop your ribs into the ball in order to float the head up. Does that feel different? Email, lean back and exhale. Good emailing back and exhale up.

Now stay here. Lift one knee up, float the knee up and lower it down. Exhale, float the other knee up. Lower down. Exhale, float the first name. Lower down. Exhale, float the second knee up. Make sure that as you float one knee up, you don't twist your pelvis side to side. You stay very level, very stable. Exhale alternating. Again, lower down x, so lower down. Once more, lower down last time.

Exhale, lower down and lean back. Feel that nice stretch. Take a deep breath in here, and exhale. Let's roll our self. So now the ball is behind the middle of the shoulder blades, so the ball has just moved upward on our back.

Now from this point, I want you to rotate side to side, so we're going to get a little rotation here. You're going to rotate toward the right. Inhale. Exhale, return to center. Inhale to the left. Exhale, return to center. Now if there's any scoliosis, you also want to be careful about this. You want to make sure that you're not side bending, but you're actually rotating on your access. So it's as if you have an access from your head straight down to your tail and you want to rotate on that access as opposed to side bending off it [inaudible] and back to the center and keep going a few more so the ball can give you a lot of feedback. That's the beauty of it.

If you ref, you might find yourself falling off the ball. Well then you tells you fallen off your access and back to the center and relax. So let's remove the ball now and actually place the ball underneath your head for a moment. One other thing to alleviate any tension through the neck, I want you to nod your head yes [inaudible] and now nod your head no, I guess that's not really nodding. Shake your head no to get our terminology correct and now pause and you're going to do small little circles does. If you're painting a circle in the air with your nose, very small, and now reverse it that we're getting a release who those little muscles are called. The poster is suboccipitals that are at the very base of your skull. So when they're tight, lift your chin up. That's how you would tighten them.

And I'll drop your Chin and they would release. So once again, tighten them by lifting the chin. Feel the tension at the back of the head and they'll drop them. Or I should say drop your Chin and release those muscles. Okay, so let's remove the ball now. Sorry if you want to kick that back toward me. Thank you. All right, so now lower your head down. It's a really nice floating sensation that we can have throughout our whole spine here. Rescue your hands by your sides.

Your knees will be bent, feet, hip distance apart. Exhale, slight up through your right heel. Actually, I should do the right heel too and slide it back in and again, Xcel slide up that right heel and slide it back in once more. This last time. Stay. Now lift your right arm up overhead and lengthen your heel and hand away from each other. Feel that stretch through your side. Inhale and exhale. Slide the heel in. Lower the hand down. Let's do the left leg. Stretch the leg out.

So we just go three out and back in. And on that third one will be the stretch. And slide the heel out. Slide it back and slide it out last time. And stay. Lift your left arm up overhead so the same hand side hand and feel. Lengthen and reach your hand and heel away from each other to feel that nice stretch reaching out through the heel and exhale and returning the heel and lowering the hand down by your side to separate your feet. Breathe in here. Exhale, a little pelvic tilt and we're going to bridge straight up.

So we're going to lift the butt off the mat, articulating through the spine, making sure that your knees do not veer away from each other, that they shoot straight up from your hips, like train tracks. Breathe in and exhale slowly lowering down one vertebra at a time, all the way till you retain or regain. I should say that neutral position of your pelvis and spine. Breathe in to prepare and exhale, bridging up. Spiral your thighs inward. Yes, so you'll notice that it's so much easier for her to let her veer literacies veer our needs to the sides instead of keeping them in alignment.

Inhale the top. Exhale, lowering back down, and once more email at the bottom and exhale, articulating through your bridge to rise up. Squeeze your glutes. Now we're going to do some pulsing, so you're going to drop down an inch. Exhale, push up, and he'll drop down an inch. Exhale, push up, squeeze the butt, and exhale, push email. Exhale, push. Two more. Inhale, exhale, push. Last time and email. Exhale, push and slowly lowering yourself down, which both fuels up toward the ceiling. Grab hold of each of the back of your thighs and try and straighten your knees, pushing your thighs into your hands here and bend your knees and lower your feet down.

Plus your hands behind your head. You're going to drop your Chin here, lift your elbow slightly. Exhale, drop your ribs down in order for your head just to rise off an inch. That's all. Only a mere inch. Feel the connection, the low belly. Feel the work in the front of the throat so you're not jutting your chin forward. You're dropping your chin down and lower the head.

Breathe in an exhale. Float the elbows up, drop the ribs, drop the Chin for the head to float off. Justin hinge and lower the head. Lower the elbows. Last time. Elbows float up, ribs dropdown, throat drops, Chin drops, and the head floats up. Hold it. Feel the connection of your elbows into your shoulders and your shoulders into your ribs and your ribs. Straight down into your core and lower the head. Straight down. Bring one leg at a time up into tabletop. Inhale here and exhale.

Let your knees fall to the right side. Inhale, return back up to center. Exhale, let them fall. Not all the way just partway to the left. Inhale back up to center. Just a gentle twist and over to the right. Inhale back up and over. At the good left [inaudible] and Ian, he'll back up, lower your feet down, lift your feet back up. Inhale here, and we're going to go into the hundred so you can either keep your head down or if you'd like, you have the option of dropping your Chin and nodding and curling forward.

If you have bone loss, I don't suggest that you do this otherwise or if you have an herniation in your neck, I don't suggest you do this, otherwise you can keep your head up and we're going to pump for the a hundred Ian Hill, two, three, four, five and exhale, two, three, four, five. For more advanced version, you can straighten your knees, turn out and lower your feet for five and inhale, two, three, four, five and exhale, two, three, four, five and inhale, two, three, four and exhale, two, three, four, five, shoulders wide, but an XL two, three, four, five and inhale, two, three, four, five. Exhale, two, three, four, five. There you go. See, feel that connection in the low belly. Point your toes so that you feel the energy extending out through your feet. Turning out a little bit more. Yeah, there you go. And try and touch your knees. [inaudible] squeeze. There you go. And keep going. Three, four, five. Inhale, two, three, four, five. Exhale, two, three, four, five. Last time, two, three, four, five. Drop Your Chin and relax all the way down.

So we're going to do a little bit of work through the thigh here. So you're gonna grab hold of your band, place it around your right foot. Position Your Elbow street down by your sides. Your left knee will remain bent just as you had it a moment ago. Now these are a little bit slippery, so if you want, you can wrap it around your hand once you're going to exhale, lower that foot down. So we're going to do some leg arcs, and this is a great preparation for single leg circles as well as for the roll down because it helps you get out of the hip flexors.

It activates the back of the leg, which thereby releases the front of the leg and up. So we're going to exhale to lower and lengthening. Inhale, rise up. Exhale, lower down, wide. Collarbones. Inhale, rise up. And last time, inhale, rise up. Let's try some circles here. So you're gonna lower down.

Move the leg around and up and lower down. Bring it around and up. Two more. Lower it down, around and up. Last time and down, around and up, and reverse. Exhale out. Inhale around and up. Exhale out. Inhale around an up.

Exhale out any of the rounded up last time. Exhale out. Inhale around now to switch feet. Bring your left foot up into the band and remove your right. It makes it very simple. And if possible, try and keep that band stretched out so that it's over the ball of the foot. That way you get a little stretched through your calf as well.

And exhale arking down. Inhale, rising up. Exhale, lower. Trying to retain that natural curve in your low back. Don't force it, just let it be a little bit easy. Make sure that your right knee is bent. [inaudible]. Excellent. Lower. Two more. Inhale, rise up. And last time.

Exhale. Lower. Inhale, rise up. Let's go into circles. So Laura, that foot down, bring it around and up. Exhale, lower. So we're trying to stay somewhat stable here through our pelvis so that our pelvis doesn't move too much. It's just the thigh bone in the socket around and up. Let's reverse it out to the side. Exhale. Inhale around and up. Exhale out. Inhale around it up. Exhale out, you know, around an up last time.

Exhale out anal around and up. Now remove the band. Toss it aside. We're going to do some roll up here and I want you to do it by thinking if he's, if you still had the band around your feet. So straighten your legs out in front of you here. Bring your hands all the way up overhead.

Inhale to prepare and exhale. You're going to lift your arms. You're going to drop your chin. Imagine you still have that band around your feet, so you're pushing your feet out against the band in order to start rolling up. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, two, rolling back wheels at the pelvis. Three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Again, push out through the feet to begin. Lift the hands and exhale. One, two, pull your belly back. There you go. Three, four, five, six, seven, wide. Collarbones. Eight start rolling back. Regain your neck. Very hard. Three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Last one. Exhale.

Rolling up. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Last time, rolling down. And again, this is not an exercise that somebody with osteoporosis would want to do, for instance, and rolling all the way back. Now lower your hands down by your sides. We're going to do single leg circles, so I want you to retain that feeling that we just had with the band so that your hips will be a little bit looser. Bend your left knee, or if you'd like a little bit more stability or for more traditional approach. Keep your left knee straight, hands by your hips. Inhale at the top. Exhale. Cross that right foot over your midline to lower down, around, and up. Exhale, lower down, around and up. Exhale, lower down, around and up. Exhale, lower down, around and up and reverse. Exhale, lower down, around and up.

I'm going to give you a little head rest here and down, around and up. Even bend this knee for me. It's gonna. Make it a little bit less strenuous and down, around and up and last time, down, around and up. So let's switch feet and we're starting off now with the right foot down on the left foot up in the air. Inhale to prepare. Exhale, cross over the midline. Inhale around and up. Exhale, hello. You know, around an up exhale over, around and up. And for somebody, say who has had a hip replacement, depending on the way it was done, they may not want to be crossing the midline here and around and up and once more down around and up and reverse.

Be sure that your Chin isn't lifting up toward the ceiling here. Be sure that your shoulders aren't hunching forward and up and down and around and up. Last time, exhale and heal up and bend the knees. Lift your butt and just drop it up and down a couple times, cause sometimes that can be a little bit tiring on the blow back. And now let's roll over onto our sides and sit up so that you can then go all the way onto your chest proper. So you're up on your elbows for a second. Yeah.

Why don't guys face inward? I should have clarified that. Clasp your hands and let your gaze be directly in front of your hands. I want you to sink down into your shoulders. Just collapse. Now. Push down into your elbows to lift up through your heart and sink [inaudible] and push into your elbows to rise up so that the head floats. Yes, that's it. So that we don't have what I call the dingling head syndrome. Very nice.

That's it. So we sink and the shoulder blades come closer together and then we separate the shoulder blades to rise up. Let's do two more like that. And sink and rise. Yes. And rise. So stay in that [inaudible] position. Your gates is just in front of your hands.

We're going to go into single leg kicks. And before you begin, I want you to find the lift in your low belly. You'll notice there's a direct connection between that lift in the low belly and the lift here through the shoulders to the support, I should say, through the shoulders. So we're gonna press the pubic bone into the mat, kicking her right heel to her butt twice for single leg kick, kick, kick, lengthen and extend the knee to lower and left leg kick. Kick. Lengthen and extend the knee to lower that foot again, right like kick, kick and lengthen. Left leg kick, kick and length. And let's make it a little more challenging. Point. Flex. Lower the foot. Left leg point. Flex. Lower the foot, right leg point.

Flex. Lower the foot. Left leg point flex. Lower the put foot. Keep going. Point flex. Lower the foot. Stay lifted through the heart. Lift up. Yeah, there you go. Point flex. Lower once more. Point flex and lower. So we're gonna do some double kit.

Does everybody look toward me? We make it a little bit easier. So we're going to lower yourself down on to our temple. Press your pubic bone down into the mat. [inaudible] and you're going to kick both heels here, but twice. KIP, lower down. Now float your head up so you look down at your hands and turn your head to lower to the other side. Kick. Kick, lower down. Float your head up to look down and turn your head to face me again and kick, kick lower down. Float your head up.

And now from here, feel the lift of your low belly. Lift your hands up to meet your forehead. Lower your hands and look away from me. Lowering your head and kick both heels to your butt. Twice. Kick, kick, lower down. Float your head up. As you look down at your hands. Now float your hands up to meet your forehead and stay here.

Feel your ribs closing inward just a little bit in the front so that you don't strain your lower back. Bring your hands to the sides. Bring your hands back underneath your forehead. Keep looking downward so you don't strain your neck. Bring your hands out to the side. Bring your hands back underneath your forehead last time.

Bring your hands out to the side. Bring your hands straight behind you with the palms facing up. So street by your hips, I should say. Don't clasp your hands yes and lower your head down. Now reach out through your hands in order for your hands to float up into the air. As you float your head off the mat and lower back down. Don't worry about coming up too high.

It's more about finding length from head to toes. Rise up again. Hands float up. Head floats up and lower the head. Lower the hands one last time. Floating the head and floating the hands. Bring the hands out to the sides and the palms rotate so that the palms face down as you're in a t position with your arms straight up by the sides. Now for additional challenge, bring your hand street overhead as if you were gonna fly like Superman, but relaxing your shoulders as your hands are straight out in front of you as if you were flying arms by your ears.

But you read game your shoulders, dropping them, and lower your head and lower your hands. So now everybody face me, so you roll onto your side. So that's a great little workout for your back and it's gonna help you with your posture too. So let's prop ourselves up onto our elbow here. Swing both feet forward. And I want you to lift your top foot and just lower it. So you have two options. Actually you're not really options.

The first one is the incorrect. So I could just sync here and hang out or I could push down to my elbow and lift myself up. So my elbows almost directly underneath my shoulder. Yep. And then I could sync and chill or I could be active and correct. All right. So let's be active and correct and you'll notice that forces you to lift a little bit through your obliques on the supporting side here. So you're gonna lift your top foot and we're going to do the front back leg kicks. So you're going to swing your foot forward.

So a little more advanced option would be to have your hands here and swing the foot back. So what you want to watch out for is that as you swing your foot, you don't teeter totter your chest in the opposition and swing the foot back like this would be so easy, but we're not going to go for easy. Exhale, kick forward twice in length and pointing the toes behind you. Exhale forward kick, kick email. Point the toes back last time. Forward kick, kick. Inhale. Point the toes back. Now Bend your knees in and let's grab our ball.

We'll help you grab that ball. All right. Place your ball between your knees. Lift your heel and lower your heel and lift your heel and lower your heel. Lift your heel, lower your heel. Lift your heel, lower your heel. Now lower yourself all the way down onto your side.

Place that top hand directly in front of you and I'll lift both knees up and down. You feel a little bit through your belly and lift up. Lower down. So make sure that you don't roll backward. Lift up. Lower down. Once more, lift up, lower down, straight and your knees. Lift both up. Lower down. Feel a little oblique action. Lift up, lower down. Lift up, lower down. Make sure that your feet aren't in front of you.

At this point I want them straight underneath you and down. Bend your knees again. Remove the ball. Placed the ball by your side right here. No place it behind me so it doesn't move around. Now straighten both legs. Bring your top arm up here.

I want you to start to roll forward and catch yourself before you fall. So you're gonna roll all the way down [inaudible] and you're going to push off from that, from that foot that was closest to me to return back up and try and control yourself as you lower down, rolling forward so that you don't collapse [inaudible] and pushing away to return once more. Can you guys feel that it's hard and control the lowering down and pushing off to return back up so it works your whole body here. So bend your knees in, swing your feet forward, sit up. [inaudible] lift your feet and try and slowly, gracefully lower yourself down to the other side.

So we're going to prop ourselves up on our elbow, straightening both feet out in front of us. Remember how we sunk and then we rose. Try that again. Sink and rise to now. Place your hand behind your head here. Lift that top foot and let's do our leg kicks. Front, back, kick, kick, reach behind us. Or You could have your hand here.

So whatever's comfortable, kick, kick. So again, make sure that you don't sink. If you have your elbow up or even if you have your elbow this direction, you can try and keep that elbow pointing in the same way. That could be another focus for you. And point the toes to go back. Exhale, forward, kick, kick. Inhale, lengthen back. Last time. Exhale, forward, kick, kick. Inhale. Point the toes to go back. And now we're going to lower ourselves down and we're gonna grab our, our ball. Place it here between your knees and lift your heel and lower.

So we're just getting a little inner rotation or internal rotation here at the hip joint and down. Just warming it up and down. Two more and last time. Okay. Place your hand down. Lift both knees up, lower it down. Make sure that you're not rolling backwards though to lift up and down. So you should feel it through your obliques, up and down, and up and down.

Last time and up and down, let's straighten both knees out. So our feet are directly in line with our head. So you could be either more comfortable with your elbow bent like this or your arms straight out and you're going to lift up and lower and lift up and lower. Make sure that you're pulling in and up through the low belly and lower. Let's do two more up and lower and up and lower.

Bend your knee and remove your ball. So help yourself sit up again. And this time let's have everybody faced their feet in towards the center so that we don't have the confusion. We were starting to have it before, once you to hold onto the back of the knees. So I'm going to show two options. We're going to learn a little bit with teaser here. Now option one is you're going to start lowering yourself all the way down, rolling, dropping your Chin and rolling up and straightening your knees at the top.

Option two, if you've got a disc herniation, if you have osteoporosis, anything like this. The second option is to be staying up here and lengthening one leg out and just finding the balance. So you're still getting the core control, but you're not doing the rolling. Okay. So inhale and exhale. So I'm going to do the osteoporosis or discrimination version first. So you can either do this or you can start the rolling that you were just doing.

Uh Huh. And see rolling down. And you can either keep doing that or would go into the other version, which is slowly lowering yourself down. Uncurling in. Now, exhale, coming all the way up and straighten the knees at the top and bending. Start Rolling down. Inhale. Exhale. Drop the Chin and straighten the knees up at the top. [inaudible] and last time, whichever option you choose to do.

Inhale and exhale holding onto the backs of the thighs to help you at the top. Very nice everybody. All right, let's grab our ball again. What did you do? A little bit more, more mobility. You're going to sit on your knees, so facing inward. Hold onto the ball here and rule it out so that you can get a little nice child's pose with your head resting on the ground and your hands straight out in front of you. Inhale here. Now exhale, you're gonna rise through the front of your chest, rolling the ball in so that you end up looking straight forward with a little arch in your upper back and roll the ball down in a way as you lower your head and roll the ball back into rise up and roll the bowel down the way. I'm gonna let you sit on this a little bit easier. There you go.

Dropping that right shoulder and rolling back in and up so that you start looking up. You get a little arch, that's it. And lowering back down. So it's a nice mobilizing exercise for the spine. And last time rolling back in and up and rolling back down in a way. All right, we're gonna make it hard to not remove your ball. Once you to come onto all fours, tuck your toes under and start sitting back and start sitting forward and sit back.

Sit forward last time. Sit back now. Don't sit all the way back just a little bit. Lift your knees. Do you guys feel that a little bit? Going on through the thighs a little bit to the low belly. Shift your weight forward, shift your weight back, careful to unlock your elbows. Don't let them, don't let your elbows lock their yes. Shift your weight forward. Ah, and that's where you get your triceps and back. Last time.

Shift your weight forward. So if your weight back and relax your knees down. Now come on to your forearms, sort of like a sphinx position. Straighten your right leg out, straighten your left leg out. Shift your weight forward. Shift your weight back, shift your weight forward. Shift your weight back.

So remember that lift we did earlier where we lifted the heart up through the shoulders. Lift your shift shifter weight forward. Shift your weight back last time. Stay lifted through the low belly. Shift your weight forward. Shift your weight back and bend your knees in. Sit back in child's pose. Inhale here. Exhale. Shift your weight forward.

Coming up onto all fours. Now you're going to remove the hand that's closest to me and place your feet together. Lift the knee as well. That's closest to me. Find your balance. Zip Up. [inaudible]. Return down onto all fours, other side, lower down. So the more you connect into your core, the easier it's going to be coming up toward me. When make it a little harder. Lift that leg out to the side and returning back down once again, away from me.

Reach out through that foot and coming back closer to me. So it's a good one for your balance, but it's really full body integration. It's a great exercise to try on your own. Alright, sit facing me. You're now going to be on your elbow and let's place your top foot in front of your bottom ankle. So you're going to lift up. So you're going to straighten that elbow and lift your butt off the ground and see if you could turn and face the ground. Yes.

Good. And now face me again and bend your knees to lower your. Got It. And again, straighten your knees, lifting your butt, rotating to face the ground. So you get to that, the twist here and lower down. And last time up, face the ground returned to face me and bend the knees. Lower that elbow again. Stretch out that top leg lifted up, down, up, face the toes. Forward up. Do you feel that here through the Gluteus medius up two, three, four, five, six stay lifted. Seven, eight. Swing your feet around some face. The other side, starting with her elbow directly underneath our shoulder.

Our top foot is in front of the bottom ankle. Tim, you may want to turn around to face me. He'll probably be easier coming onto the other side. Yes. Keep everything rather uniform this way. Alright, so remember we're going to press into the hand. We're going to press into that top foot, lift up and now rotate to twist and I return to face me and bend your knees and again, use that top foot. Use that as your anchor. Yeah, let that help you. And then you rotate on the ball of your foot.

A more advanced version would be to come a plank, but you're welcome to keep your butt up in the air. And then you bend the knees to face me. And again, lift up and rotate and rotate toward me. And bend the knees to lower. Let's do one more rise up. So we rotate on the balls, the feet, and then you rotate to face me, bend the knees to lower. Let's lower it down onto that elbow. Straighten your legs out to her. At least I should say, sorry, straighten just the top leg out and lift up.

So you want to make sure that your ribs are soft, but they're slightly pulled backward. One, two, three. Okay, and were really lifted out of that bottom shoulder. There you go. Four, five, six, seven, eight. And bend the knee back in. Very nice. So let's take our ball again. I'd like you to place the ball just below your shoulder blade, bending the knees, bring your hands behind your head. And now we're going to lift the butt up here.

So you're doing a bridge balancing on a ball. Lower your butt, lift your butt, lowering your butt this time, lift your butt and lower your head. So now the ball is actually a little bit higher. It's almost between the shoulder blades. Now move your feet closer to one another and we're going to do a little balancing core exercise. You're going to lift your left knee. Off the Mat.

So your head's on the ground. So I know it's hard, right? It looks like a piece of cake, but it's not. So again, I have moved the ball a little bit closer to between my shoulder blades, a little higher up. My head's resting on the ground, so I'm almost at um, a slope so to speak from my knees straight down to my head. Now we're gonna try lifting the right knee this time. Uh Huh. Lower that foot. Let's try the left knee again. You want to know a secret?

Here's the secret to your strength here. It all has to do with the inner thigh. The inner thigh of the supporting leg will be your best friend. So make sure that that supporting me is not veering outward. If anything, it's really reaching for your midline, that's going to help you balance and keeps switching sides and down and once more, and lower it down. Now let your head float up just a little bit and let your knees widen so that you can feel that stretch to the inner thighs that have just worked.

And now narrow your knees again. Lean back and you're going to look to your right elbow. You're going to exhale as you rise. You're going to do a slight twist to your left. Inhale, lower back down to the right and look to the right. Exhale, slight twist to the left, so I'm not doing a full curve. I'm actually just coming up so that my head is in a direct line with my tail.

And inhale, twist and look to the right as you lower. Exhale, twist and rise. Going to the left once more, inhale, twist and lower that right elbow down to the ground as you look at it. Exhale, twist up to the left. Now stay here, but lower your left elbow down as you lower looking toward it and exhale, rise. Twist to the right. Inhale, lower twist to the left. Exhale, rise. Twist to the right again only so that you're in a direct line from head to tail. Inhale, lower twist to the left. Exhale, rise.

Twist to the right. Last time. Inhale, lower twist to the left, right. Roll off your ball. Enough of that chaos for a moment. I want to go down onto your stomachs. I can get the ball to stay. So we're going to do a little bit of swimming, lying down onto your stomach. Stretch your arms out in front of you here. We're going to start with a little bit of cross body patterning.

So the first thing I want you to do is press your pubic bone down into the mat. I want you to lengthen out through your right toes, extending your knee so that your whole leg and thigh will float off the mat. Feel the squeeze in your butt and lower it back down. The two, the same thing with the left leg. Lengthen. Look through that left leg reach extending the knee. Feel the thigh for the leg float up. Feel your butt activate.

And again, do that through the right side. Float it out and up and lower down. Left like floated out and up. Down, right, like floated out and up. So you're really soft through your shoulders and left leg up. Aha. That knee must be straight. It's really important and lower down. Let's try the same thing now with our arms.

So our right arm will lengthen out, but not the shoulder. The shoulder will stay soft. You're going to retain your neck as your right hand floats up off the mat and lower down. And now the left hand floats up off the mat. Lower down this time. Float your head off the mat so they just hovering above. Even though you continue to look downward, right hand floats off the mat while your head is off the mat too and lower down.

Keep your head up. Left hand floats off the mat. Very nice. Now float your hands and your feet off the mat. Straight legs. We're going to go into swimming. Little flutter kicks, alternating sides going. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, narrow through your Midland. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and relax. Very nice. Coarse yourself up.

We practiced the plank before. Now we're going to practice it on our hands to Tuck your toast. Coming to a full plank here. [inaudible] make sure your elbows are not hyperextended, so bend them slightly. Unlock your elbows there. Yep.

Now shift shifted weight back by flexing your feet. Shift your weight forward by pointing your feet. Shift your weight back. See if you can drop your butt just a little bit and lift through your throat. Yes, shift your weight back. That's it. Shift your weight forward and one last time. Shift your weight back.

Careful as you go forward. Don't let your hips sink. There you go. Stay lifted. Hold it. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and lower down. Good. Sit back in child's pose. Sit all the way back now. Flip your poems to face the ceiling. Inhale here, and exhale. Shift your weight forward onto all fours. Once again.

Now we're going to do a little spiral exercise, so you're going to face, you're going to remove via the hand that is closest to me and start spiral your chest toward me. Inhale and exhale, return and again, inhale as you're a pure, push your hand into the ground. Grow Taller and the spiral further and down. Last time, inhale and stay the widening through the chest. There you go. [inaudible] and lower down. Let's try the other side. Now spiral away from me in here. And exhale down and inhale, open and exhale down. And once more, inhale open.

So you want to make sure that this elbow doesn't HyperX yeah. And that if you don't hyper extend, you're going to feel that tricep a lot more and lower down. So turn and sit, cross legged facing me. Bring your arms out to the sides. So you're gonna reach over here toward your left and back to the center.

Inhale, reach and yeah, cause maybe extend your knees just a little bit so you can sit a little bit more easily up. That's it. And again, to the left. Inhale, making sure that you don't hunt. Yes. And back to the center. Inhale, lengthen. Drop that left shoulder. That's it. Good. And back to the center. Cross your left arm over your chest and then bring the other one underneath it. And Paul [inaudible]. Now we'll look toward your hand. Inhale, grow taller. Exhale back to the center in.

He'll grow taller. Relax that shoulder. Ah, that's it. And back to the center. Bring your arms out. Now cross the writer, bring the other one underneath. You'll that stretch. [inaudible] now look toward the fingers. Inhale and exhale. Inhale, spiral and grow taller and back to the center. Now bring your hands behind you. See if you could clasp your hands.

See if you could straighten your elbows. Inhale, open your chest to the ceiling and Xcel. And if you'd like, you can bring your feet out in front of you. If this feels a little bit better, bending your knees. Inhale, open your chest and exhale, and last time inhale and exhale, grabbing hold of the backs of your thighs. Inhale here. Exhale, Tuck the pelvis, Tuck the tailbone. I should say. Inhale, sit tall and feel that extension. Exhale, Tuck the tail. Inhale, grow taller. And last time so you're not doing a full curl. You're just talking the tailbone. Inhale and grow taller. Good. And now let's stand. I like to end classes standing so that you have a little bit of functionality and connection into your feet. So stand with your feet parallel.

Bend your knees, bring your arms up overhead, lift your shoulders off your ribs, and now drop them. Now bring your arms out to the sides. Lift your right heel, feel that stretch through your foot, the bottom of your foot, lower it down, lift your left heel and now try again with the right heel. [inaudible] and now the left heel and lower down. See if you could balance holding onto your right ankle. Yep. And that's another option is to hold onto the back of the heel. Good.

Try and straighten that knee into your hand. Another option would be to hold onto something and if you had a strap, we could pull the strap to lengthen your arm essentially. And then we'll try the other foot. So we're now going to grab our left ankle or heel. Uh Huh.

And so again, the option would be to have a strap hold onto me here. Yup. And I'll try and straighten that knee. [inaudible] push downward push as yes, there you go. And relax. One or the thing that I'd like everybody to do standing on both feet here, lift both heels up off the mat.

Imagine two magnets pulling your ankles together. Feel the connection into your low belly. There you go. And lowering down and again, rise up. Feel that difference. That's it. That's your balance so that you're not off your axis either.

And lower down one last time, rising up, good and lowering straight down. Bring your hands right up overhead again. Lift your shoulders up, lower your shoulders. Bring your arms out. Now make sure you can see your hands in your peripheral vision. That's the key. If you can't, they're too far back. Now from here, lift one foot up. Bend your standing knee and peel your toes up toward your face.

Yes, and try it on the other leg. Lift your foot up. Bend your standing knee, extending the opposite one. Good. And lift up and lower your hands down. Well, thank you so much for joining.

Comments

very begining-nothing new
Bobbie this is a level 1 class. It is specifically designed for people who are beginners to Pilates. I'm guessing if you recognized a lot of the material you are of a skill level higher than a level 1. There are loads of classes of Level 2 and 2/3 that I hope you will enjoy.
F B
5 people like this.
I am a Pilates teacher and level 1 classes can be very special. They help me with cues, and improve my movements so I can help my students to improve their practice. Never stop learning!!! Thanks Rebecca and PA.
A fantastic class with wonderful cues and transitions for all levels. I love 'Wheels on the Pelvis'. So many new ideas. So a big 'Thank you' Rebekah.
Loved this class, Rebekah. Clear, concise instructions, with a few different takes on the everyday exercises. Particularly liked some of the rotational movements you did. I can see my clients loving those! Thanks again.
1 person likes this.
TY Rebekah.. love getting back to basics always.. your cues are so informative!! Keep coming back to PA as much as you can.
Your percision and quality of instruction is so welcoming - very easy to follow and challenging for any level! Thank you Rebekah
I really enjoyed this- lots of ideas and cues for all levels.
This is my very first class on the website, really enjoyed it. Nice to go back to the basics and really focus on the core. Thanks a mil!
I'm very new to pilates. What size ball is this? This class seems very doable. I watched another instructor's class which seemed far more advanced.
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