Flow Inspired Mat

Hi. I'm Maria, and this is Miku, and we're joining you from body line. We're getting ready to do a mat workout that focuses on flow, and it's a little dancery. Come on to your back. We're gonna begin with an articulated bridge, set up your feet, take a breath in here, and on an exhale tuck the tailbone under and peel the hips up, inhale at the top, and then a nice articulation back to the mat. Inhale at the bottom, exhale tuck the tail and bridge those hips up.

Stay here. Inhale, and exhale peel yourself back to the mat. One more here, inhale, exhale tuck and bridge the hips up, knees reaching out over the toes, and peel it back down. We're gonna add a little arm here, inhale, exhale tuck to bridge up, inhale lengthen the arms up over the head, pause, exhale peel down lengthening through the fingertips, inhale hands by the side, exhale tuck and bridge up, inhale lengthen the arms up over the head, peel yourself down, and hands come by the side. Needs to your chest, curl the head and shoulders up off that mat into a perfect ab curl, extend out into your hundred, and thus begin pumping the arms in for five, and out two, three, four, five. Inhale.

And exhale. The legs are glued. The shoulders are out of the ears. Last one here. Pull the knees in, lower the head and shoulders down.

We're gonna work in a rhythm of threes for this next little bit. So curl the head and shoulders up. Prepare for your single leg stretch. Now we move in a three. So we move one two, three, we pause, and one, two, three, inhaling, and exhaling, three, inhaling, exhaling pause, hands behind the head. Same thing.

One, two, three, really driving the knee into the chest. One, two, three, One, two, pause. Rotate over to the knee. Let's do that same rhythm with crisscross. Here we go.

One, two, three. Rotate from the trunk. One, two, three. One, two, three. Stay lifted. One, two, three. Inhale, and exhale, knees in, lower the head down.

Extend one leg to the ceiling, stretch the other leg straight, just enjoy that hamstring stretch, press the bottom leg down into the mat, and let's change sides, using your hands to help with that stretch, also focusing on that bottom leg. From here, curl the head and shoulders up, lift the bottom leg up. Let's do that same tempo with the scissors. Here we go. One, two, three.

Notice it's a little slower. One, two, three. Really work the stretch. One, two, three. Last time, one, two, pause, hands behind the head. Rotate to that leg. We're gonna add the rotation. And one, two, three. Make sure the legs don't over cross. Holt.

One, two, hold. Last time, one, two, hold, knees in, lower down. Extend the feet to the ceiling, and let's just take a little flexing point here. We're gonna be moving into a variation of double leg, lower lift. Keep the toes pointed, extend the hands to the ceiling. From here, inhale, everything opens, arms, and legs. Pause.

Exhale, lift the upper body as the legs come up. Inhale lengthen. Of course, the back is perfectly still. Big exhale as you lift, lift, lift, lift, lift. Inhale. Option to also lift that tail off the mat.

Inhale. And exhale notice the legs still go straight up, even though we're lifting the tail. One more. Inhale. Exhale Keep the legs where they are. Lower down, hands are over the head.

Now we're gonna transition up. So ring the hands up, rock yourself up, and set up for spine stretch, traditional spine stretch. Inhale here. Not your chin. Peel down through your spine. Notice my feet are flexed.

We're all slowly all the way up. But that's a choice you can make for yourself. Inhale here, exhale nod the chin, soften the sternum, peel yourself down. Keep the back of the sit bones anchored to the mat and peel all the way up. Last time here, nod the chin, melt through that spine.

Pull your hips back away from the thigh bones and all the way up. We're going to a saw without a saw. It'll make sense in a minute. Hands come behind the head. Rotate towards camera and come into the traditional saw action and come all the way up.

Rotate away. Round the back, drive that elbow towards the knee, twist past that knee if you can. All the way up. Notice how different this feels without the arms as assistance. Drive yourself down.

Come all the way up and center. Twist. Notice the legs aren't changing at all. Come all the way up and center. We're gonna flow a little bit. So rotate to me.

Take the shape down. Stay here. Now close your elbows. Open the opposite elbows. And come all the way upright, go right back down, elbow to the inside of the knee, fold everything together, rotate back to the start, and come up center. Same side.

Twist, it'll make sense this time. Take the saw. Close your position. Open to the other side. Lift all the way up.

Go right back down the way you came. And close the shape, open the shape all the way up center. Now we go to the other side. So we start with the twist. We come to the saw. We close the shape.

We open to the other side, and we come up. And again, really make use of this feeling of flow here, close, open, and up center. One more time, twist, saw, close the shape, open, lift yourself up right back down the way you came. Close. Open all the way up and center. Lower the arms down, prepare for rolling like a ball.

So the knees come in. Notice I didn't move myself too far forward. Drop the shoulders. Here we go. Rolling back and up. And again, rolling back right back to your balance.

Last time, rolling back, right to your balance, hold it here, grab hold of your ankles, find your open leg rocker position. Use your hands to really lengthen yourself up, shoulders stay down. Miku's gonna demonstrate open like rocker because I don't it's not something I like anymore. Here she goes. She's rolling back. And up to her balance.

Good luck, me, Coo. And again, she's rolling back and up to her balance. Last time here, or you're just breathing with me and up to your balance from here. Draw your legs together. And it's okay if your knees are bent.

Release your hands. Hold that beautiful teaser. We're gonna go into a yoga transition. Cross your legs. Come up and over your legs.

The hands go down. Step or jump into a plank. From here, we step to a bear crawl. One two. The knees are right under your hips. Step back. One two.

Pay attention to where your head is. Step in one two. Step back one two long spine. Step in one two. Back one two. Last time in one two back one two.

Come in one more time. One two put your knees down. From here, we're moving into an exercise that's from the reformer. Extend one leg back behind you with your heel, and now you're gonna round your back as you bring that knee to your chest. Press out, heel to sit bone connection, and round your back.

And again, drive through the heel, and round your back. Option to lift the bottom knee. You can follow me, Coo, if you're doing that. We shoot out. The spine is long. We contract to come in.

The spine goes long. We contract to come in last time, drive through the heel. Contract to come in wherever you are. Put the knee down. Take the arm straight up.

Get so tall. And a little camel stretch here. So sweep one arm down. Reach back towards your heel. And come all the way up, and then sweep the other arm back to the heel, and all the way up. Let's do it again.

I'm curling my toes under, then I don't have to go back quite so far, gives me a little bit more support, and sweep it back and all the way up back to the hands and knees. Let's do the second side of that single leg knee stretch. So reach the opposite leg out round your back to come in, shoot the heel out. Back in, round, and shoot out. Last one here, and round. Take it out option to lift that bottom shinbone and round shinbone parallel to the mat, exhale in and take it out.

Last one. And in, take it out. Pull it in, come to your knees, lift the arms up, and that camel stretch transition, sweeping one arm back, and up, and the other arm goes back and all the way up. Moving on, the hands go back down. Step or jump into your plank, one two, and then slowly in the count of five, we lower down for five four, three, two, one. Make a little pillow with your hands and rest your head. Abominals are lifted.

Now the arms move with you. We're coming to a little thoracic extension. Lift and lower down. And again, lift yourself up. Pull those elbows to the sky and lower down harder than you might think.

And again, lift up. Stay here. This time, reach the arms to a t. Notice you can get up a little higher. Reach the arms back behind you, notice you can move a little bit more. Take the arms back to a tee, take the arms over the head, lower everything down, rest the head.

Let's do that again. Lift yourself out and up. Reach the arms to a tee. Reach the arms back. Lift the chest higher.

The feet are on the ground guys. Back to a tee. Back overhead and lower down. Okay. Now let's add the hip extension. So lift the chest up, take the arms to a tee, reach the arms back, and lift the legs.

And now let's begin a swim. And be really vigorous with your breath here. Like, I think about this exercise as a counter to the hundred. Take the arms to a tee. Most of you will be able to do that. Some of you will take the arms up over the head.

And some of you will add the fluttering of the arms. Wherever you're at, this is about breath and extension with length, lower everything down, push yourself back into a child's pose. Compress the sit bones to the heels. And then lay yourself down in a straight line for a side plank series, lengthen the top arm up and really push vigorously through this bottom hand, lift the bottom hip and establish that feeling of a side plank. I really want both of your waist bands long. Lower the hip down.

And again, lift right back up. This time, lift the leg up, pause there. Let's take that leg down and up. And again, I'm not looking for lateral flexion. I'm looking for side plank. Driving through that heel, I think helps minimize flexion on that top hip.

Last one, foot down, lower down, and I'm sitting slightly back as I come down. Right back up into your side plank. Lift the leg up. Stay here. Now we rotate. We reach through as if you're dropping your head through that window there.

And up. And again, rotate curve the upper back and up. And last time, curl. And up and lower yourself down. So we need a grand finale.

So we're gonna do a combo. I know you knew it was coming. So the arm is up. So we lift. We rotate. We go back and we lower.

And we lift We rotate, we go back, and we lower one more time, push through that bottom hand, twist up and lower. And from here, we sweep up and over to the other side for a little counter stretch. Really use that bottom hand to help you get deeper into the side bend. We have a little Martha Graham moment here, sweep that arm lay right back down and the hand goes over the head. From here, sit back on your sacrum and take a little toe tap, and then back to where you were.

We rock and we reach. And we go back to where you were. Now, we're gonna lift. So we do toe tap, and we're going to lift, and we're going to toe tap, and lift one more time, really enjoying the feeling of flow here, lift and lower down. Swip your legs all the way up and over and find your side plank on the second side. From here, we lift the hips up, establishing that side plank, and notice I sit slightly back. Lift up again, really finding those bottom obliques, and lower it down. Lift up and stay up.

Now that leg lifts straight up straight down. Really reach through that leg. I like to flex my foot. It helps me reach through that whole limb last time here, and lower down. We're gonna add to that.

So lift up lift the leg up, stay here. And now we rotate through, and we come back to the side. And again, round the back, reach through, and take it out. One more, really dropping the head, take it back out, and lower yourself down. We're gonna do all that in a combination now. So the hand is up.

Here we go. We lift up. We twist. We go reach and we lower down. And again, the leg lifts. We twist. We reach and down. Last time, lift and twist and reach and lower down.

And lift up and come into that side bend again. It really helps me to use this arm here. And now we sweep back down to the forearm for our toe touch. So we rotate we tap the toe, and we lengthen out. And we rotate, we tap the toe, and we lengthen out.

Now we're gonna lift. So we tow tap, and we come up, and we lift, and we tow tap, and lift one more time for all you dancers out there, and lift lower down turn, come on to your forearms, and we're gonna set up a modified hip circle. So really push the forearms into the mat, chest goes towards the thigh bones and bring the legs up. Now the legs can be straight like me coups or bent like mine. We inhale and we twist, and we pull back center. You lift higher.

And then we twist and we come center. Let's do that again. Always taking the chest to the thigh bones. Last one here. Now option to make a circle.

So we twist the legs go in front of you, you go to the opposite side, and reverse it. Action is at the back. One more, really moving from the powerhouse here. And up last time, from here, we're gonna cross the legs, rock yourself up, yoga transition, find your plank. From here, walk your feet in and take a stretch forward.

Drop the head. From here, soften your knees or keep them straight, tuck the tail and take your time peeling up. Really look for this transition where the shoulder blades just slide down the back of the body, the chest lifts, the head comes up, and now pivot and face forward, and find yourself in a second position. From here, we grand plie and we stretch. So this is just like ballet, but it's also very much like being on a reformer. And, using the breath, inhale, and exhale. Now, some of you are gonna add a little jump at the bottom.

So we go down. We jump. We land. Down and jump and straighten. Or just stay with the basic, inhale, and exhale last one, inhale, and exhale pause here, pivot to one side and find a ninety ninety lunge. We're deep in the lunge, take the hands forward.

Now we're gonna launch forward into our front lunge. The arms will come by the ears. We come back to ninety ninety. And again, you launch out, find that connection head to heel. My head was too low back to ninety ninety.

Some of you are gonna start lifting that back leg. And again, we launch, we lift the leg, you go back to ninety ninety. Maybe the leg goes high, ninety ninety, and last time, ninety ninety stay here. We're gonna add a little curtsy lunge to this. So you're gonna find your curtsy and you're gonna tap, and you're gonna curtsy, and you're gonna tap.

Some of you will add a little rotation here. You'll rotate. You'll curtsy and you'll rotate. Some of you will add a balance. You'll follow me Koo, curtsy, and rotate.

Last one here, From here, come back to your ninety, ninety, hold it here, transition to your grand plie, and all the way up. Second side. Let's begin with the jumps. We go down. You jump. You straighten. You go down, you pop, you straighten.

Continue like this. Using the breath. Few more, it really brings a lot of heat to the legs just to add even a little pop. Last one. And from here, let's pivot.

Find your ninety ninety on the other side. Notice the placement of the back knee and the hands are forward. Preparing to launch to that lunge, the arms go out, over the head, feel where your head is back to the ninety ninety. Push off for two and take it back. Push off for three take it back. Maybe the back foot starts to lift, lift, then plant, and lift, and plant. Maybe the leg goes a little higher, plant, and plant.

Lift and plant. Let's do one more. Lift and plant and hold it here in the plant. We're gonna add that curtsy now. So we curtsy and we tap. And we curtsy, and we tap, we add rotation, curtsy, and you rotate, and you curtsy, and you rotate.

Maybe you add balance, courtesy, rotate. Inhale and exhale. Two more. Inhale. And exhale last time. Inhale And exhale, come back to your ninety ninety, come back to your grand plié, stretch your legs straight, turn your toes parallel.

So a little lunge to the side. So we step out to one side and up. We step to the other side. And up. So we're traveling and up. Let's start to add some speed. So we go over and up. So it's a little pop in the middle Now, if you're so inclined, you can add a little circle overhead.

And again, oddly satisfying. I'm not really sure why. It just feels nice. Don't think about it too much. Just do it.

Last one here, end at the other side, come all the way to the floor and take a little spiral stretch. Miku didn't really know that was coming. And then let's go up and over to the other side and spiral all the way around. And lift yourself up. Take a stretch forward drop the head.

And let's take a little center split down to the ground and sit yourself down. Is she going to make it? Barely stretch yourself forward. And then lift yourself up and flex and point those feet. Shake your legs out. Sit cross legged, hands on your knees, close down your eyes, and just enjoy the effects of your practice And thank you for working out with us today.

Take care everybody. Thank you for your support as always.