Creating Magic on the Mat

We've got magic to do. Just for you. That's right. Today, we are creating magic on the mat with my favorite prop, the magic circle. I can't wait to show you the amazing things that this prop can do for you. Let's begin with our pilates stance standing as tall as we can. Take the padded sides of the magic circle to the heels of your hands, elbows lifted, abs in tight, squeeze the heck out of it and release.

Now it's up to you to control the magic circle as you squeeze in and in and out out out. Let's give it eight pulses as we raise the arms up. One, two, keep raising, keep those shoulders back for four, three, two, hold, low ribs in, booty tight, squeeze it down. Two, three, four, five, six, and at the chest. Can you do that two more times, but on the toes, heels together toes apart, squeeze the seat. We go up, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and breathe. Five, six, seven, one more time. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, we must. We must.

We must continue the work out lower the heels, put the feet parallel hip distance, place the magic circle between the ankles. Now that we checked in with the upper body, let's check-in with the lower body starting from the ground up. Plee as you bend the knees, lift the heels on two, rise up and lower down. Do that three more times. Bend, lift up and down. Give that circle a squeeze. You can always adjust your stance but you should feel the presence of the circle in every exercise we do today together. Lift up, snap crackle pop, and then let's reverse that.

Lift the heels, bend the knees, press the heels down, feel the glutes and stand three more times. Find the flow. And as always, don't forget to breathe. As I always say, If you don't breathe, you will die. Magic, I already feel the magic.

Bring those arms out. Balance on your standing left leg, soften the standing knee. Lift the right leg and squeeze that circle with your adductors. Yes, this is inner thighs, but use your abs to connect your entire body. Three, two, and one, hold. Give it a slight squeeze as you rotate to the back diagonal.

Keep the hip points forward. Eight little squeezes. Squeeze. Squeeze. I already feel my standing leg, and we've only just begun to burn. Bring it to the side.

Let's do side two. Find the balance on that standing right leg lift the left leg and squeeze in. Squeeze. Squeeze. Now, we're starting to get to know each other, getting to know you, getting to know the circle. Check-in with yourself.

How do you feel? Last one. Bring it back. I'm feeling good. Happy to be working out together with my favorite prop. Last few.

Squeeze and squeeze. Bring it to your feet, and let's take it to the mat. Grab the magic circle, and let's come to the front of our mat as we roll onto our back and begin with some chest lifts. So take the magic circle, the padded portion, and place it at the nape of your neck. And I love using the magic circle because it helps my shoulders stay out of the equation, shoulders down the back lifting the chest, peeling up to the tips of the shoulder blades, and then rolling back down.

Make sure your feet are planted that spine is neutral on the mat, exhale, get the air out, use your abs to lift your chest up. And then lower yourself down. When you perform these chest lifts, instead of thinking how high can I lift, I want you to stay to the tips of the shoulders and pull in a little bit deeper, closing in the low ribs, Let's do one more articulating the spine using the magic circle to stretch our back as we tone our tummies and down? On this last one, curl up and hold it one leg up at the tabletop at a time. Let's warm up the low abs with some gentle leg lifts. Tap the floor and lift.

Tap the floor and lift. Keep the symmetry through your body. Stay off the shoulders looking forward. This is preparing us for the hundred, the scissors, and the rest of this magic to come. One more time on each side.

And then bring yourself for a quick rest on the mat, one foot down at a time, roll down with control, say your prayers, your mantras because the Pilates hundred is coming up next. First, we'll place the magic circle between the ankles just like we did standing, but now we're on our back. So again, find that neutral spine, that slight lumbar lift. Keep it that way. Squeeze the circle with the inner thighs a few times.

Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. I grew up with a Suzanne Summers's thigh master. So this magic circle, please, it is mine. Okay. For the Pilates hundred, I want you to curl up off of the shoulders, reach your fingertips forward, squeeze the circle and start pumping those arms up and down. Take a deep breath in.

Take a deep breath out. Continue to breathe, but continue to pump those arms. This is not a game of patty cakes. This is Pilates. We're supposed to be working up a sweat.

So the more you can get those arms pumping, the more your powerhouse is gonna have to control itself, have to control you but then the inner thighs have to work as well. Draw everything to the midline of your body. And as we finish, I want you to add inner thigh beats. The arms go up and down. The legs go in and out.

It's like doing the hand jive in the movie grease. Born to hand jive, born to pulse, born to breathe, take a few more. I might have to rehearse this one a few more times. What a challenge, curl up a little bit deeper, bend the knees, and lower yourself down. Unbelievable.

I'm so proud of you, but we've got more work to do. Let's not celebrate too early. Magic circle behind the right foot. Take a quick stretch for your hamstring. You pull with the arms, you kick with the leg, breathe.

Good. Well, this parts more for me. Well, you're gonna need this too. We're doing our scissors next, and I love using the magic circle during scissors. Let me show you how Take the magic circle between the heels of your hands once again, curl up off the shoulders looking forward. Option to keep the knees bent for the scissors, but if you're like me and feeling good today, both legs are gonna straighten one leg taps the circle two times, and then switch the legs, tap tap. So we go tap, tap right, tap, tap left, show me the control, using your low abs to bring your leg to the circle, not the arms to touch the leg.

Trust me, I know what's happening over there, fix it. Tap, tap tap. Tap tap. That's just something I commonly see when I teach my mat classes. I want the leg to beat one more time on each side, and feet down functional training, double leg stretch with the burlesque. We have to pay for these memberships somehow. Right?

So we're gonna curl up off the shoulders and put on our pencil skirt just to take it off again. Do your best to keep your head neck and shoulders up. Look forward long neck. Take your legs through the magic circle. And then take your legs out and throw your hoop skirt over your head.

I mean, that's the fantasy I'm working with today. Or maybe I'm a sexy assistant for David Copperfield and he's having me levitate at the MGM Grand. Whatever works for you, I want you to keep your upper body in one position as you work the two way stretch in On the exhale, inhale stretch out one more time. Oh my goodness. How are we gonna do the crisscross? We're gonna have to call in the magic.

Take the magic circle between your right knee and your left elbow. And important not to head, Bing. It's not that kind of show in Vegas. We are going to lift our chest, connect our elbow to the padded portion opposite knee and elbow, left elbow right knee, get that leg out and start squeezing. Now, I want you to squeeze with both the arm and the leg, not the head.

I want you to lift from your abs, lift and squeeze, lift and squeeze three more times. Two. Now hold the squeeze, long leg lifts, upper body stays still. We go for seven. This is tough, but we got this.

Stay off of that right shoulder. Come on. Four more. Lift and lower. Last few. Last two. Oh, baby.

I'm breathing heavy now. And foot down. No brakes. Other side. Lift that left knee.

Opposite elbow to the padded portion, lifting opposite rib to knee lifts, and squeeze together squeeze together squeeze together. Again, upper abs squeeze from the top, lower abs squeeze from the bottom, change the circle into an egg shape, eggs are very, very valuable these days. Lift that leg up. Lower that leg down. Lift that leg up.

Lower that leg down. Come on. I need four more of these. You need to reach that leg as long as you can. Stay off of the opposite shoulder so you're twisting out of the ribs. Let's go two more.

Holy moly. The shakes are real. It's not for the camera. Foot down. Awesome job. Gently rock yourself up to a seat.

I have never been more excited for spine stretch forward. Take both feet on the outsides of the mat. And sit up as tall as you can. Just sitting upright as a challenge for me. I've gotta lift my abs under my ribs and fire up my seat and then hold the magic circle So your arms are at shoulder height, press those legs down.

Imagine the back is up against the wall, chin to the chest, and stretch yourself forward. Reach and squeeze the circle at shoulder height. Pull the abs in, articulate the spine to come up. Press the legs down a little bit more and peel off the wall, chin to the chest. Don't shrug the shoulders, but still keep the arms up.

And roll back up. We've had two rehearsals. I want this one to be the best one yet. Up and over the imaginary beach ball that's on your lap. And then up up up up squeeze squeeze squeeze squeeze squeeze squeeze and now the moment I've been rehearsing for the transition into prone. Let's bring the magic circle to our inner ankles. We go to our teaser position and then swivel around, magic to do just for you.

Unbelievable. Let's do some skydivers together. Bring your arms out. Thumbs up if you're having fun and squeeze that circle. Now for skydivers, option to keep the legs down if this goes into your back.

But to help you pull your abs in, push your pubic bone down, and lift your chest, lift your arms, lift your legs as if you're skydiving, and then lower yourself down. Let's do this a few more times, squeezing the circle to connect the inner thighs, lifting the arms without, you know, tensing the shoulders. Come on, lift up. This is fun. We are flying. It's magic.

And lower yourself down. Three more times, lift, lift, lift, lift, lower, lower, lower, lower, lower. All of those swans have paid off My little swans have taken flight. Let's do this one more time for the back extensors, complimenting all of that forward flexion we have done. We bring it down.

Great job. Let's put this to the push up. Bring yourself down to child's pose and grab your magic circle. I love using the magic circle for push ups. Yes. It gives me some assist. But it really helped me control the exercise and feel all the muscles.

So the magic here, you place the padded portion at the sternum between the bone between your lower at your chest, and then take yourself to a plank position. Now option to try a few on the knees to make sure the placement feels good, elbows and tight, fingers forward, long neck, a reminder to myself to look a little forward And if this feels okay, take yourself out into a full plank, lower, lower, lower, heels together toes apart, lift, lift, lift. Keep in that burn zone, down, down, down, the magic circle offering a little muscle confusion to the push ups that we do every day, changing the resistance, but also allowing us to stay in that time under tension, down, down, down, And let's face it. It feels good to levitate. Lower, lower, lower, lift, lift, lift.

Am I the only one shaking a little bit here? Down, down, down, down? Up up up. I thought this magic circle was supposed to help me with this. No. It just helps me feel the burn in a different way. Bringing yourself back into child's pose. Great job.

Roll yourself up. Let's come back to our feet for some standing lunge lunges and yet another creative way to use the magic circle. Stand profile. Take the magic circle at your shoulders right on the traps here and take your right leg back. So as you take your split stance lunge, I want you to lower and squeeze the circle over your shoulder and then stand tall.

Just the slightest hinge in the upper body, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, and lift, lift, lift. Make sure this elbow doesn't jet out, but rather stays again in your periphery. If you're looking forward, you should just see that arm. To your side. Good.

Scholars and hips nice and square, abs in, feeling this primarily in my standing leg as I drive into my heel, feeling this in my glutes. Don't forget to squeeze the circle and use your core to make it all happen. On this last one, hold it down. Magic circle right to your hip. Find a spot that feels good for you, elbow slightly forward, but the shoulders are back.

Let's double time it. Down. Down. Good. So really squeeze the bicep. Think of that back shoulder connection as you just welcome the burn. You knew that this workout was gonna be tough.

And if not, you're learning it right now. For four. For three. For two, hold it on one. Take the magic circle behind you. Frame your bottom.

With a slight hinge forward, take your right leg to the right. Keep that hinge straighten those arms out, squeeze the circle as you lift the leg. Squeeze and lower. Lift and lower. Can you actually change the shape of the circle with the heels of your hands and your strong back shoulder connection? Come on.

Squeeze and lower. Two more. Last one. Squeeze. Take that right leg.

Bring it back one more time. Straight. Take the magic circle in your left hand as you bring it to the floor. Option, you can stay up here, you can use a wall. I'm gonna show you what I'm made of magic circle to the floor, give it a little press, lift that back leg up and give me little pulses. Up up.

Small pulses. I'm feeling this on my standing leg, but I'm encouraging my right glute to lift that leg. Just four more. And then hold it at the top, either squeeze the magic circle if you're standing or give the magic circle a final little press to challenge your balance, two, one, foot down, bring yourself up. Let's flow right in the side too.

The padded portion goes right on the shoulder. Put your heel of your hand on the padded part at the top. Left leg back into a lunge. Stand really tall, and let's take it nice and slow as we make our proposal lunge, our descent, and lift. So responsible with your upper body keep that beautiful posture because that is what we want to reinforce when we use the magic circle, when we do pilates, trying to optimize all the muscles so we can feel the best we can today. And let's face it.

That's the magic of this work. Let's do two more getting the back knee to flirt with the mat, and bring yourself up. Good. Take the padded portion, right to the hip, elbow slightly forward, shoulders down the back, lower into the burn zone, and let's do some pulses down here. Squeeze the circle, and then pulse the lunge. Little squeeze. Little squeeze.

Long neck. Try to grow taller as you lower. Good. Low ribs in. We've got this. Last six, five, four, three, two, one, magic circle, framing the booty. Bring your left leg out to the left. Keep the symmetry.

This is just like our one leg attendant stretch on the reformer, but gonna squeeze the magic circle behind us as we lift the leg. In my mind, I'm squeezing this circle so deep. I know it may not feel or look like much is happening. But you know if you're doing this right that you're feeling this all the way into the shoulders, into the back. And with more of a hinge, that standing leg should be begging for mercy, squeeze, and lift, and lower.

Last two, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. Awesome. Bring that leg to the back, Tondu, either hold yourself upright, use a wall or magic circle to the floor, give it a little press against the floor, lengthen your spine, lift that leg behind you and pulse that leg only up. Drop that hip, standing leg is bent, I know it's tough, but you can do it, lift seven more, six squeeze. Hold the last one. If you can, squeeze the circle down into the floor, down into the floor, like you're picking up something on the floor for four, three, two, bring yourself up safely, and let's hit a magical side series.

Bring yourself down to the mat and place the magic circle underneath your bottom leg and the secret to success here is finding the perfect side lying position. You wanna be straight with maybe just a little bit of a crease in the hips. For these next exercises. Lay on your side. Make sure you're not forward, but rather nice and open with your upper body.

Hold that magic circle down with the ankle top leg lifts, slight turnout in both legs, and rainbow tap from front to back. This is your Ron De Jean people. We're tapping forward. We're tapping back. To make a game of it, try to come as close to the magic circle without touching it. I pretend it's a video game at this moment.

And then if I touch the magic circle, it's like, you lose. Just kidding. Up and over, I can always put in another quarter and try again. Up and over, tap. Let's do about three more of these magic rainbows. Everything is magical today, let's go for one more, and then we'll take the top leg over the padded portion give it a little squeeze to feel the inner thighs, feel that waistline lift off the mat, and then lift that leg up and down, up and down. So the top leg has a consistent press against the circle.

The bottom leg is lifting to meet it. It's inner and outer thighs, and, of course, powerhouse here. Let's do six more squeeze and lift, squeeze and lift, Little baby squeeze, little baby lift. On this last one, both legs into the circle. Both legs press the circle away and see if you can lift and lower the legs.

Oh my goodness. My outer glute is burning and my obliques are fired up making this all happen. Three more. Now we are going to put it all together into a v up, a teaser, whatever you wanna call it, buckle up, take your forearm down, Good. Find little crease into the hips, push against the floor, lift the legs up into your v, boom, and then bring yourself back down up to the v, and then lower yourself back down. So you're using the arm in front of you to push off and you'll use your powerhouse to lift and twist towards the magic circle, and then lower.

Do this three more times. Upreach, boop, and down. Last two. And last one, hold for the photographer. Bring it down, and let's take it to the other side.

A fan kick. You know, I love those transitions part of the workout. Let's bring it to the other side, taking that bottom leg into the magic circle, finding a long straight body line. Hi, keeping your chest open and proud you can always find more of a crease of the hip or more of a straight body line, whatever feels best for you, but the rule is the hips have to stay stacked as we make our rainbows, up and over to the back, up and over to the front. Very difficult to do this with stacked hips.

Are you being honest at home? If you are, you're really thinking about the bottom waist lifting off the floor, And just like our challenge on side one, can you skin the magic circle? Can you have that spatial awareness where you just graze it ever so gently, came over, just touch the circle. Up and over each side. I love a beautiful rainbow, and that is the fantasy I'm working with right now.

Around Dejams any day, every day. Take your foot into or on top of the circle, give it a little squeeze down to hold it down, turn out the leg so you have that external rotation. These pointing away from each other and lift that bottom leg up and up. Good. Enter thigh beats. We do this in many different ways on the mat. This one, difficult to stabilize the circle.

While powerful, powerfully lifting from the bottom leg, squeeze in, zip those inner thighs. We've got six more. Squeeze. Don't let the circle move. Iceulate the movement. Last two, Both legs in. Good.

Hold it with the bottom leg. Squeeze up with the top leg. Change the shape of the circle as you lift and lower. Body in one straight line with that slight crease of the hip, Make sure it's okay on that bottom hip. You can always put a towel on underneath the hip if it ever feels uncomfortable on the bones.

I've got a little padding there in my booty helping me out. Okay. Last two, this is the hardest one, that v up. See how it works for you. Take your bottom arm to the mat. Take your opposite arm up to the sky. We're gonna push off the floor, lift our hips up.

And squeeze the circle. See what I did there? I was showing what could happen. If you disengage, but then magic, I caught it again. Up squeeze and lower. This is the part of the workout we come back for.

These v ups always a challenge, always something to work towards. We've got four more. And then the photographer, they want us another photo on this side. So two more My glutes are on fire, and they wanna capture it. So lift, lift, smile.

Bring it down. Holy moly. Bring yourself into a final bridge We'll put our legs through the magic circle here, right above the knees, arms down by our sides, abs in tight, squeeze the heck out of that circle, feel the abductors. Roll up through your spine as you squeeze out. And then as you just hold the circle, roll yourself down.

So I want you to add pressure, tuck the tailbone roll up as you push that circle away, and then simply hold the circle, roll down through the back, bone by bone, by bone. Let's reverse that. Lift the hips, tuck the tailbone, simply holding on to the circle on the way down, give it a squeeze, and roll, roll, roll. Last time, hips up, tuck, roll. I feel much more articulate for shoulder bridges later.

Roll down. Roll down. Roll down. Use the magic circle for a final hamstring stretch. You're going to take your right foot into the circle just at the ball of the foot, bend and straighten the leg, bend and straighten. Now, bend straight and hold, extend the bottom leg, with nice, even hips opposite hand to the circle, arms splays out, bring the magic circle across your body. See how that feels.

Try to keep the hip down, feel the stretch, through the hamstrings, the outer thighs. If it feels okay, you can start to lift just slightly. Now keep the leg where it is. Pin the hip hip back. See how that feels.

Breathe into it. A slight outer and slight inner thigh stretch to compliment the outer thigh stretch and let's switch. Bend and straighten the leg as you find that sweet spot Try to relax your ankle and apply some resistance so you feel this all the way up and down that left leg, opposite leg down, grab the circle with your right hand, and bring that left leg across your body. Breathing. Where do you feel it?

And then send loving messages. I come in peace. We must recover. So we can hit play again. Maybe next time it's on the reformer creating magic, part one.

Take the leg out to the left, take a little stretch for the inner thigh, breathe, and gently rock yourself up to seat, and face me. I'm so proud of you. My magicians reach up. Bring your hands to heart center. Thank you for creating this magic. I hope you felt the magic just like I did.

Let's work out together again soon. See you next time.