Creative Mat with Props

Hey, guys. I'm Sarah Shell, and we're gonna do a mat workout today using three pound hand weights and a yoga block. You're absolutely welcome to use no hand weights at all or twos, you know, pick your poison. And then let's get started on your mat. We're gonna sit down, take your yoga block, and we're gonna throw that guy right in between your knees, kind of like narrow wise, right in between there, sit up as tall as you can. I want you to grab the backs of your knees.

I want you to sit up as tall as you can, get some length in your spine, and then exhale just start to scoop out the belly, tuck the tailbone under, and roll back just halfway. Good. Inhale. Take the chest forward. Open up that chest, lift your chin slightly and then exhale scoop and round back halfway. Using the legs, using the arms, pull yourself up, lift that chest forward. Let's do two more like that exhale.

Scooping a little bit deeper, and then inhale, lift up. Good, exhale. Connect the rib cage and lift yourself all the way up. This time, we're gonna reach our arms straight out in front of us slowly, you're gonna scoop out the belly placing one vertebrae at a time, rolling yourself all the way down onto your mat. Good. As you're down, hands float behind your head.

I want you to walk your feet closer to your glutes, you're gonna squeeze those knees in on the block to secure the yoga block, take your head all the way down. We're gonna exhale, lift up, curl up to the tips of your shoulder blades, and then inhale flow down. Just warming up the abs here, we go exhale lift. Good. You're constantly squeezing your knees into that yoga block. So inner thighs are engaged, pelvic floor, And then use that those upper abdominals wrap the ribcage, lift, lift, lift, let's do three more. XL. Three for two. And let's pause and hold at the top.

Little pulse here, chest to thighs. We got eight. Seven, lift higher. Five. You go four.

Three. So good. Lift higher. Two. And then pause and hold on one. Lift the legs into tabletop. We're gonna tap the toes down, let the head lower, and then exhale, lift everything in and up. We go inhale, float without arching the back, exhale.

Good. Keep squeezing in on that block. We got four or more. For three. For two, and then pause and hold at the top. Upper body goes, legs stay still. Keep those knees stacked over your hips.

Lift your upper body. Go for five. Four. Three, two, hold your chest up on one, lengthen those arms, reach your chest a little bit higher, reach those legs straight out, pull the knees in for five. Inhale lengthen, exhale. Pull it in. Good. If you need to lower your head, lower your head. Otherwise, lift your chest a little bit higher for two and then keep the legs straight and low on one.

Pump those arms. Inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth. If you need to lower your head, do so. If you need to take those legs into tabletop, Good. Lift your chest a little bit higher, pumping those arms inhale, and exhale. Take those shoulders down. Let's do one more.

Exhale, and then draw the legs in so good. Hug your knees into your chest. I want you to take that yoga block and place it right on top of your shins. Those knees are stacked over your hips, hands behind your head, curl up crunch up. We're gonna go into this single leg stretch, but first we're gonna place the left hand on top of the block to secure it. I'm gonna slide it over to that right leg.

Right leg goes up to the ceiling. Left leg reaches out straight and low, and then take it back to the tabletop. You're gonna transfer and reach. Take the tabletop, transfer, reach. I'm actively pressing my palm into the back and then really strong leg. So you find some resistance between that arm and leg.

Let's do four more. For four, good. Open up that elbow to the side. Really reach that upper body across. Good. Two more. And let's pause and hold on this next one. The right leg is gonna lift up cross the ankles and float the leg down for eight.

For seven. Good. Press into that block with the palm. For six. Five, down and up for four, anchor the backs of the hip bones into the mat for three, for two. So good last one, and one, take that tabletop, adjust the block, left hand on top, right leg extends, left leg goes floating down, and then bring it back up for eight. You got it for seven.

Crossing those ankles, keep the chest lifted for five. Four. So good for three. Lift it up for two. And last one, take it down. Awesome. Let's float that block in between your ankles.

And then we're gonna keep our head down for this one, arms down by your sides, plug in the belly, and start to float the legs as low as you can without arching your back, and you're gonna exhale, lift it up. Good. So I only want you to go as low as you can with the arching in their back. So mine's not so low. I'm really controlling it. Trying to hold on to my abs and then exhale draw it up. You can bend your legs if you need to do this in a little tabletop position.

Floating your feet to the floor, and then lifting it up. Otherwise, your legs are straight, hold on to that block. So inner thighs on fire, you go for four. For three. Two more. Two. And last one. Awesome. Good.

Take your block. Length in your legs. Hold on to that block. Take your arms overhead. Really shake it out, arch your back.

Let it go for a second. And then we're gonna bring the block forward. Tye in the belly, connect through the abs. Bring the arms forward, peel your head off, spine. We go all the way up and over.

Our legs, big stretch with the hamstrings. Sit up tall and then scoop and slowly roll yourself back down. Let's do that two more times. XL. Peel it off. Gonna dive over. Sit up tall, stacking the shoulders over the hips, reach, reach, reach.

Connect the rib cage, scoop out. Good. One more. We're gonna stay up at the top. Take it all the way over. While you're here, I want you to place that block right in between your ankles.

We're going to go down onto our forearms, forearms right underneath your shoulders. I want you to get rid of all the arch in your back. So plug in that belly. We're gonna flex our feet and sit up tall out of those shoulders. I want you to bend the legs first, shoot the legs straight up.

We're gonna take the legs as low as you can with the arch in the back. Bend, kick straight up. We go down. In and up. Down. In. Give me one more. Reach. And reverse. We go tabletop.

Kick out push out, lift lift lift. Good. Take your time. Squeeze in on that block. Give me two more. And last one. Lift lift, lift, lift, reach. Take the legs down.

Press yourself up using your forearms. Take your stretch. Let it go. Awesome. We're gonna go on to our side, but I'm gonna flip around. So I'm going on to my left side.

I want you to set yourself up towards the top edge of your mat. So you have some mat behind you, and then we're gonna straighten out our legs, throw the block back in between your ankles. So we're still using those inner thighs. You're gonna go down onto your left forearm and then take your ribcage up towards that ceiling, pull in the belly, and find this stacked hips. My feet are slightly in front of my hips. I'm gonna take my right arm up and over, get out of that waist a little bit, reaching, reaching.

We're gonna roll on to our glutes, and you're gonna lift those legs up into a teaser. We're gonna float the legs back down, stack the hips, rotate reach, slow with control. You can absolutely bend your lights, reaching for your ankles, shoot it back out, and go from there. So you choose we got four here, inhale exhale. Reach for those toes.

For three. Hold on to that block. For two, and let's do one more. Perfect. Now I want you to lie completely flat straightening out that bottom arm. We're gonna just hover the legs, scooping and lifting for eight.

For seven. Using that top oblique inner thighs, hover, hover, hover, and lower. Good. Give me four more. You go four. For three. For two.

And last one. Good. Bring yourself up. We're gonna take our block. Place it to the outside of the mat. So we're a little bit wider here.

We're gonna have our right palm on the block, left forearm down, and your feet are gonna be wide, hip width apart, find a plank. We're gonna dip our right hip down, press into that yoga block, rotate onto the sides of the feet, lift that right arm up. Good. We go. Hit dip, right hip down. Rotate reach. We go. Over and reach.

Cut a couple more. Using that right arm, it's like a push up with the right arm dip, push away, and reach. Two more here. Strong legs abs in. Last one. Hold it here. We go down an inch, up an inch with those hips for eight seven six, press away, shoulder down for five, four, three belly button is fine for two.

Last one, take your knees to your mat, give yourself a little child's pose, shaking it out, and let's roll up and start on our other side. So, again, we're setting up towards the front edge of our mat. The block is going right in between your ankles and your feet, and then we're gonna shift down onto our forearm. I want you to really lift out of that waist, take the left arm over. We're gonna roll onto our booty, lift those legs, reach for the toes, and then find that stacked hip lifted and reach. Good.

Remember, you can do bent legs, pulling the knees in towards the chest, and away. Good. Two more, lift, lift, lift, reach long, last one, lift, reach, and Here we are. Take that bottom arm all the way down, stack those hips, and we're gonna hover the legs, engage that top oblique to help you out. We lift, hover, hold pull those legs up like a little fishtail. We go for four.

For three, reach it a little bit longer. Lift, flip, flip for two. And one. Good. Bring yourself up, take that block to the outside of the mat. We're gonna flip onto that left palm, right forearm down, step back into a plank. Leggs are a little bit wider. We take the left hip down.

We rotate, and then left arm reaches. We go hip dip. Press away from the floor. Reach it up. So good. We twist.

For three, for two, keep your breath going. Last one, we're gonna pause in that forearm plank, side plank. Reach it up. Hips go down an inch, up an inch. For seven. For six, keep those legs nice and strong.

For five. Four. Three. Lift it up a little bit more. For two. And one, take your knees to your mat, find that child's pose.

So good, you guys. We're going to take that yoga block, put it right in the middle of your mat. We're gonna grab our hand weights now. Where are they? Here they are. And then just get them ready.

I want you to just tuck your toes, step back to a down dog, pedal out those feet, shake out the head. And then slowly walk your feet towards your hands, find your weights, and slowly roll yourself. So good, you guys. Okay. Moving on to a little arm and leg. Series.

I want your right foot completely on the block. My toes are hanging off a little bit. That's okay. I really want your heel on the block, most importantly. And we're gonna come up to that left ball of the foot. Our palms are facing each other.

We're gonna go into a flat back here, bending the legs, sending the booty back, deep, bending the knees, and then taking the weight straight up overhead. We go straight down. Straight up. Send the booty back, send the tailbone back, belly in. So because we're on the ball of the left foot, 90% of the weight is on the right leg. So really burning out that right glute, right hamstring, and go for the series we go up and down.

Getting your heart rate up a little bit. Reach it long for four. Down and up. For three. Let's do a couple more here now that we have it.

So I lied. Let's do four more. We go four. Lift it up for three. Keep those abs tied in for two. And then we're gonna find a halfway point on one.

Find this flat back halfway. Shift your weight into your right heel. Send the booty back more, more, more. Go for eight, shoulders are back. For seven, six, five, dig a little bit deeper, get a little bit lower for four, for three, really nice you guys for two, and then come up on one.

Palms are facing out this time. We're gonna cross our knees go into a little curtsy lunge with a bicep curl straight down, and you're gonna tap your toe out to the side. So all my weight on my right leg, we go cross curtsy. Little tap. My left leg's almost doing like a little ronde de jam back and then out to the side.

By the way, you guys, if this feels scary or up on this block, like you're gonna fall over or roll an ankle, I want you to just do this on the mat without the block. Totally fine because you're still balancing even on the floor because we're on the single leg. Let's do four more exhale for four. Keep those elbows away from the body. For three, straight down. Keep your chest up for two.

Let's do one more together. We're gonna stay down, pause and hold. We go into that pulse. Arms go up, legs go down. Down an inch, up an inch for eight.

Seven, six, five, keep that upper body up for four, three, two, and one. So awesome. Stand up tall. We're gonna take a big step out with that left foot drop it straight down. We're going into a squat flat back. Arms are going straight down, and then you're gonna squeeze your ankles together. Arms go out to the side.

Step out. Drop it down. Squeeze and lift. I'm kind of flexing my left foot. So I can clear the floor and just go straight to that yoga block. Keep the abs in, send the booty back deep bend in those legs.

Wider, a little bit wider step out so you can really get low, push off and stand up. Tall, tall, tall. Let's do four more. Squeeze that right glute. For three.

For two. And last one, pause here. Find your balance. We're gonna take that left foot up to a little pause say. So bring it in, find that balance. It's okay if it's wobbly fight for it. Palms are up. Arms are up.

We're taking the palms down and up for four. Good. You really have to focus here. Plug in the belly. Use those abs squeeze that right glute. Good. Let's do a couple more.

We go for four. Whoo. For three. So good. Two more. Two. And one, you're gonna step your left foot forward. Good. You're gonna take your right foot back because we're gonna place our right knee right on top of that yoga block. Alright.

Our arms are forward. Our back is upright. My back toes are tucked. We're gonna do a flat back over our left leg straightening up the right leg, kicking the arms back into this tricep kickback. And then start all over.

Tap the knee, come forward. So the left leg stays bent the whole time. We're just bending and straightening the right leg. Tap and press flat back, get forward over that left leg. Let's do four more. Bring that body upright and then flat back forward.

For three. Good for two. You got it. One more. We're gonna pause and hold. Find this lunge.

Pinkies high. Arms are straight. Just pulsing the arms. Squeeze in between those shoulder blades and take those shoulders down away from your ears. Pinkies high. Let's go eight, seven, six, little higher for five, four, Three, plug in the belly, two, and one awesome.

Take the weights away. Take your knee back to that yoga block and then step the left leg back. We're gonna take the left leg or left knee to the mat. Palms down underneath the shoulders. Then we're gonna hike up that left knee so it's knee to knee or in line with your right.

We're gonna kick it straight back, bend it in, and we're gonna tap the floor. Lift. So you're shifting That hip down an inch, up an inch, and reaching it back. Tap and reach. Good. Keep the shoulders down and that belly in.

Let's do four more. Little shift in the pelvis, and those hips pull it up, reach it back. For three. For two. So good. Last one.

Keep that leg straight. We tap. We lift. Super simple, but effective. Good.

Reach it up without arching that back. Squeeze and lift. Let's go for four. For three, for two, on one, we bring the knee back underneath the hip. Take the knee back to the mat.

Take it up so it's on the same plane as the right knee. And then we hike it up to a hydrant. We tap the knee down. Up, lift and lower. Shift that hip and lift the leg.

You got it. See if you can lift that leg. Hip height. So get it up if you can. Breathe four more. You got this. Tye in those abs.

For three. For two, Last one, we're gonna kick the leg out. Tap the floor and lift for eight. Seven. Six. You got it for five. For three, your right glute should be on fire for two.

It's been supporting you this whole time. And one, good. Step back to a plank. Wider legs though. So, like, mat with the part, shift forward. We're tapping opposite palm to shoulder for eight. Keeping the belly in and the hips is square to the mat as you can. Give me five more.

For four, for three, two, and one, shift your hips back, let it go, walk your feet back underneath your hips. Shake out the head, those shoulders while you're down here, grab those weights, slowly roll yourself up. And let's start with that other side. Shall we left foot on the block and make sure that heel is really on the block. You're going up onto the ball of your right foot. We go flat back forward, straight down, straight up.

Good. We go flat back, send the booty back. Find your breath, find this flow. Keep going. Reach.

While you're here, really focus on that left glute. So squeeze the glute when your leg is straight. So you find that balance, even though your right toes are down or the ball of that foot is down, You're still keeping the weight over on the left. Let's do four more. Four.

For three. Really nice. For two, Good. On our next one, we're gonna stay halfway. Stay here. Go down a further an inch, up an inch. Just that. Keep it tight.

We got eight. Seven, shift your weight into your heel back a little bit more. For five, for four, belly button to spine for three. For two, and one come all the way up. Perfect. Arms are gonna rotate, so it calms out, cross your knees. We go curtsy lunge, bicep curl, tap the toe out to the side.

Cross. Down and up. Keep those knees sort of close to each other. You don't wanna get too wide here where you lose your balance or you get off of your standing leg. I want you to keep that weight on that left leg.

Good. Keep the elbows away from the body and keep that back nice and straight. Your upper body's straight up. So no flat back here. Or we're not pitched forward. Good. For four.

For three, we got it for two. And one, let's do one more. Stay down. We go into our pulse for eight. Arms are going up an inch, down an inch, legs are going deeper. Whoo. For five, four, three.

Nice two. And one find that balance. Okay. Big step out to the side with the right leg. Foot is flat, cinder booty back. Now we're pitching forward from our waist.

Arms are going out to the side. Squeeze those ankles together. Drop, lift, lean forward, sending the booty back. Big squat. Keep the shoulders down, but lift those arms.

Good. The wider your legs, the more you'll feel this work. Good. Lift. Find that balance. So use the abs to help stabilize everything. Let's do three more.

Keep your breath going. Last one, and come all the way in. Good. Find your balance. Find a passe. Take the palms halfway up.

Arms go up. We flip the palms down and up. Elbows stay slightly bent. Squeeze everything. That left glute is squeezing.

Your abs are in. You're fighting for this balance for four three, two, and one, step the or the right foot forward, left foot back. So now we're over our block, and that left knee is gonna go all the way to the block. Arms are forward. We're extending straightening the back leg, pitching forward from our waist, flat back over the right leg for eight. Down and up.

Good. Get those pinkies high. Lift those arms a little bit more. Keep that right leg bent for five. For four. So good. For three, stretch that back leg for two and then pause and hold on one.

Shift forward a little bit. Pinkies high. Give me that pulse with the triceps lift. Arms stay straight. Give me eight seven six five four. Make sure that knee is right over your ankle for three for two. So good. One more and one.

Take the weights down. So nice. Take it back. Left knee is going to the block. Hands underneath your shoulders. Line up the knees first.

Take that right knee to the mat. Shift it back. So your knees are in line and then kick it back we pull it in, drop it down, lift it up, kick it back. So good. You guys here shifting those hips, but keeping the belly engaged. So everything is controlled. Good lift and reach.

Let's do four more here. Really fully extend that leg all the way back. Reach it long for three. For two, Last one, keep the leg nice and straight. Tap the toe to the floor and lift and squeeze.

Good. Keep that knee, the back of the knee nice and stretched. Shoulders are down. Left, lift, lift. You got it. Go for five. We're almost there.

For four. For three. For two. And one. Bend it in. We go back to that little shift of the hips, tapping the right knee to the mat, line up the knees, and then hike the leg up to a hydrant.

We go down, and lift. Tap it down. Lift it up. Go. Keep your head in line with your spine. And give me four more tap, lift, reach. Good. Hike up that hit or that knee hip height.

If you can get it up two more to breathe it out one more. Now, kick it all the way out, tap the floor. Lift for eight. You got it. Seven. 65. 4, lift, lift, lift, 3, plug it in, 21.

Good. Step it back. Find that plank again. We go tapping opposite shoulder, palm to shoulder. Keep your hips square to the mat if you can for four. For three.

For two. And one, holy moly. You did it push it back. Step your feet more closer together just so you can pedal out those calves, and then slowly walk your feet underneath your hips, cross those forearms, hang your head heavy. So swace, I decide, letting your low back release, and then take your hands to the mat, bend your knees and slowly roll yourself up.

Wow. You guys. That was awesome. Thanks so much.