Madeline's Go To Mat

Hello. I'm Madeline Black, and we're going to do a mat class focusing on shoulders and hips. And you will need a resistance band about this long. And it can be different colors, different resistance. This is yellow, which is a light band. And when you wanna increase the resistance, you make a heavier band, or you can just make your grip a little shorter, makes it tighter.

And then you will need two yoga blocks. I have two yoga blocks that are actually half the size of a normal yoga block, but you can use a normal yoga block and just use that as one or two. Okay. So let's go. I want you to stand just underneath your pelvis, parallel feet, and you can just hold on to your band for a moment. And I want you to feel where the weight of your feet are on the mat.

So I want you to press backward into the back of the heel without your toes lifting off the mat. And then shift your weight from the pelvis. It's gonna shift forward to the front of the heels towards your toes and feel how the weight shifts all the way to the toes, but your heels stay down. And then it's like a sway. And we're gonna sway back to the back of the heel, let your head and shoulders go with you, and then put the pressure on your feet towards your toes, and then find a middle place, like in the front of the heel. Okay.

Now you're gonna take your band, take a shoulder width, just grab a hold, and we're gonna start with a simple squat just to sit back. So send your pelvis back, spread those sit bones, reach the arms forward and give a little pull on your band and go as low as comfortable for you and then coming up. We're just gonna repeat that. It's a little warm up. So sit back, pull on the band, and stand up. Nice exhale here. It feels good.

And press into those heels as you stand up. And again, reach, pull the band and we have to do a few repetitions. You can go a little bit faster. Get the blood flowing and sitting back. Pull here. We are working the hips and the shoulders.

Let's do one more and stay. And now bring the band in. Maybe you wanna come in a little bit to make it a little bit tighter. And we're just gonna pulse. One, two, just pulling out in three. Keep pressing into your heels.

Just getting that going here. Feeling the arms nice and straight. Keep pulling. Keep pulling. Press into your feet and hold, and then stand up. Now we're gonna take the band up overhead. Make your shoulders comfortable so they're sitting there.

So you may have to take a little wider grip on your band, so you don't feel like you're drowning in your shoulders. Alright. And we're going to take the right hand. You're gonna go vertical. Feel that vertical stretch, and then you're gonna take the other hand, and you're gonna pull it down and you're just gonna lean with it. So you're in a horizontal arm here.

Now resist with the vertical arm as that other arm comes up. Make the other arm, your left arm vertical, pull down to the horizontal position, resist the band as you come up. So let's just repeat that. It's a nice lateral flexion. You keep reaching towards the ceiling, reach out sideways, and come up, feel your weight on the outer part of your foot pressing into the heel as you go up.

That feels so good. Let's do another one and reach and pull. And I'm continually reaching in both directions up vertically and horizontally. And come up, and now let's bend the knees. Take a breath in.

Come up again. We're gonna add a twist. So you're gonna start with that vertical arm on the right, reaching up, and you're gonna pull the other arm back to that horizontal position. Now hold that position, the the left arm is gonna stay stable, and you're gonna pull that vertical arm and twist to look at the floor. Keep reaching through both arms, and then keep the resistance on the band as you come back up to that vertical arm and resist the band as you return to center with your arms up. Go to the other side.

Vertical arm, we're pulling, leaning over stretching both bands now. The right hand stays stable as you turn and you're changing to the other arm being horizontal to the floor. And now we're rolling the rib cage back up and then keep the resistance as you return upright. One more time. So here we go, stretching the band leaning into it, continue the resistance through the band as you rotate and look at the floor, turn your chest back and press into your feet as you come up. Last one. So here we go.

Reaching nice and long. It's wonderful just to use your breath naturally. Get that nice stretch. You keep reaching and you keep going up and you come up and then bring the arms down. Just bend your knees because it's a nice release, and we're gonna bring the arms up again.

And this time, we're gonna bring them all the way behind. Feel your chest open up. You can even look up a little bit and down, and then return the band. Now it's gonna stretch a little bit if your shoulders are tight, but try not to purposely pull the band. You wanna challenge the shoulders and see if you can keep that width and then roll your chest up. And feel that breath into the chest as your arms come up and bend down. Okay. We're gonna step to the side of the mat.

We're gonna be on the left side here, and we're gonna take the band and and take it around the back. Alright. Kind of up by under the armpits. Alright? And then bring your elbows inward so that the bands on the inside, and then you're gonna turn your hands outward. So we have a little bit of opening here. And we're gonna step with our left foot out to the side and bend the knee.

So it's a side lunge. So one leg is straight, the other leg is bent, and we're gonna sit the pelvis back. And as you do that, you're stretching the band sit way back. If that feels comfortable, now we're gonna push off the the bent knee leg, push with your foot, push off, and try to stand. It's kinda hard on the other leg, straight legs. So the legs stay straight, and you fall out to the side, nice lunge.

Pull the band. Push. Now you keep using the band to kinda help you balance. Okay. Let's try balance. Just hold here. And now step out and stretch and keep using the band. You can bring the band in if it feels comfortable.

So let's just get into a rhythm. See as you push, you're kind of suspending and falling. And suspend. So you get that suspension, your balance will improve. This is great. Out.

And one more. Here we go. Out and balance. Oh, one more time. Let's do it. We're gonna nail it. Right? Okay. Let's go to the other side.

It's fun to kinda jump around like that. Here we go. And out now that you know what to do, push out, really sit back and lift, and back, and lift, and back, and lift one more, out, and balance. Yeah. Good. We're gonna come back to the other side where we started, and we're gonna add a twist. So take that side lunge, bend now. Your left hand's gonna reach to the ceiling.

And reach up. So now we have a vertical line. Come back here and push off again. Go back and reach to the floor. Your right arm is reaching to the floor. Your left arm is reaching up.

So your torso is twisting towards your bent knee and push up. It's hard when you're in that deep of a lunge and that deep of a twist and try to spring yourself back and balance. Great. Even it's only for a second. Here we go. Other side. Bent knee twists towards the bent knee. You could just look to the floor, stretch the band, push off, and catch yourself.

Falling and catching yourself. It's a really important skill to have so that you know how to write yourself. If you happen to find yourself falling, write yourself, bend. Twist. Use the twist to come back one more.

Twist and push up. Find your balance. Great. Okay. We're gonna take the band back in front again. And we're gonna come up with the band one last time. And what I want you to do, and I'm gonna show you sideways, is I want you to feel your pelvis moving forward. So the weight is going towards your toes Keep moving your pelvis forward, and you're gonna float your heels up.

It's very natural. You don't have to think about lifting heels. So here we go. Arms are up. Shift the pelvis forward.

Use the band to help stabilize, and then just float your heels up. And then we're gonna bounce. So bounce, rebound. Balance, rebound. Right? Bluff.

Keep pulling the band. Just help stabilize through the trunk. Bounce. Bounce. Bounce.

Few more. Oh, try not to grip your toes. Few more and rest. Okay. And bend the knees. Good. Now we're gonna take the band And I want you to fold it in half. If you happen to have a resistance loop, you could grab that now.

So what you wanna do is take the band, the palm of your hand, and then see where your elbow is. So you can grab and now if you have a light band like mine, I might come up a little higher to make it a little more resistance. Okay? So as you're doing the next exercise, you might wanna tighten up your band or use a heavier band. So here we go. We're just tying a knot. And we're gonna place the loop around the lower legs here. So here, through here, and then through here.

And it does roll. You have to, kinda spread it out. And as you're moving okay. It might roll up. It's not a big deal. Right? So we're gonna do three squats. The first two in a sequence.

The first two, you're gonna bring your hands forward. And you're gonna press your elbows together. So that's opening up the back more between the shoulder blades. We're gonna do that twice. And the third arm position is gonna be in that horizontal position.

Okay? So let's do it. We're gonna step back with the left foot. So you're putting all your weight on that front leg now, and we press elbows together. Keep pressing them. Now step out to the side.

Press the elbows. Now we're gonna curtsy this way and press n. Now you're getting the pattern. This is the pattern. Doing it a little bit faster.

Is a little bit better on the balance here. So here we go. One, two, three. Should have my arms together. One, press your elbows. Press arms and press side. Back.

Press side. Back and stand up. If it rolled up, go ahead and move it down a little bit. A tighter band doesn't roll as much. Now you know the pattern, let's go a little faster. One, two, and three, take time. With the courtesy.

These can be quick, and then we can go. There we are. You're taking a bow because you showed up, and you should congratulate yourself for moving, and And so this is for you taking your bow for good work here and reach and and two and three. Let's do two more. One. Two. Out, last one. One, two.

And courtesy. Great. Okay. We're gonna take that out, the band, and just set it aside. We are gonna use it again. And now we take the two blocks. If you have, discomfort in your knees, you can do the same movement in a chair, a sit to stand idea.

So but this is good for everyone's whose knees are a little tight. So you can also build this up higher for yourself if needed. So you're gonna squat back, put your hands on the floor. Place your knees on the mat. And then we're gonna put the tops of our feet and shins, and you wanna make sure the edge of the block is under your sit bones, not sticking out so much in the front. Alright. Now let's just get organized.

Make sure you feel comfortable here, right, through here. And the heels are kind of on the outside of your legs here, and your thighs are nice and parallel here. So we're a little tight, everyone on the outside. So we tend to be a little open. So, literally, like, pick up your legs if you want and put them on the track. Alright? And your heels are on the outside. Make sure your heels are also facing straight up.

That they're not in towards the block or away from the block. Okay. So here we go. Now we're gonna take the band, and we're gonna put it behind us. And you want the knot kinda off to the side. And behind the wrist. Alright. This. And your palms come forward so that your thumbs are out to the side and your pinky fingers near your feet.

Now just sit for a moment. And what I'm gonna have you do is press the top of your feet firmly into the foot, press your shins firmly into the mat, and then use that pressure, try to stay upright, and come up onto your knees. And feel that sacrum, the pelvis pushing forward so that your weight goes to the front of your knees and reach the arms down. Have a little tension pushing your thumbs out to kinda open the chest. And then you're gonna sit back.

Trying not to bend forward. Can you keep your back vertical as you sit? No. If you have to bend forward, it's not the end of the world, but that's what we're working for because we're creating a, what's called, an eccentric contraction of the quadriceps, which is a really strengthening. We need that to go downstairs. But people have issues in their knees. As you can see, I'm repeating, with the deacceleration of going downstairs with the quadriceps.

So you're gonna feel this probably a little later. Okay. And keep pushing your shins as you bring the pelvis up and forward and sitting back down slowly up Don't be in a hurry. We're deaccelerating as we're leaning back and sitting. And let's do two more. Press up and leaning back.

And last one, we're gonna stay So push into the knees. Now let's make sure you got that pelvis pushing forward. It's gonna engage the back of your hip. And now we're gonna hold this position, and we're gonna just press the arms out. See, the lighter band's actually nice for this. Out So if it's too hard, you have to make it a little bit lighter or make your loop bigger.

And we're just gonna keep pressing out. I'm still pressing my shins down. I'm still thinking about my pelvis moving forward. And trying to maintain my shoulders also over the pelvis here. To keep going, nice exhale as you stretch side, out, thumbs out.

Good. Let's do a few more. One more after this. Excellent. And then we're gonna sit back down. Awesome. Great. So now we're gonna move the band.

Put here. Now we're gonna take the blocks And we're gonna use one at a time. So we're gonna place one block here, and your left hand will be on that block. And the other hand's on the floor. So if you know a quadruped position, that's what we're doing. However, I want your knees back a little bit. So not quite under your knee joint I'm a hip joint, but just maybe slightly back.

It's gonna challenge the core a little bit more. Okay. So here we are. Notice that your shoulders are not level. On purpose. Okay. So what we're gonna do is keep the arms straight, both of them. You're gonna press the left hand into the block.

You're gonna push it and you're gonna turn your shoulders. You're doing it from your ribcage and your shoulders. You're turning. Hovering your hand so they're a match now to the block. And then you're slowly gonna lower it down, keeping the arms straight.

So you press into the hand on the block, you push, level your shoulders, the best you think it is, maybe mine art, but does it really matter so much? Alright. The idea is that the initiation of the pushing, it's like a straight arm push up or like a plank, but you're moving the rotation of your rib cage around your shoulder girdle. So we're getting strength in the shoulder that's connected to your core. Alright. So we're gonna be here, and we're gonna come down. Now we're gonna add variation, and we're gonna take the hand free hand, the non block hand, put it on your shoulder here. And you can do the same action, and you're gonna push.

But this time, we're gonna rotate a little bit further and look to the side. So you're really pushing through here, and then slowly bring your shoulders to level. So we're doing the rotation in the other direction. Even if your shoulder drops a little bit, that's kinda nice too. But stay on the one arm. Push and look and lower. And if you want, you can go in, then push, move the chest away from the block.

You can move your head. Try it with looking at the mat. It's a different rotation for your neck. So if you have maybe a tight neck, it's really nice to keep looking at the floor as you're rotating around that shoulder joint in one more time and push, rotate and come down with your hand back to quadruped. Well, we do have two arms.

So here we go. Other side. So place your hand on the block, their hand on the mat, elbows are straight, we first start with just leveling the shoulder. So you push into the block hand, come up level, or what you think is level, and bring it down slow. So again, the deacceleration, push into the block find your position. Now here's the work, really, too, is to go slowly down.

And again, push level. You're just trying to sense that in your body, what you think is level. And push again. It's nice to hold it for a moment and rotate one more, push into it, hold it, and come down. Now take the free hand, put it on the shoulder of the hand on the block, check your pelvis. I just did on mine. You wanna make sure that you're not swaying there. Okay. And now you're gonna push into the block, and we're gonna rotate now.

So turn your rib cage away from the arm on the block, look to the side, don't over crank your neck, and then we're gonna rotate, and go ahead and let that shoulder drop down below, and then push and rotate. Watch the weight on your knees. Make sure that you're equally weighted on both knees. Otherwise, you might be leaning to create this rotation. So it's harder to keep it, with equal weight on the knees.

So here we go. You can try keeping your head in the middle. That feels really good. A little bit different. Different action between the ribs by your neck where they connect. So keep looking. Push, exhale helps with the effort there. Drop one more time. Push, and rotate, and come back, and put your arm down.

Guess what? We're gonna do the same thing on the knee. So let's move the block under your left knee. Okay. So same idea. We're gonna do pelvic rotations. So the knee is on the block, and your shin is on the block. I want, again, your hips not to be too flex, so you have to walk your hands a little bit forward.

So the crease is not so deep in the front of your hip. And now here's an option, the the foot of the knee that's on the block. I suggest that you've never done this movement before to keep your foot down because it it will help. Okay? But if you want more challenge, go ahead and lift the foot slightly off the mat, and the shin stays on the block. But you'll wait until you've done this a few times.

And the other thing to watch for is the sway of your hips. You don't wanna sway the hip to the outside of the block. Okay. Here we go. So what are we doing? We're gonna rotate the pelvis. As we lift the knee, it's floating like you did your hand, And now you're turning, like, your navel and your pubic bone away from the block and the leg. And you can go past level, come to level, lower down slowly. And don't look at the block. Like, I was just doing so keep your focus out on the edge of the mat. Keep your arms strong here.

Here we go. Knee floats up. Turning the pelvis around that femur. You're pushing into your arms, turning and slowly de accelerating it down. Again, press, rotate, watch the sway. And one way to watch the sway, I don't mean with your eyes, feel the weight on your knee So as you lift off, is the weight on your knee and your shin on the inner side of the knee, try to keep it there.

It actually makes it harder. And then come down and make another note because I've seen a lot of strategies here. I'm doing these exercises. Don't let the knee drift out to the side. You're trying to keep that pelvis rotating, and you can see it's hard by my voice. Yeah. Okay.

Let's do the other side. Get the kneeling. Let me move back a little bit. Okay. So set up your hands.

Let's get organized. Shane is on the mat, knee is on the mat, foot's on the floor. Alright? Not too much hip flexion and no sway. Alright. Here we go. So we start by lifting the knee up, feel that into the pelvis, and then rotate around that hip. Now this is definitely my more challenging side.

So we're gonna exhale, but we're working on it. Right? So and down. And again, exhale up. I'm really tracking my inner knees best I can. I have a limited rotation to the right in my pelvis because of asymmetries, but I'm working on it to create that to improve it and rotate.

Keep breathing. And up and rotate. That's it. So I'm using that nice exhale to help me with the effort and to rotate around. Okay. One more. Here we go. Up rotate.

Yes. Good. Alright. And come down. Alright. So just sit for a second.

Let's let the wrist kinda recover a little bit. You can do this upright if you don't wanna kneel. Okay. We're gonna now lie prone. So let's take one block over here because we're gonna use it in after this next exercise. Alright. We're gonna lie on our stomach, and we're gonna take the block.

And you're going to I'll show you this way. Alright. Let me get the band out of the way. Okay. So you take the block and you slide it. So it's in the vertical position, not tall, but vertical. And you place the block and you have to push it up right against your stuff.

Right there. Okay. And you maintain that. So I'm gonna turn. Alright. So make sure the block's not, too far forward here because we're lying on our stomach and we want the flatness in the legs and the pelvis here. Okay. So we come to quadruped.

And then we're gonna walk back. We're gonna lie down. You'll feel the block, kind of adjust. Alright. And now this is gonna be vertical. My legs, I really want them to spin inward.

Spin them in, but your heels stay aligned. Don't spin in that the heels drop out. So see if you can find that. And then you're gonna stack your hands here. Now the block, okay, The block is there for you to hold. Right. So you're engaging there.

Think of it as an egg. So you wanna hold it. You don't wanna drop it, and you don't wanna break it. Okay. So go ahead and lie down. You're gonna place your forehead on your hands. And you might have to, like, inch your shoulders out as you settle into gravity.

So now I just want you to take a couple breaths. So take inhale slow. And as you exhale, feel the front of your pelvis melting into the mat, kind of feel it pressing, you're gonna feel the front bones, your pubic bone, the top of the pelvis, just let it reach, but don't lose your block. Okay? So again, take another breath inhale and settle in. Now, some of us have a gap which is right where the leg meets the pelvis. And what we're trying to do is have gravity help us to get rid of that gap. Okay.

So here, I'm gonna take the last breath in here. So see if you can find that exhale. Kind of feel that gap go away, press into it a little bit, feel the front of the pelvis, and you're gonna feel your chest. And as you lie here because you're in gravity, things change. So you might have to move your head and your hands so that you're not feeling all like cranked up. Okay. So now we're settled and we're organized and we've got the egg right through there and we're going to take an exhale and you're gonna bend both knees at the same time, but stay with the block and mind the gap. So press down. So only bend your knees as far as you can know that you can keep the gap close to the floor.

And then slowly. So as you repeat this, as you're doing this, you're gonna find that maybe you have to stop 45 degrees knee flexion be before you start to gap. That's a gap. Okay. So just keep repeating. Keep pressing and the higher your feet go, the more you have to press. Into that gap and down. And we're only bending the knees to about 90.

We're not going to the buttocks. We're just trying to engage and mind the gap. Okay. And down. So let's repeat a few times. Engage the block. Here and down. Slow down. Okay.

And again, I like working with the deacceleration. So we slowly bring the feet down. And again, use the block. And down one more time. And and down. Okay. Now, we're gonna use our arms more.

We're gonna push your arms and your hands into the mat, push firmly, elbows to hands, and float your head up, but you're still looking at your thumbs. So I'm not looking out in front of me. Looking at my thumbs. So keep pressing. So now we have to float here. And we're gonna do a single leg kick, but slow. Again, we're working for mining the gap and the deacceleration. So here we go.

Engage the egg, bend. And slow. Two, let's say three. Same leg. Press.

Press into the gap. Extend to three. Again, bend. Now for those really mobile people who don't have a problem with a gap, you can start to lift your knee a little bit. Now you have to press the opposite side down. You have to press the opposite hip into the mat to lift the knee slightly.

And go extend and down. To lift your leg high, you have to change the weight on your pelvis, and I really want you to keep firmly pressing. So it really is only gonna be a few degrees. And so here we go. Feel the right side of your pelvis, the right side of your thigh, into the mat, bend the knee.

Now exhale. Press into the mat. Feel your pelvis. Stay there. Extend So it's hardly anything at all for me and down, but it's a lot. It's a lot of work. And here we go.

Pressing the right side. So when you have one leg bending, the opposite side loves to rotate off the mat. Alright. Let's do one more. Here. Push and reach. Oh, see, each one gets a little better and better.

Alright. Let's do the other side. Now readjust your thighs if you need to. Visit the egg. Make sure you got a good handle on it. Mind the gap. And bend and extend to three.

You can go quick on the bend. As long as you're pressing your pelvis into the mat and extend bend extend slowly, three. And you can lift the knee, if you like. You have to press on the left side as you go. So I'm bending my right knee and I'm pressing my left side of my pelvis. And my leg into the mat and I'm using my arms, which I've already lowered my head because I'm thinking. Alright. So try to keep the focus at the thumb and reach.

You know, you get so focused and it's the challenge of having a whole body focus while you're moving, especially when you're concentrating on a area like the hip. So we wanna keep the whole body active and attentive to the movement. Okay. And rest here. Alright. So now we're gonna remove this block, but we're not getting up yet. And we're gonna take the other block and put them by the side. Alright.

So our organization of our legs will be the same that we just had, and you're all nice and activated there. So it should be pretty nice and easy to hold it there. And we're gonna place the elbow and the forearm on the block, and I have that block in that vertical position so it can support that. Now your head is down to start. So you kind of on the tip of your nose, don't squish your nose, but you're just right there. And the first action you're gonna do here is still think about your pelvis in the mat, and you're gonna stretch like you're trying to move the blocks away from the mat. It's not really going anywhere.

It's sliding a little bit, but you wanna just engage so that's it's sliding sideways. So it really engages. And then you're gonna press into the block and we're going to try to float the head up. Don't look up to the end of the mat. Just look at the floor.

And when you get to the lower ribs here, where you feel the weight there, see if you can take a nice exhale and actually lift the ribs off the mat. So we're not extending the spine per set, but I've got the abdominal area lifting the mat lifting my ribs off the mat. So reach the arms, try to keep that reach. We're working muscles in the armpit to help stabilize and effort us. We're using the strength of all that musculature and fascia in armpit and then trying to lift the ribs off and come down. A couple more. Reach.

You wanna do as many repetitions as you can keep the sense of the form. And when an exercise exercises hard, you start to shake a little bit and you start to lose your form. So that tells you how many repetitions you should do. And then you keep working on it, and you start to do more reps. Okay. Enough for me. So we're gonna move the blocks out of way, push up, into Quadrip head, and we're gonna sit sideways and grab one block.

Now, I'm gonna place the feet here. And I like to do it on the heels, and we've just been doing a lot of, extension and strength into the torso. So we haven't done really any flexion. So your back is really nice and fired up, and that sometimes takes the body a little bit, a moment or two to get flexion back into, at least for my body, it does. So just take it easy here, and we're gonna hold the block here.

And I want you to think of the block, I mean, as an image, like, here's your head, here's your sit bones. So your shoulders are over the hips, and we're gonna lean back We're gonna lean back in one piece. Can we keep the ribs and hips in the same organization here? So you're gonna press your hands into the block, and you wanna emphasize the pinky side of your hand. So we have more pressure on the outer side of our hand, but you can still hold the block like an egg. So now we're gonna lean back, and you're gonna feel your weight go to the back of your sit bones there, and your focus will go up a little bit. As your head follows the torso.

And we're doing hip flexion to come back, and you can reach the block. So you're really pressing into the block firmly. I'm just leaning back, trying to stay organized, and coming back forward and press. We're going back, exhaling, keep pressing, and coming back. And again, I like to do about five of these. You can certainly do more You can certainly hold heavier weight.

Lots of options for this challenging organizing movement here. Okay. And come up. Now we're gonna go all the way down. So you're gonna go into flexion, and you can slide your heels in or slide them away to come into this position. Okay. So we're gonna do a shoulder circle, and I'm gonna take this out. There we go. Alright.

So arms are gonna go You're gonna push the block towards the left. Well, it's my right, pushing the block. I'm using my hands. Now I'm gonna squeeze the block with both hands as it goes overhead, and then I'm gonna push in the opposite direction. So we're making a circle.

And what I'm looking for is how the hands are pushing the block, and the block is actually saying horizontal to the floor. So I'm not tipping the block at all. If I were to tip, that would mean I'm rotating. So I'm really trying to keep my torso nice and stable and get my shoulders like a wheel. It's like a wheel going around, and it's challenging to keep the elbow straight.

Let's go the other way pushing the block to the side holding it firmly with both hands overhead, pushing it to the side, watch that elbow, and round. And you should feel your weight nicely in the scapula. And the range of your circle can be what's good for your shoulders. Some people, you know, have some issues, and they can be a little little, like, sticky there. So we're just trying to unstick that a little bit and release the shoulders. Okay. We'll go all the way around and come back. Now take the block and walk your feet back. I'm gonna place it under your pelvis here. Okay.

Now, just rest for a second. We want the whole back of the pelvis on the block. So the sacrum's in the middle, and then you have either side of your pelvis. And just rest for a second because your back will really like to relax into it. You're gonna feel it kinda sinking and just allow your body to have that time. Okay.

So now we're gonna bring the right knee up. You're gonna hold the back of the knee, and gently pull it towards your chest. Okay. Now notice your pelvis, because normally, when you bring one knee up, that side of the pelvis comes with it. So I want you to try this cue. And that is to think about your tailbone and see if you can turn it, like, arc it. So it's turning towards your left leg.

It's an interesting feeling. So try to maintain that. So it's going towards the left leg, and I'm gonna that kinda right your pelvis. Alright. We're gonna lift the left leg up. We're gonna stretch it straight up to the ceiling.

Now I want your heel to go outward and your toe go in with the foot staying right over the pelvis. It's a weird position. Let's see if you can hold it. Now we're gonna reach outward and track your weight on the block. So you wanna go down as far as you can.

Do it slow because you got gravity you're working against, but also I'm noticing when does my weight wanna shift on the block? That's where I'm gonna stop. It probably, unless you're hypermobile will not be on the floor. Okay. And then we're gonna bend the knee and just come up again, like a little bicycle. So come up. So let's do that again. Turn, reach, and I can go a little quicker, but just monitor what your pelvis is doing. Really reach out.

And now I'm gonna come back up straight. Come back up straight or you can bend. Good. And here we go again. And each time I'm really tracking my pelvis, and I'm seeing how much further can I go and not let my foot spin out? That's the challenge through here. Okay. Let's do one more time.

And down And the other thing that helps is if you pull that right knee towards your chest a little bit, that helps anchor your pelvis more on the block, and you'll be able to get a little more range here. Now you can bend the knee if your foot's not on the floor and then slide your foot back place your right foot down. Bring the left foot up. Grab a hold of it. Check your pelvis, do a little tail arch to the right. Alright. And bring the right knee up.

Straighten the leg. And we're gonna turn. So the heel is going out. The toe is coming in. I'm tracking my pelvis, feeling my ribs just resting on the mat and just seeing how far can I go before maybe pull the left leg a little bit? Before I go, and to be like, oh, I actually have a little more range on that side.

So at least it feels that way, and that could be my proprio reception, but it feels easier, like, has more ease for me to lower without me tipping my pelvis. Changing the weight on the block. Then this feels good. So no judgment. It just should feel good. Just like shouldn't have a goal.

I gotta touch the floor. No. You wanna go, what does my body wanna do to get here? Alright. So we're gonna do one more down. Reach out. Okay. Reach and then bend the knee if you need and get to the floor and then slide the leg back. Alright.

We're gonna place the foot down, remove the block. Okay. And just notice your pelvis and your back and your shoulders, walk your feet wide, bring them back towards your pelvis a little bit. Maybe your fingers can touch, and then drop your knees in. Bring your arms up.

And we're just gonna let the arms flop. Now when I cross my arms over my chest, we all have a preference. So mine was the right on top. That's always my go to side. So I'm gonna bring my arms up and actually switch and I'm gonna make my left arm be the one on top.

And then just soften your eyes. Take a couple of breaths and relax. And you could stay here for one minute, two minutes, twenty minutes. Whatever it is you like to do. And thank you for being on the mat with me.