Magic Circle Mat

Hi. My name is Caitlyn Tower, and I'm gonna be taking you through an advanced mat with our magic circle here. So please modify where you feel necessary and let's go. Stay at the front edge of your mat. We're gonna go heels together, toes apart, squeezing in, and let's place the circle behind the back of the head. Now you have a couple options here with your hands. You can take the circle holding onto it.

You can also press into the circle. I'm gonna press today. So I want you to hold here. Press your hands into the circle and then press your head all the way back, finding a nice alignment through your spine. Push your heels into the floor and then also lean forward on the balls of the feet, scooping your stomach in and up, let's rise up, up, onto the toes.

Balls of the feet are pressing down, and then you're gonna lower the heels with control finding your balance. Again, we lift up up, up, scooping in, and lower, lower, lower. Again, find the spot on the wall that you can really look at to keep your balance, keep your center, and lower, lower, lower. Again, we lift up, up, up, pulling your center in and up, pull your powerhouse up as you lower those heels one more time like that, up, up, up, and lower the heels down, down, down, take your circle all the way out. Let's press your arms right in front of you. You're gonna push both palms into the circle, pull your shoulder blades onto your back, find that nice alignment again through the neck, and the spine, you're gonna lift up onto the toes, hold here, bend your knees, push your heels down into the mat, and straighten the legs. Do that again. Just a little standing footwork here up bend the knees, squeeze the heels, lower the heels, and straighten.

Again, up, bend the knees. Now as you push your heels down, try to almost think of dropping your tail down deepening your c curve then straighten your legs one more time up, squeezing the heels, bend your knees, lower your heels down pressing into your circle, and straighten. We reverse. Bend your knees. Blow your heels up with the bent knee straighten the legs, lower the heels. Again, we bend, lift the heels, scooping, straighten the legs, and lower those heels. Again, bend the knees, lift the heels, straighten the legs, lower the heels one more time.

Find your control here. Lift, straighten, and lower. Now with control, you're gonna slowly sit all the way down onto your mat. Do what you need to do if you have bad knees. You can come all the way down. However, you need. You're gonna bend, bend, place the circle down by your side, lie all the way back and just hug the knees in towards the chest give them a nice big squeeze here, rock your legs from right to left, letting your low back just release.

And now let's go ahead and bring your feet flat down. Grab onto your circle. Let's bring it actually in between your inner thighs here. Now I want you to find a good spot that feels like you're hugging in but not aggressively squeezing yet. You're gonna press your arms down and let's just feel what the circle can do.

Hugging in Take a big exhale squeeze your circle and feel your ribs coming together. Your stomach is pulling in and up, but try to keep your pelvis long. Most people like to tuck when they squeeze in. And now go ahead, release in three. And two, and one. And again, we squeeze in holding for three, scoop in, feel the ribs pulling together, neck is long, arms are long, and release in three.

Two, one, just two more like that, feeling the hug in the midline. This is just a little pre pilates work, hug, hug, hug, and release. And last time squeezing in hug, hug, hug, finding the midline and release. Now let's try the opposite direction. We're gonna actually walk the feet into the center.

You're gonna bring it up as high as you can on the outer thigh depending on where your legs sit. You're gonna anchor your feet down, press your arms down by your sides. Now we're gonna press out with the circle engaging the outer hip. You're gonna press out and hold for three, two, one, and slowly coming back three. Two, one, you might find this is a little bit easier.

Again, pressing out three, two, one, still breathing your back into the mat and back in two, three. Again, pressing out, reach two, thurry and back in two, three one more time pressing out two, three and bring it in two, three. Beautiful. So we're gonna find ways throughout class to engage both the midline and our outer line. Let's take the circle in between the ankles here, and we're gonna warm you up with your hundreds, squeezing the heels together, stretch your arms up to the ceiling, and you're gonna curl and extend the legs up to the ceiling to start. Reach your arms long, hug your midline and pump your arms full breath in two three four five and exhale to three four five and and squeezing. Let's point the toes forward and exhale.

Yes. Now, see if you can imagine your ribs pressing into the mat and gliding back towards the back of the mat as you squeeze, lower your legs. Let's challenge ourselves here today See if you can bring the legs almost to eye level if you can do it. Keeping your form full breath in, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze exhale to three four five again in two three four five soften the knees. Exhale. Yes. In two three four five, exhale to three four five one more squeeze to three four five and exhale to three four five. Bring the knees and take your circle all the way out.

Just give those legs a little hug. So really important with our circle. We don't wanna overwork any of our joints. We're really trying to strengthen the muscle. So you're squeezing from your muscle less from the knees or the ankles.

You're hugging, hugging from your muscle. Right? Sit all the way up, bring your feet flat down, and let's do a prep for a roll up. We're gonna bring the circle in between your thighs again. We'll take heels together, toes apart, hands underneath the backs of the legs. Lift your spine up tall and then curl in rounding chin into chest.

Find your deepest c curve you can find, actively push the feet away from you. You're gonna straighten your arms all the way out here and hold. You wanna be light through your hands, but still holding a little bit. And then using your stomach curl back up, squeezing your circle rounding forward. Let's stay in the c curve here. Roll back curling straighten your elbows, squeeze the circle and exhale round back up, up, up, two more like that rounding back, curl, So nice and tiny here, scooping round back forward forward forward. Last time, rolling back, little squeeze of the circle, straightening those elbows, and exhale curl back up up up.

Now take your hands all the way down, almost to your butt here. You wanna go nice and low. We're gonna roll all the way back, rolling, rolling, rolling. Your head is gonna hit. And then you're gonna take a big inhale squeeze your circle, exhale round back up forward forward forward.

And again, roll back. This is just such a beautiful spinal articulation, especially if you're trying to teach someone to build the roll up here. The circle supports you. It helps get get your legs involved. At the same time, you have the hands also supporting you. So there's less strain on the back, head, hips, and curl back up big inhale exhale.

Use your breath here. This is a breathing exercise. One more time like that, roll back all the way down. Head is gonna hit. And then curl back up rounding forward.

Beautiful. Straighten your legs all the way out. We're gonna press both palms in. You're gonna curl and stretch forward, and we're gonna do your full roll up from here. So rolling back, and you keep all the same principles you just found, squeezing your midline, articulating all the way through your back. And, of course, we breathe. Let's stretch the arms back today, trying to keep your ribs connected to the mat.

Arms come back up to shoulder height. You dive the head in and you exhale peel up stretching forward, head stretches forward, neck, upper back, middle back, lower back, and roll back down again, slow and controlled. The slower you go, the better. And head hits, press into your circle, reach behind you, fingers are long, and arms come back up, curl up scoop, and peel through your spine reaching forward. Now let's add a little bit more of a challenge.

You're gonna roll back and find the spot that maybe is a little bit more challenging for you. For me, it's definitely the low back. You're gonna hold. Press in your circle, scoop your stomach go one inch lower. Press into your circle, go one inch lower. Press into your circle, go one inch lower one more time.

And head hits stretch behind you. Same thing coming up. It's a little harder coming up. We take the arms back up. You curl in you get the ribs off, you press into your circle, you lift one inch, press into your circle, lift another inch, press into your circle, and big exhale take it all the way over, stretch your back out last time like that, peel it back roll all the way. Lowback.

Now hold right there. Press near your circle one inch down. Press near your circle another inch down. Press into your circle all the way down, stretch the arms behind you, keep those ribs connected. Here we go. Last time coming up, you reach forward, curl in, press into your circle, lift one inch up.

Press and lift scoop into that c curve and exhale stretch forward forward forward. Good. Since we're here, let's hold. You're gonna actually take the circle behind the backs of the feet take both hands on. Pull yourself further forward, flexing your ankles, bend your elbows wide, and pull the feet back. Yes.

Come back up. Good. Lie all the way back down. Let's do your roll over from here. Coming down, we're gonna squeeze the circle in between your legs again. Press your arms down by your sides.

Start with the legs up at 90. Hug the circle to lift the legs up and overhead. Now if your toes can reach the floor, flex the feet. Try to push your heels away. Point the feet. Squeeze your circle.

We roll back down. Upper, middle, lower tail. Stop at 90. Notice if your arms tried to crawl off the mat. You wanna keep them right by your sides narrow to open the chest. Squeeze the circle. We go up and over.

Hold. Try to get the hips over your shoulders. Flex the feet. Push the floor away. Point the toes. Press down through the arms. Keep them on your mat.

Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, slow and steady for our mat today. One more time, we lift up and over, stretch, get those hips over your shoulders, flex the ankles, and point Scoise your circle and articulate through your back, upper, middle, lower, and tail. Bend your knees. Take the circle down. Pull your right leg in towards your chest, and we're gonna do a couple of extra yummy stretches today. So hug that leg in, holding here, really fold the hip, bring the knee to your shoulder so it is slight diagonal and breathe. Good. Now from here, we're gonna cross the leg over the body.

You're gonna reach all the way across, open the opposite arm out and see if you can turn your head towards that straight arm. Your other arm is pressing into the bent knee side and breathing again. Let the pec open here, and you're trying to actively reach out through your fingertips creating that twist. And big exhale come all the way back. Beautiful. Now look up at your foot, your bottom one, make sure it's right underneath you.

Sometimes it tends to stray off to the side. Head comes back down. Let's put your foot onto the circle here, your right side. We're gonna point your foot forward and really flex it back opening the back of the knee. Again, point and flex one more time point and flex now holding the flex. I want you to keep your left hand on. Take your right hand right below your knee. Press your leg away, and that's just gonna open the back of the knee a little bit more than maybe you want to. Flexing the foot, hold there, take the hand back on.

We're gonna pull the leg towards you and let it go back again. Pull it towards you, opening the calf, the hamstring, and actively pushing the heel up to the ceiling almost like there's a laser beam pressing out through that right heel all the way into the ceiling one more time, pull and back now hold. Left hand is gonna stay on. Take your right arm to the side again. Cross the leg over the body and get that beautiful IT band stretch here.

Now while I'm here, I'm still actively pulling the right side of my ribcage down, stabilizing my trunk, come all the way back, switch sides, take the right hand on, open the left arm out, and take it up towards the diagonal stretching open the hip. Try to rotate your right hip open, press your left heel down, and take a big inhale, exhale, bring it back to center. Good. Take your foot out of the circle. Let's press into both sides, push your palms into the circle. You're gonna point your top foot, flex your bottom foot.

We're gonna cross the leg over the body down around and uphold. Again, the press of the circle is holding your upper body stable. So if your circle's moving, you're not stabilizing enough, push into it a little bit more and try to freeze your arm still in space. Reach around and up. One more reach around and up, reverse open. Cross over the body and uphold.

Open. Cross over and hold. Again, reach. Cross over. And hold two more push into your circle and lift last time scooping in and up, bend that knee, place the circle down, give that leg one more big squeeze, and it should feel so nice after doing that whole series. Take your right leg down. Let's do the whole thing on the left side.

You're gonna pull your left leg in towards you, folding it in as far as you can and taking it towards the shoulder. Breathing, let your right hip open. And then let's go ahead and cross it over the body. Press your right hand into the bent knee. Left arm is gonna stretch and open to the side, turning your head to that left arm and really enjoying this twist here.

Breathing in and exhale out again in and exhale out and slowly bringing it all the way back in take your leg up to the ceiling. Let's bring your foot onto the circle. Again, making sure that right leg is right underneath you, we're gonna point and flex the left foot and flex back opening the back of the leg point and flex two more point. And flex. Last time, we flex, hold. Keep your right hand on. Take your left hand underneath the knee, not on top, underneath.

You're gonna flex your foot open the back of the knee, and this side's a little bit tighter through my Achilles here, but you really wanna press and stretch the heel to the ceiling. Now try to keep your leg just like that. We're gonna pull the leg maybe two inches towards you and back actively trying to keep the left hip down. Yes. Again, you can almost think of your left outer hip reaching towards your right inner heel that'll square off your pelvis. And back one more time, we pull And back now, keep your right hand on.

Open the left arm to the side one more time, stretch the it band crossing the leg all the way over, push through your foot and still try to keep that hip down. And then bring it back switch arms to get out towards the diagonal. Pull the leg up up up. You can bend your left elbow to get a little bit more pull, scooping in, especially through your right side, your right c curve here. And stretching your right heel away from you, big exhale, bring it back, take your leg out, press into your circle, stabilize your shoulders, point your top foot, flex your bottom foot, cross over the body, down around, and up again, reach down around and up, reach, down around, push your bottom heel down as you're pressing into the circle.

One more. You got this around and up, reverse open. Cross over. And up, open, crossover, and up, and two more, and lift, and last time, and lift, lower that leg all the way down, squeeze your legs together, We're gonna roll up from here. Reach your arms forward, curl your chin in towards your chest big exhale stretch your back out. Reach forward.

Beautiful. Bend your knees. We're gonna take your legs in, the circle is gonna come over top of the legs. I want you to take your hands onto each side of the circle. Now actively press out. You're gonna wake up that outer hip.

Try to break the circle. Hold here. Bloat your feet off, squeeze your heels together toes apart, and try to break the circle even more. You're gonna rock back. Let's say 25% and then back up. So don't go the whole way.

Try to rock 25 and lift, press the legs out. Do that again. Rock and lift, press the circle apart. Now try to go 50% of the way. 50% of the way back and up.

Press the knees apart. 50% and up. And one more time like that. And up. Now go 75% of the way. We go back and lift And the reason I say don't go a 100% is most people lose their control going all the way. They really get out of their center, out of their powerhouse.

The 75% is actually normally okay and lift one more time. We rock and lift. Now take your circle out. Pull your legs all the way in towards you. I want you to take one hand. Let's go right hand over your left ankle and then take your left hand onto your right wrist.

This gets a little bit harder here. Pick your feet up. Now pretend your arms are that circle. Press your knees out. Wake those hips up, and let's go. 75%.

Press your legs out. Those are your outer hips. Right? We need to keep those engaged through this exercise. Two more. Lift. And last time scooping in, exhale up.

Rest. Grab onto your circle. Take your arms in front of you. Press your arms in. Shoulders onto your back.

We're gonna peel your spine back rolling, rolling, rolling. Keep in mind your head alignment is your head pulling forward. Try to pull it back a little bit more than maybe you think. Arms are gonna come right above your head. Let's pull right leg in. Extend your left leg out.

You're gonna switch the legs. Now if this is feeling easy for you, let's lift the head up curling in. Yes. Reach and reach going right into our single leg stretch. And we did all of that work through your legs, through your hips. You wanna think of stretching the straight leg hip flexor as you fold the opposite leg. And if you want more of a challenge, we go lower with the legs.

Reach and reach pressing into your circle. If you want more of a challenge, we take those arms behind you and stretch and stretch one more each side and pull both legs in, give them a squeeze hug, hug, hug, heels together, toes apart. We're gonna take the hands as low as you can at the ankles so the circle might touch your feet. You're gonna curl in stretching the arms out You're gonna reach your arms and legs away from each other for your double leg stretch. Hold for three. Hold for two.

And one, exhale back and don't rush it. Again, we reach hold two, three, exhale in. Again, reach, stretch, press into your circle, exhale in. One more. We press reach, reach, reach, exhale in, lower your head down. Let's take the circle behind the back of the head.

Don't you love this thing? I know I do. Okay. Bring it all the way back. You're gonna place your head down for a moment. Take your hands to the inside of the circle, curl your chin in towards your chest, pressing the hands up, take your legs up towards the ceiling. Now, hold here. Try to actively reach your elbows out wide.

Ribs are pulling down the mat, and really back towards the back edge of your mat. We're gonna do your straight leg stretch. We're gonna reach that single leg down and we lift and reach just one at a time and up and reach and lift, press through the arms reach. Now let's alternate. You switch, switch, switch, switch four more four, and three, scooping, two, One, and both legs up, bend your knees, and take your head out squeezing those legs in towards you. Let's go ahead and hug back in between the ankles here.

Heels are together, toes are apart. Take the hands stacked behind the back of the head, and I want you to hold here widen your elbows out, take your legs up to the ceiling, squeeze gently in. Now we're gonna do three pulses down. You're gonna squeeze in three two, one, lift up in one. Squeeze three, two, one, lift up in one curl higher, squeeze two, three, and up. Last time, squeeze two, three, and upend your knees and take your circle out, hug the legs back in towards your chest.

Good. Almost through our series of five. Take your left foot flat to the mat. Now before we do this next one, try to elongate your pelvis here. It's gonna wanna tuck under quite a bit. Try to keep a little more length.

This one's a little challenging. We're gonna keep your right leg up. Let's flex your right foot. The circle is gonna come underneath the knee, not on top. You're gonna take the hands behind the head, and your left elbow is gonna come all the way to the circle. Hold here. We're gonna press into your circle trying to close the circle, open your chest and back.

It's small and press small and mighty and back. So good for your obliques. Now pay attention to your hips. Can you keep equal weight through your hips? So especially as you press and twist to your right, keep your left hip anchored. Two more, press.

Keep the right leg still. Press and rest. Whoo. Right leg comes down. Left leg comes up. Let's flex that left foot.

Take the circle underneath the knee, right elbow on, hands behind your head equal weight through your hips, and let's go press and back, and press. Keep that right hip down. And again, press And back three, more we go three, and back, and two, and back one more time, three, and back take your circle out. Now let's go ahead and just do your regular twist from here. Pull both legs and hands back behind your head. You're gonna twist your right and I want you to hold. Try to twist and get your back elbow off of the mat. Lift up through the center big exhale.

Back elbow is off. Stretch the opposite leg out. And switch slow, and switch, slow, back elbow. One more each side twist. And last time, twist, we rest hug the knees in towards your chest.

Stretch your legs all the way out. Just take a moment here. Sometimes, oh, you can start cramping through my abs during that series, but it's such good good work. Take your arms back behind you and think of your legs stretching away from you as your arms reach away from the legs. Take a full breath and exhale, let everything go. Good. Let's sit all the way up.

We're gonna go right into your spine stretch. But we're gonna open the feet and take a quick stretch before going into it. So feet are flexed, maybe a little bit wider than your mat. I'm gonna have you take the circle behind the back of the head. We're gonna bring the front of the circle as far down in between the knees as you can. So go ahead, hold here.

Back, let's press on to the inside so you get more press. You're gonna curl in hold. See if you can get the circle to touch the mat, press your head up into the circle creating that opposition. Now if you can't get your circle to hit the mat, just go as far as you can and still create that opposition of the back of the head pushing up, scooping in. Yes. So this is where we're trying to aim the top of the head in our spine stretch actually is supposed to come to the mat, which is not easy.

Now let's take the circle in front of you. We're gonna take the right hand onto one pad or one side of the pad and then the left hand onto the other. I want you to press down and lift up as tall as you can holding for three, two, one, and let it go. And again, this is very similar if you've been on the Wanda chair to our our spine stretch on the Wanda. You press down with the spring. The spring is now our circle to lift off of your seat.

And back. Now as you lift off of the seat, press again. Can you pull back through your ribs, through your lower powerhouse, and back. Again, one more time like that. Press. We're just building your spine stretch up. Chest is open. And release, take your circle down, stretch your arms out in front of you. Let's put it all together.

You're gonna lift up as tall as you can with your inhale. Now exhale. See if you can. Get the top of the head in between the knees, exhale, exhale, exhale, inhale back up, like a vacuum all the way, inhale, inhale, inhale, then we exhale And you should feel like there is no exhale left in you. You wanna get all of it out. Oh, and inhale stretch back up.

And again, exhale curl. Head, upper, middle stretch through your arms, trying to bring the top of the head down, and roll back up. Last time, exhale curl. Keep the press down through the arms that you got from the circle, exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale. Now we're gonna hold over, grab onto the outer edges of the feet.

Pull the feet back and just stretch here. Pull yourself a little further. Maybe get a little more length through your mid back and come back up. Good. Take your fist down by your hips. Lift your tail up, bring your legs together.

Grab onto your circle. I know you missed it. Or that last round. Squeeze your legs together. Let's take hands over top of the legs, and we're gonna find your balance.

Squeeze your heels together toes apart. All we're gonna do here, extend the legs up and hold. Can you lift your chest up a little higher? Now bend back in, heels together toes apart. It's really gonna engage the back of the hip, squeezing that circle lift. And bend, finding that deepest c curve and stretch, lift your chest and in, and we're gonna rock.

You're gonna straighten your legs out squeeze your heels, lift your chest, draw your chin in towards your chest. We rock back. We rock up. Again, back. And remember what I said at the beginning, go 75% of the way back, not all the way. And, again, when you rock and exhale up, can you get lighter through your hands?

We don't want a death grip here. Just nice and light and exhale squeeze your circle for support. It's actually there to help. If you can believe it, one more. Squeeze it, exhale, we lift, hold, hugging the circle, walk down the legs, bend your knees, and take your circle all the way out. And let's go ahead and press the arms down.

We're gonna go into TikTok before your corkscrew, squeeze your heels point your toes. No circle for this. I want you to just feel the hug of the heels from your inner thighs as if the circle is still there. We reach, press your arms down, down, down, and back. Other way, now your hip is gonna lift first, then your waist, then your rib, and now rib waist, hip, and that's so important because it really makes you use your center instead of letting the weight of the legs just fall and a rib waist hip one more time the other way.

Hip waist rib, it's hard to say, and rib, waist, and hip let's circle it Same idea here. We're gonna reach to your right, anchor your arms down. Take your legs low if you can. And back, we reverse left. We go down, scooping in, and up one more each way reach around and up last time reach around and up, bend your knees and hug, hug, hug, hug, sit all the way up for your saw.

We're gonna prep this just like we did your spine stretch. So scoop back holding here. Lakes are a little bit wider than your mat. Take your circle in front of you. Okay. Sholders are onto your back.

Pay attention to your neck alignment. Try to pull your head back in space a little bit. We're gonna twist to your right already, pay attention. Did your left hip lift. Keep it anchored. You're gonna press down with the circle right on the outside of your right ankle.

Reach your opposite arm behind you, and you're gonna press three times. Press release. Press release it small, press release. Grab a hold of the circle. Take your other arm up and let's twist to the other side. Rotate, exhale reach, hold here. Right hip is anchored.

Press or at least press or at least get out of your hip flexors and into your center. Take the arm back. Also, I didn't say this. If you wanna sit on a box for this, you can totally do so. Or bend the knees, you're gonna curl in.

Let's do it one more time each side. Press release. Press release last time. Press and up and take the opposite arm back. And one more sweeping over, right, sit bone is down, press and back last two, press and back one more time, press and back and take the arm back, place your circle down, stretch your arms, out lift your chest, rotate and let's do your full saw.

Big exhale stretch. Reach past your foot. Lift up in your twist. Come back to center. Other way. We rotate big exhale stretch.

Find the right c curve pulling back. Twist and center again, lift, exhale over and up and center and twist, exhale over and up and twist one more time to the right. We're gonna stretch over and hold flex your foot. Your opposite arm can just hang back. Pull the foot back.

Yes. Good. So you wanna find all these exercises ideally you move with ease. Right? When you really master Pilates, everything looks easy, even though it's not, come back up and twist, exhale over. I'm still working on it myself, breathing, keep your opposite sit bone down. You might have a tighter side and come back up. Good. Let's go ahead and flip onto your stomach for your swan.

You're gonna bring the circle to the back edge of your mat. Take your legs together, cross one leg over the other, and let's go ahead and lie down. Now before we get your arms situated here, I want you to squeeze your heels together toes apart. Press your hips into the mat. Pull your powerhouse off of the mat and feel your seat engage. You're gonna take the circle in front of you, press your right hand onto the side of the pad and left hand onto the other side. Let's start with the forehead down.

Now you might already feel a stretch through the shoulders here. It should feel kinda nice, not too extreme. So press down with the arms. You're gonna press into your circle, lift your head up, chest up, try to think of pulling your stomach in and up forward along the mat. Like, you're doing an army crawl forward and exhale release back down. Again, we press down, shoulder blades connect, you lift up, reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, and back down one more time. And let's press down. Lift up, up, up, up, squeeze the heels and exhale back down.

Now let's go into neck roll. You're gonna press the arms down, lift the head up the chest up, same way you just did. Now keeping the press of the arms, turn your head to the right, look down around to the left, and center. Other way, look left. Down around chin comes in towards your chest to the right and center. Release everything back down.

Let's do one more time each side. We press. We're gonna start with the left this time. You look to your left down around to the right and center and to the right, down around to the left and center. Release.

Good. Place that circle down by your sides. We're gonna tuck your toes under sit all the way back onto your heels. Try to bring the crown of the head to the mat, reach for your arches, and we're gonna take just a counter stretch here. Press your low back up to the ceiling, finding that deepest c curve shape. And exhale release.

Come back onto your stomach all the way down. Let's take the circle in front of you. Now you want your elbows kind of at a 90 degree angle here. So press into each side, squeeze your legs together. Roll the shoulders back and we're gonna go right into your single leg kick. See if you can get your stomach off of the mat, you're gonna pull your right heel to your seat. One, two, and switch.

One, two, and switch. One, two hip into the mat, stomach off of the mat on two and switch. Let's get a little bit tricky here. We're gonna point the foot, flex the foot, point the foot for the third one this time, and down. Again, we go point Flex, point and down. Point, flex to mind teaser and down again. Point, flex, point and down. Now you're gonna turn to your left bringing your right cheek to the mat, take the circle all the way behind you gently pressing in legs are to together.

We're gonna do double leg kick. You're gonna pull heels to feet three times three. Two, and one, arms and legs stretch away from you at the same time. So you reach, reach, reach, you're gonna turn your head, bend your knees, and we take three. Two, one, you reach behind you, lift your chest, shoulders are back. Turn the head and legs move together with the arms. Three, two, one, lift up, open the chest.

So much harder with the circle here. Last time, we kick, two, three, reach arms and legs away and rest. Place that circle all the way down. Let's take one more counter stretch, tuck your toes under, bring the top of the head down, and press your low back up to the ceiling. Good. And release.

Flip onto your back. Lie back. Take the circle behind the back of the head. Now we're gonna do neck pull here. Very similar to our roll up, but the legs are slightly apart.

So you want them hip distance width. You're gonna press your hands into the front of the circle again. Breathe into your back, but keep your pelvis long. Flex the ankles, curl your chin in towards your chest scooping in, and we're gonna go all the way. Whoo. First one's always the hardest. Forward, pull it forward three, and further two, and furthest one.

Stack back up. Hold here. Check your feet. Are you flexed all the way back? Try to pull your pinky toes back, lift up and back, and roll, low back, middle back, upper back, head hits. Again, we press into the front of the circle. You curl and anchor your heels down, exhale, lift, pull the pinky toes back, pulse, and two And for this three, lift up, pull your ribs back. Now go back and see if you can peel through your spine, pulling in with your powerhouse deepening your c curve.

And last time you got this, we curl and scoop flex those ankles, slower is better, exhale round pulse. Two, three, lift up, reach up and back. And roll all the way down. Place your circle down. You can scoot back into the center of the mat if you started to scoot back.

Now if you need to watch this one once you can, I don't like people turning their head when their legs are overhead? We're gonna take your legs up to the ceiling for scissors and bicycles. Anch your arms down. You're gonna lift up and over. Your fingertips are gonna be facing the ceiling. Elbows are as narrow as you can.

You're gonna try to almost sit into your palms here, stretch your left leg forward. You're splitting the legs evenly, which is not easy to do. Reach. We come back to center and you switch. Reach.

And switch. Make sure you have a good spot for your palms. We stretch and reach. And reach. Try to keep the up feeling through your toes. So as that leg goes down, it's more about touching the ceiling then reaching out and switch. And I'm going big because I have the range, but it doesn't really matter.

It's not so much about that. And bicycle, pedal, and pedal. I've seen people touch their toes to the mat. So that's our goal is to find that control, reverse down. Down.

Down. And if you're sweaty like me, it's hard to hold the hips up, reach and reach last time. Bring your legs together today. We're just gonna roll down. Press your arms down. Roll down like you did for your roll over. Slow.

Slow, slow, hug the knees in. Whoo. Feel so nice on the hips. Let's take your feet down. We're gonna bring the circle back in between your inner thighs for your shoulder bridge. Before we do your kicks, I wanna prep this exercise, anchor your arms down, squeeze your circle just like you did at the beginning of class.

Now you have more awareness, hug your abdominals together, roll up, lifting low back, middle back, upper back, holds here. Try to get your hips higher than your ribs. You should feel more seat. Roll down. Keep the squeeze your circle upper, middle, lower, and tail. Again, anchor your arms rolling up. Squeeze your circle. Lift, lift, lift, lift, This work is not easy you guys.

It's slow and meticulous, rolled down. And last time like that, you got this lift, squeeze. Everything is going up together, hugging from the hips, hugging the circle and roll roll roll. We're gonna take your circle out for your single leg kick up here. Press your arms down. Roll up again.

Hold. Take one leg up to the ceiling. Switch it. We usually pick the stronger side first. So let's start with the week.

Press your foot down. We're gonna lower your leg, lift your leg, lower, and lift two more lower, and lift last time. And switch. Take that other leg up, lower and lift. Keep the weight on the big toe mound. Two more and up last time and up, lower your leg down. Roll, hug your knees in towards your chest.

Give them a little squeeze and let's rock your legs from right to left. So nice. Sit all the way up. Let's straighten your legs out in front of you and let's go heels together toes apart in your v. Grab your circle.

Take the circle right at the breastbone. Take your right hand on. Left hand on. Lift up as tall as you can. Now we're gonna do about a 20% press into the circle. We're gonna exhale as you twist to the right.

Exhale twist twist a little further and twist furthest and back. Exhale twist your left. Twist a little further. And for this, and back, your feet should not be moving as you do this exercise. We've done all this inner thigh midline work.

Keep the legs still. It's harder than you think. And back. Other way, exhale twist. One, a little further, two. For this 30, look over the shoulder and back.

Let's do one more each side, exhale twist, add your gaze because that changes the exercise to three. And last time, twist three. Two. One. And center. Let's let those arms go.

We're gonna go right into jackknife. No circle. You're welcome. Let's take your arms down. We're gonna roll back and take your legs overhead, pike up to the ceiling, hug, hug, hug, roll down upper middle, lower tail. Again, legs come up and overhead.

You lift your hips up, toes to the ceiling. Roll. Roll. Roll. We're adding a little rhythm. We go up and over. Lift up.

Arms are on your mat. And down one more time. Up We lift, touch the ceiling, and roll down, hug your knees in. Let's reach your right arm all the way out, legs out in front of you. You're gonna go ahead and roll over onto your right side Make sure your circle is close.

Take your right hand behind your head, and now lift both legs up towards the front corner. We're gonna grab onto the circle. Press into the circle with your left arm. Now reach your right elbow out long. The setup for this is so important because it keeps your alignment.

Reach the right elbow. Try to pull your center and we're gonna take your left leg up. Let's just leave it pointed today. You're gonna kick the leg forward one and two. Now stretch back holding down with the top the circle. So press down through your palm.

We go again, reaching forward one, two, and stretch back back back. And again forward one, two, and reach, reach, reach, reach. Last time forward one, two, reach, reach, reach, reach, reach. Let's bring top leg on top of bottom heels together. Toes apart up and down. We're gonna lift up, flex the foot, and squeeze. As you press down with the leg, you press down with your circle.

Again, we point to take it up, flex, and lower, lower, lower, Now hold here for a second. Check your right hand. Your hand should actually be all the way behind your head. We tend to get lazy and put it underneath the ear. Take it all the way back there. Again, we point up and flex and squeeze squeeze squeeze squeeze squeeze squeeze one more time up, and flex in in in in now point the foot. Little circles for five.

Try to touch heel to heel four. Three two One reverse. Keep that circle stable. If you're moving your circle, you're not stable through your upper body here and two and one and lower that leg. Place your circle just to the center here. We're gonna bend that top leg, subtle turnout, so just a little, you're gonna take your left arm underneath the leg.

If you can reach here. If you can't, just go to the front. Now, try to open your chest before you go into this exercise, lift your chest up, get space in your upper back. We're gonna take your bottom leg and lift it up from the inner thigh. And again, lift it up and down. Two more up and down.

Take it up, hold, and circle the leg, circle around, around. And three, two, one, reverse, around. Around. And three, two, and one. Now lower that leg down. We're gonna lie onto your stomach, and we're gonna do beats here.

So we're gonna stack one hand on top of the other. Squeeze your heels together toes apart, and your head is gonna come down. Lift your legs off of the mat. We're gonna beat the heels together. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and eight, seven, six, four, three, two, one, another set, two, four, five, six, seven, eight, and eight, seven, six, five, four, three. To hold one. I'm gonna swing my legs over to the other side so you can see me a little bit better, but you can also just roll onto the other side if that feels best.

Take your body towards the back edge of your mat. We're gonna take the circle in front of you. Lakes are gonna lift and come forward to the front corner. Press your right arm into the circle. Now look at the hips. Naturally, we're gonna kinda wanna sink into our left side and the hip comes down.

You wanna press that right leg longer than your left, and you really get that whole alignment through your upper body, lift your right leg up. We're gonna point it and kick forward front and stretch it back. Again, forward and back. Yes. Forward. These are so good. You guys, Ramona used to say to do these every day.

I don't, but I should. Back. Again, forward one two, and stretch, press down through that magic circle arm and forward forward, stretch last time forward forward, and back top leg on top of bottom. Reach through that right leg. We're gonna point up, flex, reach down. Point up, flex, press down with your circle.

And again, point flex, and last time, up and flex now circle around. Two, three, four, long neck, five, reverse back. And two, three, four, five, let that circle go. Take your right leg up. Let's hold on to the inside of the ankle.

Or if you can't reach that, again, the front side, open your chest and try to keep your hips stacked here. This is gonna be also a hip opener for some people. We're gonna lift the leg up and down, and up, and down. And again, up, and down. Working from the inner thigh up, and down. Now hold the leg up, circle around. Around from the inner thigh. Around. The leg feels heavy or maybe just light from the I don't know.

It's the magic circle is doing its magic here today. I'm feeling it reversed up and around. You could think of making more of an oval than a circle. So you're taking it higher and two. And one. Beautiful. Let's go ahead and flip onto your back again.

We're gonna go ahead at the back side and knees in towards you. Teaser. Let's grab onto your circle. Press both palms in. We're gonna start knees in today.

Heels together toes apart. We're gonna move a little quickly through this because it's it's tough. K? So press into your circle teaser one, extend your legs out. We curl up. Holt, legs stay. You roll down. A little shake is good. Again, curl, and reach roll down.

Last time, reach hold, arms above your head, we lower your legs lift your legs again down. You got this and up one more. Press into your circle and up. We roll everything down. Arms come back legs.

Go down. We lift right up. You scoop and reach. Roll down. Eyes and toes at the same level, not easy. Two more. Press in your circle, go up.

Roll down. The last one, we're gonna lift the arms above the head. Press in your circle, we go up. Arms come up. You press you roll, and down. I'm so vocal. Take that circle down by your side, hug your knees in and in.

Let's rock all the way up, and we're gonna do your can, can from here. So depending on your shoulders, you can stay up if your shoulders are open. I actually do like my can can here with the elbows down, pressing down through the palms. You're gonna walk your toes as close to you as you can, press the palms in. And watch my pelvis for a second.

I want you to think of curling in through your stomach and same time reaching out through your tail. Then we keep that connection. You pull your knees up, and we're gonna take it to the right down to the left. Down to the right, extend. I always feel like a rockette in this exercise.

It should have been my calling. I am the right height for it and down and over and left. And right and over and left. And right. And left stretch and down. Flip onto your stomach, swimming. Let's keep moving.

Take your body all the way down, stretch your arms in front of you. You're gonna lift everything up today. Up. We're gonna look forward, but not too high just kinda forward along the mat. Take your right arm up, left leg up, slowly switch and switch. Try not to wiggle switch, switch, and we go fast, kick, kick, kick, kick, kick, legs up, and exhale two, three, four, five.

We breathe in one more, and exhale two, three, four, five. Bring your hands down. Tuck your toes under, take the hands onto the arches, bring the top of the head down, lift up into that c curve stretch, breathing. Good. Let's do our leg pull front. You're gonna take your hands right underneath your shoulders here. One, and two, anchor your hands down, lift up into your plank shape.

Long neck. Think about how we started class. Pressing your head back up into space, lift your right leg up. We're gonna press your left heel back like you're on the reformer, moving a spring, and then come forward over the toes. Do that one more time. Back and forward switch, right leg down left leg up.

Back and forward, and back, and forward switch back, forward, back, forward, switch, and left leg lifts up, right heel goes back, and forward back and forward, bring that foot down, bend your knees. We're gonna flip over onto your back. I don't love this transition to get onto the back, so I always just turn around. Watch your shoulders here. Your hands are gonna come down.

Want you to roll the shoulders back. And if it feels better, fingers forward, out to the side or back you do you, I'm gonna go to the side. Roll your pelvis up for your leg. Pull back. We go point flex down and point flex down scooping and point, get that leg up there.

If I can do it, you can do it. And flex one more each side. Point and flex last time. Point and flex, lower your hips. Take your hands by your hips for seal.

We're gonna lift your seat up towards your heels. Take your arms around your feet. Press the hands into the sides. Let's go into a prayer frog shape today, pressing the feet together, and we're gonna keep the toes up at eye level, which stretches the back a little bit differently, curl your chin in towards your chest, clap three times. One, two, three, press your feet together. Rock back. No claps at the back today.

Lifting up. Clap. Two, three, hold the feet together. Push them. And back. And lift. Clapping three. I go slow with my claps, two, three.

Just engaging the pelvic floor, the hips, and lift one more time. One, two, three. Rock back. Rock up, find your balance hold, and let's stand all the way up. We're actually gonna grab your circle as we do so, and you're gonna stand into the center of the mat here heels together toes apart, scooping in try to let your tail drop down, release the back of the knee and lean slightly forward over the balls of the feet. You're gonna take your right hand onto the circle and press into the right hip left hand is just gonna come onto the left hip.

You're gonna press and hold for three, two, and one, let it go. Again, press and hold. Two, three, Let it go. Two more. Press and hold, scooping and stay forward on the feet. Let it go. And last time, press and hold. Squeezing the legs together and release.

Take the arms behind you. Reach along through your arms, you're gonna press into the circle. And even if it doesn't press, I want you to imagine it pressing and release. Again, press through the arms. And if you're shaking, it's a good thing. We want that little shake In my studio, we call it the tremor of truth, getting that hug and release, and again, press and reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, and last time, press open the chest.

And release, take it to the left hip, right hand comes on. We press open the chest, holding three, two, one, release again, press, lift up scoop, release two more press two, three, release last time. Press lift lift lift. Release take the arms in front of you. Let's finish pressing into the circle.

We're gonna press in eight times as the arms go up. We press eight, seven, six five four three two one a little faster going down. 87654321. Again, 34567887. Four three two one. To finish, we go on the toes.

We lift up, squeeze your heels, find your balance before you start. We go up eight seven six five four three two one and eight six five four three two one one more time. Six seven eight and eight seven six five four three two one. Hold it. Squeeze your heels, open your chest, scoop your stomach, lower your heels down, and rest. You guys made it.

Thank you so much for coming today.