Creative Foam Roller Mat

Rolling can be fun. Not only like a ball, but on a foam roller. Y'all, we're about to go on an adventure. Are you ready? Alright. Before we start, let's just kinda get the body of the orientation together before we get on this thing. So we're gonna start in a quadruped position on all fours. Michelle, why do we need the foam roller?

Watch. Just stay with me. Alright. So in your quadruped, we have a foam roller right in front of us, want you to get your body orientation and center yourself right here. So we always have that nice little box, the wrist in line with the the elbow, elbow, and their shoulder, knee and hip, about a 90 degree angle. Flexing at the at the but these are not ankles. These are wrists. At the wrists.

So I want you to warm your wrist up. So in this, just give yourself a rock forward. And as you rock forward and back, you're gonna bring that ab muscles towards the ceiling, squeezer took us and engage your glutes, and we're warming up these wrists because we're gonna be doing all kinds of wonderful things on this foam roller. Alright. My dear is we're gonna find our center here Go ahead and put your hands on the foam roller in front of your belly, sitting slightly back until the hips, and I want you to lower the hips and lower your chest towards the mat. Finding stretch here.

As you stretch. And when you kinda push the foam roller away, and you're gonna feel this stretch right in through the arms, and just let the head get heavy, ears next to the biceps triceps area, you know, the arms. And if you have a little more stretch, go ahead and go deeper. Or warming everything up. Take three breaths here. Last one.

Great. Find a little more length through the fingertips and push the foam roller slightly more away and find more length in the neck. Tailbone reaches back, tops of the feet are pressing into the mat, turning everything on. And then I want you to bring yourself back up into that quadruped, and then I want you to rock enroll that foam roller right under the wrist. So we're here. Get a little bit closer. Now we're elevated at the top of our body, and I still want you to bring those abs in.

So with this, we're gonna rock the wrist and just kinda roll through the hands. Right? Here we go. One more rock away, and then pause there. Now if you can take your hands off of the foam roller or you can leave them there.

Let's go into a cat cow. We're gonna take the tailbone tuck it under, head comes and looks through the legs, and then reverse the half circle, tailbone up, chest up and proud, collarbone wide, pressing those hands into the foam roller reversed the circle, tail tucks in, head follows, squeeze around that back around like an angry cat, move through, release, and open the chest. Good. And we're gonna come through this one more time. Soft elbows. Yeah. Soft elbows. Don't lock them out.

And come through. Chest is nice and proud and then find neutral ish in that spine. And when you find it, I want you to push the foam roller just a little bit further away and I want you to just twist You're gonna bend the away arm so you can slide through almost like you're threading the needle. If you all have done my workouts, I call it like the six fine. Six like one, two, three, four, five, six. We wanna move our spine in six different directions before we start.

And wake the body up. Last one on the side. We got a little rotation through our thoracic spine and our transverse abdominis what? And here, I won't be able to tail wag. Hey. Wag the tail. I'm gonna drop the hip.

Little tail wag and drop the hip, head and hip. Opposite ways. And you're really exaggerating. So if I did it this way, I want you to really see almost like a crescent or letter c ish. Other side.

Oh, my goodness. Yes. We're there and bring it back through center. Are your arms talking to you? I know they are. Alright, y'all. We did that. Now we're gonna lay down. Alright. So take a nice little lay down on your mat.

I'm gonna set my feet over the foam roller because I'm gonna use it for a little stretch right here. So my legs are elevated arms are low and a low v, and I'm taking a little walk with my ankles so I can feel my ankles on the foam rollers but it's where it's comfortable. So find your comfortable space and give yourself a little roll through the ankles, both directions, maybe point and flex the toes to alternate the point and flex, keeping that belly button pulled down, engaging the core, the powerhouse. If you've taken my classes, you know my toes do what they want, but let it let it happen. And I'm gonna point and flex both at the same time now, really rolling through.

And you may feel the back of the legs, the posterior chain coming on, glutes are gonna be tight too. Good. Soft knees. Last one, fruit. And pointy point. And now we're gonna take our feet out a little bit wider than than our mat around the foam roller, and you may wanna roll up the foam roller just about to the end of your calves.

And I want you to keep the knees soft. So we're gonna take our hands wide. Think about the letter x. So nice and long. Alright, y'all. We're gonna curl up here.

As we curl up, the right arm and the left leg will meet, so I'm gonna roll up and touch. You see that kickstand back here? If you need that, use it, come back down, into your ex, and then come up. Hello, and come back. We're not doing a lot of these y'all. Come up. Good. Last one on this side, last one period.

It came up back. Oh, yes. Nice challenge for the side body. Now we're gonna take the arms to a low v. Bringing the legs a little bit closer together about hip width where you are. I want you to feel like you have control of this foam roller with the left leg You're gonna leave that left leg there.

Right knee is gonna come tabletop right there, and I want you to take it up to a 90 degree angle. If this is too much, always feel free to bend that knee and soften it more so you don't have too much of a lever or a weight issue with your leg. But I'm gonna go to a full 90, and I'm gonna give a little leg circle, just one little circle each direction down and around and up, and the other side. And then come right there. Hold it there. Now I'm gonna take this leg across my body and give a little stretch. It's okay if that hip lifts up.

That's gonna give us a little adduction stretch stretching through this hip here. And you got this nice and lovely foam roller to keep you honest, and then bring that leg back to the center, and we're gonna open it out to the side, a little abduction, holding that stretch. And you're feeling like your hip is really in control because it's pressing down that foam roller, bring that leg right back to 90, and then bend the knee into your chest, give yourself a little hug and a squeeze in there. Woo, and then shoot that leg back out, switch sides. Alright. My deers were going on. That knee comes into the chest.

We know what to do already. Take it to the 90, the 45, or that bend. Totally okay. Give yourself a circle. Either direction. Just one.

Good. And around just to wake up that that joint, the hip capsule. Yep. Alright. Taking that leg across the body. Hip raises, find that stretch. Pull those abs in.

Stay long in your neck. Good. And then bring it back to 90. Woah. A little stretchy there and then take it out. And then bring it back to center, give it a hug and a squeeze, and then shoot that leg right on back out now.

We're gonna cheat. We're gonna roll this mat to roll the what do you think on a foam roller towards us right about there? We're not gonna use it right now because I just want you to crunch really quickly. So take the hands behind the head, and then I want you just lift up crunchy crunch. And two.

Three. We're doing a five. Four. And five. Wonderful. Now you're ready for the real work.

That was fun. Want you to take those feet, and we're gonna place them on the foam roller a little bit wider than your hips, and this is gonna take us into a bridge. Now find your balance. It's harder than it looks, but I know you got this. So find a little space where you can lift your bottom off of the mat and press your feet into the foam roller. Pull the belly button in and try to find that forward plank squeezing. I know.

It's a lot. So go ahead and roll your spine down, melts into the mat from the sternum all the way down to the tailbone. Can we do it again? I knew that you could lift up. Let's articulate up. Let's do it differently. Articulate up tailbone raises, whoa, hip flexors are up to the ceiling.

Hands are down y'all and find that there. Now you have an option to hold longer or you could just roll down from the breastbone all the way through and lower everything. Your hamstrings are screaming and so am I? Oh, so are mine? Alright y'all. Go ahead and come up to a seated position. Get there however you get there.

This is where you're gonna either fall in love with me or totally hate me. You decide. Alright. Our hip flexors, if we sit a lot, drive a lot, very sedentary, we don't work our hip flexors enough, and this is gonna get you where you need to be. So I'm gonna turn it long ways. Turning it long ways.

Now take my legs front forward and and extend them in front of me, finding your tallest point, now maybe I wanna push it away a little bit more. I know what's coming up, so y'all don't know this. So hands are planet behind me, or you can go lower fingertips towards your hips, we're gonna work these hip flexors. So lean back or stay tall, lift that right leg and take it up and over the foam roller. What? And do it again.

Happy hip flexor. Now, if you feel an extra frog yesterday, you could take your hands off. Anybody counting? How many I did? And last one, are you feeling it? Okay. Cool. Guess what? You got two legs. Do the other one.

I don't know. Look, ma, no hands, and the foam was removed. Here we go. Stay there. Alright. We're ready. Nice tall. Fine. Oh, one.

Try not to hit the foam roller. And two. Mhmm. Try to stay tall. Three. Staying tall through the crowd of my head for sure. And four.

Last one before my leg gives up on me. Ah, there you go. Ah, reject it. Phew. Yes. That sounded like a, like, a halfhearted hoo. It's a really big deal. Okay.

So next thing we're gonna do, lots of fun. You're gonna extend those legs out like you did before and take the ankles and the legs right onto the foam roller. Now I want you to find your your bottom and scoot a little bit closer to the foam roller. Think butterfly. The soles of my feet are pushing together or together, and I'm gonna find a place where I can give a little bit of a rock and extend the legs straight. Heels together? Whoa.

Have you done this before? No? It's fun. You know when an instructor says something fun, it's not. But is it good for you? It is. And do one more.

There we go. I like it. Now, because we're already here, go ahead and roll yourself back down. Keep engaged. And now I want you to find a place where you could put the feet onto the foam roller again, and we do like a little shimmy shake. So we had our bridge find find a little space between you and your mat, lift your hips, and I want you to dip the hips. I call it a a glute scoot sometimes, and you'll see me do this again on the mat a little bit later. So we're hipping and we're dipping and we're finding a little happy place for our hips. We'll do one more each side. And you're feeling it and then want you to lower everything to the mat. Yes.

Awesome. Roll yourself up. I'm gonna keep my foot on this foam roller because she might try to get away from me. Alright. So I'm sitting crisscross, applesauce. You have all the options in the world. You can go to a z sit, whatever it is, but I want you to get a little love for your mermaid.

It's mermaid esque. How about that? So my hand is on the foam roller It's just enough places where I can find roll in my fingertips. Yes. This is your break, by the way. Okay. Opposite arm comes up. Call spine. Use those fingertips to take and push the foam roller away, keeping that opposite hip pinned to the mat.

Come up. Roll that foam roller with you. A little different? Try it again. Push it away. Really reeds. Really try to keep that opposite hip onto the mat.

We got one more, but y'all know I like a twist with a mermaid. So I'm gonna do one more twist. See there? And then I'll take this top hand and go to the foam roller twisting at the torso and just finding a stretch. And I love rotation. We need rotation in that thoracic spine. So there we are there. It's delicious. If you need more, you can go further, take that head back and look at whatever's behind you, and then bring yourself back to center.

Take your hand up. And then come back through. We normally do a counter stretch, but today, we gonna let that be. Other side. You ready? The fingertips know what to do. Right? Test it out.

Perfection. Alright. Arm up nice and tall, crowd the head grows. And we press and roll the foam roller away. Look at the hip trying to stay down. I love it. And if the hip lifts a little bit, it's okay.

It's okay. It's gonna learn. It's gonna learn today. It's gonna learn. As you keep doing this, this is almost like a, like, a rehabilitative re is that a word? You can use this as a recovery. That's a good word.

I can say that we're gonna turn our head and give a little twist for a mermaid. Really ringing out that center twisting again extra credit if you want, the head and look behind you for rotation in the neck. We love it. And come back through, reach the top, arm over, and then come back up. Delicious. Alright. Stay with me.

We're gonna turn the foam roller long ways, and we're gonna figure out how do we lay our bodies on top of this thing. Okay? Alright. I have it right behind me. So I'm gonna keep my feet flat on the floor. You see, I have the back kinda touching it. And I'm gonna place my back on it, but also find a place where I can find balance that midline is so important.

And depending on the size of your foam roller, you wanna make sure your head and neck stay on the foam roller for support pulling the abs in arms are in a low v at your side or maybe even a goalpost at your side, but on your side, wide hands to make sure that you have control of the foam roller. Alright. My dear, go ahead, take both fingertips up to the ceiling, using yourself that proprioception accepts proprioception is kicking in right now. You're like, oh, where's my balance? We have it right here. Go ahead and bring those arms back. And I want you to alternate the arms in your arm series, left and right, going all the way back, reaching behind the head, fingertips, reaching through both directions, staying engaged, and keeping your balance. What? Yep. One more set y'all.

Coolio that I just got, and a half. Okay. Read that right back to center. Now I want you to take your arms open them out to the side like a t. Right? Now you're gonna bend the elbows. Think goal posts. Right? And then bring those elbows in to touch. Open up. So this is opening and spreading the chest.

Open We do a lot of typing. We do a lot of things that we have a forward posture. So this is gonna help us find a little more stretch through the back of our body. Our run boys, the shoulder blades, and our shoulder girdle altogether. We're loving.

Wonderful. Fingerships back up to the ceiling. Yes. You're still balanced. Go ahead and bring the arms out to a tee again for your tee now. I want you to go ahead and take your fingertips towards the the knees and think snow angel. Right? If you've never been in the snow, just think superhero with a a beautiful cape.

I don't know, or a very powerful cape. I don't know. Take it up. Good. Good. Good. One more. Snow angels, and then bring the fingertips right back to the center. We're not done.

We have arm circles. So take the arms back around. Pulling the powerhouse together and in. We got three of these to do. This is our third one in this direction.

When you come to the end, pause, reverse your circles. Last one. And hold it here. Extra credit. Take your arms out to about a v or we call it a y. Just go ahead and reach the fingertips back and then bring it back to the center.

So think y or v your world and then bring your fingertips back to the front or the lateral side of your body, and then rest the arms. And we're gonna carefully roll off to the side. You're gonna stay seated. Now we're gonna turn our foam roller this way. Okay? I want you to find yourself in the center, and you're gonna have this in your low back.

But I want you to do something first. Roll it all the way back. Use your shoulders and use everything you have to find that sweet spot on your neck, o m g. It's almost like your head is on the pillow. Feed are flat on the floor, abs are pulled in, and just give yourself a little neck roll side to side. Rolling through. We love this.

Alright. Bring the head to neutral. Now we're gonna scoot and just find that first part of our thoracic spine and let the head rest this way. And then find a little bit of roll. We just pick up our body just a little bit or leave it low. A little bit of roll.

And now we're ready to lower the bottom, and now we're gonna take that walk and roll it right under The back. Oh, we're right there. Okay to give extension overhead. So let me just pick that other knee up. That's a great stretch. Full extension here.

You have a option to take the fingertips up. You have a option to have the hands on the side. I'm just gonna hold it here because this is comfortable. I love it and now I'm gonna just bring my head up to neutral and then find that low back stretch right there. These are gonna come towards me, and I'm gonna find a hold on either side of the foam roller. Alright. Leg series.

Pull the belly button in, bring the knees to the chest one by one. Lovely. Alright. Here we go again with that little gloop scoop I was talking about. Give yourself a little twist here because our back is like, what are we doing? We gotta tell them to get ready. Alright. We're ready here.

Extend both legs out to a 90 degree angle. And we're just gonna give a little scissor love here, scissor, stretching, take your time, reset leg away from the hips, long neck, shoulders on your mat, full feeling of the shoulders on the mat. Good. Or more cycle through, and bring both legs back up to 90. Alright. Yeah. We're gonna walk it down so we walk and walk walk it down, shuffling the feet one by one to about a 45 degree angle and then bring it back. What you wanna be careful of here is not to go too far where you're throwing out the extension in your back. You see that? You don't want that.

So keep it right where you can control it. Control it down. Right there about 45, and then come back up. We love it. Circles.

So we did this earlier. Let's do it again. So we're gonna take the legs down around and back up for three times. Careful not to overextend that low back and reverse a circle. And, by the way, nobody set a circle's gonna look alike.

Even my own circles on a given day might be a little bit different. Alright. Bend the knees. We love it. Keep yourself here and have the knees close to the chest and just take this lovely stretch. We like it. And when you're ready, we're gonna gently roll the foam roller away to find our back fully on the mat, lower the floor feet to the floor. One more little piece. Yeah.

One more little piece. Let's do it. Sitch yourself up, swan. Are you ready? Alright. What are we doing?

For this swan? I want you to think about the foam roller being on your thighs. Okay? Is swan esque. So for here, we're kneeling, and then we're gonna take a little extension with our chest over the foam roller. So this little swan is gonna have your forearms nice and flat, fingers are wide, and just find a little roll here. It almost looks like you're prone and you kinda are.

And when you find that little roll out to give yourself a little exercise there, find your happy place, and maybe the feet touch the floor. Maybe you bring the elbows a little bit closer to your body and then find a little bit of extension here. I found a little more extension, but go as far as you can comfortably. And we're gonna come out of it, roll the foam roller, or go ahead and push back to find your child's pose. Take a little stretch.

And then we're gonna come to standing. We're gonna take this foam roller with us. Alright. We're almost out of this. We're gonna just do something delicious and go on to the next part of our day.

Foam roller, we're holding it both sides, either side of the foam roller, take it up. Feet are parallel, and we're gonna do a side bend lateral bend, and that foam roll is gonna keep us on this to make sure we're actually bending through the side. Oh, bleach are stretching. I closed my eyes because it's so good. Oh, One more each side because yes. Look at that reach and then bring it back to the top. Let's roll it down.

Take the foam roller with us, the chin, tucks into the chest, pitching forward, keeping the belly pulling under. And up, like you're going over a barrel, find that stretch, maybe stay here for a little bit, lifting through the neck. Hamstrings are stretching. And then I want you to come up halfway, and we're gonna turn this foam roller sideways. I'm gonna come to the side so you can see what I'm doing.

This is called a ninety ninety stretch. So here, my hands are on the foam roller. My knees are soft, and I wanna just drop my chest hand stay on top to find a stretch in my hamstrings. The ears are next to the biceps. If you need to adjust yourself, please do that. But I want you to think about, like, you're at an angle.

You see that 90 degree angle. And while you're here, feel free to pedal through the feet. Either they're flat or you come onto the balls of the feet. Maybe you wanna drop the shoulder, bend the knee, and do the other side. Just take your time here and do what you need for you.

I'm coming back to neutral, and I'm really letting my chest drop here. And I'm ready to come up. So I'm gonna roll up halfway. I'm gonna take the foam roller with me and keep rolling up to the top. Tall spine, roll down one more time.

Over that barrel. You can see it now. Dropping the chest and then coming back up, stacking the spine. The head's the last thing to come up. On your body and then that foam roller comes up.

Arms are at your side. Foam rollers at your side. Peace and serenity is at your side. That was delicious. I hope you love it.

Do this whenever you need it. See you next time.