Class #62

Mat Progression Series 4/10

50 min - Class
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This is the 4th class in a series that takes the new student from Basic to intermediate Mat work. Learn how to twist safely using your Powerhouse versus the lower back. Emphasis on the Pilates Stance originating from the Powerhouse, hips and buttocks as well as extending a single leg down the middle of the body. Mat work consists of Basic/Intermediate Exercises with an introduction to Teaser.
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All right everyone. Let's go ahead and we're gonna. How about you to face each other and then you guys face. That was perfect. And then have your feet at this end of the mat. Nice. And your bombs towards the middle. I had a warm up a little who all wet from the rain? Yes.

Slow down a little bit more. There you go. And then just lie down onto your back. I'll let you guys start warming up nice and cozy for good and we're going to bring your knees, keep them bent and feet flat on the Mat. There you go, John for great. Okay, so you should be nice and comfortable scooping in. Put your head down on that pillow. Good. You've got your box. All right, so we're actually going to get pretty much right down to a lot of the mat exercises today because in the beginning let's get your hips over just a little bit to me and your shoulders and head a tiny bit that way. Yeah, there we go.

We are straight now though. So make sure that you're not looking behind. You at least be looking up towards the ceiling, but if you can even kind of look towards your center that way, the back of your necks really nice and stretch. Keeping your head down on the mat. Yeah, very good. Yes, it's a big stretch for us. All right, so we're going to be, as we go more and more in each class, there'll be more and more exercises we have to get through. So all our real long explanations of all of these theories and fundamentals are going to get shorter and shorter in the works. Going to get more and more. So we're going to start off by tipping that bowl of soup towards you and bringing your right knee into your chest. Hug It, and we're just going to review that leg extended up to the ceiling.

And I want you to have those barbershop pulls. You can rest your arms by your side, that barbershop pole, turning out those muscles, hurting them out, turning mat so that your knee turns out a little bit, and then your foot turns out a little bit. The toe should be basically pointing to your right shoulder. All right, and all the time when your foot or your leg is impulse [inaudible] stance, you should be able to see your inner thigh. So if you ever are hiding your inner thigh where your knee is pointing just straight up, then you know you're starting to really work the top of your thigh or the quad.

So you want to be able to always see the inner thigh because you're wrapping those thighs around and squeezing that seat. Good. Now, most importantly, actually what I want to go over today is you want the leg down the middle of your body. So we're going to keep that bowl of soup tipping towards your chest, and I want you to lower that leg, told the thighs, or even so both thighs will be nice and even hold it there. You're holding it by keeping your back flat, pulling that bolt, pulling those hip bones towards your chest. And this is the part that I'm talking about. I need you to squeeze your inner thighs together. There shouldn't be a big gap between your legs.

You want to have them squeezing together because you're wrapping around those outer thighs. You're seeing your inner thigh. Good. Really scooping in. Pull those hip. Yes, that is that extra little degree, really important. And now if you can keep your back flat and those hipbones pour towards you, go ahead and lower that leg down a little bit more. So it's like mid calf. Good, very nice. And again, you're focusing that that leg is extended down the middle of your body. Lower down just a little bit. If you can keep your back flat, otherwise don't. And then pull that light back up to the ceiling. Good.

Hug the knee into your chest. Great. Put that foot back down on the mat. So when you're standing, we talked about if you stand wider than your frame, it's very hard to actually engage all those outer size and that bottom and your stomach will. Even when you're on your mat, it's also very hard. So if you extend, we're going to go ahead and bring that left knee into your chest. And when you extend that left leg up to the ceiling, if you hold it parallel so that the knee is pointing to your shoulder instead of your toes, then it's really hard to use your belly and that bottom, if it's a little bit out to the side out of our frame, it's really hard to go ahead and extend that leg up. Ladies. Good. It's really hard to use your powerhouse and bottom.

So it's really important that you hold it down the middle of your body as if you were standing on one leg. You know if you're standing on one leg, you wouldn't hold it out to the side to try to stand cause you fall. So you put it down the middle of your body. So you're using those outer thighs to wrap and squeeze using that seat and extending long. Keep extending that leg long and the belly pulled in and up. And we're going to lower that leg. So it's mid thigh. So here's a good checkpoint.

Are those sizes there a big space between your thighs or were you able to wrap and squeeze them together? Good. And then keep lengthening that leg as you lower it down to mid calf. Again, your stomach has skipped in beautiful and only if you can keep your back flat. Do you lower that leg a little bit more and it's down the middle of your body. Great. And then keep lengthening that leg and use your powerhouse to bring the leg up to the ceiling. Hug the knee into your chest and then put that foot down.

So not too hard of a concept, but it's going to make a big difference in the corkscrew that we introduced on the last class. Um, as well as single leg, single straight leg. When you're switching one leg at a time and double straight like so a lot of that will, you're gonna focus on bringing that like down the middle of your body instead of just bringing it down to the floor. It's going to be working hard to stay down the middle of your body. Okay, we're going to start off with a hundred here we go. We're going to use that upper stomach to press down like a seesaw and lift the weight of your head to your chest. Arms are right by your side. There we go, and we are going to use our powerhouse.

We are going to tit that bowl of soup to bring your right knee into your chest and then the left knee into your chest as well. Now thinking about that Pilati stances, extend the legs up to the ceiling or a little bit lower if you need to, and we're going to pump those strong arms. Inhale, two, three, four, five. Exhale, two, three, four, five. Great. You know this exercise now, so now you can start focusing on a few other things like is there big light coming through our thighs? If so, we want to turn those guys out more and from the back of our inner thighs. Squeeze them together. Yeah, start using that seed a little and keep that scoop in and up. Good. If your neck gets tired, you can lower it down, but if he can hold it up with your upper stomach gray and inhale two, three, four, five. [inaudible] did we lose that gap again?

Are we still rapping and squeezing and inhale and exhale. It's about 80. We're going to do two more sets. Inhaling if the legs can lower a little bit, challenging that powerhouse, do so but otherwise keep them where they are. And last x head, uh, hug your knees into your chest. Good job. And we're going to go ahead and sit up. Good. So all these tools that I'm giving you are so that you can really sculpt your body so that you're not, the exercises themselves. Do a lot of, have a lot of benefits. Sure. But if you can actually sculpt those, feel those thighs work and at the same time that your powerhouse is working and then later on work, those are muscles too.

It's just going to be that beautiful head to toe toning that we all want instead of just, you know, wasting the exercise. Okay. All right. So now we're going to do the roll back. So we're going to put your knees together and hands underneath each knee. Go ahead and just, uh, put like a thumb on the outside. Perfect. Okay.

And our shoulders steep right over our hip bones and we're going to try to make a big capital letter c with our back. So if we were like on sesame street and we needed to show what a letter c was, your back could be that perfect letter c, there you go. That's how much I want it. Good. Even the lower parts, make sure you're tipping your hip bones away from your thighs so that we've pulled back. Yes, a little deeper. So we have that round lower back to great. Again, we're going to look at our legs. They might not be moving in this part, but I certainly want them wrapping and squeezing together that I don't want them separating. So you start that squeeze from your cheeks, from your bottom and we're going to pull those hipbones away from our thighs or fetal.

Stay on the mat as we roll down our waistband in how Canada start an exhale to get your waistband down on the mat. Hold it there, take a breath and exhale, wrap and squeeze those thighs to help. As you pull those hip bones away from your thighs to come up. Nice. Again, inhale to start rolling back. Don't roll back with your shoulders first, but roll back with your hipbones first and in with the air and exhale back car, right. And we're going to do that three more times. Rolling back all the way to the bottom of your bra strap at the bottom of your shoulder blades if you can. So we're going to make sure we're pulling back with our hip bones, which is beautiful, but the challenges is on coming up. Can we keep those hip bones down? Keep them down. Don't let them go forward.

That's much better. And again, pulling back with the hipbones. Great Teresa. And when you come up, you need extra energy. Squeeze that bottom too and try to hold the hipbones pulling away from the thighs as you curl over. Good one last time. Inhaling to start rolling back one bone at a time. Exhale and inhale to start coming up in.

Squeeze those legs together to help keep them stable. Awesome. And Curl Curl Co. And that is enough for all the way up. Okay, good. Not Easy. All right, so next week we're actually gonna do the full roll-up where your legs are going to be straight on the mat and you're going to start from a lying down position. We're going to run out. It's a hard rolling up from there. Okay, so, but I'm going to give you a little homework over the weekend that'll make you so much stronger for that, so that'd be great. All right, we're going to go ahead now and lie down and remember that the transitions are exercise. So same think hands under your knees. Look Round your back and beautiful Chelsea pulling those hipbones away from your thighs until your head is on the mat. Rest your arms down by your side. Good.

All right, bring your knees in a little up towards ceiling. Good. So that you do have a a nice angle. Okay. Again, you're trying not to just look up at the ceiling, but stretch the back of your neck. Good. How's the boxes it nice and square on the Mat. Your shoulders and your hips are nice and square. You're going to actually have to scoot over those shoulders and head a little bit. There you go. Good. All right, so we're going to do single leg circles.

We're going to do it to tempo, but you're going to make sure you can always see your inner thigh while you do this so that your leg is sculpting and you can start feeling more of your outer thigh and your bottom instead of just your quad doing it, right? So we're going to hug your right knee into your chest by pulling that bowl of soup towards you. Then extend that leg up to the ceiling and with the leg turned out in plotty stance, put your hands behind your thigh or your calf. If you can crawl up that high and stretch it towards you. Just avoid that knee. And if you do grab behind your calf, make sure your shoulders haven't popped off the mat. Good.

So that leg is down the middle of your body. And I want you to press your arms this time onto the mat. Good. And using your belly to pull that leg up to your nose. We're going to do one, slow the bellies. Pull the leg up to your nose, crossing over to your left shoulder. We're using your belly to hold it up there. Let it go down only as low as you can. Keep your back flat and then use your belly to pull it right back up.

Hold it to your nose. We're going to do five to tempo. Here we go. Cross around, up, cross around, up. Good. Keep Cross around, up. Two more. How's that in sigh? Can you still see that inner thigh when you circle the leg? Last one, cross around and hold. We're going to go the other way. Let it go down as you cross.

Don't lose that inner thigh down. Cross around up. Good. Keep that turnout in that polite stance. Cross the body more than go out. So cross that way. Yes. One more. Cross. Beautiful. Hug the knee into your chest. Nice job and we're going to put that right foot down and tip that bowl of soup to bring in the left and you're tipping it.

Not by pushing your feet into the mat, but by using those stomach muscles, right? Extend the left leg up to the ceiling. Make sure you can see your inner thigh and put your hands first stretch behind your thigh or calf. Great. So I know that like can come up that high. Now we gotta make that stomach. Pull the leg up that high. So we're going to press your arms into the map once slow one, use your belly to pull that turned out leg to your nose first and keep it that high as you pull it to your right shoulder and let it go down only as long as you keep your back flat. And when you pull it up, there you go. Beautiful to tempo. Cross around, up, cross around, up.

Sink through naval to the spine. Quiet hips. One more. Cross around hold. Make sure you feel both cheeks on the mat right now and neither cheek comes up while you circle. So we're going to do the reverse. Now go down a little bit. Cross without lifting a cheek and pull it up. Down. Cross around, up, down, cross around, up. Good job keeping the inner thigh and two more down around, up last time crossing more than going out and that's right. Hug your knee into your chest.

Wonderful. Good job you guys. So we're going to bring that foot down and if you can, we're going to use your powerhouse to roll up one vertebra at a time. This one was the hard one that we did last week, so you roll up. Hey, pretty good. Scooping in. Nice. Okay, so our bottoms are at the middle of the mat right now. Bring your feet a little bit forward. There we go. We're going to actually stay there and this is our transition where we're going to put our hands by our hips and we're going to develop nice strong arms and light bottoms as we lift our light bottoms to our forward, to our heels.

No swishing all the way to your heels. There you go. Good. All right. And you can keep your weight back a little bit on your hands that are in the middle of the mat so that you can tip the hipbones far away from your thighs. And we're keeping in mind that when we do that, we do it with our powerhouse. Right? Good. I know we're going to use our power house to hold your hipbones far from your thighs. As you bring the right hand, just under your right knee.

Don't let anything change in that box under your knee. There you go. Yes. But look at your box and you guys kind of all lean to one side when you did that. And then let your bought backs pop. Make sure your lower backs don't pop, but they stay scooped in and bring the left hand underneath that need. Great. So you have your hipbones as far from your thighs as you can so that your lower back is super round and that looks great. And we're going to keep using that powerhouse to hold our pelvis like that. And we're gonna lift just the right foot, an inch off the mat as if our stomach again has pulled it up and rest it down.

Use your powerhouse. Ring the left to feel it in the stomach and rest it down. And we're gonna use our powerhouse to lift the writer. Hold it there because now if you've cheated, it's really going to show because we're going to keep that right foot and add the left foot without popping that back. Wonderful ladies, bring your feet down. Let's do it now. Starting with your left, pulling in. Start with your left.

Good and keep that left foot up and use your powerhouse to hold. Wonderful. So really work on this position right now. This is called balancing. If this is really hard for you, stay here. Relax those feet so there's no energy in those feet. Good. Because you want to really hold yourself with your powerhouse, not balance here by popping your lower back forward.

And some of you almost look like you're going to rock back, which is actually very good. We're going to rock back initiating from that bowl of soups. I want you to tilt that bowl of soup towards you and that's what rocks you back. And then come right back up and try not to pop that back forward and wonderful. Good.

Yes. Inhale roll back and exhale roll up. And I think you can even try it too. So I want you to try to tilt that pelvis towards you and keep pulling up also towards you as you roll back. Yes. And exhale and work on that. That's exactly it. And three more. Inhale, roll back and exhale.

You can do it. Nice. Two more. Inhale, watch that head. You know that the head is where the spine starts. So we're going to keep it there. And one more time. And exhale, pulling back your hip bones away from your thighs. A lot of spaces. Beautiful. Theresa, rest your feet down on the mat. That's a hard workout in itself. Good. Okay, we're gonna put our hands behind us and I'm not going to hear any swishing as our light bottoms go lift and go back and shoulders are going to stay away from your ears. Good. Teresa, that might've been just a little too far. There you go.

And now rob, roll down to your back. Lie down onto your mat. Alright, so we're going to do the series of five. Everybody's favorite. And when we do it, we're going to focus. We do a single leg, a double leg, single leg, a double leg. And whenever you do a single leg, we're going to remember that that leg doesn't get to just hang out off to the side or even in line with our hip. But when you extend it, it goes right down the middle of our body. And that's what's gonna really shape our thigh and allow us to use our powerhouse more. Okay, so we're gonna start with single leg stretch and I want you to use your powerhouse to bring the right knee into your chest. Good, Andrew left knee and give them both the hug. Use your upper stomach to lift your head and shoulders. Good.

This is the one where your right hand is on your right ankle. And Go ahead, extend the left leg up and put that leg arm that crosses the body on there. Good. So we're looking at your left leg and is it down the middle of your body, wherever it is, if it's extended to the ceiling or maybe a little bit lower, is it down the middle of your body or is it hanging out to the side? Can you see your inner thigh? Are you wrapping in? Squeezing that leg so that your stomach can pull in more? Let's switch now.

It's the right legs. Turn. Is it down the middle of your body? Can you turn it out more? So you see that inner thigh? Go ahead and switch right and left into your chest, back there and switch right and left. Those hipbones are pulling away from your thigh switch right and left. Try to use your upper stomach to hold your head and shoulders up and switch right and left and hug both knees into your chest. Rest that head down. Love it. Really, really good you guys. So you're really focusing. Could you feel a difference when you held that leg down the middle of your body?

SORTA. Kind of. Alright, now we're going to do the double leg version and I want you to really feel like you're almost like a mummy and your legs are wrapped together and you've got one leg instead of two legs going out because the stronger you work on it here, the easier double straight leg and corkscrew gets. So hands on your ankles. Those hip bones are pulling far away from your thighs to really tip that bowl of soup into your chest is your upper stomach to lift your head up all the way and look at your powerhouse. Good. So your knee should almost be to your ears because you're pulling. Yes, so much in. All right. Your arms go to the ceiling and your legs extend forward into a body stance.

Good, good, good. How are those legs? Is there a lot of light between those lives and circle the arms back as you pull your knees in. Inhale, reach turning out. Let me see it. Or thighs. Exhale. Pull it in. Inhale, reach. Remember that you don't, and exhale and lower your shoulders as you do this exercise. Keep them up. Inhale, reach, wrapping, squeeze. Turn out the yes. Exhale. Use that bottom. And one more time. Inhale, reach. Good, good. And exhale, hug in those knees. Rest your head down.

Very good. Good, good, good. Single, straight leg. Keep your knees into your chest. We're going to bring both legs up and I want you to crawl up your right leg with both hands. Good. And be careful on this. Don't let your shoulders go ahead and bring your head and shoulders up as you do that. Sorry, but don't look like you're like hanging with your shoulders. You should still have some strength there.

You're using your upper stomach to curl up your head and shoulders. Good. And now pull that right leg as much as you can. Stretch that hamstring towards you. Hm. The left one's going to is it's passing, but keep your finger at them. Put your hands up higher with your head and shoulders up. There you go.

So this is a big stretch right now. As that left leg goes down, it goes down the middle of your body. You should be able to see your inner thigh and you're holding it from your powerhouse. So really sculpt that left leg as you go down and switch legs, look at your belly. It's disappearing. You're pulling your hipbones towards you and switch. Good yet energy out those toes and switch.

We've got those two big arrows in opposite directions in switch and switch at fright and left. Make sure you stretch that hamstring, stretch it towards you. Stretch it one more set left and bend both knees and rest your head. Really, really good ladies. I loved how those looked. You were trying to keep your legs super straight. Most people try to bend their knees a lot when they switched legs and it changes the exercise so you can get a really great job. Double straight leg.

We're going to put your hands behind your head, one over the other, no lacing of fingers and you're going to try to pull your ribs in and use your upper stomach to lift up your head and shoulders a little bit higher. Bethany, there ya go. Extend the legs into a Palati stance. No light between those sides cause we're really wrapping and squeezing, scooping that belly and lower the legs only where you can keep your belly in and pull them back towards you and pull in the belly in good and three and exhale to bring them in. Look at your belly. More trees die, but you can pull it in that sense too. One more time from that powerhouse and bend the knees and rest, rest your feet down on the mat. Good. So on that exercise, if you started hiding your inner thigh at all, you're going to start feeling mainly the quad. So you really have to keep that turnout and then it's very hard to relax that lower back and to use that stomach. If those knees start rolling in. So key is to wrap around, keep the beat and Pilati stance and that allows you to use your powerhouse.

Okay. The first time I introduced Chris Cross, which is the next exercise I really talked about how we keep the hips square on the mat and we don't allow them to rock back and forth. We're, I want you to think about that today a lot so that when we do solve later on, we focus on that again. Okay? So we're going to make sure those hipbones are pulling towards us. Hands are going to go behind her head, good one over the other. And we focused also about when we twist, we're not twisting our elbows, but we're twisting this line. So this line is twisting while the one on the bottom is staying straight, it doesn't twist with you those hips cause then you'll hurt your lower back if you move those hips while you twist. Okay?

So I want you to keep your stomach scooped in and lift up your head and shoulders using your upper stomach. Try to keep your elbows as wide as you can. Good, good. And I want you to keep your belly skip, skip, skip, and bring your right knee into your chest. Wonderful. Bring your left knee into your chest. Good. Now you're so strong. Good Bethany. Lifting up just a little bit more relaxes feet that I bet you you could bring those hipbones even closer to you. And that's gonna pull your thighs really deep, almost touching your knees to your ears. That's how far I want your knee.

And every time you bring in your knee, keep those hips. Just like that. Extend the left leg, just the left leg. Now elbows are wide and lead with your left shoulder. Towards your right knee right there. That's it. Good. And switch. Great. And switch. Hold it there.

And you're gonna make sure that you're leading that right, left shoulder, up to that knee, up to that knee, up to the knee. And sewage. How's that right leg? Is it down the middle of your body or is it all the way out to the side and switch. Last set, mate. Look at the back elbow. Are you pulling it back onto the mat and switch? Really look at that right leg. Make sure it's turned out.

Extended down the middle of your body and hug in both knees. Good, good, good. That's another church sign that you've uh, started using your lower back if your leg starts going out to the side. Okay. So, um, the bad news is we're going to do that whole series now, one after the other because we really do need to feel what it feels like to keep your stomach engaged for that whole series. But really good job. Okay. We're gonna start off with single leg stretch, keeping the right leg in, right hand on your ankle, left hand on your knee with some enthusiasm. We're gonna lift up our head and shoulders. Good. And that left leg goes out. Turning out that leg. And here we go. We're going to pull in our power.

Head and shoulders are up. Elbows wide and switch left and right and left. We're going to do four more sets, focusing on that leg, stain down the of our body in and keep your head and shoulders in one spot and one more set right and left, and then hug both knees into your chest, right into the double leg stretch. Inhale, reach. Exhale. Pull it all together. Inhale, legs are in Pilati stance, exhaling and in hell lift. Keeping those hands shows up and exhale. I actually want you to inhale, reach.

Stay right there. Yeah, and exhale. Pull it all together. One more. Inhale, reach. That's better. And exhale. Rest your head for just a second. I'm not that mean. And now we're going to go into single leg straight like double straight leg and Chris Cross. Use your upper stomach to bring your head up both legs extend to the ceiling. Crawl up your right leg as much as you can and lowering the left leg down the middle of your body. And we'll switch. Left, right, left stretch. Focus on the stretch. Stretch. Stretch your rather than the down.

Yes, scooping it. Scooping it. Switch right, left you that upper stomach. Get it up. There we go. Last set. Right left. Both legs are up, rapping, and squeezing as your hands go behind your head. Use your powerhouse to pull those wrapping legs towards you and inhale [inaudible] go a little bit away. Exhale to pull them back up in. Hello Room down. We have our head and shoulders up off the mat if we can. There we go. And really work on keeping those inner thighs looking at you.

And two more exhale to bring the legs towards you. One more in here. Exhale and bend that right knee into you and twist your shoulder up to it. You can do it. Other knee. Go Up to the other knee. Bethany was. Bend your knees at per seconds. Hug of it. Regroup. Now we're going to put your hands back behind your head and that's all right. We're going to pull up and no flex fee and powerhouse is pulling those ties deep into your chest and keep your right knee there as your left leg extends down the middle of your body. Elbows wide as we twist up to the right knee.

Yeah, and switch. Pull it. Make sure your hips stay down and square and switch. Go to the other side, stay to the right knee. Stay, stay. I love it. And switch. Pull that knee and deeper, deeper, deeper. One more second. Oh over. Good, good. And last time really focusing on as hip stinks. Square and hug the knee into your chest. Excellent job.

Good. Sit on up. We're going to do spine stretch forward now. So we're going to straighten your legs and open them so the heels a little bit off the mat. All right, so what we really learned at the last class is how those hip bones stayed over your sit bones. So we were talking about how no matter how well endowed your bottom you feel is that you still can wobble back and forth and you'll feel those two bones on inside your bottom, touching the mat. Go ahead and bend your knees a little bit so you can feel like you can sit up a little taller too. Chelsea. Good. So you know where your hipbone sit bones are, and these are your hip bones. They should be straight over your sit bones and you're gonna use that strong powerhouse to not allow that to tip forward or to tip back when we do spine stretch forward. Okay.

And finally we learned also that when we stretch forward, we're not trying to do a beautiful ballet back bend, bowing, but we're actually trying to touch the crown of your head towards your, in between your knees or even closer. So you're really doing curling into yourself, almost. Maybe like a candy cane, you know, like your backs like this, and then you're just really curling down, down, down instead of two forward. All right, so hold our strong arms up, pull your toes back if you can for nice flex foot. And let's use those cheeks to squeeze up off of the pin cushion. Feel in your body where your hipbones are and keep them there using your power house. Take a big breath and exhale, bringing your head to your chest and then bring the next vertebra forward and the next Vertebra. Good. Keep exhale and keep back ceiling. Keep exhaling. And when you can't exhale anymore, inhale, roll up.

Starting with your navel to your spine. Make sure your shoulders relaxed down as you bring your head up and take another breath here. Inhale and exhale. Bring your head to your chest. You're still squeezing up off your bottom. And uh, every time you go down a little further, try to pull your belly in that much more. And Inhale, rolling up one vertebra at a time and lifting good. Two more. Inhale and exhale forward. Our hipbone staying over our sip ons.

I was our belly pressing into our lower back and inhaling up. Really, really important because when we do saw, we need to make sure we understand that. And one more time, inhaling up and exhale, stretching one vertebra away from the next. Very good. Touching the crown of your head down to the mat and then inhaling up and relax. Completely. Very good. Okay. So you can let yourself go a little bit more, um, but just be aware that you're not completely giving up that lower, lower back and powerhouse. Okay. I want you to go ahead and bring your legs together and lie down on your mat so that your head is still on the mat and he might need to slide a little bit forward or what have you. And then bend your knees.

Okay. So we're gonna talk a lot about that line of your hip bones. Okay? And we're resting your arms by your side. Good. How's the neck? Is it nice and long on the mat? Your box is nice and square. So in corkscrew I mentioned it's really, really important that your legs are in a strong Pilati stance and that you're acting as if the legs are one. So you're trying to wrap and squeeze away all the light between your inner thighs instead of having a lot of space.

So as you circle the legs and corkscrew, it's going to get really hard to not hide your inner thighs. You're going to see that the Plata stands will all of a sudden turn parallel because your quads and your lower back will try to do the exercise. So you really have to work those outer thighs and hips to keep turned out. And when you do that, remember it's easier to use your powerhouse. Okay? So that's going to be your whole focus while you're doing corkscrew is looking at your legs. Can You keep them turned out from your hips?

So we're going to pull those hipbones towards you and bring your right knee into your chest, hugging it, and the left knee into your chest. Great. Good. Now even though your arms are going to be on the mat, you actually want to use those arms. So since your stomach is strong, now we're going to use our stomach to hold your thighs where they are pressing into your chest. And let's focus on your arms. Open those shoulders more and press the tricep or the back of the arm into the mat. Have straight elbows and your hands are on the mat. It's really long arms, but feel stable with that upper body because you're pushing and using your arms to hold yourself there. Okay? So if you need extra help, use that.

Use your arms strong back of the arms, triceps to hold yourself into the mat. Extend both legs up straight if you can. If you can't, you might need to bend them a little bit, which is fine, but if you can keep them straight, great. Make sure you're turned out regardless. Really, really turned out trying to wrap and squeeze all that light between those thighs. Don't blind yourself. You've got to wrap and squeeze it, squeeze it, and I want you to use that powerhouse to tip those hipbones towards you and bring those legs as close to as you can. Lower them down just a little bit and use that belly. Let's really feel that stomach pull the legs towards us. One more.

That goes down a little bit and really feel that stomach and hold those legs towards us. Now don't let those hips move as you let them fall a little bit to the right and then pull them center with your obliques. And we're going to go a little left and pull them centered. So we're not doing a circle, we're just letting them stretch over to the right a little and see if you can sync your navel to your spine and pull them center. Beautiful. And a little bit to the left and see if you can start from your belly to palm center. Great. Bend your knees for a second and give him a hug.

Cause now we're going to do three sets of the full corkscrew where you could a little bit, right? You circled down a little bit, go left and you come center and since it's corkscrew then we'd go the other way. Okay, so extend the legs up to the ceiling. Use those strong arms to present to the mat and legs are straight up and a nice Palati stance and we're going to use that belly as the legs go. Just tiny bit, right down a little bit to the left. A little bit in poem center. Good. Reverse it. A little left down around here. Right. And pull them center and right around to your left and pull them center and to your left around right and pull him. Set up, trying to really feel it.

One last set. How are those feet do it and so to your left, last one around to stay even and knees into your chest. And I mentioned last time that as you advance they're going to get really, really big circles. Go ahead and sit up. Were you able to feel your waistline in that exercise a little bit. Huh? Stomach. Okay. Alright, so very, very important is the same thing for the soft. Okay. And saw is a very important breathing exercise. Um, when we do a short depth pass, what is it called?

Spine stretch forward. I'm going to use you Bethany, go ahead and straighten your legs with your heels just off the mat. So we did this exercise earlier and you're going to have your arms straight ahead. Good. And she made a beautiful sheet c curve as she pulled her belly into her back and head to your chest and she's going to roll forward, forward, forward. So she really rounded her back trying to keep her hip bones over her sip bones. Okay. Opposite is if she just pushed forward and just kept going forward.

That's not around back. Right. Okay. So now we're going to challenge you. Go ahead and round up. Go ahead. And instead of going just forward, we're going to have your arms in your peripheral vision. That means you can see them out of the corner of your eyes. And we're going to press your belly into your back and she's going to twist her shoulders, not her hips, but just go towards added good. But our shoulders good. And we're going to end up aiming our pinky to our baby toe.

Go ahead and flex your feet for me. Good. But as you go forward, you're gonna be tempted again to just go like that. But we don't want to do that. We want to keep those hipbones over our sit bones and it's going to be head to your chest and you're going to round into a c as you reach for that baby toe. Where's that baby toe? Good. And she's going to start from her lower back and roll up to a tall back and then the arms come forward and twist to the left. Good.

Twisting the spine and then again keeping those hip bones over the sit bones round your back forward, head to your chest and pulling in. Good. And she's reaching for her baby toe. Inhaling up and untwisting and relax your arms down. Okay, so there is so much to know about this exercise, how you, how did that feel? It should feel a little exactly when you support your back correctly, you can actually get a really good stretch in that.

But some really important things is Joseph Plys was very famous for keeping you very healthy because we usually, when we breathe, we keep about 10% of stale air in our lungs. But especially in this exercise, if you aim your pinkie for your baby toe, it exactly pulls your rib right into the opposite lung. And it gets right at that very bottom, that 10%. And you exhale all that era, you really ring all the stale air out of your lungs. So it's a real important breathing exercise. So that's one of the things. So when you notice that your hands going forward, if it's like down by your ankle or up higher, it's really not getting that effect.

So eventually you're gonna want to aim that baby toe, uh, your pinky right to your baby toe. Good. And the other one is, is if you see your feet shifting, you kinda know that you're using your lower back to do the exercise. Or if you feel that you only have one cheek on the mat, again, you know that you're using your lower back to do the exercise. So if you really want to feel like you've got a small waist and you can fit like in a corset, then you want to keep those hipbones over your sit bones and really use those obliques to twist you instead of lifting a cheek or letting your feet shift. Okay? So those are things and especially if you have a bad lower back, that's what you're going to focus on is I am not going to let those hips move because I'm going to use my belly to stabilize my lower back. All right, let's try and give saw a chance here. We're going to straighten those legs, heels, good. Flex those feet. And again, you're sitting against a wall and you're going to have your arms out to peripheral vision. Good. So sit up as tall as you can. If it's hard, go ahead and bend those knees a little bit. That is absolutely fine. Good. And we're going to pull our powerhouse in.

Keep those hip bones there and twist to the right. Twisting your spine. Everyone's going to twist to the right. Good. You guys are gonna be opposite and Exhale, curling down into a scene member, not flattening out. Exhale, exhale as you reach that baby toe. And inhale, roll up through the spine, twist to the left, and exhale towards your baby toe. Yes. Beautiful. Inhale up using that powerhouse. Twist to your right. Make that belly disappear and exhale. It pulls in deeper and deeper.

Don't let your left cheek come up. Inhaling up, twist to your left and exhale. Really pull that right rib into your right long and inhaling up and twist. Last set. Exhale less pinky to that baby toe. Really pulling in that left rib to the your left lung. Inhaling up, open your legs a little wider and inhale, twist and exhale last time. Let's keep that right cheek on the mat.

Press it down and inhaling up and rest your arms. Good work. Very, very nice. Could you guys feel a little bit difference from when we did it just two days ago that it's a little bit more sculpting work later on. There is even arm work to that tip. So again, we're always trying to achieve that head to toe. Okay. So we've got one more exercise that's kind of like your homework this weekend so that we can get really, really strong.

It's one of the hardest exercises in Plautus and it's kind of the picture of Palladio's is called the teaser. And I'm going to have you come forward a little bit, Chelsea, so that your bottoms in the middle of the mat. Good. And you're going to just go ahead and lie down onto your mat and bend your knees into, I'm not into your chest. Sorry. Just bend your knees, feet flat on your mat so that your thighs are basically a 45 degree angle with the floor and feet are together. Knees are together. Great. Alright. Feed her together for me. I'm not, there we go. Good. All right. So while you're here, you should be comfortable.

Your back should be flat on the mat and your neck should be nice and down. Very good. All right, so we're gonna sneak into teaser instead of doing it completely. If I'm going to use, um, Teresa to do this exercise to demonstrate it. If you actually, the rest of you wanted to sit up to see it better. Sorry. You can more than welcome to do that. Okay. So the exercise, we start off doing it a lot with help. Um, and then it eventually becomes the teaser. So go ahead and just bring your knees into your chest. Go ahead. And then, I'm sorry to put my bottom towards you guys, but um, and you remember how your thighs like Emory's are at 45 degree angle.

While they're still going to be at 45 degree angle one day, but extended. And because you've learned how to wrap in squeeze like crazy, they're gonna be able to stay straight and together. Okay. Go ahead and give me your hands. Go ahead. And what we've been learning is how to roll up one vertebra at a time, not just like sitting up out of his coffin and real straight, but really rolling up one vertebra at a time. So if you are working with an instructor, we would pull you up.

So you get to use your stomach and one vertebra at a time. She would lift up to try to touch her toes and then she rolls down, pulling her hip bones away from her thighs, one vertebrae at a time. Beautiful control. Really using that powerhouse. So that is the goal of teaser is to have your legs at this level and go ahead and roll up and we help pull you up into this position. Straight arms, good or stomach, supporting her back. And it was called teaser because he would say, come up and touch my shoulders, look at me Teresa, and try to touch my shoulders. Good. But he would always, of course we do. And so he would tease you and then roll down.

So that's where the name came from. Hug your knees into your chest. Okay. So he would always move and make you work just that much harder. We're going to slowly work into teaser because right now we can't hold our legs up, but like that and just move up and down beautifully. Right? So we're gonna stay seated. Actually keep the knees, the thighs a little bit more at around a 45 degree angles that have for me. Good. And just like the roll back, have your hands under your knees. Go ahead.

This is the way I start sneaking this and, and I want you to give me a nice c curve by pulling your hip bones away. Good. Try not to take it too much in your upper back. Rounding. Good. And we're gonna roll down your lower back, your middle back, keeping the feet where they are, your upper back and your head. Once your head touches the mat, inhale, lift your head up and exhale. Roll on up. Trying to roll up one vertebrae at a time. Yeah. Good.

And holding it there. Do that again. Pull your hipbones away. Beautiful. And if your back isn't and coming right back up, the fit feels bad, then don't go all the way down. It doesn't matter how far you go down. It matters that you have control. And we're going to get one more time. Pull those hip bones away from your thighs rolling down one vertebra.

At a time as low as you think you can go and then come back up with control. Pull those hipbones away more. Yes. And now stay there a little bit further back Bethany. Yes. Good. This is the perfect angle actually. Maybe your feet a little bit closer to you. Good. But I ideally in a teaser, your back and your legs make a Perfect v so that's where you want your back right now. Okay. So now I want you to keep squeezing your legs together, but extend just the right leg up like that.

And now roll down as far as you think you can. Keep your legs together and exhale. We'll write back up using that powerhouse. Nice. And we just do it one more time. Rolling away from those legs and scoopin pull those hipbones away.

Good. Hold it there and light as a feather. Switch legs. Good. And pull those hipbones away. Nice. And roll on up when you feel I can't go any lower. Good. You're rapping and squeezing. Don't hide that inner thigh. And one more. Pulling in and ruling up. Great. Theresa.

Good and up. Coming up for me. Everyone stay up, up, up, up, and bring that foot down and sit on it. We are all finished. Nice job. So that's your homework for the, is to try to roll down one vertebrae at a time and you hold the legs, you'll start one, then the other, and then one day they both can be up while you're going down. So I stopped. Okay. Any questions? Feel good? Yeah.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Love it!!! I really appreciate Monica's clear and concise instructions. It's hard work and I sweat, so I know I'm doing something right.
Good series. I'm following the playlist for Beginners and am getting more confident in understanding Pilates.
A truly wonderful class. I've also enjoyed the first three and it's a LOT of work which is great. Thank you, thank you.
1 person likes this.
Wow, the teaser done this way is quite the challenge. I really appreciated this work out. I had two questions afterward: 1. When you have a client who has spent years bent over a computer, so overly tight pec minor, and maybe weak lower trapezius, how do work to get the shoulders back onto the mat and to keep them from rising up? Are there some preparatory routines that you do before starting the sequence? Do you cue them in a certain way?

2. I find that the transition move to rolling like a ball puts quite a bit of pressure on my wrists. Is there a modification or a stretch that helps a client with that?

Thanks for a great series! I'm really enjoying it.
phew! love this series. I really needed something to rebuild my core strength and this is helping a lot. Thanks Monica!
It feels so good to be getting stronger! I enjoy your teaching and encouragement, Monica
This series is very helpful, as I start out again in Pilates, thank you!
Alexandra L
Excellent session. Monica is knowledgeable and cheerful. I learn so much in each session. Thanks Monica and thanks to Pilates Today

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