Stretch and Connect Mat

Hello, and welcome back to working out with you and me. Today, we're gonna get into some lovely yummy stretches and open the body, opening up everything. And we're gonna start by sitting crisscross. So go ahead and sit cross legged. Find a comfortable position for your body and take a second to just center and find the rhythm of your breath. Deep inhale and exhale.

One more big breath and exhale it all out. Take a second to check-in with your body. I'm gonna place one hand on my heart, the other on my belly, and just feel my belly rising and falling as I inhale and exhale. The belly expands and contracts as we center. Good. Really deep breath for this last one.

Audible exhale, deep inhale, and exhale. Nice. Alright. Take our arms up to the center here. Palms are facing inward. Find your tallest spine and reach the hands forward in front of you to come towards the floor, reaching back up to the ceiling, opening up the torso and the chest, activating our shoulder girdles here.

One more in this direction. Flip the palms down towards the floor to push through heavy air, let the fingertips go to the floor, come back up, flip the palms together, flip them away. Good. It's like you're bringing energy to you from the ground and taking it all the way in. One more.

On this next one, take the palms back up to the ceiling facing each other, reach the arms down and back as you twist at the wrist to make a circle up and through. Good. Good. Good. Stretching those shoulders. One more in this direction because why not stop there, pause, reverse the circles. Front, side, back.

Two more. Still pulling that belly button in for a tall posture. Keep the arms up where they are. Take your right arm to your left hip and stretch the side of your body. Keep reaching through the crown of your head to keep the spine reaching long.

That left hip is gonna stay pinned to the ground as much as possible. And when you're ready, come back up through the center. Bring that hand right back up to the top. Take the left hand to the right hip and reach to the side again, reaching long. And come out, bring the hand right back up. Nice.

Now take those legs and sweep them to the side or move them to the side the best way you can. Take both hands down to the mat. And I have my left hand reaching to the mat, right arm is gonna come straight up to the ceiling, and you're gonna feel a stretch of the hip, bend into that left side for your mermaid stretch. Maybe that hand goes further out to find more stretch. Keep reaching through the top of your head.

Crown the head reaches reaches reaches nice and long. And then come back through center, counter stretch other side, bend that elbow and reach, and come back through center, take that arm right back up, reach, and Give me that mermaid stretch and come back through counter stretch. Last one, come through center, stretch through the site, find your longest stretch here. And counter stretch for the last time on this side. Lovely.

Sweep those legs to the other side and see how that feels a little bit different. Yes? Alright. Let that hand take the other hand straight up to the ceiling and then reach long. And counter. Back through center reach. And other side?

Last one, all the way through that reach reach the fingertips reach the top of the head. And then take it over to the side. Long lines. We love. Come back to center, sweep the legs back, come on to the knees.

Sit the hips back, flip your palms, and then place your palms on the mat for a kneeling wrist stretch. Bring my center back a little bit more. So stretching the wrist, find what's comfortable for your body. And when you're ready, flip the palms and come into a quadruped position. Needs are stacked, wrists, elbow, and shoulders are stacked, head is reaching long, and toes reaching away, pulling the belly button in towards the spine.

And for a cat cow, we're going to start by curling the tailbone under, reaching the middle of our back up to the ceiling, looking through. The legs and reverse that half circle, collar bones are wide, heel of the hand pulling in or pushing into the floor, and curl. And open that chest. One more cycle through. Really push the hands into the floor.

And half circle the other way. Find that neutral spine. Now, we're gonna wag the tail. Left hip goes towards the head, head goes to the left, wagging the tail, other side, right hip comes up. Right side of the hip goes towards the hip and wag the tail.

One more each side. And come back through neutral. Take a little rest from your wrist if you need to. Sit back on your heels for a rest pose. And when you're ready, come right back into that quadrant position, here we're gonna extend out that left leg, extend it out long, and lift it up to the level of our hip, making sure the hip flexor is facing the floor, and we're just reaching that leg long.

And now we're gonna reach that toe and touch it to the floor and lift it back up for a toe tap, squeezing out the glutes. Two and three and four staying on the same side. Go ahead. Bring that leg right up where it was. And give you a flexed foot here, holding that flexed foot, we point, we flex and point and flex. Oh, and point.

And last one, hold the flex of the foot, kick it up for a hamstring kick. Four three Two and one, hold it there. Point that toe extend that leg and reach it away. Hold it. And when you're ready, sit that knee down, other side, extend that right leg, toes tapping four times. We lift and lower. Lift, lower.

Last one. Awesome. Bring the leg right back up, bend. We're gonna flex and point that toe flex it here. Point and flex. Point.

Looking good. Holding that composure, holding your powerhouse nice and tight. Keep the flex of the foot here. Keep pressing the hands into the floor and kick it up for four times. Four. Three.

Two. One, hold it there. Point that toe and as you point it, reach it away from your seat and keep reaching that leg long. Hold it there. You're looking great.

And then bring that knee down, sit back onto your heels for a rest pose. And when you're ready, go ahead come to a seated position. Legs are long in front of you, figure four stretch, bend your left knee, take your right knee over the left, pressing your hands behind you, straight body posture, If you need more bend in that leg, you can bring the other knee, the supporting knee closer to find more stretch for that figure four stretch. Three, two, one, lengthen that leg, switch to the other side and cross holding it here. Option to bring that other leg the supporting leg closer and find that stretch.

And three, two, one place that leg, nice and flat to the floor, go ahead and bring your seat a little bit further down your mat and find your arms away from you. So arms are away from you, and I want you to bend at the elbow for a tricep pushup. You're getting a stretch across the front of your chest. The biceps and triceps are getting work. Two more.

Last one. Good. And when you're ready, go ahead and sweep those legs in front of you. Bringing the legs down for a butterfly stretch right there in the center. And I want you to take that right leg out Bring the left one to your middle, and then find a stretch here through the side of the body.

Stretching long, feeling the side of the body opening up. Now we're gonna take that right hand and take it in front of us and see if we can turn more at the torso to revolve at the torso and ring it up. And now we take our body and turn our chest to the knee and stretch towards the knee. Go ahead, roll up, switch next to the other side. So you find that stretch.

And reach through, opening the side of the body, stretching and reaching the headlong. And now we're gonna twist a little bit more. And when you're ready, go ahead and turn that chest towards the knee and stretch here deepening each stretch with your inhale and exhale. One breath here and then roll yourself up. Let's take the other leg out for a straddle stretch.

Take the arms forward and take a stretch forward as far as your body can go. Keep your knees facing up towards your ceiling. Sending your seat back. And when you're ready, walk your hands back up, take your hands behind you, open the chest. And stretch through the shoulders.

Come back through center and stretch forward again. And walk the hands up and come out of the stretch, swing those legs over to the side and come onto your belly. Tuck the toes under, hands are close to the body, and hips come up to come into a pike stretching through the heels, stretching through the arms, shoulders, and lower down into a plank holding that stretch. And press the hips back. And come back forward.

Last one after this one. And come back into your plank. Option here to do a leg pull up, releasing that left leg up, and switch out sides, or hold the plank. Last one, and rock the hips back. And find your stretch.

Hold this forward fold. And then roll yourself up to the top with the head being the last thing that comes up. Like you to take your arms up to the ceiling. Cross one leg over the other, you pick which leg you like. And from here, get tall, pull the ribs away from the hips to come over for a stretch in our AB and ADductors. Holding that stretch, soften the knees, and feel that stretch at the side of your hip, your IT band, holding that stretch.

We're just gonna hold it here. Two more breaths here. Last one. And gently roll yourself up to the top. It might feel a little bit different because you probably don't normally stretch like that and bring the arms up to the top.

Luckily you have another side, switch the cross of your legs, find that tall posture, and reach up and over to find the floor. Keep reaching for the floor, and hold that stretch. Deep in the stretch, deepen the stretch every time you inhale and exhale, Relaxing the neck, relaxing the shoulders, letting the head be heavy, keeping your balance. Two more breaths here. Last one.

And when you're ready, roll yourself up, stacking the spine, take the hands with you. Arms reach back. We're almost there. You all bring both feet parallel. Hands come back up to the center.

We should feel a lovely stretch here full pull the belly button back, and then find that stretch up and over with the legs parallel. Soft bend in the knees. And continue to breathe. Continue to deepen the stretch. Finding your center, go ahead and bend the knees.

Let the seat go towards the mat and straighten the leg. And bend at the knee. And straighten. One more. Bend.

And stay straight Not the head. Yes and no. From the feet, press them into the floor. Slowly roll up. Hit the last thing to come up. Let's take the arms with us up to the ceiling, down and back.

Shaking it off and you are stretched. Thank you so much. That was yummy.