The Basics

Hi. I'm Christie. Welcome to class. We're just gonna get moving. So let's start in a diamond position. I'm just gonna show it to you and we'll turn sideways on your mat.

So it basically is intended to have your soles of your feet together. But for some, you may have to let the feet be apart. No big deal. Okay? We're gonna ease into this. So I'm gonna turn around, and we're all facing forward or back on the mat, depending on how you look at it, and sitting right up on your sits bones. Okay? So you might have to wiggle around and find them. And because for a lot of us, it's not easy to sit up straight.

We're gonna hold on to the shins or the knees and actually use your arms to spread the elbows wide and grow taller. Right? These are the moments that I do think are really important where you either set an intention for yourself or even just take a moment of gratitude. Like, your body works so hard for you all the time. This is your chance to pay it back and walk out feeling really good. So let's give that a shot. Hold on. The shoulders are down.

The collar bones are wide. Inhale. Just fill up. And as you x exhale. Try not to sink or collapse, let the muscles just sort of drop down or whatever. Just be light, be easy.

Inhale again, we'll do a few more of these breaths at that pace. And exhale. Keep it going. The idea is the freer of tension we are when we start a class or a workout of any kind, the more efficiently you'll move. Right? And if you're an athlete, if you're if anyone really, it's a good idea. Let's take one more collective deep breath and just notice how you can support yourself with your arms because that's gonna be a bit of a theme. I'm gonna walk my hips ever so slightly forward.

And then we're holding tall. Take another inhale. Try to keep your shoulders over your hips, but let the hips roll back just a little. In other words, your whole body didn't go back, then inhale up. It's very subtle. It's actually not subtle when you really find it.

But it's like the front of your hip bones, reach backwards, and you're trying not to sink in your upper body. You'll end up in a slight c curve, inhale straighten it back out. You can use your arms. It is not cheating. Enjoy your support that you give yourself. Excellent.

And inhale up and exhale and inhale up. And just while we're here, let's just if you can hold yourself up like that, take your arms out to the side, rotate the entire arm over palms up, inhale reaching up up, up, when your arms are near the top, start to lift your chest a little more. Look up, and then exhale down. Alright. Hold on to those legs. And here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna roll down to about the shoulder blades.

You can slide your arms wherever you need to, but I I'm encouraging you to support yourself. We're still in that diamond position. We're rolling down, and we're about those shoulder blades. From here, I'm holding on to the side or back of my thighs and pushing my thighs into my hands and my hands into my thighs. Do a little exhale come forward.

Inhale back to where you were. It's it's not quite a pulse, but it would be if you were going fast. Exhale forward. Here's some check-in points. Your collar bones are wide.

That means you don't feel your shoulders reaching way up to your ears or your l or arms aren't fully straight. Right? Keep going exhale. Another cool thing that really helps pretty much every move. Start your exhale before you move. Just try it. Exhale. And you just you don't have to do anything. Your abs will naturally deflate or compress. However, you see that. Do it again.

And this time, we're gonna go all the way up. So what are you gonna do? You're gonna press your hands into your thighs, your thighs into your hands, you keep your spine curved until your shoulders are over your hips. You sit up tall and adjust your hands for the support you deserve. Inhale. Going back again. Exhale roll. So lead with those hip bones.

So you can already see glance down. You can already see there's an opening in the hips. The back is round. We're supporting ourselves. This time, let's let the hands go.

If you can, just reach them forward, exhale forward one. Oh, I just caught myself reaching the collarbones up. No need for that. It's doesn't make us actually move better. It just feels like we move more.

One more. Return your hands to your thighs, inhale, exhale, support yourself. You can use your biceps. Try to keep your feet on the ground. That's a real trick. And then sit up tall.

This time, we're gonna go all the way down, but take your time. See where you are in space. Roll down. If your toes come up, that's okay. Try your best to keep them down. That's all we can do. Down, down, down, and then finally, we'll lay down. Keep the legs in diamond.

Ice move forward a little just because it's a more natural place to be. Where my pelvis is down, legs are dropped out kind of in that diamond or butterfly position. Take the arms behind your head. I fully laced my fingers together. You can put hand over hand But let the elbows be up just a little bit so you have room for your neck.

Your shoulders are just easily down. We inhale. XL curl your head neck and shoulders up. Look right forward. Maybe a little higher, like a diagonal line. Inhale, hold, and exhale down. And again, remember we said about breathe for or start the exhale?

It really helps. It lets tension go where it's not needed hold, though. This one's hard. Start the exhale even as you elongate back down. And don't don't kind of hold your your fingers laced, really connect, exhale curl up. Doesn't matter how high at this point.

To stay here for a sec. Just gently gently press your head back into your hands to you feel a little more stretch in the neck, and inhale exhale down. One more like this. You always know when I say one more like this, there's something else coming that looks like this. This is it, inhale, exhale down. We are starting the next one the same as the last inhale. Exhale.

I like to roll my chin forward just a little. There's that next stretch. Hang on to that. Hang on to that. Hang on to that. And you're gonna wish you still had that because now we're gonna let the arms go forward.

Then inhale exhale, actually pulse. Two. Even now that little bit of an exhale. Just before you reach forward. Like, you're gonna get up. I wanna get up. I can't. I wanna get up. I can't.

I wanna get up. I can't, but I'm still in control. This time, stay forward. Reach the arms up. Oh, do not fall back. Do not fall back. You do not need to fall back.

But you might need to bend your arms right now. Put them behind your head, and lengthen yourself back down. Yes. Inhale. Keep the hands back here. We're gonna exhale, but this time, let's take the left shoulder to the right hip.

We're rotating. Right? You're still curling forward. So it's not just a twist on the ground. You're coming forward. I think shoulder to hip. Inhale, stay up, go across the middle, across the shoulder blades, and go to the other side. We're gonna keep that pace.

I'll give you one more like that, or we'll keep it going. Exhale. I'm just alternating. Now things that will help you glue those heels. And if you can, the entire solo of the feet together, by that, I just mean the ball of the foot in the heel.

And keep the hips still. Right? You don't get to move those knees. That would be way too easy. Email up through the middle, exhale shoulder to hip. Email stay up in the middle shoulder to hip.

Inhale And Excel, it's amazing how these smaller moves that seem so basic. When you get that breath or when you get that really held position, they're kind of powerful. And again, Oh, what's your head doing? What's your neck doing? Do you need a break? Okay. Come on down. You get to you you're the boss. Right?

You have to remind yourself, like, why does this hurt in my neck? Can I relax it? Because you're you will know if you can and if you can't. If you cannot, it's worth taking a break. Trust me. Let's go back up. So we're gonna go straight up in the middle for the moment. Just curl your chin toward your chest.

Feel the length. Feel the sternum kinda drop to the floor to get you as high as you can. Rotate to one side. Let's go to the right. Why not? Take the left arm straight reach, right for that knee.

Really reach, oh, did you tilt, meaning your lower body? No. XL reach a little higher. Put the hand back behind your head and come to the center. No break unless you need it. Rotate the other way.

Opposite hand reaches for the thigh. And here's something, can you gently press the upper arm down into your body? In other words, not just letting it free float. Never free floating pilates. And now return the arm, come back to center.

Let's do a few more like that. You rotate up and toward. It's like this diagonal line. Reach the arm towards the knee. You don't lift the knee to make you feel like you did more. And then return the arm and come back to center. One more like that.

Rotate, reach. Heels are down, butts down. Oh, I just caught myself. Reach reach, reach. But the hand back, come to center, lower down for a brief moment, regroup with the hands, elbows are still up. Here we go. We're gonna tilt the chin.

We're just like, I'm gonna get up. I'm gonna get up off the floor just like this. We're not really, but that's sort of the idea. Rotate again to the first side. Reach that arm.

Really reach it. Stay here. And now just a little further. There's the breath. See, you don't have to look at your abs. You can feel if they naturally deflate, which they will if you don't brace.

It's a bit of a pulse. You gotta feel the abs of what the rest of the work feels more exciting. That's what we're doing here, two more here. Hold it there. Take that hand behind your head. Come through center.

Go the other way. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Reach the opposite arm to the leg. Check your hips. You're not leaning, and we reach forward. Just forward.

Support your head. Let the neck be long. Take the break when you need it. Sometimes it's just figuring each other out. Right? What does she mean by what she says?

Figure it out. We'll come back. Few more here. Reach not much of a release. Reach and release. Put that hand back.

Come to the center. Lower yourself down. Alright. Just bring the knees together, bring them in close to your hips. And what we'll start with is just checking in. Color bones are wide. Again, that's almost like a coat hanger.

They're pointing it directly to the sides. Gently downwards, and then arms are down. This is kind of a good test for yourself. A lot of athletes starting Pilates and other people too. They have no idea that that their arms don't straighten when their shoulders go down. So see if you can do both.

And if you can't yet, meaning your shoulders are back on the mat, wrists are down too. Feed in quick close to your up on the tip toes, and now you glue the legs together as if they're one. Alright? So my heels are lifted. Toast are up. We're gonna just actually, take the arms out to a tee. That's that'll feel better.

We're gonna keep the legs glued together and rotate to one side. I'm rotating to my right. Before we do anything else, look at your knees. They should be level. Right? One is not higher than the other. You keep it all as one unit and the rotations happening around the waist. So there we go.

We're inhaling here. We start the exhale and just feel would it be easy. But you'll start to feel the ribs drop. The abs kick in, but you you're not gonna feel the abs. You don't need to feel the abs.

They're supporting you other way. Inhale. Looking straight ahead. Start the exhale. I think rib page down. Waste. Hips, legs past through center.

Switch again. Another note, I have my feet are glued together too. So one is off the floor at this point glued to the other ankle. Start the exhale and come back. Alright. Trying to enjoy this now. Keep both shoulders down.

Take this moment to kind of release tension where you'd feel it. And just for a few, I'm gonna add something. You can stay right where you are. Otherwise, bring both knees up to tabletop or 90 degrees at the hip and the knee. Let's go again. I'll go to the front side, the first side, the right side.

And then If your legs are in the air, press the inner thigh of the lower leg into the other leg and bring you back to center. Too many cues perhaps, but just you're basically keeping the lower body together separate from the upper body. And warming up your spine. The inhale kind of facilitates that rotation, but only go so far as you keep both shoulders down. We're not judging range.

We're judging effectiveness over. This will be the last set. One more to the second side. Come back to center. Put your feet down. They can stay together.

Just glide your hands overhead and maybe pick them up a little bit and glide them overhead noticing you can adjust your shoulders down again. So your arms are floating off the ground. Your pelvis is just hanging out truly. Enter thighs together a little bit of glutes, and then we're inhaling. Keep these straight straight arms, straight fingers too while you're at it.

Xhale push through the air like it's a solid, curl your head neck and shoulders up, look towards your thighs or knees, and there you go. Keep your intention, inhale slowly roll back. In other words, you don't just fall back. Like, we're gonna do another slow rep again or you're gonna make each rep count, exhale curl up. And your arms by your side may be a little higher, is even better, inhale, and come back down. Sorry. There was an exhale in their inhale, exhale curl up.

Let's go arms on a bit of a diagonal. Stay there. Stay there. Reach like someone's in front of you and you'd really wanna go to them or grab on to something, but you're not going to. You're gonna push the air up with your arms. Nothing else changes.

Just about not even to 90, exhale push down from underneath the shoulders, right, where you came from, inhale up, and exhale down. I'm doing it in sort of what I think of as a two count breath, inhale up. Exhale down. One more time. Well, sort of hang on. Let's try in five counts. Same distance, though. Inhale. Two, three.

Keep going forward with your upper body and down. Two, three four, five, you can do two more. One, two, three, four, five, last one, two, three, four, five, and down. Two, three, four, five rest your head hug your knees into your chest. Well done. Well done. Hands behind your knees or hamstrings, let's say. The concept of opposition is your friend. So what I mean by that, I'll try to just show you.

With you holding your back of your legs, knees are bent, and in the air, elbows are wide, you know, where the collar bones are already, Curl your head neck and shoulders up, and press your thighs into your hands without changing the angle at the elbow. So in other words, you're in this sort of connected full circle chain. Right? Let's just come back down because that was a lot of words. Elbows are wide. As you start to press the legs away, just stop when they're about 90, pick your head up, and now the elbows don't change, you're using your legs to help you curl up.

Come on. That feels good. Collar bones. Check your collar bones. Now the shape does not change. You have to trust me on this for so many other exercises coming later in your practice. Start rocking.

Just rock. So that must mean there's a little bit of a tilt at the pelvis. That's cool. It's in, nail back, exhale. Try to keep it smooth. If your thighs come close to you, you're gonna start yanking. Don't do that.

You're too strong for that. It's a simple move. It's just a little weird. We'll do two more, and we're gonna end up. Here's one. On this one, you'll sit up all the way.

The beginning of rolling like a ball. I'm back in the diamond position. I'm gonna do some rotation and work the trunk a bit more. So with that, let's take the arms behind your head, lace the fingers and elongate the head again as if it's almost like exactly like before. Chin might be slightly down. You're over your shoulders are over your hips.

We are going to rotate towards your screen if you're looking at. The hand in the back is gonna reach to the leg in the front. I'm I'm about at my knee, and I'm gonna gently push and lightly pull on it to rotate more. Rotate more. Don't lean back. Oh, here's the fun part. You're not gonna bounce bounce or snap out of this.

Return the hand behind your head and come back to center. Here we go. Rotate on your own accord. Right. What can you get without changing the hips, take the hand in the back, reach for the one in front, gently use it to lift up. Now remember, I'm not pulling my leg up. I'm keeping that opposition.

You can rotate further. Oh, look, what's that? Actually, look. It actually does help. Look back there. Keep looking back there as you let go of that hand on the leg, return it behind red, and back to center a little quicker inhale rotate.

Exhale backhand goes to the forward leg and deepen your stretch. Look back there. And if you're leaning, tell someone to tell you not to lean, besides me, return your hand and center. And again, rooted. Oh, strong, Dorzos, and twist.

It feels kinda good. You gotta admit. Maybe not. Maybe not yet. Try it again. Let's go forward. Hand to thigh or knee.

Use it. You can push on it. I I like to kinda do a combo of push and pull. Sure how to explain that one. And back to center, let's do two more, shall we? Rotate. Hand goes forward.

Twist twist. Twist it. And center. And one more. Hand goes down to twist and rotate.

Oh, look back there. Look back there. The further you look, the further you go. There's something metaphorical in that I should listen to. And back to center jest, reach the arms up. Way up. Your shoulders can come up to exhale round forward and just release the low back, maybe a little in the hip flexors. It's all normal.

You know, you'll take care of yourself too. Right? Alright. We're gonna start some, beginnings of what'll be called the series of five later on in your practice. So I am scooting ever so slightly forward just because I like to end up in the middle of my mat. Hold on behind those thighs again. Remember how you rock yourself up You're gonna slowly lower yourself down.

Same idea though. Okay. At a certain point, it will feel natural, but you're not gonna fall. Or at least you're gonna try not to fall. You can float the legs up. And you can land right in that chest lift or abdominal upward crunch position.

Let's hold on to the right knee with both hands right on top. So they're just one next to the other. The other leg shoots straight out For the moment, pin that instep into the the opposite knee or the knee of the straight leg elbows are wide. Do we I need to say the collarbone thing again? No. Now we're just gonna do gentle rock.

Very small. Just gentle walk. Just want you to see where your feet are. Okay. That's fine. Now allow the bent knee to come the foot to come away. You're gonna pull it in much closer, and the other leg will lower just a bit. Okay?

Switch. Hold. Pin the leg. I mean, tedious, I know, but prom I promise you there's reasons for it. El was wide. Shoulders down.

You're strong. Start an exhale, twisting the belly and do that little rock up for three. Two. Part of me just wants to make sure you know the legs are gonna be close together as you now separate them, bring the knee in closer, and we'll switch. We're gonna switch to the first leg. The second.

Switch. Switch. Just breathe. Switch. I what I tend to do is go, inhale, inhale, exhale. And that's just the count. I don't have to sniff. Oh, we can do four.

Three. And remember, you could push your knees and your hands to hold you up there. Last one coming up. Boom. Boom. Hold the knees. Rest your head. Shake your head. Not shake your head.

Look one way. Look the other way. Loosen up. Be proud of yourself already because the next one's even more fun. Hands are on the knees.

We're back to that concept of opposition elbows wide. Yeah. I'm not gonna say it again, but it still matters. Push your knees into your hands, lift your head until you're in that upright chest lift position. The idea is going to be to extend the arms and the legs forward on a diagonal. Let's do it on an inhale, though.

Inhale reach. XL, start that exhale and drag the legs back in. Do it again. Inhale reach. Drag it back in. Imagine you're pushing something down with the upper arms. The lats can be involved a little bit.

Why not? And in? By the way, the rest of the body doesn't move at all. Keep your gaze forward, reach forward, inhale, exhale drag it in, inhale reach forward, exhale drag it in. How you doing? You're alright. Two more. Did I already say that? And back in.

One more. And back in. Rest your head. Look to the side. Be grateful for all your body's doing for you and what you're giving it back. Alright. We're gonna hold on behind the knees again.

Lift your head neck and shoulders. Start that rocking. Keep the space. Keep the space. And a two more will sit up. And, voila, we're up.

Let's move on to our side. So I'm just flipping onto the side and maybe do the one where you can see in case I'm not clear. We're lying all the way down on our hips. We stack the hips. So that's to say we're not just chilling in the back here. We're lined up. You when you look down your body, you wanna be able to see your feet because they'll they have a tendency to go back behind you.

Top hand is on the ground. Your head is resting. On your arm. If that's not comfortable, you might need a towel just to space it up a little bit. Here we go. Very subtle. Trust me.

It's good. Inhale. Start your exhale. Just start the exhale. The abs will kick in, and then use your legs as the weight against your middle. Stay there. Inhale.

Imagine reaching longer, especially with that top hip, exhale set your toes down further than you picked them up the first time. Do not relax here. Inhale. Stay lifted. Stay strong. Start the exhale, and that's what's lifting you. Your legs aren't tightening.

It it is just wasted energy, right, back to back to, efficiency. Lower the legs down. When you're there, inhales, start the exhale, lift it up. Yeah. And exhale down. Just a couple more.

But do this first. Take two fingers, the top of your waist, like anywhere, like in the front. You might lose a little balance here, but that's okay. Just start that exhale and as soon as you feel a hardening under your fingers. Just a little hardening.

Lift the legs. It's that it's that easy. We don't have to bear down. We just get to use what's natural to be effective. Love it. Okay.

That's fine. Bring it down. Sit yourself up to your elbow and bring the lower leg, the hip you're sitting on right in front on the, like, a figure forward position. Top leg lifts. We're gonna kick the leg forward. Kick the leg back. Nothing else moves.

That's the exercise. And, pack, I'm inhaling forward, but you do what you want to do. It's forward, forward, get it behind you. Trying not to rock the pelvis forward and back. That's the idea.

Forward forward, back. Forward forward. Back. Let's make this the one, hold it back there and lift to just a few. Three, four roll that top hip forward. Six is good. And then we'll sit up to a mermaid. This version of a mermaid.

There's many. For me today is the figure four, like, position. If that's uncomfortable, you could stack the legs. But here's what we're doing. Arms out into a t position.

You're strong. You've got that sense of downward pressure on the arms we talked about. We reach out kind of far. Land softly with that hand. For a second, try to get the hips down still.

They're gonna wanna lean into, but we're not gonna do that. Rotate from the waist. The arm just follows until it gets to the mat. That's it. Then reopen.

Again, it's like your arm is almost machine like in that it's in the same spot in relationship to your ribs sit up tall. We'll go again reaching out lean over, land softly from somewhere in the middle, start that exhale, and you'll know where the middle is. Rotate. Reopen. How are you gonna get up from here without pushing?

I don't know. But there is a way. Imagine for me, I imagine someone's lifting me up from the top hand. Wanna try it one more time? Yes. You land it softly. We're rotating.

We reopen. We sit up, and this time just take a nice stretch over. And let's quickly go to the other side. You know what to expect now? Lying all the way down, hips are stacked, top, the toes are slightly in front of you. And we inhale, start the exhale, lift both legs.

Inhale to lower, exhale, lift both legs. Now that we know what we're doing, we can just keep it going. And we got it. And And I want one more if you need to do the finger challenge where you touch your abs, do because it's kinda cool. You'll end up standing up straight doing it. Let's sit up to the elbow, bottom knee at, ninety ninety.

You're supported. Right? And by that, I do mean supported. I didn't say anything about that shoulder last time, but we are not watching TV. Lift up. I like to say, look proud. Kick forward.

Kick back. Kick forward forward back. It's kind of like once twice. I got as far as I could then further. Push push and push push and push push. Hold it to the back.

Take a quick body scan. Don't lean back or try not to lean back force yourself. So if anything lean ever so slightly forward with your top hip, but take the leg back list six. Two, three, four, and five, and six mermaid. Sit up. The proud looking proud works for me today. I hope it does for you or something that makes you happy that makes you wanna show off.

Lean out. The arms are in a t. Rotate that arm is attached to the ribs, so maybe it won't meet the mat reopen and sit up. Do your best to get the hip down? I don't think I ever have, but I do try. Exit.

Imaginary person is lifting me up, which in fact is the other side of your abs. Let's do it again. And over. Open. See the list.

I'm doing one more. I hope you'll join me. Rotate. Oh, there's so much more good that comes out of that basic position. We're at the top, and now you can just hold on to your shin or the ground and lift up to go over.

We are so close. Swing your legs around so you're lying face down, and we're gonna start with a basic back extension. So here's the deal. You're gonna be looking at the floor, take your arms back by your sides. And if you can, press the hands into your thighs.

If you got big glats, whatever, just reach most importantly down. Yeah. Again, the collar bones are wide. They're not pressing into the floor. So the shoulder blades are a little bit together. Alright. You can start with your head down completely. From here, start to almost like roll a marble forward with your nose just a little until your neck is in alignment with your spine.

Start to lift your spine keep, say, the sternum down though, oh, and what are your arms doing? They're reaching for your ankles. What are your shoulders doing? You might have to exaggerate squeezing the shoulder blades for the first bit of practicing pilates. Come on back down. We inhale, start exhaling, roll those shoulders down your body. It's like a dart.

I'm use I'm actually using my legs, the back of them, and pressing the feet into the floor. Come on down. And again, Okay. So right about where we are now, not easy. I know. We wanna be able to hold this kind of a position. Could you lift your legs? And by that, I I don't mean just your feet.

I mean your thigh bones. See? There's something else going on there. Hopefully, not all in your low back, but some. Come all the way down. We're gonna take our arms all the way forward overhead, and let's call it a a wide v. Or maybe like a y, but not straight over your shoulders for today. Just a little bit wider.

You can also separate your feet a little bit. I would keep those hip distance apart. From here, we're pressing, the right arm down and the left foot down. So you press further into the map and lift the other two. That back leg is straight, and I know you think it is, but prove it to yourself, lock the knee, whatever you have to do, and come down.

I'm basically holding my upper body up. Now we're pressing the left palm into the ground, the right top of the foot into the ground, and we lift the other side, lift it as far as you want, and then come down. Again, switching, lift. And down lift. And if you think this is it, it could be. But let's try one more thing.

Draw the abs in again. Hover both arms and legs. That might lower your upper body a little. Lift the right arm and the left leg. Switch switch.

Breathe however you want, but you're gonna wanna breathe. It's hard to do on your belly. I know. Go a little quicker for five, four, three, Two and one stretch. Lower your body. Take a second. You might rest your forehead on your hands, shimmy out the low back.

And when you're ready, press yourself up. Come back to the start position. I'm gonna sit facing you again. Diamond position, holding on to your legs. Take a quick inventory.

Do you feel a little better? Do you feel a little overworked? Do you feel underworked? These are all things because there's a lot of work to happen in this class. Just gotta find it some of the time and sometimes you need more. Hold on. Support yourself. I'm having a moment of gratitude of how my body sustains me so much every single day that I don't pay attention to, but it's feels good to give back to it.

I hope you feel somewhat of that today too. From here, if you can let go, if your legs aren't too tired, just reach the arms up. Exale push any unnecessary tension that's there away. I'm just rotating the arms down at the open down at the bottom and pick up what you want. Pick up the energy you want back.

You're the boss. Let's do one more. Push away what's not needed. Just rotating the whole arm open from the shoulders, pick up what you want. And then just exhale.

Let your arms float down, wriggle it out, be proud of yourself, and come back next time. Thank you for being here.