Stress Release Mat

Hi, everyone. It's Amy havens here at Pilates anytime. Very happy to be back with you. We have a foam roller class today. You'll need two pound weights, one or two hand, one or two pound weights, your foam roller, I'm with this releasing stress energy these days for myself, my practice, and those that I'm working with. And that in this class will be kind of a softer, kind of quality to it. So it's a little slower pace on purpose so you can breathe and feel.

And there's emphasis really on rib cage mobility to free up shoulder range of motion. I think with stress, Right? We can kinda close in and get folded in and closed. So let's invite the opposite. Let's see if we can invite opening freedom. And that comes with breathing.

I think slowing down and really feeling the movement. So are gonna start with a little assessment for yourself. So what I mean there, let's just check-in on how our shoulders feel. I'm in my pilates stance and this is interesting, right? Just to I'm gonna have my hands on my shoulders and I just want you to do some easy circular movement. Sometimes you'll feel or experience some crunchy bits as I call them.

Maybe some sound or sensation in the joint. It's okay. No judging at all. We're just experiencing what might be there. And then the opposite and just assess this. I'll tell you what I'm feeling.

You might hear it through the microphone. I have some crunchy bits. I have some crunchy bits. So what that means for me, there's some compression probably in there or some some stuckness that has potential to have some freedom. Alright? So now we'll step our feet apart just easy with your knees and this arm swing or this arm motion is gentle.

I'm actually trying not to, do any placement, really. I'm just kinda letting the arm bones swing. Start to get a breath, a little more full inward breath for yourself. You see how, you know, the word restriction is what just came to my mind. Do you feel any restriction anywhere? Could be not joint restriction, maybe tissue.

Dare I say the word tight, but I don't I don't feel tight. I feel like there's potential for more freedom of softer movement, more supple. And that's just what's coming through me. You see what you're feeling. Okay. One more time, and then just let that go and feel what you feel. Okay. So now tapping.

We're gonna wake it up. Let's just tap. Very gentle. I love tapping. Kind of wake things up, and this is just a, you know, somatic practice. It's a little bit of waking up your nerves.

Nerve endings. I usually talk to myself and say hello, you're gonna have a great session. Your body is amazing. You can do pretty much everything on or where it is right now in space. And then again, just feel what you feel. Let's get a little more on the ribs actually.

Let's see what we have. Okay? Talk nice to yourself. Alright. So now just stand there and see what you feel. Cool. One more little assessment and that's with rotation. Bend your knees softly.

Let's place our hands on our sternum, that bone right there in the middle of the rib cage. And then softly, see, where your range of motion is, I'm guiding myself in rotation from my sternum Sometimes an image for me is a big eyeball here or a big flashlight or laser beam. And, again, I'm gonna use the word potential. I know I can free this up. I can feel there's a little stop, a little restriction in my body, and I know after doing this program, I'll have a little more freedom.

So I think you will too. We're gonna head down to the mat any way you wish to get down You can sit any way you'd like. I'm gonna go diamond. I just like the balance of both legs together. And let's put our hands on our ribs and just experience the motion, the movement of the rib cage, on both phases of inhale and exhale.

Alright? So keep going. I have to talk and do this at the same time where I get to talk and do this at the same time. But as we breathe in, We do want to experience feeling motion in the hands, and the expansion of the ribs, right, the articulation. And during exhale phase, we want to feel the articulation of the ribs again kind of closing a little, not to close us down, but to experience some muscle engagement through, the the gills, the fish gills or things here. Okay? So here we go. Big breath in. Expand, expand, expand.

And then exhale, just feel a little closure. A couple more. I could do this for half hour. We won't. You could if you wanted to and exhale and just feel the difference. So try that with your hands just around your back. If that works for your shoulders, for some of you that may not work for your shoulders to wrap it behind you at this point, so don't don't push it.

I'm gonna bend forward though and feel, can I feel my back expand on the inhale and on the exhale? It softens a little away from the hands. One more time. And exhale. So we're feeling. Right? I again, I could do that for a long time. But when we get down on the roller, we're about to do that.

That that flat surface or the the surface of the roller lends itself, obviously, you're spines on top of it to I'll show you. Go ahead. We're gonna sit on top and come back. Sometimes, depending on you and your your alignment and your body and the way your muscles are developed, gonna kinda hone in on the mid body depending on you. I'm gonna show you of this is where we're trying to we're trying to get away from that stress filled kind of, you know, so if we can soften that, I'm not gonna talk too much about your lumbar region. I want you to feel more of your ribcage, kind of feel where your ribs are. So for me, if I put my hands behind my back, palpate or look for those two two or three last ribs, Yep.

They're touching the roller, and that's what I want you to maintain. Okay? So wherever you'd like to put your hands at this point, I'm just gonna open mine out to the sides, palms face up. Gravity is our friend right now letting our arms just hang down. To the floor. A few more breaths. And as you exhale, do tone up your tummy muscles a little bit.

I'm gonna cue it around your seat belt region. Inhale again. My re breathing my ribs back into the roller, exhale and engage through your seat belt region a little bit. Two more to go. So our body moves when we breathe. Right? We want to promote that expansion and that contraction or the softening, just like the waves outside.

Tide goes out, tide goes in, right? Well, that's us. We open, we expand, and we can soften. Okay. Walk your ankles together and your knees together, just stand there on those narrower stance and it does change your balance point just a little bit and just continue to breathe two more cycles. See if that changed the way you can expand your back and one more. It's a good balance challenge.

Take one leg. Just fold at your hip joint. I'm gonna have you put your elbows right down on the mat and your hands on your ribs. And just feel that hip crease. Right? All we're doing is moving that leg away and toward us. Let's put breath, inhale away, exhale toward us. Inhale away, exhale in. So with the breath, right?

Easy expansion of the hip, closing of the hip. One more. Once you have that leg up, hold it, circle your foot a few times, and let's just view what it is to extend the leg. Oh, I love reaching the heel to the ceiling. And then just a little point of the toes, return, bend the knee, place the foot down. Let's do the other side.

First breathe in. Feel those ribs, exhale in. And then begin just opening that hip joint, your foot will feel for the mat and come back up. It's extension of the hip when we open Flection of the hip when we close, tighten up your seat belt, feeling the breath. Couple more.

It's really easy soft movement, hardly any, you know, deep engagement of the abdominals right now. We don't need it. We wanna move freely. Last one, and then we'll just circle the ankle and foot a few times each direction. Crack a do. And then reach your leg up and you can reach free with your heel or toes, but heel is nice. You get the length in the back line of your leg.

And then you can soften your foot and come back down. Okay. Step your feet wider everyone now. A little bit better for balance. Open those arms, palms face up. Now, I want us to sway the rib cage. It's going to be small.

I don't want you to fall off the roller. I like to think about kind of initiating or leading with one side of my ribs. So I'm touching my right rib cage here and I I'll do my inhale and reach that ribcage to the side, and let it really expand, and then exhale come through center. And then the other side. And exhale bring it through center. Alright? Just keep that going as I cue it out and have you think of things so with a breath.

Make sure you're trying to breathe into the back rib space as well, exhale center. Inhale expansion, and center. So keep moving. Yes. My pelvis is also moving. The body responds to movement. I'm not gonna hold back.

So if I let my pelvis, my neck and my head move while my ribs are moving. Pretty sure there's more freedom and tissue all around the thorax, the rib cage area, where We wanna feel some freedom. Breathing. It's all relative. Everything is connected together. Let's go again a little more flow now side.

Just side it's fine even if you roll on your roller a little bit. I know I've used this image before, filming, because we're right next to the water, it's so hard for me not to think about myself in the water. Right? So if that works for you or Maybe you're the sea grass on the ocean floor getting moved with the current. Anything goes, right? Moving, breaths. Alright.

Again, I could do that for twenty five more minutes, but I'm gonna keep going. So now let's check-in. Take your fingertips to your shoulders again and those easy circles. Maybe there's fewer crunchy bit sounds. I'll report in, I'm I'm definitely feeling less than I did standing.

I'm gonna go the other way. And why might that be happening while they're so closely related, the shoulder joint and the rib cage? So when the shoulders are feeling gunked up, perhaps it could be because the ribs need to move a little more. Okay. So go ahead and grab your weights. I should have done that before I came down, but I'm okay to grab my weights here.

And I'll let you all choose how you wanna stand with your feet. You can have your feet apart, hip width apart, or all the way together. That that is more challenging with balance work, and I don't want you to do this position where it might feel like you're gonna you know, hold up the ribs to to steady yourself. So I'm gonna go wide and I'll let myself just really sink into the roller. Now we go. Arms reaching up. Let's let gravity help sink those scapula back. Right? I don't want you to place them so much.

Just let gravity sink them back. Now, inhale as we slide and glide the scapula toward the ceiling, that's that protraction. And exhale let gravity assist the slide and glide back, inhaling slide and glide up, and exhale, glide and slide back. Resist the urge to do too much muscle activation. I did say that.

Resist the urge. More like a fluid system moving. Okay? One more to go. We'll go up and down. Fro attraction.

And retraction. Again, just kinda noticing, are they feeling smoother they should be? They all were that's the goal. Now I'm gonna find the place right between those two and see if I can settle there and now enjoy opening the arms I will queue this way for for this purpose as wide as you feel safe going. K? You're all independent mover. So if you're don't feel safe going this wide with weights in your hands, listen to where your body says that's far enough.

My hands are on the floor. It feels just fine. I wanna double check that I haven't arched my ribs. That's expansion, isn't it? Take a breath there. Now as we exhale, try to keep your chest wall expanded even though you bring your arms up.

Interesting interesting. Inhale, we expand. I'm thinking less muscle activation, more tissue movement, inhale, exhale, and arms come up. Three more to go. Let's take a big giant spread.

We just saw a huge bird outside before we started rolling camera, and we were like, look at the wingspan on that bird. Channeling that now. And two more to go. Wing span wide. Right? Their joyful, open stretch, exhale close, And I can't do this without saying which vital organs are inside, probably smiling very happily here. Two lungs, a big giant heart.

Hold that and let that resonate. Open up your heart and your lung space. Free that up and then on your exhale here comes the arms. Okay. Now we're gonna do a scissor arm. Reach one arm up by your ear. The other one by your hip.

Okay. And just let the weight of the weights helps your shoulder blades glide. Here we go. Change the arms. So I've got a two pound weight letting that weight transfer into my scapula and how that scapula moves rotates on the rib cage freeing up the shoulder movement. I love a full breath cycle. We'll do one more each.

Let the weight of the exhale help you sink into your roller. Okay. Two arms above the chest. Let's go for some arms circles. Palms face the hips first. Both arms coming upward toward shoulder flexion.

I'm gonna keep my arms and my peripheral vision now. A little bit different. So I'm not indulging the huge range. I wanna lengthen my side body muscles here. Give that a little bit of extension length, and then open the arms out through that t when they come to the hips, those palms face down.

And again, lengthen your waistline as your arms come up. Exhale as you open your arms to the side and around. I love palms face up there. Now palms down as you take your arms up, and notice the natural rhythm of your scapula on the roller and on your back. We'll do one more for four. Okay.

For each direction, inhale. Brass. Exhale breaths. Reverse your palms face up. We'll go out through the t. Try to see them in the peripheral vision. Right?

And exhale, they're coming down to you. Seep belt, your tummy. Inhale, open, expand the wings, and exhale arms come down. Palms facing down. Maybe you do a little collarbone wide check here.

One more to go. Like water. Like the current in the water. Good. Okay. And then everybody come on down. And let's bend your elbows again down to the mat. You can hold on to your weights if you wish.

I'm gonna keep mine in my hands. I'm gonna bring my feet together and me knees together. And then I'm gonna bring one you know what? I don't wanna hold them. I'm gonna put them down. I'm gonna bring one knee up and then the other knee up. The reason why I like my hands to touch my mat, that's why. Okay.

Flex your ankles. Get into some seat belt abdominal effort. Okay. Just hold your tummy nice and firm. One abdominal exercise. I just want you to push one leg forward and bring it in.

And push it out and come in alternating legs. So it's a balance thing. Yeah. It's an abdominal thing. Try to keep cultivating that freedom. Right? Just because the effort changes doesn't mean we have to close and get tight constricted.

You can still stay open in your energy. One more slowly, just push and in, so my sacrum, my ribs, my scapula, my head are on, and we'll go 10 a little bit faster without tightening up, without closing the energy. Gravity helping your collarbone, just hang back. And four, and two, that's our last one. That'll do it there.

Place one foot down, the other foot down. However, before we're off, go back to the arms out to the side and just do a little more. I'm gonna call them the seaweed seaweed or seagrass weighing. Okay? Let's invite the head and the tail to move opposite of the ribs. Just a little bit of sway.

Alright. Now, it's always fun to get off the roller. I think and experience the stillness on the floor. So I'm gonna roll toward you all. And just move the roller away from you and just experience the floor.

I feel like I'm in a little underground tunnel It just feels so wonderful. Like I've just down in that tunnel. I think that's the feedback I've gotten over many, many years. Okay. We're gonna move our roller or weights out of the way and come into some side lying movement. So If you can, everybody, come down on your elbow and your, you know, fold that elbow and just make that your pillow.

Bottom leg will be the straight leg and then your top leg, you could have set that top leg right on your roller, down to 90 degrees. And for a moment here, take your hand to your top pelvis and just remember we're trying to keep that pelvis that way, not this way, right? Compression. Alright. My hand is just gonna come on the roller here. Move your knee and your thigh forward and let that come with your hip and then your rib cage and then your head. And I'm just gonna gently turn to face down. And then before we come backward, just isolate your pelvis going backward and forward.

So I'm pulling that pelvic half back and then rocking that pelvic half forward, pulling that pelvic half back. And forward. So, yes, I'm focusing pelvis right now, but it will, help free up the ribcage out also. One more time. They're all related back there. Right? So pelvis rib cage neck and head. Okay? But now, stay still with pelvis.

Let's try to do just the rib cage neck and head. So I'm gonna focus. Let's do this with the hand. Is rotating around, it may not be as big of a movement and then coming back to facing front. You can put your hand behind your head if you wish.

This just feels good for my body, and I'm gonna focus on that image of the sternum again, maybe the eyeball or the flashlight or pin light. And I'm just assessing and feeling how much movement I have going forward rotation. And again, rotation, How about some breath in? Spend the lungs that may assist more mobility? Oh, it sure did. Look at that. I got my elbow down and exhaling back.

One more time, the ribcage. Breathing. We're trying to keep the pelvis from coming along for the ride. And exhale center. Now it came a little bit.

We're gonna rotate toward the sky. Okay. So breath in. Let your head hang back and exhale center. And don't worry about if it's not gigantic motion. It's it's moving, right? We're breathing, we're letting it rotate.

So extension and rotation extremely healthy for your body. I'm choosing to keep my arm bent on purpose. And the reason for that, the purpose for that, sometimes when you have a straight arm, it might, take over for the true rotation. Be it becomes an arm gesture. It can, right, rather than a rib cage experience.

So I'm gonna stay here now I'm gonna breathe a little bit more and see if I can inhale a little more to this ceiling lung right here, and then exhale, I'll come right back. Breaking, basically breaking down the book opener movement, but let's do one more full pelvis through the ribcage neck and head, and then pelvis ribcage neck and head. And then we'll allow the arm to go open. I know you're dying to do it and take that arm all the way. Stay right there.

Breathe a few rounds. Oh, good. And hopefully feeling a little more mobility in your rib cage breathing and your body on you after all that. So let's come up and take a look at the other side. And I'd like to remind myself and you that each side of your body, it has a different memory, right, different experience, different patterns.

So one side might feel more free than the other side, and we just welcome all of that All those moments, all those differences. Okay. So bottom are bent head down hand on the roller. So we began with the pelvis, right? And it says nice and stacked. But then as we roll, you can initiate with the knee the thigh, the pelvis, and then the ribcage, and then the shoulder girdle in the head. And then we stayed there and just danced through the pelvis a few times.

And whatever breath is working for you, I usually exhale back, inhale forward, but that work for you. So we're allowing the pelvis to have a moment because the next piece of it, this is we try to keep it relatively stable so that we can focus on the rib cage. Alright. So let's come all the way back and we say pelvis try to stay there. Hand on shoulder. Alright. So now it's really the ribcage.

Here's that sternum again. I'm going to guide rotation forward, breathing in, and then exhale back just to the side. Bent arm on purpose, inhale, breathing, filling up your back body, and exhaling back to sigh two more to go. So can the breath be bigger, more full? It might allow you to come a little farther into further into the movement, exhale around one more to go.

Alright. And, you know, my pelvis does wanna come along. I don't blame it. It feels pretty good. And now we're gonna come to the ceiling, breathing, the ceiling lung. But what you can ask yourself here So when you turn to face the ceiling, maybe guide your knee forward a little bit opposite of the rib cage coming back, and that may help your pelvis stay more steady.

We've got two more to go. Let's breathe with it. Expand the ribs, Raymond, you want to feel the ribs moving and exhaling center. One more. Inhale. Expand, fill it up, fill it up, fill it up, and exhale center, and then we'll do the full thing one more piece.

I'm gonna put my hand down where is the knee and the pelvis, the rib cage and head, and then pelvis knee rib cage head, and we're gonna go all the way open. You can let your arm go now and just experience your head leaning back in your hand, reaching this top knee as much as it can go. Breat. Read. Okay. Wonderful. Everybody. Come on out of that. Now let's keep going and before we do, we're gonna just sit for a second.

And I want you to do that shoulder assessment. So I'm gonna place my hands and I want you just to circle. Wonderful. Mine are not I have no more crunchy bits. Not nice. For me, I feel that's nice. Okay. Well, keep going.

We're gonna work on some prone or some cat, quadruped work first. So I'm gonna turn myself sideways. And as we get on the roller and your hands on the roller, you won't be completely quadruped. The arm will be at a forward angle a little bit here. And just hold yourself.

I'm gonna have you tuck your toes down. Get a feeling of extension through your spine. And then as you roll the roller forward, internally rotate your arm bones, everybody, and let your chest come down as low as you feel like you can bring it, I'm also asking my thoracic spine, my flashlight area on my body to reach toward the roller. And then I'm gonna do a little bit of cat tailing rounding back flexion as I roll my roller in. And arms back to where they started.

So now internal rotation of the arms as they go through thoracic extension and lengthening, I'm thinking side body length, flashlight on my chest, lengthening reaching to the roller stretch, expansion, and coming back external rotation of the arms, and coming into flexion. Right? So you can change your feet, You can change your foot position at any time. Sometimes I get a little crampy and external rotation as you come. Let's just move more freely now. Internal rotation of arms thoracic extension, lengthen.

Maybe your chest getting lower to the floor, maybe not. External rotation, maybe some tummy work there. Two more to go. Internal rotation of the arms, lengthen through the spine, think your spine's doing a nice undulation dance, one more to go, internal rotation, lengthening out, external rotation, and coming back. Now, good.

Move the roller just a bit out of your way, and I want you to just place your hands on your mat nice and wide with your hands. Long, quadruped position. Again, you can have your toes tucked or flat. Hand on shoulder, thoracic rotation. Breathe into this lung. Push the other arm down on the floor.

Let's check our thread, the needle. Bend your supporting arm and spiral that rib cage try to get the side of that shouldered down on the floor. Press your supporting arm down, unwind fingertips to shoulder, inhale, stretch this chest, exhale, bend the elbow, thread your needle and rotate. Mobileize those ribs. Two more. Inhale.

Just keep it fluid. Now, see again, you could stretch your arm. I just want you to not I want you to see what's going on in the thorax mainly, not the arm. I know what's tempting, isn't it exhaling come down? Turn through the ribs. One more here.

Turning through the ribs and exhale. Good. Coming back to quadruped. Other sides. So I'll just put my hand on my shoulder. Same thing. I'm turning toward this gorgeous view outside.

I'm breathing into it. And as I exhale, I bend that supporting arm, turning, lowering, letting the ribs rotate and spiral. Inhale press. So it might be fun as you're doing this. Where are you looking right now? What can you see? Right? So as you increase the rotation, you might be able to see more on the ceiling or around your space each time.

Something to use your eyes a little bit. Press down, inhale, rotate. Breathe sniff a little more air. Push down with that supporting arm and exhale bend the spiraling arm and down. You go.

And one more now. Breathing in. I can see a little more of the ceiling and exhale. And lower. Good. Coming into all fours.

Tuck your toes and just shift back a little bit. We're gonna go prone. So prone all the way down on our stomach. Hands up on top. And let's go wrists up on top, everybody, and head right between the arms.

For this first bit, open the legs a little bit. I want you to really anchor weight on your pubic bone and your two hip points. Length in the waist, but keep your shoulders down your back. Let's see how much separation you can get through your waistline. Okay. And not coming into swan yet, but let's go internal rotation again for shoulder shrugs up Go for it, stretch, stretch, stretch, expand that tissue, exhale, external rotation, shoulders come down. Internal shoulders go up.

Right? Keep breathing wide, feel the ribs expand, exhale, and external as you come down. Let's do two more. Inhale. Sholdershark up and down is such a natural move. Very expressive, like, when we're laughing at things and hugging, our shoulders go up.

We wanna have some freedom up here. And exhale coming down now. Keep your shoulders, your external rotation of arms right here. Engage your back muscles a little. Put a little bit of effort in your back and just lift yourself a tiny bit higher.

This is something fun to ask. How much weight do you have on your arms? And if you feel like you've got lots of weight on your arms, Can you be lighter with the touch? Be very light. Okay? So now we are gonna do some muscle activation with the back, and all you're doing everybody is a little lift of one arm off that roller and place it down.

I'm in external rotation of that arm, lift, and lower. You don't have to go high with your back or your arm, alternate, gonna stay low, but think long. Just one more each side. When our shoulders have more freedom as we've been building in this class, They also have more freedom of range of motion and something like that shoulder flexion prone, which can be kind of tricky for some people. Okay? Now come down a little lower.

Let's see where our swan goes here. So let's go ahead and breathe. I'm not putting weight on my arms if I can help it. I'm gonna look forward with my big eyeball on my chest. I'm gonna look up and over that roller.

I'm gonna look up to that wall. And of course, I'm gonna place my hands because I do wanna get a little higher. But I'm not trying to use my arms, using my back and my breath, and then exhale. I'm trying to keep my eyeball up as long as possible, and I'm gonna come down into that external rotation. Two more. Right? So just breathe your swan, shoulders down. Look at the roller.

Look at the roller. What's in front of the roller? Look up the wall. Breathe up. And exhale coming down.

This is definitely where I feel like I'm the water, the current. Don't stop. Just go again, breath. And we'll come down, down, and down. Alright. Take your hands off your roller. I want you to come up on your knees, everybody, crouch back and just round into your cat stretch or your little child's pose or rest.

And then I wanna have us feel one more movement from seated. We don't need the roller anymore, so I'm just gonna move it out of my way. And we'll see where we are with some extension of the spine and the shoulder. Okay? So I'm seated with my knees apart. Hands looped up underneath the knees.

Reach one arm forward and hitchhike that thumbs. You've put that in that external rotation. And then I want you to lift that body just like you had in your swan. Start looking at that hand. And going back into a little bit of upper back bend, breathe into the rib cage and let that shoulder really open, and that side of your body really open, and then exhale and bring it back.

Through the same arm again and up. So it's like free. You're free. You're free to lift. You're strong enough to hold it. Your shoulders open.

Your ribs have moved. Your lungs are free. And come up one more, and then we'll do three on the other side. Inhale. Extension and rotation of the spine.

Some of the healthiest stuff we can do postural kind of corrections But look how open the chest and heart and lung area are, right? I'm gonna do this direction. Three more to go. And up we go. Eric Franklin says a high heart is a happy heart. And I love that. I use that a lot.

It's not my quote. High heart, happy heart, extension of spine, rotation of spine, free shoulder mechanics, freer, certainly than we started. Two more. Put the breaths there in. Rotate and reach back. It's like your arch in.

You're reaching for something safely. And around and up. Last time here. And of course, we'll do one final assessment to see how free we feel. Can you extend? Can you rotate 1% more? Up and center. Good.

I'm gonna turn to face you. Let's face each other. Just cross your legs or sit diamond and just check into your oh my goodness. Who should are there's these? Yeah. And around.

Around, and then some ribs. Yeah. Much better. Right? So as you're winding down, as we're winding down together, just kind of find yourself in stillness again. Let's find our hands and place them on the ribs. And see if you have more freedom of movement through here.

You can probably see that I do. One more. I'm gonna put my hands even on my back ribcage. Yep. One more on the sides. And then close your eyes everybody and just take your hands to your lap and just kind of feel what you feel.

And come back to this when you feel like you need to loosen things up for free, thanks for joining me, and I'll see you soon.