Class #677

BASI® Mat Flow

50 min - Class
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Description

This level 2/3 Mat class is sure to make you break a sweat! Sarah Bertucelli teaches a classic BASI Pilates® flow class that heats up the abdominals, explores depth in back extension, works on upper body strength with the Push Up, and "seals the deal" with some intense side bend work. Enjoy!
What You'll Need: Mat

About This Video

Apr 07, 2012
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So I'd like y'all to start with your feet underneath your hips for me and take a couple breaths. Use them as an opportunity to cleanse your body from the day. Inhaling through your nose and as you exhale, simply feel the openness through your heart and the length through the crown of your head. And again, inhaling through the no and exhaling through the mouth. And with the next breath, let's peel down one vertebra at a time. We're going to articulate through the back, allow the arms to dangle, even let the shoulders relax up toward the ears.

I'm cool with that right now. Feel some weight in the balls of the feet. Tap into the abdominals. Draw the shoulders onto your back where they belong, and then stack your spine when find yourself standing nice and tall. Inhale again, lengthening out through the crown of the head. We exhale to peel forward one vertebra at a time, articulating through the back again, allowing the arms to dangle the shoulder blades to dangle. Take a breath. Use the exhale to tap into the abdominals first. Draw the shoulders onto the back of the body and stack the spine, trying to keep your weight centered on your two feet. One last time please.

Then we add on this time. Exhale to appeal forward one vertebra at a time articulating through your back here. If you can reach the floor, touch the floor with your hands. Bend your knees on an inhale and with an ex and exhale. Let's straighten those legs. Nice stretch through the hamstrings again. Inhale to bend the knees and with the exhale, go ahead and straighten your legs.

And one last time we inhaled to Ben. We exhale to straighten. I lied to you so early in the workout. We're going to bend the knees now one last time and walk out to our hands and our knees. So on your hands and on your knees. Pause there for a moment. I'll find my spot on the table. Feel that your hands are underneath your shoulders, your knees are underneath your hips. Let's round through the low spine.

Allow the head to react and enjoy that space in the low back and return to neutral. And then let's arch through the opera spine, feeling the sternum coming through the chest opening and again, return to neutral. We round through the low spine, allow the head to react without overdoing the upper spine and return to neutral and we arch the upper back, opening the chest and return to neutral. And one last time rounding through the low back. Let the head release a little bit. React as a better word. Return to neutral. And last time we're opening through the chest, finding those upper back muscles, waking up the spine and find neutral. Let's cross the legs, us, roll over the feet and take those legs out in front of you. I'm going to find a spot forward on my mat so that I have plenty of room to roll back.

The legs are parted and I'm holding onto the backs of my legs sitting up nice and tall, extending through the upper back. Use An exhale to first round through the back and then straight in the arms and feel that you're hindering from the hips. Inhale, exhale to round all the way back up, shoulders forward of hips, and then inhale to extend your upper back and go again. Exhale to round yourselves back. Inhale here. Exhale to round up and sit. Nice and tall. The chest is open. Exhale to round back again.

This time we move on and we feel the roundness in the low back. We release the hands and we continue all the way down. Draw your feet close to your bottom. Place your arms by your side. Open your chest, pelvic curl. Exhale to peel up, articulating through the back, feeling the ABS active. Inhale, use the exhale to lower down one vertebra at a time. Feel the inner thighs actively holding the legs in place.

Exhale to peel up again, connecting with the abdominals. Press the pubic bone just a little higher. Still opening the chess and use the next exhale to peel down and already adding on. We're going to exhale to peel up this time, pressing the pubic bone just a little bit higher than the hip bones. Wait the arms a little bit more. Lifting the whole body a little higher, still staying connected to the ABS. Lift the right side of the pelvis a little higher. The other side reacts.

Return to neutral. Lift the left side of the pelvis a little higher and return to neutral and the right side again, and return to neutral. And one last time we lift the left. Find that neutral pelvis. Really feel those abdominals engaged and lower down as you lengthen your spine. Again. Exhale to peel out. Feel the backs of the legs.

Quite active. The inner thigh holding the lifted position. We lift the heels one time. We lower the heels flat in how to lift the heels and as you lower the heels per arrest, the pelvis even higher. Two more like that per harassing the pubic bones, specifically higher. And one last time it was back to those legs should be talking to you and lower down or at least alive.

Go ahead and reach your hands to the ceiling for me. Settle those shoulder blades onto the floor. Float one leg to tabletop followed by the other. Glue the legs together for me. Open your arms to a t shape and here the legs first. Go to the front of the room on the inhale, keeping the tabletop leg consistent.

Exhale to pull back to neutral. And how to the rear part of the room. Again, I'd like you to make sure your knees and feet stay glued together. Inhaling to twists, finding a little more rotation. If you can. Exhale, pulling back to neutral. We're going to hold on to the table here so I have a little bit better support. Certainly if you're on a Cadillac, you can hold the Poles or if you're on a raised mat you could hold the table light. So this feels quite nice for me. It gives me a little more support.

Next time we add on my friends, we add on find neutral position. For a moment here, I'd like you to first twist to the right. Okay, listen up. We're going to, okay, lift the right arm up to the ceiling, lift the shoulder blade up a little bit higher and higher, and then try to twist just a little bit more and unwind. The arm comes down. So as we twist to the left, pause for a moment. Lift that same left arm up to the ceiling.

You're kind of abducting the scapula here as you lift just a little bit more rotating, a little more and unwind. Now we put the two together, rotate as the arm lifts and reaches. Finding opposition. Pull back to neutral and rotate as the arm lifts and reaches toward the ceiling. And one more each direction please. It's an inhale to twists. Exhale, using those abs to draw back to neutral. And last one. Inhale to twist. And they look lovely out there.

I love it. Float the arms behind you. Keep the tabletop legs we exhale to lift the head and chest folding underneath the ribs in helter lowered. Yeah. Exhale to lift. Feel those abdominal. Yes. Try to feel that there's no tension in the neck here.

So as long as you're lifting the body up high enough, you should be able to achieve the soft loose neck feeling. And on the next one we add on exhaling to lift we hole. So here, inhale, slide the legs out as you exhale, drop in again. Inhale, exhale to draw in. And last one, exhale to draw in an hold. Bring your hands to your legs. Lift a little higher. Take both hands to the outside of the right leg. Find a really nice twist here. Stretch the other leg to straight.

Hold the twist. Place your hands behind your head. Three little breaths here. [inaudible] legs to tabletop. Hands to the backs of the legs. Lift a little more. Find the twists, bringing both hands to the outside of the left leg. Stretch the other leg just straight. Hold it. Place your hands behind your head. Remember I hint of a smile across your cheeks.

It's fun and we unwind. Bring the hands to the legs. Lift a little higher. We're going to lift the pelvis as well, and we're going to do a little rock and a little roll. Ah, until you find yourself sitting. Stretch the legs out in front of you. Anybody knows me, knows that the roll up is my single most challenging exercise. So here we go. And let's see how today goes. The legs are straight.

We're rounded through the low back. We inhale, we actually help to peel back, articulating through the spine, stretch the body out, lift the head and chest. With the inhale, use the exhale to articulate up through the back, staying rounded arms energized. Exhale to peel back, trying to keep those inner thighs nice and active. Those toes, softly pointed, not gripping. It's a pretty line and exhale to peel back, keeping the rib cage down when the arms reach behind you. All right, I'll take today is a day I can roll up for now at least exhaling to peel back and we're going to add on after this one or move on. Scoot forward on your mat a bit just to make sure you have plenty of space to rollback dry your legs close to you.

You're going to round through that low back, drawing those legs even closer. Perhaps feel that you've got complete control of your ads before you even try to roll like a ball. The toes hover round, just a little more in that low back. Inhale to roll back. Exhale to find balance. Find your balance, draw those abdominals nice and active and one more time. Everybody balance on your tail and hold here. Bring your shins parallel to the ceiling. Hold the backs of the legs.

I want you to first lengthen your spine a little bit. Inhale, exhale two. Then round back one vertebrae at a time. Controlling, controlling, controlling. Stay lifted. Double leg stretch. We inhale, reach away. We exhale, pull. I want you to really use those arms to help assist that lift so the arms are involved in the exercise. Keep the knees and feet glued together. The abdominals nice and active.

Sh see if you can actually touch the hands together as you reach back. And one last time please. Moving into our single leg stretch. Hold the right leg, stretch the other leg out. Feel open through the chest. Exhale to switch. [inaudible] once again, I want you to use the hands on the Shinier to help get a little deeper lift.

Nice flow here. Getting juicy. [inaudible] keep the legs energized. One more time. Each side. Slow down a little for the Chris Cross. Hands behind the head and find that rotation. [inaudible] try to be sure that the knees rush by each other.

Good. We'll do one more. Each side, both legs, come in, pause, stretch the legs to straight. Lift a little higher. Hold your left leg. Lower your other leg down. Draw that left leg and just a little more lift. A little higher. Now stay there. I'm going to queue for a moment here. I want news very straight. People really straight wants you to dig deep into those abdominals.

As you switch sides. Hold for a moment. I want that top like even straight or user Quadricep, a little bit beautiful. And switch sides. Hold it for a moment. Straighten the leg out. Feel the stretch chest is open and switch sides. I love it. Adding rhythm and pulse. We switch.

Ha Ha. Yeah. Yeah. Now think about pulsing the leg more to straight. Then in, see if you can really anchor your bottom leg a little bit better so that leg is not pulsing. Then take it another level and see if you can lengthen the leg completely on the floor. Like the whole back of the thigh is touching. Yeah, hands behind the head. Continue on. We've got 10 here. Keep the toes softly pointed. Beautiful legs. Nice and straight. Oh, I like watching my class. This is fun for a moment. I'm coming back to you. I promise. If my numbers are correct, we have one more to each side.

I might be correct and now you switch. Here we go. Rotate and rotate. Cool. Now work on that straight leg position. Beautiful. Angering the bottom leg. One last time.

Each side dropped both legs into your chest. Put your head down, place your feet back to the floor. Starting with your knees and feet together. Parts your legs slightly. Now we're warm, right. Exhale to peel. Have articulating through the back. We find that pelvic curl position.

Stay here for a moment and make sure you are in fact not challenging your low back at all. It's really about opening the hips here, using the backside of the legs and then lower down. Moving on with the next one. Exhale to peel up, holding that lifted position. Find that nice high pelvis. Abdominal is part of the piece. Lift the right leg up to the ceiling. We're going to straighten the leg there. Now flex the ankle for me and oftentimes I like the leg to go straight up.

Today I'd like you to come closer to your face, but with a straight leg, point the foot and reach down. Flex to lift up. Exhale down. Inhale up and last time please lift the leg up and hold. Press the hip a little higher. Place the foot down. Reconnect to your pelvis position and your abdominals. Lift the other leg up. Flex the ankle here. Feel the stretch. Take the leg a little closer to you.

Point the foot to reach down. Flex to lift up. Exhale down and picking up the pace. A little last one. We lift the leg up and we hold. Place the foot on the floor. Retack the pelvis. Pull the abdominals active and lower your spine. One Vertebrae at a time. Nice.

Stretch your legs long on the floor. Reach your arms behind you. Lift your head and chest and we roll gracefully up to a sitting position. Moving into a little sitting work here, so part of your legs, about the width of your mat. Flex your ankles. You might have to scoop some flesh out so you can sit up nice and tall on the sitz bones. Make sure your ribs are actually stacked over your piece. I think sometimes we jet forward a little bit here, so the arms out in front of you. We inhale ankles, they're flex.

Exhale to peel forward one vertebrae at a time. Inhale here, reaching the arms a little further and exhale to stack the spine going right into some back extension. Inhale, exhale to peel forward one vertebrae at a time. On the inhale, we're going to lift to that diagonal line, opening the chest, keep the elbows nice and straight with the exhale round all the way forward and back up to sinning again. Inhale, exhale, articulating down one vertebra at a time. Inhale flat back, chest open, elbows straight, and exhale. Rounding down, adding on again in how? Articulating as if you're moving away from an imaginary wall, find your back extension or flat back position and we're all going to find our right and rotate to the right as if you're in a cylinder here. You want to rotate that spine around.

Now rotate a little bit more by taking your right arm back in, up five, four, three, two and one on wind roll forward round and all the way back up to sitting in hell here. Exhale to peel forward one vertebrae at a time. Inhale to a flat back position. Find the cylinder, rotate to the left now here and then feel you're maximizing that rotation. Those back extensors are on and we pressed five and four and three and two and one we unwind and we round and roll back up to a sitting position. So it's good forward. Once again, just to make sure you have plenty of room to roll back the OpenLink rocker today. I often like to do a few with my knees bent. I always recommend doing it if you feel you want to find your balance first, but you can go to straight legs if you'd like. So I want you to feel that you, you use the arms to kind of put on the brakes here.

So I like to sit here for a moment and feel my back muscles working, opening my chest. I got my brakes on. When I say arms, I need back muscles, right? Sort of use this, flapping up my wings to find it. Whoa. I know I'm silly. Round through the low back as you roll back, as you come up to that balanced position, feel actively putting on the brakes. Inhale to round, back and actively putting on the brakes. One more time for the preparation in how back. Oh, there it is. Feel free to straighten the legs or stay with bent knees.

Inhale, we round back and exhale, finding the balance. Go again. I like to hold that balance just a moment or two and then we choose to have come out of it again and I've got some shaking feet here. Working hard today, I suppose. Balance and home. Find the breath. Bend the knees, draw the legs together. Place the feet down, rounding over those bent legs. Take a breath, exhale to peel back. Draw your knees to your chest as you do. Your arms are by your side.

Stretch the legs to straight. We're moving into a rollover we actually held to rollover. The arms are strong by your side. First, flex your feet, separate your feet, lower the feet toward the floor, but keep those legs straight and then round down one vertebrae at a time. Gently circled the legs together in how to 90 exhale, rolling over. Finding the control. Flex the feet straight. Knees separate the feet.

Lower the toes toward the floor and roll down with control. Okay. Circling the legs together. We inhale to 90 degrees. We exhale to rollover. Flex those feet looks nice. Separate to the floor and rolling down.

We'll do two more like that teacher needs to wipe her brow for a moment. Hmm. The benefit of being a teacher. Good. Flex the fee. Separate the feet and roll down. And I want one more before we add on. Okay. We roll over again and we hold that rolled over position. So here, take the feet to the floor together. Okay. Together, bring your hands to the small of your back and help yourself up a little bit. Think about your back muscles in your glutes a little bit, hamstrings to now lift those legs straight up to the ceiling.

Find the backs of the legs and the back muscles lower both legs down behind you, behind you. And we lift up again, finding the backs of the legs to lift and we inhale to lower down and we find the backs of the legs and the inner thighs to lift and we lower down. And one last time we find it and we lower it down and we roll down one vertebra at a time. Coming back onto our backs for a moment, adding on the next one. So here in health to that 90 degrees. Exhale to rollover again. So here I'd like you to actually, we're going to change when I say add on, we're changing. You're going to dry your knees in towards your nose.

You're going to bring your hands to the small of your back. You're going to connect to those abdominals as you drop the pelvis into your hands a little bit here. So you're actually in a slight arched back position. Now what I'd like you to do is keep the knees bent here. It's a preparation for me, for the scissors. I'd like you to part your legs and try to reach your right foot toward the floor. Just try to reach, tap the toe. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, and lift it back up. Knees are bent toward your nose.

Now the left leg goes toward the floor. You're going to try to find the floor. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, and we draw back in. And just one more time. The right side goes down, the left right foot goes down and we come back in. And last time we're trying to find the floor. Maybe it does, Woo. Maybe it doesn't. [inaudible] okay, release the hands.

The knees come toward the nose and you roll down one vertebrae at a time. Draw the right leg into your chest, giving it a nice hug. The left leg is long. Take a spine twist here. Just a moment to release and we switch sides. So I'm going to bring both legs in. First. Slide the other leg down and I move myself into a nice rotated spine. Twist here, a nice rotation, I should say.

Draw that knee and bring the other leg up to join for me. I'm going to hold the backs of my legs. I want the legs kind of close. The pelvis is lifted and the upper body is lifted and we want to try and get that rock and roll going without, ah, without moving the leg. Sorry. Now if the legs are further away from you, it's a little easier to achieve when the legs are closer to you.

It's sometimes this is more challenging. Let's scoot back a bit. I like to work on transition. So we've got our legs crossed here and we're going to roll over our legs until we're on our hands and knees. With your hands underneath your shoulders and your knees underneath your hips, let's first just slide the right leg out to a plank position or a front support and then go ahead and slide the other leg back and you'll be in that plane for me holding there for a moment, I want you to feel that you're really wasting your first fingers in your thumb. So I look at that wedding of my first finger and thumb and try to put pressure there. Point your right toes.

Now the right toe is going to touch the floor. As I take the leg out to the side, it drags on the floor and it comes back to where it came from. Boy, on the table, it's harder. Take the leg out to the side. I have no floor and bring it back to where it came from. One more time. Take it out to the side. You stay there, you flex the foot, your foot's no longer touching the floor and now you lift up. Five, four, three, two, one. Take the leg back. Other side. The Toe is pointed. It grazes the floor.

As you reach out to the side and you come back to where you came from and you graze the floor and come back to where you came from. Looks good. Raise the floor and hold. Flex the foot and we lift. Five, four, three, two and one. Bring the leg back. Lower yourselves to the floor. Let's start with the hands. Outside of the shoulders. The elbows are bent, the elbows are also down from me. Lengthen your legs and feel the openness in your front of your hips.

I want you to keep your leg heavy on the floor. Now doesn't mean they're totally inactive in how to an upper back extension using pure upper back muscles, no arms yet and lower down. And again, we inhaled to an opera back extension position and then an exhale to lower down and adding on. We inhale to that upper back. Now I want you to feel your arms heavy, your hands and your elbows heady. Use the exhale to lift to a deeper extension, but keep the elbows heavy so there's a little tricep action, but I'm going forward more than up and lower down.

And again, inhale to that back extension. And as you exhale, we're opening the chest as you extend further, but still keeping the back muscles really active and down. Good. We'll do that one more time. Inhale to your upper back. Exhale to pull forward and up and now you stay here for me. People. You keep this energy in the arms and the upper back and you have, or the legs, and we move into our single leg kick, right leg, pulse, pulse, left leg, pulse, pulse, an exhale and exhale and inhale and inhale and exhale and exhale. Now we look to the right and exhale and look to the left and inhale and exhale and look to the right and inhale and exhale and look to the left and the Papa.

I know I start singing the right left, [inaudible], [inaudible] and rest. Ooh, some point, you just have to laugh at it, right? Bring your hands underneath your shoulders. Stay connected to your abs and push yourselves to your hands and knees. Sit back in the feet for just a moment and shift right back to that plank position. Let me pause there, I'm sorry. Quadramed position. And we're moving to a plank position.

I'm going to make a shift here for the camera angle so you guys cannot go ahead and stick your butts up in the air and come to a standing position. So you're going to press your hips up, walk back to your feet. I'll arrange my microphone and then I'll be ready to continue on here. Take the arms up, reaching nice and high. There's a big inhale there and with the exhale the arms swooped down and you roll down through your back. One Vertebra at a time.

Nice and slow to begin with. Take a breath here. Use the next hill to walk out to a pyramid or a downward dog type position. Pause there for a moment. There's something for all levels here. Shift them through to a plank position. Feel free to pause there if you'd like. And then from here, for choosing to go into the PUSHUP, the body shifts forward a little bit. The elbows stay close to you.

Aim for three, maybe two's good. It's up to you holding the high point. After the third one, lift the hips high. Walk the hands back. Try to keep the arms straight and then roll up through your back. So next time around we move a little quicker. For those of you that would like we inhale to reach high. Exhale, the arms swooped down as the body peels down, walking out. One, two, three. Right underneath your shoulders.

Give me three or one pushup, small pushups, or even from the knees here. Lift the hips up, walk back to three and we roll up kind of quickly in how reached hall. Exhale, arms are down as you peel down one vertebrae at a time. And we quickly walk out one, two and we're there on three and three. Push ups of your choice. Lift the hips up and we walk back. One, two, three and we roll all the way up. One last time for good measure. Yeah.

Reaching and rolling down. Oh ladies, ladies in the house. They love it. One, two, three. Ah Hm. Hm. Lift your hips up. Walk back and we'll roll. Nice and good. We are going to roll down again, but I will not make you do more pushups. We roll forward one vertebrae at a time. Feel the dangle of the head.

Walk out to a downward dog or pyramid type position. Bend one knee and enjoy the stretch through the back of the leg more so the calf, but you might get a little stretched to the whole back of the leg. And then switch sides here. Still pressing through that first finger and thumb and finding your breath and switching sides again. And one more time switching sides.

So here we'll hold this for a moment longer and then press high onto both toes. Shift forward to your plank and hold there. You can just stay while I casually get back up to my spot. No point not holding a plank. When you get the opportunity to Lindsay, if you can take your hips a little lower, that'd be fantastic. Now I really love it. Ooh, here we go. Whoa. Hips a little higher, Allie.

Thank you. Hi. Now it's hard. I'm taking my time just for fun cause I love every one of you. Shift forward onto your tip toes. Lower yourselves down. We add onto that back extension. So the arms in the same position as we were earlier today, just outside of the shoulders. The chest is open, the legs are active, but not lifted. For this. Next one. We inhale to upper back extension.

We asked y'all to pull forward and up and hold it there. Now we're there. We're strong. Option one, the right arm is just going to slide along the floor out to straight and then slide back in. The left arm does the same thing. It slides along and it slides back in. Do it again. Other side and exhale to slide in. Feel the upper back working and last one and we'll take a short rest.

So whenever there's an option one, there's going to be an option to right. Inhale to your upper back extension. Exhale, pull forward and up and intensify. Option two, the arm lifts and goes in alignment with your body and comes back in. The other arm lifts were on left. It goes into alignment with your body and comes back in and again, we inhale and we exhale pulling it in and we hale and exhale, pulling it in. Lower down. Just for fun, I want to watch in health tobacco extension. Exhale to pull forward and up right arm first. That's an inhale. Nice. Exhale, pulling it in, see if you can take that arm up even more on the inhale and draw it in.

One more time. Each side. Good. All the way to straight with the elbow and gently lower down. Bring your hands underneath your shoulders, move to a rest position for a moment, and then we'll shift back to our hands and knees and we'll pause there. So with your hands underneath your shoulders, your knees underneath your hips, I want you to just kind of actually, I'm going to have you bring your knees a little bit forward of your hips. So I'm closer than I would normally be. I've got my toes tucked under and I'm going to round through my low back. I'm going to watch that my head's not hanging in the feeding trough, but it's not also lifted. So it's in alignment with my body, but not way down here, right?

It's kind of in alignment with the rest of my body. Now round your low back as much as you possibly can. Here, we're really connect to those abdominals. And then without skipping a beat or changing a thing in your body, hover your knees away from the floor. That's all. Just hover him. Nothing else changes. Now see if you can talk your pelvis or round your low back a little more.

Lower the knees one more time. We add on round through the low back. Use those abs. Hover the needs. Now the right leg is going to draw in towards your nose. It slides back, it's Russ in. You stay rounded, it's slides back, it draws in, it slides back, it draws in. Place it down. The left leg draws in. That's an exhale and back. Exhale in.

Try to really tap into those abdominals the whole time. And we have one more in place it down. Lower your knees. Have a seat for a moment. So we'll shift to face, um, this way I'm guessing you guys could face me. That probably makes the most sense. Otherwise you won't know what I'm asking you to do. Alright, so we're going to all choose to go to the right, which means you want to have enough room to get there with room for your feet to, okay, so your knees are underneath your hips.

I like to spend a couple of moments here. This is one of my favorite positions to work with these days. I historically have always been very anterior in my pelvis, which means I am usually very arched and I have to work quite hard with my abdominals to bring my pelvis forward. And incidentally I get a really nice stretch through the front of my hips, my quads to be in this position. So I really like to be here. One of the things I find is really helpful is weighting the shinbones.

Now you can't completely weight them. Maybe you can, but if you think about heavying up the shinbone and the feet and the knees, it feels a little less stressful in the knees. Float your arms out to the side, connected to the abdominals. We're going to reach up and overstretching up with that left arm. As much as you reach down with the right arm and back to neutral and again, and I somehow just like to reach my, my palms are opposite here. It's like I'm leading with both palms. I'm not super picky about it, but since I'm doing it I'll, I guess I'll cue it. I'm reaching up with my palm here and down through my fingertips.

Big Stretch and one last time here. Up and over. We're going to stay. We're going to cartwheel down into that right hand. Take the foot forward. That's the top foot. Make sure your Scapula, your shoulder blade is where it belongs on your body. As you bring the other leg underneath you into our side plank. Feel open through your chest, active in your abdominal press through that first finger and thumb the webbing of the first finger and thumb that's supporting you. Take a soft break.

We're not really resting, but we're going to have a little seat. Now I don't let go. Still active here, right here. I want you to stay connected to your abdominals, your core, and I want you to feel this sensation of levitating essentially out of the crown of the head. I'm not leaning into my arm. I'm actually levitating out of my arm here to try to receive a little bit of a stretch. Now I'm going to pull that back in. I'm going to lift to my side playing. Come holding here, pelvis forward, ribs back.

The reason I say that is so we feel like we're between two panes of glass and then gently have a seat. Good. Feel this open through the chest, out through the crown of the head. All that feels nice. Pull back in and we lift up. Good. Gently, come on in and here. Feel the open, open, open, open through the waste is what I mean. Opening, going up through the crown of that head and pull in. That just feels so lovely for me. I could do it all day long.

I hope some of you enjoy it too, and gently come on in. So that's the warm up. Hmm. Yeah. And pull in here, right? We're gonna inhale to lift. We have to do the warm up on the other side. Draw the knee in first, porous the pelvis forward. Really try to feel that stretch. A lot of work here too.

And then see if you can find your way to making the shift back to both knees. Make sure you have enough space on your other side. Press the pelvis forward. Feel it, love being here. Inhale, exhale, reaching up and over. Big stretch through that other side. Yum Hen back to neutral and again, exhaling up and over and lifting just to make sure you are breathing right people.

And one more time. Here we go. Up and over and we kind of cartwheel into that hand. Take the top leg out in front of you. Bring the bottom leg underneath you and we feel the shoulder blade on the back of the body. Abdominals are quite active. Stay for a moment. Press through that first finger and thumb.

See if you can pull that scapula into place. What does that mean? It means that needed to be on the back of your body with space between the to have a little seat. So here I've got my arm, about 90 degrees here at my shoulder joint. I want to find that stretch and I'm levitating out of my arm. This is actually a break from my arm a little bit and I keep doing this with my finger cause I'm looking for that feeling of up and out. And then we pull in using those apps.

We inhale good and we gently have a seat. We pause for a moment. It's not a real rest and we feel that lifting, opening the chest as you do and we draw the rib cage in and he [inaudible] and gently bend the knees as you come down and open and draw the rib kg and live. Beautiful and gently come in and we have one more for our transition to open. So we inhaled to that same plank position. Pause here, bring that leg underneath you, press the pelvis forward, feel stretching, working, and find your way to revisit this position. How are we going to do like my favorite stretch, right? Can press the pelvis forward. Take the arms out, we'll cartwheel over to the right again, find your way to your side plank position. We hold here now what I'd like y'all to do is you can always return to that first version. Take your top leg forward and weighted a little.

It should make it manageable for all of us. Really lengthen out through the other foot. I actually like to point the foot and guess what? I could lift it at any time. Right now I'm gonna lower my hip down, open my chest, put my fingertips or my hand down and go for that same stretch. But boy, is it more intense. Hey, I'm not resting. Yeah, using me. See what I mean? I'm not totally resting, right? I'm reaching stretching. Feel that.

Now I've got to use these muscles to pull myself back up again. Hey, just keep the leg there and we come down. We lengthen out through the crown of the head. Fingertips go down, feel open through the chest, big stretch through the waist, and we lift up. Now you have your option three. Here at comes, my legs are straight. I lowered down to that same position, opening through the chest here and I lift up. Hey, I want one more, one more, whichever version you have. And we lift up, bring the bottom knee and porous the pelvis. Forward connect. We move to the other side. Inhale, exhale. Up and over.

Cartwheeling into that arm. Stretch the top leg out in front of you. Bring the bottom leg to join. Stay here for a moment. Now you can return to the previous option. It's cool. Otherwise we've got that leg in front of us. I'm barely waiting my other leg, so it's okay for me to point my foot here. And then I want to take myself down into that deep stretch.

My fingertips are assisting here. Nice, wonderful. Stretch through the whole side of the body. Good. And from here, connecting to lift back. And again, here I go. Opening through the chest, feel open, open, open the whole side of the body. Good. And I am dripping. Love that feeling and open through the chest here.

And we lift up. Now you choose to straighten your leg and you give me two more. I might've might've [inaudible] and one more. Bring the bottom meat in. Press forward. Hendra rotten.

Let's turn around. We'll finish with a little backing since you can face center. Why don't you sit on your [inaudible] feet for just a moment. I could use a moment to just go, all right, what am I doing next with my body that felt like a lot of upper body work round through your back. As you bring your hands to the floor, I won't make you stay there long. I promise. If you want to slide down a different way, you can, but come to a plank into the floor. I just want a little more back extension here.

So if you can start with your arms by your side, open through your chest and shoulders. We're going to lift the head. Try to articulate up through the back one vertebrae at a time. Feel the backs of the legs working too and lower down. Let everything rest for a moment. Even the shoulders can rest forward. I almost never say that.

I want you to feel the action of opening the chest or the balls of the shoulders or not resting forward. Draw those abdominals alive. Access the backs of the legs. Lift the head and how high can you go? Nice. Big Back, extension and low. Let everything rest. Oh, that just good.

Today you could even look one direction if you want. [inaudible] this'll be our last one. We'll hold it for a bit. Shift your head so you're looking downward. Open through your chest and shoulders. Feel your abdominals. Feel your legs lifting to that back extension.

Can you and rest? Bring your hands underneath your shoulders, pushed your hands and knees. Sit in a child's pose or a rest pose. Here, take three breaths. [inaudible] shift to your hands and knees. Tuck your toes under. Lift your hips up. Walk your hands back to your feet. Dangle in a forward fold for me. Bend your knees with an inhale. Let the head the shoulders. Everything's relaxed here. Exhale to straighten the legs.

I'm dangling from my hips, enjoying the stretch of the backs of my legs in how to bend and exhale to straighten. [inaudible] and one last time. Exhale to straighten. Hold here. Just gently find your body pieces if you will. Connecting first to your abs. Feel your shoulders finding their way to the back of your body. As you roll up, the arms are still heavy, but the scapula are kind of where they belong right now. And once you come to standing, feel lengthening through the crown of the head. The chest is open, waits in the balls of the feet, the breath.

When I said wait in the balls of the feet, I'm simply asking to make sure that you're not sitting back in your heels too far. I wanted to clarify that since I'm on hun record here, I feel that there's equal weight on the front and the backs of the feet. You may even play with that for a moment and notice how much discrepancy there is. So you should feel that there's good weight front setbacks and let's finish with just a little knee bend. The arms float up, the body's upright, and we release kind of returning to the day, that evening, the group, and one last time, and I thank y'all so much for coming in, playing nice work. It's fun.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Thank You Sarah ~ really enjoyed the pace of this class !!
Wooohooo Sarah! Great variations, loved it! Way to go my friend!
1 person likes this.
Thanks Sarah, loved it! Made my husband do it with me, he's sooo sweaty now!
1 person likes this.
Love the fluidity of this class and the fun way you deliver Sarah . Thank you
1 person likes this.
Nice session...especially loved supine spine twist with sgl arm, rollover variations, plank with sgl lateral leg, and the fabulous side plank sequencing at the end. Thank you!
1 person likes this.
Well done Sarah.. great class!
1 person likes this.
Wonderful class to start the day!
Thanks Sarah!
1 person likes this.
Absolutely love this class! I love the side bend series at the end, I have been tweaking different ways to get people in a side bend and I can't believe I've never thought of this unique way. You are an excellent teacher! I also love how you admit that there is an exercise that you find difficult (roll up), I feel like admitting those things makes our clients so much more relaxed. Excited to see more classes from you :)
Thanks everyone! So pleased to hear you all have enjoyed this workout. More fun to come.
2 people like this.
Sarah, Thank you so much for this wonderful class. I always get such enjoyment out of doing Pilates. PAT allows me to try various instructors and methods of Pilates. It is interesting and informative to see the variations each instructor has, each with their own strengths. I love the side series you provided in this class. Thank you again. Have a great day!
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