Class #68

Power Hour Mat

60 min - Class
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Description

A solid hour of work! Kristi teaches a class demonstrating modified versions of intermediate exercises, but encourages the experienced students to challenge themselves with the traditional versions. The result is that both intermediate and advanced students can work out side by side in this workout and all feel similarly challenged.
What You'll Need: Mat

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Jan 31, 2010
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I'm going to have a start lying on your backs please. With your knees bent. Yeah. Great. And without really doing anything, just check in with yourself, right? Just check in with what you need because I'm going to sort of set a pace today. I'm going to set a pace that might be faster than you expected.

It might be much slower than you expected in either case, if you set your intention. Now if you decide, hey, I'm coming tonight to work intensely, I'm coming to or deeply that is going to be available to you no matter what the pace is. Okay. Um, if you want to work with ease, I'm gonna suggest we all work with ease cause that's always going to make it more efficient. Um, notice if you get into a position you're not familiar with or is too challenging for the day and find a way to make it work for you and certainly ask if you need to. So as you rest here, take a deep breath in and expand, become bigger, take up more space and exhale, let go. All right. Free Up. The restrictions that sometimes just set in our bodies that we're unaware of. Maybe look for them. And then if you find any, let them go.

Cool. And again, inhale to fill up. Exhale, let go. And you might notice the bones of the body just becoming a little heavier when you allow the musculature to release one more of those. And then we'll sort of set ourselves up to roll. Inhale, [inaudible] feeling that breath expand three-dimensionally through the trunk so it's not just out the front and exhale.

And now let's begin by thinking about where our feet are. So as you lie here, you want your feet about sits bones distance, right? So a little bit more. Yep. It should be relatively comfortable. And then your knees typically are going to want to fall one way or the other and ideally they're going to go straight up to the ceiling. So whatever action needs to happen, usually it's more inner thigh.

So little awareness around the inner thigh, traveling further up your body, become aware of your pelvis and I'm going to invite you to rock the pelvis back and forth as you rock the pelvis. In the direction that allows your back to go to the mat, release that and go back to neutral or level. I don't think we need to go far into pressing the tailbone down. Just sort of roll the low back into the mat or Tuck the pelvis and then really set, see if you can do it without using your feet. Roll the pelvis into the mat and really said, okay.

The newer you are, the tip lot is the harder that is to try and create the motion just from the abdominals. The longer you've been doing it, like some of you in here should be able to do the entire motion without extra pressure into the feet. All right, going further up your back. We settle in neutral, right? So we aren't pressing down and we're not arching. We're just sort of level do press the back of the rib cage into the mat and I'm taking time on setup because I think it's so important. Think to try to press the abdominals into the spine, the spine, into the mat. So there's a resistance there for sure. And then gently spread out the shoulder.

So they're pretty much touching the mat. Chins are down and one last piece is to reach the arms down your back. So my hope is that you have a sense of the front of your body, the inner thighs, maybe the outer thighs, a little a, I hadn't mentioned it, but lightly. Squeeze the glutes, shouldn't change the pelvis and then the back of your body. Here we go for a pelvic curl. Inhale, begin the Xcel. Just like before, you're going to roll the pelvis up to the back, goes into the mat and just picking your body up bone by bone, peeling all the way to your long line.

Hamstrings are very much involved as is the abdominals. Inhale, exhale, rolling down. Finding each vertebra sequentially and inhale. This is your time. Take the inventory, exhale, rolling on some of the exercises that we've done many times I think we can just sort of be waiting to get to the good stuff and I'm telling you, this is the good stuff. Inhale, exhale down. If you don't believe me, hmm, I think you believe me. I actually think you believe me, but if not, look for why I might say that. And really it's just that gentle massage. You can get a quite a deep contraction to the abdominals. As you're moving. Pay attention to your feet.

They tend to want to roll in or out. Inhale, exhale down. Ah Kidding us. Two more. Inhale and exhale. Helen, just a little more weight through the in, in step. Just a bit more weight in the big tail. Good. Inhale, come up a little higher. There you go. And exhale down piece by piece by piece. The last one in. Exhale, feel beautiful. Oh Deborah, you brought it all.

That was good. Hang out here for one second. I want to make sure you feel your hamstrings so your positions won't change much. Inhale, exhale. Think about drawing the heels toward the glutes, but don't pick them up off the feet of the mat at all. Just sort of engage the back of the leg. Inhale when you need to. Exhale, come down. [inaudible] and I'm already feeling kind of like, I want to say a lot. Um, and those are nights that I just have to honor it cause otherwise it just gets worse. So, uh, if you need to breathe differently or more than I've asked you to, please do. Alright, taking the legs up to tabletop, squeeze knees together, inner thighs together.

Slide the arms out just to a low v today, but palms up and then check out your back. Meaning your rib cage. It's very tempting for a lot of us to have the ribs popping up. It's not okay. Press them down even if you have to bring your knees in a little. All right, going toward the front of the room. We inhale to rotate. Keep those knees lined up. It's a stretch really from the hip. Exhale, come back to center. Maybe not from the hip, maybe it's more waist, but allow the hip to lift. Inhale and exhale.

And again, inhale, you still energetically engaged to the upper back. It's nothing severe, just enough to know it's there and back and [inaudible]. As we move into this next couple exercises, use them as a way of connecting you to your body. Let the breath be the bridge between the mind and the body and inhale and exhale. It's often the thing that goes, we start to hold the breath. When we start thinking too much. Cite, invite you to lose your mind.

Oh, that's what I'm doing tonight. That's exactly what I'm doing. I was looking for my theme. There it is. Yeah, lose your mind and just be with your body and we'll probably be amazed at what happens. One more to the back just to swing motion spine to a supine, warming up that rotational component of the body. We'll come back to center. Place the feet on the ground. A part again that sits bones. Distance just like you did in the pelvic curl and just glide your hands behind your head. Lacing them together from here. It's an inhale. It's the chest lift.

Come in, exhale. Lengthen through the back of the neck to curl, head, neck and shoulders that curling up, not just high, but folding right at that below the chest line. Inhale, exhale, itching and lengthening yourself back out and even here you've got your abdominals engaged. A little inhale if not a lot. Exhale, feeling the upper part of the powerhouse or the upper part of the ribs. Press into the mat first and eventually get up to where your low back is. Relaxed. Inhale and exhale, lengthening yourself out and inhale at the bottom. You're still working here, right? I'm talking slow. I know, but you're working. Exhale coming up. Good, good. Inhale and exhaling down [inaudible].

So a lot of times the emphasis is placed on the lower end of the abdominals or the waistline and down. And I'm going to encourage you for a change to think about just below your chest. You're at the top yet. Inhale and exhale down. Inhaling the hinge if you will, is going to be right under chest line. Perfect. Good, good. So we can do actually a bed and then something to draw in and up.

That's great. Is your low back down and not all the way? Can you come up a little bit more? Go ahead guys. Keep going. And if not, is it still kind of flat? It's flat. I mean, I mean is it touching the mat or relaxing? Yeah. So you should talk just a little, just a little, and I bet you can kind of get another half inch there. How's that? You feel it? Yeah. Good. Yeah, it's going to be preferable to um, let your low back release fully. This is it. And down. We good? Moving on. Inhale. Exhale, curling up. So just to sort of mention what we were talking about, cause it's important you theoretically we want to be neutral, right?

But if you've curled up to your Max and you still have not released your low back, you must slightly tuck. Okay. You otherwise you're not getting to work the apps as much as you could. Inhale, we're going toward the front chest lift with rotation. Exhale shoulder to hip. Inhale, keep the height as you come through. Exhale to the back. Yep. Keeping it nice and strong. It's tempting to just sort of get there and hang out. No, you are.

You are continuing your contraction. You calling up more muscle fibers as you, I want to say force the air out and you now keep exhaling. Thinking again about Joseph Pele's trying to exhale all the air. All of it to inhale the fresh and getting to do two more shoulder to hip. Could Jennifer just leave your knees slightly apart like your feet are? They don't need to come together. That's it. Coming back to the center.

Reach to the back of your legs. Exhale, sink the ABS. Don't even worry about height. I don't think. Just sink the ABS. Yes. Let the arms come up. Eyes are forward. If not right at your abdominals. Exhale. Bring your arms back down. Take them out to the side. Inhale, flatten the belly flat in the belly, flat in the belly. Bring it back. Take them up as your hands go up, the shoulders are reaching toward the hips.

Pretty subtle and inhaling. Now broadening your back. Feel those wide. Collarbones can we do two more? You can always put your head down. You can always put your head down and one more reaching out and at this time the arms up and back. Head comes down, reaching all the way back while keeping the back of the ribs down. Knees up to tabletop, squeezing muse together.

Going into the a hundred you have lots of legs, positions you can do. I'm going to actually keep mind down tonight. You can go tabletop, you can go to the full hundred if you know it. Inhale, prepare. Same like the chest lift. You exhale, lengthen through the crown of the head as you cruel up. Folding right a chest line. Pick your position. Here we go. Inhale, two, three, four, five and out. And in thinking of stillness in the body, finding ease though it was shall be very intense where we need it to be primarily abs and in Nice broad color. Looks Great.

Low back to arresting and email. Don't be, don't be ready to let the ribs expand fully. Those ribs are gonna move. They're just only at the front. [inaudible] one more cycle. [inaudible] inhale, just whole find ease in your neck and shoulders before you come out and down. You Go. Yeah.

Sliding your legs. Let's just say the lay closest to the front of the room, out onto the floor and Chris through the abdominals. And really all I mean is, is if I could hug everything closer to the midline, that's what we're doing. And then the other leg is coming straight up. If your hamstrings are tight or this is forcing anything, uh, rounding to your back, you should been the lower leg. Okay. Flex the top foot, leaving your arms down by your side. You can use them a little bit. Crossing the midline. It's inhale around, same direction.

Exhale and inhale to exhale, keeping stability. The hips. Inhale, boom, and exhale. Letting the like almost fall. One more breath cycle. That's an inhale and exhale, come to the top. Hold another way. Inhale. Inhaler. Range of motion will be different for everybody. Depends on how stable you can keep the hip and good.

Yeah. I'd love to see how your Aaron, because you are stable, you're almost too stable for you. If you can find some way to relax in it. I know it's a bit of a hard thing, isn't it? And that's it. Bend the knee. Cross that knee illustrate. Lose your mind. But thinking about it. Yes, yes. [inaudible] no. Great. So you just taking your whole stretch, enjoying it, and then come back to center. We'll do the other side. Her arms are down.

Might as well fill the back of the arm a little bit to feel the upper back flexed foot. Good. Here's what you can do if you've able to use both legs straight, which it looks like we are pressed the lower leg into the mat. I'm going to hold yours for just a second and then don't just press it down. Press it long. Try to touch the person in front of you and Wendy. Pretend crossing the midline. We inhale our around. Boom, same direction around. Boom, relax like a little bit more than, I don't mean bend it and and inhale to exhale.

We're just trying to disassociate the hip from the leg. I'll ask cycle. Inhale to Exhale, hold and change directions. If the front of your thigh is really grip being very common, you probably do want to take a little break or redirect your fo, your energy back to the center of the body. That does not work. You can always put a towel around. This is the last exhale and bend the knee, cross it over the mid line. Anybody getting any pop's good? I like the way you guys are doing the, most of you are doing this but um, the happening in the palm is that actually it doesn't, I think the palm up would be a better choice in terms of opening the chest, but either one is okay, but to open the chest while you're at it.

Okay. That's enough of that. Come on back and I'm, I really w what I'm about to do, and this is true for probably any Polonius class, but I'm going to continue to do short lever exercises like how I did the a hundred but I don't, if you don't want to do that, please extend and challenge your body in the way that you want to. So if you know the, the position where the legs are longer, it's going to end up the same for everybody or if you want to play with both. So from with that, let's go into holding onto the knees, draw them in quite close. The knees are together, the feeder and ankles are together. Then from here, length in the back of your neck, curl yourself up, looking toward the navel. And I did pull the knees in quite close.

I want to see if we can start rolling like a ball from here today. So you've squeezing the glutes a little bit. Basically tight little ball and then it's gonna just be a gentle rocking, rocking. It's okay. Come back. Bring it in closer. And now while your, your thighs are almost on your ribs as much as you can because I am pushing down, by the way, I'm, I'm helping myself do that. Try to, it's not, you're not going to see it. Try to pull the front of the ribs away from the thighs, but don't push the size away unlike what I normally say.

Took the pelvis a little and go keep the distance. Yves. Keep the, it'll take awhile. Breath, breath, shoulders. Start trusting the breath. Exhale strong. Keep it close as you can. It'll change a little but cubic close. How about three more? And we're up one. Oh that's a big one. Last one up. Three.

Cool. That said, busy Dan, when you get nice. Alright, situate yourself so you feel good about your placement on the mat. And these are still together and vent. We're tall through the spine. Exhale to pull the hipbones deeper into the body to roll down. Okay.

Inhale, exhale to come up, pulling the abs a little deeper still. So this is basically going to be the roll-up. So for those of you who prefer the roll up, I'm going to use the same breath pattern. Inhale, exhale. But I'm just going to do, I'm focusing and I'd like you to focus on the heart of the exercise. So stay here, but we would normally take the arms over when we inhale, bring the arms forward. Exhale, keeping the c curve right, beautiful. Inhale, exhale, lightly squeezing to the glutes, pulling back.

Keep those collarbones wide nice all the way back. But arms or head stays forward. If you're in my version, inhale and exhale. It's the sense of the belly button or the whole belly pulling backwards and that propels you forward. Inhale and exhale. Good. Imprinting the body into the mat, Eh, you nailing reaching forward to exhale. You can always hold on, right? If you do assist yourself in that way, use it as an opportunity to, okay, now I have a little help, so now I'm going to go even deeper into the abs so I'm not having to fight maybe a stiff back or whatever's happening that makes it difficult and one more up from here. We're going down just to the shoulder blades, so if your knees are not already bent, let's start this way. Come on down just for the next exercise and everybody drag your feet in a little closer till you're up on the tiptoes. Bringing in your right leg, bring it in for now.

Let's just go 90 if you are used to the hand position out here, don't let me mess you up with that. If that feels better, do it and now change. Now the legs are absolutely weightless heavy into that upper powerhouse. Again, if we get to lower belly dominant, it pops her whole body up and then we're doing something a little different. You want the whole back primarily down to the shoulder blades. If that's going fine, just straddle the arms or you could support your head. That would work too. But now we'll pull the knee in and come closer via the abs way in there. Come on right up there. That's it. Come on.

Okay. Reaching those arms. Lovely. Lovely. Both knees up. Head goes down for the moment. Arms down for the moment. Inhale. Started taking the chin toward the chest, heaviness through just under the chest to press the ribs down to bring the body back up. And from here, inhale, touch the dose. This is double leg stretch. If you'd rather do the regular version, please do inhale reach. You may not actually touch the toes.

That was just the direction. So as soon as your back starts to lift, you have to stop. Meaning if you start to rock the belly or the whole body forward, even though you're missing the point, we want to hold that stability and ow to close and open to close. One more. Open to close. Hug the knees in and head down. Chin toward the chest. Look over your left shoulder. Chin down toward the chest.

Look over your right shoulder just as a way of freeing it up. If something else would feel better, please do it. Checking in. We've got a few more here that you know Chris crosses next. At least a modified one, curling up, taking the hands behind your head. So you guys are all professionals in here at this point, right?

So challenge yourself to find this work. I think you can find it way more here sometimes. So we're rotated. Take a second. Sorry. Before you change, get that crossing the body sensation. So be careful that you have not allowed the knee to come out. It's almost almost crossing the midline. Do I go change?

Yeah. Yeah. You can either stop at 90 but I think you would be better suited to pull the knee in a little more without losing the height that you started with in your body. And again, the legs don't actually have to touch the ground. Things that will intensify this for you is to lightly squeeze the glutes toward each other is probably the way I think of it. Yeah.

One more. Come back to the center. Let the feet come down, separate them at the bottom for a pelvic curl and just reach your arms down by your side, spreading out the collarbones. Inhale, starting that exhale. We roll up through the spine. [inaudible]. Okay, position check. Do it for yourself. Look down your body from where you're at, aiming to have a straight line shoulder to knee.

Basically what you most want to watch for, as you know, is the release at the hip joints, so there's nothing going on at the low back. You definitely want to tuck there. Anyone not feel the hamstrings. It doesn't have to be intense though. It could be, oh, now they're not talking to me. All right, well I'm going to make sure that you do feel them. So keeping this position, this is pretty small and I'll do my best to say you don't have to pick up your head. You're going to just take your right leg, stretch it out a little bit until you can touch the big toe. I just heard lengthen the leg. Hips are still up though, so they shouldn't change. It's not that big. Then drag it back in and set it down. Oh, other side, stretch out. Lightly touch. And when I say drag icon a mean it, but it doesn't have to be really heavy on your mat.

Just drag it back in and chuck a little more. Deborah pubic bone. This guy hipbones backwards. So lower the pelvis a little and I think you're going to be really good there. Other side, right to our first side touch it's level and drag. So as I draw the leg back in, I'm almost re lifting the pelvis, but in fact it never dropped change.

Okay. You might feel more glute. I, I'm not gonna say should no, it's not wrong. It's not wrong. Do look for the hamstring out of it though. There is a lot of glute. Absolutely. Thank you. Definitely. Especially the support leg, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure.

For sure. In fact, the support legs probably working harder and then once you drag, try to find primarily hamstring on it on the, the moving leg. Last one. If this is being pulled into your back, you're probably dragging too hard and, or you're losing your tuck. Cold arms are down if they weren't already exhale, come down. Yeah. It's just an important contraction that you know when we're in the a hundred when you're in anything with those legs are out. You want that little bit of awareness. Can you feel it now? I mean, not that you don't normally, but let's take that like up for a little stretch.

Bottom leg is bent. Unless you're feeling super flexible, go for it. What I'd like to encourage you is to literally pull down on your legs. So it's like you're pushing the leg into the hip socket. Yeah, it kind of frees up the hip flexor a little bit for some of us. Good. So it's a downward press and then I, if that, if you need more gently pull towards you, just watch the back of your knee. I can't tell if that you need, but rather hold at the calf or thigh.

There you go. Good. Careful about your fingers yet. I'm not sure if it's behind your knee. Okay. And then if you need more still rather than doing the bottom leg, which would be the obvious thing continued. You just pulled your hip, your leg deeper into your hip, try to press both sides of the hips or both your sacrum into the ground might already be there, but energetically try to make it more so absolutely. Core care. That's exactly my next cue. So no, that's great cause I might've forgot. I appreciate it. Who knows? Right. So as you're pulling down, you're saying to push up, if you expect to stretch the hamstring, that's how you do it. Right?

And in fact, the more you push up, even if your hands weren't here, the more you pull the hip into the ground so that that front of the hip relaxes. Go ahead and change legs and let's break it down like that again cause I think it's worthwhile. So we're always looking for opposition. If your foot's going one way, the other end of your leg has, should be thinking to go the other. But nobody's thinking tonight. Right? So we have pulled straight down into the hip socket to free up anything there. Then whatever feels natural and not natural, a little beyond natural probably to find a gentle hamstring stretch, it is totally acceptable to keep the knees slightly bent. Okay. In fact, sometimes it works better for the people who hyper extend.

At that point you reach the tailbone or the sacred him into the mat though the lowest part of your spine is anchored or pressing into this a little bit and then following the final cue is almost pushing the sole of the foot through the ceiling. [inaudible] you don't do that. That feels most natural even though you don't d that's not how you would do with deals. Okay, that's a really good point. So you guys didn't hear it even though this is not what we like do in life ever. Right. And we're probably not even in this position that often it feels most natural she's saying and where I'm going to capitalize on that.

Cause you said you wanted to work with some ease and I think all Pilati is exercises when you hit it, when you find it, when you are in their correct mechanics. Feels maybe not natural, but easier. I'm not saying it's not intense but easier. You can bring that leg out. Um, it feels right is how I think of it. It just feels like, oh, okay. That's right. So let that be your guide. If everybody thinks feeling overly strange, okay, back to work already. All right, from there, now that we're all stretched out, uh, pick the leg that you did not end on the first leg you stretched.

And if it's available to you, you can straighten it out. Please straighten out the lower leg. That might mean you have to bend the top leg and that's cool. Curl, head, neck and shoulders up. Take a moment. We just talked about opposition. You are reaching this straight leg and pushing it down. That's your focus. So if you feel your butt, I'm happy. That's not the point, but I'm happy.

Do the thing that you just did with your leg and pull it towards you. Because the only way that is easy to do is because I'm pulling the hip down a little, not excessively. The leg itself is relatively relaxed. And what was the other, oh, sending the energy out the back of the leg. Okay. Enough of that. Hold onto it lightly and it's pull, pull. Pick the other leg up first tonight and change.

We're gonna take our time on this first one. Reached the bottom leg. Press it. Not just down, but long and pull. Pull, pick up the bottom leg first and change. Okay. Hamstring pull one or single straight leg. Yeah, you want to support your head. You're welcome to write.

If you want to make the range smaller, you should, right? Always just looking for different ways to challenge the core pulse. Pulse last to pulse. Pulse and bring both knees up, bend them, hug them. And momentarily, and I do mean momentarily starting the rollover process. Extend the legs a little bit, but not fully straight arms are reaching down into your um, mats. It's a pelvic crow with no feet at all. So that means you're going to roll the pelvis up and roll it back down as opposed to drop it back down. It's not huge.

Just lift and lower in effect, you're paroling the low back into the mat. And it'll just have the very edge of your tailbone or basically your spine coming up is good. It's all good. Perfect. Perfect. Let it be small. It's kind of unsatisfying. Sometimes we want them to be big and kind of sexy, but nope, it's just going to be lift and lower, but it's going to be all abs. Maybe a little glute maybe a little bit. That would be fine. That looks so good. Okay. It doesn't look hard enough for you guys.

Alright, we're working easily. We can work easily this way. So let's do this. Um, take your hands behind your head and you can know you can have your needs very bent if you want. Um, hover your head and chest, so meaning you're not in a full chest lift. That just enough to make it a little less straining to keep it down from here. We'll do the little lift that you just did lower down. You can either stay there or let the thigh bones drift away a little.

I am not straightening my knee, not at all. And the pressure change, there is no pressure change at the low back. So we come to 90 with the thigh. Forget the lower leg, don't even see it. Little Tuck. Place it down and let the size drift away. Only if you can prevent the low back from moving and up, exercising control. Now this would be one of those exercises that can be just a pure strain and possibly annoying at this pace. I'm giving it to you, but this is how you should be able to do it. To lift up, to place down, to let the legs go out, to bring them back to the lift, up to place to push and bring it back.

Couple more lift for those of us with tighter backs. This is actually a great exercise though. It feels almost impossible. The last one. And bring it back. Lift down and down. Okay, good. Set your feet on the mat, uh, apart. Kind of drift them away from you a little bit. Trying to keep the feet flat and just curl up.

Find your legs and continue rolling up. If you can leave your feet there, you do. If not, you move them out, right? And then just sit up onto your sits bones. Alright, looking for a straight spine here. So I'm going to hold onto the legs initially and then we'll go into a more advanced version of the spine. Stretch is where I'm going. So let your feet be wide about as wide as your mat. Yup. Yup. And again, I know I'm, I know who's in the room and I know you're all advanced and I'm specifically giving it to you because you can find it. Inhale, sorry, arms here. Right along. I'm actually pushing in, pushing in, but I'm not letting my legs move. So Jennifer, good push out. Good. Inhale, exhale to round down. You're engaging your abdominals right away.

As you go down, you're also going forward. The more forward you go, the more you tried to pull the abdominals and ribs back from here. So you're still pressing in on the thighs or the whole outer leg I should say. And the outer legs pushing into your arm for resistance. Shoulders down, everybody. Arms Straight. Helen, you just get to reach further. Okay. Inhale. Exhale. First, pull the hipbones, the front of your pelvis off and stack your spine as if you're sitting up against a wall. So at the top you have a little peck chest action. Inhale, just one, one or two more of these. Exhale, explore the heart, the point, the objective of the exercise. As you're traveling forward, the hips, try to stay where they are. You may or may not be touching. Then inhale, keep that just gentle inward pressure XL to rule up using those back extensors.

The head would come up a last and I will be adding back extension. I'm going to do it here first. So inhale XLU round, traveling forward, the arms, the shoulders, I should say, stay on your back. Now from here in fact, go far enough for that. You really feel your ribs on your chest and if, if you don't, you can bring your feet in a little closer just for this demo. Okay, from there, chis shifting your arms over the top. So instead of being on the side, I've just moved them over so my hands are on top and I'm going to apply downward pressure first. At the shoulders. So it's not the hands, it's the shoulders. As we elongate our bodies, still touching the thighs until your backs are flat. So yeah, Jennifer just dropped the shoulders and you're good.

You can move your elbows just outside your knees. There you go. And Oh, you can even pull gang. You can even pull. There we go. So Deborah, just imagine your knees were longer and you're lengthening up your knees even with, there you go. There you go. And then take an inhale. I know the, and exhale round. Pull the hips away first. Just leave your head down until it's time to come up. Okay, so that's the heart of it. You can either leave your legs like that or straighten them out or get close to straight. Challenge the hamstrings and little arms out in front of you or stick with the one you just did. Feet flexed in here.

Same thing. Tail as you round as if you were stretching the spine forward over the legs. Just like before. Right into back extension. Inhale, lengthening the low back, the middle back, the upper back. We're pretty high. Good. Exhale re round. And Roll. Oh, okay. Thank you. Okay. Okay.

You will be, Oh God, I hate those inhales. I can help you. Let me know. Exhale to round forward. Okay. So as you and me last time, wasn't it? This is the thing I know. It's just, yeah, there you go. Look, keep going. Go ahead guys and we'll catch up. Then inhale, start lengthening along this line. Oh my God, you're that flexible.

You weren't telling me. Don't quite know where your back is. Great. Can you move your arms back further? Oh my God. I had no idea and exit. I didn't and I'm thinking about how I cued you last time thinking my time with this one because then, oh, so you're like super flexible. Ah, okay. She hasn't. Okay, so I'm with you. Go ahead gang Xers. She, I'm really Bindi exhale four to your job right now is just to fill your apps. Don't worry about the rest. I'll stop you if you need to. Go ahead.

You guys look good. Good, good, good, good. Okay, so this is appropriate. Stay here for a second. Can you just, you're, I think you're good, but just think to pull back here. That's all. Okay. Now linkedin on the day I going let you go ahead. You'd be flexible. You enjoy. Good. Now let me just get a side of you really quick. Okay, so that's okay. That's okay. Instead of coming up, cause you don't need to, I'll be right there, gang. Come towards me, right? Pull the shoulders down. Stay there everybody. When you get there, go ahead and come back Debra. Pull the shoulders down more. Okay, now from there, God, Aaron, gently right where Aaron is in front of you. Sorry.

If you want to do a whole nother one, you can now gently press the chest forward and release it a little and do it again. Good. That's it. That's it. Keep going. Good. And everybody's feeling so you're challenged and you're doing great. So don't change a thing. It's just to keep their ribs in while doing that big range. Good.

Now let the arms move a little bit more behind you. Good. The body is pretty still at this point. Oh boy. Oh boy. How are you doing, Jennifer? She's like, I am never coming back. Inhale, hold, exhale re round. You want a tennis ball or something in your cat? Awesome. Sarah. Okay baby.

Gently, gently, gently. Okay. Did you feel it? Okay. That was awesome. Okay. Close the feet. I have no idea. And arms, right. We're just going to maximize and contract on that. That one. So you're up. If it's a lot of hip flexors, just bend your knees.

It's so appropriate. Here we go to the front. Exhale twice. Inhale, center and Nice. Your feet aren't moving. I love it. Good. And stay here for one second if you would for just a couple of rounds. Uh, uh, here. Okay. Right opposite. You go slow enough that you don't get your hands in front of you.

It's all spine. It's all spine. It's all spine. Stay there everybody. And some of you don't really need it, but try anyway. Lift the chest. Beautiful. Really come back through other side. So feel what your range is. It's different usually on each side. Okay.

Now we will go ahead and separate it cause that nobody likes to do that for too long. But just imagine it and slower than whipped before and center and [inaudible] center and center last one and good. Okay. Nice job from there. Oh, you probably need to round over. It's your moment. Your head's hang heavy and then bring it up. Moving forward on your mat for open leg rocker. So I'm going to stick to the way I've been doing it. Let's, let's all start kind of in a more basic version of it and um, you're just behind your tailbones banks can stretch out, but not so much that it pitches your pelvis forward. Okay. It's just behind that. Let the legs hang as much as possible. Yeah.

If possible, think to squeeze through the inner thigh. I don't really mean move them, but oh, I know you could do, I'm holding all the way so my hands are on the inside. Try to pull your legs apart, but resist it by pressing them in. Cool. Yeah. Okay. Keep that, keep that period because ultimately you don't even need to do the hand thing, but do it for awhile. Inhale, roll back, keep that resistance.

Exhale up and use your back extensors. That's it. That is it. That's exactly it. And, and the real trick is the inner fi part of it in conjunction with the ABS. So when you get up your linkedin, good. And one more like that or more, if you would like to stay like that, if it's feeling really good, you should. Or take your legs up to straight. Same contractions, right and held back.

If all of a sudden that's become this leg, upper body thing, go back rather feel the work in the middle because the arms, the legs aren't nearly as important and back to come up. Give yourself two more, one more. And do you want to roll her on the next one? Come up, stay up. Thanks Wendy. And then just close the feet, bend the knees and roll down. Have you used one of these before?

What you're gonna do is just sit down and just gently roll or you could just lie on your side if you don't want to get down. That's a whole nother thing. What do you think? Maybe you could just to walk it out. I just don't want to try that dry. Okay. Okay. Whatever you need. Okay. Right. Please turn on your sides facing the front right here. Sorry.

On the elbow, forearm and you know more advanced version. So you'll do them if you want. I'm going super solid so I get the the main part. So I've taken the leg to 90 degrees and the lower part of the body, or sorry, this part of the body, which I think is up or lift up. So you're up off your elbow, not off it almost instead of here.

K looking down the leg straight lifted up. Let me say it differently. Relax it down. I'm coming Debra. Reach at long. Make sure you're anchored so it doesn't move. Then lifted up. Now relax the leg in the air. Right on cue. Here we go. It's kick, kick and reach back. Hold for just a second. Make look back. Is it straight? Do you feel your glutes? Okay. And you should.

If I didn't make that clear, the tendency here is to squeeze the hamstrings so much that we end up bending the knee, not knowing it. So kind of let the leg, except for the glute gauge, pulse, pulse and back and the stillness through the rest of the body again is what we're going for here. And that ends up working what we need. Pulse, pulse and back and pulse. This is it. Keep it back there. Re relax it like Justin Case maybe even feel where the leg and the button meet. That's the juncture we're looking for. Maybe a stretch here and straight back tonight. Just back. So it's pretty tiny cause you're already there.

It's just back back. It might even just feel like a glute squeeze. Okay, hold it. Aaron, can you raise yours a little higher? Huh? Should we make you do it again? Yeah, no, no. Well you can, we're moving on. Um, bring it forward and let's just come round. Let's come around this other side.

So I may have just caught you on the last one, but in essence we want to be whichever version you're doing. Once you've reached the leg out, you stabilized and lifted. Let's start the leg and hip height. It could be a little higher. I wouldn't go from Max Height, but that, that's it. That's probably where you were. Here we go and kick, kick and squeeze the galoot back there. Yes. Kick kick.

There is this flexing as you come forward. That's thinking of reaching out the back of the leg. That's an opposition thing again. But if the foot starts making you think, remember, that's not our goal tonight and back. So you just do what comes naturally or nothing at all with the foot. Pulse.

Pulse. Jennifer, when your leg goes to bat, try to keep it straight. You'll get more through the powerhouse. And I am sure that, hold it right there. Look at it, Jennifer. Oh, it's so far behind you getting me to see it. Yeah. Yeah. And so straighten it more. Yeah. Yeah. Now you have a sh and then keep your foot exactly there. And I'm gonna show you on here. Look here, Jen. Keep your foot where it is.

It's good. Now Roll your hip forward just to shower. There you are. Good. You're good. I just want to just, that's it. You can't, you kind of feel, okay, good. Good. Now where we're there, just press back back. Good, good. Excellent. Push right into my like not with your lower leg, with your upper leg. [inaudible] there. There you go. A couple more. Yup. And then we held, we stretched, felt it, we made her go higher and then we rested.

Good onto your abdominals and forearms. Single leg kick. So same ideas that as you just had, you're not sinking into the shoulders. Um, you know what? Actually gently, oh, I hope rails not watching. Gently relax into the shoulder girdle. So he does. I'm not, that's not my full body weight, but it's sloppy enough, right? Without pushing down to come up.

Try to use your back extensors only. And now that I'm here, no you can, you might need to move your elbows forward a little. Got you in kind of a funny place. Okay. Before we go anywhere, pull the abs up so you're going to have the effect of lengthening your low back. Okay. Oh, you guys are so good. No one will even do the sloppy part in any case thing to lift the back of your head a little low. Not Pushing any more weight into the elbows. Lift the upper back. It's a bit of a brain teaser for me, but that's good.

That's really good. Deborah. All right from there. Um, everybody, if you had a light on your chest, shine it straight ahead cause you're all high enough to be able to do that. Oop, perfect. Perfect. Nothing like looking straight in the eyes. Someone else who reach your legs so far they hover and it's hover. I mean you, my kneecaps are barely off the floor. If I don't, I mean I can still feel flora many caps. My lower leg. Yeah, lift the right thigh. Oh I know. Psych right thigh and put it back just to where it was a moment ago. Do it again. Same side again as if someone were pulling the ankle.

Super tiny, relaxed the foot on that right leg and to keep going. Uh Huh. Same leg. I'm still on the same leg. Come back to level and I still, you still have them both, right? Can you pull your hipbones up a little bit more?

So I don't mean to go higher necessarily, but just so you feel more support. Other side, left side legs are parallel. Okay. It starts with a, but I just caught myself, my lower leg, super tense. So I gotta re wiggle my toes. It's not about that. It's the thigh.

It's a subtle thigh. Because of the position of the back. You should hardly be able to move that thigh. The act of moving that thigh though is super important. Okay, good. About three more relaxed, lower legs if necessary and relax. So if you say you're not even feeling it at all. Yeah, they don't even feel like yours. That's got to feel kind of fun.

Come on down to double leg kicks. So now you have the sense of what it, hopefully to feel this connection. So come down, turn your faces to the front. Hands are going behind your back, high up on your back. Somebody use you. If you don't mind. Since you can't feel your legs, you won't even know I'm here reaching long. Okay, so here we have another flexible person. This is good. Starting position is, I'm starting at the head. You've got your face turned one way, shoulders are down, gently pulling the abdominals up. In your case, it's going to be a little more than gentle because you've got this lovely sway back. Then reach your legs so far that they hover again, just like before without losing the back. Now bending the knees, we're going to kick the heels to the glutes. Three times we kick one, two, three, stretch the leg, stretch the arms, shine that same light forward. You can't, you can separate the hands if you want to. And then come back to the start, which has bent elbows, bent knees faced the other way, and kick one, two, three and stretch.

Make this the inhale so you can really expand and turn again and one, two, three and inhale and turn one and two and three and stretch. Okay, I'm gonna make us go more precise. So that means slower for now. Just bend, hold your position. When you get there, everything's bent, everything's down. Heads of turn, one way or the other. Shoulders are still down, feet, knees together. If you can. There's some reasons that people wouldn't be able to. Uh, but try, if necessary, you can separate the knees but keep the feet together and by separate the knees, I mean a tiny bit. Recommit to the ABS and make sure your elbows are down.

I think we were going a little too fast to get all of that. Here we go. Kicking slower one and two and three and stretch. Go for length, not so much height and change Jan one and two. Elbows down three and [inaudible] fabulous. Last two. Um, my flexible people watch the hyperextension of the elbow and up and at this must be it right? Two and three. Yes. Not and [inaudible] like, oh the arms and just rest into the mat. Good job. Once your back feels like it's settled, if it's fills, like it's settled, come up to your hands and knees and press your hips back over your heels for a rest position.

Yeah. Yeah. Work in lovely. Hanging out a little bit longer and we are going to do just a front support. So, um, if anybody doesn't want to be on their wrists, this can as you know, be done on your, you know, let's do it on our farms. Let's do it on our forms. We haven't done that in awhile and it's a good way to be. So with the palms flat or you can turn them out and make fist in front.

I like that idea too. That works for me. Um, before we do anything else, guide the upper arm toward your body. Extend of arms towards your body. Extend your feet back, curl the toes. Under legs are straight and at the moment I have my hips piked on purpose. Yeah, trust me. Good from here. Tuck your pelvis. Yeah, keep the hips up though. So, and your heads will probably drop a little because of that. Good squeeze inner thighs. My feet are slightly apart.

Just like your hands are right now. Roll into a plank so your elbows are not going to move. You're just going to unfurl the spine. Flex your feet so you have the room until you come to your long line. Gorgeous. Tuck your pelvis a little more. Jennifer. You can feel your butt. There you go.

Now everybody from the front of your body right at the [inaudible], pull that upper part of your powerhouse up. You're going round, you know, lift around and look towards your feet. Now keep the Tux so we're not just rounding the upper back. It's pretty mild. It took a little more air in here. Yep. And lengthen back out more hamstring more. Yes. Long bodies from the front, right below your chest. Doesn't mean give up everywhere else, but that's where I'm initiating my head falls.

Lots of arm and shoulder work here and unfurl one last time. If you need to go to your knees, please do. Don't let it just be a neck thing. Never good. Strong like powerful legs. Yes. And Re lift enough to lower the knees. Stretch backs to straighten out the arms.

Yeah, that was what Rad. Right on. I have not heard that word in a long time and I'm from [inaudible] and I am from that area. Rad. What's another one besides tubular? Oh God. Gnarly. Well, I still, I still say that gnarly still in my vocabulary. Okay. When you guys are ready. Let's come to a seated position. It doesn't have to be this close to can be more diamond position if that feels better. Oh yeah. You know what?

Face me and yeah, yeah, exactly. Sorry, face me. That's what I meant to say and I just thought of one I want to share, but this isn't terrible. Start here. Uh, keeping that hold onto your just above your knees somewhere. Somewhere comfy. Nothing too particular here. Other than that, we're just not going to collapse on ourselves. We've worked way too hard. Inhale. Exhale. Roll back. I remember this from last week. I liked it.

So we're doing it cause I'm in charge. Come forward, headfirst. It's snake-like forward, forward, forward. Using your hands. We're going to help ourselves start. Oh, lengthening. Lifting, lifting the back of your head is what I mean to say like you're coming under. What is it? Limbo. What is that called? That game. Anyway, do this. Go forward. Pull the hipbones back.

Let your head drop in a roll back till your behind your tail bone and your arms are almost straight. Yeah, go forward. At the top of your head once you get there. Don't let me rush you. I'm not giving you a breath pattern cause it just should be kind of natural. And then start reaching the head forward the chest forward. You start to arch the back to come up almost to the top and then reverse it to go forward. Kick, warm. What's a kick? Warm.

Oh Gosh. Breakdancing. Yes. We went from red to break dancing in r to kick warm to the end. This is supposed to be bad and now you're opening like a flower. All right. I promised you a stretch that I had. Someone just taught me, so I'm gonna give that to you. Just come forward enough to sit up, right. Okay. And then we're coming to a figure four or a the F. Are we all on the same leg? Yes.

The left Shin is forward, right? Chin is bent. If you can take this and make it so that the heel of your right shin is just opposite your knee. So it could be tempting to Tuck it in if you need to. You are welcome too. And the foot flexed tends to help the knee. All right. Hands are down. You get to use them. That's the good news. My focus is going to be that your right hip, hip flexor general area. Everyone feels it a little differently, but this is where I'm trying for and if you know we did this last week, Oh God, Jabber, Jabber, Jabber. Here we go. Press your hip forward and release it back and forward.

I should be taller. There we go. You guys look good and back. So trying to once again oppose it as I send the hipbone directly forward. Maybe you'll feel this glute tighten. I would think so. Enjoy. Go for it and release you. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Then we did again.

We started that way and now I'm pretending my hand is my hipbone and I'm going to lead with it so it's getting ahead of me. I'm rotating, I'm pushing it and my body's going to follow and then put your hand somewhere where it helps you. Yeah, right. Oh, for me? For me. Yeah. Deep. For other people, they're like, whatever. This is named Deborah. Where do you feel you have a completely different, Deborah's like a rebel.

What is it today? Here now it's of, yeah. Okay. That's, that was my point for it, but I'm happy if you're feeling good. I were trying for in here. You and I feel it a little more in and um, we're coming back. Just release it a level. You can just leave your hands there. Just released the hip freedom. Okay. Press forward here. I'm just mimicking my hip bone again. I'm, I'm literally kind of squeezing my butt to send the hip forward and pressing it.

I almost think of getting ahead of me and then the rotation just sort of comes with I'm not trying. That's right. That's right. And if I had to say, which is what you, either one is good of course, but I'm doing it as a unique hip stretch. Thank you Ken Gilbert or wherever he got it and dead. Okay. The tricky part, if you're tight is help your knee up. I'm actually going to reach my fingers under there. No.

Work with the leg to pick it up and then allow it to come forward. Now, if you're not tight, that maybe that care doesn't need to be taken, but if you are in it felt like a deep stretch. You don't want to just pick the way to the leg up. Okay. So make this the left leg comfortable. Um, if you want more stretch, if that didn't do much for you, make the leg a little more parallels. Um, but most, most everybody's going to just need it regular right in front. All right. Just press the hip forward and then release. You might find as you do a few, your hips sit a little more level.

We're not really expecting both sitz bones to be down, but we [inaudible] dry. Yeah. And then [inaudible] good. And then w Mary's Jane really well actually, probably. And Debra, both of you keeping the spinal column for now straight as you press that hip forward as opposed to giving way. Yeah. If you still aren't getting enough push this forward foot and the knee. But I think it's enough. Okay. And I am.

I know you don't have that leverage that I have with this thing up here, but you're right in Carrington and the nerve. Okay. Which part of it? We're going to start turning. So do move the foot out I think or something. I know you actually might need it in closer now that I said that. Yeah.

And come on back. Come on back when you're ready. Kind of free it up and then hit [inaudible]. It goes forward first. Tighten the glute. That's just my imaginary hipbone and then it's it. I'm trying to let it get in front of me. Let me, and then I go, I just read a really cool article on surfing and I think it was Kelly Slater talking about come on back. How to surf, not how to, but how to do was super interesting. And it reminds me of this because they, oh, I'm going to get it wrong. No, they turn their hips where they want their shoulders and board or board to end up.

So if we turn our hip and point it to where you eventually want your shoulders and chest to end, do the hip part first. I want my hip to go over there and then I'm going to line up with it. And apparently that's how you turn a surfboard on a wave or some version of that and come on back. I saw like physics, it was cool. The last one hip is pointing to where you're going to end up and eventually the spine follows. Sorry, almost talking. In fact, I'm trying to and return and settle. Find yourself that get up, sit somehow comfortable. If that was comfortable, you can stay like that and we'll just take a couple of three deep breaths to check in with the difference. If you want more, you can stay. I will be on my way. But uh, inhale and certainly if we didn't rejuvenate enough, see what a simple, deep nurturing breath can do for you.

Yeah. Eh, let it happen. We don't even have to try to inhale deeply. Don't even try. Whatever happens. One more [inaudible]. Then I'm like, ah. As usual, I really appreciate you coming, playing and doing all that nitty gritty stuff. Until next time.

Comments

I was looking for something to ease me back into Pilates after recovering from the flu. This was perfect. Loved the short lever modifications, some of which I will definitely be using with my students in the future. Thanks Kristi, you certainly enabled be to feel ease in my own body.
loved it thank you!!!!

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