Class #809

Quick and Powerful Mat

30 min - Class
276 likes

Description

Short on time? Challenge your whole body with this quick yet powerful workout taught by Meredith. Featuring a fun abdominal challenge, plenty of rotation and a great hip work variation. Have fun!
What You'll Need: Mat

About This Video

Aug 13, 2012
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Transcript

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Okay guys, we're going to move and we're going to move kind of quick cause we're gonna do a real short class today. So hold onto your legs and find your way up tall, sitting just over your sitting bones. I like to pull my spine up, especially this early, and then just, Oh gosh, it's pretty outside. Close Your eyes unless you can see the ocean, in which case keep them open and inhale, just expand. Feel the whole trunk expanding, lifts the spy through. Just take a moment to integrate, to connect our mind and our bodies to be here in this room, in this moment as you inhale again and build the spine a little taller with a little less tension and exhale supporting that and inhale again.

Here we go. Exhale round the spine. Keep the shoulders just over the pelvis. So here's your chance to get a good stretch to that lower back, pulling back deeply on the adds. An inhale, build your way back up and we move with the breath. Exhale, curving the spine. Hold yourself almost up with your arms as you work against your arm with your apps, and inhale to lift. Let's do that just two more times. Feel that there's a connection between the inner thighs and play with this a little bit. Pull out on your legs with your arms, but pull in on your knees with your legs and Exhale, and this time let go if you want to or just start reaching backwards more sliding the arms down your legs, pushing into the legs with the arms, pushing in towards the middle of the body with the legs. Inhale, take the arms up. Exhale, bring the arms around and roll up and lift and exhale. Rounding down, creating the curvature of the spine first and then feel free to keep your hands on your legs. Use them to help you, and then push down on your feet. Let go, lift up. Nice Sarah. Circle around. I kind of promise not to do this to you, didn't I?

And then lift up. All right, so that's it. I did promise not to do this to Sarah. Let's move on. Bring your heels right up next to you. Right up next to you. This is the tough part. So can we pull ourselves up nice and straight. Keep your body still let go.

Reach up. There you go. Sorry. I just tortured myself and roll down and rolled down all the way. Sliding the feed in for a pelvic girl. Inhale, prepare. Exhale. Feel the movement of the pelvis first. The knees reach out in space over the big and second toe. We press up through the backsides of the legs and down with the arms and inhale and exhale. Feel the chest reach down for us. The arms are stretching, reaching for the feet. We undulate through the spine, reaching all the way down to the pelvis and breathe in. Breathing out as we heal, feeling a strong connection to the back and the front of the body and how they relate to one another. And exhale as we let go of the back of the body using the front of the body to move the spy.

I want to rephrase XL to the left. So now arms are going to be pressing down. That's the back of the body, I suppose. So as you round down through your spine, let go of the muscles surrounding your spine, using your abdominals to create movement, but keep them muscles of the arms and the upper back. Working for shoulder stabilization. Release all the way down, holding up at the top when we get there. Exhale to lift. Stay lifted. Lift the left leg up, holding it at tabletop. Inhale, reach and tap the left toes on the ground and exhale to lift up and inhale. Tap and pressing up with the right leg and inhale to tap and XL to lift.

Holding here we do a single legged roll down, peeling the spine down, reaching, reaching all the way down. Find neutral pelvis. The leg will drop into tabletop and then curve the spine. Press into the leg. Got to work really hard in these short classes. There was no time to spare there. No energy to spare. Rolling down. I don't release. Add one more. Excellent to lift up.

Inhale as you pause at the top. Excellent. As you peel down strong arms, are there equal weight on your arms? Is there equal weight on your arms. Release the pelvis down and put your foot down. Inhale and exhale to lift the spine up with both legs on the floor since the knees reaching away. Since the heels pulling towards you, lift the right leg and in, you know we just took Florida nice and easy. We pull the leg and in he'll tip the floor. Annex Oh polling last one. Tip the floor. Exhale to pull.

Here comes our curl. We round down through the spine, reaching, trying to create more space between the bones and pelvis. Drops and pelvis curls back up for us and then we engage the leg and that helps us as we rise up into that lifted position and exhale as we come down. Good. Keeping the shoulders broad. Feel how the arms help you achieve that goal. And last one, rolling up and rolling down. Keep the right leg in the air. Support from the center of the body.

Lift the left leg to meet the right. Like bring your arms to your sides. Inhale as we tilt towards the window and Xcel as we worked through the waistline, dragging the legs back through center, tilting away and Exhale, so as you tilt towards me or the window, feel that oppositional pressure of that back arm. It stays still. It anchors the upper body and inhale over and exhale to left. And inhale one more time and dragging back through center. We exhale and inhale over and [inaudible] coming through center. Bring the arms up over the shoulders. Turn the palms to face away from your face and take the arms overhead, keeping the bottom side of the ribs on the mat. As we exhale, we're going to lift the head, keep the head between the arms and then follow through with the arms reaching past the pelvis. Inhale, reach the tippy toes towards the floor.

Tip the floor with the toes. Xcel brewing the knees up and take it all the way down. And again, we exhale and curl the head and chest, reaching, reaching, reaching and inhale. Tip the toes and dig deep to pull back and take the arms up and the head down. So head seize frame between the arms as we curl the chest and then we follow through with the arms, creating more flection. Inhale, toes, touch, exhale, legs. Come back and lift the arms first and then take the spine down. Coming up to hold. Exhale.

Now we hold the body lifted and we just take the legs down in the arms, up and down, sell back and inhale said, what do you need to do to create more depth? Do you maybe not need to go quite so low with the legs? Do you maybe need to curl the chest a little forward and press through the arms last one and press through the arms. Now the legs are going to go down, the arms go up, the arms come towards me as the knees lift and we rotate and inhale center and exhale, rotate. Keep the alignment of the knees as consistent as possible and inhale reached it and exhale across. And inhale, reach, tip and exhale across. And last one, excellent Lacrosse. Reach the arms up.

Let the legs go down one last time. Stretch the legs out, reach forward. Use your arms to help you. Either on the mat if you need to, or behind your legs as you roll through your spine. Let's take it all the way forward in a rule up, sitting up til separating the feet, sitting right on top of the sitting bones. Armstrong over creating energy between the arms, energy and the lift of the spine and breathing in and allowing the head to travel forward. Feel the ribs draw down.

Feel the fluxion of this spine first as your hands reach towards the floor and then reaching long between the legs with the arms. Inhale, pause, and exhale. You roll back up, building the spine right over the top of the pelvis and hold and XL. Taking the head for drug deeply back through the abdominals. Stretch all the way through the arms in Hilton. Pass an XLT Rola and again, adding the extension we fold forward first, let the hand stay on the ground for just a small moment. Think about lifting up. Use your arms to help you.

Pull your back a little flatter there and then start just floating the arms up, bringing this fine with you. Nice. Nice. We take it all the way back forward and up on one exhale and inhale to sit tall and exhale. We take you forward again. When you stretch, use the hands if you need to to lift the back, reach nice and long and then just float the arms and then dive back forward and undulate your way to city. Here's number one, excelling as we take it far reaching, supporting that position, lifting through the lower back, finishing with the arms from here. Take the arms to your ships. Pull a little straighter, give yourself a little more. Take the arms out in front of you. The elbow closest to me now Benz and we reach the opposite arm forward, increasing or going into rotation.

Inhale to center and Xcel reaching. Twist and inhale to center, pulling the spine forward and reach and twist. Nice long rotation, keeping that body straight and extended and center and last one, reaching and center and reaching. Take the arms up one last time just near the ears and let them just press them. Why don't we sit all the way up, twist towards me. Reach the back arm backwards.

As you take the front arm forward and then create more energy like that front arm goes out, it brings the spine, the back arm reaches back, it pulls the spine and we come back to center and inhale to turn first. Exhale, the back arm reaches the front arm reaches oppositionally and then as we lift we create that continuous oppositional action and center and turn and find that long. The longest back available to you. Reaching out through the spine, sitting up and coming center and turn. Spiraling around through the center of the body, reaching, reaching and find center. Last time to each side, spiraling up, growing taller, reaching length in the backup and find center. Last time. Nicely down guys. Push that back arm away from you and in towards your body. Um, left and center and place your hands down.

Bring the legs together, bend the knees, scoot towards your feet, reach around for your ankles. Slide the seat in Nice and close around the spine. Using the abdominals. We hover the legs up. We keep this nice contractive position as we ra and rock and rock pulling down on the shins. As we find our balance just behind our pelvis and back man and back and up and one way and [inaudible].

Okay. Hands on your knees. Start to push the knees into the hands. Curl away from your knees. We're on a suicide mission. Here. Are you ready? Hands on the knees. Double leg stretch for five reaching, pressing the arms based event and app and pressing the arms to space. Keep the legs strong and ripple and in. Yeah, and pull number one single leg stretch here. Reaching app and create a little downward pressure on the arms if make it a full body commitment. Feeling that upper back working. Last two, two one one bringing the hands behind the head.

Chris. Cross reaching up and across, up and across, keeping the strength through that straight leg. Last two. One more. Come to center. Stretch one leg, place the other down and pull. Pull, change, pull, pull, change. Think about the pool coming from the abdominals, not from the arms and three is the three guys think it might be. And two and two and one and one both legs in the air. Reach back, hands behind your head. I've gone into external rotation. Take the legs down and pulling up.

Good. Here's number three. Keep the chest following the legs as they go forward. Number two, and uh, number one I'm going to give us a little reprieve. Come up with the legs. Put the arms down, roll over, flex the feet, parallel the legs, separate them, lower them down if you want to end, can roll down all the way in, printing the spine into the mat. Drawing deeply back through the abdominals. As you come down to your pelvis, the feet point, they come together as the knees bend. Curl yourself up. Double leg for [inaudible] [inaudible] and app and give you like a little poll. Yes.

Three and poor coming up to the single a and we change what? Uh Oh, keep the height. Then the body, the contraction through the back. Number three out of four coming up for Chris Cross. Here we go. And for, for creating up three, two, two, one, one man, hamstring, pull and rouge and two three Oh things through the top league. Nicely done guys. Four and four both legs.

Lower the legs down and pull back on and take them down and pull it back too. If you need a break, take a break. If you need to bend your knees, do that. And last one. And as the legs come up where you are each forward and rollover, I don't turn the legs to parallel. Separate the feet end down and slowly through the spine. Peel it down, point the feet, bring the legs around to touch.

Curl the head and chest and meet the knees as they bent. Number three, reaching and and n n last one single leg stretch. Reach out and chain and keep the consistency, the focus. Chris Cross Wa oh three and three hamstring po and one good. Pressing down through that bottom like anchor and three, three, both legs up hands can reach forward. That's helpful. Down and dig deep to lift and down. It's up to you. I'll come with you Anna. Last one. As your legs come up, reach your arms forward, put the arms down and rule over.

Separate the feed and flex slowly down through the spy. So I suppose we know it's coming up. Yeah, pointed feet. Circle down, curl the head and chest up to meet the knees. And number two, reaching at s circle m n circle saw single leg stretch, reach and reach. Just one more. NRA, Chen, Chris Grass. Oh maybe this is a bad idea and think of like stress. Oh that's not it. This is a hamstring pull. Here's number one and double leg lift ticket and take it down as the legs come up. Reach the arms or roll over.

It's like didn't separate the fee. Take them down slowly through the spine. We rolled down at the bottom feet point. This is it guys. Best one, best repetition of the light. Inhale, double leg stretch. Exhale, come back and one single leg stretch and one Chris Crass. And when Hamstring Paul and one double leg left and up. Arms forward rollover. Uh Huh.

It's like separate the fee. Placed him down as low as you can roll down through this. Fine point the fee. Bring the legs around and together. Bend the knees, curl up, find the backs of the legs. Don't panic. Just start rocking and rocky. Try to stay around to Meredith and rocking and all the way up.

Yes. And sit up like dripping over here. Hand my Flom Sigh. Engage you the backsides of the laser. Engage through the backsides of the arms engaged to the abdominals and the spinal extensors and just lightly lift your way up. Reaching the feet into the floor, reaching the chest through the arms. Say incontrol lifting the chest up out of the shoulders as you sit back down and gorgeous. And again, we reach up, send energy out through the head and out through the feed in the opposite direction and lift up off yourself as you sit back down two more.

And we curl or no, we don't crow, we hinge, we engineer. We create that lovely straight line and then we sit down. How do we do it? One more time. Reaching out. I know. Lift up off yourself. Take the arms up and over.

Let's take a hold of your feet. Bull yourself a little forward. Start lengthening out the spine here, reaching out, creating a long back start. Flexing your feet, rolling through the spine to an upright position. And let's go. We have got room. Let's do arms out, lifting tall and it's a double twist with twist. Find Center twist with and center and working from the waist. Working from the waist. Good one more to each side.

Center reach center. Lift the arms. Go into teeny little upper back extension if you've got it and reach all the way forward. Again, pressing the knees into the floor, curling the spine up. Turn towards me. Cross the top ankle over the bottom and bring your elbow to them at your forearm to the mat. I'm going to do a variation on the side bend. I'm going to take the left, uh, the upper arm. So lifting up out of the shoulder, you had a good one. Good Work Candy.

Do it like that. Here we go. Candy's doing a demonstration of exactly what not to do. Okay, here we go. Reach up, press up through the side of the body and through the leg. Strength in the legs by squeezing them together. And now exhale, reach underneath you. Go for it. Go, go, go, go. Twisting. But stabilizing through the shoulder and unwind.

I got a little cramp and exhale, reaching underneath. Oh, go, go, go, go, go and unwind and reaching underneath and unwind. I'm living Ding my pelvis a little bit, but not much. I'm just trying to twist and I'll, well, what's the open last one and yeah, and bend your knees. Come down, stay on the arm, but then the knees a little bit more slowly. Okay. So what we're gonna do here is we're going to press through the waist. We're gonna lift up, so we're stabilizing the shoulder, but we're also hovering up through the pelvis. Now just take the top knee. Huh? And John, you want to try something with me? I've never done it before.

Let's do straight leg on the sidekick and back. Nice. I love it. Forward and back. Just like forward and back. Forward and back. Forward and back. Then the knee. Put the knees back down. Sit down, stretch the leg out again. Send it forward. If I keep that left bend, bring the knee behind the pelvis, stretch out long through that leg without leaning forward too much and swing forward. And Ben, we're gonna do three in each direction. Reach out, down along and swing forward. Here's number one, uh, and law and swing forward. Take it the other direction. Go back, fold the knee behind you, bring it forward and stretch out. Press back, stabilizing through the waist, folding in, stretching out last time folding and behind you stretching out. Take the leg back one more time.

Either let it rest on the ground or let it hover and just use your arm, that free arm to help you rotate your way into a stretch. Lifting out through the spine. I don't know if there's a perfect place for the hand. So play with it a little. And then coming back through center. Push yourself up and switch sites. Yeah. Okay. Yes, we started with the modified twist, so nice shoulder stabilization opposite arm in there and now we stretch through the legs using the waist to pick the body on.

And from there reach underneath your big rotation there and unwind. And reach underneath you and unwind. And here's number three out of size. So you get five repetitions to give it all you've got and two and back. Number one and back and bend your knees and stack the knees. And here we go. So we press up through the shoulder, through the hip, lifting the bottom hip, and we just open up that top hip, good and down and open and lift up through the waist. That'll help you feel less, what's the word? It will be less hard on the shoulder.

Last two and and last one. Hold here or take the leg down and stretch it out. And now kick forward. Swing back, kick forward, swing back. Good. Stabilizing through the trunk last too, and back. Last time and back. Bring the knee in and sit and then take that same like stretch it out, reaching it out away from you so you get less pressure on that arm.

Swing the leg forward, fold the heel into the hip. Take that whole shape backwards and stretch out. Go forward, healed to hit whole position backwards. Stretch out. And one more. No. Yes. One more. I forgot. Then the knee, bring the heel to the hip, take that whole shape for it and kick and swing contracting through the hamstrings, getting that nice leg work and stretch back. Full pull, stretch out, come back.

Use your opposite hand to help yourself through a rotation. You get that nice opening through the front of the hip, the front of the body, and from there just slide your way over onto your stomach. Let's go. Double like kick hands behind the back. [inaudible] well one guy hands pretty high up at the shoulders. Need to be able to be down and we're going to drop the elbows and not reach the legs out so far that they just simply hover off the mat, not very high.

And then we kick one, two, three and then take the arms out, reach out, keep the legs low on the head, turns the other way and it's one, two, three and we stretch lot. And again, one, two, three ants. [inaudible] last one, one stretch out long. My advice is if you're as high as you can be, calm down a little, keep the legs where they are, let the arms go. Start to reach the arms overhead. Try to get the arms all a little higher than you think you can.

And Swim in heels for five beats. Exhale for five beats and into three, four, five, four, five, three. I know too, I don't know, one, reach everything longer, lower the legs, slide the elbows underneath you and lower the body down there. Coming up out of this what we're going to do it in a back extension. So allow the head to just float off the mat.

Feel that you're drawing your elbows down towards your ribs, pasture, ribs towards your waist, and then start elevating the spine as much as you can without putting pressure on your arms. Once you need to start using your arms, then do. But keep thinking about going forward and to take us all the way through the top of this one. So if you can't go all the way without good shoulder stabilization, please don't. But if you can, it's worth that reaching up. Looking straight ahead and then from there, draw in on the Onstar, curling the spine and sit back towards the fee. You'll probably have to walk back with your hands. Hm.

And Curl back. Forward. Hands under the shoulders, knees under the hips is our last Hoorah. Step into a plank position. Hold your plank position. Point you right foot. Reach out and up. Just holding the spine stable. Out and out and out. In and out and up. Now take the line leg and the body.

Reach up into Arabesque. Lift that like nice and high and then come down and lifting up. In Tara best we use the light to achieve that height by the hamstrings and the glutes. Number one, reaching up. Holding here we round the spine. Bring the knee to the nose and into Arabic and need of the nose and Arabesque and neither the nose and step back and bend your knees and sit on your feet and we're rolling through your spine. Find your shoulders over your hands.

Find your plank position left way. Reaches five straight out candy. You could lower your publicity teeniest bit three, four [inaudible] and lift the whole body up, pressing back into the back lane and take the body far, tip the mat and reach back and [inaudible] and reach back. Here we go. We round the spine, pulling the knee to the nose and reach up and around, pulling the knee to the nose and reach up. One more round, pulling the knee to the nose. Just step back, lift the policy up, walk the hands to the feed. Allow your spine to hang forward for just a moment. Soften the knees if you need to. If they're straight, definitely work for support there.

And then just start floating all the way back up so we roll through the lower back. You feel it come just the pelvis. Come just over the knees. We take the upper back on top of the pelvis, take the arms forward, take the arms to your sides, hinge forward, keeping your back straight, keeping lifting through the pelvis, lifting through the tailbone. Go down as [inaudible] low as you can with your spine straight. It's like a standing spine. Stretch forward and then fold at the waist, bringing the arms to the ground and roll back up. That's it. Yeah.

Comments

5 people like this.
So happy to take your Mat class this morning Meredith, always refreshing & with perfect cues :)
5 people like this.
Love your quick and dirty mat classes, Meredith! I know I can always depend on you.
Thanks ladies. There is a quickie spine corrector workout coming soon...watch for it :)
2 people like this.
Meredith loved your ab series sequence! Will use that for sure in my classes! I am always looking for the different subtlties in the exercises - the students notice as well. An idea - for a lower level class - instead of the roll back - add bridging inbetween, Thanks again!!
1 person likes this.
Probably my favorite instructor, Meredith. Always precise, challenging and effective. I always try to pick classes that are just slightly above my ability and rise to the challenge. Great full body work when I'm short on time. Thanks
1 person likes this.
Love what you do with 30 mins. Def borrowing lots from this session...ESP side bend seq to side leg & the fantastic five plus rollover pattern! Thank you thank you thank you
Thank YOU!!!!!
Thank you Meredith for this perfect, short class. I borrowed a few movements for my group class yesterday to rave reiews !!!
1 person likes this.
Great cues as always. My poor abs are soooooooooooo sore today!! You might of could had put a warning label on there! Killer ab routine ahead.. ha
I modified with the rollover since its contraindicated for me. I usually just bridge or do more pelvic curls.
Cant wait for the spine corrector workout!! Would really love another roller class as well! Maybe combine roller with another prop? Your classes are always enjoyable Meridith.
1 person likes this.
Another outstanding class Meredith! Your consistency as an instructor is amazing, always safe, clear, perfect verbal cueing and allowing enough time to catch up if behind. really liked the side plank & arabesque moves-very smoothly integrated!
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