Class #870

Back to the Mat

55 min - Class
35 likes

Description

If you haven't been to class in awhile, this is a great class to return to. Niedra teaches the classical sequence to her regular class adding in intermediate exercises for the first time. If you are newer to your Pilates practice and are ready to move towards an intermediate level you'll appreciate how Niedra breaks down exercises like Swan dive, Neck Pull and Rocker to name just a few. Progress is good!
What You'll Need: Mat, Theraband

About This Video

Oct 19, 2012
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Transcript

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So let's have all of you come up to a standing position because you haven't been here for a long time and come to the front of your maths and hold onto your elbows. Lift your waist way up and pull the shoulders down and lift the waist up even more. Cross your feet and see if you can sit down on the mat. And if you can sit down with your feet together, you take one leg behind you. That's it. That's it. Wendy, good.

All the way down. All right. And then under your feet, stretch your arms out in front of you and slowly roll down one vertebra at a time till you're lying flat on your back. If you need a pillow under your head, make sure you have it and bring your feet up sufficiently to feel the lower back. Nice and long. Knees and feet together. Stomach pulled in and gently slide the hands down with the sh away from your ears so your shoulders move down and then princes shoulders towards the mat, keeping the neck long the stomach and lift your right knee towards your chest and then put the foot back down on the mat. Lift the left knee towards the chest. Put the foot back down. Lift the right knee, put it back down, left knee and put it back down.

Right knee and put it back down and left knee and put it back down on knees and feet together. Tim Lifter head for a second. Drop it back. That's a little better than ice. There you go. Knees together. Feet together. Stomach and buttocks tight. Lift your right knee into your chest. Keep the stomach in. Lift your left knee into your chest. Put your right foot down, put your left foot down and the left knee up and the right knee up and the left foot down and the right foot down and the right knee up and the left knee up and right foot down, left foot down and reversing. It left me up.

Write me up. Left foot down, right foot down. Now adding in stomach tat feet taps. Bring both knees into your chest first. Take the legs to tabletops and knees over the hips and the feet in line with the knees and pull the stomach in and lengthen the back towards the Mat. Take the right foot and take it towards the Mat. Tap the Mat and up.

Left foot goes down and back up the tabletop or right foot, down and up. Left foot, down and up. Right foot down and up. Left foot, down and up. And now alternating right foot down, left foot down, right. So as one's going down, the other one's going up. Your back is quiet, your stomach is in, your spine is long. And one more time. Bring the legs up. Bring your hands to your waist.

Bring the knees into your chest for a minute. Let the lights come in. In fact, grab your shins and give them a good little hug. And as you do this, feel your back getting nice and long. Pull the stomach in here and place your hands on your navel. Bring the legs, the table Top, keep the stomach in and float the feet to the floor so you lower the legs and lift the legs up. So Sandy, just down to the floor, down to the mat without the stomach popping and come back up and bring the knees in so the stomach goes in. Bring the feet to the floor and let's pause here for a minute. If your stomach popped out, pull it back in. Feel your back pressing down towards the Mat and bring the knees towards your chest. Try not to push your belly out.

Bring the knees all the way to your chest right here to easy to pull the stomach in. Pull it in, keep your hips tight and float the feet towards the floor of your stomach is pushing out. Bring the feet closer to your bottom and bring the knees up again and putting the feet. Bring the feet down and bring the knees up. And one more time. Bring the knees or feet all the way down to the mat and then rest for a minute. Take your arms to the ceiling.

Broaden your shoulders and pull your stomach in and feel your backlog and flat lift your head and chest and stretch your hands toward your ankle. To lift a little bit more lower back down, lifting the arms to the ceiling and lift up. And as you lift up, contract your stomach and your ribs lower back down and lift up and press the shoulders away from your ears and lower back down. And one more time. Simple version and lower back down. And bring the knees to the chest, knees to the chest. Lift the head and chest up and lower back down.

So now upper abs, lower abs are the full powerhouses working and see if you can make the powerhouse be the point that's really making the movement happen versus just the limbs. Cause you can kind of work with the legs and the arms without the stomach being engaged. Now keep the arms law and reach the arms back over your head, keeping the spine on the mat. Bring the arms back up, take the arms back, bring the arms back up. Take the arms back. Nice long spine, long ribs, long stomach. Bring the arms up and one more time. Take the arms back, bring the arms up and take the arms down by your sides. Just for a minute, bring the knees into your chest and just give the legs a hug and just rock side to side. As long as you lower back, come to the center and bring your feet to the mat and setting up 400 arms and law stomach is in. Bring your knees in. Lift your head and chest up.

Just the way we did. Stretch your arms away from you. Extend the legs out and start pumping with the arms. Breathing in two, three, four, five and exhale. Five two, two, three, four, five. Keep the elbows nice and long. Keep the fingers reaching out. Exhale, fee for five 45 nice. Long breath. Four, five, five, two, three. Very good. Exhale. Three, four, five, six, two, three, four, five. Exhale, three, four, five, seven, four, five. X Sale, three, four, five, eight, two, three, four, five. X sales, three, four, five, nine two, three, four, five. X three, four, five. Last, set, five. X sales, three, four, five. Head down, bend the knees into your chest, give yourselves a hug rock from side to side and bring your feet down to the mat and then roll yourselves up to a sitting position. I'll bring the knees to your chest when they enroll up that way. So you are up, you come right. So with the knees bent, lift your spine up tall with your elbows slightly out.

Look straight ahead and articulate your spine slightly through the, through the back, pulling the stomach in. Megan. That's very good. And then see if you can come up and pull your head towards your knees and roll back. Pulling the belly in as you roll back. So your, your, the weight of the body's being held on by the stomach and come back up and roll back again. Rounding the spine, shoulders down, Sandy. Very nice. Yes, so much better. And come back up and now with the arms in front of you, roll back again. Same Way. Rolling back, rolling back, rolling back. Halfway, rolling back up. And again, rolling back, articulating through [inaudible], lower spine and Wendy shoulders down.

Otherwise very nice and rolling back up. And only if you're ready for it. Roll to the Mat. Otherwise stay at this level. If you want to roll all the way down, you can and then lift the arms up and take them back over your head for a minute and then bring the arms back up and roll up to a sitting position. And okay, so if you're having trouble going, coming all the way up left, stay at the halfway point. So I would say for Wendy and 14 say halfway point new three roll all the way down. So you two, you three, know what you're doing. Roll down and up.

When do you timbral? Halfway back. Grab your knees, pull your stomach in extra hard and then roll back up to an upright position. And just for today, sit up nice and tall. Stretch your arms in front of you. This is for Tim and Wendy. Rolling down. Rolling down. Only half way. Hold this position. Anchor into your stomach, grab your thighs, roll back, using your stomach. Sit Up nice and tall. And one more time. Rolling back this way. Pulling the stomach in.

Shoulders down. Sandy, grab your size. You too, and come back up and sit up nice and tall. And let's have all of you stretch your legs out. Lift the spine up as much as you can. Stretch your arms in front of you, lift the spine even more, and lift over big beach ball to stretch forward. And now put your hands on your shinbones so you hold that rest and then wiggle the hands a little bit forward to have a lovely little stretch. Then take the arms in front of you, lifting them up and start rolling backwards, articulating through the spine. That's right.

And then come up and stretch forward to have a little bit of a seesaw. So we're only going halfway back at first. Rolling back. Shoulders are down, legs are reaching away from you and roll back up and stretch forward. And one more time. Rolling back, rolling back. Only halfway and rolling up. Pull your stomach in. Grab your shins and again, gently stretch over your legs.

Sit Up nice and tall. Stretch your arms in front of you. Stretch your knees and reach the toes away from you. And now roll all the way to the mat. So you're rolling through until you go flat down on the mat, articulating the spine. And I stretch your arms over your head and give yourselves a really lovely good stretch. Point your toes. Let the back arch reach with the arms, stretch the elbows, and then bring the hands down by your sides for single leg circles.

So I know you all have a theraband right close by, so I'll get you one here. So let's Ha let's work with the theraband seen. We've got it. Take one and place it on your right leg in the left leg. Start with the left leg bent so the knee is bent. So when the right leg is up to the ceiling, this allows you to get your back nice and flat. So stretch the right knee as much as you're able to pull the stomach in.

And now take the left leg in length in it on the floor. As long as you can get it without compromising this right leg. Really feel the right side of the waist nice and long. Take the leg across your body, swing it down, around and up. Cross down, around, in, up, crass, down, around and up. Cross down around it, up.

One more time, down around. Now reverse it out a little bit. Down, across and up, out, down, across, and up. Out, down, across and up. Keep those hips. Nice. And one more time around. And now in this position, lengthen the leg on the floor. Take your right hip, lengthen it down, and float the leg away from you towards the other leg. 45 degrees dow. And bring the leg back up with the knee. Very Straight and lower the leg down.

And bring the leg up and lower the leg down and bring the leg up and lower the leg down and bring the leg up. And one more time. Lower the like down. Bring the leg up and see if you can bring your other foot up. Who did inside the theraband. Bend the right knee to the mat and bring the left leg right up over your hip if you can.

So you set the leg in the air first and then slowly extend the other leg down as far as it can go without compromising the leg in the air. Keep your stomach in a cross over your body. Circle the leg and up. Circle the leg and up. Circle the leg up.

Circle the leg and up. Circle the leg. Now reverse it and cross over. Up, out. Cross over, up, out. Cross over, up, out. Cross over, up, out. Cross over and up. Nice long leg. Lower the leg down towards the Mat. Lift the leg up, lower the leg down.

Lift the leg up, lower the like down. Lift the leg up, lower the leg down, lift the leg up. And one more time. Lower than like down and up. Very good. And put the leg down. Get the strap away and bring both knees into your chest for rolling like a ball. And we'll start a very simple version with the knees bent in the hands, uh, halfway down the shins or towards the ankles and lift your head and chest and see if you could just rock here very slightly using the legs in the hand to get the back to be massage.

So you start to get the whole spine working. Debting the back, become a little bit more relaxed and then see if you can roll yourself all the way up to sitting. Hold onto your ankles, round into the spine. But lift your stomach, shoulders a down. It's likely press the elbows out yes. And now lift your feet in the air. See if you can balance here. Needs a slightly apart, hold it. And if you feel ready, roll back and come right back up.

So back you go and come up and balance and keep the feet in. And here we go again. Back you go and come up and balance and again, roll back, come up and balance and again, roll back, come up and balance. And one more time. Rollback head stays in. Come up and balance. Hold it, hold it. Hold it. Now it's fun. Transition. Take your left hand to your right knee, pull the knee in towards your chest and see if you can roll down.

Pulling the leg in on the way back down. Good, Sandy. Okay, so this leg is really pulled in. Head is up. Tim had his up elbows a wide switch. Your leg, single leg stretch, switch, pool, switch, pool, squeezed the knee. And every time squeezing in and switch and switch and switch and switch. Bring both knees in and put your head and chest on the mat and bring your feet onto the man. Just for a minute. So check with your boxes square and even through your hips, a square, your waist, your ribs, and your shoulders all lined up in one square box.

Take your right knee with both hands and squeeze it as deeply into your chest as you can, but your knee should be lined up with the center of your body so both knees were up. Both knees would be touching. So that's the angle of the leg. And squeeze it deeply, deeply, deeply toward your chest. So it may pull into your lower back. Keep the knee pulled in that much and very slowly start to stretch the left leg towards the floor, lengthening it out in the straight line. So again, if both legs were straightened out, the heels would touch. So you're really keeping track with your limbs on the midline and work that knee into the chest. The hip and hip flexor get very tight.

Press the calf and the hamstring of the extended like all towards the floor as much as you can. Very good bend and left knee into the chest and put your right foot on the floor and just have the knee bent. So right left knee now is pulled into, we've switched legs, ladies. No, the right knee is bent, right knee is bent. Now your priority right now is get that left knee as tight into your chest as you possibly can so you get that deep, deep, deep squeeze, and now very slowly stretch the right leg out without compromising the squeeze of the left leg. That's a secret. That's the idea, Megan, and doesn't matter if the knee doesn't go straight. You want this deep, deep compression into the hip to loosen it up. That was good. Okay. Bring both knees into your chats. Move the hands down towards the lower shins or the ankles and pull your feet towards your bottom. Crawl your head and chest up for double leg stretches.

Shoulders are down. Stretch your arms and legs away. Big and hug type. Little Ball. Reach the arms and legs away and tight, tight, tight, tight. Squeeze and reach and squeeze and reach and squeeze and reach. Stomach is hollow and squeeze and one more time.

Stay looking at your belly and squeeze and put your head down to rest. But keep pulling the knees into your chest and rock your legs side to side a little bit just to massage into your lower back and let the spine move a little bit. Tim, try to keep the shoulders just the legs slightly. That's the idea. Next one is scissors. So pull the stomach in, crawl your head and chest up. Stretch your legs straight up to the ceiling, pulling the navel and take your right leg with both hands.

Pull it towards you twice. Scissor, the legs, pull pool, scissor, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul. Both legs are up. Bend your knees in, give the legs or squeeze and roll your head and shoulders down. Keep squeezing the legs in it. Just rock your head to the right. Rock your head to the left. Rock your head to the right. Rock your head to the left and then back to the middle.

Take both hands behind your head for lower left and deepening into the powerhouse. Curlier head and chest out. Shoulders away from your ears. Lift the legs to the ceiling and pull the stomach in even more, and then float the legs down a little and lift them back up and float them down and lift them up and float them down and pull them up using the stomach. Lower down and lift them up. One more time. Lower down, lift them up. Very good. Bend your knees in, lower your head to the mat, grab your knees and give them a little hug. Rock them up a little bit, squeezed them in a few times to really work into your lower back. And then rock side to side to loosen up that whole area of the waist. The spine gets so very tight.

Rain your feet to the mat and bring the hands into prayer pose for the set up for crisscross. So curl your head and chest up and see if you can reach a little above the knees and lower, yeah, back a bit. And lift and back and lift and back and lift and back and lift and back and lift back and lower all the way down on your back. Turn the palms to face each the wall opposite. You. Take the left hand on top of the right hand, left on top of right.

And notice from your waist to your hips that that area of your body's going to press into the mat as you lift and point the hands to the outside of your right side. So the left waist is pressing down, lifted a little higher and down. Lift and lift and lift. So the left side is pulling strongly to the right and lift and lift. Lower down switch hands to the right hand is on top of them left. Bring point them to the left side and lift up.

Making sure the right side of your waist is down. Lyft and Lyft and Lyft and Lyft and Lyft and Lyft and Lyft and Lyft. Lower all the way down. Take your hands under your head with the elbows. Why? So press the elbows towards the floor if you can, to just take a moment to see how much you can open your chest.

Bring both knees into your chest. So first let the lower back release into the mat and then bring the legs to tabletop. Curl your head and chest up and twist to the right twist to the left. Twist to the right twist to the left, twist to the right twist to the left, back to the center. Bring the knees in. Hold your knees.

Really squeeze them up towards your face. Tight, tight little ball with your head and shoulders down. Put your feet down and rest on. Stretch your legs out. Shut your arms up. Give yourself a nice long stretch. Pull the belly up and just wiggle your rights side and left side away from each other for a minute just to pull. So if you take your right arm and your right leg and pull them away from each other, and then take the left arm and the left leg away and the right arm and the right leg away and the left arm and the left leg away.

So you're kind of doing this movement and stretch and stretch and stretch and then bring the knees in and rule up through a sitting position just to get all the kinks out of the boxy up. You come to the sitting position, open the legs, the spine, stretch forward. Then feed a little wider than the mat. Have a look at your own knees and either have them go into the ceiling or very slightly out, very sightly out. Just for a moment, flex your feet and take the backs of the knees. See if you can press them towards the Mat. Much better Tim, and then keep that energy and slowly stretch the toes out. Yeah, arms in front of you. Take a big breath in, lift way up with the spy, drop your head and start welding down, lifting the belly as you reach forward and then roll back up and sit up nice and tall with your shoulders down. Big breath into the belly. Drop your head and reach forward.

Lengthening out with the arms and then roll back up and sit up tall. Shoulders down. Lift the spine, lengthen through the toes, reaching with the legs, and again, drop your head and feel the fingers and the toes reaching out as the belly pulls back and come back up and sit up nice and tall and lifted. Shoulders way down. And one more time. Rounding down, reaching forward, pulling the stomach and arms up parallel to your shoulders if you can, and then roll up, roll up, roll up, sit up nice and tall and long and bring the arms down. Put your hands behind you on the floor and just bend your knees a few times and practice bending the knees without the heels moving. Tame that. That's the idea. But let's get your feet wider than the mat.

Just a little wider than the mat right now. Bend the knees and see if you can reach over and grab your toes with your hands. Everybody get there and at the head fall and a pull your belly in and slightly backwards and take your right knee and press it to the floor and pull back into your back like someone's grabbing you around the waist. As you write me, goes down to press backwards. Bend the knee back and the head is down and then press the left knee down. But don't think of the knee down. The foot should not move.

The waist should pull back and then again, and the right knee presses down as you pull back into your back body and bend and the left leg presses down. As you pull back into your waist and come back up. And the right he pulls down. As you pull back into the waist and Venda up and the left knee pulls down. As you pull back into the waist. And Ben, now both knees are bent, your head is still down.

He's still pulling back in your stomach and press both knees down and stretch into your back and bend. Keep the feet flex sandy and press the knees down and pulled back into your waist. And then one more time, pull back into the waist. That's it sandy. So you really open up in the sacred [inaudible] and Ben. Very, very nice. Come back up. That was good. Bend your feet up towards you for open like rocker.

So move to the front of your maps. Okay with your, your feet will be together. Start by sitting up straight and your knees on this Little v slightly rolled back so you whole the weight of the trunk in the stomach muscles and lift your feet up off the mat. So nice pulled up stomach. The right leg goes up and down. Good. Tim Left, like goes up and down. Right leg goes up and down.

Left leg goes up and down, both legs together. Both legs go up and down. Both legs go up. So you have to really anchor your pelvis, work a lot in the stomach muscles and see if you can work evenly with both legs. And then put your feet on the mat. Nice. Wendy, bring your hands in front of you and lift the feet up and see if you can grab your ankles, ankles, and toes. Yes. Now, same thing, much more challenging. You may not be able to stretch the leg, but you do the best you can and come down. Other leg goes up and now keep focusing on the stomach as the place that you initiate the movement from so you won't get too preoccupied with whether the range of movement is working. And firstly, because it depends, this is something that takes awhile to unravel.

Now keep the stomach long and lifted both legs. Go as far as you can to some of you may not be able to go to straight. It's a lot more detail and down and again and back. And one more time and again and back. Put your feet up. That was pretty good. So now the rocky part, you have a choice. You can work from the ankles, much harder work from the back of the knees. But make sure you come to the a little bit for the forward to dock. Rocking into anything and hold wherever you want, whether you want to work ankles or knees and extend the legs out into your V.

Yay. Keep the stomach in and roll towards the shoulders and come back up and balance and roll back. It's all, I'm so impressed. You're going for the challenge up and roll back. So you really have to anchor the powerhouse, Megan. Very nice. One more time. Good. I am so oppressed. Come back up.

Hold your balance. Bring your legs together. Bring the hands down a little bit and see if you can get a little closer to your legs. And now walk down your legs and lower yourself to the mat. When do you beating me? So your flat, your arms are long by your side. Your head is down.

So just take a moment to gather your energy again cause that was a lot. So you can keep the legs long in the hips. Very tight. And draw a circle corkscrew small circle and stop small circle and stop small circle and stop small circle and stop small circle and stop small circle and stop. And now let's take the hands like this and pop them under the tail under the bus, right round the sacrament of tailbone. Pull your waist up and press your lower back into the mat and slowly lower the legs down to supporting the lower back. All the way down. [inaudible] the map.

Get once you're down, stretch your arms over your head to get in. You have a lovely stretch. Pull the waist in so your waist is long and lean, and then roll up to a sitting position. Or Bend your knees in and rock up. Either way, just come up to a sitting position and stretch your legs out for saw. Flex your feet and let's start this way. With the arms in front of you, lift your back and just twist towards your right leg, right leg and press your left hip into the mat.

Now the right hand comes behind you and round. Think of your head to your knee and then a bow and Arrow with the arms. So you pull the arms apart, Paul and reach toward your foot. Pull and reach forward. You foot, enroll up to a sitting position. Bring the hands in front of you. Lift your chest, twist to the left, left-hand comes behind you.

Round your head to your knee and pull the arms apart. So bow and Arrow feeling stretch, stretch, stretch and come back up. Hands come in front of you today. Lift, twist to the first side. Stretch, stretch, stretch. Come back up and lift. Shoulders down. Other side, twist and stretch. Good. Wendy, two, three. Come back up and lift first side again, twist and go. One, two, three, come back up and lift. Other side twists and go. One and two and three. Come back up like together. Arms Long. Pull the stomach in and roll down.

Nice articulation through the spine. Tell you're lying flat on your back and roll onto your stomach for preparation for swan so your forehead is on your fingertips. Your feet are long and let's have you with your feet. Hip width apart, hip width apart, and your elbows are wide. Now with your feet apart, start to press from your sacrum down into the mat and stretch your knees. Keep your stomach pulled up and lift your elbows and lift your chest and forehead and fingertips.

Hover off the mat and lower back down and lift up and hover off the mat and lower back down and lift up and hover off the mat and lower back down. And one more time. Lift up and hover off the mat and lower back down. Now put your hands under your shoulders, sit back into child's pose and just turn around and look this way cause we'll go a little bit into more demands. That's preparation for Swan Dye. But we'll start actually working on swan.

So have a look cause this is new for you. You'll be up on your elbows. So we've done sphinx pose cause we've done this for single, like a single leg kick and maybe widen your elbows a little bit, but see if you can lift up. You may be able to go to straight. What? I don't want to see this. So you need to lift your stomach and make the back help you lift up with your knees straight so it doesn't really matter how high we you go. Now once you're here Ben and stretch, so it's not what you want to feel is that you pressing the legs up.

So there's this seesaw effect and whether it's high or maybe you've only come an inch, you want to start to get this sense of lake working, chest, working legs, working, chest working. So let's have a goal. Lie Out on your stomachs and lift up on your elbows. And before you go any further than that, just broaden the shoulders and lift up in the stomach and then see if you can lift. Start stretching the arms to the back comes up higher so the elbows come off the mat, Sandy. Yes. And look forward. Don't look down now. That's it. Now long straight legs. Lift the legs as the elbows bent, legs go up and chest comes up, legs go up, chest comes up, legs go up. Chest comes up.

Soldiers down. As you do this, this, and one more time, come back up and lower onto your elbows. I am so proud of you. That was terrific. Make fits with your hands. A single leg kicks, knees together, feet together. Hips tight. And let's go with a single legs, right, like goes in, kick, kick and down and kick, kick and down and kick, kick and down and kick, kick and down and kick, kick and hip status, square and down and kick, kick and down and kick, kick and down the whole this position, the shoulders are moving away from the ears. The hips are tight. Pull the stomach up and just feel the chest long, the legs long, the spine long. And then lower down. And place your hands behind your back for AA kicks. So both hands behind your waist.

Press the elbows towards the Mat. And let's have all of you turn your nose to the right just so that we're all going the same direction. Squeeze your knees together and narrow the hips and press them into the Mac. Here we go. Bend the knees and kick two, three legs down. Pull back with the arms and lift the chest up. And again, kick two, three and pull back and lift the chest up first side again, kick two, three and pull back and lift the chest up.

And other side. Kick two, three, pull back and lift the chest up and for a side kick two, three and pull back and leave the chest up. And last one, kick to three and pull back and lift up. Very good. Lower down, hands under your shoulders. Sit back and go into child's pose. Stretch way out. If you can't get back, open your knees a little bit. Feel the hips back. And now in this position, reach up out with the arms in front of you.

Lift your head a little bit and look at your hands and wiggle them further out. And walk the hands to the right. So you're stretching your chest out over the right side so you can go off the mat with the hands if you want to. So you have a lovely stretch on the left side. Bring the hands back to the middle, lengthen them out, and walk the hands to the left and come back to the middle. Very good.

And then come back down and lie on your stomach and roll onto your back for bridge pose. So lying out on your backs. Ben, your feet up, not close to your hips with your arms nice and long by your sides and have your feet hip width apart. So a little bit wider team. And just before you go any further, again, slide your hands down and see you can get a sense of a very long neck and your feet if possible, under your knees. So maybe a little closer to your buttocks now, right, so the shins, if you can have vertical, but the spine is long as a waist is down if possible. From here, just tuck the bottom under. So you've lived your pubic bone forward like a dog with a tail between the legs and then roll the hips up in the air.

You're striving to get a straight line from your knees to your armpits, but the shoulders down and the arms down into the mat and roll through the spine, articulating it back down to a flat position. And again, Tuck the tail, roll your hips up and lengthen your knees away from you and press your shoulders into the mat and the upper arms and elbows enhance down to get more. Lifted a little and then roll down through the spine. Nice and long and flat. And again, Tuck the tail. Yes, and lengthen straight out. Lift up even more in here. That's at stomach endo. And roll down.

Roll down. Roll down. Roll down. Roll down. Very good. And one more time. Roll Up. Roll Up. So you lengthen the front of the size, length, and the waist. Push down, lift up even more. Pull the stomach in. Lift up even more, and then roll down. Starting with the sternum. Dropping down. Rolling, rolling, rolling. Rolling. And Rolling. Okay, good. Bend your knees into your chest. Give them a hug.

Rock the leg side to side, and then roll yourselves up to a sitting position for neck pool. So sitting with your legs only hip with the part only you put the part, this is basic version and now really flex your feet so you pull the toes up and see if you can look at your own knees. Your knees are going to the ceiling. Feet are going to the seeding too if possible. So we all have funky zig-zags and the knees and the feet are in the feet out in the knees are in too. We're looking to get first the knees and then as much as possible, the feet straight. Yeah, and I would take the big toe and push it a little bit away from you if you can.

That's pretty good, Tim. Yes, yes. Now take your hands here, lift your back up and literally if you have your hands cupping your skull, so the ha you want to feel like you're lifting your head up a little bit. That's it. Big Lift up and then die your head down and lengthen down towards your knees with your head. Way, way, way down. Roll up again and sit up very tall. Widen the elbows and just lean back a little, tiny bit like a long flat back and come back up.

And again from your tail to the back of your scouts aim. When do you choose to high chin down, back of the neck long. And then dive down, pulling the stomach back and curling your head towards your knees. Roll back up. Sit Up nice and tall. Lift your chest, lift your waist wide the elbows and lean back a little, tiny bit. Flex your feet, come back up, lift a little bit more and dive down. Head to the knees.

Roll back up. Sit Up nice and tall. Lift the waist, elbows wide and lean back a little bit and come back up. Very good. Stretch your arms in front of your feet together and roll down onto your backs and roll onto your right side for sidekicks. So lying out, make sure you're lined out on the back part of your mat and get the hands close to your floating ribs. I'll be right there, Sandy. Yup. And the legs are long feet of flex and the top hand is in front of you, Tim.

On the floor. So you balance and lift both legs up, bring them forward and put them down on the floor so you're nice and long and flex the feet and pull the stomach way in. Take the top like lifted a little higher than your hip and lengthen out from the waist. Lower down and lift up long from the waist and after trying to brush a push something away from you and down and lift. You're almost, there we go. And down and lift and down.

And one more time and lift and down. Now lift the leg hip height for the forward and back swing. Point your foot. Take the leg in front, double poles and take it down and back slightly without seesawing. Double Front and back to the back. Nothing moves in your upper body. Pulse, pulse and back. Pulse, pulse and back. Pulse posts and back. One more time. Pulse, pulse and back. Bring the legs, one on top of the other. For the sidekicks, turn the leg out, swing it high to the ceiling, flex it down, swig it, flex it down, swing it, flex it down.

Swing, flex it down. Swing, flex it down, swing and flex it down and point the foot and little tiny circles with that leg nice and loosened long. And as you circle the leg, feel that the circle is half in front, half behind your bottom. Lay and reverse the circles the other way. Sandy slightly turned out. Not. Yup. Better. That's it. Circle and circle and circle and circle. Very good. Now top light comes in front of you on the floor.

Flex your bottom leg strongly. Lift the leg up in the air. Lower down strips, and even more. Sandy, lower down. Lift the leg. Lower down. Lift the leg. Lower down. Lift your leg and down. One more time. Lift the leg and down. Stretch both legs out.

Pull the stomach and check that your hips are still stacked and lift both legs up. Lower down, both legs, up, lower down, both legs, up and down and up and down. One more time. In, up and down, and roll onto your stomach for little beats. So your four does on your fingertips. Your elbows are wide, your stomach is in, your knees are tight, your buttocks are tight. Lift the legs up in the air and open and close sideways and one by six seven lift, two, two, three, four, five, six, seven and one, two, three, four, six, seven and eight. Lower the leg style, hands under your shoulders.

Sit back into your heels and stretch your body way out, pulling your stomach in and then come back and lie out on the other side and leaves us up on the side of the Mat. Again, elbow, shoulder, hip and feet in a straight line and start to get the sense of really narrowing your body out. You want this sense of really long waist and the shoulders down against the waist. Lift both feet up in the air, bring them forward, put them down and flex your feet strongly. Nice. Flex bottom like the stomach is in and shoulders are down in the neck is long. So if your head is down, Sandy, you can have it. Yes, yes, no, get you. Is this going to help you? Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so nice flex feet. Take this leg lifted, stretch your knee and lower down and lift the leg and lower down and lift the leg and down.

Lift the leg and down. Does that still hurt your shoulder? No. Was tell cause you and down. And one more time and down. Bring this hand even more forward and then have it here. How is that better? Okay, so lift this leg, hip height.

Point your foot and swing the leg forward. Forward and back and forward. Forward and back. Keep the body trunk quiet and back. Forward, forward and back. Forward, forward and back. And one more time. Forward, forward and back.

And bring the leg one on top of the other. Turn the top leg out. Lengthen the waist and kick it up. High and down and kick the leg and down and kick and down and kick and down and kick and down. One more time. Kick and now little circles and see how fast you can make your own circles. So however speedy you can make it, just make sure that it's half in front, half behind. Now reverse your circles fast, fast, fast, just to get used to moving the body quickly. The legs are heavy, makes them lighter. When you force that energy in. Very good rest.

Now take your top leg, bend it in front of you and flex your bottom leg strongly and lifted in the air and down. Lifted up and down, lifted up and down, lifted up and lifted up and down. One more time and up and I both legs are out. Knife, flex legs. Stomach is in. If both legs up, both legs, down, both legs, up, both legs, down, both legs, up and down. And one more time and up and down. Very good. Roll onto your backs and then bend your knees into your chest and bring yourselves up to a sitting position.

So knees into chest and then roll up. And let's have you two ladies turn around to face submittal cause we'll do a variation of teaser prep with the knees bent. Misa together. See if you can lengthen one leg up and possibly hold a little higher and then let go and roll down onto the mat and roll back up and roll down and roll up. One more time. Roll down and roll up.

And now bring the feet down [inaudible] and take the other leg out. And if it's too high, you take it lower and roll down again. And you can hold the leg if you need to to go down and come up up and roll down and roll up. That's it. And roll down and roll up. Very, very good. Okay. Bend the legs, lift the knees and just see if you can bring the legs too straight or almost straight. And today we're just going to hold and hold.

You can hold here, that's fine. Keep the stomach pulling in hold and hope and the legs. Stretch the legs up and roll down onto your backs and just remote with stretch your arms over your head again. Give yourselves a really good stretch and then flex and point your feet a few times. Reach and point, flex some point, flex and point, flex and point. And now let's alternate one leg up, one leg down. So you criss-cross. That's it. One Up, one down, just to work the feet.

Oh, okay. And roll onto your stomach again and come onto your elbows for sinks. Pose for swimming, beginning swimming variation. So you're up on your elbows, your knees are together and your stomach is long and you pull the shoulders down your back. Now move the elbows about six inches further away from your hip.

So further in front of you, so little bit lower down. Maybe feel your floating ribs close to the map. Take your right arm and stretch it forward straight in front of you and take your left leg and lifted up in the air. So the hips are even on the mat. Bend that hand down in the foot, Dow and the left arm and right, like up and down. Now before we go further, then the on back, Wendy, anchor your hips. The trick here is the hips are not supposed to flip flop around.

So let's just take the right leg and lifted. No arm, just the right leg, even if it's an inch off the floor. And now at the left leg, an inch off the floor and down. Now the legs don't move. Take the right arm in front of you without the hips moving. If you can cad and back and the left arm and back. Okay, now lie down on your stomach with your arms stretched out in front of you. Lift your head and chest and look forward.

And now take your right arm and left leg off the floor. And then reverse left arm, right leg and right arm, left leg and left leg la, la, la. You know what I mean? For a site and second side. Okay, that's good for today. Drop your head down and sit back into your heels and stretch your back. Sometimes there's just too many body parts to get them straight.

So, but you all are reading my mind really, really well. So let's have you turn around to a sitting position for seal. Bend your feet up, hands inside. Pull the stomach up, shoulders down, clap your feet three times, clap, clap, clap, roll back on your shoulders and come up and balance and again, clap, clap, clap, roll back. Come up and balance. And again, clap, clap, clap, roll back, come up in balance. And one more time. Clap, clap, cap, shoulders down, roll back and balance. Very good. Come up to standing position. So standing with your heels together. Get this same lift through the spine and Standing Mermaid.

Take your left hand and turn it out and see if you can get the turnout coming all the way from the shoulder. And then sweep the arm up and see if you can get it as hard. Try to think of touching the ceiling. So this whole left side is really long and starts sliding the right hand down as you stretch the left arm away across your head. Then come back and bring the hand down, turn the right hand out, sweep it up, reach with it, and then slide over. Left hand down and come back.

And first sight again. Sweep the left arm up and over and this time rapid round your head and stretch and come up and other sides sweeping up. Rapid round your head as you bend and come back up. And last one big sweep of the arm up. Press round and rapid round your head and come back up and right arm comes up, bend to the left and rapid rubbed your head. Now hold it here. Stretch the arm away from you for extra stretch and come back up. Oh, okay. Standing Tall. Bring the arms in front of you. Three little circles.

Circle two and three. Reverse it. Circle two and three. And as the arms come down, shift the weight slightly forward to get this length like a long diagonal from the heel to the head. Again. Arms Up. Three circles. One, two, three. Reverse two, three. Think of pushing a weight down and getting longer and taller. Drop your head and roll towards the floor or tickling the spine, but keeping the stomach supporting your back. And again, three circles. One, two, three, reverse two, three and all the way up. Keep the arms low today. So you just unravel the spine, come up to an upright position and then broad in the chest and the shoulders are nice and long. And last one, lift the stomach, drop your head and roll down the arms. Reach from the shoulder. Straight down.

Sandy. So we reaching with through the fingers. Three circles, one, two, and three. Reverse team, relax your head and then roll up. Rounding through the spine. Bring the hips right over the heels. Unravel the back. Open the spine. Broaden the shoulders. Feel the chin parallel to the floor. See looking straight in front of you. If you can just take a moment to feel your body.

Feel the lift through the spine. Feel the breath in the shoulders and lift through the crown of the head. Take a breath in and breathing out. Let it go. Very well done. Good work.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Niedra, you express so much empathy for what your students are feeling through your verbal cues. My lower spine is relieved, after having been overly challenged recently. Thank you, you are one of my favorite instructors. Kathy S.
Niedra Gabriel
Thank you Kathleen, I really do empathize with the journey of working out and the feelings we all go through in the process of working through difficult to manage body parts, and coordination - it is sooooo vital to actually let yourself have this journey. Glad your lower spine is relaxing - this is " good for the soul".
1 person likes this.
Lovely basic session - think it's more level one as evident in quite a few exercise breakdowns, ie. roll-ups, saw, Open leg rocker, neck pull prep, teaser prep, etc. ....was hoping for more use of the theraband. Thank you
1 person likes this.
Lovely slower paced class with wonderful stretching between exercises. Was hoping for more use with the band and a higher level as it was a 2.
Katie B
1 person likes this.
This is a lovely basic class, but absolutely not level 2, as labeled. Disappointed.
1 person likes this.
Hi Niedra Gabriel, I love your classes so much, but lately I've developed a problem with the rolling like a ball exercises. I have some extra bone spurs in my lumbar spine that make it difficult to roll back properly (I end up tilting to one side), and I can only do a few full rolls before the area hurts. I have been treated and am cleared for any type of exercise, as long as it doesn't provoke the area. Can you suggest any alternatives I could do while these exercises are going on? Thank you in advance for your help!
Niedra Gabriel
Michelle C   Without really seeing your body, this is a bit "generic" but I hope it will help.  First, a  question, do you roll to one side due to your lumbar spine? or tail bone sacrum? just curious.

I would suggest being on your back with the knees pulled into your chest and your head curled up ( Rolling like a ball shape) but making sure you have no pain! Then rocking gently, micro rocking really, to gently shift weight up and down with your tail slightly curled up and your shoulders off the floor. This means you stay on your back, you don't roll on and off your spine.   
Niedra Gabriel
Michelle C If you are also challenged with roll ups and other rolling movements that open your lumbar spine, again, without seeing you, I would pile up pillows so you are well supported and perhaps do a few roll ups.  Most important is that you are coming up from you r front body, abs, not your back muscles.     Or simply skip these.... Hope this helps. 
1 person likes this.
Thanks, Niedra Gabriel ! I asked my doctor husband and he says it's my coccyx that's pretty bony and prominent. It didn't used to be that way premenopause-I used to be able to do the rolling pretty easily. I'll try your suggestions. Thank you so much again!
Niedra Gabriel
Michelle C I thought as much! if it is your coccyx, you need to set up either two small pads or folded towels, so when you lie down your coccyx is in the middle ( floating in space) but the spine on either side is supported.    You could probably roll up and do rolling like a ball ( if your spine is flexible) as now you won't be grinding  your little tail into the ground.   This often solves this problem for people with your condition . This should solve ball, roll up, teaser and even open leg rocker - if you rock straight on the padding.   Let me know if this helps.
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