Class #885

Full-Body Exploration

35 min - Class
328 likes

Description

Work your whole body in 30 minutes with this fun stability class taught by Meredith. Explore creative ways to use the ball to challenge as well as to stretch. Be prepared to work your abs. Enjoy!
What You'll Need: Mat, Fitness Ball

About This Video

Nov 05, 2012
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Transcript

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So that's cool. Let's get excited. We're going to do 30 minutes on the ball. Yes. Put it down. Okay. So, oh right near your feet. So kind of [inaudible] sit up against your shins so it will stay put. I've got to get moving quick. Here we go in here, starting with a standing roll down.

So round down with your spine and allow the hands to find the ball from there. Flatten out the spine, lifting the pelvis up so that your back is totally straight. And then if you can continue forward with the ball so that you go into like a standing spine stretch forward, then curl the spine back in. Rounding the ball's gonna come in your hands. It's going to come up your legs and you're going to stand tall, lifted overhead.

Stretch over towards me. Press the opposite hip away. Xcel to pull up. I've got to talk a little [inaudible] faster. If we're going to do this in 30 minutes, Huh? Reaching, go, go, go, go, go. And I, and put the ball down as you round down through this spine. [inaudible] so you'll have to adjust your hands as necessary.

But let's find a flat back here. And then with that we take it further. I'll allow the femurs to go deep into the hip joints to allow the lower spine to extend. Inhale, exhale, bend the spine curl. Allow the ball to just rest in your hands. You're not squeezing and really or anything, you're just using it as a weight to roll out. Lift the arms overhead, stretch towards, let me press the opposite hip away.

Get a nice opening through that side of the body. Push the top hand into the bottom hand, and then push the bottom hand into the top hand. As you come up and I go the other way, where's the top hand into the bottom and it'll help you go push the bottom hand into the top hand to come up. Reach the ball down in here and Xcel to roll down, placing the ball on the ground flat and not the spine. Lengthen out the back. Reach the ball all the way forward.

Going, going nice. Flat back. Now hold there, bend your knees, tilt your tailbone up a little bit more, and then work there to stretch the leg. That's it. Good. And just a little bit of shoulders down. Think of pulling the bar towards you, Deb and chin. Inhale, bend the knees. [inaudible] tilt the tailbone up a little bit more and reach bringing the spine down through the arms in your mind. One more like that. And heel too. Bent. And XL says stretch and inhale to haul and Xcel to roll at this time.

Just leave the ball on the ground. Roll all the way up and walk around the front of it. Sit on the ball. If you're wanting your feet to be on the mat, you should start at the, towards the back end of your mat cause we're gonna walk into position. Okay. So I want us to reach our arms forward. You're going to walk forward so I can stay on my ball. That would be a really good thing for this class.

Okay, so find the lower back against the ball. Stay there. Inhale as you extend the upper spine over the top. Keep the pelvis and legs still open the arms out to the side, bring the arms forward and curl just to a neutral spinal position. And now lift the arms up again. Push down into the feet, lift over the ball arm, circle around to the sides. They come forward and we lift just to neutral spy.

You guys ready for some serious ab work? I'm hope. I'm glad. Way Back there. Way Back there. Circle the arms around. Bring the arms forward and hold their uh, hands behind the head. You've got two choices here. If you get tired, it's a across your chest. We're going to go back into that extension and we're going to lift back into neutral. Avoid pushing the head forward.

Inhale as we stretch over the top of the ball. Push down into your feet as you lift into neutral. Inhale as you stretch over the top of the ball, keeping the pelvis nice and steady at SOS. As we left, inhale, as we stretch over the ball and exhale as we lift and we go five more times there. Back and lift. Now be aware that as you go back, it's very easy to let the abdominal muscles go. Try not to do that. Try to keep them working gently. I suppose they're not going to be able to really, really work. They stretch, but keep them drawn in. Here's number four and back. Pressing the head into the hands. As you lift, keep the head pressing into the hands.

Three inhale that keep equal weight on your feet and think about are you feeling both sides of your body like do both sides of the waist. Feel like they're working evenly. Here's number one from that flat position, come up just a little higher debt. Now we're going to go forward so we come forward like the crest of a wave, drawing the abdominals back towards the ball and unwind to straight. Come forward like a crest of a wave, driving backwards and inwards with the abdominals and again a fan over creating links and work at the same time, reaching over and back and reaching over. I just discovered that if I use my feet to push my pelvis into the ball without actually backing it up, I could get more abs. See about trying that number one holding here.

We're just going to walk our feet back and as you walk back over the top of the ball or range your spine so that it's sitting up tall. Inhale here. Exhale. As we rotate towards the ocean, feel the head again. Press into the hands. Candy, you're leaning back a little bit. Lean forward just ever so slightly. That's it. I'm back. I can see with I've got eyeballs on my fingernails and back and exhale as you rise up, out of the ball, stretching and rotating. Inhale as you come to center, exhale as you rise up out of the ball.

Nice. Be Aware of the hips and the knees. Try to keep them very, very still. Lift up and around and back and lift up and around and back. Last time on each side. Here we go. Reaching over and back and over and back. Hand stay where they are. We walked back forward along the mat, so if you want this to be harder still you can bring your feet together.

[inaudible] I'm pretty happy with my feet where they are and I know we're going to go over the ball. Going to find that neutral spinal position and turn keeping the pelvis still. Nice. Inhale as you go back and over. Exhale as you first find neutral and then up in across, not very, um, not very high off neutral, so windy when you come across. So go up first and now go a little bit higher into flection with rotation.

Push into it. That's it. And now come back and go over the top. So we find the neutral position. And then as we create the rotation, there's a slight lift as we go through that flection. Inhale as you go over the back. Excellent. As you lift and go over the top and inhale as you go back and exhale as you lift and go over the top. Let's do two more to each side and up and off.

Every time you're lifting into that up and over position, drop backwards with your abdominals, against the ball and back. Last one here, reach nice and back and up. Pan over and back. Take your arms overhead and lay back over the ball. Bring your arms around to the front of you.

Look forward and walk your feet down so that you're sitting, your back is still going to be up against the ball, but you're sitting pretty low to your mouth. So I'd go a little lower candy. We're about to do a back bend, so reaching for a year and going to need the backsides of your legs. So focus there. Push with your legs, allow the spine to relax enough so that it's easy. As you go over the top of the ball, the arms come around to the sides in a circular motion and we bend our knees to come home. And again, push into the legs, reach out, feel the backs of the legs supporting you is you reach over the top of the ball. Enjoy the shoulder, stretch and bend in three more like that.

Press up and back. Strong pelvic position, strong legs and bent. And two more reaching up and back. Maybe you'll let your neck extend so it reaches back to touch the ball only if it's comfortable and bend. Last time here, reaching back. Oh and okay. And they'll just bend your knees enough so that you can come all the way down onto your mat. Take the ball out from behind you. Bring it around to the front, bend your knees, put the ball just over the tops of the knees.

Push the ball into the knees to lift the spine tall. We inhale as we exhale, press into the bottle a little bit. So this is a full body exercise. Start to wheel the pelvis out from underneath you. The ball will start rolling down your legs. Find your lower back. Inhale, lift the ball up. Exhale, put the ball back, push it into your legs.

Keep pushing down with the ball as you curl over your knees and then pull into your knees to lift your back. Again, we round the spine, pushing the ball away and that initial movement and then we continue that rounding shape so we come down to the lower back. Stay there. The ball is lightly resting in the hands as we take the ball and then we bring it back down. Push down and and not just with the arms. Think of pushing with a flection force in your body and then roll forward. Pull the ball into your knees and lift your back up two more times. Exhale, curling back. I'm going to add a variation on the last one. Inhale, arms up, eh. Exhale, arms down and push down with the flection of the spine.

As you roll up over your knees, lift the spine tall. Last one here, rolling down. Feel the low back. Come into the mat, lift the arms, place the arms down. Hold that push down on the ball and curl up and down and just moving through the lowest five vertebras. Up and back to and back. One rural all the way up over the knee. Stay round here. Turn towards me so the ball comes into the leg closest to me just outside that knee. Keep the knees stationary as we roll down that side of our body.

Look towards the ball towards the place that you're rotating to and curl up and down and up. So it's tiny, sorry. And down, pushing down on the ball into the legs. Last two down on the legs with the ball. Last one. Roll all the way up. Roll the ball around to the front so the knees. Roll the ball around to the opposite knee. Roll down towards your lower back. Once you get there, pause.

And now we just curl and curl down. Push the volunteer leg, but don't push your leg away from its position, meaning both knees are parallel to one another. The feet are pressing down into the ground. Here's number five already we roll all way up that side. Wrap the ball around the knees, stretch the legs out and push the ball forward all the way out to the tippy toes. And then push down on the ball so you get a little stretch in your feet.

Then roll all the way back down onto your back and bring the ball underneath your feet. We're preparing here for a little bit of pelvic curl action. Okay, so we've got feet resting on the ball, arms pressing down into the mat. Inhale, dig down into your heels so you feel your hamstrings engaged in. Lift the pelvis up, rolling up Vertebra by Vertebra. Find a long, slanted diagonal line with the ribs lower than the pelvis and slowly now roll down, keeping the ball. Still trying to minimize any wobbling back and forth.

Pause when your pelvis reaches the Mat. Inhale, press down into your legs to lift up with your hips. Lifting up, up, ah, ah, AH, holding there. Inhale, press down into your arms and slide the neck outwards as the pelvis rolls away from the neck or away from the head. Release the pelvis all the way down. I'm going to go one more time like that. Here we go. Keep the shoulders in control. Lift all the way, all the way, all the way, all the way up. Inhale and exhale. Roll all the way down, pressing the backs of the arms into the floor. Okay, here comes some leg extensions so we roll up to the top first. My advice here is to only straighten your knees as much as you can without any pressure on your back. So push the ball away. I'm keeping mine a little bent and pull it underneath you.

Keep your pelvis in a neutral position. Push out and pull in. Push out and pull in. Push out. Keep the pelvis up. Pull in last time. Push out. Think about the not so strong lang hold and slowly now down, releasing all the way down through the hips. Inhale. Exhale. We curl up again, pressing down into the feet to lift up in the hips. Pausing at the top. Take the ball away, bring it back in. Keep the shoulders stabilized, right.

Everything, every last ounce of concentration on working with your correct form. Last to pull away. And one more. Pull away in and aisle. Slowly reach the tops of the feet over the ball if you can and see if we can keep them like that. So you get a little foot stretch. As you come all the way onto your back, bring the ball a little closer to you so that you can rest your, um, what are those? Those are shins. So you can put your shins on the ball. Um, take your arms out to your side.

Needs to gather feet together. Tilt the ball towards me. Breathing in. Exhale as you pull back from the center of the body as you go away. Focus on the stabilization of the shoulder, so if we allow the opposite arm to anchor on the shoulder to stay very still on the floor, chances are there might be a little shoulder stretch available for us there and center and pull the abdominals back as we take the ball over and exhale to come home and inhale as we reach across and exhale to come home. Let's do three more total. The knees stay lined up. What's nice about the ball is you might be able to get a little bit more range of motion than normal. There's two.

Here's our last one to the other side. Reaching across and coming back. Open up the feet so that you can pick up the ball with your feet. Lift the ball up with straight legs. Bring your arms to your sides, press into the ball and release. Press into the ball. You can do this with slightly bent knees or you could put your feet on the floor and put the ball in between your knees and do it here.

Just looking for a little inner thigh work as well as a little bit of stabilization work. If it's not comfortable on your back, it might help to lift up into flection. Let's do five more one and squeeze. Draw the abdominals down so it's, that's the brahmos are like a gold button. You pull them down in the legs. Just squeeze last to check in with your shoulders. Number one, lift your arms up. Drop the ball into your hands.

Bend your knees and stretch your legs forward. As you inhale, bring your head and chest up off the ground. As you exhale, curl the spine forward. Reach forward pasture, hips, and then let the ball rest on your feet. Roll the ball backwards towards you so that you are extending your spine, but the ball still down on your legs so you can push down to help yourself. Flex your feet and bring the ball up over your head. Press for five who are still in full extension yet. Go five four pressing the chest forward in the arms.

Back number two. Number one point your feet. Scoop your abdominals out and roll all the way down as you come down to your shoulders. Start lifting the arm so they are overhead as the head comes down. Inhale, head and chest up. Exhale, bend yourself inwards. Roll forward. Allow the ball to come down onto your feet and then as you extend bringing the chest towards the ball, the ball rolls back towards the chest from there.

Once you found that really solid, just chin down. Just Chin down, a little solid back extension. Then just raise the at flexing the feet holding. Here we press five, four, three, two one point your fee reached about two wards your feet and roll down. Drawing the shoulders down and pressing into the ball just a little bit. As you press into the ball, feel that inhale head and chest that it's not coming from the shoulders wrapping around the front of you, but it's coming from the shoulder blades wrapping down the back of you.

The ball goes forward on the legs. We find our extension [inaudible] bringing the chest towards the ball. Yeah, like that. And now reach out and press, press, press straight. Long spy. Reach all the way down. Hollowing out the abdominals. Roll down as you make it to your lower back. This time, start to lift the ball, challenging ourselves a little sooner and then head goes down. Last time guys, lift the head and chest roll through this spine.

Drop back through the abdominals. Linkedin. Stick your butt out. You don't put the ball down this time we're just going to go straight there. Yep. Late call, but that's okay. And now we press and press up. We didn't flex. Let's do that. Here's two. Here's one. Set all the way tall.

Bend your elbows and put the ball on your head. And I want for you bet everyone. Ben, for just a second. That's more for me than for it for you. Oh, you don't want to. Okay, so pull the ball onto your head so there's like a lap pole action. And then easily lift this firing up into the ball. If your knees are bent like mine, straighten them. Now. Inhale, exhale, twist now towards the ocean and inhale to come center. So I want you to please try and create that feeling as you're going through rotation that I just mentioned of drawing down on the shoulders to pull the ball into your head and being very, very light in the spine, reaching it up into the ball and back and turn and back.

And don't forget the downward Paul. And don't forget the upward lift and find center. And now turn and hold. Now lightly. Just feel that the ball is almost weightless in your arms and as you straighten your homes, your back lifts. It keeps lifting. The ball is pulling you into the air. Bend your elbows, bring the ball back.

Your spine is taller than it was before and find center. Turn the opposite direction. Lift the arms light ball in the hands, reaching up, reaching up through this spine. Bend the elbows. Bring the ball to the head. Come back to center and rotating and lifter nice and easy and pull back and find center. Last time we do lean a little forward and ball goes up. Oh, it goes up. [inaudible] goes up and bend and find center and put ball on your chin.

Arms are tight. That's hard. Okay, good. Come on onto your knees please facing me. You guys can look out the ocean when ones are really tired. Okay, so we're going to take the ball right up against the thigh itch and then take the opposite leg straight out. And you wanna make sure that when you lie over the ball, it's pretty close into you because you can always move the knee out.

But you want the ball to be supporting your side body and your hip. So I get the ball ride in close and then I lie on it and then I moved my bottom knee where it's comfortable. Okay? Take your bottom hand behind your head. Take your top arm out to this side, push down into this leg and lift up, and then go all the way over and lift up. So now we're working that side body and all the way over and lifting up.

When do you might be more happy if you got the ball like your knee underneath you more so that more of your body could be on the ball that way towards Deb. Yeah. Does that feel more balanced? Yeah. Good. Everyone good with their balance? Good. Last two and down and last one. So now we lower the body down the body.

The top body is as long as the bottom body to hold onto your BHAG. Lift your leg, your t straight leg flex and bring it forward point and bring it back. As you flex and bring the leg forward. Hold the body still over the ball. Bring it back point and bring the leg or flex and point. Now imagine that there's like a, I don't know, hot lava underneath your leg or something and you have to lift up off of it.

Keep that feeling of lifting. Last one, we're going to take the leg back and we're going to reach down. Now lift the leg up and reach to the front. And oh the way I'm so clear as a big hurdle, a bend to the front, uh, bend to the back, up fan to the front, up, bend to the back. How many have we done? Anyone know I'm thinking five is that four. Let's do this way. So we'll call this one five and now keep your leg down.

Push it away from you. Take your arm overhead and reach over the ball. So the arm is reaching in, the leg is reaching. Now I want you to feel that you're pulling your shoulder joint in your hip joint in two opposite directions and feel free to play with the leg that's on the ground. Sometimes a little further back feels good, or if you lean a little forward, it's a better stretch. So I know stretch that works for you and bring your arm back, push off the ball and come onto your knees. Put your hand on the ball. The same side that we were just on opposite our amount to our side. Deb, go a little pelvic tilt forward and now we pushed the ball away.

Take that on up in over. It should feel beautiful and then the arm comes down and we come back up and Nope, it's gonna move, but it's not where I'm not pushing it with my arm. The reason that it's moving is because my spine is taking it across and then I then don't even push on it much. Just let the arm rest there and as you go, feel the shoulder blade tuck underneath you. It's like that scapular almost comes forward and that's where we're going to get really good shoulder stability. How's your shoulder feeling, Candace? Excellent. Okay, so I'm gonna change this a little bit.

Now we're going to go over, we're going to hold that round your back, reaching that top arm towards the ball. It might not touch. Just find a stretch. Open back out and lift up. Inhale as we go over and now rotate. Think ribs, rotating arms coming along for the ride. Reach up and back and lift to the top. Last one, think about this as your arm goes across, take the opposite shoulder, the one that's on the ball and pull it deeper into that shoulder joint and then unwind and lift up. Roll the ball all the way across to the other side.

And here we go. Put it right up against the thigh. So I shift it right into my leg and then I lean on it, making sure it's going to support me the way I want it to. And then I just do what feels good for that knee. Cool. Here we go. So what do we do first we did this. So we did said that little side left. So we feel the rib on that side coming closer to the hip on that side and over the top and exhale to lift and over the top and exhale to the lift.

Tightening through that waist and inhale to go over the top and exhale. Lift last two times. Nice. Good job guys. Last one. And now we go all the way down. Put the hands around the ball, lift the leg, the straight leg. Flex your foot, pull your leg in front of you. Try not to move the ball and now reach up and back.

Pull the leg forward and reach up and back. Keep the abdominal strong throughout. It's a good way to support the lower back last two times and back. I'm really just resting my entire body down on that ball and now we're going to go stay. We go down, we clear a great big hurdle and come around to the front and then reach up. I sometimes feel like if I jump my leg or feel like I don't know if I create that feeling, it helps me to find the height that I want and back because I last two sets.

It's pretty good cause my hip is about to give out. Last one. Oh and all the way to the back and I'll take the leg down, reach it away from you. Reach your room overhead, pull the shoulder joint and the hip joint old weight from one another in space and take a big stretch to that waist and then help yourself. I'm just using my hands to push myself off the ball. Come onto your both knees and hand on the ball. Opposite arm out to the side. That's good. Good Pelvis. Here we go. Yup. Inhale as we go over the top. Anchor with the opposite knee.

The one you are going away from. And now going three times. Inhale as we go over the top, enjoy and lift and in house we go over the top and exhale as I come back. So now we start with the over the top again. Feel that way. Although it's stretching, it's still working. And now feel the rotation here. Drawing the shoulder that's on the ball slightly backwards to increase rotation.

Open back up and lift up all the way to the top. And inhale as we go over and XL as we find the stretch and inhale to come back and exhale to lift up. Last time. Inhale as we were each over incurring with that opposite knee at silk. Turn the body reach open, lift up, turn towards the ball, walk towards the back end or a scooch with your knees. We're going to get on the ball and we want to have our hands on the mount.

We're going to do a little um, shoulders stuff. Okay, so get down on the ball and then walk forward. I'm Devin windy. I'm wondering if you're going to butt heads so you might have to start off the mat a little cause you want your hands to be on your mat. Candy, you need to come forward. Basically I want your shit is on the ball. She didn't, didn't knees on the ball. Yeah. Yeah, it's eat together. Good question. So legs together, abdominals, lifting up strong arms. So here's what I want you to think about here.

We're going to wrap the shoulder blades down and forward and lift up through our rib cage. Got hold that position. Not so much that you're rounding. Just stabilizing the scapula. Bend your elbows, straighten your arms, bend your elbows, straighten your arms. Feel the wrapping down in Florida. The scapula. Hold there. Now round your spine. Feel very light on the ball with your legs. Pull the ball towards you. So I'm bending my knees. Sorry. Windy inhale.

As you go back to straight, exhale, start lifting. Think of rounding the spine and then allow the knees to respond to the spinal rounding and bend and inhale to open and exhale. We do it one more time and now we're going to hold and we're going to do three more. Press Bend, straighten, wet and straight. No, not in the knees and straightened and hold. And I lift up through your abs and curl the ball and towards you and back. So we're doing sets and here we go again. Shoulder blades, stay down.

The arm stayed just over the hands and back. Last time here, reaching under with the ball and back. Do we want to do one more set or have we had it? Okay, here we go. Ben, make the bend small. If you want to. Three and three more pikes. So bending, curling, try to lift off the ball. That's just a mind thing. You're not actually going to lift off it, I hope or I don't think. If you do, be very impressed. Drop your head a little windy and look down at the ball.

It's a good rule for everyone. As the ball comes towards you, you want to look at it so we're not overextending through the cervical spine. [inaudible] yeah, I'm with you Deb. And we walked back and allow the back to just hang over the ball for a minute. I'm gonna Finish with a back extension and ice one. How'd you go? How'd your shoulder go? Woo. Woo. I didn't know where I was not. I was on my mat. Okay. Ready? So what I want you to do is, um, what's going on and that's what just happened to me. Um, wood floors and knees aren't friendly. OK. So I'm getting on my ball, my, I'm on my knees, but I'm not, I don't have my knees right up against the ball.

So I'm on a bit of a slant. You're perfect. Deb, just press your pelvis towards, of all little candy or maybe move the ball out in front of you a little bit more. Yeah. So you want to just, it's almost like real cruisy to just be here and then wrap your arms around the ball. So we're gonna work on a w coming from the upper back, right behind the chest. We're going to lift the arms. Don't change anything else. Now from that, I'm going to turn the sums up and as you turn the thumb start cert to peel the chest but not the ribs off the ball. Think of pressing the ball forward with the rib area and now come back to neutral shoulders and now we'll reach over the top. So I'm going to change what I said. When your arms come up, if your head's not already at, let your head up.

So it's in line with your spine, but you're not yet arching. Then we roll the shoulders back and as we do that, we begin that thoracic extension process allowing the ball, the idea of rolling the ball forward. It's not really moving at all. Find neutral and round and hug the ball. Let's do that three more times. Lifting up, inhale, exhale. Feel the pressure of the ribs into the ball.

That's where we'd get that beautiful extension in how as we come back and exhale over the top and again, inhale and reach up. Hold here, keep this [inaudible] back in. Just press back with the thumbs back. Two, three, four, five and [inaudible] all the way over. We're doing that well. One more time. This our grants anally. Give it all. You got arms out to the side, rolling the ball forward or working to that middle back and thumbs back. We press, press, press and two and one and take it all the way over the top and then just come onto your ball does come on to your ball and you'll have to play with this for your own buddy.

I don't know where exactly everyone wants to be, but just find a stretch that feels really good. So for me, I have my feet on the ground and my knees are bent, my arms are just kinda hanging. But I'm, I am exploring enrolling back and forth and you'll get different stretches and different places. Okay. So let's stay here and just have a deep breath. And as you exhale, allow the body to just drape and relax over the ball and one more, and then slide back onto the knees. Can I help yourself off the ball?

That's wrap.

Comments

2 people like this.
i STRALIKE!!!
2 people like this.
Love this class! I might have to "borrow" some of your moves Meredith, thanks!
3 people like this.
Fun and creative 30 min. workout. Thanks.
2 people like this.
Excellent class!!!! Love working with the ball!!! Thanks Meredith!!!
1 person likes this.
Was really liking the class, but it stopped right in the middle about 15 mins in.. too bad..
1 person likes this.
Paula~ I would recommend restarting your computer and then watching the class in Auto-Detect (an option that can be chosen below the video player screen).
4 people like this.
I use the ball a lot in classes but Meredith had some new information and the way she meld exercises together is seamless. I love her teaching style: she segues great into each exercise, is funny and clear and the content/amount of cueing is not "too much". Thank you!
Notme
1 person likes this.
So easy to follow. A challenge.
1 person likes this.
I admire your creativity
2 people like this.
Love your class as usual. great cues and i like that sometimes as teachers we realilze that maybe we have not been specific enough. Its okay to not be perfect as teachers. It makes the teacher so much more human rather than just a "recorded" class as usual.
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