Class #9

Mat Essentials

60 min - Class
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Description

This class is an excellent opportunity to refine essential components and skills required for some of the advanced exercises. Amy breaks down some complex exercises to help you fully understand and integrate these skills as you advance your Pilates work. In this class, you will work on exercises like Jack Knife, Corkscrew, and Swan Dive
What You'll Need: Mat

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Dec 21, 2009
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[inaudible]. Okay, good morning guys. We're going to start. Um, so I've got two concepts that we've, we've worked on before that I want to review and we're not going to do a full flow class from beginning to end as, as the mat list, but pick apart a few of what I think are advanced exercises. But because they're advanced in my body doesn't mean that they're advanced in everyone's body. Um, so, but so real quick, this is, you've seen me work with this before, this linking that can open and closed and side bend and twist and untwist. Um, to Kinda think about this morning, different exercises where we can apply this image. Maybe that this is maybe our spine or it could just be some of our muscle, you know, could be some of our abdominal muscles doing some of the work or the, the whole entire spine itself.

So I might refer to our internal slinky a few times this morning and that's what I'm talking about. And the ability that it's, it's nice and buoyant and has a lot of resilience and what we're after for our, our structure and our body. And then the other, which, um, we've been working a lot on is that the good old triangle of the hips, the pubic bone and the two hip bones and knowing when to move them and why to move them in certain exercises and you know, yeah, the real associated muscles on the inner aspect of the bones on the front, this are the deeper abdominals. Um, okay. So let's start with our body down on the mat this morning and we'll a little bit of articulation just to get some things moving through the back and the hips and the neck as we know it goes all the way through. So you could maybe think right away, here you are, this wonderful, pliable, easy to move, slinky, and that's in your spine. And I think bent knees, feet flat, and let's have our feet, uh, sits bones with the part all toes forward. All right. And for that matter, this linky could be your lateral expansion as well. So you're, you're with going left to right and all the way through.

So I could get carried away with the image of the slinky. Okay. So let's start with, I'm going to do the breath with you this morning and nice. Full breath in through the nose and feeling your exhale. Contract in the abdominals yet staying nice and long on your interior and the again, breath in. Yeah. And your exhale.

[inaudible] and as we're doing these preparations and the breathing, this really engaged your, your mind to think long and open in your back, no tension but yet strengthen the abdominals as you're doing your exhale. I'm trying to maintain that sense of length from head all the way out through the tail, down past your toes and staying open again, yet contracted in the abdominals. And let's take one more inhale together. And here we go. Let's move the pelvis, move the triangle and we'll go all the way through to the shoulder blades. Just nice and slow. That sense of articulation or peeling, bringing your sits bones together.

If your lower back is not ready to go very high, you can stay a little lower, maybe mid back and again, pause here and take your inhale and use the exhale. Deepen in the engagement of your abdominals. But then there's that slinky. When I'm thinking about that, the lower end of me is lengthening down and out the very bottom. I can let my tailbone just rest on the mat and I'm still staying active and strong in the back. And another breath and the exhale, maybe bringing the sits bones together a little more. See if you can work up into your middle and upper back. Again, keeping good rib control so we're not lifting up to the ceiling.

Keep that active abdominal wall and breath. Yeah, and the exhale. Ah, Nice. Long Interior stretch of the spine and again, an inhale and your exhale. Yeah, and just give a little reach of your pelvis out towards your knees, knees out over the alignment of second toe. And again, a breath in and the exhale long. That's really feeling that pelvis come all the way to that level position. Let's take two more times before we add on and curl.

So the sits bones are pulling together Domino's really drawn to the back. Good line from your shoulders, ribs, hips, knees and out. Inhale and exhale. So what I'm, this is nice. I'm noticing a real level triangles, you know, as you're rolling up and down in a minute. The next one we're gonna work on tilting the triangle a little bit at the top.

So let's go ahead and take this last roll up to the shoulder blades or articulation and just stay there for a moment. All right, so we have a front and we have a back of the pelvis and the triangle. If we right now took the right side of the triangle and drop it toward the mat a little bit, but also the other hip up quite a lot. So your whole pelvis and lower back is rotated, but you're not dropping the height of it says to. Yes, they perked up a little bit. Okay. And then center the hip bones center, your pelvis. Let's show the other side. So you're working a drop one side or rotate it, but yet the other hip is pressing up. You get that tilt and let's find your center and want to have you tilt on the exhale. So breathe in to get ready for it. Exhale, tilt to your right.

And can you add, really actively pull from the abdominals, not just move your bones, pull the abdominal muscles, inhale and Lorie align. Exhale to the left and inhale center and exhale, pull while the other hip is staying nice and high as well. There you go. And Center and left. I'm trying to get a little slinky rotation in your lower back and pelvis. Inhale Center. Let's do one more each hip.

I'm just going to hold the thighs nice and steady and inhale center and exhale, rotate to the left. Yeah. So what I'm noticing by looking as some of us have, go ahead and centered role yourselves down. Sorry about that. That w we have a side that seems what my eyes see me that it feels or looks like it's easier for you to get to and the other side is a little bit harder to get to and I think that's pretty common for all of us that we haven't signed that has a real ease of rotation and one that doesn't. So remember that and in a few of the other exercises this morning, um, that might come up again, the challenge of that. So we want to find the ease and the challenging side or make more challenge and connection in the side. That feels easy. So going on with that, we know we have a right and left. We just felt that, uh, we're going to do a little, uh, difference of rolled down out of the bridge.

Okay. So just take another inhale to get ready at the bottom. Roll up the center of your spine again to the shoulder blades and they haven't yet, uh, invited it, but get some stretch in your arms. Yeah. Feel some energy in the back edge of your arm and your lat. So there's some expression back there. Okay. Now tracking the right side of the spine. Just visualize that for a second.

All right. Like a Zipper, the right side of the zipper. And as we a exhale, you can breathe actually in and out as you need to roll down the right side of your spine. Let's track all the way down until you feel the back of your right hip on the mat. But and so you'll notice you're in that tilt again to the a to the right. Now let's take a breath right here. Exhale, reengage your abdominals and enroll up the right side of that spine. Okay. Until you're up onto your shoulder blades and you'll level things to center.

Okay, let's do that down the left side. Make it come from the abdominals. Yes. And you'll land at the back of that left pelvis. Very good. And Park it there to take an inhale and exhale and re-engage that left side and rolling up. It's okay to stand firm in both feet. Can we do it again? Each sign.

So you tracking your articulating down one side. This is going to show up again in a bit when we do the corkscrew, the full corkscrew exercise. So knowing how that feels to track one side of your spine and then the other where level is and last time coming down the left and make it really from the abdominals. Yup. Not In the legs. Yeah. How's the head or even on the back of your head, you know, some of us are moving our head around a little bit. So okay, you might be thinking about the left side. Your head might be going that direction.

So as you track back up the left side and you find even at the top, but a little more awareness in the inner thighs and not fully bring them together, but closer cause we've lost a little bit of that connection. Take a breath in and here we go. Rolling down. So from the upper back, lots of mobility, lots of segmenting, that good sense of motion in your spine and all the way down to level. How'd that feel? It looks good. Yeah. And it's nice when I can see the connection really from your tummy muscles rather than just moving the bones around in there. We want to keep with that.

All right, so let's work a little bit a focus now on triangle movement, uh, isolated triangle movement. I'm going to have you guys, uh, feet together, knees together, arms down by your sides for a second and take a good breath in. Nice, solid pelvis, solid triangle, exhale and lift your leg. So your 90 degree position or the tabletop and just, you know, that's nice level position and take your hands in front of your thighs. All right, just for a little marker that to not let the thighs come toward us right now. All right, so the, the, the hip bone and the, the angle of the leg stays consistent. So I like to put a little pressure, hands on, knees, knees on hands, and open up the chest.

Now can we isolate the, the pelvis a little bit into a little tilt and we'll do that on an exhale. So let's breathe together. As you exhale, taking the, the triangle of your pelvis and pull it back. And a lot of that, you know the as much as you can from your tummy muscles. You don't want to let the legs drop in. That's what I mean there. And then inhale, let your pelvis come to the level. And again, the exhale really govern this from the abdominals, trying to flex the lumbar spine and inhale as you come out to level and exhale a lot of deep scoop in the low abs, working its way up the middle belly and inhale out to level to take a look and exhale. One more tilt at the tail. Yea, and inhale level and exhale, keep, keep with that then. Yeah, and a couple more exhale good. And he'll level a little, a little more stretch for your tail and the exhale, right as if, if I could, I'd pick up your pelvis and lift you this way, vertical and, and then a little bit back that direction and just go ahead and rest for a moment. Okay. Yeah. So, uh, remember that that's gonna world that'll show up again in hour.

A few other exercises this morning. Let's keep warming up and interlace the hands behind the head. No movement of pelvis. Let's do just eight really clean chest lifts or curls to get this wall a little more ready for the hundred. So we'll breathe in together. And the exhale. Complete control of this section.

Depending on how your back feels, you can work to come a little higher in your chest lift. If your neck is feeling tight or your mid back feels tight, just take care of that. You don't want to stress the neck. Push yourself up. [inaudible] four more. [inaudible] about the shoulder blades where they need to be coming down the back. Your elbows are in your peripheral vision.

[inaudible] [inaudible] one more time. Yeah, and let's take another breath. Exhale, lift your legs to your 90 bring your arms down by your sides. Maybe the reach of the arms helps provide a little more lift of the chest and we'll extend our legs on the diagonal and take yourselves into the a hundred we'll breathe in. Fives, three, four, five. Exhale. So you can see looking at your pelvis is your pubic bone dropped enough? Share it. Sh now everyone hold right there.

I'm going to add in single leg stretch real quick. So bring your right knee and left leg extends. Let's just move a little warmer movement and exhale as we change. We'll just do ten one two about controlling that triangle of bones at the pelvis and fi seven, eight, nine and 10. Let's go into double leg just four times and we'll come back and pick up the other 50 pumps. What do you say?

Oh, what the heck. [inaudible] [inaudible]. All right. So if you want to take your legs a little lower for the next set of 50 n [inaudible] [inaudible] Shit's happening. A long curve up this way. Three, four, five, last exhale. Three, four, five. Bring it in and rest. Yeah, never a dull mind. All right, so feeling a little warmer. Yup, there we go.

I might have to do that now. I can too. Okay, so let's take a look at rollover and uh, yeah, so, oh no roll-up first. Excuse me. Legs down, straight, arms, back overhead. And again, just kind of thinking about the triangle, not going into a tilt as much as you can. Can Handle legs, nice and firm together and arms back overhead without drop to the floor. So you've real active spine. So guys, let's take our arms, head and neck up on an inhale and chest. And use your exhale really deeply. Can tract rolling up. Yeah. Feeling that lower back, nice and long curve.

Take an inhale there and exhale as you roll yourself back. We sometimes use this idea. What if our heels don't have to really slide back too far on the mat and here we go again. And Inhale, arms, head, neck and chest. Exhale, controlling the triangle. Deep pull back and take an inhale and the exhale, the roll down because we only know shoulder. Slide down your back. Long thighs in the front. And again, nice full breath in and exhale. Gotcha girl.

Easy shoulders, making sure we can still see this wonderful neck and inhale and exhale. Long quads. Feeling the feet. Reach to your partner in front of you. All right, just one more time. I just left. Exhale, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep. Seeing the big curve over the front of your legs for a moment. All right. Yeah. Deep low belly and breathe and pull your pelvis back. Pull your pelvis back and just hold that without rolling all the way back to the mat. Yeah. How much can you pull? Now the triangle, if we get rule more specific, it's actually, I want you to think you're right and left hip bones and the muscles associated with those bones deep here.

Just keep breathing into that nice sense of pole and ease in a way up in your neck. Okay. And then use that strength to keep rolling you back. Hopefully that's helping your lower back yon and widen a little bit and a lot more control rolling down. Yes. Okay. Now we'll go into rollover. I was a step ahead of myself, right? So if you need a little more leg room. So let's go here.

Can you all bring your legs just up to vertical for me, your 90 degrees and working that real level pelvis level triangle. Okay. So before we take our full roll over and give you more link, uh, that same warmup we did just a moment ago of just your pelvic tilt without letting your thighs drift into you. So it's probably going to be pretty small. Let's take a breath in together. Use Your exhale and think pelvis to the ceiling and inhale pelvis to the mat and exhale pell this to the ceiling. Good. And inhale pelvis to the mat and exhale and lower and lift. Now, if I had a lot of strength, it would go that way a couple more times and everyone's got it.

Moving the pelvis without folding the legs toward the chest, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, rest for a second. And it's probably a your did your quadriceps activate a little bit? Maybe your hip flexors are trying to help out so you know their muscles, they're going to help, but main governing is here. Let's take that emphasis into the rollover. Alright, and get ready. We're going to do three. We'll do six altogether.

The three with legs together going over and then the legs apart. All right, so really commit to starting it that same way each time. Here we go to breathe. In the exhale you'll see the pelvis come off the legs. Then roll overhead. We're not pressed up on the neck, run on the platforms of the shoulder blades and here we are. Flex the feet open to your hip width. And then again, as you're rolling down, we're not letting the legs drop toward the chest. So as you come down your pillow, your legs should still be at that 90 degree position and you will, let's not take the legs any lower this morning.

We'll just bring them together and re point the feet. All right. Again, inhale, prepare, exhale pelvis. There you go. And lower back opens. That's better. And Rollover. Flex, inhale open. So do what you can to to avoid dropping your legs at your hip joint. So by the time your pelvis comes to level, you've got that 90 degree alignment, bless you and legs together and keep going. Even if you're on your own timing, that's fine.

You're in a steady, steady mode. Oh over reach for this wall back here and flex open and I think lift a little higher. Rate that. Yeah. And if you, if you finish those three, experiment now with a rolling over legs apart. Same concepts, right? So legs or hip with the part, it's the pelvis. So those muscles associated with right and left triangle contract and lift the pelvis up. Then the spine goes overhead. You guys, that was really good. And legs come together this time and rolling down. Massaging right up in that upper back.

Yeah. So really if I had your pelvis, I could pull your pelvis this way and your legs wouldn't have to a drop. Nice. Michelle, how are we doing? Flex. Bring the legs together. Right? So if I could, I'd held your pelvis and I would just pull it right toward me toward the end of the other end of the mat. The legs wouldn't have to compensate. Nice. Rachel, who is better? Okay, one more time. Maybe on the side over here or if you want another one for yourselves, you can or you can rest and think about it. Here they go.

Pelvis first, shoe and spine flexes and rolls over. Flex the feet, legs come in together and again, rolling down. I know. Yeah. And that's the, that some of us in here also have just f yeah, just dropped the thigh and flex the hip but not hold the controller on the, the lower abdomen. Alright, good. Any different sensation? Perhaps a little harder. Okay, so sticking with the idea of the isolated movement on one side of the triangle or one side of the pelvis. Let's work a little bit of leg work, kind of leg circle preparation or dissection. So this morning, left leg up first, right? Like can stay on the mat.

You're all level. We don't need to talk about. All right, so similarly you, a minute ago you had both legs up. Right? Now you've got the one. So can you just lift your left hip up toward this toe toward these toes so we can do that and the body may really want to roll completely to the right. It's not so much the torso that rolls. Can you isolate your pelvis? Just the pelvis. Now how do you get the back of that pelvis back to the mat? You get a pull with those abdominal muscles, but now the bones can follow that and really press your hip. Pelvis to the mat.

Okay, and let's go again. Pelvis or hip bone or triangle up, and then pull with the abdomen. I'm going to hold your legs, so you pull your abs away from me. There you go. And again, so the hip there, and then the return, I'm going to pull you, you pull with your abs to get the hip down to the mat. Hey, let's take two more. So each one will get this little cookie. And so this might be the, the easier hip side.

Remember how we located that earlier? One side moved easier than the other. They're hip to the mat. Parallel. Okay, so you have what I have. Think more just hip rather than whole trunk there. So it's gonna be a little smaller movement.

And then pull your hip back from the abdomen. Abdomen, abdomen, abdomen. I'm going to resist you. Yeah. Okay. Change legs. Let that leg come down. Shake it out a little bit. All right. And the right leg up in parallel. I'll do the same cycle. I'll start over here and work on my way around. All right, so here we go.

And a hip up. I think. A little less movement that way. Cause your torsos rolling. Yeah, I think vertical. That's better. Now I'm going to pull you a little more. You pull as much as you can with your belly. Your belly. Yes. And then down and again. Vertical. Good.

And belly to bring the pelvis back down. Good. And now hip little. Yeah, there you go. Perfect. Yeah. Pawpaw. Oh Yay. And then a little extra and two more to go. I'm going to resist a little more. Is that okay?

Sh and at the very end, now I'm gonna press good. All right. We have one more and the hip. That's better. Sure. And back of hip. Stomach, stomach, stomach. Very. That's stronger.

Felt like a stronger tummy on that side. Okay, so go ahead and bring the thigh down and does again. Shake that one out. So let's go into what we know is single leg circle without moving those bones left leg up. No surprises with the pattern. A five inward circles, five outward circles, and similar to last times a breath pattern. It's the inhaled across and your exhale to circle. Okay, so let's begin crossing over. [inaudible] complete control of the triangle and reverse. Okay.

[inaudible] one more this direction, this leg. And then go ahead and lower the leg all the way to the mat. And you can bring your other thigh up. You can either bicycle it up or straight leg lift. All right, five and five cross over the left and all around. Imagine this slinky opening left and right through your ribs.

I'll get that lateral connection and breath. [inaudible]. Here we go. Another direction for five and last one. And then lower the leg all the way down. All right, so knowing when we want some movement of that and when we don't and how that feels different, uh, let's find a way up to sitting tall. Okay. And let's see, we may want to sit right in the center of your mat and I think this morning, let's, um, we've done some legs extended.

So how about a diamond position with your legs or sometimes called seal also that might be ready for seal a little later and folded elbows is folded arms. And take a second to fill your sides of your back, your lats. We're, we're moving into, um, the, the ringing again or this, this, uh, slinky image more with rotation. So this slinky is kind of warped of, it's been pulled on a lot. Uh, so I won't do my pull it apart. Um, bring your ribs in a little bit.

So I find your wall right behind you. Uh, I could feel it most of your spine, probably not your neck bones. Yeah, yeah. There you go. All right. And then here's the center of your body, which is your spine right up through the top of your head. Can you, we'll take an exhale to ward, um, the brick wall up here and ringing out. So you're this linky, you're tall, you're resilient, and you're, you can wind, you can rotate and, and just staying there. Yeah. So it's known as just the rib cage for just a second and a little more length in your neck. And all the way up from your sits bones. There we go. And then keep high like that and tall and come back to your center. Let's check in to the other side.

Okay, so away from the bench, Ms Dang with it. Yep. A little more ribs in your legs. If there's a wall right here that you're against. That's right. And rotate back to your center. So with the breath pattern, with this spinal rotation, let's just pause. Breathe in the center, breathe in. You'll do three squeezes or three pulses to the bench side. Okay, let's take a breath. Tall. Here we go. And we can squeeze the belly, squeeze the belly, squeeze the belly and away from the bench. So as you're doing your rotations, what I want you to think of without moving your triangle, but the muscles associated on the one side, can you, the size, that side, helping you come around.

But because we're three-dimensional species and beings, you've got your other side to ask of to the other side can help bring you around farther. So there's a working of left and right. One side pulling you around the other sides. Maybe assisting and contrast and tall and tall holes and holes and holes. Let's go one more each side and pull ups. Are you as tall as can be? I think we are. And we torical question and two and three and center and arrest.

Okay. We're thinking we're getting in touch with our obliques this morning. We're going to do corkscrew with that in mind so you can guide yourself all the way back down on your back. And we'll do the corkscrew with the rollover in, in, in it. Okay. So you get another opportunity to not fold at the hip but roll-up correctly.

So let's begin with our legs up to vertical. 90 degrees center the back of your head. Ask some support from your lats and shoulders and triceps on the mat and take a breath. So let's see the pelvis move first. Hell this. Then the spine follows that guide. There we go. And we're over the platforms of their shoulder blades. Okay, we warmed up with it. It's the zipper.

You're tracking down one side of the spine. Let's agree to roll down the left side of the spine burst. And I'd like you to breathe as you can, as you need to put your mind more on the side of the spine. Okay. And Go ahead. So we'll be able to, I'm going to look at your backs and really watch that. Here I go. Seeing you come down the left side of the back, and again, the legs aren't being allowed to drop or fold at the hip, and you circle the weight of across your pelvis and you roll up the right side of the spine. Once you get to the shoulder blade, things center back out.

You're now back into that even position. And here we go. Down the right side of the spine. All right, so those same muscles you accessed in the rotation from sitting, maybe they're involved a little bit more now from a different plane of gravity and up on the left and center. And here we go. And down the left steadying head, steadying the arms around and up the right [inaudible] stay right there. No linkedin your waist. Yeah. Can you feel that? Okay. And now down the right, I think we're on. That's better. Yeah.

Came from lowish. That's better a rib out to come down the left. Okay, great. Yeah, so I noticed just a little bit, maybe it's endurance or fatiguing a little bit. Are the legs dropping right now? That might be hip folding. So again, we want to keep, yeah. From without yet. That's it. All right. And here you go. Down the left. This might be something different for you to feel. Yeah. And the flexibility you have in your hips I think is probably what that could be about. And so it might feel more like that. [inaudible] [inaudible] did we complete them? [inaudible] this side is finished. You're on the center. Roll down the center. Okay. That's all right. Right, right, right.

Good. And eventually, you know, then, then we can s I, I liked it. The make the circles a little bit bigger with the legs, but not too w without that emphasis and fundamental with the spine first. Okay. Let's come off the back, flip over to your tummies and you can have heads facing into each other. You're probably going to be peeking at each other in just a second. I'm watching each other with something.

So some back extension to balance out all that bending forward of the back and the trunk. How about some fundamental with flight, so arms by your sides, palms face, up and along Lumbar, and here we go. That long slinky goes out through your head and toes. Tell me a suspended off the mat. The front ribs are almost also suspended. You've got a really good sense of control. Rib to hip. Lats are engaged. Let's do five or six, probably take an inhale to start and the exhale to lift and this the upper back.

Nice lift here. I'm going to have you at everybody. Pause on the inhale and use the exhale to come down and you're trying to grow longer with each lift and lowering [inaudible] and the exhale. Let me go this. A nice sense of space from ears to shoulders, pausing here, lateral breath and exhale, getting longer as you come down and enjoy this fundamental, you want to keep this sensation as we go in through the swan in just a moment. The chest is nicely lifted, your tummy is balled up and the exhale is lowering down. Two more to go.

[inaudible] yes. And the sits bones, uh, can come together slightly. The back of the legs should have some tone in there. Yeah. Good. And coming down nice and long. Let's make this our last one. Okay. So stay with it. I think maybe we all, you're fine. Michelle, come a little higher in your, in your chest lift. Okay, so a transition to get our hands in front of our shoulders.

Just bend your elbows. Your chest should be high enough that you can just easily bring your hands underneath and feel your elbows down, forearms down. All right, now let's use this. Come a little higher in your back extension and I really want you to, before you press all the way to full swan it. Yeah, really the back mid back. Here it is now another exhale and a little higher is your swan. If you can work to all the way straight elbows, that's fine.

We want to keep that rib hip connection there. A little more extension in your upper back. Bring this part of your slinky up. There it is. And let's all breathe. And a full breath to roll down slinky long cover, more surface area on your mat. Maybe you can think of it that way. Okay. How about four? More like that.

So it's a reach out any longer [inaudible] out of the chest, nice long neck. And the exhale even longer to come down covering more surface area on your mat. And again if you can, oh hi. Can you press up without straightening the elbows and then they straightened because you'll lift your slinky, you're tall, your ribs are in Nice long neck and we come down if you can. So all of us dancers that like to turn the legs out and again, you're merging out of the, the trunk.

Yeah. More surface area. Your chest, your sternum and less rest. I think that was the four. Okay. So uh, yeah, so I'd love to try you try your swan dive, but let's prepare for that. We haven't done enough to get the, the lower extremity to help. So maybe a few choices. You could leave your hands where they are or you could stack your hands here in front and just set your forehead down.

That might help you isolate your legs a little differently. Still work your shoulder area and your upper back, so I think legs together because in our swan dive we really do want to have the the legs together if if possible in the lower back, so on an exhale without losing your abdominal contraction. Let's lift the legs, the thighs, so your hamstrings very much pressing to the ceiling. [inaudible] trying to do that without a whole lot of shortening in your lower back. We know there's going to be some no. As you lower your legs, they're going longer behind you. Let's inhale, get ready for it and exhale and the legs press up. Just think about the the, I'm going to have you hang out there for a minute.

Back to your triangle. Can you put more weight on the pubic bone part of the triangle? Yeah, keep trying to strengthen that angle of it. All right. Inhale as you lower the legs back and again, exhale. Here we go. Lifting the thighs, wait on the lower pubic bone and inhale lower. Take three more and just check in. Are Your, is your neck a little too involved?

Perhaps you can let your head relax and lower and the thighs, good control of your triangles, you guys and your lower back. It's exceptional. It helps to put more weight than people think. Yeah, we'll see an a, you know. Right. Go One more time guys, just to prep. And you know, we're very much the same in our mobility. They're kind of hyper, but we, and that's okay because we need it for some things, but we want to strengthen the control around it. Sometimes more than, you know, just defaulting into what's natural. Alright.

And then come all the way out of that. So Swan dive, I think this morning, this one dive angle of the arms, although the picture of Joseph Peloton in some of his pictures, his arms, his arms are out to the side. And we've done that in class before. Um, let's not, you might hit each other. So this morning, if it feels okay for you and you want to do your swan dive, you don't have to, uh, to take the arms up and framing the head. All right. So does it feel like some of you need to move away from each other? Maybe these two front so you don't hit each other in the face. Okay, so the relationship of your back body, your head, your upper back, your mid back, lower back, butt, hamstrings, calves and feet all going on in the sexercise. There's a lower half rocking in an upper half. All right, we know that one.

So let's take a breath. You can use a full breath if you'd like to come all the way up. Get a long slinky your all the way up in your swan. Go with six of the rocking. If you're going to do full rocking, breathe in first and let go. It's your legs and your back and your legs and your back and your legs and, and legs lift there and all the way down. Morass. Yes. Okay.

And find a little rest pose or cat stretch. Yeah, open up the lower back. Nicely done. Nicely done. Okay, so we're going to go back on the back so you can transition yourself. Come up to sitting facing each other and then do a nice easy rolled down to get down and some jack knife. No, Jack Knife.

Yeah, no. Going back over this edge again. Talking the same, the same principle of the pelvis. I'm going to have everybody again, start with both legs to vertical and if you can, if you can endure hanging out right here while I tell you what I will do and you don't have to, you can bend your knees if you want to. I realize that's kind of a lot to ask. Oh, all right, so we're, where we'll head is we'll go into the overhead or the rollover position and I'll see if I can not give it a little show there. Where I want us to just kind of practice is, all right, I'm looking at the pelvis, looking at the triangle. I'm wanting to think. Amy, lift your triangle up, lift your pelvis up and I'm not so focused on my legs, although they're going to help me. I want to strengthen that. That zone right there, so triangle, pelvis and then you can hit fold. We'll play with that a couple of times and pelvis, if I use my hands, of course that's a little more helpful and I like to think of my hands helping lift my pelvis filled his pelvis.

My legs are kind of following what I'm asking of and then back over. Okay, now can I try something and see if you could tell the difference? Cause I'm, if I hit fold, look how easy that is for me. And I didn't use any really of my, my tummy strength here. But if I don't hit fold, it's a lot more governed from my abdominals. Let's try it that way. So even though I said go ahead and hit fooled, I don't want you to, okay. So it's just you're going to be lifting and lowering, lifting and lowering.

Ready? Hell, this lifts San, we're up on her shoulder blades. How about an inhaled and get ready for it and the exhale, it's the hill. This and then over legs over by contracting the lower belly, not hit folding and hell this, oh blah, blah blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You can go a little higher with your legs. To the ceiling that might come from the hamstring and over and again your hell this.

Feel free to use your hands if you need to support maybe at the lower back and over without hip folding, two or three more and lift, do it. Breath is feeling natural for you. You are all doing that. Taking care of yourself. Can I play with this for a second with you? I think you do have it. I know you do. There you go. And then as you flex over its systemic. That flexes the spine of flexes.

There you go. Let's take one more with this and pelvis, his pelvis, pelvis like a telescope up there that Q worked for you and then over. How about rolling down any way that feels good for your back and your belly, your arms and your neck. Good and that height again, we would like to look out when we do our control balance with the one leg up in the air. We'll get back to that in a moment perhaps, but let's flip back over into our stomachs and mentally prepare for swimming. Again, we're working a lot of the front of the back and the front and the back so you can feel. So swimming again, have enough arm room in front of you.

And I liked the slow motion. Get ready for swimming just as much as the faster swimming. And there's a lot to take into consideration with the slow work. And before you start your alarms or front legs or back triangles, a controlled and steady and your slinky is very long. So you're going to work length but also height of your limbs with trunk control.

So let's breathe in to get ready and I want you to lift your right arm and your left leg and your head in your chest. And we're looking for heights. So we, you know, we want to work the back of the body back muscles but hamstring again. But again, feeling your triangle with the weight near the pubic bone, a little bit more and controlled right and left so you're not tilting the other hand that's on the mat. You can use it, press down a little bit. That may help your back come up. All right. And then lower that side and now we go with the left arm, the right leg they had in the chest.

Yeah. Well how do I strengthen the hamstrings? Connection with the back muscles along, neck along slinky, bottom hand, compress down a bit and let's lower things down and again, right arm and left leg and I have the advantage of seeing you all. You can't see yourself in a profile. We're looking for the arm and the leg to be at the same height so I might need to queue a little bit, but we're pretty close skies and then lowered down and left arm, right thigh. I ducked a little bit. There you go. Arm, upper, back and lower. Let's take one more each side slowly again, you will. Really, really nice. A awareness of limb height, length, weight on your pubic bone. No control of that triangle. Everyone think about the hold on. [inaudible] thank you.

Bring that that side up. We all need to think about our inner thighs a little bit. Can the up leg pulled to the other one a little bit. There's our line. Okay, and come down. It might be because we're getting tired and then other side. So it's the right leg, left arm. So can the right inner thigh talk to the other one a little bit more.

There we go. That that's it. And interesting. That changes the height the bit. I didn't want to go as high. We may need to do one more slow one each side. I think. Should we, here we go. Not Too much time to think about it. That's better. That's better details. Subtle but important there guys. Okay. And lower last one, slow.

I'll let you take a couple of breaths before we go with the faster swimming. Yeah. So you see how you pulled your to your center, to your slinky, to your spine, internal and lower things down. Just take a little mental break. Physical break. So when we do the faster swimming, I think the breadth that I'd like to work with is the paddle paddle, paddle, paddle. There isn't really a organic rhythm in that. And we do want height as well as length. Okay. And here's the deal. We'll do as one pattern.

There'll be 10 of those and they'll be kind of quick. I think we're ready. Go ahead. Arms and legs up, head and chest up or else we'll never get it done in her thighs and go do three and lift and long and lift down long. And there we go. And eight, nine and last one and bring it down and rest. Beautiful. Okay, come on. Yeah, I think so. Give yourself a clap. Maintain the height of limbs and the work of extension in the upper back.

All right, so instead of going back into trunk Flint forward flection, let's do some side work and work a little of the image of our spine and our slinky going to this side. And I'd like to do the mermaid, a little bit of a mermaid so you can face the front if you'd like to see it. A little different organization on your mat and feet to your right. I guess I should, although I know you all your knees are okay with this. An alternative could have been, you know, just a general Indian style or cross-legged position. But okay, so here we are. Your hand is on the ankle. Now let's just do this for a sec, just to kind of squat down and we've compressed, we're kind of that, you know, that little close, slinky, no, no real energy and resilience in it. So if we took it and extended it and lifted it up tall, we can get that going in our center spine and muscles. All right.

And now you can use that bottom hand and pull a little bit and that might help you get even taller. That pull and the lift, uh, although sometimes pops those ribs forward and opens this up, which makes the back shorten and close. So keep the concentration of support here and a long middle spine and then taking your left arm up and again in reach as much as possible with that side. And Go ahead and experiment with allowing your shoulder to go up. Allow it to go up. You'd give it permission. Does it feel like you can get more stretch on that lat on that side?

So the muscles now were longer. Now maybe we can keep the muscle length, but drop the bone there. All right. And take a full breath. I want us to bend down to the right to your legs, but it's a very, very, very strong side bend rather than a collapsed side bend. Yeah. And breathe into it. Really opening the side of your back. We really got internal, it would be decided the spine, those, those openings of the slinky edge are really getting broad.

Here we go. So yeah, a lot of activity in those obliques. Again, contraction, one side, elongation on the other. And then everyone come up to upright and just lower that arm springing all the way down. I'm going to have us do two more times and breathe arm coming up. So again, ask the shoulder to come up. Just allow it. There you go. You got a lot more length. Now drop the bone shoulder bone and then take the stretch.

Oh, where you're going? Up and over. Up and over. Really opening or yawning that side of the back. And let's restore vertical. Nice, tall, slinky. Lower the left arm. And one more time on this side and up and over. Hmm. You were closer this way. Yeah. Nice.

Long neck. Great. So you know in the bigger side, Ben, right there, the shoulder blade somewhat lifted, isn't it? It's not going to hurt you. It's kind of Nice to stretch it. Now, if we were to do weight bearing, we'd want them to pull it down, but right now we're not. Okay, come all the way up. Let's just do that on the other side the three times. Great. I have a feeling tomorrow's sore muscles or Mondays, sore muscles. Gosh.

Might be right in here. Huh? From today's work. I'll know that's not true. They'll probably be in the back dude. Alright, so hands on the foot, and again, not we won't squat, but lift yourself. Nice tall support in the ribs. Arm can reach up and let's go ahead and allow the shoulder blade, give it permission, see how it feels to get longer on that side with the allowance of the bone to go. If you can keep the muscle length there, but then drop that bone. Some of us have more drop than others and we'll go to the side who we continue to breathe with this control in the rib cage so that the back stays open. Less compression [inaudible] on that side.

You can visualize your slinky well open on that. I matched your spine. Explore going a little farther in all directions up and over. Ah, back to the lateral breath and that helps you and come all the way back up. Lower the arm and two more and a reach can pull a little with the downward arm. Maybe that helps you pull up and over somewhat concentrating maybe in the lateral breathing on this side.

[inaudible] do two more breaths with that and all the way up and arm can come down last time. [inaudible] this is our tallest one, the most resilient one and over muscles down low in the triangle. Still working too. [inaudible] one more big breath and let's come all the way up. Yeah, in rest. Okay. To finish things for today. Can we come into a crouched position? We can still face each other.

[inaudible] just give your underneath and underneath the toes a little bit of a stretch and we'll do a nice slow roll up to standing. So then it start that with a long leg position. So your pelvis will come up. Drop the head. Yeah, just take a moment to be real centered on the feet. We want to be up above the arches. All right.

Now as slow, I like 10 counts. Most of you know to take 10 full counts to roll up to standing. It gives your time. You're a spine and a body of time to unwind. All right, so your head will be number 10. Breathe as you need to. Let's begin and one it's a building block.

Project Pelvis is the base of the project. [inaudible] in each vertebrae. Vertebra for timbral bone is a building block being put one right on top of the other or one of the teeth in the slinky [inaudible] so there's a lift and then a bone and the abdominal lift. I forgot to count [inaudible] bone. I'm mesmerized with the roll ups. That's okay. We'll say nine and 10.

Voila. Thank you guys. Thanks for classics for coming.

Comments

1 person likes this.
I feel like a explorer finding an undiscovered gem! This class was wonderful!! The connection to my lower abdominal is on fire which was precisely what I needed. Thank You Amy!
1 person likes this.
Julianne....! You found one of my first classes here on the site, wow, this goes way back! Thank you for your supportive and honest feedback!
1 person likes this.
Hello Amy! Thank you very much for this wonderful class! The images of the spine as a spring and the triangle to connect with our lower abdominal is simply fantastic and amazing. I will use them in my classes. Thanks a lot :)
1 person likes this.
Hello Fredericio! Thank you so much for commenting on what you liked and what worked for you in this class. You know what....this was one of my very first classes, if not THE first class I filmed for PA back in 2009!!! I hope the images offered here help inspire your students in your classes!
1 person likes this.
I liked your cuing a lot Amy, thank you for this class!🌷
1 person likes this.
Thank you Paulinka !
1 person likes this.
Thank you
I like some variations .
In bridge roll down on one side then. The other side .
The combo of 100:single leg strech and double leg strech I’ll be teaching that :)
Glad you enjoyed this Anett!
1 person likes this.
Such a wonderful, wonderful class! You are such a great teacher Amy! Thank you!! 
Katie W , thank you so much!  This was one of my very first classes I filmed for PA, many many years ago!!!

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