Class #955

Basic Magic Circle Mat

45 min - Class
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Monica teaches a Basic Mat class that includes a lot of great leg work. Grab the magic circle and enjoy!
What You'll Need: Mat, Magic Circle

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Okay. So we're going to do about basic Matt and then we're going to do a lot of good leg work. So let's go ahead and, um, let's just bring your, put your hands down by your side and take a big breath and exhale and just kind of let your back sink into the mat. Especially everything from the bottom of your shoulder blades are for you, for your bra strap to like your hipbones right here. Just feel your waistband really pressed down and your bra strap really pressed down into the mat. Good. Your waistband looks great. I'm gonna help you stretch your upper back a little bit.

Put your hands on top of your Yup. And then lady your fingers down. Good. And then take a big breath. Good. And then exhale, sinking your ribs as much as you can. Just letting your chest bone see good and big breath. And we're going to probably work on posture, right? So exhaling all the way down, letting it sink. Good. And we're in as a few more times.

So one of the things that seems kind of counterintuitive and exhaling when we work on posture is that I want you to sink really low and then you feel like you're kind of rounding forward and exhale. But you can run into a lot of problems if the vertebra from right through this area on your back are not straight and flat. So you can feel how they kind of rise up right now. And now when you exhale, you can really press them down and they're straight. And when they're straight, then you aren't pinching any nerves in between. But when they rise up, they kind of squish that area between them. And that's when we can run into trouble and exhale. So on a simple note, when we try to fix our posture, sometimes we just throw back our shoulders, but that area is really pulled forward.

And then you go to do a motion or a movement with force and you can really get yourself and then cat get some problems later on. So you want to be really secure on the mat here on where your bra strap is. So we'll work a lot on that. And then once you have that, then you can start really opening the shoulders. Then you can start really pulling back the neck and making a big difference there. So very nice. We're gonna rest your arms down by your side and I feel like you have a really good stomach and we are waistbands on the mat. Do you feel that?

And I want you to try to use your stomach to bring one knee into your chest and give it a hug and you can rest your head down good and being nice right now. And then put your foot down and then use your stomach. Great. Good. Which I mean, just don't let it push out what you didn't and then go ahead and put it down and your right knee. Good. And Go ahead and straighten your leg up to the ceiling and turn it out a little and let's put your hands right there and stretch it towards you. That's a good stretch for you. Yeah, good.

And even when you're doing something like this, try to sink your waistband down and try to relax your chest down to which then your back can get a stretch with it also, instead of just the leg and bend the knee and put it back down, and then your left leg and then straighten it. Now let's start that again. Let's bend it first. Good. And now I'll straighten it and turn it out a little bit. Good. Because that makes your hips go square. And now I want you to draw up your ribs. That's it. [inaudible] how's that? Feel? Good. Good.

And then you're going to bend your knee in. Good. And then put it down. So one of the biggest things, there's a couple of things that we're going to learn today about legs, is you want to make sure that the legs a little turned out because our quad is always going to work. It's super dominant, like our survivor muscle group. And it'll do all the work for you all the time, but you want all the rest of the muscles in the thigh to really help develop. And that's what creates beautiful long legs. So we want to figure out how do we get those other ones to work.

So you want to use your stomach to bring the right knee into your chest. Good. And then like I showed you, if I turn in your knee, even if it's straight up street here, it feels a lot different. First of all, the stretch, but also it makes the hips uneven. And if I roll it in, it's even worse. It really hikes up. Okay? So we're going to want to make it not just pointing straight up, but actually a little turned out so they stay straight across. And that's hard because it's going to be calling on other muscles to work. So keeping the leg like that and your hips square and you can feel both cheeks are on the map, right?

I want you to keep both cheeks there by using your stomach. And I want you to try to imagine that your thigh bone is reaching out of the hip socket to the ceiling. Like you're really reaching it. That's awesome. Good. So now those muscles are engaged. Yeah, it's working. And now I want you to keep reaching it out, but we're going to reach that ways. We're going to keep our back flat and how low can we take that leg as we reach it out? Nice and going down. And then we're gonna from here.

Pull it right back up, keeping it nice and turned out and to reach long and out. That's really good. And pulling it up. Yeah. One more. Reaching it out long and pulling it up and in bend the knee and bring it in. Good. Did it cramp up on you? We're going to bring in the left, so you're going to hug it in. Good. And you want to kind of give it a little test run again.

So you're going to straighten that leg. And if we turn have it facing you directly, what does that feel like in the stretch and how does the hips feel? And if you turn it in can, you can always kind of want to have an idea of, well what is it? What am I not supposed to do? And so if we turn it out, you'll feel dick significant different stretch. And we're going to keep your waistband down and keeping your hips where they are and reach the thigh bone out of the hip socket and you're going to reach it down. Good. And you're gonna reach out to that hip, uh, two more. And that also will give you a little bit lighter of a leg feeling, I hope, and one more. And pulling it up. Good.

And then hug that knee into your chest. Nice. And now we're going to bring the right knee in. Good. And we're going to bring the left knee and also God. And I want you to take a breath and exhale. Bring up your head by pressing your bra strap down and lengthen your arms by your side. And now just start pumping your arms up and down. Good. Big Breath.

Big exhale. Scooping it in. Good. And inhaling. So these bones, I wanted to be down on the mat, so Aha. And concentrate more on pressing that Bra. Strap down the neck. Feel okay, good and exhaling. Nice. And now I'm gonna pull those thigh bones out of the hip sockets as you turn the legs out and pull the belly in. Nice. That's really good. So you want to feel them kind of reaching out and that makes the back of your legs work a little bit more in your seat and you're just going to keep scooping in your stomach. Nice. You really doing good with these bones.

And we're going to do two more scoop, scoop, scoop God, and exhale, pulling in and in and hug your knees into your chest. Nice job. Good. We're going to sit up and bend the knees and feet flat. Great. And I want you to go ahead and squeeze your legs together and look at your belly and round your back. Good. Can you round this part of your back? That's the tough part. Good.

So we're going to try to ro roll away from your legs, this bone down, and then this bone. So you're going to pull in very good and hold it there. Take a breath and exhale. Hug your belly in as you come forward. Cut Job. Take a breath and exhale. And you're going to go down this bone and this one, let's go all the way to your bra strap. Take a breath, exhale, keep your waistband down as you curl up. Exhale, exhale, and then it can come for that was wonderful. And again, same thing that does a ton for your posture because you're getting one bone down the next bone. Nice. And then coming forward. Good. Now we're going to go all the way down into the head cause you're doing so great. So you're going to squeeze your seat, pull back your waistband first, good, then your bra strap, and then roll through each bone.

And then inhale, head up and press your bra strap down. And then your waistband as you exhale. Good. Very strong. And take a breath and exhale, pooling in. Start from there. Great. So that you really articulate. Yes. Good. So I want to see the same all the way up. Inhale, head up.

You can grab underneath your thighs and exhale, curl up this bone. Then that one, that was excellent. Good. Go ahead and strain your legs and reach for your ankles. And now we're going to the same thing but with straight legs. So that's a nice stretch. You want to hang out there for a little while.

And now we're gonna squeeze your seat and kind of curl your tailbone under you as you start rolling back your waistband pulling back. Good. So we're still gonna get this bone first and this one and this one. Good. Keep rolling all the way down until your head goes down. And then inhale, lift your head up, looking at your belly and exhaling. Good. You can use your hands if you needed a curl all the way up. Great job. And again, squeezing your seat, curl your tailbone so your lower belly can really feel it.

And you're going to reread those legs away from the hip sockets. That's it. And one more. Up and down in with the air. Exhaling, lifting one at a time. Beautiful curve. This lower back curve is wonderful for you and rolling back, pulling back here cause it's kind of the opposite of what you do during work and rolling backwards. A lot of us do and all the way down. Great. Okay, so rest there. You get a little breather. We're going to bend your knees and now we're going to do single leg circles.

So you're gonna keep your box perfectly square. But again, the bra strap wants to feel like it's pressing down nice. And your navel, your waistband pressing down too. We're going to pull in and bring this right knee in. Hug it good and straighten it little bit lower so that we can lengthen that hip and turn it out a little bit and then stretch it towards us. Good. So now I want you to put a hand on this hip bone and a hand on that hip bone. There you go. And we're going to draw a circle. But we had that great job.

You did such a good job of pulling that Phi add of the hip socket earlier, reaching for the ceiling. You're going to come up towards your nose, cross towards your left shoulder, reach that thigh long out of that hip as you go down a little bit and use your belly to help pull it up and then do it one more time. Slow Cross. But then you want to get a good tempo. So we'll do three quick and then I'll let you do the five verse on your own. So it's cross around, lift, cross around, up, cross around up. Now go for the reverse. Five Times on your own. Good. Down around, up, trying to turn out that knee while you're working. Yes.

Good and too super important. One more and hugging that knee. Good, good. And we're going to switch to you and put the right foot down. Good right knee and love it. Very good. When you straighten extended a little lower, that's it. Go ahead.

So now we're gonna Cross reach up there. He good. It's almost like a pencil drawing a circle on the ceiling and you're going to cross to that shoulder down. You want to feel like you're creating space here and then you pull up, cross around and up, three around and great. Get the shoulder. That's almost the most important. Try to kick me over here. [inaudible] and then you're going to reverse, so down.

And then this is a really worn stretch, so I'll give you something to amen. Go ahead. Try to come over to me and three, that's it. Good. Two more and very good. Keeping that leg turned out and hugging that knee. God. All right, so we're not going to do rolling like a ball, but I want to do a balance because I'm wanting to get your lower back really opened up. So try to press your bra strap down as you lift your head up, and then press your waistband down as you curl up and grab. Put your hands underneath. Very solid. Good hands underneath your knees. Good. And now the goal is to have your pelvis like this, but your shoulders using your upper stomach curl all the way over these hip bones. Good. That's it. Now I want you to really pull into here and see if you can balance with your right foot just a little bit and light as a feather up off the mat. Good.

See if you can add your left and then we're going to put them down so you see how your lower back wants to work and push forward. So let's try it again. We're gonna Scoop in and maybe come back just a teeny bit there. And now try bringing up your right and now say good. Hold it for five, four, three, two, and put it down. Really Nice. It's really good for you to develop that. Good strength.

Do it one more time, but this time we'll start with the left foot. So scooping and we're gonna pull up this, that one. Good. And now. Nice. Excellent. And then putting it down. Very good. You're gonna leave those there and you're gonna roll down one bone at a time. Good job. Nice. Alright. How you doing? Good. Good. All right.

So we've got your waistband solid down on the mat and the Bra Strap. So we're going to do single leg stretch and double leg stretch. We might do a few marbles seat. So we're going to, um, to bring in a knee. You always want to use your stomach. What I want you to feel right now, bring your knees in a little bit more, is the difference between an arch back and a flat back. So go ahead and tilt your pelvis towards you. Good.

And this generally you're using a lot of hip flexors to do it. Ideally we're using our stomach and our glutes, but that's a whole different training. But you can feel how your lower backs were really, really flat. Right now I want you to tell your pelvis that way and you can really feel how your lower back. So as we do more reps in your stomach exercises, your backs gonna want to do this cause it's gonna want to try to help and you want to always overpower it with your stomach. So try to pull your belly in and go back to a tilted towards you and see if you can do that just with your stomach instead of, you didn't really, you're not.

These aren't on, but I don't know what you feel. Now they're on very, very good. You can feel that difference where your stomach's holding your back flat. So every time you bring in a leg, you want to do it like this. You want to make sure you're not going letting the little mouse crawl into your back. All right. So the um, we're going to bring the right knee into your chest. Good.

And we're going to put the right hand on your ankle and the left hand on your knee. So we do that to keep this beautiful box cause your arms should be equally strong. And if they're pulling against each other, the ankle stays in line with your knee instead in line with your shoulder. But if you switch hands, it pull it out and then it pulls on the hip joint, the knee joint and everything can be in as well if you're totally healthy and no, not a single joint problems, not that crucial, but it can cause problems later. So you're going to try to do this, which is the outside arm goes to your ankle and the one that's going to cross over your body goes to the knee. So we're gonna put this foot down. We're going to try to bring this knee in with our belly, pulling it in, and we're going to put the one that crosses and this one good. Drop that shoulder. Yeah, that's a nice frame.

Put this foot down and scooping in. We're going to bring nice job. Good. And so if you mess up the hands, it's not a big deal. It just giving you an idea and bring this foot down. And then pulling in, the most important thing is that you feel your stomach helped bring that leg in and not just your quad bringing it in, cause you could do that all day long and it won't give you the effects that you want. It'll just make your quads stocky and nothing for your waistline or you know, so no fun. No. If we're going to work, let's work. Great. Okay, so now I want you to press your bra strap down to lift your head up. Good. So you feel how your upper body has the shoulder blades down and the bra strap down, but pretty good rounded up here.

The goal is to keep that and not move at all. Okay. We're going to now extend this leg reaching it turned out and that five bone out of that socket. And we're going to switch pulling in your belly switch legs. Yep. Good. Let's switch ham. There Ya go. And pull in your belly and switch. Awesome. And pull in and switch. Good. And pulling it and switch.

Nice and switch. Good and switch. And one more. Good. And bend both knees in and rest. So that was really good. But I want you to get more out of it. So when we women love to hyperextend, that's what we do. So we hyper extend our elbows. Um, some people can are really flexible in their shoulders and our knees, but every time we hyper extend our knees or elbows, we don't get to work the areas we want to work. We work hard.

That joint harder but not the muscles. We won't get beautiful arms and we don't get the right leg definition that we want. So when you extend the leg, so we're going to bring this leg in, you can lower your head cause I don't want you to get tired when we end up switching. So when it goes out, you want to not, it's um, you don't want to straighten the knee. It's kind of a whole different way of thinking of it. You want to squeeze your seat and lengthen that leg rather than just straightening the knee so you don't wanna feel that knee joint even lock at all. You almost want, imagine if you were on a reformer using your muscles to lengthen out that machine and then pull in. Does that make sense?

So we're going to try to get that out of your work right now. So go ahead and lift your head up again. Good. I want to see this beautiful scoop and we're going to bring this knee in. Great job with those arms. So we're going to bring this one in a little bit and now think about lengthening it by turning it out in squeeze. That's awesome. And we're going to switch, always going to use your stomach, but we're going to uh Huh.

We're going to pull in with the belly. Perfect. And that's great. And we're going to lengthen out in squeeze. And you want to have a goal of going right down your body right down the middle. So there's a straight line from your nose to your navel to your heel. And very good. This is important here.

And come down just a teen Aha. And schoolies at leg. Yep. And good. One more. And bring both knees into your chest and rest your head. Great. Good. So here comes a love hate relationship with the magic circle. So we're going to rest your feet down so this'll help you feel those muscles.

So now, um, we're going to uh, bring your knees back into your chest and put it between your ankles. God. Alright. And we're gonna stay right there. I'm going to come up here and you can keep your head down for a little bit. No problems at comfy. Okay. So I want you to open your knees just a little bit wider. Good.

So they're a little wider than your feet. And I want you to already almost squeeze your bottom and your pelvis and your inner thighs and outer thighs and you're going to pull your belly in and up into the mat and up as you squeeze that circle straight and try to keep it tight as you pull it back in. Always most important thing is your back goes flat into the mat and you lengthen away from it. And you pull in good correction with the fee. And one more pull in your belly button. That's it. And in good. So that's what your legs are going to do. Okay. I want you to just rest here.

Is that all right? Okay. How are you doing? Good. And now I want you to put your, um, you don't, I want you to put your hands one over the other, behind your head. Good. And I want you to lift your head up as you inhale, but then exhale, pull your ribs in more, and press your bra strap up to curl. One more inch. Yep. Good. And then roll all the way down. Go ahead and inhale, lift up your head, and exhale, pull in. There we go. Good. And now roll down one bone at a time. That's nicer. One more time.

Inhaling up. Exhale, scoop in. Good hold. And I want you to roll down this bone and this bone and try not to let that Bra strap come up as you roll one bone at a time. That was pretty fantastic. Okay. So now we're going to come up and stay up and we're gonna learn her arms. So I want you to just come up and exhale prole in and perfect right there. I want you to stay right there, but reach your arms up to the ceiling. Good.

And now circle and back to your thighs. Basically. Good. Inhale, reach them up to your ears. That's right. And now exhale, scoop in more like you're pulling yourself through water. Inhale, reach by your ears. And now exhale like you're pulling yourself through water. Nice job. Give me one more. Inhale up and then exhale scooping in and up. Fantastic. Rest your head. So that was awesome because you didn't lie down every time your arms went up and then you come back up like you stayed perfectly stationary with your upper body. So now we have to combine those two. All right, so we're going to pull your stomach in and we're going to bring those knees in.

Good. And we're going to put your hands now on your ankles. They would just rest. They're good. And I want you to go ahead and try to squeeze the circle as we go out with it. Arms Up. Exhale, pull the knees in and enhance to the ankles. Great. Inhale, squeezing. Exhale, pulling and in the legs and go higher. Inhale here if that helps. Keep your back flat. Good.

And I'm going to let go. Inhale and exhale. When you inhale, the arms are going to go right here. And now exhale, scooping it all and good knees. A little more in, sorry. And exhale. Don't want to restrict your movement, but you don't want the knees over the hips. You want them in. There you go. One more. Inhale up. Good. And now exhale, scooping. Great. And rest down. Did you get any leg work out of that? Okay, good. Oh yeah. Great.

So we're going to sit up and we're going to put your heels wide one on each side, good nights, and flex your feet because you can do it. It's a huge posture. What I want you to sit up as if you're, um, stacking your spine, one on top of the other. That's right. Good. And you can just rest your hands here for now. Eventually they're going to be at shoulder height, but just there, so you're going to pull in, is it hurt or tighten your hip flexors at all or tight are. So soften your knees a little bit. Good. And see if that helps at all.

[inaudible] okay. And we're going to pull into my hand and I want you to imagine that the bones right here that you can try to pull into them, but stretch them apart a little bit between them. And then exhale, bring your head down to your chest and just walk your hands forward as you keep pulling into their good. That's wonderful. And now roll back up as you inhale, siting your shoulder blades down and then roll up through your neck and head. Great. So we're Prentice pretending you're against a solid wall and your spine stacks straight, straight, straight, really good.

Pulling in and after you've taken a breath, I want you to exhale and bring your head down to your chest and roll down another bone, another bone. Great. Good. And now just reach. So when we're going to sit up, you're going to pull back here and we're going to start with these bones. Pull them back a little bit more. Pull back your pelvis a little bit more. Good. Well, I'm forcing you to stay down. I mean, and we're gonna roll up. Now you've got your bra strap back. Let's take this bone up. And this one, keep pulling this [inaudible] in here and here and keep your head down and you're going to roll up this bone. [inaudible] yes, that was really good.

It's just thinking about those bones and breaking them apart and making them articulate more, which is very challenging. We're going to get one more time pulling in and exhale head good. And crawling your fingers forward. Good. Skeaping good. And is that a stretch at all in your hamstrings or anywhere? No.

You can go ahead and straighten your legs, flex your feet and grab the inside of your arches. How's that? Feel? Good. Good. And now leave them there and pull back in your belly and stack those bones up one at a time. These are starting to look really good. And now we're gonna really articulate through here. Good. Very nice. See if you can get any of these back before the back of the neck.

That was really good. Nice homework for you. Try not to think evil thoughts about me while you do it. Alright, now I want you to lie on the right that's at your right, your left side of your body. And you're gonna put your left elbow all the way back here, like on this back corner and Aha. And you get to be a beauty queen. And rest your head on there. Good Lon, pull your whole body all the way to this back edge here. Have all of it like four more inches back now, your ribs and your chest and just a few more inches back. Good.

Now this hand is going to be like a kickstand right there. Great. And now I'm going to have you bring your feet forward to hear both of them. Good. Alright, so now this is more challenging because we have our, um, we're gonna do let stuff on our side. So it same thing that we're trying to keep this box, even though it doesn't feel like your shoulders are square. And how about your hips?

Do they feel like they're stacked one on top of the other? Yeah. Feel pretty good. Good. And I want your belly to always be supporting that lower back. That is great. So we're going to end up wanting to work posture on this too. So you're always going to want to pull into your lower back and have that nice and straight. And then you don't want to event, we're in the beginning.

We're going to look at our feet, but then you want to pull up your head and neck and look straight ahead so that you're working on opening all of that. And your hand could almost pull on your neck a little bit and length and away from your leg that's reaching out of the hip socket. So you'll want to add that concept too. Very good. So I'm gonna pull out your favorite guy and we're going to put it between your ankles. Good. It's really, really good help. Um, to start off your legwork. So you want to make sure that the pads are one on top of the other, meaning one's not behind because their muscles are stronger that way or this way. Okay? And that they also, one's not like slipping more towards you or, or away from you stacking one over the other. Good.

And now you want to imagine, um, I always like to use the image of a barbershop pole of the red and white stripes going around. So from this bone, I want you to imagine the muscles in your thigh just twirling, twirling, all this way so that your knees gonna rotate. There you go towards the ceiling and so is your toe. So everything's kind of twirling outside. Does that makes sense? Good. So now we're gonna for five counts. We're gonna squeeze. I want you to first always pull in your belly and then I want you to try to squeeze down for five, four, three, two, one and release. Even give it less effort and you'll feel better.

So you're going to pull in and we're going to just use these muscles as we press down and hold two, three, four, five. I like it. And one more scooping in. You're going to pull down and squeeze. Great job. Three, four, five, release. Nice. How are you doing? Good. Good. Now we're going to slip both legs inside the circle. So we're going to do that. Good, good. And same thing.

This leg is also twirling and it's pressing into the mat. And this likes trolling. So now we're going to really feel our outer thighs. So with instead of squeezing it, you're going to first pull in and then you're going to try to push up onto my hand. Two, three, four, five and release. Awesome job. Let me see a little more rotation. There we go. Pulling in and press two, three, four, five and release. How that feel and pulling in, and two, three, four, five and release. Great jobs. Now we're going to put it. The great thing is at least you don't do many reps, right?

You work really hard for those few. Okay, so now we're gonna do a little combo. So want this hip, the bottom one back. Jassen inch. Great job. Okay, so both legs are turning out. We're going to pull your belly in one, both like squeezed together for two and then see if he can lift that circle up a little bit off the mat and down. Nice job. So scoop in one first. Squeeze like crazy too. And then try to lift up a little bit. Nice and down. One more time. Scoop, squeeze and then look left and down.

All right, so now I'm going to take away the circle and we're going to do our legs series, which that was kind of more awaking up the, that's definitely a hole magic circle mat leg series. But I'm using it today to really wake up your muscles so that when you do these hip, okay, when it goes back and forth to do your sidekicks, we're going to lift it up just a little bit. Reach always at thighs, always as if it's longer than the bottom line. Okay? So we got long, long, lean legs and you're gonna keep it at this height and sweep it forward to kick your nose. Good. But we're not gonna let it drop so it has to stay up here and knee to the ceiling. There. And now we're going to reach longer than the bottom leg and we're going to keep, hold it right here. And I want you to pull in and keep this hip over this hip and the shoulder over that shoulder and see if you can engage your hamstring and seat to go back with that leg. Good. I'm going to do four more.

Sweep forward knee. There you go. And back. There's another one where you don't want to go slow with the leg and forward. I'm going to watch your box here. Forward and hamstring and glute. Good. Watch that knee forward. Two and long leg and one more and long back and legs together.

Really good. Yeah. Good. And now we're gonna go up. It's gonna go up to your ear and then down. It's going to really come up to here, but you imagine it's going up to your ears. So stomach and same thing. But you know how when you had a separate that circle, that's the muscle you're gonna use. You're gonna use this outer thigh to push up and then you're going to squeeze that circle down like as if it was right here.

You're gonna squeeze all the way down. So, um, yeah, you're right and up. And then squeeze. Two, three. Good. Now I want more scoop and up. And I love to like open up my chest length and my neck. Yeah, and too, and you're supposed to on all of them, but this one you really, really feel it. And one more time up and then squeezing down and you're gonna pull on it.

Even in your, yeah. Nice. And then stay here and you're going to circle it one to always as if it's longer than your bottom leg. And now reverse what to use your seat as it goes back. Nice and rest. Very good. Now I want you to lie down on your stomach. Good.

And you're going to make a small pillow for your forehead, nice and relaxed. And then take this away. Like relax your chest into it. Ah, there you go. And then your legs are nice and center. Okay. I'm going to give you a magic circle because I love you so much on for the, so we're going to separate your feet and we're again, she's resistant. Let me get this one on here. Good. And you're going to try to straighten your knees and lengthen your legs out.

Turn them out a little bit. Careful with your lower back. Hold your belly and now try to lift your thighs up just a teeny bit and pump the circle 20 times. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Good. Nine, 10 more. You don't have to go up and down, but just in and out. Two. There you go. Four, five, six, seven, eight. Good. Nine, 10 and relax. Good. Round your back and sit on your heels. But that's awesome. When you have a magic circle is in Ra, walk your hands away from your legs so you can get a nice stretch is it also shows if one leg is stronger than the other, so then it'll look like you're driving your magic circle, like a steering wheel. And then that makes you balance yourself out so you get a lot stronger.

All right. Go ahead and kind of kneel up and I want you to lie down your right elbow here and your legs down that way. So you're going to be on your right side facing that way. There you go. Uh, nope. Roll. Come and fit. Turn your body though, right elbow all the way back to this edge. That's it. Perfect. Even back a tiny bit more.

That's a hard stretch for when you're working on your posture to bring ideally the elbows all the way on that back corner. But so is the rest of your body. But you feel like you're gonna fall off, right? So put it where it's comfortable and then you know where you're, we're gonna work towards and then bring these back just a tiny bit more. Excellent. Okay. And now we're going to put, sorry honey, did I? Totally. Just, so this is your kickstand. And when you're super advanced, you're going gonna end up putting it behind your hand. It had a new do it like that cause you're just solid and you're holding yourself from here. So we're going to imagine that barbershop pole turning out.

How does this like feel it getting tight or does it feel okay? All right, good. Really good turnout. Good. And we're going to just pull in and try to press down for one, two, three, four, five, release. Nice. And pulling in and squeeze. Two, three, four, five, release. Good. And pulling in and squeeze and release.

Excellent. So now we're going to put both inside. Good. That's it. So again, this leg is working to push down and now we're going to really use that outer thigh to pull stretch to three, four, five and release and pulling in two, three, four, five. And one more time. Always supporting that. Lower back. Good and release. Nice. And now you're going to lengthen both legs. Good. And both of them are going to be on the outside.

Fabulous turn long. Good, good, good, good. So now we're going to do three things. Stomach pulls in, one squeeze together too. And now try to lift them a little bit and damn. Good. And stomach one, squeezing two, lifting three. Good job. Rest. One more time. Skip one.

Squeeze to lift. Three. Awesome. And rest. Very, very good. Circle goes away for good and we're going to turn that leg out and that's good. Now I like that. That released and we're going to try to keep it like this. And how forward can we bring it where it sweep it forward. No drop. That's it. And then we're going to reach it back. Working now from here.

Good and forward. I'm going to hold it. You're going to reach out. You're going to turn up. Yes. And take it forward like that. That's it. Janell. Awesome. And back. Good. So this hand wants to be more here. There you go. Yes. And back and to forward and back and make sure that needs slightly turned up as you go forward. Good and down. Very good.

Now we're going to turn it out and we're going to try to kick it up to our ear using that outer thigh again. So push up. Nice and squeeze down inner thigh. Good. And up and belly goes in and up in the opposite direction. Good and up. And you're going to even length that. Open up your chest and lengthen your neck. One more.

Up and down and squeezing. And five little circles. One, two, three, four, five, reversing it, turning it out. Good. When you go back, you want to feel your hamstring and glute to oops. And one more. There you go. Good. Why? On your back? I've got two more exercises for you. Bend your knees into your chest. This one is a lot of work, but should be a delicious stretch for you.

At least is a stretch for me when somebody does it for me. So you're gonna, um, put your feet on my thighs, straight legs. Go ahead and turn them out and do up a [inaudible] stance. Good. And now you're going to give me your hands. So I want you to take a breath and lift your head up and press your bra strap down. And I'm going to pull you up. Think of pressing your bra strap down, and we're gonna come up and you're going to press down your waistband. Good. And relax your shoulders down. Nice. Now here's more of the delicious part.

Take a breath and as you exhale, look at your belly button and pool into it as deep as you can and get your waistband all the way on the mats. You're going to pull me down with your powerhouse. Good. And then your shoulders stretch out every bone. The next bones, the next one, the next one until your neck and head go down. So you went down from the rib cage up a little bit to your left. So we'll just try to pull your ribs a little bit to your right. So big breath, lifting up your head and exhale, pulling them in and naval in.

That was very nice. Take a breath and exhale, pulling in your navel. Good. And keep rolling down. Go for it. Just stretching each bone. Nice. That was much more even. Keep thinking about it here to your right. That's it. One more. Inhale, lift your head up and exhale really scooping into your body. Good. Take a breath and exhale. Pull deep into your body.

Really present to each bone. As you roll down, you can pull me down harder. [inaudible] good, good and very even love it. Good, nice job. And hugging your knees. Good. Very good. And Go ahead and sit up and then we're going to bring your knees on a little closer to you and I want you to let your knees fall out to the side. Good. And I want you to pull back in your pelvis. We're going to tilt your pelvis towards you as if you're going to roll down your waistband onto the mat. Good.

And you know how we balanced earlier with your stomach in and not letting your back pop out. So I'm gonna, you're going to hands are going to end up being right on your ankles, but I'm going to help you lift. You're just going to keep your back. Keep your belly in. Aha. And I'll slip your hands under your ankles. Gut Great. Instead of souls together. Have them Kinda like that. Awesome. Good. And I want you to think of a rocking chair and imagine that this is a rocking chair and I want you to really focus on massaging your lower back.

So you're going to massage your lower back as you roll back. Yep. And then come right back up. That's all I want you to do, but right here, allow your feet to almost pull a little bit away so that you scoop in the opposite direction a little bit back. So it's this opposition of your stomach pulling in as your legs or feet are here looking down. So pull into your lower back and maybe she rolled down that first. Good and excellent. So on the way up, we're going to be thinking bra strap. So we're going to try to get our waistband down as we roll back waistband.

And then bra strap. Press it down. So it's an upper stomach crunch. So we're going to do two more lower stomach crunch. Upper, that's it. Hold one more. Nope, that was shoulders and head. You're going to roll down this and come up. Good up. I think you can end on a better note. Let's try that one more time. So you're gonna not have your pelvis tilted out.

You're going to pull it back towards you more. Good. And when you come up, you want to hold it like that. So you've got strong lower belly and hold. Hold. That's it. Rest your feet down. Awesome job. Nice work. Thank you.

Comments

Would love to see a whole class on magic circle mat leg work...these cues were really good and side legs is very hard to get for those of us practicing at home.
Excellent class! Would like to see more full body work utilizing the magic circle.
Monica Wilson
Thank you! We will be posting one very soon:)
Really great work - I loved the prep for single leg stretch (keeping the opposite foot on the floor first). That really helped me connect - I will be using that one :)
Hard to stretches without a partner
I am going to use this routine this morning in my mat class! I love your easy way of explaining the waist and "bra" strap area! Just wish I could say it like you do! Love all your classes! Thank you
Terrific demonstration of exercises and teaching technique !
The cue at the end for seal really helped me get a better stretch!

Great workout! I love all of Monica's classes! I can't wait to try the stretch at the end with a partner. I'm glad I'm not the only one with a love hate relationship with the magic circle!
Amazing. I learnt so much in that class. I found the first part the most challenging with the roll ups. I really don't seem to be able to get up with out both momentum and using my arms. Might take a few years! Thank you I will keep doing this class.
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