Class #1215

Strong and Long Mat

45 min - Class
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Kara Wily teaches a Mat workout that will make you feel strong and long. With her great cueing, Kara encourages you to reach out through your limbs as you flow through every exercise. She also adds a few fun surprises like Standing Side Kicks and more.
What You'll Need: Mat

About This Video

Sep 16, 2013
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We're going to do a nice strong mat class and I have a shea and Amy and they're going to be doing, uh, the demonstration. I might hop up on the mat from time to time, but I'm going to try to concentrate on them as well. And um, we'll just do a nice flow, nice movement, strong work. Um, they are both strong, uh, students and teachers. So we might uh, go ahead and throw in some extra little, um, more advanced things here and there. Uh, just to make things exciting. So I'm going to have you guys stand at the edge of the Mat and we'll cross one foot over the other, one arm over the other. You're going to draw your stomach muscles in and up. And then let's sit down with control. Keep lifting the belly as you sit.

Let's go ahead and lay back all the way on the mat. Stretch your bodies out nice and long. Good and arms by your sides and good. Let's just take a nice big breath into the body and out of the body. So I always start this way. Just kind of feel where your bones are in place cause you want to, you know, feel where things are tight, where things are, uh, gripped and taught and you know, you want to work on those areas as you start to move.

So let's go ahead and draw the legs together nice and strong. Let's pick up the arms and stretching arms overhead and take a good breath in. And you can stretch your arms all the way back and reach out from fingertip to toe tip. You can just lengthened out away. And on your next breath out, let's just drop those rib cages all the way down to the mat and get that connection back into the floor. Get a strong tummy. Let's squeeze the legs, lift the arms, lift the head, lift the legs and start your hundred. So we'll raise the legs. Good and begin to pump. Beautiful, nice deep breath in two, three, four, five and out. Two, three, four, five. Good. So one of the very tricky things is to have a nice broad chest and then a narrow, skinny, strong waist. Good for both of you. Ladies.

You can go ahead and stretch longer through those legs. Give me some length. Good. Asha is visiting us from afar way away. So she had a long plane ride. She has to stretch more three more times. Good you guys. Big Breath in. Two, three, four and out. Two, three, four, five, six and in two, three and out. Two, three, four. Get all the air out. You can pump it around. One more time in for two and now for two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Why not? And hold.

And then stretch the arms. Lower the legs, give yourself a nice stretch, reaching out. End to end for roll up. Let's inhale forward and the arms come up and come all the way forward to stretch. And then rolling back. Squeeze the legs together and send the tummy muscles in and pick up the arms and stretch. Good. So the arms are a part of the back once again. And begin to roll up. Bring your head forward and send the tummy in. Good. Ah, by the way, every jewel the way I would go get Amy toucher and then rolling back.

Good. You guys and stretch. Good. So both of you guys being pretty strong. Let's try it that way. Bring your arms up with your head and then roll up. Bingeing the bottom. That's it. That's okay. Squeeze those legs and good. That's okay. Good. And then rolling back.

Pinching the legs and scooping. Energize those arms. That's at last two times good too. For both. You ladies. Let me see. Energy in the arms. Action in the arms. One more time. And Energy. That's it. Beautiful. And reach. Good. Get me any good. And now rolling back. Get me still. Get me. Reach for me. Reach for me.

Reach for me. Get me, get me, get me and lengthen out. One more time. Good. And all the way up. Breath in. And I got better breath out. Good. Pause here. Both of you guys for one moment. Take a breath. Good to let the shoulders relax, Huh? Scoop the bellies in and up Maura and stretch your legs out away from you even.

So activate those legs reaching for me. There we go. Good. And on the way back. Keep reaching for me with your legs and your arms. Good. And Roll back for me and you can roll back to the [inaudible]. That's it. But touch me. Gimme gimme Asha, get me. Yeah, get me, that's it. Pinching your bottoms. Yeah. So everything is lengthening.

And then we'll take that to rest the arms and start your rollover. Beautiful. So using that length through the legs, let's lift the legs up to the sky and reach them all the way. Overhead one. Oh wait, come back. Come back, come back. Start again. Legs down. So you have that beautiful long arc, right? We did it in a hundred and I gave you a pool and then you did it in your roll up. So now stretch through the legs to lift him up that so much better.

To toss him overhead and open the legs apart and then roll down with control. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Begin again and legs together and take 'em overhead and open. 'Em Up and roll down. Good. Now you can see these nice too. Flexible bodies. They can lift those legs up pretty easily. But once again, legs together. Make sure it's your Powell, this that lifts up. Go ahead. Lift.

Yep. And over, right. So we're using the center and then again, reach from your pelvis, reached those feet to the back wall. Opposition, opposition. Let's go ahead and do the reverse. So the legs will stay apart to go over and scoop and bring the legs together. Good. So for me now Shay, now let's keep the legs together and roll down with the legs together. Beautiful. And then once again, the legs will open apart. Good.

And if you're telling me is it strong and you're feeling good, you can reach the legs as long as you can. Keep your back on the ground, right. And then open. And then once again, lift from your pelvis. Yep, there go over. Right. That's different and legs together cause we're here to make a powerhouse. Right. And put the legs together. That's it. To roll down. Good.

I think you're ahead of us, Amy and rolling. Good. Good. You okay if we do one more together? Good. One more time. Nice. And once again, open and scoop and reach. Beautiful work. You guys that said and legs together and well done. Let's lower or roll down the last one and we'll stretch the left leg all the way to the mat. Keep the right leg up nice and high and keep that length through the body.

And let's circle the leg around and up. One, two and three. Good. And you can press that opposite heel down into the ground. That's it. Keep that opposite thigh strong, holding you still. And then the reverse five more times and reach and stretch. Good. And if you're a nice teacher, you can sometimes help get a little extra love two more.

And then let's lower that right leg down and lift the left leg high and go into the other side. Circling across the body. Good, good stretch. That's it. Good. Pressing that opposite leg firmly to the mat and gorgeous work. You guys reverse. Well, it's hard to teach when there's nothing to correct. And again around good. Just plant those opposite legs. Guys. Strong and firm. Good. And then let's lower that leg down. Nice and long. Great.

We can roll up right into our ball position, grab onto the ankles and just hug yourself in a little shake. Good. So try to literally put your heels on your bottom and try to literally keep your thighs on your chest and then keeping that nice strong position. Draw the stomach muscles back and let's roll the shape back and come up and up. One and two and three and a little quicker. Let's go back in and hold now.

Just try to roll halfway back and forward. So a little half room and up. Yes. And up and up and stay at the top and try a little quarter rule and up. Good and bright. Good. I should don't let that little pelvis move. Keep it strong. Mary, you are last too. Good. You can do it any, I know you can. I know you can.

Good. Just just for the fun of it and Nice. One more. Good, Jess. That's it. Good. You guys hug the right legs in. We'll transition right into the one leg stretch. Good. And we'll roll back slowly. Keep your stomach solid. Stretch your left legs. Good. So now you have a partner, you can stretch your, your opposite leg to your partner across the room. Good.

And let's hug the like one, two, change. One, two, one, two, one, two. Good. Really trying to establish shoulders. Easy down your back. That strength scooping in and up. Good. I think of almost trying to curl myself up from my hips. And then let's bring both legs in for the double leg stretch. So grab the ankles and give yourself a nice hug. So hold on, let's hug those legs in for a moment.

Bend the knees and give yourself a big old hug. That's it. Stretch. That's the way. Good arms and legs reach away and stretch it long and thin. Oh, that's a stretch. And pull it all in and give yourself a nice hug. And again, stretch out long and thin scope. Oh, that's gorgeous. And give yourself a hug. Good. Again, reach from end to end.

Let me see your reach. Nice. And that's beautiful. Good. Two more times. We don't get out of time to stretch and take the time to do it. Now. One more breath in. Let's hold you guys. Squeeze those heels together. Don't let me through. Don't let me through. Oh, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. And Hug it in. Okay, good. Rest the heads a moment. Take a little breath.

Good. So that's a good little trick to play with yourself too. And then it's almost just like doing your foot work on the reformer and you get that strong connection. Yeah. Good. Let's take the legs in the air and then let's do the single straight leg stretch. So bring the legs up for me. That's it. Let's bring the head forward. You got it. Good. And then change legs. One, two, one, two. And again, reach for your partner scooping in and, and then, uh, one more and both legs in the air.

And then good. Let's reach the elbows to the wall behind you. So go ahead. Really opened those elbows wide. There you go. Scooping. You're telling me squeezing those heels. Guess what I'm going to do again? That's it. Good. Keep that connection and let's stretch the legs to the opposite wall and scooping. Lift them up and the flakes. Great.

And lower. Squeeze and reach. And one more time and good. Try to take the legs to the floor and just up to 45 degrees and to the floor and reach for your partner. One more to the floor. And let's do the crisscross. Reaching for the opposite knee, one and one and two. Very nice you guys. Beautiful too. And hold right here. So what they're both doing, stay for a moment. On one side for me.

Good is they're both keeping their elbows very wide and they're sending their tummies into curl up and get to the opposite leg. Other side, last one, elbows very wide. That's it. To scoop, scoop and reach and rest. Right? So the three of those is enough. You don't have to do a lot of that, right? Sitting up all the way. Good. Let's put the heels in the corners of the map. You grow tall for spine stretch. Take a nice breath. Lifting, empty the air. Rolling. Good. And inhaling, come up. Beautiful work you guys. And again, and to the Yam Andy.

Inhale and rise. Good. One more time and to the era and inhale and rise. Now keep stretching through your long. Lovely legs and try to lift them in the air. Yeah. So reach to me and try to lift legs as you roll your waist back and grab the feet for the open leg rocker. That's it, Amy. Go for it. That's it. Oh, keep donkey.

Good to come up and balance for me. Nicely done. Good. So keeping that connection, those legs are reaching that I have demons reaching back and let's roll the shape back. End Up one and back and up to and back. End Up three. Good. Pause a moment for me. Good. So Asha, you see how you kind of do that thing where you round your spine and then it straightens more, right? So try to maintain that whole lift like some people. Talk to me about lifting my rib cage up behind me here. Okay.

So right you create some more space between your ribs and your waist. Yeah. Now guys, both of you. Let's try to grab the outsides of the feet. So reach up. That's it on the outside of your foot here. Yeah. And other side. Good. And push the feet into me and pull your waist back. Ah, good.

Keep that energy. And now use that to roll back and roll up. Give it a shot and backend. Push through those feet. Try to or give it a shot and push those feet left. And one more. Good. And last one and push. Nicely done. Good. You guys. Keep the press. Let's put the legs together.

Balance. Hmm. Stretch the arms and let's slowly lay back. Keeping the legs reaching. The back will lay flat and the arms can rest by your sides. Great work. Good. Take a breath. Good. If you want to come forward a little bit, I shall see you on the mat. Stow. That's it. Good you guys.

So long legs through your body. Arms are long by your sides. Good for a little corkscrew. Legs are together. Let's reach the legs, right? Draw a circle down around to the left and up. Good. So try again from Yasha. Start with your back flat. Good. Start with your back flat. That's it. Good. So just from here, let's start one direction.

Circle around and reach the other way and hold. Good. Now we're working so hard, right? But I missing some of the stretch and the length. Okay. So once again, stretch that body to reach and lift. Now go the other way. Push those feet out away from you.

And now let's lift the hips. So key then on g out through the feet and extend to lift up, and then the other direction and around and up, and then around and, and finish this one and come and rest. Oh Goodie. I'm going to pick on you guys for something. Okay, good. So what I see happening, I have this microphone back behind me, so I'm going to be a little bit careful. But what'd you guys are doing is you're drawing a circle around and then you're using the length, the hamstring length, to lift your hips.

So what I want you to do is use your powerhouse, use your pelvis. So start again with the legs high. We're going to go a little slower. So again, I think of like my feet on the push through bar, right? Like when the feet are doing, like push the, um, a tower or something like that, right? So when you start to circle, we're going to energize those legs out in a way and then you'll fall along and we're going to keep reaching. Now. Keep pushing up. Keep pushing up. Don't go back. Push up, push up, push up, push up, push up, push up. That's the exercise. Go the other way. And even on the way down, you keep pushing up. So push those feet up.

Push those feet up. Push those feet up. Gorgeous. And again, and then all good. Give me a push. That's it. No, on the way down. Keep pushing me away. So your waist pulls one way and your legs push the other way. Yes. Yeah. I'm trying not to flex. I'm really trying not to hit flex. Easy. Good, good, good. Nice. And try one more. Good. You guys good. So that's a little different, right? Little different.

Good. And then keep that energy. Gorgeous. Okay, good, good, good. And one thing I feel is like lit, the floor is only that far away. So fall, you know, sometimes just take a chance and fall. Good. Sitting up. Let's open the legs. That's it. Into the Saul. Good. You guys. So now with that power house, let's take a breath and turn to the right side and exhale and stretch across one, two, three and lift and go the other way and retreat tree each and come up and hold. So another way to do saw is to twist, then twist more, then twist as far as you can, and then reach for the opposite side and rise up and twist to the other side. And twist even more. And twist as far as you can go. Good. And then reach for the opposite side. Beautiful work you guys.

Last one each way. Grow tall and twist and to have some more and make sure that hip doesn't go with you. And then reach a cost for the opposite side. Good work and grow tall. Lift up and turn and turn and turn the most beautiful work and reach for the opposite foot and stretch. Good. Thank you this long and rise up and rest. We put the legs together and let's lay on the tummy and let's go right into the swan. Good. Take a nice breath. Legs.

There's long behind you. Heels together. Good. And as your feet reached to one wall, we're gonna reach the chest to the other wall and rise up. Good. And right away. Let's see you rock and let's give it a shot. Stretch the legs. Stretch the arms. Rock one. Rock to rock three and hold and sit back on the heels and breeze.

Not Bad, not bad, not bad. Let's drop the head. Take a little moment. Good. Good. Now when I see people rock, I see people think so much about this rocking motion like this. Yes. So what I want you to do is stretch that bow out more and give me a much, much bigger boat. Okay. You're going to be safer on the water, right when your long and your big boat, then a little boat. Little boats get rocked a lot. So be a nice strong, long, big huge liner. Okay. Try it again.

Good. So once again, pressing the chest, stretching the legs. Okay. And let me see what you got. Try three times and good lay flat. Just lay flat in your tummies for a good and just lay flat on your tummy for a moment. Good. Good. So one thing you guys do is you separate your legs. So ideally try to keep your heels together and stretch.

Now each of you guys just reach out for the other person. Good. That's it. Now what I want you to do is just make more of a v that's it. And squeeze the legs together. Now from this position, you know when you do this exercise with magic circle, it's kind of like this is how you begin, right? So squeeze your legs, guys, length and amount, and try to just lift your legs in the air from your seat. Good. Now really literally feel the stomach muscles in and up and lift the legs higher. Now lift your chest a little, stretch through the fingertips. Go reach for your partner and start to rock from here. That's it, Amy. Gorgeous. How shit. That's it. Oh righty. Lengthen out. Amy, go touch that wall behind you. Reach with your legs. Yes.

And rest. All of a sudden better. Nice, Nice, nice, nice, nice, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, and go bang on your belly and let's go on the forearms and let's go into single leg kick. Well done. Good. So strong chest, long legs. Now you just created that length with your body. So you use it here again. And let's take one heel and kick. Kick one leg, one, two other leg, one too good and kick, kick and a kick, kick. Good. And whatever leg is not kicking is actively reaching long. That's it. Tuck it.

Duh, Duh, Duh, Duh, Duh, Duh, Duh, Duh. And hold the legs long for a moment. Good. Just watch out you flexible folks at home too, that you stretch in the right parts of your body and you keep your, your, your trunk long. Okay, so let your abdomen draw in. That's it. And stretch those legs away, right? I shade. Don't get short in there. Okay, good. Now let's do double leg kicks. So let's rest. We'll have both guys face the camera to begin. And hands behind the back.

Good and legs together once again with that stretch. Beautiful. And now, once again, let's take both legs and kick three times one, two, three and put the feet on the ground and lift your chest up and press your palms to the sky. Delicious. And face the other direction. Wonderful. And again, kicks and rise up and reach. Good. So feed on the ground and lengthen. Beautiful. And face the other way. Good work again. One, two, three and stretch. Good. Scoping. [inaudible] dummy up. Oh my God. That's a little trickier.

And face the other direction. One, two, three. And if your middle, don't forget about that. And rest. Wonderful. Let's sit back on the heels and take a little breath. Good. Rise up on your knees facing one another for thigh. Stretch. Good. So arms long by your sides to begin. Good.

And you don't necessarily have to move cause we'll, yeah, move around. Good. Good. Unless you want to be in the camera, get so arms long by your sides. We'll start. Good. So I want you guys to think long from your knee cap all the way up long through the top of the head. Okay. And hindering from the knees. As you start to reach this, pick up the arms.

Let's hinge back and let's keep it all along then. And then scope and lengthen to come up and stretch. Good. And then once again, lift up and stretch. So naval to the spine in and up. Key your long, long line. Beautiful. Now feel length grows taller, even longer from your thighs, your waist, your arms out through your fingertips and stretch that the way.

I'll say that one more time and stretch to go back there. Good. Those little cramps. Sneaking sometimes. Good, good. And then fill those inner thighs. Pull in and out. That's the way any and connect. Beautiful. Nice. You guys swing your legs to one another.

Let's have the heels reaching for one another. Laying on your backs. We'll do the neck. Poor. Good. And take a breath. Are we good? Yeah. Good. Yes, please. You know, take what you need for this exercise. It's a really hard exercise, right? Good. So even if the arms need to come forward or whatever, right? It's still good.

Again, make the body do the motion. It'll, it'll get stronger, it'll learn it. So bringing the head forward and let's start to roll up, pinching the bottom and coming up. Good. Drop the nose to stretch. Then let's sit up tall and lift up. Beautiful. And start to roll back down. So for me, you can just roll right away. That's it.

Scooping your belly. And now, once again, you remember reaching those heels, reaching those deals, reaching those heels. Good. And once again on the way up as well. Good. So I'm perfectly legitimate. It was softening those knees a bit. And then drawing the stomach and beautiful work. You guys dropped the nose, breathe gorgeous and lift up and then begin again to roll down. So connecting everything we did in the, you know, workout before, we still have that nice strong c curve.

We're still stretching long through the heels, reaching, reaching, reaching to roll down. Well done. One more time and pinch the bottom to come up. Good and good. And when you roll forward, just keep the connection. You don't even have to the shape, right? So lift good and then grow tall. Good. And when you're a nice stager, you can come and give people a little leg still stretch and then rolling back down. Navel to spine, good reach, reach, stretch, gorgeous. Very nicely done. Last one. And with the air out with the air [inaudible]. Great. And breathe and up. Good.

Those kneecaps can go right under the shoulder blades and you can, oh, give them a little stretch. Good. And then massage it down. Navel to spine. Reach those heels away. Beautiful work. Nicely done. Let's slide forward a little bit on the mats if your head's off. Good. Good you guys. And let's go ahead and go right into the spine twist actually.

So we're going to stretch the legs forward. Flexing the feet, heels together. Good arms open wide to the sides and pinching limb bottom. Growing tall. Let's turn one. Turn more to turn more. Three. So again, finding that connection. Can you look all the way to this backhand and see over this finger right here.

Turn your head. Even turn your head. Nope. This way more. More, more right. See that right? Cause those muscles run all the way up. Right? And face the front. Good to the other side and turning and turning. Good. And turning. [inaudible] head. That's it. And face front. Good once again.

And turning and turning and good. So ideally we should also be turning the back. So these arms right, should remain on the back. Try you guys come face front and put your fingertips on your shoulders and try it this way. Good. This is also good for stomach massage. Yeah, and turning and turning that. So that gives you a real clear picture of where the spine is moving from and face the front and last one, and turning easy. Shoulders. Turn your waist. Turn your ways. Good. Now, right here, can you pinch your bottoms? Pinch a lot of strong. That's it.

And face the front. Awesome. Let's stretch the arms down. Let's do jackknife. So laying back, stretching, legs overhead. Let's pick them up and roll down. Use that up and press the feet up. Good. And push me away. Push me away. Push me away. Nicely done. Repeat once again and over. Up. Good.

Now take it out of the feet. I'll shave. Relax the feet. Relax them. Right. Do something else. Not the feet. Ah, that's different. Good, good, good, good. A the dancers among us and one more time and over an app and reach. Dancers like to use too much energy in their feet.

I'm sure there's lots of other sports that do it too. But relax those feet and then use that center. Nice. Reaching, reaching Rye. Right, right. So if we take energy away from our extremities, that gives us a chance to work stronger and our middles. Yes. Great. You guys. Good? Let's have both of you guys lay on your right side. So one person, either you can move your heads opposite ways, are faced in directions, whatever. But let's, let's use the left leg for working first. So, okay, good. That's fine. Let's put your elbow, shoulder and hip on the back edge of the map. Good.

And then the feet forward at an angle. Good. Flexing the feet, right? Good, good. So this should be a nice of twos angle. This can be a little bit, yeah. Stronger of an angle. Good. And then you can take this other hand and draw it. Yeah. Close to your body. That's right. Good. So the top leg is working. Let's send it forward and kick it one and then for me, bring it forward and hold it, kick it forward, hold and then kick it forward even higher.

And then kick it back and kick it back farther. So we're going to take two kicks front, front, and then two kicks back, back and back. That's it. I should again, front, front, back, back, front, front, back, back and reach. Reach and stretch, stretch and lengthen. Lengthen with a solid center and both legs have energy. All of that reaching you did earlier to try to get your partner. You should still be working on it and keep a long neck, glass, time and and legs together. Good. You guys.

Good? Good. So I am always really impressed by how much we tend to use our shoulders and our necks and these sidekicks variations. So try to let the energy come from the waist down. Yeah, let's rotate out the top leg and let's point the foot to bring it up and a pyre and flex it back down, right? So we can do that same little poles up, up and down and up, up and down again with that length and stretch, stretch and draw the tummy and lengthen. Arrange and point. Lengthen up, up better and down. Good. One more time and up. Up. And then let's draw a circle with a leg. Let's reach forward first. That's it.

Side and back. And again, front and side. And try to really cross the plane of the body to reach all the way. That's it. You kind of describe the hip, I think very much of a compass. So the standing leg coulds is still, and then that other leg can describe the movement of the leg one more time. Time you strong. And then let's reverse.

Good. And once again, use those bottom legs. Right? Right, right. Can you push your heel into me Asha? Yes. That's different. Good with your strong middle and good last set and well done. Good. You guys. Let's spin around. Let's do the other side. Yes. Good. So we'll start 10 kicks, front and back. We'll do five kicks to the side.

Five circles, front and back. Good. You guys. Good. So this bottom legs very strong and important. Yes. And then send the top leg forward one, two and back. Back and front. Front and back. Back. Good. And sometimes I just kind of like looked down my side as I'm swinging my leg around to see is my pelvis doing anything or am I saying really solid, strong belly in and up, right?

Yes. You fill that in the hip, right? Not your back and legs together. Good. You guys rotating out and long leg up, up and um, good. So my teacher said bloodies wouldn't give people a lot of corrections. Every so often he would shout out something like long the leg. And that was about all you got out of them. Good. Other than that, he was just moving bodies. Just move, keep moving.

The circulation alone will get you healthier. Good. And starting your circles. Let go, go on, around and to round. It's very tempting as the audience member to see these, you know, beautiful, strong bodies and try to move as big as them, but it's not important. How big is not as important as how long and then reverse. Good, good, good. So extra. When the light goes back, draw the stomach in and up. Be sure that you're telling me he's there with you or ya. One more.

Good. Wonderful. Could you guys, let's lay on your backs. Let's raise the legs in the air and just kick them out a little bit. Just [inaudible] shake it out. The tobacco lacks good. Let's bring those heels together. Unless then the legs up in the air and it angle good.

So we'll take them forward just a little gentle bit. Good. And guess what I'm going to do again? Great. Good. Let's pick up the arms. Good. And let's just start with the arms over the chest today. Good. And right from there. Let's roll up off the mat for your teaser.

Good, good, good. Now you see how you get your balancing so nice and tall up on the pelvis. I don't want that. I want you to roll back three inches and still stretch your legs across the room. And that's where I want you to work. Now Roll back just to touch your ribs on the mat.

So you're gonna roll back just a touch those ribs. Good. And keep reaching and come back up again. This is it. Yep. And Scoop and pinch and reach and reach and reach. Good. And then back again. So naval to the spine, good and reach. So maybe just right there with that, just that little belly button, reach back, just a little belly button. You're coming forward.

Ben Rich right there. It is. Good. One more time and scoop. So it's like, it's like you're tempting it. It's like you're on a roll back and you sound like ones to reach back. But you're right. Go on and come back up. Good, good. And Lay flat all the way. I take a breath. Great, good, good. So I like that distinction because you know that that propped up position, you know, we do that. That's ballet, you know, that's one thing, but Palladia is, is different. There's, there's that yeah, that power has that c curve and like you see, you know, boxers and, and you know, cyclists and runners and stuff and it makes sense as far as like an athletic use of the body, it's different. It's not quite what we do in ballet, you know, it's, it's slightly different. So it very good distinction to create in the body and learn. You know, I used to work with singers and they have to push their tummies out to get the air and volume and so forth with our voices. And they were always like, but you're teaching me to hold my stomach in and my, you know, singing teacher wants me to push my stomach out. And I always said, well, if you can get better control of your body, whether doing this or doing your singing technique or doing your karate or doing your cycling or whatever technique you're using, you're getting better control.

So this is just another way of getting control of the body. Okay, good. Let's flip over onto the tummies and let's go for a swim. Stretching your legs out. The ocean's right there. We'll go. And good. So lengthening out. Once again, reach for your partner. And I find interesting as I try to stretch my arms longer. I almost can feel my shoulders slide down my back even deeper.

So let's go over a long stretch. Raise the arms, raise the legs, raise the head, go parallel for me. Both you guys. That's it. Let's pick up the right arm, left leg, left arm, right leg, and swim. One, one to two and get longer. Reach for your partner and stretch for the opposite. Well, touch me, Amy. You can shave me. Get me, get me, and then reach out. Long and rest. Good. Let's put the hands on the mat.

Let's sit back by the heels for a moment. Take a little breath. Breathe from this position. Let's come forward and do three pushups. Good. That's it right away. Nice and long. Good. So chest open and let's lower down and rise up one and lower down and rise up two and lower down and rise up. Three scoop into the tummy. Let's walk the hands back to the feet. One, two, three. Let's put the hands down on the mat, pressing into the mat and scoop the tummy muscles in.

And let's roll up the spine. Good. Let's have you guys stand in line. Middle of the room, facing the camera for me. We're gonna do one last little exercise that I do sometimes for my clients. So let's have you guys step behind the maths. I'm just going to kind of slip him out of the way for us. Good.

Make sure that you have enough room that there's room behind you to swing your leg back. So sidekicks, series, standing so strong in your center leg long. We're gonna kick it front and front and back and back. And Front and front and back and back. One more time. Front and hold this pelvis. Stand into your standing leg. Push down into it and back and back.

All that's different, right. Good and good. So stand on that standing leg and front and front and try it one more time to the back and back and stand down. Back. Okay. Let's put the legs together. Good. Yes. Rotating out the right leg. So now again, stand into the standing leg and let's take the leg side and side and flicks and reach it longer. And again, stretch up and whoo.

Dieter, toddler. And one more time. Oh and up. Stand on the sandy side. And good. Try a circle. Let's reach like front and stretch and stretch more and bring it through. And again. Good. So all the dancers in the room like to move their pelvis around.

And I'm not going to let you, I want you to hold your center strong and reverse. Good cause this is what the map provides for us. It really gets us, that's why I pick on people about that standing leg on the mat to that strong. Press down into it. Work the floor. Yes. Good. I shave once again. Press down good and grow tall. Right. And try the other leg. Good, good, good.

Yeah. Good. So in dance, we have a term that we sit into our hips. People get up and they do their pretty poses and they sit in their hips. But we do it in life too, where we're, we're just kinda not, you know, providing that support we need. So this is a good exercise to just try that out. Yeah, let's try the other leg. Left leg. Oh stretch. Front and front and back and back. Good and drive energy from the floor.

Rich, rich. And you can even grow taller. Taller. Last one. Good guys looking solid. Let's turn out and do the side and reach like up, up more. And this one's really hard, right? Hard to keep that pelvis stable and squared off. Good. Ashley, I'm going to push on you a little bit more. So stand on both feet and then push it into the floor. That's it. And reach. Try a circle for me. Good, good, good.

Reach around and good lift out or the waste. That's it. And again, tall. Nicely done. [inaudible] one more again. Awesome. You guys good? Ravers and great, Huh? Good. You guys good? So whatever we can do on the floor, we can do on the equipment. We take it, we stand up, we sit down, we kneel, we bend, we do all kinds of things, but it should always be the same. The same, the same. Thank you. Thank you.

Comments

2 people like this.
I've been MIA from pilates for the past few weeks and wanted to WORK today to open by breathe and body back up. This is wonderful with awesome cues that allowed me to do the more advanced work. Thank you for a great workout and for continuing Romana's particular style of Mr. Pilates method.
2 people like this.
Lovely, Energizing, Challenging, Playful ... Just plain delightful!
1 person likes this.
Great instruction
2 people like this.
Love the standing sidelegs series....super humbling!
2 people like this.
Truly Awesome Class :) Thank You for making my legs shake !!
Thanks everyone! It's great to hear your comments and I'm really glad the classes are finding a super strong audience!
1 person likes this.
Nice...loved it...and especially loved...RLB breakdown, emphasis on heels together, rolling the shape, breakdown of Swan & side leg series standing! One more thing - enjoyed your teaching approach...watching & fixing w/o demonstration. Thank you
1 person likes this.
Great class! I tend to do mostly apparatus classes or mat with some sort of prop. It's been a long time since I've done classical mat work. SO MUCH HARDER! Just me and my mat. Very challenging for me. I'll definitely incorporate more mat into my workouts. Thanks for another great class!
Michelle B
2 people like this.
Just discovered Kara and she's my favourite!! Thank you for your energy, and expertise :)
2 people like this.
Fantastic class with excellent instruction. More please!
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