Class #1269

Baby Arc Flow

25 min - Class
78 likes

Description

Meredith teaches a quick, flowing Mat workout using the Baby Arc. She includes movements that are deep and controlled. This class is great to do by itself or it can be added to another class. Enjoy!
What You'll Need: Mat, Baby Arc

About This Video

Nov 14, 2013
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Transcript

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Hi, today we're going to do just a short class on the arch that you could do by itself or you could add to another short class of your choosing. So let's get started. I'm going to position myself sitting up against the edge of the arch. Knees Bent, feet flat on the floor. So I like my feet to be a little further away from me.

That's just a personal preference. I you decide where you want your feet to be like taking the arms forward. Gonna Breathe in here, lifting the spine. Let's actually lift the arms as well. Just give ourself a minute to just get that beautiful spinal extension. Bring the arms out to the side and then fold. We'll do that one more time.

So as you inhale, raise your arms, but also rise up through your spine. So you're sitting right over your sitting bones. Arms come out to the side, they press forward through space. Inhale here. As we exhale, we're going to travel backward over the arch. Keep the collarbones open and long. Allowed the back to extend backwards. Reaching the arms back with you. Take the arms to the sides. Bring the chin into the chest or look forward and rural the spine all the way.

We'll do that three times in here. Exhale, we go down over the arc with our body. So just to allow your spine to absorb the shape of the barrel behind you or the art behind you. Keep holding the ribs slightly back. Take the arms around to the side, eyes forward, arms forward. Press the ribs into the barrel to get started to come up. One more time and a roll back.

So I like the feeling here of pushing my feet away from me. That works for me. You could also play with pulling them towards you, but let's keep the bat. Let's keep the legs a little active. Reach around, eyes forward, arms forward. And then we just roll the spine back up to straight. Reach back to place your hands behind your head. Once again, take the body over the top. We're not going to come all the way up this time. So in the heel as you stretch back and then exhale as you lift your spine coming just to a straight line in line with the arc.

So I'm not thrusting my head forward. I'm looking up at the ceiling of them and to take it back in. Yeah. And drawing the front of the ribs down the front of the body, allowing the head to just rest in the hands as we lift up just to the very bottom rib and inhale back and again, lifting up. Breathing. Yeah, and back and lifting up and back. [inaudible] we'll do that four more times. Lift up and then make sure that as you go over the arc that you're still supported, still engaged, still working. Here's three. And as you know, may know about me, I like to give myself just a little bit of a control hold at the top, looking for depth and back last to curling up. [inaudible] and back one more time.

So we lift up who are gonna hold here we're going to do just a little bit of flection. So a long neck flexed spine and then neutral and up and up and back. Just two more like this. Curling up over yourself and back last time. Curling up and back. So let's roll ourselves all the way up. Allow the knees to drop out. Open to the side. This is not a comfortable position for your hips.

Sit right on top of the barrel or the arc. Hands behind your head. We're gonna. We'll rotate to our left. Lifting up through the spine. Inhale to come back to center. Feel that you're engaged, you're working through the obliques before the rotation of the spine starts. Inhale to come back. Lift up long and tall, sliding the spine up through space and inhale to come back and lift up long and tall. Reaching the spine up and inhale to come back. We'll do twice more and center and rotate left and center. Last time here, rotating to the left and center and last time to the other side.

Find Center. Bring the legs back together or not together. Just back up, right hands back behind the head and adding some rotation. So we take it all the way over the back. I want us here for just lifting to neutral to begin from that place. We'll go into a very minimal flection of the spine with rotation. We'll find center, we'll do it to the other side.

We'll find center and we'll go backwards again. Exhale, feeling yourself come just to that neutral lie. Reach over and across. Flection with rotation. Find Center over in a cross flection with rotation. Find Center and all the way back. I know one more like this. Reaching up in, over find center, reaching up and over.

Find Center. Take it all the way back. So now from here we're going to lift an rotate. Exhale and inhale to go all the way back over the barrel. Stay engaged to the front of your body. Exhale to lift and rotate and inhale to go back.

As you're doing that rotation, take care that the pelvis isn't shifting back and forward on the arc. It has stays nice and connected all the time. Lifting up in a cross and and back. Last one like this, reaching up and center and back. Reaching up in over center and then taking the arms overhead. We take it all the way back over the arc, allowing the spine again just to be absorbed by the shape, taking the arms around to the sides and lifting all the way out.

Adjust your arch so that you've got a little bit of space on your mat to lie on your mat and head up over the top of it. So I'm going to put my pelvis on the top of the arch and I'm going to slide down so that my head and shoulders are resting on the mat. From there, lifting the legs one at a time. So just keeping that, keeping the hands just on the arc and sub where we're going to tilt that spine twists, tilt the pelvis one way. Inhale and exhale as we draw back through center, we'll do three inhale. It's a nice place to watch the alignment of the knees and watch the alignment of the feet and XL center.

So as you know, as we all know, hopefully we're working in both directions as the legs and the pelvis change from side to side in healing across and excelling back to center. Last time here. Inhaling across, okay. And excelling back to center. And last one, inhale he across and exhale back to center. Bring the heels together, flex through the fee. We're going to do a little frog. So we stretch the legs up and pull in and bring their ribs down and the pelvis down into the arch as we straighten. And then so the heels, those pressing together all the time and bend.

We'll do three more reaching up and bent and reaching up. And I'm in external rotation. I'm working all the way to a straight leg. Pause there, point your feet, open the legs out, flex and squeeze legs back together. Imagine that someone's pushing your legs apart as you're pulling them together. Point, reach out and flex back together and pointing. Reach out again watching and the alignment of the legs.

See that they come together at exactly the same moment. Point reacher flex, pull together. Last two point irreechaa flexible together. Last time, point reach, flex pulled together at the top. We're going to re point the feet. We're gonna take the top like back in the bottom, leg down and pulse and find center and reach.

Reach and center and reach. Reach and center. So taking that bottom like low enough so we get a stretch to the front of that lay pull. And then pulling the top like oppositionally backwards into the body. Again, working with strong, excuse me, straight legs. One more reach, reach center and reach. Reach Center. So we're going to go back into the open position.

We're going to take a helicoptering action reaching or wide and around, sliding through. They have joints all the way to the other side and up. Same side. So I went left leg and right leg down, helicopter, the legs outward, keep them strong. Imagine standing in straps, you're pressing out through the feet and back. One more. All reaching wide and around all the way and coming back.

We'll do that now in reverse. We take the opposite leg back towards the body, reach around, sliding the legs away from one another, coming into the scissors position and center and reach. Reaching a big stretch to the whole hip. And then coming back last time here, reaching out and coming back and then bending the knees, placing the feet down, just allowing the hips, just the hip. So just the hip. So lift up, pressing down into the feet, lifting the hips up nice and high, get a good stretch. And then place the pelvis back down into the arch. Bring the legs back up, bring the knees into the chest and just slide your arch out from underneath you. Rolling yourself up and turning over.

So coming onto your hands and knees, placing the hands just on the apex of the barrel. Lining your body up so that the hands are just under the shoulders and the knees are just under the pelvis. Nope. Scratch that. Let's come down onto our elbows. So we've got our spine elongated into a flat spine. Going to lift the left right leg, it's gonna stay bent. And this looked down your body. See that your leg is in line with your hip.

Slide the shoulders down the back, and then lift that hit leg and tap the knee and lift the leg and tap the knee and lift. So this is a nice exercise to be done with ankle weights. I'm choosing not to use ankle weights today, but you certainly could. Oh, left and down. Two more lift and a last one left and down. And now coming in. Now this is a bit tricky. Can you bring your leg out to the side without shifting your body and slide it underneath you and bring the leg out to the side and slide it underneath you and out to the side and underneath last too, and underneath. Last one, and underneath, come up onto your hands again. Slide the same leg, the right leg back behind you.

So now your body body's a little bit more elevated. Just going to take that leg in. Reach up so and down, only lifting the leg to the point where you can keep your back in alignment and lifting up and down. Last to lifting up and down. Last one from the top. Exhale, bring the knee. Just shift it right over the edge of the mat around bringing it into your chest and then reach back in. Inhale, exhale, sly the Nana neath you curling the spa and reach back and exhale, curling in.

So we go into deep flection of the spine and then maybe just a little bit of upper spinal extension as the leg travels back. Last two and back. Last one and back. Place your foot down behind you in a plank position. Place your other foot down behind you. And from there we're going to bend the arms five times one, keeping the legs strong, the waist lifted and engaged. Three, four, five. Bring your outside hand into the center of the barrel and then slide over onto the outside and the inside of your feet coming into a star. From here we're going to exhale and go into the twist.

So we lift and press back through the pelvis, reaching long through the spine. Inhale as we head back over that supporting our Xcel as we slide, pressing back into the feet, bolting the toe bone up so the spine stays long in heal to come back last time Max, he'll reach through. Inhale to come back, reach back over into your plank position and bend your knees to the Mat. Yeah, coming back down onto the forms, finding the long straight by. So we now take the left leg up, look down your body, line the leg up with you, and then tap the knee down and reach up and back and tap. So we activate the hamstring in the glute on that side and also the front of the body to keep the spine long and still last too. And last time.

Yup. Narrowing the arms. Keep them just underneath your shoulders. Take the leg out to the side. Try not to shift the body side to side in, in and out to the side and in theory and two and you'll feel how you want to go over onto that arm. That's one. Come in, place your hands down on the [inaudible]. Slide your leg, same leg out straight. And from there we lift the leg and lower and lift and lower. So again, using the back of Nice, straight, strong leg.

Last two times, pressing the shoulders down and back. One more holding the leg there. Inhale, exhale, round the spine. Bring the knee right up into the chest. So you've got to get really round to clear the mat and then reach out and back. Exhale around the spine, knee into the chest and reach out and back. And again, exhale and reach out and back. And again, exhale, reach out and back. Last one, curling in.

Reach out and back. Place the foot down. Step back with the other foot. Finding a strong plank position. Five pushups, elbows into the waist. Super-Strong and support three to one, holding the arms. Take the inside hand to the center of the barrel. Roll onto the [inaudible] into your side position. Inhale here and XL lifting up into the twists. You reached down through your bottom or long length and spine. Inhale to unwind. Exhale as we reached through, picking up the pelvis, sliding the spine long and flat, and inhale to come back. And just one more.

Lifting of shifting the weight into the feet. Inhaling to come back, rotating yourself back across into your front support position. Bend your knees to the Mat. Keep your hands on the arc and just sit back on your feet all the way. Breathing into the stretch here and then sitting sideways just over the arch.

They're gonna lower our body down. So I have my bottom knee just right along the edge, my bottom thigh, top leg out straight. I'm gonna take the body over the, you'll feel that as, yeah. As you go all the way down, your bottom elbow will rest on the ground. So from there I'm going gonna reach up, just hovering, just hovering field at the bottom rib stays against the barrel. We just work that up or waist and then reached down and then again reach out long working through that bottom, top waist, back, cla outside legs straight and again, lifting up, keeping the head nice and still and down. Last to lifting up and then last one and lifting, Huh? And taking your bottom arm to the mat, your top arm, reach overhead.

Take that top arm in. Reach back. Then allow your body to open out to the side, taking the arm across, lifting the chest and bringing the arm through and forward again. Taking the arm up, reach back, opening through the chest and then back through one more time. Reaching up, taking the arm back, opening the chest, allowing the head to just follow the spy and reaching back. Pace your hand down, lift up and turn around to the senior self on the opposite side. Spine long along the arc, hands behind your head.

Nice long line through the spine. Exhale to slide the back, Wong and inhale to come down. The leg that's on the ground is reaching and pressing down into the mat. Counter balancing the lifting of the spine. [inaudible] excuse me. And again, reaching out and Dan last two times lifting up and uh, one more lifting up and a lowering ourselves all the way down. Top. Arm reaches overhead. We now take that arm back, opening through the spine, allowing the body to just reach back over the barrel, over the arch and then reached through and taking your arm up, let the arm lead and then allow the spine to start to change.

Traveling backwards, opening to this side and reaching through last time and reaching back, opening through the chest, chin, all the way around through that arm and back. Placing your hand down on the barrel. Help yourself up. We're going to turn ourselves around here for yourself, a little room in front of you and then reached down and just placed pelvis right on top of the barrel. So then I'm going to keep my knees down on the ground, on the mat in this position myself on my elbows. So from that place, I'm going to guide the shoulder blades backwards, draw the abdominal muscles in, and then start with the upper back to pick the elbows up so that we come up into a little bit more back extension. And then lower down [inaudible]. I'm going to suggest that some of us, myself, I'm gonna move back.

I'm gonna move back because what I'm looking for here is where I was positioned before with my pelvis on the top is getting a little lot of low back extension. I want a little bit more upper back extension. So I've now shifted my focus there. So I'm just kind of right under, right under my ribs with the bureau. And then again, so we guide the elbows backwards, the shoulder blades backwards, and then we just start to pick up the elbow. So it's a lot less arms from here, but that's okay with me. I wanted to work my back, not my arms. It's not that the arms aren't working. And then as the elbows come down, pull them inwards and slide them backwards towards the barrel.

So we worked at rural, narrow arm position, sliding the shoulders down to get the upper back to move and then allowing the eyes to look forward at the top. Keeping the eyes forward for a while as we bend our elbows back. And let's do that three more times. Reaching, pressing the Mat away, lifting up nice strong upper body and pulling the elbows backwards and he inwards as we lower it down. And again, reaching up, sliding the arms towards straight, allowing the eyes to go up and forward. And then bending back. Last one, reaching out all the way, bending the elbows, allow the spine.

You can just open the elbows out to the side and allow, have the back to just hang forward over the arc for a moment and then bring your hands back. Just next year, arc, push up, scoot your knees in towards the arc a little bit. Sit back on your feet. And once again, just rest your arms on the top, sitting back for the stretch. And then just begin to walk the arms backwards rolling through this spine. So we'll just in here, sitting on our feet, taking the arms up. Inhale, looking up. I'm taking the arms all the way out and down, and one more time, who we're reaching out and up and taking the arms out and down the arc.

Comments

Karin
1 person likes this.
...my spine feels great now, thanks Meredith
1 person likes this.
short and yummy ... great way to start or end a day.
Thanks gals!!
1 person likes this.
Thank you Meredith. Perfect workout for me.
1 person likes this.
Thank you for offering short but efficient and effective classes.
Thanks for your comments ladies! I love to hear from you.
Anything I can use instead of the baby arc? I live in Spain and where I am there are none to be found. Appreciate any feedback. Thanks!
Maria ~ Other instructors have suggested substituting pillows, rolled up blanket, rolled up yoga mat, and/or yoga blocks - depending on which exercise you are wanting to do and what works best with your body. The baby arc is product that Balanced Body carries, and I believe they ship internationally if you are interested in obtaining one.
Maria Parkes,
Anything that can be done on a baby arc can also be done on a BOSU ball. They may be a little easier to come by for you.

Thanks, Maria Wheeler!
Thank you Maria Wheeler and Meredith! I will follow up on all your suggestions. Thought you might like to know that I just finished a six week trip around the world (business mostly but also pleasure) and I took all of you around the world with me. If I did not have much time I would sneak in a 20 min. class after the day was finished. Now if I could only figure out how to do a Pilates mat class on the airplane! Thanks again to all of you for enriching my life. Maria
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