Class #1297

Core Coordination Mat

30 min - Class
110 likes

Description

You can deepen your understanding of the concepts from Wendy's previous classes like the "Waterfall Down the Back" and the "Down the Back, Up the Front'" in this Mat workout. She focuses on core coordination and getting deeper into the body by thinking about how everything in the body relates to each other. Using a Theraband, you will play with the tensional balance of movements while learning about your body.
What You'll Need: Mat, Theraband

About This Video

Nov 12, 2013
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Transcript

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Well, here we are again, back to the scene of the crime and we're gonna deepen all the things that we've been doing through all of our wonderful classes. And our focus together is core coordination. How does everything coordinate foot to head, hand to foot, hand to hand, right? How does everything coordinate? So we're, we're being with ourselves as deeply intelligent human beings rather than objects to be trained and fixed. You're here. Yay. Right? So in that way you'll notice it as we're working together, you'll need a theraband and a, as we're working together, we're going to, I'm going to give you a sense of, of the support of the waterfall down the back shoulder blade, sit bone, tailbone into the tripod of the foot. And how does that create a rebound and the lift of inner ankle, inner thigh, internal belly along the front of the spine to the inner ear up.

So we're going to call that down the back up the front. And the deepening of that, the relational connection between them is what we're off. We often call the powerhouse, but we're softening the powerhouse to have a shoulder blade to deep belly support. And so what's going to be interesting is as you just kind of step forward on your mat and as you begin to float your arms up, what happens to your shoulder blades? What happens to you? Shoulder blades? Can they waterfall down into your feet?

That's what you're noticing. What does it feel on this side? What does it feel like on this side and what does it feel like on the other side? You're just noticing what is the down the back up the front, each side. It's just an interesting thing to notice for ourselves. Yes. Yeah. So that's kind of like your, that's your baseline. You're, you're noticing that right now. Take your theraband and with the theraband, place your place it under your right foot and then just very gently soften your knees. Oh yeah. Or you can a face, you can actually face front [inaudible] just face one another, right? And then soften your knees and feel your whole foot. Inhale, exhale and feel the waterfall down the back.

Begin to take. And what you want to notice is do you need to let out some of the tension? What allows the waterfall down the back to create lift through your spine? How can your shoulder let go? Inhale, soften your knee. Exhale, relax into your foot for your shoulder blade to belly support.

The rotation. Inhale, Eh in hell, eh. Okay. And then let's change sides. Inhale, soften the knee, exhale and feel the waterfall down the back. Move your hand away from your opposite foot psych. You want to feel how does the right hand relate to your left foot?

And how does that show the blade to belly support your rotation? How does the exhale give you a deeper rotation? So we're first noticing how the relational balance happens from the foot we're talking about lower core, central core, opera core. How do they all interrelate? How does the whole body interrelate to create the movement? And how does that go deeper and deeper?

You see how your shoulders going deeper and deeper each time because your breath is supporting the movement. Your foot is supporting your hand, your head is supporting your hand. It's just that feeling of internal support. Yeah. Beautiful. Now make your band and inhale, exhale on a, send your fingers out and feel the widening of your clavicles. How does this open widen now out here?

Relax your elbows and feel the waterfall down the back. Nice. Very good. See how the waterfall down in the back. Just engage your belly. Yeah. Now soften your elbow just enough and soften your knees. Just enough to feel your feet and your hands. Inhale, uh, exhale. So you want to, you're looking for your upper arm to get sucked into towards your body and your lower arm is outgoing out. Do you see that?

So it's a relational balance between all the joints and this is how we give and receive. So then you never get tired because you're always being nourished. It's not like I'm doing all this stuff. I'm just killing everything. Ah, how am I feeling though? Waterfall down the back. Send my hand out.

Fabulous. That's it. Yes. Now from there, keep the, keep the out and press into your left foot to reach right. Inhale, center. Exhale. Right foot to reach left. Inhale. Exhale. So you're kind of coming from your left foot to reach through your right hand, coming from your right foot to receive your left hand and what you're playing with as you're playing with the 10 Segretti of the movement, right? You're playing with the tensional balance between your connective tissue body, your muscles, your bones, all of that. You playing with that?

Yes, yes. Wonderful. Beautiful. Now come to the front of your mat. Put the band behind your chest. Inhale, soften your knees. Feel the back widen with breath. Exhale, feel Ba, waterfall down the back. Send your hands forward. Inhale, breath into your back. Heavy tail. Exhale.

Inhale, exhale, and again. Exhale. Notice how we're softening the knees. Instead of doing a big bend with the knees. Inhale, wide feet, eh. Exhale. Good. Yeah. Now take the band away and hold it in front. Press out just enough to feel the waterfall again.

So allow your inhale. Exhale, begin to sit down, open up your feet, widen, widen, widen, and then press down to come up. Inhale, exhale, pull out to go down. Feel the waterfall. I seem down to come up. See how you're talking to your hips. You see how you're opening up your hips as you pull out with your hands. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's it. That's it. Feel it. Good.

This time you're going to go all the way down beyond the we near the front of your mat so you can sit down, pull out, and sit down. Good. Yes. Now you're releasing just enough to now pull out just enough to feel the waterfall down the back. Roll you down quicker as you pull out to feel the lateral. Feel that wide back of the arm to the shoulder blade.

Soft eyes. And then from there, put the band behind your head at your occiput. Allow your inhale to soften and widen your back. Exhale as you bring your elbows in on the exhale. Inhale, open the elbows. Exhale close. And as you close, feel the waterfall down the back. Closing your elbows. Inhale, open. Exhale. Can you feel the shoulder blade to deep belly? Bringing your elbows in?

You use your exhale. That's it. Allow the inhale. Exhale as you curl in, right? Yes, yes. Beautiful. And now from there, allow your inhale. And as you exhale, feel the water fall down the back. Lift your head. How does your head come forward? On the exhale, allow your inhale to open your elbows.

Exhale and feel your playing with your diaphragm in relationship to the movement. How does the feeling of down the back curl you up? Can you sense that feeling of down into your feet giving you lift? Right? And they'll write their feel the lift of the inner ear. And how does that float your legs? The lift of the inner ear floats the legs.

And from there you take one leg up, stay forward. Allow your inhale and change like the other one, right? Play with the reach through the down and the lift through the inner ear. The reach through the tripod of the foot and the lifts through the inner ear. You're playing with the down, the back, up the front as you stay forward.

That's it. Good. Wonderful. Yes. Fabulous. Now breath into your back. Feel the breath into your back. Feel the belly dropped down as your back widens. How does the belly drop down? Good.

And then lie back down. Bravo was gorgeous. Gorgeous. Good. So another of, of a deeper sense of the roll up. How do we roll up as you're coming forward? So bring your band forward in front.

Legs are straight and you're going to hold it. You're going to hold it in your hands. Yeah. So press out just enough. Pull out just enough to feel the waterfall. As you pull out, allow your inhale, pull out. Exhale. Feel the waterfall down the back. Lift your head, soft, elbows, pause. Allow the inhale. Exhale, pull out and curl up.

Pull out, out, out, out, out. Yes. Feel that y Nang. Yeah. Yeah. Feel the spatial support. And then allow your inhale there. Exhale and feel the waterfall down the back. Roll you down. Curl. That's right. Yes.

Yes. Good, good. Yes. And allow your inhale, soft elbows. And as you exhale, pull out as you exhale. Right. Keep feeling that down. Right, right, right. That's it. Yes. Yes, yes.

Very good. Very good. Yeah. Now stay right there. Drop the band, spiral your arms and turn your baby fingers up. Right. Allow your inhale here and curl down. Roll. Notice how it gives you loads of space. You feel more spatial in your back. Right? And let your arms go back. Inhale, exhale, spirals. Tie baby fingers up as you come up. Widen, right? Feel how that opens up your back. Yes.

God. Allow the inhale. Exhale as you curl, right? Yes. Gorgeous. Yeah. Fabulous. One more. Allow your inhale to float up and right. Keep the spiral. Fabulous. That's it. That's it. Feel the widening opening. Very good.

Excellent. Yes. And the curling. Rolling. That's it. Yes. Great. Great. Great. Great. Yes. Now keep reaching through your left foot. Float your right knee in, but keep your right. Sit Bone long tail long, heavy tail. As you bring that leg in, hole behind your thigh with your hands, right. Bring a leg to you even closer right now.

Keep reaching that right sit bone as you keep your leg there and begin to straighten your leg, keeping your leg toward you. So feel your hamstring get more connected to your spine. Inhale, soften. Exhale. Straighten your leg from a heavy hip. Keep the hip dropping down as you straighten the right inhale. Soften. Feel the widening of your back, the heaviness of your hip, right?

Feel that left reaching long leg and the reach of the right sit bone giving you support for the right leg, right? And then from there, send that leg away from you and begin to walk up that leg, reach it away, reach it away and re right. Feel the weight of it. Feel the weight of it, help you. That's it. Send the leg away. Send the leg away. Good, very good. Now stay up and spiral your foot ball. The big toe leads in one direction. That's it. And baby toe leads in the other direction, right? Yes. We're opening up opening. That's it. Yes.

And then point and flex and have your whole foot relate through your spine to your inner ear. How does your foot go one way and your inner ear the other way, right? And then you inhale there, exhale and rolled down. Send that leg away from you. Reach it away. Right. Spinal connection of that leg. Leg to head. Right? And again, you're going to walk up, send that leg away from you. Use Your weight of your leg to come up, up, up. Very good. Yes. Now stay up this time.

Put your left hand on the outside of your right leg and spiral to the right, right. Put your other hand on the floor. Rest down and find space. As you inhale, soften your knee. Feel space in your spine and exhale and go deeper into the spiral. Yes. Inhale, soften. Open. Exhale. Go deeper into the spiral. Yes. Inhale, soften. Exhale, go deeper and then come back to center and inhale.

Exhale and curl down. Roll through your spine. Release, release. Release down. Once down, arms long by your side, and you inhale the leg across your body around. Exhale, back to center. Inhale over around. Exhale, back to center. Can You keep that right? Sit bone long as your leg comes in the right sit bone stays long. Your tail stays heavy and long. That's it. Yes, and reverse down around and come back in. That's it. Inhale. Exhale foot to head, leg related to spine. It's not just about the hip socket, it's about the whole body. That's it. Yes.

And bend that knee and float that leg down toward the mat. Bring the other one in. Keeping the left sit bone long as you float that leg in. Hold that leg close to you, and as you extend the leg, keep it close to you so you can really feel the hamstring support to the spine. Take it back. Yeah. Inhale. That's it. Excellent.

Nice. Nice, Nice, Nice. You see the difference? Inhale, exhale. And that feeling, right? Inhale, eh. Exhale. Yes. Right. That's it. Yes. Good. And then you send that like away from you and walk up that leg. Send the weight away from you. Reach that leg away from you. Yeah.

Reach toward one another with your foot. It's like your tentacles are going toward one another. Yeah, yeah. Connect. That's it. Inhale, exhale and walk back down. Send that like a way curl, right? Yes. And again, curling up, sending that leg forward, reaching forward and feel how it lifts you up. Good. Stay up and circle right. Opening up, feeling the helix, the full helix of the foot.

It's it spiraling, and then each direction, the other direction. Yes. Beautiful. That's right. Inhale there, exhale and walk back down. Left side always needs a little bit more. Yes, and it says, give me one more time and curl up. Reach that leg. Send the weight of the leg away from you. Very nice. Very good. Yes, yes, yes. Stay up and spiral to the left, right hand on the mat and feel the internal lift as you ground yourself.

Inhale, soften the knee. Feel the space. Exhale. Move into the space. Deeper spiral. Inhale, soften. Exhale. Feel how the deep breath, the shoulder blade to deep belly goes deeper into that spiral. Righ. Each time you soften your knee, you get more space in your spine. Exhale, you go deeper. That's it. Yes. Beautiful. Yes.

And then come back to center and gently rolled down. That was gorgeous. Yes. Roll, roll. Roll down. Arms long by your side, and you take that leg across your body around and bring it in. Inhale over. Exhale it in. Inhale, exhale over, round and up. Over, rounded up, over, round and reverse down around, and come back in, around, and in. Inhale, exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Last one, and fabulous. Great. We're going to go right from here into a movement that I call reverse spinal. So you're coming up onto sitting feed in front.

Hands are behind, right? You allow your inhale, and as you exhale, send your knees over your feet and lift your hips. Press down to lift up, right. Inhale, soften your knees and elbows. Exhale as you lift up, inhale and exhale, and then sit down towards your hands and move your hands into the external position outward. All right, and again, press down, fill the back of your arm. Inhale, exhale, feel your feet, curl, your tail float up, right. Inhale, soften. Exhale, how the shoulder blade to belly lift your hips. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale, and then sit down. And this time we go into a full external rotation.

So we're toning the whole shoulder. Press down as you inhale, exhale and float up. Inhale, exhale. Inhale. Open up your hands. Feel your whole hand in relationship to the lift of the shoulder blade to deep belly. Feel the press of your feet in relationship to your hamstrings and midline, and then sit down. Good. Yeah. And now you're going to press you take your legs wide. And this is another core coordination movement.

We're gonna press down and as you curl up, lift up, right, stand on your feet. And then from there, just move your feet in one direction. You're heading the other direction. Breathing naturally, moving from side to side, keeping your hips lifted, and then sit down. So the feeling you're looking for is if you feel your feet are coming toward you, move your hands back a tiny little bit so your legs are moving that way. Okay, inhale, exhale and come up.

Soft knees, soft elbows lifting, and then theater going one way, head or looking the other way. And you go from side to sides. Breathing naturally and then sit down. Beautiful. Now you're going to lie on your side. You're going to stand on the bottom foot and the other foot's in front. So the most important thing here is the lift of the low ribs.

Notice here on a side bend. Now I'm more in line with my hips. See that? So you're lifting the lower ribs and from here, feel your foot standing foot. Feel your arm, fill your head, connected through your pelvis and just turn and look back and front. So feel the rotation all the way through your spine as you look around and how that's talking to all of your deep spinal muscles. Good. Now we come back to center.

And now from here you may want to continue doing that. This is where you're building strength with what you're doing and yet staying out of your shoulder and neck. So from here you press down through your foot, down through your arm and lift your hip. You want to feel that you can stay up for at least five seconds. If you feel like it can be up and that feels free to you, then you can turn again, turn and look and sit down and change sides. You see how we're just, we're talking to our bodies very deeply.

Feel your foot. Feel both feet. You're standing on your feet. The first thing you want to coordinate is the lift of your low ribs. So you feel your hip, your foot, and your arm. Take the weight as you free up your spine. And then you look turning and looking very good. And then we come back to center. And now you stand on that foot standing on both feet.

You press through your foot, foot to head. As you stay up, feel the support. And then from you turn and look. So you can feel the spiral, the internal spiral from the support. The whole goal is to feel like there's a freedom in your spine. Your ribs are not gripping, your ribs are soft.

It's internal support. Moving you not gripping ads, core coordination. And then we released down. Beautiful. Come back to center. Take your theraband. And from here you're sitting up, place the band under your feet. Allow your inhale. Exhale, straighten your legs. Walk your hands so that you can feel that.

How can you rest your arms, right? So hold close to your feet. Hold your band really close to your feet. There you go. Yes. So you get the waterfall down the back. See that? And now from there, soften your knees and kicker isle to the Mat. And then from there, send your feet away. As you send your feet away, begin to float your head. How do you come up with as little tension as possible?

Just feel the float. What can you do with your arms? How can you use less effort in your arms? How can you feel the waterfall more waterfall? How can the band give you more reach? That gives you more lift and then soften and release the, and one more time. Flay with sending your feet away.

Just enough to come up. Take your legs wide open and close and open and you just bringing them slightly close to or you can bring them all the way to center and you open and close. Beautiful. He's wonderful. Yeah, you just take a mate. Okay, beautiful. So go from there. The seal. Take your hold your legs inside. Right?

So find your hover. Find the roundness. Yeah, your foot to your head. From your tail to your head and just feel the freedom in your hip socket. Yes. And from there, rollback. Inhale to roll. Back. Clap, clap, clap. Exhale.

Forward, clap, clap, clap. So feel that softness. What's just enough pressure in of your hands, your feet into your hands. What's just enough that allows you to feel lift that allows you to let go and your hip socket. What's just enough? Yes. Good. And this time as you coming back, cross your legs, press down and come up to standing. So go back. Hell and press down.

Good. Now stay up and go back down, down. Go back, change the cross and come up and go back down. Down. That's it. Yes. Keep going. Okay. Yeah. You're strengthening from Mendez, gravity based muscles all the way through. Yeah.

Woo. And Stay Up Rabo Bravo. Gorgeous.

Comments

4 people like this.
Profound! Thank you, Wendy! New favorite class to add! For years I've known about the waterfall down the back ... but, down the back, down the legs all the way to my feet was an image that just transformed everything for me! At last!!! I think I'm starting to get what all this business is supposed to feel like! :)
1 person likes this.
Love this class! And Wendy, love your spontanious laugh at the end! :)
WoWeeKaZoWee !! Bravo is Right On :)
Thank You and how fun was that ending !?!
I have watched the session three times now each time gets better. Having looked at Anatomy trains theory I now feel a greater understanding of its relationship to my teaching of Pilates.really well done,love the laughter
4 people like this.
thank you so much, Mirian, Heikki, Yugonda and Steven, for your great feedback. It was very special being with your great energy, Heikki! We are building awareness of the deep intelligence of our body in relationship with the gravitational field, and how that informs how we do an exercise so that it grows us instead of keeping us stuck in cultural beliefs. It is a very profound conversation which grows us physically, mentally and emotionally on every level. This is very different than "just doing an exercise one way" which keeps us stuck in performing movements, rather than inner awareness of how we move and can help ourselves. There's more to come....so stay tuned!
Wendy, I love your lovely personality. Great class, thank you!
thank you, Anita....as you know, you can only recognize what you can embody yourself! I'm glad you got value from the class...it was so much fun to be with these inspiring teachers!
1 person likes this.
So much fantastic rotation...can't wait to share. And that seal ending. Shazammm ... Where rubber meets the road. Thank you
thank you, Jennifer....as you can see, when we move with an internal support of breath, and gravity as a partner, we can let go of abdominal gripping and sense deeper rotation.....this awareness allows us to get a FABULOUS fascial release from foot to head and hand - a whole body massage while moving!
1 person likes this.
Wow! Excellent class and your comments here are just as enlightening:) thank you Wendy!
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