Class #511

Yo'lates Mat Flow

55 min - Class
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Description

Cathleen Murakami brings Yo'lates to Pilates Anytime! Yo'lates Level 1 will bring out the best of the basic principles of Yoga and Pilates in a fun, innovative, and creative way.
What You'll Need: Mat, Overball, Theraband

About This Video

Aug 27, 2011
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Transcript

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So, uh, your feet are a little bit apart this ground for a moment. So since I'm grounding energy down through your legs, and once thing I want to offer to all of you, uh, that I've been playing a little bit with is really feeling the energy on the inside of the body streaming through the arms and through the legs. So if you can imagine in the center of your chest, that truly is the root of the arms. You can see that makes kind of a v shape. In fact, when didn't you stick your arms up with your pinky finger energy, reaching through and envision that rooting right here in the center of the chest, in your heart center. So that makes it one big v. And then there's a second v actually, if you keep your arms there, that comes here from the low belly, but between a naval and pubic bone. So there is your second v.

All right. And then the third one, we'll start right here. It's really the pelvic floor, but the top of the inner thigh. So there's three there. So there's one, two, three, yes. Okay. And then we also have that, and you can bring your arms down from the same areas through the legs. So there's three V's up and three V's down. Does that making sense?

So one from here, one from here, one from the inner leg down. Okay. And I'm going to refer back to this later on the class. Yeah. So we're going to breathe in and lift up. Exhale, swinging, bounces down and up and breathe out and breathe in and breathe out and breathe. And it's a little bit of a rhythmic band. There's actually two knee bends to a swing. Okay.

So bend here and bend again. So bend here and bend again. Keep your faces up so I can see you. So we don't bend over too far. That's not what we want to do yet. Yeah. And again, bend and Ben. Karen feet a little bit wider and under add to knee bend. So it's been here and then bend again. So bend and go up. Yeah.

So bend and Co up a little bit. Yeah. And four and 30 ice and two and one. Now we're going to do this with a knee lifting. So when he goes up and down and one knee goes up, so there's a little bit of a weight transfer. So to pause and hang out right here. Yeah, XL, an annex, hail and up. Check out your knees.

They're going right over your toes and not wandering. Trying to leave class early and three awesome. Side to side. One more. Set down, no knee for two and exhale and breathe in. Now as you breathe out, I want you to roll over from the crown of your head. Exhale. Exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale. And you're all the way hanging to wherever you get to. Okay? If your hands do not touch the floor, bend your knees enough so that they can. Very good.

And if that still seems a little bit of a strain, here's the spall the rest your hands. Good. How are you doing, Carol? Good. Need a little bit of, so you rest your hands here so you don't want to just hang over in space. Your body thinks it's falling, so you want to have a little weight on the hands. Okay, sway your hips to your right. Inhale there. Exhale, back to center. Let your head keep paying.

Sway the hips over to the other side. You're not twisting, you're just keeping square to that front edge of your mat. Once more as you saw it or the right, you breathe in and you exhale and you come back. And last one you swell over to the left. Inhale and you exhale and you return. Very good. Inhale here.

Exhale and roll yourself up all the way up. Lift your arms up. Open your arms to the sides. Okay, everybody face in. You might want to come a little bit to the front edge of your mat and let's place the hands on the thighs like so. All right, make sure the shoulder blades are down. You breathe in here, feel a little bit of part Andrea. Exhale and start from the pelvis. Curl. Breathing out, shoulder blades down, shoulders relaxed. Inhale here. Exhale as you stick your tail out. Hold the chest forward, push down on your legs a little bit. That's it. And inhale, exhale and curve is flexing the spa time.

Keep those shoulders down. Inhale there. Exhale and arch. That's it. Really Nice. Breathe in. Exhale and curl rounding. So drop this down. Yeah, we'll keep this. Really don't feel they're lifting. Oh yeah. How do, how do they do that? Mine did their own and again, reach the chest forward and the tail out. Breathe. Last one, drawing down. So it's like doing cat cow on your hands and knees, except you are on your thighs. Very good. Okay, we're stopping there.

We're coming down to the floor and you can take your green band. All right, so you take your band. These are a little bit lighter than I generally use, but they'll still do the trick. Even flat in open knees bent. Place the band around your feet so the toes are not hanging out.

So you don't want to do something like this. Okay? Do not, this is the circle with a slash this is what we do want here. Okay. And our knees are bent. Yes. A little bit and feet apart. There you go. And grab the band down by your ankles. So way down by your ankles.

This stretches. So don't be afraid and there'll be more where these came from in case we snap one. Right? Good. So flex to the heels you're wanting, some of you will want to push to the ball of the foot like so. No, that's Barbie doll foot. We don't want that. Push to the heel. Yeah, super tall sitting. Think about those energy lines. Exhale. [inaudible]. One more inhale. And then as you breathe out, you're going to start curving through the lower spine. Billowing it out, breathing out, keeping the knees bent as much as possible. We're all gonna go down to the waist band, waist band.

That means the 1970s waistband. You know the highway span. Remember those, breathe in and breathe out. Ah, and carry yourself up. Very good. And again, inhale and exhale as you curve curve. So billowing that spine out like the beautiful sail on a sailboat. Nice. Inhale and breathe out.

Beautiful. Coming all the way up again. Inhale. Exhale. This time a little bit further down about to the lower part of your scapula. Just barely touch. Inhale and breathe out. Exhaling. Nice.

But Ba, Ba, ba Ba ba Ba ba Ba straight arms in and again, same spot. Some people say the Bra strap line and to the gentleman I say you've seen a Bra, right? So you know what I'm talking about and inhale and exhale and come all the way up. All right, last one. Our heads will touch. So we will breathe out as we roll back. Ah, head is the last to arrive.

The head is the first rule forward inhaling and you exhale and curve all the way up. Really Nice. Okay. Sitting Cross legged, it tends to close up here a little bit. I would like you to open the chest so I want you to envision your collarbones getting very long underneath as well as the backstabbing wide. So we will breathe in, bend the elbows to 90 degrees shoulder. Okay on that one, inhale coming up and exhale coming forward and inhale here. Be Very aware that you don't push your head out of the way. All right? And coming up and coming forward.

So all four sides of the body, open and long, front side, back side, the two sides and the arms. Continue the side of the body and coming down. And once more, inhale and exhale, stretch the back Carroll and up and lower this time as you come around, breathe. Pull the band and let's have it sort of across the upper shoulders or sorry, the upper shoulder blade route here. So it's about the place, you know before you scrub your back with something. Yeah. Okay. And then put the other leg in front. Alrighty. Twisting to your right.

We're going to inhale and spiral and exhale and return. Very nice and inhale and spiral and exhale, still filling your shoulder blade, super down your back. Check out the wrists, your wrists. If you see that they're doing something like this, remember your arms are like a garden hose. You want no kinks in them. So inhale, keep that energy streaming from the middle of the chest through your fingers, by working some for our musculature and stretching and keeping the wrist flat once more spiraling in and exhale. Very good. Okay, we'll put this down.

Put it aside and take your squishy ball. Alright. Yeah. Okay. So this is what I'd like you to do with this squishy ball is sit up tall and kind of smoosh it down here by your tailbone. So you want to feel that it's snuggled against your sacrum, that that's a flat bone you feel at below the lower back.

And you could leave it there. It's not going to go away. All right, feet are separated a little bit. This level one version, our arms are forward. So reach forward and then pull your blades onto your back or what I call park them on your back without over squeezing in. Okay, so there's equal length across the front collarbones as well as the upper back. Inhale here and grow taller as you exhale, just like you held the rubber band yule curve and below that lower spine into the ball, curving back until you feel it snuggled about in your lumbar spine. Okay, that looks good. So too far is going to be this.

If you feel it pushing you into an arch, you've sort of tossed the upper torso back. So you want to fold right over here, over that Bra strap line and curve forward. So everybody feel a little bit of work here. Okay? Yes, yes or yes. All right. Yes. So yes. All right, so we're going to breathe in here and then exhale every drop of air. Go ahead. Could you feel the work below the Navel?

Yes. Okay, so Clu, the more air you expel, the greater the contraction you feel. Yeah. Okay, so let's do that one more time. Inhale and exhaling. Exhaling, exhaling. Nice. Inhale here and you'll exhale and curl forward. So ride on the breath and bring yourself upright. Good. Okay. Inhale again and exhaling. Curve back.

Good Gym. Good. All right, curve here. All right. Now your head will want to help you like this, so keep your ears back, right. Keep your throat open. You want to look like it's a piece of cake, right? Okay. Now inhale. And as you exhale, float up your right arm, only the right breathing out and you feel the difference. Oh, a little different arm is a little more challenged. Inhale here. Exhale. Lower that arm down. Remember where it's connected here, here, here, other side. Breathe in. Exhale. Shoulder blade goes down, arm floats up. You can stop anywhere along the path. The further back you go, the little bigger tremor. Yeah. Inhale. Exhale, return.

Pause here. Breathe in. Exhale, curl back up. So did you guys feel that little tremor? Okay. The tremor of truth. Okay. That's what we call the term of truth. So you, your day, you decide where you are going to stop your arm because you can feel the further back you go. The more challenged. Yes. Alrighty. So here we go. Inhale. Exhale. As you curve back, breathing out, breathing out in the more air you breathe out, the deeper the abdominal contraction. Good. Think about the v anchors of the arms. Inhale, breathe out and float the right arm up.

Uh, pause. Stay. Inhale. Float the left arm up and he, I'm out. Uh, inhale. Exhale. Lower the right arm. Breathe out. Nice work. One more. Inhale. Exhale. Lower the left arm. Little inhale, breathe out and crawl forward.

Very good. Flex your feet, diamond shape. Open your knees, lift your arms up like we did the very beginning. Arch the back. So arch over that heart center. V collarbones lifted. Inhale, exhale and come upright. Okay, grand finale. Make sure the ball is still in place. Thank you. Go back to your starting position. Inhale here.

Exhale as you lift and curve. Okay. Your attention and intention are one. Breathe in both arms. Any amount. Yeah.

Pause. Inhale. Xcel every bit of air. Oh, stay. Yeah. Hang out and enjoy in the other. The camera won't see you're shaking. Don't worry. Right Perry. Exhale again. One more. Breathe in. Exhale. Lower your arms. Stay with your torso back. Breathe in there. Exhale and crawl.

Full word and up. Diamond shape, little arch. Beautiful. Exhale and open those arms. Great. Hello? Yes. Okay, we're going to put that aside in a way. It's not going to roll around. Hopefully like that. Kay. Scooch back a little bit. Come onto your knees.

Please. Curl your toes. Alrighty, so let's have everybody stepped forward with right foot. Okay, so you're here and your pelvis is level. The tendency will be for the hip of the forward leg here to hike up a little bit. Okay, so think about this. Sit Bone, your rights it bound gently drawing down towards the inside of your opposite knee. And look straight ahead. Soften your face. Feel the torso upright over your back leg. Okay, and we're going to slowly bend the front knee lunging until you feel a gentle stretch in front of your left hip flexor upper thigh. Okay, and hands are lightly resting on your front right thigh without depending on that. Okay. I'd like you to breathe in and lift your arms up.

Think again about the energetic lines I mentioned for the rooting of the legs and the rooting of the arms. So we all feel a stretch in the front of the left Groin. Yes, very nice. Open your arms. Make A, we call this open tiger claw. I got this from a friend, my Bradley. He'll push straight out from your shoulders. That's it. And really push at the base of your Paul. Point, the finger pinky fingers straight ahead. That's it. Drop those shoulders just a little bit. Great. Okay.

Now which leg is in front? Everyone? The right leg. So the right leg is a side we are going to spiral towards. So as you spiral towards the right side, keep your torso upright. There's a tendency to want to bend over. And as you continue to lunch, you may feel a deeper stretch. A little bit. Yes. Okay. Keep the breath moving.

Inhale. Notice your breathing. If it starts to get ragged, your mind is starting to struggle too. So if so, you back off a little bit. One more breath. Exhale. Come all the way back to center. Pause. Lift those arms up. Exhale, look down at the floor or your mat.

Place your hands exactly like you want them. So little clue here. Index finger points. Straight ahead. The webbing of the hands is stretched open. Yes. Inhale, float the back knee up. Exhale, pick the front foot up. Stretch it to the back. Come on into full plank everybody. Full plank. [inaudible] pause, breathe in. Exhale, stretch back to downward facing dog so you can separate your feet a little bit more. Their gym, that's it. Length and from your armpits.

So from your heart center, you're reaching down through the arms and at the same time you're reaching up and over and around and down through your legs. Press your heels down towards the floor, activate them strongly. Very good. Come forward into plank and breathe in. Fire up your inner legs. Connect them to your abdominals, connect those to your arms. Exhale, press back to downward facing dog again so you are aware of your tire body working as a unit. Inhale forward. Fire up the inner leg.

Exhale, press back and we have just one more. Inhale forward and exhale. Press back. Look forward by your hands and step the other foot forward, which would be your left. Now really pick it up softly. Lower the back knee. Good. Bring your torso up, right, square off your hips.

Get them level. Look at your toes. The front left toes are pointing straight ahead. Connect to the deep abdominals and start your lunge. Yeah, bring those arms up. Eyes look straight. Relax your face. Hint of a smile. Just a hint like you have a little secret, a really good one, and open those arms. Index finger. To the ceiling.

Push at the base of the palm. Fire up every cell in those arms and spiral now to your left with the shoulders down. Know that you are correct. Yeah, that way. [inaudible] that's it. Breathing in here. Breathing out. You can lunge a little more. It's okay. And then look out at that view. You get the view. Spot this side.

Inhale there. Relax, relax. There you go. Good. So everybody, be sure that the arm you're turning away from isn't trying to follow and cross. One more breath. Yeah, this is what happens. All right, spiral back to the center. Bring those arms up. Feel the side body long. Exhale, look down at the floor. Place the hands. Inhale, get into the abdominals.

Float the back knee up. You can lift your hip up a little bit in there to help you, but you must use your belly strength to lift the front foot to the back and then press back to downward facing dog. Forward and back again. Breathe in forward. Exhale, press back. Breathe in forward. Exhale, press back. Pull up through those inner legs. Inhale forward. Exhale, press back. And once more.

Inhale forward. Exhale, press back. Very good. Forward into plank. All of you can come down to your knees here, so to keep your plank line as best you can, and Carol, you be careful with your shoulders. All right, inhale, breathe out. And slowly lower to the floor. Five, four, three, two and one. Alright, scooch back just a little bit. Take your ball and your hands. Let me show you one. Your hands are going to go on the top of the ball like this and your face is floated. So my face is about in this position, so it's not down like so. Okay? First movement is just going to be shrugging the shoulders up and down, and as a result, the ball rules. Okay? So I'm not trying to roll a ball, I'm trying to more shrug my shoulders.

There's a little pressure down into the ball. See through your lats fire. We're going do that with breathing five times, okay? Then you will draw the shoulder blades down even more. Think about that Bra strap line and you'll have her the chest, a little slight mini Cobra Arch here, little scooping sensation as though the breastbone is coming down this runway. And then taking off over this ball and then you'll exhale and then return.

And then I'm going to talk you through another little variation. Okay. Arms Straight, palms on top of the ball, pressing from the shoulder blade so you already feel some activity in that area. Take a breath and connect to the energetic lines of the arms. Remember rooting in your heart, rooting in the low belly, Rudy at the pelvic floor and the energy lines of your legs. Also rooting in the heart, the low belly and the pelvic floor.

Three V's and shrug your shoulders up. Breathe in. Exhale, draw them down so your face stays hovering. Inhale and roll. Exhale, pull down. Inhale, roll away. Exhale, pull down. Inhale, roll away. Exhale, pull down is all the lungs are in the armpits. Two more. Breathe in and breathe out.

Last one, breathe in and read that. So we just did some shoulder blade gliding up and down this time. Inhale and start to slide the shoulder blades down even more. Press on the ball flavor, however, the chest up, gaze over the ball. Exhale, stay there.

Relax the upper back in him. Maximize your position in shape and exhale and return. Starting position. And inhale. Chest glides forward. Arms Straight. Exhale and sustain. Inhale, maximize your shape.

Exhale and return. Inhale and glide. Hold really nice. Exhale and sustain. Inhale, maximize your shape. Exhale and return two more. And Carol, you know you could do as, you could do it here. Yeah, do it like this. Okay. So if your shoulders not kind of uncomfortable with the arm stretching, you can modify here and do the same thing.

And just decide with your elbows in I in, you could take a mini mini, mini, mini, one, two day old Cobra and the coming back, right? And we have one more and floating up. Uh Huh. Exhale. Come down halfway and you just hold the position, Carol. Everybody else bring the hands to the side of the [inaudible] ball. All right, take a breath, organize your mind. Exhale, find the abdominals and now you're gonna have to find the lower glutes and your legs. Anchor your pubic bone.

And imagine taking all the weight off of the ball and picking it up off the floor a second, Mitch, and then put it down and once more so stabilizing your tour. So challenging it with this heavy ball full of air and put a town that's very tiny, barely lived in him. It's more like the arms are getting long and return. Last one, breathe and return. Very good. Okay. Child's pose. So stretching back. Separate the knees.

If your buttocks do not touch your heels, put your ball back there and sit on it and I'll feel really good. Yeah, open your knees a little bit. There you go. See how good that feels? Yeah. So if you, if your buttocks don't land on your heels, really what happens is the lower back kind of actually grips and this tight. So when it give something for your bottom to land on that, you can touch that. Yeah. But if you want and just saying, if you can't quite get it back there [inaudible] it'll give you your lower back. A chance to release.

Okay. Very good. One more breath. Exhale it out. And last one and exhale it out. Nice. Okay. Come to your upright seated position.

We're gonna do a little bit of rolling. Stay face to sway. A little view. Okay. All right. Come to the front edge. And Are you all familiar with I'm open leg rocker.

Okay. So if you can do open like rocket with the legs fully straight and not struggle and make a beautiful face, fine. If not, we're going to modify like this. So maybe we all start like here with the knees bent and the arms underneath like so. Good. So check your knees out there pointing towards your armpits and the feet are held up with the shins. Parallel to the floor. Okay. Feel that slight curve in the lower back. Yeah. Okay.

So we're going to close and open. Take a breath, double exhale. We're going to roll and come up in balance. Okay. So it's going to be close. Open. That's all right. And Roll. Roll. All right. So you close and open and rural and rural.

Nice and close. Open, rural and rural. And take two more close. Open roll. Roll. [inaudible] and are open. And Earl and roll. Okay. Now stay there.

This is a dollar work for you to just hold your position. Okay. Am I still on? Good. Okay. Let's see if I can move this over here. All right. This is the next variation. You're going to roll back with your legs apart. Close them while you're upside down and roll up. Keeping them closed.

Got It. Alright, here we go. So let's roll back. Close. Come up. And you're positive with the legs closed and then you open. Alright. And close. Come up. Pause, open and roll. Back. Close. Come up. Pause. Open. Roll back. Close liter size. Prs. Ah, yeah. One more time.

And rollback. Present. Shot. Roll Up. [inaudible]. Stay. Stay. Okay. Guess what? Reverse eyes probably say. Okay. And now the other way. So now you roll back with the legs together. Open. Come up and pause with the legs apart. Close. Roll back. Open. Come up. Pause. Yes.

Close it up. Rural. Open. [inaudible] close and open. Good job. So they were serious business. One more time and you come up and you pause here. Okay. Now stretch your legs. Lean back a little bit. Lower the legs with control. Breathe out, breathe out. Breathe out. Breathe out. Breathe out. Breathe out, breathe out, breathe out, breathe out. Breathe out.

Be that. Be that and sit up. Nice. Okay. You might want to move back just a hair. So let's see the best way to teach you this one cause you're facing in might be to face me. Think so. Turn to me on this one because although this is gonna seem like I'm in a trick mirror. Okay. And I'm first going to show you with my back to you just so that you see what I'm doing. Okay? So you all know the saw? Yes. This one.

A lot of you saw. Yeah. Okay. This little variation. So you will turn, you will reach over, you'll rotate, you'll come up and you'll come back to the center. So it's a little windmilling. Then we'll go the other way you'll rotate, stretch over. This is traditional here. Turn. Let the under that arm pit. So you're looking to the right, you keep looking to the right and then you come back to center. Yes. Okay, so I'll do a cup.

There's a test at the end of class on right and left. Oh, bend your knees if you find it challenging to sit up straight and I'll do a couple with you in this direction. Then I'll turn around. Okay. Right side first, breathe in, breathe out, stretch your left arm over the right leg. Rotate, peek under your left arm. Inhale, Xcel come all the way up and back to center to the left. Inhale. Exhale, stretch over. Feel those back ribs open, rotate. Inhale and exhale.

Come all the way up and to center and to us and reach and rotate. Come up and center and twist and reach. Rotate. Come up to center and twist and reach and rotate. Come back up to center. [inaudible] is it worse now that I'm facing? You rotate.

Look under your right arm. So rotate. Look under your right arm, Andrea. The other way. Now there are none. I'll come up on that right side up. Yeah. And then come back to center. Yes. One word time to us and reach. Rotate. Make it spiral up.

Last one, and reach and spiral come all the way up. Good. Okay. I know. All right. There's not another level to that that I've been able to come up with it. I'll worry. Right. Come to the front of your mat. Sit Cross legged like so. Tuck your feet in pretty close. Place your hands down.

Point the index finger. Straight ahead. Fire up the shoulder blade and feel the relationship of the base of the palm. You want to have your arms apart? Yeah, the base of the palm in relationship to your shoulder blade. Okay. They have like a rubber band of connection. So sync your weight onto the hands. So roll forward, stretch the back leg back and then the other leg back.

Pause in your plank. Bend your knees. So knees underneath your hips. Hands Underneath your shoulders. All righty, so let's organize here. We're going to do opposite arm and leg reach. You know I like them, it's called, they're called McKinseys and back Rehab. But we're only going to do one, one set. So that has to count. Okay. It's more for endurance than for lots of repetition.

Okay. The first place I'd like you to put your attention is on your head and neck. I'm always getting this. This is what I call head in the feed bag. So please bring your head out of the bag. Yeah. And just by doing that, you may feel your abdominal area start paying attention.

Yes. Alrighty. So first thing you're going to do is keep that organized and slowly stretch out your left leg on the floor please on the floor so the toes are still curled okay. And make a connection between the lower glute of your left buttock and your right shoulder blade. Because now you're going to start to take the weight off of the right fan and walk it forward on the floor. So I'd like you not to lift off yet. Anybody. Okay. Not to lift off yet. So don't try to go too far yet. Okay.

But just put barely any weight on there. And here's my invitation to you is defined as though there's a rubber band from the lower part of your right shoulder blade across your body to the bottom of your left glute. Okay? Because now that rubber band is going to pull toward the ends are going to pull towards each other as the hand and the leg float, okay? And you're going to feel that support and still remember those v lines of energy through the arms, even though one hands down on the floor, keep breathing normally. The other place you have a rubber band is from under the side arm pit of the right side across the right rib cage on a diagonal to the opposite left inner thigh. So you have another rubber band in the front of you.

So you have two one in the back and one in the front. Keep breathing and holding. Stay connected to your rubber bands. Front and back. The head is still out of the feedback. One more breath and with control, you slowly bring the toe in the fingertips to touch the floor and slide back underneath you.

Whoo. Okay, take another breath. And then as you exhale this, organize the other side. So reorganize the head neck position and slide the right leg out. Just by doing that, your left hip may want to sway to the side, so make sure you fire up those side hip muscles so you stay really on top of your knee. Think about the rubber band now from the lower left shoulder blade to the lower right glute across the back.

As you walk your left fingertips out, but still touch the floor. You can get the support now from the rubber band of the backside left armpit across to the right inner thigh. As you start to hover the arm and leg. Now what I'd like you to do is make the length of the rubber bands equal on the front and the back equal the back one. We'll want to pull more, right? Can you feel that? Yeah. Hold it. Keep breathing slowly. Land, lightly touch.

Slide the hand and the knee back underneath you and everybody come back on the heels, but don't put your head all the way down. I'd like to round into your lower spine and come up on your fingerprints of your, of both hands. [inaudible] one more breath here. Exhaling, uh, again and exhale. Very good. Okay. And bring yourself up, right. Okay. Let's have [inaudible] everybody faces direction and what shoulder it was your left shoulder, right?

Your right. Shoulder's good though. Okay. And come to your right side. Lie down on your right side and think about this and facing in here and be in something like this. Okay. So if you could organize that, your elbow is straight out from your hip, the side of your forearm, your right form is on the floor. I like to make a fist like this, but it's also an option to put your hand flat like so. Alrighty.

And then stretch your legs out. So they're fully straight, fully straight like this and flex. You may or you longer than your mat. Did you want to get your feet on your mat? Yeah, it might just be more comfortable. Okay. And so the feet want to do something like this usually.

So imagine that I had you standing like this. Okay. So your feet have gotta be flat, like there's a f there against the wall. In fact, you could practice this at home with your feet against the wall too. All righty. Press the front body into the back body and remember those two rubber bands I gave you. Now you have four. So make the x in the front and make the x in the back. Can you feel it? And the rubber bands are actually inside your body, not outside. So you know how the guy, the a, when you have a tent, the tent is held up by those bandy poles, but from the inside.

Same thing with you. So that's your internal support system. Alrighty, you ready? Cross this leg over. Press down into the floor with your right hip and right leg until you can lift your hip off of the floor. Okay, look straight ahead. Everybody in Tennessee will be to this. Look straight ahead at something not moving. Okay, fire up this right shoulder blade a lot. A Lot, a lot. Lift your hip more.

Lift your hip more. Lift your hip more, more, more, more, more, more push. You feel this working here? Good. Now stretch that arm up like you mean it con woo. Good. Breathe. And then come all the way down. We do one. Okay. That was one. [inaudible]. Can we do one more? Okay.

Yes. Okay. So your choice is to do the same thing like this. Like this. Like this. You could even look up there if you'd like it. This thumb. Oh. Or You could let go and do this if you want. All right, so we're nearing a grand finale here.

I hope you realize this. Okay. All right, good. Okay, so we organize their minds on the inhale. Think about the internal rubber band system. Fire up your already firing up. Press your foot down into the floor. Good.

And Go lift up that hip into one straight line. You're not dependent on your left hand arm king go up. Leg can go out. You can stop anywhere along the way. Hallelujah. Look up there. The inner thighs together. Push out through your heels. Think about those v lines of the arms and the legs.

One more breath and hand down, foot down and rest. Food. Good. Other side. That side. Yes. Yeah. Don't do that. You could probably just work on feeling your rubber band. Yeah. Okay.

Do you think you'd be able to see if you actually use a lot of this and a lot of your leg here? Put your leg, flex your foot and put this, put this just for support for now. Okay. If you really get into this, see. Okay. Think about these two rubber bands back here. Don't look down Carol. Look straight ahead at that really interesting wall. Okay, got it. Got It. Okay, good. See, no problem. Okay, here we go. Now you have to do it again. All right. We're good to go. Everyone.

How you doing Jim? Yeah. Okay. Oh, scale. So we're organizing, we breathe in, we exhale, press. See if you already press down on your foot, you're going to feel these hip, lateral, hip muscles fire, so do that with some commitment and then you press up. Yes, that's it. And then you can stretch the arm up or you can look up whole. If you want to go for the two leg right away on the first one, you may go ahead. You have my full permission.

Press the muscles that near the wrist into the floor strongly. And then come all the way down one Morgo [inaudible] and prs yourself up. Stretch the leg out if you'd like. Stretch the arm up. You're pressed between two pieces of glass. Inner thighs working.

Hold [inaudible] one more long breath. Exhale, hand down. Flip down. Arrest. Line your backs. Ah, feed in word please. Okay. Oh, I'm having a wardrobe malfunction. Oh well. Okay. Feet flat. Knees. Bents take a long breath first.

So I'm kind of getting away from saying, I may have said it, but I'm working to get away from saying take a deep breath. I'm saying more. Take a long breath because long actually is deep, right. So take a long rough and where every time you exhale, allow gravity to pull on your bones. So they're sinking. Yeah. Down, down, down.

And one more breath. Very good. [inaudible] from here. Bring one knee at a time. A pants underneath the knees so the knees are aiming towards your arm pits and gently draw in just enough to feel your pelvis rock back and the lower back area slightly press into the floor a little bit more because you're rocking your pelvis so you just kind of pulling and releasing and gently pulling and releasing. You can exhale with each time you kind of try the knees in and one more. Very good. Take your rubber band if it's nearby and you need it for a little bit.

Hamstring assistance. Quick stretch. Place it around your right foot. Make sure that you have some tension between the hand and the foot or the hands and the foot. Anchor your elbows on the floor. Make sure you feel weight down near your tailbone and slightly draw the leg towards you. Knee straight as the sit bone reaches away. Yeah, cross the leg over so that your foot is across your navel a little bit.

You'll feel the stretch change slightly into the side. Back Hamstring your lateral hamstring. Come back to the center. Place your left foot in. Take the right foot out.

Make sure that the left knee is straight. Sit phone shoots away from you. Foot comes towards you. Your breath should be slower now, not faster. Maybe back off a little bit, Andrea. There you go. And reach to your heel. So push the heel to the ceiling more.

There you go there and then it's just as good as trying to get it closer, right? Cross it over just a little bit, not too far. Enjoy that angle, which is usually more intense. Uh, come back. Neutral position in the knee. Stretch your legs out, kind of bounce your knees up and down, and then press your feet down to the floor.

Lift your bottom up and let it land a couple times. Same thing with your upper back. Okay. And then let your arms flop to the sides. Palms up. I'm not going to tell you to do it with your head.

[inaudible] and just for three long breaths, close the eyes. Allow your eyeballs to sing. Okay. Into the sockets of your skull. Your tongue is fat and wide in your throat.

Yeah, and that's probably three long breaths. Very slowly open your eyes. Come back. Roll to your side, maybe to your right side or your left side. Whatever feels comfortable for you. Pause.

Allow your organs to be heavy on that side. Bend your knees and use your arms to help you come up. Right. Alright. Thank you very much. Thank you for coming on a Saturday.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Loved your class- you made the mat class fun with your innovative and creative Yo'lates Pilates!Thanks
1 person likes this.
This was such fun!! A bit hard on the knees at times ( but I got bad ones) I have not done Yoga in such a long while. I really enjoyed the combo of Pilates mixed in along with the Yoga.The instructor is great with her cueing, energy and enthusiam! Really enjoyable. Thanks!
Cathleen Murakami
Thanks to both of you!! @Jamie - you can try REALLY pulling up through your inner leg line (and engaging entire leg) and see if that takes some of the pressure off...if not, I was just at IDEA World Fitness and I saw a gal selling these cool foam "donuts" that you can use to place your kneecaps in....you can email me directly if you'd like me to try and find out here name for you. @ Elaine - glad you enjoyed.....gear up and try the next level!!
Love this class! There's so much power in slow, sustained movement--it's easy to overlook sometimes in Pilates. Excellent cueing as well. More like this please!
1 person likes this.
Great cueing as always! I understand the importance ofslow, controlled movements to build strength but would love to see the Pilates/Yoga combo in a little more of a flowing workout.
1 person likes this.
I loved it! I love your cueing and visualization for the participants. What an enjoyable class
Cathleen Murakami
Thanks so much! @ Jamie appreciate your feedback....when Kristi invites me back, will definitely flow more in the advanced level...I get concerned about positioning and alignment with folks I don't know well, that I do tend to slow things down....@ Roseanne - thank you again! I am so happy my offering works for you!!
Cathleen Murakami
@ Colleen - I appreciate your appreciation! Controlled movement to me is the ultimate challenge...but then, that's just me...
1 person likes this.
Nice relaxing class.
1 person likes this.
I would love more yollates classes! thanks diana
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