Class #528

Upper Body Mat Basics

60 min - Class
13 likes

Description

Join Niedra for a basic Mat class with a focus on shoulders and upper body. By using little Hand Weights while doing the exercises the shoulders and upper body are both stabilized and challenged.
What You'll Need: Mat, Hand Weights

About This Video

Transcript

Read Full Transcript

Okay. So we're gonna do the regular map with, but we're going to add a few little kind of fun touches and add on on some of the exercises we've been starting to work on in the last few weeks before we actually start with do just a few stretches just to open the body up to clasp your fingers together. And first of all, just crack, crack, crack. Stretch the arms out in front of you. Take the arms up. Now let the shoulders go up and then stretch the elbows way, way up and pull the chest forward and the arms back just to open up the upper body, upper chest. Debbie, stretch your elbows even more. That's it. Now bring the hands down. Have a look at which index finger you have on top and flip the hands the other way. And again, stretch the arms forward. Stretch your elbows, Tim, if you can.

That's it. And then lift. And as you lift up left, especially if your shoulders are tight, see if you can stretch the elbows and bring the chest forward and the arms back to Rady. Open up the shoulders, right in the armpits. Stretch the elbows even more. Yes, that's it. And bring the hands down. Very good. Clasp your hands behind your back. Lift your chest and squeeze your shoulder blades together.

And really pull the shoulders way back to stretch the skin right under the collarbones as much as you can. Very, very good. There you go, Tim. Very good. Okay. Bring the hands down and now bring the hands in front of you. Turn them back to back. Cross them so one hand and clasp your fingers together.

And now bring the hands in and see if you can stretch them out. So this is gonna work. Yes. Into the arms and arm bones. Bring them back. Stress them out again. Keep them class. Bring them in. In this time, how close can you get your elbows? So you will let the shoulders kind of roll forward a little bit and now see if you can move them out. Bring the elbow. That's it. That's it. That's it.

That's it. I know this is kind of freaky. Even more elbows close and see, that's it. And back. And one more time just in and out. Very, very good to start, Tim. Oh my goodness. Look at you and back. Bring them in and out. And that's the one that's hard right now. Have a look at which bring them back to normal, to him. Bring it in through.

Just back to the normal class. Have a look at which arm is on top. Flip the hands. Flip the hands. Now it's a lot to do. You're basically starting to loosen up the elbow, the shoulder, the elbow, the wrist, the fingers. So it just gets a little bit into everything. So as the hands come in, bring the elbows as close together as you can. Let the shoulders come forward and then see if you can roll them out and then bring them. So sometimes it takes a few times doing this again, stretch them out a bit and back.

That's it. That's it. Debbie. One more time. You like a puzzle. You are a puzzle and now you're doing it. Some of it's a bit tight. Just finding the way there it goes. There it goes. There it is. Yes. Okay. That's it. That's it. Good. Good, good. Wendy, shake your hands out again. One more time. Clasp the hands and stretch them up and lift the chest and stretch your elbows.

Okay. Bring the hands down. Shake your hands out again and I'll see what it feels to lift your sternum up a little bit more wide. The shoulders. Yes, that's very nice. Good. Now Cross your feet. Cross your hands, pull the powerhouse in an app and then see if you can sit down. You can move one foot backwards. If you need to sit down on the floor and cross your hands. Make sure your little weights are near you and then roll down on your backs so you're lying flat on the mat. Tim, Bend your knees, bend your knees, Tim. Good. Now take your mat, your little weights, grab your little weights and you will be placing them.

When I saying like spike your weights into the mat, you'd like digging them down there more to anchor the arms or place a hands law and literally press your hands a little closer towards your heels so you use up the length in the shoulders down. And then use that length to open the collarbones and then use that openness and press the back of the floating ribs down and pull the stomach muscles up, Carl and lengthen the shoulders away from the ear. Back of the neck is nice and long. Now with the all of that placement organized, narrow the hips in the inner thighs and lift your right knee towards your chest. So we just do normal warmup, right knee to the chest and lower back down, keeping the shoulders nice and wide and left knee comes up and down. Eyes wide, shoulders. There it is, right, like comes up and down and keep lengthening the arms away from the shoulders and left leg comes up and down.

Very good and right leg comes up and down and left leg comes up and down. Now check that the shot. Put the foot down, narrow the hips. Check that the shoulders are wide in our lengths in the arms away from the shoulders. So you reach with the arms, but you don't let the shoulders go narrow and then you would stand the neck long in opposition. So narrow the hips. Keep the shoulders wide. Lift the right knee up again. Lift the left knee up. Narrow the hips here. Nice tight buttocks. Put the right foot down, put the left foot down, lift the left knee up, and the right knee up.

Tim. Very good. Put the left foot down and the right foot down. Lift the right knee up and the left knee up. Put the right foot down and the left foot down. Lift the left knee up and the right knee up. Put the left foot down and the right foot down. So again, narrow your hips so the inner thighs at tight.

Keep the shoulders really wide. Fill up the back ribs and pull your stomach in. And our links in those little weights away from your shoulders that sit, windy, and lengthen your head away from your shoulders. So the back of the neck is nice and long. This is getting better. Nice and long. Good. Now with the hips narrow, lift both knees up into your chest. Both knees come up and both feet float down and both knees come up and both feet float down and both knees come up and both feet float down and both knees come up and both feet float down. Very, very good.

Now lift both arms up with the weights up to the ceiling and get the the weights just above your shoulders. And then let the shoulders sink into the mat so you PR sing the arm bones down into the mat. Now lift them off the mat and reach to the ceiling for the shoulders. Come off the mat and then let the shoulders go down into the mat. And if the shoulders off the mat and down into the mat, one more time, off the mat and down into the mat. Very good.

Now just turn the palms so they face the center, the feet and keep the shoulders on the map and take the arms back over your head without the shoulders changing position that sits. Even go all the way to the floor without the ribs coming off. And then bring the arms up again. Yes. Good. Check that the shoulders are still on. Why? Take the hands down to your hips. Hands down to the floor. Other direction. Carlin and then lift.

Broaden the shoulders here. Why lift the arms up again. Check that the shoulders are wide and start floating the arms over your head towards the floor. Keeping the collarbones wide. This is so good. So good. That's to keep the ribs on the mat if you can, Wendy. Yes, that's it. Good, good, good. Bring the arms up again and take the arms down to the floor. Keeping the shoulders wide. Yes. One more time.

Lift the arms up broad shoulders. Take the arms back and keep the ribs going down. That's getting good. Bring the arms up and down to the mat. Excellent. Excellent work. Now from here, Spike your, your, uh, um, little weights into the mat. Lift your head and chest and stretch them a little further forward and then lower back down. So they'll slide back and lift up and reach the weight.

Slide them a little forward and lower back down and lift up and slide the weights a little forward and down. And one more time. Lift up and slide the weight forward and lower back down. Very, very nice. Now when we do the hundreds, you won't be pumping the arms, you're just going to be holding the shape and doing a slow breath in and a slow breath out. So it's the same concept, but you're just going to be holding the shapes of the focus. Today is going to be on a deep, deep, deep exhalation where you try every time to squeeze abs a little bit further than normal. So bring both knees into your chest, right. Lift your head and chest up and slide the arms further forward.

Lift the legs up to the ceiling. Take the legs out in slight Palati stance. Now deep breath in and breathing out. Pull the stomach and stretch through the weights. Breathe in and breathe out and reach the arms even further. Good. Carlin, breathe in and breathe out and stretch and deep and into your powerhouse. Yes, and breathe in and breathe out and squeeze the stomach deep and tight. Breathe in and breathe out and pull the stomach in, in, in, in, in. Breathe in. Breathe out two more times. Breathe in and breathe out and pull the stomach way in. One more time. Breathe in, breathe out. Now bend the knees into the chest and exhale even more.

Put your head into the mat. Put your feet to the mat and rest. Very, very good work. Now using the weight, stretch your legs out. Lift the arms to the ceiling. Let the shoulders melt into the mat and take your arms over your head and reach them way back. Then bring the arms up, lift your head and and see if you can roll up with the weights.

Roll Up. Let's see. Sometimes it makes it easier to stretch forward. Let the hands come down to the floor to help you get more length here. And then lift the arm slightly and roll back and pull your stomach in. Let your head roll down. Roll down, roll down, Tuck the tail under you. Good. Take your arms over your head. And again, bring the arms up, hollow out your chest.

Pull the stomach in and roll. Lift your head in, chest and roll. Roll. Roll at the hands. Go down so you have even more stretch. And then roll back. Shoulders away from your ears. Use that valley roll, roll, roll, roll and arms over your head. And again, bring the arms up. Lift your head in, chest and roll. Roll. Good. Good. Look at that. And stretch told you it can help you.

And roll back. Roll, roll, roll and the arms over your head. And last one, bring the arms up, lift your head and chest and Groll through the spine. Po Po, Po, po. Very, very good. And then roll back down. Roll back down. And when you come to the mat, put your hands on the mat, on the floor by your thighs. Very, very good. September in the hands, down by your size. Very nice. Now Ben both legs up on the map and lengthen the spine out again in check that the shoulders are nice and broad and spike the mat, the weights into the mat so they arm bone some long.

Lift your right leg to the ceiling for single like circles and turn it out and keep the shoulders wide. Little circles starting to the left. Circle one circle to circle three, circle four, circle five. Reverse it. Circle what for me, right. Pop the like three and four and five. Keep the leg here and legs in the other leg. Straight down on the floor and start again.

Circle one. Circle to circle three, circle fourth, circle five. Reverse it. Circle one. Circle to circle three, circle four, circle five. Reach up with your hands and the weight and hold the leg. That's it. Whoa. Behind your hamstrings for you Tim. A little lower and keep your head down though. Wendy head is down.

Leg is turned out. Hold lower down, closer to the hamstring and use the weights to gently stretch your leg a little bit further. Shoulders wide team. Keep the shoulders. Why t don't want the hands too high or the shoulders right up. Now your hands on the mat and slowly lower the legs down. Long legs, long stomach, broad shoulders, tiny waist. Good work. Bend both knees up on bend, both knees up.

Check that the spine is long. Check that the shoulders are wide and the stomach is in. And if the left like to the ceiling again, long arm bones slightly turned out like and circle one. Circle to circle three. Very nice. Circle four, circle five. Reverse it. Circle one. Circle to circle three, circle four, circle five now and cause this length in the right leg on the mat.

Both hips down. Narrow the hips and start again. Circle one, circle two. Good. Circle three, circle four, circle five. Reverse it. Circle one. Circle to circle three, circle four, circle five. Hold the leg with both hands right on. Low down on the hamstring so your shoulders don't come off the mat. That's the tricky part. You want to stay wide here and then give yourself a good stretch.

Yes. Now put your hands in the mat and slowly roll down. Long leg, tiny waist, foot port. Fill up the back ribs and stomach into the mat. Both arms over your head. Nice. Lift, stretching way, way, way out. Good. And roll up to a sitting position. Roll up, arms up first. The Wendy. It'll help. Row, row, row.

Good. Good, good, good. Awesome. Okay. Very nice. Wait, wait til you get out. So pop your bottom forward. Yeah. Well, let's see here. Let's hold underneath your knees. Elbows wide, feet together.

Pull shoulders down and roll back and row up. So there's gonna be more weight and up. Good. And roll back and row up and rollback and roll up. Keep the head forward. Looking down into your navel. Two more time to roll back. Roll up one more time and roll back and roll up.

Very good. Take the hands and with the weights and hold by your ankles. So more weight. Now get tighter in. Check that the shoulders are down. Yes. So the elbows are going down right now and see if you can stay tight and roll back and forth again. Roll back and roll up.

That's it. Roll back and power up. Good. Roll back and power up so you're massaging your back two more times. Shoulders Down Wendy, and power up. That's it. That's it. One more time. Roll back. Roll up and put your feet down. Nice work. Okay. Stretch your arms out.

Pull the shoulders down and let's have the palms facing the floor. And now roll back and Tuck your tail and pull the stomach in and hold it. Shoulders down. Roll another inch back. Pull the stomach in, shoulders down, roll back another inch. Shoulders down, and then finish the roll all the way down. Nice articulation, nice control all the way onto the mat. And just rest for a minute. Broaden the shoulders, roll your head to the right. Roll your head to the left and back to the center.

Now Spike the weight into the mat again. So this sideways for single leg circles. Bring both knees into your chest, curl your head and chest up and stick the hands and slide them a little bit further forward. So we'll doing single leg stretches but without hands. So we're just holding this position and left leg goes out. Right knee comes in, switch your leg. The left knee comes in.

Switch your legs, right knee in and switch. So really pull the knee up to the shoulder, knee up to the shoulder, knee up, and reach the arms away from you. Reach them up and switch and switch and switch and switch and switch and switch both knees in and slowly roll down onto the mat. Broaden your shoulders here. Lengthen the back of your neck and roll your head to the right and roll your head to the left. Keeping your shoulders. Why? One more time.

Roll your head to the right shoulders. Why Tim? Yes. And Roll your head to the left and back to the center. Very good. And bring your feet down. Now double light stretches. We're going to do the same thing. No arm work for the first variation so you can just work the upper body.

Use the weights to help really lengthen the shoulders down. So bring both knees into your chest, curl your head and chest up and reach the arms a little bit further. So call and lengthen the arms out. And now bring the knees even more tightly in and pull the stomach in. Stretch your legs out, bend the legs back and pull the stomach in and stretch and in and stretch and in and stretch. And in. One more time.

Pull the stomach way in and in. Drop your head down and let the weights come down and put your feet down. Very good. Now broaden your shoulders again. Roll your head to the right Rody head to the left, back to the center, and double leg stretches again. This time without the weight. So we use that, the hat, the arms as well. So both knees come into your chest, curl your head and chest up and grab your ankles and pull your feet tightly to your bottom and pull the shoulders away from your ears. Now tight belly, stretch your arms and legs away right by your ears. Circle and in and we chill.

You like the diver in a very hollowed out shape and in and stretch. Very Good Wendy and in, keep that chest lifted the whole time and stretch. Don't change shapes. There it is. And in and stretch and in. One more time and stretch and in. Head down. Feet down.

Very good work. Relax. Nice. Really Nice broad shoulders. Roll your head to the right. Roll your head to the left. Come back to straight and scissors. Hold onto your weights again.

Curl your head and chest up and bring your knees into your chest. Lift both legs to the ceiling. Now with the weight, take your right leg and pull it toward you. The weights are going to give you us extra stretch. Double pose. Switch your legs, double pulse. Switch your legs, double palsy. Switch your legs. Tim. Keep quiet in the body so it's just the leg.

Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul. Thanks. Come up. Bend your knees, head in, feet to the mat, and rest. Take a breather. Very, very nice. Now lower lift, believe it or not is going to be a little bit easier with the weights to anchor you. So bring your knees to your chest, curl your head and chest up. Reach the arms away from you and lift the legs to the ceiling slightly. Turn out, lock the hips in the powerhouse and lower the legs a little bit away.

Reach with the arms and bring the legs up and lengthen out. Pull the stomach up and lift and lower the legs and lift and lower the legs and lift. One more time. Lower. Reach the arms away. Lift. Bend your knees, feet to the Mat, head to the math and rest. Very, very good. Now the next one we started working on last week, it was called rolling over. We're going to do what here with the help of the weights, we're going to partner with each other because sometimes at the beginning this one's a bit tricky. Going to demonstrate with Wendy so we know what to do.

So when do you going to lie? You don't know what's happening. So when we do rolling up, when we do that, sit up. You're rolling your chest up. Now you're going to roll your bottom up in opposition. You remember that one? So just to review what's going to happen, bring your knees to your chest and if you're like straight up to the ceiling and now see if you can press the weights into the mat. Um, no, no, you want to hold them just like that. So when they have a look, you really want to push down. It's actually gonna help you now keep digging.

Keep digging the weights into the mat. Start. No, no, no, don't you? You're rushing ahead of me. Yeah. Straighten your knees. There you go. So very important. Keep your knee straight and just keep the hands pressing down. It's going to be easier than you think.

Now start to bring the legs up and I'm going to help you bring the legs up and take your feet. Not to the ceiling, but towards the floor. Feet towards the floor, towards the floor, towards the floor and reach the hands away. There you go. Open your legs towards the floor. There it is. And now slowly roll down stomach in. Nice Rolling Movement. So there's this natural instinct of flight and legs up, but you want to think of them down and bring the legs together.

Keep your knees straight one more time. So this is when you're going to work with each other because first few times it's a little tricky. Your legs are straight, your arms along your stomach is tight and start to bring your feet towards me as much as you can. So all I'm doing is helping her remember feet go down, not up and down. Yes, yes. Feet to the floor, feet to the floor, feet to the floor. So you have a nice look at that. Open your legs, feet to the floor and then roll down. I bet you didn't think you could do that and bring the legs down and legs together and bend your knees and rest. That was great. What was that like different from what you thought it is a big stretch in the back at the beginning if you're stiff, I like to do it the way Wendy's doing it to start to stretch the back out.

It makes you much more flexible and makes it much easier to do the more complicated moves. So let's have Wendy, you're going to help Tim and Debbie. You're going to have Carlin and then we'll flip partners. The person doing the exercise, you use the weights to push them down. It really makes it easier to get going. So you're going to stand on that side. Yes. So hold the weight.

Steam. Press the weights down and both of you brain. Bend your knees. When are you going to be on the other side of Tim and both of the people exercising? Lift your legs to the ceiling. That's right. Lift your legs up. Now from here, start to bring your feet over towards your partner and the person helping put gently, guide their legs over bottom. Keeps coming up. Up. They just to there for Tim, open the legs and then slowly roll down through the spine. Bottom down. That's it. That's it. That's it? Yes.

Good, Wendy. Good. Bring the legs together. Good. That was good. One more time again. Nice and easy. Gently helping presses legs. That's it. And then open the legs. You want to hold his feet evenly so he has a nice sense of stability. And then you roll down, roll down, roll down, bring the legs together. And one more time bar.

Tighten your barracks and stomach and lift your bottom up and take the legs over. Lift up, bottom over, bottom over, bottom over more and more and more. More, more. Open your legs at the same time. Stretch your knees, stretch your knees, tighten your buttocks and roll down with Nice control in your bottom and then your stomach. So she doesn't need a lot of help. She just needs to be bullied into doing it right. Okay. Bend your knees and change partners. That was very nice. Very good work.

How did, how did that feel? Okay, good. Good. It will keep getting better. So change partners. So to stretch your knees, broaden your shoulders. Yes. Tie. Stretch your knees, tighten your barracks. That's it. Start to so no ucs is lifting up.

Take your feet towards Collin there and roll and feet. Go down. Feet. Go down, feet go down, feet go down to the floor, open your legs, stretch Unis, tighten your bags a little bit and roll down. Keep her legs apart. Roll down legs apart. Row, row, row. So the trick is to keep thinking of protecting your feet towards the floor. Now to the ceiling. Have a go again. Good, good, good, nice.

Straight stretching. Oh yes, yes, yes. Okay. You want to do it time? Yes, it's the ready to do it again. It is intense, but it's a very, remember the feet go down and you keep rolling your bottom out. Open the legs, right. Stretch your knees. Good and roll. Bottom tight. If you can keep your head on the floor and pull your belly in so you roll through the spine. Very good. One more time. You've done three times yet. Okay. Knees, straight, knees straight.

Stretch your knees and think of lifting your bottom and bringing your feet towards. Call and call down. That's it. Keep her feet together. Keep her feet together there. Stretch your knees open, stretch your knees and then roll down. Roll down. Hold on. That's good. When they stomach in stomach, in stomach in very good. Bend your knees with some, a little stretch and put your feet down.

Oh, okay. All right, so come up to a sitting position. That was very nice. Now this is intense partnering, helps you open your body more quickly. There's a few different variations of how this exercise can be interpreted. I just like to start to get you. You're all beginners here, but you've been doing this for a while and it's going to loosen up your back quite a bit. I know it feels kind of like, wow, I'm doing something right now, but you'll feel you're much more flexible and it'll be easier for you to do. Rolling like a ball and even the next exercise. Spencer forward now, so no weights.

Stretch your knees and lift your arms up and now really lift up the stomach. Lift up the spine, shoulders way down. That's it. Now take a deep breath in and type your buttocks and start to drop your head and round and reach forward with the arms as you pull your ribs back and up and call and keep your hands shoulder height Tim too. That's your head dives right down between your arms and then roll back up again and sit up tall. Shoulders down, lift your chest, stretch your hips, tighten your hips, tighten your hips, tighten your hips, their shoulders down, and again, drop your head and start to go forward. Reaching Long. I like to have the feet reaching long as well. Roll good, and then roll back up. Roll back up, roll back up.

As you come up the shoulders come down. You lift up through the crown of the head. Now everybody tighten your bottom and get taller. Yes, that's it. One more time. Drop your head and start to go forward. Reaching long, reaching long and pulling way back with the stomach. The head dives right down between the arms. Now stay here, take a breath in and breathing out.

Go a little bit deeper. Say you have a deep stretch and then roll back up. Roll back up. Shoulders glide down, down, down, down, long neck, shoulders down. Tighten your buttocks, get taller, lift your waist up, lift your sternum up and relax. Very nice, very, very good work. Grab your weights for open like rocker and hold them behind your knees so you're actually balancing weights and body.

Take your right leg up and down and your left leg and down and you're right like and down and your left leg and down. Shoulders down and right, like and left like very good. See if you can get both legs at the same time and back and out and back and would hold it and now roll back and come up back. You go roll back and come up and balance and roll back and come up and balance and roll back and come up and balance. Hold it, hold it, hold it and put your feet down. Nice work, but your weights down. Tim, I'm going to have you keep holding behind the knees. Let's have the ladies just have a little stretch.

This is going to be a little bit of a challenge, but this is just fun and games. Lift your feet up and right leg goes up. So same thing, just stretching as much as you can and shoulders down. So when the very good, see you can keep your shoulder down and structurally and that good work and again, shoulder down. Stretch the knee all the way to Debbie and left leg. Stretch the knee as much as you can. Good Tim. That's it.

Really go for that full leg extension. One more time, right, like and down and left like and down. And just for the front of it. Both legs. No shoulder. See if you can balance balance balance. That was an back timber and again, lifting up. It's much harder this way. Shoulders down. See if you can get the legs long stomach in and back. Last one when the whole behind the knees and extend against and get to full extension. Now pull the stomach up and balance.

Let go and balance. Hold it, hold it, hold it and put the legs down. Very good work. Okay. Roll down on your back for corkscrew with your little weights in your hands. So you spike the weights into the Mac again and lift both legs up so small. Corkscrew the hips. Stay on the mat, but really pro broaden the shoulders and draw a small circle. Starting right down, left and up.

And then both legs together. Tim left down, around and up and right down, around and up. Shoulders wide, left down, around and up. Right down, around and up. Left down, around and up. Now Spike the weights into the mat. Stretch your legs. Broaden your shoulders and lower the legs to the mat. Slow, long legs, long stomach, long back, tight hips all the way down. Ah, some work. That was terrific. Okay. Get rid of the weights and go onto your stomach. So just put them to one side.

Roll onto your stomach for preparation for swan dives, a forehead on your fingertips. Knees together. Heels together. Nice narrow hips and long belly. So you really want it like narrow the hamstrings and that's right. Now keep the lower body nice and long and tight, like a little mermaid. Lift your elbows, your forehead, and your fingertips up.

Feet. Stay Down Tim if you can, and lower down. So you hover off the mat and lift up. Elbows right in line with your ears a little bit more. Debbie, with the elbows and down and again, lifting up. Elbows a little wider here and down. Now a little bit higher up, so lift up a little bit more. Lift up again, lift up, lift up, lift up a little bit more and now good. And again, lift, lift, lift and down. And last one, lift up as high as you can. Press your feet into the mat. Squeeze your bottom and down. Very, very good.

Work up onto your elbows. Who single leg kicks? Make fists with your hands. Pull the shoulders away from your ears. Knees tight, buttocks, tight, stomach in. And if the chest a little bit more length on your belly, see if you can look forward to him instead of down and shoulders. Way Down there. Okay, I'll buy that. Good. That's it. Now kick your body, starting with your right foot kick, kick and down. Left leg kick, kick and down. Right. Kick and buttocks, tie, kick, kick and and kick.

Kick and down and kick. Kick and down and down and kick. Kick and down. Very good. Now hold the position. The legs are down, the chest is up. Let's have you light lengthening the head forward and really narrow the buttocks, especially the ladies. This is not our strong point. Now keep the buttocks tight and take your right foot and just bend it in and hold it. And don't let your buttocks release so the hips are really narrow.

And pull the stomach up and lift the chest a little bit more in squeezed foot tighter into your bottom. Really pull it in. Pull it in, squeeze it, squeeze it. Don't release your barracks even more lower than like down. Nice work left like comes up. Squeeze it in, squeeze it in, squeeze it in and down and lower down. Nose to the right and put your hands behind your back for double leg kicks up with excellent. So lying down both hands behind your back and turn your nose to the right, to your left ear is on the mat. So really get full rotation. See if you can your hand right by your waist and your elbows pressing towards the floor to give you that really deep stretch into the shoulders if you can.

Very good now. Nice tight buttocks and bend your knees. Kick your bottom three times. Kick two, three legs down. Pull back and squeeze and lift your chest and other side. Turn your head again. Kick to three, pull back and stretch and lift and first side kick two, three. Pull back and stretch and lift other side and kick to three.

Pull back and stretch and lift first side and kick to three. Pull back and stretch and lift. Last one and kick three. Pull back and squeeze and lift. Lower down. Put your hands under your shoulders and just start to lift your chest up so you come into an arched position. Your buttocks are still tight, your shoulders are back. Tim, that's very good.

Lower back down and sit back into your heels. Stretch your back out. Nice stretch. Now this final lifting up, we're going to be working out to just turn around for a minute and have a look at a few little pointers. It's very, because when we started getting into the more advanced one and swan dive, you want to have your upper back set up, right? So we need combination of flexibility and strength. So when you do this final stretch and you're all getting more flexible, what I don't want to see is this, this happens all the time.

There's a temptation just to push up high and the shoulders are by the ears and the chest has dropped down. So this is not really, it's not going to change your body. It's not going to do much of anything. I'd much rather see all of this work of the shoulders. Why? Just like the shoulder blades back and as much openness in the chest. So this is a more correct back bend than that because this is closing the chest. It's not bending.

This is opening the chest and starting to get all of this upper part of the back that we all get so tight to work and that it's kind of like breaking up cement. But you know what it's cement does give up. So let's have you on your stomach again and it can become jelly with the right all of you. If you notice how much higher you were going when I came and give you a hand. So hands behind under your armpits. Yes. In fact, let's have you move a little bit further down. Now squeeze your shoulders, shoulder blades together. Tim, move the hands down and really pinch the shoulder blade. No that way.

So you create a between your shoulder blades. Now start to lift up. Just lift up a little bit. That's it. And really good Debbie. Squeeze and lift up a little bit more and keep coming up. Just don't let the shoulders close, Tim. Very good. Very good. Wendy.

Yes. Lower back down. Open your feet hip with the part. It will be a little bit easier now. And one more time. Lift your chest, squeeze your shoulder blades together and call and pull the stomach up for you. You're flexible so you need to lengthen up so you don't compress but narrow here and then lift way up in there. Very good. Come down. Sit back into your heels. That was very good.

Nice stretch. Okay. Just a few sidekicks or lie out on your right side so you're supporting your head with your hands. You two ladies will be facing that way. Lie Out on the back part of the Mat, right? Nice long legs, long arms.

So if you're supporting your head with your hands, you want your body in a straight line, this is very good and the other hand is in front of your body. This is starting to look so good. Very Long. Legs, stretch, knees, tight hips. Lift the legs up and bring them forward. Put them down on the floor with your feet flexed. Flex your feet and take the top like lifted a little higher than your hip. Flex your foot team and down and lift the leg and down and lift the leg.

There's your position down and lift. Flex more Carlin down and lift and down and lift and down. You're almost being too good. Lift and down. One more time and lift. Very nice and down. Other forward and back swings. Lift you like hip height. Extend and reach out from your hip, keeping the stomach in swing to the front. And long to the back, double to the front, long to the back, double to the front, long to the back, double to the front, long to the back, double to the front, long to the back, double to the front and long to the back. One day, stacked up on top of the other sidekicks, high point the foot, still the same position. Swing it up and flex it down.

Swing it up and flex it down and swing and down and swing and down and swing and down and swing and down and swing and down and swing. Very good and Tao. Lengthen your waist again. Lift the leg slightly and little circles. One and two and three and four and five and six and seven. Reverse it in one and three and four and five and six and seven and eight.

Take your topic, bend it up in front of you on the mat and lift the inside like up with the foot flux. Then down and lift and down. Very good and lift and down and lift. Stretch that knee and reach through the heel and lift and on point. The foot lifted up, high and middle circles and two and three and four and five and six and seven and eight. Then reverse it and two and three and four. Think of presenting a teacup up here and seven and a.

Put the leg down on the floor. Extend the other leg on top of it. Tighten the hips. Lift both legs up and down and lift and down and lift and down and lift and down and lift and down and lift. Very good and down. Roll onto your stomach for little beats. Forehead on your fingertips. Very good.

Narrow the hips, nice and narrow. Long legs and lift your legs up in the air and little beats, knees straight and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and two two, three, four, five, six, seven. Lift as high as you can form five and six and seven and eight. Lower the legs down and sit back and do heel stretch. Backs out. Nice stretch. Pull the stomach in and lengthen. Way Out.

Very good layout on your other side, so on the left side. Nice, long spine, narrow waist, long late. Make sure your hips are stacked up on top of the other, Debbie. Really long legs, both legs straight, nice, tight, powerhouse. Lift both legs up. Bring him forward and put them down on the floor. Flex your feet strongly.

Really pull the toes up and press into your heels and lift the top leg up a little higher than your hip and lower down. There's your flex and lift and down. Very good and lift and down and lift. Keep the toes pulling up and lift and down. Very nice and lift and down and lift and down.

One more time and lift. Very nice and down. Now lift the leg hip high. Extend through the toes, swing to the front. Double Poles and reach down and back and double calls and long and back and double pulse and long and back. Double pulse and long and back. Two more times. Double pulse and long in back.

Double pulse and long and back. Bring the legs again, one on top of the other. Turn the top leg out. Lengthen the waist again and swing high. Side kicks up and flex down and swinging. Flex down and swinging. Flex down more energy. Debbie swinging frat down, try to get beyond the ceiling and down and swing and flex down and swing and flex down and swing and flex down. Before we go on. When you lift your leg up, if you turn your knee out, the leg is going to go a whole lot further because of the place of bone is in the socket.

So there's a natural tendency to want to turn the leg in a little bit. So I'm just going to go through and help each of you have one sidekick so you can feel this. So call and you do have a tendency to do that. And if you turn out now keep your hips stacked [inaudible] but let the hip bone look how far you will go. You're really loose girl and you could go far, but you need to be sure that the turn the leg gout, yes. That you have this rotation to be able to take advantage of what you've got.

Tim, let's have a look at you. That's the idea. Yes, yes. So as you see how much further, I mean your legs are really starting to come along way and when the only thing is you're doing. You've got the idea. That's why I'm blocking you now. Next level. There's your stretch. Yes, very, very good. Awesome. Okay. Little circles. Now lift the leg up, turn the leg out and it'll circle. Circle one and two and three and four. Turn the leg out, Tim and six. That's it.

Seven and reverse it then one and two and three and four and five and six and seven and a. Take your top like we ended up in front of you on the Mat. Lengthen your stomach in your waist. Lift your inside leg up. Flex your foot up and down and lift and down and lift and down and lift and down and lift and down. Lifted up pointed foot in little circles. Circle one and two and three and four and five and six and seven. Reverse it in one and three and four and five and six and seven and lower the leg down and extend the other leg on top of it. Lengthen the waist, long spine, shoulders away from the ears, especially the top soda. Very good.

Debbie. Lift both legs up and down and stretch the knees, Tim and down. Especially as you lift and lift. Very good and down and lift and down and lift and down. One more time and lift and down. Very nice. Roll onto your backs and be sure you have the little weights close to you for preparation, keys or prep [inaudible]. So spike the weight, check that the angle of the feet is about a 45 degree angle.

You want the knees bend so you don't want the feet too close to you or too wide, just about a 45 degree angle with the knees together and the feet together. And then extend the right leg up without the knees coming apart. So you will work with the weights, but this will actually help. So lift your head and chest and see if you can roll up and stretch your arm forward. Up, up, up, up, up, yes and roll down. So you have the unfortunate situation of having very heavyweight steam up Yukon power and rolled nothing to do with the weight.

I'd prefer you with two pound weights. We just don't have an roll up. That's it, Wendy and down. Good. Okay. Let's have a go with the other leg. Lift the other leg up and roll up and roll down. Keep your shoulders down. Otherwise. Very good. So especially as you come up. Roll up again. Showed us down. That's it.

And roll down. One more time. Roll up and roll down. Here we go. One more time. Up, up, up. Good. And roll down. All right. Okay. Let's have a go with the weights. Lift the legs, bend your knees to your chest. Take both arms over your head. Take the legs to the ceiling. You're reading my mind, Tim. Take your legs out.

45 degree angle and see if you can come up. Roll up, power up, up and roll down and roll up and down. And one more time. Roll Up. Yes, yes, yes. And roll down. Except for Wendy. That's it. Now shoulders down. Wendy. Roll down. Slow stomach in. You pull away from me with your stomach. Shoulders down, shoulders down. Yes. Stomach in, stomach, in stomach in.

Awesome. Awesome. No, you're doing great. Just by bloody, you kind of dig into the next level. So let's move the weights to one side and roll up to a sitting position for seal. So roll up your hands inside and clasp your ankles show. Now this is a thing. It's real easy to be here. See how much you can kind of feel like you're lifting your sternum between your shoulders. That's a cla.

And lift the feet a little bit higher and clap your feet three times. Clap, clap, clap. Roll back onto your shoulders and roll back up again and balance. Shoulders down again. Clap, clap, clap. You're starting now. Keep the stomach tight so it's from the ribs to the pelvis. You want to control? Clap, clap, clap, roll back and come up. And one more time. Clap, clap, clap, roll back and come up and balance, balance, balance and put your feet down. Now that was very good. Come up to a standing position.

Now we did just about everything from the beginner method. We'd left out one exercise. Anybody remember what we left out? Yes? Good. So we're going to do it. Okay. We're going to do it standing good for you. So you want your feet wider than the mat, wider than the mat, and you can have a very slightly turned out, but you, and take your arms to the side. Take a deep breath in and lift up the waist.

And now keep your hips square so you're not gonna flop your, your pelvis around. But take your right hand down towards your left little toe when the left hand up and reach three times. So reach, reach, reach, sit up, sit up, stand up and lift the chest. Other side and [inaudible] reach, reach, reach and sit up. Tall. Stand up. I'm now, there's a way of narrowing the hips. If you pull your inner thighs and narrow the hips, you can create a lock. So the pelvis usually just open. So you want to lock your pelvis and go again, see if you can hold it and keep the stomach in and reach. Reach, reach and lift. Other side reach, reach, reach and lift. First side, reach, reach, reach and lift.

Other side reach, reach, reach, and lift. Good. Bring your feet together. [inaudible] stance, narrow the hips. Again, it's a sense of really, there's muscles that run down the side here. You clamp together. As you clamp them together, you lift up out of the lower pelvis to get length in the waist. Bring the arms straight up in front of you. Shoulders are down yet to be circles. Circle one, two and three. Reverse two and three. As the arms go down, the chest lifts up and again, bring the arms up. Three circles again, circle two, three, reverse two, three.

Bring the arms down and lift the chest. Bring the arms up with the shoulders down and to start to roll towards the floor. The arms, the long the head is long, the stomach is lifting up. Let the arms relax and three circles here. Circle one and two and three. Reverse it. Circle two and three and start to roll up. Pulling the stomach up, stacking the spine up all the way to an upright position.

The shoulders are down, the arms lift up, lift up in the waist, and then float the arms out, lifting the chest, lifting the spine, and just take a moment to feel as though there's a string pulling the top of your head up and the spine is hanging off the top of your head. When did that is looking so good. Nice open, lifted chest, long spine, long legs. Take a deep breath in and breathing out. Let it go. So really, really good work today. Very well done. Yeah, you're all really coming along. I'm very proud of you.

Comments

Liked doing the pilates exercises with weights!
The weights really made a difference for me in some of the exercises
Shoulders feeling open and great..thanks for another great class Niedra..loved the partners helping for rollover
FYI - This video is slightly miss-coded, it uses weights but says no props.
Claudia~ Thank you for your comment. I have added the weight.
This class is truly excellent -- great pace and instruction. Thank you.
Niedra Gabriel
Great that you enjoyed the class Marybeth. it is a pleasure.
I liked this class. working with props is much more fun. Thank you Niedra for this lovely class.
Can't get it to play in spite of reloading 4 times.
Stacie J
Hi, this was a great video until it froze. Bummer.
1-10 of 12

You need to be a subscriber to post a comment.

Please Log In or Create an Account to start your free trial.

Footer Pilates Anytime Logo

Move With Us

Experience Pilates. Experience life.

Let's Begin