Athletic Flow Mat

Hi, everyone. It's Carrie Pajas, and I'm so excited to do this athletic mat flow with you guys. Let's get started standing. Go ahead and open your feet out wide on your mat. Reach your arms out to the side, and we're gonna take a nice long breath in. An exhale, just bend your knees. Allow your knees to open out nice and wide.

Your hips to lower down nice and low and stand right back up. Take that down again. Now, want you to imagine that you've got a magic circle between your heels. Hug that magic circle underneath you, hug that magic circle and stand up. Keep that going as you go down. And up will do this twice more down. And up, imagine that imaginary circle is there.

Take it down. And up, let's add a little twist to this. You're gonna rotate to your left. You're gonna bend your knee come down. Push yourself back up and center.

Go the other way. Bend the knees. Turn to the side. Turn back, bring yourself up again, take it down. Rotate.

Come back. Bring yourself up again. Take it down. Rotate. Back to center. Now we're gonna add a little lunge. So we're gonna bend, rotate, take it down to a low lunge, plant your hand on the inside of your foot. Reach your other arm up towards the ceiling for a big twist and rotation.

Bring yourself back down, reach your arms forward, you're back in that low lunge, back to the middle, bring yourself up, we do it to the other side, bend the knees, rotate side. You're gonna take it down, plant the hand, extend the leg. Reach up. Go for that twist. Bring your arm down. Reach it out.

Center. Let's take that one more time. Take it down. Rotate. Bring the hand down. Reach the leg out.

Twist it up. Come down, turn back, and again, take it down, rotate to the floor, twist it up, come back, back to center, bring yourself up, We're gonna bring ourselves down to the mat now. Have a seat. Reach your arms long in front of you and roll down to the mat for a nice little warm up for our abdominals. Take your legs and reach them long and straight. Have your hands behind your head.

We're gonna make this little prep breath feel like an exercise inhale elbows wide. Exhale raise your elbows up to where you can see them out of the corners of your eyes, heavy your sternum down, heavier your ribs down draw your belly to your back repeat that one more time just to get it in the body, as the elbows open wide, usually the ribs flare a little bit. But as you exhale, raise your elbows up, heavy your ribs down, heavy your sternum down, and get connected to your middle. We're gonna bend the left knee, place it flat on the mat, and with an exhale, raise the right leg up, keeping those elbows lifted with the deepening of the belly, lower the leg down, exhale, lift it too. We're trying to raise our leg from our center three. Inhale down.

Four. Now we add a little curl. Cur it up. Inhale lengthen two. Go down. Two.

LinkedIn and take it down. Three, and four, take it down, add a twist. One, lengthen out. Two, reach it long. Using the exhale to facilitate the rotation, four, bring it down. Last one, bring it up. Now stay right here.

Take that leg, reach it high. With the rotation, lift the elbow high into the sky, lower exhale lift one, four of these two, three, four, up, lower it down. Now hold right here. You're gonna go right to the middle, maintain a nice, high curl, and sneak eight little crunches in three, four, five, six, seven, and you get a moment to rest. Head downflare the elbows, let the ribs expand.

Now we go for our prep. We exhale raise the elbows up, heavy, the sternum, heavy, the ribs draw the low belly tight, surprising yourself by how much abdominal work that is. Open elbows wide, lose it again. Then exhale recreate the connection, ribs down, sternum down low belly tight. Now, then the right knee foot flat, we start to raise our left. Exhale lift it from the deepening of the belly inhale lower the leg. Exhale two. Lower the leg.

Three, lower the leg. Four, we add a curl through the middle first. Cur it one, take it down. Two, lower down. Three. Try not to let those, elbows flop out.

Keep them a little pull forward like we practiced. Now rotate four. Reach. Three. Reach.

Two. Reach one. Now we add a twist and we hold it, raising that right elbow a little higher, take the left leg up and lower, lift it, inhale, exhale one, inhale, exhale two. Inhale, exhale three. Four. Lower it down. Now go back to center.

Both legs reaching out long. Really feel those legs lengthening and weighing you down. One more set of eight crunches. Eight seven six five four three two and one. You get to rest that head for one moment. Reach your arms long, draw your knees up into table, inhale prepare.

Going right into hundreds, draw the chin to the chest curl up, reach the legs to where you like them, and pump those arms, breathing it in, breathing it out. Each and every exhale is an opportunity to curl just a little higher. Allow the very tips of the shoulder blades to just drip to the mat. You can play with lowering those legs a little bit or keeping them high. Whatever feels right, you've got 10 breaths. Breathe it in.

And out two, three, four, five, this is 60. 70. Three more breaths. Holding here, raise both legs up, curl into them, curl into them, curl into them, take the left leg down, rest the head, press your hands into your mat. Its single leg circle crossed the body around, up, two around, up, just three today, reverse it, one around, up, two around, up, three around, scissors, switch those legs the other way. One around, up. Reverse.

Three. Two. One. Now raise the right leg up. Getting ready for the stomach series. We're gonna start with single leg stretch, and then I'm gonna surprise you.

Reach your left leg out. Switch it. Breathe it. And now reach the leg low. Be inspired by that work we did warming up. Link them the leg.

Draw the belly tight. Reach everybody hold, put the hands behind the head, sneak crisscross in, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale one more set, inhale both knees in right into double leg stretch. Inhale reach, exhale around. Breathe it in, don't lean back, exhale around. Inhale three.

Imagine your nose is on a wall. Stay on the wall. Stay on that wall one more time. Five You're right into crisscross again. Inhale.

And two, you see a pattern? Three, don't worry. It's still coming. And five, both knees in its scissors. Inhale. Xhale. Inhale.

Breathe it in. That was three sets, four, four, five, both legs up crisscross again. Inhale, exhale, inhale, both knees in. Here's double leg or butt double leg lower lift, hands behind the head, they go, inhaled down. Exale lift.

Inhale two. Curle off those shoulders. Lift your thighs lower three. Four. Five, and it's a final set of, guess what? Chris gross, inhale, and exhale. Inhale.

Exhale. Inhaled both knees in. You get a moment. Head comes down. Taking a second here, let go of any neck or shoulder tension that may have crept in.

We're going for shoulder bridge now. Press your heels actively into the mat. This is gonna be a flat back bridge coming up with an inhale. And then an articulating bridge coming down, let that exhale match the length of the movement all the way to neutral, do it again. Dig the heels, press up, breathe it in, find that nice connection to your seat with the balance of the belly pulling tight, and we know where our belly is after all that ab work, roll slowly down. So as we're coming down, we go back to neutral, but don't lose the core.

Add the back of the body, third flat back bridge coming up, feel that reach through the arms, and deepening through the belly, roll through the back. Now we're gonna raise the right leg up into table and put the left leg right at about center line of your body for extra balance. We're gonna do a one leg bridge. Take the hips up. Let's roll that down.

All the way back to neutral, dig into the heel, find your seat, raise it up to roll that all the way down. Now on the third one, we dig into the heel, raise the seat. You're gonna cross your foot over your thigh and raise your hips an extra little bit, you may end up with a slight spirit of a swan, hold here, then lower, reaching the tailbone down, breathe in, raise the hips exhale one. Take it down. Raise the hips exhale two. Take it down.

Raise the hips exhale three. Now for a little extra fun, parallel that leg in the air, reach it up straight, lower, lift that leg. Tap it, reach it one. Tap it, lift it, two, tap it, lift it, three, bend the knee, put the foot down, roll through your back. We start the whole thing from the top to the other side. So I'm gonna creep my right leg a little closer to my center line.

Hover my left leg up in a table, dig that right heel down, isolate the seat hips up, roll it down all the way back to neutral, raise it up to rural all the way down now on the third one, dig into the heel, raise up, cross the foot, open through the hips, a slight spirit of swan ear really get up high, then lower the hips. Raise them up. Two, raise them up. Three, you're gonna raise up and hold. Then you're going back to parallel with that leg, extend it up, and it taps one up two, up three, up that many, find the foot on the mat, get those hips up high, and roll down through your back. Take a moment, find that neutral, hand chest, connect front of body to back of body and release.

We're gonna roll over to the stomach next to go through a nice challenging variation on swan, but it'll start with just a regular swan, hands under shoulders, forehead resting on mat. Lift up, press through your hands inhale, exhale all the way back down. Again, three of these. Just a nice, easy lift. Lincoln and bring yourself down.

Now interlace your fingers and place them behind your head. And take a moment in this position and just simply try to pick your elbows up. So this is easier for some us than others. Let the elbows drip down. Do that again. Your elbows rise up You try to open your elbows as wide as you can, and then bring them back down.

Building lots of strength in the back of the body. Do that again, raise the elbows. Now lift into a small extension, go back down, rest the elbows. Do that again. Raise the elbows. Lift to where you can.

Bring that down. Elbows still high, then drip them down. Do a third one. Elbows open. Lift high, and then raise your left elbow a little higher so you can twist to the left.

Come back to center. Take it to the right, right elbow rises up, come back to center. Three sets of this, and back to middle. This is tough. Rotate. Come back to middle one more time, left, bring it back. And last time, right, bring it back. Take yourself all the way down.

Push up to your hands and knees and sit back on your heels, taking just a moment here and being really proud of that hard work. It's super hard to do that extension with your hands behind your head, but super back strengthening. So it's very good for us. We're gonna go on to our hands and knees next. In this position, I want you to take a moment.

And even though we're, on our hands and knees, I want the same amount of focus to your core that you had for that whole abdominal series on our backs. So just take the time to draw the belly up and get connected. Now sustain that connection and reach, I'm gonna take my left arm out and my right leg out. And I'm just gonna hold and be inspired by the previous exercise, getting that strength building in my back and then come back to middle. Do the opposite. My right leg's going out. My left leg's going out.

My right arm is reaching in front of me, and then I come back to middle. Alternateate again. Left arm right leg. Draw up through the belly. Don't rush it. Bring it down.

Right leg, left leg. Reach long. Pull up through the belly. One more set like that. Left arm, right leg.

Hold it. Bring it back, right arm left leg. Hold it. Bring it all back down. Now plan to your hands, find a really nice strength across your arms shoulders and upper back.

Now right leg is gonna come up in a parallel backwards tabletop, basically. So about 90 at the knee, and we're gonna hold. Now I'm gonna try to isolate my glutes to pick that knee up high. Now I'm gonna rotate my knee, out, and my heel down. And now I'm gonna bring my elbow, my, knee in towards my shoulder.

I take that back. I turn it parallel. I bring it in. So here's the pattern with the left leg. Parallel lift, hold for just a moment, really try to isolate the glutes to hold the leg up, then rotate. Now, pull that knee towards the same side shoulder, bring it back, Rotate it down.

Put the knee down. We do it again like that. Up. Rotate. Need a shoulder.

Bring it back. Rotate down. Knee comes down. Other leg up. Rotate. Need a shoulder.

Bring it back. Rotate. Now it gets super fun. Lift the leg. Turn it out. Bring it in. Now take that long leg.

Reach it. Hold one. Hold two. Hold three. Bend it. Rotate. Bring it down. Again, knee up. Rotate it. Bring it close to the shoulder.

Now extend one two, three, bend the knee, rotate, bring it down one more time each leg up, rotate, elbow, knee to shoulder, extend hold one. Hold two. Hold three, then the knee come back. We do it again, knee up, knee opens, take it to the shoulder. Extend hold one. Hold two. Hold three, bend the knee, bring it back, and bring it down.

Sit back and take a moment. Come up to your hands and knees now. Bring your hands right underneath your shoulders. Curl your toes under, and we're gonna play with a little variation on knee stretches. So think about if you're on the reformer, nod your chin into your chest, find your rounded shape, like elephant or knee stretches round.

Then just raise your knees off the mat and hover and hold three. Hold two. Hold one. Place the knees down, but keep deepening in and up through your center. Do that again. Just raise your knees, bring your shins parallel to the floor, hold, and then place those knees back down. Now here's where things get fun.

We're gonna pick the knees up We're gonna hold. Bring the right knee into your body, send it out. Bring it in. Send it back. This is three. Send it back. Exit, four. Send it back.

Exhale five, add a twist to the elbow, reach it back. Elbow reach it back. Three, reach it back. Four, reach it back. Five in the middle.

Pick the other knee up pause, round that shape, send the leg out. Bring it in. To use an exhale to pull that knee in. Four. Five, bring it in.

Now we add the twist. To the elbow, bring it back. Two, bring it back. Three, four, five, bring it back. Hover hold three. Don't lose it now.

Hold it two. Hold it one, put the knees down, lengthen out through the top of the head, send one foot back, other foot back, now leg pull front, one leg up, lower lift, come together. Inhale, lift the leg, heel down and up together, inhale, together, one more set, together, together, knees come down, sit back, take a quick little moment. We're gonna come up and turn around, and it's time for teaser. So I'm gonna start my teaser hands under my legs, and I'm just gonna find my balance point. Organize those shoulders, open back and down, and take a moment here.

Extend your legs up long and straight. Holding them steady, you're now gonna reach your arms out and find that teaser shape. For teaser one, it's three repetitions. Leave the legs where they are. Roll down.

And then bring yourself up using any assist with those arms as needed. Take it down. Two Inhale, tees are back up. Third one, take it down. Bring it up. Now your legs go by themselves.

They go down. Up, two, up, three. Now everything opens apart, legs lower arms come behind the head, lift the arms, inhale, tees are back up. Take it down. Arms overhead. Lift.

Tease her up. One more. Take it down. Lift it up. Inhale teasers you up, bend your knees, scoot your seat to your feet, for seal, find your seal start position. We're gonna do five repetitions into standing, and then the push up series.

So we begin right here clapping the heels. Inhale one, two, three, rock it back. One, two, three, rock it up. Squeeze those knees in on your arms. Take it back. One, two, three. This is Our third rep, we rock back one, two, three, rock up.

Here's our fourth one. We rock back one, two, three. Now on this fifth rep rep, we free the arms and stand up. So one, two, three. I rock back, free my arms, reach my feet down, stand up. I'm gonna turn around. Here's my pushup series, arms lower.

Inhale, tune the mat, to the mat. Walk it out. Two, three option to stay on those toes or drop the knees. Three push ups. Two, three, find the shape. Walk it back. Inhale. Two, three, walk it up. One, two, three, we do it twice more down. Two, three, walk it out. Plant the knees. If you want, go one.

Two, three, Find that plank, walk it back. Inhale, two, three, walk it up, two, and three. Here's our last one, walk it down. Two, three, walk it out. Find that energy through the top of the head, then push one, then push two, then push three, find that plank, walk it back control from your center, two, three, up two, and three. That is gonna cook you for today. Thanks for joining me for this athletic Mat flow, and I'll see you next time.