Super Strength Mat

Hello everybody. Tracy Mallett here. We are going to be doing a pilates math class with strength. I know as we age how important it is to add strength training to your program. I'm in my fifties and as much as I love Pilates, I also love strength training too because it gives me results. So why not put the two together?

So this is kind of what the workout's going to be. So we're gonna start with some light weights and also some heavy weights. So I'm gonna let you choose what you're light and what your heavy weights are. I'm gonna tell you what minor but you're gonna be different. You're gonna work at your own level.

I have got three pounds because I'm gonna be going for high reps and using them through the transitions and for some of the classic exercises. Adding some weights to say a teaser. So, yeah, you don't run through the door yet. Come on. We haven't started yet, but I've also got eight pounds too because I wanna work a little bit heavier for my back and for my arms. So I'll be doing less reps with those. Alright.

So lighter and heavier weights. Should we get going? Absolutely. Alright. So let's get into the middle of your mat. We are moving at a brisk pace. So we're gonna start with the arms by the side of the body. Chinch your chest.

We're gonna roll down. We're gonna touch our toes if we can, and we're gonna roll back up again. And let's do that again. Chinch your chest, rolling down, touching your toes, and then rolling back up again. We're gonna turn to our side here right to the edge of your mat, inhale here exhale chincher chest rolling down.

Gonna pick up my smaller weights here and then slowly bending our knees rolling down. So our butt is on the mat. Move a little bit close to the center of the mat. We got our weights by the sides of our body just so that they're easy to get hold of. We're gonna reach the hands forwards.

Make sure your heels are in line with your sit bones externally rotate your shoulders from here, tilt the pubic bone underneath you so your sit bones are going towards your heels in that roll back and then we're gonna roll all the way back up again, stack in the spine. So we inhale. Excel, roll, pubic bone to belly button, rolling, rolling down a little bit further, and then we roll back up again, inhale here. Think of those sit bones going underneath you towards your heels, feel those lower abs. And then we go back up again.

Let's do one more. We curl on the exhale. We're gonna hang out here that nice little earthquake is gonna happen right here. We hold it for four for three, for two, for one, and we curl back up again. We hook up the weights.

We reach the hands forwards. We go again. We exhale curl and come back. Holdy here. We're just gonna lift the right arm up and then the left arm. It's a mini lift, just a mini lift, and then go right then left, just a little mini lift.

One more, hold it, curl back up again. Once again, the wheel of the pelvis is turning underneath you and we hold in it here. Palms come up, bicep the right arm, and then the left arm. So I call these the pilates bicep curls, the elbows in line with the shoulders. And we're working those biceps, but we're also don't forget about those abdominals.

We gotta keep that scoop. We all know what the scoop is. Lower apps. Now let's do both arms together. Four more here.

Two more. Last time, hold it that palm facing inwards, continue your journey down, rolling down through the spine, adjust your heels level with your sit bones. Your hands are still holding the weights. We hinge up, and we're hinging down, hinging up. So everybody adjusts yourself so your heels are tracking in line with your sit bones, your feet are hit with the part, not any further away. Now hold that bridge, float the hands back up again hinge down elbows touch the mat and we go back up again.

There we go. So little gentle chest press here. Not too heavy because we are warming up. And we're gonna do about four more here we breathe on the exertion four. We exhale three. We exhale two, and we exhale one.

We hold it here. Going into that tricep extension here. Keep the elbows in line with the shoulders. As always, full extension. Beautiful.

And we're gonna do about four more of these. And three, just that nice little warm up and two. And one, hold it there. Hinge the hips down. Find that neutral position, reach the legs out nice and long interconnect the legs so they're nice and connected.

Now take the arms as far back as you can without hyper extending that mid upper back, hold it there. Now we float the head, we lift the head, we curl, we look towards our feet and we round. Now we're reaching forwards to our feet, but in our position, we're reaching back through that lower abs, and then we go back on our journey again. We reach the arms overhead. Not too far, don't hyperextend the upper back.

We float the head. We curl the head. We tilt the pelvis underneath as we roll forwards and we're reaching forwards and then we're rolling back again. We're gonna breathe as we come up. That nice fluid motion, and curl down. Let's do one more. Inhale slight extensions rolling forwards, reaching, reaching, reaching, reaching, on the exhale.

And then we crawl back down again. From here, we bend the knees. Bend the knees. We open the arms. Just drop the weights down onto the mat. From here, float the right leg up, float the left leg up.

Push the weights away and lift your head neck and shoulders off the mat, circle the hands around, interlace the hands. And we're gonna start with the reaching the right leg out and then the left leg out, reaching and reaching. So you're still in that tilt, pubic bone to belly button, reaching those legs out nice and long, keep those legs moving, like little pistons, reaching sharp legs, They'll go strong legs, and four, and three, and two, and one, chair position. Now keeping the head lifted, grab hold of your weights, slowly rock, balance lift up. From here, we're gonna roll like a little ball here with the arms forwards.

We're gonna roll, reach, little lift, and then come back again. So we're gonna inhale, exhale, lift, and keeping the arms straight. So as we roll, we lift and come back again, keeping the arms straight. So it's a rolling like a ball with like a little pike at the end, and then back, like a little baby pike, and back two more times. And back last time, little pike, hold it here.

Drop the weights, right leg lifts, flex and point, flex and point, flex and point, walk down that leg, circle the arms around, and then start to walk up the leg, hold it and stretch, switch with the other leg, and that nice little stretch, flex and point flex and point, flex and point, hold it there, walk down that leg, try and keep that leg as still as you can, circle the hands around, exhale, walk back up the leg, hold that stretch, and then come back down again. Once again, reaching the arms forwards. We're rolling down slowly coming back up into a tabletop position. From here, lift the head neck and shoulders off the mat. Take your right leg into a scissor, and then switch into a scissor. We're gonna start to move the arms unilaterally with the scissors.

So you can see I'm moving the arms. If you wanna take your head down, absolutely. You can bring your head down, if that feels better, and then we could lift our head up. It's your choice here, arms are strong. The legs are strong, and we do eight, breathe seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one chair position, inhale here rock, roll up. Now we're gonna sit up nice and tall, open your legs into a diamond position, we're gonna hug a tree.

So toes are down, heels are up, we're in that nice diamond position, and we're hugging a tree, shoulders stacked over hips. Four more here in that Hugga tree, four. XL three. XL two. Give me one more.

Bring the arms together. Hold the weights together. We curl down, tilting underneath us, we're rolling back, elbows come over your head. Once again, like a roll up, we curl roll up. Now we add a fly here or hug a tree, and then we curl down again.

So you can see the spine rounding, and then unwinding as we stack one vertebra at a time, and then we're going to hugger tree. The wheel of the pelvis tilting underneath you as you're rolling down, head comes back, curl. Open the arms. You're gonna definitely feel your shoulders. And then we curl back down again.

See that nice seeker of position. Up over your head. This is your last time. One more. Weight together, curl down, reach the arms over your head.

Nice and strong now, float the head, chinch your chest, curl all the way up, and open your arms. Place the hands down. From here, hold the legs. Bring that right leg up, left leg up, knees the bend. We're gonna roll in a modified open leg of rocker, extend up, bend, curl, round, lift up, and extend.

So you're resisting your hamstrings, and then we go into our extension. One more, curl back, Hold it here. Now we're gonna reverse. Hold the extension. We roll back, and we bend the knees. And then we come up to an extension.

So I'm reversing it. Bend the knees as we go back. Then we extend as we come up in that nice flat spine, seeker of position. Ready. Band rounding that spine. Round lengthen up draw the shoulder blades down.

Hold in that position, bend your ready, breathe, inhale, and lifting up, find your balance, last time rounding back, knees bent, and then lifting up into that extension. Now, either knees are bent or legs are straight. We're gonna bring the legs in and out in and out for four, for three, for two and for one, drop the right leg down, drop the left leg down, pick up your weights. Present. We go down. Present up.

We go down. Present up. So you're rounding. It's like a roll back with a present rounding and back. Roll back. Present.

Roll back. Now we're gonna add a single leg knee roll back, present knee. Switch with the opposite leg. So you're kinda like marching in place, secret of marching in place. This is gonna be your precursor for later on when we get to our teaser, down and up inhale, exhale one more right side then left side and then down. Hold it here. Now ready.

And back. And back. So you're maintaining that secret of position and presenting starting to get a sweat going now. Three more. Two more. Last time.

And reach, curl all the way up. Present forwards. Bring those weights down. From here, put those weights to the side. Come up onto a quadruped position.

We're gonna move to the heavier weights now in your quadruped position here. So knees underneath your hips. We're gonna start to move with that right hand or the hand that feels most comfortable. We're gonna go with the right hand right now. So we go right hand and down.

So in a row, So in that stable position, we're in a quadruped position. Nies are underneath the hip, so make sure your adjustment. We've got all the principles of pilates here reaching out of the crown of the head and the tailbone in our position. Got to stabilize through the upper body and those abs are working, but I have a much heavier weight. We're gonna do a couple more.

One more, we're gonna hold it. We do our little tricep kickback here. Elbow is high and I want you to get that full extension. This should be challenging. If it's not challenging, your weight is not high enough.

Alright. We need to stress. The muscles, we need to build strong muscle stress the bones, like calcium on the bones, and build strong muscles. Three more. Two more.

One more. Hold it down. Either place the hands either side on the floor or if you wanna stay up on the weights, you can, curl the toes underneath. We go into our hover, and we hold it here. Still keeping a neutral position. Still keeping your abdominals lifted up against gravity.

We hold it here. We send the buns up into your pyramid position, and then we come back down again and we hold in it. We're super strong. Watch your head, everybody, lift that head up. Yeah. I've got eyes everywhere. Lift up.

And then come back. Super strong. Try not to sink through the shoulder blades. Push up. And reach, come back into your hover, starting to build that sweat up.

We like it. The heat, drop the knees down. Ready, other side. Think of the shoulder drawing away from your ear, you know this, but the elbow is going back, stabilizing the whole body, and just moving at the shoulder and the elbow joint. Right? Are we pulling in those abs? I hope so. Come on. Just a little bit more. Four three two. Ready hold it here. Tri set kickback.

Elbow is high. Hit that full extension. Squeeze at the top. Try not to swing the weight. With control, always with control.

Still got that beautiful Pilates principles here. Control with the weight. Four more Pilates is the foundation to fitness. Let's use it now. Two more.

One more. And we're feeling you're holding here. Call the toes underneath. Find your plank. Step out.

Step out. We got our full plank here. Hold that position. Reach out to the crown of the head. You've all lost it. I can feel it. Hold it there.

Drop the right knee, the left knee, the right knee, the left knee for six for five, for four for three for two for one, find your plank, drop the knees down, find your quadruped position, hinge your hips back, give yourself a little bit of a stretch. And curl up. Hands back onto your heavier weights, take the right leg in between your weights, take your left leg back. You are in a stretch here that's so our stretch. Now from here, We are slowly going to find your balance and we're gonna lift up.

We're all here. From here, we're gonna stack ourselves up and get our nice position here shoulders over our hips. We're gonna go into some hammer curls here. Front leg is bent. Back leg is straight, and we're just gonna add some bicep curls here.

Still in that lunge, we're holding nice and strong, and we're slowly going into a heavier bicep curl. We're gonna do four more here, little hammer curls. Three Two, one now pulse. Eight, little tiny, seven, six, five, exhale four, three, two, one, release weights down, hands on the mat. Take that leg back.

Into your plank position. From here, we're gonna rotate to the front into your side plank here. Hold it here. We bend the knees and then we slide the hips back. We bend the knees, so we transition in your weight.

The upper body's gotta be super stable. As we're going back, transition the weight forwards and back. We do a couple more. One more. Holdy here. Reach up and over in that beautiful straight line.

Turn. Now from here, take the opposite leg forwards. There we go. So find that stable position. Hold it here. Reach up and open that beautiful straight line. Alrighty. We're gonna find our balance, lifting up.

Hold in it here. Stand up nice and tall. Now we're gonna try and do a shoulder raise here. Shoulder raise. Elbows are slightly bent. Yes.

This is gonna be a little challenging. You can always move to the lighter weights if you feel you need to. We're going for lighter reps. Slightly pitch the body forwards if you feel a little pinching in your lower back. Okay. So work those shoulders.

Breathe. And let's do about four more of these. Yes. It's challenging. Yes. I'm challenged. Three, two. Can you give me one more?

And then down. Nice work. Place the hands on the mat, back into your plank. Rotate to the opposite side, reach the hand up to the sky. Bend your knees. So this is all about shoulder stability here.

Keep you lifting up the waist up. Let's do one more. Holy here. We reach the arm over, imagine someone's pulling you in that longest direction. Come back into your plank, hold your plank, drop the knees down. Come back.

Now from here, we're gonna lift up and we're gonna just pick up one heavier weight. So I've got one heavier weight here. We're gonna come back, and I'm gonna ask you to go forward here so we can look at each other. Kinda nice, right? Holding on.

To this. So I'm back into that secret position, place the feet together. So we're gonna go to the right first, to the right in that rotation, and then to the left in that rotation. So you're in a secret position, you're in that rollback position, and then we're rotating. It's kinda like on your reformer, like a short box, on the reformer, in that c curve maintaining that pubic going to belly buttons go a little deeper, back to center, roll back up again.

Take a little break. Those arms are a little I know we're working heavier weight. Let's go back again. That seeker of position. Sit bones coming underneath, elbows wide.

You're ready to the opposite side, so to the left. To the right, to the left. Now if you feel comfortable as you rotate, lift that leg up. As you rotate, lift that leg up. So keep the elbows high out the way.

It's almost like the elbows going towards the knee. Remember it's just like a rollback on a short short box on the reformer, but we're adding a little layer of fitness here. One more. Holdy here. Left all the way up. Beautiful. Put that weight down.

Pick up one light weight. Come all the way down onto your side here. So we're gonna sit up nice and tall, forearm on the floor, and let's reach the opposite arm up. We're gonna flex the foot. We go flex flex, point back. Inhale, inhale. Look where the underneath leg is is the front corner of your mat.

And we've got the arm overhead, testing you a little bit more for your stability, right? Because you've got that lightweight over your head. Couple more. Last time. Now we're gonna bicycle bicycle come back.

Bicycle, come back, feel that hamstring, pulling the leg back, reverse it, we go forwards, and back. Keep that arm strong over your head, Yes. We're working those arms, da da. Two more. Move that pelvis with stability.

Hold it here. Tri step up. Tap up. Tricep tap, da da, feel the hips and hip extension with that leg going back to the back corner, and four and three, and two, and one. Bring the legs, stack them up. The classic love this exercise here.

We're gonna bring the hips up. And as we come up, shoot the arm and leg up, and then everything comes back down again. Got it. We do eight of those. Go. Eight of these.

Up. And see if we can lift that leg up a little higher. I can see I've got my leg a little higher. Now I'm going to a little bit more external rotation, exploring that movement. Couple more. Good to explore where your body will go to.

Hold a here hold for five for four for three for two and for one and come down. Swing to the other side. Alright. Front leg, corner, arm up, and we go flex flex. Point back, swing that leg forwards. Keep the underarm strong.

Keep the obliques lifted up off the mat. Yes, the pelvis is moving, we follow through, but with stability, we move with stability. We're carefully moving that leg, but we are moving. It's all about moving the body. It feels good.

And back, one more, and if you bicycle, and go bicycle forward. And back. There we go. You can add a little flex if you want, or just keep it pointed. The Pilates please won't grab you for that.

I promise you. One more. Reverse and back. Keep that arm strong though. Keep that arm strong. Flex point back.

Feeling those hips. Keep lifting. Try not to get lazy, lift up out the mat. And ready one more. Last time. Hold that leg here.

Tap lift. Tap lift. Trice of extension. We feel those glutes and up. And up four more, we've got this, and four, and three, and two, and hold it there, and bring the legs down, bend the knees, put that leg and weight down. We will keep on going.

You ready? Remember we're exploring that position here where we lift up? And then we come down. Do we remember? We're gonna do eight of those. You ready? And up.

And down. Lift that leg as high as you can manage in the external rotation, and back. Are we breathing? And down, exhale lengthen. And down, we've going for gold today.

There we go. Good. Can we do one more? Absolutely. We're gonna hold you there. We are strong. We got a warrior, and we can do this.

And then we die. I know you're laughing at me now, and then we roll all the way up. We put our lovely weights down, the light weights. We are going now to some back to the heavier weights. So we're gonna work that chest now.

So picking up your heavier weights, curling down, Reaching the hands up, now float the leg up, float the other leg up between our tabletop position. So we're going into our classic here in fitness, which would be our chest press, And we're gonna add a fundamental exercise, the toe taps, toe taps. There we go. So I'm keeping that lower body moving, keeping the core engaged, but I do have heavier weights now. So I am being challenged in my chest, my pecs, my arms.

There we go. Still keeping a slight imprint of the lower back. Let's do a couple more. One more. Now back to tabletop position.

Now the arms and legs are just gonna move out just a little bit and then coming back in. Just a little bit and back. Remember we've got heavier weights here keeping the head down and back, exhale. Don't take the arms too far over your head. You've got heavy weights here. So only go as far as you can stabilize, the legs can go lower if you're able to stabilize with those apps.

One more. Now this time, take your arm straight up, reach the legs. Now we're gonna try and lower those legs if we can, and then lift up. Now only go down as far as you're able to maintain that stability, pubic bone to belly button, and then up, use your upper body. You got those weights there, depress, and then down. Find the earthquake and then bring it back up again.

Let's do a couple more. We're gonna find that earthquake, and then we go again one more time. Keep tilting the pelvis. The wheel is keep turning, keeps turning, keeps turning, we hold it, and then we lift those legs up, bring them back into tabletop. We go back into tricep extension here.

So now we've got that heavy weight Now we're gonna try and do double toe taps and in and back. Extend and tap. You're not gonna necessarily touch the floor. I'm not asking for that. I'm just asking for you to aim for the floor.

If you're able, fantastic, otherwise focus on the upper body, elbows over your shoulders, and you're working your triceps. Okay. Let's do four more in those little heavier weights. Four. Three. Breathe. Two. One. Hold that tricep.

Extend the arms, lift the legs up, pelvic tilt, lower, lower, lower, lower, lower, lower, those legs. Keep those arms strong. Lower, lower, lower the legs. You just got two more, and back last time. Lower those legs, bend the knees, bend the knees, bend the elbows.

Now we're gonna rock and roll bring the knees into your chest. We're gonna rock up, put those heavier weights down. From here, we've got those lighter weights. We're gonna turn onto our tummy here We're gonna lift the weights and put the weights diagonally out. So the legs are separated now. We're gonna roll on the weights.

We're gonna come up into her extension. And we're gonna hold that swan. I want you to look right, look left, look right, look left, come back. And again, drop the shoulder blades down away from your ears, lift up, look left, look right, look left, look right, come back to center. Now, bingo the arms a little bit further forwards.

We're gonna inhale here, exhale lift up. Lift the legs, and we're gonna do a little rock, a little rock, a little rock, and a little rock. Hold it here in that superhero position. And then we come down. From here, take the hands by the side of your body, lift up into a big swan now.

There's your swan. We're gonna go forwards catch. Lift. Little catch. Little rocking and rolling. Catch extension.

Couple more. Last time. Hold the catch. Come back. Walk the feet forwards, pick up your light weights.

Now from here, got your light weights here, you're in your quadrupe position, elbow is bent. We're gonna reach forwards and back. So what does this remind you of? This is like a chest press, but actually it's like the breast stroke, isn't it? Like your breast stroke? Your elbow is high and you're reaching over in that best stroke.

Now we're gonna carry on with the breaststroke. We go forwards around elbow bent. Reach towards your ears, circle around, bend. Forward, circle around. Bend one more.

Forward, circle around and bend, switch. Other side, elbow high reach towards your ear and back. There we go. So here's your breaststroke, maintaining stability through the whole of the body, keeping still. Now we're gonna do our full on breaststroke now single arm, reach out, bend the elbow.

Ear open bend. Reach open bend. A lot challenging than what it looks, a lot of strength in that middle of her back. Last time, and then bring it down. Turning to the front here.

One weight. Just pop that weight away. We're gonna go all the way up. And as we lift up, we're gonna go into our pike into our twist. Twist, and then come back and lift up. Ready.

Twist. Reach the back foot, and then back up again. Twist. Back foot, lift up. Two more. Twist and up. Now one more.

Hold the twist. Hold it. Put your weight down. Optim, challenge. Lift that back leg up. Hold it there. For five, four, three, two, one, drop it down, bend, and reach, switch to the other side. Okay. So we start lifting up.

We're gonna pick up. Rotate your pelvis up to the sky. Looking to your back foot. Bring the hips, swing them back and look up. Swing back, rotate the pelvis, lift up. You ready, pike, and look to the sky. And again, And let's do one more.

We're gonna hold it up there. If we want, hold it there, put the weight down, see if you can find your balance and lift that back leg up. Use your hands, push against the floor and try and lift that leg up. And then drop that leg down, rotate, finish off the exercise. Okay. Pick up the other light weight.

We are good. We are moving We are reaching the arms forwards to here, and then we're circling circle and circle and circle and circle and hold it there. Now bring the elbows down, rolling down, reaching the arms up, palms facing outwards, chair position, chair position, So we're gonna open the arms, scoop, lift into a modified teaser. We circle. We circle. We circle.

And we circle back. Holdy here, circle the arms, back, palms facing outwards. Ready. We're gonna go again. We circle this time, optional, legs go straight up. We circle out.

Little baby circles. We circle back. We hold it here. We bend the knees, and then we round it back. The arms come back to that start position.

Now we're gonna reach the legs out, keeping those legs extended, we circle, lift up into your teaser, we circle the arms out to the side, we circle the arms back, and we smile, and then we curl back, keeping those legs where they're at, and we circle the arms back. Ready to try again one more. Up circle Circle back, hold it here. Present. Present.

Present. Three more. Three, two, hold it there. Hold. Slowly. Circle the arms around and then bend the right knee.

Bend the left knee and slowly reach your arms over your head in that nice stretch. See if you can take your hands to the floor, release the weights or pop the weights onto the floor, release them. Circle the hands around, come up into a little ball, and we're going to double leg stretch, inhale reach, exhale round, inhale lengthen. Now keeping your body still just your arms and legs are removing. Let's do a couple more inhale reach, exhale round, reach the ankle joint, inhale stop. Now we're gonna add an inhale rotate towards me.

Inhale reach, exhale in, now rotate to the other direction, side, and in, reach on that extension, lift the head up, reach towards the ankles, lengthen You have two in our find that balance, exhale reach towards your heels, one more, finding that balance, and reach hold it there. Take the leg straight up over your head. Hands down, head down, roll over your head, grab hold of your hips, extend the legs up to your sky, hold it there, scissors, scissor, scissors, scissor, keep that leg, reaching that leg down to the floor as much as you can in your scissor bridge. Three more. Two more.

One more. Bring the legs up take the legs up and release your hips slowly rolling down one vertebra at a time. Circle the legs go back up and over. Bring the legs together. Take them down.

Circle the legs up. And over, reverse, circle down, lift up over your head, circle down, lift up over your head, hold it there, flex the energy up through the heels, and curl down one. Vertebra at a time and then bring your right leg down, left leg down, root your hands over your head, extend the legs, flex the energy out through the heels, inhale here, pull your shoulder blades down, transition, roll up, reach towards your toes, and then curl all the way up. Awesome work. You guys turn to the front, We're gonna bring your right leg in front of your left leg, reaching over to the right side in your mermaid, switch to the other side. There we go. Awesome work.

As always, Definitely push yourself a little bit out your comfort zone with strength. Remember, strength is really important to mix with flexibility and cardio. Everything is needed together. Pilates and strength training is definitely a must. And so I hope you enjoyed that class and hope it'll inspire you to step away a little bit and really focus on a little bit more heavier weight. Alright.

Thank you so much. See you again. Bye bye.