Full-Body Ball Flow

Hi. I'm Gia, and today we're gonna do a class using the ball. A little disclaimer about the ball. I have mine just deflated slightly so that way it has a little bit of give because we're gonna be using the ball to balance for a little bit of stability. So if it's too inflated, you might slip off of it. So you just wanna deflate it a little bit right now. Just so it has a little bit of give.

With that being said, we're gonna start on your back and lie down and then just lift your hips up. You're gonna place the ball underneath your pelvis. Like it right under my sacrum, but you can kind of adjust as you go to where it feels comfortable for you. Arms down by your side, feet are parallel, hip distance apart. And before we start any abdominal movement or exercises, we're gonna start with a little bit of pelvic mobility just to kind of ground you on your ball.

So you're gonna take a deep inhale, and then as you exhale, you're gonna tilt up into a little pelvic tilt. Inhale as you arch your back, exhale as you tilt. Just going to the range that feels good for you. You don't have to go to your full range of motion. Just a little bit of movement, and then we'll come back to finding the center in just a moment.

Two more times. Inhale, exhale tilt, inhale arch, exhale tilt, and then find neutral. You're right in between those two positions. Arms are reaching down by your side, chest is open. We're gonna bring one leg up to tabletop and then bring the other leg up to tabletop, find your balance. So you might feel a little bit wobbly and that's okay. We're gonna keep moving your legs while you're finding your balance on the ball.

So as you inhale, you're gonna lower one foot down toward the mat, keeping that 90 degree angle, exhale as you come back up to tabletop. Inhale, the other leg is gonna lower, exhale as you lift back up. So it's a little toe tap. Inhale lower. Try not to tense in the neck and shoulders and lift back up. If you feel tension you might be going too far, you might just wanna decrease that range of motion a little bit and then back up.

You don't have to touch the mat though. You'll still work your center, your abdominals, even if you don't go all the way down. Inhale lower, exhale lift one more each side. And then lift back up and lower. So you can continue with single legs, but if you wanna add on, we're gonna do double legs.

So you're gonna lower both feet down. You might not go as far. And then lift back up. Again, go where you control it. So if you feel your back starting to arch, that means you've gone too far. So you wanna try to keep the pelvis in that neutral position.

Inhale to lower. Exhale, pull your waist back to lift. Inhale lower. Think of naval pulling into the spine. Two more. And then back up.

Last one. We're gonna change your legs again. So you're gonna stretch one leg out or do a single leg stretch and then switch legs. Just keep alternating going kind of slow. So we don't have any jerky movements so we can keep the control on the ball.

So again, you're gonna feel a little wobbly, but that's okay. That's part of the work because we're working on stabilizing your body. And then switch and just keep alternating, reaching the opposite leg long, switch last set, and switch both legs in the tabletop take a breath, exhale release all the air. Now, we're gonna do double leg stretch. You're gonna inhale as you stretch both legs out.

Ag exhale as you pulling back in. Inhale stretch. Eggs as you pull it in. Again, no tension in the neck and shoulders, and then pull it back in. We do two more.

Last one. Stretch your legs up to the ceiling. We're gonna go into scissors. So you're gonna bring one leg toward you slightly. The other leg's gonna reach out to the diagonal and then your switch.

So it doesn't have to be too big. One we're warming up, So we gotta make sure we're not going to our full range of motion where our hamstrings, especially maybe a little tight. Just keep alternating, passing right through the center. And then switch and switch. Reach those legs long.

Last set. Both legs back up to the ceiling. Keep your legs glued together. You're gonna lower both feet down. If this doesn't feel good to you, can always do it with bent legs again just like we did before.

Inhale reach down. Ex he'll pull your abs in to lift. Three more. And two. Pulling the abdominals in last one.

Do one more exercise here. You're gonna open your legs out down and around for a circle. Open down and around circle. Two more in this direction and then we'll reverse last one and reverse. So we'll do down and around and back up. Down and around and up two more.

Keep pulling those abdominals back, working on stabilizing your pelvis. Now bend your legs, bring your feet onto the mat and then lift your pelvis up to take the ball out from underneath you. Just put it to the side for a second. Bring your pelvis down and just feel how heavy it feels into the mat. It should feel really grounded.

Sick deep inhale and exhale. And then you're gonna roll over onto your side, push yourself up. We're gonna switch the position of the ball. So now you're gonna bring your feet hip distance apart. I'm gonna bring the ball behind your upper back.

You can kind of adjust as you go to where it feels most comfortable for you. I like it. A little bit below my shoulder blades, but again, it depends on your flexibility and your proportions. Hands are gonna go behind your head, elbows are wide, and you're just gonna lie back. Letting your head feel heavy into your hands. Really use your hands to support your head and neck. Feel nice opening across your chest.

A little stretch in your abs. It should feel really good after the work you just did. Let's breathe. One more deep inhale. And exhale.

We're gonna come back to this position a couple more times, but for now we're gonna come up to a neutral position. So you're in a straight line with your head in line with the rest of your spine. This is our starting point. So you're gonna take a deep inhale here. I see exhale, we're gonna curl up off the ball. Into a little chest lift.

Inhale lower back to that neutral, exhale curl up. So you're not lifting off the ball. You're still attached to it, but you're trying not to just lie down and sink into it. You're using it for feedback and a little bit of support, but you're not just, overusing it. Two more.

Again, a little shaking. It's always good. I feel my abdominal shaking. And curling up. Now we're gonna add a leg lift with it. So you're gonna go back to neutral as you curl up, one leg comes up the tabletop. Lower it back down, and then other leg comes up.

Just keep alternating your legs for a little march. You just curl up each time you lift your leg. Elvis stay wide and curl up. Two more. Each side.

Lower. And lift lower. We're gonna hold this next one up. And then keep your leg radius. Little pulses up with your upper body.

Up an inch down an inch up and up. Keep pulling your navel into your spine, and then lower back to your neutral, and then the other side. Little pulse is up for eight seven six five four three two one. Lower all the way down. Find that nice stretch. Take a breath. And then come back up to a neutral.

We're gonna add the leg again. We're gonna add some rotation to that this time. So as you bring your leg up, you're gonna twist toward the leg and then lower it back down. Twist toward the other leg. And lower it back down.

So each shunting come back to your neutral position as you lower the leg down. Working into your obliques. One more each side, curling up, and lower. Last one, you're gonna hold this one up. Same thing as before. Little pulse is up for eight seven six five four three two one lower back to neutral.

Curle back up in your twists and curl for eight. Seven six five four three, two, one, lower all the way down. You deserve a little break. Take a nice inhale and exhale. And then curl up.

You can grab onto the backs of your legs if you want to roll yourself up. And we're gonna put the ball off to the side. We're gonna come onto your stomach for a little back extension. So you're gonna have one hand on top of the other. Your head forehead on your hands.

Lakes are reaching long. You can have your legs together or hip distance apart if your back is tight. Bring your shoulders down away from your ears and then feel your pubic bone pushing into the mat. Lift up into your abdominals just for support. As you inhale, you're gonna lift your head, hands, and chest off the mat.

Exhale as you lower everything down. Think of your upper back doing the lifting, and lift up. Low back stays long and lower. Inhale lift. Try to reach your legs long. Keep pushing your feet into the mat.

Inhale lift. And lower. We need three more. And let me keep the elbows wide. Two.

And lower. Last one. And lower. Keep your forehead on your hands. Your upper body's gonna stay still. You're gonna bend your legs 90 degrees, bring your heels together toes apart. So you're in a bit of a diamond with your feet.

You're gonna have your feet flexed suit. We're gonna lift your thighs up off the mat and then lower. So it's like you're stomping on the ceiling. Lift and lower. Try not to get into your low back too much. Think of it coming from your glutes and your hamstrings. Lift and lower. Relax the shoulders, especially as you're working the lower body.

Upper body should be calm and two more like this. Last one. They're gonna hold your legs up. Keep your thighs off the mat. Keep your heels together.

It's gonna bring your knees toward each other and open for a little clam. Close and open. Just go as far as you can. My legs don't get completely together. Maybe yours too. They should feel those hamstrings and glutes working and open.

Close and open two more. Seems like a simple movement, but it does burn quite a bit. And then lower your legs down, stretch your legs out, shake out your legs, and then bring your hands to your side and just push back into child's pose. Get a nice stretch on your back. Reach your arms long.

And then we're gonna come up to your hands and knees for a little cat cow just to stretch out your back a little bit more. So your hands are right under your shoulders, fingers are wide, push down into your palms, and then your knees are right under your a hips. Push your shins down into the mat as well. So you have a little bit of a resistance against the mat away from the mat. From here, you're gonna come into your arch as you inhale exhale as you round your spine.

Inhale arch. Exale around. Just mobilizing your spine a little bit more. Joseph Pilati said you're only as young as your spine. So we wanna try to keep the mobility in its spine as much as we can. And round.

Come back to neutral spine. You're gonna keep your spine neutral. You're gonna lift one leg up. Keep that 90 degree angle. I like to flex my foot again like I'm stomping on the ceiling. Let's lift your leg up and down.

Up and down, little pulses, up and down. Trying to keep my hip bones facing the mat. So my hips stay square. Three, two, one. They're gonna pull your knee into your chest and then push it back up. To the ceiling.

Pull all the way into your chest and up. Try not to move your spine at all so it stays neutral and all the way in and up. Three more. And two, last one, and then bring your legs together. Same leg. You're gonna lift it leg out to the side.

Kinda like a dog at a hydrant and lower. And lift and lower. And try to keep your neck in line with your spine. So think of looking straight down at the mat. Not at your hands. A little bit in front of your hand, so your neck stays long. And open and close last two and close last one. Other leg. You're gonna bring the other leg up 90 degrees, flex your foot, and you go up an inch, down an inch, up and down.

Keep pulling the abs in. Support your spine. Four more. Three. Keep pushing away from the mat with those hands.

Now you're gonna bring your knee into your chest and then push it back up. And pull in. Spine stays neutral and lift up. Pull in and lift. Pull in and lift. Three more and two.

Last one, and then bring your leg all the way down. You're gonna lift your leg out to the side and then lower it back down. Bring it out to the side and lower. Out and lower. Out and lower.

Four more. And three. Two. Last one. And then you're gonna bring your feet together knees apart. Come into child's pose and stretch out your back.

Shake out your wrists if you need to. We're gonna come into a little bit of a plank challenge. So we're gonna use the ball again. So I'm gonna have the ball under my front hand just so you can see. You're gonna have the ball Under your hand, your other hand's gonna be on the mat just in line with it. We're gonna start on your knees.

So you're gonna find a plank position, shoulders away from the ears, fill your abdominals pulling in, legs glued together, and just feel your balance. The ball might move around a little bit. But that's okay. Just kinda try to stabilize as much as you can. Now from here, if you wanna add on, you could try a full plank.

If you wanna make it a little more challenging. If that doesn't feel good to you, just come on to your knees again. Just hold and then come on down. Shake out your wrists and we'll switch sides. So hands on the ball.

The other hand in line with it. We'll start on your knees, find that position. Again, stabilize as much as you can. The ball will move, but you just wanna make sure that you're safe and not letting it slip out from under you. So really push down.

And then if that feels okay and you wanna challenge yourself more, you come into a full plank. Just feel the wobbliness of the ball and how that kind of forces you to pull into your abdominals. Glue your legs together as much as you can and then lower back down. Let's stretch out your wrist for a second because I know it can get a little risky on the ball. So you're just gonna bring your tops of your hands down stretch out your wrists We're gonna go into another one.

We're gonna add a push up if you'd like. You might wanna just do a plank again. You can do it on your knees or on your feet, whatever it feels best to you, but we're just gonna try it and see if it feels good. It's a little bit of a challenge again for stability. So the first hand's gonna go under the ball, second hand's right next to the side.

Find that plank position again on your knees or on your feet. You're just gonna do a little arm bend and then back up elbows point back, bend, and straighten. Three more. Ben. Straighten. Ben. Doesn't have to be big. Last one.

And then lower down. Shake out your wrist. Nice. How'd you do? I find it challenging. I hope you do too.

That's a fun challenge. So other hand, you're gonna bring the hand under the ball. The other hand right to the side of it. Find that plank. One side's obviously gonna feel more challenging than the other. We always have one side that's a little more stabilizing than the other.

You're gonna bend your arms and straighten and bend straighten bend up two more. Last one, and then come on down. Just move your ball out to the side. We don't need it anymore. And then just push back into child's pose.

Breathe into that stretch. And then roll up. We're just gonna bring your hands together. Just roll out your wrists. Just because it can get a little risky and if you have any wrist issues, good to take a little break.

Go the other way with the little circle. And we're gonna go into a downward dog. So hands are gonna come back onto the mat. You're gonna tuck your toes under. Push your heels back.

And then just bring your weight back towards your heels as much as you can. You can go ahead and walk your feet out. It should feel good. I like to move my feet back a little bit more just to get a little bit more space. I'm trying to lengthen my spine as much as I can as I bring my weight back into my heels.

Relax the shoulders away from your ears. And then both heels pushing into the mat. We're gonna lift one leg up So you're just gonna lift one leg up. You can point your toes. Find that stretch. You can let your hip open if you want.

If it feels better to keep your hips square, you can do that as well. Just keep pushing into the mat with your hands, really spread your fingers. And then you can bend your leg that's up, and then just turn your hips out a little bit just to open up your hip a little bit more. Try to keep your shoulders square though. And then come back to a more squared position, stretch your leg up to the ceiling one more time, and then lower that leg down.

Now let's try the other side. Lifting the leg up. Reach it leg long. Breathe into that stretch. You can open your hip and bend the knee, and keeping your shoulders as square as you can.

And then back up to a square more squared position, stretch your leg up to the ceiling, and then lower the leg down. Come on down two knees. Push back on the child's pose one last time. And roll up. We're gonna go into a little bit of rolling just for some fun. So you're gonna come to the front of your mat.

We're gonna have your hands either on your ankles with your heels together toes apart if you're a little tighter, you're gonna have your hands on your thighs with your legs out a little bit more. You're gonna round your spine, come on to your sacrum and bring your feet up for your so I can find your balance. And then I'm gonna come with my hands on my ankles keep this little ball shape. You're gonna inhale as you roll to your shoulders and then exhale as you come back up, find your balance. So inhale roll back, exhale to come up.

Find your balance. Inhale roll back. Exhale to come up. So again, we're keeping this ball shape the whole time, whether you're holding behind your thighs or your ankles roll back and up. Inhale.

Excellent. I'm trying not to roll on your neck, so you're just going to your shoulders and up to more of this one, and then we're gonna change it up a little bit. Last one. And uphold. So either again, you're holding your ankles or behind your thigh. You're just gonna stretch one leg out and then bend it back in.

If you're holding your thighs, you can still do this stretching the other leg out and then bend it back in. One leg out. And bend other leg out and bend one more each side and stretch. Now we're gonna try both legs. So both legs will straighten or as close to straight as you can get and then bend and back in.

I'm just balancing keeping those abdominals engaged to help support your balance stretch and bend. Now we're gonna stretch and hold Keep your legs straight or as straight as you can get them. Arms stay straight. You're gonna roll back to your shoulders again and then roll back up. First one doesn't count. Rolling back and then roll back up. First one's always hard.

Roll back. And then back up and roll inhale exhale to lift. And again, trying to keep that same position the whole time. If you're holding on behind your thighs, Still getting that same position and up and rolled back and up two more. Last one.

And hold it, bring your legs together. Can you reach toward your feet, lift your hands off your legs. And then from here, you're gonna roll down. If you need to hold on to your legs, roll your down, you can hug your knees into your chest. Just rock side to side.

I'm gonna go into a little bit of a twist. So arms out to a t or down by your side. You're gonna bring your legs up to tabletop. I'm just gonna let both legs go over to one side for a TikTok and then come back up. Legs go to the other side and then back up.

Try to keep both shoulders on the mat over to the first side and then back up. Since your spine is quite mobile by now, it should feel little bit easier than it would if it were in the beginning of the class over and up last one. Now you're gonna go over to the first sign and hold. Just find a little stretch. Both shoulders on the mat.

You can make sure your hands out from underneath you if your hands are down by your side. Just hold that stretch. Find a nice relaxation in that twist. Let's breathe into it. Exhale.

Just bring your hand back down onto the mat if it's on your legs, and then use your obliques to pull your legs back up, and we'll go to the other side. So find that nice deep twists, both legs on the mat, shoulders stay on the mat as well. Just breathe into it. Let your spine settle. One more deep breath in and exhale.

Bring your hand onto the mattifits on your legs and then use your obliques to pull you back up. Hug your knees into your chest and then rolling up to a seated position. I'll go ahead and finish with some breathing seated. So sit with your legs crossed hands just on your legs or wherever they're comfortable and take a deep inhale lengthen your spine, exhale keep that length because you release all the air. One more time, inhale, and exhale.

And thank you so much. I hope you enjoyed that class and that you feel a little bit more mobilized in your spine and that your body just feels great. See you next time.