PRO | Side-Lying Flow

I've got the two springs on. I could pick heavier light for this next flow. We're doing our sideline, feet and straps. I'm gonna leave my blue on and take my red off, making it a little bit easier for myself. Maybe another day I'll do it with the red spring on. Okay.

So your positioning is lie down, scoot your booty towards the back of your carriage. And don't be afraid to use your whole surface. So I don't want my hips to be up close to the shoulder blocks. I'm gonna use this whole mat. Top foot goes into the loop. Bottom arm is extended long and through.

Alrighty. I support my head. If you have a prop, you could use that as well. I just want you to note before we get started that there's a sensation of lift in your side. Yeah. Try to keep it. Hips are stacked.

Top leg swings forward. Allow the resistance to give you that hamstring stretch and top leg swings back. As soon as that rope gets close to me, I know it's time to stop, and then repeat. Inhale big stretch forward. Exhale back. So the true challenge here is the disassociation that I'm that I'm trying to create between my leg doing the work and the movement and my spine and my core holding and stabilizing.

And once I can feel those two things and I can separate them from each other, then I really start to isolate my glute. Inhale forward and exhale back. As my leg goes forward, I'm trying to pull my top hip back, but as my leg goes back, I'm trying to reach my top leg forward towards that foot bar. So there's a sensation of opposition and length. Let's take it to a bend and extend.

When I bend my knee, you can see the strap is right in front of my knee. My foot and heel is in line with my knee, and my thighs about parallel to the ground. So find that alignment and kick to the foot bar. Inhale, bend in, exhale kick. It's common to overbend the knee, so the strap comes in.

I want you to focus on the rope and the strap staying in front of the knee. Bend it and kick. If you're starting to lose your connection into that side body, now is your time to fire that back up. Four three two. And now we go into circles. Not that different from the arm circles.

You reach it out. Reach it up. Pull it down and around five in each direction. Forward, up and around. A circular movement is like medicine for your hip. So don't restrict it. It should feel good.

It should feel challenging and keep your spine as stable as you can. One more this direction. And reverse. So pull it back. Open it around. Five, four, three, two, and one. Perfect.

Bend the knee in. Slide the foot out of the strap. And before we do the other side, lie down onto your back. This exercise is called rollover. It's another mat Pilates exercise.

Now, the carriage doesn't have a lot of spring tension on it, which means you're gonna have to be real honest and not use too much momentum to get the lift. Arms are down, legs are table, connection to the abdominals, spine to the mat. Extend the legs. And then on an exhale, using strengthen your arms and a solid and complete breath out, roll up so that your legs are parallel to the floor. Separate your legs, the width of your machine flex your feet, and then the precision comes in as you take your time to roll one bone at a time back down. The legs come together and the movement starts again, exhale up.

If you're having problems getting lifted off the mat, try bending your knees because one of the things that might inhibit you is just tight back, tight hamstrings. Separate and flex. And now you'll keep the legs apart and feet flex. It's a little bit harder to roll up this way. Legs together, find that pilates v, zip them up, and roll down with your legs together.

So try that again. Roll up with the feet apart. And down with the legs together. Last time like this. Take it all the way down.

And you're ready for your side leg series facing the other direction. So use the mat. That's really great advice. Don't feel small. Don't feel contracted. I want you to feel more open in your body, open in your spine.

Support the head, extend the leg straight, and then find the alignment of the hips and shoulders and the lift in the side body. First move is our 10 sweeps. So forward and back. I'm using the resistance of the spring to pull my leg forward. So this is an active lengthening exercise.

I'm creating opposition. As my leg goes forward, my hip is staying back. And I'm aware of the evolution within the movement. So the more repetitions I do, the more length I'm gonna get, the muscles responding in real time. Three more. Two.

One more. Bend your knee in, and then find that alignment where the rope is in front of the knee, heel, in line with the hip, recollect yourself. If you shift it at all, 10 presses to the bar. Three, driving that heel away from you. Four, five, six, seven, Eight, almost there, circles are next. Keep the legs straight, five in each direction, forward, up and around.

One, two, stability in the spine, movement in the hip, three, four, five, reverse five, four, three, two, and one. Easy. Fuck comes out of the strap. Help yourself sit up.