Demystifying Teaser

One of the questions that I'm asked most is can beginners do the teaser? Or more frequently, I'm told that beginners should never do the teaser, and I have to tell you I disagree. I'm ready to share why. It's really simple. You have to build the appropriate foundation in order for teaser to happen consistently. That's just I mean, that's quintessential Pilates one zero one. And since teaser is considered to be one of the quintessential Pilates exercises, I wanted to take you through one of my favorite sequences to prepare for the teaser.

Now I will tell you that in a class format, if I'm teaching a class, That's mixed level or if I'm teaching advanced class. I always try to find a way to work these elements in before we get to more complicated exercises like the teaser so that I can see that all systems are firing appropriately in the right order before we just try to jump into this crazy hard exercise. Right? But I promise you with the right tools and the rightness or the willingness to listen to the body that's in front of you, You can get everyone to do teaser or teaser light. So I'm gonna show you the sequence first because I think it's it's fun and it's super easy. And then I'm gonna bring my friend cash in.

She's going to show you what it looks like in real life. So here we go. I'm starting toward the edge of my mat because I'm going to need to have leg room. My arms are in by my sides, but they're not super tight. My collarbones are wide, and I'm going to start with the bridge.

So my idea is curling my pubic bone toward my nose without dropping my rib cage. I'm curling, and I'm rolling upward. As I'm rolling up, I'm also thinking of lenthening and opening the front of my hips in opposition. And I'll roll back down. I'll do two more like this. I'm exhaling. I'm rolling up, and I'm p s not gripping and grabbing everything I've got. Before I go into my articulation, I engage the muscles when it's time.

They know what to do. They've been in your body for quite some time. I hope. And then you're rolling back Down. Finding neutral.

You're not done until your crack hits the mat. Next, hands come behind the head, and you can interlace or not, but the hands start behind the head. Find your long spine And then we're going to rotate the armpits to face the ceiling, elbows come into my line of vision, and then I'll exhale nod my chin and curl up to my shoulder points, not bringing my pelvis to the party, inhaling, and rolling back down. I like to let the elbows open so then I can find that wrapping again and then find that place where I give each vertebrae its chance to participate in the rolling up. We'll do one more here, and then wrapping, nodding, exhaling as I curl up, feeling my breastbone lifting up and forward, past my knees, rolling back down. And for the next one, the legs slide, I have to create room for my legs to slide.

So I'm bringing my map beneath me so my feet can slide about the floor. First step of this, I'm just getting rid of the leg. Bye bye. But as I'm getting it farther and farther away, I'm imagining or envisioning someone dragging it away without unraveling my pelvis. So I'm only moving what needs to move here.

To bring the leg back in, it's as if I'm pushing down on the gas pedal. I want to drag my leg in, get the ball of the foot to the pedal and pull from my under butt and my front of my thigh to bring the leg back in. Sliding the leg away and exhale drawing back in. I have one more on this leg, and I'm drawing the leg back in on the second side. Same idea.

I'm really being aware of how my leg is tracking as it slides away. If I let it go out to the side, what's that going to do to my teaser? Nothing good. I assure you. Two more here, sliding the leg away, standing into the hamstring. So I'm not leaving my leg kind of softly bent. I'm really trying to go go gadget my leg out of my pelvis, finding the gas pedal to come back in.

One more slide here stretching away. Feeling the front of my hip crease open and dragging the leg back in. From here, we're going to combine some skills. I'm rotating my armpits forward to go into my abdominal curl here. I'm gonna numb leg slide really finding that length again, seeing how buoyant I can keep my breastbone.

I'm exhaling and dragging the legs back in. Two more. Exhale drag equal work on both sides of the body. One more. And exhale pulling in now, we're gonna get fancy.

So I'm going to slide my legs away and bring my legs into a hover. This is 100 prep. The work is happening in the hip joint, not with the hips. Hopefully, that makes sense. I'm dragging the legs back in thinking of keeping my pelvis wide here.

I'll do two more maintaining my upper body action as my legs float up, maintaining my upper body action as my legs come in. One more, holding it here. If you can find this position, staying in neutral, from here, all you have to do is scoop, and I'm curling up into my teaser. I hold the position at the top, inhale, To come down, I'm going to let my arms transit forward just to work on the counterbalance, my eyes and my toes stay in the same path. Now I'd like to bring my friend Kesh on so you can see how we put this together for somebody else.

That's not me. Hello? Perfect. And when you're ready, actually sit up nice and tall. Reach your arms straight ahead.

Now scoop your pubic bone towards your nose, just like we talk about in the bridge, and roll back down with an exhalation. Keep curling your pubic bone towards your nose. Relax your shoulders. They aren't invited. Stop, take a big breath in, and now exhale continue to curl your pubic bone towards your nose as you roll down.

And the reason why that pubic bone to the nose is so important is because that's where we're going to get the most length out of the low back. Okay. Now relax. You can open your arms a little bit wider here. Yep. And I would like for you to rotate your armpits forward, let your palms face up for now. Yes.

Because I want you to think of standing on your shoulder blades, they're a part of your body, after all, And I would like for you to just yes. There. While we're here, lift your head. Bring it back down. I don't like it. Lift your head.

Bring it back down. Okay. So the gaze is straight up toward the ceiling. We'll start with the bridge, so I'd like for you to bring your feet closer to your rear. Good. Maybe not that close.

Yes. And you can separate your feet a little bit wider too, because remember, you have to accommodate the pelvis rotating around the femurs. You have to give yourself space to move or else it becomes a lot harder to move and you need more force. So let's take a big breath. And now exhale, all I'd like for you to do is curl your pubic bone towards your nose without squeezing anything at all. Curl. I'll relax your chest neck and shoulders. Beautiful.

Now release that back down. Realize everyone's pelvic tilt or pelvic curl looks different because we're all built differently. We have different mobility. We have different organization in our bones. Again, scooping and curling same idea without the chest. So curl relax, relax, relax. Relax. Yes. Now you can curl a little bit more.

Think of me being able to slide a piece of paper beneath your cheeks. Hold it here, inhale, and now exhale roll back down. Pelvis release it. Yes. Let's add on, shall we? We're gonna go all the way up into the bridge. Inhale here.

Exhale, curl your pubic bone toward your nose first. So relax your chest, send your sits bones up the backs of your thighs as you roll up. Relax your neck. It did nothing wrong today. Good. Now hold this. Keep your pubic bone towards your nose even more. Yes, ma'am. Now take a big breath in across your back.

As if I'm putting a weight on your breastbone start to roll away from your neck, relax your neck. Yes. Think pleasant thoughts. Keeping the pubic bone curled towards your nose until it's time. It's really important, and you're not done till the crack hits the mat so relax the pelvis. K. Keep the head very stable here.

Big breath in. Scroll your pubic bone towards your nose. And again, we're peeling off of the mat, relaxing your chest, rolling up. And relaxing your neck and having a fine time. Yes. Hold it right here.

Give me a little bit more pubic bone to the nose. Yes. Big breath. Exhale for nothing. We're gonna stay here for a second. Give me another big breath.

Feel like you're pulling your heels towards your rear. Activate the back of your leg. Yep. And now as you exhale and start to roll down, melt. You know, how when you leave chocolate on your car seat, then you have a really big mess, I want you to be the big mess. Roll down. Feel yourself expanding across the mat.

Relax your neck. How are we doing? Okay. Can we add on? Alright. So moving on, bring your hands behind your head. So one of the things that my friend Kesh struggles with is managing her ribcaped. So if you haven't had a chance to watch the video about the rotation of the armpits and the shoulder blades, I highly recommend, not just because I did it.

So from here, inhale, now exhale wrap your armpits to face the ceiling, shoulder blades are spiraling around or reaching around the rib cage, feel your collar bones getting wider. Yes. And then let's open up again, elbows open, feel your blades coming toward each other, and now take a big breath in, and then exhale. As you're wrapping the armpits to face, the ceiling, the blades are pulling away from each other. Relax your neck.

Yep. That's enough. Now open your collar bones here. And then widening your back. A widening your chest as you're opening your elbows. Yes. Arm pits start to rotate to face the sides of the room, and we'll add one more, and then we'll add the ab curl.

So wrapping the arm pits, And as she's doing this, what I I would love for you all to feel when you experience this, can we get out of the chest and feel ourself? It's back to that melting sensation into the mat. So let's have you open your collar bones a little bit more. Yep. And just be free here. Now, inhale, exhale nod the chin toward the chest, let the gaze go through the knees, and let the arms curl the head up. Blow keeping the armpits forward. Now stop there. Relax your pelvis a little bit extra and see if you can lift this way a little bit more. Good.

Stay right there. Big breath in. And now exhale rolling back down with wide collar bones. Good. We'll go a little bit quicker for the next two. Keep the armpits wrapped.

Big breath in, and now exhale curling up and over. Your own waist, drawing in, drawing in. Yes, ma'am. Hold it right here. Big breath. And now as you exhale to roll down, start low. Start here to come down. Yes. At the very lowest point, rolling all the way back, relax your pelvis.

Uh-huh. You have one more of these. Wrapping the elbows, nodding, rolling up by deepening, but not by gripping. So really breathe. Breathe, like, you mean it, not like, You're at gum point. Relax your tailbone.

More to the mat. Relax this. Relax your pelvis. Stretch your hips away from you there. Like yep. And now when you roll down, think of getting longer. Longer along the mat as you roll down and away.

Good. How are you feeling here? Alright. Bring your arms down by your sides. So we're now gonna add the leg slide in, but before we do that, lift her head for me, please. So she's doing lovely, but I'd like for her to have a little bit more support so she doesn't have to focus so much on what The arms and the elbows are doing by putting the towel under her head, she can concentrate. Go ahead and lay back down.

Just give me a little bit of a slide here, lift her head up. Yes. She can focus on what we're going to be doing with the lower half. So What I'd like for you to do, scoot down toward the foot edge of your mat, I'm just gonna grab another towel here. A little shimmy, if you will. Yes. Perfect. And we're going to use two towels because I just think it'll be a lot easier for you to really focus on the slide of the leg rather than being stuck to the floor. So feels okay.

Just wanna check your alignment here. It looks great. Here we go. Take a big breath in. And now exhale nod and curl up without tilting the pelvis. Stay. The right leg is gonna slide away.

She's going to access this from her hamstring. So feel as if your hamstring is being pulled to the floor to slide the leg away. It's being pulled and stretched through your ankle reaching the toes toward the wall. And now exhale, bring the ball of foot down as you start to drag in and keep the ball of the foot connected to the towel as you come in. Beautiful. I like to see more lift. Yes. Good.

Now this leg slide it away. Inhale. Push The hamstring is being pulled down, but she's not gripping in the front of her hip or tilting her pelvis. Well done. And exhale drag the leg in, really finding the ball of the foot coming down, keeping that femur parallel in the hip joint as the leg comes in. One more each leg. Inhale slide.

Crawl up a little bit more in your upper body. You wanna feel that oppositional work here, exhale dragging the leg back in. And then second side, inhale sliding the leg away. Stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch. Beautiful. And now exhale drag the leg in really well done here.

What you can't see is her Her hamstring and her under butt engagement is Chef's kiss. Lower the head weight down. Good. For the next one, we'll go into the double leg slides. So take a big breath in.

And exhale nod and curl up. Keep rotating the armpits forward. Keep your neck long. Reach out of the crown of your head. And deep in your abdominals.

Now both legs are gonna slide away. Inhale. Slide the legs long. Keep going. Stand into your legs. Yes. Keep reaching them longer, longer. Longer. Yes. Keep the pelvis stable.

Now exhale, drag both legs in from the undercarriage. Get the toes down. Pull pull pull. Two more like this, inhale sliding away. Yes. Yes. Yes. And she's really working on the tracking of her legs.

I love it, exhale drawing in. You have one more of these. She's getting tired, but she's in beast mode. One more. Sliding the legs away. Keep sliding. Keep sliding.

Keep deepening here. Now keep sliding so much that they lift. Yes, ma'am. Excellent job. And I'll lower them and dragging the legs in. Lower the headway down. You were looking at me like, please.

Please let me lower my head. Let's do one more like that. Wrapping the armpits around, keeping the collar bones wide. Blow. You're doing a beautiful job. Keep curling. Yes.

Each one gets better. So proud of you. Excellent. Relax your hips just a little bit. Now here we go. We're sliding the wet legs away.

We're sliding them away, reach, keep reaching longer, longer, longer, and they're lifting, try not to arch the back. So keep the weight here and float the legs up, blow. How's it feel? Lower the legs. Keep curling up. And that yep. Lower the legs down and drag the legs back in, pulling from the underside and lowering down.

Now are you ready? Let's see how it goes. I'll take the towel and I'll have you slide backwards. Maybe not. Let's stay here. I want you to be able to use the full leg slide.

Go ahead and lay down. And we're going to keep your arms down by your sides. So the way we'll time this is we'll curl up, we'll slide the legs away. And as soon as the legs hit the height of your nose, we'll start to reach the arms and curl up. Now if it doesn't happen on the first one, that's okay. What's most important is that we breathe.

We have to find opposition and and we have to find our breath. And one more thing, my friend Pesh has a little bit of a scoliosis, and she feels better when we prop one side. So if you wouldn't mind, and come back down. And now let's relax into the towel. Does that feel or care? Is it too much? Okay. Great. Alright. Show time.

Take a big breath in and exhale start to nod and then curl and lift deepening the abdominals as you curl up, reach the arms long and legs legs long at the same time sliding away, sliding away. Keep breathing. Keep breathing. Keep breathing. Now let the legs start to float up and start to flip the arms up along with. You've got it. Keep going up. Keep going up. Keep going up.

Give me a little bit more up. Yes. Without forgetting about pubic bone towards your nose. You've got it big breath in. Now exhale scoop your abdominals away, pubic bone towards your nose. And as you roll down, keep the pubic bone towards your nose. Scoop.

Yeah. So you're really rolling here, and these can start to come down. Start to come down. If you move faster, it won't feel like torture. Yes. There we go. Come on down.

And now drag the legs back in. This time, what I'd like for you to think about. So the legs go away. They hover. That was perfect. As the legs start to come up, your pelvis has to curl with you.

Make sense? Alright. This is the moment. Let's separate now. Let's keep them together for you.

And don't forget, we brought the floor up to you. So it's okay to roll through this part of your back now. Take a big breath in. Naw the chin of the chest, exhale start to slide the legs away. Keep sliding. Good. Keep sliding. Keep sliding.

Keep sliding, floating, and lifting up blow. Keep coming. Keep coming. Yes, ma'am. Keep going. Legs are coming up. Legs are coming up.

You did it. You've got it. You've got it. You've got it. You've got it. You've got it.

You've got it. I'm not even doing anything to you. There we go. Yes. You didn't even need me. Hold, stretch your knees and scoop your belly. Scoop your belly. Yes. Doesn't that feel easier when you scoop?

Yeah. Straight in your knees. Big breath in. Now exhale start to scoop, torso and leg scoop at the same time. So keep looking at your toes. Come on down.

Scoop your belly, pubic bone towards your nose. Go for it. Believe it. It's gonna be there. It's gonna be there because the floor is not going anywhere. Scoop. Scoop. Bring your legs down as you go down.

Bring your legs down as you go down. You've got it. You're there. Let the legs come down. How about that? How about that? What you don't know is that my friend Cash said I can't do the teaser. It's not there for me.

I've I've never been able to do the teaser. And so she works on it, and she builds with these basic progressions that get her there. She can't just go in and do a teaser. And, like, Have a snack. She's gotta really work on where the energy is happening. I'm proud of you, and thank you for watching this video.