Day 4: Lengthen and Burn

Hi, welcome back. You are on day four. You are doing a great job. I bet you're feeling a little bit tight, so let's lengthen. We're gonna start with our warmup.

You know it and you love it. It's our box squats, or box lunges. Come down into that deep squat, knees and toes forward. You rise, step 'em together, around 10 per side, creating that movement in the hips, flexibility in the ankles, and creating a little bit of heat right? Remember, we're landing toe, ball, heel, keeping the chest lifted and shoulders back.

Change the arm position if you want to. And stepping forward. So toe, ball, heel, press back. Land and press. Play with your breathing a little bit, so you can inhale to go down, exhale to power up, or switch it up a little bit.

Three, two, and one. Taking it back for 10. And up. Something we talked about in one of the previous classes was leaning forward a little into your lunge to feel more glute activity. Give it a try.

Three, two, and one more time. We've got the other leg. Step it off to the side and in. Down and up. There's something kind of relaxing about having consistency in the routine, right?

You know what to expect. You can also judge your progression. If you found this warmup to be challenging on class one, you might notice it's a little bit easier now on class four. Stepping forward. Down and up.

Dropping that knee as low as you can to the mat. Pushing up with the seat. Find power from underneath. Three, two, and one. Taking it back, stepping it up.

Check in with your body. Any neck tension, any shoulder tension, tightness. Let it go. Three to go. Two.

And one more time. Bring it on home. Okay, let's open up those hips and open up the spine. Reach up. Here's your thoracic extension, that's your mid-back.

Flat back hinge. Sit real low here. Rise and bend. This is a great time to dial in the breath. Big inhales, complete exhales.

And sit low. Four, three. That's two. And that's one. Taking the knees down, ankle mobility.

Send the hips up, press the arms back. Rock to your feet and rise to come up. Take it down. Rock and rise. Rolling through the feet.

And down and up. Four. Little balance challenge. There's gonna be a lot of balance in today's class. Three.

Two. One. We'll stay down. Step back to your plank. Spreading the fingers wide, stepping one foot forward, keeping the opposite hand down, finding that twist.

Back to the plank. Step it forward. Big open. Press down into the floor, step it forward, open up. Back, forward.

Play with tempo here. You can go real fast if you want or slow it down even more than I am. I am trying to focus on finding that chest opening. I'm pushing, twisting, reaching. Take a little extra time in that stretch.

One more time, and take it down. So warming up our back body. Real important. Let's call this your back body core series. Legs up, legs long, arms forward.

Opposite arm to leg. No movement in the back, legs as straight as you can get them. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Press back. Ooh.

Front body core coming at you. Here's a series where we don't take a break, but take a break if you want to. Lie down. Use your arms, pull your knees to your chest, shoulders down. Pull your chest up higher.

The higher you can curl in this series, the less you're gonna feel and use your neck. Single leg stretch, we switch, switch. Switch, switch. Four, three. The lower your legs go the harder you work.

Two and one. Double leg stretch, curl higher. Hold that scoop. Reach, circle and hug. That's your exhale.

Get big, pull it in. Tailbone down to the mat. Abdominal staying compressed. Change the breathing if it makes sense for you. Two to go.

One more. Legs come to table, hands behind the head. Turn to the bent knee. Switch, switch. It's not important the elbow touch the knee.

Focus on the curl. Four, three, two, one. Here we go. Grab that ankle, give it two pulls. Switch.

Exhale, exhale. Exhale, exhale. Pull, pull. Four, three. Lower lift coming at you.

And two. And one. Hands to the tailbone, send it low. Lift it high. And up, push for the big toes.

Pull it up. Four, three, two, and one. Bend it in and take a break. Exhale as you roll yourself up. All right, you ready to dive into it?

Meet me standing. We're gonna begin in a lunge position. One foot forward, one foot back. You might have to adjust as you go. Hands behind the head, dropping your back knee down.

As you rise, plant the heel on the back leg. Reach forward, pulling your hip back on that front leg. Down and stretch. Take it down and stretch. Inhale, lower.

Exhale, lift. One more time, down and stretch. Adding on, into the lunge you go, come up to a balance. Hold, back into the lunge. Five.

Standing leg stays a little soft. It'll help with balance. Four, three, two. Hold the balance, take the arms back behind you. Open the chest, lower and lift.

Ten, nine, eight. This is core work. Seven, six, five. Try to get the chest lower, back leg straighter. Three, two, one.

Hands down, tap the back foot. Little bit of standing cardio and core. Pull the back knee in. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six. Light fingers.

Five, four, three, two, one. Step back, open it up. Feeling it? I am. Come down into a low squat.

Roll the knees open, knees over baby toes. Try to stay low in the legs, thighs parallel to the ground, maybe. Take your arms to goalposts. One arm pushes back. Switch, switch.

I want you to feel your shoulders here. Back and shoulders. Push, push, push. If you have weights, you could use them. Five, four, almost there, three, two, and one.

Stretch the arm straight, turn your pinkies up. Up, back, up, back. How are your legs, burning? Up, back. Five, four.

When you push back, tighten the front body. Three, two, one. Come on up for a break, but not a long one. Come right back down. Laterally stretch side to side.

When you reach your arm overhead, try to keep your arm by your ear instead of in front. Four, three, two, one. This time, stretch and hold. Turn towards that original lunge position that you were just in, and then reach up. Reminds you of your warmup a little bit.

Come back through into that squat. Let's do it again. Reach, turn right into the rotation. Come back through. Got two more to to go.

Reach, turn. Open it up. And here we are. Get ready to hold the next one. Reach, turn.

From here, lean forward. Pull your back knee in and see if you can tap your foot. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Open it up. Woo, burning! Let's do it on the other side.

So take your twist. Find that heel down position. Know that you might have to kind of adjust your stance as you go. Hands behind the head. Take it down.

When you come up, plant the back heel and reach. Try to pull your hip back. Your chest comes about parallel to the ground. Reach. We did a round five.

That's three. Finding that opposition, hip back, arms forward. Now we take the balance, go down, reach, find it and land it. Down and up. Five, four, three.

Get ready to hold the lift. Two, and one. On the next one, hold. Stay here, take the arms back. Everything goes up.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Take it down. Pull it in. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Open it up.

We're back here. Find your turnout. Find a deep position. Heels down knees towards those baby toes. Chest lifted.

Something different with the arms this time. Reach your arms long. Turn one palm back, one palm up. Press, press, press. Keep the ribs closed.

Press. Stay low. Press. So the heat that you're feeling is gonna help you to lengthen. Just remember that.

Embrace the heat. Three, two, one. Send the arms long. Turn those pinkies up again. This time we're gonna circle up and around.

Five, four, three, two, one. Reverse. Five, four, three, two, one. Woo! Lateral stretch coming at you. Go back down, reach arm overhead.

Reach arm overhead. And breathing. When you stretch to the side, it's a great time to take a big breath in. One more time each direction. Hold.

Now we're twisting the other way. Hand goes down, arm comes up, open. Come through and up. Again. Reach, twist, come through and up.

Two more times. Reach, twist, come through, get ready to hold it. Reach, twist, lean forward. Try to touch your back foot. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Reach and come up. That is some hard work right there! Okay guys, we're gonna go into a chair variation. Have your feet hip distance apart, standing nice and tall, hands in prayer. Sit low as the arms reach overhead, rise to come up. Think of this as a reset exercise.

Rise to come up. Three more. Reach and rise. Push evenly into both feet and rise. Last time like this.

Reach and rise. You ready for that sensation of heat? Get down, stay down. One knee taps, come back to chair. Opposite knee steps back and taps, come back to chair.

Play with your tempo and timing, but don't come up. Stay low. Five, four, three, two, one. Tap and hold. Take your hands down, press back.

You're now in a figure, or excuse me, a quadruped kneeling position. Figure four will come later. From here, I want you to walk your hands forward a bit of your shoulders. Keep your back leg lifted, hips square. Tap your elbows down as you lift the back leg higher, and then press up.

Keeping one long line with your spine, tap and lift. When I tap down, notice that my elbows kind of end up right under my shoulders. Four, three. I'm really trying to energize that back leg. Two, and then one.

Hold your elbows down. Step back, finding a plank position. We're bringing the knees in through the elbows. We've got five, and four, three, and two, and one. Bring one knee in.

Flex the foot. Take a seat and you're in your mermaid. Time to stretch. Reach your arms out to a T. Laterally stretch and come up.

So notice we've done a lot of twisting, a lot of lateral bending in the spine. These are movements that we don't do in regular life a ton, so enjoy. One more time. Stretch and stretch. Take your hand down, bring it back behind you.

Push your hips up and forward. Reach back, hip stretch, and sit down. Do it again. Hip stretch. So you wanna think of opposition.

Knee stays down, arm reaches away, squeeze the glutes. Two to go. One more. Hip stretch. Awesome.

Meet me back up into our chair. So in this chair, our feet are still hip distance apart. We're sitting low as we reach the arms forward, sitting back. Rise to come up. Sitting low and rise.

The spine is staying long, abs staying pulled in. We've got four, three, two. Staying low. Stepping back, back into the chair. Knee taps, chair.

Knee, chair. Four, three, two, one. Step the knee back and send it back. Here we go, guys. Make sure you're on the opposite leg, like that.

Okay, walk the hands a bit forward of the shoulders and then take it down. Hold. Energize that back leg. Pull it nice and high, and rise. Focus on the spine staying pretty long and pretty stable.

Just bending the elbows and pressing up. Four, three. Shoulders staying fixed on the back. Two, these kinds of movements will really help your pushups and your chaturangas when you can learn shoulder stability. Hold it.

Leg goes back, you step back, knees drive in. Pull and pull. Five and four. Mermaid next. Big stretch in three, two, one.

Send the knee in. Take a seat. Okay. Feels a bit different on this side for me, I don't know about you. Laterally stretching up and over.

And big breathing, up and over. If you're someone who does reformer work, think of your side bends, your bow and arrow on the short box. You want to engage your abdominals in both directions to cinch and go down and to lengthen and lift. Bring the hand behind you a bit. Push down into your knee, hips come forward.

Reach away from the knee and take a seat. This is a hip stretch. Feels real good. The more you engage through your seat, the easier it is to get the front of the hips to open. So squeeze your butt.

Three. Inhale down, exhale up. Two. And then one more time here. Big push.

One and rise. Okay, let's get that heart pumping again. We're gonna walk out to a downward dog. Reach down, touch your toes. Bend the knees if that's more comfortable.

Finding your plank first, spreading your fingers wide, pressing back to the dog. Feel free to settle in a bit here. Lots of space for the head, no tension in the neck. Use your back to hold you up. Enjoy.

One leg comes up. There's your three-legged dog. The knee is gonna come across to opposite elbow, but hold the plank. Reach to the same elbow, go back to the opposite, into your dog. That's one.

You go across, same, across. That's two. You go across, same, across. That's three. Let's go for five.

Pull, pull, twist. That's four. Scoop, twist, scoop. That's five. Step through.

Bring the opposite leg to meet. Now your legs are together, a more traditional style chair. Palms come to prayer. We're gonna rise and turn, touching opposite elbow to the outside of the thigh. Twist.

Push into your hands. Twist. Pull the navel back towards the spine. Rise. Four, three, two.

One more time. One. Reach down, touch the toes. Press back to your plank, into your dog. Before we do the flow again, let's vinyasa.

So lengthen out to a high plank. Lower into that pushup, or chaturanga. Lift into your up dog. Feels so good. Roll over the toes, down dog.

Two more. Lengthen. Shift forward as you lower. Pull the chest through the arms. One more time.

Lengthen, lower, open. And push back. Take the knees down, take a breath. De-load those wrists. And we have that TikTok again.

So let's do it. Spreading the fingers, find that plank, pushback. First, the three-legged dog. As you lean forward into a plank, knee comes to opposite. Same, opposite, kick.

That's one. Across, twist, across. That's two. Across, twist, across. Three.

Four. Across, twist, across, five. Step through. Woo! Chair is a reset opportunity. Squeeze those legs together.

Rise to come up. When you go down, find that rotation. Press into the hands. Inhale to come up. And up.

Try to bend the knees deeply and twist. So get real low, pressing into the hands. Knees stay together. Four, three, two, and one. Reach down.

Let's do that vinyasa. Step back. Press the chest towards the thighs. Spread those fingers wide. Here we go.

Lengthen. One shape takes you down. Roll over the feet if you can. Press, one. Lengthen, take it down, pull yourself through your arms, and press.

One more time and then we've got our cool down. Lengthen, lower. Find that width in the front body. And take it back. Heels to the mat.

Knees to the mat. Forehead to the mat. Breathe. You did great! You didn't think it was gonna be an easy one did you? Mm-mm! Lie down, let's do our our spinal rotation release.

So turning and recovering. Woo! Feels great. Try to keep the arms and the shoulders planted. Use the exhale to pull your knees back up. One more each direction.

Last time. Plant the feet. Take that figure four, and know that this stretch is a great place to stay. I will remind you, though, if you wanna do a bit more core work, we've got those reverse curls. Five, four, three, two, and switch.

Flex the foot. The more you can press that knee away from your chest, the more you're gonna feel that opening the glute. One, two, three, four, five. Meet me standing. Let's walk it out.

Wide stance, ground the feet. Reach up, dive down. Four steps. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, rebuild.

And walk it back. All that heat in the hamstrings and glutes makes it a little bit easier to touch the ground. We'll do one more. I can't wait to see you for tomorrow's class. It's gonna be another hard one.

You ready for it? I am. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Bye!