Dynamic Control

Welcome to Fortify the Mat with Misty Lynne. Today we're using the Franklin ball. And my Franklin ball is just a little bit squishy. It's not fully inflated. That's just going to give me a little bit more give and also augment the challenge of the work we're about to do.

So let's get started. I like to start with the ball behind me and it's gonna be just around the base of my shoulder blades or so. My hands come behind my head. Armpits are rotated forward, your belly is deep. So let your belly be like a hammock here and be a little bit of a scoop.

And you'll inhale as you stretch back and then you'll exhale and curl up. Now I'm gonna try to stay on target here because this feels so good, I just wanna stay back for a moment or two. And if you feel that in your own body, guess what? Take that moment. It's good for you.

Two more. Just remember that the head is relaxed into the hands. I'm not pulling on my neck at all. I'm allowing the head to be a support. My abdominals are working here in my favor.

Now I'm gonna come back and hold. So we're just warming up here. I'm gonna take my ribs one way as my shoulders go the other. And then I'll go the other way again. If this is uncomfortable, I want you to bring your head up a little and work it here.

But if it's not, you can go a little bit deeper and take this stretch. So channel your inner macaroni, pasta shapes here. Its all about food in my world. One more to the other side. Stretch, stretch, stretch.

Let the head be along for the ride. Return to the center. Take a big breath, exhale, curling up. Find a nice balance point here. One more warmup.

I just would like for you to rotate your chest, looking over the elbow, let the ball slide a little bit and go the other way. This time we're keeping our pelvis in neutral. It's centered on our body here. (coughs) One more each way, twisting and using the breath to facilitate that for comfort. Now, reposition your ball as needed.

We're going to do some foot work. You have options. Hands can either be behind your head or they can be down by your sides. Just remember protect your neck. It's not like you can get another one from anywhere.

And your legs are going to come here. We're in a little deeper than a regular frog and we'll go to foot work. So you'll inhale, press the legs away and point and then exhale, pull them in. And as you're working, I want you to think about your inner sits bones drawing together, your outer rear wrapping around you and your abdominal staying deep. Three more, and two, and one last one.

Hold it here, pull it in. Now we'll go parallel. Flexing your ankles, inner ankle bones, pressing toward each other press the legs away and in, and two. And as you're bending and stretching, I want you to think about what's happening here in your core. Are you getting fluffy like white bread?

Are you pulling it in deep? Keeping your core engaged the whole time. Inner ankle bones are still pressing together. And let's just do one more here and pull in. Bring the legs down and take a stretch back.

Let your belly inflate, exhale, nod the chin to the chest, curl back up and lift the legs. Now one leg is going to hover or if you need to rest it the other leg will go up to the ceiling as we extend and bend. So here we go, and pushing up and down, two. We're doing eight here, so take care of your body. Four, give me four more here.

Press them, lengthen and bend, and three. So sorry, two and one, both knees come in. Second leg reaches long and we're pressing up and bend. Now your free leg here is not free. It's energized whether you've got it on the floor or floating.

And four more here press and three and two more. Here's your last one, bend it in, stretching it back. And you can let your arms go back here too. Let your belly expand as you breathe to release it. We're almost done warming up here.

So I'd like for you to bring your ball. Now it's down by your feet and you're going to rest both heels or ankles on the ball. Just a few ab curls in this position, keeping the ball here. And we're using this to kind of get acclimated to what it feels like to be balanced on the ball from the lower half of the body. So you'll rotate your armpits forward.

You can see your elbows in your peripheral vision, and as you exhale to curl up, you're letting your weight given to the ball, but you're not pushing your legs down. Exhale, blow and curl, inhale, stretch away. Think opposition here. Blow and scoop and deepen, heavy legs. I want your legs to weigh 362 pounds each.

So you're not using your legs in this ab curl here. Let's do one more here, hold it. Take your reach, hold it. Curl up a little bit extra, hold it and lower down. Hugging the ball between your ankles.

Think of your inner ankle bones again, they're pressing into the ball and then they're reaching away from your chin. That's gonna ensure that your inner thighs are engaged. So modified 100 today, we're gonna take a big breath in, (inhales deeply) Exhale scoop, curl up to your shoulder points for five. Lift your legs for five, lower and roll back down. Four more just like that.

And curl two, three, four, five and lift two, three, four, five and lower two, three, four, five, roll down. Don't lose this even on the down and curl, stretching through those ankles and float, deep low core inner butt cheeks on and lower. Two, three, four, five. Back down, two more sets here we go. Blow, standing on your feet.

Lift, energy stays through the inner and outer legs here and lower. You have one more. Not the chin to the chest and curl, legs hover and lift, strong through your hamstrings as you lower, head comes down, arms come back. We're doing an interlude here. Starting with the roll up.

Arms will float up and then so will you. Nodding the chin of the chest, curling up, I'm standing on my feet as I go. My abdominals are already complaining which is the sign of a good warmup. Now, as I'm scooping and rolling back, I'm reaching through my legs, I'm drawing my inner sits bones together. My arms come down as my legs come up.

Pointing through my ankles, I'm rolling up and over without collapsing into my low back. Bending my knees, stretching and all the way through the backs of my legs. And now I'm articulating down, and I'm taking my time because it's harder that way, of course. And I'm gonna let my legs go all the way down as my arms come up. And then I'm nodding my chin to my chest and I'm rolling up.

And I'm stretching long on both sides of my body. My spine is round. And I'm exhaling hollowing back. My arms are coming down as my legs are coming up and I'm rolling up and over. Once again, it's not about the momentum.

Flex this time because it feels good. Bend the knees and straighten the knees without dropping your hips, slowly, rolling down, letting the legs descend as the arms lift. Chin to the chest curling all the way up, stretching all the way over hollow belly, scooping, rounding your spine as you come back down. The legs, start to lift as the head lowers, scoop and curl up and over. Hollow belly, flex your ankles.

Bend, stretch without dropping your hips, slowly rolling down. I think we have one more. Head stays heavy, arms come up as the legs go down. Nod the chin near your chest curling all the way up. Take your time, stretch all the way over.

Pull your navel to the back wall. How hollow can you get? Rolling down in a way. Arms come down as the legs come up. Use your arms to get up and over.

Flex the ankles, bend the knees towards your eyebrows. Push the heels away. Lengthen the backs of the knees. Floating down, down, down, down, diggy, down, down down, as the legs come down, hold. Now we'll place one leg on top of the ball.

The other knee is gonna come into passe. We're just gonna do a twist and then we'll twist the other way to make sure the hip is loose enough for the single leg circles. Right leg is gonna go up. Slightly turned out in the hip joint. Super long in the back of the knee.

Small circles here, inhaling around and down, exhaling up. Now your leg on the ball is active. It's not swaying side to side. You're keeping it nice and neutral. Two more.

(exhale sharply) And don't forget to breathe, it's important. Reverse, circling around and down and up. And four more, three, and two, and one. And if you thought you were getting out of climb a tree here, nod the chin to your chest now, hollow your belly and walk up your leg. Walking up the leg, trying not to let the leg on the ball pull you off of your center, sitting up nice and tall, walking back down, bend the knee in and now we're going to switch legs.

Ankle goes on the ball and make sure the ball is set up in line with the center of your hip joint here, not off to the side. Your other leg comes up to the ceiling long through the hamstring. Hips are level and circle. Inhale, exhale up, four more. And remember we're drawing circles, which are around.

Sometimes my circles on this side look more like trapezoids and reverse. Inhaling, exhaling it up, four more and three. Opposite hip stays heavy and one, just one climate tree for good measure, big breath in, nod the chin of the chest. Exhale, walking up the leg. Find all of your height at the top, big breath in.

We've got to finish it to go right back down energized through the fronts and backs of the legs. We'll grab our ball, squeeze it between the inner ankle bones, knees bent and roll up from here. (inhale deeply) Take your time. Sing yourself the alphabet song to get all the way up to the top. Hollow and hold.

We've got another interlude in store. So we're combining rolling like a ball with the series of five, round your spine. Look into your belly, rotate your armpits forward and find your balance point. For some of you, the role may not be accessible and that's okay. No matter what, we're pressing the ball into the shins and the shins into the ball, a single role.

Inhale back to exhale up and balance. From here single leg stretch. Inhale, inhale, exhale, exhale from here. Double leg stretch. (exhale deeply) and exhale pull in from here, single straight leg stretch.

Tap the ball with the top leg. Tap, tap, exhale, double leg, lower lift. Exhale up from here. Criss cross inhale, inhale, exhale, exhale. Grab on, rock up, reposition your ball.

Three more times just like that. Scoop, inhale back, exhale up and balance. Then single leg stretch, inhale, inhale, exhale, exhale. Double leg stretch, stretch and exhale pull it in. Single straight leg stretch tap, tap, tap, tap, and exhale.

Exhale, double leg lowers, inhale to lower and exhale to come up. Criss cross, inhaling for two, exhaling for two. Grab, hold, rock up, reposition your ball. Find your round shape here. Here we go again.

Back, up, balance. Stretch and again and both legs in double leg stretch and tap, tap for double straight legs, single straight leg stretch. Double straight leg lowers, criss cross. Look over the elbow. Look over the elbow every time, rock up, reposition your ball.

Here's our last one. Inhale back, exhale up find your balance, pull it in. Deep core here, deep breath here and stretch both legs long. (exhales sharply) Tap the ball, tap, tap, tap, tap. And again, (exhales sharply) lower and up, criss cross and three and squeeze the ball, and squeeze the ball.

Come in, rock up. Now we stretch the legs long. Spine stretch forward is next. So your hands are gonna rest on the ball. Flex your ankles and press through your inner heels.

Now in this flex, don't overwork your Peggy's here. Ankles along, but quads aren't grippy, let's go. Not the chin of the chest, curl, stretch and rolling back up, vertebra by vertebra. Keeping your tailbone down, curl up and over, rounding your spine, pressing your ball away, keeping the armpits rotating forward. And as you scoop and roll up, keep pressure into the ball.

You can spider walk your fingers in and do it again. (exhales sharply) Curling up and over, stretch, stretch through your heels and rolling back up. And here's our last one. Nodding, scooping, curling, hollow your belly. How hollow can you get your core here?

Stretch more, stretch more and scooping and rolling back up, sitting nice and tall. Now the next interlude's kind of a doozy. So depending upon where you normally grab for your open leg rocker that's where I want you to work from here. So legs are gonna go up. You're sitting up nice and tall, and you're working to hold yourself up from your core, not from some magical body part.

From here we're going to roll back. Scoop, inhale back, exhale, roll up. Find your balance, scoop and stretch right here. Now we're gonna scoop back, roll up and over. And we're adding the corkscrew here.

So roll down one side of the spine. As soon as your tailbone hits the mat like circle around to the other side, square it up, roll over. And now we're rolling down the other side of the spine. So we have to be even. Tailbone hits the mat, go around to that same side, come back up to the center and now we rock up and we catch for open leg rocker.

Scoop, find your cannon ball, wide elbows, stretch. Find your inner thighs, find your under butt, find your height here. Now, here we go. We're rolling back for our corkscrew. We're rolling down one side of the spine using your arms for balance, keeping your neck out of the equation.

Circle around, down, up to the other side, square and roll back down the other side of the spine. Circle around, come back up and over. And now we roll back down. Catch for open leg rocker. Get taller at the top.

Two more, one more in each direction. Here we go. We're scooping into our Ken ball. We're stretching up. We're rolling back, arms come down for our corkscrew.

Roll down one side of the spine. Tailbone hits, circle around to the other side come up and over. And now we roll down yet that side of the spine, around, down, up and over. Stretch your knees. Stretch down through the spine.

Come up, find your catch at the top. Lift your breastbone, not your chin, last one. Bend your knees into your cannonball without losing any height in your low spine, stretching up, getting taller, taller, armpits forward. Scooping back, up and over for your corkscrew. Roll down one side of the spine circle over and up and then the other way.

Roll down the spine circle around, up and over. Hold it from here. We're rolling back down. Catching, hold your balance, lift your chest, lift it more, lift it more. Find your cannonball scoop.

Find your stretch, lift and come down. Now from here, we're gonna take our ball and we're gonna lay on top of it. So what I want you to remember is this, the ball is just an accessory. So if you've got any issues with your bladder and your low belly, just go ahead and leave it out. Because like I said, it's just an accessory.

In the meantime, it's gonna be beneath your pelvis and you'll start off on your forearms. I want the forearms to be positioned like the number 11, not like the letter A, okay. So rotate your armpits forward and hold it here. Now the legs are gonna lift and lower. And as you're lifting, really think of lengthening away.

It's as if my cats are down by my toes and they're stretching my toes away from my pelvis. Four more like this, and really try to focus on keeping your chest broad and your armpits rotated forward. Two more and one more. And now you'll come back, hands to the balls, we'll take a child's pose here. And you can wag your tail side to side.

And now come back up, same idea. Ball's gonna be beneath the pelvis, if you can tolerate it. Arms in the number 11. And from here, we're going to rotate the armpits forward lift up, into your Swan position. And now we'll go into the rocking Swan, back and lift.

And it doesn't have to be aggressive here because we've got the ball. So really fall into the movement and lengthen and lift up. Give me four more here. Keeps stretching through the legs. Three, two, and may I have one more please.

One, come up lengthen and lift. Find that rotation pressing back, sitting into the heels, take the ball forward. And we'll just stretch. Take the shoulders side to side, Wag the tail is gonna side to side. And then from here, we're roll up and we're gonna do some side bending here.

So the ball's gonna come right just below the armpit. Hands behind the head. Your legs are gonna go long feeder stat and they're gonna be in line with your sits bones. Now, if this bothers your bottom hip, you may tuck the bottom leg under you. Hands are behind the head, rotate your armpits forward and standing here on your feet.

If your legs are straight, go for the challenge. Try to keep the heels in line with your sits bones. It's a baby side bend here. I'm thinking lengthening my bottom side to curl up and over my top side. Exhale lift, and inhale lower.

Now what I really wanna do is hike my top hip. It'll make it easier, right until I fall off. So goal is to not fall off. Give me four more, exhale side bending. Feel this light up and lower back down.

Three more lift, lift and lower. Just two more. (exhale sharply) and inhale back down. And here's your last one, lifting up, hold. Reach your top arm and pause eight, seven, six.

(exhales deeply) With each pause, think of continuing to maintain length on the top side, even though you're curling toward it. Now last one in this series, we'll bend the bottom leg, stretch up and over and then come back up, four more, over lengthen and lift up. If you're feeling particularly randy you may keep the legs floating here. As you stretch, the leg stays super still exhaling, up. Can I have one more please?

Over and up. Good, come on down. Flip over onto your belly just to transition. We'll take the arms straight ahead. Palms are resting on the ball.

Legs are long. Let your wrists actually rest. And then from here, keeping the armpits rotating forward. I'd like you to just press down lightly as you lift up. So this is that full Swan that we didn't do before.

Little bit tougher with the hands narrow. So remember armpits forward, keeps your shoulders broad and then come back down just two more. Blow. (exhales sharply) And back down. Last one, gaze to the horizon.

And when you come down, start at the bottom rib not at the forehead. Three, two and one. Let's flip to the second side, shall we? And again, remember the ball placement is important here. If you think about taking the ball and placing it somewhere around just below your armpit.

Bottom knee can be bent if needed or it can be straight. And if it's straight, the heels are gonna be in line with your sits bones. Let's see how it goes. Here we go. Side bending up and lower back down.

We have six more. As you come up, imagine that you are in between two panes of glass. So you don't wanna lean forward and smash your face against the pain in front of you. Four more. Armpits stay rotated forward.

I can always see them in my peripheral vision. Three, two more. And last one, that's curl up and back down. Now the top arm is gonna reach we're pulsing up, eight. And every time you come up, think of going a little bit farther, again without leaning forward and smashing your face on that imaginary pane of glass.

Four, inner thighs, inner sits bones together, three and give me two more, and give me one more up. Good, and here we go. Bending the bottom leg. I'm gonna bring my bottom arm over me this time so I can get a better stretch. As I side, then over, I'm turning my gaze as I come up, I'm bringing it with me.

And again, you can float that free arm if you'd like, three, I'm standing into this hip, my top PIP is active, two and one more up and over and over to come up, stretch, stretch that stretch. Hold it, hold it, hold it. And let's come back down. Good, just a quick side to side stretch. Crossing your legs over.

Not quite the mermaid but we're just releasing that side bend. It feels different when you're sitting up and it gives you the opportunity to ground the hip, so you can let the rib cage go. Switch the cross of your legs and we'll do the same thing. Up and over, stretch the hip down, let the ribs open. Let the head be an extension of your spine.

Good, let's come up here. Now, we're gonna go into a forearm plank. Now the ball ideally will be underneath your shins and ankles. As you press in at this position or before you press, give a good look to the arms. I want them to be parallel like the number 11, not fingertips together like the letter A.

From here, we're going up. Buns are long, belly is deep and you're pulling forward and pushing back. (exhales sharply) So it looks like I'm doing it all from my arms but my core is really participating here. And that's why my bum is not going up to the sky. Sky doesn't want my bum, so I might as well keep it.

Three more and belly deep, two more armpits, remain rotated forward. Last one, up and release again. Child's pose this time, knees open. Let the arms stretch through and give a little tail wag here. We are not done with arm work, no, we are not.

So to begin, I want you to feel like you're going to put yourself someplace really comfortable but don't plan to be here very long. Everyone lift your breastbone up and forward. Gaze, stay straight away on the horizon. Hugging your inner thighs together, scoop and lift your pelvis up. Get comfortable in this position.

Hold it here. And then lower back down. Can we talk about the fingers? Press your fingertip pads into the mat. Press your thumb into the mat.

Scoop and lift your hips up. Belly is deep, legs are hugging, looking straight away and scoop the belly, roll back down Adding on, take a big breath in. We'll go into our reverse bridge here. Reverse plank, scooping and lifting, hold. Top leg is gonna come up to passe, stretch it back down, passe and stretch.

Two more like this, look straight away. Stretch, heavyweight into your fingertips, passe, stretch and lower down, stretch forward. Reaching for the feet, the heels, the knees, your chin whatever you can reach. Just take a stretch and we have two legs. I regret to inform you.

So we have to do both. The same idea applies here. The ankles are crossed and you're feeling the engagement around your seat and at your inner sits bones. Here we go. Hug the legs together.

Take a big breath in first and exhale, lift up. Find your position and lowering back down. Make sure we're not hybrid standing or going into a back bend as we lift the hips up. Feel like your pelvis is staying level and your pelvis is not lifting above your breastbone. Two more like this, scoop leading from your belly.

Lift, lift, chest is broad and lowering back down, one more before all the fun begins, exhale, scooping and lifting up, blow. (exhales sharply) Open your chest, rotate your arm pits to the wall in front of you. Roll back down, adding on, here we go. Big breath in. First exhale, scoop and lift up.

(exhales deeply) How balanced are you? We'll find out. Passe and stretch. Inner thighs, zip, hold, two more. Try to keep the hips level and last one, stretch it away.

Lift a little extra and lower back down. Stretching forward, grabbing your heels or your ankles or your wherever and coming off. Ball goes between the ankles. Time for the neck pole, hands come behind the head. And remember your range of motion is uniquely yours.

Do what you can do. You don't have to go all the way to the floor. Let's take a big breath in here as we hinge back flat. And then we can't hinge any more so than we exhale. Start scooping from the pelvis to go all the way down.

Soon as the head hits, we inhale. Start to curl up, pushing through your inner heels, inner ankle bones, exhale, curl over. Sitting tall, keep inhaling, (inhaling deeply) Scoop, (inhaling deeply) Up, this was a rough one, over and stack up. We have two more flat back, round back, stretch back and coming right back up, blow. (inhaling deeply) Sometimes you need to do a little dance over (chuckles) and sit up nice and tall.

Last one, hinge, scoop. How round can you scoop? Round, round and blow to curl, inhale, I'm sorry to curl, and exhale curling over. And we sit tall and we grab our ball. We're gonna hold it here at the chest and I want you to give it a squeeze.

So first, this is tilt around the world. So I'm going to rotate first, looking over my shoulder. I'm handing toward my rear corner. When this hap wants to come up, I'm going to start to scoop my spine, round my spine, go over to the other side, flatten my back to the corner and come up to sit tall. Shall we?

Rotate first, hinge to the rear corner of the room. My hip wants to lift, so no, no, no, I'm gonna swoop. Circle around, hinge the other way. Get my back hip down and come up to the center. Keep your feet even, twist, hinge, scoop around, rotate to the other way.

Reach, tall, get the cheek down, come up. Last one, twist, hinge, scoop around. Find your deep low core, stretch to the corner. Reach long, flat back, come up and center. Good, now from here, we're gonna go back to our backs.

There's a teaser in your future and it's gonna be a lot of fun, maybe. But before that, we're going to go to a ball balance. So you're gonna bend your knees in, place the ball on the soles of your feet. Now, if you're doing this with a big physio ball, it's even more fun. The ball balances on the soles of your feet, your heels are together, arms are reaching up and we're curling up, eight, seven.

And as you scoop, you're making sure your belly is sinking in, your ball isn't rolling away. Four, give me three more stretch. Find your seat connection. Two more, stretch. And last one and bring the ball down.

Just some bridging with the feet on the ball, before we go into our teaser, scooping and rolling your hips up. Articulating, thinking of the forefoot and the heel all being heavy on the ball. Scooping them rolling down, take your time. (exhaling sharply) Two more just like this exhale, scooping and rolling up, peeling bone by bone off of the mat. Take your time.

Is your weight even on both feet? Scoop, roll back down. How about one last for good measure. Exhale, hollow this rolling up. Finding your deep low core, finding both arms lifting up.

Arms open five and four. Keep your cheeks turned on and two, and one, rolling down your spine. We're in early. We're gonna take the legs long. I want you to squeeze the ball between your ankles.

Legs are flex Ankles or flex, I'm sorry. Now from here, your arms are down by your sides. We'll bring the legs up. Hold, find the ankle flection here, pushing through your inner heels. Arms come overhead and we'll crawl all the way up in your teaser, hold here.

Option number one is to bend the knees to grab the ball to roll back down. Now the ball is overhead. Legs are long, big breath in, nod the chin of the chest. Exhale, curling up into your teaser. Option number two, keep the legs straight arms come up, roll back down.

We have two more, choose your poison. Big breath in, chin and the chest. Here we go curling up. Legs will either be straight or bent as you pass the ball along. Roll away, again chin in the chest, curling up and over.

(exhaling deeply) Pass the ball, arms come up, roll back down. I'm sorry guys. I think we have to do just one more. Here we go, coming up, curling up. As soon as you see that ball that's when you come up, pass the ball, hold and roll back down.

Now it's time to stand. So with your ball, in fact, we'll start with the ball on the floor here. Let me turn this way. That way I won't hit the tree. So here I am, I'm gonna start off in a nice Pilate stance.

Not super turned out, maybe about a fist width with my hand. So I'm curling up and over with a round spine, wait to staying balanced over the balls of the feet and the heels evenly. And then my hands are coming to the ball. I'll take one leg behind me. I'm keeping my armpits rotated forward and I'm just lifting my leg up to hip height and I'm tapping the floor, four more.

Now your standing knee, doesn't get to bend unless your hamstring doesn't allow for that. And if that's the case, you can bring the ball here. Two more and back down, last one, lift and hold. We're gonna bend the standing knee and straighten it. Three more.

Try to keep your hips as square as you can and find a focal point or else still goes splat. One more, bend and stretch. Leg comes down, round your spine hold it here for a moment and roll up. So that gets really dicey when we don't spread the toes. Use the toes like you would use your hands for balance.

Spread your fingers, spread your toes. Here we go. Big breath in, chin in the chest. Exhale rounding your spine going over. Belly is deep.

Weight is balanced over the forefoot and the heels. Find your weight into the ball. Take the other leg back and up spreading your standing toes lower and lift, work to keep the hips square. Neck is long on spine, not dangling. Two and one, hold it up stay.

Standing knee, bends and stretches, three more. As you bend, watch the knee, is it tracking between your first and second toe or is it tracking everywhere? And up toe comes down, leg comes in. Find your turnout. Find your inner thighs, fastening together.

Deepen your stretch here. Take a big breath in. Find the wrapping of your inner sits bones rolling all the way up. Take your time, take your time. Make sure your pelvis sits up right over your heels.

Just do a single slow relevate here. So I'm lifting up without rocking too far forward. I'm lifting up, spreading my toes, fighting my balance. I'm lowering down, same idea, I'm releasing. Everybody, thank you so much for fortifying the mat with me, Misty Lynn.