Class #66

Mat Progression Series 5/10

40 min - Class
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This is the 5th class in a series that takes the new student from Basic to intermediate Mat work. Learn how to use breath to power your mat work, specifically rolling exercises. Mat work consists of Basic/Intermediate Exercises introducing Open Leg Rocker, Neck Pull and Seal.
What You'll Need: Mat

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Jan 31, 2010
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All right, class. You guys ready to begin today? Go ahead and just take your mat and just go ahead and lie down. And we're going to concentrate on breathing today and how to use that breath to help us do a lot of rolling exercises. I'm sure we're going to be very excited about that, but I'm just going to, we're just a little bit Jennifer. Wonderful. Great. Okay. So in the very beginning we did on the first class we did to El.

So let's revisit that and make two ELLs with your hands and put your fingers right under your chest or bra strap all the way up. Good and point the thumb to the back. And so what I want you to do is just take a big breath and exhale, great. And in with the air and exhale great. And so you just keep doing that and getting relaxed and trying to feel that your ribs will rise up as you inhale. And as you exhale, they really go down and your upper back, especially the vertebra, right under your, below your shoulder blades or right under your bra strap are gonna really sink down and make a nice straight back there. When we um, are breathing doing certain exercises in Pele's like saw that I kind of talked about how important just supplies breathing was that you pull the rib right into that long and squeeze out that last bit of stale air out of the lungs. Well, in rolling exercises you really want to pull those ribs deep into your lungs as you come up. So when you will back in a rolling exercise, you'll take a big breath, but to come up all your energy and strength and force will be in that upper stomach pulling those ribs into those lungs and squeezing out all your air.

So if you tried to come up out of a rolling exercise and you're taking a breath, it's, it really works against you. So you want to think about those ribs pulling into those lungs. And also when we start off on spine stretch forward before the saw and you're about to curl down, you want to think about those ribs pulling into your lungs as you start to peel off an imaginary wall. So we're going to be working on those quite a bit today. Okay, so let's go ahead and think about that while we do the a hundred and we're going to use our powerhouse to bring our right knee into your chest. Good.

And give it a hug with one hand and use your powerhouse to bring your left knee into your chest. Good. And your back should be really nice and flat and you should be holding those thighs now just with your powerhouse. Stretch your arms long along the mat, about five inches up off the mat. Good. And just stay here while you pump your arms. Inhaling and exhaling. Good.

Take a big breath and this time as you exhale, think more about your ribs dropping down even though your hands aren't on top of them. Inhaling and exhale. Really pull those ribs deep into that mat. Nice. Inhaling on the next exhale, and then I want you to lift your head using that upper stomach to push the ribs into the mat. Inhale, two, three, four, five, and exhale. Make sure you don't feel your thighs right now that you fill your stomach, pulling those knees towards your ears in with the air. Exhale, those ribs are pulling deep, deep, deep. And on the next exhale we're going to inhale here.

I want you to extend those legs right up to the ceiling and a nice Velodea stance. Turning out from those hips. Of course. Inhale two, three, four, five and exhale. Let's really drop those ribs down so you can use that upper stomach. Old Your shoulders up, yes in with the air and turning out from those hips. Squeeze in the back of your thighs together. One more inhale and one last XL.

Really focusing on those ribs. Wonderful. Hug your knees into your chest. Invest your head. Very good work. All right, let's go ahead and sit up. Good. And we're going to place our feet together. Perfect. And maybe take your bottom back just a little bit. There you go, Jennifer. You don't want too high of an angle there.

So we're going to do the roll back and so I want you to really wrap and squeeze your legs together. They're not going to move, but you want us to keep your body really stable and I'll put a hand underneath each knee. Go ahead. So we're going to sit up really tall to start and now I want you to think about those ribs again. I want you to take a big breath and exhale, pull those ribs back and round your upper back with those ribs pulling in round your lower back with your belly. Basically tipping that bowl of soup towards your chest. Great. And now I want you to inhale and start rolling your hipbones away from your thighs that are going to have legs are going to stay there. Start Rolling back your lower back.

Keep your feet there and exhale as low as you want to go. Maybe just to the bottom of the shoulder blades and inhale and XL. Good, good, good. Now, how did I see much work there when you guys were coming up? Same thing as those rolling exercises. You want to make sure you pull those ribs deep into those lungs.

We came up a little flat on that one, so let's try that again. We're going to squeeze our bottom, wrap our thighs together and take a big breath and exhale. Go ahead and start pulling back your waistband. Great one bone, the next bone, going back as far as you can, and then take a breath and start coming up. Pull those in, pull them in round, round, round. That's it, and roll back again. Starting with that inhale, just go ahead and start rolling back. Inhale and exhale the rest of the way down and take a breath and then exhale. Really pulling in those rubs. He did a great job.

Let's do three more right in a row. Inhale to start rolling back. Exhale, you're squeezing your bottom. You're pulling away your powerhouse, going down to the bottom of the shoulder blades and inhale to start coming up and exhale. Really pull them back. Pull them, curl into them. That's it. One more time. Inhale, rolling back and exhale all the way down as low as you can go and inhale to start coming up and exhale scoops, scoops, get round. Let's see it. There you go. Nice Job Bethany. And let's roll down to transition into our next exercise. We're going to roll back that way. Spanned then the bottom of your bra strap.

And now you're all the way down. Have a nice long neck. Make sure you're not looking behind you, but you're looking more this way. There you go. You know what? I'm actually gonna get a few pillows. Forgot this today. Give you a better angle. If you put that on underneath, maybe you can use one too. There you go, Jennifer. All right, so we're going to do single leg circles. Okay.

I've still seen some ribs flaring up right now, so we want to make sure we exhale and have those nice and smooth and use that powerhouse to bring your right knee into your chest. Give it a good hug. Good. Extend the leg up to the ceiling and with that leg turned out, put your hands behind your thigh or calf. And give it a good stretch. How's your box? Is it nice and square on the Mat? Are Your rib staying stable on the Mat? Good.

Try to keep your shoulders pressing down. Nice. And now press your arms down by your side and we're gonna use our powerhouse to pull that leg up to your nose. Cross the body around it up. Great. Cross the body around and pull it up. Cross. Try to avoid a bounce. Just hold it up with the powerhouse around holding it there. Good.

And around last one, cross around and hold. Reverse and damn. Make sure you don't hide your inner thigh, but you're really turning out that leg, especially as you cross the body to more down crass. Nice. One more pulling in those ribs and hugging that knee to your chest. Place your right foot right next to your left and we're going to draw in the powerhouse to bring that left knee in. Good. And give it a good hug.

And then you're going to straighten your leg up to the ceiling and turning it up. Put your hands behind your thigh and pull it towards you. God. Okay. Don't forget about those ribs cause your ribs and shoulders are going to stabilize your upper body. Press your arms by your side and use your powerhouse to really pull that leg up to your nose and then crust around. Great job maintaining the turnout. Cross around up. Cross the body around up. Good. This is better. Cross around, up a hand up.

One more time. Cross around and reverse down with a turned out. I hit me all the way up here trying to really keep that turnout. Don't roll that knee. And as you hit me up here, there you go. Two more to hide around. Yes. One more.

Work in the hip more and hugging that knee to your chest. Great. We're going to put that left foot down and do anything, everything you can to just take a big breath and exhale. Pull your head and ribs in as you lift up your shoulders. Good. And squeeze your legs together and do what you can use in your powerhouses. Sit Up one vertebra at a time. Just use a little momentum use.

That's fine. And now I want you to lift your bottom forward to your heels. So you're on the very front of your mat. Good. Maybe bring your feet forward a little more, Bethany. There you go. Okay, good. So we're going to first balance for rolling like a ball and then we're going to roll like a ball. Okay. I'm an Emory. I'm probably going to have you exactly hold underneath your knees and take your bottom back just a little bit more. So if you have a stiff lower back, you're gonna wanna do this angle. But if you have a pretty flexible back, then you could hold just onto your ankles. So choose whichever one you want.

But I want you to really give me the best c curve. That's the important part. So the shoulders stay right over the hipbones. And then what is the rest of the back too? It makes a really big, big letter C so that you're tipping that bowl of soup into your chest and those ribs are pulling in deep into your lungs. So I want a lot more space between, we're going to keep your feet there, right? But yes. Now use those ribs to pull yourself forward.

That's it. And hands go on your ankles or you can put them underneath. Why don't we put them on your knees for a little bit. Good. So you're really rounding this part of your back by pulling those hip bones with your powerhouse away from your thighs. Good. How are we doing, Jennifer? Good. And now we're going to balance by taking just one foot a little off the mat and really looking at that belly saying, don't poke out and put it down. And keeping the belly behind the line of our hips. Bring the left foot up.

Nice and putting it down. And now we're going to do both. We're going to balance keeping your belly behind the line of your hips. Pick up both feet. Scoop. Really feel that powerhouse. There you go. Very nice. And rest your feet down. And let's do start with the left foot up first and then your right comes up scooping it in hold. Excellent. Really controlling it with that powerhouse.

That bowl of soup is really tipping towards you. Okay. And rest down your feet. Okay. So when you want you to, you can sit up if you'd like, but when you will back, you want to initiate it always from the powerhouse, which means you always initiate it by tipping that bowl of soup to roll back, whether it's this exercise or open leg rocker that we're going to introduce or seal. Okay? So you always start because that allows you to round your lower back into the mat and not hit like a big arch and hurt jar your back and hurt. Then to come up though, you need to really pull those ribs deep into those lungs and that exhale gives you that power to roll back up. Okay, so inhale to roll back. Exhale. So roll up.

So we're going to now get back into our real deep sea curves. Place in your hands, either under your knees or on your ankles, but definitely make the lower back super round by pulling those hipbones far from your thoughts and balanced with the right foot up a little bit and then add the other one and hold. And let's think about tipping that bowl of soup back. As you inhale to roll back and ribs. Pull in. As you exhale to pull in and balanced, show me that scoop, scoop, scoop, and inhale to roll back and exhale to come up. Good.

Now I want you to challenge yourself and don't let your legs kick totally straight, but keep this relationship, make it still natural though you don't want to be rigid and inhale, roll back with the lower belly and exhale ribs. Good, great balance. Inhale, roll back. Exhale, roll up. Wonderful. Two more. Inhale, roll back and exhale. It really should be a massage for your back. One more time. You roll down one vertebra at a time and you massage one at a time to come. Great, and rest your feet down. All right, so we're going to do the series of five. Next you're going to put your hands behind you and lift your bottoms back. Okay, and so I'm going to really want you to keep though that idea of the ribs, especially in double leg stretch. When you extend both the arms and legs, we inhale as you stretch the body away and you always exhale as you squish everything together. Okay, so just like rolling like a ball, you almost felt like you were getting tighter and tighter as you came up and that's when you exhale. And so in double leg stretch, the same thing.

When you're getting really, really long, you feel all your muscles up with all that oxygen and you squeeze all that oxygen out as you come together. So go ahead and lie down on your back and we're going to bring the right knee into your chest. Good right hand on your ankle, left hand on your knee. And there we go. And Go ahead and bend the left knee into your chest, but extend the leg up to the ceiling maybe a little bit forward. Great. All right, here we go. We're going to inhale and exhale. Pull those ribs in to lift your head and shoulders and we're going to try to really keep those ribs pooling in a little bit further in this slide, let's make it down the middle of your body right here. Excellent. Here we go.

Switch, left and right. Are Those ribs still planted? Left, right down long and let's stretch. Good and and still work a little more on those ribs from me and right and left down the middle of your body and right and left and hug both knees in and rest your head for a moment. Grab your ankles though, and you're using your powerhouse to tip that bowl of soup towards you. And we're going to take a big [inaudible] breath and exhale. Pull your ribs into.

Lift your head almost between your knees and your knees coming to you so you're really, really tight, like a ball. There you go, Jennifer. And you're squishing out all that air out of this, that little bit of your lungs. Inhale, stretch out. Long inhale, arms up to ceiling, legs out, and exhale, fold up. Pull everything together. Great. Inhale, reach. Keep the bowl of soup to the beach. Yeah, XL, great job. Inhale, work that Pilati stance as you go out and exhale that'll help you and in with the air, keeping the shoulders up. Exhale, pull. And one more time. Inhale, reach you. You can stay lifted more. [inaudible] exhale and rest your head for a second. Good job. Single straight leg. So let's bring both legs up to the ceiling. Turn them out.

If we were doing double straight leg, I would see new light between your thoughts and now I want you to pull your ribs in and crawl up the right leg all the way up your right leg. Good. Pull the right leg close to you and lower the left leg wrapping and squeezing, lengthening down the middle of your body. Great. And switch. Left, right, left, right, right. You really want those like flying to the air because they're not heavy stretches. You want to work that hamstring strategy? Yes. Good control. That powerhouse. Beautiful work that stretch. The legs are still turned out.

Don't make them work from the thighs, but work from the back of the legs. Last set right, left both legs up and hands go behind your head. Elbows are wide. Legs Up. All right. Pull up your shoulders by bringing in your ribs. Good. Turn these out. Lower the legs just a little bit and pull towards you and lower just a little bit and pull towards you. Can you bring your shoulders up any more? Yes. Down.

Good. And keeping the ribs in and Tumo. Exhale last time. Beautiful. And Bend your knees and take a small [inaudible] like resting your head, Huh? Nice job. We're going to do Chris Cross and this time we're again gonna focus on those ribs. So we don't move our hip bones. They're going to stay perfectly still on the mat. Okay.

So we're going to this. And you know what? It's funny as you're, you're getting a lot of yawns in there, but it's when you actually focus on breathing, that's what happens to the body as you're getting all that oxygen in. And so it's one of those natural reactions. So all right, so we're going to exhale and we're going to really bring your ribs in and your knees into your chest. Let's put your hands behind your head and get your shoulders up. Nice and high cut. Don't allow them to come up or your ankles to be too low. Have it more like that.

And then that way it's out of your hip flexors and warn your powerhouse. Extend the left leg forward using your belly to really keep that bowl of soup nice and tilted towards you and take a breath. Exhale, twist, pulling your ribs in. Deep, deep, deep to twist, twist, twist, any breathing going on here, and inhale as you go around and XL to really pull that, that left elbow using your upper stomach and twist to the other leg. Again, you're not moving the hips and other side. You're going to keep that hip stable. One more set, pulling in, keeping this hip a little longer. There you go. And last time over to your left knee and hug the knees into your chest. We're going to sit up for spine stretch forward.

Scoot back a little bit so that you're in the middle of the Mat and then have your heels, right? Yes, very good. Okay. Sit Up tall with your arms straight ahead and pull your toes back so that your feet are flex. Good. If you can sit up one vertebra over the other, that is great. If you need to bend your knees, that is fine, but we want to still have a little bit of art chair. So I want you to pull those ribs into me. Press into me the straighten your spine and your powerhouse a little bit more. Right into here. Pressing yes. That is now a straight spine. Oh, okay. Yeah. We're going to work next class, um, against the wall quite a bit.

So we're going to pull into your back. Grow as tall as you can. And here we go. I'm going to exhale. Bring in the head to your chest. Those ribs pull into those lungs to Curlin and then you keep pulling your powerhouse behind the line of your hips to go down, down, down, getting a good stretch and inhale up shoulders. Good. Take another breath here. Inhale, exhale, head as those ribs pull in deep. Great job, Jennifer. Great initiation right there. Love it. And inhale to roll back.

Roll back as if my leg is the walls. You gotta get that middle back there. Good. Take another breath here. Inhale and exhale. Head to your chest with those ribs. Good. Now. Jennifer, keep your waistband more on my leg as you go down. Down, down. Yeah. And now roll right back up. Lost that waistband at the last second and coming up. And one more time. Big Breath. And exhale.

Wash the shoulders from rising. And Marie, there you go. An exhale. Good job in that upper curve. Beautiful. And just keep pulling back a little bit more of those hipbones to keep over the seatbelt and inhaling up. Great. All right, rest your arms down by your sides. So now we're going to open like rocker.

We're going to put your hands by your hips and lift your bottoms forward so that they're almost where you are for rolling like a ball. Great. Bring your feet together. Good. All. Alright, so we're going to have your hands under your knees and let your knees fall open so that they're in line with your shoulders. Okay. No wider and no narrower. A little wider for you. There we go. That's good. And we're going to start off by pulling our powerhouse in and making our way as if we're going to do a roll back. You want to keep your feet where they were. Actually Jennifer flat on the Mat. There you go.

And start by doing a tilt and I want you to pretend you're going to roll your waist, then back on the mat. Exactly. Amery perfect. Still a little bit further back. That's it? Yes. Good. Great. Okay. And we're going this member, the knees are part quietly begin a v, but the feet are together. There we go. It's quite a bit different than other exercise. So we've got that laser beam going from one hip to the other hip and no little things sticking up in front of that laser paint.

You're going to keep your belly pulled there. Good. And I want you to actually relax your shoulders. Keep your ribs in still, but look up and find something a little bit more Bethany. You can still lift your chest up a little bit more even. Exactly. And that's a tough part. You don't want to lift your lower backup to lift your chest.

You still hold that, but you do want to keep your chest kind of lifted. Okay. So having that frame, I want you to find something in front of you to focus on and we always talk about our box a little bit more open. Okay. If I was looking just at your shoulders and your hip alignment, I wouldn't know anything was going on in this next exercise. Okay? So you're going to use your powerhouse to stabilize that box and not move anything. Okay? And I want you to start off with extending just your right leg is going to extend straight. Exactly. But we're going to keep your knee, you see how it fell down? We're going to keep it right there as you extend.

So it's like that. And then you bring it down. Good. And now hold to the mat and then the left knee extends. So it's an open straight leg and make sure that it's a little more, so yeah, it's almost straight. You want it right here and bring it down like so. There we go. All right, so you got the idea now scoping that belly. Bethany, you can scoop it in. Right? There we go.

I want you to balance with the right foot, just an inch off the mat and add the left foot, just an inch off the mat. Good. So again, we're feet are together, but you guys keep trying to close your knees. You want to keep your knees a little bit more open. That's it. That's it. And now, now try to extend just the right leg without moving anything in your frame and bend it and just the left leg without moving anything great and bend it and the right was scooping and really wickedness, making a stomach exercise. Extend the right leg, really pulling your navel to your spine and bend it the left leg.

Nice, really good. And Dan and now both legs are gonna go up both legs, up, hold and down God and extent both scoop that belly and hold, hold, hold. And Dan, don't hold with your lower back and extend both up. Hold it there and see if you can walk your hands up behind your casts so that you have straight arms and straight legs. That's excellent Bethany. Eventually when you're more flexible, you can also get behind all the way up to your ankles. And we're going to bring to our legs down.

We're going to do it one more time guys. Can you all right? So our feet are together, knees are apart. Hands are under your knees for me, Bethany. There we go. And extend both legs up open. They're open and hold it there. And we're going to squeeze them both together and now we're going to separate them. And then we're going to bring your butt. There we go. We're going to bring them back down one more time, I promise. And we're going to go up and we're going to bring them together even if they're bent.

And then we're going to separate and then we're going to bring them down and we're going to rest your feet down. Nice work. So all these exercises over 500 exercises in pilates and they're all related. So this one also kind of looks like teaser that I introduced last week. So it helps to build up the proper balancing strip that you need, all that strength to do, um, teaser. And eventually this is called open like rocker.

So you obviously got into the open leg position, but then it's going to be like rolling like a ball where you rock back and you come right back up and you balance without falling forward. So in order to balance without falling forward, you really have to make sure that you're not holding yourself in your quads because those legs will be heavy and they'll pull you right down. Okay? So we're going to have to really focus on that nice wrap and squeeze there. So that is called preparation for open leg rocker. Okay, so now we're going to do corkscrews go ahead and lie down on your back. Make sure you have your head pillow for your head.

Good a little bit back there. Good. And Hug your knees into your chest to be able to fill your stomachs in that open leg rocker. Okay, good. Although most of my clients have come to realize that you always say you feel your stomach. Okay, you're going to extend your legs up to the ceiling and have a plotty stance. Good. Press your arms by your side. And we're going to start off just waking up our stomachs for holding our legs.

So we're gonna let them go a little bit down and exhale. Use your belly, not your thighs to pull them up one more time. Let them drop a little bit and then tip that bowl of soup. Good. Hold the legs up, pie and let the legs fall to the right a little bit. And then pull them center with your obliques at to your left a little bit, and then pull them center with your waist. And one more time. Keep that Palati stance. So right and center.

Can you hold them up higher, Jennifer and left and center. That's your right, isn't it? And now we're going to do a full circle. We're going to go to the right around to the left and great job keeping scooped and to your left. Don't hide your inner thighs. Wrap around instead of to your right around. Good, good, good. Watch the neck alignment. That's it. And Center. And one more set.

Keep wrapping in. Squeezing. Nice, polite stands last time. And Hug in those knees. Very, very good. All right. Sit Up for saw three gonna sit right up. And it's almost the same exposition as spine stretch forward, right? So heels are off the mat and this is the one we're gonna really focus on that rib pulling into the lungs. So arms up to the side. Strong arms.

Let me see. The muscles in your arms are in your peripheral vision though, not behind you and crown of the head to the ceiling. Better Bethany that much better on the alignment of your spine pulling in tight. Don't shift your feet as you twist to the right twist, twist, twist, good. And exhale, reach past your baby toe as your low rib pulls deep into your lungs and inhaling up. Use your waist to twist to the left. Have your feet flexed and exhale. Pull your right rib right into your lungs. As you reach past that baby toe and inhaling up, twisting to your left and Xcel as that left rib pulls into that long.

Inhaling up twist to the other side. Watch how much this hip, sorry. Um, goes forward. Keep it right there. Yes. And now reach forward. That's better. And inhaling up and twist. And we're going to hold this hip right over that sip bone.

As that rib pulls into your lung. Now we're talking inhaling up and twist to your left one last time to even out. Keep those hips over your sip bones a little bit more. Give me more of a c curve. There you go. And inhaling up knight's job. Rest your arms by your side. Good. Okay, so now we're going to do, um, teaser that one that we've introduced.

So you're going to bend, bring your bottoms forward just a little bit. Needs together, feet together. So can't emphasize enough that when you're in this position and your upper body is moving away from your lower body, that you are really wrapping around, even pretending that the barbershop poles and they're squeezing the back of your inner thighs together. I like to imagine that there's a zipper behind your thighs and that it starts right behind your knees and it zips up towards your bottom and it just pulls all of those muscles together. Okay. So you really want to wrap and squeeze that there.

So let's give a good c curve, scoop, scoop, scoop, scoop, scoop, good. And we're going to keep [inaudible] squeezing our legs right there as well. Roll down our waistband. Go ahead and the middle back and we're going to go down to our touch, our head. Inhale to lift your head up. Exhale, those ribs are pulling deep bend, scoop that lower belly towards you and hope one more like that.

Inhale to start rolling back. Exhale the rest down. Good. Inhale to lift your head up and exhale, pull those ribs in and make sure that belly keeps tipping that bullets Soup Right Bethany? There Ya go and hold that beautiful c curve, not a straight back here. And we're going to extend the right leg very easily, right? It's just light as a feather. It's turned out and we're going to roll our waistband away from that extended leg as you roll down good and Bra Strap and had an inhale to lift your head up. Exhale. Don't forget to squeeze those legs together to help you and pull that ball soup towards you. One more like that. Inhale, rolling back.

Excellent job everybody down. And inhale to start coming up XL. Squeeze that era. If you take too long of a breakdown there, we're going to have a prompt and inhale. Rolling back. Oh, sorry. Thank you. We're going to switch legs. Left leg goes up and again, polling away. Nice. Good Down with your head. Okay. Inhale, lift your head up and exhale, scoop. There you go. Good. Good, good. One more rapid squeeze. Don't hide that inner thigh. Pull it around. Yes. And Inhale, lift your head and exhale. Use this energy. That was the best one. Good.

Now try to extend both legs up. We're back to that open like rocker position and we're gonna extend both up. Good. Even if it's like that. That's perfect. And I'll hold you here and we're going to roll away. Excellent. And inhale head and exhale. So good. Beautiful.

Two more pulling away. Great control. And those legs are rapping and squeezing. How's that zipper doing for you, Bethany? We zip it up. [inaudible] I didn't mean to make you laugh and we're going to stay up and just rest your feet down. Good. Really, really good. After. Okay. We are going to introduce another exercise called neck pool. Okay. And it's very similar to one that we do called the rollback, but we're going to be sitting up tall. So I want you to bend your knees just like Bethany. Go ahead. It's up.

Have them parallel this time and in line with your hips instead of squeezing together. Everything I've been telling you is squeezing together. Good. And I want you to put your hands underneath your knees and use your powerhouse to pull in. And instead of being round right now, I want you to inhale and sit up as tall as you can. And now exhale round your back and roll all the way down. And then inhale, lift your head up to your chest and exhale, pull your ribs in and round, round into a c curve to come upstate in a seeker. And now inhale to sit up tall.

So we're going to be moving with our breath here. Inhale, we're in healing to sit up tall, tall, tall, and now round your back and exhale two will all the way down. But then inhale to lift your head up to your chest and exhale to really squeeze that air out. Good. All the ways. If you're kissing your knees and then inhale to sit up tall and exhale round your back and roll away. Beautiful. And Inhale, lift your head up to your chest and exhale, keep that bullet soup tipping towards you to scoop. Scoop, scoop to your knees. Inhale to sit up tall and exhale to roll round and roll back. And we're going to do one more time. Inhale to bring your head up and exhale.

Squeeze in the air out of your lungs with those ribs. That's it. Good. Inhaling up tall and exhale round your back and roll all the way down. Very, very nice. Good. All right, so the last exercise, so uh, well let's just review real fast. The only difference between that you want to slide down a little bit, Bethany. The only difference between that exercise and the rollback is that we sat up tall before we rolled down again. Okay.

And next class or next week I should say. We're going to end up doing both of those exercises with straight legs on the map, which really make it a lot more challenging. Okay. So this week we're doing it with bent knees, but next week we'll do it with straight legs. Okay. So finally we're coming to seal. We're going to go ahead and sit up completely. Okay.

So all of these rolling exercises, seal is another rolling exercises. It's pretty much, I think one of the easier ones cause it's a little, it makes it a little more natural movement. Rolling like a ball. You have to be really, really tight, open like rocker. Well enough said your legs are extended and here in an awkward position there, but seal and we're gonna gonna just supply his client's named he exercises for them. So it looks like you're holding your flippers here. Go ahead and lift your bottom a little forward.

So we get this nice 45 degree angle with your thighs and knees. Again, just like, there you go. Good. And like OpenLink rocker. Maybe a little bit more forward for me. Emery, you're going to let your knees open. Go ahead. And I want you to really pretend like you're going to do the rollback. And let's tip that bull soup hands out of your knees for right now. Good tip. More and more. More as if you're, yes, that's it. So you're really, really light on your legs, really light on your feet and all your energy is scooped in working on that c curve. And of course your ribs are pulling into your lungs, right?

And now I want you to take your hands and bring them down the middle of your legs. Okay? So this is how we're starting to be different. And imagine that your navel is that's attached to your spine right now has a string that's attached to your heels and we're going to pull those heels towards your hands. So your hands go right under your ankles. You can put them under your heels too, but maybe just a little bit higher for today. Like so perfect. And you want this opposition sh like that. So they're pulling [inaudible] exactly how we're doing. Very nice.

Good. Excellent. Alright, so your feet are not as tight to your bottom as they are in rolling like a ball. You have a little, they're a little bit more straight like you were doing earlier, Bethany on that one. So they actually get to stay like that. They get to say straighter on this exercise. So let's try to do seal where you just inhale and rolled back and exhale, come up and balance and balance. Pull that those hip bones away from. Yes feet. Try get him closer like an inch off the mat.

Just lower, lower, lower, lower. There you go. Good. And inhale, roll back. Exhale, roll up. Now let's keep in mind those ribs pulling into your lungs and that it's a massage for your backs here. Tipping that bowl of soup to roll back. Inhaling, exhale. Those ribs pull deep and pull. You can use your feet to kind of pull down to, there you go. But try to regain that c curve. Perfect. Good. So it's called seal because eventually we'll be clapping our flippers here.

So we're here and you want to just clap two, three, and you all did a really nice job. What you don't want to see is your whole body clapping with that. So it's just a, it's like you're holding yourself in that perfect c curve and you clap to three and inhale, roll back, not with your head. Exhale. Try to keep your head looking forward and clap two, three. So everyone's up and everyone's going to clap three times here to three and with your head, your chest roll back.

Exhale up scoop. That's all right. And Clap two, three and inhale, roll back. Everyone's tempted to take their head back today and exhale. Scoop, skip, skip, clap, clap, clap. One more time. Inhale, roll back. And exhale. Roll Up. Good. And every you to rest your feet. And Bethany, can you do one more?

I want you to see where her feet go as she rolls back. Inhale, roll back and exhale. Roll Up. Good. And it's up. Get that secret. There we go. And Rest your feet dad. So that is one of the big differences between this exercise and rolling like a ball rolling like a ball. You almost always keep your feet tight and they don't really go past here when you do rolling like a ball. But in seal her feet went all the way back over there cause it's a different hinge, a different rolling exercise.

So eventually without crushing your neck and maintaining it, obviously all your powerhouse, you clap an inch off the floor here and then an inch off the floor behind you is the goal. And that's a beautiful stretch. Yeah, absolutely. Balancing isn't it kind of like more on the back of your bottom then? Well they're, all of them have differences like open, like rocker. Um, eventually you want to feel almost as if you're right on your tailbone. So it's almost more of a straight spine, basically the teaser, but in seal and rolling like a ball, it is more like you're sitting a little bit further back. [inaudible] definitely. Um, yeah. So an open like rocker, you're going to start off that way. But as you get stronger, you're able to come forward with your body a little bit. But in the beginning, if you tried that, you would just pop into an arch and you don't want to do that. So you want to keep maintaining that c curve to hold your balance good. But it's real important to massage each vertebra on the way down and on the way up and not do any jarring. And finally with the head, if you take your head back, it really pulls it into an arched back.

So you really want to make sure that you're focused in those rolling exercises is straight down. Any other questions though? Great job today, guys. Good work. We're all dead.

Comments

Love this class, w/ attention to ribs, "bowl of soup" and belly button behind the navel line - great imagery!
Another excellent class!
Fast paced class.
Really like the prompts and clear instructions, thank you.
I love these exercises! They are so thorough and gradual. This series is great...sooo professional, effective, informative, and fun!!
I feel like I connected a lot of the basics in this class. It's amazing how I feel different in just 5 classes. Gives me the motivation to keep going to 10-15-30 classes!
Woohoo! Great! Love hearing how much the classes have helped you!:)
I loved this one! Thanks Monica !!!!!!
1 person likes this.
I decided to do the 10 progression mat series and today finished class 5 . it is amazing how I finally understand what it feels to roll like a seal and so much more about Pilate of course . Thank you Monica .
I’m so glad your enjoying this series and it’s helping you so much! Thank you for your feedback!
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