Class #97

Mat Progression Series 8/10

45 min - Class
27 likes
Loading...

Description

This is the 8th class in a series that takes the new student from Basic to intermediate Mat work. At almost a complete Intermediate Level, minus the exercises executed on the stomach, students are reminded how to focus on initiating from their Powerhouse and why it is important to start the Pilates Stance from the hips. Same exercises as Class 7/10 without the aid of the Magic Circle.
What You'll Need: Mat

About This Video

Feb 15, 2010
(Log In to track)

Transcript

Read Full Transcript

All right, everybody, we're going to go ahead and get started. Let's go ahead and stand at this edge of your mat and look this way. Great. So some of you have already standing in Pilati stance, which is fabulous, but um, let's go ahead and stand parallel and wider than your frame. Why do then your box? Because we're going to focus today on both how you use your powerhouse and, uh, how you turn out your legs or use that Peloton stance to help lengthen your lips. So I think it's good to review these things for us today.

Judging on our last class. Okay, so now that you're standing on your frame, out of your frame, I should say, feel how well you can pull your stomach in on a scale of one to 10 pulling your navel to your back. How well can you use that powerhouse? How well can you scoop the belly in and up and then see how well you can use your outer thighs or your inner thighs and especially your seat, your bottom. See how well you can use that. How tight can you engage those muscles? So keeping that in mind on a scale of one to 10 in your head, then go ahead and bring your feet into that plotty stance, those heels together and toes just two to three inches apart. Good. You should have just a tiny bit closer. Good.

You should have your weight on the balls of your feet on the side of your feet and a little on your heels, but not collapsing in the arch or in the ankle. Then now shift your weight a tiny bit forward so I could maybe slip a card underneath your heels that are together, but they're still there and they're still on the mat. And now let's see how well can we pull our stomach into our back? How can we engage that powerhouse? How about our outer thighs and our inner thighs and our seat?

Can we squeeze those a lot more together? Now can we use those a lot more? Okay, bring those heels together and keep them down for me, Jennifer. There we go. All right, so keep that in mind and we're going to get to just relax and lie on your mat with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. So go ahead and just take the mat any way you can later on. There's actually a way to sit down, but you know that's, that's later on. Go ahead and lie down on your backs. Great. Okay.

So what I wanted to drive home there is that if we're using our quads, the front of our thighs, or if we're standing wider than our hips, it's really hard or harder, more challenging to engage that powerhouse. So your back is going to want to arch and your stomach is going to want to distend and it's a lot harder. So right here, let's have your feet just parallel. Great. Let's just go over a little bit of pelvic tilting. So you're resting your arms by your side and see if you can pull your navel into your spine. And we're going to think about that pelvis like a bowl of soup is my little image for you. And we're going to tip that bowl of soup into your chest.

Good. And we're gonna tip that bowl soup out towards your feet so that your lower back arches and a little mouse can crawl under your back. Good. When we're learning [inaudible], it's okay to tilt the pelvis. Hopefully later on as you advance, you're going to be using your powerhouse to move your back in that direction and use your seat to squeeze instead of just manipulating your spine or your pelvis. So keep that in mind too. I'll work in a tip, that bowl of soup towards your chest. Great.

So when the pelvis is like this, and you're, you're able to really, really pull in the stomach, and I want you to think about this a lot today. Whenever we're doing our series of five, I want your pelvis to be you using your powerhouse like this to pull into you when we're doing any rolling exercise, I'm gonna want you to really balance with your powerhouse like this. And Go ahead and tip that bowl of soup out. Just go ahead and let it go. So you're stretching your lower back. And a little mouse can crawl under. And this is exactly what we're going to avoid because this is distending the stomach using the back, not the powerhouse, right?

So you want to really watch that whenever we're balancing in a rolling exercise, try not to pop the pelvis like this and try to really hold it with your powerhouse. So let's go back to where I want you to be ending on a positive note. So you're going to be tilting that pelvis towards you. And again, we're trying now to use your navel to spine and your powerhouse to pull your pelvis this way rather than just changing your pelvis. Okay? So is that pretty good everyone? All right. Another little groundwork I want to work on is reminding you about those legs.

So hug your right knee into your chest, bringing it in with your powerhouse and extend that leg up to the ceiling. And remember that your Pilati stance starts from your hip bone. So you're imagining your thigh muscles like a barbershop pole and it's rotating out out those stripes, rotating out the knee, rotating out the foot. Beautiful. Okay, so we should still have that powerhouse pulling that pelvis kinda towards us, right? And I want you to grab onto the back of that fine and give yourself a nice stretch.

Your hips are also straight across when you do turn out that leg, okay? And I want you to put your hands on each hip bone and keep them square. Keep them straight across, keep them anchored into the mat with your powerhouse. And that leg is turned out from your hip bone all the way to the toes. And reach for the ceiling without lifting that right cheek up off the mat.

So I want your legs to be working as well as lengthening and make sure it's not falling out to the side almost more towards the middle of your body a little bit, okay? So when we do our single leg circles, that's makes sense that we're going to be using the leg like this. But also when we do any of this series of five and you're extending one leg down the middle of your body, I want it really down your nose, naval and then heel. Okay? Hug this knee into your chest and we're going to use your powerhouse to switch legs and put your right foot down and left knee in. Good. Extend that leg up to the ceiling. And again, making sure it's turning out from your hip bone so that those hips stay straight across. That's excellent. Good. And now hands on your, uh, behind the thigh to give it a good stretch just like you did on the right leg.

And then put your hands on your hip to make sure that you're aware that they're staying square and then laying then that leg as much as you can to the ceiling. And you should feel that outer thigh, not the top of the thigh so much. You should feel the, um, bottom working to help turn out that leg. And then you should feel all the fine muscles stretching up towards the ceiling. Guys, I'll feel that. Good. And again, when we do single leg stretch, are there any part of this series of five, the legs and me working like this?

But also when we do sidekicks, when we throw you on your side and all of it goes, we can't remember how to hold our leg. This is how I want you to hold your leg when I'm, we're go to psychics, alright, hug that knee into your chest. Okay, let's go ahead and start our almost intermediate workout. There's only a few things that we still have to add and those are all on our stomach. Everything else is going to be we've already added for our intermediate workout. So we're going to use that powerhouse to tilt your pelvis towards you and bring your knees into your chest, preparing for the hundred.

Use your upper stomach to lift your head and shoulders and long arms. Try to use that pelts powerhouse. Get those knees into you and now give me a plotted stance with the feet and extend the legs in a plotty stance from your hips and start pumping. Inhale to, that's right. Four, five. Exhale. Two, three, four, five in with the air while you're pumping. Keep breathing obviously, but you want to try to relax the top of your thighs and remember that you're tipping that bowl of soup towards your chest. Really Challenge. How much can you engage that Paris, that's beautiful and big breath. Two, three, four, five.

Exhale. Make sure you are rotating those barbershop muscles and you're trying to wrap and squeeze those legs together. Two, three, four, five and exhale, squeezing the seat. Really sinking your navel down. Really Nice job. Two more. Inhale, two, three, four, five. Exhale, pool in. I'm gonna make sure that that powerhouse is working on their last one. Inhale, two, three, four, five and exhale. Turning out the pelvis from, that's it. And hug those knees into your chest. Use those legs to go ahead and rock up. Just like Jennifer was about to do.

Sitting on. We are going to leave your feet on the mat though. No rolling with them today. You're going to keep them on the map and we're going to do the rollback a few times to warm up our back, but then we are advancing it to the actual roll up. So make sure your bottom's kind of like in the middle of the mat. Lift it up and back a little bit.

Hands Underneath your knees and you're squeezing your legs together. Good. Looking down at your powerhouse. Start by tilting that bowl of soup towards your chest and that starts your lower back to roll down one vertebra at a time. Beautiful. Jennifer, pulling down, lower back, middle back, upper. Your head touches down. Inhale, lift your head and use your bottom with your stomach to squeeze, to help balance you. Beautiful. And as you come home now when you're home right here, everyone's up.

How's that lower back? Did you already let go of that pelvis? Because it's crucial that you've kept it tilted towards you so that you've kept your lower c curve. There we go. One more like this. Squeeze your legs together, squeeze your seat. Lead with that powerhouse. Beautiful, good strength all the way down head. And then inhale, head up, and exhale. Use your bottom with your stomach to curl. Make sure you don't tilt that soup out when you come all the way up. And now extend your legs straight. Great.

We just talked about Pilati stands for about 10 minutes now. So wrap all those muscles right now from your hips and your feet should naturally fall out into that Pilati stance. Reach for your ankles with your hands and head down. And now to start rolling back, you again. Start by tipping that Bolus suit. So you're going to roll back your lower back by tipping that bullet soup.

Beautiful. Get your lower back down the middle, back the upper back, and bring the head to your chest. Just your head up. No hands yet. Inhale up and now exhale, squeeze at C and try to curl up. Beautiful. Did your curl. Really Roll? That's it. Keeping your head to your chest and rolling back. Wrap and squeeze. This should be a really nice continuous motion. So as soon as you roll down, you're gonna roll right back up.

We don't want to take a coffee break and let our stomach muscles get any type of break and we're going to two more. Rolling back from that powerhouse. Wrap in. Squeeze those legs. Good. And inhale and exhale all the way up. Good. And one more time. Rapid squeeze. Let me see those hips working good. And last time up. Inhale head and exhale. Let me see that bowl of soup staying where? There we go.

Restroom. Relax your head and roll all the way back. Let's go all the way down and get good. Tipping that bowl of soup. Wonderful. Make sure your head is still on the mat. If you need to slide down a little bit, you can and you're going to bend the knees a little and put the feet flat on the Mat. Let's hug the right knee into your chest using your powerhouse. We're getting ready for single leg circles, so extend that right leg up to the ceiling. You're turning it out and give it a stretch like we've done before.

Putting your hands behind your thigh or your calf, and now arms press by your side. Use that powerhouse to pull that leg up to your nose as high as you can. Good. And then cross down around and hold. Okay, so I'm having you hold it here for a second.

Just to remind you when we go on our side for sidekicks that look, your spine is straight right now, so you're pulling your powerhouse into your back and now use your powerhouse to pull that pelvis and leg all the way to your nose. Look how high that leg can come up when you do your sidekicks. I want to see this range of motion. I want to see that leg go up that high. When we do our sidekicks, it'll make sense in a second. And let's to Tampa. Cross around, up for more crust around, up, three, around up, no movement in those hips. They don't wobble.

You're using that powerhouse to keep them steady. One more cross around. Hold, reverse down around, up. Good. Cross that side to come up. Beautiful crossing. Watch that foot action. Jennifer, you want to keep the like turned out from your hip last one around an up and hug your knee into your chest. Good and switching feet. Place that right foot down, left knee into your chest. Hug It, straighten that leg up to the ceiling and give yourself a good stretch. Nice. Good. If you're reaching up to your ankle is fine, but make sure the shoulders can stay down. Don't get all rounded in those shoulders. Arms by your side. Again, pressing the back flat with your powerhouse.

Let's see how high you can bring that leg up using your stomach. Okay, so this is going to be sidekicks. Even with your left leg. I want to see this range of motion and we're going to cross around, cross around up three around, uptake that energy out of the foot and put it in the hip and two around, up. One more. Cross around, whole reverse down, around, up. Good. Down around, up. Press the back into the mat. No Mambo in those hips too. Worn down around, up last time down around and hug that knee into your chest looking good. Okay, so next we have rolling like a ball in which I am going to want to see really balanced using your powerhouse.

So place the foot down and see if you can use your powerhouse to rock up to a seated position. Anything you need to do though, and then use your hands to lift your bottom forward to the front edge of that mat towards your heels. Good. We can start off by placing the hands under your knees and I want you to balance with the feet up. Okay, so they're just an inch off the map. Now you're in a sea curve, which means starting from between your ears, your head is to your chest, your upper back is rounded. And we're not tipping the bowl of soup out. We're not using our lower back. I really want those features of an inch off the floor. There you go.

And together. Good. And so let's practice rocking. Just like this. Tip the bowl soup towards your chest to roll back and exhale. Come up and show me. There you go. Bring your head more in. That's it. One more like that. Inhale, roll back. Use that air. Exhale, squeeze out that air and hold. Very good. Stay there and see if you can grab onto your ankles instead.

So you're pulling your heels a little tighter to your bottom, but that shouldn't have changed your lower back. Make sure you're really scooped into it and inhale, roll back. Exhale, come up and balance with that pelvis in the correct position. Good. Inhale, roll back. Exhale, really challenged that powerhouse Lon. Pool. A lot of space between your stomach and thighs. Excellent. And three. Inhale back. Exhale, Rola. Good. And inhale, roll back in and better Jennifer, use that powerhouse right there, pulling it back last time. Inhale, roll back. XL.

Scoop up bound. Don't use the back. Try to regain that power house. Great job. Rest your feet. Yeah. Nice ladies. Okay. Lift your bottoms back to the middle of the map. And before you lie down, just a quick reminder for our series of five that when you extend a leg, it's going to be down the middle of your body, not out to the side, and you're using all that wrap in squeeze and length. Okay. Even if the legs are together, and of course you're always holding the legs from your powerhouse. So let's lie down bringing the right knee with you and we're going to be ready to go. Right hand on your ankle. Left hand on your knee. Lift up that left leg, left leg up. This one right here.

There we go. And our head is up to our powerhouse. Good. So it's down the middle of your body. You're scooping it and switch. Good and switch. Don't switch. Using your legs out. Change it to using your stomach from tipping that bowl of soup. See? Yes. Bringing that like get more out of it. Squeeze that left cheek.

Squeeze that right cheek. Squeeze that left cheek. Really scooping it right, left one more set, pulling it in and grab both ankles. Both legs are in in how? Reach in opposite directions for double leg stretch and he'll reach good, but while you're here, don't lose that Pilati stance from your hips and pull it in. Inhale, stretch, keeping that bulls suit where and exhale. Don't go so low with your arms and inhale, reach and squeeze.

Get some bottom work and exhale. That's it. And inhale, reach, scoop in that more towards you and exhale. If your feet are this high, don't take your arm. So back. Inhale, reach just to there. Yeah, and exhale. Pull it in. One more. Inhale, reach. Exhale. There we go. Rest your head down for a second. Single straight leg, both legs up and you're going to crawl up behind your right leg as you lift your head and shoulders. Now wrap and squeeze that left leg down the middle of your body as it goes down.

And use that pelvis and powerhouse to switch. Left, right, left, right. It's quicker. They're flying through the air because our light is a feathered. Your quads aren't working and pull it in up a little higher and curl your shoulders forward. Perfect. Switch left. One more set right and left. Keep both legs up now and place the hands behind your head.

Elbows wide. How are those legs turning them out and lower them down just a little bit and pull him towards you using that powerhouse and dad and pull them towards you and down and from your powerhouse and three and pulling it in. Good to try a little. Use Your upper stomach to keep your head and shoulders up last time down and pull him up. And now bend your right knee and you're going to twist to that right knee.

Oh yeah, come on up, up. There you go. Good. And switch. Left. Good. And we're staying to your right. It's not a quick one. Go to your right knee, right knee. Good. And stay there. You got to turn out this leg and pull this one in more, more, more. And switch up to that left knee and in. Pull it in more. Pull it in, one more set to your right knee and pulling it in more.

As that left lights turns out, and last time to the left, there you go. And Hug both knees in and relax your head down. You're always trying to increase that twist and increase that contraction basically in your abdominals rather than just doing a quick speedy bicycle. Okay? All right. Your goal is actually to get a straight line from your back elbow.

When you twist, pulling it back all the way to that extended foot. So that's how far you want to twist. Not just kind of here, but pulling your upper body all the way back. So there's a beautiful street on one day. Go ahead and sit up. Takes continuous practice and we're going to do spine stretch forward. So legs are a little wider than the mat.

Flex your toes back and sit up tall as if you're against an imaginary wall with your arms straight out in front of you. Beautiful toes are up towards the ceiling. Take a big breath as your belly pulls in and squeeze up off your seat and an exhale. Head to chest and roll forward. Good. Keeping your hip bones right over your sip ons. Nice job ladies. And Inhale, rolling right on up. Make sure your shoulder blades rolled down before your head comes up.

Take another breath and exhale scoop. So we're trying to get a good lower back stretch by really pulling our lower belly into our back. And Inhale, rolling up to three. And again, inhaling up and exhale, head to your chest and pull your belly into here and here and here. Exhale all the way down. Stretch. Keep pulling into here and then roll up one vertebrae at a time. Starting from here. There we go. And let's do one more.

Inhale, lift up off your seat and exhale forward. Head to your chest. Curling into yourself. There you go. That was your best one. Can you flex your feet so you get a hamstring stretch too. Wonderful. And Rolling back up. All right, rest your arms down. Good. Bring your legs together and now you're going to lift your bottom forward a little bit and your knees will be open. Good. All right, so we are going to do balancing for open like rocker and then we'll do open leg rocker. I don't think we did balancing and our last class.

So first let me see you pull back in your soup so that you're really scooped in and you've got around lower back, still further, quite a bit further. That's great. They are. They're perfect. So same thing. Theresa, I want you to go back all the way back like that. And now you're good, Jennifer, with your lower back. But I need your upper back to curl forward. Yeah. A little more, little more, little more. There we go. I'm using this mirror to see. So yeah, I want you to stay like that. And I want you to put, try to, we're not gonna be able to grab our ankles, so balanced with the feet up a little bit and grab underneath your knees.

So this one's always a little challenging for you. We're going to open your knees so they're as wide as your shoulders and then bring your shoulders just a little good. And we're holding it all in your powerhouse, right? Bring your shoulders forward a little bit more. Curling, curling, curling that sit. Good. Feeder. Just an inch off the mat. All right. And now we shouldn't be really tense in here.

Try to breathe for maybe a few counts and relax your shoulders and relax everything but your stomach, your stomach's working overtime and you should be able to look forward to, we're gonna practice balancing, so we're going to extend the right leg and hold it to three and bring it down. When you extend the leg, make sure you don't drop the knee away from you. Keep the knee right where it is. So we're gonna extend the left leg. Now keeping the knee right where it is better. Hold from the powerhouse and bring it down.

We're going to do that one more time. Extend just the right leg as you scoop in more. You want to think more, more, more, and bring that foot down. Good. And extend the left leg. Good. Wonderful. And bring it down. Okay. Now we'll step it up and extend both legs at the same time. So extending both, not pop in your back, but holding it in your powerhouse and then bringing it and the lights don't need to go all the way straight either. And one more extending 'em up. Good. And bringing it down. Now we're going to add a little choreography.

We're going to extend them up. So going up again, hold with them straight or as straight as they can. Go. Bring them together. Good Hole. Yeah. And we're going to open and then returned back to that home position where the feet only were together. Good. One more time. You can do it and pulling into your powerhouse. Extend those legs up. Beautiful. Bring your legs together apart.

Use your upper back and bring those feet. Yeah. Okay. Keep balancing with those feet. Just a little off the mat and extend those legs up and walk up your legs as much as you can. If you can, grab behind your ankles. Fabulous. But if you can only get behind your calves, that's fine. And use that powerhouse to stay up.

And we're going to do six rocking now. Open leg rock. Inhale, roll back, and exhale. Come and see me right on up. Hold. Good. Inhale, roll back. Exhale, roll up. When you roll back, make sure you're using that powerhouse to roll back. Inhale, roll back. Exhale. Rocka. Use that powerhouse [inaudible] and three more. Inhale, roll back. Exhale, Rola. Very nice and inhale, roll back. Exhale, thinking more about up. Then going back and one more time. Inhale rock back and exhale. Roll Up. Yeah, they mentioned, think more about coming up and we're going to stay here in a beautiful transition would be to just squeeze your legs together and this is kind of like a preview to your teaser and you're going to roll down your back one vertebra at a time with of course, a lot of effort and work, right? All right, and then your legs are straight up like this. I'm going to give you a break, but this is the goal and your arms are by your side so that you are immediately ready for that corkscrew. That's next. But let's bend your knees and give yourself a hug because right about this time, our thighs, even though we've been trying to work the wrap and the squeeze, the quads do start to work. And because they're just so dominant, it's hard to keep them off the whole time. But as you advance more, you'll be able to keep them turned off more and you'll be able to flow right into the next exercise. Okay, so long necks and backs are all flat on the Mat.

Press your arms into the mat and extend the legs from your hips and applauding stance up to the ceiling. Use that powerhouse to tip the bowl of your soup towards you a little bit, and then stretch the legs to the right circle down around to your left and pull them center hold. Go to your left around to your right. Boom Center and hold. So you know that bowl of soup from your powerhouse. See how big of a range of motion you can make and now start challenging herself right around left and hold center and left around right and pull center and from your house. One was that right around left and hold center and last time.

Don't forget those feet, Sam Palati stance to help ample center and hugging those knees. Good job. Those are looking better. Sit on up. We've got the Saul, so we're getting into the legs and a spine stretch forward position where they're open wider than the mat. Sha. Good. And this one's a saucy. Your arms are out reaching for the corners from, for the walls. There we go. My knees slide over a little bit. You want to make sure those finger, those pinkies are in your peripheral vision. And I love it because whenever I say peripheral vision, everyone always turns their head to look at their pinkies.

But literally look forward and your arms should be in. You should be able to see those pinkies. So press your powerhouse into your back. Lifting up tall. And Marie, I'd probably bend your knees just a little bit so you can lift your chest a little bit more. There you go. See Him with your Chelsea just a tiny bit and then twist to the right. Everyone's going to the right and exhale, signing off your pink baby toe with your pinkie.

Inhale up, twist to the left, and you start the seat curve here, your head to your chest, your ribs are into your lungs. Stretch and inhaling up, twist to the right and head down and make sure hips are staying squared and even and member. That hundred breathing that I had talked about. So inhale up, twist to the left and exhale and stay down for five, four, exhaling two one. Now inhale up, twisting to the right, keep inhaling, inhaling, inhaling, and now exhale for five, four, three, two. Inhaling, roll up your spine, twist to the other side and exhale, pulling in that rib. Exhale, stay longer. Excellent in reaching for that baby toe, pulling that in. Nice and inhaling up. Let's do one last set.

Inhale tourist and you're exhaling for five pulling the head, the ribs. You're really pulling back in that bowl of soup so it doesn't tip out and inhaling up and twist your left and exhale head to your chest and reach. Exhale, exhale and inhaling up. Rest your arms down. Good. Right about now is when we will Lex week flip onto our belly.

But for now we're gonna go into neck pool. So I want you to bend your knees and put your feet flat on the Mat. Excellent. Good. Maybe I'm Jennifer [inaudible]. Your toes are at that very edge. Great. Good. Nice. Alright, good. So neck pool is different from the roll up or roll back just because we're going to sit up tall in the middle of it. Okay. So practice legs are to um, actually and their hip with a part. That's the other difference.

Legs are hip with the par in parallel. Great Hands Underneath your knees. And we're gonna really work. This one's going to be really challenging. So put on that. I'm gonna work the heck out of my powerhouse right now. Mode. We're going to use your powerhouse to sit up tall and take a big breath. And now exhale round your back and roll away from those legs.

We're going to ease into this crazy challenging exercise. Rolling all the way out in how, lift up your head to your chest and exhale. Use that powerhouse to round up until your head's almost between your knees, your so round as you come up. And then inhale, sit up tall and exhale even squeeze off your seat to help your powerhouses. You round down and roll away from your legs. Squeezing your seat. Good. Rolling down. Good. We're going to do it. Just one more time like that.

So inhale, lift your head up. Exhale, grounding, grounding, grounding, beautiful. All the way forward. Make sure you don't lose that. Don't use your lower back. Inhale, sit up tall and exhale. Round your back down, squeezing your bottom. Very good and rolling down. All right, now we have to step it up. So legs straightened on the Mat. Now at any time if you find that you are, I have to propel yourself forward to come up. Don't, don't do that.

You'll be hurting yourself. So go back to bent knees, okay. But if you can straighten your legs and the toes up towards the ceiling so they're flexed. You can still use your arms as much as you need to. They're hip width apart. There you go. But we are going to inhale. Lift your head to your chest and look at your powerhouse. Exhale, use your bottom to hold your pelvis like that and roll up one vertebra at a time until you kiss your knees, kissed your knees. Inhale, sit up tall using your powerhouse and exhale, roll down. Good. And as soon as you're down, it's important to come right back up in hell.

Add XL up to your knees. Scoop, scoop, round, round. There you go. In how? Sit up tall, tall, tall, tall, and exhale. Roll down the legs to hip with the part and feet flexed. Give me one more like this. Inhale, roll up. Exhale, kissing your knees. Each one's getting better. Ladies. Inhale, sit up tall, tall, and exhale. Roll down. Good. For most of us, that was challenging enough. If we want to step it up, we put your hands behind your head and bring your elbows.

You can let them come in a little bit. We're going to try to like that. Okay. Inhale, bring your head up and exhale. Pull in and exhale all the way up. There we go. You can put your hands right back. Inhale, sit up tall. There you go. And exhale, roll down. And one more.

Inhale, roll up. There we go at axial all the way forward and he'll sit up tall and exhale roll. Damn. All right, so that's enough of that one. So okay. Did everyone get it? That as your hands went back and went and 10 times harder. So as your hands go back, the real exercise as we're gonna one day progress, it too is not just elbows behind your head, but you try to keep your elbows behind your ears as you come up.

It makes it a lot easier allowing them to come in. But the goal is to just be using your powerhouse instead of everything else to help you up. So one day that neck pole we are hands will be behind your head, elbows wide, and you'll be coming up like that. Okay? All right, so now we're ready for our sidekicks. Everybody lie on your right side and face the mirror. Good. And you want to line up on the back edge of your mat. Scoot all the way back and you get to rest your head on your right hand like a beauty queen with your right elbow all the way back to good, but rest your head on your hands a hold up your head like Jennifer. Oh, there you go. And bring your legs forward to the front edge. Okay, good. Bethany, bring your elbow back just a bit. All right.

Your left hand is a kickstand in front of your stomach, in front of your belly button. Good. And right now you have a lot of space between your belly and your hand, your arm, I hope. And that is there to remind you as you swing your leg around that you're supposed to keep your belly pulled into your back. So even though you're on your side, you're keeping that straight line of one hip over the other hip. You're trying to keep your top shoulder from rocking forward as you swing your leg.

If you can keep your top shoulder where it is like there's like three teacups right here, then you're going to get more definition in your leg, more results in your thigh muscles. But if you rock and roll in your upper body while you do this exercise, the more you put the energy somewhere else, the less you'll get it out of what you want. Okay? So we're trying to keep that box with our powerhouse pulled into our back. Okay? And now all that Palati stance work, we're going to lift that left leg just at hip level, in line with the hip bone and from that hip bone. Turn out those barbershop holes. Great.

And here's where I made you pull that leg up towards your nose in single leg circles. I want to see you pull that leg forward. Good. Come on. How forward can you come now work on that rotation. It's from turned out good and your leg would so much higher on single leg circles and now you're going to take it back. Watch that rocking and use the back, your leg and your seat to take that leg back further, further, further. That's a good range of motion for you. Let's do one more slow.

So forward keeping the Plani stance turned out from the hip. Use that stomach to pull it up and take it back. Keep your frame. Don't rock forward and use the back of your thigh and seat. All right, make sure your legs not too high. It should be in line with your hip. That's the idea. Let's take it to tempo 10 times forward and everyone's back. Let's try to stay together, forward and back and forward with the stomach and back and keep it right at this level and back and thigh and turn it out more and forward.

Good back pulling in the powerhouse and back to more forward and back. And last one. You're spilling all your tea and legs together. Good. All right. Now we're going to do up and down. So now keep that leg turned out and use your outer thigh to push up thousand pounds towards your ear and now squeezed down a thousand pounds through your inner thigh and go up. And as you squeeze down, pull your belly deep into your back and up. And as you go down and try to make that like longer than the bottom one and two more up and pulling into your back. And one more.

Push it up and squeeze down and hold that leg long and working. Keep it down and keep it turned out and keep it long and working. And we're going to do five little circle as if you had a hula hoop around your right, your left ankle. You're going to circle one, two, three, four, five and reverse one. As you reverse, keep in mind you're not circling your body. Hold it steady and relax that leg. Nice shot. All right, bring your legs forward so we can switch to the other side.

So you're going to lie on your left side. Your left elbow will be over here and your legs long. So the more your upper body moves, the less legwork you get. So you're really trying to hold your powerhouse. Use your powerhouse to keep that upper body steady. You're almost there.

So I don't like that elbow off the mat. Can you slide it back a little? Great. So the left elbow is right in this corner of the Mat and your feet. You can bring your feet a little more forward so it's more stable. There you go. Great job, right hands that kickstand. Lot of space there between your kickstand in your belly, right? Good.

Lift up your right leg just at hip level. So just align with this bone and those barbershop pull muscles are rotating, rotating, and we'll do one. Slow forward to your nose. Hold it there. How high can you bring it to your nose? It should be turned out and your stomach's holding it and then you're going to take it back. And how do you take it back by not spilling your tea and by using the hamstring or the back, the fly in the seat to tempo. Here we go.

Forward and back. Watch yourself in the mirror and try to all get on the same type of forward and back and forward as you kick forward to really watch that that leg doesn't come up but should never be higher than this. Hipbone better and now work on the turnout for more than back. Watch that turnout three. Do we still have a lot of space between our arm and that belly and one more forward and back and legs together. All right, your feet should be a little bit more full. Good, and we're going to relax those feet. There Ya go.

Pulling your belly into your back. Use that outer thigh as you turn out that top leg to now your right leg and kick it up to your ear and use that inner thigh to score these a thousand pounds down. Really imagine pushing up a huge weight and squeezing down a, you join up and as that leg goes down, it gets longer than your bottom leg and up and squeeze with the inner thighs and up and pull your belly deep into your back. Let's just do one more up and squeeze. No hold there. It's long. It's working in five little circles. One, two, three pulling into your back. Five Riverside, no circling the bodies to just the leg. Fourth five and relax. Good job everyone.

Sit on your bottoms and face this way cause we're going to do teasers next. We've got you guys all look so excited when I said that. We've got teaser and seal but we're gonna again, ease into teasers. So your bottom should be in the middle of the Mat lengthwise it is. So come forward more. There you go.

And your feet there and let's do the roll back. The roll back. You guys all got so bend the knees a little bit more feet flat on the mat and squeeze your legs together because when you're in teaser you have to use this to hold up your legs. Give me the best c curve. You can tip that bowl of soup with your powerhouse and roll away from your legs. Lower back, middle back, upper the head. Inhale, lift your head up. Exhale, scoop in and really work on that lower back because that's how you're going to balance. And the teaser. Don't come to a full upright position. One more rolling away from those thighs all the way down.

Inhale, lifting up and keep scooped. And this is the perfect position right now. I want you to stop right here with your shoulders, a little bit behind your hips and extend the right leg and keeping those thighs and knees together straight, right? Like for me, Jennifer, straight, straight, straight wrap and squeeze them together and roll away from those legs rolling down. Good and head to your chest and we'll ride on up. Try to find the wrap and squeeze to keep those legs bounded together and roll one more time down and had your chest and exhale scooping in really strong. Stay right here and because you guys can balance so well. Just switch legs.

Nice job, graceful and rolling away from that leg. Don't let that leg drop and head to chest and roll right back up. Scooping in. Good one more like that. And rolling down. Head to chest and rolling back up again. They're wrapping and squeezing. Hold it right there. Both legs up. There we go.

We snuck it in and roll away from those legs, Dad and head to Justin. Roll Up. You can do it. Good. Do two more if you can, and rolling down. I'm brilliant with this today. And head to chest. Try not to lower the head in an arched position and one more time for me and rolling back through that. Lower back and come right back up. That's it. That's it. Good. All right. Lower down your feet.

Good job. So we are almost there on full teasers. Good job looking good. How's those powerhouses feeling them just a little bit. Okay. Let's finish with a massage for your back. The seal. Anytime you're rolling, you really want to keep in mind that you're supposed to roll like a wheel and not like a flat tire so that you massage your lower back, your middle back, your upper back, and you roll up using your upper back, middle back, and lower back. Sometimes you can picture yourself having a six pack. And so as you go back, you use your lower set, your middle set in your upper and to come up, you're going to first engage that upper set, then your middle and your lower.

If you pop it all forward, then your back's going to be arched. So sometimes that six pack image helps too. So like we're going to be in Bethany's position but arms between the legs and now tipping that bullet of soup towards you. You're going to lift your ankle so that your hands are just onto your ankles. Balancing good massaging, right? So right here, show me the tight stomach and you should be able to clap your feet an inch off the floor. One, two, three. And using that bowl of soup, not your head.

Start Rolling back and come right back up. Hold with that bull soup. Tip the other way more and more and more. And Clap two, three. Excellent. And inhale, roll back. Exhale, roll up. Jennifer. Watch how Bethany takes her legs a little bit more free.

Allow yourself to take those legs back a little bit more. And inhale, roll back. Maybe aim for something. Yes, that's better. Exhale and hold that lower back. Better. There you go. Two, three, and let's do three more. Inhale, roll back. Exhale, roll. Hold. Cla. Two, three. Inhale, roll back. Exhale, roll and hold. Two, three, one, head to your chest. Inhale, roll back. Exhale roller. Good. And rest your fee down.

So later on, when we're like really getting advanced after you do the last seal, when you come up, you actually rule to a standing position because you're just all light on your feet in your can. Use your powerhouse and a lot of boom da to help boost you up. So, but very nice job. Good job. Good work. You're welcome.

Comments

i love this class!
Excellent!!
The one comment I have for this class in the series is that I felt really unprepared on my side for "on tempo back and forth". Side work was just introduced last class and to go on tempo left me so messy and unstable! Any other tips and tricks for slowing down that movement so I can keep my form? tx!
Great question! First, I would repeat 7/10 until you feel comfortable moving forward. Pilates is all about the basics and then it is all about challenging your body with choreography and tempo from there. There is absolutely no need to rush into the next class in the series but at the same time, it's important to just move sometimes to reach new heights:) Hope that helps! Monica
Excellent class! To be repeated, because it already presents quite a fast pace. However I have a small question: when doing the side exercises is it OK to flaten our side body against the floor or should we leave a small "hole" on the waist zone? For me it is easier to engage the Powerhouse if I flaten.
Hi Sonia, Having a small tunnel between your waist and the mat is a good goal way down the line. The idea is to always use your PH IN and UP, lengthening the crown of your head in one direction and your legs in the other. Your PH should feel like a corset engaging both sides of your waist muscles. Having said that, you have to first feel your PH pull in and stabilize your movement before you can lift up or lengthen. Walk before you can run:) So yes! You can absolutely have your waist touching the mat and feel good and confident that you are grounding your movement.

You need to be a subscriber to post a comment.

Please Log In or Create an Account to start your free trial.