Straightforward Mat

Hi, I'm Jia Calhoun. Today we're going to do a class that's gonna set the tone for your week. It's great to do on like a Monday or just something to get you ready and prepared for the rest of the week. So I'm going to start with some breathing. You can lie down on your back and you can just rest your feet hip distance apart, parallel arms, or just down by your side. If you'd like to turn your palms up, you're welcome to.

I'm going to keep my palms down and just close your eyes if you'd like. Just take a deep inhale through your nose and exhale out through your mouth two more times. Inhale, fill up your lungs an exhale. Get rid of all of the air last time. Inhale and exhale. Open your eyes. If you're close, I'm going to bring your legs up to tabletop one at a time. So you're trying to keep a long spine chest open to have your toes relaxed. You're going to inhale as you tap your right foot down to the mat. Exhale as you bring it back up to tabletop. Inhale, left foot down.

Exhale, bring it back up. Just keep alternating. Inhale as you lower, exhale to lift. Inhale, lower. Excellent. So as you're moving through your toe taps, try not to let the weight of your legs pull your chest up. Try to stay weighted down and your upper body on the mat is warming up your abdominals. One more time to the right and back. Up and to the left. You're going to keep both legs glued together, lowering both legs down toward the Mat. As you inhale, exhale to come back up to tabletop so you don't have to go all the way down.

Again. Inhale, exhale to come back up. Just go as low as you can with control. Two more lower and lift up. One more time. Inhale, exhale till lift. Keep your legs up. Arms are going to come up to the ceiling. Shoulders are anchored down. You're going to inhale the arms up. Exhale, just float your chest up as you lower your arms down, and then chest comes back down as the arms come up to the ceiling.

Just like if you're on the reformer, pressing down to curl up. Inhale to lower. Exhale. Inhale back one more and back down. Now press your arms down. Curlier chest up and hold. Stretch your legs out. We're going to have the legs turned out so your heels are together to as apart and pump your arms for the hundred. Feel two, three, four, five. Exhale, two, three, four, five. Inhale an exhale.

Inhale, reach in the legs, nice and long. Exhale, inhale and exhale, keeping the Armstrong. Inhale and exhale. Halfway done. Inhale and exhale. Really squeeze the legs together. Hill an exhale.

Inhale, reaching the arms to the other side of the room. Exhale two more times. Inhale and exhale. Last one. Inhale and exhale. Whole. Just reach legs a little longer. Curl up a little higher, and then hug your knees into your chest. Stretch your legs out on the map. We're gonna flex the feet. Legs are glued together. Arms up to the ceiling. Again, shoulders are anchored down. Inhale here.

Actually you're gonna roll up one bone at a time. Reach forward. Our head is between your arms and then we'll roll all the way down through the spine. Reach in your heels all the way to the other side of the room. You can bring your arms back if you'd like, and then press the arms down, curl up, rural, rolling up, and then rule back. Think of pooling the abdominals back. Three more. Keeping the ribs in line with the spine. So you bring the arms back and then roll back. Really glue the inner thighs together to more.

Trying to keep the shoulders away from the ears and rule back, keeping that hard flex of the feet. Last one. Okay. And rule back, making sure I'm not off my mat. Arms down by your sides.

Legs are going to come up to the ceiling so you gonna reach your legs. Sound for the rollover. We're going to start with the legs parallel. Feet pointed. You're going to lift your legs up. Roll over. Legs are going to be parallel to the floor. Open your legs, flex your feet and roll down through the spine. Try to keep your chest open, pushed down in the arms if you need. Legs are gonna come back to 45 point the toes, legs together. Legs come up, rolling up and over with momentum. Open the legs, legs, the feet trying to keep your chin off. Your chest is ruled down.

Arms are reaching. Long legs come together. Point the toes. One more in this direction. Rolling up and over. Legs parallel to the floor. Open. Flex again, keeping the chin off the chest. Try not to look down toward your feet as you reached the legs down. Reverse. So start with the legs open. Flex the feet.

You're going to roll up and over point. Bring the legs together. Rule back legs will come out to 45 open. Flex the feet roll up and over. Point. Bring the legs together, roll through the spine. Keep pulling those dominoes back. Lights come out to 45 open flex roll up and over.

Last time trying to keep your waist long as he rolled down. Then hug your knees into your chest. Just now we're going to go into leg circles so you have to stretch one leg out on the mat. You can flex that foot. That leg is pushing down and it's nice and long. The other leg is going to reach up to the ceiling.

You're going to turn it out slightly. Again, try to keep your chest open. We're going to cross leg around, circled around, and then back up to the ceiling. So he crossed around and back up. Take a deep inhale, exhale up. Two more. Inhale, exhale. Last one in this direction and back up. Other way. Circle and I've tried to keep both hips anchored down, up. The shoulders are open again. One more.

I keep that leg long. Reach it all the way down to the mat, flex that foot and you're gonna reach the other leg up to the ceiling slightly. Turn that leg out and cross it around and back up. Okay. Try to go as big as you can without letting the hips shift around and up so you're keeping that stability while you're free in your leg. Two more. Last one, and reverse. Keeping that exhale, rotation with that leg that's moving around and up. The other heel is pushing down into the mat to help you stabilize around up. One more and then reach that leg. Long flex both feet, legs are glued together.

Arms come up. We're going to roll up to a seated position for rolling like a ball. So you gonna get yourself forward, grab onto your ankles. If that doesn't feel good for you can also come behind your knees and just make your legs a little bit longer. I'm going to come here cause I like a little tighter ball. I'm going to have my heels together, toes apart, rounding into a ball, shoulders down, trying to get my head between my legs as much as I can. And think of pulling your abdominals back to roll you back and then you're gonna come back up. Try to find your balance, not so much forward on your tail, on your tailbone. I think of coming back onto your sacrum a little bit more.

It's a little bit more challenging. It's going to rule back as you inhale. Exhale to come back up. And again, rolling back. So is Xic used to be pretty simple to me cause I was just kind of balancing on my tailbone and using a little bit of momentum. But once I started to pull from my abdominals and stay a little bit further back, actually felt more work ruling back and up. One more. Trying to keep that same position the whole time there.

Any keep your right like into your chest. I'm going to have outside hand on the ankle. Inside hand on the knee. Other leg is going to reach out and you're on a roll down with control for single leg stretched. You're gonna pull that right leg and then switch. So inhale, inhale, exhale, exhale. Elbows are wide. Inhale, inhale, exhale, exhale. Last set.

Hug both knees in, grabbing onto your ankles, arms and legs. Reach out as you inhale. Exhale, circling arms. Hug your knees in. Inhale, reach. Exhale, come in, try to stay high up in that chest. Lift and around. Two more. Last one, good right leg up to the ceiling. Grab onto that ankle, left leg reaches out. You're going to pull the right leg in twice and switch, pull, pull. Good. Keeping the legs nice and long, reaching all the way out to the opposite side of the room.

You can use your arms to help pull you up a little higher if you need to. [inaudible] last set legs up to the ceiling, hands behind your head. We're going to have that platas VA again. You're going to reach the legs out as you inhale. Exhale to come back up. Inhale, exhale.

Elbows are wide. Inhale, but you can still see them in the periphery. Exhale, one more straight into crisscross. Bend the right leg, twist to the right. Elbows are wide and sweat. Yeah, twists from the waist like a bringing the opposite side of the ribs around. One more set. Hug both knees in arrest. Take a breath and you're in a rock up to the seated position and then sit in the middle of your mat.

Legs are about as wide as your mat for spine stretch forward. Arms are going to reach up. Shoulders are down. You're pulling up in your abdominals and even think of one of your sit bones together to lift you up a little bit higher. So inhale grows tall. As you can. Exhale, going to reach your head between your arms round forward, still pulling your arm and your abs back. Inhale g roll tall. Exhale as you roll forward.

Then reading those arms long so it's like a two way stretch arms reaching forward, pulling back. Inhale, coming back up. Still keeping that hard. Flex with the feet. Exhale as you reach that inhale, lift. Exhale. One more and exhale. Coming back up to a seated position. I'm out to the side for saw. You're going to twist to one direction. Turn that back hand up.

You're going to reach the other hand to your baby tail and saw for three, two, one and one. Back to center. Twists to the other side and reached for three to one and backup to waste and rich three keep missing it towed to one and backup twist. Good. Both arms are reaching. We always forget about that. Back arm and two wis. Make sure you're thinking about a whole body.

ABS are still pulling back and with an reach. Two, three, one more each side and twist to three and up. Last one and good and back to center. Bring your legs together. Arms are going to reach forward and still flex your feet and then roll down one bone at a time. I'm sorry if you can be down by your sides. If you need them behind your tailbone, you can come to it, little triangle and bring them underneath your sacrum.

If that feels better to you, legs are going to come up to the ceiling glued together. We're gonna do corkscrew. So you're gonna pull your abs in, you know, circle the legs around to the right all the way around, and then back up to the center. Pull into your dominoes, to the left, and then back up into your abs before you go, and then back up into your abs and left. Good. Keeping the chest open so your upper body is quiet while the legs are moving. Last one around.

Hug your legs in, stretch your legs out, and then you're going to flip over onto your stomach for swan. So you're going to have your hands down by your shoulders. If you want them a little bit more in front, you can do that or you can bring them a little bit wider. Whatever your body needs. I'm going to have my legs apart cause it feels better on my back.

If you want your legs together, that's another option. So ads are pulled in. Try to keep your tailbone long so you're not already in that arch position. You want to try not to have it coming into your low back. Shoulders are down. You're going to reach out through your top of your head, lift up into a little cobra. Arms don't need to be straight.

And then you're going to low, lower yourself back down to more like this. Just prepping for us. One dive and then coming back. Try not to compress your low spine one more like this. We're going to hold it at the top. We're gonna let go the hands. Just bring them by your shoulders. And then we're going to come back up. So you're going to dive down, hands by your shoulders, and then back up.

And Spelman, God. Inhale, exhale, two more. Last one. And then back into child's pose. Feet together, knees apart, and just reach forward into your child's pose. And then roll up. We're going to come onto your side for sidekick. Say you're an ally at the back of the Mat. You can rest this other arm behind your head.

You can come all the way down if that feels better to you. Ladies are going to come forward. I like to flex both feet just cause it keeps me a little bit more stable. You're going to top lift the top leg up, hip height slightly, turn it out, and you're going to case front twice. And then back. Just keep that flex in your foot the whole time and back.

Don't need to worry about choreography with pointing and flexing to keep it simple. Amber. Inhale, inhale, exhale, exhale. Two more. Last one. Good. Bring your legs together. Keep that flex with the foot. You're gonna lift your leg up just slightly higher than your hip and then lower it back down. So you want to try to keep it a true parallel. So keeping that knee facing front helps. Inhale.

Yeah, and excel and XCL to more feel that resistance that you're making. That's that leg up. I'm going to go halfway down. Little circles around and too, sorry, making sure you're hitting the back. That's where we always forget. Two more. Seven and eight I think. Reverse fat. Two, three, four did start to fill your hit by now. If you haven't already, seven, eight. Now you're in to lift both legs up, so you're gonna keep the anti thighs glued. Trying to lift both legs up and then back down.

If you need to bring your legs in line with your body. That's another option. Try to lift from the waist. Use Your abdominals. Try not to push down in this front hand too much. So it's coming more from your center. Less from pushing down into here. All right, two more.

Hold legs up. I'm going to point my feet this time. Separate the legs and just beat them together. Try and get both legs moving so it's not just that top leg doing all the work. We're gonna beat when you go for four, three, two, one and rest lion to your back. We're going to stretch out that hit that you just worked before we go to the other side, so going across that foot over your opposite knee, pull that leg into your chest.

You can flex the foot that's crossed if you need to, and just try to open it up, stretch out that hip before we do the other side. Take one more breath here and then you can roll over onto the other side. I'm gonna switch to my can still fix you and you're lying at the back of the Mat. Hand is either here or you can let all the way down. Legs are in front feet or flex. This front hand is just kind of in front of your ribs.

You're going to lift that top leg up. Hip Height. Turn the leg out slightly. Keep the foot flexing kick front twice and back and front and back. Trying to keep that leg long. I almost think about trying to make it longer than the bottom leg. That way don't get short on the side.

One more, both legs together. Keeping the leg parallel. You're going to lift up a little bit higher than your hip and then lower. If you get too high, the leg has to turn out. You want to try to keep it parallel so you can work the side of the hip lift and lower. Good. Almost feel like you're moving through water so you'll find that resistance.

So not just lifting it up with nothing and not letting it drop you. Keeping your control from within one more. Just halfway down this time little circles are around making sure that you're getting to the back. So it's almost I guess more like an oval. Five, six, seven still reaching out through the heel and reverse around two, three, four, five, six, seven. That top hip is stable both legs together. I'm going to bring my legs in line with my body cause it's a little bit easier for me.

You're going to lift both legs up and lower so you're pulling into the abdominals. You could do it with no hands if you wanted to. That's how much, how little you're using this front hand and lift lower. Try to keep the legs the same length, that ti bottom leg. Sometimes we'll get a little bit longer. So think of reaching that top leg just as long. Hold this next one up. Separate the legs and then beat them together.

And just keep breathing naturally. Whatever breath works for you. We're going to go for four, three, two, one and rest. Lying onto your back. We'll stretch out the other hip soon to cross the leg that you just worked over your other leg. Flex that foot. Turn it out and pull the opposite leg into your chest. Well, I'll figure four stretch and then how your knees into your chest and rest. It's now we're gonna go into bridges. So lying on your back, your feet are hip distance apart. Parallel. Your chest is open.

And if you want to press jump, press down in your arms for a little bit more tricep engagement. Feel free to do that. So just take a deep inhale at the bottom here. Actually going to roll up to a bridge, one bone at a time, reaching your knees over your toes, trying to make a straight line. Inhale at the top. Exhale as you rolled down one bone at a time. Inhale back in neutral. Exhale, roll up.

Inhale at the top. Exhale, articulate your spine as you roll down. One more time, like this ruling, trying to keep the way even on both feet and then rolling down. This time you're going to hold it when you roll up, so there's roll all the way up to that bridge. Find a nice long line. Again, your chain is off your chest. This time you're going to bring one leg up to the ceiling. You can point that foot. You're going to flex legacy, lower point as the lift flex as you lower point as you lift, trying to keep the hips square and lift, making sure they're even as they're lifted, you're not dipping into the hip that's lifted.

Good. Brent bends your leg, bring that foot down. Other leg will come up. Point that foot flex as you lower point as you lift again, hips are even. You have a nice square box in your torso and lower and lift two more and lift. Last one, bend your leg, bring the foot down, and then rule through the spine. Hug your knees into your chest. So they're going to go into teasers.

So we're going to start with the already out glued together at a 45 degree angle. Arms are going to come out. Just bring them parallel to your legs so they're not all the way up to the ceiling. You know, lift your chin to your chest, roll up to your teaser, hold [inaudible] and then roll down one bone at a time. Arms parallel to the legs. I almost forgot rolling up. Okay. Reach his arms and legs, lungs, and then roll back.

If you're having trouble, you can also walk up your legs if you need to. And then find your position when you're there and then you can walk down if you need assistance. One more time. Rolling up. Hold it here this time, bring the arms up. You're going to roll everything down at the same time trying to get your feet and head to touch at the same time. Always a challenge. So we're going to go into swimming. So you're going to lie onto your stomach.

Again, arms are going to reach out in front of you. I like to have my arms a little bit wider than my shoulders, just cause my shoulders can get a little tight. Legs are about hip distance apart. I also like to have my legs a little bit wider than my hips swell. So we're just gonna do a little prep before we begin.

So you're gonna lift your right arm, left leg, and your chest up. You can push down to that other arm just to help you get a little bit higher if you need. And then lower down other side, left arm, right leg and your chest and lower right arm. Left leg. Yeah, left arm, right it right leg. Okay, one more each side.

Last one. I'm going to lift both arms and legs up. Hold. I'm just going to alternate your arms and legs at your own pace. Just breathe, breathing and exhale. Try to keep the back of your neck long and exhale and he'll shoulders are away from the ears.

Exhale last one and exhale slowly lower down. You're going to go back into child's pose again. Feet together, knees apart, and just rest. Last exercise. We're going to go into pushups, so we're going to come to all fours. And then if you want to stay on your knees for your pushups, you can just make sure you're on a flat line. If not, you can come to your feet. I like my legs glue together.

You can even have a little plotty stance if you need. Two hands are right under your shoulders. Elbows are pointing back, keeping that Nice flat line in your plank. You're going to bend down and then come back up. So pushups are not my strength, but I'm working on it. They've gotten a lot and lift. What I used to do is drop my head. So try to keep your head in line with the rest of your spine.

Make sure you're not leading with your head because it's actually pretty heavy and it makes it push up a lot harder than if you keep your head up and hips down. Makes it a lot more manageable to more and up. Last one. Okay. And bring your knees down. We're going to come up to a standing position. Feet. You're going to be hip distance apart. Soft arms are heavy. I'm just going to do a little standing roll down to finish.

He's going to bring your chin to your chest, rolled in one bone at a time. Let your arms hang. Try to keep your weight forward over the balls of your feet so you're not back into your heels. Don't shake your head. No. Nod your head yes. Soften your knees again if they started to lock, and then just roll up.

Think of bringing your pelvis to neutral, stacking your spine on top of your pelvis. Roll your shoulders back and you're ready to get on with the rest of your week. Thanks.