Class #3399

Strong Mat Variations

45 min - Class
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You will feel so strong after this Mat workout with Mariska Breland. She works on the hollow body position, commonly seen in gymnastics, so you can feel strength from the inside out. In addition to the creative exercises she teaches, she includes many Plank variations so you can work on this concept in different positions.
What You'll Need: Mat

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Hi, I'm Mariska from Fuze, Flonase in Washington DC and I'm joined by these beautiful people who've come out on what might be a stormy day, um, to do a little mat class. And, um, I have some random notes of life stuff we're doing and they say things like chicken arm roll-ups. So, um, that's one of the exercises we'll be doing, but in general it's going to be kind of a, um, high intermediate level Mat class for some very strong students, none of whom have any, um, really horrible injuries right now. Um, hopefully by the end of the class that will still be true. So you can go ahead and come to lying down on your back, um, and go ahead and bend your knees and bring your feet, um, flats the mat and have them a little bit further away from your seat than maybe you would normally do. So normally kind of close, but be a little bit further way. You can bring your arms by your side, actively press your hands down into the floor and try to activate your lats and your triceps a little bit here. And start by drawing your deep abdominals in. You're gonna tilt your pubic bone up towards your ribbons and then peel your back away from the Mat, from your tailbone, all the way up to your throat to come to a straight line. So you want that straight line to be from your knees to your shoulders.

Bridge Variation

And it should feel a little more hamstring than normal cause that's how far away your feet are. And then you're gonna start from your throat all the way down and lay down each bone individually, one at a time. Now when you get down to the bottom, this is kinda kind of possibly mess with your head. You're going to lift straight up, so not in articulation, just a straight lift. So keep your back completely straight.

And then you're going to just straight hinge right back down from where you were through back to an articulation. So you're going to articulate up going up bone by bone, lifting up to that nice straight line, and then you're going to articulate right back down. Tailbones the last thing down, we're going to go up into bridge, straight up, articulate down, and then tailbone comes down. You're going to articulate back up and then hip hinge to just go back, go straight down to the ground. Let's lift straight up from there, articulate your spine down, tailbone comes all the way down, and then articulate your spine up. And then one more time, you're just going to hip hinge, going all the way straight back down. Nice. From there, without changing the shape that your legs are in, you're going to lift your right leg directly above your right hip fold.

Toe Taps

And then you're just going to mid air, switch your legs. So just switch, tap and switch. So it's a little bit wider than maybe your normal stance would be. So you have that kind of spread, um, just a little bit bigger. So it's gonna have a little bit more demand on those deep low apps. We're going to do four more here or whatever evens you out.

Three and four. I'm one of those people who like to count every Rep. Some people count and they, you know how you keep going and you're like, well that's not what I signed up for. You're going to go ahead and lower your feet all the way back down to the floor and this time walk your feet away from you til they come to basically the edge of your mat and you can then come to your heels. So Amy May be scoot yourself this way so there's a little bend in your knees. There's still a little bend in your knees from that little bend in your knees.

Bridge Variation

You're just going to lift straight up. So it's a bridge straight up and then a hinge straight back down and then you lift straight up and hinge straight back down. I'm going to do two more like this, lift straight up and then lower straight back down. And then one more like this, lift straight up and lower back down. One more to transition. You just lift up and hold.

See if you can really dig that left heel in. Bring your right knee in towards your chest. Lower that foot back down to where it was going for a little march. Try to keep your hipbones level alternating, which leg lifts up so you have your right leg up, beautiful and down, left leg lifts and down right leg lifts and down. Left and down. Let's do one more each side.

Bridge w/Single Leg Marches

Go right and down. Go left and down. Go ahead and lower back down. Hug both knees into your chest. It's a, it is a little on the hamstring side, so we're going to do a little bit of a stretch into a single leg circle. So go ahead and extend your left like all the way along on the floor. Hug behind your right hamstring and then send your right leg straight up towards the ceiling. Give it a little pull towards you, and then just flex your foot more and really push that heel like you're trying to reach straight up towards the ceiling and then release that into a little bit of a point.

Hamstring Stretch

See if you can pull your leg in a little bit closer and then really flex through the heel. We're gonna do that one more time, a little bit of a point, and then pull a little bit closer and really flex. Push through the heel. Leave your leg where it is. Reach your arms down into the mat. Actively press your arms down into the mat. We're going to actually do this, um, a little bit different. So we're going to go across your body. Let your hip lift off, come back to center, and then go out to the side. Don't let your hip lift off. And then back. We're going to go across hip, comes off, shoulders don't, and then come back.

Single Leg Circles

We'll do one more like this. Go out and back, reach across hip, comes off, and then come back and then reach out and come back. Hips really heavy. We're gonna take that leg across, down, around. Exhale, up, across, down, around. Exhale up. We're just going to do for each direction across. Lift. Inhale, exhale. Other direction out, down. Exhale, pull. Think foot goes towards your face. Go and up. And one more time across and up.

Give that like one last little pole. And then go ahead and lower that leg down and then bring the other leg in. So you're going to have your left leg in towards you. Um, pull it in really tight and then flex that foot, push your heel up towards the ceiling, get a little stretch through your hamstrings. Okay. Hold for a second. And then point your toes, pull your leg in a little bit closer, and then really flex.

Hamstring Stretch

Push through your heel. Let me do that twice more. So it's a little points. And then pull in and then really flex through your heel. And then one more time, just a little pull and then really flex through the heel. Arms come down by your side, leg stays up, first one goes across with your hip, lifting off, shoulders staying down, and then pull to come back in through the center. And then you go out and then pull back in.

Single Leg Circles

Got Two more rounds. So you go cross three total, right? So, and then across. And then last one, you go across, or do we do four? All right. Three. Okay. And then come back and, and then we have four circles each direction. So we go down around up one, try to keep your hips kind of down. I mean, if they lift up a little bit, that's fine. And then a cross up pause, switch directions. Go Out, down, up, good. Out, down, up. Two more. Inhale, exhale up.

And inhale. Exhale, left. Go ahead and give that leg, that one last little pull. And then go ahead. From there, you're going to bend that knee and then you can bend both knees. They're gonna have both knees in towards you. So instead of doing the a hundred, we're going to do some variations of hollow body holds, which is something they do a little bit more in. Um, like gymnastics training, um, which I do with my trainer and it's fun and hard and reminds me of Claudia. So I kind of like it. So you're going to start lying down on your back and where your feet normally would come, you're going to lower them closer to, they're almost touching the floor. And then you want your low back, kind of smushing into the mat and then just reach your arms by your side and keep your abs pulling down and try to lift your shoulder blades up maybe a little bit higher. And breathing is still important. So you're breathing out into your rib cage.

Hollow Body Hold

You're going to go ahead and take this into a single leg stretch. So one leg in and switch and switch and switch, switch and switch. You hear that popping? It's my hip. I don't know. It's, that's just what it's doing right now. Do a couple more and then pause with one leg up. You're going to keep that one leg out, lower the other foot down where the other was before. Kind of that low, almost to the floor position. Really reach into it and breathe and then switched. So you have the other leg is almost touching the floor. Really lift up into it. So you're trying to smush your low back into the match and then go ahead both legs in, lower your head and chest down.

Single Leg Stretch

You can turn your head from side to side if that caused any kind of tension in your neck. And then we're just going to take the shape you're in now and just rock it a little forward and back to come up to seat it. So from a seated position, reach your arms forward so your knees are bent. You're going to exhale and round back till your hands come out about knee height. And then you're going to pull back with one arm. So let's all go. We're all in different directions. We'll go towards the camera.

Hollow Body Hold

So you're gonna rotate. Reach the other arm forward a lot. Come back to center, rotate and back to center. Twist and reach and center. Twist and reach and send her pause. See if you can round back a little bit more. Twist and reach. See if you get your elbow to touch, reach forward, twist and reach and forward. One more each side, twist and reach and forward.

Half Roll Back w/Rotation

Twist and reach and forward. Then you'd have to come all the way back up, hands on your knees, give yourself a little bit of a lift. We're going to come back into another hollow body variation. So just take your legs with you. Lie down on your back. So you're really trying to get your head and chest up.

Hollow Body Hold

You have one foot that's going to be kind of close to the ground. Hands come by your side. You're going to reach a leg out to a straddle, reach the other leg out to the straddle, and you're just going to hold pulling your abs in, pulling your abs in and pulling your abs in. I can't really talk right now. Go ahead and pull everything and lower your head and chest down for a second. Turn your head to one side. Turn your head to the other side.

Lift your head and chest back up. Ready? Do double leg stretch, right poll to come back in. Reach to Paul to come back in. Reach three poll to come back into more Creech and in and reach. And then lower down. Same deal. One rock to rock finds you all the way back up to a seated position.

Double Leg Stretch

You're going to let your legs go all the way straight. Arms, go forward and then exhale round back through your fight. Coming from finding that rounded kind of seeker, press your hands actively into the mat and then see if you can lift your legs up and then lower back down. So fingertips, shoulders, legs and down. Lift up and down. Let's do two more like this. Push, lift and down. Last one, push, lift and down. Arms forward and slowly lower down, all the way onto your back. And now we're going to do the chicken arm roll up.

Roll Back w/ Leg Lifts

So what you're going to do, arm's going to start by your side. You're going to pull an elbow out to the side, creating a chicken wing arm. So left arm can be out, right arm can be up, up towards the ceiling or up and overhead. You're going to lift head and chest. Begin to roll up and you're just going to rotate so that you end up coming up onto your forearm and then you slowly roll back down. Staying on that side, roll up that this little twist.

Roll Up Variation w/ Rotation

Keep your elbow pressing actively down into the floor, and then roll yourself back down to do two more of these. So you're gonna roll up, rotate, really pressing into that elbow. Use Your lats and then roll back down. Yeah, one more. And then we'll go a fancy roll yourself up and then roll back down. Now on this next one, you're going to try to lift your legs up at the same time as you're rolling up. The word was try, try was the word. So you're going to roll up nice. So you're kind of coming into little, I don't even know what this is.

Teaser w/ Rotation

It's a thing. And then you're going to roll yourself back down. It's sort of like a teaser because your legs are up. So we'll do two more like that. So you roll yourself up. Legs, lift the t word. I know I don't like teasers. I'm gonna. I'm going to be honest. I'm like, I'm not a teaser fan. I know. And Amy's a teaser fan. I'm like, oh, Rola and then roll back down. And then we have to chicken wing, the other side.

So go ahead and rest your right arm down. And then chicken wing it left arm reaches up towards the ceiling and then you're going to roll up and rotate. So you're finding that twist in your reach. Beautiful. And then roll back down. So we have three more of these and then we get to add the teaser part. So you roll yourself up, rotating around and roll back down.

Roll Up Variation w/ Rotation

Good. Rolling up and reach these look really good. So I think one of the biggest challenges here is not to let your shoulders shrug up by your ear because your body thinks that's going to help. It doesn't help. And then one more like this. I think it's funny because your body's like, oh, I'll do this and that will totally help you in this exercise except it doesn't. And then we're going to add the teaser park, which is always fun when for the last part of the set. So roll up, lift your legs beautiful and back down.

Teaser w/ Rotation

Two more, roll up, rotate and then roll back down. He's like really nice. And then roll up notes. I'm not doing them, I'm just sitting here. And then roll back down and then go ahead and you can hug your knees into your chest, kind of wakes everything up, you know, it's like, okay, so we've got one more hollow body hold variations do, which is going to be both legs straight. Um, you want to have your feet start low, so head and Chester and start lifted. It's essentially your double leg stretch position, but you can also do with your hands reaching forward. So you're going to reach everything out, find that position, try to really reach your arms overhead and then push through your wrists and then you can pull back in. So it's the world's slowest, most painful.

Hollow Body Hold

That would stretch. And then again, reach low legs and then pull to come back in. We'll do one more breach and then just collapse yourself down onto the mat and you can really stretch your arms overhead. And then we're going to hug your legs in. So we've done this before too. Rocks to get up, one up to seated and then go ahead and just extend your legs all the way long on the floor. If you want to give yourself a little stretching, get yourself situated, that's totally fine. We're going to start by bringing your arms into goalposts offs, chickens, goalposts, double. It's a double chicken arms. And then you're going to rotate towards the camera, grow tall through your spine, and then return to center and assist and return to center and twist and return to center. So I always have to tell myself not to overly turn my head because I feel like that's going to help me twist more, but it actually, that doesn't make me twist more. And then one more time, twist and return to center.

Spine Twist

Bring your hands so that your fingertips are behind you facing in. And you're going to start with bend your right leg. So from here you're going to lift up into um, sort of a front support Rebecca's sport, um, but only with one leg forward. And then you're going to bend and push and bend and push three, four, and five. Hold. You're going to reach your right leg to meet your left leg, lift your hips up higher, try to push your toes down to the floor, and then you'll drop down a little bit. Switch the forward leg, and then bend. Push two, push three, four and five both legs, down, hips lift. Try to really open your shoulders, open your chest and then slowly sit yourself all the way down so it's just a hinge. And then lift right back up and hinge to drop down and lift right back up.

Tricep Press w/Single Leg Extension

One more time, hinge down, lift back up. Go ahead and lower all the way down. Find your tall position. This time you're going to reach your arms out to a tee. And then we're going to twist and center and twist and center. This is where you have to coordinate and such her twist and center her one more each side, twist center and twist and center. Take a second, give yourself a little bit of a forward fold and then slowly make your way to the Quadro ped position. So you've come to hands and knees facing in.

Reverse Plank

And then we're going to start with just a couple of cat stretches just because they feel good. So inhale, head up, butt up, chest down, exhale, round your spine, eyes at your abs. Good. So inhale, arching up. Looking up just in this, I always feel like just do what your body wants. I think sometimes we really break it down into these little teeny tiny movements. But where my body always wants to do is like a really big kind of movement here. So especially after you've done a lot of ab work, we'll just do one more like this. So inhale, head up and exhale to round. Come back to a neutral spine position.

Spine Twist

So my personal preference is to not have my hands on a squishy mat. Um, it's to have my hands on the floor. So if you guys want to do that, cause we're going to be here for awhile, you can roll the mat up and just bring your hands to the floor or you can scoot them back or you can just stay as you are. You're going to extend your right leg back. So it's not touching the mat. It's to the outside of the Mat, right? So it's sort of out kind of at an angle. Now imagine you are just tracing your foot along that outside line.

Cat Stretch

You're going to begin to open your knee and pull your knee towards your right shoulder and then keep your foot attached to the floor as you push it all the way back straight. So imagine that you're just pushing and pulling through mud or quicksand, which I've never actually seen quicksand, but I imagine it's hard to move through. Go ahead and pull in and then reach back out. And your goal here is to not really let your body start to drift to the left, which is what it's going to want to do. So everyone's doing like a really nice job. But, um, I always try to remind myself to keep more weight in the hand of the leg that's doing the work. If you start to feel risky, you can do Amy's doing where you come to your fists, um, in which case then you don't have a vendor Eurest and it doesn't, it's not nearly as bothersome. The next time your knee is in, hold it in.

Quadruped Single Leg Variation

Keep your foot on the floor. Little knee lifts go up. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Hold it up on the eight. Take your foot off the floor. Little lifts from there for eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Hold it up. See if you can lift it up a little bit higher and a little bit higher. Please can you higher, a little bit higher and then go ahead and lower all the way back down. Quick child's pose. I don't really have to tell people to do it.

They just do that. And then when they come back to do the other side, so again, if it feels rusty, you can go ahead and stretch your wrists out. You can also come to your fists. Again, I think hands on the wood is less rusty, but this looks better on camera. So they went with what looked to get better on camera. I can't really blend them. You're going to go ahead and extend your left leg so it's not touching the mat.

Child's Pose

It's outside of the Mat. And then you're going to start by dragging your knee in and open. So you're working both your hip flexors, you're working those deep hip rotators, which I feel like are kind of hard to get to sometimes. Um, but they're special and they're really spicy when you work them. So if you ever want your class to stop chatting, if they're being really chatty class, just give me something like this. Pull in and then again, push as you're going out.

Quadruped Single Leg Variation

Pull to come in and push to go out. Beautiful couple more like this. Pull to come in and push to go out. Pull to come in and push you out. Next one, you're pole, you're gonna stay pole and stay foot stays down. Knee lifts for eight two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Hold it on the eight. Take the entire shape up, lifted eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Now lift and hold. If you going a little bit higher and you can always go a little higher and maybe a little higher and then go ahead and lower it down. Take a quick child's pose. So to give your wrists a break, we actually have to do foreign plank. Unless you want to do full plank. Like I'm team, full plank, forearm plank. I don't remember it. Abe is team four. I'm like, I don't like a foreign plank, but um, I think it's, yeah, I don't like it. Um, go ahead and come onto your forearms. I don't like it, but they're going to do it.

Child's Pose

So you can have fists palms up, which I kind of liked cause it opens your shoulders a little bit. Or you can do class pans. We're just gonna step it back into a forearm plank and we're just going to hold and breathe. So remember that hollow body position that we did, a bunch of variations of the same position your body was in. Imagine that you're lying down on a mat. That's the position you want your torso to be in.

Forearm Plank

So you can just hold and breathe in that position. Trying not to let your abs fall towards the floor or your back fall towards the floor. You're gonna rotate onto one forearm facing towards me. Lift your top leg up. You can drop down to that bottom knee if you need to. We're going to do eight circles with that top leg.

Forearm Side Plank w/ Leg Circles

You can have your top hand forward for up for balance if you need it for five beautiful six, seven, eight. What goes one way? Must go the other way. Eight, two, three, four. It's almost over five, six on the side. And then go ahead and you come back through center immediately. Go over to the other side and we're gonna have to think about it.

So your up leg is up, circle it. Eight two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Switch it. Eight two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Come back to center. Just come onto your stomach and rest your head down in your hands. So make a little pillow so your forehead can be down. We're going to separate your legs a little bit so that there may be not quite in that distance apart, but like almost there, go ahead. On an inhale, you're gonna float upper body and lower body up together.

Prone Spine Extension

So really finding length through everything and then exhale as you lower back down. And so inhale, filling everything up, lift and then slowly reach as you're lowering down. We'll do a couple more here. Inhale to lift this actually your break in case you're wondering and exhale to lower back down. We'll do two more like this. Big Inhale up and exhale as you lower back down and inhale as you lift. Beautiful and exhale as you lower back down.

So from there you can just um, wiggle your hips a little from side to side and then push yourself back so that you are in a child's pose. So you're just going to reach back. You can have your knees kind of wider or narrower. Um, wires generally going to feel a little bit better. And then you're going to come back into a quadro head and then just step your right foot into a plank, step your left foot into a plank. And again, you're finding that pushed away. Hollow body hold. So you're just holding, breathing and holding, breathing and holding. So we're going to start by lifting your left leg up. You're going to cross it over and then lifted up and then you're a step your other foot over and lifted up. So we're just taking one foot, crossing it over the other foot, trying to keep your abs lifted up, your hips, staying in, cross over and up.

Child's Pose

Cross over and up and over and uphold. Lift up. So you're in sort of a downdog. So I'm down with face. Doug's a little different than upstretched. So we have a nice length and back. You're going to take one leg up. It doesn't have to come up super high. So right leg is up. You're going to come forward a little bit as your left knee.

Plank w/ Toe Taps

Ben's, it's going to bend. One, two, three, hover. Push. One, two, three, reach. Come forward. One, two, three, hover. Pushed back. One, two, three, reach. Come forward. One, two, three, hover. Go back. One, two, three, reach. Last one. One, two, three. Hover back. One, two, three.

Single Leg Down Dog Variation

Reach that foot comes down. Other like comes up going and drop your head down again. Go forward. One, two, three. Hover back. One, two, three. Reach. One, two, three. Hover back. One, two, three. Reach forward two more times and back. And one more time and back. Other foot comes down. Shift forward into a plank. Slowly lower yourself down.

And we're going to come into a lengthened position. Reach your arms forward, reach your legs back, and we're going to lift everything up together. So everything lifts and lowers. Everything lifts up beautiful and lower. Lift up and lower. Next time you lift. Hold everything up. Clapping, arms and legs together for eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Lower down. Push your hips back to your heels.

Superman

Stretching back in child's pose. We're going to do two last plank variations. First one, do you want to start with a hard one or the easy one? The hard one. Okay, so we're going to come hardest. So we're gonna remember our hollow body hold we've done throughout class. It's a similar thing, but you start to bring your arms as far forward as you can. So I find starting with your arms more forward and then kind of walking your legs back is actually the easier way to do it.

Child's Pose

So if your hands are down on the mat and you begin to walk yourself back and I can only go but so far on a mat like this, but you're trying to reach your arms forward and your legs reach back. Can you drop your head between your arms and you're trying to find that hollow body position. So whenever you're ready, cause I'm just hanging out here so really rich and see how far you can go with your feet. I feel like I'm going to slip and fall off this mat so when you feel like you're in a slip and fall, don't do that. I felt like I was running out of mat and again you're trying to find that nice. This looks really beautiful, that Nice really lengthened position.

Plank Variation

So you have kind of a spread of your shoulder blades, your abs are really lifting up, aren't you really looking forward to one more plank variation and after this point variation. So whatever is safe for you to come, yes, just whatever is a safe way for you to get. Exactly. And then just shake it off. Let's do a different exercise before we do our last blank exercise. So let's face towards camera and you're gonna start kneeling. So standing on your knees, I always say standing on your knees, which is kneeling, turns out, same thing.

You're going to step your right foot out to the right and then go ahead and turn your toes. So, so you're like can be straight, but you're going to turn your toes to, they're kind of facing more up. But you want to make sure that your knee, cause a Roomba, be bending that right knee tracks over your foot. So hands can be on your hips unless you have a mic pack, in which case there's really no where to put your hands. You're going to go out to the side. So you're leaning over that leg. And then push away.

Kneeling Side Leg Presses

Good and leaning into that leg and then push away. So depending on how far you lean, you might feel a little stretch on your inner thigh. It might feel more like quad work. So it's gonna depend a lot on what's strong for you and what's maybe a little bit less strong. So you lean over and then pull to lift back up.

Good. Lean over and pull till effect up. This next one was lean and hold. So really going as far forward as seems reasonable. Reach your arms up towards the ceiling. We're just holding, so I'm feeling my quad. Anyone else? Okay, so take your arms. Just do little pushes back for eight two, three, four, five, six, seven or try to do this smooth yet kind of fast.

You're going to reach your arms to a t, push through your right leg and then end up balanced on your left hand. Left knee. Beautiful. Oh, that was so pretty. Now you're going to try to pop back to where you were. So you're going to lift back up. Go over, reach your arms up towards the ceiling. I just made this up just now. And then we're going to reach over and like catch it. Good.

Kneeling Side Bend

And then reach back. Okay. And lift back up. Nice. And then reach back on this next one. We're going to hold it, so reach out and hold. Instead of kneeling sidekicks, we're just going to take your foot and lower it to the floor and then lifted off the floor. Good and lower to the floor and lift off the roof. Basically just taking up time to before we can do another plank variation.

Lift and Lower

Lower down and lift four more, two, three, beautiful. And Four. And then go ahead and just come back up and then we'll go immediately to the other side, because I like this all facing this way anyway. So go ahead and have your left foot out and your right leg is bent and then your hands can be on your hips and you're going to go over that left leg and then push away. Good. And go over your left leg and push away. Good reach outs and lift back. These look really good.

Kneeling Side Leg Presses

And if you don't have this range in your hips, that's normal. These people aren't really normal, but they look great on camera. Reach out and pull to come back in. We'll do a couple more good coming back and then stay out. Hang there for a second. Reach your arms up towards the ceiling. Where I do those eight presses back. Push back one and two three, four, five. Beautiful. Six, seven and eight. You're going to go t arms as you push out with your left leg tip over and then you're reaching your like up beautiful and then you come back into that position, bending your knee. Beautiful.

Kneeling Side Bend

And then we go over tip touch and then lift back up. And then a couple more like this. Go over. Nice and lift back up and then go over and lift back up. We've got the next one, we'll stay there. So go over and then your outside leg is going to tap the floor, lift up to the ceiling, down, tap and up, down, tap and up, down. Tap and up for more.

Lift and Lower

One and two and three and four and then come all the way in and then we'll come turn around for eight another plank variation. So this time our plank will be um, hands directly underneath shoulders where they come into a plank. You have options. Easier option is you're going to tap the opposite shoulder with your hand. Harder options. You tap the same shoulder with your hand. No, it's totally doable. Go a little wider with your legs than you might normally.

So just you're a little bit more stable and there's going to be a little shift from side side. So you're in the plank. Go ahead and lean your weight a little bit to one side, tap a shoulder touch down, tap your shoulder, touchdown, tap and tap. And again you can go cross tap or same side tap and you can play around with them. I don't actually think the same side is that much harder. It just sounds harder. It's more impressive pitches. I mean really like why are we doing this? Lift up and lift up. Beautiful. We'll do a couple more each side.

Plank w/ Shoulder Taps

And then from there go ahead and just lift your hips up. So we're going to call our downdog kind of a rest position. But this time I want you to take it into an upstart, which means you're going to Tuck your pelvis around that low back. Nice. So it's a slightly different kind of a stretch. And then you can slowly lower down to your knees and then come lying down on a long arm facing towards the camera so that way.

And then on this one, let's go ahead and try to have your body basically in a straight line. You're going to take both legs, heels together, toes slightly apart, and just hover your legs off the floor through just lifting up. If you can take your hand, that's your top arm. Reach that straight up towards the ceiling. Good. We're just going to hold and then just take both legs together, lift up and lower down. So I know for me here, I like to flare my ribs like my favorite thing.

Side Double Leg Lift

But if you think about that hollow body shape, that hollow body shape actually follows you around a lot. Um, so it's basically the same thing here, maybe with a little slight variation. And we're going to actually accentuate the hollow here in a second. So now lift up, hold it. You're going to take your top arm, reach it slightly behind you as your legs swing slightly forward so your arm goes a little bit back and it can actually go down towards your hips and then reach your arm up and you come back to that start position. So you've banana your body in a little bit, but not a lot. And then reach back up. These look really nice.

Side Double Leg Lift Variation

So you're going to go ahead and reach your arm, reach your legs, and then lift back up. Do a couple more like this. So arm goes, legs go and lift back up. And one more time, arms go, legs go. And then lift yourself back up. Leave that arm up if you can. If not, you can always lower it down for balance. You're going to take your top leg, bring it back, bottom leg comes forward, and we're just going to go for a little walk. So switch your legs and switch and switch and switch. Go eight more, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Nice. Let your feet lower down.

Side Double Leg Walk

Roll onto your back or your stomach just so you can make your way onto your opposite side. So we're gonna face towards this direction lying down on a long arm. Again, your body is basically straight, but not in an arched position. So you kind of collect yourself and pull everything in and together you can have your top arm reaching up towards the ceiling. We're gonna start with just the leg lifts. So legs go up and up. And I find a lot of times, so you have students who turn their feet toes towards each other. Um, I don't really know why, cause that seems really uncomfortable to me, but I always just say heels together and not everyone can bring their heels together because it's gonna depend on the anatomy of their legs.

Side Double Leg Lift

So heels aiming in the direction of each other. And generally a good cue. Now keep your legs lifted. You're going to do that slight banana ing of your legs forward as your arm goes back, and then you reach back up as your legs go back. Nice. So it's a little bit of a sweep and then reach forward. Nice. Sweep and reach forward.

Side Double Leg Lift Variation

Good sweep and reach forward. Nice. We'll do three more like this. Reach forward. Good, good to and forward on the three yield hold. Try to keep that balance. Lift your top leg up, sweep it back, bottom leg swoops forward, switch your legs and switch and switch. We'll do eight more. Two, three, four, five, six. Good.

Side Double Leg Walk

Seven and eight. And then go ahead and let your legs lower down. Being mindful that you might be at the edge of your mat. Roll onto your back. You're going to start with your knees bent and your feet flat to the floor. And then, um, you don't want to have your legs too close, so closer will be harder. So just so you know from there, not that far, you're going to reach your arm straight up towards the ceiling. On an exhale, you're going to roll yourself up to seated, which is hard if your legs are shorter. So help yourself if you need to. Okay, so from there, lift your arms so that they're at the angle of your legs.

So they're at that reach. You're gonna reach your right leg forward so that your knees stay glued to each other as if they are glued to each other. Beautiful half teaser. You're going to roll down all the way down. We're going to do a kick kick with your legs. So left leg right leg ends up straight. And then go ahead and roll yourself up.

Single Leg Teaser

So now your right leg is still up. It's still the up like good. And then bend your right knee, extend your left leg lower down, all the way down. Once you hit down kick kick, now your left leg is again up. Roll back up with your left leg, reaching up. These look really, really good. And then from there, do a kick kick. Left leg is up, lower back down, and then roll yourself up. Switch to your right leg. Is that lower back down?

Roll up with your right leg, being up, have your left leg, join your right leg, beautiful. Lift your arms up towards the ceiling. Big Inhale. And then exhale, lower down to your low back touches. Legs. Begin to roll away from you and then lower all the way down onto your back. Go ahead and hug your knees into your chest. That was the correct sound to make. Like after that, ah, whoa.

Teaser

Rock a little bit from side to side. See, I know I was so thirsty after five class. And then go ahead and just rock yourself up seed and you can go ahead and face in. So we did a lot of hip exercises, so we're going to do a little, I'm double pigeon unless double pigeon doesn't work for you. Double pigeon is stacked shins, um, preferably flexed feet and then you sit up super tall and if your legs don't want to stack, click that you sit regular cross light. Um, so if you look down, you see like a triangle and you basically try to create that position. Even if you're sitting in just a regular cross leg position or as my, um, kindergarten teacher, sister-in-law would say criss cross apple sauce. So grow tall through your spine, you're going to lean yourself forward and then you can, if your body lets you reach your hands down towards the floor, but try not to sacrifice all the length through your spine.

Double Pigeon Stretch

So you could be back here and it seems like you're rolling more forward. But try to think about more like you're reaching yourself forward to the front edge of your mat. This is where the ponytail looks like really super cool, where it's like completely come out on the top of your head. Okay. And then you can go ahead and slowly make your way up.

We'll take your legs and uncross them and then re with the opposite leg on top, totally normal for one side to be less flexible and less overly gifted, overall gifted than the other side. So again, length through your spine, leaning that length forward. And then if you want to then take your arms forward so you can get a little bit more of a forward stretch. Okay. You may certainly do that. And then we can go ahead and untangle your legs and then we'll just come to a, um, it's sort of a down or a child's pose ish, but you're going to have your knees stay where they are and begin to walk your arms forward and drop your torso down. So I'm trying not to get my makeup on this beautiful white piece of furniture.

Shoulder Stretch

So think more chin down if you can, and really, really stretch through those arms. And then from there, go really wide knees like super wide. And then just push back so you're gonna get a more enjoyable child's pose. And then walk your hands to the right, cross your left arm over your right, give your left hand a little pull, and then you can come through to the other side. And then slowly make your way all the way back up.

Child's Pose

I've got nothing left, so really good job. Thank you guys for coming out and thank you guys for watching.

High Intensity Workouts - Playlist 2: Mat Workouts

Comments

2 people like this.
Great class ! Awesome body stretch"!
1 person likes this.
Yay!!! Another Mariska mat class!! Thank you for a creative and challenging workout
1 person likes this.
Mariska! So much LIKE!!! Love the side plank leg circles, and the side lunge into the lateral stretch. OOooh! Can't wait to integrate these into classes! Thank you!
1 person likes this.
So happy to see you back, Mariska! This class can be deceiving. By the look of it...looks no problem. But when actually doing it, it is very challenging! Loved it and all different variations of the exercises! Thank you!!!

Do you ever incorporate the foam roller into your class? If so, would love to see it.
1 person likes this.
You know how happy I am with you and Abe in the same room!!! I feel great this morning after taking your class last night Mariska!!! Thank you!! And nice 🐓 arm movement!! 😘😘
1 person likes this.
Love the different variations!
great class, thank you. Loved the chicken wing roll up/teaser!
1 person likes this.
I am tired but opened after this one. Thanks.
2 people like this.
amazing class!! can't wait to do again. thanks!!
1 person likes this.
Update to my comment last night : I have not been sore from a Pilates workout in a long time. This was really a great one !
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