Energizing Mat

Hi, I'm Jillian Hasso and we're here today to do a fundamentals mat. And the fundamentals for me involve breathing. If we breathe well, we become energized, we work in good alignment, and then we move better. And this is a class designed as a standalone class short mat work or a preparation for a more advanced reformer. So if it's a weekend and you have time at home, you can do both my classes back to back. So we're gonna start in rest position.

Our only prop today is a small hand towel, which we have folded in half. And then in quarters, and you can make it into eighths or even roll it up tight. It's going to be our little prop for places where we need a bit of help. So we're gonna start in rest position sitting back on the heels. And this is a place if you need to, you can use a pillow or the um, towel underneath your feet if they cramp underneath your knees. If you don't like sitting back, see if you can get your buttocks close to your heels and slide your hands out.

And here's another place to use a prop. The towel can be [inaudible] fold it up so that you have a rest for your forehead. What I don't, one is your head hanging in the air, so if your head is not touching the mat, use your towel so we can [inaudible] rest position here. What I'd like to see is some deep lateral breathing through the ribs. We're going to inhale and really spread the ribs sideways, relaxing the shoulders. And as we exhale, pull the low tummy in and feel the spine in a c shape. It should look a little bit like a capital c that fell over.

And why? Deep breathing without stressing the neck out and exhale good. Everybody roll your forehead from side to side like you're saying no. And feel the neck completely releasing in this position. And take a breath in one more time. And as you exhale this time, come up onto all fours and you were in a rounded kind of knee stretch position for the reformer. I want you to adjust.

So take a look up here for a moment. If you're out here and you come up, look at my shoulders. I'm going to adjust as I come up onto all fours, the hands so that they glide right under the shoulders. The hips are over the knees in that round shape. That's the exhale. Now as you inhale, release your hips and open. Then your chest and repeat. Exhale round under. Scoop it out and released and roll the spine through without [inaudible] filling your Tamia. And one more time.

Exhale round under and release to the arch. Now we're going to wag our tail to the right and look over the right shoulder. Can you see your buttocks and Pan your head? Wag your tail left and Wagyu tail right and wag your tail left. Hold that to the left. Exhale round into that cat shade and roll your hips to the right look right and pan the head around. Inhale, exhale under, and look right. Inhale around one more time. Exhale, hold the cat and reversed it.

Look to the left and wag the tail right. Move ahead. Exhale it an inhale around and exhale it under and one more. Inhale around and exhale. Hold that cat shape. Now you're in a rounded back Halloween. Catch Jay. Talk your toes under.

So get your fifth toe if you can, all the way to the mat. Release your hips into the old horse position. Be careful here by the way, not to lock your elbows. Yeah, keep your elbows a little soft and go ahead and arch your back now so you can go look forward. Draw the chest forward and as if you're on the reform a rock for a moment. Feel as your buttocks go back towards your heels that your toes are getting a stretch.

Snuggle those toes into the mat and we're going to stand ah, into an up stretch position. Now you may need to adjust your hands or your feet a little farther away and we're going to tread those feet. Inhale, lift one heel high. Push the other heel down. Feel this stretch. Your heels should disappear behind your ankle. Switch it. Inhale and exhale. Now do a little body scan as you walk your feet out.

Are Your elbows locked? Soften them up and use your upper back muscles to roll the armpits away from your ears. Good. Push both heels down. Now breathe, and we're going to lift both heels up as you inhale and walk yourself out to the plank position. Hold the plank there from head to heel. One long line through the body.

Push the heels back and pike out and push your heels down again. You're back to down dog. Inhale, lift up. This time round your upper back. This is a preparation for up stretch on the reformer. She feel like a buffalo. The Chin is tucked to the chest and you're going to drop your hips all the way down and look up and pike. You might need to walk your hands back in. Push the heels down. So in order to emulate the reformer moving, we have to walk the hands in and out a little bit. Try that once again.

Lift high on the heels, I'm sorry, on the toes with the heels up and pipe all the way through with a rounded upper back. Walk your hands forward and pull the chin to the chest and let the hips hang down and lift up and come back. Push those heels down. Let's walk out to plank now. One more time. Lift up and walk out and take a plane and we're going to roll towards me onto that arm. You're on different arms, so I can't tell you which one and hold your balance there. The front, the front leg isn't, I'm sorry. The top leg is in front. Now raise your arm up. Inhale, side stretch and exhale and inhale up and exhale.

Squeeze those inner thighs. One more time. Inhale up, stay there. Bring the arm down and come to plank. Switch and go the other way. Bring that arm up. Inhale and exhale and inhale and exhale. One more time. Inhale, stay there. Bring the arm down to plank.

Let your hips drop through. Bend the knees, relax the feet. Open the chest contract, high contraction, and back to rest position. Take a big breath there. Annex. Good. All right, everyone come to seated. Now grab your little towel and you're going to make a pillow.

So let's have the heads to the outside of the circle there and you're going to lie on your back and take your knees into your chest. So use the pillow here to support your head. Have your shoulders just below it, right so that we're nice and open. Take hold of your knees, individual grip on each knee. If you have a knee issue, hold underneath. Take a big breath in and I don't want you to Tuck your tailbone, keeping neutral spine. Exhale, squeeze your knees towards your chest, elbows out to the side, shoulders drop down again. Inhale, exhale, schoolies in. And one more.

Take a breath and feel your spine lengthening from tailbone to the crown of the head. Release the knees to the ceiling. Inhale this time, pull across your body, right armpit to left. Squeeze the air out. Inhale. Be careful not to curl your tailbone off as you squeeze. One more same direction. Exhale, elbows out to the shot side and shoulders down. Reverse it. Inhale across from the left to the right. Inhale x and one more.

Inhale and exhale. Now release your knees towards the ceiling. Inhale this time. Exhale, pull the knees towards you and open the knees apart towards your armpits. Swim them around and bring them together again. Inhale, exhale, squeeze. Be sure you're not rocking your pelvis off the table. One more time off the mat. Sorry. Reverse it. So you're going to open the knees out and bring them around. This feels a little bit like the recovery position from short spinal.

Exhale. One more, and exhale, bring your legs right together. Squeeze the legs together as if you have one leg. You're going to take your hands and place them on the top of your thighs here. Draw the shoulder blades down your back. Take a breath in, squeezing those legs, squeezing the base of the buttocks. Feet are pointed. Lower your legs slowly so the toes. Just tap on the mat. Inhale, exhale. Pull the belly and push with your hands and lift the legs.

Flex the feet. Inhale lower and heel tap. Squeeze the buttocks and exhale, pull back. Point the toes. Inhale, toe, tap. Exhale. Keep your shoulders drawn down your back. Flex the feet. Inhale and exhale. Draw everything that point the toes and you're going to stretch your left leg out on the mat. Left hand on the left hip, right hand grip the top of your knee and just relax it.

We're going to stir the knee around without moving the left hip. Inhale, right leg across the body. Exhale, bring it around so we're stirring that knee and hip. Breathe. Inhale and exhale. Reverse that. Stir to the right. Inhale, exhale across. Inhale, exhale across, and inhale. Exhale across. Now this is a delicious part when it change hands left hand on the right knee, right on out to the side. Look right, take a big breath. You can rest your foot on the left thigh and spiral.

Do a nice stretch there. Do your best not to let the right shoulder come off the mat. Take a big breath back off the stretch, a little exhale. Try to deep in it like you're ringing your spine out. And once again you inhale back off. Exhale.

Now take a big breath and don't move your buttock imprint from the top of the ribs all the way down. Back to center. Bring your head center. Take your right foot in your left hand and keeping your two hip bones anchored to the ceiling. Let the knee drop so we don't want to let the knee drop and lift the left hip. Stay anchored. Take a big breath, Holly your belly. Exhale, bend that left knee and we've got a pretzel shape here. We're going to thread the right hand through the middle.

Grabby the Shin or the back of the thigh of the left leg and stretch there. Do a little body scan. Is your neck relaxed? Are Your shoulders relaxed? [inaudible] placed your left foot down on the bat with the knee bent now and bring your hands to your hips. You're going to unfold your right leg to the ceiling. Pointed foot. Straight knee flex, toe ball, heel point, heel ball toe. Keep breathing. Tow Ball here he [inaudible]. One more time.

Toe Ball, heel, heel ball photo. Now take a breath in. As you exhale, bring your legs, thigh to thigh, roll your head up. Reach and post their exhale. What to squeeze the thighs? Four really squeeze. Five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 hole deep in your stomach, a little more into the mat and slowly lower the right leg.

Roll your head back and draw your left knee up. Right hand on the right hip. Niesters across the body. Ready. Inhale. Exhale. Keep the right leg stable. One inhale, exhale, two. Inhale. Exhale. Three, reverse to the outside. Inhale. Exhale. Three, use the abdominal contraction on the exhale to bring the leg home and exhale.

Place the left foot on the right side. Change hands, right hand on the left knee. Look to the left. Inhale, spiral. I exhale as you go back off the stretch. As you inhale, get longer from head to tail. Exhale, deepen back off. Once again, inhale and exhale, deepen and take a breath in this time. As you exhale, imprint one vertebrae at a time. Back to center. Bring your head center, grab your left foot with your right hand. Let that knee fall open. Keep your pelvis square, take a big breath and your right knee. Thread through and grab that leg. Breathe.

Do a little body scan. Makes sure your neck and shoulders are in a neutral position. Place your right foot down, hands on the hips. Extend your left leg pointed to the ceiling. Steroidal knee, flex toes, ball of the foot, heel and point. Heel ball, toe, toe ball here, heel ball. [inaudible] one more time. Toe Ball, heel, heel, ball, toe. Take a breath in as you exhale.

Lower that left thigh to the right thigh. Reach the arms up, blow all the air out and post. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 and roll everything down. Now bend both knees. The feed should be squeezed together. The thighs are squeezed together as if you have one leg. Really draw the buttocks together we are in a neutral, relaxed spine position. Arms press down at the sides. Inhale through your nose and as you exhale, just tilt the pubic bone so that there's a contraction of the lower abdominals.

You roll the hips. Exhale, stay there. Inhale, exhale deep, and that stomach connection to the low back and relax everything. Inhale again. Exhale, draw everything together. Press makes sure you're not doing extra in your shoulders. Inhale, all the intensity is in the lower pelvis. Exhale deep in it and roll it down. One more time. Stay connected. Take a breath and exhale, tilt. Stay there. Inhale, exhale deep and deep and deep and down into the mat.

On that second breath and relax. Let's open our feet to Pilati stance and then open the heels. So we're now hip with the part with the feet, right ground the big toe, little toe and heel of each foot. Ground the back of the arms and draw the shoulder blades down the back. You're going to remove your little pillow if you were using it so that we're flat on the mat now and we're going to do a full pelvic lift.

Take a breath in, and as we exhale, go through that little tilt we just practiced and roll the pelvis all the way up. Be sure at home you're not overarching here and popping the ribs. We want to draw the ribs together and really feel the work in the back of the glutes and hamstrings. Take a big breath in and it's, it's if someone is pulling your hips away from your ribs, exhale, roll that down. One more time and we're going to stay up there. Take a breath, press the shoulders down, press the arms down, roll the hips up, empty all the air and we're going to post ready. Inhale, post up. Exhale, post up. So it's in for two and out for two. It sounds like this and and three and exhale and four.

We're going up to eight and five and six and seven last one, eight an exhale all the air out. Take a big breath in and exhale. Roll the spine down and take a breath in deep in your stomach and bring your legs up. Squeeze together. Now on this next exercise, if you have a neck issue, you're going to interlace your fingers and take your hands behind the back of your head. If not, if you're comfortable with raising your head up to the a hundred position without support, your hands will be behind your thighs. Squeeze the legs together as if you have one leg. And imagine that you're pushing the foot bar with your heels. So we've got flexed feet. The head is down to begin, and your hands are either behind your head or behind your thighs.

Take a breath and keep squeezing the legs. As we exhale, we're gonna dive the upper body up and extend the legs. Stay there, relax the shoulders. Inhale, look at your low tummy. Exhale deep in the contraction and roll everything back to the start position. Inhale again. Exhale, push. Ah, stay there. Inhale. Exhale deep in the low, Tami, and roll down. Open your heels now so we're in Polato stance. Take a breath and draw the inner thighs together. Exhale out.

Stay there. Squeeze the inner thighs. Inhale. Exhale deep in the abdominals. Roll down. One more. We're going to hold this. Exhale. Press out. Stay there. Inhale, exhale deep in it. Point your toes, release your arms breathing. 100 ready into three, four, five out, two, three, four, five, two out, two, three, four, five, three. Squeeze the inner thighs for if we get tired, we bend the knees. Five.

If we want to challenge ourselves, we stretch the legs and lower them. Seven, eight, nine, 10. Good. Lift the arms up by the ears and lower the legs. Flex the feet and we're going to inhale. Bring the arms to vertical. Palms are facing away from you. Exhale, tilt the pubic bone.

Bring the head to look between the arms and you're in a u shape all the way up. Full exhalation. Squeeze those legs together and flex the feet. Inhale, roll halfway down. Exhale, wrap the shoulders away from the ears and we're back to start. Inhale, arms up. Exhale. Scoopin roll all the way up. You should be in a u shape with the shoulders over the hips. Inhale, roll back. Open up that low back. Drop the shoulders down and release. Inhale, arms up. Exhale, scoop it out.

Inhale, draw the shoulder blades down the back as you roll down and exhale, and one more. Inhale, arms up. Exhale, scoop. Inhale, draw the shoulder blades down and exhale, release. Draw your arms up to the ceiling and down by your sides. Point your toes, bend the knees and bring the legs straight up for roll overs. So we're going to, before we do rollover, a little prep cross, one ankle, doesn't matter which one, and bend the knees. Take a breath in. And on the exhale I like to make my fingers. By the way I call them spiders.

For this we're going to do a little hiccup. So we want to exhale and lift and lower down with control. Don't leave her your legs over your face. Hiccup to the ceiling. Exhale up. Inhale down. Exhale. Really feel that pelvic tilt from the abdominals.

And one more exhale as we lift. Good and relax. Now cross the other ankle. We're going to reverse our breathing so this time we exhale all the air out before we start. And inhale up. Exhale, control the descent. This is harder. Inhale up. Exhale, control. Try not to fall out of that shape, but descend with control. And one more good. Unhook your ankles and in Gulu the legs together as if you have one leg.

Press the palms down. Now we're doing full rollover, so we're going to lift on an inhale. Hips up, legs over open hip with flex. Exhale, roll through the spine and point the feet. Circle the legs away together. Over on an inhale, open and flex. Reach out of the heels as you imprint down and inhale over open. Exhale, rolling down. Cheer more. Inhale over. Squeeze the legs together. Open. Reach out of the heels, roll down, and one more. Inhale over.

Open flex and roll down. Keep the legs open. Just point the toes. Inhale over with open legs together. Flex. Squeeze the legs as you roll down. Point the feet and open. Inhale over together. Flex pressing them, and three more. Inhale over together. Flex and roll down. Point the feet.

Inhale over together. Flex and roll down. Last time. Inhale over together. Flex roll down. If your back is healthy, point your feet and slowly lower those legs all the way to the mat down. Then both knees into your chest. Open the knees a little bit. Now this is a transition we use also on the reformer.

We're going to take a breath. Exhale, close the rib cage. You bring the body up and move a little bit forward to the front edge of your mat for rolling like a ball. Now rolling like a ball. We're going to do Corolla, tree air style. We want to balance in this hover shape without crashing the feet. It's a quick in-breath and a two part XL to roll.

Let's try it. Ready? Inhale. Exhale. Roll back and up. Nice people. Imagine a highway land on the mat. Go ahead and roll. Right and we want to roll straight on that highway line. Not from upside to side. Nice.

Keep the heels glued a little closer, sunny to your buttocks. Right? Right. It's harder. Let's just do two more. Yes, very nice. Okay, great. So now we're going to keep the head. We're going on a tummy, so keep your head towards the center of the room and you're going to go face down on the mat. I'm going to do a little variation that I love called the VEPO. So you have two choices here.

You can be faced on the mat with your hands like so to make a pillow or if you know that you treat with your shoulders a lot, yes, looking at you, you're going to take your hands sideways, down by your sides, palms up, and use this as a pillow for your forehead. Okay? So either way, their legs are going to be open, outwardly rotated to the width of the Mat. Okay, so you're in a v. That's why it's called The v Pole. Now we did that little pelvic tilt with the double breath earlier, but now we're going to do it with the pull of gravity against us rather than with us. When we're lying on our back. It's easy. Now we have to lift against the pull of gravity. So you're either here, here, take a breath, you face down, and as you exhale, I want to see you do a posterior pelvic tilt. So you're going to tilt the pubic one in, squeeze the buttock.

I want to be able to drive a little truck under the pelvis, hold five counts, and then relax it. Inhale again. Exhale, squeeze in, wrap the buttock. So for everyone at home, my legs are open and when I do this tilt, I've not got a tight outfit on, but we should be able to see a little air space under there. Yeah. And relax. Now we're going to add on, watch for a moment. If I do this and I've got my little hollow here. Yes, but I lift my legs. Too much liquid happens, I lose it. The low back should flatten just a bit and we're going to lengthen the legs, not lift them and beat the heels together.

Okay, so let me talk you through it. You're in your little. Um, Hello Shay. Take a breath. Exhale, squeeze in. Wrap first. Get the integrity of that pelvic tilt length in the lace and let them scrape the mat. Inhale to exhale. Two. Don't lift high or you'll lose your low back three for, I don't want those shoulders. Five. Now you've lost it. So lower your legs. Six. Yes, seven. That's it. Eight.

So we really want that spiral wrap of the buttocks and a flat back. Good. Relax. And just rock your pelvis from side to side. Yeah. Take a breath in. We're going to do one more set of just five. All right, just to make sure you've got it. Take a breath in. Exhale, squeeze in, wrap the buttocks hollow in. Lift the belly right above the pubic bone and be sure to, that's it. Three, four, press the pubic bone down, zipper up the belly. Good and relaxed. Rock your pelvis from side to side. Okay, so now we're going to come up on the forearms.

You want to make fists and align your elbow so it's right under your shoulders and we're working here to keep this from happening. So really press the forearms down and drop your Chin and pull the shoulder blades apart. We've got a nice stretch there for the upper back and neck and that's where we want to be an up stretch on the reformer later on. Now keep your Tomi lifted and pull your chest through like the Sphinx, an open roll, the shoulder blades down the back. One more time. Draw up the chin down, pull the shoulder blades apart.

Really feel that elbow push up and keep the integrity of that as you roll through. Now hold yourself open, really pin the shoulder blades back and turn your head to the left. Inhale. Exhale. Drop it down on that left diagonal and rule it to the center and lift your head up. Inhale, turn your head to the right. Don't let your left shoulder cheat and interrupt down and lift up. One more time. Inhale to the left. Exhale, draw up victim and pull yourself up center.

And one more time and drop it and pull yourself up and center. Okay, so we're going to stay now with your head this way, but turn on your side to face me. When they do some sideline work, it's not your conventional sidelight kicks series. So you have a choice here. You can be up on your elbow or you can be on flat this way if you have a neck issue. Okay, I'm going to be up cause I want to be able to see you. So what I want is these two headlights even right stacked one on top of the other. And we're not going to do a lot here, but I want good placements.

So press that top elbow out from the body, but press the shoulder down and we're going to lift feeder pointed for now knees are bent. Lift that top leg up and lower. Oh, I heard a pop and up and Laura. Now make sure you're not doing this. And lift up knee and ankle to the same height. Three and four and lower and five. Good. Now the feet stay together and we're going to open the knee open. Schoolies closed. Imagine you have a ball there open.

And if you wanted to make this harder, you could put a theraband around your legs. Yes. For now, let's stay open on five. This hip, this Tapia is allowed to fall back just a little here so we're not in alignment so much anymore. Now keep the thigh where it is, extend that knee out and touch it lightly to the bottom foot. Extend that knee out and come back and extend that knee out and come back and fore and come back. Keep the leg out there on five. Now Flex your foot. Make the leg an inch longer, reach out.

You want to really work from here? Bring the leg down on a front, diagonal and point. Lift up and reach it down and point. Lift up and make it longer. Breach. Schoolies cs. We really want to create resistance here cause we're not doing a lot. One more.

Reach down and up and point the toe and turn the leg in. So let's just sit up too. Change sides. Take your towel with you if you're using it and let's align up on the other side. Good. Ready everybody? So lift that top leg.

Maybe your hipbones are even for this one. Lift up and lower down and lift up and lower down. Keep your breathing going. Three elbow is out from the body. Shoulders down, four. And imagine you're pushing up very heavy air. That was five open and close. Open schoolies, close, open, schoolies closed. Imagine a big beach ball in between those knees and you're pressing all the air out. And Five, hold it, hold that, five there.

Now this topic is falling back just a little. That's correct. Extend the knee out and bend. So feel, so there's a heavyweight on the arch of your foot. You're pushing. That's it. Push it away. 30 don't move the thigh. Good and for good, and keep the leg out on five. Now flex the foot. Reach out an inch longer and schoolies down.

Point up. Keep your breath going to an reach and three and reach and four and reach and five and reach. Then the knee. Roll it in and let's put our head back towards the center of the room and we're going to come back into rest position. Okay, so see you can measure here. Does your spine feel a little more stretched out? Why? Hope so?

Do a couple of those deep wide breaths that we did at the beginning of class. Relax the shoulders. Inhale and exhale. And once again, you're going to adjust your hands as you come up on all fours. Exhaling into the cat shape. Inhale, release the hips, open the chest, roll yourself forward.

Be sure you're not collapsed. Press the floor away. Talk all five toes under again, really get that pinky toe in contact with the mat. And once again, stand up and this time either walk your feet towards your hands or your hands towards your feet and hang in a forward fold. Be sure that your hips are not falling behind your heels. Do you want to lift those lower abdominals in? Keep equal weight on the big toe, little toe and heel. Bend your knees just a little. Make sure they're tracking over the toes and in your own time. Take a breath, exhale. And it's like spine stretch recovery. You're going to drip up to a nice, he's standing posture all the way up, standing up nice and tall and we're going to readjust.

I'm going to come down here on the floor and everyone readjust to the middle of their mat, please and face me. Okay, so we're hip with the part and we're going to do some little plea here. So arms at the sides. Feel the energy is the first time where vertical, big toe, little toe heel push down. And when we bend the knees, this is our reformer work. When abandon is right over the center of the toes, arms are going to come forward. Straight backs. Inhale. Exhale, press down, shoulders over the hips. Inhale, no squatting. Exhale, press down. One more. Inhale. Exhale, press down. Hold it there. Balanced. Focus your eyes straight ahead. See if you can rise to the balls of the feet and balance.

Feel the energy up through the crown. Slowly lower your heels down and take a breath and you're going to draw your heels together. Here's Polato stance. Now we're going to do the same thing, but the arms go sideways. Ready, inhale, exhale. Pull those inner thighs together. Inhale, exhale, pull the inner thighs. Once again. Inhale and exhale, and once again, see if you can keep your heels together, but lift off onto the toes balance and slowly lower. One last time. Bring the feet together. So now we're really in parallel zipper up and magnetize those inner thighs, arms coming forward. Inhale, exhale.

Imagine you're on the reformer. Inhale and exhale. One more. Inhale and exhale, squeezing everything together. Rise up, balance, hold, and slowly lower the heels and let's reach the arms. Palms out. Inhale up, look up a little bit. Touch the poems. Exhale, look down and bring the arms down. Turn the palms up. Inhale. Exhale. One time. Inhale up. Now interlace your fingers and bring your focus straight ahead. Take a big breath and everybody's going to lean up and over towards the ocean this way and stretch the side of the body. Make sure you're not twisted.

Bring both shoulders around to the front. Feel that side stretch. Come up through center. Inhale other way. Exhale. Bend that opposite knee. Yes, there you go. And up through center. Hold it. There's magnetize the legs. Bring your arms out to the side. Now press down to imaginary columns of air.

Align your body vertically and see if you can balance. Once again, hold your balance. Calm and centered. Stay as tall as you are up on your toes, and slowly lower your heels. Bring your arms up. One more time. Prayer position. Dry Down to the center of your heart. Take a big breath and exhale.

Nice. So now you're all ready for the reformer, right? Okay. Thank you so much.