Invigorating New Year's Mat

Okay, we're kicking off another Happy New Year class, Kristi and me. Ready, Kristi? Ready? Let's go. So we've got, we're sitting.

I hope that's obvious, and the feet are right in front of the sitting bones. Let's take the hands just behind the thighs for a moment. Pull with the arms quite strongly and lift the spine. Feel the energy running from the top of the head through the tail, back and forth, vice and versa. Vice and versa.

Up and down. Inhale. As you exhale feel the pelvis rotate, the abdominals drawn towards the spine. We're just gonna curl the lumbar spine. Inhale, lift back up.

I always like to start with this because we're gonna spend so much time rounded through the whole spine that it's nice to differentiate and it's nice to try to really tap in inhale to lift with the abdominals there. And also look to get a little bit of stretch through the lower spine. This is our last one. Inhale, lift the spine up, let go, reach forward. Take the arms overhead.

Open the arms out to the side, and as we exhale we'll take the arms forward and begin to roll back. So rounding down towards the tips of the shoulder blades. Inhale, lift the arms. Open the arms. Reach forward to roll up.

Lift the spine as the arms reach up. Open the arms out to the side. Create pressure with the arms as the spine rounds and roll back. Continue that inward pressure with the arms. Find your way down to the tips of the shoulder blades.

Inhale, the arms reach up. Arms open out to the side. We exhale, curl the spine up. And lift. And open.

And one more, around... And roll back. So as the arms are moving through space here, make sure that the body, the trunk doesn't change its orientation. Arms around, arms forward, spine up. Lift up.

Open the arms. Roll down with the arms like that. Go down, reach wide with the arms. If that's too challenging for you it's certainly fine to take the arms forward. Holding that low position and breathing in.

Exhale, lift the right leg. Hold, inhale. And switch. One. And switch.

We're gonna do three. Two, and two. Three, and three. Allow that leg to go back to the floor, take the opposite leg to the floor. Inhale.

Reach the arms overhead. And round the whole spine up. Oh, come on. Happy new year, Kristi, come on. Happy new year.

Arms out to the side. Then the arms overhead. Round the spine. And roll back. So the arms are forward this time.

There you go, Kristi, no big deal. And we're gonna rotate towards the inside of the room. Lift the leg closest to you. Or the closest to your rotation. And center.

Closest to the rotation. We lift the leg we're rotating towards. And down. How far you bringing the knee in? I bring the knee in just so that not so far that it runs into my arm.

I don't really have a specific goal there. Last one. Oh, but now guess what we get to do? We're going to take the arms out to the side. And we're gonna roll up from there.

Arms overhead. We're gonna reach way out over the legs. Roll the spine down. All the way. Put your forearms on the mat, scoot towards your feet.

Lining up for a pelvic curl. Head down on the floor, arms long and straight. Inhale. Exhale, flatten the spine into the ground. Roll the spine up, reach the knees.

So Kristi and I are reaching our knees towards one another. We inhale. Exhale, roll down. Continue to reach your knees away from you. Your arms away from you.

Your head in the opposite direction. So we lengthen the spine from top to bottom. Inhale at the bottom. Exhale, flatten the spine, press down through the arms, press down through the feet and roll up. And inhale.

And exhale. Roll down, feel the length of the spine. The articulation of the spine. Drop the tail all the way down one more time. We got a theme today, we're doing threes.

Rolling up. Up, you can do anything three times in my opinion. Pause at the top, inhale. Exhale, our left leg lifts off the floor. It stays bent.

And then it reaches down and touches. And pulls right back up. And you feel the same amount of abdominal work that you just did from the ground as that leg's lifting through space. Last time. Hold the leg up, lower and lift the pelvis.

Straight down. Straight up, three. Straight down. Straight up, two. Straight down.

Hold it up, stretch that left leg to the ceiling. Reach down and tip the floor, and four. Three. Down. Hold, two.

Down. Pull one pause there, bend the knee. Place the foot on the floor, reorganize for stability and evenness, and here we go, right side lift. Three. Draw in like you're pulling the leg in from just underneath the rib.

As the leg comes towards you, reach arms further past that leg. Here we go, the whole spine goes down. And up, three. Down. And up, two.

Down. And up, three. Stretch the leg. Take the leg away. And flex back.

Pull away and pull two. Last time. Pull three, pause there, point your foot. Bend your knee. Place that foot down.

And roll down. Slowly. Slowly, starting out as this middle of the spine comes under you, slide your arms out to your side, turning the palms to face up. Lift one leg. Lift the other leg.

Spine twist supine. Let's go to the inside of the room first. Inhale. And exhale to pull back through center. And inhale to reach across.

And exhale to pull to center. And inhale over... And exhale to center. And inhale over. And one more time.

Notice that the arms stay still. Try not to differentiate pressure on the arms. That's hard. And center. And inhale.

And hold the center. Reach back, interlock the hands behind the head. Inhale here. Exhale, curl the head and chest up. Pause.

And lower back down. And exhale. Curl the head and chest up. And lower back down. One more time, we hold at the top.

Now hold here, take both legs away from you, inhale. And drag back in three. And inhale. And drag back in two. And inhale.

And drag back in, and hold now the lower body lift. Curl the knees to the chest. And lower the pelvis. Three. And curl the knees to the chest.

And lower the pelvis. And curl the knees to the chest. And lower the pelvis. Reach around with your hands to your knees. Double leg stretch three times, here we go.

Inhale and around. One. And inhale. And two. Inhale into the single leg stretch.

Three, reach. And reach. I'm stopping my knee just past my hip. Two. And three.

Crisscross. Here's one. Rotating towards the bent knee. Two. Two.

Three. Three. Find center, straighten the leg closest to you. Hold, drop the other leg towards the ground. And pull.

Change. Pull, pull, change. Pull, pull. Last time. Both legs up.

Hands back behind the head. Both legs down. And both legs lift one. Both legs down. Both legs lift two.

Last one. Both legs down. As your legs are coming toward you, reach your arms forward. Put your head down, roll over. Nice.

Flex your feet. Separate your legs. And lower. So the exciting news is... The exciting news, Kristi, is, is that we're gonna do that whole sequence two more times.

Okay, I'll listen better this time. (laughs) Bend the knees in. Lift the head and chest, hands to the knees, double leg stretch. Okay. There you go.

And pull down. One. And pull back. If you can remember which leg you started on last time single leg stretch, you switch up. Three.

And three. Pulling the body towards the leg rather than opposite. One, crisscross. Here's three. Three.

Two. Two. One. One, center the body, take the leg closest to you, pull. Pull, switch.

I don't think either one of us remembered. Are we on the same leg? I remembered. Actually. Okay.

I got video. Both legs up. That's true. Hands behind the head. Down.

Kristi, be kind. And lift. Always. Down. And lift.

And one more. As the legs go up, the arms reach forward. We roll over. So that first thing with the bent knees was a little prep for that. The feet go down, and we roll the spine down.

So articulate. Articulate. Pelvis comes down. Knees bend. Last time.

Extra special surprise. Don't get so excited, Kristi. Hands behind your head the whole time. This is the last one. We go out and in.

Now who should be kind? I am being kind. This is your New Year's workout. You wanna work hard, right? Happy new year.

One. Two. Two. Three. Three crossing.

One. One, two. Two, three. Three, straighten that close leg and pull. No twist.

No twist. (crosstalk) I'm gonna keep it still. Three, both legs up. Both legs down. As the legs come up, curl the body to the leg.

One. And down. And two. And last one. Arms reach forward.

Reach over. Touch your feet. Push your feet away from you as you roll down. As the pelvis comes down I want the head to lift. The head to lift.

Head to lift. The arms still reach forward. And we roll out. Roll out. Grab your leg.

Open your legs, lift the spine. Open leg rocker three times. Round, rock. Roll up. Rock.

Roll up. Stay balanced, last one. Rock. Roll up. Stay balanced.

Let go. Lower your legs, and lift up. Sitting up, reach forward with the arms, inhale. Exhale, roll the spine down. Reaching out, inhale.

As you roll back up to, almost just a rebound. Up to three. And again, exhale around. Up and over, drawing the ribs in, drawing the abdominals in. And then as easy as you can, just float, stacking, one more, inhale.

Nice moving energy in the spine. Nice stretch at the bottom. Lift, adding some extension, inhale. Exhale around. Inhale, reach up.

Find your flat back. Exhale, reach back. And around. And two more. Inhale.

And around. And reach out. And around. And roll up. And last one.

Around. And reach out. Hold. Lift the spine all the way up from there. Open the arms out to the side, to the ocean.

Inhale. And into the (mumbles) The back arm reaches back as our front arm reaches forward. We find our extension and unwind. And inhale. And split the arms, dive down.

Arms reach away from each other as we lift the spine in rotation, and then to the center, inhale. And working through the breath. Sometimes letting the breath just provide a rhythm for the exercise enables us to let go a little in our movement. Sometimes think about it like a dance, like a tempo. Last time.

Reach. Lift. Center and inhale. And reach. And lift.

And center, hands behind the head. Spine twist with the legs open, inhale. And a double pull. And center. And lift as you twist.

And center. And so continue to grow taller. As you know, if you ever heard me speak about twisting, I like to pull up on my own head. Reminding myself in the direction that I'm trying to move. And now inhale.

And exhale. Same side leg. Bend over. And inhale. And center.

So if I'm rotating to the left, I'm taking my right elbow towards my right knee, and I'm lifting up. And center, two more, inhale. Twist, exhale. Down. Inhale up.

Exhale center. Inhale, get taller. Exhale, slip up to go over. Lift up. Find center, last time, inhale.

And exhale. And inhale. And exhale. And inhale. And exhale.

And inhale. And exhale. And reach up. And take the arms open and all the way down. Bring the legs together.

So now, Kristi, bend your knees. Bring your knees in. Bring your feet out in front of you. Reach your arms forward. Straighten your legs.

And roll down. Keep the legs exactly where they are. Reach back. And lift up. Reaching for the feet.

Reaching for the feet. And then lift the arms up, and roll down. The arms reach out in front. Take the whole spine back. Keeping the lower spine secure.

If it's too hard, bend your knees. Reach. Try to reach for the feet. Lift the oh! My Christmas legs are a little heavier. (laughter) Than my old legs used to be.

And round down. That was three, you know. I know, this is the end of three. Unh-unh. Okay, come all the way up, Kristi.

We're not gonna complain anymore. That's four. That's 3 1/2 for sure. Bend your knees. Thank you.

Come up on your knees. Sorry. Maybe that's why I couldn't keep my Christmas legs up, because I made them do one more than they were supposed to. See? (crosstalk) Alright, arms out to the side.

I'm gonna inhale. Just the arms stay like an airplane. We're gonna reach over to the side. And then engaging through that stretch, pull yourself up. And inhale, reach over.

And exhale, lift down. And lift up to go over, inhale. And exhale back. And up to go over. And exhale back.

One more time. So this is our side work. We wanna get those sides nice and long, and then contract to come up. Inhale. Exhale, so, Kristi, we're going all the way over to the side, this time on the left.

We go over, the right leg lifts up. Let's take the right hand behind the head. If that doesn't suit you just keep the right arm straight out to the side. Right leg straightens out to the side, lifts nice and high, we lower it down. Lift up.

Three. Down. Use the side of your body to lift. One more. Hold it there, flex your foot and pull forward.

And back. Three. Forward. And back. Two.

Forward and back. (mumbles) We're gonna take the leg down to the back. Lift, leap it forward to the front. Up, make clear the big high hurdle, and back. Maybe the size of a small child.

Touch. Up, around behind, last one. Reach. Around behind. Take the front arm forward, lean slightly on the diagonal, lift that leg to the back.

Go down, lift, three. Down, reaching the opposite arm, that free arm, forward. Holding at the top three circles. One. And two.

And three. And the other way, one. And two. And three. Open back out to the side.

Place that foot on the floor. Slide the other leg, whoa, girl. Back underneath it. And reach up with the body. Make a rainbow.

Look down at that hand. And then come down. And bend the knees, go towards your feet. Hover. And reach up And into the side bend.

Up and over. And back. And bend. And pounce back over that hand. Last one, up and over.

And back. And away from the arm. And over the arm. Left leg comes back underneath us. Right leg comes back underneath us, and we start lifting up as we find our way to center.

Or we lift up to find our way to center, here we go. Pretty sure that was 3 1/2 too. What? Nothing. I couldn't hear you.

3 1/2 too. Well... Just saying. You know. It's the new year and I still can't count.

What do you know? 15 years later. Reach over. That right arm, Kristi, is gonna come to the right side. Push into your thigh as you lift your left arm up and over.

Then just do a little rotation to the right. And then back to the side. Side lift and back to center. Very, very not good (mumbles) inhale. Arm to the side.

Reach up and over, then pull the abdominals into a quarter turn in that direction. Inhale, come back. And exhale, lift up and over to the other side, so the arms do a little windmill here. And exhale, reach. Little different on this variation.

And lift up. And inhale, reach up and over. And exhale rotate. And inhale on one. We'll do one more because it feels so good.

I think that's only three. Is that right, Kristi? I don't know. Only three. Rotate.

And back. I'm sure you're right. And reach. Kristi calls this six. She's crazy.

And reach. In the most loving and supportive way, of course. Here we go, we're going to the right. Reach over, right hand comes down. Left leg comes out.

The left hand behind the head, straight up. We're gonna take the left leg down. And reach out. Three, down. Lift, two.

Down. Hold it there, pull it forward. And back one. Forward. And back two.

Forward. And back three. And now it goes behind us. It leaps up, comes to the front, leaps up, goes to the back. Up.

To the front. Up. To the back. Up. To the front.

As it goes back we let the head go. We reach the left arm forward, lift that leg as high as you can. And three lifts, one with that glute. Two. And three.

Three circles. One. And two. And three. And three circles the other way.

One. And two. And three. The arm comes back, the body comes center. Step down onto the floor.

If you wanna keep the knee on the floor you can modify this movement by doing that. If not, the other leg steps in. We take the body up and over. I guess you're right, I did, didn't I? So this is the half that Kristi was speaking of.

So 3 1/2. And bend. And inhale. And exhale, up and over, looking down. Trying not to topple over there.

And center. And down. Is this three, Kristi? This is three, yeah. I know, there's no way out of 3 1/2.

I'm just giving you grief. Down. And back, right? Yep. Then we have to take the leg down.

And reach up. Bringing the back bottom arm with us. I got out of it a different way, thank you, Kristi, for keeping it real. Take the arms out in front of you. Imagine you have handles, so you're holding two handles in your hands.

Now create another situation where your hands are stuck together with glue. So, now you're gonna have to tear your arms apart. Maybe they're not stuck together with glue. Maybe they have magnets, okay? So we start pulling.

I want you to create a pull energy, but the hands are still trying to come together, like very powerful magnets. So we pull them apart. Go ahead. Pull them apart. Without taking the arms behind you, start to reach the arms all the way out straight through the bottom.

Fair amount of pretty strong energy there. Then let that pull go. Let the tension go out through the fingers. Lift the arms up. Look up, bring the arms up and over.

And then lower the arms down. Here's our pull again. Bend. Drag the knuckles together. Try to keep the knuckles together as you, at the same time, pull the knuckles apart.

The shoulder blades don't squeeze together, they spread. As your arms are out to your side, let that push-pull go. Let the arms be easy. Reach up, extend through the spine. Lift the arms overhead.

Bring the arms down. One more time, bend. Pull the magnets apart. Reach out. It's pretty strong upper back work for me.

And then let that go easy. Lift up. Bring the arms down in front of you. No more magnet hands. But bend the elbows.

Externally rotate the shoulders, so the elbows come forward and the hands pull back. Now the arms are gonna reach, and what I want you to feel is the shoulder blades sliding down the back as the arms reach up and back on the diagonal. The body might come to a little bit. And then reach out to the sides. And bend.

Externally rotate. Let's inhale here. Exhale, stretch over. Inhale. Open wide.

Touch the sides of the room. And exhale, bend one more time. Inhale. Feel the opposition from hands to shoulder blades. The shoulder blades are your focal points.

Squeeze the back of the leg. Maybe let your back go a little further back this time. Reach out to your side. Bring the arms forward. Hold there.

Flex through the heels of the hands. Imagine something pushing, curtains, heavy curtains, steel curtains. Drapery. Press them open. Into a beautiful brand new New year's view.

And now round the spine and reach the arms forward, so we're coming back towards our feet. We're pulling back, stretching the back. Flex through the heels of the hands, use the backs of the legs to press the pelvis forward. Lift up. Arms reach.

Open the chest. Open to a brand new you. And round. And sit back. One more time.

Press open. Invigorating the body. Creating energy, gathering energy. And then lift the arms overhead, extend the spine back. And as the arms just start to open, make them soft.

And gently just bring the body back into an upright position. And enjoy your day.