Class #116

Magic Circle Flow

55 min - Class
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Description

Kristi provides a template for a level 2 Magic Circle class encouraging you to put the desired personality into the exercises. Insightful cues and corrections are offered to the students throughout the flow of the class which allow you to work intensely, or more easily if preferred. The class includes a few high intermediate exercises such as Rollover, Side Bend, and Twist.
What You'll Need: Mat, Magic Circle

About This Video

Mar 12, 2010
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Transcript

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Okay. So we're going to start seated. And what I was going to say is as usual, listen to your body, listen to your mood. Um, y'all, we all come in with different reasons for being here and ultimately that's going to be up to you to channel into, to tap into. Um, if you want to take it a little more easy within the exercises I offer to modify. If you wanna make them a little more advanced, please do. I'm going to kind of just try to flow through and let that be sort of the template for you. And then you can put the personality behind it. Okay. I'll let the train pass and then we'll start. But we will start sitting up so you can start setting yourselves up. So we have the magic circle and I'm mostly gonna use it today as a means of, um, tapping into the powerhouse more so. So it's never about the ring. Um, and if it is, I'll specify it, but for the most part it is not for now.

Just set the ring aside, set your feet so that there sits bones, distance apart. So what that means to me is look at your feet. They're straight ahead, your knees straight up. Hold on, somewhere underneath so you can let the front of the hip joint relax and stack your spine. Shoulders are down in back and we just inhale. This is where you really set the tone and exhale. Let anything go that you don't want to bring into the room. You may find as you do a few of these, you get a little deeper in your breath.

So we now and exhale unconsciously. Let the neck become longer simply by letting the shoulders become heavier and inhale, filling up and exhale, letting go, giving you two more [inaudible], no strain. There's it's more of a sense of support. I hope that you're giving yourself an inhale and exhale. All right, just slide your hands back a little so you have a little room to stretch your arms out. Meaning, um, if were, I was holding really deeply under, I'm now kind of on the outer edges in my legs. So you're still sitting tall. We inhale all year to do is exhale, tuck the pelvis, but don't drop the body at all. Teeny tiny may not even see it, but you might feel it. Hopefully. Inhale, straighten back up. Exhale.

It's the hipbones getting pulled backwards to force a little tuck of the pelvis, creating a mini c curve. Inhale, straightening eyes are straight out on the horizon for now. Collarbones wide. Exhale a kit, a little top and bring it back. Remind us to few more. I'm going to chat for a minute. Remind yourself that when we curve the back, it's never a release or relax or a means to an end. It's the work is curving the back. Make the abdominals work for this to happen, not just gravity.

Now grab onto your ring. You can just continue to hold the legs, but otherwise grab the ring. You're holding it in the heel of your hands. Stretching forward. Inhale, same idea. You're going to pull the hip bones back away from the ring. We'll go further though. Co a little further. Say about halfway. W remember, you can just use your legs. Inhale, start, exhaling, pull the abdominals back. You come forward and for the moment I'd like you to stay curved. Okay, good. Inhale, exhale.

We go back. We're not squeezing the ring at the it's spacing. Inhale and exhale, pulling back, keeping the curve. So the end position is shoulders over, hips low back behind you a bit, and exhale. Inhale, adjusting those shoulders as needed and exhale, pulling back on the abdominals and hold. Keep your curves. Inhale, exhale, roll back so you don't at this point have to bury the head much rather. It's pretty much straight ahead. Good. Nice. Nice tempo. Theresa, I'm following you. Inhale and exhale down, looking almost through your rings. That's it, Emily. Then from here, once you get to your midway, that's far Nepal. Then inhale, lift the arms drift up. Oh, psych. I'll get you to go back down my fault.

Go ahead and we'll go to your low spot. Roll back, roll back. You guys hang out. Just hang out, breathe wherever you want and we'll, we'll wait my, my cue. Go ahead Jim. Go ahead. Good. Stop there everybody again. Inhale, arms up. Exhale, arms down, holding there. Inhale and exhale. Roll back up. Yes. One more of those. If that feels like too much for the hip flexors, you simply put the ring down and hold the back of your legs. Again, we're doing the exact same thing, which for geometry is going to be different.

Inhale, arms go up. Body does not move. Otherwise. Exhale, bring it back down, holding it here for your inhale and exhale. Rolling. [inaudible] straighten your spine on this one, Ian here. This time we're going all the way to the mat. Exhale to roll down on easy, right? You can be strong and easy at the same time. Let your heads come down. You may adjust your feet and for comfort still sits bones, distance, arms straight above your chest. At this point you can put a little resistance on the ring, but make it come from the upper arm. Instead of the hands.

Inhale for a pelvic curl, we start exhaling to hollow the abdominals to roll the spine up. The ring just stays where it is. The collarbone stay wide. Looking for a long line, shoulder to hip. Inhale and exhale as if your chest has been pulled away from the ring and almost feels like a deflation as you roll down, imprinting the spine back into the mat, fully releasing the pelvis going again. Inhale, starting the exhale to roll up. We think I'm reminded right now of the principles of this work and one of the major one is control. Joseph [inaudible] didn't call it [inaudible], it was control g, right? Inhale XL down.

So as you're moving this spine and really this group, grand way, big way, notice the control you're using to keep the arm straight or still and exhale to roll up, articulating through finding the little adjustments that need to happen to make you feel straightened. Long. Inhale and exhale down like you to just imagine if that works for you, that you have all smaller magic circle between and above the knees so that you have some inner thigh connection. One more of those exhale when it's time to roll up deeply curving the spine, find the back of the legs working shoulders are down into the mat. Inhale the snippets pretty small. All you're going to do is exhale and lift one heel, but almost totally unweight the toe, not quite. Inhale, put it down the other side, XL, just lifting the heels of ball of the foot is still on the mat and put it down. Inhale, sorry if I didn't give you a breath pattern.

Exhale to lift the first heel. Inhale, set it down. XLF. If the other heels are, we're just alternating like a mini march and again, we'll do two more. Exhale, lift up, try to feel a little more hamstring, possible glute and last one. Finally, set the feet back flat. Inhale and exhale. We roll the body down all the way. Stretching the arms back overhead, keeping the arms straight. The ring will probably touch the ground if you're on f if you're flat on the mat, but check to make sure the back is flat.

So I'm taking a couple extra seconds here to first of all, release the tailbone if it's tucked back of the mat or back of the ribs on the mat. Here we go. Just bringing the arms up above the chest. On the inhale. Start exhaling. Feel the rib cage close and reach the arms back again. Just a couple. I haven't done enough of this lately. Keeping the ribs together and inhale. Arms back up and exhale, reaching back. Notice when your hands go back the shoulder. Stay away from the ears. The ribs are absolutely still. Keep the arms there.

Stretch your legs out a little further away from you. Okay. It's okay if the toes come up. Just stretch those legs away. Squeeze through the inner thigh even though they're not touching. Still Inhale, bring the arms up. Look through the ring as you bring the ring all the way to your legs. Exhale the liftoff.

Ah, terrific. Okay. Placing the ring in between your heels. Okay. And then stretch your legs all the way out to straight. Um, if you know that it's a stiff spot. Thank you. Paula is a great way to get up. If you know that you have that flat spot in your back, I'm gonna ask you to round your back. I'm sorry to bend your knees now. Okay. So they're going to stay bent throughout. All right. Sitting tall as if you had the ring still in your hands. We inhale, squeeze the ring a little from the upper inner thigh.

We roll back just to the shoulder blades and you. It's all action is happening at the spine. So tuck sooner, Teresa. There you go. There you go. And then just looking forward. Collarbones wide inhale. Exhale, coming back up. Good. This would work with a theraband two. This could work at that point if you want.

It's up to you. The ring kind of works well and exhale down we go. Unfurling the spine and then at this bottom end you're nice and long. Good Jim. Inhale and exhale coming forward. All right, we've got the basics down. Let's warm it up a bit. Inhale, exhale, rolling down. So this is not about the ring, but it's an assistant really inhale and exhaling up.

You notice I'm only giving the hard part, right? I don't even give you the chance to wing yourselves up there and sorta like we did earlier. Get to the shoulder blades and hang out. Just take the arms up, circle them around. I'm exhaling and role. Nice. Emily. And in here, I'll do it again. So now it's no more surprises for at least two reps. Find all of your back. Then email, stretching the shoulders to go around and exhaling up and inhale, exhale down.

So if you find a lot of people find this kind of helps the ring, helps their roll-ups. If it is, it's your lesson, that's your inner thighs could help you more in regular class. All right, gang, we're going the whole way. So if you need to bend the knees or use a theraband, please do. And exhale down. We go. Let your heads touch. We're not circling arms. Just reach back and then right back up. Inhale, arms up, head follows. Exhale to come forward and holding that long line. That's so good, Emily. Really good. Inhale, exhale back. Okay. To me it feels like the arms are plugged into your back.

That's a cue someone taught me some time ago and I like it. It works for me right here. It'd be tempting to reach the shoulders off your back, but instead keep them in a straight inhale and exhale down. Oh good. Yes. It's all about tucking and, and when I say tucking it really mean abdominals, right? This is it to come up.

Okay? From there, sitting yourselves up tall, remove the ring. And for those of you who are used to doing rolling like a ball, happy with rolling like a ball, perhaps board by rolling a ball, which I don't understand. No one here would be, you can take the ring and pulled it just above your, your knees if you've never used the ring before, you can hold the ring and the knees. You can do a Debra's doing, which I like as well, which is between deniers. Be careful of your forehead though. That's why I made that mistake once. And if you are wanting to practice rolling like a ball, you open it up a lot by just rocking back and forth, trying not worrying about landing it. So everybody is just behind their sitz bones or even on their mat to start.

We go inhale, roll back, exhaling up. If you're doing the full rolling like a ball, you pause. If you're not, you can just keep rocking, inhaling back and exhaling. Okay, so inhale that. Go ahead. Nice job. I'm going to stop you guys on this next one. Next time you come up, stay up. All right. Don't look at me. I'll be clear. I think I haven't been clear all day, but we'll see what happens from where you are. Bring the legs in a little closer to you so you're really kind of teetering on the edge of just balance. Only then from that place, try to pull the hip bone or the low back. How the ABS away from the thigh?

Just a smidge. Just a smidge. Don't change your arms though. Don't change a thing. Just contract away because when you let the leg just come in and you don't hold the contraction, you're flattening your back and you'll never have a smooth ride. So from there, now squeeze your butt a lot. Here you go. Don't change that. Inhale, roll back. Keep your butt tight back there. Exhale up. Trust your breath. See Teresa Good again. Inhale takes a little bit of trust, truly, and email that. Keep it at sell. Try not to kick the legs and inhale.

Ah, last one. Holding those legs up from deep in the trunk. Okay, good. Set the feet down just for a moment. I want to just quickly show you the thread, the needle in case in case you haven't seen it in awhile or at all. Um, this is in place of double leg stretch. So the point of the exercise is to just let go and come back. Okay. So you can fit.

All you do is that you're holding the trunk still regular devil leg stretches to reach back or fully out, right? So you have that option. Final option or there's probably more with funnel and I'm going to offer is threading the needle drawing in and out. It's kind of a longer breath cause it, everything takes longer, right? Try to avoid rocking up. So it's just a little variety. If you're not into variety, double leg stretch regular or holding the knees and letting go.

So roll back when you're ready. Bring your legs to tabletop. Eyes are forward. In fact, I'm [inaudible] to do all three. So if you already know the thread, the needle want to go there, you're welcome to. Otherwise, just inhale, reach the arms up, let the legs drift away a little. Make sure your back doesn't change. Exhale, bring it back and inhale, reach. The ring is more for spacing. Exhale that works for you on a challenge at a little.

You can just your edge it out. And X. Hey, if you're doing the short lever position, you just got to go slow to keep on our pace. Inhale, reach and stretch. Trunk doesn't move at all. If you're going to thread the needle, it'll come here. Here's your inhale. Exhale long in Perris. Reach. Inhale, open. Take 'em out and reach China. Exhale and reach. Inner thighs are important here and exhale.

Good. I so, yeah, that's it. And last one here, email. Do not throw the needle. Just bring the ring back. Let your heads go down, right. Taking the ring straight up overhead. Find your tabletop with the legs again. Inhale, rotate to the back of the room. Keeping the knees lined up. It's pretty small. Exhale, drag your legs back to center. Other way. You know, we find that control again, right? And exhale. Inhale. This is where, I mean I'm giving you a template where you can work deeply, intensely or you can kind of be a little more gentle with the body and explore both. We'll work with these exercises. [inaudible] one more time just to finish it a little bit. That's all. All right. From there, we're going to curl back up. At any point, you're welcome to put the ring down and hold your head. Otherwise, just reaching the ring parallel to the shins out in front.

Extend one leg and hold. Squeeze the glutes gang and squeeze the inner thighs together. That's an end change. [inaudible] you want those shoulder blades or the lower tips of the shoulder blades on the mat. So Teresa, either look more forward or take a quick neck break and then come back. Right. You could do it up here if your neck needs a little break and bring both knees in, lower your heads down.

Place the ring right behind your head, so in place of your hands that would normally go there. You take the edge of the ring and place it at the edge of the skull, so where the little shelf occurs, do not place it on your neck. Okay? You don't want to hang out on it. It's just above right before it turns into the main part of the back of the skull. All right, from there, elbows are pointing to the side and you have a little pressure on that ring. Xcel to curl up if you haven't already. Shoulders are down in a way.

So here we are with the hands, right? Good elbows, a little bit wider gym. That's it. And now Chris Cross, go slow this twist to the front of the room. It's Xcel to his hole. That's it. And Change. Hold. Try not to drop through the middle. That's it. And it's really, you turn in your rib cage, you turn in your rib cage and it's not that big or it doesn't appear that big, but it's intense. Notice that when right now as we allow the elbows to be forward a little bit, you can let the shoulders fall a little more. Let's go a little quicker.

Let's go. Ten three, four and five. Six, seven, eight, nine, come back, bent. Knees released the ring and place it between your knees. Situate yourself. If you need to get back in the middle of your mat. I'm going to start this with in feet on the ground. Arms are down by your side. Try for parallel feet. So, um, that won't be as close together as they were before. But Paula, you can bring yours a little closer to each other. Debra, you can bring your feet a little closer to each other and that looks good.

All right, so from there all you're going to do is start exhaling, feel the abdominals, engage lightly, and then squeeze the ring. So there it is. Inhale, allow the ring to release. Don't arch your back. When you inhale, start exhaling. Feel the entire trunk engage and then feed in the ring. That's it. Inhale. So I have the ring comfortably, pretty comfortably above the knee. Try for that if that works for you guys. Look good. If it slips around, you're welcome to adjust it for comfort. Really, you don't want it to be a distraction. Emily, you can drop your ribs off on the exhale. You'll feel it, I think. Yeah.

Yeah. Good, good. Just a couple more. Make it as intense as you want. The legs, follow the ABS. Always keep a little contraction. We go, you're feeding closer. Then pick them up. Adjusting if you need to. Same exercise for just two, just to feel it. Exhale, start, exhaling, and then squeeze. All right. This is a key little trick that we do in blotches here. Working when the back is straight or neutral and the inner thighs and hip flexors are working with the ABS.

We want the abs to do more than the hip flexors. All right. Take your hands behind your head and we'll add in more abdominals, but it all starts the same. Inhale, start. Exhaling. Squeeze the ring and curl up and in. He'll come down, releasing the ring and go again. Exhale. I suppose I'm not fully releasing the ring at any point. You nail down and exhaling up one more like that and exhaling up.

Keep the upper body up and 10 little squeezes here who wants little puffs of air to feel the bones of the back. Gently pressed into the mat and you want to see or at least feel those abdominals working every time or consistently. Now take the ring and place it at your ankles. If your legs are tired, you don't have to use the rings. Stretch the legs all the way up. Curl head, neck, and shoulders up. If you put it back down, either stay here or lower the legs a little bit and we little puffs here, one and two and three. Relaxing the feet a little. It's still more abs than legs. Five and six and seven and eight and nine and 10 pull the ring in.

Take it out from underneath you for a moment. Setting it off to the side. Reach the arms back, overhead, legs, and tabletop. You can always put them on the ground. We're doing the hundred. Here we go. Exhale. Curl right up into it. Extending those legs as if you still had the little magic circle. Inhale, prepare and exhale. Two, three, four, five and in.

Listen to your back, listen to your body. If it starts going in your back, your ways, the legs, okay. You'd rather work the ABS right than the back and inhale and squeeze things that will help you. A little girl glute contraction, you know, and keep energetically reaching. You get three more breaths cycles focusing in on yourself. Yeah. The last breath cycle coming up, finish your inhales when it's two, three, four, five. Draw the legs in. Set the legs down, reach the arms overhead, and then from here we crossed the right leg over the left and I kept my knees bent to do it. I'm just putting weight into my feet to shift onto my left hip, I guess. Not fully, I'm not completely turning over, but just more weight on my left hip. In fact, I don't have any on my right. You might have some. It's okay.

Then stretch the legs away from you so we have a right leg over left. The knees are dropping toward the left. Curl the head, neck and shoulders up, returns overhead, and maybe grab onto the leg, hook the heel, ankles into each other and help yourself up. I know it's not going to be easy. I was just a sneak attack as all that was. I am at the ankle. Did I think me?

That was not at all what I meant. Does that work? And that wouldn't work at all. No wonder it was so hard and cold. So I'm sorry. Ankles. Here we go. Exhale. Roll down. You can hold on. You can or I'm not going all the way. I'm just going to go about, just pass the pelvis. Inhale and exhale up.

Focusing on the abdominals for sure. But the obliques, try to keep your knees more toward me. Your arms are straight ahead. If anything, they're going the other way, Jim. Yep. There you go. I want you to work in across the body. That's it. Teresa, stop. Just before you can't get back up. There you go. There you go. Uh Huh. Uh Huh.

Good. Plenty and yes, zeroing in. Go again. Keep talking. Keep talking. That's about it. And then back up. Don't you think? Good. Give yourself just one more please. When you get to the top, stay at the top and just sit your hands down. We're going to change sides from here cause I need to see what I'm saying. So I am now left ankle over right. So switch your ankles Theresa.

Yup. All right. So if I didn't make it clear, the knees are going one way. Basically the bodies in the center, you may have to even cross over a little bit more opposite where the knees are pointed just to keep your balance. But otherwise you're trying for basically down the center. Here we go. Oh, what you can do is stretch your legs out a little. Could you guys, so we're inhaling at the top. Exhale. Inhale, hold and exhale. Yeah, just work forth yourself. We did about six so keep rolling. Go that way with your arms.

[inaudible] and back up. Ooh, good. There's probably places where the knees have to balance for you, but when you can, I'm with Ya. You can. Yeah, you go. Can we do two more? That's good. Wendy, to have rob working hard thinking. I'm not seeing her, but lovely, lovely, lovely.

Maybe point your knees more towards Wendy. Debra done this last one? Yes. Okay. Next one up. Stay up when you get there. Nice job guys and uncross your legs sitting tall. Bring the ring back just to get you ready for, I want to see Paul A. Little bit spine stretch, so we're sitting up on the sitz bones. Feel free to bend the knees. It won't affect the main point of the exercise, which is your back reaching out. Long check your collarbones right there.

Why'd you not let them come in front? Inhale, apply a little pressure on the ring. That's your inhale. Exhale, start rounding forward. The only reason the ring gets pressed is because your spine is flexing. The ring might get pressed forward. He looks good, Tracy. You can actually reach forward with your spine. There you go. Inhale, hold. Exhale to roll back up.

Keeping pressure on there until the very last moment and release back to upright. Inhale a little pressure on the ring. Make it middle of your hand or heel of the hand. As you go down, the abdominals are pulling back. Allow the body to travel forward a little. The wrinkle kind of get on a diagonal there. Inhale and exhale. Coming back up. Good, slightly faster. Once we get here, you inhale a little pressure. Exhale, rounding down that feels like the rings going to fall over. You might need to just move it forward. Inhale and exhale and inhale. Exhale, feeling the sides of your body, the back of the body.

That's it. Staying down here. This time. Inhale on your exhale. Just a little pulse and to look to see the abdominals pull back. There's no additional strain in the arms. Press and prs, and next one. Just hold. Hold it, hold it, hold. It looks good. Just barely pally. Shoulders back. There you go. Inhale and exhale. Roll back up. Just set the ring down.

Move that away. Let's a good idea. Adding back extension. Inhale as if you have the ring. You've got that imaginary pressure. Exhale to round. You can go tiny bit further than you did before as long as it doesn't come from the shoulders. From here. Let's start lengthening your back from the tailbone through the crown of the head, floating the arms up alongside your ears, long lines, and then exhale, reroute to roll back up.

So we're going from vertical to curve to diagonal. Inhale and exhale. Tuned towards. Yes, yes. And then she starts to lengthen from her. Low back. Everybody's range will be different. You can come a tiny bit higher gym. That's it. Anyhow, get a longer gang and exhale round. Forward and up.

Good. Good. Just to keep checking those shoulders. Inhale right here in front. Exhale. Round forward. Okay. Keep going, Deborah here. Then inhale on the diagonal. Start lengthening your back as you lift the arms.

Yep. I'm gonna just hold you back here. Just keep lifting your chest. Try not to lean back anymore. Just stretch out on that tag and it has that and I'll pick your head up and you're all, that's it. Beautiful. That's a big inhale and re round to come forward and roll back up like you're sitting up against a wall. All right guys, give yourself one more and it ends right there. Perfect. Inhale in the back. Extension started at the tailbone. Let's stay here.

When we get here as hang on Theresa, just lift your head and pull the shoulders way down. Stick your chest out a lot. A lot. A lot. Now from there, exhale, pull those arms back a little bit. Little pulses. One, that's it to make it come from those shoulder blades. Good. Beautiful Debra. Wow. And C and e and slow and 10. Inhale and exhale. Round forward. Nice work. Nice work. Hang out down there.

Hang out down there and enjoy. Good. Roll yourselves up. Closing up the feet again. We've been sitting a while. If you need to bend your knees, you should keep it the work in the middle of the body, not at the front of the hip joint. Starting with your arms in the goalposts so that the wrist is over the elbow.

Yeah. Okay. And do one of these, just sort of chop forward and check that your elbow is at shoulder height and that your shoulders are nowhere near your ears. So keep the elbows probably where they are, but press the shoulders down and the chest up. Fabulous. Gorgeous. Okay. Reopen it. What are we doing right to the front? We're going kind of quick here. [inaudible] center other way.

So really what's happening has nothing to do with the arms. I just wanted them in that good spot. Squeeze through the inner thigh, squeeze the glute a little bit, and definitely lift up off yourself, right? Don't hunker down when you're using the ABS in this way. And exhale. Exhale, center spine twist, and exhale. Exhale, center. Okay, and check that you don't move your feet. So what I'm going to ask of you is that you flex your feet so you can tell that your legs are not moving. Everything's occurring above the waist. Last two here, I'll change it a little bit. Yeah, if you'll come to the front, just slow this down. You're going to rotate.

Inhale, exhale. Extend your arms. Heavy. Shoulderblades light arms. Inhale, float them up. Keep that rotation. Legs don't move. Exhale, bring it down. Inhale. Refold Oh, isn't this fun? Exhale center. I will say it all again if I remember it. You know, rotate. Exhale.

Just expand the arms. Expand the spine to straighten the arms out. Inhale, take the arms up, exhale, take them down and feel your spine get tall or it's um, almost image. Inhale. Rebend the elbows. Exhale, center. Can we do it again? Inhale, rotate, exhale, extend and reach. Don't just drop a, reach your mat. Inhale, the shoulder blades are heavy. As you reach up and exhale, they go back down. Inhale, refold the arms and center. Ha. And inhale, rotate. Exhale, expand. Imagine your shoulder blades coming apart. Arms float up as the shoulders draw down.

And then just go back to where you are. Refilled the elbows and then back to center. Keep it center. Reach the shoulders down, the arms up. Just straight up, straight up, straight up and forward fold. Excellent. Excellent.

Okay. Um, we're going into open line rocker versions. You can do it bent knees with starting with the straight back. You can do the regular, which is why about hip distance. You can put the ring in between your ankles, which I'm going to suggest since we have it, if you're, if you've done an open land rocker a lot or you could do feet together. So what you and I are doing is I think we're going to go start from the ground apology so you don't have to roll through it and you're going to be just back and forth but not landing it.

Okay? Everybody else starts up, place the legs. You gotta be just behind your tailbone before you stretch up inner thighs, never more important. Inhale, roll back, exhale up. Use the back extensors and the inner Zise to hold you up there. I know that ring is heavy. Inhale back, exhale up. It's a case of where you start.

You stay with the exception of that tiny little posterior tuck of the pelvis and, and again, you know, roll back. Good. Remember how you lightly squeeze the glutes? I might've even said squeeze him a lot in rolling like a ball. Do that here. I promise you. We'll help you. You need the support from the other side. That looks really good. Pollock. Just don't kick the legs.

Keep it nice and smooth. All right. What do you need, Emily? What do you need? You need to relax. That's what I think you need. I don't really know. Easy, easy, easy in Habakkuk sensors. Ha, I do know something. One more. When you land at, you can just stay here and then take the ring out. Set it off to the side. Turn to the side facing front, crossing your tough ankle in front. Whichever ankles on top is the one in front. Great. Starting with a mermaid. Just so you know where I'm going. I'm going to go.

Mermaid side bend, twist. Don't you think I'm getting a nod? Do it. She says, okay. So it starts like this. Um, and my, the mermaid is going to be a little different cause I want to be in this position. So you're stretched out. We're basically gonna just do the rotation. So Theresa just move your arm a little more or your hips down a little. I just want you to spread out a bit more. Perfect. Paula, here we go.

Exhale to rotate. Okay. The hips stay where they are. You are encouraging yourself towards square shoulders. You probably won't get there. Fully. Inhale, reopen. There is gonna be a little curve of the back. No problem. Just stay here. Go again. Exhale curve. So the side view, you're getting this gentle, sloping curve of the body. Inhale, open and exhale and inhale. Excellent. And exhale.

I'm going to change this a little bit so we get a different action. We don't do that often. Once you get open, again, if you're not already squeezed through the glutes because now you don't want your, your hips to move at all, open back, exhale, inhale back here. Exhale, go the whole distance, the whole way forward. Inhale, open. I told you it's coming right? So you better be light on that arm and exhale. The reason I'm specifying the glutes is if you don't, it's very easy to move through the hip and we want to keep it nice and still inhaling, open. Exhale, close.

And this time just inhale open. And from here, see if you can slide yourself up. You can give it a push if you want with this position, find your knee or ankle or just, um, you can support the hand in front for a little stretch up. Good, good. And if you, if it suits you, you can bend over a little more. It's up to you. Cool. All right, coming down either to your forearm or to your hand for a side bend, so at the same start position, see except you slide the legs out a little bit more inner thighs in this version or just stay together. The work happening on the bottom side for side bend, you're going to lift up into a side plank. Excellent. Exhale to lift the waist even more as you make like a rainbow, press your hips forward a little Emily. There you go.

And it's just the head that turns. If it's going to inhale, reopen, lengthen, lengthen, lengthen, bend the knees to come down. Good. Inhale and show modification if you want it, uh, either on the forearm or the knee. Inhale up to the side plank. You can do this on the forum to exhale, lift the waist a little more. Inhale to come back to a long line and exhale down. Okay, I'll just do the forearm version. Same thing. Inhale up. You won't go quite as high, but you'll have that lower leg for support.

Then you'll go higher reaching. If you're going to look down, it's at the last moment. Inhale, reopen and down. Going into the twist. If you'd never done the twist or you're doing the side, been on the forum, you're just doing more side bands or holding, holding in a side plank. Otherwise, if you're on your arm and you want to try the twist, you lift up, you reach across the chest as you pike. The hips back is basically straight. Inhale, reopen to the side. T nice and Ben to come down lightly touch. Keep that shoulder ready to go. It's all under here. Inhale, lift. Exhale, pike and reach across the chest. Inhale, reopen and down. Get One more for three. Inhale to lift. Adjust if you need to. Good and under.

Inhale, reopen and down. When we go, just switched to the other side. Top leg over here. We starting with that rotation up. Top legs are in pretty close. Arm opposite the other one and now you know how much you're going to be honest so you don't want to hang out on it. Lift away. Here we go. Inhale, exhale. It says if you get the air, the wind knocked out of you, pull the ABS in. It's a little bit of a Tuck. Beautiful. Mia. Exactly. Yeah. Jimmy, need more space. You need more space. Either the right arm needs to move out or your body moved back. There you go.

Inhale, reopen. There we go. And again, pull the ABS and give it that little tech. Be Dramatic. Why not? And Oh, and here. Oh, kind of take it some space. Yeah. Good, good, good. And exhale, pull. Go ahead. Sorry. Pull. Good, good, good, good, good. Pull this back a little bit. That's it. That's it. It's like a roundness to your low back and tiny bit. Go ahead. I'll catch up. There you go. That and inhale. One more like this. Exhale.

That's it Jim. Exactly. And inhale open. When you get open on this. Next one. Stay there. Squeeze your bum more if you're not already. So you're there. Inhale, right. Exhale, reach back, reach a little further. As you inhale, we're going all the way through. Pull the ABS in and all the way and inhale open. Keep alludes tight so you don't arch your low back. It can be straight, but not arch and exhale. Good.

Making it come more from the spine than it is just the arm if you can, and exhale. So be it. Reopen when ready when you get there. Stay there. We'll come back to the side. Help yourself out to find your stretch. Grab onto that opposite side of legs and stretch. Yes. Good.

So what will you'd love to feel in your body is that you're not looking down and around it. Better to be leaning and be able to look straight ahead or to be able to challenge the stretch to the lat. Somewhat back. Yeah, as long as your low back is okay. All right. Back side bend. Right, so you either on your form, if you did for them on the other side, I would do it on this side to stretch the legs out if I didn't say it. Here we go. Inhale, lift. Exhale. It's from underside. That pushes you up to reach over. Optional looking down. If it makes you twist, don't do it. Inhale Open. Bend the knees and lightly touched down. Nice. Debra, you now exhale up to go over. Inhale back to the t and exhale. Hinge down. Keep going, Deborah. Keep going.

Keep going, keep going. Keep going. Good. Right there. Inhale up. Hit the tee. Don't go quite so high on the initial t. There it is and up and over. Yup. Good. Inhale back and down. One more. If you're slipping, not worth it, right. Rather wipe him off. Sit One out. Go to the forearm. This is it and down. Excellent. Okay. We did the twist, so take a second and by needle towel or anything.

I'll get one. I'm happy to get up and walk around. Emily's got a good idea moving forward. Here we go. Lifting up. If you're ready, take your time. I'll wait for you. Same start. You kind of lift out of the waist and a reach across for twist. Inhale, reopen. Remember if you're on your elbow, it's not a great exercise. It just becomes kind of tweaky in the shoulder, so you'd rather just go back to either, go ahead either the side plank and up or side bend.

Yup. And reopen and down. I'm going to spot you just a little bit on this gym and down. Last one. Guys, when you get down, just stay down. Now as you pick, I'm going to lift your hips up here. Reach across your chest. Go ahead. I got you. Nice. Flat back. You're good. Yeah, you can use that bottom arm. I won't let you go, I promise. There you go. Head down. Head down, head down. Yes. Now reopen. This is the focus right there. Okay.

And reopen and carefully. That makes sense. Good, good. Alright, enough of that, huh? Come back to the facing front again. Let's get you off your arms for a moment and okay. Roll all the way down. When you get there, bend your knees going into the shoulder bridge. So if we're going to use the arms here, you're going to press the back of the arms into the mat. Inhale. Exhale.

Rolling up. Your feet are apart. Just like the original pelvic curl position. We did sitz bones distance. Take a second. Find the back of your legs. I'm sure I can feel myself a little bit more. So what I'm going to ask everybody to do. Inhale, it may not be a big move. Exhale without pressing any higher yet, try it and just tuck or tilt the pelvis so the pubic bone comes closer to the chest and the low back is longer. If that's good. Breathe however you want.

A little tiny bit higher. Maybe from there, pickup your right leg, straight up. Hips don't change in here. Exhale, kicking down on and come up and reached down two and up three and, Huh? Hip Extensions. Three to go. One more time to the top. Keep it up there. Hello. Little higher. Use that bottom leg. Point the toe and change.

You're right back into place. Changing legs and here we go. Exhaling down. Inhale up. Exhale. [inaudible] he mindful that the trunk doesn't move around as you kicked down, Huh? Two more [inaudible] come back up. Keep it there.

Can you bring the pubic bone closer to the sternum or the chest? Lift a little higher. If you've got it in you. Come on. Challenge, challenge, challenge, point the toe, replace it. Inhale and exhale. Down we go. All right, let's do a rollover prep. Then those of you who wish to stay there, you can, but for now, everybody bent knees a little bit. A little bit of knee arms are down. You just did a pelvic curl, so you know what they should feel like. Squeeze your glutes a little. Inhale, exhale, slowly tuck and lift up and down and teeny tiny Theresa. Teeny, tiny, teeny, tiny. No, Zach's good and up and good and up and down.

I wouldn't even expect that much if I weren't here. Right. So it's just a teeny tiny good. Excellent. Good. That's it, Paula, if it feels okay, Wendy is fine. I doubt you're going to want to roll over with a headache. Okay. All right, so then like if you're up for the full rollover, if you don't mind it, we're going to go straight legs. Yep. For it in Hilton 90 XL to roll up and over.

If you don't know it, rather keep up with that prep. That's the hardest part of this. Anyway, inhale, flex, separate, lowering the feet if it's available to you, and exhale, roll down. Good. You're back to the idea of control, right circle and close. Inhale. Exhale up and over. Good. Good Jam. Good. Flexing the fee separated. Relax your legs a little. Keep them straight, but relax them. Don't turn out quite so much.

This is far enough and rolled down. There you go and you pull the abs down and I'll support you exactly. This next one will be the last one point and close. A little more. Less tension in the lower legs. Everybody, here we go. Exhale up to go over. Yes. Inhale, flex and separate.

I'm just going to say don't turn out just to turn your toes to the floor. There you go. That's all. Now you pull the abs away. I'm going to hold your feet here. That's it. That's it. That's when you get down on this last one. Circle the legs. Point close. Hug your knees to your chest.

Did you feel the difference on the last one where you, I'm kind of pulling your feet that way and you pulled your abs this way. It looked really different and I would guess that it's more intense. I don't know. Maybe easier. Okay. Right. Just hugging your legs and close the hold on behind the legs for a moment. [inaudible] take a deep breath and just sort of let go for a second.

I've got more in store for you, but I think I want to throw in a quick stretch for you. Let's put the left foot on the ground. The kneel remain bent. So just set that down. Take the thigh that you're holding now closer to you if that works for you with the foot going toward the ceiling. So yeah, exactly. Just like Emily here. Exactly. If it's available to you, you're going to reach up and grab outside that foot or higher on the ankle.

So they were right. We all on the right leg. Yeah, right hand outside. Right foot. Yeah. And then just so you can even use both, if it works for you and pull straight down. If you can't reach your foot, just grab your ankle and pull straight down. Now exactly as you do that, he may find you need more room. Right? So you can let the knee come just outside the body. Just like you're, yeah. Good, good. And just move it just outside. Good. All right, so I'm looking for a little inner thigh, a little hip, certainly a lot of low back.

If you think to keep your tailbone down as much as possible with your head. There you go. Right. All right. Then slide your hand back to the calf and see about straightening that leg. Yeah, support it somewhere. It can be behind the thigh.

Then if your tailbone is down and you're not feeling enough of a stretch, you would then slide the left leg or the, yeah, the left leg down on the mat. But yeah, you know, we don't always have to make it extreme. Dewey can just feel good and sometimes when we do that, it goes a little deeper. I can't let you leave without doing something with your feet. So a couple of couple of flexing points just to really articulate through the foot, the toes, circle the foot one way, circle the foot the other way, and then we'll change legs. Cool.

So if you're on a call, we started now, it'll be the left leg, just hugging in, close that the opposite knee. The right and you would be bent if you can stay at any one of these spots, right? Otherwise help the foot so it faces the ceiling. Either pull straight down and again, you're going to want to go just outside so you don't punch up at the front of the hip flexor, left-hand, outside, left foot. If you can reach it, you could do both. I kinda like just doing the one side and then pull straight down. Half a happy baby.

It's real tempting to let the, the bat come off the floor here. Don't let that happen. Um, we, we want to just sort of isolate it out. Check the back of your neck too. If you find yourself looking behind you. If you don't have a little pillow or towel nearby, just put your hand behind your head so that you're not over arching that neck. You may find you want to pull the foot more overhead. It's not gonna be big, but just in that direction is all I mean.

And then guide the, uh, need a little closer to center. If you were pulling it way out to the side. And let's head towards straight leg. One of the another concept, not really a principle, but the concept of opposition in glottis is key. So if you're going to stretch your hamstring, you've got to have a basic idea of where it is crossing the knee and the back and also up to the hip. So the hip has to be going one way and the foot the opposite in order to maximize your stretch. If that doesn't do it, straighten out that lower leg, reach it, that gives you opposition.

And then lets flex the foot point, flex point, circle one way big as you can. Let's hear all the snap, crackle and pop. And then the other way. And with that, bend the knee. Hold on somewhere. Not behind the knee but the calf thigh and we'll rock yourself up to come over onto hands and knees. Cool. Alright, we've done a lot on that, the wrist.

So what I'm about to do can be done on the forums. In fact, I'm going to do it on the forums. Everybody down on the forums. I think it can actually be tougher this way too. And that's what I know some of you want. So elbows below, shoulders. Pull the shoulders down your back, your hips are going to be higher for the moment. Extend One foot back. I've curled the toes under. I'm about to put weight on it. So adjust if you want to be on your mat. Now, if I'm actually going to ask you to leave your butt up in the air as it is now for the moment, put the other foot in place and I have them slightly. Okay.

Now tuck your pelvis a little. That means you've pulled your abs in and you've made a little roundness to your back. From there, continue lengthening or rounding. It kinda feels like I'm rounding forward until I come to straight. If you feel so when you'll end up having to move your feet once you almost come into plank, if you feel like you're too top heavy, just walk your feet back a step that looks good, Emily. Okay, hanging out here. If this doesn't feel good today, put one knee down. Okay, lightly and breathed there.

Otherwise you're stretching through the heels, meaning flexed feet. You're stretching through the crown of your head. You're not rounded anymore. You're long and breweries at any point you can take a break. Otherwise it's all take the right leg off and lift it for five one too. Coming from the hip, three foot, still flexed for change legs and reachable to Domino's.

You're helping to support for [inaudible] and five toes down, knees down. Stretch yourselves back just to let the arms lengthen out if that feels good. I know a lot of you have versions of this that you like. I sometimes like to just rest my arms behind or even assist a curve in the spine by holding my heels with the forehead on the ground. Sort of ask yourself, what do you need?

If you need your low back to be stretched and you're comfortably just laying flat on your thighs, you're not getting a little back stretch, you're just getting a break. So you might need to think of tucking the pelvis. All right? Then let's come all the way down onto our forearms again. But let the hips be on the ground this time and the legs fully stretched out. Alright, so we're up. Actually, we're not up as much as we normally are. Let's move the elbows out from underneath this a bit so you have more of your rib touching. That's great.

Then if you are in a bit of a triangle, which a perfect Deborah, I'm you actually inspired me with this. You're in a bit of a triangle. Pull yourself forward and I don't mean literally cause you can't where you are, but it's the action of trying to pull forward that are open your chest and if that's all we do, that's a lot of work right there from this point. Draw the abs in enough that you maybe get close to clearing the hipbones you maybe you won't because we're so far forward. But try to pull the ABS up. Alright. Reach both like so far they have her tiny bit relaxed feet right there.

Right there. Good. We can even go more. I think that'll feel better. All right from there, just lift one leg a tiny bit and again, up same leg. Same like [inaudible] up and up. Okay. I'm trying not to bend the knee. So you want to feel like you're being pulled right out of the hip.

You're looking at him like [inaudible]. One more time. Change legs. If you need to let that one rest you can, but try to keep them barely Hubbard other leg two and three. It's pretty both glutes tight the whole time. Two more. Okay. Little mini break. Let your feet relax.

Lower your body down just a moment. Just a little bit. Yeah. And while you're down here, maybe if your forehead's not on your hands yet, do that. Just take an inhale. Noticing how relaxed your shoulders are on your exhale. Attempt to pull your abdominals off the floor. Not Saying it's going to happen, but that's, I want you to feel what that is without straining. So Emily, that's a, you're taking you even a little more literal than I met. There you go.

Can you take your elbows more forward, Emily? Yeah. Now do it. So you want to feel that lift of the belly, the length of the low back. It almost feels like you're talking. All right. Keep that sense to help yourself back up a little bit. Elbows are still out from underneath you. Adjust your hands for comfort.

Re-Raise the legs as you did before. Palms up. Now taking the right arm for note. As soon as you lifted, I'm going to ask you lifted. It's going to shift you so you want to try to not let that happen, so I'm just going to start to reach the right arm forward. Just straight out in front of me for now. Start to find the opposite leg, right the left leg and raise it as their right arm goes back. Doesn't change. Not at all. Not even a little bit. Come on, come on, come on, come on. Up. Up, up, up, up. Go ahead. Go ahead. Beautiful. Windy and bring the arm down. The leg lowers a bit, but they're both still off the ground. Start with the arm. Okay.

Start the left arm. By the way, I don't know how to say this exactly. I'm going to just exaggerate as I'm reaching my left arm forward. I'm pulling back on this right for him. Just a little just to help me. Then the opposite leg starts to raise too. Not Real high. That's it. That's it. Good.

Think more arm height than leg height and everything down. All right, that's enough of that. Press yourself up, round, back. Curl the toes under so that you're going to stretch those out. Okay. And that's half the reason I'm doing it this way. We want to hook those toes underneath. Exactly. Just like that.

And then push back. Okay. If you can't be in a knee position like this, what you do instead is start from up here. Lift up the heels as high as you can and just go to what knee bend works for you. It's the same thing. I'm just trying to stretch out the bottoms of the feet and like everything you're trying to keep the feet balanced, so don't roll out on those ankles. If you tend to or don't roll in, you can put the ankles together. If that works for you, that's easier. If you can be down, stay down. Right?

And then what you'll do is lift and push down and lift and push down. Letting your body weight be the weight. So there's not much traveling forward and back. If you're in the upright position, it works just the same. Lift and heels down, lift and heels down. Work in those feet. Work in the calves. Same exact thing. Yeah.

Let's go 10 more. We go one and down. If your hips are low, you're not going to get your heels all the way down. If your hips are high, you will most likely, or at least you try harder. Oh goodness. Six Ish. Seven right on. Okay. There's our big last one. Everybody guide the heels toward the floor. As soon as they can get down, they go down. Fold yourselves in half, hanging your head, bend the knees a little, drawing the abdominal. Stay away from the thighs and then straighten the legs.

See if you can get closer to your legs hanging your head that it's not critical that the legs actually get back to straight. Bend them again though. We're trying to get a little closer each time. Exhale, keeping the ribs even closer this time. Getting your face a little closer to the knees than they were without strain. Right. We're getting. We're nearing the end here, so let your body do what it needs to do with this gentle guide toward stretch and again, I, I bent a little and then I straightened on. Basically as I inhale, I'm bending and releasing and I'm going to do two more [inaudible] and as we exhale we see can we fold a little more? If you feel like you're in a really nice forward full and you don't want to release, don't just inhale and maybe on your exhale become a little heavier.

If you want more, you can hug your calves from behind or you can support yourself from the front. Whatever you need. What do you need? Yeah, whatever you do. I would make it feel as though the tension is leaving or the energies returning, whatever that is for you. Carefully release the hands if they were behind you. Bend the knees, everybody start to Tuck the pelvis. Probably good idea at this point to put your hands above your knee or on your thighs and use the arms a little bit for help to roll up all.

Not all the way gang. I'm just going to a really deep sea curve and then I'm going to stick my rear end out and I'm flattening my back and I'm passing through flat to lift my head and my chest to go through a gentle arch and exhale, pull abs and around basically staying in this general area in space in one more. As you go through back extension, and on this one we'll exhale and we will roll up. Once you've rounded, you can generate energy through the feet to straighten your legs. Just straighten your body, taking the arms up and around. Inhale, yeah, and exhale. One more time, bringing it back, finding your support, being glad you took the time anyway, and exhale and I'm glad you took the time. Thank you guys for coming.

Comments

Ellie L
I Love the teaching points
Thank you Ellie!

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