Fast and Strong Mat

Hi there. I've been reading a lot of the posts on the forum under my classes and there was a really enthusiastic response to the math classes and the fast strong one. So today I'm going to do another one along those lines and we are going to be covering a lot of the standing up, sitting down, standing up variations within the workout. So I wanted to just go over this in case you have trouble actually getting to the floor and what can you do about it at home. So if you're standing, if you have a chest of drawers or anything, even as sofa to hang on to, just to practice, this is good for everybody.

Instead of crossing your feet, have your feet just slightly apart. [inaudible] Stat, just hold on to something and see if you can lower yourself all the way down so your hips actually get to the floor and notice that you are probably leaning over a little bit and that is a good thing. And then stand back up. If you don't get to the floor, you just go as low down as you can. So the joints start to learn how to hinge and at the same time your stomach and your lower back start to learn to round and open. This is very different from a gym squat where people send the hips back and are just working from the quads and the glutes.

This is the Palabra is lowering down where you actually open up the lower back and come back up. So you want to work on this a few times. Even if you can't get to the floor practice sitting in a chair like that. So you start and every time challenge yourself to go deeper and deeper and deeper. And if you notice my arms are way forward to help me counterbalance the position because you will need that to help you go down and go up. Once you've played around with that, if you're not getting to the floor yet, get a pile of books and then c or pillows.

If you can get all the way down with your bottom as low as you can and then ship. This is the key point. Shifting onto the feet and standing back up again. Once you comfortable with that, you start to bring the feet closer together because what I'm working on here is even work right and left leg, not having one foot being different from the other, which is a definitely a a very good way to lower down but not functional if you're starting incorporated into fast advance work. So now heels together, going as low as you can and coming up. If you're able to, you go down to the floor. I would need to roll back a little bit and if you notice I've shifted my weight way forward to come up. If you're comfortable with that, you're really on the winning streak because then when we start crossing our legs, it's a similar concept. It's just like variations on a theme.

Cause now again, if you notice my weight is over my legs, I'm mostly asking my legs to do the work and then there we go. Coming back up again. You want to be able to do this with both legs. So starting out, coming to the front of your mat, extend your arms out in front of you with a nice lift through the spine. And then now I'm crossing my feet the other way just because I always like to reverse and double check my joints that I'm really challenging them both evenly with the sense of a string pulling the head up to the ceiling. I'm opening my lumbar spine, lowering down and bringing my hips to the mat.

Uncrossing my legs, lengthening out nice longs arms and very slowly articulating down towards the Mat. Looking to check. Am I dropping one bone at a time down onto the mat for the hundred we'll start in a very interesting way. Starting with the legs to the ceiling, arms to the ceiling. Lift the chest as high up to try to get towards your shin. So how high was I able to cup? Really challenges have to go as high as you can and it stay that high and lower the legs down as far as you're able to go. And then we'll start breathing.

[inaudible]. Exhale. Exhale. I'm taking my right leg to the floor. Exhale, exhale. 15. You tap into three, four, five. Exhale, left tail to the floor. Exhale into three, four, five. Exhale into three, four, five. Exhale into three, four, five.

Exhale into three, four, five. Exhale into three, four, five. Exhale. Last one. Three, four, five. Exhale, really deepen into the powerhouse and slowly lengthening the legs all the way out, all the way up and lengthening my head down on the mat for roll up. Arms will start to the ceiling. Broadening the collarbones and stretching the arms back.

So I'm not letting my back arch, but I'm looking to get the hands to the floor if I can with the armpits along the spine, long the hips, narrow, lifting the head and chest, scooping over and slow articulation down through the spine. Again, lifting up, scooping through, head to knees, slow articulation down. One more time. This way, scoping and going in and rolling back down. And now as it's an advanced workout fast, so a little bit less specific, more aerobic. And if I keep on going, I'll get to the other side of the room. So I think it's time for me to move down again, arms along by the side.

So again, check that the spine is long. Check that your powerhouses engage, check that the innercise are working. And the neck is long and keeping all this working, scooping to lift the legs to the ceiling for roll over. So from here, lifting the hips, flexing and pressing the feet towards the Mat. Very important point here is to push the heels away. Open the legs, press the heels away so there's an extra stretch in the back. And then articulating through the spine.

I am lengthening my hands and my arms away as I bring the legs together. Get hips up, press the heels open, press lift and roll. Long legs, long spine, wrong belly. One more time. This direction, press press and reaching long. I'm actually reaching my toes long here. Now reverse lifting up and pressing the heels. My upper back is starting to be more open, so I'm taking advantage of going higher up between my shoulder blades and starting to really get into the open neck area as well, which I consider very important at the advanced work to really challenge.

Now from here, arms are wide. Hole the ankles. Soften the knees a little bit and take your time rolling there. Giving the back a good stretch, the waist, a good stretch, the hamstrings, a good stretch and the hips. A good stretch floating the left like to the mat just for a moment, pushing the right leg into the hands to get the right hip down there, not take the hands to the mat. And here we go for single leg circle one single leg circle two, three. Every time I'm checking that my hips are stable.

Five and also keeping my neck long as there's a tendency when the lower body's working for the upper body to start to shortened four and five and scissoring the legs in our position. So again, I'm pressing the left leg into my hand, away from the trunk to get the left hip long. And then giving the leg a stretch at the range of movement. I'm ready for extending the ball of the foot up, anchoring the powerhouse. And here we go. One Circle, two circle three, circle four, circle five, reversing it. Circle one, circle two, circle three, circle four, circle five floating the lakes Dow rolling up and popping the bottom sort of forward because I'm going to start to play now. So holding on. Nice scoop through the Navel for rolling like a ball. Rolling back, rolling up in balance.

The next one I will be standing up and down. Rolling like the ball coming up to balance, rolling back, standing up, arms to the ceiling. Rolling back, rolling up. That's why it's good to know how to sit down and stand up because it's almost becomes vertical mat versus horizontal mat and you never know what would happen then. And so sitting down rolling back for single leg stretches and one and one and two and two and three and three and four and four and five and five both legs in hips up coming to standing position up.

Nice long trunk and one and one and two woopsie daisy and two. A whole aspect of balance and coordination has just changed and four and four and five and five scoop the navel and roll back. Roll up and roll down for double leg stretches. Stretch, hold, hold. Hold and stretch, hold, hold, hold. And to stretch, hold, hold, hold. And three. Inhale, four.

Inhale and five and standing up right away and scoop and hollow out and scoop and hollow out. If you can go down to a squat power to you and up and all the way down with far down as you can and up. One more time and up and scooping the Navel, rolling back and coming up and down. Slow in preparation for scissors and one, one, one, one, two, two, two, two, three, three, three, three, four, four, four, four, pointing the feet again. Five, five, six, six, seven, seven, eight, eight. [inaudible] and again, rolling like a ball once and then coming up to standing and standing up and one, one, one, one. Whoa, whoa.

Two, two, two, two, three, three, three, three. So what am I doing here? I'm trying to find the center line of my body right in the center of my heels. Keep the connection cause is a very slight shift, right to left every time and stay balanced. So very nice challenge for the balance and control part.

Definitely leaves room for mastery, which makes it so much more fun in my mind to work out now. Rolling down, rolling down, rolling down for lower lift. So Nice. Long legs. Strong powerhouse. Lowering the legs, coming up, lowering the legs, coming up lower, lower, lower. Hold it and lift. Two more times. Deepening into the power powerhouse and up. One more time. Long Trunk, long stomach and up. And again, rolling like a ball twice and then standing up and standing up. You're probably wondering what's this one going to be?

So now instead of the legs, lowering the trunk comes to 90 degrees and up and scooping the neighbor, but keeping from the shoulder blades to the hips. Along plank with a stomach supporting the back and three and up and four and up. One more time. Lengthening out and up. And this time, crossing the elbows, sitting down on the mat twice. Rolling like a ball again. Okay. Rolling down with the feet in the air.

Hands behind the head for criss-cross, twisting to the right, twisting to the left and the right and the left and the right and the left. And again, three times rolling like a ball. Second time, third time I'm to stand up. So even if at the beginning you were not able to stand up, maybe it stopped, it kicks in. It's a little bit of a trick. So here, one and one and two. So from my waist down, I'm attempting to stay steady and then twist around the waist and around the standing, like deepening into that powerhouse.

Slow going down to the mat, popping the bottom back for spine, stretch forward scoping and lowering and up. As we're working more robotically, hand on the floor, go a little bit deeper and lift the arms up. Go a little bit deeper to the hand stop. So two more just to get the juice running. If it's advanced, you already have strong muscle tone, you have strong control of your body. So now just enjoy feeling this movement starting to come in and from here just checking behind me up to open leg Drucker and rolling back, rolling up, balancing, rolling back, rolling up, balancing, rolling back and legs together. The same way, finding that fluidic feeling in the spine.

There's always subtle adjustments that are going on and for me as I tend to be flexible, I have to keep making sure I'm working symmetrically. So it's different for each of us. Frankly, it's different day to day, which is what makes it so interesting. And then walking down for corkscrews, so my hands are on the map. I will roll high up on the shoulders first time rolling down to the waist, right hip, down, left hip, waist lifts and up now rolling down towards the base of the ribs. Then I'd go a deeper sickle right down all the way up to the sides of the ribs and up in the last one is the highest one.

Starting to twist right from the armpit, rolling down around and lifting and from the armpit rolling down around, coming all the way up high and then slowly, slowly articulating down, lengthening the hips down, rolling all the way, lowering the legs to the mat. Taking a moment to find that central line of the spine, the narrowness of the muscles around it, and with the arms thing right by the ears. Lifting the head and peeling up on the side. Twisting to the right. Now I'm going to stretch, stretch, stretch, going deeper, coming back up, twisting, stretching down and reach. Every time the arm goes behind and reaching forward.

Now I'm trying to get my ear to the side of the leg. Twist and stretch and stretch and stretch. Go deeper, deeper, deeper, deeper, deeper. Come back up, twist to the other side. Reach out and stretch and stretch. Last one ear towards the side of the knee and come all the way back up and slowly I'm articulating down again, making sure that my spine is both flexible and evenly working and coordinating.

So from here, rolling onto the stomach and starting out with neck Paul. So I have a nice broad placement. My hands are quite close to my ears. It's even find, put the hands on the floor. If you're on an elevated mat, I'll put them on the floor just to get the concept that the first time doesn't really have to lift very far. It really depends upon how much mobility is in your upper back and middle back and lower back. So nice lift. Come back down. Now adding into this, the hands a little closer coming up. Again, if your back is stiff or you bring the hands further out. So from here the shoulders are down and to go into a neck pool, that next stretch, I should say I'm twisting all the way to the right, looking at my right ankle, allowing the right shoulder to go back a little bit, left shoulder, four time, going a little bit out of alignment to get more of a stretch in the neck.

And then I'm twisting and looking in the opposite direction. How far can I go around? I'm allowing the shoulders to go, come back to the center and then reversing it. Looking way out and around. So there's a real strong, lovely stretch in the side of the neck, really low in lifting up a little bit further. So my stomach is getting a stretch now, lowering down and then bringing the hands by the ears coming up again. So the shoulders are coming back, the legs along.

And then I'm starting to lift up and I'm already checking is my back working. I might actually lifting from my back muscles, not just from my arm. So going right into swan dye from here long and up and up and up and up. Lower down hands come into karate chop, lift the chest, slide the hands in for single leg kicks, wrapping the hands into fists and pressing the knuckles together. Big lift through the chest. And here we go. Kick, kick, kick, kick. I'm checking every time that my hips are stable, my stomach is wrong and I'm actually looking to stretch out my quads.

And just to a minute coming up again, bending the right foot in. So my left hand is coming down. I'm reaching back and giving this leg a stretch. So often when the hamstrings are tight, it's because the quad actually and hip flexes are tight. So this is, and then the hamstrings can contract and release. So often the secret to releasing one part of the body is in the opposite part.

So I always check hamstring squad, hamstring squad, and now I've given them a sense stretch. So double leg kick. So hands behind the back, they can be by the bottom, the waist, or as high up the back as you can possibly get them to go. Then shoulders down and press the elbows down. So this can be quite interesting. Stretch into the deltoid and a very profound shift for the shoulder girdle for the better. So for me, a hips down kick, kick, kick.

I will keep my knees in the air and lift the chest. Other side, kick, kick, kick and stretch for side kick, kick, kick and stretch. Other side kick, kick, kick and stretch. For side kick, kick, kick and stretch. And last one, quick kick, kick and stretch. And sitting back into the heels, stretching your back out. I'm actually curling my toes under me to open up the arch of the foot.

So from here, rolling up, I'm making sure all five toes are on the mat. The heal the pressed together and getting a good stretch in your my big toe joint and lifting up and just get an extra stretch, turning the pounds inside out and lifting up. So I'm getting a nice lift through the spine, but keeping the shoulder the ribs back a little bit. Then coming forward and just increase the work into the feet slightly. I'm allowing the heels to go apart by big toe joints are still touching and I make sure that the little toes are curled Ander sitting back again. So they get bent to cause.

This joint of the toes really doesn't get a lot of work very often. And one more time seeing if I can get a long flat back. So from my tail up to my occipital bone, I'm looking to get length and then relax the ribs. So there's a lot of lift through the central Central Line of the spine, undoing the feet just to stretch the back in an opposite direction. I'm grabbing the heels of my feet, curling my head in and down and lifting my bottom up.

So from here, the shoulders lift and I rock forward and up, lifting the belly up into the sacred and lifting the ribs up from the front. Open up the back ribs. It's a huge stretch in the spine. That actually feels delicious. So from here, sitting back for neck pull with the feet long and hip with the part lengthening up. This back part of the neck is such a profound area that can be unraveled. So nice lift up through there. As I bend my Chin I think of pressing back there and curling down, coming back up. So my back is pretty loose now you should be feeling that a lot.

There's a lot more open and coming in. Long, long, long back maybe rolled out. Roll up again. I feel like moving off my mat. So curl down, rounding the back, unraveling the back right here. It's a place where the neck gets nice traction. I try and keep the pressure back with my neck and see if it can go all the way to the mat. Just about one more time.

Rolling up Julio lifting way up and slowly long back. Long Spine. Rolling all the way down and then hands by the sides, bending the knees up for bridge posts. So starting with the feet under the knees and the Fita, he put the part rolling the hip subs who I'm in a long plank pose and rolling down, rolling up again and rolling down. Now this time I'm rolling up and doing an archival variation. I'm going to place my hands as though I'm carrying a tray right at the top of the sacrum. So it's close to kind of prey. The pell, the top of the pelvis is the waist and it's providing a little shelf that keeps the back in an extension shape and the sacrum is press down, even though I'm blocking it a bit. Now as you can see, my shoulders are up, so I'm pressing with the legs to get the shoulders back down.

So there's a nice shelf like support for the sake room and I'm reaching with my tail towards my heels. So there's a roundness in the back, bending the right knee up. And as I extend out I let the hip flexor open. So it's a big stretch in the front of the leg. And then again lifting up and stretching down. One more time like this, lifting up and stretching down and bending back. Again, checking that my shoulders are weighted so as my heel reaches away I'm pressing towards my shoulders lightly with my balancing foot.

So what this is doing is giving a beautiful opening into the hip flexor. It's kind of like what you do when you work on your spine corrector with some of the bicycle works for now, reversing the movement stretching out. So we're really taking this movement and changing the design of it from more of a plank like position into a back extension position. And there is definitely a shift that happens in the spine. Now I'm rolling down, rolling down, rolling down to flat and as the back has now been really opened up, I'm going to go into a high wheel to placing the hands underneath the shoulders, scooping the tail and lifting out up. So I'm in a long plank.

First movement will be to pop onto the head, make sure my shoulders rolled back, press with my legs and lift way up. So usually by the time a person can get all those parts in place, they can lift up quite easily. Sometimes it takes some work. Lift your head to lower back down. One more time. I'm actually trying to think if you have trouble getting up, if having yourself a little bit higher, if you can have a way to not have such a bend with the risks when the risks are less bed, the upper back and shoulders open more easily. So if you're in a studio and you have a bed like this, you may be surprised that it's much easier to go up when they're in this alignment than when your hands I hear.

And it allows for the chest to open and then lowering back dow a few more. Rolling like a ball. Can't forget the theme of the day and now standing up just to make sure I haven't forgotten how to do this and to keep the mind flexible. I now going into open like Drucker again, rolling back, rolling up like together, rolling back, rolling up. And this time rolling back, bending the knees and standing up and standing up and sitting back down on the mat, rolling down and now going into shoulder stand from here, long legs and lifting the hips up. So supporting the pelvis similarly a little bit higher up by the waist, checking the shoulders, a wide first version. I'm keeping my pelvis quiet as I do my scissors.

So all I'm doing is working from the hip sock joint and keeping the spine steady. More archival version that Ramana used to have us do with supporting the back this way. So when we took the leg back, if you notice I'm letting my pelvis open and going into a bigger split and she used to expect us to take the back leg towards the floor. So it's a different dynamic and different priority. Definitely more advanced, but also extremely liberating on the lower back when it's ready to be allowed to move once it's been stabilized. And I'll reverse. Let's see if I can get to the mat and get to the mat.

That one doesn't work as well. This one's opening out except I didn't feel the mat. Where's the mat? There it is. One more time with the mat. Yes. It doesn't matter if you get to the mat or not actually, and lowering down, lowering down, lowering Dow, going right into a fast Jacknife, so 45 45 roll up, 45 45 forward, up, down, out, forward, up, down, out and lower than I thought that looked like a jackknife row. Up to a sitting position. Going into the sidekicks lying on the side and forward, forward, back, back, forward, forward, back, back, forward, forward, back, back, right into bicycle.

Extending the thigh long, trying to reach from that hip flexor out and keeping the need down to the back. The tendency is for that knee to lift up. And one last time, stretch, stretch, stretch and reversing it to the back and stretching out and reaching out to all I'm focusing on once I'm getting into these bigger movements of the leg is cannot let go of that grippy feeling in the front of the hip and really contract my glute. That's what allows the leg to swing back from a place of freedom going into a stretch. So here we are. The stomach is long. Can I release the hip flexor right in here when you discover how not to hold it, but to allow it to elongate the whole way the leg hangs in, the socket become so much more free and, and um, expansive. Then bring your leg in front, check that it's coming right to the chest and that the knee is knocked down.

Very common mistakes of this hip as long and stretch the leg out in opposition and going right into hot potato. Kicking up. One, two, three, four, five, up. One, two, three, four, five, up. One, two, three, four. Up. One, two, three, four. Up. One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, one, two, the fun part and one and one and two and two and three and three and legs together. Lift and down lakes together. Lift and arm. Long and legs and down and lakes and down and other hard one, legs and arm and down. Legs and arm. Hold it, hold it. Hold it up. Up, up, up, up and onto the belly. And little beats. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 and scooping. Stretching back, laying, thinning out, allowing the ball to release. On other side.

I just have to adjust my mic because if it will be on my side as I lie on my side, I'm in trouble. And so are you. So let's see what I can do here. So with my lying now on the opposite side, the right side, in my case, the legs are on a diagonal, lifting up, starting with the forward and back pendulum. Here we go. Forward, forward, back, back, forward, forward, back, forward, forward, back, back again. What am I focusing on to the back? Trying to get that joint to let go of. It's grippy pattern going into the bicycle, pressing back, keeping the knee in line with the hip, not letting it go up and extending, trying to get that hip to release in the front and the buttock to tighten in the back so that there's space forward extending and reaching long. One more time, extending, reaching long, reversing it back and up and back and up and back and up.

[inaudible] now holding the foot and extending it first in and then extending it out. Looking to get that hip flexor to open, bending the knee in towards the chest. Then extending the leg, extending the leg, extending and down, coming to the sidekicks, hot potato and one, two, four, five. One, two, three, four, five up. One, two, three, four, up. One, two, three, four, one, two, three, up. One, two, three. Up. One, two, up, one, two, up and here. One Up, one, up, two, up, two, up, three, up, three. Up and together, lifting both legs, lowering down, lifting both legs, checking at the time, stack, arm down, lifting and down and lifting and down. Arms and legs together and down and lift. And one and two and three and four and five. Keeping the legs in the air and lowering down for rock kings, grabbing the feet, anchoring the sacred down. Here we go again. This is another place to check. Can I get those hip flexors to open?

This is very much an advance cue from my perspective. This is when the body's pretty sophisticated and the joints are both very stable and strong and varied. They can do a lot of movements. So here we go. One, two, three, lifting the hips and then lifting the head and the chest. Again, one, two, three. As I'm pulling back and up with the feet, I'm using it to open the shoulders in the chest. Last one, going as high as I can and going for the rock. I knowing Dao, sitting back into the heels. Nice.

Long stretch, deepening through the powerhouse. Coming back on my back. I'm teaser. Let me just adjust again. Okay, so lying down, long legs, long arms calming up to Teaser, arms out Loring, down and up, out and down and up. Out, rolling like a ball. Back to teaser. Rolling like a ball back to teaser.

Rolling like a blow back to teaser. Last one. Rolling like a ball and standing up again. Standing up, lowering down again. Up to teaser and then lowering. Lowering, lowering and down onto the stomach. The smell. So from here, reaching the arms and the legs out. Just lift the right arm and the left leg.

How high can you go down this side? Really lift up hip flexor has to open shoulder and upper back has open down for side and other side, both arms and legs at the same time and big swimming movement. Really make them the limbs work. I know we're down again, stretching out nice and long. Rolling up and coming to the side for sidekicks.

So I'm checking in my shoulders, stacked and lifting the leg and lifting the like and lifting the leg in five circles. Reversing it. One, two. I'm constantly checking that I'm still weighted into my arm. Lifting up, coming up. Other side, long limbs, long stomach and again, one and two and three and four. Lifting up and circle. Two, three, four, five. Reversing. One, two, three, four, five. Lifting. Coming up. I'm going down four, right, so use this to just take a lovely stretch into the side. Ribs. Yes, we have alignment, yes, have technique and it's just so nice to feel the ribs open and feel a fluidic flow happening. Now from here up again and other side and stretch and open and stretch.

You can bend the elbow if it helps you get a little bit deeper into the side body, which is the real goal of this. And stretch and stretch the legs out. So sitting up nice and tall, rolling the shoulders back so you have a nice open chest. The hands are quite close to the hips the first time. Just bend.

So how high can the chest come with the shoulders rolled out and then let the head go back just to release the neck, lift the chest and the hips and come down. Same thing if it's too much with the risk, enhance it going forward to run the hands out slightly. So again, broad chest and shoulders, that's the trick because most of the time people will close me included. So broad, chest and shoulders collarbones wide. And then lift the hips up and just hold for a minute. Hold for a minute. Hold for a minute. Coming back down. One more time.

Lifting up and now right leg goes up and left leg goes up and rightly goes up and left leg goes up. One more time. I'm trying to keep my hips as high as I can and my chest is open as I can. Lowering down and legs come up. Whoa. Teaser roll down from here. Come up, teaser, roll down. Come up. Oops. Teaser into rolling like a ball.

I want to make sure it not falling off here and on. The fifth one's coming to a standing position and three and four last one, and crossing and coming up, turning around and stepping the legs. Why? For the an old version of the spine, stretch forward to the legs are slightly turned out. We take the arms up over the head and double pow bounce between the legs. So pulse, pulse and up.

Strong and pulse. Pulse and up. Strong pulse, pulse and up. Strong and pulse. Pulse and up and pulse. Pulse and up. Strong, long spine, strong powerhouse. Lift these heels up.

Twist website. I'm not that good with this one. Twist. Now the foot, the left leg is bending, the right leg stays stretch, and I'm ringing my lungs that my ribs out. Coming back up, lifting the heels, twisting to the other side, and stretching out again. So a lot of coordination, a lot of balance. If it's too much to lift the heels right away, lower the heels down, pull the inner thighs together and the hips together.

Then see if you can lift your heels. Then swivel. Lower the front leg now and twist down. Coming back up. Swivel so you lower. This is what I do anyway. Lift, swivel, lower the front leg and stretch down and come back up and try and balance with the legs wide. Lower the heels, bring the legs together and chest expansion, lifting up, lowering down. Can I keep my yields together so I have to really work those innercise in my, in my case, my ankles have a tendency to fly all over the place.

Now you know everything about me and out and rolling down, scooping the naval, rolling down three circles, reversing the circles, rolling back up, bringing the arms down and just taking a moment, feeling my center, feeling the lift through the middle of the body. Feeling Open. I'm sweating. I really enjoyed this. I hope you did too. Thank you very much.