Partner Mat Class

My name is Kathy Corey and today's class is called a partners PyLadies. This work. And I came from the original studio and I was taught most of these exercises by master teacher Kathy Grant. And her work also came from Corolla tree air crew Corolla tree, or actually wrote a book exercise, what it is, what it does. And many of these exercises are in this book and the only thing that you probably want to know about the book is that, um, it was done for children and Wa you'll understand why as we are experiencing this because it really is a fun class and it brings out the child in us all.

I often lose control of the class if that happens so bad, we'll just go ahead and, and continue. And, um, uh, the other thing that I like about this so much is that, you know, we're often talking about using tools in class. So we're using reformers and all the other pieces of equipment. Well here you have a live piece of equipment that you need to work with so that if in fact and you are to active the pushy person or to has, have the laid back person, you need to find that balance, that harmony that's coming so that there's equal weight, equal pressure from both of the party. So that it is um, a synergy of movement between two people and the exercise. At least we hope so. We're going to start with the a hundred.

So go ahead on the mats and what the idea here is you're going to come and place the soles of your feet together. So you'll bend your knees and bring your feet up. You couldn't lie down on your back and lift your feet now. Good. So you're gonna start with your knees bent and you might want to be a little bit closer so you're almost at right angles.

Great. So how would, what we are going to do here is we'll begin the a hundred in this position and then we will go and extend in straight and the legs. Once again, this is about finding that placement in the body so that you are going to be working from the deep core muscles all the way through the movements. Let's go ahead and slide the arms down and they'll lift the arms. Let them float up off of the mat, lift the upper body from the chest so that the whole upper body is working. And now let's begin. Five inhales, five x sales. One, two, three, four, five. Exhale, one, two, three, four, five. Inhale, one, two, three, four, five. Exhale, one, two, three, four, five. Press into one of those feet, a little more to lift yourselves up a little higher. There you go. One, two, three, four, fun. And exhale. One, two, three. Now let's begin to straighten your legs and utilize one against the other.

And now press into those feet. Lift a little bit higher and inhale and exhale. Very nice. And inhale and exhale, Ben to calm down. So do you feel how much more you can really get in that lifted that upper body, the along gay Shin of the um, uh, abdominals while we are working with the resistance. So it takes the exercise from an open chain into a closed chain movement and now you might want to move in just a little closer.

I should also mention it's really good partner wise to have partners that are about the same height. It doesn't really work with somebody who's really tall and somebody is not as tall, shall we say. We won't use the word short. Let's bring the feet together again. This time the legs are going to be hip distance apart. This is going to be our single leg stretch. Well, let's begin with the head down and let's take one leg extends as the other leg bins. There it is and change.

Good, and inhale and exhale. Beautiful. Inhale and exhale. Now lift the upper body and inhale. Beautiful, and exhale and inhale. Great, and exhale. Inhale and exhale. And one more time. Inhale and exhale. Take a nice deep breath. Bend both knees and lie down onto your mat.

Double leg stretch is next. Don't be putting those feet down. We've got the best people right up here. Then they're not going to relax for a moment. All right. So what we want to do now is both legs are going to come in, both legs are going to go out and, and we will be reaching. So as you come up and straighten your legs, your upper body will lift good.

And now as you are going to come in, bring the arms up and back, beautiful and up and over x good work. And use your breath and out. Good lift. Press it up and back. Stretch it long and lift. Press up and back to come down. Good.

Lift and up and reach back and down and lift and come up and reach it back. And again, the arms can either go straight up or circle around. Either one of those positions is fine. And as you come back, really get up, go to hug your knees and get a little extra stretch, beautiful and good. And they'll lie back on to the Mat. Crisscross feed again. Does it feel good? And again, are you feeling a synergy between one another as you're doing this so that you're really beginning to become, uh, together with your partner hands go behind the head.

And as one leg comes in, you turn and twist the body. Inhale and exhale. Beautiful. Inhale and exhale. Use Your partner so you can lift and twist just a little bit more, a little bit deeper, a little higher. You look great. Inhale and exhale.

Inhale and exhale. Fantastic. And inhale and exhale. One more time. Turn and open from the chest. Keep the elbows wide into the center and lift up, up, up, and then roll yourself down to the mat. You look right. How are you doing? Good. Good. It's fun, isn't it?

Okay. Now we're going to get serious going to have you straighten your legs and if you need to move back a little bit because again, okay. And are your legs. Can you straighten? Good. There you go. Alright, beautiful. Yeah, she's good. Head is down. Arms down at your sides. One person stays down. So let's have everybody on this side of the room go up. Everybody on this side of the room, you are equipment, so you are your anchor and that's all you're going to do for the moment.

You are going to do the bridge and you're going to curl yourself up one vertebra at a time. Utilize that other person from your tailbone. Come on up. There it is. Beautiful. And now open from the throat and roll yourself down one vertebra at a time and then we change sides. Roll yourself up one vertebra at a time. Looks Great and roll down. Open from the throat.

Very nice and come down. And then we switch and up. Very nice. Good work. You might want to be in just a little bit more. Are you feeling good on this? [inaudible] there you go. And opposites up.

Beautiful and down Sheldon. Yeah. Now if you're feeling secure and it was equal on both sides, both together and anchor and begin to roll and begin to roll. Beautiful. That looks great. And rolling down one vertebra at a time. Very, very nice.

Use your breath and roll yourself up. Slowly. Articulate the spine. Fantastic. And then come down one vertebra at a time. You have to pay attention to your partners. Roll it up. One Vertebra at a time. Ready? Ah, up and down.

She went to come in just a little bit. Yes. Okay. You want to come in a little bit closer? Yeah, I had them move in and again, so that the feet are really secure because roll it up. Straighten, straighten in, row straightening wrong. All right. Okay. Now if you can and you feel secure, you take one leg and it's a single leg walk.

Here we go. Move in a little bit. Roll it up. There it is. Beautiful. If you need you late, you got it. Place you could you beautiful and together leg walk straight and beautiful and together, right leg, good and together secure. Vic, you look right and come back and together and roll this spine down. How was that was good. Okay, well then I told you I lose control very quickly. So yes, you need to be in an FCE too. When you are up, you really have the feet touching and you feel secure again.

It's a nice close chain. You did so well on that. Let's roll up and do single leg stretch. Now if you need to, you can place your hands on behind your back. So yes, in the air on air, yes it'd be, but if you want, you can come up, place your hands under your back so you're supporting your back and then it's single leg stretch that one, that one did you? I said yeah, I think that's what I said, but in any case it's great. Alright and roll it. Start with your leg straight. So you need, and so he's going to single leg stretch. So you're going to bend and van good. And then if you need to support your spine and then you need to be closer. Christie, feel comfortable closer. Pull it in. Pull it out.

No, no, they're both up and calm down. Alright, try it again a little bit, even a little closer. Don't be afraid of your partner. There you go. A little closer. A little closer. Hey [inaudible]. Beautiful. Beautiful.

There you go. And roll down. [inaudible] so this may be the only class that has never made it onto [inaudible] any less. Now we'll bring our bodies closer together and you're going to bend your knees. We're going to do rolling like a ball. So I want you to sit up kind of close and round your back and then lift your legs so that once again, your feet are going to touch.

So you're going to come up a little. You have to be closer. Don't be afraid of your partners. We are going to get to know each other really, really well. Anchor. There you go. So can you sit back a little more? There you go. Okay. You got it. No, just the, just the ball of the foot. Let's begin. Roll back and roll up and touch your feet. Remember we keep the body design. Wow. Do your book.

Are your feet touching in the same place? Have you moved forward? Have you moved back? Yes. Are you using momentum? Are you using your size? What are you using? Okay. And stop now. That was okay, but you were cheating.

So I want you to repeat it with your eyes closed. So you have to start together. Be One with your partners and get ready. And I will direct it. Ready and rural touch.

Nice. Roll touch. This will tell you leave. Are you rolling to one side? Are you rolling to the opposite? Very nice. Roland touch. Hmm. Touch and come up. Alright, so again, what is this information giving you? We were supposed to maintain that rolling one vertebrae at a time. If in fact you're rolling back, you're using your shoulders.

If you're rolling forward, you're using your quadriceps. If you're rolling to the right, you're using your right dominant side. If you're rolling to the left, you are using your left dominant side. So again, this is great information as to are we doing the movement as it is net to be done. So now let's turn and have you sit back to back. We're going to go and your very feet will be just a little bit wider than your hips. Beautiful. And flex the feet. Lovely.

Bring your arms out to the sides. Do we need more room? We're going to, I'm going to have you place you. So one person's going to go on top and the other person's gonna go on the bottom. Yes. [inaudible] and Ben, can you rap? Yes, that would be fine. Beautiful. And now spine twist, lengthen up and twist.

Do you see your partner? Is helping you, so where you're not allowing the body to lean forward or back. And the spine twist is coming due rectally from twisting the spine, rotating the rib cage. So we're getting that nice stabilization through the pelvis and beautiful now changed. So who it was on top goes on the bottom and again and churn and very nice and churn it and reach beautiful and rich. Using your breath in lengthen upward. Very nice.

Now spine stretch forward. So what we are going to do here is once again we have one person hands on top and the other on the bottom. Beautiful Inhale, upward length and nice and long. And the one person is going to round the body forward, bringing navel to spine. The other person is going to stretch back where it's stretched over. Do you to fall in, take a breath, good and come up through the center and reverse set one person forward and one person to the back and up. Very nice. And again, reaching all the way through the movement.

Nice and a long game in this in so that the movement is being led so that as you're going backwards, you're not collapsing onto the body and as you're going forward you're thinking about rounding over a giant ball so that you're really getting the movement to stretch and to where now change the hand position and let's repeat sitting tall and as if you're rounding over that giant ball. So you're using the abdominal muscles lightly pulling inward and upward. The back muscles are going to stretch. The chest opens and we opened through the shoulder girdle. You look wonderful. I bet it feels good too. And just a few more.

Lengthening the movement all the way through and take it over and come up and over. Last one, last one and over. Very nice and calm. That's a nice break, isn't it? It really feels good on the body as well. Now we are going to have you lie on your side back to back again. Yes, lie on your side. If you can't figure it out, you'll have to leave. So you may need to get off of this mat.

So what you're going to do, lie here and now you're going to lie here. Head to head. And your she's no, no they are right. You need to come around this way. Sorry. Other head. The other head. Yes we are. Yes. So let's stagger. So you're gonna move there. Do you have enough room on that or you know what?

Just want to come onto the mat. Alright, there you go. Now connecting the hip. Come this way. Good. Why don't you want to move here now? Okay, let's come down just a little bit more. You're good. We're not going to go that far. You're okay. Don't worry about it. Okay, now anchor through your hip.

Okay. Lip Anchor. The heels. Lift the lace to hip level. Don't change. Don't change that positioning. Now one person goes forward, one person goes back, maintain contact.

Your range of motion is going to be limited and you have to decide if you're which way, who's going forward and who's going back. There you go. Beautiful. So you have to, the person going back is the leader of the movement. So, so you have to stay in contact with her right now. You have to stay in contact with Christi. There it is, there it is. Hip To hip, heal to heal and again and up shoulders together. You're going too far. There it is. So Christy, give her a little resistance. Now, resistor, resistor, resistor. There it is. It's the back leg. Now push against her. There it is. Alright, come center. Challenge leg circles.

So the bottom leg down, top, legs, up, circle around and to again, the movement is going to be limited in the range of motion, but can you feel how intense the movement is? Circle Christine, your cap and to me, not your heel. [inaudible] that's okay. Is it okay for you? Yeah. Great. If that works and reverse it and circle beautiful and circle. Breathe with it. Feel the intensity of the movement moving in harmony with your partner, harmony with the partner, and bring the legs in. Bring your leg to your chest. That it really intensifies the movement because you're staying then within that range and it's really allowing the, the work to go.

What lights to the places a, there's side show you're going to just flip the body over. So the heads [inaudible] oh, I haven't thought of that but it could work with heel beads. Rolling. [inaudible] your photos. Okay. Are we good? Hip to hip. [inaudible] lift the leg and began front and back.

Good a little bit. There you go. Stay together. Remember it's a smaller range of movement. Movement, intensifying the movement and your bottom leg is down to secure it. Good. Just the top leg. Beautiful. [inaudible] yeah, we're going to keep the bottom leg down. Chop leg working and resist your partners. Feel that opening through the hip flexors.

Get a long stretch open and try and keep shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip. Um, I see them all. [inaudible] there you go. Beautiful. That's the point. There's the point right there. Beautiful opening and breathe with it.

Get in tune with your partner and in tune with your own body and center circles in the center and circle and around. Up and around. Beautiful. These two are just doing great. Watching TV. They're just, they, you absolutely are. Perfect.

And reverse and circle and circle. Very nice. [inaudible] Eh, and release. Okay. It's really good, right? So [inaudible] it's the other front. Okay. The teaser is next and this one is really fun.

So one person gets to stay on the mat, lying down. Other person gets to stand up. Great. Lying down, lying down on the mat. Okay.

I have never been able to keep control of this glass. Okay, so your legs are going to go onto her thighs and good and you want you to go back a little bit more so her legs are going to be straight. Very nice. Now round your back and soften your knees and you're going to reach for hands. Good, good, good, good, good. Now as you roll your spine up, you're going to come up and lengthen your legs. Very nice. Beautiful. And now on the floor down one vertebra at a time. This standing position, soften the knees and round and yes, and round and round your back. Good.

Now bring your tailbone under rural your spine. And come all the way up you to fall and roll it back down this time if you can. Yes. This time if you can just place your hands here and now slot, try and slide. There it is. Try and come up without [inaudible]. Beautiful. That's it.

And Roll back down if you can. You're just sliding your hands up and down and that looks wonderful and slide ruling your spine and length and you come up and roll and calm back down. One more time and laying and to come up. They can. They slid down. There we go. And Roll back down. It was wonderful.

Very nice change partners. It's a working exercise for both people, so it's a rolling of the spine and a lengthy of the legs for this standing and it is the teaser. Now remember we can start holding, but what I really would like to see is the reaching the smooth extension of just coming up with the resistance. She starts with her knees bent. You start with your legs straight. Okay, and hands and roll up and lift. Use your breath and we'll, oh, over and down. Use as much resistance through it for your partner and as much help and aid as they need, you don't need to use more by pulling them or less by letting them hang there.

So the idea is to again find that synergy of the two bodies so that as we're doing the work, everyone, every part of the body is working in harmony, not what just with yourself but with your partner as well. And that is beautiful and down. And let's just do one more time and roll up and real down. And now everyone is going to go to the standing position. This exercises to standing roll down and it comes from the traditional standing work that was done at the studio in New York.

So the idea here is to stand back to back. We originally did this at the wall and I discovered that if you don't have enough wall space and you have too many people, they'll just put the people together. So now the idea is we're going to have you stand and again, we're going to be pressing at the tailbone at the shoulders and then the feet will be slightly in front of you so that they're beautiful and hip distance apart. We bring the arms up and we begin to roll down. So you're going to peel away one vertebra at a time. Beautiful and peel and peel and all the way down.

And as you begin to row up, pull in, drop the tailbone, drop the tailbone and roll here and even and even and all the way up, they made it look easier than it is and begin back to back fetal slightly apart. Very good. And arms up. Take a nice deep breath. Begin. Use your breath and inhale and exhale as you go over. Don't push into your partner. It means you're not fully rounding the back, but allowing the tailbone to come out.

That looks great and begin to roll back up one vertebra at a time, rolling all the way up and again, lengthen upward and begin to roll the spine down, rolling it over one vertebra at a time. Very nice and feel yourselves peeling all the way off from one another and now drop the tailbone down to the floor and roll the spine up one vertebra at a time. For sure. We'll do the scrolling. If you're pushing, that means the table needs to be going down for the floor and not back into the partner. We will. Very nice. Very, very good. Cool. And what time was that tissue?

Yeah. And yes, you have to like your partner for nurse. Pretend she's a reformer. Okay. Okay. And one more time. Roll it down. Relative down. Yes. And feel how it makes you really pull in on those abdominals and look at the extra roundness you get in the spine as you come through. Roll it up and role add. Oh, the way up there you go. And bring your down.

Good standing saw. Stay in the same position. But can you, can you again feel how much you're getting in touch with your, um, alignment as you are going so that the, it changes the movement from going like this to really, really feeling where you need to be. And, and we should be doing that in our mat work as well. That should be where our roll up is. Yes. We're going to bring one arm up and you are going to do the opposite. They're there. Okay. Inhale up. There it is. Inhale up.

Now you're going to go over to the feet to her foot without changing your hips. Your feet are apart. Okay, so standing saw the other arm gear. You go slide down. Yeah, there you go. And try and t yes, you're reaching behind you and trying not to allow the hip. So remember when we're talking about this, when we're doing it in our mat, it is to stabilize both hips and not allow the movement to come this way. Okay, very nice. It's hard. Yes.

And again, up. Beautiful, beautiful. So again, we're getting that stretch to come with the rotation and of the spine and not the release of the hips. So it's beautiful and opposite goes all the way through. Well, no, he's still on opposite. It goes up behind you just like the saw the standing sauce or you're in a rotate and it goes up and behind. Up and behind. Beautiful and very nice.

So you're going past and reaching to the op, your partner's leg. Okay. And hip to hip is the most important point right now. One more time. Up and over. [inaudible] so you want it to be the other way. So this arm is going to go up.

There you go. And this arm comes down and reach it. There it is. There you go. And come back up. Very nice. Good work. Good work. Your arms. Yes, the pelvis was shifting and again, this is just a great tool because we all think that when we're doing it, we're even, but we're really tending to shift standing saw side to side. Okay. Lifestyle standing sauce. I decide, bring your feet together so your foot will touch. Very nice.

Hold your hands. Hold the outside hand so come down. This arm goes back behind you and rotate it. That's what we want to see and come back up and now rotate and bring the arm and stretch. Beautiful. And around standing saw side to side. It's beautiful.

I know I can from the top. Run the job. Stand next to each other. The feet touch, hold, hold the, let me be able to soon. Do you want us to stay with it? Yes, that would be good. Show hands. Hold the hands and they'll grab the top hand. Yeah, and down.

Okay. Beautiful. Nice rotations up and rotate around to the back. Great. Very nice.

And up and over and lift. Rotate around to the back. One more time. Take it down and stretch it through. I know this time you're going to come up and how do we change sides? Woo. There you go.

[inaudible] and up and over. Let it be there. You Go. Up and over and lift and stretch and open to the front of the room. Very nice, very nice and up and over and shake it back and open. I've been to over and around and back. Oh, get some writing groups last time. Up and over.

Yeah, I round up and turn again to the front of the room. Nice rotation and come all the way around. All the way around. Very, very nice. Let's go ahead, back on the mat in the seated position and this time we are going to sit facing one another with our feet together so you'll be seated and feet. We'll be together. Good. Open the night so that are just about hip distance apart.

Now keeping the heels touching round over and spine stretch forward reach, shoot to one another. Good. Round it over. Beautiful and now length in the spine and sit up nice and tall, very nice and spine. Stretch forward, round and stretch length in the spine and come up one vertebrae at a time. Inhale, exhale round and stretch over and lengthen up and sit tall. One more time round and then we let the bat grow for lengthening the spine on that diagonal line, letting it grow all the way through. Now one person is going to do the spine stretch and the other person is going to go into the back. So one person goes forward in the other person, goes back like a seesaw round and you're gonna stay in this round movement, but you're going to come back and then you round from there, never coming up and you're going to roll yourself back from here. Oh there you go. And See, saw Ed, beautiful, relaxed with the movement in breed. Get a long, long stretch all the way through.

Looks Great and round and it's beautiful. Great articulation. Good. And round it back and stretch it out. Very nice. You look great. And I know it feels good too. And again, and roll yourselves up and sit up nice and tall. Now we're going to good. Great, good. Because the next one you're just going to think I've lost my mind.

You're going to lie on your stomach. We're going to go into this one and into swimming. So on your stomach in this time hands will be touching elbows. Okay. Elbows are going to be soft like so yes. So your arms are bent. Okay, head is down, Swan Prep, press into one another's hands and begin to extend upward straightening your arms. Love it. Beautiful. Inhale and actually I'm now as you come, beautiful lanes and the tour says down and reach to stretch down and again come up and reach to come back down.

You want to be a little bit closer in. So as you see when they come down, do you see, feel how that, see how their elbows are bent? Good. Very nice. And again, lengthen the arms. [inaudible] and come down. Yeah, one more time. Shake it up. [inaudible] length and upward.

Inhale at the top of the movement and exhale and length in the front of the body on to the mat. Now staying down, you're going to bring one arm up and then down and the adjust the arms at to begin with. Okay. We're were to stay down and just the arms to begin with. This is our prep. One arm comes up and down. One arm comes up and down and straighten them as they come up.

Try not to bend it, it is going to go straight up. Both arms are straight and down. Both, I'm sorry. Both partner's arms are straight and that's it. Beautiful. And down. Now if you can press it up, torso up, both arms straight. Both are straight and torso comes out. Back to your swan prep for swimming.

Inhale. Inhale. Exhale, exhale. Inhale. Inhale, exhale. Beautiful. Inhale, legs and arms are going in him. Try and keep the arms straight, straight, straight, and breathe. And inhale. Inhale a little faster. Inhale. Inhale, exhale, exhale. Inhale, inhale, exhale, exhale. Inhale, inhale, exhale, exhale. And last ad push up and all the way down.

Very, very nice. Take a deep breath. Stretch back and sit on your heels. You look great. [inaudible] thank you. I like it too. I think it really is a great, and again, you're using that, they uh, energy from that other, from your part and your, and it really makes a big difference. All right, now you're going to sit up and one leg will be bent, come closer together. And this is the monkey twist. So you're going to sit up and you're going to place leg together.

So sitting like with your knees bent and this foot up, touching foot. Don't leave her now and extend that leg high. Now from that position, if you can, you want to round your back slightly and then you're going to hold onto your leg. That's perfect. That's yet. Now as we are working, we're going to take the hand off and reach past your little toe. I'm going to lift up. You can turn the torsos and stretch behind you.

So again, you have to use those abdominals or you will fall back and lift and stretch past your little toe. Lift and stretch, churning the torso and reach the arm down behind you and lift it back up and turn and stretch past your little toe. One more time. Lift and turn. You look great and stretch it long and drop that arm. Open that chest and lift again and turn now change arms.

So you're going to reach past the big toe, reached towards one another, lift a little higher. Good and take it up and turn and drop the arm down. Beautiful lift, twist and stretch. And again, lift, twist and breathe. Lift, twist and stretch.

And one more time. Last one, around and down. Take it up and twist and direct and reach. And then bend that leg and, and change feet and extend. Both hands are on the leg. You look great. And use your abdominals. Lengthen the torso upward. And we go past that little toe. Reach it.

Long lift, turn and reach and breathe. Beautiful. And lift and turn and stretch and lift. Use your breath. Open the chest and reach. Lift. Turn. One more time. Take it up, turn it and stretch it back and up. And turn and reach and change and reach.

Lift and turn and stretch. Good. Lift and turn two more times. Take it up, turn it around and drop it down. Very nice. And take it one more time. Last one. Take it up and stretch and take it front and reach and lift and ring that arm down. Get a nice long stretch. Now bend both legs, keep both feet together. Good.

And hold and place your hands behind you and round the back and bend the knees towards your chest and extend them high to the ceiling up. And uh, and then bend and stretch the torso lightly over the legs. Good. And again, tighten and laying thin. Reach it beautiful, sitting up very, very tall and bend and round and stretch forward two more times. Take it up and extend nice and tall all the way through the movement. Either courageous, then bend it round and come down using your breath through the movement. One more time. Take it all the way up and stretch nice and long.

Reach it high and lift the chest a little bit higher. Take a long full breath and exhale and bend. Round your back. And now just come in and hug your knees. Lengthen your spines up. Take one full breath up.

Open. Thank you very, very much. Great work. Thank you.