Beginner Mat

So you have your balls. Go ahead. And we're just using the balls again tonight. Um, as a tool for helping us define our powerhouse. Powerhouse being again, shoulder to shoulder, shoulder to hip, hip to hip, both sides. Um, last time, Laura, you mentioned the inner thighs as being an important part of things and in fact it is. So whether you have the ball between your knees, which we're going to in a moment, um, or not, you can be drawing energy, energy. You can literally be pressing the bones toward each other to help facilitate a contraction in the trunk. And I'll try and give you more detail as we go. But for now, if you'll lie on your backs, you can just have the ball nearby.

We'll put it somewhere in just a second. Stretch your legs out on the Mat and, and let's take inventory of the body. I'm going to try and do a fair amount of the class with you. So if you need to sit up to look, you should, don't struggle through anything that you're unsure of. [inaudible] all right. Oh, we've got the jokesters here tonight. All right. That's good. That's good. It's supposed to be fun, so just notice your body on the mat.

Let gravity take over. Take a deep breath in however it feels good to you and as you exhale, let go. Just let go of anything you can think of, anything you can notice that has a little sense of tension and to do it again, filling up. Inhale. I've set the pattern so you can just continue. Exhale when it feels right. What we know about doing pilates is that if the freer of tension you go into the workout with, the more efficient you're going to move.

So you really kind of want it. If you know your neck needs a little stretch. Now I kind of do that. Now. If you want to rock your hips back and forth or hug a knee to the chest, anything like that, that's a, it's a good thing to do. Alright, when you're ready, we're going to bend the knees. Put the feet flat on the mat there. Apart about four or five inches. Take the ball or a towel or a small pillow and put it right between the knees heading towards the inner, the upper inner thigh.

So you've got it kind of in the, almost in the middle of the leg. Reach your shoulders down your back and then again check in with your, your body. Most of us are gonna have a little less pressure at the low back, meaning the low back is slightly lifted. Not everybody, but mostly what we want to chew is have the upper back, the rib cage on the mat as best you can. So let's just do this. Put one hand on your chest or high on the rib cage. Take a big inhale, you'll feel everything move and then as you slowly exhale or let the air at you continue forcing the air out until you feel the chest drop down a little bit or perhaps the back of the ribs. Precedent Mat. Inhale and exhale. Just notice sort of the coming together of the rib cage, the heaviness of the backside of the body. And while we're here, you might as well length in the back of your neck and reach the shoulders away from the ears at hand, goes back to the mat. Inhale on the exhale. Roll the low back into the mat as if you're pressing your back into the mat, your tailbone, or just barely come off the mat. That's all you're doing. Inhale, release it back to the level of pelvis in the starting start. Exhaling. Tip the pelvis so that the low end of the pelvis points toward the ceiling and the low back gets pressed into the mat. Inhale, release it. Just loosening up.

Start the exhale and allow the abdominals to sink. Just like the chest. Didn't. Tuck the pelvis around the low back. Excellent and release. Inhale one more like that. Exhale, noticing that when we move our spines, the rest of the body tends to move and you have to gently adjust as we go through class. That just means shoulders down again. All right, we're back to the starting position. We're going to go a little further this time. Inhale, are you still lightly hugging the ball but some energy there? Exhale, roll the low back into the mat, but keep going until the hips come off the mat. Stopping when the ribs are still down. Ribs are still down for now.

Take a moment, pick your head up, look at what you're doing, and so hopefully you see a little bit of a scoop through the belly. Okay. It looks good. Head down, keeping this position. Are you still hugging the ball? A little. Inhale, check your shoulders. We're going gonna keep going up so you exhale. Continue Tucking your pelvis. You're going to start to go.

Remember the ribs are going to want to pop open here. We're going to do our best to keep them down so that now when you look down your body, almost everybody can go higher. In fact, everybody can go higher. Go ahead Laurie. Go ahead. Unless it's bothering your neck tonight. Good. Look down your body. Breathe however you want, and put your hands on top of your hips, right where the hips meet the top of your thigh and try to make that flat. Okay, so it's not a divot there. It's flat. It's all lined up.

That's the best we can hope for. Then you can put your hands back down. Inhale from the top of your back, roll down, upper back comes down, you go on bone by bone, middle part of your back goes down. You're very rounded in your low back for now and then finally released back to the starting position. Inhale, start the exhale so you let some air out. Then roll through. I'm going a little quicker now. Rolling all the way up this time to the top of the shoulder blades, squeezing that ball. Inhale. As you exhale, soften through the chest.

We're coming back down or rolling down piece by piece as if you're reaching your spine into the mat sequentially and inhale at the bottom. Exhale, start the exhale so you'll feel AV sink. I want to hear that. Good, good, good. Imagine lengthening your low back. Hold those ribs back a tiny bit, Michelle. There you go. Now just use your butt. Yes. Inhale, exhale down. Sorry. Good, good, good. I'll follow you Meredith. Inhale and exhale. Scooping the belly to roll up. Look at that articulation. Yes, your feet are nice and straight ahead. Inhale, it can get Deirdre. Exhale.

We come down giving you one more. Let's go Lori. Everybody recheck shoulders that they will automatically move. It's not that you did anything, it's that you held the position. Good. Can you imagine drawing your hips towards your heels to really feel the back of the legs? Let's stay here. Oh, I'll get back up there. Michelle. Tuck your pelvis. I need the bottom of your pelvis facing your chest.

So can you do that? Yeah. You can even drop here and not go quite as high and take this part to that part. How's that? Is that okay? In the back of the legs? Okay. From here gang, all you're doing is inhaling on your exhale is going to be five little exhale. So it's just squeezing the ball a tiny bit more.

Each time you exhale to what you're seeing me do with my hands is stimulating my legs. Maybe not even that much. One more time and hold. Inhale. You're coming back down and start from your chest. Yes. Yes. [inaudible] Ooh. Scoop. Scoop. Oh, you think that's it? No, we're going again. Inhale, exhale, adding on. It's the same thing. So Lori, I'll say you can talk just a little and what I'm seeing is the pubic bone getting left behind just a little. So just both of you tuck. There you go. There you go. Okay, here we go. Inhale. Hold this time man. Make the ribs come with you. So the ribs do what the legs do.

It's like pump pumping out the air. Three and four. Excellent. And five you can squeeze that ball low. Harder. Deirdre, inhale, hold XL. Bring yourself down right for now. Keep the ball there. Put your hands behind your head fully lacing your fingers together.

If that's not an okay position, you can go hand over hand. Good. Now everybody, where are you are? Oh, this is perfect. Perfect. Take an inhale. You're not lifting your head yet, but start exhaling. Hear it for yourself. Press the back of the ribs strongly into the mat. Oh, one more rule. Go back. Relax. You can't move your butt. Don't move your hips and do what I just said. So what I said was inhale, exhale.

Press the back of your rib cage down significantly. That's more like it. Do you feel your abs? Okay. And for all of you, what would benefit you is if you let your elbows come off the ground a little there. Now if you would just one more just to prove a point here. Exhale and press the, the breath out as well as the ribs into the mat. Yep. That's it Lori. That's it. Doesn't it? Just make you want to come up and it's not straining, hopefully in your neck with your elbows pinned to the ground.

So most often when we're doing something like this, you're going to see your elbows and your peripheral vision. So let's not force them super wide. Here we go. For the chest lift. It's an inhale, prepare, start the exhale and you know, kind of exaggerated for now. Just so you know, you're doing it and curl your head, neck and shoulders up, looking toward the ball, hugging the ball. By the way. Good. Keep coming up Georgia. Just a little bit. Come on. More. More, right? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Stay there. Email everybody. Start excelling now. Watch the abdominal sink a little more. As you stretch yourself back to the mat.

As soon as you touch, you inhale, or maybe you need to inhale already. Start excelling and we're coming up again. Rolling up. The pace is getting a little quicker. Squeeze. Good, good. Look right at the belly button. Literally at the belly button. That's where I want your eyes. Inhale. That's it, Michelle. Exhale.

Lengthen yourself down and inhale. Start the exhale. Feel the ribs, press into the ground. Feel the head just lift off the mat in the high position. Your low back is fully arrested. Even if you have to Tuck in here, it looks good. Exhale down. Inhale, no movement, but you don't just relax on these long inhales, right? You keep working. That's it. You can soften through your neck and shoulders and it's a good position. Inhale, follow on. Lori. Exhale down. Yeah, let's do two more. So if you feel like, hey, my neck is starting to take over. Sit One out, right? We've got to build good habits. It's all about taking care of our bodies, knowing what our bodies need. That's it. Good. You don't need me anymore.

You've got it. Last one, adding on. Exhale the come up. Stay up there. Inhale. Exhale. Take one hand over the other. So I'm just hand over hand touching the legs if you can. Did you exhale? Okay. Inhale. Exhale. Go toward the window. Just just outside the knee. Blow out your air. If you haven't. Inhale, come through the middle.

Exhale to the back. Inhale as you come through the middle and exhale to the front. So it's kind of constantly moving, although excruciatingly slow. I realize inhale is you're passing the middle or passing the legs. Exhale as you get to the sigh. Yeah.

Yes. Good. Keep going. Looking good. Tell me if you need a break. Legs. Don't move it all sorted out. Forward. Action. This is a good height for you. Relax the shoulders. Yeah, gently press your shoulders. How are you doing back there? Last one to the back. Come to center. Separate your hands and down you go. Did you feel it? Yeah, so that might be part of it is we just need to get you comfortable with that little bit of height. It's not true for everybody.

Lori almost goes too high and I think you want to be has the ability to go high. I'll check. But we just need to bully you into it a little bit. You can do it. It's just to feel normal. I think I'm letting you rest far too long or tight. All right, so here's what you're gonna do. Um, keep the ball where it is. Uh, you know, no, I need to do one thing. Take the ball out and just set it to the side. I'm using just a second. Put the feet together, knees together, and pretend the ball just got teeny tiny and one leg is going to come up with without the other to tabletop or 90 degrees at the hip joint. Exactly like it's, you guys love it. Now before you pick up the other one, press the back of the ribs into the mat. So it's just that subtle little press. Now when you pick up the other leg, does it make sense?

Right when you pick up the other, like if your whole body rocks, you're not stable. And that matters to me. So all I want you to do right now is think about picking up that other leg, like start to call up what action it would take and make sure that your whole back doesn't change. Check it out and if it doesn't change, go ahead and lift it. Oh, you guys are good. That kind of stuff matters and plays. It really matters. All right. You know what? I'm going to have you. Well that doesn't matter. Squeeze the knees together. Now back to that little ball.

Take your arms out to a tee position or a Low v position. Yep. Palms up. Good. Good. And I'm going to say palms up just cause it encourages an open chest. All right. Are you still squeezing the glutes or the inner thigh? There you go. Now I see it going towards the back of the room. You inhale, rotate the lower body only just a little bit. That's it. Yeah. Take the knees to the back. A little start. Exhaling and come back to center.

Sorry for the late cue on that. Then coming towards the window, you inhale that opposite hip does lift up. No problem. Start exhaling. And come back to center. Exactly. Keep doing that. I'm gonna give you some things to think about. It's as if the rib cage is a giant sandbag hanging out on the floor. It might move, but it's also the thing that's anchoring you down. Nice tempo.

Inhaling to the back or letting the hips lift a bit. Starting that exhale, amber. That's it. Exactly. You feel it kind of deflate. Yeah. So when you start the exhale, feel the ribcage sync to the mat. Just blow out. You don't even have to try. It'll happen and bring it back to center. So I'll show you what I mean in hell to go over. Now. Start exhaling. And it comes from right there. I'm going to resist you.

Keep pulling your ribs down into that. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. You feel it? Yeah. It's like where does it start? It starts high. I guess if I had to say, these are your obliques, they're helping you to rotate. Um, everybody just do one more to the back. You can be done, Michelle. Oh No. I started to do the back one more to the window. Sorry. Yes. Get it.

Kind of a good stretch there. It's not super low with the knees at all. It's just getting the rotation and then feed on the ground. Excellent. From there. Hmm. Should I do it? I am going to do it. Sorry. Take your feet back up and do it the way we did before.

One at a time or do it while I can Michelle. Just do it. That's okay. That's okay. Yes, exactly. Both the needs together. Make it like you have one leg. Hold on behind the legs. Exactly. Curl your head. Neck and shoulders up. Yes. Beautiful. Pop the elbows out to the side so you have more room to draw the shoulders down.

Fantastic. Give yourself one, just one little kick of the legs and then get just rocking. No one's getting up yet. Just exhaling. That means your hips go up, your hips go down, your hips go up, get 'em off the mat when you go to the back without kicking the legs at all. Yes, dear Duh. Okay. To get that little flat spot out. Open up the ball a tiny bit. So you're a little bit here and start with a more of a tech. Trying to keep it, sorry, I'm talking to Meredith. Sorry. Sorry.

So don't make it too big. Just keep it kind of rock with you. And what happens is right back here, we let them, I think you're letting the legs get a little closer and it flattens you out. So if you keep the just a little bit of a tech without letting the legs get closer, it'll work. So let's go for moral exhaling as you go forward. One inhale back. Exhale two on the fourth one. We'll sit up. Keep that Tuck of the pelvis three one more time for it.

Did good. 18 years later in something or yeah, no. And it's a tough, it's actually tough to do. And I'm telling you right now, this is going to be your secret for [inaudible]. That has to be present just about present and everything that you're going to do, whether it's lying flat or doing a plank like position, but that the connection you're keeping with the abdominals and the glutes, it's just a little tiny, which are, you'll see over and over again. Okay. We're up. Right. Good. Here we go. Stretching your legs out. Uh, boxes where my box is right behind Ya.

[inaudible] um, debating on making you partner, but I won't, I always hate when people make me do that, so I won't. But this has done really well if against a wall. So I'll come and be your, who else wanted one last time? Yeah. Okay. All right, man on top. Yeah. And we're doing this so that whether it's your back or your, um, hamstrings so that it's easy to sit up straight. That's why we're doing it. Yeah. Okay. And by the way, in case I had never said it, you want to be kind of at the forward edge of the box so it kind of almost tilts you forward. Okay, cool. Then your feet are as wide as your mat. Good. Or you can just bend your knees like that's perfect. All right. This is the spine stretch and I'm going to do it a little different than we did it last time. We were here last time. If you recall, kind of rounding over an imaginary ball today, I'll have you here and give me one second.

The idea with this is that you're gonna tighten the front side so that you can stretch the backside. That's just how the muscles work. Whatever's tightening on one, the opposite side releases, so to just fall forward isn't going to do anything. It's going to just stretch your legs more, which is not horrible, but that's not what we're going for. We're going for length, which I'm not the best example of tighten the front and I in my head, I'm going vertical down. I go up to go down at least energetically and I tightened as much as possible here as now I start, I'm thinking about trying to go that way as I'm going down without taking the whole pelvis with me. That make me sense. So this part auto state pretty much where it started. I ended up down here.

I'll inhale and then as if I'm going up against the wall. Back to the story. No, this is the one of the hardest ones. This is my, this is my favorite exercise cause I couldn't do it for years. So yeah, it's, it's like once you're straight you're not going to see much of a difference in other words. But you can think it like, yeah. So let's just try one and see how it goes.

Flex your feet cause you will get some stretch there. So we just inhale as and we follow the breath up. We just imagine we're getting taller. Then engage the front of your body. That just means like you start to exhale, feel the ribs come together, your head goes forward. Now in other words, you just don't collapse. That's really what I'm saying. You're blowing at your air, your t continue blowing out your air until you think you have no more air and you're tightening me. Add, squeezing all the air. Then inhale, hold.

Look at your belly button or around there. Start exhaling and see the belly button pulled back even more as you start to restack your spine. Now the back muscles are working to help to lift you back up and eventually your backup. Right? Okay, so I'm going to, so it's like I peel down and then I peel up. Okay, so look straight ahead. I'm going to be the wall for a few of you. Elbows slightly forward still so you can see them in your peripheral vision so your shoulders can drop down. Inhale, exhale. Rounding down, Chin to chest. Head first, head first. There we go. There's your spine.

Now when you're going down to your drip, use your abdominals to, are your friend, your body to push into my leg? Yes. As you're going down. Exactly. I'll be right with you. You guys. Go ahead. Inhale, hold. Now to get up. You're pressing the same way you got down, pressing your low belly. Yep. And keep stacking. Stacking, stacking, stacking. Keep lifting, lifting, lifting. Walla. Easy on your hands. Here we go. Inhale is good. Exhale to roll down. It's your head first. Head. Chin down.

That's what rolls first. Okay. There you go. That's it. Your head is like the top vertebra. Okay, good, good, good, good. Go ahead and do you know the breath, but and now stay here. You inhale as you exhale. Pull your abdominals away from my arm.

Yes, exactly. Exactly. And then start rolling back up like I'm your wall behind you. Exactly. In child and yes. Yeah. Right there. Right there. It takes awhile. I mean, there's a time to do, isn't there? There's like a ton to do. So we're inhaling to grow tall.

I'll drop the shoulders as I pull on your head. Just let him fall easy. Yep. Now Chin goes down first. Upper back, neck. Okay. And we're not pulling on the neck by the way. The arms are, just feel your back. Be Broad. Let your elbows drop a little Michelle. Yes. Okay. Here. And then inhale and exhale starts right there. Good, good, good, good.

You've got it. I didn't even need to be your wall. I just, this is your thing, isn't it? Yep. If it bothers you, Laurie, what you can do is just take your hands in front of you too. If this keep, if it feels, cause I know you said he had neck stuff today and now go back for just a second. Come from w like this is the first thing you pull away from your thigh. Pull your hips back. Yup, Yup, Yup, Yup. Push into me. You'll fill me. I want to feel you even more than that without your legs though. You definitely, I think, I think you did okay though. Yeah. Yeah. Let's, let's find out one more for it. Whichever one you're on now, this'll be at exhale to roll down. Feel your spine gently press into me. That's it. That's it. And then find ease where you can, right. You don't have to tighten your face.

You don't have to tighten your shoulders. Inhale, start. Exhaling. It's okay. You can drop the elbows fully if you want, and now press into my leg as you go up. Yes, I can feel the difference. I really can. And I know you can too. Even if you don't tell me. Okay. Rest your arms. Squeeze your bottom. When you eat, it's I squeeze my button. That's great. That's great. Um, and the reason, yes. Squeeze your butt whenever you can. The, the here, here's the thing.

I don't stress it much because so many people naturally, when they squeeze their butt, they move their body. We can squeeze our bud as much as we want. In fact, I encourage it. As long as it's not moving you. I mean, there's certain positions at will, but like if you tuck your pelvis, we don't want it to come from there because that's not what tucks your pelvis. Okay. So far so good. Um, let's keep the boxes since you have them. And if you guys are getting tired, you can roll up the edge of your mat or just bend your knee. We, we're doing an exercise called the saw. It's a stretch.

Your feet can go slightly wider. And were tall. Right? In fact, if we're not sure, let's put our hands or I'm going to use a fist. I like doing it with a fist right behind me and I'm just going to stretch up and now we're going to have to move the hands, but we want to try and imagine we're going to keep our body up there like that. I'm not going to tell you how to do it cause I'm not quite sure how to do it, but just what would you do to be that tall? Like my butt's almost off and I'm going to set it down, but I'm not going to collapse. Okay, and then take your arms off.

Everybody did one of these. Do one of these like kind of sticking your chest out and then bring it back. It doesn't get to do that ever again. Oh, maybe that's not a bad key. You can slightly list. Perfect. Lead that. That is perfect. Love it. Okay.

Slowly you're coming towards the front. It's inhale, exhale. Put your hands down, twisting a little bit more. I'm going to break this down kind of a lot. Inhale, we're going to just hinge forward towards this leg. Just pushing with the back arm. You can actually push and just let the front arm be kind of easy. Just pushing there. Then inhale, we're coming right back up.

Lift the back arm and come to center. Wow, that was way too many words. Even for me. Inhale, rotate back this way. Exhale. Just put the backhand down at anytime. And PR. We'll allow it to push you forward. Inhale, just bring yourself back to upright. You can lift that back hand up. Exhale, center, so that that'll be the cue. Inhale, rotate toward the front. As you hinge forward to stretch with the backhand on the ground to assist you, like to push you forward. That's it. Yeah. Yeah, and I do want some hamstring stretch here, so if you can straighten your legs, go ahead. Inhale. Sit right back up to an over your hips. Exhale, center, and inhale. Rotate to the back. Exhale, hinge forward.

Putting the backhand down to assist you. Now stay here. Let's make sure that if I wanted to come by and put a piece of paper or money under that opposite, but she, you would not let it go. Okay. Okay, so get it down. There you go. It's a different stretch, isn't it? Inhale, sit up. Exhale. Center. Now plan on the money being on the other side. Now as you inhale, rotate, hang out on that. But she, as you stretch away from it, at the same time, there's always going to be an oppositional force in plots, always. And what you could do, Deirdre, is just to look at your hand. You don't have to twist so much. Inhale, sit up and back to Sarah.

Let's go a little faster. Here we go. Inhale to the back. Exhale, press in, reach forward. Inhale, CITA and center. And in to exhale a long body's inhaler and center. And again, inhale to exhale. Lift up and hold center. Relax the arms. Yeah. Okay, now you can move your boxes please. Good.

Alright, next one. There's before long and [inaudible] there's a fair amount of balance arm stuff. So we're gonna start thinking about that now. If actually you might want the box for this, for your hands or fists. Fister good. Okay, so Lori's got a fused wrist so she's not going to be able to be here. So, and lots of people wouldn't want to be there anyway because it doesn't feel good to some, you could be on your fist. Um, you could, I'm going to ask for fingers facing your heels. If that's not okay, you can turn your hands sideways. That's okay. Trying to avoid the fingers going into the back. And let's start with that.

That's, that's what I would do. I'd, I do fist pumps facing. Okay. And here we go. So now let me just show you, cause you won't want to be up here too long. I don't think you're going to press, you're not even pressed down. I'm lifting. I'm not even using my hands right now. I'm lifting away from my hands as opposed to pushing down into the mat is a big difference. It's a lot less work the way I'm asking you to do it.

So I'll lift up the best I can. I'm going to put some weight into my feet and a little tuck of the pelvis and then, and I'm going to be baby one thing here, but you're just going to bend the elbows. You're going to go a little bit lower than I am right now. Maybe. Okay, so let's go. Here we go. Ben, the [inaudible] definitely in these Ben you can use. You're like, let me tell you, you can use your legs and I would lifting up. Lovely. Lovely.

Excellent. All right, Michelle's ready? [inaudible] good little. Get your butt out of the way by talking it. That's it. Not just bend your elbows a little and straighten them. One. Bending and straighten. And three good. Keep going forward. And five slides your butt a little bit towards your feet. Six. There you go.

I don't know how many that is. How many should we do? 15 that's a lot. Eight. Lori says and uh, and 10 elbows straight back. 11. There you go. Two of you'll make it. You'll be fine. 13, 14. I don't know. Laura. Laura calls 20 that's 15 have a seat. I promised you. 15 shake it out. Good. Good. The only place she felt it was your arms. Well that's good because guess what?

I was trying to work arms. Yes. Now, now here's, here's the did you, if you're right, I don't feel my abs now. The truth is, yeah, it was not ab dominant exercise. Absolutely. And, and it's, and it's true. It's true. We don't always focus on the ABS. In fact, I'm here to tell you that sometimes we focus too much on the abs and we have a bunch of [inaudible] instructors in the world that have no back support because they're so tight. Anyway. Yeah, it's a problem because, and people come to velocities thinking it's all about the ABS. So everything, and then I didn't, I should have told you, this is specifically for the arms and, and it's not even a blood. He's exercise. But I gave you, but I know what's coming. So I want you comfortable with that feeling so that when we do get where we need that we will be working in the abs a little more. Great. I'm glad you brought it up and I had a point, I don't know.

But yeah, the people come to velocities thinking that everything is supposed to be abd. So here we are in this arm specific exercise. Yeah, we want protection and everything does emanate from here, but doesn't mean it's always intense. It doesn't mean that I, you're always going to feel it here. Sometimes like just to stand if we over contract, it's, it's too much pressure and meaning I can just stand here and feel, be supported with a subtle, like the inner thigh thing you're talking about without even thinking abs. If I just do the inner thigh thing, that's enough for what I'm doing. And so we don't need to bear down on ourselves.

And if that's not something I should be listening to you right now, listen for those things. They're everywhere. It's like plotting is life. Let's get back to work. But um, it, thank you for bringing that up. And there are times where I'm most definitely working the ABS, but I'm working sort of this side of the abs more than in the other. Think of your middle. Can we picture just a skeleton for a moment? Um, or I'll try and find a better example, but that works for me. All the places, there's no bones. We talked about this maybe, but um, that they, you just have a little band of support or um, that it is not a course it tightening. I mean sometimes that's inappropriate thing to say and try for, but it's just like support, internal support. And then we'll let you, I'll let you know as best I can. Then when we're really trying to work the ABS, like Ah, now let's do one. Now let's take the ball. Let's, let's take the ball, put it behind her back. You know, this one seated contraction.

So the ball is about middle of your back and I'm not quite touching it but close. So it's like low back. Don't wedge it yet. And then if you go when you touch it and if it's off center, we can just fix it because it often doesn't set right. Right. All right. Walk the feet ever. So slightly away from a little bit more for your Meredith, just so you're stretched out. Okay. Sit up tall. So now you're probably not touching your ball. Now inhale, however it feels comfortable to you and exhale, but don't change the spine. In other words, don't sink.

Just blow out some air and maybe feel a light awareness around that imaginary band of support I was telling you about. It's, it's very subtle. I mean, maybe you don't feel it at all and maybe do an inhale and then everything starts there. So let's do that. And now adding the glutes. If you haven't the little butt squeeze and start to roll back into the ball. Press into the ball, trying not to use your feet. The fact, if you're getting where you really have to have, flex the feet a lot. Bring the feet a little closer. Hold, let go. The arms. Inhale. We're not getting up yet. Just exhale and try to pop the ball. Easy neck.

So if you're feeling like they're back here, don't sit up taller. Fold right below your chest. Yes, that's what that was. That's it. Breathe again. Inhale, easy arms. They're just hanging out. Let's do it again. Inhale on that. Exhale. Michelle, I'm gonna have you tuck a little, just your low it. Tuck your butt under like your tailbone is going to come through your legs and everybody. Okay, breathing happy. Are you working and your abs? This one.

I'm trying to work your app so if you don't think about it, let's do it. That's fine. It inhale, you can hold on. It's not going to change anything too much. Let's come on up on this next exhale. Whenever your exhale comes. Okay, let's go again. Exhale down.

So ultimately now we know where our focus is. Sometimes you just have to like look at it or think about it and then everything else is freedom. Inhale, pick up one arm, nothing else moves. Exhale, put it back where it was there. You'll be the other arm. Now it makes you heavier, makes it harder to hold the position. How about both arms in him? Can you reach further back? Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Nice to your dry. Exhale forward. Hold for an inhale, start.

Exhaling. Push your low back into the ball and then come forward immediately afterwards. Hayley, love it. Two more. Just two more exhale to roll down, and this is where you have to consciously go, okay, I'm, we're working here and I'm easy. They're finding the ball easy. Next, stop when you need to. I'm liking it. Inhale one arm up. Exhale as if your arm had something to do with pumping out the air. Put it in you, the other Arma. Exhale, soften your throat.

Put that energy in your abs. Both arms. Inhale. Go ahead Meredith. Reach back there. Reach back there, reach back there. Go ahead. Go ahead and exhale, bring it back. No movement. Just inhale easy. Next exhale. This is where you go deep into it. Sorry. Rollout. Roll Up. Roll Up. Roll Up. Yeah. Yeah.

It's supposed to be really hard. I don't give more than four. Here's the last one. Inhale it to anyone. I mean, if I do, it means that we're not, they're exhaling to roll back. Now you know what you're going for. If I haven't given you something to make it kind of easy other than at the abs, find a way. Inhale. If you want more work, reach further back. X, Hey, this is where you are in charge in here. If you notice your jaw is heightening, that's wasted energy that could be in your abs. Where do you, what would you rather work? Exhale. Ooh, I'm getting snotty in my ears. Set and hold for no movement. Inhale, find the ease where you can and exhale to roll up. Well done.

Well done. And that's that same contraction by the way, that in the rolling like a ball. Yeah. So now that you have the sensation, it'll, it'll be easier to still have to think about it. Okay. Get rid of the balls. We're on our sides already. Yeah. So Yup. Perfect. Perfect. You just put your head on that and actually yep. That's good. That's great. All right, so now you're lying on your side. Your legs are long. Um, let's go together. I think we did well with that last time.

And then as you look down your body, see that your, your toes are slightly in front of you, so you're ever so slightly in a bit of a banana shape. So bring your feet forward, Lori. Yeah. Good. Now we're either going to get padding for you, Michelle, or you're going to roll off that hip bone, right? Yep. You'd roll back and air on the side of a muscle. You want working. And I'm going to tell you, cause I haven't yet.

We're going to work the whole abdominal wall again. A little more emphasis on the the top side. Okay. So that's the muscle you want working. If you get going and I don't see that your back is taken over, you'd rather roll back. So it's against gravity, not your back. Okay. And this is the one that um, I'm just looking, just looking lovingly.

Lovely. Okay. Do you have to roll that far back? If we do, you do. You might, you might. This is good. And if it's, if it doesn't tell you what you can do, if this does hurt the greater truths, double the size, you can either do that or you can take this leg and bend it a little bit. The bottom. Oh No, cause you're going to lift it, aren't you? You can bend both of them together a little bit. That might work and just like spread out so that you're not right on like just bend the knees a little. Yeah, yeah, that, yeah, you're definitely bone structure. I can see that. That's going to be hard. So do you want to pad an extra time? I'm okay. All right.

I'll get one out just in case stretching long. You inhale, prepare, listen up gang. Don't move yet. Just start exhaling and try to feel the top side of your waist. Engage. In fact, try to feel it by touching it. Dig In, find it. Inhale, stay there and let your belly go soft on the inhale so you can feel the difference. Start exhaling. Imagine you're about to reach the legs longer. Don't actually do it and feel. If you can see if you can feel it. Tighten. Okay. You can do some version of that. See if that's any better. Okay, you're welcome. Did you find it?

Sometimes it doesn't show up until the very end of the exhale and you want to be uh, happy with even just a little bit of energy there. But ultimately you can squeeze quite hard. That's how it starts. Inhale, prepare, start the exhale. You start to think about linking the waist. Now, lift both feet off the ground. Inhale, stretch your legs further than where you picked him up to lower down. Exhale, lift up again. Inhale as you reach in lower and exhale to lift. Now you felt the top side. Maybe you can feel it again. Just make sure it's still working. If it's not, check in with it.

Sometimes you've used to have to think along. It's not about how high you lift the legs. It's more like if I could, it's more like I'm pulling you this way. As they left. Let's do two more. Lift and lower and lift and lower. Okay. From there, lift both legs. One more time. Hold them there. That's good position. You okay with where your hip is? In Shock. Okay.

Take the top leg. Reach it longer so that it's just a little, not higher, just longer so that it's a literally a little longer than the one big toe is out farther than the other one. Like that. Like that? Yeah. Yes. Just like that. And lift the top like be a little higher than hip height or actually add hip height right there. Okay. Now bring the bottom leg up to touch the top one and then put it back on the ground. Lower leg to the mat. Lower leg to the ankle, the top ankle. Pick it up again. All the way. All the way. All the way. Good. And down and up. Good and down.

And yes. Yes. Now a little less teetering at the hips. I'm going to let go you guys and yeah, there you go. And then feel the bottom side of your abdominals working. How about three more? One. [inaudible] blind them all the way up. Good. And to make them touch junior. Did I lift you too high? No, I didn't. Come on girl. Come on girl. Oh my God.

Yes. Good. That's enough. Good enough. Switched sides. Put your heads in the center. Oh. Oh, this center, if you would, is that way I can still look at you. Did you feel it? I know. And I think Dierdre did. Sure. Um, yeah, it's a lot of inner thigh, right? Yeah, I know. Okay. So we'll watch and make sure that you didn't go into it. You most likely, if you felt it in your back, you may have gone into a little arch. Um, so we'll either bring your leg forward or we'll see. I'll look, tell me, yell, shout it out if I have, if I'm not on you at that point. Okay. So we're lined up. We're level. Hips are stacked as best we can in help prepare.

This is the one with both lights coming up. It's exhale, lengthen and lift. Now keep got both legs. Good. Inhale down lower. You don't have to lift quite as high. You're able to, but let's think about a little more than the out the door. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That looks good. Michelle. If you can keep the ankles together, you should just like that. You won't go quite as high, but there you go. Good. Yeah, that's okay. Your knees, your knees are together. No, no, no. It does.

You're looking at when the knees hit the way that they are and you couldn't get the ankles together. That's just a bone structure thing. And the same way that Michelle has got the upper leg bone right at the surface. That's just the way it is. That's our uniqueness. How's your back? You can still feel it. Okay. So what we're going to try is two things. One, set the feet down for a second. How about just two more for you guys and think this is going to be settled.

I want you to try to almost tuck your pelvis but don't actually move your spine. Your spine looks good to me. Um, but the muscles that would just do that. Okay. But, but stop before you actually move it, you also might need to bend the knees just because your legs are long and it's may just be enough. Yeah, just like a south knee and down and up. That's about as high as I'd go. Your position actually looks pretty good. So there's nothing I want to adjust there, but you're still feeling it there.

If you are, what I would do is just leave the bottom like down. Okay. And just do the top light. Okay. So that's where we are now. We're both legs up so you're just lifting the top leg. Yup. And if it still bothers you, in fact, let's just do it now then this one. Yeah. Give yourself a little more support. Top leg is up 10 times. Lift out in up one.

Yup. And then what I've, I don't know, cause you again, your form looks good. I just want to say make it easier. I don't know. I mean honestly it just feels like don't try quite as hard and you might not call up the back muscles. Um, in fact for everyone, I'm just shooting for around 10, so if you're there, go ahead and stop for just a second. I'll get you that lower leg in one sec. Um, this is worth it. I think, um, in, in the one you were just doing it, the one you're about to do where you lifted the lower leg, it doesn't apply quite as much with the lower leg, the top leg. I'm going to have everybody just lift the top like a couple more times, but do it with as softer leg as possible. Okay. Because we don't, if I don't want you to tense the leg cause the leg doesn't need it, that's just like lifting a weight. You don't need to, you don't need to add to the tension that's already there. So if you would just take the top leg out, lift it totally relaxed at other than what it takes to keep it straight.

And then literally just imagine if you can, or maybe even have someone do it to somebody, pull on the leg and let me pull on it. You know what I mean? Don't fight me on it. And then it becomes just a simple, like tiny little move with protection. Just a gentle, like I said earlier, when you're standing just a little bit through the abs and anyway, I'm beating, I'm saying too much about it, but I think the potential for people to try really hard is, is one reason it can go there. So, um, let's do the bottom leg and I'm gonna Change it for you. So you guys were there due to just lower your top like a little, it's a bit high. And now the lower leg comes from the ground to the top. Give yourself 10 for you. My pretty are going to go like this. We're going to bend this knee pointed to the sky and put that front there.

Straighten this one out. We can roll back a little if that feels okay. And now lift this like 10 times. Is that okay? Good. Good, good. I'll get it. Everyone that one next time. How's your back? Glory. Is it long? Okay. Someone counting it all 10. Okay. Okay, good. Then stop. Good.

I had to look at her twice to make sure she wasn't just saying that like I wasn't gone that long. Okay. It's time for back extension. We'll do a different one today. Come to your hands and knees today. Um, all right. You're gonna place your hands right below your shoulders and then look at that, right? Because sometimes we think they're there. And then, uh, in your peripheral vision, what you're trying for is that you're not sinking down where you can't see your shoulders. And that you're not lifting up so much that you're rounded. Right. So you're not here and you're not here.

If you can feel or even see where your collarbones are, you're trying to have them point to the side that looks great. Dierdre and then if you're head, yeah, good. And what I'll do for you is just barely, and I do mean barely lift away from the floor like that. And now keep what you've done with your shoulders and it's soften and just dropped this part a little bit. Yeah, but tiny bit more. You're doing exactly what I'm hoping for. There you go. Lovely.

Maybe even a little less. A little. Dropping the chest to the floor right there. Good. Okay. From there. And Michelle's looking good. Alright, so that's good. From there your hips are level, just so you know. So kind of in your minds. I feel that barely hold this together, but don't have to wait. Yeah. Good. All right. Take your right hand and just reach it forward. Nothing else changes.

It's still on the mat. It's just reaching out to the fingertips. Take your left leg, reach it out along the floor. It's still on the floor to, Yep, exactly. Now the arm and the leg that are extended are light. No big deal. Can you intensify the position that you already had in the middle of your body? All I mean is just sort of make it more so without changing anything.

What we're going to do from there is to lift the right arm up as high as, not as high as you can. If you can get it to shoulder height, that's where we want it. Imagine stretching the legs so far back that it floated off the ground. In fact, let it float off the ground. Keep stretching it like someone's pulling you on either end, but the shoulder doesn't slide off your back. You're still looking at the floor. Bring it back home together, back to the start. And I want to start that way every time. So check your positions.

It should feel like you're solid. Like I could come and stand on your back. That looks great. Meredith. Tiny bit of the low ribs again, you let it go right at the last second. I could get right. I could come stand on you. I would never, but I could from there. Take your left arm forward, put it on the ground first. And the reason I'm saying that is because I want you to feel that your shoulder didn't creep up. Thank you, Deirdre. The tiny bit more of Meredith, you just reached a slight bit too far then. Yeah, just keep it on the ground.

There you go. Then take the foot back. It's still on the ground for now and so Meredith, if I were to stand in your back, I think I would be able to break you in the middle there. There you go. The laughing is perfect. If you can just keep laughing. That's exactly what you needed. That's perfect. All right, Michelle, draw your abdominals in a little and it's just, there you go. Now which the arms will just float off and the arm and the other leg, I mean we'll float off. It doesn't have to be level, but if you can, that's your end. End result. Beautiful. Expect to wobble a little.

I'm assuming you don't do this every day. Fantastic. Bring it back. If you don't, I have to find something harder. So feel free to do that so we don't have to add one more thing. Here we go. One more per side and we'll be done. So, so now I'm going back to the whole point of the lot. He says we're m, everything's coming from the middle. So we're already, we feel that sense of the center. Go ahead and do the arm and the leg the same time, but put them on the floor.

It's still on the floor. You feel the middle. It's almost like you could lift everything off. You could almost levitate, almost feel where your neck is in line with your spine and bring it home. Start sliding the other arm and leg out mics. Make sure you're ready in the middle. You don't want to have to adjust once you start to lift.

There you go. That's all right. He did the farm. Got One arms too far forward. That's what that is. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Take your time. That's why you're doing the same. You're doing the same side, so come on down. Oh that would be really talented. So this is really hard. So I think if we kept it the same, you're going to go left arm forward, right? Yeah, that's it.

Is that way whenever, when you're on, I didn't see, okay, there you go. That's what I would do. That's where we all left it, right? That's right. That's right. That's right. Okay. So now lets give yourselves one mark. Give yourselves one mark. Yeah.

Well now you're gonna no, no. That one stays down. This is the plant. And you reached forward with this one and then you're going to lift it. Yeah, that's what happened. So lift this foot. There you go. Okay. Solid as a rock. Yeah. Good, good. And bring it down. Okay. So let's finish with this standing. Roll down. Curl the toes under so you can kind of stand on your feet.

You're rounded over for the moment. And this is your last RTF. If you shouldn't be bending over, don't right. And maybe you put your hands on your knees if you don't like to be in a forward fold or just stand up. Heads are down if you are around it and everybody just roll up sequentially until you're back in your upright position, letting the shoulders fall down your back and your heads come up and then just standing wherever you landed. Find a place where you feel solid in the in the ground that you feel the bottoms of your feet and from there you're just lifting up off them.

There's nothing that you're trying too hard to do. You're just letting your body rise, which is what it would do. Take a deep breath in, just that feels good for you. Exhale and let go and maybe you can sense the tension leaving or if you're not, if you can't, you have some control over that. Inhale, fill up and with conscious awareness, let go where you can, but that still leaves you standing. Oh, there's another one. You hear that one more time. Inhale, filling up and with this we'll exhale and feel good about the time you took for yourself. Feel good about the amount of attention you're paying this body, this container that you have this life to go through. Thanks guys. Done well done. Good in there. Moving around. Yeah. It's time to move, you know, more.