Mat for Baby Boomers

Hi, I'm Risa shepherd and thank you for joining us today. Today we're going to talk about Matt for baby boomers and even though that is our largest segment of the population today, we have many different generations showing you how this segment of the population can benefit no matter what age you are. We have Leslie Curtis who is 27 years old, and that's the only person we'll say whose age it is. We have Amy and we have Helen. Okay, and I am a bonafide baby boomer, so I know from what I'm talking about, however, we're going to be talking primarily about the things that affect people of all generations, but particularly baby boomers who start to feel the effects as flexibility and balance.

Those are two major components that everybody should be concerned about the particularly as we get older in life, we start to see those areas diminish a little bit, so it's best to either prevent it or help to restore it as best as we can. Okay, so we're going to do a, we're going to start with a good alignment exercise. First of all, you're going to stand facing me. The feet are going to be together because alignment is the first prerequisite of health and balance. We want to make sure the feet are together and um, as taught to me by my mentor, Ron Fletcher, we start with the foot centers. They, we go, we think of a laser beam right in the middle of the feet going straight down to the floor. We move up, the ankles are sort of vibrating together as if we have magnets at them. We have magnets at the knees, we have magnets at the thighs, we pull the navel into the spine and particularly we make as much space between the pelvis and the rib cage so we don't clump as we get older, we want to link constantly keeping that link. Funny as we're going along and we open up the chest, we think that the spine does not stop at the cervical spine but goes out and beyond the top of the head. We visually think down to the back, the shoulder blades are just sliding down the back like they're aiming down towards the floor, the spine. Nice and long.

The tailbone aiming down towards the floor, the buttocks gently squeeze. It's important to always remember that the back of our bodies, we're not just one dimensional, we're three-dimensional. So we really want to include the buttocks always in helping us. Those magnets go along the thighs, the knees, the calves, and the ankles. Okay, now we're holding a pole that's going to, you can place it right in front of you and it's good to keep your balance with that and keep lengthening up. Okay. And take the chin to the chest and then lift the head up and exhale down and uh, and exhale down and uh, [inaudible].

And one more time. Exhale down. And for you at home, if you don't have a pole, you can certainly take a broomstick or something that will work for you down and up and moving out. What we're going to do is straighten the back and move to the side and you're going to think of lengthening that back out as far as you can. And then you're going to round the spine and again, you're going to flatten the back out. You know where you are as young as your spine is flexible. And so we're going to stay contract, going to keep our flex our backs nice and flexible and straighten.

Just feel the length thin out beyond the top of the head and let the tailbone reach out as far behind as you can and pull the belly in and again and contract out. I'm sorry, linkedin out. Think tailbone now is linkedin as far back as you can. The head is far forward. So we're stretching those muscles, we're stretching the spine, we're feeling the stretch in the back of the legs and then contract and roll up once again. Okay, very nice. Now we want to work a lead on posture as well cause that's something else that a lot of baby boomers are concerned about and we and also younger people with the computers and hunching over. So what I would like you to do is take your pole, take your hands out as far as it can go. And what you're gonna do is slowly lift up and with straight arms is take the arms back as far as you can. You don't want to stress it, but then you want to exhale, press down and inhale up and take the pole as far back as you can.

Don't worry if you can't take it all the way down and exhale down and inhale, uh, and that, uh, and down. Good. Let the breathing facilitate the movement sail back, opening up the chest, up and down. And let's do it one more time up and press it back and uh, and down again. Don't worry if you can't take it all the way back, you just open up as much as you can and are once you do little breasts, as we just do little pulses back three. And I want you to imagine the shoulder blade sliding down the back and you inhale to, yeah, inhale too. Sure.

And inhale down. Okay. Bring the hands a little closer. We do some shoulder shrugs. One, two, three, four and five. Reverse it. One, two, three, four, [inaudible] and five. Good. Lift the arms above the head again, make sure that the shoulders are far away from the ears. You don't want to have them, you know, w e B like earrings, shoulders down, and just simply think the right shoulder forward as the left shoulder goes back and then open and exhale, turn and open and turn and open and turn and open and turn.

[inaudible] so you just really want to stretch in those shoulders and inhale and then exhale down. Okay. One and circle those shoulders again while you're keeping the body unlicensed straight. And one, two, three and four. Let's take the pole and place it just behind us and what you're going to do. Again, just opening up those, the sternum, the chest, and take the pole as high as you can with that raising in the shoulders and press it down and inhale back and down and two and down and three and down. Um, four and down.

One more and five and little pulses up. One, two, three, four and [inaudible]. Sure. Let's do it again. One, two, three, four and [inaudible]. Good. And release around and place the pole once again, right in front of us. Okay. So use the poll, sort of like a plum line right in front of your body. Okay?

Want to also be working. We're going to be working today a little bit with the hips, you know when and balance and the hips really represent a lot of where we hold a lot of imbalance. And so the more, the stronger we can have the hips and the more stable the hips, the better our balance will be later. So what I want you to do in keeping that in mind, I want you to lift up in the upper belly, hands on top, and I just want you to lift the right leg up and it's a little hard and down. Okay? Yeah. Now what'd you do before you start to live that sure that you feel yourself really, really steady and really secure. All right? Before you just go, oh, lift the knee up. What you want to do is you want to do a check over your feet together, your ankles together and enable them to the spine.

Lengthen up out of the top of the, you know, of the head and you want to just think up and you want to think steady and you want to inhale, lift the leg up and place it down. Good. And let's do the left leg up and hold it for three counts. One, two, three and back down. I know it's hard and, but you know we have to keep our balance and remember the balance also comes from the fee. So don't start to roll off onto the side. Hit the big toe down. Keep that plum line, lift the right knee up and hold it. One, two, three. We're going to hold it for five counts. Good and down. And let's lift the left leg up and hold it. One, two, three, four, five and down. Good.

Let's do the right leg now and we're going to hold it for seven counts. Two, three, four, five, six, seven and down and left leg up and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Good and down. Okay, you're going to turn your feet out and we're going to do are little demi plea A's and you're going to squeeze the inner thighs together as you live and, and squeeze and three and squeeze and four and squeeze five and squeeze six and squeeze. We'll do eight and squeeze and [inaudible]. Now what we're going to do is Relevate between the big toe and the fourth toe and Relevate your entire body as you lower the heels that you're keeping the head. Yes. Yeah, that makes any sense, which I'm sure it does.

And Anna Hale and pressed down. And Inhale, lift the heels and press down and inhale, lift. Whoops. And just watching all of you and I almost lost my balance and try it again and hit a lift and pressed down. And Inhale, lift and press down. And one more time and let's just lift, keep it there.

I just want you to bend the knees a little bit and straighten, Bend Straight and keep your balance between the big toe and the second toe. If this is too hard, just keep the heels on the floor and press the heels down. Okay. So again, whole thing with balance and why we're so afraid to lose it when we get older is because we're not in full control of our body. And that's again, body control. Logix is keeping ourselves in control of our body at all times. So be sure that you feel your body in that stability place and then go for the particular balance exercises. Now take the pole and take it to the right side.

Hold it. The other hand is just softly at the side. I want us to still practice on this balance idea. I just want you to lift the knee up and hold it. One, two, three, four, five. Turn the knee out. Two, three, four, five. Bring the knee back in, two, four, five and down. Okay, now let's go to the other side and out again, making sure you feel the whole body nice and lifted the head. Going out to the top of the ceiling.

Lift the left knee up and hold it. Two, three, four, five to eight. The need to decide. Two, three, four, five and forward. Two, three, four, five and down. Okay, let's um, go to the floor. Now you can place your poles on the side. Okay. And what we're going to do is we're going to place the soles of the feet together. Okay.

And the knees are open. This what we call the diamond position. Okay? And what you're going to imagine that the spine is going from the tailbone going all the way out beyond the top of the head. And we're gonna constantly lengthen that spine. So what we're going to do, our little percussive breaths and pulses with the body where each time we inhale and we imagine that spine elongating and long gating. Okay? So what we're going to do is a series of four breasts, four inhales, and for exhales as we pulse from within the body and pull the belly up and under the rib cage, shoulders are down. We inhale and exhale, reach to. And when I say reach, I think more like we're trying to, it's like a water fountain over, so an and one. So it's constantly lengthening four and sh it's not a balance, it's just a pulse from within the body.

And each time the vertebrae gets longer and longer and longer, and end two, three. And now I want you to press focus. The bottom vertebrae and the zip. It's a string of pearls. Slowly lifted and lifted up a little bit. You're going to lift the heels a fraction of an inch and you're going to contract in the belly and roll down and then lift up.

And then you're going to exhale down and lift up. Now you're going to use the abdominals on the center no matter who. It doesn't matter how far down you go, just a little bit. Just focus in on the abdominals and the center and uh, only go down as far as you can. Keep the feet on the floor and down and uh, and contract down and hold two, three, four, six, seven, eight. Now take the knees together and continue to come all the way down.

Feel one vertebrae at a time. Ah, I never going to be aware of our body center here. You're going to have the feet flat on the floor. Again. You're going to feel the magnets at the ankles, the magnets of the these, the madness at the inner thighs. You're going to pull the navel to the spline. You're going to feel that spine nicely long, gated. The, um, the back of the neck. Nicely long, gated as well. We're going to take a breath. Inhale, we're going to inhale and exhale.

You're going to s press the arms down, but you're going to use the abdominals depressive down cause you're going to learn that it's only the abdominals about we move from at all times in the center. Inhale and exhale. Use the air as resistance. I want you to be telling like you're pushing down through mud and inhale and exhale. Good. Now I want you to include lifting the upper body with it. If you find it too hard to lift your head, keep it on the floor, but you inhale and exhale. Lift the upper floor, upper floor, upper body and back down thing. Fingertips towards the ceiling, shoulder blades towards the floor. Inhale and exhale up. Reach and back down. And one more time.

Exhale up and back down. Good. Now I want you to take the hands and just place them on your knees. I want you to lift your upper body up and we're going to do small little lifts up. One, two, three things. The hands go into the top of the knees and we excellent. Every time we lift, keep the back on the floor. Nine, 10, 11 and 12. Okay, good and down.

Place the hands behind the head. Open up the feet. What we're gonna do is what a take a breath. Inhale. Again, this is to really create, again, our strong abdominals, our strong censure. We inhale and lift the chest up as we press the small, the back to the floor, hold every five counts, and then back down. So it's inhale. And then exhale, lift up and hold. Two, three, four, five and back down. Think of cradle in the neck. We're not pushing the network cradle in the next, so we're keeping the cervical spine nice and long. And exhale, lift and inhale down. And exhale, lift. Okay.

And exhale down and exhale, lift. And they, um, an exhale lift. Yeah, and back down. And exhale, lift. Now let hold it right there. That's going to be your low point. From there, you're going to now lift up even a little bit higher hold and the go down no further than you were just at and lived up to and down and three and down. Um, four and back and five and back and six. As the chest comes up, the smaller the back goes down and the stomach goes with it.

And eight and nine and 10 less two and 11 one more and 12 and hold two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and back down. Okay. How was that? So again, it seems like a simple move but if you really focus on the abdominals and the chest coming up as the abdominals go down, it really helps to from both the lower back and the abdominals without stressing the neck. Let's take the arms up again. We're going to exhale as we take the hands to the top of the knees. Now pretending that the, we're pushing the foot through mud or chocolate or whatever you like to think of using as resistance, but it doesn't matter. Extend the leg and then place it down and the other, the leg stand.

Place it down and extend and down and extend and down and extend the leg. Really think of pointing the foot through the roof and extend. Okay. Now we're going to do both legs. Extend One and down. Try to straighten the legs as much as you can and back and extending them from this center and four and five and six to more and seven one more and eight. Keep it there. Place your head down if it's bothering you or keep it up.

Flex the feet. Point, flex point, flex point, flex. Turn the foot out. Open up the legs, put the head down. Just grab the inside of the knees and gently stretch. Open two, three and four and flex the feet and point and flex and point and flex and point and flex and point with the legs straight up in the air. Bend the knees, place the hands on top of the knees. I want you to inhale and then exhale. Just press the knees down, but it's not. You're not going to lift the butt up, which you're going to do is feel the whole small, the back pressing down to the floor. Now coming around, I'm doing a little hands on stretching. If you have a friend or a partner, it's wonderful, Huh? And if you have bad knees, a really great way to circumvent that is if you're going to stretch, you place the hands under the thighs.

Okay? See? So you still get the stretch without compressing the knees. Okay? And I have learned also I use my own body to do the stretching. You don't want to use your arms to do it. Um, all right. Now gently just take the knees to the side of the body while your head goes to the left. And what you want to do is you want to be able to create as much separation between the rib cage and the pelvis. So it's not so much getting the knees to the other side, but it is to lengthen this area of the back.

Okay? And slowly as you bring the knees back and use the center to bring the knees in, just don't clap. Bring the knees and slowly turn the other side, turn the head, and again, you want to link then between the rib cage and the pelvis. Good. Not everybody will be able to get their knees all the way down. That's okay.

That's not the purpose. You just want to be able to separate between the, again, the pelvis and the rib cage. Slowly bring the knees back in. Yeah, very nice. Okay, and now let's place the right foot over the left knee. Lift the right left knee up. Place your hand under the thigh from the inside out. Now we're going to gently stretch the hips. As I mentioned before, the hips play a very big part and balancing. If you have a knee problems, you only take it as far as you feel comfortable. Okay.

This is stretching your, your hip feel. Okay? Okay, great. And then gently place it down and let's switch to the other side and bring it and read. Great. And keep both shoulders square as you can while we stretch the hip. Good. And, and place it down.

All right, we're going to do a series of abdominals of one hundreds. We're going to both a little bit of a twist because one of the things that important for us to do all the time, I played crossword puzzles, but it's constantly keeping [inaudible] mines and those synapsis in the brain going with the movements of the [inaudible] body because having us all work together, the body, mind, and spirit is what we want to do and we get into a little routes, so we're going to do the abdominals with a bit of a twist. Just follow along as best as you can, but it's really a nice way to get the body and the mind and the spirit to work together as one, which you're going to do is you're going to take the right man and the left knee. You can keep the fit of tabletop if you need to. You can raise it all the way or you can take the legs down. I don't really care, but I'm going to be changing suppositions as we go along to the arms straight up and then exhale up and we're going to start with the first one. Hundreds go. One, two, three, four.

Sure. She'll flex the feet too during the feed out. Two, three, four. Sure, sure. Point the feet too. [inaudible] sure. The legs too.

Close the legs too. Okay. The right foot down. Sure. She switched to the left foot.

Okay. Both legs, up, bend the knees and release. Okay. So let's sort of fun to challenge the body and the mind and kind of, yeah, make sure that you're on your toes all the time. And I think it's really terrific to always change the position. I like to also work internally with the hips as well as, as well as externally because we need to keep our hips very much in check for our balance as I said. So we're going to a series of leg circles with the legs up and we're going to do it three ways.

We're going to do the first four turned out and then parallel, and then we're going to turn in from the hips. Not really from the knees or the ankles, but think just like we want a spine that's flexible, articulate and strong. We want hips that can internal, parallel and external. All right. So they could it and incorporating your buttock muscles. So I want you to like start with the legs up again if you can't get them straight as still okay to have it, a bad knee. But what I want you to do, I think we'll start with a turnout position and we're going to circle one, two, three for now. Parallel one. Okay. Two, three, four. And now an internal one, right? Two, three, and four. Okay. Center, turn out. We're gonna reverse it.

One, two, three, four and parallel. One, one, two, three. For internal rotation one. So the toes are together, Helen. Okay. Three [inaudible] and for good and release. Okay. Just have that fun. Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay, cool. We don't internalize them. Do much internal rotation and we really need to.

So with that note, let's turn on our sides facing me. If you can lift up all the way with the knee should be parallel with the hip. If not, you can be lying down too. Okay. I want you to think equal over ankle, knee over knee, hip over hip. You don't want to slump down into the shoulder. You want to keep as much space between, again, the rib cage and the pelvis, shoulder blades down, either the hand right in front of you, right in front of the center. If you want a little Atta challenge, you can place it behind, but it's more important.

What I wanted us to do was think of really working the those hips and strengthen the hips and pretend like we're in a griddle of strength, which Ron Fletcher used to always say all around this area, so we're incorporating the whole cylinder of the body and solely press the leg one and two and three, four, five, six we'll do 12 seven, eight, nine, 10 less two 11 and 12 yeah. Now what I want you to do is just place the foot right behind, but the heel is lifting up higher, so we're a little internally rotated again and press the heel. One, two, three, four. That's it. Five, six, seven, eight, nine. Don't let yourself slump. 10 no slumping. Ampullaris and 12 and now we go into, I call the prayer position where you're praying for mercy. Notice. Okay. The heel is still lifting the ceiling. Press one, but now we're incorporating part of the glutes to four. I found that a lot of people have very dormant glutes and we have to start awakening the glutes in our baby boomer age 10 last two, 11 and 12 okay, point the foot. Confront again. Do little circles. One little egg circles.

If you want three, they don't have to be perfect circles. They can be an oval. Seventh and eighth. Reverse wa ready shape you like they for well, I like to have little humor of an owl. Okay. Alright. You should be burning right in there. Take the knee into the thigh. I mean, sorry. Take the knees of the cheek. Now. Firm under the buttocks. We're going to extend the leg and release and extend and release.

A lot of people extend their legs from the knee and therefore they're just putting too much pressure on the quadricep. We want to do is extend the entire leg stand and release. Okay, and now let's place the foot either right in front or right behind the knee. Whatever's more comfortable for you. We want to work the inner thighs and lift. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11 and 12 rock back a little bit onto the meaty part of the buttocks and press one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine 10 less to 11 one more and 12 bring the knees in and sit up and reach over.

Now it's not so much reaching over is you want to think of linkedin and get those fingers to the top and the hip bone down to the floor so it's just not stretching over. It's literally lengthening over. Okay, good. And when you lift up, keep again, that space between the rib cage, you know you're all gonna grow like about two or three inches after this class. If you just keep yourself with it up nice and high. Okay, let's take the leg and the over to the other side. Again, nice straight line. The feet are flexed, you're forward, your hands are in front of your body. Theater, flex. Think of lengthening or lifting more from the heel cause we really want to again, work that hip, helping the balance and press one. Use the air as resistance.

Pretend like you're pushing through mud for five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 less two 11 and 12. Good point. The foot we turn now towards, I'm sorry, we placed the right behind and press one, two, three, four. Helen is good to breathe. It's really what keeps us baby boomers, you know, really know and love. And 12. Now we go to the PR position and think of using the buttock muscles again to press one, two and the navel pulled up to the spine. Always. Five, six, seven, eight, nine Tan last two 11 and 12 come front.

If you need to take a break, you can take a break. If not, just do little aches. Circles, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Reverse one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Bring the knee into the chest. Once again, try not to fall back. Stay forward and open up the knee as much as you can. Again, if you have bad knees, place your hand under the thigh. Actually lets again again extend one and bat and two and down. So again from under the buttocks, from even the lower back and it just extend all the way a line up.

Leigh on the ceiling one more and flex the foot 0.2. Okay. Sorry I didn't do and okay, let's work the inner thigh and lift one to use the again the errors resistance five you find yourself slumping. Go ahead and come all the way down. And just rest. It's more important that we're always working from that center. Dan, 11 and 12 okay. And then rock back a little bit onto the meaty part of the buttocks and press one, two, three, four.

Feel that inner thigh, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 last two 11 and 12 in the knees and sit up. Arm comes up and again just stretch. Make that long space of an oh okay. And then as you lift the arm up, keep that space always. It's so easy to come up and just clump. The Nice thing and what I love about Pele's is just that lengthening, lengthening always and keeping that lengthening feeling from within the body. Okay, let's turn on all fours or on the tabletop position.

Open up the knees. You want your, your hands under your shoulders, the knees under, um, under the hips. I want you to imagine that spine and if you want love, something that's helpful is to think of almost numbering the spine so we can start to really articulate to each vertebrae so we can constantly keep in it, keep it flexible and strong. So we can go one, two, three, four, six, seven. That's a good way to coot. You really feel the articulation that you can contract one, two, three and then release two, three, two, a neutral spine. And then just do a slight little art spine three and up to three and then again, round the back three, straighten the back, [inaudible] and lengthen. Remember, think of the spine going out beyond the top of the head. And again, straighten three and contract two, three and straighten two, three and extend to three things at the top of the head.

Again going above the ceiling and then straighten it to three and then round two, three and straightened to three and I want you to imagine it as though there is a laser beam moving from the center all the way down to the floor so that you're not going to be wobbling side to side. That's what's going to be keeping your balance. The shoulders oppressed down shoulder blades are aiming down towards your feet. You're going to extend the right leg behind you, keeping in the same position as your hip and you're just going to lift that leg up to the hip and then place it down. It seems like a small movement but if you keep those hips really stable and lift the leg without shifting the hips three it's actually very difficult.

Be Aware of the buttocks muscles lifting four and five. I'm amazed how many students I have of a certain age that have are totally comatose in their buttocks and which is causing a lot of the imbalance. Two more. One more chat. Again, using the era's resistance and now just cross the foot over the other ankle and lift up. Cross up cross three cross four cross five cross six cross seven cross eight cross nine cross 10 less too. If you're feeling too much pressure on the hands, you're not centering yourself.

Focus back on the center and then bring the knee back in. Okay, let's stay on the left leg. Keep a watch where the hips are up. Shoulders pulled away from the ears and lengthen the lake out and up and down. Use the buttocks muscles. Lift three down, four down, five down, six down, seven down, eight down, nine down and 10 good and alleges cross and lift up. One Cross two three [inaudible] four.

If you're feeling too much on one side and then again you're not centered, think of that laser being from the belly button down to the floor. Two more. One more. 12. Okay, good. Bring the knee back in and sit back. If you have bad knees, just go back as far as you can. Put your elbows down, but think more like you just stretching that spine again, getting the tailbone. I love oppositional movement thinking that the spine is going as far as south and the head is going as far north as possible. Constantly stretching and lengthen in the spine. Okay, good. And sit up and turn towards me.

Sit Cross legged. If you can't sit cross legged, you can just sit with your legs out. Okay. Let's take the arms out to the side. One thing that Ron Fletcher always taught us was that you always think of extending those fingers and the hand and everything about an inch beyond where they really are. That way we are constantly always stretching out and what he loves to like was very, it was a lot of sharpness of movement, of precision. So what I would like you to do, we're going to open up that sternum.

We're going to work the upper back and you're just going to zip. You're slicing through mud again, I've seen to like mud, but you're going to just slice two, three, four as you're extending the fingers. Sure. And you inhale two, three, four. Sure.

Sh now turn your hands so that the back of your hand, you want to slip it, slap someone and open to think of anyone for an and in to feel the shoulder blades together. [inaudible] now let's turn the hands up and again, we're slicing and one, two, three, four, and [inaudible]. Yeah, yeah. Two, three, four, and [inaudible]. Sure you should. Inhale, I want you to turn the hands and press it down. Turn and lift. Turn and press.

Turn and lift and turn and press down. Think the shoulder blades down to the floor. Inhale up even as you lift the arms. Think could pressing the shoulder blade through the floor and down. Take the hands down. Take the right arm up, turn the hands and press it behind you again.

Opening up the shoulders and then turn the hands. Lift up and press down and other arms up. Turn and press and lift. Up and down, and again, left right arm up. Turn. Press the hand down and lift up and back down.

One more time, man. Up and press back and lift. Okay, good. And down. Let's place the hands in front. What we're going to do is round. You're going to stretch with the rassic spine, reach out, pull the belly way in and up under the rib cage and open.

Open up the chest and exhale out and inhale up and exhale and inhale up and exhale out and inhale up. Now you exhale out. Keeping the hips square to me just turned to the side with your hands and center and turn and center and turn and center and turn and Sansar. Lift the arms up and again, opening up the sternum. Work in that posture in two, three, four and she little breasts, little percussive brass if you can. If not just breathe. Arms out and down. Okay.

Thank you all very much. I appreciate you being here and I hope to see you soon.