Strengthen and Lengthen Flow

Hi, my name is Deborah Harris and I am so honored to be here at [inaudible] anytime today's tower class draws on my own experience as a dancer as well as the invaluable lessons I gained at the Pennsylvania ballet where I spent my formative years as a [inaudible] instructor. There I worked with numerous other dancers and athletes. This terror class today is going to be a dynamic, challenging flowing class focusing on precision, concentration and control to really gain strength in the lower half of our bodies. We will do platas exercises to strengthen our feet and our ankles to help us with our turns and our balance. We will work on strengthening our glutes and our quads and our abs to help us with our jumps and our leaps. Incidentally, these are the very same exercises that are absolutely essential to those of us non dancers.

This class really is wonderful for anyone and everyone who uses their bodies day in and day out. Participating in this class today I have Amy [inaudible]. Hello, so let's get started. We're start with an exercise called two by four. So I'm going to have you stand right on the edge of your tower unit and I'll have you grab the bar in front of you cause we never want our shoulders behind us and walk your feet back just a little bit and open up hip distance apart. Perfect. From here, I want you to rise up onto your toes and then soften your knees.

You're gonna bend your knees, stay here. Work through the muscles of your feet and roll down metatarsal arch heel, dropping your heels down towards the floor and there's a tendency to want to pull into that central line. Keep them parallel. Again, working long, lift up onto a rise. Sometimes we call that irrelevant. Go ahead and bend your knees and very slowly articulate metatarsal arch heel. Yes. Drop the heels down to lengthen long. One more time. Lift on up. Play a by bending the knees, roll down, metatarsal arch.

He'll drop those heels down. Now we're gonna go in reverse. Go ahead and bend the knees. Shift forward. Press straight on up, lengthening long roll down. Metatarsal arch heel. That was good. Good adjustment. And again, bend oral all the way on up. Roll it down. Metatarsal arch heel. Yes. Last one. Ben. Roll lift. Straight honor. Articulate through the foot.

Metatarsal arch. He'll hold it down for that. Nice deep stretch. And good. Take a stand on your tower unit. How'd that feel? Through those seats? Good. Turn around. We're going to get ready for your chest expansion. Measure your own distance by reaching the arms and they touch the side of the bar. And that's how far away you need to be thought with the rest of the fingers for me personally.

So bringing sure fingers long and the fun with the rest of the fingers. This stretch them long. Roll your shoulder blades back, pull everything in and press the bar straight down. Opening across your chest. Good. Turn your head to the right. Bring your head back to the center, to the left, back to center, and exhale and release. So chest expansion is all about opening up that chest. Press down, pull the shoulders back, turn your head to the left, bring it to the center, to the right, back to center.

And exhale and release. Now we're going to add on with that foot articulation. Keep your bar down, press the bar straight down, or rise up onto your toes. Perfect. Roll down metatarsal. Keep the legs straight though. Roll Down Metatarsal arch heel and again, lift up and roll down. Metatarsal arch. Heel down and lift up.

Roll Down Metatarsal Arch, heel and down. And we're working in parallel right now. Lift up, roll down metatarsal. Shoulders down, arch heel. Lift on up. One more time. Metatarsal arch heel. And now release the bar. We'll do the same exercise but in Pilati stance.

So now working with the rotation and it will be a faster accent ups or you're going to renovate and then come back down. Now here's the key. Even though we've increased the tempo, you're still taking the time to articulate through your foot. Pull up through the powerhouse, press the shoulder blades down. Press the bar straight down. Relevant, so rise and come back down on one and lift back on up a little quicker and come back down onto weight. Evenly distributed on the feet. Come down. Three in between the second and third toe for good. Squeeze the glutes, roll it down. Five lift up. Six. Rule it down. Ribs in, lift up, seven and back down. Lift up eight and down.

Lift up nine and down. Lift up 10. Stay up on 10 now slowly roll down metatarsal arch heel. Once you come all the way down and release the pressure of that far good, go ahead and take a seat down facing your bar for the rollback. We're going to start with a little bit of a variation though. Work in parallel. Bring your feet nice and parallel against the bar, heels or flat onto that bar.

Grab a hold of the bar. The arms are nice and straight. Sit up as tall as you can. Pull your ribs can slide your shoulder blade down and press the bar down straight down towards your knees. Good and hold two, three and then release. You should feel that engagement into the powerhouse. Shoulder blades down, tall spine. Press down so you can go further. Hold two, yes, three and release. A little bit of a shake, which is good. We're going to get that nice and deep shoulderblades down for us down scooping.

Squeeze. Hold two, three, and release. Getting ready for our roll back. So press the shoulder blade down and press the bar down just a little this time. So keep that engagement. Tuck the tailbone under. Start to stretch your legs straight.

Press your feet firmly into the Poles and roll down through your lower vertebrae, your middle vertebrae, your upper vertebrae, your blades, and then your head so you have energy coming out your head, pressing energy into your kills. Get that length. Inhale, exhale, roll all the way up, keeping the arms nice and long. Beautiful. Shoulderblades press down. Begin to Tuck the tailbone under. Come down one vertebrae at a time, the shoulder blades, then the head. Press those feet into the Barnes. Okay, you might come away a little bit of, it's that idea, that length, and how exhale roll all the way up and make sure you're breathing. Let's do one more. Inhale around back, shoulder blades down.

Tuck the tailbone under. Find that seat curve. Beautiful, and then roll all the way back on up. We'll do a little bit of a calm brain now. So we're going to add a little circular motion with our torso. Your right hand is going to come in the middle of the bar and you're gonna hold onto the bar and it's okay to let the thumb wrap around. This left hand is actually going to hover above and I want you to follow this hand with your head and we're going to work with opposition.

So start to roll down your right side of your body as you press into your left leg. Absolutely. Allow this arm to circle over your head, your head releases to the mat. Press your foot, your right foot now into the bar. Reach out through the left side and roll up the left side of your body. Beautiful. And again, rolling down. Press down that right side. Circle the arm up and over. Press into the right leg. Roll up the left side. Yes, and again, one more time. Rolling down. Get that length in opposition, pressing into the left leg. Circle the arm up and over.

And that's a beautiful tempo. Come up through the right and all the way up. You don't want to go too fast. You wanna make sure you have time to stretch. So let's reverse it. Here we go. Crossing the right arm over, pressing into the right leg. Circle the arm up and over precedents your left. Like roll up the right side. Yes. And again, cross over, pressing into that right leg. Circle the arm up and over. Press into the left, like get the length and all the way up. One more time. Rolling back circle.

Press into that left leg and rural all the way up. So really taking time to warm up our tour. So please the right hand in the middle of the bar now and one arm roll back. So imagine both arms are still on the bar. You're pressing your heels firmly into the Poles.

Begin to Tuck your tailbone under. Keep your shoulders even roll back down one vertebrae at a time. Once you get down, stay down, crush your left leg over your right. Press your feet into the bar to get that length. Open up that left arm. Can I give you a stretch? And you're gonna reach to the side lengthening long.

Beautiful. Come back and around. Hug the waist, uncross the legs, square the torso and roll all the way back on up. Switch hands very slowly. Start to roll back down one vertebrae at a time. Tucking that tailbone under. Good. Crush your right leg over your left. Open up that right arm. Reach out and around giving yourself that nice long stretch.

Press this feed in opposition. Beautiful. Come back and around square your. Drop the rib cage and roll all the way up one vertebrae at a time. Nice. Release the bar at this time. We'll turn around your head's gonna come down on this end and we're going to grab ahold of our arms springs for our hundred. Now our arms are actually going to stay perfectly still as we do our a hundred but you will be lowering your legs for five counts.

Lifting the legs up for five counts. Halfway through. We're going to do a challenge. Mont and [inaudible] just means changing of the leg and the change is a tight cross from the top of the thigh. You'll go down for five counts and cross back up for five counts, but I'll cue that for you. Okay. Then the Nissan in, curl on up. Extend your legs out to about a 45 degree angle.

Stretch those arms long and begin to lower the legs in two, three, four five up to three, four, five down to four. Five up to three. Four five down, two, three, four, five two, four, five. Down, two, three, four, five up to three, four, five cross, two, three, four, five. Up to three, four, five. Down, two, three, four, five. Up to three, four, five. Down, two, three, four, five oh two three, four five. Down, two, three, four, five and up to three m five hold. Lower your legs down a little lower curl, little higher stretches, arms a little longer and bend it all the way back on and relax down. Well good. Very, very good.

Bring the legs into a nice tabletop position at this time. We'll do toe touches. Reach the arms up nice and long and keep the head down for this set. Press the arms down. Lengthen the arms long, wide. And across the chest. Releasing from the hip flexor on the right side. Drop your right leg down. Keep the same shape. Three, two, one and bring it back on up.

Drop the ribs, keep the arms close to the side of the body. Drop the left three, two one and bring it back up. Drop the right shot. Three, two, one and bring it back up. Drop the left. Three, two, one. Bring it back up. Hold and relax. Back Down. So we're going to add onto this. You'll do your toe touch with the right leg. Drop three, two, one but then you're going to reach it out nice and long all the way up. Bend into 90 and we repeat on the left side. So press the arms down, scoop the powerhouse. Lift the head. Good. We did drop the right leg. Jabba three, two, one which should help long all the way in bend. Drop the left, reaching three, two, one. Reach it out long all the way up. Bend back in.

Release from the hip. Job Three, two, one. Reach out. Long reach up. Then back in the left leg, drop down. Three, two, one. Reach out long. Lift up. Bend back in. One more set. Drop three to one. Reach out. Long. Lift up and back. In left jump. Three, two, one. Reach out. Long. Lift up, then back and curl higher and then relax. Back Down.

Double Toe touch. Then the knees back into a tabletop position. Press the arms. Sounds. Scoop the powerhouse. Lift the head up. Squeeze the inner thighs released from the hips. Drop down. Three, two, one and bring it back up. Keep the arms close to the body. Drop down. Three, two, one and bring it back up. One more time. Drop down. Three, two, one. Bring it up. Hold and relax. Back Down. You guessed it, Jess. What we did with our single leg stretch, we're going to do with our double leg stretch. Here we go. Reach the arms up and press down. Curl up, drop the legs. Three, two, one. Reach out. Long. Lift up. Bend to tabletop.

Drop three to one. Reach out long. Lift up Ben to tabletop, keeping roofs down. Drop three, two, one. Reach out, lift up and back. And last one, drop three, two, one. Reach out, lift up, bend back in, hold, curl higher and relax back down. Turn your head from side to side and make sure no tension has occurred. And at home, if you start to feel any discomfort in the neck, please note you can always put your head down. Getting ready for a Gronbach Mont that we're going to do.

So what will happen is you'll stretch your legs out long and low, wherever you can control it and keep your back imprinted into the mat. And you'll lift just the right leg up, keeping the left leg where it is behind. So our Grumbach mot is a large kick. You'll kick for three, bring it back, kick for three with the left and we'll repeat. So total of two sets. Three kicks. Yes. So bend the knees back on in. Reach the arm sound, curl on up and then extend the legs out. Lower them as low as you can. Hold them. Still lift up the right leg, lifted up one and bring it back down.

Lift up too and down. Stretch those arms. Lift up three and down the left leg lifts up one and down. Lift up two and down. Lift up three and down. Lift up a right. I know you feel up deep and down. Lift up two and down. Lift up three and down. Lift up, left one, lift up, two beautiful.

Lift up three hold. Curl higher. Scoop deeper than everything back in and then relax down. Nice and deep. We're going to do our helicopter, which is an exercise we traditionally do with our legs. Springs. We're going to do with our arms springs hose can be a nice deep stomach exercise. We'll start with two scissors and then out and around. So reach the arms up, press the arms down, curl on up.

Extend the legs on out. Drop the right leg first. We're gonna do our scissor, scissor, one scissor to open, out and around. Hold scissor. One scissor to open out around Holt. Scissor. One scissor to open out around hold. Scissor one scissor to open out around whole. Now draw both legs together. Curl up a little higher and relax down.

Double straight leg stretch is next three lowers one count to come up. So press the arms down, extend the legs on out. Curl on up. Nice and high. We lower the legs. Lower one, lower to lower. Three one, count up lower. One, two, three, one. Count up. Inhale as you lower to three. Exhale up lower. One, two, three. Excellent. Bring your legs. So a 45 degree angle, that's your new start. And your new finish. Lower one, two, three x hubs versus arms. Lower. One, two, three. Exhale up lower. One, two, three. Exhale. Uphold. Bend the knees in. Curl a little bit higher and relaxed. Back Down. Yes, we're gonna do a coordination. Next.

It's an exercise we traditionally do on a reformer, but we're going to do it here today. Uh, the first three or traditionally, press the arms out. Press the legs out. Open, closed. Bend the knees, Curl Harb and the arms. Number four. Number five, though, you're going to cross with the challenge. Mot again, changing from the top of your thighs. Um, I'm going to do that twice. Okay, so elbows by the side, but keep them lifted off of the mat. Curl up, look at your powerhouse. Press out, arms and legs together. Open the legs, close the legs, bend the knees, curl higher, and the arms. Press out only open as wide as your shoulders open. Close. Bend the knees. Curl higher. Bend the arms. Press out, open close. Bend the knees, bend the arms, press out. Stay out. Cross one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Then the knees curl higher. Bend the arms, press out. Stretch. Really rotate from the top of the side. Cross one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Then the knees curl higher up in those arms and relax back down. Nice. Now that our stomach is all fired up, let's leave those alone.

We're going to grab a hold of our legs, springs. We're going to put both legs springs on. All right, your hands go back up onto the bar. You want to make a 90 degree angle. You're really pressing into the bar to help keep the shoulder blades down and the wrist and the elbows line up so you're pressing the bar to help keep the shoulder blade down and help keep the back imprinted into the mat.

Tommy is tight. Press the leg straight on out. Good. Let's bring the legs up a little bit higher. Drop the tailbone down, rotate by turning parallel, and then rotate back to [inaudible] stance. Rotate parallel back to Pilati stance. One more time parallel, and then rotate out. Open the legs, lengthened down, zip together, and hold. It's an active hold and you're squeezing from the top of the five. One, two, three. Turn parallel and lift up. So working a lot with rotation. Rotate out. Open the leg. Lengthen down, zipped together, squeezed from the top of I hold two three term parallel to lift up.

Rotate, open, lengthen, squeeze together. Hold two, three term parallel to lift up. Reverse length and down, or rotate and hold. Two, three open. Lift up, zip together. Turn parallel length and down and rotate and hold. Two, three open. Lift up, zip together. Turn parallel. Lengthen down, rotate. Hold two, three open. Lift up, zip together, and bend back in. Woo. Working in parallel. Now we'll do our walks down.

Free up for eight personal eggs back on out. Now I really want you pressing into these straps and linkedin out of the hips. Drop the ribcage down. Tiny steps. Walking down. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven together. Eight up, two, three, four, five, six, seven together. Eight down, two, three, four, five, six event together, eight up, two, three, four, five, six, seven together. Eight. Nice spin back in. Now we go back to this challenge months that we did again, crossing from the top of the thigh, not the ankle. We go down with a pointed foot for eight up with a flexed foot for eight.

Press on out. Rotate from the top of thigh crossing. Here we go across. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, even tighter. One tighter, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and 0.2, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and flex, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Last set, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and flex, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Bend back in. We're going to add onto that. You'll go down crossing for eight with your challenge Mont.

When you get to the bottom, you open out and around for freeing action for your hip. So a circle and then we repeat going down for eight. Okay. Rotation from the top of the thigh. Pull in through the powerhouse. Press into the straps. Here we go. Across. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Open out in a round. Beautiful. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Open out and around. Relax the shoulders down. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Out and around. Now we're going to reverse it.

Open out and around. Come up with a flex foot. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Open out in a round and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Open out and around. And one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Ben, back on in. Woo. Going back to foot articulation, we're going to do our Relevate with our legs springs. So press the legs back on out. Tommy is nice and tight. We'll be in parallel. Go ahead and point your toes and then flex your feet, reaching your heels. Nice and long and point. That's two.

And Flex and 0.3 and flex 0.4 and such. We're gonna start to feel that working from behind 4.5 and flex 0.6 and flex 0.7 and flex 0.8 and flex 0.9 yes, and flex one more. Point 10 and flex. Bend the knees back in. It's a very difficult exercise. Rhonda Zam just means circle of the leg and we're going to do tiny circles. Now circling five in each direction. Press the legs back on out.

Tell me is tight. Very tiny. Circle. One, two, three, four, five reverse one, two, three, four, five. Reverse one, two, three, four, five. Reverse. One, two, three, four, five. Bend it back on in. We'll do scissors. Now with our legs I'll have you do with the flex foot so you can really feel the hamstring working all the way down to the heel. Press the legs out. Keep tension. Equal tension. There we go. Keep tension on the spring strap. One leg down, one leg up. There we go. And switch. Good and switch and switch. Nice and fluid. There we go. Yes, keep going. Good. Keep putting pressure on the step.

Don't let the legs come up quite as high. Two more sets. One more set and good. Then the knees back in. We get to do our helicopter here, which is nice because again, it's a freeing action for our hips. Press out and scissor. One scissor to open. Out around hold. So is there one scissor to open out around hold scissor, one scissor to open out around holds his or what it says or to open out around whole last ones. Is there one scissor to open out around hold, then back on in.

Nice. Shut your legs straight on up. You can let your hands relax for a second. A well deserved stretch. So stretch your legs straight. Flex your feet and we're just going to bring these legs here. Drop your tailbone down the area. Feel that nice stretch from behind starting hamstring all the way to the heel.

And good carefully take your feet on out. We're going to bring down our roll back bar and exactly where our rollback bar was placed. We're going to bring up our arms springs. Oh right here. Okay. Do some squats. So grab a hold. You want to walk back further onto your mats?

You want to make sure that you have nice tension on the springs and you're going to work in parallel for me, so open up also hip distance apart for me. All right. In this position, bring the arms up to a 90 degree angle so you still might want to come back just a hair. You can always adjust after we do our first one. From here, squat down right to here. This is your start position from here. Lower down and then go back to your star one. Lower down. Make sure the knees don't go past the toes to squat down. Three engaged through the glutes in the powerhouse. Drop down four good. Drop down, five drop down, six drop down, seven drop down, eight drop down, nine drop down 10 hold for five, four, three, two, one. Come all the way back up.

Woo and relax those arms for a second. Now we've had this running theme throughout our class today with that articulation through our feet. We're going to add that with our squats. Okay, here we go. Reach the arms up to a 90 degree angle. Keep the shoulder blade down. Keep the shoulder in line with the elbow. Go ahead and squat down to your start position. Pull in through your powerhouse. Now rise up onto your metatarsal. There we go.

And then roll down metatarsal arch. He'll try and keep your hips exactly where they are and again, rise up onto those toes and roll down metatarsal arch here. Absolutely. You might want to scoot back to and give it a test when you're doing this first and then you can always adjust. Go ahead and lift up. Yeah, that looks better. Roll Down Metatarsal Arch heel lift up. It will count the first two. So that was three. This is four. Okay.

Lift up five. Good. Control the lift up six and bring it back down. Lift up seven and bring it down. Lift eight. Articulate the foot metatarsal. Archeo lift up nine [inaudible] roll back down on the 10th one. Stay up.

Roll up one 10 now work through your powerhouse district like straight on up. Go all the way up. Hold now. Roll down. Metatarsal arch heel. Woo. All right, one more set of squats. Okay. Five squats.

How we started and then we will add in five pumps of the arms. Okay, so here we go. Squat down to that position that works for you. From here, lower down a little lower and go back to your start one. Go down to go down three, go down, four, go down five now holds pump in one good pump into pump in three pump in four. Hold on, five. Pull everything in and up. Lift up and relax. Woo. Now that your legs aren't tired at all, we're going to bring these springs down. We can actually take them completely off for right now.

It's perfectly fine and we only need to bring up one leg spring at this time. So we're going to bring the leg spring up where the arms springs just were, which was right here, I believe. All right, and we're going to do our standing legs springs series. So yes, you always turn to face your legs spring and again, you want to make sure that your arm is always in front of you and never behind you. So always grab ahold of the bar in front. You're going to grab a hold of your legs spring and put on the outside leg, which is your right leg here. Perfect. Now you have two options right now. You can either have your hand on your hip to remind you to keep the hips parallel, or sometimes my clients like to bring their hand back behind them to feel the other hip because the leg is working is the leg that's closest to your tower unit. They're going to have a lot of work with that, so whichever one you prefer with your hands, that's fine.

Now Tommy is nice and tight. You're going to pull everything in and up. Bring your right leg out to the side. Good. Flex your foot and we're working in parallel. Stay lifted and you're gonna squeeze and dry your inner thighs together as you lift and bring the leg back out. One good. Keep it directly side and reach out to beautiful and brewing it and reach out.

Three to keep lifting on that standing leg. Bring in four yes, bring in five, wearing in six [inaudible] seven eight sure. Back though. Nine and 10 relax the leg down. Woo. Again, you're going to feel a lot of work on that standing leg. It's not going to do half of a Ron Duchamp. Your leg will reach out to the side to start. It will come into the center. It will go to the front, open to the side. That counts as one. Okay, so reach to the leg out to the side, pull up off your standing side, pull the right leg in and reach it to the front.

Open to the side one and reach open to a little slower. Three beautiful four. Keep the leg parallel. Five, six, a little bit more. Lift seven, eight, nine. I know these are hard. One more. 10 hold and relax back down and the next one is a deep cross. The lake reaches out to the side and it crosses right at top and the top of our thigh. And you're squeezing those inner thighs, making it very active and then reaching back out to the side.

Absolutely it is parallel crossing over. Once it crosses over it, there is a slight rotation of the top of the leg. Okay. Tommy is tight. Extend the leg out to the side. Perfect. No. Pool up and cross the leg straight over. Squeeze through those inner thighs with the hop of the legs. Touch yes, and then reach out. You'll feel that own freight through the inner thigh. Press two. Squeeze three, even tighter. Cross it tighter.

Four yes, five but don't sink into the hip. Six, seven, eight, nine, one more. 10 and relax the leg down. Yeah. Again, it's the standing leg. When you're ready, we're only doing three. There's many more standing legs spring series that you could do, but we're just doing the three right now. I'm going to carefully take your foot on out. We're going to transfer that spring directly to the other side.

We're going to face this side. Hold onto the bar and then put your foot in. Perfect. All right, here we go. Keep those hips square again. Working in parallel. Tummy is nice and tight. Extend the leg out to the side and pull it directly in. Lifting up tall and press out. Dry in to and press out.

Draw in three for us out. See if you looked at a little higher. For good. Actually on the in, lift up higher. Good. Six seven oh two hips eight. Right there it is. Nine and 10 and relax. Ooh. Okay. All right. Are Rhonda jumps, reached a leg out to the side and bring it directly in.

So we're going to go to the side and comes in and goes forward and open to this side. Good one. Open. Draw input into good and lift. Three beautiful. Four. Five. Shoulders down. Six ribs down. Yes. Seven, eight, nine and 10. Whew. Relaxes legs for a second. All right, bringing the leg directly out to the side. Cross it in front.

Pool up through the center line. Squeeze the inner thighs, and then open one. Dry in. Squeeze. Open to dry in. Squeeze. Open. Three. Dry in. Squeeze. Open. Four. Draw in. Squeeze. Five. Beautiful. Now lift. Yes. Yes. Seven, eight, nine and 10 and relaxed. Woo.

So again, if you're doing this at home, you can always start with just sets of five. This was set of 10 but you could do five of each of those three exercises. All right, let's bring this up. Guess what? You're at. Stretch. So at this time we're going to set up for our tower. Perfect. All right, and we'll put on one bottom spring.

Okay. Okay. Carefully lie down underneath. I know this is the stretch comes just at the right time. So if you have long hair, you always want to make sure that it's away from the side of the spring. And I do you want to be about four fingers from the back.

So scoot down just a little bit more please. Your feet directly onto the bar. So press on up and then bring your arms down by your side. Stretch those arms long pesticides in the shorter blades down. Now dropped your glutes firmly into the mat. Ah, now hold that position. Flex your feet. Now drop your glutes again. Yes, you're going to feel that nice stretch from behind. Beautiful.

Now bring your hands back and around, always on the outside of the bottom spring. And we're gonna Start with our tower. Softening the knees three times you soften and then stretch legs up, dropping the glutes down into the metal, lengthening long into those heels, flexing those toes. Soften and stretch. Good. Soften the knees in line with the shoulders and stretch. Engage the powerhouse. Go ahead and lift all the way on up. Now stay lifted.

Soften your knees, stretch your legs back up. Press your feet into the bar. Press your hands in the bar and rule that. We're going to do one of those though. You're going to roll back down. Keep pressing, lengthening and opposition. Beautiful and that lovely. Stretch through the lower lumbar area.

Relax the shoulders. Now drop those glutes down. Get the stretch from behind the legs or reach those heels towards the ceiling and soften the knees and stretch. So three here. Soften and stretch and soften and stretch and lift all the way up. Engaging that powerhouse. Lifting up. Good. Soften your knees. Stretch your legs back on up and now hold.

Press your feet into the bar. Put your hand in the bar and very slowly roll down. Beautiful. Take your time. Enjoy it. You've worked hard to get here. Once you get down, stay down. Bring your arms down by your side. Flex those feet. Now drop your glutes down again into the mat.

Bend your right knee, but keep your foot on the bar. Yes. Now reach this left heel up. You want to really flex through that foot. Now drop down through that hip and it's a nice it band stretch. Nice cast stretch. Just going to go wherever you're the tightest. Okay. There's those arms a little bit more and yes.

Then exchanged feet and really dropped down. All right, glute, good hold. Nice preparing for your monkey. So bring both feet into your center. Bend your knees, Grab Ahold of the metal poles behind you in a pull yourself back, which can be hard if you've a little sweaty and get your head up off the mat. Bring your hands onto either side of the bar, holding onto that bar. Go ahead and press the straight on up. Good. Flex the feet for me. Get that stretch hold, and then roll all the way back down and again, lift. Oh the way up. This time. Bend one knee, flex the other heel. Durer up that left glute down.

Really flex that left heel. Yes, and then exchange dropped that right glute down. It looks a little bit more [inaudible] and then bend, come all the way back down. Third Variation. Go ahead and lift all the way up. Press the elbows out to the side and flex the feet at the same time. Nice deep stretch and bend to come all the way back down. Once you come down carefully, take your feet, place and down onto the mat.

Pull yourself back onto the mat. And we're going to do our hip stretch. So bring the bar down for a second. With your hip stretch, you always face your spring. You never want the spring behind you cause it can catch your hair. So Amy, you're going to turn towards me. I'm going to step to the other side and I can assist you. You want to set up as if you were doing your sidekick series.

Now you can spring if you want. You can bring your arm all the way against this bar here. There we go. And you rest your head down. Okay. Like a pillow. You reach your legs out on a nice 45 degree angle and let's bring your hips back just a little bit. And now your ribs good, and now your legs more than 45 I'm going to bring the bar up. Ideally your foot goes right into the center of that bar.

Now you want to keep your hips stacked, one on top of the other. Your hand can grab ahold of the mat in front of you if you would like. Roll the shoulder back though in this position. Point your toes towards the ceiling, flex your foot and then bend your knee down. Ideally trying to bring the knee behind the shoulder, but you never force the movement. Now they should feel nice.

It's a great hip opener from your heel. Stretch all the way up towards the ceiling. Get that link, lengthen out of the hip, and then work through your foot by pointing your toes and then flex your foot. Ben Journey. Go ahead and then stretch oh the way up, and then point your toe for the lecture foot. Then journey and stretch all the way up. Point your toe. Flex your foot and hold. Just enjoy that stretch.

Hold it beautiful and good. I'm going to lift the bar up. You can take your foot on out and if you wouldn't mind unhooking that spring from me and I'll hook it to the other side. Great. Thank you. Once I've got this hooked up, you can lie down on your other side and I'll swap sides as well to assist you again, lining up your upper body with the edge of the mat, shoulder and hip, and one long line arm back there. I'm gonna bring this up. Your foot goes into the center of your bar. Beautiful. Reach this thing out longer on a diagonal. Okay, go ahead and point your toes. Bend your knee or I'm sorry, point your toes.

Flex your foot, bend your knee. Yes it is. You can feel the difference. Stretch the leg on up. Lead with the heel point for the lecturer, foot and bend. Good, beautiful and stretch back up. Point and flex and bend and stretch all the way up step. Keep reaching for that stretch. Good. And now flex your foot and hold that stretch.

Hold it absolutely and good. Carefully take your foot on off that bar. Good. You get to come on out from underneath. We'll bring this bar down. Ooh, I can't seem to get it. I'll let you try it. There we go. Let me just bring this down. Perfect.

Okay, great. And just how we started the class. We're going to end the class, so I'm going to have you actually step onto the wood for a second and have you turn and face this direction. That's perfect. We started with a Relevate arise through our foot, so now that's how we're going to challenge yourself at the end of our mat. So the feet are actually going to come and pull out the stance. Heels are toes apart where we will actually work in rotation.

Pull up through your powerhouse. Your arms are down by your side. Now don't focus on me. You want to look at something that's not moving, which is why I'll step a little to this side. I want you to pull in through the power house and press down through your feet. Find your balance. Good. Now think of lifting up more as you roll down to the metatarsal, the arch, the heel and down and try and keep your toes down to the ground.

Pull up through the powerhouse. Press down through the feet, very slowly. Roll down through the metatarsal, the arch, the heel, and then we'll do one more and I'm going to challenge it a little bit more. Lift up. Very slowly. Roll down to the metatarsal, the arch heel and down. This time when you lift up, I'm going to have you turn your head, not the body, just the head. So pulling up through this stomach. Go ahead and lift all the way up. Squeeze that powerhouse. Turn your head, bring it back to the center.

Turn your head towards the left. Back to center. Hold. Lift up, or to roll down the tarsal arch heel. Very good with your balance. Now we're going to reverse it. Full in and up. Squeeze the [inaudible]. Squeeze the glutes. Turn your head to your left. Good. Come back to your center. Turn to your right, back to your center. We'll up. Come back to center and slowly roll back down. No, don't lift up and keep that lift in the center.

Lift to the power house and lengthen. Lengthen, and you are done. Thank you for participating today.