Mat with a Twist

Hi, I'm blossom. Laelani Crawford. Thanks for joining me. This is Carolyn Cook for Cela and James Crater. And we're gonna do a twisty warm up. So in theory, in my mind, this is something that you would do if you have just a quick moment to do some [inaudible] or it's a great add on to another workout that you're going to do. Um, a more traditional plotty. So just a little warm up before you get down and just do the hundreds cause in my mind that's a little rough. So, um, to start, we're going to start in a cat position on all fours. So let's get on all fours.

Yeah. And just find a neutral spine. So dusting here. So from here, a nice flat back. The hard part is the head. See if you can find the head in line with the spine and in a neutral spine, I'd like a little bit of an arch in the low back and the lift with a rib cage and just find that position. The new cat and town is what we're doing. First you're going to inhale to go forward, exhale to go back. That's the exercise. So a few more times, that's the outside movement on the inside. As you shift forward, you lengthen towards your tailbone. As you shift back, you lengthen out of the top of the head and just a few more times following your own breath. Inhaling, exhale to shift back and lengthen, and maybe one more just finding that spine and while you're here, think of keeping the insides of your elbows facing each other.

Come back to your central position and let's drop your head round your spy and really curl the pubic bone forward. Sorry. From here, you're going to reverse your lower spine, only just too about your waistline. That's about it, and curl back forward again. Curl the pubic bone forward, Jess, from the waistline down. Let's do that a couple more times. Reversed the lower spine, only saying hello to that lower back and on an excalation curl, zip tight jeans on belly button to the lowest part of the way. Slide adding on reverse the spine. When you get to your middle back or ladies' your bra strap, you're going to start to hiss to lift your head up.

Sure. Sit toward the heels going, shh. Push into the hand. Shh, Shh, shh. Keep the head up Shannon. Drop your head. Relax your spine. Let's do that one more time. Come up with a rounded spine. I think curling, pressing into my shins to come forward onto all fours from there, reverse your lower spine and take your time, especially as you hiss from the Bra strap or middle back up. Sit toward the hills. Go. Shh. Question to the hands. She, Kathy grant would always say, spread your butt. I know it's bad.

Dirty mind. Sure. I think I had the dirty by and she did not. And just breathe from here. Walk your hands over to one side. Really reaching long. I'm going to pick my right and just sit into that left hip and stretch and breathe and then walk your hands over to the other side really long and reaching both arms for it and just breathe. Inhaling and exhaling into both sides of the back. Come back to center and let's come back onto all fours.

Find your flat back again and we're going to go for some cat pushups. So Nice, neutral spine. And try not to lift the head too high, which is my problem, to bend your elbows by your sides as you go forward. Inhaling, send your hips backwards. As you exhale, hopefully you feel those triceps as you come back into a kitty cat position a few more times. Inhale to go forward. Big exhale. Lift the ribs. Lift the tummy. Yes. One more time. So hopefully you're feeling those triceps and as you come up, try not to lock in the elbows as you come back to center. Yes. From here we're gonna play a little game. You're going to drop your head. And I like to walk my hands really close to my knees. But that's up to you.

So the game goes like this. You're trying to keep your hips over your knees as much as possible. Both hands have to leave the floor at the same time, or at least I'd like you to. And from there, can you keep your hips over your knees as much as you can to try to come up to a kneeling position? I am thinking of Kathy songs zipping belly button to the lowest part of the waistline belt. Best take measure and coming all the way up to kneeling. Don't you want to try that again? I do. Okay, let's try that one more time on all fours. So that's the game.

So I walk really close. You have to figure out your position and from there zip tie jeans on and keeping that pelvis coming forward. Forward, forward. Inhale, reach up with the arms and exhale, bring the arms down. So have a seat and you're going to, we're all going to face you. Let's do it. I'm bummed to the ocean and I'm sit in any comfortable sort of mermaid or side seated position. And just thinking of the hip, I like to put my hand on the hip and with a hand on the left hip, you're just going to lift the sitz bone up off the ground and exhales. You reach it back down to the mat. Do that a couple more times. Inhaling, it's a really funny position to be in, isn't it? Just a couple more times.

And so following your breath and exhale. Come down. So adding a little twist as the torso lift the hip up, twist or the away from the hip, I should say. And as you exhale, hip down, rib cage comes back, focus comes forward. One more time. Inhale, lift the hip, but it spin the rib cage away. Head turns and hip down. Ribs, back head. One more time. Hit Ribs, focus of the head and twists and hips. Ribs, head and just easy. Go to the other side. No Cancan necessary today. At least on this moment. Again, hand on the hip and just I think sits bone up and sits bone down. So your own timing is good. Your own breathing pattern, just whatever feels good and yes, exhales are nice. Inhaling again and exhale.

Take it down from here. Let's add that torso. So hip lifts, ribs, twist. Take the focus into us. Hello Ocean. And then hit ribs. Head two more times. Hit Ribs had in turn, any dolphins, not this time. Hit Ribs. Sit One more time. Hip, ribs, twist and hips. Ribs. That's it. So now sit comfortably. And, um, if you have a dinner Napkin or a towel, this works well. And we're gonna do a little slide. And so Carolyn, if you could just show the little slide that we're going to do. So, um, we're gonna work on a little leg extending along the floor and I want you to do it sitting up so you can see what this looks like.

So extend the leg along floor, maybe you can do sort of what they'll do the nice way. So as you slide, you're trying to keep the big toe down as long as possible. Try not to twist in the knee. And that's why I want you to sit up and you're gonna slide the leg in. So if you know that sitting up as difficult for you, you can sit up on a box or something, a rolled up extra mat, anything that you want to sit up or you can also put your hands behind you, but you want to be able to see. So now Carolyn's show the problems that sometimes come up.

So as she extends along the floor, what's going to happen is the toes are to want to lift or the knee wants to go. And so we're sort of tracking the knee as we're doing this. That's it. So see how her toes go off to the side. And she's really actually trying to get the big toe down as soon as possible. So those are our leg extensions. So let's try that. So here we go.

Sitting comfortably, sitting up tall so you can hold on to a leg or hold on behind you. Um, just pick your slug you want. So when you're ready, you're going to extend one leg along the floor and you're trying to keep the big toe down as long as you can. And there's a moment where you feel actually lift your arch and then you feel how your knee wants to twist. And from there you're gonna go all the way to straight flex the foot, just as a little relief. Point the foot. And when you points check out your foot, you want the big toe and little toe parallel to the floor. Try to slide it on in getting that big toe in little toe.

Did the land at the same time. Hopefully everybody feel their arches. Yeah. One more time. Just slide it on now. And it's just simple. That's it. All the way to straight a little flex just for relief, point the foot and slide it on in. It might make squeaky noises along the floor as we are, but that's fine. Let's try that to the other side.

So the Napkin kind of helps Kinda I think although we decided that maybe a table runner would be good today. So when you're ready, slide the leg along the floor and there's that moment where the arch list trying to keep the big toe up, it sorta hurts slash feels good, which is how I feel about a lot of Claudia is actually point the foot and Ben from the tummy curl. Oh squeaky. Yeah. One more time. And again, sliding out. So just to sort of check out the alignment, and this is going to come into play later, which is why I want you to do it. Sitting up, flex at the bottom and you point slide in or big toe brings that towel back in. So let's try for both legs at the same time. So here we go.

Both feet are together. So big toes touch, heels don't, and maybe knees touch. Yeah, so you find your hand position that you want just sitting up tall, however you wish. Extend the legs along the floor. Take your time. Sitting up is one of the hardest things. Oo, flex the feet. Point the feet. Slide those legs in, knees together as heels apart. Big Toes touch. And by big toes, I mean Bunyan's for some of us. Let's try that again. Ooh, slide it away. Yes. Add a little funky foot. We're gonna flex the foot by foot.

I mean feet point the feet and say there with pointed fee. Curl the toes and pull back with curled toes. And in this moment all 10 toes hold on. All 10 toes. That's it. Little toe up to you. That's enough. Shake, shake, shake. Flex the feet high. Anyway, point the feet. Slide those legs in Tami, Tami, Tami, Tami, Tami, Tami, Tami. Sitting up, sitting up, sitting up. Ooh.

Let's let the knees open for a second. Have a nice little stretch. Shall We? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That was a nice wiggle moment. Okay, so from here we're going to do a little, um, abdominals. I shouldn't say little. They're big. They're gigantic. So it's the green room, so you can get rid of the towel. We might use that again later. Um, so here we go. Towel away. So I'm actually, you know what? Grab your towel. You're gonna need it. So put the towel underneath your feet. Hold onto the backs of your thighs. We're going to do Kathy grant's green room.

So with the towel on our feet, on the towel, hold onto the backs of your thighs. Let's hum to lower down to our spot. So you're going to go. Yep. Mm. There was a point where my voice is gonna start to quiver, which is maybe right about here. And at that spot, you're gonna pulse two and a pulse is not this, not the head. It's really just the tummy and going in. And in fact, you can probably barely see the move. You can hear my voice quiver though. You're going to barely see me. So we're getting tired.

So we're going to go to a different awful quivery spot. Oh yeah. Ann Quiver. Yes. And yes. It barely looks like we're moving, but we are darn it. Even in high-def. Go a little lower and pulse. So it's called the green room because apparently this is where you go to get ready. We're ready as you exhale. Lie All the way down. Whew. Yeah. Okay. That works. So when you're ready, you're gonna stay lying down on your back and ready to just do a little bit of the way.

You're going to intertwine your fingers right at your pelvis and just relax your elbows. And let's just breathe in hell. In fact, as you lift the elbows and exhale, release the elbows down one time. Inhale, lift the elbows, filling the lines, and as you exhale, release the elbows. Adding on. Inhale, lift the elbows. This time reversed the palms things up. Think of the thumbs, carving out the Tummy, pushed the feet into the floor and press the waistline into the mat. Inhale, reverse the palms and as you exhale, release the elbows and breathe. One more like that. Inhale, lift the elbows. And as you exhale, push into the feet. Press the waistline into the floor. Inhale, reverse the palms, release the pelvis and exhale, relax. That's part two. Adding on. Inhale, lift the elbows. As you exhale, do part two again, push into the floor curl. Hello. Low abdominals is if you didn't say hello earlier, reverse the palms and let the arms float overhead as the arms float away.

Extend the legs along the floor as you were doing earlier, all the way to straight. You may or may not knock stuff off the mat. From here, reverse the palms. You're going to arch the back almost and stretch, flexing the feet, pointing the feet. You could even yard. And as you exhale, exhale the rib cage down as you come back, slide those legs in and in an effort to slide the legs in. Don't jam the waistline into the floor. It's the rib cage and release. How'd it go? Awesome, right? Let's start a couple of more times. Inhale, lift the elbows. As you exhale, press into the floor. Press the waistline into the mat, pushing the palms away. Inhale, fill the lungs, reverse the palms, keep filling the lungs as you extend the legs along the floor, reaching the arms over your head, just floating with the arms.

And as you exhale, reverse the palms and stretch pointing the feet, flexing whatever you wish. And as you exhale, think rib cage down still ribcage, but not wasteland to do. Slide. Didn't stay long in the spine, long in the spine as the arms float back to the pelvis and release one last time. Inhale, lift up. As you exhale, press the waistline into the floor. Curl. Inhale, reverse the palms. Release the pelvis on the next inhale. Extend the legs along the floor, reaching the arms over your head. On the next exhale, stretch the arms overhead. Flex point, breathe, and on the next breath, rib cage down. Legs slide in, Huh? Come back. But try not to press the wasteland into the floor and relax.

Yes, no by your sides. Very simple. Pelvic lift, lifting, pushing down into your hands. Lift up, booties up into the air and how you lift is up to you. You can curl up, you can roll up, you can leave or up. It's up to you. Inhale again. And as you exhale, roll down and as you come down, I want you to think of this breasts away from the chin. Upper back comes down first, middle back, waist slide, and then the tailbone. Let's do that one more time. Lifting up and as you're in this position, be careful of the toes being a part in the heels together. That's right. This time let's add a little something.

Put your hands on the tops of your thighs because we often like to lift the rib cage up. I want you to press the hands down as you press the pelvis up. That's exactly it. Inhale. And as you exhale, come on down. Upper back comes on, keep reaching with those arms, middle back waistline, and then the tailbone comes down. That's it. Okay. From there. Extend your left leg along the floor, hold onto the back of the right thigh and pull that right thigh into your chest. [inaudible] from there you wanna keep the fingers intertwined at the back of the thought and you're going to press the five word.

Tried to stir length in the back of the leg. I'm trying to refrain from saying stretch the hip string and said, think of press laid down so much that you actually drop that hip down point and flex the foot a couple of times. Oh Wow. Okay. I feel my airplane ride. How about you guys? Woo. And then circle the foot. Circle in the other direction and that's it. Inhale, just give me one more little Ben. And as you exhale, lengthen, press the back of the leg into the hand and the foot is up to you.

If you want to flex it are pointed and from there draw the leg across the body just a little bit, but you're still pressing that right leg down. So hopefully that right hip stays down on the floor. Go across the body. That's exactly it. Come back to center. Hug the knee into your chest and give yourself a nice pull. Look away from the leg as you draw it across the body.

And stretch as a big twist for the spine. Hopefully the peck too, one side down the other side to go. Here we go. Exchange, exchange legs. Hug the left knee into your chest and really pull tight. Ah, I'm Bri intertwined the fingers at the back of the thigh. Inhale and as you exhale, press the thigh forward as you lengthen the back of the leg.

Let's point and flex the foot a couple of times. Oh Wow. So the moment where I always think who needs drugs? You could just stretch your hand strings. Wow. Okay. A little circle baby.

Oh one more little bend in stretch, a little tiny bend. As you exhale, press that thigh forward. As you lengthen the back of the leg, you can either point or flex the foot. I'm going appoint mine cause it's a little easier on the hamstring. And as you exhale, keep pressing that left hip down, left leg down as you take the leg across the body. Just a little bit less is more on this one. And come back to center again. Hug your knee into your chest and pull.

Draw the leg across the body and look away from the leg and get a nice spiral twist. Yes. All right. Almost there guys. So when you're ready, come back onto your back and let's keep that left leg bent and let's actually scoop to the left side of our mat. Yup. Good. All right, so from here, both hands behind your neck and let's do a little twisty sort of sit up. So right elbow to the left knee a few times. Inhale, exhale to come up. Inhale, exhale to come down. Do that a couple more times. Inhale. Exhale, twist to come up. Yes. And take it down. I'm going to do it so that I can actually face you. And again, inhale, exhale, Swisse, and come on down. Let's rest the torso down. Now, just the leg, one legged pelvic lift. You're gonna push it down into the floor.

The right hip stays out, and you're just going to almost stretch the front of the hip. Now you really want that knee going straight forward. So you're gonna. That's it. The NIGO, straight forward. That's it. Cause it has a tendency to twist. You really want to go forward and on the exhale, come back down.

Let's do that two more times. Inhale. And as you exhale, push down into the floor and reach the knee forward, twist and come back down. It's very confusing. People are always just like, really? That's it? I like to think simple. Like just push into the foot and see what happens. That's it. And take it down. Now you're going to try to do both parts together. You're going to twist in the hips and the torso. Push and lift. It's weird. And come back down two more times. Twists.

So the hip lifts, the torso twists. How? One more time. Are we having fun yet? And again, twist. So here we go. From here. Say in the twist, you're going to lie down in the upper body. Let me just switch sides for a second. Yes. So here you're allied on the upper body. From there.

You're going to roll onto your side, reaching both arms over your head. Yes, sack your feet, one on top of the other. And here's an interesting moment. Try to find spine alignment of the head. You know, cause there's all kinds of variations from there. Check it out and then hook the thumbs. Reach keeping that waistline lifted. Can you just let the hips twist back where the floor a little bit from the waistline. Bring it back and come back to center again. Inhale, exhale, twist the hips away. Come back to center. Last two, one, two, a. Seeing the hips away from here.

Can you roll onto your back with control? [inaudible] you might need to shift over to the other side. So when you're ready, you're going to bend the right leg. Yeah, hens are behind the neck, left elbow goes across the body. Inhale, exhale up. Inhale. Exhale down. Two more times, little more rhythm this time and come on down one more time. Up and come on down. Just the pelvis tool list and exhale to come down.

So as you do this, try to keep length in your sides the whole time cause there's a tendency to get short and hike the hip one more time. So as you come down, I like to think of lengthening the hip away from the chest again. You're going to push into that leg. Yes. And come on down to parts together. Elbow and hips. Weird and come back down and do that two more times. Elbow and hips. I'm trying to reverse it and thinks you if I did it and again.

Oh yes. Here we go. From there you're going to lower the tour. So down, reach both arms over your head and push into that right foot to roll onto your side. One favorite moment right here. So staying there. Even right now you get a nice open hip moment. Find the spine alignment stack both feet on top of each other and whole wasteland is lifted. Fish Hook those thumbs, keeping the thumbs hooked. You're going to just twist the hips away. That's it. Oh dear Lord. And come back a couple more. Inhale, exhale, twist and think inner [inaudible]. Yes. One more time.

Twist away. And on this one, see, with control Yankees, you're going to roll on to your back. Woo. From there, just adjust yourself to your back at the center of your mat. A good way to do that is to find what you think is center open up the legs and the neck and then you can sort of readjust. Yeah, so it's a nice way to sell. Find your own center from here. Bring the arms over your head and you're on to reaching behind you, but not to the floor where the ribs come up.

Just so that you can reach back with the ribs. Stay connected. Say out loud one. Bring your arms up to the ceiling and say to, to lift your head up. Three. So you look at the next wrinkle of your shirt. You're gonna come up to it. Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Yeah, that's what I said. Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Next spot. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 in, one more spot for us. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10.

Inhale as you go forward. Exhale as you stretch forward. Hello. Some flection breathing, reaching, reaching, reaching. Inhale. As you start to roll back, saying one, two, counting. As you lie down. Three, keep going. Four, five, six. We're gonna do that one more time. Eight. When your head touches down, you stop counting. 10 you reaching back, say out loud. One. One, bring your arms up to the ceiling and say to, to lift your head up. Three next month, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10.

Next by just bring it in right there. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Sometimes you just have to think, lift up. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Inhale, as you go forward, exhale with the stomach. And as you reach forward and stretch, stretch, say good morning or good afternoon or good evening to your body. And now let's just roll a little bit. You're gonna start to roll back and just lift your butt up and come rolling forward a couple more times. Roll up right. Just nice and easy cause I'd like you to sort of roll, get a nice good rolling position because I want you to be able to come up to standing. So any way you wish on the next one you're in a roll back and come up to standing. Yeah, almost there guys. So Nice.

We're actually going to bring our rears to you. So turn, so you're going to reach, I think it's easiest to start to see it this way. So all 10 toes are facing away. And then from here, any way you wish you're gonna start to turn. So then all 10 toes are facing forward. James is going to go narrower. We're going to go wide from here. You're going to bend your front leg for us. That's our right. And you're going to reach back for that left ankle.

Drop the head breathe. Hopefully you're feeling a stretch. It's also hard to balance, isn't it? From here you're going to unfold. I'm going to try to keep my arms low so you can see at the heck I'm doing. So from here, if you turn to your left, which is what we're doing, you will bend your left leg, reaching back for your right ankle, twist, twist, twist, drop your head and stretch. One more breath. Unfold, unfold, unfold. Let's all face forward now. Yeah, and so just have a nice tip. Take a nice moment to inhale and exhale. Breathe.

In fact, let's close our eyes. [inaudible] with their eyes closed, can you lift the 10 toes and feel how you shift? It's very scary doing this up here, being totally natural, totally natural, and stay there. You can feel your way sort of shift back when you lift your toes, you're going to open your eyes, lower the toes, inhale again, an exhale. So now in theory, you're ready to go and do the hundreds or whatever the heck else [inaudible] wise you want. Thanks guys.