Mat/Barre Fusion

Hi guys, I'm Tracey Mallett, and today we're going to do a fusion of barre and pilates. If you haven't had a chance to work out to some of my other videos you can tune in to Booty Barre, which has been there for five years now, but today I'm gonna do something a little bit different, a little bit more slower, a little bit more of a fusion based of pilates and barre work. So for this obviously you're gonna need a chair or if you're lucky to have a barre at home you can use a barre, but all of us are gonna use chairs from IKEA today so we don't need a barre, and also get a nice little ball too if you can, and we're ready to go. You guys ready? Alright. So we're gonna start behind the chair and we're gonna put your hands onto the imaginary barre, so it's a barre not a chair today.

So place your hand on the top, and all we're gonna do just releve, we're gonna go up onto your tippy toes and then come back down again, and then go up and down, there we go. Lift up and down, the hands are resting gently on the barre as we pull our shoulder blades down and back. Alright, let's do five more. And five, and four, and three, and two, and one, now we're gonna bend your knees, bend, releve, extension, lower the heels, and bend, releve, extension, and down, we're just warming up the legs, the ankle joints, the calf muscles, there. Everything's cracking, yes.

(laughing) Especially when you have no music you hear all those beautiful joints start to crack, three more, three, oh wow, I heard that one, and two, that's why we do these exercises, and one more, now we're gonna reverse it. So we releve, bend, lower the heels, and back up again. Lift, plie, heels, and up, lift, plie, that's it, now it's getting quieter now because the joints have been warmed up, and up, let's do two more, lift, last time, and lift, plie, down, and up. Now, we're gonna bring our feet a little bit close together so they're hip-width apart, and we're just gonna releve up onto your toes and we're gonna do some little lunges, so we're gonna bend your knees and then come back up again. Now I want you to imagine that you're on a reformer, for those who have been on a reformer, you wanna keep the ankle joint completely still, we wanna imagine there's a wall behind us and we're dragging the upper body and the tailbone down the wall.

So everything is going down in one motion, shoulders over your hips. Don't forget the abdominals, they're not on vacation, they are working right now. Okay, let's do a few more, keep the heels still, keep weight over five toes, let's do one more, this time bend down and hold it, make sure you're not too high, we want a kitten heel, no high heels. That's it, good, that was a good correction Amy, and we're gonna do little pulses right here, teeny tiny pulses. Now while you're doing this, engage, think of engaging the posterior chain, think of engaging your hamstrings a little bit more, take the weight out of the quads, hamstrings and glutes, and let's do four more, four, and three, and two, and one, now extend without moving your ankle joint, squeeze your quads, and then lower your heels.

Let's go into first position, or at Pilates V we're gonna releve up onto your heels. Now squeeze your heels together, try not to be too turned out, now we're gonna plie and just hold that plie position. Now I want the knees to go to the corners of the room, not to the side of the room, so my knees are going that way, you guys are going that way, and then we're gonna come back up again. And again, knees, and back, always when people bend the knees they always think of taking the knees directly to the side and then what happens is it forces them to hyperextend so you wanna keep the knees going diagonally forwards, that will engage your core a little bit more, keep everything a little bit more organized and controlled. Now focus on resisting your heels especially as you come up, and as you lift up, your adductors, your inner thighs, are pulling your legs together, so focus on the inner thighs pulling the legs together, that's it.

Now is your weight over five toes? Yeah, that baby toe, it needs some help, that's it, knees a little bit further forwards this direction Amy, that's it. Good, it's a little hard because we all wanna push our hips forwards, and we wanna keep in that neutral position. One more, now hold it here, get into that beautiful position, and pulse, and pulse, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and hold it, now fully extend, beautiful, and lower down. Let's take your feet a little bit further than the chair, releve, now lower your heels a little bit, think of those kitten heels, plie down, and then back, and down.

Now once again always the knee goes over the first and second toe, but be mindful of where your shoulders are in relationship to your hip, the wall is behind you. Good, that's it. If the heel's a little bit lower you'll probably find your inner thighs will work a little bit more. Usually people will go really high onto a releve and they start going sickling into their ankle joints, so you wanna keep a nice neutral ankle joint. Very good, I can hear a little bit clicking but the clicking's disappearing, four, the clicking of the ankle and the hip, three, two more, two, and now hold it here, are we ready girls?

And pulse, eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, hold it, smile and extend, hold it there. Lower your heels, releve back up again, and down and up, eight like this 'cause we're gonna get ready to move on to our next exercise, four, three, two, and one, hold it here. Now we're gonna plie down, we're gonna turn to the right side, you are gonna turn this direction to your right, and then come back to the center, take the hand to the hip, take it back. Good, you got it, turn, and in, and turn, now hold it here, pulse for four, and three, and two, turning around, and four, and three, and two, turning back, got ya, four, and three, and two, turn it side, and four, and three, and two, spring into twos, good, two, turn it, two, turn it, two, and two, one more set 'cause I'm feeling nice today, and switch, and down, now we're ready for singles, and one, rotate, center, rotate, center, rotate, center, can you give me four more, four, three, two, one, center. Lower your heels a little bit, that's it, they're still hovering, reach up, balance, hold it there in that beautiful balance.

Extend, lower the heels, reach your hands out, plie slightly, now we're gonna twist. (rhythmic breathing) Center, (rhythmic breathing) center, (rhythmic breathing) center, (rhythmic breathing) now keep your hips facing forwards, just rotate in the torso. (rhythmic breathing) Good, nice, keep that active force pressing down, you're depressing, (rhythmic breathing) singles, (rhythmic breathing) four more, and four, three, two, one, back to center, lift up, and take the hands forwards and just stretch it out, there's your stretch, and we're gonna roll all the way up. Now, I'm gonna ask you to turn your chair, there we go, and all we're gonna do is put your elbows down onto the barre and you're gonna turn your feet out parallel, so you're turned out position here, in a turned-out position, take your right leg, and we're gonna lift that leg up. Now you're in that position, I want you to hold that position for me.

What I want you to focus on is dropping that hip down, there we go, so you want the hips, imagine you've got little shining lights here, and the lights are shining down to the floor, and you're depressing here so you're active in your upper body. Alright, now you're in that beautiful position, you're gonna drop the toe down to the floor and then you're gonna lift it back up again. That's it, all the time you wanna think of those two sticks, your sticks from your rib to your hip, and they're opened up, and go down and up. Meanwhile your upper body is still active in that position, you're working your leg but your upper body's active too. Alright, good, let's do eight more like that, so we go eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one, hold it here, now we're gonna circle out first so it goes out, down, and up, out, down, and up, out down and up, good, so it's out, down, and up, around, and up, around, and up, around, and up, now reverse it, down, around, and out, down, around, and out, you got it, down, around, and out, down, around, and out, breathe, four, up, three, up, two, up, one, hold it here, bend your knee into your little attitude and bend your supporting knee.

Are we there? Taking a little cramp there, hold it there in that position, now we're gonna lift up, pulse, and pulse, and pulse, and pulse, be careful that you're doing in the abdominals, your heel is underneath your pubic bone, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, four, three, two, hold it there. Now extend your supporting leg, take your opposite hand to the leg that's lifted and try and grab hold of your foot, put your head down, resist with your hamstring. So your hamstring is pulling in one direction, your arm, your hand, is pulling in the opposite, so you're resisting that nice big gap there, get your hips square, square your hips off, now bend your knee and increase that stretch. Extend, and then come up, step back, stretch it out, feel that in your hips?

I didn't know it was a bicep exercise. And then come back up again, alright let's try the other side, so come down, turn your toes out, opposite leg, square your hips off, ready, we're gonna lift up and down, up and down. Up and down, so be careful that you're not taking your leg any higher than your hip height, you wanna keep this nice and open, so even a little bit lower for you. There, that's it, so all the work is in your hamstring and your glute, good. Good Amy, lovely, keep your hips square though a little bit more as you lift, that's it, you ready, eight more, go.

Eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, breathe, and three, and two, hold the leg up, circle down, around, and out. Down, around, and out, down, around, and out, that's the rhythm, down, around, and out, down, around, and out, four more, and four, hold, three, hold, two, hold, one, reverse it, out, down, and up, out, keep the opposite leg stable, out, down, hold, out, down, hold, out, down, hold, good, four more, four, and lift, three, and lift, two, and lift, one, hold it there, bend your knee, attitude, and pulse. Now make sure your knee is behind your body, now bend your supporting knee, there we go, so bend that supporting knee, that's it Amy, bend it. Now lift, get your head down, relax your upper body, seven, six, five, four, three, two, hold it there, extend your leg, take the opposite hand around and pull. Take your forehead down, enjoy that stretch, now bend your knee deeper into that stretch, draw the abs in even more, press the pelvis forwards, feel that quad stretch, your hip flexor stretch, extend it one last time, and then release.

Step back, stretch it out, and then round like a cat, step forwards, perfect position to get your balls. Alright, we're gonna put the ball, you can stay where you are but you wanna put the ball just above your knee, and we're gonna take your hands forwards here. Now hands down, releve, weight over four toes, oh I said four toes, how many toes is there? Five toes, oh my gosh. (laughing) Well my little toe is so small, so he doesn't count as a toe. (laughing) Alright, plie down, alrighty, shoulders over your hips, see, we are live right here. Alright, ready to work those inner thighs, I want you to squeeze, and squeeze, and squeeze, and squeeze, that's it, and lift.

Now I'm gonna see if you can lift, it doesn't matter what hand, you can just lift one hand up and see if you can balance, lift, and squeeze, and squeeze, and squeeze. Let's switch hands, see if we're not lopsided, and lift, and lift, and lift, good, squeeze, squeeze, now can we do both hands? Whoa, there we go, and eight, shoulders over your hips, we're side profile now so we can see all our flaws, shoulders over your hips, pull your tummy in, that's it, eight, and seven, and six, five, four, three, two, one, squeeze, extend, and then lower your feet and then come back down. Nice work, alright guys we're gonna get down onto the floor now so if you wanna just take your barre away, I'm gonna take my barre away too. Let's get down onto the floor, I'm gonna be here.

Alright, let's put the ball in between your inner thighs, sit up nice and tall, ready? Squeeze the ball and let's roll down, and then exhale, roll up again, good. Inhale, roll down, this time as you roll down slide your elbows back, incline here. Now we're gonna exhale, lift your knees off the floor and then place them back down again, exhale, squeeze, inhale and down, (rhythmic breathing) And down, keep squeezing that ball, three more, three, two, and one, reach all the way up and then back down again, exhale, lift up using your upper body, your triceps, to come off. And squeeze, are you squeezing your ball?

Squeeze, good, squeeze as you come up, this is not good for me and Amy to be in a class together, and then down, squeeze, four, and then back down, three, two more times, triceps, last time, hold it here. Reach the hands forwards, incline back, we're gonna take you to the right then left, exhale, right, and left, and right, and left, and right, and left, four more, and four, and three, and two, and one, center, figure 8s, and down, and down, and down, and reach, and reach, now your eyes are following your arms so you're really focusing on working those obliques and you're squeezing that ball, eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, looking good guys, and three, and two, and one, back to center, hold it here. Curl a little lower, little lower, roll all the way up, sit up tall, adjust your ball just in between your ankle joints. Inhale, exhale, roll back down again, inhale here, exhale, squeeze the ball and roll back up, straight spine. This time we're gonna roll down, slide the elbows back.

Now ready, we exhale, lift up, inhale down, it's a little bit more challenging now, right? Exhale up, inhale down, now your focus is that you're lifting the legs up with your abdominals, and down, just two more, last time, hold it here, chair position. Ready, we go up, lower, in, up, lower, in, inhale, exhale, pulling, keep the elbows on the floor, are they low as far as you can control it, and in, reach, lower, in, two more, one more. Hold it here, reverse, one, lift, and bend, reach out, lift, bend, reach out, who said that pilates you don't sweat, who was that person who said that, I have no idea. And lift, and down, We don't know who.

(Tracey laughing) Three more, one, up, and down, and two, one more, hold it here, drop down, give yourself a little hug. Lift up, and then come back down again, round, slide back, elbows up. Drop the toes down, can-can, can, can, we can-can do this, and we tap, and we tap, and we're squeezing the ball and working those obliques, and we're pulling our shoulder blades down, and eight, look to your feet, seven, are you breathing, keeping that C-curve, nice C-curve, five, and four, and three, and two, and one, back to center, lift up, hold it here, lift all the way up, drop down, hug, take your ball to the side, extend the hands and legs forwards, and then open your hands and then close as we roll down again. Hands over your hand, inhale, exhale, roll up into a straight spine, open your heart center, and then come back, round, round, round, round, over your head, shoulder blades pulled down. Inhale, exhale, round, straight spine, open your heart center in joy, and reach.

Now from here curl, I wanna see it from your lower spine, your lumbar spine. And again, (breathing deeply) open, and center, curl, there it is, and you shape from the abdominals first, let's do a couple more. (breathing deeply) Good, and center, gorgeous there, roll down, and last time, (loudly exhaling) open, and then back to center, and then roll yourself down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, overhead. Now take your hands behind your head, bend your knees, feet hip-width apart, alright we're gonna lift up, lift your head and shoulders off the floor, now interlace your hands like this, interlace, now tailbone down, let's get ourself into position first, so look down to your pubic bone, tailbone down. Now we're gonna extend your right leg out, so right leg goes out, left leg goes out, now both legs drag as you pull in, lower your head.

Lift back up again, left leg, right leg, both legs drag, resist the floor, and then come down again. So you use your floor, lift up, tailbone down guys, reach, reach, now use the floor to resist and lift your head, neck, and shoulders a little bit higher off the floor, and then lower down. (loudly exhaling) Left leg, right leg, both, resist, resist, resist, resist, resist, very good. Let's do two more. And exhale lift up, reach the right leg out, now left leg, now really resist the floor, press down into the floor, there's your abdominal contraction, and then back down again.

Lift back up again, left leg, right leg, now both legs, (loudly exhaling) and then lower down. Take your right hand out to the side and lift up and rotate, and then from here we're gonna come back down again. Exhale, rotate, look towards your fingertips, and then back. Now I want you to slide, slide, slide, slide, slide, and reach, so you're reaching out and then rotating back. Now we're gonna add the leg, the knee comes to the chest, reach, and then back down.

So reach, you gotta actively reach as the knee comes in, you're gonna feel those obliques, this hand will help you, and again, (loudly exhaling) good, feel right into your oblique here, four more, and four, and back, and three, (loudly exhaling) and back, and two, (loudly exhaling) one more, nice work guys, lift up, hold it there, hold it, smile, and then come back down again. Reach to the other side, take the other hand behind your head, to do the opposition, now you reach that hand out as you reach out and make sure the other leg is drawing in to the midline of your body so you get that opposition. Ready, so just the upper body first, so we're gonna exhale, reach, slide the hand out, and then back, exhale, slide, bless you, and then down, slide, next time we'll bring that knee into play. You ready, so exhale, knee comes into the chest but keep it in the midline of your body, so in other words your inner thighs are swishing against each other. Look to that hand, reaching out away from your body, exhale, reaching away, looking good.

Four, and down, and three, and down, and two, and down, one more, hold it and then come all the way down, nice work. Bring the hands back behind the head, clasp your hands, bring the knees up, reach those legs straight up to the sky, now drop that tailbone down if you can. We're gonna inhale, exhale, bring your head and shoulders off the floor, just release your upper body, clear the head, neck, and shoulders, hold it there. And we're gonna do our lovely beautiful pike, so pelvic tilt, pike, and back, and back, so the abs are causing that pelvic tilt, and back, good, and keep drawing in the abdominals, you imagine the abs are going in, up, and back, behind the back of the ribcage as you do that beautiful curl. If this is too challenging you can always bend your knees, but I know both you guys don't need to do that, five, and down, exhale, (loudly exhaling) one more, hold it, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, lower, bend your knees, lower your head, neck, and shoulders, your knees are over your hips, we're not out of the woods yet, and we lift back up again, crisscross, and twist.

(loudly exhaling) Eight more, and eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, center, lower your head, neck, and shoulders, drop the hands by the side of the body and take your right leg then your left leg down, heels in line with your sit bones, inhale, pelvic curl into your bridge. Up into your bridge, right leg lifts up, now we're gonna lower the hips down and then come back up again. Alright, so lower it again, down, now we're gonna add a leg circle with it, so as you lower down, the leg circles and comes up, got it? Leg circles, comes up, so now you're adding movement with that bridge, so you're gonna really stabilize on the opposite side so it keeps that circle small. Good.

One more. Can we try and reverse it now? (laughing) And around, and up, and around, keep that leg circle small, down, up, nice work guys, control it, up, two more, last time, and then hold it here, reach the arms over your body, releve on your supporting leg, and lower your heel for 10 times. Eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and hold it there, lower, heels are both off, pelvic tilts. And tilt, and tilt, and tilt, beautiful, release, reach the hands out, and four, and three, and two, hold it there, lower your heels, take your hands back by the side of your body, get your hips high, heels in line with your sit bones, adjust yourself.

Lift that leg up, roll down first, so you're gonna roll down, and roll up, roll down, are you ready for your leg circles, we go down, and up, roll down, keep it smaller and controlled, down, lift the hips, and down, and lift, down, and lift, down, and lift, and down, I think that's enough. Ready for the opposite direction? Out, down, and up, out, down, and up, out, and lift, out, and lift, out, can you give me a couple more, you guys can do it, your body's strong, one more, hold it there, reach the arms over your head, you ready, releve. Lift, and seven, and six, We did 10. and five, oh we did?

Four, okay, I can't do (mumbles), three, and two, you got two more for Amy, two, and hold it there. Someone didn't catch us-- (Tracey laughing) Hips up high, and then slowly roll down through the spine, bring the legs and the arms into your chest. Now we'll be working lopsided. (all chuckling) Hold those knees, beautiful. From here we're gonna bring your knees into your chest, and I want you just to roll all the way up.

Nice and tall, reach your legs forwards and stretch out those hamstrings. Slowly come all the way up, we're gonna flip around and we're gonna come onto our quadruped position, so you can face inwards of each other so you can smile at each other. Alright, we're gonna reach your right leg out, and all I want you to do is come down into some lovely triceps and then lift up. So now we're gonna focus a little bit more on the upper body now, and up, and your core, so it's inhale down, exhale and lift up, inhale down, exhale up, inhale down, exhale up, and just switch to the other side. And inhale down, keep the hips square, and down, up, really folks, I'm putting the shoulder blades down, back into quadruped position.

Cat, extension, Cat, extension, now Cat, curl your toes underneath, comes back into your Pyramid position, hold that position there. From here you're gonna walk your hands back to your feet and we're gonna roll all the way up, inhale here, exhale, we're gonna roll down through the spine, walk out, four, three, two, one. Right leg is gonna lift and we're gonna abduct the leg, out and in, out and in, drawing in those abs, out and in, four, and three, and two, and one, open your legs, adjust yourself. Lift, and eight, and seven, six, five, and four, and three, and two, and one, feet, Downward Dog, or your Pyramid from pilates, and then come back into your plank position, turn towards me, reach up and over, back to the side, plank position, turn to the opposite direction. Now reach towards the wall, and then back into plank.

Let's try that again, turn towards me, now reach, continue that round, switch to the other side, lift, now reach, back to center, and let's come all the way back into your plank position, curl your toes underneath, walk your hands back to your feet, and then slowly roll all the way up, inhale here, exhale, roll back down again. Walk out for four counts, four, three, two, one, now from here we're gonna drop the hips down, pull your shoulder blades, and we're gonna lift up into a Swan, open up, curl the toes back, come back up into your bridge, into your Downward Dog or your Pyramid position, your up stretch. Let's try that again, transition through your shoulders and pull your body through into that beautiful Swan or your Upward Dog. And let's curl the toes underneath, come back up into your Pyramid position, bend your knees into a Child's Pose and stretch. From here we're just gonna transition forwards, do a little bit of back extension before we finish, so come forwards.

We're gonna curl and bend your elbows and take your head to the one side, ready, we're gonna lift the legs up, we're gonna pulse, three, two, one, now elongate and reach out. And again, one, two, three, extend. (rhythmic breathing) Reach. (rhythmic breathing) Hold it there, reach the hands up and over if you can, reach up and over, palms facing inwards, and we're gonna swim with your palms facing inwards, and swim, lower down your upper body a little bit, there. And eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and kick, kick, kick, kick, kick, three, and two, and one, hold it there, and then come back down, hands by the side of your body, and let's stretch back once again into that beautiful stretch.

Take your hands to the right, open, take your hands to the left, open, come back into the center, take your right leg in between your hands, curl the back toes underneath, lift up into that stretch, from here extend your hips up, adjust your hips so you got that hamstring stretch, reach out through the crown of the head, come back down, bend your knee, and take the hand back, the same hand as your foot in front, and pull. Look towards your hand, keep pressing the pelvis forwards, and breathe into that stretch. And then come back, transition through plank position, take the opposite leg through, bend your knee down. Now lift your hips up into your lunge, and up, adjust your pelvis, elongate through the crown of the head, enjoy that stretch and take a moment for yourself. Often we feel that stretching is not important, and we all know that it's extremely important, stretching is just as important as strength and just as important as cardiovascular.

Bend your knee, drop the knee down, take the hand, the same hand as the knee as bend in front, you got that, good, sometimes it's always easier than the other. Now look towards your hand if you can, good job, now see if you can press your pelvis a little bit further forwards, isn't that a great stretch? Your quads need some little extra tender loving care 'cause they got overworked, so a little bit of stretch goes a long way to elongating them, to lengthen them, to get the lactic acid out of the body. Good job, and then release. Transition, plank position everybody, strong plank position, reach out through the crown of the head, push away from the floor, and we're gonna hold it there for 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one.

Lift up, feet, your heels are flexed, and then you're gonna walk your feet to your hands and you're gently gonna roll all the way up one vertebrae at a time. Alright, let's stand to face me, good job, you're gonna put your feet hip-width apart, we're gonna take a nice deep breath in and we're gonna exhale, and we're gonna roll down through the spine. Inhale here, exhale and articulate all the way up, let the head be the last to uncurl, open up your heart center up to the sky, and then back down. And again, lift up, and then down, one more, lift up and releve, and then back down. Good job you guys, you feel good? Thank you, yeah.

Just feel a little bit of stretch, a little bit of strength, a little bit of abdominal, a little bit of everything, just enough to feel refreshed and feel that you worked hard. Thank you, yes, thanks guys, come back, good bye.