Lower Body Mat

I'm Mariska from Washington, D.C. and we are here for a mat class and Christy requested that I make it hard. So that is my only instruction is that I should make it hard for you guys. And also I have a couple of students who moved, two sisters, Emily and Camille, who moved to England, and they requested that I do a thigh 360 workout, which would mean that we're working front of the thighs, side of the thighs, inner thighs, hamstrings. But other than that I like to teach on request, so anything particular you wanna work on?

Anything you want. I know, I kind of feel that's like a little questionable. People are like, no. Yeah, no, I mean. Well, that means I have to do an hour of thighs.

So I will throw in some other things in there. So let's actually start seated and you're gonna be seated upright with your hands behind your knees. So use that to gain a little bit of traction to extend your spine some. So we're trying to grow longer through our spine. They keep saying Pilates makes you taller, it hasn't worked for me, but eventually.

And then exhale, you're gonna round your spine aiming your low back down. It won't go all the way down, but just aiming it in that direction. And then you're gonna keep your abs moving back as you take that shape forward. And we're just gonna keep round. So we're gonna round back again and we're just gonna do a couple of these.

So pulling your abs back away from your body moving forward. We'll do a couple more like that. And this is a harder exercise if you have long arms, 'cause we're gonna go back to straight arms. So if you have long arms it's more challenging for you than if you have short arms. You can see like in the class who's like has to work a little bit harder.

Good, we'll do two more like this. And then pull your abs down again as you're rounding over them, making sure that you don't wear your shoulders like earrings. And last one, we'll round back. Go ahead and release your hands, so that your hands are kind of hovering over your knees. And then the same thing.

We're gonna round forward, so we're coming forward. Just warming up the spine a little bit. And then rounding back. Try to get your low back to touch down this time. Good, then we're gonna come all the way back forward, so staying round through your spine.

And we're gonna go a little bit further back than we did before. So we're gonna round back, low back touches, middle back touches, this is not nice for people with short legs, and then roll back up. Thank you. You're welcome. And again.

I was just acknowledging that, not that you aren't doing it, just acknowledging that was harder for you. And then round to come back up. And then on this next one we're gonna be all the way down. So we're all the way down on our backs, we meaning you all. And then coming all the way back up.

We've got the one more to come back up. Then scoot your hips a little closer to your feet and lay down all the way on your back. Pressing your arms down into the floor. So we're gonna activate our upper back muscles a little bit by being a little active in pressing your hands down into the floor. Let's make sure that you have about a fists distance between your knees, same distance between your feet.

Press into your feet, peel your back away from the floor bone by bone, coming into a straight line shoulder bridge. So it's a straight line going from your knees down to your throat. And then lay your spine down from your throat all the way to your tailbone. So coming down. And then lengthening your spine.

So you're coming back to a neutral pelvis at the bottom. Again, peeling your back away, rolling it up. And I always like to start with these, 'cause I just like to start with a little back warmup. And then slowly laying down bone by bone. Good, and watch that the distance between your knees doesn't change.

So if you're one of those people whose knees like to splay out to the side, you know you have tight IT band, you might wanna put a ball between your knees. Something about this size, maybe the size of like a grapefruit. If you have your knees like to go in this is where Magic Circle is your friend. I pretty much think of Magic Circle as never your friend, except maybe in that situation. One student that calls it an evil ring, which I think is a more appropriate name.

Gonna do two more like this. So press down, lift up. And then lower it back down. And then one more time, press into your feet, peel your back away. And then lower it all the way back down bone by bone.

Float your arms up towards the ceiling, so you wanna be just at about shoulder height. We're gonna pull everything together at once. So on an exhale head and chest lift, knees come in towards your chest at the same time. Good, you're gonna lower your upper body back down and let your toes tap the floor. And exhale to lift back up.

So make sure you're not coming up higher than the base of your shoulder blades. And then again, reaching away. So if this starts to get into your neck you just don't lower your head back down. Good, and reach away. Good, twice more like this.

Exhale, we're pulling everything together, closing the space between your low back and the mat, and then reaching away. Good, and one more, we're gonna stay up. Go ahead and extend your legs out, externally rotating your legs as you reach them out, come back in, we're in parallel. Extend your legs out in parallel, and then bend back in. Good, so we're alternating, external rotation, bend in, and parallel.

And I really want you to get that full extension of your legs. So you wanna see that your kneecap is almost lifting up as you're extending your legs. So you're really firing in all of the quadricep muscles, reaching out, and coming back in. Reaching out, and coming back in. We'll do two more like that.

Reaching out, and coming back in. Christy said I had to make it hard. Pick your favorite foot position, begin to pump your arms for the hundred. So you wanna watch how far your legs go down that you aren't arching your back away from the mat. I find that I tend to adjust my legs as the hundred goes on, because some teachers count it out longer than others do.

And I definitely have taken a class where it was a 200 and not a 100 and I'm chatting right now, so I really have no idea where we are, but I think we're about halfway. So we'll keep going from there. Look at your abs, see if you can sink them down towards your spine maybe a little bit more. I like how people close their eyes and they're just like happy place, happy place. Good, two more breaths.

And last breath. Keep your upper body lifted, pause. We're gonna slowly lower your legs down, let your legs lowering down lift your upper body up. So we're rolling up as we come up and your legs are down. We're all the way up to seated.

You might need to adjust just based on the fact that some of your legs are kind of close to each other, so you might wanna scoot back a little bit. Arms are reaching forward, shoulders are dropped, we're gonna tilt under, round back about halfway. Good, as you lift up I want you to float your right leg up a little bit. So you're lifting up, your right leg is lifting up with you. Lower back down to your low back almost touches, right leg lowers down.

Lift up, left leg lifts up as you're lifting up. And lower back down. If your hip flexors start screaming you do it with bent knees. Lift up, one leg lifts, and lower back down, that leg lowers. Lift up, other leg lifts, and lower back down.

Make sure you're behind your sits bones. We're gonna do one more each side. Right leg up, and lower back down. Left leg up, and lower back down. So we're gonna slowly lower down from there, so you don't wanna be quite that low, because we're gonna take this down on a four count.

So take it down, two, three, four. We're all the way down, arms are reaching up towards the ceiling. We're at eight count to come up. Head and chest lift up for eight, two, three, four, five, six, abs to the ground, seven, and eight. Down for eight, two, three, relax your shoulders, five, six, seven, and with your arms up another eight count to come up.

Up for eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Down for eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. Press your hands down into the floor, bend both knees, press your feet down into the floor. This time I want your legs to be adducted, they're all the way squeezed together. That's happening from the toes to the knees to the inner thighs.

Press into your feet, peel your back away from the mat bone by bone. So we're having a little bit of a squeeze on your inner thighs and then lower back down. Again, pressing into your feet, peeling your back away. So it's really finding that nice scoop as we come up to the straight line and then drop always from the thoracic first. Which I think a lot of times we wanna just drop the hips straight down and we're really trying to roll through the vertebra.

We're doing a couple more here. So pressing down, peeling to lift. And lower back down. And one more like this, press down to lift up. We're gonna keep your knees together on exactly the same plane, keep that squeeze, extend your right leg out, plant your right foot down.

Extend your left leg out. Plant your left foot down. So alternating, right leg out. Sort of like a can-can, except without the big puffy skirts. And down.

Right leg out, and down. Left leg out, and down. I almost wanna say both legs out just to see if you'll try, but I know it's not possible. Left leg reaches, and back down. Slowly lay your spine down bone by bone.

Walk your feet a little bit closer towards the middle of the room and flex your feet. So you're coming into a hard dorsiflexion, digging your heels into the mat. So from there, press into your feet, peel your back away the mat bone by bone, so you should feel your hamstrings kicking in way more than they were before, and then slowly lay your spine down bone by bone. You're maintaining that flex of your feet. So Brianne, if you wanna move your feet a little bit further towards the middle.

We're gonna do a couple more there. Press into your feet, lift it up. And then slowly lower back down bone by bone. Good, we'll do a couple more here. So press and lift.

And lower back down. Now on this next one we're gonna get fancy, press and lift, we're gonna do the exact same thing that we did with your legs bent in. Press and lift, extend the leg, bend a knee, extend the other leg, bend a knee. Extend and bend. Does anyone feel their hamstrings?

'Cause I have to do all of the thighs, I need to make sure that we get them all. Good, last one, lower back down. Now lower your hips down slowly bone by bone from there, let the soles of your feet come together and your knees drop out to the side. So this further kind of wide cobbler's pose position or sort of a wide diamond position is going to be easier than if your feet are closer in towards your seat. We're gonna reach your arms straight up towards the ceiling, on an exhale head and chest lift, we're gonna roll yourself up bone by bone, and try to keep your legs basically where they are in space.

And you can always hold onto your legs to get yourself up. And then we're gonna roll down on an eight count. So it's eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Let's see if we can come up on an eight count. So it's up for eight, two, three, four, five, gorgeous, six, seven, and eight.

We're gonna do a slightly different thing with your arms. So Hailey, I want you to keep your arms reaching forward, because otherwise you're gonna crash into each other. So we're going to circle your arms out to a T, so we're gonna time it. Also on an eight count they're gonna end up to a T. So inhale here, exhale, eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight.

Scoop yourself up for eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, 'cause I have to catch you guys. And one more time, eight count down. Eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. Eight count up, two, three, four, five, six, seven, keep your arms forward, just lay down, but we're gonna keep your legs where they are, so coming all the way back down onto your back. This time you're gonna wanna bring your legs in a little bit closer than they are.

So feet come a little bit closer in towards your seat. Stretch your arms long by your side, press into that outside edge of your feet. And if you are on a yoga mat and not a squishy mat I would fold it up a couple of times underneath your outside edge of your feet. Lift your hips up from there. And it's gonna be more of a straight lift than a pelvic curl.

And then lower back down. Good, and lift up. And lower back down. A couple more here. Exhale, lift, and lower back down.

Exhale, lift, and lower back down. Circle your arms around, bring your hands behind your head, interlace your fingers. We're gonna take the shape of your upper body and your lower body and bring it together, so exhale, head and chest lift, legs lift, maybe elbows touch knees, maybe it doesn't. And then lengthen slowly down. A couple more like this.

Exhale to lift. We're pulling everything in and then slowly lower down. We're doing this twice more. Exhale to lift, and lower back down. One more here.

Exhale to lift, and lower back down. Legs stay where they are, release your arms by your side, we're gonna lift your hips up again with a little variation. So press, lift your hips up. Arms wanna be pressing down into the mat. See if you can lift your right foot off the floor, so your left leg is holding you up without dipping your hips.

And then lower it back down. And lift the other side up. And if you're like me, one side likes this, well, one side, like is such a loaded word I think. One side hates this less than the other side. Good, we'll do one more each side.

Good, make sure your ribs are in, so you can lengthen low back, nice. And then lower back down slowly. Now your arms are actively pressing into the floor. Take the shape that your legs are in, bring your feet above your hips, we're gonna take this shape into a rollover. So we're gonna exhale, legs go up and over, thighs above your eyes, and then extend your legs out straight, and then slowly roll down bone by bone, and keep your heels touching.

Good, so at the bottom you bend your legs back into this frog position, take that shape up and over, extend your legs out, and slowly lower down bone by bone. Good, we're gonna do that twice more. So bend in your knees, exhale to go up and over, extend your legs out, slowly lower it down. Good, and one more time, bend your knees, exhale to go up and over, legs extend, and slowly lower all the way back down. Now we have choices.

Nice to have choices in life. You can keep your arms by your side, we're gonna do regular rollover, but not with all the leg separating and stuff, or you can bring your hands overhead, or hardest, you bring your hands behind your head, that way there's no weight of your arms holding you down to the mat. So take your choice, hands behind your head, overhead, legs up. We're gonna take your legs up and over to parallel to the floor, so you don't have to touch the floor with your feet. Anytime you're ready.

Go. And then slowly roll down bone by bone. Good, once your tailbone touches I want you to float your head and chest up, reaching your arms up towards your feet. Lower your right leg down like it's trying to touch the floor, make sure you don't lift up higher than the base of your shoulder blades, switch legs. And switch, beautiful.

And switch. And switch. Keep looking at your abs. Abs wanna pop out usually at the point where your legs are switching, so you might minimize how low you go with your legs. We'll do four more here.

Two, three, let's end with both legs up to 90 degrees. Bring your hands behind your head. We're gonna lower your legs down on an eight count up for one. So we're going down two, three, four, five, six, seven, lift them up, down for eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and up. Two more down, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and lift.

One more down, two, three, four, five, six, seven, legs go up. We're gonna bend both knees. Rotate towards your right, extending your left leg out straight, extend your right leg straight up towards the ceiling, and then rebend that knee. Rotate towards the other side. Extend your leg up and bend and switch.

So you're doing a leg kick, a leg bend, and we switch. Leg kick and bend and switch. They all look so good I feel like I'm not making this hard enough. And switch. You are.

Is it hard? Okay, and switch. Good, last round. Good, you're gonna keep your legs reaching up towards the ceiling, both leg up towards the ceiling, give your upper body a break, so lower head and chest down. I hope you enjoyed that, come right back up.

Now we're going to reach your hands up into sort of a prayer position. We're going to reach to the outside of your right leg, come back to center, you straddle your legs, reach to the inside of your legs. Legs come back together, you reach to the outside of your left leg. And back to center, you straddle your legs and reach, and back to center. Reach right, and center.

Straddle your legs. And up, and left, and center. One more round after this. We reach, and up, go right, and center, reach up, and center, and left, and center. Go ahead and lower your upper body down, bend your knees in, rock yourself all the way up to seated.

Good, let's go ahead and reach your legs forward, so legs are gonna be forward. They can be I think maybe about hip distance apart. We're gonna reach your arms up, so that they're about at the height of your shoulders, so you're gonna be sitting up tall. And on an exhale you're gonna round forward, so you're reaching forward trying to reach past your feet, and then stack your spine up bone by bone. So you wanna make sure you're sitting upright with your shoulders dropped.

Good, we're gonna do that a couple more times, so exhale to reach. You can have your legs flexed or pointed, I don't really care. And then stack your spine up. Good, one more here, so we reach forward, and then stack up. Now we're gonna add a leg lift as we go forward.

So as you go forward right leg is gonna hover off the mat. So exhale to reach, right leg is hovering. You don't necessarily need to reach as far forward, and then lower it back down. Good, exhale to reach and left leg hovers. And back down.

Just one more each side. Reach, right leg lifts, and lower it back down. Reach, left leg lifts, and lower it back down. Now we're gonna try to reach and catch your legs, I would recommend bending your knees a little bit. So reach, you're gonna grab hold of your ankles or the lower part of your legs, so anytime you're ready.

Like that? Yeah, so like open like rocker position. Make sure you've got some mat behind you. Good, and then, well see, then everyone kind of lost that beautiful transition I had going there. So we're gonna tilt back, so you wanna make sure that your low back is rounded, but your upper back is extended.

Look down, inhale back to the base of your shoulder blades, exhale up and balance. Wow, everyone got it. Inhale back and exhale up. Shoulders down. Inhale back, and exhale, let's all pause at the top.

I'm going to take this, I think I'm stealing it from Amy, one of Amy's classes, both hands to the right ankle, drop your left leg down halfway. Is this one of yours? It is Pat (mumbling), she might have had Ron Fletcher, (mumbling). Don't know, I stole it from someone. I stole it from someone.

Okay, so inhale back and exhale up, so the same shape. We're taking it back, try to keep the shape the same, and up, twice more. Back and up. Sometimes you just don't know who to credit for something. Back and up.

Or you think you've invented something and you're just like, no, so and so used to do that. Like Joseph Pilates, like I had that one happen once. Inhale back. Yeah, I saw one of the Joseph Pilates pictures and I was like, oh my god, I totally thought I invented that, and no, I didn't, wasn't me. Good, last one.

And come all the way up. Go ahead and lower your legs down to the mat and we're gonna start with bent knees. So we're gonna reach your arms forward, we're gonna round back a little bit, so not too much. So about where your heel of your hands can touch your knees. You're gonna take your right leg and lift up, now it's tapping sort of more forearm, and down.

Left leg up, tap, and down. Right leg up, and down. And left, and down. So you really wanna be moving from those low abs and hip flexors. So we're gonna do a couple more like this, so just a little march.

And last one. Now we're taking this entire shape and rotating it towards the camera. So now it's just your towards the camera leg, so it's right leg for you, left leg for me. You're gonna lift up and down. Up, tap, down.

Up, tap, down. Up and down. Four more, one, and two, and three, and four. Leg is down, we're going over towards the other side, shoulders sit down, oh, beautiful view. Lift up, and down.

So would it be wrong if I did like extra set on this side, just so that I can look out, (student speaking off mic) out at the beach. Good, four more. Go up and down, and two, and down, and three. Well, I can tell you it's beautiful, absolutely beautiful. And then come back to center and we're gonna sit all the way up, hands on your knees, take that into a little bit of a back extension.

So we're gonna do a variation of stomach massage, everyone's favorite reformer exercise, right? Except we're gonna do it on the mat. So you wanna sit back and you're gonna have your legs be kind of close together, you're gonna have your hands, they can slide almost like underneath your hips, so imagine we were on the reformer and we had something to hold onto. We don't really have that here, so we're gonna do it this way. Shoulders are dropped, abs are pulled in, you're sort of finding your stomach massage position.

Flex your right foot, hover your right foot off the floor, extend your leg out, point, flex, pull in. Go out, point, flex, pull in. Go out, point, flex, pull in. Two more, out, point, flex, and in. Last one, out, point, flex, and in.

Extend your spine, reach your arms forward, we're not gonna do the point, flex. Lift your right leg off the floor, extend it out and in. Out and in. And out and in. Add the reach, so you're reach to the right, and pull back in.

Two more, reach to the right, and pull back in. Last one, reach to the right, and pull back in. Lower your foot down, moving onto the other side. So hands kind of underneath your hips, round through the lumbar, relaxed through the thoracic, left leg lifts up, we extend it out, point, flex, pull in. Reach out, point, flex, abs pull your leg in.

Go out, point, flex, pull in. Twice more, out, point, flex, and in. And out, point, flex, and in. Extend your spine, your leg is up, we don't do the point, flex, so you're just gonna extend your leg out, pull it in. Take it out, pull it in.

Take it out, pull it in. Add the rotation, reach around, and pull to center, reach around, and pull to center. One more time, reach around, and pull to center. Let your legs lower down. You can let your legs drop open.

Fold over your legs for a little quick stretch. And then we're gonna swing around, so that we're coming to a quadruped position. So wanted to do some kind of scapular, protraction, retraction, where we're really working into some shoulder stabilization in a bunch of different positions. So first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna come to our forearms. I like the clasped hands, I don't know, it just feels more stable to me.

You're gonna extend one leg back and the other leg comes back to join it. Anytime you're ready. Make sure your hips are tucked under. Don't leave me here. Go ahead and relax your shoulders and then push the floor away.

So your shoulder blades move towards each other a little bit and they push. And move forwards, and push. Good, and move forward, and push. A couple more like this. Move forward, make sure you're not sinking your low back, so rather your butt be lifted up.

We'll do two more. Release, and push. And release, push. Hold it there, slowly lower your hips down to the mat. So we're going to lift away from the mat.

So remember whenever we're on this position your back naturally wants to come into an anterior tilt, so we're gonna lengthen your low back. Think about lifting your ribs away from the floor. And we'll just do single leg kicks, so separate your hands for me, kick your leg, right leg kick, kick, reach. Left leg kick, kick, and reach. Right leg double kick, and reach.

Left leg double kick. Don't forget to lift those ribs up, kick, kick, and reach. Kick, kick, and reach. Two more here. Last one.

Tuck your toes under again once you're done and lift yourself back into that forearm plank. From there you're gonna walk it up to a regular plank, so hands are up. Good, make sure you have kind of the inside part of your elbow facing forward, which means you're rotating your shoulders. Good, we're gonna do the same thing, so you're pushing the floor away, and then release. Good, so you're pushing the floor away, and release.

And push, and release. So this all is happening without bending your elbows. We'll do a couple more, push, and release. And push, and release. Drop down to your knees, walk your knees in a little bit closer, so we wanna be in kind of a true quadruped position.

We're going to tuck your toes under, tuck your pelvis under, so tilting your pubic bone towards your ribs, hover your knees off the mat, and we're gonna take one leg and lift it up and back, and just hold for four, two, three, four, lower that leg down. Other leg up for four, two, three, four, leg down, knees down. A little moment in child's pose. Now our hands, our hands are in line, but I want you to take one hand back a little bit. So I have my left hand back a little bit, right hand's forward a little bit.

I'm gonna bring my right foot down, my left foot's gonna come down really close to it, and I'm going to lift my hips up, but I have square hips right now. And if you have a troublesome low back you might wanna leave this one out. You're gonna round your spine, so tucking your pelvis under you, shift your weight forward, and then drop your chest and look up. Good, and then we're gonna round up, sending your hips back. And again, we come forward, and then take it into extension.

Good, and then come back up. One more like this. Take it forward and look up. Now come back a little bit and just rotate towards the side, look over your left shoulder, and come back to center. Two more like that, so it's a little rotation, and back to center.

And a rotation, and back to center. You can a moment, dropping down to your knees, and then we'll switch sides. So we're gonna have right hand back, left hand forward. So it's sort of snake twist, if that wasn't blatantly obvious. Go ahead and step your legs back.

We're gonna lift your hips up, so think almost down dog position, square hips. Now shift that shape forward and lengthen your spine to the point where it feels okay in your lumbar spine. Good, and then we're lifting your hips back up. Good, let's do that twice more like that. So we're coming forward, good, and lifting back up.

And we'll do one more like that, so coming forward, nice, and lift back up. Now you're not gonna come forward as much, so come forward a little bit, and then we add the twist. So you're twisting to the arm that is further back and then derotate and come back up. Twice more. Coming forward we twist and then we untwist.

And one more like this, come forward and twist, and then we untwist, beautiful. Drop down to your knees, take a moment, stretch back in child's pose. So if at any point these things become wristy, so they come hard on your hands, we're gonna be doing a bunch of quadruped work, you can always bring your hands so the heel of your hand is on the mat, fingers on the floor, you can roll it up. You can come to fists if you have a comfortable enough mat. But we're come to quadruped position.

So your hands are under your shoulders, your knees are under your hips, your eyes are looking a little bit forward, make sure your shoulders are down. The shape of your right leg is not gonna change, but we're gonna lift it up. Now we're gonna cross your left leg, your knee does not have to touch the floor, 'cause then you won't be able to keep your hips square, and then you lift it right back up. So you cross over, and lift. So you should feel some inner thigh here.

So you cross over, lift up. Cross over, lift up. Cross over, lift up. Four more, one, and up, two, and up, three, and up, and four, straight leg, cross over, lift up. Cross over, lift up.

Cross over, and up. And over, and up. Four more, one, and up, two, and up, three, and last one. Lower your knee down, stand up on your knees, keep your pelvis tucked under, reach your arms straight, we're gonna take this shape and lean back without change the shape, and then come right back up. We'll do that twice more.

Lean it back, and come up. One more time, lean it back, and come up. Keep your abs pulling in, round over, hands find the floor, left leg lifts up in a bent knee position, we take it across, and up. And cross, and up. And cross, lift up.

Cross over, and up. Four more, one, and reach, and two, and reach, abs are in, leg is reaching. One more, down, lift it up, extend. Cross it over, lift it up. Cross it over, lift up.

Cross over, and up. And cross, and up. Four more, one, lift up, go two, up. Twice more. Last one.

Lower that knee down, come all the way back to standing on your knees. Tilt your pelvis under. This time we're going genie arms, so cross arms one over the other, shoulders are down, this shape leans back, and then we come right back up. Two more times. Lean back, and up.

One more like this. Lean back, and up. We're gonna take that shape again, we're rounding forward to bring our hands down. Now we're gonna offset our hands, so we're gonna walk our hands right hand to the left, left to the left, right leg is gonna extend to the outside edge of your mat with the inside of your foot down. Try to keep your hips square.

Lift your right leg up, and down. Lift straight up. So you should feel a pinch in the outside of your hip. Lift up, and down. And lift, and down.

Good, lift up, and down. Lift up, and down. A couple more like this. Now this next one I want you to hold it up, little circles in space. Eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Switch directions, eight, two, try to keep your foot flat towards the floor, five, six, seven, eight. Lower that leg down, and we're gonna walk our hands to the other side. So your hands go towards the right, your left leg goes out towards the left in external rotation, we lift it up and down. Lift up, and down. Nice, lift, and down.

Try not to let it kind of dump into your back, so if your lifting it up and your back is really arching you're probably lifting more with your back than with your gluts, which I want more gluts than back. Good, couple more. And last one, now leave it up, little circles, eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Switch directions, eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Lower your leg down.

We're gonna stand up on your knees again. It just keeps getting more fun. Go ahead and bring your hands behind your head, fingertips kind of behind your ears, like they don't really have to be behind your head. Tilt your pelvis under, so if you haven't noticed, this is getting progressively harder, which it should get progressively easier actually. Go ahead and lean back and lift back up.

So you're trying to keep the shape of your body completely the same the entire time. And lift up. One more like this. Now reach your arms forward. Notice I didn't say come up.

Now you're just gonna sit your butt back down on your heels. Now we're gonna come back to that backwards lean, right? Okay. So go ahead and lift up. Now stand it up, lean it back, happy thoughts, I'm told I say that all the time, but I feel like sometimes you just need a reminder.

Lean it back, and stand it up. We're just gonna do one more. Lean it back, and then sit it all the way down. This is where I feel like you wanna kind of massage out your thighs a little bit. If you want to, hit them.

Just like meat tenderizing. We're gonna bring a hand behind your back, pick your favorite hand. Reach the other arm up and back. And then lower back and we'll switch. So we're going up, reach it back, and coming all the way back down.

You're gonna turn, so that you're facing, let's go camera side. So you're gonna stand up on your knees, don't worry, it won't be as bad as before. Bring your arms out to a T, sit back down on your heels, but almost all the way, but not quite. I want you to shift your hips over, so that they land on the left side of your feet, but I want your arms to stay into the T. And then you're gonna come up to go over to the other side.

So it's sort of like a mermaid prep. Beautiful. And then go up to go over, which I think is harder than it looks, like I feel like it looks like it should be easy and it's not. It's not easy. And then go over to the other side.

So see if you don't lift up as high and you can just shift your weight, kind of keeping it low, from one side to the other. Let's all end up on our left hip, so we're going that way. Now we're gonna open your legs into sort of that wider mermaid position, so left leg is folded in, right leg is back, reach your arms forward. Amy, scoot that way a smidge, and then, Hailey, scoot this way a smidge. So your arms are gonna reach forward.

Try not to lean too much in towards your hip. I want you to take your leg, your right leg, and extend it out that way, but not touching the ground. Not touching the ground? Yes, good. Now we're gonna swing it around, bend your knee, land it in front of your other leg.

So you're gonna weight shift a little bit. Good, and then you go out to the side, beautiful, and then you come around. So when you go out to the side aim for straight. So we're going out straight and around to the front, and out straight and around to the front. Just four more times.

Out straight, you're like just, just. Good. Only two left on this side. Now leave your leg out, drop down to your left forearm, so your right leg is up. Lift your waist away from the floor, right leg is gonna go forward, kick, kick, and back.

Kick, kick, go forward, and back. And forward, and back. Twice more, forward, and back. Last one, forward, and back. Externally rotate that leg.

It goes straight up and down. Lift up and down. Lift up and down. Two more, up and down. Last one, up and down.

You're just gonna sit on your gluts facing towards the same direction your leg is facing. So if you need to turn around to see me you can do a quick turn. I want you to take your hand, your right hand, hold onto your left foot. So if that is not accessible to you based on any kind of hamstring flexibility, just hold on higher. Gonna take your foot with you as you lean back and lift your leg up and you're drop down to your forearm.

Now we're gonna take your right leg, lift it up to your left, and lower it back down. Lift your leg up, and down. Lift it up, and down. Twice more, lift, and down. Last one.

Now if you wanna make it harder lift your leg up halfway, release your other leg, and just try to hold. For four, two, three, and four. Lower both legs down. Good, you're gonna make your way onto your opposite side. So let's just go ahead and face, you can only see the sky, but I can see the water and it's beautiful.

So you're gonna have your right leg folded and your left leg folded out, and we're gonna start with the swinging your leg around. So we're sitting upright, yep. So your leg goes out to the side, kind of find the counterbalance as you swing your leg around to the front, and then out to the side, and around to the front, here's two, and out to the side. And around to the front, here's three, and out to the side. Going for four, and out.

And five, and out. Three more times. I kind of wanted to bring back thrice. I say thrice more. Do it.

But now we'd have to do three more on top of this, which nobody wants to do. Go ahead and drop down to your right forearm with your left leg reaching. Hand can be on your hips, it can be behind your head. We're gonna your leg, swing it forward two, and reach, and forward, and reach, and kick, and reach. Twice more, kick, and reach.

Once more, kick, and reach. External rotation, you lift your leg up and down, and up and down. Thrice more, lift, and down. Twice more, up and down. Once more, up and down.

We're gonna roll back to where you're seated upright. You're gonna reach for the opposite foot, so I think we're going right foot, left hand. Lift your leg up, drop down to your right forearm. Left leg is going to lift up and lower, and up and lower. Lift up and lower.

Two more times, lift and lower. Last time, keep those shoulders away from your ears. Now you're gonna lower your leg down about halfway, release your top hand, and we're hovering for eight, two, three, I know we only did four on the last side, so I'm gonna let you go ahead and lower down, 'cause I realized that once we're halfway through. We're gonna come up and turn, face the inside of the room again. We're gonna do what I find to be a lovely plank variation, which is gonna be sort of a plank to a hip stretch to a pushup to a side bend.

Makes sense to me. So go ahead and we're gonna come up and I'm going to hope that this works on this mat, which I'm not sure if it will. So you're gonna have your legs extended back behind you, really pushing the floor away, lengthen your lower back. You're gonna bend your right knee in and extend it, so it's all the way through. Good, from there we're gonna do a couple pushups.

Let's say three. One, two, and three. Then you're gonna turn, so that your back foot is down and your arms are up. Lift your hips up and we're just gonna do hip dips. Down and up.

And two, and up. And three, and up. Three more, one, and two, and three. You're gonna come back to that plank, give me three more pushups. Pushup one, and two, and three.

Bend your knee in, extend your other leg in, and across, three pushups. One, two, and three. You're gonna lift your right arm up, or whatever arm, and then dip your hips down, up one, down, up two, down, three, down, two more times. Down, lift it up, down, lift it up. Rotate it around.

We've got three more pushups. Down, up one. Down, up two. Down, up three. Pull it through, come back to a plank, lift your hips up high.

So we've done sort of the protraction, retraction, I wanna do it here. So push the floor away and the relax the shoulders. Good, and push the floor away, and relax your shoulders. Twice more, push the floor away, and relax your shoulders. You might wanna bring your feet in a couple inches closer than they are.

I want you to take your right hand and reach for your left ankle. Now with just your left arm we're gonna push away and release. Three more times, push away, and release. Two more times, push away, and release. One more time, push away, and release.

Come back, take a break if you need one, otherwise go onto the other side. So we're reaching across for protraction, retraction. So push away, and release. Two, and release. Three, and release.

Last one, four, and release. Come back, drop down to your knees and press back into child's pose. Almost, almost home stretch. So go ahead and swing your legs around to the front. We're gonna come lying down on your back with your legs kind of about hip distance apart.

We're gonna do a roll-up with your legs in a V instead of with your legs all the way together, but with a teaser roll-up. So arms up towards the ceiling. So you just have to think about both legs lifting up equally at the same time. And it will show you if one leg is stronger than the other, so that's always nice. So head and chest lift, you wanna make sure your low back makes contact on the way up and the way down.

Legs lift up, beautiful. Keep your legs reaching as you lower down, low back touches and then your legs begin to reach away long. Good, we're gonna do a couple more like that. So we reach it up. Beautiful.

And roll back down. Good, two more. Reach it up and roll back down. And one more time, reach it up. So your legs are still separated, I want you to touch your right leg with your left hand, so we're rotating.

And then rotate to the other side. So try not to let your legs move, 'cause they're gonna wanna move to reach your hand, as apposed to your hand reaching your leg. We'll do this, call this the last round. Back to center, lower all the way down onto your back, bend your knees into your chest, arms by your side, legs go up to 90 degrees. Legs are going to go up and overhead.

If you can touch the floor, perfect. Once your feet are down circle your arms up and around, grab hold of your right ankle, extend your left leg up towards the ceiling. Good. From there try to keep your back in the position it's in and switch your legs. Good, and go slow, it's no race.

And switch. Good, and switch. And switch. Good, one more each side, or whatever balances you out. And then slowly you'll lower down, you can bend your knees in.

And you wanna hug your knees into your chest and you're gonna rock a little bit from side to side, kind of massaging out your low back. Rock yourself up to seated, come up to standing at the back edge of your mat. So you wanna make sure, we're gonna do the walk out to a plank, but that's kind of not where we're going with this, but I still like the walk out in three steps. So if you aim towards your feet you're gonna have to fling yourself to the rest, so aim mid mat. Arms reach up towards the ceiling, round your spine, pick your favorite hand, it goes down somewhat in the middle, and then you walk out and you're in a plank.

Bring your right leg into a lunge. Good. We're gonna stand up from there into that lunge, so your arms are reaching up, so I want your arms to reach up. We're gonna lower down and tap your left knee down to the floor and up. Tap down, lift up.

Tap down, lift up. Twice more, tap down, lift up. And on this last one I want you to not go all the way, so we're just holding it there. Little arm circles back for eight. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight.

Hands find the outside of your foot, walk your right foot back to your left foot, lift your hips up, walk yourself back to your feet, come all the way up to standing. We have the other side left, so arms are reaching up, exhale, round over, so you're gonna aim your hands kind of mid mat. And take a step out, one, two, three, step your other leg into a lunge. Reach your arms up. And then we're gonna tap that right knee down, touch if you can, lift back up one.

Three more like this. Two. And three. And on the last one we hold. And then we do arm circles the other direction.

So whatever feels unnatural do that. Four more, two, three, and four. Hands come down on the outside of your left foot, or outside of your foot, and then go ahead and step your right foot to meet your left foot, and hang in a forward fold. So you can rock a little from side to side, massaging out your low back. And then walk your legs so that they're about, let's actually do a turn towards the mirror, or the mirror, the on camera.

Go ahead and walk your right leg out towards the right a little bit further and then turn your feet out and you're gonna let your knees bend and take this into a squat slash inner thigh stretch. And you can kind of wiggle from side to side if you like, I know that that's always what I would tend to wanna do in this position. And then you can just have a seat facing the inside of the room. We're gonna take it into a forward fold, so reach forward through your legs, go ahead and extend your spine. And then slowly make your way up.

Fold your right knee in and stack your left knee on top of it, so this doesn't work for everyone's anatomy. If it doesn't work for yours you just sit regular cross-legged position. So you start by sitting up tall and then lean forward with a flat back. You can bring your hands to the mat, you can leave them up, you can drop your chin. And then slowly make your way up, untangle your legs, and then retangle your legs so the other leg is on top.

And it's totally normal for one leg to feel more flexible than the other or be more flexible than the other, so again, lengthen your spine, and then fold yourself forward. And we'll slowly make our way all the way up and that is it, that's all I have for you. Nice job, guys.