Stand Tall Mat

Welcome back to Pilates Anytime. Today we are doing an intermediate advanced foam roller class with the lovely Theo and Lisa, my South African sisters. So we're gonna start with the rolldown. I want you to take, have good awareness in the session. It's gonna be an intense class at quite a pace, but always making sure that we have safety first.

Okay girls take a deep breath, inhale. As you exhale, just lengthen your spine, reach the crown of the head up towards your ceiling. The next time we're gonna roll down inhale. Draw the abdominals deep. Lower the chin towards the chest.

And just roll your body forward check in in with your body. This is a good opportunity to make sure that you feel pain free, take a deep breath, inhale. And then on the exhale draw the abdominals rolling your body back up stacking those joints, one on top of each other and standing tall. We're gonna repeat this twice more, inhale. And exhale drawing the chin to the chest.

Reach your fingertips towards the flow, keeping your palms facing each other so those shoulders stay nice and open. Relax the head down, inhale, thank you ladies. And draw the abdominals, exhale, pressing down into those hamstrings, rolling up and one more, inhale. And exhale with the chin towards the chest, rolling down, all the way down and then from here, we're gonna sit down placing your pelvis on the floor and just bring your roller underneath your scapulas. Interlace your hands behind your head once you're there and this is a good time to just lean back and open up your chest, stretching out those backs.

Stay here for two breaths, inhale. Just exhale relax and allow your body to just be in the moment. One more breath inhale. (breathing noisily) And exhale, exhale. Drawing your chin on the next exhale.

Inhale, prepare, exhale chest just halfway up. Stay there for me. Lift your hips up off the floor. Draw your elbows in towards each other and just massage that upper back out. And forward and back and forward, go into your sticky spots and release that area.

Setting yourself up for a good strong clause on this foam roller that is so challenging as it is. And then come back to the center and lower your hips down. Great, turn on to your sides. Keep your hands interlaced behind your head. Keep your knees stacked on top of each other.

Bringing your elbow forward and we're just gonna release your spine in this rotation. All the way forward, we lift the elbow. We rotate the body back just rotating and extending at the same time and a little bit of a click here and there and forward. As long as there is no pain, then that's okay, we will do two more. Lift up, rotate and release.

Your hands are supporting your head here and move forward. We will do one more. Lift up, rotate, good. Lift up halfway here for me. Press your feet into the floor.

Lift your hips up. So rotate the knees this way. Lift your hips up. And massage out that area in the shoulder blade and again if you need to rotate more, or extend more whatever you feel you need that massage. We are all different.

Be kind to your body and allow it to just release for now. Good, place your hips down. I want you to bring the foam roll on to the inside. And then we do the other side. Hands behind your head, draw the knees in, elbows forward and we lift up.

Lisa, I think you can down more of those rubies, more on to the yes, tender spots of the shoulder girdle. And then elbow forward. And lift up, rotate, just release here, even if the hips and the knees move that's okay, good and forward, one more you guys. Up and open, so extend the spine, extend the spine, and then lift up halfway here. Press your feet into the floor.

Lift those hips up and let's roll it out, forward and back. Forward and back and two more and one more. Lower the hips down. Great, from here bring your roller on your mat. We're gonna lie in a supine position with your feet towards the center.

And your head on the other end of the roller. Okay, good. So Lisa I'm gonna ask you just to sit up for me one more time. Press yourself back, come right back come here and make sure your roller is in the same. Pressing your hands into the floor be active in your body.

So your triceps are going to be very active here. We're gonna start with the pelvic curl as you inhale prepare. (breathing noisily) As you exhale, draw your deep abdominals, press your pelvis up off the roller, reaching towards the ceiling, inhale at the top. And then exhale articulate your spine and roll back down into your neutral and we inhale. And exhale, tilt the pelvis and roll up.

Roll up and roll up. Press your feet down, lift your hips up, inhale and exhale, articulate down. Deep lumbar flexion into the neutral and three more inhale. And exhale. Tuck, roll up, reach up, getting that perfect alignment here.

Inhale and exhale to roll down. And down and down. Every time it gets a little bit better two more as we move our bodies, allowing our deep core muscles to manipulate the skeleton to work and exhale to roll down and down and down. Lift your arms, inhale. Reach your arms back over your head, circle your arms around.

This time we're gonna come into a chest lift as you lift up, lift up, lower the head down, reach the arms up, circle the arms right back, stretching the shoulders chin to chest, chest to thighs, reach towards each other. And lower down and we do three more lift up and circle, exhale up, up, little bit more. Deeper into the abdominals and lower down two more lifting and circling without the ribs flaring press the arms down. Be active in the elbows, stretching through the elbow and lower the head down. This is your last one lifting the arms.

And circle and we exhale, lift your chest, and we're gonna hold it over the palms down, breathe in for the hundreds and we exhale two, three, four, five, inhale. And exhale two, three, four, five, inhale. And three two, if you have the stability, lift the right leg up for four, two, three, four, five, great work you guys, stay there. Five, two, three, four, five, inhale, start lowering the leg. And six, two, three, four, five, ready for the opposite side.

And seven, two, three, four, five, inhale. If you're unstable keep one end on the floor and keep pumping the opposite side. Two more, two, three, four, five, inhale. And last one, two, three, four, five, pause. Lower your head and your hands only keep the leg up.

Great work. Both hands on the floor. Leg changes. Exhale to change. Inhale pause, exhale to change.

Draw those lower ribs towards your hips and exhale, good work you guys. Three more, exhale two, exhale one, bring both your legs up, keep your knees and ankles together. Make sure those adductors are working hard. And if I had to come and rest on your legs. You're not gonna drop your legs 'cos your extensors are active.

We're gonna move into the double leg stretch. Keeping the head down inhale, activate the extensors and reach out and inhale to bend. And again extend reach, reach, reach, then draw it in. We're going to do three more then we're gonna come into the flexion and bend and two more, exhale out for me, exhale, exhale, inhale to bend this time. And exhale reach, reach, reach, great work.

And bend this time we lift the chest up. We go for five, keep the head up this time, inhale to bend. And four more, exhale, reach, reach, use your breath to intensify the work and two more, exhale. And bend and one more exhale, reach, hold it here. Lower your head, pull your right knee to your chest for the single leg stretch.

And we exhale, reach press and hold. Inhale and exhale. Again drawing those lower ribs towards your hips, we're gonna do two more and then we're gonna come into the thoracic flexion. And exhale, now we lift the head up and we go for six. Exhale five, exhale four, bringing your thigh to 90 degrees and two and hold it here for me, pause here.

We're going to exhale lower the leg and resist it, inhale, four more. Exhale reach, reach, reach and lift. Bracing from the back of the leg and up and two more and lift. And one more reach, reach up change legs. If your neck is sore, please place your head down.

And lift up, four more and reach away and lift. Touch each other. Reach a little bit more leg through those hips, two more, great work you guys. And one more lift, bend your knees, finish the movement and lower the hip. Place your right foot on the floor, place your left foot on the floor, bring your arms into a T position.

And just massage out your spine. Massage, so for me this feels so great on my sacrum area, because I'm so tight in my gluts. Do what you feel works for your body right now. This is free movement. Doesn't always happen, so enjoy.

Right take a breath, roll off to the front of your roller, come and lie on your back and you're gonna move your roller to place it under your sacrum. So lie supine, do a pelvic curl, and place it good. Take your hand through the outside of your roller, breathe in, exhale lift your right leg, then your left leg off the floor. Just gently assist yourself here. And we're gonna move the legs over to the right side as we inhale, extend your legs, exhale draw your legs back to the center and bend your knees and inhale over reach your legs away extending from the knees and draw back, back, back and again bend your knees with resistance.

Good work over. And reach wide, elongate those legs, pull to the center and bend, and over and reach away, draw back, draw back and bend. Good resistance you guys two more. Inhale and extend and resisting back and bend one more and over and reach away, draw your legs back, hold it here and we're going to bring your hands on top of the roller. So pressing down, using your triceps again the legs are still extended and just to open up the hips while the pelvis is elevated here, we're gonna scissor the right leg towards your nose and the left nose towards the floor.

Hold it here. Use your glut and hamstring to extend this leg more towards the floor. I know you've got more range, thank you and we change. And we reach, reach, reach. And we change and we brisk getting that beautiful opening up in the hip.

And exhale and exhale and two more, great work you guys and one more from here, bring both legs up to the ceiling. So remember this movement pattern because it is going to repeat itself a little bit later on in the class. We're going to do two scissors with the windmill around. So right leg towards your nose, left leg to the floor, reach. And change again, two scissors.

Then circle wide and around reach for the floor and then we go scissor one. And scissor two and circle, circle, circle and one good, and two and circle around. Two more sets, and one and two, circle around around great work. Last one and scissor and scissor and circle around pull your right leg towards your face. Hold on to your knee with your hands and just stretch out the thigh here.

Just here. Breathing in, and breathing out. Inhale, and exhale, pull the knee in and swap sides. Good keeping the balance in the body. Breathe in and breathe out.

And one more breath inhale. And exhale, draw both knees in towards the chest, place your right foot, then your left foot on the floor. Lift your hips up, inhale. And then as you flick the roller towards your heels, exhale and roll your spine down all the way. Lifting your feet up, placing the roller on top of your feet.

Ready for your pelvic curl into a single leg pelvic curl. So first one pelvic curl, we inhale, exhale draw the abdominals, tilt the pelvis, and roll up, roll up, roll up. Draw the pelvis towards that posterior tilt. Lift your right leg to hover off the floor. We do three on each side.

Leg at 90 degrees, exhale pelvic curl down keeping the leg up, exhale, exhale to the neutral. Inhale pause and exhale tilt the pelvis and roll up, roll up, beautiful, inhale and exhale articulate, articulate, articulate down make sure your pelvis comes to neutral one more and exhale tilt the pelvis and roll up. Stay here breathing in, tap the toe three times, exhale, inhale lift. And two more and lift, and one more great pelvic stability, hold place the foot down. Breathe into the ruler, keep the ruler still and lift the opposite leg up off the floor and exhale.

Articulate the spine down, cool, cool, cool. Into the neutral, inhale and exhale. Tilt the pelvis and roll up. Roll up good. Nice, inhale and exhale, to roll down and down and down, this is the last one, inhale and exhale.

Tilt the pelvis and roll up, roll up, pause. And we tap and we lift and two more and we lift and one more and lift hold place your foot down. Breathe in, establish the position and exhale roll down, roll down, roll down. Keep the soles of the feet together as you abduct the knees into a little froggy position. You're probably not gonna love this exercise but it's good for you.

Take a deep breath inhale exhale, pelvic roll out, tilt the pelvis, roll up, roll up, inhale, pause, good position you two. Exhale to rolldown. Great work. Bring that pelvis to the neutral two more, inhale and exhale, tilt and roll up, great work, inhale and exhale roll down. Roll down, can we do some hip disassociation.

One more inhale and exhale, roll the pelvis up. Hold it and maintain the pelvic lumbar stabilization, three on each leg. Inhale, lift the right leg up. And tap down and two more lift and tap down and one more lift, tap down and hold it (grunts). And a leg up and lift and tap, two more lift and tap.

Last one lift hold it here. Posterior tilt, place the foot down and roll down. You guys are such good students. You listen to every cue I give and bring the legs together, extend your legs over the roller. Ready for roller, reach your arms back and over your hip.

Lifting the arm, nodding the chin to the chest, exhale, roll up for me. Roll up, roll up, roll up. Take your roller in your hands, place your feet on the floor. We're gonna do two more roll-ups with your hands holding the roller. Good, yes.

Make sure your palms are squeezing into the roller. That way the upper body is very active, not just the fingertips. Inhale, exhale, initiate that movement with the deep posterior tilt. As you roll back, roll back to your shoulder blades then lift the arms, take the head and the chest back and inhale arms and chest. Exhale to roll forward, great, inhale and exhale.

Draw the abdominals, rolling back, control, control, control and take it back last one. Inhale and exhale to roll up, up, up. Dorsiflex your ankles, abduct your legs, extend your spine and bring your arms your roller in line with the shoulders. Ready for your spine, straight, inhale. Lift the abdominals, lower the chin, roll your body forward.

Roll, roll, roll, inhale here. And exhale articulate the spine into my leg, sitting up tall and feel like you're sitting on a hot plate so that your body is just hovering over this mat. Yes and exhale, lower the chin, roll forward and again you're creating your own resistance to make this exercise harder for yourself. Inhale and exhale roll up and up and up inhale and exhale lower the chin, lift the abdominals, feel the string from deep inside of your body, pause here. As you inhale go into extension.

Reach your roller up in line with the crown of your head. We're gonna stay here. Draw your lower ribs down. Extend your spine a little bit more. We're gonna pass the roller back for six passes, five, keeping your spine still but the arms are moving three, two, one, pause and hold, rotate to the right side.

Rotate, rotate and center. Rotate to the left side. Good work you ladies and center. And we do four more. Let your upper back work, feel the upper back work.

And rotate, good, two more. The palms still squeezing into the roller or the fingertips slip in there. And sink to a halt. Can you elongate a little bit more in the center? A little bit more, a little bit more, do it for yourself and then lean your body forward down and roll up exhale through your spine.

Reach your arms up over your head. Keep the roller there. Squeeze your abductors and roll your legs together for the spine twist or the twist. We go inhale to your right side. Exhale, exhale center.

Think of spiraling up and out of your body and center. And exhale rotate, rotate, take a second to feel as your body, your head on top of your pelvis. Your shoulders on top of your hips and exhale, exhale, two more and we're gonna add extension and a pause. And exhale, exhale, pause here for me. Bend your knees.

Extend your spine and hinge back from your hips. Extend, and hold it, pause back for six, good work, five, hold on to the abdominals, four, three, and two and maintain that length as you come upright. And rotate towards the other side. Hinging back, reach and hold it. Hold up to the ceiling and we go six, and five and four, three, two, one, come back to the center.

Lower your arms, press your roller on to your knees and roll yourself forward to give yourself a nice, stretch. Good work you guys. Stay here for three breaths. And exhale, two more inhale. And exhale.

And one more breath. And exhale reach, reach, reach, and roll up, through your spine. From here we're gonna place the roller underneath your shoulder blades again. We're going to do the scissors and the helicopter with the roller just below the scaps. So make sure you've got enough space for your legs to move.

We're gonna first start with your hands interlaced behind your head. Take a deep breath inhale and then just let the spine release back exhale. Reach out there, good. Inhale for me. Draw your abdominals.

Draw your chin to your chest and exhale, curl forward. Right, hold it here. Breathe in. Draw your abs in so that your lower back presses towards the mat. Keep the pelvis on the floor and then just bring it back to the neutral again.

Let's repeat that. Let the abdominals do the work. Don't worry about the hip flexor so much. I want the abs to hold your lower back here. Breathe in.

Lift your right leg, maintaining the position of the lower back to 90. This is the tricky part. Don't let the back release. Bring the second leg up off the floor, good work, breathe in extend your legs. We go into the scissors only.

90 degrees if you can, is yes and we go scissor reach, reach, reach and reach, we will do four more. Reach, and three pulling and two pelvic stability here. Two and last one. Both legs up, bend your knees for a split second. You can do it with bent knees.

If you need to modify the exercise just shorts in the lever. We go into the scissors into the windmill. Ready? Extend the legs, inhale. And you can bring your hands here and push yourself a little bit to assist yourself. Okay we can always make a plan.

Breathing in, here you get your hands behind your head and we go scissor, scissor, windmill the legs around. And scissor, three more and scissor and circle, circle, circle, two more, scissor bend knees and bend knees and swivel around. And last one and scissor and swivel, swivel, swivel both legs up, bend your knees, place your right foot down, your left foot down, hands here and reach back stretch it out. You guys are doing great, good work. Hold it there for two breaths, inhale.

And exhale, one more breath and exhale, breathing in, draw your chin towards your chest and then curl yourself up so that you come into a seated position. Good work. We're gonna move the roller towards your ankles. This time you're going to lie on your side with your ankles on top of the roller. That's it.

Propping yourself up on your elbow and I'm going to suggest that we just come off the edge of the mat here so move your body up a little bit there Theo. Just in case you slip. Otherwise it's so hard to bring the roller back over that little lap. We're going to into the side plank. So we're going into the side plank and we're going to add rotation and extension.

Inhale prepare. Already you've got the base scapular stability. As you exhale, lift those hips up off the floor, reach your arm out in that T position. Lift the hips a little bit more. Breathe in, scoop that arm forward down into the rotation reach to the back, reach to the back.

Inhale back and into the extension. Let your thoracic spine rotate up, up, up, up and forward, great. Exhale, reach through, well done you guys. This is super and inhale. Follow the inhale through into that extension from the spine, from the spine, from the spine and we're gonna do one more.

Exhale let those obliques draw you through, draw you through. And neutral, lift the hips a little bit more and rotate with your heart up to the ceiling and back and lower the hips down. We're gonna pivot down into a prone position with your shins or your ankles on the roller. Prop yourself up on your elbows. So again make sure that all your stabilizers are active before we actually get into the movement.

Interlace your hands underneath your body. Draw your scapula back. Draw your abdominals. Pull the quadriceps up. Breathe in, don't hinge in the lower back.

As you exhale, brace up lifting your hips up off the floor. Great work. Hold it there. Hold it there. Your head is in line with your spine.

Breathing in, and we hold it exhale. breathing in and exhale. Inhale one more breath and exhale hold, lower your body down. Roll over to the other side. Reach the arm out into your T.

Set yourself up, so just show me the incorrect position of the shoulder, lift up, and then lift up out of that shoulder and hold it there. Crisp it up. Breathing in. And on the exhale, boom, lift those hips up off the floor, inhale prepare. Exhale scoop and rotate, reaching, reaching, reaching back and extend up, rotation in the waist.

And forward two more and exhale draw in. And forward hold. And open, open, open. And forward, one more. Shoulder stability and abdominals.

Pull, pull pull and into the T. And then into extension lift up, feel light on your elbow feel light on your elbow and back into the T and lower your hips down. Sitting with your ankles on top of your roller. Bring your elbows behind you, so we're going to do the back support on the elbows. Okay so lifting up, feel proud, be proud and be light on your forearm.

Breathing in, use your hip extensors and exhale, lift those hips up off the floor. Let the head be in line with the spine, yes, that's looking good. Holding it there for three breaths inhale. Your hip extensors, your gluts and your hamstrings, are working hard, thank you for the shoulders. Lisa, one more breath, inhale, inhale, inhale, lift a little bit more.

And lower down. Press yourself up on to your hands. Right, we're going to do two back supports here. And then we're going to move into the tendon stretch. Okay right, breathing in.

Exhale bracing up, lifting your hips. Do you need more space there? Good you're fine. Lift up, lift up, lift up. And then hover the hips down.

Maintain the length in the spine. And one more, lift up, reach into the tendons, stretch and we exhale, draw the roller in, in, in, in, and forward brace the hips up. And exhale draw, draw, draw, draw and lift up, great work, two more. And lift up, lift up, and forward and hold one more and drew, curl, curl, curl. And forward lift hold, for a moment and lower down.

Well done you guys. Cross your legs. Place your hands on top of your roller and step your legs back into your plank position, your front support position. Good work. Okay, breathing in, keep it there exhale.

Inhale, I want you to point your right side up off the floor. On the inhale, you're going to brace into your back, reaching your leg out in outer base. Reach, reach, reach and then come forward, hovering the leg back into your front support, two more. And reach out, press out and forward, hover shoulders over wrists. One more reach out, this time swing your leg forward to step on top of your roller with your foot, boom.

Holding it there. Ready for a stretch. We're gonna breathe in. Bring the body and mind together. Brace into that front thigh.

Reach your arms forward and hold, good. If you have the stability, reach your arms up, let your thoracic spine move into extension. Breathe in and out. Good work. One more breathe in.

Every little muscle in your body is active. Breathe in one more extension. And bring your hands down on to the roller, stretch your front leg into a hamstring stretch. Good, trying to keep that spine extended. Beautiful work.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. One more breathe inhale. And on the exhale allow the body to reach down into flexion. Just let the spine release and then bring your body back up. I want you to bend your front knee by going into the piriformis stretch.

Either keep your shin on the roller or place it on the mat. So just cross the leg, yay, so it's a very deep piriformis stretch. Please choose what works best for your body. At this stage, we all know what we're capable of. Breathing in, and if you want a deeper stretch walk your hands on, placing your hip on the floor ahead of you, only if you need to intensify the stretch.

Breathing in and breathing out. And one more. From here, take your hand, pull your heel towards your glut and just give yourself an additional thigh stretch. There we go. Good work you guys.

Breathing in, and breathing out. So while you take the last two breaths, after this, you're gonna place both hands on the floor and we're gonna go back into your plank. One more inhale. And exhale. Release the leg.

Place your hands in line with your shoulders. Press back in one powerful movement into your plank. That's it, make sure you've got space. Lifting the opposite leg off the floor and we reach into the pack. Reach, reach, reach, and forward hover and hold.

And two more. Reach up, elongate, go little bit further and forward, shoulders over wrist. Good one more. And reach and hold, reach and hold. Bring the leg forward on top of the roller, swing it and place it down into the hip flexor stretch.

That's it Lee, sorry I was a bit late there. My bad. I'll take it. Reach your arms forward. You can keep the hands down if your body feels unstable.

You'll still feel the stretch. That is the purpose of the movement. So keep the hands down. Reach the arms up, if you need the additional stretch, let the spine move towards the extension breathe in and breathe out. One more nice Theo and place the hands down stretching out that front leg into your hamstring stretch with a beautiful straight back in and exhale.

And breathe in and exhale. Lower the head down, fold the body forward, up and over. And then bring your weight into your hands as you bring that front leg into your piriformis stretch. Stiff your back leg. And if you need to, and you can do this on the mat.

And again feel the difference between the two sides of your body, breathing in. If you need the deepest stretch, leaning your upper body over your thigh, walking your hands out ahead of you, always keeping the shoulders out of your ears. Remember our stretches we should just take to where it feels good. Don't overdo it. Breathe in.

And breathe out. One more breath and out. Can you flex your back knee bringing your heel towards your glut. Holding on, let your pelvis sink forward. Let your spine keep moving in the direction of the ceiling.

One more breath. And relax, you can let go of your leg. We're gonna lie in a prone position with your hands holding the outside of the roller. And this time we are going to do a thoracic extension adding the swimming legs at the end. Alright, so keeping the tip of the nose on the floor.

Keep the legs adducted and there we go. Point the toes, breathing in, lifting your upper body up off of the floor. Lifting, lifting, lifting and lowering down. First engage the TA then allow the crown of the head to move as the arms move because of the spinal extension. And lower down.

Two more and lifting up. Beautiful sculpted backs. Let me see those backs work and lower down. And one more lift up, pull those scaps down and back. Draw into your extensors.

Let your legs hover off the floor. Hold it, then we're gonna swim with the legs, inhale two, three, four, five and exhale. Don't forget about the upper body. Inhale, two three, four, five, and exhale. And three more, two, three, can you lift a little bit higher but at the same time lengthen away from the center of the body a little bit more.

And last one, two, three, four, five, pause hold and lower down, lower the roller down, place your hands under your shoulders and press yourself back into your wrist position. Press back and hold it there taking a deep breath, inhale. And exhale. We're gonna walk the hands over to the right side, inhale. And exhale stretching out the left side of the body, walking the hands over to the left side.

And one more breath. Bring your hands back to the center. Tuck your toes under. Bring your hands and brace yourself up into your back. Lift your hips, lift your hips.

Walk your feet forward to your hands. Walk, walk, walk, right forward. Check in with your body. Remembering how you felt when you did this rolldown for the first time today inhale. Exhale, lift your abdominals, roll up through your spine, use your hamstrings so you stay out of those knees that are bracing back.

Standing tall, one more breath. And exhale lower the chin. Rolling down, being grateful for this time that you could invest in your body, inhale and for the change that you're experiencing right now, inhale, exhale roll up, roll up, roll up. Stand tall and walk tall for the rest of the day. Thank you for joining us.