Straightforward Mat

Hi, I'm Adrian. Um, and I am going to be teaching Andrea and I'll be doing some of it. I'm a beginner intermediate mat, a lot of modifications and maybe not so much modification, so we'll kind of switch it up, but pretty much doing beginner intermediate, we only need a mat and our bodies. So let's just go ahead and sit down as natural as you want. You could crush your arms if you'd like and lower yourself to the mat. Good. Let's get yourself centered on the mat and we're going to start with our knees bent. Let's go ahead and have our heels together, toes apart, and just make sure you have room behind you to lie down. Good.

And then let's lie down. Okay. Hopefully you can hear me. Can you hear me Andrea? Okay. Take your arm straight up and let's just, let's just kind of get our selves here. So stretch your arms behind you. Take a nice deep breath in, leaving the arms back there and exhale. Let your back relax. Let your hips relax your neck.

Take another deep breath in. Lift your arms up to the ceiling. Exhale as the arms come down. And then this time, hold that there and start to pull your back into the mat, navel down, ribs down, and just hold. Make sure your neck is lengthening and you're not tensing your shoulders this time. Take the arms straight up, stretch back, and inhale. Let your back release and as your arms come back down to the mat, exhale, imprint your spine. Good. Hold up for maybe another count and just rest.

Let everything relax. Slide your feet hip width apart, toes point straight forward, and just imprint your spine, no arms this time. So basically what you're trying to do is get rid of any arch in your back, but keeping the spine long and release, we're going to do that about four more times. So imprint your ribs should drop, your chest should open, your tailbone stays down. Really thinking of lengthening your spine and rest and maybe two or three more things into the mat. Feel every inch of your back. Drop down and release. And two more thinking down, peeking at you and release. And one more time.

Just kind of getting that awareness in the powerhouse, kind of waking it up and rest. Let's go ahead and bring one leg into our chest, extend that leg up. And I don't care which one we can be. Opposites. Hold your out and square off your hips. Make sure whatever leg you have up that the opposite hip is still anchored to the mat. And again, that your shoulders aren't popping up, your chest is open, your neck is long.

Let's lower that lake about an inch or two, maybe three and hold double check your hips, make sure you're imprinting and we're going to continue that down towards the floor. So your lower another two to three inches and hold two, three, continue going down. Make sure that IX, that leg that's extended is really reaching away from you. Your hip stay still goes lower as you can. If it becomes too challenging, don't go any further. Just stay where you are. And now we're gonna work our way up in increments.

So holding of going about two and three inches, up, holding two, three and again a little bit higher. Two, three hips are square. And then as high as you want and hold two, three, and bend your knee. Lower the leg rest, switching sides left, or excuse me, my left. Your your left. Two. Good job. We are. We look parallel. All right. Extend your leg up. Doesn't matter. Again, just make sure it's the opposite leg and hold two, three and this is just kind of where I like to check my hips and make sure that they're there. Even that one isn't popping up and you're in a hold two, three working on that powerhouse. Thinking down that staying long.

Hold two, three. We're working our leg down. Hold two, three toes are soft. Hold two three goes loads. You'd like to three. Work on that powerhouse, make sure it's stable and now we're going to work our way up a little bit higher. Two, three, little bit higher. Two, three, a little bit higher. Two, three go ahead and go as high as you like the higher the stretch, but make sure your hips are down and that you're not lifting your bottom with the leg. Two, three, and rest. Keep your feet hip width apart. We're going to do a little pelvic curls.

So just about two to three vertebraes. You're going to curl your hips up, pulling your stomach in, lower down, let your back relax, excuse me, and arch your back and then sink your hips down. Start to curl a little bit off the mat, and then roll through there, your center and come back down. Let's do that two more times. Curling up and lower down. Let your back release and one more time. Sync your back down as the hips come up and roll down and rest this time.

Slide your feet a little closer to you. Still hope with the park. We're going to go into a full roll up. So full pelvic lift come up as high as you can. So peeling off the mat. One Vertebra at a time. Come up as high as you can. Once you get there, try to flat in your hips. So in other words, push your hips up higher. Pull those ribs down, keep your arms stretching.

Take a nice inhale and use the exhale to help lower you back down. Follow your middle. Keep those hips from wobbling. Try to keep them nice and still, but level. And then rest. We'll do that four more times. Peel up hips, come off the mat. Naval things in bottom squeezes and hold.

Deep breath in. Chest is open. Exhale, roll down. Follow your spine. Make sure you're centered. Feel the evenness on both sides of your spine, right and left and release and curl up. We'll do three more as high as you can tell me in arms, stretching away from you and roll down so you're really articulating from the upper back to the middle spine, all the way down to the toxic and to more appealing up. Keep your neck long tension out of the shoulders and roll it down and rest in the last, last one up we go whole again.

Keep those hips nice and square, so right and left hip or even and rural it down and wrath. Let's go ahead and extend both legs straight out on the mat. Take your arms behind you, stretch them back, let your back relax. Take a nice deep breath in. Lower the arms, back down to the mat. Exhale and start thinking of wrapping the outer thighs around so the inner thighs are squeezing. So you've got the legs reaching long and you've got a nice wrap going.

And then relax. Bend your knees once again. Good. Let's go ahead and bring your knees into your chest. Heels together, toes apart. We're going to begin with your hundreds, so let's start with legs straight up. Then take your arms straight up. As you lower your arms to your hips, you're going to lift your head and lower your legs to 45 degrees, or maybe a little higher or lower depending on your abilities. And start breathing. Remember, we're taking a deep breath in and a long breath out for a full five counts. And exhale two, three, four, five. Keep your arms reaching.

Keep the legs reaching right now. You could challenge yourself and lower the legs as low as you want or keep them up at a level that you feel comfortable. But keep breathing. Feel your diaphragm fill up and release in those deep muscles. [inaudible] and two more. One more.

[inaudible]. Bring your knees in, lower your feet, lower your head, lower your arms. Let's go ahead and sit up and keep your knees bent. Let's have your heels together, toes apart. Reach your arms forward. We're going to go halfway down. So going into half. Roll back your chin, drop your heads forward and start to curl your hips.

Go halfway. And I want you to stop and I want you to come back up. And once you're up, grab your knees, lift your back. So let's start like this. Grab your thighs. Okay, head down, hold onto your legs, shoulders, relax. But Tommy's pulling in. Start to go backwards right there.

Go a little bit further. Curl your hips under you. Keep your center line weight on both hips slightly. Hold your legs, do not gripping. Come forward and then stretch up. Great. And breathing back. You can inhale well a little lower if you can without falling. Come back up. Let's keep our heads down now the whole time and let's go all the way down.

Good. And just kind of feel where you are. You sure you're centered? Yes. Good. All the way down. Now the challenge to come back up. So you want to curl into yourself so you can reach those arms out long or you can hold your thighs, but you want to make sure you're rounding forward. Good. Let's do it a little bit quicker now and going back, make sure you stay centered. Good job all the way down.

Arrest, breathe in, breathe out and come up. You can always challenge these exercises by changing your arm position. So let's keep going. I'm just gonna move back a little bit. Good. She's holding her thighs. That's good because it's challenging no matter what you do and you breath in, but you gotta do what's right for your body forward.

And now let's sit as tall as we can. Good. Stretch your legs out long and let's start forward. You reach for your toes. Good. Let's keep our heels together. Toes apart, and we're going to do a full roll up. Roll down. I think you're going to want to move towards me. Good. Just say you have a room behind you and we're going to go all the way down.

Again. Watch that center line. Pull in your navel and wrap. Take your arms all the way up or all the way back. It's up to you. Arms. Come straight up. Deep breath in and exhale. Rolling up. Stretch forward and now come back down. So now we're going to speed it up. Make sure you follow that center though. Okay. Deep breath in and scoop and stretch. I grabbed my ankles.

Watch your shoulder lines, their shoulders when you come up should line with your hips. You shouldn't be lopsided. Stretch to kind of be aware of where you're going to more up. Pull in, stretch forward and down. One more time and over and stretch and down.

Of course, if those are challenging, just keep your knees bent. Good. All right, so you're going to lie back down. We're going to bend our knees, we're going to have our feet hip width apart. We're gonna do some leg circles. So one leg comes in. You can take that one leg up. Same thing you did earlier where you imprinted, you're imprinting your back, you're keeping those hips still. Now if you keep the knee bent, it's a little easier on your back. Otherwise to challenge yourself, you can straighten the bed knee, if not, like I said, keep that in event. We're going to circle your leg around inside your own frame, so think of your big toe going from shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, so it's inside your body and not way out here.

Okay, five or two more. One more, and now we're going to reverse. You want to keep both legs long if they're straight or at least your extended leg long. Two more times. Keep your navel down in those hips still and bend your knee. You can go ahead and give it a stretch and then we're going to switch legs. Good. Take that one leg up again.

The other leg can be bent or straight depending on how much of a challenge you want and how much ability you have. You're in a circle and lift. The lower you go, the more challenging it is to keep those hips still. We're doing five each way. Always think of the legs long. Then reverse five. Don't let your hips move. Two, three, give it a good kick on the up. Four and five. Ben Junee give it a shot.

Good. We're going to sit up and we're going to move forward. So I like to lift our hips. To do that. You can grab your ankles. Actually, let's start with our thighs. We'll hold our thighs. Your heads are down, navels are in, and you're kind of rolling back onto those sitz bones. And we're going to just take our feet off the med.

I want you to just not actually roll, but roll your hip bones backwards about two to three vertebra. Trying to create space between your hips and your ribs and then come back up. We are balancing so our feet are off the mat, so stay weighted on your right hip. Good. And start to go backwards. Tuck your bottom. Good. That's exactly it. Come forward. Hold.

Now take it all the way back a little bit further so your arms might stretch. It's like a challenging set up. And then come back up. Drop your feet and just stretch out. All right, so the same thing, but this time you're going to hold your ankles and we're going to put it into a ball. So we're going to roll. So feeder up, rock back to those hips. Sits bones more, more scoop. Good. Now Roll and come up and roll and come up. These are centering exercises.

They're really good for misalignment. Two more and all the way up. This taught me a lot because I have scoliosis so I tend to like to go to my left a lot. Good. And rest your feet. Let's put our hands behind us. Lift your hips, stretch your legs and lie back down. Bring both neat. Well let's start with just your right leg into your chest.

Right hand on your ankle, left hand on your knee. You're gonna lift your head and look at your tummy. Take your other leg up. Now find that placement. Pull deeper into that lower abdominal powerhouse and switch legs. This is a coordination exercise, so you do want to make sure that your shoulders, once again in line with your hips and switch, but that your outside hand is always on the ankle and switch and switch.

Now we're in double time and one, one Tommy, two two stretch leg, three three Walmart, four for both legs in heels together, toes apart, arms, billings, go up and big circle. Exhale, grab those ankles. Inhale, exhale three. If you're next, get tired, put your head down, but continue with the arms and legs. Otherwise stay up there. Now we're going to add a step. Lower those heels. Bear-Ish the floor. Lift and come back in. He'll stay together. Two more down, up in one more out, up and walk up. One leg. You need a rest for your neck. Put it down. Paul Paul, Paul, Paul, switch to as you move, keep pulling the naval in. Three, four, four.

The higher you reach, the more stretch. Five, five, six. We're going for eight, seven, eight and eight. Legs up, hands behind your head. And now just the legs, just about two to three inches. Lift as you move, keep your backs down. Don't let them pop up. Two more. Keep your chest up and bend. One leg goes out, criss-cross one and one and as you move, keep those hips from lifting stretched to that back elbow. Pulling in and breathing and rest. Let's go ahead and sit up and put your feet outside the mat range.

So just slightly off arms or in front of you. You're going to span the stretch. So sit as tall as you can. Breathing in, drop the top of your head, exhale, and then come back up. Lift your back taller. See your hips up, not your legs. So strong. Relax here. Good. Lift your hips. That's it. Now go down and come back up. So yes, your legs are long, your feet are flexed. But use your seed and hips. Good, deep breath in and left.

Now we're going to quickly up with your back just as open head drops between between the arms and then you come back up. So try to get the top of your head on the Mat. Okay, good rest. Let's go ahead and move forward a bit. And we're going to go into OpenLink rocker. But first we're going to do a little stretch. So your hands are inside your legs and you are.

Let's just sit up tall for a second. Drop your shoulders, get yourself even on both hips. Good. And then you are gonna kind of fall back onto those hips. So you kind of cut them and take your feet off the mat and balance. You can take one leg at a time and just stretch it up and you need a lot. Drop it. And then you can do the other leg trying to balance here.

[inaudible] wrath. And let's do that one more time. Breast and other leg and rest. Now we're gonna put it together, both legs. This is the tough part. Bring them together. Open them back up, lower down rest. So a lot of it has to do with that pelvic curl. So you get back on those hips and you stay back there. When you're up here, you're okay. But if you start rocking them, we lose their balance.

So let's try that again. One leg at a time. Rest. Oh their leg rest, right. Rest left. And now both legs ever mini. Stay back there. Tuck. Good together. Open and rest. A lot more controlled at that time. Good. Instead of tall, reach. Forward, lie back down and rest. Good. Let's go ahead and lie on our sides.

I'm going to start on my left side. Yeah. And we're going to get ready for some sidekicks, but first we'll do some clamshells so your knees will be bent. You're gonna either prop yourself up on your elbow or you can lie all the way down. Whatever's easier for your shoulders or neck or get a pillow. Okay, so hip on top of hip chest is open and you want to just double check that you're lying with the back of the Mat. And so are your shoulders that you're in one straight line heals together. Get and take your, your right hand is on the mat, but you still want to keep yourself open and take your right knee and just lift it up and lower down. So we're just clamming good as you do this.

Just keep reminding yourself to keep your chest open and your neck long so your back stays really long. And we're going to do about two more and one more. And rest. Now you can take both heels up, hold them up, and now just the knee. So the heels will stay together as the knee lowers and lifts. Do no care over there. Okay, two, let's do about six. Remind yourself to keep that name. Olin. I had one more and then both knees down or heels down.

Let's go ahead and stretch both legs out your toes or off the mat. So you're kind of in like a boomerang shape. You're going to take your top leg up, hip level, your hips are turned out, your nameless up and really important is to keep those hips from rocking. You want to keep them right on top of each other the whole time. You can use your right hand for support, but just keep those ribs pulling in.

You're gonna Swing your leg forward, swing your leg back. Let's just do some tick-tock, front and back that three or four times. Keep opening up your chest. Go ahead. Keep your neck long and now we're going to double time that and that. A second kick. So two kicks front and stretch back. Kick, kick and stretch. As you go back.

That's where you need the most support, so you have to keep pulling in and squeeze your seat back. Three more. Back to that. Keep your upper body still and I think that was it. And rest, take that same leg, a pip level. Double check that your hips are squared off and they're right on top of each other. Take your leg to the ceiling, lower down and pull up your navel and lift and lower as you lower. Stretch that leg out longer and squeeze your seat more.

I had to remind myself to open up my chest cause I keep looking down at you. At least that's my excuse. And one more. And now we're down. We're going to circle a little circles. Think of brushing your knees, take the energy out of the needle as you circle and then reverse five times one, two, three, four, five and rest. Let's go ahead and turn over to the other side and I'm going to put my head here.

We'll start with our clamps. Make sure you line yourself with the back of the mat and properly hips line and shoulders. Line hip on top of hip, heel on top of heel looking forward and knee and lowers. Let's just do six is warming up the hips. Three opening up your chest. Four, five and six now heals up good and now suspended lower lift Ni two three four. We'll do six five and lower both feet down.

Stretch both legs out. Long back in that boomerang position. Double check that you feel long that your spine feels long. Take that left leg up. PIP level, tic talking three to four times, front and back. What I don't want to see is a lot of movement with the upper body, like a lot of people tend to do this as they go back, so keep their shoulders on top of each other. Hips on top of each other. Now double kick, kick, kick, stretch, kick, kick. So everybody stays still while you're moving.

That's where the stretch comes in because that's all it can do if you're, if you're straight and one more and lake back on top of leg. All right, we're going to take that same leg, hip level. Go Up to the ceiling and back down. Reaching the leg out eight times. Pull up your tummy too.

Three long, long leg for here too. Careful your hip doesn't fall too far back as the leg goes up. One more the way down and now circles five times. One, two, three, four, five, reversing. One, two, three, four, five and rest. Let's go ahead and turn to face each other. We're going to sit up though. Legs Long, stretch forward. We're going to go back into a roll up. Go all the way down. We're going to do three normal roll-ups up and over to the toes and stretch and watch that center line. Good.

No momentum to come up. Stay in control. Yes, we're good. Quick, but there's no momentum in it and stretch. Come back down. Feet, hip width apart and flex hands behind your head. You can bring your elbows in if you'd like. Ideally we want to keep them open and you're in. Come up.

So hens are holding your head and you stretch. Flex your feet the whole time. Now we're going to go down. Stay over here, Andrea. Good and all the way down and all the way up. Pull in over tall. Keep. Keep your feet flex and then don't over do it. Stay centered, right shoulder, hip, all the way down to up over center so those feet shouldn't pop up. Okay, so control it. Maybe take some of that energy out of your knees.

See if that helps to more over talk all the way down. Last one, up, over tall and all the way down and rest. Let's go ahead and get yourself back on the man. If you slipped off like I did, feet together. Get a number of quotes. So let's move your feet. So your knees and feet are together. You're gonna slide your feet pretty far forward, but the knees will still be meant. We're going to go into a single leg teaser. You can take one leg up, nice steak glued together and take both arms straight up.

Now in come up as high as you can, as long as your bed, knee, that foot doesn't move. So if you can keep that foot still, you can come all the way up. If not go to where it won't move. You might just have to stop here and then you'll retrieve your ears. Hold it up there, pull your stomach's in and lie back down. So come up to the tips of the shoulders. Pull in and if you feel like you can come all the way up, do it. If not, don't do it. Reach up tall and come back down.

Keep those knees together. Let's do two more, uh, to the toes. Stretch your back and come back down and one more up, toes, ears and all the way down. Let's switch sides. So Turk is, is bent knee. The further out the foot is, the easier it is. Okay. All right. And then when, if you want to challenge that, you can bring the foot in and come up just the tips of the shoulders and just practice hold. Pull in a little bit deeper, reach for your ears, lie back down and to the toes. Hold Scoop, lie back down.

We're going to come all the way up if you can otherwise go to where you can reach through the years and lie back now and to more to the toes, to the ears and last one toes, ears and down. Very nice. Lower your legs. Go ahead and just kind of tick talk side to side. You can move your head the opposite way as you take talk and then center yourself back out. And then let's sit up, move yourself, close your heels and that's go into a seal. So hands are inside the legs, you're holding your ankles and your once again back on those sits bones. [inaudible] your head is down. We're going to just roll, no clapping and roll back.

Roll up, keep your head forward and back and up. Now you can add the clap if you'd like. Three clubs with the heels. Two, three back, three claps to come up again, stay centered. Keep your head down though. One, two, three, back. One, two, three up. We're new three more. And on the third one we'll stand back up and clapping if you want. Otherwise don't up. And I think this is our last one back and again, if it's too challenging, just stand normally you can cross your arms, you can cross your legs and stand. Let's have our heels together, toes apart, Tommy's up, deep breath in and just round down and touch your toes. And then come up. Keep your hips as close to the top of the ankle as you can.

Settle in your bottom, top up to far back. One more down. Grab your ankles, pull yourself to the knees. Keep your balance on both feet. We'll have deep breath, tall, tailbones down, and exhale. Shake yourself out. You're all done.