Create your own Resistance

So, it's come to my attention that there are not any 40 minute band classes of mine on Pilates Anytime. So we're gonna do a 40 minute band class today. Ready? So what I want you to do first is just reach down and step onto your band. And as you do that separate your feet or organize your feet so that they're just right underneath your sitting bones, facing straight ahead.

So parallel. And then bring the band with you as you stand up. And then taking a moment, I like to close my eyes for just a moment. Allowing the band to pull down on the arms. And as the band pulls down on the arms feel the weight of your feet into the ground and rise through your spine, reaching up through the top of your read.

Just feeling into your body, taking a moment to be present in this space. Opening your eyes whenever you're ready. We're gonna press the band back. So as the band pulls back don't change your spine, just feel the upper back starting to work just a little bit. And then let the band come forward.

And then again, press back with the band. Reaching down into the center of the back with the shoulder blades. So it's not necessarily you're pinching your shoulder blades together, but you want to feel them sliding down, kind of in a low V shape. And forward. We'll do that one more time.

It's nice to start upright. To start opening the chest, opening the heart before we start bending. But now we're gonna bend. Inhale. And exhale, bring the chin into the chest.

Do a standing roll down. So, with straight legs or bent knees, whatever suits you. Just know that as you round down over your feet, the band will get loose. Allow it to, it's fine. The top of the head reaches towards the floor.

The abdominals are lifting in opposition. Inhale at the bottom. As you exhale, lift through the center of yourself. So pin the navel up towards the spine. Begin rounding up right about the time of where you catch tension on the band.

Begin to press the pelvis forward so it's just over the knees. And then stack the spine up. Reaching up tall through the top of the head. Let's take the arms back. Inhale, arms forward.

Exhale, chin to the chest, rolling the spine down. So just decelerating that downward motion with the center of the body. Allowing the band to pool around your feet. Pause to inhale. Exhale, roll the spine up.

Catching the tension on the band. Stacking the bones of the spine. And as we stand up tall allowing the arms to press down. And back, we'll do one more. Inhale.

And exhale, chin into the chest. Just allowing any tension that you might have in your body or anything unnecessary that you might have in your brain to leave out the top of your head for the next few minutes. Pause to inhale. And exhale to roll all the way back up. I like having that tension to it to engage against.

And then this time as you press the arms back we're gonna lift the chest. Lift the chest, lift the chest. So you're bending through the center of your spine and then allow the arms to come back. And just careful when you step out of the band that it doesn't ricochet and hit you in the face. Okay, sit on the mat.

So we're gonna take the, face this way, Yolanda. So we're gonna take this band around the feet and we're gonna start with straight legs. So if it's difficult for you to sit up with straight legs, feel free to bend your knees. In fact, let's all start with the knees a little bit bent. It's pretty early in the class to have to sit up straight I think.

Mkay. So just know that the closer you hold under your feet, the more tension that the band will give you and the reverse as well. The further away from your feet you'll have less tension. So, I want us to lift the spine up tall, then we're gonna bend the elbows and pull the spine upwards. And inhale to reach the arms forward.

And again, bend the arms, pull back. Feel that you're rising right over the top of your pelvis. And reach forward. So using the tension that the band is giving you to help you sit taller. And reaching forward, we'll just do two more.

Exhaling to pull. And then create resistance from the back of your body as your arms come forward. Last time. Exhale to pull. And inhale to reach forward.

And then from there inhale. Let's exhale, start to rotate the pelvis under. Press down on the band, just slightly. Just slightly. The legs can straighten as we start moving past the pelvis.

We'll roll all the way down onto our back. Inhale, lifting the head and chest. Exhale, rolling through the spine. Continue to stay round until the shoulders come over the pelvis, and then bend the elbows, lift the spine. Exactly.

Take the arms out straight. Exhale, rolling away from the feet. Pushing the feet into the band, just energetically to create opposition. Inhale to lift the head and chest. Feel the front of the ribs press in towards one another.

Press down into the mat and that's where we rebound as we come up. So shoulders over the pelvis. Bend the elbows, lift the spine. Tall, Nancy, lean forward just slightly. That's right.

Straighten the arms. And exhale to round. So as we're coming up into that upright position, as much as you can try to be right up over the top of your pelvis rather than leaning back. It's something to lean back when we do that rowing action. But let's try and get nice and tall.

Better. Good, one more time like that. Warming up the spine. You're doing great. Exhale, round.

Rotating the pelvis right away. Inhale, head and chest up. Exhale, articulate. So now that we're nice and limber in our spine, we're gonna do some serious abdominal work. Are you ready, ladies?

Yeah. So take the arms out straight, bend the knees. So you feel like you might need some help here, get up nice and close to your feet. Sometimes the hands get tired, so I alternate between holding or pinching with my thumbs or you can even wrap the band around your hands if that suits you better. Okay, so we're gonna roll down.

Find your way down so you're just at the tips of your scapula, you're just right off your shoulder blades. It's perfect. Keep your arms straight. And now you're gonna curl so that you're right at the bottom of your pelvis, exactly. And inhale to go back.

Exhale, draw the abdominals in. Create depth. Curl up and over the pelvis. Exactly. Inhale down.

And exhale up and over. Inhale down. Exhale up and over. So we're working in the place in our body that is often challenging to move through for a lot of us. So instead of using the band to just help you get through it, use the band to help you create work.

Work in both directions. We're gonna do two more like that. So exhaling to lift. Inhale, drawing down. Exhaling to lift.

Inhale to come down. And exhale, this time all the way up. Sit up tall, lean back. Now I do want us to lean back and we're gonna pull five kind of quick. It just occurred to me that if we're gonna make this class 40 minutes, we gotta keep moving.

And three more. Lifting through the center of the chest as you pull your arms back. Lifting the ribs, the breast bone. Last time. And then arms straight.

We're gonna roll the spine down. Once you get down to your shoulder blades again, what I want you to do is turn towards me. So the rib that you're turning towards slides in towards the center of the spine and the opposite one comes up and over. And then we're gonna curl up that side of our body. Up and back.

Keep the knees bent and keep the arms straight. Exhale up. And inhale back. Yolanda, see if you can keep your bottom arm straight. So it just reaches in front of you, it's not gonna have as much tension as the top arm.

That's better. And curl. And back. We're gonna do four more. So we're halfway there.

Keep your intensity. Keep your intention. And three. Twisting as you lift. And two.

Always trying to see how deep we can feel the abdominal engagement there. Come all the way down. Find the center. Let's roll up in the center. Sit up, lean back, and pull.

Five. Push. Even though there's not tension as you're coming forward, I want you to create a push energy. As the arms are being pulled back, see about pulling the abdominals backwards as well. Arms forward, here we go.

We're rolling down. Knees coming, hugging each other. And then shoulder blades, straight arms, rotate to the back. And then roll up that side and roll back down. So think about the range of motion as being about shoulder blades to pelvis.

Pelvis to shoulder blades. Think about it also, maybe, as an idea that it's not just an up and down, but an inward curl. Trying to fold yourself in half. Try to keep the knees facing straight up into the air. Nice.

Good. Really getting that low back down. Last two. One more. Work your way down.

Come into the middle. Roll all the way up. Nice. Sit up tall, this time straighten your knees. If you can.

Again, always fine for bent knees. Sit up all the way. So, Yolanda, maybe bend your knees so your back can be a little straighter. That's perfect. I want you to bend the arm that's closest to me, the other arm's just gonna reach.

So it's like you're gliding the band around your feet and center. So sitting tall, rising up, spiraling across. And inhale, center. The arm that's not pulling right now, just reach it. It just pulls forward.

So the elbow is high, the shoulder blade is down, the spine is long. And we're concentrating on that inward connection, the inward spiraling. And lift, twist. And center. One more, nope, let's do two more.

Lift, twist, and center. And lift, twist. And using the band to help create rotation. This is our last one to each side. Come all the way back to center.

Reach forward, take the band off your feet, and roll down onto your back. All the way. Once you get down onto your back, bend your knees, and scoot your feet in. Getting prepared for a pelvic curl. A little bit less.

So you want a, let's say, I never know how to say where the feet go. A comfortable distance from your body. I would go a little further forward with my feet if I were you. Yep, that's good. Okay, so arms up over the shoulders.

And then, what I want, so now I'm just gonna pinch the band with my thumb and my hand. And then take the arms back so that the arms just hover off the mat. Inhale here. As you exhale, flatten your spine first and then start pressing the arms forward. So as the pelvis rolls up into a pelvic roll, the band's gonna find the thighs and we're gonna wrap the band around the thighs and pull the arms down towards the mat.

That's excellent. Take the arms up and roll the spine down, allow the arms to reach back. So the spine and the arms are doing oppositional movements. Inhale at the bottom. Exhale, flatten the spine.

Roll up. Pressing down into the feet to lift up through the hips. Pull down as the hips press up into the band. Inhale and exhale to roll back down. Feel that as you're rolling up to the top of that bridge position, here we go again, that you're wanting to keep the ribs slightly below the pelvis.

So the ribs stay fairly low to the mat, but the hips lift up as high as you can. All right, we're gonna do two more. Inhaling at the bottom. And exhale, curl, press. Press into the band with the hips.

Pull down on the band with the arms. Inhale, arms up. Exhale, spine comes down. Last time. Inhale and exhale, rolling up.

Press down on the band. See if you can actually get your arms to almost touch the floor. And then we're gonna do little lifts into the band with the hips. So small. And pull down on the band at the same time.

So we have up energy, down energy. Kind of quick. As the hips lift up, the abdominals pull down in the direction that the arms are pulling. We'll do five. And four.

And three. And two. And one. Arms up over the shoulders. Inhale, just keep the arms, and let's take them overhead again, I lied.

And exhale to roll all the way down again. So now from the bottom, lift one leg. Stabilize your torso, lift the other leg. And then curl your head and chest up. So the band's gonna go over the top of the shins.

So what I want us to do here with our arms is to pull down on the band to try to make a higher curl. So the reality is is that we're up as high as we can, it's just an energetic higher curl. And here we go, the double leg stretch. The arms reach and the legs reach. Exactly.

The band comes to the shins and we pull to lift. Inhale, reach out. Exhale, bend in. Pull to lift. Exactly.

Inhale, reach out. Keep the arms straight all the time. Exhale, pull to lift. And out. Feel that stretch in both directions with the legs and the arms.

And back. Try not to lower the head and chest as the arms are reaching overhead. Keep the height of the curl. We're gonna do two more. Inhale.

And back. Creating a little bit of a burn through the abdominals. Last one. Hold it here. Lift the band up so it's just over the knees.

Take the left knee in, the right leg out. And pull. So that we keep the legs just below the band, they change places in space. Pull out on the band slightly so we feel the upper back working. We're halfway here.

We're gonna do five. Keep curling up. Five. Four. Four.

Three. Three. Two. Heating up. Last time.

So now to the bent knee I want you to rotate. Pull down on your bottom arm and up on your top arm and lift. Exactly. Center. Other way.

Bottom arm pulls down, top arm pulls up, and the band goes over the knees and center. Exhale. Lift higher. Exhale. Lift higher.

Continue. And center. And twist. And center. And five.

Five. Keep that curl. Four. Four. Using the top arm to help pull the back up or pull the trunk up.

I think this is two, I lost count. I haven't gotten any more skilled at counting, and I don't think I ever will. But I think that I've made us even on both sides which is enough. Let your head come down, place your feet back down on the floor. Set up again for another bridge.

We're about to do some shoulder bridging. So let's take the band and lift it just up over the chest. As you exhale, articulate your spine up. So pressing down through the feet. Lifting up through the hips.

So now what I want you to do is lower the band so that it's a little bit more just in front of the pelvis and not over the chest. And then lift the left leg and reach back so your left knee touches that band. So that's your goal every time. Stretch that leg towards straight, and then take the leg away. Flex the foot and pull back to the band.

Take the leg away. Flex, pull back. Take the leg away. Flex, pull back. Reaching back to touch the band each time.

Last two. Last time. Bend the knee, place the foot down. Level out the pelvis, if necessary. Stand on the left leg, lift the right knee to touch the band.

Then stretch that leg towards straight. Here we go. We go down. And back. Exhale.

And inhale. Reaching. I'm pulling out on my band just slightly. We have three to go. Two to go.

Last one. Bend the knee. Lift the hips. Reach the arms overhead. And slowly, reaching in opposition with the arms, place the spine bone by bone into the mat underneath you.

Stretch your right leg out onto the mat. Lift the left foot off the floor and put the band onto your foot. And then bend the elbows and get the arms nice and close to the body. We're gonna do some leg circles here. And what I want for the bottom leg to do is act as an anchor.

We're gonna swing the leg to the inside of the body, let the band catch it as it comes down, around, and up. Exhale as you drop and catch. So with the band, the leg as a lot of freedom to move through space. So let's use that freedom, but also think of a sense of stability through the rest of the body. Last time.

Good. Pause at the top, we're gonna go the other way. So out. Keep the shoulders down, the elbows down. Allowing the leg to move freely in the hip joint.

Only taking it out as far as you can without affecting the rest of the alignment of the body. Last two. Last time. Hold. Take the leg down.

So about 60 degrees. We're gonna allow the arms to reach a little straighter. We're gonna lift the head and chest. Press down through the leg on the mat. Start rolling towards the leg.

At any time, at any time you might want to pull with your arms. So we can try to roll up with straight arms, but everyone we're gonna let the arms pull at the top. So lifting the back. And then keep that leg very still. Just roll away from the leg.

We're not gonna go all the way down, we're just gonna go to the shoulder blades. Tuck the pelvis under. That's right. Good. And then rolling up to the leg.

Up, up. How far can you get with straight arms before you have to start bending, lifting the spine? Up and back. It's a single leg teaser. We're gonna do one more.

Take the arms out straight. Right away start tucking the pelvis. So you wanna lead with the tailbone curling under. Last time. Curling in.

Reaching up. Bending the elbows. And then reaching back down. As you're coming all the way down, bring your head down onto the mat and then take your arms and reach right up next to your foot. So get nice and high on your band.

Again, anchoring with the right leg. We're gonna bend the left knee. We're gonna pull down, wide elbows, and stretch that leg into the band. So just a few stretches. Inhale to bend.

Exhale to stretch, pull. So you're creating your own tension and you can create as much or as little of that as you wish. Pull down and reach up. We're just gonna do two more. Inhale.

Pull down and reach up. Last time. Inhale. Pull down an reach up. Trying to get the leg closer and closer to the body all the time.

And then we're gonna bend the right knee. Exchange feet. It's best if you can manage to keep the band pretty wide. It's a little harder if it gets really squished together. Left leg goes out on the mat.

Elbows come down. You might have to give yourself a little less tension again. And here we go. Into the center of the body, down, out to the side, and up. And exhale.

So let's let each breath, inhale, have a circle. Or each circle have its own breath. Exhale. And inhale. Keeping the chest wide, the elbows planted.

And exhale. Pausing at the top, here we go the other way. Inhale. And exhale. Feel that free swing of that leg.

And inhale. And exhale. And I believe we have one more breath cycle. So let's inhale for a circle. Keeping the pelvis grounded.

Exhale for a circle. Pause at the top. Take the leg away. So about 60 degrees. And then we're gonna try and keep it still.

Lift the head and chest, anchor with the straight leg, roll up into that leg. Up. Up. Up. Bend the elbows at the top.

Nice, wide arms, lifting the spine. And then rolling away. Just really trying to control that. Remember that we didn't go all the way down. We're just gonna go to the shoulder blades.

And then curling up. Keeping the leg nice and still. Oh yeah, we're going straight. We're going up as much as we can with straight until the last minute where we bend and lift. And then reach out.

We have one more to go. So here's our last one. Curling. Lifting. Reaching.

And then rolling all the way down. This time we're coming all the way down to the mat. And as we do so, the leg is gonna come all the way up. We're gonna reach a little higher up onto that band. Flexing through the heel of the foot, bend your knee.

Pull down on your arms and press the leg up. Inhale, bend. Think about what's happening in the abdominals as well. The abdominals go down as the arms pull down as the leg reaches up. Inhale to bend.

Exhale to stretch. Inhale to bend. Exhale to stretch. Here's out last one. Inhale to bend.

Exhale, pull down, find your stretch. And then lift the left leg. Put the left leg into the band right up next to that right leg. Lower both legs down and lift the head simultaneously. And now we're gonna roll up with both legs in the air.

Both legs in the air, rolling all the way up. Up. Up. Up. Up.

And then we're gonna put the feet down. So stretch away from your feet. Pardon me while I put my pants back on. There we are. Good.

It's important to be fully clothed on camera, I believe. All right. So a little bit more twisting this time. Again, lifting tall. The arm closest to me again is gonna come in an underhand pull.

So we're gonna turn the palm of the hand up, and then as you rotate I want the opposite arm to pull out to the side. And then find center. Underhand pull, turn the palm and the hand up. The other arm pulls out to the side, the spine lifts. And center.

And pull, lift. And center. And pull, lift. Nice. Sitting all the way up.

And center. We're gonna do three more. And reaching. I really like twisting with the band. I feel like A, it's great arm work, B, it's helpful, and C, it feels good.

Okay, last time, guys. Twist, reach. And center. And twist, reach. And center.

Mkay, so now what we're gonna do is just separate the feet in the band. You might have to reorganize your band a little bit. So feet flexed. Knees straight or bent. Again, I'm not fussy.

I'm more... More conscious about the upright orientation of the back. Mkay, so we're gonna inhale here. As we exhale, chin is gonna go into the chest. We're gonna bend the elbows and use the band.

So the elbows are pulling wide, and I'm thinking about sending the top of my head into that band. Now I want you to drop your upper arms right next to your ribs. Yep, upper arms right next to your ribs, you're there. Straighten your arms towards the mat. They might not get all the way straight.

So you're gonna push like a tricep extension. Lift your spine up on the diagonal line. Exactly. Sit all the way up. Inhale.

Exhale. Round the spine, elbows bent. Then the elbows drop to the sides, kind of like wings. We straighten or work towards straight arms to pull the spine up on the diagonal. That's right.

Sit all the way up, arms reach forward. Three more times. Exhale, round right back through the center of the body. Arms down. Arms press, reach out through the chest, reach out through the crown of the head.

And lift up. And again, exhale. Two more. Round. And arms.

And press out, lift. Up, up, up, up, up. And all the way. One more time. Exhale to round.

Arms down. So I'm just pushing towards my knees, kind of towards the mat near my knees. I am not getting all the way straight. And then lift all the way up. And off.

Take the band off your feet. Take it in your hands. Lifting the spine up, up, up, tall. This is the saw. So this is one where I give myself plenty of band.

And I just pinch with my thumbs. So you're gonna turn towards me. Now I want you to take the opposite arm to foot. So for you it's gonna be your left. We're gonna reach the front arm towards the foot and reach the back arm towards the back.

So you're pulling the band in both directions. Now, we're gonna pin the back band down with the back hand and reach up on the diagonal. So forward diagonal extension. Lift the back hand off the floor and de-rotate into the center. Was that confusing?

I hope not. Inhale, twist. Exhale, pull the band apart. Nice. Go forward.

Pin the back hand to the floor. Reach out long through the spine. Long and up, long and up, long and up. I love it, that's so beautiful, you guys. Lift the back hand up and come to center.

Again, we're gonna do that one more time and then I'm gonna add something fancy to it. So here we go. Reach. Elongate. Shoulders down.

Back hand comes up. Body comes center. Inhale, twist. Exhale, reach. Back hand goes down.

This is part of our back extension work today, guys. So really work for that. Work for that back extension. Up. And center.

Here's the fancy twist. We go over. It starts the same. We reach down, still the same. Back hand's still down.

Then lengthen out, still the same. So now what I want you to do, it's like, like Miss America. We're gonna wrap that like a banner around the chest. We're gonna reach up and back. And then come back to your saw position.

Lift the back hand up and center. I don't know why that makes me feel like Miss America, it just does. Twist. And reach. It's the sash, I think.

The sash-like feeling. So here it is. We go up and back. Diagonal back extension, really work through the middle of your back. Come back into your saw position.

Exactly. Back hand comes up and we bring it to the center. Let's do it one more time, ladies. Inhale. And exhale, stretch.

Again, feel free to bend the knees a little bit. Right now we're thinking about our spines. Shoulder blades down. Miss America. That's right.

Back. Back hand comes up. Lift the spine and bring it back to the middle. Last time. Inhale and dive.

And back hand comes down. We reach out. Out, out, and across. And back. Back hand comes up off the floor.

Lift the spine up and come to the center. All right, so we're gonna finish today on our knees. On our knees. Everyone okay on their knees? Good.

Okay. Doing a little lateral movement. A little more back extension. Band is one of my favorite places to work back extension. I find it's like, a lot of times it's hard to work from the floor up, but it's easier to work from an upright position.

So what I want you to do, pretty long with the band again. You might run into like not having enough band if you wrapped, but you could try. I mean, it's definitely available to you as an option. Lift the arms. So now what I want you to do is we're gonna reach out towards the ocean on the inhale.

As you exhale, I want you to pull down on the band, increasing the stretch. So just move that bottom arm towards the floor. Exactly. If it's hard for your shoulders, take the band slightly in front of you. Lift the band up and exhale center.

Yeah, so for people who have a little bit more tightness in the shoulders, let the band just be a little bit more in front. Exhale, pull down. Mm hmm. Inhale, lift up. And then obliques, right?

We lift with our obliques. Again, inhale, reach up to go over. Exhale, take that band down. Keep the upper shoulder stable. Inhale, lift.

And exhale to come up. And inhale, reach over. Exhale, to go down. Keeping the pelvis squared forward. Inhale to lift up.

And exhale to come to come center. So we're gonna add some rotation. This, for those of you who are familiar with Pilates, repertoire feels a lot like butterfly to me. If that doesn't make any sense to you, it doesn't matter. So we go over.

Just a little pull on the bottom arm now, not a big one. Now we take the top arm and we're gonna rotate. Think about the ribs twisting. Pull back in opposition. The band is gonna come about parallel to the floor.

That's perfect, Yolanda. Come back, open to the side. And lift back up. And inhale to reach up and over. A little pull on the band.

Exhale, twist. Inhale. I think this feels good. And exhale to come up. You're doing great.

And last time on each side. Exhale, twist. And inhale. And exhale. Last one, guys.

Inhale over. Just make it work for you. Where does it feel good for you? And back. and up.

Sometimes that's more important than me telling you exactly where you need to be. Okay, so now I'm gonna come in on my band just a little bit. Arms start straight out in front of the body. So the first thing I wanna do here is make sure that we're not leaning back. So think about pressing the pelvis forward, pressing the ribs down the front of the body.

We're gonna bend the elbows. I want them to go just outside of the shoulders, so pretty straight out. So kind of a little bit forward with your hands, Nancy. Right there. And then we're gonna do external rotation of the shoulders.

Which means hands up, elbows forward. So, again, you can stay a little bit in front of you. We're gonna start reaching up. Now, I don't want you to think of pushing the band up, I want you to think of sliding your scapula, your shoulder blades down. In relationship to that sliding of the scapular the band lifts.

Or stretches. Nice. Good. And then pull the band slightly apart but reach the elbows slightly forward so the band's aiming towards your forehead or maybe even behind your head. And then rotate the arms.

And then stretch the arms out. So we'll do that again. Bend. I'm not pulling a lot. I'm gonna rotate.

So if my band were longer I would say try to get the forearms to touch the floppy part of the band. And then reach back and up. Nice. Scapula falling down the back. Bend the arms.

And then rotate and return. So we're gonna do that a couple more. I'm gonna turn to my side to give you a different angle. So we're gonna add a bit more back extension to that. Here we go.

Starts the same. Bend, rotate. Now, this time as the arms are going back, right in the center of your back, not from your lower back but in the center of your spine below your shoulder blades, I want you to start extending your spine. So arms are going back, we're doing a little backbend. Nice.

Bending the arms. Keep the back bent. And then coming upright as we drop down. Let's do that one more time. So rotate.

So we're stable first, and then right as we start extending the shoulder blades are coming down into a V point in the center of your back. That's where the arms are straightening from, that's where the spine is bending from. Pelvis is pressing forward. Arms are easy, easy. Shoulder blades down.

Bend. Return. And then arms forward. Maybe, if your band's long enough this is a good one to wrap with. We're gonna go full circle.

So depending on the flexibility of your shoulders, you'll just decide where you want to be at. So I just encase my hands in the band. Okay, so straight arms. Just allowing the hands to not even have to hold. So we're gonna lift the arms up.

Now we're gonna stretch that band and bring it behind us. So that's where it might be not a great idea if it's too much for you, too much tension to do the wrapping of the hands. Good. And then all the way down. Let's take it around the legs and pull back.

So here we are, full circle from the beginning of class. Take the arms up. So we're keeping the body straight now. We're gonna reach just the arms back allowing them to do a full circle. Pull that band as much as you want to.

And then reach out behind you again, pulling the band apart, settling the shoulders down. They'll do like a little rotation or they are doing a rotation. And then the band's gonna come across the front of the body and pull back. We'll just do that one more time. This time, just like we did a minute ago, as the band comes back, allow the spine to extend.

Extend. Extend. And then as the band comes up, allow the spine to come back to a neutral position. And we're just gonna reach down and set that band down for now. Lifting the arms up, they might float.

And then take one hand to just the side of your head. Gently let the weight of your hand pull the head to the side. So you're not actually using your arm muscles to pull on your head. We're gonna reach the arm away and slowly start to lower that arm down. Nice and heavy as it reaches towards the floor, reaches out as it goes down.

And just hangs. Again, being careful about how much you put pressure on your head. And then let the head go. And if it felt like a really intense stretch, it might be appropriate to push your head up from the other side or you could just lift your head up in space. And here we go, other arm up.

And we're gonna go over to the side. And that arm is reaching away and then it starts to go down. Down and away. Down and away. Down and away.

Getting heavy and hanging. And then easy with your head, push it up or lift it up. And then take the arms out in front of you, flex through the heels of your hands. Now I want you to imagine that you've got very heavy curtains or draperies in your hands. I don't know, what are those when they're heavy?

Draperies or curtains? Drapes. You've got drapes. We're gonna push the drapes open to a beautiful view. Whatever it is.

It's in your imagination. Lifting, breathing. And I'm imagining ocean. And now we're gonna round and reach forward. So pulling back through the center of the spine, taking a little stretch through the back.

Again, starting to bring your body upright. Flex through the heels of the hands, creating energy. Creating energy. Feel that energy in your body. And then exhale, round and stretch.

Reaching the arms in opposition to the back or curl of the abdominals of the spine. One more time. Reach out. Press out. Breath.

And exhale to round. And then this time let your arms just come down to your thighs and just start rolling yourself up. And as you come up onto your knees, allow your arms, it's a little easier energy, a little light on the arms just float up. Reaching for the ceiling. And then just let any tension left in your body out through your fingertips.

So you softly, softly bring your arms to your body. And thank you for taking class with me.