Stability and Mobility Tower

Hello, everybody. I'm Jonathan Oldham, here at Pilates Anytime with the lovely Jackie and the lovely Amy. We're going to do a pole class today, and we're going to start, actually, the tower setup. So while you're getting that set up, I'm gonna tell you that this class is designed with the stability/mobility concept in mind. That is a concept that I learned from Gray Cook, and it has to do with what I would call the different personalities of the joints.

So just like some people tend to be more introverted or more extroverted, but we all have a little bit of each of those, so do the joints each have their own personalities. For example, the foot and the ankle tends to be a more mobile joint, whereas the knee tends to be a more stable joint. The hips, mobile. The lumbar spine and pelvis, stable. And, surprisingly to me, the thoracic spine, the thorax, is meant to be more mobile.

And I would postulate that there's an epidemic of immobile thoraxes in our world. So we're gonna focus, in this tower class, on developing mobility of the hips and thorax, while emphasizing stability of the pelvis and spine. I'm gonna ask Jackie and Amy to lie on the back, with the head away from the poles, and we're gonna start with the footwork with pilates V on the bar. You're gonna press up, and then you'll situate yourself so that you're as close to the uprights as you can be, and still extend your legs, and still keep the coccyx down on the table. Let's start, though, with just some breathings.

You're gonna inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth. And just do a little percussive breath for me. And you're going to feel your ribs expand laterally, so we're already developing motion in the thorax. And then, as you exhale, the ribs narrow in. Inhale, the ribs widen, exhale, the ribs narrow.

Two more breaths, inhale and exhale. And one more good breath, inhale and exhale. Good. So here's the position. I'm actually going to get a pillow for Amy.

Ready? Yup. How's that? Try that. Good, let me bring this down.

(mumbles) flat surface. You can tell (mumbles). Perfect. So I was looking at Amy's head, it just looked like it was a little bit, head back a little bit, a little bit extended back. So now we've got that facial profile that is parallel to the floor.

So go ahead now, and just bend into your-- Well, exhale to bend, inhale to extend, keeping the tailbone down. Let's do eight of these. Exhale, bend, inhale and extend. Good, exhale. Feel how the two hips are bending symmetrically and simultaneously.

And you're not just turned out in the hips, but you're actually turning out in the hips. So you're actively maintaining the work in those external rotators as you bend and as you straighten, so it's not like you're turned out, something you did in the past, but you're turning out, something you are practicing in the present. Let's just do two more. I'm not sure if that was eight, but let's do two more of those. And lift, and one more.

Exhale and inhale. Now you're gonna go to a parallel position with your arches on the bar, and you're gonna wrap your feet over the bar, and feel a sense of tone in the feet. Once again, you're gonna bend, plie, inhale, exhale, and then inhale to extend. Exhale to plie, inhale to extend. And as you're moving here, feel how you are flexing and extending at the hip, keeping the tailbone down, keeping the lower spine stable, and working the hips evenly and symmetrically.

It stands to reason that if you're bending your hips at the same time, equally and symmetrically, then the pelvis will be in its more ideal, level position. Let's do two more of these. And one more. Exhale and inhale. And now we go on onto the heels.

Flexing the feet back, including that outer border of the foot, ankles, knees, and thighs together, tailbone down. And you exhale to plie, inhale to extend. Exhale and inhale. Keep going. Exhale and inhale.

Almost think of elongating your sit bones away from you as you plie, so you're keeping the spine long. Four more. And exhale. And inhale and exhale. Two more.

Exhale, inhale. The last. Exhale, inhale. Back to the ball of the foot now, and you're going to make a releve position, so that's just a tippy toe position. And you're going to flex, releve.

(sighing) Inhale, exhale. Good. Check your feet here. One thing that's nice about doing the footwork here is you can really look at your legs and make sure that you're happy with the alignment. So look at the alignment of the hip, the center of the knee, the center of the ankle, and the foot, and make sure you're really happy with how those joints relate to one another.

Then you're going to do a little running in place. So go ahead and flex one foot, and point the other toe. Good. Now what tends to happen here is that as you bend the hip and knee, that the spine shortens on that side. So really keep that side long, and activate the abdominal muscles on that foot which is flexing.

So if you can just think of that. You really deliberately pull the belly in, in opposition to the flexed foot leg. That'll help you also maintain the level pelvis. Good, do an even number on each side. Then you're going to extend to your releve once again.

Cross, now, your right ankle over your left knee. Good. And you're going to keep the pelvis as level as you can, and bend the knee, and flex the foot, and then do your figure four stretch, and then extend long. We'll just do eight of those. So you exhale and inhale, actively turning out that right leg.

So you're still actively engaged, and despite the asymmetric position of the legs, you're striving for symmetry through the pelvis and spine. And after your eight, go ahead and switch to the other side. Exhaling as you bend, inhaling. And not just wedging the leg against the thigh, but actively, externally rotating, just subtly, not with a lot of force. But it's not completely a relaxed position, either, in the back of that hip.

And you'll do eight here. Very good. And then you'll carefully bend in, and take your feet off of the bar, and dismount. We're gonna set up, now, for the leg springs. I'm gonna ask my students to set up the leg springs.

And while you're setting the leg springs up, I'm gonna just talk a little bit about a concept called joint active equaling joint passive. So we're developing mobility in the hip, and we will be developing mobility in the thorax, too, but we want that mobility to be supported, so that whatever flexibility, whatever extensibility you derive from the exercise, you have the strength to maintain that position, and to stabilize that position. That's very important. So here we are. You're gonna lie on your back now, with your head towards the uprights.

Place your feet in the loops. I'll help you. And then reach back to your uprights. And you're gonna press into those uprights. Scoot back just a little bit, Jackie, so you have a little something to press there.

Do you feel that? So you're close enough that you can press into the uprights with an even, consistent, sustained press. That's part of your stability system. We're gonna start in a parallel position, and we're gonna do a pattern that I call the hello goodbye pattern. You start with a little bit of tension on the spring.

Start with a little tension on the spring. And right now, your two legs are saying hello to each other. Your right leg is going to reach down. It's gonna say goodbye. Then you bring it back up together, hello.

The left, as far as you can go without distorting your position. Together, hello. And then we'll do both down, and up. Now we do left. Left says goodbye, come back, hello.

Right, goodbye, and hello. Then both, inhale and exhale. Goodbye, right, and hello. Goodbye, left, and hello. And both.

Now the challenge, when you do one leg down, the left says goodbye, is that the pelvis likes to rotate around that. And your task is to maintain the symmetry, even as you're doing that one leg down. Right, and up. Left, and together. Both, and lift.

Goodbye, left, hello. Goodbye, right, say hello. And it's the both, inhale and exhale. Very good. Bend your knees now, and let the springs come inside the knee.

You're gonna grab hold of the ring, or just below the ring. Keep the tailbone down, keep the shoulders relaxed, and just give yourself a gentle hip stretch. So because we're emphasizing the stability of the lower spine and pelvis, I'm gonna ask you to really keep the tailbone down, and emphasize the motion in your hip joints, really deep in that flexion. Should feel good. If it doesn't, back off.

Down, you're gonna stretch the legs up again towards the ceiling. Reach back to your posts. You're gonna make an internal rotation now. And you're gonna keep your internal rotation actively engaged, as you lower and lift. So you're actively maintaining that internal rotation.

Lower and lift, tailbone down. We'll do six of these. Three, and lift. Four, and lift. Five, and lift.

Six, and lift. Now make your turn out, and you're gonna press down six here. One, and pull up. Inhale and exhale. Press down.

Slowly lift. Press down, and two more. Down, and lift. Down, and lift. You need a break?

Need a break? Go ahead and bend in, take a little break. You're gonna take a break. Now press up again. That wasn't a very long break.

Turn out. Lower the legs as far as you can without distorting anything. Do you know what I mean by distorting anything? No scrunched jaws. Now you're gonna keep your turn out.

We're gonna do 16 little beats, and you're gonna take four beats to inhale, and four beats to exhale. Here we go. Inhale, two, three, four. Exhale, two, three, four. Inhale, two, three, four.

Exhale, now heels together. Now you're gonna do big ones. Open and together. Four of these, keeping your feet underneath an imaginary low ceiling. Inhale and exhale.

Inhale and exhale. And the beats. Inhale, two, three, four. Exhale, two, three, and four. Inhale (clapping).

Exhale (clapping). Good, and open. Pull together from the top of the inner thigh. Open, pull together from the top of the inner thigh. Two more, inhale and exhale.

The last, inhale and exhale. One more set. Here we go. Inhale, two, three, four. Exhale, sh, sh.

And together. Open and close, inhale, and together. Keep the legs low, and that's good. Open and together. The last, open and together.

Reach the legs up. And then you're just gonna indulge in a little stretch here. Let the legs just split to the side. The springs hold the weight of the legs. The arms come down.

You're gonna do four breaths, expanding the ribs, narrow the ribs. Expand the ribs, narrow. And two more breaths. Exhale. And one more, inhale and exhale.

And just bring the legs together, and take the feet out of the loops. Oh, we're gonna do a diamond. Don't take the feet out yet. Make a diamond. So the soles of the feet come together, and you're gonna press the outer border of your feet into the straps.

So this position. Everyone wants to do a sickle, but we're not gonna do a sickle. A sickled foot doesn't sound like something anyone would want. No. So from your hips, from your bum crease, you press down.

Let's do four of these. Down, and lift. Doing okay? Inhale and exhale. Two more.

Lengthen the spine as you press down. One more, inhale and exhale. We're gonna add a develepe. So you press down. Keep the thighs where they are.

Extend the legs out, come back to your diamond, and lift. The discipline is that you press down and keep the legs where they are, keep the thighs where they are, just extend the knees from there. Back to your diamond, and lift. You hold the space of the thigh as you extend. Mm-hm.

Bend, and lift. I'm gonna ask you to just hold that a little better. So go ahead and press down, hold this where it is, and then extend from there. That's it, bend. Feel the difference?

And lift up. Let's do one more. We press down, hold the thigh where it is. Good. And bend, and lift up.

And now, we'll bend in, and take the feet out of the loops. Excellent. What we're gonna do now is set up with the push through. That's with the spring from the top. And we're gonna focus, with the push through bar, in getting more mobility in the thorax, specifically in side bending, rotation, and extension, not so much in terms of flexion or rounding the back, because that's not a skill that we need to focus on, most of us.

But with our epidemic of tight thoraxes, we're gonna work on those other motions, extension, rotation, side bend. And I'm gonna ask you to start lying on your backs, with your throat underneath the bar. And the rule is, when you reach back, you want your bar to line up with the uprights. Let's just see where you are. Go ahead and bend the elbows, and reach back.

Yeah, that's good, that's good. I'm gonna have you move just a little bit closer to me here, Jackie. Yeah, good, so that... You see how the bar just goes right through the uprights? Great.

And then reach the bar up. Let's reach the bar up to the ceiling. Good. And let's just do a little bit of that range of motion for the shoulders, just bending the elbows, and extend back, and bend the elbows, and come up. You're going to take an inhale and an exhale for each phase.

Good. Inhale, exhale. And just feel that deliberate placement of your shoulder blades, without strain, they're not jammed down. And two more here. And lift.

And the last, inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Now your right hand goes to where your left hand is. Your left hand releases, and you're gonna take your arms to the side, your hand to the side, and your arm is lifted, like you're holding onto something valuable in your left palm. And we're going to exhale.

You let the spine rotate. The upper spine rotates, and the neck, but the pelvis stays placed, and then inhale, you come back, and the head comes back to center. Exhale, rotate, very good. Pulling the abdominal muscles in, in opposition, and exhale. Just getting some motion, just imparting some easy motion into your upper back/neck complex.

Exhale, inhale. Let's do two more here. Exhale and inhale. Last one, exhale. Feel how the pelvic bones maintain their place on the mat.

Other side. So the right arm is up at the side, palm is up, exhale. Press up, and turn, inhale. Place the shoulder blade back down. Exhale, press up, and turn.

Inhale, exhale, turn. Inhale, exhale. Inhale. Two more here. And the last.

Good. I'm gonna throw something at you too, now. You're gonna take your right hand to the opposite side once again, the left arm to the side. This time, as you rotate, I'm gonna ask you to extend this opposite leg out. Exhale and inhale.

And right. Exhale and inhale. And exhale and inhale. Let's do the other side. Here we go.

Exhale, you rotate to the right as your left leg extends, inhale, come back to center. Exhale, rotate to the right as your left leg extends. Inhale. One more. Exhale, and inhale, and then place both hands on the bar, and, with care, you're going to rise up.

Excellent. So now what I'm gonna ask you to do is kneel. And you're going to kneel and face out. And you're gonna extend your right leg out to the side. And we're going to work this motion in a sequence.

So the bar comes down first, maintaining your center. The right arm comes up second, maintaining the center. Now you press the bar down, and you make a side bend, you make a bow with the body. Beautiful. You come back up to center, the arm goes down, the bar comes up, then you're gonna make a little tilt.

Then you just tilt to the side. That's right. And back to center. We'll do that again. The bar comes down, the arm comes up, the spine, she bends.

Rise up to vertical, arm down, bar up, and tilt, and center. And just breathe whatever breath is natural for you here, but make sure that you're consciously breathing as you're moving, not breathing just enough to remain conscious. And lengthen, and center. And the bar comes down, arm up, side bend, and lift yourself back to vertical. Hold your vertical, and reach the bar up, and tilt.

Great. And center. I think we can turn around. So now the left legs extend. Take some time to find your center, to find your vertical.

Bar down. Yeah, move a little bit closer. Arm up, and stretch over. Rise up to vertical, and the bar comes up, and tilt. Great.

And bring the bar down, reach up, stretch over, and perhaps we stretch over simply so that you can have the opportunity to come back to neutral. So maybe the important part of this exercise is not the side bend, here it is, but how do you reorganize back to vertical after the side bend. Arm down, bar up. Good. And again, bar down, arm up, stretch over, and lift, and reach.

Let's do one more here. And we go. It's the bar, it's the arm, it's the spine. And then you reorganize back to your vertical, standing vertical, and then lengthen to the side, and center. Excellent.

Now you're going to stay in your kneeling position. You're gonna go face the uprights. Cramp? Mm-hm. Okay.

(laughter) So what were going to do now is the cat, but I'm going to ask my students to keep the thigh bones perpendicular. We could do the cat by going back like that, where you flex at the hip, but I'm going to ask that the thighs stay perpendicular, you bring the bar down, and you dive forward. And the emphasis here is gonna be the extension, the arch of the back. The bar only comes to the upright. Lots of times people wanna go forward, like that.

I would say it's better to keep it a little more contained and get this feeling. And just imagine the heel of my hand is in your back. I would be there if I could. Curl the tail, and come back up. Then we're gonna go to a down stretch.

So you're just gonna reach up, press out like a prow. So you're in your prow position. Back to vertical, press down just a few degrees, and lift the chest. This is your high release. Right, so it goes.

Up to neutral, and you curve forward, keeping the thighs perpendicular. Extend out, containing the motion, so you can very deliberately extend the thoracic spine, extend through the mid back. Curl the tail under. How does that feel? Good.

And you lift up and reach up. Now you're gonna think like Elvis, and thrust forward the pelvis. So really let this come forward. Feel the difference there, when you let that come forward? Right, I'm just gonna give you a little extend.

Right, you okay there? Then come back to neutral, press down, and lift. That's it. Let's do two more of these. And we go, curve forward.

Extend out, not too much. Really focus on what the spine is doing. Very good. Tail curls under, you come back up. It undulates, and you reach forward, reach the pelvis forward, arc, and then up to center.

High release, press down, and lift, inhale, and exhale. One more time with feeling. We curve, and extend. Not too much. And curve, and rise up, hinge forward to a prow.

Much better. Come back to neutral, come back to center. Press down, and lift the chest, and center. That's your cat. I'm gonna ask you both now to sit, please, placing your feet against the uprights.

What you're gonna do here, we're just gonna do a forward push through, seated push through. You're gonna hang back, so lean back. And what I'm gonna ask you to do is deliberately hang off of the bar, but with integrity. That means the shoulders are delicately placed, and the core is engaged, the center is engaged here, as you hang, so it's not just a complete relinquishment of control. Then you're going to curve forward, and round the back, round the lumbar spine here, so really pulling back here, trying to hold back in this thorax.

And then you're gonna hang back again with integrity, and reach up, bend the knees, and lengthen, keeping the ribcage aligned, so not a forward press, but rather a lengthening up, and a lift. Good. Go ahead and bend your knees just a little more, and get this lift. That's it. Now you're gonna hang back again, and what I'm gonna ask you to think about is your sternum and the ribs, the relationship of your sternum and your ribs.

You're going to keep a good grip with the left hand, release the right hand, and do a little rotation, and what you're going to think of is that your ribcage, your ribs on the right side, move around the sternum, and your twist is on an axis. Good. And let's come back to center. Let's do the other side. Rotate about the axis, and feel the length of the ribcage extends away from and around the sternum.

Some people call that lateralizing the ribs. And back to center. Let's add to this. You're gonna do your rotation, laterilizing your ribs. Then let's do a side bend, so right arm by ear.

Let's just go ahead and do a side bend all the way over. Keep your pelvis stable, and then sweep around, and switch, and rotate, laterilizing the ribs. Bring that left arm by your ear, side bend. Good. Pelvis placed on the mat.

Swivel around, and grab. Let's do one more each side, and breathe, inhale and exhale. To the side, bend, inhale and exhale. Sweep around, inhale and exhale. Other side, rotate, and exhale.

To the side, bend, and exhale. Sweep it around, beautiful. Take up lots of space. Back to center, and you're gonna reach the bar up, bend the knees, and stretch up, hold, and breathe, and reach. Lovely.

And down. Good. You're gonna take that spring off now, and let the bar just hang. And you're going to lie, face lying with your head towards the uprights. Grab the bar.

We're gonna do a swan, but without a spring. First, just prepare yourself. Pull the abdominal muscles up, so you're not just hanging on the mat, but you're just slightly lifted up. You're going to bend both elbows, extend both elbows, and then lift the chest, inhale and exhale. And again, you bend the elbows, you extend, and you lift, and down.

Two more of these. Bend, and extend, and make a swan. Press down into the bar to lift up, that's it, and then come back down. And again. I misspoke, we're gonna do more than two.

Go ahead and bend, and extend. And now push down on the bar to lift up, versus pulling the bar, and then back down. Let's do one more, just to bend, and extend, and lift. And lower about halfway, and you're going to swim. (clapping) inhale, exhale.

Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Inhale and exhale, and release the bar, and sit back on your heels. Very good. Feel the tail curl under, and let the mid back just stay relatively in a more neutral position, if you can, right, so it's not too rounded in the mid back.

Excellent. What we're going to do now is you're going to lie on your left side, and just grab onto your upright, and we're going to do side leg springs, but we're not gonna use a spring. So the feet are gonna go forwards, towards the front. Set up your pelvis so your hips are stacked. Make a little bit of space underneath your left waist.

The top leg is going to lift up til it's parallel to the floor. Flex the foot, and you're gonna kick front. Kick, kick, now point, extend, back in, reach. Flex, flex, and point. And just pretend that you are attached to a spring, as you flex, flex, and point.

Flex, flex, and point. Now I decided not to use the spring because I want you to not have that assistance. I want you to really develop the strength in all the different muscle fibers in the backside. Flex, flex, and point. And flex, flex, and point.

Now you're gonna keep your leg in a parallel position, swing front. Good, and keep the foot pointed now. And now you're gonna turn out, lift the leg up, and around, and back, and turn out, then come to parallel, as you swing front, turn out, lift, sweep it around. Feel the muscles of your backside engage. And then go to parallel, and swing front, turn out, lift, and place.

One more, swing front, turn out, lift, and place, and come front. Then you're gonna come back, come back, turn out, lift up, and around, and parallel, take it back. Turn out, lift, bring it around, and two more. Take it back, turn out, lift. Excellent.

And around, last one. Lift, and around, and take it back. Bend that top knee, find your ankles, bring your legs parallel to the floor. Yeah, just parallel to the floor. And then you're gonna think of tucking your pelvis.

You're not actually gonna tuck, you're just gonna engage those muscles that you would use to tilt the tailbone under to intensify the stretch. And feel free to breathe. Take two more good breaths. And one more good breath. And then go ahead and flip over.

We have to do the other side. Set yourself up for success. Top leg up, hip height, flex the foot, we go front, front, and back. I'm gonna ask you to exhale, inhale. And exhale, exhale, inhale.

Exhale, exhale, inhale. Keep going. Flex and point. Flex and point. And flex and point.

And flex and point. Now swing front, and parallel, point it, turn out. Feel the different muscles of your hip engage as you make that ron-de-jom, and then come front, lift, turn out, bring it around. Two more here. Front, turn out, lift, and place.

Last one. Front, turn out, lift, and place, and front. Then we reverse. Go back, turn out, lift, and around. Take it to its extreme and then around.

What I mean is, take it to its full range as you go back. Now keep it at full range as you turn out. That's it. And around. Last one.

Take it to full range back there, then turn out, lift. Excellent. And back to center, and back. Then you bend that top knee, organize yourself, engage, collect in your core as you tuck under, and take two more good breaths, inhale and exhale. And inhale and exhale.

Excellent. And rise up. We're gonna set up now, quickly, the roll down bars, or roll back bars, whatever you call them. (laughter) And we're gonna do a bridge. You're gonna lie on your back with your head away from the uprights, and you're gonna put your knees over the trapeze.

Place your feet flat, and move yourself back, so that you've got a little bit of spring tension. It's almost creating a bit of traction through the body. Yeah, yeah. You can change your latitude on the mat as you need to, to have more or less spring tension. So organize yourselves beautifully.

I'm gonna ask you now to curl your tail. See if you can curl your tail from someplace deep, not just your gluts, but really curl from the deep core. Then you're gonna rise up to your bridge, all the way up. Good. From here, reach your arms up, and back, overhead, and then you're going to lay your vertebrae down, one segment at a time.

Good. And then you're gonna reach your arms down. So let's just do that segmental curl, to reach up, and reach up, and back. Good. And as you're making this motion through your spine, just visualize that you are stimulating the lubricating fluids of the spine through this motion.

And then the arms come down. And again, you curl, and you rise up, and you reach up, and back, and you roll the spine down, one segment at a time. Good. And reach down. Good.

Rise up one more time. One segment at a time. Reach back, good. My corny line with this one, in this exercise, you appreciate being a vertebrate. Roll the spine down until the tail comes down, and bring your arms down.

Cephalopods can't do this exercise. (laughter) All right, that's it, that's our bridge. Now you're gonna rise up, please, and kneel. Sounds like church. (laughter) And we're going to do our chest expansion.

And I'm gonna ask you to do the flesh-er breath with this one, not the holding of the breath. There's nothing wrong with that one, but we're gonna do a nice exhale, as you do your head turn. So before you start, though, I call this encroachment. You wanna encroach in the space in front of you. It's a football term, encroach, so that you're a little bit off balance.

It makes it more exciting. Inhale, you press the bar down, exhale, look right, look left, look front, control the bar up. Yes. Inhale, press down, look right, look left, look front, release with control. Here we go, I'm gonna breathe it.

Inhale, sh, sh, sh. And to the left, sh, sh, sh. One more each side. Inhale, to the right, sh, sh, sh. And to the left, sh, sh, sh, sh.

Walk back. You're going to hinge back now from your knees, inhaling to lean, exhale to lift. What I'm gonna ask for in this one today is that your bar stay just in a horizontal line as you go back, and as you come front, so it engages a little bit more. Press the pelvic bones forward using your strength, but meet that strength by pulling up and in, so you feel an opposition as you go back and as you come up. Inhale and exhale.

One more, and we're gonna do a little upper back arch. So you inhale to lean back, and then you're gonna arc back with just the upper back. Good. Back to center, and up. Let's do one more of these.

Good. You're gonna lean back. Keep the lower spine stable. It's the thoracic spine who arches. And lift up.

That's hard. And back to center. And from here you're going to stand up, and you're gonna duck underneath your bar. Turn around, and you're going to find that exciting lean. So you're gonna step as far away as you need to so that you have good spring support, but not too much spring tension.

I think you both need to scoot. (laughter) Okay, leaning forward, you're gonna make a press, and a slight lift, and a lower, and bend. And you press, and lift, and lower, and bend. And press, and lift, and lower. What's the breath?

It goes sh, sh, sh, sh. Three inhales. Sh, sh, sh. One exhale, sh. Sh, sh, sh, sh.

The last, sh, sh, sh, sh. Good. Come out from under there. Stand up beautifully tall. Stand up there.

You might as well stay on your pedestals. Maybe the reason we do all of this is so that you can come back to center, and you can feel the alignment of the body. I'm gonna ask you both to just place your hands on top of your head. Place your hands on top of your head, and very delicately just, not press down, but it's kind of like a reassuring compression, but very light, not pressing hard. And then just feel your center axis, feel the center axis of your body, all the way to your feet, and organize yourselves in that alignment.

And then just bring your arms down. Let's take four more breaths. We bring the arms to the side, feel the ribs extend. And exhale, feel the ribs narrow. Inhale and exhale.

And inhale and exhale. One more. Inhale and exhale. And now we have mobile hips, hips still stable. Stable lower spine, but still mobile.

Mobile thoracic spine, but still stable. So equal introvert and extrovert. And that will conclude our class. Thank you.