Form and Function Mat

Hi everybody, I'm Tom McCook. I'm here for a beautiful mat class with a resistive stretching component for strength and flexibility with these lovely women and we're gonna start with standing posture so I'd like you to stand with your feet about four to six inches apart, bring your head right up over your spine, and just lean a little forward on your feet for a moment. And then back to center, lean back slightly. Back to center, lean to one side. Back to center, lean to your second side.

Back to center, now just sense where the middle is where the weight's 50/50 on the front and the back of your feet. With your head right up over your spine just close your eyes for a moment and just take a few deeper than normal breaths through the nose. And on the exhale phase just imagine you're settling into the floor and you're lengthening at the same time. And use this moment, these few moments, just to start to let go of the rest of your day, come more into a feeling state, noticing posture, breathing, current tension levels in your body. And as you're noticing, just start to formulate your own intention for your practice today.

If there's particular areas of your body you'd like to heal or become a little more skillful with on how you use them. Or if you just wanna have a good movement experience. Become a little more graceful, little stronger, whatever it is for you set that intention before we begin. Go to the end of the next exhale. And just softly open your eyes as you bend your knees slightly slide both shoulders straight up.

As the legs lengthen, relax the shoulders and see your spine getting a little longer. And, again, hips down, shoulders up. Legs lengthen, shoulders release, body elongates, one more. And down. Now bend the knees, we're gonna take it into a roll down.

From the top of your spine peel down, articulate one segment at a time as you get about halfway watch your pelvis roll over the top of your legs. At the bottom take a breath. Exhale, draw the lower belly in and reach your sit bones down to stack your spine. Let your head be the last thing up. We'll do that one more time.

Inhale at the bend. From the top down, articulate one segment at a time. Letting the shoulder girdle be heavy. Take a breath at the bottom now feel like you're growing roots into the floor with your feet as you stack the spine from the bottom up. Ahhhhh.

Now the next one gonna roll down and help yourself onto all fours so curl down the same way. And help yourself onto all fours. And as you come onto all fours have your hands directly under your shoulders. Knees under your hips and create a straight line from your head to your tail. And imagine that your head is the end of your spine so don't drop the head out of the line of the body.

And we're just gonna do rocking so if you can tuck your toes under and as you inhale push your hips back as far as you can without changing the shape of the spine. And inhale forward. And just imagine you're rocking and the primary hinges are your hip joints, your knees, and your shoulder girdle. And you're going nice and fluid and notice it's gonna keep the shape of the spine relatively the same, the top of the chest open. Do two more.

And one more. Now from there rock back, walk your hands a little closer to your knees, so we're gonna do some diaphragmatic breathing. So with your hips back, open the top of your chest and as you inhale, breathe towards your belly, imagine you're gonna put your face on the ceiling. And exhale, tuck your chin to your chest. Do that five times.

Inhale to look up. Exhale chin to your chest. And imagine that you're stretching the inner body as you lift your chin you're stretching your esophagus, you're stretching your organs, but you're breathing down towards the pelvis. Do two more. (breathes deeply) And one more.

As your chin comes to your chest this next time hold it there. Now take five diaphragmatic breaths where you let the belly expand, feel the movement on the inside of your pelvis just from breathing deeply. Exhale deflate. Feel like you're pushing the floor down and forward so you can keep your shoulders back and down. Do that three more breaths like that.

Feel that internal movement. (breathes deeply) One more everybody. And then as you gently release, let your head come up and lie onto your side, facing this way, and bend your legs into a tabletop position and you can use your towel for your head. Now this is called telescoping and pinwheel so bend your knees so they're stacked and bring your head back in line with the spine. Pull your bottom shoulder out from under you so it's easier to drop your head to the floor.

Take your top arm about six inches above your bottom arm. Now just protract, which means to pull your shoulder blade forward with the top arm, let your head roll a little bit forward on the floor. Now start to retract, let the elbow bend, let your head roll and let your eyes follow the reaching arm as it straightens. Keeping your hips stacked as best you can. Now bend at the elbow and come back the same way.

'Kay we're gonna do that four more times and you'll get a sense that where your focus is on the middle of your upper back and that organization of your shoulder girdle, your head, and spine. Nice and fluid. And again bring it back. We're just gonna do two more. So it's a retraction, imagine you're turning from the middle of your upper back and you're letting your head just get heavy.

That's it. One more everybody. Nice way to open up your upper spine before we do anything more muscular. That's it. And then open.

And come back. Now this time as you come back, protract a little forward again but take your arm straight up overhead. When your arm gets to ear level, roll open and let your eyes follow the arm. Into a big circle. Let it keep coming down over your hip and then do three full circles in that one direction.

Again, feel like you're moving from the middle of the upper back. It's an organized movement of your head, your arm, your shoulder girdle. You can give your neighbor a little slap as you come by, it's all good. That's it. One more you guys.

That's it. Last one. And as your hand comes to your hip, roll right onto side two. And we'll switch. That's it, start where your hips are stacked, knees are stacked, pull the bottom shoulder out from under you and bring the head back in line with the spine.

We start with the telescoping, so telescope meaning telescope the arm forward with a little protraction. Now retract, let the elbow start to bend and let your eyes follow the rotation and the reach. And then bend at the elbow and come back the way you came. And feel that organization of your shoulder girdle, you head, your upper spine. Doin' your best to keep your hips relatively stacked.

That's it. Nice and smooth. Two more. How that opens up your chest muscles, gives your lungs a little more room. Nice and fluid.

Let's go of the stress that's held in our torso. One more. Last one. There ya go. As you come back to the starting position, just continue by reaching the top arm forward, then take it up towards your ear overhead and then turn the torso and let your eyes follow the reaching arm.

All the way down to your hip. And over your hip. Three more circles in that same direction. Imagine you're opening up those upper ribs like a fan. Nice fluid motion.

Two more. Moving with your breath. That's it. Hips are stacked, nice fluid motion. One more you guys, last one.

Beautiful. As you come to the end of that one, come back to your kneeling position that you began in. Now we're gonna take it into a resistive stretch for the middle of your back, your chest, and the muscles underneath your armpits. So start with your hands out in front of you. A little bit forward of your body, maybe six inches forward of the body.

And your back is flat. Now open the top of the chest to the front and just feel what it feels like to press your arms down into the mat and back towards your feet. And also activate your arms towards each other. Now keeping your chest forward and your gaze forward on the exhale as you resist the arms towards each other and back, pull your hips back. Then inhale forward.

Now as you're going back, don't let your back round or your gaze drop, keep your gaze forward. So where you wanna feel that is in the middle of your upper back, the muscles under your arms, and your chest. So you're resisting as you're going back and you're breathing. (breathes deeply) That's it, do four more. (breathes deeply) Everybody feeling that in their upper back a little bit?

Nice. That's it. (breathes deeply) Two more. (breathes deeply) And one more. Very nice.

Now as you come up, take your block, and we'll put it on this side and I want you to step your left, your left would be you guys's right leg, forward like me. This'll just be for balance. Now as you lunge, lunge forward enough where your front knee is over the ankle and the back knee is a little bit behind you. With your front hand, touch your hamstring. So this is a resistive stretch for your hamstring on your front leg.

So imagine that with your torso your spine is the same length on the front and the back. Now start to resist your front heel back and as you do that, pull the torso back without rounding your back. Let the forefoot come off the floor. Inhale to lunge forward. Resist back all the way through the movement.

And it's fine if the knee doesn't fully straighten, just go to where you can go and still resist. That's it. So think of a functional muscle as a muscle that can contract through its entire stretch length. That's what we're lookin' for here. You might notice you're warmin' up pretty quickly, too.

There we go. Two more. (breathes deeply) One more. (breathes deeply) Now come up to tall kneeling. Level your pelvis.

And on your back leg side take that arm back, take the other arm forward. Now feel like you're gonna resist the back knee forward, the back foot down, and as you pull that back knee down to forward, let it pull the body back as the arms mirror that. And then inhale to lunge in. Resist the back knee forward to pull you back. So you guys feelin' that little bit of a stretch in your hip flexor on the back leg?

(breathes deeply) And if you can, keep the back glute turned on. (breathes deeply) Good, one more. Now we're gonna add to it so we're gonna go like this. Do it one more time now as you come up, take your hand across your body to your knee. You're still in the stress.

Now take your other arm forward, turn the palm up, and rotate open. Release, lunge back in. Exhale resist back. (breathes deeply) Take your hand across, reach forward, and spiral open. That's it, we're gonna do one more.

Lunge in, resist. (breathes deeply) Hand to the outside of the knee, reach forward, spiral open. Now we're gonna do two more, a little different, same set-up, exhale resist, now as you come up, take your same side arm inside the knee, press them into one another. There ya go. Now take the other arm overhead and side bend but keep the legs active.

Lengthen back up. Lunge in. And again, exhale resist. (breathes deeply) Take it inside, reach. Side.

One more time. Release in. Exhale resist. (breathes deeply) Come inside, reach side. And we'll switch sides.

That is short and sweet. Right in there though. So now switch your legs. And think of that you don't wanna round your back, you wanna level your hips. Let the front knee be over the ankle.

The back knee a little bit behind you. And just imagine the front of your spine's as long as the back of your spine. Put your hand on your hamstring so you can feel it. That tactile feedback's important. Now resist your front heel back to turn those muscles on.

On the exhale pull the pelvis back. Let the forefoot come up as it needs to. Exhale back. (breathes deeply) And challenge yourself to feel like you can keep the muscle active all the way through the range. It doesn't really matter if your knee fully straightens.

Let the breathing be fluid. And again. (breathes deeply) Three more. (breathes deeply) And two. (breathes deeply) And one.

(breathes deeply) Now come back up. In the lunge position, take your back side arm back. This is for the hip flexors. Now on the exhales you kick down through that back leg. Pull yourself back, the arms and legs are mirroring each other.

Inhale to lunge. Exhale. (breathes deeply) Just try to keep the back hip open the whole time. (breathes deeply) There ya go. Now we're talkin'.

(laughs) That was the adjustment. (all laughing) That's it. (all laughing) There it is. Now the next one, go into it, hold it, as you come up, reach across, take the outside of the knee. Now take the free arm forward with the palm up and now rotate open.

Release and lunge. And again, resist back. (breathes deeply) Take the outside of the knee, keep the tone. Reach forward and open. One more time, lunge.

Resist. Take hold. Reachin' open. (laughs) And now come forward. And now we're gonna switch this, we're gonna add a side then now.

Now come in. Resist, pull yourself back, now take the same side arm inside the knee, resist them into one another. Reach up and side bend towards the front side. Lengthen up, release forward. Exhale back.

(breathes deeply) Take the arm inside, resist. Reach and side bend. Lengthen up one more time. Exhale. (breathes deeply) Reach inside, press.

Side. And lengthen up, very nice. Now help yourself, that's workin'. Yes. Help yourself onto your back.

(laughs) Now as you come onto your back, we're gonna do some resistive stretching for the hips to get the body prepared for a few more movements so first thing, is take both legs straight up to the ceiling with the knees slightly bent. Now open your legs to a comfortable range and just notice you wanna keep the spine in a relatively good position and put your hands on your outer thighs just below the knee joint. Or above the knee joint. So this is for your outer hip muscles and outer hamstrings. Start to push your legs apart.

But on the exhale let your arms win to close your legs. (breathes deeply) Inhale open without resistance. Exhale resist out, let the arms win. (breathes deeply) See how that's activating your glutes? And your lateral hamstring.

(breathes deeply) And do that four more times. That's it. Nice and smooth. We don't think of our hamstring being involved in that type of a movement but it is. Two more.

And one more. Now as they close this time, put your hands on your inseams just above the knee. Now start to squeeze the legs in but on the exhale let the arms win to open the legs. Now feel how it's inner thighs. Inhale to close and make sure you're not resisting to the degree that there's any strain and go for an even quality through each leg.

That's it. Let's do three more. Good. One more. And as you close, place your feet on the floor.

And for this one, I'd like you to put the block between your knees, just above the knee joint with the short side and have your feet just a sit bone width apart. Bring your arms long by your side, find relatively neutral in your pelvis. Take a breath and on the exhale as you give the block a little bit of a squeeze, sink in your belly and curl your tail towards the block and come up into an articulated bridge. Now at the top of the bridge, inhale, press down into your feet and press the back of the shoulders into the floor. Take the sit bones a little higher.

Exhale, use your abdominal wall to articulate down. Let your tail be the last thing down. Inhale at the bottom and, again, exhale, articulate, think of the pelvis as being taken towards the knees. Inhale, press into the feet, press the shoulders back. Exhale, articulate down, nice and smooth.

On the next one we're gonna add to it so, again, on the exhale curl and bridge. This time as you inhale reach your arms back into a high V. Now on the exhale traction down your spine away from your fingertips. And then inhale your arms to your side. We're gonna do that two more times.

On the exhale, curl. (breathes deeply) Inhale to reach. Exhale, articulate down, traction away. That's it, one more. On the next exhale curl and bridge.

Inhale through extend the limbs. Or the arms. Exhale, articulate down, very nice. Now take the block out of your way, put it to the side. And take your hands straight up over your chest with your palms together and pull your shoulders down and forward so you feel like your shoulder blades are wrapping around the front of your ribcage and take a breath and exhale, curl into the bridge again.

Now in the bridge, imagine your front ribs melt towards the floor as your hands pull more towards the ceiling and your sit bones lift a little higher. Now imagine your pants pockets are filled with sand. Inhale, pour the right pocket towards the floor. Using your waistline. Now exhale, squeeze back to the middle.

I want you to do three a side. Notice that as you're rotating, you're not arching, you're keepin' long through the back. That's it, nice and fluid. Two more each side. There ya go.

One more each side, you guys. As you come back to the middle, inhale the arms back into that high V again. Exhale, traction down. Take your arms straight up to the ceiling. Create a little more length on the back of your ribcage by bringing the part of your waist into the floor.

And float one knee up. And then your second, bring the heels together, knees a little bit apart, we're gonna take it into the 100s. So roll the head off the floor. And then extend the legs up. Inhale for five.

Exhale for five. Feel like the shoulder blades are gliding down the back. The breath is low and deep. If you still have room to move let the legs lower a little bit. Just a little, just see if you can keep the length in the back.

Inner borders of your arms are toned. Your breathing is fluid. There we go. Let's do three more sets of breaths. Nice and smooth.

Feel like you're using the breath to create space in the spine. One more set. At the end of your exhale, keeping up with the upper body, lower your legs to the floor. Reach your arms up as your head comes down we're gonna go right into the roll up. As the arms go back, stay long in the lumbar.

Let the arms come forward, let the head follow. And peel off the floor and reach towards your feet. Now inhale, start to roll down. Exhale down. And just do three more.

If you need to bend the legs at any point or you use your arms at all, it's all good, just take it nice and slow and fluid. Let's do three more at your own pace. Take your time, feel your way through it. Keep the tone at the bottom. There ya go.

That's it. Nice, you guys, that's it. Let's do two more. That's it, that's it, it's all good. Stay with it, no worries.

That's the practice right there. Good. Awesome, one more. Nice and smooth. That's it.

Last one up you guys. (breathes deeply) That's it. There ya go. And now slowly roll down onto your back and I want you to take your block and your towel and put it under your head. And no it's not nap time.

(all laugh) So this is a resistive stretch for your medial hamstring so you're gonna bend your legs and take your leg that's closest to me and bend it and take hold of the heel with the same side hand. So the leg is in turn out. You're holding the heel and with your other hand you're gonna put it under your arm against the inner part of the knee. So now your leg is in turn out but you wanna keep your foot, your knee, and your hip in relatively good alignment. Now the resistance is start to resist your heel towards your pubic bones so you're turning on the hamstring and press the knee into the hand so you're turning on your abductors.

Now keep that resistance as you slowly lengthen the leg. (breathes deeply) Inhale to bend without resistance. Resist the heel down and in. And then straighten. I want you to do six more.

Feel the resistance as you lengthen and it's okay, again, if it doesn't' fully straighten. And see if you can find a fluidity to the resistive stretch. Especially if it's new, maybe make it less resistance, you'll start to feel the mechanics of it. That's it. There ya go.

Do two more. And one more. Awesome, and we'll take side two. Very nice. That's right in there huh?

Now take the inner heel. Go underneath and put your hands so you're stabilizing the knee. Now bend the knee quite a bit so you're starting at a shortened position, we're used to starting in long positions. Now start to resist the heel down. But on the exhale, let the arm win and also resist the knee into the hand so you're getting your abductors involved.

And inhale to bend. And again, that's it. (woman laughing) There ya go, make sure you take the strain out of it. Let it be a progression. There ya go.

(laughs) Inhale to bend. That's it, feel your way through it. Think of, again, that you're trying to match range with strength. That's how you become much more stable and less injury prone. Three more.

Good everybody, and two. And one. Beautiful. As you finish, remove your block, bring your feet flat on the floor, and just slowly, keepin' your pelvis in neutral, slide your leg that's closest to me long on the floor and reach the other leg straight up for leg circles. Now anchor the arms, sink in the belly, imagine your toes are touching the ceiling.

Inhale into the mid-line. Exhale the circle. Keep the down leg strong. Feel a fluid quality to your circle. That's it.

Two more in that direction. And reverse, inhale away from center. Imagine it's the femur head stirring in the hip socket. The wheel of the ilia is going with the leg. It's an extension of your leg right now.

Two more, that's it. There ya go, one more. And then bend the knee and pull it into your chest. So in any of this single leg stuff think of your pelvic half as an extension of your leg and it's rolling in the same direction as your femur is rolling in the socket. So let's take side two, stretch that leg long.

Take the second leg up. Anchor the body to the floor. Active down leg. Pointed foot. Inhale into the midline.

Exhale the circle. That's it, see the wheel of the ilia is going with it. The sit bone is following the foot. That's it. There ya go.

There ya go. That's it. One more in that direction. And now reverse. Find that fluid quality with strength.

Good. Two more, nice and smooth. That's it. It's smooth. There ya go.

(laughs) Not bad. Nice, awesome. And then bend that knee in. Draw it in for a stretch. Now rock up.

Now rock up for rolling like a ball but think of the way you're gonna get in to rolling like a ball is hold the back of your legs and imagine the wheels of the ilia, the pelvis, roll back and the sit bones narrow a little bit. And then float up one leg and the other. Now set the shoulders wide and imagine you're inside of a ball. Inhale to roll. Exhale up and find that balance point.

And again. Imagine the wheel has rolled back to initiate the movement. That's it. Now if you wanna take it further, take your hands to your shin, make your ball a little tighter. And again, inhale to roll.

Find that balance point, nice and smooth. Good. Just two more. And one more. As you come down, place your feet down, help yourself down onto your back.

We're gonna go into single leg and double leg stretch so just touch your two hip bones for a moment. And imagine, just take one knee in towards your chest, and imagine as you're doing that the ilia is rolling back and the other one is rolling forward. And then lift your other knee and do that for one moment on the other side. So that's your queuing but there's another important piece. Bring the first knee in again.

Imagine that the pelvis as a whole is getting heavier on the down leg side. Each time you pull the knee in the other side's getting heavy. That's just like walking. I won't say anymore about that at this moment so pull your knees in. Take a breath and exhale, curl up with your upper body.

Now take your left knee with your right hand. Your outside hand lower, now reach the leg out, now imagine the wheel on the leg you're holding is rolling back, the other one's rolling forward. Pelvis is getting heavy on the down leg side. Exhale, switch. And switch.

That's it. See the wheels countering. Smooth action. The back of the reaching leg is active. Good.

Two more, each side. There ya go. One more each side. (breathes deeply) As you come to center, bring just your head down and interlace your fingers behind your head. This is a double leg stretch variation.

Take a breath and exhale, curl up and bring your elbows, if they can, to touch your elbows. Elbows to touch your knees. Now as you slowly reach the legs out, just open your elbows but hold the upper body shape. Exhale in. Inhale out.

Exhale in, that's it. There ya go. Exhale in. Two more. Exhale in and one more.

Exhale in. Let the head come down, let your feet come down, find your block with your towel again. Put your head back under it. The stretch you did a few moments ago with the single leg, you're gonna do now with both legs. So bring your legs up and take hold of your both inner heels.

If somebody didn't have the flexibility to hold their heels you could also hold the shins. Now while you're here, start to resist the heels down and press the inner legs into your arms. On the exhale slowly lengthen. (breathes deeply) Inhale to bend. Resist and open.

(breathes deeply) Do four more. That's it. There ya go, now feel that activation towards the midline and the heels drawing down as the legs are lengthening. Good. Two more.

That's it. One more, you guys, last one. And now as you bend and release just take your knees into your chest, rock up to a seated position. We're gonna go right into spine stretch. So get right up on your sit bones, flex your feet, and take your arms up.

Now imagine even though you're not doing the movement, you're contracting your legs the same way. So take a breath, as you push your legs down and closer together, spine stretch forward. (breathes deeply) And the inhale, press down to stack back up. And again, exhale forward. Inhale to stack, feel that opposition of the legs going down, creates lift in the spine.

Two more. And one more, everybody. (breathes deeply) Now as you roll back up, curl a little behind your sit bones, bend the legs and take hold of your lower legs for open leg rocker. You might want-- Yeah, move your block outta the way, sorry 'bout that. Now get that sense of that the leg action is the same, you're gonna roll the wheels of the pelvis back to initiate the movement.

And then find the balance point. There ya go, and again, curl. Legs are nice and toned. That's it, do three more. Fluid.

Find that length, there ya go. Two more. Excellent, one more, everybody. As you come up, lower your legs for the saw. Open your arms out to the side.

Grow tall. Inhale, turn to your ... that side. (all laugh) Exhale, flex and reach, now as you flex and reach hold it there for a moment. Imagine the hip you're turning away from getting heavy. And the wheel of the hip on the side you're turning towards rolling back.

Inhale back to center. Exhale turn and flex and hold for a moment. This hip's getting heavy. This one's rolling back. Inhale center.

Exhale to flex and rotate. Take your time, feel it. Inhale center. Exhale turn. Flex and reach.

Good. Two more each side at your own pace. Feel your way through it. Feel the waistline draws back, the hips are anchored. Inhale center.

Exhale flex and reach, beautiful. One more each side. And again. (breathes deeply) Last side now. Excellent, now come into a lunging position like so.

So this is for the back of your shoulders and across your middle of your back. So you're gonna step one leg forward. Now take your opposite arm across your body and put the elbow on the outside of the knee. Now if you can see me for a second, your arm is gonna do this. This is the action so when I'm like this I'm externally rotated.

I'm gonna push my knee and my arm into one another and with this arm I'm gonna win, I'm still pushing out, but on the exhale I'm drawing the hand to my hip. So that's the action, so let's try that out. Let's take it across, take hold of your wrist. Now resist your hand towards your front foot. On the exhale, let your arm win and pull it towards your hip.

(breathes deeply) Inhale to release it forward. Resist and draw it back. (breathes deeply) That's it. Inhale in. That's it.

(breathes deeply) (breathes deeply) There ya go. Now only go as far as that you can match the resistance. (woman laughs) So you feel that external rotation in the joint, in the shoulder, in the back of the shoulder. Do two more. (breathes deeply) And one.

(breathes deeply) Very nice. And then we'll switch sides. That's right in there, huh? (women murmuring) Now come across. Take the elbow, now think of it's this.

So it's external and it's really up here, not so much the elbow. So start to resist the elbow and the knee into one another. Take hold of the wrist. Start to push the wrist into your hand on the exhale let that other arm win. Inhale forward, exhale resist.

(breathes deeply) And again. (breathes deeply) Let's do four more. (breathes deeply) Feel that across your back, the back of the shoulder it gets tight and weak. Two more. (breathes deeply) One more.

(breathes deeply) (laughs) That's it. (women speaking off mic) Now as you finish, come to a kneeling position, so this stretch is gonna be for the entire front of your body. That's a lot of stuff. (all laugh) So whenever, if you're contracting the front of your body when you're extending, you wanna feel like you're pulling your knees to your chest. You're trying to kick your lower leg straight.

And you're doing an abdominal curl. At the same time. While you're goin' the other way. So imagine you're gonna start like this. I'll just show you one, so I'm holding here.

I'm contracting but on the exhale I'm kicking down and forward. (breathes deeply) And I inhale to release. So I'll talk ya through. So toes are tucked under. You can hold the sides of the back of your hips.

Now start to contract as you kick the feet down. The sit bones will go down and forward. Contract your abs as you pull the shoulders back and then at the end look up. Inhale release forward. (woman speaking off mic) Just a little bit, just a little bit.

Yeah, think of that, it's as you exhale, kick the feet down, knees to chest, abs contract. And now open the shoulders to extend. That's it. Then inhale forward. Beautiful.

And again, start your resistance. Retract before you extend the upper back. There we go. Inhale in, we're gonna do two more. Exhale into it.

(breathes deeply) Inhale forward, one more time. Breathe all the way through, exhale all the way through this last rep. Exhale through it. (breathes deeply) Inhale release, nice work. Help yourself back onto your back for single straight leg stretch.

(woman speaking off mic) It's warm now. (women chattering) That's stomach meridian, that's getting a lotta things happening. Now take your leg that's closest to me straight up to the ceiling. Hold just below the knee. Take a breath and exhale, curl up with your upper body.

Now reach the other leg long. Now bring your attention back to the wheels of your pelvis. The wheels are givin' the leg more length. Exhale switch. (breathes deeply) And switch.

Nice and smooth. Shoulders are low. The down leg side is the heavier hip. (woman speaks off mic) Yeah. That's it.

There we go. Two more each side. One more each side. If you come back to center bend your legs to table top, bring your hands behind your head for crisscross. Take a breath, now exhale, slowly turn towards the knee furthest away from me as you press the other leg forward.

Inhale center, exhale to turn. Now here's a great example on the leg that's straightening, that hip's heavier. So your pelvis and your spine are counter -rotating. That's it, two more each side. (breathes deeply) That's it.

One more each side. (breathes deeply) Back to center. Draw the knees in. Rock right up to a seated position for reverse plank. So now in a reverse plank, think of the first thing, this is a resistive stretch.

Feel like you're resisting your hands this way the whole time as you push into your leg. So on the exhale, push your arms down and forward, press the hips up, and let your head go back last. Inhale tuck the chin and lower with control. And again, exhale, press down and forward. (breathes deeply) And extend.

Inhale back down, do two more. Nice and smooth. (breathes deeply) That's it. Feel that activation opens up the front of the spine and the chest. One more.

Resist. And slowly lower. Bend your legs. Roll onto your back, we're gonna do bridge with leg reach. Come flat onto your back, arms long by your spine.

Now bring your feet in line with your sit bones. Exhale articulate up into a bridge. Now feel the arms are strong and now as you inhale reach one leg straight out in line with the other knee. Hold it there, now inhale, point, and lift. Exhale, flex, and reach.

Do four on that side. Standing leg is strong, the wheel is rolling back as the leg goes up. Forward as it goes down. One more. Place it down, we'll switch sides.

Reach, point, and lift. Flex and reach. Good. Nice and smooth. Two more.

And one. Place it down, take a breath, articulate down through the spine. Help yourself to a seated position for spine twist. Now whenever you twist, think that the wheels are doing this, even though you're not moving your pelvis in space. So there's a rotation of the wheel rolling back on the side you're turning towards, so flex your feet, reach the arms out to the side and imagine you're gonna turn from the body of the plane, not from the wings.

So go tall on the inhale. Exhale, turn from the plane to your away from me side. (laughs) Inhale center. Exhale the turn. An image the wheel rolls back a little bit on the side you're turning towards.

You might notice you feel your obliques a little more. And it's easier on your sacrum and lower back. Two more each side, that's it. (woman moans) There we go. That's it.

Really cool. That's it, one more each side. Form and function gotta go together. That's it. And back to center, now help yourself down onto your side facing me for side leg series.

Line up your spine with the back end of your mat. Take your feet to the front corner of your mat. Put your hand right above your ilia on your obliques. Flex your feet, bring your head back in line with your spine. My block's like a-- That's my sandwich board.

Now you're gonna draw your hip up into your hand using the muscles you're touching. And feel the hip is actually hiking. You're using your obliques to do that. And do it to the degree that the muscles become very toned and hard. That's it, now put your hand on the floor in front of you.

Now with your feet flexed, lift your hip towards your shoulder to lift both feet off the ground. And then lower, that's it. You'll feel how your obliques are lifting your legs. That's it, do two more. That's it.

One more, this next one lift and hold. Holding it from your top waist just lower and lift the bottom leg from your inner thigh. Keep the top waist, now find that inseam. There ya go. Three more.

Nice and smooth. And two. And one. As you lower, bend your bottom leg like you're sitting in a chair, take it in front of you. So it'd be more like at 90.

Bring your top leg back so now it's right off your shoulder and let it lower to the floor for a moment. Now pull the heel away from you so you feel your bottom waist come away from the mat and now you want equal length on both waists. And image that the movement is at your pubic bone level in the hip joint. With a flex foot, press the leg straight up. See the femur rolls in to the midline.

That's its, just see if you can get that and feel that. You get that sense that as you lift it, the waistline doesn't have to be disturbed. That's it's, that's good differentiation of your leg from your pelvis. Now the next one, as you lift, turn the little toe away from you so you're rotating the leg out as it goes up and bring it back to parallel as it comes down. And feel it's coming from your outer thigh but it's not changing the shape of your lower back.

Two more. And one. Now bring it back to parallel, we're gonna go right into side kicks. Inhale kick to the front. Exhale, point, and reach the back.

Now hold it to the back for a moment and activate your down eight towards your chest like your striding up a hill. Inhale forward. Exhale, point, and reach to the back. Now become aware of the wheels. The wheel rolls back on the leg as it goes forward.

Rolls forward as it goes back. Here's the key part, as the wheel rolls back, your tail's going the other way. As your leg goes forward, your tail's going back. As your leg goes back, your tail's going slightly forward but not the whole pelvis. The ilia and the tail are counter-moving.

That's what keeps your pelvis centered. Two more. And one more. On the next one, straighten your bottom leg, put your top knee on the floor for a moment, let it bend, and just tap out your hip for a moment. And we're gonna roll right onto side two.

(chuckles) Short and sweet. (chuckles) There we go. That's it. Line up your spine with the back end of your mat. Take your feet to the front corner of your mat.

And put your hand on your waistline right above your ilia. So feel those muscles, you can let your thumb go around to the back. That's it, now bring your head back in line with your spine, now just lift the hip into your hand to feel those muscles. Just locate them, say okay, there's my obliques. And feel like you're using more the front than the back.

Do that two more times. And one. Now put that hand on the floor right in front of you. Flex your feet. Using those same muscles, lift both feet off the floor.

And then lower with control. Feel it's your obliques lifting your legs. That's it, three more, nice and smooth. Good, you guys, two more. On the next one lift and hold.

Lift and hold, now just lower and lift the bottom leg. You've still got your top waist but now you're using your inner thigh, pelvic floor, with a down leg lift. (breathes deeply) Last three. And two. And one.

Lower both, bend your bottom leg like you're sitting in a chair. Bring the top leg back in line with your shoulder. Straight and now pull through the heel so you feel your bottom waist come away from the floor. And now the hinge is the hip joint. So in parallel at the pubic bone level just lift that leg straight up to the ceiling and see the femur head rolls in towards the midline.

And then lower, so you're getting like a little crease at the top of your thigh on that side butt. There ya go. And two more. And one, now as you continue, as you lift, turn the little toe towards me, wrapping it out from your thigh. Imagine the trochanter, that outer thigh, is turning out.

And as you lift you can also imagine that the wheel is rolling back. It'll give ya a little more room. Two more. And one more. Back to parallel, right into side kicks.

Inhale, kick to the front. Sub-point and reach, now activate the down knee towards your chest. Feel that opposition. Wheel rolls rolls forward as the leg goes back. Rolls back as the leg goes forward.

As the wheel rolls back your tail goes the other way, to the back, feel that opposition between the wheel and the bottom of your sacrum, your tail. Three more, you guys, nice and fluid, that's it. Two more. One more. As you complete, straighten your bottom leg and just put your top knee on the floor in front of you so you can tap out your hip.

There ya go. And now help yourself onto all fours one more time for leg pull down and we're gonna focus on the wheels. So set your shoulders low and step into a plank. Now in the plank think of you're not gonna lift your pelvis up, you're just gonna let the wheel roll forward as you point and lift one leg. And then lower, and think of the standing leg, the wheel is countering it, so the standing leg gives you stability.

Do three on each side. Nice and smooth. That's it, one more each side. Very nice, now lower your knees down again and you're gonna do what's called a shortened downward dog. (laughs) So in a shortened downward dog you're gonna come into the V with your shoulders over your wrists.

So that's your starting position. Now in that position, feel like you're resisting your hands towards your feet and on the exhale as you tuck your chin in pull your pelvis back. And then inhale back forward over your wrist. Resist as you go back. Feel it in your chest, your lats.

Your abdomen, three more. Exhale back. (breathes deeply) Inhale forward. Exhale resist. (breathes deeply) One more, there we go.

Exhale back, there ya go. (chuckles) Now as you lower, help yourself onto your side facing me. We're gonna do a side twist so I want you to stagger your legs. So this one, when you do the twist your pelvis and your lower spine don't change at all. So from here, extend into side plank.

Now push the floor away with the down arm and imagine from your breastbone up on the exhale, you're gonna wrap down towards the floor. Now inhale back to straight. Now exhale, press back. Inhale to side, exhale wrap in. Inhale to side, exhale wrap open.

(breathes deeply) One more, inhale to side, exhale in. Inhale side, exhale wrap open. Back to center. Bend and we'll take side two. Here we go.

Cross the top leg in front. Find your side plank. Zip it up. Now zip up your legs, feel like right now your sit bones are narrow, the wheels are slightly forward, tail's slightly forward. On the exhale wrap.

(breathes deeply) Inhale side. Exhale open. Back to side, exhale wrap in. Inhale side, exhale open. (breathes deeply) One more.

Exhale in. (breathes deeply) Inhale side, exhale open. Back to side, bend, help yourself for the seal into a seated position. Hold the bottom of your heels. Roll the wheels back.

Tuck your chin in. Do three claps and roll. Clap at the back if you can. And then clap at the front. Now start to add your breathing.

Inhale on the back. (breathes deeply) Exhale to the front. (breathes deeply) Good, three more. Two more. There we go.

One more, everybody. That's it. (laughs) Now as you come forward I want you to cross your leg that's furthest away from me underneath like this. And take the other one over the top but think if you're not even gonna get the foot flat 'cause this is a resistive stretch where you're gonna use your hip to bring your leg down. Now put your left hand behind you, for you it'll be your right, and now hold the outside of your knee, so you're gonna turn towards me.

That's it, now just feel what it feels like to push your knee towards the floor into your hand. And I'll just show you once, so as I'm pushing it down, I'm resisting but I'm letting my arm win, my foot come to the floor and I'm turning. Then I inhale back. Now make sure you go easy. (all laugh) Now on the exhale, push.

And turn. So feel how it's your outer hip and your waistline workin' together. And again, exhale push, pull, and turn. And just one more. On the exhale, push away.

This time as you come into it, we're gonna hold it for two breaths. Relax your neck. One more breath. (breathes deeply) Slowly release, let's take side two. That's it, so make sure the foot is in the air.

The other hand is behind you so you can tip your pelvis more up. And you guys are gonna put your other hand on the underside of your knee. There ya go. Now start to push the knee away from you into your hand. But on the exhale, turn towards it.

Pull the knee up, let the foot come to the floor and turn into the up knee. Inhale back to the start. And again, push away. (breathes deeply) As you turn. Inhale back to the start.

Three more times. Press and turn. (breathes deeply) Inhale to the start. And again, resist and turn. (breathes deeply) One more, everybody.

Exhale, press, and turn. (breathes deeply) This time hold for two more fluid breaths. (breathes deeply) One more breath. (breathes deeply) And slowly release. Help yourself to standing.

And we're gonna finish the way we began with a roll down. So have your feet right under your hip joints. Bend your knees. From the top of the spine articulate down. As you get to the bottom, feel like the weight is on the top of your legs, you have a nice equal weight in the front and the back of your feet and just nod your head yes a few times.

Rotate it no. Take a nice fluid breath, now imagine your feet grow roots into the floor as you slowly stack the spine, one vertebrae at a time. As you get to the top, center the weight on your feet, close your eyes for a moment, let the breathing drop a little lower. Relax behind the eyes. And acknowledge yourself, your focus and hard work, everybody.

Thank you, everybody, hope to see you again on Pilates Anytime. Thank you. (applause)