Magic Circle Variations

Okay, good morning everybody. I'm here with my good friend Kara and Heidi, who are both teachers, and the wonderful Nicole who's always helping with filming and deserves a workout because she's always backstage, so to speak. So we're going to do a mat with magic circle just to get toned and strong and powerful. So, let's all of us stand in a pilates stance. Lift the magic circle up so it's opposite the solar plexus, so if you draw a line from your center out.

Elbows soft, shoulders down, chest lifted. Squeeze and lift the powerhouse. And squeeze, lift the powerhouse. So every time, squeeze and lift, and squeeze and lift, and squeeze and lift, so as you're doing this, see if you can connect the movement right from the center of the body out into the arms. And squeeze and lift.

Lift the arms up over your head, nice tall spine, and squeeze and lift, squeeze and lift, squeeze and lift, squeeze and lift, squeeze and lift, squeeze and lift, squeeze and lift, and squeeze and lift. Bring the arms down, broad collarbones, squeeze, and squeeze and lift, we don't want to forget the lift, and lift. So every time, I want to see everybody getting a little bit taller as the magic circle gets smaller. And squeeze and lift. Now we'll pulse.

Pulse and bring the magic circle right up over your head. Now bend the elbows, bring the magic circle down on top of your head. And up, two, three, four, that's a very big crown we have here, and down and down and down and down and down and down, but nice elegant body, and one more time. Coming up, lifting up, nice and tall, and down, down, but the head gets taller and longer and more lifted up and up, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and down, two, three, four, five, six, and seven and eight. Magic circle on your right hip, left hand on your left hip.

So the elbows are slightly lifted, but the shoulders are nice and broad. So you want to if you can, almost feel the tricep. So pull the magic circle, press it in, and tighten the muscles in the back of the arm, and release, and again press and lift, and release. And press and lift, and release. So Nicole, can you lift your elbow up?

That's it, but the shoulders stay down. That's a girl. And press and lift, so if you get that joint against joint you actually start to really activate the tricep, and lift up that area of the arm that none of us like to have flopping around. And one more time. Very good, other side.

So again, the elbow lifts up. When you, let's lift the elbow to the maximum. Right, so the shoulders come way forward, now take the shoulder and roll it back and down, but try to keep the elbow lifted. That's it, and now squeeze again. Nicole, you want the magic circle lower on your hip.

Squeeze and lift, that's it. And squeeze and lift, and squeeze and lift, and squeeze and lift, and squeeze and lift, and squeeze and lift, shoulder way down, and one more time for good measure, squeeze and lift, very good. Bring the magic circle between your knees. So we're working into the adductors, and your heels are as close together as you can get them, some of you can get them right together, and some of you may not. Now just for a test run, I want everybody with the hands on the adductors, because it's real easy to slam that, press with your knees but actually have these not firing.

So start to straighten the knees and see if you can keep those adductors working. You want it coming from there, not from the muscles on the outside of the knees. So activate those inner thighs, and bend. And squeeze, and now pull that energy up through the waist. And bend, and squeeze and lift.

And bend, I always have to check mine, 'cause I have very lazy adductors, and bend. They do work, but they kind of tend to not work unless I talk to them, and down, and squeeze and lift. And down, and squeeze and lift. And down, and squeeze and lift. And hold it, hold it, can you get it a little straighter?

Make those muscles contract a little bit more, even more, even more, even more, squeeze and release. Take the magic circle out. Let's have all of you come to the front of your mats. Cross your feet, squeeze the magic circle and sit down on the floor, and I will get up on my mat. Very good, place the magic circle between your knees.

Have the feet hip width apart, squeeze the circle and slowly articulate yourself down on to the mat so you're nice and long, arms along by your sides. So check that the spine feels long, collar bone's wide, squeeze the magic circle and release. And squeeze, and release. Check that your back is nice and long, and release. And squeeze, now as you do this, double check that you're not tucking your bottom under you to make the squeeze happen.

The spine stays long, so you don't wanna be really tilting the pelvis, you need to keep the spine long so you activate the outer thighs and the inner thighs. Squeeze and lift, and squeeze and lift, or lengthen, I should say. Magic circle on the inside, place your feet so they're going straight forward, kneecaps going straight forward, double check that you can feel your sacrum and tail on the mat, and then if possible, the floating ribs. So again, from the tail to the shoulders, you want very broad base. Press the knees apart.

Press the knees apart. Press the knees apart. So again, keep doing the movement and see if you can really isolate the sides of the legs, you want the leg, the IT band to be working very strongly without the pelvis changing shape. So you're really isolating the leg muscles in relation to the trunk, not torquing the pelvis in order to get the action to happen. Sometimes it takes some very conscientious work to get that area defined and isolated and activated.

And it's well worth it. Okay, let's take the magic circle, place it between your ankles, for the hundreds. Extend the legs up, squeeze the circle, lengthen it out, lift your head and chest up, and breathing in, and exhale. So you take the legs, keep going with the breathing, and take the legs as low as you feel is fine for you. Four, exhale, three, four, five.

Five, two, three, four, five, exhale, three, four, five. Six, two, three, four, five, exhale, three, four, five. Seven, two, three, four, five, exhale. Start pulsing the magic circle as you're pumping. Nine, two, three, four, five, exhale, three, four, five.

Last set, three, four, five, exhale, three, four, five. Bend the knees, take the magic circle, stretch your legs out nice and long on the mat. Take the arms over your head with the spine nice and long. Squeeze the circle. Arms up, lift your head and chest, peel off the mat, stretch yourself forward, and roll down, and let's have us flex the feet today.

Imagine your feet are in a strap, arms over your head, hug the circle. And arms up, engage the pecs. Roll up, keep squeezing, lift the waist and stretch, and roll down shoulders, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze and now release the magic circle. Lift up again, now squeeze and hug the pecs, peel yourself and feel that front trunk, press and roll down and out. And roll up again, stretch, and now let's place the magic circle between your ankles.

So the magic circle is flat, right between the heels, so a little bit lower down, Nicole. Squeeze the legs, you can have them flexed or long, so you engage the whole inner thigh and roll down. So we're gonna do a few more with the action on the legs. And again, arms up, peel, stretch, roll down, squeezing the circle, arms long, arms up, lift and stretch, and roll and down, and lift and stretch and roll down and long. Now, let's take the magic circle, place it between your ankles for roll over.

So maybe move down a little bit on the mat, Kara. Right? Magic circle will be at 90 degrees. The legs are at 90 degrees. The arms are on the mat.

Really press down with the palms, press down with the shoulders, activate those triceps before you even start. Squeeze, lift the hips, float the feet over your head, touch the floor, lift the feet, squeeze the circle, and roll down, legs long. And again, lift the hips. Touch the floor. Lift the circle and legs and roll through the spine with nice articulation, and lift the hips, touch the floor, lift, squeeze the circle, roll down, pressing your arms into the mat to control the movement.

Take the circle, place it round your, on the right foot, left leg comes all the way down. You want to hold on with both hands and take this right hip, lengthen it down towards your left heel, and just draw circles. So you're not going to be able to do a very long circle, or big circle, but you want to lubricate the joint, and stretch out the hamstring. Reverse it, circle, circle, circle, check that the neck is long and the shoulders are wide. Other leg comes up.

Right leg is down, lengthen the left hip away from you. Make sure the spine is long, again, circle, circle, circle, circle, circle, check that the pelvis is really grounded. What's beautiful about this, is that you have this very exact way to control the movement in the socket. Legs come down, arms over your head, either side, squeeze the magic circle and stretch over. Bend your knees for rolling like a ball, let's place the circle right between the knees.

Squeeze, hold the feet in. And roll back, and roll up. And roll back, and roll up. And roll back, and roll up. And roll back, and roll up.

Hold the magic circle with your hands and place the hands in front. Let's have the knees gently touching the elbows. Squeeze the circle, roll back, keep the knees on the elbows. And come up and squeeze, and squeeze, and squeeze. Roll back, roll up, squeeze, and squeeze, and squeeze.

Roll back, roll up, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. Roll back, roll up, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. Right knee stays in, left leg goes out. Pull the right knee and squeeze. Switch squeeze, switch squeeze, and switch, and switch, and switch, and switch, and switch.

Both legs in, magic circle between your ankles for double leg stretch. Squeeze the magic circle, stretch, come back in, grab the circle, stretch, and in, magic circle between your ankles, stretch and in, hold the circle with your hands. Stretch and in, between your ankles, stretch and squeeze. This is for the brain, this is not for the body. And in, one more time, ankles and in, and arms and in, legs up, take the right foot and pull pull, scissor, pull pull, scissor, pull pull, pull pull, pull pull, pull pull, Nicole, are you surviving?

Yes, you are, she's such a trooper. Pull pull, legs up, and magic circle between the ankles. Lift the tail, lengthen the tail and squeeze as you go down. And lift, and squeeze as you go down. And lift, and squeeze, And lift, squeeze, and lift, squeeze, and lift, hold the magic circle, bend the knees in, and twist to the right and pulse, pulse, pulse.

Switch, left pulse, pulse, pulse. Switch, right pulse, pulse, pulse. Pulse, pulse, pulse. Pulse, pulse, pulse. Pulse, pulse, pulse.

Arms over the head with the knees bent, squeeze, peel yourself up, stretch your legs out, and spine stretch forward. So the feet will be flat, the magic circle is up down, both hands on either side, big lift, big inhalation, and exhale, press the magic circle using your powerhouse as your center of balance for this, the movement. Inhale as you come up, and exhale. Press your knees down to the floor as well. Inhale and exhale.

Now as you do this, see if you can feel your armpits into the side body. And lift, what a quiet train. And armpits down, so you activate as you go down the trunk and round and fill up the back ribs, and come back up, one more time. Use those lats to open up and widen your back. And come back up, very good.

Open legged rocker, magic circle between the ankles. Nicely balance, scoot, gentle squeeze, roll back and roll up and balance. One casualty. Roll back, roll up and balance. I hope it's not gonna be me that's next, I have much further to fall.

And lift, and roll back, and lift, and roll back, and lift, try and get yourself sandwiched in towards the legs, so you bring the legs up, now can you hold the legs there without your hands? And slowly walk down, till you're lying on your backs. And you know what, let's, okay, this is good. Corkscrew with your hips staying down. First, take the legs to the right, down to the left and up, left, down, right, and up, right, down, left, and up, and left, down, right, and up.

Now going into the air, very important to activate and use the arms and the lats to help give you stability. So connecting to the powerhouse as well, roll up onto your shoulders, roll down, legs go to the right, down to the left, press down to lift. To the left, down, right, and lift. To the right, down, left, and lift. To the left, down, right, and lift.

One more set, to the right, down, left, and lift. And to the left, and lift, roll all the way down. Hold the magic circle, lower the legs to the mat, lift your head up, peel yourselves up for a corkscrew. So the arms are nice and long in front of you, feet very flexed, twist to the right, take the right hand side down and press in and reach the right hand behind you. Come back up, twist to the other side.

Left hand side goes down and reach. And come back up, twist to the right side. I'm improvising now, 'cause there's no floor. Stretch, and up. Let's add my choreography.

The magic circle will go right on the ankle, on the ankle. Push down and now reach the other arm in opposition. And up, and you'll have to steal my innovation to the classical twist. Stretch, jokes. And up, twist and stretch.

And up, legs are together, and roll down onto your backs. Roll onto your stomachs, and let's have the circle straight out with both hands on this. Right, so the palms are pressing down, your head is down, your legs are together, really lengthen the stomach, and lift it up, narrow hips, push down into the circle to lift your chest for swan. Lifting up, that's it. And lower down, let the magic circle release you.

Dive down between your arms. Lift your face, start broadening the shoulders, press down to lift, good. Lower back down. Lift your head, push down, and lift up, and lower back down and relax. Now, bring your right hand onto the mat in front of you, take the magic circle, can you hook it on your ankle or your foot, because what you're going to be doing is pushing into the circle and lifting your thigh up.

And lower the knee, and press back to lift, and if you can, the chest lift, and down, and push back to lift, and down, that's it, try to really get that hinging in the hip. Push back to lift, and down. Change sides. So, it's, it will be individual whether it's by the toes or the ankle, you want to push into the magic circle first, and then lift the thigh. So press the thigh away from you, yes, and down, and push into the magic circle, like you're kicking away from you, lifting the thigh, and down.

Press back and lift that thigh way up, and down, and one more time like this. Press and lift, opening the chest at the same time, if you can. And down, very good. Now, first side again, this time, this is going to be, if you place the magic circle by the ankle and then by your glute, base of your glute. And you may need to at first hold the circle, this just to work the hamstring, if you can, lift your head and chest up, and squeeze the magic circle one, and two, so the knee could stay down, three, that's it, like single leg kicks, four, five.

Other side, so magic circle by the heel or the Achilles, then into your bottom. If you feel safe, you can come up on your elbows. If you feel safe. Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, and squeeze. Very good, hold the magic circle with both hands for double leg kicks.

Place it in your waist area, so it's kind of resting on your bottom and your ribs. And your hands are on the outside. Now right here, let the elbows drop, so that, yes, that's it, Heidi. Let the elbows go wide. So you're stretching an unusual part of the shoulders and deltoids.

Turn your head to one side, bend your knees and kick your bottom three times. Kick, two, three, legs go down. Reach the arms back and lift up, exactly right, Nicole. Other side, and kick, two, three. And lift, and first side, kick, two, three.

And lift, and other side, kick, two, three. Squeeze and lift, and one more set. Kick, two, three, squeeze and lift, and other side, kick, two, three, squeeze and lift. Lower down, bring the magic circle around, push back onto your hands and knees. Now, we're going to do a little, a plank pushup.

You will take the magic circle, kind of above the pubic bone, between the pubic bone and the navel area, and come into a plank position. And get the spine nice and long. So you want the sense of, from the magic circle to your sternum there's a straight line, and as you go down, everything lowers at the same time. Bend the elbows, and come on up. Press and up, press and up, press and up, and press and up.

Bend and come on to your backs for bridge. So, magic circle between the knees, feet are hip width apart, squeeze the circle, arms along by your side, roll your hips up to a bridge, and articulate the spine back down. Release the knees, squeeze again, roll the hips up, roll the hips down, release the knees, squeeze, roll your hips up. Now, see if you can get very stable with the pelvis. Can you extend your right leg?

Bend it back. (magic circle clatters) Extend the left leg. (laughs) And back, and roll down. We have two more opportunities to master this, and then it's all over, so squeeze. It's a lot of trunk stability needed. And having the magic circle jump is fun.

So, nice compression in the pelvis, roll up through the spine. Really anchor yourself. Everybody lift your feet, the toes up for me. Toes and balls of the feet up. Really press into the heels to activate your glutes and hamstrings.

Put the feet down, keep that activation, and see if you can extend one leg, and back, extend the other leg, and back, yay, everybody mastered it. And roll down. Release the knees for a minute. Last time, squeeze. Roll the hips up, press down with the arms as well.

From the shoulders to the head we want nice space. Use your arms to help stabilize you, and down, and the other side, so the powerhouse is very active and your foundation is active. Lift the hips even more, open up the front of the hip flexors if you can, and roll, roll, roll, roll down. Hold the magic circle, extend both legs out. Peel yourself up to a sitting position for neck pull.

So before we go into the full neck pull, place the magic circle right in front of your chin. Be aware that the back of the neck is long. Because most of us, we tend to have our heads forward, with the, so you want this sense of being very long, as you bring your chin down, lengthen the back of the neck. And lift the chin, press down, lengthening the back of the neck, so you almost want to, and lift. You want to feel that you're actually pressing those bones backwards as you bring your chin down, and then from the center of your shoulder blades, that part of the spine is moving in towards the sternum to lengthen out the front, the upper part of the spine.

And up one more time like this, press to lengthen the back of the neck and up. Now, magic circle will come behind the base of the skull, so you can hold and you just want to push in the same alignment back so the neck is long. Press back and release, push your head back into the circle, and release, push your head back and feel, if you can, that the upper back is getting even longer and taller. Press, and back, so you're elongating this whole spine. Excellent, take the circle now, place it by your right temple.

So it's right on the side, and you will, with your right hand you're pushing in. Push your head to the right to activate that part of the neck. Check, do you feel that your neck is straight? Because if you're strengthening your neck in a forward position, it's not ideal. We want to really build up strength and muscular support for the neck in a vertical plane.

So you neck is going up. Other side, such a youthful neck. Nice tall body, lift up the spine, push to the left, push to the left, push to the left, push to the left, push to the left. Take the magic circle behind your head now and even though your head is coming forward, what you want to be careful is not to just drag your head down, but actually push up into the magic circle, so that part of the neck is being lengthened and then you use your trunk to bend forward, but your head, pressing up, but the neck is long. Roll yourselves back up to an upright position, with the neck long, and then articulate the spine, but keep the neck long, to the mat.

Lift your head up, press into the magic circle to lengthen the back of the neck. Use your powerhouse to bring you up, bend over, roll yourselves up, lengthen the back of the neck, and use the trunk to articulate down without the neck getting short or too far forward. One more time, lift your head and chest, peel yourselves up, lengthen that back neck as you go forward, lengthen. Now before we come back down, come on up again. Try and get as long and straight a spine as you can.

Narrow the hips, get even taller, and then articulate down the longest spine that you've had today, very very good. Release and bring the magic circle between your hand. Bring yourselves up to a sitting position for spine twist. Magic circle right in front of the sternum, feet are flexed, twist to the right, twist, twist, and twist. Center, left twist, twist more, twist more.

Center, twist, twist more, twist more. Lift, twist, twist more, twist more. Lift, twist, twist, and twist, and last one, twist, twist, and twist. Roll yourselves down and let's get on our, I'll be on my right side facing you. Let's have everybody facing me for the first part.

For the side kicks. So you want your feet at the front of the mat, magic circle is in front of your sternum. So you'll be pressing down as your leg lifts up. The legs are nice and long, so lift the leg a little higher than your hip, and release. And lift, and release.

And lift, and release. And lift, and release. And lift, and release. Now, press down, and use the pressure into the circle to get even more length in the waist, yes. Lift the leg hip height for the forward and back swings.

Forward, forward, and long, long. Forward, forward, long, long. Forward, forward, long, long. Forward, forward, long, long. Forward, forward, long, long.

Very good, magic circle becomes between the ankles. Nice long, check that your stack, your waist is long, lift the legs, lower the legs, lift, lower, lift, lower, lift and eight squeezes. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and lower down. Going to the other side, I'll swing around so I can keep an eye on you, (laughs) and, so magic circle in front of the sternum, the legs are to the front of the mat, shoulders are nicely down, press down into the circle, lift the leg a little higher than your own hip. And release the circle, press down to get length.

And release, press down to get length, and release, press down to get length, and release, press down to get length, and release, press down, and lift the leg hip height. And forward forward, back back. Forward forward, back back. Forward forward, back back. Forward forward, back back.

Forward forward, back back. Very good, magic circle between the ankles. Lengthen the legs out again, and lift both legs and down, and lift both legs and down, and lift both legs and down, and lift both legs and down. Now lift up and eight squeezes, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and lower down and coming onto your backs for teaser. So the magic circle will be between your ankles, not your ankles, I'm so sorry, the knees.

So we're going to do single leg, single legs first. So squeeze the circle, legs are going straight forward. Extend your left leg. Roll yourselves up. Roll yourselves down.

Are my adductors working? Yes they are. Roll up, roll down. Roll up, and roll down. Change sides, other leg comes up.

And roll up, and roll down, and roll up, and roll down, and roll up, and roll down. Very good, magic circle between both ankles. Let's bring the arms over the head, take the legs 45 degrees, squeeze, roll up to teaser, keep the legs there, roll down, roll up, so the hands will just float down in front of you, roll up, reach the arms behind your ears, lower the legs, lift the legs, lower the legs, lift the legs, we're Amazon women, lift, hold the magic circle with both hands, roll yourselves down to the mat. (laughs) Onto the stomach. It's a hard workout.

So let's get that magic circle just like the swan, straight, both arms are on this is, in preparation for swimming so the legs are long. The trick for this is check that your hip flexors are open, because if you grip them, you'll block the movement, so first of all, lift your head and chest up, and just take your right leg up. Lower it down, left leg up, down, right leg up, down, left leg up, down, now as the right leg up, left arm goes up. And down, right arm, good, left arm, right arm, and fast, and one and two and three and four and five and six and seven and eight. Lower yourselves down, sit back into your heels without the magic circle, stretch your back out, and just for a minute, bring your hands by your ankles and let your whole lower back release down.

Roll yourselves up to sitting. And we'll do a mermaid without the circle. So you want to sit on one hip, so you can have your hips like Kara's doing, this is most advanced, more basic, more basic. So just find the position you feel will be comfortable for you. Hold your ankles, lift the arm up to the ceiling.

Lift way up, try and lengthen from your hip to your armpit to your hand. Get that hand right by the ear, Heidi, yeah. That's it, Nicole, right by the ear, right by the ear. Imagine me pulling you up to the ceiling. Now, lift even more out of the waist, and then from your hips, start stretching over, stretching over, stretching over, wrap the hand round your head, stretch the arm out, and come back up.

And when you lean out, the hand that's on the floor is going to push the rib in the opposite direction. And stretch. So you're opening up your side ribs. Really use this to open. Wrap, stretch, and come back up.

Again, lengthen both sides of the ribs up. Now this time, we wrap the hand round the head first. So big lift of both ribs, and then stretch as far over as you can, and then stretch the arm out. Try to go deeper, come back up, lean out, and this time you bend the elbow. Stretch and wrap the hand round your head, and stretch and come back up, and last one, you wrap the hand around your head, bend to the side, now can you bring your elbow forward, and even try to bring the elbow all the way to the knee.

All the way back, yeah, all the way back out, open the side ribs, stretch the arm, come back up and wrap the hand round your head, now same thing, curl the elbow down to the floor. Open yourself back out again, stretch and come back up. Now, leaning out on this side, swing your legs around and bend them in. Right. Right, so holding your ankle, lift the arm way up, first one is just straight, wrap the hand, stretch it out, and come back up and leaning out with a straight arm, stretch, use the hand on the floor to press the ribs to the ceiling.

Exactly right, Nicole, excellent. Stretch and come back up, and this time up and wrap around your head. Bend over again, stretch the arm, and come back up, and stretch. Wrap the arm, stretch it out, come back up, last one, lift, wrap, stretch sideways first, then you take your elbow towards the knee, see if you can get yourself there, come back to the side, stretch. Come back up, and then wrap the hand round your head, elbow comes down towards the floor, even if, you can touch the floor, wonderful.

Back out to the side, stretch, and come back up. Lovely work, let's have the magic circle between the ankles for seal. (laughs) This is a challenge. Whoa, okay, yes, all right. So squeeze three times, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, clap, clap, clap, roll back and clap here.

Clap, clap, clap, roll up, clap, clap, clap. Roll back, clap, clap, clap. Roll up, clap, clap, clap. Roll back, clap, clap, clap. Come on up and just pause, so we are going to do an experiment, which is clap, clap, clap, we roll back, clap, clap, clap, and stand up.

And I'm not standing up, 'cause I'll go out of camera. I'm so sorry. I promise not to go out of camera. So here we go. So, clap, clap, oh, third one.

Third one we stand up, yes. Clap, clap, clap, roll back, clap, clap, clap, roll up, clap, clap, clap, roll back, clap, clap, clap, roll up, clap, clap, clap, roll back, clap, clap, clap, and can you stand up? And bring the hands down, take a breath in, and breathing out, and you've all had an elegant sufficiency. (claps) Very good work.