Grounding and Centering Mat

Welcome. Here we are. We're here to start class. I have the opportunity today to have some amazing students with me. I have Caida, and Elisa, and Summer, and Karen, and they're all part of CenterPoint Pilates in Santa Barbara, so I'm thrilled that we're here to play.

We're moving. We're not worried about perfection, as I've been saying in several classes recently. Sometimes, I think that quest for the higher leg, or the more extended spine, or the whatever might stop progress, so if you're in that practice with yourself, and you wanna achieve those things, they're good. I'm not saying not to try, but maybe minimize the (grunts) part of it and just see what shows up. And today, we'll be going off center and to center, off center and to center a little bit more often than maybe normal, okay, just to play with that also.

Whoops, I fell off balance, but it'll be on purpose, probably. I know, right? Have some fun. Okay, so just organize your legs. We're gonna start with a little bit of space between, and actually, I want you four on that side of your mat facing this way, okay, on the hardwood floor.

Yeah, go behind your mat. There we go, yeah. And just kind of stagger it. The reason why is I wanna have enough space side to side this way. And here we go, we're just gonna start with very soft, you can call them bounces of your knees if you want to, just a little rebounding, letting arms just kind of blah, flopple. (laughs) Flopple, a new word in Pilates land, flopple.

(laughs) I like it. All right, and just kinda getting into your legs, getting into the ground. In your ankles. And maybe less thinking of knees but hips and ankles, hips and ankles, hips and ankles, hips and ankles. Good.

Just a little bit of breath. Exactly. All right, so we're gonna pause that and just stand and feel. And roll down, take your head off center, round your upper body, your middle body all the way down. Feel free to bend your knees if you need.

If you don't need to, maybe don't. And just sense where you landed, take a breath. So let's bend the ankles, the knees, the hips, rounding your back to roll all the way up. We'll do that maybe two more times. A nice, deep breath.

Yeah, and let your head come off center, rounding forward, your upper back rounds, your middle back rounds, hopefully the lower back rounds. It'll definitely round throughout class. The ankles bend, the knees bend, the hips bend. And we roll ourselves back up. I do want you to sense your heels right now, a little more weighted in the floor.

Good, inhale and let your ribs and collarbone and shoulders move actually. Right, and exhale as you round forward. We'll probably do one more, 'cause I wanna restate that. Right, so here we are at the bottom. Breathe, bend your knees, hips, ankles and roll all the way up.

So this next time when we take our inhale, rather than letting your ribcage be stable, no need to. (inhales) There we are. And now we roll. 'Cause our air goes up in those lungs which lift our ribs and shoulders. There.

Bending your knees, ankles, hips, rounding up. Feel your heels in the floor. Now this time when you come all the way to standing, keep going, keep going and just breathe in as you elevate your ribs in the front a little bit. Like the bottom of the ribcage will actually, and stay there, kind of take a few breaths. So the bottom of the ribcage needs to come up the front line of us.

And maybe your shoulders just hang back into this little pre-swan. And then find yourself to center. Okay? And do that again, take your inhale and lift. Let this be freed up.

Good, Caida, yeah the ribs can, good, Summer, nice you guys. Breathe. And exhale and just bring it to center. We'll do it once or twice more. So our breath moves our body.

Inhale into extension. Easy, we know what this exercise is later. And exhaling thinner. And notice how the breath allows you to lift. You have to breathe.

If you were to hold your breath right there, you may not feel so free to do that. Exhale, and center. Okay? Let's do that when we just go like this. If your arm flies out like mine did, great.

You don't have to move it there. If it moves because your body moves, wonderful. If it doesn't move, that's okay too. Let's inhale on that, inhale. And exhale.

I'm in a weird place of thinking about my lungs right now. I'm clearing some asthma, so it feels good for me. So let's do it again. So thinking as you inhale, maybe this opposite side is the bigger lung. Nice, and exhale we center.

Inhale, the other side get bigger or more full. And center. Once again just feeling yourself go off center. Minimally. And up to center.

And off center. And up to center. Okay, good. Take your that foot over this way. Off center, and center.

We're going to alternate sides. No thinking about alignment, just step to the side. Knee, ankle, hip goes into a little bit of re-- whoa, bend again, a little rebound down. And up. Ankle, knee, hip.

And just taking yourself into a side to side stepping movement. Relaxing the arms. If you like to point your feet right there, you can. Yup. If you like to bend a little deeper to get in your legs, feel free to do that.

I probably will. Let's go four more, and bend. Yup. And if you're at home doing this, well you would be if you're watching my class right now. Hi.

If you're falling off balance, oh well. That's all right, we're just gonna allow some of those little spontaneous things to happen today. And center, and now stand. Let's do a roll down again. All the way.

So we're gonna put those movements together guys, rolling down, rolling up. Once we stand up, keep 'em moving, one movement inhale as you upper back extend. And exhale as you find center. I'm gonna breathe in as I tip this way. I'm gonna exhale and bring myself center but I'll barely get there because I'll fly this way or fall that way.

Let's take the legs out, and just one step here. Do you see the pattern? So we'll go a couple times through. So we're centered with our feet, and we roll down. Told ya.

And roll all the way up, just feeling your body move. So once your head reaches the top, it doesn't stop, your upper body lifts. You take an upper body back bend, and you come to center. And just when you get there you fall to the right. And left, and fall to the left.

And lift and let your right leg, or other leg fall out to the side. Push to center, and we'll go through one more time. Just getting a little bit of body warm up. And rolling down. All the way.

Bending hips, knees, ankles, roll all the way up. Think you just unfurl the spine, it keeps going, the breath moves you into upper back extension. Exhale, return to center and just fall to the side. And left. And side, and lift and stepping out.

Good. Man, I'm having a little fun moment there. Okay, now step apart. Ready for some jumping jacks? (laughs) Let's go.

Oh, it's good. So I used to do these a lot in class. I kind of dropped away from jumping jacks. Let's turn to a window in the room, you pick a window. Just turn somewhere.

Do four right there, one, two, we'll make ourself around the world. Four the other window, two, three, other window for four. Two, I'm gonna be facing you guys again. So we'll go back around the world the other way. Ready, other way.

One, two, three, four. Pilates is supposed to be fun. (laughs) This is normal movement. We'll do four facing each other, and that'll be it. Four, three, and one, and stand.

And just what do you feel, all right? Let's take ourselves to the mat. Any old way you want. Lying on your back. We'll keep thing moving, though.

Take your heels, actually you know what I want you to do? Bend your knees, lift your thighs up like this. And how much bend can you do in your knees right now? Okay? And then just simply place your feet on the mat without losing that knee bend.

So for me it's gonna put my heels quite close to my butt, my sit bones. A little space between the feet. Arms by our sides for this first two bridges. Take a breath. And exhale, feel that pelvis roll over the top of your thigh bones.

And here we go coming up. Inhaling now. And on the roll down, imagine your shins traveling forward over your ankles which may cramp your hamstrings. It's not my intention, but I want you to travel that way through your spine, towards your feet. So it's almost my sit bones and heels are touching right now.

Breathing in. Again, the pelvis rolls back over the thigh bones. Even on the way up I'm thinking about my shin bones going forward. So I don't have to pop my ribs out, I don't even have to correct the ribs because I'm not up that high. Inhaling there.

Rolling down. Traveling forward with the shins. We're gonna do two more with our hands and our arms like this. Hands on your thighs. We're gonna try to diminish this negative space between our pelvis and our wrists.

Here we go, rolling up. Okay, so I want you to focus your pelvis more than ribs, pelvis more than ribs. Could you dial your pelvis a little bit more into that back tilt. Thighs up to wrists. Then rolling down with your shin bones traveling forward.

One more like that, inhale. Look what happened you guys, the sun burned the clouds away. It's cool. Press. And actually let's stay here.

This hopefully feeling the same amount of energy and effort on either side. 'Cause in a moment we're gonna do a single leg to isolate one side. So unroll your spine. All right. One more bridge, but your arm is back over head.

I'm gonna keep mine bent, feel free to lengthen your arms if you'd like to everybody. Take a nice, generous inhale. And here we go to roll up. Again, focus on those shins, kinda traveling forward. The pelvis dialing back into a posterior tilt.

Breathing in. And unrolling every vertebra one at a time. Each one matters, let each one move on its own. But notice it affects the whole as we know. Okay.

So I'll let you choose which leg, you know how I kinda like to do that. Just cross one leg over the other, ankle over knee. Choose to keep your arms there, if you need to bring 'em down from shoulder tension that's fine. Let's do a bridge here. So before you go up, imagine that you still have that one hand on your leg, and you'll try to diminish that space, okay.

But let's take a look, rolling yourself up. Now when I go up there, the urge for me is to try to press this knee open or down. That's fine, don't twist your pelvis yet, okay? Breathe. And unroll.

We'll do two on each side. I think that's a good amount of time to see how they feel from leg to leg. And we go rolling up. Travel the shin bone forward. Notice how it feels deeper work in your hamstrings probably.

If you're toppling a little bit, that's okay. We only have one leg we're balancing on, so. Roll it down. Change sides. Breathing in.

Let your ribs be a little liberated with that oxygen, and exhale as you roll up. Shin bone forward, energy out your thigh to your knee. Inhale at the top. This is awkward, does it feel awkward? One side more than the other?

(exhales) Should. Inhale, one more time you guys, rolling up. Inhale, and exhale coming down. Just asses it, right. Just don't worry, that's it, okay that what that felt like.

Now, let's put both feet on the mat, and arms out to a T. Another bridge. You know how I like to do the bridges from coming up from the top but rolling down one side of your back. So let's take a look at that. So you're up on your bridge.

Choose a side to roll down. I'm gonna come down my right side. Now do let your pelvis rotate. Really let it rotate, and track yourself down that one side of your back. Just until you're at the pelvis.

Now the other foot, focus on the other foot, helping to press you back up. Both feet should, but it might be the opposite foot that gives you a head start. Level your pelvis at the top, rotate the other way, and come down pretty close to your spine but you're on the opposite side. Okay? Pause at the hip.

So it's the opposite foot, give it a little bit of press into the floor, that's kind of what that other thing was for. Lift and center. Once again each side. So we're building a little spinal twist in here. Inhale to that hip.

And exhale. Rolling up. And center, and rolling down the second side. Getting a lot of movement in our spine and pelvis. Good, nice breathing you guys.

Roll all the way up. Center, arms can reach up to the ceiling, and maybe back over head and stretch, roll yourself down, reach your spine toward your fingernails, chin away from chest, create a wonderful long spine. Okay, ankles together, now knees together. Hands to the mat. Take an inhale.

Without curling the collarbone forward, we're just gonna do a little head lift, a little chin downward toward chest. I'm thinking not so much curling forward toward my thighs, as much as going up in the sky with my head. The result is we're going forward, but just keep your hands down. We'll do six of those. And an exhale (exhales) So your sternum can really have a chance to drop into your ribcage in the direction of your ribs.

Again, exhale. Good. And down. (inhales) And yes, it's okay to go higher if you're ready. Good stuff you guys.

And lower. Last two like this, plain old movement of the upper back, sliding the hands along, keeping a nice, wide ribcage for your lungs. And last one, exhale. And no we're not doing the hundred from here. Hah, yay.

So take your arms back overhead. So what I wanna do is bend the elbows, kinda break at the elbows. Bring 'em down, elbows toward waistline, hands to the mat as we lower the head. Exhale, chest lifts. So we're just gonna flow through this.

Lift. Break at your elbows, I'm aiming my elbow toward my low ribs, and then rotate the palms face down as the head goes down. Two more, and lift. (exhales) Generate a big circle-like movement, let your elbows come digging toward your ribcage, the upper arm stays there, it's the wrist and forearm that rotate down. All right, one more.

Curl (exhales) And lift. Energy. And, good. All right. And in.

Step your feet apart. Right to the width of your mat. You may wanna move your arms a little bit out to the side because I want you to start doing this little knee drop. Just a little rhythmic knee drop. Side to side, side to side.

(exhales) Okay. Resist the urge to grip your abdominals. I did say that, resist the urge to grip your abdominals. Do increase or invite the urge to kind of work your buttock, your glutes a little bit. So pause whatever side you're on.

I'm to my right. I wanna focus left foot. I'm gonna push that foot down on the mat, and it may come all the way up the contraction, up into that glute. Do you guys feel that, I see that they do. Do it on the other side, just take one slow one.

Okay? So I want you to focus foot to hip. Let's do eight more, here we go. Foot to hip, foot to hip, notice it's not a rib thrust, it's a hip, working to extend our hips. Four.

Three. Two. And one, and we'll return to the center and we'll bring our knees to our chest, and we'll roll ourselves up. Okay, extend your legs long. Feel okay?

As if you just did a roll up, ta da, we're at the top. We're stretching this way, go for a big stretch. Go for a bigger stretch, a bigger stretch, yeah. Okay, we're rolling down with that, rolling down. Think we'll do three roll ups, you guys.

Whatever style of roll up you wanna do today. You can flex your feet, you can point your feet. Whatever you'd like to do, roll up in your body. Reach. Roll back.

Two more, roll up. Reach. Pilates is about your study. What does your body need right now? One more time, we'll stay up at the top.

Good. We're gonna come up to a sitting tall position. We'll take our arms out to our side. Let's go ahead and do the palms face up, so you get a little more rotation of your upper arms to open your upper ribs here. Let's come to the ocean, turn this way and really turn your ribcage and your lungs.

Now when we turn toward our legs, our arms will go above our head. You have to reach your ribs up. To the other side. Focus on your ribs, your upper ribs near your collarbone having more opening, that's right you guys. And center.

How about now we'll do this? (exhales forcefully) (inhales) And I'm choosing the inhale when the arms come up so you can go ahead and keep going. Lift your lungs, lift your ribs, there's more space now. Exhale and try to hold that space. Inhale.

Good, you're probably tapping into feeling your back muscles, I can see Karen's back really working. This is lovely. And yes, your hip flexors are probably active. They should be, they're part of your body holding you up. One more each side.

Good, Elisa. And twist. Lift, and after this one when we return to center we'll just unroll, we'll come up, we'll roll back. But not without this stretch first, we deserve a stretch. Stretch, and roll yourself back.

When we get down, we'll cross our legs up in the air. We're just gonna do a little hip lift. Not a full roll over, but it's the idea of the precursor to roll over. Let's challenge ourselves. Ooh, you guys'll probably like this, some of you.

Take your arms up like this. That way, yeah you know why. You can't use your arms to help you. That was actually for me, too. So, it's my pelvis, and I'm gonna try to move off the mat.

Okay? Now when we do these little movements, we're working from the very end of our spine to just pelvis and maybe lumbar. We're not going very far, I don't think. Now I don't, keep going, I don't want the front of your body from your pubic bone to ribs to get bunchy and bulky, or poppy-outty. See if you can keep the front line flat, like it is when you're just flat, okay?

Change feet. We should probably do four or five on the other side. Here we go. And it's an exhale (exhales) Well it could be an inhale. Find your breath with your movement.

I had more success inhaling, so that's just some feedback. Okay? Let's say one more preparation one. And then we are gonna do three roll overs. Choose the arm position that works for you today.

I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna try my hardest now that I'm to roll my shoulders back, here we go. Rolling over. Let's go ahead and just flex the feet and open just at the width of your shoulders, rolling it down. Try to keep the front line musculature long, not poppy-outty. I'm gonna do a real low downward circle 'cause it feels right today.

And up and over. Flex those feet, press the walls away with your strong hips, and roll it down. It's okay to have some arm activation right there. It's okay. And one more.

Flex open. Roll it down. Roll it down, and then roll all the way up. Let's do some rolling like a ball. Getting warmer?

You guys too warm? No, not too warm. Okay, get cozy in your ball shape. Get cozy. Okay, let's go for six, rolling back.

(exhales) Rolling back. Good. Trying to take the thump out of the back if you can, because you know, that's our goal. But, you know, roll. Lift your hips to your heels.

Last two. And last one. And then put your hands down and move your hips back, and roll backward. Okay, take your right leg to the ceiling please everybody, in a turn out leg. 90 degrees first, and just feel what that is in your outer hip.

Actually, put your hand on your outer hip. And maybe there's some bulky quality happening, or some bunchy-bunch, I'm feeling some bunchy-bunch. Let's just agree today to do this leg circles from a 45-degree alignment of the leg. It's gonna feel weird, but as you cross your leg over midline, you'll probably get your adductor work sooner, and then here it goes. Kind of a smaller circle, then.

Five still, normal way. Want your adductors to get that. They actually help when you're trying to recover your sense of balance. Here's five. Okay, other way.

I know it feels a little awkward. I just don't want your hip hiking to occur on that working leg. And there's four. And there's five. Okay, swap it out.

Just first come to 90 on your left leg. Just feel, hand on hip if you like that. Shake that muscle down a little, and then let's take it to 45. And over the midline. Most of you know I'm a pretty big fan of trying to kind of change it up enough that something new shows up in a sensation or connection.

Other way. Because we don't always move the same way, right? We can't, we shouldn't, we don't. It's like a little internal cross training that we have in Pilates. Okay, bend your knees to your chest.

Now, for a single leg stretch, I know we are out of order, but just take your chest up, hand on that shin, okay. Have that heel on the floor today. All the way, yeah, all the way. So I want us to feel the hamstrings, right. So pull that heel along the mat.

If your mat moves, oh well. Change. Really pull. Pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, and in. And dig the heel in, in, in, in, in, good.

(exhales) So the heel on the mat, dig your heel in, you're gonna feel your hamstrings helping to help open up those hips extensors, or connect those hip extensors. Here we go, four more. Getting a little buff on the heel. Up. And in.

And in, and rest your head. So double leg is gonna be different, I want to have our heels go to the mat. So curl yourself up. Out. It's a little strange, I realize.

And in. Five more, push, I know we're sweaty. Use the mat surface to push and pull against. Two more. Push and pull, open the hips, good.

One more. Push, and pull, rest your neck. Scissors are next. Scissors are different today, too. So our legs will be up parallel, flexed feet.

I want you to bring your chest up. Lower one leg, so whatever leg stayed up, opposite hand touch the toe. Okay. Just hold for a minute. Here's your sit bone.

Here's your heel. Increase the distance between those two landmarks, those two bony landmarks. Increase that distance, yup. How's that feel? Looks pretty dang good over here.

And change sides. You just gonna feel the stretch first. Your front line musculature is long. Hip bone, heel bone. So when you do that real scissor with rhythm, I'm gonna take the hands behind the head.

Aim your toes overhead, toes overhead. Toes overhead, toes, toes, toes. Could we curl higher with our head in the clouds? Lift, and lift, we only have four more. The front line musculature's long, not pushy-outty.

Three, and four, rest. Everything down. Okay, place your feet down. Little chest lift. Rotate toward the windows here.

Take that other leg out, bring this knee in, really pull it in, really pull it in. Curl a little higher, and just that on the other side. I know. Untraditional. Pull it in, pull it in, pull it in.

And center, straight leg, lower lift. So both legs'll come up parallel, chest is up. Four times, four or five. I'm gonna think of my heels scraping that window over across that room, good. Now we're fairly warm, we're pretty advanced, so we can take our legs low, but don't do that at home if your back doesn't feel stable.

You go as low as you can control that sense. One more time. Good you guys, tuck your knees in, roll up. Spine stretch forward a little different kind of arm alignment. So legs are open, I want you to take your arms like you're, I just had a weird image.

Why am I thinking of snow? Put your hands in mittens, what the heck? Oh god, and turn your mittens like this. Okay, so your whole arm has to rotate. Turn your mittens up, take a breath, round forward.

Armpits to mittens. Reach. Go further, I think we can. And roll back up. Just two more, renew that little mitten thing.

And round. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Hello, girls, And last one. Yeah, because you know in the book it looks like Mr. Pilates has his head on the mat. Well I think you guys did.

Go for it, go for it. Keep your mittens up, mittens up. Good, Caida. And all the way up. Good.

Mittens, who knew? Let's turn toward the ocean. Okay. I don't know why I'm on the mitten, I'm gonna let go of that image. And curl back, let's go for saw.

(inhales) Just let it go. Let it go (exhales) Unless you like the mittens. One more each side. Karen likes the mittens. One more time, good.

Okay. Now, take your arms to the side, and then sweep 'em forward for a second. And open. Put 'em behind you, round your head forward and your back forward. I'm gonna just put my fingertips very lightly on the mat.

You know when you just have some images that keep coming, and you just can't stop, that's what's happening today. So now I just have a hoop around me. God. And then that hoop, I'm gonna trace the hoop. And as I trace the hoop, my arms lift.

And I'm prepping for open leg rocker, but what'll happen is that will, yeah. You're gonna shift yourself back, I'm slightly out of order with the choreography, but you know it doesn't matter. And around the front, here it is. So if you had a hoop around you, your fingertips would kinda trace the inside of the hoop. And as your circling, now I'm going to the back of my sacrum anatomically, like that.

But that's what's gonna happen in a minute when we do rocker. And then over. Going off center a little bit, just like we thought about at the beginning. Ooh, who is that pop-pop. Zippers?

Okay, doing one more, and we've got plenty of room behind us, believe it or not. So you're gonna go like this, you're just gonna take that hoop, your hands around. You can put your mittens on, lift your legs up. Now be honest, can your legs get into your hands? There.

Don't look behind you, you will have enough room. It's just close over here Summer, don't you worry. Don't remember from yesterday, don't put your head on the ground, we go. Six times. Make it small if you need to.

Yeah, make it small. Have fun with it. This is the quietest group of rockers we've ever heard, right? Come on up, yeah you guys, nice. Now let's bring our legs together.

Bring 'em real close up here. Real close, real close. And a little teaser. Yay. And we'll roll down, and we'll roll down.

And when we get down, we'll tuck in. Let's flip over to the side of your body. No, you're gonna go all the way to your tummy. Just a quick flip. Swan time, you know what you two, how about your heads face each other?

I think that's better. Okay, so hands here by your shoulders. Legs together today please. Front body muscles nice and long. Back body muscles nice and long.

And before we swan, we're gonna just put a little breeze under our collarbones so that it kind of lifts up, away from our hands off the floor. And we'll raise our head. And we start moving that spine from the eyes. Behind the eyes, the nose, the chin, and the chest. As I go to swan, I'm gonna keep going.

Remember that upper back lift we did at the beginning of class? I'm gonna breathe in and let my ribs lift me and bend back more. And then as we exhale, we're coming down. Keep your elbows close to you today. Let's do three more.

Yeah, and really try to tuck your elbows in, guys. Here we go. The collarbone is already floated, it's already lifted. As you're coming up, if it feels good to carry that into that upper back extension, great. And coming down.

Elbows in. The next two. Energize your legs a tiny bit more. So I'm gonna think about on my up here, I'm at my top of the swan. Don't worry, don't rush, when you get there.

Activate your back, body, legs, your butt, your hamstrings, and try to get your thighs up a little bit, and your feet up, yeah. Keep it like that as we come down. We'll do another swan like that. Okay. 'Cause you know that's a little prep for the dive.

Try to keep 'em up, try to keep 'em up. Right. We're gonna do three, you can do full, or catch. Ready? I'm gonna catch.

That's it, and crawl on back to a cat. Make a cat of your choice. Cat of your choice. Good, whatever that cat's doing. And come on back down, okay.

Single leg kick. All right, let's have our palms down. Upper arm really rotated. Radius, ulna, wrist down, and elbow slightly forward of underarms. Thighs engaged, though, above the mat.

Here we go, right heel. Now bring it in, a kick, and a kick, and down. And a kick, and a kick. So that upper back bend we did at the beginning of class, keep going, when I wanted your ribs to get lifted, there you go, breathe. And one more left.

Now go back to the right and hold. Right heel is bent, I'm sorry, right knee is bent. Your heel is flexed. Try to elevate that thigh without twisting your pelvis much, and then bring it down. Left.

Little thigh lift, and down. Bend, try to get a little thigh lift, and down. Only one more, bend. Little thigh lift, and down. Left, turn left.

Right facial cheek is on the mat. Hands on the small of the back for double leg kick. For a moment just get sloppy and lazy in your arms, and just drag 'em down. Plop. (laughs) How'd that feel?

Good? Okay, and then put 'em back in position, and let your collarbone kind of be lifted up off the mat. Legs are close together, double leg kick for three. One, and a two, and a three. And as you lift, resist the urge to spin the elbow and hyperextend the elbows, use your back arms and lift the arms up a little bit.

And then other side. One, two, three. Lift the back of your arms up, which picks up your upper back. And again. One, two, three.

And stretch your heart forward, and your feet behind you. And one, two, three. And lift, stretch in both directions. And once again each side you guys. Good.

Yeah, so the back of the arms go up, the chest goes forward, the legs go back. Nice job. They're so serious. One, two, and three. They take their work seriously, which is wonderful.

Stay here, open your arms to a airplane. Flutter the legs with a really tight set of legs. Meaning tight butt, contract your glutes. Can your upper back be lifted, because you're breathing into those lungs like little balloons, four, three, two, one and rest. Okay, take an arm out.

You're gonna have to take, Karen and Summer, left arm you guys, right. No, other side. Face me. Okay. Come to the front of your mat.

I won't fall on you, I hope. I'm gonna try not to fall on you. Okay, so we're gonna do a little bit of rolling from this hip to the other hip kind of stuff in a second, but for now just get your leg moving. Yes, we should be stacked. And lift.

And lift, just one more maybe, okay? Easy breezy. Now if you come up on this elbow, look toward your leg with your arm extended and get your arm right above your thigh. And four or five more. And two.

And three. And four. And five. I'm gonna roll away from you, you guys roll away from me so you'll end up facing that way. Go all the way low on your mat, do the same thing again.

So it's just your legs. I'll watch ya, good Summer, thank you. And just the legs up for five. Four. Three.

Two. And one, and do the same thing propped up on your elbow, so you can kind of feel. And then your arm is out over your thigh. You're looking to your hand, maybe at your fancy ring or something. And up, if you had one, I don't have one.

Two (laughs) and three. And four. And five, okay here's the deal. You guys stay there. Roll toward me, and make the same shape facing me.

Roll onto your hip, and like that. So you see me, you know. This is from dance, from way back in the day. You're gonna roll over, and onto the other hip. Roll over, onto the other hip.

We're gonna do several, let's go kinda quick. Over and hit it, over and hit it. Suddenly, it's jazz class. Over, hit it. Use your, now keep going.

This would be a time I would say, kinda tighten up your middle body so you can spin fast. Twist and reach, that's it. And (exhales) They're sweating. And four. And three.

And just stay here, two. Good, come all the way down, nice. All righty, bend your knees. Time for side push-ups. Yay.

You're gonna take your bottom arm and hug it underneath you like this. Knees are pretty close up to your chest. This hand, either by your and opposite your face, that's the easiest place quite frankly. The harder, more advanced is way down here. (laughter) Choose your, yeah I don't know.

I have a ways to go, this is hard down here. Here it is. Now, here we are on our side. Energy out the top of the head. Lift your head a little bit up off the floor, okay.

This is the arm that's gonna push. Resist the urge to bend here, okay. Think more that you're coming in just more of a flat side line. Does that make sense? Yeah, here's my urge is to crank, and compress.

And I don't wanna do that 'cause I like my low back and it feels real good and stretched out right now. I wanna keep it long, so I'm just gonna (grunts) go for some of that. When you come down, coming down your shoulder almost onto your ear, like you're gonna listen to the mat. Right up. You get it.

Let's go four more together. Exhale and one. Down. Exhale and two. Good, Nicole.

And three. We're doing a pretty good job of staying in our side line position. And four, okay. Take this arm out, we're gonna change the choreography a little bit. Still working on our side body.

Your top leg can get long, arm can go up. And as we prop up on our bottom elbow, I'm still gonna use these muscles to lift but you're just gonna touch your head. Easy, these are easy for you guys. Nothing too hard about that. Okay, instead of the hand stopping at the head, I'm gonna turn it, I'm gonna rotate my palm again face down and then back down.

Radius, ulna, wrist down. Radius, ulna, wrist up. Get ready to do a full sit-up in just a second. And yes, you're gonna be able to push off this hand. Let's go one more, here's our time.

We're gonna go push, lift your leg and fold it around. And just hold onto a little stretch. Okay? So then what we'll do is we'll take that leg out, we'll go down, we'll come back up. Ready to go, we go over like this.

Four times, and up. And down. You can push off the hand, but try maybe these next two, to not have to use that bottom hand as much. Something like that. You can purse your lips like I did.

You get the idea. Up, okay. Right now let's just hold onto it. Hold onto your leg, give your hip a little stretch, because we still have one more side leg thing. I wanted to stretch this before we work it.

Get real close to your mat again on your side. All the way, right up front. This is again where I hope I won't fall on you guys. All right, now hand is right in front of you. We're gonna take just four repetitions of this.

Take your leg hip height, flexed foot. You're coming forward, hip flexion. I need to back up a little bit. Now right from here the leg is gonna go straight up. Show your inner seam leg to me, and then it through down.

So it's not a full rond de jambe. And front. Lift, lower. And front. Lift, lower.

Last one, front. Lift, lower. Now go straight up from here. Show me your inner thigh seam. The seam goes to the floor, and you go back.

And seam to me, seam to the floor, and down, last two. And up. Down, center, last one. Up. And down, and center.

One mermaid stretch. Find your way up, big reach. Use your other hand to help lift that arm up. Maybe up on your forearm. Take it all the way, good.

Yeah, breathe. Big breaths. Good. Okay, that's a lot of stuff on the side body, but here we go, over to the other side. So facing me, yup.

And we started all the way down. Let me get a little moment, did I start in here? With side push ups? We already did all of our leg lifts, okay. Yeah, so we're going here.

Yeah, bottom arm, that's right. That's good, see. Taking it out of the normal routine. Okay, so hand is pushing, you are trying to keep your shoulders square, and we go. Push, resist the urge to bend your side body.

Just keep it long and straight. And breathe. Yup. There may be a little shoulder rotation that would be easier to do, maybe not today. Try less of that.

That may mean that you can't go up as high. Four more to go. (exhales) And nice. Feel good? Any comment over here?

Hard? How about you guys? She's never done these before. Karen? Little tough.

Little tough. Yeah, this is hard. My gosh, okay. Now take your bottom arm out. They're kind of old school, they're kind of old school.

Yeah, it's kind of cool. Okay top leg is long, bottom leg is bent. This one is here. And then as we push with this hand a little bit, the other hand just comes to the head. So this is just kinda getting you ready.

If you don't have to use this hand here, don't do it. You're trying to use your side muscles to do the sit-up. Okay. Yeah. Now we're gonna do the rotation of the radius, which is the forearm, wrist, hand down.

And then back over. We did four, I do remember that. And on the fifth we went up. Okay. I know you're counting, here's your four.

I can see you all going (murmurs) Here we are. Now we're going, we're trying not to push the arm too much, but you'll have to use that arm a little bit. Let's practice that a few times before the flow. Ready, and. Good.

I think we did four of those, so two more to go. And. Good. And over. Doing great job guys, of the control on the way down.

So here we are, we're gonna just hold it and stretch. Whatever that means, you can pull it in tight, close, you can pull it across, you can rock a bit. It's really intended to stretch this part out so that it's ready for the big leg lift. Right, here we are. So going down on your side.

One long line from head to toes. Right on the side of the hip if we can. And then we take our leg hip height, flex the foot, and we do that four times, we come front, and lift, and lower. Now the other leg I didn't cue on the first side, I probably should have. The other leg is also active down there.

This one, like I'm trying to contract my seat a little bit back here. Does anyone feel their abdominals like I do, or? Okay, good. Other way four times. My abdominals are getting a workout here.

It's a good reminder we don't always have to do the 100 to do the abs, you know? That should be quoted somewhere on the internet or something. Kinda will be at this point. Okay here we go. Now go ahead and flip over to your stomachs.

That's fine. Bend both knees. Hands on your ankles or your feet. Ankles. Mmhmm, knees together if you can.

Let's just go and see what it feels like to come up into the bow shape, or rocking. I wanna flex your feet, actually. Flex those suckers, flex. Now lift your heels to the ceiling and start rocking. Flex your feet, good.

Four, three, two, one. Relax. Okay, told you we would do some little rolling like a ball to a squat, I think now's the time. So come on around. It's a good way to kind of cool down.

This would be the last thing we do before we come back up to stand. And then just check out a little something else, okay. So the rolling like a ball to stand, or to squat. And what I mean, you're gonna have to just. Some of you at home have see me do these before.

If they don't work for you and you knees, don't do it. Just do balls, rolling like a ball-ball, right. Okay, so here we go. Ya know what I meant. They're not in the room.

Roll back. You have to get your body weight over your legs. Reach. Oh no, we're gonna do several. Go ahead, reach.

It's fine. I can do it. Roll. Reach. How about three more?

On the third we'll stay up. Reach. Yes, two. You go, I'll stand on the floor. All the way, excellent.

Face me again on the hardwood floor. Nice you guys. Let's go back from the beginning. With a little, are you feeling good? Roll down.

(exhales) Bend your knees, hips, ankles, roll up. It's gonna go into probably a much larger back bend right now, 'cause you're pretty warm. Go. And the side bend with the step out, let's go for that. And up, other side.

We'll do that twice, 'cause that feels good to me. And out. (floor squeaks) Oh, nice, a squeaky foot. Let's go from the beginning, all the way up. And round down.

Hips, knees, ankles, then roll up. Upper back bends, just lead it right in. Gonna do that four thing stepping out to the side, and, reach. And reach. Our Pilates should, keep going, should support our normal movement.

And our abnormal movement, one more time, through the day. And if you're feeling a little better with your balance, wonderful. So maybe the things that took us off balance helped us get better balance. And all the way back. Lift your chest.

Yeah. And center. And three. We're not quite done, there'll be one thing kind of in a very small movement. So just stand with your feet close together.

Close your eyes. I know, we all fix stuff. Close our eyes. (exhales) Just notice. You can kind of open your eyes, but softly.

Maybe look at your, in front of your mat. So I have a slightly forward gaze that's down. I wanna rise up on my toes. And lower. And we'll rise up.

And we'll lower. And we'll rise. Look how grounded you all are. Pretty neat. And we'll rise.

And we'll lower, and you'll lift one foot just easy. Can't help myself, I have to do one more thing. Go off balance on this leg. Whatever that means to you. We have everything we need to stay on that leg.

If you fall, oh well. Have a little fun, and see what it feels like to go off balance, yeah. (exhales) Exactly. (laughter) 'Cause there isn't a right or wrong with that. Take the other foot up.

There is absolutely nothing right or wrong about that at all. Just moving. I do this with my osteoporosis gals a lot. We try, nice Caida, we try not to bend our spine in flexion, because they don't need that. But we do need balance work with that group so it's really cool.

And some of us are modern dancers in this group, so this is kind of at home for us. And some wannabe dancers. (laughter) Right? Which is awesome, and doesn't matter. Okay, and just put both feet on the ground.

And just take your arms up, nice class you guys. Way to explore and play. And breathe, thank you. (exhales) Thanks!