Creative and Challenging Mat

Hi, I'm Mariska from Fuse Pilates in Washington, D.C., and I have these lovely ladies joining me for a class that I am dedicating to the end of 2016. So, if you felt like you wanted to lie in fetal position or cry, or do anything because of all of the craziness of the zeitgeist of 2016, this will be your antithesis of that, as I think this is the first mat class, we're recording in 2017, which is really weird to say and I won't be writing that on my checks 'til next year, so, we have a bunch of people with us today, and they're all pretty advanced, but this class is not designed to necessarily kill you, it's designed to kill you with kindness, so we're going to work in a lot of stretching, into some of the exercises we're doing. So go ahead and start lying down all the way on your back, all the way straight, so go ahead and extend your legs, and you'll also extend your arms overhead, so we're just gonna start with a big big big stretch, let your ribs pop, go ahead and stretch more through your right side, so more right arm right leg. And then left arm left leg. And we'll do that a couple of times.

So even if you wanna add a little side bend into it you can, so right and left, and right, and left, keep your arms overhead, go ahead and bend your knees and plant your feet flat to the floor, so we're gonna take your hands and just cross them, so your hands are holding on touching the inside of them and your biceps are by your ears. We're gonna start with a little chest lift here you're gonna keep your arms by your ears, as you float head and chest up, low back makes contact to the mat while you lift, and then you lengthen your spine as you lay all the way back down. So these can get a little neck-y, so we're only gonna do five of these. Next one, exhale to lift. Tailbone heavy, and then lengthen your spine all the way back down.

You've got three more. Exhale to lift, and then inhale as you lengthen all the way back down. You've got two more. Exhale to lift. And lower all the way back down, last one.

Exhale to lift. (laughter) We're seeing if deodorant is working correctly. And then go ahead and switch the cross of your arms. And just reach your arms there, and we're just gonna do one chest lift and hold there with your arms crossed in the opposite direction, so head and chest lift. And just hold, not your breath, breathing is key.

And then go ahead and lengthen your spine all the way back down onto the floor. Un-cross your arms, so your arms are going to now reach straight up towards the ceiling. So palms can face each other or can face the center of the room, I don't really care. Gonna reach your right arm overhead as you stretch your left leg out long on the mat, so find that oppositional stretch as you're reaching out, and then pull to come back in you might need to lighten your foot, just so you don't drag the mat with you and then switch sides, so you reach out, and then pull to come back in, we're gonna keep that alternating pattern, so opposite arm and leg reach, and then you pull back to center, and then you reach out, and pull back to center, and we'll do one more each side I didn't see that if you screwed up, reach out, and pull back to center, wasn't you. Reach out, and then go ahead and pull back to center.

Reach your arms down by your side, actively press them down into the floor, take your shoulders up back and down, make sure that your feet are about fist distance a part and that your toes are facing forward, your knees are straight up towards the ceiling. On an exhale, tilt your pelvis, low back makes contact with the mat, peel your back away one vertebra at a time, coming to a straight line shoulder bridge and then lengthen your spine as you lay it down all the way down to the mat. So some people like their feet in a little bit closer than others I tend to like my feet a little bit further away I mean it's just I think a personal preference on this one, go ahead and lift back up, so you're trying to articulate, so you each vertebra has its moment. And then lay your spine down, one vertebra at a time. We'll do one more like this, so exhale to tilt your pelvis, abs pulling lift your spine up, you're in that straight line from knees to shoulders, from throat to tailbone you lay your spine all the way back down, and you have that little moment where you come out of that tucked pelvis so you get your tailbone back down to the floor.

Now on this next one, let's pretend we're in yoga class. Press into your feet, tilt your pelvis, lift up, let your ribs pop, so lifting up as high as you can, getting a big big big stretch. Isn't that nice? Don't you wish we could just do that in all of our pilates classes? Go ahead and pull your ribs back into your body and we'll come into the less stretch-y pilates version, and then lay your spine down, one vertebra at a time.

We're gonna do one more of those, so press into your feet, peel your back up, keep lifting past the pilates shoulder bridge position, into the version that's more the yoga version where your ribs pop, you get more of that lift up, and then pull your ribs back into your body, and lay your spine down slowly, one vertebra at a time, go ahead and extend your legs all the way long on the floor, so they're all the way long and zipped together, so you can be heels together toes a part or legs all the way together, you're gonna come all the way up to seated, so just a roll up to seated. And make sure your shoulders don't try to leave your body. And then we're gonna slowly roll down bone by bone trying to keep your feet basically where they are, laying all the way down then let your arms lift overhead even let your ribs pop, you know why not. What? And then go ahead and come back make sure your ribs come back into your body, and then arms lead head follows.

Roll yourself up, so your abs are moving back as your arms are taking you forward, reach reach reach, and then again rolling down, so you're lengthening your spine, as you're lying back down, roll up get as much as a stretch as your body wants right now. People are smiling, so I'm thinking maybe pilates we're doing something wrong when we tell people to keep it all together all the time. Go ahead and reach forward, we're gonna do one more like this, so rounding back- what'd you say? Someone write that down. Someone write that down, maybe pilates is not doing it right if we don't get to pop our ribs every now and then.

And then roll yourself back up, will you name this the popping ribs class? We'll just name it that. We'll just call it that. And then go ahead and lay down 'til your low back touches. So it's only your low back touching.

You're stretching your legs so far away that they begin to lift up, and you begin to pump your arms to hundred, so you're inhaling and exhaling. We're only gonna do two of these, two inhales and exhales, and then begin to lift your legs up to ninety degrees, lower your head down, press into your arms, and let your legs go up and over into a little roll over. So don't necessarily try to touch your feet to the floor if you don't feel warm enough. Go ahead and lay your spine slowly down bone by bone, when your tailbone touches down, float your head and chest up, lower your legs to your point of control, and begin to pump your arms. Inhale.

(inhales) And exhale. This time we're gonna do three. (inhales) And exhale, so look at your abs see if you can pull them down a little bit more, drop back the teeniest little bit, this way, back, perfect. And then go ahead and lift your legs to ninety degrees, head goes down, arms press down, legs go up and over, maybe you can get your feet to the floor this time, if it hurts your neck, don't do it. And then slowly lay your spine down, bone by bone.

For our last rep, we're owed fifty of the hundred. So, head and chest lift, inhale, and exhale, good now just make sure your shoulders are just relaxed down your back. And I stopped counting, but I think we're on three. And then once you've hit five, your legs begin to lift up to ninety degrees, you exhale up and over, and then we're really going to be very slow on this one, everyone pause where you are and just bend your knees, let your knees sort of frame your ears, and then slowly from there with bent knees lay your spine down, and if you feel like the laying down is happening too fast let your legs extend just a little bit, at the bottom take your legs, give them a big hug and rock a little bit from side to side. Go ahead and extend your legs all the way long on the floor, reach your arms up towards the ceiling, up and overhead, let your ribs pop if you want to, reach your arms up to where your ribs are not popping, let your arms leave your head and roll up one vertebra at a time coming all the way up to seated.

So once we're seated we're gonna take a leg in, which this looks remarkable like a yoga exercise but this is actually a variation that Julian Littleford I think does on one of his videos which is a single leg reach using your abs, moving against the reach of your arms. So you have one leg bent in so that your foot is at the inner thigh of your leg, your arms are gonna reach forward, and they're gonna stay kinda parallel to the floor, so think spine stretch forward, how your arms lower because you're moving forward from your torso, so chin to your chest, begin to reach forward so you're reaching past your foot, unless you're not flexible enough, in which case you're reaching to your foot, and then pull your abs and lift away a little bit, and then reach further, so lift back, and forward, back and forward, back and forward. Two more times, one more time on this one, go ahead and grab for your foot, and just reach all the way forward for a stretch. Come all the way up and isn't that nice? Come all the way up from there and we'll switch sides.

So your other leg is forward, totally normal for you to have one good side and one evil twin side, this is my evil twin side it's less flexible, arms reach up, on an exhale you reach forward, and you're going to back a little bit, abs in, and forward, back a little bit, and forward, back a little bit, and forward couple more times. Last time, reach for your foot, and just reach forward. And then come all the way up to seated from there, both legs forward, arms forward, on an exhale round down, one bone at a time, coming all the way down onto your back, hug your right knee into your chest, just give it a big hug, so you're pulling like right knee to right armpit, so big big big stretch there, from there go ahead and take your leg, and you're gonna reach it up towards the ceiling, you can hold on to either your hamstring or your calf, and you can flex and point your foot, just working on kind of loosening up the back of your leg and you can circle your foot, and then relieve your leg up towards the ceiling. Actively press your arms down into the floor, we're gonna take your leg, slightly across your body, this is not single leg circles so don't be surprised if it's not the same, we're gonna bring it back to center, now take your leg slightly towards the right, and back to center. So we're just doing sort of a tick tock with one leg, so you go slightly left, and center, slightly right, and center, three more rounds, left, center, right, center, here's two, center, right, center, here's three, center, right, center, hold on behind your hamstring, give your leg a pull, bring your chin towards your chest, begin to push your leg down, use that leverage to come up walking up your leg, for a little stretch, and then we're gonna walk back down your leg, stopping at ninety, again, hands behind your hamstring, if you hang on too high towards your foot a lot of times you get stuck, so you're gonna walk back up, and then walk down, and then walk back up, coming up to the top, and always when I'm shooting video I notice weird detritus on my clothes, so pull your leg in a little bit closer toward you, now we're gonna take your left hand hold on to your right foot, and open your right arm to the side, coming into a twist.

Now to keep that twist going, bring your right hand down to the mat, cross your left leg over your right leg, hug your leg sit up taller, and twist deeper, and then go ahead and untangle yourself, so let your right leg extend, arms forward. Exhale as you round back. Hug your left knee into your chest, give that leg a hug, extend your leg up towards the ceiling, so again, you can hold on to your hamstring you can hold on to your calf, whatever's comfortable to you, begin to flex and point your foot, so getting that stretch the back of your leg. If you wanna keep a little bend in your knees that's totally fine, and then you're gonna circle your foot around a little bit, and then release your hands so that your hands are down on the floor. So hands down on the floor, you're gonna take your leg slightly across, hip can lift up, that's fine but shoulders have to stay down, come back to center.

Open out to the left, and back to center. Crossing over. And back to center, opening out. And back to center, these look beautiful we're gonna do three more or two more? Three?

Two? For five. Okay, and back to center so two more now. Okay, and back to center, and we'll call this- is this the last one Hailey, are you paying attention? Okay, Hailey's paying attention.

And come up, and then back to center- [Train Horn] Train! It's very loud when you're sitting here I have to say. We'll come back to center so you're holding on behind your hamstring, begin to push down, and you walk up your leg, and then you walk back down, stopping your leg at ninety degrees. Again you're walking up your leg, you can reach for your foot or ankle, it doesn't really matter, and then walk back down. And one more time, reaching up, holding onto your leg, getting a little bit of a stretch, so if you can't reach your foot you don't have to, now take your opposite hand, hold on to it, you do the twist, and then you go ahead and just bend that knee, bring your hand behind you, hug your knee and get a deeper twist from there. And don't forget to breathe, so inhale and then exhale as you twist.

And then go ahead and come back to center, reach your arms forward, exhale as you round back let your low back touch the mat. And then from there go ahead and keep your head and chest lifted bend your right knee in towards your chest, and hold on left hand right knee right hand right ankle, pull your leg in as tight as you can, so if you can get it all the way to your throat, that's how tight it goes, pull pull, switch opposite hand on opposite knee, pull pull. And switch. Pull pull. And switch.

Pull pull. And switch pull pull. And switch. And we'll do, let's see, after this, one more each side, pull right, pull left, hands on your ankles. Reach out pause, pull your knees back and leave your arms where they are.

Reach out. Pull in. Reach out. Pull in. One more time, reach out, hands behind your head, bring your knees in, twist towards the right, and back to center, twist left, and center, so we're doing this a little slower, than normal, so we can enjoy more of the twist, and center, twist and center so keep going, couple more each side, now on this next one you're gonna pause.

Twist towards whatever leg that is, lower your right leg all the way to the floor, lower your head and chest down, and turn so you're sort of back in the middle. Now left up in rotation to bring your elbow back to your knee, and lower back down, two more of this, exhale as you lift, and lower back down. Last one, exhale as you lift, and lower back down and one to transition exhale as you lift, let your right leg float off the floor. Bring your right knee in as you rotate towards the right. It's a lot of remembering directions, left leg is down.

Lower your head and chest down, exhale as you lift. Elbow towards knee, and lower back down. Exhale as you lift, and lower back down. Exhale as you lift, pause there, float your left leg off. We're gonna do one last quick round of criss cross, so twist, and twist, and twist, and twist, and twist, four more, one, and two, and three, and four, go ahead and lower everything all the way down to the mat, hug your knees into your chest, rock a little from side to side, go ahead and grab hold of your right leg, and extend your right leg straight up towards the ceiling, extend your left leg out so it's hovering on the floor, head and chest lift, pull your right leg in towards you twice.

Pull pull, switch. Pull pull. Switch. Pull pull. I find on the switch, is usually where my abs like to pop out, so I always think about pulling your abs down on the switch, that's the hardest part to kind of control, your abs.

We'll do last one. And then let's go ahead and have both legs reaching straight up towards the ceiling, go ahead and lower your arms down towards the floor, head down towards the floor, so we're gonna start with a regular corkscrew, we're gonna end up doing the really super advanced corkscrew overhead, so if that is not your exercise, you're gonna leave that out and just do the regular corkscrew. So we're gonna start by taking your legs towards the right. Go down around towards the left, slice through the middle, stop at the top, left, down around towards the right, stop at the top, couple more each direction, you go right, do around towards the left, stop at the top, left, down around towards the right, and stop at the top, so I have no idea if I'll fall off this thing trying to do it on the mat, but from the mat, you're gonna take your legs into a rollover, so they're gonna come overhead, so your arms are down, so if you take your legs and think about sliding your feet, to let's go to the left, so slide your feet to the left, but your hips are still facing the middle, 'cause when you lay down your spine, which we're gonna do now, you need to lay down in the middle of the mat, especially if you're on a high mat and you could take a tumble off, so you lay your spine down, onto a microphone apparently, and then you lift up, and over to the other side, so now your feet are on the other side, and then you come back to center. So then you slide your feet towards the right, lower down, you're still in the middle of your body, I think that's where people tend to get messed up, is they try to roll down on the side of their back, let your legs go round, up, and over, and slice through the middle.

So we're gonna do one more round each side, so whether your feet go totally down to the floor is totally dependent on what is comfortable for your neck, really. And then you lower down, think middle of the mat. Your spine has to go down the middle of the mat. Up and over, and we'll do one more. To the side, around, and whatever finishes you out, whatever is even.

And then you just slowly lay your spine down, let your body just react to your legs lowering, and float yourself up into a little tiny teaser which means we're not gonna hold it for more than a second. That was it, and then go ahead and have a seat, so you're just gonna have a seat, you're gonna hold on underneath your legs, and so right now I'm on my sits bones which is impossible to balance on, so I'm gonna come back, so I'm sitting, almost in my rolling like a ball position, but we're not gonna do that, don't worry, so from here you're gonna ahead and begin to extend your legs, so that you're stretching your legs straight, or straight-ish, and depends on your flexibility, and then go ahead and bend your knees, and your challenge is to not fall backwards, or in my case, off this high mat, so you extend your legs, and then bend your knees, we'll do two more like that, reach up, extend, lower down bend, and reach up, extend, lower down bend, hold on now behind your knees so you can create a little more space, between when you were, extend your legs, find that position, reach your arms, abs are in, and then slowly lower your legs down, and just fold forward over your legs. Let your legs separate so that they're about hip distance a part, and we're gonna a little spine stretch forward variation. So start sitting upright, on an exhale same as you always do, exhale to round forward, now, not same as you always do, you're gonna turn, so that your left side lifts up towards the camera, so we're in a sort of rotation, and then you come back to center, stack your spine up, bone by bone. Exhale as you reach forward, you rotate, so now you're facing towards the window, looking for dolphins, and come back to center, unless you're at home, that probably isn't happening, sorry, go ahead and lift back up, we're gonna do one more like that each side, reach forward, twist open, come back, and sit up, and reach forward, twist open, come back to center, and lift all the way up.

One little variation here, you're gonna round forward reach forward, twist reach the outside of your foot, and then open your arm out to the side. Come back forward going right to the other side, Rotate and twist, if you need to bend your knees, totally fine, come back to center, reach forward dropping your head down, and come all the way back up to seated, from here go ahead and bend your knees, and we're gonna roll down on to your back, adjust clothing as needed, and then you're gonna take your right leg, and you're gonna bring it into the equivalent of a figure four stretch. So you actually rotate your right leg, cross your ankle over your left knee, so your right knee is open, arms press down into the mat, left leg is maybe a little closer than it normally be, press into your feet, or left foot, lift your hips up, so we're coming in to a shoulder bridge and getting a hip stretch, at the same time. And then slowly lay your spine down. Bone by bone.

Again pressing into your feet, lifting your hips up, and lower back down, you have three more here, press to lift, and lower, here's two, press to lift, and lower, last one, press to lift, you're gonna keep your leg in its position lower down, bring your hands behind your head, lift your head and chest up and bring your left knee in, so you're gonna little bit more of a stretch there, you're going to extend your leg out, pull it in, little more of crunch, reach out, lower down a little bit, pull in, reach out, and in, two more, reach, and in, last one, reach, and in. Hold on to your shin, lower your head down and pull that leg in so this time it's a big big big stretch. People are making very strange noises. I'm gonna take that as a compliment, which normally, I don't know, so go ahead untangle your legs, so now it's left over right, arms reach down by your side, and then press into your right foot, so we lift your hips up, and lower back down, and you try to come up straight, I'm kind of a little crooked here, lower back down, practice not perfection, lift up, and lower back down, Kris you'd like someone to write that down so everyone watching please write that down as practice not perfection, lower down, one more time, we lift up, and lower down. Head and chest lift, pull your right knee in, so you might feel a little bit more of a stretch there, extend your leg out, lower your head and chest down a little bit, exhale pull it in, reach out, and in, I think we do roughly six, so four more.

And in. Reach out. And in. Two more, reach. And in.

And reach, and in, reach for either the back of your leg or the front of your leg, lower down, you're gonna take that stretch a little bit deeper, maybe rock a little from side to side, and then go ahead and untangle your legs, hold on behind your legs, go ahead and just rock yourself all the way up to seated, and we're gonna come to a prone position, so come to lying down on your stomach, and then start with your hands pretty close so kind of propped up on your elbows almost, and then we're gonna start with a little swan kind of stretch, so start with your hands where you know you can lift up and you don't feel like you're dumping into your back, so legs are long behind you, if you feel better with your legs separated, I think that's fine, go ahead and lift up, shoulders are down, and then we're gonna do a twist, so turn towards the right, look over your right shoulder, come back to center, see if you can lift up a little higher. Twist lightly left, and back to center, see if you can lift up maybe you can walk your hands in a little bit more, so we're gonna do a couple more of those, so it's a twist, and lift, twist, and lift, maybe you can walk in even more and lift up a little bit higher, we're gonna do one more round, twist, and lift, and twist, and lift, then see if you got maybe even a little bit more in you, and then we'll lower down, quick press back to child's pose, who doesn't love a child's pose, I actually know somebody who doesn't love a child's pose and I'm like what's wrong with you? It's like not liking chocolate. We're gonna go ahead and slide forward, make a pillow for your head, so you're gonna rest your head down I'm gonna rest my chin down so I can watch you guys, so head down, chin down, or forehead down, legs are long behind you, you're gonna take your right leg, lift it so long behind you that it lifts up, so your right leg is coming into hip extension, we're gonna do little lifts up, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, circle at eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, switch at eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, leave your leg up, bring your hands kind of far back behind you, we're gonna leave that leg up and press up to a quadriped position, so you might need to walk your hands back a bit, now take your legs, same deal, lift up for eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, circle at eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, switch at eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight, you're gonna ahead and lean forward, bend your elbows and come back to lying down on your back, so your leg is still up, sorry, leg is still up. Make sure your hips are down and your head is down, and you're just gonna take your leg out to the side, for eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, out and up, and in, so it's out, up, down, in, out, up, down, in, out, up, down, in, let's do let's say four more.

Two. Three. And four. Keep your leg lifted hands come back, back to that quadriped position, it's out, up, down, in, out, up, down, in, so you should feel more like outer hip here, this is the last thing we're doing before we switch sides, four more, two, three, and four, come back into that kind of pushup position lower your leg down, switch legs, so opposite leg lifts, which should feel wonderful 'cause it's not the same leg, go ahead and lift, so we're gonna do little lifts for eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, circle at eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, switch for eight, two, three, four, five, remember to keep your abs pulled in, seven, eight, hands back, thrust yourself up, adjust as needed, lift for eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, circle eight, two, three, four, try to keep your hips level if you can, five, six, seven, eight, switch it eight, two three, four, five, six, seven, and we've got that push up lean forward, keep your leg off the floor, it goes out, up, down, in, out, up, down, in, here's three, four, last four, two, three, and four, leg's up, press back up, we're finishing off here, so it's out, up, down, in, out, up, down, in, three, four, four more, two, keep your abs pulled in, three, that was actually for me, and four, and then go ahead and come back forward, lower your leg, press yourself back, to child's pose, which most people like but some people don't, so if you don't like it you can do cat cow, it's basically the same kinda concept, enjoyable for most people. You're gonna come back, to kind of a, let's come to a quadriped position, we're gonna do kind of a down doggy, stretch-y kind of bed thing, so you're gonna start, with your knees bent, and your weight pushed back, so if I was quadriped here, I'm gonna push back and I have my toes tucked under.

Okay? So from here you're gonna push, kinda up and back into sort of a down dog, and then you come back forward to hovering knees, but chest pushed through your arms, and then again lift your hips, drop your heels, and then you come down, couple more like this, push out, and down, push out and down, push out, hold it there, come forward into a plank, might need to adjust your feet back, we're gonna drop down into an up stretch here so if this is not good for your back, leave it out, you're gonna send your chest through your arms, dropping your hips down, push just back up into that plank, drop your hips, and lift back up, drop your hips, and lift back up one more time, drop your hips, and lift back up. Come back into that bent knee down dog to straight leg down dog, and just hold and breathe, breathe and hold, and then let your knees separate and lower, this time go ahead and make sure that your knees are separated and your shins are also separated, and push back from there, so it gets a little more inner thighs, the more you open your knees out, sort of the more, inner thigh action you get. And then you go ahead and come all the way up to seated, swing your legs around so we're sitting all the way up tall, and tall if tall for you isn't, doesn't give you shoulders over hips, bend your knees, you're gonna bring your arms out to the side, and we're gonna do a spine twist but instead of a exhale and a twist, we're gonna inhale and a twist 'cause I find that's more pleasant, so sitting up tall exhale to start, inhale rotate towards the camera, if you're at home just put a camera up so you can rotate towards one, and then come back to center. And rotate towards something else, and back to center, I'm putting a little bend in my knees, 'cause I'm being nice to myself with my 2017 motto, rotate, and back to center we'll do one more each side, try not to turn your head more than your body turns, it actually doesn't make your body turn more.

Oddly, I found that out, over years of practice, and then come all the way back in. You're gonna bring your hands back behind you, so this mat is very squishy and squishy and my wrists don't get along, if you have wrist issues, you might want to leave this out, you can also try fists down, which I think helps some people, we're gonna do sort of a variation of kind of coming up into like a reverse plank but we're not going to add the leg kick part, so this is comfortable, this sinking into my shoulders, please don't put a picture up of this but sink into your shoulders if you want to 'cause it actually feels really nice, and then you can lift up out of it, so think about this as a hinge from the hip, you're gonna lift up, feet come down, and then you lower it back down. Lift up, if you can feet touch, and lower it back down, this next one's gonna be a little bit different, lift up, think about a hamstring curl, bend your knees to come forward, push back out, heels drop, again it's just a hinge. It's up, bend, push, and drop. One more time, up, bend, push, and drop, and then if you want to, you might want to work your triceps a bit, you're gonna lift up, and we're just gonna do five bend and extend, one, two, three, four, and five.

And then go ahead and have a seat, all the way back down, and then you're gonna come facing me, and we're gonna do a little thigh stretch slash kneeling thing, whatever, so, that's the official name of this exercise, so go ahead and come to kneeling, and you might want to be staggered a little bit away from your neighbor, if you're doing this at home, away from your furniture. I've done that all time, always like kick the TV. So arms are forward, first if you're like that ribs popping thing we're not gonna do that for this one, so we're gonna pull 'em in, lengthen your low back with flat back, lean out into space, so you're leaning back and then lift yourself all the way up, shoulders over knees, we'll do that a couple more times, so you reach out, nice, and then lift to come all the way up, let's do three more, lean it out, lift to come back up, lean it out- foot cramp? Okay. I was like, if you got a foot cramp at home, stand on it, that's the easiest way to get out of it.

Back up one more time, go out, and come back up we're gonna take your right leg, extend your right leg out to the side, bring your right hand down so it's on your right leg, I'm gonna turn to this direction so you're gonna take your left arm, reach it up and over, and you're gonna side reach, towards your knee. And then you're gonna come back up, so we'll do that twice more, this is the nice part of the exercise, I sadly have to say it doesn't last, one more time, go over, and lift up, now your arm is still lifting up, and you're gonna side reach the other way, and come back up, and side reach out, nice, and come back up, so you don't really want to come past you're in a straight line from shoulder to knee, we're gonna do one more to transition, so you go out, now take your right arm and you're gonna swing it towards the side, and then swing it back down, so it goes forward and up, and forward and down, forward and up there is a dog running with a frisbee, out there, and someone chasing the dog, but the dog is winning, we're gonna do one more like this, hold it there, and we're gonna little lifts for four, two, sorry, three, and four, let your left hand find the floor, right hand behind your head, right leg lifts up, I'm not participating in this, this is my least favorite exercise, so I'm not doing it, go ahead and kick your leg forward twice, kick kick, go back, kick kick, forward, kick kick, back, kick kick, three more, forward, I just got the evil eye from someone so I think it's not just my least favorite exercise, and then come all the way in, go ahead and bend that knee, and then you're just going to make your way up, go ahead and T your arms, and then you're gonna go, send your other leg out. So left leg out. So you're gonna start with your hand down, I can turn this way, so your hand is down, your arm is up, and you're gonna lift up and lean toward your leg, and then lift back up, and lean towards your leg, and lift back up, couple more times lean it out, and lift it up, and lean it out, did we do four or five last time? Eh, whatever.

Lift it up, some people are like very particular about that, go ahead and reach out to the other side, and then lift back up, reach out to the other side, nice, and lift back up, reach out, and lift back up, and know you have to hold this one so maybe don't go as ambitiously, reach out, swing your arm forward by your ear, down by your hip, forward by your ear, down by your hip, forward by your ear, down by your hip, two more times, forward, and down, forward and hold, little side lifts up for four, two, three, and four. Right hand finds the mat, left hand behind your head, left leg floats magically off the mat, flex your foot, kick forward twice, kick kick, point as you reach back, kick forward, kick kick, and reach back, kick forward, and reach back, two more times, forward, and back, and forward, and back, go ahead and come back to your knee, make your way all the way up we're gonna come back to the other side, but this time we're gonna come to a sideline position, so instead of being on your long arm, we're gonna be on your forearm because of where we're going with this, so legs are swing slightly forward of you and if you wanna be here, we're gonna lift up and out of it you're gonna bring your top hand behind your head, lift your top leg up, we're gonna start by bringing it back and bringing your top elbow forward to your hand. And then come back, kick your leg forward, and then we twist around, touch, and go forward. Twist around, touch, and forward, do three more, twist around, and forward, twist around, and forward, one more time, twist around, and forward, this time you get to lay down on a long arm with stacked legs, you might want to swing your legs back a little bit, so your arm is long, and we're gonna try to get as much length through your waist as possible, so first start with your top arm reaching up and overhead, so if you are doing this correctly, your waist lifts a little bit away from the floor, so I want you to try and keep that lift, but this is really hard so we're gonna start with your arms straight up towards the ceiling. We're just gonna try and hover both legs off the mat so they're just lifting, lifting and holding, not really doing anything, just holding and trying not to fall backwards, especially if you're on a high mat, 'cause that could end badly, or it'll be on a blooper, which would be fun for everyone.

Now do little leg lifts, both legs together, for eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight, you're gonna keep the shape you're body's in basically reach your right arm back overhead, roll onto your stomach, lift arms and legs up together, so lift lift lift, and then flutter arms and legs go first one. Inhale, and exhale. And inhale, and exhale. And last one, and exhale. Go ahead and lower everything all the way down, just shimmy your hips a little bit from side to side, your back should be really warmed up by now, so I don't think we necessarily need that child's pose, if you need one take one, we're gonna do, if I can remember, we're gonna do a reverse of what we just did, so come to lying on your opposite side, so facing towards the camera, if you don't have a camera at home, again, install one, so then you can look at yourself and you can be like oh my god, I look like that when I work out, who knew.

Go ahead and reach your top arm overhead so you're getting as much reach and stretch as possible so that your waist is lifting away from the floor, go ahead and send that top arm straight up towards the ceiling and hover your legs. So we're just holding, not your breath, but just holding your legs up, and there's naturally gonna be a little bit of movement of your body, unless your dead, in which case, then it's great that you're still working out, now we're gonna do eight leg lifts, up for eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight, let your legs lower down but swing them forward, so you're gonna banana your legs a little bit forward, go ahead and prop yourself up on your right forearm, bring your left hand behind your head, take your top leg up, push it back, and then rotate your chest towards the floor so your elbow touches your opposite hand. And then you come back up and you do the two kicks forward, kick kick, and then twist around. Kick kick, and twist around, beautiful, two more, kick kick, and twist around, and kick kick, and twist around, go ahead and come back to where you were, lower your legs down, go ahead and roll onto your stomach, so we're coming back onto your stomachs. So we're gonna start by taking a leg, I'm gonna take my right leg with my left hand, grab hold of it, and I'm just gonna pull it in as tight as I can get it, in towards my hip for a stretch.

I'm not pulling it towards the opposite hip, I'm pulling it towards the same side hip. Now we're gonna lift upper body and leg a little bit, so it's like a little baby bow, so lifting up right arm is straight, pushing in to your left foot, lifting yourself up, and then lower back down, now grab hold of your foot with both hands and give it that big pull in. And then we'll switch so your other leg is in, and then you grab it with your opposite, so you have your left foot, with your left hand, right hand is forward, begin to lift up, not sliding as much as I want to, so I'm kind of pushing in, lift your leg up, so you got the little baby bow, and then lower back down, grab hold of your foot with both hands, give it a pull in, keep it with your left hand, reach for your right foot, legs sort of together, begin to just lift up, so it doesn't have to be the highest lift in the world, but you're just getting the big stretch, if you wanna take it into rocking, knock yourself out, go ahead and lower down, heels in towards your butt, release, push your hips back to your heels, again we're getting that kind of a child's pose but this one we're gonna make a little more exciting, so we go ahead and start, we're gonna do a little more play in our child's pose so hips towards your heels, and then begin to just rock forward, so kind of in a cat arch back and then rounded back and press back. And you can kind of do whatever you think feels good, in this position so it might hips moving from side to side, it might be taking an arm across, it might be taking the other arm across, whatever you feel like your body wants in this moment, go ahead and do that, and then we're gonna come to quadriped. So from here it's still sort of a child's pose, I think it's in yoga it's anahatasana, your hands are forward, is that correct, I think it is.

It's heart chakra opener, or whatever. My heart chakra needs to be opened. You're gonna drop down, head to the mat so your chest is dropped through your arms, and then you're going to go ahead now and push back to your regular child's pose this one you're gonna reach around and grab hold of your feet, and then think a little bit like crab, which I never teach, because my neck is jacked up, but lifting your hips up, rounding your back, coming to the top of your head, but really there's no weight on the top of your head, your weight is in your legs, and then lower back down we'll do one more. Lifting up, and lower back down, we have one more exercise before some final stretches, which is boomerang which I always feel like is such a nice stretch so go ahead and I'm completely sure I'll fall off this if I try it up here, so go ahead and start, let's cross right leg over left, sitting up tall, hands down by your hips. So I know some people learned sort of this variation, I like this variation, but hands down or hands this way, this is the bazz-y way right?

Something. Okay. Sit up super tall, on an exhale you're gonna round back, let your legs just lift up, legs are gonna go up and over, when your head comes down, criss cross your legs, open close, roll up, so when your tailbone touches down, you let your head lift up, reach for your feet, let's do up, around, clasp your hands, reach back, let your legs lower, and then the reason we're doing this is so we can get the reach around stretch, and I just thought of a really dirty joke which I'm not gonna tell, but you can like imagine it in your own dirty mind. And then sit back up hands by your hips, we're gonna do that again, so we're going up and over, open close, lower back down, float up into your teaser as if that's just easy, lift up, hands come back, big stretch, lower down, circle around, reach for your feet. We've got two more, it's like three exercises in one, it's a teaser, it's a rollover, it's a roll up, go ahead and go over, open close, roll down, reach, reach up, around, clasp, lower, circle around, reach, and just one more, so we'll roll down, lift up and over open close, lower down slowly, roll up, reach for your feet, lift your arms up, around, stretch, lower your legs, reach for your feet.

So the only last thing we're gonna do is a little kind of hip opener stretch, hip flexor stretch, because I feel like we didn't necessarily get, so we're gonna go ahead and start in a lunge, so you have one leg back, one leg forward, so, you wanna have your knee basically directly over your ankle, and I'm gonna start by coming up to my knee, and then instead of thinking forward, yet, I'm gonna think up, so we're gonna feel more of this stretch, you can take your left arm, and we're gonna bend side three times, one, two, if you can't reach the floor you can always the block, come back center, and see if you can lower down more, and then we're gonna do that again, so reach one, two, three, see if you can get a deeper hip opening, and then again, reach one, two, three, and down, now we're gonna take your right leg, and just walk it to the side, lower down to your forearms, and if your forearms are accessible than you have hands, and if your hands aren't accessible, then you can just stay up in that position, and you can come a little bit forward, if you wanna get more of a hip flexor stretch, tuck your back toes under, and lift your back knee off the floor. And we'll go ahead and come back out of that, so we're gonna take your right leg, swing it back behind you, step your left leg forward, kind of come into the lunge again knee over ankle, and then come up, and we're gonna do the three side bends, so reach over one, two, three, sink deeper, reach one, two, three, sink deeper, one more time, one, two, three, sink deeper, bring your hands to the inside, walk your left foot over like two little steps, drop down to your forearms if that's accessible for your hips, and then if you want more of the stretch your right toes tuck under and you lift your right knee off the floor. And then go ahead and lower your knee down, and then just swing your legs around, just come to a seated position, so just a regular seated position, I'll turn this way, and we're gonna take an arm towards the floor and lift the other arm up for a stretch, so if you can drop down to your forearm you can, this is the last thing we're gonna do, so I should tell you I put two secret words in this workout because a client of mine challenged me to put these two vocabulary words into this workout, which I did, so if you figure out what very random words were in this workout, and you post it in the comments, that would be great, you're gonna go ahead and twist to look over your right shoulder, so that's for you Steve, you're now forever in Pilates Anytime, and then go ahead and switch to the other direction. And then come back to center, hopefully you all feel nice and stretched and awesome, thank you for coming out, great job. (applause)