Fitness Ball Burn

So do you have a ball? 'Cause I have a ball. I'm gonna do the ball. I'm gonna play on the ball. Ready?

Okay, so take your ball and hold it in your hands and put it on your body. And close your eyes. So with your eyes closed, feel the weight of the feet on the ground, organizing the knees so that they go just on top of the ankles. Pelvis, dropping into a neutral alignment or stacking over the knees. The shoulders over the top of the pelvis and the top of head reaching up, and the back of the head reaching back.

You might feel as though you've created an extra chin for yourself which may not be the nicest look, but it is good neck alignment. And now we're gonna open our eyes and press the ball against your body. As you press the ball against your body, reach it down. At the same time as you're reaching the ball down your body, lift your chest up. So just counteracting any slumping or rounding you've been doing today.

And then let your body come back to neutral. And from neutral as you exhale, roll down. So letting the weight of the ball pull you against or with gravity, reaching down, reaching down, reaching down. Allow the ball to come to the floor. Put your hands on the top of the ball and reach the spine out long.

So we lift the tailbone, we spread out the sit bones, we pull the ribs away from the pelvis, and we stretch the body long, inhale. As you exhale, curl the body back. So round the back in, reorganizing as you go so that your hands can pick the ball up. Roll up with the ball. Lift the arms up in front of you.

As the ball comes up, think of lifting the sternum up slightly. Reach the ball backwards and then bring the ball just over the top of your head and inhale, lean to the left. So let the ball drop into the bottom hand let it be heavy. And then use the bottom arm to push, and use the top waist to pull. And then get a little taller.

And reach up to go over to the other side, letting the ball drop heavy into the bottom arm. And then push with the bottom arm, pull with the topside of the waist and come back up to straight. Take the ball down the front of the body and press it against your body again. We'll repeat that one more time. So the ball pushes back.

Upper arms pulled back, shoulders pulled down. Chest lifts. Come to straight. Roll the spine down towards the floor. Lifting up, supporting through the middle of yourself.

Reaching down. Setting the ball down onto the floor. Pressing the ball out long. So I've lifted my hands. I've replaced them onto the top of the ball.

We feel the stretch in the spine. Feel the elongation of the spine. Draw in through the abdominals. Tuck the tail under. Round the spine up.

Pick the ball up as you roll up, using it as a weight, using it as resistance as you stack your spine back up to straight. Bring the arms up in front of you. Lift the ball over your head. This time, we'll lean right. Inhale.

Exhale, round forward. Take the ball down towards that outside knee. Inhale, come back to a side bend. And exhale to lift up. Inhale to reach up and over to the opposite side.

Exhale to round forward, taking the ball down towards the knee on the opposite side. Come back through your side bend position and lift yourself all the way up. Take the ball down. And we're gonna sit on it now. So from your sitting position, walk forward onto your mat so that your lower spine is supported by the ball.

Reach your arms forward. Take your arms up towards your ears. Begin to let your spine just cascade over the ball. Take your arms around to the sides. Lift your head up.

Reach your arms forward, and roll up, pressing the lower spine against the ball. Inhale as you reach back, bringing the arms with you. Wide open with arms, reach way out. Chin comes into the chest. Arms come forward.

And roll up. Again, inhale as you reach back, allowing the spine to drape over the ball. Keep the abdominals lightly working, lightly engaged to support the lower spine. And reach back, last time. Enjoy, as a suggestion.

And around. And forward. And then reach back and put your hands behind your head. Let your head drop into your hands. It feels heavy.

And then inhale as you reach back. Find the tips of the shoulders. Exhale, lift up. Find the bottom rib. So we're working through that small range.

Shoulder blades, pelvis. And as you go backwards over the ball, you want to feel that you're not just resting, that you're contracting or elongating with a lengthening contraction of the abdominals. Reaching back, keeping the elbows and the shoulder blades wide. And lifting. Inhale.

Give yourself at the top, just a little moment, a pause to look for depth in your position, orientation on the ball. We'll do three more. Lifting up. And back. And lifting up, ribs sliding down the front of the body.

Neck nice and easy in the hands. Last time. Lifting up and pause. And then little pulses curling forward, lift forward. Now as you come forward deepen, so it feels as if you're trying to press your belly button through your spine into the ball.

Last four. And three. Head is heavy, it'll be harder. We all like harder, don't we? I lost count.

We'll call this, this one. Walk with your feet back to the ball. You can just keep your hands behind your head. If possible, bring your knees and feet together. Now just that in and of itself is a little bit of balance challenge.

So if you need to separate your feet a little bit, that's fine. Press your head into your hands. Widen your scapula, inhale. Exhale, rotate your spine. Lift as you rotate.

And inhale. Come back to center. And lift as you rotate. And inhale, come back to center. I just have to say, as you're doing this with me, how grateful I feel to be here.

So I'll look at the ocean. It looks like diamonds on the ocean today. It's quite nice. And so now I'll get back to talking about Pilates and stuff. So as we rotate, we're drawing the abdominals back towards the spine.

We're feeling the length of the spine. Keeping the ball as still as possible underneath the body. Keeping the knees as still as possible as well. We're gonna go one more time to each side. Again, you rotate without letting the ball shift, that's the big challenge for me.

And rotate without letting the ball shift, and then back to center. So we can walk back forward again, finding that lower spinal position, lower spine against the ball position. Inhale, stretch back. Exhale, lift up. Pause, rotate one way.

Center, rotate the other way. Center and go back. Exhale, lift up. As you rotate, notice again that the pelvis is still. The ball is still.

And back. We'll do three more repetitions like that. So up. Across. Center.

Across. Center. And back. As you're rotating, feel the ribs you're rotating towards slide towards the center of the spine. The ribs you're rotating towards that side, towards the center of the spine.

I think this is the last time. Just have to say, I don't think I'm going to be very good at counting today. I can just feel it. So, if that makes you feel sad, I'm sorry. Now we're gonna go back.

No center, just up to the left. All the way to the back. Up to the right. So I'm coming through center to go back. I'm starting in center and then rotating.

Through center to go back. Starting in center and then rotating. Three more times. Exhale (deeply exhales). And inhale.

And exhale (deeply exhales). And inhale. And can you keep the ball super still? And back. And up and over.

And back. Last time. Hold here. And now pulse 10. Nine, going deeper each time.

Six, five, heavy head, two, one. Center. Stretch over the top. Reach to the other side. Oop, Meredith keep that ball still.

And 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, hang in there, we're almost there. Last time. Come to center. Reach your arms forward. Come down the ball.

So I've shifted my pelvis away from the ball slightly. The ball's more in the middle of my back and towards my upper back. We're gonna press out with the legs. Take the body all the way over the top of the ball. Press down into the feet to help you stabilize.

Arms reach around to the sides. And we're gonna bend. Again, reach out and back. Press back. Stretch the body over the top of the ball.

Out to the sides. And, bend, get nice and close to the floor. Two more, reach out. Strong legs. Strong abdominals.

Stretching through the feet as you reach with your arms. And back. And one more. All the way back. Stretch the body over the top of the ball.

Come around to the sides. And then come all the way down. You may need to help yourself with you hand to come to the floor. All right, so we're gonna bring the ball around and put it underneath the feet. Resting the feet on the ball.

Resting your arms near your sides. We're about to do some bridging. So again, be prepared for that ball to wiggle around a little bit, but try to keep it still. Inhale. As you exhale, articulate your spine up, pressing down into the feet, lifting up through the hips.

Feel that the arms are soft and long. Hold to inhale. Drop the chest through the arms first. Work through the spine as you lay it down. Reaching the pelvis all the way down.

Oh wow! That was a lot of shifting, Meredith. Here we go again, Exhale, press down, roll up. Pressing down with the feet. We'll be standing into both feet. Hold and inhale.

And roll down. How stable can you be? Hopefully more than I. Then three more times. Inhale, pressing down and lifting up.

Hips up nice and high. Feel the back of those legs burning. Inhale. And exhale, this is a nice toning exercise for the back of the body. Could we use the word sculpting maybe?

Last two. Continue to check in with your arms and shoulders. Notice if they're trying to lift off the floor. See if you can just keep them relaxed. Hold.

And go down. Down. Down. I'm finding myself more and more even each time. Hopefully you are too.

Again, exhale, lift. Let your arms help you to support your stability. Pause, inhale. And exhale as we go down. Okay, so now we're gonna have some real fun.

Get ready. Exhale to lift. Now from that lifted position, send the ball away. And bring it back. And press out, pushing down into the feet to lift the hips.

And bring it back. And press out. And bend. And press out. And bend.

One more. Press out. And bend. And roll down, down, down, down. Now if you're disappointed that's over, the good news is we're gonna do it again.

So we're gonna roll out. Reach the ball out. Bring the ball back. Keep the hips high. So as the legs go out straight, can we lift even higher into that position?

And bend. And lift even higher. And bend. Last two. And bend.

One more. And bend and hold the bend. And lay the spine down onto the ground. Bring the arms out to the sides, palms facing up. Rest the shins on the ball, calves on the ball.

Inhale as you bring the ball in my direction, keeping the knees aligned. And exhale as you use the stretched side of the body to draw in and bring the ball back to center. Inhale as we reach over. Exhale, feel the stretch through the side of the body and then contract into that stretch to pull back to center. Inhale, reach up and over.

Exhale, come back. Inhale, reach up and over. Exhale to come back. Gonna do one more to each side. Here it comes.

So over, and center. Navel to spine as you inhale and move. And center. So in center, snuggle the ball right up into the back of the legs. Like get it super close.

Sorry that you'll have to feel your hamstrings working to do that, but that's just what's happening. Bring your hands behind your head. Knees touching together, inhale. Press down into the ball. Curl the head and chest up.

Now press into the heel. Try to pick the ball up off the floor. It might not lift, but we're trying. And then lay everything back. And inhale.

Exhale, the ball's snuggling into the back of the legs. Curl the head and chest up. Now as you exhale, imagine that you're lifting your pelvis off the mat, trying to lift the ball off. And back. Three more.

Exhale to lift the head and chest. Try to lift the ball up off the floor. And lower everything down. And last two. Lifting up.

Lifting the ball. And down. One more time, we're gonna stay up at the top. So exhale to lift. Hold there.

Reach forward past your knees. Lift up just a little bit higher and then reach back to bring the hands back behind the head. Exhale, twist one direction. And center. The other direction.

And center, and as you twist, try to get that feeling of trying to pick the ball up. And center. Twist, pick the ball up. And center. And three more up and over.

And center, up and over. And two more. Lift into your rotation. Heavy head. Here's the very last one.

So fight for it, do your best. Center. Up and over. Center. And rest.

So pick up the ball with your feet and put into your hands. Straighten your legs out on the mat. Take the ball and just let the ball rest in the hands. And then let the ball lift over your head. So just feel how when the ball lifts, the shoulder blades rotate under and forward, under and forward.

And then bring the head and chest up off the mat. Reach the ball forward for the legs. Roll through your spine. Send the ball down the front of the feet. Push down onto your feet.

Elongate your back. Find a flat back. Pick your ball up. Send your spine in the direction of the ball. So you've got a nice long spine there.

Lift up all the way. And then rotate the pelvis under and start rolling back. Slowly, slowly, slowly, and then down. And inhale, head and chest come up. Draw in, flatten the spine into the mat.

Roll up all the way. Reach forward, send the ball out towards the feet. If you push down on the ball when it goes out toward your feet, you should get a little stretch in your feet and maybe in your shins. Lift your spine, final length. Reach the ball up over head.

Feel the body reaching into the ball. Lift the body all the way up. Exhale, tuck the tail under. Feel the upreach of the arms creating opposition for the down pull of the abdominals, and take the body back three more times. Inhale to lift the head and chest.

Exhale, roll the spine up. Send it down. Lengthen the spine. Take the ball overhead. Lift the body up.

Tuck the tail under. Try to reach the ball behind you. Oh, that makes it harder. Harder, but don't let it pull you off of your functional movement pattern. Lift the head and chest.

So if it's too hard to reach it behind you, don't. Roll up. Send the ball forward. Elongate through the spine. Lift the ball.

Lift the spine. And roll down. I don't know about you guys, but this is an exercise that makes my pants fall down. So we're gonna have a minute. All of us together at the top for everyone who needs to pull their pants up.

Here we go in just a minute. Reach forward. Just glad there's no one back behind me. Reach out long through your spine. Pick the ball up.

Pick the ball up. Lift the body up. Bend your arms, bring the ball to the top of your head. I know I said we could pull our pants up, but we will in a minute, so we're gonna twist. And center.

And twist, now what you could do here is you could create like a downpull energy with your shoulder blades. So you're kind of pushing the ball or pulling the ball down towards into the top of the head. And at the same time, as you're pulling the ball down, you're lifting your spine up. So we've got downpull, upstretch. And center.

Downpull. Upstretch. And center. And now rotate. Push the ball up and grow.

Get the spine to get longer. Bend, sit tall. Center. Inhale as you twist. Exhale as you press the ball up, getting longer, getting taller.

Bend, inhale. Exhale, center. Let's do it again, inhale, over. Exhale, up. Inhale, bend, lift.

Exhale, center. Inhale, over. Keeping the legs nice and straight if you can. But if you can't have your legs straight, and also have your back straight, you bend your knees. One more.

Rotate. Stretch up. Bend, lift. And center. Rotate.

Stretch up. Bend, lift. And center and now in center point your feet, reach your ball up. Hinge forward. Dive down.

Take the ball down. Push it down onto your feet. Find your stretch. Pull back into your abdominals, even lift your shoulders like really round your upper back. And then come all the way back up to straight.

And now, you could pull your pants up. We're gonna come up on our knees. Okay, so to get this in the right place, what you have to do is you gotta wedge the ball right up against your body. And then we're gonna take the one leg, the other leg out to the side. So get the ball right up close, and then lean on it.

And then what I typically have to do is readjust. So essentially what we're wanting is for the ball to support the body. We shouldn't have to really fight that hard for support there. Take the bottom hand behind head, top arm reaching up and we're gonna lift up. Bring rib to hip.

Go over the top. Rib to hip. Over the top. And three. And so the straight leg can push down.

Two. And down. And one. And now go down. Now as you lift your body, oh, float the leg.

And down. And lift the body. Float the leg. And down, so we're using the side body to both lift the body, as well as float the leg. And down.

Last two. And down. One more. So now we're gonna put the leg down and we're gonna put the body down. So we need to reach around your body.

If you want, can reach down onto the floor. I like to hold my ball underneath me. Lift the leg up, flexure. Take the leg to the front. Point, reach back.

Can you keep it a consistent height throughout that range? May be you might feel as though it's able to lift higher as it goes to the back. Lift higher as it goes to the back. This is our last one. We're gonna down now.

Up. Front. Up, again stablizing. Up, front. Kick up higher each time.

Last two. And one more. And one more. Oh, get it up nice and high. And then lift it up and center, higher, higher, higher.

Place it down. Take it a little bit behind you, and you reach over the ball with your body, maybe taking the body slightly back, rolling the ball a little forward. And then coming up all the way onto both knees. Same ball on the same side. Opposite arm out to the side.

We're gonna take the ball over, take the arm up. Inhale. And exhale to lift. And inhale. Reach over, try to hold the pelvis still.

Just move the spine. Push down into the opposing knee. Lift. Last time. Over.

And lift. Now we're gonna add some rotations, so we go over first. And now round the spine. Inhale, come back. Exhale, lift up.

Inhale to go over. Exhale, rotate. Draw the abdominals backward. Maybe you feel as though you're pulling the ball towards you slightly. May be not.

And I know I do just a little bit. It's not actually moving a great deal though. So the feeling of pulling the ball is kinda coming from that bottom scapula which is drawing back and down. And then come back over. Come all the way up.

And around to the other side. So again, what we want to do is we want to get the ball wedged up nice and close. We're gonna get down on it. Bottom leg is straight. You need to readjust, or sorry, top leg is straight.

You need to readjust the bottom leg again. So here we go, inhale. Exhale, we start by just bringing the rib to the hip on that side. A little lateral flexion and over the top. Exhale, rib to hip, bringing the head with you.

(deeply exhales) Breathing out to lift. Last two. Getting ready for our balance. And now over, inhale. And leg lifts.

Oh, this side feels so much different to me. One side always does. And leg lifts as the spine lifts. And it goes down when the body goes down. And leg lifts as the spine lifts.

And it reaches further away as the body goes down. Last two. Lift. And down. One more.

Lift. And down. Now reach down around the ball. Pick up the leg. Flex the foot, go forward, and up and back.

Forward, and up and back. Imagine there's like a barrier that you can't go below. And forward, flex up and back. Trying to hold the ball still. And back, last time.

Now the leg's going down. Up suspends. Touches up. And back. Up and back.

And three. That nice high lift. Higher this time too. And back. And one, and back.

And then bring the leg out and up, up, up, up, and bend. Oh no, no don't bend. Put it back down straight. I couldn't forget our stretch, right? I almost did, but I didn't really.

And then lean back. Let the ball roll forward a little. Take the leg, stretch it away. And then come back, and come up. All right, so we're gonna go, hand on the ball.

Opposite arm out to the side. Starting with an inhale, we stretch the spine to the side. And we exhale to lift back up. And inhale, reach over. So as you're going over, the bottom ribs are coming down towards the bottom of the pelvis or sliding inside of the pelvis.

The top ribs are opening and stretching. And then back. And then again, inhale, over. Exhale, Rotate now. Inhale, back.

And exhale to lift. Inhale, reach over. Exhale, to rotate. Inhale. And exhale to lift.

Last one. Reach over. Rotate. Come back. And lift.

Okay, so here comes some really fun stuff. What we're gonna do is we want to get behind your mat because we're gonna get on the ball and you want to have some mat out in front of you. So once you get back there, get onto the ball. Walk forward with your arms. And basically where you want the ball to be is probably right underneath the knees, maybe a little further away, so it's more towards the shins.

So we've got a nice long plank position. We're gonna bend the elbows and straighten the arms for three. Bend. And straighten, two. Bend.

Straighten, hold. Now push down with the left leg. Lift the right leg off the ball. Touch the ball and lift one. Touch the ball, two.

Touch the ball, three. Now take the leg to the side and on top. To the side, stabilize. And on top. To the side.

It would be really embarrassing if I fell off the ball in front of all of you here. Here we go, three more push-ups. One. Two. Three, right leg stays on the ball.

Left leg goes up and down. Two and down, I don't think I need to tell you to use your abdominals 'cause you probably feel like you already are. But I'm just mentioning it anyway. So now we're gonna go touch outside, on top. Outside, on top.

Outside, on top, hold. Three push-ups. One. Stabilize, try to hold the ball still. It's a cue for me.

One more. Hold there, inhale. Exhale and draw the abdominals and start rounding the spine. Bring the ball in towards your face. Think about being really light on your shins, so you're not bearing down on the ball as you bring it in.

And then reach out. Again, start rounding the spine first. Exhale, pulling the ball in, deepening, deepening, dropping the head between the arms. And back, one more. Exhale, draw in, pull.

Lift through the center of your body. And back and guess what? Oh yes, three push-ups. One. Keeping the ribs lifted.

Keeping the lower spine under control. And three and now, keep the legs straight and lift up. Roll up towards the toes, up, up, up, up. And back. Keeping the shoulders over the hands.

Lift up, rolling the ball, look at the ball as it comes to your face. And back. Last time. Lift up. And back.

And now, three push-ups. One. Two. Three. Walk back, and off.

Maybe taking just a minute to drape your spine over the ball. Although I must have a tiny break. Okay, however nice it is to have the spine draped over the ball, we're gonna move on. So if you need to reorganize yourself so you've got the mat underneath your forearms, you can. My hands are just off because that's where I happen to be in space.

So what I want you to do is put your pelvis on the top of the ball. We want the ball to be able to support the pelvis. Heels together, toes apart. Bringing the elbows and the hands under, just in alignment with the shoulders. Hug the upper arms inwards.

Squeeze the heels together, and lift the heels up. So now we're gonna press the legs up and back. Stabilize your shoulders. Point your feet. And bend, flex.

Press up and back. Squeeze the glutes, point through the feet, then keep lifting. Press up and back. Reach and bend. Up and back.

Reach, squeeze, zipping the legs together. And bend. One more time. Up and back. Reach and bend, now keep the heels together.

Keep the knees bent and just lift the heels up. And two. And three. Keep focusing on where the shoulders are. Five, knees together.

Oh, I just made our movement possibility a little smaller, but we're gonna do it anyway. So we lift up. And two. Now this we could call a sculpting exercise I think. Last two.

Now we're gonna hold knees together. We're gonna reach the legs up and back. Flex, bend, lift. Point, reach up and back. Flex, bend, lift up.

Point, reach up and back. Flex, bend, lift. Two. One. Take the legs straight down.

Lean back. Let the spine fold over the ball again. So what you could do is you could play around with where you are in space. Like for instance, if you were to roll the ball closer to your pelvis, maybe even letting the feet drape off the floor, lift off the floor, that might be a little bit more of a lower back stretch. If you were instead for instance, to roll the ball more towards your breastbone, it might give you a stretch a little higher up.

So what I'm suggesting in a lot of words is play with where you are on the ball and find the stretch that feels good in your body. So I can't tell you where that is, but you'll find it. Just pause there. Now that might be a really nice place to finish, but we're not gonna be finished there. We're gonna come up.

We're gonna do one more thing. But first, I'm pulling up my pants. Okay, so now where you want to put the ball is right up against your torso. So I'm actually, I'm not on the ball with my thighs up close. The ball's a little bit further away.

I've got some space between my thighs and the ball. You want to make sure it's in a place where it can support your pelvis and the middle of your body. And then just take your arms and reach around the ball. So the first thing that we're gonna do is we're gonna breathe in as we take the arms out to the side. So I haven't really lifted or done anything there except for move my arms.

But we should feel how the upper back gets engaged there. And then we're gonna rotate the palms of the hands to face up. We're gonna press the arms backs. Now as the arms press back, you can lift your spine off the ball because wide and round when we could end with a nice open-hearted chest stretch. Come back to neutral body.

Arms out to the sides. And take your body all the way over the ball. So let's inhale, arms out to the sides. Exhale, now you can make this small, right? You can make it happen with your arms, so that as your arms press up, it's almost as though you're trying not to lift your body off the ball.

So it really makes an upper back focus. And then we come back. And we go down. Or, you could lift the arms up. Go through that upper back focus and continue lifting the spine, allowing the ball to support the front of the body.

So we get a little bit more of the back extension through all of the back extensor muscles. And then come back. And down, so you'll decide. We'll do two more. I like to keep mine small.

So I'm gonna keep mine small. But I'd like for you to do exactly what feels good to you. And then back. And then down. And then inhale.

And then open the chest. This time wherever your spine is, just allow your arms to continue downwards, opening down towards the thighs. And then put your hands on your ball. Press yourself up. Round your spine down.

Allow the pelvis to go back towards the heels so that the spine elongates. Sitting back towards the feet, and stretching. And that is where we'll end for today. So, thank you for playing with me. I hope you had a ball.