Balance is Key

Hi everyone. Welcome back. We're at class number nine. Congratulations. Thank you so much for joining me through all of these class series. And we're almost at number 10. So we're, we're all doing fantastic. I hope you're enjoying all the variety that I've been bringing in to our, um, Matt work in Myron Mint is Kinda what I'm thinking about. So just having fun, changing it up. Um, putting some seasoning on some of our normal class, uh, things that we normally do. Okay, so this one, think about what we just did in class number eight. We were at the wall, we were focusing a lot about that axial elongation. Again, the relationship of our spine and alignment, a lot of length with strength. So bring that into this class. You can always go back and do number eight if you want to, but stay here and this class is really a standing class so you don't have any mat around. The only thing you're going to need are a light set of hand weights.

I've just using one pound today, it's all we need. You can use two if you'd like, but standing and, and balance a lot about balance in this class. So let's, let's address the feet first. Okay. So just take a good look at your own feet and you all know that I love to, to focus on feet. It's extremely important to line yourself up as, as well as you can to begin with in parallel. And that's, we will be doing quite a few things in parallel here and then we will be doing some in, you know, turn out, it's not a dancer turnout unless you really, really want to feel free, but I'm kind of thinking of reining that in and, and feeling a little bit more energy of pulling the body into itself, if that makes any sense. Okay. And then let's just, I'm going to set you up for success in something here and go back out to your parallel and um, stand on one foot just for a second. You can even just lightly put this one here. Let's just check something on the standing leg because I will be incorporating quite a few things where you're on just one leg here.

And if you're already setting yourself up with your hip out to the side, your balance is not going to be there for you. So I want, I wanna prepare you well. Okay. So your glute media says on the side of your hip, you'll know, and your adductors of course on the inside line. Pull those in. Okay. So I want you to just to think about the outside of your hip, pulling across to the other side. And then as you do that, stand on one leg for just a minute to check in. You can even kind of assess, it's not hiking so much as it is just thinking of transferring lateral to medial. Okay? And I'll be referring to that maybe as the, the hip set up. Let's just call it that, the hip alignment set up. So Cha to get your other side prepared so you can kind of sit into your hip, you know, social time and then pull that hip in. Okay. Um, glute medius to add doctors. Just to a couple so you really feel you're setting yourself up for success in a standing balance, okay? So even if you're on two legs, you can still that same sensation and that connection of your glutes pulling into midline and then hopefully you're feeling a lot of that energy coming up through your abdominals. Okay? So take that length, take that strength in with you. Let's get going with our feet.

I'm going to mirror you, so I'll be doing my left foot to start. Please start with your right and all I want you to do is this little heel lift. We'll alternate feet. Sometimes I call this a forced arch. In dance, they used to call this a forced starch. So even right now you can be thinking of that hip set up, okay? So you're not shifting your hip side to side.

I like to think almost at the back of my knee is coming forward. The back of my knee is coming forward. We're going to add a little play with that as you bend and then you straighten. Okay? So this is not too tricky for your balance, but you might already start to sense a, a little bit of side to side swaying and we want to minimize that. Okay, so four and three, a nice high heel and we're in parallel two and one.

We're going to add a Relevate to that. So now you're adding a little bit of complexity starting your pa both feet push, you rise, you go back down to one bent knee and then two straight legs just follow. So we bend in a forest Starch Pa, both feet come up for a Relevate and yes, these are danced terms, but that's okay. All right, let's keep going then. Press your feet to rise, bend and straight and check those hips. Keep thinking of pooling in and up. All right, I'm going to go just a little bit faster for four more. Always thinking of elongating through their spine, down out your tailbone. Okay, one more each side.

Hopefully staying nicely. Parallel bend and stretch. Okay, last time here. Now it's going to add a little bit of complexity in and work in your thigh muscles. Very important for balance. So Ben there, lift your heels and lower your heels. Simple lift. Try to stay the same height, lift your heels, lower your heels, lift and lower eight of those. We have five and six. Yes. Abdominals in seven. Stay on number eight, little pulses and eight, seven and six.

Five and four. Three and two. One. Go all the way up. Lift high and then put your heels down. Okay, so all of that'll happen in that external rotation. So we start again, just a four starch, keep pulling your hips in and canal. You have the routine. There's eight of these. Just lifting your heel nice and high. We want to promote good toe and foot mobility.

Seven and eight. We add the plea, a c for Starch and PA, and then straighten and bend. Pull your hips in. And three and four and five, six, seven, eight. Keep on going. So if you have a desire to do a little more external rotation, feel free to do that. But we're adding up a Relevate to this. So we play a now both legs pull up. It's okay if your heels don't touch in that Relevate. Don't worry about that.

I want you to feel how you're working down and you're working up. So you're pressing low, you're pulling up, you're lowering Roy down, you're pulling up. Here's four. Your legs will start to feel a little bit of this work. So four more times feeling that nice easy relationship. Press and pull and press once again, each side and lift and bend and straighten your last pattern like this. Okay, now go.

I've been to the Relevate Ben both knees and hold, and then we went and lower lift. Eight times three. Actually, here's three. Tried to stay the same height and five rolling evenly through those toes. And seven, you stay on number eight. Okay, get onto all five metal tarsals and eight little pulses. Two and three and four. Nice.

Open posture. And six, they don't have to be low. Okay? And then all the way up. Let's feel this one though for a second. Now seal your heels. Feel your balance. Hold it solid and lower down. Okay, well done. No one fell over. So shake your legs out. The next we're gonna move into, um, Tom do movement. Or of a lake leg movement.

So I'm just shifting my foot forward and pulling it back and shifting it forward. Two on each side. Again, trying to keep the success of that set up on your opposite hip there. You're standing hip. Okay, now go to the side, out and in. Try not to shift too much and out in and out. In answer, we'll stay in parallel. To go behind little awkward. Your upper body has to lean forward slightly. Okay? Now the other side, your right side, and we'll do all of that in external rotation and it might feel easier turning yourself out and point close.

So kind of just get used to this pattern. We'll add to it in a minute. Standing nice and tall on that supporting leg. My successful hip set up and there and second leg. So it helps me sometimes just to keep reminding with my own hands. If you're wondering what the heck I'm doing.

It's just feeling that my let my trying to keep my hips pulled in and my legs pulled to the center line. Okay, my muscles. Now let's add to it. So take your right foot forward again, you're going to point, excuse me, let's go back to parallel and point the front foot and lift back to the floor and down. Point a good the leg a little higher. Okay, let's go to the right side. And point is you really have to work your standing hip. Now as you're adding more complexity and load on the second leg to the side, we go twice and point lift, you're not going to get very high. It's more about the standing leg, standing leg, second side, standing leg. It's right.

Therefore you won't let you fall over. Okay, so you're in parallel to go behind again, this is an awkward one. Not going to get much lift. It's about your standing leg. Okay? Right side. And then of course we'll come all the way back around in external rotation and I'm pretty sure we'll all have higher legs this go around. So find your rotation. Okay, I'm going to put my hands here just for the sake of it.

And now lift your leg higher. See what you can do, but pull this hip in. Put it back on the floor and close once again and lift like your inner thighs being pulled up lower other side. Okay. You are going to feel your hip flexors. That's all right. Hopefully you're concentrating on your balance more than anything else anyway to the side lift.

My leg is going on slight diagonal and again I'm not as concerned about that one as my standing leg. Okay. And standing leg now to the back. Back once before in my life. That leg was a lot higher. It doesn't need to be. Now point and lift. Lower and point and lift and lower. Okay, pretty good. We're doing well. Okay. Take your first leg.

We're going to go back into parallel. One more with the leg moving front and side and back. Okay, now pick up your leg, toe to the knee, check your hip and then I want you to extend from your knee out. Re Bend your knee and put it down. Same thing again so it comes straight. Reach the leg right in front of you. Put it right back in and down. Other leg and toe to the knee.

Extend Toe to the knee and lower, hopefully not drifting too far to the side. Okay, can we go to the side two times? Do this look toe in the knee, out to the side, toe to the knee and answer your standing leg. Keep that concentration. That wound was a little better for me. It's the standing leg. It's your thigh bones to his right below the socket. It's not, it's right below the socket. It's not getting pulled out. Okay. Once again to the back. So posy stretch, passe and down and passe and stretch to the other leg for two times.

So we have everything in external rotation stretch. Okay. Okay, so you get the pattern, turn it out. Here we go. And you may have more range. I'm going to try to explore a little higher leg and if you're doing that, two things will happen.

You might feel like your body gets shorter to accommodate your wanting to get your leg higher last night it, remember we have axial elongation, we have strength, we have length, we have a nice solid hip to stand on. Okay. Now the other side twice solid hip first, then your leg and then down and en lengthen and down to the side and it's a little to the front. We all we need now is some classical music and we've got this thing nailed, right? Total ballet class. So a in standing hip. Yeah, almost done with this pattern everybody. We're doing great.

And then we'll be picking up her hand weights. I shortchange myself. Got excited about the hand weights. Okay. Standing hip. Pull that in. Okay. Body adjust forward.

Last time here in standing hip. Okay, so you might s also really think ahead and all of the [inaudible] exercises anywhere everywhere, the chair, the reformer, all the standing balances where you really need to know where you are over your legs, right? You know that. Okay, so grab your weights. Now we're going to be playing with balance while we're moving mainly from stationary and forward and then back to stationary. Do this in a slight Palladia stance and I want everyone just to start moving toward me. Step out like that Tom do, but lunge on it and then push off the floor and come back. Okay, keep going to, so you get the feel of holding your balance while you're moving. And it's the same thing with the hip though. Okay? You really have to fire up and work the standing base hip.

Pull that leg in so you can kind of see a repeat from the last series, right? All right, so now let's add some arm work with it. Press out in holding arms and I want you to take your whatever leg is front, that same arm over and a little side bend. And then the other side, like your big butterfly with wings out to the side and center other side. So the same arm as leg goes away, back to center, opposite arm toward the front leg and center and you've really have to push but it's your supporting leg. Let's repeat it and bend.

It's like a big butterfly and open and open and lengthen and it's the back leg is going to pull you up one more time and away and toward that front leg. Feel some stretch. And then push. Okay. No, it's the wings. We did the wings at the wall in class number eight, and the wings are with this arms are doing this pathway. Your thumbs are pointing up. We're going to do wing while we lunge. Okay, here we go. Everybody step out and pull your wings up. Push back and hold other side. Okay, so you've got balance going on, trying to stay on your standing leg. Well, while you're moving, not easy. Each leg gets four chances.

So here's the third one. Last time here, and that's the last one there. Okay, now swinging arms, swinging arms go like this. They come forward with your palms facing down. Your arms will rotate your palms face forward, but the back of your arms pull back. Try it again. Arms Front, and they swing this way. Okay. All that's happening with a lunge. So as you lunge forward, therefore to me, as you step back, you pull them back, alternate forward and pull forward. Pull. Concentrate on the base leg is going to pull you back.

It's your standing. Okay, one more each leg. Then we'll add some hug a tree arms, which you all know. I don't have to break that down. Hug a tree, push back, hug a tree, push back. [inaudible] but again, it's your base leg. The back one now pools you up almost too much sometimes. Let's do one more each side and then we'll do some shaving or salute.

I'll let you choose. Okay. Lower your arms for just a moment. Think I'm going to go for the salute and we'll extend the elbows when we lunge forward. So extend now, be careful. Don't knock yourself in the head with your hand weights. Ken's role here is to, yeah, it's happened before, I think in three [inaudible] Huh? And to stay really centered. One more each side.

[inaudible] and in. And then just lower down for a moment. Okay. Put your legs in parallel. I'm going to turn just a little bit to the side for this. Find your hip hinge. Okay. So you've got your crease in your hip joints. Knees are bent and your ankles are bent.

And I want you to put your awaits right by your shoulders. Now if you can get much flatter and start a punching [inaudible] punching. Now I'm not having this transfer weight, but I'm having you move those weights. Of course. Go a little lower. Oh, and for each side's you have one more pattern here and here. Okay, everyone stand up. Now go back to your turnout again. The arms will go front as you take a big step out. So you choose, I'm going to choose my back leg that leads away and we'll have our arms come from hips to ears and then push back four times and reach hold and center.

So you're trying not to drag that front foot, but rather pull yourself up. Okay, one more other side. I'll face this way. So that's gonna be my back foot ready and lunch and center and lunch and get to the center. Only two more guys. Reach and n and your last one.

And reach and in. Okay. Not too bad. Let's finish this with ourself. No weights, feet a wide apart, arms wide, and a beautiful side stretch. So when she just to take in the space, this is balanced by the way. So if you're arching your back too much, you might fall backwards. Feel your legs pulled together as if you could draw the floorboards together. Okay? And then come to center other side. So I'd been keep integrating your inner thighs and center and again, a little bit further and center for more. Get a beautiful stretch in your side body.

So balance is essential. It's incredibly important. It compliments all of the other exercises in piles on the equipment and or the mat in dance classes, yoga classes, everything. And it's really important in functional living, right? Take your feet together, toe heel, last very last thing you get to do. Close your eyes. Try to just stay balanced with your eyes closed, not an easy thing. Okay? And then slowly open them.

Rise up onto the balls of the feet, not very high hold. Integrate your hips. That successful set up in there. Turn and look to one side of your room somewhere other than straight at me. I feel your balance being challenged by not looking in the normal place. Okay, I'll go the other way. Hold yourself together. Long, strong hips in.

There we go. Look Center, lower your heels and one more test to stand on one leg. Hold your your glutes in. Pretty good, Huh? We did it for numb. We're done with number nine. We have one more leg to stand on. Okay, so what might I be conjuring up for number 10 you have to wait and see. You have to come back and check it out, but I promise it will be fun. You will enjoy yourself.

You will feel much of what we did in all of the classes, one through nine. We'll integrate a little bit from each one and I really want you to come and join me, so I will see you then and we will then be able to say if you've done a 10 class series. Thank you so much everybody. Bye. Bye.