Lower Body Mat

Okay guys. I have like 20, 25 minute mat class, but it's really just more specific just for lower body, so a lot of attention into the quads, hamstrings, glutes and a little bit of inner thigh. So come on down to your mat and let's begin with our legs straight, heels on the ball, not really your calves at all, okay, and then just take a quick kind of scan through your alignment and let's get our shoulders anchored, our ribs down. Heels pressing lightly and I want everyone to do a direct check. If you are hyperextending or locking your knees and not do that.

Okay, so the back of the knees need to be lifted up a little bit. You should feel your hamstrings right away there. All right, so we'll be doing a few pelvic curls, bridges with parallel and then a few with turnout to get started, all right. Inner thighs together. Let's take a deep breath in and then here we go, rolling from the pelvis through the lumbar spine, pressing your hips up, careful of the back of those knees.

We're gonna get a long stretch in our body here, inhale and rolling down, working that spinal articulation. So I chose this class really just kind of some specifics. You can add this at the end of a regular mat workout or something else where it's more full body or you could just do the stand alone. Kind of nice just to have some additional classes to take there, just body parts specific. And rolling it down and a lot of requests, actually from a lot of members, so thank you for those, for leg workouts, lower body workouts, so here we go.

Okay, so I'm still in parallel, trying to get that articulation pressing down and I want you to really concentrate now and get the mind to muscle connection right at the base of your butt and where the hamstring meets there and lift. And lift, just hold and let's roll down. Okay. Now, let's do it in external rotation, so I'm getting the outside of the heel there. You can flex your feet and press the inner thighs together, get those involved inhale and here we go.

Again, that curl of the pelvis. Get those hamstrings and glutes to fire and press the feet down and lift your seat. Inhale. And rolling down. Keep your mind on the muscle, the grouping that you're working, right in there.

The inner thigh, the glutes, the hamstrings. Pull those muscles up your body line, trying to do equal effort from right leg, left leg, hips up a little higher. Let's go up and rolling down. So, trying to keep things stable at the ball side of our body. If it moves a little, okay.

Press down equally and roll up, scooping through the stomach. You can use your arms a little bit to maybe help your hips, concentrate on the muscle groups. And roll back down. Okay, next one we're going up, I'm gonna have us add little plies with the legs like that while we're up in that bridge, okay. Readjust if you need, take a breath.

And rolling up. So establish your pelvis up, here we go, plie. And extend. So sometimes I've had comments people say this bothers their knees. Do not as wide of a turnout, okay, and a smaller range of motion.

Really concentrate hips up high, let's do three more. Bend and extend. And bend and extend. One more, bend, we're gonna hold it out there, nice and strong and long. And contract, lift, lengthen and rolling down.

Okay, let's balance it back out and go back into a parallel position. And roll back up again, inhale. Exhale and curl. Okay, you probably know, let's add some bend and extend. Hips up high, six times.

Bend and extend. It'd be find if you wanted to put your hands there. Four, five, these are hard and six and just hold hips a little higher and rolling all the way down. Okay, next layer, bend your knees and put your feet right on the ball. Okay, similar concentration, hamstrings of course, right up into where it meets our glutes.

Pelvic curl. You're gonna get up there higher this time. You will get higher, so I want you to really concentrate on that muscle specific area and press your hips up and roll back down. Okay, let's go for six of them. Inhale and exhale.

And roll, you can think about your knees reaching toward the ball, hips a little higher. And rolling down. I think with these exercises it's important go slower. A, there's a temptation to want to get them done and move fast, but the slow work allows you to really feel and connect to that muscle group. Those muscle groups.

And sometimes they're hard to feel, so I think it's important to take some additional time. Three more, inhale. Right away, concentrate and lift. Long hip flexors. All right, two more.

Inhale, exhale. And lower. One more time. Exhale. And hold and hold, contract and release.

Okay, wonderful. So let's move our fit apart a bit on the ball here, so I'm taking my feet and kind of pulling in and hugging the ball and that that should make your adductors fire, contract. Lift your hips just a little bit up off of the floor now. Okay, maybe just about a fist high and just hold. Bring your knees together, move your knees apart.

Let's do 10 of those. In with the knees, out with the knees, in with the knees, out with the knees. You're really going to feel these, all around the inner thigh and the back of the leg. Here's your five. Readjust if you need to and six.

Seven. Eight. Nine. And 10. And lower it down.

And they call it a stability ball for a reason. It's hard to keep that thing stable and if you have a dominant leg, you're really going to notice it wanting to take charge on this, so trying to stabilize that. Let's try this again, five times of the legs in and out, but you're gonna alternate. Okay, right, left, right, left, right, left. And move the ball a little closer into you for this one, breathing in.

Press your feet and lift. Now just right leg and then left leg. That was one set. Right leg and left leg. Three, and four.

Okay, one more round. Five and five and all the way down. Good, now feet on the outsides of it and just lift and hold inner thighs and abdominals and then just set the ball down, just about five or there. And exhale. Think about those inner thighs.

Mind contraction to the muscle and lower. Without arching your back and three more. Three, hold, hold, hold. So it's not that hard of a skill, but it's really dynamic work in your body. Inhale, exhale and lift.

Hold, pressing your legs against the ball to get those inner thighs working and lower. Okay, one more. Hold, hold and hold. All right and then everyone lower down, just rest your feet on top for a minute and let your legs relax and rock and roll a little bit. We'll come up to standing for the next little set.

Okay, so come on up. And I'm gonna face you directly for this starting exercise. One foot forward. I'm gonna call that the base leg, lot of work that'll happen in your quad and your glute, your lateral hip, okay. The other foot, do your best, the top of the foot is resting right up on the ball, okay.

Now what I want you to do first is feel this hip and I'm gonna show you something incorrect, let me just do it wrong on purpose. See how I'm sitting out to the side, not stable. You're not gonna access your glute the right way so I want you to really pull that hip in, okay. Now place your hands on your hips, all right. So we're moving, right, we are gonna move.

Bend that front knee, that base leg. Stretch the opposite leg back, try to time it so that both legs are moving together, that'll help. Spot something, use this leg, push down and stand. Let's do 10 of them. Inhale as you lower.

Push your heel into the floor and drive your legs straight from there. Okay, if your back leg isn't perfectly straight, that is okay. It's more about this leg. Pull your hip in and up. And bend.

Pull the hip in and up as you stand. That was five, so we're halfway there. Go a little lower for more work to push yourself up, you're really gonna feel where the back of your thigh and your lower butt meet. We're trying to scope that a little bit. Three more.

And four. And five. Okay, now I'm gonna take my foot off the ball and I'm gonna stand facing you for just a second, so just face me. Put your foot up on the ball, you're gonna turn out and let's do the same thing on this leg in a little external rotation and just sit on your hip, wrong, wrong, wrong. Okay, but I want you to do is put your hand here and feel like you can pull that hip in toward the other leg.

Sit and pull it in. Muscle grouping, I'm thinking my glute medius adductors. Pull in, okay. And just keep going, pull it in. And in the pulling in moment, you're probably gonna feel your glute contract, that's the idea, way back there and pull it in, five more.

Pull. Looks a little like going up front on the wonder chair, going up front, side. Pull. And four and pull and one more. Okay, hold there, see if you can hold the integrity of that contraction and pivot and pivot and then take this leg behind in a little bit of an attitude, meaning slightly bent knee.

Bend your standing knee. I'm gonna put my hands there for my balance and then I want to flex this back foot a little bit and try to do a slight little clam movement with that back femur. Okay, if your balance is just going awry. Walk over to a wall, don't give up. Walk over to a wall.

Hold onto a chair. Get your ladder barrel in front of you, something where you can really get the specificity of these glutes externally rotate. Let's go five more, one and two and three, four, hope you're feeling all of that work. Okay, let's change legs, oh, my gosh. Second leg, so, take your outside leg forward, your base leg and put that back foot up here on the top of the foot, okay.

If you need something for balance support, feel free to get it. Okay, so once again, it's this hip. Do one little cheat, sit it out there. And then correct it, so you want to pull that hip in. Okay, keep it there.

Start to bend your knee, hopefully tracking straight ahead and then lengthen the other hip and leg back. So here we go, it's our base leg that we pull up from. Inhale. Drive your heel down and stand. Let's do our third one.

Inhale, bend and exhale press, 10 times. Look at something to spot and press and five. And six. Keep it small if you need to. Reach out through those arms.

And four. Drive that front heel into the floor. Three, two, good. And one more time. Press up to stand.

Okay, so I'm gonna wheel the ball around. You're in a slight external rotation on your standing leg and let's do that same thing. Sit your hip out and then pull it in. So it's not really a hike up on the other side, it's really you're just thinking side to side with your hips, down and in and side and in. And side of the hip to the inner thigh.

Five, pull in, four pull in, three you'll probably start to feel your obliques, it's a good thing and last one. Hold, there's the challenge. Keep the integrity, pivot a little bit. Pivot this foot and leg. Have fun.

Okay, you can bend your standing knee just a little, clam that back knee, here we go. You're gonna go open, close, open, close. Open, close and externally rotate back to parallel. Five and six. Seven.

Oh, fight for it. Eight. Nine. Let's hold this one, 10. 10, 10 and rest.

Oh, my gosh. You should to those every day also for knee stability and ankle stability, so good for this area. Okay, we're going down prone now guys. We're going to go on the ball. I think we can just keep the mat.

This will be fine. Actually I don't need it, so I'm just gonna move my mat away for a second. And it's fine just there. Okay, so as we go prone, start with your feet on the floor, your hands on the floor and get your abdominals supporting your lumbar spine. We're going to move in some straight legs into hip extension, okay.

Now get your upper body connected, lats engaged. Here we go. So I want you to just take both of your legs up at the same time and press, hold, hold, hold. Okay, lower with control. Press, hold, hold, hold and lower with control.

Let's do six of those, long legs behind. Try to get them up, use right where your hamstring meets your glutes, contract mind to muscle and lower three more. And these aren't so hard. Four, actually now last one for six. Okay.

Now you can stay with that. Or go in with me, I'm gonna do some leg circles. So walk your feet together. It's a little bit of coordination. Take both legs up, open, down and together.

They're together to go up, they open. They come down together. Six times, here's three. Four. We're only going to go to the outside edge of that circle, out.

Once again, up, out and reverse, okay. So now as you reverse it, start with them apart lift up and wide, pull together and lower. Low apart, up and wide, together and lower. Three. Four.

Five. One more. Big circle lift. Together and down. Okay, give your lumbar spine a little break.

Just take a couple breaths. We have a few more in this prone and it's gonna be the grasshopper, okay, so walk yourself back out again. So I want you to start maybe a little bit more mini swan, lift those legs parallel and then turn out, flex your ankles and your knees and just hold. Now if you can stand this, go higher with your legs. Point your feet, open those legs wide and let the legs beat together three times.

One, two, three. We bend, flex, lift, try to go a little bit higher, wide and down two, three. Okay, four more times, lift, turn out. Flex, you go up, use that mind to muscle. Open wide.

And down two, three more. Flex, press, open and one, two, three. Two more. And one, two, three. And your last one, open.

And one, two, three. Okay, go back and stretch your lower back. Put your knees on the ground, just hug that ball, take a few breaths. Hands and feet on the floor. Rock from hands and feet, just make a little circle.

Okay, so we're almost done. I want to do a little more, that was loud, a little more specific to the side of the hip again. Okay. So you have to just play, it's not as easy to navigate the floor, but it's fine. Come out to that same position, okay. Now hands, one foot on the floor.

Lift one leg up fairly high and you're gonna do like side kneeling in the mat work. Lift and try to look and see that foot. Lift it higher, put it behind you down to the ground. Six times, lift. So as I take my leg to the side, I am leaning to my left arm so it's the opposite arm, so just a little bit of a counter support, okay.

Three more. Try to keep it high. Keep it high. Two. One more.

Hold it. Because we can. Six, five, four, three, two, one. Lift and down. Okay, one more side.

I'm gonna face this way now. How you going guys? Hopefully feeling good. Little additional butt work for you. Offset your hands, lift one leg.

All right, it's going high, lift to the side, see your foot. Lift and lower. And lift. And hip extension, turn. Keep that foot high, bring it closer to your head.

Try not to move the upper body all that much, but you are leaning into that opposite arm of course. Work, work and one more, hold it there, we've got six and mind to muscle. Two, three, four, five and up. All the way around. Okay, last exercise I promise, will feel good.

You're going the opposite direction. Lay back on your ball. Stretch everything long. Let your head go back. Let your arms open and breathe.

So you're in a pretty big backbend here. Okay, now parallel legs, bend your knees, pick up your head. Put your hands behind your head. And I'm gonna walk my hips forward a little bit and press them up higher and hold. Now what this is if you can depending on your mobility and flexibility of your low back, arc around that ball, so I'm really arced around, my head is up.

Drive your heels into the floor and press your hips up and hold, hold, hold. Let's go for 10. So we're down and press. And lower. We don't have to do too many holding.

Press and three. Four. And up. Five. Almost done guys.

Last three. Make them count. Press. Last time and hold, hold, hold. And then go back to enjoy that open stretch onto your ball, let your head go back.

Finish with a few arm circles. So good. I'm gonna do two arm circles the other way. How to get out. Bring your chin to your chest.

You can squat, push, whoo, come right back up. All right, I hope you had some fun, let me know what you think and I'll see you next time, bye-bye.