Upper Body Balance

Hi everyone. We're here for class number five of our class challenge. So welcome back. Thanks for hanging in there. A class number four was lower body focus today is upper body focus. So what do I mean by that? Shoulders, biceps, triceps, upper spine for sure, and a lot of weight bearing. So let's go ahead and start just rolling your wrist around, getting a lot of good movement down in the distal portion of your arm.

You can wiggle your fingers. Just do something right now. That's going to give you some warm up in your wrist. Okay. Because the first thing we'll be doing is a roll down out, walking out to plank. So what I have down on the floor, cause I'm on a hardwood floor or just two little pads, but hopefully you're on a a mat and if you're not, if you're on a hardwood floor, you may want to also get some padding for your hands because we're also going in onto our elbows. So it'll be like a hand, hand, elbow, elbow plank, a excursion. Okay, so just a little bit longer. Get some movement down here, sir. Some breath. I want you to take some nice breaths in through your nose and exhale.

So putting all of our [inaudible] principles together in this upper body focus class. Okay, class number five come with me. So step on, I'm going to step to the profile for our standing roll down. I love these. It gets you centered. It allows you to start off on a really nice sense of alignment. Feel your feet into the floor. Feel how that relates all the way up into your hips, into your spine, and up out the top of the head, keeping that sense of alignment.

We talked a lot about axial elongation in a couple of classes, so put that in there. Here we go. Everybody take a deep one. Inhale, exhale, right away, abdominals helping support that motion of your spine. Let's go ahead and walk right on out. Four or six or five steps. Place your hands, get yourself centered for a moment and I want you to pay specific attention here to your index finger in your thumb and press a fair amount of pressure down on those two digits of each arm. Okay? Feel that nice sense of Lang from head to heel. And you feel free to stay just like this if you'd like to or come along.

I want you to, it's like a wave down on your elbows and that up to your hands. Same Elbow. I'm going right left and then right left and down on the elbow and elbow and hand in hand and elbow and elbow and hand. I'm gonna repeat it. Starting left, elbow down and Whoa and elbow and hand in hand. So we're focusing upper body strength, getting some balance across in these unilateral types of movements.

Last one, hold. Okay, I'm gonna move into a side kind of side. So putting both hands on one of those pads. Turn Yourself, let's pivot on your feet. You can stay here or do you a nice arm circle. Did you? Two big arms circles in each direction, keeping the circulation going, moving that joint and then put that hand on the Mat. Re-Pivot walk to the other side. Pivot two big circles.

We feel that large movement in that very important joint of the body. The shoulder. Yup. And hand down. And just find yourself in that plank. Feel yourself in plank, even through your arms, bike your hips, and just simply walk your hands back, pushing away through your hands. Bend your knees, everybody. Roll yourself up when a roll down again, walking back out into the plank position. Given your arms a little rest there for a second. Okay, so balancing on those arms, nice and solid. Pull one knee in, step it back the other knee and step it back.

Let's just do 10 of these. It's okay that your pelvis rounds under when your leg comes in. Little lumbar stretch, lot of deep labs and four and three stable shoulders, two and one pike. The hips. Again, drop that head. Feel that strength in your shoulders, pushing down into the hymns, to the floor, and then walking your hands back. Bend those knees and roll all the way up. Okay. How do you feel? A little breathy like me.

Take your pads if you have your pads and just put them off to the side. We'll use those at the end. Okay. So let's come onto your mat. And as you see in the description for your props, you'll either want a weighted bar. You can actually just use a dowel too. That's not wade or some hand weights. Okay? Why is we want to build some extra upper body strength?

So having some extra weight to work with is ideal, but you don't have to do that is either. Okay? If you don't have any of those, just come along and pretend. So as we do the 100 I'm actually going to have it above. So let's take her knees to tabletop. And if you're with your weights or your devil for a moment, just feel the weight of this object and let it sink through your arm bones in a way and into those shoulders. So we're not starting here. Starting down in there really proximal to your core, to your center.

Take a nice inhale. Here we go. One, join me, analysts, two, four, five and exhale. Three, four, five, and two. So how do you control that extra weight that's far away from you in your hands? Keep pulling the strength into your shoulders, into your upper body, into your upper back, really, and your chest. Of course, it's your abdominals. Feel those distal energy points, your toes, your knuckles up at the top of the head. [inaudible] feeling that rhythm in the pump. Hopefully your upper body fairly stable.

It may move a little bit just due to the weight you're pooling and pumping. Let's go one more cycle. [inaudible] hold, reach a little more. Reach, reach, reach, reach, reach. Lower your legs and take your arms back and feel a stretch for a moment. So we're going into the roll up.

We'll do three repetitions again to access hidden analyze really for just a second. Where's the weight? It's not in your hands, although it is. It's in your shoulders. Pull it into your core. Here we go. Arms, head, chest, hod, really reach. Keep the strength in your center body, but feel this stretch out in your distal places and reaching down [inaudible] and two more [inaudible] feeling the crown of the head. Reach toward the bar, but keeping your shoulders plugged into your back and stomach. Way Back. Rolling back. Ah, and last time [inaudible] I almost sense that the weight of the bar is in my lats, technically for me or right into the side of my chest wall by my lats, by my ribs. Okay, so let's take our roll over. Now I just want to have you put the rollover underneath you here and give yourself a sense of reach with it. All right, breathing into prepare.

As you exhale, taking your legs overhead. First one's always a little sticky. Flex your feet open. Now what can you reach? You can reach your heels, certainly. Well, how about you stretch your shoulders to your fist, to this bar rolling down just to your pelvis meets the mount. We don't have to do fancy leg circles. You can if you want to. Want you to stay focused on the shoulder strength and stability. Peeling over again.

[inaudible] flex open. Are you still reaching those arms? Upper body focus. Remember, keep it in check. Keep yourself in check and keep things simple. Inhale last time. Exhaling up and over. Flex the arm, leg, ankles open and exhale. Rolling down.

[inaudible] okay. It's very different. I think when you have something to to distally connect to, hopefully you're feeling that of concentration up in your upper body. Now take your dowel or your hand weights up to the ceiling, knees and tabletop. Let's take our single leg stretch. Where's this bargain? And Go above your shins. Reach one leg forward, pull the other knee in. But this is the distal reach right out there.

Exhale chain and XL j. So even though I've got my knuckles reaching forward, I still have that sense of strength in my shoulders, my shoulders to my back. Eight more. Oh and three, four, four. We'll move into double leg stretch. Pretty simple. Typical choreography. Arms go back, legs go forward. But I want you to hold, where's the weight? Can you put it down into your lats and exhale over the shins just to more draw up the weight into your shoulders, into your lats and exhaling over your shins.

And one more time. Preach. Drop it into your shoulders, lengthen the spine and exhaling in. Put your head down. Rest for just a moment. But that's it. We go up to Chris Cross, heel, Chris Cross. I just want you to take it like a spirit of fish. So stab or dive the devil or your hand waves to one side. It's going to go up and over to the other and same thing. Keep that sense of the weight, not in your hands so much. The energy is there, but the strength is through your arm bones into your shoulders. Eight more times one, three, four.

And this movement will happen again in another exercise. This kind of up and over peace and then come to center and rest. All right, feeling good. And let's come up to sitting and think about your reformer exercises of rowing one and two facing the back. Well actually, sorry, facing the front. You could do back too, but I want you to start with your legs long in front of you. Ankles flex please.

Hands Holding your bar or your hand weights. And just for a moment, sit. Feel your upper spine or at least the upper back where your shoulders are and you're not grabbing, you're not yanking down, you're feeling the weight. Kind of settle into that spot. Okay? But then the front of our spine can lift up. Taking a rowing inhale. Exhale. Just lower your bar.

Lift the bar, bend your elbows and come down four times total. So inhale, reach the arms going up the weight of the bar or hand wades drops into your shoulders. The shoulders are below the neck, right, so it shouldn't go into your neck. Inhale, dropping into the shoulders and lower. One more time here from your chest down.

Lift neuropathy into the shoulders and in front of you. Now rowing too. So bring it lower. I'm going to take my feet into a little different position. Elbows close and work those triceps. Take a breath. Let's flex our spine. Reach the bar or your hand weights from down the length of your legs, past your toes if you can. Now from here, this is a long reach. As I start to come up, I'm reaching my tail back a little bit. Lifting this distal hand of my body, my hands up. Where can the weight go? Again, dropping into the shoulders.

Now lower your bar with a little upper back extension. Just the thing of a little bit of a baby swan. Okay. And then n three more times. Breathe in first. Elbows in close. Exhaling down reach. So if you really think about this, it's in the core. You're low stomach supports your lumbar spine. As you feel the weight of that body come up higher, higher, drop those weights into your shoulders.

Lower your bar in front of your chest and pull your chest up. A little bit of a swan. And then down two more. Breathe in tall. We got it guys. Roll down. Reach, fuel the flow. Lift up, lower the arms, lift the chest. You could squeeze your legs together. Hopefully this is feeling good to you. Come all the way up. One more time. Elbows in. Breathe. Then exhaling down.

Reach a little more. C'Mon. You gotta reach a little bit more all the way up. Arms down. Lift your chest, lift your chest, lift your chest, and then we go bend your knees. So that little up and over thing we did in crisscross will happen here. I'm taking my bar away from me just a little bit. Not fully out.

Not all the way in. Find a place that feels somewhat comfortable for you. Lean back slightly. We're going to do that rowing. I feel like I'm actually in a canoe doing this row. So the bar or your arms and with your weights are doing a little figure eight [inaudible]. Okay. Nothing too specific. Don't overthink it, but work the feeling of your shoulders, your biceps, a little bit of upper spine can focus on the bar with your eyes.

I'm going to count down starting at ten nine eight inner thighs together. If you were really in the water, you'd have to pull that bar through, right? That paddle pull pool last to pool and pool and rest. Okay, let go shake out just a little bit. How you doing everybody? We're getting through it.

Come up to a kneeling position for me and I'll face you on a slight diagonal just so you can see a few things. So we're about to do some more upper body. Of course, bicep curls. Hold the bar with your hands, lift your arms up. Now be careful of your posture. You all know that. So bring awareness into your line. Arms are shoulder width and height. And let's slowly go for some bison curl.

All right, so it's slow. I don't, this bar is probably two pounds, but I want to pretend that it's a little heavier just so I have to work a tiny bit harder in my muscles. Uh, two bunnies outside, they want to come to their buddies. Girls, they want hot, better. Come on guys. And then, okay, five more times. Feel like you're pulling heavier weight and you're lowering heavier weight. Pull that heavyweight [inaudible] lower that heavyweight. Are Your shoulders low? Is your alignment sound? Are you feeling axially? [inaudible] feeling how the arms have a relationship to our back. Okay, now hold here.

This hold. So the energy should be more in your shoulder to your back. Ribs. Not Up here in your hands. Although you have a secure feeling on your bar. Now I want you to do these little lifts. What am I doing here? Trying to keep those biceps contracted, but I'm also thinking of reaching my elbows out across the room. 10 more. 10, nine, eight. How you doing?

Good. And getting ready for summer out here in Santa Barbara. So good to work our arms, I dunno. Three, two and one. And then the lengthen slowly hold and then lower down. Okay, great job. Tierney hand the other way more of a lap pool. Okay.

I don't really go to the gym. I've got my [inaudible] studio as the gym. But I want you to take your bar or your hand weights fairly high. Do it you can control in your shoulders and your alignment. Okay. So then pull the her down in front of your chest. Lifted up. Let's go 10 of these. Pull it down.

We did this in rowing with a little upper back extension. You don't have to do that. You could if you wanted to, which you could add that upper back there. Okay. But pull this bar down five more times and pull and reach and pull and reach. And Paul from the sides of your back, right where those lots are two more. And pull and pull. Let's take it up and hold. Check that alignment. Lower the bar slowly, slowly. Chest expansion is next.

Okay. With the bar behind us. So put it behind your back. Hold it your aunt's face. You know of your arms, close to your legs, shoulders or back. Okay. If you need to go wide, that's fine, but try to go narrower. Here we go. Chest expansion. Let's just start playing. Meaning nothing fancy. Just pressing it back. What's back?

The arms, the triceps. You look good. Hand Grip. Inhale, exhale, inhale. Okay. Five more plain ones. Press the arm. Bones are long than down and back and press do more down to go back. Hold it back this time. Little pulses just like we did in bicep curls, checked out. Alignment. We are taking 10, nine very focused in that inner upper arm.

Five, six, seven, eight, nine keeping your back there. Now I want you to pull it into your bum, down past your bum and back. So a little bit of a rowing. You won't have a lot of range of motion probably, but you'll most likely feel the effort in the back of your shoulders. We need strength back there. Okay, keep that going for five more and four and three. Two and last one. Hold. Let's reverse it in, up, back and down and up, back and down. Really Nice exercise for the muscles between your shoulder blades.

You don't have to grip and pinch there. You'll feel it probably tomorrow in here. Okay. Keep the rhythm going in those bones and joints for a more, I think four, three, two. We're going to hold the last one and you have to triceps. There's three sections of her triceps, so they need a lot of love.

They need attention. Pulls a little bit more. All right, so five and four. Three and two and one and release. Wow. How you feeling? I'm sweating a lot. This is good. I'm going to have a seat just for a couple of exercises and if you in your Palladio's studio or practice, you may have the sandbag towel. Well, I don't have that sand bag attached, but we've got our heavyweight, so I want you to start just rolling your bar. You can do this with your hand weights. It would just be one at a time.

Get your risk going again. Okay, but what do we want to think about how the arms are relating again to the upper body? I'm going to show you kind of incorrect dish. See on my shoulders, came forward to the devil, not God. Keep them back there on your back. Now my back is working along with my shoulders. That's what we're looking for. Okay, pause. Reverse your movement backwards. Backward my field. Call Gord in uncoordinated. Pick up your hand and really work. 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five.

Your arms are long and strong. Ready for another set of standing roll down and that wave, hand, hand, elbow, elbow. Alright, so come on up to standing everybody. And if you have your hand pads like I do, grab those. If you're on a hardwood floor, if you're ready to just be up on your mat and just come up to standing, okay, so we have a little bit more. Everybody hang in there. You're doing great. Really good. Upper body work is so important for piles, but life.

How many things all day that you have to pick up? Think about that now we need that strength. Luggage, children, pets. Your mom and dad, if they're needing to get a lift out of their chair, uh, books, you name it, you've got it right. Groceries. So let's take a breath. Inhale, and let's roll down. You're still in your core. You're still in your abdominals. Let's walk ourselves out to our hands. Okay.

Elbow, elbow, hand, hand, heredity, hand, elbow, elbow, hand, push up, elbow, elbow. Push yourself up, down, down. Push. One more. Starting on the right, you can keep going, but why not reverse it? It's good for your brain. Elbow, elbow, hand, hand. He also feels different in their recruitment pattern and what side you start with. Kind of your natural habit. All right, hold. Find Your pyramid or your up stretch. Just hold, hold, hold. We're gonna walk ourselves back. You have to push with your hands.

Push, push, push, push, roll up. Who? One more little sequence. I'm feeling the urge to take a leg back. Okay, so take a laid back. If you want to reach your hands forward, slowly drop yourself forward. You can bend your standing. Me. So walking out, let's try to keep that leg up for a long time.

Way Up. Why do you think this leg up might be more substantial work in your upper body? Well, you don't have this leg balancing on the floor to help, so your arms are loaded more than they were prior. Okay. Keep this leg up for just a moment and think about it. Staying up while you lower yourself to plank.

Then start bringing it down. How about a push up, down and up? Lead with your foot. One more, but save your, save your strength. You can also just hold your plank because we have to do that twice. Oh boy on the other side. Okay. Take the leg down. Take that leg up and realize I did a different transition. That's fine.

So all the way down. All right, elbows, elbows, lead with your foot once more. Hey everybody. I think we're nearing the end of class five. We did it. Upper body balancing. Walk your feet in. Walk your feet in around your back. Roll yourself up. Give yourself a pat on your back and I've had on your shoulders and all of your arm muscles. Shake it out a little bit. Good to do.

Change your nervous system a little bit. Well done. Class number six is next day with me. Thank you.