Progressive Mat Variations

Hi my name is Peter Roel, I'm here with Erin, Mary and Jackie. They are very gracious to let them teach, be taught so let's do it yeah? It's a mat class, pretty standard with a few deviations. So grab behind your thighs, sit up as straight as you can and then roll back, roll back, keep the head on the spine. Deepen and come back in, nose to the knee and then roll back up, pull back, keep your head on the spine don't bring it forward.

And in and up, last one, roll down completely and very nice, arms next to you, nice and long, shoulders into the floor, straight legs in front of you. Separate them about three feet. So Jackie you can, boom. There you go. And rotate the legs in from the thighs and rotate out, and rotate in and rotate out, and rotate in four more times, and in and in, and in and in, relax.

Close the legs together and open them parallel, lead in with your toes out through the heels, in with the toes, out through the heels so you're really inwardly rotated. Four more, press the space together, let the space open the legs. Press it together, open, press and open and stay. Bend one knee in, slide the foot on the floor. You might (banging on wood) have a few bumps, that's okay, slide forward and exchange the legs and one, and two, feel what your hips are doing, they're slightly rotating they're going side to side, one goes up, one goes down.

Both legs bent, separate the feet, slightly internal rotated feet. Reach the arms up to the ceiling, reach them both back, exhale, ribcage into the floor. (sighing) Inhale arms up, palms face forward and exhale reach back. Inhale up, press that space back and press the space back and move through, palms face each other. Inhale reach one arm back, one forward and change, and reach change, feel like your fingertips are moving on a circumference of a half-circle so you don't shorten it.

Put one leg out and change legs and arms and change and change and feel how your lower belly is kicking in. And in, and pull, keep the feet on the floor because I want your hamstrings engaged and stay there, only change the arms once, keep going arms and legs and change that's your other side, yeah? Reach and reach and reach feel the back of the neck, nice long legs right from underneath your ribcage and both feet in. Both knees open, arms next to you. Bring them back together.

And open, and close try not to use your buttock muscles, it's all inner thighs and inner thighs to close, inner thighs lengthen with control to stay there. Bringing your feet a little closer together and the feet, knees in yeah. Place your hands on your hip bone and bring your right knee up but keep your left hip down into the floor. Very nice ladies and back down. Pull up, and press the foot down, change.

Up and press the foot down, feel that opposite hip. One more time, now we alternate and right side, left hip is where the focus is, pull it down, opposite hip pulls down and bum, and up and press down stay. Bring both legs up, don't pop your belly. Ah, spiffy, nice. One foot goes down, kep the angle in the knee up and reach down and up feel the thigh pushing something away where the hamstrings are and down and down and come up, stay up, reach the arms up to the ceiling bring with your head up between your arms, yeah, good.

Bring both legs down and lengthen and bring them back up yes, reach through the arms to bring the legs down and deepen even more to bring it up. And down, stay down, roll back with the arms circle the arms through the side, bring them next to your hips, separate the feet, hip width. Let both, actually let's go to the outside of the mat with the feet, yeah. So it's really nice and open, feet stay parallel, let the legs go to the right, so your hip is going to come off, you can take your hands out of the way so you have more space to let the hips come down. Now round the pelvis down, lower back comes to the floor to switch to the other side and let the hip come up, let the hips and the knees drop to the floor, Jackie, yep and we're, ah Maria, yep, there you go and round down again to the other side, this time we're coming back and stick your tush out, tailbone first so you're in extended lower spine, switch to the other side and let it go and again stick your tush out to go to the other side and go and again and good, center.

Good, bring your head and shoulders up, hands behind your head, reach through the elbows up so they're in your periphery. Reach the elbows back, yes, you feel that you've just created a hammock, now come up from underneath the sternum, close the legs together and we do single heel slides. Slide one foot out and change, and change, reach and reach let the head hang in your hands. Change and change, yes, both legs at the same time and out, exhale reach, inhale out exhale reach, when you have a carpet, much easier, if you have socks even easier. And out and pull in and now we do crss crosses.

Now reach with a right shoulder blade across to go to the left, the left shoulder blade takes over and goes towards the right and we do a single heel slides to go with it. And reach right, you go to a bent knee so one leg is out, yeah good. And reach, and reach, and reach, the bottom arm takes over to push you to the other side, beautiful and in, reach beautiful Erin, good. And good, and good and in and relax. Fabulous, flip over onto your stomach, hands underneath your forehead good, release the back of your neck, feet together, heels together.

Nice broad back, pull the chin into your neck towards your chest, now press the elbows into the floor gently, gently, pull the lower abdominals in, press the feet into the floor to straighten the legs, pull the stomach in more the bend the knees, release everything. So your chin is going to go to the floor again. Then pull the chin up into the neck and then press gently into the elbows, lower abdominals, press the feet down into the floor and let everything go. Try not to use your butt muscles Erin, and squeeze together, back of the neck, elbows, lower abdominals, straighten the legs, now your head is being lifted by your neck so you're not looking but your neck is coming up and your head comes up because of it. Lift both legs off the floor, open and close the legs and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven eight, nine, ten, inhale, exhale lengthen through the top of the head, beautiful wow.

And reach, reach through the feet, reach through the legs, reach through the back of the head and come on down. Straighten your right arm, place the left hand next to your chest and pencil roll onto your right side. In one piece, yeah. Now pull the hips, the bottom hip, pull it up your ribcage so your lower ribcage comes off the floor, there's space. Gently lift both legs off about a half an inch.

Take your other hand to the front of your hip, push into that hand bring both feet down. Keep reaching and again, reach up, the bottom ribcage is still off the floor and come on down. And come on up stay, bring the top hip slightly forward, Maria, yeah and we're going to scissor, right leg, top leg comes forward, left leg goes back and change and change keep pushing into your own hip so you stabilize. And change, legs together, place your hand on the floor in front of you roll over like a pencil so pull the stomach in, one piece, roll down onto your stomach. Excellent, change hands, left arm straight, right arm next to your and press up and come over.

Both legs up and in, bring the top hip back and legs forward, yes. And down and lift, pull the stomach in, rotate slightly forward Erin and up and pull in Jackie, yes. There you go. It's not necessarily rounding but it is pulling into your frame, yeah? And scissors, place the hands on your hip and go slow, and reach bottom and sit bone stay in place so you're not here.

And bum, good and together, place the hands on the floor and roll over. Excellent, both arms forward reach, both arms to the back bring them to the side and then to the back, yeah. Everything comes down, you can actually put them straight next to your hips, palms up. Yeah, pull the shoulder blades together, back of the neck comes up, arch a little bit, reach the arms. Rotate the palms down and come down.

Again back of the neck brings you up and rotate the palms back up and come on down. And again, back of the neck and reach turn the palms and up and come on down. Good, reach to the side into a T position, yeah? Arms on the floor, yeah make a choice who's going to be on top. And reach through the finger tips out, no, try not to lift, reach first.

And then lift, back of the neck comes up and turn your head to the left and come down on that side, arms and elbows relaxed. Rotate the arms and reach through the arms out, yes that is beautiful, wide and lift up and arms come up and then you turn your head to the other side and come on down and down and release. Good now bring the arms, elbows, into your waist yeah, so this is a W, I call this the I T W. Yeah? Bring the hands up so you're slightly rotated now back of the neck comes up and you hold two, three and change to the other side, let the arms come down and lead with the fingertips, come up into that W, arms off, lift the elbows off too, yes and pull them in, you can bring your head and shoulders up and come on down, change head.

And again lead with your fingertips, lift the whole arm up, upper back comes up rotate and change and down. Now reach, look down to the floor, reach the arms forward from that position, open the arms to a T, then to the I, bent at the elbows into a W and again and what do we have? Breast stroke. And reach and you can keep contact with the floor if you want that feels wonderful. Good yeah?

And reach and open to the back to bend and we're reversing, straighten back reach forward and bent the elbows open and reach and up, bend and in and straighten back to go to the T so you go through the I then to the T, then reach forward and bend in and relax. Excellent, you can lie down on your back straight legs in front of you, reach the arms back, flex the feet. Bring your arms forward, head and shoulders up, lift your legs, 100. And one, two, three, four, five, straighten the arms Jackie and a pum, pah, bum, bah, reach a little more and tailbone comes off and off, feel it deeping in and up and up and up and go, for you a little bit more here. On your inhale, you reach with the arms, inhale (breathing loud) reach reach reach reach, exhale inhale straight arms, and down and arms come over head legs come down straight, we do roll ups and there we go, inhale bring your head and shoulders up.

Exhale roll forward, two touch the toes on four keep the shoulders down guys, roll back lower abdominals, waistline lower ribcage and exhale reach back. Inhale head and shoulders, roll up, chin on the chest, keep the shoulders in and roll down, feel the pressure on the bottom part of your arm when you're in spine stretch yeah? Reach back and up, feel that space underneath the arm like you're pressing on something and forward and come back down, down, down. Press the arms next to your body, right leg comes up straight, let's do that again (laughing) and press up and straight and then shoulders into the floor, right arm presses into the floor to support that hip and we do circles, small ones, in and around, in and around, keep that pressure into the right side of your body to support the hips and reverse, and down, lower belly is in and pull, shoulders open, back of the neck long and brilliant guys. Straight leg, down press it down, press it up.

Left arm pushes into the floor over cross down and up, over cross down and up, over cross down and reverse and reverse, especially now, opposite hip stays down, opposite hip and opposite hip. Good press the back of the leg down, roll up to a seated position, head, shoulders, ribcage, waistline, place your hands next to your body bend your knees bring your hips forward to your ankles. Grab the front of your ankles, look down open your knees and press them into your arms push the legs a little bit away from you and roll back, inhale (breathing loudly) exhale up (breathing loudly) beautiful, inhale back open those knees a little bit more and one more, ba-jum and lift up stay, place your feet down, reach the arms back and slide back between your arms and roll down to the floor take one leg with you, your right one. And bent that knee in, abdominal series, lift the other leg up, lower abdominals and change and one and two press in and pull yourself up, deepen this space embrace not only rounded like this but rounded like that. And lengthen through the back of the neck feel the space longer and longer and longer, both knees in.

Dive through the arms extend the legs, circle the arms open and contract in and out open, from the shoulder blades, ribcage, up open, open and pull in so you pull in from here, not from the extremities. Open, ribcage brings the arms forward and out, I'm dying here and in and out, lift leg straight and one and pull and pull, don't only pull, pull it out of the joint so it's out out, out down, out down, out down and reach, hands behind your head both legs up, keep going and one and two and three, reach through the elbows up and lengthen and reach, reach, reach, both legs up hands underneath your tush. Good, lower legs, stay, elbows open, push the hands forward even though they can't and that brings the legs up, down, stay, push the hands forward to lift up and we'll pick up the pace and we'll go down push and up, and push with the arms and push with the arms that deepens that upper thoracic and down, push and down push and take the hands away cris crosses. The arm on the bottom is what pushes you across, yeah? Touch the knee, touch the knee and touch the knee yeah.

And bum, and pum, double tempo and one and two and with the same quality in the legs and push it and push it, this is your heel slides and bend in, roll up to a seated position, straight legs, bend your left leg reach up and open, just follow me, in. I'll talk you through Erin. Place your hands on the floor and inhale look over your shoulder back arched, and you come up with both arms and you go into the saw. And you reach high up and saw. And up, close the legs, other side, reach and open the chest up, open the throat, feel your six bones in the top of your hip and reach, opposite foot.

And reach, and opposite. And in. Good, that's good. Open leg rocker. Bend both knees in, take both legs up now think of this not as a straight spine, this is a spine stretch yeah?

So make it more of a spine stretch. Soften here, push legs down so that you're counter. Inhale roll, chin on the chest, stay and come on up, yeah. That was cool, but you guys are good. And inhale back and exhale lengthen through the top of the head and one more, inhale back and exhale up, close the legs together, teaser roll down.

Arms to the side and corkscrew. Now make sure that every time you do it with your pubic bone is the onset of your movement. Pubic bone to nose, to circle to the other side so it's the pelvis that makes the legs move and in and good and come on down, roll up to a seated position flip over, single leg kicks. Yep, now let the single leg kicks and the arms start here, pull them with your W that you did, so you pull the W to pull in and then you're good and engaged in the back and then inhale single kick, inhale single kick, inhale kick and back of the neck is long and in and in and relax to straight arms and then you roll over onto your back again, neck pull. Now I will show you this because this is easier.

Neck pull we do in a 12 count so it's not as strenuous this is four, now you pull, that's why we just did that, you pull the elbows so it is the back that pulls the arms in and then you push up into your own hands, that comes up, reach and then keep your head on your spine for you to, that's my thingy, it's not just called the otic curve and, so it's a 12, four this is five, six, seven, eight and nine, 10, 11, 12 yeah? There you go, there we go and come up on one, two, three, touch four chin on the chest, pull the arms in five, close the elbows on six roll up against your hands on seven, open the elbows eight, flat back nine and ten, roll down lower waist bum bum and again. And come on up straight arms, two, lower belly chin on the chest, pull the elbows open, close the elbows down, press the head up and open reach and back, back and roll roll and down and one more time, two three and touch four pull the arms, close the elbows, push the head up into the hands and open up feel the space behind your spine to go and relax. Excellent yeah? Roll up to a seated position, we're going into mermaid.

Yeah, so you're here. Arms to the side and reach to go over and then up, gently, come up and over and up one more time. Reach so you have that moment of meh, suspension, work the space, reach through the space that will help you up to go over, now place the hands on the leg pull the top hip back, rotate back and open in change. Yeah? Reach, yeah that's it and reach and reach stay on the circumference of those, that circle, I always have a feeling that I'm working on the inside of a huge bowl so I have to push that bowl out and in, place rotate, pull that hip back and then bring the hip forward, that makes you rotate and up and in good, now you go out, go on that elbow, rotate the hand forward, elongate the leg so they're on top of each other.

Now pull the elbow back as well as in, so you go in, in yeah? Elbow a little further back, out, sorry, out. Yeah so it's a constant function of keeping the chest open. Now straighten the top leg and we're going up and down and up and down, work the chest and the lower, middle and upper back, tum, bum, circles, and bum, lift the heel of the bottom leg a little bit, gives you more stability. And reverse, keep the knees straight, bum and bend in, flex the feet.

There you go open and close, the regular clam, keep the ribcage up Maria, up and up, ribcage up, yeah, that will start sagging and then you come up and down and you go up and pull back down up and down now you go up, extend, in and back, over onto the arm, devlope envlope and in, up open, up and in, other side. So these old bones need a cushion. There you go yeah? So we start a mermaid so you're, as you can feel this, happens, you know, reach over rotate, pull forward and in, straighten the leg and up and down and up, down this is your side lying that you did in the beginning only more advanced and circles. Reach through the leg, reach through the top of the head, reverse, keep pulling this back and in and in and open and in open both legs so it gives you more stability and reach through that top knee so the hip stays stable, there we go and forward and pull back and up and forward and pull back, up and forward and back, up and forward and back, up and forward, up, in and close, forward up, up in and close.

Up, bum, one more. Let it be sequential, bum, heel and in. Excellent yeah? Lie down on your belly, swimming lift the legs up, now do that again and do that with pressing down into the floor before you lift, press the feet into the floor that gives you a nice straight knee. Now lift, lift one arm one leg, I don't care which one, change, change, change, change, change, change, and speed it up, feel it hamstrings right underneath your tush moving the legs.

Straighten the arms Jackie, yeah. It doesn't matter if you go wider, yeah. Good, done. Alright from here, yeah. Turn around teaser series.

Oh man (laughing) I think I have to go. Yeah so the teaser series is a sequential progression all based on half roll down series yeah? So you half roll down, just follow me and pull in to go up, straight leg, roll back and up, one more time, keep reaching and up, change, and pull keep the neck and the head above the spine so it rolls underneath your head, place it down. Roll down half way, bring the feet up, reach, roll down and up. Roll down and up.

Right through the back of the neck, straight and down and up and down and up, ooh, teeka boom and reach and reach, roll down and up and by now, it's work and roll down and up and relax. Rock and roll. (laughing) fabulous, yeah. This is the thing that I like about Pilates too, there's always something to correct, to do better, so don't worry about it, it's always right, you just practice. Yeah?

Okay California rowing, arms here, palms in roll down and one and two and three, change, one and two and three, change, one, push it and three, change, deep contraction try not to come up and to the side and one and two and three and one and two and three and one and two and three and lengthen and lengthen and lengthen and de bum and a one, nice Erin, keep lengthening through the back of the neck, bum, yum, pumps, pumps bum and yum and yum and relax. Excellent, that was California rolling. Seal. All very serious, and roll back one two three, roll up, one two three, lower abdominals, one two three, feel that space. You are the ball.

And one, bum. Now stand at the edge, you roll down under yeah? Reach and reach, place the hands on the floor, your chin stays on your chest, your hips bring you forward your hips push your forward and you stay, push out long back of the neck, lift one leg up and down. It's the opposite hip, the standing leg hip that needs to really work. One more and up and in and up, now bring that leg to the side and to the side, change.

Up to the side, and to the side, and in bent but push up to bend and out, push up to bend and up, push out of the back, bend, in, dive, walk your feet forward till your heels are on the floor and roll in, bend the knees, roll up, up, up, up. Palms out, reach and press open and reach, feel the back, feel the bottom parts of your arm, the space you push up and then press down. Bend your knees, stick your tush out and walk two, three, four, five, six, keep the feet on the floor and you'll feel right underneath your tush and your hamstrings how it kicks in and reach, look up, look up, open, in and reach, down, and straight. Pull the hands away from each other even though you have them and let the hands go. And you're done.

Thank you so much. (clapping)