All Star Mat

Hi, everybody. I'm Cara Reeser, and you are? Amy Hadence. And you are? I'm Meredith Rogers.

And we're here to do an all star girls with balls workout. Okay, so here's the deal. I wanted to do something a little different this year. So for this class, all of the proceeds that I make for this class, I'm donating to an organization called Girls Inc. It's a national organization that empowers young girls to be awesome and strong when they grow up.

So this is a hard class. You'll have to take it lots and lots of times to really nail it, but here we go ladies. You ready? Yeah. Let's do this thing.

All right. We're gonna start on our backs. You gotta take your hat off. Fluff up your hair like all girls need to do. And I want everybody to take that ball and give it a big hug with their knees, the backs of their legs, right?

So you're gonna have your shoulder blades underneath your ribcage. Nice, strong, straight arms. We're gonna squeeze that ball in on the inhale. Exhale, come up into a high bridge. Take an extra breath.

An extra exhale. Inhale, pull the ball in. Drop your butt down into the ball and squeeze. Exhale, up. We'll just keep going now.

Inhale, pull. Really squeeze it in, you should feel your hamstrings firing up. Exhale. One more time. Pull.

Whoa, nelly. And exhale, up. Keep it up there. Figure out where you are. Lift your right leg, inhale.

Exhale, down. Left leg. Exhale, down. The right leg. Exhale, down.

Push into that ball, lift it. Exhale, down. And pull the ball in as you roll the spine down. All right, so now we're gonna do a little switcheroo here. You're gonna take the ball into your ankles.

And we're gonna practice this gesture. Into the hands. Tap the floor. Into the ankles. Tap the floor.

Keep going, breathing. Exhale. In. Ex. Now what we're doing here is we're working really hard to keep our lumbar spines in the same position to the mat.

So we're gonna really control our trunks. We're switching the weight. We're getting used to this because we're gonna do a lot of this. Let's stay together, one more time, up. Tap, and get the ball between your ankles.

Hold it there, straighten your legs. Now, here we are. Squeeze into the ball everybody. Nice, strong squeeze, straight legs. Arms down by your side.

Deep breath in. Exhale, here we go, hundred. Inhale. Squeeze, exhale. Now you could lower the ball if you want.

Whoa, exhale. And inhale. You could lift the ball if you want, but you're squeezing it. You're squeezing your ball really hard. Inhale.

Keep your head up. How you doing over there, Amy? I'm doing good. All right. Two more.

Let's all lower the balls a little bit, let's see what we got. Oh my God. One more set. Exhale. And switcheroo.

Straight legs up. Lower the legs, lower the ball. Lumbar spine. Here we go. Roll up.

Inhale, reach the ball. Squeeze with the pinkie side of your hand. Exhale. Stretch the crown of the head towards the ball, inhale. Roll back.

Uh oh, collisions. And back. Good, inhale, lift up. Squeeze the pinkie side, guys. Really reach it far.

Hold that ball up. Inhale, roll back. Exhale, down. Two more. Exhale, squeeze the pinkie side, yeah.

Good. Inhale. Exhale, my God, my pants are falling down. Hold on, inhale. Exhale.

And, good. Roll it down. And come up one more time. Reach the ball, everybody. Open your legs.

Plant the ball down. Take your left heel on the ball. Yep. Pull up your britches and lie down. All right, so here we go.

Couple things happening here. We're stretching the hamstrings, but you're also pushing down with that left heel. The further away the ball is, the better it's gonna be success wise for tree. So let's circle the ankle and heel. And exhale the other way.

Now lower that leg to 45, say a prayer. Press down, lift your head, and here we go. Up, up, up, up, nice. Good, stretch, and walk it down. All right, let's try that again.

Inhale, lift the hip. Look up the ankle all the way. Good. Hold, pull that leg in, big stretch. And reach away. Take your arms down by your side.

Single leg circle. Keep the heel on the ball. Inhale, cross. Exhale, around. In.

Ex. Try not to move the ball too much. Two more. Reverse. That pressure in the ball is really helpful to keep the leg turned on.

Last one. And then change feet. Again, further away is easier. So, take the stretch, circle the ankle. And circle the other way.

Lower the leg. Lift your head, neck, and shoulders. Here we go. All the way up. Good, she got there, good.

Pull that leg in a little bit, and walk back down. Keep that pressure, it's really helpful. One more time, walk it up. Here we go. That's the hard part.

That's it. Bring it in. Big stretch. Walk it down. Control that pelvis.

Arms down by your side. Here we go. Pressure on the ball. Inhale, cross. Exhale, four in each direction.

Was that four? One more. And here we go. In. Exhale.

Pressing. Exhale. Arms super strong on the mat. Last one. Bring the knee in.

Pop up to seated. Rolling like a ball with the ball. Super fun. All right, so here we go. We're pushing the shins into the ball.

Meredith's already praying, but you could weigh it a little bit. And you're gonna press the ball into your shins. Tuck that chin down, here we go. Inhale. Exhale.

Inhale. Pinkie side of your hand squeezing into the ball. In. Exhale. In.

Ex. One more. Stop at the top. All right, ladies, you ready? Right knee stays in.

Left leg out. Let's see who can go the slowest. We're going down. I'm gonna win. Come on, you gotta move, Meredith, gosh! All right, we're coming all the way down, it's a tie.

Here we go, single leg stretch. Inhale. One. Two, push the ball up. Three.

Four. Inhale. One. Two. Exhale, push the ball up.

Inhale, one. Two. Exhale, push the ball up. Oh my God, here we go. Tuck it in deep.

Reach in. Exhale. In. Ex. All the way over to your ankles everyone.

All the way around your ankles. In. Ex. Scissors, reach it up, right leg. One, two, switch.

Switch. Push the ball up. Pinkies. Oh my God. One more set.

And both legs up, straddle the ball. Hands behind your head. Thank God. Inhale, lower it. Watch that your feet are not sickling, exhale.

Good. In. Ex. In. Squeeze the ball, ex.

In. Touch the floor. Exhale, and switch. Elbow to knee, let's go. One.

Exhale. Keep your eye on the ball. Keep your head up. Pinkie side. Yes, and rest.

Stretch it out. All right, that was hard. All right. Let's keep it going. We'll do roll over two ways.

So first way, holding the ball back like this. Squeeze it with your pinkies. All right, ladies. We're gonna keep our low backs as is and lift our legs up. Inhale, take the ball-, legs over.

Tap. Open, flex. Roll down. Super hard. Legs together.

I hear an SOS over there, get it up! Go! And open. Roll down. We get another version here in a second, tap. Open. And down.

All right. Take the ball in between your ankles. Pull your pants up if you need to, there we go. All right, here we go. So, for some, this is harder.

For some, this is easier. Legs are straight, squeeze it in, take it over, inhale. And squeeze the ball, exhale. And scapula helping us. Basing our backs, good, hold that ball up.

Exhale. One more time. Take it over. Exhale, down. Take the ball into your hands.

Legs together, stretch the whole thing out. And roll up to seated. Open up for spine stretch. Get yourself back if you need to. Especially me.

All right. Ball over your head. Inhale. Exhale, take it forward. Reach that head to the ball.

Press forward. Stack the spine. Ball over the head. Inhale. Exhale.

Reach down. And up. In. Whoops, I got the breath confused. Keep breathing, whatever you do.

And up. And bring the ball down. All right, sisters, open leg rocker. No joke. You gotta have room in the back of your mat in case of a collision.

All right, grab this baby tight. Get your legs up. And here we go, inhale, back. Exhale. Squeeze it tight, in.

Oh yeah, baby. This is a challenge, which means it might take you a little while to nail every single one of these, which is the whole idea. The more you watch, the more Girls Inc. get our support. In. Exhale.

And pause, ladies, take the ball. Take the legs. Get it together. We're going down. Keep the legs up.

We're going down with the upper body. Lie on your back, put the ball between your feet for some demonic version of corkscrew. Here we go. Actually, it's not so bad. We're just gonna go as far over to the right as we can.

Far over, far over. Hold it. Squeeze the ball. Exhale, hold. Far over.

Pardon my mic pack, I'm gonna go a little bit less on this side. And back up. Far over. Let's go. Try and touch your wrist with your hip.

Come on. And up, oh my God. Squeeze the ball. Over. Over, eyes stay up.

And great. Take the ball into your hands. Take your legs together. Lower the legs. Lower the ball.

Reach the ball up. And roll up. Soft. Scoot back a little. Yeah, and you wanna pull up your pants when you got to.

That's just what happens. All right, here's how we do this. Let's start with the ball to the left foot, left hand. Right? You're gonna throw the ball over to the right. And you're gonna stretch into that side.

And you're gonna come back. Throw. Yeah? And up. I'm backing up, Meredith.

And go. Stretch. And then let that ball go. Stretch. Let that ball go.

Keep your eyes on it, go. Let that ball go. Stretch. Let's do one more on each side, ladies. I love this one.

It's also a little bit fun to let the ball roll a little. Yeah. And come back to center. All right. Down onto the bellies we go, here we go.

All right, we got our swan series everybody. Stay tuned. We're gonna start swan one. You're gonna hold mid-ball or wherever it's comfortable for your shoulders, legs together. Gotta squeeze in.

Lift the head to the level of your body. And here we go. Pull that ball towards you, come on up. Stretch it. Straight arms.

Exhale away. Good. And again. Up. Pull.

Hold. Exhale. What's happening over there? And, again, up. All right, here's the bad news.

Stay up and kick. One, two. And no falling down. Up, up. Arm.

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Oh my God, down we go.

And roll the ball into you. And let's all adjust your costumes. And take a little stretch. Let your low back. You can shake it out a little, shake it out.

All right. Whatever you gotta do. Okay, here we go. We're going to kind of grasshopper land here, okay. So kind of like on The Reformer, we're gonna head out.

We're gonna want our hips on the ball a little bit. We're gonna all lift our legs a lot. Bend your elbows, push up. And up. I wish that I was touching my chin to the floor, but my ball is so big I can't.

But keep trying. Good, one more time. Elbows are narrow on this push up. Up. And push back.

And take a little rest. That's a good one. All right, here we go. All right, back to the front of your mat. We've got neck pull in the house.

Here we go, everybody. All right. Hold the ball up. It's nothing but hard, here we go. Tip it back.

Control it. Control it. Control it. Control it. Great.

Put the ball on the pubic bone. Spin it. Go past your toes. Press down for a little stretch on your ankles. And stack it back up.

Pinkie side, squeeze. Back we go, control it. Control it. Control it. Control it.

Oh yeah, baby. And bring the ball to the pubic bone. Stay low and spin it. And last time. And here we go.

Control it. Put the ball on your lap. And I just use two fingers here so I can really get a spin on that ball, which is sort of fun for me. And press. Here we go.

Down to shoulder bridge. This shoulder bridge has bent knees, and it is a real hamstring screamer. So here we go. Curl it up. Take a breath up there.

Exhale. Try to bring that spine down. Segmentally. Let those hamstrings release. Go ahead and adjust your feet if you need to.

We're coming up again. We're extending the front of our hips as much as we can. Chin off the throat. Lots of space in the neck. And roll down.

If you're at home and your hamstrings are cramping, put a ball between your legs. You could double ball it up. It'll be great. And go on up. Hold that up.

And down. Hello. Stretch your legs out for a second. Do one high bridge up just to let those hamstrings lengthen out. And down you go.

And switcheroo. Here we go. Legs out, arms up. Up we go, all the way. Spines stretch, twist, seated.

It's called spine twist usually. I'm gonna back up a little bit more. All right. Here we go. And inhale.

Ex. I'm trying to keep my chest moving with the ball so it's not just my shoulder blades. Which can be very helpful. And rest, let's take the ball over our heads, ladies. And then just come into a forward bend.

Push the ball down onto the balls of your feet. We'll take a stretch. We're rolling down. Here we go. We got teaser two ways.

Make sure you're on your mat. Teaser two ways. Good luck with the second, here we go. All right, we'll do three and three. The first one, pinkie side squeeze.

Head up. Tap. Take it down. Oh yeah baby. And I like to lift my ball up first.

Then my head, then find my tap teaser. Take it down. It just makes life a little easier. And one more time. I do head and ball first, but you might do legs first.

I'm not sure. And back down. Teaser number two. We're going up, same way. And then you're gonna do the switcheroo right here.

Take it down. She almost crashed, you guys. That was Meredith Rogers almost falling down. Up we go. Take the ball.

Here we go. Oh my Lord. Come on, everybody. Let's do this thing. That's right.

Those sounds are very helpful. One more time, up. And down. Oh yeah, baby. Bend your knees.

Cross your right leg over your left leg. Go into the outside of the foot, let's do a little cross over here. And in. And stretch it over. And.

Change legs. Just a little break here. Catch our breath. Feel our bodies changing. All this good work.

Come back. Uncross, straighten both legs. Lift the ball up. Chin to chest. And roll it up.

All right. Let's go to the fun stuff. We got some pikes. We've got some back bends left in us. Here's how we're gonna go.

First we're gonna do a version of cat and cow. So I'll, you guys know this, right? Wanna see it once? We're gonna go out. We're gonna go in.

Out. In. Out. And then we'll go back, we'll do a, we'll do about five or six of those, and then we're gonna do pikes up. Gotta make sure your tights are up for that one.

You're gonna go here. And then we're gonna go all the way in to a full pike. And back out. And we'll roll that out about four times too. You ready?

Set. Go. Cat, cow, here we go. Touch it in. Reach it out.

Touch it in. Reach it out. Touch it in. Reach it out. One more touch in.

One more reach out. And slide it back. How'd that go? All right? You got it?

All right. Pike. The ball has to be further onto your shins for this one so you gotta glide out a little further. Drop your head. Do it on a crash mat if you've never done it before.

Here we go. Over. All right. Pike it up. Collision.

And out, we'll just do four pikes in a row there, here. Up. And up. Come on. Head down.

And out. Last one, I'm dying. And everybody play dead bug on your ball for a second. So the maestro can get her. Hoist back.

And up you go. For back bends. Here we go. Sit on the ball. This is our, almost our last and final, so let's make it our best, okay?

So feet are planted. Okay. Jerseys are up. Here we go. Turn the palms out.

She's already cheating everybody, and push back. Now, everybody, push up. High bridge. Hold. I'm doing it.

I'm doing it, she said. And down. Roll up. Yeah. Nice! Nice! Okay, here's the thing.

When you're back there and you're doing that, try to think of pushing the ball with your butt into your upper back to help you. Hip extension first, here we go. Over. Hands there, you can scoot it back. Push. Hold.

I'm doing it. She's doing it again. Hold. And down. Up you go.

I almost fell. All right. Last one, here we go. Forward. Yeah, being perfect is overrated, PSSS.

S to the double S on that. And down. And up. All right. Slide that ball between your legs.

Come on down. We're doing, tights up. We're going rolling ball to squat to stand. Ball over the head when we're up. Let's see what we got, inhale.

Down. Can we make sounds? Yes. Down. Good.

Being quiet is overrated also. Stop at the top. High five with the ball. Thank you, Cara. Thanks, girls.

Thanks, everyone.