Connected Mat Workout

Hi, I'm Leslie Logan and we're here to play with the mat and a little bit of the magic circle, and it's all about connecting your body to your equipment, which today is your mats. So, we'll be using the magic circle a little bit for that. I've got a great class with me, so come to the front of your mat, cross one ankle over the other ankle, one arm over the other arm, and then with control, stand in your foot and lower yourself down. Think rolling like a ball, think, you know, all that curl and then lie all the way back. Stretch your arms long by your side for a moment, and your legs all the way out and just feel what's touchin' the mat right now.

Depending on what your day is like, if you just woke up, or if you just got off of work, somethings might be touching that shouldn't (laughs) and some things might not be touchin' that should. So, press your arms down into the mat, and then feel like they could go wide, that you could get really wide in your upper back and feel your ribs fall into that space. It's really hard to pull those ribs that wanna pop out in if we don't make room for that, so just press your arms down and try to stretch the mat apart, and let your ribs fall in, and then feel your legs wrap tight in together. Feel the back side of your legs really connect. So, the more your second seat, your thuddocks, can connect right now, the easier the hundred's gonna be.

So, then with all of that, just reach your arms up overhead. Take a nice inhale, exhale, float up to your hundred. So, arms down by your side, legs up, and then pump your arms vigorously, and if you pump, if you came up and you found yourself in teaser, you know just roll your ribs down and keep going. That's just something to take note of where your body is today. Two more cycles of breathing and don't stop.

Hundred

Pilates Stance

Hundred

Roll Up

I lied. You're gonna do one more with the circle cause you're gonna roll up. You're gonna take the circle off your feet. Set it to the side. You'll squeeze your legs tight together, and then roll all the way down, and let's do three roll ups, as we go so you have that seat going, right?

Well, you'll roll forward and you'll pulse one, two, three, and then are you using your seat to keep your legs down here? You don't have a strap, so it's all you've got, and again roll up and pulse one, two, three and it's still the beginning of our class. So, feel if you're rolling to one side or the other, and then roll up again. Squeeze the heels and round one, two, three and then roll it back. Stay all the way down, and without thinking too much about it, arms come by your side.

Legs go up and we'll go into our roll over. So, take your legs over with pointed feet. Feel the stretch of the back. It's our first one. Open your legs up.

Roll Over

Reach your arms long and away, and if you feel like when your legs roll down your head wants to lift up, just tell your head to push down your shoulders to get wider it. The more you anchor into your upper back, the easier this gets and the more stretch you get cause the more opposition you get. You'll do one more of these. You'll let your hands press down. You'll let your arms press wide, and then you'll let your stomach roll your body down.

You'll leave your right leg up and your left leg will float to the floor and we're gonna go into our single leg circles across our body first and then down, around and up, and so as you do your circles, I want your shoulders to feel wide, not just down, right? It's not like pulling your shoulders back, but wide. After your fifth circle, reverse direction so that your ribs again have that space to fall into, and so that you can actually have this strong anchored hold on cause when we do other exercises later in class we need that. Scissor switch your legs if you can and go across your body. Right when we go into our control balance at the end, and some other shoulder standing type exercises, the more you have this open strong back to stand on, the easier you get.

Single Leg Circles

Rolling Like A Ball

And now, come up and you can stick with this, so if you're like, oh that was pretty fun, put your elbows on your knees and do three more, and this is just to make sure that you find that your rolling like a ball is part of your stomach, and they're doing an awesome job keeping their elbows connected to their knees. On the up, it's the hardest part. We usually use momentum, but if you use your stomach, you'll keep your elbows there. Good save, and then just to make sure we actually rocked what we needed to, take your circle off to the side. Put your hands on your ankles and three rolling like a balls, just to see can you keep your seat on without being told to by a magic circle?

And can you use your stomach without using your elbows? And last time, you'll stay up here and then we'll just transition to our single leg stretch. Grab your right shin with both hands, straighten your left leg out, look at it, keep your left leg there as you roll back to the tips of your shoulder blades only and stay. Pull your right knee in, pull, pull, switch. Grab your left leg, pull, pull, and then, you know, we're gonna try to stay up the whole time for ab series today, so if you have to take a break, go ahead and do it, but one more time each leg and when you're even, bring your heels together toes apart.

Single Leg Stretch

Double Leg Stretch

Single Straight Leg Stretch

Double Leg Lower Lift

Lower the legs half way down, only lift them halfway up, and then lower 'em almost all the way down. Lift 'em halfway up, and then one more time as far as you can go. All the way up, bring your right knee into your chest. Twist over to it as your left leg goes out. Curl up higher as you switch to the other side.

Criss Cross

So, you get to sit all the way up and enjoy a spine stretch forward. So, come up. Grab your magic circle. We're gonna do the mat as a spine stretch forward two ways today. So, I find most people hate spine stretch forward cause it just gets grippy and they can't sit up.

So, take your magic circle around your feet like you did for your roll up. And then, you will just take your arms parallel to the floor for this version of our spine stretch forward, but before you go anywhere, can you push out on your heels and your feet to find your outer hips? And then because you did that, does your stomach allow you to pull in and sit up a little taller? And then, without losing that height just round forward. Head toward your knees, arms reach forward, but because your shoulders are connected to your back, you get this beautiful stretch, and then inhale from your stomach up, lift up, but that circle's pushing out and then round forward again.

Spine Stretch Forward

Remove your circle. Press your legs out as wide as your mat. Take your hands between your legs and we'll do the old fashion spine stretch forward. You lift up and you round forward, and you pulse three, two, one and you roll up, but how can you feel the same outer hips here? Again, round forward because you're gonna go into open leg rocker in a moment, and part of the problem with open leg rocker is we just don't have enough seat action, and one more time round forward, and this is actually really reaching up and over, and then roll up, and then ideally if you have enough space, you'll just lift your legs up and go into your open leg rocker, but if you need to, you can scoot a little forward on your mat.

Open Leg Rocker Variation

Try not to pop your ribs forward, but instead find more of a teaser shape in your ribs and close your legs and open your legs, and close your legs and open your legs, and pull the shoulders and your back closed, and then you have options. You flex your feet and you grab your toes, and you'll try your open leg rocker here or you're gonna let your fingers reach past your toes, and then you'll rock back and up three times trying to keep your fingers past your toes. So, just depends on where you are in your open leg rocker journey, right? If you're doing what Ashley and Michael are doing, it's hard. It's actually like doing the rolling like a ball with the elbows on it, so you're doing Chanda and Zola's version, it's not easy either.

You get stuck back there. Hold it, and then everyone rolls down for corkscrew. Find yourself centered on your mat, and corkscrew you can do the variation where you keep your hips down, awesome, or you're gonna roll up to the actual corkscrew at the top, and so that's what I'm gonna teach today. Roll up. So, before you go anywhere, your head is down beyond your neck and your arms are there.

Corkscrew

Roll all the way up to sitting. Good. Okay, take your legs a little wider than your mat. Take your arms wide to the side, and then before you go anywhere, can you find your spine stretch forward hips? So the more you find that outer hip engagement here, the easier it's gonna keep your hips connected to the mat.

Let's twist to the right together. Let your head look at your stomach and round forward, you pulse forward three times, without your left hip popping off, and then you roll up, you're in your twist. Twist more, twist more, twist more, and then unwind. I'm super pet-peevy about that. I know twist and round, but there's a whole extra inch of twist when you roll up in that low belly lifts, and you get all the way up there and then you unwind, and then we'll go with a little more float.

Saw

If you're at home and you're not facing anyone, you'll just, you know flip over. We're gonna do a couple swans, and then we're gonna do a little diving, and you get to choose, right? So, it's choose your own adventure swan day. Lift your, before you go anywhere actually, let me set you up because I love the seat in the swan. It really does make this awesome thing happen, so I tend to spin my inner thighs up a little bit to push my pubic bone down, and that helps me find my low belly cause that's the first thing that wants to go bloop onto the mat.

Swan

Not back right, it's not this awesome thing that's gonna be an Instagram moment. It's just gonna be forward and long. And you're gonna lift your hands up and you're gonna hold it, and then you're gonna lower all the way down. Your hands head and chest will lift up, and again, did you drop your stomach? Can you pick it up off the mat when you push your hands down and drag your chest across your mat?

Then let's lift your hands up. Nothing falls, it's not a big deal, you're gonna roll down. Now you can stick with that. It's an awesome way to find the muscles in your upper back, or we're gonna dive with our arms wide like wings today. So, take your hands, head and chest up.

Swan Dive

Child's Pose

So, come into your single leg kick. Prop yourself on your forearms, and then just let it all go. Like just, like let it all hang out. (laughs) Yeah. So, this is what that feels like, and then we're not gonna do this again.

You're gonna lift your stomach up. You're gonna connect maybe your pubic bone to the mat, but this, these frontal hip points are gonna pull up towards your ribs, and they your head will be an extension of your neck, which is probably looking more forward than you think. A lot of people like to look down, and then you're gonna do your right heel toward your seat two. kicks, and your left heel towards your seat two kicks. And as you kick, I want you to feel your stomach pull up into your spine to actually support the lower back. So, we couldn't balance anything here, right?

Single Leg Kick

Double Leg Kick

As you kick again find your swan stomach, and find your open chest from the back muscles that we've been working all day, and then finish this one. Enjoy it. Sit back. Do your final child's pose here. So, we're gonna go into thigh stretch and in the thigh stretch, if you're like I don't stand on my knees, it's not my thing, then you are gonna rock with Zola's gonna rock, which is shoulder bridge, cause we're gonna meet you on the mat in a moment anyway.

Child's Pose

Thigh Stretch

Yes, and then you take your hands behind your head, and ideally you're gonna stay, you're gonna start lying on your back. That's what I'm gonna make them do, you know, no one's watching you at home. Choose your own style, but lie on your back, and then before you go anywhere, just double check that your feet are pushing wide also from the heels, and then because your hands are behind your back, your ribs probably decided to take a moment and stick out. So, let's pull them in, bring them back to class, and then you're gonna roll up and dive in head to knees, and you're gonna pulse three times. One, two, three.

Neck Pull

Let's do one more cause we have the circles and their doing amazing keeping their legs down. I'm amazed. Roll down. Go all the way down, then that's enough of those. So, ditch your circles and we're going to go into high scissor and bicycle, and so make sure you have enough mat on underneath your head, and then take your legs up to the sky, and then place your hands in your back pockets, and then when you're here, your gonna lift your legs up. So, it's easy to think that up is behind your head, but up the ceiling that's above you, and then you're going to keep your right leg reaching for the ceiling.

High Scissors

High Bicycle

That's fine. Or, you can take one leg and reach for the mat and land in your shoulder bridge, or turn your hands to the side, bend your knees, find your rolling stomach massage on the Cadillac. Reach both feet for the math and land. Boom, quietly in, or loudly in your shoulder bridge, but that was amazing. So, in shoulder bridge ideally your hands are underneath your hips, but if you're like please dear God don't make me do that, your arms just go down by your side, and then everyone's gonna narrow their feet up a little bit cause you never know how they're gonna land.

Shoulder Bridge

So, if you're finding that your wrist's hate this, it's because you're not using your butt enough. So, just push your head and your shoulders into the mat and find more seat and your hands are really just there for looks, and then you'll finish this one. Your foot will go down. Your arms will reach down by your side. You'll roll your hips down, and you'll sit all the way up cause you survived all of that, and we're gonna go into our spine twist.

So, legs are together and then just like your single leg kick, what I would love for you to do is just sit like you don't really do Pilates. (laughs) Like what does that feel like? And then, sit tall and squeeze the back of your legs together. Good. And then let your butt go.

And then squeeze the back of your legs together and then let it go. And then notice who when you squeeze the back of your legs together there's like an inch extra. I mean there is for me an inch extra space, and then take your arms wide, and say I will never let my butt let go, and with your heels together, twist to the right. Hold it. Pull your low belly in.

Spine Twist

And then when they're even, with their hugging legs together, they're just gonna reach their arms forward and you're gonna roll down onto your back. Make sure that your head is on your mat, so scooch in if it's not, and then take your arms down by your side, and so we are going into jack knife, and if you need to do the roll over again, that's awesome too, right? It's just another variation of it, so hug the legs together. Let's start 'em of to the ceiling for the first one, and then with your wide back, take your legs over, try to touch the mat. Lift 'em up to the sky.

Jackknife

So, that there's opposition, you let the legs lower and then you go over up one more time. We just enjoy this moment. Push your arms down. Lift the legs and hold, and then your toes don't go behind you anymore cause decided to do jack knife, and you're gonna roll down, and you're gonna control it all the way down. So, we can lie on our right side for our side kicks.

So, I'm super particular about side kick set up. I'll never stop until people start being particular too. So, your elbow to shoulder to booty is at the back edge of your mat. Like don't let your butt be in front of that, and then both legs come to the front of your mat, and if you have a moon box, then they go on the moon box, and give yourself that moment, and then your bottom leg, it's like your standing on it, like if I was to do side kicks right now, my foot is flexed, so you're gonna push that foot flexed and down into the mat, like you push out on a magic circle, and you push so much and you take your top leg, and you point your top foot, and you reach it longer, that your underwaist, it might not be lifted, but I could certainly blow wind through it, right? Because your obliques are all on and that's gonna help you connect, and then this other hand can be behind your head or it can be on the mat.

So, I like mine behind my head because it keeps me honest and then take your chest and just reach your chest, you know, away from your foot. It's gonna feel like swanish. Then you're gonna take your top leg, kick it forward two kicks. One, two, kick it back, one, two, and so how I learned the kicks is it's kick forward a little bit back and then kick forward, and then kick forward a little bit back, kick forward, back, a little forward and back. Kind of like you would bounce a ball, so it's how much in control of your leg are you?

Forward and Back

Lift and Lower

Circles

Circles

Forward and Back

Point kick it up, up and then flex, squeeze it down, and as you go up, did you lose your length in your waist? I get excited too, I think the more I can swing it up, then the easier it's gonna be going down, but it's not true, and we'll take that leg one more time up, and you'll flex squeeze it down, and then you'll open your chest a little bit, and you'll take your leg back, and then maybe further back than you think. Pull your stomach up and circle your leg, and the up and the back are actually the harder parts, so don't skip those. The down and the forward, I don't really care so much about. Right? I don't not care, but it's not as hard for you to remember to do, and then top leg after that reverse if you haven't.

Lift and Lower

Circles

Circles

Teaser Prep

Teaser 1

Tease gravity, reach forward so much you can lower and lift your legs. So, we're doing the teaser. It's not usually very pretty. There's not really a good moment for a picture cause if you're doing it right, it's like I'm gonna fall. Hold it, lengthen your arms away from your legs, and you're gonna lower everything down and touch the floor and come back up, and then reach the arms up.

Teaser 2

Teaser 3

Hip Circles

Swimming

Child's Pose

Kneeling Side Kick Prep

What has to warm up, keep going right and left, is these hips, right? They are what support you and they are what help hold it all together. And we're gonna do the left side and then this next time we hit the right, you'll stay there. Now if you're like, Leslie I love what you've created so much, just keep doing it. Otherwise, hold it here.

Forward and Back

Circles

Forward and Back

Circles

Ideally, you're on your hand, and then before you go anywhere, tell your right elbow it is not gonna hyper extend. And then tell your right bicep to spin out. Your hand and your feet are in one line so you don't twist, and then you're just gonna take your left arm over and boom land in your side bend, lift your hips up and hold it. Lift your bottom hip up and then with control, bend your knees and lower your hips all the way back down and go again. Lift your hips up and reach, and I have to say I just nailed this two days ago without any twist, so if you're twisting, you know it took me 10 years, so there you go.

Side Bend

Lift up and reach that left bicep out. So, I tend to find that the shoulder comes in, lower all the way down bend your knees, because we don't actually pull the left shoulder onto our strong back. So, turn your left bisep out, and then bend in and you will find that you actually have something better to stand on, and lift up, and you're not just relying on your like neck, and then come all the way down, bend your knees and face each other for boomerang. So, boomerang is just that magic teaser and open leg rocker and a little bit of rowing all together. So, we are so ready for this.

Cross your right ankle over your left. Take your hands, they're gonna stay by your hips for most of this exercise. You're gonna bend over and think about your stomach pulling up and away like you would for tendon stretch on the reformer or rowing, and then find your magic teaser. Lift your legs up. Rock overhead. Quick change, and then as you roll down, you leave your arms by your side.

Boomerang

Let's a couple more. As you go, you'll actually find your outer hips, and then when you go forward let your legs come down as you reach your arms back, Ashley. Yes, there and it's hard to you know control it, but that's what you're trying to do, and so if you at home are like, I'm not getting this timing, you know it won't happen today, but it will happen eventually, and then you can thank your back for all of that. Whoo! So when you're even, plenty of that. Bend your knees, dive your hands in.

We're gonna do some seal. Yep, so your hands go in, they grab the feet and then my ideal seal is that you inner foot is touching. So, not your soles of your feet, but the inner foot. That is also all balance on flexibility, so don't worry if you can't get there. Close your knees, become your own magic circle.

Open and close your legs three times. Some of you will rock back, and you'll balance, and you'll clip one to three times behind you, and some of you, you know, will do nothing back there, and you'll just come up, but what you are trying to do is lift your hips up to the sky cause we're getting ready for our balance control and you need to be able to stand on your back, your wide back and lift your hips up. So, use your seal to help prepare your body for what's to come cause that's what the mat's all about. Right? Then, you're gonna come up, you're gonna enjoy that seal it happened, and you'll set your feet down.

Seal

Balance Control

Walk to the back of your mat. Okay, heels together, toes apart. We have warmed up our back and our butts for this moment. Arms to the sky. When you round forward, do not stick your butt out behind you.

Push Up

Lower it down, come up, pause. Head goes in, find your elephant, lift your stomach up, and as walk your hand back, it's because your stomach lifted up so much, and then when you roll all the way up, keep your arms by your ears and land at the top like that, Ashley, thank you so much, and then round forward and you're gonna dive in, and when you roll down you don't stick your hips out or lock your knees. You're gonna walk out, and then you're gonna do two push ups, and then when your head goes in, your waist goes up. Eliminate the down dog, walk your hands back and then soft knees, tuck your butt under. Roll up with your tail dropping down to your heels, and then walk, roll down. Go out.

This is the last, this is all you have to have energy for. I promise. Three push ups or you can hold, you know that's always an option, and then because it's your last chance to roll back, using your body, lift your hips up and then tell yourself, I will not stick my tailbone up to the sky. Walk your hands back, pulling your ribs up and your shoulders down. Soft knees.

Roll all the way up. That was amazing. Lift your arms up. Circle your arms around. We totally did it.

(laughing) (clapping)