Foam Roller Movements

Hi everyone here for a mat workout today and you'll need your foam roller, we'll start with a little bit of rolling and opening up and slight massage if you wanna call it that, just to prepare our muscles a little bit before we work and then I have a Teraband, one of the smaller bands you can get on the internet you can get 'em on Amazon, I think, also, for, or you can just tie up a long teraband and make it smaller this would be for some good hip work. Okay so just kind of put that at the ready but let's start rolling on our body a little bit not a lot, some of the larger muscle groups before we start working those muscle groups. So I want you to sit up on one of your hips and let's start working our glutes a little bit. Okay because I do have some, like I said, some hip work planned, and I want you to get some blood flow to those muscles before we go in and work so I'm just gonna do a few passes along the glutes. Start to bring some awareness so even right away here I am in a one arm, kind of one arm balance you want your good scapular support, I'm starting to work my abdominals just a little bit in here just finding some breath.

Always a good way to start a mat workout it's just a little bit of a warmup, and sometimes that includes some rolling. Okay let's make our way down our IT band, I'm gonna lower myself to my elbow, and do what you'd like to do with your feet I like to take the top foot in front and just a little slower timing now as you work down the side of your leg, there we go, yeah, maybe three to five passes. You can experiment with flexing your foot or pointing your foot, sometimes it feels different if you change that angle. Okay. I'm gonna roll a little bit more on my quad, so my body is now angled face down just a little bit more kind of on that lateral edge of the quadriceps up to the hip flexor.

Three to five little passes, again, I'm not spending a lot of time here, just getting some blood flow. Okay. Other side, I'll go ahead and stay facing you so we'll start at the glutes. Balancing on your hand, knees on a slight angle and just rolling on your glutes. Bring some awareness into your scapular support.

Abdominal supporting your lumbar spine. One side feeling different than the other, of course, we know, or not, okay, then let's work down into that IT band, lowering down on your elbow, bringing that top foot over the bottom leg and just slowing it down a little bit. Finding those areas that feel a little bit more sensitive. Three to five presses. And then here I go rolling the body just a little bit more face down, to slightly get more on that lateral edge of the quadriceps and hip flexor tfl, there we go, getting into those bigger muscles, kind of blood flow, alright.

Now let's do those little bit of work for the erector spine let's go into our back a little bit. Okay so I want you to get right at the base of your shoulder blades, mid back, sneak your hands behind your head for that nice cradling support elbows open a little bit, scapula on the ribs, lift your hips and then just again, slightly, rolling to the upper spine into your mid spine. See if you can allow your ribcage to drop in and your bones to get a little bit heavier. Using your feet pushing and pulling on the mat. Waking up those hamstrings and glutes.

Let's do three or four, just on one side of your spine, abdominals in. And three or four on the opposite side of the spine. Getting some blood flow and some circulation, along with breath. Good. And then find yourself right in the center set your hips down and then enjoy, that nice, upper thoracic extension.

Feeling that nice long length and a little bit of extension you don't have to go too far yet we're still warming up so just be mindful and let the elbows come in and contract the abdominals so let's do it one more time. Remember you're going long before going over, long before going over. Yeah. Okay. Elbows up.

And in. Okay. There'll be a little bit of intermittent work with the roller throughout class but let's go ahead and start with your feet on top of it, lying down. Let's do some nice pelvic curl, center that roller, take a deep breath in. Three times exhale as we roll through the spine.

Try and keep your feet steady on top of that roller, reaching those sit bones toward the back of the knees, upper spine long toward the opposite wall behind you. Lift your arms as you unroll your spine and go for reaching through those nice side body muscles through those fingertips, inhaling, rolling your spine up as you lower your arms, feeling the coordination, the timing, those long quad muscles that long front body, and rolling down. (exhaling) opening up through the shoulders. Feeling length inhale. Exhale one more time.

Opening through the chest, okay. So just itty bitty movements of the roller, teeny tiny toward your heels. Toward the balls of the feet, toward the heels, toward the balls of the feet, three more, toward the heels, toward the balls of the feet. Trying to keep your body in that plank line. Last one and unrolling.

All the way through the spine. So I want you to keep your feet up on the roller, a level pelvis, sneak your hands again, back behind your head deep inhale. Lets go for some trunk flexion, exhale coming forward, and inhale lower back. Exhaling up. And inhaling back.

Three more, exhale so letting, feeling those obliques those side body muscles also coordinating with the navel to spine muscles to narrow that trunk. Last two. And last one. Let's just keep it up there. Gonna take a nice easy rotation toward you, take that hand onto the thigh, and see if you can curl a little bit higher in that same roller movement just easy to the heels, to the balls of the feet, keeping the pelvis level heels, and, this hand is just lightly against my leg.

Last two. Last one. And in. Stay lifted on those shoulder blades, transition to the other side, light hand, rotate and five movements. So you're light on the shoulder blades, engaged high in the abdominals, light feet, just enough for you to feel those hamstrings activating deepening the abdominal work through.

Two more. And in. Last one. And in. Staying lifted, take the hand behind the head and lower down take a breath, locking it a little, exhale curling up.

So let's take some variation, take your hands back around the back of those thighs, walk yourself up a little higher, and I want us all to take our pelvis and to posterior tilt and get a little bit more of your upper back off of the mat, okay. Keep your upper body lifted and see if you can lower your lower spine into it anterior or level pelvis and then curl it back up. So my feet on the roller allow me to kind of, I'm getting a slight assist there as I push my feet down to help me curl my pelvis into posterior and interior, three more posterior, interior, chin down. If this is bothering your neck, practice for a while it does get easier the more you do this but you might wanna put your hands behind your head to support yourself but let's everybody go ahead and relax down, lengthen your legs, and use that to elongate through your hip flexors here, just take a couple breaths. So I'm gonna take us into the single leg circle right now, the opposite leg lightly pressing down on the roller, today we're gonna do this with a flexed foot slightly turned out leg three each way.

Circle across and lift. Circle and lift. Trying to keep the opposite leg nice and steady let's reverse it. (exhaling) point the foot reach long long long for the roller once it's there it's still active it's still reaching, bring the other leg up, slightly flex that foot and here we go three inside circles, around and lifted. The other leg lightly pressing against the roller.

And three, reverse. (exhaling) point the foot and go all the way out nice and long, long, long, go ahead and parallel the legs everybody lift your head, your neck and your chest, I didn't forget it, I just didn't do it in order. Let's go for the hundred. So my legs are on the roller but very very light. Almost so light I could lift them up.

Feel free to keep them if you like to or lay them on that roller very lightly. (exhaling) so hands are above the thighs, broaden those collar bones wide, crown of the head reaching to the ceiling, my upper body trying to stay up off the floor. (exhaling) two more cycles. Last cycle. Hold.

And release. Ha good, okay roll yourself up. I want you to put this underneath your sacrum, okay which will look like, you have to lay on it to go back, so with the body on top of the roller legs are up, we're almost halfway into our rollover, but that's okay we're gonna use this to help us we've got our pelvis lifted, so if we keep our legs straight up to the ceiling first, and go with posterior tilt, that posterior tilt. You can kind of see that I moved myself there, and now if we go into level pelvis or normal pelvis in you know neutral if you like that word, your tailbone is sticking out more across the room that way so let's work that tailbone can curl in. Low abdominals into the ribs, but my legs haven't drifted anywhere hopefully, and then pelvis, three more times.

Pelvis. Pelvis. But my lumbar muscles are helping to extend that sacrum and lumbar spine that way and then those deep abdominals moving the spine this way. And extensors. Now let's take it into rollover, do your best to avoid just defaulting right into the hip flexors or those hip, hip folding okay.

So if we go into posterior tilt, pickup your hips off the roller and roll yourself over your shoulders here flex your feet, touch the floor open and rolling down, take your time you're gonna feel that roller there it can take your legs a little lower, and back up to 90. Start at the pelvis so the pelvis comes into that posterior tilt, you can use your arms and press down on the roller and leverage yourself up a little bit take your toes down, flex 'em open, deep breath in and exhale rolling down. So using your strong shoulders to keep the stable collar bone and roller one more time. Posterior tilt first, then pick your hips up and take yourself over your shoulders, flex the feet, put 'em down, open, take a breath, and roll yourself down. Wanna stay on top of the roller and take it into a frog.

Hands on the edges so that they're out of your way and then push your legs long, pull your legs in, (exhaling) push your legs long, pull your legs in, I'm gonna go for eight of those. Take a little extra moment here to squeeze the legs together and little extra contraction of your inner legs, your quads, your glutes, three more. (exhaling) not arching my back. The roller's helping to support that length that line but I am gonna hold here, point the toes and let's do some open and close eight times, try to stay in this diagonal, open. If this is too extreme for you and your back is feeling compromised you would take your legs a little higher.

(exhaling) Four. (exhaling) three. (exhaling) two. (exhaling) last one. (exhaling) point the toes, lift the legs, let's go to leg circles, four each way we're gonna go think Cadillac or reformer, open and up and two, around, not making the widest circles I can I'm trying to control my ranges here last one.

In that direction, four the other way. The lower the legs the more abdominal support needed. Just stays open. Last one I'm going into some scissors. Pick a leg and bring one up and now when you're there let's not worry about this one so much yet, I want you to go for a little bit more hamstring stretch, first, where is your pelvis, here, you might be in a posterior, that's where I am.

Now, think about how the roll of the abdominals and the back together to extend, there we go, so the leg did change places but I'm happy where the pelvis and lower back are. Now you can focus on the down leg getting longer, okay use this as an active hip flexor stretch. There. Okay. Change legs let's just do one assessment on this side.

Okay so let yourself take your body into really, deep hamstring stretch, most likely your pelvis came to a posterior, so change it let's go more through neutral, us your lumbar extensors strong with those abdominals and lengthen that bottom leg. Okay. Now without moving the pelvis you've put it there, change your legs and we can do the little pulse, pulse. Pulse, pulse. Pulse, pulse.

Pulse, pulse. Four more and one. Two. Three and four. Let's go for some bicycles, find the scissors split, then your bicycle, so we're gonna take it nice and slow for precision and detail, keep on stretching, feel that mat.

Reach a little bit further. Can you go a little further. And then reversing it so this top leg bring it down, feel the mat and reach long, low and long. Sometimes the coordination in this direction of the bicycle is a little bit funky so take your time, get the split, and lift. Get the split and lift.

Four more. Oh boy. Three. My legs are shaking. Two.

And last one. And tuck your knees in. Now put your hands kinda close to your pelvis on that roller and allow your sacrum and your pelvis to tip up off that roller so I'm using my hands a little bit but I'm also using my low stomach, and just kind of rock a little bit, okay, and then take it out, rock yourself up, move it out of the way for a moment and let's just check into the ball. Let's see where our back is right now so find your balance position, okay, six times, let's take it back, take it up. Pull into the stomach, those knees are pressing out on the elbows, the elbows are pulling in on the knee.

Two more. Last one let's balance at the top. And let's just find a little leg stretch. Leg stretch arm stretch and just find yourself in a balanced position so play with this for a second everybody. Let your lumbar area flex a tiny bit, a little bit of roundness, you're not gonna see a ton in me but let yourself round, okay.

Now if you take the tail bone, reach it to the mat, get more your sits bones, get a more active kind of quote flat back and just feel the difference between that position okay and then allowing a little softer spine, a little rounder spine. It takes some muscle control to not fall off of that place right there, okay, so as you go into more of an extension, notice your balance is challenged there too. And we know in the open leg rocker, I'm gonna go into that one next, is a little bit of play between this control and this at the top now the top is more upper back extension when you roll it's the lumbar flexion, here we go let's take it into roll, I'm just gonna do four of them okay, four times. Upper back. Lumbar flexion, upper back extension.

If you can hold that lower back in a little bit of flexion you're not gonna see a lot on me. Last time. I'm glad I used the roller to roll through my back prior to class 'cause that helped a little bit. Okay bend those knees and let's just open the knees and stretch, okay. So I wanna move into some lateral work now and I want you to bring your roller with you let's work our inner thighs.

Before we do that I wanna give them a little massage like I did some of the other tissues so, knee on, shin on, ankle on, and then I've got myself on my arm here, I'm just going to very slowly roll my body face down, that roller goes right into those adductors, now when you unroll, lead back with your pelvis and lower abdominal, so that's what brings you back, gonna do eight of those, rolling over. It's an interesting sensation, sometimes a little tender, in that inner thigh area. It's okay (chuckling) four times. And just roll the bottom, IT band here the one, the leg that's down on the mat is getting another massage, a movement, two more to go here. And last time.

Now we'll stay on our side, make some adjustments if you need to. I wanna take this arm down just give my neck a little bit of extra lift, okay, time for the bottom leg I know you can't see it very well from the front angle but you know the classical work when we take a leg up. This leg is here being held by the roller slightly, pelvis is more level probably than not, bottom waist is hovered and I want you to point the bottom foot and lift that leg high. Okay then again we don't need this hand on the ground I want you to take it lifted. I'm going for eight of these here's five.

Actually that was four, here's five. And six. How high can you pull that bottom leg up toward the top one and stay up on number eight now flex your foot eight little pulses stay high, two, try not to lower at all, three, and four, and four, and three, two, stay lifted, point your foot, now let's take four circles front and then four circles back. So front up, back and down, notice it doesn't go too far down, work on the up. And the up.

And the up. That was my four that way, four the other way, one. Energy in your arm, two, three, and four, now use this hand lightly on this roller if you need to put both legs together for just a moment. Okay. Feel fine to hold your hand here but you don't probably need it, and just hold it flex both feet, and point both feet four times, flex.

Holding those inner thighs together, three. Stretch. And two. And stretch. Okay lower your legs, lower your arm, now, before we go onto the other side put this knee right back up on top of the roller, the bottom arm needs to come out from underneath your head and just stretch it forward.

Not the most comfortable position on the shoulder, we're not gonna be there long, but I wanna do some thoracic rotation, take these hands together, feel free to put your head down if you'd like to you're gonna see me keep mine hovered, reach this hand out, trace the floor, let your shoulder, your ribcage and your upper spine turn, turn, if you're feeling any discomfort in your shoulder you just shorten that lever, but you keep turning through your ribcage, okay? Let's do three each direction. Ideally we're trying to go a little bit bigger circumference with each one, keeping your knee on the roller the best you can, one more this direction, feel like you're reaching your arm out away from your ribs. Alright three the other way, this hand goes back down over the leg again you're trying to free up your thoracic spine, shoulders, your back. If you can keeping your knee on that roller that's great if not that's okay too you'll work for it and you'll make improvements every time you do, last one, big circle, all the way around okay.

So let's take those pieces on the other side. Just bring yourself up, move the roller down going into some inner thigh work, but first I'm gonna massage, so knee and shin up on top. Okay and your head is down so you're rolling, toward, you're face down toward the mat and feel that massage or that pressure slight into the inner thigh, lead with your pelvis to come back, we did eight of them. Good. It's also allowing your pelvis and your femur to kind of get some separated movement there and your sacrum.

And roll. Good. Four more. And three. And two.

And one. And then we'll come up and take the inner thigh work, I know it's a different leg that got worked the first time it's okay, alright so knee is up, flex that bottom foot and we'll point actually and lift that thigh really high. Eight times so your hips are nice and stacked, bottom waist is slightly lifted, not your ribs too much, just your waistline, and five. Keeping the leg parallel. And seven.

Now keep it up there on eight. Now we flexed and went a little faster, higher, three, four, four, three, two stay high now point the foot again, pick a direction, do four, that way, try not to lower it, think of going higher each time. And there's your four, other way for four, and one. A nice straight knee as well, and three, and four, okay, and lower now we have the rotation so bottom arm comes out hand on the hand and take the hand up around the top or your head and again sometimes if you've got upset shoulders, this high range right here isn't gonna feel the best so you are completely okay and allowed to shorten that lever again it's really about freeing up the thoracic spine, once that's more freed up the shoulders will feel more free. So put your attention in your ribs, and letting those turn.

Okay one more this direction. (exhaling) keep, try to keep your knee down if you can, three the other way, here we go, open, and around, take some deep breaths. And one more. All the way around, okay, wonderful, okay. And then go ahead and come all the way up.

Let's go ahead and do some outer thigh work. We can't forget this little thing. We're probably done with the roller for a good, long time now so take that up and out of the way. I don't have a preference with side, you start with but I think I'll just start with what I was on so here we go everybody step into your band, get it right up across the top of your knees, okay so yes it's the clam series. Lots of great work for those lateral hip muscles.

So, I'm taking myself down again, heels are in line with the sitting bones, not completely up in that 90 there, and here we go, press your heels together, I'm just gonna go eight repetitions, try to keep those hips up, this is so good, so you don't have to do this with the band but it's always a little bit more strengthening and deeper work when you've got this resistance to play with, okay, so we rolled out, we rolled on the hips, they should be plenty ready for this intensity so one more holding it there, just hold, contract as hard as you can in those glutes, hold it there, pull those abdominal muscles in, we're going eight little pulses going back. Two, three and four, four, three, two and one, lower the legs, okay. Now the heels come up, same thing, eight times, it's harder. But you'll love it because it's good for your hips. And two, and three.

I'm kind of thinking of pulling the band with both legs even though this is the focus length, the bottom leg is helping hold it down too, here's three, and two, hold it up there, little pulses, eight, seven, six, very specific placing those hips and four, three, two and one, close the knee lower the feet. Okay extend your legs just for a second here. Bend them back in and I want you to go with the same knee up, now extend the top knee back and hip back, pull the bottom knee up toward your head just a little bit so pulling the band apart okay? And bring the knees together, eight of those. So the bottom leg isn't doing as much as the top leg but it is pulling up a little bit, but main focus is hip extension, and close, okay.

Hang in there, three, and four. It's important to have those strong hips. And five. Almost guys, six. Can you take some of the tension out of the shoulder which may be creeping in from this hard effort, last time and just hold it, just hold it, take your arm up, we don't need it there, hold, hold.

And. Okay. Wow enough let's go to the other side. You don't have to really do much to get there, bring yourself up, swivel the legs around, come on down, lots of repetitions of eight, ready you're on your hips you're stacked, your bottom waist has an elevation and one. And two.

Three. If you're ever unclear if you're stacked with your pelvis go near a mirror to see this, or if you're in a studio have someone help you so you're really in the right place and not, sometimes, people get doing the clams, here's our eight, hold there, you're just holding. They're doing clams and they feel it in the front of the hip not, uh-huh, it should be back here. So if you're feeling the front, it could be that your legs are too far forward and or this hip is not in the right place. Okay so ask for some help, now pulse.

One, two, three, four, five, six and seven and eight and we went down. Now the second layer, feet go up, pull and one. And two. So yes you're probably fatigued already because the first side was helping, right, the bottom leg was helping, now you're using, what was the bottom on the top, and seven, hold it out there and eight, get your heels a little higher and pulse, and two and three, four, five, six, seven and eight and close everything down, just lengthen them for a moment we're almost finished with this series, pull the knees in, last round. So feet came up, lift the knee and extend your bottom, or your top leg back, put your bottom leg up a little bit, and then it's knees toward knees heels up.

Here we go, hip extension a little bit pulling the bottom knee up and in. And three so my top leg is slightly internally rotated, better for hip extension, to get onto those glutes. Okay four more everybody check those abs five, and six, get long you've got two more only, seven. Last time and eight and let's hold it, hold it. Reach, reach, reach.

And release. We deserve a stretch so come onto your back, take your feet out of that strap, I'm gonna set it off to the side, I like the stretch of, instead of figure four all the time there's always another one to try. Cross both ankles, reach ahead and hold your feet, and bring your legs toward you. So it's getting the same stretch on both legs at the same time, notice I'm pulling on my feet, I pull the pelvis up slightly, here we go, and then just cross, do the other side. (exhaling) take some breath.

So it may not feel quite the same as figure four but it's getting into those same muscles, okay. Last, exercise or pattern we'll do, no prop, we're just gonna roll face down and do some back extension, kind of a lower level intensity, but very very thorough into the upper back and the shoulders, okay. Light forehead, maybe your forehead and your face are slightly hovered, take your legs slightly apart, and concentrate first on your hip bone, hip bone, pubic bone, imprinting. Long arms by your sides. And then now it gets harder, hold your legs.

So those inner triceps and lats working together every one take a breath. Stay on those hip points and pubic bones, and reach your chest up a little bit, but I'm also aiming my chest toward that roller I know it's still there so reach toward it. Open your palms to face down, go wide out to the sides, this'll be odd, bring your shoulder blades together, widen your shoulder blades apart, bring your hands back onto your thighs, and lower down. Just four patterns, four sequences all the way through. So small hover but long, palms face down, so as you're going out let the scapula get wide so that the scapula can get narrow, back to wide, and back to the legs and lower.

Just two more. (exhaling) Try to stay on those hip points, pubic bone, scapula, scapula close. And lower. Last one everybody left. Rotate the, so palms face down.

Widen your arms, scapula together, scapula apart, arms holding now it's gonna be a little intense I'm a little bit mean, hold your legs, just hold for about four breath cycles, you can lower your chest if you need to, get long. (exhaling) some good asymmetric work, hands are holding. (exhaling) last time, and release okay. Take your hands underneath your shoulders, just use that to push yourself up, the last yummy little thing, walk that hand, walk yourself and get your roller, place your hands on top, let's do some shoulder stretch and some back stretch okay so take a breath. Nothing too specific everybody I'm just lowering my chest, I'm letting my sits bones reach wide and my tailbone back, do what feels right for you.

So maybe you have very loose shoulders and upper spines and you can probably get your face all the way to the roller, I'm working on that some of you are too. Now anchor the top to the feet, breath, we're gonna roll ourself up. Roll ourselves up, and go back again. Arch. I'm gonna do four of these so you know what's coming.

Inhale. And exhale, so rounding the head toward the tail, the tail toward the head, curl, uncurl, two more. (exhaling) okay last one of the day. Take a deep deep breath and exhale and roll all the way up. And I thank you for taking class, that's all, if you wanna stay and do more for yourself feel free to do so, I'll see you next time.