Advanced Mat Flow

So, it's come to my attention that I haven't filmed an advanced mat workout in a very long time, I'm sorry. Let's do it now. So, what I'd like us to do is just find a seating, sitting, seated position with feet out in front of the sitting bones, and about sitting bones distance apart, and taking a hold of the back of the thighs, and then just take a moment here and allow your eyes to either soften or to close. And as you sit here for one moment before we begin to move, just notice your body, where you are in your body today, and feel or visualize, or imagine the elongation of the spine. So, can we get taller just by imagining?

Maybe. Bring your awareness to your arms and in a fairly vigorous way, pull the spine up. So, now we're using our imagination and our arms to lengthen the spine and then bringing the awareness to the breath. Feeling the expansion of the ribcage on the inhale, and the depth and contraction of the abdominals on the exhale. And are we ready that move?

Probably, so opening our eyes, inhale. On the exhale, round the spine, just the lower spine so the shoulders stay above the pelvis and they deepen through the abdominals to create that shape. And then inhale. Exhale around the spine. So just know that this class is going to build, and build, and build, but what does the advanced work build on?

It's just these small, deep focused movements. So really get into that nice rounded shape and inhale, lift up, reach the arms forwards, and exhale, create that same rounded spine, then roll back. Once your lower back arrives on the mat, lift your arms up, take your arms open to the sides of you, reach forward, and roll up. Once you're shoulders are over your pelvis, we'll lift the spine, reach the arms, open the arms, and push the arms forward around. Exhale to roll back.

So just manipulating the spine, inhale, warming it up, exhale, round. Inhale, lift, light, and energized, and contract. Create pressure with your abdominals, with your arms, with your intention. And inhale, open, and reach forward, letting the reach forward of the arms, bring the body back up, lift the spine. Take the arms open, we'll done one more round.

And roll back, trying to keep the feet nice and heavy on the mat. Inhale arms, open the arms, take the arms forward, roll up all the way, once you get to the top, lift the arms and the spine, open the arms out to the side, take the arm from the back of the room towards the front of the room. Exhale, round down, so whatever that means to you in your room. Open the arms to the sides. We go across the opposite direction, roll up the opposite side of the body, and open to center, so now we go to the back of the room on the inhale.

Exhale, round down that side of the spine, open the arms in the center, come across to the opposite side of the room, roll up, get all the way up into an upright position, and open and inhale, going the other way. The way we just came up, we go back down, open the arms in the center, come across to the opposite side, roll up that side, lift tall, and unwind and into the back of the room, exhale, round down. Open the arms out to the side, reach across to the other side, roll up all the way, lift the spine, take the arms open, round down, and keep reaching out through the arms, out through the arms, our through the arms, and then once the lower back comes down, we'll stay here and we'll lift up and back, nice and calm, up... And back. Up..

And back. Up... Are you wondering how many we're doing? Well... That's all.

Lie all the way down, scoot your body into your feet or your feet into your body, arms down at your sides, breathing in, and into a pelvic, pressing down through the feet, sending the knees forward, the heels reaching for the fingertips, the fingertips reaching for the heels, inhale, and round, just ribs, abdominals, reaching all the way through the lower spine, dropping the tail down, inhale, exhale, round, arms reaching forward, standing on both feet, hold to inhale, and articulating the spine, rounding. Rounding. Deepen into the curvature of the lower spine and inhale, and exhale, round. Standing evenly on both of our feet, inhale, and exhale, round. Sending the knees forward, even as the body's coming down.

The knees forward, the heels back, working the backs of the legs all the time. Last time, inhale, and exhale, roll up. Lifting at the top, take the arms up, reach the arms behind you as you roll down taking the stretch in both directions with the body. Drop the tailbone down, take the arms out to the side, lift one leg, lift the other leg, and inhale, both knees towards me. And exhale to center, keeping the knees aligned.

Inhale, both knees go away, and exhale to center. And reaching up and over, inhale. And exhale center. And up and over, inhale. And exhale center, last time to each side.

Inhale to go over, warming the spine up in all directions, exhale to pull back. Inhale the other direction, exhale to pull back, reach back with the hands. Bring them behind the head, take a breath in. Exhale, curl the head and chest up, deepen, deepen, deepen, heavy head in the hands, and exhale to lower it down. So we wanna work the body in both directions.

We contract to lift up, we contract to lower down, so let's use that two-breath cycle. Exhale, lifting... Inhale, deepening of the top, and exhale down. And lifting... And deepening at the top, and exhale down.

And lifting... And hands behind the thighs, lift a little higher. And reach the arms up, back behind the head. Lower the right leg, inhale, exhale to change. Inhale, exhale to change.

So imagine that that leg that's coming towards the body is pressing up against an imaginary solid. The leg that's pushing down is pushing down on an imaginary solid, so we have down work, down hip flexion and action. Up... That doesn't make any sense, let me say that again. We've got hip flexion against resistance, hip extension against resistances, that's happening in my brain, and lets do two, and two...

One, and one, both knees up. Drop the knees away from the body, exhale, bring them up, lift the body. Inhale, the legs go away. Exhale, pull in to lift. Inhale, the legs go away, exhale, pull into lift, we'll do two more reaching down and lifting up, and reaching down, and lifting up, stay here, drop the heels, curl the knees to the nose, and roll back down.

And curl the knees to the nose, and roll back down, and curl the knees to the nose, and roll back down, and two more. Knees to the nose, and roll back down, and one more, and roll back down, and reach the arms forward, and take one leg out, and take the other leg out, turning the palms to face each other, exhale, roll the spine up, up, up, up... And open out to the side, and inhale, and reach round, rolling back. Maximizing the lumbar flexion so the low back comes down, take the arms up and back, lay down. Inhale, head and chest up, exhale, roll forward.

And open the body, and round the spine, and roll back, last time, back, back, back, and over head, and inhale, head, chest, arms. And exhale, round the spine. Bring the body back upright, arms out to the side, I'm just gonna scooch on my mat, and inhale, flexing through the feet, and into the twisting. Center. Lift as you twist.

So, there's a spiraling action, an upward lift. And up, up, and center. The arms stay straight across, the abdominals draw in towards the spine in both directions of movement, reaching, reaching, center, and lifting, lifting, center. Two more to each side, grow the spine. And grow the spine, last time, inhale...

And exhale, bend the knees, take the hands to the ankles, reach down just behind the pelvis, float the legs up, legs are being held quite closely in towards the back of the legs. We rock, and balance. And back, pressing the legs together, and balance, and back, keeping the shape of the body consistent, and two, And one, and taking the hands to the knees, pressing the knees into the hands, curl away from the thighs. Press the knees together, go slow, work with control, double leg stretch, we reach out, and contract in, feel the stretch and the engagement. And reach, the spine stays stable, and still, lower back stays imprinted, into the mat, and five, push your arms through space.

Inhale, exhale, push the arms through space. Three, and around, and two, and around. One more time, inhale, and exhale. Hands on the right leg, left leg goes out straight, stretch, and stretch, feel the legs pass one another by almost like they're gonna be straight in the same moment. They just brush past each other, and we go five, five, (train horn blowing) hello, people, four, four, I wish I was going on holiday too.

Three, but this... Is the next best thing. Stay here, hands behind your head, crisscross up and across. Up and across, keeping the head with the hands, elbows are wide, head is cradled in the hands so it doesn't turn, the head doesn't turn. The head just comes with the rotation of the trunk and we go five, the legs pass, brush, five.

Four, the toes are pointing at the same targets, three. Two... One, both knees in, head goes down, arms come down. Take the legs out, inhale to lift. Exhale, roll over.

Flex the feet, separate the legs, lower the legs down, and inhale and roll down, pressing the heels away, reaching the arms strong into the mat. And point down together, lift up, reverse curl over. Pelvis over the shoulders, flex, separate and down. And roll down, feet press away, in one movement, connect into the next movement. That's the beauty of mat work, it's like a dance.

There's no stopping. Just one thing linking into the next. We're doing one more, get ready for the transition. Inhale, exhale up and over, flex, separate, point the feet, roll down, lift your head. Roll up...

Reach for your ankles, lift your spine and inhale, rock... And build the spine. It's exercises like these where I have to remind myself that perfection, while it's nice to look for, doesn't exist, but we try to really eliminate any wobbling, we hit that straight line at the top. We'll do two more, inhale, and lift... And inhale...

And lift, and let go, and lower the legs. Lift the spine, inhale, and bring the chin into the chest and move forward, reaching through the center of the feet. Inhale, and lift back up. Stack the spine, soft shoulder blades, inhale, and letting the head go as I gaze, just goes along the mat as the spine rounds, and inhale, and then building the spine bone by bone, by bone, and lift, and one more, inhale, and round... Reaching through.

And inhale, and lifting... And now with extension, inhale, and reach down, and take the back out, flat back, round forward, push your heels away from you as you lift your spine back into an upright position. Inhale, and round... And inhale, stretch long, navel to spine, get that nice flat back. Exhale, reach through, and lift up...

And inhale, and exhale, round, and elongate the back, and inhale... And exhale, I lied, we're going one more time through that movement pattern, sitting tall, taking the body through, reaching out long. Sit all the way up, arms out to the side, rotate to the left, inhale, and soft. We're looking for that nice flat back and we're emphasizing the flat back as we're lifting up, center, lift and rotate, exhale, reach, dive, keeping the head in line with the spine. Lift in, rotation, open and center.

And spiral, and stretch, the back arms reaching back as the front arm reaches forward so there's energy in the arms that's happening all the time. And reach out, and inhale and lift, open and center, and inhale, last time, diving through, and out, open center and lift, and dive through, and up, open, center, legs together, hands behind you. Push them out away from you. Think about contraction in the middle of the back. The middle of the back, and we pivot, we pick the hips up, and we sit the hips down and there's nothing that changes in the shoulder girdle.

We're always thinking of pushing the body forward. Pushing the body forward, especially as the hips come down. And inhale, and press up. And down. Last time, inhale, exhale, lift the hips up, keep the right leg on the mat, lift the left leg up, and push down, and lift, and push down, one more, lift, and push down, change sides, no shifting.

Kick, reach down, and kick, reach down. Kick, reach down, lifting up, sitting down, sitting up, hands behind the head. Reach the spine forward, the elbows stay wide. Roll the spine up, navel to spine from body to back, body, hinge and then articulate all the way back. Inhale head chest, exhale, roll through the spine.

Reach out over the thighs, build the spine back straight again, and hinge, and roll through the spine, and lift the head and chest and roll through the spine. If you get a little stuck, just help yourself out. That's a life lesson, if you get a little stuck, do what you need to to help yourself out. Come to the lower back and pause. Take the arms out straight, take the left leg into the arms and pull, pull, stabilize.

Pull, pull. Pull, pull. So, you're lifted up off the shoulders, the body stays stable as the legs switch. Last two. And two, think of pulling the leg to the body with the abdominals rather than with the arms and hands behind the head.

One leg pushes, one leg pulls. Top leg pulses. And pull, pull, navel to the mat, pull, pull. Three more. Two more.

Last time, and now we add rotation, we come across to the up leg. Pulling it back to the up leg, pulling it back. And two. Two. We have five, three.

Three. Four. Four. Five. Five, come to the center, bend the knees, place the feet down.

Scooch your hips to your heels, arms down to our sides, inhale. Roll the spine up. Standing on the right leg, lift the left leg, stretch it to the ceiling, take it down, flex back. Reach away, flex back, reach away, and back, last two, stabilizing the trunk, one more. We bend the knee, place that foot down, reorganize, pick up the other leg and down, flex, pull.

Reach, push, and pull, three. No movement in the trunk, long strong arms, last time. Up, bend. Inhale. As you exhale, roll down...

Down... Down, hammocking, hollowing, stretching through the lower spine, dropping the tail. Lift one leg, lift the other leg. Send the legs out in front, inhale up, exhale, reach up to go over, both feet come down. Reach the arms around taking a hold of the right foot.

Lift the spine as you take that left leg up, up, and change. Up, up, and change. Go up and away from you with the top leg pulling the bottom leg to you. One more. Both legs down.

Hold. Take the arms around, placing them down. Roll down through the spine. Control, legs go down. They come back up, inhale.

Exhale, roll over, reach down. Press away into the jackknife all the way up into extension, take the legs back overhead, and down. Remembering to breathe, remembering to focus on your breath. Gotta breathe to stay alive, reach up and over. Inhale, lift to the back, press the legs away.

Take the legs back down, and roll down through the spine, and take the legs away. And lift them up, and exhale, reach over. Inhale, lift the body, press the legs up, up, and away. And then reach back over, roll down, head comes up. Roll up.

Reaching for the toes. Reaching overhead. Take the legs down and take a stretch over your legs. Turn this way, cross the top leg over the bottom. Taking the arm out to the side.

Bringing the ribs up away from the arm on that side, opposite arm comes down, side bent, so we reach out into a straight line, we take the body into an arc. Look down, take that top arm away, press through the bottom of the hips, press through the hips, take it back out to the side, and down. And inhale. And exhale. And inhale, and hinge, so keeping that side body long, scapula stable, up and over.

And back, hold here, bottom leg comes down, pelvis presses forward, hand behind the head. Lift the leg up, flex and kick, kick. Reach back. Pull, pull. Reach back.

Pull, pull. Reach back. Two. And one, and now we're gonna make a circle. We're gonna drop lift, drop lift.

Three, this is more of an oval than a circle. One, and reverse it, down, around, and up. Two. Three. Four.

Five. Take the top arm up, bend forward, take that back leg around behind you, now lift up. And up, oh, cramp. And up, and up, and open, bend the knee, sit down, stretch in the direction of the hip you've just worked. I hope not everyone had a cramp.

I hope it was only just me. And then continue on to that side. Legs out to the side, to the side bend. Reach out, inhale. Exhale, lift up, look down, making a rainbow with the body.

I'm gonna laser-beam, and then we come down. And inhale, exhale, reaching up and over. And back. And down and inhale, and exhale up and over. And back, knee comes down, leg comes up.

Hand behind the head and we go forward. And keep it high. Forward, and back. Long neck, scapula wide, last two. One more, and then our ovals down and up.

Down and up, try to lift to the high point, each time higher. And reverse. Circle up. Down, around, up. Last two.

One more and then we let the body rotate forward, take that leg up behind us, find the stretch, and then press. And two. And three. And four. And open back out to the side.

Bend, reach up overhead, sit into the stretch. Don't lose your focus, we go on from here. We go onto that same hip. We go back into that cross legs position, arm on the mat, press the ribs away from the hand. Inhale, side plank.

Exhale up into the twist, long, flat spine. Inhale, back, and this time we just hover. We lift up out of the shoulder, lift through the side body, and exhale, reaching through. Stand on your feet, put your weight in your feet. Come back to the side.

And hover. And inhale up, and reach through. And back, and turn onto the mat. Left leg points, reaches out and up. Two.

Three. Four. Five, we place the leg down, we three pushups, one. Two. Three, right leg points, reach out and up.

And two. And three. And four. And five, step in, and three pushups. Stalling, last one.

Come to the other side. Open out, and bend. Here we go. Inhale, reach out, exhale two, reach under and through. Inhale, come back.

Exhale, hover the pelvis. Inhale, lift up. Exhale under and through, flattening through the spine. Stabilizing the shoulder blade, come back. And hover.

And one more. And reach through, pressing with the arm into the feet. Come back. Turn over. Knees to the mat, and lower all the way down.

Taking the elbows onto the mat. So, pressing down into the elbows, pull the upper arms backwards. Lift the abdominals up away from the floor, scapula sliding down, just reaching through, eyes straight ahead, lift both legs and kick right leg, kick, kick. Left leg, kick, kick. Right leg, kick, kick.

Left leg, kick, kick. Inhale, inhale, inhale, inhale. Exhale, exhale, exhale. Keep the spine stable as you move through the legs. Focus on the hip extensors to keep the body stable.

Inhale, inhale, inhale, inhale. Exhale, exhale, exhale, both legs out straight, hands down. Head turns to the side. Hands come behind the back, way up high, and then we kick, one, double a kick, two, three, take the body out. And goes the other way, kick one, two, three, take the body long.

And kick one, two, three, and take the body long. And kick one, two, and take the body long. One more to each side, kick one, two, three. Take the body long. And one, two, three.

Take the body long, feet come down. Hands come down forearms come down, push up. Sit back onto your heels. A moment, maybe two. Catch your breath.

I'll catch mine. Come up onto the hands and knees. Reorganize your clothing if necessary. Mine's coming off, take the right leg back. Take the left leg back.

Lift the right leg up and we round the spine, and reach back. And round the spine, and reach back. And round the spine, and reach back, now cut across the body, exhale. And back. And exhale, and back, one more.

Exhale, and back, and now lift up, bringing it up into arabesque. Take that leg down, put the top of the foot down or hover your leg. Bend and straighten your arms, lift the leg. Kick up and back, head between the arms. Back, hover, put the top of the foot down.

One more, up and back. And... Hover. Legs down, both hips up and back, pressing down. This is specifically for my cramp earlier.

Nice calf stretch and then lift the heels. Roll the spine through. Left leg lifts up and round. And reach out. And I don't know if anyone's ever said that it's impossible to get cardiovascular during pilates.

I'm gonna go ahead and disagree. And then we cross the body, and unwind. And cross the body, and unwind. And cross the body, and unwind, and then we lift up into arabesque. Top of the foot comes down, where it hovers, bend, straighten, lift up and back.

And down. Bend, straighten, kick up and back. Last time. Bend, straighten. Kick up and back, I think I might have given us one extra on that side, sorry about that, or you're welcome, however you see that.

And to the knees. And sit back towards the feet. So reach your arms way out in front of you. Roll through your spine. So to press the shins down to the mat, let the pelvis come through, lift through the spine, through the chest, pulling the upper arm bones back, arcing the body, this is preparing us for something that's coming up in a minute, do you know what it is?

Round the spine, I do. And sit back. Use your imagination or be surprised. So we roll... We roll...

We roll... We use the back of the legs to support the lower back. We use the abdominals to support the lower back and we come into the arc, and then press into the mat, all of your four points, and sit back one more time. So, rolling forward. Reaching through.

Finding some ease, and then lower down all the way. Bring the upper arms just inside of the lower arms. The forearms are on the mat. We're gonna lift the back of the head, take the eyes slightly forward. Slide the scapula and the upper arms backwards and start growing the spine forward.

So don't push yet, just pull. What I mean by that is that backwards scapula pull, finding the upper back then press into your elbows. Lift as high as you can without lifting the elbows and then finally allow the elbows to lift off, is it becoming clear where we're goin? Elbows come down. Spine lowers, legs lift.

And then the legs come down. The back of the head lifts. We create a rocking action. Elbows come down, legs lift. So you need to be using the back of the legs the whole time for this exercise.

And then we go down, and then we lift the legs up. We're doing one more, we go down. Swan dive coming up. And we go down, and lift the legs. And then let the legs rest for one moment.

And here we go. Top of the head comes up and back, scapula glides down and back. Start getting the body working. We're gonna take on the first drop. So we go to the mat for the first time, we're gonna take the hands underneath the forehead.

From there, we're just gonna do one time like that and the arms and the legs will lift alternatively. Is that a word? I don't know. Is that a stall? Yes, maybe, here we go.

And then reach, legs, arms. And sit back, that one's hard to cue into. So pardon my silence. But I hope you had fun 'cause I like that exercise, a fun exercise in my opinion. So we're gonna do, we're gonna tuck the toes under.

You're gonna lift the hips up and back, take a stretch. You're gonna bend the knees. We're gonna hop, lightly to the hands. We're gonna sit down on the mat. Bring in the legs into a diamond position.

Lifting the spine nice and tall, close your eyes again. Just feel. I don't know, I feel differently to the way I did the last time I closed my eyes about, guessing 40 minutes ago or so. Feel the energy coursing through the body. Give thanks for your body and for what it can do.

None of that is very easy. And then lift the arms up. Up. And now, can we just be easy? Can we just feel light?

So what does it feel like to just allow the arms to softly reach out to the sides, to gather up energy. To bring stillness or just the idea of ease back into the body. And then reach the arms up. Up. And this time as the arms open, can we lift the heart?

And I don't know, I like to try to remember to go forward into my life with an open heart whenever I can. So that's a suggestion from me that I'm sharing with you in case that sort of thing resonates with you as well. Last time, open out to the sides, opening the heart, opening the chest. And then allow the arms to come to rest, and exhale, curl the spine. So we're back where we started.

And lift. And extend the spine, and then just allow your spine to rock back and forth through a round back, through a straight back, through an arched back. And back to straight. And I hope you have a wonderful day.