Day 5: Control

It's Day Five, Day Five. So after this class we're gonna be halfway through, that's amazing. You're here because you wouldn't be here if you weren't here, so that's exciting, I'm excited. Today we're gonna speak about control, or control is gonna be the theme for this class. I'm gonna use a TheraBand to just highlight some of that or some ideas around control.

It's about six feet long, about that, something like that. So take your TheraBand and stand on it. Then you don't want to hold super close to the feet but you want to give yourself a little bit of tension. Careful as you stand up. So what I want us to do is just stand tall, feel the head aligning up with the spine, lining up with the pelvis, lining up with the ankles, and then allow the TheraBand to just get some pull.

So allow the arms to relax a little bit so the TheraBand just pulls, allowing the arms to drop a little lower and then we're gonna take the head over to the right, letting the left arm get a little heavier, gonna lift the head up and take the head over to the left, letting the right arm get a little heavier, not too too much, don't force anything, don't push anything down, just easy. And then lift the head up and take a breath in. As we exhale, we'll bring the chin down into the chest and let's, we can think about, as we're rolling down, all of the other, all of the other principles that we've already spoken of: awareness, breath, balance, concentration, they all will play a role in our movement. Inhaling at the bottom, see that the knees and the feet face straight ahead. As you exhale, you'll roll back up.

You'll notice that the band has just relaxed around your feet, and as we round ourself back up, we're gonna catch the tension of the band. I want you to press the pelvis forward, and then stack the spine up. As you come to the top, we're gonna press the arms back. Inhale, and bringing the chin into the chest allowing the band to guide us or to encourage the heaviness of the spine, the abdominals lift, they support that heaviness of the spine. We just reach down and we notice if we're standing equally on our feet, and then we roll up.

Press the feet down into the earth, into the ground, so that you feel that you can create some opposition. Now we'll just do that one more time. Kind of feels nice to do the roll up with the band or the roll down with the band in my opinion, it's a nice stretch. Exhale, rounding down. Breathing in at the bottom, align the spine to just hang, and then exhale, peeling the body back up.

Once you get all the way up, just gonna step out. So grateful that you are all here with me, taking the time in our busy lives to be present. Take the arms out. So I'm just pinching the band with my thumbs against my, the knuckle of my first finger. We're gonna lift the band up.

Inhale, reach over to one side. Hold the upper arm still and pull down on the, oh, I'm gonna hold with my hands, yeah, it just feels better. Inhale, lift the bottom arm up, exhale, feel the work happening from the stretch that you just took, and come up. Now inhale, reach up and over the other way. Hold the upper arm stable, exhale, pull the bottom arm down.

Inhale, lift the bottom arm up, and exhale, center. Feels good, right? I'm a little sore, how about you? Reach up and over. Now we're gonna hold the bottom arm still and we're gonna take that top arm and reach around, so we reach forward with that arm, trying to hold the pelvis fairly still although it will rotate slightly.

Inhale to come back, and exhale to lift up. Over to the other side. Inhale, and exhale. Rotate, rotate, ringing out the spine, feel the rotation at the waist. Inhale, unwind, and exhale to lift up.

Let's bring the arms down, and we'll come to the mat. Okay, so sitting on the mat, let's take the band and wrap it around our feet. Now, if you hold it real close to your feet, that's gonna give you a quite a lot of tension. If you hold it a little bit further away you'll have less tension against the band. So you just decide what feels nice to you.

This band is long enough for me to actually wrap my hands, which I'm gonna do, I like that. So what we're gonna think about here is we're gonna use the band to create a sense of control. Controlled movement, conscientious movement, movement with awareness. So we're gonna take the knuckles down towards the knees, behind the knees. As we do that, we're building the spine up.

Inhale forward, and exhale, the arms reach down. The energy is down, the spinal energy is up. So we just allow the arms to help us find our spinal position exhale, press down, lift up, inhale, release, last two. Exhale, press down, lift up, and release. One more, exhale, press down, lift up, and reach forward, inhale.

We're gonna roll down. I want you to feel as you're rounding that you're pushing your feet away from you. See if you can make your feet not move at all. So we're tucking the tail under. We're not gonna come all the way down, we're just gonna go down towards the shoulder blades, and inhale, and exhale.

So this can be a challenging movement sometimes to just find all the bones in the spine. So we're gonna find the shoulders over the pelvis, we're gonna bend the elbows, lift the back. Inhale, arms forward, exhale, tuck under, push the feet away, roll down, down and down. So we allow band to help us, to give us enough assistance, or to give us some assistance so that we feel that it helps us find control. Inhale as you come to your shoulder blades, exhale, curl through, forward, forward, forward, forward, forward, and inhale, lift the spine.

Reach forward, one more. Exhale, round, round, round. Tuck the tail under, find your way down towards your shoulder blades. Inhale to pause, exhale, go into the mat, into the mat with your lower back. Roll forward, are you ready to make it a little harder?

'Cause that's what's about to happen. So take the arms forward, bend your knees. Keep your feet flexed so that the band can stay on the feet. You might want to give yourself a hold a little closer to your feet now. We're gonna inhale, sit tall, we're gonna exhale, begin to round.

So we're just using the help of the band and we're gonna work through the part of the back that is not the easiest place to work through typically. So inhale from the shoulder blades, exhale, curl forward, chest to thighs. Inhale, draw back. Exhale, curl forward, chest to thighs. Inhale, pull back, exhale, curl forward, chest to thighs.

Squeeze the knees actively together, pull the abdominals in, I'm gonna go four more times doing sets of eight. Here is four, inhale. Start exhaling before we start moving. Three, inhale, two, using the full extent of your breath. Number one, exhale.

Let's come all the way out, stretch the legs out, press the arms down, lift the back. Get a little bit of extension. Take the arms forward, bend the knees, roll down, knees are pressing together. Now rotate towards me, and exhale, we lift up that side. So we're taking the opposite rib across towards the hip that's on this side.

Draw in to go down. Yeah, it's hard, it should be hard. Pilates isn't easy, not meant to be easy, but it's fun for me, 'cause it's always hard, or we can make it hard if we concentrate and we're working from the right place. I think there's two more. So we'll do two more.

Exhale to lift, inhale to down, exhale to lift, inhale to down. Come through the middle, roll up, stretch the legs out, press back, lift the spine, extend, go up and back. Reach forward, bend the knees, roll back. So now we rotate to the opposite side, inhale, exhale, curl forward, inhale, come back. Exhale curl, forward, inhale, come back.

Breathing, so focusing on that deep breath. The breath can find our center, can find our control. Two more. Last time, come down, come center, come all the way up. Stretch the legs out straight, lighten up on the band a bit, sit tall, inhale, exhale, we're gonna pull arm that's closest to me out to the side.

We're gonna take the arm, the other arm and reach down and wide. So allowing the band to help us find some spinal control. So we bend, we take the straight arm, pushes down towards the mat and inhale and exhale. Pull and reach and lift and center. Pull and reach and lift the spine and center.

Two more to each side, using the obliques, using the spinal extensors, using the arms, we maximize each movement. One more time to each side. Lift as you rotate, center, lift as you rotate, and center. Reach forward, take a stretch, take the band off your feet. Let's, if you can, mine feels good to double up, so I'm gonna do that.

If yours is too heavy or that doesn't feel good to you, just leave it as it is, but I'm gonna double mine. So we're gonna roll the spine down. Now can you, without the band around your feet, find the same amount of control? Maybe, and take the arms back, reach. So we're gonna go into some bridging here, bending the knees.

The band is in the hands, so we're gonna take the arms overhead. Inhale, exhale, start to flatten the spine. Feel the control there, happening from the abdominals. Feel that as you press your feet down into the mat, you're controlling the lifting of the hips, and as we lift the hips, we're gonna take the band down to the thighs, we're gonna press down into to thighs with the band, lift the hips into the band, inhale, and then exhale, everything unwinds. So there's ease of movement here.

We're thinking about all our precision all our pieces being laid down one at a time. Inhale, and exhale, arms reach through space. Feet stand on the floor, hips lift, band comes to the thighs, we wrap the band down around the thighs, press up into the band, inhale, and then exhale, drawing in, rolling down, sending the arms behind us as the pelvis reaches down towards the floor, all the way, and inhale, and exhale. Press through, lift up, wrap and pull, push. Inhale and exhale, peel down.

We're just gonna do one more like that. So really get that hammock shape through the lumbar spine, the lower spine. Drop all the way down one more time. Exhale, curl, press down, lift up. Once the band comes to your thighs, I want you to hold the band against your thighs.

Pull your arms down as though they could touch the mat and press into the band with your hips. Go a little quicker. Nine, eight, breathe, seven, six, feeling the back of the legs, keeping the legs parallel to each other, here is three, and two, and one. Lift the arms, roll the spine down, bring the arms over the shoulders, over the chest, lift one leg, lift the other leg. Inhale, bring the knees towards me, pull out on the opposite arm.

Exhale, center, and do three to each side. Inhale over to the other side, pull out, exhale, center, two more, inhale, reach over, so we use the opposite arm to pull the band, and center, and inhale, and deep and controlling, so we're stable. Reach over to the first side, come back to center, over to the other side, back to center, curl the head and chest up. Take that band and wrap it over the top of your shins. Pull down, curl higher, reach out.

Oh, don't let the band go slack. Pull that firmly, and reach, and wrap, pull, and reach, and pull, curl, and two, pull, curl. One more, pull, curl. Keep the band just at the forehead, just at the line of the eyes. One knee in, one leg out, pull in, reach, five, reach, four, pulling the band apart, three, two, last time.

We're gonna rotate towards the bent knee. We're gonna pull down with the bottom arm, up with the top arm, find center, switch. Down with the bottom arm, up with the top arm. So use that band to create some additional work in the body, but it also does allow us to hone in, to create some control. Here's three of five, breathe, two of five, one of five, center, switch, center.

Take the band, lift the hips, wrap the band around your feet. Take the legs forward, and we're gonna roll the body up, up, up, up, all the way up into a teaser. You could bend your elbows here and get a nice, ooh, got a little tippy, get a nice open chest, nice long back, and then let's take the legs down to the mat. I'm gonna not double my band for this next bit. You're gonna bring the feet apart.

Just a little wider say, than a mat, you want a little wider than your pelvis. Sitting up tall, inhaling. Exhale around the spine, bend the elbows wide. So now I want us to bring the upper arms to our sides. Press through the arms, straightening the arms.

Bring the body out on the diagonal, lift the arms, or lift the body, arms come up. Inhale, exhale around and down. Arms in, press down, reach out, out, out, out, out. Sit tall, two more. Round arms, so use the band, lifting up and over, through the waist, use the band to help us find that.

Arms in, press out, out, out, and up. Last time, round, arms in, press down, lengthen, and up. Take the band off your feet. I'm gonna wrap my band around my arms, or around my hands again like that. Sitting tall, into the saw we're gonna twist.

Top arm goes up. Opposite arm to opposite foot. So now what I want us to do here is I want us to anchor down. Put the bottom hand actually on the ground, then reach the body long. Use the spine to stretch the band, lift the back arm, come to the middle.

Inhale, rotate, I'm gonna give myself a little more room, exhale into the saw. Bottom hand anchors, spine reaches out, out out out. We lift the back hand and come to center. One more time like that, inhale, and reach, anchor, anchor so that you can lengthen away from that anchor, find a flat back, lift, and then center. Inhale, exhale, reach, anchor the back hand, reach out out out out out out, lift, and center.

I'm gonna give myself a little bit more band still. So we're gonna add some rotation. So we twist, we reach through, we take that arm out, same thing. Now we're gonna take the band across the body, we're gonna reach up and back. Come back, lift, sit up, center.

To the other side, inhale, exhale, reach. Anchor the arm, reach the spine, create your rotation, up and back. Come back, sit up, and center. We're gonna turn on to our side. Bending the bottom knee, take the band into the top foot.

You might need a good amount of tension. Not too, too much, but you want to create some control there. So we're gonna just lie down on the bottom arm. So I'm gonna keep the upper arm right, right kind of in front of my hip joint. We're gonna take the leg forward, the leg's gonna lift up, and as my leg lifts up, my shoulder is going into rotation.

So I've got two things happening, hip rotation and shoulder rotation. Keep the elbow from going behind the body. Push into the band, create control from the back of the leg, and then bring the leg through. Reach the leg up, press the, from the back of the leg, really get that leg to move into the band, and then through. I'm gonna do five.

Reaching up and back, up and back, and forward, last two, so feel the glute, feel it press into the band, and one more time, up and back. Yes, should feel good. Let's go the other direction. Press from the back of the leg, take the leg back, lift the leg up, bring the leg to the front, and exhale, press back, reach up, feel the shoulder rotate with the leg, with the hip, and press back. Get longer in your trunk, and reach around and up.

Last two, back, around and up, and one more, good, back, around and up. So now when you come back to the center, we're just gonna take that bottom leg out straight, turn onto our backs, take the band into the opposite hand and just pull the leg across the body and enjoy that stretch, or not, but I'll just suggest that we enjoy the stretch. I'm certainly enjoying the stretch. Then I'm just gonna turn the other direction so you can kind of see the arm position from that side. So remember, we took the band on the foot, so you've got that arm right up and kind of in front of the hip joint, and then we take the leg forward.

Now as the leg goes forward, the elbow has to bend. Take the leg up, we keep the elbow glued in front of or right next to the ribs and we press back. So the lower arm has to move a little. Go forward, lift up, press, find your control. So what does control mean here?

Control means finding the right muscle, which in this case is the back of the hip. It also means, can we stabilize, can we keep the torso absolutely still? Shouldn't be too hard, it's not a real tricky position to stabilize. Last two, up, elbow into the body, reach the heel away, and one more, and up, reach the heel away. Then back, so we go back, we go up, we come through, we go back, pressing through the heel of the foot and letting the shoulder rotate as the hip rotates, and three, letting the shoulder rotate as the hip rotates, and two, and one more time, back up, around, and through.

So we stretch the bottom leg out, we just roll onto our back, take the leg up, find that stretch. Bring the leg across the body. You could take the opposite arm out to counterbalance, breathing. If it feels like a lot in the back of the knee, just let the knee bend a little bit, looking for a stretch in the hip. Then we're gonna bend that knee.

Let's put both feet in, lower the legs down, lift the head, and we'll roll up to sitting. So we're gonna finish up on our knees today. Whoa, I almost just fell over. So holding the band, taking the arms up overhead, do a little lateral flexion work like we started. So let's inhale and reach over, kind of the same thing, we're just on our knees now.

Hold that top arm still, exhale, pull down with the bottom arm and lift the ribs up on that stretching side, yes, and lift, and come center. Inhale, reach over, exhale, pull down. Inhale, lift up, and center. Reach over, and pull down. Just let that, let your body just go in that direction.

It should feel amazing. If it doesn't, maybe back out of it or bring the arms forward or make it work for you, make it feel good. Here we go, second time. Down, feeling the stretch, and then up, and then center. Now we're gonna inhale, same thing, but now, not pulling, instead we're gonna rotate.

We let the pelvis come with us a little bit this time. Feel the stretch through the back of the body. Come back and lift up and inhale, up to go over, and rotate. So I'm pulling my band apart a little bit, now with a lot of intensity but just with some energy. Then back and up, last one.

Inhale, and rotate, and back, and lift. Again, inhale, and rotate, and back, and lift. I want us to take our hand, or our arms in front of us. So this is just a little bit of an obsessive moment, I'm trying to make my band level. Can't teach Pilates if you're not at least a little bit obsessives.

It's the truth. Bend your arms. So the arms are gonna stop just in front of my shoulders, and we're gonna rotate. So what I'm looking for here is for my elbows to try to come towards the part of the band that's still floppy. We're gonna reach up and back.

I'm not pulling a lot on my band. I'm doing a little energetic stretch and going into our upper back extensors here. Then we're gonna bend the elbows, bringing the elbows towards the band. We're gonna bring the body back upright, and take the arms out straight. I'll show you from the side.

So bend, you don't want to get behind you and you don't want to squeeze the scapula together. Then we're gonna rotate, elbows into the band. I'm still just straight. Now as my arms are reaching backwards, that's when I start to bend. I'm thinking about bending right at my bra strap, just at my thoracic spine and lifting, not leaning.

I'm reaching up and forward. Then I bend and I'm guiding my elbows towards the band. I de-rotate my shoulders, bringing my arms down and take the arms forward. Let's do that one more time. Bands a great way to find upper back extension without having to lie down.

Reach up and back. Oh, go a little further each time. Bend, and reach, and take the arms forward. So, we just made it halfway through our challenge. That is awesome.

I'm thrilled that you're here, I'm excited to be here with you. Keep coming back. We'll have some more fun, we'll keep things energized, we'll keep making space for ourself, keep just reminding ourselves to be here now. Thank you so much.