New Year's Mat

It's been another year! And we're back! More girl time. More girl time! And last year, I made a commitment to move through my life with grace and ease, which I can't say I've accomplished, so I'm gonna try again. I have a lot of room to work on there too, so this year, 2018 is my year. Grace and ease and fun. And girl time. Friendship.

And friendship. Yes. And laughter. And moving. And movement.

So speaking of movement, stand on your feet. Or your hands, you choose. And then reach your arms down towards the floor, and as your arms reach down towards the floor, feel that you're getting taller. 'Cause you can create that, right? And then take the arms out.

So if we can create that sense of growing taller, just by standing on our feet and imagining it, just think what else we can create in our lives. Reach out to the side. Grow taller still, get lighter, get easy in your body. And inhale as your arms rest at your sides. It's almost like you can't try, you jut have to let it.

Mm-hmm, yeah, yeah. Be tall. So we're gonna round down, and we're gonna let that happen, we're gonna, you can't try, but you have to think about it. You can't try, but you gotta think, I think. So the top of the head goes down, the abdominals lift up, we've got equal weight on both of our feet.

And we're breathing, inhaling. And exhale. Yeah, I know what you mean though. Like, if you try too hard, then it's too tryey. (both laugh) It's like a bearing down, a resistance that ruins it. Yeah, exactly,

you can't hold back. You just have to let it happen, easy. So just reach and get light, so that's where we pulling, pulling. Yeah, there's more space. And then, reach out, lighten up.

Lighten up a little, there's another, on the exhale to roll down, there's another good intention for the year, for me. Lighten up a little. (both laugh) Inhaling at the bottom, exhale, push the floor away, roll up. So now let's create some moving energy, not some light energy, so we reach, press, feel, and then push out, and create contraction, create space and then we go down one more time, exhale, rounding down, rounding down, and as we get to the bottom, I'm just gonna take hold of the elbows, let the head drop between the arms, bend both knees, Kristi, I almost literally just fell over. (laughing) Exhale, straighten both legs. You have the whole year

to work on that grace thing. Yeah, so, the whole grace thing, I don't know if it's ever be like a reality for me, but I'm trying. And stretch, and bend, and as your legs stretch, go lower, get heavier in your spine, heavier through the top of your head, and bend and stretch, both hands come down onto the floor, walk forward on the mat, finding a long, straight line. So here, what's the posture? We're just like in our standing posture but standing on our limbs, on all fours.

And lift the hips, heels reach down, heels lift up, roll through the spine. Roll through the spine, find that front support shape, and press up, hips up high, abdominals deep to the spine, heels lifts and roll forward. Do you roll out of it, in other words-- No, I hinge. You hinge back okay. Yeah, I'm hinging up, and rolling down.

But what if we reverse it? What if we roll out of it, heels drop down, and then hinge, I like it. Yeah. I like to lift my toes to curl. And press through the heels and hinge.

Let's do one more That's nice. Roll through the spine, flatten out the back, and down and then bend the knees and sit back towards your feet. And straighten, and bend, like a panther. Ah right, like a panther. Can't not think of Rael when this-- No, no, no, this is Rael's panther, it's not mine.

Well, I just mean, he's very excited when he does it. And then forward, one more. I love it. One more panther, and then we leap together. And sit.

Nice. May I? Hold on underneath your knees. Support yourself now, at the beginning of the year and always, knees are straight up, and just take a second and push your feet into the ground maybe, sometimes I feel like I wanna pull them, sometimes I want to push, right now I'm wanting to slightly press to find the backside of the body. Inhale, grow tall, exhale without bearing down, roll the pelvis back, let your head respond naturally, which doesn't necessarily mean you're gonna look down.

Go to straight arms, inhale. And start the exhale, syncing the belly, or just letting the exhale create the motion of the abs to the extent that you need to get back up. Inhale, exhale, roll it back. I just had the weekend with Tom LeCook, and he talks about the cogs and wheels, and cogs of the body, but I can't help but think of, inhale, exhale, the pelvis sort of rolling over the leg bones right now. And it helps me to move.

Sit tall. And exhale again, the traction almost of the feet, the awareness through the inner seam of the leg, I think I even use my hands to slightly push outward too, to create resistance both ways, inhale. Exhale, sync and come forward. When your shoulders are over hips, sit tall. You can change your arms around, whatever gives the most support right now.

One more like that, we take it down. I this one will stop at about the shoulder blades and do the arm thing that we sometimes do. Collar bones wide, you do want to be down enough that you can feel supported in your back. Take the right arm off, reach it up, don't move the spine. Reach it back as far as you want.

Exhale, sync and bring it forward. Other side, inhale. And back, we'll go right into both. I'll plan for four, you can help me with that. Inhale.

Exhale, forward, take a pause on the next inhale. Feel free to grab the legs. And exhale, come forward. Oh boy oh boy, I like to hold somewhere just to give myself the ease in sitting up. And exhale, back.

If you can remember to go left arm first, or alternate, I can't, I'm saying it but next one we'll see. Left arm up, exhale, push it down as if there's a resistance underneath the upper arm, not the hand. And down, exhale. Here's both, I might have gone back farther than I meant to, 'cause this is gonna be rough, I'm coming forward, hold for inhale. Start your exhale.

And help yourself up, and help being the operative word for me today. Down we go, two to go. It'll be our right arm, yay. You did it. See?

And if it's easy, bring your feet in a little closer. Inhale, one arm up. Exhale, push it down. Collar bones wide, other side. Here's both.

Oh, here we go, take your inhale, full inhale, start the exhale and up you come. One more, must be left, inhale. Exhale back. Key for me often is just staying connected to something other than where the work is. Again, the left-- Your feet.

And yeah, my feet right now. Even if they're slightly trying to lift, I'm thinking of trying to press down with them. Inhale, go both. Stay there now, and exhale to come up. Sitting tall, support yourself for the moment.

I want to do a modified spine twist, so I'm coming to what we call a diamond position. Nothing super innovative here other than it feels really good for me in the beginning portion of class. One arm over the other, and use them, one pushes up on the other for traction, or to sit tall, or rotate to the window, inhale. Keeping the weight as even as you can on the hip bones, or sitz bones, I should say, exhale, extend your arms so they're just opposite. It's sometimes worth a look, inhale, twist further, it's all coming from the spinal column pretty much, exhale, back to center, refold the arms.

Other side, inhale. Again, it's like your forearms help to almost push down and into each other to extend you. Exhale, the arms still long. Inhale, allow that breath to take you further. Your eyes will help to, if you look where you want to go.

Exhale, come back. I'm just gonna do two more. Inhale, rotate. Exhale, extend. Again, those upper arms slightly pressing down, inhale, twist further, not from the arms, but from the center, exhale, center, and last one.

Inhale, rotate. Exhale, extend. Trying not to lean back, if it's really tough, you can sit higher. Inhale, rotate further. And exhale, center.

I'll hand it back with that, that was my main thing I needed. Going back, forward with the arms, just roll down from here. All the way down. And then set up for bridging. So, both feet planted on the floor, arms long.

I like to think of my arms being softer. I know a lot of times we talk about pushing the arms, but today I'm just gonna just notice that they're flat, but allow them to be soft. They can be, roll up, soft and energized simultaneously. They can be what? They can be soft and simultaneously energized.

Yes. In theory. Yeah, thank you. So they could reach forward, rather than press down, maybe. Sometimes I like to think about rolling up again, especially on the way down, sending my arms in the same direction as my spine is going, so as we go down we reach the arms the same direction as the spine is going, but then the upper part of the spine, as the spine lays down into the floor, gets to reach the other way.

So a creation of energy, again. And inhale. And exhale. Whatever you like, whatever you want to feel in your body, you can make your body feel with your brain. You just have to think about the quality that you wish to have in your body, the quality of movement.

Maybe you want to feel push, maybe you want to feel ease. Maybe you want to feel a little bit of both. So yeah, you just go ahead and create that. Let's do one more, inhale. Just like that.

Just like that. And wouldn't it be nice-- I think you're right. Wouldn't it be nice if that was so easy in life. Maybe it is, and we just don't realize it. Goes back to over-trying, sometimes, for some of us.

Yeah, yeah. So maybe we just don't need to try so hard. Right. And then-- Add that to the list. Add that to the list.

Take the arms out to the side. Lift one leg, and then the other. Inhale, to tip the hips over to one side. Couldn't quite get that word off the tip of my tongue. And then come back to center.

And then inhale to the back of the room. And exhale, feeling just the suppleness of the spine. And inhale. I have, I think I have like, in relationships, in my goal of last year, of trying to move with ease, I think I have been trying to move with ease the whole year. Have you been trying too hard?

I don't know. I don't think so. I don't think so either. You're quite graceful, as far as I can tell. (Meredith laughs) I mean, except for when you eat.

Shh, it's a secret. So, I'm a food enthusiast, fun fact. Now the secret's out. One more to each side. And I'm not a clean one.

Just excited. Yeah, I just get excited. No big deal, like a baby. In a high chair. And now back up to center.

Take your hands behind your head. And inhale. But I'm quite clean, I always clean up after myself. Of course. Head and chest come up off the mat.

Lower spine just begins to rest, in relationship to the movement of the upper spine, and inhale, and exhale, come back down. And inhale, and drawing the chest forward, towards the thighs, letting the head drop backwards into the hands, and come back down. And again, exhale, head and chest up. What do you need in your body today? It's a reflective question.

And back, and whatever you need, make sure you create it. And two more. And back. And one more. So here's what we're gonna do now, Kristi.

We're gonna come down, then we're gonna tip over, so lift off one side of the pelvis and on to the other, so we have to balance here-- Your head is down? My head is down, for now. But now keep the legs and the pelvis like that, and lift to the chest, coming straight up the center. So the legs are askew. The chest is coming up the center.

That's not easy. Is this a pilates exercise? Oh my god! Yeah, I think so, it is. I mean, 'cause we're doing it. (both laugh) Yeah, it could be, it's a version of one.

Yeah. Maybe, it depends on who you ask. Well, one thing is for sure, it's a exercise. It's hard, for me. Yeah, it's hard.

And, two more. And it definitely requires a little bit of balance. Last time. Maybe that's a good goal for the coming year, balance. There's so many things I can work on in my life.

What do I choose? And here we go, lifting up. It kind-of sticks with your last resolution, that you're renewing. That if you do this, I'm having a little trouble, 'cause I'm trying, But if I do it with more ease, and less ambition, it seems a little more graceful, I don't know if it's working as well, but I think it is. We're gonna do two more.

In other words, I'm not worrying so much about moving a little bit, 'cause I have to or I'll fall. And then what happens if we just come to center, and bring the heels down and reach the arms forward, and reach for each other, and reach for each other, and reach for each other so much that we just come up! Yeah, we just come up. I wish I would've been in your head a minute or 10 seconds ago. Nice. And we go back.

And there's some balance, and back. And balance, and back. And balance, reach your arms forward. And roll back, kick over. Keep the legs together, flex your feet.

Roll down. Bend your knees, roll up, balance. Roll back, reach over, flex your feet. Push your feet away as you roll down. Head comes up, knees bend, balance.

One more. That feels good. Fun, huh? Yeah. Success in the new year already.

So successful! Oh I beat you, sorry. Oh, I was taking my time. And we do, teaser! And put our legs down. And I think you probably want to make us move some. Well, sure, reach forward first, that feels natural.

Take any last little stretch before we kick up a little bit in tempo. And ab situation, from there let's flex the feet today, they can be together or apart, roll back for, roll up or down, depending on how you look at it, reach back, keep the feet flexed, and how ever they started try to keep them that way. Exhale up. Send the feet forward, keep the curve, keep some space, we don't have to collapse over. And this one, and roll back, I'm thinking of keeping some sense of resistance through that space between my arms and I have a little space between my legs too.

It's up to you whichever way, but, so not just hanging out there, and inhale, roll back. Let's try a few pointed, if your feet aren't together, go ahead and put them together, or change what you've been doing. And back, as soon as your head touches, start to return. And forward, give yourself before we go back, give yourself the sense of reaching the entire spinal column in that C-position, so for me that means I have to really hold back the hip bones, otherwise I just, I don't know, it's not as good. Roll down, one more of those.

Up and back. And here we go. And this time we'll go down and do just a little bit of leg circle. So we take it down. Lift your arms, just go to the floor.

Pick up your right leg, hug it close. And today I'm not gonna worry too much about whether the hips are square or not, I'd rather just move them, so arms down, legs straight up, we're gonna cross over where the hips lifts, so go ahead and reach to which other way. Way over, way over, my foot's kinda relaxed. Circling around, level out the hips, come back and stop. Lift up, reach across, get the twist in the waist, come around, stop.

Again, three more. Over, down and around, up. Take your time, but you know, kind-of make it precise too. One more time, reach way over, get that stretch, and come around. We'll go the other way, so the hips don't move a lot on this first part, but when they cross over, let your hips go with it.

Reach over and up. And level out, down and around, two. And up, just so you know how big the circle is, feel for the circle, three. Two to go. And, there we go.

Hold it there, reach forward, curl up, hold on to the calf, you can pick your head up. And maybe level out the hips enough so you get a better stretch, so this leg in the air, that hip probably needs to reach downward. Take the stretch, let yourself come down, and just lower that leg, pull the other knee up, hug it close. See about the space and what freedom you can find in front of that hip joint, of the leg that you're holding, the one that's bent, see if there's a way to soften in front of the hip. Then, whatever you got, let go.

Send it up, we're crossing the midline first. We go way over, take your time, find it. And then circle around, come to the center, stop. Lift the hip to cross over, working from the waist, and center. Firm that going around, but let it be easy.

Two to go. Reach, and one more. Hold it there at the top, reverse it, take it out. I love these. I do too, especially crossing over.

They're very different though, even when I know what I'm trying to do. Each side feels very different. Two to go. And one more. Hold it at the top when you get there, settle the hips in.

If the other leg's crept out to the side, adjust it so it's more straight off your hip. Pick up the head, pull yourself in. Take that stretch if you can hold the leg and put your head down, do. Then just bend that knee, bend the other knee in close. I don't know if we have a name for this version, Merry, the one where we go forward first?

Isn't it double leg set reverse? I don't know, I think I always called it extended. Goes like this, so if you know double leg stretch, we're gonna drag it out. How's that? We're holding knees, curl your head, neck and shoulders up.

On the inhale, everything shoots forward as if you were going to do the hundred. Inhale, reach forward. Keep the legs, arms circle back, exhale. Inhale, reach forward over your knees, maybe imagine you're gonna come up, and then exhale, pull the knees in at the last moment, your head goes down. That was the exhale.

Inhale, reach forward, everything. Exhale, circle the arms, the body doesn't move. Maybe you'll come up an inch-ish. There was an inhale in there somewhere. Exhale, pull the knees in, and in the last moment come down.

Inhale, everything forward, inhale, reach. Feel the tops of the arms involved, exhale, circle. There's the inhale, right there. Right there, inhale. Bend the knees without completely falling back until the last moment.

Inhale forward. Exhale circle. Inhale, that's it. And in, can we do one more, And I'll give it to you, Meri, to do whatever you want. Here it is, inhale forward.

Exhale, what you gonna have us do? Inhale. And hold the knees, both hands on the left to go single leg stretch for each, out. And out. Reach out and out.

Feel press down on the bent knee. Send the straight leg further and further all the time. Go four, that means eight to you. Three, helping yourself out with your hands too. Two, keeping the height.

One, hands behind the head, criss-cross. Up and over. Up and over. And now, take the arm across, reach, opposite arm across the knee, hand behind the head, reach across the other side, use it to push and help you lift. Are you actually pushing into the thigh?

I'm pushing into it, I'm trying to slide my arm up. So I'm using it for assistance and also for reach. A goal, yeah. We'll do two more to each side. Total of four.

And last one. And last one. And then bending the knees. Nice. Have you ever done open leg rocker from the bottom?

I never have, I'm gonna try it. Ready? Yes. Hold your legs, I have to get a little bit of momentum going. Head's off the mat.

And then we roll up. Yeah, that's good. And then roll back. Okay I challenge you. Oh that's not nice.

Hold higher, I know you have long legs. You have long torso, long legs, but that's alright. 'Cause you can do it. I regret saying that already, 'cause you'll find my thing, but. No you're gonna be kind.

That's what we're here for. I'll just be kind because that's in our nature. Okay, I was kind, does that help? You're kinda making it hard for me, is that what this kindness is about? I don't know.

I don't know either, but let's come up and let go. And now just hold your legs there, Kristi. Just hold them there. Is that a touche? Just hold them there for a long time.

Okay. Bring them down. I deserve that. Reach the arms forward, inhale. And then peeling down, so there's an up and over sense here, an up and over, not just a down.

Reach out, here reaching for something, I don't know, something's out there that you need, or want, and then lightly, lightly in your body, just stack back up. Almost like a rebounding sort of a feeling. Easing your way back up to seated, inhale. And exhale, chin comes in. Abdominals draw in and back.

Spine goes forward, and inhale. And exhale, as you peel back up. Reaching the top of the head up. I am so light, and just wanted you to know how I'm feeling in my body right now. That feels amazing.

Rebounding. Like imagine that that's just where your spine just wants to be, and it just like you put it somewhere else, put it in a different place. Oh but what, it just wants to come right back up where it belongs. Nice and easy. One more, inhale, and round.

And inhale and up. Bring hands out to the side. Twist towards the ocean, towards the right, if you will. Or towards one direction, twist. Saw.

Reach the arms away from one another in space. One reaches back, one reaches forward to sit up. And then unwind. Inhale, lift and twist. Exhale, take the arms away from one another.

Reach the front arm forward and the back arm backwards. And get longer through your spine as you come upright. Open and center and inhale. And reach. And reach up.

To come to the center, and inhale and rotate. And exhale and reach. And inhale, reach out. And center and one more time to each side. Just feel that you're spiraling around that upright space.

That place, and then up, that place where your body just feels naturally, up, calm, straight, whatever. And then up, and then center, and what we're gonna do here is we're just gonna bend the right knee. Just put it where it makes sense, to where it's comfortable. Bring, rotate your sternum to the foot, and just walk down that leg. Take it to hold on wherever you can reach, and you get to pull, if you want.

Continue holding on with the left hand, wherever you're holding on with your left hand, it just stays, let go with your right arm. Try to reach the right arm further. Your spine might come with you, then start turning the right ribcage up towards the ceiling, allowing all the body to rotate, and then come back down. And then roll up. You're welcome.

It's gonna be a good year with that. That's my favorite thing to do. I like it so much. So getting sorted, feeling the weight of the body on both sit bones, walking forward. Hello new side.

I will meet you, new side, with ease and grace. And open the, so the left arm reaches further forward, the left ribcage starts rotating, the left hip softens. And then come back down, okay, when you're ready. And come all the way back up. And then, where do you want to go from there?

I wanna move the back, so face down, single leg kick. Okay. Please. Okay, single leg kick. I've been sitting a lot, so you're in the proper form, which is awesome.

Elbows just underneath your shoulder, right? I'm gonna move mine out. I'm just gonna leave it lower, just so I can get more of the extension in the hips. And you can change it if you like. But it's gonna be easier on my back today.

So I kind-of think of skimming the legs, the front of the hips down the mat. Before I do anything else, I'm gently pulling the forearms, the shoulders, everything ever-so-slightly back, but reaching my chest forward and up, then hover the thigh bones. If you can, keep them together, mine are gonna be a little apart. Kicking, inhale, inhale, exhale, exhale, off we go. It's in, in, in, in, exhale, two.

Three, four. And in two, three, four. And out two, three, four. Doing your best to keep the body nice and still. Can you sing your queues, please, with the rhythm?

In two, three, four. No, I was, was I? (both laughing) I could, that's the only way I could keep going, but in the meantime, just keep going and make sure you're not bouncing. And that you feel the back of the legs. Can you lift the knee higher?

Not to do it every time, but let's do one more round. In, in, in, in, and that's one round for me. Both legs out straight. Take your face to one side, and look to the window, you can look either way, grab onto four fingers, or interlace the fingers, I'm in the grab on mode 'cause I might need to lighten up. Crawl the hands up, let the elbows come down as much as possible.

Sometimes that takes a little moment of settle. Draw the belly in with an exhale. Let the belly move as you go, but try not to let it go completely. Both knees are up again, we kick three times. It's one, two, three, reach the legs, reach the arms, look forward, but extend the chest, or the spine, reach the chest.

Switch sides, kick one, two, three. And stretch to straighten. Be mindful of your neck. Elbows down, and one, and two, compact three. Stretch, long pull, those abdominals up.

And inhale, two, three, exhale. That's your chance to pull the abs in, just a little, naturally, you don't have to pull hard. And one more each way. Pull, two, three, stretch, reach. Last one, pull, two, three, stretch, reach.

Hold it, let go of the arms, take them out to a T, might need to lower your upper body, that's okay. Reach the arms further. And when you do that, this is one of those places you don't try hard, you let them reach further. They're floating off the ground, little beats of the inner thighs. The heels may or may not come together, but get those upper thighs to.

10, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, two. I'll do three sets. Here it is, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and 10. Lower the legs, hands by your shoulders, push up and back, round back. And my girlfriend gets to take it from here.

Okay, so we'll just rest here for a moment. Nah, just kidding, come forward onto your hands and knees. I was like, oh good! Come forward onto your hands and knees. Stretch your legs out straight. Both, eventually.

Let's do two push-ups. Do you like push-ups, Kristi? Not right now, I don't. But that's okay, I'm good, I'm working on them. I'm happy for them, thank you.

Okay, hold there. Put your right hand in the center of your mat. Turn to your left, lift the arm up, find a side plank position. Take the right knee to the mat. Press the pelvis forward, bring the left hand behind the head, lift that leg up, and we kick.

Forward, forward. Back, back. Forward, forward. Keeping the leg up high. And back, two more.

And back, one more. Back, put that leg down. Slide the right leg back. Lift the left arm up, one side bend, looking down at the right hand, come back to the center, find your plank. Nice, love it.

I'm gonna do two push-ups. You can do push-ups if you wish. One, and two. Left hand to the center of the mat, roll to the outside of the left foot. Arm is up, we just pause for a moment.

Left knee comes down, pelvis presses forward, hand behind the head, lift the leg up, and pull and reach. And two, keeping the hip nice and high. And two. One. Put that leg down, step the left foot back, let go of your head, one side bend, looking down, come back.

Find your plank. Love it. Good, I'm so happy. Two more push-ups. I'm sorry you don't like push-ups.

I love push-ups, I'm just taking care, you know? They're over, they're over. Come into your upstretch position and walk your hands to your feet. Allow your spine to hang down towards your thighs. And inhale.

And exhale. Maybe as you come up, there's something to give thanks for. I'm thankful for you. I'm very thankful for you. Kristi, and for you all.

And for movement. Who take this class with us, these classes with us. Bring your arms out to the side. It's nice to move together. Wouldn't it be amazing if there was like some sort-of way you could commit to moving your body for a few days in a row?

I think I can. (Kristi laughs) Then inhale, and exhale, we're gonna go down. And like just some sort-of thing you had to commit to, and hold yourself accountable for. Make sure you get present, give yourself the gift of being present in your body. Just a couple times a week.

Habitually, if you're not already. This time the arms are gonna go up the front. Up the front of the body and overhead. And as we open the arms, we lift the chest. Open the heart and bring the arms down.

And that's a wrap. Happy to be here with you, thank you. Happy to be here with you. And we're both happy to be here with you. Happy New Year.