Day 10: Planks

All right, today is class number 10 of our 30 session challenge. So by this point, we're starting to feel a lot of our muscles wake up, some of our smaller muscle groups that may be have been taking a little break for a little while. And that's what our challenge is all about, about getting everything going. So we're gonna do a lot of planks today and really understand and remember how proper arm placement gives us the right tools to do the advanced exercises. Okay? So we're going to pretty much do an intermediate mat with a lot of vigor, still doing it, but adding some great stable arm work. All right, so come join me on your mat. That's all you're going to need today. We're going to stand, start standing politely stance. Okay, we worked a lot on our legs last time.

Let's show off our shapely legs scooping in your belly, one arm over the other. Relax the shoulders, draw the navel into your back and feel your lower back. Lengthen so that when you sit down, you're keeping a nice long lower back. So I'm going to cross one foot in front of the other and keep my belly lifting up to my sternum as I lower myself down and then lift back and roll out. And we're going to start off with a hundred we're going to inhale, look at our belly, and exhale, lift, pull our belly and an up. Okay, so in with the air and exhale strong long arms. And let's go Andy, I'm with you.

Okay. And I'm trying to find my powerhouse here. I want you to do the same if it didn't feel it when you were lifting straight up, strong arms pumping, pushing those legs away, squeezing those inner thighs, drawing your pelvic floor in and up in with the air XL, squeezing out the air. [inaudible] relax shoulders. Okay, I think that's 80 yeah, one more. And then we'll go into the rollout.

[inaudible] lower the back of the legs, reach the strong arms. You're going to press your back firmly into the mat. Reach your arms back and your legs are pressing firmly. And here we go in with the air head and exhale, press your arms firmly scooping it in and stretch and draw the inner thighs lower back and reaching back. Six more. [inaudible] really using that powerhouse. Squeeze those inner thighs.

Try to s remember hugging a midline, so be very aware of your arms that they're not going everywhere, that they're strong reaching. They had energy, arms, head stretch in with your to start. Exhaling down. We're going to do four more [inaudible] in with your long legs reaching that way. I'm going to try to concentrate on your arms though, and caressing down. Hug in the mid line. If you imagine you had a magic circle, how would that feel? And let's do two more and okay.

Yeah, one more and we'll go into the role over Armstrong head. Press firmly lift into your sea curve. Rolling back. Okay. Stronger arms and now you're gonna use a strong arms to press into the mat and we're going to go over for the rollover. Dry your belly. Lift those legs over.

My arms are still pressing firmly and I'm going to roll down. Reach your legs long. Squeeze them together, up and over, flex open and rule it down. Strong arms and one more in this direction. Open and where to reverse. Reach those legs. Lung open and flex.

Roland, do squeeze those inner thighs. Tumor, Armstrong. Alright. Reaching long the alarms, trying to keep the shoulders relaxed. One more squeeze and we're going to keep the right leg and lower the left stretch. Press those strong arms and cross around up strong.

Arms strong. Back of the ribs. Spine into the mat. Two more. Last one. And we're going to go the other way. Three, keeping those shoulders quiet. One more and we're going to switch and stretch. Okay.

Press and chorus around. Exhale, stretch and reach. Two. Let's do one more other side. Stop me at the center. Yeah. Three more. Working on my powerhouse.

Last one. All right, bend the knee and now slide that leg straight and we're going to inhale, lift up and exhale. Roll up to four. Rolling like a ball, squeezing the air out. Bring your bottom forward and grab onto your ankles and inhaling back and exhale. Really squeeze that air out. And in with year. Okay. Three more and too was so good for me cause it doesn't really hurt anymore.

But when you haven't ruled because of your tailbone, you lose that flexibility. All right. Strong arm lift. We're going to go into our series of five springing the right leg with you. Let me see. Strong arms here, right, left, right, left, right, left for more sets, lift those triceps. Longer arms, legs, I mean one more set. Bend both knees ant. Let's hug our legs this time and exhale.

Just want you to feel a strength of your arms. Hug in the midline. Now do the same thing going back and in with the air. Hug in the mid line. Exhale two more. Last one, single straight leg and one, two, one, two. You know the exercise. Focus on your upper body. Focus on your head, coming up over your ribs. Exhaling all the air out so you can use your powerhouse.

Grab that ankle stretch last set wide elbows, hands behind your head. Take a breath and then exhale. Come over your ribs and reach and pull up. Push your head into those strong arms, dry your belly all the way to your sternum. Three more into push. Pull. One more. Cross and switch, twist, twist, twist. And really important to get a good twist on your rib cage. Last one and had both knees and sit up.

Open the legs, arms up at shoulder height. Strong arms. Imagine almost you have a circle and exhale. Squeeze out that air. Okay. Inhale, lifting and exhaling down. [inaudible].

Inhaling up shoulders in joint. Very important. Exhale. Stretch your spine down, down. Not your shoulders, up by your ears. And let's do two more. Yeah, in with the air. Great. Let's get ready for open like rocker. Dry Your powerhouse back. Let's float those legs up. Okay.

Strong arms even. Push your legs into your arms a little bit, six times. Here we go in with your back. Exhaling forward, squeezing out that air so you come all the way forward. [inaudible] in with your lock. Those arms straight. Three more. Roll through each vertebra. One more time.

[inaudible] let's squeeze your legs together and go down for corkscrew. Leaving the legs. Press your arms firmly into the mat and we're going to go to the right circle down left and center. Go as far right as you can. Challenge that upper body, oh the way around and left. One more set and left and we're going to sit up for saw, opening the legs and arms out.

Really strong arms reaching. Separate your shoulder blades and twist, twist, twist the upper body and exhale in with the air reaching those strong arms. We'll revisit this in spine twist and exhale. And Kristy did a beautiful job at this and I think class three and exhaling when we worked on our breathing. Inhaling up long and exhale.

[inaudible] one more time. Strong arms give you awareness of all kinds of muscles. Sewing up the baby toe strong, reaching long arms and lifting the back. Pinky up, up, up and up. Let's squeeze their legs together and do neck roll. So we're going to flip onto your stomach. Put your hands underneath your shoulders and I want you to press everything down. Press your hands into the mat. Pretend like you're pulling the mat with suction cups behind.

Your body is going to go in front of it. Okay, so we're going to press down in with the or don't want to talk directly into the mic there and keep lifting your sta uh, belly up to your sternum. Look over your right shoulder, circle the hat and look left forward looking left. Naval is lifting all the way to your sternum and now pull that map behind you as you lengthen your spine forward. And we'll do that again. Pull the mat, lift the navel up to your sternum. Look left, circle down right and forward.

Look right circle down, left forward. Pull the map behind you. And now let's work on our underarm area. We're going to push into the mat, push our knuckles together, lift your belly to your sternum, but really work the upper body as we do single leg kick. Here we go lift and one, two left, two maybe you want to channel the class we just did with legs and work. Those hamstrings will work those glutes, but really press your forearm into the mat and lift your chest.

Lift the underarm area. One more set right to left to right facial cheek on the mat, hands behind you. Elbows as low as you can and three kicks. Lift and kick, kick, kick. And we're going to lift our sternum from our powerhouse, not by yanking our arm. Switch and lift your navel to your sternum switch.

Bring your hands as high as you can. Put your elbows down and three and Lyft try to do the same with this stretch. Now. Hands up high. Yeah, and left. Left, left. All right, round your back. Strong arms and stretch. You can reach your arms far away, but try to keep a good seeker.

You can even flex your feet and sit back. Okay, we're going to turn around and do netball and turning over. Try to keep your heels as close to this front edge as you can and I'm going to take a big breath and I'm going to exhale. Stay tall to go back, pressing my head into my hands, elbows wide. My hands are going to go by yours, my side to come up and exhale. You can keep your hands behind your head, mate. I might do that in the end.

[inaudible] tall, tall, tall, and again [inaudible] squeezing board and inhale, sit up tall and exhale back. Trying to connect my back, my thighs with the back of my ribs. Three more. Wow. Inhale up and exhale and to, I'm gonna give it a shot. Ideally I want to get my elbows wide on the way up. Last one.

Inhaling and exhaling back. We're going to go into Jack Knife, so I want you to bend your knees into your chest, make sure there's enough room behind you from arms into the mat and we're going to go 90 degrees with those legs. Here we go. Squeeze those hips. I want you to basically to really understand how important the energy in your arms are. So pressing down, over and lift and control it down. Feel the arms. Two more and troll. And one more time. One, articulate that spine [inaudible] I really was able to use my arms to lift my legs up high. Set that for spine twist one fluid motion, flex your feet back and we're going to reach out those long arms and twist to the right. Take a breath and exhale twice.

[inaudible] and with the air. Exhale in with the air. Exhale. I love feeling myself. Squeeze that are out of my lungs. Get a little more rotation in my ribs. Think of that when you're going to do the twists later. [inaudible] and one more [inaudible].

All right, let's do some sidekicks. Super important. We're going to lie on your right side so that you can understand where you are in space. When you're on your side, bring your legs forward to the front edge and we're going to do back. Here we go forward and back. Good forward and back. One more, and then we're going to put the left hand behind our head. Here we go. Hand over hand.

Feel the stabilization of the so that you're using your leg, not your whole by when your whole body is stabilizing, but allowing that leg to smoothly move freely. One more and kick up and squeeze down. Lengthen your neck like you're doing. Neck Gull and exhale and it's up and lengthen and squeeze down outer thigh, inner thigh tumor. One last time and five little circles. I'm really lengthening my neck. One pulling the back of my ribs. Get in the back of my thigh other way. Five Times one, two, three, four, five.

Let's lie on your stomach. Make a small pillow for your forehead and lift those legs. Notice I'm not tensing my upper body when I'm doing this. Okay, and 20 [inaudible] well to your other side and you're going to bring your legs a little forward. Notice my left hand is behind my head. Lengthening my neck. Yes. All right, we'll do the first two like this.

Forward and back and forward and back. Hand behind the head, both hands over each other and back and forward. Try to keep your top elbow, your right elbow from waving at anyone that goes straight up to the ceiling and it stays there for more. Feel how it connects to your, what I like to call your upper powerhouse or your rib cage to more. Last one, keep your hand there.

Outer Thigh, inner thigh, lengthening up and squeeze and up and lengthen and up your whole spine lengthens as you squeeze down and two powerhouse in and up. Last time. It's like neck cold, but you're on your side and five circles to one reverse. Keep lengthening powerhouse. Great job. It's teaser time. Lie on your back. Yeah, hugging your knees. All right. And you get to kind of shake out your quads and we're going to go into, let's do all three here. Here we go.

So we're going to press your arms down into the mat and lengthen your legs forward to a 45 degree. And I just want you to feel what that feels like with your arms pressing down. Now reach them back and we're an inhale and exhale all the way up. Strong arms reaching them and we're going to roll down in with the air ex Holly and tomorrow. Yeah, and with the air band. Last one into teaser too. So strong arms reaching and Polo and Paul. Then one more arms lift from the waist and everything down.

Two more, little smoother. Next time. Last one. Great job. Let's flip over for swimming. So flip and long arms, long legs. Lift your right arm, lift your whole body up on your right arm and left leg up higher. And we're gonna inhale for five. Exhale for five and just letting you know, cause it's not, you can't hear me too well when I'm in the mic. Here we go. Okay.

Long lift, right arm and left neck, relaxed and into three, four. Exhale. Two, three, four, back of the thigh and seat. Exhale, two, three, one more set. Exhale, two, three, four, five and melts. Round your back. Sit onto your heels. You can have your toes flexed or not flexed. And you can even grab onto your ankles if you want.

And then straight forward, we're going to transition to leg. Pull up front and back. Here we go. We're going to put your, keep your feet right where you are. Your hands reaching long. Plant your hands. Lift up. So here we go. We are really keeping your shoulder directly over your hand. Squeeze your seat down. Shoulders and joint. Lift the right leg, rock back, and come center at long neck.

Don't look at [inaudible] and left and right. One more set, right scoop that Melean the left scoop. Now we're going to bring the right hand to your left. Use your hips to lift up. This is a little idea of what the twist and s is going to look like. Both hands pointing forward towards your feet. Shoulders Open, lift your seat right, flex down, switch left, flex down, switch right flex down. Who Left? Flex down.

One more set right and left and we're going to bend the right knee under to really understand that side, that real good placements. Shoulder right under the hand. This hand, just like you had in your sidekicks and pushed the right hip forward. We'll slide the left leg long lifted and kick and back. Just five trying to warm up your right hip. Whew, two more.

Lift that leg last one and leg long. Now Neil up tall and we're going to switch to the other side. Your hands going to be directly under your shoulder. These are all just trying to warm you up for your snake and twist, possibly star. Here we go. Slide that leg long and then squeeze that left hip forward and under right elbow, up to the ceiling. Lift your eye like and kick. Reach out to that hip.

Stabilize with your left hip and two more high up and kneeling up tall. All right, and we're going to get ready for our snake and twist, which I want you to do here before we do them on the reformer. When one time in the series we will get to those and so that you can feel really strong about it. I used to love these exercises, so let's get back to enjoying them. Your knees are going to be um, a little bit bent, pretty bad actually, and you're right hand, maybe about half a foot in front of your shoulder, left-hand almost in line with your shoulder. And I want you to lift into this beautiful Highbridge and then exhale down into the mat and a Nice Cobra sneak position. Ready? Strong arms, right?

We're thinking of a plank position and we're going to keep them strong so we have feeling of all kinds of different muscles in the rest of our body. Here we go up and his strong arms and we're going to exhale. Okay, so really nice. Lifting our belly to our sternum. Come up into that Highbridge and twist. Undo. One more. Exhale in with the air and strong arm. Shoulders, right?

And exhale. All right, we're going to bend those knees in a little bit more and put your left hand on top. I want you to lift up into a rainbow and then you're going to curl under, squeezing out, really rotating the ribs. We've talked a lot about that today and then come back to face forward and then just your rib cage is going to open to the ceiling, trying to keep your hips facing forward. All right, so let's do that. Ready? Set. We're going to come up. Use that right hit, get your legs working and that exhale, squeeze out. Then here, come forward, squeezing that right hip. Now exhale, come forward and bet. One more time and under exhale and forward. Feel that right hip lift and open and forward and bent. Other side, we're going to bring the legs forward into kind of a teaser to transition.

So teaser and that other side. Here we go left-hand, about a half a foot in front, right hand here. Alright. Legs are a little straighter than they are in the twist. Strong arms so that we feel all the other muscles right. Lift into your Highbridge and exhale strong arms belly to your sternum in with the air. And untwist. One more. Feel your hips go down.

Yeah. And with the air and untwist, now bring the feed in. A little bit. Arm on top, and the full twist. So you're gonna use your left hip considerably. Now to lift your weight from the Mat, Kay, lift your left hip. Exhale, lift your left hip.

Keep it there. Open up, forward. And let's do one more up. Exhale under the bridge. Twist forward. Keep your body here, but open the upper body and down. All right, other side. And we're going to do start.

So we're going to legs up and over, and we're going to try to just start. We're going to try to get your shoulder over the hand of where the wrist for our star. I want a lot of determination. I'm really cha determined right now. I'm going to do this star work, my hips to push forward and up from the mat and try to keep your feet flex and stacked. All right? Draw on your powerhouse. Squeeze your hips, and we're gonna lift up nice and strong. Okay. Once you feel strong, then you're going to swing that like freely and back and forward and back and come down. Let's do the other side, so we're going to in a really working out my tailbone here. Teaser. All right, left hands. We're going to flex those feet.

Have them in line with your spine. Okay, we're going to work the left hip. I want you to bring again the shoulder strongly over your wrist. This arms right here. Here we go. We're going to try to stay in one solid plan. That's the real trick here. So I'm going to squeeze my hips, scoop my belly in, lift up her, maybe my left hips, my solid hip. Now keep strong and forward.

Re stomach back. One more forward. Back. Huh? I strengthened my arm over and bend and then it made the world of difference. I hope that does it for you too. Let's swing our legs forward and we're going to do seal, so we're going to lift forward a little bit. Put your feet together, scoop your hands underneath your ankles.

We're going to do six and then we're going to roll to a standing position for our finale with pushups. Here we go. Clap two, three in with here. Exhale, two, three. Use always your breath to come up. Lower belly to go back. Three more clap and two last one. Cross. [inaudible] push. Use your arms to add link and we're going to turn around for our pushups.

Okay, so I hope you've enjoyed getting your arms in with your body. Strong arms here and we're going to roll off an imaginary wall and we're going to walk out into a pushup position. No, stop with my hands about here and I'm going to squeeze my bottom down into that plank and I'm going to try do five Ben in the elbows. Five really warming up my arms. I want to open my chest too. One more and pulling up.

Walk back to your feet and you are able to touch your chest down to the mat and up. Good. Good job. I'm going to keep working on that. So reaching down, I want to always do things with good form and of course not hurt myself. So one more set of five. Here we go. We're going to plant those hands. You can also do fists if you have any problems with your wrists. I think this needs to come back just a little and down up. One, two, three. Made the elbows shave one more, your ribs and walking back. Try to keep your hips from swaying. Now I want you to see that energy in the arms as you come up.

So you're gonna rule up rich energy through your fingertips. Turn your palms out as you exhale. Inhale, push the earth down. Really feel the upper arms. Really feel like you're pulling yourself through water and relax and I'll see you next class. Great job.