Day 16: Magic Circle

All right. Today is class number 16 of your 30 session challenge. I hope you had fun last time. I know I did. Today we are just going to work a little bit on skills. I know the magic circle isn't everyone's favorite for me. I have a love hate relationship with it, but we are going back to the basics of the art of control of Control, ology and hugging and midline like an iron circle.

It really helps you find that control, one of those six principles of your [inaudible] a method, right? So we are going to work with the magic circle more to help us. I want you to think positive thoughts. It's going to be helping you. It's going to be giving you that next level of control that you want to get. So let's go ahead and start standing and we're going to do mat work.

We're going to stand here in a Plata stance and I'm going to go ahead and think of maybe a little standing foot work. My circle is at shoulder height, elbows up. I'm going to just do a quick little bending in the knees or plea a and then pull up in my powerhouse. All right, so I'm going to go ahead and lift my heels up from the back of my thighs and seat. I'm going to bend the knees over my big toe and all my toes, and then I'm going to roll through my foot and as I lift, this is the important part for your sin. I'm going to really feel my belly pull into my back, up, up, up as if someone's pulling me up by my head, so all my energy is lifted. I'm going to cross one foot in front of the other with a long lower back.

Press the circle, hugging the mid line. Let's work on that control as we sit down with control, powerhouse, lifting, lowering gently down to the mat. Now I'm going to have you put it to the side for a second. Slide yourself back and go ahead and roll out and take the circle and reach out behind you and let's go ahead and bring your circle. We're going to start off with the a hundred it's going to be between your ankles, so go ahead and bend your knees in.

Put it between your ankles that start with the legs at a tabletop pitcher. Hands behind your head, one hand over the other. I want you to take a big breath into the mat. Big exhale into the mat and dry your head up. Nice support here. Reached the arms long on the next exhale and begin your pump.

So now we're thinking about hugging that midline with the circle, feeling those inner thighs, drawing the powerhouse in and up. That's 20 on the next exhale. Extend the legs in two, three, four, five. Exhale. I'm really trying to find my inner thighs, my pelvic floor, my lower belly, drawing, everything in and out while lengthening my back line. That's about 60 [inaudible] [inaudible] vigorous bumps. [inaudible] increasing that scoop, having your circle help you squeeze and pull in and up against.

Okay, that's 90 last one. Exit low the year out. Hug the Nisa. Nice job. Grab your circle. Rock up. We're going to start with the rollback, so you're going to put it between your inner thighs, hands underneath the knees. Sit Up tall for me, and we're going to press a circle just with your inner thighs. Draw that pelvic floor and lower belly and roll back. Just your waistband.

Take a breath and exhale forward squeezing so that you can scoop in and up and again, press draw and rollback in with the air and exhale forward. Now go down to the bottom of your shoulder blades. Press one bone at a time in with the air and exhale forward. Again, press really understanding how much your legs stabilize is exercise. If you have a hard time doing a roll up or the neck, Polk, now we're going to go down all the way to your head.

It's a lot of stabilizing with every part of your leg. Here we go. Exhale all the way down. Okay, inhale, look at your belly. Exhale, squeeze all that air out. One more caress. Exhaling in with the air.

Try to really curve. Now keep your round back and stretch your legs by squeezing all of this in the arms. Reach forward and the full roll back or roll up, I should say inner thighs still squeezing up mid line, pelvic floor, lower belly, all that's working. And then stretch back. Arms come up. Inhale, lift the head, squeeze a circle. Exhale. Drawing up one bone at a time. Scoop. Release that squeeze.

Now press dry everything in. So now you're feeling, what does it feel like to hug the mid line with my arms. One more actually tomorrow. Yeah. And then we're going to switch to the rollover press. Yeah. And stretch back one more time.

Hope your bottoms warmed up, hugging that midline so that it has no problem. With the roll over. Bring your legs up, put the circle between the ankles, press, press your arms firmly into the mat. And we're gonna draw that belly in and rollover. Relax a circle, but flex and down. Think of your tower, resisting the spring and squeeze.

Okay. And Flex and relaxed. Circle lengthening. One more. Press lift. Those hips flex down. We're going to reverse it, so this time we're going to leave it relaxed on the way over and feel the difference as you press it. On the way down. Yeah, to relax on the way over. Squeeze.

Pull those inner thighs together. Pull him close. One more time. Flex over. Squeeze Linkedin, Linkedin, linkedin. Oh, okay. We're gonna use that circle to stretch our right leg as we do single leg circles. Here we go. So stretch a little turnout in that leg.

This leg is anchoring down the middle of your body, right? I'm going to put the circle to the side and press my arms firmly down and I'm going to first start off with reaching long and low and scoop up with my powerhouse. All right, I'm ready. Cross around, up. So the control goes to really work within your range and then take it just a little further to get some guts into it as Romana would say rivers. So I'm really keeping my scoop working the back of my thighs. I go down, skipping up to come up.

Give me one more and switch. Now we'll take the circle again and stretch. Engaging my right back of the thigh stretch. Try to keep your shoulders down. All right, we'll put it down. One more. Lengthening, scooping it up. And here we go.

Cross around, up. Cross around, up. Really lifted up to your right shoulder. One more stopping at your nose. Reverse back. The thigh reaches out. Back the fat. Releasing those hip flexors. Yeah. Two around. One more and hug it in.

We're going to leave this circle out for rolling like a ball. So both legs are long. Inhale, lift the head up. Exhale all your air out. [inaudible] pressing and we're going to lift your bottom forward. Grab onto your ankles, Tuck your head six times breathing. Inhale back. Exhale up. Yeah.

In with year Xcel and four more you can pull on your ankles to come up. Two more. Last time. Balanced balance to be toes. Alright, let's lift our bottoms back and we're going to do the series of five. The first one, we're not going to use a circle, so I'm going to roll back. I'm going to, how'd that midline?

I just want to revisit that so I get really in the right position. I'm going to draw my right knee and right hand on left and then left hand on knees. Slide that left leg straight and switch. Really reach out that leg. Reach, reach, reach, squeeze, Dryden, reach, reach two more sets, right. Elbows up, right and left. Go ahead and rest your head while you grab your circle, but it between your ankles. Go ahead, put your feet down for a second and place your hands behind your head, one over the other. And I want you to take a big breath into the mat and exhale, lifting up. Okay. And now drew, hug the circle and bring the knees over your hips and take another breath and exhale, come up even higher. Get all the way up. Excellent. Now keep your hands here.

Go long and lean squeezing android in two. More like that last one. Squeezing those inner thighs. Now add the arms, four more and three hugging that circle. One more long. Lower back. Great. Take the circle away. Right leg, left leg back the fi one switch. Let's play with this pace. Switch, switch, switch, switch, skip rich. Reach out, reach out, reach out. One more set, right. Bend the knees, rest your head again.

Grabbing your circle. Place a circle between your ankles. Rest down for a second hand over hand behind your head. I love getting my spine in the correct position instead of trying to just fight through it. So we're going to take a big breath into the mat and exhale drying in everything to lift up. So it's really important. We're not back here with our upper body, but our way is more on the bottom of your shoulder blades or on the bottom of your bra strap when you do this exercise. So right now I'm like barely up, right? So big breath and exhale higher. Now bring those knees in, take and extend them up.

How'd that midline? I still want to come up higher. I don't like my positioning at all. Big Breath. Exhaling. All right, now I'm going to reach out long and pull it, squeezing it long. Endo and schoolies and him. Yeah. Two more. Last one. Let stay up. Bend the knees, Cross over to your left, right knee and come center.

Go longingly and up to your left knee. Come Center and long and lean. One more second. Come Center. Last one. Senator. Long and lean. Whew, those are tough. Take your circles. Sit Up, spine, stretch forward.

So we're going to put a heel in the middle of each block. Sit Up nice and tall. Let's do two with the pad stacked on top, right hand over your left, and we're going to sit up really tall, big inhale, and then exhale. Pull your belly in and up. As you round over, you're going to slightly push down. As you lift your belly, however you press the circle down is how high you're lifting up your belly. Switch hands for the next one. Big Breath. Exhale, pulling in and out. Lift that weighs. Lift, lift, lift, not the shoulders. And now let's do two where you're squeezing the circle on the way down.

So we're going to take a big breath, press the circle, release a circle in, in, in, in exhale, squeeze of circle. Release a circle. As you inhale up, reverse that. So release a circle. You exhale down. Find that lift in your powerhouse, squeeze a circle and see how that feels. To draw up your spine against affirmed. Circle and exhaling down and press a circle and draw your body up. One bone.

At a time against the firm circle. Nice job. Open leg rocker, so I'm going to pull back in my powerhouse. I'm going to put it between my ankles and this is going to add some control to my open leg rocker and bring my legs up. Six rockin tried to really come up with energy in with your back. Exhale, okay in with the air so you're not squeezing the heck out of it. You're just realizing you have to keep it.

Okay, two more and it has to stay even. Okay? No one side higher than the other. Last one. Come up and sit up on those. Sit bones. Leave the legs, press even more. Roll down your spine. You're ready for corkscrew.

Press to the right. Reach long and low to the left. It really helps you to engage the back of your thighs. It's so hard to do this exercise if you're tight in the quads. If you're tight in the hip flexors, we're going to do one more set, but you can really feel how your legs should be one last time and scooping in and now Rocca remove the circle. We're going to leave it out for the saw.

There are variations where you could include it today. I'm going to have it out longer. Arms and lift off that seat. Twist and exhale in with the [inaudible] twist and exhale in the year. Twist and exhale. Inhale, feel the dominoes. Really feel it.

Lift like you did when you press down that circle, give me one more. Reach those arms and exhale and in with the air and exhaling. All right, we're going to squeeze everything together. Grab your circle, flip over to your other side and we're going to leave it off to the side for a moment. Hands Underneath your shoulders if you're really flexible, if your back's feeling tight, a little forward, a little out for neck roll, press your pelvis into the mat, squeeze your inner thighs like you have a magic circle between them and I'm just don't want to talk in the mic, so that's the only reason my head's up. So really squeeze. Press down, but now get your body nice and long. Eight coming up, belly lifts up your sternum effortlessly.

Look over your right shoulder. Circle the neck. Free of tension. As you look left, come center. Reverse belly is supporting your back. Your back should not hurt. Come down, lengthening each vertebra. Try repositioning your pelvis and legs again. [inaudible] that allows for your to lift. Let's look left first.

Circle the head down again. Free of tension. Keep your shoulders in one place. Feels Nice at calming down. Alright, now for your circle, let's hold it right here. Put your heels of your hands or right in the middle of those pads. Elbow should be relatively under your under arms press.

So now you've had this feeling of what does it feel like to hug a midline and get control here. Again, inner thighs, pelvis, pressing down. Lift the legs a little and pretend you can kick your head right to left to let's shape those bottoms. Get the back of the thigh and seat to lift and work. Here we go. Let's do two more sets. Pressing to lift the powerhouse. Last set. Alright, now we're going to put the circle between your ankles. A little tricky sometimes if you're super flexible, not a problem.

Okay, right cheek on the mat. Hands behind your back. It's a little coordination. So stay with me. Straight legs, they stay straight. We're going to lift, lift. They stay up. You pull it in, they stay up, you lift out. And now lower as you stretch to three. Same thing on other side. [inaudible] make sure you're pressing that circle. Yes. So squeeze it, lift, squeeze it in, squeeze it out. And lift. Same thing on the other side.

[inaudible] that was worked for me. Take your circle away just to the side. Well, let's do a nice stretch. Rounding your back, crawling your arms away. You can also flex your toes and stretch back like that. You can even keep lifting your powerhouse in and up and stretch with your hands here. Okay, let's flip over onto your back. Sit up first though. For a neck pole, you're going to put it between your inner thigh, a your arches. Flex those toes and nice and high. And we're gonna start with your hands. One over the other, behind your head.

Alright, so press lifting up and here we go. Let's try to pull those inner thighs, pelvic floor bellies in and up. And then curl down. Hands go to the side and with the exhale, so you're really progressing. Finding that control. Inhaling up press. Feel the length as you pull on your neck to go down.

One more with your arms by your side. I'm going to try to do it. Building up to my hands, staying behind my head the whole time. Now push those heels away and here we go. The goal is to keep your elbows wide on the way up. Okay, two more. Really helps to have the circle.

I probably wouldn't be able to stay as wide and connected. Last one. Okay, here we go. Inhaling up and really pull on your neck. Get long and let's get ready for Jack Knife. So bend the knees in, place it between your ankles and press your arms down by your side.

Three Jack Knives as if you're going up an escalator with your hips. All right, let me see that much control. Press scooping in and here we go. And now up and down. When you lift up, I want you to try to get your toes all the way up to the ceiling. Here we go. Hips lift, legs up, and yeah, one more with a circle. It really helps to give you that link. Here we go. They got a little more juice out of it because of the circle. We're going to do the sidekick series, but we're going to do at the circle.

So we're going to lie on your right side, placing the circle between your ankles. How are you guys doing? I hope you're doing okay and still enjoying the extra help and work of the circle. So here we go. From your elbow to your tailbone, try to hit a straight line in the legs a little forward. Hips stacked. Yeah. And we're going to use the outer thigh inner thigh to bring those two pads together. Two, three, four, five release. Make sure it's not going forward or back. And here we go.

I'm gonna do two more. Actually, three more with my hand behind my head, elbow, straight up. Really working my whole body again. Everything's working to squeeze that circle. Last one. This is how controlled you should be on the side of your body. We're gonna rock that circle a little back.

Now you're going to bend the bottom leg, slip it in, come forward, top leg bends. Now we're going to stretch this circle. Hips stay square and we're going to stretched two, three, four, five release. I'm aiming to get this muscle, two, three, four, five release and stretch it to three, four, five. Release says do two more and stretch not using your foot, but your seeing last one. Scoop and stretch and stretch it. Stretch it. Good job. Bend the top leg, put it on the outside. Rocket back, bottom one. Slips under again. All right, so we're going to now do a lift where we work the on this side, the left abdominals. Okay, the left side of your, your waist muscles. Here we go. Scoop in one, squeeze two and try to lift and down. Notice that I'm keeping on the mat.

I'm not lifting as I lift up. Very important to find the right muscles. Pull in one, my powerhouse. Squeeze two. I'm going to length in my bottom leg as I lift and rest. One more time. Scooping in. Press lift. Keep the legs up. Roll onto your belly smile pillow for your forehead. 20 beats, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Shape that bottom. Inner thighs, 10 more for six, seven, eight, nine, 10 other side.

So we're going to both pads, lineup, hips, lineup from your shoulder, elbow to your tailbone. Straight line, scooping and press two, three, four, five. Release Scoopin and press. Two, three, four, five. Nice, shapely legs. Hands behind your head for three more. So everything, your belly, your waist, your legs are all working, just not your feet or your knees. Pull in and squeeze. Release. They don't like my heads going towards my feet a little bit. Last one. Almost pushing your head into your hands to look straight ahead. Okay.

Rock back that top leg a little. Slip that bottom leg inside. Rock back. Slip the top leg. Turn it out a little. Let's get that outer thigh and bottom. Here we go. Pull it in your belly and stretch. Two, three, four, five, release, pulling in and [inaudible]. Two, three, four, five. Release. Pulling in and stretch. Two, three right through here. Release two more. Pulling in and stretch.

I usually only do three of these and release one more. So I feel like I'm really working at here. And now bend the top leg, put it on the outside or rocket back. Gently slip the bottom leg inside. That wasn't very coordinated. Welcome. There we go. All right, so now we're going to do that three press. So we're gonna pull your belly in one, squeeze down two and lift up three and release.

Scoop in one. Press down to lengthen up, up, up and release. Really getting the side of your waist here. Stomach and press down too. And lift up. Nice job. We're going to lower down. Bend the knees and grab your circle and lie on your back and hug your knees into your chest. And we're going to get ready for teaser. Maybe have a little fun with it. Okay.

So I want you to place a circle between your ankles cause we want to really feel what the legs feel like when we stabilize and hug and control. So arm start here, scoop in your belly, press those inner thighs. Reach the legs forward as your powerhouse scoops in and up. Arms back and we're going to do like a roll up. Inhale and exhale up and in with the or and exhale down, hugging, pulling in, away from it, adding that control more and down. Try and make this feel good and not torture. Last one, stay up here.

Grab your circle, have your legs there. Now we're going to have some fun. Bend your knees, put them inside the circle. Nice job. We're going to go on top. Bend on top. Good again inside, and one more time under. And now press a circle. Lift your arms and roll all the way down. We're going to come up.

So this is what it feels like when you hold it between your arms. Two more. I think it's easier when it's between my legs. Last one. [inaudible]. Great job. Let's get rid of that circle.

Then the knees and let's get ready for seal. We're going to do six seals and then we're going to stand up to clap. Two, three. Feel your hips. Lift over your bond. Okay. Hips lift over your bottom. Feel your bottom. Lift over your shoulder blades. Here you go. Exhaling up for more.

So massage. Enjoy it. [inaudible] two more and we'll stand up. Last one. Cross. Use the back of your thighs to lift and we're going to grab our circle for an ending. Let's just end with a little bit of arms. I want you to stand in your Pilati stance and I think I'll give you a side view.

Does to see how our body should be. I'm going to line up my heels on this. I'm going to have my powerhouse of course in a nut. We'll start the way we that our arms, the way we started our sit, a little [inaudible] to get everything lifted. Let's go ahead and rise up using the back of the thighs and glutes. Everything. Resist gravity, holding the heels together, keeping them lifted over the ball of your foot if you can, and bend the knees.

Good. Keeping those heels up. Roll through the foot. Kay, and now everything lifts and now hold that strong posture and press the circle. Hold two, three, four, five release. Try to keep open. Collarbones elbows up, scoop in and hold. Grow Taller. If you can release one more, squeezing five times five seconds. I made two, three so we're not pumping it and release. Let's bring it down to a 45 degree level here and Poland and Perez.

Two three, four, five. Release. Pulling in and press. Two, three, four, five. Release. Now up at a 45 elbows lifted. Shoulders down. Everything's still in an app. And press two, three, four, five really scooping in. M press two, three, four, five, release. Last one. Give it all you got. Squeeze. Release a little bit of triceps here. Put it behind you. Heels, the hands. Roll.

Open your chest and shoulders and try to use your triceps to squeeze. Two, three, four, five, a little more mind over matter. Pull in and squeeze. If you can squeeze it, you're awesome. And release. I'm imagining it. One more, her pressing, so no concave chest. While you're pressing. Very last exercise, we're gonna do an eight count lift using a relevant or lifting your heels at the same time. Pumping the circle. Eight counts up. Here we go. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Down slowly with control. Five, six, three more times. You can shape your arms as little or as much as you want with this exercise and your seat and the back of the thighs. So if you're barely squeezing, well, you'll barely get results. This is too [inaudible] and a n. One, two, three, four, five, six last time, give it all. You got one, two, three, four, belly in and up. Ben, one to keep your energy up.

Five, six, seven, like you're landing on an eggshell and you're all set. I'll see you in next class.