Class #3500

Foundational Mat 5

30 min - Class
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Begin your transition from the foundational exercises to the core exercises with this Mat workout by Kathryn Ross-Nash. She focuses on building your Teaser, finding hidden Teasers in every movement. She also works on maintaining stability, box alignment, and control so that you can progress in your practice with strong technique.
What You'll Need: Mat

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Hi, I'm Kathy Ross Nash here at the beautiful PyLadies anytime studios. Today we're going to be focusing on a mat that transitions you from the foundational into the core. The focus of this first mat is I'm building your teaser. We'll be looking at a lot of stability, box alignment and control. You'll need a mat and a weighted bar for this workout.

We're going to begin lying down nice and long and take a moment and just checking. Pull the stomach in and up. Relax the shoulders, bend the knees into your chest and give them a hug. Lift your arms and legs up to the ceiling. Lift the head up and look at your stomach and if it's out, pull it in. Inhale deeply and lower your legs and arms. Moving them together in parallel lines, opening the chest as you lower the legs in.

Hundred

Only go as low as you can. Control your box. Don't worry, it's going to increase in depth as we go. Inhale, fill the lungs fully. Pull the stomach back and exhale for five, four, three, two, one. Inhale deeply. Feel the legs. Reach out of the hips, pull the pelvis back and exhale for five, four, three, two, one. Anchor the stomach and bring everything back up. Lengthen your neck down again. Lift the head up.

Reach to those parallel lines. Go a little deeper this time. Challenge it a tiny bit cause you're getting warmer and big arms. Inhale two, three, four, five and exhale. Two, three, four, five. Vigorously pumped the arms in. Fill an empty the lungs to get the circulation moving.

Paul the stomach in and again, reestablish and bring the head down. Lift up the head. Go a little deeper with that stretch. Reach out from the center. Reach the limbs long. Reach the arms low. Go a little lower this time and inhale. Two, three, four, five. Exhale, two, three, four, five. Try to keep those shoulder blades reaching towards the mat.

The pelvis pools towards the met. The stomach lifts up and in the heels pressed together to activate the legs. Pull the stomach in and reestablish. Head goes down. Inhale up. You should be starting to feel a little juicy right now. Lengthen out of the arms, out of the legs. Keep those parallel planes.

Go a little deeper and inhale. Exhale, deep, deep, deep, schoolies the air out. And inhale, two, three, four, five and exhale two, three, four, five. Come all the way up. Re-Establish. Pull the stomach up and in. Make this one your best.

Lengthen out. Reach through the legs. Pull the stomach back, open up the chest. Lengthen out long reach. If you can go eye level, eye level, and inhale, two, three, four, five. Don't let the arms go too wide. They're really reaching right out of the shoulder sockets. The legs reach out of the hip sockets. The stomach pulls up in, in, and opposition shoulder blades open to the mat. Paul the stomach in, and a nice soft chest on top of all of that.

Lengthen, lengthen, reach, reach, and sit up. Grab your bar, lie down, flex your feet, anchor your thighs. Take the par bar, keep it parallel lifted up. Stretch it all the way to the mat. Inhale, bring it up. Plug your shoulders in, lift your head through the window and peel yourself off of the mat. Crown of the head. Reach it to the knees. And just like in the tree, pull your stomach back, round, back, reach with your legs.

Roll Up

Anchor the thighs, thighs. Reach to the mat, shoulders down. Reach with that bar as if you're dragging a great weight all the way down from here. Reach up to the ceiling and stretch all the way back. Bring your arms up, plug them into the mat, lift the head up as if you're peeking through a window. Pull the stomach back, anchor the thigh, shoulders draw down, stomach pulls back. As you exhale to roll forward, crowded reaches to the knee, stomach pulls of the thighs and roll down.

Reach to the legs, reach to the legs, reach to the legs. Reach up and stretch back to smoothly like that. Arms roll up. Exhale, roll back and stretch back. Inhale and exhale and roll back and reach back. Put your bar back some place safe where you're not going to trip on it.

Lie Down for a single leg circle. Bend the right leg into the chest. We're going to really focus on the stability of the box. Pull the stomach in and give it one, two, three. Stretch. Keep these circles small arms down by your side. Chest is open. Reach towards your nose and circle around and stop.

Single Leg Circles

Flex that bottom foot and anchor this leg. Circle around, nothing up. Pull the stomach and you want to really build the stability of the box. Pull all the stomach in, up, circle around and reverse. Circle around. Keep those shoulders and hips even. Don't short. No. One side down, around and up. Poss down, around and up.

Poss down, around and up. Bend the knee into the chest. Stretch down, reestablish that the hips and the shoulders for a parallel lines. Bend the left knee in. Pull it in, in, in. Stretch the leg up, up, up. Lengthen the stomach in and up. Reach your arms down, open the chest, lift towards the nose around, up and stop. Pull the stomach in.

Anchor the bottom leg around, up and pushed through that bottom heel. Lift around up. That helps with the two way stretch, which is moving out of the heel and out of the head. One more time and then reverse. Circle around up and stop at the nose. Reach through both legs. Equally circle around and up. Circle around and up. Last one, circle around and uh, bend the knee in for a nice deep stretch.

As you lengthen the leg out, you're going to stretch up. Push through the feet. Once again, reestablish that box. And from here I want you to roll down to get more length, more length, more length, more or less, as we go into a single leg tic talk with that length. Reach through the right leg and stretch up. Don't let this bottom leg move. Push through it.

Single Leg Tick Tock

Lift the right hip up and open an opposition against the shoulder. Push through the left leg. Bring the leg up, anchor the left side of the body and only open the leg out as much as you can. Control its opposite side. Lift up and stretch over, over, over. Pull the stomach in and up. This is your preparation for the full leg circle.

Reach the lake out. Flex and lengthen it down. Reach to the other leg. Stretch it up as much as you can. Lift the left hip. Don't let the left shoulder off of the mat. Push through the heel. Pull this stomach in and come up. Anchor this opposite side. Feel it.

Reach long to create the most stability. Pull the stomach in and up. Reach across. This is the hip action for the full single leg circle. Pull the stomach in anchor. Most important part is to keep this quiet.

Push through the heel and lengthen. Flex the foot length in all the way down with control. Roll yourself up and drag your feet in. I want you today to keep your right hand on your right ankle and your left hand on your left ankle. Elbows lift so that you get the back activated.

Pull the head between the knees. This is the position that we use throughout the work. Pull the stomach in. We'll just to the mid back. Exhale and come up. Let's use that breath. [inaudible] pause and XL. Use Luck. Control that puts it in your stomach when you just hit this low back and roll back. Exhale, hold, hold. Inhale a two. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Good. Now you're gonna lie down.

Rolling Like A Ball

Pulling that right leg in. In that same position. We stretched for your single leg circle right from your hub. That right to the ear just like it was, and you're rolling like a ball as the legs slide past each other. There's a hidden teaser right there. Elbows lift, so the upper back is connected. Pull the stomach in, find your teaser and switch. Find your teaser, see the parallel planes with the arms. Find your teaser and switch and switch.

Single Leg Stretch

Teaser switch, Caesar, switch teaser, switch, teaser, switch, teaser, switch, teaser, switch, teaser, switch two users switch. Good. Pull the news all the way in. Here's your rolling like a ball position again. Now press your heels together. Reach your arms as you circle around, find those parallel planes and keep the trajectory of the feet going in and out. The same. Press out to you're passing.

Double Leg Stretch

There's that hidden teaser all the way through. Circle around Paul, the stomach in and in, in, in stretch out. Those parallel lines are very important because as you do your teaser, that is going to keep the connection of the front body and the back buddy. Press all the way out. Pull the stomach in and in, in, in. Wait from there. Extend the right leg up and the left leg down.

Single Straight Leg Stretch

Pull in the stomach. Check that this leg is not off to the side. You're going to pass through a teaser and bring the leg up. Control pass through a teaser and bring look at how many teasers you do. Pass through a teaser. Bring the leg up, pass through a teaser, bring up as you're moving through this take note that the heels are together and the leg moves towards the ear. He legs are together, center towards the ear just as if I was running and as your work progress, as the leg draws more towards the midline as it comes in, but at this level you want it to be working at the ear, connected into your front splits on the reformer in that alignment. Reach and reach two legs up. AA, pull.

Look at your stomach. Lift up as much as you can. Reach the legs long out of the hips and length into the 45 which is your teaser. Anchor the pelvis. Pull the stomach in and come back up. Really pull this in and up and bring the head up as much as possible. Legs reach out, press the heels together, pull the stomach back just to that 45 pull it in, add up, lengthen up, reach out of the hips. Long five, four, three, two, one.

Double Leg Lower Lift

Pull the stomach in and lift up. Look at the stomach curl. Don't crunch the neck. Keep air and bill to flow throughout your throat. Deep breath and up. Bend your knees in. This is how I like to introduce Chris Cross. You're going to come up and you're going to bring the knee in and keep it bent so that your pelvis is stable and you're going to twist just the shoulders center and come back down.

Criss Cross

Deepen it here up and twist. This is working the opposite rotation that was worked in your single leg tick. Talk where your shoulders are stable and your pelvis move. Now your show, your pelvis is stable and the shoulders are the only thing that moves. Use Your Eyes Center. Now come up a little bit more here to work.

There's that 45 degree angle again for your teaser, but we're getting a little higher each time. Pull the stomach in, press down on the FI and lift up. Lift up, lift up from there, slide up. Open the legs. Place your hands flat. We're going to focus on a two way stretch happening where my tailbone anchors down and my chest stays open. Just like in my open like rocker. Press the hands open the chest, anchor the tailbone. Walk forward, press the hands, anchor the temp pit, tailbone, open the chest walk, tailbone, chest, walk, tailbone. Don't drop your head in this one. Keep it a continuation of the curve of the spine.

Spine Stretch Forward

Tailbone under chest open and roll all the way up. Walk. So many people drop their chest in their open lake rocker. It is very similar to the curves that we use in our stomach massage because your massage series is the same as your stomach massage series. Your rolling series slide all the way up where the first one rolling like a ball. You're rounded forward. Press tailbone, open the chest, and the second one, which is your open lake rocker. The chest is open and the tailbone under, just like the second stomach massage press.

And then one day when you close the legs for closed leg rocker, you are lengthened all the way up. Now with that same opening tailbone under, bend your knees, pinpoint your toes, roll that chest open and open your legs, pulling your lower stomach back and lifting the chest. Keep that chest lifted. I promise. As you roll back, it will round. Keep it lifted. Roll back by using your stomach and come up. Open the chest. Re-Establish the lower stomach. Pull the stomach in, roll back, open.

Open Leg Rocker

Chest comes open stomach goes back, roll back, open chest, open stomach, back, roll back, open chest and stomach. Draw your legs together. Open your chest as if you are in that last stomach. Massage and roll all the way down for corkscrew flat. Keep your stomach in.

Corkscrew

Lengthen your legs towards your nose like you did in the single leg circles. Now as you did in tick tock, open the side, lift the left hip, but keep the left shoulder on. Reach the legs away. Roll to the other side. Anchor with the right shoulder as the right hip lifts and tailbone, pelvis flat. As you pull the legs towards your nose, roll to the other side, lift the hip, anchor the entire pelvis and spine. Lengthen. Lift the opposite hip and reestablish the pelvis being down smooth.

Now, hip pelvis, hip, pelvis, hip lifts, pelvis, flat, hip lifts, Pelvis, flat hip lifts, Pelvis, flat hip lifts, pelvis, hip. Lengthen. This [inaudible] develops all your rotations. Sit Up. Speaking of rotation, here we are at the saw today. We're gonna take the arms out of it so we focus on that pure rotation. Anchor that tailbone down and open the chest like you did an open lake rocker.

Saw

Turn towards your knee, pull the stomach in and round your head. Crown of the head over like we did in the roll up with the head to the knee. Roll all the way up and increase the twist. Inhale deeply. Come to center. Open the chest and just like in roll up, pull the stomach back and head to knee deep in the twist to come up to squeeze the last drop of air out. Inhale, exhale, round in. Yeah.

Roll up deep in the chest. Reestablish the length of this mine. Use Your eyes. They'll deepen the twist and center. Lift up. Turn. Pull the waist back. Don't let the pelvis move it. Oh, roll up. Just like in your criss cross twist, twist, twist, come to center. Please draw your legs together and let's just rotate, bringing them behind us.

We're going to work on our single leg kick. I want you to stretch your left arm out. Have your forehead down, reach back, opening your arm to the side, bend the knee and grab onto the angle. As long as your knees are healthy, keep your knee to your knee. Now I want you to lift up the thigh and bring it down. Lift up just the thigh and bring it down.

Single Leg Kick

Lift up the thigh to open that hip. Good. Now lift the bye and lift the chest and push the foot away up. Lift the chest, lift the foot, lift the leg and everything. Thank you. And again, reach. Is that tailbone towards the bottom heel. Don't let the pelvis move as that just opens.

Think about that same feeling that we did in the Open Lake Walker where the pelvis was leaked, reaching in one direction and the chest, another to protect the low back and down. Pull that foot in for a thigh. Stretch. Lift. Open the hip. Open the chest. Entire front body finds more space, a little more space, a little more space, a whole bit and length and down. Pull the foot in. Change your sides. Return the arm just like you did in your double leg. Pull. Reach the other one back. Bend the knee, grab the ankle.

You're able to stretch acre through the opposite side and lift just the thigh and down. Reach the tailbone towards the right heel and lift. Open the front hip of that lifting leg. Keep the knee in and down. You want to keep that alignment with the heel to the sip phone.

Need to the knee. Lift up, lift up. Think about the stride of a runner and come down. Slide that hand in and lift the chest. Lift the leg. Lengthen up, up, up, pushing that hand and length in yes all the way down. Use Your own body as the stretching mechanism. Pull the stomach in.

Push so you're opening the shoulder. Don't let that shoulder twist open. Keep it forward to the box of the shoulders. Stay forward. The box. The pelvis is square. You're just opening the chest and the hip at the same time and lengthen down again. Pull the stomach in off of the mat to protect the low back. Tailbone reaches towards the heel.

Push into the hand and with equal energy, lift the chest, pushing the foot. Lift the chest, push in the foot, lift the chest, push in the foot, hold it and lengthen all the way down. Take your two hands here. Tailbone reaches. Do a little pushup. Take your tailbone back, press on the hands, pull the stomach off the thighs. Curl the hit to the knee as you did in the roll up. Swing your legs around and we're going to go into the side kick series.

Child's Pose

So I want you to lie down. Take the hand right behind your head, pull your stomach and take your two flex feet and bring them forward in. Up to angle. They can be anywhere from this far to this far your goal one day being straight, but use the angle that makes the most stability. Anchor the outer edge of the foot. Lift the leg hip height. Try to get a little space underneath your ribcage.

Forward and Back

Pull the stomach in so there's the waistline pulls off and you're going to stretch like forward kick, kick, stretch the leg back, kick, kick, press in your hand, kick, kick. Now you really want to focus on the stability of the pelvis because right there is your teaser position. You're really getting that teaser position all prepared as you kick that leg forward and back. Each time that we're working that teaser position, we are taking more stability points away. We went from our back which has a lot of surface to now we're on our side body so by the time we are in our teaser we are ready to balance. Reach, reach, reach, reach, kick, kick. Last one, kick, kick leg on leg. Turn this top leg out. Reach the foot long out of the hip, lift up, flex the foot and lengthen down. Try to keep that side body up.

Lift and Lower

Touch the heel to the heel, reach away like you're gonna reach across the room and touch a wall. Lift up, flex the foot. Reach away longer. Reach through the head as much as you reach the foot. Lift up and stretch and stretch. Now four little circles. One Stop to stop.

Circles

Three stop. Make sure you go behind as much as you go forward. Reverse back around and stop. Background and stuck background and stop back around and stop. Very good right from there. Bring your legs up, open your chest and roll directly to the other side, pulling the stomach and notice we pass through a little teaser position there. Flex the feet, bring them forward.

Anchor the side of the foot length and find your little house for the mouse under here so a little mouse could run right under, not a rat, just a mouse. Reach the leg forward, flex it, push through both heels. Kick, kick, kick, kick. Really keep this stable. Kick, kick, kick, kick. You're going to want that later. Kick, kick, kick, kick. At least I will kick, kick, kick, kick. For more. Kick kick. There's your teaser stretch, stretch, kick, kick, find your teasers, stretch, stretch, kick, kick and stretch, kick, kick and stretch. Heel to heel rotated out. Really lengthen through that bottom side body. That's the part that's really working.

Forward and Back

Lift and down and kick and down. Reach long and kick and stretch and kick and stretch. Four little circles. One stop to really make it a circle. Three, four and reverse. One, two, three, four and good. Right from there. Again, sit up. Find that length that you're going to need for your teaser and here we are. Knees are bent. Glue the knees together. Roll down, arms parallel to the legs.

Lift and Lower

Reach the arms back just like in our hundred. We're going to work those arms parallel to the legs. Arms come to the ceiling just like we did in the beginning. Lift your head up. Now don't drop the arms. Keep them parallel to the legs. Pull the stomach in. Reach, reach, reach, arms go up and stretch back. Notice the arms are just like in the roll up.

Circles

Pull this stomach in parallel. Parallel, parallel. Pull the stomach in and roll back. Roll back. Roll back ribs in, stretch back, arms up. Plug those shoulders in. Had comes up with a beautiful open chest. Here's that open lake rocker. The chest stays open, the pelvis reaches back again, chest stays open, pelvis reaches back all at the exercises we did before working towards this variation. Now this is the difficult part. Just like in the double leg pull. Find that 45 degree angle. Don't move your pelvis. Bend the other leg.

Teaser Variation

Reestablish the box. Pull the stomach in. Arms. Come in, plug, head up. Roll all the way up with those parallel planes. Open chest like an open lake walker and roll back. Five, four, three, two, one ribs in stretch back. Arms come up, plug the shoulders. Head is up just like in that first hundred and your roll up. Parallel planes, arms over the legs.

Pull the stomach in and open. Chest. There's my open leg rocker. There's our spine stretch that we did our roll up. Pull the stomach in. Reach up, stretch back. Last one up. Plug the shoulders in. Head comes up, pull it. Lengthen all the way up. Up. Up this time.

Bend the knee, press the soles of your feet together and loop through. Squeeze your knees in and let's focus on the balance. Paul the stomach in and I want you to roll back. Balance Hold. Pull the hips off of the waist. Scoop the stomach back.

Seal

Roll up Paul the stomach and don't collapse the chest. Elbows are pushing out. Knees are squeezing in. Stomach pulls off of the thighs. Press the feet together. Roll back, hold it, lift it up, up, up. Lift the waist, roll up, hold it lifted up, up, up, roll back. Now with that lift, we are going to roll up to a stand. Pull the stomach in. Cross the ankles as you roll up and stand, turn face the other direction. Lift your arms, shoulder height. Just like in our roll up. Pull the stomach in. Press the legs together.

Draw the balls of the feet and the heels together. Head goes down. Press your hands right in front of your toes. Now just like in your one leg, a teaser, your one arm is forward like your leg was, but your boxes square. You move this one past that tailbone reaches down, this goes past, you don't go side to side. Hand goes in a line and the pelvis lengthens in and up. Hold it for five. Push out with your heels. Press the legs together.

Plank Breakdown

Open the chest length in the neck just like you were lying in your position on the mat that we started where we found that deep length length in the back body. Pull the stomach in. Press through the heels. Now just like going into your teaser, there's your teaser. Lift your pelvis. Walk back, keep it square. Lift the pelvis, lift the pelvis, lift the stomach off the thighs. Here's your roll up. Head to the knees. Press your legs together.

Peel yourself up vertebra by Vertebra, by Vertebra. Open the arms to the side and press them down. Excellent work.

Comments

Samantha T
2 people like this.
So good!
LOVE! Can't get enough of the KRN...Queen of nasty!!! Do more please!!! 😙
Tina Tricomi LOL THANK YOU!! there are three mats after this one to come! Thank you for your support!!!!!!
samantha Thank you!
2 people like this.
Wooo! I'd probably peg that as a solid level 2 for the challenge, but 1/2 for the great cueing and discipline for principles. I loved this and know I need more foundation work. Thanks, KRN!
6 people like this.
LOVE!!! Very inspiring and nuff respect to KRN to cue so well while demonstrating...

So good to be reminded of the links between exercises and how 'The Method' builds whole body strength progressively - really keeps the brain engaged and focused. Discovered some of my own cheats doing that 3o min class ... !
DJ
DJ
3 people like this.
Excellent - thank you great cues ! really gained a lot from this as an instructor
5 people like this.
For the uninitiated ...a KRN 1/2 class is not like any other 1/2. You may be wondering if you are in the wrong room during the first 5 minutes of this class! If you REALLY want to understand her strength just try talking (never mind giving clear detailed cues and instruction) while doing this program. I so appreciated "seeing" how the teaser is present throughout all my Pilates exercises...I hope this will make that particular exercise a little less threatening now. Thanks!
Kandie - try the 4 classes before this to build to this class. The classes are created to develop you. Once you master one move to the next. I hope this helps!!!
Julia I love your picture! Thanks for the kind words! Yes- speaking an exacting is a challenge for sure!
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