Mat Basics

Well, welcome to your first class. This is Martin. She's actually a plotting and instructor. So her former's gonna look pretty right on. So we're just going to try to go through some of the exercises that um, kind of give you a range and an idea of where your powerhouse is. Your power houses, everything between your shoulders and your hips.

So you draw a line from your shoulder to your hip bone, your hip to your hip, hip to shoulder, shoulder to shoulder. So it's really kind of like a record tangle or a box. Everything within that is your powerhouse. Right now she's sitting up pretty tall and I have her sitting up on a table with her knees about a hip level. You could sit on a chair, whatever works as long as you're just sitting. Have your feet about hip width apart.

And all I'm trying to have her do is think about sitting on top of her hips as tall as she can. So begin by squeezing your bottom and just grow tall and hold that and then just collapse and just relax, which as you can say, she doesn't collapse very much. Squeeze your bottom and grow tall and just think of the length coming up from the neck growing taller as though a string is lifting your back up to help you sit on top of your hips and rest. Now I'm just going to have her do a little neck exercise just to test the range of motion, her neck and a heavy look to the right as far as you can without turning your shoulders. You want to keep those shoulders nice and square length in the back of your neck so your Chin does it lift.

You want that length happening here so you're not crunching the neck back and then slowly start to look. Center. Now start to look left as far as you can. Still lengthening up and center and a turn your head to the, excuse me. Let me have you actually tilt your head to the right as far as you can. Open up the let neck line, letting the shoulder drop and then drop your Chin a little bit to the back of your neck. Stills lengthening and left here too.

You'll want to go like this. Try to keep your chin lower so your neck is still stretching and come back up. And then just a little shoulder roll. So you're going to start, start by lifting your shoulders up towards your ears and then roll them forward to start about three times just to Kinda waking them up. And one more time and then I'll have you reversed that. Start to feel the muscles in your back working your wings, the shoulder wings pulling down, opening up the chest and rest.

Alright, I'll have you take your left arm straight up by your ear. Your right hand can dis arrest besides you to for support. And then just kind of bend the right as far as you can see. Take your right ear towards your right shoulder, opening up the side. Now feel what your back is doing. Try to pull your rib cage in, still sitting on top of the hip and then come back up.

Switch arms first, grow tall. So the lift and feel that length up as you bend to the left. Opening up this side, get your ribcage to push in. Is this feeling of them pulling together and come back up and restaurant. Now I'm just going to have her do a little leg lift.

So first just take your right leg out in front of you. Your hands can be at your side for support. I actually like it if you're on your knuckles and that helps give you a little support to lift you up as tall as you can. You squeeze your bottom, you take that right leg out and just try to hold that for about five counts. Two, three, four lifting, five rest or like switch legs, left leg out and grow tall and hold. Feel that lift up through the top of the neck. Three, four, five rest right leg.

Kind of push into your knuckles to help lift your back and hold that. Two, three, four, five and rest. We call this pre platas. It's kind of some exercises you would do before you actually begin anything. Two, three, four, five. They're great to do at home, in bed or sitting on a chair one more time, right? Like you can do anywhere between three to five repetitions, not too many. Hold two, three, four, five rest.

These are hard enough. You might feel a little cramping in your thigh, so just do what you can. When it gets tired, you put your foot down. Three, four, five and rest. Okay, so now I'm going to actually have her lie down on her back and I have her up on a table as well so that you have a better visual. But this would be good to do on a soft surface like a bed or a double mat. Fairly thick mat cause you don't want to feel a hard surface on your spine. And I'm just checking her alignment, making sure that her shoulders are in line with her hips and her hips in line with her shoulders. Move your head a little to the your left. All right.

And all I want her to do right now is just think about her chest opening, her shoulder, staying open and her arms are really stretching out long. So the back of her shoulders, the wings are really pushing down. The next thing. All I want you to do is just kind of fill at this getting gap in your back, your spine, into the mat. So just take a nice deep breath in and begin to exit on. As you exhale, think of your navel pulling in and up.

So getting those ribs to pull together without tensing the shoulders. Drop your gaze so that your gaze is down towards your navel. So the neck again isn't crunching back here. Keeping that length happening again, just imprint your spine. Are you gonna push her back into that, pulling your tummies up and hold that for about five counts without tilting your hips up though. Two, three, four, five and rest there.

Just getting a feeling of what that powerhouse feels like. Kind of imprinting your whole spine into Matt. One more. Or let's have you do that two more times. You exhale and just hold that one too. And it's really easy to start tensing in your shoulders and next, just try to relax as much as you can and rest.

And last one, these alone can do a lot for you. Just engaging that powerhouse whole two, three, four, five, and rest. All right, let me have you slide your feet just a little bit more forward so you're not crunching the knee so much. You want them to be kind of open here about hip width apart and just a slight pelvic tilt. All I want you to do is think about wrapping your thighs, so you start to squeeze in here, think of those thighs pulling together, but the knees stay hip width apart and you're just going to curl just the first two to three vertebra up. You hold that, keeping your shoulders, your legs, and then slowly melt down. [inaudible] good. About three more. Curl the hips up. Think of that arap happening right here.

Squeeze and then slowly roll that down. Good. Keep your gaze down so you're not tensing the shoulders on these. Very easy to want to do that. It's just a consciousness you're starting to get into and roll your hips down and last one a little tilt up and then roll it down. You wanna think of your navel, your hip region, kind of like a clock.

This is your belly button being 12 o'clock down to the pubic bone, six o'clock and not three and nine being the hipbones. So I'm going to actually have her do a little roll in the hip. So she first start to tilt your hips up that six o'clock pulling her in 12 o'clock your naval n you hold that up and then I'm just going to have a roll her hips, so I just kind of want you to roll it like a fit fishbowl. Just rolling your hips up and then rolling down. Then just try to keep your ribs down so [inaudible] a little bit higher on the roll up, up, up, and then roll down. That's it.

Keeping your upper body still and down and then I'll have her reverse it. It's just a bit of a corkscrew in the hips. Just starting to feel that naval working, pulling up. You're not letting your tummy pop out. You're trying to pull it in. Now come up a little bit higher and rest.

Okay. Yeah, just kind of getting the engagement going. Okay. So next I'm going to actually have her go up higher. So it's called your pelvic tilt pelvic roll up. You're going to curl your hips up and as high as you can. Now let's say it keep going.

These can be a little bit tough on the back of the legs, so just go to where you can and then hold that and try to push your hips up a little bit more, keeping those ribs together and then take a nice deep breath in and just begin to roll down. You're really trying to articulate the spine here. So one vertebrae at a time, soft shoulders, and as you roll down your root cage will want to open out. You want to keep pulling it back in so you're really working on the lift up. One more time. Peel one vertebral off the mat at a time. That's it.

Hold your position, relax your shoulders. And I do an extra little push up with the hips. So you're really squeezing your bottom, getting those roots to pull down and go ahead and roll. Then just breathing naturally. Exhaling does tend to help you on the exertions.

And rest. Now I'm going to have you bring your right knee into your chest and hold onto your thigh. Just giving your like a stretch, so actually hold onto your thigh so you don't cut the circulation off in your knee and then take that right leg up. These are very challenging and put your hands at your side and to take your leg to about a 90 degree angle or to a level that your leg can straighten. The other thing you want to make sure is that your back is supported on the mat and you just hold that position for about five counts, three, four, five. Then you start to lower that leg down.

Think about that right leg reaching out of the hip hold. You hold it at a level that you can control any gapping in the back. So go ahead and arch your back here so you don't want that to happen. You want to anchor it and hold two, three, four, five and then go ahead and lower it a little bit more. So really what you're doing is going to a level that you have the control without that gap shown the gap again, without that happening.

So you just hold that three, four, five and then you'll work your way up. So the lower, if you end up going, that's what you're working on, the harder they become and a little bit higher. Hold for about five counts, two, three, four, five and little bit higher. This is where it gets really challenging for the stretch. Three, four, five, bend your knee and rest. I had her arm up just so that you could see, but generally the arms are down. All right, other side to even you out. So bring your left knee in.

You just always give the leg a little stretch and then you're going to take that left leg up. I don't want it to be above 90 degrees. You start at 90 degrees or a little bit lower and her ribs are kind of out right now. So I'm going to try to help her get them back down and hold two, three, four, five and a little bit lower. The other thing you can do is have a pillow underneath your head. If you feel any pressure on the neck and hold two, three, four, five.

I like Capello anyway just because it feels better and hold two, three, four, five and a little bit lower. It's as you're moving that your ribs want to open up, so you have to try and push them back in and hold to without going like this in your shoulders. You want to try to keep them open. Three, four, five and he'll work your leg back up. Holding for five counts, two, three, four, five and a little bit higher. Hold two, three, four, five as high as you can, so 90 degrees hold two, three, four, five. Bend your knee and get that left leg a stretch. Those are great exercises to do on your own. Good.

All right, next I'm going to have you take your arm straight up to 90 degrees, what we call your imaginary window. It's kind of a reference point of where your head should be. You should be able to see your window. So you don't want to go outside of that peripheral and just take a nice deep breath in. And as you exhale, start to lower your arms down to your side, opening up your chest, feel the back of your neck lengthening. So your Chin's drop a bit and your shoulders drop it in.

Start to imprint that spine into the mat, pulling up, scooping your navels in without tilting your hips up. Add two more times. Just take your arms up. [inaudible] take a nice deep breath in and exhale. Let your shoulders drop. Try to relax the shoulder in printer's minds by pulling your navel and scooping and flattening out your backs. And uh, last one, arms up. Deep breath in and exhale and rest. Now I'm going to have her put her hands behind her head.

Her elbows are open to begin with and try to keep the elbows open. What am I going to have her do is put the her thumbs on the groove of the neck. So right be low. This call, just kind of in this shape. And then you're gonna slowly think of the, of your neck lengthening. So you start to drop your Chin's a bit, your shoulders are down and you're slowly gonna curl up.

So you really want to thank the length that care happening and working in here so you shouldn't feel this in your next at all. And then come up to the tips of the shoulders or as high as you can pull your tummies in. So now that she's up, she has to pull her enabling as deepest she can and then slowly bring that down. You can either use your hands or you could even use a towel behind your head for support to help pull you up and [inaudible] start to come up. You can breathe this however you want. Helps to exhale on the exertion. So exhale, as you come up, watch your alignment. You always want to check your box and make sure your shoulders are right in line with your hips and that your hips are in line with each other as well as your shoulder to shoulder end and bring that down.

So yes, it's kind of like a set up and up. It's once you're up that the most important thing is to keep that scoop happening. So pull in, don't let your belly buttons pop up and then come back down. And last one. So this is good. If you have any neck issues to be able to hold on to the back of your heads and eventually a little bit higher. Challenge yourself by really lifting, scooping deep, deep, deep good. And then come back down.

Of course she's got a very flat tummy and rest. All right, reach your arms out towards your sides. And I'm going to have you just go ahead and sit up. Your knees will stay bent, going into a back roll or a roll back exercises, a modification to an actual roll up. So I'm going to have her start in a seeker. So we're headed down, she's rounded. And really what I'm looking for is, uh, is a scoop into here. So you almost rolled back to begin with. So now she's in a c, then slide your feet pretty close to your bottom.

There's your position, your feet, you want to keep them planted, shoulders relaxed, and she's going to begin to round backwards just to where your arms are straight and then stop. What she was trying to do is articulate that spine, so feel those vertebras touching the mat. When your arms are straight, stop. Get that scoop back into your tummies. Take a nice deep breath in and come back up. As she comes up. She's trying not to pull with our hands. They're there to help but not to support the whole movement. Rest, relax your shoulders and begin to go back.

The less strain on your shoulder, so the more you try to relax them, the easier this will become and just to where you can where you don't feel too much pressure on your neck. Squeeze your bottom and curl back up. Try not to let your feet pop up. Now Maher to reach your arms straight out to add a little more challenge. You would not use the hands at all. You would just reach them out long.

Now she's starting to fall here too far. It's right down here. She's got to get each placement of the vertebras onto the mat first. Here, here. It's finding that that's difficult. Go ahead and drop your head. Take your arms back up to that window. Now she's, this is more advanced, so now she's not using her arms for the roll up. She's gonna start to round up reach for her thighs. If she needed to, she could grab onto her thighs to help pull her back in that scoop again.

That's it. Shoulders relaxed. I'll have her do one more. Reach your arms out long. [inaudible] your feet should not move. If they're moving, you grab onto those size and then she's got to get this vertebra down. And the next one, that's hard to find. It's all about squeezing your bottom and scooping, using your powerhouse. And rest.

Last one to come up really deep. So here too, she's peeling off the Mat, one vertebra at a time. These can be extremely challenging even for the most advanced student and rest, which she is pretty advanced. Okay, go ahead and set up and just kind of stretch out. Good. All right. Go ahead and lie all the way down. I'm going show them full roll-up. Straighten your legs all the way. Take your arm straight up to 90 degrees. So it's exactly what she just did.

This is a roll up only now her legs are straight. He together, toes apart. And you want to think of a wrapping this size around so you're pinching those innercise and imprinting the spine into the mat. So we really deepen here right now. She's gapping a little bit, but that will happen as she comes up. She'll fix it. Take a nice deep breath in, lengthening the back of her neck, dropping her shoulders and pulling and keep skipping. [inaudible] it goes as far she can. She's tensing her shoulders a little bit. She could drop those and then begin to come back down all about articulation and control here and then here really being conscious of her spine. And one more time.

Nice deep breath in. And exhale, shoulders relaxed, scooping still mu getting that scoop as she comes up, Anna, she goes forward. So here she pulls back in her stomach and squeezes her bottom. Then she could go all the way over. Now drop your shoulders and come on back and here's a very hard part right here to get that tuck with the hips and lower back to articulate and drop your arms. Next I'm going to have her do a little bit of a leg circle. Bring her right knee into your chest, give your leg a stretch, and then she'll take her leg up to 90 degrees or as straight as she can.

Go ahead and bend this left knee to start. All right, back is anchored. So your box or your powerhouse, this nice and anchor, the length is up and out of the hip. And what I'm going to have her do is this big toe is kind of your paintbrush. She's going to draw a circle on the ceiling inside her own frame, within her own powerhouse. So between her shoulders and her hips, she'll first take that big toe up towards her left shoulder and then she's going to lower it down towards her left hip, right hip, right shoulder. So in other words, within her own body. Okay, now keep the leg stretching up to the ceiling so you, oh, he's reaching out of the hip. What happens here is the hip will wanna move.

You have to keep those hips still. Stretch your leg straight out, long. Reach up, up, up, up, and then circle. Now she's got a lot of flexibility, so it makes it look very easy. These are very hard longer. Don't forget the reach. You want to feel this right in here.

Now reverse those. She is definitely using her leg a little bit more than her hip right now. That's better. Go down a little bit lower on the circle, even lower. Now as she moves up, this hip should not move. That's it.

So the stretch is here and in here. So keep that hip still. Don't let either hip move and start to lift your leg up long, long, long. There's the stretch. And come back down. Bend your knee for just a moment and straighten your left leg. I'm going to have her do the same thing with the straight leg.

And this becomes a lot harder because now this like has to work to hold itself still. So think of both legs reaching out long. This one's reaching that way. Right? Legs reaching up hip, still cross over to your shoulder, hip, hip, shoulder, your where you should finish is at your nose, right through the center of your body and long leg. So don't let your knee, Ben, try to keep that leg straight down. Reach your leg out long and back up to the nose and try to hold for about two counts too. Good. And now, two more. No more than five each way.

Very hard not to let your hips move here and to keep the stretch happening. Last one and circle so many little things on this. The other thing is your neck and shoulders. You don't want to hold it up there. Reverse your circle. That's it. It should shake. If it's not, you're really not doing it properly and hold long, long, long and one more time. Drop your gaze. So is easy to go like this. When the leg comes up, you want to keep your chest open, long reach up and out and bend your knee.

Okay, so the most advanced student can have a hard time on this too. Left nick comes in, you give your legs a stretch. It's really a stretch for the inner outer sights. A hip flexor exercises. It helps loosen the hip socket. Also helps strengthen the lower back. All right, so your left leg is up. You always give it a little stretch first and not too close with this knee.

You want to not cut off the circulation in the knee. All right, so your hips are still, just have her do about three, two way shoulder, hip, hip, shoulder. So the circle is inside your own frame. Okay? Keep your gaze down and careful not to. Okay, so I see it up here. I'm not seeing her work in her hip too much yet. She's going to high. She should lower like a little bit and keep your hip tailbone flat on the mat as this lake goes up.

So the stretches are right in here. There you go. And keep your hips still. Keep that tailbone down. Don't let it pop up with you. Now reverse it. Drop your tailbone a little bit more. Okay. The length again is reaching up. So you're trying to touch the ceiling as you're circling with that, your hips going with you. Okay, last one.

All Ben journey rest for just a second. And Go ahead and straighten your right leg and now you'll be able to see the this side. You start at 90 degrees or at a level that the leg can straighten and the bat can stay down. So when your knees, this knee is bent, it's a little bit easier. Okay, so that was all leg. Now we have to get her back into her hip. Okay, so she's reaching out. Both hips are in line, they stay lined up.

Stay on this hip. [inaudible] so be conscious of what's happening right in here. You don't want that. Show him the gap. You don't want this to happen. I don't know if they could see that. Try that again. He Won. Yeah, that's wrong. So now push it back down. That's correct.

And lift up. So very conscious of what those hips and what your spine is doing. Doesn't have to be a big circle, but it does have to be right in here. You should seal it, working in there and up. Try to reach towards that shoulder.

The further leg goes without your hip moving. The more stretch you start to gain. That's it. I know. Go down. So that's it. Keep both hips still so she's still lengthening out of the hip, out of the hat to come back up. Reverse it. The right leg has to keep stretching as well. It's going to want to bend.

Reach that right leg out long, three times to set in your side. Feel that in the bottom and your thigh and three, bend your knee and give your leg a stretch. Okay, and I have her sit back up. Hold onto the back of your size with your knees. Bend. Find your c curve again. Um, okay. Yeah, no, you're fine. All right.

Slide your feet a little bit closer to you. Alright. Do Glue your heels together and toes apart. You're in a slight palady stance and just try to find your balance here. So she'll take her feet off the mat and just try to find that balance. She's a little bit flat here.

What I'm trying to find her do is get a little bit of a tilt without actually falling. So go ahead and mark to start to round backwards, keeping your feet off the mat. Find this vertebra on the mat and then try to find the next one without actually falling down. Go to where you can. That's it. Now go a little bit further. You got it. [inaudible] and then don't pull with your arms pulling with your stomach, pulling your naval and come back up. Drop your feet and rest. So I'll have her do that two more times. Times find your balance.

Neck and shoulder relaxed and she's just trying to roll back onto the hipbone stop. This is where you want to fall and then you try to come back up, drop your feet and just rest one more time. This is hard enough. This is part of the rolling like a ball [inaudible] and as you can see she felt and then she comes back up. So that's just something you slowly gain as you do our practice. You get there you go, and then come on up. Rest. That way you can relax your legs and your arms. After that. Now I'm going to have her do a full roll up or rolling like a ball and you should see that articulation in our spine so she shouldn't pop up.

When she rounds up, she stays in that curve. So head stays between the knees or as close to the knees as you can. So she's in tight little basket or a ball and she's literally gonna roll back just to the tips of the shoulders. That's hard. You're going to go head and roll back and then she's going to try to come back up. She did a little bit of a hop up. She has to control that movement. It's just like the roll up. You're articulating one vertebra off the mat, so she's still popping up here a little bit.

So go back now round to come up. That was better. And all the way up. Find your balance. That's it. That's it. All the way up. Up, up, a little bit higher. Hold one more time. Roll back. Try not to roll to your neck and enough place your feet down. Okay.

Go ahead and lie back onto your back. You have to be careful with your next. They're not to pull with the next. So if you feel that in your neck, just stop. Um, bring your right leg into your chest and your right hand on your ankle. Left hand underneath. I'm just gonna kind of show a basic mat and kind of the basic forms that we're looking for. Again, it's all about your powerhouse, so you want to make sure your right hip is lined up with your right shoulder.

Shoulders and shoulder are lined up shoulder to hip, so your box is straight. So you have to be really conscious when you're lying down or standing where your frame is that you're not crunching on one side or the other. So now that her right leg is in, I'm gonna have her bend her left knee and take her left leg up to a 90 degree angle. Right now she has good support in her back. Now it's also a coordination exercise. So I'm gonna have her switch hands and switch legs. So go ahead and switch.

Left-Hand goes to the ankle and he didn't want to pull the knee in so hard that you drop your heel. You want to try to keep the heel lined up with your knee and then push your navel back down. Now switch right hand, right ankle, having her keep the leg pretty high just so that she can see a consciousness of what's happening in pull in scope and one more to the left and scoop. Now I want her to add her head. Go ahead and lift your head up. Nose towards your navel. So right to the center of her body. Elbows are up and open and shoulders are pushing down.

What I want to see is kind of a crease right in here. So she's really scooped into here. That's it. And now switch legs and switch arms. You could pull your knee in more. Now pull your navel in hold really deep. Hold little bit higher with your upper body. Hold and switch.

The tips of the shoulder should be on the mat. So now curl up even more right there. Excuse me. And switch. So just holding this, you'll feel it the next day. Scoop and curl into your sternum suit. Your sturm is really curled up and switch. Last one and scope.

Let me see that curl. Watch your alignment. Shoulder to shoulder. That's it. And restaurant. Neck your head. Okay, so that's your single leg. Stretch now and have her do the double leg stretch. Heels together, toes apart. First I would just have her take her arms straight up to 90 degrees. This is how you would begin.

Take a nice deep breath in and all I'm going to have her do is exhale on the circle. Her arms grabbed back onto her ankles. Ideally you'll grab onto your ankles if that's too difficult, you just grab onto your thighs. So start with that. Take your arms straight up. So there's her imaginary window. Again, nice deep breath in as she circles. She doesn't go behind herself. She stays within her peripheral where she can see and exhale.

One more time. Inhale and exhale. Now going to have her take her legs and arms out at the same time, so keep your head still. Take your leg straight up and your arm straight up. Nice deep breath in. So about right there. What she's trying to do is get that consciousness and that control in her powerhouse so her back is still exhale. Circle just the arms and once again, grab onto your size. So way up here when she pulls her knees in, you don't want your bottom to come up.

You want to try to keep that tailbone flat again. Arms and legs, deep breath in, straight up. Exhale. Now I'm going to have her do it again with a little more challenge. Arms and like straight up. This time, take your legs just a little bit lower, and if you tried this, you would notice it becomes a lot harder to maintain that back, that flat back when the legs are starting to go down. And now circle, exhale and grab onto your. All right. I'm going to have her add her head so she's going to begin by lifting your head. These are great neck strengthening exercises too.

You want to get the tips of the shoulders on the mat so you really curled up. Arms and legs together. Deep breaths in her head will stay up. She exhales, grabs onto the thighs or the ankles. Marta start to grab onto your ankles. Next inhale. Exhale, so correctly would be holding onto the ankles. Inhale, now pull your knees into your ears without that table and lifting. So bring those knees in, in, in, in scoop your tummy. Deep.

Two more deep breath in. And exhale. I'm going to have her go a little bit lower and inhale, reach out long. Squeeze your bottom and exhale. Come back in. Last one. Inhale, reach back. Yeah, she's outside of her peripheral there. And then exhale, bring it back together. Drop your head and rest. Okay, I'm gonna have her sit up next. Open her feet. Place your feet against the Poles or you just open your feet a little bit wider than your shoulders. Your feet are flexed.

She's already flexible enough to sit right on top of her hips. But if you weren't, you would bend your knees so that her shoulders are on top of her hips. Good to do in front of a mirror if you can. You want to squeeze your bottom, take a nice deep breath in and feel that lift up. And then she's going to start to exhale and think of dropping your head between your arms so your arms would go here. She's going to try to round as far over as she can to get her head as close to the mat as she can't see the crown of her head to them.

So really it's that same c curve, this scoop. So she has to keep squeezing here and then come back up. Stacking one vertebra back on top of the other and deep breath and pinch or bottom. Exhale, take that down. So pulling in, you're always getting that scoop. You'd go as low as you can. She might even have to bend her knees if you're not as she was flattening out here. So I'd want her to really pull in and then come back up tall.

Watch that. Your feet don't sickle here. You want to keep those heels pushing out and your feet in line with your knees, your knees lined up with your hips so they're not rotating out. Last one, deep breath in and exhale, shoulders relaxed. Pulling in with your belly button. This way, as she rounds down, go as far as you can. If you have to bend your knees here, you would. Ideally the legs should be straight. She's strong enough to be able to end flexible enough to be able to keep her leg straight. Now hold that down. Go ahead and put your head down and drop your shoulders.

Now keep the scoop and the squeeze here. Good, and then come back up. Sit up tall and shake yourself out. Okay.