Stability Ball Flow

Hi everyone. My Name's Sarah Cahoon and I am here at Polonious anytime today to take you through one of my favorite workouts. It is, I work at using the bowl, so we're going to be using the bowl for every exercise today. It's a nice short, condensed down workout around 20 to 25 minutes. This is a series that I take myself through almost every week. I use it as my break between admin because I've got my ball at home. It's something that you don't need to be in a studio to do, but you can also do it in the studio or use it as a warmup as well for your clients. So we are gonna start with the ball up against the wall first, so I'm popping that down so that it will be up against sort of my lower spine and my pelvis and walking the feet out away from the ball.

So the feta parallel and you're just having a little rest even with the hips towards the ball. On the inhale, we're just going to go down, bend the knees and reach the arms up to the sky on the exhale. Come up and straighten the legs and on the inhale going down and Benz and exhale come up and straighten. So just using this one just to warm up the legs and to also work on that alignment through the ankles, knees, and fate, all the way up through those hips. We're going to do three more of these and just be mindful that you're not resting into that bowl, that you're really holding your body weight as you come up to stance. Last two big breath out.

Last one, and let's stay down at the bottom. Take the hands behind the head. We're going to inhale, extend the spine back over the ball. Exhale, come back up to center in how extent exhale and backup the center so you should feel those legs kicking in. Now they've been working to hold you in that position whilst we're working on opening that up spine. Use the breath out to engage the abdominals to come forward and using the inhale to go back over to more. Breathe out last one, and then coming all the way out. Reach those arms to the sky and lower them back down. Okay, we're going to take the bull away from the wall now and come down lying onto your back on the mat.

So from here we're lying down and placing the feet onto the ball. Now depending on the size of your bowl, you might have the feet flat or you might be on the heels and there's no right or wrong, just whatever you feel comfortable with. Let's press back through the shoulders, burry that draw your tailbone under. Roll it up through the hips. Take a breath in at the top and exhale.

Roll it back down joint by joint through the spine in the bottom. Exhale, roll it up. Breathe in at the top three that roll it back down and inhale the bottom. I'm going to do four more of base. Really feel that articulation through the spine, but also worked for that heat through the back of the legs and keeping your bull as still as you can.

[inaudible] two more. Feel those abdominals scraping and away from the line of you taught. So the lining of shorts and in how the bottom last one. I'm going to stay at the top and we roll it up. Now take the right leg up to tabletop. Lower it back down. Left leg.

Okay. And Yeah, so I'm really pressing back through my arms and shoulders and pushing into that stabilizing leg. [inaudible] you use the breaths of the hip. Stay up. [inaudible] one more. Each slot. [inaudible] last one, back to two legs. Take a breath in. Exhale.

Roll it down. Joint by joint through the spy. Keep the feet on the ball, but just squeeze the knees and feet together. Arms out to the side. Go for a little spine twist. Just give those legs a little bit of a breather. Try and let the fate move with a nice [inaudible]. Big exhale to bring you back to center. Lost one each side, gluing their shoulders back to the map and then back now space the feet back out again. So they hit with the park. Press those arms down by your side. And now we're going to go into pelvic presses. So we lift the hips straight up, wanting how lowered down. We've got 20 of these list and Loa.

Okay, so we're going to go for that nice dynamic pace. Get the blood flowing, get those hips moving. [inaudible] full breath out. We're halfway. 10 more to go. [inaudible] keep the back of those legs hated as you lower it down. [inaudible] five more. You should be feeling those hamstrings. Bunny. Four, three, two, last one. Slowly down and rescue. There's like the Breda. Okay, we're going to come up from there and sitting onto your ball.

I'll bring that back a little and we're going to walk out until your lower spine is on the ball and my feet just stay flat onto the mat there. Take the hands around behind the head. Just check that your pelvis isn't dropping down around the ball. We're going to keep an active little lifter so you're engaged and you've got that deepening through the abdominals. On the inhale, take the chest back over the ball. Exhale, come up into the chest, lift in how back. Exhale up. So these are great challenge on the abdominals, but they're also really good challenge on the stability of the hips and those legs. We've got four more [inaudible] and I'm really thinking about softening that lower part of my spine into the ball and keeping that as I extend the opposite chest back over last one. Now we're going to do the Blake.

So we're going to do it all to one side. Rape goes towards that hip for eight. [inaudible] still think of that lower spine softening into the ball. Okay. And we are trying to keep that nice dynamic pace. Two more.

Okay, last one. And then we've got eight to the other side. Very that to go across in how control it back. Okay. And if you feel like you're losing a little bit of stability in those hips, check in with the fate. Make sure they're really firmly pressing down into that Mat [inaudible] and you've got that little bit of heat coming from the back of the legs.

[inaudible] last one. Now we're going to come back up into the middle and stay. We just go back and inch and up back an inch and up. Two and three. My lower back is staying soft in towards that ball the whole time. Three more. Two last one.

Now scroop bring it forward a little bit more. Reach the arms out in front and now roll it back through the spine. Take the arms are over, circle skirt and pull up. Roll it back. So it's like a little overhead that you might do on the spine corrector.

The little challenging on your stability as you come forward and back. So just make the range as big as you can cope with and do two more of these, really open that chest and then around the lower spine. Last one and then walk it all the way back in. Okay, from Dave, we're going to come over to use the wall next and we're going to go into some side overs. So my feet are going to go up against the wall. I'm going to space my right leg forward, which is my top leg and my left leg back. My hips go onto the ball and I straightened my legs so sometimes can be a little bit hard to get into.

So just make sure you're using your hands to support you with that ball. And we're going to take the hands around behind the head. On the inhale, we go over, exhale, lift it up in how to go over. Exhale, lift [inaudible]. So really use the pressure of the feet into the wall to give you that support through the hips and then get that tall, so to length and for you as you go over and work as you come up. Two more last and take it all the way over.

Take a little side stretch just to reach that arm out and then slowly come in and then we'll swap it to the other side. So this time I left. What is going forward? My right leg is going back. I push the hips onto the ball, straighten the legs, and then take the hands around behind the head. On the inhale we go over. Exhale, lift up. Yeah.

So again, really think of pressing down into those feet and you use that to zip you up through the inner thighs. Through the abdominals. Okay. Engaging the shoulders down into meat. Those apps last too. Okay. And last one, stretch it all the way over.

Reach that top arm. And just let then and then coming all the way back up. [inaudible]. All right, for the next one I've got some hand weights prepared so I've got a heavier set and a lighter set. So my heaviest set is three pounds and my lighter set use two pounds. I'm going to start with a heavier set first and I'm just going to have the lighter set ready to go as well. For the next ones. Okay, so by using the wall again to pop your feet up against and this time we're prone onto the ball so my hips are onto the ball. I'm grabbing my heavier set first and taking the arms down either side of that ball so the heels are pressing up against the wall and the toes are flexed.

Under the spine is nice and long. We breathe out, fly the arms out to the side. Inhale lower. Exhale breath in. Lower. Really pull from the back of the shoulders. Picture that spine lengthening in both directions and the back of those legs. Really engaging [inaudible]. We've got three more of these to go [inaudible] and two last one and lower it down. Just let your chest rest, let the knees bend. We're going to come back in. Same position. Straighten the legs, engage your abdominals up and away from that ball. This time.

Breathe out both arms, lift and down. Now just the right arm goes, lift and down. Now left up and down both arms and you'll feel the body. I want to shift from side to side. You're really going to try and use your centering press into those feet. [inaudible] this one's hard work. One more time through [inaudible] you use the breath out [inaudible] and then all the way down and again, let that spine rest. Let the knees bend and just a little moment breather.

I'm going to swap it down to the lighter hand weights now cause this next one gets a little bit more challenging but you're more than welcome to stay with the heavy hand weights if you can or you can always do it with no hand weights. So we start with the palms facing back towards the Fi. Bend the elbows, rotate from the shoulders, reach the arms out, bend, elbows, rotate, touch the ground, bend, rotate, rich, pull back, rotate. And down. We've got formal lift, rotate, rich, bend, rotate and down. Try and breathe with h movement. Okay.

Inhale down. Exhale, lift in. How? Turn X, how rich in how bend. Exhale, turn in, how down last time through these. Get really fatiguing on that back of the body. 10 and then have a good rest over the ball. You deserve it. Have a hang. You can let the head turn to the side if that's more comfortable. And then from there just leave those weights there as well.

Stretch your legs back to straighten. Take the hands around behind the head, lower your spine, over the ball on the inhale. Come up into your back extension on the exhale. Lower the spine back over. Inhale, lift it up and exhale. Lower it back down. Inhale. So you can see I've got a lot of extension work and a lot of back of body work in this little workout cause as I said, it is my retain that I do in between all of my admin work, which can go on for hours and yeah, two more.

Last one and Dan and have a good hang 10 hits the other side. If you turn the head before Oh and have a breather. And then from there slowly coming back, we're just going to pop the weights just to out of our way for the moment because we don't need those. And then we're coming back down onto our back and feed it onto the ball. This time the legs are out straight all the way down and press the arms down by your side.

Have a little v with those feats. We've got that wrapped through the back of the legs and on the exhale, lift the hips straight up [inaudible] and then roll it back down through the spine. So these one I'll just give you that nice feeling of Lens through that torso. Roll it all the way down and lift it up and take your time as you roll down. Three more. Lift and roll. Last two.

I'm going to stay up there on that last one. I've given you warning. So be prepared. Stay and hold. Now from that we're going to leave the right like three times two and three, right? Like comes on. We lift the left leg, one, two and three. Hold, squeeze up through both hips. Roll it back down through the spine. Let's go off and do that one more time and we lift straight up, right like three times one touch to touch three smooth transition to the other side and two and three slowly roll it down joint by join through the spine and then rest from there while lifting the right leg up.

And now we curl up just on that left leg. So we lift and lower and leaf. We've just got three. Lower it down. This is tough work on that supporting leg and lower other side, right like presses into that bowl, lift it up and lower and you can see how hard I'm having to work through the upper body just to keep my self stable. Last one, roll it all the way down and then good. Okay, we're coming back up from there. Am I going to go into a little cat stretch series with the ball?

So I'm going to walk out until I land into a plank position and you can get into this however you feel comfortable. I jumped down onto my tummy. Walk it out until my shins. Find the ball, and you can either do that on the mat or on the timber, whatever you feel most comfortable with. On the exhale, we're going around the spy and pull the knees in. Inhale, take the legs back out. Go for a little lengthening and an extension. Pull back in. Exhale round and polling. We're going for hips high today. Stretch your back out. Lengthen, push away. Think of opening the chest and in exhale, inhale, reach. Exhale, open the chest. Inhale, come back up and reach.

Push from the back of those arms right down through the back of the shoulders. Last two. Inhale, squeeze into the back of those legs. Really get as much length as you can in that shape. Last one, and rich, think of those legs going to the sky, chest opening to your hands. Pull it all the way back here. Step off your ball as gracefully as you can. Now going to grab your heavy set of hand weights again and come to sitting onto your ball. You can always use the lighter ones as well.

If you're feeling a little fatigued through that upper body, that's always an option. We're going to walk it down until your head shoulders are onto that ball. Make sure your head is resting and it's not hanging back off the edge. We're taking both arms out to the sky, lift the hips up, and then on the inhale both arms go back and on the exhale they come back up in how both arms go back. Hips drop down, exhale, pull up. So you notice I've got that slight softening in the elbows. So the movement really happens around the shoulders and that thoracic spine gets a really lovely stretch as the hips drop down.

Three more. Last two and last one and lift the hips and stay. Now from there, just take the arms straight back, circle them all the way around. When you do five of those, think of drawing your tailbone armed or between your legs so you've got the back of those hips engaged. Those shoulders rest into the ball. Last one, and then let's reverse it. Take those arms back. Exhale, pull them forward. Lift those hips. Even if you don't feel like it, you'll be surprised how much those hips naturally dropped down.

I know mine do last too. [inaudible] last one, and then bring the arms forward. Walk it all the way back here and bring yourself up to sitting. Keep those arms out in front if we can. On the exhale, we're going to rotate. Take that arm back and look towards the head. Breathe in. Bring it back around.

Exhale, rotate and in how back. Now this can get quite strong on those arms and shoulders, holding those weights out there, even though it looks like a nice, simple movement. So if you need to do this with the lighter weight or no weights, that's absolutely fine. Focus on that rotation in how back [inaudible] when did you do one more each side in center. Last one in how center. Now from there we bring the arms down.

I'm going to walk the feet in just a tiny bit closer. On the exhale. We're going to lift the arms up. The right leg tries to float off. Circle the arms around, lower the leg down, lift the arms up, left leg floats off and lower it down. Now this is really challenging on your stability and you might see I've got one side. It's a little harder than the other, which we're all humans. I'm sure you have the same and around and again if it's too strong with the weights, just practice this one with the arms down, just the leg floats.

Let's do one more. Each side. The shoulder is a drawing down as the arms lift and the spine is growing taller, circle around and rest. You'd be glad to know you can pop the weights down. Now we don't use them again. We are going to come back out though into another little cat stretch series so I'm going to walk back out the same way I got in before chess goes onto the ball and I come out until my hands for me had just onto that timber there and the shins are onto the bowl. The legs are really engaged. We are going to exhale into a single leg cat stretch.

So my left leg floats up, I pull in just on my right leg and I go back out. Squeeze place the left leg down, right like flight's up, pulling off my left leg, back to two legs, stay. And now we're doing a Blake cat stretch. So two knees towards one shoulder, back out to center. Ho Two knees to the other, shoulder back out the center. Halt. And then we're going to leave the right leg up. Single leg, head stretch and back out swept legs. Pull it in and back out.

Squeeze both legs together and a blink in how? Back out. Squeeze for the hips. Exhale and back out if we can. One more time through. Lift the right leg and back hand lift the left leg. And if it's too much on the single, just go back to the normal cat. Stretch. Two legs to right shoulder. Squeeze out to center, two legs to left shoulder, squeeze out to center. And then again as gracefully as you can, step off from that bull. All right, we've got two more exercises to go. And then we're done. I'm going to come back to sitting onto the ball and it's going to do a nice little bouncing exercise.

Relax the shoulders for a moment and give those legs a little workout. Hands onto the ball. We do three little bounces, one, two, three, lift and whole. My fingertips are on the ball. Back to the bowl. One, two, three, lift, hold and back. One, two, three, leave tall. So this is a great one in between cause it's still keeping my heart right up, but it's just giving that up a torso, a bit of a break before we finish off with those Pike's really engaging from the back of the legs and try and lengthen through your spine. As you hover off that ball, let's do two more of those. Bounce to three. Engage through the back of hips and hold and slowly down. Okay. And for our finale, we're going to finish off with the pike.

So we walk it back out into that plank position. So role myself out a little bit farther out. And then from there we're keeping straight legs for that pike now. So we breathe out and pack the hips up to the sky. Pull the ball in as far as you can, and then slowly back out. Exhale, pack the hips up, pull the ball in as far as you can, and then slowly back out and gauge the back of those shoulders. Exhale.

Okay. Press down into the hands. Lift the hips up high. We've got three more then if it helps, I'm sweating just as much as you are at home last too. Okay, and last one, really squeeze those legs together. Lift and carefully coming out. We are all don for your bulwark hat. Thank you so much for joining me for my bull homework.

I hope you enjoy it and I see you again next time. Bye.