Creative Ball Variations

Hi, I'm Delia Buckmaster and today I'm gonna be leading you through a Pilates mat workout using a small fitness ball. And with me today is Gia. So, we're gonna go ahead and get started in standing. So Gia, you go ahead and stand. We're gonna be facing this way.

You're gonna place the ball between the ankles or right above the ankle, I should say. Toes pointing forward. And you wanna hold onto the ball firmly but you don't wanna squeeze to tight that you feel like your knees are calling in medial. So, otherwise you're gonna step for a little bit further away from you so you can reach those arms up and we don't hit arms. So, go out and reach those arms up towards the ceiling and then exhale.

You got it, there you go. We're gonna reach those arms up, inhale breath. (inhales) And then exhale the arms back down. And just a couple more just so you can sync your breath and warm up your shoulders. And last one, we're gonna add a squat.

Squat

Yeah, you can play around with all of that, good. And then go ahead and extend all the way up towards the ceiling. And then we're gonna do some rotations here. And what's great about doing rotations with the ball at the feet, she can actually feel the ball move and you want it to move. You want your feet to adjust to the rotation of your body, moving your ankles from side to side and hold to the center.

Roll Down

So as you're rolling down your appealing your spine off, like you're going into your roll up. So you're really working through your abdominals and try not to hang too much into those hamstrings for a stretch and then really activate those back muscles as you stack your spine all the way back up. One more time and flex. Exhale, breath and breathe here at the bottom. Big inhale, feel the ribs expand and exhale as you will yourself all the way up.

And we're gonna do one more roll down, but I'm gonna have you turn so that way you're on the mat. So go ahead and give me another roll down Gia towards the floor and hold and then walk yourself all the way out to an all fours position like a cat. So the ball is gonna be between the ankle is to one of have them firmly there, right above and just make sure that those ankles aren't rolling out. Hips over the knees, hands underneath the shoulders, and just me a nice cat stretch. So, just around through your spine and then straighten out your back and then go into a nice extension and focus on the flexion being about the lumbar spine.

Cat Stretch

Shoulder Press

Just one more time and then find a nice flat back and the shift your bottom back towards your heels and then shift your body forward towards your hands. So you're just gonna shift back and forth. She's gonna try to maintain as much neutral as she can with her spine just to kind of stretch the ankles out, back and forth and bottom back and forward ad now find a nice neutral position Gia. So the hands are gonna be underneath the shoulders, knees under the hips. So, we're gonna do a little knee lift here to really activate the abs.

Hip Hinge

Knees Off

And then you can really get that stretch, activate the spine, lower the knees, and then straighten out the back, nice job. So, grab that ball from between your legs and let's have a seat at the front of your mat. Okay, you're ready? So, we're gonna start by holding the ball or putting the ball between your legs. So, not holding it, but right above your knees this time.

And just make sure that your feet are not much wider than your knees and that you know, not much closer, so nice and comfortable, and just squeeze the ball gently. Just a little squeeze so you can actually feel how that activates the inner thighs a little bit more. And you don't wanna pop the ball. It's a very gentle squeeze is just to bring awareness to the inner thighs. Reach the arms out in front.

Roll Back

(exhales) Inhale to come up. And if your feet are not quite in the same, the right spot, you more than welcome to move them. They're not stuck in cement. So, move into wherever feels comfortable and there were gonna hold it on the next one. So, exhale as you hold flexion, eyes are forward.

You're making that nice seeker curve with your spine and maybe squeeze a ball just a little bit, hold it there, and maybe tilt that pelvis a little bit more. Bringing the tail between your legs. This is really gonna activate the deepest flexors of your spine and then just shift your upper body to the right. And then back to the middle. And then shifts your upper body to the left and your eyes will lead your spine.

Roll Back w/Rotation

And the placement of the ball here is important. So, you wanna make sure that it's not too high or too low on the back, otherwise you're gonna... it's gonna be really, really challenging and put a little bit pressure on the lumbar spine. But if it's too high, then you're not gonna be able to extend the back in the proper spot. And this should actually feel good. It's like a little mini massage.

Thoracic Spine Extension

From here, extend over the ball and you'll know right away if the ball's not in the right spot. So, when you come up into flexion, you can make that adjustment by either sliding forward or back. So inhale as you come back towards extension. And then exhale as you come past neutral to flexion. And again, lower back elbows in your peripheral vision, head from up against the hands.

You're trying to mobilize the middle of your back, your thoracic spine as you disassociated from the lower half of your body. So, the lower half of your body is nice and stable. One more time, inhale. (inhales) And then exhale as you flex up. And if you're struggling here, you can let go of your head and just hold your hands for just a moment.

Thoracic Spine Rotation

Come back through center and then extend over the ball, head and shoulders back up, find neutral, rotate to the left side. Come back to neutral and then extend over the ball and you're gonna actually exhale to come up. And then inhale to rotate and hold it there for a second and feel how that ball has shifted towards your left side of your body. Come back towards the middle and then over the ball again. And then exhale to come up to neutral.

And then inhale to rotate, pulling that ball behind you and then exhale to the middle and then inhale. We're gonna do one more set? Upper body comes up to neutral. Rotate to the right side and really feel that stretching your back on your inhale breath. Come back towards the center.

Lower yourself over the ball. One more time, lift yourself up, (inhales) Inhale, get as much rotation as possible. Come back through the center and then lower yourself all the way back. And you can hold it here for a minute. If you've got really tight shoulders or a client with really tight shoulders and this is comfortable for them, you can let go of your head and just come into that nice external rotation of the shoulder.

And then when you're ready, now that chin first to roll yourself up so there's no pressure to the neck and you're going play step all back between your knees, right above your knees. Lying supine, so on your back. You with me? Yeah. Yeah, okay, so eyes up towards the ceiling, ball between the legs feed in a comfortable position, just gimme some pelvic curls.

Pelvic Tilt

Arms Reaching Forward w/Forward Flexion

And now give me an exhale up. (exhales) And then an inhale to lower. (inhales) And exhale. (exhales) And inhale to lower. Twice more, lifted up into that hundred prop.

Squeeze up ball gently so that you can feel as inner thighs activate and then lift yourself up into the hundred, hold it here and you can pump your arms. It's an inhale, two, three, four, five and an exhale and really reached with those arms Gia. Good, I'm gonna get out of here so that I can actually count. So, inhale to four, five and exhale two, three, four, 30. Inhale two, four, five and exhale, two, three, four, 40.

Hundred

Squeeze up all two, three, four, 82 more sets, continue to reach with those shoulders. One more set and don't collapse right away. Yes, now hold, can you reach a little bit further, can you pull your knees a little bit closer, can you squeeze that ball just a little bit tighter and then go ahead and lower yourself down. We're gonna go into the roll up. So, on your back still the ball is gonna go underneath your feet.

So the soles of the feet, I'll make sure I have enough room here, legs together. So, now the ball is gonna give you a little appropriate subject feedback. It's mobile here, so you're really gonna see whether or not you favor one side as you roll up. So it's taking your arms over your head, arms still stay in your peripheral vision, arm's reach to the sky. Come to your roll up.

Roll Up

Finally to the top of your roll up. Stay here. Inhale, reach a little further. (inhales) And exhale, roll yourself all the way down, bend your knees, feet flat, arms overhead. Let's do that again. Arms up, inhale breath.

(inhales) Exhale as you flex activating those inner thighs. You're reaching those hands forward. Hold it, inhale. (inhales) and exhale as you roll yourself all the way back down. That's just gonna give you that little extra stretch between the shoulders.

Three more times. Arms up, legs extend, reach forward. How are you doing? Good. And lower yourself back so lowly, pushing that weight into the ball.

And again, one more time, arms up, inhale and exhale flex it now, breach and hold, deep inhale to reach further forward and exhale to roll yourself all the way down. And go ahead and place those hands by your side. We're gonna go into the one like circle here. So ,you're gonna place the ball underneath your right foot. So, we're gonna start there.

Single Leg Circles

Now I have the high table here and she's got the high mat. So it's easy for us to hold the size of the table for a little bit of support. So we're gonna go on and do that, and take your like over your mid line and then take it back to the opposite side. As your leg goes over the midline, allow that left hip to lift just a little bit off the mat so that you can teach your body that little bit of rotation with stability there. And the exercise will prepare you for future mat exercises or later on for some intermediate and advanced exercises.

Reach your legs out to the side and then bring it back. Now hold it here. We're gonna go into the full circle so you can take your leg to the right circle of down and around and up. And what's an interesting about the ball is it does kind of give you that feedback and let you know if you're really stabilizing through that right leg or not. One more time.

And you can press channeling into that ball to help with that. So, reverse it, inhale to the left. Exhale, circle it around and hold at the top. Got three more times inhale, exhale, add up two more. (exhales) Last one, hold it at the top, and then pull your left knee in towards your chest.

And then just go ahead and stretch that hip flexor out. If you struggle at all, keeping your leg extended. So if you're really tight in the hip flexors and it's biting your quad, soften that knee and keep that knee soft so that way it doesn't turn into a leg workout. I'm going to an abdominal workout. So you're gonna place the left foot on the ball, right foot down, and you able to see the angle of the other leg now on camera.

So, extend your right leg up and then extend the left leg out, flexing your ankle on that left side, holding it here, hands to the side for support than just ticking clock where windshield wiper, whatever terminology works best for you. And then allow that hip to come off just a little bit so you can feel the rotation from the rib cage and over eyes towards the ceiling and the opposite shoulder stays down. Go to your leg circles, circle it around, hold at the top, pause, inhale, exhale. Placing that foot firmly into the ball is going to give you a little bit more support and also give you that feed back. One more time I think.

Single Leg Circles

So however it's easiest, if you need to reach up and you can place it right above your ankle actually so it doesn't roll around your ankles. And then just pull your knees into your chest, give yourself a little hug, and your hands are like your little hip flexors those they'll help you out just a little bit and then extend the legs up towards the ceiling. I do want you to keep a soft knee, so your legs will be at a slight 60 degree angle here, arms are long, so shoulders are nice and wide. Lower the leg down slightly, both legs, and then bring it back up perpendicular to the hip. So inhale and then exhale.

Lower Lift

So if they can't hold it here, then they most likely can't do the full rollover. Just gonna do that one more time. Hold and pause, and see if you can hold it there, and reach those arms up towards the ceiling. Drawing the shoulder blades into the mat, like your arms or legs and hold for two more breaths. Inhale and exhale.

(exhales) one more and then go ahead and Tuck your knees into your chest. And I'm gonna have you roll up to a seated position all the way. So we're gonna go from here into rolling like a ball and then that'll lead into something else. You Ready? Yeah.

So, the ball is gonna be right above the ankles. And if the ball at any time, it's just too much for your inner thighs or your hip flexors. Just move the ball out of the way. You could totally do it without it, but we're gonna place in between the ankles and that's actually gonna help to give you a little bit of support low. So let's bring the toes of apart.

So we wanna actually keep the legs at about hip distance apart. Hands are gonna be on your shins. You're gonna scoop those abdominals in. You're gonna roll yourself back to your shoulder blades and then roll yourself up and balance here at the top of your rolling like a ball, leading with your lower back, inhale breath and then exhale and hold two more times, Gia inhale (inhales) and exhale. (exhales) One more time is you roll back and up, and pause, and you can rest your feet for just a moment.

Rolling Like A Ball

Roll Over Variation

You're rolling like a ball. Let's do that again. Hands to the mat, rollover and the knees toward your chest and then roll yourself up. It's kind of fun. Inhale to roll back.

(inhales) Exhale to roll up. (exhales) Two more times, inhale back, exhale and up. (exhales) Whoop, one more time roll it back as scoop those abs enrolled all way up and release the legs. (exhales loudly) (laughs) Okay, so go ahead and lie on your back here and then just open up your knees for just a second toes pointing forward, heels lifted, and just go ahead and open up the hip flexors and give you some little stretch. We've been in that position for a little while and then extend your legs nice and long.

Reach the arms over your head, holding the ball. We're gonna roll all the way up to seated position, so arms up, head and shoulders up, and then we're gonna go ahead into a spine stretch. So, feet are gonna be about the distance of your mat apart. Hands are gonna be on the ball, ball is out in front of you here, got It? So, if you can't sit up nice and tall, if this is not comfortable for you, you can place a little mat underneath your bottom.

Spine Stretch Forward

Exhale as you round forward and then inhale to sit up. We're gonna try that with an inhale, you ready? Inhale to sweep your arms forward and flex. Exhale to sit back up nice and tall and allow your shoulders some freedom round forward. Lift the shoulders up to the ears.

That should feel really good. And then sit back up. One more time, inhale breath. (inhales) And exhale, (exhales) all the way up. From here we're gonna go down to the mat for some abdominal work.

So, roll yourself all the way down. Legs are gonna come up to a table top position, softening the lower back into the maths. That way you don't put pressure on the back to lift the legs. The ball is gonna be in your hands. Head and shoulders come up to flexion and the ball is above your shins or the he knees over the hips.

Single Leg Stretch

That's gonna let you move fluidly through this exercise. Exhale reach. (exhales) Little hand eye coordination. One more on each side and then go ahead and pull the knees into the chest, holding the ball into the hands, got it? So, for chrism-cross or obliques, we're actually gonna keep our legs and tabletop and reach the ball overhead.

Criss Cross

So, if you've got a client that's not really great with coordination, you could just have them do this. Now as you come up on the right side, extend your left leg, exhale, reach. Inhale, bend the knees and lower. Other side exhale to rotate and then inhale, and back, and reach, and lower, and see if you can keep your feet lined up with each other, which is a little bit harder when you're not holding on your legs. One more time to each side.

And to your left exhale. (exhales) And then lower yourself right back down. Gonna go into double leg stretch. So place the ball right above the ankles. Knees are bent, head and shoulders up, grabbing onto the shins.

Double Leg Stretch

One more, reach it away, return the knees, hold, and then lower yourself all the way back down. You already try some bridging and while we're here, so grab that ball and place it underneath the right sole of the foot. And then just hang here for a second. This will be really nice after all that flexion to add a little bit of hip extension. Again, if you are not in the right spot, you could always adjust.

Bridge

So, lift up on the next one and hold. From here extend the right leg out, roll that ball underneath you, roll it back towards you. Lower the hips down. Let's add your breath, inhale to extend. (inhales) Exhale to reach the leg.

Bridging w/Foot Variation

Let's do it simultaneous. Lift the hips up, roll the leg away, roll the ball back in. Lower the hips down. Inhale to open up that front body, exhale to lower to the mat. One more time, roll it up, now hold it here.

So, right now you're limited to how much extension you can get cause that leg is resting on the ball, but you're just gonna drop the hips towards the mat and then lifted up, working left glute. So, what you really should feel is that gluteal fold from the glute to the hamstring. It's like you're picking up a pencil right there as you lift your hips up. One more time, hold it. You should really feel your glutes here.

Your open through your right hip. Roll the ball back towards you and then lower yourself all the way back down. Did you feel your bottom? Yes. Good, switch legs.

So, the left foot's gonna go onto the ball, right foot's gonna go down to the floor. Same thing, find your hip lift, lower back down. And if you're not in a good spot with the legs, fix them knees, preferably in parallel. So, if you're starting to feel any pressure into your lumbar spine, it might have a lot to do with how tight you are in your hips. So, we tried to force ourselves up to that hip extension when we don't have it.

Bridge

Bridging w/Foot Variation

So, just one breath pattern. One more time. Inhale, reach away, hold and then lower the hips and lift the hips. Focusing on the left hip flexor stretching and the right hip extensor working. One more time, lifted up and hold. Bring the ball back in and then lower yourself all the way back down.

You can grab onto the ball with your hands so it doesn't roll away from you. And then just tuck the knees into your chest, rocking yourself from side to side. And we'll go ahead and start on some extension. So rolling yourself all the way up to a seated position. You're gonna place the ball out in front of you because we're gonna lie on our belly.

So, we're gonna be prone now, and this doesn't work for everybody depending on the ball size and how much flex the ball has. But we're gonna place the ball underneath the sternum. So, just kind of decide where it's gonna the most comfortable here. So, I feel okay. So, we'll start with some preps here.

So, legs are extended long and I have to fix it. Hold on the, there we go, all right, that's better. So, the arms are gonna be down by your side and just flex your body over the ball. So it was just opposite of what we did earlier with the chest expansion coming into flexion. Legs reach nice and long.

Swan

Eyes forward and then exhale over the ball. We're gonna try that one more time. Inhale to look up, eyes forward, and then exhale and round over the ball. Step one, step two, you're gonna go ahead and lift your upper body up into extension, and float your arms off of the mat. Hold here, take your arms out in front of you, like you're diving into the pool, and then bring the elbows back towards you towards your ribs, and then lower yourself back down.

Step two, let's do that again. Inhale to extend, exhale, dive into the pool, inhale, bend the elbows, lift your head out of the pool, and then lower. Obviously that would be the proper breath if you were actually swimming, so inhale, lift up. Now, dive in the arms forward, and then take the arms out to a t, bring them behind you and lift into a bigger extension. Bend your elbows, keep them close to your ribs, dive forward, exhale, inhale, circle the arms around breaststroke.

Breaststroke

You can place both your hands on the ball, your head falls between your arms, and then you can stretch your shoulder a bit and then roll yourself up. So, we're gonna be facing to our right and you're gonna have to listen to my queue because you won't be, you won't see me. So, we're facing that way. We're gonna place the ball, we're gonna do some side legs, but we're gonna place the ball underneath the left rib cage. So, at first you should feel comfortable here.

I'm just gonna make sure I'm not the edge of the mat too much. And your left forearm is resting down. You can test both knees in for a second Gia and just make sure that you feel comfortable having the ball where it is. That I want you to take your right leg extended all the way out, so it's lined up with your hips, and we're just gonna do some side kicking here. So flex your ankle, bring that leg forward, flexing at the hip, and then bring that leg right back, pointing your toe, opening up your hip.

Side Kicks w/Arm & Leg Extension

And as that right leg comes forward, bring the arm behind you and let's do that again. Inhale reach and then exhale back. Inhale to reach the arm forward and an exhale to reach that leg forward. One more time to reach and hold and then return that leg. Nice job, okay, So we're gonna lie all the way down now on that ball.

Side Leg Lifts

So the head's gonna stay down the first one, Gia. Your right leg will come up in your right hand will go to your leg and just lift and then lower back down, and exhale to lift and lower, let's add the head. Exhale, lift the upper body up. Inhale to lower over the ball. Exhale, lateral flexion, inhale to stretch.

Two more times, lift and lower. Last time, lift, lower all the way down. Hold and pull both knees into the chest and rest I look, feel okay? So go ahead and come all the way up and you'll sit in a mermaid position, so that left shin is forward and the right shin is lined up with your mat. The left hand will be on the ball, so the ball is gonna be on your left side.

Mermaid

We're gonna sit on the other side and lie down. So on your right hip, place the ball underneath your right rib cage, forearm down, knees come forward. And really make sure that you're out of that shoulder. So actually collapsed that shoulders, Gia and then just pull yourself out of it. There you go, nice.

Side Kicks w/Arm & Leg Extension

Bring that left arm back. Let's do that again. Inhale to reach forward and then exhale. (exhales) And inhale to reach. (inhales) And then exhale, two more times. Open up through that front body, reach in that leg forward last one and hold, and then bring your legs in, nice job.

We're in lie all the way to the side. So, makes sure that that feels comfortable for you. It's in the right spot, giving yourself that nice stretch here on the left side of your ribs. You're gonna extend that left leg long and then you're going bring that left arm over your head. So just pause here for just a moment and then as your left leg comes up, keep your left hand where it is.

Side Leg Lifts

One more time and lift, and then lower all the way back down. Pushing yourself up to a z set position. Your right shin is gonna be in front of your hip or in front of your mat. Your left Shin in line up with the side of your mat, hand on the ball with your right hand on there, you're gonna roll it away, give yourself a nice side bend and then come all the way back up and again, and reached it away. Stay here Gia and rotate.

Mermaid

Scissors

Hold it here, eyes up towards the ceiling. Right leg goes towards the floor and should open scissor, Left leg comes back towards you. And then both things come back up towards the ceiling, then the left leg comes down, inhale and exhale (exhales) and inhale, and if you're using your neck and shoulders to lower the leg, then you probably gonna far for what your abdominals can handle. So make sure the shoulder blades are nice and wide. One more time, lower, and then back up.

You ready to add on? So, bring that right leg towards you, left leg down towards the mat. Open your legs apart as you circle your right leg down and your left leg up towards the ceiling. So now your left leg is towards you and the open scissor. Bring the right leg up towards the ceiling, right leg first, right leg comes down, legs open, they circle around you, pause at the scissor, left foot comes up and again, inhale, circle it around an exhale and pull it up two more times.

Helicopter

Feet are flat on the mat to lift your hips up into a bridge position. This is gonna be a little bit harder, but it's gonna work a little bit more on the stability of the hips here instead of the stretching part that we did earlier. So take that right leg up and extend it long and just hold it here, and just give up all the squeeze between the legs. Exhale, press and press, and this is gonna lead us into a little teaser prep after this press. So little pulses, hips stay square, opening up through that left hip, nice and long through the right leg, preparing for that teaser and then place that right foot to the mat.

Bridge w/Single Leg Extension

Little teaser prep, right leg is gonna extend long. You're gonna in your shoulders up. You're gonna look toward your thigh and you might need to adjust that supporting leg, gonna roll that ball up your leg, reach it up towards your toe tall through your spine, and then you can enroll yourself all the way back. And you can rest the knee and bend it if you'd like. Let's do that again, now the chin, lift yourself up, roll that ball all the way up to your toe.

Teaser Prep

Inhale to roll it up, extend through the upper back and reach and an exhale. One more time. Now the chin, exhale. roll yourself all the way up into that teaser hold and then lower yourself back. Ready to try the full teaser. Can we do it? Yeah.

Knees he's up to tabletop and you're ready? Head and shoulders up. Exhale, start to roll yourself up, rolled up all the way up towards your toes. Inhale and an exhale, start to bend your knees as you roll the ball down your leg. And again, head and shoulders up.

Teaser

Open up your legs about the width of your mat. And then again, just like with the spine stretch, if you can't sit up nice and tall because of your hip flexors. And a lot of times if you're have a class, well in Montana, everyone has a sweatshirt. So we just roll this sweatshirt up and we stick it underneath our bottoms. So okay, arms reach up towards the ceiling.

A little variation of spine twist, arms should be in your peripheral vision. Palms should be pressing up against the ball. Bring the ball in front of your chest, drawing your shoulders down so you can feel that connection in your shoulder blades. And then reach those arms up and do that again. Bend the elbows, bring the ball down, reach the arms up.

Spinal Twist

Inhale, exhale to the middle. And again, inhale, breath and exhale and up. One more time, inhale, breath, exhale and up and hold. And you're gonna go ahead and I have the beauty of straddling, but you're gonna bring your legs behind you. We're gonna do another extension exercise before we go into some front support.

So placing the ball to the front of your mat, hands are gonna go on top of your mat, legs are long. Again, preferably the legs are in line with your hips, but if your hips are tight like mine, sometimes it's helpful to open up a little bit. And if that's the case, point those toes out laterally. Hands are on top of the ball. Shoulders are out of your ears.

Imagine that your arms run long to the middle of your back. So feel that connection before we get started. And then lift your head up and coming into like a little baby swan. So eyes up, just stretch the front of your body here and then lower yourself back down, and do that again. Inhale to lift up a little babies swan, and then exhale.

Swan

Swimming

Now as you're swimming, take your right hand off the ball and bring that arm behind you and follow your hand with your eyes, and see if you can lift up a little bit higher and extension. So you're just swimming, arm reaches behind you and then bring that arm forward, and then rest that hand on the ball. Let's do that again, lift arm up, reach behind you. Roll extension and then lower yourself back down. Let's go a little bit faster.

So right hand up, inhale, two, three, four, five. Reach the arm forward, two, three, four, five. Left arm back, two, three, four, five. Left arm forward two, can we do one more side, left, right arm up, reach two, three, four, five and forward two, three, last one, arm up, reach for that leg. Gimme that nice rotation, bring the arm forward and rest.

Nice, so go ahead and bring yourself back to all fours and place the ball between your knees. And we're gonna go back into those cats stretches that we did earlier. Taking the hands underneath the shoulders, knees underneath the hips, curl those toes under and then go ahead, and round your spine, and whole that flexion. Just hold it, squeeze up ball between your legs, pull the lower abdominals, and then lift the knees up to a hover. Hold the knees at a hover and extend your spine and look up, inhale breath.

Knees Off

So, this would be very similar to doing some knee stretches on the reformer. So we're gonna lift the knees up to a hover round through the spine, exhale breath and coming up flexion. And then what we're gonna do here is we're to take the right foot off of the mat and you're gonna squeeze that ball between your legs five times. It's one exhale, two, three, four, five. Lower the right foot down, straight out your back, lower the knees back down, that was challenging.

Single Leg Knees Off

Plank w/Ab Series

So draw the right knee in towards the chest and then bring that right leg back and do that again. Pull it in and back, two more. Last one, keep going. Gia, add around spine round your spine exhale, inhale, now look up and extend the spine and then exhale to around the spine, pull it in, inhale and find that extension, two more times. Exhale, (exhales), inhale and lift. Last time, exhale, inhale, lift, find that extension and then go ahead and place that knee down, nice.

So from here, the left one is gonna go forward between the hands. So, you're in a lunge position. So, think about this exercise as being a similar to the lunges on the reformer with the moving carriage behind you. So, left foot forward, upper body up, find balance. Left hand's gonna go onto your shin, right arm is gonna come up towards the ceiling and you're gonna stretch holding here for two breaths.

Lunge Stretch

Plank w/Ab Series

Four times exhale, inhale. Two last one and then you're gonna round your spine, need chest round your spine, hold, as up all moves away from you, extend the back and look up. Let's do that again, exhale, round. Inhale, extend, and again, twice more, (exhales) and lift the chest. One more exhale and really extend up through that upper back.

And then lower the knee down. Now you're gonna place that right foot between your hands, balance. You're ready? All right, you're up, your right hand is on your shin and your left arm is up and you're gonna breathe here. Inhale through the nose.

Lunge Stretch

Good, and that concludes your mat class with the ball. And I hope you guys enjoy it. Thank you so much.