Class #3764

Creative Transitions Mat

40 min - Class
669 likes

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Play with fun transitions in this Mat workout by Mariska Breland. She offers creative combinations that can be used all together or mixed in with your regular workouts. She includes variations to exercises like Double Leg Stretch, Open Leg Rocker, and much more!
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Hi, I'm Mariska from fuse plays in Washington, D C and I'm here with Noel and Christie and we're going to do a little mat workout. Um, my theme if I have a theme, and this one is really about kind of coming up with some fun transitions so you can use the whole class as a workout or you can just take pieces of it and then throw it into your own classes, um, for some ideas of how to transition from one place to the other. So we're going to go ahead and come lined down on the mat. I love to begin every class with some sort of bridging sequence. So we're going to do that because that's what my body always likes to do. So you can come to lying down with your knees bent and your feet flat to the Mat. And then just first let your body kind of settle into the mat, taking a couple of deep inhales and exhale.

And then we're going to find a little bit of a posterior pelvic tilt. So it's not quite a bridge yet. You're just going to draw your pubic bone towards your ribs for where you feel your low back, making contact with the mat, and then you lengthen your spine so that your tailbone makes contact with the mat. And we're just going to do a couple of rocks back and forth. So low back touches and then low back peels away a little bit. Low back touches.

Pelvic Tilt

Think about deepening your abs there and then you pull away a little bit and then low back touches. Keep pressing into your feet and peel your back up one vertebrae at a time, coming up to a straight line from your knees to your shoulders, and then from your throat down, you're going to lengthen your spine, pulling your abs in, in, in an n till you go all the way down to your lowest part of your back. And then you have to lengthen your back forward so that your tailbone can find the map. We'll do one more like that. Pressing into your feet, low back, makes contact you peel yourself up and away and then slowly lengthen back down. And again, trying to find as much, almost like you're creating your own traction as possible. So if I was pulling on your hips, we'd be pulling you down that much and then you go all the way down. Next, we're going to lift up and stay up. So we're in a straight line.

Bridge

I like to do a little hipbone check to make sure my hipbones are on the same level and I might even hold there because we're going to do this, the world's smallest march. So wait a little bit more into your right foot and just hover your left foot off and then reach it back down and then wait in the left, right foot lifts and lower back down. So it's a tiny little lift up and down, tiny little lift up and down. And I'm trying not to wiggle my hips from side to side and not always succeeding, but every other one or so I get get there. And then you're going to lay your spine all the way down, bone by bone.

Bridge w/Single Leg Marches

Just reach your arms overhead for a little bit of a stretch. And then you're going to bring your hands behind your head. You interlace your fingers all the way to the wedding. You don't want your elbows facing straight up towards the ceiling. You also don't want to smash your elbows down towards the floor, so you kind of find a happy middle point. Big Inhale here on an exhale, float your head and chest up and then when you're up you should feel your low back imprinting into the mat. And then inhale as you lower back down, your low back moves away from the Mat.

Abdominal Curl

Exhale as you lift and inhale as you lower, we're doing five total. Exhale to lift and lower. Couple more exhale to lift and lower back down. Exhale to lift and hold. Bring your right leg over your hip. Pause there. Think um, where your Kneebone or your knee is going straight down into your hip. You're just going to switch. So now the opposite leg is up and switch.

Chest Lift w/ Alternating Toe Taps

Good. And switch and switch and switch. Good. Last four and two and three and four. End Up with both legs up and then lower both feet slowly all the way to the floor. Keep your head and chest lifted, let your legs drop that way. So they're facing each other. So I'm just going to say that direction.

So with knees bent, sorry, Bend your knees and just let your knees drop to the side. So your opposite hips left lifts off. Go ahead and lower head and chest down. Big. Inhale there and exhale you'll come up. So it's a little bit of like an oblique variation. Good. And then lengthen all the way back down.

Chest Lift w/ Rotation

We're just doing four exhale to lift and lower back down. Exhale to lift and lower back down and on the sex. When we lift and hold, you're going to bring your legs back into that tabletop position. Good couple of leg lowers from there. So right like down switch with your left and switch and switch both legs, up, head and chest. Stay lifted, lower your feet all the way slowly down, lower your knees towards the other direction and then lower head and chest down.

Chest Lift w/ Alternating Toe Taps

Exhale, head and chest lift and lower back down, head and chest. Lift up nice and lower back down. Head end, chest lift and lower back down. Last one like this, lift up. Bring your legs back up. So you're pulling your knees back in. Now you're going to leave your body position essentially as it is.

Chest Lift w/ Rotation

You might roll off your mat just so you're prepared. We're going to roll that way. So roll towards one direction. Doesn't matter which. And you're gonna end up propped up on your arm from here. From here, try to lift your feet off the floor and we're just gonna open your knees into some clams. So knee opens up and lower back down. Knee opens up and back down. Nice knee opens, up and down and up.

Clam

And Dallas do four more. One and two. Nice. And three and four. Now you're gonna bring your legs back to the feet, up, knees down, roll back onto your back, which sometimes works out more gracefully than others. Head and chest stay lifted. Let's go into Chris Cross, right shoulder towards left knee and then left shoulder towards right knee. Good and rotate.

Criss Cross

And twist and really think about reaching your legs as long as you can stretch and stretch last for two, three and four. Knees back in. We're going to come this way, so you're rolling onto your opposite side, trying to prop yourself up on your f on your elbow, and then let your feet lift off the floor. And we've got eight clamps here. So open up and down. I just feel like that's appropriate because you know the ocean lift up and down, good lift. And we'll do four more. Lift and down and lift and down. Two more and last one.

Clam

And then we're going to take that shape and roll back onto your back. And if you've rolled completely off your mat, it's a good time to reset yourself. So go ahead and lower your feet down for a second. We're going to not do the a hundred we're going to do a variation of the hundred, which will equal about the same amount of airtime. So go ahead and bring your, just hug your knees into your chest and lift your head and chest up and then start with your knees so that they're directly above your hips and your arms by your side. So you're going to reach right arm, left leg, reaching out and just hold as if we're doing a like five breaths and then come back in and switch, reaching the other arm and leg and come back in and reach and back in and reach.

Hundred Variation

And back in. That was five. So we're gonna do five more reach one and in reached two I think actually in terms of counting this, a shorter reach three and in reach four and in reach five and [inaudible] go ahead and lower everything down and then just rock yourself all the way up. Seated with your legs in front of you. Go ahead and sit up tall with your arms reaching forward. And we're just going to take that into a little bit of a stretch because I want to loosen up your hamstrings a little bit and then stack your spine up.

So it's sort of like spine stretch with your legs in a different position. Again, exhale to reach forward and I'm thinking more hamstring stretch than ab work and lift back up. Chin to your chest as you reach forward and lift back up and then reach forward and lift back up. Float your right leg off the mat a little bit and you're going to lower down. So rolling all the way down onto your back paws with your hands reaching up towards the ceiling. That right leg is still floating. Head and chest lift.

Spine Stretch Forward

Roll yourself up and then grab hold of your leg and give it a little bit of a stretch towards you. Bend your knee and stretch two more times. Bend and stretch, bend and stretch. Make sure you've got a good grip on it. Lock your shoulders in. You're going to hover your other leg off the floor a little bit. We're going to take this into sort of, if it was an open leg rocker and you had both legs, except we only have one leg and we're holding it.

Tree

So you're going to inhale back, exhale up, and try to find your pause so you might not go back. As far. Inhale back. Exhale up, trying to hover that leg. Good. Three more. Inhale back and exhale up. Inhale back. Exhale up. Inhale back. Exhale up.

Single Leg Open Rocker

We're going to find a position with your leg down, keeping your right leg, reaching up. Try to maintain its height. Release one hand, release the other hand, and then you'll slowly lower all the way down onto your back. Lift that leg straight up towards the ceiling. Slight external rotation. Inhale your leg across your body, around and up, across, around, and up, across and up. Two more. This direction. Last when this direction, pause. Switch directions out to the side, around and up, out, around and up. Out, around and up.

Single Leg Circles

Two more times and last time and then go ahead and lower that leg all the way down. Reach your arms up towards the ceiling. Big Inhale here. Arms lead. Head follows. Roll yourself all the way up to seated. Go ahead and take that into a stretch forward because why not? It feels good. And then stack your spine all the way up. You're going to hover your left foot off the floor and then hover and then you're going to lay your spine all the way back down to the mat.

Roll Up

We've got one roll up to get up and catch that leg. So you're gonna roll yourself up. I'm just starting in the up position, which is easier. Grab your leg, grab hold of your ankle, reach your like really straight, bend your knee to touch and reach it. Bend and extend. We were trying to get your knee to go all the way straight, which I'm talking to myself because this leg doesn't want to do that and bend and reach. So you're going to lean it back. Make sure you don't fall off a mat, lean it back. You're going to hover the other leg off. And we're to try to rock that back and up.

Tree

And that did not work out at all for me, but they did. So let's keep going back and up. Good. Three more. Back and up and back and up. Leave that leg really reaching. Lower your right foot to the floor. Release one hand. Try to keep your leg at the same height.

Single Leg Open Rocker

Release the other hand slowly lower down as that leg lifts more to 90 degrees on the bottom. Really Nice. Hands Down, slight external rotation in that leg. You're gonna Inhale your like across your body. Exhale. Inhale around. Exhale up. Inhale around. Exhale up couple more. And last one. These are really, really large circles they're making. Mine won't be that big. Go the other direction and up, out to the side and up.

Single Leg Circles

I've got three more out, around and up, out, around and up. Beautiful. Last one out, around and up. Let's go ahead and lower that like all the way down. Reach your arms up towards the ceiling. Now on this one, as you roll up, I want you to bend your knees in at the same time. So arms reach up, head and chest lift, light, legs begin to pull them in and then we're going to take them with you. And when we're going to do rolling like a ball, but just not quite yet. So legs are gonna come in.

Roll Up Variation

You're going to lay down on your back with your head and chest lifted up. So imagine it's double leg stretch, except your knees are in state bent. You're going to inhale, exhale to pull in. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. In. Inhale, exhale, grab your legs. Give yourself a little rock to come up to your rolling like a ball balance.

Double Leg Stretch Variation

Drop your shoulders, elbows wide. Drop your head. When you inhale back, I want you to think about really lifting your butt up so it's an inhale back, but lifts up. Exhale, inhale, and exhale. Inhale and exhale. A couple more times. Inhale and exhale. Try not to roll off the mat. Inhale and exhale. Find your balance here. We're going to go back into a double leg stretch and up into this position.

Rolling Like A Ball

So inhale back. Exhale up. Good. Inhale back. Exhale. Two more. Inhale, exhale up. Struggle in Hilda, and exhale coming all the way up. We're going to take this shape back into the down part of double leg stretch and then you're going to take that shape and rocket.

Double Leg Stretch Variation 2

So imagine if you're open leg rocker was just extended really long. Good luck in hell back and then just take that shape and begin to rock forward and back. Nice. So in the gymnastics world, these are hollow body rocks. They're making it look really easy. It's not easy. They're making it look easy, but they're lying to you. We'll do a couple more. Last one and I want you to just roll onto your side towards me and you can prop yourself up however it is that you want to prop yourself up. Let's go ahead and start by taking your top leg up. So it's about hip height.

Hollow Body Rocks

We're going totally old school here. Kick your leg to the front kick, kick point, your toes kicked back, kick to the front, kick, kick and point back. Kicked to the front and back. We'll do two more like this. Kicked to the front and back. Kick to the front and back. Both legs together. Just have them stacked and we're just going to lift both legs up and just hold them for kind of eight two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. I guess you have to hold them a little bit longer. Hold them for another second.

Forward and Back

Roll onto your back from there. So you're going to be on your back. Reach your hands forward. We're gonna take that, pull your knees in towards you, and we're going to do regular old school double leg stretch. Inhale to reach. Exhale to pole. Inhale to reach. Exhale to pull. Really thing about pushing your arms over your head and in reach it out. And in next time you reach out, you hold it there.

Side Double Leg Lift

You're going to roll onto your opposite side. So you're coming onto your side. Prop your head up however feels good to you. If you need to adjust back on your mat, do that. Let's go ahead and take your top like up hip height. Flex your foot two kicks to the front, kick, kick point your toes.

Double Leg Stretch

Press back to the front, kick, kick and press back front kick, kick and press back two more times. Reach and press and reach and press. Beautiful. Go ahead and have your legs stacked, one on top of the other. You're going to lift your legs up and just hold them. Holding for eight, two, three, four, five, six. I imagine new, what's coming. Keep your legs lifted, roll onto your back, you're going to stay in this lifted position, float one leg up towards you, lift your head and chest up towards it. So we're going to do a really slow version of this because I want you to really work on the stretch aspect of it.

Forward and Back

And then we're going to switch and stretch and it's totally normal for one leg to be more flexible. One more round lift, pull and last one lift. Pull knees into your chest and go ahead and rock yourself up. We're actually can come to lying down on your stomach. So just turning yourself around. Let's go ahead and start with your elbows kind of in towards your side.

Side Double Leg Lift

We're going to do a little baby swan to start. So try not to push into your arms first, lifting with your upper back and then lower back down. Inhale as you lift and lower back down and lift up. And now if you want to add a press with your arms, you can lift yourself more up. It's whatever your back feels comfortable doing, which means it's not crunching or hurting in any way. And then lower back down. We'll do that one more time.

Single Straight Leg Stretch

Lift up and just stay there for a second. Beautiful Seagull. Just flew by. Good timing. And then lower yourself back down. We're going to do a variation of an arm circle where you're going to be prone, which is a little bit weird. So what I want you to do is rest your Chin or head or whatever on your left hand. I'm going to be propped up a little bit so I can look at you and reach your right arm forward with your thumb facing up towards the ceiling.

Swan Prep

You're going to lift your right arm off the floor, start to open it out to the side, and you're going to start rotating. So when you're about at a t, your thumb is now facing down. Keep rotating your arm so that when your arm comes by your side, your thumb is up again. So your pinky is down and then you rotate it back around so you're turning it so that when you're in a t you're flat and that your thumb is reaching up when your overhead rand you two more like that. So it's a big rotation. So we're working on both shoulder flection and shoulder extension, which keeps you really honest when you're on the floor and we have a last one reaching it back and then you're rotating around.

Swan

Thumb is up at the t and then you're reaching all the way back forward. We have two arms, we have to do the other side. So you're going to stend your left arm forward, can rest down on your right hand. You're going to lift thumb up, begin to rotate, so then your thumb is down. Keep rotating. So now your pinky is up and then your thumb is up again.

Prone Single Arm Circle

And then reaching it out to the side, just twisting it in the shoulder socket as you reach it forward and then reaching it back [inaudible] and then the last round, reaching it forward, trying to keep your arms straight and then reaching it all the way back. Let's go ahead. Now that your shoulders are a little warmer, we're going to have both arms forward, both legs back and we're going to do not a full swim, but sort of in the, in the family of a swim, we're going to do head right arm, left leg up, and then lower back down and switch opposite arm and leg and lower down. Lift up and down, lift and down. One more round, lift and down and lift hands by you and press yourself back into a child's pose. And then just swing your legs around so that we can come to a seated position. So we're going to do essentially a kind of, not a true jack knife, but kind of like a rollover to a jack knife into an l set.

Swimming Prep

An l sit is where you have your hands by your hips and you just push your hips off the floor. Now I understand some people's arms are not long enough that it makes that easier. So you can actually get yoga blocks by you if that ends up being like a thing. But um, the entrance is almost going to look like a boomerang cause you're kind of going up in the same way that you would just not so far over. Okay. So hands by your side and Erica's going to make sure. Knock off Matt, you're going to roll yourself back.

Child's Pose

Legs go up and then your reach your feet up to the ceiling so they're going up, reach up and then lower down, hands by your hips and lift up. And then again your rolling back, lifting up. Good and rolling down hands might need to pop for a little bit and lift up. Good. We'll do three more. Going back, hips lift up and then lowering down and rolling back up. Good. Two more.

Jackknife Variation

Did I say two more ones before Claudia's teacher talking. And then go ahead. Counting, counting, plotting style, which means not counting correctly. And then go ahead and go over. Nice. And then lower down and lift up and just hold for eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Lower down. Bring your hands so that they're a little bit forward. This again, as I have really ridiculously long arms, so my hands might be a little bit more forward than if you have shorter arms. You're gonna think about compression of your leg towards your torso as you not really pushed down, but have your hands holding.

We're going to lift to like up and hold and lower back down. Switch, lift and hold and down. So there's going for a little walk, lift and hold and down. Totally correct. And okay. In this position to be rounded in your low back, we're gonna lift and lower. We'll do one more each side and then last one, and then we're just going to swing your legs around so that you can come to a quadrat pet position. And we're going to come to what I'm going to consider a short quadrupedal closer. Your hands are to your knees. The more this will be a shoulder press exercise, which is what I want it to be.

Single Leg Lift

I want it to be sort of like a handstand prep exercise so that you're just working on getting a lot of shoulder your toes stay toenails down towards the floor and you're just gonna Press and lift your butt up. And we're just going to do 10 of those. So push down, lift, hold and lower back down. Here's two. Push, lift and lower. Back Down, lift three and down. Lift four and down. Did I say 10 what was I thinking? Lift. Christy doubts it.

Shoulder Press

Maybe I was saying eight. Here's six. And down. Here's seven and down. Here's eight and down. Whew. Two more. Here's nine. See you thought I was quitting but I was not lift up and down. Go ahead and just sit back on your heels for a second. So the reason actually there's a logic to doing that in that position because if you are working on handstands, you need to try to keep a posterior pelvic tilt.

And so if we did that in a different position, you could arch your back, which is not ultimately the position. The first part of this next exercise feels really good. So what am I want you to just come to hands and knees, hands directly under shoulders, knees under your hips. Christie's laughing. I don't know what that's about. Okay. Take your hand. That is further away from me and cross it over your hand. That is closer to me.

We're going to do this as like a thoracic rotation. So you're going to bend your elbow and turn so that your elbow touches the floor. You should feel a twist in your upper back, not in your lower back. And then press yourself back up. Good. We rotate and twist and then lift yourself back up. The reason for kind of locking this position in is because you're trying not to twist from your lower back, which is easy.

Thoracic Spine Rotation

And everyone always wants to do that and we want to twist from your upper. We'll do one more and we'll stay down on your elbow. Now you're gonna take your closer to me leg and then lift your knee out to the side. Good and lower back down, lifted out to the side and lower it back down. Lift it out to the side. Nice and lower it back down and lifted out to the side and hold it there.

Quadruped Side Single Leg Lift

Now you're going to extend your legs straight and what I want you to do is actually think straight back is right now your you had like rotation from your thoracic. Now I want it rotation from your pelvis. So then you're going to rotate your pelvis up and then rotate it back down and rotate your pelvis up and rotate it back down. Nice and rotate your, so it's basically like we did a twist at your upper body. Now we're doing a twist at your lower body and then lifted up and back down. Now next time it's up. Let's leave it there. So you're lifting it up and hold. You're going to take that leg.

Hip Rotation

You're going to do 10 little lifts, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and 10 circle it 10 too small, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and 10 switch for ten two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and 10 and you can lower all the way down from there. And then take a quick little child's pose and then we'll come back into the position and we'll do the other side. So then you have your opposite hand on top. So we have the five thoracic rotations. Ideally I could be balancing a Martini glass on your sacrum and we all know how Martini glasses, you can't even balance them anywhere.

Quadruped Back Single Leg Lift

So you're going to rotate from your thoracic spine and then lift yourself back up and twist and lift. Three more. One and lift. There's two and lift and three. Pause. A little bit of weight in that down elbow. And you're going to lift your outside knee up and down, up to and down.

Quadruped Back Single Leg Circles

Up three and down four. Keep me honest. Did we do five or eight does anyone know? Maybe we did 10 that seems mean, but it doesn't seem unlike me. It's really on brand for me. So maybe it was 10 okay, now we'll lift, extend your leg. Be careful if you're on a raised mat, you're going to rotate your hip up and then hit back down. Hip rotates up and back down. So think about opening your hipbones to face the wall in front of you. Lower it back down, rotate, lift and back down.

Child's Pose

If you want to really kill somebody, give him this on the reformer with their leg and a strap. It's just, it's brutal. And back down. Rotate, lift and down. We'll do two more and then we have our lifts and circles. Last one, lift, pause. 10 little lifts. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Circle 10, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and 10. Switch at 10, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and 10. Lower down. Take a nice child's pose.

Thoracic Spine Rotation

Hands can be forward or back. I like horror just because for me that's a better stretch. We're going to make our way up and we're gonna come into sort of a, um, sort of like a pretzel sit. I'm going to come onto the floor because I guarantee I will fall right off this if I do it. I'm not on like the real floor just because of how the rotation works.

Quadruped Side Single Leg Lift

And if you're on the mats on the floor, that's like totally fine, but you want to sit with one shin forward and one shin backwards. And I would say let's actually all take a quarter turn so that you're in a direction where you have kind of more mat behind. You. Try to do this with your arms lifted. We're just gonna rotate from your hips to spin yourself around to face the other direction and then come back so you rotate around. Good. And then rotate it back and then rotate yourself back around. Nice.

Hip Rotation

And if you need to put your hands on the floor, you put your hands on the floor, rotate around, good and lift Christie's smiling. This one must at least start off nice and then rotate around and then rotate it back. I think there's some little degree of, this is functional for some sort of function. I'm not sure what that function is, and then rotate it around and we're going to all end up on your right hip. Now if you can, your arms stay forward. I'm just adjusting myself on this high mat so I don't fall off.

Quadruped Back Single Leg Lift

You're going to push up and come up to standing. So you're pushing really into your right hip and then you're going to lean back, sit your butt almost back down or all the way back down, and then you lift yourself back up. Good. And we are going down and lift to come back up. We're doing eight. Here's four down. You should really feel your outer hip working on the right hip and down.

Quadruped Back Single Leg Circles

We've got four more up. Good. End Down. Here's two. And down. Here's three and down. Here's four and down. So from this position, when you do all your mermaids or whatever, but we're actually going to do a rotation towards the right, bringing your hands onto the floor, and then you're going to round back. So pushing your arms back, feeling nice, stretch through your back.

Child's Pose

It's sort of a weird, twisty stretch. And then you're going to extend your chest through your arms and look up slightly round yourself back and lift yourself forward. Good. Round yourself back and lift yourself for real. Do two more like that. Round yourself back and lift yourself forward. Last one like this. Round yourself back. Lift yourself forward. Now see if you can just lift your backlight off the floor and hold it for eight two, three, four, five, six, seven and lower your legs all the way down. We're going to rotate around to the other sides.

Seated Hip Rotation

We're going to do the lifts first. So if you need to adjust yourself on your mat so that you're on your mat. So your knees just are going the opposite direction. And so see how we're not on our mats. Just raise re situate yourself. Okay. So then arms are gonna reach four. We have eight lifts. Yep. So pressing down, lift up, go up, stand up. Yep.

Hip Lifts

So stand yourself up one and down. Lift up two and down. Lift up three and down. Lift up four and down. Really think about pushing into your left hip. I know I have to like turn myself around so I know which side you're on.

Thoracic Extension w/ Rotational Curl

So we're doing eight total. Two more. Lift up and down. Got One more. Lift up and then lower yourself back down. We're going to take a little turn now over your left leg and we're going to do that. Press back to flex your spine. Lean forward to extend your spine, which should feel really yummy. I think press back and lift forward. Press back and lift toward, and if you're someone like me who has like a lower back that likes to move and an upper back that doesn't like to move, this is like a great exercise for trying to get some more mobility there.

Single Leg Lift

Now we'll do one more and then on the next one we come forward. You're just going to kind of steel your nerves and lift your back leg up and we'll hold it for eight two, three, four, five, six, seven, and then lower your leg all the way down. We're in a good position to just actually come to hands and knees and we're going to do some inchworm walks, which means you're going to come into a plank. There's two ways to do them. You can walk your feet to your hands or your hands to your feet.

Hip Lifts

I don't like the feet to the hands version, so that's not what we're going to do, but just know it exists. So you're going to come into a plank, lift your butt back, and then you start to push back. So your hands are walking back till you're in a forward fold and then you walk forward and you actually try and keep your arms in front of your head. And then when you're back in the plank, you can bring yourself back, but you pushed back first so that everything is an overhead press, which is an area where people are generally weaker. And where I think we don't have enough emphasis in plot ease.

Thoracic Extension w/ Rotational Curl

Please don't tell the Pleiades police I said that, but I really liked that overhead pressing strength and then go ahead and come back. Okay. So I think we'll do eight total. And you really do benefit if you have flexible hamstrings. So if you don't, bending your knees is totally acceptable. The biggest thing is really working on an overhead press.

Single Leg Lift

Good. And then walking yourself back forward. And you know, you could in between add like 10 pushups each time you come forward, you could do your leg poles, all sorts of things. We're just going to do interim walks and then we're going to end when we get to the last one. And Christie is going to tell me when that is. Okay. So then what I want you to do is come not quite to your full plank. You're going to be in a short downdog.

Inch Worm Walks

So from this short down dog, what I want you to do is press back so much and actually bend your knees even if you don't think you need to, that you really drop your chest between your arms and then uncurl years or sort of Tuck your hips under and kind of curl yourself forward. And then you push back and then you send your butt up towards the ceiling. Okay? Tuck your hips under as you lean forward a little bit and then come back and really send your hips up towards the ceiling. And if you construct your leg straight from there, that's fine.

Down Dog Variation

But I really want you to emphasize more the shoulders stretch. And the little bit of um, back movement. So again, rounding forward [inaudible] and on this last one, just really lift back, drop your chest a lot. [inaudible] drop down to your knees and then press yourself back to a child's pose. Give yourself a nice stretch from there. Let's reach your arms overhead at even if they're not.

Child's Pose

And we'll take both hands and walk them to the right. So you're going a little bit of an oblique stretch [inaudible] and then hands go to the other side. [inaudible] getting that stretch and then come back to center. [inaudible] so go ahead from there. Or last transition. You're going to go ahead and Tuck your toes under and then press yourself up to standing. Hang in a forward fold for a second.

Roll Up

Can Sway a little bit from side to side. Look at their forward folds. That's like really intense. Four volt and then slowly one vertebrae at a time. Come all the way up to standing. And big surprise. You're done. That's it. Classes over. Good job. Thank you. Thank you. Yay. Awesome.

You're very welcome.

Comments

T C
5 people like this.
Love the creativity and the calm pace of your cues Mariska. Hope to take a class with you in person someday 
4 people like this.
Very fun class. I really enjoyed the transitions, and the creative variations.
2 people like this.
So agree! I loved it all!
2 people like this.
this was awesome!!!  great cueing and loved the pace of the class.  
2 people like this.
All of your classes are so fun, creative, and effective. This is why I love pilates!
2 people like this.
Love it. As usual. The last piece is so you...inch worm...”and you can add push ups”!!! That just cracked me up! Amazing class! Thanks Mariska!
Thanks everyone! Tracy - you should move back to DC.
4 people like this.
You are just brilliant - and SO easy to listen to, let alone funny, creative, and relaxed - the perfect Pilates for me! Thank you so much!
1 person likes this.
Great instruction as always! Loved your version of the 100s!
3 people like this.
Wohoooo Marisa is back👍
Before I even check Out the class I know I am going to enjoy it understand it love it and... share it in my class 🤗💕
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