Grounding and Balance

Hi, I'm Gina Calhoun and today we're going to do a class focusing on grounding and just working on some balance. So we're going to start lying on your back and ready to do some footwork just to kind of ground you, get you into your center. So legs are going to be up and tabletop hands will be behind your head for support. One Hand on top of the other. We'll curl your head and chest up and we'll start with your feet and applaud these ve. So heels together, toes apart. We'll flex the feet just to start. You'll inhale as you push the legs out. Exhale as you pull them in. Inhale, reach and and so it's like if you were on the reformer, but instead of focusing on the legs, we're working the center. Do four more.

Inhale, exhale. One more. Now I want to turn the legs parallel. We'll point the toes. Same thing. Inhale, exhale, pull. Elbows are wide. And then for four more, think of pulling the legs together.

Three abs are pulling in and up. Two last one. Keep going. Flex the feet, reach out. [inaudible] reaching out through the heels. Trying to keep the legs and the feet together. Four and three.

Okay. To this time we're going to hold the legs out. Keep lifting the trust point the toes and flex point. Flex region, the legs out long. Four more. Three, two, last one.

The internees. Hug your legs in and then we'll reach legs out for a roll. Up. Legs are going to be glued together. Feet or flex heels digging into the mat, arms up to the ceiling. Take a deep inhale, actual roll up, reaching forward and then roll back. Pulling the waist back in to the mat. Arms back, rolling up. Okay, and reach head is reaching through the arms. Roll down.

Okay, let's keep remembering your feet rolling up. Really using the feet, digging into the mat to help you rule back two more. So you're trying to use gravity to help you so you're pushing down to rule you up using that opposition. One more. Rolling up and reach and all the way down. Arms down by your side. Left leg is going to stay on the mat. You're going to keep that foot flexed, right leg, it going to come up to the ceiling.

You're going to point the right foot, turn it out slightly. Again, you're using that opposite leg to help ground you. You're going to circle this leg, cross it over, around and up so you can go as wide as you can. Keeping that opposite hip down on the mat and lift around and up. Two more and lift the last one and reverse. Open around and Yup, good. Again, pulling into your center to keep you on the mat.

Two more. Last one. So reach that leg long to lower it down, flex that foot and then we'll reach the other leg up into the air. So gonna point the foot, turn it out slightly. Again, you're grounding down with that opposite leg. You're gonna Cross it over, around and up. Cross over. And I'm trying to keep the opposite hip down and staying nice and quiet in the shoulders. Two more. Um, lift last one and reverse. Open around and up, keeping that length in the leg around and up. One more, and then reach that leg long to lower it down.

And then you're going to hug your knees into your chest for a series of fat. So when I curl your head and chest up, elbows are wide. You're going to have your right leg in with your right hand on your ankle. Left hand on your knee, left leg is reaching out, and then they're gonna switch. So you'll inhale. Inhale, exhale, exhale.

Elbows are wide. Pulling everything into the center. One more set right away into double leg. Stretch, pulling both legs in. Inhale, reach the arms and legs out. Exhale, circle around and hug. Inhale, exhale, circle. So as you're reaching the arms out, shoulders are staying away from the ears. Circle two more. One more, right away into scissors. One leg up. Although the leg is out, you're going to pull in [inaudible] switch in n switch. So if you try to grab a little bit higher, you can pull yourself up into a higher curl. Switch to the elbows are still wide. Keeping the shoulders down.

Two more sets. Last set, one hand on top of the other, behind your head. Hails together, toes apart. You'll end hills, you lower exhale as you lift, trying to keep the tailbone down so you're not letting the pelvis rock back and forth tumor or that's what I'm working on anyway. Last one and two. Crisscross Cross one leg bans. The other leg stretches and switch. Elbows are wide, so you're twisting the rib cage over instead of just the elbows and twist. Twist, four more and three, two last set. Hug your legs in, take a breath and then we'll rock up to a seated position for spine stretch so your legs are out in front of you about as wide as your mat. Feet are flex. Again, you're pushing your heels into the mat to help ground you down, but then you're lifting your sit bones up. Arms are reaching out.

You're going to lift up as you inhale. Exhale, going to reach your head forward just like you didn't. Your roll up. Arms are reaching forward. ABS are pulling back and heel lift up. Tall. Exhale, you're going to round forward and reach. Inhale, lift, exhale. Make sure you're not letting the arms just fall. You're keep keeping them up.

Trying to get them parallel to the floor and then rolling up and reach. Last one. Inhale. Exhale, reach forward. Then sit up tall. So we're gonna scoot forward. We're gonna go into an open lake rocker prep.

It's going to grab onto your ankles, find your balance on your sacrum and just round your back. Shoulders are down. You're going to reach one leg out and then bend it back in. The other leg is going to stretch long. And then so you're trying to keep the feet off the mat, staying centered on your sacred one, like out Ben in one more each side, trying not to move your torso at all. Then we're going to move both legs, both legs to a v Ben back in reach and still pulling the ABS in. And uh, keeping that round spine. This time you're going to hold the legs out.

You can adjust your hands on your ankles. If this doesn't feel good, you can always hold on here with bent legs. Whatever you do, try to keep your hands in the same spot. You're gonna roll back to your shoulder blades and then roll back up. I do balance at the top. First one's always forced ruling back and then back up. Find your balance. You can lift your chest at the end if you'd like.

Rounding the low back to roll, roll up, lift the chest. Two more. Um, lift up. Relax your shoulders. I just felt myself pulling my shoulders up. Try to keep the shoulders down so you're using your abdominals, not the extremities. Legs come together. Reach the hands up toward your feet and then ruled down away from your feet.

Arms down by your sides. Legs up to the ceiling for Cork screw. And to pull into your abs. To start, you're going to circle your legs around the one direction, all the way around. Back up to the center again to the other side around and backup center. So think of pulling in before you start each one. And then the other way legs are glued together.

One more each side and back up. Last one. Now we're gonna add a little pelvic lift. So when you come back up to the center, you want to think of your legs going straight up, not over. So you're gonna use your lower abdominals to lift your pelvis up. You may not even move it at all, but you'll fill your abs, pulling in circle around legs or hips pull up.

And then other way. So if you're lifting your hips all the way up, you're probably not pulling into your abs. So think of pulling into lift literally just like a centimeter. And then pulling in to lift around. If I wasn't with you, I would be holding my hands in front of your legs so you couldn't touch me around. Last one, lifting up and around. Bend your legs in. Hug your knees in. Take a breath. So we're gonna go into Swan. So we're going to come onto your stomach.

You're going to have your [inaudible] hands by your shoulders. You can have them spar forward or out to the side as you need. And then legs can be together or apart, depending on how your back feels. Shoulders are down your back. Take a deep inhale as you lift your chest up into your Cobra and then lower back down. Just getting your back warmed up. Before we go into the full swan dive, lifting up shoulders are down and lower your arms.

Don't have to straighten two more. Lincoln pushing the feet into the mat. Again, using that to help ground you down. Lower the summer to go into the full swan dive. The thing up hands are just gonna Hover as you lift the legs so you'll lift up and back. Lift up, hand stop you and lift four more. Trying to get your legs even. And two last one into your child's post.

Let's take a breath and then you're going to come back out onto your stomach. Arms are going to reach forward a little bit wider than your shoulders. Legs are a little bit wider than your hips. You're going to inhale as you lift your right arm, left leg and your chest up and lower down there. Side lifting up and lower so the hand and foot that's on the mat is pushing down to help lift you up. Again, we're using opposition lifting up and lower one where each side like this and lower. Now we're going to float both arms and legs up.

Lift your chest up and go into your normal swim so you can inhale and exhale. Inhale, reach in the arms and legs. Long. Exhale, trying to stay grounded in the center so you're not rocking side to side. Exhale Timor. Keep lifting the chest and exhale. Last set. Inhale and exhale, and then float everything down. Hands down on the mat.

Push it back into child's pose. Take a breath, roll on up, and we're gonna come into some bridging so you're gonna lie on your back again. Feet are hip distance apart, arms down by your sides. We're going to bring one leg up to tabletop, so you're trying to keep both hips even still, even though one leg is up. Inhale here. Exhale as you roll your hips up to your bridge, and then roll back down through the spine. Inhale at the bottom. Exhale, roll up and held the top.

Exhale, roll down. Okay. Feel fine. One leg is easier than the other as usual. And then down. Let's try to keep the weight even on your shoulders. It's usually when we have one leg up.

We want to favor the arm on that opposite side. So think of pushing down in both arms evenly, two more, and then rolling down last one and then back down. Bringing that foot down. Other like comes up to tabletop. Reset your pelvis if you've gotten crooked in health, the bottom axial as he roll up. And then Ann Health to talk axial as he rolled down and then rolling up. So you're reaching your knees over your feet, trying to keep length the front of your body rolling down. Let's keep going.

We have four more. The opposite leg is trying to stay in tabletop or as close to tabletop as you can. Chest is open, your chin is off of your chest. We have two more [inaudible]. Last one, rolling up and rolling down. Hug your legs in and we're going to come up to kneeling for side overs. Come on up to your knees. You're going to come to tall kneeling position.

We're gonna bring one leg out to the side. Hands are behind your head. Shoulders are down. So you're gonna lift your torso up. You're going to lean away from that leg and then back up to the center. If you're gonna go as far as you can. Really try to push yourself off center. See, test your balance. This leg is kind of light, the light that's out.

I don't have all of my weight in it, so I'm really trying to push myself to lose my balance, but then I recover and lift two more. Up and over. This time we're going to go up and over. Bring that hand down. Lift the leg up for sidekicks are going. Kick the Lakefront, front and back, back. You're trying to keep it as close to hip height as you can. Front, front, back, back. Good. The leg on the floor or on the mat.

You want to keep that hip pushing forward so you're not sitting back toward that heel. Two more. Last one, bringing that leg back in line with your body and you're going to circle the lake around two, three, four, five, six. Zora. I start to get really tired where you verse around two circles are always hard. Five, six, seven, eight. So I'm going to bring the foot back down. You're going to lift yourself back up. Bring that knee in, stretch the other leg out to the side.

You're gonna lift up and over away from that leg and then lift back up to center, up and over and lifted again. Really trying to test your balance. I'm not going quite as far on the side cause this is my heart or side and backed up. Make sure you're not sitting back toward that heel. That's what I find myself trying to do to help, but it doesn't.

Now you're going to bring that hand down. Lift a leg up. Find that long side kick position and you're in a kick front, front and back. Back as he go front. Keep the hips square and back, back and back. Front and back for more. Try and keep that elbow pointing up to the ceiling so you're not rotating, rotating the torso. Last one, bring that leg back to center. Circle it around for eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two and reverse back two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Bring the leg down. Use Your Donald's a pull your back up and then back to kneeling.

So when it come to a plank, you're going to have your hands under your shoulders, legs stretched out long. If you prefer to do this in a quadrupedal Quadr pad position, you can just kind of find that long plank position. Head in line with the rest of your spine. And when to lift the right leg up and lower it down. Left leg will come up and lower one leg up.

Lower other leg. Let's keep alternating. And if you're on your knees it'll just be here and down and lift. One more each side. Now we're going to test your balance a little bit. So I'm gonna lift the right arm, right leg up, left arm will lift up, lower everything down, left leg, right arm, um, through trying not to shift too much in your weight and low right leg, left arm. Hard to do while you're talking left on right, like one more each side. And then back into child's pose. Take a breath and then roll up. We're going to finish with a standing balance.

So you're going to stand up. We're going to have your legs together, arms relaxed with balance. I find that more relaxed. My upper body is, the easier it is. If I start to get tense, I lose my balance. I'm going to bring one leg in front. The other leg is standing flat. Parallel. I'm thinking of lifting my spine up as I'm pushing my foot down. Opposition is also another key to balance. So while you're balancing here, I'm just going to turn your head toward your leg. That's up and then back to center. Turn it away from your leg.

That's up and center. You're going to look down toward the floor and up. Look up towards the ceiling. That's always the tricky one. Try and close your eyes. That's where I get thrown off. And then bring the leg back down. Uh, the leg will come up. Find a balance. Again, you're pushing down in that standing leg, but pulling up in your spine, letting your foot wobble if it needs to. If you try to hold it stiff, that'll also throw you off your balance. And then you turn your head towards your leg. And then back to center.

So this is my hard side. I've sprained this ankle in the past so it's always a little bit more wobbly. Looking down and center looking up center. It makes sure it's not just your eyes, it's your whole head moving. Close Your eyes now. Cool.

Let that ankle wobble. Stay relaxed in your arms and your hands and then open your eyes. Bring the foot down. We're going to come to a little mini first position. Heels together, toes apart. If you wanna bring your hands on your hips, you can, we're just gonna lift your heels up and then lower the heels down. So I'm thinking of wrapping around my legs, bringing my sit bones together and lifting up and lower. And then with my balance, I'm keeping my weight between the, for the big toe and the toe.

So I'm not going all the way over toward the big toe. Cause then I pronate too much. But I'm also trying not to go onto that baby toe cause that's a weak position. Lower lift and lower. Good. I'm going to change the legs. So you're gonna bend the knees, lift your heels.

I've tried to keep your heels together straight and your legs low. Lower the heels down so you might not get as high the heels as you would think. With the heels together. Stretch legs lower down. If I go to my full range of motion with my heels up, my heels come apart. So I'm trying to keep those heels together. Lower. One more in this direction.

Ben. Heels come up straight and legs. Heels come down and you to lift the heels up. Then lower the heels down, straighten the legs, heels up again. Sit. Bones are coming together. Heels down, straightened two more. Lifting straight up it, pushing down lower and center. Straighten last one, Ben. Lower straighten. Shake out your legs. Stand with your feet parallel. You're just going to do a little roll down just to relax everything.

Take a deep inhale here. Keep your weight forward over your toes. At the balls of your feet. Knees are soft. They just gonna roll up rural or sir. Shoulders back. And thank you for taking class.