Class #3959

Get Moving Mat

40 min - Class
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Description

You will use the Overball for tactile feedback in this Mat workout by Kristi Cooper. She invites you to decide what you want to achieve and how you want to feel during this class so that you can let go of anything that doesn't serve your intention. She flows through the class, letting the prop tell you where you are in space, so that you feel aligned and accomplished by the end.
What You'll Need: Mat, Overball

About This Video

Dec 18, 2019
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Transcript

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Hi everyone, it's Matt class. Grab a ball if you have one. If not, you could probably try a pillow. I do these at home all the time without this at home and I just kind of keep adjusting the pillow as I go. But if you have one, grab it, it's obviously slightly deflated to see what works for you. And let's get moving. So I'm just going to set the ball down for now. Put it near you because we'll get into it right away and let's just do a roll down. Let's just be here, take a deep breath in and now stand however you want. Cause I'll start directing soon and exhale and just see where you are.

I kind of need to shake it off and inhale, let it go. Cause here you are right. So let's make it work the way you want it to. So you might have to make a decision about how you want it to work. Now I'm just turning sideways. My feet are parallel slightly apart for that original roll down, that standing roll down. I always do. Don't worry about the arms inhale, but fill up though.

Maybe it feels like the lungs are pressing your ribs out in your arms, out a little bit. Start the exhale and just soften the knees. Let your head fall forward. Round forward. Yes. Support with your abdominals a bit hanging over yourself. If you can get your fingers to the floor, do if not there on your shins, bend your knees and round your spine. Exhale to straighten your legs as much as you're, you can.

Inhale bend and it fell straightened. Maybe your, from your tips. We'll go to the floor in hell bend. Maybe they won't. That's all right. Just looking for that flexibility in the spine so we can feel better by the end of this class. This time. Inhale, bend, keep them bent. Hands up above the knees maybe and start to tuck the tailbone round the spine to bring yourself up. I'm going to do one more of those because I know where we're going. Inhale, raise the arms this time. Reach way up.

Let the shoulders come up, let the ribs do what they do. Cause you know that's what they do. Then start to think about some sense of alignment. Cause I see. I think that's how you're going to want to feel at the end. Let the arms fall. Let your head go forward. Your support yourself from the front, letting your back. Finally go release.

Bend the knees if you need to or keep them straight. Once your fingertips are down or on your shins, bend the knees, pull the tailbone as if totally connected to the knees and straight and again Ben and straighten. I'll do one more bend and straighten or leave him slightly bent. Help yourself with your hands or just think I am going to pull myself up from the front to support my back all the way to the top. Finally your head comes up. Take one more deep breath in.

Inhale and exhale. Did you decide what you're going to do? How are you going to feel? How do you want to feel? That's kind of all you have to do. Sometimes I will take you the rest of the way. Take the ball and place it pretty much right behind your back but not so wedged in that you just not totally [inaudible]. It's very close to you though.

From here, hold onto the back of your legs. We inhale, sit tall. You're right up on your sit bones. Start to exhale. Think about pressing the abdominals to the spine, the spine curves to touch the ball. Maybe a little, maybe a lot, maybe not hardly at all. Then sit back up. If you push the ball away, bring it back in. Kind of the factor of how inflated it is. Inhale, pulling the legs apart, pressing the knees towards each other as well, and exhale the hipbones press back. You're blowing out some air. You're feeling a sense of, Oh right, I'm here.

And then help yourself back up. Annex. So we use the ball. Really, I use the ball more as a marker, right? So it's not like it's the tool and make it harder. It's the tool. Sit back up. It's the tool that lets me know where I am in space and, and sometimes I just need that Excel back. When you get to the ball, touch it. If you're off center, just fix it. I kind of am, fix it and then go. Let go a little more so you was still rounding and then remind yourself that the ball is not there to rest. The vol is there to give you the tactile feedback about where you really want to go. I want to press into the ball so the rest of my body goes forward.

So just for a moment, hold on or not. And inhale, when you exhale, let the breath press into the ball. It's maybe more image than fact, but give it a shot in hell. Not much going on. Otherwise I'm holding on my collarbones are wide, I'm exhaling. And if you notice on the next one, when you exhale the depth of your exhale really curve into the ball more and doesn't it almost propel you forward because that's sort of going to be a theme here. [inaudible] kind of propels you forward. You push back to go forward. Sometimes [inaudible] and we don't overthink it. Even if I talk and say too many words, just ignore him. Exhale. [inaudible] this time we're going to let go. The arms reach forward, drop back into it so you know you're on that ball or your arms are just forward.

Your collarbones are wide and we're still thinking. Press back to slightly curve forward. The curve in myself feels like it's coming just below the chest line. Yeah. I'm just wanting to get that sense of, alright, there's that part of the my spine that yeah. Can be rounded forward, but isn't it nice when I actually consciously do it?

Couple more and then on the next breath, exhale and come all the way, all the way back up. Use your hands. Find that straight spine. Sometimes at the beginning of class it's nice to hold to the front of the legs and use them as an assist to get really, really tall, huh. Okay. Easy peasy, right? We're going to roll down all the way and put the same ball underneath our sacrum or low back. Sacrum is probably better, right?

If the backside of the pelvis maybe into the low back, essentially with your feet apart and you feel comfortable, it's like, Oh right. She's being nice today. That's where we're starting and we inhale. It's very similar. Start arms are down by your side. Exhale and just press into the ball. It's almost so subtle. You can't see it, but you can't help but make a shape in your back.

Let go back to the start. Inhale. Exhale, press into the ball. Don't press so hard that your whole body clenches. Just see what you can do with that lower end or that lower end of the core. Lower end of the abdominals. Inhale. Exhale. Notice how the breath naturally falls toward the spine or makes the muscles fall toward the spine and create the tuck. This time we'll move into it. Inhale, keep those collarbones wide. Exhale, press down.

Press down almost like you're popping the ball and now finally lift up off the ball. Keep going. Now you're standing on your feet. Now you feel the back of your body. Your collarbones are still wide. Inhale and XL melt your way back down from the top, from the upper back, middle back, lower back. I feel the ball already, but only when I really want to put pressure on it. Do I? And I let go at the very end in here. Exhale at the breath. Create some of the movement, the initiation of the movement.

Step into your feet as you continue curling to lift off. And again, I remind you, not only use what you need, don't over contract when you don't need to. That's just not a good way to be in the world in him. So she too, she who needs to listen to herself. Exhale, roll down upper back. Find it, you touch it and massage it almost like you're just teasing it. And then when you can let it go and go, right, we're friends, XL, sink, roll up and just notice your body. Notice what you do.

Are you trying? Are you over-training or you're not trying hard enough? Just make it a fluid movement. That's the goal right now. I'll give you two more to give that a shot. Is the tension built naturally in you? What are your feet do?

What are your arms do? You can use them. Don't be afraid to use them because just first that effort throughout your body and come on down, right? We're going up one more time. Sync the abs, use the breath, or just make it look like you are just dude, what I say all the way up. Take the ball out from underneath you. Just hold it in your hand or move it over and roll down and just find more room in that floor or mat below you. Wow. All right, but the ball between your knees, same thing. Exhale, peel. Okay, so now we're not popping the ball with our knees.

We're imagining the inner thighs or holding it. When you get where you think is the top, what am I gonna encourage you to do is drop your backside of your ribs a little bit, just a little. Then overly exaggerate the tuck of your pelvis so you really know you're in the backside of your body. Your toes are still on the ground. Then keep that sense of tuck or maybe it feels like a round of your low back and push into step into your feet more until you both feel the back of your body or your butt to be more accurate, but also maybe a little bit of a stretch in the front of the hips. Inhale and exhale.

Keep the hold of the ball and roll down one piece at a time all the way to the bottom. Inhale. I won't break it down that much, but that's the idea. Exhale, roll up. I'm just noticing, I noticed my hands are wanting to turn out today. I've been on the computer too long, so I'm going to put them flat and see what I need to work on. What does it do to the rest of me? Exhale. Come down tomorrow. Oh, I, I might even need to drop there a little just so I can really find the back of my body. Exhale, come down. So make those adjustments where you need to Xcel to come up. Hold it there and then lift your right heel.

Press it down, but don't just press it down as you push that right heel down. Encourage that right hip bone higher. Oh, and if you cramp, you know what to do. Shake it out. Then the fill the left heel up. Think about starting that tuck or pubic bone toward chest. Now as you press the left heel down and stay that high, do it again, right side lift. As you press down, keep that lift.

Find the back of your body left side and down. You can hold it down there. Inhale, keep the inner thighs engaged. Exhale, roll all the way down. Keep the ball where it is. Hug your knees into your chest and look at the wall. Maybe even think about putting your forehead on the ball. Not really, but you might. And start a rocking motion. Just back and forth. Keep squeezing the ball.

It's not really about the ball that kind of is right now and back. It's about a smooth ride. So again, kind of have to think about the back of your body. What would you do to make your ride small, smoother? You might open it up a little. You might put the hands behind the thighs instead of on the shins, but no, eventually we're going to bring it right in tight. Let's go two more.

One on your next one. Stay up and we made it right just when you thought that was over. It sort of is. But moving onto the next one. Let's take this ball instead of behind your low back. Now put it at your, I want to say shoulder blades, but it's probably not quite that high feet are still slightly apart. Everything's all engaged. Put your hands, head in your hands and support yourself. So imagine pressing your head down.

Imagine press your head back into your hands and let's just let the spine follow as you go back over the wall. Oh, crack, crack, crack. Roll your head up first. Let your spine follow as if you're going to get off the ball but you don't. Head is still pressed back though. That's the hardest part of these chest lifts. No matter where you are in space, it's kind of nice on the wall.

Go back kind of nice on the ball because you don't have gravity working against you as much Roundup, and this is where you go, Oh, I'm going to get up. Okay, maybe not. And I'll go back and exhale. If you're rolling off to one side, adjust the ball or just don't inhale back, figure it out. So much of this work is figuring it out in the somewhat, not the point, but it's, it's, it matters as you do this check in. How much do you need to use your glutes, your but not a whole lot. You might want to, but it doesn't help. So you can just leave it there. And so maybe the very end, if you want to round your back, go ahead. Otherwise, let's do two more at one more. Oh, you know, it feels good.

It's supposed to feel kind of good even in a way we don't all day long. Let's go towards the front, towards your screen. Here we go. Coming up and over or pick side over. Go right back. But come up on the same side. Do it again. I'm going ever so slightly faster now. And here's the thing, the reason the ball is there is not just to assist you, but to remind you that if you press backwards into the ball, and I don't mean with your feet, I mean how could you press backwards with the, into the ball and all of a sudden your front side is working more.

We're doing two more after this one go back. Knees are still straight up to the sky. One more head is still kind of gently falling back into your hands. Come all the way back. Center yourself. Come up in the middle, precedent the ball precedent at the ball. Press into the ball. Almost like you're pushing it away. Go back not til your head touches, although you could, but let's skip that part and go over to the other side.

So it's like shoulder to hip. As you come back, noticing that side of the spine or that side of the back really present backwards into the ball and it almost propels you up, doesn't it? I mean, not really, but kinda. At least it makes you work harder. We're doing four more. I'm reaching back, exhale. And as I XLA I'm legitimately thinking I'm going to pop that ball. If it's the last thing I do and it might be a one more go back.

Center yourself out, curl in the center, pickup your right knee. Hold it in really, really close. It's the single leg stretch. Pick up the other leg because of the position. You may have to go higher than you're used to or maybe you can go lower, but you, you don't want to rock around on the spine. At this point, I'm still pressing back into the ball as I hold the right knee and super close. I'm going to change legs and not let my spine move. Change, pull, pull, like actually make it a stretch.

Maybe it's for your knee, maybe it's for the hips. Who knows what do you need, but really pull it in. Keep your intensity, your intention going forward for four, for three. I look at that. I'm caring. Counting like Meredith. She'd be so happy. One more. Both these and hold really hold. Now this we could just chill out all day. I'm looking at the beach. It's tempting, but I'm going to almost try to get off the ball. You've got to kind of create it sometimes. From there, we're reaching both arms and legs up on a high diagonal.

Reach the upper body backwards with those straight arms. Circle their arms around. Pick your head back up. Look at your thighs, reach forward and pull the knees back in. Whoo. If you keep pushing that ball, you're going to feel it. Reach everything forward. Arms and legs. Almost like a teaser. If you know it, reach back, but keep the lower body the same. Circle the head around the arms around like you're going to get up, you're going to get up, you're going to get up, but you don't.

You pull the knees back in, reach forward one. Let's go quicker back, circle around and pull it in. Reach it forward. Take it back, circle around. Feel pretty next time or strong, whatever you need. Remember you chose at the beginning. I'm gonna do one more. Here comes reach forward, take it back, come round, hug it and extend your right leg up, left leg out. You could go to the ground or not. For now, I'm gonna keep it high and test myself. Come toward it, right? I'm almost off the ball. Even as I push into the ball.

It's like just two way stretch. You'll hear Paul Paul keep everything saying switch legs. Pull, pull. Enjoy that stretch again. Pull, pull. I stay forward. Pull, pull. Let's go quicker. It's pull, pull, switch, pull, pull. If you want to go bigger, make it bigger. If you're going to go really big, go for pushing the leg into the mat and really create that opposition.

Two more. Here's one. Here's one. Here's two. Here's two. Both lights up, hands behind your head. Bend your knees, arch back over the ball and you're welcome. Come back up. Let your head fall into your hands. Take both legs straight. Back up. Turn them out a little bit so you know you can squeeze the glutes a little. Reach him down. Not very big. Exhale, scoop back up. Can you see your abs?

Inhale, reach down. Exhale right here. Almost like the legs are light on. Inhale and exhale, scoop. So legs just naturally somehow float up. Two more. One more, I, some of you know what's coming next or you don't bend your knees, arch back, come back up again. Rotate towards the front of the room. All right. And you're going to twist, you're going to twist and you're gonna twist it.

You can almost look backwards cause you're getting so high. You could do that. Switch, twist the other way. So if your bet knee is left, your shoulder on the right is going towards it. Switch again. It's real quick. It's inhale in. Exhale. Exhale. Take it higher if he needs you. But let's not forget we're coming toward the thighs with the upper body.

Two more set. Yeah. Hug the knees and hold on date. Still. Even now try to press back into it and then you can set your feet down slightly apart. Hold onto the back of the legs. Come up enough. Oh my goodness. That's not so nice either.

Roll down and place that ball underneath you back one more time. And from here we're going into a little bit of shoulder bridge. So you want to feel the support. So it's near the sacrum. XL roll up just like before. Maybe it's even easier now and certainly more than welcome.

Take your right leg straight up. Drop down. Touch the ball. Think about you could even talk. I don't care how you do it right now. Push into the ball to feel that supporting leg pushed to the floor and lift you up. Sit down, let everything go for a second. Press into the ball first. Maybe it'll slightly round, maybe not push into the lower leg to lift up. And now we'll just do the action of touching down and up for four one and down.

Two and down. Three and down. Hold up for lower the straight leg. Now kick down one. Nothing to do with the ball to I flex going up. It's not a big deal. Three, it's just habit. Four, five. One more time. Hold it up on six. Refold the leg and roll down. If your balls in over near you, find it and get ready to change to the other side.

Rolling up. Balance your weight. You know what's happening. Make sure the front of your hips feel the stretch they deserve. Left leg up and come down. Set on the ball, push into the ball. Even if it makes you round your back to step deeper into the ground with your right and down one more like that. [inaudible] and down. This time we go up and stay up. Check your collarbones, check attention and we kicked down for sick. Go one, lift to three.

Not much changes elsewhere for here's five and six. Bring it up and then down and put it back in place to move the ball and roll down right. Take the ball between your knees just cause we need to hold it somewhere and rock yourself up for the spine. Stretch my favorite sitting with your feet wide. Maybe a little wider than your mat. Maybe inside of your mat, depending on the mat as pose. Definitely wider than shoulders though.

You want to be able to get their ball in front of you. Use the ball again just as a way to get away from it. So we press down with straight arms to sit tall. We squeeze the inner thighs as if the ball were bigger. And now we just roll. However you have to get the ball to move forward, round, forward, stretch.

Now I'm just moving the ball again where I want it cause I want to be able to press down a little bit so I can pull away from it from the hip bars and then just bring it back up. So that's not really about the ball, even though it sort of seems like if it's not, just get it away from you. The sense of I'm pushing something away so I can stretch my back. And then just as you're about to come up, maybe a slight downward pressure and drag it home. Inhale just one more and we'll just get rid of the ball so we don't have to think about it at all. Sit tall. Exhale. It's like you're going to put your head right between your knees. I mean really.

And then come back up. Just leave the ball there. Hands toward each other. Inhale still thinking like you're squeeze an inner thigh. Exhale, round, forward, stretch, stretch, stretch. Push your feet against an imaginary wall so you get that same sense of opposition and roll back up. One more like that. And then we'll add on. Exhale. It's really kind of turned to come from the very, very top when you've gone as far as you can't push deeper into the imaginary wall. Or if you have a wall, do that, which further further from here, press the back of the thighs into the mat and come up on a diagonal, a long diagonal or maybe an almost vertical diagonal. It's okay, but go for the straight spine. Inhale, deepen that Xcel.

Just go forward again and we're going to roll right back up to the top. Inhale, exhale, round forward. So for me, I kind of imagine I have a ball between my inner thighs, over ankles and my hands, but it's a little bit bigger now. Press down into the thighs. You straighten your spine from the tailbone to the low back through the middle, back through the upper back. The arms are right by your ears, no matter where you are in space and XL. Re round and roll back up in him.

Trying to get some upper back work out of the spine. Flexibility, exhale, round, go, go, go. As if someone was pulling you but you hit bones or go, no, I don't want to go that way. From there you press down. Find the long flat back, stay there when you get there and just kind of play with it. Make sure you are as straight as you think you can be. From there it's the upper arms. Pull back, lean into it more. It's not really a pulse as much with the body as much as it is.

I'm going to use my upper back, my shoulder blades to pull back. If you get looser, lean into a more, it's that long diagonal. Let's do five more. One, two thumbs are pointed backwards a toward the ceiling. Three, four or five. Here's five I'm sure and then round forward and roll yourself up. Scoop forward if you need to on your mat, just leave the ball there.

We're going to draw those hipbones back just like we did a moment ago when we were stretching. We're just drawing them back. You'll find a place where they might lift up easily and we rolled back for OpenLink. Rutger, we actually only come up into the long spine just like we did a moment ago or almost exhale, roll up and drop the shoulders back down your back. It's as if the hipbones lead it. The front side of your pelvis almost leads XL. Find a spot in the room. Keep looking at him. Lift and lift.

Little tip I use sometimes is to, if I, if I make it to the top, almost pull my legs upward as if they're coming out of socket. That gets me going and then when I'm ready to come back up, push him right again and sometimes I push too hard. Try that. So we lift the legs up and out of the socket. We exit, we push him back and we know we're going to land at the top and of course the back matters lift, giving you one more to play with that. Sometimes it almost overpowers you or me up up when you get there. Stay there. If you need another one, take it. I'll be right here. Set your legs down back up enough. If you have room to put feet together, your arms come out to the side.

Rotate those shoulders up and back the rib thrusters. I'm watching you, me included. Let's not overdo that, right? We're upright. Maybe get a friend to tell you if you're leaning back too, there's sort of a no man's land in there. Let's come to a twist to the front. Legs. Don't move. Press, press comes center. I'm exhaling here and inhale.

Sometimes the eyes help you go a little further. If meaning, look where you want to go and your spine may follow. Maybe if you're not sure, you might take your hands out of it. Put them behind your head and do a few. Oh boy. Okay. Maybe I wasn't going that far. Try it. It's not as fun, that's for sure, but why don't you feel it? Okay, come back to center. Put your hands down, bend your knees. Just leave that ball there. I know it's staring at your fingertips. Face your heels.

Just lifting up into what we might call a table top position. Look at the ceiling. Feel the strength of your arms and remember how you felt your backside of your body early on. Feel that again. Push into your feet and then just sit down. Just hinge at the hips, but get ready. We're going back up to now for a lot of us, we're going to roll these shoulders forward and we'd be like, whatever.

This is not fun and it hurts my neck. So I'm asking you to go straight line on the collarbones to the best of your ability. Look straight up at the ceiling so you could breathe and turn your head easily. Sit down. Let's do it again. Everything helping you. Your body helps you. Your body does sound bunch. You have no idea.

You don't have to think about, but right now let it help you. Let it help you feel open and free. I'm going to do one more [inaudible] and we sit back down. All right, stretch your legs out again. A little wider than even before the ball. The ball and your, let's say left-hand. We're going to rotate towards your right. You know, put that ball down.

You're going to keep pressing that right arm. And I don't mean the hand, I mean the whole upper arm. As you press or roll the ball forward, keep pressing the right upper arm back, maybe even turn the ribs upward towards the sky. So it's as if you have a big ball behind you in that free arm and just come back up. Switch arms, take it to the left, the ball is now in your right hand. Put it on the ground where it lands. Think more about rotating and for me, I actually push on the ball to rotate, to lift higher, to rotate. And now off you go. Keep rotating, keep rotating. Hips and feet are still level and come back up. Grabbed the ball switch. Let's go a little quicker now. So we rotate, we put the ball down, we stretch and we reach, reach, reach, lift up, switch hands, rotate, slide it.

And even here, little downward pressure even if it's in thought so that you can rotate more to bring it back up. Let's do it again for real the last time. Go, go open, open, open retreat, reach, lift. Up other side. Last one, reach. Oh, I want to stay here for a second. I won't cause it might not be your hard side. So off we come back to center. Remember what we just did with the lift and lower the hips. We're doing it again. Only a little longer. Put your ankles, your Achilles tendon on that ball. If your balls really inflated, good luck. Hands are back. This just takes it up a little bit more.

Fingers still face your heels. Legs will remain straight. Before we do anything else, push into the palms of your hands and get as long in your spine as you can. Even if you're leaning back from there, engage the back of your legs so you already pressing down on the ball, lift up. You can slide the ball a little bit looking for that long line. Oh isn't that nice? And then just sit down. If the ball rolls towards you, fantastic. Flex your feet, engage again. And same setup.

You press down, you lift up, you lift up. Eventually we're going to lift the leg. I'm not going to do it today, so don't worry. So just get committed to what we are doing. Flex your feet, sit down. And this time let's just sit up, take the arms to the sides and get a little extra back extension. But the hands down again, little flare. You don't have two hands are down. Lift up, huh? Try not to drop the head behind you either. I'm kind of guilty of that.

Sometimes. Arms forward open, put them down. Last one, lift up. If anything, if you err on the side of seeing the wall behind you, I'd rather you look at your feet and sit down. Flex your feet, reach forward, take the stretch. You can bend the knees. In fact, let's all bend the knees and stretch them out. Go a little further into the stretch. Bend them and stretch and bend and stretch, right. Okay, turn onto your side. We're going to bend the uh, leg lying on. So if you're facing me, your head's on the same side. Your lower leg is bent.

Put the ball right under your ribs and it's more or less a reminder. So we're not going all the way down. We're going to have that elbow underneath us. Tough leg is lifted, so if you find yourself really resting in the ball, don't lift up. It's just a little hint. We kicked theF like forward as kick, kick. Stretch it back. Hold it there for just a second and then check yourself out.

All right, look at yourself. Alright, are you rolling way back? You want to keep those hips as stacked as possible. For right now we go kick, kick and pack. The rest of you just looks proud. So proud. Just to be more kick. Try to keep it relatively level two, one more and back. Hold it back there. Stretch that top arm. You can actually, you might have to move the lower arm, a little. Roll the ball a little bit toward the same direction.

Your upper leg is going. Just make it feel good is really what I'm trying to say. We can stretch later. Let's just go to the other side, so stay facing me. Head on the other side. Put the ball underneath your ribs. Feel how heavy you could be on them, but we're not doing that.

We can do that later. Your hips are stacked and one I can look at it sometimes is is my kneecap pointing forward. That sometimes is a good measure but mostly in my just leaning back, I really want everything facing forward from here. We flex fucking forward. One, two, sweet. Back at two, two. Let's aim for six, three, three. You still kind of lifted and proud for here's five and one more time. Hold it back. Take that tough arms. Juror. Edge it, stretch it, stretch it.

I do rotate here cause I just think it feels good and sometimes that's all I need. Keep pushing the leg back there. Great. All right. You're going to just turn over. The ball is going to go under your sternum or close to it. It's a little different for everybody so I'm not trying to take your breath away. I'm trying to work your mid to upper back so maybe it's a little higher than Sturm to start and your arms are out in front of you.

Uh, let me say that differently. Your elbows are maybe slightly in front of you, front of your shoulders. From there, drop down from me. I have to pop my elbows out to the side to do that. So as long arms again, and then my forehead's almost on the ground if you want to do that, do that from here. The sense is I'm reaching my legs, they're not lifted off the ground, but I do have a little more pressure on the tops of my feet than I would have heard. Just laying here. From there, starting to think sternum or think Chester, roll the ball forward medically makes me want to lift my head maybe with a headfirst. And then I start to drag my elbows backwards. At least in energy. I'm not moving them. But as I think of pressing the ball forward, I'm tractioning the floor or the mat towards my hips and then release it. I'm gonna say it a little different. Just try to keep your legs engaged.

If they're just resting here, it's just not as fun. So kneecaps might even be off the floor. You start. Let's start at the top of the head. Lift your head, start to look forward. And as you look forward, you get more curious and you start to go, Oh, I have a ball underneath Mount to push that ball forward so that I could even look higher and higher and higher still not in my low back because my legs are still working and then bring it all down. One more like that and then we'll take it higher. If you want legs engaged abdominals a little, a little, they do need to be helpful.

You start to kick up your head like it's a strand of pearls. It's embedded in my head. I've heard that since I was 15 and you know, picking them up one at a time, press the buff or like literally press the ball forward, keeping the backs of your legs engaged. If you have it in you, you can apply more pressure into the hands and let the elbows come up. Okay. Then traction those [inaudible] those palms to find the ball again to reach longer through your spine as you go back down. The same way you came up to more like that will be that to lift your head like nothing else matters other than you have support in your back, your back side of your body. Looking forward, looking forward, you start to feel, I can push that ball forward if I don't think only about height, I can actually go forward and then, Oh, maybe I could go further. And maybe not.

If you can and you want to, you apply a little pressure because somehow gravity just won't let you do it. Otherwise you're up your neck as long as you can look around and have a chat, but you're still strong in your back and then you traction yourself. So if you're getting further down the mat to the ground, one more time, head, push the ball, lift up as high as you can without your arms and then add in the palms. Spin those elbow. So maybe that pointing forward or up and then bring yourself back down.

Okey-dokey. The ball out almost there. Put it between your ankles, forehead on your hands, his elbows are wide, knees are bent. Draw the abdominals up now relatively significantly because they're going to want to drop any. You're going to want them so they draw up. Then you lightly squeeze the ball as if you had one between your knees. Well and hover the knees without totally losing. The abs are hunting the shoulders and we just lift and squeeze.

Don't worry about squeezing in on the ball. Just lift the knees. Lift the knees. That's it. Give yourself five more. One and two and three. Four. How are your abs doing? How's your back doing? Hold it up. Squeeze the entire inner seam of the leg, not just at the ankles. Lift, knees, maybe a millimeter higher. Stretch the legs out. The kneecaps are still off.

I know, I know. I'm cramping to get it out to straight. Redraw the abs and pubic bone. The floor. Squeeze the ball. A little pulses for ten one, two, three, four. Do the whole leg, not just heels. Oh, we'll call it five, four, three, two, one. Bend the knees. Grab the ball, set your knees down. Set the ball down, hands by your side to help yourself up into a child's pose or rest position. From there, just roll yourself up.

Sit however you need to want to or that feels good or stand if you'd like. Cause all we're going to do is take a couple of deep breaths and decide did we do what we came to do? And if not, this isn't your only shot, right? We exercise to help ourselves into these places. But maybe you go out in the world and if you wanted to be stronger, do it now if you want it to be loose or do it now, if you want it to work out super hard and you didn't start the class over again, I don't know, but you have some choices here. So for now, let's just think on whatever. Let's relax. Inhale, shaken it out just like I did in the beginning and again, inhale. And then so that we're together. Let's just do one a little slower, a little more of what you need. Here it is, and let go so you can go do the thing.

Thank you for being here. See you next time.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Thank you for being here too Kristi; great class with the overball...
My pleasure Cigdem! 
3 people like this.
That was awesome Kristi!  loved the ab work! Well love-hate! Thank you! Merry Christmas! 
1 person likes this.
Thank you so much, Kristi. This class reminds me of the first classes I took with you on Pilates Anytime, which put your voice in my head and helped make Pilates a life force for me. 
I can't tell you how perfect that class was for me today! I love that you are always encouraging us to just be and then be more. What a blessing you are. This was a Merry Christmas to me video. Thank you and Merry Christmas to you. 
Lina S
1 person likes this.
Push back to get forward... that reminds me the Newton's Law Action->Reaction! Great!
1 person likes this.
Thank you Kristi Cooper  ....life has taken over the past few weeks and my practice has stalled....body feels great Carter this first class back....thank you!
1 person likes this.
A wonderful flowing class, made me longer, stronger and happy. Merry Christmas kristi⛄️
Kristi , Happy holidays to you and to the  Pilates anytime family ! You are a gift to all of us and I am guessing I speak for many when I say how grateful I am for your heartfelt  voice !  
Thank you so much! Kate your words mean a lot to me however surprising given I'm not a real fan of my voice when I hear it! Lina, I do say that and I think the cue actually originated from that same thought ( every action has a reaction... ground reaction force)!  Happy Holidays everyone! May we all do our best to keep our practice going in the midst! 
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