Creating Space

Well, I honestly do want to say thank you so much to Chris' and Gret's honesty and openness and allowing in. This is obviously such a difficult time for all of our black colleagues, friends, spouses, children, loved ones. Yeah, so hard time, we feel a lot, we hold a lot in our bodies, and Gret kinda kicked it off perfectly to me, so thank you Gret, because I am going to add a breath element to to this. I'm going to be going a little outside of my real house for a small moment, don't mind. This is about stepping outside our comfort zones, so I'm going to ask that we all don't want to just jump right in to some fast pilates, we'll get there, but I just would like to take a moment.

You can have your circle. (laughs) And just place it down. And what I really like to do, to honor what we just heard and honor why we are here today, the cause that centuries of injustices that have been committed, being continued across the east, and also those of us who are doing our very best to put as much love out into the world as we can. I'm hoping that we can just together take three breaths. You can use your circle to press on to do it.

What I'd like to do is a super deep inhale. Hold the breath. Super deep exhale. Hold the exhalation and then again clear those breaths. And what I would love, although I won't dictate, is that you breath in everything you've heard, everything you're seeing on social media, and let it get into your heart and under your skin, and then if we can breathe out some love, and hope, and passion.

That would be for me a wonderful way to begin this. So if you would all indulge me and place your hands one on top of the other or side by side. We are going to take a nice deep inhalation. Let your whole body expand, and then exhale. Hold the exhalation.

Inhale. Just feel you can, what we are doing here, our intention. Exhale. One more breath please. Thank you for that.

Again, very outside my real class, not something I do very often. So I wanted to hold space for that and why we are here. I'm very grateful that you're all here with us. Now you are going to begin by standing if you don't mind. And we're going to place the magic circle between our ankles.

You can hear my pilates voice. Glad this teacher voice beginning now. Squeeze the circle in a little bit, pulling in and up. We're going to focus on how our breathe affects movement, because we hold tension in places where there is no breath. Inhale up with your arms.

Exhale down forward. Find the mat, even if you need to bend your knees, that's fine. You're going to walk on out into a plank position. A nice deep inhalation here. And then exhale, lower your hips, and lift your chest.

This is like the combination move of the up stretch. Exhale. Inhale, bringing your chin to your chest. Let your chin push your chest up. Let your ribs lift.

Your hips all the way up. Hold the top most position and then exhale, lowering the heels. As your heels come down, feel the stoop of those abs deepening. Really squeeze the air out. Inhale, lifting the heels from your abs.

Exhale, lowering the hips, curling the bottom under you, opening your chest. So it's a little bit like the snake on the reformer. And then pressing down through the hands, chin first, ribs second, waistline, then hips. So we are not just folding at the hips. Pressing through the arms, lowering the heels, deepening the stoop in the abs.

Exhale. Inhale, lifting the heels. Feel that lift and then curve them from your bottom. So initiate from the curve of your pelvis underneath you, and then exhale to expand the chest. Soften your elbows if you need to, to feel those muscles opening the chest.

And then changed the chest, pressing up through the ribs. So now we're opening our backs. This is where our lungs live. Through one massive opening back there. And then exhale, lowering the heels, and feeling deep stoop in the abs.

Walk your hands back to your feet. Take your circle. Heels together. And then you're gonna roll up to standing, squeezing your inner thighs, and bring your arms and circle up. I'll try to step back, I'm quite tall as we know.

So, holding the circle up. A nice deep inhalation. And exhale, lowering the arms down to your waist, down to your thighs. And again, inhale. Lift.

As we lift we lean a little bit into the wind. Feel the whole body lengthening. Feel the ribs lifting side to side. And exhale, lowering that down. Now, I'm not squeezing my circle very hard, because I'm not trying to create tension in my body.

In fact. inhale. I'm trying to release tension in my body. But I can still keep my body active without letting go of everything. Now, so we are using the circle as a pointed space for us to find ourselves.

To ground ourselves. Okay, from here we're going to come down to the mat. So we're going to roll back into our hundred. Now, you can lift your legs or lower your legs, but we're not going to squeeze the circle in a pulsing manner. Just role back.

Hold your low back on the floor and we're going to squeeze the circle for five inhalations, five. And exhale for five. You can release the circle or continue to squeeze it. Inhale. Squeeze.

And exhale, releasing. Inhale. Squeeze. Again you can lift the legs, you're welcome to do that. You want more challenge in the abs.

And exhale release. Now we're going to change the breath. We're going to exhale to squeeze. And inhale to release. And exhale to squeeze.

And Inhale to release. And last one, exhale to squeeze. I got the tremor of truth going on. That's the little shakiness you can't stop. And release.

Our legs come down. Inhale, and reach the arms back over the head. Arms come forward. Head comes up. Inhale to lift.

Exhale to stretch forward. Inhale to roll back. Exhale to reach back. Inhale when your arms come up. On a held breath, the head and chest lift.

And exhale forward. Getting that air out of you, squeezing the tension out of your body. Not necessarily squeezing the circle very tightly. Again, we're holding it as we're going down. Somebody's video is on.

(laughter) One more time. Inhale. Head and chest come up. Rolling up. Exhale forward.

Inhale rolling back. And exhale all the way down. Okay, so we're gonna go, just going to slide forward a little bit for our rollover. Now the rollover is not, oh I meant to say please don't do anything that is beyond your reach. This is not about hurting yourself.

So, we're going to do the roll over, but if this is not in your body, and doesn't feel good, just stick with some circles. But I want you to hold the magic circle down under your bottom, and hold your hands on the inside of the circle. So you're actually pressing out on the circle. My thumbs are on the inside. Inhale and lift the legs over.

Exhale open. Inhale. Begin to roll down. Exhale. Reach the legs forward.

Inhale up and over. Exhale and open. Inhale rolling down the spine. Exhale reaching away. And lets reverse for 2.

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale as you roll down. Exhale as you reach forward. Now remember, you can change the breath to whatever feels right for you.

I'm just calling some out that I'm doing. Define what feels best in your body where you see the most strength the most freedom. And now exhale down. And reach. Rest.

Okay. Let's take one leg up. Place it inside the circle. You're foot is on the inside pad. And we're going to pull the foot towards you.

So I have it on the metatarsals, so nice big stretch of the back of the leg, pushing my hip away from me, stooping my abs. And instead of just our normal flex and point, I'm going to have you emphasize about holding this ring. If it's my right foot, I'm going to pull on the left side of the ring, and rotate my ankle toward the screen. So hopefully you'll be seeing the sole of my foot. And now just stretch that outside of your calf.

It doesn't get a lot of work. And then we're going to pull on the outer edge of my circle. Well I guess the circle doesn't have an edge, but you know the outer ring. And stretch it out. And one more.

Holding it in. Breath in as you go. Just figure out a way to add breath into the movement. It does slow it down. I like many of you have a spirit that likes to go fast, so when I ask to slow it down it's very challenging, but it adds a whole other dimension to the work.

Okay, keep that leg up. You're gonna hold your circle up, right against your shin. And we're gonna inhale. Exhale. And bring the shin right back to the ring.

Inhale across. Exhale out. Shin to the ring. Inhale. Exhale.

Shin to the ring reverse. Inhale. Exhale. (mumbles) Find how the breath actually can facilitate the movement of the limb, so you're not just tensing muscle to bring the leg up, but you're actually diaphragm and all of your lungs to really draw that leg up. And switch.

Other foot goes in the pad. Gets a nice flex. You feel that stretch all the way down the back of the leg, and push that hip away from you. Keeping that away, we're gonna roll the foot in, so I'm holding on with my right hand on the left foot. So, rolling you feel that giant stretch in my ankle.

And then roll at the end of the way. Cramping is not uncommon. Cramping sometimes it's just blood flowing to a new area. Sometimes it's dehydration. You might need a banana or vitamin C.

And there we are, we're gonna give ourself a little stretch, nice little beginning. And (mumbles). Inhale across. Exhale circle around that hole. So hopefully we're stopping somewhere around over the belly button.

Ankle over the belly button. Inhale. Exhale. Reverse. Inhale.

Exhale across. And you allow your breath to move the limb. That means you gotta let go of some flexing. One more time. And circle lift.

And then the knees. Let's place the ring on the outside of our knees. Hands under your thighs and roll up to sitting. Rolling like a ball. So you could place your hands, keep them under your thighs or put them on top of shins or ankles.

Open your feet and press the knees out into the ring. Inhale, rock back. Exhale up. Now this is a breathing exercise, we are trying to get to the top of the lung. All the way up, all the way forward your control.

Inhale back. Exhale up. Two more. Inhale back. And exhale up.

And last one. Inhale back. Exhale up, down and simple. Lift your body back, the ring is waiting for you, hold it between your heel and the hand, one knee comes with you, and roll back to the base of your shoulder blades. Other leg comes up.

Inhale. And exhale. Reach the ring forward. Inhale, like you're handing it to somebody. Exhale.

Abs are pulling away. Inhale, I've slowed it down. And exhale. It's kinda brutal when it's slow. Inhale.

Nobody said pilates was easy, right? Exhale. Last set. Inhale. And Exhale.

Bring the knees in, place the ring in between the ankles, and bring your hands behind you head. I'm sorry, no, don't bring your hands behind your head. Grab on to your (mumbles) 3 steps ahead. Inhale, pull those legs in. Exhale here.

Inhale reach. Circle your arms. Exhale, bring the knees in and fold. Inhale reach. Circle the arms.

Exhale, bring the knees in and fold. Inhale reach. Circle the arms. Exhale, bring it in. Now, take the circle between your hands and bring your feet together.

Inhale lift. Exhale. Just bring the arms over the thighs, over the shins. Inhale reach. Exhale, lift that ring forward.

Inhale reach. Exhale. Pull the legs into the chest, and then we go into our single straight leg. One up one out. Touch that ring and switch.

Keep lifting the ring up. And switch. Come up with the ring. Lift up. Find your breath.

Inhale. Exhale. Or Inhale for 2, exhale for 2. Find what works for you. And last set.

Inhale. And exhale. And bring the knees in. We're gonna rest the neck. Place the ring between the ankles and place your hands behind your neck.

To lengthen the back of the neck. Squeeze the inner thighs. Lift your head and chest. Inhale. Reach the legs away.

Exhale. Bring them back up. Inhale. Lift them to the ceiling as you reach. Exhale.

Deepen, deepen deepen the arms. Exhale. Inhale. Lift. Exhale.

Bring them in. And one more. Inhale reach. And exhale, bring it in. Bend your knees, take your ring, hopefully you have a little pad you can place behind the face of your skull.

And both hands to the inside of the ring. This will help support your lift of your upper chest and head. So for our twist, our crisscross reach looking back. And (mumbles). And twist.

You can twist inhale or an exhale. And bring it back in. Try one of each. Try an exhale, and in. Another exhale here now bring it in.

Now we'll try inhale. Inhale. Exhale. Bring it in. And inhale.

Exhale. Bring it in. So you always have choices. Place the ring around the knees, and roll yourself up to to sit. Put your spine straight forward.

Now notice, it's a breathing exercise. (mumbles). One, I'm gonna have you take your pad if you one, and place it under the breast, around your rib cage. So I have mine just on the base of my ribs. Hands are gonna go in the front.

Elbows wide. Inhale with (mumbles). This is not about stretching forward. Exhale. Press the ring into the ribs.

And let your upper body down just enough to open up your upper back. This is where the lungs live. Inhale sitting up tall. Exhale. Inhale sitting up tall.

One more time. Exhale. Inhale sitting up tall. Take the ring down and place it around your pelvis, so between your hip bones if possible. Inhale lift.

Exhale press. As you round your grab a little bit further forward, but you're actually pushing your armpits backwards. Inhale and rise up. This is not a shoulder exercise. This is a back opening exercise because that's where we want to create space for our lungs to expand, because our rib cage will expand.

Out one more time. Exhale. And inhale lift. Now keeping that same idea of pulling back, let's bring the ring forward. Inhale lift.

Exhale round, pulling back on your ribs, folding back in the hips as we reach the ring forward. And inhale coming up. And exhale rounding. Inhale rolling back up. Really stay down there, get all the air out of the lung.

Exhale. And inhale coming back up. We're gonna go right to the saw, because I was trying to emphasize the breaths, so inhale lift. Release the ring as you twist to that side. Exhale.

Reach the ring back, like you're handing it to somebody. Inhale and come back up. Exhale twist, reaching the ring back as I stretch forward and coming back up. So this puts a little emphasis on my back arm reaching and lifting. Exhale so our ankle is backwards.

Inhale lift. Again, that two way stretch facilitates the squeezing out of the air. And now we can fill up with new air. One more set. Exhale reach.

Inhale lift. And you can breathe obviously in through the nose out through the nose. As an asthmatic I tend to breathe out through my mouth, and come in through the nose. And lift. Okay, place your ring down.

Jump your legs back and lower down swan sets. So stretch the arms out in front of you. The first thing we're gonna do with our foreheads down is inhale and lift the arms and exhale and lower. My legs are active and together. Inhale lift.

Exhale down. But I am relaxed, I'm not putting any tension in my body. Inhale lift. Exhale lower. And then come up with the ring vertically, hold on to the sides, reach your arms.

You're gonna press down on the ring to lift up in the chest. Inhale to lift. Exhale to lower. Remember, Joe Pilates said never do ten pounds of effort for a 5 pound movement. And notice we don't need unneeded tension in our bodies during this time.

It's very (mumbles) and emotional. So if we can with move freedom, we can allow for some of that release. And come down. Flatten the ring, squeeze it between the hands, lift your chest, and little kicks. Kick to the bum.

Feel the stretch on the front of the thigh if you can by pushing your knees away from you as you kick in, lifting you chest forward and breathing. Find a pattern that works for you. Hands back. I'm looking at the time. I hate how short the time we have.

Okay, three kicks. One. Two. Three. Lift.

It would have helped if I saw when we started, but I'm gonna give myself a few more minutes, I hope that's okay. Three kicks. And lift. Find that length. Hold it.

Hold it. Hold it. Turn. Exhale. Reminding you to say spank the air out of you and then lift.

Hold that breath and then exhale. The pilates work on breath holds as well. And exhale. Bring the ring forward, sit back, and then bring the legs forward. A little neck pull.

Put the ring on the outside of the feet, just below the metatarsal of the pinky toe. Hold it there. Hands behind the head. Inhale lift. Now, if neck pull is one of your (mumbles).

Squeeze the elbows together to roll down and to roll up. That could make it a little bit easier. Otherwise keep the elbows wide. Inhale to come up. Press out of the ring.

Exhale. Inhale, stacking the vertebrae all the way up and exhale rolling back down. Again, remember you can close those elbows, it takes some of the weight out of the upper body. Inhale up. Exhale over.

Inhale, lift tall. Roll, roll roll, and exhale. Roll all the way down. Okay, I did really wanna do sidekicks, but I think I'm gonna. I have to go right into teasers, sorry guys.

Just what you need, it's teaser time, so we're gonna do this like we did the roll ups. Inhale reach back as the legs go out. Arms forward on the breath hold. Exhale to come up. Hold it there.

Inhale to go back. Exhale to reach your arms back and bring the knees in, so push the air out of you and continue to exhale to bring the arms forward. Inhale to reach everything away. Exhale as you come up. Inhale as you roll back down.

Exhale as you bring everything in and you cap it off with the arms forward so you're in that tight little ball. One more time. Inhale reach. Arms come forward. Exhale up.

Find that lift. Inhale roll back. Exhale reach. Raise the arms forward. Okay, let's roll up to sitting, you can always use your circle to help you.

Place the ring between our feet. You can place it vertically or horizontally, whatever fits, and wrap your hands around the outside. Now squeeze your ring a little bit and feel how that works those inner thighs. Squeeze the ring and rock back. Inhale and exhale.

And inhale rock back and exhale come up. Let's do 2 more. Inhale back. Exhale. We are massaging our back, we are massaging our internal organs.

We're looking for freedom. Now on this last one we're gonna rock back and take the ring out from between our feet and roll up to standing. Turn around and just give me one more nice deep inhalation. Find the length in your body. Really lift.

Lean into the wind of it and exhale bringing those arms back down. Thank you for joining me for short amount of time and now I'm gonna pass this to the Brad Howard. Sorry, did I say I'm Brooke Silar, I'm Brooke Silar, hi. (laughs) Breath take it away.