Throwback Theraband!

(clapping) Hi, everybody. Welcome to "Garage Sessions". I'm Kristi. This is my garage. Happy to have you here. Thank you for being here. Grab a TheraBand.

Today, any tension, mine is a little light. It's also long, so I'll be able to wrap it where I need to. And if you have a really heavy one, you might end up getting rid of it at times. So I'm just happy you're here. I hope you're happy you're here.

As usual I like to decide before I start what my personal intention is. And today it's to stop being nervous, but no, it's not. I wanna flow and I wanna deepen. And that's what the class is gonna be designed to do, exercises, you know, but with a little twist on them using the band. So that's that.

Let's get started. Really happy you're here. I'm gonna move my band only 'cause I wanted to stand this way. So have your band nearby. I'm just gonna be turning sideways so I can do my standing roll down and then I'll pick it up in a moment. So shall we begin?

Feet apart, let them be straight underneath you, right? So you build the columns of your body, you build yourself up. If that gives you any hint of how my real personal goal is, let your arms be heavy that your bones be heavy, rise up on the toes and just fall and notice a difference. Where does tension collect? If any, rise up on the toes, just drop.

You know, don't hurt yourself, but just kinda like where do the tension spots go? Where do you naturally stand? Then go back to your feet. Look at 'em, big toe, little toe, heel, they're parallel. So for me it feels a little inward toed to be parallel on the outer edges of my feet.

So I'm looking at that. And then as I think, go up the body, all of a sudden I'm pitching backwards, right? So now put the knees over your ankles, put your hips over your knees. And before we go all the way up, take a moment and just adjust your pelvis. And by that, I just mean notice it so that you see, is it tipped forward? Is it tipped back?

Can you level it as best you can? And then put it over the knees. Now I feel a little more forward and I actually feel my hamstrings. I don't know about you. Rib cage is a all different deal, but let's try and place the ribs right over the hips.

Give yourself some length. Why not? And the shoulders over the ribs, et cetera, and your head, the top of your head, let's touch it. Sometimes you just have to feel where you are to be there and then reach into it even, let the limbs be heavy. Just take your arms down, take a deep breath, inhale, those ribs that you just placed over the hips.

Expand them to the side as much as possible. (inhaling) And exhale. (exhaling) And as you do, maybe let go of any tension you may have or don't know you have, but take a moment. Look for it, let it go. Inhale (inhaling) and exhale.

We're gonna move way more efficiently if you lose the tension now. So whatever you have to do, shake it out, just come back to alignment, one more time, inhale and just let it go. And then from here, easy, just rotating those arms outward, inhaling to arise up the arms. Just gonna turn 'cause I am gonna go into a roll down. Let the arms come down when they get about to your shoulders, let your head start to nod forward, tilt forward and roll down.

Down, down. Oh, and I'm just noticing until I hear my voice. you're the first people I've talked to today. So it's earlier here or for me anyway, and hang a little bit, bend your knees. And as you do know that your legs attached to your spine and bring your spine with you.

So it's not just a knee bend and a drop. It's like take your spine into that curve, straighten as best you can and then inhale, and straighten. And bend the knee just, again, kind of checking in. (exhaling) Letting that tension go, where it rests or where it lives. And then once your legs are straight, draw the belly in a little, I have to shift forward, I noticed I shift back, check yourself, put your shoulders back on your body and roll yourself up.

And I'm just gonna leave my arms down this time. Inhale doing another one. Exhale. Feel how the spine can almost go up before it goes over. It doesn't, your spine doesn't have to go backwards. It'll make your legs work a little bit already.

Get to the floor however you need to, if that means bend your knees, do. Everybody bend your knees, take your spine with you. Exhale, straighten, look at your toes if you need to. But then look back at your legs, bend and straighten. One more time, bend and straighten.

Hang your head. Let it go. Draw the belly up again. Prepare yourself for just standing up. Here we go. Exhale. Pull up. And the next one we're gonna grab the band.

So get closer if you need to, inhale, (inhaling) (exhaling) and exhale, it's amazing what a good couple of breaths will do to start your day or end your day or whatever time it is, it's just a good thing. Bend your knees. Grab your band. I'm gonna open mine up a little bit and just put a little tension on it. So your hands are shoulder distance apart. And roll up.

(exhaling) Okay. So, Pilates instructors around the world would go mad if they had to leave the, the little handles at the end. So I'm just gonna wrap it up so where I can have my hands apart about shoulder distance. And then if it's too tight, I'll undo, I just wrapped around my hand. So here we are, feet almost together.

I'm adjusting myself against the split in my mat and we're just going to inhale. Raise the arms up, exhale. Remember our alignment from before, When you exhale, press against the legs, might as well and get taller, find the backside of your body. Inhale rise up with the arms, exhale, bring it down and press against the body, but not so hard that you round. You're just staying tall and proud. Inhale rise up.

(inhaling) Exhale. (exhaling) It doesn't have to be hard right now. It doesn't have to be hard ever if it is, it is. Facts are facts. But right now we don't have to strain. I just have a little tension on the band just to know where my arms are in space, up.

We'll stay up on this one from here, just shrug the shoulders up, ah, I enjoy that, and then bring them down and you can put a little more attention as you slightly pull apart, shrug up down and pull apart a little and then now make it look like we're not making it a choreographed thing. Just come down and slightly pull. It just feels good, up slide and exhale down. And up and down, one more time, up and down. From there.

So it's getting a slight bit more interesting. You can just press the arms back to the extent you can without thrusting the ribs forward or the butt back. So just back and release. And again, I still have a look, the band is just taught. I'm not pulling on it, really.

I'm just seeing what my shoulders are capable of right now. Not everyone will go behind their head like I am right now. I'm a little shocked, I am. Check in with yourself, pay attention to the rest of your body. What does it do in relationship to it?

All right? Because now we are going to simply bend your elbows. And here's the fun part. Look over to your forearms. And the elbows ideally would be coming right under your wrist, as opposed to something like this, where this meaning elbows behind you, wrists in front, do your best to keep that line straight.

If you have to bring the elbows forward, do that rather than the other version I showed you, up. And then it starts from the shoulder blades. You just will melt down your back and you tap the middle of your head with the band. Go again, inhale, reach up. Just sort of checking ourselves out, saying hello to the TheraBand.

Up. And down. And up. Oh, you can go as high as you want, but make sure those shoulder blades do come back down. Not forcefully, but just so and bring the arms up.

Let everything come down for a little rest. Alright, step wide. I like to turn out my feet a little bit. Most people do. I'm not a dancer if you're not either, don't worry about it. Just step wide comfortably, lift the arms back up again and then shrug the shoulders up.

Pull your ribs up to get everything up. Get as much space as you can, take it. It's yours. Then let the shoulders come down, but keep the rest. We're going over to one side. Let's go to the left. Come back up.

So that's all it's gonna be right? Over it and come back up. But now think about your feet. You feel 'em? You feel 'em both equally? I'm gonna encourage you to push into that right foot, to go left.

And really push into it. But you're not leaning, right? You're also pushing into the other foot left foot and lift those ribs and come back up, push in, over, and back up, up and over. So the real point is just keep your feet equally weighted, but you could also play and I would never know. Pretend I can see you.

You could see yourself, so we're going over now, reach, reach, reach long. And again, I have the band tight. You're not just hanging out with it. So if you have to wrap a little tighter, do up and over, find the side of your body. We're about to find the back of our bodies, push and reach and come back up.

Push and reach. And coming back up. Most of us rotate or spiral, given we're on a spiraling planet, it's normal. So just notice like, oh, the side is a little harder than the side or vice versa. It could happen.

All right, I'm gonna go a tiny bit faster before I add on, I might go a little bit wider with my feet. 'Cause it feels good. I'm all about feeling good today. There's my goal. Here we go. And over. It's my friend's birthday.

So we're celebrating it's Nicole's birthday. She's behind camera, but not really. It's my iPhone. She's there to help always, happy birthday, Nicole. Reach for it.

And up. And over. And up, and let's do one more each way. Can you be any longer? Can you be any more supple? Maybe?

Probably let's go over one more time. When you get there, stay there. Can you reach any further? And it's not about strain so much, but just like, oh I can, and then the lower arm presses for the floor. It lifts back up, stay here. Let's just stay here, press down, reach out to lift up, press down.

Reluctantly, lift up, again, down, one more time. And once you're there commit to being equal on your feet and lift up other side, over, you're there. You see it. You feel it. And you press down not hard, but it's just happening. Tap into yourself.

(exhaling) Not a lot of tension in my hand. Cause we're using this band for a while. So do your best to, you can grab or you can whatever you want, but try and just grip, try not to tense it. Let's do one more here out. And lift up, hands go down.

Cool? Bring your feet back together or near each other. And think that through Jedi, my mat's splitting that's all right. It's still more comfortable. All right. So now I may, I think I'm pretty good.

Usually I'll wrap my band where I have a little extra space outside my hips and I have flexible shoulders. So you might want more, check it out. We're going up, here we go. Arms up, reach back again. But this time, maybe the back of your head and I am pulling on the band this time.

That's the only way I can do it. I'm not trying to keep it, I'm pulling, let it go. Reach back to the back of your head and bring it back, kinda relaxed at the top, pull it back. Remember your starting alignment, back. Back to it.

If it's available to you and you might have to pull more feel for the shoulder bleeds. Right, it's really ripping your hair out or something, maybe you should stop sooner. You know, where it's straight down your body and up, back, opening the heart, opening the chest, opening the ability to breathe. If it's available to you, go further and again, you pull, it's okay. Take it wide.

When you have to, pull, otherwise you're reaching them back all the way, if you can, down to your bum. Reach back, this is the hard one. Reach back again, pull when you need to, bring it up and over and remember that alignment, all the way down in front, here we go. We lift up, we reach, we're going all the way. We reach, we reach, we reach, ah, and you feel the biceps, the front of the shoulder, the back chest.

And we come down in front and go, ha, aren't I glad I could do that? Lift again, reach and pull as you need to, the band doesn't have to be far back, but test yourself and be nice to yourself too. Those are, that's the big challenge, isn't it? Balance, working, resting, playing. I'm gonna play a little bit all the way down and can we do one more?

Sure. We do one more of anything. When you get down there, stay down there. You may have to adjust your band and start again. But as I turned away from you, all I'm doing, I had mine wrapped already and I'm just gonna grab in closer.

So it doesn't exactly matter where, and I don't have to keep rewrap. I'm just grabbing in closer, right? So that when my arms are down now, they're not as wide as they were when they started they're right, just outside my hips. And then from there, bend the elbows up. Ooh.

My normally go further, but that's okay. They're up and just press as you press down as you just go back to where you started, pull apart a little bit. Okay, so you're gonna lift up and the elbows point straight back and you don't change anything else, as you go down, you can pull apart, start to feel that little, cermedial delt and other things, bend the elbows, reach down and apart. As your head is tall, right? Nothing's changed, we're almost just adding on, down and reach.

to intensify it ever so slightly, we've lifted the elbows, we reached down and back on the diagonal. Try for that without again, the posture change, elbows bent, reach down and back on the diagonal. As you pull and release, bend back in, down and back, tall. I just caught myself looking up too high. So I'm gonna encourage you not to do that, on the horizon.

Straight ahead. I'm looking at cinder block. I got a line. Okay. No, okay, one more. That's not fair, bend. Squeeze those elbows toward each other, it's okay, You can squeeze shoulder blades, do it, press down and back wherever you landed.

You're gonna just pull, pull apart, pull hands coming apart, if you have it available to you, lift them up a little. Check yourself out. Don't go so high that it's stressful. I'm coming down a little bit. Okay, hang out there for one second. Enjoy it.

Your arms, let 'em be longer. And a slight release. I have to unwrap one hand to come back up, 'cause we're coming back the way we got here, we lift up. We reach back. We're open. Come on, tell me that doesn't feel good.

And then roll yourself down. Roll yourself down. Set your band down. Lay it out. If it's really long, double it now, if it's not just lay it out and get a spool water and you're gonna sit down, sit down with your feet, facing your band. Oo, that was a nice little sound there. Sorry about that.

Okay, so here we are. Using the band, partly for help, but at least for now, I'm gonna, again, I can't stand these things hanging around, so I'm gonna wrap it, my hands up, if it doesn't bother you, I wouldn't do it, 'cause it's a little hard on the hands over time. My feet are ever so slightly apart. I am flexed and I'll never forget Lolita San Miguel saying to me, I said, flex your feet, not your toes. So what she meant to me was, don't leave your toes down there with your feet pulled back, flex at the ankle.

It's that kind of important for living, really important actually. All right. So I'm holding pretty tight. Sit tall, inhale, hip bones roll back, exhale. As if I'm pushing into the band, in truth I'm not, but it is helping me. And I'm grateful.

Go all the way, touch the back of your head. What are your shoulders doing? Touch the back of your shoulders. My knees are bent by the way. If I didn't say that they stayed that way.

They are, lift your head up. Look at those bent knees. Look, what are your toes doing? Exhale, come up and reluctantly or hold back if you will, I hate to say hold back, instead of tall, it's like, you're resisting this circle of energy that exists within you. That's a little more than, I mean to say too, but we're down, you know the drill. Just keep going, inhale, head up, exhale as you lift.

But the idea is that you're not just popping up. The band is here to give you that sensation of I'm working against something. Even within myself, roll down, (exhaling) check yourself along the way, head touches, shoulders are down, inhale, look up, fold yourself forward. By the way, leave your arms straight. I'm just adjusting my band, 'cause I gripped it funny, go ahead, exhale, go down.

(exhaling) Stretching yourself out. Inhale, head up. Start the exhale just before. And this is where the band yeah, kinda helps you, but at the same time you're going, I don't need it. Up like that, again. Down.

(exhaling) And then inhale, look forward. Lift up, stop at about the shoulder blades. So you're looking maybe over your toes and exhale, sink the belly to make you move, right? That's what the abs do they stay, drop to flex you and back, my legs aren't doing anything, my arms aren't doing anything, exhale, drop and come back. So I'm doing what I guess a super, super slow pulse (exhaling), finding how I could be more efficient in this without overusing things I don't need like my neck, my arms, my legs.

If you need more help there. Drive the heels into the ground a little. And I do mean a little, if you it do too much, you're gonna start stressing out on other things. So just help yourself. Your body wants to do that for you.

How about one more? I went a little high on that one. I must be getting tired. (exhaling) Go down again. Straighten out those legs. And we're coming up, but with the leg straight.

If you need to bend them, please do. We come up, we come up, we come, and sit, same band, shake out your hands if you need to. And we're just gonna roll down, it's a little bit more warming up of the spine before we get into the abs series. So I'm gripping just a little closer and again, it's just basically outside of my legs with room to let go if I've measured wrong. Okay. We're doing pelvic curl.

So take your arms up over your head. I'm sorry. Over your shoulders. Inhale, feet are apart. Exhale. Roll your pelvis and spine up, as you do, you get to press that band into the thighs. Maybe getting your whole arm, including the wrist, keeping the shoulders down on the mat.

Then we roll down and somewhere in the middle there, you just let that band come up. And now yes, you can go reach overhead. Maybe not quite to the floor. Inhale. Keep the band taught, exhale, Peel up, arms come forward toward the legs as you do. They touch them eventually, you press down.

You know, you're not thrusting your ribs. You're doing your best to get those arms down and keep your hips off. Still , exhale. Down, arms reach back. Let's do a few more of those, inhale, exhale, peel the pelvis and spine up bone by bone.

Start to bring those arms forward when it feels right collarbones wide, hands to the ground, but really the whole arm. That's the challenge there and exhale to come down and inhaled somewhere in there, exhaling there, peel up, pressing down. I like to kind of cement it with another inhale, even as I reached my arms forward, not just down, exhale, coming down, arms, go up. And you're, your your own boss. You're your own teacher. You need to, let's do one more.

I know I said that, but let's do one more. Exhale, come up. Here, if it's too wide, too loose, too tight, you get to, you get to make adjustments. Okay, so there we are. Ah, can you pull the heels towards your glutes?

And I don't mean move them. I just mean activate the energy on the backside of your body. I'm struggling to keep my hands on the floor. That's for sure. But I'm still trying without popping my ribs, inhale.

(exhaling) Exhale down. Slide that band up over. And stretch. Okay, from here, we're gonna just take the band to the tops of the knees for the moment, grab a little closer or actually just grab your knees. It doesn't have to be fancy. We're gonna rock, we're gonna rock and right now is a good time to go, okay, I don't have to move my legs or hips. I can just keep the shape I start with that feels comfortable.

And hips up, hips down. Hips up. Hips down. One more we'll stay up, and there you go. Okay? So now the band is gonna be more tactile sensation.

We're doing a few more rolling balls, taking the band, opening it up as best you can, try to get it around the rib cage, probably to the lower end, but, if it's too low, it's really hard to hold. And then what I'm doing is I'm crossing it. So you're just crossing it, getting the extra bits out of the way and you can hold your knees or actually let's just cross it around the knee or the shins, something new and exciting, not really everyone does it, I just forgot. Get it where you can hold the band and your shins, or you don't even have told the shins, but I'm going to. All right, then sit back, and by sitting back, I mean, draw the abdominals.

Get behind the sitz bones. The toes will drag toward you. You can put resistance using the band to put the ribs in it, put the ribs in the band. And now off we go, we inhale back, exhale up, let's go. (inhaling) (exhaling) Try to keep your shape. Pull tighter if you want to, if you can.

Feel the ribs, initiate that movement, inhale back, exhale up. Knees can be apart or together. Back up. Or you can get rid of the band altogether, but that's what we're doing. (exhaling) Keep your shape.

(exhaling) One more time. And we're up. Release the band, take it to your right foot. I have it open to, you know, sometimes it rolls up on you, try to avoid that. It's just not nice.

And I'm just cradling right underneath the bottom, the ball of the foot, stretch the left leg out. I need a shorter band, note to self, except for then I don't, then I want it long. Alright, we're gonna roll down, take that right leg up. Elbows down, collarbones wide, stretch yourself out. So that, that leg is up, if this is too tight for you, just bend your lower leg rather than the top leg for this exercise, rather than the lower leg, feel how the lower leg presses to the ground, we're gonna cross over, let the leg just fall into the band, bring around, bring it back up, inhale over exhale, down around, stop right where you started.

Try not to turn out the leg too much, a little bit's okay. (exhaling) Two more. (exhaling) (exhaling) Gosh, I honestly don't know if that was two, other direction, take it outside, around and up, boom. Push it out, down and around and up. Watch your fingers in the band.

Don't hurt yourself there. Let it help you. (exhaling) Do one more here. (exhaling) Hang onto it. And then just bring the other foot up.

Lighten up on your hands while you have a shot. Grab closer while you have a shot, if you need it, Leg goes down, stretch it out or keep it bent, hips level. Try to keep the head still, but cross the midline of the body. Come around enough, I'm not really focused on the feet at the moment, but you could flex them or not. (exhaling) Inhale over, exhale down around and find the fluidity.

(exhaling) Elbows are still down. (exhaling) Other direction, take it outside and down around, outside, down around. Three. (exhaling) (exhaling) One more. (exhaling) And roll out.

Both feet in. Make sure they're secure, grab a little higher, I would encourage, just lower your feet down, but my knees are bent. Your knees are bent. Touch the heels. Look towards them.

If now you need to slide them out through your feet, away from you, that's cool. And roll up, up, up. Voila. Let the band go. Sit tall, roll back, start stretching your legs out. And there's gonna be a point where your legs can lift.

I'm gonna bring you right back up, because that wasn't enough timing to tell you that. So that's what we're doing. Feet are together. You can put 'em down if it suits you, you pull those hipbones back. You know, we're about to stretch your legs. start sliding those legs out and you're gonna get the sense of like, let the legs just float up and you are somewhat rested on your back, inhale two, three, four, five, exhale, pump the arms, inhale two, three, four, five.

Three. This is your real chance to warm up. (exhaling) (inhaling) (exhaling) That is about five. So you're gonna pull an easy and hold on behind. Rock yourself up. Grab your band again.

Wrap your hands. Kind of a little like right outside your hips or your legs, just outside. Pull apart a little that kind of helps you get in the middle. Roll down, same thing with your legs. They float up.

And now instead of pumping up and down, you're gonna pull apart two, three, four, five, and exhale two, three, four, five, and in. (inhaling) (exhaling) (inhaling) (exhaling) Two more rounds. Go for it. You don't have to pull hard. Just find your center. And last one. And out, two, three, four, five, reach the legs down the arms, back overhead.

And with that a little bit of a pull, we're gonna try to roll ourselves up, hands come up over head, look at that band, exhale and roll yourself up, reaching forward. In this tall C shape today. So if you've got a really tight band, you might have to hold wider. If you don't have a tight band, you might have to hold closer. But the idea is when you pull a little bit laterally to the side, the middle kind of has to hold on a little tighter.

See if that means anything to you as we go into this exercise. So, everybody reach way forward. Put your head between your arms as much as you can, point or flex, I'm not gonna worry about that right now. Inner thighs together, squeeze the glutes, lift yourself up a little more, staying curved so that you have some space. Start exhaling to roll down.

Reach your arms back, this is a roll up. Inhale, arms up over chest. Start exhaling before you lift, pull a little on that band, wrap tighter if you need to and you end up where the shoulders are over your hips today. That's how we're gonna go. Shoulders over hips, exhale, roll back, reach back, arms up, look forward.

What are your feet doing? You can see 'em now. Keep them lined up as best you can and roll back. Reach back. Arms up. (exhaling) So for the more advanced folks, you're gonna keep your head between your arms the whole time.

I told you how early it was for me though. Some I'm not. So like right here, you would be coming with your upper arms to do that. (exhaling) For the rest of us, we have lots of options. Roll back. And again, up.

I'd like to do one more, initiate from that spine. And I think the rescue mission just showed up. Cool. (exhaling) Oh come on. I need tighter TheraBands. Alright, here we are.

Separate your feet. Lighten up your hands for a second if you need it. In fact, get rid of the band altogether, just get rid of the band. And we're gonna roll down, press your heels into the ground, and I'm saying this because we're about to go into more abs and I want you to feel the back of your body, press down. Down, down, down.

I mean, I know you can't press hard. Head touches, come back up, up, up, up, up, up. Slide feet together. Scoot forward if you need to, pick your knees up, Slowly roll down to your shoulder blades to your shoulder blades, you need to go, end up in tabletop and we're doing double leg stretch here. We just reached the arms back, the legs forward.

Really reach, exhale, come back and by reach, it means the center is so cemented to the ground that it's easy to just reach the arms and legs, let's go, inhale, reach, exhale, circle round, inhale, reach. If you can keep the hips down, if you don't wanna keep it down, bring 'em in, but put 'em back down. All the way. (inhaling) (exhaling) The idea is can we, how much resistance can we put against the middle of our body? Just two more, (exhaling) one more.

Stay up. Hold on. Push your knees into your Schanzer or your hands I mean, and if hold onto the right leg, you can pull as close as you want. But now you don't see your foot. I don't wanna cross that midline. Keep it straight ahead. Your body doesn't drop as you switch legs.

Check yourself out again. And here we go. Switch. It's pull, pull, do traditional arms if you want to. (inhaling) (exhaling) Keep the body still, for just the kind of testing ourselves here. And pull, pull.

If it's really, if you fall, when you pull in, hold your leg at 90 and grow onto it for a little help if you want to cheat, it's helpful. Both knees in head goes down, take your gaze to one side. The other side, come back up, extend your right leg up, stretch it if you need to, other leg goes out on the diagonal, can you hold any higher on the upper leg? I like to pull my leg down into the hip socket. It's just the thing. It's an image.

Probably mostly, see if that means anything to you so that when I lift up, it almost feels like my back is spreading out and it's going to be a pulse, pulse switch. Give yourself a second to feel that, pull down into the hip socket while you stay up, pull, pull. now we'll go a little quicker. It's pull, pull, pull, pull, reaching opposite leg too, it matters, everything matters. Your whole body matters.

Breathing however you want, but usually you just do a little quick exhale. (exhaling) Can you be getting longer just in your mind and I mean legs mostly? Last one here. Both legs up, hands behind your head, let your head go down. Bend your knees, float your head up.

Do it not by picking your head up, but by lifting your upper body up just a little for now, extend your legs, now we can curl into it. Reach the legs away, that's your inhale, exhale, scoop, and bring it back. Inhale body again, stay still, and up, push the legs down, scoop to bring it back up. Ooh, check your neck. It's almost like you're pushing your head backwards.

How about one more down? One more up. Bend your right knee or a knee and rotate towards it, one switch. You know what you're doing now? Don't let that foot cross.

I'm going a little quicker too. (exhaling) Make a fast union. Aiming, maybe the shoulder in this version to the opposite hip bone, rather than looking back, stay up there, stay up there. Reach into it, reach into it one more each way. One, one.

Okay, two, two, it just felt weird to stop there and back to center, put your feet down. Let your hands go overhead. My feet being down your, our feet being down, I'd put 'em a little bit apart. So it's like a pelvic curl position. Guess what? That's what we're doing.

Oh, stretch the arms stretch the abs, whatever you need. Put your arms back on your back. We are appealing up exhale. And why not bring your arms back to our mat? The other direction. Float the arms back down.

Open the collarbones, right leg is up, theoretically, the hips are level, kick down, one, flex up two, up, three, up, four of six, up, five last one up, stay up, the foot is flexed. Now check out, what does your foot do? My goodness. I haven't been in heels in a long time and still it's rotated out. We're just lowering the body down.

We lift back up, push, no articulation on this, down and up down, down an up, down and up. Down, that's it, up. Fold the leg. Try to put it back where it started. Roll about halfway down, check things out on yourself.

Roll right back up so your hips are nice and level again, other leg comes up and kick down one. I flex to go up, but I'm not so worried about feet. Three. (inhaling) (exhaling) Stay up on this one. Now I do flex. And I'm saying that on the hard leg, but okay.

Touchdown, push up, keep everything where it was except for the down and up part. (exhaling) It's like someone's pulling that whole leg up. That helps. One more, up you are, just put the foot back in place. And start, two roll down. Hugging your knees to your chest. Once you get there.

(sighing) Roll side to side. Right, let's just rock ourselves up. You can hold on behind. However you wanna do it or in front or just get up. Here we go. I love the spine stretch.

I couldn't do the spine stretch for ever. So. I'm not so sure it's gonna go well this morning, but the spine stretch for me, the version I really liked comes from Rael Isacowitz. And so, feet are apart, sitting right up on your sit bones and maybe even a little wider than a normal mat. It's okay.

But try for it right around the edges. I've taken the band again, wrapped where you're gonna end up is on a V position with your arms overhead. So you'll figure it out. And I mean that in the nicest way, (chuckling) here we go. We're right straight ahead and grab your band a little tighter if you need it.

'Cause when you pull aside to the side, you can find the rest of your body up, inhale, feet are flexed, exhale, keep that band straight ahead. Round forward, like you're just curling in on yourself. Yes, your arms and body are moving forward, but you're thinking I'm gonna put the crown on my head, on the floor in front of my knees. Meaning close to the inner thigh, exhale and just come back up. (exhaling) You can rest your arms at any point, but come back.

Exhale, round. I almost wish I had a band on my feet so I could sense pressing outward and inhale back up. I'm doing a one breath cycle for two more. (inhaling). Exhale.

(exhaling) Get all the air out. This is like really squeeze the air out, go, go, go, go and then you have to come back up on an inhale. (inhaling) Last one. (exhaling) And back up. Shall we add on?

If this gets too tiring, you can come into a diamond position. You can sit up on a mat. So it's not so hard on the hip flexors. 'Cause we're gonna be here for a tiny bit longer. Here we go. Inhale.

We're going forward. Same thing, exhale. But once we're there, we get to use the back of the legs to lengthen our spine on the diagonal, keeping our upper arms near our ears, doing the best we can. Some of you will be way low and some of you will be higher. And I'm somewhere in the middle of that myself. Then exhale, reround, and roll back up to the start position.

So a lot of words I'll do my best to just keep it to that. Inhale, exhale, rounding forward. Just send everything forward. Stretch your spine, stretch your spine, from here, you lengthen on the diagonal. Tailbone starts at low back, middle back, upper back.

Find your reach where your arms are by you. Exhale. Everything goes forward and you roll back up. Inhale. (exhaling) I do use the back of my legs here. I find it's good to use my body where I need it.

Lift, lift, lift, lift on that diagonal, on that diagonal. Can you be any longer? Not just forward but longer, exhale, reround and roll back up. You can take a break with your arms at any point, or you can wrap tighter on band, inhale. I'm not pulling hard on the band just so you know.

(exhaling) I'm just getting more suppleness in my body. Inhale, lengthen, lengthen, lengthen. Use the back of your legs, pressing downward, exhale reround and come back up. Are we still friends? Again, inhale, exhale, slower.

Find your diagonal, find it. Find it, find it, challenge you in the way that you wanted to in the beginning, once you get there, Oh my yeah, we're still here, oh. We're just gonna pull back. I'm not pulling on the band anymore than I was. I'm just trying to pull those shoulder blades, arms, everything back as I lengthen, more forward.

Let's do five more. One, two. Can you be longer, easier in your neck? Three, four and here's five. We round forward. Keep those feet flexed.

I just caught myself and roll up. I'm suspecting you feel your upper back. I hope, we have one more thing to do though. Go again. Go again. It's all right. Flex your feet.

Find that diagonal. Find that diagonal. Did you really find it? Now rotate towards me. Hi, just keeping the same tension on the band. Can you lean? And then center other side, rotate.

Oh boy. That's a different side, and center. Thank goodness. There's two of 'em, rotate. 'Cause now I can go. Oh, awesome. Other side. Lean into it. Come on.

Like someone's pulling your wrists, but not taking your shoulders off your back. Last one. I do promise you on this one, center, reach into it long, right there in the middle, rounds forward. Wrap that band around your feet and sit up. Scoot forward if you need to. We are gonna hopefully rocker with this.

And if your band's really tight, lucky you, if it's not, you can get rid of it which I might do. All right. Again, hanging on, I grew out pretty close on this one. Remember that original. So roll back to the hundred. We're gonna pick those feet up.

So you really have to be ready in your abs, 'cause the band isn't gonna really do it for you. And you can just put up your legs. Here we go. Roll back. Roll up. Try to keep your shape.

Roll back. I'm using what we've already been doing. Roll back and up. And back, and up, keep going and back, and up. Extend your spine back and up, can we do two more since my mat split?

Here we go, back. And up, last one. Back and up, go ahead and set your feet down. Take your hands out. And we head towards the saw.

Kind of feels good, right? Alright, here we go. For the saw, our feet are flexed, you can definitely go a little wider here on your legs. You can also sit up, but get yourself upright. Just like we started the class, arms overhead as best you can, rotate towards the screen.

Just 'cause I don't know how to say it well, and then we're gonna reach over. So, so my I'm gonna, let me, let me start you again because I'm gonna, I'm gonna cue the way to the right left thing. 'Cause it'll be easier I think. So for me, we, I am rotating to my right. I am leaning to my left leg, my left arm and my left leg.

There we go. Just come back up for now. So we get that full, if you're used to the saw, of course it's different, rotate left, reach with the, it's not reaching with the right arm. It's just hinging over, trying to keep your hips down, lift up and center. Let's do it again. Rotate, hinge over, lift up and center. Rotate. I'm rotating left.

I am leaning into my right leg with my right arm. They are the ones connecting, come back up in rotation and center and rotate. And reach, sit back up, center, okay. Rotate, hinge, reach. Sit back up.

Finally, we're adding on here. We're gonna rotate, hinge over just as before, that top arm now, if your hips are stable, it's gonna reach with, careful, the band skimming right in front of you. And you are looking like that is the place you wanna go over there so that when you lift the opposite arm, the low arm, back up and sit up, you're still in rotation to center. Too many words. I know it's that kind of day, rotate, hinge over.

If you can, I would, brace yourself with that lower hand, top hand reaches back, extending your spine in out position. Lower hand lifts up as you sit up in rotation and center. Let's do it again, rotate, reach, top arm reaches back here. It's like you're, really send your spine forward, lower hand lifts up as you sit up and center, rotate, hinge, reach back. Sorry, Nicole, (chuckling) hit the mic, reach up, or Stephanie, and center.

Right? Okay. No big deal. Let's get rid of the band for just a second. Just a second. Yep. Actually that was the second wrap it, wrap it, we got to end this at some point.

So let's wrap it around the legs. And I'm gonna caution you not to wrap it so tight you can't undo it. 'Cause I have one last thing for the back that I wanna do after this. So I'm just taking my super long band. I'm probably gonna wrap it twice and lightly tight it, tighten it, ooh, maybe not.

You wanna be able to separate your legs. That's really how you're gonna know. So kinda like, voila. Yeah? If it's right on the ankles, you might use your feet too much.

So ever so slightly above your ankles is what I would recommend. We are coming down, Lying down on whichever side and from here. So you can see your feet. Your body's long. You're slightly lifted in the waist. Lift both legs up. So I'm keeping the very little tension on the band.

It's more for spacing at this point. And lift, and lower, and lift, and lower, and lift. On the next one, stay up, encourage the lower leg down. Maybe it even touches down, and now it's just that top leg, knee cap, straight ahead, lift two, three, four, five and six, connected to your whole body. Nine ish and 10 from there. Keep the band where it is, you're just gonna roll over onto your belly.

Maybe forehead on your hands. Yeah. Forehead on your hands is probably the best idea right now. If you can look back, try to keep your knees and feet parallel. It's not that easy, you know, but just know that I want that for you.

And then you keep it going, hip bones are down, you're gonna hover the knees, and by hover, I mean like it's, the tiniest bit counts. As long as you feel your hamstrings, the entire outer seam of the leg, press the side, side. So it is not, I don't know if I can show you this. If you're curious about what I mean, I'm not trying to press the knees out without the feet, trying to keep myself parallel and push everything. It's not a big move, but that's what I'm trying to do.

How about five or six more? Press, press with those knees hovered even slightly. Right, okay. You can stretch your legs out, lower the feet, lift yourself up, round back. Child's pose-ish. It makes me think of Mariska's class yesterday, which was just awesome.

Switch sides. You can just flip over if you want. I'm gonna switch so I can still see you so to speak. Again, if it's too close to the ankles, it makes me grip my feet. So I'm trying to get it just higher than that. You're lying down, you have the space between, so you have a tiny bit of lift, tension, I mean, and just the top leg.

I'm sorry, both legs, up. And down, and lift, and lower. You know how close we are? We're close. Hang on.

I'm giving us a couple more. All right, we're holding up. Then we encourage that lower leg down or actually press it down. So I'm just trying to keep some resistance there. Knee cap is forward and the 10, nine, eight, I'm talking about the top leg, six, five, four, three, two, and one.

Bring it down. I didn't forget anything, did I? I might've. But what we need to do now, is undo the band, please. I know it got tighter, right? When you use the resistance, but if you can get it undone, do, if not, don't worry about it.

'Cause the next thing, it doesn't have to have it, but it feels good in my opinion. Okay. So in a moment, because I'm gonna be face down, I'm gonna say it now, we're gonna wrap our hands, but they'll be behind our back. And ultimately we're gonna just bring those arms up and overhead and bring 'em back. So please don't hesitate to drop the band altogether and or to unwind it if you go a little tight.

So here's how I do it. Go face down. Whip that thing over your back somewhere. Find a way to just wrap your hands in, where they end up, upright. For me, it's probably, it's definitely wider than my hips. Maybe even wider than that when we give into it.

So from here, just lower your head down, forehead down, Slide the shoulders down your back, ever so slightly. Pull them together. As you lengthen, the feet are still down, you're just lengthening, almost just like a dart, like and reaching the arms toward your heels while you slightly pull apart, come back down. (inhaling) Draw the belly in, lengthen to the crown of your head. Reach the arms down, lifting your head, neck and shoulders just slightly, then pull on the band. If it's not enough, grab tighter.

You can always unwind it when we go to the next thing, you're down again, inhale, lengthening. And again, it's lengthening. It's not about height right here. Keep those feet on the ground. Pull the band apart. Go ahead. Palms are toward the ceiling.

I didn't say that. And down. Wouldn't be horrible if they were different either. Two more. Lifting up, pull, pull, pull.

And down. One more like that Draw those hands, don't go so high that you feel it only in your low back, right? It's okay to work the low back. And down, I'm gonna unwrap at least one a little bit. And as we go up, same thing, you go up.

And then we reached the arms, remember what we did in the beginning? Overhead to that high V and lower down. So you get to rest there for a second. Then the hard part goes lift it back up. Tops of the feet on the ground, belly and lift the head neck and shoulders.

If you stayed there, that's amazing work. If you want to pull on that band a little to reach back, and maybe slightly, get higher and look forward, not a bad idea either. It's okay if it's loose in the back, coming back down, pull it back over. And down. (inhaling) And again, I am using the tops of my feet and I don't feel like I'm cheating.

Like why not? Let me anchor somewhere. Lift the arms, start to pull the band behind you. Look forward, open that chest, open your chest, open your heart, bring it back. Let the band go.

Whenever you, you might need to just shimmy out a little bit there. When you're ready, put your hands by your side to help yourself up, shift back. Child's pose, rest position, as I learned it. And then come to seated. Let's just finish this out. Cross-legged however you want, up on a box, up on a blanket or stand even, actually it's all fine.

It's really fine. Just trying to feel that hopefully more space, hopefully a little, you got depth, but now you have more room elsewhere. That's what I'm hoping for, but you'll let me know, just rest and inhale in the length of yourself. (inhaling) And exhale. (exhaling) And remind ourselves that the exhale isn't to collapse.

It is a release. It's an important one, but we can be tall. We can inhale deeply and fully and we can also exhale and stay that way. (exhaling) Prove it to yourself. Last one, inhale. (inhaling) Shake out whatever you need to, take more time if you can. Exhale.

Thank you for being here. I really appreciate it. And hopefully you got something out of it and hope to see you next week. Thanks. Bye.