Beginner Series #1

Good afternoon, actually. Good evening. So what we're going to be doing is a series of 10 classes. It's an introduction to the Palazzos method to the math work. So every class will build a little bit on the last class. So hopefully by the end of the 10 classes you'll be really confident about the math work.

You'll know what your own basics are and you'll be able to hopefully do it without needing to watch a DVD. But there will be a lot of references as we go along to how to apply yourself and how to develop the material. So, uh, this material was developed by Joseph [inaudible], who was a German and he came out to the United States. He had a studio, New York City in 19 2014 1967 and he passed away in 1967 and he was really teaching exercise before people were, you know, there weren't gyms in 1935 and people weren't jogging or working out and he was already developing this very sophisticated body of knowledge that speaks for itself because now years after he passed away, it's worldwide and extremely popular. So it's really a genius, and I like to mention this because so many people go all that pilot's medic method that they've heard of somewhere. They haven't a clue that it actually was developed by a real man called Joseph [inaudible]. So it really is amazing what he developed. Now in the map work, the map work was developed as a type of exercise that eventually you can do on your own because he developed all the apparatus and the equipment because he found that sometimes people have trouble with the math where couldn't find certain muscle groups. We developed everything else to help. Let's take a person who had scoliosis and they were twisted.

He developed all sorts of ways for the person to discover how to bring themselves back into balance. But then ultimately you graduate back to the math work. So you start with the map, what you end with the map work and the idea is that once you understand these exercises and you know them and you know your own body, you have a way to keep yourself healthy and fit and flexible and strong and you don't need any equipment. Don't really need a teacher. You can take it anywhere in the world with you. You can be traveling and you can get out of bed in a hotel room, get on the floor and do it. That's really fantastic.

So at the beginner level, we start the work by understanding and working with what he used to call the powerhouse, the powerhouse or you know, in, in martial arts they call it like the g center. And you see this over and over again that this is the center of gravity of the body, the center of power. So really what is meant is a combination of lower abs and upper abs and long spine and narrow and long hips. So it's a combination of all these different parts kind of being the, so you learned to integrate that and then extend out into the limps from there. So you're really working from the middle out rather than, let's say in Yoga you work from the bottom up.

So it's a slightly different orientation. So just to get a better understanding of what we mean by the powerhouse. I'd like all of you to lie down on your backs like this. So you're lying down and as you lie in this position, I'd like you to bring your feet and your knees together and then lengthen your spine out on the mat. You definitely want to feel your lower spine on the mat and even your ribs, your waist area.

Now for some of you as we have with, um, I'm sorry, what was your name against Sandy. Sometimes people have the head falling back like this when they actually make sure that the spine area of the waist is down. So if you find that that's your problem, you need to put a pillow or a towel. So lift your head up, sandy and lowered back down. We still need to elevate your a little bit more. What you don't want is the head like this. You want the back of the neck nice and long.

So this is different for each person. So see if you can press your ribs in your wet. Yes. And even more right here in the ribs, down, down, down, down, down, down into the mat. So what you're doing is you're taking your spine and making it nice and long. So Sandy, lift your head up one more time. There we go.

So you're looking at the back of the neck being very long. The stomach being pulled in and up. So two dropping down towards the back, long neck and the ribs. If you can get the back of the ribs into the mat, her, her, her way down there and pulling the stomach muscles in. So sometimes I take that in itself. You're taking the back part of your body and you're making it nice and long, pulling the stomach muscles in. And now squeeze your buttocks and your knees together so you feel kind of narrow, like you'll have a little corset if you had for minute drop it.

How can the NYCLA much better? Now with the spine long like this, lift your right knee into your chest so you lift it up, pull the stomach muscles in and float the foot back down and just squeeze your hips together. So very simple movement. Lift your left knee up and put the foot back down and tighten the hips. Pull the stomach up and lift your right knee up and put the foot back down. And Rebecca, tighten the hips here. Nice tight hips and the left knee up and down. So keep going. So it's a simple movement, right knee goes up, but you're doing it without letting your bottom flop around without the hips moving, without your back arching left knee comes up and to just learning to hold the lower pelvis. Now next one. Nisa together. Fita together. Buttocks. A tight stomach is in back as long.

Lift your right knee just the way you did a minute ago. Keep you stomach in and lift your left knee up. Very good. Pull the stomach in here. Narrow the hips and take your right foot and put it down on the mat without letting your stomach pop out of your pelvis. Rock and the left knee goes down. Pull the stomach in and lift your left knee up. Lift your right knee up.

Good. Put the left foot down and the right foot down and the right knee comes up and the left knee comes up and the right foot goes down and the left foot goes down and the left knee comes up and the right knee comes up and the left foot goes down and the right foot goes down. Very good. Now take both hands and place them on your belly, one on top of the other. Pull your stomach until you can feel the stomach drop down towards the back. Check that your knees are still touching and the hips are tight to squeeze your buttocks together to have like a sense of a corset and check that you're back as long. Now keep your stomach muscles in and float your knees towards your chest.

Bring them up, squeeze them together, uptick 'em up. They come up, they come. Yes, yes. Now pull the stomach in. Check that your back's on the mat and float the feet back down to the mat and don't let your back arch and don't let your stomach push out because your hands are there to feel what's happening with your stomach. Now that's can be hard to do. So you try your best and if your stomach goes out, you pull it back in again.

So pull the stomach in and lift the knees up again. Squeezes knees together, Sandi Nepalis stomach in and float the feet down and also work your back muscles, suppress you back into the mat to resist the weight of the legs. Pull the stomach and if you lost it and lift your knees again, very good. Pull the stomach in and float the feet down. Keeping your back on the mat, keeping your ribs on the mat there, Megan. Even more, get those ribs down even more down and lift the knees up and pull the stomach in. If you lost it, tighten your bottom and float the feet down.

And one more time with the Nisa and float your feet down. Very, very good. So we were working in the realm of the lower abs. And this is tricky because you're working against the long spine and you're retraining your stomach muscles. So if you find your stomach's pushing in and out, that's fine. You will, you're retraining the area. So every time you fix it and put it back again. So you work the underneath muscles of the stomach.

Now next area of the powerhouses, the upper apt from the ribs to the waist. So lift your arm straight up to the ceiling. So the right above your shoulders right now. Make sure your back still feels nice and long, and then lift your head and chest up and reach the arms long in front of you so you can track from the ribs to your waist. And Sandy hands are lower down, shoulder height. Very good.

And then float your shoulders and head back the arms. Come to the ceiling and then lift up again and feel the ribs closing down in, gliding under your skin towards your waist. Very good. And then float back down. Lifting the arms to the city to really working the ribcage to the waist area and lift up again and glide those ribs under your skin and stretch the arms nice and long and lower back down. Lifting the arms to the ceiling. Now as you lift up, let your gaze go long in front of you.

So lift up again. Reach, go. Come on Megan. That's at, that's at Sandy. I mean long arms. They, there you go. Right to here, right to here and float back down. And now rest your arms for a minute. Very good. Now we'll, we'll do this one again because sometimes what happens is when you come up in the streaming a bit in the net and you're working with this part, but then all, all you're working all of these muscles, not the muscles down here. So you want to feel as though you have an egg or an orange under your chin. So when you come up this hinges, but the head kind of floats above it.

So you want to be careful not to do that and Yang with your neck. So let's just do two more. Less your arms to the ceiling. Pull the stomach muscles and even before you start and then as you float from the ribs, you come up to contract the ribs to the waist. Much better Megan. But make sure you look forward. I'm sorry, sadly or not too good with names all the time. Float back down. And one more time. So the head follows the shape of the ribs. One more time.

That's very nice. Up You come up, you come, you want to look that way. Very good. And lower back down. Very, very nice. So, so we worked upper ABS, lower ABS. Now we're going to put them together. So lift your arms to the ceiling and lift your knees to your chest as you lift your chest up. So the knees come in and the head and chest lift in the arms are law and then float back down and see if you can call the so you don't just flop back and then lift up again and feel the center of your body like a band. Lifting you up much better and lower back down and lift up again. And Sandy, look forward towards that exit sign. That's it. And now we're back down.

That's looking good. And one more. Lifting up like that. Reaching long with the arms and lower back down and then put the hands down by your sides. And Rosette was very good. So in essence, that was your power house, that you were starting to get in touch with your upper abs, your lower abs, you're working a long spine and you were narrowing your hips and in every exercise you want to kind of become conscious of that. Next exercise is called the hundreds. And let me demonstrate what you will be doing first, you'll start exactly the same way where you curl up. So you connect into this powerhouse.

Then lift the legs up to the ceiling, hold this position and start energetically pumping with the arms. And you'll be breathing in for five counts and breathing out for five counts. Now if any of you have really bad neck, delicate can get addition of the neck, the neck hurts. Don't lift your head up, you stay down so the head stays here and you're just going to work the legs because you could spend too much time here and strain the neck. But eventually when your powerhouse gets strong, you will be able to work it with the head and chest up. So let's have a go with this. The arms go to the ceiling.

Your shoulders are down, away from your ears. Lift your knees up and lift your head and chest up so you curl up the way you did. Arms along if the legs to the ceiling and start pumping with the arms. Breathing in four, five. Exhale. Very good. Two, two, three, four, five. Exhale, three, four, five, three, four, five. Exhale, three, four, five, four, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Bend your knees, head in, feet to the mat, and rest. Very good. We've got another 60 to go, but at the beginning you don't want to overstrain yourself. Now, just a little note. If your hamstrings are really, really tight, not everybody can lift the legs.

This may be a little bit too much if you can't get your legs up because they're way over here in the dragging on your back. Then you want to work with knees bend, so it's also fine at the beginning to work more closed in in the in the hundreds so you can even work at this way or you can work at this way. You can even work at this way. Just practicing, holding your stomach muscles in, but you three are up to lifting the legs up. So let's go with that variation. If the arms to the ceiling, bring your knees into your chest, lift your head and chest up, lift your legs to the ceiling and start pumping. Breathing in four, five. Exhale, three, four, five, two, two, three, four, five. Exhale. That's your spot. Three, four, five.

Exhale very for two, three, four, five. Exhale, three, four, five, five, four, five. X Sale, three, four, five. Last set, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Bend your knees in, stomach is in. Put your head and feet to the mat and rest very, very good. Now just take your arms over your head and give yourselves a bit of a stretch so you feel long. Lift the stomach up to stretch out and then lift the arms up.

Lift your head and chest and grab your size if you need to. Income up to a sitting position. So roll up and this is where I find out all about you because you will need to roll up and down many times throughout the [inaudible] practice. And there's different levels of people with flexibilities. So some of you may need to grab your size because you're not strong enough that fine. It's fine to come up this way where you grab with one foot. If you're super duper stiff, it's fine to roll to one side and push yourself up.

That's all fine. What I don't want is this, oh I got up because you're training your body and your throwing yourself from one side to the other side to the other side. Everybody learns to roll up in [inaudible]. That's a given, but you want to work symmetrically. So it's very, very important at the beginning to work at your own level correctly and not try to jump to a level above of what you're ready for. So if you cannot get up from the floor, much better to roll to one side, but not yank yourself up or throw yourself up or power yourself up. Now this next exercise is called roll back and grow up and we're going to work on that ability so you will be able to roll nicely and smoothly.

So starting out with your feet bent. Hold on to your knees and lift your chest up nice and high. Now as you lift up, pull the stomach muscles in and up. Now lean back just a little tiny bet and tuck the tail under you. That's it. So you kind of rock under in your lower spine. Now start rolling a little bit further back to your bones and every section of the spots you roll and pull the stomach in.

So your bottom is rolling under and you're pulling the stomach in and then roll forward again and bring your head to your knees. You make a little small little round shape and then roll back again, talking about him under you, pulling your stomach and say you have this little gentle rocking of the spine and then roll up again, bringing your head towards your knees. Very good. And one time rolling back, rolling back, rolling back and rolling up, bringing your head towards you. Nice. Very nice. Now look up straight and the same thing without hands.

So you start talking your bottom and you see rock your tail under new and your sit bones. And you pull your stomach away in and you roll back halfway and then roll up and stretch a little forward and roll back again. Pulling the tail under. You're pulling the stomach way up and closing those ribs and come back up and now roll all the way to the floor. So you roll down, roll down, roll down, roll down all the way to the mat, lift your arms to the ceiling and then lift your head and chest and see if you can roll up. And if you can't roll up without help, you grab your size and you bring yourselves up very good. And just restroom. And so that was very nice.

Now what are we trying to do with this exercise? We, our spinal column runs all the way from the tailbone to the, to the, just underneath the skull. And there's 26 bones in the spine and every bone in your back should be able to roll in relation to the bones above or below it. So your spine should work like gears. And what you're doing with this exercise is you returning, you're developing the flexibility for that to happen. So there's two things you're doing.

You're lengthening the back muscles and getting the spine to row and you're retraining the stomach muscles to support the spine from the, from the front. So you're working the front of the body and lengthening the back of the body. So as you roll to the floor, you want to feel yourself dropping one bone at a time down onto the mat and then coming up. You do the same thing. Now very, very common that people have like a whole section of the back that stip like yes, like a section that's like glued together and you sometimes when you roll back you feel yourself clunking down in that area. So that's very common. But that's the beauty of this method because if you keep working, attempting to do it the right way, you will soften up all the muscles and ligaments around the areas so that you will return the natural flexibility that your birthright. So we're going to do a few more and go for it.

So hold behind your knees first time rolling back with, drop your head, start rolling back, rolling back, rolling back. And then extend the arms out and keep rolling to the mat. One bone at a time. There you go. Keep going. Going, going, going, try to keep the ring until you stay down and then lift the arms to the ceiling. Lift your head and chest and roll up. That's it. Roll through that section. Very nice. So you really want to get, especially the area from the tail to the ribs to start to move and roll back again. Drop your head and drop your tail under.

Get that sacred to go under. You try to get the waist to go down before the ribs touch. That's it. That's it. That's it. Very good lift. The arms are sitting. That's very good Megan. And then lift your head and chest and close the ribs and start to roll up. Roll Up. That's it. That very good.

And roll down again. Dropping the head, broadening the shoulders, Tuck your tail under. That's it. Preset, waist down, roll, roll, roll, roll. Lift the arms up and lift your head and chest and peel. That's very nice of the mat to come all the way up. Very, very good. And then relax for a minute. Now, little note, sometimes if you're working at home and you're stiff, you may find that as you, you roll. Most of the time it'll work, but maybe you will have that place where your feet fly off the mat. This is very common with beginners in a real Palati studio.

You have a lovely bed similar to this and maybe there's a strap, so beginners often will have their feet in a strap to keep them down. If you're at home and you were one of those people with the feet flying up, you can put your feet under cupboard or chest of drawers or something to help you until your spine becomes flexible enough that you don't need to have your feet down to be able to do with this. This is normal and natural for beginners. Next one is called single leg circles, so let's all of you roll down just the way we've done it until you're lying flat on your bank with your hands by your side. All that was very nice there. Sandy, bring your feet up a little bit closer to your bottom so it's easier for you to get along back and see if you can get the ribs on the mat as well so you can feel the mat. So you're taking the spinal column, lengthening it, check that the head is long and the arms are long and the knees are together. Now take your right knee in towards your chest and then lift the leg straight up to the ceiling. So the heel is underneath your bottom if you can, and very slightly roll the knee outwards and squeeze your bottom together.

Yes, you have a nice little clam of the powerhouse. Now keeping the hips steady, take this foot and take it across your body to your left so the foot comes across and take it down, around and up and stop with the heel opposite your notes and then cross again. Circle the leg and up and circle the leg. So you keep your pelvis and bottom nice and steady. Circle the leg and you just do this gentle movement in the hip. One more time, circle the leg and up and pause. Is your heel opposite.

You knows as your hips from your stomach in your back down. Now you'll reverse it. Your draw a small circle across your body and up and down, across your body and up. So you're really working across the plane of your own body, across your body and up. And one more time across your body and up. Very good.

Now if you can reach up with your hands and hold your hamstring and just give the leg a little bit of a stretch, but keep your head and shoulders down. So you want your upper body very elegant. Just stretch the hamstring out. Take your right here, push it into the mat, then put your hands down by your sides and slowly lower the leg to the floor. Make sure the leg feels long, the stomach is in the back. As long everything comes all the way down. So you're nice and long. Very good.

Bend the foot up on the mat, knees and feet de together. Stomach is in back. His long bottom is tight. Lift your left leg to the ceiling. So same thing with the other leg. The leg goes right up to the ceiling. See if you can get it straight. Turn it out very slightly and bring your little bottoms together.

Now take the leg across to the right. Draw a circle down, around and up so it stops opposite your nose. Circle the leg and circle the leg and up. Circle the leg and app. One more time. Circle the leg and up. Now we're it. Circle the leg and up. Very good. Circle the leg up, hip, steady. Circle the leg up.

Circle the leg and up. And one more time. Circle the leg in up. Now pull your stomach in. Check that the back is long and slowly lower the leg, long leg, long stomach, long back, all the way down to the floor. And then bend the foot up next to the first foot. Stretch your arms over your head. Nice stretch. Just take a moment to let it all go and just reach with the fingers. Pull the stomach and even if your back is arching and then bring the arms to the ceiling and roll up to sitting. Position the way you already know how to do.

Nice roll. You can grab your size if you need to help you come up. That's very good there Megan. Very nice. Okay, now make sure you're close to the front of your mats. For the next exercise, which is called rolling like a ball. To take your hands behind your knees, lean back the way we just did, and then tuck the tail very slightly under you and check that the ribs are close. So you're taking this back part of the spine. You're making a slight round shape.

Now see if you can lift your feet off the floor and balance here. You want the knees, shoulder with the part shoulder with the part, and gently pull your heels in towards your bottom. So you squeeze your fingers slightly and have your head forward looking down into your own toys, your own navel. Now keep this shape and roll back to your shoulders and roll up again. So back you go roll back and roll up and balance and roll back and roll up in balance and roll back and roll up and balance.

And one more time. Roll back. Roll up in balance. Very good. And put your feet down. Okay, so what's happening in this exercise? This exercise is called rolling like a ball. So we're looking to make a ball like shape with the spine, which means we're opening up the whole back and at the same time we're supporting it from the front. But I'm sure a lot of you feel like you're not a ball but a box because you're having this clunky area where the back, you're kind of falling down.

And that's because the back is still pretty stiff. So the purpose of this exercise is that you massage all the muscles that run up and down the spinal column in order to soften them. And again, encourage that natural movement of the Vertebra is to be restored. So it takes a little bit of time. But let's work on the shape because I know that this is part of what you have to deal with as a beginner. It takes a bit of work. So bring your, keeping your feet on the floor, take them out a little bit, move them Rebecca A. Little bit away from you, lean back again, and then Tuck the tail. And then round this. So you are looking to get now, especially Megan. Sandy, I'm sorry Sandy. Really want you to Tuck. Yes. That's up to you for you.

You're going to need to work the pelvis way under for a while till it gets looser in there right now. Keep that in. Lift the feet up and just tuck the tail under you and hold it so you really open up. That's it. Now put the feet down and come forward. And again, rock back, tuck and then lift, Tuck, Tuck, Tuck, Tuck, tuck and then come a little closer with your knees and your chest. But work the bottom under. So more important to get your bottom under than it is to get close.

And then put the feet down. So this is starting to look better. One more time. Tuck the tail way under some. Megan, don't lift your feet above the floor yet. Don't lift your feet off the floor, but get the tail under. Yes, that's it. Now lift and just see if you can keep this center of your bottom going way under you as you go up. So the bottom comes under and then you keep it as you come up, tail, tail, tail under you and back and come up, tail under you. That's getting a little better there. Back and up.

Tail under. That's, that's right. Good there sandy. Megan and, and why had the two of you flipped? I know you're Rebecca and back and up and then put your feet down. Okay, that was very good. This can take a little time. It's not always easy to start with, but it's fun and it just, the more you do it, the more the spine loosens up. See, so it's, it's just normal and natural to deal with this next exercises called single leg stretches. So bend your feet, hold behind your knees and roll back and take advantage of the role to really work the spine to get your bottom way under. You pull the stomach up and see you can get that pelvis on the bottom of the stomach and all the way down as you go to the mat and just lie down here for a minute. So that's it. That's good there. Yeah.

So check that your back is long, your stomach is in. Bring the feet a little closer to your bottom and then using your power has been both knees to your chest to squeeze oles and bring them up. Bring them up, bring them into your chest. Nice. Nice. I said even the setup is a workout. Now pull your stomach muscles in and curl your head and chest up and reach towards your ankles or your shins and take the legs and pull them towards you so you hold your shins and pull them in right now. Take the left hand to your right knee and pull the right knee towards you and stretch your left leg out and at least 45 degrees up at the beginning. You want the like higher, so you, it's easier to get your stomach in.

Now really squeeze the knee in. Pull the shoulders down. Very good. Now switch your legs and squeeze the other knee in and stretch this leg up high so the stomach is in. Can you lift up more? Use your hands to pull up. That's a girl. Switch and squeeze. Switch and squeeze. Switch and squeeze.

Switch and squeeze. Pull both knees in, put your head down and your feet down and rest. Very, very nice. Now, do you remember at the beginning when we were looking at working in the powerhouse and we were working on the lower abs and the upper abs? These upper abs are very important in this exercise to keep yourself up. So have a quick look. You don't want to be going up, up. You know I don't want to see this movement where you're kind of collapsing down in, up.

You want to start and really make sure you get ideally the shoulder blades off the mat. Ideally, if you're not strong enough, that's what you're working towards. And then really stay up here. So you're holding here. This is what, so you're working this part, not kind of collapsing back because then your neck is going to start getting pretty strained. So we'll do this one more time. Lying on your backs. Stomach is in back. As long. Bring both knees into your chest, curl your head and chest up and hold your shins or your knees and squeeze the knees in Nice and tight. Now when you pulling the knees in, yes. That's very good over there sandy. Shoulders away from your ears. Good girl.

Yes. Now take hold of the right knee with both hands and pull it way in. Way We wait. Squeeze it in. Left leg is out. Good. Switch your legs and squeeze it and make sure the chest stays high. Switch and squeeze. Ligon switch and squeeze again.

Switch and squeezed again. Very good. Switch and squeezed again. Bring both knees in. Pull the stomach in tight and lower your head and chest down. Lower your feet down and rest. That was very good. So this is what's called single leg stretches because you're stretching the bent like you're stretching your hip, you're stretching your lower back.

By increasing that joint, making sure it starts to regain normal range of movement. Now double leg stretches. Instead of going one leg at a time, we go into do both legs at the same time. It's going to look like this. You'll bring both knees and just have a quick look. You curl up like this little ball. The stomach is in the back. As long. You stretch your legs out, you bring the legs in, stretch them out, bring them in. Now I don't want to see this.

Don't want that. I did it. Stay Nice enough. So stomach is in back as long. Bring both knees to your chest, curl your head and chest up and put your feet back down on the map. So Megan, I caught you. It's really common with blasts your head, Rebecca, to lift one knee and one knee at the same time. So when you're doing that, I know your powerhouses that relax your head. I know your powerhouse is weak, so you using side side using these muscles, but we rebuilding the powerhouse. So I'd much rather have you squeezed and with your willpower, literally bring both knees up at the same time. You just do your best.

You'll be so much stronger to three lessons. You'll float up like a dream. So hands, biocides, stomach muscles in squeeze knees together, tight hips, tight stomach, tight back and both knees at the same time. That was beautiful. Very good. Crawl your head and chest up and hold your shins or your ankles. Pull the knees in. Nice, tight, tight, tight little ball.

Now keep your belly in and stretch the legs out and stretch the arms. Long legs, long arms and bend the knees and come back in. Rebecca, you're too good. The legs go up and stretch because it's easier to keep the back down. Excellent. And squeeze and stretch and bend and stretch and bend and stretch and bend. And one more time and stretch and bend. Very good. Put your head down. Put your feet down.

Take a deep breath in, breathe out. And just to relax your neck, roll your head to the right and come back and roll your head to the left and come back. And one more time. Roll your head to the right and back and roll your head to the left and back. Very, very good. Now the next one is called single leg strap.

Single straight leg stretches is the old traditional name. Now we use really call it scissors very quickly. This is what it'll look like. You'll start the same way. You'll curled up like a little ball. Stretch both legs to the ceiling. Check that you're holding your body weight from your powerhouse.

You take your right, like you'll pull it towards you and then your left leg and pull it towards you. If you're more flexible, you hold a little higher up. What's more important is the knees straight. If you can work with straight legs, it's fine to work with the knees a little bit bent. What you're doing is just stretching out the hamstring, stretching out the legs, building strength in your powerhouse. So knees and feet together. Arms long backs, long bottom, typing both knees into your chest.

Curl your head in, chest up. So you use a powerhouse to lift. Lift both like straight up to the ceiling. Now Nice Long, straight legs. Excellent. Take your right leg with both hands and the left leg floats away. Pull the leg right. They told you twice. Paul, Paul, switch your legs. Paul Paul, switch your legs. Pull, pull. Very good. Pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull. Bring both legs back up to the ceiling.

Bend your knees in deep and into the powerhouse. Put your head and shoulders down. Put your feet down and rest. Very nice. Take both hands over your head, give yourselves a good stretch, and then bring the arms up to the ceiling. Lift your head and chest up and roll up to a sitting position. You can grab your thighs to help you come back up, roll up, roll up, roll up and sit. Very, very nice.

Now stretch your legs out and open the legs a little bit wider than your own map for the next exercise. That's called spine stretch forward. So when you're sitting like this, see how tall you can be with your back. Now all three of you are pretty nice and loose, but sometimes people have pretty tight lower backs or this is where they just, they're kind of here. It's really hard. It's impossible to sit up straight if you're one of those people, you want to take a pile of books and get your bottom higher, then your feet, and it'll be easier because your hamstrings are tight. If you cannot sit on top of your hips, but you're pulling back, you need to raise your bottom up.

The other option is even bend the knees a little bit. So nice long lift of the spine. Take your arm straight out in front of you. Take a deep breath in and lift up. And now drop your head down and look down towards your navel and start rounding first and the shoulders and then in the ribs. And then stretch forward with the arms would pull back with the stomach.

So you're rounding out the spine and then roll back up again and sit up nice and tall. Lifting your chest, lifting your head up. But drop the shoulders down. Now relax your head, your arms for just a minute. So as you're doing this forward bend, you're not looking to go very far forward. You're looking to do the same thing. You're looking to open up your back body and stretch your spine by curving. So you're really taking the ribs a bit backwards as you round down and in on yourself. So you pulling way back with the stomach and then come back up.

So let's have another go. Lift the arms in front of you. Take a deep breath in and lift the back up and pull the stomach up. And now drop your head and start rounding your upper back. First your middle ribs right between your shoulder blades and then the lower ribs and pull the stomach way in and then roll back up again and sit up. Nice and tall and lifted and nice, tall, long spine.

Take a deep breath in and then breathing out. Start Rolling forward again. Try to keep the arms up and round. Upper back, middle back, lower back, keeping the belly pulling way back and then roll back up. Roll back up, roll back up. Shoulders go down your back. Nice lifted chest. Take a deep breath in and breathing out. Round and roll forward. One bone at a time, but the stomach pulls into. Support your back and then roll back up.

Roll back up, roll back up, shoulders down. Nice lifted chest. And one more time to wrap your head and round forward. That's very nice, Rebecca. Reaching out. As you reach out, you want your hands, shoulder high, two heads diving down between the arms and then roll back up on the base of the spine. Up you come one bone at a time. The shoulders are down. Lift up nice and tall, tiny waist long. Arms, buttocks, nice and tight. Lift up even taller.

Pull the stomach and get even taller. You can never be too tall or too slim and relax. Ben Devita hold behind your knees. You want your knees a little bit open, right gently rock a little bit back and just lift your heels up off the mat so you have this slight lift of the stomach. This is the prepare for an exercise called open leg rocker.

So just keeping your feet on the floor. Take your right like an extended and pull back with the stomachs who put away in and up with a lower abdominal and that. And then the other leg goes up and make sure the tail stays under you and back. And the first leg goes up and back. Very nice and the other leg goes back and up.

Now see if you can lift the feet off the floor and the right leg goes up and back and the other leg goes up. Very good and back. Now see if you can take both legs up, pull that stomach in. I'm back and pull that stomach in and back. One more time and pull that stomach in and back. Very, very good. Come back to a sitting position and stretch your legs back out.

And now pull the toes way up for saw. So lift the stomach up, lift the chest and take your arms right to the side. So the hands of shoulder height lifting way up, twist to the right, and take your left hand twisting to the right. Take your, I'm sorry, right hand way down and back. So your left hand is forward and your left hand is pointing towards your right foot. So the other right foot over there. Yes. Now reach down towards your little toe and pull back with your right arm and just reach towards that toe three times. Reach, reach, reach.

Sit up tall and lift your chest and open your arms. Twist to the other side. The hand goes down and back and reach. Flex your feet a whole lot. Reach, sit up tall and lift your chest twists to the first side. Hand goes down and back and reach and reach and reach and sit up tall. And if your chest, others I twist and reach and reach and reach and sit up tall and lifted.

First side again, twist and reach and reach and reach and sit up tall and lifted. Last one, twist and go. Reach and reach and reach and sit up tall. Take your arms to the side, lift your chest, stick your arms way out, way out. Flex your feet. Push those heels away from you. Push your knees down. Lift a little bit more hand. Should be shoulder height, higher hands. That's it.

Lifted chest, tiny waist, hand relax. Hard work. Just sitting there lifting up as hard work. Now next one is single leg stretch, single leg kicks, or I'll just show you what you're going to be doing because you're all behind your stomach and you won't be able to look. So you'll be on your, you roll down and so you'll be rolling down with your knees bent and then you roll over onto your stomach. You have your fingers, one finger on top of the other and your forehead Dow, and you want your knees together and your feet together. You'll take your Kale and lengthen it down and narrow the hip. So again, this whole area is narrow and the stomach is in keeping all of that intact.

You'll bend one knee towards your bottom and kick it twice. So you'll go kick, kick, and then the other foot will go kick, kick and down. Now holding the barracks long is hard and what your body's going to want to do with this. So your hips will want to go and lose and maybe even lift up so that what you want to resist so that you keep your powerhouse. So I'd rather see someone holding and going this far correctly than trying to get to the bottom. This happening. Let's have a go together. So bend the knees, roll down on your back, pulling the stomach muscles in and up to roll all the way down. And roll onto your stomachs. So in this position, one finger, the third finger, the fingers are gently crossing each other and your forehead is resting on the fingers. And check that your knees are together.

Your toes can be stretched out long. Very good. And pull the stomach in and tighten your buttocks so you get really cute bottom. That's it. Really Nice and long and keeping that nice firm, hip position. Nice type paddocks, really squeezed. Bend your right knee towards your bottom and kick twice. Kick, kick, very good.

And down. Left foot. Kick, kick and down. Right foot kick, kick and down. Left foot kick, kick and down. Right foot kick, kick and down. Left foot kick, kick and down. Right foot kick, kick and down and left foot. Kick, kick. Very good and down. Nice work. Put your hands under your shoulders and sit back towards you here. So you move back into child's pose. Now as you move back, pull the stomach in.

Stretching, always buying out and stretch. Very good. Now come and lie onto your left side. So you will be like, and let's have all of you facing that direction. So, um, Megan, why don't you have your head here and your feet there and I'd like all of you lying with your body on the back part of your mats. So you want in this position, see if you can line up your elbow, your arm pit, your hip, and your feet in a straight line.

So you're lying like this, right? But can you support your head with your hand? Yeah, up, up on your elbow. Now you're looking to get this arm pit right down there. If this is hurting your neck, you can always lie down like this. If you have neck, if you have, so you can take the hand down or you can even bring the arm in front of you and have a pillow. If you have neck problems.

And this doesn't feel that it's good for you, but if you can go for this position, this is ideal, unless you have neck problems. Now pull your stomach in and lift the feet up and bring them to the front of your mat and put them back down. So the whole back part of your body's as though it's against a wall and then the legs are a little bit forward. And this front hand is about 12 inches in front of your chest, right with the elbow slightly away. But the shoulders down now pull the stomach in and flex your feet.

And so you're standing on the floor. You want that little toe pressing into the floor. Very nice. Now take the top leg, stretch it long and lifted a little higher than your hip. Flex your foot. Pull the stomach way up. Imagine someone pulling the leg away from you and tighten your bottom.

Yes. So you have a lock. And then lengthen the leg dow, keeping your hips from and your stomach into the powerhouse. Work. Lift the leg up and it feels as though you're pushing it away from you and lower back down and flex a foot and a whole lot lifted up just a little higher than your own hip. Pull the stomach in and up and lower back down and lift. Push into the heel and down and lift and down and lift the leg. Very good. And down. Now point your top leg slightly.

Turn it out slightly. Turn it out, and now swing it high to loosen the hips. So you swing the leg, flex your foot. And as you bring it down tight, you can bring yourself heel to heel. Point the foot and swing it up and flex your foot and lower down. Point the foot and swing the leg and down and swing your leg and down and swing your leg and down and swing your leg and down. Very, very good. Now roll over. See you're facing me.

So you're going to do the same thing but on the other side. So support your head with your hands. If you're fine with that, lie in the back part of your mat so you want elbow, arm, fit, hip and foot are lined up with the back of the Mac. First of all, check that your stomach is long. Check that your shoulders are that to actually feel very elegant in this position. Now use a powerhouse to lift both legs up and bring them forward and put them back down and flex your feet strongly. Now that's nice. Take this top, like lifted up just a little higher than your own hip.

Imagine it longer than the bottom leg and lower down. Try to make it longer so you pressing out, not up and lift the leg and be very long with the muscles of the leg and lower down and lift up. That's it. And lengthen through the heel down and lift the leg and down and lift the leg only to here. Push it away. Flex your foot bottom tight and down. Nice and lift and pull the stomach up and lift the leg and down. And one more time.

Lift your leg only to here just a little higher than your own hip and down. Now point your top leg, turn it out a little bit. Tighten your hips, lift the leg as high as it'll go. Flex your foot lower down, heel to heel point and kick it up. Flex it down. So this is more about being strong and powerful. Throw that like flex it down and lift the leg and down. So you start to loosen things up and lift your legs and down and lift and down.

Very nice. And lift the leg and down. One more time and lift your leg and down. Very good. Roll onto your backs so you're all facing with your legs this way and bend your feet so the leg, knees up and up. You know what, Megan, let's have you swing around and take the little towel for you as well. Place it under your head. So preparation for teaser so your knees and feet are together.

Your stomach is in. Squeeze the knees together and without letting them come apart. Extend your right leg out so the knees are together and the legs are tight. Yes. Now keep the legs like that. Keep squeezing the knees. Lift your head and chest and see if you can roll towards your leg.

You may or may not be able to get up off the floor and roll back down. Hands on the mat and again, squeeze the legs together and lift to the leg. Doesn't move. Lift, lift, lift, lift, lift. As far as you can go, I think can come up Rebecca. No you can. Yes you can. And one more time and lift up. You can roll up, up, up, up, up, up, up, and roll them.

Very good. Other side, bring the legs down, squeeze the knees together, feet together. Lift the other leg up and curl your head and chest up and roll up as far as you can go. Even if you can't get off the floor. Very good. And down and again, and lift. Lift, lift up your can. Up, up, up, up. Good girl and down. One more time and lift, lift, lift, lift. Very good and down.

And I know I'm helping all of you come up first time, but in a few more classes you'll probably be coming up just fine. So arms over your head and roll up to a sitting position. Use that powerhouse. Roll through the spine. Good, good, good, good, good, good, good. Go for it. Excellent. I know we do this. Even the transitions aren't exercise. So seal your knees are slightly apart.

Bring your elbows in between the knees and make a prayer pose. Now, very slightly. Push with the elbows out and squeeze the knees together so you feel that resistance because you're going to want that. Lift the feet and wrap the hands around and see if you can hold your ankles. That if it's too much, you can always just hold the feet like this. Now practice this. Clap your feet, clap, clap, clap. And again, clap, clap, clap. One more time, clap, clap, clap.

Put your feet down. So that takes balance and coordination. The full exercise will look like this. You go to lift your feet up and you'll go, clap, clap, clap. Roll your shoulders, roll up and find your balance. That's where you're going to have a go. Clap, clap, clap, roll back, roll up. So let's see what happens here.

So knees in inside the legs. If you can lift the feet up and roll under and clap. Three times. Clap, clap, clap, roll back and up. Good there Megan again, clap, clap, clap, roll back to your shoulders and up and balance and again, clap, clap, clap, roll back and come up. And one last time. Clap, clap, clap, roll back, roll up. Balance, balance, balance, balance.

Balance Balance and put your feet down. Hey ladies, you did very, very well. Every class we're going to be doing everything we did today and building on it. So every session we'll get a little bit more challenging. It's a bit more demanding, and every class the body gets a bit better.

There's more familiarity. First time you feel really kind of awkward because you can get new muscles that you don't know about, but you'll see two lessons, three lessons for less, and you get better and better. Joseph Pilati said 10 lessons, you're going to feel better. 20 lessons. Your friends are going to notice feeling better. 30 lessons. You have a brand new body. So he was very ambitious, but you know, I really seen people change fast, so thank you very much. You all did very well.