Get Your Glide On!

Hello, good morning, if it's morning where you are, and afternoon, if it's afternoon where you are, I'm Mariska. And today we're going to do a Pilates-ish workout with gliders. Now you might notice, I also have these strikingly lovely fuzzy Mihai socks on. That is because for me, I was having trouble holding onto the glider with my foot in certain exercises. The outside of my left foot is paralyzed from MS, so it's actually hard for me to hold my foot inflection, to keep my toes tucked under, so it's sliding too much, so I wanted to make sure I could actually do the exercises.

Plus sometimes I've been doing things with hands on gliders, sometimes I'll be doing stuff with feet on gliders. This way, I'm set kind of either way that things are going. So, you could also use a towel, a Swiffer, if you wanna get some cleaning done at the same time, just grab whatever you have that's slippery. We're gonna actually start with some standing exercise, I'm gonna use the glider for some of them, because it actually is a little easier to slide on the gliders, than it is to slide on my feet. I have a yoga mat, which I've folded over on itself twice, and the reason is I wanted a really small mat, so I have a lot of room to sort of glide, and move around it.

So I'm gonna start by placing the gliders on the floor, actually I only need one to start, then with my right foot onto the glider, and put a little bend in my knees. And so for me, my left leg likes to go internal, so I just have to concentrate on making sure that it's gonna stay parallel, so it does it the whole time. It is what it is. I'm gonna rotate my right foot out, but that motion is coming from my hip joint, and then pull it back in, so we'll do 10 of these, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and 10, because the glider is very small, and my feet are not very small, I'm gonna be on my tiptoes for this. Keep a bend in my left leg, I'm gonna do like a skater out to the side, pull it back in, and then back at an angle, and pull it back in.

I'm trying to maintain a pretty upright posture, but a bend in my standing leg. So it's pull in, push straight out, pull in, push back like 45 degree angle or so. We're going out, and then push, out to the side, and push, let's do about four more, one, and back, two, and back, three, and back, and four, and back. I'm gonna stand up for just a second, I'm gonna take my right foot out to the side, I'm going to like kind of take a little stretch in my back, so I'm arching my spine a little bit. When my leg goes forward, I'm going to round my spine, bring my arms forward, this also, to kind of help with balance, and then I'll sweep my leg out through that 45 degree angle as I lift back up.

Reach forward, and up, so we'll do 10 of these. Three, four, five, now, we're also getting a lot of work just standing on one leg, and we kinda have to balance on that leg, but I like balancing with the glider, because then you don't have to truly balance on one leg. I think we have three more, one, two, and you can really take it into a deep squat if you want. And three, so go ahead, and come back. Now, I want to come onto something that I can stand on, and push with the standing leg.

So, this is not gonna be slippery, even though I have a slippery sock on, because I'm standing on the mat, so I'm gonna just kinda squat down, I'm gonna take my standing leg, push out, pull to come back in, push away, pull to come back in. So this looks, and feels a little bit like one of the exercises that you do on the reformer, if you don't have a reformer, like one of the exercises you do on the reformer, here's five, we'll do five more. One, two, three, four, and five. And I'm gonna comeback, and then I'll repeat on the second side. So, there's easier and harder for me in some ways, so it's easier for me to stand on my right leg and balance, harder for me to move my left leg relatively smoothly, but I'm gonna start with the external rotation, I don't have as much rotation on the side, so it's not gonna be as much.

Three, four, five, and I'm trying as much as possible, to have the movement come from my hip, the pullback in this little inner thigh. Seven, eight, nine, and 10. I stand up for a second, just make sure that I have a room to go to the side. I'm gonna come into little squat, maybe a little tuck under the pelvis, I'm gonna push out, and in, and back, and in. Out, and in, push back at an angle, and in, out, and in, push back, and in.

Here's four, you're gonna do about eight, five, six, seven, and eight. We'll have our moment to stand up, our leg is gonna go out to the side, we have sort of our arched back position. I'm trying not to dip into my right hip too much, even though, I have a habit of dipping into my right hip. And then we're gonna kinda sweep forward, light comes towards you come into a little bit of flection in your side, and then you lift back up, we're doing . Two three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and 10.

Wasn't probably a spectacular of a loss that I'm gonna actually make it onto the blooper reel, which I have to admit is a little bit disappointing sometimes, it's like a funny thing to make it on blooper reel. Okay, so, here's the one way we're gonna do this squat, and then you'll push away with your standing leg, and pull back in, two, and this is not flating as much as I want it to. Three, four, five, six, seven, eight, I think we did 10, nine, and 10, that did not go as smoothly as I was hoping, but I swear you put props in something, and things just work out kind of differently. Okay, so, I think I'm gonna leave the gliders down for this one, maybe standing kind of close to the wall. There's like a gigantic spider right there, and I'm just gonna pred that's not there, and hope he just moved somewhere else, and also that he's not poisonous.

So I'm gonna start with a little bend, in my outside of the wall, like I'm just holding onto the wall, because I am... You definitely don't have to, do you see him moving? There he goes, I'm gonna pull my knee in, exd it back with a little forward fold, pull in, exded back, pull in, exded back. And when I'm exding back, I'm kind of coming into more of a lunge, sliding my life forward, pulling it back, sliding forward, and back, forward, and back, I feel like three more, and I'm feeling my outer hip here, 'cause my outer hip has to stabilize this movement. Now, on this next time we're four, we're gonna come forward.

Lift your inside like up, we're gonna do eight little lifts up, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight, that leg is down. Same kind of thing while we're in the lunge, kind of pitching your weight forward, you're gonna lift your back leg up for eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight, then you can slide it in, come up to standing, 180 to face the other direction. Bend in your standing outside leg, you're gonna pull your leg forward, and back eight times, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight, will come up, lift your knee up, we've got eight lift up, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. You can lower your foot down, we're gonna kind of lean forward, and make sure you have a bend in your standing leg, up for eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. Pull through to come all the way back up.

We're gonna have the gliders, and we're gonna use them with your hands, which is why there is no art on the wall today. You gonna have your hands on the gliders, and you're gonna step your right foot into a lunge, so that you're kind of leaning towards the wall. We're gonna try to do it from here, tuck your hips under, you're gonna begin to lift your arms up, they might not be able to go straight overhead, they might need to go to a little bit of a V, and you're trying to get your chest to the wall, without arching your lower back. And we're just gonna hold really reach your arms, let your shoulders elevate, and then you can kind of relax. And then again, find the tuck of your pelvis, you begin to lean forward, as you push your arms up and straight, and again, a V is fine, trying to get your chest to the wall, and then pull back, and we'll do that one more time.

Tilting your pelvis under, reaching up, and then come back down. We're just gonna go ahead, shake it off for a second, we're gonna switch legs, not that I think that there's that much difference, but you might find that there's a little bit of a difference and I wanted to do six anyway. So, you have a little bend in your knee, tuck your pelvis under, think about trying to send your chest to the wall, I actually find this side easier for me, and then release, got two more, find the tuck, find the reach, find that overhead arm position, and then lower back down, and last one, let your arms elevate, and then we'll go ahead, and come all the way back down. Grab your gliders, we're gonna come to the mat. Again, I've folded my mat up, into this little package, it's a yoga mat, not a Pilates mat, so it's not as thick.

If you have a yoga mat, you just might wanna double it up. The main reason is just so we have a lot of space around us. We're gonna have the gliders on the floor, so you might notice I'm kinda flipping them sometimes, between the fuzzy side, and the plasticky side. And the reason I'm doing that, is because when I want my feet to be able to hold onto it, I need the side that has a little bit of texture. So you're gonna come to a quadruped position, make sure your shoulders are above your wrist, drop your shoulders, set your shoulder blades on your back.

We're gonna start by rotating your arms out, and then pull them back in. So, it's like you're screwing something into the floor, and I'm actually trying to get as much external shoulder rotation as possible, and then you might have a little bit of rotation of your radius. So, you're also getting your lower arm bone to move forward. Now, this next time, let's just say, with your fingertips spacing straight forward, and we're gonna start by taking your arms forward, and your hips can go back a little bit to counterbalance that, but try not to have them go back to much, you reach forward, you round to pull back in. When you go forward, you arch forward thinking just to the ground, but maybe not all the way to the ground, 'cause you still have to pull yourself back in again.

Again, exding forward, and pull to come back in, find that slight more external rotation, so I would say, hands are 45 degrees out. See if that makes a difference, when you go forward on how that feels, and then you're gonna pull to round back in. Last one, or last one like this, I should say, come back in. We're gonna have your hands go forward, I would say, let your butt go back a little bit for counterbalance. Where I take both arms together, sweep them towards the right, pull to come back to center, sweep left, pull to come back to center.

And you'll probably feel like your legs kind of wanna windshield wiper a little bit, to counterbalance what your arms are doing. And I don't know that that's really avoidable in this position. We're gonna rotate, and come back to center one more each side, rotate, and come back to center, and rotate, and come back to center. Make your way up, sit back on your heels, shake out your wrists for just a little tiny break, that was your break, hope you enjoyed it. We're gonna come back to a quadruped position.

We're gonna bend one elbow, sort of into a pushup while the other arm reaches forward. So you're gonna go forward with one arm, one elbow bend, so you can drop down to your arm, lift back up, and reach one arm, lift back up, bend reach, and up, bend reach, and up, do four, and up, two, three, and four. This time we're gonna have one arm left forward, one arm goes out, sort of like a T, we're gonna reach out, hold to come back in, reach out, hold back in, reach, and pull, reach, and pull, reach, and pull, last round, I think we started on this side, so we need to do one more, and reach, and pull in. Then we have a little sit down on your heels, shake out your arms. Last one is gonna be a arms slide out push-up, but not even like really in a plank on your knees, we're gonna do it from a quadruped, 'cause I think it's a little bit on the hard side.

So you go out, bend your elbows, pull back in, out, pull back in. And I do find I want to rotate my arms in a little bit, but I don't think I should do that, I think I should almost rotate my hands out a little bit. Let's do last four, two, three, and four. And then we can go ahead, make your way out of that. We have our mat, which we're gonna have behind our back, because we're gonna be doing some stuff lying down.

So I'm gonna take these, and I'm just gonna have them to the side, because I'm gonna use them for something, but I'm gonna kind of use the slipperiness of my socks, for sort of the first round of what I'm doing. So, from here, you're gonna take your arms forward, your legs are gonna be able to slide forward as you begin to round, say halfway back, pull to come back in, round back, pull to come back in, round back, maybe going a little bit further, pull to come back in, round all the way back, pull to come back in. Do three more like that, round back, pull to come back in, round back, pull to come in, last one, round back, and then pull to come back in. We're gonna stay upright. Let's start this one with your hands behind your back, take your shoulders, rotate them a little bit, so they're on your back.

We're gonna start by taking leg out and switch, and switch, and switch, for eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight, both legs out, we're gonna abduct, which means, sending your legs out to the side. So open APS, squeeze to come back in. So you almost have to create your own resistance here, so imagine you have a TheraBand around your legs, on the way out, and this TheraBand is pulling from the sides on the way in, pulling out, and back in, this one section of my floor is gonna be so clean, by the end of this class. Inhale, exhale to pull in, inhale out, exhale to pull in, so three more, two, and three. Now that your legs are out, you're gonna take your leg, and we're gonna kinda pull them in, almost like a frog position, reach them back out, hold them in, reach them out, in and out, in and out, four more, one, two, and I'm trying to have my legs move evenly, which they don't wanna do, so I'm squeezing my heels skills a little bit, and four.

And then go ahead, shake your arms out a little bit, maybe take yourself into a little bit of a forward fold, we're gonna come back with your hands. Reestablish that your shoulders is on your back, if you have a slight rotation on your shoulders, we're gonna do sort of a Peter Pan like situation. So you're gonna bend your right knee as your left leg goes out, come back in, switch, and in. So one leg is doing a frog, one leg is abducting, and then adducting, reach out, pull in, reach out, pull in, reach out, pull in, reach out, pull in. Reach your legs, and so I'm gonna have my hands to the outside of the mat, because I don't want them to be on the floor, or on the mat, because it's kinda squishy, and I don't think it's gonna feel great on my wrist.

I'm gonna put my hands back, lift my hips up, take your shoulders back. You're gonna have your hips lifted, not like all the way, but like a little bit, you're gonna bend your elbows, extend one leg at the same time, bend, pull it in, bend, pull it in, bend, pull it in, bend, pull it in, four more, two, the hard part is not having the leg, you don't wanna slip. And four, go ahead and have a seat down. So you know that horrible reformer exercise stomach massage, I know like two people who like it, this one won't be as depantsing, so that will be good, I'm gonna do a variation of that here. So, if you have your mats, imagine your mat is the reformer carriage, so you're gonna have your hands on there, maybe loosely around your spine, we're gonna take your legs, we're gonna push them out, point your feet, flex your feet, pull in, out, point, flex, in, out, point, flex, in, out, and in, out, and in, two more, last one, have your back be flat, you can have your hands behind you if we keep this like, as legit the exercise as possible, you can go out, we're gonna leave out that point, flex.

Out, pull in, out, pull in, out, pull in, and out, pull in. Go ahead and reach your arms sort of our flat back version, you're out, and in, two, three, so try to step Thomas lean forward, four, five, we're gonna add a reach, twist, pull center, twist, pull center, twist, and pull, twist, and pull, one more each side. Last one, go ahead and bring your hands down, I'm gonna bring them kind of back, trying to figure out where I want them to be. I want my butt not to run into that, so I'm gonna come forward a little bit. I'm gonna have my hands this side, and I'm gonna push forward, so I'm sliding my legs forward, and then I'm gonna pull back, think about sending my hips through my arms, extend forward, pull back, and extend forward.

And if you're lucky enough to have more of a butt than I do, you might find that you're getting stuck, which is fine you just go back as far as you can, try to get the forward part though, pull back, and in, and last one, pull back, and in, pull back to come to a seated position. You're gonna grab the gliders, have them ready in your hands, and we're gonna lie down on your back, having your arms reaching forward. You're gonna be into press down into your arms slightly, begin to lift your head and chest, you're gonna push your arms back, and then, I realized that what I really want here, is to have more of my body on here, so I can bring my hands back behind me, little adjustment, 'cause I wanna be able to really come into a nice amount of shoulder extension. So, redo my head is on the floor, totally fine, hands on the gliders, head and chest lifts, push down, bend your arms back behind you, see if your arms can come close, and then go ahead, and lower yourself back down. Again push, lift, squeeze your arms back, and then reach your arms forward.

We'll do a couple more here. Push, lift up, see if you can get the gliders to touch, maybe you can, reach forward. And last one, you really are using the push down, to help you lift yourself all the way back. I'm gonna bring the gliders to the side, and I'm gonna scoot forward, I'm just making sure that I'm still in the frame. So I'm scooting forward here, I'm gonna lie down, so I have a lot of mat behind me, so maybe when my butt is on the floor, my shoulders on the...

I'm gonna bring my hands behind my head, head and chest lift, and extend your legs out, hold them in, lift them up and down, go out and in, up and down, out and in, up and down, out and in, up and down, four more, one, and up, two, and up, three, and up, and four, and up. Go ahead and lower all the way back down, so the way the mat is, is it's kinda making me want to arch my back, because it's higher than my hips. So, I'm gonna try to correct that, by just pulling my abs in, and tucking my pelvis a little bit, that's actually bringing me more to a pelvis neutral spine than an anteriorly tilted. We're gonna lift head and chest up, pull your right knee in, rotate right, lower all the way back, rotate left, and back down, go right, and down, left, and down, right, and left, we'll do four more, one, and one, sometimes counting could be mean. Two, and two, three, and three, and last one, four, and four.

Just move these out of the way a little bit, so my arms can come down, and I'm going to bridge up. So, from this position, I think one of the hardest things, is to just not slide your legs out too much, so you have to almost dig them into the floor, I'm trying to find my happy arm position, with the mat folded up this side. So we're gonna do, right leg, sliding out, left leg, controlling that slide out. So right leg reaches, drop your hips, pull your right leg back in, lift your hips. Left leg slides as you drop your hips, pull your leg back in, lift your hips.

Right leg reaches at the bottom, you drop your hips, try to keep your hips square, and then lift back up, left leg reaches, drop your hips, hold back in. Hips up, right leg reaches as you drop, pull back in, lift, left leg reaches as you drop, pull back in. Now, on this one, we're gonna take your right leg up into a tabletop, you're gonna slowly extend your left leg slower than that hopefully, and then lift back up. Left leg up, I'll be able to control this side better, reach out, and then pull back in. Your right leg is up, I'm really trying to control with my left, left is much harder to control for me than right.

And then in right leg, is on the floor, left leg is up, and then you extend all the way back down. I'm gonna have both legs up, both legs flat, but both legs in, you're gonna slide your legs out, lower your hips, bend your knees, lift your hips. Slide out, and lower your hips, bend your knees, lift your hips. Slide out lower, bend, and lift. Slide out lower, bend, and lift.

On this one, keep your hips lifted, at least some, we're gonna go out, and nod your legs five times. Out in one, out in two, out in three, out in four, out in five, just lift your hips up, slowly extend your legs, go ahead, and make your way all the way up to seated from there, and then you can go ahead flex your feet, drop your head, hold onto your legs, or take this into a little bit of a forward fold. And then I come to a quadruped position, and I think I'm gonna take the mat, because I only really want it under my knees, I'm gonna turn it, it's horizontal way, and then I'm gonna come... I just wanna have someplace where my knees can be down. My hands are gonna be in, and I come into a plank.

So legs back, I'm gonna bend a knee end, bend a knee end, tap your shoulder, push your legs out. Other leg in, other leg in, tap your shoulder push out. Right leg in, left leg in, tap your shoulder, push out, left leg in, right leg in, tap your shoulder, push out. From here, I'm actually coming onto to the top of my toes, just 'cause I can't keep my toes tucked under, I'm gonna pull forward like a long stretch, and push back. Pull forward, and back, pull forward, and back, three more, pull forward, and back, pull forward, and back, last one, pull forward, and back.

Bend your knees so that your knees can come onto the mat, shake out your shoulders, a little bit. And then when it comes to a side position, so I'm gonna stand on my left knee with my right leg out. So my right leg is in a turnout position, you can have it in parallel, that doesn't really matter, you gonna push your leg out, and kind of do a sit down at the same time. So is that going to be a all the way down, and then you'll pull lifted back in, reach out, hold lifted back in, reach out, and in, reach out and in, we're doing eight, so four more. One, and in, two, so you kind of get quads and in all together, three, and in, and four, and in.

Kinda sweep this leg around, think that was fancy, then I ran into something. And when it comes to quadruped position, I'll try to get these come out of my way, so on my left knee, I wanna make sure I have room for my right leg to move, so it's gonna sweep around to the side, and back, sweep forward, and back, forward, and back, forward, and back, four more, one, two, three, and four, leg back. You just gonna lift it up, eight times, three four, five, six, seven, and eight. I'm gonna go ahead, and just pivot, so that my left foot is turning out, so that I can come to the closest, we're gonna get to a kneeling side, pick for me, in this position, you can have your arm reaching overhead here, and then by your side, as you sweep it forward, and then reach. Sweep forward, and reach, sweep forward, and reach, four more, one, two, three, and four.

Find that reach, find that side, then we gonna do eight lifts to do like one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. Pivot your leg back to center, all right, come back to your knee, and then we gonna switch sides, you gonna stand on your right knee, with your left leg out to the side. We're gonna push it out, as you kind of sit down, and lift back up, we're doing this for eight times. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. We're gonna turn, so we're facing towards the front, you gonna sweep your leg, eight times around.

One, two, and I am allowing my waist to shorten a little bit here, because I want to, three, four, five, six, seven, leave it back on the eight, square off your pelvis, make sure your shoulder blades are on your back, we've got eight lifts. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight, your leg is down, you're gonna pivot your right knee, so your shin is kinda facing back. You can reach your arm overhead, find that stretch, you gonna send your leg forward, and back eight times, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. Find the reach, you got eight lifts to do like, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight, we're pivoting, back to center, sit down on your heels, reach your arms forward for a child's pose. This is where I'm really hoping that, that spider, is far away from my face.

I don't see it, but now everything I see, that seems to be a shadow are moving, I'm like, it's the spider, the spider is back. We're gonna come into plank, so, I'm gonna be kind of back, because I need enough room for my legs to go, actually, I might just move this out of the way, because I think it's just going to get in my way, see all this fuzz here, this fuzz that is flying around, which is not spiders, this is actually my fuzzy socks, falling apart in this exercise. You gonna start by circling your left leg to the side, and back, two, three, four, now bend it, send it through, come into a side plank, and then back, center like back. Your right leg, have to be on the top of my left, like your right leg is out, and in, four times, three, and four, bends through, you come into a side plank on that side, come back to where you are, untangle your legs they're be on top of your feet, or regular, lower yourself back down. So from here, I'm gonna actually stay on the top of my feet, I'm gonna try to round my spine, and do sort of a variation of knee stretches, you would probably have your toes tucked under, like I said, my left foot is not agreeing with me these days, so I'm gonna be on the tops of my feet.

From here, your knees are down, you round your spine, you push into the tops of your feet, pull your knees, I'm gonna do eight. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. When you think I'm down, we'll shake it off, 'cause it's harder than doing it on their former. The next one is gonna be flat back, so your hands are down, you arch your back and stick your butt back, hover your knees, we'll pull in eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. We'll drop it down, shake it off.

So, if you do like any kind of classical reform, know that the third one is the really bad one, so it's the knees off leg, out and in. So we're just gonna go for that, same thing eight times, hover off, out in one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight, a bonus one to get these back underneath you. We're gonna grab your mat, it's rendering some prone stuff, and I want to have my pelvis not be on the wood, so I'm gonna bring the mat, I think about here, you need the gliders, or your socks, or whatever, for underneath your hands. We're gonna start with your arms forward, and we're just gonna swan up. So hands down, like this, and then you'll pull in, and lower back down.

Pull in, and lower back down, pull in, and down, two, three more like this. One, two, and three. Now we'll lift up, we're not gonna come as high, because your arms are gonna come to a T, so you're gonna pull, lift, reach your arms around, pull, lift, and around, here is three, we're doing six. Four, five, and six. Take a moment down, we're gonna do a Swan dive, which is way more fun with the glider, than without a glider.

So you'll lift up, so upper rising come up, when you lower down your legs, lift up. Now your legs can be separated, or together, it's a little easier on your back, if they're separated. So, you go up, dive down, up, down, we're going ten, because they're so fun, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten, they get less fun honestly, if you start to slide forward, and come off your mat. From here, we're gonna do arms forward, we're gonna lift up, think about almost dragging your elbows in, this is when it come into a foreign plank. So you're gonna pull up, reach one arm forward, and in, reach the other arm forward, and in, reach both arms down.

Pull up, left arm comes in, right arm comes in, left arm goes out, right arm goes out. Pull in right in, left in, right out, left out. Left in, right in, left out, right out. Now, both pull in together, both reach out together, hop in, and reach, three, two, and three. From here, we're just going to like, keep your arms forward, lift up a little bit, we're just gonna lift your right, like eight times.

Two, we're totally just doing this for a break, before we do something hard. Four, five, six, seven, eight, left leg eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. Now go ahead and bend your elbows in, you're gonna make your way up, to come onto your knees. So kind of think about this as, if we were doing the long stretch, but we're gonna come to almost all the way laying down, but you're gonna try to stay in a plank on your knees, on your nice padded mat, with your arms reaching forward, and just trying to like flow your collapse down to the ground. So, from a plank on your knees, you begin to go forward, control it, control it, control it, control it, control it, and you're all the way down.

Circle your arms around, so you can push yourself back up. Try to find a little tuck in your pelvis, 'cause this is not necessarily the easiest thing on your low back, you're gonna reach your arms forward, control the forward, control the forward, you go all the way down. We're doing one more, circle around and lift, and then same thing, tuck your pelvis, your arms do end up going in front of you, just work it harder to control, and then you're all the way down, hold and lift yourself all the way back up. You're gonna sit down on your right hip, with your left leg folded in, sort of in your standard mermaid position. We're gonna start with your right hand, so you're on your right hip, your right hand is on the glider, your left arm comes out to a T.

You're gonna begin by reaching over, think about lifting with your left arm, as you pull yourself back up. We're going to reach over, and lift back up, so do four of these. Three, and try to make sure your shoulder is stable, so that it can't be moving all over the place, while you're doing this, and four. We're gonna add your outside leg, which is your left leg, extending straight, the same time as you reach out, bending as you come in. To reach out, leg is extended, hold to come in, we've got four, reach out two, pull to come in, reach out three, pull to come in, reach out four, hold to come all the way in.

Now my favorite exercise, really in Pilates, is to do the rotated mermaid on the reformer, I think it feels really good. So we're gonna have both gliders, you're gonna turn, so your chest is facing towards like your right thigh, and then you gonna push out, and then pull, to come back in. Reach out, pull to come back, reach out, pull to come back, reach out, pull to come back, reach out, now pull, you're gonna pull more towards the left, you can reach your right arm out for more of a stretch, pull to come back in, now your left arm reaches, you get more of a twist, and then come back. So we'll do that one more time, so you reach your right arm, where your left arm is gonna kind of have to bend, pull yourself back in, left arm reaches the way, find more of a twist, come all the way back into a center. So from there we're gonna take the gliders to the other side, and also your legs to the other side.

So you're gonna be on your left hip, with your left shin bent, and your right leg bent back. We've got both gliders, but we're only using one to start, right arm reaches out, we're gonna reach away, think your top arm, holds you back in, it's actually really your obliques, but I feel like the top arm has always been a cure like. Reach back up, we'll do two more, you go out, and pull back up, and then go out, and pull back up. Now we've got the leg extending for the next four. You reach out, your leg reaches at the same time, you pull, your leg bends in.

Got two, and in, three, and in, four, and in. Now you have both of your gliders, as you turn, pull to lift back up, reach out, inhale as you lift, reach out, inhale as you lift, reach out, inhale as you lift, we'll do one more. Reach, inhale as you lift. Now we're gonna start by reaching your left arm, you can bend your right a little bit, and then pull to come back in. Keep your left arm straight, try to get a little bit more rotation, by pushing your right arm away from you, and then pull to come back in.

We'll do that one more each side, your left arm really reaches away, and then you pull to come back in, your right arm reaches away, and you pull to come back in. Right, turn to face forward, so you're gonna have one hand on the glider, and your other arm can be forward, and you wanna stay kind of towards the glider, so you don't get stuck. So from here, we're going to twist, towards the side of the glider, and back. Twist, and back, twist, and back, we'll do three more. One, and two, and three.

Now on this next I want you to transition, we twist, extend your legs, reach your arm back, reach your other arm overhead, pull to come back to center, we twist, reach, pull, and center. Twist, reach, pull, and center, twist, reach, pause, I'm gonna take both legs together, lift them up, and down, they don't have to go high, two, three, and four, and then we'll pull to come all the way back in. You can leave out glider where it is, kind of skewed a little bit to the other side of your mat, if your mat feels like it's gonna get in the way, have your arm forward, we twist, and reach, twist, and reach. So, for me to keep my back relatively straight, I can't be flat on my hand, I have to be at my fingertips, so you might find the same, its two more. Last one like this, then we're gonna add, the reach, and lift, pull back in, twist, and reach, and pull back in, twist, and reach, and pull back in, twist, reach, pause, legs gonna lift four times, two, three, and four, that would be way easier if we were sitting on our hips, but we aren't.

Go ahead just have the gliders forward, and then just stretch forward, actually bend your knees, reach your arms forward, and let your shoulders elevate, and then actively push down, as you lift back up. Again, round your spine, bend your knees, reach your arms forward, push down to lift back up. We'll do that three more times, reach forward, and lift back up, reach forward, and lift back up, and last one, reach forward, and lift back up. So we want a lot of arm movements, to be able to happen overhead, so I'm gonna stay with this little tiny mat for my pelvis, but my shoulders are gonna be on the floor, my hands are palms up, on the gliders the way they slide the easiest. So mine actually slide the easiest one, this plastic here, you're gonna reach your arms up and overhead, and then reach your arms back towards yourself, kinda Vitruvian man here, or a woman.

Reach your arms up, and back down, reach your arms up, and back down, you kind of need to keep the pressure down on the gliders the same, the whole time you reach up, and back down, and we'll do a couple of more. Reach up, and back down, and last one like this, reach up, you can just leave the gliders where they are, bend your right knee in towards your chest, give that leg a hug, you can rock a little from side to side. I actually like to circle my knee, forcing my hip, around in the hip socket, I don't know, it just feels good to me, you can just switch directions, and then we'll pull the other leg in, and then the same thing, I'm just doing a little circles, in the hip joint. We did a lot of circles with your legs and hip joint, so hopefully they feel loose anyway, and then go ahead and hug both knees into your chest, just rock a little bit from side to side, and you wanna make sure, you're kinda massaging into your SI joints, this is actually super important. First of all, because a lot of people get jammed up in their SI joints, second, because it feels really good, and third, because you have a tone of proprioceptor there, so neurologically, your body really likes wiggling.

So, I recommend adding wiggling to your workouts on the regular. You gonna hold on behind your legs, just rock yourself all the way up to seated, legs are bent, you're gonna bring your left hand, to your right knee, right hand behind you, sit up super tall as you twist. There's so much fuzz on the floor, it's like I did clean the floor with my socks, I just let them deposit on the floor as to my OCD, right now is like screaming, and then go ahead, and come back to center. So as always take any last stretches that you want, we are taking a week off next week, for the Pilates-ish classes, there's only one left, I'm actually a little scared to do it, because it's nonstop mat, which means we don't get any breaks. So, I'm gonna need this two week time period, to condition myself, and train for it.

But I hope you'll join me then, and like I said, in my last class, you have two weeks to get me any requests, that you might have, if you want me to throw something into that class. As always, it was a pleasure to teach you, and I hope to see you soon.