Balance

Hi, everyone, welcome back to Plot Twist Pilates, this is our fifth week. And every single week we're doing like the same thing, we're doing intermediate mat, but we put a little twist to it because we know that the Pilates method has lots of layers and textures to it. So this week, we are going to focus on balance, which means we need to recruit characters from previous classes, we need to focus on our powerhouse, using oppositional energy forces and also, to fall possibly, or to crash and burn, so I hope you join me in that. Just let yourself play and discover and if you fall you fall, that's how you end up finding your balance. So let's get started, you can start with your feet underneath you, they are parallel.

When I look down, I look to make sure that my inside arches are parallel to one another, and then I'm gonna place my hands on my hips, like we do every class, let's center first, find your powerhouse. So your hands have landed on your hips, and on these hip points in particular, to scoop your powerhouse in, feel like you're pulling these hip points up into your navel, your lower abdominals do that for you. So you pull your hip points up into your navel, it feels like you're pulling your lower abdominals into your lower back, and as a result, your tailbone just drops and it feels heavy. Stability comes from scooping your powerhouse in, after you pulled your hip points up into your navel, pull your navel up the length of your spine, and it lands at the base of your skull, so now you have length from your tailbone to the back of your neck, so you're creating a natural traction of your spine and your stabilizing it with your powerhouse. Okay, so now that we're centered direct your attention to your feet, we're gonna start by focusing on balancing on our feet.

Notice the imprint that your feet make on the mat, are they balanced or do you tend to lean on one foot more than the other? I tend to lean on this foot, so try to find equal weight across the three corners of your feet, the ball of your big toe, find that, the ball of your small toe and then the center of your heels. Keep your feet flat but shift your weight forward so you feel more weight on the balls of your feet, and then shift your weight back so you feel the center of your heels, two more, shift your weight forward to the balls of your feet, and then shift to the backs of your heels. One more, shift your weight forward notice that you can really pull your abs in when you do that, shift your weight back and then find center, so that balance between big toe, small toe center of your heel. Now we're gonna do this roll to the outer edges of your feet and roll to the inner edges of your feet, find the two extremes, roll to the outer edge and then roll to the inner edge.

Notice the sensation it creates in your hips, outer edge and then find the inner edge, once again, find balance. Find the three corners of your feet, scoop your powerhouse, and just like we did last week just start by bending your knees. When you bend your knees, you still pull your powerhouse up towards the ceiling, your pelvis is just hanging from your waist. Starting with a scoop in your powerhouse, lift your waist and it straightens your legs, and again, bend your knees, feel the weight of your tailbone drop, start pulling your lower abdominals in, lift your navel up to the base of your neck, I'm gonna do one more facing this way. Bend your knees, make sure you haven't shifted forward on the balls of your feet, make sure you can feel the center of your heel still, and then lift up.

We're gonna do three more, bend your knees, your head goes up, your tailbone goes down, make sure you're not tucking you'll feel tension in your knees, so balance your feet, pull your abs back and feel like you're pressing your hamstrings back too, two more, bend your knees, pull your abs back, press your hamstrings back, as you bend your knees, your head is still on the ceiling like it's attached with velcro and then pull your abs back press your thighs back. All right, so now we're gonna lift our heels up, you're trying to avoid shifting forward, you just wanna feel like you can go straight up. So start by pulling your lower abdominals in, before I lift my heels I think of reaching my upper inner thighs down towards my big toes, and then I can lift up, I'm pushing to the ball of my big toe and my small toe. Keep pulling your hip points into your navel, navel to the back of your neck. Reach your tailbone down between your feet and lower your heels.

And again, pull your abs back, curl your heels forward in order to lift up. Keep growing taller, like your head wants to touch the ceiling but your heels wanna touch the floor, I'm gonna face you for one more, pull your abs back, try not to shift forward, try to go straight up, just like if you're on the pedal pole, you wanna go up the pole, press to the ball of your big toe and small toe, notice you're doing this, hug your midline with your inner ankles, and then lower all the way down. I'm gonna turn sideways, we're gonna do three more. So instead of leaning forward to go up, I pull my abs back and I curl my heel bones forward. Keep pulling your abs back, reach your tailbone down, that's what lowers your heels.

And again, lift your hip points up into your navel to lift your heels up, and then reach your tailbone down towards the floor, and that will lower your heels. One more, make sure you feel the ball of your big toe and your small toe, press into the floor, and then reach your tailbone down, hip points up and then lower. So we're gonna add on, we're gonna do basically the two by four exercise without the two by four. So make sure your feet are parallel again, reach your arms forward, feel like you're trying to touch the wall in front of you. As your fingers go forward, your ribs, you're waist and your lower abdominals, go back, stack your arms, one on top of the other, keep your elbows going forward.

Step one is to bend your knees, now find the opposition your knees and your tailbone, sorry, your knees are bent, your tailbone down, head is up, now find the weight of your big toe and small toe and lift your heels up, pull your powerhouse in and up to straighten your legs, and then reach your tailbone down, lift your hip points up to lower, and again, bend your knees, pull your abs back. Think of curling your heel bones forward into your Achilles tendons, and then find the weight of your big toe and small toe, lift your powerhouse. Keep pressing your head up towards the ceiling, and as your head presses up, reach your tailbone down. One more, bend your knees and then pull your abs back to lift your heels up. Find the balance on your feet, pull your abs back, straighten your legs, now reach your heels down to low, I'm gonna face you and then we're gonna reverse, switch your arm stacked.

So from here, pull your abs in and up, lift your heels up, notice if you're rolling out to your pinky toes, keep hugging your midline, bend your knees keeping your heels elevated, do you feel your big toe and small toe, now reach your heels down, pull your abs back and then straighten your legs. Two more, keep reaching your elbows forward waist back, lift your heels up, bend your knees, pull your abs back, and then press your heels into the floor, find the three corners of your feet and then come up to standing. One more, pull your abs back, lift your heels up. Find equal weight on both feet and then bend your knees, pulling your lower abdominals back, press your heels down, feel the three corners of your feet, and then scoop your powerhouse come up to standing hands go in your hips, bend just your right knee, when you bend your right knee, make sure your hip doesn't hike up, so once you lift, I'm curling my heel forward, just like if you're on a foot corrector you press down and try to access your glutes and your hamstrings, and as I press down with the ball of my big toe and small toe, I lift my spine up and then I lower the other side, you pull your abs back, curl your heel forward, press down and find your glutes and the back of your thigh and then grow taller and then lower. Other leg, lift your heel up, pull your abs back, making sure that the bottom of your Pilates box stays even that you're not hiking up your hip, and then lower, other side, lift, press down using the back of your thigh, pull your abs back and then lower, we're gonna take this into a little flow, like running on the reformer, lift your heel up, lift both heels up, grow taller and switch, press from the back of your thigh, lift your waist up and switch, you lift and switch, keep pulling your abs back, spine up.

Lift and switch, lift and switch, lift as your heel goes down your head goes up, lift, heel down, head up, one more set, lift, switch, lift, switch and then shake your legs out for a sec. Alright, so a little bit more balancing on one foot, so look down to make sure your feet are still parallel, now the key is not compensating, not lifting one foot and sinking into your hip. So we're gonna start by lifting the left leg up, to do that, root down to the three corners of your right foot. Now this is a weird cue but just play with it. Feel like your upper inner thigh is reaching down to towards the mat, okay, so feel the three corners of your feet, reach your upper inner thigh down towards the floor, scoop in and barely lift your left leg up, it's like dead weight, and then lower it all the way down.

Try the same side, find the three corners of your feet, reach your upper inner thigh down, pull your waist up to float your foot up, and then lower. One more, grow taller on the standing leg, pull your lower abdominals back, you lift your leg from here, and then lower all the way down. Other side, find the three corners of your feet, but feel like your upper inner thigh is reaching down towards your inner ankle, so you're hugging your midline, keep hugging your midline, pull your abs back to lift your foot up and then lower, notice if your one hip is getting higher than the other root down to the inside arch of your foot, pull your abs back, good, are you still pressing your head up towards the ceiling? And then lower your foot down. Last one, reach your inner thigh towards your inner ankle, pull your abs back to float your leg up and then lower it all the way down.

Now we're gonna take it to the mat, so go to the back edge of your mat or the bottom edge of your mat, we're gonna kick it up a little notch. If anything in class bothers you or feels painful, feel free to omit it, okay. So you're gonna reach your arms forward, pull your waist back, stack your arms, feel like your elbows are going forward, ribs, waist and lower back are going back. Now root down through the inside arches of your feet and lift one leg up and put it right back down, scoop, lift and put it back down, that wasn't so good, root down through the inside arch of your foot and put it down, scoop and put it down, reach at the inside arch and put it down, lift and switch, lift and switch, scoop and switch this is kind of like your single leg stretch, right? Pull your knee up but reach your other foot into the floor, knee up other foot into the floor, lift and switch, lift and switch, final one, from here go into your Pilates stance, you can either descend to the mat with me I'm trying to keep my heels on the floor or just find a way to lower to the mat with control.

Find the three corners of your feet, pull your abs back, lift your navel to the base of your skull. Bend your knees, feel the weight of your hips, and now I wanna sit my tailbone directly behind my heels, so I have to keep reaching my elbows forward and pull my waist back, elbows forward, waist back, take a seat and then lie all the way down on your back, hug your knees into your chest, and you can rock from side to side. From here, find your frog position, so your knees are the distance of your armpits, heels together, toes are apart, grab the backs of your thighs and pull your thighs down towards your body, feel the weight of your tailbone, pull your lower abdominals into the floor, push your thighs up into your hands, so once again, you feel your hamstrings and then press your legs forward into almost like a tabletop, It'll look like you are setting up for the footwork series on the reformer. Keep pushing your thighs forward, pull your waist to the back edge of the mat, find that opposition, thighs forward, waist back, keep your legs here, scoop deeper, arms go up towards the ceiling, now as you curl up, feel like you're pressing your arms through water, reach your arms forward and then reach your legs forward, waist back and you pump, inhale two, three, four, five, exhale two, three, four, five, inhale, reach your inner thighs down to your inner ankles, two, three, four, five, inhale, pull your lower abdominals into the floor, two, three, four, five inhale, pull your waist to the back end to the mat, I may have lost count inhale two, three, four, five, if you wanna challenge yourself, pull your lower abdominals in deeper, reach your legs forward and pull your waist back more, two, three, four, five, big pumps, two, three, four, five exhale, two, three, four, five, are your shoulder blades still off the mat? Exhale, two, three, four, five, keep the bend at the bottom of your chest bone, exhale two, three, four, five, let's do one more two, three, four, five, exhale, two, three, four, five and hold here, you can either hug your knees into your chest or float everything down, arms go up towards the ceiling, reach your arms back and let them just sink into the floor.

Take a second to inner spiral your thighs like we did last week. So I'm rotating the inside seams of my pants down to the floor, kneecaps point up, and exhale, hover your arms off the floor so you can see them in your peripheral vision, feel the weight of your chest, your ribs and your abdominals. Reach your arms up towards the ceiling, we're gonna do a roll up, curl up, try to get your ears between your arms, and then press your lowest rib down and roll up and round forward, and then sit up for a second. If you have a canvas strap, place your feet underneath the strap, if not, mimic the position, so when you look at your feet, just like when you were standing on the floor, reach your inner ankles forward, pull your pinky toes back, so if your feet were against a wall, you would still feel the three corners of your feet on the wall or on the floor. Now Reach your arms forward, round your spine, feel like your fingers in the top of your head wanna of the past your toes, but pull your lower back towards the wall, slide it up the wall and then roll down, as you roll down keep reaching your inner ankles forward, pull your pinky toes back, arms go up and they go back, ribs are heavy.

Arms go up, you inhale to roll up through your spine, you exhale, round over your pelvis, Inhale, curl your tailbone underneath you, and then exhale, roll through your spine, arms go up towards the ceiling, try to dive your head through your arms, press that lowest ribbon to the mat exhale, keep your shoulders where they are as long as you can, try to get the back of your hips on the floor, and then exhale, roll all the way down two more, arms go up, chin into your chest, exhale over your hips. Inhale, you drag your shoulders with the strength of your powerhouse, exhale through your spine, final one, arms go up, think about your feet. Round forward, inner ankles, reach forward, now pull your hip points back inner ankles forward, hip points back in her ankles forward, rest your arms by your side. Now bend your knees and place your feet flat, we're gonna do some pelvic curls or pelvic tilts to prepare us for something coming later, once your knees are bent feet are flat, place your hands on your hips again, you'll find those hip points, keep your middle finger and your ring finger on those hip points and locate your lowest rib with your thumbs. When you do a pelvic curl, you wanna shorten the distance between these points, so I'm gonna take an inhale, I exhale, round my lower back into the floor and notice how it shortened the distance between my hip points and my ribs, and then I let it release.

Press your inner thighs together and then exhale, find your pelvic curl, feel your tailbone curl up to your knee creases, your navel goes in and up the length of your spine, and then lower, you can place your arms by your side, exhale, do your pelvic curl, you can even push your feet into the floor, try to deepen it pulling your navel in and up and then release one more, exhale, feel your ribs slide towards your hip points, hip points towards your ribs and then lower. So we're gonna do the same thing with our feet off the mat, but before we do that, I want you to get the feeling of pressing your arms down and forward. Press your arms down like your chest expansion and feel like you're sliding your arms forward to the bottom edge of the mat. So now bend your knees into your chest, pull your lower abdominals in and you don't have to make your hips super high, right? We just wanna focus on the pelvic curl, press your arms down and forward, now exhale, bury your ribs and curl your tailbone up, see, not very high, and then lower all the way down.

And again, find your chest expansion, now press your back ribs into the mat, try to curl your tailbone up, you shorten the distance between your hip points in your ribs, and then lower. One more, exhale, press your arms down, curl your tailbone up towards the ceiling and then lower. Interlace your fingers behind your right thigh, slide your left leg down to the bottom edge of the mat, just let it relax for a second, press your right leg forward into a tabletop, once again, recruiting the back of your thigh, now inner spiral that bottom leg, your standing leg, like you did at the beginning of class, flex your foot. The three corners of your feet should be on the wall in front of you, so reach your inner ankle forward and pull the outer edge of your foot back, then extend your right leg up towards the ceiling, and then you're gonna outer spiral it so your knee points away from your body, so the bottom leg rolls in, the top leg rolls out, press your arms down, abs in and we go, inhale the cross, exhale around and lift, inhale cross, now as you do this, can you keep your hips and your shoulders balanced try to keep finding your chest expansion and keep pulling your lower abdominals into the mat, revers, open and again, open, pull your abs in and up, lift, open, leg forward, navel to the back end to the mat, two more, open, final one, leave that leg up, catch it for a second, check in with that standing leg reach through your leg, reach your inner thigh to your inner ankle and pull your pinky toe back, switch, hug your left knee in, slide your right leg down, let it relax for a second, and then feel like you're rotating the inside seam of your pant down to the floor, and then flex your foot, find the three corners of your feet on the wall in front of you, you can peek if you need to, your inner ankle reaches forward, pinky toe pulls back, stabilize that, press your thigh forward and pull your waist to the back edge of the mat, extend your leg up, turn it out while this one stays turned in, stabilize with your arms and the standing leg, inhale cross, exhale around and lift. Inhale, pull your lower abdominals in.

Inhale, pull your navel to the back edge of the mat. Cross, exhale around and lift, one more, reverse your circles, open keep that right hip down, so you're bouncing your hips right hip down, that notes for me, open, pull your navel back, last two, open exhale, final one, catch that leg, check in with that standing leg, keep reaching your inner thigh towards your inner ankle and pull your pinky toe back. Alright, we're gonna go into rolling like a ball, you can either just rock yourself up to seated or you can roll up this way. We're gonna start bouncing on our tailbone, so the backs of our tailbone, so reach your leg long and straight, reach your arms up and back, feel the weight of your chest, your ribs and your lower back like they're sinking into the floor. Reach your arms up towards the ceiling, now curl your head and shoulder blades up off the mat and just reach and the more you reach your arms forward, the more you wanna bury your lower abdominals into the floor.

Now keep burying your lower abdominal, see if you could just float your legs up a little bit and then lower them down, rest your head, arms go up and back. And again reach your arms up, curl your head and shoulder blades up, we're gonna take it further now, you're gonna pull your lower abdominals in, you're gonna come all the way up into rolling like a ball, so scoop and grab your ankles, tightened ball, you want your shoulders and your knees close together, pull your hip points away from your navel, think about that pelvic curl, so without rolling all the way, tip yourself back like an inch, and then tip yourself forward that was not good Kira, and again, roll back a little bit more dare yourself even if you fall, even if you crash and burn, and again, curl your tailbone up and then dive your head forward. I also like to feel like I'm lifting my knees up and over my shoulders, and then diving my shoulders up and over my knees try it like that, lift your knees up and over your shoulders, and then dive your shoulders up and over your knees, you have one more, find those lower abdominals right above your pubic bone. Good, this is home base, every time you roll up you to feel those low abdominals, here we go, you're gonna roll back, lifting your tailbone up dive your head forward and find your balance without wobbling and curl your tailbone up, dive your head forward, find your balance with your hip points away from your thighs, one more, roll back, roll up, did you send your ribs forward or are you still rounding in your lower back like a pelvic tilt? We're gonna change the rhythm, we're gonna go much faster, ready?

You inhale back exhale right back up, Inhale, roll back, exhale up, Inhale back, dive your shoulders forward, and again, roll back, exhale up, we're gonna do one more and balance, roll back, find your balance freeze, keep finding that pelvic tilt, pull your hip points away from your thighs, so your lower back is round, that's the base of your teaser, pull your hip points back, look forward, do not change your spine just press your front ribs into your back ribs and extend into a teaser, toes are opposite your eyes, bend your knees, grab your ankles, round your spine, roll back and up, roll back, roll up, don't change your spine, find your teaser, pull your waist back and then bend your knees, roll back, dive your head forward to come up, scoop and find your teaser, and then bend one more, lift your tailbone up, dive your head forward, find your balance to scoop and find your teaser, hug your knees in, place your feet down, from here, straighten your legs, point your feet, reach your arms forward, curl your tailbone under and then roll down one bone at a time, my inner ankles are reaching forward, my hip bones are pulling to the back edge of the mat and I rest. Now, we're gonna go into the series of five. Start by bringing your right knee into your chest, so my right hand holds on to my right ankle, left hand below my knee, find the scoop in your powerhouse and then reach to this leg, curl up. Now I've tried to pull your knee to your shoulder, heal to your butt and then scoop your abs to switch and switch, feel the opposition of that straight leg trying to touch the wall behind you and your waistline, always traveling towards the back edge of the mat. Find your breath in it, once again, I love count, we'll do one more set.

And then from there your knees into your chest, rest your head. Alright, so we're gonna go into double leg stretch, so try to drop your tailbone down, pull your abs in, exhale, bend at the bottom of your chest bone to curl up, Inhale, reach your arms up, legs forward, reach across the room and pull your waist back, circle, your arms they are in my peripheral vision, bend my knees, hug them in. Inhale, make a picture, press your inner thighs together, circle, exhale, inhale and reach, circle, exhale, your legs can also be up here, circle, exhale, I like to keep my arms in my peripheral vision though, Two more, pull your waist back, legs forward, final one waist back, legs forward, rest your head and shoulder blades all the way down. Single straight leg or scissors, reach your right leg up, hold on to either the back of your ankle, your calf or your hamstring, whichever feels best for you, curl your head and shoulder blades up, extend this leg, keep reaching that leg forward, keep pulling your waist back, you pull the top leg twice, you pull, pull it closer, scoop those abs into switch pull, pull, abs go down, legs up, pull, pull, scoop to switch, pull, pull, scoop, pull, pull, my powerhouse pulls my legs towards me, then I grab it to give it an extra stretch, pull, pull, scoop, pull, pull, scoop, exhale, pull, pull and pull, pull, one more set, and then from here, bend your knees, rest your head. Double straight leg, you'll stack your palms one on top of the other, they go to the back of your head.

To connect to your back a little bit, Just lift your elbows off the mat an inch, slide your armpits towards your hips, or think of sliding your shoulder blades towards your hips. Pull your hip points into your navel and your navel up towards your thumbs, find your frog, curl your head and shoulder blades up, press your heels together legs up ads down, inhale reach forward for three, two, one, exhale and lift feel like you're pressing your inner thighs down to the floor and then reach them forward and up, legs go up and forward two, one, they reach forward to go up and again inhale reach forward and down two, one, are your shoulder blades still off the mat or are you compensating? If your shoulders are dropping, just move your leg a little bit and lift, two more, pull your lower abdominals in, exhale and lift, final one, inhale, mama is tired and lift, bend your knees and rest your head. All right, last one, criss-cross, stack your hands one on top of the other, maybe put the other hand on top this time, lift your elbows upside, your armpits down and pull your hip points into your navel. Legs are together, press your back ribs into the floor and try to curl up, press them into the mat a little bit more, Now straighten the left leg, try to touch the wall and maybe curl up higher, left ribs go to your right inner thigh, right elbow to the back edge of the mat and then switch, reach your right leg forward, right ribs go to the left inner thigh, left elbow to the back edge of the mat, and then you switch criss and cross, scoop to criss and cross, don't forget about that bend knee, pull it all the way into your chest, pull it back as the other leg go forward, one more set.

Hug your knees into your chest that wears me out. Spine stretch rock up to see it, separate your legs a little bit wider than the mat, flex your feet, once again, look at your feet, your inner ankles are reaching forward, the outer edges of your feet are pulling back, you always just wanna think of the soles of your feet pulling back, now reach forward and grab your ankles if you can, and then as you press your thighs down, round your spine, feel your sits bones drop into the floor and I'm lifting my front ribs into my back ribs, I'm pulling my navel to the top of a wall behind me, my navel is going up there and I'm pulling my lower abdominals into my lower back. Now keep this lift, reach your arms in front of you, so they're parallel to the floor, this is your spine stretch, press the backs of your thighs down, roll all the way up at the top you exhale, Inhale, lift chin goes to your chest, feel like you're doing the roll up, peel down try to get your nose and your navel, head between your upper inner thighs, Inhale, press the backs of your thighs down, roll all the way up, and exhale, inhale lift chin to your chest, empty your lungs, the breathing exercise, when you have no more exhale, that's your sign to roll up on an inhale at the top, you exhale, two more, lift, exhale all the air out, think about your feet, inner ankles forward, outer edges back, Inhale, roll all the way up, and exhale, final one, lift, exhale all the air out to round forward, can you lift your navel to the top of the wall behind you, and then roll all the way up and then exhale. Alright, here comes another balancing one, open leg rocker, we're gonna work on a transition, so make your legs only as wide as your shoulders, we've done this before, think of doing the roll up. So you can reach your arms forward, pull your lower abdominals in, my fingers wanna keep reaching for that wall in front of me, but my hip points are gonna go to the back edge of that mat, It's your pelvic curl that's at the base of your rolling exercises.

So I'm gonna reach my arms forward, all I'm thinking about is my hip points back, arms forward, hip points back, arms forward, tailbone forward, ribs back, notice I'm still reaching, notice how round my spine is, hold, pull your lower abdominals in, see if you can flip your legs up, and then reach your arms forward and come up to a seated position. Alright, let's try it again, lift your spine now remember, your arms are going forward, It's your hip points and your ribs, make sure this is concave, I'm trying to keep my shoulders over my hips, instead of leaning back, that'll go right into my lower back, I'm tucking my tailbone, reach your arms and legs forward and everything in the middle goes back, float your legs up yep, I'm using my butt and then reach your arms forward to come all the way up. Now we're gonna float this into open leg rocker, remember, the base of your rolling exercises is your pelvic curl. You wanna keep your hip points away from your thighs, so reach your arms forward, now find your pelvic curl, you shorten the distance between your hip points and your ribs, round, round, round, you have to get to a point where you feel like you can float your legs up from here, so scoop flip your legs up, and then once you do that, keep pulling your hip points into your navel, now right now I'm kind of collapsed, lift your waist up and still pull your ribs back, I like to push my thighs forward and pull my hip points away from my thighs, you initiate the roll by lifting your tailbone up. So roll back with your tailbone up, dive your head forward and find your balance at the pelvic tilt, this one is super hard, because we wanna catch ourselves like this.

You wanna stay in that round shape, and again, lift your tailbone up send your tailbone towards the wall behind you, press your ribs down and come all the way up, and again, lift your tailbone up towards the ceiling and towards the wall behind you, and then roll back up, and again, roll back and then roll up. Notice if you feel both sides of your back, cause I'm not. And again, roll back, I have to about my right side a little bit more, one more, lift your tailbone up, massage your spine, find your balance. Make sure you're in pelvic tilt mode, so you feel those lower abdominals and not this position. Find that double C curb, where your ribs are press back, your lower abdominals are press back, and voila, you're in your teaser right?

Your legs reach forward and up, your waist goes down and back, then you can walk your hands down the backs of your thighs with control, rest your head and bend your knees. So we're gonna advance this corkscrew a little bit, we already started practicing with the pelvic curls, this time we're gonna do it with straight legs, we're gonna do three in a row, before we do our corkscrew, If your knees need to be slightly bent, that's perfectly fine. Find your chest expansion so I'm pressing my arms down, but I'm also sliding them forward almost like I'm kind of pushed myself backwards cause remember that feeling, your legs go up towards the ceiling, press your arms down and forward now find your pelvic tilt, you shorten the distance between your hip points in your ribs and lift a little bit and then lower. Think of pressing your ribs down and again press your arms down ribs down, tailbone goes up, and then roll, one more, press your arms down and forward and then you lower your tailbone, then you circle your legs to the right side of your mat, you pull your abs into circle to the left side of your mat come center pelvic curl, press up and then lower your tailbone, legs go to the left, pull your navel to the back edge of the mat, come center, roll your hips up, and then down, then you circle down around, come center and roll up, roll your tailbone down, circle your legs, press your arms down and forward, last set, make sure you're pressing your shoulders into the floor, my left shoulder notoriously wants to come off the mat, press your shoulders down, lift, roll up, rock yourself up to seated and you're ready for saw. Separate your legs a little bit wider than your mat, once again, look at your feet, your foundation, reach your inner heels forward, outer edges of your feet back, scoop your lower abdominals in, reach your arms out to the side.

As you twist your ribs to the left, feel like your hips are rotating to the right, as you round forward, pull your ribs back, reach your pinky finger for your pinky toe, make sure you're seated on that right hip, and then pull your ribs back, roll up into a twist and return center. As you twist to the right your hips go to the left, pull your ribs back like your spine, stretch forward, round forward, sit on that left hip, pull your abs back to roll up and return center, you lift and twist to the left hips go to the right, round your spine, your ear goes to your knee, you're looking at this backhand, your left arm presses to the back right corner and lift up so you can lift your waist and then you will all the way up and center. You rotate your ribs stabilize your hips, round forward, left ear to your right knee, press your tricep up so much your ribs follow it and then come all the way up. Center, last set, rotate, round your ribs ear to your knee, look at the backhand lift it up to lift your ribs up and sit on that right hip, and then roll up into a twist, return center, final one lift to twist, round your ribs like your waist is going to the back left corner of the mat, press this arm behind you and up, roll all the way up and return center. Alright, so now we're gonna do some extension work, while you flip over into your stomach, I'm just gonna move my mic over to the other side.

So you'll lie down on your stomach, we're gonna do like we did last week, so your arms are straight, I think it's helpful to have your arms as wide as the mat to start, so that you can keep your shoulders away from your ears. So slide your shoulders away from your ears, reach your tailbone towards your heels, feel your hip points pull into your navel and your navel to the front edge of the mat. Really reach your tailbone back so much that it pulls your chest forward and up, and then you press your palms into the floor, you wanna feel like your triceps are pressing down, but so are your thumbs and your index fingers. Drag your chest forward and up just like down stretch on the reformer, and then reach your chest forward and down to lower, and again, you always start with your powerhouse, so scoop in and up, reach your tailbone back so much like so it's pulling your tailbone toward your heels, It pulls your chest forward and up, press down with your triceps your thumbs and index fingers, can you pull your lower abdominals into your lower back more and then lower all the way down, we're gonna add a neck roll, so reach your tailbone back, so you lengthen your lower back and then you curl your chest forward and up, your chest is trying to touch the wall in front of you, now look over your right shoulder, look for your heels, roll your chin into your throat, look over your left shoulder find your heels and center, reverse look over your left shoulder chin into your throat, look over your right shoulder, center, keep the lift, bend your elbows. So now my elbows are pressed down, I'm dragging my tricep towards the wall behind me and my chest goes towards the wall in front of me, keep lifting your abdominals and you kick your heels at your seat twice, you kick, kick as your leg goes forward your leg goes back your chest goes forward, kick, kick now notice are you balanced on your hips, or are you shifting to one hip?

Keep your balance on your hip points, pull, pull it closer, you pull your heel in, you pull it in closer. You pull it in, pull it in closer as I kick my leg I dragged my triceps back, I kick my leg and drag my triceps back, one more set, final one. Lower all the way down, double leg kick so We're gonna do a little modification, you'll stack your palms one on top of the other, Instead of looking straight down, look slightly forward at the front edge of your mat, lift your elbows out to the side feel like you're shoving people out of the way with your elbows, press your pubic bone down and lift your lower abdominals into your lower back, you pull your heels to your seat one, press your hips down, pull them in closer, pull them in close, you should feel your butt and your hamstrings. Now, reach your leg back, slide your arms back, press your triceps up towards the ceiling so much that your chest has no choice but to come off the floor, and then stack your hands, you pull your heels in, then you pull them in even closer, then a little bit closer, lower your feet, lift your lower abdominals into your hands, reach your arms back here is your chest expansion, chest expansion lifts your chest up, and then lower a little bit more flow, you kick for three, two, one, straighten your arms and press them up. Final one, kick for three, two, one, straighten your arms and press your triceps up and hold them up, pull your navel forward, circle your arms out to the side, reach your arms forward and then sit back into child's pose.

Active the child's pose, so instead of collapsing, can you press your knees into the floor and lift your hip points off of your thighs, and then you can roll up and we're gonna get ready for neck pull. So, one second, you can take a seat with your legs extended in front of you and they should be shoulders distance apart. When you look at your feet once again, inner heels reach forward, outer edges of your feet pull back, three corners of your feet are constantly reaching for the wall in front of you, I am going to use the canvas strap. So it helps to reinforce that work in my feet and my legs all the way up to my glutes. Stack your hands one on top, the other hands go behind your head.

Notice how my elbows are slightly in front of me instead of behind me with flaring ribs, So I don't wanna do a back bend, I press my head back, I pull my ribs waist and lower abdominals back, just hinge, lean back, trying to make a diagonal with your spine and then come back up, you know when you tilt the doll back and their gaze goes downwards, do that, okay, so you're gonna press your head back as you lean back, gaze down the bridge of your nose and pull those lower abdominals in so you're not flaring your ribs forward, and then come back up, one more, pull your hip points into your navel, look down the bridge of your nose, now, elbows forward, ribs back, roll all the way down one bone at a time, you can open your elbows, but not so much that your back comes off the mat. Feel the length of your inner ankles reaching forward and your hip points pulling into your navel, Inhale, roll up, exhale, round forward, Inhale, press the back of your head into your hands, press your head into your hands look down to hinge and then exhale, elbows forward, try to get these ribs back, try to keep pulling your ribs back and open, and again roll up, exhale, round forward this is your spine stretch right? Now lift your hip points into your navel, roll all the way up, pull your lower abdominals in, you're rolling over the backs of your sits bone, and then round your spine, tailbone shoots forward and waist back, you have one more, isn't this your favorite exercise? Exhale, round forward, find your spine, stretch start lifting your ribs and then roll up. Lift your spine, now pull your lower abdominals in, feel yourself roll over the backs of your sits bones, curl your tailbone under pull your ribs back and rest.

All right, let's do a variation of shoulder bridge which prepares you for the advanced work. So you'll bend your knees and place your feet flat, you want your knees and your feet to be in line with these hip points, feel the three corners of your feet on the floor, press your arms into the floor like your chest expansion, find your pelvic curl. So I'm pushing my arms, my feet and my lower back into the floor, and I continue to roll up one bone at a time, my ribs wanna stay down but my hips wanna go up, think of your knees going forward but your hip points pulling into your navel and then keep your hips up and roll your chest bone in between your shoulder blades. Then sync your front ribs into your back ribs, your waist, then your lower back and then your tailbone. Press down with your arms and your feet, feel your lower back press into the mat before it peels off of the mat and then try to peel one bone at a time off the floor and it goes forward and up, your hip points go down and back, keep pressing into the three corners of your feet, notice if you're favoring the outer edges of your feet, or if you feel your inside arches press into the mat.

Keep your hips elevated sink your Chest bone down, hips elevated, sink your ribs down, then your waist, your lower back and then your tailbone. One more, press your arms and your feet down, roll up sequentially through your spine, keep sending your tailbone and knees forward, hip points back, and then roll down one bone at a time, upper back, middle back, lower back, tailbone and then hug your knees into your chest, we're ready for sidekicks. Rock yourself up to a seated position, turn on to your right side, I'm gonna face you for both, line your whole back body up with the back edge of the mat. Find your standing position here, you can even look at your feet, reach your inner ankle down to the bottom edge of the mat and pull the outer edges of your feet towards the top of your mat. This hand goes right in front of your waist.

Now this is about stabilizing or balancing on one side of your Pilates box, you don't want your shoulders to rotate and you don't want your hips to rotate, scoop your powerhouse, reach your legs forward and up, as your legs go forward, keep your tailbone on the back of the mat, lower your legs. I'm gonna keep my bottom leg parallel, I'm gonna turn my top leg out, reach this hip away from your armpit, just gonna swing our leg back and forth, front and back. In this rhythm, try to find your balance or your stability. When I swing my leg to the front, I pull my abs back, I kick using my glutes and my hamstrings, and I'm stabilizing my shoulder. One thing that helps that press the back of my head into my hand, try one more, press it back and hold it back.

Make your leg longer, use your glute and your hamstring to press your leg back further and then pull your lower abdominals towards the wall behind you. Pull your waist back, press your head into your hand and lengthen, and then stack your legs one on top of the other. Turn the top leg out, you're gonna lift your leg up, as you lower feel like you're squeezing both inner thighs together, and again, lengthen to lift, exhale and lower, three more, reach down and up, and up and away, and again, lift it up and then lower, one more, lift it up and lower, check in to make sure your hips are stacked, five small circles in each direction, it goes front up and back two and three and four and five, pause, reverse goes back around, use your glutes and three and four and five, stack your legs. Now I'm gonna externally rotate both legs, reach my leg long, press my hand down, then I'm going to lift both legs up and then lower them down, and again pull your abs in to lift your legs up and then lower them down. One more pull your abs in and up, keep your legs up flip onto your stomach, make your legs longer, reach your tailbone to the back to the wall behind you, open and close your legs 10 times, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, lower your legs sit back in an active child's pose, while I adjust my mic.

Remember the active child's pose, you find your pelvic tilt at the bottom, curl your tailbone under, sit on your heels and then you'll set yourself up on the left side. So find your standing position, look at your feet inner ankle forward, outer edges of your feet back, this arm is right in front of your waist, this is a reminder to scoop, lift your legs up, tailbone goes back, legs go forward, top leg goes up and I turn it out just like we did with single leg circles. Now you just gonna swing your leg front and back and find your stability through the movement. One side is harder than the other. And again, pull my abs in press with my glute and hamstring, let your leg swing like a pendulum freely inside the socket, you can keep pressing your head into your hand which is cut right at the base of your skull, two more, press it back and hold it back, make it longer, so it lengthens out the top of your Pilates box.

Use your glute and hamstring to press your leg back, pull your lower abdominals in and pull your navel up to your thumb, stack your legs one on top of the other up and down, you reach past the bottom leg, lift, squeeze both inner thighs to lower, lengthen to lift, lengthen to lower, lengthen to lift, lengthen it to lower, two more, final one, five small circles, scoop your powerhouse, make sure you're not tucking like I am, you want your tailbone to stay long along the back edge of the mat, here we go circle it front up and back, two and three and four and five and reverse, massage the inside of your hip socket by lengthening that thigh bone right out of it. Good and then stack your legs, you can point your feet find your rotation so you're hugging your midline, reach your inner thighs down towards your inner ankles and then lift your legs up, lengthen your head away from your toes and then lower, and again, lengthen and lift, keep reaching that top leg longer than the bottom leg, and then lower one more length into lift, and then lower flip onto your back, hug your knees into your chest. We're gonna get ready for teaser. So we're gonna start teaser kind of like we did open leg rocker. So your legs are extended in front of you, pull your abdominals in and up, your hands go next to your hips, Notice how I'm bending my elbows, they point behind me, I'm not straightening my elbows and letting my shoulders go up to my ears.

Now just try this, press your hands down and forward, press your hands down and forward and find your pelvic tilt, hands are going forward, your hip points are going back, try a couple more, just play with that and really try to find your lower abdominals, and then release, one more pressure hands down and forward, pull your hip points back so much that you can lift your legs up into a teaser, find your pelvic tilt, reach your fingertips towards your toes, now keep pulling your hip points down and back, but reach your fingers past your toes and then land with control, this is gonna get you ready for boomerang in the advanced work right? So your hands go next to your hips, elbows point back, lift your spine first, push your hands down and forward, find your pelvic curl. So my tailbone is trying to touch my heels, my hip points are trying to touch the mat so that my legs will float up opposite my eyes, and then I reach my arms forward, my ribs are going back, my waist and my lower abdominals, now keep pulling your waist back, reach your arms forward and tip yourself back, one more like this, your hands go next to you, press down and forward pull your powerhouse back, find your pelvic curl, like we've done in all the rolling exercises, keep curling your tailbone until your legs feel weightless, lift your pubic bone up towards the ceiling that'll float your legs up, and then reach your arms forward, this time, roll down one bone at a time. And then hug your knees into your chest, let's try teaser three because it's similar to the roll up and it's similar to the way we rolled up into rolling like a ball. So start with your arms back, but even though your arms are back, center yourself, feel the weight of your chest bone, the weight of your ribs, the weight of your lower abdominals.

Reach your inner ankles past your big toes, arms go up towards the ceiling, start off with your chest curl, your arms are on a four diagonal reaching for the top of the wall in front of you, pull your lower abdominals in, It'll be like a pelvic tilt, and that's what floats your legs up, hold here you're on the back of your tailbone not on top and now lift your waist to lift your arms up, now curl your tailbone under find that pelvic tilt, the back of your hips touch and then you roll away, your toes they're opposite your eyes, you lower all the way down, this time we'll roll up into a teaser and then right into seal. Arms go up, curl up, pull your lower abdominals down and back, keep pulling your hip points down and back, float everything up into your teaser, bend your knees hold on to the outsides of your feet, you're still on the back of your tailbone right? The soles of your feet are together, Press your inner thighs into your arms, Press your arms into your inner thighs, against that can you deepen your pelvic tilt, you're gonna clap three times here and clap three times on your shoulder blade. You open close three, two, one, roll back lift your tailbone three, two, one, dive head forward, clap three, two, one lift your tailbone up three, two, one, roll up three, two, one roll back, three, two, one more step three, two, one, final one, come up to standing, and then we're gonna finish with more balancing on our feet. So this time we're gonna make it a little bit more challenging, we're gonna do it in Pilates stance, I'm falling apart.

So we're gonna in Pilates stance, because I have hyper extended knees, I make my Pilates stance a little bit narrower, it's easier for me to connect to my hamstrings, but typically your Pilates stance is like four fingers distance apart between your big toe joints. So take a second to shift forward into the balls of your feet and then back into your heels. Just go front and back, make sure you're feeling the balls of all 10 toes and then find your center and then roll to the outer edge of your feet, the inner edge, the outer edge, the inner edge, one more, and then find your center. From here scoop deeper, I'm reaching my inner heels down and pulling my hip points up, reach your arms forward, stack your arms, keep reaching your elbows forward ribs back, bend your knees. Now once again, feel the weight of your pelvis just hanging from your waist, do have equal weight across your feet, from here, press your inner heels together, pressing your big toe and small toe, lift your heels up, from your powerhouse, straighten your legs, your thighs go back, lower abs go back, now reach your tailbone down and hip points up to lower your heels, bend your knees, find equal weight on your feet, and then pull your abs back as your heels curl forward, are you putting weight on your big toe or are you rolling out?

Keep pressing those heels together like they're superglued, now scoop so much that your legs just feel like they're reaching into the floor with minimal effort, and then reach your tailbone down towards your heels to lower, one more, bend your knees, find the tripod underneath you, and then pull your abs back, push to the ball of your big toe and small toe and then pull your abdominals in and up to straighten your legs, tailbone down, hip points up, change the stack of your arms, reverse, think of going straight up instead of leaning into it, press your heels together, lift your inner thighs into your powerhouse, keep your heels connected, bend your knees, and then press your inner heels into the floor, pull your abs back thighs back, and again, pull your abs in and up to lift your heels up, press your heels together, bend your knees, press your enter heels into the floor, pull your abs back, thighs back, final one, lift up, bend your knees, find your big toe in small toe, pressure enter heels down, pull your abs back straight and reach your arms forward and down. I'm gonna turn sideways, we're gonna finish with chest expansion. This one is like my nemesis cause you have to go up on your toes for this one too. Okay, so find your Pilates stance, connect to the three corners of your feet, scoop your powerhouse in and up finding lengthen your spine, press the back of your upper inner thighs together, reach your arms forward, as you inhale your arms sweep down to the floor and reach behind you, keep squeezing your shoulder blades and your heels. Look over one shoulder, look over the other shoulder, look center, your tailbone reaches for your heels, hip point lift up, arms go forward, that wasn't horrible.

Okay, again, so start by pulling your abs back and press your heels forward, squeeze your shoulder blades, arms down and back, chest forward and up, look over your left shoulder, look over your right shoulder, look, center, exhale, start with your tailbone reaching to your heels, hip points lift up towards your ribs, two more, reach forward and down with your arms, lift up with your hip points and reach your arms back, keep lifting your hip points up into your navel, look over one shoulder, look over the other shoulder, look center, try to keep those heels connected, and then lower your heels and reach your arms forward, abs back, one more, okay, you got this, so find your powerhouse, find the three corners of your feet, feel the reach of your arms, now here we go, inhale, pull your abs in and up heels up, squeeze your shoulder blades, look over your left shoulder, look over your right shoulder look center, find it, reach your arms forward, pull your waist back and then reach your heels into the floor, Inner heels go down, arms go up, and then your head goes up towards the ceiling, circle your arms wide to the side, and you're done. Thank you very much, next week, we're gonna put it all together, and we're just gonna work on flow, so we're gonna be constantly moving and incorporating seamless transitions into the intermediate mat workout. So thank you again for joining me and I'll see you next week, bye-bye.