As You Wish

(crows cawing) Just like that the crows show up. Hey everybody, I'm Kristi. Welcome to my house. And today's class is called As You Wish. And I really wished hard to be here today, and we are, so I'll spare you the details on internet and so on, but welcome.

And the original intent and the intent today for me and hope for you is that to decide what it is you need today not who are you today, but what do you need? And so we'll go through some hopefully familiar exercises and within each one, decide like how can I get more out of them if you want that? How do I need to make myself feel better? And I'll do my best to kind of offer modifications here and there, but it's your class, it's your time, do as you've wished within the scope of queuing. Let's begin, standing upright.

Stand as tall as you possibly can just by being there. Shift your weight forward just a little bit. Thanks for coming. Shift your weight back a little bit. And this is again, my way of just sort of knowing where I'm not aligned and I can tell my head's forward and so on.

Weight Shifting

Here we go. Land where you are. Let's take that roll down, inhale, exhale. Let your head almost draw your spine forward. Just the weight of it.

Roll Down

Do you need more time or less? That's okay, you can do two for everyone I do. Exhale down as you wish, inhaling at the bottom, start that exhale. And as a reminder, that's what naturally allows you to begin to support in the core. Sometimes people think they're weak in the core but it's only 'cause they're holding the breath.

Exhale, I'm gonna take my hands to the ground as best I can. Bend the knees but take the knees, the hips, the spine is really what I'm going for here. I've inhaled and exhaled towards straight or all the way to straight. Inhale again, bend the knees, exhale straight, inhale, bend, (inhales) exhale, straight, and hang out there. And by straighten, I mean, to the extent that you can.

Plies

Breathing

Squats

It's not about the count. It's about just kinda heat up. (inhales) (exhales) And when I come back up, that's where I'm like right, I'm upright, I'm tall. I'm gonna get on the floor in a minute, and I wanna recreate this feeling. How about two more? (inhales), (exhales) Okay, it's time.

On the ground, you could be fancy about getting down, I'm not going to be today. Sitting upright, hold on behind the legs. And this is your chance. Like we get to support ourselves. So let's do, hold on behind the legs.

Half Roll Back

You can use your arms to come back up, exhale back. (exhales) Start finding yourself on the floor in terms of I'm grounded in my feet, I've got the whole body to work with and enjoy. So I am using my arms. I'm gently pressing into the ground, I'm pulling the hip bones back. Not by collapsing, hopefully, but by well, using my muscles. But I don't wanna think about muscles right now.

I wanna think about movement. (exhales) We'll go further this time, inhaling. I'm inhaling at the top. I start that exhale. 'Cause like when we were standing I feel myself supported more from the front, so my back can release a little inhale at the bottom. And the bottom is about, I don't know a little more than lower back.

Roll Back

That when I pull, I can with my arms I can pull back with the belly and allow my back to loosen up, inhale (inhales) and exhale. (exhales) Inhale, exhale, come back up. Let's kick it up a tiny bit even though it's early. Here we go, exhale, take it down. Down to that spot. That's about where you think you can let go.

Inhale, let one arm go up. Let's not change the spine. Exhale, bring it back to the leg. Hold on other arm up. Reach it back, back, back back and bring it down.

Roll Back w/Arm Extension

Oh, those pauses have their places, don't they? Inhale, let's go again. Start the exhale. It's not a drop. You're not dropping.

You're not gonna drop yourself today or tonight, whatever. Choosing your arm, if you remember choose the other arm. Inhale up, one arm, let's go and reaches back, exhale down, other arm up and back down. Oh, we did both already. Let's go inhale up.

Oh my goodness. I can't go so far back because I wanna keep my body still in that position. Hold for an inhale. Start that exhale and come back up. Now once you're glad you're using your arms.

Sit up till, two more, we got it. Exhale down (exhales), first sidearm, or just pick an arm. You can let go, right? If you're feeling like you really wanna challenge yourself don't hold on at all. Other arm, (inhales), (exhales), both arms or just breathe.

Oh my goodness. Exhale, bring them back. Hold for the inhale. There's that pause. Start the exhale up.

We come, guess what we get to do one more. Let's go, take it down. Yes, let's go of one arm. Reach it back. Notice how much stronger you start to feel even as you wish I would stop this exercise.

I switched both arms. Here we go. (inhales), (exhales) Hold inhale, come on, come on. Start the exhale and up you come, holding on to the front of your knees or shins or somewhere anywhere really to just give yourself that sense of upward lift again. 'Cause we're going to keep going with some of this work. I'm spitting my hips forward toward my heels a bit.

Bridge

Keep that intention all the way up, but also feel the back of your shoulders on the mat. For a pelvic curl, we inhale. Encourage you on the rest on this for the simple exhale start rolling up so that you could use the breath in its natural way that allows the diaphragm to do its thing in the belly, the drop belly, anyway, abs whatever word you want, as you wish. Inhale at the top, exhale melt it back down bone by lovely bone. Try to find them all.

Let's say 24 before you hit the second, right? And down, inhale. Start the excellent. Just notice like soften even. It happens naturally.

Sometimes we don't have to try so hard. Keep going, pick it up. (inhales), (exhales) Do you feel the back of your arms? Isn't this upward position to stay here for a second? You've got to check yourself out, right? Be your own teacher.

Maybe glance down. Are your hips up as much as they can be without flaring the ribs, right? I'm not looking for a backbend here. I'm looking for a straight line. And whether you're there or not something to think on take whatever breath we're gonna exhale to come down basically holding onto the back of the legs.

Oh, that way. Inhale (inhales), start that exhale up, we come. (inhales), (exhales) Inhale, take a second. Imagine for vocabulary too, I'm thinking pubic down towards sternum. So you're almost trying to tuck your pelvis around your lower back.

It's not gonna look rounded but once you've done a little bit of that you'll probably feel your hamstrings and glutes more. Keep that stand on your feet more. You didn't flare your knees. I know that, I know you. You're gonna keep'em straight ahead.

You're gonna feel it. And you gonna be fine with it. It's the warmup, inhale. Keep that sensation as best you can for as long as you can but start rolling down from the upper back or the throat or the any way up top until very bottom. Give you one more of those so you can play with that.

Inhale, exhale. You start that tuck. The sensation of this tucking or rolling continues even when it doesn't feel like it's doing that in action or shape or enough said, you're there. Do you need to recommit? Do you need to re-relax your neck recommit to your arms?

Inhale, exhale, we come down. Voila, all right. I'm taking my knees up to do at knees, I decide so, or you can keep them down. That was the end of that thought. Take your arms out the T position, not higher than your shoulders.

Supine Spinal Rotation w/Legs Table Top

I think I was Italian, that how much I use my hands. I just noticed that, exhale come back. (indistinct) Other way, inhale. So the opposite, the far hip any hip, one hip comes off. Hangout, are your knees lined up?

Start exhaling and forget about the legs for second, and think I'm gonna press my ribs down, my waist down, my hips down, and of course the legs will follow other way, and exhale. (exhales) And inhale, just getting that rotation going, make our back extension far easier later. Like pretty much everything, easier. It's a good way. Again, your feet can be on the ground to the front or to the seahorse today, (inhales), (exhales) and back. Can we do just one more each way?

If you wanna go further, go further. I kind mark keeping the shoulders down as my line. If I get any further than that I'm not really rotating anymore. Last one last, yeah. Cool, hug the knees in, and all I wanna do is kind of really and pick your head up.

Rolling Like A Ball Prep

If you need you back up, go ahead. But lay your legs down completely. Arms are up. So, if you know (indistinct) at all, you know the a hundred, you can do the full hundred. I'm gonna do the one my friend Benjamin taught me which is where I start leaving both legs down.

Hundred w/Legs Down

We inhale, leaves the legs down but imagine you're gonna pick them up right now. Like just do what you had to do to pick them up. Exhale, curl forward, head, neck, and shoulders. Reach for those toes. Press the legs down, curl higher.

Start pumping, we'll only do three and they'll go back down. Inhale two, three, four, five, exhale. In, out. (exhales) In, and out, stay there, reach further. Go for it, go for it, and then come all the way down. You can reach the arms way back, even (indistinct) but recommit back of the ribs on the floor.

Arms up above your shoulders. This time I'm gonna do one leg. So right now I'm gonna, let's just call right leg. So you're ready to go. You're gonna think I'm lifting my right leg.

Hundred w/One Leg Lifted

It is the left side. So think about it now. Your both sides are about to pick up but now you really focus on the left, exhale curl forward and then eventually hover that leg. You can hover it high. See, by the way, and in two, three, four, five out press the other leg down in, out. (exhales) Here's three already out.

Push the leg down, reach the arms back. Take the big stretch. Oh, we can do one more round with both legs off the ground or pick one or the other. Here we go. Arms just above the shoulders, inhale, exhale.

Hundred

Roll Up

My legs are glued together and I am reaching forward as far as I can, but not so much that I'm just getting into a hamstring stretch. Inhale, exhale, start to roll back. It's no different than how we started that first seat of rollback. Come up again, inhale, arms up, head up, look forward. Exhale, I promise you the exhale helps to lift you up off the ground.

You could also just go faster, that's cool. Like I said, as you wish you can do two for every one I do, (exhales) or three is a case maybe. And take it down. The idea is for me is really paying attention to what you need today. (exhales) And I try to take out what Diana Santi calls the ugly. I try to take out the ugly but I'm okay with it a little bit too.

So if I struggle a little getting up or you do, I don't know. Try to take it out whatever, like this and down, only one more. You get yourself up there somehow. Here we come. and from there, hands by your hips.

So forward enough that you can roll back, pick both feet. Well, draw the belly in like that. First seated, rollback, pick both legs up. These together are a part of my go-together. It's a little harder.

Rolling Like A Ball

I liked the heavy beat on when I danced too. It was like back, up hold. But you can roll with it too. You're in charge of your own cells on this one and always, how about one more please? I set my feet down on that one back up enough that I feel like I'm in the middle of my mat picking up that right leg hugging it in, but also as I hug in, I'm pushing it out.

Rolling Like a Ball w/Single Leg Extension

And we're gonna roll three more times. Here we go. Back, up, hold. Back, up, hold. One more, back, up, hold.

Let the leg down and switch, holding. So if you're interested, I have my right hand on my left knee. My left hand on outside on my left ankle. Pin it, stretch that contractions. You roll back a little.

You're ready to go. There's an easy point where that leg will come up three rolls, we go. (inhales), (exhales), one. Here's two, oh wow, I just almost did a circle there. Here's three, oh, set it down, switch back.

We're going into the regular single leg stretch. Details, and here we go. Roll yourself down, hover the leg, stay down. Hug the knee, weigh in. As you stretch the opposite leg, let's go.

Single Leg Stretch

Double Leg Stretch

We're just challenging the weight against it. Making the abs support us more. Let's go four, a little quicker. Three, two, here's one. Finish it, hug it.

Let your head come down, bring it back up. Check yourself out. Elbows wide for the moment, then let them go, put them behind your head. Your hands behind your head. Either released fingers or hand over hand but commit to whatever it is 'cause that's your pillow.

Criss Cross

Hold on one second. Make sure your knees not turned out, okay. You have to look at yourself. You have to switch. Let's go faster.

Inhale, switch, inhale, switch, exhale, exhale, in, in, in, out, out. We go in, in and out. One more time, one more time. Here's out. (exhales) Both knees in hug them to your chest. Let your head come down.

Both legs, we're about to go up. I'm gonna put my hands behind my head first. Even while they're down here, the elbows are up. I'm pushing my head slightly back into my hands to then curl head, neck and control those up. Extend your legs up to straight.

Scissors

And in, in, (exhales) you can breathe out if you want. 'Cause I'm gonna change this pace in a second. Just switch in now. Just breathe, just switch, switch, stay up in your upper body. Switch, switch, switch, switch.

Isn't this fun. Since this is, as you wish I'm gonna stop and bring both legs up and I'm not doing both legs. Double leg, lower lift situation. Both feet come down, your arms, come down by your side. Huh, feet are parallel.

Bridge w/Single Leg Lower Lift

You check yourself out. Sometimes I put my hands on my hips because I might just wanna go into a back extension instead of more hamstring. How do you get more hamstring? Maybe drop down in your ribs first, even though you already there, drop down a little, recommit to your tuck or your rounded spine or whatever you think of, when you say pubic bone towards sternum then step into it more. If you can't go all the way to the top, that's okay.

Pick up your right leg, straight up. Theoretically, your hips didn't change. We're going to reach that leg down. Go as far as you can without the ribs changing and I'm flexing to bring it up. Now we gotta go faster.

It's down, kick up, down, kick up, breathe as you want, as you wish, I mean. (laughs) How about two more? Here's one. Here's two stay up. Oops, flex it, down, put it down. I'm rolling down because I wanna make sure my hips are level, very hard to keep them that way through all that.

So recommitting to level hips, I push back up. Feet feel balanced, other leg comes up. Oh my goodness, thank goodness. That one was about to cramp. we go down, kick up down, kick up.

Try to keep everything else like it's stable and I'm doing two more. One, here's two it's up. Bring it back, put it down and roll down all the way. Hug the knees in. Yay, yay, yay.

Knees to Chest Stretch

Roll Over

Don't look sideways. Don't look sideways. Just know that that's where you are. Flex your feet, separate them about shoulder width and start to roll down once again. It's like an expanded version of the, whatever we just did.

Pelvic curl or shoulder bridge even. Circle the legs together. I come to about 90, maybe a little more. Start the exhale come up and over, hit it. Flex the feet, separate like you're pushing feet midway.

Then start to roll down. Allow for the stretch. It's okay if the legs come closer to you. And then if you're feeling really strong take the legs lower as you circle them back together. Here we go again, up and over, flex push apart.

If you want to you could even touch the legs down and roll from there. I'm gonna reverse it now. So we circle around to the 90 degree, feet are slightly pointed, but there apart. Exhale over, oh, don't you hate it when just stuffs a momentum? Flex your feet, loosen your thighs and start dragging yourself back down.

Point toes, circle around, come to 90 or more and over, squeeze the legs, exhale down one more time. Up and over, squeeze and come down. Bend the knees. Hold on behind and rock up to seated. Yes. (inhales), (exhales) Check-in, I'm feeling good.

Spine Twist

So feel free to bend your knees or turn them out to a diamond position. I'm gonna go straight today. Give it my best. I'm gonna reach straight up as if someone were pulling me up. I let the shoulders fall back down and then the arms come out to a T position, palms up.

Hopefully I'm not leaning back. Hopefully you're not leaning back or forward unless rotate to the front. Here we go. It's twist, twist, center, other side, twist, twist, center. And the idea is not that the arms are doing anything.

They're just sort of your radar or at least a measure. Center, and keep going. What I would pay attention to is what are your feet doing? Whether the knees are bent or not. Are you changing your hips as the feet changing?

No, they're not. That's the answer. There's a right answer to that one. So I'm giving you four more to check it out. It's twist, twist, get taller in the middle.

Twist, twist, taller in the middle, twist, twist, taller in the middle. You know the drill, hold, reach the arms up round forward. Just trying to tap into a little bit of everything today. Again, this is my, As You Wish class. So just come with it, just as you will.

Hamstring Stretch

Reverse Plank

Lift up. Is it even possible to go back to the same place? I don't think so. Maybe he'll go further, and I am doing two more, hands down butt up. Last one, here comes hands down pressing into the heels.

Don't forget the heels. If you'd put it all in your arms, it's just too much. And down, yes, from there we're going into opening cracker and saw. (indistinct) So let's scoot forward a little bit. We've done a rolling like a ball. So you're welcome to do that as well.

Open Leg Rocker Prep

Now the idea here is that basically nothing changes where you start, you stay. Sorry, I didn't mean to talk at point. I do my dog. Let's take in a little rough. We're gonna roll back and come back to here.

Here we go. Roll back, come up, hold. So back, I am trying for a little back extension. The fact is my pelvis is rounded. Go back, come up.

So I'm stopping maybe just before that tailbone, go back, come up. (yells) Sorry, let me yell at you. And we've lost it on the forward roll. Okay, keep going like that or if you're so inclined, extend your legs. My legs are basically parallel even though they're apart, we roll back. We roll up.

Open Leg Rocker

Where are you today? Oh, okay. Before we let go, which we are going, I'm gonna recommit to that sense of pulling my hip bones back. My legs are effortless. I let go.

And then I set them down down as gracefully as I can. Backing up again, I just like to be near middle. That's part of the centering situation. I did widen my feet more than my mat heading for sole. So for the flexible folks aren't you lucky> Try to keep yourself right on top of your hip bones.

Saw

Ooh, maybe I widened it a little too much. Reach forward outside that pinky finger. If you have it in you keep rotating, and then sit up in that rotation back to center other way, rotate, reach out. I do, I play with the hands. I don't know how to tell you about the hands.

Just do what's natural for now. Sit back up and center. So it's one rotate, two reach forward, three lift up and center. I know again, mechanical kind of annoying maybe but when I'm going for a little here is some hamstring and some back lengthening. It's not always how it's done.

In fact it's not how it was originally jumped, but that's okay. Rotate and reach. Find that, sniff the current rotation in the spine even as you get a little bit of hamstring, rotate, reach, lift up, you get two more. So let's go for as much room as you can take up. Last one, one rotate, reach two, three and center.

Right on, bring your legs to center. Maybe shake them out if you need to. We're coming on to our side for a side leg kick. I am doing sort of the version. I like the most, unless I'm really going for it which is to lie on your elbow.

Side Leg Kicks

We kick forward kick, kick, point and reach back, back. I'm gonna try to hit that plant before it's over, back, back, kick, kick, and back, back. It's pulse, pulse, squeeze, squeeze, pulse, pulse, squeeze, squeeze. Only one more pulse, pulse squeeze, squeeze come back to the side. Let's lower our upper body down.

Side Leg Lifts

Five more here's one, two, three, four and five from there, lower it down. Stretch out that lower leg. You probably have to adjust. Some people are low. Depends on your body shape, right?

Side Leg Circles

Side Leg Kicks

I do flex coming forward. Kick, kick, point, and go back. Kick, kick, and back, kick, kick, back. Oh, isn't this nice. So right now we're doing it in the version where you'd be very stable, but you can have really a lot of fun with this.

That might be six, but I'm doing one more. La, la, here it is, we're back. I come back to the side. I let myself go down and adjust my hips. So I'm semi-comfortable, but still straight on top of myself and lift 10, two, three, four, five.

Side Leg Lifts

Side Leg Circles

Okay, that's enough of that. Turn onto your abdominals. For now put your forehead on your hands. Okay, and then wiggle yourself so you start to feel level in your pelvis. And I mean that specifically if possible that you feel the hip bones and pubic bone as level as possible, whether you actually feel the bone That's not the point.

Single Leg Kick

Then, now if you wanna think abs just engage a little bit, a little bit, it's good. A little bit, it's always good. All right, hover both legs. You can hover your head too. The only reason I am is in the mind but otherwise I would be down.

We're gonna kick the right leg to the butt twice. It's kick, kick in straight and other side kick, kick straight. Yep, keep going. And both kneecaps stay off. Both feet are now hovering completely.

You could touch down, but why? Come on, you can do that. Keep those halves engaged. You're not rocking your hips. Now you can get serious about it.

Let's go kick, kick, straight in, kick, kick push it away too kick, kick, push it away. Kick, kick, push it away, hit your butt. You're not arching your back each time you kick. I know that I don't even have to look. I'm doing one more each side, here it comes.

Or as many as you want or wish I should say. Okay, both feet down and we're gonna keep going, right? So from here, we're gonna take the arms away. Best you can grab onto a couple of fingers or even interlace your hands. Take them up as high as you can on your back and turn your head forward.

Double Leg Kick

My head is turned one way. I could chill here for a bit, but that would be wrong. So let's think about pulling those legs. The where the kneecaps come off, then flip the feet. We're gonna kick the feet towards butt three times.

One, two, three. We straighten both legs. We straighten both arms and we look ever so slightly forward as we hover the chest. Is that enough words for you? Switch sides, bend the elbows, pull those arms up.

Kick one, two, three, and stretch. It's double leg stretch and switch, two, three. I'm turning my head one way and the other each time. More important probably keep going. It's a one, and then two and a three, and then lift and reach.

I am keeping my feet off the ground each time. The whole time I should say, let's stay there on this one. We're up when you're everything is straightened. You're hovering, don't get too high. It's not about the low back.

Arm Pulses Up

It's okay, it's better in my opinion. But what do I know? I know a little bit. Okay, here we go. Let the arms come down carefully.

Free them from the grip. Take them out to the side. Looking down, you're in a T position. Sorry to take your arms to a T. Give everyone the second in case you weren't looking which begin.

Arm Pulses in T

Here's one, let the arms down. Maybe you bring them to your shoulders. Let yourself come down. Turn your head one way or the other, chill, chill out for one second. Then shimmy a little bit.

Back Extension

And then to a rest position. Rest position can be really anything for me. It's me pushing my hands into my floor my straight arms and gently guiding my hips toward my heels. If that doesn't work for you, and it doesn't for many, for their knees. You can be on your back and do anything.

Rest Position

Bend and Stretch

It doesn't matter even how you do it. Just let go a little bit more. Remember we're not worrying too much about the ugly or even the rules. All right, when you're ready, kind of come back to normal. (laughs) And just for the sake of comparing the beginning from the end, let's roll down and come back up twice and call it a day.

Inhale, (inhales) exhale. (exhales) It's just support yourself. No more to think about here. Maybe shake out your head, let your arms and bones be heavy when you're ready, exhale, roll up. Stacking yourself this time I'm going for heavy skin. It sounds pre-vis but true.

Roll Down

Inhale in when you are ready, as you wish, roll yourself back up. Take just one moment to decide what you wish for next. And I will tell you, thank you so much for being here, really, really happy about that. See you next time.