Connecting Disciplines

Good morning, everybody, for those of you don't know me yet, I'm Maria Leone thank you for all of you who've been here each day and we are coming to you live from the heart of Beverly Hills, this is my studio (laughs), Body Line, let's begin. Come onto your hands and knees, hands go right under the shoulders, knees go right underneath your hips. Let's take a breath in here and on an exhale push the shinbones down and come into a strong cat, take a moment here, do whatever you need, all right, just feel your body, be in your body in that cat shape. Easy breezy with the breath. And now let's reverse that and come into cow, open the chest, dragging the hands back towards the knee, belly in and then maybe you need to like turn your head around a little bit, loosening up or maybe you circle a little bit in that cat, and let's come all the way back to child's pose, reach the arms out, arms are straight, elbows off the mat, compress the sit bones to the heels.

Knees might be open, they might be together. Let's come back to the hands and knees, inhale, open the chest and exhale around the back, lower back to the ceiling. Inhale, open the chest. Really trying in this first few moments to unite your movement with your breath, you may not be able to do that throughout the entire workout, but anywhere you know the movement see if you can just find that unity. Okay, back is flat, spiral stretch, one hand to the ceiling, push the right shinbone down if the right arm is up.

Put that hand down, then the other hand lifts and push that shin bone down, push the ground away. And let's do that again and inhale, and exhale and other side and inhale, and exhale and let's just take nice circles here and again, nothing too particular, just be in your body. Just feel the circling of the shoulder joints and the circling of the hip joints and reverse it, any speed, any tempo. Sometimes it's kind of nice just to let go a form and just have a movement experience. Last time like that and come into your child's pose, and let's compress the sit bones down, lift the belly, widen the shoulder blades, take a breath into the back side of your body and in this position you can really feel the back ribs open.

From here, let's shift forward into a modified plank, straight line from the crown of the head to the knees, belly is tight and then take it all the way back. And again, shift back forward into that modified plank, front of the ribs are closed and then all the way back into child's pose. Some of you will take that into chaturanga, meaning you travel forward, the elbows hug in, shoulders no lower than the elbows, shoot right back to child's pose. And again, coming forward into chaturanga or just a plank and shoot back, let's do one more here, and shoot forward, pause if you're in chaturanga and make sure the collarbones are wide. And all the way into child's pose, lift your chin up, put your forearms down and let's do a little slither, chin, chest, close with the arms, hips come to the mat and we arrive in swans, fill the chest with air and lower down and then let's do that again, inhale reaching out and up, shouldn't look or feel like a pushup guys and lower down and I am keeping my pubic bone on the mat.

Reaching out and up, so, we're in Pilates lunge right now, so, it feels like up-dog, but not up-dog. Take it down one more time, inhaling out and up, use your hands to drag the mat back towards your hips, think about that, and all the way down and come all the way back into rest position for me and hold it here. Drop the sit bones arm straight starting to build your energy. Let's go into a down dog, I recommend taking your hands to the edge of the mat. The feet can be wide guys, especially right now for this first one, have a strong bend in your knees, push them out away, pull the shoulder blades wide and put all of your attention on the spine.

Right now, use your hands and your feet and try to stretch your mat, go ahead and do that. Pull, pull, pull your mat, try to stretch your mat long. Now, in that same way, do that same action to your spine. See your spine, pull it long, spin the biceps up, it'll help get you out of the upper trap. And let's shift forward into a full plank, you might need to adjust a little forward, hands right under the shoulders, always an option to come into a half plank, stay here.

Really feel all 10 fingertips, all 10 toes on the mat, feel your connection to the earth right now. Keep a connection to the center of the body and then right back to your downward dog, whatever that is, forget about whether or not the legs are straight. We're gonna practice traveling around the mat from here, pull your right knee tightly into your chest, it pulls the tail under, hold it here. Step that foot forward and come into a little runner's lunge. Let's keep the fingertips down for right now, 90 degree angle at the front knee, make sure the hips haven't swung out, pull that hip back, hold it here.

Now, from here, tuck the back leg in, turn and come into a spiral stretch, opposite armpit to knee and now do use your arms to create a little length, pull the thigh bone into you, crown of the head to the ceiling. Keep moving in that direction and take your legs out straight. So, we'll be using both sides of the mat. Take your left leg, cross it up and over and now we're gonna tuck that back foot in and come to a spiral stretch here, crown of the head to the ceiling. Continue that circle, that foot steps forward into a runner's lunge on the second side.

Same rules apply, really make sure this hip is pulling back. Let's go to plank and let's lift to down dog. Big breath in here in through the nose, long slow exhale, and you might kind of notice that the heels are beginning to lower all on their own and get closer and closer to the mat as we create warmth in the body. Pull the left knee into the chest, tight, tight, tight, step forward to the lunge. 90 degrees, upper back is flat as you can have it so, it might still be round but there's still a sense of axial elongation, fancy way of saying long spine.

From here, tuck the back leg in and come into a spiral stretch, use your hands to create that rotation, still using these shapes as part of the warming of the body and then continue that direction and the legs come straight. Take the right leg, cross it up and over, quarter turn and come into a spiral stretch. Opposite shoulder to knee. (Maria exhales) Continue that same direction, that foot steps forward and you're back into your lunge on the other side. (Maria exhales) Keep pulling the spine, listen to your breath, and from here, then step back to plank, hold it here.

Two more deep breaths, use your hands, squeeze them in, have an experience of your PEX right now, and now, push them out away to lift into your downward dog, press the hips high. From here, take the right leg, lift it up behind you into an arabesque, don't worry about how high it is right now. Pull the knee tightly into your chest, step the foot down into your lunge. Some of you might be ready to come up with the hands or keep the hands down on the mat. From here, lower the hands and let's take a twist in that lunge.

(Maria exhales) Push the ground away, tuck the back leg in and come into your spiral stretch, opposite shoulder to knee. Continue to the other edge of the mat, be in the top of a roll-up now. Waistline pulls back and from here starting from the base, tuck the tail, lower yourself down and I want you to arrive in your best hundred position. Begin pumping the arms in for five and out for five. Some of you might be a tabletop, some of you might have your head and shoulders down.

Last time like that. Pause the arms, turn out the legs. Beat the legs in for five and out for five, percussive with breath, really full here with the thighbones, not the heels. Last one, legs go parallel and now walk the legs in for five and out for five, drop any extra tension in the neck and the shoulders. Keep reaching through the fingertips, keep lifting apart, inhaling and exhaling, knees in, two feet down.

Okay, we're gonna move into a yoga bridge. So, the setup is different than Pilates. You want your fingertips to just barely touch your heels, toes point forward, knees point forward, press into your hips and open the front of the hip socket. Now, from here, we've been practicing this standing, tuck your shoulder heads in, interlace your hands press the hands down into the mat, open the ribs, right, so, a reverse of what we usually do in Pilates, Step with the feet. (exhales) It should feel really nice, the lungs should be really able to fill up here, make sure you're not using your glutes too much.

Step into the feet, press into your limbs, release the hands and roll all the way down. Bring your legs to tabletop, and we're gonna set up for single leg stretch, pull the right knee into your chest, lift the head and shoulders up, extend the other leg out, stay here. Now, we added just a little variation, so, we reached 100 and we come to a single leg stretch, hundred, single leg, hundred, single leg. Okay, now you have the motion and now just focus on your body and the breath. Squeeze the legs tight each time the legs go out, pull the knee in tight each time, option to have the head down if you need it.

Last time two feet down and let's go back to the yoga bridge, press the hips up, roll the shoulder heads back, reach vigorously with the hands. (exhales) Step into the feet. Now, feel the shoulder blades and pull them together. Notice you'll increase your height. (Maria exhales) Peel yourself all the way down to the mat, take the hands behind the head for criss cross, opposite elbow to knee and change.

Let's inhale for two counts and then that's exhale for two counts. Inhale, exhale. Be aware of how you're tracking that leg, always turning up the volume in your body, always going deeper last time, two feet down and into yoga bridge again. So, make sure this is gonna be a little tighter, a little tighter set up than we usually do in Pilates. Roll the shoulder heads back, hands interlaced and now push the hands into the mat.

Stamp the feet into the mat. Take a moment to get some breath (Maria exhales) and then peel all the way down releasing the arms, bringing the legs back to tabletop. Take your hands behind your head, lift your head and shoulders up. We're gonna begin a really big bicycle and I want you to really, physically, scrape your foot along the mat, not just touch it, but scrape it, Inhaling and exhaling however you see fit. Now, let's begin to make this bicycle much smaller, much smaller and make it smaller, until eventually it becomes a teeny tiny little bicycle, look at that tiny bicycle, the legs are barely coming in now.

Five, four, three, two, one two feet down and press right away into your yoga bridge, interlace the hands. (Maria exhales) Opening the hips, maybe pulling the shoulder heads back a little bit more, arms a little straighter. (Maria exhales) Release the arms, peel yourself down, pull the knees into your chest, roll yourself up, legs go straight. Cross the left leg up and over and do a little quarter turn and we're back into a spiral stretch. I get to pull up my leggings and fix my shirt, and continue on in that circle into your lunge on your other side.

Some of you'll take the hands up. Wherever you're at, just be, be in your body, be in your shape. (exhales) Feel all the sensations in your body. Take the hands down to plank, hold it here and let's take one hand to one shoulder, the other hand to the other shoulder. Option also to go just down to the knees, wherever you're at, as little shifting from side to side as possible, go at your own speed.

Pause back in a plank, Lift, lift, lift to down dog. Shoulder blades wide. Let's take the left leg, lift it to arabesque, pinky toe reaches to the ceiling, pull the leg in tight to your chest, step it through, find your lunge, the hands come up for some of you, keep your focus on that upper back, make sure it's long. Take one hand down and spiral stretch. (Maria exhales) Tuck the back leg in, spiral stretch, hold the knee in, allow that hip to open and feet to the edge of the mat and we're going into rowing back, so, you've learned most of this throughout the week.

Hands to the chest, this is one of my favorite exercises, most of you know that. Tuck the tail under, roll back, it's a beautiful C shape. Open the arms and pause like a wave crashing in on itself. Dive up and forward, pull the arms so far back, pull the shoulder blades together too. Think about the alignment of the head, the palms turned down and now like you're unfurling a Cape, reach out and all the way up over the toes, try to reach past your toes.

Now, let's reversed the position of the back. Reach out flat, keep lengthening, see how flat you can get to the legs, how flat your spine can be. Come all the way up, pull the ribs out of the pelvis, circle the arms back. Some of you will bend your knees and lift into table or into reverse plank right away so, some of you have your legs straight, use the rhomboids, push the ground away, do not settle into those shoulder joints and have a seat and back to your start. Let's add to that, tuck and peel back and open the arms.

Beautiful flow up and over. Big circle up and over the top, stay here, catch your right ankle. Bring your chest close to that right thighbone and one smooth motion lift it up. Drop the shoulders. You're thinking climb a tree right now, lift the bottom leg, some of you and check out your balance.

Keep the chest connected to the thighbone and take the shape all the way down, catch the other leg. One piece, the shape comes up, drop the shoulders, lengthen the crown of the head to the foot, maybe checking in and finding a little balance point, lower the leg and then everything comes down slowly with control, pull one knee into you. Prepare for wild thing, step into the shinbone, reach all the way back, find something that feels good, guys. Come on down quick, transition to the other side and lift all the way back. Push through the hips, push the ground away and back to your start.

Be beautifully tall. Tuck and roll, open in the arms. Really flowing now, reach the arms up and over the top, catch one ankle, come out and up. Lift the bottom leg up, hold the balancer roll, rolling back and up, and one more time, rolling, holding the position of the legs, stay here, lower the bottom leg. One action brings you all the way down, catch the other leg, lift it up, hold it here, lift the bottom leg, some of you will roll back and up and one more time roll, you do it I'm not doing it, mic is in the way.

Lower the bottom leg in one piece all the way forward. Pull one knee into your chest and lift, quick transition into wild form, lift. Come down two hands down to the toes and now reaching out and up, getting longer and longer as you lift, pull the ribs onto the pelvis, circle the arms behind you, press into the hands, lift, lift, lift the hips up. (Maria exhales) Stamp into your feet, pubic bone to the ceiling, use the inner thigh, use the glute. Lower down, cross the right leg over the left continuing with our pattern, come back to your spiral stretch on the other side, opposite elbow, opposite armpit to knee.

Continue in that same direction and find yourself back into your perfect lunge, stay here. Maybe some of you take your hands up for a moment. (Maria inhales) (Maria exhales) Come back down to your plank. Couple of options here, everybody bend your knees. Option one is just stepping into ball and stepping back, option two is just jumping into ball and stepping back, option three, bend the knees pike the hips and I'm gonna step back but some of you might jump.

Again, bend the knees, travel to the front of the mat. Last time, bend the knees, use the center. Stay here. From here, stretch the leg straight, you should be at the front edge of your mat, let your head hang, feel your weight forward on the front of your foot. Let's keep the heels down, bend the knees and come into simple chair, maybe hands of prayer, maybe the arms are by the ears.

Remember we talked about not collapsing right here. So, pulling, having a little space right here between your hip bones and your thighbone, hold, hold, hold, try lifting up one heel and then the other. Nothing changes so, you're on one level. Last one like that. (Maria inhales) lift your two heels up, hold it here.

(Maria exhales) Come all the way down to the ground, the heels are still up, and one time only, either just try doing a little balance here or try reaching the knees forward, take the crown of your head up and find that awkward pose, takes a second (inhales), but it's oddly satisfying once you find it. (Maria exhales) Okay, hands to the floor, stretch the legs all the way straight, put the heels down. (Maria inhales) Soften the knees, peel yourself slowly up. Okay, pay attention to this transition. Now, if you just lift the chest, the shoulder blades arrive right where you want them to.

Turn and face me. Okay, so, we're back into ballet land. We gotta do one of my little dancers stuff here (laughs). Come down to the bottom of your grampyre and let's just starts simple. So, we do grumpuye and we stretch.

And as if you're on the reformer guys, right? So, how do we move? From the center of the body, integrating everything, energy all the way through the crown of the head. So, we're moving from our inner thigh and our hip but not our knees. The knees move, but we don't initiate there.

Last time, come down to the bottom. We're gonna move to passe, we're going this way. So, come to your passe and step open, stay there, same side, passe, some of you might come here and step, Halt and step. So, the point is for you to hold a balance, I don't care where you take that leg, ideally it's up in passe. If the arms are too much, take them away and if you wanna be creative, be creative, right?

So, that's important for us too to just keep that mind flow going, a little artistry for those of you that are so inclined. Two more, last time and stay here, second side. So, we come to our passe, hip is dropped and step out, passe to second and you can do this on your own timing so, you can go slow, you can go quick. Some of you are, should be moving really quick, but really show off the balance and please, please, drop that hip. (Maria inhales) (Maria exhales) Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, everybody joined me here.

Little balance check, either one heel up and then the other or two heels up and down. So, this is your active recovery right now. Drop in, calm your nervous system. (Maria inhales) (Maria exhales) One more breath in (inhales) and exhale, stretch your legs straight. Going to some TaeKwonDo.

Take your right leg, pulling in, make fists. Bend your knees, we're gonna start small, so, that leg, kick side and tap, side tap, it's like a little flick, out, in out, in, it's the speed that gives it power right now. Out, in, remember the recoil, guys, do the recoil of the leg, two more here, out, in, out, in, back to second position. So, either down and up or Pilate and relevate, some of you take it to middle jumps, you know who you are, easy breezy, soft landing, for three, two, one left foot in (inhales). Get your bearings, here we go, little flick kick, out, in, out, in, out, in, your target is over there, so, the kick is really coming from the glute and the heel is the weapon.

You might even notice I slightly point my toes down. (Maria exhales) For two, for one, into grampyre and then either straight in and bend or relevate, let some of you jumping, I'm gonna do a little bit of both, do what your body needs right now. (Maria exhales) Two more, back to TaeKwonDo. So, some of you will hit with the foot touching. Some of you might try lifting the leg up and then snapping out, in, out, in, (cheering), out, in and I will exhale.

So, there's actually a key up if we were in the dojo. Push! Strike! And again, that recoil really helps give power, strike! Last time into second position, stretch, you know what to do, you know what to do. I need to breathe down and up, relevate, some of you jump. Jumpers jump, I'm not gonna jump, jumpers, jump. (Maria exhales) Two more, light on your feet when you land and then bring the other foot in, set yourself, drop the shoulders.

Here we go, out, in, from the glute, out, in, straight side, with power and velocity, but it's quick, right, the leg has to be light in order for it to move quickly, right? So, there's that delicate balance, knowing where to push, knowing where to pull, knowing where to go for it, knowing where you have to let go. Two more, last time, back here. And let's stretch the arms up and let's side men up and over. Shift the hips over like we did the other day, so, more of a Horton side bend, (Maria exhales) all the way up (inhales), other arm comes up, shift the hips up and over, breathe into the top lung for me, everybody, and all the way up and find your horse stance, so, we talked about this yesterday or the other day.

Toes forward knees are bent, chest is lifted. Take the arms up over your head. Double block, down! Inhale, exhale! Inhale, exhale! Continue, two more, last one, and now let's add the legs, so, we come up and we break! So, the legs are also involved in the attack. Inhale, exhale, sweep it down. Inhale, give me power, strike! Last time, inhale, exhale, stay here.

From here, we do double back knuckle. So, the arms come up. We strike, punch. All the way up, break, break, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, last one, inhale, exhale, pull the two elbows back. (Maria exhales) Deep breath in (inhales) long slow exhale out.

Okay, into punches we're building one to five. One single punch forward, we're gonna go slow first time, now, we do two punches. One, two, and we do three in the same amount of time, one, two, three, so the punches get quicker, four. One, two, three, four. Five, one, two, three, four, five.

Now, to speed, so, we go single, double, triple, four, one two, three, four and five one, two, three, four, five, let's pull that leg in and come to ready stance in martial arts. It means your two feet together, you have a fist in one hand and the other hand is wrapped around, your gaze is down (exhales). Take a breath in and a breath out. Let's step back to horse stance and let's go for that one more time, here we go, guys. Single, double, triple, four, five, one, two, three, four, five, the knee pulls in and step down, I automatically went into my martial arts stuff.

Okay, from here, let's pivot, and let's come down to the mat and let's come back to plank. Perfect long body crown of the head to tail, make sure your booty's not up. Pull the right knee across your body, we did that the other day, so, we're prepping for a falling star. (Maria exhales) Take that foot all the way back and the other knee pulls across the body, lift the knee a little higher, guys, push the ground away, take the foot back and lift to downward dog. So, you're somewhat, towards the front of your mat right now, guys.

Drop the head (inhales) and let's use this moment as a little active recovery. (Maria exhales) One more deep breath in (inhales), long slow exhale, notice how warm the body is now. From here, take the right leg to the ceiling, into your arabesque, push the mat away. Bend the knee into attitude and allow the hips to rotate. Pelvis is twisting twisty.

Now, we're gonna flip all the way down to the ground, release a hand and have a seat. So, we've been prepping this all week, lift into wild thing, push the hips up, bottom heel lifts, reach, push the ground away, big breath in, let's lower down, flip back to plank, back to plank and lift to down dog. Okay, left leg reaches up, churn it out into an arabesque. (Maria exhales) Bend the knee into an attitude and now rotate the pelvis and that's gonna take you right down to the floor, release a hand, land gracefully, lift the hips into wild thing, push the ground away, inhale here, lower yourself down, and let's come back to your plank (inhales), and then back to down dog. Okay, we're gonna go into our fallen star series, again, you should be close to the front edge of your mat.

Take the right leg up behind you into arabesque, come into attitude, flip down to the floor and lift a wild thing straight up, come all the way down, flip back to plank and into down dog. Hopefully you're with me. Take that same leg up to arabesque, pull the knee across the body, opposite knee to shoulder, stay here. Stretch the leg out straight, hold it in the air, put the foot down, stay here. Weight is on two hands, release one hand turn and face me, lift the bottom leg up, hold it there, that's fallen star, put the foot back down, back to two hands.

Now, keep your legs straight. Slowly bend the elbows and you'll slide right down to the floor and up to an elbow for sidekicks. Leg up to the height of the hip. Oh, my goodness, I'm really sweating today. (Maria inhales) Inhale and exhale, (inhales) drop into your body and use the breath to give you fuel, (Maria inhales) (Maria exhales) go back to your focus (inhales), inhaling and exhaling, last time.

From here, pull your knees in, sit yourself up for mermaid. So, reaching up and over dropping the shoulders, chest is up (Maria exhales) down to the forearm, top arm goes over the head and lifting all the way up into your mermaid, shoulders are dropped and all the way down onto the forearms. Last time, this is active recovery, guys. Inhale into that top lung, take it down, that top arm, (inhales) sweep it around in front of you and come on to your hands and knees. From here, your left leg reaches straight back behind you, (Maria inhales) opposite hand up over the head.

So, we do this a lot in Palates, top hand reaches around and it catches the foot. Some of you will just stay here and take a quad stretch, some of you kick the leg back, open the chest so, you're now in dancer's pose. (Maria exhales) Use your shinbone to help, guys. (exhales) From here, release, carry everything aside and everything down. Other leg reaches out, the leg is straight (inhales), the other arm is up over the head.

Some of you will just hold this position or reach around, catch the foot and then lift the leg, open the chest, heart goes forward and you're in dancer pose. (Maria inhales) (Maria exhales) Everything goes side, hold it there and lower everything down back to the first side. One leg back, that would be your left one, right arm up over the head, reach around, catch the foot. Lift yourself up, up, up, up, up, open the chest. (Maria exhales) Carry everything side, hold it here.

Arm and leg down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, put everything down, pause, bring yourself all the way upright. Okay, from here, cartwheel up and over, stay with me guys. From here, pull that knee into your chest and take that same sidekick, pull in, catch the knee, out to side kick, pull in, catch the knee. Some of you don't need that hand, some of you will hold that leg up, do whatever works for you, last time and bring your two knees together. (Maria inhales) (Maria exhales) Take a moment to reset.

(Maria inhales) (Maria exhales) Up to the other side. (Maria exhales) Cartwheel up and over, hand to the ceiling, you know what comes next, we're twisting, reach through that little window, drop your head, find the stretch in the back, all the way up, repeat like that. Some of you take the bottom leg away, twist and lift, and turn, twist, twist, twist and lift, last time (Maria exhales) and lift. We're gonna transition now wherever you're at, twist, rotate to the mat and find your plank. Hold it there, pull one leg in and then the other.

(Maria inhales) (Maria exhales) Some of you are gonna run, some of you are gonna stay slow with me, some of you are running right now, run, run, run, run, run, light on the feet and then lifting yourself up into your beautiful downward dog. Spread the shoulder blades, use your hands, use your feet. Cut the thighbones back and now see if you can find even more length in the spine, spin the biceps forward. My heels are now down, which is a big change from when we started, pull that spine long, long, long, like a slinky. From here, the left leg goes up to arabesque, point the toe.

Pull the leg all the way across the body, hold it there. Take the leg all the way straight, hold it there. Put the foot down. Flip to me, open the chest, lift the bottom leg up and hold, two, three, four, five, foot down, back to the mat, both legs straight. Slowly bend the elbows, lower yourself down and you should be almost perfectly set up for sidekicks.

Everything is stacked, kick that leg forward, one, two, and back, one, two, and then using this front hand, whatever works best for you. (Maria inhales) (Maria exhales) And I'm inhaling forward and I'm exhaling back, and I'm really looking here for that opening of the hip (Maria inhales) and you get that by using the glute, guys. So, the glute does two things here, it helps stabilize the lower back but it also facilitates the opening of that hip flexor, last time, bend the knees in, sit yourself up and find mermaid, the legs are stacked. The top arm reaches up, pull in with your arm (exhales) and open the ribs to the ceiling. Consciously take a breath into the top lung, it's gonna feel different when you do that, changes it, come all the way down to the forearm and the top arm goes up.

One motion, lift, back to your mermaid position, (Maria exhales) and down to the forearms, the arm goes up over the head and one more time, push it away and into your mermaid, pull in. Oh, I love the stretch in the QL here on that bottom side (exhales) and down to the forum, here's a nice transition round your back bring the hand forward up to your hands and knees. Back is flat so, you know what's coming. Right leg goes straight back, square off the hips. The other hand goes up over your head, check in with the hand alignment (inhales), reach around, catch the foot, stay here or press the leg back, open the chest, any amount will do.

Make sure it feels good in your body. Comfortably uncomfortable guys. (Maria exhales) Take everything side (moans) and back to all fours. Other leg reaches out, I believe it's your left leg, right arm reaches up over your head, shoulders are down, belly lifted. Reach around, catch the foot and from here, lift to dancers pose.

(Maria inhales) (Maria exhales) Here I like to breathe into the chest, again that changes the sensation in my body. (Maria inhales) (Maria exhales) Release everything side and everything back to all fours. Back to the first side (exhales) which I think is the right leg and take the arm up over the head, reach around, catch the foot, one more dancer pose, push the ground away, open the chest, oh, enjoy the stretch. Try not to struggle right now, find effortless effort right now in this shape. (Maria exhales) And then reach everything side, hold it there and now the hand and the foot go down and up.

Option to just do a hand or just do a leg, let's do just one more here, put the foot down, keep it there and come all the way up into kneeling. Okay, cartwheel over, up and over (inhales), into the TaeKwonDo sidekick, so, option to catch the leg and then press out. In and push, and maybe you're catching that leg, maybe you're not. Maybe you said, "You know what? I'm not feeling it, I'm just doing this," that's fine too, keep moving, whatever you're doing, keep moving, last time and let's come down and just take a moment to calm your nervous system (Maria inhales) and reset (exhales).

Come up, the other leg goes out, lengthen and lift, cartwheel over, the hand goes to the ceiling, we're going into the twist now, diving through that little window and taking it up (exhales). Diving through, twisting the upper back, some of you remove the bottom leg, twist, the hips barely move and up and again twist and up, this time we transition, guys. Twist, continue going down and arrive in your plank position. Hold it here, it's a perfect plank (inhales), from here, bend your knees, some of you will step forward into ball and step back. Some of you are gonna begin jumping right away just into a simple ball and back, some of you are piking, think pike on the chair, guys, and it's really gonna help if you spin the biceps forward and step back.

Wherever you're at, find yourself either jumping or walking in and bring your feet as close to your hands as you can drop the head. Soften the knees, bring the hands on the shinbones half lift, inhale out and up, exhale down, allow the weight of your head to take you further into the stretch. Inhale out and up and exhale down (sniffles), and one more time, inhale out and up, exhale down, drop the head, the head is heavy, bend the knees, peel yourself slowly all the way up, inhale here and let's come into your chair position. Bend your knees deeply (inhales), feet can be together or hip distance. Hands can be together, hands might also be over the head.

Create the space between the pelvis and the thighbone. (Maria inhales) (Maria exhales) Try lifting your two heels up or not. From wherever you're at, bring yourself down to the ground, maybe you're in ball. Some of you are gonna find awkward pose. Crown of the head to the ceiling.

Now, from here, the heels are gonna go down, in one motion find chair, take yourself back to awkward pose or hands go to the mat (inhales). One action, chair. Quiet, be quiet in your body, be quiet in your mind. Back to awkward pose, some of you try keeping your heels up and up to chair. (Maria exhales) Wherever you're at, drop the hands to the mat, use your belly to stretch the legs (groans).

Lower the heels, peel yourself slowly up, bone by bone by bone and find yourself in Pilates stance, little V position. There's distance between your toes. Okay, we're coming back into chair. So, find your chair, place your hands wherever you want them to be and I am gonna have you lift up your heels if that's available to you, make sure you're comfortably uncomfortable. From here, keep your legs, bring your body down, bring your shoulders lower than your knees, put your hands on the mat.

Some of you will just shift into the hands, some of you are now ready to come into Bakasana also known as crow pose. Wherever you're at, find your feet back to the mat, go ahead and use your hands, keep your feet, woo, baby, come back to that chair. (Maria exhales) Hold, hold, hold (sniffles), let's go again. Lower yourself down, the knees need to hug in guys, not a big turnout. Find the connection upper arm to shin, hands go down, shift forward into bakasana also known as crow.

The upper arm really creates a shelf for the legs. Lower the feet down, have a seat and find teaser, also known as boat pose. Now, maybe your teaser's gonna be here today, work within your teaser. From your teaser, roll yourself down, find your hundred position. (exhales) Take the hands over the head, circle the arms, pull the knees in tight to a tight ball.

Roll to me, keep the legs in the air. So, we practiced this the other day. Come back to your ball shape, it's a tight ball. Roll to the other side, the legs are in the air. Come into a tight ball, some of you can do this without any hands.

So, from this type of, lift your chest a little higher and in one action, sweep the arm over the head (moans), squeeze the legs, lift the legs, very tight, big balance challenge into the ball (exhales) and roll away from me, hands over the head. Keep lifting the legs, keep stacking the hips, search for it, fight for it. Back to ball, hold it here, back to a hundred (exhales), hands over the head, hands come forward up to teaser. (Maria exhales) Bend the knees, index fingers, grab the big toes, you're in crow, Roll yourself back and up. Some of you will change your legs.

Do it again, roll back and up. Some of you are gonna stay here with me. One more time, this time transitioning, roll back, come up and over the knees, go down the hands, go to the mat, jump back, hold it there. Let's walk your feet in or jump your hands in, relax your head, interlace your hands behind you, pull the shoulder blades together, let the arms drop up and over your head. Heavy, heavy, head guys.

(Maria exhales) One more breath, release the hands to the ground, knees are bent and peel yourself slowly all the way up to standing. Okay, we're gonna move into our last series which is single leg stretch to warrior three. So, find yourself on your feet, hip distance, lift the abdominals, pull the right knee into your chest, make sure you're really upright here. Take one hand behind you, take the opposite hand behind you, put your hand on your sacrum and just kinda guide it down. Just make sure it's not sticking out.

So, there's a lift in the front hip bones and a drawing down in the sacrum. From here, come into your ball shape, (Maria inhales) (Maria exhales) it's a tight ball, trunk on the thighbone. Now, continue go down, take the ball forward. Oh, this is where you might wanna have that chair nearby, forgot to say that. Shoot out to warrior three.

So, some of you might need to go and grab the chair you have nearby to help you. (Maria inhales) (Maria exhales) Hamstring curl in and out, I'm gonna flex my foot in and out, heel to the tush, one more time in and out, pull the knee all the way into your chest, you're tight, get low, low, low in your shape. Push through the bottom leg to stand yourself all the way up, crown of the head to the ceiling, release the foot hip distance, hands are up. Let's go back to those Limon swings, so, we drop and we catch and full release, drop and up and again, drop and up, stay here, circle the arms back, lift the heart, belly tight. Keep reaching, reaching, reaching, let's do that again.

Swing and catch (inhales) and swing and big inhale up, one more time and bouncing the knees all the way up, belly and lift the chest. Circle the arms behind you and up, circle the arms and pull the other leg into your chest, find your balance, drop the shoulders, tail check-in, sacrum down. Bend the bottom leg, come into that tight, tight, tight ball shape. (Maria exhales) Take a look at your knee, you're looking right down at it, knee over big toe, explode out to warrior three, really parallel, let's flex the foot. And as a reminder, for me, I feel like I'm turning in to be parallel.

From here, squeeze the heel into the glute and out, heel to glute, reach through the fingertips and out, one more time, heel to the glutes and out calm mind, calm body. Pull the knee into the chest, go deep on the standing leg, use the bottom leg, push, push, push like crazy. (Maria exclaims) Reset, reset the shape. Let the foot spread into the earth, take the arms up and let's swing taking it down and up, swinging down and up and again, down and up, one more time, down and up. Circle the arms, lift the chest, lift yourself up, open the arms, turn and face me.

Okay, so, from here, your feet are hip distance, we're gonna do one more little challenge, a little challengy thing. Cross one leg up and some of you can pull that chair in and sit on the chair. Cross one leg to figure four, flex that foot, begin bending the knees cutting the hips back just like we've been practicing in chair. Now, you're gonna wanna do this, don't do that, pull that hip back. Okay, so, wherever you can be, some of you just might be here.

(Maria inhales) (Maria exhales) Some of you are gonna come further down into your shape and you're trying to keep your back long, taking your belly button towards the shin, but there's gonna be some degree of rounding. (Maria inhales) (Maria exhales) Keep breathing, let the bottom foot spread, come all the way up, release the shape. Okay, second side, the other leg comes up and over or you're seated in the chair, flex the foot, make sure the hips are square, bend the standing leg, cut the hips back, reach long through the crown of the head. (Maria inhales) (Maria exhales) Many of you are gonna feel a ginormous stretch here, I do. Front foot is flexed to protect the knee.

(Maria inhales) (Maria exhales) Keep breathing, breathing, breathing. (Maria inhales) (Maria exhales) Come all the way up, release. Back to the first side (inhales), figure four, bend the knee, come on down. (Maria inhales) (Maria exhales) Bring yourself into prayer, flex the foot strongly. Some of you, bring your shoulders lower, flex the foot strongly, make a brace like we've been doing, upper arm, upper arm.

Flex the right foot like crazy. Keep lowering yourself down, come to your hands. Shift your weight to your hands, some of you might lift that back foot up, you're basically back in Bakasana or crow, a little variation of it. Step the foot down, come back to your balance (exhales) and all the way up. So, I know some of you aren't doing that today, that's fine.

Just wanna give you a visual of where you can go with this stuff, cross the other leg over, bend the leg. (Maria cheering) Come on, Maria (laughs), flex the foot. And again, if you focus your mind, usually the body will follow. Back is flat, the foot is flexed, some of you are gonna take your shoulders down lower and find that brace again. Flex the foot strongly, hook it on the upper arm, keep going down, lift the heel, bring the hands to the floor, maybe this is just good enough.

Maybe you can lift the bottom foot up for a moment, put the foot down, wherever you're at, walk yourself back (sniffles). Find a nice balance and come all the way up. Okay, we're gonna end with a movement that is the start of my black belt form. So, the two feet are together, make a fist with your left hand and the other hand, kind of, is supporting it. The hands start down and in front of you, your gaze is down at your hands.

From here, make a triangle, I'm gonna show it to you. Make a triangle with your hands. Step your left foot out on the ball of your foot and as you transfer your weight and lower the heels, watch your hands as they reach out and up and all the way to the sky. Take the arms as high as you can and at the tippity-top, open the arms with a sharp cut chop of the hands and step together, so, that's the whole thing. Here we go.

Step out and watch the hands. (Maria inhales) (Maria exhales) When you get to the top, open! Keep reaching and back two feet together. Focus the gaze and the mind will follow. Here we go, quietly stepping out on the ball of the foot, there's a connection between the weight shift, the movement of the hands, keep the gaze steady, all the way to the top, open, and bring your two hands together, (Maria inhales) (Maria exhales) release your hands by your side, lift your head into mountain pose, close down your eyes, bring your hands to prayer. And now, just bring all your attention onto your sensations in your body.

(Maria exhales) Hopefully there's an emptiness in the thoughts, there's an energy in the body all the way from the feet to the crown of the head. Notice the warmth between the palms of your hands. (exhales) Notice the heaviness of the feet. Take a quick scan from your feet to your ankles, your knees, there's a light growing all the way up, up the thighs, there's a light filling your pelvis, lower abdomen and there's a light moving up into your limbs heart, rib cage, shoulders, upper arm, forearm, hands, there's a light coming up through the neck, up into the skull into the brain and radiating out, so, you're filled with light and we're connected to the earth below us (inhales) and the sky above us. And then, remembering that our experience on the mat reminds us that what we choose to focus on largely informs what are our experiences.

Go ahead and open your eyes. (Maria inhales) Oh, that was a hard one today, everybody, I hope you enjoyed that, thank you so much for joining me, it's been a pleasure to be here. Come back next week, Victor's here, eight o'clock on another Southern California teacher, enjoy the rest of the day. Stay centered, stay strong, stay energized, signing off.