Diving In

Welcome to "Fortify The Mat" with Misty Lynne. Thank you for joining us today. We are working distal to core. So we're just gonna get right to it. We're diving right in.

Everyone, if you have a foam roller, have it nearby. If you don't, that's okay too. So I'm gonna stand in profile to start here, just so you can see my body alignment. My abs are awake here, and I'm just parallel in my legs. And I'm just going to take a big breath into my hands.

One hand in front, the other hand in the back. And then I'm exhaling, drawing everything in and up like I'm being sucked through a straw. Again, inhaling and exhaling. And if my pelvis wants to move a little, that's okay 'cause we're getting there. Take a big breath in, nourishing breath and exhale.

And let's do it one more time. Take a big breath in. Now, this time as you exhale, let the abdominals engage and bring your pubic bone towards your nose. And then inhale, take your tail bone away. And think about it happening, as attached to the breath, not just slapping bones around.

We don't wanna slap our bones, do we? And as you're feeling this happen, let it roll through your spine. Let it affect your leg placement, your leg reaction to the floor. Your feet are awakened and involved here as well. We'll do a couple more of these.

Take your movement bigger and see what happens. Do you wanna lean forward or back? This is just for information. Is no right and wrong. And then we'll come back to the center, see if you can balance over your ankle bones, over your inner big toes, and find this balance across your chest as well.

Rotating armpits forward, we're going to nod the chin to the chest. And then lengthen up. And then from the center of the skull, look up. And then, again, let your eyeballs drive the movement, nodding and lifting. Staying long through the spine.

Once again, can we check in with that connection, with our feet and the floor. Make sure that it is a connection, and not just a slathering of the feet into the floor. They're awake and alert. We're gonna take this deeper now. I'm nodding.

The nodding is going to inform my spine and I'm just gonna roll. And I'm rolling forward, just coming to my waist. I'm gonna hang out here, inhale wide in my rib cage. And then as I exhale to come up, I'm articulating. I'm taking each vertebra back into the wall behind me, looking up, inhaling, exhaling, nodding, and curling.

Once again, trying to stay balanced over my ankles and feet. And as I'm coming back up, lengthening, unfurling, looking up. This one goes deeper. Nodding, curling, stretching. Now, this time go to your depth.

However deeply you wanna go into this, go. Come to the depth of it, hold. Inhale three times here. Feel your back broadening, and then feel it narrowing. (exhaling heavily) That's a great way to start a Monday with some breath work, with some movement.

One more. And then we're going to exhale and start to flex the knees. And while you're here, use your eyeballs to look at your ankles, checking with your knee tracking, extending, staying over your ankles here. And bend. Realize that if you can't reach the floor, guess what?

It's okay. You can just take your hands wherever they need to go, and support yourself as needed. And let's extend here. Can we do one more bending and holding? Stay.

Maintain this connection. And I just want you to lift all 10 toes. Make sure your ankles aren't rolling out. Place all 10 toes back down wide like a gecko's feet. Hold it here and stretch the knees.

Shifting your weight forward into your hands, shifting your weight back toward your heels. Oh, and PS, remember to breathe. If you don't breathe, you will surely perish. Or at least maybe pass out. Don't do that either.

As we're rocking forward, we're watching that leg foot and ankle placement. Are weird things happening? Once again, just check in with that. It may be important knowledge for later in the class. Now, we're gonna rock forward here.

Hold. You've got weight over your fingertips. Feel your fingertips engaging. And again, you can't reach the floor. You've got weight into your fingertips here or here.

It's all working for you. Now, from here, we're going to slowly bend the knees again, keeping that big toe joint connected to the floor. Slowly, lift the heels up. And with resistance, slowly rest the heels down. We'll do four more of these.

And pay attention. Are you keeping your toes spread? Or are they curling up like little fern fronds in the cold, cruel morning? One more. It's not a cruel morning, it's fabulous morning.

Lowering your heels, take a big stretch here, big breath, and then we're just going to slowly come down to our knees. Hands and knees. You can do whatever you'd like with your toes but I'm gonna crawl mine under today. But for the hands, I'd like for you to be on your fingertips. Hands are immediately beneath the shoulders.

Rotate your armpits forward. So I'm on my fingertips here, and I'm just going to let my blades come together and apart, trying to maintain the rotation forward of my armpits. And when I use my fingertips, I've gotten much better control over what's happening in my shoulder joints. Now, I want you to make shoulder circles here. Paying close attention to both where the weight is.

Are you keeping it over your fingertips? Reverse. And also letting your thoracic, your T spine, do whatever it wants to do. We're not gonna micromanage that movement. Take it a little bit bigger if you'd like, 'cause this is a warmup.

Reverse your circle. And one more. Oh, and PS, don't be like your teacher. Keep breathing. And release that.

We're just going to take a quick child's pose here. Give it a little bit of a tail wag, and walk your hands in to come up. Now, we're gonna lay on our backs here. If you have a towel nearby, grab it. If you don't, don't.

But we're going to do a hundred variation where we're focusing more on the breath than anything else. So let's start with the legs long here. My elbows are bent. I'm holding my towel, the base of my skull here. And I'm rotating my armpits forward as I curl up.

A few ab preps to begin. So as I'm curling up, I'm taking a look at my legs. Or am I lengthening away or are they just hanging out? Exhaling as a scoop and curl, inhaling as I lower back down. Try not to bring your pelvis to the party.

Hold it here. So we're going to breathe for the hundred, as we inhale for five. And as we exhale for five, we're lengthening here. And then I'm inhaling for five counts, and I'm exhaling for five counts. My other leg is going to come up to chair, and then I exhale for five.

I bring my other leg down and I'm hovering. I'm watching my pelvis to make sure I'm not fluffy. Now, both legs are lengthening. Reach through those inner ankle bones. Keep breathing.

Lower both legs down but don't lose the energy in the legs, that's the challenge. Keep lengthening. Now, both legs are gonna hover. And exhale, that's 80. Inhale, and exhale, that's 90.

Inhale for five, and exhale for five. And then we're going to slowly take the legs long and float them down, and bring the arms down and wide. Your arms are going to come up here for your roll-up. Let's make fists, rotate the armpits forward, inhale, and then exhale to come up. And as you're coming up, stretch long over your legs, your navel's pulling to the wall behind you.

Find your opposition, rolling back down. The legs never go to sleep. This time, we'll flex the ankles. Same idea. Nodding the chin of the chest, curling.

My legs are active and I'm standing on my feet, as opposed to letting them go to (indistinct) winky time. As I'm rolling back, my armpits are pointing straight ahead of me. And now, they're pointing up. And again, I'm nodding, I'm curling, I'm stretching. Up and over.

How far can you reach? How far can you stretch? Hollow deep in your belly to roll back down. Are you still standing on your feet? Has one foot left the building?

Two more. Nodding, curling, peeling. I love a good slow roll-up. You know why? Because I have to really work to keep it all together.

And let's just do one more here. Chin to the chest. Exhale. Curling reach, curling reach. Really stretch up and over that sticky part.

Reach long, hold. Inhale here. Exhale, we're gonna roll back to our tailbones and stay. Let's take a big five count inhalation, and a five count exhalation. Melt your breast bone toward the floor.

And inhale for four, and exhale for four. And now, inhale for three, strong arms, wide back. Exhaling for three and inhale for two. And exhale for two and one big breath in. And one big breath out.

And roll all the way down. And if you've migrated on your mat, now's a great time to move back down and grab your roller. If you don't have a roller, that's okay. You can do this without the roller. But we're just gonna quickly workshop the rollover.

So if you need an assist with the rollover, you'll bring your ball. I mean your roller, underneath your pelvis. And you'll start with bent knees. Find the rotation of your armpits forward. You'll inhale, and then you're just gonna exhale.

Rock and come back down. So in workshopping the rollover like this, by lifting the pelvis, it's a little bit easier. To find that low belly scoop now, if you don't need the deep knee bend, you can scoop from here. Legs come over, then you peel up and away, off of the roller. Oh, look at that.

And I'm keeping my hands connected so that I'm better able to manage my shoulder girdle as I come down through my rollover. And then again, exhale, scoop, lift, press up in a way. So my arms are active even here, even on the roller. They're not out to lunge. Pinky fingers, index fingers, thumbs, all of the fingers are at the party.

Let's do one more, up, over, scoop. Keeping the armpits rotated forward, toward the roller. Separate flex, stretching through the heels, no buckley knee business. I'm on your tricks. No buckley knees.

Now, we're gonna leave the legs apart. You can either keep your roller or get rid of it. Reversing our rollover here. Inhale, and then exhale, roll up and over. Stretch to the floor.

Slowly bring the legs back together and point. Now, roll down each vertebra, one at a time. Focus on the spine, not on the legs. Two more separate flex. Roll up over.

Toes tap, if they can. Point, rolling down, ironing your spine into the mat. One more here. Separating flex, scooping up and over, active arms, active armpits. Toes come over point.

Stretch. Long knees, long inner thighs. It's all long here. Now, let's take the legs all the way down to the floor. Arms come up.

Well, now, the chin and the chest, and scoop. Taking your time, and sitting up nice and tall. Now, we're going to move into rolling like a ball. We're gonna make this a variation that we blend it with spine stretch. So let's press the big toes together, and then pull the heels together.

Here, knees, open eyes on the belly. Three normal rolls. Inhale to roll back, exhale, roll up, and balance. Active arms, active shins, legs. It's all working here.

Gaze stays on the heels of the pubic bone, and hold. Now, we're going to add spine stretch to this. So we inhale to roll back, exhale, roll up, balance. Extend. The arms are gonna come up.

And then we bow up and over round spine. Now, we're going to take a hunch here, lengthening through the crown of the head and tail. And hunch at the hips, scoop. And as you roll up, you're gonna pull your legs in. Here we go again.

Back, up, and lengthen. Stretch flex. Bow, hollow belly, energy through the fingers and through the heels. And scooping back, pulling the heels in, ready for rolling. Back, up.

Find that balance point first, then stretch and extend. We bow up and over, and then we stack bone on bone and we come in. Two more. What are your armpits doing? Have you created ear muffs?

We're trying to get out of ear muffs season. Bowing, rounding up and over. Take the hunch again, 'cause I forgot it last time. And hunch deeper. Hunch deeper, creasing at the hips.

scoop your belly, pull back in. Now, we've to do one more because I forgot that. Last time. Holding here, extending up, lengthening wall, flexing your ankles, bowing over, hollow the belly. How deep can you pull your waist to the wall behind you?

And then slowly stacking up, up, up, up, and good. So, from here, we're going to bring the legs together. Bring the arms into genie. Strong arms, inhale, rotate. So this is just a variation on spine twist.

And think we're former here. So when you're sitting on the short box and you're about to do tilt and twist, that's where we are here. So now, I'm rotating. I'm hunching to the back, rear corner of my mat, keeping my hip down here. I'm coming back up to the center and rotating.

And I inhale the other way, hunch to the corner. My gaze directs my body. Rotate. I'm looking at the plant, and then coming up, and center. And the other way, I twist.

And I hunch. And I hunch a little bit extra. And then I come back up. My arms reach up here. And I'm going to do an eight count roll back.

So I'm counting out loud. Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, arms are down on one. And now, we're going to prep for corkscrew. So bring your legs up here. And we're just gonna flex.

And point, and two. And point. And again, three, and stretch. And if this is hard for you, you can do one leg at a time. In fact, why don't we do that here?

And again, let's switch legs, and flex, and point, and two. And give me two more here, and flex, and point, last one. And flex, point. Now, we'll bring both legs in. Take both legs up.

For our sequence, we'll inhale, circle around and down to one side. Exhale, come back up to the center, and then do a little pelvic lift. Then we go the other way, around and down, exhale up, little pelvic lift. Now, what you'll notice, is that I'm not coming up and popping up, because that's not really accessing here. So my energy is through my legs, but that comes all the way down into my deep, low core, continuing my connection here at my heels.

And last one. Around and down, coming up, pelvic lift, and lower. Bend the knees in, extend the legs long. Arms up, make a fist, and then we're gonna roll up to sit up. Stop at your tail.

Hold it right here. Bow and arrow. I'm gonna pull the right elbow back and twist, and then I'm coming back to the center. And now, the other way, my gaze follows my elbow. And center.

And twist, stretching long. And the other way. How much connection do you have to the backs of your legs? One more each way. Think of drawing your sitz bones together.

Your inner sitz bones are engaged toward one another. Hold it here. Scoop back a quarter inch, stay. And then let's roll all the way up and sit tall for the saw. We'll flex the ankles.

Energy is coming from the heels up, and from the core down. Arms along, I'm returning to fists here. And now, I'm going to inhale, grow as I rotate, turning my back palm back. Exhale, scoop. Saw off my pinky toe, saw it off a little bit more, saw it off a little bit more.

Come up, center. Other way, twist. Scoop and reach. Energy through my back line. And then I'm coming up, and center, and the other way.

Now, I haven't forgotten about my feet here. I'm still standing onto my feet. So I'm not rolling out in my ankles. I'm planted firmly on my feet. Even though the soles of my feet aren't on the floor.

One more each way, twist, scoop and saw. Deeper, deeper. Come up. And last direction, scoop and saw a little bit more, a little bit more, come up, center. Bring it all the way in.

Time for swan. And you may wanna grab your roller for this one. Once again, it's up to you. But I love swan with the roller because I get a lot of nice feedback and information from my shoulder girdle, when I use it. So, starting with your wrists over the rollers.

And your hands can be as wide or as narrow as you need them to be. So from here, I've got energy through my legs. And then I'm going to first rub my shoulders up toward my ears. And then I'm gonna pull them down away from my ears. Think of my armpits rolling forward.

And I'm lifting up, and then I'm slowly rolling back down, thinking about laying each rib onto the mat, one at a time. Shrugging first, and then lengthening and lifting. I'm widening my back, as I come up. And then I'm rolling back down. Vertebra by vertebra, let's take the next one a little bit deeper.

Shrug first. Pull the blades down and wide, wide in your back. Coming up, hold it here. Turn the head. Circle the chin to the chest.

Turn the head the other way. Come back to the center. Turn. Scoop, circle, look around the other side, center, and coming back down. We're gonna do one more for good measure.

Take a shrug first. Pull the blades wide, and down and come up. Now, this time when you come down, I'd like for you to leave with your eyes. So your head's gonna start to descend. Your spine is rounding.

You're curling up and over an imaginary electric fence. It's the only one I could come up within a pinch, guys. Stretch too long. And then good. Let's come back and take a quick child's pose here.

And in case that was tough on the shoulders, you can bring your hands back to the heels. But if you were fine, you can take them out here, to skydiver position. And then just do a couple of shoulder rolls, in each direction. Slowly scoop, walk up. Excellent job, guys.

So, pushing your roller out of the way and prepping for single leg kicks, we're going to rotate the armpits forward. And think of your breastbone stretching forward to the wall in front of you. So it's not here, instead it's here. Your energy is long through your legs. And we'll point and flex here.

Point, flex, extend. Point, flex, extend. Now, remember this is a quad stretch too. So that kick has to be coming from a place of power, not a place of nap time. One last one.

Kick and stretch, lowering down. We're coming all the way down. We're bringing the hands to the small of the back, and we're letting the elbows roll forward here. You may interlace if you would like. Double leg kicks, here we go.

Kick one, kick two, kick three, lift, lengthen, stretch. And switch ears. Think symmetry here, as you're stretching. Other way, kick one and two, three, stretch long. And last one, kick one, two, three.

How parallel are your legs? Hold. Hold this. Keep holding, keep lengthening through the crown of the head, not at the back of the neck so you're not a Pez dispenser. Neck is long.

Circle the arms around to the front. We're not gonna swim yet, but we will do some lat pulls. So pulling three. And then again, pulling two. How much energy do you have through the backs of your legs?

Pulling one, stretch. Hands come in. Push back, stretching back into your child's pose. And then again, wagging your tail, scooping and rolling up. Now, it's time for some sideline work.

As you know, I'd like the legs stretched and stacked. If you need to pike forward, that's okay. But realize you're gonna have a little bit more fun and maybe a little bit more challenge, if your legs are in line with your sitz bones. Now, you're gonna flex your ankles, and pull your sitz bones together in the back. Just a light engagement.

Your top hand can be right in front of you, fingertips pointing at the camera or here in a fist. Rotating your armpits forward, stretching in your inner ankle as you lift your leg up and down. Again, think of painting the wall that's down by your feet. Do not think of lifting your leg from your eyebrows. It just doesn't work that way.

I promise. And last one, lift, and bring the leg down and hold. Now, the leg is gonna come back up to hip height. We're gonna kick front and back. Exhale, kick, and push.

Now, sweep it back without falling back. Again, kick and push, and back stretch through the front of the hip here. Again, kicking and pushing, and stretching back. Now, don't forget about the bottom leg. Your bottom leg is your kickstand.

It's your anchor. So it shouldn't be out to lunge here. Instead, it's coming to the party. We're gonna hold it back here. Stretch this leg here, hamstring curls.

Five. And as you're curling here, feel the work from the hamstring into the glute. Then feel the stretch in the front of the hip here as well. Three. And good, give me two more.

Curl. And let's do just one more. Curl, and stretch. Bring both legs together. Hold.

Flexing your ankles, your top arm is gonna go up to the ceiling. Rotate the armpit forward. If you'd like, think of pressing into a wall in front of you here. And we're going to lift both legs without translating the hips forward or back. Lifting, and lowering.

Pushing your inner ankle bones forward, toward the wall. It's adjacent to you. Two more. Can we do one more? Lift and hold.

Hold it right here. Hold it right here. And good, bring the legs down. Now, slide, sit up. I learned this from the great Sarita Allen.

It's one of my favorite add-ons 'cause it's brutal and terrible. You can either come to the fist or be to a flat hand like I said before. And from here, we're going to side sit-up up. Let your gaze inform your direction. Turn in that direction.

You're coming up, keeping the feet stacked. And then you're melting away. Now, no shrugging in your top shoulder. In my country, we call that cheating. And as (indistinct) says, "Cheaters never win." (laughs) Just kidding.

Shot out of the '80s forever. And rolling back down. And gage here. Rather than curling and squishing, think of curling and lifting up and over. Let's do one more.

Side bending up. Look, look, look at your heels, and then come back down. And now, we'll switch to the other side. Let's make it pretty, shall we? Legs are gonna mermaid forward.

And then we come to the other side. Armpits, both of them rotated forward. Legs are flat and heavy, and you're stretching through those inner ankle bones. Now, don't forget, the (indistinct) is the inner sitz bones coming together, that helps you balance. And if you need a little bit of a bend on your bottom leg, don't hesitate to take it.

Here we go. We're lifting up, and down. When you lift, think of that inner thigh doing as much work as the outer thigh. And then yes, I do mean on the top leg. Three more.

And two, are you breathing? I am. Maybe now I am. (chuckles) And now, we're gonna lift it up and hold just hip height. Kicking forward, exhale as we go forward.

Inhale as we lengthen back. Don't tip. Again, blowing, and reaching. And it gets a little bit easier, if you think about this top armpit rotating forward. And back.

One more kick forward. And let's go back and hold. Stay here. Stretch it a little bit extra. Now, it's time for your hamstring curl.

Curl, keeping the knee and the toes, the same height. Again, curl and stretch. Three more. Bottom leg is heavy. It's still your anchor.

Give me two more just like this. Curl and stretch. Last one, curl, and stretch. Hold. Bring the leg down.

Stack. Flex both ankles. Draw those inner sitz bones together and the top arm comes up. Find that rotation in the armpits again. Pressing into that front wall, if you need to.

And both legs are lifting without compromising the waist, guys. And lower. Inner sitz bones drawing in. Inner thighs are reaching long through the heels. Lifting up.

Floating down. Three more. We go up. We lengthen down in a way and we do two more. We go up, and we reach away and we do one more.

We lift up, and we hold. Find your connections. Inner feet, inner ankle bones, inner big toes, inner knees, if your knees touch. Mine don't. Inner thighs, inner sitz bones.

Armpits rotated forward. And we come down. Top hand comes down in front of you. And once again, open hand or fist. Whatever's easier for you.

Side sit-up, keeping the feet stack. Gaze informs the direction. We're going up. And we're stretching down. Do it again.

As you come up, think of curling up and over, not just to the feet. 'Cause ideally, we're not going to the feet at all, we're going up and over the waist. Keep the armpits rotating. Keep the depth of the breath. Two more.

And we go back down. You've got one more of these in your future. Let's go up. Look, stretch, stretch. And we're coming back down and onto our bellies for beats.

You may put your foreheads all the way down if you'd like. I'm going to stay here with my armpits rotated forward. My breastbone drawing in and my legs are floating, and I'm beating. If I'm over-activating my glutes, I can't beat. It's more like clunk, clunk, clunk, whereas here, I can move my legs lightly and with grace.

Like Tinker Bell. Not really. Beating, beating, beating. Finding my armpit rotation, and then I'm coming down. And again, stretching back.

On this stretch back, I'd like for the needs to be open. And I'd like to bring the outside arm through, looking underneath my armpit, breathing into my middle back. (exhales heavily) And now, I'm going to do the same thing in the other direction. You can even give your arm just a little bit of pressure into the floor, to get a deeper stretch down the back of the shoulder. And even here, I'm still thinking, armpit forward, not armpit wide.

Which affects my spinal alignment. And then I'm coming back to the center. Now, I may have been doing a little bit of stalling because we're getting into plank prep next. For plank prep, we're gonna bring the forearms to the roller. And for today, I'd like to press the palms together, fingertips engaged.

And then I'm gonna step forward a little bit on my mat here. My shoulders are over. My rib, my elbows, and my knees are gonna be parallel. I'm starting with one leg, keeping my abdominals engaged. I'm gonna slide my leg away.

Hold the engagement here. And then I'm gonna slide my other leg away, holding the engagement here. And now, the leg that just came out, that's the one I'm gonna bring in. The idea is that my roller doesn't move. Now, I'm gonna slide my back leg out, and then my other leg joins it.

And then I slide the other leg in, and close. And reverse. Now, I've noticed that I'm coming in a little bit far. So I really wanna make sure that my knees are landing up just underneath my hips, and then the other way. Stretching back, and stretching back.

Hold. Bring your heels together. Settle into this plank. We're gonna hang out here. Thinking of our connections.

So our heels, our inner thighs, are deep, low core. Our armpits are forward. We're breathing, and then both knees will lower. We'll take a stretch here. Palms on the roller, pressing your fingertips into the roller.

And then from here, let's take a stretch by pulling the crown of the head up as the shoulders come back and the elbows bend into a Sphinx position. And then we're stretching out in a way. Find the pinky finger engagement, rotate. And that's gonna keep your rotator cuff stabilized, and yet still able to move as you need it to. One more.

Can we do one more here? Rotate, lengthen through the crown of the head and stretch. And then coming back down. Now, we're not done with plank prep yet. And roll is gonna come to the other end.

And we're gonna go into a full plank, balancing here. So, this can be dicey if you don't have the most flexible of toes. I don't either. So what you will do, is bring your one ball of your foot back. Bring the other leg right underneath the hip.

Find the rotation of your armpits forward. If you are comfortable here, you will bring the other leg back, connecting the heels. Or if you keep your legs wide, you've gotta wider base of support so it feels a little bit better. Keep your fingertips pushing into the floor. Keep the L of your thumb pushing into the floor.

Breathe. And then step down. Well done. Let's put these rollers off to the sides, for just a moment here. And we're going to check out the teaser.

I call this the teeter teaser because it's fun, but it's a little bit hard. So we're gonna go through it together. Starting from here, on your backs. Now, if this doesn't work for you, you may start with the legs up. But you may just wanna do your 90 degree angle teaser through the whole action.

Arms are up. I'm making my fists. I'm taking a big breath in, nodding my chin to my chest. Once I see my toes, I'm gonna bring them up with me. I'm holding up.

Now, I'm going to let my legs float down, stretch over my legs just a little. And then I'm gonna screw back. Bring my legs back up, up, up. Then I'm gonna clap because I've done a good job here. And then I'm gonna lower back down, stretching my arms and legs away.

This time, I'm gonna keep my arms down on these sides, take a big breath in. Once I can see my inner ankle bones, I'm coming up, up, hold. I'm letting my legs come down. I'm stretching forward. I'm lengthening up here.

And then I'm scooping back. Once I can get to my balance point, that's when I bring my legs up. My inner sitz bones are en fuego. And then I'm rolling back down. Two more teeter teasers.

Nodding. Oh, look, it's my ankles. Here I go again. I'm reaching for them. I'm reaching for them.

I'm reaching for them. I'm over them. So I'm gonna slowly float away. I'm tall, I'm curling, I'm lengthening and breathing. Then I'm scooping back, maintaining my armpits.

Legs come up. Up. Whoo! Getting a little bit stiff here. Rolling back down. Energy, energy.

I lost my inner sitz bones on that one. One more, nodding, curling, lifting. Strong. Floating down. Nice long spine, running over to flatten up.

Hunch. Finding my scoop. Energy, energy. Can I do it? Arms up, up, up.

Legs up, slowly, gently floating away and bending my knees in. For bridge, feet are flat. Find your inner big toes. Find your inner ankle bones and feet spinning to the floor. Big breath in here.

Exhale, scooping. I'm gonna start with an articulating bridge, because that just feels good for me. But if neutral bridge is better for you, feel free to do the same. Articulating back down, in your neutral position. And again, scooping and rolling up.

Find your big toes. Find all of your toes actually. And rolling down, finding your center as well. And let's do one more just like this. Exhaling, scooping, curling up, hold it.

Hold it. Arms float up. Take a big breath in here, and start to scoop. Roll back down. And let's just sit up and grab our rollers for a mermaid series.

We'll start this series in Z-sit position, and then we're going to build on. Remember, it's perfectly okay if you don't have a roller. You can modify by doing it with a towel, or just a regular Z-sit mermaid. But we're gonna build on as we go along. So, my hand is in front of my shoulder.

I'm side-bending up and over, stretching my bottom arm out. And then I'm coming back up, and I'm stretching the other way. Counter stretch. Up and over, looking long. And come up.

Guys, don't forget to let your head come to the party. Your head is attached to your spine. So we've gotta let the head side-bend with us. And come up. And we're gonna do one more here.

Side-bending up and over, big stretch. And then coming up to center. Now, your bottom forearm goes onto the roller. Your legs stack. Armpit rotated forward.

Or this doesn't end well. And your hips, and your knees are almost in a straight line. Now, from here, start with your fingertips on the floor just in case you need the assistance. And let's lift the hips up. And then come back down.

Now, if you didn't need that, hand comes here. We lift the hips up. Stay plugged-in in this bottom armpit, it's rotating forward. And then come back down. And again, one more just like this.

We're going up, up, up. Where? And then we come back down. And now, for the counter stretch, we're gonna bring the arm across the body, grab the shin and ankle, scoop and pull away, pushing into your top shin, as you're pulling away. Other side.

Forearm on the roller, elbows slightly in front of the shoulder, armpit is forward, and we're side-bending over. And up. And take your counter stretch. Stretch. Now, imagine once again, my favorite image, you're in the slat of a toaster.

If you lean forward or back, you're gonna send yourself, and that won't feel good. So you wanna stay very, very parallel, no rotation. Counter stretch over. And I think we do one more here. Up, over.

Keep the bottom armpit rotated forward like the top, and we come up. And now, we're ready. We're stacking the knees. Bring them back a little bit, it will help with the balance. Forearm is on, armpit is forward, and you can either use fingertips or not.

We have four here, so let's lift. Up. Balance. Make sure the hips come forward, and then we come back down. I'm gonna make a small adjustment on myself here.

Feel free to do the same. And then again, three more. We're lifting up, up, up. And then slowly coming back down. Inner sitz bones, inner ankle bones, bring them to the party.

Lifting, opening the front of the hips. And then coming back down. We have one more and we'll end it with flare, of course. So lengthening and lifting up, let your bottom half. Bring your top half up.

Hold the position. Standing into the bottom armpit. Flare. Stretch the arm up and over. Reach, reach away.

Reach through the knee as well. Stretch it long. And then come back down. Very nice. Let's get rid of the roller here.

And seal is in our future. And if you don't wanna clap, that's okay too. But I'd like for you to find the scoop in the round shape. Ankles are pushing into the hands. Elbows are pushing into the legs.

We're rolling back, we're rolling up, and we're balancing. And then again, this time we're gonna come up and lengthen one leg, and bring it back down. Scoop back, come up, lengthen the other leg up, up, up, up, up, up, and back down again. Why the leg extension? Why not?

It's our Monday, right? We can do whatever we want. Rolling back, rolling up, sitting tall. Lengthen, stretch, stretch, stretch. And again, roll back.

This time, come up to your feet. A few things more to end. I'd like for you to grab your roller. And the roller is just an assist here. 'Cause we're going to do some single leg work.

If you don't feel like the roller is needed, get rid of it. It can either be off to one side or directly in front of you, if you need two hands. We're going to plant a hand on the roller or two hands on your hip. You'll pick up your foot and wrap it around your ankle. And as you bend, your goal is to keep your pelvis level.

Now, to come back up, find the suction cupping of the foot into the floor to stand up nice and tall. Again, bend, and lengthen. And three. So you're not done until the leg is all the way straight. Two more.

Bend, and stretch, stretch, stretch. And one more. Bend, stretch, stretch, stretch. Find the connection to the ball of the foot on the floor. Think of engaging the arch to lift the heel up.

And lower. Two. And down, let's do one more. Lift it up, up, up, and down. Good.

Second side. Wrap the foot. I've a slight turnout in my standing leg. You don't have to. And here I go.

Bending, and stretching. Don't forget about your foot on the floor. It is webbed, it is wide. Pelvis is level. One more.

Bend. And zip up the back line of the leg to stretch. Hold. Now, resist as you lift. Lifting from the arch of the foot and not just slapping that ankle around.

You know how I feel about slapping bones around. Two. And let's do one more here. Zip it up to lift, lift. Hold it.

Wait between your first and second toe. Belly is deep. And come back down. One more thing here, we're gonna bring our roller back down to the floor, right in front of us. Nod the chin to the chest.

Bringing the heels together, we're curling up and over with a round spine. Find your deep, low core. Stretch long. Keep fixing those inner thighs together. Find the floor, stack some extension here.

And I'll scoop the spine round like a cat on Halloween, round your spine. There, your sitz bones' drawing together. And then stretch and extend. Hold, rotate your armpits forward. And scoop and rolling up.

And let's do one more. Stretch, hold. Take your weight a little bit more over your hands. Feel the connection at your sitz bones and your arches. Hold, and scoop.

Rolling back up, you'll leave your roller behind. Doming your arches, lifting up, rotating the shoulders, armpits forward, looking up. And bring it back to center. And give yourself some jazz hands because you made it. Thank you so much for joining me here again for "Fortify The Mat" with Misty Lynne.