Ebb and Flow

So let's flow like the ocean. For me, when I immerse myself in the ocean, I come back out feeling renewed, like a better state of mind and just feeling better all round. And in some ways, that's what our Pilates practice can be like, we sweat, we smile. We have some fun, but we emerge from our Pilates practice feeling strengthened in both physically, mentally and even spiritually. So join me now and let's move like the ocean.

So I want us to start standing, just feet just comfortably hip distance apart, just stand up nice and tall. We're gonna encourage a lot of breath through this class just to help ourselves move and connect with our breath, looking for that state of flow if we can, that move in meditation. So arms down by your side, roll your shoulders back and down and take a moment just to rock through the toes and through the heels, and just feel that transfer of weight through the foot, maybe side to side a little, and just feel and get a sense of where your body is within space. Now let's just take a moment just to stand, just to be, invite the breath into the body. Centered and ready to begin.

Okay, step to the top of the mat, fold your arms like a genie, stand tall. Take one foot and cross it behind the other. And with control, let's lower ourselves gently down onto our seat. So let's take a moment just here to breathe and move, feel centered and connected through the mat. Reach your hands forward as you exhale, take your hands behind you and inhale.

Lift the heart to the sky. And again, rounding over, exhaling out. Inhale, stretch lift the heart, come through to the center. Let's take a twist, take the opposite hand to the other side of the leg and just twist as you exhale, inhale through the center and exhale again to the other side. One more time, center to lift and exhale it out as we twist, back through the center, reach across, just encourage yourself to turn and then return to the center.

Now, let's lift ourselves up and over onto all fours. Let's do a little cat and cow. So just feel your spine. Feel yourself grounding through the floor but at the same time, inhale, exhale round the back, scoop the abs, stretch the spine, inhale, ride the wave of the spine into our cow. And then back into cat as we round and arch, exhaling out, really connect the movement with the breath.

Inhale, exhale round. One more time, and scoop and exhale as we round and let's turn ourselves back over, ready to begin. Lower yourselves down to the mat and stretch the legs out long, ready for your 100. So once again, we're gonna connect with the breath. So find a position that's comfortable for you.

Just maybe back a little bit from your point of challenge, so that you can connect with the breath in the movement and stay present, all right. So from here, bring your chin to chest, nose to navel, float your legs up and then lower them to wherever your point in the challenge is going to be, and let's pump our arms strong. Inhaling, exhaling everything out, just breathe it in as much as you can and exhale everything out. Good, strong exhale, and in, and breath it out. full breaths in, full breaths out.

scooping those apps and in, and exhaling out, we're halfway there breathe it in, stay connected to your breath. Stay focused on the breath, and in. Last two. Big breath in and exhale everything out the lungs. Okay, lower the legs down, lower the head, the roll-up, point your toes away, press the legs together.

Inhale, exhale round over, reach, scoop and return. Inhale the arms up, exhale as we reach forward, inhale, exhale to lower. Reaching, riding the breath. Two more, scoop the abs, reach the legs away. Reaching beyond the toes.

Last lower now, scoop as we reach the legs away, lower our spine to the mat taking a nice inhale up, arms come down by your side for the roll over. So let's keep that same concept. Staying with the breath, the legs come up. Connect yourself, centered, prepared and we lower away, up, over, separate and resist as we lower down. Find any moment there to take your breath.

Make sure your breaths are full, long breaths. Let's reverse, wide, together and then resist as we come down. Drag the legs back down, around, together and over, pressing every part of the body into the mat. Last time now, so down, around and over. Bring those legs together and then resist, resist.

Scoop those abs, lower your right leg. Stretch your left leg up to the sky. Give that leg a stretch. Let's flex and point, and just bring the breath. Keep the breath going, breathing in breathing out, one more time.

Point the toe, flex the opposite foot. Once again, range of movement with the leg. It doesn't matter, as long as it's within an area that you can still control and stay connected to your breathing. And across, down around and up, across, down around and up. Abs bring the leg back up, two more.

Reverse and scoop and breathe as we scoop. Inhale in, exhaling, last one and let's change those legs. Take the hands behind the thigh. Give the leg a pull, let's flex and point. Now point the toe other foot flexed, arms by the side, prepare again.

Center yourself, anchor your hips. And with the breath, we move, cross down around and up. Abs bring the leg back up. Pin your hips to the mat, pin everything to the mat. One more time, reverse and scoop and pin and reach, two more.

Lower your leg down, come up with control. We're ready for our roll like a ball. Now let's just hug this in as tight as we can. So take your opposite hand to the opposite ankle and take your wrist and hug that in as tight as we can. Let's try and stay with the breath here.

Inhale back, exhale to come back up. All right, so pick the heels up. Tuck the head between the knees, scooping deep now. Inhale and exhale, hugging it in tight. We roll back onto the ribs.

It really helps open up the lungs. Let's do two more. Last one, keep it tight, full breath. And then we're ready for the ab series. So lift our seat to the middle of the mat, stretch one leg out long and hug the other leg in.

Let's stay connected to the powerhouse and just keep breathing through this. This is more of a moment where we get to move and sweat and try and bring a smile to the face. All right, here we go. Lower and back, reach one leg in. So we give it two pulls, and pull and change and breathe, inhale, exhale, in, ex.

In and ex, good, profound breath, wide into the rib cage. Reaching the legs away, elbows wide. And last one on each side, hug both the legs in now, ready for our double leg stretch, inhale out, sweep the arms, scoop the abs, exhale. And again, reach, sweep. Hug it in, inhale it out, exhale as we hug it back in, and hug.

last time now, reach away and sweep the arms hug the legs back in, legs to the ceiling for scissors. Reach the other leg away. Pull, pull, switch. Just breathing evenly through, Scooping your abs. One more each side, bring the legs together.

Ready for our lower lifts. Hands behind the back of the head, scoop the abs now, reach the legs away as we inhale to lower and scoop, and exhale to lift. Inhale away, scoop, exhale to lift. Reach those legs. Reach to come back up, two more and lift.

Last one now, stay with me and up. We're into our criss-cross. Bend your knees and reach opposite elbow through opposite knee, here we go. Reach and reach and just breathe where you can. Keep the breath in the body it's so important.

One more on each side and then come up to sit, ready for our spine stretch forward. So let's make this about cleansing the lungs, so big breaths in to lift. And then as we exhale forward, breath everything you've got out the lungs, so we're really cleaning out the lungs. So sit tall, let's have the arms in front for this one, take an inhale, exhale up and over and just reach. Exhale, everything out.

Inhale, stack the spine up tall and again, up and over, exhale in and reach in, scooping back in our position, breathe it all out, breathe it all in. Here we go, up and over. Last one, and stack the spine up as we inhale, we're ready for our open leg rocker. Bring your seat forward. Reach your hands in front.

Let's see if we can catch our ankles. If you want to just bring them in and bend the knees you can do. But here we are, we're gonna lean back just a little. Pick the legs up, we got there. Scoop the abs, inhale back, exhale back up.

Sit tall at the top. And again, keeping with the breath. The breath keeps us rolling. Sitting tall at the top each time. There's the control, abs deep, rolling, lift at the top, last one.

And then bring the legs together at the top. Lower onto our backs for corkscrew. Without too much time to wait, let's just connect and whatever range of movement feels available to you in this moment. Here we go, down, around, add up and lift, and reach the legs away, resist as we come back down. To the other side, around, lift, stay strong, stay connected.

Reach in a way, breathe in, bring the breath in. It helps the movement, reach in our position around and up and resist. Come down, last ones, to the right, around, center, lift, resist to return. Last time, and center and lift, fight all the way down. Teaser up, legs wide, ready for the sore.

Okay, take those arms wide. Breathe it in, open the heart here. Exhale, ring out the lungs, really ring them out. Reach, inhale, breathe it in, exhale. Ring out the lungs.

We're staying anchored through the opposite hip but it still allows us to twist and cleanse internal organs getting the lungs a good inhale and exhale as well. All that good air in, all the stress out. Last time, twist, reach, ringing them out. We'll move onto our tummy for swan. Lift up and over and lower with control.

Take a moment just to reset, reconnect and find length in your body. Let's try and rock our Swan. So push an imagine every marble with the nose, to the top of the mat, as we inhale. Let's take one just lengthen, exhale to return. You can just repeat that if that's how you feel.

Otherwise, we're ready to rock. So see if we can keep our swan rocking this time. Lengthen up and let's rock. And then take our seat to our heels for rest position. And just take a moment to breathe and be here.

Not too long, but pulling the navel away from the thighs, breathing into the back body, really stretching out through the back of the rib cage. And then let's bring ourselves up, roll up, ready for thigh stretch. Bring your arms forward. Now we're gonna anchor down. So I feel that connection through the knees, through the feet, almost like bolting the hips together.

Inner thighs are active, spine is long. Let's inhale as we go back and exhale to lift. See how that feels, let's do one more like that. Inhale back, exhale up. Now let's flip the breathing.

Let's see if we can exhale as we go back, scoop the abs, exhale, take it a little further. Inhale, lifting tall and again, and let's exhale back, inhale up and continue that inhale. Take the arms up, reach, and then bring them wide and down by the sides, over onto our backs for shoulder bridge. So lift yourself up and over and lower with control, arms by the side, feet thighs together. Hips stay even as we lift our sit bones to the backs of our knees.

Now bring your right leg up, point it right up to the sky and we're gonna lower and lift for five. So let's reach out and up and out and reach, three more and two, and one, stay up there. Keep those hips lifting. Keep them even, other leg comes up, reach it, stretch it. Keep the breath in the body as we reach and lift, out, up three more, up two, last one.

Reach your leg out, Now with control, slow exhalation All the way, introducing the vertebra with a first and last name, let's stretch out in front. Let's come up to sit for spine twist. Arms out to the side, take an inhale. Exhale slowly, two pulses, pulse, pulse. Inhale, exhale it out.

Ring the lungs out and then pulse, pulse, pulse, encouraging yourself to go a little further each time. Now see if we can even look over the shoulder. Look, look, inhale, getting that full range of movement, pulse, pulse last one's each side. Pulse, pulse and twist, look and center. Lovely, okay, on to our side for our side kick series, reach along with the body.

Rest the head on the hands and bring the feet to the front corner of the mat. Reach that leg long for leg front and back, as we exhale as we kick, kick, inhale it back, kick, kick and reach the leg back. Breathe, breathe, inhale, back two more. Pause, pause and lengthen, just go up and down. Just lift that leg, reach it out.

Whole body getting longer, stronger as we reach the leg away. Two more times, reaching out, and out. Let's go into passe. Bend your knee in towards your shoulder. Lift it, reach it away and again, bend the knee in, lift the leg up, reach it out, once more.

Let's reverse it, all right. Take the leg up, bend and slide out down the seam of the trousers and lift and bend and reach one more time, and reach that way, let's change the sides. Bring the legs to the front and just turn ourselves over. Ready to repeat, rest of the head on the hands. Lengthen the body as long as we can, reach the legs away and just keep bringing that breath in breath out.

Full breaths wherever you can. Pulse, pulse the leg, lengthen it back. Kick, kick, back, back, three more. Reach long, kick strong, reach long, last one. And back, up and down.

Lift that leg up and reach and up and stretch. Three more, reach two and one more and then into passe. So slide in, up, stretch the leg out and in, knee to shoulder if you can, keeping that length in the body up and away, let's reverse it. Bring the leg up and bend and slide the foot out. Two more and slide, reach the body away.

Last one, and slide, reach all the way out and then bring ourselves up to a seated position. Ready for our teaser. So sit up, we're gonna go into our teaser like so. Take your hands by your seat. Press your heals together.

Get that connection, lower onto your backs. Bringing the legs with you, ready for teaser. Here we go, lift up. Lift tall, reach up, lower back. Reach for the knees, reach for the toes, lift tall and lower back, one more.

Reach all the way up, lift tall, now lower everything down. Keep pressing those heels together. Reach for the knees, reach for the toes. Full teaser, lift and exhale, do come back. Coming back up again.

Reach for those knees, for those toes lifting and exhaling down one more. Please let's do this. Here, we're all together. Reach for those knees, reach for those toes. Lift, leep reaching away as we lower to the mat.

Well done, up and over onto our tummies for swimming. Now on your tummy here, take a moment. Once again, it's a different position to be breathing in so try and bring that breath into the back body. Stretch the arms, scoop the abs as we lift everything up and let's swim, get the breath in where you can, but swim strong, we really could be in the ocean now. So let's keep swimming.

Brush those feet, lift and reach, a little further, a little more and then hold and lower with control. Place the hands by the chest. Ready to push up until I leg pull front. Lift the thighs off the mat. Take an inhale, lengthen, exhale, push up and just hold, hold and breathe.

Take a moment to feel strong, feel long, connected but let that breath into the body and exhale. Breathe in even longer, stretch your body longer. Two more breaths, breathe it in. Exhale it out, last one and exhale. Now can we turn over onto our backs in one movement?

Ready to do the same, just hold, hold the position. But take this moment to breathe, invite the breath into your body. Let the breath lengthen your body. Reach your toes away, lift your hips. Hold a little longer, we're almost there, breathing in.

Close your eyes if you need to, stay connected to the breath. Last one and then controlled, lower your seat to the mat and turn to your side for your side bend. Place your hands, stay strong in the shoulder. Sit tall, another opportunity to connect the breath with the movement. So take an inhale here, exhale to prepare.

And as we inhale, we're going up and over. Inhale it up, exhale, come down. Kiss the mat, inhale up. Hips just kiss the mat and up and down. Let's do two more, reach and stretch.

Breathe it in, one more and lower to the mat. Bring the seat down, and we change sides. Swing the legs around, same moment. Just to stop, connect with the breath. Get your breath back if you need to, but sitting tall, inhale, exhale to prepare.

And here we go. Lift, push, reach, stretch, inhale it in and kiss the mat with the hips and up. Three more, reach in, really get that breath in to enhance the stretch here. Really, opening the rib cage. I think that's one more to go.

And lower to the mat. Bring your feet to the front of the mat, for the boomerang. Let's focus on the flow of the boomerang rather than anything else. It's a great exercise for tapping into that. Bring your breath in where you can and stay safe and connected to the powerhouse.

Okay, so here we go. If you can, let's exhale on the way back. Change those legs, come through, inhale for the teaser, take the hands behind, enjoy a stretch up and over and fold. This is my favorite bit, right there. Let's repeat that again.

Scoop, round, keep the whole exercise in motion and over fold and again. Reach and then lower the legs, lift up, over and stretch into fold. Three more to do. Stretch it out, scoop the abs. So many other exercises all make up this exercise.

That's why it's just so wonderful. It was just so many components of Pilates just in this one, simple exercise. Last repetition, here we go. And back, over and let's indulge in this stretch. If you'd like, if you like to stretch, take this moment.

All right, bring your seat forward. Two feet for the seal. Hands dive through, take the ankles and draw the feet in and let's clap. Here we go. One, two, three, rolling back, clap three times.

And again, keep that connection. Inhale back, exhale up, inhale back. One more, all the way back, all the way up, and cross your legs over. And we're coming on to our tummies for a little stretch. So step or jump the legs back and lower onto our tummies for a little rocking, but this version of rocking is gonna be all about the stretch whilst we breathe.

Just bend your knees, take hold of the feet. Keep the hips, the head down, draw the navel in and up and just breathe. Lengthening both the spine and the thighs. Lengthening the body, press the thighs together, now separate the knees. And I want us to think back to our Swan and how we lengthened to lift.

So draw the shoulders back and down, push the feet into the hands and just lift. Just feel the front body open. Just lengthen it, breathe in here if we can. Come up a little higher and then lower down, rest the head on the hands. Just take a moment just to shake the hips.

All right, take your seat. Rest onto your heels ready for rest position again, and just scoop and round. Take a moment to stretch in our position. Now, curl the toes under, press your heels together and lift your seat towards the sky. Let's walk our hands towards our feet.

Rolling, all the way up to stand. We're ready for our pushup, inhale up. Anchor the heels, reach to the heels and up through the head. As we reach up and over, exhale and down. Hands come flat to the mat.

Walk the out, one, two, three. You can stay here, hold and breathe or three push-ups with me. Inhale down, exhale, push with control. Inhale down, strong push, strong exhale. Last one, strong exhale up.

Walk the hands back, roll up to stand, reaching high, big inhale, arms by the side. Take your hands to your hips. Let's step forward with the right foot, a nice wide lunge. Now square your hips up as best you can, bring your hands behind your head to open up the ribs. And let's been that front knee as we lunge and inhale to stand, exhale forward.

One more, bend it, straighten, now reach for the sky. Bend the knee, frame the foot, straighten and bend the front leg three times. Straighten and bend, and straighten and bend. Pushing out through both the legs each time. And bend, now lift the back heel, lower the knee and let's lengthen our upper body up.

Take a moment to really bring breath into the body. We're opening up the psoas here. We're lengthen in the psoas, giving it a stretch and where it connects at the top here, at thoracic 12, is where your diaphragm is as well. So this is no coincidence that this is helping us breathe in a much more full and profound way. So take advantage of that.

Really lunge in, bring your left arm up. Follow the fingers with the eyes, reach, stretch, inhale here, deep inhale, reach over, back to the center. Hands come down, let's step the back foot to meet the front and change those feet over, coming all the way to stand, hands behind the head. Square the hips, open the heart and the lungs. Here we go, we bend and inhale, exhale and inhale.

Once more, and inhale arms reach up. Bend the knee, frame the foot, straight and bend that front leg. Here we go, we straighten and bend and reach, and bend, we're scooping the abs at the same time. Last time, lift the back heel, lower the knee, opening up the psoas on the other side now. To open the torso, bring that hip forwards and then bring your arm forwards, upwards, looking to the sky, breathe it in.

As we reach over as well, come back to the center. Hands come down to frame the foot. Now step your back foot to the front, soft in the knees. Roll up to stand, roll the shoulders back. Now that let's finish with our feet back at hip distance apart, roll the shoulders back, let our breath recover.

And let's move a little from side to side as we did at the beginning, a little back and forth, just feeling that transfer of weight through the feet. And then when you're ready, just steady yourself to stand tall if you want to close your eyes and just experience that change within our bodies, ready to return to life.