Level Up Mat

Hi, I'm Delia Buckmaster and welcome to level up. This is week number three. I'm here in Whitefish, Montana at my studio. Today the class is gonna go a little bit quicker than the last two classes as far as the speed of the exercises. And we'll be spending some time in a position for a little while.

So when we're on our backs, we'll be there for a bit. When we're in plank positions, we will also be there for a bit. So make sure that you rest when you need to and you don't need to do as many repetitions as I'm doing today. So we're gonna and get ahead and get started. I'm gonna stand up on my mat.

So I'm on a high mat. I'm center at the back of my mat. And one of my favorite ways to start is to just do a little reach to the sky. So take a deep inhale breath, arms up towards the ceiling and then exhale, bringing those arms down. This is just a really great way on your feet.

To start to sync your breath, to become present, allowing the shoulders to rise. The shoulders need to be mobile for you to be able to go into flexion and extension today. So one more time as you reach your arms up. And we're gonna go right into playing. So please make sure that if it doesn't work for you that you go ahead and drop those knees.

So let's roll yourself down to the mat, walk out to that plank position. And if you have a hard time finding your plank, go ahead and drop your knees to all fours and then hook one foot back and then the other, and then there's your plank. So hold it here for a couple of breaths. It's a really quick way to warm up the core, inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth, inhale breath. And go ahead and bring myself back to a pipe position, dropping my heels down for a stretch.

Now, if you have really tight calves or achilles, this is a difficult position for most of you. So just make the adjustment and then take yourself back to that plank position and then back to your pike position but move through your spine. So inhale as you lift your heels up, exhale to roll through your spine and find your plank and then lifting yourself back up to your pike position and dropping those heels down. And again, if this is not an option for you, drop down to all fours, do a little cat cow and wait for the next exercise. Now I'm gonna have you drop your knees down on the next one and lift those eyes for a slight up dog or a little extension.

I'll the upper and middle back, and then take it back to plank and then back to your down dog. And when you do a few of these with the knees down into that up dog position, finding extension and then lifting back up and finding that pike position. Now as you progress, or if you feel strong this morning, you can go ahead and lift, keep those knees off the mat. So instead of dropping them down, you could just hover them off the mat, lift the eyes, open up the chest, find that plank and find it that pike. I do encourage you to start off slow, test exercise a few times, make sure that it's gonna work for your body.

And then on the next one, I'm gonna have you just drop those knees down lift the chest, and then take it back to plank and then walk your hands back to your feet and then roll yourself up. We're gonna tackle an extra exercise I call Jack rabbits. So the arms are gonna come down. You're gonna walk yourself back out to your plank. And then from here, you'll drop your bottom back towards your heels almost as though you're trying to push the mat away from you.

And then you can take it back to your plank. So your knees could be either at a hover or you can have your knees down shifting forward and back. So this would be your modification. I'm gonna lift my knees up, drive my bottom back and then shift forward and back. This is a hinge exercise.

So we're warming up the risks, loading the risks with some weight, loading the quads, moving through the spine as neutral as possible. And then thinking about that shoulder mobility here as you press back and forth. And again, please drop those knees if this doesn't work for you this morning And I'm gonna go ahead and lift back up to my pike position or my down dog. Walk my hands back to my feet and then roll myself up mainly just to distribute that blood around the body 'cause we have the blood pooling at the head. I'm gonna roll back down towards the mat and I'm gonna walk back out to plank.

This time I'm gonna to take my right foot off the mat and lift it up to the ceiling for a little stretch of the hip and bask. And then I'm gonna shift that foot forward into a lunge position, drop the back knee down for the first one reach the arms up towards the ceiling and open up the hip find balance shoulders, nice and wide inhale breath. And then bring those hands back down to the mat. Shift back to your plank and lift up to your pike. Let's go to the other side.

Left leg goes up towards the ceiling and then you'll shift that left foot forward. Drop that back knee down, reach those arms up to the ceiling. Give yourself a big stretch, inhale breath and then exhale to bring those arms down. Find your plank. We're gonna do this one more time on each side but this time I'm gonna leave the knee off the mat.

Right leg goes up, right foot comes forward. I'm gonna stretch into that lunge position, opening up my heart. Bring those hands back down. Find your plank to pike. Lift that left leg up towards the ceiling.

Shift forward into your lunge. Reach your arms up towards the sky. Open up that heart again. Bring the hands back down to the mat. Find your plank, find your pike, and then slowly lower the knees back down.

And you've completed that series. We'll do a few on all fours now. So hands underneath the shoulders, knees underneath the hips find a little articulation of the spine with a cat stretch, cat cow, extend and flex. I really love the cat cow in the beginning of a class, just so I could see what my spine is doing this the morning, how it's cooperating. And then for the next one, find a nice flat back and let's reach the right arm out to the side.

So it's an a T position almost. Then I'm gonna take that arm, reach it underneath my left arm. And I'm gonna spiral our around bending my left elbow just so I can get a nice twist of the spine. And if you feel the need to drop your head, please do so. And then go ahead and come back up.

Let's try twice more on that side. The arm comes underneath the other, thread it through little twist and then back up in a little, a bit of an arm workout on that left arm as well, flex a little spiral of the spine and then back And then taking that left arm now out to the side take a deep inhale breath, bending your right elbow and I can see you guys this way and then push yourself back up. And again, it's important to take your spine in all directions not just forward and back extension and flexion, but making sure that you're adding some spiraling movements. Yeah, that was really good. And then back up.

And now let's check on our balance here. Let's reach the right leg back behind. So reaches about the height of the hip, making sure that you shift all of your weight onto one side and then reach the opposite arm out. And then just hold it here. Make sure that left arm isn't up too high because if it's up too high and you have a tight pack it's gonna put tension into your neck.

Careful that you're not lifting that leg up with your lower back, but more with your glute, but that lower back is nice stable for the rest of your spine. And then go ahead and bring it down. Let's try the other side. Reaching the left leg back. Hip is square then the other arm forward, nice long line from fingertip to toe.

You'll notice one side might be a little bit easier than the other and then bring it down and then just go ahead and alternate inhale to reach, exhale to return. Inhale to reach and exhale. I always do the first repetition slow for myself just to make sure that I know where I am in space, where my lines are. And then I normally just speed it up. Make sure that your abdominals are tucked into your spine.

Not too tight, just a little hug there in your belly and reach and reach one more on each side. And then go ahead and rest. One more thing here in this position, going into you a little bit of oblique and rotation again. So let's send that right leg back again. So just reach it back.

Then the left arm out, pulse here. Bring that left elbow to the right knee. And then pulse on that first one and think about the left shoulder blade pulling away from the right side of your back and then extend everything away. We're gonna stay on one side. Let's do an inhale as you pull everything together and an exhale as you pull away.

The reason behind the inhale is you're forced to breathe into your back. So it'll help stretch those ribs a bit, inhale and exhale. Two more as you find the elbow to knee and reach. I know this is a lot on that other wrist. We're almost done.

And reach away and then release down other side, right? Arm goes out, left leg goes back. First one, slow elbow to knee, you pulse. Feel that stretch from the left side to the right shoulder, reach away. It's an inhale, pull it in.

It's an exhale to reach and an inhale to rotate, stretch those ribs, exhale and away. Let's do that three more times. Pull it in and out and round and flex and reach. This is your last one. Reach it away.

Place the knee down, place the hands down. And if you have it available to you, if you can go ahead and sit on your heels, if not sit on your bottom quick stretch of the arms towards the ceiling, a little interlacing the fingers to stretch the shoulders and then bringing those arms back to the small of your back and then pushing those arms away to open up the shoulders, inhale breath, and then exhale. So now everyone on your seat. We're gonna go into a little bridge series. So rolling yourself down, we're gonna have a little coordination with the upper body and the lower body. arms are down by your side.

First, find your bridge, just lift those hips up. Make sure those legs are parallel. The knees haven't opened up to the side and you can feel a little inner thigh connection here. Once you find that, lower your hips back to the mat. Now take your arms out to the side, like you're gonna hug a tree.

So elbows are soft, palms are in your peripheral vision. Go ahead and lift those hips up. Hold shoulders are nice and wide. Bring those arms up to the ceiling, along with the hips. So now you see your fingertips through towards the ceiling.

As you lower your hips to the mat, bring your arms out to the side, keeping your hands in your peripheral vision. And then as your hips lift, the arms will come up. If you'd like, you can keep those arms down on the mat. You don't have to add the upper body, but it's a neurological component here coordinating the arms with the legs. And if you can maintain stability, this adds a little challenge.

Bridging is also the beginning of your inverted exercises. So I want you to think about the back of your head, shoulder to shoulder, forming a triangle. So a nice strong base, lower the hips, lift the hips. And it's almost this magnetic pull. So as you're bringing your hands up towards the ceiling, you could feel those hips fire just a little bit more one more time, lifting those hips up, hold now place those arms down and then roll your spine down one vertebra at a time.

We're gonna lift back up into bridge and out of different coordination of the arms. So lift the hips back up and then take your right arm overhead and hover your left arm down by your side. Start the arm scissors here. So just reach and reach holding your bridge. Again, making sure there's no tension into your neck that you're not shifting from side to side.

And again, there's a little magnetic pole here. So now as one arm goes back, drop your hips and as they switch, lift your hips. And it doesn't matter which one just lower and lift, inhale exhale. So again, adding that arm component, that the neurological component to the exercise it's like tapping your head and rubbing your belly. Be careful that you don't lose connection of your core.

So you're not going into your lower back. Try to maintain as much neutral and make this as much of a hinge exercise as possible. One more time, inhale breath, lower the hips, lower the arms and then release. We're gonna try some things with single legs. So now lift those hips right back up.

Take your right leg up to tabletop, right knee perpendicular to the hip with the ankle, perpendicular to the knee. Now take the opposite arm back. So now you're balancing one arm down, one leg up. As you lower the right toe to the mat, we're gonna tow tab. You're gonna lower the left arm towards the mat.

The leg comes up, the arm comes up, the leg goes down, the arm comes down. And you don't have to bring it over. How do you get stopped right above the shoulder? If that gives you just a little bit more control which actually does for me this morning. So I'm just gonna do that arm to the ceiling arm back down with the leg.

One more time, inhale breath, exhale breath. As your foot comes down, also release the arm and switch sides. Left leg comes up to tabletop, right arm goes overhead. And then you're gonna lower that toe, bring the arm up. And again and lift and back four, four.

They'll do that correctly. Three, there it is. I had it all mixed up. So as the arm comes up, the leg comes up. It was a very long weekend for me.

So here we go. Two more times, inhale, exhale. One, receive that neurological system kick in, lower the foot town, lower the arm down, rule yourself all the way back down and extend those legs out in front. Let's reach those arms overhead for a big stretch. And then we're gonna tackle a little roll up so we can find our seat sitting up nice and tall.

I'll know later on, if I screw that up once I watch the video. So feet are on the mat, knees bent, hands are behind. We're gonna do some seated rollbacks. So I like to squeeze my inner thighs together. So it gives me a little bit of support of my hips.

I'm gonna reach my arms out in front, palms are gonna face each other. Roll your pelvis away from your femur and find that first flex position where you feel like your legs are in a good position, your lower back feels okay and then sit all the way back up. On the next one, you're gonna roll back and we're just gonna add a few pulses here. So take that pelvis tilted back just a little bit extra and then just a little pulses back. Now, when I say pulse, please be careful that you are not just rocking on your pelvis, that you were actually trying to create a little bit more flexion from the ribs to the hips for four, three, two and one.

Sit up nice and tall. Let's do a little progression here. So go ahead and roll yourself back just a teeny bit. And then maybe a little bit further, a little further, a little further. And if you could touch your lower back to the mat, great and sit all the way back up.

Now this isn't for everyone. So please be careful with your back. You're gonna flex just a teeny bit, a little bit further, a little further, then touch that lower back to the mat and then come all the way back up. We'll try that two more times. Inhale at the top axial to flex, to flex a little further and a little bit deeper, lower back to the mat.

You pulse, eyes forward, sit all the way up. Last time, flex one and two and three, touch the lower back to the mat. And then all the way back up, grabbing the back of your legs. Giving yourself a little boost for your posture. We're gonna do some rotations, arms out in front, inhale on your exhale, roll back.

Bring that right arm behind you. Palm faces up like you're holding onto a glass or a tray and then sit all the way back up. We're gonna go to the same side, inhale to rotate, exhale to sit up. And again, eyes follow the hands. Good and reach inhale, exhale.

One more time, inhale to reach back, exhale back up. Now other side, rotate back and then return. If you feel, feel any pressure onto your lower back, then you're maybe rotating too much into your lumbar spine. Make sure that you are following a theme of spiral. So it's going from your hip up towards your shoulder.

Two more times, inhale breath, exhale. One more inhale and exhale back up. We're gonna go back to the other side. So you're gonna roll back, bring your arm back. This time you're gonna roll back a little bit deeper.

One a little further, two a little further, three and I sit all the way up other side, rotate, take it back one a little further two a little further three and back up. We'll do this again. Rotate half roll back with rotation, a little further. Similar to an exercise that we do on the Cadillac and then back up except we have the roll down bar for support. So be really careful here as you reach back, two, three, redo one more on each side.

Rotate to the right side, take it a little bit further. Those toes might come up. That's totally fine, but stay grounded as much as possible. Take it to the other side. A little further one, shoulders down two and three, and then all the way back up.

And you can open up those knees. Make sure that you got a little stretch in those hips. And then we're gonna go onto our backs for little up curl variations. So knees are gonna go up to a table top position. So knees over the hips, ankles in line with the knees, take your hands, interlace them behind your head.

Elbows are in your peripheral vision. Let's just find a couple of up curls that you know where your flex is this morning. So lift the head and shoulders up. And I keep saying this morning, but it could be afternoon or evening for you, but it is the morning for me. Lifted up and then lower back down.

And then just continue flex and stretch the middle of your back back and then lower. Now legs open about fist distance apart, start to toe dip. So right toe comes down and then the left toe comes down. And while you're doing this, you'll notice that you have to work on your lumbopelvic stability here. So if your toe doesn't reach to the mat, that's totally fine.

So just work with your range of motion. Continue to move with the legs and let's add the upper body. I'm gonna lift that upper body up and I'm gonna hold this up curl as I told him, touch, touch. And then you can move it a little bit more of a reciprocal fashion. If you feel like you've got that big stretch in your back that your ups are working for you here and that you're nice and stable with the hips sinking that breath either inhale, inhale, exhale, exhale or just inhale long breath and then exhale long breath.

Now I'm gonna place my feet down for just a moment so I could rest my upper body. Elbows are still in my peripheral vision. Legs are gonna lift back up, tabletop about fist distance apart which is about hip distance apart. Head and shoulders come up, elbows in your peripheral vision. Lower that left toe down like you did before, but this time add a rotation over towards your bent knee and then switch.

So now your toe taps in a reciprocal fashion with your obliques, rotate side to side, side to side, making sure that you actually have that stretch happening at your back. That you're not just trying to touch your elbow to your knee, which is a little oblique. No, no here. And then one more to each side and then legs come together, head and shoulders come down. This next one is gonna be a little bit more advanced as far as stability for your pelvis.

So deep inhale breath here. On your exhale breath, lift your head and shoulders up and pulse. Squeeze those inner thighs together and double leg towards the mat. So I'm not gonna go as far because of my legs glued together. I have a little heavier lever, so I'm lowering the legs and lifting.

Now to make this even harder as your legs, lower your upper body. As your legs come up lift your upper body, inhale and then exhale. Now this is a little bit harder if not a lot harder for that lower back. So be really careful here keeping the elbows in your peripheral vision. You're welcome to just keep the head and shoulders up the entire time.

Or if you can add that mobility with me, go ahead and add that mobility here. One more time. Hold it at the top. Stay here for eight, seven, maybe add some pulses, four, three, two, one, if come to the mat. How does shoulders come down?

And then you release. We are gonna continue to stay on our backs here for a little bit. So if you need to stretch on your own please stretch on your own. Bringing in the hundred with a little bit of coordination. So legs are gonna come back up to tabletop, arms up towards the ceiling, lift your head and shoulders up and extend your legs out to that hundred position.

We're gonna pump those arms but we're gonna lower the legs with each exhale count. So any two, three, four five lower, two, three, four, five, inhale two, four or five a little lower three, four, five inhale two, four, five, exhale, two, three, four, five inhale two, four, five, exhale, two, three, four, five inhale two, four, five, exhale. We're gonna go back up now. So it's inhale two, three, four or five legs, a little higher four or five, inhale two, three, four, five, a little higher, three, four, five, inhale two, three, four, five up to three, four, five, two more sets. Three, four, five, exhale two, three, four, five.

Inhale two, three, four, five. Exhale, two, three, four, five, hold. Knees come towards the chest and you lower yourself all the way back down. I was, didn't go that far. So it didn't have that much further to come up.

So I ran out of height, reach those arms up towards the ceiling and back for a little stretch. And let's go ahead and roll all the way up to our seated position, reaching our hands towards the feet. A little risky move here. We're gonna do the rolling like a ball while I'm on a high mat. So feet are gonna come close to the bottom, and this rolling like a ball is gonna move into another exercise to make it a little bit more challenging.

So everyone has their favorite way of going into rolling like a ball. Some of you would like to squeeze those inner thighs together. Some of you like to open and make a little diamond shape. So whatever feels best for you, please do so. Please do that position.

So legs are gonna come up to a hover. My abdominals are scooped in and you should be able to hold this position. And if you can't, this is somewhere you need to practice. So I'm gonna go ahead and roll back. Inhale breath, exhale up and pulse.

And again, leading with my lower back, inhale, exhale and hold. Now being at this class is a little bit more progressive, it's not the greatest place to try to teach you the rolling like a ball. So if this is confusing to you, please just hold that top of that rolling like a ball position and then just practice that balance behind the sits bones. Inhale to roll back and then exhale up. Now let's just place the feet down.

And if you had your legs open like I did in that diamond shape let's close the legs up for the next role. This is gonna progress into a roll over. So I just wanna make sure I have room back there. So the legs are gonna come up and I'm gonna have my legs together. For the roll over, I'm gonna go back to my roll over and or back to my rolling, like a ball rest my head, bring my arms down and roll my legs overhead.

So my lights are now parallel to the floor and I'm staring at my knees. As I roll up, I'm gonna start to lift my head, maintain that ball position and find my balance at the top. Inhale to roll back, grab the mat with the hands legs overhead. Roll yourself up. Keep your forehead close to your knees without knocking yourself out, of course.

Do that again, inhale to roll back. And also scoop those abdominals in, find balance. Two more times. Roll, make sure that you maintain that closed position from chest to legs. One more time as you reach back, hold and roll yourself up and then sit up nice and tall.

We're gonna transition now into your plank. So if you could have hopped up on your feet, which I could have cued but we're gonna go back to your plank position. And then this time we have an opportunity to find it from an all fours position. So let's hook one foot back and then the other. We're gonna move a little bit quicker than the warmup.

So the right foot back, left foot back, find your plank. We're gonna go right into the Jack rabbit. So go ahead and bend your knees. Bring your bottom to your heels. And then I want you to shift forward and back.

But this time add a little cardio component per say, but just move it just a little bit quicker. And again, these could be done on the knees. Make sure that if you are moving quick with me this morning then you actually have some stability there in your lower back and your abdominals are working for you. Your quads are working. I'm not counting.

I'm just talking. So if you need to rest, please rest, inhale breath, exhale breath moving forward to back. Again, loading the wrist, loading the hips, knees ankles spreading the toes onto the mat. And then go ahead now and lower those knees down and maybe take a little quick child's pose and hold. Hopefully you moved a little bit better with that jackknife than you did in the beginning.

And that would be the goal, and then bring it back up. So we're gonna drop it down now to our forearms. So I'm gonna drop to the forearm for this next set. And then I happen to find the forum plank a little bit harder because I don't have my full extension of my elbow. So I'm gonna take my legs back and find that forearm plank.

You are closer to the ground, so gravity likes to pull you down. And just pulse here for a moment. This would be your first test. Hold and breathe and then lower those knees to the mat and make any adjustments you need to your shoulders or your hips. Were just some dips.

So going back to that rotation. So take those legs back into your plank, your forearm plank and then take one of your hips, drop it towards the mat and then pull it back up and then take the other one and pull it back up. Try to keep your eyes toward your mat and your fingertips. And what you wanna think about is as you're pulling back to your forearm plank, it's almost like you're trying to pull your ups into your pocket. So your oblique into your pocket and be careful here.

This is too much of a shoulder load for you, inhale, exhale. We'll do one more to each side and then I'm gonna place my knees down. And I'm gonna just rest back for a moment. So one more thing here in this position, and this is gonna fuse yoga again. It'll go from feeling hard to actually feeling pretty good.

And I'll show you some modifications here. So back to your regular plank. Once you're at your plank, take it up to your pike, progressing your warmup. Your right leg goes up towards the ceiling. You're gonna pulse the leg up three times, go one, two, three then shift that right knee forward and just touch the mat.

That's step one. Let's do the same leg again. Take it up. One, two, three knee touches. Now I'm gonna try to progress towards the pigeon pose.

So I'm gonna take one, two, three and then I'm gonna bring my leg forward so I can stretch my hip and open up my heart. And I'm gonna do the same, like again, one, two, three and then forward and stretch and continue. Two more sets, two, three, and forward. Careful if you don't do pigeon well. Last one.

It's hard on the knees and also the hips. One more time, now just rest on this last one. I'm gonna relax my back foot and open up my hip here just a bit. Take a feel good, inhale breath, exhale. And then take it back to the plank position.

Back to your pike position. The left leg comes up towards the ceiling. We start on this side. It is one, two, three, start conservatively. Just drop your knee and then lift it up again.

One, two, three, drop your knee. Go back to your Arab Basque. And I'm gonna go to my pigeon now, one, two, three whatever the need of the mat, stretch it out. Take it up again, one, two, three, and stretch. Add one more time, one, two, three.

I got a little pop out of my hip that felt good. Then I'm gonna drop my hip down, lower my knee, feel a stretch. And if you are somebody who practices his pose quite a bit you can just fold over if you'd like over your leg I'm gonna choose to stay right here And then to transition to the next series, drop your bottom down and this swing your legs around. So now we're gonna go towards to your seated position with your legs extended and where'd you spine stretch and we'll do two variations of spine stretch. So your legs are going to be about shoulder width apart.

Okay, so put your arms out, measure that, you're good to go. Nice and tall with your spine. Really send those heels away from you. So the energy of the heel to the sits bone all the way to the crown of your head, okay. So arms are out in front.

Let's peel spine offer pretend wall behind us and then stretch forward keeping our lower back behind as though the knees or the edge of a buildings. You don't want to collapse too far forward and then sit all the way back up nice and tall. Nod your chin, exhale to flex, inhale to sit up tall. We'll do that twice more. Flexing for this is called a spine stretch.

So it should feel like your middle to upper back and even the shoulders are stretching. So maybe even let those shoulders rise a bit. So now the chin allow those shoulders to rise for that stretch. Set those shoulders back into its pockets and sit up tall. Second variation.

We're gonna add some extension. So I'm gonna round forward. And as I find my flex position, I'm gonna lead with my thumbs and extend my spine and look up keeping my arms lined up with my shoulders. Flex back over your legs. And this sit up nice and tall.

So it's an exhale forward. Inhale extend, exhale flex, inhale back up and again and lift and be careful here that you're not shoving those shoulders where you feel really uncomfortable. We'll do that twice more. Flex it forward, inhale, extend flex back and down. And we'll add one more.

You're gonna flex forward. You're gonna extend, you'll flex back over your legs with your shoulders rising. And then you'll sit all the way back up. We're gonna go into two variations of saw. So my legs are gonna go a little bit wider.

First variation, just as tradition would have it. We're gonna take our arms out to the side, palms forward. Make sure that your arms are in your peripheral vision. Rotate your upper body to the right and take your pinky finger over to your opposite toe. So over to the right toe arms, have a long wingspan.

My eyes are looking at my knees. I'm gonna sit up as though someone's pulled my fingertips back and then come back to the middle, rotate to the other side, right? Pinky finger to left pinky toe, turn that left palm up huge wingspan come all the way back up. And let's add a quick breath. So inhale to saw exhale to transition to the other side, inhale to saw.

Keep those hips nice and grounded and think about the stretch that's happening as you're reaching. So that laterally really pulls away. And that inhale breath is really gonna help facilitate that stretch. One more to the other side, and then back up. Now, this one I got from Carrie Pez Jez.

So I'll call it the Carrie Pez Jez Pez saw. So the arms are out in front palms forward. I'm gonna rotate my upper body back to the right, I'm gonna saw per usual, just reach. This time as I come up, I'm gonna place my right hand back to the mat and then open up. So I bring my left arm back.

So I windmill my arm back and now my chest is open. Then release the right hand off of the mat. And this saw to the opposite side. Sit up tall and then reset in the center. We're gonna do the other side.

Inhale and reach and stretch. Palm comes back. You open up your heart, take it over to the other side and then reach. Now how fast you go is gonna be dependent on your shoulder mobility. So reach a stretch to the right.

Place that right hand back, inhale breath. Bring that arm forward and stretch. And then set the middle. This is your last one. You're gonna rotate to the left, find your saw.

Place that back hand to the mat, rotate around to the other side. We'll mill that arm around stretch all the way over and then come all the way back up. Let's just bend the knees here, feet flat. And I love to add these to almost every exercise and those are tricep dips. So go ahead and bring those arms up to the sky, bring them around.

And they're also really great way to practice for back support. So lift the hips up, hold it here. And then just give me just a few tricep dips to open up that chest. We are gonna go into extension here towards the end of class, but just preparing those shoulders. And if you were at your computer all day long, your biceps are strong.

Your knees or elbows are bent. This is a really great way to give yourself a little opposite of that tech elbow. Two more, last one. And then go ahead and have a seat from there. I'm gonna rotate back towards you guys.

I'm gonna be on my knees here and breathe. Hold it here. Take those arms out to a little T position. If you cannot sit on your knees, just sit on your bottom and then just give yourself a little side, stretch one. And then the other.

Is this little transition. We are gonna be gonna some kneeling exercises. If kneeling exercises don't work for you, then go to your side all the way onto your side. Good, all right. So I'm gonna come back up to a T position.

Arms are out like your plane wings. Now make sure that they're in your peripheral vision please so that your shoulders are neutral. I'm gonna take my right hand down to the mat and lift my opposite leg up my left leg and take my hand behind my head, that's free. And push the weight of my head into my hands. We're gonna go into kicks.

You're just gonna kick that top leg forward and flexion and then point and bring that leg back. And you'll do it again. It's an exhale forward. And then an inhale back. Now, a little pulse here, exhale, exhale, inhale.

So here's your progression. As your light comes forward, can you release your arm and pulse for a moment? And I want you to imagine this like you're half of a teaser. As your leg comes back, your arms gonna go overhead like half of your swan. So pulse on teaser, exhale, exhale and then one big swoop of a swan.

Do it again. Exhale, exhale, inhale. Keep going, exhale, exhale, inhale. One more time. Feel your abs here and then feel your glute here.

And then go ahead and bring your hand right back to the back of your head, to reset the head and then just release that arm to reach towards that toe. And then just a little pulse here, arm to leg. Arm to leg emphasis on that long line. Make sure that the arm below you is slightly forward of the shoulder. So you don't put that pressure onto the front of the shoulder.

Now let's pulse three times one, two, three. And then lower that foot. and give yourself a little side stretch here looking towards your right hand. And let's do that again. Pulls up one, two, three, arm stretch, twice more for four total exhale, one, two, three and stir at stretch and reach.

And one more exhale. One, two, three, stretch and reach. And then with control back up to your airplane, arms to the side, we're gonna start that whole thing over on the other side. So the left arm comes down slightly for the shoulder, right leg comes up, set your head here by pushing your weight of your head into your hands and start your gentle kick. Exhale and inhale and exhale and inhale.

If you can please make sure that your abs are pulling that leg forward and that your butt, your glutes are pulling it back. Let's release the arm like a teaser arm. Take it forward. Exhale, exhale, souk back on one, inhale. And again and reach two more times.

Exhale, exhale, swan back. One more time. Exhale, exhale, inhale, hold reset your head here and then release that arm and then just pulse the arm to the leg. Again, adding a little coordination as you press. You could look towards that leg too, if you'd like.

Make sure that your hip is lined up and the all your weight isn't on your left arm. Let's do three pulses, one, two, three, and stretch. And again, exhale one, two, three, and stretch your side body. Two more sets, exhale one, two, three, and stretch. Well, one more time.

Watch that shoulder tension one, two, three, and stretch. And then back up to your airplane wings and then release back down. I'm gonna flip to this side now so we could do some extension. So we're gonna be on our bellies. And then just a quick before we do anything else, just place those hands to the side of your shoulders.

Elbows are down and then just do one little press up, just to make sure your back feels okay that you've got some nice extension going on here and then lower yourself to the map. Now to set yourself up for success for these, can we drop the pubic bone into the mat? And when you do that, you'll feel how your knees want to extend off the mat. So do that, press the tops of your feet in to the mat. And then let's reach the arms out in front.

Just like we're about to go into swimming. So we're gonna practice opposite arm, opposite leg. So bring the right arm off the mat and the left leg off the mat. And when you do that, push the right foot into the mat, push the left hand in the mat and then feel how that helps you bring that right arm left leg up a little higher. And then lower everything back down.

Now take the left arm, right leg off the mat, push the left foot in the mat push the right hand into the mat, lift a little higher and extension and lower. Now practice that inhale exhale. So it almost feels like a push pull, a push pull and lift. And lifts. So it's a little bit different than regular swimming.

It might feel like it's more supportive, which it is but you might get a little bit higher so it will work your back side a little bit more. So your postural muscles, one more on each side and then release back down. Now keeping the hands on the mat, having a little bit of resistance under your hands go ahead and float the legs up. Pressing that pubic bone down, let's just swim the legs. Navel to the spine, pubic bone pressing down.

While you're swimming your legs, let's take the left hand off the mat and then bring that left hand towards your left hip looking over your left shoulder. So you have got a little rotation here and then bring that arm down. Rotate to the other side. Right hand to the right hip, looking over that right shoulder and then bring it in that arm down. Now, go ahead and continue.

If you can move a little bit quicker and sync your breath, then you go ahead and do so. So speed and precisio only comes with control. So if you've got control, and you can do these moves with precision then you go ahead and speed it up and find a nice breath. Inhale to reach back, exhale forward, inhale back, open up that shoulder. And then one more on each side as you work that back body and then the other and then go ahead and lower yourself all the way back down.

We're gonna go into some swan. So let's pull your elbows back. Your palms face the floor, elbows are down. Let's start off with anchoring the feet to the mat, floating the upper body up bringing the hands to the mat, extending your spine hold. As you come down, slowly release the hands off the mat.

Let's do that again. Hands press to the mat. You push up, find your extension. As you lower yourself down, release the mat. I'm gonna move on to the next level.

So my hands will go down to push myself off. Once I push myself up to the high swan I'm gonna release the arms and then catch myself so I can come back to that extended position. Inhale, exhale. And again pressing the palms into the mat, legs preferably in a parallel position unless you're having some issues with that extension. But watch that lower back and watch too much squeeze the glutes.

That'll hinder that extension one more time and then find your child's pose. Hold it here in your child's pose for just two breaths. Inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth. And we're gonna go into a transition exercise here. So find your plank position again.

Once you find your plank position, pulse. These are called sumo squats. Maybe there's another word for them but I call them sumo squats. Once you find your plank, take your right foot to the outside of your right hand. Now I'm on a high mat, so I'm pretty limited in width here.

Then take the other foot to the other sites. You're pretty low here. Stay low and then reach your arms and upper body up. So you're pretty low in your squat. Pulse, place the hands back to the mat, step back with your right foot.

Step back with your left foot and then go to the opposite side. Left foot, right foot, lift, hands down, left foot right foot now, right. So I'm gonna go right left. And I'm gonna speed this up just a bit, right left. Left, right.

Inhale breath, exhale breath. This is gonna get my heart rate up just a bit. It's gonna work my legs. It's gonna prepare me for the day where we saw those arms up, hands down. I'm gonna do one more set.

Lifted up, hands back down, step back and then to transition how just step one foot forward. And then the other, keeping my legs. Why just folding my upper body over my legs. Once I'm here, knees are soft, toes pointing forward. Get my wits about myself here got my heart rate up just a bit.

And I'm gonna bring my legs close together. How about hip distance? And then roll myself all the way up to standing and then facing all of you. I'm just gonna take my legs a little bit wider so that I have more room here and then bend one knee. And then just launch into that knee.

Get a little stretch in that inner thigh that you just worked, hand on the opposite thigh, the knee bent and then just switch it over. Feel the stretch. And then just side to side here, inhale, exhale. It's nice to start and standing sometimes, especially if you're doing this workout earlier in the day. One more to each side, then I'm gonna come back to standing bring my feet together, take my arms up to the ceiling and release those fingers.

Push my palms up for great stretch and then just flex over to one side and then over to the other and then bring the hands back behind. And I'll show you what that looks like. Interlacing the fingers, shoulders nice and wide. And then one more reach up everyone inhale breath, hands to prayer, hands to heart center. And thank you all so much for joining me today.

This was class number three of level up.