Advanced Ball Progressions

Welcome, everybody. We are gonna be using the ball today for progressions on the mat with the ball. We're gonna start on our mat. You're gonna take this ball, and it's gonna be right up against your lower back. So let me explain how we get the ball there.

So place it right against your sacrum, and what I like to do so it's in there really good is lift your hips up slightly so you're off of the mat. Curl your tailbone under. We're just getting into position, and then roll yourself down. Separate your feet hip distance, and then hold the back of your legs. So we have this nice letter-C shape like there's this imaginary ball in front of us with the ball supporting our back.

Elbows are out to the sides. Scoop your stomach in. Look down towards your belly. We're gonna take a nice deep breath in through the nose, and as we exhale, pull your abdominals in to curl up real small, and then lower and exhale. Just scoop your abs in to lift, and lower, and you can use your hands.

Hold onto your legs. We're just warming up, giving yourself that little assistance to curl up and stay in your nice round letter-C shape. Let's do about three more. So breathe out, drawing the belly deeper into your spine, and exhale, lift up, and one more time. Exhale, curl up, scoop your belly to your spine, press your lower back towards that ball, and then cross your arms into a genie position, and let's do five more.

Breathe in, lower, exhale, lift. Keep it small, keeping that letter-C shape of your spine. Inhale, lower, exhale, curl. Three more. Pull the belly in to lift.

Two more. Exhale, lift. Last one. Now hold that nice letter-C shape belly to spine. You're gonna pull the right elbow back.

Pull the back of your right shoulder back as you rotate, and then come to the center, and now let's pull the left elbow back, left shoulder blade back as you rotate, and center. Exhale, rotate to the right, inhale, center. Pulling the left shoulder blade back, we rotate to the left, and center. Exhale, rotate to the right, inhale, center, and just one more. Really rotate to the left, and to the center.

Grab the back of your legs, pull yourself up, up, up, and then take that ball, and we're gonna bring it between the shoulder blades next. So feet stay parallel, hip width apart. Lace your fingers, place your hands behind your head, and then go for a little length of your spine here. So your body is long. You're not tucking the tailbone.

You're pulling the stomach in, and then we're gonna extend over the ball, so giving your back an upper back extension, and now breathe out all the air as you curl your spine up, and inhale going into that back extension. Exhale, curl up, inhale, lower, keeping the lower spine nice and long and neutral. Inhale, lower. We'll do two more. Breathe out all the air, flexing up, inhale, lower, and exhale, curl up.

Now go ahead, lower back again. We're gonna add the rotation. So rotate to the right. Lift and rotate. Lower back extend over the ball, and now exhale, lift, and rotate to the left, and extend over the ball.

Feel the back of your hips staying equally weighted onto your mat, and lower. Exhale, rotate to the left, and lower. One more time on both sides. Breathe out to lift. Inhale, lower, and exhale to lift, and inhale, lower.

Raise your body up, keeping that long neutral position, eyes to your pelvis. Your pelvis stays square as your right leg comes up, and then we inhale, go back, exhale, curl. Now on this one, I'm not going back quite as far. Just inhale, exhale, lift. Inhale, and exhale, curl.

Hips are nice and square. We're gonna do two more. Lift, lower. Last time, you're gonna stay up. Now place that right foot down.

Stay square in your hips. Lift the left leg up, breathe in to lower. Exhale, curl, nice and controlled. Breathe out and lift. Inhale, three.

Exhale, lift. We'll do two more here. Breathe out and lift. Last one. Now we're gonna stay lifted.

Hips are square. Raise the right leg up. Both of your knees are in tabletop. If it feels better in your lower back, go into a slight pelvic tilt, and let's lower, and it's even smaller, lift. Breathe in, exhale, lift.

Inhale, exhale, lift. We'll do two more. Pull the belly down into your spine. And now keep your chest lifted, hips square, toe taps. Right leg goes down, exhale, pull up.

Left leg goes down. Engage the core to lift. Last four. Exhale, center. Last three.

Exhale, center. Two more. Stay in a pelvic tuck if it feels better in your back. Last one. Exhale, grab the back of your legs.

We're coming up to seated. Okay, so now take your ball and we're gonna put it between our knees. Your feet are parallel, hip distance. Grab the back of your thighs, press your shoulders down, and lift the chest up, coming into an upper back thoracic extension, eyes up, and then exhale. Round your spine, reach the arms forward.

Pull your stomach in, round forward. Hold the back of your legs. Lift your spine to extend, and then draw the abs in to round the spine back. And again, round forward. Hold the back of your thighs.

Raise the chest, and round back, belly to spine, nice round letter-C shape, and then we'll round forward. Breathe out. Raise your chest, arching up, and on this next one, let's round all the way back. Reach your arms forward. Roll down through the lower spine, the middle spine, the shoulders, the head.

Now bring your feet in closer. Press into the back of your arms. Squeeze the ball. Take an inhale. On the exhale, curl your tailbone under.

Roll your spine up one vertebrae at a time, pressing into your feet, squeezing your glutes. Stretch your arms all the way back overhead, and let's roll down. Let's create space and length in between every single vertebrae, and raise your chest. Reach above the knees. Lower the arms and lower your head.

Exhale, roll the hips up, lower, middle, upper. Raise the arms all the way back, and exhale. Roll through the upper spine, the middle spine, the lower spine, the tailbone, and raise the chest up, and lower down. Here we go. Squeeze the ball, tighten up your glutes.

Roll your hips right up into that bridge. Stretch the arms all the way back overhead. Exhale, feel the arms reaching back as you roll the spine all the way down, and curl up. And now we're gonna lower down. Roll up into your bridge to stay.

So roll your hips up and create a nice straight line from your knees to your hips to your shoulders. Abs are engaged, glutes are engaged. We're gonna squeeze the ball 10 times. Squeeze, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten. Raise your left heel up, squeeze the ball.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten. Lower your left heel, raise your right heel up. Squeeze, one, two, three, four, five six, seven, eight, nine, and ten. Raise both of your heels and squeeze. One, two, a little tighter, three, tighter, four and five, six, seven, eight, nine, and hold that squeeze, inner thighs, glutes, and core.

Stretch your arms overhead. Heels are lifting. Press your hips up a little bit higher, and roll upper back, roll middle back, roll lower back, tailbone. Let's curl up, raise your chest. Lift your knees up into tabletop and start to pump the arms.

Keep the knees bent to start. Breathe in, two, three, four, five. As you exhale, squeeze the ball with your inner thighs. Breathe in, two, three, four, five. Exhale, squeeze the ball with the inner thighs.

Inhale, two, three, four, five. Exhale, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. Inhale, two, three, four, five. Exhale, two, three, four, five. Inhale, two, three, four, five.

Exhale, two, three, four, five. Grab the ball, place it between your ankles. Reach your legs to your point of control and pump the arms. Breathe in, two, three, four, five. Exhale, squeeze, two, three, four, five.

We only have four more. Breathe out, squeeze, two, three, four, five. Three more, lengthen your legs. Exhale, squeeze, two, three, four, five. Two more.

Exhale, squeeze, two, three, four, five. Pause, and then just bend your knees. From here, lace your fingers behind your head and stretch the legs straight up, nice and long. We're gonna lower the legs down to your point of control, taking a breath in. Exhale, scoop the lower abs and raise your legs.

Just two more like this. Breathe and lower to your point of control. Lower back is down and supported. Exhale, lift up. Inhale, lower, and exhale, scoop and lift up.

Now from here, rotate your legs around, so right leg is on top, left leg is down. Engage your inner thighs. Lower the legs. Exhale, pull them up. Two more, lower the legs, nice and smooth.

Lift up. Lower the legs. Exhale. Pause here. Carefully swivel it around.

Left leg is on top, inner thigh squeeze. Lower the legs. Exhale, pull up. Lower down. Control it up.

One more time, lengthen your legs down. Pull your abs in to lift. Now swivel so it's just straight. Bend your knees, grab your shins. Pull yourself up for a double leg stretch.

Stretch your arms and legs out, open the arms, pull in. Breathe in, breathe out, two. Breathe in, breathe out, three. We're gonna do two more in this direction. Exhale.

Last one, let's reverse the arms. You're gonna sweep out and overhead. Pull in, breathe in, exhale, two. Breathe in, exhale, three. Two more, pull in.

Last one, pull all the way in. Place your head down to the mat, and then grab the back of your legs. Rock yourself up to seated. Okay, good. Let's do some roll up variations.

So take your left ankle on top of the ball. Your left foot will be flexed. We're gonna sit up on our sit bones, and then take your hands. Again, just lace the fingers together underneath your right thigh, okay? Try to sit up really tall.

Engage lower, middle, upper abs. Lengthen up your spine. Flex your left foot. Now roll yourself down through the lower back, the middle back, the shoulders, and the head, and then raise your head. Press your leg into your hands as you roll your spine up.

Two more. Use your hands. Press your hands into your leg. Press your leg into your hands as you roll down, and one more. Raise your head, exhale, roll the spine up, up, and up.

We're gonna switch sides, so placing your right ankle on the ball. Flex the foot. Sit right up on top of the sit bones, hands underneath your left thigh. Take a big breath in. Exhale, pull your stomach in.

Scoop it and go into that letter-C shape, and roll lower spine, middle spine, upper spine, and head. Raise your head, exhale, roll upper, roll middle, roll lower, and lift. Again, roll down. Use your hands, press the leg to the hands. Roll back.

I'm wondering if you have one side that's easier than the other. I do. And then roll back up. Last one, rolling down through the lower, the middle, the shoulders, the head, and then we'll roll back up one vertebrae at a time. Okay, take both of your ankles onto the ball.

We're gonna point the feet. This is gonna challenge our stability here a bit. So center yourself, reach the arms forward, pull the abs and tighten up the glutes, inner thighs. Use those stabilizing muscles and roll down. Reach your hands forward, roll your spine back, and then raise your arms.

I like to flex the feet on the way up, so flex your toes up. Roll up, and then let's point the feet, and then stretch forward, and then we'll roll up to seated nice and tall. Roll down, reaching the fingers and the toes forward. Reach the arms back, flex your feet, lift the arms, lift the head. Exhale, roll up.

Good, scoop your stomach in. Scoop, scoop, scoop, and stretch forward. Roll up. One more roll-up. So scoop and squeeze inner thighs, glutes and core.

Stretch back, flex the feet, lift the arms. Exhale, roll up, and then stretch all the way forward. We're gonna roll up to seated. Okay, now bend your knees so the ball is under your feet, and we're gonna, I think I need to scooch forward a little bit though, we're gonna roll down onto our backs, so roll on down. Okay, just adjust the ball so it is under your feet, and we are gonna go into bridging here.

So your feet, the arch of the feet are wrapped over the ball. Your legs are together. Use your arms, use your triceps, use your hands, press them into the mat. Now tighten up your core and glutes. Let's roll those hips up into a bridge, and then roll down, upper, middle, lower, and tailbone.

Press your feet down, roll the hips up into the bridge, and now roll upper, roll middle, roll lower, and tailbone. Press down and roll your hips up, and then roll upper, middle, lower, tailbone. We're gonna do two more. Press your feet down, roll your hips up, inhale. Exhale, roll upper, roll middle, roll lower.

Last one, press down and roll your hips right up, and then roll the spine all the way down. Good. So now take your left foot flat on the mat. It's actually gonna be the left leg that's working. The ball you might need to roll over to the side a bit.

So we're gonna press weight into your left foot. Squeeze your left glute and lift your hips up, and lower down. Press up, two. Lower down, five times. Press up, three, and down.

Press up, four, and down. Now on number five, stay up. We are gonna take the right leg off of the ball, so raise it to a tabletop position. Extend the leg to the ceiling, pull your stomach in, and let's do five leg circles, across, down around, and center. Across, down around, and center.

Inhale, exhale, center. Inhale, exhale, center. Inhale, exhale, reverse. They're not too big. Lift, one, small circle.

Lift, two. Breathe in, breathe out, three. Breathe in, breathe out, four, and five. Bend your right knee. If your ball is there, place your foot on it.

It may have rolled away. Roll down. I got lucky. My ball stayed put, and then let's bring it over to the left foot, okay? So just adjust that ball.

Ground your right foot, squeeze your right glute, and we'll press those hips right up, and down. Press, two, and down. Press, three, and down. Press, four, and down. Now let's press up and stay.

Take your left leg into tabletop. Extend the left leg up to the ceiling, hips square, abs tight. Across, down around, and one. Across, down around, and two. I'm doing a small circle.

Three, hip stability, and four, and exhale, five, reverse. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Three, exhale. Two more.

Lift, one more, and then bend that knee. Place it on the ball if it's there or on the floor, and roll down. Fantastic. All right, I'm just gonna place the ball between my feet. We're gonna rock up to seated, and then once you're up, we are gonna move into rolling like a ball.

So the ball today is gonna go between your calves and your hamstrings, so just wedge it in there, and then take your hands up onto your shins. Elbows out to the sides, shoulders down. Scoop your abs into that C-curve. Lift your feet, and we're gonna roll like a ball three times. Inhale, back, exhale, balance.

Inhale, back. Scoop your abs, balance. One more. Exhale, now hold it here. Reach your arms, keep that C-shape, roll back three times.

Exhale, balance. Whew, roll back, and exhale, balance, and roll back. Exhale, last three. Raise your arms, high diagonal. Here we go.

Breathe in, exhale, use your core. Breathe in, exhale, lift. One more. Exhale, lift. Fantastic.

Take your legs, put your feet down. You're gonna keep the ball between your legs though, so I'm on the tips of my toes as a transition as we roll down. Awesome. So next variation is a variation of the single-leg stretch. The ball is gonna go underneath your left knee, okay?

Have both of your knees bent to start. Lace the fingers together. Lace them behind your head, and then lift the elbows into your peripheral. Take a big inhale where you are. As you exhale, raise your chest up.

Those hips are staying square, and you're gonna extend your right leg, the one without the ball. Stretch it away. Tighten up your quad and your glute. We're starting slow so you can get the coordination. Bend your right knee as your left toes tap the mat.

One more slow, the right leg. You exhale, stretch it away as you pull the left leg in, and then tap the left toes down as you bring the right knee in. Let's pick up the pace, 10 times. Exhale, inhale. Exhale, inhale.

Stay nice and lifted, three. Breathe out, four. Exhale, five. Reach the right leg, six. Exhale, seven.

Exhale, eight. We'll do two more, nine, and ten. Whew, next variation. Right leg extends forward. Rotate to the left knee, and then we're gonna come to the center.

We'll start slow so you get that coordination. Right leg forward, rotate to the left knee. Tap the left toes down, come to the center. Here we go. Exhale, inhale.

Exhale, inhale. Exhale, rotate, center, and rotate, center. Last four, lift and twist. Last three, lift and twist. Breathe out, center, out, center.

Bring your knees up. Let's put our head down for a moment, and then we'll do everything on the other side. Ball wedges underneath the right knee. Both of the legs are lifted up, hands to the head. Go ahead and curl your chest up.

Same thing, we're gonna start slow so you get the form. So extend out your left leg. We're gonna squeeze that quad, glute. Pull the belly into the spine. Tap the right toes down as you bend the left, and one more slow.

Stretch the left to pull in, tap down, pick up the pace. Exhale, inhale. Exhale, two. Exhale, three. Exhale, four.

Once you get the coordination, we're good. Five. Abs and six. Length and seven. Exhale, eight.

Two more, nine, and ten. Very good. Okay, so now stretch the left leg long. Lift your chest, rotate to the right, twist, and then come to the center. Bend your left knee.

Right toes tap down. One more slow. Pull the right leg in, rotate, extend the left leg long. Come center, tap the right toes down, pick up the pace. Exhale, inhale.

Exhale, inhale. Lift and rotate, center. Lift and rotate, center. Last four. Last three.

Breathe out, two. And that's enough. You're gonna bend your knees. Very good. Put the ball to the side.

Just hug your legs into your chest. Grab the back of your thighs. Rock yourself right up to seated. We're gonna move onto the knees next. So coming up onto your knees, we're gonna place this ball right in between the top of your inner thighs, okay?

So we are kneeling for thigh stretch. Your knees, your hips, your shoulders are nice and square. Draw the abdominals in and up. Tailbone down, squeeze the ball with your inner thighs. Tighten your glutes.

We're gonna lean back. Stretch the arms forward, be really straight. Pull yourself back up to the center. Two more, reach forward as you hinge, stretching your thighs. Lift up, and exhale.

Hinge back. Inhale, lift. Now you're gonna reach the arms forward. You're gonna sit back towards the heels. Reach, squeeze the glutes, the ball to lift up.

Two more, reach as you sit back. Exhale as you squeeze and lift. Breathe in, and breathe out. Last couple, we'll do one more, and then we're gonna combine the two. So lean back, stretch your arms forward, pull yourself back upright, sit down, reach forward, and lift up.

Let's inhale, hinge. Exhale, center. Inhale, sit, reach. Exhale, squeeze, lift. Last one, we hinge.

Pull yourself up, sit and reach. Exhale, lift. Awesome, let's take that ball. The next one feels good. It's a variation of cat holding the ball.

So I have the ball in the right hand. The left hand is flat on the mat. So let's come to tabletop, hips directly over your knees, left hand under your shoulder. Now this left elbow is gonna bend, and the elbow pulls in towards you rather than to the side. The right arm stays nice and straight.

Slide the ball away, bend your left elbow, so you're stretching out your spine. Lengthen, arch your back, and then exhale, round, into the cat. Pull the ball in, scoop your abs in. Two more, lengthen the ball away, stretch and arch. Exhale, pull in, belly to the spine.

One more, stretch away and arch. Exhale, scoop your abs in, round, pull it in. Come to a neutral nice long flat back. Reach the right arm with the ball in front of you. Stretch the left leg out.

Tighten your core, and let's lift the arm and the leg up, and down. Exhale, lift, and lower. Exhale, lift, lower. Make sure those abs are pulled in, and we have two more. Now, stay lifted.

Pull your elbow and your knee in, round your back. Let's exhale, pull it in. Inhale, stretch. Exhale, pull in, two. Inhale, stretch.

Pull, three. And stretch, exhale, four, and stretch one more time, and then hold it, abs tight, hips square. Take the left leg out, right arm out. Doesn't have to go far, and center. Connect to those core and oblique muscles.

Breathe in, breathe out. Two more, open, close. Open, close. Now lengthen the arm and leg down to the mat. The right hand is gonna be on the ball.

We're gonna pivot into your side kicks. So place your left hand to your head, draw the abs in, lightly have weight on your ball, and then lift the leg, five. Lift, four. Lift, three. Lift, two, and then keep the leg lifted.

Engage your core, circle. Five, four, three, two, one, reverse. Five, four, three, two, one. Now lower that leg down. Bring your arm out.

Now working your obliques, you're gonna lift an inch. Pass the ball into your top hand. Tap the fingers to the mat. Lift, pass, reach, tap to the mat. Lift, pass, reach, tap to the mat.

Lift, pass, reach, tap to the mat. One more. Pass, reach, and then place your hand flat on the mat. Flex your left foot, thread the needle. We exhale, round, inhale, raise, look up.

Two more, exhale, round, inhale, raise up. One more time, breathe out, breathe in, and then we're gonna pull ourselves up to both knees. So use your obliques to lift, bring that knee down, and then turn to the other side. So we have the ball already in our left hand. We'll start with a cat.

So you have your hand under your shoulder, knees under your hips. Bend your right elbow in narrow as you lengthen the ball away. Stretch your spine straight, exhale. Pull, round the ball, and round your back, and lengthen it out, stretch away. Exhale, pull in.

One more time, stretch it out. Exhale, pull it in, and then straighten out your spine, one long line, head to tailbone. Left leg forward, right leg back, exhale, lift, lower. Exhale, lift, lower. Exhale, lift, lower.

Two more, tighten up your core. Now stay up, hold. We're gonna bend the knee and the elbow. Breathe out, round, and stretch. Exhale, round, and stretch.

Exhale, three, stretch. We'll do two more. Pull in, lengthen. Last one, pull in. Okay, good, testing your stability, core tight.

Let's open the arm and leg out, and center. Stay strong through your core, center. Three, center. Two more. Four, center.

Last one. And we'll lower the foot and the hand down. Turn yourself into kneeling side kick. So lightly hold onto the ball. Hand to your head, hips are square, abs are tight.

Raise the leg for five. Exhale, two. Lift up, three. Lift, four, and then stay there. Teeny circles, five, four, three, two, one, reverse.

Five, four, three, two, one. Now place the foot down, reach your arm. Use your top oblique to lift a couple inches. Hold the ball in the top hand. Tap your fingers down.

Lift, pass the ball, reach, tap down. Lift, pass the ball, reach, tap down. Lift, pass the ball, reach, tap down. Last one, lift, pass, reach, lower all the way down. Place your hand flat, flex your foot, anchor it down, exhale.

We thread the needle. Inhale, look up. Exhale, thread the needle. Look up. One more time we thread the needle, and reach up, and then use those oblique muscles to pull yourself up and lower your knee down.

Okay, good. So now we're gonna transition onto our stomach. I like to come to the back of the mat. Have your ball near you. We will pick it up in a second, and then stretch your arms out into a child's pose.

So forehead to the mat, arms lengthened nice and long. Take a big breath in, and on the exhale, shift forward. Your shoulders are over your wrists. Tighten your core and just lower yourself all the way down. Now we're on our stomach.

We're gonna take the ball behind your back. Separate your feet hip distance. Tighten up your leg muscles, your glute muscles, your core, energy out through your toes, and then we'll inhale. Lift the chest. You're reaching that ball back to engage your back muscles, and we lower.

Just two more like this. Lift, and lower. Now we're gonna stay nice and lifted up. Raise up your legs. Do 10 heel beats.

Squeeze, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten. Take the ball in the right hand, open the arms out wide. Squeeze, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten. Take the arms overhead, reach. Squeeze, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten.

Lower the ball, so right hand is down, left leg is down, and then switch, and pick up the pace. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. More swimmers, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Stretch, and lower. Okay, good, so now both of my hands are on the ball.

We're gonna glide this ball in towards us as we lift into a swan. Take a breath in, and exhale. Lengthen all the way down. And take a breath in, and exhale. Lengthen all the way down.

One more, big breath in. Lift your chest, arch your upper spine. Exhale, lower down. Okay, good, so now the ball is in your left hand. We'll start with a swimmer and work it backwards.

Let's raise everything up first, so arms and legs. Now the ball in your left hand goes down. The right leg goes down. Do one more slow so we know that we're opposite arm and leg, and here we go, 20 reps. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten more.

One, two three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Stretch it out, squeeze the heels. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten. Open the arms, squeeze the heels. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten.

Bring the ball behind your back, lift your chest. Last ten, squeeze your butt. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten. Lower. Place your ball to the side, hands by your shoulders.

Let's come on back into our counter pose, little child's pose. Stay there, just take a nice deep breath. Inhale, and then breathe out all the air, releasing any tension that you might be holding on to in your backs. And then we're gonna place the hands next to the knees. Roll yourself up to seated.

Good, all right. So next, we're gonna do a little side lying series with this ball under your ribcage. So place it right at the rib and come up onto your forearm, okay? Take your feet to the very front edge of your mat, hips to the back edge of your mat, and then let's stabilize here. So engage the muscles of your shoulder, your lats, your obliques, so you feel like you're lifting up off of the ball, and then we're gonna take the hand to the head.

Squeeze your core. Take your top leg out for the front-back kicks. Inhale, kick, kick. Exhale, kick, kick. Flex forward, forward.

Flex, point. Inhale, kick. Exhale, back. Just two more, we do five of everything. Kick, back.

Last one, kick, forward. Kick, hold it back, bicycle. Flex your foot, kick forward, bend the knee and reach, and forward, bend the knee and reach. And three, bend and reach. And four, bend and reach.

One more. Let's reverse, so you'll bend your knee. Kick forward, press back. Nice strong core, press back. Stable shoulders, press back.

Two more, press back. Last one, and back. Point your foot, small circle. Forward, up and around, one. Forward, up and around, two.

Forward, press the shoulder down, three. Exhale, four, and five. Let's reverse. Inhale, exhale, one. Inhale, exhale, two.

Back and around, three. Around, four, and five. Bring your heels together, toes apart. Squeeze those glutes, inner thighs. Bring the leg forward, back, forward, back.

Five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Squeeze, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, last ten. Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Feet flex. Bring your legs back so you're in a straight line from your heels to your knees to your hips to your shoulders.

I know my shoulder's tired. Yours probably is too, but we're gonna lift up off of the ball. Raise the top leg for five. Lift, four. Lift, three.

Lift, two, and one. Now lower the waist to the ball and lift, two, and lift, three. Exhale, four. Exhale, exhale. Just grab that ball, raise your arm, and lower your hip.

Fantastic. We're gonna take those legs, we're gonna swing them around and do everything on the other side. Okay, so hips are to the back of the mat. Ball is underneath the ribcage. Legs come forward.

Okay, good. So a lot of work through your center. So you engage your shoulder, lats, obliques, and core. Squeeze the glutes, tighten up through your hips. Here we go, hand to your head, raise your leg.

Kick forward, one, two. Kick back, one, two. Breathe in, in. Breathe out, out. Breathe in, three.

Exhale, back. Breathe in, four. Exhale, back. Inhale, five. Exhale, back.

Flex your foot, bicycle. Forward, bend the knee, and reach. Forward, bend the knee, and reach. Forward, bend the knee, and reach. Forward, bend, reach.

One more in this direction. Reverse, bend your knee, kick forward and press. Good, staying strong with that bottom shoulder, keeping tight through your lats and your obliques. Exhale, kick. We'll do one more, and kick.

Strong core, point your foot, circle the leg. Forward, around. Two, around. Three, around. Two more, four, around.

Five. Reverse, take the leg back, around. Two, around. Three, and four, and five. Little hot potato, heels together, toes apart.

Tighten those lower glutes. Squeeze, squeeze. Here we go, the leg goes forward, it goes back. It goes forward and back, and five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten. And squeeze, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and 20.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, enough. Whew, bring your feet down, one long line. Just check it out, heels to knee to hip, shoulders, and then use those obliques. Let's send ourselves up. Reach your arm down, take your top leg, parallel hip height.

Down, exhale. Down, exhale. Down, lift. Down, lift. Okay, good.

Lightly tap your waist to the ball. Lift, tap to the ball. Lift, tap to the ball. Lift, two more. Up, last one, up.

Let's grab that ball so it's out of the way. Lower your hip down. Yay, very good. Have a seat, face forward. Okay, the next one is a feel-good one I think, so let's take that feel-good one.

So just place the ball between your knees just as a transition. Roll on down to your back. Okay, so now we're gonna place our hips, our sacrum, our lower back area on the ball. So roll your hips up, and then bring the ball right under your lower back sacrum. Support your back.

Arms pressed down, core muscles are engaged. Raise the right knee, followed by the left, and now stretch your legs straight up to the ceiling. Take your right leg back towards you as that left leg stretches away. Lengthen your legs. We're gonna do two pulses.

Pulse, pulse, switch, pulse, pulse. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Five, exhale. Six, exhale.

Seven, exhale. Eight. Two more, and then pause on 10. Now to really open the front of your hip, bend your bottom knee. So reach your foot, if you can, towards the mat, and then circle it in.

Reach the foot to the mat. So opening up front of your thigh and hip flexor. Bicycle, bicycle. Four, three, two, one. Let's reverse, stretch the leg forward and up, forward and up.

Stretch out left, stretch out left. Stretch, stretch, stretch. Engage your core. Four, three, two, one. Very good.

Okay, bend your knees. You're gonna place your feet down. Press your hips up. Take that ball away. Raise it up, roll down.

We're gonna do a rollover variation, so take your legs straight up. Take the ball between your ankles. Make sure it's pretty supported. Okay, arms are down. Tighten through your core, and then squeeze the ball.

Let's go ahead and bring those legs up and overhead. Now this is gonna challenge your balance. Stretch your arms out to the sides all the way back, and if you can, grab the ball in your hands, and then keep the arms reaching back as you roll the spine down one vertebrae at a time. Bring your legs to 90 only, and now take your legs up and over. Exhale, and then once they get there, let's bring the ball between your ankles.

Stretch the arms out and around down to your sides, and roll down upper back, middle back, lower back, tailbone. We're gonna do that series one more time. So use your core to go up and over. Slide your hands out along the floor all the way around. Hold your ball.

Legs together, and if you can keep your arms back, it is challenging for your balance, for your center. And legs go to 90. We'll keep the arms back, and exhale. Take the legs back overhead. Place the ball between the ankles.

Bring your arms out and around all the way down, and then we roll down one vertebrae at a time. All right, take your ball. We're gonna move into the single-leg teaser. So setting up, bring your knees, inner thighs, feet together, and then creep your feet just a little further away so they're not exactly at a 90. Take your right leg out so it's at this long diagonal.

Place the ball in front of your right thigh. Anchor your left foot. We're gonna raise the chest and then roll the ball up. Stay there, turn to the right, center. Roll the ball down the leg.

And again, two more. Raise your head, exhale, roll up. Turn to the right, the center, and roll down the leg. Breathe out, roll up as high as you can, even if you only make it to your knee, and then turn right, center, and then we'll roll the spine down. Raise the arms, place your right foot down, extend your left leg out.

Ball on the front of your thigh. Lift your head, exhale, roll up, and then rotate, and center, and roll your spine down. Two more, raise the head, exhale, roll up, rotate, center, and roll down. One more time, with control rather than momentum, and then we turn left, center, and we roll all the way down. Raise the arms, place the foot down.

Okay, let's start. We're gonna do our double-leg teaser. Both knees in tabletop to get into it. Pull your abs in tight, take a big breath in. Raise your head, exhale, roll yourself up.

Feel free to keep your knees bent. Otherwise, the choreography is the legs are straight, the ball is on top of your shins. We're gonna roll down. Try to keep the legs where they are. Of course, take care of your body by bending your knees if you need to, and then roll the ball up your legs.

Breathe in, and exhale. Roll the ball down the legs. And again, raise your head, exhale. Roll the ball up. How are we doing, you guys?

Roll down, and one more. Raise your head, exhale. Roll up, take a big breath in, exhale. Roll your spine all the way down. Bend your knees.

Place the ball between your knees. We're almost done. We're gonna grab the back of your legs. Rock up to seated. I just wanna do a tabletop reverse plank.

So take your hands so that your fingers are facing either in, or if it feels better in your wrist, feel free to point them to the sides. What we're going for is opening your chest, so press your shoulders down, draw the shoulder blades together, squeeze the ball, and lift your hips. Okay, feet. Make sure your feet are parallel. Push into your heels, squeeze your butt and lift.

We're just not doing anything fancy right now. Just open your chest. Squeeze your hips and glutes. Stay there for a big breath in. Stay there as you breathe out, and then lower your hips down.

Okay, good, and then just come around. This one, the ball sometimes rolls away from me. You can use a ball. It's not 100% necessary. It's just a good guide for pushups.

Okay, so place the ball on your mat. Have your hands near the ball, and I like to do the, we're gonna do 10 pushups, so you can do 'em on your toes. I'm gonna demo on the knees. So I'm in a kneeling plank, one straight line from the head to the shoulders, hips, knees. Squeeze that core, glutes, hips, and then your elbows point narrow, narrow, narrow.

You can use that ball as a guide. You lower, tap the chest to the ball, and press. Nine more, here we go. Breathe in, exhale, two. Breathe in, exhale, three.

Keep your best form. Exhale, four. Head is up in line with your spine, five. Elbows are narrow, six. Seven, here we go.

Exhale, last three, and two, and one. Bring your knees underneath you tabletop. Tuck your toes. Just send your hips up to stretch. Raise your heels.

Lower one heel at a time, little prance. Just switch a couple times. And from here, bring your knees all the way down. Sink into a child's pose. Take a nice deep breath.

Inhale through your nose. Breathe out all of the air, all of it, all of it. Empty your lungs. And now just place your hands right next to your knees, and take your time rolling your spine up one vertebrae at a time. And thank you all for joining me for Pilates ball progressions on the mat.