Solar Powerhouse

Hello everyone this is Jason Williams, here with Pilates Anytime from Baltimore, Maryland. Thank you for joining me for Vital Restoration. Today's class is called Solar Powerhouse. So this is a great class dealing with a well-familiar term, powerhouse and Pilates, but also dealing with the solar plexus chakra, which is right here in the center of our body, right. So think of the solar plexus with the color yellow, also the solar plexus chakra deals with our willpower.

So who we are as a person, our integrity, what kind of drives us, you know, what we know about ourselves, right. And what do we stick to as an individual, right. So hopefully you'll feel very revitalized after class. And again, let's get rolling. Okay, so start in a seated position.

And go ahead, and you can cross your legs however you like. So again, if you want to flip it this week, maybe you want to switch the, which leg is forward, feel free to do so. And you're gonna sit up nice and tall. I want to start with a nice, simple meditation, and then we'll move. And then we'll end with a little bit of Reiki meditation.

So go ahead and close the eyes, again, just center in. And centering, as we all know, is one of the principles of Joseph Pilates, and breath, which is very universal with a lot of these modalities. So take a nice, easy inhale through your nose. Easy exhale out the mouth. Nice, easy inhale through your nose.

Easy exhale out the mouth. One more time, breathing in. And out. And returning to your normal breath. Nice and easy, nice and light.

When you bring your awareness to the center of your body, right towards that solar plexus, or the sort of middle of your sternum. And we're gonna imagine a light right into the center of your body here. So imagine a yellow light, just kind of beginning to shine. And as you take your nice, easy, soft inhales and exhales, that light gets a little bit brighter. So that yellow light begins to kind of maybe fill the inside part of your body as you inhale and exhale.

And just know that that light, that shines right, right in the center of your body is you. It's your willpower. It's your ability to manifest whatever you'd like into your life. To be able to move your body at will, at ease. And as that bright light gets a little bit brighter, it begins to surround your body, So working from the inside out.

And surrounding your body in this yellow light. And with each inhale and exhale, that light gets a little bit brighter around your body. So it's encompassing your body. It's healing your body. Revitalizing, restoring, reconnecting to your truth.

And your connection to your mind and body. Take another nice inhale, let that bright light shine bright. And as you exhale it dims back towards you. One more time. Inhale, let that bright light shine, and exhale it, dim back towards you.

Good, one more time, inhale, last one, shine bright, and then exhale. Then you'll softly, gently, lightly blink the eyes open, and we'll do some nice, easy movements and twists. So I'm bringing my left hand to my right knee, slowly twisting to the right, that nice, easy flow to open up through the torso here, and then bring it back around, flowing right hand to the left knee. Pulling, a nice, easy twist to the left. I want to keep that flow.

It's to kind of get things moving, work out the kinks a little bit here in the back and the spine, and even into the middle, right here and across that solar plexus, into your powerhouse, getting your body ready to move. Nice easy breaths with this, twisting this movement, opening things up, it should feel really good. Last one to your right. Good, and then one more to your left. And then we'll take that a little bit further.

Bring your hands out with a slight bend in the elbow to this T shape. So we'll do a little helicopter. So it's going to be a double twist. So, you know, rotate to your right. And then we're going to rotate to your left.

I'm keeping my hands in line with my shoulders, and we'll add this double twist on the right side. So it's going to be one, two, around, one, two. So it reach, reach, reach, reach, and really feel your back begin to open up, the middle of your torso, your spine, across that powerhouse, in your solar plexus. Breathe, one, two. You even look behind you.

One, two, about three more. Good. Nice. Good, one more to the right, one more to your left. Nice, easy stretch.

Last one to the left, and relax it to the center, bring it down. Nice easy side stretch, left hand comes up, and then switch it, right hand comes up, stretching out that rib cage into the middle of the body, the torso. Right, our powerhouse, right? Which allows our body to move, right. Allows our body to do it at will.

Good, feels great, last one right hand overhead, inhaling. And then exhaling, bringing it down, moving it to all fours for cat cow. So, so here you can leave your toes on touch, stacking shoulders, elbows, wrists, slowly tucking the chin to the spine, rounding up through the back, and get that nice stretch to the upper part of your back. Dropping the chest. Look up towards the sky or the ceiling.

Feeling that nice stretch to your abdominal here, even again to the middle of the body, rounding up nice and easy. So do your flow, nice and easy. Use your breath, rounding up. Exhale, drop that belly and lift the chest. Rounding up.

Now feel free here to even move side to side a little bit. So moving to the right, to the left, pumping the hips out. A nice, easy flow. Getting things restored, moving. And then you can do a little front to back if you like here, maybe into child's pose, and forward.

Maybe halfway back, again, be very intuitive here. Right? And then coming to the center, you're going to start with your right hand. I'm going to bring my right hand behind the head here. And then slowly bring my elbow down to the wrist.

I'm going to twist into it, and then press up, looking up towards the sky or the ceiling, getting that nice stretch to the upper part of the back and mid part of the back, and then bring it back down again. Elbow to the wrist, crossing up, opening up through the chest. and that back and spine. And then back down again. Do your range of motion. So I'm pressing the ground away with my left hand as my right elbow reaches up here, really opening up again to the front and the back of the body.

Good, breathe. Exhale. One more, inhale, press that ground away, looking up, and then slowly bringing it back down. Switching hands, left hand behind the head, and then bringing elbow to the wrist, press it up, open up, open up. Really feel that nice stretch through the upper part of the back and chest opening up even to that shoulder.

Breathe, good. Inhale, nice stretch and then exhale. We'll do about three more. And again, I love this stretch to really get things opening up through my upper back, even moving into my mid-back. Last one, exhale it down, and then press it back up.

Perfect, and then coming back to center here. So extending the right leg back, and then the left hand straight out, and then squaring off here through the hip and shoulder. So when I exhale, elbow to knee, it's a little spinal balance. Inhale and lengthen it up. Exhale.

Inhale. So again, a nice core exercise, right? Working from the inside out. Right, breathing in, exhale, feels good to move, to stretch, to be in flow. Inhale.

Exhale. Two more, inhale, exhale. One more, breathing in, lengthening out, exhale, pull it back in. And then slowly setting that back down. Switching sides.

So left leg stands back, right arm lifting up. So exhale, elbow to knee, inhale, lengthening it up. Exhale, elbow to knee. Inhale. Always using our breath.

Exhale, and inhale, good. Keeping the hips square, the shoulders square. So engaging through the core, our balance, looks good. Two more. Inhale, lengthen it out.

Good, exhale. One more, inhale, lengthen, and then exhale. And then slowly set that back down. Good, rolling out the shoulders a little bit, coming to your belly. So I'm going to start here onto our forearms.

Now, if this hurts your lower back, you can come down, your forehead to the back of your hands here. So I want to start with hamstring kicks. So it's going to be that one, two, switch to the left, one, two. So, right, right. Left, left.

And again, we're getting a nice hamstring quad stretch, and here, being on my forearms, getting a nice stretch through, again, my sternum and into that solar plexus, right. But again, if this hurts through your lower back, feel free to come down just to the head here, right. So left, left, right, right. Nice leg kicks, breathe, do you. Nice.

Four, good. Three. Nice, two, good, one more left, and then slowly set it down. Turning your head to the right shoulder, bring the hands to the small of your back, letting the elbows drop down, if it's in the flexibility of your shoulders. Okay, so now we're gonna add a Cobra pull to that.

So it's going to be that one, two, kick. One, two, kick, and then up, reach and pull, inhale. Turn the head to the left shoulder. Left, left, right, right. Pull, reach, inhale, exhale, bring it down and head to the right shoulder.

Kick, kick, kick, kick, inhale, reach, exhale. Bring it down to the left shoulder with the head. Inhale, exhale, kick, kick, pull, reach. Exhale it down. Right, right.

Left, left. Inhale, reach it. Exhale it down. Kick, kick, kick, kick, inhale, reach, we'll do one more each side, looks great. Kick, kick.

Kick, kick, reach those arms back. Nice, exhale it, last one. Left, left, right, right. Inhale, reach, exhale, bring it down. Press back, child's pose, stretch.

Good, so again, a nice core exercise there, and working through the lower back, strengthening to the hamstrings. Good. Take a nice easy breath here. And then coming forward to our forearms again, to a low plank or forearm plank, lifting those knees off the ground here. So you're on your tiptoes, dropping the hips down, press up to a pike position here.

So you're going to use those abs a little bit, right, drop the hips down to level, and then a little bit past so you get a nice stretch. Draw through that belly, lift those hips high to that V shape, so really feel the core and abs engage that powerhouse. Good, press it back up. Good, and then back down. Inhale, ready to take it up.

Then exhale. Good, continue to breathe. Nice, really good, working through this, through your abs, your core here, that powerhouse, looks great. Inhale and lengthen it. Exhale, bring it down, let's do one more, all right.

So maybe generate a little bit of heat right from the inside out. Looks good. And then slowly relax it down. Sit back to child's pose. Bring those knees wide.

Let's go pinkie side down with the thumbs up to get a little more stretch to the lats here. Good, and then feel free maybe to drop the head down a little bit. Shake out the kinks a little bit. Inhale, exhale. Good.

And then slowly come back up to all fours, pressing back to kind of that downward facing dog, soon to do a nice, easy right, left knee pull. So slowly I'm shifting my weight forward, right knee comes in, and you're gonna make sure you pull back to that left calf heel, right back to that down dog. So left knee comes in, you're gonna alternate, pull back through that right heel calf to get that stretch. This is very slow. So inhale, exhale, inhale, press it back.

Exhale, pull it in. So getting, using that ankle to really get that calf and Achilles to stretch, pull it in, exhale, inhale, press it back. Nice and easy. Your movement, your flow, your workout. Good, nice, easy exhale.

Press it back. Nice, exhale it. Pull back, stretch, one more right, one more left. Slowly pull that knee in, looks good. Exhale it.

Last one with the left knee, in, exhale. Inhale, hold, hang out right here for a second. Get that nice stretch into the arms. And you're going slowly shift the weight forward to that high plank. Hold it here.

Right, left kicks, so the right leg extends. Switch, left leg extends and kicks. So nice easy kicks in that high plank position. Again, it's not a big kick, maybe just to your body level here, right, and then back down. Good, inhale, exhale, breathe.

Good, again. Shoulder stacked over the elbows and wrists. Draw that belly in. You got four, three, two. Nice, last one.

And then slowly set it down. Good, roll out those shoulders, very good. So we'll come back to the belly for swimmers. So hands come out over the head. Point the toes, and you're gonna slowly lift that left leg and right arm, so draw that belly, And then you're your set that down, switch.

Left hand, right leg. Slowly set that down. and I'm gonna start here, nice and easy and slow. And then we'll begin the kick. Right, so just setting it up, eyes down, so you're not scrunching your neck.

Good. Last one, left hand, right leg. And then slowly begin the right leg. Now start to kick a little bit. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, good, breathing in and out.

Breathe in and out, four, three, two, and one, relax at child's pose and stretch. Sit it back nice. Good stretch. Take a deep breath. And then coming forward, and come into our seat.

Okay, so we're gonna to start with a little bit of a half roll down. We're gonna add a twist to it, so knees are slightly bent. And our hands can start underneath the knees and around through the spine here. Tucking our chin to chest, exhale, pull it up, inhale around, exhale, pull it up, very good. So get that nice stretch, now through the back, exhale, pull it up, looks good.

Tucking the chin round into the back. Now if you a little bit more, extend those arms up, tucking the chin around it, I can go a little bit farther. Exhale, lift, stack the vertebrae, good, around to the spine. Inhale, exhale, lift. Two more.

Rounding through the spine, exhale, pull it up nice and tall. So this time I'm gonna add a twist, right arm goes back. So again, getting that cross pattern here, exhale, lift it up, left arm pulls back, lean back. Exhale, so protect your back. Go your range of motion as you sit back here.

And then lengthen nice and tall. Left hand, open it up. Lengthen, exhale, inhale, and exhale, looks great. Breathe. One more right, one more left, looks great, nice.

Last one with the left. Awesome, and then straighten out those legs. Hands turned right in front of the chest. Slowly begin to roll a vertebrae at a time down. So lumbar, thoracic or middle, upper cervical, hands overhead, good.

So full roll, roll up, you'll inhale. Exhale, start to bring those hands forward, and lengthen up nice and tall, reach forward and stretch, drop the head down, slowly peel it back down, take your time. Inhale, and lengthen it back. Exhale. Nice and tall.

Reach forward and stretch, drop the head. Two more, inhale slowly, a vertebrae at a time. Take it down, hands coming back over your head. Inhale, exhale, lengthening up nice and tall. Reach forward, stretch, good.

Slowly take it back down. Last one, inhale. Exhale. Good, and then reach forward, stretch. This time, as you do your roll up, you'll go straight towards the sky or a ceiling.

So work on stacking that vertebrae, inhale. Exhale, lengthen up nice and tall, hold here at the top. Now slowly drop your shoulders, peeling it down a vertebrae at a time. A little bit more abdominals for that core ab powerhouse right? Hands come back overhead.

Two more like that, inhale. Exhale, lengthen up through the spine, nice and tall. Relax the shoulders here. Good, slowly peel it back down. Very good, and then hands come back, last one.

Inhale. Exhale, very good, and then slowly peel it back down. Bringing the knees into the chest. A little lower back stretch, a little rock side to side. So we're gonna move right into roll like a ball here.

So our hands can be underneath the knee or underneath, excuse me, at below the knees or behind the knees here. Whichever you prefer. So I'm going to start roll through our spine. Come up to that seated position. If you want to touch the feet to the mat to start here, you can, otherwise lift the feet up.

Round the spine. Roll back, sit up nice and tall here. So inhale and then exhale. Inhale. Nice massaging action through the spine, lifting through the sternum.

Good. Nice, two more, round it down, good last one. And then we'll move into seal. So we'll come up, hold here, bring your hands inside the legs here. I said I'm grabbing at my feet, just like so.

And you're gonna do three taps, Same thing, roll like a ball, okay. So this gets a little more hip movement, doing that tap, tap, tap, roll back. Sit up nice and tall, all right? One, two, three, roll back. Sit up nice and tall.

One, two, three, round through the spine. Sit up nice and tall. One, two, three, inhale and exhale. One, two, three, around, back up. One, two, three round and back up and relax.

Nice job. So now we'll hake the knees outside the side here. So just a little twist, stretching through that lower back and hips, feels good. So dropping the knees to one side, and drop your knees and kind of letting them stack over each other, good, nice. And then bring your feet to center, slowly round it down.

Now we'll start our hands to the ground. Shoulders back. We'll go into some bridges. So talking to your pelvis, rolling the hips to the sky, pull the shoulder blades back slowly, unravel. Good.

And then your butt's going to touch, last, right. Tuck in the pelvis, roll it up. Roll the shoulder blades back. After you can bring the hands here in front of the chest and then peel it back down. So again, we're taking the stability with the hands or bringing them right in front of the chest.

Otherwise you can have them still here to the mat, pressing through your heels, to enervate those glutes and hamstrings a little bit, good, and then rounding up. Nice. And then back down, let's do two more. Good, tuck in the pelvis, roll it up to the sky. Nice, and then slowly roll it back down, last one.

Tuck in the pelvis, roll it up, inhale. Nice, looks great, then exhale. And then peel it back down. Bringing the right leg up, grab behind the calf, or your thigh, depending your flexibility. Head comes up to that C-curve for scissor kick, you'll inhale.

Exhale. Inhale, exhale, good. So nice and easy scissor kicks. Get that nice hamstring stretch. Abs are engaged, rolling that belly in.

If your neck is tired, you can drop it down. Looks good, you got four. Three. Nice, two. And one, relax it down, very good.

Moving into a little bit of opposition for our core. So let's start with our feet at table top, right foot, left foot up, bringing both hands in front of the chest here. So a little dead bug action. Right hand comes back overhead, left legs gonna extend down, keeping my right knee bent here to protect my lower back. Okay, and then slowly bring that back up, right back to square.

Switch it, left hand, right leg lengthens, inhale. And then exhale, good, switch it, alternate right hand, left leg, inhale. Take your time, you're gonna work your brain a little bit this morning or today, right, get that nice length, inhale, and then exhale. Inhale. Nice, exhale.

Really feeling our core and abs engage. Lengthen it out. Exhale it back in, right arm and left leg looks great. Exhale. So last one with the left hand, right leg goes down.

Good, exhale it back up. Very good, pull both knees into the chest, rock side to side, very good. And we'll move into our teasers next. So you can extend those legs out hands, come back overhead. So you're about that 45 degree angle.

Exhale, lift it up. And then slowly round it back down, hands overhead, exhale, lift it up, teaser, there you go. And then now if you need to bend the knees, feel free to bend the knees. Do you, you know your machine, you know your practice, lengthen it up maybe, right. Or if that's even too much, maybe start with one leg and do a half roll down.

Okay, and then back up, right. There's plenty of ways to modify in here, right. So it will be me three more, hands back overhead. Inhale, exhale. Lengthen it up.

Good, roll it down. Nice, inhale. Exhale, use that powerhouse. That core. There you go, last one.

Inhale, for good measure, right. Lengthen it up and then roll it back in. Shake it loose. Good work, looks great. And then you're gonna rock and roll up.

Come to our side for a little snake and twist. So stacking elbow and shoulder, your feet are going to be staggered. My left leg's forward. Lifting up through the hips here. Top hand comes up, so an option is to bring the bottom knee, or right knee, down and then rotate underneath here.

Look up, right? Otherwise you're here. Inhale, as you reach up, exhale, as you thread the needle through. So again, getting that nice oblique, the middle of that powerhouse, lengthen it, look up towards the sky. Good, three more, inhale at the top.

Exhale. Good, inhale and exhale. Nice, one more, looks good. And then slowly take it down. Very good.

Switch sides. So I come into my left elbow-shoulder line, to protect the shoulder here. Stagger the feet. Same thing you did in the previous side. Okay, so inhale here.

Exhale, thread the needle through, again, always drop that bottom knee as an option. You can even float the leg on the top. If you want a little bit more gusto, right. Looks good. Nice little stretch, feel those obliques, do you.

We got three more, inhale, and exhale. Inhale and exhale. One more, lengthen it out, thread the needle through, twist it out, and then slowly stay on this side and set it down. Pulling my knees up to 90 degrees. Bringing my hands right in front of my chest here.

Okay, so I'm doing a 90-90 stretch. I'm gonna slowly lift my right hand or top hand, reach all the way back, stretch, keeping my knees down. That should feel really good in your chest and your back, bring it back over, looks good. And then slowly, we'll do about two more of these, nice stretch through the spine and torso. And then back through one more, round it, reach, good, nice stretch.

And come back to the center, switch sides. Good, so again, bringing my knees to 90 degrees from the knee and the hips, all right. Hands out, right in front of my chest here, line it up, left or top hand comes up, reach it back. A nice stretch to that upper back, bring it back over. Looks great.

Inhale, and then exhale as you reach to the back. Don't worry if your hand doesn't touch the ground. Nice, one more, big stretch. Inhale and exhale it back. Very good, coming up to a seated position, cross those legs, and we'll get to our Reiki meditation here.

So I'm going to start by bringing your hands into that preposition, but you're going to leave a little space in between the palms here, okay. That's going to be our focal point, or bring our awareness to that center of your palms. So just my fingertips are touching here. And bringing your hands right in front of the chest and take a few deep breaths. You're going to inhale and then exhale.

And as you continue to bring that awareness to the center, you may start to feel a little bit of energy or heat. So you can even maybe rub the hands together a little bit and then open that space in between. Or it can even do a little spin with the palms to start generating your own Reiki, your own healing energy, and it'll feel a little bit different than just heat. It'll feel like maybe like some static electricity, it'll feel a little extra hot maybe, and you can notice, pull it apart, bring it back in, good. And don't worry if you don't feel this, just know that it is working.

And in time you will eventually start to feel it. I feel a lot of heat now, right in the middle of my palms. So now, we begin to close the eyes. I'm still working with that center energy in the palms. take another nice, easy inhale.

Exhale. Easy inhale, and then exhale. and I'm taking my right hand, my palm, bringing it right to the center of my sternum or solar plexus. And then my other hand's gonna go over top of that. And now you might really feel a lot of heat here, a lot of energy.

Again, that's your Reiki. That's your healing, your life force. I'm just stacking palm over palm, and just feeling. Feel that energy, feel that love and compassion for yourself. And this is your willpower.

This is your, your integrity, who you are, what you know about yourself. This is a great place to manifest what you want to do, how you want to move. Again, there's no coincidence that all these practices have principles that align in some way, shape or form with the breath, centering the focus, coordination, flow, working from the inside out. I'm gonna allow you to be here for a few moments and just feel. Maybe bringing your focus to that color yellow.

Maybe you see a yellow light. And then slowly bring your hands down to your lap or your knees. Whichever is more comfortable, keeping your eyes closed, and just notice, feel your body. That's how it feels. Notice your breath, your breathing.

And as I count down from 10, you know, slowly open the eyes, 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one. Thank you for joining me. I appreciate you and your time.