Class #4594

Athletic Mat Flow

50 min - Class
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Description

You will tap into your inner athlete in this exciting Mat workout with Melissa Connolly. She moves through a traditional Mat sequence that will get your blood pumping, then she'll take you off the Mat for a sweat-inducing Standing Sequence. You’ll Squat, Lunge, and Relevé to new heights!
What You'll Need: Mat, Overball

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All right, you guys ready? Today is class number seven, athletic map flow. The class will start with us standing holding the ball. So get your standing posture. Bring your heels all the way together.

Squeeze nice and tight through your inner thighs. Tighten through your lower glutes. Dry your abdominals in and up. We're gonna bring the arms down by your sides. Have a little pressure into the ball with your hands.

Take a nice deep breath, stand tall. And then as you exhale, you're gonna bend your knees, reach the arms forward. Inhale, lengthen up, exhale, bend your knees, and lengthen up and bend the knees. And then squeeze up through your inner thighs. We'll do a couple more.

Lengthen your legs. Two more, and lift up and one more time and lift up, tall. Feel those inner thighs pulling together tight. Reach your arms forward and then lift your heels. Raise the ball.

Can you keep your heels together? And then lower the heels. Lift up, heels stay together and lower. Tighten through your seat. Feel your glute muscles, inner thighs, and lower.

A couple more. We lift and lower. Last two, lift and lower. One more time, stay lifted, keep your heels together. Bring your arms forward.

And now turn the head, look to the right, look center, look to the left, look center, lower the heels, lift the arms. Raise the heels. Arms come forward. This time we look to the left and center. Look to the right, center, lower the heels, raise the arms.

Lift the heel. Squeeze through the glutes inner thighs core, look right, center. Look left, center, lower the heels, lift the arms. One more, lift up heels together. Look left, center, look right, center, lower and lift the arms.

Now bring your arms out in front of you. Hold the ball on the right hand. Step the right leg out. Bend the knees into a plie and then come back to the center. Do that four more times.

Exhale, inhale, lift up. Exhale, pull up. Two more, lift up. Last one, hold it here. Engage through your core.

Keep your back nice and long. We're gonna lower the body an inch. Lift up, lower down real small pulse, lift up and three exhale up, four, exhale up, five, and then hold it here. Raise your right heel and then turn, pivot your body, to the left, good. Pull the abdominals and keeping the back nice and long.

We're gonna lengthen out the legs. And as you bend your knees, pull the ball to your chest. Exhale, press forward, inhale, bend. Exhale, reach the arms, bend the knees. Two more, and bend, last one.

And now we're gonna do five more. Raise the arms, overhead, lift up, and bend, exhale lengthen and bend, exhale three, bend, two more. And bend, one more, and then bend. Stretch your arms forward. Hold the ball on the left-hand open the right.

Come back to your second plie, and then bring your left leg into the right, step the left leg out, one and in, exhale two, lift tall, three, draw the legs together, four, engage the core. Hold it out, and then little pulse down, up, down, up three, pull your abs in, four, exhale up, five and then stay here. Raise your left heel, turn to the right. And then again, pull the stomach and feel that length of your spine. Bring the ball to your chest, and then stretch the legs, reach the arms.

Exhale, reach two, really engage through your center three, and reach four, and five, adding the arms down and lift them up. Get that sense of lengthening up, three pull up, four, lift up, five, lift up, bend down, and then reach the arms forward. Hold the ball on the right hand, open the left, and bring your legs together, fantastic. We're gonna come to the end of the mat. So your feet are hip width apart.

Pull the stomach and stand nice and tall and vertical. Keeping the weight equal into your heels and all 10 of your toes, stretch the arms as you lower into a squat like a chair pose, and lift yourself back up. Breathe in, when we stand pull the stomach and then lengthen. Inhale three, exhale lift and lengthen. And reach four, exhale lift.

One more like this. Reach, and lift. Now squat down. Again, lift yourself up and add a releve rise up onto your toes. Lift the ball overhead, lower down.

Squat, reach forward. Lift up tall. Lift the heels, raise the arms overhead, lower down, three more. Breathe out, and lift. Raise up onto your toes.

Raise the arms, lower, two more. Lift tall, lift up with control, and lower down. Last time, we're gonna hold it here. Pull your abdominals in. Keep that length in your back, tailbone reaching back, round of the head reaching forward.

The ball is gonna go in our right hand and you'll open your arms to a T position. Bring your arms back overhead. Hold the bottom of left-hand, open to a T position. Bring the arms overhead. Four more, exhale.

Inhale, and pull the arms down from your laps. Overhead, one more on both sides, exhale, inhale. Last one, bring the arms overhead, and nice and easy just round yourself, full down over your legs. Place the ball to the side. Your hands are flat on the mat.

Your knees are bent. Chest is on your thighs. Take a breath in, and as we exhale, engage through your core, stretch your legs. Breathe and bend your knees. And exhale, stretch your legs.

Bend your knees, and exhale stretch the legs. Now we're gonna walk the hands out a couple times. So we land in this inverted V, sometimes I call it elephant like on the reformer, or even like an upside down teaser position. So we're nice and long, and our spine, shoulders are down. Lift the heels up, and now take your right heel down to the mat.

So the right heel goes down, left heel is high, and then switch, and switch three, just two more, switch four, and five. So the right heel is down. The left leg, is going to raise up. Stretch it, straight up nice and long, and then bend that knee and place it down, that is it. Raise both of your heels high, and let's start with the left heel lowering to the mat first.

The left heel goes down, right heel is up, and then we switch two, and switch three, switch four, and hold it there on five. So left heel is reaching to the mat. The right leg releases up, stretches towards the ceiling, and then bend that knee, place it down. Okay, good, scoop your abs in. We're gonna walk the feet in like a round back elephant.

Walk in, tuck your chin, round your back, walk it in, walk it, walk it in, walk it in. Feet are hip distance. We're gonna bend our knees, and come all the way down. Have a seat on your mat, great, okay. Grab your ball.

Place the ball right up against your lower back. Now to wedge that ball into a good position let's lift the hips up a bit, and then curl the tailbone under and round down, okay, good. So we have our back supported against the ball. You're gonna bring your knees and your feet together. Lightly hold onto the outside of your knees, round your spine, and then lower your torso down a couple inches.

And then we're gonna scoop the lower abs. Create that letter C shape to lift, and lower, exhale, scoop the lower abs to lift, and lower. Pull the abs into lift, and lower. Just two more like this, exhale curl, lower, exhale curl. We're gonna add hug a tree arms.

So as you lift the arms open, exhale, they hug, inhale they open, exhale hug, three, scoop your abs in hug, four scoop in, five. And then the arms are gonna lift up. So they raise and they press down, breathe in and exhale, three, scoop your abs in, four, contract the core, one more. And now lift the arms up from here. Palms facing in, take the right arm back.

When I sweep that right arm but look back at your right hand, and then pull it up to the center, and sweep the left arm look back at your left hand, and pull it up to the center. Inhale sweep back look, exhale, pull it up, inhale reach back stretch, exhale up, and breathe in, exhale lift, breathe in, reach, exhale lift. One more on both sides. Stretch the arms in two directions, lift up. Last one, reach, and lift up, good.

Now coming up for a moment, we're gonna open the feet, hip distance and roll the ball. So it is between your shoulder blades, okay, good. So feet parallel, hip distance. Pull your abdominals and reach your fingertips above the knees. Now we're gonna take an arch back.

So, start to roll your spine back over the ball, reach the arms back, overhead. The arms circle out to the sides. Tuck your chin and reach above your knees, four more. Breathe in, stretch and arch. Open the arms, exhale, reach above the knees.

Inhale, reach back three, circle and exhale lift, inhale, reach back four, circle and curl up. One more time. Going over the ball, circling, now lift and hold. Reaching above the knees, draw the belly in deeper, and small lift 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one. Now bring those arms long.

Energy through your fingertips, pull your lower abs in. Take the right leg into a table top followed by the left. Feel you are stable. We're gonna do hundreds with variation from here. Keep the knees bent to start, pump your arms, breathe in two, three, four, five, breathe out two, three, four, five, breathe in two, three, four, five, exhale, reach the right leg long.

Inhale two, three, four, five, exhale, two, three, four, five, inhale two, three, four, five, exhale. So which legs, inhale two, three, four, five. As you exhale, pull the abs in tight. Inhale two, three, four, five, exhale, stretch both of your legs out two, three, four, five. Exhale, make sure those lower abs can pull in.

If you're having a hard time, bend your knees. And two more, two, three, four, five, exhale, scoop, scoop, scoop your abs. Last one, two, three, four, five, exhale, two, three, four and five. Now bend your knees. Take your hands onto your shins.

Pull those legs in. Double leg, stretch the legs, go forward, arms reach back, exhale pull one. Breathe in and pull the abs in two. Breathe in and scoop the abs in three, two more in this direction. Last one, reverse your arms.

They stretch out overhead and pull in. Out over head, pull two, out over head, exhale three, exhale four, exhale five. All right, one more thing with the ball here. Bring your knees to a table top. It takes a little balance.

You're gonna go into that arm circle. So reach the arms back carefully. Open the arms out are round. Lift the chest and stretch your legs. Bend your knees, take the arms back, extending over the ball, open the arms and exhale.

Reach the legs. Three more, bend the knees, really control it. From your core, circle the arms and lift up. Two more, bend the knees, reaching back. Open the arms, exhale lift.

One more time. We stretch back, open and exhale lift. Bend your knees. Hold the back of your thighs, rock up to seated, great. Grab your ball, stretch your legs out in front of you.

We're gonna go into the roll-ups. Just holding the ball in front of you. Point your toes, sit up nice and tall, energy through the fingers and toes. And then we pull the stomach back into the spine, and roll through the lower back, the middle back, the shoulders, the head, reach the arms. Flex the feet, lift the arms.

Exhale (indistinct) upper, middle, lower, points your feet stretch forward. Stay round, roll back through the lower, the middle, the shoulders, the head, the arms. Flex the feet, raise the arms, exhale, rolling up, and stretch forward. One more time. Point your toes.

Reach your fingers forward, reach your toes forward. Pull your belly button back to the spine. Flex the feet, raise the arms, exhale, rolling up, and stretch forward. Now roll-ups, sit up nice and straight, nice and tall. We're gonna take that ball between the feet.

Okay good, stretch your arms forward. Squeeze the ball, and take your time rolling down. This time you roll down, the arms are gonna come down by your sides. Palms of the hands on the mat, head on the mat, point your toes, squeeze the ball and lift your leg straight up to 90. Press your shoulders down and let's exhale.

Go into the roll over hips. Take your legs up and over, and then roll down nice and controlled and long knack. Articulate through each part of your spine. Keep the core muscles engaged as you lower the legs to the floor. Flex your feet, raise your head, roll yourself up.

Roll up, roll up, stretch forward. And then roll down, feet are flax. We are squeezing the ball with the inner thighs. The arms go down to the mat. The toes point.

We squeeze the ball, lift the legs to 90. Use your core to take the legs up and over head. Squeeze the ball with the inner thighs and roll down one vertebrae at a time. Control the legs all the way down to the mat. Flex your feet, raise your head, exhale (indistinct) up, stretch forward.

One more time. Roll down, roll down. Lower spine, middle spine, upper spine, shoulders, head, engage the core, lift the legs. Engage the core. Exhale, roll over.

Squeeze the ball and roll upper, middle, lower, tailbone, down. Bring the legs all the way down. Flex your feet and we're gonna roll up to finish. Roll up, roll up, stretch forward. And let's roll up.

Sit up nice and straight, nice and tall, very good. You're gonna bend your knees. Place the ball between the knees, and then roll yourself down onto your back. All right, so the next series we're gonna do is some bridging. So set yourself up.

You have your feet parallel hip distance. You've got a nice little squeeze of your inner thighs onto that ball. Chest is open. Now roll your hips up one vertebrae at a time. Tighten through the glutes, take a big inhale at the top, and exhale roll the upper spine, middle spine, lower spine, tailbone, and down.

Two more like this. Rolling up, tighten through the core, inner thighs glute muscles, and then roll back down, one vertebrae at a time. One more, engage adductors, glutes, core, and then just stay lifted. We're gonna do some straight bridges to engage to the glute, the hamstrings. So keeping a flat back, tap your hips to touch the mat, squeeze and lift up one, five times.

Breathe in, exhale two, breathe in, exhale three, breathe in, engage the muscles at the top, one more. Now stay here. Raise your right heel up, lower the hips, down, exhale lift. We're focusing more on engaging in the back of that left leg. Press up three, press up four, and stay lifted up on five.

Lower the right heel, raise the left heel, tab down to the mat, press squeeze one, down, tighten that right glute two, inhale, exhale three, down and press up four, stay up, raise both of the heels and lower the hips down and press, squeeze in on the ball, down press squeeze in, three, exhale lift, four, exhale lift, five, and then just stay here. Little tiny pulses squeezing in, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, a little tighter two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 20, tighter, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 30 tighter, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 40. The tightest squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, and that is 50. Raise your arms straight up in line with your shoulders, roll down, upper, middle, lower and tailbone. Bring your heels to the mat, grab the ball.

The right knee me comes to the tabletop position. Bend your elbows. The ball is hovering above your chest. Engage the left glutes. We're gonna send those hips up and lengthen the right leg, lift up five and lower, lift up two, lower, lift up three, lower, lift four, lower.

We are gonna stay right here. Pull your abs and make sure those hips are level. So lower the hips down a bit if needed. And then do your circles across, down, around and center. Their small, exhale two, and exhale three, and lift to the center four, and five reverse the circle out, down, around, across one, out, down, around, across two, exhale three, and four, and five.

Keep the leg nice and long, and roll the spine down, and we'll switch sides. Place the right foot down, left leg up, ball hovering above your chest. Engage the right glute. Press weight into your right foot, and lift up, and down. Exhale lift, lower, exhale three, lower, press up four, lower.

Now we're gonna hold that the core muscles are contracted. Hips are square. The leg goes across, down, around in one, tiny circle two, inhale, exhale, three, inhale, exhale, four. And reverse the circle. Breathe in, breathe out one, and two, and three.

We have two more small circles. Once we're finished with the circle, lengthen the left leg up as you roll the spine down, bend the knee. All right, I've got a fun core variation coming up. This ball is gonna go underneath your right knee, okay. Now, match your left leg to the right as best as you can, lace the fingers, place them behind your head.

Okay, good, we're gonna do three ab curls to lift our chest. So take a breath in to prepare, and on exhale raise your chest, curling up, inhale lower down. Exhale curl up two, lower down. Now on number three, we're just gonna hold it here. The leg that does not have the ball, the left leg.

You're gonna inhale, stretch it out. Exhale, pull it in, four more times. Pull your abs in, three scoop the belly in, two pull in, one, now hold it here. Inhale, tap the right toes towards the mat, exhale, pull up. Breathe in and exhale scoop.

Look towards your stomach. Visually see your abs engage. Pull the abs into lift, and stay up. We're gonna combine the two, left leg first. The left leg goes out, and bring it in right leg down, and inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, two more.

Stretch the left leg. And now at the criss-cross, so twist to the right leg, twist to the left, and two, center, exhale three, breathe out four, exhale, twist five, and rotate six, four more. Rotate, twist and rotate. We have two more, lift and twist, and last time, very good. We'll come back to the center.

Rest your head down. All right, we've got a second chance on the other side. So place soft ball behind the left knee. Match your legs as close as you can, lace the fingers behind your head. Take a big breath in, and then just curl the chest for three, and lower, lift up two, and lower.

Now stay lifted. Extend the right leg. We breathe in exhale, pull it in. Inhale, exhale in, stretch your right leg long. Two more, stretch.

And last one, keep the right leg still, the left toes tap and exhale lift. Left toes tap and scoop the abs, down and pull the abs in. Two more, pull in. Combine the two. Right first, the right leg goes up, pull it in left leg down, right leg up, pull it in left leg down, and three left leg down.

Stretch the right leg four, left leg down, five, add your twist. Whatever knee is bent, you rotate to the left leg and to the right, and to the left. I can't say right and left, or I'll get too confused. Just keep alternating. Here we go, twist, and again exhale five, and rotate six, really lift and twist seven, engaging through those obliques eight, little coordination for us nine, and ten is enough.

Good, all right, place your ball to the side, grab the back of your thighs. Rock up to see them. From here, come on over onto your forearms. So you're gonna make fists with your hands. You're on your elbows and then take your legs one at a time, back into a nice solid plank position.

We're in one long line from the crown of the head to the shoulders, to the hips to the heels, abdominals are pulling in. Now the right foot is going to point, and we're gonna lift that leg up for a five long leg down, lift two, and down, lift three, down, lift four down, and lift the leg one more time, and then place it down on the ball of the foot. We're back to our plank. We're gonna tap one knee to the mat at a time starting with the right. So go right switch left, switch right, switch left, switch five, six, seven, eight, two more.

Okay, good, it should be the left knee that's down. It's gonna stay down. Now, point that left foot down, pivot so you're on your left forearm. We rotate to a kneeling side plank. Flex your right foot.

Engage through your core, your lats, your obliques. You have two options. The left knee can stay down, or you can bring the left leg out for more of a challenge, whatever suits you best today. Raise your top leg up for three, exhale two, and then just stay there. Small kick forward, small kickback back, small kick forward, small kick back, one more.

Time you circle for three, two, one, and reverse three, two, one. Now lower that leg, lift your hip. Stretch the arm over head. Bring your arm down to your side. Lower your head to the mat.

Two more, exhale, reach up and over. Inhale lower to the mat. Exhale, reach up and over and stay. Raise the right arm up. Hold it for three, two, one.

Come to your center plank, bring your knees to the mat. Sit back into a lovely well-deserved child's pose, and roll up to seated, all right. We're gonna do the other side, but let's just take a little kneeling, five stretch in between. So knees in line with your hips, arms down by your sides. Tighten through those glutes, the hips, the core, and keeping a nice flat back, let's lean back, until you feel a thigh stretch, exhale, center.

Just two more. Lean back, reach forward thigh stretch, exhale center. One more time. Flat back, just go as far back as you are straight, and lift up. Good, we'll do the other side plank.

So coming around to side two. Coming onto your forearms, extend one leg followed by the other leg back. Create your longest line, head, shoulders, hips, heels. And then point your left foot, raise the left leg up for five, and breathe out two, and breathe out three, connecting to that glute hamstring, two more, four. Last one hold, and then place the ball over the foot down.

We're gonna tap the left knee lightly to the mat, switch to the right, switch to the left, stay centered, and switch and switch, last four and three, really still unstable. Keep your right knee down on the mat. And then we'll pivot, so you're on your right forearm. The left arm raises up, okay? And like I said, on the other side, knee can stay down or leg will raise.

And once you are in your best side, plank position for side legs, let's lift that top leg for three, exhale two, and stay there three. The leg goes front, the leg goes back. Breathing in, breathing out. In, and we circle three, two, one, reverse circle, three, two, one, lower the leg. Now lift the hip big side, stretch over, lower the hip, lower the arm, exhale reach up and over, and lower.

One more, reach up and over, raise your arms straight up, hold strong, and come to your center plank, and bring your knees to the mat. Sit back into a child's pose. All right, we're gonna transition on to our stomach. So those arms are nice and long. Shift your body forward, shoulders over the wrists, and then bend your elbow so you land on your stomach.

All right, so legs are long, feet are together. So heels are touching. We tighten through the glutes, your hamstrings, even your quads. Palms of the hands face down to the mat, and then raise up the chest. Okay, good, so you're pulling your shoulder blades back, raise the legs and do 50, heel beats, here we go.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Keep beating, and 20 anymore. Nice long legs, 10 more. Now, stay still. Keep your chest up.

Open the arms to a T position, and do 50 more. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Keep going, energy through your arms, reaching to the fingertips. Legs are reaching long, squeezing your glutes tight, 10 more. And then hold still.

Bring the arms over head, 50 more squeeze two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, two, and three, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, four, energy through those arms reach five. And then stretch everything out. Go ahead, lower yourself down. Whew, very good. Okay guys, we're gonna bring those arms so they are out in line with the edge of your mat.

So they're wider than shoulder distance. Separate your feet, hip distance or wider. Lift your chest up, and then take your right arm up, left leg up. Hold that long line fingers to toes. Lower, switch left arm, right leg, and lower.

Now hover off of the mat. Start slow, opposite arm and leg swimmer one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, only 10 more, 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. And enough of that. Fantastic, take your hands next to your shoulders. Press into a brief child's pose sitting to your heels.

Forehead to the mat, let's all take a big breath in filling up the ribs, filling up the lungs, and then breathe out. Come up to all fours. All right, before we do another, all fours hamstring glute series, let's take a little cat stretch here, round your back. I love a good cat stretch in the middle, and then arch your back. And just one more time.

Exhale round the lower spine, middle spine, upper spine, shoulders, head, and lift the tailbone, lower, middle, shoulders and head. Now we're gonna create a long, stable, neutral position in the spine, and we're gonna take the ball behind the right knee. Okay, this series can be done without the ball. I'm gonna give you two options for your hands. I'm gonna do it with straight arms.

You can do it with straight arms or you can come down to your forearms, okay? Hands under shoulders, hips over the knees. And then you're gonna raise up this right leg, lift one, and lower, five times. Two, and lower. Keep your core engaged.

Lift three, lower, lift four, lower. Now keep your leg lifted up on five. The right knee crosses the left cross down. Lift one, cross down, lift two, cross down, lift three, cross down, lift four, cross down, lift five, go into combination. Leg goes down.

Leg lifts up, leg crosses over, center leg down, up cross over, center, you up three more. Keep your pelvis really stable. So feel those hips staying still, and strong. One more, down, up, cross center. Stay here, flex your foot, Press out, little pulse, five, four, three, two.

Stay there, squeeze the calf against the ball, five, four, three, two, one, point your foot. We're gonna circle the leg. It's gonna go down, out, and around. Just let it go. Circling through your hips two, three.

Don't stabilize your hips. Just let it go, four, five. Reverse, make it feel good, around one, circle two, circle three, four, and that is it. Take that ball, and let's repeat on side two. So ball goes behind the left knee, okay?

Otherwise, feel free not to use the ball. And here we go. Tighten through the core, shoulders over the wrist, and raise your leg one, and lower. There's always this little pause at the top, to fully fire up the muscles, three and down, lift four, down and then just stay up, cross leg over one, lift two, lift three, engage the top, four lift, five. Now go into your combination.

The leg goes down, the leg lifts up. We cross it over, center leg goes down, lifts up, cross over, center. I want you to keep going and think about your hips. Right now they're stable. We'll get to in a second where they can move, strong core, last one.

And down now stay up. Flex the foot, heel presses up to the ceiling for five, four, three, two, stay there. Calf pulls into the ball for five, four, three, two, one. Point your foot, bring this knee down. Let your hip go and circle the leg around one.

Just rotate around two, rotate around three, and four, one more. Reverse circle around one, and two, and three, and four, and five is enough. Put your ball to the side. I just wanna come off the wrist for a second. Maybe some of you are on your forearms, which is great too, but just sit into a brief child's pose.

'Cause the next thing is gonna be on our wrist just for a moment. We're gonna make our way into standing again. So our transition is come to table top, curl the toes under lift up. I'm gonna call it elephant since we're in a Pilates. So lifting those hips up towards the same.

This feels so good to stretch the hamstrings. And now take your right leg and lengthen it up to the ceiling. Okay, good, now we're gonna lower that right leg down, it goes past your left leg. Look towards your hands. Step your right leg all the way forward, step.

Okay, good, now the back knee, your left knee is gonna bend a little bit. Pull yourself up from your core, lift up, okay, good. So now both of the knees are bent. Bring your arms forward. The palms are facing down.

We're gonna step the left leg up and pull the elbows back. Here we go. Step up, lunge the right leg back, reach forward. Step up two, reach. Step up three, think about your core pulling you up four, and one more, five.

The right leg is back. Bring your hands down to the mat. Step back into a plank. We are gonna do five pushups. Feel free to do them on your toes or feel free to do them on your knees.

Elbows, hover into the ribs. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. (indistinct) lying in your body. Two more, last one, and lift, curl your toes. Lift to our Pilates flat back elephant position.

All right, very good. From here, we'll take that left leg, we're gonna float the leg up, and then carefully just take your time, bring it down. Step it forward. Bend your right knee. Now pull your abs in, and sweep the arms up.

Abs are in flat spine. Reach the arms forward, and then pull yourself up. Bend the elbows, pull them back. Left leg back, reach two, and reach three, and reach four, and reach one more, five, left leg is back. The hands reach down to the mat.

Step it back into a solid long plank position, knees down or knees up for five pushups. Elbows narrow for Pilates. Push up, press one. They're next to the ribs then you push two, breathe in, tighten your core, tighten your glutes three, everything strong. Lift four, and lift five.

Curl the toes under lift back up to our, flat back elephant. I know some of you refer to it as downward dog. So stay here, and then we're gonna round the back. We're gonna walk the feet up to the hands. Walk it up one, walk it up two, walk it up three, walk it up four yay, all right.

With this nice little forward bend, we are gonna come down to the mat. So bend your knees, have a seat. All right, I'll do some rolling exercises. Starting with rolling like a ball. So just take your arms, around your ankles.

Come up to the tips of your toes. Scoop your belly button into your spine. Lift up your feet. Roll back from here with control from your core three times. Breathe in, breathe out, balance.

Breathe in, exhale, balance. This feels so good right now. Breathe in, exhale. One more variation. Reach your arms forward, do three more.

Breathe in, exhale balance. Breathe in, exhale balance. One more, and exhale balance. Grab hold of your ankles, your calves or the back of your thighs and stretch the legs out. Lift up your chest for the open leg rocker.

Feel free to hold your legs wherever you want, and then scoop your abs in, let's roll back to the shoulder blades, roll up and lift the chest. Two more, roll to the shoulder blades, roll up and lift the chest. One more, breathe out, breathe out and lift the chest. Whew, bring your legs together. Three more here.

Roll back, roll up and lift. And two more. Roll back, roll up and lift. One more, roll back, roll up and what position are we in? Hold your teaser.

All right, very good. From teaser, pull your abs in. Roll lower back, the legs going down, roll middle back, and keep going. The legs lower, the arms stretch, stretch, stretch. We are reaching long in two directions, fingers to toes.

Raise up your head and roll up. Float those legs into a teaser. Breathe in, and then exhale. Pull the abdominals in, and roll through the lower, roll through the middle, roll through the shoulders. Lengthen your legs, reach the arms back.

And again, rolling up, exhale. Breathe in, one more. Let's roll through the lower, roll through the middle, roll through the shoulders. Stretch back, and then raise up your head, exhale, rolling up, rolling up and stay. Keep your torso still.

Lower the legs, they don't go far, and then lift the legs. Woo, I'm trying to keep my torso so still. It's hard to do. Lift up, last one. Now keep your legs so still, lower the torso, couple inches, lift up, and down, and exhale up, one more, and exhale up.

Bend your knees bend, bend, bend. Separate your feet a bit. Bring your hands through the legs. Bring them around. We're gonna do the seal.

All right, lift up your feet. Three seals, on the fourth one we're gonna rock it up to standing the best way, the most graceful way we can, you ready? Tighten through that core. Clap your feet three times, one, two, three, roll back. Clap one, two, three, roll up.

Clap one, two, three, roll back. Clap one, two, three, roll up. Clap one, two, three, roll back. Clap one, two, three, roll up. There's a last one.

Let go of your legs, roll back, reach forward and stand up, yay. All right, we are standing. We're gonna do some standing balance work. So we're gonna have our feet, hip distance apart. Stand nice and tall.

So just take a second, get that vertical line standing. So feet are grounded. Equal weight over your toes, over your heels. Bring your weight more to your left leg and lift the right leg up. Now extend the right leg out in front of you.

Bend the knee, place your foot down. Same leg, lift it up, extend front, bend the knee, lower. One more time. Lift, extend front, bend. Now we're gonna take it to the side.

So lift the leg, come into a side lunge, bring this left arm down towards your right foot. Lift back up, woo and down. And lift, side lunge reach, and pull it up, and down. This one's tough, and lift and side lunge, and lift and lower. Okay, good, now raise that right leg up.

Soften your left knee. Send the right leg back, back, back, and then bring it up, and down. Two more, lift it up, soften the left knee, stretch it back, and bring it up, and lower down. And one more, lift. And here we go, soften the knee, reach it back, and bring it up, and downside to weight over the right leg.

Lift, core, core, core, focal point with your eyes, stretch, bend and down. And lift, stretch, bend, down, nice and still, lift, stretch, bend. We take it to the side lunge, lift, now lean and reach towards that left foot. Bring it up woo, and down. Two more, lift it up, side lunge, lifting up and down.

One more time. Lift up, side lunge, lifting up, and down. Okay, lift that left leg. Hold, core focal point. Soften the right knee.

Reach the leg back, and then bring it up, and down. Two more, lift solid, lean forward. Reach the leg back, bring it up, and down. Last time, lift, reach it back, and lift, and down, very good. Now do a little prance.

One heel down, one heel high, raise the arms, just breathe. Breathe in, breathe out. Stay with this or take it to a little run, lifting up, breathe out, one more. Whew, sit on two feet. Lift your arms, bring the palms of your hands together.

Bring those hands to your hearts. Whew, thank you so much for joining me, for class number seven, and I can't wait to see you next time. Thanks for joining.

On Center: with Melissa Connolly

Comments

Thank you so much Melissa, I think this is the most challenging so far. The hip work section was appreciated and lots of exercises in this 50 minutes. A very well designed class for your people.
This  was a great class. I really enjoyed your combinations with the ball and overall full body work out. Thank you!
Barbara O
Brilliant class, I feel so good now
I love when instructors include standing work and balance work.. Mallory included both. I thought the side plank series was a killer. I barely made it through and appreciated the challenge. Thanks Again Mallory for this class and your entire series! 
Helen S
1 person likes this.
My first class with you!  Loved it!  Thank you so much, I'll go back to the other 6 this week!!

Great flow! Loved the pace, intensity and variations! 
Lina S
What a fun and flowing class! I love it.
Florence P
Thank you Melissa for your very great class, every exercice is connected to another ! Nice flow and using of differents levels!
Thanks Melissa!! This was a great total body workout!
Sandra B
Great class thanks so much)
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