Around the Body on the Wunda

Hi, this is Ilaria and today, we'll discover, we'll work on the body and with everything we did on the mat, on the Wunda Chair. We're gonna apply what we'll learn on the mat, on this wonderful piece of apparatus. So if you have it, just have fun and follow along. Certain things might be a little, not advanced, but harder. There is always a way to make them simpler.

So, don't push beyond what you should be doing, play it safe and I'll give you variations as we go. So, I'm starting with the one in the middle, but you can figure out according to the chair you have what suits best for the workout. And we lay on the mat, so we'll learn how to lower ourselves down, right? So we can cross the legs. We can go down into a squat, we can go kneeling and we go deepening down all the way.

We place, we go laying down on and we place one foot on the pedal. We pull it down and I want us to rest. This is nice and easy. We're going to rest the legs over the pedal because I want us to find the back of the legs as we do the hundred. So from here, just keep them there, activate them lightly and reach forward and here you go.

You deep inhale. and exhale. And again, in. We start gentle and exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale. And again in.

If you want, you can press down a little more, if you want more activation. But the important thing is to have at least a little bit. And again in, and exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale. Beautiful and vigorous pumping of the arms. And again in and exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale.

Reach and release. Now, let's help the pedal go up, hopefully with as little noise as possible and maybe go forward just a little bit, just an inch. And we press the pedal down with both legs. Let's keep them there. We find and we feel that activation.

And now we'll leave only the right leg on the pedal, the left leg comes up. Now, remember that pelvis stability we did on the mat, right? When we were doing the ticktocks, let's do it here. We cross it over and back to center, open and back to center. One more time.

Cross and center and open and center. Remember to stabilize this one as well. Now let's go up three times, curl your pelvis up. This is kind of easy. Keep the pedal down as you roll back down to the floor and again, curl it up and lengthen, lengthen, lengthen down.

And again, curl it up. Lengthen, lengthen, lengthen down. Place, both feet on the pedal to play safe and slowly we release it up. Let's do it again with the other leg. Press it down together.

Find that stability on both legs. Now we leave the left one on the pedal, the right one comes up. We go ticktock, cross over and open to the side and up to center. Cross over and open. And again, cross, cross, cross and open sideways.

Now, up vertical. And you're going to curl and lift and keep the pedal down as you return to the floor. Curl it up two and slowly down and curl it up three and down slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly. Join with the right leg and release the pedal up with control. Scooch back another little bit, very little.

And now I do the same eye circle, at least that's how I call it. It's a beautiful sequence of movements that really get you connected to the pelvis. From here, we want to press the pedal, keep the pedal down, curl the pelvis and roll it up, spinal articulation, free it up. Now here, lengthen your legs, bring the pedal up and then you melt and you articulate back down. And again, press, remember that sacrum movement we did, right?

Here's where we start from. Lengthen, reach up and slowly down. One more time, press it down, keep the pedal there, curl the pelvis up and get to feel a nice opening and release at the front of the hips, levitate up and slowly roll down. Now we reverse, curl and lift. If the knees stay soft, that's absolutely fine.

Now let's try not to bang the pedal down. We control it. We control it. We control it. Hopefully until the end.

And then we melt like the semi-circle and release. Two more times. Curl it up, press it down, melt it, lengthen and up. Last one, lift, press the pedal and control all the way down. Release the legs.

And now just one time, I want you to reach a little farther, flex your feet and press the pedal down in a turnout. We'll work on the going upside later a little bit, mostly to find the inner thigh connection. So I want us to go into this turnout position at least one time before we need to use the strength to go up. And here's lowly you release and you lengthen out and now you place your feet under the pedal. And then we lengthen the arms back and we do a nice roll up to come up.

Let's separate the legs now, we're going to spine stretch forward, spine stretch. And then so you flex the feet, you lift and you sit up tall. Let's press, let's put the hands on the pedal and let's remember what we did with the magic circle. Here, I want you to engage and lift. So we press the pedal down, but we don't change the length of the spine.

We actually try to grow taller and then release. And again, press. Pull the shoulder blades back. Remember those shoulders movement. Pull them back and down so that you can find freedom on top of the shoulders and add the neck, which is where we all carry so much tension.

And release. Now we'll curl over a little bit. So first, we find the lift and then we go over on top of it as if we're diving down. You curl, curl, curl and you slowly release. And again, lift tall and then your curl, from the top, you engage, you pull, you pull, you pull.

Feel that pedal connected to your abdominals, its not moving from the arms. You're moving it from the abs. Now, left hand on the pedal, more in the center at an angle, right hand behind your head. Now, let's just do one lift first. Pull the pedal down, draw the shoulder blade back and you lift.

The head is back into your hand and release. Now, let's do the same thing and we side bend to the left. Lift and as you maintain the pedal, you side bend, reach, reach, reach, reach and come up. And again, lift. It's even deeper and more powerful than the magic circle version.

Reach and up. And now you lift tall and you exhale and twist away. Twist, twist, twist, twist and back to center. And last one you lift and you go exhale, twist, twist, twist and home. And now we switch, right hand on top of the pedal.

First one simple lift. You grow tall, press the head back, draw your shoulder blade back and then you release. And again, you lift. Now, time to get a nice stretch side bending away. This feels really good.

And again, you go lift and go over without collapsing, staying supported at the waist and back up. And now twisting, lift and exhale, exhale, exhale and center. And again, lift and twist away. Reach, reach, reach, and home. Very good.

Let's move forward a little bit. Heels just at the very end of the chair. And of course, it always depends on proportions, right? So adjust as you need for your proportions. And here we do just a nice little teaser.

Don't worry about pulling it down too much. I want you to go back to that concept. When you lift up the legs or you can keep them there. It's totally fine, of connecting the pedal to the stomach. So, feel the stomach pulling it and release.

The stomach is pulling in because I'm drawing my shoulder blades down and I'm connecting the arms to the powerhouse. Pull, pull, pull and take a little break. We're gonna do three more, okay? So, we're rock back behind the tailbone. You're gonna press, pull, draw the paddle with the stomach and up.

And again, pull and up. And again, pull, pull, pull and up. Let's move closer. And we get to a nice teaser stretch. So you go, you can walk with your hands if you can.

You find the best stretch forward. Now from here, let's try to lift, lift, lift and release. Now, with your sit bones really close to the base of the chair, I want you to roll down into teaser. So from here, even more, the stomach is pulling. The stomach is pulling, pulling, pulling, pulling, pulling and up.

And again, pull that pedal, pull that pedal, pull it, pull it, pull it and lift. One more time and we stay down. You pull, you pull, you pull, connect the movement and now anchor your stomach there And you pump one, two, three, four, five. Exhale. Two, three, four, five, just one more.

And pump it out. Two, three, four, five and lift. Very nice. Now let's stand up and we go to sit on top and we'll try to replicate the abdominal series on top of the chair. So again, proportions are different for everyone.

One important thing and please get off the chair and adjust if you don't feel safe. I want the sacrum on the chair, okay? So let's see if I'm able to land in the right position. From here, teaser, I boomerang my arms back, I find the pedal. And now here, always the stomach.

This time of the stomach is on top and pushes the pedal down instead of pulling. The legs are going down. Push, push, push, push. Okay. So, I'm a little bit too much forward.

So let's go back a tiny, not much and let's try again. From here you boomerang the arms, push down the same way. You go deep, deep, deep, deep. Very good. Now, I feel the sacrum on the top of the chair and I start with my single leg band.

So you pull and you pull and you pull and you pull. So make sure the shoulders are open, the elbows are soft, at least don't hyper extend it. That's hard for me. Two more and switch and pull and switch. Now, lengthen the legs and now scoop the pedal up for double and stretch it out.

You get in and your lengthen, lengthen, lengthen away. And again, you hug it in and lengthen away. Now, one leg up, one leg down, you go single, straight. Pull, pull, pull, pull, pull and one more set. Now, super small.

From here, lengthen your legs away. Pulling to your stomach and when you feel the pedal coming up, the legs need to come back up. And again, reach, reach, reach and scoop it back up. And again, lengthen, lengthen, lengthen and lift. One more, reach, reach, reach and up.

Now, we go back up to teaser, you balance and you release. Now, we'll take it a little more easy for the twist. From here, for the twist, I want to have one arm forward, one ready back on the pedal. This is a very easy, not easy, but it's a very, it feels really good, let's say. Here you press the pedal down and you twist and you rotate and you look back, open the chest on the right.

Try to keep the left tip down on the chair and then you come back up. Now, let's do two more times with the arm by the ear. So you go reach, reach, reach, and then come up one more time. Arm by the here lengthen. Keep the pelvis where it is and try to turn your shoulders and the top part of the rib cage and lift.

And now we change, other side. So the arm stays low first. Exhale, exhale, exhale and up. I feel adjustments. And here again, you go, reach.

Right hip stays down and arm by the ear, big rotation at the trunk and lift. And again, by the ear, reach back, more, more, more, more, twist and all the way up. Beautiful. Now time to change the springs. This Springs are very strong so I decided to go one middle, one bottom, but you might be able to do on two middle Springs and we go for footwork.

So we sit on the chair, we prepare and I want in the first, in the toes and where we keep the toes there, first of all, we want to really use those toes, right? Remember that little ice cube that we were pretending to have under the arch, right? Here, the heels are lifted, but we still want to activate with purpose those muscles. For the toes, I want you to hold the chair in the front. Lift your heels, keep the heels together and you go down and down and good.

Find stability with an imaginary wall behind you, okay? Pretend you're on the high chair and you have that beautiful back of the chair supporting you. Beautiful. Now, from here we go to the arches. And hands, arms right in front of you.

So here you go and up and curl the feet, dorm your feet, also get a nice massage, thanks to the pressure of the pedal, pushing up into your feet, right? And now, we shift to the heels. Lift the toes up. Now let's go into a nice neck bowl here. And you'll go, press, press, lift, lift.

And we go for three, two, one and release. Good. Now we step off and we turn around for tendon stretch. We'll do it down and then after the pull-up, we'll try to do up. If it's not possible, we go back down and repeat it there for now.

So from here, press the pedal down, set up your feet, your toes, hands in front and think about the roll up or the roll over. Try to recreate that shape over here. Now, midline connection. Pull up the stomach and we go down, down, down, lift, lift, lift. Even if I'm only moving the feet, I want to put into my body the same intention of when I pull the pedal up.

We'll do it next. Down and up and lower and up and down and that's enough. You stay up. Now, scoop, press into the chair, lift and levitate up. And now tailbone pushes down, articulation, down you land.

And again, scoop, lift, lift, lift and now scoop from the tailbone, roll everything down. Now, scoop all the way up. If you can, keep the pedal up and now you lower your heels and you lift them up and you lower the heels and you lift them up. And again, you lower, lower, lower. Last on scoop, lift, lift.

Now we push down and you go. Easier, down, down, down, down, down and release. Now let's leave the right foot on the chair, we shift the hands back and step down with a left foot. If you can, don't use your toes too hard on the left foot, it is on the floor, okay? We don't want to have that forward body or to help that forward body.

We want to make sure we balance on the right part of the foot. So if you can, make your toes very light on the standing foot. And here, easy first. We'll hold and you go pump five, four, three, two and keep it down. Lower down, lift up.

Now we come up and we go five, four, three, two and pull up to press it down. Lower, lift. Now, step up on top of the chair with the left foot and here we go for a little mountain climbing for five, five, four, three, two and straighten the leg. Now come up with your body, you don't have to go all the way up if you're not ready yet. Just scoop and lift a little bit.

Find that connection and release. I always like to think about it, it's zigzag magic circle. So you still need to use the midline to be able to float up and then release. If you feel like you can go all the way and then down, down, down, down, down and again, lift up and lower. One more time.

Lift and now stay tall, stay tall, lengthen, lengthen, lengthen, lengthen and land. Now, we switch. The left foot goes on top of the pedal. The right foot goes down to the floor, toes light hold onto the chair and you go, pump, two, three, four, keep it down. Lower the heel, lift up the heel.

And now we try to come up and we go five, four, three, two and lift. Lower and up. Now we step up on top, right foot on top of the chair, hold for balance, scoop, fix this hip and you move only the back leg. Two, three, four, five, all the way up with the body. Now, small, just to find that activation and down control, pull together.

It really helps a lot going up and now if you feel good, you go all the way up for the last three and down. If you want to practice this with a wall in front of you, you can do that too. It's a lot safer if you have no spot and no support, All the way down, release. Hands on the chair, step back with the right foot and we slowly release the pedal up. Very good.

Now, we're doing similar work or at least part of it sideways. So, as you are in front of the pedal, you put in this case, if you are mirroring, it should be your left foot on the pedal and then the other one, the right goes up on the chair. Now, this could be very scary and more challenging of the going up front we just did. But again, we don't need to go all the way up. From here, remember that magic circle on the mat.

Feel that connection, okay? So pull, draw the inner thighs together. And even if you don't want you go up a little and then down, just like that. And again, pull, lift, lift and down. And then if you feel like you can go farther, farther, farther and down.

And again, you scoop, scoop, scoop and release. And last one, up, up, up, up, up, and release down. Now, hold onto the chair, across your foot over the one on the pedal and we pull up, you lift. These are our continuation of their crisscross, right? Two more.

Pull and pull, keep it down. And now slowly and small range of motion, we're going up and you pump. Five, four, three, two and keep it down. Now turn towards the chair, you can step on with both and you release and you come down. Now I have to give you my back, sorry, and we do everything on the other side.

So, press down the pedal, lift the other foot up on top of the chair. And now here, drop the hip and super small, just draw together and down, pull it in, down. And then you continue up and lower. Lift, lift, lift. And one more time, scoop, lift, and slowly down.

Cross and you'll go, scoop, two, lift, lift lift. Two more. Up and up. Keep the pedal down, move your foot, the free foot behind the leg on the pedal. Come up small, don't let the pedal come up too much.

Two, three, four and five. Turn towards the chair, control it and slowly up. Now, if you're on two springs, you should be okay, but you can add a little more resistance for this one because we're going to play with that combination that we did on the shoulder challenge mat, of the dips, the frog facing out basically and the pull-up, the tendon stretch. So, let's do them both first separately. Here, it's a nice way to realize how we can control the body and yes, play with springs but also without them sometimes to find the real deep work.

From here, hands on the chair, you shift and you go down and up, just three. Just three dips, three frogs and then come up and release. We leave out the pumping of the legs today. Now, push down, extend. We can keep the toes today and we go lift and down, scoop up and down, lift, lift, lift, down and release.

Now, we'll alternate these two exercises. And the first time we'll do the switch when the pedal is down. So, we go deep down, keep the pedal there, go up with your hips and from here, you pull up and down and then you go down to sit. Let's repeat. You do, one dip, extend your legs.

And you go up and down. Sit on the heels again and come up, take a break. Cool. Now, feel free to repeat these variation. If you feel like now or later, you can then try this other one where we do the shift when the pedal is up.

So, go down, lift up, keep the pedal up. Scoop, scoop, scoop, scoop, scoop, go back down. And we dip again, down and up, Nose to knees, stretch, stretch. And then you go band and sit on your heels, close to it, sit down and release. Again, doesn't have to be done now, but play with this combination of getting some help and taking it away.

It's really powerful. This is an amazing piece of apparatus. Now, from here, it's time to lower down the Springs again. We go to one, because it's time to get some relief before the end. So, little mermaid kneeling.

You go down onto the mat, you lift, hand on the chair. Now, remember, we don't wanna collapse here, right? So, lift tall, press, press, and keep lifting underneath the arm that is pressing down. Go, go, go and then reach your way to come back up. And again, you lift, press and you go, reach.

Find space between the ear and the shoulder and up. And again, you lift, press down and now you turn, you release and lengthen up. And now we come up to standing. You go all the way up and we go to the other side. Turn around, stand next to the chair and you go kneeling, prepare the arm, lift.

Press and as you press, you get tall, tall, tall, and down. And control the way up. And again, lift and press and then lengthen a way to come up. Not necessarily we need to go this low, but I find that to get back to what we did on the mat, it's nice to have time to think and reconnect all the movements. Now, turn your head, bend the arm, reach away, lengthen and come all the way up.

And then we come all the way up to stand. Back of the chair and some more little stretch. Sit on the side on the hip, press the pedal down and reach long with the arm. Now, both hands, go on the pedal and split your legs. So the leg closer to the chair goes forward.

The top one goes back. Now, like a little swan, lift and pull it down. So, feel the opening of the chest, but also feel the nice hip flexor stretch that we get on the top leg. And again lift, lift, lift and all the way down. Shift your bottom hand to the middle, reach long and then the pedal brings you up.

Other side. We go sit on the chair and you'll go all the way out. Both hands split and you go lift, lift, lift and pull. Send the leg back more as you go down and you go lift, lift, lift, and you go lengthen deep and big stretch. And again, lift up and then you go scoop, reach, reach, reach.

Bottom arm goes back to the center of the chair, reach long and float up. Now facing the chair, we're on the stomach, with a little chest expansion. So, lower yourself down and clear the top of the chair with your ribs. Push the pedal down. And now let's just come up.

You pull and you reach and you lift and down. Let's add a little neck release with chest expansion. Inhale, lift, hold the breath. Look, look, center and scoop is you release down. Start on the other side.

Lengthen your neck, length on your torso, lift. You go look, look, center and scoop. And now you can put your hands on the chair or you pike to come off. Get closer, we're going around to find some release. And you go over and lengthen the spine as you push the pedal down and then you pull and scoop and you bring it up with you.

And again, push, push, push, lengthen, and then scoop and lift it up and press down. And let's get to pump here and we go push one, two, and three and now pull into your stomach and scoop, scoop, scoop, scoop, scoop, all the way back up and the lift tall as you release the arms. And we did it also today. I hope you had fun combining it to the Wunda Chair and always play it safe, go step-by-step.