Class #504

Yo'lates Fusion

55 min - Class
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Description

Cathleen Murakami brings Yo'lates to Pilates Anytime! Enjoy this Yoga-Pilates fusion class that Cathie has been teaching for over 15 years. Yo'lates will bring out the best of both modalities in a fun, innovative, and creative way. The expectation is that the student has moderate experience in both yoga and Pilates. That said, Cathie's cueing is so precise that if you aren't as familiar with Yoga, she will show you the way. Be prepared to be stretched, aligned, strengthened, and introduced to your inner Spanx!!
What You'll Need: Mat

About This Video

Aug 14, 2011
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So I would like you to envision your ribcage. This is another my latest and things not late as latest, latest, latest as a slinky. You remember what slinkies were like and they're like, nice, like this, and you've, you were a slinky and you bet this way they were more, the rings are more open on this side. Yeah, so that's how I'd like you to envision your entire rib basket. All righty. Because the more mobility we get through the ribs, that will, it is also more mobility through the spine and the little muscles between the ribs, two of which they're actually a couple of layers. We're stretching the diaphragm and it feels really good.

Exhale forward. So you're, you're pivoting around your heart center, so you're envisioning your heart center like a big ball bearing. We're actually going through an arch aside, been a curl and a side bend and let that breath take you around. I like to kind of bend and straighten the legs on the arch. I press my hips forward, so something like that. Breathe in, exhale and inhale, looking up and exhale and [inaudible] more and around.

And now we're going to go the other direction. So breathe in. [inaudible] oh, did you already switch? Exhale. Yeah. So Candice, you're bending over a little bit too much. That's why you see how I'm kind of just going to here. Yeah, a little curve up and around. Somebody told me it was like Hula hooping with the upper body here.

Two more times. Inhale and exhale and inhale and exhale. Okay. Just put the bands down. Your hands are on your thighs. We're going to breathe in and arch the back. Exhale and curl back. Flection extension.

Breathe in tale and chest reach. Exhale, crown of the head reaches to tail circling. Breathe in. Feel that circle on top of you. Exhale, curl the circles underneath you. Two more. Breathe in an arch. Exhale and curl it up. Last one, watch heel. Shoulders breathe in.

Exhale and occur. Or I roll over to the floor. And ladies, I'd like you to walk yourself to the front of your mat. Place your hands flat and walk your feet back to downward facing dog. Pausing here. And so first one, first dog of the day, let's bend the knees. Separate your feet a lot, Debra. There you go. Stick your tailbone up in the air, hinge back. But be careful you're not collapsing into the rib cage. Okay.

Now if you let your lower belly relax a little bit, you feel how your organs fall upward towards your navel or towards your chest cavity. Yes. So I don't know if you want to think of it upward or downward, but it's hollows the low belly on its own there because of positioning. So what I'd like you to do is engage your pelvic floor in this position because gravity is helping you. Uh, and then slowly press the heels back. Ah, very good. Pause here. Look at the place up by your hands. Walk forward here. Keep your feet a little bit separated.

Inhale, exhale and fold towards the legs using your abdominal strength. And then inhale and bring yourself upright. Come all the way up. Lift the arms up, look up between the hands. Exhale and open the arms. So we're going to go through a couple of sun salutations. Okay, so we will breathe in and lift. Look up, stretch up through the arms and down through the legs. Exhale, Big Swan.

Dive over and down. Inhale, lift the chest. Look forward. You're going into a little bit of an arch here. If you can. Exhale, abdominals, fold the torso in half. Step your feet back to a plank position. Inhale, roll forward on the toes. Exhale, lower all the way to the floor. This time, release the feet, the shoulders up to the ears. Inhale and come up and hover. Mini Cobra. Exhale and roll back down to the floor. Why in the hands a smidge?

Curl your toes. Inhale, float the knees by opening the front of the hip joint. Engage the abdominals, the legs in the shoulder blades, and press yourself off the floor. Straight plank. Exhale, press back to downward facing dog. Very good. Inhale here and exhaling. Lengthen, lengthen, and the armpit and breathe in and breathe out. Let that low belly hollow. One more breath here and exhale.

Look forward to the place between the hands and you can bend the knees and jump or step forward. Inhale, lift the chest. Exhale, fold in half. Inhale, bring the Torso Upright. Look up. Exhale, open the arms. Let's do one more and breathe in. Feel that the shape of the arms from the heart center and fold forward. Inhale, chest lifts. Exhale, step or jump back plank. Roll forward on your toes. Inhale, lower down to the floor. Exhale, scrunch your shoulders up.

Roll in inner circle. Inhale, float up. Release your toes. Exhale, roll down to the floor. Curl those toes as you float the knees up. This is what I want you mostly be aware of that, that you don't squeeze your thighs and just lift your knees up like so that you more engage your lower glutes. Open the front of the hip as you stretch your knees.

Organize that with the abdominals, the shoulder blades and your inner body. And then press up to plank and exhale and press back. Okay, and again, inhale here and exhaling. One, look at your index fingers pointing straight ahead. And number two, good job, nice.

And three and four and five. Okay. Lift your heels up, stretch and lift up your right leg and look at it. So you're looking back at your toes and your toes are pointing straight down to the floor. Okay, so the leg is parallel to the floor. We're not going up for a big parallel line or a extended line of the torso. It's parallel to the floor here. All right, now bend the right knee, curl the abdominal wall in where?

Pull the knee to the chest and come forward into play and pull that right knee to the outside of your right armpit and hold that foot off the floor as best you can. If it touches, it's okay, but you're holding here. Charge up the straight leg. Third Breath, fourth breath, fifth breath. Stretch to like back into play. Put the foot down. Inhale. Exhale down dog. Press back. Float the left leg up. Push through the heel, like parallel to the floor. Look at your toes are pointing straight down. Okay, your supporting leg, you can have the heel down if you have the flexibility or you can lift up the heel. Depends on what you'd like to do. You have a choice there. Okay.

Now point the toe, curl the knee into the abdominals and come forward into plank and hold that left knee on the outside of the left armpit. Hollow up the belly and hold it. One charging up the right leg too. Three [inaudible] four and five. Stretch the leg back to plank. Pause here, put the foot down. Exhale, press back to downward facing dog. Nice stuff. Look forward at the place between your hands. Bend your knees, hop, or step forward. Keep the knees bent this time. Press the thighs together. Inhale and come all the way up.

Up, up. You're in your fierce pose here. Oop to Casa Ana. Stretch up thighs back. Make sure you can wiggle your toes and then open those arms. Look down, dive down again and hands flat. Legs straight. Inhale, arch the back here.

Exhale, bend the knees, jumper, step back. You're in plank. Roll forward this time and then towards the floor. Chad, Ranga. Now you can go to the floor or you can pull yourself up. Flatten the tops of feet upward facing dog. Roll over your toes. Exhale, press back down.

We're facing dog feet a little closer together again, right leg lifts, up, toes point to the floor. Breathe in. As you exhale, curl the knee into the belly and this time bring that right knee towards the left armpit or left elbow and hold one so it's a little bit of a twist. Two good job. Three, four, five. Stretch the leg back into plank and put it down. Hinge back on the exhale to downward facing dog.

Bring the left leg up. Inhale, look, toes point to the floor. Charge up that left leg on the exhale. Point in, curl the belly strong. Come forward into plank. This time it's going to the right elbow or right arm pit area one again, fire up that right. Supporting leg. Two, three, four, five. Stretch the leg back into plank. Inhale, put the toe down this time. Roll forward. Exhale, Chaturanga to the floor or your upward facing dog. Spread your toes. Press your toenails into the floor and roll over your toes. Exhale, downward facing dog. Wa Rock your hips a little bit. Side aside.

Nice. Okay. Look at the place between your hands. Step your right foot forward. Right foot forward. Keep your fingertips on the floor. Okay, everybody doing good? Okay. Charge up the back. Left leg. Which legs behind left leg? Yeah. So what's the opposite arm? Right arm over right.

Stretch your right arm forward off of the floor. So your right arm is in a straight line with your torso, with thumb up and a straight line with your back leg. So that strength you were using to hold the knee up off the floor by your arm pit. That's what you're using now too. Okay? Because now step two is to take the other arm off. One straight line. Make sure your head and neck are in alignment too.

My other class, we talked about rubber bands, rubber band from the two shoulder blades and an x across the back line to the lower glutes. Charge up the back leg. One more breath. Hands down. Inhale, pick the front foot up. Exhale, press back, downward facing dog. Breathe. Ah Oh one more long breath. Makes dog pose like arrests pose here. Let that low belly hollow up and feel the pelvic floor fall inward.

Step the other foot forward. Now it's the left. Organize yourself first. So feel your back leg really supporting. You tend to forget about it. Okay, so now, which legs behind, right? Right leg. So which arm? Left arm. All right.

Left our thumb up. Head and neck in alignment with your back heel. Pull into your midline, your inner body, and then the other arm. Pause and hold it here, Stacey. Strong. One more breath. [inaudible] hands down.

Place them in commitment where you would like. Pick the front. Flip to the back. Downward facing dog. Very good. Look at the place between your hands. Bend your knees and take a little hop and sit down. We were a little warmer. Okay. Yes.

Now we know right and left. [inaudible] do you have a ball? Canvas? Okay, so we have a ball. [inaudible] okay. Make sure your band's nearby. Just fold it in half. Fold it in half this nearby. Okay. Alright, so you take the ball, snuggle it into your tailbone area.

Okay. Sit with your feet flat. Knees apart. If that's uncomfortable for you in the ankle, you can end up flexing your feet if you'd like. Okay. All right. You take the band here, we pull the shoulder blades onto the back, we take a long breath, we exhale, and we send roots from the bones down into the floor and then grow the spine upward. So let that internal energy of the spine grow up. Do that once more.

So even if you don't feel your body moving, it is from the inside. So you have that internal connection before the external manifestation, right? Just like affirmation. Breathe in. As we breathe that we below that low spine into the ball, curving, use the breath right on it. That's it. And relax your shoulders. So yes, tip towards me. Everybody inhale your front shoulders a little lower, the back shoulders a little higher and you exhale there and pull your nose away from the band. So pull your nose back from your bad. Yeah, hold it there. Bring your right arm a little bit lower down. Yup. XL, come back to center. Very good.

Now you're going to tip towards the camera and breathe in. And then you'll exhale all your air there. Pull your nose back away from the Bam. Inhale here, exhale and come back to the center. Nice. Stay here. Breathe. Exhale.

Encour early yourself. All the way upright. Great. Do this again. Inhale here. Exhale as you curl. Can you see me over here? If I'm by windy, great, good shoulder blades. Stay down. So just stay here for a second and I want you to envision this, that you feel from that left shoulder blade, a connection of the rubber band across the belly to the opposite inner thigh and from that inner thigh all the way down the leg to the ball of that big toe. So it's like a train track. What is it? Go Lita, Santa Barbara, uh, Carpentaria, et Cetera, et Cetera, et cetera.

You see this way in the front and this way in the back and yes, I know you're still back there. Still breathing. Okay, one more breath here and then exhale and then curl yourself up. So let that band pull your body back all the way up, right? Good. One more time. And breathing out. Lift and curl. So everybody here remembers the days of the units hard, right? I remember the one piece shiny like rip things we used to wear and high impact aerobics. Inhale here. Exhale.

So what we're working on now, as the arms go up in the shoulder, blades go down in the ears and the nose stay back is your inner unit hard? So y'all know what a unitard looks like? And now they're called Spanx, right? So you all have one of your very own inside. So connect to inner spanx that you were given as a birthright and lower the arms down because every time you exhale and you come forward and breathe out more and take a little break, it's like you're synching your inner unitards inward to your body a little bit more. And that's what's holding you together. So when I talk about the internal connection before, before the external manifestation, that's what's going on, right? You can feel that kind of internal support.

And then you do all the toning stuff that everything else sucks to your inner unitards and then you get the outer look. But for us in function, we want that inner look. Yes, that I can sense ladies. Okay, put that aside for now. We're going to take this ball and now lift your pelvis and place the vol. I'm super picky about this. So the ball needs to be under your sake crumb. If it's too low, it's going to feel a little bit like it's pushing on your rectum a little bit.

And if it's too high, it's forcing you into too much of a curve. So what we would like here is that the ball underneath the sacrum allows the curve of the lumbar spine to de lumber rise. So that curve, because of gravity and because you're relaxing these back muscles along that lower back allows the vertebra there to just kind of go like that. Okay? So you're not doing it. It's happening because of positioning. And then we inhale as you exhale, you will connect to your inner spanx. Pelvic floor included, sustain that commitment.

And then on your next breath you'll float one leg and then the other leg up to tabletop. So you're here in this position. Okay? So you can choose to keep your arms at your sides like so. Or if you want a deeper challenge, you can do the whole series with your arms up in the air like this, or you can kind of play some of the exercises. You may put them down or just one arm or something like that. Okay? All right.

First thing you do is you notice where tabletop is and you're not going to cheat and bring the legs in any closer and we're going to stretch your right leg out on the inhale, not changing anything in the low spine, fully straight, any amount. Exhale and stay there. Breathing out, you feel bad, the belly Walpole and draw in away from your toes. You'll hold that position. You'll take another breath and then you'll exhale. Annual return 90 90 both legs and inhale and stretch as you stretch out the leg. Avoid just squeezing your quad but find the lower glues. Yes, we did. Sorry. Yes, we changed. Inhale here, exhale and return.

So we're alternating sides and breathe in and stretch your first leg out. Exhale and sustain. Inhale here, exhale and come back. Allow the little wiggle wall to happen. Breathe in and stretch. Second leg. Find the lower glutes. Exhale, stay.

Inhale, stay there. Exhale, come back. Very good. Inhale and stretch out the first Leong. Sustain everybody has the arms in the air, so now exhale and bring that opposite arm towards your cheekbone. Think about the rubber band from the lower shoulder blade to the opposite lower glute and from your arm pit across the front body to the opposite inner thigh, both x's, hold it and then return. Yeah, leg first. Breathe in.

Exhale the arm in opposition. Hold it. Breathe in. All rubber bands, equal length. Exhale and come back. It's like your inner heavy, legit air bandage dress. [inaudible] simultaneously. Inhale arm and leg. Exhale, stay there. Now for a challenge.

You can lower the arm and leg a little bit if you'd like. Breathing in and then exhale and return to the starting position. You should not feel any strain in your back. If so, lift your leg up higher. Inhale and reach arm and leg. Exhale as you lower or sustain. Inhale, reach a little bit more.

Exhale and return. Very good. One more set. Breathe in and reach. Exhale, stay. Yeah. Inhale, reach a little more. Exhale. Return.

Last one. Inhale. In-Reach make sure the other leg doesn't cheat and fall in. Exhale. Inhale, stretch, and maximize your position. Exhale and return. Breathe in here. Allow your knees to come in. Let your lower back round. Take a little break.

Maybe you want to wiggle on your ball a little bit. That's fine. Ah, so I usually like to tell everybody if you get a lot, a little, little or a medium amount of wobbling when you're working, kind of let it happen. Rather than try to effort with effort, stay still because your body's going through a little bit of a neuro reprogramming and it's trying to figure out where do I go, where do I go? Where do I go to kind of stabilize here? Okay. So let it kind of happen and uh, it'll figure itself out. Okay.

You're going to roll to your side and roll yourself off of the ball. Wow. Let your lower back kind of, hmm. Feel the floor for a moment and then roll to your side and sit up. And we're going to put the ball between the Inca boats and, um, hm. I guess I'll be in this position. I always face it this way.

I'll face it this way. Let's come back on the elbows here and see if you can feel this straight, diagonal line of your body. And those two xs I mentioned. So the two xs I'm talking about are from the lower tip of the shoulder blade here, crossing across your back, coming to this point. And then the other x in the front comes across. You like this.

Serita's external bleak internal bleak transfer. Subdominant pelvic floor, opposite inner thigh. KCF Cross your heart on two sides. Okay. On the inside, we want to feel that on the inside you're leaning on your elbows, you're coming into tabletop. We're going to roll towards the, uh, uh, right, this world trolls, the right and exhale and stretch the legs.

Inhale here. Exhale. Come back to center and bend the knee. So hold the ball between the ankles with the top of the leg. Breathe in, exhale and reach. But more importantly, think that you're holding it with your pelvic floor and comeback. Hm. And so technically I know you can't do such a thing, but it's just that it's participating with you and over and stretch and breathe and come back. Very good. Next level, come to your fingertips.

You can lean back or if you need to stay on your elbows, you can while you're here, but you are leaning slightly back. Okay. And we're going to tip and reach. Keep the chest lifted. Inhale here, exhale in return and tip and reach and up and come back. Very good. And, and [inaudible], which belly pulls away from your toes and rotate and come back and tip and [inaudible]. And here you stay here and we tip right circled down, hip circles around in, up, and we tip left.

And we circle around and up. So you do come off your hip, breathe out and around. Inhale, exhale and around. One more set. Breathe in. Chest stays high. And around last one. [inaudible] and around and up. And then yeah, sit up. Good.

Okay. Piece of cake. Cross your ankles here. Roll forward, hop back. All right, let's step forward with the right leg. We're in a lunch. Okay. And this time we're going to bring ourselves all the way up, right?

Okay. All the way up. Right. So I'd like you to feel that verticality of head, shoulders, Elvis. Okay. Pelvises level. Fire up your inner leg, your inner leg. Stretch the arms up. Keep your eyes straight ahead. No looking down at the floor and make your arms part of your side body sinking committed to the front leg. If you need to slightly bend the back knee, you may. I'd like to keep the majority of opening right in the front of that left hip flexor. Okay.

Power up the arms and push the sidewalls away. Breathe and rotate towards the front leg. Your right leg. This way. There you go. And look out and make a nice face. Very good. So you feel the intensity building in the stretch of the back left groin?

Yes. Yes. Candace. Okay. Oh, [inaudible] baby. I feel it very good. Come all the way back. Very good. Okay. Now arms come up. Listen carefully. You're going to go bend, bend, bend, and then stand up straight on that right leg with the knee in front of you. Just work on a little standing balance. One to root down through the right, like three for [inaudible].

Bye. Very good. Bring that knee so the knees are parallel. The stills bent at 90 degrees. Okay. Stretch the legs straight behind you off of the floor. Okay, now don't think about bending over, but think more. I'm lifting my back leg. Lift my back leg, lift the back leg, lift the back leg, lift the back like any amount it forces you to tip any amount.

Hold it. [inaudible]. Bring Yourself Back Upright. Breathe in and place your foot flat. Stay right there. Swing it out and up and up and up and up. And Swan dive all the way over again. Good. Inhale, stretch your chest up. Exhale, fall.

Then those knees jump or step back. Come to your charter Ranga plank position. And Ben knows elbows. Push forward into up dog. Press back into down dog and step the other foot forward. So we're going to step now. The left. Okay, left. So before you bring yourself up, right?

Connect to the ball of the big toe on both feet and feel the energetic line from the ball of the big toe up the inner thigh to the very top of the leg and into the pelvic floor. And how that that can help you come up and balance. Okay. Pause there. Organize. Bring your arms up and have your arms grow out of your heart center. Have your arms grow out of your low belly. Second Chakra.

So the place between the naval and the pubic bone here, front and back. And then also have your arms grow out of your pelvic floor. Press the arms open. Push the walls apart. Spiral towards your front lay. Keep your throat open. Keep breathing. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I started thinking about, oh, she started thinking about something else.

Hold it. No compression in the lower back. Breathing inner thighs. Very good. Running yourself all the way back. Great arms.

Go back up and we know what's coming. So you're going to go one, two, three steps. Uh, relax a little bit. Your energy. There you go. Bring the leg through. So stay connected to the ball, the big toe. Reach to the leg, charge up the back leg, and then lifted. Puff up your kidneys. Everybody don't collapse in your lower back. Okay. Reach through the leg. Reach the leg, reach through, reach through, reach through whole.

Great. Come all the way up, right. Breathe. Place a foot flats winging bouts. Breathe out in, breathe out. And then in, breathe out. And then in one more time. And in Swan dive XL. Ah, hands. Now inhale, lift the chest. Exhale, fold, hands flat. Jump or step back to plank. Hold it here. Inhale right away, downward dog. Breathe out.

Inhale, long breath. Let the low belly hollow out. Exhale, press the heels down. Reach the tail up. Anchor through your hands. Okay. Bring your feet close together. Press the thighs together.

Place your right hand in the middle of the mat in front of you. Look at your index fingers pointing straight ahead. Turn onto the right side so you're only on the outside edge of your right foot. Spiral the inner elbow away from you and your inside plank. Okay, let's start out with a harm on the side first guys. Okay, right here.

Press your legs together. Hold it. Bring your arm up towards the ceiling. Hold it breathing. You can stay right here or charge up the bottom leg and float the top left leg. One to two feet away from the floor. So it's about parallel. Hold it. Beautiful leg down and down. Look towards the floor.

Come to your full plank. Go through your vinyasas. So press forward. Exhale, Chaturanga. Inhale, upward dog. Re exhale, roll over the toes. Abdominal strong, downward dog. Bring your feet towards each other. So that's setting you up to use your inner thighs forward. Place your left hand where you want it. Okay, the hand does have to be a little bit away from the shoulder, meaning the arm will be ending up at an angle. Rotate. You're now on the lateral side or the outside edge of your left foot.

Press the legs together, arms at your side, breathing the arm can come up. Now feel how those arms connect to the middle of your body. And then you can float the top leg up a little bit and connect that leg or legs to your abdominals. Hold and breathe. Great leg down, hand down. Pivot to the floor. Separate your feet. Inhale, press back to downward facing dog.

[inaudible] okay, and one more, Chris Cross here. So bring your right knee towards the left elbow. Exhale, cross forward into plank. Inhale, go back. Downward dog. Exhale. Now come to the right elbow forward and downward dog to more forward. [inaudible] downward dog and forward and downward dog.

Left knee, right elbow cross. And then down we're done. And then to the same side, elbow and press back and to the opposite elbow. Pull up through the abdominals and back. Last one, same side. Elbow and press back. Very good. Knees down. Inhale. Exhale, press back. Child's pose. Uz Open your knees a little bit. Four head comes down. Long breath.

[inaudible]. Exhale out one moon and exhale it. Oh, okay, very good. Take Your Blue Ball, place it between your ankles and lie down on your belly. So what's you're going to find is like the feels like the ball's in the way of the floor. So what that means is you can first sort of stand on your toes. And what I like to do is stand on my toes and kind of pull open the groin a little bit here so that you're already opening that hip flexor area that we already stretched. Yeah.

And then when you straight in the legs, you'll feel the skin of the upper knee area slightly come away from the floor. But more importantly, what I'd like you to put your attention on is this. Guys, remember what I used to call this? The smile. Not Everybody still remembers. So Oh, okay. So we always want that area having a good day. All right, so let's have a good day. And our hands are stacked with the forehead, lightly resting and the Scapula or the shoulder blades drawing down the back. So here you will really feel the cross rubber band effect I talked about in the back. But don't forget you have that cross rubber band effect in the front.

Press the legs together from the top of the inner leg, and then just bend the knees very slowly til you're at about 90 degrees. And you'll feel possibly more of a stretch, which at the lower quad at the top of the knee. Yeah, we feel bad. Yeah. Okay. Send your niece energy away from you. So in other words, if you imagined your thigh bones getting longer like this, so I'm going to come around and give you a little, all of you, a little bit of an effect. So just by doing that, you will feel your hamstrings fire a little bit more. Okay? So energetically, imagine the bone marrow of your femurs though. That's your thigh bones shooting out of your knee caps to the wall behind you.

Can you feel that when I do two guys? Okay, so that alone gets you connected even more deeply to the hamstring, lower glute. So keep that and very micro pulse. The feet or the leg up towards the ceiling. Breathe in and lower. We're just gonna do 10 up and down, recommitting to pressing the ball inward at the ankle bones with the top of the inner leg. We're at about five and six.

Use your breath. Seven. We don't do these in a hurry and eight and nine and 10 this one you do hold up in the air and at this point micropulse 10 more. Oh, up, up. See. So the smile is really a grin. Now. Three, four, five, six, seven shoulders release. It's not going to help you there.

Eight, nine, 10, hold it. Stretch it out. Legs Straight and been lower down to the floor. Okay. Hands under your shoulders. Come up and pressure but back. So now you're sitting on your ball and you can kind of rule on it's side to side and breathe into opening up your lower back. [inaudible] Oh, a couple more times. Breathe in and breathe out. And last one, breathe in and breathing.

Ah Wow. Very good. Okay. What's your ball aside actually like is we can get these, we're coming to a elbow. So lace your fingers and you'll see that one pinky fingers kind of on the bottom. And he took that out of the way. And then you have more of a flat edge on the outside of your hands. So that's what I'd like you to do.

And you kind of pull the skin so the outside edge of the risks are really pressed into your mat and press down from there. Okay? Curl your toes. And the tendency when we have this position of the arms is to really kind of dump in the rib cage like this. So I'd like you to draw the lower rib cage inward without humping the upper back. Okay? So you're just engaging that area by pressing down into the floor.

Hover your knees and then lift your hips, keeping the knees bent. We're hinting back just a little bit softening between the shoulder blades. So you feel a stretch on the sides of the armpits and you feel a stretch. Some of you will get it on the top of the shoulder. If you keep the knees band, you'll keep the hamstrings out of it. But don't forget, you still want to use the deep abdominals. Connect it to the inner thighs, connected to the ball, the big toes. And we're putting a little bit of an arch, hopefully into the upper back. So Candace, walk your feet. [inaudible] yes, you can look down.

We're more Debra. Uh, let your head relax. Bring your feet and walk your feet in there more and can then keep your knees super bent there for you. Yeah. And then you hinge back. So bring your elbows in. There you go. Yeah, I know your slide. I don't know if are any towels here. Okay. Maybe we'll get a towel for you. Okay.

So you walk your feet a little more in towards your head this way. Walk your feet this way more. There you go. And then separate your feet. [inaudible] and then I'm going to bring you back. So keep your arms still name. We're trying to stretch. Walk here. Feel that. Yeah. So you want to feel the stretch here? Yes. Okay.

You good? One more deep breath and then you can bring your knees down. Let me help you. Okay. Bring your knees bend. Not that much. Just halfway there. And then you trying to hinge here like you're trying to open this part. Yeah, you probably need well for your feet to there. Okay. Okay. All right.

So we're melting this part. That's it. Very good. Okay. We're good? Yeah. All right. Come upright. Put the ball between your inner thighs. Okay.

Stand on your toes. Feel the openness of your groin here. Bring both arms up. Okay. As you exhale, rotate to the right. Reach your right arm downward. Lean back a little bit and reach towards your right heel should be right there. Okay, now feel the line from your left knee through your left pinky finger and your arking back and looking back towards your diagonal, right?

Stretching. Open your armpit and your left rib cage. Can we feel this? Yes. Alrighty. Now without trying to stretch more, take a long breath and you're going to feel your body stretched from the inside. Can we feel this? So that's what you do with your breathing. You stretch your inner spanx with your breath.

Press into the ball a little bit more pressure. Head back a little bit, Candace, that's it. And then inhale here and then bring yourself all the way up, right? Ah, hey, maybe we take the other side so both arms will come up. [inaudible] rotate to the left. Reach your left arm back. You know your heels there. You don't even have to look for it. Start leaning. It's right there. Spiral and press down through the right knee.

Reach out through the right pinky finger. Grow your heart center up. And remember how I kind of gave you the traction of your knees in the earlier small muscle exercise. So imagine that you're doing it. Somebody doing that to you and preaching the knee and Femur and thighbone energy down into the ground. Hold it here. Breathe in, and then bring yourself all the way up. Good culmination. Inhale, exhale, open.

Place the hands at the lower back. Okay, so you want to feel your SSI joint. So the two little bones that stick out, the little bumps of protrusion there, your bony protrusions cup them for me, what's most comfortable for your wrist is fine this way, this way, whatever you'd like to do. If you need to be a little higher up into the lumbar spine, that's okay too. Alright, press into the ball first. Lift the pelvic floor up off of the ball. Pressure, elbows together. Kay, and start arking into the upper back first.

So lift the breastbone to the ceiling. Up, up, up, up, up. We're not going back yet. You're going up, up, up, up, up, up, and then you can can arc a little bit more. Now you can stay here or if you're comfortable and you know your heels are right there, you can go into your full camel position. Okay. Looking good. Reach your heart. Center up a little bit more. One more breath.

And then with the inhale, bring yourself up, right? Come all the way up. Exhale, sit back. Move the ball out of place. Cross your arms. Put your hands in your armpits. Let yourself just relax. Long breath up the back spine and exhale.

One more time. [inaudible] really let the bones get heavy. Let your head get heavy to last breath and breathing out. Great. Sit yourself up right face me. Okay. Stretch your legs forward. Cross your right leg over the left here.

Flex your foot a lot. Okay. You want a spiral this way? You guys want to turn this way? There you go. Alright. Okay, good. So I like the ankle bone just to the outside of the site. Make sure your feet, the left toes are pointing up to the ceiling. The temptation is generally for this foot to just be slack and um, the knee. If you're tighter in the hip, the foot tends to do this.

So if you can keep your foot more neutral, there's a bone in the foot the shinbone fits on, which is really the bottom half of your knee. And it kind of helps to keep the knee a little safer in this position. Okay, so slight bend forward, falling at the groin, keeping the front body law till you feel a little stretch here in your hip. So it's going to be different for everybody. Try not to clutch when the yes, so don't force it, but keep this law.

Okay, actually. Okay. Yeah, that's totally okay. And then ring yourself up. Switching, crossing, checking out your foot position, lengthening the front body. Hinting at the pelvis. [inaudible] the breath long. Mm. Oh, we got hot in here.

Afternoon Sun facing west. Good. Deborah, be careful with your chin. Doesn't jet out. That's it. And then bring yourself up, right? Okay. Everybody close the feet. Maybe sit cross legged if you want to not cross all the way here. Sometimes I tend to sit this way. So whatever uprights, okay for you. Eyes closed.

Hands in your lap or hands on the knees. Front. Body Long. Let your belly be soft and want you to breathe with your whole body. Allow your skin to soften. So your skin, which separates you from the physical world you're occupying, led to just soften a little bit more.

And then very, very slowly open your eyelids. Just one 10th, one 10th slit. Allow the impact of site to come into you. So in other words, instead of looking out, let what you see come n so you can receive. And then you very slowly lift the eyelids and smile with your other smile muscle. [inaudible] all right. Thank you very much. [inaudible].

Comments

F B
4 people like this.
Ok..in few words?? closer to perfection. This is what I've been looking for as the perfect blend of Pilates and Yoga. Where can I find more classes with you? Can you stay in Pilatesanytime? Can I ask you more things about yo'lates?
Thank you
Oh isn't she wonderful Fabiana! Cathie was my second teacher. I spent two years working with her! We do have another one of these classes coming. It is a more basic version of this class. I'm glad to hear you'd like to see her back on PA.
3 people like this.
what an amazing teacher, and class. Thanks for this gem :)
Cathleen Murakami
Thank you all fo ryour kind words and support! I absolutely love teaching this format and am happy to connect with any of you who wish to email me or better yet, visit me in lovely Encinitas ( San Diego) where I am based! Blessings!!
Lisa Hubbard
Bravo Cathleen. I absolutely love your class. I tend to watch the them prior to participating, and I look forward to 'scheduling' my class with you this week!
CJ
1 person likes this.
what a great class. yoga pilates go hand in hand. I loved it . Instruction was clear, great cues. I would like to see more classes. namaste. blanche.
Cathleen Murakami
This is so exciting!! I am thrilled you are enjoying the approach - something I've been blending since....the mid 90's! And as my body has changed so has the content - hope to be back and offer it again either ramping it up further or mellowing it down.....
1 person likes this.
Wow, this looks amazing. Can't wait to try it. And what a good excuse to go visit beautiful San Diego!
Not my favourite, style of teaching way too slow and the combo is strange. Two different syllabus. Staying pure to the practise is ideal for both techniques. Sorry
Cathleen Murakami
Thank you for your feedback. I fully realize that this approach is not for everyone and potentially may offend someone who prefers a more purist approach - I actually feel that way about the fusion of GYROKINESIS & Pilates, although I may utilize some of the cueing in specific instances....as for going slow - one of my philosophies is to "go as slow as you CAN, NOT as fast as you CANNOT" - and while this was a led class and the participants have to follow my pacing, slowness requires endurance and a different type of control and that's what happened this time.
Perhaps in the future, I will ramp it up (speed wise) at least! Again, I appreciate your comments.
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