Move for the Joy of It

Hi everybody. Amy Havens here at Pilates Anytime. So happy to be back in this room, in front of the camera and with you, offering you some new fun classes. So this is really mat for the joy of it, moving for the joy of it. No props needed.

Let's get started. We're gonna stand at this end of the mat and once you just settle into your feet and recognize that, for me anyway with this, just move and have fun, right? We're here to move and have fun. So let's take a nice deep breath, raise your arms up gather up that air, take a deep breath. (inhaling) And I want us just to do a nice easy roll down. So as most of you know, I offer choices.

You always get to have choices. If you need to bend your knees, you bend your knees. If you wanna keep those legs straight you keep those legs straight. All of this is for you. I'm gonna do one more knee bend and roll up with my knees bent.

And on the way up, I'm gonna allow my arms to just lean back as if I'm wearing a big joyful cape. I'm gonna lift that cape up over my head and do another roll down. Nice visual image there. Taking that down. Take a deep breath (inhaling) and let's bend the knees, if you're gonna bend with me, and roll up with those bent knees, feeling your feet into the floor.

Again, your arms just leaning back. I'm gonna use my hands really like I'm pulling up a big cape up over my head and rounding down again. How about lifting the abdominals up a little more. Scoop, scoop, scoop. Get that energy up in the tummy.

Bend those knees, shoo. We're gonna roll up one more time and roll down one more time. Big high release in your upper back, all the way down everybody. (exhaling) Okay, little change coming. We'll just walk out onto the hands. Not all the way to plank yet.

Just get some weight in your hands, right? So now you've got your four points of contact. Hand, hand, foot, foot. Really feel and let's add a little weight shift into those hands. But keep your heels down and weight shift back.

Two more times, just weight shifting forward into those arms, weight shifting back. Are you still scooping your abdominals? Yes, you are, scooping forward and then back. I want you to walk your feet in a little bit, closer to the hands, let your head real go. And now can you lift up onto tippy toes and lower it down.

We'll do three total, so up we go. Lift the abdominals also, drop that head. See if you can get really close to your legs and lift, lift, lift. Okay, guys, hold it, bend the knees, crouching down into that little round, rolling like a ball preparation kind of shape and just pulse a little bit. Just round, I'm thinking my sit bone's kind of rounding under here to get that low back rounder.

Okay, and then stretch back up. I want you to do another roll up even though I said we'd only do one more. I kind of told (laughing) a little fib there. One more time, all the way. Cape, cape, cape, circle.

Now we get to walk out into a front support position, okay? So walk on out, same thing, four points to balance. But of course this is more challenging because you've got this full body length, right? So just rock a little bit front and back. Really pull up in the front body, bend the knees.

Now you're an animal that's crouching that's gonna do a little pounce towards your hands. Just preparation, right? Just stretch those hips, bend the knees, keep looking to the top of the mat, a couple more times. Yep. And then you're gonna jump.

Did you make it? Okay, let's turn around. We're gonna lie on our back and get into some spinal articulation. So you get choices here, right, as I said. You can take your arms out to a T position.

Feels so nice. You could take a cactus arm position, more challenging for some, or even like a little diamond shape up here. I'm gonna try this one right now. Take a deep breath, everybody. Open the chest and let your elbows drop.

Let's do some pelvic curl. Really feeling into that articulation, the stretch of your quads, pressing your feet into the floor, inhaling there, exhale as we roll down. So for those of us who do tend to have a little tightness in the thoracic area of the body this arm position offers some nice challenge to stay open, right? And feel some deeper, deeper, deeper connection of your upper back. If that's just awful, not going well, maybe choose this one, all right?

Or stick with it. Here we go, roll up again. Bodies can do amazing things. Brain to body work of Pilates. Inhale, (inhales) roll it down, sternum away from chest, ribs away from sternum, hips away from ribs, all the way down.

Okay guys, we're gonna go one more time. Deep breath (inhales) and (exhales) peel your way through. Feel your feet, use 'em. Push 'em down into the ground. Lift your pelvis, not the ribs so much, right?

Holding here, now sneak your hands behind your head. Roll yourself down. Still try to keep the chest open and the elbow's wide. We're gonna do a little combo real quick here. Three times through, pelvic curl again.

But you're gonna lift your head and your chest up as if you're doing a chest lift, well, we are. And then as you do a higher chest lift, it's like that takes over and the spine and the pelvis just say, "Okay, I'll go down all the way to level," right? Now we start with the pelvis as if it's gonna start rolling up, and it is. And it's gonna say, "I win, and I want the head and shoulders to go back down." Okay, let's take it a couple more times. Breathe, exhale, lift.

Also in my head, I'm saying, "Chest toward thigh. Upper body toward lower body. Really get that curl." And then we do lower body to upper body. (exhales) It's like a little seesaw. Deep mobilization of the spine. We have got one more.

Inhale (inhales) and (exhales) lift. Joyful motion, put a smile on your face, it really does make a difference. Hold here. You can do it, bring your ankles together. And some double pistons.

So just two legs up (exhaling) three or four times. Doesn't take many, right? It's up. I'll say one more up and down. You're gonna just keep your feet down.

And I want you to bring your chest down. We're gonna warm up some rotations. So take a breath, curl the chest up. Now, I'm gonna rotate toward you all. That's my right side.

And I'm trying to get that elbow down ish without this pelvis half lifting. Doing pretty good there. Come on up. Other side. Remember both sides of our bodies are very different, right?

So you might feel the difference on the sides. And just notice it. That's all we do. Curl up. I'm gonna go to my left now first.

Opposite hip really staying anchored trying to get that upper arm, elbow down, curl center, and then over here, once more. Go for that, and lift and lower. Breathe in, arms by your sides. Take a breath, bring the legs up close to you. Tuck, tuck, tuck, tuck it in.

Bring your chest up. Chest toward thighs again. What are we ready for? Yes, some hundred, legs straight up, in two, three, four, five, X, two, three, four, five. So you can stay here, always so good.

Or you can challenge, take it down maybe for five and X, two, three, four, five, and lower two, three, four, five. And exhale, two, three, four, five. Right, you've got choices. I'm gonna choose one leg and up, two, three, four, five, and other, two, three, four, five, and up two, three, one more time each leg, two, three, four, five, (inhales) whew, second leg. And I believe I've got two more sets with two legs down.

Two, three, four, five, and up. How are we doing guys, good? Okay, we're all gonna come in. Tuck your knees in, chest toward thighs, really curl. And let's roll over.

Just roll yourself over. Hang out here for a minute. Flex your feet, open them. Open those legs. Tuck the feet down to the mat if you want to.

Remember we're not pushing more weight on the neck, you're trying to get your butt higher. And now roll down. Use your arms, circle, one more time only. Shoo, up and over. So the feet flex, you press the legs open, lower the leg by lifting your sit bones and roll it down.

And how about roll all the way up? Good, okay, arms up. Press your feet together, bottoms of the feet together. Rock forward by pressing your knees open and then pull your knees close together. You're gonna feel some deep low abdominal contraction to close those knees.

One more time, and then hug around your shin bones for rolling like a ball, just once. Just roll, and up. Let's do this open close bit two more times. Pull 'em together like you're squeezing the biggest magic circle you've ever squeezed and it's the double like five ring magic circle. Hold it, (laughs) roll back.

Okay, one more time. You really have to use that magic circle. Press it closed. Inhale, exhale, pull it together. One more time.

Do you see how it might help you're rolling like a ball to prepare? Let's do three balls now (exhales) and two. It really works for me, (laughs) three. If I can help people do a better rolling like a ball, I feel like I've done my job. Okay, single leg stretch.

So rhythm, two pulls. Two pulls, singles for four, whew. Right, we all know this. Put some rhythm in it. And two.

And singles. Two more sets, and pull. Pull, both legs are energized. I love focusing on the straight leg as it reaches out and out. And four, three, keep that chest up toward the thighs.

Three, double leg stretch, burst it open and hold. Reach a little farther and close and burst and hold. Reach and close. One more, and reach and close, scissors with flexed feet. Look up there.

Pull that leg a little bit more up and over you for a pull, pull and pull, pull. Whew, whew. Also, the straight leg that comes down from the back of the hip, for eight and seven. Chest toward thighs the whole time. Four.

Three. Joyful movement on the mat. Everybody come on up. Put your hips or your hands down, put your hips back. Let's play with spine stretch forward.

And a little rowing combination of the arms. All right, so reach forward first. Get centered in your body. Take a breath, sit tall. We breathe out and we squeeze the tummy.

We're really trying to keep my hips going that way as everything else energetically is going this way. Now we roll up, let's take the arms out to the side. Imagine growing on the reformer. Pull your arms inward, hands behind you, touch the mat. Lift the arms and I'll start that deep external rotation as you roll all the way back up.

Okay, couple more. (inhales) Here we go. Exhale, reach your hips back, energy forward with the arms, the legs. Roll yourself up, arms come to a T. Internally rotate your arms as you round forward again, fingertips to the mat so your shoulders are low, arms press up, widen your shoulder blades and circle. Reach further.

One more time, inhale. Only one more. Gotta go for it. Reach, reach, reach. Pull your hips back.

Ooh, and up. Internal rotation of arms, you circle. Touch the mat. Keep your hips right where they are. Reach the arms up.

Circle, enjoy touching your toes. Stretch forward. Okay, we get to come up for open leg rocker. So now open leg rocker with a little extra to it. Hold onto the ankles.

We all know where to start, up like legs up. Okay, I want you to roll back and back up just once. Just go back and forth. And then in between we're gonna close, open. We'll try that on a couple times.

Always fun to really connect to that balance at the top. Choo, choo. Now we're gonna reverse that. So roll over, legs together. Have fun.

Open. Oh, come on girl, open, close. Roll and lift. And open, close. One more, playful, don't worry if you don't make it, right, and close and we roll back down.

Okay, yay. Legs up, arms up. Little tick-tock. I want you to keep your arms just straight up to the sky, shoulders are flat. How far can you take your legs over to one side without falling over?

It's generally not too far. (laughs) And come back to center, other direction, and back to center. Roll again to the first side. Really anchor, I'm thinking opposite hip the other way in just kind of muscular connection. And almost like ribs opposite of legs so that I connect my core together and I don't fall over. One more.

But I'm not really moving my ribs. I'm just thinking ribs opposite direction. Think you all know what I mean there, right? Well, here we go. (laughing) Come on to center.

Hug your knees. Chest toward thighs. Everybody's hug for just a second. And then we're gonna come over for some side lying, all right? I'm gonna put my head on this direction of the mat.

So come on over on your hip, legs slightly piped forward, you up on your elbow. This hand can be wherever you'd like to put it. I'm gonna choose this. Lift, lower, we'll go for eight. Just single, parallel leg lift.

Nice support on your underneath side and six and seven and eight. Hold it up, flex the foot. Now we do front back kick with a little extra of course. So I'm gonna kick, kick and open my chest to the ceiling and then press the leg behind and rotate toward the mat. So again, kick, kick front chest up, kick, kick back, chest down.

And it's up with the chest and down with the chest. Lift, two, lower. We're not collapsing that side support position. Last two. Oh, it feels so good.

And last one, hold just for a second longer. Breathe. Reach this arm. Mermaid your legs. You're gonna come right on up and just do a really nice big circle this way with your arms for your mermaid and stretch.

And stretch and stretch. Okay, place this hand down on the mat. Slide that front leg forward. Lean back on this arm with good shoulder support and scoop this up as high up as you wanna go. You could go into a back bendy kind of shape.

You could lift up, stretch everybody. Get what you want out of this big stretch. Breathe. And come on down, we have the other sideline to do. That's it, nice and swift.

Right, over we go. On your elbow, legs forward, hand behind your head, single parallel leg left for eight. Create these really long legs from your pelvis. Energy up the top of the head. And six and seven, press those shoulders down now, right?

Hold that, flex the foot. So we brought it forward as we rotated the chest up and then press the leg back as you chest down. A little rhythm, so it's a kick, kick and press, press. Really feel the rotation coming from your breast bone and not part of your ribcage. Four more, and a one, whew, and two.

Feel the motion in the hip joint, nice and very loose swingy hip. Last one, chest down. Guys, reach that arm and get a little more length outta your body. Breathe. Let's come up for that mermaid stretch.

All right, arms are gonna go around to the left if your right leg is forward and get the biggest side bend here, because in the opposite we get this wonderful kinda jazz dancy stretch. Lean on your back arm. Front leg is long, lift. I'm pushing with my other foot, the back foot, to help but I'm also really using my back muscles, trying to just stretch and open my front body. Hopefully it feels delicious.

Take a breath. Come all the way down. We're gonna go prone now, so come onto your tummy. Let's go ahead and stack the hands and just keep the head a little bit elevated up above your hands here. Turn the legs out.

Reach your legs just a little bit above the mat. They don't have to be too high for the heel beats, okay? How about a in two, three, four. Exhale, three, four. Inhale, three, four.

Exhale, in, shoulders are low on your back. Keep it going. And in two, three, four. Pull your stomach up, in two, three, four. Pull your stomach up, one, two, three, four.

Yep. I like to sing as I count and that is it. Swan, hands by your chest. Feel the moment that you're already reaching your chest this way. You don't do it on the way up.

You do it here, right? Your hands are pulling back, you're lifting, you're moving. And you lift all the way to stretch that front body. Take your head where you want to. Sometimes I like to go all the way up.

Come down, try not to just plop out the tummy muscles, keep 'em integrated. Two more, everybody. Get what you need outta your swan. You don't have to come all the way up. Push and down.

Try not to just plop the tummy out. And one more time. You lift and stretch. It's so lovely to do swans. Okay.

We're coming on to quadruped. Basic quadruped position. (exhales) Hold that for a moment. Tuck your toes. Not so basic now when we lift the knees up off the mat so take a breath first, get your shoulders really snug on your back.

And hover the knees. Just hold. Lower. It's elusively challenging. And exhale, (laughing) and lift the knees to keep that spine steady, stable.

Two or three more, exhale, press down with the hands. Press down with the toes. Knees not very high. And lower. Last one, everybody press those knees up.

Now, here we go, hips up, almost like we started class with our hands in front of us. I am gonna walk my back just a little bit. Let's do that little weight shift. Back and forth. (panting) So I'm not really in a completely flat spine. I'm not really in a long round spine, just moving my body, lifting the tummy.

I want you to walk your feet in now. One more little crouch to re-stretch your back sometimes feels really nice after those extensions, as we know. (exhaling) Stretch your legs up. We get one more roll up and one more cape. I'm gonna just reach that cape backward.

I'm gonna do a nice high release of the upper back and feel that nice sense of joy and aliveness in your body, everybody. And you did it. Thanks for moving with me. See you next time.