Inner Thighs & Abs

Hello, Tracey Mallett here with "Pilates Anytime", 20-minute workout focusing on the obliques, your waist, and also the inner thighs. So, let's turn onto our side here. Place the hands underneath the knees, I'm just gonna roll down one vertebra at a time, heels in line with the sit bones, and we're gonna wrap the hands all the way around, Place the hands behind the head. We're gonna take a deep breath in, Exhale, lift the head, neck, and shoulders off the mat. Now, everybody here, drop the tailbone down, Lift up just a little bit higher and pull those abs in.

We're gonna rotate and twist the shoulder to the opposite knee. We come back to center, and then twist to the other direction. But every time you do this you're keeping your pelvis as still as you can. So, we exhale, rotate, inhale, neutral. Exhale, rotate, back to center.

Exhale, rotate. Now, we're gonna add a little arm reach. So, we rotate here, Reach that arm across your body, imagine someone's pulling you. Take the hand back behind the head, back to center. Rotate, reach the arm across the body, hands back behind the head, back to center.

And again, rotate, remember to breathe. Here we go, one more. And rotate, reach across, back to center. Hold it here, drop the head, neck and shoulders down. We're gonna come back up again, bring that right knee to your chest.

Twist and center. Switch, left knee, twist and center. And twist, make sure the knee is coming to the midline of your body. It's almost like your inner thighs are squishing against each other. Exhale, rotate. (exhales sharply) Inhale back.

Exhale, rotate. (exhales sharply) Inhale back, now we're gonna extend the leg straight up. (exhales sharply) Inhale back. (exhales sharply) And back. (exhales sharply) Shoulder lifts off of the mat. (exhales sharply) This time we're gonna hold it in that position here, hold, rotate as much as you can, bring the leg into the midline of your body and then reach that leg out. Switch, rotate. Switch, rotate. Shoulder towards your knee. Switch, rotate.

Couple more. (exhales sharply) One more. (exhales sharply) Bend the knees into chair position, drop the right leg, drop the left leg. Come up onto the balls of your feet, keep lifting up. Now we're gonna open the knees and pull the legs together. Now we're gonna add the head with it. So, the head comes up as the knees come together, the head goes down as the knees separate.

So, we exhales sharply up. (exhales sharply) Inhale down. So, we're accessing the inner thighs. As we draw the inner thighs together, think of the pelvis, neutral, pelvic floor pulling up just like a little elevator as you draw those abs in. Your heels are together, the toes are on the mat. And we're gonna exhale, lift up, squeeze the inner thighs together. (inhales) (Tracey exhales sharply) Couple more.

(Tracey exhales sharply) One more. (Tracey exhales sharply) And then down, come back, feet hip width apart, hands by the side of the body and pelvic bridge all the way up. Hold this position. From here, you're gonna lift up onto the balls of your feet again, externally rotate, bring your heels together in a diamond position. And from here you will lower your hips, and then squeeze the inner thighs together.

Lower the hips, squeeze the inner thighs. So you're releasing and then squeezing, inner thighs pull together. Tailbone hovers the floor, and squeeze. Down and squeeze. Tapping the hips down to the mat and squeeze, relaxing your upper body.

It's all in that lower body, it's all in the inner thighs, it's all in those leg muscles working. The inner thighs drawing together as the pelvic floor pulls up, and we get a stronger abdominal contraction there. Lets do two more. (exhales sharply) And one more. Lift up, hold it. In and out, in and out, in and out.

Four more, four in, three in, two in, you've got one more. Hold it there. Parallel position, drop the heels down, curl one vertebra at a time. Now, we're gonna turn over onto your sideline here, and we're going to switch legs and put the other leg forwards, the top leg goes forwards. We're gonna lift the underneath leg, so that top leg is forwards, the hip is back, and our focus is on the inner thigh here.

Your ear's on your bicep and we're gonna lift that inner thigh, and lift. So, imagine you're lifting up off of the mat, so that underneath oblique is firing and where here hips are stacked, and we're just focusing on the inner thigh right now. Let's do five more here. Exhale, five, four, three, two, hold that leg up, keep the hand in front, bring the other leg to join it, and click, click, click. And let's lift the upper body and focus on those obliques to an inner thighs.

There we go. For eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Hold it there and slowly come down. Now put your palm down flat, hand forwards. We're gonna push ourselves up, push up and then slide down, so I've got my hand on the floor.

Slide up and down, so you're pushing down. There we go, working those obliques. (Tracey exhales sharply) It's like a little side crunch, your lowest rib is joining your hip bone, and down. Lift, now let's see if we can get that top leg up, oblique. Ooh, feel that little extra oblique there, (Tracey breathes deeply) and back.

Lift up and back, couple more. (Tracey exhales sharply) Last time, keep your feet in front of your torso, and then down. Bend your knees, push yourself up, swing the legs around. Come down, ear on your bicep. Top leg comes forwards, and start to work that inner thigh.

Keep lifting that hip. So the hip is kind of lifted off your mat, it's not lifting in general but you're thinking about lifting the hip off the mat 'cause those obliques are firing. Your hips are stacked, hand is forwards, and you're just kicking that leg up, and your real focus is your inner thigh. There we go, inner thigh. Lift that leg up, squeezing the thigh.

All right, let's do five more here. And five and four, three, two, hold it there, put your hand forwards for stability, bring that other leg to join it, and we're gonna heel click. Click those legs. There we go, those obliques are working. And let's see if we can lift up.

Here we go, and always get those obliques working here, lifting up. And then lower down. Palm goes flat, hand forwards, now we're gonna slide ourself up, (Tracey exhales sharply) and then down. Slide up and down. If you have problems sliding, you can always get a towel and put a towel underneath your hand to slide up.

Focus on that side oblique, your lowest rib joining the hip bone, and down. Lift up, now let's see if we can lift that top leg up, up. Little side oblique (exhales sharply) Cinching at that waist. (exhales sharply) And again. (exhales sharply) Just a couple more. (exhales sharply) One more. (exhales sharply) And then bring it down. Lift yourself up, turn the legs around, roll yourself down one vertebra at a time and reach the legs straight up. Externally rotate your feet at the hips, and we open, flex, pull together.

Open, flex, pull together. So now we're going into our inner thighs, hip mobility here, open, together. Flexing, open, close, open, close. Couple more, one more. Open your legs out, flex your feet, drop that tailbone down so your thighs are away from your chest.

Alrighty, so we go bend, extend, bend, extend, bend, extend. It's like a little teeny tiny frog. Make sure your thighs are away from your chest, so you're in a neutral position as much as you can, and you're pressing the energy out through the heels. The force of gravity is opening your hips, which is amazing, feels really great but those inner inner thighs are working super hard. Good, keep going you got four more, I'm counting, four, three, two, one.

Draw the legs together, point the toes. We go front, back, flex, and front, back, flex, front, back, flex. Watch your legs are not migrating to your chest. Front and out, and front and out. We go (exhales sharply) out, (exhales sharply) out.

Front, back, out, two more. (fingers snapping) Last time. (fingers snapping) Hold it there, bring the legs together, point the toes. We're gonna lower to feel those abs, flex the feet into your froggy, into the froggy. So you're reaching on a diagonally out, lower abs are working super hard.

Keep your head, neck and shoulders down on the mat. Focus on the inner thighs and your core is stabilizing you. (Tracey exhales sharply) Four more. (exhales sharply) Two more. (exhales sharply) Last time, point the toes, lift all the way up. Now from here we lower, circle, come back to center. We lower, circle, back to center, two more.

Lower, circle, one more. Lower, circle. Now reverse it, so we open, go down, come back up. So we're working our legs, our inner thighs and our abs are stabilizing. Down, and one more.

Down, bring it back. Bend the knees chair position. Everybody's in your chair position, knees over hip, shins parallel to the sky. Get into that position. Lift your head, neck and shoulders off of the mat.

Take your right hand behind your head, right knee bent, left leg reaches out. Left hand onto thigh. Hold it there, we're gonna rotate and rotate. Exhale, rotate towards the leg that's lengthened, and rotate, and rotate. Switch, (exhales sharply) and rotate.

Press on that thigh, rotate. (exhales sharply) Press on that thigh, resisting that thigh that's driving to your chest. (exhales sharply) Couple more. (exhales sharply) One more. (exhales sharply) Hold it here. Draw the knees, hands behind your head. Drop the legs down, release, reach your hands over your head. Extend the legs ready for your transition, we're gonna roll ourself up. Inhale, exhale, roll.

Lift up nice and tall, come onto your side. Now you're on your forearm now, toe is pointing to the corner of your mat, top leg is bent. From here we're gonna try and lift those legs up. So look where my hips are, they're stacked. Now your forearm is down on the mat.

You can put your hand here for stability or place the hand behind the head, wherever you feel comfortable. Now we're going into our obliques here, and inner thighs, 'cause they're lifting those legs you got your obliques and your inner thighs working here. (Tracey exhales sharply) Let's do four more, keep putting the shoulder blades down, four, three, two, hold it here. Extend that leg nice and long, bend the knees in. We go side, reach and oblique, lengthen.

Oblique, reach, look over your shoulder. Oblique, lengthen, so we contract the muscle, we lengthen. We contract, we lengthen. Couple more. Contract and lengthen, one more, contract, hold it here.

And we do a little pulse, up, tapping the elbow, if we can, with the knee. (Tracey exhales sharply) Four, three, two, and one. Extend those legs, lift ourselves up, press to the other side. Legs go out, diagonally forwards. Bend that top leg, hand down for a little stability.

Lift up, everyone. Ready, go up and down. So if you feel comfortable, that hand can come behind your head. (Tracey exhales sharply) And we're lifting through those obliques. Woo-hoo, feel those obliques, exhale. (exhales sharply) There we go, exhale, up and down.

Keep your chest open to the front, four, three, two, and one, extend that legs out. Alrighty, we bend the knees, side oblique, reach and out. Obliques, reach and out. Think of side bending, so your body is actually side bending. It's not your head it's your torso, so you gotta side bend.

(Tracey exhales sharply) Keep the legs in front of you to the corner of the front of your mat. So look where your toes are pointing, to the corner of your mat. (Tracey exhales sharply) One more, hold it here and tap. The knees are aiming towards your elbow. (Tracey exhales sharply) Keep smiling. (laughs) Four more, exhale, four, and three, and two, hold it there.

Reach your legs out, bend the knees, come all the way up. From here, we're just gonna go into a nice side bend, just stretch it out. Take the hand behind your head, open reach through those obliques, and lift up, come over into your side, we've gotta stretch out those obliques that we just worked. Hand behind your head, rotate around. And then we come back to center, and around.

Twisting to the side, you're gonna be on your forearm here. So forearm, draw your shoulders away from your ears, hold it there. Now, when your upper body is stable, then we can take the right leg out. Hold it, left leg can come out, hold. Tilt the pelvis slightly underneath you, so with the Lower abs.

And we're gonna twist side to side, just gonna drop the pelvis down towards the floor to really access those obliques. (exhales sharply) Four more here, four, three, two, one. Hold it in that lovely plank position, tilt the pelvis slightly underneath you, drop the knees down, extend back into your child's pose, transition forwards, hand beneath your shoulders, knees underneath your hips, push away for a little stretch, and then extend into your cat, in that extension here now cat, draw away, and then go into your extension as you draw your shoulder blades down and back, come somewhere in the middle of those two positions, neutral position here. Curl the toes underneath, and we're gonna try and go into a little hover here. Hover, and then we open, and knees coming together, so the focus is your inner thighs drawing the knees together. And we're gonna do five, four, three, two, one, hover.

Drop the knees down, turn around to the sides, doing your side position here. Drop down onto your forearm, and we're gonna lift that underneath leg, underneath leg, so this leg here is bent and we go, lift and then down. So this knee is slightly bent, the oblique is lifting us up and we're working the inner thighs. Now if you feel comfortable, extend that leg straight and lift, and lift. If that's too challenging, just keep your hips down on the mat.

A couple more. One more, drop the hips down and just lift that leg, reach the hand and tap, tap. (exhales sharply) Get that nice extension. (exhales sharply) Four, three, two, and one, turn around into your lovely hover, hold it there. Drop the knees down, turn around to your side, come all the way down, forearm, bend the underneath leg, lift up. If that's too challenging, keep your hips down on the mat and just lift the underneath leg. And lift, now extend that leg if you can, lift, and lift.

Obliques and inner thigh, saving the hardest till last. Couple more, one more. Drop the hips down. Lift that leg, reach that hand up, one and stretch, one and stretch, tap and stretch, tap and stretch, we're nearly there, tap and stretch, tap and stretch, four more. (Tracey exhales sharply) One more, fantastic, turn around this direction, (Tracey breathes deeply) reach forwards in that lovely stretch.

Enjoy that stretch, awesome work everybody. Roll yourself all the way up, turn to the side, give yourself a nice stretch. Rotate, stretch. And, again, rotate, stretch. One more.

Reach the hands up, spinal wave, curl, reach towards your feet, lift up. Ready, curl, just like the ocean behind me, and reach past your feet, lift up. Ready, curl, just like a wave. Reach, one more. (Tracey exhales sharply) Reach past your feet, lift up, open your arms and let's turn to the front.

Bring the right leg in front, left leg in front, lift all the way up, reach the hands over your head, come into a prayer position, draw the shoulder blades down. Close your eyes for two seconds, just close your eyes. (Tracey inhales deeply) Take deep breathes, inhaling through the nose, exhaling through the mouth. (exhales sharply) Just feel all that negative tension in your body just dissipate down into the mat. Feel your heart rate coming back to a normal pace. One more deep breath in, (Tracey inhales deeply) and exhale through the mouth.

(Tracey exhales sharply) Relax, open your eyes. Thank you so much for joining me today, I hope you enjoyed that workout. Look forward to seeing you back here on the mat, have an amazing day, keep smiling.