HIIT-Style Mat

Hi there. This is Sarah Bertucelli. And we are going to do an energetic hit style Pilates class. So we're gonna jump around a little bit and do some pounding on the earth to help stimulate bone density. Make sure and do you, and modify as needed.

But let's get started. So I'm gonna step forward actually onto the hardwood floor because I wanna be able to feel the earth underneath my feet. You're welcome to stay on your mat but notice I'm pounding my heel and I'm actually taller. I wanna push, I wanna put some energy behind it to help kind of stimulate bone density, right? So there's a little bit of impact here, and if you wanna go a little faster, you can go a little faster.

And it's down, down, down through the heel. Let the body respond and play some music in your head if you want. Or play it in the background too. That might be a good idea. And you can even go a little faster and really let your whole body kind of release and shake and enjoy that.

Now let's change. Stomping the foot. Okay. So it could just be a marching, but it can be actually a little bit of pounding through the whole flat foot. And if you feel comfortable, you might make a little quick.

Notice I'm not jumping up. I'm actually jumping down. So I'm pushing down, down, down, down, down. And I'm gonna do that for a little bit longer. Finding breath and finding this relaxing feel for this moment.

Getting a little bit heavy breathing perhaps. A little more to come. And then we can pause that and tap, tap, tap, tap. Take the tap to a step, step, step and step. Now if you're comfortable, it's gonna be a little step.

Jump into it. Jump into it. So there's a little lift off, but it's down, down, down. Go at the pace that suits you. So we're gonna play with that general choreography and add a little bit on throughout the class.

Change it up a little bit. Let's go back to the heel stomp. Here we go. Heel stomp, heel stomp. Slow, fast, whatever suits you.

Breathing in and breathing out. Let your body respond to it. And then go flat feet, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah. It could be quick, it could be slow. Quicker like this is actually more relaxing.

Almost my whole body is responding. Almost like if I had my feet in a chi machine, except it's very vigorous. And then we're gonna go out to the side, ba, ba, ba. Eventually this can become a jumping jack. Ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta.

Yeah, and then we can take it side and side. So you're propelling side to side. Those of you that were around when we had the slide you can think of this as like the slide, except you're not sliding. You're actually hopping a little bit low to the floor here. Yes.

Good. Let's go ahead and just do one more here. And now with some energy in the breath stand with your feet on the earth. Take a breath up, roll yourself down, walk right out to a plank position. Hold that plank for a few moments.

Step one foot forward, stretch, and step back. Step the other foot forward, stretch, and back. So I'm going outside of my hand. This is in preparation for something we're gonna do later. And if this doesn't suit you, you choose to omit it.

It's that easy. One more time here. And here we go. Go ahead and lower your knees to the floor cross your ankles behind you, and shoot your feet forward. We're gonna roll back to a chest lift position.

Float your feet up off the floor. Single leg stretch happens. Now change and change. And change and change. Breathing.

Feel. Strengthen your core. Power in your legs. Ease in your neck. Adding a twist.

Use the inside hand to push on the inside of the knee creating a little bit of a power to rotate from. And just a couple more here. And draw your knees in. Rock and roll until you're up to a sitting position. So cross your legs in front of you.

If your legs say it's okay, you can roll yourself up to a standing position here by rolling over your knees. Or you can even just push yourself up to standing. Whatever makes sense. But you're gonna get up how you need to get up, please. Okay.

Back to the heel, to the flat feet. And we're gonna make it a little bigger. Letting the legs lift, lift, lift. High knees, pushing down. Notice I'm not jumping up, I'm jumping down.

My arms are just gonna be naturally moving in a comfortable way and going just a little longer in each shape. This time, feeling your breath. Elevate. Pound, pound, pound. That's what we're looking for.

You're welcome to stay on your mat. Ooh, I just started to take myself forward a little. I was running forward, not in place. Here we go. We're gonna tap, tap, tap.

You can do a jumping jack. Ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta. Or you're tapping. Let's go about 30 seconds here. Keep it going, pa, pa, pa.

And breathing. Nice. Repetitive action. I keep floating forward. I'll check my spacing.

Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba. Here we go. Let's do a couple more. And then we're gonna do that lateral shift side to side, da, da, da. And here we go.

Step, step, step, step. Maybe look where you're going. Changing your gaze. Step. Can you get a little bigger step?

Step, step, step. Good. And if you hear my breath, that's because this is challenging my heart a little bit too. That's a good thing. Yeah?

And one more time each side. Let's go back to some other stuff. So we take a big breath up. We're gonna roll back down and come to our plank. Walk right out to your plank and be there.

One leg comes out. We're gonna change more quickly. Good. Keep changing and changing and changing and changing. Good.

So you're working at a pace that suits you supporting with your strong arms. Breathing. Good. We're gonna transition to that same position we did before. Knees down, cross your legs, roll over your feet or get there how you need sitting on your booty.

Roll back. Another burst of abdominals. Legs come up. Single leg stretch. Go.

Maybe a little faster breath. Good. Keep those legs moving. Add a rotation please. We'll rotate.

Rotate. Pushing into the inside of the knee, finding your breath. Hug your knees into your chest. Three relaxing breaths. Allowing your feet to be on the floor, allowing your arms to be by your side.

Take your legs wider than you would normally. Focusing on glutes. We're going to hinge up to the biggest bridge we can. Glute squeeze. Maybe you flex your feet for that.

Down. Glute squeeze. Hold it. Down. Again, glutes.

Hold it and down. So I oftentimes touch my glutes to make sure that they're actually working. So if you happen to catch me, do that. It's just a, it's a habit to make sure that both sides are in fact working. I do recommend every now and again touching your muscles to feel that there is tone there.

'Cause sometimes we have compensation patterns we don't know about. So lift and hold this time. Press a little higher. 10 squeezing the glutes. Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two and one.

Lower down, knees to chest. Rock and roll up to a sitting position. Now we're gonna spin around and face one another. Okay. So here feet are on the floor.

We're gonna sway side to side a couple times. Opening the heart as you do. Sway side to side. Now sway side to side. And then go to the side.

Go to the side. Now sway side to side. You're gonna step forward and you're gonna come up. Down other side, step forward and try to come up. So use this as a way to get up from the floor if it suits you.

That was really just a transition back to some energetic pounding heels if you want. First, right? Good. Ba, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa. Nice and sweaty.

Breathing heavy. It's good. Flat feet. Ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta. Breathing.

High knees, flat feet. Think flat feet. And I purposefully am making sounds with my feet. So make sounds with your feet too. Good.

It's funny I can feel my right foot is more grounded than my left. So I'm putting energy on a little more pounding on my left right now. Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba. And then now a tap. You can make it a jumping Jack, are you ready?

Here we go. Ba, ba, ba. Ba, ba, ba. Look around. It's good to change your gaze.

It's also good to know where you are in space in case you have something that you would run into. And now side to side. Change. Change. Little double hop there.

Bump, bump, bump. So you feel that pound through the heel. Pound. Now pounding kind of sounds like a negative thing but my friends, we need to have impact through our bodies to help promote healthy bones. Yes?

Here we go. Nice and relaxed. Couple more. Hm, hm, hm. One more time here.

Hold wide stance. Okay? How deep can you go? Hands might go on your thighs. Look down.

Hands might go to the earth. That's coming my friend. Stand up. Okay. Squat.

They might go here. Look down. Hands to the earth. Come up one more time. Bend, look down, hands to the earth.

Good. Come up. Here we go. So take a breath. We're gonna roll down.

Once again, walk out to a plank position. Yes. Hold. You're on your hands and you're on your feet. If this doesn't suit you, you can modify and put your knees down and adjust as needed.

Otherwise, you're here. One foot comes forward, the other foot comes forward. Okay? How about both feet? Come forward with the jump and back to where you came from.

With a jump, my hands lifted. Now my hands go down and I land on my feet. Papa. Papa. Forward and back.

Forward and back. Forward and back. Couple more. Bead of sweat. I love it.

Hold here. Lower your knees down. Sit back in a child's pose and take a couple breaths. Hmm. We're gonna come onto our sides facing each other.

How about elbow down? Let's go with bottom knee bent. So we can work for extra range in this leg. So supporting from the underside, feel free to put your hand behind your head. Lift your leg up.

You can put your hand here if you need to as well. And we're gonna go forward wherever you feel like. Want you to play back a little more. Let's actually keep the arm free so we can reach into the glute. Lift, two, three.

Forward. Reach with the arm. Lift, two, three. Forward. So it's a glute focus.

Reach, lift two, three forward. And again reach. Lift two, three forward. Hug the knee into your chest. Come to a seat.

Legs out in front of you. Perhaps a little diamond stretch. Relax. And we come up. We go to the other side.

We have one knee bent, one leg straight. Let's keep the arm long and straight so we can when we reach forward. I forgot what I was doing. We reach forward, the arm can open. And when you reach back you're gonna squeeze the glute.

Lift. One, two, three, open. And one, two, three, and open. And one, two, three, open. Two more.

One, two, three, open. Last one. One, two, three. Hug the knee into your chest. And we're gonna come up to our seat again.

And then the transition, remember so we can sway side to side. You can step and you can step and you can choose which side you wanna step up on. Yeah. Last time we're gonna jump around. Are you ready?

Here we go. Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba Heels. Hm, hm, hm, hm. You can get a little bit dunking dance in it if you want. A little bit of Grateful Dead maybe.

Push, push, push into the whole foot now. Good. Breathing and picking up the pace. You wanna work a little harder, you'll lift those knees. Maybe a little higher.

You're getting a little tired. Just focus on the down action. Up to you. Right? Pa, pa, pa, pa, pa.

Good. Jumping jack comes now. I like to look around when I'm doing anything. So I'm gonna encourage you to do that, especially when we have these repetitive moves. Just kinda check out how it feels if you look in a different direction right.

Now, side to side. Ba, ba, big step. Big jump. Big jump. Landing.

Landing with a little bounce. And look where you're going. Look where you're going. Bap. One more time each side.

Good. Let's go through that sequence where we jump into plank one more time. And then we'll make a change. Round and roll forward. Walk out to your plank.

Good Hold. You can take one leg or you can take both. Here we go. Go. Go a little faster.

Nice and light on your feet. Light on your hands. Light in your land. So my knees are becoming a little bit bent when I land back there. And I'm fine with that, right?

I wanna be comfortable. One more time. Hold. You're in that forward position right. Now, you're gonna lift up.

You're gonna come down and you're gonna jump back. Hold, lift up, come down, jump back. Good. Lift up, come down and back. One more time.

Lift up, come down or back. Bring your knees in, cross your legs behind you. On your booty. With your legs out in front of you. All five fingers are facing forward.

We're gonna open through our heart. Straight, strong arms, straight legs. Look up. You could stay there if you want. It's a beautiful stretch.

Everybody, let's round our back, bend your elbows and come back a little. Press forward. Straight arms look up and round your back. And we're in back support now. So you can choose to bend one knee and lift up.

You can choose to lift with both legs and hold. Lower down and lift. Here we go. 10, nine, eight. Use your arms, use your back, use your breath.

Last one. And, straight legs. Walk yourself forward. Pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa. We're gonna roll back on your back flat.

Your arms are wide. Bend your knees, breathe in and breathe out. Allow your legs to sway to one side and sway to the other side. And breathing in. And breathing out good.

Bring your legs to neutral. Walk the feet closer together. Hug one knee into your chest. Slide the other leg out to straight. Breathing in and breathing out.

Change legs. One leg is in, the other leg is out. Breathing in and breathing out. Hug both knees into your chest. Breathing in and breathing out.

We're gonna lift the head and chest. We'll take a little rock up and transition one last time to our bellies. However you need to get there is fine. You can roll over your legs through plank or find your way. Take your hands wide, tuck your toes under.

Use your glutes, use your hamstrings. Lift to your back extension. Lift a little higher. You can keep your feet like this or you could relax your feet if that's better. Lower down.

Inhale and exhale. Full extension. Perhaps you can breathe when it makes sense. We're just looking for a little reverse here. You do you with back extension just a nice little extension.

One more like that. And then we have one more piece I wanna do before we officially close up here. So see if you can please take your hands behind the small of your back and clasp your fingers together. If you can't clasp, just do what you can. And then we're gonna stretch.

Roll the shoulders together, stretch the arms to straight and lifting a lovely little chest opener. Sway side to side a couple times, checking out your rotation. Breathing in. And breathing out. Gently release that.

Make your way to a child's pose or a rest pose in whatever way suits you. Sit back and relax for three breaths. And then make your way upright. And in whatever way makes sense to you please come to a standing position. And together, heart open.

Let's take three breaths. Inhale, feeling tall and energized and grounded. And exhale opening through your heart. And again. And one more time please.

This time we'll bring the hands together and just come down. And I thank you so much for playing. I'll see you next time.