Konnections for Mat 2.0

Hi, everyone. My name is Viktor Uygan, inventor of Konnector and founder of Konnect Method. Today, I'm gonna show to you and introduce you Konnections band for the Konnections class. And I have here Christine Crooks. She will be actually doing the same exercises that I'm doing with a resistance band.

And you just have to tie a loop to the resistance band, and all the directions that you will need, it will be on the description of this video. So this is the Konnections band. I have already loops in here so we are gonna put it on your feet. One goes behind my heel, and the second part goes right underneath my foot. If you have the regular loops, the resistance band, you're gonna have one loop and you're gonna place it right underneath your feet.

So once you have the loops on your feet, you're gonna take the band, you're gonna stand hip width apart and grab the band with your hands, and bring it behind you. Once it's behind you, bring your hands under and over. So you are actually grabbing the band underneath this way. So once you do that, then you're gonna cross it. And now we are ready to start the first exercise.

Feel the band hugging you gently. You can change that resistance by opening your arms more, and then by releasing down. So we are gonna include our breathing to this. Inhale, expand your ribs. (Viktor inhales) Feel that you're stretching the band.

And exhale, let the band hug your ribs. And inhale. (Viktor inhales) Expand your ribs. And exhale. (Viktor exhales) Beautiful.

Let's start to add some arm movement. External rotation. And exhale, relax. (Viktor exhales) Two more. Inhale.

(Viktor inhales) And exhale. (Viktor exhales) One last time. Inhale. (Viktor inhales) And exhale. All right, release the band, and you're gonna bring it in front of you once again.

Holding the band. Now really extend with your arms, ground your feet on the floor, and feel nice and tall. The goal from here, you're feeling really grounded while you're stretching the band. And just feel the feedback from the band. What is it trying to do?

It's trying to bring you in and you're not letting it. So from here, let's continue with the breathing. Inhale, bring your arms back. And exhale, forward. Introduce little bit extension to your spine when you inhale, and flexion when you exhale.

Let's try to get bigger with the arm movement all the way back. Inhale and down. Now come up, exhale and forward. And inhale. (Viktor inhales) And exhale.

(Viktor exhales) One more set. Inhale. Exhale. And bring the band up, put your feet together. From here, we're gonna step sideways and open your arms.

Inhale. And then you're going to keep the band behind you. Put your feet together, bend your knees, and exhale and tuck like a small ball. Now we're gonna go step the other side. Inhale, step with the left.

(Viktor inhales) And exhale, come back in. (Viktor exhales) Inhale, open up like a flower. Exhale, close. Inhale. And exhale, close.

One more time. Inhale, open up. We are gonna do a different version. When we close, the standing leg arm is gonna reach up and you're gonna bend sideways. Inhale.

And then step off the other way. And come back in. Inhale, bend your knees. Beautiful. And open up.

And come back in. Inhale, step sideways. Exhale, come back in. One last set. Inhale.

And exhale. Come back in. Last one. Inhale. Exhale, come back in.

And relax the band. Shake your arms. We are ready to go to next set. From here, you're gonna step right in the middle of the band with your right foot, bend your elbows, biceps, and bend your knee up. From here, you're gonna exhale and press down with your right leg and come up.

Five more. Six reps. Two. Feel nice and tall, trying to not touch the floor. This is a balance and stamina exercise. We're gonna fatigue the standing leg.

Two more. Five. One more. Six. Come back, pause.

Now we're gonna extend the right leg. And forward. One, two. Beautiful. Four more. Three, four, five, and six, hold it.

Now six small kicks up. Kick, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. And bent, and relax. Beautiful. Release the band.

Let's repeat the same thing other side. We are stepping with the left foot down, bend your elbows, find your biceps, and start pressing down. Come up, one, and two, and three. Trying to make it even pressing down and coming up. Don't let the band control your movement.

You are controlling it. And hold, extension. And 1, two, three, four, five, six, hold, and six kicks. Up, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Smile and control, and come back in.

Beautiful. Wonderful. Now that we did standing work, we're gonna go down and we're gonna continue moving with the Konnections band. To start, let's do the roll up. Our starting position, it's gonna be a little different. Arms is gonna be up and find the resistance from the band.

Once you find that, inhale from your nose, exhale, start the movement with your pelvic tilt, and continue with your spinal articulation. Keep your arms next to your ears as much as you can. And roll down all the way. Find that position. Once you lay down, you're really reaching with your fingers away from your toes.

Nice straight line. Inhale from your nose. Exhale, let's go up. Tuck your chin in. Keep your arms next to your ears.

Once you come up the starting position, you're gonna do extend, bring the band behind you, and reach forward to support your extension with the band. Once you find that, you're gonna exhale and you're gonna roll down again. Arms in front of you. Keep the arms there all the way down. And let's come up.

(Viktor exhales) And extend and come back. Arms over. Inhale. And exhale, roll down. Inhale.

Exhale, up. (Viktor exhales) And inhale. (Viktor inhales) Exhale, roll down. (Viktor exhales) (Viktor inhales) (Viktor exhales) Last set. Inhale.

Exhale, roll down. (Viktor exhales) (Viktor inhales) (Viktor exhales) And inhale. (Viktor inhales) (Viktor exhales) (Viktor inhales) And exhale, roll up. (Viktor exhales) Hold the last position. Enjoy the supported band providing you from your thoracic spine, and bend your elbows, bring the band in front of you, and just breathe.

From here, we're gonna go down. We're gonna do something very, very traditional. You're gonna roll down on your back, legs to tabletop. Reach straight up with your hands, we're gonna do hundreds. Only difference, we're gonna keep the leg in the tabletop position.

Inhale from your nose, tuck your chin in. Exhale, lift your chest up. Bring the hands, press down. Make sure the band between your hands goes over your knees and creates a resistance. Once you find that resistance, start your hundreds.

Inhale, 2, 3, 4, 5. Exhale, 2, 3, 4, 5. Two. Exhale, 2, 3, 4, 5. Three.

Four. Exhale, 2, 3, 4, 5. Five. Six. Try to keep your legs steady.

Eight. 2, 3, 4, 5. Exhale, 2, 3, 4, 5. Nine. 2, 3, 4, 5.

Last. 2, 3, 4, 5. Exhale, 2, 3, 4, 5. Hold, and roll down, and breathe. Beautiful. From here, let's continue with the traditional exercises.

Rollover, there's the two different ways to do this. One, you can put the band in the crease of your hip flexors. I'm gonna roll down just a little bit forward on the mat. Make sure that you have a space behind you. The band could be on your hips, and you will move exactly the traditional movement pattern that we do.

And the second version, the band will be behind you, which is I'm gonna do the second version with you guys. And from here, you're gonna cross the band with your feet. So it's gonna look just like that. I will redo it one more time after I came up. I'm just gonna cross it this way, and I'm ready to go.

The only difference, I do have a little bit resistance between my legs. Inhale from your nose. And from your exhale, roll over. Keep your legs parallel to floor, flex your foot, and maybe dock your legs a little bit, and slowly roll down keeping that position, and come back in, and put your legs together and start again. (Viktor exhales) Flex your foot, and open, and roll down.

Legs together. Up and over. Flex your foot. And open, and roll down. Let's reverse it.

Open your legs to the side. Up and over. Flex your foot, put them together, and roll down. Open your legs, up and over, flex your foot, put them together, and roll down. And last one.

Open your legs. Exhale, scoop to roll back. Flex your foot, legs together, and roll down. Bend your knees in, roll yourself up, and let's take the band off, and relax. Next.

From here, we are gonna do sidekicks. You're gonna place on your left side, sideways, and you have different options for your body position. You can keep your elbows underneath your shoulder, you can lay down and support your head with your hands, or you could go all the way down, use your arms as a pillow. I will be showing you today on the elbows. Feel nice and tall.

If you pick this option, please do not collapse. Really push yourself up. We are holding the band with our hands right from the middle, and we're gonna kick forward with the legs and bring the hands behind you. So we kick twice, kick, kick, and extend back, and feel the opposition in between your hands and with your feet. You're stretching the band.

And go. Kick, kick, extend. Kick, kick, reach. Three more. Kick, kick, reach.

Kick, kick, reach. One more. Kick, kick, reach. And hold, shove that opposition again. And relax.

From here, come up, your legs in front of you, both feet flex together. You're gonna open on your arms to the side. We are gonna do twist there. This is one version to do it. And the second one, behind your shoulders.

If it's behind the shoulders, you wanna make sure the band is not touching you. All right? Especially in the twist phase. When I twist and I move my arm, the band is gonna touch me. So I want the twist to happen from the spine, not from the shoulders.

Yeah. So from here. Feel nice and tall. Inhale. Lets twist to the right.

Twist, twist, center. Left, left, center. And twist. Come back to the left. Center.

Two more. Center. One more. Center. And bend your elbows.

Bring the band in front of you. Now we are gonna go other side. Doing the sidekick. And once again, press with your right elbows down, feel nice and tall, your feet stuck on top of each other, and let's kick forward twice. Kick, kick, and reach, opposition.

And two. And reach. And three. Reach. Four.

Reach. Five. Reach. And six. And reach.

Beautiful. Come back center. Now, we're gonna do twist with little bit twist. So from here, you're gonna scoop a band with your right foot. So there's a resistance between your feet.

Open your arms to the side, we're gonna go away from the right foot which is to the left. Twist, twist, center. Repeat to the left again. Twist, twist, center. Twist, twist, center.

One more. Twist, twist, center, and breathe. Undo the twist with your right foot, now you're gonna scoop with the left. Hold your position. Now, you're gonna turn to the right.

Twist, twist, center. Two, center. Three, center. Four, center. And breathe.

We're going back to sidekick because just by changing the position of the band, we are gonna get totally different experience right now. First kick, we did it band in front of your body. Now open your legs, drop the band on the floor, and reach behind your back and grab the band behind you. So we are gonna repeat the same thing. Kick, kick.

Hello. Do you feel the difference? Now there is a more resistance in your body. Backwards and repeat. Two, forward. Three, forward.

Four. Two more. One more. Hold, hold, hold, hold, and relax. Let's come up.

Now from here, we do saw. First, the front hand that is gonna saw is gonna hold the band. And no, I lied. The opposite. The hand that is going away from the leg is gonna hold the band.

So we're gonna go to the right and stretch the band with the left, and saw, 2, 3. Come up, change the band, and let's do the other side. Saw, 2, 3. And come up. Pay attention.

What is the backhand doing? Is it really stretching that band? And up. And left. Two, three.

And up. One more set. Right. Two, three. come up.

And to the left. Two, three, and up. Now let's go do the sidekick again. You're on your right side. Drop the band, open the legs, reach behind.

Hold the band once again. And from here, kicking forward. One, two, resist the band, reach back. And one, two, and back. Two.

And four. Reach back. Five. Six. And back.

Resist, and relax. Beautiful. Let's come up. Now, the second version of the saw. Both arms to the side.

And from here, twist to the left. Now there's a band between your hands, so you're stretching those bands away from each other. And 1, 2, 3. And come up. And other side.

1, 2, 3. And reach. And forward. Two, three. Big smile.

And other side. Come up, one more set. And to the right. Two, three. Inhale.

And exhale, 2, 3. Inhale up. And breathe. Beautiful. Next, we're gonna go prone and we're gonna do swimming.

So make sure when you lay down, you're not laying on the band, the bands are free. Hands underneath your shoulder. Reach forward, find the opposition in between your feet and your hands. You're supporting your head, it's not down on the mat. Feel nice and long, but don't come up to extension yet.

From here, cross arm and legs comes up, and hold. Bring that side down, repeat other side. Up and hold. And down. Other side.

And switch, and down. Switch, and down. Switch, and down. Switch. One more time, come up and hold.

Now without going down, you're gonna swap the sides, and change, change, change, change, change, change, change, change. Fast as you can go. Keep going. Five seconds. Four, three, two, one. And relax.

Bend your elbows, bend your knees, and push yourself back to child pose, release your back a little bit, and breathe. (Viktor inhales) (Viktor exhales) Beautiful. Next, we are gonna do double leg kick version. Before we lay down on our stomach, you're gonna take the band and bring it behind your neck and in front of your shoulders like this. All right?

So from here, keep the band there, and gently lay down on your stomach. Once you do that, you're gonna take the bands behind you, your hands on your side, alright? And you can cross your hands, holding the band here. Or you're gonna cross the bands. All right?

And just relax your hands behind you. So from here, same exercise. We're gonna kick the legs to your glutes three times. 1, 2, 3. Inhale, extend, and open your arms.

Another side. Kick, 2, 3. Inhale. And exhale. Two, three.

Inhale. 1, 2, 3. (Viktor inhales) Last set. (Viktor inhales) Kick, 2, 3. Inhale.

And relax. Let go of the band, push yourself back to child pose. Stretch your lower back, and breathe. Good. Coming out of here.

Slowly stack your spine on top of each other. Now from here, we're gonna go down, lay down on our back once again, we're gonna do controlled balance. From here, find your position, roll down, control. Bring your arms towards the ceiling. From here, arms are gonna help the legs to come up and over until your toes are touching to the floor.

Flex your foot, your toes on the floor. From here, inhale from your nose and control and extend the right leg away from your hands. Keep pressing down with your hands to the floor. Find that control. And then come back in, and repeat the same thing other side.

(Viktor exhales) Find opposition, lengthening, lengthening lengthening, and then come back down. If you wanna find more challenge, return phase, you're gonna move both legs same time. And from here, we move. (Viktor exhales) And one more. (Viktor exhales) Bring the right leg down, and slowly roll down.

Beautiful. From here, we're gonna keep the arms down and bring the legs down, and we're gonna do teaser. Inhale from your nose. And exhale, come up and stretch the band, bringing your arms behind you, feel nice and tall. And from here, let's go down together.

Legs down and arms down, the upper body down. Before you relax, let's go up again. (Viktor exhales) Feel nice and tall. And slowly the roll down. One more.

(Viktor exhales) Feel nice and tall. And bend your knees. And relax. (Viktor exhales) I hope you guys are enjoying this teaser. Now what we're gonna do, we're gonna go back on our stomach prone, and we are gonna do swan dive.

All right. Lay down on your stomach. First thing, you have to get comfortable with this. We did the swimming. Now you want to make sure you are finding your swan, and coming down.

There's a tension on the band with your hands. Let's do two more just to open up our spine. Breathe, inhale coming up, and go down. And last one. Now from here, we're gonna hold and we're gonna dive, six rep, and we are gonna meet here.

Inhale and go forward. Rock. Up, up. Three, four, five. Last one.

And come up. and breathe. And relax. We are gonna do one single rep only six times. You can be in the child pose if you wanna stretch your back.

Once you find that, we're gonna do some side lying work. Not lying this time. Side band work. I apologize. So let's start with the right arm.

Extend your legs on top of each other. There's are different ways you can do this. You can keep one foot in front of the other. That actually is the easier version. I'm gonna attempt to show you the more difficult.

Both feet on top of each other. We are holding the band from here. Inhale from your nose, and you're gonna extend your legs. Create a one straight line with your body, with your arms. Hold it there.

We're gonna open the leg up and down. Open up, and down. Two. One more. Three.

And bend. You could repeat exactly the same thing we did, or I'm gonna give you a challenging one. We're gonna go up. From here, the top leg scoops under the band, and now opens up. Resistance.

One, two, three, and relax. Beautiful. Let's do the other side. All right. Both feet on top of each other from here.

And push against the floor to lift yourself to plank position. Hold, and lift, and close. Two more. One more. And come back in.

Next one. And let's come up. Now the challenging version. Scoop the band under, and open. Two.

Three. And relax. (Viktor deeply exhales) How are we doing? All right, it is time to stand up. We are gonna hold the band once again from the center.

I want you to open up and feel how we started. The only difference, gently bring your hands down, so the band is in the middle of your head, so there's a little bit pressure. So you're pushing up towards the ceiling against that pressure with the top of your head. You can even bring your legs underneath. You just feel your feet is pressing down to the ground.

You're reaching up to the ceiling or the sky with the top of your head, and you're pushing with your arms away from each other. Beautiful. Open your legs to the side. And from here, let's bring the band underneath you. We're gonna roll down, reach to the floor.

With the left hand, we're gonna reach to the right foot. And with the right arm, we're gonna reach towards the ceiling and create a twist. Come back, center. Right hand goes to the left foot, and left hand reaches to the ceiling. Feel nice and long.

And next set. You reach up to the ceiling with the right, now, bend your right knee. And straighten your right knee, come back to the center. Transfer your way to the left. Reach with the left arm to the ceiling, bend your left knee, and come back in the center.

Bring your feet close to each other. Slowly roll up. And one last thing we're gonna do right now is a bow and arrow. From here, I'm gonna show you sideways turning. You're gonna reach up with your left arm to the ceiling, and then you're gonna push the right arm forward.

From here, left leg bends, and extend away from you. And bend, and extend. And bend, and extend. Bend. Extend.

One more. Bend, and hold it there. Now bring the knee forward, round your spine, make sure the band stays behind you. Keep pushing forward the front arm, knee up, and then go back to extension. Inhale, smile.

And again. Exhale. Don't rush. Find the roundness flexion. And then come back. One last time.

And come back in, (Viktor exhales) And go back. Feel nice and long. And relax. Beautiful. I'm gonna turn to the other side.

Same. The right arm reaches up to the ceiling, left one pushes forward. Right arm bends. Sorry, right leg bends. Now we're gonna extend the right leg, and bend. Repeat four more times.

Two. And three. And four. Be aware of where your arms are. And five.

Keep the leg bend. Now we're gonna go forward. Round your spine. Bring the right knee in, push the left arm forward, and go back, and hold. We're gonna do this two more times.

Come back in, round your spine, and back. Long, long, long, long. One more time. And in, in, in, in. And come up.

Smile, and relax. (Viktor deeply exhales) Beautiful. Thank you so much for joining me, Konnections class. This is where I use external resources to create internal connections in human movement. See you in my next class.