Taking Up Space

I'm Christy Cooper, and today's class is all about taking up your space. It's like letting your body move the way it wants to. Filling yourself up, loosening up some joints, and hopefully feeling rejuvenated by the end of class. Let's begin. So little something different.

It's not actually not different for Pilates. He used to work outside. He got the blood moving, get out in the sun, And so I wanna have us just start to move easily with your feet parallel shift your body weight forward and back just so you can kinda start to feel your center of gravity over your ankles, your knees over your ankles, your hips over your knees, your ribs over your hips, shoulders over ribs and so on, up the top. From there, you get to lighten up again. Let's just roll the so I'm going right left. Just roll it around.

And I can't help, but actually add a little beat in my head. I'm bending the knees. I'm just like, what's up? Let's move. Circle it around, you know, when you're only taking 30 minutes of your day, which is a lot, I know. You wanna feel good right from the start. So let's just loosen up loosen up, loosen up, you can go as fast or as slow as you want, but just starting to lubricate the joints.

Taking up space, raise the shoulders, lower the shoulders. Get funky. It's alright. No one's watching, or maybe they are, but enjoy it. Whatever you do. How about both together? I'm gonna stop my knees moving and just reach them up and down and back. Feel good about it.

There's no right or wrong here. Just loosening up deciding you've you're gonna take time for yourself. You already did. Right? The hard part's over. So let's just keep that going. Keep it going because we're about to do some, like, jumping jacks.

Yep. I said it. We're gonna do it. Get the body moving. Get the heart rate up. Get your and adrenaline going just a little bit. Alright.

So let's just step out to 1 and in and out and and you can just stay there. Right? Again, imaginary beat in my head. What's going on for you? Either stay here or let's go big. Let's do, like, 10 jumping jacks or more. Let's go take it up and down and up and down.

Kinda rolling through your feet if you can help it up and down and up and down. I should not tell you how many because I'm gonna do 10 more now, though. 1n, 2n, 3n, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Of course, 9, 10, and then just walk it out. Easy, right? Kinda got you going a little bit. I hope. Alright. And now there's sort of classic old school outdoor exercise Joseph Pilates used to do with marching This is the way I'm gonna do it today. So, again, if you need to walk around, do. Let's take arm over arm.

So forearm over forearm. It doesn't matter which is on top, but use them. Help yourself. You press the bottom forearm into the top. Alright. It's almost like you're on you put your forearms on a table and why I say that? Is because it's very tempting to raise the shoulders. Instead, you're gonna drop those shoulders down as if your arms were on a table that you were pushing on. From there, let's pick up that right knee way up.

You're not leaning forward for it. You're gonna stay here with the arms. That's your marker. Set it down. Other side, pick it up. And down. Now, look, if you need to pull a table of chair, go for it.

No no big deal, because balance is gonna be part of this whole class. So if you wobble, don't worry about it. Just be safe. Here we go. Pick it up, down, other side, up, down, up, and down, and up. And try and touch those forums without leaning into it. List and list and list isn't this fun.

Yep. It's a little military like. I know. That's okay. Use those arms to help you balance. Literally push them into each other. Let's go five.

4, 3, 2, and 1. Now take those arms behind your head. It's exact same exercise. You could just switch the forums, but I'm gonna go behind for a little bit more of a challenge to the balance. Let's take the knee out to the side.

Set it down. Doesn't don't worry how your feet land in terms of being perfect or parallel. Just put them down. Other side up. Oh, And, yeah, a little faster now. We lift.

Lift. Lift. And lift. And yeah. Oh, yeah. Imagine you're just waking up the body up and up kind of fast, vigorous, pumping not only the joints, but a little bit of the heart. Right? Let's do 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. Let it go. Shake it off.

Next thing would do. Once you kinda get your heart rate back, if it's up at all, we're gonna do a roll down, and then we're gonna do what I love, which is really letting go. Alright. I'm gonna show you from the side. Essentially, if you don't wanna really toss your weight around, what you could do is just roll yourself down Right? Your top of your head is heavy. You inhale. Try not to lean back with your hips. Start the exhale and roll back up.

That's what you could do if you don't wanna do the other option, which is to take the arms up. Again, no right or wrong. Knees soft and you widen your stance. Make a comfy. You don't wanna hit your head if you're really flexible. You're just gonna drop and lift up. Like, let the momentum do it, inhale, up, expand. Remember we're taking up space and up and down to go up, down, really letting go.

You know, what we know about all movement really is the less tension you have, the more efficient you're gonna move. Let's give yourself 3 more, 1, and 2, and 3 all the way up. Inhills, stretch, stretch, stretch, and exhale. Let it go. Alright. From here, we are going into a side bend.

I'm gonna stand with the feet a little bit wide, just a little bit wide. Will turn out. Again, balance your feet so you feel like you're almost like on a tripod of support, supporting ourselves, let's take the arms up behind our heads. I laced my fingers together, and I'm mentioning it only because it's sorta nice to almost lift the back of the head. So it's like I'm hooking my thumbs or my whole hand, really, right there at that ridge. It allows me to keep the neck long.

And from here, we're going to just lift up and over to the right. So my feet are parallel, and I'm keeping the weight pretty evenly distributed on both sides come back to center, other side, inhale up and over. And the trick here really to get the side body is to not rotate. So as you go over, here's the way I like to do it, is I let that bottom arm, the arm closest to the ground, arm I'm leaning towards, let it come down, and touch a thigh, actually push into it, not just with the hand, but the whole arm, And then it's like the upper elbow goes up or really flare those ribs and inhale as you go a little lower. Start the exhale come back up. Stay on the side and enjoy that for a bit, inhale up and over.

So we're not leaning away from the foot. We're really trying to get this curve in the spine so you get the stretch on the opposite side and up, up and over. And back up, up and over. Oh, come on. You can make it really work. If you wanna really add to it, you could go over and extend the arm just a little.

It's not critical, but could do it. Sometimes it's better just to leave the elbow, so I'm gonna stay there couple more here. Open over. Are you locking your knees? I just caught myself doing that, so I'm not gonna do that. I set a couple momentum and do actually one more after that. Here it is.

I've been over. Now extend that arm. Reach them in absolute opposite directions. Now as if someone had your wrist up top, let yourself be pulled back up and switched to the other side. So the long arm on the left side now, elbow up, and we rotate or not rotate side bend and come back up.

Again, it's almost like bellows. Right? You just inhale, flare those ribs and exhale. The lower arm, the arm, the hand, the arm on your leg can help you. Just gives a little support and hopefully helps you feel that side body. It touched more. Let's do five more in here and exhale. Checking to see that you're not leaning Right? You're still trying to do your best to stay on both feet.

Over and up and just in case one more over and up. Yes. Now it gets a little more interesting. This is the place where you might want a little bit of assistance with a table, a chair, a pole, a wall, You might not, though. Just don't worry about a little wobble. We're going into, some hip mobility.

So I'm gonna take that right leg out. Just reaching out in front of me and toes are on the ground, bring it a little closer, bend the knee, cross it over. Now here's the thing. Maybe put your hands on your hips or just be aware of your hips. That you're not gonna change them as best you can. You pick the knee up. You circle it out to the side. You come down. You can touch the ground.

Please do. Crossover again. Oh, and lift up. Open and down. Right? You're just sliding forward across the body. Lift it up. Do what you can without a whole lot of change in the hips.

Open and down. 2 more. You can go a little faster. Really stirring it up. Okay. You're down. Right? Toes are touching. Of course, you're gonna go the other way.

So open out to the side. Lift it up, circle across the body. Touch down. Over to the side. Lift it up. Cross over.

Touch down. Open. Lift. To your best to relax your feet. Even again, if you wobble, no big deal.

Up over and around. Let's do two more a little quicker just so you really feel like you're stirring it up. And voila, other side. Take that left leg up front. Bend it closer to you before you lift it, the crossover.

Again, you didn't turn your whole body. Just whatever you can. It's small. Right? Pick it up, open it out, down, and across, up. So these are the things we do on the floor to warm up the hip joint, really. Lubricate the hip joint.

A little harder standing. That's for sure. 2 more, a little more fluid up and around. And up and around. You know what comes next? Either way, he could go slower or faster.

Helps to kinda fixate on one spot with your eyes. I mean, 2 to go. Up and around and up and around. Well, if that was fun, gets much better from here. Go back to that right side. Heading into, again, what's normally done on the floor, but sometimes it's nice just to stay upright and get your ab work. So we're going into what's called the single leg stretch. Take that right leg out.

I'm just stretching it forward. Now in an upright position, remember how we talked about hips over knees and ankles, so we're gonna try and stay neutral in the pellet us as best we can, we're gonna draw that knee up and hug it towards us, and then just extend it out. Feel free to touch the ground. I'm going to. Pull it in and up and extend it down. Now imagine you weren't doing it with your arms at all.

You have to a little bit. But you drew it, it's like think about pull pulling that leg up before you do so the abs kick in and then hug it. There's 3. I know. And hug it and out. One more. Hug it and out. Now let's switch sides, actually.

Let's just switch for now. Other leg goes out and we pull it up. Take that stretch. It's different. Right? You were not trying to hike the hip. We keep it level as possible. Take it out.

Lift hug it in close and stretch, lift, and stretch a few more. Lift and stretch, lift, and stretch the last one here. We are going back to the first site only this time We're gonna do our best to keep the hips level or neutral, if you will. When we come up though, we're gonna fold right under the chest. Imagine you're lying on the ground and doing a chest lift.

And then extend it out. Let's go 5, extend 4, extend 3. Allow that upper back to round. And switch legs. Left side comes up. Go ahead and do a little fold to to so the opposite leg is very straight. Right? And out.

If you know a single leg stretch on the floor, you'd be reaching that straight leg. Get their little round. You can use your arms. There's no reason not to help yourself there. 3 more. 1.

So you come out of that curve, by the way, for this one. Okay. For funsies alternate, pick up the right knee up, step down, other side, up, take that stretch, single leg stretch, up up. I kind of extend the leg out because it simulates closer to what you'll be doing on the floor when you go there. One more each side.

And voila, just a quick note of the elbows going wide. Remember that when you do go to the floor. Alright. Shake it out. This one requires a tiny bit of balance. It's the crisscross here.

So what we'll do is take that right leg up. Again, you might need a wall for this one because I'm gonna hook my arm underneath this right knee. Here it comes. Where's the wall when I need it? Now pull it way up. Here's the fun part. You're gonna rotate towards that thigh.

So the chest goes toward the thigh. We'll go ahead and allow the contraction of the upper body. Take it down. Do it again. Pull it up and rotate. Come back to center.

Maybe you could take the hand behind your head, the free hand, and rotate. Pull it up. And rotate 2 more. Up. Who said standing Pilates is he?

Okay. Other side. Left leg out. I like to get that, like, kind of point. And, again, when I said about looking at a spot, It does help with balance, so it doesn't have to be down at the toe or straight ahead or to the side, but pick something so you're not looking all around. Alright. Take a second. Pick up that knee. Hook it. Pull it way up.

Now that you're there, you're gonna not turn the knee out. You're gonna turn towards it. Let it go. Pick it up again. Oh, and isn't it fun to have two sides that seem to not talk to each other sometimes? Again, we did hand wind ahead. You can go ahead and do the flexion of the upper trunk.

Let's do one more here, actually. Alright. Both hands behind your head. Should we try to alternate? Yes, Christy. You should have fun with it. Alright? Pick it up the knee as high as you can and seen the spine, try not to tuck. A lot of words for a small action. Let's go. It's like you're taking that shoulder to opposite knee switch.

So you kinda kinda have to place yourself, right, before you pick it up again. Be ready as best you can. Up. And down and up and down and up and down. And up, we'll do 4 more. There's one.

2, look for drawing that leg up with the abs. Right on. You can let the arms release and relax. Let's go into our side bend here. So from here, let's go with the arms behind the head again. Same deal with the head. Chin is not looking up.

It's down. Neck is long. We're gonna side bend enough that we can lift that left leg. So I do have my legs turned out a little, and then here's where you might want your arms long just for balance. Either way, we lift the leg, and touchdown. Lift the leg.

Touch down. Lift the leg. 5 of 10. Other leg is straight, maybe not locked 5. And 4 knee pointed forward on the moving leg.

Then let's go up one more time. I am gonna extend my arms because I want a little more balance, and we'll just pulse up ten. 9, 8, 7 is not huge. Touch when you need to. Oh, that's very close to 10. Set it down. Let's go the other way.

Hands behind your head, or keep them out long. It's really up to you. Let it be semi enjoyable for a leg left side bend, lean onto that left leg. Check the back of your neck. You're not looking up.

And we lift. Kinda hard with the arms behind you. Lift and lift. There's 4 We did 10 ish, 6, 7, and, 8, and, 9, and, 10. You're gonna extend your arms like I did, and I'm pushing through a solid. There's balance there. If all you do is that lift 10, 9, 8, 7, and 65, 4, 3, 2, and 1.

Now then, I know we're gonna be upright most of the class, but we're gonna do some for our hands, some for the strength of our arms as well, which means that we're going to. I'm gonna turn sideways. You probably will want to as well. We're gonna do what's called Upstretch 2. It's just putting our shoulders in place.

It's take a deep breath in, just raise the arms up, my feet are parallel about hip distance. And now as you round forward, Get your hands to the floor. If you need to bend your knees, that's okay. Go ahead. Then you're gonna walk forward until you're in a plank position. A nice long plank position.

If you all you do is hold this, that's great. Here's the deal. My fingers are spread out. My shoulders are over my wrist. My feet are flexed. That's sort of not natural for a lot of us.

So flex those feet. Then as if someone came in from underneath your waistline, your belly button pulled you up, you get to press back into a pyramid like shape. Do your best to get your heels down, not critical if they do. Keep those arms straight, and then just come forward again. Keep those feet flexed. Nice long plank.

Lift from the belly. Like, some least did you from there. When you're in this upright position, hang out for a second, do your best to have a long flat back For a lot of us, that's gonna mean bend the knees a little, reach the tailbone more, push into the palms of the hands, and then eventually guide yourself towards a long leg. Inhale to plank. Include your head there. Don't hang it. Excel lift up.

And, again, the plank, feel how strong your arms are. They're not really moving, are they? I mean, they're, you're adjusting around the shoulder joint, but they're your arms to stay where they started. Lift up. Hang out here for a minute. You may need to walk your feet a little closer.

I'm just gonna lift my left leg up. I'm not opening the hips. So it's gonna feel a little unsatisfactory for some of you who are flexible, but let's just add in a little glute work right there by lifting little pulse, pressing your upper body through your arms, lift, lift, lift, and lift. Come back to the plank. Put that foot down. Let's go back up with the other foot.

Doing your best to get your ears between your upper arms and lift the leg up. Up. It's small. Do it not from the foot, but from the hamstring. 5 more. Lift, 2, and 3. 4, and 5 come on back down. Foot goes down.

Lift to the pyramid again with both feet down. Walk your hands back. To your feet. Maybe your feet toward your hands, whichever feels right, and then roll yourself back. Up.

Okay. How are we doing? We're gonna get a little more rotation in. It's amazing what you can do just mostly upright. Here we go. So traditionally just done very, like, staccato. I'm gonna do it a little slower and hopefully, tiny bit more graceful, but you can adjust. We take both arms up.

And it's it's called it's a saw, basically. I'm not sure what it's called, but that's how I'm gonna call it. And we're gonna take the right arm down keep sweeping it back that left arm is going to saw off just outside the ankle. So I'm crossing the body, other arm is pushing up, and then we roll back up. Both arms up. So left arm down this time.

You're gonna dive forward. So my back is rounding to get there. I'm gonna saw off that left ankle as I push the opposite arm straight up, reaching it up, and roll it up. Go a little faster, so it's drop the arm. Roll it down.

Come back up and switch. Drop, roll up, and switch down to come up. And switch to come up and switch now go a little wider. Same thing. Same thing. Just you're gonna have to reach more without leaning away. Here we go.

Go and up and switch and go and up and switch and go up. Switch the last one. Go up both arms up and just exhale. Okay. From here, we're doing swimming standing. Sort of. So it goes like this.

I'm turning sideways so you can see what I'm going for. What we're trying for really here is the trump to be long, you will end up hinging forward. You have to to stay in the position, but let's take one leg back. Doesn't matter which. Get on the balls of the feet or really the back of the toes. Like, you're gonna propel yourself forward.

From there, that's where I'm gonna hip hinge. Right? So I'm not rounding my back to do it. I wanna feel this energy in the back of my leg first. I'm gonna hit hinge both arms up Okay. Now you can kinda see where I'm going with this manange a little bit more, not much, and then I list it like. And a lift leg and down.

Now take the same arm of the leg that's lifting and put it down. And the one that remains in the air is also gonna reach back. Okay. So ribs are contained, you're not flaring, your blowback feels super fine, and we just lift and lift. So same side, Both the arm and the leg doing those little pulses. Let's do 5 more. 1 and 2, I am touching down. You don't have to. 2 more.

Woilap, bring it all back to center. Yeah? Switch. So, again, I like to start with that foot on the ground, so other switched sides, And it's like I'm propelling myself forward so that I automatically already have the back of the leg and hip in action. Yeah? From there, both arms up. That's where I'm gonna hinge a little bit more, so it feels like it's all in one line when the leg comes up.

And lift the leg touch. Lift the leg touch. Let the hand that matches the leg that's lifting off the ground, come down. And let's go 10. And now I've added that upper arm pulling back 4, 5, and 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Alright.

Come on back. Walk it off. Shake it out. We are so close. We gotta deal with the hands. We did the feet. We did the hips. We did a little bit spinal action in both directions.

Let's do the hands. Come back after this. This one's tough. Don't don't let this be the end. Okay. So taking your fingers, it's like make a circle. Yeah? And I've got my, thumbs over the nail, the rest of my nails, just like so.

Okay. Arms are kind of bowed out to the side real close to you, and all you're gonna do is just, I call it flicking. It it's actually something they were doing back in the 60, so it's not new. I'm not making this up. You get a flick and bring it back. Like, you wanna hear it, like, flick.

I can't make you hear it, but try on yourself. You're just flicking flicking you bring it strong. It's very strong. Nothing else happens. It's just let's work these forums.

Let's get our grip strength. Let's Get off the computers, not right now, but here we go. And we're gonna take it up the front, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, I'm at the middle of the chest. Now go higher. 323 4, come on, power, power, keep them close. Power, elbows are still to the side.

Let's come around the side. 2, 3, 4, go faster. We don't really have to count. It's just habit for me to try. Let's go the other way. Take it up, up, up. Up.

Come on. What what do you got? What do you got? I know you're getting tired with this. Who doesn't? Well, maybe you're not, but I do. Come down the front. Go. Go. Go. Like, it's a starburst.

Come on. Make it strong. Get it all the way back in. Almost like I have to do sound effects sometimes. Can we do one more round? Here down at the bottom, we're going up the front, up, up, up, up, up, up, all the way all the way, all the way, all the way, open, open, open, open, open. I know. I'm with you.

Reverse it up the side, around, up. You still hear it? Can you try? Is it getting numb? It's okay. We can handle it coming down the front. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it.

It it it it. It. Shake it out. Shake it out. Check it out. You might don't even know if I roll them sometimes. Sometimes I wanna do a big stretch, but sometimes I'm not ready for that either, but meaning turn the palm over.

You do what we're for you. I'm just checking them out for today, and we're gonna end just like we started with that release and the draw. So this is the chance for you to go. Did I fill up more space? Did I take up my time in a good way and and will I do it out in the world? That's up to you.

I'm gonna turn sideways again just to do that release and drop. We just inhale, let the shoulders, the ribs, everything rise, let the knees be soft, exhale, and drop. Email app. Let go. This is a great way to let those forums go again. I'm doing just three more. Again, you can do a roll down if you prefer.

Here's to let go of whatever you don't need, bring in whatever you want. Stay up in here. Stretch and exhale and feel good about the time you took for yourself. Thank you so much for joining me today.