Twist & Tone

So you may find in Pilates that we generally don't use weights and if we're using weights, we're gonna use low weights. So if we're looking to train athletes or ourselves, push our practice on it can be fun to explore the realms of heavier weights or also some movements that go outside of the Pilates boundaries, and that's what these workouts are about. Okay. Let's begin. So let's start with a warm up. So Just start standing. I like to start standing anyway. It brings that energy to that workout.

So what we're gonna do is just get some movement through the body and then we'll start to bring those twists and turns in as well. So feet, a little wider than hip distance, arms out in front, and we'll just start by bending on each and just get the blood circulating. Just lifting your arms up, swiping your arms, but stay strong through your feet. So we're nice and connected and grounded. Now, let's begin to add a little twist to this. So as we come up, let's go back twist come up to all back and twist and then come up to all. And again, Let's go a couple more on each side.

Lift. And up. One more. And last one. Lift. Oh, okay. Now from here, same thing with the squats, but let's make the twist happen.

From the bottom of our body. So here we go. We're gonna squat down and then twist. Come back through the center, squat down and twist. And again, So two more. Here we go. 1 Enter.

And then stand tall. Shake that out. Okay. Take your feet a little wider. I'm gonna start to bring that rotation from side to side and I love the feeling I get here as the blood flows all the way to my fingertips. So, Stay strong. Stay centered and just let the arms swing.

A couple more. Alright. Bring that through to the center. Okay. Take your feet a little wider. Hands and prayer position.

And spread your fingers wide. Is gonna go in the sternum, four finger under your chin. Soft bending the knees, and then rotate. And again. What we're trying to do here is move with the obliques rather than just turning the head, which is why we have our hands where they are.

1 more each way. Okay. Stand tall. Take your feet a little wider still. Turn one foot out. Bend that knee. This hand can go wherever you want it.

I'm gonna place mine on my hip. The other arm up to the ceiling and I'm gonna reach down. Touch the floor here. Knee bends and straighten the leg. Reach. And again, 3 more.

Really reach it up. Last one. And then we changed sites. So start up tall, big reach, press down, and then push through the legs, pushing through the legs, reaching through your arms. 2 more. Last one. Alright.

Nice. Okay. From here, we're gonna stand here and lower ourselves onto our seats. See if you can get down there without using your hands. So Now, cross my feet over, arms out in front, and lower gently down onto my seat. Feet out in front. Okay. If you want some support, take your hands behind the back of your thighs. Otherwise, arms out in front for these first three.

Good scoop of the navel inwards and upwards, thighs pressed together, and we round our back. Just curl back. And set up nice and tall. So two more of these. One more.

And then it's out of twist. Okay. So as we scoop our abs round back, reach your arms, fingertips to fingertip, pretty stretch. Reach back through the center. Let's go the other way. Reaching out. Ends up.

Nice and tall. And again, stretching back. So we're really opening our body, getting that rotation in. Lift until. And reach.

Big stretch. Lift up too. Still connected very strong through our abs. I'm anchoring down through your other seats. Okay. We've got 2 more on each side.

Lift tall at the top and lift. And lift one more and up. Nice and tall. Now, lower yourself down onto your back. Once again, if you need that caught from your hands, then use them. Bring your arms down by your sides. And we'll begin with a little stretch of our hips. So keep your shoulders pinned down, thighs pressed together, and just lower your knees to one side.

I just feel that lovely stretch through the side of your body, come through the center, and to the other side. Once again, lowering your knees over for that nice stretch through the waist keeping your opposite shoulder pinned down. So, even though a stretch in was still very much connected to our core. So naval draws in and up. Fires are pressing together.

Let's do one more on each side. Into the center. Alright. From here with control, float your legs up to tabletop arms, shoulders pressing down and tap one toe, bring that back and repeat. So our legs are moving, just the femur moving in the hip joint. The upper body is quiet and strong.

So everything's switched on. Let's go one more and then pressurfise together See if we can lower both the legs together. If this is too much, just stay with the single leg because you want to be able to do this whilst keeping your upper body quiet. Strong and connected. One more time to go.

And then hug the knees into your body. Little rock from side to side. Alright. Legs up to the ceiling now. Take your hands behind the back of your head.

And from here, I want you to scoop your navel in and up into chest nose towards your navel curl up for scissors. So hold strong here. Bottom tip of your shoulder blades. Just off the mat. I'm gonna scissor the legs. Reaching the legs long.

Two more. And then legs to the ceiling. Okay. From here, One hand reaches up, and we scissor. And as we scissor, I want you to touch your toe and change and reach. And 3.

2 more. And it's hand to toe, not toe to hand. K. Let's change sides. Reaching up. And and 3.

And 4, one more, and 5, and then lower ourselves down, lower our feet down. Okay. From here, we're gonna turn over onto all fours. Come up with control and turn over. Alright. So, we're in our quad position. Let's keep that rotation with thread the needle.

So, nice strong base. Hands pressing down. Knees pressing down. Bring your elbow to the ceiling. Big inhale as we reach up exhale as we thread our arms through the gap and stretch it out.

And again, we'll do 2 more on the on this side, and then we'll change sides. So is it all about stretching one more time? Opening up as we reach towards the ceiling. Let's change sides. So broaden your collar bones.

Reach up through your fingertips. And then thread your arms through and take that stretch. And again, and reach. And up. Last one.

Stretch that out. And then both hands back down. Knees staying in that quadruped position. Okay. Let's reach out one arm, one leg and just stretch Bend your elbow. Benjamin, bring it in for 1.

And again, 2. Reach. 3 really activate, press them in, press them together. One more time after this one reach, then bring it in fill your navel draw in and up and reach and we'll return. Change sides now.

Try and stay really square through your hips as well. So, no wiggling hips Make sure you get that full reach as we stretch forward. So that that in itself is strong core work and then bring that in. And reach coming across the body. And reach. 2 more to go.

Big stretch. Bring it in. Stretch it out. Hold for a moment. And then both hands come down. Both knees nice and secure on the floor.

Have a little wiggle. If you feel at any point in time, just stretch it out. Do what your body feel it needs to do. Okay. So from here, want us to go into a kneeling plank. So take your knees back just a little, and we'll do rows with each arm.

5 on each side. So here we go. There's one. Reach it back. That's 2. And again. Two more on each side now.

Stay strong. Stay steady. Alright. Nice. Take your hips back just for a little down, don't just stretch that out. Take a couple of breaths here. And then we return to all fours again.

So from here, we're gonna go back into a down dog. So call your toes under. I want you to push your hips up towards the ceiling and take a moment just to stretch it out, but not too long from here coming forward into our plank position. Gonna tap one shoulder, tap the other shoulder, and then if it feels good for you, put a push up in there. Take your hips back.

If you need to come down and knees to do this, then do so. Let's tap, tap, press, and down dog. And again, Tap, tap, press up, and down dog. Now we're only doing small repetitions. As you know, And that's because we want to keep the quality of movement throughout this. We don't wanna just throw movement away as our body fatigues. Push up. And back last one.

Tap. Tap. Push up. And back into that down dog position, just pedal it out for a moment. And then let's lower back down to our knees. Okay. From here, we're coming on to our tummies.

So very carefully. Lower yourself down. And let's reach our arms long. So this is a bit like a swan in place, but we're gonna add a little twist to it. Which is the theme of this workout.

So I want us to lift our head chest and shoulders and lift one side of our body. Get a nice side, just reach it up. Lower it down. And again, lifting up, look to the fingers. It reaches up and lower down.

And this is not just an upper body workout. I've got the whole of my body switched on. Back body as well. So I'm really working tightening my back body up as I lift, and that's gonna really help make this all about the length rather than about just lifting up high. Inhaling up. And down.

One more each side. And then let's press back into a child's pose just to counter stretch from that. Alright. Okay. From here, let's come up onto all fours. Coat your toes under. So for this one, I wanna round back.

So if you feel like throwing a couple of cat and cows in as well to loosen your spine, then do so. Like I say, follow your body where it needs to go. Now, round your back. Let's float on these just off the mat, and I want you to take your seat back a little. Okay. So you should feel this in in the legs, but also your abs. Now let's stretch one leg out and bring it in for 5 and 4. And 3, 2 more, and change legs. Now, you'll notice that actually as much as the work feels like it should be abs It's also in that supporting leg and the shoulders, 2 more.

Then bring that in. Keep that same position. Let's not rest down. Let's just go. From here, press the thighs towards one another as we twist and twist. And 3 and 2 and 1. There we go.

Can you keep your legs up now? Don't rest your knees down. If you need to, go down and then come back up. But otherwise, keep strong in your legs as we reach. Stretch it out. All core this one. The legs working, but so much core. That's it. And again, reach A little wobble one for me, but it's okay to wobble.

Just refind your balance. That's great. Just keep reaching as long as you can. One more on each side. Last one. And then bring that down to knees.

Well done. Great job. Okay. From here, once just to turn onto our side into a side plank, I've got my feet separated, so I've got a wider base of support. And then from here, we're reaching up. Nice and tall all the way through your fingertips. Push your hips up. Reach back towards your ankle.

Amazon, reach it up. Press it back. Reach up. Press back 2 more. Here it is.

That's the last one. Come forward. Change sides. So once again, reaching up. Reach through your fingertips.

Press back for your ankle. And again, and pressing back. Last one. And then back to all fours, rest it down. Great work. Okay. We'll go back into our down dog position now.

Add a little rotation or twist with that as we do another combination. So press your hips back. Feel that stretch, come forward into our plank, and then take your knee across to the opposite elbow in touch. Come back, down dog, plank, other knee, add a little twist in the body. Press near to elbow.

Hips go back. That's 2 on each side. Let's do 3 more. Hold your core strong, strong through your arms, strong through your whole body, full body integration. That's what it's about.

Everything's switched on. Alright. I think this is the last one. Let's hit the hips back. Reach cross. Enjoy that last down dog stretch.

Alright. From here, let's get a little additional stretch. But keep that connection to your powerhouse. So abs deep, draw them inwards upwards, and let's walk our feet towards our hands. So we got a little hamstring stretch. And then come on up to stand nice and tall. Okay, now it's time to pick up our weights.

So you can repeat that without weights or join me find the weight of your choice that's gonna work for you. Alright. So I'm picking up my weights. I'm gonna stand once again at the start. Nice and tall. For some squats of feet just a little wider than your hips. I'm gonna add like 5 squats here just using the weights. So bend the knees and then stand and tall.

That's it. Just hold those weights nice and securely. One more. Okay. Now, let's add a little something to this. So, let's go down and as we come up, opposite arm reaches up opposite knee lifts and down again, and then reach and down and reach. Good. Stretch it up.

One more on each side. And there it is. Good. Okay. Placing one weight down on the floor now. Bring the other arm in front. Take your feet a little wider.

Bend in the knees. Hold that weight out in front. Let's bring that rotation into the upper body as we twist, center, and twist. Good. And again, 2 more.

Last ones, hold your body strong, and then back through to the center. Standing nice and tall. Okay. Take those feet wide again. Keep that same one weight. Now, we're repeating one of those exercises that we did at the beginning, but with the weight. So, be strong through your feet. Strong through your whole body.

We don't want you to topple in over, so really good connection, grounding center, and take the weight here. My hand's going on my hip. Here we go. Reach it up and stretch. Bring it back down. Press through the legs.

Press through the whole body. Two more. And one more. Reach it up. Okay. Let's change sides. Once again, strong, through our feet, all the way up through our body, all the way up through our hand into the weight.

And again, keep control here. We don't wanna drop that weight, so keep a good firm grip. Two more. Last one. Alright. Well done. K.

Let's bring that down to sit now and we're taking the weights with us. Gonna place them in front of us and lower ourselves onto our seat, feet in front. So we begin. Just take one weight. Reach it out in front, and we're gonna stabilize and hold that weight as we scoop our abs and reach back, come up through the center, change sides. And up and reach and lift and reach keeping the thighs together, keeping your center, keeping your abs drawer in, in and up.

One more on each side now. Alright. Now if you felt that that weight was more Just stabilizing this time. We're gonna bring it into the rotation. So let's come halfway back.

Hold that weight out in front of us. Rotate and tap. Rotate and tap, working through your obliques, keeping the abs nice and deep, so scooping them in and up everything switched on. How are we doing? Stay with me now.

Let's go. Let's go 2 more on each side. One there. One there. Last ones. Up through the center. Place the weight down.

Well done. Let's lower onto our backs. So lower down with control. Bring our legs straight to the ceiling now. I want us to bring our arms a little wider for some support, but press your thighs together really strong now. Good center line connection.

Take your feet to one side. Keep your opposite shoulder pinned down back through the center. Let's go the other way. And center and across and center. So this is a really good core exercise. Because we're anchoring everything down and only taking the legs to a point where we can keep control and keep our opposite shoulder pinned down.

One more each side. Alright. Bring your knees in for a moment. Just let that blood settle and then we're gonna bring our legs back up to the ceiling. For this one, I want us to pick up a weight. Okay. So take a weight with you.

Legs to the ceiling, and that way it's gonna come and be placed carefully just above your shoulder. The other hand is gonna be behind the back of your head. So it's returning to that scissors exercise with a little bit of tricep work as well. So let's curl up And then we're gonna sit through our legs away as it comes back, reach up and touch, and change one. That's 2.

3. 4. One more time. Great work. Okay. Let's change sides carefully placing the weight on the other side of your body, hand behind the back of your head, curling up. Okay. So we'll lower the leg and we lift and reach and reach. And 3. 2 more to go. 4 and 5.

Lower that weight down, hugging these in for a moment, a little rock from side to side. And let's rock backwards and forwards until we come all the way up to sit. And that's gonna allow us to move our weights and turn over onto a fort. Alright. So from here, bring that quad position again. Alright.

Thread the needle. So place one way to the side. The other hand comes down onto the floor for security. And then let's reach that way up. Elba First, good grip, reach it up, and big stretch here to stretch and strength, and then thread the arm through with control, reaching up, thread your arm through.

Let's do 3 more. Really open in the side of your body. But making that talk happened. Ablite working to make that happen. 2 more.

Last one already reached the weight through. And then bring the weight to the side of you. Okay. Bring the other hand to the other weight. Alright. Here we go. Elbow high. Lift it up and reach.

Threat the arm all the way through and reaching with that arm. And again, lift it up, big stretch, spread the arm, reaching through. Alright. Keep the weight under control all the time. Don't just drop them and fling them. We gotta be in control.

Of the weights. 2 more. Last one coming up. Lift it up. Reach it through, and that that last little stretch there, and then bring that weight back to the mat. Alright.

Let's go back into our side plank position. I'm keeping my feet nice and wide for a nice firm, stable base. You can challenge yourself more but now we're in that base if you want. Let's take the weight. Alright. Lift up nice until now.

Yeah. It gets harder, right? Let's press our hips up. Reach the weight back and across. And again, lift. Press the weight back. And up, reaching through.

One more to do on this side. Stretch it up, thread it through, place the weight back. Let's change sides. Okay. Jamie again.

Good strong base. Reach up with that out and then reaching back and across as we thread through. Reaching up. That's 2. 3 more to go. Press up tour.

Last one. Alright. Place that weight down. Come down to your knees. Just take a moment just to reset and re center. Now, hold your weights.

And from here, we're gonna go back into our down dog, but this time we're gonna use the weights to support our risks. And this can be also a really great option if you do have trouble with your risks using the weights as parallettes actually to support your hands and keep your wrists in a good position. So let's press back into that, that down dog position. Feel that stretch. Come forward into our plank.

Now instead of the shoulder taps here, we're gonna do rows. So lift up, lift up, a push up, down dog. That's it coming forward. And we row. We row.

Push up and down. Don't forget you can come to your knees if you need to. Okay. Let's go again. Push up. I mustn't forget the push up. Right? Down up. And again.

Row. Push up. Down dog. Glass 1 now. Alright. We're dead in there. We are getting there.

Let's keep working. Push out. Down dog. Fantastic. Okay. Come down to your knees again. We're gonna turn this over into reverse tabletop using the weights. So, to simply turn over take your hands to your weights and push your hips up to the ceiling.

Now I've got my feet, hip distance apart, and you can get into position Then move around as you need to find your position, what works for you. Let's do a little march on the spot. And once again, I like using these combinations. We're gonna make a combination here. Press your hips back, scoop your abs.

Lift up. That's March. March. Add scoop. It's almost like you're trying to pull your seat backwards. And again, it's March.

March, just pull your abs backwards. Let's do two more. So up, up, Hips come back. Last one. Keeping your hips even as we march. Hips come back.

And then bring your hips up and lower yourself down into a seated position. Alright. Let's take the weights and place them to the side now. We need those out of the way as we return standing. So just from here, I can have some fun with this. You come up however you want, but let's just roll.

Let's roll back and forth a few times until we come all the way up. And just press your hands down. Stand all the way up and we're finished with a little bit of a return to what we started. We're just keeping the body moving. So feet Hit distance apart, arms out in front, and let's just swoop your arms back, and then reach up at the top.

Big inhale here. And again, lift it up. 2 more. Last one. Take your arms out to the side, and we'll just finish with those really fun turns. And this is gonna help that blood circulate around the body that's gonna help your muscles recover as well, which is really important.

Alright. Would you want more on each side? And then let's come back to the center finish standing tall. Great work, everybody. Thanks for joining Jamie, and I see you back here on the map again soon.