Extension-Focused Mat

Hi. I'm Lesa Logan, and welcome to your building to extension MAT class. This is gonna be a little zesty, so please leave out anything that doesn't work for your body today. And feel free to repeat something that we've already done and take your time with it as we move. This ball will be used in the beginning, but you can use a cushion or a bolster, whatever you have at home to help you layover and then we're gonna ditch it after a little bit. So let's start at the top of our map. You can cross 1 arm over the other, 1 leg in front of the other, and then get onto the ground, or feel free to get onto the ground however you like. I just like to do that for myself. Now we'll put the ball.

You'll play with it. You kinda want it behind your heart. You wanna be able though to have a nice loose neck, and then you should be able to lift your legs without arching your back. So you might have to work it up towards your top of your shoulders. And then you can leave your legs bent and down for this part right here and take your hands behind your head, and we're gonna push our head into our hands and push into a nice little supported backbend.

Which is also a nice little stretch and then curl back up and then reach yourself back over. So we're just gonna do a few kind of reverse cat cows. Right? Like, we're just we're lying back and we're not getting a nice little extension. It's nice and supported, and then it's helping us find that round back that we need for our 100. So it's kinda nice to have this whole support. We'll do 1 more.

Curl ups stay up. You can leave your legs here or take out to the high diagonal and pump your arms for your 100. Inhale for 5 and exhale. So we're gonna do a few backbends in between the next couple of exercises just to help warm up our upper back. So keep breathing in and out. And the goal of today's classes to find that extension in our upper back So now that you know the plan, 4 more cycles of breathing here, pulling your waist into the mat, letting the ball support you so your neck isn't overworking, My legs can't go as low when I use the ball, and that's okay.

Maybe yours can. And if you need to put your feet on the mat for the last breath, you can do that too. Exhale the air out, pull those knees into your chest feet on the mat hands behind your head, backbend over the ball. Lyft your head and chest back up. Bring your knees into your chest.

Bring 1 knee in 1 leg out for your single leg stretch. Pull on the leg 2 times and then switch. As you switch, if you notice that you're arching off the mat, then take your legs a little higher or feel free to move the ball a little higher up towards your shoulders. 1 more time each way, bring the heels, the other toes apart. You can go ahead and back then and take a rest for right now, or go into your double leg stretch.

Now it's tempting to back bend over the ball for that double leg stretch, arms by the ears, legs out, but you wanna try to stay curled up nice and supported. We'll do 2 more. And then we'll all get to backbend together. Place those feet down. Take your hands behind your head. Big stretch.

And then curl your head and chest back up. Bring your knees in. I know that break was short, but we gotta keep things dusty here. Grab 1 ankle with both hands. Pull on that leg 2 times and then switch pull on the other leg. So you're pushing the leg into your hands, hands into your legs.

You had a nice upper back connection, which we need. We need a strong upper back to have a really strong extension 1 more time each way, and then take your hands behind your head not gonna be able to go as low as you normally do for double straight leg stretch, but lower the legs and lift. Maybe you can. Maybe you're a rock star. I can go about half the due, a distance that I normally do. Push your head into your hands, hands into your head for 2 more. Letting the ball support your upper back as you pull your waist into the mat. Last 1, bring those knees in, feet to the mat.

Backbend over the ball. This is the last 1. So juice it out. 1 more deep breath in. Alright. We're gonna curl up, take that ball out, put it to the side, bring your knees into your chest, let your body feel what it's like to be on the mat right now. And then take those interlace hands behind your head, curl that head and chest up, try to find that same curl up you had with the ball, 1 knee and 1 leg out crisscross.

Opposite armpit to knee 3 times each side, and then go ahead sit all the way up. Spine stretch forward. Legs is wide as a mat. Set up nice and tall hands between your legs. Dig those heels in and around forward and stretch.

Pulse 3 times, inhale lift up nice and tall, exhale, round forward and pulse, inhale sit up nice and tall. And exhale. Sometimes when we start a flexion exercise, we tend to start an extension with our ribs popped forward. So see if you can round forward and pulse but then just come up to a tall back. And, again, inhale. We'll do 1 more. And then go ahead and set up.

Flip onto your stomach. We're gonna do some swan prep. So the first swan prep we're gonna do is put 1 hand on top of the other. And then your forehead on your hands. Now spin your inner thighs up.

I like to be pretty dramatic. And when I meet up, I actually mean, like, internal rotation. Alright. So it'll feel a little pigeon toed there, but then reach your tailbone towards your heels. Take the hands, head and chest, and levitate them off the mat. And then lower back down.

And again, lift and lower. If you felt your lower back, push into the mat to lift your chest, reset that tailbone, and then think about going more forward than up. It's also okay to think about extension rather and and nothing happens. It can be really hard to just Do it correctly versus doing the choreography. I'm gonna do 1 more on hold and then lift your legs up, see if you can reach your tailbone a little longer up here. And notice how you can be super long in your extension and work that up or back. Breathe in for 3, 2, 1, lower it down, bend your knees when she'll wiper your legs. If you got a little rock in there, great.

If you didn't, it's okay. It'll come with time. Push those legs back down and you can stick with that or take your hands underneath your shoulders. And I like to go a little wider than the mat if your shoulders are tight. Roll those shoulders back and use your hands to pull your heart forward and lower it back down.

So We're building to extension. So if you're not finding your upper back just yet, it's okay. We have the whole class together to get that extension in our upper back. This might be new to you today and the next time you do it, it might feel a little bit more possible. Now if you want a little bit more, you're gonna pull the heart forward, shoot the arms out, lift the legs, and catch yourself. And, again, shoot it out and lift.

And if you're like, are you kidding? Then you'll stick with what we just did. And that's okay too. 1 more time. Sit back. Round your spine.

You can lift your waist towards the ceiling hands go to your feet. Joseph's child's pose and then come back out onto your forms. Alright. Single a kick. Now if you're new to extension, this is my favorite exercise for you. So here we go. Push your fist into the mat. Pull your heart forward.

Push the feet down and then kick 1 heel towards your seat. Your foot is pointed. And that's gonna get you more hamstring, kick, kick, and then switch, kick, kick. Now why do I like this for building extension? Because you're propped up on your forms, and so it kind of puts you in the extension I want. So you can even just hold this position here without kicking the legs and use the forms to help you lift your frontal hit points off the mat and pull your heart forward. 1 more time each side, Stick with that or hands, go behind your back, layer them up, and then drop those elbows down.

Kick both legs to your seat. 1, 2, 3, push the feet down, heart forward, and then look at the other side and kick. Now what I want you to do right here, push those arms up as opposed to your feet and see how much more you can pull your heart forward and then kick. So it's not the most impressive backbend as far as, like, looks go, but it's pretty strong when you keep the extension working that upper back. And the more your arms are connected to your back, guess what? Then longer your lift last time each side. Awesome. Sit back. Another 1 of those awesome Joe's pose.

You can also do whatever child's pose you want. You could do a cat cow, and then roll up to being on your knees for 5 stretch. My favorite exercise, if you're ever quizzed, sometimes I'll say it's this. So it'll say it's fine twist. Here we go. Work your knees towards each other.

So they're apart but pulling towards each other and then pull the hips over the knees. Again, double check that your extension's not in that lower back. We wanna be in a nice tall back here. And then we keep that tall back as we go back. So thigh stretch builds to extension because the stronger your hamstrings, the stronger your glute, the more your legs can work away, from your upper back, allowing you to backbend. There are other backbends we have to do where our legs have to hold us in this position here and lift it back up 1 more time.

Awesome. Line on your back for a quick little shoulder bridge. Arms down by your side. Seat knee is a hip distance apart. Roll your hips up. Hold it here at the top.

It's tempting to push the lower back up and call that extension instead. Reach your tailbone for your knees. Open your chest. Lower the hips down. And again, lift those hips up, push the arms down to the mat pull the shoulders wider and roll it down.

2 more. If the more we can open up the front of our thighs, the less we have pulling on our lower back 1 more time. Alright. Roll on down. Let's flip onto our side for some side cakes. We have a fun little sidekick party plan. At least it's it's fun to me. Elbow, shoulder, hips to the back edge of the mat, and then your foot actually can be off the edge of your mat. It can be on the floor there.

Top hand is in front of you for just a little more support or harder is gonna be hand behind your head. And then this top leg is gonna reach long and the foot's pointed. Here we go. Kick it to the front. 2 times. Kick it to the back 2 times. Now the trick is even though we're building to extension, you don't get to go into extension here.

Your hip is but your upper back needs to stay nice and tall. I'll give you a little extension play in a second. We're gonna do 2 more kicks. Last 1. And then you're gonna take the leg and your arms.

So top arm's gonna reach forward. You're gonna take the top leg, kick it forward, grab it somewhere, hopefully, your ankle, bend the knee, reach it back, and then do a little half rocking half you know, backbend situation here, kick the leg. It's like a bicycle and then reach. So if we're on our Cadillac doing side leg spring, so it'd be like a little a little single leg side leg bicycle sitch, but I like this for building a little bit of extension and finding that in that upper back. Then you're gonna reverse it. The top arm's gonna go back, grab the leg, pull the bent knee in, this is fun.

You're gonna take your top arm, put it on your mat, and see what kind of hamstring stretch you can get, kick the leg back, circle the arm around, grab it, little half rocking, bring that knee in, stretch that leg out. And, again, circle around. Grab it. Big pull. Pull that bent knee in. Big stretch. Okay. Here's the party.

We've renamed this to super mom Banana And so, you know, feel free to share that with the world. Here we go. You're gonna take your top arm long and your bottom arm long. And you're gonna lift up into a banana. And then you're gonna land in your super mom, super woman position, and then you're gonna rock onto your your banana and then back onto your center and then back onto your side. If you hate me now, get to do this again on the other side and, again, come to the front 1 more time to the side. Actually, that's a lot. I'll come back to the side of the second and come back to the front and little intermission of swimming opposite arm and leg.

And if you're like, are you kidding? Put your hands down and swim your legs. Hold, flip onto your side, hoist yourself up, kick your legs around, and we get to do the party on the other side. So elbow, shoulder, hip, feet forward, top arm behind if you did that in the first 1, push that bottom foot down and reach your top. Like, kicked you with the front 1, 2, and to the back 1, 2. Front front and back back. Few more, let your body being a nice, tall back.

We get to build to extension in a second. Last 1, Top arm forward. Kick that leg into your hand. Bend the knee. Reach it back. Kick the leg out.

Circle it around. If you get a little hip burner here, that's pretty normal. I feel it too because you're having to work your hips a lot to stay balanced on your pelvis as you find this little mini extension, then we reverse it circle around back, bend the knee grab it, push pull that knee in. Stretch and circle around. Grab it. Pull that knee in.

Stretch. Circle around last backbend here, pull that knee in, stretch the leg, and bring your legs back in line with the mat Take your arm long on the mat, take other arm overhead, find your banana, flip to your super mom, super woman, flip to your banana. Woah. This side's different. A flip to your center. Flip to your side.

Flip to your center 1 more time to the side and to the center, swim, swim, swim, breathe in, and out, sit back, and we get to take a nice child's pose. Alright. Take a deep couple breaths in here. Use your center to stretch out your back. And then if your toes aren't tucked already, tuck them under, take your arms out in front of you, like you're a superhuman again, this time, you're gonna push into your feet and land into your leg pulls or a plank. And you can just hold plank here. You can be on your forearms if you need to.

And if you're ready, you're gonna lift 1 leg up, rock back on the standing heel, rock forward set the foot down switch. So the goal here is to be in a tall back while we open up the front of the hips even more. We could call this building to open hips if we wanted to. It really is building to extension hold here do the fancy transition. You can join me if you want or to flip over. It's gonna take my left hand towards the right side of my mat. I'm gonna take my left foot under and flip.

Boom. You land upside down, push into your heels, reach your tailbone long. Now you're opening your chest and saying that great arm back connection maybe you kick a leg forward. Maybe you think about kicking a leg forward. Sometimes I like to think about it. And then hold. Reach your tail bone longer.

Open up your chest. Lower those hips down. Push your hands into the mat to lift your hips towards your heels. Seal, take those hands in, dive. We'll do a little rounding here just to rinse it out, beat those legs 3 times, rock back to your shoulders, maybe you beat 3 times upside down and you come back up. If you wanna do rolling like a ball instead, it's a great option.

We skipped it so you can do it. 2 more, Ragbeck. Nice little massage. Now we have 1 big extension to work towards. You ready?

Flip onto your stomach. You can do anything we've done on our stomach already. Or bend your knees. Reach his arms back. Now you might just stay here.

Reach your tailbone long and pull your heart forward and breathe. If you can grab your ankles, you will. Bend those elbows, reach the tailbone towards the knees, try to hug your knees together, pull on the feet 1, 2, 3, I get your arms connected to your back and then push your feet up to pull your chest up. Lower down 1 more time. Nice. Well, Second chance to get those shoulders on your back because if they're on your back, that's what happens. You get pulled into extension.

Hold it here or rock. And we rock from the legs, not from our head. And if you breathe, it does make it easier. 3, 2, 1 and sit back round your spine, last little round here, And then stand into those feet, reach those arms forward, pop up into a plank, round your, like, round your back to look towards your legs, Walk your hands back towards your feet. Roll up to standing arms by the ears, circle the arms around, Hands to the feet, walk out 1, 2, 3, 4, tall back, push your elbows back for 1 push up, head in, walk back 1, 2, 3, 4, roll up, arms by your ears, circle around, I feel like I don't like push ups.

That's why sometimes I'll tell myself I'm just doing 2 elbow bins here. 1, second elbow bin, 2, head in. What? 2, 3. Now if you want a little more extension, I've got a surprise for you. If you rather do 3 push ups, you can. So either 3 push ups are walk almost all the way out. So, like, 80% of the way, and then lift your waist ups. You're kind of in a long elephant. Now lift your heels.

Snake your spine forward, past, long stretch, past your push ups, heart forward, hello, down stretch, head in, round your spine up. So we're not hanging out in our lower back. Roll those heels up, snake the spine forward. Open the chest. And then head in and lift the waist up.

You're just showing yourself how you can go from a round back, pass a tall back, into a long extension and then back into a round back 1 more time. Hold it on the up. Walk your hands back. 1, 2, 3, 4, arms up, circle those arms around. Pat yourself on the back. You just built to extension.

Thank you so much for joining me. I hope you had fun with this, and I hope you noticed how this takes you. Through all the extension exercises your appliance practice has in store for you. Have an amazing day.