Core with Magic Circle 2.0

Hi. This is Ilya from Pilates Anytime, and today, we'll let the magic circle energize our So we'll use the magic circle to strengthen, to stretch, and also to help us anchor certain parts of the body that need to be anchored to properly execute that exercise. So let's start sitting, and we'll start using the magic circle to pull in and activate the transverse abdominal as we roll down and up. So legs fit hip with a part. You're gonna pull one put one handle on your stomach, and you create a little resistance by pressing and squeezing the magic circle in. From here, you're going to roll back a little bit and then roll back up.

And again, pull, you roll back, back, back. And then you roll back up. You pull in. You can go down as much as it feels comfortable. And lift. And again, you press, you go deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, and you go up. Let's do one more.

Engage the magic circle, ready with the transverses, control, control, control, and then deep and come all the way up. Now we'll place the circle inside in the inner thighs above the knees. And first from here, we're going to activate. So you engage and release, engage, and release, engage, and hold. And here, you're going to roll back and roll back up. And, again, engage, release, activate, or release, activate, and hold and you go deep, deep, deep, deep, and come up. Let's do it one more time.

In our thighs, and release, engage, and release, lift, tall as you engage, and then you go deep, deep, deep and come back up. Now we place the magic circle outside the thighs, always above the knees. It's a good place to be. And you're gonna activate out, release, push out, release, outer thighs, glute medias, And here you go. Roll back and roll back up. Again, open and open.

And open, maintain, go deep down, and back up one more time. Pull, 2, 3, and you go deep, deep, deep, keep pushing out into the circle. As you come back up. Now let's go and get ready the back of the legs. So I want you to place the circle underneath the one ankle, and then we lie down.

So from this position, you're gonna have the back of your ankle there, and you press down into the circle and release. So think about using the hamstrings more than the glutes. And up one more time, arms by your sides, press down, and lift up. Now press down into the circle use your other leg to lift the hips up, roll the hips back down, and release the circle up. Press down, use the hamstrings on your straight leg, lift up with the bent leg, lower down, and release, And, again, press, lift, lift, lift, lower down, and release. Now let's switch the ankle. And to be in line, I want you to move the body off the side a little bit so that your body is nice and aligned with the circle. Again, straight leg down, and up, resist. Down, hold, focus on the hamstrings, not as much on the glutes, and up And again, press down, hold, hold, hold, and release.

Now press down with a straight leg. The bent leg helps you up roll your body down, release a straight leg, straight leg down, lift up roll down and release. And again, press down. Lift up. Hold one second. Lower yourself down.

Now we place both legs up onto that circle And in this position, we press both legs down for the 100. You go in a and And again, in, and exhale, exhale, exhale keep pressing with both lags into the circle as you curl up into the shoulders. And you go in and exhale out, out, out, out, One more time in a, and exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale, now stay here, roll the circle to the side hold it with your inner thighs and you go more 100 and exhale. And again, in Exhale, exhale, exhale, two more breath in with the air, exhale out, and again in, in, in, in, and out all the way, all the way, all the way, all the way, and bend in. Now we come up to sitting And we go into this roll down, roll up that, uses very many different ways to use the circles. So we started the stomach like we did before. You press into your stomach rolling back, articulate down into the spine, flip the circle.

And now with the hands on top, you press down with your arms. You press down too. You press down 3. Now flip the circle back into your stomach and you go scoop, scoop, scoop, scoop, scoop, scoop, scoop, use the circle to anchor your feet and get yourself a nice stretch as you go over. So here, transverse of dominy down, you control, control, control, control, flip the circle all the way back.

You're gonna go arms. Arms, arms, flip the circle back, again, pull into your hips to come up, And then we elongate the posterior chain with a nice deep stretch for the posterior part of the leg. Of course, you can also do it here. That's absolutely fine. And let's do one more.

You're gonna roll back down, control, control, control, flip the circle back, and you'll go press 3. 2, 1, flip it back up, and you go scoop, and you go over for one last big stretch. Now let's leave a one foot hooked on the circle, and we go for a nice tree and leg circle. So here, you're gonna go left, you go over, bring the leg back, roll down. And here we're gonna go knee and extend.

If someone is a little tight, this movement of getting slower into the extension of the lag. It can be very useful. And in this position, you can point exhale flex, point exhale flex, point exhale flex lean forward with your leg. The leg pulls you up and you lift up into your tree again. You go over, shift back, roll down. Now bend the other leg And as you flex and you stretch the whole posterior chain, you're gonna go lift and down.

Up and down, up, and roll it down. Now lengthen the opposite leg again, and have the circle go around your leg. Circles small 1, 2, and 3 reverse. Reach along with the opposite leg that helps stabilize. 3.

Now from here, we teaser up. We'll do many teasers today. You roll up into teaser. And as you roll down, the leg is free. It's not encased in the circle anymore.

Now engage that circle and circle the leg for 3. Circle around 2, circle around 1 reverse, open across 1, circle 2, circle 3. This is not easy. This is hard to stabilize, and you go big flex again. And we use our tree to come back up. You lift, lift, lift. And now we switch.

We repeat everything with the other side. So you're gonna go lift. You go over back, control it down. So you go, bend your knee, exhale stretch. Bend exhale stretch.

Bend and stretch. Now point Exale flex. Point. Exale flex. When you exhale, you release the tension, and it's easier to get to a stretching position. Now the magic circle comes forward. You curl. You teaser up.

You get to your tree. And then we go back again for the hip extension. So here you bend the opposite leg and you go up 3, 2, one lengthen, the leg that pushed you up, leg inside the circle, circle 3, 2, 1. Reverse. 123. And we go reach up for a teaser. Free up the leg, roll back down, engage the circle for stability, you'll go across hold, across.

Hold last one and hold reverse. Open it round and up. Maintain around and up. Last one and lift. Let's hook the foot again. You flex lean forward with your leg, lift, and up.

Now, bend that knee and join inside the circle with the other foot and you round. You push your feet away. You open up the lumbar spine, and you go rock. And up, push, push, push, rock back, rock back up, 2 more. Back your role and come up, worship away, naval away, back and left. Now magic circle inside the ankles.

You squeeze and you go rolling down, ready for double x stretch. So you go scratch away. Squeeze that circle. Circle the arms and pull it in. And, again, out, engage, and circle in. Reach, reach, reach, and pull in, lengthen out, and pull in.

Now you go out and hold, hold, hold, out to the sides with the arms, hold to counts, reach up towards your knees, hold And in one more like this, open stretch, maintain, open to the sides, reach, reach, reach, reach up towards your knees and in head down for a second, and then we come back up for double straight. So from here, we're gonna do 3 ex the repetitions, and then something will happen. Okay? So follow me. You're gonna hold your hands behind the neck, curl it up, engage the circle. You go down, down, down, and up down, down, down, and lift, down, down, down, and up on the next one. You go down and you roll towards the camera.

The shoulder is down. The legs are down. Now as you engage the circle, I want you to lift the waist and the rib cage and release. Squeeze the circle, the elbows down, and you lift You want to see this space underneath and release. And again, press hold hold hold and release. Now the legs come up.

You go on your back, and you go 3 and up. 2 and up. 1, up. And now you roll down. And you go to the other side. Same thing. You're going to squeeze the circle, lift the waist, and release And again, engage, lift. Your body gets longer, and you lift and engage the side of the body and release.

And again, press hold, hold, hold, and release. And now, again, we do 3 and up, 2, and up. 1, and up. Now lower down. Roll to the first side. Now we change instead of lifting up the waist that we lift up the shoulders and the legs.

So you go up and down, lift, and down. And again, lift, lift, lift, and down. Let's pick up one more time on the other side, lower down 3, and up 2, up 3, ready to go, lower turn to the side. Now here engaged and left, and down and up, legs, and shoulders, down, and again, lift. And release.

On your back. Now from here, you're going to curl and come up in a little teaser again. And now we grab the circle. We slide the legs inside, and here we go for some more, obliques and criss cross exercises. So from here, I want you to lie back down, and we're gonna rest for a second. And then we come up with a shoulder just off the mat, and here you go. Go across and down across and down. 3.

4, 5 other side. You'll go 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. And now all the way back up. Now Before we continue with the math, let's do a little bit of a short box move over here to get a little bit more in the core connecting with the stabilization of the lower legs and pelvis. So we did tons of bugs before, right, tons of articulation.

Now let's cross the arms over the chest and we go flat back and come up flat back and come up, grow tall, engage the circle, flat back, and up side. You go reach, and center and reach and center one more time. Reach, reach, reach, reach, and back. Now lengthen feel both sit bones down and crunch to the mat and center. Now cross your arms again. Here you go lift, twist, and we lean diagon a little bit, and then come up. And again, lift, twist, reach, reach, reach, and come up. And, again, up, twist, length, and length, and lengthen, and up, lift, twist, reach, reach, reach, and Return.

Now let's go into spine stretch. Legs are long. Flex your feet very easy. Email Now engage the circle, curling to yourself, reach forward that circle, and then you roll back up to the sitting position again. E nail up, down exhale, reach, reach, reach, and roll back up. And again, in and.

And come up. Now we're gonna do 2 slightly different. You go in a dial exhale reach. Now lengthen the spine in a diagonal. From this diagonal, you reach up and you go band 3, 2, 1, and down with the arms. One more time, you lift Head down, retreat, retreat, treat, lengthen, arms, and back in a long diagonal come up in one piece.

And then squeeze the circle, bend the arms. 2, and 3. Now from here, circle in front of you, pull the navel back, pull the navel back. And when you're back here, the legs want to come up. Now, Open like rocker, hold a circle first.

You're going to roll back. And now here, you place the magic circle in between the ankles hold your legs, pull back, rock, and come up. Magic circle in the hands, Roll back, come up, hold, magic circle in the legs, roll back, come up hold. Now let's learn how to lift the hips up from here. You're going to roll back the hips come up you hold them and support it with the arms, and you lift the legs up. Now as you rolled it down with going to corkscrew, so roll down control And here you go circle to the right, down to the left and center, and to the left, down to the right and center. And now, again, you curl, come up, squeeze, or roll down. We start on the other side.

You go left, around and center, and you go right around and center. And then you come all the way up, and release. Now let's go to the side of the body. Down here, lift the arms, press the circle, side bend the way and lift. And other side, you go lift, side bend, reach, and come up.

Now you grab the circle, lift, turn, and you go over outside the leg to reach for the saw. Come up and center, lift, turn the other way, engage the circle. You go over, over, over, come up, center one more time, twist, turn, and you go over and up. This time you go up to the ceiling, other side, circle down. You go over, over, over, and lift. Let's now turn on the stomach, and I want you to place the magic circle vertical with the hands on the lower handle. Now if you like this position, you can stay on the lower handle the whole time.

Otherwise, we can transfer up on top. So from here, you're gonna press into the circle and you're just gonna extend the arms as you come up, you lift, and you're going to go look down, circle around, center and now reverse, look down, circle around, center, and release. Now You can stay down there or you can repeat up here. You go press down, hold, and you go look circle around, center, reverse, circle around, center, and release. Now let's do the same thing with the the single leg kick.

So you press down, lift one leg, kick, kick, reach, down opposite, up, kick, kick, reach, down, lift, kick, kick, reach down, up, kick, kick, reach, keep the shoulders away from the years, down, and release for a second. Now double leg stretch. You go left. You go kick to 3, stretch your legs, press down in the circle as you come up. And again, down with control, lift your legs.

Kick to 3. Press down. Lift. Lift. Lift. One more time. Down. Up with the legs.

Kick 3. 2, one stretch and up, and now down with control. Very last one. You go kick, 2, 3, stretch and up, up, up, and release. Now as a little treat, you're gonna go, hook the legs just open and reach for a nice stretch. And that's it. You can release bring the circle forward and sit back in child posts for a second to compensate the lumbar spine, stretch it out a little bit, And from here, you go into a downward dog position, lengthening the whole posterior chain. You can play with a little footwork here if you want.

Then you stretch back, and you walk forward, you walk towards your hands, maybe through your hands, and then we go sitting down again for neck pull. Now the way you use this, we use the circle today for neck pull, it's really helpful to lift and get that neck pull feeling and sensation and work but also you need to pay attention not to use the circle to come up. Okay? So I'll tell you as we go. So you place the magic circle at the base of your neck, and this is doable and easy. You just activate a little bit the leg, the arms, and release. You pull with the arms, the head pushes back and release and again, pull and push.

Now You can try from here to roll back down. So you flex your feet. Your pelvis goes. You control. You control.

You control and release. Now when you're down here, you push up into the circle and, again, up and up. Now coming back up, make sure you don't push too much with your arms. Your stomach is bringing you up. So here you go. Exhale.

Very little tension at the arms. Then here, you gain the tension again. And again, roll down with control. Deepen. And you go. Tri Sips. 3, 2, 1.

And you go. Ex sale up. And lift one more time. Press 2, 3, control it down and open. 3, 2, 1, up, up, up, and left. Now we're going to sidekicks, And we put the magic circle to help us anchor the bottom leg. And then we'll use it also in other ways, but this is what's always there throughout the whole sidekick series.

So we're gonna go lying down, and we just start finding the position and the work, with the top leg pressing and releasing, pressing and releasing, pressing and releasing. Now press down. Bottom line comes up. Hold. Down, release. Press bottom leg up. Down release. One more press, up with the bottom, lag, down, and release. Now a fun combination here of circles and bicycles.

Prepare the leg in front of a circle. You do a big one. You go front, you go up you go back. Now bicycle it forward, circle back, bicycle forward. One more, circle back. Reach bicycle forward. Now reverse, bicycle back, and circle forward.

Bicycle back and circle forward. Pretend your magic circle is so big, and you don't need to go big with the leg. To avoid one more you go back, stretch, little thigh stretch, reach, and bring the leg on top of the circle. Now press it down. Lift leg up, bend inside the circle open.

And now down, scrape your leg up and squeeze the circle down. So you go big kick, bicycle, and Open the circle, down, bicycle, and squeeze the circle. We have one more. You go up and slide up and down and squeeze it down. Now from here, prepare your body up with the forearm. And here, there are many different possibilities.

You can just stay and press. And release. Perfect. Stay press and release. And, again, stay press. Released. Now if you wanna try, you press and you lift your hips, help with your top arm to balance.

And down release. Press, lift up, balance for a second, work the lower body, the side body, and release One more. Here you go. And if you have the stability, you can reach and hold. Now down release come up, and now we go, and we repeat everything with the other leg. So you lie down on this on this side, you prepare, you make sure you have the stability. And here you go.

Just engage, hold, and release, down, down, and release. And again, down, down, and release. Now press with the top leg, the bottom leg joints, and you squeeze them together, down with the bottom leg, up with the top. Press down, legs together, hold down with the lower, up with the top. Press down, hold. This is the last one.

Find the midline, find that connection down and release. Now top leg goes in front of the circle. Again, picture that being a huge circle. Right? So from here, big circle with my leg going back, and then bicycle bring it forward. Big circle back, bicycle forward, big circle back, bicycle forward reverse. Go back and circle around. Go back. Keep pushing down with this leg.

Big circle around. Go back. Big circle around and just bicycle back one last time to get into the side stretch, bring the knee back, and lengthen away. Now leg on top of the circle. From here, you squeeze, lift up bicycle and open a circle, down, scrap your leg up to the ear, down, press and squeeze into it.

And you go up, scrape, and pull, down scrape, and squeeze. Last one. Up scrape and open, down, lift, and squeeze. Now last part on the side, you're gonna go to the forearm, and in the beginning, just press down and lift press down and lift. Press down and lift.

Now press use your free arm to help you lift, try to balance, hand, and release. Again, press down. Lift your hips up. Test it, balance, and release. If all feels good from here, you press, you lift the hip, and then you go reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, hand helps, and down release.

Now we did many, many teasers, but let's go for one last one. So from here, you're gonna scoop back. You lift your legs. Engage the circle as you roll down, and you scoop up. And, again, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, and up.

And one more time, pull pull pull pull pull and up. Now let's turn around for one of my favorite exercise with the circle. The push up. The push up is a very challenging exercise, but in this case, this little circle is gonna help us. So we'll place the magic circle, the handle at the chest, the sternum height, and we prepare the hands. So you stretch back, you lengthen And here, this is magister circle.

It's gonna help us because we have a little spring that helps us up, and we do two and left, and 3, and left 2 more. 4, push, last one, down and, wonderful. Now just a little chest expansion and sideband to really restore the body at the end of this intense workouts. So from here, you go press down the circle and lift, hold. You go look to the right, look to the left, center, and release.

And again, pull, hold a circle. You go left, right, center, and release. One more time. Pull. Hold it. You go look look, center, and lengthen out. Last one pull.

You go look, Look, center, release, bring the circle up, reach up to the ceiling. Now side bend, as you side bend, you pike, The hips go back, and then you reach and come up again. Lift. Engage the circle a little bit sideband, pike your hips back, And now use your glutes and pelvis to come up and lift 1 more lift, reach, down, down, down, and lengthen up last one, you go over, read, you come up, and open. So wonderful. Keep playing with this, different position with the circle.

Keep challenging yourself, and let me know how it goes.