50-Minute Total Body Mat

Hi. I'm Meredith. Thank you for joining me here today. We're just gonna get moving right away. We're gonna do some fun network And as always, if you need to modify for yourself, look after yourself 100%. That's the most important thing.

So with that said, Here we go. So we'll start sitting with the feet just parallel to one another. The hands behind the thighs the spine lifted up. It's pausing for a moment. I'm closing my eyes.

You can do the same or not. But just taking a moment to find yourself in your body. For me, it takes just a minute. Lifting the spine, feeling the feet on the ground, on the earth grounded, and using the arms, fairly vigorously to lift up through the spine, and we just inhale here. And exhale to release any excess tension and to bring ourselves into the space together and inhale.

And as you exhale, if your eyes are closed, let them open and take another inhale. And as we exhale, we'll round the spine. So keeping the shoulders over the pelvis drawing backward through the abdominals and then start building the spine back up, sitting right over the top of the sitting bones, and then keep holding on with your legs and lift up and back with your chest. So like a seated cat stretch come back to center. And round as you exhale, allowing the head to just follow the line of the spine.

It's our chance to really dig deep and inhale. Lifting up, floating a little taller every time, and exhale as you bring your chest up and back and also forward and then center and then exhale drawing in, pulling away from the arms, which are holding still holding still so we can deepen into that spinal flexion and lifting back tall one more time. We reach up with the spine. And coming back to center, go once again into that same rounded shape, then continue to go back, allow the arms to straighten, continue to hold on, but allow the arms to glide down the outsides of the thighs. So you're pressing your arms into your thighs.

We're inhaling at the bottom as we exhale. We'll curl back, establish once again, shoulders over the pelvis and then activate the arms, activate the spinal extensors, come to straight, and then feel the extension. That thoracic mid back extension come to center. And once again round the spine. Continue rounding the spine.

So you're pulling away from your arms, allowing the arms to straighten. And then let the arms glide down the outsides of the size. Pause to inhale when the low back finds the mat, exhale, curl back up. When the shoulders are over the pelvis, we once again find our arms, find our spinal extensors, sitting tall first, and then lifting the chest up and back. 1 more the same, preparing the body for more difficult things to come, So take your time, find all your connections, checking all the time in with your mind, as well as your body, pausing at the bottom, breathing in, breathing out as we roll up, shoulders come over the pelvis.

The body becomes straight. The body takes that mid back extension. Really think of lifting up with your arms and center one more time exactly the same round. Roll back to straight arms. Pull again the hold of your arms, then let your arms glide and inhale and curl up Lift up, mid back extension, and center.

Round your spine making a change. Go back straight in the arms. Go down the mat. Keep the left arm on the outside of the left side and open the right arm out to the side. Come back through center, right hand touches, right leg, left arm opens out to the left, come back to center, come up, lift up, lift up and back and center and round, keeping the elbows bent.

Then straightening the arms, then gliding the hands. Then the left arm stays on the left eye as we open the right arm out to the side, It comes back, presses against the right side, left arm reaches out to the side and back. Comes back, presses again, so left thigh. Feel your feet pressing down. I like to think of my heels pulling back towards the backsides of my legs rounding the spine.

Sitting the spine up tall and once again, taking that spinal extension. So just moving the spine in all directions in this moment last time around keeping the arms bent, then we'll continue rounding to straight arms, continue rounding to gliding the arms, right arm reaches left arm presses against the left thigh. We come back through the center, touchdown, left arm reaches that has follow that left arm around into that rotation, come back to center, roll the spine up, lift the spine, tall, one last extension in this upper spine, Find center and roll back this time all the way to the mat. We're preparing for some bridging now. So either feet in towards the pelvis or pelvis a little closer to the feet, back of the head, press down, arms, press down.

Press down through your feet, roll up through your spine. So lifting the hips. Nice straight line through the body. Reach the arms behind you. As you roll down through your spine, take your arms around in a circle.

So we're opening the chest here. As the pelvis lands, the arms reach down to the sides of the body, press down into the ground, the earth, and roll. Feeling the backs of the legs working, feeling the inner thighs working to keep the alignment of the knees straight out from the hips, take the arms back. Roll through the spine, reaching around through the arms, making a good timing or accurate timing where the pelvis is landing and the arms are landing simultaneously and roll through the spine. Arms reach back.

Maybe you'll feel a little bit more freedom in the hips there. Roll down circle the arms, feeling the rotation of the shoulder blades against the ground. As the pelvis lands, the arms and as well and press down and 2 more lift up. And reach back. Feel the pelvis floating in the air and roll down and circle around. Really feeling the feet on the ground to maximize that rounding in the lower spine.

Arms come down and one more time we roll up. Take the arms, take the arms around as the spine comes down. Feel that hamicking, that deep flexion in the lower spine. We take the arms down. We're making a change.

It happens at the top. Roll up. Tip the pelviso. The left tip lifts and the right hip drops a little. Roll down through the right side of the spine. All the way down to the pelvis on that side, then return to center.

Roll up through the center. Feeling the feet on the ground. Again, mentioning through the thinking about the inner thighs, right hip lifts, left hip drops. Roll down through the spine on that side of the body all the way down. So we're working in the spine asymmetrically or stretching roll up in the centers, the spine asymmetrically, Hips up nice and high, left hip high, right hip, low, roll down the right side of the body. Come back through center, roll up in the center.

Right hip high left tip low, rolled down the left side of the spine, keeping all the times activity in the arms, Find your way down into neutral, roll up in neutral, or in the center rather, holding here. Stand on your right leg and lift the left leg up and touch down and lift up. And touchdown. Feel that, like, pressing against the air as it comes in towards your body and touchdown. And, 2, and touchdown. And one.

And as you bring that leg down step into that leg onto it. Other leg floats. No unnecessary shifting there. Just shifting from one side to the other and float. And touch and pull from the center of the body and touch and pull and touch and 2. And touch and one touch down, both feet on the ground.

Bring your arms over your chest. Open your arms out to the side, lifting the hips up, squaring the pelvis keeping the arms reaching just away from the ground, wide, wide, wide as you roll yourself down through your spine, Once the pelvis comes to landing, the arms can also come to landing on the ground, lifting the legs up one at a time for the spine twist. We take the knees across in one direction and back through center. And we lift off the one hip onto the other as we take the legs across to the other side. And draw in, pull back to center and inhale as you reach over.

Excel as you come back. And inhale as you reach over. Really wringing out that spine? And exhale as you pull back 1 more of the same inhale to go over. Exelt to come back, inhale to go over keeping the knees pressing together.

And exhale to come back. We now go back to the first side Stretch the legs to straight, bring the straight legs through the center, and bend the knees in center. And inhale as we reach over, exhale as we stretch the legs long. Pull back through center and bend one more time we go across. And stretch and pull center.

And bend and go over and stretch out come through center and bend, keeping the knees bent, bring the arms behind you in a circular action so they're hovering away from the ground. Lift the chest, the arms, and the head. Follow through with the arms reaching past the pelvis, bring the arms up, and then take the head, chest, and arms back, and lift the arms, the head, the chest. Looking just over the knees and maybe a little further above the knees as you press down, bring the arms, and bring the body down. Ah, lift up.

Following through with the arms, lifting the arms, and going back and head chest and arms. Press the arms forward deep and deep and deep and deep and deep and lifting the arms. And go back. And last time lifting up, taking the arms through, holding there, stretch the legs, and we go in now 2, 3, 4, 5, and exhale. An inhale 2, 3, 4, 5, pumping the arms.

An inhale 2, 3, 4, 5, and cell, and email 2, 3, 4, 5, and exhale. And 3, and exhale, and 2, and Excel and 1. And Excel now as you inhale, bend the knees, and exhale stretch the legs. And inhale, bend the knees, keeping the arms active, exhale stretch the legs, and bend the knees. And stretch the legs and bend the knees and stretch the legs and 2, and reach, and 1, and reach.

Bend the knees in. Head comes down. Legs stretch into the air. We're gonna go over to the right side of the pelvis. We're gonna go down around the underside of the pelvis to the left and come across the center and go over and go down around and center and go over and down.

Around and slice center and go over keeping the arms active, shoulder blades stable, and center and one more over, down around and center. And one that born to the other side and down around fine center, bend the knees. Right leg goes on the ground. Left leg comes up. Reach out to the side with your arms.

Flex that left foot. Lifted the pelvis away from the ground as you take the leg across the body then circle down and find center and inhale. So it's a spine twist with a leg circle and inhale cross and down around and center and lift up. And down around and center and one more down around and center and pop. Go the opposite direction.

Open cross around lifting the hips and placing the pelvis down and inhale. Exhale down across the body and center using the leg that's on the ground, the right leg to help stabilize the body and 2. And 1. Bend that knee, bring the right knee back, stretch the left leg long, stretch the right leg up and flex the foot and lift that right pelvis and go down around and center and inhale. And down around and center.

So you lift let that leg suspend down around and center and to down around and center and one down around and hold in the center. And please reverse at, down crossing the body, picking up the pelvis and finding center and at, down across the lake or across the lake on the ground and center and 3. So that's a combination of mobilization and stabilization, hip mobilization, spinal mobilization last time across and center, bend the right knee, stretch the right leg down, take the arms over your head, float them away from the floor. Palms of the hands turn to face one another, bring the head and chest up on the inhale, roll through your spine on the exhale, When the shoulders arrive over the pelvis, take the body into a straight back, open the arms out to the side, lifting the chest and then press the air forward and round. So what I mean by that is as your arms come from the out to the center. Think of really using a force against the air and lift the head and chest. Roll through the spine to bring the shoulders over the pelvis and bring the body up.

And open the arms and the chest. So similar to what we did in the very beginning, but this time with straight legs and no arms for help, and we go down. And back and in there. And exhale and lift up. Open the chest, press the arms forward, drawing back through the center of the body, and go down.

Anchoring the low back. Arms and head go back. Arms and head come up. Take the body up. Take the body to straight.

Take the arms around. And reach all the way forward for your feet, finding a stretch there, Just a little bending the knees and lean in and stretch. Purely selfishly for me. I'm feeling tight today, so we're gonna give a little stretch here before we do some seated work and stretch. And bend lean and stretch coming up through the spine.

Arms out to the side, feet flex, and we now take a spiral. Let's go towards the right. And center and left and center. And as you rotate your spine, feel it all the time, lifting taller arms stay straight across, and we go across. And center and across and center one more time the same.

A cross and center across and center in the center. Raise your arms up. Interlock your hands. Pull with your arms, your spine a little taller, and then open the arms back out to the side and rotate right. And raise the arm.

Same thing here. Lift in rotation, pulling with the arms to lift the spine taller, then open. Then center, then the other direction rotate. Take the arms. Reach up with the spine.

Come back open, come back to center, and lift the arms. And one more time all the way through pulling the abdominals back towards the spine, open the arms there. So we use the arms in all the different places to Get a little more up, more open, more rotation, and open, and center and the other direction and raising the arms and lifting the body and open the arms and come back to center. Take the feet apart. Bring your arms to the front.

Roll down through your spine and inhale. And roll up through your spine. Today, what we'll do as we sit is bring the arms as a continuation of the spine. It's a seam. Open the arms around to the sides, bring just the arms forward. Body comes up right and rolled down.

Down over the legs, inhale, lifting the body up, bringing the arms as a continuation of the rest of the body. Open the arms out. And as the arms reach forward, we just come from that extension into an upright position and roll down. Leaning in and roll up and reach up. And open and just the arms back to center making a change.

Roll the body down. Take the spine forward. Arms reaching out towards the ear. Stay here. Open the arms wide.

Bring your arms back over your head. Reach forwards. And come all the way up to sitting. Again, we in here and go forwards. And bring that back out on the diagonal.

If you can get lower than me, you should. And open Don't let my limitations prevent you from really finding your most maximum back extension on that diagonal go down. And sit back up. And one more go down. And reach out and open and hold. Now keeping the arms straight across like a airplane, we're gonna reach the body around.

And center. And the arms stay straight across as we take that rotation, reaching the arms out in space. And center and rotate reaching out through the top of the head. And center and reaching the arms out through to the sides Spine is reaching out through the top of the head and center making a change. We go over outside hand across towards the outside of that leg.

Pull with the right arm or pull with your arm as you reach up and across. I don't know if you're left or right, which is where I got a little stuck, but anyway, The arm at the bottom is pulling. The arm at the top is reaching. Come back out arms straight across and center. Take your rotation.

Opposite hand to the outside of that leg. Bend the arm on the leg and lean in as you reach the arm up and across. And then both arms out to the side, still on the diagonal center and go over arm down and pull up and over, leaning into that stretch, come back out arms out to the sides and center last time here, go over arm goes down. It pulls to take that lateral rotation of the spine. We come back out into that rotation arm straight across. We come back to center, say in center as you reach your arms over your head and then dive back down, roll back up, and bend your knees.

Taking the legs in the arms, connecting into a rounded shape in your spine, Legss are pressed together, float the feet up, try not to change the shape in the spine as that happens. And now we're gonna rock. And rock. Hold the top and stretch the legs. Oh, very tight. I wasn't expecting that. And rock and balance and stretch the legs and bend the knees Get in tight and rock and rock and stretch. The leg's stretching through the spine as well.

And bend the knees. And rock and rock and stretch the legs one more. Go bend and rock and rock and stretch the legs, can we? Asking myself as well, let go. Can we roll down from there, bring the legs up, hands behind the head bend your knees into a frock.

We're going to press the legs straight up and bend and stretch the legs to straight. Keeping the head and chest away from the ground and press the legs up. And bent and press the legs up. Little hap work and abdominal work last one. Press up point your feet.

Take the legs down. Around and center and around and center and leg circles. Keeping everything else stable around and center and 2. At around and center, and one at and hold the center and reverse open, down, touch together, and come up. And down.

Touch together and lift up and open and down. Touched together on LIFTA. Last 2. And one more. Bend your knees in, tiny break your, welcome, hold your knees, and circle your legs in your hip joints.

5. 4. 3. Opening the hips too. And one, and then circle the other way.

5. Flooding the hips release. 4. 3. 2, and 1, you're ready.

Here we go. Heels together toes apart. Hands behind the head. Press up with your chest. Press up with your legs. Open the legs wide.

Bend the knees and bring the heels across and stretch up and open keeping the feet flexed pull the heels together, keeping that pelvis organized and stretch up and open and bend the knees and stretch up and open and bend the knees and stretch up and open and bend the knees and stretch up. Now we reverse. Bend the knees and open and squeeze together. And keeping the chest lifted. And if it's too tiring to keep your chest lifted, you can put your head down. Press the legs and bend and open and press together and 2 and open and press together last time, bend, and open and press together.

Point your feet, head and chest down. Take the legs down, make sure they bring them into parallel, bring the legs up, and take the spine over. We're gonna keep the legs together here. Let your toes, if you can, reach to find the ground behind you. And then as you roll down, think of dragging the toes along the ground as long as you can, taking the body down, pressing through the arms, bringing the hips down, taking the legs down, and inhale lift up.

And exhale active arms as we tip the body over, taking the legs down. And in here and roll through the spine. Take the legs down and up. Take the body over and done. And roll the spinder.

Making a change. It happens that that over the over the body place. Very good queuing. I know. And we go over Take the legs to the right. Keep the pelvis level. Roll down the right side of the spine.

You recognize this pattern from earlier across the center over the other way and up. And then cross back to center. And inhale as we rotate, and down. Come around, come up and over. And to the center, and go over one more time through and down and come around.

And over. One more time means we have to go the other way as well, and we go over and down. And come around and up and center. Roll down through the center. Take the legs forward.

Bring the legs back. Tip the pelvis roll over. Take the legs down and then up into the air. And then roll down through your spine. Bring the legs down, bring the legs up, roll the hips over, Feel that there's a tempo.

We go down and up. Active through the arms, active through the spine, through the back of the legs. And as you roll down, allow the arms. Sorry. Those are lengths to get come in over the eyes and we bring the legs down. We bring the legs up.

Last time we go over, touch down, raise the legs up, lift with the spine, press with the arms, and roll down. All the way and bring the knees into your chest. Turn on to your side. Onto the elbow. You can either stack your feet or you can have your top foot in front of your bottom foot.

That's what I'm doing. This arm comes up into the air. Gonna straighten the knees coming out over that arm. We're gonna reach under. So rotating the spine.

Come back. That arm that's in there lifts overhead as we lift through the underside of the body and the back and reach under and center and over it and back one more time go through. Find center, go overhead, Find center, bend your knees, come down. Stretch the legs long, hand behind the head, top leg up, flexing the foot and go front and back and front. And back, filling the body, trying to stay nice and still.

The leg at the bottom, that straight leg, you can bend it if you need to. And reach and forward and back and forward and lifting the underneath side of the body and 4 reaching back holding as still as you can. 3. And reaching back and 2. And reaching, lifting the body. And one, reaching, and lifting the body.

And bending the bottom knee, hold the top foot in your hand, pull that leg back, and then press that foot into your hands taking your spine into an arc. Good. Side resting arc, side resting rocking. Come through center, bring the leg around. Sit up for a stretch, hugging the knee and dropping the pelvis down, lifting up, tall, through the spine, and then bringing that leg around.

Arms out to the side. We're going away from the leg. We just stretched to touchdown. We're now taking rotation in the spine. Arms down, reach forward and up through your chest, pressing your thigh and your foot together, and then round your spine.

And then unwind and come up and reach over, dropping into the sitting bone, and come back and hinge soft landing then rotation. And then just reaches through the arms. Take that rounds shape in the spine again. We unwind, come up, reach up and over, Last time making a change at the end. Reach out.

Touch down soft. Take your rotation. Take your spinal extension. Think of pulling with your arms. Now push with your arms to flex.

Come back, come all the way into that, counter stretch, reach around now with your behind rounding down over the legs. That top arm circles around finds the ground. Both knees now lift. We're on both knees now at the top pressing up into the front of the pelvis and then take that armor around in a circle 1. Pushing away from the floor. It sweeps down comes up. Pushing into that back knee as it reaches around, sweep down, reach up, all the way around so that we end with arm back overhead, and then we sit down, circle the arm, come all the way around to the other side, And maybe you'll have a little bit more range on that side. Now I do.

Let's bring the legs around to the opposite side of the mat, setting up for that side bend. So organizing the elbow under the shoulder, this arm is lifted, stretch the legs out to straight. First action is go through and center. Arm overhead and lift the waist. And center and reach through.

And center and go overhead and lift the waist and back and reach through. Center, overhead, and back knees bend, bottom leg straightens again. Hand comes behind the head. Top leg is lifted. Flex that foot and kick. Kick.

And reach using the arm on the underneath of the body to press up and keep that straight line and pull pull and reach back and pull pull and reach back and pull pull nice and simple, but many challenges within this movement, how organized can you be 5 and pull pull stretch forehead is pressing into the hand. Pull pull Stretch 3. Po. Po. Stretch 2. Pull pull, stretch one and hold, bending the bottom knee, bending the top knee, taking that foot into the hand.

And then press that foot into your hand. Kick it into your hand. Like, you're using the back of the leg to create your arch, which is what is happening. Finding the stretch in the front of the body, bring the leg around, come all the way up to sitting, Just pausing momentarily for a stretch, lifting the spine, Bringing the leg around. Arms out to the side. And we go over, float, soft landing, body comes around through rotation.

We now go into a little bit of spinal extension there. Come back into your rounded spine. So flex the spine. Unwind come up, reach up, and go over, and then come back arms floating, and we reach out and touch down and take rotation lift up into that spinal extension and round the spine. This is one of my very favorite exercises in the whole world. Fun fact about me and reach over. I hope you like it too.

And back last time over and down. And rotate and lift the chest through the arms and press the ground away as you round your spine. And come back. Here's where the change happens at the top. We come up and over with the arm.

We sweep the arm forward. Bring it down and lift the hips. Both hips pressing forward. The arm reaches the bottom knee, the oppositional knee presses down, and then we go into a circle for 3. Sweet past the leg across the body and 2.

Down across the body, up overhead 1. And then we come down with the hips. We reach around into that circular action in the body, taking that lateral stretch, counter stretch. Okay. Let's come up. Bring the legs around.

We're gonna go into some back extension here. So arms forward. Legs extended behind. We lift the body. Take the left arm and the right leg up.

And down. So just a little bilateral movement warming up through the back of the body. And down and reach and down and reach and down. And now everything up, and we inhale 2, 3, 4, for swimming. And inhale 2, 3, 4, 5, and exhale.

And inhale 2, 3, 4, 5, and exhale. And inhale 2, 3, 4, 5, and exh. Hale, and 1, and exhale. Taking the arms down. Bending the arms next to the sides of the body. Dragging the arms and the elbows and the scapula back towards the legs, we lift the chest.

Press into your elbows, lift a little higher, straighten your arms, lift up into your spinal extension. Bend your elbows, keeping the spinal extension. And then as you take your body down, let the legs come up. And as the legs go down, press into the elbows. Lead with your eyes in the direction you want your spine to go. Keep your eyes forward as your elbows come down. And then as the legs lift, the eyes transfer to the mat, and we go down with the legs and up with the spine.

And down with the spine and up with the legs. Just one more reaching up. Coming back down, lowering the legs, pressing back around your spine as you go, reaching all the way back down over your feet, stretching your arms out in front of you, rolling through the spine, taking the arms to the outside of the mat, taking the right leg behind. So the second piece of the swan dive, we're just breaking it into pieces. We bend the arms and lift the leg.

Reach. Imagine that it's not the arms that are moving the body. It's the leg. So it's hip extension. And push and hip extension and push and hip extension and push and hip extension. And come back, bring that knee in, straighten the other leg back, And here we go.

We go bent and extend and reach or rather extend and follow that with an armbend and stretch and bend. And lift and energize that leg too. And reach and energize that leg one. And reach, tuck that knee in, sit all the way back to the ground, bringing the hands forward onto the mat, So let's roll through the spine, bring the shoulders over the hands. We're gonna finish with a bang, my friends.

Shoulders over the hands, one leg back, the other leg back. The first thing that we're gonna do is lift the hips and press the feet down. This isn't hard to use. You say, well, that's okay. Lift up onto the toes, roll through.

We're doing 3. Lift the pelvis, press down, sir, just giving us all an opportunity to stretch our feet, and roll through. And one more time, lift up. Come back through. Point the left foot and lift it up and down.

And up. And down and up and down and 2 and down. And now lead with that leg and come into an arabesque and back to touch. And into an arrow desk pressing back through that foot. Now you're grateful for that warm up.

I think maybe or maybe it's just me touch and lift up kicking the leg up and touch and kicking the leg up. And touch and kicking the leg up. And step through. So we're on the back toes. Find your balance.

Roll up through your spine. Arms out to the side. We take the back knee down and stretch. And take that back knee down and stretch and take that back leg down. And stretch opening up the hips, take the back leg down.

And stretch one more time. Take the back leg down and stretch both hands, down step both feet back. 5 push ups. Oh, and 2. 3. 4, and 5 hips up. Heels reaching down.

Roll onto the toes, come back through, right leg points, and kicks up, and, 2, and down 3, and, 4, and 5 and now reach up. Nice and high with that back leg. Come down and touch. Lift up using just like we did before the leg as the initiator and touch and up and back, dropping that other heel down, and down the last two. And down.

And one From here, step the leg through. Come up into your lunge. Part in the imperfections here, my friends, and we bend and stretch that leg. And bend and stretch the leg. And bend and stretch the leg.

I'm laughing because I'm trying very hard not to fall over last too. And stretch the leg and 1 and stretch like, just in case you think I'm not human, I'm definitely human. Both legs back. Find your plank position. Left your hips up.

Walk in towards your feet with straight legs. One foot follows the other. Until both feet are on the mat, soften through the knees and let the body hang and then roll through the spine, coming up to standing, Take the arms forward and up. Take the right arm down to the right thigh. Slide that arm down the thighs.

Reach the left arm over and up. Come back up. Bring the right arm up. Take the left arm down. Slide down the outside of the left side as you stretch that right side body. Come up one more time, right arm down, left arm overhead, and reach up and over.

And back and right arm up, left arm down. And reach up and over. And all the way up, Both arms in the air. Open the chest. Take your time.

Let your arms suspend. Use this as a moment to gather your energy, gather your energy, and arms come down. And hopefully, you can take that energy into the rest of your day, evening, life, whatever. Thank you for joining me. See you soon.