Mobility and Strength Mat

Hi. I'm Christine Crooks, and today, we're gonna do a little mat flow, just a short little mat flow with the ball. So let's get started. Stand at the bottom of your mat. Take the ball between your ankles and then step your feet a little towards each other. So you have some pressure on the ball, but you don't have to be squeezing it so much. Okay?

Arms are beside you. Just find yourself in this nice tall posture. Pressing down through the feet, all ten toes and your heels, lengthen up through the crown of your head, Let's get some movement sitting into a squat. Hips go back. Arms reach forward. Stand back up.

Inhale. Exhale. Getting those big muscle groups warmed up. Finding circulation in the body. Nice, simple functional movement.

Two more. Inhale and exhale. Inhale and Santal. Now reach the arms out in front of your shoulders and start with just the wrist, flex, and extend. Really feeling the energy stays reaching out through the arms. And good. Now keep the fingers aiming up. We find that flexion in the wrist and now add rotation all the way through the arms and the shoulders.

So we're spiraling like you're turning a dial. Internal rotation, external rotation. Two more. Good. Now keeping the hands up, let's come into our roll down. We're gonna find ourselves on the mat who walk out to hands and knees, lower the knees down.

Now take the ball, place it between the knees, shoulders over hands, knees under hips, press long through the arms, long through the spine. And I'm keeping the toast flexed under as I go through this first bit. So we're finding that scapular wrap or sternum drop. Trying to just find that mobility in the scapula on your back body and that dynamic stability of the shoulders. Two more, and press one more.

And press now hold. You have the toes pressed down. You have the hands pressed down. Deep breath in. Exhale. We hover. So you pressing on the ball, hover the knees 1 inch.

Breathe there inhale and exhale. Lower the knees down. Let's do it a few more times. Inhale. XL. So that horizontal energy through the crown of your head, out through your sits bones, And again, hover.

And down one more time, pressing through hands and feet, pressing in on the ball. Hold as you breathe in and breathe out. And lower down. Uncurl the toes and just take a little cat and cow. And easy movements through the spine.

Now finding this movement really initiating from the head and the pelvis together. So we find that extension crown it ahead up, sits bones going up the wall behind you, and then rounding through sit spilling towards the floor, corona the head towards the floor. 2 more inhale. And exhale. One more inhale. And exhale.

Now taking the ball underneath the chest, you have hands under shoulders. So it's right in the center of your mat, and I want you to now press through the floor. It might roll a little bit, it is a ball. Press through the floor. Take your right arm up towards the sky.

So we find this nice rotation opening up. As you thread this right arm under. You're gonna roll that ball on or roll your arm on the ball and thread through finding a deeper spiral here. Then come back to the center, reach, and open. Thread, roll.

And open. One more like this, and then we're gonna add an element on and open. Now we have the left hand on the floor. Left leg. Let's extend it back. So now we have a little opposition here. Reach.

Threading under and open. Feel that left heel reach back as your right arm reaches up. Last two. And I'm taking a little kind of single arm push up prep with this left arm. Good practice for later. And up.

Alright. Now both hands down. Both knees down. Other side pressing into the right hand. Left arm reaches up. And threading under, and open, and under and open and under.

Now press and hold keeping the left hand off the floor. So we feel that dynamic control, right leg reaching back, opposite arm and leg supporting, reach again. And thread under, and open, and under last one. Finishing at the top. We open.

And bring it all down. Okay. Now take a seat. Towards the bottom of your mat, place the ball in between the knees and find yourself on your sits bones, sit nice and tall, Hands can be behind your legs. Gently press your legs into the ball just for that connection of the inner thighs. Right?

Now hands here as you lift through the spine breathe in, exhale, start to round back. You rock past your sits bones, you're rounding as you lengthen. Now inhale here, exhale rolling back up. Tall seated posture. Exhale rolling back.

Breathe in to hold. Breathe out to come back up. So the ball being here in the center of the knees or between the knees offers that deeper connection midline into that dominal work, but we don't want the inner thighs to take all of the work. We want this connection to just be stronger, more integrated. Now I'm rolling a little deeper. Things are loosened up and back up.

Next one. We roll back. Now I want you to hold it where you feel like your feet are getting lighter, reaching your arms, take it inhale, Exhale. Try to turn the pelvis a little more. Getting that low back to the floor. The ball helps. Slide your feet closer towards you, head on the floor.

Feet closer to your sits bones. Now, again, just holding the ball. Right, connection, not squeeze, take a breath, and now start to roll up articulating your bridge. Holding the first one at the top. Find that long line extension at the hips. Breathe in. Exhale as you roll down.

Rolling up and rolling down. Two more. Arms are barely working. And down. Next one, I want you to hold at the top.

Rolling up. Holding at the top. Now feel the lift of the back body, draw into the ball. Arms are gonna do a little more work now to help stabilize you and center. You keep the ball in place, right leg, reach it out, kick it out.

Tap your foot. Reach. Tap and reach. Set that foot down, re center the bridge. Maybe you dropped a little bit. That's okay.

Pressing down through the right foot, left leg, kick it out reach, tap, and extend. So you're holding the ball with both knees, keeping the thighs parallel to each other. Trying to keep the lift of your bridge, it's hard. Set your foot down, re engage through the midline, re engage through the bridge, and then roll it back down, release at the bottom. Take a breath. Feel that connection to abdominals float the legs up to tabletop.

Move the ball down to the ankles. Take a deep breath in. Now sliding the hands down the mat, lift your head and shoulders up, abdominal curl. Then the hands wrap around the front of the shins, draw the knees in, but don't lay yourself out of your c curve. Double leg stretch.

Inhale. Exhale. Circle the arms hug. So we have that rounded shape of the spine but that pelvis stays relatively still, and the sacrum stays anchored. Inhail reach, holding that shape a moment, then circle hug. Last two, One more.

Holding here. Try to keep yourself up in that c curve. Hands go behind your head interlace. We're gonna add a little rotation to this. So now in health care, the center Exhale, knees come in. We rotate to the right.

Look around the right thigh. Inhale through the center. Exhale back in. To the left. So we alternate to the right, to the left, 2 more sets.

Last set. Come back to center. Fly down. Take a breath in. We're gonna rock and roll up to a seat.

Easy roll up. Okay. Now taking the ball underneath the side rib bringing yourself into sideline position. So with this, First, we'll get a little mobility. We'll catch her breath, or I will catch her breath. We'll get a little mobility, and then we'll add in some of the side kick work.

So taking the bottom arm forward of your chest along the floor. Top leg is long. Bottom knee is bent underneath you. Take the top arm and side bend over that ball. This is where we wanna make sure the ball is actually under the rib cage and not down on the waist or under the armpit.

As we come up, you can look down the line of the leg You keep just the fingertips on the floor, but you feel the side bend without twist, okay, back over the ball, inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale.

You can even think about pressing those ribs out into the ball to come up. Last one. And, bring this forearm underneath you. So now the ball is actually going to act as a reminder. So we're reminding ourselves not to droop onto the ball.

So we're pressing the floor away. Still the same orientation of the legs. Take the top hand behind your head. Press to feel that connection. So I'm reminding those ribs to stay lifted, and the top leg starts to lift and lower.

And 2, 3, feeling that connection to the shoulder as well, length through the crown of the head, Now lift and hold that leg. We're gonna flex, kick forward, inhale, back exhale. Inhale, exhale. So my bottom leg is my kickstand, but I wanna stay relatively square shoulders and hips, but guess what? We have the advantage of the ball. So let's use it.

We're gonna pull the leg forward We rotate open. We reach back. We roll slightly on the ball. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale.

Exhale. Come back to center. We have a surprise ending to this sequence. Foot goes back on the floor. Foot is flexed. We press into the forearm, reach the top arm up. Now, you're pressing down in that bottom leg, down in this bottom knee, lift the hips up.

Tap the hips down. 2, 3, 4, 2 more, 5, hold number 6. Now if you wanna take another layer, 1. Bottom knee lifting, 2. 3, 4, 5, 6, lower it down Side relief. Let's go to the other side. So now we have the ball underneath the left side. Again, the ribs, take the top arm in front or bottom arm in front of your chest. As you side bend, take that top arm up and over.

Now let this just be a nice, luxurious stretch inhale. Exhale as we come up, we're looking down the line of the leg, reach through the fingertips, and then over. And up. And over. And up. That ball helps to facilitate that nice opening to the ribs and stretch on the obliques.

Now this one, we're gonna stay up. Bring that forearm behind. Or underneath the shoulder. Now as you press into the floor, finding this nice length in your spine within your collarbone, And then top arm comes behind the head, reach long through the top leg, lift and lower one. So the ball no pressure on it at this point. Right? We're working on that control of the shoulder and that work in the lateral system.

Now lift and hold, flex forward pull the leg, reach back. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. And back. Now from here, let's add rotation.

We pull the leg forward. We reach back with the elbow. And then reach forward rotation. So I can actually think about pulling the ball back and forth with that bottom rib. Last one.

And back. Come to center, set that down. Now we're reengaging through that bottom arm, taking the hips up. We lift and lower. Lift and lower. It's easy to put all the work into this bent knee, but put some energy out and down into that top leg and down.

Lift. Next one. We hold. Bottom leg. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Okay.

Coming up. Now bring the ball just to the top of your mat for a moment. As you lie down onto your stomach, We're gonna take a little preparation for a prone work. And that preparation is a quad stretch because how many times do we get into this position or any kind of prone extension work, and the legs just aren't ready. So stack your hands under your forehead.

Legs do not need to be together. Bend your right knee. Reach back with your left hand for the right foot. If this isn't accessible, then roll on your side and do this. Same side of hand grabbing foot. Now as you bring the knees closer together, you might notice a deeper stretch through those quads, can you keep the pelvis heavy on the mat and hover that knee just a little bit?

Good. Without the slingshot effect, release the foot. Switch sides. Gentle, easy stretch on the quads. Knees are close together, hovering off the mat, hips are heavy. Heal towards glute and release it back down.

Now taking the ball Oftentimes with this next exercise, I'll deflate the ball a little bit, but for today and for time, we'll leave it as is. And place the ball underneath your chest. Now you don't want it underneath your ribs. You really want it underneath the chest. So feeling as though you do have the ability to round over.

I want you to be able to find thoracic flexion here. So energy through the legs, as we round over the ball, Yes. I'm engaging through my abdominals, but I'm finding this lengthened flexion curve. Now as I come out and up with the crown of the head, I'm pushing the ball forward, finding that upper spinal extension. Rounding over the ball.

With an exhale. Pressing out with an inhale. Now the more that I deepen into this, the more I'm likely to dump into the floor with my abdominals and my low spine. So keep that lifted and think of pushing the ball forward and then release over. You have 2 more.

Inhale. Exhale down. Inhale up. And exhale down. Friends. Love that.

Okay. Take the ball. Bend your knees. Take the ball in between the ankles. Yes. We have to do the hamstring work. Okay.

Stacking the hands on her forehead. First, we just start with the hamstring curls. So what I want you to find, again, like our quad stretch, pelvis is heavy, knees, or light. Extend the legs. And bend.

Extend and bend. Holding the ball is plenty of work. We don't have to actively try to squeeze it, but hovering those knees off of the mat. In. Now little tiny lifts. 1, 2, 3. Remember to relax the shoulders.

5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. Reach the legs long. Now flex your toes so they kind of prop on the floor. Let's take our double leg kicks with the ball in place. So the hands come behind the low back interlaced fingers.

If shoulders don't tolerate this, you can hold a towel at your low back. Give a little more space for the shoulders. Turn your right cheek to the floor. Now reach long through the legs again feet pointed. Hover the knees.

Kicking in 321. As your legs reach with that ball, your hands reach back, your sternum reaches forward. Turn left cheek. Nies are hovering. 1, 2, 3. Reach.

And 1, 2, 3. Just holding the ball is plenty of work. We know. In 2, 3 reach in 2, 3, and reach. We have one more. In 2, 3. Reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, lengthen, and down.

Bring the ball back up because you're gonna need it. Grab it with your hands. Hands under shoulders, push yourself back into a little rest pose. So find a gentle rounding to the spine. Good. Now we're back on hands and knees.

Let's take one last bit of work before we come back up to standing. So with the ball, taking the ball right here underneath your right hand. So if your hands were stacked under your shoulders, you replace your right hand where that ball is. Now I want you to start to roll the ball forward. And as you roll it forward, you're bending your left elbow.

So I referred to kind of the single arm push up earlier. And then back up. So I'm bending the left elbow. I'm rolling the ball forward with my right arm, but my shoulders stay square and press. And reach and press. Now adding a layer, if you want it, you don't have to lengthen the left leg back. So opposite arm is leg with the ball and reach and up.

2 more. Roll the ball. Square shoulder, square hips. We're taking a little tilt forward with that push up. Last one.

And up. Knee comes down, roll the ball underneath the left hand, same thing other side, starting just with the ball rolling, and that dip down. Roll it forward. Pull it back. Roll it forward.

Pull it back hold, right, leg long behind you. If you want it, add it in. Roll the ball. List the link. Pull it back under.

Reach. Square shoulders. And back up. Okay. Now leaving the ball there taking your hands under shoulders, flex the feet. Let's transition up to standing. I want you to go through your knee hover.

So you lift the knees, you lift the hips, and you come into an up stretch. Right? So we have this kind of triangle shape of the body. Now bend and extend a couple times in the knees, reaching the heels towards the floor, reaching the sits bones towards the sky. Hold here. Getting those heels down as much as you can, but keeping that length through the low back. Now right leg, pick it up, reach it up towards the sky.

And bring it down. Switch. Left leg. Pick it up. Reach it up. And down. Your arms are strong. You're pushing the floor away.

One more on each leg. Reach and down. Left leg reach and down. Now as you start to walk your hands to your feet, You end up in your forward fold and pause. Fingerships stay on the floor. Crown of your head falls towards the floor.

Inhale bend, exhale straighten, find length in the legs. One more. Just soft bend in the knees. Start to push down into the floor with your feet as you roll through your spine turning the pelvis underneath your first, stack your rib cage over the pelvis and your head over your shoulders. Inhale and exhale.

Again, as you inhale, let your eyes gaze up with your sternum. Exhale. One more time. Inhale, sternum lift, eyes up. And release. Okay. Thanks for joining me.