Long Box Cool Down

Hi, Tracy Mallett. The setup is the long box, and this is what I typically use for a cool down. For example, I've just done a flow with a long box, and I'm finishing my class. So this is a great way of really stretching out the legs, stretching the hamstrings, getting a little bit of spinal articulation, finish off with a roll down, fantastic class. Alright? So for this one, we're actually gonna staff inside the well. So place your hands on the box, step over carefully.

There we go. But I do wanna make a little point is just make sure you've got enough springs on. We're not using it, but it's always good for safety to have at least maybe 3 reds or at least 2 reds on there, so it's kinda a bit more secure. Alright. So we're inside the well. We're going to lift the leg up to the side and make sure your foot is slightly in front of your hips. So in that external rotation, we're gonna reach the arms out, reaching out to the sides of the room.

Now we call these the ballet stretches. Yes. I always believe there's a ballerina in all of us. So we're going to side bend towards your leg, and wrap the hand around in that stretch. We come through second position here, and then reach towards the raisers. We've got that nice lateral stretch, and we keep doing this, and we see if we can go a little bit further into that Tracey.

Each time, a little bit bigger, a little bit wider with those arms, and we breathe, and we do a couple more. Feels really good to stretch out the lateral lines of your body. And then come back to center. We can do a little plier here and back, always good to test our balance. I'm flexing that foot you can see. I like to feel that length through the leg to stretch out the hamstrings.

Okay? Now we're gonna test our balance. This is always optional. Relevate and back. Relevate and back is a little balanced test here.

One more. And back. Going into your sideband one last time, hold it there a little bit further. Rotate. Shift your foot into the center and get your hips square with the box. Hold it here. Press the energy out through the heel.

Now for a lot of people, this is going to be a fantastic stretch. We might have other people that have a little bit more flexibility, so I suggest to go onto a Relave and just push that leg forward as far as you can go. And I love this area here because the box is supporting the ham string. It's, like, feels really good to be supported. So maybe go a little bit further keeping your hips square. Hold it there. Obviously, you can always challenge yourself by taking your hands up into prayer position, or just keep your hands here.

Just keep it simple. It's the end of your class. Come back, slide back, hold it here. You can also go into a pigeon pose here if you want. I'm choosing not to today.

I'm gonna put the hands here. Take the leg back. Going back into a beautiful stretch here ears by your biceps. Relevate, send your chest through your arms, coming up into a lovely swan here so you're opening up through the chest, use your core to come back through plank, reach back again, and maybe do like a little bend here. Your knees are going towards the chest, commence to one more time, re elevator, draw your shoulder blades down, and let them send the hips forward looking up to where the ceiling meets the wall there, and you can feel that extension, and then come back and stretch, roll yourself all the way up, turn to the other side.

So now I'm going to put my leg up. There we go. External rotation. Here we go. A little stretch to the side. Very fluid here to the end of the class and just getting them moving, bringing their heart rate down.

And this time, maybe we can go a little bit further into that stretch. We can always hold it in the stretch and then bring it back. We plie reaching out to the size of the room, connecting the arms to the back, heel is underneath your pubic bones. You're standing over your foot, and let's see if we can test our balance. Make sure your heel is underneath your pubic bone. Otherwise, it's gonna be hard to balance.

Let's do a couple more. Press the energy out through your heel on that stabilizing leg. Let's do one more. And let's finish off with a lovely stretch the side a little bit wider, a little bit bigger, send your hips in one direction, your hands in the opposite direction. Now rotate your body, move your leg in the center of your box, toes are pointing forwards, hands at either side of your foot, relevay, slide that leg forwards.

There's your stretch. Maybe you can creep a little bit further forwards, and we hold it there, get the hips square. Hopefully, we can hold it for at least 30 seconds not today, but that would be the goal, right, in that stretch. Walk the hands back, slide the leg back, keep pressing the energy out through the heels, stretch out those hamstrings, take that leg back, hinge back, hold that stretch, drop the hands down to the floor, drop your head, roll yourself all the way up one vertebra at a time. We're gonna finish off with a roll down, realign the spine, chin to chest, scoop out through those abdominals, reach towards your toes.

We should be able to touch your toes now. That's our goal. And then we roll all the way up articulating one vertebra at a time, so the head is the last thing to uncurl. Standing nice and tall. We finished the class.

Everybody's had a great class. They feel lengthened. They feel stretched, what a great way to finish a class. Right? Don't just hurry up and get out the class, finish it off with some kind of mobility, some kind of stretching, and then always finish off with a roll down. Rolling up to realign the spying.

Thank you so much. Let's do this again. It was so much fun. See you soon. Bye.