Creative Side Lying Flow

Hi. I'm Maria, and we're gonna be building a side lying flow. Your primary focus here is gonna be keeping your spine and your pelvis still while articulating your shoulder joint and your hip joint, both ball and socket joints. You're set up for this. The foot bar is gonna be down. The headrest is gonna be up, and you might even wanna use an additional prop to help you keep your neck in a neutral alignment.

We're gonna be working on 2 different spring settings, lighter Leone when your hand is in the loop, heavier when the loop is over your knee. I'm gonna start myself with Leone red spring. Lay yourself down on the side. Your ear goes right into the headrest. And notice my shoulders are still under the shoulder block.

Reach the top arm forward. Extend that arm forward. Stack your knees, your hips, and your shoulders. From here, we're gonna start working the tricep pressing that arm right in by your side and then lengthening as we take that arm forward. And, again, really maintaining the integrity of the trunk check-in right now and make sure your bottom waist is lifted up and away from the carriage.

Shoulders are stacked. Hips are stacked. And some of you are gonna begin to take that top leg out straight and they can just hover here in space. Now for the rest of this, the top leg can stay out straight, or if you want something a little bit easier, bend the knee back and stack them. Keep the arm in by your side wherever shape you're in begin to just lift and lower that top thigh Leone, getting a little bit more here into the glute med.

Make sure there's no tension in your neck. Last time here, Let's point your toe in tiny little circles. Stability challenge here is a little bit harder than you might think. Fight to keep that lower back nice and still. And now we put that together.

So as the arm goes forward, lift the leg and then squeeze the leg close. Inhale. And exhale. Everything moves together. A little bit of coordination required for this as well. Make sure that top arm is staying in one path.

The arm is not bobbing up and down. Last time here, and we're gonna change our arm pattern. I'm gonna go back to the bent knee. My palm is gonna face in. From here, the arm is gonna lift up, and I'm gonna squeeze the arm into my body.

And my focus now is on that lat and that pec. Make sure the hand is not going behind your shoulder. Maybe the top leg goes straight. Check-in with that bottom waist. Make sure it's lifted.

Last one. Keep the arm in. Go back to that little hip action straight up or down. And then as an option, you could go to the circling leg here. Up to you. Keep that shoulder blade out of your ear. Keep that bottom waist lifted up, and now let's put this together with the arm action.

So everything opens and everything closes. The coordination for this is a little bit easier. Also reminiscent of other things you've done in Joe's work. Keep the connection to the lats. Keep good scapula control.

Last one here. And now stack the leg. We're gonna come into a circle. So the arm comes forward. It opens and it draws down.

Now this circle might be something small. And, again, check-in with where the shoulders are. What the bottom waist is doing. You could also take this into a bigger range, much harder here on the tricep and also the lap. Last Leone.

And now bring yourself up. We're gonna do a spring change. You're gonna wanna go heavier than what you just had. Bring that loop up and over your knee. The headrest is gonna go down, and I'm gonna set myself up on my forearm.

So you can keep your forearm on this side of the shoulder block. For some people, it's a little bit more forgiving on the shoulder for there to be a slight angle. Start nice and stacked. And, again, this bottom waist is lifted up. That nice straight plumb line lift both heels and begin to take that hip into external rotation. Keeping the heels lifted high, making sure that the lower back is staying nice and still for me. Two more like this.

Keep pushing through that forearm. Keep working that bottom side body. Lower the feet down. Lift the knee up to the height of that hip point begin extending the hip, pushing back and coming in. I like to do this one for whatever reason with a flexed foot, and you're also looking for a sense of opening in the front of the hip.

And then, of course, you could take this with a straight leg as well. Reengage that bottom waistline. 2 more like this. Last one. Come on in. Take that loop off, and we got a second side to do.

So you have to go back to the lighter spring tension. So I'm going back. And let's review the setup again. Head rest is up. When you lay down, the ear is going into the headrest, right on top of the headrest. The shoulders are lowing lower than the shoulder block.

Hips are stacked, shoulder stacked, reach for the front loop, reach the arm straightforward, and starting with a simple tricep press. So, again, an action that is very familiar to everybody, but it feels very different here. A lot more challenging here to hold that alignment from the fingertip to the shoulder head. And then many of you might have already taken that top leg straight. That's a choice up to you.

Re commit to that bottom waistline. And last time, keep the arm by the side. Stay here, and let's begin to lift the leg up and down in and out of that abduction. Make sure the front hip is staying open. Keep reaching the shoulder out of the ear, point the toe, and possibly add circles.

Now if you start moving all over the place, just go to the simpler movement pattern. Last one. Keep that leg straight or go back to a stacked leg. Open the arms straight side of your shoulder and then squeeze the arm into your body. Check-in with your neck alignment. Shoulders are stacked.

Tips are stacked. Bottom waist is not touching the carriage. Maybe the top leg is straight. Finding that connection to the lot as you push down. Last one here.

Stay here your choice. Just the straight abduction, abduction of the hip, or maybe you take a little circle here. Circle's gonna be a lot more challenging on the stability part of this exercise. Nice and clean action. Bend the knee in.

We're gonna go to our circles. I recommend you start the circle small to begin with. And really feeling the top of the humerus in the shoulder socket. Bottom waist, those obliques are lifted up. And then you can begin to make that circle bigger as your body dictates.

Now that hand is never going behind your shoulder. It's stopping straight side. Notice as the circle gets bigger, there's more work into the tricep and the lot last one here. And then rock yourself up, and we're gonna do that spring change going to the heavier spring now. Head rest goes down.

The loop goes up and over your knee. The legs are at 90 degrees. Place the farm down either right up against the shoulder blocks or perhaps at a slight angle holding on to the, the little handle there. Bottom waist is lifted. Nose, breast Leone, pubic bone in the same Leone.

Lift the two heels up and begin your good old clamps. Clamps never seem to go out of style. Keep lifting that bottom waistline. Notice the second side is a little bit more challenging because that bottom glute meat is tired. From doing that first side.

Shoulders stay out of the ears. Really look for that station sensation in the bottom lot, bottom serratus anterior. Last one like that. Lower the feet down, lift the knee up, flex the foot, begin to take that thigh Leone back into extension and fold forward. And I look for there to be a sensation of opening in the front of the of the hip. So squeeze that glute so much that the opposite muscle gets put on stretch.

And maybe you take that leg straight as well. It's just a little bit more weight for that glute need to hold, but don't get so distracted by this leg that you forget about this bottom oblique. Integrating breath, keeping control of your machine, Last one here. Bring the leg forward. Remove your loop.

And that's the end of our side lying series.