Cardio Conditioning Mat

So my name's Ed. And today, I'm gonna take you through a cardio Pilates conditioning class. It's a a shortage class. It's kinda my go to class when I don't have a lot of time, and I'm just looking for a fun, quick workout. So I hope you enjoy it. Let's get to it. So you're gonna start in the center of your mat. Feet together.

So we're gonna bring the feet all the way together. That's it. Good. It's a little bit more of a stretch. We're gonna press our palms to our sides. We're gonna take a deep breath in, and then we're gonna exhale, and we're gonna roll down with our legs together.

But what I want you to do is focus on the inner thighs. So I'm drawing my 2 thigh bones towards each other and I'm softening the knees. And so I'm relying on the spread of my toes for balance. I inhale and exhale. So it just adds a a element of balance to our roll downs and coming up. Tall. Good.

So we'll take another deep breath in and exhale. So head being heavy. So just watch out for the shoulder blades pushing forward. So I'm always thinking about a little bit of retraction through my scapula. Inhale and exhale. And you'll feel the body just gently swaying from side to side when we have our legs together.

So it's not as stable, but it makes for a fun challenge one more time and inhale and exhale. They're nice and soft. There's knees to bend. So I've got a little bit of help from the quadriceps in the hamstrings and exhale. As I roll back up into tall standing. Alright. We're good to go.

So we're gonna walk towards the front of our mats, and then we're gonna stand with our feet parallel. So about a hip distance apart, and we're gonna go through what we call the world's greatest stretch. Right? It's a really fun mobility drill. Right? We're gonna do a couple on one side, and then we'll move to the other side, but we're gonna start off slow. So we're gonna step back with the leg closest to the front of the room. We're gonna lunge back both hands to the ground. So the front leg, I'm gonna turn out with the knee and the hip and the foot.

The same arm as the front leg, I'm gonna bring that elbow towards my heel. So you're getting a little bit of opening through the adductors, alright, and the hip extensors. Then I'm gonna bring the leg back to parallel, and I'm gonna rotate towards the bent leg. So I'm getting a thoracic rotation. So here, Try rotate from the spine, not by pulling your arm back, but by opening the chest.

And now we're going to a little bit more of an awkward rotation. I'm gonna bring my arm to the inside of my foot, and you just gotta watch your balance here as we rotate to the other side. And then I'm gonna bring my hands on either side of my front foot, and I'm gonna gently flex the ankle, extend the knee and flatten my back for just a couple of seconds. So I'm into the hamstring. And then from here, we're gonna go into a high lunge.

I bend my front knee more or less knee over heel. And then arms, reaching up to the ceiling. Alright? So we're gonna go through that five times with a little bit of a little bit of energy. Alright? So we're ready to go? Yep. Let's go. So we got a knee turned out, elbow to heel, rotate towards the front leg. We rotate towards the other side into the hamstring, flat back, high lunge. Bam. And again, so externally rotate elbow Rotate, rotate hamstring, high lunge.

And number 3, we go 1 and position 2, 3, and 4, and let's go for 5. And, again, 1 and 2, ah, 3, ah, 4, 1 more. 5. So we've got our last repetition. Here we go. 1 and 2 and 3 rotation hamstring there and high lunge. And then from there, we step forward.

Alright. Good. There we go. Alright. Quite graceful. Okay.

So let's go slowly one more time on the other side. Just through the routine. Just getting the positions right, and then we'll speed it up with another 5. Okay. So we're stepping leg closest to the back. So we step out. Externally rotate hip and ankle elbow to heel.

So you just feel that we're in that position where you're getting the adductors to open the hip extensors then we're gonna rotate towards the bent leg away from the bent leg. A little bit of a hamstring release. And then a high lunge. And you see, I just always adjust my back foot for my high lunge. This just helps with a little bit of balance. Okay. So we go.

So we're gonna do 5. So we go externally rotate. Elbow. Rotate, backward rotation, hamstring, high lunge. That's one. And Elba, Rotate backward, hamstring, and that's 2. And, again, rotate.

And there. And hamstring. Good. And high lunge. Yes. And we go, what? And there. Good. Add flex and high lunge. Good.

And let's go 2 more. Let's go faster. 1 and rotate and rotate. And hamstring. And let's go and do a little bit faster. And one. Duh. Just meet the positions there. And, yes, good. And, up, beautiful.

And then let's bring both hands down, and we'll step forward. And we're just gonna bounce it out. So you're gonna face me, and we're gonna do like you skipping. Imagine skipping with a jump rope. Right? So just little soft jump, soft knees. Yeah. We're just facing the front.

There we go. This is nice and relaxed. Feel the the heat and the body starting to come. Alright. Mus is relaxing. Opening up are the hips and the shoulders. Good. So we'll try hold that for another 10.

98765. Very soft. 43 2. Good. And still lock the legs. Right? So foot isolations, right? So you're gonna try to jump, but not bend your knees. So all the movements Botha come from our plant of flexes and arches of the feet. Alright? So on the count of 3, we're gonna 1, 2, 3, and go 1, 2, and 3. Keep the leg straight. 4, 5, 6.

Keep going straight legs. 7. Stay parallel. 8. Good. 9. 1 more. And 10. Good. And then from there, keep the legs straight.

Just the right leg. We're gonna dorcey flex. That's it. Good. So you wanna get the anterior muscles of the shin and change the and change Good. Just giving that foot a little bit of a stretch there, the ankle, and change your weight can shift for this if you need to, and we'll do one one each side. 1. And two. And relax.

Good job, everyone. Alright. So we'll go to the front end of our mats again. So we're gonna go into a a squat jump. So standing in an athletic stance, right, whatever that means to you. So it's a comfortable standing position, and we're gonna gently squat down, right, close to parallel.

Right. And then from there, we're gonna jump up, boom, and land. Cool. Thank you. Easy enough. Just that's our landing now. We're gonna continue. So you're just gonna squat jump, squat jump. So one melts into the other, right?

Add we're gonna do ten times. Alright. Arms can just be relaxed the whole time. So I just swing my arms. I squat, and I'm going 1 and 2 3, 4, 5. Good. 6 try. Go a little lower. 7, 8, 9, and 10. Good. We'll take a quick little 5 count.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Let's repeat. So we go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. Good job. Okay. Now while we've got that heat going, we're gonna go down to sitting onto our bums, onto our backs. And we're gonna come up into the hundreds. I'm gonna lift my legs tabletop.

Straight arms overhead. Now we're calming things down. Exhale as we lift. And we take an in breath to prepare. Nice straight elbows.

We're gonna go quite slow and out. 2, 3, 4, 5, in 2, 3, 5, and 2, 2, 4, 5 in. 4, 5, 3, 2, 4, 5, 4, 5, 4, 5, and 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 4, 5, and 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 3, 4, 5, and 2, 4, 5. We'll go faster after 2, 3, 4, 5, in, 4, 5, 2, 3, 4, 5, in, 54, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 5, 2, 3, 4, 5, and hold. Good. Bring your knees and hands under your thighs, and we'll just come up to sitting for a sec. Feet parallel. So we're gonna do a little half roll. So hands under the thighs, sitting up tall. So we're going into flexion, and then we're gonna just gently melt to about halfway.

So I always like to think of I'm rolling as far back as my arms go straight while I'm still holding. So that's a good position. So we take a breath in and then exhale as we come back up. And then build the spine back up tall. And, again, so we go round and back. So, again, as far out as you can keep your arms straight, Very good.

And then coming back and in and up. We'll do one more time, and we go back. Exhale. Shush. So we're rolling it back. Rolling it back. Rolling it back.

Good. And then bringing it back all the way through, roll like a ball. So if you can, you're gonna take holding onto each leg, one hand on each leg, right, holding quite low down, if possible. And then drawing your heels as close to your backside as possible eyes looking down. Alright. So just gently start thinking about the lower back pressing down to the mat. We inhale. And exhale as we come up and inhale and exhale.

Shush. And inhale massaging the muscles of the back, exhale and not rolling onto the neck, inhale. And exhale and inhale and exhale. We'll do 2 more. Breathe in to roll back.

Breathe out. Good. Keeping your eyes looking down, and we'll go one more. And we're gonna pause over here. So your transition is very similar to the crab. So you just cross your legs, give them a little bit of a pull, place your hands in front of you, and then you can just step your legs back into hands and knees. Alright? So here we might have some modifications coming on.

So you'll notice I'm often on my fingers or my fist because I've had a wrist surgery, so I don't put my palms flat. That's absolutely fine. And then for some of you, if you can't do push ups because of your elbows or shoulders, please just hold the front support position. But at this stage, we're going into the up stretch 1. So we're gonna extend the legs out very slowly.

Nice stable spine position. Bum and there. So I'm pushing out of my shoulders. So I'm lifting my pelvis up. So I inhale here and then exhale as I draw back to front support. And I go to and front support and 3 and front support and 4 and front support.

And 5. And front support and 6. And front support, we go up one more and hold it up. The leg closest to the front, we're gonna step that forward in a lunge. Boom.

Alright. Now try to get your ankle right under your knee. And from here, we're gonna come up into high lunge. Hands behind your Ed, if you can interlace your fingers. And I wanna encourage a little bit of extension of the back yet. So it doesn't matter if you arch a little bit. We want those back muscles nice and active. Now I'm gonna go knees over toes with my front leg.

So my lunge is gonna drop a little low. If you're happy, just hanging out here, please, by all means, but please hang out nice and low there. Now we're gonna go forward, and then we're gonna come up all the way up. So it's like a split squat position, and we go to going forward forward forward. And up. So working range and the ankles in the knees, 3, and up, and 4, and up.

So we'll add a little bit more pace for 5, not much of it, and up. And 6 and up and 7 and up and 8 and up. We're obviously getting that opening of the hip flexor at the back as well. 9 and up one more. And 10 and up. Good. So we end up in our high lunge again.

Hands come down and we'll step forward and do our change. Bang. Okay. So stay low for me, please, so that you feel this front hamstring and hip extensil or gluteal are working to keep us supported. So here we go hands behind the head, and we're ready to go. We go down.

1, and lift up. And two, and lifting up. 3 and up. We got the hang of it now. 4 and up. So we're stretching 5 and up. The muscles of the quad, 6, and then it has to work to come up. And 7 and up. 8 and lift 2 more. 9 and lift 1 more.

And 10 and up. Good. And let's go high lunge. Hold it. They last little last little hold. Bring the hands down. And we step it out front support, and then we go down onto our knees forearm position.

Alright. So we're going into a, like, a plank. Alright? But we're gonna step the legs out. Alright. Now from there, take a step forward with each arm. 1, 2, and we just hold for 10. 98765 4, 3, 2, and down on your knees.

Turn on to your side facing the side plank position. Right? We're gonna stack if you can. If you can't because of your bottom foot or knee, you can do this on your knees. Alright? So we're just gonna press up into our t. 1, 2, 3. It does help to smile. 456789 and 10. And then ladies, if you would just turn to face the other way, so you're still facing inwards with your bodies, that's it. Perfect. And I'm in a change, and we go up, and we're going 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 good. We can come down.

And I'm just gonna turn into the right position here, ready for a single leg kick. So we're floating our legs. I'm drawing my elbows towards my hips. My hips towards my elbows, and I'm looking forward. So I'm gonna start with the leg closest to the front.

So it's inhale, exhaled, Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. And inhale. Exhale.

Last set. Inhale. Exhale. Both legs out long. Good. Tuck the toes under.

Draw the abdominals in, and we're gonna draw ourselves up again. Bummer. That's it. Beautiful. Into our front support. Good. So from here, we're gonna bring the knees in. Hands under the shoulders, alright, and we're gonna press up into the up stretch position one more time. So I'm gonna keep my knees bent.

So I'm gonna push up and I'm flattening my back And so from here, we're gonna hop forward towards our hand, and we're gonna stand up tall, and we're gonna go into some either. You have the options of doing a squat thrust. Or a burpee. So squat thrust. So we'll do this together. Athletic stance, squat down, hands to the ground, legs shoot out.

We hold, we shoot the legs back in, and then we stand up. Alright? So for those of you who wanna continue with that, please do. For the burpee, we go squat down. Hands down. Legs out. Rock bottom with the body.

Hands off the mat. Hands go back. Doesn't matter how you get up. It doesn't have to look pretty. We push up into our straight line.

And a little hop. Tom. Alright. Let's go for 10. Ready? So we wanna get a good pace on this. So here we go. That's one.

Oh, and that's 2. Good. And that's 3. Very good. Easy. And 4. And 5. Wow. Really halfway. And 6.

And 7, that's the only rule is to keep up 7. And 8. Add 9. One more time, please. 10 Ed front support. Here we go. 1, 2.

Alright. Right arm to left shoulder. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, very good. Hips up, bend knees. Stay there. So from here, We go forward. We go into a push up or a plank and back up, beneath, and 2, back up, and 3, and back up and 4 and back up 1 more and 5 and up. Very good. We're gonna hop towards our feet. And you can stand up. Good.

Onto our back, double extra, single leg stretch, criss cross. So let's go down. Onto our backs. Table top our legs. So we'll do 510.

So I'm lifting up chest lift. I've got a nice assist from the arm. Inhale. Exhale. Remember, this is your rest.

So 2 Thank you. There. 3, there. 4. So take your time. 5 and hold. So we'll lay closest to the front.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, hold. So leg closest to the front is bent. Hands behind the Ed. Rotate to that leg ten times, which 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, back to our center bent legs. So from her hands on our knees, We're gonna roll up onto our hands and knees just like we transitioned earlier, and we'll take the up stretch position again. So toes tucked under, lifting up, and we're gonna step to the center of our mat.

So we're going 1 and 2, and you can roll yourself up. Alright. So we're gonna do a lunge forward and back, right? So I'll do a slow one starting with my leg that's closest to the front. So I lunge forward. I lunge back. Yeah. I'm gonna repeat that sequence on my front leg, and then we'll do the back leg. Right?

So let's get straight into it. So we're going 1 and back. And 2, you see, I'm staying low and back. 3 and back. 4 and back and 5 and back and 6 and back and 7.

We're doing great. Stay low. 8 there, 9, there, and 10, step back. And we're there, and the other side, and we're going 1 and back, 2 and back. 3. Yes. Good. Salo, 4, and 5. Good.

6. That's it. 7. Last three. 1, we go. 2, and one more to go. 3.

Beautiful work, and we step in, and we're up. Beautiful hands and knees. We're gonna do a few steps through. So have a look. So onto hands and knees.

Mhmm. So I'm gonna step the leg closest to the back of the room. I'm gonna shoot through to the front I'm gonna lift the opposite arms and have a look here. So I'm going 1 and back. I'll do the other side once. 2 and back.

Alternating. Alternating, please. Right? 10 times. See if we can go with a little bit of pace. Yeah. Let's do it. Alright. And we go 123. You get a really nice flow. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Beautiful. 910. Yes. And then we go down onto our knees.

Legs are gonna come through. Back support, please. So parallel legs, hands behind you. Remember, I'm on my fist because of my wrists. Please have your fingers facing in or out to the sides, and we just press up into a long line, getting the stretch of the shoulders, the hips, and then we swing down a little float and again up and down and up and down one more and up and all the way down. We're gonna go prone one more time.

So we're just gonna go through the center stretch everything out with a swan dive prep. So hands, under my shoulders, elbows on the mat, neck in a neutral line without using my arms, extending my back, Good. Now keep your scapula stable, so draw them into your back pockets. Then we're gonna use the triceps to finish our extension. And then as we come down, we allow the hips to extend strong legs, and I'm dragging with my elbows.

And, again, in. So now we just keep a flow and exhale. And inhale. And exhale. And inhale.

And exhale. And inhale. And exhale. We're gonna hold. Beautiful. So we're gonna stay in this position with our spine. Legs are still floating.

We're gonna reach the arms out in line with your ears. So we're gonna go into our swim. So we're gonna start right arm left leg. Left arm right leg. And just like the hundreds are 2, 3, 4, 5, in, 5, and out, 2, 3, 4, 5, and in, 2, 3, 4, 5, in, 5 and out 2, 3, 4, 5 and in 2, 3, 4, 5, and in 2, 3, 4, 5, and in 2, 3, 4, 5. Bring our forearms down.

Beautiful stretch. We're gonna scoop around. And back, if you can't do full knee flexion, please feel free to lift your heels up and sit back. Otherwise, you're gonna press down and back. Good. We're gonna tuck our toes underneath us. We're gonna press up into the up stretch pressing the heels down.

And this time, we're gonna walk with straight legs. Dorcey flexy. There. And and until you can't walk anymore, this time the legs are parallel, head is heavy, and we slowly roll up. And standing up tall, and we'll finish with our last roll down. You can stay where you are.

We'll take a breath in and exhale head heavy. And the grand finale, just to stretch out, bend your knees, gain control the scapula, inhale, and exhale. I'm pressing up through my lower back. Tall, nice, straight arms, good posture. And I hope you all had a good workout.

I really enjoyed my time with you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, guys.