Courtney's Go-To Mat

Hi. I'm Courtney. Pilates anytime asked me to film my favorite go to 30 minute matte workout. So that's what I'm here to do. I have a couple of props with me today. I'm using the ball and the resistance band from reformer loops. So if I only have 30 minutes, sometimes I grab these bad boys so I can really maximize my time.

We're gonna start with the band. And if you don't have a band, you can still do this. I'm gonna step through so the band is nice and high just above my knees. And my goal for this little warm up is to wake up my butt, inhale, squat, exhale lift. So anytime I use a prop, my intention is to use that prop purposefully.

So I have tension in the band. It's never loose. It's always gonna be doing something And at this point, it is engaging my butt. Steep squats sit low and lift all the way up. Knees over toes, you know, how it goes, inhale down, exhale lift. I'm not really counting repetitions. Right?

I only have 30 minutes to work out. I'm actually just gonna go to the place where I feel that burn and I start to feel that fatigue. Stay low on the next one. You're gonna press the band and the knees out. Now sometimes when I do this, I will roll my whole foot out like that, Don't do that. Keep the big toe down and just press out with the knees.

Sit as low as you can. Keep the core tight. This would be a good time to kinda settle into a good breath routine. Nothing forced. Nothing weird.

You're just breathing. Exhale when something feels hard and inhale in between those exhales, last 3, 2, and now stay low. Shift your weight to one side. The opposite leg is gonna press out directly to the side and tap in. Do you remember how I mentioned earlier? You're gonna use that prop purposefully.

So if I bring my leg in too close, I lose the tension in the band. The band is no longer doing anything, so don't do that. Just tap it in a little bit. Push it out. When I'm doing one side, I tend to work around 12 to 15 repetitions.

Again, for me, I'm finding that place of fatigue. That means my brain is like, no more. When my brain says no more, I do try to go 3 more. I try to trick it. 3, 2, and one right over to the other side. Now this warm up is a little strategic. This is purposeful.

The reason I'm warming up my booty is because I want those muscles to help me in all of the exercises that I'm gonna do that comes after this series. So this is like wake up, right, to those glutes. Tap in, tap out. You're trying to stay low out and in. And I'm trying to do roughly the same amount on both sides. I'm a Pilates teacher, so counting is not my strong suit, 3 more, 3, 2, and 1. I'm gonna get cardio a little bit here, heart rate up, We go deep squat up to the toes.

That's option 1, deep squat up to a jump. Low and lift. Get our heart rates up. Remember, I said this is the warm up. So we've got 30 minutes. That's not a lot of time. So each exercise has to be impactful, effective. In other words, it has to be hard.

We have to push ourselves. Low squat. Little hop. Let's do 5 more. 4, 3, 2 and 1. Alright. Not done with the booty yet. Stay low. You're gonna take a couple steps one side, couple steps the other way.

The goal is to take a really big step out and then a really small step in. So you're like big, Miller, Big, small. Got it? Okay. Is the booty awake yet? That is the question. Mine is, but we keep going.

If I have 30 minutes, this is my priority. Working my butt, working my core, getting a little bit of cardio. That's it. That's all I wanna do. Well, and extend. It likes to extend my spine. Alright. 5 more here.

5 4. Are you still taking those small steps in? Sometimes I forget that part. It's easier if you take a big step in. Right? Alright. Last two.

And last one. Alright. Feel like I didn't count that perfectly, but, again, I'm just a polite teacher. Standing at the back of your mat, reach up, get really big, and then forward fold, take a stretch. And then walk yourself out. We're going right into a 4 point kneeling move.

What? More glutes? Absolutely. Okay. You got the band. You're gonna tap a leg back and bring it in. I have my shoulders right over my wrists. If you have a band, that's not as good as this one, because I do love my loops, band, and it's rolling up by your legs, just pull that bad boy down.

This has like a little rubber grip so it doesn't slide up and tap. Courtney and tap. So I'm actually trying to push my chest bone up and not sink down. And that's about 10 and then lift and lift and lift. We'll do 10 reps of each here.

If you're feeling your stabilizing leg, just as much as you're feeling that lifting leg, golden ace. Perfect. That's exactly what you wanna feel. 3, to one other side. So I'm tapping out and I'm just kinda coming into like a little hover pressing out. When I do this move, I'm also thinking about my abdominals. And whenever I think about my abdominals, I try to think about them as a left side and a right side situation, and I pull those sides towards each other, and that's when I feel most connected to my Courtney more. Keep the leg straight. Up, we go.

Up, up, hips are square, chest bones high, so much to think about. Spine is long, Lyft, lift, 3, 2, and 1. Alright. Take it to your side. What? More glutes? Yes. Ben the knees, make about a 90 lift, keep that band taught. This is a medium resistance.

She makes light as well. You can play with your resistance. I don't have a lot of movement this feels really heavy to me. So if your band is a light resistance, you're like, maybe going way up. Or if your band's even heavier, you're like, might not be going up much at all.

How that looks doesn't Miller. It's how it feels. It should feel like it's working, right here, right where I'm pointing. Alright. That's 3, 2, and 1. I'm gonna kick it out and bend it in. Push push. If we keep using this band, I don't even think we need 30 minutes.

We could do this workout in 20. Push all the way out. Last 4, 3. I'm trying to keep that leg high. I am trying to keep that band tight too.

And when? Oh, okay. Onto the abdomen, you go. This exercise is called swimming. If you're a pilates person, you know it. If you're not, it might be new.

You're gonna lift the legs. Lift the chest. Let's figure out what's going on the lower body first. So it's this reciprocal flutter. Don't bend the knees.

Everyone bends the knees. Don't bend the knees because you gotta lift from the butt. Once you have that part figured out, you reach the arms, and it's opposite arm to leg up up. And the faster you go, the more coordination it is, and you just breathe, you look down, you keep your core tight, 5, 4, 3, two, one, and then you go into the other side, bend those knees right up onto my elbow. I go down and up. So I'm giving myself this reminder to stay lifted through here. Okay.

I'm getting tired. This is working. Exhale lift and lift. I'm doing my best to keep my leg parallel to the ground. I'm not turning my knee up.

I'm not turning my knee down. 3, 2 and kick it out, bend it in, push, push. If you feel both sides, good, one is stabilizing, one is moving, push, shoulders are down. Last 4, 3, 2, and done. Really done. So done that we can sling shot this band across the other side of the room.

Moving on. We're now gonna grab our ball, and we're changing focus to some abdominal. So I'm gonna place the ball behind my back where it goes depends on what you want. So middle back, is kinda middle ground. Low back, like here, is gonna mean more movement, more work, and then higher is gonna be more support, less work. So figure out what you wanna do, feet are down, hands behind the head, lower, let your spine take the shape of the ball, and then exhale lift, almost coming completely off the ball, almost elbows are wide. So here's why I like using this.

Prop for this move, I'm going through my neutral, my flat line into extension. That's the extension I was talking about earlier, back through neutral into flexion. I just feel like I'm getting more bang for my buck. Add a leg lift as you come up. Inhale down, exhale up.

Keep the elbows wide. Add a twist. To the knee as it comes up and lift. It actually feels really good on your back. Here it does for me anyways. Take breaks if you want.

Inhale down. That's making it harder out of reach to the outside of the leg. Little more twist, little more lift, little more coordination, finishing up here one more each side and take a break. And here's how I like to break. And you could stay here for longer. If you're not doing a 30 minute class, we don't have time for that.

Let's do some roll ups. Grab the ball, you're all the way down, feet are flexed, legs are straight. Up, you go, reach past the toes, roll back, and roll down. To modify, you bend the knees like this. Roll back and roll down. To make it harder, you don't let the ball come low. You leave the ball really high like this.

And you use the weight of the arms to further challenge your core strengths. You have lots of options. Do what feels right for you. Lower down. I'm doing my best. I am trying to roll through my back I'm trying.

Last two breath really helps, and we'll do one more like this. All the way up we go. And all the way down. Okay. Here's a fun one. Lift the hips high.

Place the ball into your booty. You'll know if it's in the right spot. If it feels like it's not gonna pop out, and it feels center. Hands go down. Legs come up. Check it out.

You have to pull your ribs down. So even though this middle part of the back isn't touching the mat, you're still trying to pull it down. Cool. One leg goes long like this, and switch. Now, if you're feeling spicy and confident, and you wanna push your edge. You're at home.

Nobody's watching you. Just lift those arms off the mat. Okay? Push. Push. I'm putting mine back down because you are watching me push, push, change it up, let's do straight legs, one leg up, one leg down. So the point here, the purpose is not to bounce, it's to try to stabilize in my hips.

And then I'm gonna do a double leg lower. And as the legs go down, it's really challenging to maintain this connection. So that's my goal. I'm keeping the ribs down. I'm I'm trying not to let my spine get pulled off the mat.

Pull down. And this exercise could be done with the knees bent if that feels better. Pull down. Notice I'm taking my time because if I go too fast, I know I'm gonna lose it. I just gotta go slow.

About what I'm doing. Let's do 3 more. 3. 2. And one more time. I'm I'm trying to keep my arms pretty relaxed even though I'm using them.

One I did it. Okay. Grab the ball, place it between your legs. We're going into bridge so bend your knees healed under the knees, hips go up, and then tap, butt down, butt up. But wait, there's more. Every time you lift your butt, squeeze the ball.

The ball in between the legs like this is the opposite muscle activation than the band around the thighs. So now we're squeezing in as we lift up. You cannot lift too high in a bridge. So I never, when I teach this exercise to my clients, say, oh, oh, your glutes are too high. I drop your butt. It just doesn't happen.

We gotta go up. I'm always reminding people. Lift the butt up higher as high as you can. What you can do is lift too much here in the chest. Right? So keep this upper body kinda close tight and connected, and then focus on this lower body, driving hips to the sky. The next time you're up, hold it up, and squeeze the ball in in.

Every time you squeeze the ball, you're also working the bottom of your abdominals, the floor of your abdominals. So as you squeeze in, exhale, kinda pull up. Squeeze. 4, 3, 2, hold 1. This is challenging. You're gonna see me kinda wiggle my feet to set myself up. I'm gonna go into a single leg movement.

So my left leg stays down. I have to get ready to support myself. My right leg comes up and I'm squeezing in with both legs in 4, 3, 2, 1, put the foot down. And as you think about it, squeeze my right side, extend my left, squeeze in, in 4, 3, 2, 1, put the foot down, lower the hips down, done. We're gonna do some rolling, rolling like a ball, I'm gonna cross my ankles, bring my knees in, and just sort of momentum myself up to a balance.

Okay. So here we are. In this move, don't roll onto your neck or head. See if you can just roll down to your shoulder blades and up to a balance, just like that. Down to your shoulder blades up to a balance, and then we're gonna add a standing movement when you're at the top. Reach the ball forward like this and rise up. Sit back down like this and roll back for I know some people don't like this move because it's too hard to get up, but with the ball reaching forward and the ankles crossed, it's not that hard.

You can do it. 2 one more time. Roll and 1. Alright. Come on down. Stay down. Switch to the other leg is on the top.

Little momentum gets you to that balance. Roll back. Roll up. But close to that ball is to your chest, the more challenging it'll be to come up. So that's one way to play.

When you're ready to go, you just go. You don't have to wait for me all the way up to stand all the way down to roll. Feet down, power up. And if you're looking for more intensity, do this without the ankles crossed. See how that feels.

Lowbacks meant to touch the mat. So you wanna roll through each bone, trying to avoid clunk clunk. Let's do one more. And this time, we're staying up. Great. Okay. We are done with our props.

Let's move them out of the way. We're done for now. We might grab them again. You never know. Come off your mat. I like to be in a balanced position, off the mat. It's a little bit easier for me.

Take one leg up I'm doing my right leg. Arms high to the sky. We're gonna kick out to what I'm calling a balance tee and then coming all the way back up. And then again, press and coming all the way back up. So as I go into the t, the capital letter t, I'm trying to keep my arms framing my face.

And do you remember who we talked about in that four point kneeling move? The left and the right side of the abdominals coming in, you really wanna feel it here. Last 2 and one more time reaching holding. Now it's the standing leg that's gonna move, bend it, and straighten it. See if you can do about 10 squaring off the hips, engaging the arms. This is a great butt exercise, so you're feeling it here. This is a great core exercise.

The more I talk the harder it is to balance. Last three, last two, and last one. Okay. That leg's going down. Drop into what we're gonna call a 9090 lunge. The leg comes up as it does the opposite elbow rises, down, and up. If you wanna get that cardio element, add your little hop at the top, 10, I think, is a great number here.

Inhalo, exhale lift. 5 more for me. 543 2, 1, right into the other side. So lift the leg, engage the core, reach the arms up, thinking of a one long line, Tedasana for my yogis, and then kick it into like that Warrior 3 or letter t and then rise. Lean forward and rise. It's really common to do this.

But you're gonna get more work through the back of the shoulders and through those postural muscles if you do this. Right? Keep those arms back. Let's take it for 4 and rise 3, and rise. 2, get ready to hold, and 1, the leg you're standing on, bend it. Straighten in. If your balance is really off today, hold on to something.

Bend it straighten in. Keep re itching through the arms. When I straighten my leg, I'm trying to straighten it all the way. 5432andrise 90:90 lunge, that means front knee bent to a ninety back knee. When I rise, if it's my left knee up, it's my right elbow.

When I drop, I kinda lean forward. Do you see that? So I'm leaning to weight or activate the glute on my standing leg. Little hop at the top if you want. My hops are very little, but they still count.

Inhale down and exhale up. 5432 and 1. Great. Okay. Back to the mat. We go. This time, we're kneeling. So on to the knees, right into the Miller, remember when I started this class, I said, glutes and core and cardio. For sticking to that theme, glutes are next, arms to a tee, bend your spine, put a hand down, take the opposite leg long, stack the hips, hand behind the head, tap and lift that leg.

Lift. So this move should be felt all the way up into the side. Tap and lift and up. Shoulders down. Take it for 5. And 4.

Last three. 2. Hold that leg as high as you can. Small circles 8 to 10 in one direction, try not to wiggle too much to the torso, and then 8 to 10 in the other direction, focusing on the up. 5, 4, 3, to drop it and lift. Now you're gonna keep the shape, reach arms overhead, lock your thumbs, bend away from the foot that's anchored, and then side bend to come up.

Bend and lift. So you get a big stretch, and then you get the work in this side to lift back up. Let's do five more. Try to keep the arms Courtney of framing the head. 4, 3, 2, And one more time. One, you did it on that side, extend the other leg.

Hand goes down. I take the top hand behind my head, core is tight, down, and up, and the focus is on the lift. If I look at my leg, it's slightly behind my hip, not up here, lift, lift, shoulders are stacked, lift, Lyft, final 4, and 3. That's 2. Hold it as high as you think you can, and then circle higher. So it's just for a second, little momentum as that leg goes up. 5, 4, 3, 2, reverse those circles up and around 5.

Good. And final. 4, 3, 2, 1, plant the foot, reach the arms overhead, lock those thumbs, create your anchor, bend away from the leg, lift, and cinch. So stretch as far as you think you can. Almost to the point of no return, and then use those obliques to come all the way back up.

Big stretch. Notice if your top arm is covering your face like this, try to keep those arms back. 3, and 2. One more time. And done.

Okay. Into a plank, we go. Hands go down. There's my plank. There's my dog. From here into the plank position dog with an ankle touch. So my opposite hand reaches over to my ankle when my hips come up.

Shifting back to make the touch, shifting forward, shoulders over the wrists. 2 more each side. 2 and 2. Find your plank. We're gonna walk it down to the elbows like this. We're gonna walk it back up to the hands like this.

And I always alternate what side I start on. So right, right, right, right, right, and, or excuse me, right, left, right, left, And then left, right, left, right. So I'm starting on my right, coming up on my right, starting on my left, coming up on my left. One more right, one more left, and take it down. Oh, that was confusing. Okay. Now we're going back into glutes. I call this move our rotated glutes position.

So one elbow comes down onto the mat. That's my right elbow. Opposite leg extends long. That's my left leg. Lift the leg really high.

Look at it. Bring it in as you tighten the Courtney. Kick back. So I like this because this is a momentum based move. I'm not restricted by the booty band.

I'm not restricted by gravity, right, like that last one. I just told so hard to get the leg up. I feel powerful. I feel like I can really kick that leg up. Lift and up. 5 more like this. 54 When I kick up, I have to keep my Courtney. It's like I've said that already.

And in hope, little pulses up, up, stacking those hips one over the other, opening the chest, 3, two leg goes down into a side plank you go. Check it out. You just lift that bottom leg. Lift the arm when you're ready to rock. Hip dips. I'm finding my power from under.

Picking myself up strong in my shoulder and back on that supporting side, around 8, 10, 12 repetitions as your jam, 3, 2 and 1. Good. Let's do the side. Rotate a glute on the other side. So now it's my left elbow down, my right leg back. I'm looking up the leg, bringing it in kicking it up.

Little bit of balance happening, not a lot, stabilizing in my forearm, in my elbow, stacking my shoulders, and hips as best as I can. And again, emphasizing that power in this move up and up. Last three like this. Get ready to hold it. Now, up and stay little pulses.

Feeling it all the way into our side body. Big lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, 5, 4, 3, 2, and one foot goes down into the side plank you go, lift it up, drop, hips go up, and hips go up. Finding that strength from underneath power up. Lift. Take breaks if you need to.

Squeeze your inner thighs. 3, 2, and done. Take a seat. Roll to one side. Keep your ankles crossed.

I have my bottom ankle crossed over my top. I'm gonna reach my arm long, kinda find this, like, opening or extension. Roll back so I'm sitting on both butt cheeks and lift both legs up. And I'm reaching out towards my feet, trying to touch them, and then coming back into that stretch. Exhale lift.

Inhale lower. Squeezing my inner thighs together. Big openings for the body feels nice and a little bit of work, but we'll focus on this part. Feels nice and lift. Last three. Last two.

And last one. Before we do the other side, lie on down. Sent yourself on the mat. What does a 30 minute workout without a good inversion? Up and over we go, legs parallel to the ground, separate the legs, flex the feet, and roll down all the way up with the legs together, and keep the legs straight if you can, down with the legs apart. One more like this, up with the legs together, down with the legs apart.

Now the reverse is harder, up with the legs apart, and down with the legs together. And down, bend your knees, if that feels easier, up with the legs apart, and down with those legs together. Let's do the other side. So I have my ankles crossed. My bottom ankles crossed over the top.

I'm propped up onto my elbow, reaching long, opening the front body, roll back until you're sitting on both glutes, reach the feet, and then open it up. Exhale lift, inhale lengthen. Exhale lift. And inhale lengthen. Sitting down. Scoeping.

I am using that bottom hand to help me lift up. Last three. Last 2. And last time. 1 and done. Rolling all the way down.

So we cannot do a 30 minute matte pilates workout without the 100. Let's dive into it. Flip the chest up. Hover the legs. Keep them as low as you can. Courtney tight.

Arms are strong. You're breathing. You're pumping. The arms to coordinate with the breath, inhaling for 5 arm pumps, exhaling for 5. You're repeating this ten times.

Looking down is key. Look at the abdominals. Look at your legs. Bend the knees to modify. Take breaks if you want.

Pump and breathe. The pumping is coming from your back, so the chest feels open. I got 3 more sets. 2 and last one. I always hold to finish. Lower the legs.

1 reformer roll up gets us there all the way up we go. Rise is standing. That was easy. No. I'm just joking. It wasn't easy. It was hard. We did a lot of good work in 30 minutes, cardio, booty, core.

I hope you come back for some more. We'll see you guys soon. Bye.