Weight-Training Prep Mat

Hi, everyone. It's Amy Haven here back at Pilates anytime. I'm excited to be here sharing some standing weight bearing work with you. All the midlife ladies, let's wave to one another hello, who's been told they've gotta do more weight lift thing. Me. So let's use our Pilates brilliance, our intelligence, our wisdom, all the things we know, and put it in the weight room. Okay? So my kind of my goal today is let's build two what if we had to go to the gym and do some deadlifts or something like that? It's based on hinging, which I know, you know, I do all the time. Right?

So how fun? We're getting into coordination of hip, knee, ankle, rhythm, timing, a lot of strength and power in the lower extremities, which you know you're gonna need to lift those heavy weights. Also think hiking, running, just doing your life with a little bit more power and strength. Okay? Have fun. Thanks for being here. So as usual, I like to start with some breathing. But before we breathe, go ahead and separate your feet to a comfortable stance.

Whatever that means for you, you can be wider or all the way back together narrow And let's just put our hands on our shoulders for a moment. I want you to scoop your elbows forward and just elevate arcing kinda arc your elbows up a little to the diagonals of your room In my mind, I am lifting the space between my ribs and pelvis, which is extremely important all the time, by giving your waist and your spine more length and your lungs a little more space. So let's take three big breaths together. You certainly could reach your arms up if you wanted and take up that space, feel that. If that's not your thing today, you can replace your hands on your shoulders.

Take that space in breathe, breathe, breathe, and then we will just lower our arms down. Okay? So I'm gonna turn this way just to show hinging. And first before I do that, let's bend our knees. Looks so excited to hinge. I'm I'm going too fast. So track your knees now, everybody get into hip width parallel.

I'm just gonna be pulsing like this. So we're looking for that parallel, right? The knee over second toe. Most of us have heard that for years. Pause at this one. Notice, I want you to get deep in your ankle joint, meaning go low if you can.

Don't hurt your knees. If it hurts your knees, you're gonna not go too low too soon, but just be there and feel even weight from the front of the foot to the back of the foot. When we do those bigger moves like power lifting and things like that, you're gonna need more weight on your heel. We'll get there. But right now, be level. Just feel that. Feel the joints, hip, knee, ankle. Right?

Push your heels into the floor to rise. Now I am gonna turn this way. Let's work a hinge now. Okay? So bend those knees again tracking straight ahead. I like to put my thumb on my ribs here and my index finger or ring on my hip bone. To keep connected, it's very easy in some hinging for rib cages to get a little bit wild and kinda this way.

So calm that down, sink into your legs. Sync into your legs. I'm flexing my hip. Now if you wanted to go lower anybody, go for it. What we wanna do in just a moment is assess if we can touch the floor without rounding our spine.

That's really gonna require ankle knee hip flexion. Okay? But for now, reach your arms in front of you and I want us to start warming up that scapular glide. There was a time a few years ago. I was doing a lot of weight lifting. I'm gonna get back to it.

And my my coach, my trainer was really impressed that I knew how to do this. He didn't know how much I know. It's fun, but he really wanted me to get that before I lifted a heavy bar. So get your scapula back. Feel what that is one more time.

Okay? Now place your hands and your legs. Sync into your hinge if you can. Hips primarily, knees second, ankle, second, third. Can you touch the ground? I cannot yet. I'm assessing, what am I gonna need to get my hands down on the floor? Right? If I were to get a heavy weight lifting bar, I've gotta get lower.

I'm not there yet. So come on up to standing. Alright? So use that assessment. Where did you get? Some of you have longer arms than I do. And you may have gotten there. Lucky. That's not me. I've gotta work different things to get down lower. Okay.

Let's get into the feet parallel. Tow lifting. Yes. Why? Lower the toes. We've gotta have all these proprioceptors awake ready to work up the leg, right, the chain from the floor to the hips. So I want you to let a little bit of weight shifting happen, lift those toes, lower those toes, couple more. And as you're lowering, start to reach your toes wider.

I like to kinda think of my feet like little cat paws. Less lift and hold. I like to look down. Can you articulate your toes from pinky to big toe? Let's go four rounds of that.

And get really greedy with how much space you're taking up with your feet, stretch little space between your toes. One foot's usually a little bit more coordinated than the other. We're all good there and rest. Just feel that. Hopefully waking up from the ground up.

Now roll in and roll out. We wouldn't wanna promote this on in walking or lifting weight, but I want your ankle joint to be ready. Why not move all the joints that we can to get ready, right? Couple more leaning in, your legs are gonna work to in and out. Now parallel, even lift one heel and I want you to roll through those metatarsals up onto the ball of your foot and roll back down other side. We'll alternate about eight times.

Trying to track knee over second toe Right? Without a mirror, I think I'm doing fairly well. Sometimes I'm not fully tracked in that manner, but I know when I'm not in my alignment, I'm coached and cued, Amy get on your big toe joint a little more. Because I tend to go out here. So I wanna get on that big toe joint. So those of us who are aging and may be getting stiffer in that big toe joint, we know that isn't so comfortable sometimes.

Don't bypass it, okay? Because we don't want to bear the weight laterally. We want to really get it even. Trust us. Okay? Stay here. Van near other knee. Let's pulse for eight.

Why pulses get more blood flow, get more liveness in your legs. Get a little levity through your spine in your trunk, seven and eight for the other side. Just roll right up. Hopefully you're tracking parallel and we pulse. I'm pushing down with the ball of the foot.

Are you pushing down and six and seven and eight? Okay. Now, heel lifting. We're gonna lift our heels just a little bit. Now when we do these heel lifts, just carry on. We don't need to go too high.

We wanna be stable across that transverse arch of the foot. Right? You don't have to go too high. Think of the push down into the floor to do the lift of the heels. There may or may may not be a little weight shift forward and back. Play with a little weight shift, see what it feels like. If you don't want to shift weight because it could cause that, try not to and see what that feels like. A couple more.

Alrighty. Now the next one's kinda fun rock back on your heels and lift the toes and rock and lift. It's okay if there's some movement in your hips. That's gonna be absolutely necessary when you lift heavy weight. Gotta make these adjustments Right? Why am I having us lift the toes to get the front of the ankle ready? Strong in that front shin muscle?

All the muscles. Okay. You're gonna rock heels, toes. Heels, toes. Heels and toes, heels and toes and four. Three and we're gonna do all of that too in a little bit of Pilates V. Okay? So when we go Pilates V, I'm gonna start this way for the hinge, completely different sensation in the hinge. When we're turned out a little bit so heels together toes apart, rib hip check, right? We're not arching or really flat here, bend check out your hinge.

If you're like me, is it easier? It feels so much different from my hips. There's a different angle that the femur head gets to play within the joint. Oh my gosh. It feels so great. Four or five.

Just get your scabs ready. Yep. And now see if you can sink into it. Keep your back flat if you can. Are you closer? I am so much closer.

I've gotta let my glutes stretch and then push through the legs to rise. Who got there? Fun. Okay. Same thing. Let's do a little bit of heel lift and we'll alternate. Now you kinda know the sequencing right. So we're gonna flow a little more really push through the ball of that foot.

Here's seven and eight. I'm gonna stay here eight little pulse. Think about your ankle being a little more mobile. Sometimes those deeper squat moves are because the ankle is either not structured to handle that flexion or just doesn't know that it can. So here we go. We're teaching it how.

You can relax the front of your ankle a little bit. Six, seven, and eight good, and we're gonna lift and roll across the transverse arch. Yep. Other side lift and roll across the transverse arch. Now the in and out ankles, it's gonna be a little different to do that here.

Not so effective because your knees knock. So if you wanna do a few, again, we're using as many ranges in the ankles as we can. I forgot to circle, but that's okay. We'll get there. Now heels tight.

Feel your legs gather together a little more. I got very serious. I don't want us to go too high on this one. So just a little lift of the heels. Press down lift.

Let's start thinking about some other components and elements, opposition through the whole body. We're going down there. We're rising up strength this way, right? And four three two one, heels together. Please don't pull them apart. I want you to keep that contained down there.

Okay? Now lift one heel, little pulse, two, three, and four, and four, and three, and two, and one, and center other heel and pulse. Okay. Ready to lift the heels and the front of the toes and seven and eight. So I'm gonna go back to heels down, lift your toes. You have to rock and lift and lift and I almost fell. Lift and lift. It's okay. Alright. Now we're gonna rock front back front and back try to be on the transverse arch, the best you can, four, three, two, you got it. Alright? And now we're gonna go out wider position.

Now we're getting serious because when we go wider, We're setting up the hip joint to handle more depth to go down. So with this one before we get going, pull the floor together. We're on hardwood up Pilates anytime so I'm pulling the floorboards together which really gets my legs activated, then I wanna pull a heel up with that strength, other side. Pull the heel up, lower it down, and pull. So why I wanna slow this down also is you can feel the work of this inner line of your legs and maybe the back of your legs, everything pulling up. You feel that? Pull up. Now the hips stay level.

It's tempting to hike one. So try not to. We're just gonna keep those hips level. Just the heel. Stay lifted. Ben the knee. Check it out. Look and see. Are you over your second toe Yep.

Let's lunge into there. Two. Little slower. We'll do eight. I didn't say at the beginning of class, but some of you are going to, I know you'll wanna grab hand weights for this have the party. Go for it if you want to. I'm gonna change sides.

I'm gonna lift that heel aim it over the second toe. I'm gonna look straight ahead and I'm into that transverse arch. Turning to feel the thighs more. Those are parts of deadlifts as well. And six and seven and eight. Good.

Put both feet down. Now I like dancing. I was a dancer. So in my language, I call this a plie, you don't have to call it anything. It's bending the knees. You're letting your hips crease, your knees bend, and your ankles bend.

To see what you do. We aren't trying to get the knees out over the second toes. If you go too low and you get a little ouch in your kneecap, that's your stop. Right? Keep pulling the floor together underneath. You see if you can get lower though, if you're not having any problem in your knees.

You may get to widen your feet a little bit stretching, opening these joints in the lower extremities down. We're gonna stay down on the next one, so you kinda low. Just hang out for a few breaths. Amazing. Right? Feel that strength. Now with some power, push to stand.

Go down. And then push to stand. Couple more. I want you to just feel that change of intensity or change of dynamic, really, on that. And four, So if you were holding hand weights, you could get really creative into all kinds of things. Last time and left. Great. Let's check-in. Take a bend, tilt forward See how it goes. It just takes time to get there.

So this could be a warm up for your dead lifting or your weight work at the gym. Now let's transfer our mind to being inside a clock. Okay? So think a clock, put it on the ground. You're in the middle of it. 12 is in front of me.

My right is three, you know what you're doing. Clockwise is six nine. We're gonna tap twelve three six nine. Go to parallel. Now this is interesting.

This can also be functional climbing going downstairs, hip knee ankle. If I touch 12:00 What we're trying to have happen is relative relative relative peril. Some of us have an anatomy that has a little hip over here, a little hike, put that over there on the side for a second. Tap and load this leg. What does that feel like? Push this one to come back to twelve over to three. So I'm in parallel and of course I'm trying to track parallel but if it doesn't happen the first time around it's okay.

Tap back to six. I'm on the ball of the foot. Most of my focus is on the bending leg, everybody and then stand. How do you get to nine? Two choices? Well, three. Don't go there. One choice would be to go this way.

I like that because I get a little turn in here, little change of diagonal, right? Or this one. Not a lot of range. I don't feel as balanced this way at 09:00 as I do there. It's a great stretch on the glute.

We need that for bigger weight lifting. That's the one I want us to choose. Okay? Other side, 12, just tap, push nine o'clock now because we're counterclockwise 06:00 is straight behind you if you can gauge that center nine or three in this case. I'm going around lovely pure formous glute media stretch. And center. We'll go again a little more rhythm front. Side back.

Weee. Counter clockwise twelve nine, six, can the teacher count? Let's go one more round. We won't go counterclockwise or starting a reverse. You certainly could if you wanted to. Tap but these change of placements, a lot of power in that standing leg, and around and then just stand for a minute.

Feeling pretty good? Okay. Come closer together with your feet. For just a moment, gather everything in one straight line. You're adducted. We're about to weight shift and put weight in one leg and balance a little bit.

That comes we wanna feel like we get work in the whole leg. Anch was gonna work a lot this hip. So I wanna draw one leg or drag it up, bring it up ankle to knee. That might be where you go. You don't have to add anymore. It says a lot, but I I wanna add a clam movement with this wow. This is great.

I love the challenge. Myself. I've practiced this and done this so many times. Today is different. So I'm clamming, trying not to turn my whole body, just that femur, and then in. A couple more times.

What do I need to do? I need to think about lengthening up my whole spine. Do you see how that steadied me a little bit? Yep. And I love the micro movements of my ankle. My body won't let me fall so that's that proprioceptive work.

I love so much. Now I wanna go right into taking my leg forward from my knee. My leg's not too high and then bring it down. Okay. Let's do the other side. We'll take a couple rounds. So stand strong, ankle up to the knee, flexoring, think of your clam.

We're gonna do four. Don't get too indulgent on how wide you go. I just want you to feel like you get that lapping by contract your your derriere and staying stable on a standing leg. Right? Three will take one more. Yeah.

It's so fun to see what side has more coordination. And then from the knee to the ankle you extend, feel that quad work so healthy All these are fine, all these little movements are fine. We're gonna do each side again and then take the leg to the back. Right? It's not perfection. Nothing is. You're always working.

This is information, isn't it? When you have those little moments, if I think it is. See how much more steady I am this round? I just needed to do it. Nervous system needs some time. Motor learning, we have to practice. There, Amy, good for you, girl, and extend.

And in other side. Anchle up, flex your ankle, pry it open. I'm also taking my standing leg and pressing quite a bit toward the other ankle, so I'm connecting that midline. Think up. Weee. Okay. So that's then movement to the front.

Now we're gonna do the clamps again. When we do the leg to the back, it's gonna change a little. So be ready for that. So we come up. Let's do four and close. Three. Notice I'm not going to wide.

I just wanna get a feeling of moving that femur in there. A little work in the booty. Okay. Now when we take the leg to the back, bend your standing knee, there's that hinge hinge ankle knee hip place your foot down on the ball of your foot, everybody, do a little pulse, get that leg ready. Now we're gonna do four times bring that leg up and take it back. It's all about your standing leg Last one, that's it, and down.

Ready. We'll only do one round of this one. We could do two. Here's four. The leg I'm standing on, I'm also contracting that rear. Make sure it's solid.

I spoke too soon. Alright. Now this leg is gonna go straight behind us. You can land with the ball of the foot on the floor. Little pulse. Okay. Front leg, we've got you.

You're gonna push us up. Land. This hop if you want to. I'm not going to, but you could hop if you wanted to and land and hop. Kidding. Oh man. Okay. Good.

Wider feet. I did hop. Didn't know what was gonna do hop. Take your feet wide parallel. Okay. Lunch and stand. Alternateate.

Alright. We're getting ready for this. Too bad I don't have a weight bar in here. I think I'd be able to really go for some heavy weight. These lower extremities and so vital for us to stay active Right? Go low, guys. I'm trying to stay straight in my spine extension.

I push the floor away. Push it away. Now do eight more. I'm gonna just jazz it up with a little bit of circle in my shoulders because it feels good. And three, four, four.

Good. And then take both arms, we'll last good. And down, we'll do the same thing with turned out legs. Ready? And over and up and adjust their spacing if you need to. So I wanna flex into that hip, stick the butt back, chest forward. Yes tracking over that second toe the best you can I'm really trying to push the floor away.

Really? I'm gonna jazz it up. And circles and circles of your shoulders, five, six, Wonderful seven and eight. Take both arms. Take a big breath. Take it all in. Okay. Towes a little more forward now, if you're ready.

So if you have done a deadlift at the gym, sometimes depending on who's teaching you, they will really say toes forward, toes forward. I'm just gonna say not everyone's anatomy and alignment is That way to load some of us need to make the slightest little bit of adjustments, toes out, knees out a little. Okay? Just try this for a moment. Go into your squat with your toes completely forward and just see how low you can go and put your hands down as if you had hand weights right there. Okay. One of the fun things for me with teaching everyone's different.

My hip joints don't like this. They used to be fine with it. Things are changing. So I have to make adaptations. That's why Pilates is so brilliant.

We know how to change and have options. Look at it. Do you see that? How much lower I got? This I run out of room to get lower my spine has to change. I don't wanna lift weights like that. If I open a little bit, set those shoulders with my scapula back, I feel powerful.

I feel so powerful I could probably lift the weight of the bar up. Too bad. I don't have one. So let's go down. Now, get your scapula back, push the floor away, pretend pretend you have weights or for those of you who have a hand weights, go for it. Now, legs, right? Hip, knee, ankle, power in your legs, four more all face and come down. It should feel fun, even without any weights. And down, and lift, and down, and lift, and then just pause your arms. Okay.

Wiggle your pelvis, wiggle your tailbone. Everyone just come to standing close together again. Notice what your body has to do when you change from being wide to narrow, and I want you to close your eyes. If you step out of that line, that's okay. We did a lot of movement just in that last little chunk or section, and I love a compare contrast moment.

Keeps our brain really active. No, gently open your eyes. Cool. I stayed in place. Stand apart and just take another couple breaths. We'll take three together.

Nice work. So that's just a little sprinkle. You could do that as a warm up. Some of you were gonna leave comments for me and tell me that you did and how well it went. Right? I would love to hear that. Last time, Thanks for joining me. I hope you feel strong, powerful, and ready to hit the gym.

See you next time.