Good morning and thank you for joining us today. I'm Risa Shepherd, created the Sheppard method Pilati studio. We're going to start with just a little walking in places is an homage to one of my mentors, Jack Lane, who I used to cohost the show a hundred years ago and we used to start his show all the time with actually more jumping jacks, but I don't know who does jumping jacks anymore. And um, I just want us to think about Jack and who's barely departed now, but he has really opened the way for so many people to be fit of all ages. So Jack to you. Okay. On that note, we're also going to now learn the most important component of the shepherd method, which is based on Polonius principles of the body center. Okay. What we're going to do is put our body into alignment, but first we're going to sort of stand like the normal schlep. Okay? And this is the what we see most people looking like.
So what we want to do is put the two feet together. I want you to feel the middle of the foot straight down into the middle of the earth is if we're grounded down, we want to move up the body. I want to us to imagine a couple of badness at the ankles, couple of magnets at the calves at the knees, a couple of magnets at the thigh, so we're constantly pulling it in together. We want to move up the body, pull the navel into the spine. We want to make as much space between the rib cage and the pelvis as possible or in other words, de clump ourselves. I want us to open up the chest, extend the shoulders, weight out beyond this limitations. Complete the spine out beyond the top of the head.
I want you to think again that the spine goes out beyond the top of the head is just not stop out the neck. I want you to visually come down the back field, the shoulder blades as if there's warm oil being massage down towards the floor. The tailbone press down towards the floor, not tilted forward, not pressed back, bitches aiming down towards the floor. The buttocks gently squeezed. Again, the magnets at the thighs, at the knees, at the calves, and at the ankles. And I want you to imagine a laser beam running through your hips, going out beyond the other hip, as straight as you can.
I want you to imagine a rod, or I'm sorry, a laser beam or a rod if you prefer, about an inch below your belly button and about an inch above your tailbone. Now in the center of your body, where those points meet is a little ball, the size of a ping pong ball, but the energy of the center of the Sun. This is your body and mind center from which all movement flows. So if we lift our arm, we're just not lifting from the shoulder. We're actually imitating and lifting from the center.
So the movement becomes much more powerful, elongated and strong. Okay? Is that clear? So with that in mind, let's take her hands by the side. I want you to let all the air out and I want you to inhale, use the air as resistance, move through space in, elongate those fingers and exhale pressing down. And inhale up. Think those fingers extending out as far as they can and exhale down and inhale up and exhale down. Good. One more time. And Inhale, lift and exhale down. So I want you to think of every exercise, every movement we do is abdominal and lower back exercise emitting from the center soap. We're walking down the street, we're walking up from our heads, our shoulders or our politics. We're walking from our center.
Okay? So with that in mind, I want you to take what I call the Sheppard method bar a what they can use at home. If you don't have a bar yet, I'd like you to use a broomstick or a long Dow. I'd like it to be at least four to five inches long if you can. Um, I just wanna make sure what we want to do is we want to open up the shoulder girdle as much as we can. I designed these bars about 30 years ago. So, but it was, this particular routine was choreographed by two of my teachers and in Jeffrey Gemalto and myself to have some dance background and a lot of [inaudible]. And so this is the way we're going to open up our shoulder girdles stretch. And there's a lot of fun things that we can do with it. And again, at home, um, and it kind of a broomstick is fine or long Dow. All right.
Now what is also very good, place it right in front of you and your hands about sort of just slightly under the bar. This is also a good way to keep yourself balanced. Alright, shall lose down. And it also, um, completes works the abdominals very well. So what I want you to do is just take a nice play as we hold the bar and press and play and straighten. Play straighten. Please straighten.
Clear straighten, play straighten. Now plea a, lift the heels straighten. Press the heels down, please lift the heels, straighten down if you have to use the abdominal cyst to keep yourself straight up and in alignment with the bar PTA. Lift the heels, straighten, press down please. [inaudible] lift the heels, straighten, press down please. [inaudible] lift the heels, straighten goodness, reverse it up please. [inaudible] heals down. Straighten Relevate ple, a heels down, straightened Relevate ple, a heels down, straightened. Relevate please. [inaudible] heels down and straightened. Good. Let's turn out from the hips. We're going to do and get. Let's keep our shoulders just in slight. Our arms is like porter, Bro.
It's called Porter Bra. Elbows slightly bent. Shoulders relax and press down to the floor. Inhale. Now squeeze the inner thighs together. [inaudible] and squeeze. Play and squeeze. [inaudible] and squeeze. Play and squeeze.
Play and squeeze please. [inaudible] squeezing the inner thighs together. One more time please. [inaudible] good, relevant. Many. Lift the heels up as you drop the heels. Try to keep the head exactly where it is. Okay.
Lift and press lift and press. Lift and press lift. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Two more times. Relevate down. Relevate push through mud. Okay, very nice. Now we're going to go open the feet a little bit more.
You're gonna move the bar over again so it's straight in front of your body. Shoulders are down, and we're going to please [inaudible] and squeeze the inner thighs. Play. Squeeze. [inaudible] squeeze, clear. Think of squeezing your thighs together. Please don't forget to breathe. Helpful in all walks of life. Play a squeeze play. Okay, let's Relevate up and press down. Relevate three, four, five, six, two more.
Seven one war and eight. Okay. Now let's just play a Relevate. Lift the heels down. A Relevate lift down please. [inaudible] Relevate lift down please. [inaudible] Relevate lift.
Reverse Relevate ple a heels down. Straighten Relevate ple. A heels down. String of a plea, a heels down. Straighten. Relevant plea a heels down and straightened. Point the feet. Take it together. How's that? Does that kind of help keep your, it's, it's hard with this, is it not par, but challenging to keep your abdominals really press into the back and keep your balance. Okay.
Place your hands on the bar and open so that your press against the round ball at the end. What we're going to do is we're going to open up the chest, okay? And improve our posture. And I want you to do the best you can. You lift up and take it back only as far as you can. And you can't without jotting your, you know, your summit forward, back, and exhale, press down. So you want to keep the arms straight up and press back. Good. And you'll notice each time you were able to open up a little bit more, but it's stretches the shoulders and works.
The shoulder girdle works the rhomboids behind you, behind your back and all the way if you can make it smooth. If you can't, you only take it back as far as you can. Inhale up and exhale over,
Lift the bar in front of you. I want you to plead a contract. Press out and down.
Up, play and press. They can front, move one hand over and just turn and then turn and turn.
Now what we're going to do is turn so that one part of the Gloria is forward. The other is back and then open and turn
What we're going to do is we're going to do press the bar behind us like we're making a w. Press up and then over to the side. Press behind, lift over and press lift. O N, press lift over and press lift over. Press lift over. One more time. Each side, press lift. Over. Lift, press, lift, and over. Up and down. Okay. Circle the shoulders again. Two, four, reverse.
One, two, three, four. Keno, watch verse. What we're going to do next. You're going to lift the bar up. You're going to turn to your left. You're going to stretch over. You're not going to let the head break from the, um, neck and lift up. You want to think that nice straight line beyond, beyond.
I'm going to move forward a little bit so I don't, and then you're going to drop it down, didn't it? Come up? Turn Front and lift. Uh Ha. Okay. So let's stand again. Shoulders down. Squeeze those inner thighs together. Remember those magnets? Because if you don't, you know, sometimes it just flops open. It's wanting to gauge the entire body. Let's lift the arms up, shoulders down and over.
Turn and lengthen and dress. Drop down and linkedin up from the spine. Turn front and then use that waist to lift. Okay. And other site over and turn and down and lift. Turn Front to me and then lift up. Good. Do it again. Let me watch you all and go over and turn and down and lift and front and uh, and over and turn and down.
Good and up. Turned front to me and lift one more time to each side and over and turn and down and lift and front and up. Last one and over and turn and down and up and front and lift. Very nice for the town. Let's circle the shoulders again
You're going to reach out. By the way, your knees are not going to be locked all the way back. They're going to be slightly bent, okay? Because particularly if you're hyperextended, you don't want to just press those knees back, keep them and particularly you particularly, okay? As spread over. Now all I want you to do with the flat back forward, turn and up. Okay? So what we'll do, let's actually go on a lateral first, then a rotational. Let's go over turn. Just stretch it to the side,
Do it again and over and turn and reach and front and lift and over and and reach and side and lift. Okay, let's do it one more time and over to the side and turn and suit. Make that a spine nice and long and front and lift. Last time and over and turn and swoop and front and live. Okay, good. Hand down. Take the bar behind you and again, just press it up. One, two, three, five,
Now bend the knees over and press up.
Take the bar around. Place it in your left hand beside you. We're going to do a series of [inaudible]. What is in ballet is called fondue. Tom Dude got fun. I must say lunch. Anybody?
So I want you to make sure you keep it very stable. We don't throw the hips out. You're going to lengthen up here. We're going to take the foot forward and press back and think of sliding it forward and back
Then what you're gonna do is reach over like so lift the bar up and we're going to place it on the other side. Okay?
One, two, three, four, five. To the back. One, two, three, four, five and again over and down. Try to really work that waste lifted up and other side we're going to go into a turnout position and do the same thing and take the foot forward back to three and think of brushing the floor almost four five to the side, one, two, three, four, five to the back, one to keep the hips stable. Three, four and five. Oh over lift up and other side, arms out, turn up position and front two, three, four, five and others out to the side. One, two, three, four, five to the back, one, two, three, four and five. Over this time you're just going to lift all the way up again.
Open up the hands and rotate back and lift up. Oh, very nice. Place it right
Bring the bar a little closer in and forward. Okay, very nice. Let's have a seat with the bar. Okay. Let's put the soles of the feet together. Place the bar right in front of the feet. Okay. You still even be holding cause what we're going to do, and this is really wonderful, stretch for the back and the back of the legs.
And of course as always, keep those shoulders down. I have to remind myself what we're gonna do and the spine again goes up behind the top of the head. We're going to inhale, sit up first of all, tall and exhale. Put your hands on the bar and stretch forward. Good. And then lift up one vertebrae at a time and she ended the chest. Put your hands on top of the bar, roll it forward, stretch the bat and that contract and lift up. Always keep the navel to the spine and she ended the chest and right and back and roll it up and exhale and reach out and inhale and up and exhale and ouch and little pulses. One, two, three, four. And reach. Just think, thinking long gating the spine. Reach to keep taking that bar out even a little further if you can with the hands. But feeling the stretch in the back.
Three four and reach six. Yep. Seven eight. Grab Ahold of the bar, focused on the very bottom. Vertebraes if it's a string of pearls, slowly lifted up just straight in front of you. Okay. Lift the heels so the little higher than the toes. Contract in the abdominals and roll back to the small of the back and up.
Come to a nice straight back. Keep holding the bar in front of you and contract and uh, and contract and up and contract down. Really pulled navel into the spine.
One more time and lift up and contract down. And just do little pulses. One, two, four, six, seven, eight, drop to the right, drop to the left, right, left, right, left, right, left. One more time, each side, left and center and on.
He can only straighten a little bit. That's fine. And exhale down. Keep your head on the floor, keep the back flat to the floor, extend the leg as far as you can. We'll keep in both hips down without raising the shoulders and down. If you can only straighten the leg a little bit, that's okay. And extend and release and extend and release and extend. Hold it, linkedin.
Good and release one more time and extend and hold it there. What I'd like you to do is just flex the foot and then point if you can flex point, flex point, flex point, flex and point. Bring the knee into the chest and place the foot down. Do the left leg up. And again, if you can't, if you just, you know, you can also place it on top of your foot. You don't have to place it underneath. Extend the leg as far as you can. Don't take it further. Then you are able to and press back and extend and back and extend and back and extend and play a to more and extend and plead a one more and extend and let's hold it there and I just want you to think of flexing so that the heel goes up to the ceiling and point.
Flex point. Flex point. Flex point. Flex point. Flex. Okay, good. Bring the DCM and damp the head down. Take a breath, turn the head to the right. Stretch the deck front and take the head to the left.
Okay. What I'd like you to do here at the bar is pressing against your thighs. I mean not hard. You just placed against your thighs. You're going to inhale, you're going to exhale, lift your chin to the chest and you're just going to roll up to the bar, combs to the top of the knees and then back down. Dope. Put your head all the way down and just go to the shoulder blade. So is one. Back to them. Three down, four, sort of like you're ironing your thighs. Five, don't you always think anything? Two more. Seven and eight notes.
Stand the right leg and the left leg. If you can just iron the fall as high as the lake as you can and down. Two, three, four, five, six, two more. Seven. One more. Eight and knee down and bar all the way back and relax. Okay. It's a good bar up with the chin to the chest and now again, similar to what we did earlier, you're just going to use the obliques as you turn to the side.
Drop part of the bar to the floor and front other side, front side, front, side, front, side, front, side, front, side, front, side, front, last one side and front. Head down. Take the bar underneath the feet, take a breath, inhale and exhale. We're going to do the 100 you're going to bring the knees in and you're going to extend the legs and you're going to keep them in table top. Wherever you're more comfortable. Okay. You're going to keep your head either down with your more comfortable.
Are you going to extend it up? Inhale, exhale forward. Extend the arms and go. One, two, three, four.
And I'm also going to show with Christie what you can do with your partner if you're so inclined. And if the people at home have a partner that they can also do too. So why don't we do two roll ups with the bar and then I'm going to go to Christie and I'm going to um, give her a little surprise. OK? I back. Take the bar behind you. Flex the feet, shoulders down. Inhale, lift the bar up over the face. Exhale, Chin to the chest. Now contract like the belly pulled up like a wave of notion over and extend one, two, three. So this is just the real let boot. We're using the bar. Seven, eight, shoulders down. Squeeze the buttocks. Point the feet, Tuck it under. Come on down. One Vertebrae at a time and release.
Let's do it again. Lift the bar up, ended the chest contract, roll it up and over. And stretch. Two, three, four and linkedin six. Think that spine up beyond the top of the head and roll it down. Squeeze the butt tight. Thighs back and release. Okay, you two can continue doing that on your own. And I'm just going to do the stretch with Christie. Can we do it down here? Didn't you? Okay, because the person, yet the partner would come at your feet.
What you're going to do is you're going to resist me as hard as it is, okay? And then so what you're gonna do is just them over towards me, just like we did before. Inhale, two, three, four. And you can tell me if you want more resistance or less. And eight now, shoulders down. Roll it back. Would you use me as resistance? You go back.
Can Trap and stretch over. One, two, three, four and
I'm going to link the knee u and D clumpy again out of the waist. You two can just, you can try it with each other after this salmon and actually turns to the side and side. Keep linking out of that waste. D, keep the clumping and turn [inaudible] and open up the hands all the way. Christy to the and rotate back to the bars behind you with your shoulders, and now we're going to get the shepherd walk. This is very famous. It's not all over the world. I get residuals. Not really. I get nothing, but it is the shepherd walk. What we're doing to just Klein, walking up the spine, opening up the shoulder girdle stretching. I can many times feel where people are really tight in their backs.
I can feel a little tightness and Christie's lower back. She's more flexible in her thoracic. It's just a little diagnostic tools. Well as feeling really good. Okay. Lift the bar up and then exhale. Reach out towards your feet again that that had relapsed. Then eight 9:10 AM 12 okay.
And that field. Okay. Okay, great. Okay, very nice. Turn towards me. Now what we're going to do you, I want you to put the bar over your top ankle. Okay? I want your left elbow directly into your left shoulder. Again, we don't slump if you want to, if it's easier for you, you can definitely come all the way down. This is a little bit more challenging.
Now what you're going to do is you're going to use the bar as resistance. The higher up we have the hand, the more resistance we'll have. The lower the hand, the less resistance, lower compare to closer to the bar. Okay? Higher meaning closer to the foot. Right. Thank you for clarifying. And now press the leg up. One dam, two, three. So you kind of give yourself your own resistance. Okay? Five, six, seven, eight, nine and 10. Okay, point the foot.
Sort of turn a little bit back down and lift. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and 10. Confront to me, circle the foot. One, two, keeping the bar over the ankle and by reverse. One, two, three, four and five. Okay, Ben, the knee. Now I want you to put it over the bottom foot. Bend the top leg and use it. A resistance for your inner thigh. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 little higher one if you can. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and 10. Okay. Now bring the knee in.
Who taught me in place? The bar. This is going to be extend. Now, what's your goal? This is a little tricky, but it's fun. It's just a nice way to stretch the leg back. Okay. Let me six. It is. Place it right behind your ankle.
The bar is straight up and use the bar to stretch the leg back towards your face.
Confront and little circles. Two, three, four, five, six and reverse. All right. Sometimes my counting is a little off, but you'll all forgive me and six. Okay. Take the top leg, place it behind you, but this over the bottom leg, we're going to strengthen and tone the inner thigh and resist it. Press one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 and a little higher. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and 10. Okay. Please sit down. Bring the leg in, place the the pole. It might help. Um, yeah, just place it under the ankle.
Take this pole as straight as you can and stretch it back.
And slightly pull it down. Let's turn on our stomachs with the bar here. And what you want to do is lift as you slide it out slightly, extend the back, extend the hand. Let me, sorry the head forward and exhale down and bend the elbows and straighten the arms. Lift the upper back, squeeze the buttocks. Press the pelvis of the floor and exhale down and extend. Good and down.
And one more extend. Squeeze that buttox shoulders. Press way down. Shoulder blades down towards your ankles and release. Okay. Come up to all fours wars. We're going to round straighten and arch.
Okay. The bar is just right in front of you and round straighten and arch. Straighten round, straighten art, straighten, round strain, arch, straighten. Now contract. Sit on up. What you're gonna do. Do you ever going to do a version of the cat? You're going to turn the pole in front of you.
This is similar to what we did a little bit earlier, but this is where we round and then lengthen out
We're going to be doing a version of the sauce stretch with the bar. What you do is you take the bar again in front of you, you turn to your right out of the waist too. I'm sorry. Go this way. Go towards the back room. Six, seven, eight. Now what you want to do the stretch forward. That's it. Beyond the foot. If you can, seven, eight and up and turn the other way. Twist two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and stretch beyond the feet. Let the head down. Oh five six, seven, eight en up center. Turn to the side and reach.
Stretch three, four, five, six, seven, eight and stretch beyond the foot. Two, three, four and reach six, seven, eight and up to the other side. And reach to three. Keep the bar on one plane, seven eight and reach two, three, four and reach six, seven, eight. Okay. And Center. C'Mon up again. And to the side over. And then lift and
And just turn and front turn and front turn. Front turn, front turn. You're going tell you what the bar, you just can't have that posture. Turn and front turn and front turn and front. Okay.
I want to do one balancing act that's really good with the bar. Take it forward. The feet are together. Again, don't let the bar drop down to the thighs up. Keep it right in front of you. Shoulders. Stay down and I want you, not in a turnout, but in a parallel position to place one foot in front of the other.
Tight rope. Exactly. Okay. Now which you can, somebody can come and also help hold your hips right here. See, it's, I know it's not, it's a lot tougher than it looks, but it's wonderful for balance. Okay, let's do the other side and turn
Let's switch speaker and turn the head to the right and front [inaudible].
Otherwise, if you just turned out, oh, this is easy. Okay, very good. Please. Um, let's take the bar. Come on down. Sink the buttocks against the heels. Shoulders down. We're going to do four little pulses. One, two, three, four. You're gonna take the nose to the knees and you're going to come down again and do four little pulses. One, two, three, four. Take the nose to the knees.
And take the nose to the knees. Bend the knee. Slowly roll it up.
[inaudible]
You need to be a subscriber to post a comment.
Please Log In or Create an Account to start your free trial.