Back Extension Mat

So what we're going to do in this lesson is work on a back extension to spine and some legs. So please bend your knees and roll down onto your back. Yes. And we'll actually start with shoulder bridge. This just to set up the spine, I'd like you to bring your feet up closer to your hips. Have your feet with the part so it's slightly further apart. Debbie, you want your feet six inches apart, knees and feet at least six inches apart.

That's it in the feet. Quite close to your bottom. Now tilt your tail. So tuck your bottom. So the sit bones and the tail come off the map and your waist presses into the mat. And just for a moment, squeeze your bottom here and now lift the tail another inch. You really have to curl your pelvis and then roll your pelvis up until you're making a straight line from your armpit to your knees. And press the knees away from you. Say slightly, contract the cabs and push the knees out and then roll back down through the spine. Rolling, rolling, rolling.

And right at the end you press your sit bones back into the mat. So you get a slight arch in your lower back. Yes. And again, tack the tail so you feel your waist pressing into the mat and then roll up. And when you get to the top, press your thighs away from you. Literally push the thighs out to open up in the hips and then collapsed the chest slightly. As you roll back down, roll back down, roll back down and get the sit bones to go long and again, Tuck the tail slightly and start to roll up. Roll up, roll up, and then length in the spine out. Reach the knees to the opposite side of the room and then roll down through the chest through the ribs, through the waist, through the hips, all the way down.

Make sure the sip bones get to the mat and Debbie, get your feet closer to your bottom. Attempt to get your feet a little closer in, any closer to can you get them even closer? Good. Now before you start again, lift your toes, let just the toes, and then put the feet back down on the mat and up top your tail again and start to roll up. Roll Up. Yes, Debbie. Roll Up. Roll up, roll up, roll up, roll up and press your thighs away from you is sadly higher. Now lower your hips a little bit and then lift them back up and lower the hips a little bit. Keep the navel in and lift them back up. And one more time. Lower the hips a little bit, and if the backup, and now soften the sternum, broaden your shoulder blades and roll down. Roll down, roll down, roll down to flat. Very, very good. Stretch your legs out and roll onto your stomachs.

So you roll over. Um, you know what? Let's have of you facing the front because I can just see you all kind of all over the place trying to see what's gonna happen next. So just, just flip yourself around, Megan. Place your forehead on your fingertips with your elbows, y and your feet. Hip width apart, feet hip width apart, and stretch your toes away from you. And it almost feels are you're reaching your little toe to the floor.

It may not touch the floor, but you want to feel it reaching. And now take your pubic bone and hip bones and sacred and press them into the Mac. So you, your pelvis is press down and stretch your knees so the hamstrings are active. Keep all of that going. Elbows, forehead, and fingertips off the mat. So you lift up, lift a little higher and lower down, and then lift up. So we're going a little bit higher than we used to. And now and lift again and down and live and down.

One more time and lift and down. Now come up onto your elbows and open the elbows a little bit wider. And we're going to start at the beginning, a swan proper. So from here, pull the shoulders down your back, lift your stomach up and lift up a little bit higher. So your arms come to straight. You'll come up to elbow. Kim, lift.

Stretch your elbows. Yes. So you're in this. Now stretch your knees. Now have a quick glance in my direction. What's gonna happen is you're gonna lower your chest and lift. Your chest comes down. Then you have your arm stretched. So here we go. Together. Long, straight legs, legs go up and push.

Legs go up and push. Legs go up. Stretch your knees, Tim. Have the legs apart and up. Two more times. Legs go up and lift. Legs go up and lift. Very good. Come back onto your elbows. Make fists with your hands. And now a slightly differently.

You're going to bring the knuckles of the hands together. Yes. And still keep that fist. So it's going to stretch the outer part of your arm. And now lift up the chest and bring your knees together. Knees together. Now can you pull your stomach up so your back is long and your chest is forward.

Tim. Very good. That's good. Megan, bend your right foot, keeping your hips tight. Squeeze it to your bottom and kick. Kick. Take the leg down, lift your stomach up, squeeze your hips, bend the left knee, squeeze it, kick, kick and long. And here we go. Kick. Kick and down and kick, kick and down and kick, kick and down, and kick, kick and downing. Kick, kick, kick, kick, kick, kick, kick, kick, lower down and turn your nose to the right. Take both hands and place them behind your weight and press your elbows towards the floor so you really stretch out the calf of the soldier.

Now just to practice, stretch your arms by your sides of your bottom straight. Stretch your arms up. You separate the Haz. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and lift your head and chest up and pinch the shoulder blades together more. Sandy, squeeze your shoulder blades. That's it. Lower down. Turn your head the other way. Clasp your fingers behind your waist. Press the elbows way, way, way down. And then again, arms go down.

Squeeze your shoulder blades together and lift your chest up and pinch those shoulder blades together. Hands off the floor team. Squeeze the shoulder blades together, lower down. And now we'll do it with the hands together. Press your elbows to the floor, bend your elbows more, Tim, elbows to the Mat, and then keep holding your fingers in. Stretch your arms back and lift. Hold one hand with the other. Pinch your shoulder blades together, Sandy. Good. Yeah. Lower down. Head the other way. And again, squeeze your shoulder blades together and lift. And then first side, now we do the full exercise. [inaudible] your waist, knees together, hips into the map. Elbows down to the back.

Bend both ruse and kick. Three times. Kick and click and click [inaudible]. Squeeze those shoulder blades together and other side. And kick two, three and press and squeeze and first side and kick. Two three press and squeeze.

Add, kick two, three and press and squeeze and kick. Two, three and press and squeeze and cake two, three and press and squeeze. Very good. Relax. Put your hands under your shoulders and sit back into your heels and stretch your spa line out to nice long stretch. I now switch over and lie on your back and we will repeat the bridge again. Is he gonna lie with your feet close to your bottom, your knees, hip with the part to begin with.

And sly your hands as far away towards your heels as you can so that your shoulders are stretched. And then press the shoulders into the mat. Feet close to your bottom, Sandy, yes and feet hip width apart right now. Tuck the tail and roll the hips up and roll down and roll up and roll down and roll up and roll down. Now the challenge is [inaudible] for the bring your knees together and your feet together. Squeeze the hips tight and roll up again. Pushing your heels into the mat. Roll down.

Press your heels into the mat to lift and roll down. And one more time. Seals into the math to lift and roll down. Pull your knees to your chest and roll yourself up to a sitting position and sit with your feet together in the legs straight and place your hands behind your head so your thumbs are kind of like behind the this part with a bow. That skull comes down kind of quite close to the ears and literally feel as though you're lifting your head up off of your spine so you're really lifting up. Let the elbows lift as well.

Take a deep breath in and then curl your chest in and stretch down towards your knees and then roll back up to an upright position and lift your head up and spread your elbows out. Really wide. Elbows deep breath in and again, lift the powerhouse to curl in. Curl Ian and pulled your head towards your knees and roll back cup. Roll back up. Lift up, elbows wide. Lift the waist. One more time. Lift and curl your head in, pulling your head towards your knees and roll back up. Roll back up and lift. Lengthen through the neck, Nathan through the spine. And now lean out a little bit and keep your neck long and open your elbows.

Lean a little bit further lengths in the neck. Press your head into your hands, go a little bit further, and then roll down onto your, your back. That was the beginning of neck pool. Very, very good. Roll onto your right side for the sidekicks. So some of you will be facing this way and some of you, and you'll be facing away from me or you can. Yeah, that fine. Debbie, you'll be fine. You'll be fine. So support your head with your hands and just let yourselves out in a straight line and get your hands close to your floating ribs.

And take the elbow of the left arm and press it down towards your hips. So the elbow by pushing it down towards your hips, you take the elbow and slide it down. It helps stretch the left shoulder away from your ear. And then lengthen your waist. Flex both feet, lift up, bring them forward, put them down so you have your set up. Now take your top leg and lifted hip height and we'll be kicking the leg forward and back. So lengthen the waist and come to the front. Well would forward back, back, forward, forward, back, back. Forward, forward, back, back. Forward, forward, back, back. Forward, forward, back, back. Bring the legs together, lengthen the waist.

Take the top elbow and pull it down towards your hip and lift up your chest. So you have a yes, Debbie. Very good. So nice and law. Take your top leg and turn it out a little bit and kick it high. Flex it down. Kick it up, flex it down, kick it up, flex it down, kick it up, flex it down, kick it up, flex it down, kick it up, and flex it down. Now take this top leg in, length it out of your hair. Point the toes and little circles going forward and forward and forward and forward and forward. Keep the body, and now we verse it, and back.

Two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. And bring yourself heel to heel. Now we're going to do the a bigger circle. So keep your body strong and take your top, like bring it in front of you so your foot is opposite your knee, up the left leg. Take the leg up so the foot is opposite the knee to the ceiling, and then take the leg behind you so you make a bigger circle. And again, the leg comes forward, goes up to the ceiling, reaches back one more time, forward up to the ceiling, reaches back, bring the legs together, reversing it back up to the ceiling for word back, keeping the hips quiet and forward. One more time, back up and forward. And now bend the foot in front of you for the inner thigh lift and for change.

Take the bottom like this on the floor and move it backwards so you're making more of a straight line. It's a longer than a diagonal and really stretch that knee and reach the toes away from you. Now lift the leg and lower and lift the leg in the air. Good Sandy and down and lift and down and lift and down and lift and down. Now lifted up and try and go as high as you can.

Bring it as far forward as you can. Take it down to the floor and take it as far back as you can. So big circles and big circles and big circles. Now reverse it big. Circle the other way. Really milk it. Keep leg reaching away from the hip. And one more time.

Now stretch the legs out. Lengthen the waist. Pull the shoulders down and bring the legs a little bit straight or under you. So Megan, move her back a bit to your little bit more straight than we've done it before. And really tighten your hips. Lift both legs in the air and down and both legs in the air and down and both legs in the air and both legs in the air and both legs in the air. Stay here, take your bottom leg and take it to the mat and lift it up to the mat.

Lifted up mat, up mat, up mat, up in both legs, down onto your stomach for a little beats. So 400 on your hands. Elbows. Why hips strong? Lift the legs up in the air and open and close your legs in one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Lift the little higher. Three, five, six, seven. Lift as high as you can for five, six, seven and eight. Lower and sit back into your heels. And as you sit back, pull the stomach way, way, way into your stretch. Out your lower back. Nice long stretch.

Come up to a sitting position on your heels. Clasp your hands behind your back, clasp your fingers together, sandy and with your elbows slightly bent, squeeze your shoulder blades together. Yes. Now stretch the arms slightly away from you and come down and pull the arms away from your back. Really pull them up just to stretch the shoulders. I'm gonna come back up again. And one more time. Bend your elbows, bend them more. Sandi, squeeze your shoulder blades together.

And I just try and press your elbows towards each other. Elbows towards each other. Squeeze your shoulder blades together. Most important thing is squeezing your shoulder blades. Tim, lift the chest up more. Yes. Yes Debbie. Keep your elbows bent. Elbows bent. [inaudible] er, er, er, er, er. Ah Yes. That's what I want.

I know you got it in you. Any you do to kick your elbows, your chest lifted and lift your shoulders a bit. Lift him up. Yes. And I'm going to, there we go. Debbie, bend your elbows. Bend them, lift your chest and strong. Good. And Bend your elbows a little more and stretch your mis can be relax.

Very good. Roll the shoulders and other sides. So if you were with your back to me, you now you'll have your, you'll be facing me. And vice versa. So support your head with your hands or lie down on the arm, whichever serves you. The other hand is opposite your floating ribs.

Take the elbow of the upper arm and pull it away from you. So you move the elbow towards your hip. Yes, that's it. Lift the legs up, bring them forward and put them down. Flex your feet and take your top leg and lifted up. Extend the toes and bring it forward. Forward, back, back. Forward, forward, back, back. Forward, forward, back, back. Forward, forward, back, back.

Then forward, forward, back, back. Bring the legs together. Turn them out a bit. Kick them up and down and kick the legs and down and kick the legs and down and kick the legs and down and kick down and kick and down again. Shoulder goes away from the ears. Lift your chest, lift the top leg and little circles. Circle one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, reverse it. And one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Bring your legs, heel to heel and big circles. The top leg comes forward so your foot's opposite your knee.

Lift the leg up and lengthen it as far behind you as you can go. And again, forward, up and back and forward. Up and back. Bring the heels together, reverse it back and up and forward. Back and up and forward. Back Up. Four, take your top leg and bend it up and the bottom leg, move it back so it's more of a straight line, which is a little bit new for us.

And then extend through the toes and lift the leg up and down and lift and down and lift and down and lift and down are lifted up. Bring it forward. Take it down, back and up. Forward, down, back and up. One more. Circle this way and get it as high as you can and reverse it back down and up. Back, down. Forward, up.

One more time and very good. Bring the leg down. Extend both legs out and lift both legs and down. Lift both lakes and down, both lakes and down, both lakes and down. Both legs, up. Take the bottom like down and up, down and up, down and up, and bring the legs down onto your stomach and sit back into your heels again. So you're stretching into child's pose and then come up to a sitting position.

And let's have you all turned to face each other and kneeling down to one side. So you will be sitting. Let's have you all on your left hip. And you know what, Tim, for you, let's have you just sitting like this. We're going to do mermaid. I think you'll be much better after sitting. Can you sit across and I get you're going to be a Merman.

You know what structure like that stretch you like that. So let's you ladies hold your right ankle with your right hand and Tim just put your weight onto your right hand. Lean to your right hand a bit more close to your hip, a little bit further out, meaning if you're like that instead of here, just a little bit towards Megan. Yes. Right now, take your left arm up to the ceiling, stretch it up as far as you can, and then bend as far over to your right as you can and use that left arm. Just ratchet your side ribs and then come up and lean onto your left arm.

Take your right arm up and bend the left elbow to stretch a little bit further and then come up. And again, if you're holding your ankle stretch and then other side and stretch. And one more time and stretch and other side and stretch. Okay. Now you ladies are going to flip your legs to the other side. And Tim, you'll have the pleasure of doing it. One more time with your legs out. So pull the left ankle with the left hand.

Take your right arm up, Ma. Yes. Sandy, you're kind of with your feet like this. Get yes. Now get both knees on the floor so you'll have to oh yes. So you're a little bit more kind of grounded. Take your right hand up, right hand, other right hand Sandy, lift way up and then stretch to your left. So you opening up the ribs and then flip your hands and stretch. Good. And again, and stretch and again and stretch.

And one more time and stretch and last one and stretch. And now come up and [inaudible] bring your feet in front of you for seal. Bring your hands into prayer. [inaudible] lift your feet up, wrap your hands underneath your ankles and lift your feet up in the air. No. Great here. Pull your gas and slightly push your elbows into your size and clap your feet together. Clap, clap, clap.

Now Roll back to your shoulders and come up again. So you roll back and come up and clap, clap, clap, and again, roll back and come up and clap, clap, clap. One more time. Roll back and come up. Balance and clap, clap. Awesome work. Put your feet down. Come up to a standing position. And let's have all of you against a wall. So you can be two people here. Actually Megan, why don't you come right here. Debbie, why didn't you come right here so you can use this column and sandy come further in. Now when you're standing here, get your feet away from the wall.

So you're going to be kind of in this, so it's easier for you to be in a vertical plane. And just to practice. Take your left arm up and slide the right hand down and reach out. So you're doing something similar to mermaid but against the wall and then come back, bring the hand down so it's okay. Sandy, if your head isn't against the wall, so this hand comes down. Now other hand comes up and just bend over.

So really all you're looking to do is get your sacred and your waist against the [inaudible] wall and then come back up. And again, take your arm up and don't go over yet. Bring this hand forward. There we go. Now go over. Yes. Better, much better. And come back up and other side, come back up, hold it step and over and come back up one more time. Now before you lift the arm up so you have your hands down, take your left hand in front of you and have it facing the side of the room. Now it's almost like think of taking your little finger up to the ceiling.

Yes. See the two shoulder rotates a bit. That's it. That's it. That's almost, you're almost been too good, Tim. Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, they're, they're awesome. Now Ben Dover with that kind of rotation, so the inside of your elbow is facing the direction of your ear. Good. Debbie. Yes. And come up. Bring the hand down. Bring the other hand straight in front of you first and then take it up.

So it's, you're rotating the arm, Tim. Other way, other way. Yes. Facing the sunset with your hand yet. Yes. Now stretch over, keeping that rotation in the arm much, much, much better. And then come back up and now rolling to the floor articulating. Let the arms dangle that yourselves. Roll down as far as you want to go. Check that your head is fully, fully relaxed. Just soft, long, loosey Goosey and do a few loose circles with the arms one way and do a few circles the other way. Very loose, very relaxed at the head. Shake the head, no, shake the head. Yes. Just to kind of feel it, letting go and then slowly roll back up, roll back up, roll back up on unraveling the spine to a totally upright position, and then push yourself away from the walls. You standing on your own feet and there is a shift because here you were lengthening the back body.

Now you've come back to this equilibrium where your front body is lifted, your back body is lifted so you can get a sense of the shoulders right over the hips and the neck as long sandy, that's looking really, really good. Very nice to take a breath in and breathing out, let it go. So very good work, everybody. Thank you very much. Okay, nice. Nice. Nice. Okay, you are, you're back in the group.