Restorative Mat

So we're going to do a restorative that half an hour or 25 minute class right now. Um, the only thing that you'll really need is one or two pillows just to lie down and make yourself comfortable. So why don't we start lying on your back. Okay. Make yourself comfortable with your head on your pillow. And I'm going to say the other pillow and I'll just place it under your knees so that your, your spine is feeling comfortable, right? You want to be in the best, your most comfortable position. Okay. So how are you? Good. You good? Okay, good. So let's just start here then. And I want you to take a nice long full breath in and we're going to bring our hands just to the outside of our rib cage. Exactly.

And I want you to wrap your thumbs around the outside. Okay. You can close your eyes, make yourself at home, hopefully you are at home, and drop your shoulders back in space and start to fill into the webbing of your hand with breath. And as you exhale, just gently guide your ribs down and together. Fill a nice, easy contraction and then inhale, expand to the sides of the body again, and as you exhale again, just release. Relax everything, guide your ribs with your hands down and together. Good. Inhale, expand three-dimensionally. Front side, back. Exhale, gently guiding ribs. Okay. I want you to visualize your breath now as it travels in through your nose, travels into the ribs, fills to low belly, and then follow the breath out. As you exhale, completely.

Guide the ribs. Get the ribs, get rid of every last drop so you can get rid of a little bit more breath. Good like water filling in. Big Breath. Let your shoulders live with breath, ribs, hips, everything. And the next hale hug. Getting rid of every last draw contract twice again.

Inhale, notice how your ribs fill more freely and then exhale, guide your ribs. Keep your shoulders really wide open. We tend to clench the jaw on the exhale. Let's keep saw. One more big breath like that. As you exhale, guide your ribs down and together. Good. Just let everything go. Let your arms come back down to your sides. Fleets. Good. Let's have our palms faced up.

So it's like you're holding onto something heavy. I want you to imagine bags of sand pressing down into your hands, down into your forearms, up into the shoulders. So in your imagination, you're feeling the weight of the room really pushing downwards. Feel the weight of the room just coming down through the ribcage, through the legs, all the way down to your feet. I feel that you're grounded.

You're really reaching your body down into your mat, into the floor with that heaviness, with that sensation of pressure down into your body. I want you to start stirring your ankles. So like you're pressing through the weight of the room, like Taffy or a really heavy, thick fudge you're gonna push through. I know we're hungry. I'm hungry. And you're gonna push through the weight of the room with your ankles.

Try opening up 10 toes as you make the circles. Good. Okay, one more time. Let's switch the direction now of those circles pushing through the weight of the room. Almost like you're making a track pressing into it. Yes, keep going. But now I want you to allow the entire leg to start to roll with that.

So not just ankles, but now right up into the hip joint. You're going to turn the legs, turn the legs out, turn in, turn out, find a lot of rotation deep inside of the hip joint so your ankles are moving, you're moving into the hip joint. If you're can imagine your hips or keep going, but as you, as you go a little deeper, I want you to think of your leg like a, a pool cue in a block of chalk and you're going to try and get right inside of the joint with the good, amazing coordination. I don't take the lot there. Okay, can you switch direction one more time? Good. The movement is in the hip socket.

You've got your ankle joints really awake. Now let's do four more. Still allowing our bodies to get used to the action to see if you can carve out a bigger circle. Yeah, see if you can get more rotation in the joint. Let's pause here. So allow your legs to fall out wherever they are comfortably Lang.

And you're just gonna notice up into the hip joint. Now see if there's any space. And let's take a big breath in. See if you can fill right down into the spots. You were just moving. Good. So we're going to move the pillow. Hey, so I'm gonna you can push it off to the side and pass it away. I'm just gonna Place it away and we're going to work just with the right leg.

Okay, good. So I'd like you to bend your left knee so that your foot is flat on the floor. You're going to feel for your big toe, your baby tone, your heel anchor down and grounded can still feel the weight of the room pressing down into your body. You're going to start to turn the long leg out and then turn it back in again. Good. And then turn it out and then turn it back in again. Good.

Two more. Good. And one more nice. This time when you turn out, you're going to hold the external rotation. Take a big breath in as you exhale. Keep the turnouts are to bend your knee, Jurek the leg all the way in and then turn that knee up to find center. You're gonna. Yeah, slide the leg all the way back out. Turn out, slide it in.

Turn in. Good. So you're going to keep going with this action as externally rotating, pulling him. Try slowing down just a little bit here. So stretch, turn out like it's heavy. Yeah, we're going to bring our hands onto our hip joint. Okay. Now as you do it, go again. Inhale turnout. Notice if your hip tips off to the right. Let's see if we can really maintain stability. Okay. As you come back to the center hip, so nice and level. Good work.

Don't worry if they tip a little bit, that's fine. You just want to start to become aware of where your pelvis is in space. Good turn. Go as slowly as is comfortable for you. Okay, so if you want to go half the speed or double the speed, I want you to find wherever your hips feel level and stable. Okay. One more on the right. Try inhaling as you stretched turnout.

Exhaling as you pull find center. Okay, so before we go over to the second side, you're going to take both knees and they're going to open up away from each other. Your rules, the outside edge of either foot. Inhale. And as you exhale, pull your knees back together, squeeze your knees, notice the difference in sensation from hip to hip. Inhale Open. And again, you want your hips to stay nice and level. Exhale. Can you tighten through the middle like you're pressing through heavy air to inhale. Exhale, stay nice and soft. The jaw through your shoulders. And one more.

Inhale. Good. And then exhale, bringing it back together. So the stem, the right leg is gonna stay. We're going to inhale, we're going to stretch the left leg. Okay, so hold it there. Just start to turn out and turn in. Turn out, turn and good. This reminds me of flossing for some reason. I don't know why. Okay, so let's keep the turnout this time.

Turn the toes away from the centers are to pull the knee in again, like it's being Hud's heavy, pulling in through heavy air and then back to the center. Nice. Inhale and turn out are your hips level is your other leg staying centered. Exhale. And then Paul. Inhale, expand into your body. Take as much breath. Exhale, feel yourself grounded and sinking into the table. Inhale, turn. Exhale. Good. So really pay attention to the wobble of your hips.

See the fit drops onto that left side. I also want you to pay attention to the difference, right versus left and how that feels in your body. Is there more space? Good. And is it easier to stay stable? Good. Let's do two more and turnout and as we exhale deep into the hip socket.

Okay, one more time. So we pull all the way back to the center. We squeeze the knees and hold. So we still have our hands right on the hipbones. We want to feel like a scale, perfectly balanced from right to left. We're going to keep the left leg heavy, grounded.

The foot really anchor. You're going to feel connected to the leg. I even want you to push into the foot a little bit and CV and engage your left bum cheek a little bit. Okay? The other leg. So actually you're gonna look at your left leg and you're gonna make sure that it is centered and it's not going to wing out to the side. The right leg out to the side. Now hold it there. Did your hip tip all the way over. You're going to exhale.

Pull it back to center, squeeze the knees, find your inner thighs. Then keep the right leg open. The left. Inhale as you open amaze and keeping your hips stable. Exhale, squeeze your knees. Good. Inhale, exhale. Again, it's heavy in the rooms. You have to pull back to center. Squeeze the knees. Inhale. Nice. Hips are level. Shoulders are open. Squeeze the knees. Okay, so let's keep the knees squeezing here.

If it's more comfortable, you can always lengthen your legs on the ground. But let's stretch our arms up to the sky at this point. Okay, so you're gonna stay here. We're going to reach one arm up higher. Yes, sliding the Palma and then switched to the other side, reaching and then switch. As this arm reaches up, allow your shoulder blade to reach up all the way right up to the ceiling. It's being pulled and reach and look at all this amazing space and then re and exhale. Good. Let's inhale for the reach CV and take a lot of breath and exhale.

Hold your hands together. You're going to give a little bit of pressure now. Okay, so squish, hold it in. Hale. Tip your whole upper body. Now notice, can you keep the knees squeezing and everything centered. Exhale back to the center. Inhale a little further. Good. Exhale.

Squeeze your hands. Squeeze your knees. Inhale as your twists, squeezing hands, squeezing, knees. Inhale as you twists. Exhale back to the center. Let's hold center. Let's arch the arms all the way over. Head open out to the sides, down towards your heads. You're pushing through the heavy room, right? Inhale up and back.

Stretch. Exhale, pushing through. Let's really feel the strength of our underarms through the body. One more big circle. Exhale all the way. Push, push. It's heavy, heavy, heavy. Taking your arms up to the sky. Let's hold the hands. Squeeze your hands together. All right, so this time you're going to take your upper body again over to the right.

Can your knees fall over to the left to feel your spine wringing out and lengthening. Think of a wet towel and as you exhale, everything squeezes back to center hands and inhale the other way. Twisting. Lengthening. Think of had twisting taffy and pulling it apart and then exhale, squeezing everything. Amazing. Good. One more each way. Exhale. Contracting through the middle of the body. Nice, smooth. Inhale, reach. Good. Exhale. Let's hold it.

Let's reach back one more time. Out to the sides. All the way down. Okay. We're going to hold, you're going to relax. Let everything just Ha. Let it all go. Good. Let's roll over onto your side so you can use your pillow so that your head is nice and supported. Here we're going to bend our knees so they are a NIESR at a right angle from the hip joint. Your shoulders, good.

And hips and head are all in line. So even if it doesn't really feel like it, I want you to bring your head back two inches. Yes. Okay. Even if it doesn't feel like it needs to. All right, so we're going to start with the upper body on this side. We're going to take our arm up to the sky. Good. You know, lengthen through your fingertips. Feel like, oh, we're stretching up to the sky. The shoulder blade is reaching up all the way, and then just pull the arm bone deep. Inhale, stretch. Exhale, deep. Good, tiny. Inhale up.

Exhale deep. One more. Inhale deep. Okay. Hold that. Inhale. You can even look behind you. Good work. Exhale, pushing through that heavy room all the way to the front. Open up through the blade. Inhale all the way to the back. Stretch. Breathe.

Exhale all the way forward. So just notice here that our hips are staying really stable. We're not moving the hips with the upper body. Good work am okay. One more time. Inhale and Murray exhale and pushing through.

Let your arm relax down to the floor in front of you, reliefs. Okay, let's have it just bent right by your side. And we're going to start now with the top leg lengthening and we're going to let it just drag on the floor. Okay, so as long as you can go. Yeah, so it's dragging on the floor, but you're gonna reach it. You're really lengthen through the waistband. I want you to imagine someone pulling the leg right out of the hip socket.

Amazing. All this length. Good. So let's take a breath with all of that stretch in that reach. And then as you exhale, you're going to pull the leg back into the hip socket. Just like that. Inhale, reach away. Exhale deep. Inhale away.

Exhale deep. Three more. Inhale away. Exhale, d two and one good stretch. As you exhale, come all the way back. You're going to find the center point between that crunched up position and that lengthened position. Hips are nice and level. Go ahead, take a big breath in. And as you exhale, you're going to bend the top knee so they match up again. Perfect. That's it on that side. Why don't we turn over and face the other way?

And I'm going to go so far as to take the pillow right here. Make you comfortable? Yeah. Okay, good. How are you doing so far? Good. Good, good. Okay, so again, we want to make sure that our knees are at a right angle from the hip. Our hips, shoulders, and head are all lined up. So again, bring your head back just two inches. Exactly. Okay. Because our heads are always forward, right? All right, so let's start with the top arm reaching up to the ceiling. Okay. And you're gonna reach like strings are pulling your fingertips up to the sky and then deep into the socket. So notice how the arm stays straight the whole time. Inhale, lengthen.

Exhale. Deep. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale deep. And it's your arms stretching up, but you're really moving from the back of your body. So your shoulder blade is reaching. And then deep, two more. Inhale. Exhale. Feel how the blade moves on your back and down. One more up and then deep. Okay, so keep the D, You're going to inhale all been up through the chest.

You can look at it. And then as you exhale, go all the way forward and your blade moves and opens up on the back and then it pulls back and you inhale and you open. Beautiful. Exhale and close. And depending on how far you go, it can be quite challenging to keep the hips centered. So I want you to imagine my hand, right on your hip, holding you there. And then forward good wet towel, wringing out, lengthening. As we inhale, take your space, and then exhale last to inhale. Good. Exhale.

Okay. And last one, hips, nice and stable. Big Breath. And then exhale and rest. Rest that top arm. Okay, so then we're going to travel down. Exactly. We're gonna stretch the top lay. So it's like Sean's pulling the leg right out of the hip socket, like actually giving it a good, pull your foot heavy into the floor. Hips are nice and level. Can you inhale the stretch?

Just one inch for the beautiful and the next half. Hike the hip a little. And then inhale, big balloon expanding. Exhale, contract and pull. Inhale and nice. Exhale and, and exhale. Remember you want to keep your hips really level like a two story house we stack. Nice. Okay, so we're going to go for three good.

And let's just check in and make sure our shoulders are nice and easy and the jaw is soft to inhale. Good. Last time. Biggest stretch here, really linkedin, linkedin, linkedin. And then as we come back, good. You can pull the knee all the way and get, it's heavy in the rooms you pull slowly. Great. Let's come up onto hands and knees. So transition slowly onto your hands and knee.

We're going to find four points heavy into the mat here. Think about right index finger, middle finger, right. The ball or the heel of your hand here, press into it so he being stretched. These fingers, your peace fingers apart a little bit further. Nice. You're going to transition so that your hips reach back. You inhale keeping weighted into your hand, into the fingers, into the heel of the hand. As you exhale, come forward, bring a little bit of weight onto your hands. Inhale back, feel that hips wide and fill the shoulders open up and then exhale, pull forward, fail your blades, draw down your back. Inhale.

So we just had a lot of practice moving or blades, so we're going to really sense for that action as it happens. And again, you move as quickly or as slowly as you like. Transitioning. Inhale, let the blades open up on your Ba. Exhale with them. Pull together behind your back. Tightening abdominals twice again. Okay, inhale, opening. Beautiful. Exhale, pulling the blades together. Let's do one more. Inhale. Shoulder blades. Open towards the underarms. You have all this space, there's your wings expanding on your back and exhale.

Let's find the place right back in between those two extremes. We're really neutral through the hips so we're not arching our back or rounding up really level. This is beautiful. We're going to take a breath in. On the exhale, you're going to tighten your core muscles. I want you to lift your right hand two inches off the floor. Perfect. And then lower it back down. Take a breath. Exhale, contract.

Lift the left hand, two inches off the floor, and lower. Okay. Now we're going to go to right knee XL, two inches. Beautiful and lower like a level. The hips are Xcel, left leg and lower. Really sit all the way back onto your heels.

Allow your shoulders to open up. We're going to send four big breaths into our lower back here. So as if the room is heavy again, we want to feel that we're weighted. I want you to breathe like you're lifting weights through the lower back and exhale and inhale, and exhale. Ha. Let's do one more big breath. Zulu. Exhale. Gently rule your spine up. Walk your hands and good.

So just have a seat here with me for a quick sec. Okay, so let's take a breath in together. We're gonna lift our shoulders all the way up. We're going to take another big breath, feeling that three dimensional breath up, up, up, up, and then ready. Drop it. One more. Inhale. Up, up, up, up, up, and [inaudible]. Okay, good work. Thank you.