Quick and Stimulating Mat

Good evening, everybody. This class is by popular demand. I was asked to create a 30 minute fast and efficient workout. This is based on the advanced mat work. This is if you have lots of energy to burn.

You want to get vibrant, challenged, and you don't have a lot of time. And you already know what you're doing. And it's one of my favorite workouts, actually. Just get on the floor, and change my energy, shift into high gear, and know that I'm really utilizing everything I've got. So it's based on the classical method of course.

And going onto your back as usual, we always start with the Hundred. So nice and fast. And breathing out. Then I'm going to add in here, every time I exhale, crisscrosses with the legs. Inhaling with the arms.

Exhaling with the legs. Inhaling with the arms. Exhaling with the legs. And now I'm starting to keep this going. And this is where it becomes a brain twister.

Because the hands are going up and down, and the legs are going sideways. And make sure you're still breathing. And let's assume I've done 100, it feels like it. Lowering down into some roll ups. And making sure that you articulate through the spine, you're also looking to move the energy in the sense that you're warming up your body.

Want fast firing muscles. And the last one. Rolling down nice and long on your back for roll over. So lifting the legs to 90 degrees. Lifting the hips.

I have know idea where the floor is behind me. So I'll assume it's about here. Lengthening. Lengthening, lifting the legs a little bit. Rolling through the spine, again lifting up.

And pressing, pressing, rolling down. If you don't get to the floor, you do it exactly the way I'm doing it, slightly lengthening through the upper back. And if you do get to the floor, which I'm beyond the floor, you can really lengthen through the back of the legs. Making sure the knees are straight, the feet are well flexed. And it's an opportunity to stretch the hamstrings.

My ending, which I love, is lengthening the legs down. If your hamstrings are tight bend the knees. Take your time rolling through. Take your time lengthening the leg. Give the leg that's lifted a nice stretch.

Make sure your hips are square. And that's go just for three circles. Reversing. Lengthening the legs down. Heels together, narrow hips.

And here we go, another stretch. Through the back of the hamstring, making sure the spine is long. And again only three. Because we're looking to get a lot done. And this is more about stimulating the muscles, stimulating the body, stimulating the spine and making sure that you keep going.

So it's also for stamina. Rolling like a ball. Some of the variations simpler version is here. You can bring the feet closer in. Massaging the whole spine if you want to really challenge yourself.

Keep the elbows and knees together and you'll have a good laugh. Balancing right hand to ankle and using the powerhouse, making sure your rolling through the spine. Lengthening both legs in opposition, and you can start to bicycle the movement and even caress the floor. Bringing the legs in for double leg stretches and see if you can hover over the floor. Just three of these.

Deepening through the powerhouse. So you really challenge the front of the trunk. Going into your scissors. With the feet long, then you can work with flexed feet to work into the hamstrings and challenge the muscles differently into your lower lift. And up.

Lower, lift. And up. Lower lift. Keep the chest lifting up. Bring the legs to tabletop just for a minute.

And a few pulses on one side to work into the obliques. Pulses to the other side. And then go into crisscross. Making sure that from the waist down you're nice and stable. Give yourself a hug.

Roll down. Make sure you're still on your bed. If you've rolled off. Rolling up Spine Stretch Forward and articulating down. Now right here for extra stretch, take a breath in, and as you breathe out see how low you can get your head.

And articulate back up. Lift out of the waist. First of all lifting through the spine, through the waist, and then going for that deeper stretch. Exhaling to really squeeze the lungs empty. One more time.

Rolling out. Inhaling. Exhaling. Squeezing the lungs and challenging the range of movement. Going up.

Very lovely transition is going straight up for rolling open legged rocker. Making sure you're in control of the movement. That's what's so nice. It's fast, catches your weaknesses. Two more with the legs together, holding the toes for extra challenge.

Extra challenge is really sandwiching the legs together. And here we go basic corkscrew once. I like to warm up for this one. Then lifting the hips, rolling down. So you're really warming up the whole more active part of the powerhouse.

And they're lifting full up all the way around. Lifting up. And rolling all the way around. And up and then rolling down slowly, through the spine, all the way to the mat. Rolling up for saw.

Taking a deep breath in and twisting to one side to get a lovely stretch. Lifting up other side. And up, twisting with your elbows bent to get more of the twist and compression in the front body. And then twist, compress, then twist and stretch. And up, twist, compress, extend and stretch a little bit further.

Legs together rolling down onto your back and shifting onto the stomach. First of all, coming up for a neck pull. So really working the shoulders down with the neck long. Taking the head way over to the right, seeing if you can see your feet with your eyes. Rolling down, looking to get full range of movement in the neck.

We often don't stretch our neck enough. Rolling down and back. And then rolling down to the floor. Rolling up again, we can come up higher for this one. And taking ear to elbow-- I'm sorry what am I saying?

Ear to shoulder to stretch out. Now I'm stretching the right side of my neck, making sure my shoulders are staying down. Rolling through ear to shoulder. Opening up the side of the neck, lifting up so the neck is long. Reversing it.

And lowering down. And now coming all the way up for swan dive. There is a lot of variations. But just going for the advanced one right now. Down come up onto the elbows and making fists with the hands, knuckles together, feet together.

Really lifting out of the lower powerhouse and going for the full single leg kicks. You can add the variations, flex point-- I should say point flex. Point flex. And then lengthening all the way down. Hands behind the back.

Double leg kicks. And lifting. Other side. First side. Going a little bit higher.

Holding. Other side, and holding. And one more time, this time with the legs in the air. So the whole back body is being challenged. Legs in the air.

And deepening back to open up the back body. And rolling back onto your back for neck pull. So hands up behind the head, elbows are nice and wide, feet are hip width apart. Lifting up. Rolling through the spine.

Lifting up tall first time, and diving up and over the powerhouse to open up the back body, stretch the neck. Lift the spine up, really make sure the neck is long as though you're holding the head up out of the shoulders. Lengthening out one long piece. And rolling down. Again breath in, and breathing out, rolling up, and diving right in.

Sitting up nice and tall, long through the neck, long through the spine. Long through the stomach as far as you can go without articulation. And then rolling through to finish. One more time. Rolling up.

Rolling over. Sitting up nice and tall, bringing the legs together. Taking the arms out to the side, for spine twists. Twisting to the right. Twisting to the left.

Going to the right again. Now this hand should be over the center of both feet. Can you get the other arm in opposition? Separate the shoulder blades for that extra twist. Other side.

Lifting the spine, the shoulders are broad. And see if you can get that 180 degrees. And checking that the feet are not moving as you do this. Rolling down and bending the feet up for bridge. Rolling up.

And rolling down. Articulating through the spine. This is almost like a spinal massage, when you know what you're doing. Bringing the feet together to challenge the position a little bit more. Get the hips way up, extending the leg out, swing it up.

And now this time, try to get it to the floor. Lifting it up, so the hips stay high as the leg goes down. And the hips are quiet. Bring the legs together. Lift the hips again to reaffirm the position.

And down. Whoops, I forgot I'm going all the way to the floor, which works deeper into the buttocks and the pelvis. Very good. Lifting way up with the hips, broad with the shoulders, long with the spine. And rolling down, rolling down, rolling down to flat.

Next one has gone into misuse I should say. I don't see it used very often. But it's a wonderful variation that was included in the old times in the classical method. Which is doing the scissors and the bicycle, in the air. So from the hips are nicely supported and you work the back leg rather than the front leg.

So if you notice, I'm actually letting my hips go back a little bit. And then working the bicycle and attempting to get the hips I should say, to reach out so the foot touches the floor. And then extending in the opposite direction so huge opening into the hip flexors. And really a step up from what you do on the spine corrector. Rolling all the way down onto the mat.

Lengthening the legs all the way down. And taking a deep breath in and out. All right. Next one is jackknife. So the shoulders are broad, hands are down.

Roll the hips up in the air. Lifting the legs and rolling the hips down. Lengthening the legs out. So it's really like this jackknife position. Opening the blade up, and closing the blade down.

Again it's one that's using the powerhouse, using the already developed spinal column quite effectively. Rolling now onto the right side for the side leg kicks. Legs are forward. And forward and back. Working a nice swing of the leg.

And then going right into bicycle to expand the articulation. Whoops I have a wall behind me so I can't go too far back. But you do the best you can and you keep on going. Even if there's a bed behind you. If you happen to be on the floor doing this in a hotel room.

So reversing it three times. And now a lovely little stretch. Grabbing the foot behind you making sure the spine is long. First, pulling the foot to the buttock, and then extending it behind you. Lengthening the stomach, bringing the leg in front, stretching it way out and then working into splits.

Bending forward, bending back. Romana used to love to give this to us. And moving to the other side for the same variations. So the legs are forward. Forward and back, forward and back.

Keeping the hips quiet but allowing the leg to really move. Going right to the bicycle. Extending. Extending one more time. And reversing it.

So remembering that all of this routine is really a fast paced slow rep variation to get the body moving, get the energy high, do a little bit of everything. A little bit of strength. A little bit of control. A little bit of stretch. And a lot of fun.

And sense of being alive. If you can't get into splits, you come up on your knee and go as best you can. Wherever you can go. Forward and back. And back on to the first side for your side kicks.

Again three times. And then the developpes, reversing them three times. Again working as high up as you can towards your knee. And one more time. And then the little circles.

And the bigger circles. No I'm doing both directions. And now the big circles. I don't even know what I'm doing because I'm focusing so much on my body. Very good.

Reversing it. Reversing it. And then lifting the legs up. And little scissors. And big scissors.

Lowering down into little beats. Perry I'm going to adjust the mic right here. So I think I'm still off. Perry tell me what this is like. That's better.

Definitely. Yeah? OK. So I just move the mic to the side. So here we go.

So little beats lying on the stomach. Lifting the legs up. Beating the legs. Big beadt. Bending the knees and little beads in this position.

And lifting and lowering the legs. Extending out and going to the other side. So repeating on other side. Five kicks. And developpes three times.

And little circles. And reversing them. And then big circles. Making sure to feel that the leg is really reaching out of the socket. At the same time the trunk is being held nice and steady.

This is more for sense of freedom with the assumption. And then lifting the legs up. And I think I did this on the last side and little scissors. And bigger scissors. Very good.

Lowering down. And rolling onto the back for the one exercise you can never miss out on, which is a teaser. Lengthening up, keeping arms way back, seeing if you can hover off the floor on the way up again. Lengthening out one more time. And then lowering, lifting the front legs.

And lowering the trunk down and up. And grabbing again, getting nice and close, lifting up holding the position. And then taking the hands behind. Lowering on to the elbows. Deepening in to the powerhouse for hip circles.

So circling around. And circling around again. Deepening every time into the powerhouse. One more time. One more time.

And bending the knees in to the chest, coming up for can-can. And again not used very often. Used to be a really fun thing we would play with in the good old days. And the idea was to open up the waist and really flick the dress above your ears. Flick the dress.

Now this works the obliques and opens up the waist in a beautiful way. Lengthening out. Rolling down. And now I'm coming on to the stomach for swimming. Rolling onto the stomach and stretching your arms out.

Lift the arms and legs up in air and really swim. See if you can get the legs going and the arms going. So you're working quite extensively. Relax down. Put your hands under your shoulders, curl the toes under you.

Lock into the powerhouse and see if you can push right up into balance control front. So press your heels back. Roll all the way forward, all the way back. And really hold the hips and the powerhouse. Transition to the back.

Bend the knee. Bring the right hand to the left, with the palm out. And balance control back. Broaden the shoulders. Kick the leg up.

Kick the leg up. You can add point and flex. Point and flex. Point and flex. One more time keeping the hips very high.

Lowering the hips down. And coming right into mermaid. Stretching one way, opening in the opposite direction. Making sure every time you're lengthening through the spine, through the side body. Other side.

And again. Love this one, I have to say. When you just get into the feeling and the flow of this. Coming up on to the knees for side kicks to the side. So the hip comes forward, the elbow is high.

Lifting the leg three times. Lifting in little circles. Reversing it. Knees are together, lifting way up. Other side.

Going out, and again three times. And making sure the hips are pressed forward. So the spine is long and the hip flexors are open. Very good. Coming back down to a kneeling position.

And now coming into boomerang. So the legs extend out, hands at either side, big scoop through the navel. And lift the hips up. Open, close. Up to balance.

Stretch, over, and down. Again. Lifting up, open, close. Reaching up out of the lower back. A lot of control on the way down, trying not to fall.

And again. Lifting, open, close. Up, long stretch in the arms. And last one of this variation. Open, close.

Lifting way up. Long with the arms. All the way over. And coming up into crab. Again, not one that's often done anymore.

Used to love it. On the knees put the crown of the head on the mat. You have to really lift up in the powerhouse, and broaden the shoulders. And gently rock forward slightly, to feel a gentle stretch between the shoulder blades and back of the neck. And open and close.

So three times rocking forward and back. I've heard that this was a full somersault in the olden, golden days. But I've never actually seen it done as a somersault. Coming up into seal to integrate. Make sure the knees are slightly in, elbows are out.

So you have a connection with the inner thighs. Clap, clap, clap. Coming up. Going back. One more time.

And back. Coming up to sitting, you can come up to standing if you are on the floor. And this was it. Fabulous work out, fast paced, you get to do almost everything. And it's well worth including if you already know what you're doing and you just need to keep the work as part of your life, or you want to teach your group something fun, fast, and energetic.

Thank you.