Full-Body Strengthening

I'm Karen Sanzo. Glad to be here at parties. Any time. This a mat class, it's intermediate, advanced, and one thing I want you to notice is that there will not be an abdominal series and there will not be a teaser, but we're still going to call it an advanced math class. We'll give it a try. Let's start it. Our hands and knees and Quadro pet. Take an inhale. As you exhale, press the shins down, pull your belly in. Do not move your spine. Recognize your spine in the most neutral position you can be in. Inhale again.

Exhale, lift the belly deeply. Contract the pelvic floor up and in to support your spine and start to curl your lowest spine to stretch your lowest back underneath you. Now stay here for just a second. Inhale. As you exhale, pull both of your hands towards your knees and pull both of your knees towards your hands. Nothing is really moving, but you're just creating the force of your hands towards your knees and your knees towards your hands. And you'll feel that kind of close off your core in the front of your body. And then relax everything and let your body come back out to neutral.

One more inhale, and one more. Exhale. Again, firm up the arms. Pull your hands towards your feet. Pull your feet or your knees towards your hands. Scoop the belly in and pause right there. Now take your feet, curl your toes up underneath you.

And I want you to picture that you're doing knee stretches on the reformer in the rounded position. Take an inhale again, and as you exhale, press onto your hands. Lift your knees an inch off the ground. Hold, hold, hold for five more seconds. Hold for four, three, two, one. And drop your knees down. Bring your pelvis to neutral. Inhale again. Exhale, belly curls in, pelvic floor lifts up. See if you can curl any bit more. Pull your belly any bit deeper to float your knees up off the ground.

And we do it again. Look right between your hands so that your head does not migrate forward. Curl your tailbone under you more. Lift your buttocks a little bit higher and then slowly lower yourself down. Bring yourself back to level. One more time. Inhale, exhale deeply.

Curl the belly and you're staying up a little bit longer to lift the belly, to lift the buttocks hold and a hundred feet breath. Go. Inhale to four, five. Exhale, scoop the belly. Three, four, five. Inhale, push your arms down. Exhale, pull your belly in. Two more sets. Inhale, exhale. One more time. Inhale, two, three, four, five and exhale. Two, three, four, five. Lower the knees. Rest your shins. Sit your bottom down just for a second.

Lengthen out your chest. Look in front of your hands. Don't lift your head too high, but let the chest come through your arms as you lengthen the chest any bit more, and then bring yourself all the way back to quadruple pet. Bring your knees underneath you. Unroll your spine up. Bring yourself up to high kneeling. Take one hand on your abdomen, the other hand behind your back, and recognize where you are over your knees so that your front ribs kind of come back to meet your back ribs. You don't always have to correct everything with a tuck of the bottom.

Sometimes you have to correct your arch to back, if you will, by letting your ribbed packaging go back a little bit so that it's not that you always have to tighten everything up. Sometimes it's just an awareness kind of back over your body a little bit. So recognize this as a high vertical in your knees. Arms come out in front. Take an inhale as you exhale. Arms come down by your side. Inhale, arms up, and then exhale, arms down. One more time, arms up. One more time, arms come down. Take your right leg, take it up in the air.

You're now at a 90 degree angle in your right foot. I need you to recognize in your left leg that it's not hyper arched forward. Bring yourself back to vertical. Left arm comes up in the air side. Bend your body to the right. Inhale, lengthen up. Exhale, side bend. Again, pull the belly deeply.

Try not to lunge forward in that thigh and bring yourself up. Press down into your left Shin. As you grow tall and side bend any bit more and bring yourself all the way up. Now take your arms out in front of you. Curl the toes under of that back leg. Take an inhale as you exhale.

Float that left knee up off the ground and count to five, four, three, two, one and lower yourself down. Switch the legs, left leg comes up right, shin presses down. Recognize vertical in that right knee, right arm comes all the way on up side. Bend your body to the left. Feel this stretch all the way in front of your right thigh, down the side of your right thigh, and then bring yourself all the way up. One more time. Side bend over to the left and then bring yourself all the way back up.

Arms come down, arms reach out in front. Curl the toes under of that right leg. Take an inhale. As you exhale, hover that knee up. Pull your belly in. Hold for five, hold for four. Hold for three, two, one, lower yourself down and two legs. Come back down. Now take your hand on your lower abdomen, lower hand on your back, curl your pelvis underneath you and sit yourself slowly back on your heels. But stay vertical in your trunk. So go ahead and sit down, but keep that. It's reaching underneath you. Take your arms out in front.

When you kneel back up, I want you to lead as if your tailbone is pulling underneath you. Load the thighs. Can you feel the load in the thighs? One more time, curl the tailbone, but not your trunk and sit yourself down. You should feel thighs, thighs, thighs, thighs, thighs. You should feel your thighs isn't true. You feel your thighs. And then bring yourself all the way back up. Arms down by the side, by stretching with your arms down by your side like you're a tall soldier.

Thigh stretch, back return. Inhale, press the shins. Belly pulls in, pelvic floor support your core. Exhale, bring yourself back last time, thigh, stretch back. Bring yourself forward. Now do Kat for me. Just the flection part. Take your arms behind you. You can look at me one time.

I'm going to demonstrate just a little bit and then now round four, reach your arms behind you. Now Lean your body weight forward till you feel like you can't stand it anymore. And then curl your tailbone underneath. You. Return yourself to vertical. The arms come out in front thigh. Stretch back. Inhale. Exhale. Return arms come down, curl, tailbone.

Sit yourself back down and then pull yourself all the way back up. Kat flection. Arms reach back, curl, tailbone, unwind, spine returned to vertical. Arms come out in front. Very traditional thigh. Stretch back, hold, hold, hold. Return Yourself. Arms come down. Keep that tailbone curl. Return your buttocks all the way down the other.

Work in the thighs last time. Bring yourself low yourself up. Feel the thighs working. Arms come back, head nod, spine stretch forward, or the flection phase of cat. Pause. Take an inhale here. Exhale, tailbone curls. Try to bring your thighs to vertical as you unroll your spine all the way back up. Arms come out in front thigh. Stretch back. Last one. Make it be a good one.

And then return yourself. And the arms come back down. Bring Yourself Back Down The quadro pad, getting ready for some planks. Take the left leg out behind you from up the thigh. Take the right leg out to match it. Now your playing is going to be held here a little bit longer than you think is possible. A little bit longer.

Pull your hands towards each other. Pull your hands towards your feet. If you just give yourself something to do every so often it'll take your mind off of the fact that you're in plank. And then lower the knees down and pause. Sit your bottom back. Do not move your hands. Sit your bottom back. Let your toes rest down. Inhale, big exhale. Bring yourself all the way back out to play.

Curl two toes under simultaneously. Push yourself all the way up to plank. Now Walk your feet as wide apart as your mat. Hold right there. Take your right leg lifted up in the air an inch. Hold. Straighten that right leg, straighten it, and then bring it down. Take the left leg out. No heads dropping, no saggy Ho and then down.

One more time. Right leg out. Squeeze the left buttocks while you hold the right leg out there. Lower it down. One more time. Left leg out hold and then bring that leg down to knees. Come down, they come together. Sit your body all the way back down.

Bring yourself back again. Plank to a side plank on your right arm, and then we'll return to plank and then come back to the left arm. Two toes curl. Shoot yourself right out to plank and go whole. Now listen carefully. Take your right hand, move it in to it's right underneath your shoulder. Just fold yourself. I mean roll yourself to your side so both feet. Stay on the mat.

Take your left arm up in the air. Squeeze your bottom thigh up into your top thigh. Good. Hold right there. Hold five whole four squeeze arms, three, two, one. Roll to the balls of your feet. Recognize plank first. Arms regular distance. Now take your left arm, put it in the middle, roll over to the other side of your feet. Take your right arm up in the air.

Hold. Press your bottom thigh up into your top thigh. Hold. Bring yourself back down to plank. Recognize plank and hold. We're not coming down. Take your right arm to the middle. Roll yourself to the other side again. This time, stack your feet on top of each other. Recognize this. Hold five, hold four, three, two, one. Back to plank.

You go hold the plank. Lift in the belly button. Lift up the pelvic floor, left hand in the middle, two feet stack right arm comes out. Hold it up in the air. Recognize that linemen, and then bring yourself back down. Regular plank. Two knees down. Sit your bottom back and pause yourself right there. Big Inhale. Exhale. Return yourself to quadriplegic.

So once we understand that side plank, now we can sit on your right and prepare for the very traditional exercise called side bend. Oh, you can face that way. That's fine. So your arms right underneath your shoulders, your legs are out long. Let's take your left leg and put it in front of the bottom one and then just bring yourself up to that side plank. Again. Push yourself right up there. Now take your left arm and plaster it down by your side.

And two legs are stacked. Now drop your right butt down. Turn your head and look at your left foot. Recognize this is side bending to the left. Press into your right arm. Bring yourself up. Take that arm over your head. Turn and look at your hand. Recognize this is side bending to the right.

Take your arm, plaster it down by your side again, and do it one more time. Dip Down, look to your foot. Press come up, side bend. Look at the right arm, and then bend your knee in and lower yourself down. Very nice. We'll switch sides. Left arm. Don't get to do that one a whole lot. So now you're on your left arm. If you just stay here for a second and stretch out your left leg, can you recognize that? That's a big side. Bend to the right.

Can you almost feel the stretch on the left side of your body? Following a nice stretch, you can get a good activation. So press that left foot down. Press into that top leg and push yourself up. Right arm down by your side. Plaster the feet.

Look towards your right ankle. Dip Down, hold, press up, paint the ceiling with your right arm and side. Bend your ribs to the ceiling like a rainbow, and then breathing yourself out. And then dip down last time. Look towards your right foot and then bring yourself up. Look towards your left arm, and then bend your knees in and have a seat. Very good plank to side plank. Everything in between.

Pushups onto your hands and knees again. This time take your knees further away, squeeze your thighs and lift your feet up. So without worrying about doing a full plank pushups, let's focus on the position of the arms. Bend the elbows. Hold, hold, hold. Push the floor away. Don't change your shoulder blades. Come back up five times in a row. Inhale, bend, squeeze, thighs. Exhale. Push yourself back up.

Inhale, Ben, crown of the head stays long. Push yourself back up two more times. Elbow. Shave the sides of your ribs. Push yourself back up. Last time down. Last time up. Sit yourself back on your heels and pause right there.

Feel this lengthening through your arm pit right here. Can you read your fingers any bit longer? Bring your head up a little bit so your ears are right in line with your arms. Can you feel it help to extend your chest now lie yourself out on your belly and prepare now for Swan. Take your arms underneath your armpit. Squeeze your heels together to engage the thighs.

The first couple of swans are pressing your arms and lifting your chest. Go. Inhale, lift. Exhale. Lower. Inhale, lift as if your chest is going across the room and exhale lower. One more time like this. Thighs engaged. Chest legs, hands out. Hold one. Hold to pull the heart forward. Three, four, five. Lower yourself all the way down. Very good. Prompt your self up on your forearms.

Single leg kick with yourself on your forearms. Let the chest bone reach long. Press your feet actually down, but lift your thighs up. Can you feel how your knees are barely lifted off the mat? Let's take that right leg and kick it several million times towards your buttocks. Just get the firmness. So kick. Just keep doing this. Just keep getting that feeling and trying not to disturb your spine.

Can you kind of feel the action there behind your thigh? Then lower down and let's do the left leg kick. Kick, kick several times. And now lower it down. And now we'll do it dynamically to each leg. Okay, just as we know it. So it's inhale for two. Switch. Exhale for two and kick and kick and switch and switch. And inhale and exhale. Two more sets.

Exhale. Last time left. Last time switch. Lower yourself all the way down. Very good. Let's turn your head to the right. Take your hands behind your back. Let your elbows drop down. Feel it, stretch the back of your shoulder blades. Slide the hands up your back any bit more if you can. And now squeeze the legs together. Inhale. Exhale.

Three kicks towards your bottom. One, two, three. Pull the shoulder blades together. Lengthen your arms down. Posture, buttocks. Shine the chest forward without over arching the neck. Turn your head to the left. Bend your elbows in. Drop them down, and kick, kick, kick. Inhale, reach long stretch chest, bottom of a rocking chair. That's what your body position is right now. Turn your head to the right, slide the hands up and kick and kick, and k. One more time.

Inhale, and then exhale. Turn the other side. Lower your arms all the way down. Lower your legs down. Turn your forehead till it faces the mat. Take your shoulder blades towards your spine, lift your arms all the way up in the air. Now really reach the arms law.

Now lift up the chest and I want you to think with me just for a second that you're in the reversed position of a hundred beats. Can you kind of feel that just a little bit there? Now pump your arms to the ceiling. Go inhale and exhale. Inhale two, three, four, five. Exhale, pump the arms more. Inhale two oh five and exhale. Tighten up the legs. Lift your leg. Just a hair, just a hair. No more.

One more set length into the crown length and through your feet. And then let everything lower yourself all the way down. A couple of breath in and a couple breaths out. Take your hands, harass back onto your shin. Sit yourself back just for a second and then bring yourself up. Rolling like a ball. After we do all that extension, we're ready now to do a little flection first, we're going to balance like a ball, so fold your knees in. Start with the hands on the thighs. Fold the knees in right here. Take a big inhale. As you exhale, pull the belly deeply.

Now can you change your ball shape to be tighter just while you're sitting there and change the ball shape from your hip position and not just by dropping your head balance like a ball. Good. Now Watch your two arms. Reach away. Two legs. Reach away. Exhale, pull into the ball. Inhale, reach. Don't arch the back. Exhale. Pull into the ball. One more time. Inhale, one more time. Exhale, hold. Hundred beat breathing right here. Inhale, exhale. Squeeze out the ball. Inhale, exhale. Squeeze out the ball tighter.

One more time. Inhale, big exhale, squeeze at the ball, and now roll. Inhale back. Exhale forward. Inhale, back. Exhale forward. One more time back, and then one more time forward. Come up. Hole, open leg rocker. So lengthen the legs out. While you're here, stay tight like a ball. It's still a flection exercise. And inhale back. Exhale up. Three times like that. Press your legs into your hand. Inhale back, exhale up. Press the leg, press the legs, go one more time back, and then one more time up. Hold that open like a rocker shape. Close the legs, zip 'em. Reach your arms. Long, big inhale here. Exhale.

Slowly. Roll your spine down and bring your legs to vertical. Arms down by your side. Inhale. Exhale. Roll over the legs. Just roll over your legs. Pause right there. Flex the toes backwards and just roll down. Just gonna roll over and roll down. We're not going to do the open. Close the legs. One more time like that.

Roll Up. Very nice. Arms long arms pressing, and then slowly roll yourself back down. Corkscrew. Circle the legs to the right. Bring them around and down. Circle them over to the left. P. Feel your body up that left side of your body. Pause and then roll back down. That same way. Come over to the left side. Take the legs down, circle them around. Nice job.

Peel yourself up and then roll down that way and then unroll yourself all the way back down. And then one more time each way. One more time each way on your own. Very nice. And then bring yourself down, relaxing the chin and relaxing the neck, engaged through the arms to help support your spine. Very good. And then when you're all the way done with that lower one leg down to the floor, lower the other leg down to the floor. Lift your head, curl your trunk. Roll all the way on up to sitting separate rates your legs apart.

Stack up your spine, spine, stretch, big. Inhale here. Exhale, pull the belly in and round that spine forward. As you run forward, you're going to recognize that you're stretching the whole back part of your spine and then unwind that spine like you're stacking it right up against the wall. Big Inhale again. Exhale, belly poles in spine. Stretching forward as if I were pushing on the crown of your head and your head. We're pushing into my hand. They held that loads up your trunk and then roll yourself all the way up to arms. Come by your ears. They're way up by your ears, palms face forward. Now try to pull yourself forward, but you can't.

You're stuck and you're stuck to that wall behind you. There you go. So Fia, how you try to pull forward, how it gets you right there, and then all of a sudden you can push forward. Push down into my hands here. Maryann, come on forward. Press me down to the floor, pull all the belly and BRS me down. Very good. And then unroll yourself back up. Press up into my hands here. Your arms are staying way high by your ears. Way High by years. Feel that resistance and then do that again. Arms press down as if you're pressing down on somebody. Very good.

And then switch and push the arms up to the ceiling and then unroll your spine all the way up. And pause right there. Hands behind the net. Head neck. Paul, recognize a hinge first. Go hinge back, recognize a hinge, and then sit yourself forward two more times like that. Inhale, hinge back. Exhale, bring yourself forward. One more time. Inhale, hinge, exhale. Curlin roll. Curlin roll. I've got a rolling pin. It's rolling all the way down, all the way down. Lengthen yourself out, lift the head, look at your toes, curl the trunk, engage the belly, roll yourself up, and then round yourself forward looking way underneath yourself. That's the neck pole. And then unwind your spine. Bring yourself all the way back up to level. And two more times. Inhale, hinge, exhale, Kerlin roll. Nice job.

And then lift the head and then curl the trunk. Curl the trunk, that's it. And then round forward, recognize level. So pull yourself all the way back up to vertical as if I were a nice flat. Bring yourself back to vertical. Bring your rib package back a little bit. There you go. Very good. And then hinge yourself back. And then exhale, curl, roll. Lengthen low spine.

Take yourself all the way down and pause right there. Arms by your side. Bend both of your knees, press your feet, lift up into a bridge. Hold yourself in a bridge. Arms are long by your side. Take a big inhale and then as you exhale, just stay there. Now feel your toe pads kind of press down, feel your arches kind of lift up underneath your feet into your shinbones.

Just Kinda, I know that's a weird cue, but just kind of feel how that engages the legs. And then take the time to roll your spine down while your knees stay long. So while the knees are staying long, you're just articulating the spine. One Vertebrae at a time, all the way down, all the way down, all the way down. Very, very good. Last time, press the feet, lift up. Hold the pelvis lifted. And now this time lift up your heels.

So with your heels lifted, imagine that your toes are pulling towards your bum, but don't move 'em. Feel that engagement underneath the thighs. Now take your hands up in the air and just reach into the ceiling. So with your hands reaching to the ceiling, recognize now that the bridge is a little bit harder because your arms aren't helping you. Leave your pelvis that high, but drop your heels back down. There you go. Now you're even more engaged in the legs. And then take that time to roll your trunk. All the way down, pulling the belly in, all the way down, all the way down, all the way down.

Roll yourself back up to sitting. Separate out your legs, arms come out to this side for Saul spinal rotation. So let's twist your trunk to the right. Take an inhale, twist, and then exhale, reach your hand towards that outside foot. So go ahead and look at that thigh on that side. So let's not turn the head just yet. So sit equal weight on both of your bums and now do your little pulsing if you will. So pulse one, equal weight on the bottom, two and three.

Now state twisted and come up out of this flection. And then return yourself back to center. Inhale, twist to the other side, twist, twist, twist, and then go over and get it. So one arm reaches back as far as the other arm is reaching forward. And then bring yourself up and don't lose the twist. And then bring yourself out of the twist. One more time. Each side, lift, reach, reach, work, work, reach, reach. Oh my goodness. Very good.

And then bring yourself up. And then last time, the other side, very nice, very nice reach, and then over you go. And then bring yourself all the way back up. Good. Go ahead and close the legs. Let's bring the knees in a little bit and squeeze your heels together. Let's mimic the kind of like stomach massage position a little bit on the reformer, but you're on your heels. Take an inhale here. Exhale, roll yourself just part way back. Let your head stay with your spine. Hold yourself right there. Big Inhale, big exhale. Curl yourself up.

And again, big inhale. Exhale on. Roll yourself back. Hold this position right here. Turn your palms up like you have something really precious in your hands and give something to people on either side of you, out and in and out and in. Who is not that easy? Is it one more time out, one more time in and sit yourself all the way up. One. Rounding forward, one stacking up, and now roll yourself all the way down to the mat, pulling your belly deeply.

Unroll yourself all the way down. Take your arms by your side. Now pause here for just a second. I want you to take your left leg and try to lift it up in the air, but you can't. It stuck to the ground feel when you start to lift that left leg up, how it kind of engages in your abdomen, and then stop that and then try to do the same thing with your right leg and then lower it one more time. Try to lift the left one, but you can't. And lower it down. Try to lift the right one, but you can't. And lower it down, arms by your side. Now take an inhale and as you exhale, lift your head and curl your trunk. Reach your arms long towards your feet.

Try to pick both your feet up, but you can't. And then all of a sudden you can, and there you are, Allah j p, go inhale and exhale. Reach longer with the legs. Curl your trunk deeper in your belly. Who's counting? How about two more cents? It's not a hundred but that's okay. Last time. Now slowly lower the legs down on roll your trunk and lower yourself all the way down. Very, very nice.

Okay. Go ahead and bend both of your knees. Put your feet as wide apart as the mat. Let's take your right knee and just roll it in towards your left ankle. And as you do so, keep the left knee facing the ceiling and reluctantly lift your right buttocks. It may not lift and it doesn't have to lift, but let the work be in your right knee that's reaching, and then unroll your trunk all the way back, and then take the left knee in towards the right ankle.

But the right knee is staying facing the ceiling. You're reluctantly lifting your left pelvis and then roll yourself all the way back. One more time. Big Inhale. The right knee comes in and then it returns. And then one more time, the left knee rolls in and then it returns to knees. Come together, two feet, come together, take both of your knees off to the left side, and then pull your belly in as the knees return. And then last time, two knees off to the right and there you have it. Thank you for joining me for this class.