Pilates Play

Let's challenge the unlevel playing field of life and bring some gratitude to our practice, so that we can move and play and express ourselves. Taking our Pilates but maybe not ourselves too seriously. So, let's take a step to the front of the mat. Okay, bring our arms forward. Cross our legs behind us.

And here's our first challenge. Let's see if we can sit down onto the mat with control, abs in and up, and lower gently down onto our seat. Now, can we come back up to stand in the same way? So, reach and step and stand up tall. Let's go down again.

See if we can do that a couple more times. Lower into the mat. Abs deep, scoop and lift, and push up standing tall, we survived. All right, fold the arms this time. Keep the legs crossed behind, and then lower gently down onto our seat, and lower onto our backs, ready to begin.

So, we'll begin with the 100, but this one we're gonna enjoy, so we're gonna call it the fundred. So, bring your chin to chest, nose to navel, and then bring our legs up to the ceiling. Let's begin pumping our arms strong. Inhaling five, exhaling. Now let's begin to scissor the legs.

That's what the fundred is about, we're just gonna have some fun with this. Just enjoy the ride. Reaching the legs away. Scooping the abs. Pumping the arms strong from the back body.

Now, bring the legs out in front. Keep the arms pumping. And this is like patting the head and rubbing the belly at the same time. Can you do heel beats whilst you pump the arms? It's multitasking for me.

It's a challenge. Last set. Now, bend the knees in. Lower the legs down. Stretch the legs long.

Arms to the ceiling for the roll up. Taking inhale (inhales deeply) Exhale. Round over, stretch beyond the toes, and scoop the abs as we lower back. Inhaling (inhaling and exhaling deeply) Scoop, reach, look to the knees, scooping the abs back as we returned to the mat. And roll, and reach, and stretch, and scoop.

Bring the breath into the body. Enjoy what the body can do. Last one. Abs deep, roll back, inhale, exhale, rounding over, reach beyond the toes and lower vertebra by vertebra, all the way to the mat. Arms come down by the side.

Full leg circles. Now, bring one leg up to sky. Flex the other foot. Take the hands behind the back of the thigh. Give that a stretch.

So one of the greatest things about pilating is taking our movement to full range of movement. So, I know that Joe Pilates was very keen on this. So let's see how far we can go while still staying safe and connected. So take your toe over towards your opposite shoulder, and allow your hips to lift. How far can you go while staying in control?

That's about me. Let's bring it back through the center. Let's go to the other side. How far to the side can I go before my opposite hip wants to lift, right? About there.

Bring that back to center. Now, that's gonna be our range of movement for our leg circles. Yeah, I want us to go big, but I want us to stay centered and safe. So here we go. Across, down, around, and up.

Big circles. Be brave, adventure, see how far you can move. Play with it. Two more. Last one.

Reverse and scoop. Let that hip lift, but keep the control. Two more. Last one. And change the legs.

Bring the other leg up. Let's give that leg a pull. And once again, take your toe over to the opposite shoulder. Let the hip lift. Reaching out through both the head and the foot.

That's about me with my control. I'm gonna take it and challenge myself to the other side. Don't let this hip lift. We've gotta keep that anchored down. There's our leg circles.

That's the range we're looking for. And we go across, down, around, and up. Let the hip lift. It's like the original leg circles. Reverse, keep that range of movement.

Keep the shoulders pinned to the mat, but don't let them lift. You wanna stay safe and controlled. Last one. Lower the leg. Roll up to sit.

Ready for roll like a ball. So, let's have some fun with roll like a ball. It's an exercise that's very playful in itself. So, hug the legs in, and we're gonna take our roll like a ball on a journey. I'm gonna take it around the world.

So pick the feet up, hug it in tight, scoop deep. We'll do one just straight down the center. Now, let's start to turn. Can you roll all the way around the world? Let's go through.

Don't fall off your mat now. Stay balanced. Stay connected. Scooping deep. One more takes me halfway, and back in the same direction.

Here we go. Keep your ball rolling all the way round the world. A ball rolling journey. Stay connected to the powerhouse. One more down the middle.

And that brings us back to where we started, ready for the ab series. How can the ab series be fun and playful, you know? We might ask ourselves. Well, we've gotta smile through the hardship in life as well. So, let's stay positive, keep a smile on our face.

And remember, that's a much more advanced practice when you smile. If you can laugh, you're working your abs even harder. So, here we go. Lower onto your back. Just keep it strong, keep it connected.

Have some fun, hug and reach, hug and reach. Here we go. Happy ab series. A nice internal warmth, glowing, reaching, hugging. Stay strong, stay connected to your powerhouse.

That keeps that play and that fun safe. One more on each side. Okay, double leg stretch. So for this one, let's reach and open everything up. Reach back, stretch, scoop and hug it in.

And again, inhale out, sweep and hug and reach. Sweep and hug. Two more. And out, and hug. Good work, ready for scissors.

Legs up to the ceiling. Hold the ankle, stretch the other leg away, and pull, pull. Strong switch, dynamic work. Deep abs, legs reaching long. Keep smiling.

Last one. Legs together, ready for our lower lifts. Hands behind the back of the head. It doesn't have to be big range of movement to make this work. So bring your shoulders off the mat, lower, lower, lower and lift.

And again, scoop to lift. Two more. Last one. And then big smiles for criss-cross. Everyone's favorite, I'm sure.

Here we go. Reach and reach. We're almost there. And reach. One more each side, and then come up to sit ready for spine stretch forward.

(sighing) Okay, bring your hands down on the mat in front of you. Bring the breath in and the breath out. So this is breathing the good, and just exhale any of the stress or tension that we might carry in life. Inhale (inhaling) and exhale it out. Inhale, stack tall.

(inhaling deeply) Exhale, up and over. (exhaling deeply) (inhaling deeply) Breathe it in. Breathe it out. (exhaling deeply) One more time. (inhaling deeply) And up and over.

(exhaling deeply) And then stack tall. Okay, ready for some open leg rocker. And let's have some fun with this. So, we did talk about that unlevel playing field of life, well, let's bring it to the mat. All right, so bring the feet together.

Bring the seat forward. Take hold of your ankles. Now, we may want to do this as a balanced, straightening the legs, challenging on each side, but how about let's take one leg out, and see if we can keep our open leg rocker rolling with one leg. Here we go. Roll back and return.

Change legs. Scoop the abs. Roll back. Can you stay centered on your mat even though one leg is bent and it's throwing us off balance? It's gonna challenge us, but hopefully challenge you with a smile on your face.

Now, let's see if there's any user with both the legs now. Bring both legs up for the last two. Scoop around and return and lift and scoop and return and lift all. Well done, bring the legs together and lower onto your back for corkscrew. So let's get playful with this.

Full range of movement again. So take the legs as wide as you wish. You can lift the hips if you need to, but stay connected. So we start the first one strong and safe, to the right, down, around and center, left and center. Now let's bring the hip lift in.

Center and lift, resist, resist, resist, to the left, down, around, center. Lift, resist on the way down. Let's do one more in each direction. Whoop! Now push the feet away as we lower down. Last one.

Up and resist all the way down, all the way down. Come up to sit for the saw. Okay, so sit tall, arms wide. We have some fun with a saw as well. And I had a little star into that, it take us back to our childhood gymnastics stage.

Inhale tall, exhale, reach across, saw off your pinky. Now take the hand behind you. Continue and lift the hips up, big stretch. Let's bring the arms saw off the pinky on the opposite side. Take your hand behind you, continue, reach and stretch, opening the hips.

And again, around to the other side. Breathe all the air out the lungs and then inhale. (inhaling deeply) Bring the air in the lungs. No more celebration of life, and breathe in, reach. Inhale it in.

(inhaling deeply) One more each way. Reach, saw and then inhale. Lift and stretch. Last side, saw the pinky off and lift the hips. Breathe it in, and bring and seat back to the mat.

We're ready for Swan now. Okay, so bend the knees, lift ourselves up and over and onto our tummies. Press the heels together, and let's get playful with the Swan. You can just little lengthen to start with, push the nose to the top of the mat, lift the head, chest, shoulders, lengthen up. Exhale, and lengthen even longer down.

Now continue like this, or if you wish, let's rock our Swan a couple of times, rock and catch. So push the nose to the top, lengthen up, push a little through the palms and rock and catch. And let's repeat that again, and catch. And then take your seat back to your heels for rest position. So scoop those abs deep away from the thighs.

Curl your toes under and let's take ourselves over onto our backs for shoulder bridge. Lower down into the mat. Take your feet, just sit bone distance apart, lift those sit bones to the backs of the knees. Now inhale and take your arms up overhead, reach up and stretch. (inhaling deeply) Leave them there, as we lower down through the spine, see if you can introduce the vertebra all the way to the but and then bring the arms back down by the size.

Let's take the hips up again. Push the hips forwards upwards, arms come all the way up overhead. (inhaling deeply) Bring that breath into the body and then exhale, exhale, all the way down to the mat. All right, arms by your side. Last shoulder bridge.

Lift those hips up. Bring your arms up to the sky this time, and push your hips up five times. Here we go. One, two, three, four, five. Arms come down, lower slowly and controlled all the way back to the mat, each vertebrae gets its moment, and then let's turn onto our side for sidelines series.

All right, side kick series, lengthened and long, staying connected, happy smiles as we do so, all right? And it's a challenge, it is a challenge. So reach that like forward and back. Here we go. Kick, kick, back, back.

Kick strong, reach long, lengthening the body, staying connected through the powerhouse. Two more. Last one. We're going up and down. So bring that heel onto the instep.

Let's lift it up, reach it out. Lift it up, reach away. Lengthening your body away. Two more. Last one.

Now, for leg circles, well, circle those legs but start to whine that circle up higher and higher and higher and higher. That's it at the top. Let's reverse and come down, reaching the leg away, move from the hip, not the knee, all the way down. Inner a thigh lifts and circles. Bring that top foot to the front and stretch the other leg long behind you.

Here we got flex that foot, and we lift and lower. Upper inner thigh working strong, body reaching long. Reach out through the heel, reach out through the head. Two more. Last one.

Big circles around, and reverse and back the other way. Get that back body working. Body reaching long. How long can you make your body right now? Two more.

All right, bring the legs in front and let's change sides. Rest the head on the hands. Bring the feet to that front corner of the mat. Same again, lengthen up position, stretching the legs away for leg kick front and back. Here we go.

Kick, kick, back, back. Kick strong, reach long. And again, back, back. Two more. Last one.

Up and down. Lift and reach away, and up, and stretch long, and up, and reach. Two more. Last one. Small circles around, wind those circles up.

Let's start going up with the leg from the hip as best you can. Let's work and reverse. Come back down the other side, all the way in ready for inner thigh lifts and circles. Place the foot in front of the thigh. Other leg reaches long.

Reach out through the heel. Here we go. We lift and lower. Reach that heel away, reach your head away. Keep those abs scoop and deep.

Two more. And up. And then let's make big circles here, up and over, up and over. Three months. Last one.

And then reverse. Keep that upper inner thigh working strong. Three more. Last one. Onto our back for some teaser fun.

So let's come up to sit. So bring to our teaser now. So let's have some fun with the teaser as well. There's no reason the teaser can't be playful. So bend one knee in and stretch that leg out as though we're doing a one legged teaser, lower yourself to the mat, inhale, exhale, come on up, change legs, lowering back.

Reach for the knees. Reach for the toes. Let's changed legs again. Lowering back, and return. Change legs.

Now at the top here, let's change those legs. Hold the ankle this time, lift the other leg off the floor, and let's see if we can roll in our teaser position. So scoop the abs, lift the leg, and let's rock back, and to the top Change legs. Rock back. This time, see if you can stop the leg from touching the mat, there we go.

Change at the top, and again rock and return. Change legs. Last one. And return. Let's lower both those legs down for full teaser now.

Onto our backs, we're ready, we're prepared. We're having a good time. Even if not, just smile through it. Here we go. Reach for the knees.

Reach for the toes. Reach for the sky. Lower to the mat. And again, reach for the knees, reach for the toes. Lift all, lower everything to the mat.

And let's roll over onto our tummies ready for our swimming. Reach your arms and legs long. Scoop the abs in and up. Take a moment to find even more length, a big smile as we lift, and let's breathe and swim, and swim, and work. Keep lifting, a little faster, and hold, and lower everything down to the mat.

Ready for our leg pool front. So bring the hands under the chest, curl the toes under, press your heels together. So we're finding that length out from the center in one whole unit, pushing up into our plank position. Here we are. So rock back through the heels, and then turn to our side and lift up into a side plank, back through to the center, rock back once.

And to the other side, lift the arm up, stretch up, back to the center for our last leg pool. Rock and back, and back through, there we go. Now, lower onto your side. Let's do the snake, and I'll really want us to breathe with this. So the best way to breathe and have fun with the snake is the hiss.

So place one hand out as though we're doing side bend, the other hand comes a little shorter, bring your hips up to the sky, and you can adjust your position if it feels uncomfortable, scoop those abs, bring the hips forward, let the head lift. And here's where we hiss (hissing) out. Scoop the abs in. And again, rounding over. Hiss (hisses) as we reach out.

Hips come back up. And lower again to our side. Let's do the same on the other side. So same position. Bring one hand to shorten than the other hand, and push our hips up to the sky.

Scoop those abs deep. Bring the body forward. Hiss as we unfold, hiss (hissing) Inhale. (inhaling deeply) Bring it back. Scoop the abs as we go forward, hissing.

It's almost like Swan, but on our arms, drawing the shoulders back, then scoop the abs, rounding up, lowering again onto our seat. With controls, swing your feet to the front of the mat and let's bring our seat towards our feet for the seal. Let's take our hands through and take hold of our ankles, and draw the feet in with the powerhouse. How can this exercise not be fun and playful? All right, here we go.

Clap the feet together three times, one, two, three. Scoop and round as we roll back. Clap (claps) and return press the elbows into the thighs, and thighs back into the elbows as we roll (claps) and clap, and again. (clapping) Last one now, and let's take this all the way back up to standing. So three claps (claps) roll back, three claps here.

See if you can balance. How long can we balance here? Just on our shoulders. (clapping) And then returning to stand tall. (inhaling deeply) Up, reach and twist, ready for the pushup.

So take a stand at the top of the mat, arms up like this, rounding down, reaching our hands, flat to the floor. Now pull the navel in, you bend your knees if you need to, to get those hands flat, and walking out, one, two, three. Three pushups. Here we go, elbows in. One (exhaling) two (exhaling) and three.

I know I said it will be fun, but hey, sometimes we can celebrate the challenge as well. Walk the hands back, roll up to stand, standing tall at the top, bring the arms down by the sides. Let's set the hands to the hips, and step out with our left foot. Reach out as wide as we can get, we want a nice long lunge, square the hips up on the back foot, and ankle, and reaching out and down through the back blade of the foot. Take our hands behind the back of our head.

So we're really opening our heart here, breathing in (inhales deeply) and bending, straighten the front knee, and straighten. And again, looking straight ahead, keeping the upper body as tall as we can. Now reach the arms up above the head, bend the knee, take the hands down either side of the foot. From here, straighten in a bend in the front knee, reach and straightened, scooping the abs at the same time and stretch and bend. One more, stretch and bend.

Now lift the back heel and lower the back knee to the mat. Hands on to the top of the knee. Open the heart, forwards upwards, and let's bring both our hands out, look above the fingertips. Keep looking to them as we lift up, up, up to the sky. Pulse in the hip forward three times, bring the hands back down.

Now let's change the feet. So step the back foot to the front foot, and change the feet. Front foot goes to the back. All the way up to stand, and again hands come to the back of the head. Now square the hips, lunging as we bend the front knee, and stand tall, and lunge, and stand.

One more. And lunge. There we go. Lift the arms up (inhales) bend the knee and take the hands to frame the front foot, straightening and bending the front knee. Straighten and bend, and reach and bend.

One more time. Scoop those abs, stretch it out, and bend, and lower the back knee down to the mat. Hands come onto the top of the knee. Push the chest, open the heart. Bring your arms forward.

Lift the arms up. Look into the fingertips, reaching up. Pulse the hip forward three times. And bring the hands down, once again either side of the foot. Let's step the back foot to meet the front foot.

Soften the knees this time. Ragdoll just a little and roll up all the way to stand. Bring ourselves back to the top of our mat, and let's finish how we started. So arms out in front and cross one leg behind the other. Now, we're sitting down and standing up again, and just remember, it's okay to fall.

As long as we just look after ourselves, put our hands down if need be, okay? Here we are, arms out in front, and lower down to sit with control. Now, can we stand back up again after all that work? Here we go. Up, stand tall.

Let's do one more. Reach, arms, head reaching away, lower the seat gently down. One last time. Challenging ourselves to get back up again. Here we go.

All the way up, stand tall. Finish standing. Take a deep breath (inhaling deeply) and exhale it out. Roll your shoulders back and down, stand tall, we've had some fun, great work everybody.