High Scissors

This is the Scissors. This is a good exercise for developing shoulder strength, as well as hip strength and flexibility. It's a challenging exercise that comes later in the repertoire. So before attempting the exercise, make sure you're ready. So bend your knees Kristi, and lift your feet.

Kristi is going to roll herself over, and bend her knees. Bring your hands to your back. She brings her hands to her back and she let's her pelvis drop over the top of her hands. It's important that the elbows are just in front of the shoulders and just underneath the pelvis to help support the weight of the pelvis. From there, take the legs straight up towards the ceiling.

Take one leg toward your face and one leg toward the mat. There's a double pulse there-- pulse, pulse-- and inhale as the legs pass. So it's exhale, exhale, and inhale center. Exhale, exhale. So that you're working the strength primarily of the bottom leg.

It's important not to bring the top leg too close to the body. So Kristi will show you what that looks like. That will hinder you from getting the bottom leg into the position that you want. So allow the top leg to stay slightly further away from the body and let the bottom leg do most of the work here. To come out of the exercise come the way that you got into it, by bringing the legs over the body.

Releasing the hands from the back and using your stomach muscles to bring your back back down onto the mat. Bending your knees and placing your feet down on the floor. The Scissors.