Movement Flow Breakdown

Hi, I'm Maria Leone, and my two passions are Pilates and music. I put both of those things together and created a flow we call Music and Movement. You can watch it here on Pilates Anytime. I'm gonna show you a bit of that flow, and then I'm gonna teach it to you. (upbeat music) So we're gonna start seated on your box.

Notice the box is in the extra-short position, that means it's in front of the shoulder rests. Your spring is on a medium setting, but feel free to spring up if you need it. And the foot bar is in our regular footwork position. We're gonna start with a shape you know. Come to the edge of your box and bring yourself into rolling like a ball position.

From here, the legs start moving and extending. They stretch up. One, two, three. On the count of four, head up, hands off. Let's do that again.

Be in your ball shape, slowly extending the legs up. One, two, three, release, four. One more time. This time, I'm gonna do a little different option. Stretching the legs up.

One, two, three, four. From here, the legs go down. One, the hands go to the foot bar, two, you stand up, three, arms up, four. Okay, let's do just that transition again. So here you are in your balance, and maybe your balance is here, maybe your balance is here, maybe your balance is here.

So we come down, one, hands, two, three, four. And that's gonna be quick when we go to tempo. One more time, from the top. So you're in your ball shape. We take the legs up.

Two, three, four. Down, one, two, three, four. One more time, have a seat at the edge. Bend the knees. I'm gonna do an option this time.

Taking the legs up. One, two, three, four. Legs, one, two, three, chair, four. From here, we're gonna move on. The hands, go down, one.

You have a little bit of time here. We push out, two, three, four. You're in perfect plank. So again, from that chair position, we have a slower transition. The hands go down, one, two, three, four.

Okay, from the top. Come back to your ball shape. Head is down, (laughing) the legs straighten up. Two, three, release, four. Down, one, two, three, four.

Arms down, one, two, three, four. From here, here's the pattern. The legs come into, you're in cat. Out, three, four, cow. In, one, two, three, four.

Let's do that a few more times just to feel that action. One, two, and that's percussive. Three, four. So we accent, one, two, we accent, three, four. Come on in and have a seat.

So you can always do that with your two feet down, like I did. Ideally, one foot comes up. So we are in, let's take it from our plank. So from chair, the hands go down, one, two, three, four. Right knee pulls in, you cat, one, two.

You stretch the leg under the bar, you cow, three, four. You come in, one, two, you go out, three, four. Now, you can also put that foot there, right? If that's too much on your quads. So let's do it again.

Here we are in our chair. The hands come down, one, we straighten, two, three, four. In, one, two, out, three, four, in, one, two, out, three, four. So leg in the air or leg down. Let's, as they say, take it from the top. (laughing) Bend your knees, you're in your balance.

And the legs go up, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. In, one, two, out, three, four. In, one, two, out, three, four.

That's as far as we've gotten. New part, we put the foot down, one, bring the carriage in, two, three, up, four. Let's try that again. So let's go from the cat. So we're in our plank.

And then I love this percussive, so we go in, one, two, out, three, four. Really push that carriage out far. In, one, two, out, three, four. The foot goes down, five. You can push out a little further there so we have someplace to go.

Come in, six, seven, all the way up, eight. Okay, let's take it from the top. So you're in your ball shape, and you're doing your modifications. We take it up, two, three, four. Down, one, two, three, four.

Hands down, one, two, three, four. In, one, two, out, three, four. In, one, two, out, three, four. Down, five, bring the carriage in, six, seven, up, eight. From here, you have a couple of options.

The hardest option is take the gaze up, the chest up, and split the carriage open all the way. You are not gonna see me do that right now. Wait 'til your balance is solid before you try that. A little easier, you're gonna open the arms and split back as far as you can, right? That's option two.

Option three, which looks very pretty, much safer, much easier, is to bend this front knee. My knee is supported by that foot bar. And now I do feel like I can take my chest up, okay? That was inspired by Michelle Sims by the way. So here we are.

We're here, and we open, two, three, four. Notice my back foot in the lunge. We come in, five, six, seven, change your foot, eight. A little tricky, I know. Let's go through that again.

So we are here. You put your foot down, you come in, two, three, up, four, open, five, six, seven, eight. You come in, two, three, four. Let's take that from the top. So you're in ball shape, and the legs are going up, two, three, four.

Down, one, two, three. You're in chair, down, one, two, three. You're in plank, in, one, two, out, three, four, in, one, two, out, three, four, down, five, come in, seven, eight. Open, two, three, four, in, five, six, seven, eight. Everybody with me?

We're moving on, from here, we're gonna do it with our two hands down first. So here's the rhythm. We go out, two, three, four. You might even touch the back, notice my heel comes in. We come in, two, we go out, two, we come in, two, three, four.

So slow, quick, quick, slow. So here we are, your head is down. We push out, two, three, four. Come in for two. Go out for two.

Come in, two, three, four. From here, sit, five, six, seven, eight. So that is one option, the easier option. The prettier option, trickier option, is from this crossover of your foot, you also wanna adjust your hands to this side of the foot bar, like a little adjustment in when you get here. And now this front hand comes across this arm, across this chest.

You wanna roll everything up, you wanna reach behind you. One, two, three, four. In, one, two. Here's the hard part. You kinda have to whack it.

Three, four. And then we go slow, one, two, three, four. And we sit, six, seven, eight. Okay, so let's add all that new stuff. Let's take it from your plank.

So we're here, one, two, three, four. In, one, two, out, three, four. In, one, two, out, three, four, down, five, six, seven, up, eight. Open, two, three, four, in, five, six, seven, eight. Open, two, three, four.

In, one, two, out, three, four, in five, six, seven, eight. And sit, two, three, four. Okay, let's run through all of this again. You're in your ball shape, chin is down. Take the legs up, two, three, release, four.

Down, one, two, three. Chair, four, hands down, two, three, four. Cat in for two. Swan out for four. And in for two and out for two.

Foot down, bring the carriage in, hands up, and open, two, three, four. Carriage in, six, seven. Move the foot, then open, two, three, four. Come in for two, go out for two. And in, two, three, four, and sit, three, four.

All right, I wanna give you one little tip about the transitions. So when we are coming out of, so we're here, we're coming out of that, what I'm calling cow, you put that foot down on the ledge. As the carriage comes in, notice my back foot, I'm kind of adjusting it so that I am comfortably on that foot. So when I come up, I'm solid, and then I'm solid going into the lunge. And then my foot is also right where I need it to be when I transition here for that last bit, okay?

That will really help you out. We're gonna take this, again, from the top, and we're gonna do this in the actual tempo of the track. Find yourself in your start position. Five, six, seven, eight. Up, two, three, four.

Down, two, three, up, four. Down, two, three, four. In, out. In, out. Foot goes down, come in, eight, open, two, three, four, in, five, six, seven, eight.

Open, two, three, four. In for two. Out for two. In, two, three, four, sit, five, six, seven, eight. Okay, everybody, last time to the actual tempo of the track.

Here we go, up, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Hands down, two, three, four. In, one, two, out, three, four. In, one, two, out, three, four, down, five, six, seven, up, eight.

Open, two, three, four, in, five, six, seven, eight. Open, two, three, four. In, one, two, out, three, four. In, one, two, three, four, and sit, six, seven, eight. I hope you're all having fun with this.

You can do this to the track I'm doing it to, which is HER, "A Hard Place". Look in the description for a link to the song. Put it up on Instagram, tag me, tag Pilates Anytime. And we'll be coming to a conference near you where we can do this all together in a big group. Take care, everybody.