Align Your Spine

Hi, welcome to class three of Pilates Bliss on the Mat. My name is Regina, and we are going to focus on spinal alignment throughout this intermediate workout, applying our two-way stretch and the pushes and pulls that we deepened in our previous classes. What I'd like for you to do right now is to just stand at your mat, bring your arms down by your sides. You're welcome to have a soft gaze in your eyes. And I just want you to breathe into your body.

Inhaling, expand your ribcage, and exhale, contract your stomach muscles. Continue that breathing, inhaling, expanding your ribcage and exhaling, contract your abdominals. Rooting down into your legs and feeling your feet, and working your way up through your legs and your inner thighs, your pelvic floor, your hips and your center. Keep breathing, opening up the chest. Now, maybe find your two-way stretch and lift the rib cage up out of the hips as you release any residual tension.

Now, work your way up through your shoulders, your neck, through that space in between your eyebrows. And then go out through the top of your head. You can even go as far up as two to three feet right over your head. Ground down through your feet and feel the energy rooting down even past your mat and into the earth. And feel how that rooting down and grounding encourages the growth up through your body, through your legs, through your hips. Find your center.

As you breathe into your center, contract your abdominals on the exhale. Inhale, expand the rib cage. And then exhale, find the two-way stretch and lift the rib cage out up away from the hips. Release any residual tension in your chest, in your shoulders as you work your way up, continuing the breathing and feeling your spine, getting even longer, decompressing. Work your way up through your neck and out through the top of your head.

You can even visualize energy going up about two or three feet over the top of your head. In meditation, we call this space the space of your higher self. And we are going to reinforce that connection to your higher self in our class today. As Joseph Pilates wrote in his book, Return to Life, "The Art of Contrology proves that the only real guide to your true age lies not in years, but as you actually are, as infallibly indicated by the degree of flexibility enjoyed by your spine throughout life." I spoke of this in my reformer series, and we'll be diving into this focus here on the mat. We'll pick up the pace and some of the work, and progress others.

So once again, if an exercise doesn't work for you, let's please skip it, and we're gonna get started. On the mat, come down with control. Hug the knees into your chest. As we've done earlier, curl the head and the shoulders up and feel the upper body curling up and pressing your stomach down into your mid back. Now, I want you to exhale and then come out into an X position with your body.

So create a nice big X stretching your arms and your toes and your legs and your fingers away from one another. Find the two-way stretch but connect to your center. Hold here, and then round up again. Curl the ahead in the shoulders up and feel your spine changing positions. When our spine is aligned and flexible and mobile, we access that space and that state of our higher selves, stretching arms and limbs away from one another.

And then we do one last one here as we curl the head in the shoulders up. Now, come back into that X position with control from the center of your body. I want you to take the left ankle, cross it over the right, keeping the right leg where it is. And I want you to side bend to the right, hold onto your left wrist with your right hand. And then now deepen the stretch by pulling into that left wrist but keep the ribcage down.

I want you to think both sides of the waist are nice and long. This is very reminiscent of that nice rollback exercise that we have on the Cadillac. (Regina inhaling deeply) Take a deep breath, inhale, exhale. Feel so good to lengthen, feel so good to decompress. Come back to that exposition, and then curl the head and the shoulders back up, holding the belly in.

Open back out into that nice big X staying connected to the center of your body stretching both ways and as many ways as you can. Find your two-way stretch. Cross the right ankle over the left side. Bend to the left and hold onto your right wrist with your left hand and encourage that nice big stretch on both sides, but really you're feeling it a lot on your right side. The lower ribs are in, but you're still lengthening the ribcage away from your hips.

Okay, now that we've got you nice and long, come back into that exposition. I want you to curl the head and the shoulders up. Breathe in, and then you're gonna get ready for your 100. So head and shoulders are coming up. (Regina inhaling deeply) Breathe into your body, stretch your legs forward and reach arms down by your sides.

The spine is nice and long here. And we start our 100 pumps through the nose, and then we exhale through the nose. When you inhale and exhale through the nose, you're actually activating a lot of kind of your nervous system that gets you to move and gets you to get into action. So do your best to inhale through your nose and exhale through your nose. And you recruit some muscles.

You recruit some connective tissue, you recruit some fascia. Get the blood going. (Regina inhaling deeply) Inhale, exhale. Feel your spine really long. Press your mid back and lower back down on the mat. Find the two-way stretch here.

Let's do three more sets of the 100 inhaling through your nose. Exhaling out through your nose. And I just blew through my mouth because I'm talking. But I want you to do your best to inhale through your nose. Exhale out through your nose.

And we've got one more set together. And exhale, and stretch arms and legs up. Go ahead and roll up with control now over towards your legs. Give yourself the nice little stretch to pulse. Place your ankles underneath the strap, and let's get our dowel for your roll up.

So holding on, find your two-way stretch by holding onto the dowels. Push your legs forward around your spine, reach your arms up overhead and come up and over. And we pulse. Remember somebody is coming from behind you, pulling your back away from your legs. So you deepen the stomach as you round forward over your legs.

And you're pulling your hands into the dowels to find your back. (Regina inhaling deeply) And we'll do three more together, and stretch. Use your center to unroll your spine, (Regina inhaling deeply) and roll. Let your head follow the rest of your body. Last one, because your head is very much on top of that spine.

And we roll down with control. All right, bring your dowel to the side. Hold onto the wooden dowels alongside of the mat. Hopefully you have them at home. If not, keep your arms down by your sides for your rollover.

Let's do it. Take the legs overhead, open, flex and roll down with control. I mentioned I like doing the flex because it helps me deepen the stretch in my back. But you're welcome to keep your toes pointed like so, or you can flex your feet like I'm doing. Okay, we'll do two more.

So we're doing a total of four. Deepen the stomach to find the openness in your spine, pushing your hands into the dowels, pulling the belly in. And now let's reverse it. Open the legs, lift the legs up and over. Close the legs. Push into the dowels, and roll.

Feels so good. Three more. (Regina inhaling deeply) Nice massage that we're giving ourselves. (Regina inhaling deeply) Last one, open out and up. Push into the dowels to deepen the connection to the center. Now, keep the right leg up and lower the left leg down for your leg circles, and down, and around and up, across and up.

Remember the push and the pulls, you're pushing the left leg down to circle, the right leg. So the movement actually starts with the left leg pressing down and you're connecting to your whole body. Let's go the other way. Stretch, reach, right heel away from the hip. Four more.

(Regina inhaling deeply) Keep your chest open. Last one. Push the right leg down to lift the left leg up, and let's go the other way. Four more. (Regina inhaling deeply) Remember that two-way stretch, that heel is reaching away from the hip, and reverse it.

(Regina exhaling deeply) Three more. (Regina exhaling deeply) Last one. Lower the leg. Release your hands. Now, I want you to roll up into your rolling... like a ball position.

Keep your heels up. Let's continue, rolling back. You can do this five to 10 times. (Regina breathing deeply) Feeling your spine, really get nice massage. You're loving up your spine here.

Let's do about three more together. (Regina breathing deeply) Last one. And then stretch your legs out, lower down with control. Pull the right knee into your chest. Float the left leg up with control from the center of your body.

One, two, and pulse. (Regina breathing deeply) You can notice how when you stretch, the one leg away from you and you're deepening your stomach, you really feel the length of your spine. Let's do three more each leg. Last one. Kinda you keep your head and your shoulders up for this time.

Curl the head in the shoulders up. Stretch the arms and the legs, reach them away for your double leg stretch. Ultimate Pilates exercise. Feel the stretch. (instructor inhaling deeply) Last one. (Regina inhaling deeply) And then rest here.

Okay, we're gonna continue with our single straight leg stretch. Both legs up, scissoring, and switch. I might have mentioned the short box and the tree in previous classes, but you can feel that tree stretch here when you're holding onto the ankle and you're lifting up. So when you lift that leg up and you feel the two-way stretch, you feel the spine getting longer, you feel the stretch in your back. We're gonna do 10 of these total.

So maybe do two more each with me. Let's keep the head and the shoulders up this time. Bring your legs together, open up your elbows, press the back of your head into your hands to find your back. Now, I want you to reach those legs long. Lift the legs up, inhaling and exhaling, (Regina inhaling deeply) inhaling, (Regina inhaling deeply) exhaling. Continuing that energy, that two-way stretch out through the top of your head as the legs go away.

Last one. Keep your head and your shoulders up, bend the knees. Crisscross five times each way. Lift the chest to the knee. Three more.

Last one. And then rest. Woo. Are you fired up? I am. Wow. Feels amazing. All right. Come to sit. You saw me. Just come to sit into transition. Now, we're super connected. We move responsibly.

Now, place your hands between your thighs, lifting the spine for spine stretch and rounding, deepening the stomach, come up (Regina inhaling deeply) and rounding. So as you exhale, the pelvic floor narrows. So you breathe into your seat and you feel grounding in your seat on the exhale to connect you to your lower body. And all the while, the grounding helps you grow out through the top of your head. Okay, spine is nice and long here.

And then feel the shape of your spine here because this is the same shape of the spine as you're gonna make in the next exercise. So now, I want you to bend the right knee, hold onto your ankle, bend the left knee, hold onto your ankle. Let's lift both legs up at the same time. You feel that same shape and you see that same shape as we did in spine stretch forward. Let's do our open leg rocker and roll back.

Use your hands to get that pull to access a little bit more stretch. This is actually what you would feel in your body. You're doing the tendon stretch on the reformer. It really helps you connect to open up the back, keep the back long. Whoops. We'll do one more.

And control it. Now, close the legs. Reach your arms into your teaser. This is a nice little bit transition. Hold your teaser here, and then go ahead and bend the knees and then rest on your back. Open your arms out for your cork screw.

We're gonna do that or that cork screw where we roll over. Okay, so we're combining the two. Lift your legs up. Now, we're gonna do our roll over with the cork screw. So the legs go away.

You're gonna take the legs over the head, the hips are over the shoulders. Now, roll your spine to the right. Push into the handles. Come through the left, come back up. Push into the handles, roll down. Come through the middle, through the right. Come back up.

Oh, that feels so nice, down and around. It's a good challenge, but it's a good way to wake up our body, and it's a good way to encourage that wonderful flexibility of your spine that Mr. Pilates talked about. (Regina inhaling deeply) And we'll do one more to the left, down and around. Now, push into the handles to connect to that two-way stretch. And you roll down with control.

Now, hold onto your legs to come up to sit. Open your legs out for your sore. So reach your arms long, twist to one side, round and stretch forward. Pull the stomach in as you round forward. Come back up, twist and stretch.

A lot of these exercises are twisting. So we're twisting here. So we're gonna do three times each way. But a lot of these exercises are exaggerated movements at what we do in real life. So when you're walking, your spine is actually rotating a little bit.

So what we're doing here is conditioning your body to optimize its performance outside of the studio. Again, and one of the reasons why I love Pilates. Okay, we're gonna flip over onto our stomachs. Now we're gonna do our swan and we're gonna go for that swan dive. But first we're gonna do a little preparation for it, which helps me too.

Okay, so hands here. I tend to hold onto some tension in my neck and my shoulders. So this neck roll is gonna help me access my swan dive better to get myself a little bit more flexible. So the stomach is in, hands are on the dowels. Now, pull the belly in, and then lift the chest. So if you have some tension that you don't need in your shoulders, and in your neck, this is a really great way to release it.

Keep your legs together. Now, turn your head to one side. Keep the chest up. Look down to your right shoulder. Make a U with your chin. Come up through the left shoulder. Come back to center. Lower down with control, pushing into the dowels to find your back.

Reaching the legs away from you. Stem again, and up. Keep your chest up. Turn your head to the left. Look down to your left shoulder. Come through the middle. Come up to the right, come to center and come down with control. Now, we're gonna do some swan dives. Do up to three to five.

And I'm gonna do my best. Can't talk through this one. So let's do it together, three to five. Here we go. Stomach in and up. (Regina inhaling deeply) Full dive. You're gonna reach your arms out and find your two-way stretch with your legs and rock up and down. And then come up on your forearms.

Press your hands down into the mat. I hope you did good and I hope you feel good. Open up the chest. Now, feel the heart moving forward. Feel your higher self being accessed through the top of your head.

Keep your inner thighs together. Pull the right heel into the seat, and down. Left heel into the seat twice, down. Right heel in, and down. Left heel in. Keeping your spinal line by keeping your center strong.

Finding that two way stretch. Ribcage is down in front of your body, but you're still lengthening it away from your hips. This is one of those exercises that looks so simple, but if you're really doing it with your whole body, you can feel that it's not easy. You're activating and waking up your whole body. Again, Pilates is a full body workout.

Let's do two more each leg. (Regina inhaling deeply) Keeping your heart open. Now, come down with control for your double leg kick. Place bold hands behind your back. This time I want you to close your chest, because you wanna find the opposition.

Pull the heels in three times. Now, open up the chest. Slide your hands back along your hips. Lift the chest forward, and look forward about a foot away from your breast bone. Turn the other direction.

Get your hands up as high as you can. Close the chest here. Slide your hands back. Open the chest. We'll do one more with those hands the way they are. Slide down, lift up, keep the front ribs down. And now switch hands. Take the other hand on top.

Three heels into the seat. Press, slide your hands back, opening up your heart, and down breathing into your body. Pressing down into the feet to lengthen. Last one. Slide your hands down, lift the chest, and release. Go ahead and give yourself a counter stretch if you'd like.

That means you're taking your spine in the other direction, because you never ever wanna feel that in your lower back. You're using your abdominals, you're using your center to the left. It looks like you're arching your back, but it's not. You're really arching your upper back. So now hold onto your dowel for thigh stretch.

Again, pulling in against the dowel to find your upper back. Get your knees as close together as possible. Take your arms overhead. Now, keep your spine in line as you lean back and give yourself an amazing thigh stretch. And then push down into the mat to come back to starting position.

Leaning back, pressing down into the feet, and get your spine really tall. Can you lift the rib cage up a little bit more as you come back up? (Regina inhaling deeply) Get to that higher self. Align your spine. Feel your center strong. Let's do two more together. (Regina inhaling deeply) And we'll take one more.

Stretch, stretch, stretch. See the two-way stretch. See the double leg stretch here in this shape. All right. Let's come back for our neck pull now. We're gonna do a different variation. Some of you might have learned your neck pull in this way.

This is how I first learned neck pull. And it's a not a bad variation to do. And it depends on your body and depends the way you feel that day. Just make sure you're doing it right and responsibly. So the ankles are underneath the strap and you're pulling against your strap to access your seat.

Hands behind the head. Now, what I want you to do is get your spine even taller. Now, lean back like you would do on the short box. So keep the front ribs down, lean back, lean back as far as you can, stay in control. And then you roll down with control.

Unfurling your spine here, opening up the chest. Come up and forward rolling up off the mat, pulsing over, sitting up. Now, lean back. Keep the front ribs down. Lean back. Keep the front ribs down. Keep that spine nice and long and roll down. Let's remember that no matter what shape our spine is, what shape we're taking our spine, we're always keeping it long.

So just because you're moving your spine in different directions and changing the shape of your spine, doesn't mean it compresses. By simply moving responsibly in the right way and engaging your center, you're keeping your spine really long and decompressing. Lifting, lifting, lifting. Who knows? Maybe you might even get an inch taller out of this. We'll do one more.

And then sit up. And lean, and lean, and lean, and lean, and lean. And you roll down with control. Okay, let's finish that up, and pulse. Now come to sit for your spine twists.

Take your ankles out of the straps, bring your inner thighs together. Stretch your arms out. Deep breath in. Inhale. Exhale, twist. Energy goes out through the top of your head, two or three feet up as you root down into your pelvic floor and your lower body. Let's do one more time each side. And let's do our jack knife. Rolling down with control.

Arms overhead. Come on down. Pressing into the handles. Now you're gonna roll over and press your legs up. Roll over, push your legs up, get your spine long. Hold it. Push into the dowels, and roll your spine down with control.

Take them overhead, lift them up. Reach through your toes. Find your two-way stretch. Roll down. And again. Deepen.

(Regina inhaling deeply) Let's do one more. Push, push, push, and roll down with control. Okay, take a moment, and then now turn to one side. Side kicks. So we're aligning the spine with the rest of the mat.

Bottom hand is behind your head, and then legs are at the bottom. Top bottom leg down on the moon box. Hips are in line with the rest of the body, so this whole piece right here is nice and aligned. Keep this left hip down. Find the two-way stretch there. Kick the top leg forward front to back, and back, pushing into the moon box to find the grounding, to find the length.

So you ground down into that bottom leg, you ground down into your upper back, to find the growth in your exercise. And kick, kick. And reach. And back. I keep breathing out through my mouth because I'm talking.

So again, back to what we talked about earlier. Do your best to breathe out through your nose. In and out through your nose if you wanna energize your body. We'll do two more. And last one.

Now, back over the bottom. Turn it out from the hip. Two kicks up. And flex and squeeze the heel together, and up, up. Feel the feedback. Touch the heel on the bottom, and touch the bottom heel.

Two more. Touch the bottom heel. Last one. And touch. Take the top leg, reach it back behind you. Small circles, feeling your swan dive here, feeling the chest open, but the front rib's down. We'll do 10 of those. And let's go the other way. 10 times. Small, the size of a golf ball.

Keep the left chest open, the top chest open. And then keep your head in line with the rest of your body. Take the leg forward. Up. That's something that I have to remind myself a lot because when I'm teaching, I like to look at people. So sometimes my head is not so much in line with the spine, but sometimes we all need reminders.

Okay, we'll do two more this direction, and then another. Plus I'm in Aries, I like to lead with my head. (Regina laughing) Let's go the other way and back up, and down, and reach, and down. We all have our things. Okay, two more. Last one.

All right, other side. Top arm is right in front of you. Legs are reaching long, spine is aligned with the rest of your body. And kick front to back, and back. Doing this 10 times. And also honestly in my opinion, when you know who you are, and know what your strengths are and know what your individual gifts are, that really helps you connect to that higher self of yours, which is authentically yours and individually yours, which is what makes this all beautiful and unique and different.

(Regina inhaling deeply) Let's do two more. And then another. Okay, we're gonna go up and down. Bring that top leg over the bottom, kick it up twice, and then flex and get that heel right over the bottom heel. We'll do five of these totals, so we have four more to go.

And if I can't help myself by philosophizing, because we're at the beach here and you see the ocean out the window or you can hear it or you imagine you've seen this beautiful studio in so many times of the videos. Leg back. As a meditator, I talk about being connected to one another. We do this small circles 10 times, and reverse it. We're individuals, but we're individuals like individual waves in the ocean.

Now, we're gonna take big circles forward. Up, and then back. Individuals within the waves of a unifying ocean of existence. So you have your individual gifts but we're all connected to one another as the waves are in the ocean. Last one, and reverse it five times. Lengthen your body.

Find your swan as a leg reaches away, grounding down into the bottom leg and then the bottom elbow to find your back. And you're grounding into the bottom leg to find the stability in your hips. And then we stop from there. All right, it's teaser time folks. You bring your legs together, bring your hands down by the hips.

I'm gonna fix my pants real quick. So here, hands to the hips. Keep your spine long. Now, lift the legs up like you're about to do your open leg rocker but they're closed. Reach your arms out. Roll down one bone at a time. Take the arms up, roll up arms parallel to the legs.

Lift the arms up. And then keep the arms if you can up there, and then roll back up, reaching, arms up. We'll do one more of that way. Rolling down. Last one. (Regina inhaling deeply) Arms up. Lower lift the legs three times.

Keep your spine long, keep reaching. Reach up for your higher self. Hold it, hold it, hold it, and then come down with control. All right, let's flip over onto our stomachs for our swimming. Okay, I want you to get your head up and your chest up as high as possible.

Get your legs up as high as possible but we keep the front ribs down. Not gonna talk with this one. We're just going to count to 10 and swim. Okay. Opposite arm, opposite leg as we lift. Breathing and inhaling, exhaling. And go.

Three, and two, and rest. Hands to the shoulders. Flex your toes. I did them automatically because when you get the work in you, it just becomes automatic. Flex your toes. If you need to come to your knees to push up in a pushup position, you can. Otherwise, you can pop up with your hands and right into your plank.

Heels together, turn your toes out. Now remember, this is like the long stretch series on the reformer. You shift your weight forward, and then that's what moves the ankles. Keeping your spine long energies going out through the top of your head to your higher self and out through your heels. Now, I want you to see if you can just hover the right leg back.

Hold it, shift forward, and back. Keep your spine aligned. Lower the right leg. Lift the left leg, and hold, shift forward, down. Let's practice just one more each leg. Right leg up, and shift.

Left leg up, last one. Shift, and then come to your knees. Great job. Now, we're gonna do our sidekicks kneeling. Come onto your knees, take the left leg out, open your arms out, reach to the sides. Keep your spine long like you did in your spine twist. Shift your weight, come down, keep your hips forward, pushing your hip forward.

Push down into the right arm in the ground, and then now lift the leg up, and lower. Your spine is aligned here. You want your shoulders in line with your hips, and your head in line with the rest of your body. Two more lifts. Last lift.

(Regina inhaling deeply) Now, I want you to keep the leg up, and we go front to back. (Regina inhaling deeply) And breathing. Keep pushing your hip forward to keep your spine aligned. All we need is one more each direction. Ooh, you're gonna feel that everywhere.

Come up with control on your knees. Stretch your arms out. Take the other leg out to the side, and side bend like you did at the beginning of class. Reach and stretch. Open up your sides, keep your spine long. Lift and lower the right leg, up and down. This is my right leg.

You're mirroring me. You're doing your left leg. Well, it doesn't matter because we're doing both sides. Keep pushing your hip forward. Let's do two more. Now I want you to keep the lift, and do your front to back. (Regina inhaling deeply) Last one.

Bring the leg over the bottom, and then come to balance. Okay, so we've got all that connected. Now we're gonna do our side bend. I'm gonna ask you today to stagger your feet. You're balancing on the inner edge of the one foot, and the outer edge of the back leg actually.

So here I want you to feel your spine. And again, if you need to come to the one knee, you're welcome to do that as you come into the side plank. But I'm gonna challenge you if you're up for it, (Regina speaking indistinctly) balance on both feet. So I want you to lift, find your straight spine first. Reach up to the ceiling.

Now, keep your spine long, but see if you can lift the hip up to the ceiling, just like you did that stretch on your back. And then take the arm up, and then just bend the knees and come on down. Let's do two more of those. Push and ground down into your feet in your hands. Leave the top arm up, reach and stretch.

Give a good side bend, up, up, up, up, up. Both sides of the waist stay long, arms up and then come down. Last one. Remember, round down into your feet and your hands to grow and find your two-way stretch. And stretch, and stretch, and stretch. Arm up. And then bend the knees and come on down.

Swaval your legs to the other side. And then you're gonna stack top leg over the back, balancing on the inner edge of the top foot, on the outer edge of the back or on your knee. Now, left hand is down, and you're gonna push and ground into your limbs. Now, side bend like you did at the beginning of class and stretch both sides of the waist. Take the arm back up to the ceiling, bend your knees.

Two more of those. Lift from the center. Connect to your center by finding your two-way stretch, and stretch, and stretch, and stretch. Arm back up, and down. Last one. And lift. (Regina inhaling deeply) Stretch, and stretch, and stretch.

Arm back, and come down with control. Nice work. All right, we are at boomerang. So you're gonna bring your hands to the hips, and I just want you to go through your boomerang and enjoy it. So crossing one leg over the other, and rolling. Open out, close. With control, pulse.

Hands to the hips. Rolling back. Open close. Spine stays long. Remember you're rowing on the reformer here. Up. The rib cage stays lifted away from the hips. Breathing in, open close.

Last one each way. Last side, breathing in, open close, and stretching. Next is seal. I'm gonna ask you to try to get three claps when you're back and balancing on your upper back. So you gotta keep your spine up right.

So arms go through the legs, hands on top of the ankles, pushing into your arms and the legs, and pulling at the same time. Three claps up top, three claps behind you. (Regina inhaling deeply) Come up. Three claps up top. So get your spinal line as you're back there, and try to keep yourself up there. (Regina inhaling deeply) Three claps up.

Last one each way. (Regina inhaling deeply) And come on up. Turn over for rocking. Down into your belly, spine stays long. Lengthening, lengthening, lengthening. Open your arms and bend your knees.

Keep your spine long, lower it down. Pulse the heels into your seat. (Regina inhaling deeply) Push your feet into your hands. Stretch. Open up, and then come down with control. Remember, it's that upper back arching, not your lower back.

Okay, one more. (Regina inhaling deeply) Now I want you to see if you can stay here and just breathe into the shape. And then come down with control. All right, sit back if you need a counter stretch. Last little bit.

We're gonna practice that transition into high scissors again, but this is also gonna translate into another exercise as we progress our practice. So the legs are gonna go overhead. Get those shoulder blades underneath you. Now, if you can take one hand on the hip and the other hand. Remember, your spine stays long.

So I'm gonna challenge you to lift both legs up at the same time now, and stretch and stretch. Find your two-way stretch here. Hold that. Feel your spine long, and then lower both legs down. Pull the belly in, keep your spine long. No collapsing. You're still decompressing your spine.

Let's do two more of those. Just push, lift, lift. Up, up, up. As high as you can. You can do it. Come on, let's go. And roll down. You're so connected now. Remember, you're gonna try to get an inch taller when you get outta here, and you're finished with this workout.

Last one here. Push into your hands to find the two-way stretch. Grow and grow and grow, and reach to the sky, reach to the ceiling, and hold that position. And then release the legs down with control. Arms down by the sides. Feel your spine rounded here. And then come down with control, one bone at a time.

Bend your knees, cross your legs, come on up. And we're gonna finish with our pushups. So we're gonna do three sets. Just three, with both toes down. Stretch your arms up overhead.

This is a very important transition in between the pushups here, because we want that spine flexible, just like Mr. Pilate says. So place your hands right in front of your legs, round your spine. Walk forward, four counts. And then maybe take that fifth count, shift your weight forward. Three pushups here. Spine stays long.

It's a whole body workout. And then walk back, round your spine to get to right in front of your toes. Roll your spine up, lifting your arms up, open out. And again, two more sets at three. Round and stretch. If you need to come to the knees anytime you need to, you want to or your body is asking for that, please do that.

(Regina inhaling deeply) Spine stays long, hands back. Rolling up. Last set. And we roll. And we walk back, and we roll up one boat in a time. Reaching your arms up to the ceiling, opening up the chest, feeling yourself lighter, feeling yourself higher, feeling yourself a little bit more elevated, elongated in your spine and aligned. Thanks so much for working out with me.

I'll see you for class four where we find the other sides of the exercise. Once again, my name is Regina, and I'll see you next time.