Articulating Mat

Hi, I'm marimba gold watch. And today we're going to do a math class that plays with the idea of stability versus mobility, articulation of a joint versus differentiation of one joint moving and the other joint staying stills. So here we go. So go ahead and stand with your feet together. Bring the balls of your feet together and your heels together so it'll feel very parallel. And then you're just going to go ahead and roll out to the outer border of your foot. Now keep that weight on your outer heel especially.

And then see if you can press the ball of the big toe down into the mat. So you're creating a dome through your foot and our role to the inner border of your foot. Keep weight there, especially the inner border of your heel. And now press the baby toe and the fifth toe, fourth toe down onto the mat. And then again, roll out to the outer border of your heel and push the ball, the big toe down into the floor and then roll into the inner border of the heel and then push the ball of the baby toe into the floor and just keep alternating with this PNF pattern through your foot. Outer heel ball, the big toe. So we're creating a real spiral through the foot.

Inner heel ball of the baby toe and fourth toe, outer heel follow of the big toe. And then inner heel ball of the fourth and fifth outer heel. Follow the big toe, little super nation, inner heel ball of the baby toe, a little pronation. And then relax. So now come and have a seat on your mat. [inaudible] and then just to let your legs extend out in front of you. And now from here, you're just going to reach your feet long. And then I want you to dome your feet and curl your toes under. Keep your toes curled and then point through your feet.

Lengthen out through your toes and then flex your feet and lift back up. So you're creating a wave pattern with your foot. So let your toes curl over. Start to press on down, lengthen out through the toes, and then lift it right back up. Keep going like that. Really create that articulation with the feet. [inaudible] do two more like this.

And then reverse these. Flex down through the feet, push through the balls of the feet, grabbed something with your toes, and then peel back up. And then again, lengthen out, push down with the balls, and then come right back up. [inaudible] see if you can find as much articulation through each segment as your foot as possible. Now you're going to go ahead and press one foot down and then switch. So you'll be alternating. Press your right foot down through the ball of your foot. Switch, pull up as you press your left foot down, and you can allow your pelvis to move a little bit with this if you want to.

It's quite juicy. And then reverse these. So now you're going to press down with a curled foot and then switch. And again, see how much you can articulate through your feet. [inaudible] now go ahead and sit back on your hands.

And then from here you're going to flex both of your feet and make sure that your flex is even so that the ball of the big toe and the pinky toe are on the same plane as opposed to this or overly whinging. Dig your heels into the floor. And then I just want you to bend one knee, keep that heel digging into the floor and check and make sure that your knee, your ankle, and the ball of your foot are all in the same line. And then switch [inaudible] and just keep alternating sort of like you're needing through your feet. [inaudible] and now just make sure if you know that you're someone who likes to wing or pronate, make sure that your knees, your ankles, and the balls of her feet are really in good alignment. And now start to articulate through your feet. So you're going to point your toes at the end and then switch.

And this is just as much about the coordination as the articulation and then reverses. So go ahead and curl as you press down at the a little brain gym. Never heard anybody keep going. And there's always one foot that just feels challenged, shall we say? [inaudible] that's it. Do a couple more and then go ahead and relax your feet. Come in light on on your backs.

I should kind of get things cooking a little bit. Bend your knees, plant your feet on the mat, and then you're just gonna make sure now in this position, now that your feet are warmed up, that you have equal weight on the outer ball of the heel, the inner ball of the heel, the inner side of the heel, and then both the ball of the big toe and the ball of the pinky toe. So your full foot is really in contact with the floor. Bring your hands behind your head. Okay. And then on your exhale, not in curl your head and shoulders and fuel your rib cage.

Really swing down into the mat. That's it. Relax back down. And then as soon as your head and shoulders hit the floor, you're going to peel your hips up and off the mat and fill your thighs, reach forward. That's it. And then articulate down through your spine, really feeling like you create more. Lengthen your spine as soon as your butt hits, not and curl your head and shoulders asset.

So this is a little bit of a modification of the Corolla. Treer uh, push through BARR bridge and non in curl. And then start to peel down. Really feel that reach through your thighs, create more space in your lower back and then nod and curl. Good [inaudible] and each time almost imagine are being pulled a little bit more forward. That's it. Make sure there's that nice juicy contact of your feet.

Do one more not in curl. And then on this next bridge you're going to come all the way back down. Bridge your hips back up and stay up in your bridge. So now stay there. Just bring your arms down to your sides. Keep feeling like your thighs are reaching longer.

And then think of your femoral heads, your femurs spiraling in slightly towards one another so that you can really have contact with the ball of the big toe. So that way you're not kind of getting pulled out into that sort of horseback riding position. Now keep that sensation and then I want you to reach your right knee forward. Let your hips articulate and are reach your left knee forward. That's it. Relax your chest just a little bit more.

Reach your right knee forward and just keep alternating and then reach. Think of your knees reaching straight forward and tracks as opposed to kind of out to the side. Do one more time each side and then come back to the center. Reach both sides evenly and then start to peel down through your spine. One vertebrae at a time. Once you hit the bottom, you're gonna peel right back up again. Feel your thighs reach forward.

Make sure you're not pushing too far up with your chest, but you're really relaxed through your rib cage. Bring your right leg up to tabletop. That's it. Stay there Relevate evenly through the center of your foot. Lower your heel, bring your foot back down, switch legs, bring your other leg off. That's it. Relevate lower your heel back down. Bring your foot down and then articulate down through your spine.

One vertebrae at a time. Once you hit the bottom, you're going to peel right back up again. Good. Still the size. Reach forward. Bring your right leg up to table talk, and that's it. Hang out there. Relevate that's it. Lower your heel back down. Bring your foot down, bring your other leg up and just really pay attention to reaching through your full foot and Relevate so that you're right in line with your second toe. Second and third toe. Lower back down.

Bring your foot down and that your weight isn't biased towards the big toe or the pinky toe and peel ripe pack down. Peel right back up again. Feel your thighs reach forward. Maintain that reach. Bring your right leg up to tabletop. Relevate try not to wing or arch or sickle your foot. Lower your heel down, switch feet. Bring your other leg up.

Relevate lower your heel right back down. Bring your foot down and then just peel all the way down through your spine, one vertebrae at a time. So now coming up to sit on your mat, you're going to sit a little bit further forward and then just bend your knees and plant your feet on the mat. Now you're going to grab onto the outsides of your size there and then start to roll down through your spine just to till your arms extend all the way out. So you're just going to take a little bit of a half rolled down. Good. Now stay there.

Think of swinging your ribs back into the mat and you're going to curl right back up. Good. And then again, start to roll down just to the halfway point. Fill your mid back, especially especially the base of your rib cage. Articulate, create a little bit more scoop through your lower abdominals and then curl right back up. And then again, start to peel right back down. Now this time, stay right there. Reach your arms forward and then continue to roll all the way down through the mat. One vertebra at a time. Let your arms come overhead, extend your legs out, and then on your exhale, return arms of treads, the ceiling, start to nod and curl your head and shoulders and peel your hips up and off the mat. One vertebrae at a time. Once you get to the top, you're going to peel over your legs and feel almost like you're curling up and over something and then straightened right back up and then start to roll back down through your spine. And we're going to go for six roll-ups.

That's it. Let your arms extend. Reach back up towards the ceiling. Come up and over. Really peel yourself up and off the mat and then create even more length through your body. You can for your partner across the way if you so desire, and then start to roll back down through your spine. Oh, that's straight to roll. Then that extend all the way back and then again, same thing. Beautiful. Let's do two more of these and continue thinking of curling up and over, especially when you get to that sticky spot.

Try to send your breath a little bit more into your back ribs as you get there on this last one, once you peel up, I want you to grab your ball. Good. That's it. And now grab your ball and just hold onto it. With two hands, reach your arms forward. You can get the ball a little bit of a squeeze, and then start to roll down through your spine. One vertebrae at a time. That's it. Going come all the way down to the bottom.

Once you hit to the bottom, you're going to bend the bend your knees, plant your feet on the mat, lift your hips up, and take your ball and put it underneath your pelvis. Okay, so now place it right under your sacrum. And then you have choices. You can either bring your arms down to your side. If you want a little bit more pain and suffering, you're going to bring them back to cactus. And if you want more pain and suffering, reach them up towards the ceiling.

And then I just want you to bring both legs up into tabletop. So now take a moment and just pause and feel your ribs really sink down into the mat. Let your heels drop towards your tush so that they're really kind of relaxed and you're not forcing your quads to engage. And now start to alternate tapping your feet on the mat. And your goal is to maintain your stability as much as possible.

And depending on where your arms are, that's going to be harder or easier. And so as you're going through this, just really relax your rib cage and try and send your breath down towards the floor, into your bottom ribs. Good. That's it. All that nice and heavy. [inaudible].

Now bring both legs back up to tabletop and then let both feet come down towards the floor together. Again, only as low as you feel like you can without letting your pelvis move side to side. And it might be small and that's totally fine. That's it. See really through here. Good. Now bring both legs back up to tabletop. Reach your right leg up towards the ceiling. Take a nice inhale.

And then on your exhale you're going to take about 20 seconds to lower your leg down towards the floor. As the going gets tough and you get more shaky, see if you can sink your breath into your back ribs a little bit more. Feel your rib cage heavy on the mat. Let that FYE get really long. Let your hip flexors lengthen. Once it gets all the way down to the mat, bend your knee and let your leg float right back in, and then extend your other leg up towards the ceiling. And then same thing.

Take your time and lower your leg down towards the floor. Okay, deal really heavy in your rib cage. Keep feeling like there's more and more space as your leg continues to lower. And then once you hit the bottom, bend your knee and slide it right back in. Reach your right leg back up towards the ceiling again, and then start to lower your leg down towards the floor. That's it.

Keep feeling that length through the front of your thigh. Okay. This time, once you hit the floor, stay down there. Now imagine you're being pulled even longer. Reach your leg out, lifted up off the mat so that it's just hip height. You're going to hang out there and take three long breaths, sinking your ribs further down towards the mat. With each exhale, almost as if your breath is massaging the top of your soul as your diaphragm is massaging the top of your soul as one more breath and now lower your leg down towards the floor and then bend your knee and bring it right back in. Extend the other leg up towards the ceiling. Same thing.

Start to lower that leg down towards the floor. Feel the base of your ribs really nice and heavy. [inaudible]. Once you hit the floor, lengthen through your hips, feel your ribs sink. Reach out, lift your leg up and off the mat. Hang out there, take three nice long extended exhales and each one fill your ribs.

Sink down a little bit more, and now lower your leg all the way down towards the floor. Bend your knee, bring it right back in. Now you're going to bring your arms down to your side, or if you want to continue in cactus, you can stay there. Reach both legs up towards the ceiling, and we're going to take the center rollover. So now from here, without hoisting, take your legs all the way back and overhead and finished with them. Parallel to the floor. Good. Stay there, separate your feet, flex them, and then stretch or roll down through your spine. One vertebra at a time, I think of really reaching your feet into something. Reach your legs back up towards the ceiling and then start to lower them down to about 45 degrees. Bring your legs together, point your toes, take your legs up and over without hoisting. See if you can find that same articulation through your rib cage as you come up and over. Good. Separate them, flex them, and then start to peel down through your spine, one vertebrae at a time.

Lower your legs back down towards the mat. Bring them together, point your feet, bring them back up and over. Think of peeling your spine up in, off the ball, separate them, flex them, and then start to peel on down. This time you're going to keep them apart and then bring your legs back up and over. Same thing. No hoisting. See if you can really find that articulation. Nice, Michelle. Good.

Bring your feet together, point your toes, and then just peel on down through your spine. One vertebrae at a time. Once you hit your ball, lower your legs down, separate them, flex them, and then come right back up and over. Bring your legs together. Point your toes. Start to peel down. Now each time, think of sending your breath into that area. That's sticky. It doesn't like to articulate. Lower your legs right back down last time. Separate them, flex them, take them up and over this time you're going to take your ball away, put it off to your side, and then search or roll all the way down through your spine, one vertebrae at a time, and now see if you can hit those spots that were a little chunky before. Good.

That's it. And then just bend your knees in towards you and relax. Good. Okay, so now come life face down. Let's have the heads towards the center and just keep your ball kind of handy because we're going to need it in a moment. So now you're going to put your hands just side by side and Sphinx pose. And then from here I want you to come all the way down first and then reach out through the crown of your head. Start to lift your chest up.

And you're going to come up just to about the base of your rib cage. So not very high. Now feel like your shoulders pull back and sort of down away from your ears. And now you're going to take this and you're going to look over your right shoulder to find a little bit of rotation and let your chest rotate as well as your gaze. And now look over your left shoulder and one side you're going to feel like you're biased more towards one side and then come back to the center and then come right back down. And then again, same thing.

Start to lengthen out through your spine, feel your collarbones roll up, get super broad, and then look over your right shoulder and just find that little bit of rotation. And then look over your left shoulder. Good. And find that little bit of rotation. Come back to the center and then come all the way back down. One more time. Feel your collar bones start to lift up. Feel super wide through your collarbones and your shoulder blades.

Rotate to one side [inaudible] and then rotate to the other side. Come back through the center and then relax all the way down. So now take your ball and you're gonna put your ball between your heels. So now separate your knees just a little bit. Rest your forehead on your hands.

There'll be slightly turned out not to turned out. Bend your knees to 90 degrees. Hold onto your ball, pull your abdominals off the mat. Now keep your abdominals lifted as much as you can. And then from here, I want you to float your size up off the mat as high as you can without arching your lower back, which will be like an inch. And then lower right back down. We're going for 10 of these and I want you to imagine as you're lifting your ball up, like you're holding your grandmother's tea cup between your heels and you're trying not to spill tea as you lift up. So you're going to stay even through your legs, through your hips.

You'll notice sometimes if you're doing this with clients that they want to go right into their lower back. And so your fight when you're doing yourself and also with when you're teaching is to make sure that the hip articulation is coming from the actual femur moving forward in the hip socket and not by arching the lower back, not just from thrusting the pelvis down to the mat. Okay, do two more of these. And now we're going to do a little but pasture blaster extravaganza. So now you're going to take just your right leg and you're going to lift it up towards the map. You still have to hold onto your ball. That's it.

So it'll be fairly tiny. That's it. Keep going. I'm gonna adjust your ball a little bit so you don't lose it. And we're going for 10 of these. That's it. And then once you've done 10 of those, you're going to switch legs and do 10 on the other side. Well, if you're alternating, do 10 more [inaudible].

Now that you're filling your hip articulation, you're going to hold onto your ball again with two feet. Extend your legs out. If you need to adjust your ball, go for it. But you're not going to let your feet rest on the mat. You're going to allow your thighs to come a little bit more parallel and lift your thighs up and off the mat. So now you're really fighting to make sure your lower back does an arch in this position. You're going to turn both legs in and now turn both legs out. It's going to be small.

And then turn in and then turn out and turn in and turnout. Huh? Does it go for two more? Turn in and then turn out. Last one. Keep extending through the front of your hips. Turn out and then relax and just lose the balls. Good. So now you're going to come and lie on your side.

That was Bruce lie all the way down on your side. We're gonna do some killer clams. So you're just gonna set yourself up with both feet lifted up towards the ceiling. So once you're there, your goal is not to roll forward or back in your top head. You can put your top hand on your hip. And then from here you're just gonna lift that top knee up towards the ceiling and then come all the way back down. And we're going for 10.

And if you put your hand right behind your greater true Cantor, you'll feel like it kind of creates a divot as you lift that top knee up. And that's really where you want your articulation to happen as much as possible. Do one more like this, and then relax your legs down. Take your ball, and you're going to put your ball between your calf and your thigh. And then I want you to set both legs up at 90 degrees. So you're at a 90 degree angle here, and then a 90 degree angle on the bottom side. And now from here, flex your foot and then you're gonna lift your whole top leg up towards ceiling without rocking back on your pelvis and then come right back down.

Now again, make sure you have some air underneath that bottom sides that you're not totally collapsed on. This next one, start to circle it back and around. Once you can't go further back, you're gonna let it turn parallel and then bring it forward. And you're going to go for anywhere between three and 10 of these. When you feel like your bud is gonna fall off, you can stop. Let's do two more and then relax. So now take your ball away. Extend both legs long.

Okay. Now from here you're just going to lift your top leg up and off the mat so that it's hip height. Now reach through your top hip crest a little bit more than you think you even could. And then you're going to bring your bottom like up to meet it. Now keep your bottom like where it is. Lift your top leg up a little bit further, reach even more, and then lower both legs back down towards the floor. And then again, lift up to the top of your hip crest. Reach a little further, take your bottom leg up to meet it, hold it there, and then bring your top leg up even higher and relax all the way back down. And again, lift your top leg up, hang out there, reach a little further, bring your bottom leg up to meet it. Hold your bottom like there.

Lift your top leg up even more and lower your legs all the way back down. And then switch to the other side and just take your balls with you. [inaudible] so you're going to set yourself up for your killer clans. So now go ahead and take both feet up towards the ceiling asset and make sure you're not rocking forward or back in your top hip. And then lift your top knee off towards the ceiling.

I think I'm right back down. We're going for 10 and again, put your hand on the just right behind your greater true Cantor and just feel it articulate as you lift your knee up. And now you're probably also feeling your deep rotators on your bottom side because they were working a lot in the last side. And do one more. And then relax. Now take your ball, put your ball between your calf and your thigh, flex that foot, and then bring both thighs up to 90 degrees. So now keep the 90 and then from there you're just going to lift your top fi up towards the ceiling. Try not to let your pelvis rock back and then come right back down. And again, now this time lift back up and then continue to circle it back and around.

Really isolating the articulation to that hip joint as you go. And again, you're going to do anywhere between three and 10 when you feel like you're going to die, you're going to stop. And let's take two more of these, okay. And then relax. Okay, so now take your ball away. Extend both legs long on the mat, lift your top leg up, just hip height, and now really reached through your hip crest to create a little bit more length. Keep it there. Bring your bottom leg up to meet it.

Now hold your bottom leg where it is and lift your top leg up even further, like it's being pulled away. And the lower both legs back down. And again, lift your top leg up so that it's hip height. Reach away, lift your bottom like up to meet it, and then kick that leg out. Lift your top leg up even more and lower all the way back down. And again, lift your top leg up, reach your bottom leg up to meet it. Kick that leg out. Go a little bit further and relax.

Last time. Lift your leg up, bring your bottom leg up to meet it. Extend that leg out a little bit more and then come all the way back down and then come on up to sit. So now you're going to take your ball and you're just going to hold onto your ball for a second. We're just going to warm up the wrists. So first go ahead and rotate your fingertips down towards the floor. And then you're going to rotate up towards the ceiling.

We're just going to do a few of these, rotate down towards the floor and then up towards the ceiling. And now try and isolate so that your forms aren't really moving, but your risk themselves are moving. I'm just doing a few more. Okay, now let your ball go. And then from here you're just going to bring your arms out in front of you. And then I just want you to point your fingertips down towards the floor and then peel back up and then point down towards the floor and then peel back up.

One more time, point down towards the floor, and then peel back up. So now take your ball one more time and you're just gonna one hand on your ball so that the back of your wrist is on your ball. Now from here, you're going to extend your hand and try and put your pinky finger all the way down on the ball. And then keep it there and bring your fourth finger down. Keep it there, bring yours. Next one, the next one. And then the thumb at better. Relax. And again, same thing. They're gonna do pinky, ring, middle pointer. Um, and then relax. Remember our time, what does it mean? Inky rang, metal pointer, and then thumb.

And then relax. Good. Switch sides. So we spend all day gripping. So you have to do a little extension. Yeah. So then the same thing. So you're going to do [inaudible], pinky, ring, middle, [inaudible] thumb. And then relax. And again, the faces are good. Pinky, ring, middle point here. Um, and then relax. One more time, then bed, pinky, ring metal, pointer, thumb. And then relax. Okay, so now their hands are warmed up. Take your ball and just put it down.

And then you're going to come up onto all fours. So now from here, just make sure your risks are directly underneath your shoulders. And then all I want you to do is start to take some small circles of your body around your shoulders. So you're kind of thinking of stabilizing through your pelvis more or less, and you're moving your shoulder joint around. And then reverse those circles just to get a little bit of lubrication in the joint. And now reverse directions again in this time as you do, try to make sure that your shoulder blade stay flat on your rib cage and that they don't come off your rib cage as you create those circles.

And then reverse these [inaudible]. Now come back to the center, tuck your toes under, and then you're gonna lift your hips up towards the ceiling for downward dog. So now hang out here and let's treat this sorta like up, stretch, articulate from the base of your spine all the way down. And you're going to come forward into a plank. Once you hit your plank, lift your sits bones up towards the ceiling and come right back up and then articulate through your spine, one vertebrae at a time into your plank. And then reach your sitz bones back and lift right back up and again, articulate through your spine, into your plank.

Now stay there. Reverse the articulation. Start shoulders all the way up to pelvis and then come forward. And then reverse that articulation. Shoulders to pelvis, and then come forward. One more time. Shoulders to pelvis. Stay there. Take your right hand off, reach for your left ankle. Replace your hand. Come forward into a plank. Lift right back up.

Reach for your right ankle. Come forward into a plank and switch right hand to left leg forward into your plank. Left-hand or right leg four went into your plank, right handle left leg forward into your plank. Left-hander right legs forward into your plank. And relax. Good.

Take a moment and then come and have a seat. [inaudible] for a little mermaid series. So now you're going to set yourself up so that your standing arm, your weightbearing arm is directly underneath your shoulder. So this will be the GoTo position that we always come back to. So now from here I just want you to go up and over into a big side bend and then come right back up, bend over your legs, and then again, side bend. This time, shoot your leg out into arabesque.

Come back up, side bend over your legs. Set yourself up for a side. Go ahead and lift up, and then come right back down. And then lift up. This time you're going to twist. Come back to your side, and then come right back down. Third time's the charm. Go ahead and lift up, transitioned into your plank, rotate to the other side, and then sit right back down. Come right back up into your side. Bend. Come into your twist, reach back up to your side bend. Sit right back down.

Come into your side bend, come right back down. Shoot your leg out into arabesque. Come back up into your side, bend towards your legs. [inaudible] come back to your mermaid side bend, and then come back up over your legs. We're gonna do that whole series one more time. So come into your mermaid and then come right back up, come into your Aribel and then come right back up. Set yourself up for sideband, come up into your side bend and then come back down.

And then side bend and twist. Come back up to your side bend and then come right back down. Come back into your side. Bend, twist. Replace your hand, come into your plank, come back into your side, bend, twist. [inaudible] come back up and then sit right back down. Come into your side bend, come right back up. Come into your arabesque. [inaudible] come over your legs and then mermaid, and then come over your legs and relax. Good.

Okay. Come stand up. So now you're going to come and stand on your standing leg of choice. I don't care which one that is. Whichever one feels a little bit more organized. And then you're going to take your non dominant hand [inaudible] and with that non dominant hand, I want you to trace the alphabet in big letters. [inaudible] if you're feeling extra credit, go for cursive.

[inaudible] switch sides. Once you're done, [inaudible] [inaudible] and you guys are [inaudible].