Lightness of Being: Levitate

Hi, this is class five of Pilates Bliss on the Mat. My name is Regina. Now that we've enriched our tools of attention, resourcefulness and focus on what centers and grounds our practice, we could relax into it and pick up the pace, and play, elevating our transitions, knowing we are aligned and connected. As with any workout, if any exercise doesn't work for you, please skip it. I ask you to feel the lightness of your being as you practice.

We're gonna play in and out of the classical form, but whatever you do, hold onto your learning and let go of any expectations. As the Sufi poet Rumi, was known to say, "Life is a balance of holding on and letting go". Let's take that to heart and start. I'm gonna have you go to the edge of your mat. Bring your heels together and turn your toes out.

Place your hands on your hips. Open up the chest, feel your spine aligned, feel the groundingness in your feet, and lift your heels up just an inch off the mat. We bend the knees, but keep your spine long, find the two-way stretch and straighten the legs, push the floor away. Bend the knees, push the floor away as you ground down into your toes and you lift. Find the lightness, as you connect to the strength of your center.

And breathing in, opening up the chest. Let's do three more. Bend the knees, push the floor away as you lengthen your spine and you feel like you're floating. And two. And breathe.

Last one here. And straighten the legs, push the floor away, lower the heels down. Reach your arms up overhead, find the two-way stretch here. Can you see the double leg stretch in the shape? Keep that shape, and lower the heels, push the floor away.

But what I want you to do as the heels go down, get length in your spine and lift the ribcage even more away from the hips. And feel how you can float in space, and lower, defy gravity here, decompress your spine, finding that two-way stretch as you lower the heels. Can you stay as tall as you were when your heels were up? And let's do two more. And lower the heels and reach.

Last one folks. Up, and lower the heels down and reach and stretch. Now with that same amount of control, you can keep your arms up overhead and bring them by your side, just come down nice and light, nice and easy to the mat. Let's push our tush back. Let's go right into the Hundred.

With that same kind of lightness, lift your upper body and your arms and your legs up at the same time with the lightness of being, and let's do our pumps. And exhale. Feel like you're floating in space now. Feel so connected and supported, by your body, that you can feel, the ease in the movement. You know it takes a long time to practice and get this in your body, but when you do, you really reap the benefits.

You feel the tension going away. You feel the heaviness of life floating away from you. And you really get access to that deep bliss that is yours. Let's do two more sets. Last set.

Now float down, raise your arms up overhead, roll up easy and effortlessly. And then bring your ankles underneath the strap. Move your tush back, and hands are open, roll down on your back, and a lift up, inhaling, exhaling and stretch. Roll down, apply your learning. Remember knowing and trusting the learning is in your body and just feeling the flow and enjoy your practice.

Three more, rolling up and over. (Regina breathing deeply) By now you've been with me through all the four previous classes, right? So you're working, you've worked on your two-way stretch, you've found the groundedness, in your body to grow your practice, you feel your spine aligned, and you feel connected to all sides of the exercise. So legs together, press your hands into the dowels and lift the legs over, open, and then flex or keep your foot pointed for your roll over. Close the legs, lift up.

Breathe, and roll down. And again, three more, up, and down. Two more. Feel the spine opening up. Last one.

Let's go the other way. Open out. And close, down. Four up, and down. Your legs feel light 'cause you're really just connected to the center and that's what's moving your body.

That's what I loved about Pilates when I first started, is that I was so connected to my body that my limbs didn't feel as heavy as they used to when I was a dancer. So stretch one leg up, push down with the other leg and five circles here, down and around. Feel the leg light. And two, reaching out. And then another.

Let's go the other way. Five. Strong center. Last one. Right foot down to lift the left leg up and go the other way, five times. Down and around, up.

Last one. And go the other way for five. Open up the chest, soften your face. Maybe you have even a little smile on your face 'cause you're just enjoying this practice so much so release the dowels, let's float up into our rolling ball position, and let's go for it, roll back. Remember, playful time, right?

This is a shape your body made when it was in a fetus in your mom's belly, okay, so we wanna reclaim that childlike feeling in our spine. And we do three more here together. And two. Last one. Now we're gonna do variation on the single leg that I enjoy very much.

So you're gonna pull the right knee in and stretch the other leg out. Push the right foot into the left thigh and we roll back this way. (Regina breathing deeply) Scoop the belly in, roll. Feel the spine getting nice and massaged. Ah, hard to talk with that one.

It's an art in and of itself, being a Pilates teacher, I'll tell ya, we work hard you guys, we work hard for you. And we love the work so much, we love how it makes us feel, and we wanna share it with you. One more each side. And switch. Bring your both legs down.

Now we're gonna do another version of the double leg stretch, we're going to add the Teaser right at the beginning. So both knees in, right? So you're gonna roll back, and then come up, stretch your arms and your legs away in your Teaser, bend the knees. And reach. Let's do three more. Stretch.

Catch it if you can. Last one, reach, reach, reach, and then bend the knees. That was a fun version, right? So now we're gonna do the single straight leg with the roll at the same time. So you are gonna lift your legs up, take the legs up as if you're going in your Teaser, but scissor, one leg towards you, the other leg reaches away.

Hold, and then switch from the center. Hold, and switch. Hold, feel light, feel like you're levitating, you're so connected, you're finding your center, you got that two-way stretch. Up, and switch. Let's do one more each leg, whoopsie.

And then I got it, and then the last one here. And then rest. Fun variation, right? Now we're gonna come back on our back for the double straight leg. Hands go behind your head, bend the knees, stretch your legs up in the air, lift the head and the shoulders and reach down and lift up.

Four more. Push the back of your head into your hands remember, you ground to grow. Last one. Hold it, let's go right into a criss-cross. Twist, reach the chest to the knee.

Strong center. Two, last one each way. And rest. Come up to sit. Spine Stretch Forward.

Open the chest, round your spine, feel grounded in your legs, into your pelvic floor and your seat. And breathe, lift the chest up and exhale, exhale, exhale into your center, feel the waist cinching in, feel the spine nice and long. And exhale. Two more. And exhale.

Last one. And exhale. Come to sit. Now take your arms right over your legs, find your sacral ground back. Now lift the right leg up into your right hand and catch it.

Lift the left leg up into your hand and catch it. Feels familiar, right? Rolling back, here we go, Open Leg Rocker, and up. Let's just do two more. Roll. Up.

Last one. Hold it, bring your legs together, stretch your arms into your Teaser, and then float back on your back, raise your arms up, trust that you know where that dowel is, stretch your legs up, let's do the full Cork Screw, okay? So take the legs forward, lift up, easy, and down circle (breathes deeply). Down and around. Up. Breathing.

Rolling. Enjoying it all. Last one this way, and then roll down the middle, and come on up to sit, for your Saw. Okay, so from here let's just do our arm circles to open up the chest, three times. Hold it, now open your arms and round forward, over, keep the rib cage lifting up away from the waist, come to center, three circles, hold it, arms out, reach and stretch, pull that back shoulder back as you round forward over the front leg, come center, reach, up, open and stretch. Back to center, reach, hold it, out, and center.

Let's do one more each way, okay? Three and two, up, open, stretch, and back. Last one, to the left. Open, twist and stretch. All right folks, Swan Dive time.

Lay down on your tummy, hands are on the dowels. Okay, let's do a neck stretch together, okay? So stomach in and up, lift up, stay up, feel light, twist, turn your head to the right, look down, make a U with your chin, keep your chest up, come center. Turn the other way, U with your chin. Come up through the other side, come center, lower down.

Any version of Swan that you do, do it three times. I'm gonna do the rocking up and back, okay? So come with me if you can. (Regina inhales deeply) Come back up, prop yourself up on your forearms, make a fist with your hands. Open chest, single leg pull, single leg kick if you wanna call it that, but you're really pulling that heel to the seat remember.

Spine stays long, rib cage stays down. Breathing. You're so connected. This feels very simple in your body and you're really enjoying how strong you are. Let's do three more each leg. Pressing down to lift.

Making sure your inner thighs are connected, one more each leg. Come on down. Now double leg, both hands behind your back. Kick, two, feet down, hands up, lift the chest And turn the other direction. Feet down, hands up, lift, and turn.

Hands up, open, come down, switch, other hand on top, three, two, push your feet down stretch your arms back, open the chest. Remember it's an upper back arch. Down, lift. Last one. Open your heart.

Feel your spine really long, release and sit back into your hips. Now come up to standing on your knees. We're gonna do two variations here. First one with your dowel, inner thighs are together, reach your arms up, for your thigh stretch, okay? Just do three of these.

Lean back, exhale, feel light, stretch your arms like you did at the beginning of class, right, reach for the ceiling or the sky. Up, one more. And reach. Now this is a fun variation I've learned from a teacher in the past, so you're gonna open your arms out, just hug a tree here, and then come back up, reminiscent of our work on the Reformer and on the Cadillac and on the baby chair. And open, okay?

Neck Pull. Bring your ankles underneath the strap. Scoot your tush back, feel nice and light. Pull the hips, pull the feet apart to access the hip stability right here, hands go behind your head, and let's roll. Open. Come up and over.

Lifting the spine, and roll down. Any variation that you'd like, just as long as you're staying connected. Okay, just for me, what I'm doing is just keeping my spine tall here, and then I roll down from there, okay? Up and forward. You know when you get to this point in your practice, you can feel how the breath helps you just move.

And it's almost like intuitive, right? 'Cause we're doing the same order, exercises in the same order, right? And just really developing our skills, but once you get it really in your body, you can just really play with it and feel light. All right. High Scissors time, okay?

You're gonna be back on your back, the legs are together. Now push down into your upper back to lift the legs overhead. Now scoot your shoulder blades, scoot your shoulder blades underneath you if you can. Now take one hand behind your hip, take the other hand behind. Either one or two legs, reach and stretch to the ceiling.

Hold it. You're so light, right? So this leg is not gonna move, and it's gonna reach to the ceiling, the other leg is gonna reach away. And come back up. And stretch, reach.

And back up. One more this way, right? Up, last one this way. Now this is a variation but you have to make sure you're connected. Okay, you're not just using the counter balance, you're moving the legs from your center.

So one leg is pulsing towards you as the other leg is reaching back. Let's just do one more set each. Now bring your legs back up. Now you found that shape with your legs and now you're gonna take your high bicycle, reach and stretch. I want you to see if you can kinda reach and hover over the floor.

You're so connected. You feel light, right? You're kind of like dancing on the ceiling, walking on the clouds. Reverse it, walking on the moon. Last one each direction (exhales).

Now bring your legs up, okay, we're gonna get that transition here into shoulder bridge. So I want you to reach one leg out, whichever leg you feel more comfortable with and see if you can bend the knee and see if you can touch the floor. You've got it. Come on, you're almost there, right? Touch the floor.

Now ground down to that foot, stay connected to your center, and then place the other foot down. Guess what? You're in your shoulder bridge position, pressing down into your hips with your hands, take the right leg forward, lift it up from your center, and down. Push down into the left foot to lift the right leg. One more.

And let's switch. Slide the other leg forward to lift the leg up, and down. Two more. Last one. Down. Left foot down.

And you roll down with control. If you could see the glisten on my body right now, it's really because we're getting that cardio action here from this practice, twist. So again, once you've got this in your body, you can play with it, play with the tempo, play with the pace, and get a little cardio action in too. This is what I love about the mat because it's really your body weight. Come center.

And back. It's called peripheral heart action. When you go down and up, down and up, you get your cardio without loading up your joints. It's amazing. So arms back overhead.

Laying down on your back. Okay, Jack Knife. Float the legs overhead. Push them up, and lower. Again, you're so connected, you're so strong in your center, that you can just float through this exercise, over and up.

You know the learning, you've got it in your body. Get that two-way stretch. Align your spine, ground down into your upper back to grow and lengthen. And then come down with control. Turn over on your side for Side Kick Series.

You can place the other hand behind your head now if you'd like, you can keep that arm in front of you, or join me, place your hand behind your head, okay? And five kicks front to back. Grounding down into the bottom leg. And back. And two, and back.

Last one, one, two, and back. Right over the bottom, get that heel over the bottom, kick it, and down. So it's two kicks right here. And down. Three. Two.

Last one. Now take that leg back behind you, small circles. Reverse it. Okay, big circles. Now forward up, stop at the bottom, right here, you get the most out of that when you stop here, 'cause if you stop anywhere else you feel like you're using momentum.

When you stop at the bottom heel, you're really controlling the movement. Last one. And go the other way. You eventually be will be so strong in your practice, that it will look effortless, right? But you know how much work you've put into it.

Okay, up, and down, let's turn over. Bottom foot is grounding into that moon box, top heel is right over the bottom, kick front to back five times. Feel your upper back connected as you push the back of your head into your hands. Let's do two more. And then another.

Bring that top heel over the bottom heel, up, up and down, squeeze the heels together. And squeeze. (Regina exhales deeply). Feel the two-way stretch as you pull your heels apart, they come back together, last one. And pull the heels together.

Take that top leg, reach it back behind you, small circles five times, one direction, the size of a golf ball, small circles the other side, the other way. Five times, big circles now. Up and back (inhales). Let that leg go 'cause you're moving it from the right place. Step out of the passenger seat of your car, your Uber, from your center.

Go the other way. Back up, and down. And four. Three. Two more, you can hear it in my breath where I'm working, and that's a good thing 'cause I want you to breathe with your movement, I want you to use your breath to fuel your movement. We're gonna do all three Teasers now.

We start with the Teaser One with the legs up. Float the legs up, arms are parallel to the legs, roll down, we're just going to do two repetitions of each, 'cause that's plenty. Arms up. Keep those arms up, reach, reach, reach, reach, reach. And roll forward, and up, hold it, lower and lift the legs, twice.

Hold it, now get everything down at the same time if you can, take the arms right in front of the legs, get your arms parallel to the legs, reach your arms up, everything goes down at the same time. Last one, arms parallel to the legs, lift, now hold it, open your arms, find your back, hold, lift the chest up, find the back of your body and float, float, float. And then release the pose. Come on your belly for Swimming. Take a deep breath.

Imagine there's a gust of wind blowing your body up. And you lift up, and you swim. Nice and easy. Finding the connection, connecting to your whole body. And we're going for three counts, and two.

And come on down. Hands down, toes are flexed, float up into your position, for Leg Pull Back. Right leg lifts up. Shift your weight from your body, and down. Left leg, front to back, down.

It's your body that's mobilizing your ankle. Up. Last one each side. Come down to your knees. Side Kicks Kneeling. Open your arms out, float down, right hand down, push your hip forward, align your spine, float that other leg up, front to back.

Two. Last one. Okay, circles. Two. Remember that leg is light. Connect to your center. Bicycle here.

Bend, push it back, like you did in class four. Let's go the other way, back and reach, hamstring curl, out, last one. Hold it, transition, float up. Other leg out, come down to the other side, lift the leg up, front to back. And back.

Last one this way. Now bring the leg over, circles, three, two, and go the other way. Bicycle, forward, bend the knee, push the leg back. Forward. Push. One more.

Push. Let's go the other way for the last set. Last one. Float up, and then come back to the other side. Now you can have your feet staggered like we did previously, or if you're ready to go for it, stack your feet, okay? Make sure that your mat is a little dry so you're not slipping around, okay?

Your heels are in line with your hips, and the rest of your body. From here, you're gonna float up, lift your hips up, into your side bend, and then dip your hip down. Feel light, feel like somebody's lifting you up by your hips and your center, to the ceiling, and stretch and push the floor away and stretch up, up, up, and then come down with control. Swivel your legs around, to go to the other side. Heels are stacked, in line with your hips and the rest of your body.

Ready? Remember, pick yourself up from the center, lift and then side bend and stretch, and then come down, float, and lift, and float. One more, the wobbly part is okay, 'cause that's your body adapting. And as long as you get back to your center, you are getting stronger. All right, now it's Boomerang time. Okay, hands by the sides.

Let's just flow through it, okay? So legs together, open close. Pulse the arms forward 'cause the body goes forward. Hands to the hips. Two. Hands to the hips.

Roll over, open, close. Again, it's playful. We're rolling on our spine, we feel light, we're balancing on our upper back. We've got one more each. Last set here.

Let's go into our Seal. Float the legs up, bring your hands underneath, hold onto your ankles. Three claps here. And come back up and balance. Come up, three, two, one.

Stay up there okay, when you're here, stay here. Clap, clap three times. Clap, clap here. And clap, clap on your back. And then come up, cross your legs, flip over, for your rocking.

Keep breathing. Enjoy your strength, enjoy the stretch, enjoy the glisten. Lift everything up, hold it, reach back, bend both knees at the same time, push your feet into your hands, lift your chest. Come down, pull the heels into the seat three times. Push your feet into your hands, lift up.

Come down. Last time, we're gonna stay up. Push, feet into the hands, ankles to the hands. Lift, and breathe. And you feel maybe the rocking, with your breath.

Now release, float out of it and come down with control. Turn over again. We're gonna go right into the balance control and we're gonna try it today, okay? So roll back on your back, arms by the sides. Bring your legs overhead like you're gonna do your roll over or your Jack Knife, okay?

Now take one arm over. Take the other arm, hold onto one ankle. Can you lift the other leg up? Hold on here, you're grounding here with your upper back and your hands. Lower the other leg down to switch.

This looks familiar, right? When we were doing our single straight leg stretch rolling on our back, right? You felt the switch. So you're just basically doing a switch but balancing on your upper back, okay? One leg at a time.

Get a little deeper, find that stretch, up, up, up to the ceiling, now release. And then roll down with control. Bend your knees, cross your legs, float up to stand. We finish with our pushups. You're gonna bring your heels together, turn your toes out, raise your arms up.

We're gonna do one pushup first, to two and three. So float forward, bend your arms once, walk back, stay connected to the center. Roll up, open your arms, two pushups. Remember, your spine is rounded as you round forward, two pushups here, push the floor away, walk back. Open. Last one, with the two legs, three repetitions.

And walk back. Let's do one leg at a time, take your time, find your back, push out with that back leg round. Walk forward, three pushups, on your knees or on your toes. Okay? Whatever feels good for your body today. Arms down, and take the other leg back, and round.

And three pushups here. The key is to not take yourself so seriously, right? You get to enjoy your practice, and enjoy your body. Let's do one last thing, we round over to find their balance, hold here. From this rounded space, lift your heels up an inch.

Now really connect to that center and just come up to balance, rolling up one bone at a time as you ground down into your toes, you open up the chest, feel light, stay that tall as you lower your heels down with control. I hope you feel amazing. Thank you for working out with me. We have experienced the lightness of being. Once again, my name is Regina.

I'll see you for class six, as you move your joyful and energetic body. See you next time.