Class #4599

No Spinal Flexion Mat

45 min - Class
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Description

You will improve your balance and stability in this Mat workout with Jillian Hessel. She designed this class to avoid flexion of the spine so it is safe for those who have osteoporosis and osteopenia. You will have fun with her creative and challenging exercises that will work your entire body. Enjoy!
What You'll Need: Mat, Yoga Block (2), Hand Weights (2), Foam Roller

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Hello and welcome to the foam roller class with no spinal flection. I do want to warn people that if you are frail, this is not a class for you because we will be moving and doing some challenging movements but we'll work on balance and stability and have a lot of fun. So we're gonna start with the foam roller standing, take it just in between the palms of your hands. And you can stand with your feet a little bit wider than hip width apart toes facing out just a little for balance and just let the foam roller hang down and organize yourself so that your shoulders are square over your hips. And we're just gonna start by mobilizing the shoulders.

So take an inbreath through the nose, hike the shoulders up. Exhale, let them drop (exhaling). And again inbreath (inhaling), exhale, let them drop (exhaling). Two more, just like that. Inhale, exhale let them drop.

And one more inbreath and exhale let them drop. And let's now, we're gonna do a knee bend. Make sure when you bend your knees, we call it a plie in dance. We're gonna track the knees over the toes. So slight outward rotation the knees will shoot out over the toes.

Inhale, bring the foam roller to chest height, exhale, squeeze the inner thighs and bring the foam roller down. Again, inhale (inhaling). Exhale, bring it back. And two more, just like that. Inhale, exhale, bring it back and inhale.

Stay there and let's exhale. And we're going to inhale to lift the heels, lift the heels balanced one and roll down and two and roll down and three and roll down. And four we're going for eight. Five and strong core and seven. Wow, I fell and hold it on eight and we're gonna pause there and, (exhaling) (exhaling) Two, (exhaling).

Three, hold the balance. Four, (exhaling). Five, (exhaling). Six, (exhaling). Seven, (exhaling).

Eight, (exhaling). Focus the eyes straight ahead. See if you can straighten those knees. Hold your balance. Hold your balance. Hold your balance and come down.

Now we're gonna take the arms overhead. So same deal, inhale. Bend the knees, arms over head. Exhale to chest high, four times. Inhale, exhale to chest high and three and come down and four, hold it there.

Exhale all your air out. Again, lifting the heels inhale, exhale. Two and three, inhale, exhale, four and five. Foam roller directly over your head, six. And seven.

Hold eight little pulses, ready? (exhaling). Two, (exhaling). Three, (exhaling). Draw the sit bones together.

(exhaling) This is five (exhaling). Six, (exhaling). Seven, (exhaling). Eight, (exhaling). Take a breath, focus.

Straighten those knees, hold the balance. Hold it, hold it. Tummy tight. Squeeze the base of the buttocks. Breathe in, (inhaling). Get even taller, exhale.

Come down and relax. Let's do some shoulder rolls. So inhale up exhale, around one (inhaling). And two (inhaling) and three (inhaling) and four, reverse that from the back. Inhale, exhale.

And two, and three. And four. Great, okay, so now we're gonna do a little bit of swinging with the foam roller to warm up the shoulders. So we're going to swing the roller to one side, bend that knee and look up inhale and exhale either way. And swing it nice and easy swing and bending each knee as you go to the side and reach and reach and reach and reach.

Now reach up and staying in that direction, rotate the roller the other way around. Rotate it again, come up and change sides. Reach, rotate, rotate and up. Repeat it and twist the other way. And back and up.

Rotate the other way. And back and come up center. Now you're ready for over the top. We're gonna reach up and over the top straighten the legs around and send to reverse that reach up over the top around. And center, repeat that.

Reach up. Over there up stretch high reach and center and again. Up over the top around and center. All right, so now I'm gonna turn sideways to show you this. The feet are gonna be a little bit narrower stance facing straight ahead.

And we're going to do a squat keeping a neutral spine. Remember no spinal flection here. So we're gonna sit with a flat back and reach that roller forward. Deep as you can go inbreath. Exhale, squeeze the buttocks forward, squeeze the arms back And inhale forward.

Exhale back. Let's do eight. This is three. Exhale and four. Exhale, strong spine, strong core, five. Press up and six.

Press up and seven. Press up and eight and press up. Turn the roller now, face it down. And I'm gonna face this way with my leg closest to you behind me. And we're gonna stretch that capsule, press down on the roller for balance and pose that heel up and down.

One, two, three, ring the leg up. Kick flick back. Again, press down, one, two, three, kick flick and back. And one, two, three. Kick flick back.

I have a beautiful view of the ocean here with a kayak out there. And four times, come together and swivel around. Well, you don't need to swivel, but I am so you could see what I'm doing. Okay, nice big stance. Get that calf stretch, press down on the roller for balance.

And press one, two, three. Kick flick back. And two, two, three kick flick back. Three, keep your center. Kick flip back last time.

Down, two, three, kick flick back. And now we do it to the side. So we're gonna take the roller in the same hand as the standing leg cross the other leg behind you, press down. And here, I'm gonna take my arm out to the side and really press down through the shoulder. So same thing I'm a little bit laterally rotated in both feet, crossed behind and press down.

Two, three kick flick. And one, two, three kick flick out. And three, two, three, kick flick out. Last time, four, two, three, kick flick out and step together. Change sides, cross behind and ready pause.

One, two, three and flick kick. And two, two, three and flick kick. And three, two, three and flick kick. Last one, four, two, three and flick. Kick.

Come together and we're gonna go to the mat now. So grab your yoga bricks and keep them close to you. And some light hand weights. And I have a pillow. Some of you may need as well 'cause I have one funky hip.

So the pillow will be here for me to grab later on. You may not need one. So weights, bricks, and a pillow optional coming to the mat. Place your foam roller across the mat and come on down. Okay, so here we go with some mat work.

Now I wanna explain we're not going into spinal flection, but we're going to work a little bit on the abdominal area here laying over the roller from spinal extension into neutral. So the important thing to remember is not to come up too high because that would be contra-indicated. But bearing down on the bones is actually a way to build bones. So come to, place the roller right under the base of your shoulder blades is gonna be a little different for everybody but you basically wanna feel this rib cage area. I say the Scarlet O'Hara corset action.

Yes, so their hands are behind the head and I'm gonna lean back. I'm actually gonna move a little higher and I'm in spinal extension here. I'm going to breathe in through my nose and as I exhale, I'm drawing the rib cage down into the foam roller head remains heavy and I just come up, just so I'm in neutral spine. Inhale at the lungs fill. Lean back, heavy head.

Exhale, pull the ribs together to come up and lean back inbreath. Exhale, this is three really closing the front of the ribs without closing, without popping the low belly. That was four. Inhale exhale. We'll do eight, five, lean back fill the lungs. Six, lean back inbreath.

Exhale seven and number eight, we're gonna hold exhale isometric little pulses and one, two, three, four. Heavy head, five, make the ribs work. Six, seven, eight, lean way back. Lift your hips up for a moment and just give yourself a little massage up and down on the roller which feels terrific. And then we're gonna reposition to do a little bit of oblique work.

So roll yourself back, place the buttocks down. Now I'm gonna take my outside hand to the camera across to the opposite rib. Now my rib pops out quite a bit on this side. So I have a lot of work to pull that in. I'm gonna breathe in, I'm in spinal extension I lower my head.

Pull the rib down under my hand as I exhale, lift up and light twist towards you high. Inhale back down. Exhale two. So, I'm spiraling around rather than flexing, three. Inhale, pull the rib down to make the move happen.

Four, lean the head back heavy head makes the rib work, five. Inhale, exhale pull the rib down. Six, so flection, just a neutral spine with a little twist. Seven, stay up. On eight, same thing little baby ones.

Pull that rib under the hand, ready? One, two, three, four. Heavy head, five, relax the neck back. Six, seven, eight. Roll back down into extension place the other hand back, lift the hips.

You get a little reward massage again. Up and down breathe and reposition for the second side. So I'll be turning away from you. Opposite hand to the rib. Breathe in, close that rib down on the exhale.

Pull yourself around. Eight, I'm counting down this time. Seven, inhale open the rib. Six, pull it together. Five, inhale.

Four, inhale, exhale. Three, inhale, exhale. Two, ready to hold number one. Hold and pause. Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two and one.

Lean back and once again, reward yourself with a little bit of massage breathing and relax. Roll to your side and come up. And we're gonna move the roller now under the hips. So be careful not to flex your spine as you go down, I'm actually placing one hip on the roller rolling too my side and rolling back to my back. So that's the way should be getting in and out of bed as well if it's Contra indicated for you to flex your spine.

The hands can rest on the roller and I've placed it under my sacrum here. And I'm just gonna bring my knees up to my chest and I'm gonna do a little bit of, I call them hip swivels with my quick percussive breathing. So we begin by exhaling all the air out and it's a little bit of hip hiking. (exhaling) Two, (exhaling). Three, (exhaling).

Four, (exhaling). Five, (exhaling). Six, (exhaling). Seven, (exhaling). Eight, (exhaling).

Extend the legs up in the air, flex the feet and feel like you're going to be walking on the ceiling, actually running. Yes, same kind of quick breathing. I'm only gonna move my feet about a yard apart. So really work on stabilizing across the pelvis and keeping the hips level this time as you run on the ceiling. So it begin by exhaling all the air out (exhaling) and run.

(exhaling) Two, (exhaling). Three, (exhaling). Four, (exhaling). Five, (exhaling). Six, (exhaling).

Seven, (exhaling). Eight, (exhaling) Bring the feet together, point them and now using the hips as the pivot point, we're going to do a scissor, keep the pelvis level. So begin by exhaling all the air out and split the Lexus apart pointed feet. Switch, (exhaling). Two, (exhaling).

Three, (exhaling). four, solid base. Five, (exhaling). Six, (exhaling). Seven, (exhaling).

Eight, (exhaling). Hold that shape and now we're gonna go into a bicycle. So that top leg is gonna come down as the bottom leg bends in towards the chest. Reach through that hip flexor of the extended leg, one. And two and three and four and five and six, reaching that leg out and eight reverse it.

Bend that knee that's over your face. Inhale, exhale like you're dipping your toe into the ocean. Three and flicking the water. Four, five, six, seven and eight. Now bring the legs up.

Now all been your hips, really tweezed from the base of your buttocks The legs are turned out. And we're gonna do a crisscross using the top of the inner thighs on a double inbreath so it looks and sounds like this. And I'm gonna flex open, open point the feet crossed the other leg and open, open eight times this is three. (exhaling) Four, really draw down through the belly. And five.

(exhaling) Six, (exhaling). Seven reach long through those legs. And last one and hold open. Now we're gonna do the same thing, but we're gonna flex as we crisscross. So exhale all your air out close with flex feet and crisscross.

Point open close, crisscross change the foot and three. (exhaling) Four, (exhaling). Five, (exhaling). Reach long through the heels. (exhaling).

Seven, feel those inner thighs burning I do. And eight. Stay open, now we get to do the fun one, the helicopter. So reach those legs around. Let them fall open reach through those hips, reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, and come up.

Open again. Reach around the other way. Let the legs fall open from the hips. Reach, reach, reach, reach, reach. And come up Let's do one more each way around first leg over your face other leg, reaching away, and come up, draw down and last time each and roll around.

Heavy legs and reach up. Place your feet down on the back. Lift the hips carefully and take the roller out from under your pelvis. Turn to your side, remember fiddle position, this is how you should be getting out of bed. So you use your arms to push yourself up without flexing the spine.

And now we're gonna take the roller lengthwise in the center of your mat and take the weights and place them. They don't need to be precise, but just so that we have them there as you need them, the yoga bricks and the weights, all right? So now the most difficult part of the whole transition is to lie down on the foam roller with no spine flection. So once again, lift one hip, place it at the bottom edge and take your arms and go ahead and lay yourself out on the roller and then carefully without falling off, turn yourself sideways so that you're lying on the center of the roller can feel a little bit like you're seasick. So find yourself centered.

If you're taller, you're gonna need your butt right down at the bottom, right? So that your head is not hanging off at the top. So just give yourself a moment to rock from side to side and become aware of where you're in touch with the roller and where you're not, I have scoliosis. So it's a little bit of an extra trick for me. But essentially if you're in neutral spine, the hips and pubic bone are level.

There'll be a little bit of airspace. I don't know if you can see it, but under the small of my back, the rollers in contact between my shoulder blades in the thoracic spine, another little bit of airspace behind the back of my neck and then my skull. So I can really tell if I'm off center here. All right, so now what I'd like to do is just have you practice taking a breath in and exhaling tightening and imaginary seatbelt and staying very, very stable there. Very, very stable without any rocking.

And then we're gonna take that breath in again, tighten the seatbelt and without any shift, see if you can remove the weight. And this is a big challenge for me. So I may be telling you to do, as I say and not as I do. I'm gonna take the weight off one foot and lift it just slightly off the mat, hover and replace it and do that same leg again. Take a breath, tighten your seatbelt first, exhale and lift that leg.

No wobbling on the roller. Take a breath in let's change sides. Breathe in (inhaling). Exhale, tighten the seatbelt. This is my tough side. Lift up and lower.

Breathe in, exhale, tighten the seatbelt, lift up and lower. Now go back to the first side, breathe in. Tighten your seatbelt, lift that first leg and let it hover hold on to it. See if you can breathe in, press those arms down for counterbalance. Join it with the second leg without a lot of wobbles.

Breathe in, exhale, tighten your seatbelt. Put the first leg down. Inhale, exhale, put the second leg down. Now start the pattern from the other side. So the second leg begins.

Tighten the seatbelt, exhale (exhaling). Stay stable lift that leg, breathe in and lift the second one. Hold, hold, hold, breath in first leg down without any wobbling. Breathe in, exhale, second leg down. Hopefully you were brilliant.

Now the cruder Grise, I like to say, both legs at once. Find your center, breathe in exhale, ground your center, deep lower abdominals before you even attempt and flow those legs off, you should feel a lot going on in your low tummy and float those legs down. Breath in again. Let's do four. Exhale (exhaling). Lift those legs and lower them down.

Two more. Dragging your center and back down last one (inhaling), exhale (exhaling) and lower down. Now, if you had a healthy spine and you could articulate it, you would be next, curling your tailbone and rolling the hips up and down centered the roller. Because we're not flexing. We're going to do what I call pelvic pops.

I wanna suggest for those of you that don't have a lot of length in your legs that you might wanna place your feet up on these yoga blocks so that you have a little bit more room and what we're gonna do I call pelvic pops. So it's gonna be all glutes, maintaining a neutral spine. I breathe in, engage the base of the buttocks. Really squeeze and lift those hips up. Lot of hamstring and glute work and then come down in one piece.

So I break at the hips and come back to that neutral spine on the roller. Breathe in (inhaling). Press the arms down. Squeeze the hips, pop up, break at the hips, inhale, come down. Let's do two more exhale, pop up.

Inhale, come down holding it steady. Exhale, pop-up, let's hold it there. And we're gonna do what I call the booty press, yes. So that's what that progressive breath. Exhale all your air out and little pulses to the ceiling, ready?

(exhaling), two. (exhaling), three. (exhaling), four. (exhaling), five. (exhaling), six.

(exhaling), seven. (exhaling), this is eight. Hold it there breathe in. (exhaling), exhale break at your hips and come back to your neutral spine and you can climb your feet off the bricks if you use the medal hat's optional obviously. All right, so I'm moving those to the side and we're gonna work the upper body now.

So, I'm just feeling like I'm not completely centered here. So give yourself a moment if you need it, find your center once again, rock from side to side. And we're now gonna grab little hand weights. If you don't have hand weights, use cans of food or you can use water bottles. So now we're gonna take the arms directly vertical over the shoulders, the hands, I mean, and we're going to reach the shoulder blade, meaning the hand as if I'm punching to the ceiling on an inbreath, the shoulder blade rolls forward.

And then as I exhale, I let the weight drop it back down and then try the other side. Inhale, exhale, drop it back. This is three. We're going for eight and four. Do your best not to wobble on the foam roller five.

Inhale exhale, six. And seven and eight. See if you can make both shoulder blades kind of hug the back of the roller equally. Let's do both four times. Ready, inhale, reach, exhale, drop, inhale, reach exhale, drop.

Two more reach and drop and reach and drop. Now, if you can, these are only two pound weights. I'm extending my fingers and I'm gonna point them down to my sternum, right between the breasts. And I'm just gonna take a few breaths here and focus on how the rib cage changes as I breathe. So on an inbreath, you should feel the fingers rise.

As the chest rises on an exhale (exhaling) the fingers drop as the breastbone drops, again inhale (inhaling) and exhale (exhaling). One more time inbreath (inhaling) feel the breastbone rise and drop it down. Now take your arms in a rounded elbow shape. We call it the huggy tree, the reformer work, right? And we're going to end breath opening the arms, but concentrate on the motion of that sternum and breastbone.

So on an inbreath I open and the breastbone expands. I can open wide and stretch the pectorals. Now I begin not by moving the weights, but by drawing down through the sternum (exhaling) to close, inhale (inhaling). Open wide, feel this stretch, exhale, draw down through your center and inhale (inhale). Exhale, draw down.

And four (inhaling). Wide open chest exhale close. And let's do eight This is five (exhaling). And six (exhaling) and seven (exhaling) and eight (exhaling). All right, so now I'm gonna just move the yoga block so that you can see what I'm doing for the next move.

And we're gonna take the weights back to ride over the shoulders with the palms facing straight down towards the knees. This is gonna be your home position and we're going to bring one arm down on an inbreath. The other arm up by the ear (exhaling). Be sure not to pop the rib of the arm that's raised over head. Exhale, close the ribs, squeeze down through the lat and come center.

Switch it out. Exhale, squeeze down through the lat and the rib center. This is three. We're going for eight. (exhaling) Try not to wobble on your roller, four and five and six. Two more, seven.

And eight. Now both arms back inbreath (inhaling). Exhale squeeze down through the underarms and the lats. Bring the arms all the way down. Inhale arms up and exhale arms down.

Now I just wanna mention sometimes this bothers people's shoulders. You can rotate the palms towards you and do it this way. This is three. (exhaling) I'm just giving you alternatives. Four (inhaling).

Exhale, squeeze down through the ribs and five inhale. Exhale and six. (exhaling) I'm turning my palms back the original way, seven. Down through the rib cage squeezing down. Last one (inhaling) and eight.

Relax for a moment. Now we're gonna put part one with the leg lifts together with the arms. Don't fall off your roller, I may. Bring your arms back up to vertical. Take a breath in.

And as you exhale, you're going to lift the opposite leg as arm and come up. Don't go too far. Come back to center. Breathe in. Let's see if we can do this other side. I have to really think exhale, lift.

Ooh, that's hard for me. And back to center breath in, lift easy peasy on one side, breathe in ground your center, lift and back let's do one more set, ready? Breathe in, sync your center first (exhaling) and come center. Breathe in, exhale, lift and back to center and slowly bring those weights down by your sides. Once again, I'm gonna bring the weight to the other side so that I can roll a safely to my side, reach that arm up and roll to the side and push up.

So we're gonna take the roller now, I'm relying back on my mat and we're gonna stretch the inner thighs a little bit. Are you ready for this? Take the roller between your legs. All right. So find a way to squeeze in. Don't worry if your feet sickle just a little and if you need to adjust, you'll adjust it.

Squeeze those inner thighs and hold the roller in place. And what we're gonna do, I like to call this the windshield wiper. We're gonna shift the pelvis to one side. That hip comes up that far hip is up on an inbreath and exhale I'm drawing down through my rib, waist and hip to come center. So it's a kind of a baby quirks group prep inbreath.

And now I'm pulling down rib, waist and hip, exhale. Again inbreath shift, exhale, draw back through your center inbreath shift, exhale, draw back through your center and let's do one more set. You notice my arms are a little bit farther out to the side. That helps me with my stability. Last time inhale and exhale.

And I forgot which side I started to. So I may do an extra one. All right, so now I'm gonna shift away from you on an inbreath and a little quirk screw around exhaling and bring it centered. Now, if this bothers your pelvis or your hips, just a little suggestion, you can modify by putting your hands onto your pelvis or even my little pillow would have been a good idea. So I'm not gonna pause, but remember you can do that if you need it.

inbreath to shift away from you, circle down away, exhale, bring it home. inbreath to shift, circle down away, exhale, bring it home. inbreath to shift, down away exhale bring it home. inbreath and exhale bring it home. One more set.

And shift it around and last time inbreath and shift it around. Well, my inner thighs are crying I hope you're as are too. Go ahead and relax. Turn to your side and roll up. And I wanna show the spine stretch with no flection.

So we're gonna take the weights, I'm sorry, the roller in front of us and I'm gonna place the roller so you have to go a little wider than we ordinarily would for spine stretch with flection. Sit up tall, focus those eyes straight ahead. Hands are resting on the roller. If it's too wide for you, you can always take the roller by the way, up onto your thighs. This is an option as well.

All right, I'm gonna place mine on the floor, but adjust as you need. And we're gonna keep the sit bones really reaching, but we're gonna tip off them slightly. Unlike regular spine stretch, pressing down on the roller, shift forward and lean forward. Like you're rolling out dough on an exhale and inhale, roll back up, breathe in, focus those eyes straight ahead. As you tip forward, the spine stays long, but we lengthen out and the eyes will look slightly down.

And then I tip those sitting bones back and I stack up. If you wanna add a flex of the feet, you can breathe in, reach out through the heels. Sit bones, tip behind you crown of the head leans forward, exhale and point the feet as you come back. Breathe in, tip forward, exhale, reach, reach, reach, and point and come back. And one more tip forward, reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, and come back.

All right, so now we get to do some side stretches, which always feels fantastic. So sit on one hip. I'm sitting on my good hip. I wanted to explain why I have the pillow here. I'm gonna be grabbing it when I sit to the other side.

I have one lower hip. So it really sets off my back if I'm not level. On this side, I'm fine, the other side I'm gonna need some help. So we're gonna start in a regular mermaid position I'm holding my ankle here and I've got the roller with my elbow bend because as I go out, it's going to reach down my arm. So sit up tall.

See if you can find your vertical line even though you're sitting on one hip. Breathe in and reach out and you can bring that arm up, overhead, reach long, and then bend that elbow and come back. Let's do that three times, reach out and come back. And once again, reach out and come back. Grab the ankle and reach that other arm up.

Really stretch, fold it if you can over your head, reach long, reach long, open up the ribs, reach that arm up and come back. Let's repeat that. Reach out inbreath, reach long through the spine and come back. And to reach and come back. And once again, reach and come back.

Now let's add on. We're gonna reach out and turn the body, keep the body long and push out and come back. It's not gonna be a huge range of motion with no side flection, but we can reach out and stay there and lift the chest, reach out. So the arms are straight here two, and three, and then bring that arm sideways. Reach up, come back, grab your ankle and stretch.

Once again, reach long and come up. So now we're gonna change sides. This is where I need my pillow on my bottom hip. So I'm gonna place it just under my left hip here and repeat everything. So we started grabbing the ankle.

You'll notice that my ribs like to sit out here. I have to really work hard to create that plumb line on this side. So I'm on the roller. I'm gonna reach out inbreath three times over and come back and reach over and come back and reach over and come back. Grab the ankle now, reach up.

This is a tough side for me to stretch. I'm reaching over and I'm gonna hang out there really trying to open. My lumbar spine is tight, tight, tight on this side. Reach up and come back to upright. Once again, three times plane reaching out, one, and come back and two and come back and three and come back.

Now adding on, we reach out and rotate the body. I have to widen my other arm and I'm gonna press out and bend the elbows and press out three times bend the elbows. No spine flection just lengthening the ribs away from the hips and push out this time arms stay straight, lift the chest in an arch and release and lift and release and lift and release. Move that other arm forward, turn sideways lift and come back, reach the arm up and over one more time. Really stretch feels a little better than it did the first time, that's the goal, right?

Reach up and relax. Okay, so we're gonna go face down now. And if you have any kind of compromised back issues, you might wanna leave the pillow under your hips. So we're gonna take the roller here, press down. And I'm going to first just bend and straighten reaching.

Bend and straighten and bend and straighten. Now I'm going to add up a spine lift hovering. So I'm going to keep the arms straight and lift up and reach out and lift up and reach out and lift up and reach out. Staying down now I'm adding the leg lift. So I'm going to reach out of the hamstrings and the glutes one and lower.

Two and lower and three and lower. So now we lift up on an inbreath and lengthen lift the legs. Inhale and exhale. Three (exhaling), four (exhaling). We'll do eight.

Five, (exhaling). Six, (exhaling). Seven, (exhaling) and eight, (exhaling). And reach those legs out. Bend the elbows, lift your body up neutral spine, open the knees into a diamond shape and sit back.

I can move my pillow. Flat back, reach the seat bones out, reach the head out and do a couple of cycles of breath spreading the ribs sideways. I use the image of fish gills here, spread those back ribs (inhaling) and exhale. (exhaling) And then come up onto all fours. We're gonna grab the roller and do a few knee stretches.

So this is a little bit tricky. We're gonna place the shins on the roller. And come up onto all fours and we extend out. So we wanna be a little bit forward. Extend out on an inbreath, neutral spine, exhale bring the knees under.

Inhale, exhale, just like the reformer. Three and four and five neutral spine. Six, feel those abs working, seven and eight. Relax for a moment. And my roller went crooked when I do single leg knee stretch, are you ready for that?

So same thing, we're gonna lift one leg off, come a little bit forward on your shins, lift one leg off and extend one. Bring it back, two, bring it back, three, bring it back, four, bring it back, five and six and seven and eight bring it in. Other side lift that bottom leg and exhale one and two and three and four and five and six and seven and eight. And of course, if you're more advanced, you can add kicking that gesture leg in and out as you do knee stretches. We won't do that here, but you can always do it if you repeat the class.

Grab your bricks if you have them and we're gonna do a leg poll. It also feels like a really nice massage. So place your legs on the roller. And you're just gonna use the blocks to help lift yourself a little bit higher. So, keep yourself neutral, pelvic lift, press up, hold and break at the hips and come back.

You can swing back behind if you want little stretch, reach up and come back, and reach up and come back and four and comeback. Come down for a rest. Breathe and we're gonna lift up and just do some leg poles. So take a breath (inhaling). Exhale, lift up, hold and flex, point release.

Flex point, release, flex point, release, flex point, release. This is five (exhaling). Six, (exhaling). Seven, (exhaling). Eight, (exhaling).

And lower your buttocks. And move your roller and your brick. And we're just going to roll up to standing to finish class. So come to your knees, talk all 10 toes under and push back to your heels. I'm just gonna walk a little forward so I'm on my mat.

Bent knees, flat back neutral spine. I'm gonna take my hands to my thighs. Take a breath in ground your feet. Bring your hips under you and hinge right up to center standing. Bring your feet together.

Reach your arms out, palms together, over your head, lift your chest and slowly draw the arms down, And thanks for joining me. I hope you enjoyed it.

Comments

1 person likes this.
That was such a fun class! Thank you so much, Jillian! 
Thanks, Jennifer! I was away on Holiday when this was released, so I haven’t even watched it yet! I appreciate your positive review so much😁
1 person likes this.
Fantastic class without spinal flexion! Loved that it was energetic and safe!

2 people like this.
I was missing the foam roller! I've really enjoyed it. I like the standing moves with the foam roller (the swing motion particularly).
1 person likes this.
What a good idea to have no single flexion in a class. Thank you so much! You are a big Inspiration. And always looking stunning! 
1 person likes this.
Lovely class, thank you 😊
So many creative ideas! Great class 
1 person likes this.
Lovely class, especially for folks with osteoporosis! Thanks so much Jillian!
1 person likes this.
Loved this class Jillian.  The breathing prompts so important, thank you!  Realize I need to work on shins-on-roller, lol. 
Hi Jillian,I enjoyed the combination of exercises, lengthening of movements and breath sticata through out.
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