Roll, Release, and Restore

Hi, everyone. Welcome back to another live class here in my house, my movement room, my den that I've converted to share space and time with you. And first I just need to say thank you all for last week. Those of you who were here, it was amazing. And the energy that I could feel from out there to in here for me, is very permeable.

So give me more of that today. And I'll give it right back to you and with each other. So that's part of what this is so much about is our community and how we work together, how we come together and move together. So thank you for joining me again for another live for Pilates Anytime. And I am so grateful to be here and moving with you.

I think last week we had well over 150 people. So thank you to all of you. And maybe that is the same today, maybe more. It doesn't matter numbers. I just wanted to say thank you.

And we're from all over the world, which is even more exciting. From me here at home, Santa Barbara, to all you out there. So thank you. And today, I hope you're ready for some different change of pace. Last week was a little more active.

Today, of course is roll release, renew, restore. And so I have a melt foam roller minus the smaller diameter into squishy or softer roller. Whatever you have is perfect. If you have a half roller, it's perfect. If you have the wide roller, whatever else is perfect because you're here to move.

And what I wanted to just open up with a few more moments of me talking but it's also to let others come in and get situated. Have an enjoyable session. Okay. I've been thinking about the words lock down a lot in the last week just because we are in a world lock down from obviously the Coronavirus and this pandemic. And many of us have had to shut our studios, shut our businesses.

We are, literally shut in to our homes. And we're doing so responsibly. So let's congratulate ourselves for that. And we're doing it for the greater good of all. But the word shut in and lock down, don't have any business to be in our body.

We are not locked down in our body. We might be in a different schedule, sitting more. Some of us are doing more online work. So maybe our necks and our heads and our shoulders are feeling more than normal. But let's play with that phrase lock down and unlock it a little bit through some of the roller work today.

I want us to focus on breath. Of course for me breath is movement. Lack of breath, lack of movement. Rolling work is all about release, hydrate, move. And breath is movement.

So, whenever possible, pause, take some breath. I will encourage us all to do that. Smile within your body. And it helps, smiling really helps, especially if you feel a little tender spot and you might call your attention. Smile at that spot.

Unlock it. And also one last bit in. I wanna say thank you again, to just give yourselves a big thank you and gratitude for giving yourself time to move. Time to be with me, with each other moving. Okay, and with that said, we are gonna start moving, everyone.

I like to start with the feet. So up we go to standing. And I want to have you put your roller just out there, like that, and hopefully it won't roll away. Pick a foot. Step one foot up on the roller.

Where I have my weight distributed is to the back of my arch near my heel. And I really just want to press it down this foot. Lean into it a little bit and feel what you feel. Roller work is often a lot about sensation. We want positive sensation.

I want you to start to lean forward into your foot and lean back out of that foot. Lean forward and lean back. And as I just talk a little bit here while we're working our feet and waking up our feet, you get to explore, a lot of you know that roller work is very explorative and it's kind of not too descriptive in terms of do this do that. Many of you know me. I like that free boundary a bit, less boundary.

I like to have a little more free form sometimes in my movement practice. That is a practice to be a little less formed and formulaic. Technique is also technique and there's a place for that more rigid form. Today, not that place. This is about feeling, doing more of what feels good.

So I want you to lean into that foot, okay. Stay in your lean. And now start to bend your ankle, flex your ankle. And I'm bringing my heel toward me a little bit and down toward the mat, which is right there in front of my toes, my standing leg toes. What that's doing is spreading the bottom of my foot.

It should be like kind of spreading light. And I'm actually getting a nice response in the shin muscle. Okay, and let's go the opposite way where you actually keep your foot molded across that roller and show me the top of your foot. Of course, I can't see you. You know what I mean.

Show the top of your foot. Okay, let's go the opposite way. Play with maybe pulling your toes up. Dorsiflexion of your ankle heel comes down. Keep pressing your foot on that roller and stretch it all the way forward.

It will take it twice more. How about some breath into the flexion and press an extension of the front of the foot and one more time into flexion. If you don't have someone to massage your feet for you and you don't like tennis balls or smaller little objects, a foam roller is a wonderful way to massage your foot. Now if you're on a half roller, you're just pressing and releasing. You're still just pressing and releasing.

Right, which is plenty beneficial. Now all of us we are gonna just start exploring a little change of angle. So I wanna take my foot and angle it a little bit outward, my knee and my thigh as well. Lean forward. Okay, this is what's kind of cool.

Take the bottom of your foot. I'm gonna mimic it with my hand and I'm gonna try to just spiral rotate so that I'm turning my angle of my leg more in facing now and then facing out. And just a little bit my three times through there, just a shearing it inward and outward like you're trying to spread the texture of that foam roller to make it more wide underneath your foot. Okay? And always, always, there's a nice compare contrast sort of relationship that we like to do.

But before you do that, let's do one little extra stretch for the base of those toes. Everyone needs the base of the toes stretched and worked a little bit. So I've got myself up on the ball of my foot. I'm gonna bend my standing knee a bit. And again, just try to kind of press some weight into the ball of that foot.

It's not much. You may not feel a whole lot of release. How about we go a little bit medial and lateral. It's nice to kind of explore the directions right and maybe a little circle with the ball of the foot. And then the opposite way.

Sometimes the feet hold a little extra tension that we're not aware of until you actually bring yourself to move through that foot and find it, right? And then stand on two feet and just feel what you feel. Remember, do more of what feels good. For me, that feels good. So go into the second side.

So here we go. The arch of the foot that's closer to the heel has the weight of the body on the roller. I'm gonna bend the front knee, lean into that front foot and lean away. Let's put a little breath with it. We can inhale as we lean forward and leaning back.

So it's around 11:15 here in Santa Barbara, California. I think some of you have a movement practice right now that's occurring later in the day, evening hours. This is wonderful to do any time but also definitely at the end of the day to quiet your body. Get you ready for some wonderful REM sleep, right? Okay, let's start to move the ankle now.

So I've got my ankle in flexion. I'm gonna bend it more flexion of the ankle. I'm pulling my heel toward me. Rolling the roller toward me a little bit, increasing dorsiflexion and then the opposite way. I'm gonna reach the top of my foot toward you all.

Okay? And let's do that three or four times more. So flexing, inhaling, (inhales deeply) and (exhales) going forward. Keep a consistent amount of pressure on your foot as you're leaning down on it. See what that feels like.

And if you notice that you lose the pressure, perhaps make note of that and practice more of that. We want to keep that consistent pressure. Okay. Yeah, one more time. Hope that feels good.

Okay, now changing the direction. Just angle the foot, leg, knee out to the side, a little external rotation. I'm on the ball of the foot still. Now leaning into that. Okay, here comes the rotation.

So I've got a pressure, I'm gonna start to pivot basically. I'm trying to kind of like go horizontal fiber work across the bottom of my foot, both directions. Ever done this in the sand? It's kind of cool to see how far deep you can go into the sand granules, the grains of sand. Couple more, right, see if you can feel that change of sensation through your foot and maybe up into the arch and ankle area.

One more time of that pivot. Okay, and then roll a little bit. We have the base of the toes. So you're coming up on the ball of that foot. Can't forget the toes.

Okay, they're really important. So you're up on a relevee, trying to have good alignment there from hip, knee, ankle, and then do a little bit of foot side to side, medial, lateral, going across that transverse line of the top of your foot, okay. And maybe make a little circle couple of times, and then a circle the other way. One more time. Let's go right through the arch.

All right, and stand foot by foot and chest. Feel what you feel. Hopefully some relationship from your feet up into your body. So we're going down now. Everyone, we're going down to the roller.

So where you want to be aligned, is tailbone near the end, and your head at the top of that roller. Okay, this is some time to breathe. And I want us to be practicing and focusing on three different types of breathing or three directions of breathing, I should say. So make your feet comfortable right now. Legs and feet comfortable.

And the first breath I wanna have us do is a front to back breathing. So yeah, you get to breathe your stomach abdominal region up and down. Okay, so let's just expand that abdominal wall ceiling way and exhale and let that air just come down from the ceiling. Okay, your abdominal's away from the ceiling. Here we go.

And down. So the breath creating space in here. Our exhale is not meant to constrict the space. It's meant to actually support and embrace the space that you put in there. Right.

So as you're breathing, abdominals towards the ceiling, you might also start to want to breathe. Some of us may wanna do opposite and breathe your lumbar back toward the roller. I'm gonna choose that one now so that I'm expanding posteriorly and exhale. Maybe two more like that. Inhale back into the lower back.

Creating space on the inhale, exhale, embracing, containing, hugging the space. One more time. Inhale into your lower back. Okay, now let's take another breath. We're going to put our hands every one on the sides of the ribs.

Yes, lateral breathing. Let's go five rounds. Inhale, right to left breathing. And exhale. Inhale right to left.

And exhale. So the right to left rib cage breathing. Let's think about that. Keep going. That the inside of our rib cage, all of our vital organs really, right?

So let's keep get space and hydration and movement in there. So breath equals movement. Go big! Your exhale is not meant to constrict the space. It's there to support the space. One more time.

Even breathing up in the ribs by your armpits. There's ribs up there. Yeah, there's lung tissue out there. Breathe that way. Okay, one more style of breathing, and that's gonna be top to bottom.

And so one hand can go on your lower abdomen, maybe by pubic bone and hip bones. Perhaps the other one is up by your ribs or even way up by sternum collarbone five times. Let's go. Think of breathing long in a axial way hand to hand, elongating oneself, exhale. And remember you're not constricting it.

You're supporting it, maintaining it. Again, inhale being the it. What is the it? The length, the space, the decompression, the feeling is... Remember you're taking the time for yourself to feel good.

To release, to release. Okay. Let's take three breaths together, three breaths cycles. Try to do all three breathing styles in those three breaths. So we're talking volume in the ribcage, thorax.

Let's go, big breath. Top to bottom, side to side, front to back. Exhale, keep all that space you created. You have more to go. Twice more.

Exhale and try to maintain that space. How does that feel? Anything new inside yourself? One more time. It should feel pretty cool and hopefully new for some things.

Okay, moving on to a pelvic tilt. No, no glute contraction. Let's feel the rhythm of motion of our pelvis. So I want you to take that big volumous breath. As you exhale, feel the weight of the pelvis.

tip back a little bit. I'm gonna think of more about elongating my lumbar into the roller. And then the inhale breath is to rock the pelvis to a little more of an anterior tilt. The exhale is a lumbar posterior or pelvic posterior tilt. Think about this as elongating that space in your lower back though.

And rock two, anterior. Just one more there. Pelvic tilt. We'll do this pelvic tilt a little bit later. It's subtle, but it's really, really important.

And then inhale into your neutral or anterior tilt. Okay, everyone, arms open wide. If you can get your arms on the floor, top of arms on the floor, welcome to do that. Take a moment. The space between your hands, this right hand, this left hand, can you make it bigger?

Because you breathe bigger. Creating that space. Now what I want us to focus on now is thoracic mobility going in the sway. See my hand? A sway, kind of like that.

Interiorly, inside yourself. Okay, I live near the ocean. I'm not a water woman but I love looking at the water. I love the power of water. Water is liquid and fluid.

Yes, we are liquid and fluid. So let's liquefy and become more liquid-like, in the motion of our rib cage. And maybe the pelvis comes along, maybe the shoulder girdle comes along, maybe even this cervical spine and skull want to sway with us. Remember a breath and movement occur together. So that's a good thing.

It's hydration. We are releasing. We are restoring, renewing, connecting. Now let's slow it down. And then depending on how fast you're going.

I'm going pretty slow already. But I wanna go to one direction and take a big breath into that. That exhale is gonna allow me to just sway through the center. Inhale to the other side. Exhale through center.

If you were with me last week, you remember I was talking about the breath doesn't have a stop or start. It's very circular. Breath is circular. It doesn't have a start and stop until it needs to end of life. Inhale becomes the exhale which becomes an inhale.

I could do this for the rest of the hour, but I'm not going to and I'm sure you don't wanna only do this. But you know what, you could. (chuckles) And you could have a wonderful experience. But what we'll move on to next. Keeping with the thoracic mobility seam is I want you to slither off your roller, any direction. Enjoy the flat floor for at least 10 seconds.

Oh my gosh. Breathe into your back. You've created all that space for those lungs just to drop down into the back of the rib cage containers. So healthy. Onward we go.

Turn off and I'm gonna come on up everyone. Turn your roller please horizontal to your mat. Guide yourself down. And also in these types of strange, stress and change of schedule and energy, how? Of course I can't hear you.

But how have you been feeling in your vessel, in your container? Tighter, constricted? Some of you may feel more free and more exuberant. That's great. For those of us that might be feeling a little less, I think all the more better to come down on the ground, get grounded, get on the ground.

All the online workouts that make us sweat and work hard are great, but you need to balance it out. We all know that. So here we go. Onward. I'm at the tips of the scapula.

My hands are behind my head. Elbows are somewhat narrow. I want you to keep going into the sway of your rib cage. I'm gonna turn on just a little acute angle here for you guys, is just a little sway of the rib cage right to left. And again, inhaling and exhaling, carrying on with the liquid like theme.

Okay, mobilizing those thoracic zones. All righty. Find your way to a little bit of a less swayey placement and then elongate back. This is thoracic spinal extension. If some of you are ready to go arching all the way back, please do.

If you are not ready, please do not. Elbows narrow may feel better. Exhale and just bring your head up to the level with your spine, not a chest lift, not flexion of spine. We'll take that twice more. Let the breath move you into that long supple extension with your ribcage unlocked.

Your diaphragm really free to breathe big. Exhale, just a little head lift, bringing your head to level with your trunk. And one more time, everyone. Inhale back. Play with your elbow angle once or twice, elbows facing ceiling, elbows to the corners of your space and maybe elbows wide.

Pick one that feels luscious for you for one more breath. While you're in this pretty big extension, can you do a tiny bit of trunk flexion? Trunk flexion. I'm just doing a little bit of trunk flexion under arm, toward roller hip, yep. And then under arm toward the other side.

Just easy, easy with breath once more. And one more breath the other way. Oh, yeah. Okay, now, I'm gonna move my roller. I keep on kind of changing my angle for you all.

Lift your hips up. Elbows still facing the ceiling. And let's bring that roller more right between our shoulder blades. Do a little bit just very easy rolling of the tissue between your shoulder blades. How about some breath?

Twice more. Hopefully you're feeling some oh, yeah, that feels good kind of response in here. Yes. Okay, setting the hips down. Roll toward me onto your side.

We're gonna work a little lat releasing now. So I've got my roller right at the base of my shoulder blade on my side ribs. This hand, bottom hand holds the head. This one also holds the head. The knees are just in the easy clam set up.

Okay. Now if you're on a harder roller, and you're already feeling like ouch, this is not comfortable, please don't do it on the roller. You could just do on your mat, doing the ribcage mobility that we're about to do. If you're on a good squishy roller, this probably feels great. Half roller, same thing.

Here we go. Let's breathe in. Remember we're taking three dimensions breath, top to bottom, side to side, front to back. I want you to exhale and softly rotate forward. I'm gonna channel my eyes to look down to the floor in front of my mouth, right where my mat is.

And then the inhale is to open toward the sky. Let's do just twice more. Big breath air in, exhale toward the roller. Inhale toward the sky. See if you can allow your body weight to really just drop into the roller for support.

Exhale and inhale. Good. And then to face one another. Using your top hand to help you come on up, let's do just a little bit of passing the roller across your tricep line. Okay?

So here's what I have in mind. Coming down, hand behind the head. This other hand, you may need to use it. Now if you're on a roller that doesn't roll, the half roll, you can roll yourself side to side, right like that. Some of us are also going to do that with you.

So we'll go front and back. But where I was also wanting to go is long from elbow to underarm, and our underarm back down to elbow. Three to five passes. How about that breath? Interesting area.

Triceps and lats can be kind of interesting little partners. They're like there anyway. If you release them, maybe they'll help your shoulders feel better. I'm gonna keep it simple and not get too anatomical, okay? Some of you know I could go crazy with anatomy but let's go on sensation.

Okay, I got caught on my breathing there. So, how do you feel? Shake that arm a little bit. Okay, how about the other side? We just have to shimmy around.

Get on our side. Yeah. Okay, hand behind head, other hand behind head. Take a moment before we start to do this and find something in your space right now. Could be in front of you, around you, what you feel even when you're here and just take note of it.

Hear it and put the, if it. Hopefully if you see it, it makes you smile. If you hear it, it makes you smile or if you feel something, just put that feeling in you. Alright, now we're ready. Let's go to the second side exhaling to rotate just ever so slightly forward.

Can you let your bodyweight get a little heavier on that roller? Let that roller help manipulate and mobilize some tissue. Let's breathe in as we rotate to the ceiling. Circular breath, exhale brings us back. Inhale brings us up and open.

Birds are outside my room and they're happy out there in their little trees. Exhaling down. Thank you birds. Inhale, to the sky. Oh man, feels good to relax into the ground, get grounded.

Okay, tricep time. Just move your body up a little bit. Hand behind the head. Again, let's go forward and back a little bit. Okay, yeah, I prefer myself, I've got a little loud there to go from elbow to underarm in a long sweep, rather than the side to side speed.

That's my personal flavor of this. And I know as I work on shoulder flexion all the time and more thoracic mobility, that's my thing. Well, it's one of the things. I do like to stretch the triceps or release these because it is helping me get better shoulder flexion. It's all associated to axial elongation, right?

And thoracic mobility. It really is. Okay, I've lost count again. I'm gonna do it once more. Just back and forth.

Okay, great. Hopefully feeling really, really wonderful. I'm gonna stay in the upper limb region for one more round here. So if you're okay coming up on your knees, this is where I'm headed. We won't be here long.

But hands, forearms, the carpal tunnel, if you will. And some of us if we've been doing more than normal, it's just maybe it's getting congested in here. Okay, so whoever rolls out their hands. I know if you do the melt work, you get your hand work, right? You can get the melt balls.

What if you don't have those? Here's a roller. Put your hands wide on there, guys. Just like we did our feet. I want you to roll your your palm on that roller.

Put a little pressure even to the pads of your fingers. You could get really fixated and get index finger, middle, ring, pinky. But why don't you just roll those palms? Okay. Now where I'm headed.

I'm lowering my body weight. I'm rolling across the base of my wrist, the retinacula there. A lot of stuff that happens. Rolling bodyweight comes onto the forearms and leaning onto my forearms, rolling toward my elbows. And then I'm rolling back, getting a nice hip hinge also.

A couple passes. Now, as you go back and forth, why don't we and you play with rotating palms face up a couple passes. Okay, palms face in, back and forth. See what you feel. Palms face down.

And maybe you can kind of pass between the two. Palms up. Palms down. And all the while just continue your movement, that perpetual motion I talk about a lot when we do the flex_ial work. Yeah, just can you imagine how much fluid we're moving through these tissues?

Imagine that. It would be great to know, do the science and figure that out. Okay, keep moving. Can you close your palm, please, all the way? Squeeze.

You'll see what I mean. And then open. And squeeze your palm, close your palm, and open. Same thing. Palms facing in.

Keep your palm closed and then open it. Just feel that a couple times. Okay, and then palms face down, closed palm. And I'll hold whether rollers out by your elbows, open your hands as wide as you can like jazz hands. Okay, and then spoke your fingertips down.

Can you get your fingertips on your floor and do just a little gentle palm stretch there? Reaching the base of the hand toward the space in front of you. Just a couple. Good. Okay.

Yeah, and then notice what you feel. Hopefully a little bit of sparkle or kind of tingle throughout. Okay, moving on into some side body like adductor work. Some of you might have been wondering. Are we gonna release the adductors?

Yes, we are gonna give them some feelings and sensation. Get cosy on your side again. So I have my bottom leg straight, top knee bent quite high up to my chest, knee, shin, ankle on roller. Okay, now for just for this, I'm gonna take my bottom elbow and bend it just so I can let my head relax down on my arm. Okay, so here it is.

I've got the base of my knee on the roller here. I have a lot of my adductor flesh just available. It'll get rolled in a minute. But I want you just ever so slightly, guys, reach your femur toward me. And then roll your pelvis back or roll your femur back.

So you can think about it just as femur or why don't we take femur and pelvis? And pelvis and femur. And femur and pelvis. Not everyone has a lot of sensation here but some of us might. I'm gonna move my knee back up just a little bit of past through that long adductor line.

So if it feels comfortable for you, you want to go more, keep going. Keep going so that you get that roller way up on a short adductors up by your pubic bone. Spend a moment there, just rocking your, I'm thinking my knee toward you guys. Knee, knee, knee and come on back. Let's go one more time with a little breath focus.

I'm gonna breathe in big. I'm gonna stay there. Just rock a little bit more. I'm thinking really long adductors, more freedom in my hip joints from I've been sitting a lot which I have or standing a lot, gripping. Ungrip, unlock.

When not on lockdown, in the adductors. Okay, and come on back. Okay, ease your way up to the other side. And keep smiling I think, because I love the sound of those birds out there. They're just coming to give us a little accompaniment.

Okay, ready? Let's breathe. And we'll roll. Now, see if you can let your femur be heavy on the roller. Come back from pelvis, femur.

And then femur, reaching toward me, pelvis follows suit. And then the return trip is pelvis and femur. And again, my knee is right at the top of that knee, following that line through that inner thigh and back. Try to keep some consistent pressure down on the roller. Let's spend some time out there now.

If you wanna go a little farther, you reach your femur longer out from your pelvis, a little rocking. Rock the pelvis or think of reaching your femur. Both creating a little extra sweep of the roller against your tissue. Right and then come back. We'll do one more with more breath focus in.

Here we go. Again, heavy. Supported. Unlock. Release, rock a little bit.

Now to get that roller way up in the high inner groin. Yeah, good. Wonderful. Okay, and then come on out of there. Now I wanna take us up and do just a wee bit Megan McGregor, my friend in Scotland.

Sit up on your, and SJ. My two girls there. Love you guys, if you're watching. When I went to Scotland a few years ago I did come back and that has stuck. Wee bit.

I say it all the time. And I guess I'm a little Scottish. Okay. So feet can be apart. Hands are behind us.

Roll your body weight, sway your body weight toward one hip, get into the bigger, thicker gluteal tissue. Okay, get in there and mobilize. And I'm gonna sway my pelvis toward my feet. I'll sway my pelvis back toward my hands. I'm gonna breathe in big and kind of rewinding to where we started.

That the breath helps create movement and space. The exhale doesn't constrict that. Supports the space, supports the mobility. Okay, good. Couple more on this just kind of inner big glute tissue.

Like I said at the beginning, we're not going down IT band land today. We're just right up here in the bigger sicker tissue. Okay, now find a place. If you found a place that felt precariously a little bit more like oh, there's something there, stay there and make a little kind of circular motion with your pelvis around that spot. Okay, and then the other way.

Ring, I love circles. Talked about it last time. Lots of good things come in circular things. Around, round, round. Okay, now sweep it over to the other hip.

That's all I wanted to do there right now is just sweep it over, and just turn so I can see you all better, which I really can't, but you guys can see me better. So I've got my thighs leaning one way. And so I'm just swaying, reaching my pelvis toward my feet side of my body, and then moving my pelvis back toward the hand side of my body and toward my feet. Just adjust things. And it feels different on this hip as it should.

Get a little breath. Maybe the inhale helps you drag down towards your feet. Exhale, back to the hands or vice versa. See if you can let your bodyweight get a little heavier on the roller. Yeah, and again, I'm kind of talking to you, some of you who don't have the full roller.

What can you be doing? You can be moving yourself side to side. I haven't told you that a lot in the last couple of patterns of exercises. You can be going across it this way. All of us could be.

I just happen to be doing the forward and back motion. Okay. So then guys find a place somewhere in that tissue or that zone, that gluteal area that felt comfortably curious. You know what I mean? And make a little bit of a circular motion of your pelvis in there.

Put some breath with it. Create more space. Oh, I hear a little chirp. And circle the other way. Okay, great.

Now come off the roller from that position. I'm gonna turn around again. We will be going hips on top or sacrum on top of roller. We will come on our back. We've got the sacrum right on that roller and I want you to, with both feet on the floor here, take a breath.

I had to take a breath. Go into your pelvic tilt. Right so you're bringing your hip bones toward your abdomen, elongating that space in your lumbar region. And then inhale, I want you to move your pelvis more toward an end here your tilt, keeping those rib cages relaxed. Twice more.

Pelvic tilt. It's a beautiful elongation for your lower back line. And then inhale two extensions. Pretty small. You may not be able to see much happening but there's movement.

Pelvis tilt, tipping up toward torso. The lower back is getting a beautiful yarn like stretch. You might even yawn, that's great. And then inhale into kind of a neutral or anterior line. And then back to neutral.

Pick a leg. I'm gonna bring my left one up first. Hold on to that shin. Extend the other leg, oh lusciously long. Keep a little bit of your posture, your tilt please in this so that you get more of the benefit of the lengthening elongation stretch here in the front and the back of your lumbar.

All of that where leg connects pelvis. Okay. And then I just love the same arm as leg, long line. So my right leg is out long, my right arm is up. I'm gonna take three big breaths cycles, top to bottom, side to side, front to back.

Breath equals movement and space, hydration. One more. Good. And now let's bring the hand again onto the shins. We've got both hands supporting the other shin.

The long leg, bend that now please. Just kind of a gentle bicycle movement. Can you take that leg straight to the ceiling right now? Okay, flex your ankle and aim your sitting bone more forward and your whole pelvis and in fact, into what feels like more of an anterior tilt. You might notice the feeling hopefully so in the hamstrings.

That's what I wanted just to feel, especially way up here near the sit bone. Okay, circle your foot a few times, both directions, and then point your foot and then let's lower the leg all the way down, everybody. We'll go one more round with that. So you'll bend your knees, sliding that foot up along the mat. It comes straight to the ceiling.

Chances are, as you've taken it to the ceiling, your pelvis went posterior. It's fine. It actually feels fine. But now let's go into more pelvis, a little more anterior. And, yeah, for me, I just really feel it there.

How about a big breath? It creates movement and space. Other side. So just lower that shin. Hands on that shin.

Extend the other leg long through hip flexors. Get that beautiful stretch in your tummy, your stomach. Same arm, overhead as leg as long. The three breath fashion top to bottom, side to side, front to back. Three rounds.

And again, see if you can let yourself be heavy, heavy, heavy down. Let the roller support us. Let the ground support us. One more. That top hand comes and holds the shin for support.

Slightly bicycle the other food and leg up to the ceiling. Okay, yep. And then aim that pelvis a little bit more toward the anterior line. Flex your ankle. Yeah and circle the foot.

I really feel more. I love when I feel more. Oh man, so good to feel. Bend the knee. Slide the leg out.

I realized I did a little different fashion there. That's okay. Bend the knee. Off we go. Check that pelvis.

Maybe you have more opportunity or potential to get more anterior tilt. Flex the foot a little, circle, circle. Okay, and we've just brought some awareness into the hamstrings. We're really going to do a lovely. Let's keep it straight and lower it down.

I think a really lovely hamstring and calf release now and just a different backline sensation. So both feet on the mat first. Use your legs to just support your pelvis. You don't have to lift into a bridge, by any stretch. Just keep the pelvis down on the mat.

Once again, that should feel really lovely. Keep the roller up on the higher side of the back of your thighs and let your legs go straight. You might have a little bend in the knees just because the thighs are being lifted by the roller. That's perfect. Open your arms out.

Okay, now check yourself and I really want your ribs heavy. This is about the back of the legs. I want us to start internally and externally rotating the thighs. I'll kind of show you this way. So I'm just spiraling in, spiraling out.

Spiraling in, spiraling out. And as much mobility as you have in both ranges, go for it. Okay, thighs inward, thighs outward. Thighs in and out. Yeah, that should feel pretty darn good.

I want us to stay with the thighs in external rotation. Bend knees a little bit. Just flex the knee joints a little bit. And you might feel some deeper work of release in the lateral hamstring. Some of you may feel an actual responsive contraction in your glutes.

So if you're wondering how to get to the glutes in other days where you need some training, maybe doing the sequencing of releasing can help wake them up. Then go work them out. What a great concept. (chuckles) Okay, but let's carry on with the hamstrings. I want you to move the roller down so that it's more kind of in the center back belly of your thighs. And once again, roll the legs internal, external.

I happen to doing mine at the same time. You could certainly do both sides to the right, both sides to the left. Okay, maybe play with that and kind of circle the feet a little bit too. This is all that explorative kind of work. I would suggest that we all concentrate on a slight of pressing of the thighs down against the roller.

How do you feel with that? Change? Okay, yep. And then one more round. Almost to the back of the knee, not quite.

So that's the hamstrings right before they meet the back of the knee joint. Same thing. Internal external rotation. Swaying of the thighs in and out. Just breathe.

Okay, I'm gonna move the roller down to the calves. Okay. And some of you have seen me do this before. You can start again, the higher part of the the calf, again at the bottom of the back of the knee. You could be right there.

Those of you who don't have the rolly roller, just a half roller, I want you and actually let's all do together. Roll the legs, both toward your right and roll across to the left. Roll across to the right. Roll across the left. So one leg's turning out, one leg's turning in, vice versa.

And then interesting. (laughs) Side to side. Try it with your ankles in flexion. It's kind of cool. And if you don't like that, just relax the feet. Now I want us all to go to internal rotation with the femurs and then external rotation with the femurs all the way down the long line of the legs.

Okay. Let's move the roller down a couple of inches on the calves and carry on. Both can go to the right, both can go to the left. Oh, yes. Apply a little pressure of your legs down against that roller.

Breathe, create the space and hydrate. You can do both internal, both external. Okay. And then one more round. Go almost to the bottom of the long line of your legs in same thing.

Both one direction, both the other. Who knew? Did you know that about your legs, that you have that much sensation down there in this connective tissue? Yeah, we're both internal, both external. Try flexed ankles, pointed ankles.

Okay, now here's the fun one. I'm at the rollers at the end of my leg almost to my own pretty much at the achilles or down your toes. I'm then going to bend those knees and roll that roller to my achilles tendon and then back up into the calf tissue. I'm gonna move the roller up a little so I can get more knee flexion, knee extension. I'm in parallel right now.

But what I wanna do next here it is, is turn the thighs out. Bend the knees with flexed ankles. Roll the legs to parallel and roll back out to straight legs. Let your thighs roll out, bend your knees, turn the legs out, parallel and extend. Twice more.

It's an interesting sensation for the outer line of those calves. Okay, and then reverse it four times. Parallel to bend the knees, turn out and then elongate the legs. While you're turned out, spiral them to parallel. Let's breathe in.

Open, down and around. Last two. I think we've almost, almost touched all of our body parts with the roller. However, there's one more area. Come on up to sitting, everyone.

One more area that I want to make sure we get to, and we won't spend a lot of time here. We could actually spend 30 full minutes if we wanted to, but it's gonna be at the base of the neck. Okay. And the base of the skull. So very gently bring yourself down.

Okay, and now if you can see me carefully, I don't have the roller on my cervical neck. No, no, no, neither do I have it on the back of the skull, the tip of the head. It's on that occipital ridge. Okay. We've got this beautiful architecture of our skull, these landmarks, these bony landmarks that are just there for beautiful reasons.

One of them was for foam rolling work. Okay. And yeah, again, we can do lots of things here, but for today, let's be simple. Settle in. I want you very, very gently to rotate your head to your right or left, apply a little pressure of your skull on the roller.

And then across to the other side. Please keep the same amount of pressure on the back of that neck and head. Partly so that it's consistent but also so the roller doesn't slide out from underneath you. Come back to the first side. Breathe in big.

The three directions. Make three little circles with the tip of your nose while you're mobilizing around the base of your skull, and then three the opposite direction. Little neck release there. Rotate through the center, and then to your other side. You're basically at the base of that occipital ridge on the opposite side and you've got three little circles of your nose, which is mobilizing some of that on the base of the skull.

And then again, three on the other side. Come through center. Can you take the tip of your nose more to the ceiling and the tip of your nose just a little bit toward your chest? Very small. Twice more.

It's so small, you may not be able to see anything happen if you were to look. Okay, and I want all of us to open our jaw really wide. Close it. Lift your head off your roller, everyone. Move it away from you.

Lie down on your back, just fully. Arms out to the sides. You can put your legs down long on the floor. And let's just take three big arms circle movements of our arms and just recognize how much space and freedom you hopefully feel within your body here. You might be ready for either like carrying on the sense of relaxation through your day.

Some of us have more to do today in terms of work and tasks and things. If you're at the end of your day, maybe you drift off into some warm water in a bath or shower. Dreamland for sure. Sometimes when we release our fascial system and not even release it but educate and talk to it this way, you might have a really great dreams tonight or hopefully they're wonderful. Come up to sit everyone if you haven't already.

And I want last a little bit we're going to do is just open your legs wide. Just like this. Take your hands forward. I've been kind of winding classes up lately with this stretch. It just feel somehow right here.

And we're walking. Feel the line of your legs ease. Elbows can come down. Three big breaths. And then on your last breath, you roll yourself up to sitting.

And we have concluded today's live class roll, release, restore. I hope you feel relaxed. I hope you feel like you've hydrated. And again, thank you. I'll leave it at that.

My gratitude to you. Thank you all so so much. Bye!