Class #3768

Stretchy Feel-Good Mat

25 min - Class
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Description

You will improve your flexibility with this Mat workout by Meredith Rogers. She focuses on stretching, making sure to address your entire body. This is a great class on its own or you can add it to the end of a more intense workout.
What You'll Need: Mat

About This Video

Jun 12, 2019
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Transcript

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Hi there. Thanks for being here. This class is just basically to get ourselves a little bit more flexible. It's an intended for an add on to add a different class or a maybe after a run or a different type of workout. It's not a lot of typical Palladio's choreography and we'll mostly focus on just stretching, so that sounds good to you. Stick with me, stand on your feet. Take your arms out to the side, up over your head.

Allow your back to gently lift. It's always feels to me like I'm just gathering energy and then let the arm thall kind of light through space until they arrive down at your sides. I'm just going to step in a little bit, so I'm Morana just underneath my sitting bones shape with my legs. We're going to bring the chin into the chest. Yep. We're going to just start bending the spine forward.

Roll Down

Now you can do this with straight legs or you can bend your knees, whatever feels more comfortable to you. Pause when you arrive at your limit and there is no rules as to where that is in space. As you exhale, feel, feel your feet on the floor grounded or into the earth. Grounded and lift from your center, talking the tail under, I mean all the way back up to standing, stacking the spine, taking the arms around it, lifting the chest. I know reach back out, big spread wide open position through the arms and then allowing the knees to either be straight or a soft. As you roll down, down, down through your spine, just noticing that there's support from the front of the body as the back of the body cascades forward over the length in here. I really like the sense of that groundedness into the feet and the lifts through the center of the body of this stack. My body back up and once again last time, reach out, out to the side, down to the size had can start going down anytime [inaudible] those are lifted.

Spine is heavy. Once you get down toward the end of your range, just take your hands on your elbow so you're cradling your elbows in your hands. We're going to bend the knees on the inhale. We're going to pull the abdominals in and up. Let the spine hang as you stretch your legs towards straight on the exhale.

Bend and Stretch

Bend the knees on the inhale and stretch the legs. On the exhale. Bend the knees on the India Strepsils legs. On the exhale, going to take the hands down. Ben, just the left knee, left hand stays on the floor. Going to open the right arm around and up towards the ceiling. We're going to take the right arm down as the left leg straightens.

Side Body Twist

Can I bend the right knee? Open the left arm around it up. Look up at the hand, come back. Then the left knee. Open the torso again. This time let the arm go overhead and lean back into that right hip. Come back. Oh, so you're right over yourself again and center and right leg.

Then. Then we open out to the side. Now as the arm reaches overhead, we lean back into that hip. We come back, come back to center. Let's all soften our knees. Let's all feel the weight of the feet or the weight of the spine and the feet roll up all the way, all the way, all the way up to standing. Take the arms around and [inaudible] interlock your hands. Turn the palms of the hand face and we're going to stretch to the left and come back to center and stretch to the right. Lifting up and over and come back to center.

Side Bend

Let's do that one more time. Feel that the ribs are lifting away from the palaces. The spine goes over to one side, let the pelvis drift in the other direction, and then everything gets collected back. Reach up and over. It's a good idea just to hang onto the abdominals a little for support because you're going to need them to help you back up again. And then we go over, we're gonna rotate, bringing the arms down, maybe just in front of the chest, come back to the sigh and lift up and then rotate and reach around and come back to the sigh.

That come all the way at taking the arms all the way down. Alright, so in my mind I think it's nice to get the more difficult stretching over with first. So we'll come now down onto our knees. Well, more difficult for me anyway. I don't know about you. We're going to take the left foot four and I want you to organize your foot so it's a little bit in front of your knee. On the diagonal place the hands on the left side. Think of pressing the pelvis forward.

Use the back of the leg muscles of the right leg to help support the front of the hip. As you now bend down and find your hip flexor stretch. So what I like to do here is I like to put my hands on my thigh bone and push my body up and back and breathe [inaudible] then we're going to take the right hand and just take it to the outside of that left leg. Take the left arm behind. You can just reach an empty space. I'm holding now one hand on one leg, one hand on one leg, and I'm using my two arms to help me twist. And then we're coming back. Going to bring the hands down onto the mat.

Hamstring and Hip Flexor Stretches

We're going to bring the pelvis back, trying to square the pelvis in space. I had to look at mine to see where it was that's allowed. And then we're gonna do that one more time through. So we're going to come up, find the hip flexor stretch pool, be abdominals in and up, and then pushing to that front foot. Hands come down, foot flexes. Try and square the pelvis as much as possible. Try to flatten out the back as much as possible. Yes, I'm aware that mine is not completely flat. I'm trying and so are you.

And then we're gonna bring that leg back, set it down on the mat, take the right foot forward again. When you set up, take the foot slightly forward on the diagonal so that NAZA right knee bends to come over that writing. Cull the knee tracks just a little bit more over the ankle. Then in front of, it's not a the end of the world if it goes slightly more, a little bit forward to the ankle but not too, too far. So we're going to find this stretch. We're going to breathe, we're going to lift, we're going to keep our front body pulled in. Then we're going to turn, so I take one hand to my outside thigh, one hand the other way and I use my arms to help me rotate. Now maybe that doesn't work for you.

Maybe that's not a comfortable position for you, so feel free to do whatever with this Armani fit can even just come to the back of the same hit and then come center hands comes down. Let me take that pelvis back. Okay. That's not a bad idea to look and see if you are a squared. I'm looking across the line of my two front hips bones and then we're going to go through that one small. We'll bend that knee, come up into the hip flexor stretch. I have a couple of breasts here.

[inaudible] stretch back one more time. Yeah, lengthening out through this spine. Think about lifting the tailbone up and back. Okay. And then we'll just bring that like back then come all the way down onto the mat. Yeah. So here we're going to just lie all the way back.

Take the hands behind the left thigh. Hold the sigh relatively close to your body. Now not all of us will be able to get to a fully straight leg with what I'm asking us to do. I won't, but I'll talk you through it. What I, what I have in mind is I want you to keep that relationship between the fire and the body and try to kick the leg back and bend and hold the fast. So as you stretch the leg, maybe you'll get a little straighter each time. We're going to do five [inaudible]. I'm being a little straighter each time. This is too feeling the back of the pelvis, anchoring on the mat.

Hamstring Stretch

Here's our last time. What we're going to do here. So we're going to walk up that lay now, get it as straight as you can. Pull it towards you. Now see if you can continue to pull it towards you as you bring your body back down onto the mat. [inaudible] if you would like to make your stretch bigger, a good way to do that is to just pull your foot back. Dorsey, flex the foot and press the the back of the knee. So that's that. We're going to stretch that leg out.

We're going to take the hands behind the right leg. This time. Leslie doesn't have to do much. It can just rest on the mat. We're going to hold that relationship between the fine and the body as we attempt to straighten the knee and bend the knee and again, straightened me [inaudible] and bend. There's no place for judgement about how straight or not straight you are. I mean, unless you want to, in which case make space for it for yourself.

But I'm trying to just ease my way into the movement each time. He was the last time. So we get the leg as straight as we can. We walk up, we have another chance to see if we can straighten it at at all more. Maybe the answer's no. That's an inappropriate answer and then we try bring it with us as we lay our body back down. Now here again, if you wanted to increase your stretch, it helps to flex the foot.

It makes a much bigger stretch. Okay, I'm laughing because my leg is shaking and we're going to bend. Now we're going to take that, keep that leg up. We're going to bring the left hand to the outside of the right thigh and then just bring the right tie across the body and then once you come back through center, straighten the right leg on the mat. I hold the outside of my mat.

Spinal Twist Stretch

You could also just bring your arms straight out to the side and take the leg across to the right. If you wanted to, you could take your eyes and look across the left arm or shoulder. Think about lengthening the spine as you rotate it and then we're going to come back to center. We're going to bend both knees. Going to take the left thigh or sorry. Yep. Let's do that. Left thigh over the top of the right leg. So I'm essentially sitting cross legged from there.

Spinal Twist Stretch Variation

We're going to pull the right leg to the left. Now, any amount of shifting around in the right leg as appropriate and allowed. And now we're going to come back. When you're ready to centered, be careful and then cross the right knee over the top of the left knee and go to the left again. So we go in the same direction. It's just a slightly different stretch. I, for me, it's a little bit more spinal stretch. The other first one's a little bit more hip stretch and then coming back to center and then slide the right ankle up onto the left knee and lift the left side.

And he'll either hold on to your Shin or the back of your thigh and bring yourself in. I like holding onto my Shin, actually bring, bringing us into that figure four stretch. It's nice here to rock, a little side to side [inaudible] and then once you're ready to let that go, you do. And then we're ready for the other side. So we cross the right leg over the left and we pull the left knee to the right. Hey, I like have my opposite arm out to the side so that I can find a stretch across my shoulder and my chest as well as in my hip and down the side of my body. Let me come back to center. Easy, easy.

Figure Four Stretch

And we uncrossed and put the left leg over the right and we take it to the same direction, to the right. Okay. And then back into center when you're ready with carefulness and then into the figure four stretch. Just breathing again. It's appropriate and allowed to do a gentle rocking back across the pelvis or increasing the stretch and then coming back, increasing and then coming back, they're going to let the foot go and then let go.

Spinal Twist Stretch Variation

We're going to take their feet all the way to the outside, just right to the edge of the mat or outside of it. So now we're going to drop both knees to the left and then we use the back of the right leg to press forward into the right pelvis. The one that's lifted up off the mat. It's got a little side stretch, a little hip stretch. Okay. And then come back to the center and go to the other side.

Figure Four Stretch

So both these drop to the right, the back of the left leg works to press forward into the hip. Now I'm going to take us through one more thing to each side. If this is enough stretch for you, stick with this one. But if you'd like to increase your stretch more, take both legs over first, then take the left foot onto the top of the right knee. Don't just pull it down towards the Mat, but instead think of pulling it away from you as you pull it down.

Windshield Wiper Legs

Just using the weight of the left leg to increase the stretch to the right here. And then let's take the foot off first and put it back out to the side. Bring both knees through, center over to the other side. Lift the right foot, put it on the left knee. Pull not just down but down in a way. And then undo the foot first. Come back up into center and then bring the feet in and bring your knees into your chest and give your knees a little hug, and then lift your feet up. Taking a hold of the outsides of your feet, flex the feet up towards the ceiling and open the feet, dropping the knees down towards the outside of the body. And then here again, you could choose to rock a little more to one side or the other.

Happy Baby Pose

It doesn't work for you to hold your feet. You can hold your ankles, whichever you prefer. And then from there, what we're going to do is we're gonna let the feet go and we're going to take the hands to the back of the legs. We're just going to bring the chest up and bring the knees in and just establish a little rocking. And then eventually just use moment to rock yourself up. We're going to take the legs out, straight or bent. So then these can be bent. The legs can be straight, just gonna do a little spine stretching forward. So I want you to just bring your head down because this is really the most specific piece of polarities choreography you'll get in this movement practice.

Spine Stretch Forward

I'm just taking the body forward and then letting it roll back up to sitting up straight and again, taking the Bonnie forward, pulling back through the abdominal is just support in a supportive way and then let the body stack back up. We'll just do one more again, letting the knees bend if that feels the most comfortable to you. It's not, this is not a practice where I'm trying to push anything into any specific place. Good. And then we'll come back up again. We'll take the right foot from that outer position and we'll bend. It could go against the calf. I put mine just against the knee.

Hamstring and Inner Thigh Stretches

Turn your torso so that your chest is facing towards your Shin and walked down. So your spine is off center, but your pelvis is on center and you just reach down and hold on. Whatever you can reach using your arms to just intensify that stretch or increase that stretch slightly. Yeah. And then keep holding on wherever you're holding on with the left arm.

Let your right arm come off, stretch a little further with the right arm, and then start o wowing the right rib cage to open, open, open, open, and then take the body back forward so it's squared to the thigh again, and gently make your way back. And then we'll go over on the right, the light, like we'll reach out towards the outside of the Mat. Then left leg will bend, and then we just do a gentle twisting. So we're square and we walk forward. [inaudible] finding the stretch, using the arms to just help us increase that gently. Yeah. And then keep holding them with your right hand. Let the left arm go. Take it a little further forward if you can or want to.

And then start rotating the, the left side of the rib cage up and around. Can you use your right arm a little bit to just encourage the downward pull of the spine and then allow your body to rotate back down and then allow your body to come up all the way. And then we're gonna take the feed into a diamond shape, into whatever diamond shape feels comfortable in your body. And if a diamond shape doesn't feel comfortable, choose a position of your legs that does. You're gonna push into the shins with the hands.

Spinal Flexion and Extension

And we're going to pull the chest through the arms and then we're going to allow the arms to continue to stay there. And we're going to Tuck the tail and we're going to try to round the spine into maximum round position and then come back up and let the spine arch and come back and let the spine around and come back one more. And then we're going to take the right hand over towards the left leg and the left arm behind us somewhere. Just using the arms for a gentle twist and back to the center. Changing sides. [inaudible] yeah, I hold onto the front of my shin, but really anywhere that's comfortable to you, the knee, the PSI, we all are different shapes and different lengths of bones.

Spinal Twist

Think so just make it feel happy and then come to center. I'm gonna try this time. We'll go to the other way again. One more time. This time I'm using my knee. Yeah. I don't like it as much, so I'm shifting back to my shin. So all different preferences of things too, and allow yourself to, um, choose your preference and then over to the other side. One more time. So we've done two to each side now.

Yeah. And then coming back to center and just closing your eyes and lifting your spine and taking a minute just to be present in this moment. Congratulate Yourself for taking the time to stretch and, um, have a nice day.

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Comments

Z A
3 people like this.
Meredith thank you soo much🙏These series fo stretch classes became my favorities for mornings and evenings. Can you consider doing a looong one with both cadillac and reformer in one class?  ❤️ 
Lovely thanks Meredith. Just the right length for after a busy day sat at a desk. Great commentary as usual! Hope you are well, Sarahx
Thanks ladies!
Z A I will certainly keep that request in mind!
1 person likes this.
Thank you! After my back injury that was a total release and sweetness!
2 people like this.
That felt great after a hot day of yardwork! And I’m absolutely loving the class notes on some of the classes!
1 person likes this.
Yum! Needed this! Thank you Meri, definitely returning to this one :)
2 people like this.
Thank you!
3 people like this.
Thank you! Exactly what my body needed today 😊
1 person likes this.
That was so yummy! I have a spinal fusion L3-L5, and it felt so good for my back. Thank you! I will definitely put this one in my favorites! ❤️
1 person likes this.
Great class!  I took your advanced mat class and then finished with this feel-good stretch class.  Just what my body needed.  Thank you Meredith, I look forward to more of your classes!
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