Tension Release Mat

Hey everyone. Welcome to class, always glad that you're here. Welcome to the garage, let's get started. We're just gonna move, we're gonna do some Pilates. So if you will just stand on your mat, find your feet, find the ground.

I like to look down and then work my way up. So let's just look at our feet. Outer edges of the feet are parallel, you sort of feel solid there and maybe roll the feet in and out so that you can find what feels like a neutral or evenly weighted distribution of your toes or the ball of the foot. Then a subtle shift forward so that you can feel that place where, oh my back of my body has to kick in just a little maybe I'll pull my abs in a little, maybe I'll stack my hips, then shift your weight ever so slightly back where you realize, okay, that's not gonna be fun. Find the middle ground and just let your bones be kinda heavy even as you allow for the space between them however little there may be rise up and be light.

Take an inhale and as you exhale, let your head dip forward, fall forward and let your body follow let your spine follow. The arms, the bones are heavy, the skin can be heavy if you let it. If you can touch the ground bend the knees when necessary, everybody bend your knees for three inhale, bend one, exhale straighten to the extent you can. Here's two, take your whole spine with you starting just to connect to yourself here's three, get to where you can feel free to put your hands on your shins or anywhere and help yourself roll back up. It's the tilt of the pelvis, it's the heaviness of that tailbone, it's the rolling up creating space, allowing for space might be a better way of saying it rather than trying to do anything.

Hunkering down, let yourself be light inhale, we'll do about three of those. So here it comes again. Exhale roll down and as you go, you're trying not to lean back we're trying not to shift off that center we started with. Top of the head to the floor, bend your knees, inhale, take your spine with you. Exhale, straighten.

Inhale, bend. If you're super flexible, think about pulling up the abs a little more one more time just so that you're not just doing hamstrings. Hold it in a straight position, inhale. Draw everybody, draw the belly and tilt the pelvis start to understand that those two things will always work together and roll back up. I promised you three, inhale.

Exhale down we go. Down, down, down. I'm shaking out my head a little bit here. I just woke up but I still need to free some tension up because I know I'll move way more efficiently if I do. So I'm asking you to try to look for places in your body.

Here we go, bend the knees, straighten. Two more, straighten. One more, straighten. Heavy head, heavy bones draw all the musculature up so that it just feels sort of natural rolling back up. Once you get to the top, check your alignment same as we had and then just take an inhale, raise the arms up I like palms, up I like to even look up.

stretch of and then fall. I do it again, inhale and let them fall, One more. Are you deciding how you're gonna feel at the end of this? Try create your own intention within the movements that we do. Okay, let's have a seat.

I'm gonna face this way just for the excitement of it. Today, okey dokey lie all the way down your feet on that pretty much the same position they just were while you were standing so if you can't see them which you can't, aim for that outer edges of the feet to be parallel straighten off the knees my knees are ever so slightly apart like they were when I was standing. Inhale, we're doing a pelvic curl. Start the exhale, let yourself feel how that belly draws in that affects the tailbone and you get to roll all the way to your shoulder blades, feeling this long slant board position hopefully. And if this is worth looking for, sometimes our backs are tighter, hip flexors are tight and we don't go quite as high and that's okay too.

Aim for nice and flat front of the hips. Take your inhale and exhale to melt or work your way down I like melt better than work at the moment. Oh wow, inhale. My wow was my teeter-totter all the way down. Exhale, roll up.

Stepping into your feet, finding the back of your body maybe stepping into the upper arms, triceps, collarbones wide, inhale and exhale all the way down. And so just warming up. If Gary's here today, he knows I take it a little slow in the beginning and then we'll kick it up. But for me, it's just like if I'm not really prepared, the rest isn't even fun. So here we go, we're at the top.

We inhale, exhale rolling down. And by rolling, I guess I mean articulating doing the best you can to imagine the bones to go down, inhale one at a time. Here up we go. And there you are, you're always checking yourself out, you're always being your own teacher. When you're ready, you're exhaling to roll down.

And the breath for me is often just choreography but I try to choose it in ways that help me. You can change it if it doesn't help you. Up we go. And again, collarbones wide. Sometimes we overdo a warmup, right?

Coming down, I'm gonna give you two more. And by overdo the warm up I mean we kinda go, right, the abs are gonna tighten and my butt's gonna tighten and I'm gonna clench everything and no, no, don't do that. Use only what you need to get where you wanna go and let the rest just go along for the ride and down. Last one. Plus the breath just feels good, doesn't it?

Going up, going up, going up and check himself out again and that's internally. So it doesn't feel solid, do I feel the back and the front a little bit. Exhale, come down. As you come down, start to just float the arms up right above your chest, your tailbone on a land. I like pumps toward each other fingers together because Reel taught me that.

Inhale, separate your arms out, reach out and I mean reach out like the widest wingspan you can get without touching the floor. Exhale as if you were squeezing, hugging a tree without the bent arms. Stopping right above your shoulders, do it again. Let's do about three. Inhale reach, reach, reach and it's here where if you overly clench your arms are gonna get sucked into your body, let them be long.

Exhale, come up that's where you'll start to get that neural stretch if ever you're on a computer, which I guess you probably are, maybe. Inhale, open wide this will be the last full one. Reach longer not by tightening but by letting, exhale come up. The next one we'll stay down but here it comes again. I think I just got bigger breasts on that.

Hold it out there, you can set your arms down mine won't look like they are because of the mat I'm on. Both knees come up, pin them together I'm thinking tabletop but you can bring them a little closer. Try to keep your feet up with your knees that's come towards this lovely fake wall. Here we go, inhale, rotate, check your knees out. They're lined up as if they're one, one is not out further than the other.

Start the exhale, melts the rib cage back and bring the legs with it. Other side, inhale over, keep going. And it's a sense of reaching from the waist. Exhale, back to center. And again, inhale.

Kathryn MacCamy who's gonna be here on Friday, used to say when she was teaching me, keep going. It was like your legs are like swaying like palm trees and I'll never forget the image. I mean palm trees when they sway usually it's quite windy but at the same time, that sense of, I can bend pretty far and I'll be all right. The other way. I keep going, I'm gonna do about four more two more depending on if you're listening to Mary and over.

One more each way, how about that? Just kinda warming like all right, I'm cool I can do this. And then put your feet down they can be apart again, lace the fingers behind your head fully and this is that time to kind of, for most of us, for all of us I would say, let the elbows come up a little maybe you can if you're look in straight up you can almost see them or you can see them in your peripheral vision. Gently press the back of your head into your hands even though your hands are on the ground, kind of keep that sensation, pelvis stays where it is. Exhale when you're ready to curl, nod your head, curl up, looking forward and then come back down.

Here's a breast pattern. Inhale, exhale, curl up. Inhale hold, exhale stretch yourself down, and up. Warming up all the parts. Inhale and exhale down.

Just one more. Well sort of stay up here, inhale again towards the green wall you're exhaling, rotating. So in this version of this warmup, shoulder aims towards hip, the knees are exactly where they were. Inhale, stay up as you come through the center go the other way, shoulder towards hip, keep that going. Inhale through center what's your head doing?

Is it still pressing back into your hands? And again, side to side. Starting to tap into the center of your body, the powerhouse, the core, whatever you wanna call it but just taking some time to go, all right I'm ready, I'm ready. Try not to fall down through the middle, stay up there. And one more each way, feet are still firmly on the ground.

Come back to the center, reach to the back of your legs, pull yourself up a little bit, bring the knees up now or the feet up I should say and then start a little rocking action but let's not let the elbows change, okay? So you're not yanking the legs in and out let's think changes in fact just trying to keep that sense of rounded spine, rocking and easy, inhale back, exhale up. Inhale back, exhale up. I'm gonna do two more we'll stay up. Next one is one we stay up on here it is.

Put your feet down. Hey, time to go. Let's hold on, let's continue holding on same position of the feet, we inhale. We're gonna roll back get away from this, roll back. From here, let go of your right arm, lift it up but don't change your body reach it back, straight arm, straight arm exhale bring it back down.

Hold on, you're allowed to if you'll still get to work your other arm. Keep it straight up, back, back, back, back, back. Oh, I almost fell off that one. Inhale hold, exhale you get to come up and still tall. If you're so inclined you're gonna let go the whole time.

You know what you can do it's still gonna work. Roll back, same spot where you can hold it right arm goes up, body does not move. Exhale, sink the belly and let the arm come back other arm. Reach it back, body doesn't move. Exhale, sink the belly, hold.

Take an inhale I'm holding on to get up, exhale and roll back up, sit tall. We can do two more. You can do two of anything. Exhale, roll back. Right arm up, inhale.

Exhale, sink the belly first or exhale, inhale, other arm and down hold, inhale hold, exhale help yourself up or just come up. Last one, simple take it back. Right arm, as if like the arm was connected to your belly button sink the belly first, arm is light other side or not really, is it? Hold for inhale and exhale up we come and sit tall. While we're here, just put the soles of your feet together, drop the knees to the side a little bit more rotation, hands behind your head, we rotate to the front and come center.

Rotate to the back, staying kinda on your alignment, right? You're not leaning back to do this and center. Let's change that, put one forearm over the other, doesn't matter which at the moment or pretty much ever and then check your collarbone so they're not reaching way out in front of you, your head's not behind you, you are crown of the head to the ceiling, collarbones wide. To the front, inhale, rotate hold it there for a moment, extend your arms one exactly opposite the other you can look at that back hand. Inhale, maybe twist a little further or taller.

Exhale, refold the arms. If you can remember to switch which one's on top, do that go the other way. Inhale, you rotate those arms folded. Now extend them, try to get them like 180 degrees I think that's right, off each other so one's not right in front of you. Inhale, twist a little more.

Hello, exhale come back and fold. To the front and extend inhale maybe you get further or maybe you just think about getting further, and exhale back to center. Just one more. Inhale rotate, extend, twist a little more and back to center. Right, stretch your legs out we're gonna roll back to the point where our legs can float up and we'll do near a hundred.

So sitting really tall for the moment best you can hinge forward. Then draw those hip bones a front back, squeeze through the upper inner side. Start to roll back and you'll find a place where your legs want to come up, let them and we go. It's inhale, two, three, four, five and out. Two, three, four, five, two.

Out ,three and out. You can make a vigorous four. Heat yourself up, five. Six, strong legs but long legs, seven, keep the focus. Eight, nine, I can't believe it we're gonna actually do a hundred.

Here's 10. Act like you're gonna get up, but don't. Bend your knees hug them to your chest and just let your head go side to side if you need it, from there we extend the right leg up, the left leg down. At this point, you may wanna lift your head up just to kind of situate yourself, look for straight hips, a slight turn down of the legs great or in for parallel either way take a little stretch and then bring your upper body down and maybe you're leg will come with you a little, if you're really flexible. Hold back a little bit on this.

yeah, 'cause that's gonna probably force a little more stability out of you. From there, arms either down or maybe to the side, but I'm gonna put them just down. I'm not worried about my foot, when I do I think too much. We're gonna cross over, circle around stop at the top, cross over. down around and up. If you want a breath it's inhale for now, exhale.

Inhale, exhale, lower leg is involved, inhale and exhale one more. Go the other way same leg inhale and round exhale pull it out hold. Inhale out, exhale around, doesn't have to be big. Two more, one more. Reach up grab on, maybe a little higher than you did before if it's available, If not that's cool too.

Bend the elbows in and bring the leg with you as you put your head down. Ooh, that's a little high for me I grabbed too high, I'm going lower so I can get my shoulders down and enjoy the stretch. While here, I'm thinking a sit bone of the leg in the air toward the opposite ankle meeting the ankle on the floor. See what that does for you if anything. And then just put it down straight or bent bring the other leg into bent knee first sink maybe sit bone now, extend the leg up.

Oh, this is a fun leg for me and by that I mean, my God how'd this one get so tight? Alright, pick your head up, let's check ourselves out of something I look for in this leg especially 'cause it's tighter. My right leg way out to the side or the other leg way out to the side. Let's not let that happen I'd rather bend the lower leg then do that. All right, bringing it down letting the arms go down.

Here we go, cross the midline of the body circle around, stop on a dime at the top, a dime. If we've gotta find a new saying for that. Still wanna somehow think of it. Two more. Meanwhile the rest of your body is still, right?

That's the idea. One more and that might've been two but anyway, other side take it out of the same side but other way around and up, out. Around it up, three. Last one. Reach up, grab on I'm gonna stay low maybe my thigh on this one and thinking of that sit bone toward opposite ankle and then I'll bring the leg as close as I can with my head down.

Note to self, what do you do with this leg? Okay, setting everything down let's take the arms up right overhead. Overhead sure, okay overhead that's what I said I'll do it. Palms either up to the ceiling or facing each other. Here we go, we're gonna bring the arms up over chest bring your head with it.

Exhale to come up, reaching forward looking for this giant sea. You can go as far as you want but I'm still gonna ask that you hold the hipbones back so that you have the curve that you're staying connecting, you're not just stretching. Here we go, roll back. Lead from the pelvis back, back, back arms go back, head touches and you start over but never really have to regroup. A little tip for you or for me maybe, roll back, is that before you lift off the floor right here you're gonna inhale bring your arms all the way over if you struggle with this start exhaling and then keep going rather than hold your breath there 'cause it just sort of keeps the weight in my opinion, up in your upper body when you need to be able to be subtle.

Here we go, down we go, ever so slightly faster, which will help. Inhale, look forward exhale, reach forward, hold those hips back, nice long lines of your body and down we go and back and up. Lots of fun ways to work with this. You can hold on meaning when your arms come over to your legs or you put a small towel behind your low back. I kind of wish I had one today.

That's okay, it doesn't have to be pretty it has to be done. And back one more time. Oh boy, that last one was not pretty for me but I'm still engaged, are you? If not make so, just slide the feet in if you have to move on your mat do bring your feet right close to your bum. Knees are apart or together it's up to you I'm gonna go together today which means my knee is gonna be ever I mean my feet are gonna be a little bit further away, elbows are gonna pop out to the side where I start I stay and so should you, here we go.

Roll back inhale, exhale come up, hold. Again, keep the I wanna say resistance but that's not it. Keep this kinetic chain that you have that solid in your back. Exhale up, look for a smooth ride. Exhale.

Try to look at the same thing maybe. For me I'm right now kinda focusing on the top of my knees 'cause if I think about where I'm going I lose my form. Two more, did I say two more? One more how about that? We're up, we're cool, we're gonna take that right leg.

again, if you have to move back do right leg either both hands on the knee or left hand on the knee and right hand on the ankle. Opposite leg is stretched out, opposite leg I guess that means left. For a few, I'm gonna pin the inner seam of my foot against the knee or calf. I'm gonna do three more rolling balls here. Elbows up same exact thing, we roll back just off balance, hold.

Inhale, roll back, I'm looking where my foot points and where I wanna land every time, one more time. Hold it, switch it and roll down slope and come up. Let's do three the regular speed. We roll back, we roll up. Ooh, honey.

One more. Switch again, this time real slowly down on this side and we'll stay down here. So you're near your shoulder blades are on them, you can take the foot off the inner seam of the leg and now just switch legs right here, switch. Ride however you want, I will try to quiet mine a tiny bit. But then again, why would I do that?

Just turn it down. Pull, pull, now have really stretch it. Pull in, pull in, Your upper body at rest your body doesn't really change, it's just how can I challenge the middle of my body? One more both legs in, rest your head ever so briefly. Press your shins into your hands, I've got a hand on each shin.

Curl her head back up, push in. So now I have help, getting up. From here double leg stretch. We reach both legs out, arms go back by your ears if you can. Exhale, bring it forward.

You can also do them straight in front of you. Inhale reach, exhale scoop. Remember the emphasis is for middle of the body not the legs, the legs are just the weight. Inhale reach, exhale pull, keep your focus. Only one more.

Hug it in, stay ready, head down. Same entry, get right back up into it. Hands behind your head, rotate towards the bent knee just the same thing we did before it's a criss-cross. Switch, head in your hands and switch, and switch, breathe. Again, sometimes I kind of look like, where am I pointing with that other leg?

It's not about the leg, but if I'm not thinking about it at all I kind of get a little squirrely. Remember how we did the shoulder to hip earlier, same thing here in this version. A few more here. Reach, twist, reach, and last one center. Take everything down, hug your knees to your chest.

Yes, I'm gonna skip the others. You're welcome. Arms down, legs straight up for the rollover. We each inhale, you get to use the back of your arms minimize momentum. Exhale over, looking for not much here just you didn't collapse on yourself.

Maybe if you could see and you're not gonna look your legs are parallel to the ceiling. Flex your feet, separate them and then roll down, start at the chest. Down, when you get to your tailbone, you can soften the feet circle the legs around and let's go again. Up and over, flex your feet, push the legs apart. If you have it available to you, you lower them and then roll back down.

Circle, up and over three. Check your shoulders. Try not to look at your abs so much here. it's a little hard on the neck. And down, we're doing the exact same exercise in reverse, of course so we take the feet apart up to about 90 then over.

Close the legs, flex the feet and roll down. Again, if you have it available, you can lower the legs but try not to change your spine when you do. Two to go. I'm getting warm. Flex and down.

This one's a little harder, right? If you're gonna try for the floor. Last one. And down. Bend your knees, hold on behind, rock back and forth again just like that rolling like a ball but nice and easy, nice and easy.

And we'll stay up on this next one. Back yourself up a little if necessary. Spine stretch, feet are flexed and you're tall, it's like, I'm so proud and I mean it. It's like, what I'm here. My arms are almost pressing on this imaginary table and we're just rounding down.

We're gonna touch the top of our head to the floor, right between your knees. I have done at one time so I keep thinking about it and exhale, come back up. I'm sorry inhale, come back up. Exhale, roll down. It's like you're trying to squeeze the air out by the shape of your body.

Keep reaching forward even as you pull back and you inhale up. It almost forces you up, doesn't it? Keep those feet strong, legs strong and up. One more time, I find myself lean back when I get tired, so I might make us all do one more of some idea of that in mind. Roll up the imaginary wall.

Here's sort of the last one, but let's just turn the whole arm we're gonna add on so we turn the whole arm not just the hands. Exhale, around forward. When you've gone as far as you can and you've run out of air you start to lengthen your spine on the diagonal. Inhaling on the diagonal all the way up. Maybe those arms come right by your ears hopefully.

Exhale, reround and roll back up to the starting position. Inhale, exhale and round. From here, things that helped me, I think about pressing the back of my legs into the ground. I start at the tailbone, I go through the low back, I go through the middle back, go through the upper back. My arms are just following my spine.

That's about all I get, exhale round forward. Some of you will be lower than me and some of you be higher than me, that's cool. Just go for that straight, exhale round. Get the air out. Get the air out, so the good air can come in.

Here's that diagonal back to the legs. Maybe you'll get further each time. Exhale, reround. By the way, you could do this with bent knees. It's absolutely fine, you'd rather have a straight spine.

I'll do a bent knee version, it's identical. Keep the feet flexed, use the heels into the mat. Come on, stretch it, stretch it, stretch it, reround. If anything it's harder to keep the abdominals engaged. Here we go adding on again, round forward.

You can even put your arms down if you want to, but if not we're going right into that nice long position. Test yourself are you really rounded or hunched? If so, you're gonna sit taller. Okay, I know you're starting to feel your upper back, that's the point. Let's pull those arms back for 10, two.

Try not to thrust the ribs, three, four. I've got the thumbs turned back still five, six. Lean into it, seven. Come on, eight. Line up the head with the body.

That's gotta be 10 right there. Inhale, come on it's okay. Exhale, round forward, you can just stay forward. Hold something, hold on to something. Hopefully you got a little bit in your upper back here, then just sit yourself up tall, close up the feet, arms out to the side.

Again, you can bend your knees, not a big deal. Promise, not a big deal or you can sit up on something if you want. Again, it's this idea of, it's not just the hand you got to turn that whole baby over, open up those columns. We're going to the front double twist, our twist. Here we go.

Center, other side. I'm exhaling pulsing twice not for the sake of pulsing, but theoretically getting maybe a little further on that second pulse. So I twist it towards further center, almost mechanical I can some of these. Tall, tall, center. A reminder of the beginning of class we did this exact exercise modified.

Keep those arms exactly opposite each other. One more each way, think on that. That's good enough for me. Reach up, round over, take your stretch. It's time, navigating my little separation here on the mat, I'm gonna go forward.

We are doing open leg rockers. So for this let's hold on maybe to the ankles. I'm just holding on right in front for a lot of us and depending on the day you might hold behind and you might not fully straighten your legs, but let's do a little test with it. First of all, is with feet on the ground draw the front of the hips back a little or tilt your pelvis, roll back so you're not right up on top of your sitz bones but just behind them. From there we can draw the shoulders on this really gets easy to pick up the feet.

We extend the right leg one, put it down and just testing that we can do this without the body rolling around or the spine changing. Other leg up and bring it back. Both legs and center. Well, I know I'm gonna be holding behind. Right leg again, when we get going in the real exercise.

Left leg. Maybe I might challenge myself like I said it doesn't have to be perfect. Both, let's hang out here. I'm going to hold on. Yeah, I got to wrap around a little bit more I can tell and again here's the thing that helps me and I'll just see if it works for you.

I got the position, but if I actively pull my legs into my hip socket, I really don't mean bend the elbows. It's just this idea that allows me to stay I don't know, soft and easy in my back. We're gonna roll back, so I'm pressing into my hip socket roll back and roll up and hold hopefully for us back. If you're not just rocking find it, take your time with it and up and back and appears the other thing that helps. So, while we're here I'm pulling down, but now to go I'm gonna pick them up, I'm going to pull them upwards.

It's more image than anything but to see if that does anything for you and then I push them back down in my mind. I pushed too hard and again, inhale back. Two more, here's one more and we're there. If you're not there, come here, come on. All right, remember that idea of pulling the legs out it's a sense of extending your legs maybe from your waist.

Maybe you could leave your legs up like maybe, and then set them down gently. Sit up tall again, feet a little wider than they were for the spine stretch. Arms back out there to the side again, not so much that it forces you forward, they can be a little in front of necessary. They stay where they start. The soft feet are flexed, come toward the front we rotate.

I'm doing a flat back version basically I mean, not totally flat but you try. And outside reach over pressing that other arm up to the ceiling, drawing the belly in as you do. Sit up tall and center, other way, rotate, reach over, keep the other hip down please. Sit up or don't twist as far. Here we go, inhale and exhale.

Nice long body. Up and center again can almost feel mechanical in this version but I like that. I like going one, two, three and four. Again, one, reach three and four. I will do two more after this one.

Twisting without coming off those hips. Up, this will be the last one. Turn, reach, get up and voila put the feet together, hands back. Fingers face your heels or to the side, you can be on your fist as well. We're just going up and down five times so the trick here, if there is one is to try not to hyper-extend your legs if you can, keep the arms as straight as possible from the start.

Lift up, try to get off 10 toes down a flung line then just hinge to sit down let your arms come up. Free them up put them right back they're straight before you go. Lift up two, find the back of your body. Sit down. It's not so much about the height here and it's certainly not to extend your head behind you.

At best you're gonna look at the ceiling, but probably even slightly in front of you and down. Hands down, keep those doubles straight Christie I can tell which hand uses the typewriter more. Typewriter, did I just say that? That's weird. Keyboard, innit?

I am as old as and down this is it. Stay here. And now just swing your legs around face the front, maybe all our heads on this side, whichever side that is for you and let's just go, let's see. Yes, I'm thinking it's true. Let's go to elbows.

Bottom leg at 90, I'm doing the side kick, if you wanna do a version you know other than this go for it. I can't get over this one, I just love it. I like feeling solid and strong and good at something. So hand lined your head or in front of you, leg is up. Reach the waist long, from there the leg is just the weight.

You're gonna kick forward I flex there and behind you. Kick, kick, reach back. There's three, three and back, four, four, back and it's just like, Oh knocking can that hip joint. Two more. Again, that proud cue comes in, stay back there, stay back there, stay back there.

Really push it back there but as you do like it's from the side not the foot, your knee is straight you know that. Check it out if you don't, check it out even think it is. Then as you push back, rotate forward your upper body. So you're just sort of looking at your fingertips or your wrist or something like that and now press back further low pulse. Two, three, four, five of eight.

And you're back there, you're cool, you're happy, sort of, maybe. From here I'm gonna slide my arm down, reach back grab that leg. You can do whatever you want with the bottom leg, you probably want to straighten it, and I am gonna stretch the quad so. But before you do, try to take the knee in alignment with the hips that's not in front of you. Try to keep it right there.

Once you know you have that, you can even kind of add the bias towards the posterior tip and draw the heel to your glute to whatever extent you can. Try not to let the knee fly to the ceiling rather lighten up and keep it relatively parallel there. It didn't freeze, I'm just enjoying. Okay, we're up. We're gonna stay on the side for one more thing and you all remind me not to forget anything.

Your hand is right out, where is it? Ultimately we're going into a side plank, but to start I like to think of this triangle of a shape and so your shoulders already down. Again, this idea of I'm not just chilling and waiting, I'm proud. Ready to go, we're gonna come into a side bend. So use your feet, I have the top leg in front we rise up to a side plank.

From that, lift your waist as if someone pulled your arm or your waist, you come up, reach rainbow like over and you can look down. Come back to the side plank, bend to come down, but stay ready we're going again. Lift up side plank, lift up even more. Use your feet, it's okay. Back to the side plank and down, just one more.

Lift up, up and over oh, come on make it feel good. To the side and we'll sit down, draw the legs in you can separate them, whatever you need to do for comfort and just hold on somewhere. Sit up tall for opposite bend. Okay, flip your legs around, face in front. On our elbow, wrist straight off from the elbow, lower knee bent.

I like to kind of slide the leg down the mat a little just to you can overdo that too, but then it flips up and you're ready to go. Let's kick forward, kick, kick back, two, three. I have to count on some of these otherwise I won't, four. Four more, five and back, six, seven. Here it is, hold it to the back, really back, really back and then we press back.

Eight, two, three, four. Just trying to find that connection. That's gotta be eight right there, right? Now hold it way back there, go ahead and rotate your upper body as you continue to press it like back. It should not feel like a torque, it should feel really like a nice stretch somewhere.

And then just come on down, letting the arm be your pillow where you can rest your head. Bend your elbow, whatever you need there and then I'm going for that quad stretch. So to grab the leg I almost have to bring my knee forward and then I look for it, try to line it up. Rest the head, tighten up the glutes a little maybe or just in post to your tuck from the abs and then draw the heel to your bum. Yeah, you're so close.

Again, computer is not frozen Just savoring. Okay dokey, that's enough of that. Sitting up, top leg is in front, opposite hand or the hand is out where you think you can balance your weight on it. Ready to go, side bend side plank up all the way over for the side bend. There goes my mat.

Come on back and come on down. So maybe don't use your feet as much as I just did. Of we go, ready. So now it's gonna be more from my waist this time. That's what I meant to do.

All right, you do have to use your feet so I'll give myself that. Back to the side and up, last one. Up over, oh, milk it, milk it, milk it and come on down. All right, bring the legs in again you can separate them, whatever you need to do just take that opposite stretch. Up before over.

Somewhat profound, maybe. Right on. Well, just come to your hands and knees, face however you want. Hands and knees most likely you'll be facing the floor. All right, hands right underneath your shoulders.

I do spread my hands out, try not to lock my elbows for me. That means I have to turn the elbow points the inside of my elbow toward each other, test that out for yourself. Extend one leg back, before you do anything else make sure that legs absolutely straight. Like you you could not straighten that leg anymore, your abs are tight so that when you put the other foot up you're ready to go. Pick up the right leg, lift up five, touchdown four, three, nothing else moves, two, one, switch, nothing moves except for the leg of course.

Put it down, bend your knees. Walk them away from you a little, lower the shins, your arms on same spot. Bend your elbows straight back, straighten them back up. So it's just a couple inches you almost don't move at the beginning. So you're not sinking, you're just barely pull them back and straight, Again, bend straight, this time we will move but not until we do that first part.

Bend go ahead and lower, lower all the way. You're going all the way, you don't have to come back up just go. Extend the arms out in front of you. Legs are nice and long, they can be a part a bit. Press the palms into the floor, the tops of the feet into the floor and see how that allows the belly to draw up.

From there, lift the right arm in the left leg. Put it down, go back to that sense of I'm sucking myself to the floor but also away from it. Other side, leg is absolutely straight and down. This time you've done this sort of drop of the abs, you float both arms and legs and we're gonna alternate for swimming, let's go. You can take your head up out of the water, you can make it bigger, but you're gonna get solid in the middle.

We're so close, can you just inhale, swim for the finish, exhale. Somewhere that keeps you breathe in that's all. How about one more of your breath cycles and then just get long, set the hands and feet back down, settle yourself, put your hands by your shoulders. When you're ready, help yourself up, round back. Rest position, if this doesn't work for you you can go to your back or seated, anything like that.

Swimming always gets my heart rate up right here in the end. That's okay, got the whole day ahead of me. All right, help yourself up into a upright position and we're gonna just curl the toes under, curl those toes under. You remember how we started, right? This is your chance to kind of go, did I do what I came to do?

And if not, what more do I need? Okay, let's go to that parallel position, knees bent, head heavy and hanging and see what you got and straighten three times. One and bend and two and bend here's three. If you can hold them straight, do if it's too much at this point leaving banter. Put your hands on your shins and like the beginning, tilt that tailbone, let your arms be heavy as you roll up, up, up.

This time we'll turn the arms out, take the big inhale up, exhale. If the arms come down when they get about shoulder height you can start rolling down again. Supporting yourself front to back but not really working. This is just a subtle support that's often all we need. Bend the knees, straighten the knees, heavy head, nothing fancy coming.

Hold it there, check your alignment, are you leaning back? Draw all the abdominals in to the point the arms lift off the floor, arm bones are heavy, we roll up. We stack ourselves, we shift our body weight forward remembering that the head is part of it. So is it on top or is it throwing you forward? Shift it back just slightly, forward again.

Find that middle ground and from there, just let the arms float up for an inhale. High or not, all the way it's up to you. I like to kind of climb for it give myself any more space I can, exhale, let them come down just let them drop. Do it again, inhale up and as best you can just really let him drop just. Last one up.

I am so grateful you are here, I hope that you are too and that you'll come back again. Thank you so much. See you next time.