Transcript for:
Pilates: March Matness

[Music] hi everyone. here we are for pilates sake, doing the  March Matness mat class. all right, so you guys just   do whatever version is the most comfortable for  you. going take a big breath in and on the exhale, come up into the 100 position that makes you the  most comfortable. and we go, inhale 2 3 four 5 and   exhale 2 3 four five. so today we're going to work  on our foot position. so, I want all of you guys... as   you're doing your footwork, to find your bird-on-a-perch.  approach right, reach your heels out gently and   draw the arches through your legs, up into your  center and try to flex into that. so as you pull   your legs in with your psoas. it's connecting into  T12 and then you're trying to bend at your bra   line which is your T12. we're going to go three  more. big breath in, soften your knees you guys, don't give   your legs away. invite the legs back into your  center. last one and flex yourself all the way   into your 100. there we go and then we're going  to lower ourselves down. and we're going to get   ready for our roll up. everyone grab your weighted  bar, take it up towards the ceiling. put your feet   under the straps, if you're lucky enough to have  one, and then from here we're just going to inhale   to curl head, neck and shoulders up and then exhale  deep flexion. should keep flexing those ankles. pulling   those little toe mounds back towards you. inhale, move  your pelvis to move your spine. all the way down.   inhale, big breath into the back of your torso. as  you exhale, keep pulling the straps if you can pull   your legs back inside you. try an flex up and over you,  like a big wave. as you lower yourself down without   the ribs moving. you're going to try to allow the  pelvis to initiate the movement of your rolling   back. we're going to do 3 more. just keep at your own  pace, stay true to where you are in your body. pay   attention to your feet, if you can, flex your ankles  not by pulling your toes back but by pulling your   metatarsals towards you, reaching your heels back and  watch your little toes they don't start to kind of   pull in towards each other. keep that lateral edge,  like your little toe is pulling up to the outside  of your hips. and we're going to just finish one  more you guys, we inhale to bring it all the way up   and if you finish you can stay down on this next  one and then we lower yourself all the way back   down again. bring your hips forward, we're going to  do our roll over. okay or whatever version you can   do. down by your side we're going to inhale to  bring the legs up, peel your spine up flex the   feet deeply. open the legs, exhale roll yourself all  the way back down again. again legs come together .  keep watching your feet, don't overextend the  ankles and don't externally rotate your feet .  you're in a ...you're kinda in a parallel cuz you're no deeper than a 90° in the hip joint. one   more with the feet together you roll up and over.  flex, split, exhale roll it down, split the legs on   the bottom. and we pull our legs over with the  strength of our pelvis. the feet come together.  flex your ankles, lengthen yourself all the way  down. split the legs at the bottom. peel your spine   up and over. push those arms down. flex the feet,  bring them together, lower yourself all the way   down and then one last one. peel yourself all the  way up and over. on the exhale, low yourself   all the way back down again. if you have a strap  go ahead and put your left foot in the strap, if   not, take your left leg stretch it out long hold  your right leg up towards the ceiling. arms down   by your side. on the inhale, take your right pelvic  half up and over. exhale circle around and back up.  as you are doing this, we're going to do five. you  guys, exhale and up watch the positioning of the   foot as you stretch the leg up. don't lift your  leg to the ceiling, allow the weight of the leg   to sit down in the pelvis and move the leg from  the rotation of your pelvis and spine. and last   one with, for your thigh and back up. we go out  to the side, inhale bring it across, nice. twist of   your pelvis and spine and up, nice. paying attention  again to your foot position. try not to change it.  and it really doesn't have to change. because  you're just doing kind of like a semi circle   and then it's the pelvis that rotates the leg all  the way back to the other side. and then last one.   bring the knee in toward your chest, there's a big  squeeze switch the legs up and let it cut you all   off there... and then bring your left leg up  to the ceiling. find your leg, find the rotation.   let the leg drop down in the hip, inhale push down  with the left arm to invite the hip over circle the   leg around and center. over on the inhale and down,  exhale and back up. nice, three more. as you inhale   and bring your pelvis over, pull your T12 back and  away from the rotation of your pelvis. and last   one here. next time we bring it back up again, you  guys, go out - to the side - you go out bring it across,   kick over and center, open, over. yeah, as the leg  comes across your body try and find some flexion   in your spine. yeah, open it up, open zip the inner thighs together and all the way back up again. last, last   one and then, you guys, when you're in, grab hold of  your shin, roll yourself up for your rolling like   a ball. place your feet down, hands down pick your bum up,  bring it to your heels. pull your knees in towards   your chest. from here, find your pilates V. try not  to go too deep in your feet, hold that. inhale pick   your hips up to roll you onto your shoulder girdle. and then exhale and up you get. inhale to take you   back and then exhale back up you get, again, nice. as  you inhale imagine, maybe that the pickup of your   arches is what starts to pick your hips up, to  bring you back. and then exhale as you bring it   up. go, three more, there we go. big exhale before  you even think of coming back. get that exhale   to bring back up again. you're going to, on the next  one, come up to the top, bring your feet down. place   your hands back behind you. pick your hips up, bring  them back, straight into your single leg stretch   position. from here we do a switch, we inhale for  two and exhale for two. the leg that's stretching   out, don't give it away. right, so that leg that's  reaching out, still feel like the arches are   drawing back up into your center. use your arms to  bend you at your T12 where your psoas is. last one,   here. and exhale in deeply both knees in toward  your chest. inhale, stretch out from your center.  exhale first, pull it in. all right, inhale all the  way out, exhale pull it in. nice, three more. stretch   as much as you can, let the stretch come from the  reach, but the pull back of the limbs. yes ,  and then bring that all the way back in again, nice.  you're going to bring that all the way back up to   sitting for spine stretch. going to flex your ankles,  keep your heels down. inhale to float the arms up,   slide your blades down, exhale, rotate your shoulder  girdle, your rib cage, get your sacrum under you.   pull your toes back, inhale the float you all the  way back up from sacrum. to exhale find your front   line. exhale deeply to bend you, inhale rise back up.  again, ask yourself. we're going to go three more. as   you rise back up again, draw your legs in first and  then initiate the movement of the stack from your   tail to your crown and don't just throw your arms  back up like, "woo!". start from the bottom, nice, and   peel yourself up, like as if you're of rolling  yourself up against an imaginary wall behind   you. and then on the next on, ,you guys are going  to take hold of your ankles and you're going to   slide your legs in towards you. enough room behind you? for your open leg rocker stretch your legs up, hold your legs where you  need to. inhale, again, let your pelvis initiate the   movement of you rolling back onto your shoulders.  it's your shoulder stand, let's say. exhale before   you rise back up again. big inhale, pelvis initiates  the movement of you going back. and then try to   remember you're doing a sommersault to bring you  forward. let's go two more, inhale back. yeah, exhale   all the way through, nice. keep watching those feet, keep using the hands to draw those legs in. stay at   the top, balance, legs come together. crisscross  your legs to gently roll you down. either tick -tock or full corkscrew, up to you guys. I'm going  to speak for full corkscrew. you rise up on the  inhale, twist to the right, lower down the right side of  your body. untwist, re-twist, rise it up. inhale twist   to the left. lower down untwist retwist exhale. rise  back up, inhale twist and lower exhale twist and   lift, inhale twist. keep watching your feet. that's  beautiful you guys! those feet, they don't slide   on one another. and then we're going to go, last  one here. sorry that was like three wasn't   it? and then we rise it up, why don't we just roll  all the way down on this one. down your center, sit   yourself all the way back up for our saw. sit up, nice and  tall. again, soft knees, keep your heels down. arms   are in your periphery. everyone to the right, inhale  rotate to the right, exhale, deep flexion take that   back arm up and flex to reach the opposite toe.  inhale stack yourself up, untwist retwist. deep   flexion, again, stack up from the bottom all the way  up to the top. and then untwist in the exhale deep   flexion. watch your feet even here and what I mean by  that, you guys, go ahead and stack yourself up. don't   let there be any shifting of your feet. root your  pelvis down, root your feet down, flex at the ankle   and allow your legs to actually feel like they're  drawing back inside of your pelvis. to support the   weight of your hips. so that when you twist, it's  up and out of your pelvis. very nice and you stack   all the way back up. take your legs together, push  into the mat, pick your feet up and spin all the   way back onto your tummy, for your Swan. so  from here we'll do three swan and then swan dive,   if you are catching release and swan only if  you want. so as you inhale, pull the mat back   towards you, to allow your ribs to pick up into the  shoulder girdle to create extension through your spine to   where you're comfortable going. exhale, lowering  yourself back down again. right. try to I'm not   saying to zip the inner thighs up, they don't have  to stay together, but try not to be in an external   rotation. right. you don't want to compress into your  sacrum here. and then if we can, you go ahead, you do   whatever version you can do; Catch and Release,  if you like you can do full swan dive. yeah, nice, keep   the weight of your ribs on your palms the whole  time. so that you don't push into your low back.   and then we lower ourselves all the way back down.  take your hands up in front of you for single leg   kick. push down into your pinky line pull all  the way forward with your chest. right leg first,   we inhale we kick and further. and switch and  further. and we kick for two exhale for two and   then inhale and exhale. right, you guys imagine  your quads lengthening out all the way to your   toes. so that when you kick your heel to your bum  it's a contraction of the hamstring and not the   contraction of the calf. right. stretch your quads  and use your hammies. last double breath here and   then everyone's going to stretch themselves all  the way long. you're going to lay yourself down   hands on the back. on your back palms up, right  cheek on the mat. going to take a big breath in   to stretch yourself out. we're going three kicks  so we exhale we kick two, three. inhale pick your   knees up, pick your shoulders up, stretch your chest  away from your knuckles and then we turn our cheek   other way. we kick two, three pick up and stretch  out equally. and we kick two, three .we rise up and   we stretch it .anytime when you're up there feel  free. and we go down, if you want to take a moment   and hook your toes under to push you forward, feel  free to. and if you're fine, where you are then, just   keep moving. we've got one more after this one.  here, last one, you guys. we exhale kick, two three.   try to pick your knees up, pick your shoulders up.  let yourself move more forward, than back in space.   lower yourself all the way down, sit back on your  heels. stretch it out a moment. take a big breath   in, exhaling, roll yourself up. turn your legs out  in front of you for neck pull. hook your feet under the   strap. so your hip joint distance apart with your  feet, deep flexion of the ankle, the heels stay   connected down. power plank, lower yourself down to  start. feel free to, please, take your hands to your   thighs, if need be. we'll do three of these. on the  inhale, start to curl head, neck and shoulders up.   breathe into your back line. exhale, deep flexion  in your front line. bring your head towards your   knees. inhale stack up to tall, tall , tall and then  hinge at the hip joint and as far and as long as you   can. and then exhale yourself all the way down. inhale  come up and over just to where you're comfortable   use your exhale to assist a deeper flexion. as  you rise up, inhale, stack up from bottom to top.   open the hips, lean yourself back. exhale, lowering  all the way through. one more, inhale up and over.   use your exhale to flex your front open the  back inhale stack it up and then tip yourself   back by opening the hip. exhale we lower all the way  through. scissors and bicycle, just do what you can do.   inhale to allow yourself to rise up into your jackknife  position. from here take your hands at your sacrum,   fingertips to the ceiling. inhale, big split of the  legs. exhale, bring that back. inhale, stretch it out.   exhale inhale, inhale and exhale. right. watch your  feet here, don't overextend the ankle joint. pull the legs   back inside of you and stretch your hips up to the  ceiling. feel free to start to move that into your   bicycle .so the leg goes out and the reason your  foot might touch the floor is because you extend   the hip joint and the thoracic spine. bend the knee a  lot, cuz if you bend the knee you might actually   be able to touch the floor. yeah, extend that thoracic, you guys, let your ribs stay heavy on the mat. and   then whenever you're ready, we'll say one more, and  then you guys are going to lower yourselves all   the way down. look at that beautiful sun coming in  for us! arms down by your side for shoulder bridge.  take your feet hip joint distance apart. find your  strong, powerful arms here. find the whole tripod of   your foot and try to maintain that. inhale, send  your sacrum to the back of the knees but draw   your femur bones into your pelvis. to rise you up  into a bridge position. from here you're going to   come up onto your tippy toes and then you're  going to gently extend your thoracic spine to   allow, yeah. for a higher shoulder bridge take  your hands under your ribs and lower your heels   down. inhale, stretch your right leg out and up and  exhale we lower, inhale we kick it up and exhale   lower. inhale to kick it up, exhale lower we do two  more .big breath up, exhale down. keep that left foot   powerfully pushing down. right foot comes down to  the mat. push that right foot down take your left   leg stretch it out and up and then exhale, flex the  foot, bring it down. inhale point and lift. flex and   lower. rise it up and bring it down. now so we're  going to go two more. exhale and one more. we rise   it up and then exhale bring that all the way back  down. you guys are going to come lower your spine   all the way down. beautiful. all the way up to  sitting for spine stretch. so bring your feet   your legs, all the way together, flex up the ankle.  stretch the arms over to either side of the room   and in your periphery. we'll go to the right first . big breath in, as you exhale, rotate to the right   and then a little bit further. exhale deeper, inhale  back to center. exhale to the left, exhale deep and   a little bit further. right, inhaling and exhale go  right and a little bit further. if you can, zip the   inner thighs up, flex at the ankle joint. reach  your heels out and maintain a solid bum print   from your heels all the way to your pelvis. and  everything from your weight from your bum cheek   to your heels, nothing changes, you're just rotating  up and creating deeper rotation through your spine.  and I think we should have finished but that's  okay. we're going to do one more side, and then   exhale. and we're going to go into to our jackknife. so as soon as you are done you're going to   lower yourself down. and we just inhale the jackknife up and then exhale, lower, lower, lower legs   where you're comfortable going. so inhale, jackknife  push down, rise up, exhale and lower yourself all   the way back down again. and we just go one more.  we inhale to bring it up and then exhale we roll   that all the way back down again. side kicks so let's all face the front door so   from your head all the way down to your  tail on the back edge of the mat gently pike the   feet forward. okay, so we can get down, let your  ribs kind of settle a little bit further down.   you don't have to hold yourself up. you can gently  allow the arm to feel like it's connecting it to   you. top leg comes up, flex the ankle we inhale, we  kick and a little further. exhale, sweep back and   reach. we flex the ankle, we kick it forward. as  the leg goes back you actually want to feel like   there's not an internal rotation but there is a  parallel to the leg. so gently internally rotate   the leg and feel how much more you can actually  move the leg in the hip joint. and we going to go   one more. right, let's go one more, here we inhale,  we kick forward and then exhale. gentle internal   rotation kick back. take the top leg to the bottom  leg. externally rotate, point the foot inhale, kick   up. flex and bring it down. inhale point lift, flex  and lower. big point, lift. flex first flex and lower   flex up. we flex it up, we point and lower. flex and  lift and point and lower. one more, and we bring   that all the way down. so we are going to come  onto our tummy and do grasshopper. I'm not sure   this is part of it.. but we're doing it. so from here either  your forehead is on your palms or you're up in mini extension. gently draw the legs in, let them hover.  gentle external rotation and we inhale, we clap   for as many as you guys can. and then we exhale and  we clap for as many as you can. I personally, I want   you to try to hyper-extend the knee joint because  you're not going to be able to do that. and that's   going to maybe allow you to open your hip joint  up a little bit more. and if you have trouble in   extension, you're in a type of kyphosis and what not I would  actually, lift your chest up and live more in an   extension as you do this. and then going to lower  that all the way down. going to roll onto your right   side and face the other way. from head to tail on  the back edge of the mat. use your hands to help   support. you pick that leg up, flex forward, so we  inhale, we kick and further. exhale, gentle interior   rotation, leg goes back. we flex the foot powerfully.  we rotate and extend so we flex leg and then spine   and then hip and then spine. and we go, leg and  spine and kick back and your spine and we go, one   more. there we go and then exhale big extension all  the way through. take the top leg to the bottom leg   externally rotate without collapsing. inhale, point  up. flex and lower. inhale, lift, flex and lower, one   more. and then we flex up, we flexing we kick and  we point bring it down. flex - kick it up point and   lower. one more, flex kick it up point and bring it  down. come to sitting for teaser. do your best with   this one, a toughie, teaser is a kicker. from here go, if you have a theraband its a good time use it. you want to use your bar   feel, use it. take your hands on the mat, inhale.  gently push the mat forward to pick your legs   up into your teaser position. exhale lower you  down. inhale rise just your upper body up. exhale   we lower your upper body down and we go two more.  just the upper body comes up and then it lowers   down on the exhale, legs we go one more inhale . up, exhale lower and then we rise up and then we   lower the legs. and we exhale to pick up, up, up. and then whatever  breath works for you guys. here it really, I think,   depends on the support that is required and then  when you're ready. from here the whole body lowers   down. feel free to inhale for half, exhale for  half. even when you lower, inhale for half ,exhale   for half. or inhale the whole way up and exhale  the all the way down. you're going to stay up on   this next one and then you put the bar down. but  if you're up, you're going to take your hands up   bring them around back behind you either on your  hands or down on your elbows for hip circles. take   the legs up to the ceiling bring them a little  bit closer to you. inhale, rotate the hips to   the right, circle down around and center. inhale to  the left and down, exhale around and center inhale   to the right. and we lower exhale left and center.  we go over, reach, right, keep the legs from moving.   keep your feet solid and stable. and one more, we  go to the left, we circle around and center. very   good. what do we do next? I'm so sorry guys, swimming!  swimming, thank you, V. everyone spins onto their   tummy we're going to lay on the stomach and we're going  to take, reach your arms and legs out. take a big   breath in, here you guys and then as you exhale,  draw all four limbs in so deeply that it picks   you up into an extension. and you and if this is  too challenging and you can't do it keep your   hands down on the mat. gently pull the mat towards  you, to create a little bit more extension. and then   you guys, keep swimming. we're going to go one more  big, big breath in as you inhale and then exhale and   lower everything down. take your hands under your  armpits for leg full front. tuck your toes under,   rise up, however you need to. and everyone's up in  their plank position, right leg first. we inhale,   pick the leg up, point it pivot on the left. exhale  forward and down, inhale left pivot . exhale forward   and down, right. up pivot bring it in and down. pick  it up really point it, flex it back and center. one   more, other side up, point - back flex down and rise  up and back bring it in and down. if you want to do   the transition do so. otherwise drop down onto your  knees and turn yourself around for leg pull. from   here you're sitting up tall. if you want to, just  hold position, you hold position. and otherwise you   inhale to keep that right leg up and bring it down. you can do three on the same side and then switch   or you can switch them up one at a time. okay, push  down, pick your chest up. find the underbelly of   your bum, to help support you. bring that all the  way back down and lower. beautiful, you guys that's   a lot. side kicks kneeling, everyone kneel and face  the front door with hands at the base of your skull.  we're going to go to the right first. as you inhale,  pick your left leg up to tip you over onto your   right hand. equal pressure, right hand - left knee  pick that leg up. open, inhale, kick forward. exhale   sweep it back. inhale, big breath, kick and reach.  one more, we kick forward, exhale bring it back. bend   your knee and bring yourself all the way back up  to center. right, inhale, pick your left knee up to   tip you over onto sorry right knee up for your  left hand pick that leg up inhale kick forward   swing bring it back. inhale kick reach back. we go  one more kick forward bring that all the way back.   bend your knee, help bring yourself all the way  back. from here we're going to sit facing me   for boomerang. so make sure you have a little bit  of room behind you. so you're going to sit forward,   you're going to take your right leg and bring it  over your left. on the inhale, try not to move your   upper body until you've caught your legs. so push the  mat forward, pick your legs up, roll yourself over.   press ,cross the legs, exhale up into your teaser  position. stretch the arms up, circle them around.   clasp them, lift the triceps to lower you back down.  circle the arms all the way back around, inhale.   push hook the legs in and roll you over. criss cross,  exhale up into your teaser. support that, stretching   arms up, around. clasp, the lift of the triceps to  help pick your ribs up and over to drop your legs.   and circle the arms around, inhale push the legs in  to tip you back. just cross those legs exhale up   into your teaser. hold those legs in, grab them if you  have to. pick your arms up circle around, clasp, lift   and lower. one last one, here push the mat forward,  tip you back. crisscross, exhale, rise up. you got to   hold those legs and take the legs up. circles all  the way around, lift your triceps lower you and   bring it in. sit in the middle of your mat for  seal and crab. so you want to make sure you have   enough room for your head. okay so grab hold of  your ankles, grab those feet we're going to come in   and through and when we're ready. find your balance  point, over there, inhale, pick your hips up. balance   on your shoulders, two, three, exhale. forward, inhale  back up, up, up. exhale forward, inhale back. beautiful.  exhale forward one more, and on this one you're  going to grab on the back, your ankles and you're   going to roll up and over onto your head as you  inhale. don't throw your bum back. pick your bra   line up to start to transition you up and off  your head and back over onto your shoulder stand. there we go, just do your best. this is kind of like  a, "I'm trying" I thought, this is awesome you   guys. so proud of what you guys are doing,  you should all be. one more, once you're back on   your head, stay on your head. take your hands down  onto the mat and walk your feet back behind you.   yes, for you're rocking. doesn't matter if you rock  today if you can reach your ankles, that's a bonus.   Grab hold of your feet, your ankles when you're  ready, keep your collar bones falling forward.   so you don't over, you don't over-contract the  back and then really just start breathing. so as   you inhale, what does just the breath do for you?  inhale, expand and then exhale, inhale expand and   then exhale. next time on the inhale expand and  push into your hands expand and push into your   hands. just add a little bit more each time. last  one and then we're going to bring that all the way   down. sit back on your heels. stretch that out, very  nice. and then when you guys are ready, which   is going to be in about 2 seconds .we're going to  do control balance. okay, so let's all have your   heads facing me. yeah let's do that let's just do  heads facing me and then from here lay yourself   down on by your side. okay so inhale to jackknife  you over and then exhale to take both arms up and   over your head. inhale, take your right leg or  whichever down to your hand exhale rise it up.   inhale, bring the opposite leg down and then exhale.  find your center and stretch both legs up. nice, so   the control balance part here is you being able  to balance on your shoulder girdle. that shoulder   stand that we were talking about. while your legs go  up and down and then we're going to be finishing   this last one off here. and then you guys  are going to roll yourself all the way down and   come standing. and then you're going to stay where  you are and just turn. if you want to get onto the   floor, because it's better than the mat for your push up feel free to. and if you   guys are good, then that's great too so find your  pilates v, sit in the front of that ankle joint. root   your feet, inhale, float your arms up. keep your  feet heavy, exhale, try not to shift the weight   of your tripod. roll yourself down. once you arrive at  the floor, walk your hands up and keep your heels   reaching back in space. feel free to take your  knees down. we're going to do three. so we inhale   to lower ourselves down towards the mat. exhale , we rise that back up. eyes up so we don't hang   our heads off of our C7. right, once you've done  your three to five, whatever you feel you want   to do today let your head be heavy, walk yourself  back towards your feet. find your feet before you   roll up, don't let your shins be slamming back.  soften the knees, stand down onto your feet and  . roll yourself up and away from the rooting  of your feet. and then arms come all the way down. Good Job! *applause*