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Hi. I’m Dane. Let’s begin today’s mat workout standing. Pilates v, heels together, toes fist distance apart. Take your arms, one on top of the other, genie in a bottle, bring your right knee to the elbow, bring your left knee to the elbow, a few marches here to warm up the hip flexors, make sure you’re pressing into the arms, and you always come back to that Pilates v. Point through your toes, try a few more just like this. It doesn’t get any more classic than our Pilates march.
Let’s do a few more last 4, 3, 2, and 1. 4 part series, heels together, toes apart. Bring your arms out to second. Plea, bend the knees, bring your arms down, lift your heels on 2, bind your balance, relevay on 3, and then out with the arms on 4. Let’s flow down, front, up, and out. Down, front, up, and out, deep in the plie, relevie, up, reverse it. Relovey, bend the knees, heels, press, arms come out, lift, lower, bend out 2 more. Don’t forget to breathe.
That oxygen is gonna come in handy one more time. Great. Standing footwork. Come to a Pilates v. Once again, heels are together on relevay, genie in a bottle, and come down back as up against the wall, up against the carriage, see how this feels today as you come up. Oh, I’m feeling my inner outer thighs.
Feels good, but I do feel a little tight It’s a good thing. We have an epic matte class ahead of us. Last two down, down, down, up, up, up. Last one. Stay with me. Hello. Can you go?
Pull in on the abs, lower the heels. I feel better already. Let’s come to the side of the mat and take ourselves down into a rollback. So your classical descent onto the mat, place your feet down, grab your sexy thighs, and sit up as tall as you can. Give me good posture.
And then round the spine, tuck the tailbone, scoop the abs in, and bring yourself up. It’s cat cow for the abs. So pull the abs in, flex the spine, and then deep breath in, sit up nice and tall. One more time, tuck, scoop, and round. And then lift.
And now the work begins. We’re going to lay on our back and do a chest lift with a leg lift all the way down on your back, just to the tips of the shoulders, lift your chest off of the mat, cradling the head Side one, right leg out, lift your chest, lift the leg, and lower your chest, lower the leg. Try one more time, movement rehearsal, and put it together with your flow. Lift and lower. Lift your chest and lower your chest.
Exhale as you lift, lengthen that leg out as long as you can. Inhale, exhale using your core muscles to lift that leg. Last one, hold your chest at the top, Flex the foot and press your heel. Press your heel. Notice the microbend.
At the same time, lift your chest and press and press and press and push through your heel. Get all the muscles through the back chain of that leg. For 8. We go for 6, a little higher, and tighter, and deeper to hold it. Criss cross twist to the right and center twist to the right and center. Anybody daring enough at home to extend the other leg. Let’s see it. Twist and center.
Twist and center. Let’s do 6 more together. Twist. We’ve got this 4 XL3. Let’s go for 2. Last one. Other side.
Turn out that leg. Reach it long. Lift the chest. Lift the left leg. Lower the leg, lower the chest.
I want the upper body and the lower body in harmony, and let it rip up and down, lift, and lower. I feel like a human accordion going in and out, making beautiful music. Well, I don’t know about that. 3 more. 2 more. Last one, hold it at the top, flex that foot hard, micro bend the knee, and press that heel, push.
Push. We are doing an up kick in mixed martial arts. And for our Pilates practice, we are straightening that leg and getting all the muscles on the back of that left leg. Come on. 4.
3, 2, straight into crisscross, reach the right leg out, twist to the left, back to center. Twist to the left. Back to center. Let’s go. 8. 7, stay off the shoulders as best you can as you twist, not rolling to one side, but twisting and lifting bottom rib to opposite knee.
Last two, hug the knees in on 1. Holy smokes feeling the burn, but the work continues. Turn out the legs your head can be rested, or you can lift your chest if you want more. Chris cross your legs, straddle criss cross your legs, straddle, alternate the criss cross, open, alternate the criss cross, Open. Let’s go faster. Chris cross out.
Chris cross out. Chris cross reach. Chris cross reach. Alright. I feel left out. I’m gonna lift my chest as well, just like you at home, Chris cross out. Taking even more control to keep my low back neutral, my pelvis anchored.
And I am stretching and strengthening my inner thighs, always adding a sound effect when I can. One more time, criss cross, and hug those knees in. Awesome job. Rock yourself gently up to a seat. Go straight into rolling like a ball. Elbows and knees push together here.
Hinge back, lift your heels close to your bum, press the elbows and knees together looking down at your abdominals, roll to the tips of the shoulders, and roll back up, keep the elbows and knees connected, rolling back, and rolling up with control. Try that a few more times. If you notice that your elbows and knees are coming apart, fix it, use your core, push them both together, upper and lower abs, connected, and now a fun combo, roll like a ball, and come to a pistol squad. You can do it. Trust me. Try this.
Tuck your chin, roll and shoot one leg out. See? Try the other leg. Roll back. Shoot one leg up. Oh, yeah. Now see if you can push into your foot. Lift your backside and come right back down.
Just a little and down. Try that a few times. Find your flow when you feel good. Come all the way up to stand. And come back down.
Or just stick to the scoot. Whatever works best for you, Always a reason to come back to this mat workout and check-in. Rock yourself up to a seat. Awesome job. Teaser.
Roll back. One leg up, other leg up, eyes in line with the feet. Now you may keep your knees bent. If you can, extend those legs feet in line with your eyes, arms, parallel with the legs, shoulders down the back, squeeze those legs together. Hold it.
Lower your upper body. Roll back. Lift your upper body. Lift up. Do that two more times.
We are keeping it classic here. Why fix something that’s not broken? Hold it three times. Lower lift your legs. Two more times.
Thank goodness. Only one more. Put it all together. Legs lower. Arms lift. Connect, upper, and lower body, arms up, legs up, lift at the same time, at the same height, two more times, melt the back into the mat, reach your body in two directions, arms come up, lift your head, legs come up, same time, levitate up, Last one. Arms come up to the ears.
Roll back as slowly as you can and print the spine. Rock yourself up to teaser last time, and then we transition into Swan, hands behind the back, transition onto your stomach in prone position. Hands underneath your shoulders. Legs are either hip distance. Or if you can bring them together, hips, push into the mat, abs lift up out of the mat, swan, lift your chest, and lower your chest.
Do that two more times to check-in Are you closing the rib cage? I sure hope so. Do not let your ribs flare. Close them together. Pull up on your stomach. And now you’re going to lower your chest, lift your legs, and catch yourself at the top.
Got it. 2 more times practice. Chest down, legs up, catch. Chest down, legs up, catch. And now if you can, shoot those arms forward and catch. Shoot those arms forward and catch.
Once you’ve mastered that, full expression, let’s do this, down and up with the arms, down and up with the arms. Last two, Last one. Child’s pose, sit back. Thigh stretch coming to the knees. A stretch is a great way to put it, but this is gonna burn.
Make sure your body line, the knee, the hip, the shoulder, all in one line. Squeeze your butt, pull your abs in, hinge hinge and hinge until you feel that burn in the front of the legs and then go back another 2 centimeters, bring yourself up. We’ll do that two more times back, back, back up, up, up. Now I need you to get this burn with me. So this time, we’re we are going to lengthen our body a little bit longer, pulling our abs a little bit deeper, I’m with you here. Come on. I feel the burn with you.
We can do this. Bring it back up. Anybody want to try the full expression with me? You go all the way back. Once you can’t go back anymore, you allow your head to extend over back to the flat back Come back up.
Whoo. I know how it never gets easier, and that’s why I love Pilates. The more you do it, the better you become at it, the more aware, and the more challenging the exercises are. It’s never enough. Just kidding. You’re doing great. We’ve got our side series coming up.
I want you to come to a modified pretzel. So your knees facing forward but then your back leg is 90 degrees at the hip. Now if you need to modify, I’m just gonna show you once. You’re gonna come back to that arm and do all of these exercises lying on your forearm. But if you’re with me here, the back knee is at the mat, internal rotation, external rotation.
Sometimes you need to grab that ankle to make sure it’s possible. But I’m feeling okay on my on this leg. I’m gonna try to hover my leg up and down. Notice that my knee stays in place, but I internally rotate and then externally rotate. It’s all happening here in my hip.
On this last one, I want you to hold and hover at parallel, flex the back foot, lift on 1, wrap on 2, So it’s lift and wrap 30 seconds here. Now I am leaning into my left side, but maybe If I use my core muscles, I can lift my chest a little higher. Can you try one arm with me? Can you try two arms with me? I’m feeling that right on my abductor, my outer corner shelf of my booty, helping my low back stay strong.
We’ve had 3 seconds. I’m watching the clock with you. 2 and one. Amazing. Right away. Come on to that knee for your kneeling side series. Take that arm up to the sky Salute the heavens, lift the leg on 1, return it to the back on 2, back to the hip on 3 down on 4, four part series, lift, back, lift down.
So we are extending that leg fully, still working that abduction of the leg and the glutes just in a slightly different way. And, of course, the obliques, everything firing up in the torso, the powerhouse, baby, this mat has it all. Let’s do one more, and then we’ll hold at the top for the pulses. 16 up. Up. Again, reach as long as you can.
Let’s do 8 more. 8 reach. Get that leg up at hip height. I can see you at home. I know you can lift it a little bit higher. Hold it. 8 circles forward.
76 5, 43, 2. Reverse at 8, 6, 4, 3, 2, and a Mermaid. I’ve never been so happy to become a Mermaid. Up and over. And then reverse your Mermaid up and out. And then this one’s for the photographers.
Lift that stretch up. Wrap that arm back. Whatever feels good for you. This is your mat practice. I’m just your hype man here.
You know? Let’s take it to the other side. Transitions. Bring that leg back. You want that ninety degree angle in the legs. So one knee forward, make sure because I see a lot of times people bring that knee up, not today, We are wrapping it back behind us.
As always, your modification is on the forearm. But if you’re with me, Let’s see how side 2 feels internal rotation, external rotation, I’m gonna take off my training wheels some days I need it. Not today. A few times, And if you feel like you’re not doing much, you’re probably doing it correctly because, of course, we want to show big range of motion when we work out. But if you’re truly isolating the exercise, notice that my top hip doesn’t move but I can assure you, and I know you at home can feel the burn.
Hold it up at the top for a combination. Flex the foot. It’s a lift on 1 and a wrap on 2. Lift on 1, wrap on 2. Let’s move and back 30 seconds on the clock. Can you stay in this for 30 seconds?
Well, 25 seconds now, up and back, lift, and lower. Good. I’m gonna try this with one arm. Oh, no. The other arm for the last 10 seconds. Come on. Lift up.
I’m doing it. Look at me, mom. I’m so proud of myself. Just another 5 seconds. Smile at the judges’ baby. I feel like a pageant mom, bring yourself up to the knee, kneeling side series, reach your arm up, and let’s do that four part series where we lift on one bring it back on 2, lift on 3, and down on 4, eight times, up, back, up and down. Make sure you do your best to keep the upper body still.
Again, you’re moving from the hip down, try to plant that hand. It’s as much about the upper body stabilizing, and the core keeping us tight. So we can truly get the benefits and the burn in all the right places hashtag everywhere right now. Okay. Hold at the top. 16 pulses.
Make them high. Make them tight. Up. Up. Oh, yeah. I’m gonna feel this one tomorrow. Whoo. Let’s go for 6.
Let’s go for 4, 3, 8 circles. Don’t worry. I didn’t forget. 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. What goes forward? Must go back. 8 765.
Scribe those circles. Precision. Mermaid. I’ll give you per per precision with the sperm made right now. I’ll tell you that. Up and over, stack those knees. If they stack, if they come apart, that’s okay. Just a little reset.
Oh, what is that mister photographer? Yes. You can have your shot. Oh, you want me to extend over? You got it. Downward dog.
Great. Let’s throw in some downward dog push ups here, pushing yourself up to that pilates v, pedal out the heels. And then with your heels down with a soft knee, flare out your elbows, crown of the head to the mat, come down and come up. If it’s a microbend, That works for me too, but your shoulders have to be down the back. We are prepping for hand stands, for hand springs, for Mussel Beach Los Angeles when you come and visit me. A few more like this down and up the goal. The crown of the head to touch the mat, Crown of the head to touch the mat. The elbows flare out in the Pilates salute a few more last 2. Last one. Walk your hands and feet together.
Mindfully roll up your spine. Bone. By bone by bone. Good. Come to 1st position. Heels together Pilates v.
Let’s check-in on that v and see how it feels now versus how we started the class. On the toes, ankles together. Coming down, back is up against the wall. I definitely feel warmer. This is much easier for me squeezing to come back up.
You see what happens when you wake up all these muscles in your body. We worked the arms, the back. My abdominals got that burn, and now I’m putting it all together Well, the system of Pilates puts it together, and then we get to enjoy all of our favorite things out in the real world. For me, that’s tennis, gymnastics, figure skating, one more time. What do you love to do?
I would love to hear it in the comments below. Great. Bring your feet down. Let’s finish with a beautiful porta bra for the back. Take your right foot back into a lunge, take your arms out. We’re gonna circle to the left over that standing leg, circle to the back, circle out, come back out to center, hold, arabesque, lift that back leg, hold, balance, breathe. Bring your feet together.
Other side, lunge, legs are squared, reach to me, give it to me. Circle to the right, breathing, connecting through your body, back, circling over, coming back through center, lift that back leg, check-in on the balance, arabesque. Breeze. Feed together. Let’s take a final reverence.
That’s our final bow to each other. Take a step to your right and curtsy bow, transverse lunge. Take a step to the left, curtsy, and this one’s for yourself, a hamstring stretch. Salute yourself for showing up today on the mat. I hope this is a workout that you’ll come back to, whether you just have a little bit of time to work out, or whether you need a nice warm up before you go out and do what you do best.
Love you guys. Hope to work out with you again soon.
