Heat-Building Mat

Hi, everybody. Amy Haven's here for a mat workout. I feel like working out. I feel like working out. I feel like sweating a little bit, so thanks for joining me. This will be quick.

I am gonna use hand weights at the very end. Short segment. I'm using one pounds. You don't have to use any weights if you don't have them. I want you to work out with me. Don't let that deter you. Okay. I'm also on a raised platform mat with the strap at the end.

I prefer that for my ankle to be hooked under. For certain flexion activities in my back that serves me best. If you don't have that, you're fine. We're gonna work out together. Let's go. Let's have some fun and sweat a little bit. Okay? So we're gonna stand wide. I'm gonna take up the mat and just take a quick check-in on your alignment.

We're not worried about perfect placement right now. We're standing tall. Let's do some mat work. I want you to squat deeply inhale. Exhale, press your arms back, press your legs up. Inhale, maybe now look forward.

Exhale, press yourself up, press your arms back. Couple more. Do start to get into your waistline area, your stomach, your low back. If you flex your lower back a little bit here, you're great. Let's push the legs up. Two more to go.

We're gonna stay down on the second one, which is now this last one here. Inhale hold and just put your hands together. Put your elbows in between your knees, look up a little bit, try to lift your chest, lift your heart. Right. Place your hands down. Give your legs a little stretch.

I'm gonna walk my feet closer together now. I'm gonna get a little more upside down and put weight in my hands. I kinda channel a little bit of elephant and when lifting lower my heels a tiny bit. I'm gonna squat down. It's getting into that body round.

Another advantage of this match is I have the edge. It's raised so I can pull against it to open up my back. My 57 year old body almost 57 needs to have some support that it used to not have, and I love this system for that very reason. I'm gonna sit myself down, move my hips back. Play with being hollow here for a moment. Just, right? Your back is flat to the mat.

Lift your head, stretch your arms and just reach toward your toes. We're gonna pump our arms with our arms above our legs here today, not down low. But before we do that, come all the way down. Lift just your right leg a few inches above the mat, engage the seat of your standing leg, the other leg, sink your stomach, take a breath, get hollow in here ish. And let's go. We're gonna do 50 pump, I'm a little turned out on both legs.

Anna in two, four, five, x two, three, four, five. It's nice to have a leg up. You can try to get your pelvis square. I'm engaging both cheeks. 50.

Put the leg down. Reach your arms up and back. Little arm circle, other side, lift your left leg up, squeeze your cheeks a little bit, and raise your chest, square the pelvis, reach and pump. Four five in. Why am I asking us to engage the seat? Well, do.

Give some tone back there. Feel some strength around the base of your pelvis, stability. One more round in. X two three four five is set your leg down. Stretch your arms up and overhead.

Okay. We're gonna do a little kind of a roll up to a rolling like a ball shape. Stretch yourself out. Lift up. Pull your knees into a rolling like a ball, shape, tuck it in tight. Go back down to make it that little hollow body position and do it again.

Pull yourself up. Pull your heels in. I'm really trying not to put my feet on the mat and go back down. Two more exhale. Make yourself a roly poly.

Roly poly. A small little marble. And going back down one more time coming up. Hold, hold, little rounder, little shoulder check, place your feet. Now I'm gonna scoot forward so that I can use my strap If you don't have it, keep moving, you're gonna start this way. I'm gonna pull that strap onto my ankles, put my hands underneath my knees, and then just flex the spine.

I'm trying to work on my lumbar flexion. Now I'm gonna release my right leg and hold behind that thigh. Here's a chance to square those hips. Other leg is straight. Now, guys, pull your leg up and bring your leg down. I'm pressing my hands and my knee together here, the back of my thigh.

I'm pressing my thigh against my hands. I'm on my sacrum, climbing the tree, right? So I'm gonna take it one more time. Stay with me here. Press your leg against your hands a little more. Is there room to square this hip? Probably so.

Walk up. Hold. Now, pull your leg up. Think of pulling it up. And then as you do that, try to keep your attention on the ankle strap.

You're gonna move yourself forward a little bit, check into the hips, bring yourself back, rock onto your sacrum, do that again. So I'm lifting my leg, I'm bringing myself up, trying to keep tension on that ankle strap and back. One more time, I'm gonna lift my leg. Come forward. Keep that tension in me and come back. I'm gonna walk my hands down my tree just to my lumbar spine and walk back up.

Try to get your head a little closer to your leg. Let's just go one more down. All the way, arms by your side single leg circle. Turn this leg out. Engage the seat.

Let's just do three each way. We're already over. Round up. Over around and up. I can't help but we have to do five.

Classic traditional. They're round. Their way. Keep moving. Breathest motion also.

Last one now, climb your tree. Climb your tree. Climb your tree. Release the tension on the strap a little bit and round yourself toward your thigh. Good. Thread your leg through your foot to your ankle strap, release.

Grab the back of the other thigh. Get onto those cheeks, get onto your sit bones, even as you can. Back onto your sacrum, right, you're using that strap for you if you have it to round under. Press your thigh against your hands and we went three knee extensions. Check the shoulders, drop them down.

Keep the breath going holding here, walking up. Now, rather than just pulling your leg to your body, pull your leg up a little bit, then flex your spine towards your leg. Try to keep tension on that strap down there and come back out. I'm gonna rock a little farther back on my sacrum. Same thing. I'm gonna pull my leg up and try to lift up into my curve and back we go one more time and lift up and flex forward and walking back. I'm chuckling because it's fun to have recall on how my body has changed, and I'm still learning about how I can improve my movement, right? The method, always a practice, single leg circle cross, and up.

It feels very different than it did. When I was learning Pilates as a newbie. It was a long time ago. Two more. Right? And the other way.

Everything is changing all the time. That's a relief. And four, non attachment to that. Five, climb your tree. Enjoy the ride. Enjoy every moment. No.

We're gonna climb up. You can loosen the tension. Maybe you don't need the support Now you can lift up into it. Maybe you're increasing your flexibility. I'm trying to get my head on my shin bone. And then I'm gonna come back into my ball shape.

Let's practice that ball to hollow body for a moment. Okay. Talk it in and go back. Now without going all the way back, come right back up. In stretch out. Pull in.

One more. We're gonna stretch out and hold. Single leg stretch. Pull, pull, pull, pull, heal in line with sitting bone, elbows out. You're balanced in the middle of your body. Right? What if you did it on a balance beam? I dare you.

And the last one, let's try that hollow body bit. Reach. Come up. Come on. There. Back, we go double leg stretch.

Three rounds. Breathe. All the body stretch. Okay. Stretch a little more. You're gonna hate it stretch and hold. Reach one more inch and in scissors.

Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull enjoy it. Free it up. Where can you get more free?

And I say that out loud because I felt like I was getting a little tense in my movement. There we go. Four or more. We can work. We don't have to get so tense. Right? One more time.

Duck your knees in. Should we try it again? We should. Out now. Reach. And I'm getting cooked.

It's good. Place your feet down. Stretch your legs out. Move your hips back and just sit tall for a second. Alright? Lift your right leg and put it if you have a box, super great, lift and put it out to the other one.

If you don't, just put them out. Let's do it again, in, in. I realize they need to be a little closer. Now, challenge, arms out, lift, lift and place it, return it. I'm trying not to lose my posture.

Let's do two starting this way. Over. Over. In in one more where they'll stay, take a big breath, reach up. We're gonna do spine stretch forward, flex your ankles round, round, round. See, again, I'm using the mat. That's yes. I'm pulling myself.

It's okay. I'm gonna roll up. This time, I won't pull myself. But I'm still trying to go farther down. Inhale.

Exail forehead or head to the mat. Come on. Flex that spine. Come on if we're gonna do two more. You have to talk to yourself sometimes. Come on forward.

Bend. Where can you lift? My lift was my lower back skin to help my front skins contract. Yep. Okay. Up we go. Arms out to the side for saw.

Inhale. Back arm internally rotates, try to reach the outside pinky. If you can, pull back on the opposite hip, if you can, and stretch, roll yourself up in the rotation, come center. Back arm internally rotates, sit on the opposite hip and you're spiraling. You're spiraling, you're spiraling.

The back arm helps you go back with that arm, bring yourself up and down. Reach. Sit on the back of the opposite hip, reach this arm back to help you come up. Again, twist, ring it out, twist and ring, reach and reach, reach, reach, we get one more. We get one more. We're so lucky.

Reach reach. It's a practice where can you put a correction. Mine is always my pelvis on this particular exercise. I like to lift that opposite hip. Oh, it's so juicy to lift that up, and I'm gonna keep it down. Okay. And now close your legs. Open like rocker.

Let's take a look. Pull the legs in. Concentrate. Look straight ahead. So get back on the back of the tailbone, right?

Take both legs up. Take both legs in. Take both legs up. Bring them back in. If you're a Ruby person, this is our challenge, not to do rib pushing.

Right? Let's take one more and see what happens when we roll today. I'm gonna move my arms to the outside and use them a little, look down, lift your hips, come back up and look forward. It's okay. Practice, roll. See? Concentration vessel, your head, your mind, presence, two more. Lift. What I'm lifting is my pelvis there.

One more. Hold. Hold. Hold, bring your legs in. Guys, cross your ankles. Place your hands on your mat, scoot yourself into a front support.

Take a moment, settle in. Saddle in. Stillness. One more breath. Put your knees down, sit back just a little side support in the shape of a spine bend. A side bend, outside arm palm up, one foot in front of the other, stabilize here. You know the side bend. Lift, enjoy the stretch. Enjoy the lift of your hip enjoy pushing down with your standing arm and come down with control.

I like to look at that hand. Two more to go. And feet, hand, body in between the feet and the hands. Turn and look down. Turn and look up.

Different balance challenge. Come back down. One more please. Up we go. The waistline, the pelvis is what I want us to lift and lift and lift. Fantastic. Ready for the other side.

Just swivel your legs and hand. Feet, hand, shoulder blade. Focus. We did three. Ready. Press into the feet. Let them help you.

Get your arm underneath you. Lift your hips. Lift. Lift and come back down. Yeah. Feel so good to move.

Just sweat a little. To dance on the mat, turn and look your head, and look toward this top hand if you're challenging your balance and come back down. And one more time, and we lift. And we lift hips, waistline, push with the standing arm. 1% more? Yep. And we come back down. Cool.

Thy stretch. Oh my gosh. Come back up. Thy stretch doesn't have to be big. If you're a knee person, no big movement. Okay? We do wanna increase the line in the front of our thigh. Arms forward, please. Stabilize your shoulders, ribs to hips, tailbone to the mat.

I'm gonna lean, and I'm gonna lean up. I'm gonna go back I mean, I mean, trying to increase my posterior tilt. Right? We're gonna keep the arms here at war. Put him here, and then as you lean back, then lift him up. Slightly different action, not a big deal.

Again, and go back. Could you go a little farther if you want? Oh, boy. And up one more to go. Thy stretch.

And, we're gonna hit the mat. We're gonna go prone. We just open up those hip flexors, bend one elbow, place your head down, bend one knee, grab your ankle with the same hand as foot. I like to flex my ankle, personal choice, I'm gonna push my ankle into my hand, lift my thigh, and lift my chest a little. You do not have to make this a big movement.

Stretch your leg back and away from you and up, and then bring your head down, leg down. Again, press your shin back, make it long through the front of your body, chest forward, thigh back and up, try to hug your inner thighs together, and down. Last time. Again, the giggle, this used to be a lot easier. Go up and up.

And then we change. Thank you, Body. Here we go, flex. Enjoy the ride, guys, and lift. Press into their hand.

Right? Freedom. Don't get too carried away. Don't get too tense and come back down. We're always observing yourself. Right? Press. I'm a little more free over here.

That's fantastic. Then I say I wonder what's happening here that I can do the next time on the other side. Who knows? Here we are. Okay. Let's take a look at a little swan with some rocking, like a half a rock. Okay? Place your hands. A couple swans.

Look forward. Look up your wall. Look up. And just come down. Try to keep your chest up and up.

One more regular one. Stretch your skin, lift, and come down. You can always do those or rock with me a little bit. When you rock, try not to look at the mat, look forward, catch. Use your legs rock.

And rock wow. One more. Good. And a cat stretch. What color cat are you? What kind of cat are you? I feel like I'm the minx today because I'm in black, round. Or the tuxedo cat, and round back into your rest pose. Aren't we so lucky to try seal next?

Turn yourself around. Mattwork is fun. Mattwork is where it's at. Yeah. Place your feet together. Gotta get the concentration vessel.

Sync around rolly poley. I'm gonna do three claps here. One, two, three. Roll. I'm not gonna clap overhead. Feel free if you wish. One, two, three.

I'm gonna put my focus on lifting my hips. So I have a little more airtime there. Little more airtime and that airtime will allow me to clap at some point. Two more to go. Lift lift. Boom. We did that part.

Let's do some standing arms. Come on. Grab your weights. Come on up. I love it Pilates dance. One pound. It's all I have in my hands.

Don't need a whole lot. Before we start to move the weights, recollect your alignment, feel how you feel. Zipping up now. One, push the weights down. Lift the weights. Of course, Amy, push the weights down.

If these were springs attached to the floor, yep, different pull. Do you feel the difference there? Push. So all the one pound is in my hand on each side. I can work my muscles as if there's more weight. Same thing, even if you don't have weights in your hands, work your muscles as if you're pulling heavy weights.

Think that makes sense, right? Good. Do more. Pull and push and pull and push. Bicep one. Arms, out.

Ideally, in line with your shoulders, if that's not available, pull them down a little bit. We want to stand very tall and lean forward a little bit from the ankles. So we don't arch the back. Exhale just a right angle. Press them away.

Just a right angle. It's hard. Push away. We'll do eight. Here's number four.

Alright. Four more to go. Can you make it a little more work if you'd like to? I like to stretch my elbows out. I don't think about lengthening my triceps. This is biceps one.

Callerborn is extended. Next one is bicep two. You're gonna stay here. Open. Now when we open, we don't go wide and lose our connection. We're gonna press those arms down and pull in just to right angles.

Press I always think of the black and white photo of Joe when he's doing these And he's I think he's looking this way with something else in this hand, but push. And we're one pounds. Mhmm. And in, press three more to go. Press pull.

Press one more. I'm gonna stay in. I like to transition there and come in and lower all the way down. Now chest expansion on the toes. Turn your arms palms face back. He'll stay together, rise up on the balls of your feet a little.

Hold. You don't have to rise up just a little extra challenge. Right? So pressing your arms back turn and look somewhere else in the room, use your eyes, your neck, and your head muscles, come back to center, lower your heels, transition arms like this, press back, rise up, turn. See something. See something.

Lower and lift. We'll go a little bit quicker. Press. Lift the head. Center. Turn the head. So what I'm thinking when my arms are held back is that my chest is beautifully broad, not a rib push, chest stretching, chest expansion.

One more each direction. Press lift and open. Feel so good. Empowering. Right?

Last time everybody and we're almost near the end of this. Don't give up yet. We've got a few more. Look center lower your heels. Now, I'm gonna have us go back to parallel legs. Step apart, bend your knees.

From the side view, I'm in a little hinge position. My hands are together. Shoulders go back, and then we're like little, crab legs. You're using the muscles between your shoulder blades and then control back in. The shoulder blades go first.

They go back, then you pull And you close. Right? Shoulder blades. You pull what if this is like big taffy strands? What if back and pull and close four more to go, shoulders and pull right between the shoulder blades where our posture really sometimes could stand some enhancement, improvement. Right. Last two, feel strong here.

Pull open. Close a little rib check there and open, close, standing tall, parallel or pilates v. Take one arm. Reach up. Look down, stretch the other arm down. The ribcage lifted, reach in opposite directions as much as you can.

Go. Go. Go. Go. Go. Change hands. Lift reach. Reach reach center, and we'll do three each side. Reach a little more.

We all have a little more, a little more from the ribs, and stretch. So single arm reach with a side bend. We've gotten all of our planes of motion in this workout. All of them got a nice and some balance work. Here we go. Second side.

Last one is sparklers. Everyone likes a good sparkler. Go to fourth of July and a little celebration. Right. Arms are straight. Ribs are back. Waste are way out here.

And eight little circles going up six, seven, eight, and down. This is fun because we keep our shoulders back, but our and our collarbone open seven and eight, but the weights way out in front of us. A lot of great shoulder work. Open two, three, four, down. Always learn this in like five sets of it, and here's step number four.

Down trunk stability. Good. Last one, get everything out that you need. 876-5432 and voila. Way to go. Have you sweat? I'm sweating. Did you have fun?

I hope you did. Thanks for joining me, and I will see you next time on the night. Bye.