Class #4160

Moving Meditation

55 min - Class


Go with the flow with Kristi Cooper's Mat class. You will get a gratifying workout as you find rhythms within your body and free yourself of tension. She encourages you to use this moving meditation as a way to take efficiency into everything in your day.
What You'll Need: Mat

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Here we are. Welcome to yet another garage session with me. Really happy you're here. Let's get right back to where we started from. If you were listening to the music beforehand, today is really about, of course moving and let's just go with the flow if you will.

And if there's an intention I'm setting it is to, I call it a moving meditation. It's not to meditate, it's to understand the body has its own rhythms. And I am encouraging you to find yours within the session. So let's just get going. Here we are.

Have a seat on your mat. There's always this moment of like, I see you, but I don't, and I'm really happy you're here. So sitting up nice and tall. (exhaling) Hold yourself. Hold on behind the legs. Feel where you are.

I've been moving furniture again. So there's a few things I may skip today, but I may have you do 'em. Here we go. We're gonna sit it really to hold on from the tailbone, root yourself into the earth, let your legs just be wherever they need you for now. And then grow taller out of that.

Then yes, go back to that parallel. I am actually pulling a little bit on my inner thighs of my hands so that I can remind myself to ever so slightly engage. Let's try. I promise we're moving in a second, but let's try to be as efficient as possible today. And to me that means the more we can relax here in the beginning, the more efficient we're gonna move, because we can just let go a little. So let's just take a couple of deep breaths, inhale.

(inhaling) And exhale. (exhaling) And just wiggle around whatever you need, inhale. (inhaling) And start to know that you're rooted. (exhaling) And that you can support yourself even without your arms. (inhaling) (exhaling) And as usual, you're your own teacher.

So you could even change the position of your legs, but it's about the spine right now to breathe. Find that fullness of yourself. (inhaling) (exhaling) Don't, you don't have to do the head wiggle, but that's what I had to do, (chuckling) shake it off. Here we go inhale. (inhaling) And exhale. (exhaling)

I need like two more, and then we're off. (inhaling) Inhale. Do you feel your feet? Do you feel the soles of your feet? Do you need to touch them together? Exhale. How about one more?

(inhaling) (exhaling) Okay, here we go inhale. Start an exhale, in my opinion, to initiate those hipbones, front bones rolling back. I am still holding on pretty strong. Roll back to the point you can, before your feet fully come up or you know you can't get back up, inhale, start that exhale. You can look at your abs for now.

Sink the belly, come forward, stay curved and then grow tall again to that same spot right, here we are again, inhale. (inhaling) (exhaling) Inhale (inhaling) Exhale, come forward, but it's almost like you're holding the abdominals back and stand tall, even though you're sitting. (inhaling) (exhaling) It's gonna be fun. It's gonna be whatever it's gonna be actually. But pick your intention, now I'm going forward, only using what I need to, 'cause that would be a good lesson for me.

Not overdoing anything inhale. (inhaling) (exhaling) And (inhaling) So if you're like already warmed up, it's early for me, you can, you can let go, right? You don't have to use your hands. I like it for the actual opposition, no matter what time of day it is for me. (inhaling) So like right here, that's my brace, and I'm like, oh yeah.

Oh yeah, no, no, no, my arms are stronger than my arms. Abs are stronger than the arms or something. Inhale. (inhaling) (exhaling) Can we do just one more? Of course. But are we still tall?

And down. (exhaling) Let's just stay here for just a second. If you need to bring your feet closer, do, but I am gonna go back up. So fair warning, exhale, and I'm actually gonna lightly pull with my fingers, hands, but I'm really focused on sinking the waist into the mat. (inhaling) (exhaling) Again.

Again, find room in your neck. (exhaling) What are you looking at? Make it like the best thing you ever saw. (exhaling) Peaceful. (exhaling) Turn off the TV if it's on, unless you're on the floor on it.

(exhaling) One more. We're going up. As I've mentioned, sink, the belly, up we come, up we come, up we come. Hands to the front of the knees. I almost traction them to help me lift up and by tractioning, we just, almost like I'm sliding my hands up, here we are. (exhaling) From here, let's put the soles of the feet together, drop the knees out to the side.

Some would call it a diamond position. Some would be me and then take your hands, mind your head. It's this first part is just all about like, where are we? Gere we go. Inhale. All we're doing is just easily looking over to one side, rotating the spine to do it.

And what happened? Did you lean off? You know, you got to watch yourself, center. What I'm loving about these live classes, I'm like, finally they have to take care of the other side. And I always do I'm sure. And center and it's even here I'm, tractioning sort of the back of my neck or the occipital of the, you know, the rigid skull, lifting it up in my mind and taking my whole spine with it.

I'm inhaling as it rotate, if it matters to you, exhale, center, other side, we'll do this again later, but let's just see where we're at now, (inhaling) (exhaling) Ooh. Because I know where I'm looking every time, I'm gonna give you a chance to check this out too, I know I was starting to lean back. How about you? So if you, if you pick a spot, I'll give you two so you can try, pick something you're looking at, 'cause a minute ago I was leaning back. I was getting all lazy right at the start.

Nope, not anymore. Other way. Now you have your marker. Let's do one last to each side. (exhaling) (inhaling) (exhaling) All right, all right, here we go.

Feet back to parallel, mine are apart a little bit. It's worth looking at, I need to do more footwork, I can tell you that right now, but, and I only know that because it's, I gotta think a lot about what's parallel. So we're lying on our backs. Our arms are down and we realized that we're connected to the ground. We are going up just the pelvic curls, more warm up, exhale, roll the pelvis up, up, up, up.

Remember how we pulled on the inner thighs a little bit. That's that same sensation. I am trying to get myself without the hands doing it, inhale from the top of this rote. Start to just let go, at least from up there and then sequentially all the way down. Release, fully inhale, exhale, and going back up.

You know what I'm doing now, so. Nice, wide collarbones, I'll just try to remind you. It's just warming up the spine, how flexible can we start this experience with, but we'd be more flexible if we could let go. So I'm gonna give you four more and we're not working too hard. We're just going right there, there's the spine.

And my arms can help. My feet can help. (inhaling) (exhaling) Learning to, reminding to support ourselves too. And just noticing, inhale, and exhale. Can your, this is a weird cue, but I gotta say it now, can your neck be any longer? In other words, some of us, kinda start to clench when we think about things.

So just kind of relax a little and exhale roll, butt up, low back up, middle, back up, upper back up. Boom, stay here. I know we have two more, but just step into your feet a little bit. Are they still evenly weighted? Inhale, exhale, roll down.

Just noticing what's natural and what is. And the what is, is let's accept it. Let's go again. (inhaling) (exhaling) And down, from this road. Like for me, sometimes I have to think which side of the body do I care about right now?

I care about it all by the way, the front, the chest, the sternum. Oh, there's those upper ribs that, that's my tricky spot all the way down. Okay. Let's stay down here except take your arms out to a tee position. And then when you're here, it's like, you could just lay here, reach them out. Anita Horri bought a painting and she showed this picture of, oh, and if only she would reach her wings spanned.

And that's what I'm thinking of right now. It's a beaut anyway, reach your wingspan. So it's not just like they're laying here. They're helping you. We're supporting ourselves today. Pick up the knees.

You can have them closer, you can have your feet down. I'm aiming for sort of what? 90, 90, 90 at the hip, 90 degrees at the knee coming towards me first, inhale, rotate, take a quick peak, 'cause you are your own teacher. First of all, your knees are absolutely lined up. Your opposite shoulder is down and you are still reaching through that wingspan. Then you start to remember that we're only using what we mean.

Exhale, come center, other side, here we go. Inhale, over, same direction. (exhaling) Meaning cues, go again. Your lower body is almost swaying, with your upper body being a anchor. Sometimes efficiency comes that way.

If you have one thing grounded, the rest can just flow freely. Over, and sure, you can challenge yourself. I'm not trying to make this a light workout. I'm trying to make it one that allows us to go, ha. If I hold here, I can be free there.

(exhaling) Again. If you are the person that wants to know why, I'm warming us up, let's just feel that rotation. You could put your feet on the ground too. Right? Keep going. You can do the same thing with your feet on the ground if it's too much on your back to lift up.

If your head, if you're looking behind you, you need a towel behind your head. A little one, but you do. You don't wanna be in this, I don't know what to, I don't know what to call that position, but you want it to be easy. We're going for ease and efficiency today. Over, if your legs are in the air, that's great. I'll be back with you in a second.

Over, so what I'm about to cue is the exact same thing you'll do. If your feet stay down like this, otherwise you inhale, over, top leg. Your knees are lined up, extend and reach it. It doesn't mean go change the shape a lot, but the sense of I'm anchored at the other end and I'm longer in my legs than I ever thought they could be. Wouldn't that be nice?

Then come center, and other side, inhale. Maybe keep inhaling or just hold out. Reach long, exhale center with the leg straight, folded when it's back to center, here we go. Stretch that top leg, anchor that opposite shoulder, back to center and down, and. (inhaling) (exhaling) Oh, I exhaled too soon, but I'm, so that's okay, right?

Just breathe. I like to inhale on a rotation, 'cause it just keeps me long, but you know, whatever. It's not that big of a deal. Sorry. Everything's a big deal. Really, over.

It's just moving. We'll just do one more each way. Over. I can hear Meredith Rogers in my head, her napping, "Why are you going so fast?" I love her. And she's right, but I just wanna move.

Okay. We come back to center. We fold the legs. We put 'em down, keep them together, why not? Fold the hands behind your head, lace the fingers together. And I, you know, I kinda like do the think of commit.

Don't kind of do it. Commit, make a basket or hand over hand. That's cool too, commit. Commit to what you're doing for yourself. Here we go. Inhale, we're doing a chest lift exhale.

Let your head just look forward. Sort of stretch out the back, your neck, then curl up, up, up, up, and come back down. I'm inhaling, exhaling up. You could stay here and inhale, try for higher on the inhale, it's hard to do, exhale down. Breathe, seriously, breathe however you want.

I'll try, I'll do my best not to cue it. I learned some of the exercises with the choreographed breath. So I'll probably keep saying it, in fact, I know I will, but you're not beholden to me, obviously, exhale up. Oops. (laughing) Stay here in the warm of, most of me and my friends liked this little extra bit of like, okay, I think I'm warm, but need a little bit more.

So up we come, I grabbed onto my legs. I pulled myself forward. Let go, put the hands back, then go down. 'Kay, and I'm gonna choreograph this breath actually, 'cause it's gonna change in a minute. Exhale, curl up. Inhale, grab the legs, exhale, pull.

And when I say pull, let the elbows go wide, so your collarbones can spill. Yeah, me too. Arms up, hands back and go down. And again, (exhaling) reach, grab, pull, arms up. Put 'em back, and down. Next one we'll stay up there and add on the fun. Here we go. (exhaling)

While you're here, can you drop your head into your hands more without dropping your spine? Think about it or don't, but try it. Reach to your legs. Curl a little higher, arms go up. They go behind your head.

Rotate towards the front, I'll peer towards this super pretty green fake in my garage that I was too lazy to return. Inhale, three to the middle, other side, more information than you need, I know. Don't write to me about it. Center, front. (exhaling) But now you have an opportunity as you continue.

What are your, what is your pelvis doing? Is it? What are your legs doing? Are they rocking side to side? Stay up or maybe even come higher to the middle. (inhaling) (exhaling) (inhaling) (exhaling) (inhaling) (exhaling) Come back to the center, grab onto your legs.

Pull yourself a touch higher. Reach your arms up. Keep 'em straight all the way back, and stretch out your legs. I'm not giving up here. Meaning I'm still almost ready to go. I did have to back up. Maybe you did too.

So if you've totally relaxed, reengage into it, that means inner thighs. My feet are together. My arms are reaching. They're not resting on the ground. I do have to do some work around the middle and I'm leaving my legs down for the 100 for now. Start to curl up, look forward and look towards your toes or just above them. Arms came with you and come back down.

(inhaling) Again. And just check out yourself while you're here. What are your knees doing? What are your feet doing? If they don't actually touch, that's okay. Just keep 'em straight ahead and go back down.

This time, think of pressing it back up your legs, into the ground. Curl up. (exhaling) Stay here. Can you grab on? Or if you don't need to reach further, further, like you're gonna get out, really get up, but don't but just like you're going to, and come back down. Next one, we're gonna stay up there and start pumping the arms, but leave the legs down or don't you can lift them, right?

You know who you are. If you want more, do more, exhale. So for me, I just want that little assist to go, right? Oh, that feels good. Now I can kind of chill out on my neck and inhale two, I'm pumping the arms, and exhale, two, three, four.

Think of expansion of the lungs. What better time. And (exhaling), you can go faster. I'll try not to say too much. Meaning you can count for yourself.

You can do 200 for all I care, but just keep heating your body up and recognizing you're in control. In, two. Watch that you're not gripping too much in the glutes. Maybe more inner thigh. I'm gonna, I'm gonna keep going, keep going.

I wanna to pull myself into it just a little more. Now let's do two more rounds, whatever breath cycle you're on, but keep pumping maybe even faster if you want to. Keep, keep, keep, keep. (exhaling) And last exhale for me, if you're done, go ahead and just reach your arms back. Hug one knee in, stretch it out.

If it's not straight, that's okay. What I will encourage you to do, and it might mean you have to bend your knee, is to take the sit bones, the butt bone of the leg in the air toward the opposite ankle. Even as you hold it, keep that foot or leg parallel. Ooh, and if, And then the end kind of close. And as you do, I talked about that sort of tractioning that almost like the skin, the knee up, but it's still reaching that sit bone without letting that lower leg move, change legs.

And the leg bends, first leg is on the ground, maybe gently pressing down, so you have that anchor we talked about so that when you're ready to let go, you can more easily allow the leg you were holding to go up. Sit bone of the leg in the air goes toward the opposite ankle. That's a way down there. And then readjust the leg if you need to. Ish. That was for Tash.

Ish, she always says ish and then she's like, ooh, that feels like something, (chuckling) foreign. Hug the knee in. Still sip on, I'm gonna grab a sip of water. You're hugging it in really feeling for that. Bear with me on this.

And then hug both knees in. It's funny, live in a live situation isn't as nerve-wracking as the other, so bear with my dry mouth. Okay, both knees are in, hands up to the knees, push against the knees, but as you do draw the belly down elbows are still wide for the same reason. I want those collarbones to match it. I don't care if the knees are together at this point and then relax it really hugging and lift your bum, hug close, push into the knees, but feel how that opposition can actually sink the belly and you feel more of your spine or your back on the floor.

Let's keep that sensation, curl your head, neck and shoulders up and pulling the right leg in as deep as you want. But sometimes it's nice to hold it out a bit and create that resistance we've been doing since the beginning. If you wanna go traditional, but go traditional, outside hands to the ankle, other hand shin ish. And we're gonna switch. Take a second. Just take a second, find your hand placement.

Sometimes I use the hand just to make sure that it stays in the foot, stays in line with the knee. Here we go. I'm inhaling for two exhaling for two it's in, in. (exhaling) Can you stretch the straight, like longer? I don't know without tension, 'cause it's like, it's not about that.

We're trying to create resistance against the middle right now, so the leg doesn't have to tighten. Why waste energy? So couple more. I'm doing, here's my last set. Mary would be so proud I followed her, both knees in, from here, everything goes forward, your arms and your legs.

You might wanna go high to begin with, reach, your back didn't change. You pull it in. Close as you want, inhale out, exhale in. Reach, pull, reach, if you want more of a challenge or a different challenge, take the arms back, circle 'em around and grab on. But here's the thing.

The middle doesn't change. (deep breathing) I swear I'm going uphill, I've got to remember to change sides next time. (deep breathing) Reach, okay, come on, come back, put an exclamation point on it. Way back there, way back there. Don't drop back. Just reach back.

Way back there. And one more hug your knees in, shake your head side to side, curl back up, you can use the knees for help, right leg up, left leg out on a high diagonal maybe, let's try to keep this upper leg, the leg closest to you straight up if you can, for the flexible people, you're gonna hate that. I know, that's why I think you're the ones that need it more. I should be pulling and switch. So we just grab one, hold and then you get to focus on all that oppositions going on.

Pull, pull. (deep breathing) Pull, pull. Ooh, watch that neck, Kristi. Last one here, both legs up, hands behind your head. Bend your knees, head goes down.

How you doin'? We're not, curl back up. So I still have my hands back. I'm supporting myself, both legs straight up. Wouldn't that be fun? Bend your knees.

Extend the leg closest, ah, it doesn't matter, just twist it. You can see if you don't know the criss-cross and switch and switch, and here you're just anchoring from the pelvis. Rotate. And rotate. Someone gave me the cue somewhere along the way, imagine it was real.

I don't know, I'm on a balance beam. My spine is not a balance beam. I'm not falling off that balance beam. Think about it. But I also wanna rotate, wanna get back there.

And I wanna see something else and I wanna feel the so called ringing out on my spine. How about a couple more starting now? Here's one, one, here's two, two and two, both knees in, let your head go down. Before I go into the rollover, we'll put both feet down. Parallel, my legs are apart, just like the beginning.

Pelvic curl again. Off we go. (exhaling) That one kinda feel good when you really dig in there. If you grab your glutes and you totally commit to the legs, you won't get as much out of it. So I'm gonna give you one more before we go into a shoulder bridge, knot yourself down.

Put those vertebra down further than where you pick them up. Okay, so this time we're anchored, our feet are anchored, our arms are anchored. How little can you do to make your abdominals do what they do? Roll up. You don't need to tighten your butt for that.

It will when you pick up, right, you feel it? See? You don't need a whole lot. Check out your collar bone, spread out those shoulders, we need it. And then here we are, hopefully in a straight line from shoulder to knee on this diagonal, pick up the right leg, stretch it up. Oh, I know I'm gonna cramp, but that's okay.

We go down, we flex up, we go down. I'm going fast, Mary, down and up, down up, down and up, one more down and up. Ah, sorry, that was one and a half more. Put it back. Roll halfway down, back to, my feet are anchored, my shoulder back. My shoulders are anchored.

I roll halfway down, shake out the foot cramp and we go back up. Not so much for feet, you could, but have a deep curve of the belly that happens when you let, other leg up and I'm going down, don't worry about the foot down. Exhale, inhale, though I'm out of breath. I'll quit talking. (inhaling) (exhaling) Two more.

Let's go up, stay up, put it back. Oh, I lost a little from there. That's something we'll practice tomorrow. Rechecking to make sure I'm back where I started and now allowing myself to go back down. Take a quick hug of the knees to the chest.

Yes. Start a little rock. Start a little rock, start a little rock. I two more we'll come up. Here's one onto rear up. Stretch your legs out.

Take up some space. Take it up. It's your time. From here, I'm just going to push the air away from me to create the sensation of a curved spine. Actually it is a curved spine, but it helps when I have that resistance against gravity.

So here we are shoulders above knees. You could go way forward if he want to, but I'm gonna do it this way. The way I learned where it starts, those hip bones back where you roll back. This is a roll up, back, back, reach back. You're not really touching the arms and you're not flattening the ribs, inhale arms forward, head forward, start the exhale (exhaling) reach, so it's, and back.

And again, arms up, head forward. (exhaling) Seriously on an uphill. And that's okay. Back, there's ways to do this, right? So if you need a little help, you can put a towel book behind your back.

I'm not giving all the modifications today, but you can, and up. (exhaling) You can even slightly bend your knees at that tricky part. And then you straighten 'em out at that same tricky part when you come up, like so right here, but you get it. And up. (deep breathing) So let's do two more.

I found myself doing something I do, which is when I went to go back. I just knew I was going there, so I just went. This time, let's go back thinking about where is the starting? It's starting somewhere around those hip bones. That's how I think of it as bony landmarks.

It's like, (exhaling) it's like as if everything in my whole body wants to stay up there, but something more powerful, the rouse, is guiding me backwards. Check your shoulders, check your limit. All right, yeah, you could do it way faster, but, we're not today. And back. (exhaling) Up we come. (exhaling)

Come on, come on, come on, inner thigh, inner thigh, inner thigh, inner thigh, still as if your waistline was like, no, I'm not getting up. Perfect. All right. Sit tall. Separate your feet. I am gonna turn around for this mostly 'cause I need to see that side of my garage. All right. So take your feet wide.

You don't have to turn around unless it works for you to. Feet are flexed, kneecaps straight up to the ceiling. Yeah. Lace your fingers once again, commit to it. Sit right. Upright as best you can.

Right? Right, as best you can. So if you got someone in the room, have them help you or imagine a wall. Here we go. Well, I can't really tell. So you'll have to let me know if I'm upright. I have my hands by my head for the spine stretch.

Despite if you know it, exhale and I'm doing this again, 'cause I know that traction feeling, so I'm going down. I'm going down, I'm gonna touch the top of my head today. I guarantee no, I'm not gonna be able to be, I've only done it once in my life, and then I'm coming back up. So if that's too uncomfortable, traditionally, it'd be straight out with the arms. So do that if you want.

Exhale, round arm. (exhaling) And as you do this, can you get, can you try to create this sensation of almost like a conveyor belt of lifting up through the front, longer through the back? I'll change it now. Inhale. Exhale, I just had this wave of like, I'm so happy I'm here. So I gotta tell you about it, over we go from here.

So you're down, your head is down, you're almost on the floor maybe. You imagine pushing your feet stronger forward are your feet still flexed and kneecaps straight up? We are gonna lengthen our spine on a diagonal, starting from the base of the spine. Lengthen, lengthen, lengthen. Exhale, round over again, so you're way out there.

And then from again, those hip bones, you can start to pull yourself back up until you're back at the top and you have that sensation of traction or maybe it's the sensation of just reaching toward the ceiling. Exhale over. (exhaling) Inhale. I like to press my legs downward here. It's okay if they're bent it's so okay if they're bent, please don't feel like it's not okay if they're bent.

'Cause it's okay if they're bent, re-round and roll up. It's really about the spine mobility and action. Let's go again, I'm adding on, exhale, round over. Don't forget the original. We're kind of rolling down an imaginary wall.

Now get to the lean into it a bit. Hopefully starting at the hips. When you get to where you think you can hold it, extend your arms. And again, hopefully right by your ears instead of down in front of you with the thumb straight up. I know it's a lot of words. You know me by now, refold the arms and get longer as you do, exhale forward fold.

And at the same time, start the roll back up the imaginary wall. Here we go. (exhaling) Rounding forward. Inhale, let's use the back of the legs as our support extend into that long, long spine. When you're there, if you can hold it there and try extending your arms, imagine someone pulled on you. It doesn't matter if your shoulders go up a whole lot, but it's more fun if they don't, reach, reach, reach, feet are still flexed, right?

Check 'em out. Refold the arms as your spine grows longer, forward fold or whatever you wanna call this and roll back up. I'm doing one more just like that and then yes, again, I'm gonna add on, whoa. Find yourself starting to feel your upper back. Exhale. (exhaling) It's posturing ourselves.

Oh, I just almost did like a dance move. Not that I know any, but start at the base of the spine and let your head be last. If you can. I was trying to do the wave I've never been able to do, extend the arms. Hold it. Oh no. I promised you one more, but here, like someone's pulling you lean into it. Flex those feet, you can do it.

Refold the arms as your spine stays long. Now forward, round, roll up. This is the one where you get to add on to. (inhaling) Ah, my favorite, exhale. Inhale, press down, lengthen up, find your space, find your length, extend your arms when you're ready.

I do rotate the thumbs toward the ceiling and front. Can you reach forward more? Not by rounding. Like, you can be almost sit upright and get a lot out of this if your back is straight and gently pull back and by pull back, I mean the arms the upper arms, not the hands. Right? We could fake it all we want. But what is that? You can think shoulder blades, whatever you wanna do, but pull those arms back as you lean into it, we'll do five more.

Here's one. Are your feet still flexed? Two, mine weren't, not just the toes, by the way, Kristi, four-ish let's hold five. Get longer, get longer, reach out of your shoulders. It's okay. Leave your arm straight, round forward and over again and just hang out.

If you had a nice fluffy carpet, hold onto it, 'cause it feels good. Right, sit yourself up. Let's just do a little reverse section, feet together. Yeah. If you can, fingers point towards your heels, If not, they can go sideways.

They can go back or you could be on your fists and fists might be my second alternative. If you can't go fingers to hips, I'm not doing the whatever it's called, we're just lifting up. So here's the deal. You are strong in your arms. Your inner thighs are strong, your glutes are okay.

You can use them a bit, 'cause you're about to, you're gonna lift up and look for a sort of a backwards plank. And try not to look behind you. If anything, you could look forward. Ideally it's I don't know it's not quite straight up, but it matches your spine. Again, if you have a friend, let them help you, flex your feet, let your arms come off.

I sat down. If you're just following along cue wise, arms, come up. Let's go again. We're gonna do about four or five, fingers down, hands down, strong arms. Don't let 'em be bent or we're in trouble from the start they're straight, and you lift, and you lift, and you're not looking behind you, Kristie. You sit down, it's a hinge, it's not a roll, flex feet, arms come up.

I like to turn 'em over, 'cause I spend too much time on the computer. Again. Lift strong. Feel the columns of your arm. And down, flex, and open. And again, lift.

It's almost mechanical. And I'm gonna say that because we're about to do something else that might feel mechanical to a certain degree. The way I'm gonna teach it, anyway. And life, ah, and down. Finish it, flex the feet, arms out, just leave the arms out.

Separate the feet, maybe a little wider than the last one we did, the spine stretch a little wider, not much. Face, neck, bones, you're up and we rotate towards me. Cool. Come back. Yeah, I am going to hit this all, but I want you to feel yourself.

I say that a lot. It comes out sounding really not right, but that's what I, I want you to pay attention to your boning landmarks, I guess is a better way of saying it, maybe not, all right, I'll just shut up and go. We're over here, we rotated one direction. Hopefully you can see if we're going into the sock. So you simply, not simply, you reach outside that little, to that other arm. It's like pushing air or water or something heavy away and then come up and center.

So this is what I meant by mechanical, we rotate one. We reached forward to you can kind of go for a long back on this, not doing the traditional exactly you were in. Up and center. So we're upright, we reach and we're long go for the hamstring stretch while you're at it, but do not let those feet change, up and center and rotate. Oh my goodness.

I'll give you a little juice at the end here, rotate, know where your feet are, if they were against a wall, they wouldn't have moved. Push that air away and up, rotate, reach, up, this time. We'll go forward. We're gonna go as far forward as we feel like we can. We're gonna think about the feet for a second. Turn the palm up. And this was a really great cue for me.

I'm gonna give it too you too, Rachel or Amy. Give it to me. It's like you're, I turn the Palm towards the ceiling, the back Palm toward blank. As I push it up. As if I had a weight in my hand, I'm pulling the ribs with it. As I reach the opposite leg and opposite arm. It's like a lever.

Yeah? Come up center. Only one more. Just kind of experiencing the sense of am I ringing out the spine? So we go over, we can push this arm up. There's something in it.

You're reaching it back, there's length in it, and you get to lift those ribs region, both directions, come up and center feet together. Again, lift up just like before. (inhaling) (exhaling) And something do about this time, I don't have to do anything special, lift up. Float and lift. One more.

Float and lift. Flex your feet. Now rotate. Not just the hands, but the entire shoulder over, check it out. Middle, eye of the elbow to the ceiling, it's not just your hands.

Here we go to the front twist, twist (exhaling), center. (inhaling) (exhaling) You can bend your knees. Don't worry. You can do the diamond thing. Whatever you need. It's for rotation, rotation. It's like I'm taller. I'm taller.

Someday it will be true. Or at least I won't get shorter. Pulse, pulse. And one more each way, finally, center. Let your hands come down. Face the front, come down to whatever side's most natural.

Elbow to the ground. Bottom knee bent. If you've been taking my classes, it seems I prefer this side, I mean, I prefer this version, because I can anchor and be free anchor somewhere. Let the rest be free. So here we are, we're lifted, top leg is up. We check ourselves out.

Side of legs pointing to the ceiling, not the kneecap. Right? Kick forward, kick, kick, sweep back hold. Check yourself out again. Did you do anything weird? Now we'll go, kick, kick, back.

(inhaling) (exhaling) I do inhale forward, I exhale back again, if you care. And I don't count. So if you care, you can feel for it, right. Just feel that, it feels good. I'm close. I mean usually around nine, I could bring that knee forward. I'm doing one more.

Take it back. Hold it back. Focus on your powerhouse. Push the leg further back, so you don't thrust forward with the upper body and then enjoy the reach of the arm. I'm still reaching the leg back, back, back feeling kind of like cool about it. Happy about it, I mean, Very rarely cool, but happy about it. Come up, top leg in, oh sorry.

Go into what we call a figure of four sometimes or a mermaid position. Bessie. (exhaling) Inhale. Reach out. Let your hand softly land as best you can. Rotate. And then just take a second to think to your anchor.

Are you really dropping into your hands and wondering why I'm even doing it? Or can't find the weight that is your lower body. No offense, it's the truth. Like use it and then reopen. 'Cause now we're gonna lift up gracefully too.

Grab onto something, your shin, your knee reach up and over. (exhaling) And inhale. Reach out a little. I do use my foot. I don't think cheating, but maybe do, I'm using it to kinda hold me, land, rotate. You feel that back foot?

Use it, put it down now. 'Cause when you reopen, you're like, all right, I can go over there. I feel ya, reach out and over. It's all right to pull, but don't pull for the sake of pulling. Remember efficiency, we're looking for ease, use only what you need. One more only.

find it rotate, and the rotation is the spine, not the arm, extend the arm, the arm just gets to go. And in fact, stay here. You feel that back foot? We're not coming up yet. I'm actually gonna push towards it. So both palms are getting me away from my hands if you will.

And I'm gonna reverse that, the arms are gonna stay straight. I'm gonna think about keeping that back foot anchored and extend the spine and, oh, it might feel good or it might not, but be gentle and only use what you need for the joy of the good. Reopen. Back foot thinking, you lift up, and you stretch. Let's do one more thing here.

We go, hand down again. Stretch your legs out, top leg is in front, side bend. We lift up to a, say a side T, side plank. What do you wanna call it? Call it whatever you want. Then it's like the waist goes, Oh, I'm lifting you up.

I'm making a rainbow outta you. And I'm gonna reach over and look down at that beautifully spread out hand, distributing weight, come back to the T, so that means your hips came down a bit. And bend, only three. Here we go. We lift up. I am using my feet though. You gotta, you gotta use what you can, so the rest can be free, lift, over.

Now that you know what we're doing, you can milk it a little bit. By that I mean just find the juice. Just one more, up we go. Over, I turned my head a little soon for rail standards. Sorry about that.

But that's all right. I'll get a manicure one day and down, let's go to the other side. All the way down. So I'm just flipping. I would prefer it if you stayed seeing. 'Cause you'll help me remember if I know you're looking we're on our elbow, bottom of your bed, top leg is up, you know what to do, kick forward.

Your anchored, right? Kick, kick, back, kick, kick, back, check yourself out. Right on. I got a leg, it can move. I walk, I don't walk with that big of a step, but I do walk. So let's make it freer and it's freedom, because we're strengthening or stabilizing elsewhere.

Let's do two more. Next one stays back, hold it back, hold it back. Way back, way back, way back, rotate, so you're kinda looking off in the diagonal. As you press the thigh, I'm gonna say thigh because if you tighten up your foot that's a ton of wasted energy, and you could really be getting a stretch through the hip and certainly the torso, arm out, arm out, enjoy, reach and rotate, find a place that feels good. You get to do that for being born.

Anyhow, come back up. We're going into that for your four. Could I have broken something? I don't think so. I might have, if I did it, sorry, here we go.

Arms are out. Pull yourself together, over we go. Let the hand land, let yourself land, rotate it. Ah, anchor that foot. That's where the joy is for me on this side. Reopen.

As if someone was pulling you, you lift up, you hold on to something else to reach taller and stretch. Off we go. Three, reach out a little, don't strain though, right? You're just like, Oh, I'll go that way. Land, hand down, full it, rotate the spine.

Let your hand fall. (exhaling) Are you breathing? Take those deep breaths when you need 'em. Don't wait for a cue ever. Yeah, I said it.

Over. Coming back out to the side, the garage sessions. I don't know if you can hear that, but there's a bunch neighbors anyway, who cares, rotate. This was the one on this side because it's a little trickier for me, I have to balance my hands. I might've said that on the other side or maybe I should have, first push yourself away, and so we're back to that sense of, it's not so much about the hands, but the sense of, I am in control of here from this lower end.

Try to keep it back there. It won't stay. But just think about the weight of gravity in this action of your body being back there, as you now traction is almost like pulling the palms a little, I'm not moving on. Find a good stretch, find a good stretch, stay anchored in that back foot or knee, hopefully both. And then come back to some sort of neutral. Reopen, sit up, take your stretch. Almost there.

Hang on. Hand, goes down. Stretch your legs out. And by that, I mean, they're not just straight. You're gonna use your feet, right?

That's the other anchor to this hand. Here we go, use 'em, up to side plank. I had a little tightening up to do, how about you? lift the waist. It's not a push from the hand.

It's weight in hand. It's not a push in hand. Come back to the tee and bend your knees. Come down, but be ready to go again. We've got two to go up we go, side.

Lift, and then when you think you're there, be looking down. Watch those hyper-extended elbows. Everyone, not just me. Again. Up we go. It's like, Oh, someone's picking me up with a belt and around the side of the waist, and there we go, come back to the side and bend, face down.

We're gonna just do some back extension and go home or go to bed. Or start the day, face down. Just flip over. Yeah, that's what we're doing. Forehead on your hands.

Feet together if you can, slightly part, fine. If you have to go really wide, ask yourself if that's really true. Okay? Might be. From here, so tops of the feet down.

Again, it's that's sense of action in my forearms, my arms are just gently guiding my shoulders down as I look forward and look forward, I look forward. I change my hands. Keep it low. It's okay. I know it's okay. It's almost like a Sphinx, right?

My elbows are forward of my shoulders. I'm aware of that intentionally. Then if you can, you can let your legs slide down the mat further, lift those elbows up, then pull the elbows, take the shoulders with you down and rotate back around so that the hands come back and you can rest your forehead. Keep the hands here. Start to gently, press into the forearms.

Look forward. You can start moving your hands now if that feels better to you at any point, they don't have to be straight ahead. Just get to that sense of, I'm not trying to lift my entire torso off, but I am trying to get the sense of I am. Well, I'm gonna leave it at that, period. And then I'm tractioning elbows go down, almost to the ground. I have to keep them up a little to track, to let 'em slide out to the side.

And we go down, (exhaling), start again. It's you, only your spine right now. You're looking for it, you're curious. You're, all right, I'm gonna lift up. I have not even needed to put pressure in my hands, but now, somewhere around here, I'm starting to need it.

I'm gonna move my hands out just so I can maximize what would feel good for my spine. Then let's try this, take your elbows down, back them up a little bit. So they'll, maybe they're under your shoulders, but probably not. They could be for some of you flexible people, but even then I'd say, why? So we are going to anchor through the pelvis and then the front, this is gonna be it.

So we take, let's say the right arm. We hover it. Did it just knocked you off kilter completely? If so, put it. It did for me, that's why I said it.

So now I'm really thinking about it. I have, everything's, you know, what we know, hover, there we go. Rotate that forearm that just hovered. Start to reach it forward, forward, forward and up. See what you got.

Notice what's happening on the other side of your spine. It should not only be in your low back. If it is you maybe went too high, bring the elbow back, put the hand down, reverse it. You switch the hand, rotate it over. Well, let's do it the first way.

Hovered at the hand over the forearm. Wow, that's a tough side, isn't it? Well for at least half of you probably, reach. I turned that arm over. I'm reaching it forward and, up and up, and I'm trying, I'm trying.

I might have to go wider. I bring it back, I rotate the hand and I'm going down. Letting elbows give me room by moving 'em out of the way. Last one, we lift up. Moving arms.

Don't go so high this time if it was hard. Hover the first arm, rotate it, reach it, reach it, reach it. Look at it if you can, without pain or lower it if you do have pain, bring it back, rotate it over. Stay up if you can, re-anchor, other side floats, rotate though. If you think of it as the whole arm, it helps, that's really the forearm.

Oh, and you know what else? You traction, that lower arm, but with ease, with ease. I can get, it's hard for me sometimes and I do more than I need to. Let's come on down, put your forehead on your hands, wiggle out, whatever you need to before we go into that rest position. Hands by your shoulders, lift up, round back.

I like to curl the toes under, because I don't get that stretch very often. And then let's end with, I want to say a standing roll down, but it's really like a floor to standing roll down, I suppose. Look at your feet before you go. Feet down. Parallel head hangs heavy.

Shift your weight, so you know you're over the forward, well, the middle of your foot, let's say, draw the belly in. Feel free to bend your knees, especially now and start to roll. Just roll up. Stacking your spine, your knees are over your ankles, if they're not put 'em there, your hips over your knees, your ribs over your hips, your shoulders over your ribs, your head somewhere in the right spot for you. Shake it out. Face front, look at each other.

I know you can't see each other, but come on pretend and just inhale. (inhaling) (exhaling) Let's do it again. Actually I need one more inhale, whatever you want with your arms. (inhaling) Let's take a look, just shake it out, and just try to take into your day maybe this idea of, the freer I am of tension, the more efficient I can be with everything. I hope this helped, thank you so much.

See you next Thursday. Bye.

Garage Sessions with Kristi - Playlist 1


1 person likes this.
I love this class and your reminders to only use what you need which helps me focus on the precise movement. Thanks!
Thank you Robin! 
I enjoyed the class a lot; I feel as moving more freely whilst doing your classes ; thank you Kristi
I enjoyed it a lot. I felt I got to stretch and relax my body. Thanks!

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