Welcome to Pilates and Prayer,
A time to slow down,
Regulate your nervous system,
And come inside.
Let's start with a prayer.
God,
We ask that you bless our practice and our bodies today.
Bring us lightness of heart,
Ease of body and spirit.
Let us move in the light of your grace.
Amen.
We will be using light weights for today's class.
Two to three pounds is great,
And they are completely optional,
So you can do this class with no weights.
We'll get started in kneeling.
Let's begin.
We'll start with a kneeling squat,
Palms together as you squat.
Go ahead and pick up your weights if you're using them.
You And now,
With our kneeling squat,
We'll add a bicep curl.
Now moving into a serving position,
Stretch your arms forward as though you are serving a plate.
Relax your shoulders,
Move with your breath.
Beautiful.
Place one weight down and mirroring me,
Bring your left leg straight out to the side and hold that weight.
You're going to tilt to the right and twist and come up back straight.
And flowing through this.
Now pick that other weight back up and we're going to do a shoulder press as you squat.
Working with the triceps now,
Stretch your arms back behind you as you squat.
And placing one weight back down,
Stretching your right leg out to the side,
Coming back to that side line,
And twist.
We're going to take a little rest here,
So place your weights down on either side of your mat.
And you can come into a child's pose,
Whatever feels good in your body.
Breathe.
And completely relax.
And wherever you are,
Start to make your way down to the mat,
Laying on your back,
Knees bent.
We're going to do some bridging.
Starting with a slow bridge,
Really articulating your spine up.
As you push into your feet.
And then as you come down,
Bringing your spine.
Section by section down to the mat,
Letting this feel like a massage.
And find your weights,
Pick those up.
And now,
As you bring your hips up and lower,
You're going to come into a pulse here with your bridge.
And lift your arms up to the ceiling as you lower your head.
You can also do this without any weights or have your arms down by your side.
And now hands face each other and coming into a tricep press with your bridge.
Again,
Weights are optional.
You can also keep your arms down by your sides and just focus on this bridge pulse.
Beautiful.
Set your weights down and stretch your arms overhead,
Your legs long.
Take a nice full body stretch and breathe.
Hug your knees into your chest.
And then you can bring one ankle to one knee and get a nice stretch here.
Either side and then switching to the other side as you're ready.
You did it.
You took this time for yourself and your body.
You can stretch out long again if you'd like and just rolling up.
It is so powerful when we take the time to be with ourselves,
Our breath,
Our body,
Our being.
Pilates can be a time of prayerfulness.
Of inner awareness and connection.
You can stretch out your arms a little here.
We did work them today.
And what intention or prayer would you love to bring with you into your day?
Maybe it's just one word that centers you and reminds you.
Of this feeling of peace and connection.
You are amazing.
I'm so proud of you and I love moving with you.
Sending you every blessing and see you soon.
