Hello and welcome!
So happy you're here for today's mindful Pilates practice.
Today we will explore how to build core support.
Less tension in the neck and shoulders.
Because many of us unknowingly compensate with the neck,
The jaw,
The shoulders or hip flexors.
And an exercise becomes challenging.
So throughout this gentle practice we will explore ways to find more support from the center.
While allowing unnecessary tension to soften.
Please make yourself comfortable on your mat.
And if you have light weights nearby.
You're welcome to use them later,
But they are completely optional.
Let's begin.
Come into a comfortable seated position.
Allow your feet to rest on the floor if you are on a chair.
Allow your sitting bones to ground.
Lengthen gently through the spine.
Let the shoulders relax.
And start to connect to your natural breath.
You can place your hands around the sides of your lower ribs.
Take a slow breath in through the nose.
While you inhale,
Feel the ribs expanding sideways into your hands.
And as you exhale,
Slowly through the mouth.
Feel the ribs softly narrowing again.
Again,
A slow inhale.
Into the side of the ribs.
And slow exhale,
Allowing the ribs to move.
Inward again and creating a muscular connection with your hip bones,
This rib-hip connection.
Keep doing this,
Inhaling into the sides and the back of the ribs.
And exhaling through the mouth.
Slowly bring a little bit more awareness.
Lower into the body.
Toward the lower belly and the pelvic floor.
And as you exhale,
Next time.
Allow the lower belly to feel gently heavy toward the spine.
Not gripping,
Not bracing,
Just a gentle support.
And then inhaling slowly again,
Expanding the ribs to the sides and backwards.
Yes and with your next exhale Add a very subtle lifting sensation through the pelvic floor.
Almost as if the center of the body gently gathers inward and upward.
Continue in your comfortable rhythm.
Yes,
With each exhale.
A gentle center activation.
The shoulders relax.
And with the inhale,
Breathe expanding.
And exhale,
The center gently supporting you.
You can place your hands on your thighs as well.
Wherever it feels comfortable.
And keep breathing like this and just notice your neck.
Does your neck stay soft?
And you do your Pilates breath.
Can your jaw stay relaxed?
And the shoulder do a little less.
If you feel tension,
You can gently move your head or your jaw.
Allowing the tension to release.
And one very helpful movement is just making a Nodding movement very slowly.
Just moving your head up and down as you continue with your Pilates breath.
That's also a movement that you can do while you do Pilates,
So not just the breath,
But also when you do the Exercises.
And another very good movement is just Drawing figure 8 in the air with your nose.
Not always possible but in the sitting positions.
A very good movement to just relax.
Attention.
In the neck.
The shoulders and even the jaw.
Beautiful.
Let's come back to the Pilates breath.
And we add a movement with the arms.
You can do it with or without the weight.
So keep breathing into the sides of the ribs and finding more stability in your core as you exhale.
And then with your next exhale,
Just lift one arm up.
Keeping your ribs down.
With the inhale,
Lower your arm again.
Exhaling,
Slowly lowering the other arm.
Inhaling,
Lower.
Exhaling,
Lifting.
It doesn't need to be that high,
You can stop at shoulder height.
Then with the inhale,
Slowly bring your arms down.
Again,
One arm.
Feel your center working.
Try to relax your shoulders as much as you can.
And feel.
Your core muscles stabilizing you.
And both arms.
Yes let's do one more round so one side and close your eyes if you wish.
Deeper with your body,
With your core.
The other side.
And both arms keeping the ribs down,
Gently lifting your pelvic floor as you exhale.
And with the inhale,
Slowly bring your arms back down.
Well done.
Now.
And bring your hands on your thighs.
And with your next exhale,
Gently press down.
One of your hands into your thigh and the thigh against the hand and feel your core muscles.
Activating.
Inhale,
Release.
It's a small movement.
It's not really visible.
So exhaling.
Pressing the other hand into your thigh and thigh into the hand.
Feeling your core muscles activate.
Stabilize you.
Inhaling release.
Let's do each side one more time in your comfortable rhythm.
Exhaling,
Pressing one hand.
Again,
Feel free to close your eyes.
Inhaling,
Release.
Exhaling the other hand.
Noticing your shoulder as well.
No need to pencil.
Inhale,
Release.
Exhaling,
One hand again pressing into the thigh,
The thigh into the hand.
Inhaling,
Release.
And last time,
Pressing your hand into the thigh.
I am here.
I am here.
And release.
Add your figure eight movements with your head if you feel some tension in your head.
Feel free to move your shoulders.
Then you can bring your hands to your lower ribs again.
And with your next inhale into your ribs.
You can also lengthen the spine.
And then with the exhale,
Twist to one side,
Gently drawing your belly in and lifting your pelvic floor.
Inhaling back to center.
Exhaling,
Gentle twist to the other side.
Inhaling back to center.
Exhaling,
Gently,
Slowly twisting to one side.
Gently lifting your pelvic floor.
Inhaling back to center.
Exhaling,
Twisting to the other side.
Inhaling back to center.
One last round,
Exhaling slowly.
Turning to one side,
Keeping your ribs down.
Inhaling back to center.
Then exhaling,
Twisting to the other side.
Feeling your strong core Inhaling back to center.
Well done.
Now let's Move on to our back.
You can take your light weights with you.
Take your time.
Your feet.
About.
Hip width apart.
Can.
Just bring your arms next to your body.
Take a moment.
Find a good position.
And also in this position you can make this.
Nodding Movement with the head.
Drawing Align to the ceiling with your nose.
Maybe less the figure 8,
But this nodding movement.
Works very well when you're on your back.
You can gently move your hips.
Tilt your pelvis.
Both sides.
And then find your good neutral position.
So with the hip bones and the pubic bone.
Parallel to the map.
And then from here.
Start your Pilates breath again.
Inhaling into the side.
And the back of your ribs.
Exhaling,
Slowly moving your ribs down,
Building this rib-hip connection.
Between the lower ribs and The pelvis.
And drawing your belly in.
Just letting it become heavy.
Inhaling,
Expanding the ribs.
And exhaling,
Gently lifting your pelvic floor.
Notice your shoulders.
Can you soften your shoulders,
Relax your shoulders?
A little more.
Then with your next exhale,
Gently lift your left heel from the mat.
Just a little bit.
Inhaling,
Slowly return.
With the next exhale,
Lift up.
The right heel from the mat.
Just a little bit.
And inhaling.
Slowly release.
Continue with the rhythm of your breath.
Can you exhale?
And your core is activated.
Lift your foot from the mat.
And then place it back onto the mat with the inhale.
Exhaling lifting your right foot Connecting with your core.
Inhaling,
Place it back.
Let's do each side one more time.
Exhaling very slowly lifting the foot.
Lifting it just a little bit.
Makes your core work really,
Really hard.
Place it back onto the mat.
And then the right foot again,
Just lifting a little bit very slowly.
Feeling your core muscles do the work.
And then place it back onto the mat.
Well done.
Notice your shoulders.
Bring your arms up.
And then start.
To reach toward the ceiling.
The left hand,
And then.
.
.
Bring your shoulder back onto the mat.
Reach up with the right hand.
Bring your shoulder back onto the mat.
Yes,
That's a movement you can do as well.
Can you feel some tension building up in your shoulders?
And you can do one side after the other side.
And once your shoulders Feel a little bit more relaxed.
You can also reach with both hands.
And then release again.
Allowing the shoulder blades to melt into the mat.
Let's reach up one more time,
Lifting the shoulders from the mat gently.
And then relaxing,
Allowing.
Your shoulder blades to melt into the mat.
Well done.
Activate your core muscles again.
Then try see if you can lift your right foot a little bit higher.
And then place it back onto the mat.
The left foot a little bit higher.
Place it back onto the mat.
Well done!
See if you can bring your right foot up into tabletop.
With your shin parallel to the mat.
And then bring it back onto the mat.
Lift the left leg into tabletop.
Bring it back to the mat.
Now you can try to bring both.
Legs into tabletop position.
If it doesn't work,
Don't worry,
Then just lift one leg.
And if you are in tabletop with both legs,
You can gently press your heels together.
Stay here for a few breaths.
If you're not in tabletop,
Just continue lifting one leg after the other into tabletop.
Breathing into the sides of your ribs.
Exhaling,
Activating your core muscles a little bit more.
If you are in tabletop.
Bring one foot back.
After the other,
Back down onto the mat.
Now you can grab your weight if you're comfortable.
Have your weights.
Bring your arms up again.
Activate your core and with your next exhale,
Slowly open your arms to the sides.
And then bring your arms down.
With the inhale,
Prepare.
Exhale reverse,
Bring your arms up over the side.
And reach with your arms to the ceiling.
Inhaling,
Bring your arms back down.
Reverse again.
Inhaling,
Prepare.
Exhaling bringing your arms up Inhaling,
Open.
And move.
Down over the side.
Inhaling,
Prepare.
Exhaling Move your arms over the side.
And up And then slowly lower your arms down.
Continue with this movement.
One or two more rounds.
Notice your shoulders.
And your shoulders.
Relax with this movement.
Can your ribs stay down with the movement?
Do you still breathe?
Let's do just one more round,
Bringing the arms up.
Open.
And down over the side.
Well done.
You can place your weights onto the sides and then just bring your arms back.
Next to your body,
Palms facing down.
We come into bridge pose.
So please bring your heels a little bit closer so that they are under your knees.
And then turn your head.
To the ceiling and please don't turn your head to the side when you lift your hips.
Now again,
You can gently relax your shoulders a little bit more.
Bring your awareness to your Pilates breath,
Inhaling to the sides of the ribs.
Then exhaling,
Slowly lifting your pelvic floor,
Pressing into your feet.
And start to lift your hips.
From the map.
Push your knees away.
And just come up to the bra line,
Not further.
Inhaling here into the sides of the ribs.
Relaxing your shoulders.
And with the next exhale,
Slowly,
Slowly.
Bring your back and the hips.
Down onto your mat.
Inhaling,
Relax your shoulders.
Band your rib cage to the side and to the back.
And with the exhale Push into your feet.
Activate your core and slowly come up.
Inhaling on top.
And with the exhale,
Slowly bring your back and your hips onto the mat.
Feel free to make your nodding movement with the head if you feel something.
Tension in the head.
And then let's just do one more round.
Inhaling,
Prepare,
Relaxing the shoulders.
Exhaling,
Activating your core,
Pushing into your feet and lifting your hips from the mat.
Inhaling to the sides,
The backs of the ribs.
And then exhaling,
Very slowly lowering down.
Well done.
Now from here you can come up onto all fours.
Bring you a hen.
Under your shoulders.
Denise.
Under the hip.
And you can just look in between your hands,
So normally the head is in a very good position.
And then here also start with your Pilates brush again.
Breathing into the sides and the back of your ribcage.
Exhaling,
Gently drawing your belly in.
Lifting the pelvic floor.
Inhaling into the sides of the ribs.
You can do just that.
If you want a little bit more.
Start pressing your right hand and the left knee into the mat with the exhale.
Again,
A very,
Very small movement,
Barely visible.
And with the inhale release.
Exhaling,
Pressing your left hand and the right knee into the mat.
Feeling your core activating a little bit more.
Inhaling,
Release.
Exhaling,
Pressing the right hand into the mat.
Inhaling,
Release.
Exhaling,
Pressing the left hand down.
The right knee into the mat.
Inhaling,
Release.
And if you wish,
The next time you are pressing the right hand and the left knee into the mat.
You can lift.
The left arm.
And with the inhale bring it back onto the mat.
Exhaling,
Pressing left hand,
Right knee into the mat.
Lifting the right arm.
Inhaling release.
Through one more round.
Right hand left.
Niin Turuma.
Lifting the left arm,
Feeling your core doing the work.
Bring your arm back down with the inhale and then exhale.
Press your left hand and the right knee into the mat.
Lifting your right arm.
Inhaling release.
Now you can try the same with your legs.
Pressing the right hand and the left knee into the mat.
Bring your right leg back and even lift your right leg if you wish.
Inhaling,
Bring it back onto the mat.
Exhaling,
Pressing your left hand and the right knee into the mat.
Bring your left foot back.
Perhaps lifting.
Your left leg from the mat.
Inhaling,
Bring it back onto the mat.
You can continue like this or come into the full bird dog.
Pressing the right hand and the left knee into the mat.
Lifting your left arm.
And you're rightly.
In healing,
Bring it back.
Exhaling,
Pressing the left hand and the right knee into the mat.
Lifting the right arm.
And the left leg.
Inhaling release.
Let's do one more round.
Right hand,
Left knee into the mat.
Lifting the left arm,
The right leg.
Bring it back.
Pressing the left hand and the right knee into the mat.
Lifting the right arm.
The left leg.
And then slowly bring it back.
Well done.
Come into a comfortable seat.
You can gently close your eyes again.
I invite you to make these figure 8 movements again with your head.
Releasing any tension that might have built in your neck during the practice.
Allowing your breath to flow freely again.
Letting go of the breath control.
You can also reverse the figure 8 movement.
And then invite gentle stretches into your body.
Bringing the arms overhead,
Gentle lengthening.
Well done.
Thank you so much for joining.
