Resist Band Class

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another practice. I look forward to sharing a thirty minute standing practice with you. That's gonna include our resistant band and hand weights. And if you don't happen to have hand weights, I invite you to go grab a couple cans of tomato sauce or beans from your cabinet, and those will work really well today until you get some weights.

So for the whole practice, we'll be standing, and I want to invite you to start with a position where your feet may be or underneath your hip or your shoulders where you feel nice and stable. I'm gonna turn your palms out to the side and just take a big stretch up. If it feels good, look a little bit towards the sky and exhale arms down, there's two more. There's big circles going up. From the sides at the top, come down one more big stretch up to the side and then come down.

K. Now let's reach in front of you, press your palms together and just one stretch forward and up. And come down again going up and down. And the last time after going up, we're gonna unlace, take your arms behind your back, and just a quick lace of your fingers, stretch your arms away from your back. And just a little opening through the chest. Okay. We'll have the arms stay at your side and shake them out and shake out your legs.

Let's grab your bands, and as you grab your resistant bands, I'm gonna encourage you for this first part to fold it in half. So you have a little bit less band, to play with. So we'll take the band up over the shoulder area and a little unlocking of the knees as we just play a little bit of reaching to one side, forward, other side, and back. So just a little circling around as you maintain some tension on your bands. So you might bend your knees and then go back towards straighter legs, bend your knees, and then towards straighter legs. And just kinda circling around open up lots of different parts of your back, your side, your fronts, let's pause and couple circles in reverse. Maybe not as many as the first direction, but just a few.

See what might be different when we go this new way. K. One more big circle. Alright. Now take your arms down in front of you. K. Let's bring your feet maybe a little bit closer together and cross your left leg over your right leg. You take your arms up towards your ears.

And let's tip ourselves over to your left sides and treat yourself to a little bit more opening through that side body. K. We'll come up to center, take your right leg in front of your left leg. And tilt yourself now over to your right sides. A little side stretch. Come up, and now we'll lower the band.

Keep some tension on the band as you raise your heels up, and then hold your arms in front of you. Heels down. Heels up and arms in front of you down. So let's do a few more, and maybe you notice every time when you're in this balanced position, whether you're aware of it or not, a lot of your core muscles are engaging One's in your legs and your torso to stabilize you. K. So a little balance work goes a long way for engaging our core.

Come up and down. K? And let's take your arms back up and bring your feet just a little closer together. No hands, really, at the ends of your band. Shift your weight onto your right foot. And we're gonna bring your left elbow and knee towards each other.

And then go back up. Laughening elbow towards each other. And we're going up. We get nice and slow. Three. Back to neutral.

Four. Right arm is really strong also. Five. Back up. Let's do eight. Six. Neutral.

Seven, pulling down, neutral, and the last one, eight elbow toward knee. K. Take your arms down for a rest. Okay. Recenter yourself and hopefully you're holding the band in a good spot. Let's go up to side two. Keep your right, left arm by your ear, and now try to bring your right elbow and knee towards each other and then standing.

Elbow toward knee too. Go back up. And come down three. Backo try to keep the same pace. Four.

Recenter. Five. Recenter. Six, center, seven, center. One more time, that side, move, and then arms down.

Okay. Bring your feet back together. Alright. Maybe your band stays the same width, but your hands come a little closer together. They feed a tiny bit closer together as well. Look straight ahead, shift your weight onto your right foot. As you bring your left knee up, we're gonna turn to the left. Reach in front and put that foot down.

Lift your right knee and turn towards your right doesn't always go well. Face forward, feet down. Again, left knee up, a little turn to your left, face forward foot down. Keep looking to your horizon, right knee up, turn to your right, following this part of the practice, foot down, left knee up. Turn.

You're keeping some tension on the band, foot down. Right knee up. Turn to your right. Face forward. Let's try a couple more. Need up.

Rotate. If you're with me, your right knee comes up, rotate, and then face forward. Alright. So maybe you feel some engagement of legs and core in doing that work. We're gonna open up your band and we'll turn to face a short end of your mat. If I have my left foot in the band first, maybe about mid point, take your right leg straight back.

As you have your right leg straight back, from here, I call this waist flossing just for a lack of a proper term. We're gonna be in a lunge position, and you'll see why I call it waist flossing in a moment. Walk your hands down towards your calf area. So we're gonna pull the left hand up towards your waist and then come back to neutral, right hand toward the waist and neutral. So we're just gonna alternate going to left and right. It's moving the ribs around keeping a long spine, and just kinda feeling how you might navigate the balance work here, open side to side.

Strong legs, and just trying to free up the movement through the waist, gauging arms, upper, mid back, lots of benefit here. You know, let's pause and center undo the tension so it's easy to step your back foot forward and let's switch and put your right foot in the band, maybe mid point, big step back with your left leg. Alright. And you might walk your hands down a little bit towards your knee or calf area. We stay engaged in our legs and pull your right hand towards your waist. You look down.

Pull hand left hand toward the waist. Back to neutral. So you might go slower or faster. We're just alternating, right, and left. All the while keeping a really nice, neutral, long back.

Legs for sure engaged, right hand left hand is kinda feeling how you're moving through the ribcage, through your center, Maybe we'll do one more rotation side to side, ending on the left, and then back to neutral. Release some of that tension, step your left leg forward. K. Get rid of that band on that side. K, shake out your legs. And we're gonna come back to your left side and do one more thing where your foot's about the middle.

You got the ends in your hands. Take a big step back with your right leg back to that raised lunge. So this time you might hold the ends and lean a little bit forward. We're gonna draw your left arm back and your right arm forward and slightly up. Then draw up your right knee and look forward low lunge and we're gonna switch the arms, left arm forward, right arm back.

Come up to lunge, high lunge, right arm forward, left arm back.neutral, drop your right knee. Left arm forward, right arm back, back to neutral, right arm forward, left arm back, neutral, drop your right knee, left arm forward, right arm back. Let's do one more neutral, right arm forward, left arm back, neutral, drop your right knee, left arm forward, right arm back. Alright. Step your back foot forward. Release the band from your left foot, and let's put your right foot in.

Okay. Big step back with your left foot where your back heel is up. Looking for the place where you feel balanced, relatively balanced here, as best you can. Arms open a little bit out to your side. Left arm forward, right arm back. Come to neutral.

Drop your left knee. Right arm straight in front of you, right arm behind you, neutral, back leg straight. Left arm forward, right arm back. Come to neutral. Drop your left knee, right arm forward.

Left arm back. Neutral, left arm forward, right arm back, neutral. Drop your left knee, right arm up, left arm back, Let's do one more. Left arm forward, right arm back. Neutral. Drop your left knee. Right arm forward, left arm back.

Come to neutral. And step both feet into your band. So I'm gonna turn to face you because it's easier for you to see me. K. It will stand up tall, and take a moment as you're holding the ends of your band here to shift your weight onto your right foot remove the right left foot to the left as you pull your right arm to the right. Come back to your center.

Same side. Tip to your right as you kick to the left. This right arm moving out kinda helps you balance. Recenter. Left leg kicks out. Right arm pulls out.

Center. I believe we're on four. Left leg out. Right arm out. Center. Five.

Resenter. Let's do one more. Six. Left leg out, right arm out. And recenter. So you might bend your knees, relax your hands just a tiny bit here. And then come back up to standing.

Little shift to your left, as you try kicking your right leg out, encounter it with your left arm to the left. Recenter, right leg right, left hand to the left. Recenter. Two. Three. Kick out to the right.

Recenter. Alright. Four. Keep looking straight ahead. Recenter. Five, recenter, and one more six, pull up, out to the side.

And there we go. Bend your knees, shake it out. Let's take your feet off the band for a moment, relax your shoulders. K. Now let's do a different balance pose where we'll take the band around the back of your shoulder blades. K. Kinda snuggle that up around the base.

And your feet a little bit closer together. So we're gonna move the bands forward. So maybe you're doing a little test to make sure you've got some space to pull that forward. So when we pull the band forward, take your left knee up, put your foot in your inner right thigh, and we're gonna do tree pose. We're gonna open the arms out to our side.

Point your knee forward as you're pulling the band forward. Open your arms wide, and maybe we bring the elbows towards the ribs. The arms go straight as the knee points forward arms forward. Come to your tree. You can bring your elbows in. And the arms get straight as you bring them forward.

Come back to your tree elbows in. Point your knee forward. Arms forward. One more elbows in. Open chest. And then reach forward.

Alright. Hands by the waist, foot down, shake it out. Okay. You can relax your hands also. Okay. Come back to center. K. And make sure you're holding the band in a good place where you have some room to pull forward and lift your right knee. Let's put your foot along your inner leg.

So let's open and our tree Point your knee forward. Straightate arms pull that band in front of you. Come back elbows in. Reach forward. Point your knee forward. Open out. Elbows might come in towards your waist.

Point forward, reach forward. Come to your tree and forward. And one more time. Let's come to that tree and then point forward. Both feet down and go ahead and release, and let's rest the arms for a moment in your hands and just stand for a moment in a wide legged position.

Alright. So that's our practice using the resistant band for the phase one. Now let's take a moment with nothing in your hands. We're gonna set our band to the side. And just take a moment bringing your fingertips up towards the side of your heads. And so this standing abdominal crunch is similar to something you've probably done on your back before.

So we're gonna try to balance on our left foot as you bring your right elbow towards your left knee and then back to center. And you're crossing the body, going elbow to knee, and then recenter. So your elbow may not actually touch the knee. You're just kinda heading in that direction. Let's keep crossing your center line.

Trying to really focus on the foot that's on the floor that it's really pressing down and grounding. Okay. So we don't need to round forward to actually make elbow touch knee. We're just kinda doing our standing abdominal crunch. Couple more. Keeping good posture awareness, and if you're losing balance, you're still working some great core muscles as you try to recenter yourself.

Maybe we do one more to each side. Alright. Just a little something in between. Let's your arms come down and shake it out. Now let's grab your hand weights. And once you have your hand weights or maybe cans of beans or tomato sauce, if you don't have the weights, right away. Let's bring your weights to the top of your shoulders.

Turn your toes out and come into our high straddle position here. So we're gonna lean to the right and send your arms out to the side, kinda engaging your side core muscles. And then come back, pull the weights to your shoulders. We're gonna do the same side again. Go to your right, maybe sink more into the legs. Recenter. Three arms to the side. Recenter.

And four, re center. Let's do one bar, reaching out to the side and re center. K. Now to your other direction, so we're going to the left if you're following me. Recenter, two arms parallel. Three, four. Back to your center.

And five. Come back to your center. K. Let your arms come down for a moment, roll your shoulders. Let's come back into that leg position. Come into a nice straddle position.

Hands in front of the chest holding your weights. Now you're gonna try to keep your legs from moving as you stir the pot and you move these weights towards you away from you and imagine you're storing a stirring a giant pot of soup in front of you. And kind of feeling as your weights are moving out away from you how you might feel some firming of some of those core muscles in your legs all the way through your torso just by stirring the pot. Now, let's go the other direction a few times. Other way away from you, right, left towards you, all the while sinking into the legs.

And next time we're back by the chest, let's stay here, straighten your legs, arms at your side. Let's turn so that your left foot is facing the short end of your mat, and we'll raise your back heel so you're back into a lunge position. We're gonna hold your weights out in front of you. As you drop your back knee, we'll come to a little bit of a lunge and bring your weights towards your left hip. Back leg straight look forward.

Arms in front of you again. Drop your right knee down. Twist bring your weights to your left hip. Back leg straight, look in front of you. Drop the knee, come to the twist.

Back in front of you. Four, drop your knee twist. Back in front with the weights. Down twist. Reach in front of you. Let's do one more.

So six. Drop your knee and twist. Reach forward, swing the weights down, turn to face the long side of the mat, and let's swing right into your second side where your back heel would be up in a lunge, arms out in front of you, As you drop your left knee down, weights to the left hip, back leg straight arms in front of you. Drop your knee, rotate, and again forward. Three, drop the knee, rotate, front of you. Drop your knee or rotate. In front, we got one more drop your knee. Rotate. Reach in front of you. Drop your weight stone, pivot to face again the long side of your mat.

K. We're gonna be in that straddle position again, weights towards your chest, come into that leg position. Now let's practice lifting the heels a little bit, which just engages a little bit more core leg muscles. We're gonna add the arms going out wide. Heels down weights to the chest. Heels a little bit up.

Open your arms wide. Heels down weights to the chest. He'll slowly lift arms wide. Recenter, couple more, heels up, reach wide. Recenter. Let's do one more.

Opening up. Coming back to center. It's not as easy as it looks. Okay. Straighten your legs. Let's bring your legs together just for a second.

Okay. Now little wider than your shoulders. Still holding your weights. Let's turn your left foot slightly towards the short end, and we're gonna come to kind of a warrior one meets maybe a little bit of a lunge. So you decide if you like your back heel up or not. I'm gonna keep mine down.

Now I'm gonna have you raise your arms out to the side. And bend your arms at 90 degree angles. And then we're gonna tip just a tiny bit forward, so I'm gauging my back muscles. Stay here, and then bring your elbows to touch and open those wings back up. Elbows touch.

We open back up. And three, and open wide. Four, open wide. Five Open y. Let's do six. Squeeze in. Open up and then tilt back up. Arms down.

Adjust your feet. So you're turning. It could be all the way to the short end, but most likely just almost there. And as you're kind of positioned in a warrior one or back heel up, take your arms out to the side, bend your elbows, tiny leaning forward. So I want you to feel grounded in your legs. Now let's bring your elbows to touch and open wide. Two.

We'll open those wings. Three. Open Four. Nice long back. Open those elbows wide. Five. Open. Elbows in. Open and arms down. Let's turn and face the long side of your mat. K? Bring your legs just a little bit closer together and shake out your legs.

Alright. Now let's go just a little bit wider with your feet. So, now imagine that you're doing your triangle pose. Let's turn your left leg out here. You're going to raise your left arm out to your side with your palm up and then tilt yourself a little bit over to the left. We're going to take your right arm up by your ear. Or just kind of in that direction.

Now take your left hand up towards your right hand and reach your left arm back out to your sides. Left hand back up to your right hand and then back out to your sides. Okay. So three reach back out. Four. We reach back out.

Five. And seems like six is a good number for this class. Let's come up. Tip to center and lower the weights down, bring your left foot in, and let's adjust and have your right foot out. K. Right arm goes out, palm faces up, left arm up by your ear, maybe a little tilting to your right.

K. So strong legs, lift the right arm up, then back to your side one. Two. Keep lengthening through the right. Three, reaching back out. Four. Reach back out. And five.

We're reaching out and six. And arm back out to the side, come up, arms down, roll your shoulders, bring your legs closer together. K. You might give them a little shake out. K. Shoulder rolls. Now while we have our feet parallel, let's make use of this moment and shift the weights back to the tops of your shoulders.

So from here, we're gonna lift your left knee up as you reach your weights up towards the ceiling. As your arms come out to your side, kick your left foot forward, and then the foot down weights back to your chest. Let's go back up. Bring your right knee up as your weights come down. Open your arms right leg forward.

Hands to the chest, feet down. Go up. Lift your left knee as your arms come down. Open wide. Bring your left leg forward. Hans to the chest, feet down.

Lift up. Right knee comes up. Hands come down. Hope and arms wide. Right leg forward.

Let's do one more. Lift up, lift your left knees, your hands come down, open wide, hold your left leg out, recenter. K. Last one. Start up, lift your right knee as your hands come down, kick the leg out, open your arms wide, and then back to neutral. Alright. Shake it out. Okay.

Roll those shoulders and take a moment to pause. And keep your weights in your hands. Now let's adjust one more time and come into our straddle position. K. We're gonna anchor down in a comfortable stance here. Right. Now as you come into our position here, we're gonna have that hands back besides the rib cage.

Let's turn your right palm to face up as you push out through your left arm in front of you to the right. Pull your left hand back and you push your right hand to the left. Pull back. So I call it the pushing forward, pull back move, push forward, pull back. K. So kinda settle into the legs and try to keep looking out to your horizon. So you're looking out beyond your weights.

Beyond your hands. So you're keeping good posture and aware that you're not moving your knees or your hips. Really trying to isolate the movement from your center. Looking to the right, looking to the left, I'm kinda feeling that all those different muscles on the side of your body engaging here. Push out.

Push out. Let's do one more to each sides. Okay. Straighten your legs, give them a little rest. K. Now we're gonna pull the weights up towards your collarbone. So you just kinda feel the elbows rise up. Now when we do that move, I wanna invite you from our straddle position here. To lift your heels as we pull the weights up.

Heels down weights down. So try to time that as you pull your weights up, your heels are coming up. And we lower down. Heels up, pull the weights up, lower, try to look to your horizon, heels up, weights up, weights up. What's up? Sorry. I just had to come out. Okay.

All those weights up, down. This class is all about weights up, down. One more time. Up and down. Alright? Now settle in last thing to that seat, and we're gonna take your weights over to your right and up overhead over to your left and kinda draw maybe like a big circle around you or in front of you as you hold on to your weights. So it doesn't really matter what direction you start. I just want you to feel again.

The challenge of using some core muscles to stabilize you as you turn. Now go the other direction. Down their front and just notice that there's any difference in going your new direction. Alright. Last circle and come back around to center. And now let's bring your legs closer together and you can set your weights to the sides. Okay.

So now nothing in hand. Let your feet separates to help you come down into a squat where your arms are out in front of you. Look up beyond your fingertips. As you rise up, gonna open your left arm to the left so you can lift your right leg, touch your knee. Come down.

As you shift to the side, lift your right leg, touch the knee. Come down. Shift opposite knee to hand. Shift opposite knee to hands as you look straight ahead. Opposite hands and knee.

Lot of balance in this class to get your core fired up. One more to each side. Excellent. Arms, arms down, relax your shoulders. Alright. Let's so bring yourself into a mountain pose in your stance. And maybe a couple big exhales.

Getting yourself grounded here. It's natural sometimes to feel a little aerobic in doing that repetitive work. A few little shoulder rolls, maybe one big final stretch up on the inhale and arms out your side as you exhale. Alright. I hope this class serves you well in creating some warmth in your body, more strength. And more confidence in your standing poses.

Thanks for joining me. Nava stay everybody.