Sun is Shining

Greetings, friends. Welcome to this practice. Sun is shining. It'd be great if you had a couple blocks next to you for the practice, and let's get started. Go ahead and roll onto your back nice and slow.

Start with your toes right at the edge of the mat, reach your arms forward. Tuck your tail under and just roll on down to your back and then relax. Take a moment here. Roll your head side to side. Feel a gentle ease in your neck and relax your body into the floor.

And imagine you're land on a beach, sun shining upon you, and we're gonna feel the reflection of that warmth and heat right in the center of our body right at the core for this practice. So let's start to just bring our attention to the pelvis here. And as you exhale tuck your tail under into a posterior tilt, and as you inhale arch your back and lift the back way. So we'll just rock it back and forth from a posterior to an anterior tilt. And as you do that, you can start to coordinate your breath as well as the movement of your arms.

So when we arch the back and lift the back waist, reach your arms over your head and take a big breath in. We'll slow it down a little. And as you exhale, tuck the tail under, sweep the arms forward and down, give a little squeeze to your buns, your bandhas, and the lower body, and then inhale arch, lift the back waist. Arms overhead, exhale, tuck the tail under, feel the belly dry in. We call that uddiyana bandha and yoga, and you'll hear it referred to in Pilates is just draw your naval to your spine.

Exhale tuck the tail under. And this is so therapeutic and healing for our lumbar spine. Any issues that you may have, in your back. This is one of the most healing things you can do. For your lower back. So just take a few more tilts here, start to get into the rhythm of the breath, inhaling.

XL. Super simple. Inhale. Try to be generous with your movement. And exhale. And then stay in that posterior tilt.

Start to lift your hips, waist, ribs up into the air, finding a little floating bridge. We'll keep the arms relaxed for now. You could even turn the palms face up. And then just roll down your spine, sweeping the arms overhead, inhale to that anterior tilt, exhale, tuck the tail under. And as you roll up, feel under your feet, make sure the feet are hips width apart, the edges of the feet are parallel.

To the edges of the mat, take a deep breath in here, nice long line of energy from shoulders to knees, and then exhale slowly roll down. Just working with that simple attention to details. We inhale. And exhale tuck the tail under and lift the hips, finding that really precise line from shoulders to knees, and then rolling it back down. This time, lace your fingers behind your head deep breath in with the elbows wide. Again, like you're hanging out on a beach, sun is shining right into your beautiful face.

And then as you exhale, take a little c curve here, just lift the head neck and shoulders, draw the navel in, find that the lower bondas of pelvic floor engaging and low belly pulling in. Hold that secret for just a moment and then let your head turn a little. Use your hands. Just give the neck a little support here. We always wanna be kind to the neck when we're working through our frontal core work, flexion of the spine.

And if your neck is getting tired or fatigued, you can always just put your head down, right, or try curling up a little higher so the head can just float on top of the neck. Now go ahead and take your shoulders and just circle tiny little circles here, exhale to come up, inhale to come down. And you'll feel your weight transfer from right to left shoulder blade. And then let's take it the other direction. It's just a tiny little circle, a little massage from left to right shoulder blade starting to get into our internal external obliques, and you can feel that little shake because you come up.

That's fine. And then go ahead and release it back down. Hug your knees into your chest. Give yourself a bear hug and let your low back stretch a little bit. And you can already feel a little heat right in the center of the body.

So let's continue to invite that in. Go ahead and reach your arms over your head. Let your arms hover an inch above the mat and spread your fingers. Open the palms nice and wide. As you exhale, circle the arms curl up, find that c curve in your upper spine, forehead to the knees.

Tight little ball of energy. And then extend the right leg as you reach both arms out, exhale sweep the arms wide curl up, extend the left leg. Both arms overhead, exhale curl. So we're just moving right into a classic double leg reaches, we extend both legs, both arms, and then curl it up. And this is a classic pilates exercise, both legs, both arms.

We engage the core and we stretch away from it. Keep it engaged while you stretch away from it. We're just weaving a few of these exercises into our yoga flow. And in this case, using this core work is a really nice warm up to the spine. Bring it up and hold.

And now just one leg reaches out, change. Other knee reaches in, single leg stretch. So we're inside of a little series called the series of five and these two exercises are to the first two exercises in the series. So inhale to one side, exhale to the other. One more.

And then take a little break. Relax, head down, knees to chest, release your right leg long. Take a simple twist over to the left. Draw the knee across the body. And then come on back to the center, change legs, pull their right knee in, take it across your body into a twist, and then go ahead and circle a roll all the way to your left rolling off your mat probably, but we'll prepare for a little transition here through plank. It's okay if you're on your off of your mat because we're gonna square it up in a moment. So you can either press to hands and knees or you can press straight to plank and bring your feet together hands kinda wide.

And then let's just cross over. We call this a cross plank. One hand crosses while one foot goes wide and then center cross center. And your hands can go either front or back. Of one another. And it's kinda nice to just play around a little bit here. It's almost like twister as you center yourself out. Okay.

There we are. We're at the center of the mat. It worked. Take a moment here. And then exhale lift the hips and find your down dog. Take the feet in a little bit if you need to or widen the feet as you need to, shake out your head and neck. And then walk your feet all the way up to the top of the mat coming into our first forward fold, soften the knees, relax your head neck and shoulders, maybe hold on to opposite elbows and let your spine swing a little bit from side to side.

Just feel into your body here, feel into that warmth. It's starting to pour through the spine, pour through the legs. Release your hands. And as you inhale to come up halfway position, let's extend the arms back and come up a little higher so we're parallel. Spine is parallel to the floor.

We'll call this a flying art of uttanasin, feeling the back core engaged, and then exhale soften it back down. Just take that twice more inhale, come up a little higher, extend your arms back, feel in your back core, exhale soften the knees, relax. One more time. Inhale, flying, Arta uttanasan. Exhale. Let it go.

And then circle the arms out and up. Big inhale to rise. Palms touch. Exhale, samastitihi, bring the hands to the heart, the feet together. Finding that call to attention, your mind, your body, your heart, your spirit, all in this moment. Take a deep breath here.

As you exhale, release your hands, open your eyes. It'll take a couple of sudden salutations with variation. Let's inhale to reach. XL swan dive forward full. It softens your knees.

Come up to that flying r to uttanasana as you inhale. Exhale release step back to plank. Same exhale. It's lower the knees, followed by chest and hips, and take an easy cobra, also known as swan in the Pilates mat world, and then exhale hands and knees. Down dog. Take a breath right here, exhale completely.

And then just start to walk your feet up to your hands. We're gonna keep this moving in a flow. Inhale to that high halfway flying Arta Uttanasan, exhale forward fold. Inhale all the way up to stand, exhale hands to the heart calling to attention your awareness. Let's do it again.

Inhale reach out in it. Exhale forward fold. Inhale flying ara uttanasan. Exhale step back to your plank. Shifford, maybe straight legs, and then lower all the way down into your cobra, swan. Sometimes I like to come up on my fingertips, exhale, hands and knees downward die.

Feeling the heat, feeling the sunshine, take a deep breath in. Let's go up to the toes, bend the knees, take a little hop, feet to hands. Lift the heart, flying Artutinosa, exhale. Let it go. Inhale all the way up. Exhale, samastitihi.

Little bit of a different variation on this next one. Let's inhale circle wide and up. Stay standing as you open the arms, lace the fingers behind your back. Step the feet hips width apart. Lift the chest. If your shoulders feel a little tight, you can always grab a strap.

If you have something handy, even a towel, and hold it here behind your back. But lift through the chest, big inhale. And then as you exhale, forward fold, let it go here. Take an extra moment to release into your shoulders. And then on your next inhale, lift the heart halfway, and the knuckles will reach back as the heart reaches forward.

Draw the belly and draw the front ribs in a little bit, neck is long. So feel your legs as well. Everything engaged. And then release the arms. Let it go. Forwardful. Let's step back to plank.

Keep the legs straight this time. Lower down strong in one piece. Relax your toes and inhale, find your cobra, bhujangasana, exhale downward dog. So working with some classic shapes and patterns, adding some little elements for variation and fusion here. And this next little move is no exception.

We'll take our right foot, bend the knee and just pivot so that your right foot comes through. It's almost like a little soccer kick to one side. And I'm letting my right hip come all the way down to the mat, and then take it right back up to down dog. And then the left left knee bends, left foot comes through. And if you happen to have a break dancing history, This is familiar.

Right foot comes through. Maybe you stay hovering or that hip touches the mat, back to down dog, left foot comes through, and back to down dog. It's an easy transition. So let's take that transition to have a seat, bring your feet to the back of the mat. And here we are, back at the top, we'll roll down and weave in our series of five.

After I fix my pants. So hold your knees to your chest, and let's revisit those first two exercises and we'll add one more on until we have a total of five. So reach your arms over your head. Take a deep breath in. As you exhale curl up, find that c curve in your spine.

And let's go with single leg straps. We reach one leg out, one knee pulls in. We have 10. Nine. Eight.

Stay in the c curve. Really commit to this locking in to your bandhas, pelvic floor engaged, low belly engaged, and it's got a pretty quick rhythm to it. Pull both knees in, relax your head. Take a deep breath in, exhale curl back up to that c curve. Now we have our double leg stretch.

We reach out arms and legs hovering, exhale, pull it in nice and tight. Inhale, try to keep the low back connected to the mat, Pull it in. XL. Inhale. Reach, exhale. Keep the core engaged as you stretch away from it. One more.

Exhale. Take a little break. Relax your head and neck. You can always put your head down if your neck gets fatigued. Coming back to the center, let's add an exercise on called scissors.

So we'll inhale to reach the arms overhead. Exhale curl up into that c curve, extend the right leg up the left leg long. I like to flex the top foot and point the bottom. Little double pulse for our scissors. One, two, change. One.

Two breath is like a choo choo train. We have a double exhale. Quick inhale on the scissor. Double exhale on the pulse. Take a moment, knees to chest, relax your head neck and shoulders down.

Reach your arms over your head, reach the legs all the way out long on the floor. So you have a full extension of your body, and then exhale left knee to chest. Here we are in that simple little twist, bringing it across the body. Nice little twist for the outer hip and spine. You can roll all the way onto your outer right hip.

I'm gonna kinda stay a little bit contained here so I don't smash the mic pack there. And then come back to center change sides, right knee in, roll all the way onto the outer left hip. Take a moment here. Little lunar transition from that warming, very activating core work. Now let's continue to roll off the mat and get ready to press up into that x cross pushup.

So you can take one hand across the feet open wide while the arms are crossed. And then open up the hands. Cross open, and we're just using this as a way to center ourselves. Oh my gosh. Look at that. It worked. We're centered on the mat.

Pressing back to down dog. So take about three slow breaths right here and just check-in with how your body's feeling, the rhythm of your breath, your heartbeat. I don't know about you guys, but right now I'm I'm feeling like, okay. I'm awake. Things are happening. So we're gonna keep moving with that flow with another just a simple standing sequence.

Bring the feet close together, take the right leg to the sky, keep the hips even so we get a good stretch and left hamstring. And then engage your core as you draw the right knee in, kick it through. That little soccer kick, maybe keep it hovering, and then take it right back into down dog. Right leg high, step it all the way through either to a low crescent with the back knee down or high crescent with the back knee lifted. Come on a big inhale.

Study the gaze, and then as you exhale soften the back knee both arms forward. So you can see your palms. Let's open up the right arm and turn our chest. Our ribs are naval, feeling that rotation through the court. Take a deep breath in here, exhale hands behind the head and recenter yourself, lift up a bit turn open some balance there and adjust your feet to warrior too. So heel to arch or heel to heel alignment.

Chest is open, but the front core, the lower bandhas are lifted and pulled in. We'll keep that as we navigate a side bend and then drop the hips back as you dip down, pulling in through the core, circle the torso forward, up and over the horizon of the hips. Take that twice more. And there's a little balance. If we keep our attention in our center, right at the center of the body, we can balance easily. From here, let's end up in a little twist.

So fingertips down, heel to the right foot over, spin on the ball of the back foot. Rite them up to the sky. Take a deep inhale here, exhale. Bring the hands back down. Slightly forward.

We'll shorten the stance, back foot forward, and then bring it over so you're on the tight rope for this next transition. Left palm is flat. We'll return to the twist, but he'll tow the right foot open as you roll to the outer edge of the back foot and then step your right foot back in your side bend reaching over your head. Same as Vashistasana. Big inhale here.

XL soften the knees. There's that soft landing. Set up your legs like a pinwheel or stag and come into mermaid. Which is a beautiful side bend from right to left, feeling that compression of your kidneys as you go side to side was the classic Pilates mat exercise. And a beautiful range of motion.

Let's turn and bring the forearms to the floor, finding a variation of pigeon and stag. You can stay right here and enjoy the spinal twist. Or if you'd like to turn this into a more classic pigeon, just slide your left knee over, straighten out the back foot and find your pigeon here. And we'll just be here for a moment or two dropping in. Relaxing a head neck and shoulders.

And when your next inhale rise on up to the fingertips, lift through the chest, look up, and then exhale back to downward facing dog. Feel free to flow through a vinyasa. You can lower all the weight of the belly or halfway, cobra, or upward dog. And then downward facing dog is where we meet up. Let's enjoy the second side.

The left leg rises hips are square. Draw the knee to the midline, kick it through that little hovering soccer kick and then right back up. Step it all the way through crescent pose, low or high. We inhale to come on it. And then we exhale arms forward, soft bend in the back knee as you open, feeling that rotation from the obliques right in the center of the body, and then hands behind your head. Pay attention as you make this transition up and over.

To warrior two. Land that back heel, line up the front foot with the arch or heel of the back leg, and then we lean back and we start to circle. And this is really where we draw our awareness to the center of the body to maintain our balance while we make this movement. Let's land in a simple twist, right hand down, left arm up, heel towing that foot over, big inhale. Stay for the exhale. And then bring the fingertips down.

Let's scoot the back foot forward and over to the tight rope here. Inhale, left arm up. From here, we start to rotate outer edge of the back foot front foot heel toes and then just step it back. See how that lift and reach. Big inhale. As you exhale, soften the knees, find your pinwheel set up with your legs.

And then we move back and forth, left to right in and out of this classic Pilates Met exercise that we call mermaid, which is a beautiful side vent. Keep it moving. And then turn. So all the side bending and ringing out twisting, excellent to cleanse the digestive system. Working with that first element in the eight limbs of yoga, the, the second limb, Niyamas, our practice of internal cleansing, external cleansing.

Keep it clean. Keep it cleaned out. I'm using our body and our breath for that process. If you wanna set up a classic pigeon, this would be the the spot. Set it up here. Hanging out for a breath or two.

And we've been working with this series of five, learning these five exercises from the classic Pilates Matt Repatoire, and this is a great place to put the finishing touches, the last two exercises onto that. So let's come up out of this pigeon. Let's inhale lift the chest. We're excited about where we're going. And then roll to the outer hip, swing your feet to the back of the mat, and let's roll down slow. Set yourself up so that you're square on your mat draw the knees into the chest.

We've already learned the first three exercises, single leg stretch, double leg stretch, and crisscross, or scissors. Now we're adding crisscross and lowers. So we have five exercises 10 reps of each. We might do just like six reps of each just to dust it off. So reach your arms over your head and then exhale curl up into that c curve. Extend the left leg along the right knee pulls in and then change.

Just six of these. Four, five, six. Working with the precision of placement, both knees in relax your head down, reach your arms over your head, exhale circle up into double leg stretch, engage the core stretch away from it. And then inhale, we'll change the breathing a little exhale. Inhale. Keep the back flat. And it's almost like you're reaching out into a hammock shape in two directions.

One more. XL. From here, right into scissors, right leg up, left leg long. We have a double pulse. And a double pulse.

If your neck is getting fatigued, couple options, you can put your head down and still stabilize the core and work with the pulse of the legs. You can also take your hands behind your head. Which is great because we're going into crisscross elbow to knee, which is our next exercise. Cross it over. Try to touch your elbow to your knee or even to the outside of your knee. When it has that same rolling quality from one shoulder blade to the other that we did in the very beginning of our practice.

Last one. Come back to the center, This last exercise is called lowers. You reach the legs up, give a little wrap external rotation, reach through the balls of the feet, flex or point your choice. Just activate your feet so that the legs are active. Lower to 45. Pull the naval in as you bring it back up and lower.

Pull it in. Welcome to stay lifted through the upper body. Or you're welcome to put your head down, exhale. And can you stay grounded and calm amidst the effort amidst the work? The sun is shining. I feel it. One more lower down.

Left. Bend your knees. Relax your feet. Relax your arms. Congratulations.

That little series is No joke. So we're gonna reward ourselves with a release for the sewas. Grab your blocks, and you can take one block under your sacrum, or I like to actually create a little wider surface. So I like to use two blocks on their lowest height and create a little bench to rest the sacrum on. And then just extend one leg out, make sure the blocks are not at your low back, but right at your pelvis at your tailbone.

Pull the left knee, and then we have this beautiful drape of the hip flexor here on the right side. Just relax. Let go of effort. Let the weight of your body. Just drop into gravity. Maybe close your eyes.

Enjoy your breath. And then as you're ready, changing legs, a lot of the frontal core work, by association strengthens our hip flexors, but sometimes can create a little over tension in the hip flexors if we're a little too ambitious. So it's really important to give a stretch or release to the psoas, the idios psoas, as well as the upper attachments of the quadriceps. For balance in the body. And then go ahead and release your feet down still in this supported bridge and just allow the hips to gently tilt a little bit here. Allow the front ribs to soften in and let your arms relax wide.

Enjoy this simple posture. It's such a beautiful shape. It feels so nice on the lower back. So take a couple breaths right here. Signaling to your body that we're heading towards our final resting pose in just a moment or two. A little bit of breath work and then we'll wrap it up.

So let's draw the feet in a little closer towards the blocks, lift your hips, and then take your blocks out of the way as you roll down just very precisely as best you can, feel every single vertebra as you slowly unwind it down to the mat. And then from here, draw your knees into your chest and rock on up. And we'll go ahead and just find a comfortable seated position. You can sit cross legged or if you prefer to sit up on a block, you're welcome to do that. You can just place one right underneath your sacrum. Elevate your hips a little bit.

And then let's bring one hand to the naval center. We'll work on just a very short intro to breath of fire. So as you exhale through the mouth like you're blowing out a birthday candle, draw the naval in, in, in, in, to force the breath. Out. Out. Out. Just starting out through the mouth for this first round. Five four three two one.

Relax your arms. Take a deep breath in as you reach out and up. XL center your awareness right into mind heart, belly. I'm gonna do round number two. And this time through the nose. So quick short exhales as a result of the abdominal wall pushing in. You don't even have to think about the inhale.

It happens naturally. Our lungs are a vacuum. So as soon as you blow that breath out, some air is gonna sneak back into the lungs. So this time through the nose. Inhale halfway.

Quick short exhales through the nose. You can close your eyes, keep pumping the breath out slow, or quick. Some people like to go quicker than this rhythm. Some people like to go slower than this rhythm. Take 10 more. Stay with that rhythm. You can feel the abdominal wall.

Your transverse abdominis pumping in to porting that press of the air out, out, out, out, last four. Three, two, one. Take a deep breath and circle the arms out and up. XL through the midline. And just let the thumbs rest at the heart center and allow just the resonance and the vibration, the quality of your practice, your focus, your breath work. To permeate every cell of your body. Just feel into that.

That sunshine inside. And this ability to create heat and transformation just with our movement, with our breath, our focus. So let's enjoy sitting quietly here for a moment or two. Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.