The STOT system is a contemporary approach to the mind-body exercise method pioneered
by the late Joseph H. Pilates.
It enhances Pilates' original teachings with modern knowledge about the body including
current principles of core stability and functional fitness.
Building upon deep abdominal and back strength, STOT safely and effectively delivers optimal
strength, flexibility, endurance and posture without adding bulk or stress to your joints.
STOT instructional videos and professional equipment are carefully designed to complement
this training and meet the standards of today's exacting health and fitness professionals.
As with any exercise routine, it is important to consult with your physician before you
begin.
Enjoy your workout.
Thank you for joining me for this essential mat workout.
This workout is designed to help you develop a body that looks and feels strong and streamlined.
In the same way that a tree needs to be strong to support its limbs, the goal in STOT Pilates
is to develop and maintain core stability as you work towards optimal strength and flexibility
through your arms and legs.
In other words, developing a body that resists injury and moves with ease.
In this workout, we'll cover the fundamental STOT Pilates mat exercises focusing on which
muscles we're working and why.
We'll also pay close attention to movement quality and control.
Let's get started.
All you'll need for this workout is a regular exercise mat.
I'm doing it on a raised platform for demonstration purposes.
If you've done the previous essential video, you'll notice in this video that the exercises
are in a slight different order.
We know that it's very important to rebalance the muscles around the joints.
What we mean by that is it's very important that we flex the spine or bend forward and
we extend the spine in a very balanced way that we're not constantly doing flexion and
then constantly doing extension and then rotation.
We've really tried to balance that throughout the full workout.
We're going to start with the basic principles.
I've put them into a warm up so that you can warm your body up as we go through the principles
or the anatomical principles that I'd like you to focus on through every exercise in
order to get the most out of them.
The most important thing that we focus on is breathing.
We want to make sure that we take the breath down into the lower lobes of the lungs.
We're very powerful that way.
If we breathe up into the neck and shoulders, we tend to tense up and get a lot of tension
in the neck.
We also know that breathing helps us facilitate a much deeper contraction of the abdominals
and that deep, deep abdominal muscle that we refer to as the transversus abdominis helps
stabilize our lower back.
We're really going to focus on the breathing as we go through this workout in order to
help us really stabilize our lumbar spines, our lower backs.
We start by breathing.
All I want you to do is just bend the knees, place your hands on your shins, and just peel
down one vertebrae at a time as you breathe out.
Just exhale here.
Now, as you breathe, inhale and feel the breath just going into the lower ribs and out into
the back.
Try not to lift your shoulders.
You're just going to inhale and exhale.
Relax the neck.
Try not to let it tighten up here.
Just inhale and exhale one more time.
Breathe in.
Relax the shoulders.
Now, contract your abdominals.
Tighten your abdominals.
Slide the shoulders down and roll up one vertebrae at a time.
Let's just try that one more time.
Breathe in.
Then, right from the top of the spine, exhale.
Easy forward, just easy stretch of your back.
Breathe in and breathe out.
One more time.
Breathe in and breathe out.
Breathe in.
Contract your abdominals.
Roll up, sliding your shoulders down.
Now, we're going to focus on how that breath helps us stabilize the abdominals.
You're just going to roll down onto your back.
Whenever we have both legs down, we want the pelvis to be very neutral.
We're not always tightening and gripping and shortening this muscle here.
We want to be very neutral, meaning that if we put a cup of tea right here, it's not going
to spill one way or the other.
We're not jamming the back down.
Likewise, we're not completely extending here.
We want to avoid this position.
So, whenever both legs are down, we're very neutral.
When we have two legs in the air, we're going to bring these two points closer together,
the ribs and the hips here.
You're just going to exhale and just what we refer to as imprinting the spine, meaning
we just, if you take your thumb and your finger here and just exhale, bring those two points
closer together.
And don't jam them down, otherwise you see this muscle kind of bulges up and we don't
want that.
We want it really flat.
So let's just do an exercise just to test that.
Breathe in, exhale, imprint.
Inhale, release to neutral.
Exhale, bring these two points closer together.
One more.
Inhale, release to neutral.
Exhale, imprint.
Keep it there.
Let's test it.
Inhale, bend one knee in.
Don't let any tension in the neck.
Exhale, keep the abs really flat.
Bring the other leg in.
Inhale, lower one leg.
Exhale, lower the other.
Inhale, release to neutral.
Exhale, imprint.
Don't tighten the next.
Keep them relaxed.
Inhale, bend one leg in.
Exhale, bend the other leg in.
Inhale, lower one leg.
Exhale, lower the other.
So when you're doing this imprint, be very careful that you're not tightening the glutes,
that we're just using the abdominals to create that slight flexion of the lower back, not
jamming it in so we get this big muscle tightening up here and bulging.
Now let's try to release the hips here.
It's very important that we also don't tighten up through the hips.
So I want you to stabilize the abdominals, allow the leg to just fold out to one side.
Exhale, pull it back in.
Inhale, just allow it to open.
Exhale, pull it back in.
Inhale, allow it to open.
Exhale, careful that the back doesn't arch.
Pull it back in.
Now the other way.
Inhale, let it turn in.
Bring it back up and pull it back to center.
Inhale here, exhale, pull it back in.
Be careful not to arch your back.
Keep everything very neutral here as we do the other leg.
Allow the leg to open out to the side.
Reach it and exhale, contract the abdominals and pull it back in.
Inhale, open out to the side and exhale, just pull it back in, making sure the abdominals
stay connected.
Neck is completely relaxed.
If you feel hyper-extended here, just put a pillow under your head so that you're very
relaxed.
One more time, allow it to open.
Exhale, pull it back in.
Other way.
Turn the leg in, reach it away, pull it back up and in.
Remember to breathe.
If in doubt, just keep breathing.
Inhale, exhale, pull it back in.
Last time, inhale and exhale, pull it back in.
Now we're going to just stretch a little bit here.
Just lie on your side, reach one hand towards the other, relax your head down.
Okay, we're going to do a spinal rotation.
You're going to inhale, reach the arm to the ceiling, exhale, just stretch it back.
Stay there and feel the breath just into the ribs here.
Take a deep breath, inhale and again, exhale.
One more time, inhale.
Now contract your abdominals and just bring the arm back.
And again, breathe in.
Exhale, you can let your head go with it.
Inhale, deep breath.
Exhale.
One more time, breathe in.
And exhale, back to center.
Now just to the other side, open the arms out.
Rotate the hips here, bring this arm forward.
Inhale, reach it up to the side.
Exhale, rotate and open.
Inhale, deep breath and exhale.
And again, inhale and exhale.
Contract the abdominals and pull it back.
One more time, breathe in and breathe out.
Good stretch.
Inhale and exhale.
And again, one more time, breathe in and exhale.
Pull it back.
Get into a cat stretch on your hands and knees here.
Now here the focus is really on using your abdominals to flex the spine.
Breathe in.
Careful, don't extend the spine to begin with.
Exhale, contract your abdominals, send the tailbone to the floor.
Upper mid-back, drop your head.
Stay there, deep breath right up into the upper middle back.
Inhale.
Now exhale, release the tailbone.
Get your shoulders down, lengthen out through the top of the ears.
Don't overextend your lower back.
Keep the abdominals controlling the extension of your spine.
Breathe in.
Exhale, contract the abdominals right up into the upper middle back.
Inhale, deep good stretch here.
Drop the top of your head and exhale, release.
One more time, inhale.
Exhale, contract the abdominals.
Upper mid-back, drop the top of the head.
Inhale, deep breath.
And exhale, lengthen out through the lower back and reach.
Now we're going to go onto some hip rolls just to warm up the spine as well.
Roll down onto your back.
From here, breathe in.
Exhale, now contract your abdominals.
Try to flex your spine as much as you can with your abdominals.
Then press into your heels.
Reach right up.
Don't go so high that you're choking here.
Just try to keep it.
Imagine that you can still talk while you're up there.
Inhale, exhale, roll down one vertebrae at a time through the lower back.
Inhale, release.
Exhale, contract the abdominals to initiate the movement.
Now press into your heels.
Inhale at the top.
Exhale, one at a time.
Imagine one vertebrae at a time is just peeling down the mat right through that lower back
and then inhale, completely release at the bottom.
One more time.
Exhale, contract the abdominals.
Roll up all the way to the top.
Inhale at the top.
Exhale, roll down through the spine and release.
Good.
Now we're just going to work on the upper middle back, the scapula here.
We're going to just reach to the ceiling.
On the inhale, exhale, slide them down.
I'm just going to show you sitting up so that you can see what I'm talking about here.
From here, the scapula just opens.
Now as we slide it down, it comes down towards your spine and down.
Don't jam them together.
We just want them sliding down the back in order to stabilize them so we don't work the
upper shoulders and upper traps.
We want to slide the shoulders down.
Let's try this exercise here just to warm up the shoulders here.
We're going to inhale, reach up.
Exhale, slide them down.
Inhale, reach.
Exhale, all the time keeping the abdominals contracted.
Inhale, exhale.
From here, let's just stretch behind your head.
Careful that the ribs don't pop off.
Whenever the arms reach, you want to keep the ribs connected to the mat, but don't jam
your lower back.
Just that lower rib rests on the mat as we circle the arms around.
And again, inhale.
Don't extend the chest.
Keep it connected.
Keep the abdominals working here.
As the arms circle around, one more.
Inhale and exhale.
Circle around and reverse.
Inhale, reach.
Now exhale.
From here, the ribs are sliding down towards your pelvis here.
And again, inhale and exhale.
And one more time.
Inhale and exhale.
Now it's very important how we take the head off the mat.
We want to be very careful when we do any abdominal work that we don't jam the chin
to the chest.
That creates a lot of tension.
We also have trouble keeping it in neutral because we tend to sort of poke the chin forward
and then all this bulges up.
And we don't want to do that either.
So before your head leaves the mat, we're just going to slightly drop the chin.
So let's try that.
That also helps us to stretch out these neck extensors, the muscles at the back of the
neck that become very tight.
So all I want you to do is just inhale, lengthen through the back of the neck.
Don't jam the chin.
And release.
And again, inhale.
Just take your fingers and pull the back of your head away.
Don't overwork the front of the neck.
And again, lengthen through the back of the neck.
And release.
That's the position we want the head when we come up into our abdominal work.
But what we have to do is combine that with the shoulder girdle stabilization.
So let's just feel the shoulders and how we get those stabilized first.
And then we'll put it all together in an ab prep.
So just inhale, lift the shoulders up by your ears.
Now exhale, apply pressure into your fingertips and slide them down.
Don't jam them down so much that the shoulders start to immediately rotate.
Inhale, lift up.
Exhale, slide them down.
Stay very open here.
And again, one more.
Inhale.
And exhale, slide them down.
Last time, inhale.
And exhale, slide them down.
Okay, now let's put that all together in an ab prep.
We're gonna do eight of these.
You're gonna inhale, lengthen through the back of the neck.
Exhale, slide those shoulders down.
Keep the pelvis very neutral.
Don't tuck under here.
Inhale at the top.
Exhale, we release back down.
Inhale, lengthen.
Slide the shoulders.
Reach.
Inhale at the top.
Don't jam your chin anymore.
Keep it lengthened through the back of the neck and release.
Inhale.
Exhale to come up.
Keep the abdominals very flat.
Don't let them bulge.
And release down.
Inhale.
Exhale, slide the ribs towards the pelvis.
Inhale at the top.
And exhale down.
If you're feeling any tension in the neck, place your hands behind your head.
Inhale, lengthen.
Exhale, slide the shoulders down.
Inhale at the top.
And exhale, release.
Just three more.
Inhale.
And exhale.
Inhale at the top.
And exhale down.
Lengthen through the back of the neck.
Exhale, curl up.
Inhale.
And exhale down.
And last time, inhale.
Exhale, curl up.
Inhale at the top.
And exhale, release down.
Now we have to bend you back the other way.
So we're going to do what we call the breaststroke, lying on your stomach.
It's very important here also that we stabilize the shoulders before we extend the spine and
we don't overwork the neck extensors.
Keep the legs either together if you're feeling a lot of pressure in your back, put a pillow
under your hips, or just separate the legs.
Inhale here.
Exhale, slide the shoulders down and lengthen up through the top of the head.
Don't overextend your neck at the top.
Just let it be very released here.
Inhale at the top.
Exhale, lengthen the top of your head away from your toes.
Inhale.
Exhale, slide the shoulders down.
The top of the head reaches away from my toes.
And I just extend, my bottom rib is still on the mat.
Shoulders are stabilized.
Inhale here.
Exhale, release down.
Inhale.
Exhale, slide the shoulders down.
Lengthen the top of the head away.
Inhale at the top.
And exhale down one more time.
Just really working these muscles in the upper middle back.
Exhale, slide the shoulders down.
Inhale, keep lengthening.
And exhale, release down.
And let's go into a shell stretch just to stretch out the lower back here.
Breathe in.
And breathe out.
One more time, breathe in.
Now exhale, contract your abdominals.
Roll up.
And we're ready for the hundred.
Everybody's favorite.
It's very important here now, we're gonna be imprinted.
Okay, we're gonna just keep that connection through the back.
So we prepare, bend your knees in.
Keep the knees bent all the time, unless you feel strong enough or unless you're able to
keep the connection with the abs to support the pelvis.
So as we go, I'm gonna keep the legs bent and then we'll challenge a little more by
straightening them.
Inhale, we lengthen through the back of the neck.
Exhale, slide the shoulders down.
Now just start to pump your hands here.
It's as if you're pressing down on a spring, comes from the shoulder.
Now we inhale through the nose.
Two, three, four, five, out.
In and out.
Two, three, four, twenty.
Breathe in.
Two, four, five and out.
Two, three, four, thirty.
If you can straighten your legs, do so.
Out two, three, four, forty.
If you can lower them, do so, but don't let your back arch.
Out two, three, four, fifty.
One, two, four, five and out.
Two, three, four, sixty.
Keep everything flat.
Out two, three, four, seventy.
If you're feeling your neck, place your hand behind your head and eighty.
Almost there.
In two, three, four, five and out.
Two, three, four, ninety.
Last time.
Two, four, five and out.
Two, three, four, one hundred.
Inhale, bend it in and exhale, release down.
Try to do that and talk at the same time.
Okay, from there we're going to go into our half roll up.
So we can get up through our transitions two ways.
From here, just bend the knee in, lengthen through the back of the neck and roll up.
Or if you're feeling that that's too much on your back, just roll over to your side
each time we go from our position of being supine up to a sitting position.
So the half roll back.
In here, just reach forward, exhale, slide the shoulders down.
Remember we have to keep those sliding down.
Reach back.
Just go as far.
Be careful you don't lose the feet.
And reach.
Exhale, move the pelvis away from the femur here.
Don't take everything in one piece.
Inhale, reach forward.
Exhale, contract the abdominals.
Lead with your lower back.
Slide your shoulders down.
Now don't sham the chin to come forward.
Use your abdominals.
And again, exhale.
Now try to increase the curve from these upper abs here to go forward.
And one more time.
Exhale, roll back.
And inhale, reach forward.
Now very carefully roll through.
Slide your shoulders down.
Bring the arms up.
Ready for the roll up.
Legs together here.
Inhale, bring the arms to here.
Slide your shoulders down, lengthen through the back of the neck.
Exhale, go through your ab prep position.
Now if you can, continue and roll all the way up and reach.
Inhale, start to roll back.
Get that lower back down one vertebrae at a time.
And release.
From here, inhale.
Exhale.
Don't jar up.
If you can't come up, that's fine.
Just stay right where you are.
Wait for us while we go forward.
Inhale, roll back.
Slide the shoulders down and reach.
If you can straighten the legs, try it with the legs straight.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Abs here.
Don't try to lie on your legs.
Keep a connection here.
Stay right up on your sit bones.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Down one more time.
Inhale, reach the arms up.
Lengthen through the back of the neck.
Exhale we're in our ab prep position here.
Now increase the curve to take it forward.
Inhale, start to roll back.
Get that lower back down and reach.
Open the arms wide.
Let me go into our leg circles here.
Bend one knee in.
Now the important thing here is to stay stable at all costs.
So keep the leg bent if when you start to straighten the leg, everything tightens up
here.
It's more important that we keep this stabilized as we start to move our leg than to have the
leg straight.
So try either position.
Keep the abdominals very tight here.
Inhale, you circle the leg across.
Exhale, bring it back up.
You can do it with the leg straight fine or even a slight bend.
Just don't feel a lot of gripping here.
Inhale across.
Exhale two.
Cross the body on the inhale.
Exhale three.
Inhale across.
Keep that opposite hip down four.
Inhale across.
Exhale, ribs close on five.
Other way.
Inhale.
And when I say ribs close, I just mean a connection through these abdominals here so that the ribs
don't start to lift up here.
Two more.
And bring it back up last time.
Inhale and exhale.
Release it in and lengthen it down.
Other leg.
Inhale to here.
Keep it bent.
There's nothing wrong with keeping it bent.
Exhale, stretch it up.
Inhale.
Only make the circle as big as you can stabilize the spine.
And exhale two.
Inhale across.
No tension in the neck.
Three.
Inhale.
Exhale up four.
Inhale.
Exhale up five.
Other way.
Inhale out.
Exhale, swing it across.
One.
And two.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Three.
And four.
And five.
Three.
Out and across up.
Four.
Last time.
And five.
Release it in and down.
Ready for the spine twist.
So from here, bend one knee in.
Exhale, roll over the legs.
Straighten up.
If you're feeling a lot of gripping here, just cross your legs.
We want to be into a very neutral position here.
If you're sitting this way, it's not going to be very good for your spine.
You want to just sit right up onto the sit bones.
If you can, straighten the legs out in front of you.
Arms reach out to the side.
And we're just going to rotate.
You're going to exhale, reach one.
Release a little bit.
Exhale, reach further.
Two.
Release a little.
Further.
Three.
And back to center.
And exhale.
And again.
Back to center.
It's cheating if one leg gets shorter than the other.
It means you're bringing your whole hips into it.
Keep the legs the same length.
And reach further.
Two.
And further.
Three.
Back to center.
Watch that the shoulders don't lift.
One.
Further.
Two.
Further.
Three.
Inhale to center.
Now just bend the back arm, just to get a little more work underneath the shoulder here.
Work the shoulder stabilizers, and exhale.
Last set.
And exhale.
One.
And two.
Three.
Inhale.
Forward.
Exhale.
One.
Two.
Three.
Inhale.
Forward.
Good.
Ready for rolling like a ball.
Now, it's like difficult.
I can make this sound.
We want to make sure that we start back of the sit bones.
Don't try to get onto the sit bones in this exercise.
So we use the abdominals to flex the spine back of the sit bones.
And we hold on to our ankles.
Now if you have trouble holding here, just hold underneath here.
Now I want you to start just by getting the connection of the abdominals with the lower
back.
The lower back has to lead.
Stay flexed, keep your shoulders down, or there's no way you're coming back up.
So from here, let's just start by inhaling, roll back a little bit.
See how you try to just flex the lower back?
Exhale.
Come back to the sit bones.
And one more.
Just back to the sit bones.
And come up and balance.
Stay back to the sit bones.
Ready to roll.
And inhale.
Roll back.
Don't go onto your neck.
Exhale.
Come forward.
Balance back to the sit bones here.
And again.
And up.
Up to 10.
And make sure that you count, because I sometimes don't.
So here we go.
And roll back.
And come up here.
Lower back leads.
And up.
And again.
Lower back leads.
And up.
Stay flexed all the time.
Keep looking at your knees here.
That's it.
Don't lead with the head.
Keep it in.
And up.
Lower back leads.
Stay flexed.
And come up.
Just two more.
Roll back.
Exhale up.
Keep the shoulders sliding down.
Don't let them lift up by your ears.
And come up and balance and stay so you're in total control.
Great.
Now we're gonna go into the single leg stretch.
From here, just roll down onto the mat.
And we're gonna go through the legs first so that I don't get your neck tight while
I'm explaining what the arms are doing.
Outside hand is gonna be on the ankle.
Inside hand on the knee.
Other leg is extended into the air.
Now we have both legs in the air so we're gonna be slightly imprinted.
Not jamming the back down.
Just think of bringing these two places, those bottom ribs and your hips closer together.
We inhale on the transition.
Exhale extend the leg.
Inhale and exhale.
Now let's bring the upper torso into it.
Lengthen through the back of the neck on the inhale.
Now scoop up.
Inhale and here we go.
Exhale reach one.
And one.
And two.
Two.
Exhale as you reach.
Three.
Abs flat.
Four.
Four and five.
Slide the shoulders down.
Don't let them get up here.
Six and seven.
Seven.
Only let the legs go as low as you can keep the pelvis stabilized here.
Bring both legs in and release down.
Now we're gonna add an oblique movement to that.
Place your hands behind your head.
Breathe in.
Exhale come up to center.
Inhale here now.
Exhale rotate towards the bent leg is the opposite elbow reaches back.
Exhale.
And two.
Two.
Don't let anything rock around here.
Keep it totally stabilized.
Just rotate upper torso.
Four.
Four and five.
Five reach.
Six.
Almost there.
Seven.
Last set.
Eight.
Inhale come back to center.
And exhale release down.
Ready for the double leg stretch.
Be very careful here.
I'm gonna go through the arm movement first.
Inhale.
Lengthen through the back of the neck.
Exhale.
Come up.
Inhale stay.
Now exhale just bend the elbows.
Reach by your ears.
Inhale scoop around and reach.
Exhale it's almost like you're taking a hat off here.
We reach.
Inhale scoop up.
One more time.
Exhale reach.
Inhale back to center.
Now let's add the legs.
So you bend the knees in.
Prepare by lengthening through the back of the neck.
Exhale we come up to center.
Inhale stay.
Exhale reach the legs away only as low as you can maintain the pelvis there in an imprint.
And exhale reach two.
Inhale scoop.
And exhale reach three.
Inhale scoop.
And exhale reach four.
Inhale scoop.
And reach five.
And in up to eight.
Six.
And in.
Exhale flat up.
Seven.
In last time.
Reach.
And pull it in.
Release down.
And now we're ready to go into the scissors.
From here lengthen through the back of the neck.
Exhale we come up through center.
Don't grab the leg just reach it and reach it.
And exhale as you reach it.
Reach slightly further.
Bend the knee a little bit if you're feeling too much tug on the hamstring.
And reach.
Two.
Exhale reach.
Two.
And we're going to slide on the transition here.
And three.
Exhale four.
And four.
Slide the shoulders down it helps if you stabilize.
Five.
And six.
And seven.
Last set.
And eight.
Come back to center.
And release down.
Place the feet down.
And we're ready to go into the shoulder bridge here.
This is all about stabilizing the pelvis now.
Also on the femur on your thighs here.
You're going to inhale.
Contract your glutes and hamstrings but don't tuck under.
Keep it very neutral and just pick the pelvis up.
One line between your knees and your shoulders.
Inhale stay here.
Exhale place it down.
We could roll down but for the purpose of this exercise I want you to stay very neutral.
Inhale we want to stabilize.
We want to work the glutes and hamstrings here and the abdominals to help stabilize the
pelvis so we don't extend the spine here.
Pull it down.
Inhale.
Exhale pick it up.
Inhale at the top.
Exhale place it down.
Inhale.
Exhale pick it up.
Inhale at the top.
Exhale bring it down.
Inhale.
Now at the top stay there.
Exhale just pick one foot up but don't let the pelvis rotate.
Don't let it drop.
Place it down.
Contract glute and hamstring on this side.
Pick the other side up just an inch.
Place it down.
Pelvis down.
Let's try that one more time.
Don't allow the pelvis to rotate.
Inhale.
Exhale pick it up.
Inhale stay here.
Exhale take one leg up.
Place it down.
Inhale then exhale.
Place it down.
Inhale at the top.
Exhale release it down.
And we're ready to go into our rollover prep.
Exhale pull the legs into you.
Now just abdominals.
Don't tense the neck and shoulders.
Breathe in here.
Exhale send the knees towards your shoulders.
Inhale release it down.
Just as much as you can do with the abdominals.
Don't go so far up that you feel your neck.
Just abdominals.
Exhale.
Inhale release it.
Two more.
Exhale.
Inhale release last time.
Exhale.
Inhale release.
And now I'm going to bend you back the other way.
So we're going to go onto the heel squeeze.
We're going to work the glutes a little more here.
Just place your forehead on your hands.
Bend your knees and just turn the knees out a little bit and squeeze the heels together
here.
Breathe in.
Now exhale just squeeze so you're tightening through the glute but don't tuck under.
Keep the front of the hip very long and release.
And exhale squeeze.
So you're just flattening the front of the hip into the mat and release two.
And exhale squeeze it.
And three.
And again squeeze.
And four.
And squeeze.
And five.
And again squeeze.
And six.
Two more.
And seven.
And release last time.
And eight.
And release.
Ready to go into the one leg kick prep.
We're going to work the hamstrings now.
We just worked the glutes.
Now we're going to work the hamstrings, the muscles that bend the knee.
So don't jam the knee into you.
You're just going to exhale pull it in.
Flex and pull it in.
Inhale extend it.
And exhale pull it into you.
Pull it into you.
And one.
And pull.
Pull.
And two.
Abdominals are still connected here all the time.
And three.
Three.
And reach.
And pull it in.
And reach.
And four.
And reach.
Exhale as you pull it in.
And reach.
Last time.
Five.
Pull it in.
And reach.
Pull it in.
And reach.
Ready to go into the breaststroke.
Strengthening the upper middle back here.
Place your hands by your sides.
Here again, legs can be together.
But if you're feeling a lot of pressure in the back, just separate them a little bit
here.
Exhale.
Reach.
Just hover here.
Inhale.
Just open up.
It's just upper middle back.
Don't jam into the back of the neck.
Exhale.
Come down and stretch.
Reach those legs away from you.
And exhale.
Reach.
Inhale.
Open up through the front.
And exhale.
Reach.
And inhale.
Open.
And exhale.
Reach.
And inhale.
Open.
Two more.
And stretch.
And reach.
Last time.
Stretch.
Exhale.
Inhale.
Open.
And release down.
And let's just stretch out the back with a shell stretch here.
Just inhale.
And exhale.
One more time.
Breathe in.
Contract your abdominals and roll up.
And we're ready for the saw.
From here, place the legs just wider than the shoulders here.
Reach the arms out to the side.
Be careful not to hyperextend the chest here.
Keep a connection.
Inhale.
Rotate towards the leg.
Back arm rotates.
And exhale.
Keep that opposite hip planted down.
Good stretch.
Inhale.
Slide the back arm down.
Reach back.
Exhale.
Come back to center.
Inhale to rotate here.
Exhale.
Keep this opposite hip planted down and stretch.
Inhale up.
Exhale back to center.
And again.
Inhale.
Lift up through the top of the ears.
Exhale.
Reach.
Inhale.
Roll up.
Exhale.
Back to center.
Inhale.
Rotate.
And exhale.
Stretch.
Inhale.
Reach.
Exhale.
Back to center.
One more time.
Inhale.
And exhale.
Reach.
Long stretch.
Inhale.
Slide the back shoulder down.
Exhale.
Back to center.
Inhale.
Rotate.
Exhale.
Reach.
Good long stretch.
Inhale.
Roll up.
And exhale.
Back to center.
Okay.
From there, we're going to go onto the neck full prep.
Just keeping the legs hip distance apart here, place your hands on your head.
Breathe in.
Now, exhale.
Abdominals flex the spine.
Slide your shoulders down.
Inhale.
Stay here.
Exhale.
Increase the curve from here, not from jamming your chin in.
Inhale.
Lengthen right up onto the sit bones.
Exhale.
Flex back.
Inhale.
Stay.
Exhale.
Reach forward.
Inhale.
Slide the shoulders down and lengthen up.
Third time.
Exhale.
Roll back.
Inhale.
Stay.
Exhale.
Go forward.
Inhale.
Roll up.
And again.
Exhale.
Roll back.
Inhale.
Stay.
Exhale.
Forward.
Inhale.
Roll up.
Last time.
And exhale.
Roll back.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Forward.
Inhale.
Roll up.
And now, let's work on the obliques from here.
Same thing.
Roll back, but as you roll back, reach the back arm back, and come up to the other side.
Exhale.
Rotate and reach.
Inhale.
Come up.
Make sure you roll through the lower back.
And up.
Flex the lower back.
Reach back.
And come up.
And exhale.
Reach three.
Inhale.
Come back.
Exhale.
Reach.
And come back.
And exhale.
Reach.
And come back.
And reach.
Last set.
And exhale.
Reach.
And come back.
And exhale.
Reach.
And come back.
Good.
And now, we're going to go on to the side kicks.
Lie on your side, place your back right against the edge of the mat, and angle your legs forward
towards the front of the mat, just for balance.
Place your head down onto your hands.
Stabilize the hand here.
Just place this leg in line with your hip.
Inhale.
Flex it forward.
Stay very square.
Exhale.
Just reach it back.
One.
Inhale.
Forward.
Up.
Exhale.
Reach.
Two.
Exhale.
Reach it.
Three.
And forward.
Up.
Exhale.
Reach.
Four.
And forward.
Up.
Exhale.
Keep the connection here.
And up.
Reach.
Don't let the ribs come out.
Keep them connected.
Up.
Two.
Exhale.
Reach.
Good.
And up.
And reach.
And up.
Eight.
And reach.
Two more.
And up.
Nine.
And reach.
Last time.
Up.
Ten.
And reach.
Angle the legs down so you're in one long line here.
Lift the top leg up.
Don't let these two areas get any closer together.
Don't shorten.
Just lift the top leg up.
Flex it.
Place it down.
Point up.
Reach.
Exhale.
Contract the abdominals.
Two.
And point up.
And exhale.
Reach.
Three.
And up.
And breathe.
Four.
One more time.
Up.
And reach.
Five.
Now hold it up.
Circle it.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
Seven.
Eight.
Keep those abs tight.
And reverse.
And one.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
Seven.
Eight.
Nine.
Ten.
Eleven.
Twelve.
Eleven.
Twelve.
Thighs together.
And one.
Top leg up.
Exhale.
Reach.
And two.
Top leg up.
Exhale.
Reach.
And three.
Top leg up.
Exhale.
Reach.
And four.
One more time.
Top leg up.
And reach.
No tension in your neck.
Five.
Now again, both legs together.
Exhale.
Reach.
And one.
Contract your abdominals, not your shoulders.
Exhale, reach.
And three, almost there, reach.
And four, last time, reach.
And five, bend and ease in.
Just inhale and exhale.
One more time, easy.
Inhale and exhale, ready for the other side.
So from here, just line your back right up on the edge of the mat here.
Line your head up on your arm and angle the legs forward here.
Slide the shoulders down.
Leg in line with the hip, ready for the side kicks to begin with.
And here we go.
Inhale, easy, reach forward further.
Exhale, contract the abdominals, pull back.
And two, up, exhale, reach.
Back forward, three, up, exhale, reach.
Forward, four, up.
Keep the connection of the abdominals.
Five, up and reach.
Humb strings and glutes extend the hip here.
Don't go into your lower back.
Don't overextend.
Reach, six and stretch.
And reach, seven and stretch.
And reach, eight, stretch.
And reach, nine and stretch.
Last time, ten and reach.
Now, both legs come down so you're in a neutral alignment here, one long line.
Point the foot up, flex it, pull it down one.
Point up, flex and two.
Remember to breathe, point up, flex and three.
Reach it up, stay completely parallel.
Four, one more, flex, five.
Reach it up, ready for the circles.
One, circle, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
And reverse, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
Hold it there.
Exhale, contract your abdominals, but bring the other leg to meet it and place it down one.
Top leg up, exhale to meet it.
And two, top leg up, exhale to meet it.
And three, top leg up.
Remember, inner thighs, not toes.
Four, last time.
And five, both legs together.
Exhale, all in the abs.
One, not in your necks.
Reach, and two.
And exhale, reach.
And three, reach.
And four, last time, reach.
And five, good.
Okay, now we're ready to go on to the spine stretch forward.
Just to stretch out the back after that, here again, right on the sit bones.
If you're having trouble getting onto the sit bones, if you feel that you're being pulled back here,
then just cross the legs or grab a phone book or a pillow just to raise you up here
because we want to be as neutral as possible.
So breathe in here.
Exhale, it's your chance to breathe.
Simply haven't done enough breathing, but to breathe and relax.
Inhale, take a deep breath into the back.
Exhale, contract the abdominals, slide the shoulders down and come up.
Inhale, lengthen up through the top of the ears.
Exhale, relax forward.
Inhale, deep breath.
Exhale, contract the abdominals, slide up.
And again, breathe in and breathe out as if you're going up and over a beach ball, all the way over.
Inhale, staying right on the sit bones here.
Exhale, almost try to peel one vertebrae at a time off a wall here.
Flex forward.
It's not about going onto your legs.
You're using your abdominals to flex the spine one more time.
Breathe in and exhale.
Just flex forward, over.
Inhale, deep breath.
And exhale, roll up.
Good, and now we're going to go on to the teaser prep.
Bring your legs together here.
Roll down through the spine.
Be very careful here.
If you can't come all the way up, just stay down halfway.
Reach the arms above your head.
Inhale to here.
Exhale, stay here if you can't come up.
If you can, come further, just back of the sit bones.
Inhale, reach those arms by your ears.
Exhale, roll back through your spine.
Inhale, slide your shoulders down, lengthen through the back of the neck.
Exhale, reach.
Inhale, by your ears.
Exhale, one vertebrae at a time, down.
Inhale, slide the shoulders.
Don't jar your back.
Very smooth movement.
Abdominals are doing all the work as you roll back.
Inhale, lengthen through the back of the neck.
Exhale, we come up.
Inhale, back by your ears.
Exhale, roll down.
Let's do one more.
Inhale, lengthen through the back of the neck.
Exhale, through that ab prep position, reach.
Inhale, right by your ears.
Slide the shoulders down as we roll back.
Great.
Okay, from here we're going to go onto the stomach.
I'm going to bend you back the other way for the single leg extension.
So just lie on your stomach here.
Same thing, put a pad underneath your hips if you're feeling stressed on your back.
Separate the legs a little.
But if you can, just keep the legs together.
And just exhale, reach the leg up.
One leg up, but keep that hip planted down, just focusing on glute hamstring.
And release.
And exhale, reach.
And release.
Let's keep it completely parallel to begin with.
Don't let it turn out.
Parallel.
And exhale, reach.
And release.
One more set parallel.
Reach as you exhale.
Release.
And reach.
And release.
Now let it rotate a little bit and lift.
And up.
Rotate from the hip and reach.
And exhale, contract the abdominals, reach.
And again, reach.
Last set.
Exhale, reach.
And down, last time, reach.
And down, good.
Now we're going to go onto the swan dive.
Now because we're coming up through the lower back,
we're going to separate the legs just a little wider than the shoulders.
This allows for more movement of my pelvis on the femur, on the thigh here.
So hands by the shoulders.
Inhale.
Now exhale, we have to stabilize the shoulders first.
Here's our breaststroke position.
Now keep your abdominals connected right here.
Pull them up.
Reach the chest up and forward.
Now slide the shoulders down.
Don't sink here.
And reach away from your toes.
Inhale.
Exhale, slide the shoulders down.
Lengthen out through the top of the ears.
Reach up.
Inhale the top.
Exhale, lengthen away from your toes.
And reach away.
Make sure you're not coming back to this pinched position.
Keep the shoulders very wide as you inhale.
Exhale, slide the shoulders down.
Reach the toes away from the top of your head.
Reach right up.
Inhale.
Abs are up here.
Exhale, lengthen away and down.
Just two more.
Inhale.
Exhale, slide the shoulders down.
I have slight glute engagement here just to keep the front of the hip open.
But don't tuck under too much.
Okay, don't start to tuck here.
Keep the abs pulling up and lengthen away one more time.
Inhale.
Exhale, we slide the shoulders first.
Stabilize them.
Lengthen up.
Inhale at the top.
And exhale, lengthen away from the toes and down.
Ready for our swimming prep.
We're going to go onto all fours here.
This is a great exercise for stabilizing here again the spine.
I want you to reach your left arm away from the right leg and stabilize as you exhale.
Don't tighten up in the shoulder.
Inhale.
Bend it in.
And exhale, reach.
Don't go so high that you start to sink into the back.
Stay completely parallel here.
Pull it in.
And contract the abdominals.
Stabilize on the one leg and one arm.
And bring it back in.
Exhale.
Use the breath to help stabilize by contracting the abdominals.
And pull it in right from here.
Now that we have everything stabilized and we're under control, leg pull front prep.
Curl your toes under at the back.
Let's move a little further forward.
I'm going to slight diagonal at the hip.
If you're finding this hard to control, then keep a 90-degree angle at the hip.
Really adduct your inner thighs.
Squeeze the inner thighs together.
Slide the shoulders down.
Exhale.
Stay completely neutral and pick the knees off the mat.
Inhale.
Place it down.
Exhale.
Inhale.
Be careful as you go up that you don't start to round your back.
Stay neutral, but don't arch the back.
Completely neutral.
And again, exhale.
Pick it up.
Inhale down.
Now we're going to challenge it.
As we go up, we're going to challenge the rotation.
Make sure you lift one leg off.
Don't let this hip lift.
This helps really strengthen those deep muscles around the lower back.
Exhale.
Pick the other leg off just a couple of inches.
Place it down.
Place the knees down.
Let's try it again.
Exhale.
Pick it up.
Inhale at the top.
Exhale.
Lift one leg off.
Inhale.
Stay.
Exhale the other leg.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Place it down.
Good.
Okay.
Now we're going to go onto the seal.
We're going to roll here just like you're rolling like a ball.
You can hold in two positions.
If you can, take your hands and hold underneath the ankle here,
and you rock back of the sit bones.
I'm using my abdominals.
I have to balance here.
If this feels very awkward and you're cramped,
just hold around the outside of your ankles.
So if you can, hold the inside, slide the shoulders, keep the shape.
Lower back leads.
Okay, we're just going to roll back and come forward.
Inhale, roll back, and come forward.
Now it's called the seal because now you have to clap.
Clap, two, three, roll back.
This shows how much control you're under.
It's absolutely true.
You have to clap.
There is a reason for it.
Clap, two, three, roll back.
Clap, two, three, roll forward.
Clap, two, three, roll back.
Clap, two, three, roll forward.
Make sure when you go to the back that you're not on your neck
and that you're not whipping your head around like I am.
Keep it completely in control.
Forward, roll back, and come forward.
Okay, from there, we're going to go into a side bend front.
We're going to stabilize on the one arm now.
What we refer to as unilateral stabilization.
From here, hand starts on the hip.
Inhale, exhale, press into the bottom leg.
Reach up and inhale, release down.
Slide the supporting shoulder down.
Reach up as you exhale.
Inhale, release down.
And exhale, slide the shoulder down.
Reach up.
Inhale and release down.
Let's do one more.
Exhale, slide the shoulder down.
Press into the bottom knee.
And release down.
Ready to go to the other side.
Whip the legs around here.
So this foot can be slightly forward.
It doesn't have to be completely turned out here.
Slightly forward, one hand on the leg.
Stabilize the shoulder.
Inhale to prepare.
Exhale, press up.
And inhale, control it down.
Don't let the shoulder collapse.
And exhale, press up two.
And inhale, control it down.
And exhale, press up three.
And control it down.
Let's just try two more.
Slide the shoulder down.
Press up.
And release down.
And last time, slide the shoulder down.
Exhale, press up.
And release down.
And then we have to go right into our push-ups.
So from here.
Let's keep the knees down.
Angle.
Just more than 90 degree here.
Stabilize the shoulders.
Don't sink in.
We're just going to inhale down.
Two, three.
Exhale, press up on one.
Down two, three.
Two, two, three, three.
Exhale, press up two.
Don't let the shoulders sink.
Two, three.
Exhale, press up three.
And again.
Two, three.
Exhale, press up four.
One more set.
Down two, three.
Exhale, press up.
And release.
Roll up.
And let's just stretch that out.
Legs crossed.
Just breathe in.
Reach one arm up.
And exhale, stretch over.
Inhale.
And exhale down.
And again, breathe in.
And exhale.
Good stretch over.
Inhale, reach up.
And inhale.
One more time, both sides.
Good reach.
And stretch.
And up.
And over.
Reach up.
And stretch.
Up.
Now right down through the center.
Breathe in.
And exhale.
And forward.
Inhale, deep breath.
And exhale, roll up.
And again, breathe in.
And exhale.
Just easy forward.
Inhale.
And exhale.
Just lunge onto one side from here.
Angle the leg forward.
And just easy stretch.
Forward.
Just easy.
Keep a support here.
Don't jam into it.
Just easy stretch.
And release.
And again, exhale.
Just stretch.
Just a stretch through the whole front of the hip.
And release.
Onto the other side.
And just angle the leg forward.
And stretch.
And release up.
And again, stretch.
And release.
Bring one knee back in.
And the other, breathe in.
And just stretch forward.
Inhale.
Exhale to finish.
Thank you for joining me for the Stott-Palati's Essential Mat Workout.
I hope you enjoyed it.
If you haven't exercised in a while, or this is your first exposure to Stott-Palati's,
then you may feel a little stiff tomorrow,
since we've worked some of the deep muscles of the body.
That's natural.
You may want to rest or vary your routine tomorrow,
and then join me again the following day.
As with any workout, the key is to listen to your body.
Proper exercise should make you feel invigorated.
It shouldn't make you hurt.
Once you're comfortable with the principles and exercises in this video,
and you want to pick the pace or intensity up,
you'll be ready to move on to my more challenging intermediate mat
or power mat workout videos.
With Stott-Palati's, the emphasis is on core conditioning and stretching.
To complement your workout, you should also do some form of cardiovascular endurance exercise,
such as power walking or jogging.
A combination of Stott-Palati's and cardio, three to four times a week,
either on the same day or alternating days, is ideal.
It's been fun working out with you.
See you again next time.
Thank you.
As a leader in mind-body exercise,
Stott provides instructor training, instructional videos, teaching guides,
and precision equipment, inspired by its contemporary approach
to the original teachings of Joseph H. Palati's.
To order a Stott catalog or for more information about Stott products and services,
please contact us toll-free at 1-800-910-0001
or visit our website at www.stottpalatis.com.
Thank you.