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Welcome to Get Healthy U TV. I'm so excited to be here with you guys today. I'm Kate, and I'm here for your 30-minute Mat Pilates workout using the ever-so-handy hand towel. We're using the hand towel today because it helps you increase mobility, endurance, and strength. I'm here with JC and Sheila, and we're gonna have the best time with you today. So are you guys ready to get started? So ready. Yes. Wonderful. So I'm gonna have you take your hand towel, just any basic hand towel at home will do, and place it one the back of your mat the long way. We'll bring ourselves down to the mat with that control, and Sheila will be modifying for us today. I want to remember, burn's okay, a little fire is good, pain is not. So if you feel this in your neck, if you feel your hip flexors or low back turning on, shorten your lever, bring your legs to tabletop, bring your head or your feet down to the mat and continue when you can. Listen to your body. Ready? Here we go. So starting out lying on the mat, I want you to think of bringing your pelvis into a neutral position so that navel's drawing down to the spine. The knees are gently hugging in towards each other, and we'll reach behind for the corners of that hand towel. Bringing that chin to the chest, we curl up, creating a wrinkle in our shirt. Find that wrinkle for me, guys. Belly dropping down towards the spine, and return back down to the mat with control. Now let's see if we can connect those ribs and go a little bit deeper. Chin to chest, curl up a little bit deeper, deeper, deeper, and bring it back down. And three left here, curl to connect, find those abs for me, tighten that internal corset, and bring it down. And two more up, curling, lifting up, tightening that belly to the spine, and back down, and get ready to hold it for me, team. Chin to chest, curl all the way up. We'll bring our inside leg to tabletop position, and return it back down to that mat slowly. So I want you to think about stepping in gum or something sticky, and alternate side to side. So we've got that chin to the chest, the belly's turned on, and we're really warming up those deep abs, those transverse abdominals I'm always talking about. Great job, team. Can you feel it, JC? It's starting to shake already . Good, give me two more here. Last one, both feet returning to the mat, head, neck, and shoulders come down to the mat as well. Adjust that towel if you need to at home. There's no shame in that. Going back at it, chin to chest again, curl, up, up, up, up, up. Can you make three wrinkles in that short? Inside and outside leg coming to tabletop position, both legs at the same time. Reach down, two, three, lift it up, two, three. Now in Pilates, we emphasize breathing quite a bit. Can you inhale as you lower, and exhale as you lift? Exhale, makes it a little bit more challenging. Exhale, beautiful work, you've got three left, let's go. Pulling in, lifting up . Last one, head, neck, and shoulders come all the way down to the mat, great job. Again, bringing that chin to the chest, maybe shake out that neck a little bit, curl all the way up, footwork, toes apart, heels together. Now I want you to squeeze those heels together for me like you're holding a million dollars. Push those legs out and away from the body, point those toes for me. Flex the feet, bend the knees back in like a frog. Exhale, stretch. Inhale, bend, nice and slow, really squeezing those inner thighs. Are you with me, Sheila? Yes, I am. Wonderful. Supporting the back just a bit, my hands underneath lower back, and maybe head down. Beautiful. Two, hold it here, one. Bring those feet to parallel. Inner thighs connect, bend the knees in towards your chest, and we go for another set of six. Exhale, point, inhale, bend. So try pointing and flexing those feet as an add-on. If it begins to cramp your feet, leave it out. Three, give me three more, three, staying here in two, have a little fun challenge, last one. Now hold those legs long. Head, neck, and shoulders go down to the mat. Head, neck, and shoulders curl all the way up. Lower the legs down on the diagonal. Lift the legs up. Head, neck, and shoulders down, chin to chest, curl it up. Lower those legs on the diagonal, lift them back up. One more time, down, and up. Lower those legs, and lift, now three at the same time. Lower, lift, two, lift, last one, lift. Bend the knees into your chest, give yourself a ginormous hug, you completely deserve it. We're gonna rock ourselves all the way up, take that towel with us. Place the towel in front of your mat. So we're gonna do a little slide-and-glide, team, first with a straight back. But we'll take our fingers, turn them out away from our body. Arms are straight, but we're trying not to lock those elbows. Spine is nice and tall. Inhale, glide the towel away, but don't let those toes pucker up. Push all 10 toes into the mat, exhale, pull the towel back in. Inhale, push , exhale, navel to spine, pull it back in. Good, inhale, are we feeling that internal corset? And they're getting a cramp in their calves, flex your ankles. There you go, great tip there from Sheila. If you're getting any cramping, flex those feet. Otherwise, all 10 toes are pushing firmly into that floor. How are we doing, JC? So good, it's amazing how you can focus on things you normally don't get to focus on in small movements like this. Let's do one more here, reach and pull, rotate those palms for me. Find a different spinal position. So creating that C curve, we tuck the tail under, and our breastbone becomes a little bit into a curve shape coming over our pubic bone, and again, push and pull. Inhale, reach out, exhale, heels pushing into the floor as you pull in. You should feel it right here. These are the muscles we're firing through. You've got it, three, three more. I love how the towel is just a byproduct, but your core is doing all the work. It's all core, baby, all day long. Pull it all the way in to finish. Now a little trick, reach both arms forward. Straighten that spine all the way out, nice and tall, and can you articulate down to the mat, bone by bone? You've got 24 vertebra, let's see them in action. Bone by bone by bone, beautiful. Hands come down to the mat. So now I want you to adjust yourself, so your knees are stacking directly over those heels. We're gonna bring ourselves into a beautiful shoulder bridge. So palms down, tush is up, hips nice and high. Imagine you've got a ruler over those hip bones for me. First thing first, we're gonna shuffle the inside leg forward. Slide it forward two inches, pull it back two inches, like you're shuffling your foot in sand. Left foot forward and back, alternating side to side. So it's small, just shuffling through that sand, you're walking on a nice, sandy beach. Visualization here, using our minds to get us through this and our breath. Shuffle. Starting to feel those hamstrings a bit, team? Oh yeah. Four more. Three, two, going to our side to side shuffle in one. Now one foot in, one foot out. Other foot in, other foot out. So it's a side to side. The legs drawing in towards that midline of the body and away, really targeting those hamstrings, and starting to work those outer thigh muscles, too, those outer hips. Keep those hips even for me. Two more. Last one. Hold right here, get those hips a little bit higher than you think you can, and we'll internally rotate. So toes together, heels apart. Now laterally rotate, toes apart, heels together. Basically a pizza pie position, and toes together position. It's in. Hamstrings. It's out, we are building that back body, baby. Now I'm thinking about eating pizza on a beach. That sounds really good, doesn't it? Oh, man. And after this workout, you can. I'm thinking about Rotate out, Not sinking in the sand. And in. Give me three more, and in, you guys are doing awesome. Two, and in. Last one. Bring the hips higher than you think you can. Huge breath, inhaling in through the lungs , exhale, roll it down with control, bone by bone by bone. Bring that towel back to the hands. We're gonna fold it up, and bring it underneath your seat, so your arms are nice and long. We're ready to really create that heat. Toes apart, heels together if you're able, and again, Sheila's gonna show you the modifications for the 100. Chin to chest, curl up, reach long with those arms. Reach the legs out on the diagonal, and pump those arms for me. Now Pilates is a mind body exercise, a lot like yoga. Little difference is the breath is external. We inhale through the nose , we exhale out that breath , really creating that heat inside the body, and then letting it come out. Big breathing here. I want you pull on the edges of the towel at home. I want you working those triceps, the back of the arms, the lats, the shoulders, building that strong core. We are lengthening, stretching, strengthening, the whole kit and caboodle today. We are halfway done, nice big breathing, go back to that breath. Stick with it. Great modifications, team. Love it. Try a little bit longer on that diagonal if you can. You've got two more sets, two, one more set, and one. Reach longer, reach stronger, bend the knees in, head, neck, and shoulders go down. I think we deserve a break. Feet down to the mat, towel to the ceiling, just twist that spine open, stretch, and come to center. And one more time for me, stretch, and come to center. Beautiful work. Bring those legs back to tabletop, and I want you to curl yourself up. The towel will come above the knees. Curl up, up, up, up, up, up, up, and bring that towel all the way down. And curl up, up, up, up, up, up, up. Find that connection, bring it all the way down. Now coming back to your 100 position, towel above, curl up, the towel's above the shins, stretch the legs long, bend the knees in. Head, neck, and shoulders come down. Curl all the way up, stretch those legs out, bring it in, and down. And one more, curl, stretch nice and long, hold it for five. Get deeper for four. Getting stronger in three. Shake it for two. Hold it for one. Knees come in, legs slide out down along the mat, arms go up towards the ceiling. So going into the full body roll-up, look to Sheila for modifications. Chin to chest, so arms are above the head, curl up nice and slow, five counts. Five, four, three, belly to the spine, two, and reach, one. Now unroll exact same way back down to the mat, articulating through all of those vertebra. Four, three, two, and one, arms lift to the ceiling. Give me two more like that. Reach through the arms with your head, with your neck, with your shoulders if you're able. Reach forward, belly back towards the spine. Bring it down with that same amount of control. I love JC and Sheila's modifications. Give me one more here, chin to chest, peel it up, fight for it, fight for it, reach long. Now we're gonna pause halfway down the mat, team. Untuck, untuck, untuck. Get the belly band of the pants down to the mat, get tighter with those abs. Lift that towel up for five, and lower it, and four, and lower it, three, and lower, two, last one, can you come down another inch? Good, now steer that towel. One hand up, one hand down, and twist, two, three, four, pull at that towel, five, and six. Bring the knees into your chest, give yourself a nice, gentle hug. Rock that tailbone back. How we doing, guys? Excellent. So good. Wonderful. All right, we're gonna have that towel handy. Both feet are gonna go onto the towel for our single-leg stretch modifications. So I'm gonna have the inside foot on that towel, the outside of the foot is long. Head could be down, but we're gonna go head up, if we're able. So the single-leg stretch is a pulling sensation, one knee in, one leg out. And I want you to just draw the leg back and pull again . Inhale, knee bends, exhale, stretch. Inhale, feel those belly muscles turning on, two more , and last one, stretch it out. Switch feet, and here we go. Push to pull, and bend, stretch and bend. Draw that knee into the chest, exhale out all the air. Two more, last one, team. Now hold the towel over the shins, and we alternate side to side. Ready? Go. In, out, in, out, four, reach, three, reach. Give me two more, and reach. Last one, and reach. Knees come in, head, neck, and shoulders go down. Take your towel, toss it, put it in between those feet. Give yourself a little place holder there. Double leg stretch. Legs are in that tabletop position. We've got the towel between our feet now, and we'll reach our arms up and around towards our shins. From this position, we're gonna go super slow again. We're gonna bend the elbows, reach the legs long, going out for three, two, one. Stretch the arms above the head, circle around, pull the knees into the chest, one, two, three. So it's out, two, three, and in, two, three. Can you curl up a little bit more? Out, two, three, and circle, two, three. Good, three more here . Ugh, can you feel that core yet? It's happening. Uh-huh. Good, we're working the belly, we're working the back, we're working everything, shoulders, hips. Last one, reach, two, three. Bring it in, two, three. Take the towel out from between your feet. This is your little treat. Bring the towel behind the head, and the head, neck, and shoulders go down. Turn your neck to the left and the right. Stretch those legs long towards the ceiling. Curl the chin to the chest, again, if you're able. Our inside leg is gonna reach down towards the floor for some scissors, and I want you to see those folds in the fabric of your shirt again. Pulse, pulse the legs in opposition, and switch, pulse, pulse. And switch, reach, reach, and switch, up, up. Here we go. Nice cadence, guys, four, in three, we're gonna add a twist, two, one, can you twist to the outside knee? Hold it, one, two, three. Twist to the inside knee, hold it, two, three, wrap the ribs, two, three. Reach, two, three. Give me two more, two, three. Last one, now we go fast. Six, five, four, three, two, and one, and done. Head, neck, and shoulders come down to the mat. You guys are amazing. Keep up with this. Legs back to that tabletop, we're not quite done with that ab five. We're adding on, just because we can. So towel behind the head. I love it, because we can. Because we can today. Today's the day, today you're doing it. Chin to chest, curl the head, neck, and shoulders off that mat. And again, we're gonna rotate to the inside knee. So my outside elbow's rotating to my inside knee. Can you get both shoulder tips off that mat? There you go, JC, I see you. Bring it back to center, and switch sides. Really think of the rotation. So I want you to think of rib to hip at home. And twist, that towel's helping you get there. One more like this, and give me a little twist. Okay, four fast, here we go. Twist, stretch the outside leg out. Outside leg out. Three, four, we've got two more. Five, and six, nicely done. Head, neck, and shoulders come down. You guys are amazing. I'm so impressed with everything you're able to do right now. Oh, yes . Sheila, "Oh, yes." All right, knees down to the mat, arms out to that letter T, and let's just stretch out for a moment. So I'm gonna bring my knees towards the camera, my head away from the camera, opening up those rotators of the spine. Bring the knees back to center, giving yourself a little bit of a time, a little bit of a second here to reconnect, get back in sync with that breath. This is a mind body exercise, and bring it back together. How are we doing, team? Excellent. All right, those knees are coming back into the chest, because we can, is that right? Hey. Because we can. Yes, it is. Okay, stretch those legs towards the ceiling, because we can. Toes apart, heels together, pull on that towel, make it taut for me. I want your shoulder blades flat to the back now. So I want the ribs connected, no bulging chest, crew. All of your back is connected to the mat, all of your ribs are connected. We're gonna criss-cross our ankles, kind of creating a pirouette-like movement. And I want you to think about your inner ballerina, letting him or her come out right now. Now we're gonna walk down an imaginary wall towards our mat, slowly and with control, 'cause that's what Pilates is all about. It was originally called Controlology, so that's where I'm going with this. Walk down towards your mat, team, walk back up towards that ceiling, slow and controlled. I want you to really think of the wrapping of the thigh, wrap it, wrap it, that's right. And now walk it back up. Two more times, nice and slow. Again, really trying to turn on those inner thing muscles. You've got it, and all the way up. Now we're gonna be quick like bunnies. Ready? Wrap as fast as you can, walk down that wall. You're doing it, walk back up. You've got it, walk back down, and walk back up. Two more, walk down, and walk up. Last set, it should be burning, because we're firming, and walk it back up. Ugh, knees into chest, towel goes over those shins, and we're gonna rock it up for roll like a ball. Holding onto your towel, chin to the chest, rock yourself up. Find some balance, and Sheila's gonna show you a modification if that bothers your back. JC and I are gonna be little balls. Chin to chest, look down to the belly button. Feet hovering, use your breath here. So it's a inhale to rock back, exhale, roll up . Stick that landing, belly to spine, feet don't come down. Inhale, back, exhale, up . Be mindful, you're not rolling on your neck here, three. Now can you keep the distance between your feet and your seat the same at home? That's your challenge. Two more, use that breath. And last one, balance for me, balance, balance, balance. Stretch that towel long. Okay, because you can, stretch those legs long. Teasing gravity, hold it for three, for two, feet coming to the mat, and one. Bend at the knees, feet come down. You guys are amazing. I love you guys. It's nice to see your faces again. Break, we're flipping to a different muscle group. It's your core, no, I'm just kidding. So you're gonna flip onto that navel. Surprise, we're still working your core. So we're on the navel, we'll use that towel again for some traction on the floor, beginning with our sphinx move. So we have a bent elbow, our hands and our forearms are down on that mat. Your hips are heavy into the mat. I'm gonna have you stretch your arms long, long, long, long, long. Now bending at the elbow, pull the elbows towards the edge of the mat, lift your head, neck, and shoulders up gently, like you're sliding your nose up an imaginary wall. Lengthen to lower down, this is slow. Think navel to spine, hold to lift, lift, lift. Exhale, lengthen down. Inhale, lift, lift, lift, beautiful. Reach it down. Last one, we're gonna add a little twist and stretch. So we lift to our sphinx, our inside arm is gonna reach long. We stretch it out. We pull that arm back in, and now the outside arm stretching out. Stretch, do you feel that side body stretch? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Good. We're like a little Pilates yoga gang today, stretch, and pull. Stretch and pull. Last one here, stretch and pull. Head, neck, and shoulders come all the way down to the mat. We're gonna fold the towel in two or three, whatever works for you works for me. Pull on the ends of that towel, there you go, JC. Feet are heavy to the mat, belly tight to the spine again. Can you bring your shoulders away from your ears for me? Can you lift that towel into a hover? We're gonna bend our elbows, bring that towel to the forehead. Connect. Now reach those arms long. Lift the arms up towards the ceiling or sky and lower back down. Bend the elbows, pull in. Push out. Lift and lower. We're working the back extensors here, we're working the shoulders, the lats. Lift, lower. Three more, and reach, lift, lower. Two, and reach, you got this. Lift, lower, last one. Reach, hold it for me, little pumps for five, for four, getting stronger on each set, two, and one, whoo! Bring your hands to the mat, turn your head to one direction. Let your neck just stretch out. Beautiful work. We're going to do one more posture and extension called swan. So we'll unfold our towel now, bring our hands out, I call them starfish fingers, completely spread out. All the way out, long arm in front of the body, there you go, JC. Great job, Sheila. So pushing all 10 fingers into the floor, shoulders retract, so shoulders away from the ears. Now again, think about the hips heavy, but we're sliding our nose up that imaginary mirror or wall. We lift, lift, lift that chest, finding our swan. Everyone's will look different, and bring it all the way out. So I want you to feel a stretch in your abdominals. I want you to feel a lift in your belly and your back being lengthened out. I don't want you to feel any pinching in the low back, any pain. Three more here. Again, listen to your body. We sit in so much flexion all day long, rounded over computers, rounded over phones, we just need to open ourselves up. And I know Sheila and JC agree with me on that one thing, and last one, lift, lift, lift. Bring it all the way down. Bend those elbows back to your mat. Push yourself back into a child's pose or shell stretch, whichever you prefer. Knees wide to the side, and just stretch those arms out long. After that nice extension, it's nice to flex the spine again. One thing I do love about Pilates, we bend, twist, and stretch that back in every emotion, flexibility, range of motion, plane, all of it. Now stack up your spine, low back, mid back, and upper, take that towel with you, 'cause we're not quite done. Hey. We're getting there. We're not quite done. I'm gonna have you fold your towel in two at home, or I'm sorry, your mat. So we're just gonna fold it over, creating a smaller workspace. We'll take the towel, bring it down to the floor, and come to standing. So standing on our towel, I want you to bring our hands to heart center. Find a nice skate leg position. So my knee is bent, my bottom's feeling the brunt of that, and that outer thigh and inner thigh are really gonna work for me here. So we're gonna glide, pull that towel in, and slide, push it away. Inhale, pull it in. Do you have your weight equally distributed on that foot, team? So you've got the whole foot down on the floor if you can. That's gonna get the inner thigh, the outer thigh, the glute. Beautiful. Slide in and out. Halfway done. So much fun, five more. How we doing back there? Sliding. Oh, we're doing. Four, we're sliding our way into home base. Three, use your body weight, pull for two, coming longer, lengthen, one. Okay, now we're gonna lengthen our lever, creating a little bit more challenge. Shark fin arms, thumb over thumb, reaching back, front lunge, arms come overhead. Pull the leg in, arms come down. So just kinda getting that heart rate up there one last time. Front knee bend, reaching back. So now I have my heel lifted here because you can't ergonomically get that heel down and reach back. Four, this quad, this glute. Oh yeah. Five, halfway done, stick with us. Four, you've got it, three, two, and one, almost done. Come down to the hands. Find a plank. We're gonna do a set of hill climbers, just six. If you need to modify, kneeling plank is perfect. Draw the knee in, push the leg out, two, push, three, press, four, two more, five, and six. Whoo! Bring yourself in. Stack yourself up. We have to do the other side, don't we? Switch sides with that towel and begin to skate. Hands at heart center. Cross and pull. Now I want you to be mindful that this hip isn't jutting out to the side. We're staying in line with our tracking. My glute is firing here. Buns of steel, baby. Building those glutes. Five more. Pull it in. Four left. I'm really digging my heel into the earth. Can you feel that traction? Oh yeah. It's as hard as you want it to be. Two more. Last one. Arms reach long, cross those thumbs, bring it back, lift it up. Reach and pull. Reach. Ugh, drag that leg home. Five left here. You can do this, we're almost done. We are strengthening, lengthening, toning. Two, last one. Hands to the floor. Bring those legs back or kneeling plank. Pick your poison. Big finish, team, here we go. One knee in, push and pull. Two, three, don't quit now, four, give me two more, and six. Whoo! Both knees come down to the mat. Oh my goodness, oh my goodness. All right. Let's cool it down, shall we? Oh, yes. Are we ready yet? So I call this next one Cleopatra. I don't know why, but we're gonna call it Cleopatra today. So your knees are stacked, it's a variation of the mermaid exercise in Pilates. Bottom hand down to the mat, top arm up towards the ceiling. Side bend over, over, over. Reach, open up those lats, and pull, bring it back up. Reach to the outside of the toes and stretch and pull . One more time like this, reach and bend. Pull, bring yourself home. That top hand is gonna reach for the toes, hold on to them. You're gonna wave your white flag, bring your towel over your head and rotate, twisting that spine, giving it a little love. It's worked very hard for you. Two breaths, feel the lungs expanding and deflating. And last one. Untwist, face us, and just flip your little Cleopatra feet. Feet shift the other direction, towel down to the floor, and arm to the ceiling. Lengthen up and side bend, reach and pull through those toes. Lengthen. Can you get a little bit longer than you did the last time? How are we doing back there, guys? Yes. Add that twist for me. Wave your white flag, and rotate over those feet. Beautiful work. Three breaths here, feeling the back expand and deflate. And two more. And out. And last one. And untwist that spine. Criss-cross applesauce legs. Towel one last time comes in front of the body, and we're just gonna stretch it out. Hands come on to that towel and reach forward. So if your hips don't love this, you could do a wide diamond shape. All types of alternatives that work for you. And we're gonna reach the hands all the way over to the left and the right, and twist. And reach. And one more. We're gonna finish at center. Walk those fingers closer to me if you can. Now stack up that spine, again, with sequence, with control, bringing up your lumbar first. That low back stacking, bone by bone by bone. Five vertebrae, thoracic is next. We have 12. And cervical is last, we have seven. All the way up, big chest lift, and you are done. Thank you so much for joining me today, guys. This was so much fun. Awesome. My little dream team. So good. All right, we'll see you next time.