[Cassey Ho] POP Pilates for Beginners - Total Body Workout

Hey, guys, Cassie here. And today we have a special edition of Pop Pilates. Pilates for beginners. Today we're going to really focus on your breath, your posture, your form, and really the whole essence of pilates. I'm going to take it down a notch, really be explaining everything as we go through all of the moves. So this is really good, even if you've been doing all my other videos. But you really want to understand where all the moves really come back to where they come from. So if they're your first time doing pilates, watch this video.

Go ahead and try it at home. Get out your mat. That's all you're going to need. No tools whatsoever. If you don't have Matt, just go on your carpet. So, guys, let's get started. All right, I'm going to be standing, but you're actually going to be lying down on your mat right now. And I want you to go ahead and place your hands on your lower abs, okay? Right here, right below your belly button.

And we're going to practice lateral breathing. Breathing is one of the most important principles in pilates because it really helps you with the movement, okay? So, lateral breathing, you're going to go ahead and inhale through your nose, okay? And exhale through your mouth. What you probably did was puff out your chest, right, to make it lateral breathing. When you inhale through your nose, you're gonna go ahead and take the air to the outsides of your rib cage. Okay, let's try that again. Inhale. Okay, so, puffing out to the sides. Exhale.

Suck that belly button in. Okay, so did you feel that difference? We're gonna do it again. And when you exhale, I also want you to suck the belly button into the spine even more. We do this to really create that nice flat ab look by squeezing those abs. And you're really working the transverse abdominals. Here we go. Inhale. Lateral breathing out to the side.

And exhale something even more. Again. Inhale and exhale. Okay, so in all of the exercises, you'll be exhaling when you're exerting the energy. So whenever it's harder, you'll be exhaling. Okay? So if you're doing a crunch, exhale and then inhale down and relax. That's it. Alright, so you're lying down flat on your mat.

I really want you to focus on a few things here. Place your hands under your low back, right here. Can you touch them? If you can, that means you're not having a flat back. In pilates, we really want to keep a flat back as we do all of the exercises, unless I say you don't. So in order to do that, you're going to set that belly button in and kind of give it a nice round curve. So now when I place my hands underneath, I can't touch no more arch. Okay, so that really makes you in the belly button the whole time, really helping you create those flat abs. Knees into tabletop position.

You're going to pretend you're holding some plates on top. That's why it's called tabletop. Okay, your back is nice and round. We're going to take it into pilates stance, which is the head, neck and shoulders. Lift up. Now, the most important thing here is that you're not simply just straining your neck to lift up into the ceiling. It's actually going to be all in the ab. It's ab action, not NECK action.

So inhale on the exhale. Go ahead and lift up from the abs. As you can see, I'm really curved on the back here. My low back is on the mat completely. My abs are working. I'm not even doing anything. They're working. Okay, in tabletop, heels together, toes pointed.

We're going to begin with 100, a very basic pilates warm up. Here we go. You're going to inhale, two, three, four. Exhale, two, three, four. Inhale, two, three, four. Exhale, two, three, four. Now, keep counting. With that same breath, you take the inhale into your nose.

And exhale. Release through your mouth. Very good. If you're already feeling those abs working, good job. That means you're really lifting those shoulders up. If you don't feel your abs working, you're PRobably straining your neck. Now, if at any point you get really tired, I want you to place one hand behind the nape of your neck, give it some support. Or if it's really just killing you, head all the way down and come back when you're ready.

Okay, we're gonna do a little bit more. Keep pumping from the upper, okay, we're not just flapping like this. You are pumping with force. Here we go. Inhale, two, three, four. Exhale, two, three, four. Keep those shoulders up. And good.

Sucking the belly button in all the time. Okay, let's go. Really getting that heart pumping here. This is a wonderful warm up exercise. Come on, keep the shoulders up. Keep it up. You can do this. Give me two more breaths.

Let's go. And inhale, two, three, four. Exhale, two, three, four. Inhale, two, three, four. Exhale, two, three, four. Bring those knees in and give them a nice hug. Now, were you guys able to feel your abs in that one? I definitely did. And as you get a little bit stronger, we're going to go ahead and lift the legs up and then take it down to a 45.

Really engaging our lower abs as we work on that, that warm up. Very good. Now, both legs hip width apart. We're going to begin with the roll up. Now that you're all warmed up, you're going to flex the feet towards the ceiling. Okay, now place the hands above your head just like this. Really want you to point your toes, point your fingers. Reach long for the ends of the walls.

Okay, inhale, suck that belly button in. Exhale, reach a little bit farther. Point the toes, point the fingers. You should feel a couple inches taller. Now I want you to inhale through your nose. On exhale, reach the arms up to the ceiling. Tuck the chin in and peel your back off the mat with toes flexed. And lift up.

Sitting really tall, tuck that chin back in. Staring at the navel belly. Bending the spine. Slowly roll down with control. Wind control. Last person to get down wins. Did you win or did I win? Hopefully you did. Was your first time doing it? If you had any trouble, feel free.

When you get up to hold onto your thighs, give yourself a little bit of support. You can even roll onto the side and help yourself get up. This is really working, all of these core muscles. Now, one of these equals six crunches. Would you rather do these? Alright, let's go ahead and do a few more. So, feet flex towards the ceiling. And don't worry if your heels kind of lift up when you're doing this. As your core develops, you'll be able to keep it down.

Inhale and exhale. Lift. Tuck that chin in. Peel the back off the mat. Vertebrae, bi vertebrae you want to lift up. Reach the hands towards the sky. Tuck the chin in and slowly roll down with control. Super slow, real slow.

Inhale through the nose. Exhale. Reach the fingers up. Tuck the chin in, all the way up. Ooh, that feels good. Stack the spine and tuck the chin in. You really want to return aiming at your lower abs. You really want to curl from the low back all the way to the mid back to the upper back.

And then finally rest the head again. Inhale, exhale. Reach. Nice, guys. One of these equals six crunches. Pretty amazing. Tuck that chin in and slowly roll down. Good.

And bring it all the way in. Very nice. So we got to work our abs right there with 100. And then the roll up knees into your chest nice and close. You're just going to hold on to your right knee now, okay, gonna work a little bit more abs here and also get our heart rate up. We're gonna lift up into that pilates stance again. We'll hold on to the leg just Like this. Inhale, set that belly button in.

Exhale, tuck it in even more. You should actually see it go in. Okay, now all you're gonna do is pull, pull, switch, pull, pull, switch. Pull, pull, switch. Pull, pull, switch. SO YOU'RE GONNA EXHALE ON EVERY PULL, SO, SWITCH, SWITCH, GOOD, SWITCH, NICE. Pull, switch, pull, switch. Pull, pull, switch, pull, pull.

LITTLE QUICKER. VERY NICE. Pull, pull, switch, pull, pull, switch. And eight, seven, pull. Six, five. Good, shoulders up, 4321. And bring those knees in, head down, hands by your sides. Very nice.

Try to rest Those TOes on the floor for a second. Inhale, belly button in. And exhale. Very nice. We're gonna go ahead and take it into some lower abs here. Lights and tabletop. You know what this is. Now balance that dish right on top.

Now what you're gonna do, make sure that low back is pressed into the mat. Suck that belly button in right into the spine. You're gonna reach those legs out. Ooh. Feel those lower abs and bring it right back in. Let's try one more time. Reach out and bring it in. Now, it is natural if it's your first time.

If you felt a little arch as you try to reach out and then come back in, we don't want to do that. What you want to do is assist yourself. So place your hands right underneath your tailbone. Gonna really help you press that back into the mat. Okay, so once you're there, relax your shoulders, reach out those legs. See, wasn't that a little bit better? And bring it right in. Good. And just rest that head right there.

Okay, exhale out. And inhale. Bring it right in. Press those feet together. Press the knees together. Point the toes. Now, you don't have to go all the way parallel or anything, okay? You can even go a little bit higher if that feels better for you. Everyone's going to be at a different level.

As you continue to do these, you'll see yourself get stronger, you'll want to challenge yourself, and before you know it, you'll be crazy enough to do all those videos in a row. All of them? Oh, yes. And one more. Let's hold it out here. Hold it. Let's breathe. Inhale. Exhale.

Suck that belly button in. Inhale. And exhale. Knees into the chest. Give them a nice hug. Great job. Let's release that back. So I want you to go ahead and rock your knees side to side.

Very Nice. Okay, we're go ahead and stretch out the legs a little bit, so you're gonna crack behind your ankle. Lift up. Go ahead and reach out that other leg, too. So this is gonna be very similar to that first move we did, except now it's gonna be a straight leg stretch, okay? So all you do is pull, pull, switch, pull, pull, switch. And your head, neck and shoulders are once again up in pilates stance. Okay, remember, using the abs, not your head, eyes towards the knees. You're just gonna give me eight point those toes.

Here we go. Pull, pull, switch, pull, pull, switch. Exhale, exhale, switch, switch, switch, switch. Good. Pull, pull, switch. Pull, pull, switch. Two more. Pull, pull, pull, pull.

Last one, pull, pull. And bring those knees in, rest that head down. Very Nice job. Reach the arms LONG. Inhale and exhale. Very nice. Okay, you're gonna give me one roll up to sitting, okay, so we do lots of great ab stuff there. Inhale, exhale, reach the arms up, roll the chin in.

Slowly lift, lift vertebrae by vertebrae all the way up. Okay, we're gonna go into some legs now, so I just want you to go ahead and lie down on your side, okay? And we're just gonna do some very simple pulsing movements. You're gonna be in a pilates straight body position, so you're going to make sure you're parallel to the edge of the mat here. And all you're going to do really, is just point up and flex down. POINT up and FLEX DOWN. That's it. Reach up and down. You're going to exhale up and inhale down.

Inhale down. Good. And you really want to feel that hamstring as you come back down. Excellent. This is a wonderful way to tone the leg, okay? And as you keep going more and more and more, you're going to feel that leg get heavier and heavier and heavier, but you're going to keep persisting because you want nice legs. This is just the beginning, guys. This is just the beginning. All right? Really appreciate the movement.

Feel every muscle as you point and then flex all the way down. Go ahead and point and flex. Give me two more point and flex. One more point and flex. Now go ahead and keep your legs hip height, okay? So don't open too much. Here's making tiny circles forward. Now, what really helps me here is I try to flex the bottom foot here to give me some ground so that my pinky toe is really pushing into that mat. Okay.

And while I flex that, I'm definitely feeling my inner thighs on the bottom leg as well. Good. So tiny circles forward. So for those of you who are wondering why your hips were clicking in the much wider circles, the ones that look like this, go ahead and try these tiny ones. Okay. Really gonna feel your butt here. Still whittling down that whole thigh. Okay.

We're still keeping the toes pointed. Really nice and toned. Good job, guys. Now place your hands on your belly. I want you to inhale. Feel that belly button sucking in on the exhale. Suck it in even more. Okay.

Now, I keep saying that it's really important to eat. Even if you walk around the whole day just sucking in your belly button, you know, like trying to fit into your skinny jeans. That's actually working your abs all day long. So props to you if you do that. Keep doing it. Good. Now go ahead and take it backward. Backward circles.

Good. Now, if your butt's getting tired, I don't want you to stop because this ain't nothing, guys. This ain't nothing. You're gonna persist, you're gonna push through. You are strong. Good. Are we tensing those abs? I hope you are. You're doing such a good job working that top leg here.

Working the butt a little bit. Oh, yes, wonderful. Go ahead and give me ten more. Ten. 987-65-4321 don't drop that leg. I want you to lift all the way up. Okay, we're going to go ahead and tap front of our mat. Reach up and tap the back.

These I like to call triangles or pyramids. Okay, up. Good. So you're really going to feel the butt here if you don't already. And you're really working the whole leg. I really love it. Now don't worry, if you can only tap in front of your toe and right behind your heel, you will eventually reach out to in front of your mat and all the way behind your mat as you get stronger, as you get more flexible. Okay.

So we all start at different places. As long as we keep working hard, you will get there. You will. Okay. And make sure your hips aren't shifting. You're gonna keep the chest square. You're gonna keep the hips square to that wall in front of you. Okay, very good.

Give me three and two and one. Lift it up and flex. .0 I mean flex all the way down. Very nice. Give that butt a nice pat. Good work. Let's go ahead and bounce yourself out onto the other side. Wonderful work.

Alright, you're going to support that head, support the chest again, you're in that straight body position. Okay, I want you to point up and flex down. Remember to be conscious, all of your muscles. Wonderful job, guys. And really, you know, appreciate the movement. It's actually very graceful. It's pretty. So every time you lift that leg and flex it down, think like you're dancing on stage or you know, something and you really just appreciate the movement, you'll like it.

Instead of feeling how much that butt is burning right now, I like seeing how my foot is pointing and then flexing, actually. Pretty cool. Pretty cool, huh? Good, and down. Keep going. Now, you may feel that this side is a little bit more tiring than the other just because your other leg is now on the bottom, holding yourself up, right, so it's okay. Give me three more. And three, squeeze abs two and one, keep it hip heighten. Here we go.

Tiny circles front. Alright, let's check that form. How's the chest? Is it not leaning backwards or forward? Check. How's the hips? Staying forward, right. Not going back. Check. How's that leg look? Hip height, check. Feeling good? Check.

Very nice, keep going. Oh, yes, I am. I am definitely feeling my thighs here. Tiny movements, just your own body weight. You're so good. That's all you need. You don't need anything. Like I said, you don't even need this mag to be on the floor.

Although I don't suggest it for sanitary reasons, but you really couldn't do pilates anywhere. And 54321 and reverse. Very nice, keep going. Excellent job. I definitely done pop up pilates at the airport before, if you don't know what that is. Basically, I remember I was traveling home and it was very cold and I just could not warm myself up with the layers of coats I had on. So I just had to start exercising and it did get me warm, you know, doing some little lunges here and there, doing some hundreds. I know, I really, really got me going.

And, you know, who cares about those weird stairs? You gotta keep yourself warm and you gotta tone it up. Good. Keep wanting those toes. Squeeze the abs. You're doing excellent. Come on. And now we are going to go into our triangles, okay, so lift that leg nice and high. Point front up and point down.

Point up and down. Remember, just go as far as you can without changing how your hips are right now. Good. Up and down, pointing the toes all the time. Wonderful. And remember, you can go ahead and fly to flex that bottom foot. Press the pinky toe into the mat to help keep you grounded. Good.

Nice work, guys. Give me five more. Here we go. Five, and four, and three, and two. Last one. And go ahead and meet me on top. Flex and press it all the way down. Very nice.

Okay, so we did some abs in the beginning. We did some legs. Let's go ahead and end with some arms. Okay, so go ahead and bring yourself into a nice cobra. Actually, let's go into a half cobra. So you're gonna place your hands all the way into your chest, okay? This is really important because when I say that, a lot of people put it up here, that is not by your chest. Guys. Slide those hands in the.

They pretty much should be touching your armpits, your boobs. If you're a girl, maybe man moves with your guy. Or maybe just really nice pegs. Okay, so place them right there. Thumbs touching the edge of your chest, elbows back, touching your rib cage. Okay. That's the most important thing. You're gonna lift chest halfway.

This is called a half cobra. It's gonna work your triceps and your lower back. Look forward. Now you want to reach your heart center to the ceiling. So reach that heart center. Okay, that didn't make any sense to you? All I was trying to say is don't just lift your head back like this, okay? Lift the chest up. Lift the chest up. Plus, it's really hard to talk in here like this.

So lift the chest up. Hold. Oh, man, I am feeling those triceps and not even doing anything. And go ahead and bring it down. Inhale. And exhale. Lift it to that half cobra again. Hold it right Here.

Palms nice and spread. Oh, yeah. Press those shoulders back. Press the elbows back. Three, two. And straighten arms out. Oh, never has that felt better had in one direction. And reverse.

Let's take it back into a child's pose. So you just want to sit your butt right on top of the heels right here. InHale. On the exhale, reach those fingers forward. Inhale. Exhale. Melt the chest into the floor. Very good.

Inhale. And exhale. Okay, now going to take it into a down, down, up, up. Okay. Or an elbow push up. These can be advanced, so I'm going to do them on my knees, but it's excellent. Arm, core and chest workout. Just one move, okay, so I'm going to teach you that todaY.

And we'll go over other things later. So go ahead and bring it onto the knees. Now, the most important thing here is that you're not in a tabletop position. Coffee table position. As you're going down and up, notice as my butt lowers. Okay, good. So what's going to happen here is you're going to place the palms right underneath your shoulders. Bring it down to your elbows just like this.

Okay, now look at the palms. Place them right where your elbows are. Push up and up. Okay, one of my favorite moves, go ahead and tuck in the tailbone. Tuck in the abs. You also don't want to be super dipping either. Okay. If your back has a natural dip and you have a big butt, you know you can't avoid it.

But don't make that dip happen. Okay, you see how my spine is? Double it. And it's like that belly button in. Just go ahead and try five on each side. Okay. So go ahead and bring it down, down, down. Push up, up. Amazing.

Down, down, up. Really working your chest, working your arms, your shoulders and your core. Go ahead and give me one more. You've got this. Okay, very nice. Rest in the center. Let's regain our positioning. Tap that tailbone in, belly button into the spine side.

You probably started with your strong side, so let's kick it on to the other side. Go ahead and down. Push up. Inhale. Down, down, up. There's two, you've got three more. Down, down, up. Last two.

And one more, one more. Let's go. Reach and go ahead and pull yourself all the way back. Inhale and exhale. Press the chest into your legs. Inhale and exhale. Okay, we're GONna ENd with a nice mermaid stretch. Okay.

Feels REALLY good. Looks really graceful as well. And I want you to just go ahead and bring your legs onto one side, arms all the way over. You want to keep the shoulders down and neck long. Gracefully bring those fingers out. Reach over. Stretch out your obliques here, even place your hand here. Feel that stretching going on.

And we're going to melt your side onto the floor just like this. Now, using your core, pull yourself up and over. Do this one more time. It looks really nice. Called the mermaid. What would we call it? The merman. For those papal audio fans out there, shout out and bring it in, you guys, great job with your pop Hawaii beginners workout. We're gonna take on to the other side.

So I think it was really important that somebody recorded, requested this video. It's important that we go over the breath, the posture, the form in all the movements. Because even if you've done all my other videos, you really have to understand where everything is coming from so that you know how to hold yourself in the right position as you get more advanced. And last time. Nice. And hold it over. You look so good. Go ahead and bring your eyes all the way up.

Reach the air around you and place them down by your side. You guys, great job. You just finished your paw pilates beginners workout, so we worked out your abs, your arms and your legs. Three very important parts of your body. As I continue to do these, we'll be working on other parts with very basic movements. And as you get stronger and stronger, go ahead and move up onto my other videos. And you have done a wonderful job. Shae.

Thank you so much and I will see you next time. Bye. Oh, and I almost forgot. Don't forget to join in on the fun of the Pappalani's t shirt contest. We already got some pretty cool entries on the Facebook page, facebook.com dot. So go ahead and visit the fan page and type in your ideas. Person with the most ideas conclude will get a t shirt. A free t shirt.

And person with a winning idea will also get a t shirt. So there's tons of opportunities to win. Or if I just, you know, like what you put, maybe a free t shirt too. All right, see you on Facebook fire tonight.