… is that we didn’t know nearly enough mat exercises to get us through, especially the first four months! On Zoom my students looked mystified by all these small props and by way too many of the mat exercises and yoga flows that they desperately needed after having their weekly or daily(!) workouts yanked away.
One of my go-to mat flows: any two abdominal exercises (choose among Hundred, Exploding Egg, Single Leg Stretch, Scissors) alternating with Bird Dog, Down Dog, Three Legged Dog, striped with Cobra and Forward Fold to Standing. Wash, rinse, and repeat. At least here you have front line engagement, back line engagement, weight bearing and breath. A few times through you have heat.
I was also surprised that folks were so loathe to buy small props, even yoga blocks that don’t cost all that much (especially from a Ross or a TJ Maxx). Instead they were using dictionaries, Thomas Pynchon novels and casserole dishes from the kitchen.
Short story — since we’re mostly back in the studio, I’ve decided not to relent on giving the floor work. Your body needs to have a fallback plan for a thousand reasons — stuck in New Zealand, power outage, quarantine and power outage IN New Zealand. You gotta move and you gotta move with what you have.
Core Cat Pilates 