There are many benefits to foam rolling including relieving muscle pain (even though it can be intense while rolling!) and easing tension. It may even help with inflammation. While most of us need it on a regular basis, the hustle and bustle of the season makes this a great class for this time of year. Once you roll and stretch the upper back, hips, and glutes, the prayers and meditation will have you contemplating silence during the Advent Season.

Live for Advent: A & A – Abs & Arms innovatively focuses on exercises pertaining to your core and arms. After the warm-up, Jill takes you through a series of exercises on the mat that will use your upper, lower, oblique, and back muscles to help tone and strengthen. Push-ups, Planks, and Pikes help to round out the class to make it a great upper body workout. The meditation helps us to consider how Christmas is a time of giving and being grateful.

Increase the strength in your arms and back with Live for Advent: Armed for Life. The strengthening exercises used in the class will help you improve your ability to lift heavier objects while working on the mobility of your shoulder and elbow joints. To improve how your arms look—and, more importantly, how they work, join Betsy for this gentle arm workout. You will need a set of light hand weights, but feel free to use something around the house like food cans. You can still get a workout if you do not use weights. The meditation will help you better prepare for Christmas by contemplating Joy as we await our Lord's birth!

Would you like to stand taller, move better, and have greater flexibility and range of motion? If the answer is yes, then Live for Advent: Fix your Posture is for you! The exercises Jill does in the video will help your body move in a way that is smarter and more efficient. She uses a foam roller, but you can use a rolled towel instead. The meditation will have you contemplating God’s Glory during this wonderful Advent season.

Are you ready to lengthen and strengthen your leg muscles? In this Gentle class, you will begin on your back for deep breathing, shifting your body from the sympathetic to the parasympathetic nervous system (the part of the autonomic nervous system that allows your body to rest, digest, and heal.) After warming up through neck stretches, cross-legged seated forward folds, twists, low lunge, and pike pose, you will move into the workout portion of class, which is focused on the legs. Your legs will be both stretched and strengthened as you follow Betsy’s lead through squats, pike, swan dives, high lunges, and seated forward folds. As you relax into an easy hip release for your long hold, you will hear a meditation encouraging you to contemplate Christ’s meekness and to consider how you can imitate Him. The instrumental music for this class has a holiday feel; the music for the quiet pose is a piece of Gregorian chant that helps you end the class in a peaceful conversation with God.

Live for Advent: Balance and Tone covers a variety of exercises designed to improve muscular strength while working on balance and coordination. In the workout, Jill will take you through a series of lunges and standing balance postures that focus on agility and functional strength. The meditation is about John the Baptist and how he was the voice in the desert pointing to the coming of Our Lord. You will have time in Quiet Pose to think about what you stand for while allowing your mind to assimilate all that your body has done.

In this 34-minute, Gentle class, Betsy will help you learn how to engage your pelvic floor and strengthen it through a variety of different exercises. Your pelvic floor, the muscle between your pubic bone and sacrum, acts as a hammock to hold everything up. Your hammock may be stretched out through bearing down, pregnancy, and/or childbirth--and it likely needs a bit of strengthening. (One tell-tale sign of a weak pelvic floor is urine leakage from laughing, sneezing or coughing.) “Restore Your Pelvic Floor” begins on your back for deep breathing and gratefulness, followed by pelvic floor contractions as you move through leg extensions and half backbends. You will continue to strengthen your pelvic floor in hands and knees position and pike pose. After seated forward folds, twists, and modified side planks, you will relax into a reclined inner thigh stretch for the long hold and meditation. The prayers and meditation will encourage you to consider how you can love Jesus this Advent.

Are you looking for stronger, more defined shoulders? Live for Advent: Bolder Shoulders is for you! In this 37-minute, Level 2 class, Jill will lead you to hold postures that work the whole body, while adding in specific exercises that will stretch and strengthen your shoulders. The warm-up portion of the class includes postures in a cross-legged seated position, side sit, and hands and knees. For the workout, you will engage in a series that includes pike, elevated chest lift, plank, deep lunge, high lunge, lunge 2, and half squats, all while incorporating extra work for your shoulders. Jill uses hand weights at certain points to intensify her practice. You can add them in if you’d like or leave them out! As you begin to wind-down, you will enter into a seated inner thigh stretch for your long hold. The meditation today is about Christian meditation--you will be reminded of the steps of prayerful meditation and encouraged to make/keep it a regular practice of your life to enter more fully into the life of God that He wants to share with you. The instrumental music for “Bolder Shoulders” is energizing and festive; during quiet pose, it is changed to Gregorian chant as you enter a time of prayer and open yourself to deeper friendship with Christ.

Tight hips can not only negatively impact the way you walk but also put unnecessary stress on your back and knees. Release tension in your hips and increase your range of motion with Advent: Hip & Healthy. After a brief warm-up involving deep breathing and stretches that loosen up your neck, shoulders, and back, you will flow through three separate series of lunges. Each series will challenge your balance and work your entire body as your move from planks and chest lifts to lunges and other poses—sinking lower into the positions for a deeper hip stretch. The Scriptures and meditations invite you to draw closer to Mary, Jesus’ mother, as you prepare for Christmas.

Increase your upper body strength and boost your confidence with this 30-minute arms and shoulders workout. You will begin Advent: Armed with Faith calming your mind with deep breathing and feel-good stretches that will lengthen and loosen the muscles in your body. Once you transition into the main part of the workout, you can expect to work your shoulders, triceps, biceps, back, and entire core with overhead presses, pull-downs, planks, push-ups, and more. The Scriptures and meditations throughout this energizing class invite you to reflect on ways that you can bring the people in your life closer to God—especially during Advent.

Persevering through this 30-minute lower body workout will give you strength and stamina to face your daily struggles. You will begin Advent: Tenacious Legs in a comfortable seated position working on your breath and calling to mind the many blessings in your life. After warming up your body with a series of gentle stretches, you will squat and lunge and move your way through a workout that is sure to firm up your quads, hamstrings, and glutes. The Scriptures and meditations will remind you that Advent is the perfect time to begin again, making a real effort to overcome any weaknesses as you prepare your heart for Christmas.

Strengthen your core and take a step back from the hustle and bustle of the Advent season with Advent: Gettin to the Core. You will begin this 29-minute workout focusing on your breath and thinking of all the things you have to be grateful for. After a short warm-up to loosen your neck, shoulders, and back, you will work your entire midsection and shoulders with a series of forearm planks, side planks, push-ups, and backbends. Then engage your quads, lower abdominals, and obliques with challenging V-sits. Wind down in reclined inner thigh stretch, getting to the connective tissue and fascia as you meditate on the meaning of Advent and ways to prepare your heart for Christmas