Class #1312

Fletcher-Inspired Chair

50 min - Class
53 likes

Description

Jenna Zaffino is back with a Wunda Chair workout featuring Fletcher variations. She uses a light spring to create an exploration of spinal articulation. She also includes transitions that look easy, but actually are as challenging as some of the main exercises. Thanks Jenna!
What You'll Need: Wunda Chair, Pilates Pole

About This Video

Nov 27, 2013
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Transcript

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Hi, I'm Jen is a fino and we are here for a one the chair workout today featuring Fletcher variations from Fletcher potties and with Juliana and Candice. And we're going to take you through um, an exploration of spinal articulation on a very light spring. So hopefully this will work for you. I have it on one high white spring on the Cactus, on the Combo Chair. It can also, many of these exercises can also be done with one high black spring.

So let's get started. We're going to stand behind the chair facing the chair and we'll start with the toes just slightly turned out from the hips into first position. And we're just going to start with some simple breath. So find your arms by your sides, a nice round shape of the arms and as you breathe in, think of filling up the lungs from side to side. And on your inhale, allow those arms to widen. Allow your collarbones to Briden and as you exhale, feel everything connecting back into the center. We'll do that about four times. Breathing in and exhale.

We are using percussive breath in class today. It's an inhale through the nose and as you exhale, feel the resistance as you press the air, past your teeth from deep through the center. Good breathing in. And exhale. We're going to take the right arm up overhead as you inhale, and then exhale, take it into a side bend to the left. Stay here for one breath. Think of breathing into that long on the right side, and exhale deep in the stretch.

Lifting up through the center and switched to the left. [inaudible] breathe in to lengthen. Exhale, reach over into the stretch, letting your head be a part of that curve and take a deep breath into the left lung. And exhale, deepen and lift up through center, pulling everything together and then lowering down. Take a plea, a bending the knees on the inhale and as you exhale, feel the inner line of the legs pulling up through your pelvis, through the girdle all the way through the crown of the head. Inhale, bend, exhale, and stretch. Yeah, let the arms move with you as you bend and pull up through center. Maintaining the length through your lower backs. One more time. Bend and lift through center.

Moving into washerwoman over the chair. We'll lift the arms up overhead and just for a moment, set the shoulders down into the back, lift through your center and make your contraction forward. And we're reaching the palms of the hands down to the paddle. And let's just stay in this position for a moment. So have a wide position with the RMC can really connect into the shoulder blades and then also feel that the contractions happening at the rib cage and the low belly and we're avoiding shifting in the weight towards the chair, but we're trying to keep our, our legs nice and vertical. From here, we're going to move on an inhale to press the pedal down. So as you breathe in, move the pedal and breathe through the full length of your spine. As you exhale, pull the belly up to lift the pedal back to the top. Good, spreading the width across the shoulder blades, breathing into press down and then exhale to lift up.

Pulling up through the center and the movement of the belly moves the pedal back and forth. Breathing in and exhale. Feel the tailbone wrap under as the low belly lifts. Good. One more time. Breathing in and exhale. Finding the connection to the back of the underarms as you pull up. Good. And then from here, let's press down to a working position.

Breathe in an axial stay. So feel your sitz bones gathering together. Feel your low belly pulling up, and then you're going to try to challenge a shape by bending the elbows wide to the sides. Inhale, bend them out to lift the pedal out. Holding onto the belly. Good. There it is. An exhale. Extend and reach from the back. Inhale, bend. Think of breathing into that back, keeping the curve. There you go. And exhale, press extend all the way out, energy through those fingers. Inhale, bend and exhale. Press and reach your index fingers towards the ground. Last one. Inhale, bend, and Exhale, press.

Now we're going to keep pressing the pedal down as we work with opposition. To curl the tail under, pull through the belly, anchor the shoulder blades, and roll all the way up to the top. Try not to shift back, keeping those hamstrings nice and active. That's it. Good. Excellent. So we're always trying to avoid that little chat, chat, chat to come up and really work from the center. Let's just take two breaths to let the blood flow back to the fee XL. Press down.

Sure. One more time. Breathe in. Exhale, press even on the last one. We'll breathe in and lift up to contract forward. Rounding back to the pedal. Good. So establish the round shape of your spine all the way through your neck. Broad between the shoulder blades and across the collarbones.

And from here we're going to press down into extension. So you'll contract forward on your inhale. We'll take a little more time for this first one. Then lift your tailbone and walk your spine out. And you might feel at this moment that you can lift your pedal up a little bit as you lift your chest. There you go, reaching an opposition and then as you take another breath, let's curl the tail under, rounding the spine and pulling back through this center.

So let's do a full breath in both directions. Take an inhale, pressing the pedal down, roll the hips forward, lift your tailbone, and then open your chest. Feel that Nice wide collarbone position and then a full breath contract, curling the tailbone under, pulling the belly up and finding this stretch from tail through the crown. Good. Once again, inhale and exhale to your extension. Walk through each bone of the spine, pressing the pedal down. Then lifting the chest up and finding that nice long length through the spine.

Draw your shoulders down a little more. Yes, and then take a contraction rounding. Good. If you have a long spine, it just needs to get longer and if you don't have a long spine, it also needs to get longer and then extend reaching down. Full breath in and out. Good, fine that, that's it. Good. And then contract to roll back up and find your resting position at the top or more like your working position. And let's try to lift both hands off evenly at the same time. One, two, three, curl and roll all the way up. Beautiful and lower.

Excellent. Alright. Coming into Ron's mermaid, we're going to sit with your right leg hooked over well. So we'll have you facing this way and we'll extend the left leg out to the side. Now the left leg is in a parallel position, so you're rolling that inner thigh inwards and then you're also using your inner thigh to hug into the side of the chair. And this leg is what we call on the walk. So it's just perched on that first knuckle so that we're not doing a misalignment of the ankle here. Especially for you. Yes, on the walk. Yes. Yeah, like you could step onto it so it's not just hanging.

You wouldn't walk like that. Okay, good. Okay. Arms come out to the side and then find yourself on your sitz bone. So in this petition position in particular, we find kind of a forward motion. Let's move into the back space with the body. I would say even more. Yep. And then reach the arms up overhead into a nice u position, feeling his shoulders draw down the back.

You're going to lift up and bend your spine over your left leg as far as you can go. Okay? Exactly. Now I'm going to hold you there for just a moment. I want you to see if you can take your left underarm farther past your left hip to open up the right side of your spine. So now your whole arm, just your underarms. So we'll keep reaching out. Good. And then feel that your arms are reading. Know on the diagonals.

So we're establishing this spinal shape to move the arms. We're going to pulse into those position lifting deeper. Two inhales, two Xcels. Breathing in, in, so out, out right, and rather than pulsing down, think of pulsing to reach up. Good. Breathe in in [inaudible] last set. Let's take your head over. Good. Now take a full breath, lift up to center, arms overhead, and then reach down to the pedal with your right arm as you take yourself into the opposite side. Bend. Good. We'll take a full breath to stretch all the way over into a nice long arc and pause for a moment here.

So feel that arc happening from your fingertips down to your toe tips. Both hips are in alignment. Good. And as you inhale, you're going to stretch over a little bit farther. As you exhale, lift the center of the arch up and stretch justing there. So just deepening that stretch. Inhale, reach. Exhale, lift up from underneath. Good. Keep working those shoulders down in the back. Breathe in as you press the pedal down. Breathe out and move. Lift from underneath, connecting the shoulder. Awesome. Good. Breathe in. Reach, breathe out and pull up from underneath. Lots of right side work. Good.

Two more. Breathe in. Stretch the leg and arm away from each other. Exhale, lift up. Last one, breathe in, reaching over. Exhale, lift up. Now from here, try to not, let me see the pedal moving. So we're going to lift from the right side of the spine. Nice and controlled, bringing everything right back up to the ceiling. Beautiful. That's it. Good. And then reach all the way over that left leg. Again. We'll do a few more sets of pulses reaching up and on the diagonal. Breathing in, in and out. Out.

Think of reaching for something, something valuable. Four, three, two and stay. Now this time we're going to lift up and bend over and move the spine to move the arm. So it's an inhale through center. And exhale, press the pedal as you go over. Nice transition, and then lift up away from the pedal and go all the way over your left side, so it's like a big wave with your body. Good. Inhale, lift the torso up. Exhale side. Then take it as far as you can overwork to your Max. Inhale, lift through center. Exhale, reach past the left leg.

One more time. Inhale, lift. Exhale, reach all the way over. Big, long press. Excellent. Inhale, lift. Exhale, reach over the left leg to stay. We'll come back to center on the inhale and then press the arms to a tee. Anchor the shoulders down the back. Find your sits bones. Once again. Inhale, rotate your spine to the right and then exhale, recover back to center and connect everything back to center. Let's do that four times still to the right. Breathing into rotate.

Exhale back to center. And just feel yourself recover to center. Feel yourself twist to the right and back to center. Cool. One more time. Twist. Let's hold the twist. As you exhale, bend your spine and take your hands down to the pedal. Good. Now with your right hand, you're breaching your pressing. Nope. That's your left hand. With your left hand, you're reaching and pressing with the right side of the body.

You're pulling back so you have this nice spiral through the spine. And then take a moment to extend that leg out as long as you can so you can feel that spiral stretch from your pinky toe all the way up through the crown of the head. Good. From here, inhale to press the pedal down and we're going to keep trying to shift the shoulders and um, in two parallel position with the pedal. Yeah. And then as you exhale, we'll lift. Go ahead. We'll do that again. So inhale. We're going to wrap the spine over. Press down and think of lifting from the right side of the belly as you come up.

So that's on the exhale. Very good. Inhale, press deeper. Little opposite. Very. You Go. Exhale, pull up. [inaudible] one more. Inhale, press. Exhale, pool. I lied. Let's do two more after that. Breathing in, think of wrapping that body over. And then as you exhale, continue the spiral. That's great. And last one, inhale, stretch out of that back.

That should feel amazing. And exhale, pull up through center and stay. No, keep your abdominals connected. Take your right hand to the center of the pedal. You're going to recover into your side. Bend with your left arm overhead. Good lift from the right side of the spine. We'll come up through center arms. Come back to a t and lower the arms down. Nice work. Alright. Take your body and turn yourself to the back of your chair.

You're going to just sit perched on the edge with your sits bones are going to come into a four starch or Relevate position with the feet. So the heels are lifted. And the knees are together. Arms come out to a second position, and then from here you are a mama bird hovering over her nest. So you're going to contract up and over reaching forward and cover that nest round four. This is a little round transition. We'll pulse to deepen the stretch of the spine here. Going. Inhale, inhale.

Sure. I think I'm lifting up to go over, up to go there. That's the name. That's good. Pull up from the low belly and last one here, and then roll up one bone at a time through the spine. That's it.

Arms come down by the side and we'll open the left knee to the opposite side for the other side. So all of this looks really easy, but I'm sure you're glowing. You spit thing, it's great. All right, so from here, arms come up to the tee and then reach the overhead. You Nice extended position of that right leg. We're going to lift up on the inhale. Take the spine over. Big Side Bend. You're bending the spine, but you're reaching up on that diagonal. Good to the right. The other right. Yeah. Every pulse.

Reading in hell, setting ups and then reaching past good eyebrows. Lifting helps too. Last one, come back to center, so pull yourself up through center lift. Take your spine over to find the pedal reaching for that nice long line. On the inhale, we'll press to deepen the arch. Inhale, reaching over, reaching over, reaching over. Exhale, lift from the underneath side to stretch. Beautiful. Inhale and reach outs. Great Line here and then exhale. Keep that art that deep and in lengthen. Good.

Lots of internal work going on. Exhale from underneath. Lift one more time and breathe into that top lung and exhale, pull up from underneath. Excellent. We're going to lift easy, smooth transition. The arms come up, the spine lifts in there and all the way to the other side. Good pulsing on that high diagonal reach. Inhale, inhale. Anytime we pulse, the purpose is to deepen your awareness of the position that you're in, meaning we're pulsing to find more work. Good. Last line and that's great. Coming all the way up to center, we're going to flow all the way over to move the pedal down.

Take that spine over with you and then from the tailbone lift from the center all the way up through the crown to reach to the other side. Inhale, center. Exhale, bend your spine over. Let your head go all the way ever. Good. Inhale, lift. Exhale to the other side. We'll do two more. Inhale up and exhale. This always makes me want to go.

Hey Ho and all the way to the other side. Good. One more time cause with serious about our polarities, but we can also have fun. Good. Last one. All the way up and reach over the leg coming through center. Take the arms to a t. The inhale, rotate you to the left.

Breathing in towards the foot bar. Exhale, connect all the way back to center. Good and inhale at that spine. Take the arms around, exhale, recover. Two more times. Breathing in and exhale. Last one, rotate. And then bend your spine over and now that you're nice and warm, see if you can square your shoulders to the foot bar.

Take as wide of a grip as you need and press through the right arm as you pull back with the left side of the body to increase that rotation. Your inhale takes the pedal down, left side of the belly, pulls the pedal up. Good. Inhale, reach through that spiral. Exhale, lift up, breathing into the back. Good. So let the breath move the spine through space. Two more times. Up and over.

Stretch all the way from the bottom of the ankle to the top of the head. Last one, breathing in and exhale your left hand comes to the center of the bar. Your right hand comes up overhead. Finding that stretch one last time, drawing the left shoulder down into your back. Good. And then lift up from that left side. Come all the way up and low. Are the arms good?

So we'll bring both legs together on the same side of the chair and then just come to standing. And from here we'll walk around to face your pedal. And this exercise is called single leg standing. Some of my clients like to call it single link falling. So it's definitely has a balance component to it. Um, generally you want to be about a foot to a foot and a half behind. And let's just do a test drive by placing your right heel onto the pedal to see if you can extend that leg and reach it out while keeping it straight. Yeah, so it's going to be a little bit different for everybody. Okay.

And we'll bring the laid back down. All right. Find your legs in a parallel position. So we've got our magnet points happening between the ankles just above the knees and the top of the inner thigh. So the legs are close together and this will serve as our engagement to midline. So no matter if we have one leg on the floor too, both legs are going to work actively into midline.

I'm telling you this because this will keep you from falling. Okay? So from here, let's bring the arms up and open to second position and know that if your arms are in front of you, you're more likely to stay balanced. And if they're behind you, you're more likely to fall back. So when we're holding that seconds, just like hug a tree, we're going to bring the right leg up to passe, so we'll bend it and lift and then stand strong into the ball of the left foot behind the big toe, the ball of the foot behind the fourth and fifth toe, and then the center of the he also. We really feel that like rooted into the ground, reached the right heel forward and place it onto the pedal. Good. There you go.

Heel. Yes. Now look down at that leg. It's gonna want to totally rotate out. We want to keep it nice and parallel. Engage both sets of magnets on either inner thigh to stabilize. Good as you breathe in, the pedal goes down any amount without lifting that right hip up. It's an inhale to press down and an exhale to reach out as you lift up.

Good. Inhale, press down. Think of drawing the leg deeper into the hip socket. Exhale, reach it out and extend into space as you lift the pedal. Good. Breathing into press down. Very nice. Breathing out to read. Fasten is a pedal press down. Presses down. The spine grows up through the crown of your head. Exhale, reach.

Excellent. Let's do two more. Inhale, press. Exhale. Stand well into that foot and lift up through the center. And last one. Inhale, press and exhale and lift. Very nice. Holding the pedal at the top, keeping some energy through that right leg. You're going to inhale and come to irrelevant on the standing leg. Any amount, even if it's a hover of the heel, it's a breath and you lift from the center.

Good. Exhale lower with that east center. Control the liver at left heel. Lowers. Good pedal can stay still for right now. Inhale, arise up, pull up through the knee, pull up through the hip, pull up through the center. Beautiful choreography I feel over town. Now this is a good, good, good moment to stay that if this is your first time with this [inaudible], the Gondola Pole can be an excellent partner for you. So inhale Relevate lift up. You're doing okay? Yeah. Good. Exhale lower. Try to keep the pedal still. [inaudible] one more time. We're going to move it in. No time. Good.

And reach the heel through the floor as you lower all the way down. Good. This is when the breath does come in handy. Adding on, you're going to inhale Relevate, lift the heel. Exhale, press the pedal down. Any amount, use that top magnet. Inhale, reach the top leg out, lift the pedal up and exhale. Lower the heel down. Let me know if you want that pole. I've got another one. Okay. Yes, yes, yes. Go with the poll. All. Alright. Definitely one to be practice for a little while.

This was one of the ones that I tested out and yeah, it was, it was daunting to say the least. All right. We don't want external rotation. No, because we're trying not to use outer thigh. We're trying to keep that midline connection and in fact, when you start to press, so if you rise up on that standing leg, you lift up, scissor the legs together, like you can feel that connection and then pry them apart as you're reaching the leg bats better and then reach the heel down. It gives you a lot more connection to the center of your body. Two more times. Inhale, relevant. Exhale, engage the like, pull everything back into your center. Much better in Hilary.

Reach that leg long. That's okay. Get it back and exhale. Lower. Good recovery. And one more time. Inhale. [inaudible]. That's it. Exhale, press the pedal. Everything comes into center and you lift up longer. Inhale, reach the leg long, so high, and then exhale, lower the heel down as you resist. Good. Let's stay here. Lift the leg up off the pedal, come to posse. Once again. Good.

Find that balance, lift that pole up, a little extra challenge and then, or all the way down. Excellent. Good. So definitely a challenge. You're going to get all of your little balanced muscles happening, a lot of outer hip work on the supporting leg. Things to think about certainly are that idea that you're, even though you're standing on one leg in your mind, you're still standing on two because this one is still engaged. The other thing is it doesn't matter how low the pedal goes. It's not about the resistance because we're on that light spring and if you can picture that anytime you rise up, wherever, whatever level your head reaches and that moment is where you're challenging yourself to stay like that string out of the crown of the head image so that there's a sense of opposition working through the spine. As a dancer, one of the things that we would work for in partnering is to really give shoulder blades to our partner so that they had something to lift.

So the stability of the upper body is going to help you as you up. You're almost pressing down on those arms and then as you reach your heels down, it's like you're stretching from your waist down rather than the whole shape going at once. Okay. I think that would be a great idea for balance. Yup. So left arm out to the side. Second position. Parallel with the legs. Yes. Good. Let's posse.

The left leg up. Inhale. Stand strong into the right leg and exhale. Place the heel onto the bar. Good, nice and long. So take a moment and let's watch you both grow. You can even use that pole in your arm, pressing down, engaging through their shoulder blades, reaching up through the crown, right? So you're pulled from top to bottom. And then as you inhale, reach the pedal down. And as you exhale, reach the leg out longer, stronger through the entire foot.

Good breathing in to press down and exhale. So find that very top of the inseam on either leg and see if you can engage them towards each other. Breathing in Nice and exhale. This really, really helps. Great. Good. One more time pressing down and reaching up. Now I'll give you another image to think about during the Relevate who you're gonna use, your left sitting bone. Think of it actively reaching towards your right ankle bone. Okay.

We're holding the pedal at the top and then it's an inhale to rise up on the right leg. Woo. And then exhale, lower down. Good. We're just doing that much good. So keep reaching down and then inhale, rise up on this side. Yeah, a little more strength. Is that the ankle? Okay, now we're done. Oh, interesting. Good. So pulling up all from here. Knee capitalists. Find that side bolt and exhale to reach back down. Better think of reaching that left hip forward a little bit more.

Pulling the right hip back. This is a fun side for you, and exhale lower. All right, adding on from here. It's an inhale Terella Bay and exhale to engage the pedal. Any amount, add the movement of the pedal into your shape. Stay lifted. Inhale, reach the leg out. Stretch it away. Exhale, reach the heel through the floor as you lower right. Good. Breathe in and lift up through the crown. Exhale, press the pedal with control. Good.

Inhale, reach the leg out, stretch it forward. Keep that Sitz bone active and lower the heels down. Good. Two more times. Really Nice. Inhale, lift up through the heel. Exhale, press down. Good. Consider grip on the pole. Inhale, reach out through this dance of burning away and exhale lower. Good, and for the last one, I'm just going to keep you honest here. Inhale.

Relevate. Exhale, press good. Stay Nice and upright. Reaching Tall. Inhale, reaching the leg. Long. Glut an exhale, lower the heel, and we come up and off the pedal. First we passe to show that we still are under control and then all the way down. Excellent. Yes.

All right. You were still standing facing the pedal, taking it down to the floor. Yay. Reach the arms all the way up overhead. You're going to contract forward, rolling down by passing the pedal to place your hands just in front of the wood onto the floor. Good. From here, let your heads hang. This should feel good. After that last exercise, let's just take a bend of the knees. So we'll plead a bending the knees and then as you exhale, lift the sitz bones up to the ceiling. Deepening the crease. Good. Inhale, bend. Lots of Nice moans and groans going on. Exhale, press the heels down.

Lift up and feel that stretch from your heels all the way up to your sits bones. One more time. Inhale, bend, and Exhale, stretch. And from here come to irrelevance. So let your heels lift and you're going to bend your knees to come into a Fletcher Ball. So you're rounding your spine from here or [inaudible] deep into your belly and you're going to slowly take your hands back and lower yourself down to set.

Excellent. So let's take the legs to either side of the chair. You're going to be seated at a 90 degree position at the hips, which is sometimes the most challenging aspect of this exercise. You want to reach your hands forward so that the heel of the hand is onto the pedal, but you shouldn't need to change your spine in order for that to happen. So see if you can adjust your position and perhaps start with a little bit of um, energy into the springs. Okay. Spread this fingers nice and wide. And ideally we're pressing the pedal down as we engage the shoulders into the back end. Let's work with a pointed foot so that energies are really long.

So we'll breathe in to press the pedal towards the ground. Beautiful. And exhale, reach out. So this is a lot like the exercise we just did with the legs, except now we're working the arms. So imagine that you're drawing the shoulder deeper into the socket. Engaging the shoulder blade down and then reach out.

Feel the energy reaching away from you. Good. And as you breathe in and press, you're lifting up through the crown of the head and then exhale, reaching forward. One more time. Breathe and impress, engaging as you go down, broadening through the collarbones and exhale, reaching. Excellent. So we're going to add a movement on just for a moment, keep the pedal up, feel your head where it's at in space, and then find a posterior pelvic tilt. So you're rocking to the back of your sits bones, right? They should feel like a fist in the belly, in and up.

And then reach your sits bones down to the ground to come back to lengthen your spine up. Let's do that four times. We're going to go. Inhale, exhale to go back. Inhale, exhale, reached down and lengthen your spine back to the center. One more time. Good. Keep your energy reaching through this feed as you come back up. Now we'll put the two together on the inhale. Press the pedal down. Breathing in, hold the pedal. Still Exhale, contract back through that low belly. Hold the pedal. Still. Inhale, lengthen the spine up. Keep the shoulder blades working. Exhale, reach the arms forward. Okay, so we're adding, adding, subtracting, subtracting, breathing in as you press the pedal. Opening up the chest, breathing out as you hollow to roll back behind the sitz bones. Breathing in to reach down and grow up without moving the pedal.

Breathe out in the pedal reaches forward two more times. Breathing in. Exhale, contract [inaudible]. Inhale length in the pelvis, back to the vertical, and exhale, reach. Good. One more time. Inhale, press. Exhale. Feel that in and up. Sensation. Beautiful. Inhale length in the pelvis and exhale, reach the arms forward. Let's try it all together.

Take a full breath. Everything goes at once and you pull your belly back so much that your feet flex. Good. There you go. And a full breath. Everything comes back to center and you lengthen all five limbs including the head entail and press. I guess that would be six. Take a full breath in, contract back, flex those feet, pull the two big toes back with your belly buttons. Good. And then press through to come all the way back up last time. Full breath back. Inhale. Exhale, contract.

[inaudible]. Inhale, exhale, reach and lengthen. All right, we're going into our beautiful soft transition. The right arm comes up to the ceiling. Rotate your spine in, place. Your forum on the back, diagonal. Your left arm is going to leave the pedal. Yes. Good. So form goes down to me. Stay.

Your focus goes over that hand and it's the most interesting thing that you've ever seen in your life. Exactly. And then from here you're lifting up from that right side of the back. Inhale, lift through center. Reach your right hand towards your left leg and find your soft position. Feet will flex. At this point, let's pulse into the sop. Breathing in in [inaudible] reaching and last breath here.

Now watch the chair and lift your right arm back through the diagonal. All the way back to the position we just made. Good focusing on the hand. Let's do that again. Inhale, lift up through center. Exhale back to the SA. You got it. Two sets of pulses reaching deeper, four, three, two and one.

And then we're going to lift up. And this time just placed the hand on the back diagonal. All right, we're going to work into a Davinci man roll-up. Take a full breath contract and roll down along your right side. As you roll to your back, you come into a nice wide x position. Hopefully your centers still lined up with the center of the chair, right arm comes up and across the body.

Contract towards the left leg and roll up to that soft position you just made. Good. Let's do that again on that side. So we'll lift the right arm up, reach on the back, diagonal, roll down on a full breath. Find the x [inaudible], lift the right arm ups contracting forward. [inaudible] one more time. Lifting up, reach to the diagonal. Take up your space. Good reach down, roll back through the pelvis and the spine, right arm reaches through, center across and peel all the way up. Good.

And then let's lift the arms up and over the pedal to the opposite side. So the left arms reaching towards the right leg. Good the left arm, windmills up and back. And let's take it to the forum this time. Inhale and exhale, reach to the back, left diagonal. Let's find that shape. So there's a side bend going on under here, right?

And your focus is that way over your hand. Good. And then from there you're going to lift up, up. Reach the left hand past the right leg into your saw. Good pulsing for two sets. Lengthening the back of that neck and finding stretch through there. Yes.

[inaudible] windmill, the left arm up to go back. Finding the form again. Uh Huh. Yes. Focus to the hand that's above you. Excellent. And lift up and round. Forward pulsing again. And pulse to wrap that left side down and open the right side up other way.

There you go. A little more spiral. Okay. Ready for Davinci on this side? Let's lift the left arm back. We're going to reach to that high dagnall. The hand goes down. We're rolling down along the left side. Pull yourself all the way down. Find that x good left arm crosses the body slice across contract.

Reach all the way up past the left leg. Good. Let's do the windmill there. Again, reaching up to bring the left arm back in, the diagonal, rolling down contract all the way down. Reach to the x, crossed the body with that left arm up [inaudible] and reach it all the back in up. One more time, sorry to the back, diagonal and rolling all the way back contract. Feel the left side of the spine, the center of the spine, all the way to the x. Then the left arm reaches up and crosses over the body to come up.

Excellent. Let's bring both arms up and over the chair. Just reaching forward in a spine stretch and roll down to your back. Good. All right, draw your legs together. Let's scoot the hips in towards the chair so you're maybe about a foot or so out from the edge of the wood. We'll bring your arms into a t position with the palms facing down and in this position, let the arms be active so the back of your underarm is imprinted against the floor as well as the back of the rib cage in the back of the pelvis.

We'll draw the legs to tabletop and then we'll extend the legs straight up to 90 degrees at the hip without changing the pelvis. Beautiful. Let's articulate the feet. Inhale, flex. Exhale, point well elects and point. Yeah, two more. Flex and point and the last one. Flex and point. Good. Keeping your inner thighs active. Bend your knees and place your heels at the edge of the foot bar or the pedal. Good. And I would say slide in just a little bit. All right.

Your goal is to meet, remain your entire upper torso, your center unchanged as you move the pedal down. It's a light spring, so ideally should be easier on the legs, but a little more challenging for the center. Inhale, press the pedal down. Your toes are going to point over the pedal to find the arch of the foot. And then exhale, lift the pedal up with control. It doesn't matter how low it goes, matters how connected you are through the middle. Breathing into those rib cages and as you exhale, feel the weight of your body sink into the floor.

Make an impression with your back. Good breathing in as you press and as you exhale, find the connection emptying through center. Very nice. And last when breathing in chairs talking to us. And exhale, lift your Chin just a little bit. That's it. Good. We'll bring the knees to tabletop. Once again.

Extend the legs straight up to 90 degrees. Maintaining your inner thigh connection. Rotate your legs to turnout external rotation. Good. And then back to parallel. [inaudible]. Inhale, turnout for canvas. This is yes in parallel. Not so much. Good.

Two more times. Inhale, rotate. Exhale from the top of the hip and the last time we'll turn out and pull to a diamond. Bending your knees. So not a full kind of froggy position, but one that's a little longer. We're going to point the feet and try to bring the legs together, but the inner edges of the together, but more to keep them in alignment with the knee. That's it. Good. Now lower your diamond shape down until your heels. Press the pedal.

Good. Figuring out where that is and then find the external rotation with your hips in this position. The glutes really, really want to get in and we have to just punch them out for the rest of this exercise for this moment. So as you inhale, you're going to widen the diamonds to move the pedal down. So you're thinking of Oh, a poor side to side as you move that pedal. Good. And then as you exhale, you're going to try to lift your heels first rather than your knees. So we're trying to keep the width of the hips breathing in, thinking of the diamond getting wider. And then as you exhale, lift those heels first and try to resist the urge to close the legs.

Yeah, when Ron would do this, he was not quite so gentle, you know, first. Now good and exhale if so careful not to rock back into your posterior tilt. [inaudible] right. Sneaky glutes there. Always looking for that overtime. Good. There we go. Yeah. Not so much arch, but definitely just not a tuck and lift on or from underneath. That was interesting. We had an interesting discovery. Good Nicki Shit.

Banks are reaching long. Excellent. Good. So let's he keep the feet on the pedal. From here, we're going to close the legs back up, engaging the top knee and ankle magnets, and from here we're going to go into a pattern. Here's the pattern for you to remember. It goes hips, it goes bar, it goes diamond, it goes hips, bar, diamond. Don't think anything else. You'll mess it up. Okay, so from here we start with a posterior pelvic tilt. Let it come from the center more than from the legs. Take a full breath. Inhale, exhale to find your tilt.

Beautiful. Now maintaining the tilt. Press the pedal down on a full breath. Inhale, exhale without losing that tilt. Find it nice and strong. Maintaining the tilt and the press. Open the hips to the diamond. Good. Take again as much as possible. There might be a little bit of fudging, but ideally try to keep them there.

Now you're going to tilt your in a, you're in a diamond. We're going to move the hips back out to a neutral pelvis or a centered pelvis position. Yes, length in the pelvis out. That's a full breath all the way out. All the way out. All the way out. Good. Then we're going to lift the bar. [inaudible].

Then we'll close the diamond. Good, and I'm going to ask both of you just to check in with those hands again, so reach energy out, how quickly they sneak out of the situation. Here we go again. Take a full breath to pelvic tilt and contract a full breath to move the bar down. Engaging through the backline of the legs, maintaining the tilt and the bar placement of full breath. Open from the rotators into that diamond. Good. Keep the shape of the legs. Keep the pedal down.

Reach out length in the pelvis to center. [inaudible] lift the bar up. [inaudible] and close the diamond last time to go through a full breath to the tilt. Inhale and exhale. Feel the wastes get heavy. A full breath to press the bar.

[inaudible] adding to the shape, not taking away from it. A full breath to rotate the hips into the diamond. Move those knees as far apart as your hips will allow them. Yes, a really good stretch. Now articulate through the pelvis. Wrap the hip socket over the leg. You go and lift the bar.

Yeah, grounding through the ribs. Good and close to the diamond. Happy, happy hips. Good. All right, let's take the knees over to the left. So we'll come onto quadrant head position. Just roll yourself over. Yup. Tuck your toes, press yourself to up stretch and then come on up to standing. We should have them miked, correct. All right, so for our final exercise of the day, we're going to add step-ups and I am a generous spring teacher when it comes to step up. So I'm going to give you one high white and one high black, which hopefully will do the do the job.

I'm from Chicago, take threats. All right, so standing with the legs together just at the, at the wood, we will take the arms up and over. Place them to the back edge of the platform as you contract forward and then stand with both feet onto the pedals, press the pedal down. There you go. Good. And I like to align the legs exactly how I'll like them to be. So we're going to work with the legs as close as possible so we can really keep a connection to the mid line work, all the wonderful, um, engagement that we've had so far. Good.

And then we'll step the right foot up on top of the platform and usually a slight bit of external rotation can help you access the outer glutes. So if that's something that you feel like you want to work on, that'd be great. Yeah. And then from here, let's flex the left foot. So we'll just lower the heel down, get a good stretch in the front of that left hip, and then we'll Relevate back up. Let's do that four times. So it's an inhale, flex reach. Exhale, Relevate start to feel the energy pulling from the heel up through the entire leg. Two more times. Breathing in and breathing out. Okay, last one. Breathing in and breathing out to lift. All right, so you've got that strong foundation of your right leg. Your back heel is lifted and we're going to roll up through the spine to bring the arms to our second position. And we're going to give that a take two, because what I want to see is a rural lapse. So you're really conscious from your tail all the way through the crown.

Here we go again. Rolling up. Yep. Connect through the belly that's better. And bring the arms all the way up and out to the side. All right, censoring one centering breath. Take a deep breath in. Exhale. So lift the pedal from that backhaul. Pull up through the top and find a nice long length. Okay, good.

It's an inhale to lower any amount and then an exhale to lift back up. Good. That's no good. Nope. Inhale to lower and lift through your chest a little more, Juliana. That's at, find the anchoring of the shoulder blades. Remember, keep your weight forward. Good. One more. Lift up through that spine. Find all the length you found in the last few exercises, and then lower with control all the way down, reaching to the platform, and then we'll switch sides. Very nice. Yeah. So you're wanting to pull that arm back a little bit. Yeah. So remember, go back, fall back. Okay. Stay forward.

One more connection to the center of balance. Yeah. Alright. Keep that focus up. Here we go. Let's set this spine rolling up through the back and as you roll up. Yeah. So find each moment of articulation.

Feel your weight dropping down through that front foot. [inaudible]. Find the connection to midline working both inner thighs and when we're ready, take a full breath to come up to the top. Lift through the chest, anchor through the shoulders. Come any amount, even if it's just a halfway good. We're going to inhale to lower breathing and exhale. Find the anchoring of the shoulders. Lift through your chest. Much better. Good. Breathing in and breathing out. Pressing from underneath. Lifting that back. Heel up.

That's it. Just two more. Inhale lower. Turn that to shift back. Huh? Exhale back that. Yes. Good. One more time. Breathing in. You got it. And exhale. Good. And come on down. Take your hands onto the platform and slowly, carefully step off letting the pedal come up. Good. We're bring both likes together, finding center.

Let's take a moment just to feel some breath and coming back to center. So hopefully we feel, especially on the ground now, grounded a little, connected through the the midline, and then try to come back to all of that length we felt on the side and through the center of the body. We'll bring an inhale up. Exhale, reach the arms over breathing. One more time and press all the way down. Nice work. Good job. Thank you.

Comments

So happy to have more from you, Jenna! Julia
Jenna Zaffino
Thank you Julia!! Happy to be back- hope you enjoy class!
Thanks so much Jenna! Loved how you started with washer woman behind chair! Everything gets "turned on" and ready to move for the rest of the class! So happy I can get my "Fletcher Fix" here on Pilates Anytime!
Jenna Zaffino
Bonnie! That made my day ;) thanks for watching and happy that you enjoyed!
I have not been able to open this video please help

There is a problem with the video , come back to the beginning all the time
Excellent class! I feel so elongated (and less stuffed from Thanksgiving). I especially loved the single leg and releve series. My gondola pole wasn't near me but I was able to do it without it:) Thank you Jenna:)
Hi Corrine and Christie,
Sorry you are having trouble with the video.The video itself is working properly. Often the cause of a video restarting or not loading to begin with has to do with the computer being used having too many programs open or it hasn't been restarted or shut down in awhile. Adjusting these two things often corrects any problems. One other possibility could be a poor connection, but the first two are typically the case. Please give it a try and if you continue to have problems please email us at contact@pilatesanytime.com and we'll try to help you trouble shoot the problem.
1 person likes this.
Jenna, Thank You for a beautiful class :)
I really enjoyed all the new variations (at least new for me)
Really nice choreography and cueing. Especially liked the Da Vinci man transition.
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