Class #1344

Group Reformer Fun

30 min - Class
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Description

Niedra teaches a group Reformer workout to our guests from the Pilates on Tour field trip. The energy will build as you warm up and then she will add exercises where you can focus on keeping your spine long and keeping a connection to your powerhouse.
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box

About This Video

Dec 30, 2013
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Transcript

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Okay. So this is an exciting day because I have my five most favor teachers that I only met five minutes ago, but I know you're my favorite already and we are doing, um, reformer. So this will be a fun experience. Group workouts are always exciting. So let's have you, um, hold your hands, get yourself set up so your bottom can sit, be placed more or less in the middle of the reformer. Pull your power house up and press the shoulders down to get a sense of length in the trunk and the spine with control.

Sit down on your reformer without hands and do your hands and lie down on your back and set yourselves up for footwork. Um, Yep. Good idea to check the spring tension. So you, we have four balanced bodies and one Grotzia. So this will be creative for all of you. Pilati it is your hairdresser. Yeah, let make sure your headrest is lifted before you start. Just take a moment to feel your back long and flat on the Mat. For me.

I would like Pilati stance or toes, toes on the bar and heels together, maybe two inches between your feet. Nice, tight sit bones. Press all the way out in pause at the top. Pause at the top, narrow the hips, feel your back long and your stomach up and check that the shoulders are down so your neck is long. And then bend the knees to come back in and press out again. Press out and come back in and press out and come back in and press out and come back into. I know this may be a little faster, just keep on going that some of you may be used too, but use it to start to build energy. Build warmth, build heat in the body. One more time, pressing out in, come back in middle of the arches, bird on a perch. Make sure the feet and the knees are together unless there's a reason for you not to have the legs together. Nice firms sit boned and presented again and pause.

Narrow the hips, pull this stomach in, narrow right under the sit bones and come back in and again, press out and come back in and press out and come back in and precise out and come back in and see if you can keep these toes wrapping around. So you're working into the metatarsal. You okay? You can yet you bring your knees and feet together. Is that a problem for you? Yay. Okay, two more times. Out and in. And one more time. Press out and in on your heels.

Flex the toes and spread the toes. Knees together, ankles together. Sit bones tight. Imagine the hamstrings pulling together and press out as though someone's got the hand under your butt, pushing you out and come back and pulling the stomach up. Press out and come back in. Present. Pull the toes way up and come back and keep that flex in the fee and in and press and pull the toes up and press and spread the feet. It's footwork.

So you want to wake up your feet and make it open and alive. Okay. Tendon stretches. Last one in total. The part heals together. So Pilati stands for me. Toes on the bar, toes and the bar. Press all the way out in pause at the top and narrow the hips and the inner thighs. Now lengthen your heels down, down and down in stretch. And then press up and up and up and down, down, down.

Keep the hips narrow as you lift and down, down, down, and up. Up, up. Every time. Get longer in the hips and thighs and down, down, down, up, up, and last one down, down and up. Uh, pull the stomach in. Feel your floating ribs on the frame of the reformer, long stomach, long back, and bend the knees back and keeping that length in your trunk. All right, hundreds are next. So if you need to put a lighter spring on, sit up and do that. If you like, want to stay with attention you have, you can stay there. And as you, if you're lie back down on your backs and hold the handles with your hands and I will bring the knees into your chest so your knees are off the foot bar. Pull the stomach muscles in an up, extend the legs out, lift your head and chest up and stretch your arms and start breathing in four, five and exhale three, four, five and two two, three and exhale, three, four, five and three. Two, three, four, five and exhale, three, four, five and four, four, five and exhale, three, four, five and Melvin. Stomach to sternum to eat going.

You want the sense of the sternum softening and the chest, the upper chest rounding and the shoulders are reaching into the hands and very last one year after the excellent. Then your knees with control. Bend your arms and lie down and set yourselves up for short spine massage. So you for lady, just put your feet in the strap and you will going to have a special holies. Can you get your feet in here? Now you have to get your feet way over. Make sure your headdress is down, the arms are long by your side.

Bend your knees into your chest. To start. I like to have the legs bent in for like frogs, the knees or shoulder with knees or shoulder width. Your feet are as close to your bottom as you can get them without your back being compromised in any way. So right here, pull your belly in. See if you can squeeze your hips, even though you're in an unusual position, press your legs at 45 degrees. Nice, narrow hips and lift your bottom up and over, up and over, and you'll keep your bottom down and bend your knees to your shoulders and roll your bottom down away from your feet. So you lengthen and massage your back out and bring your feet to your bottom and press. Press out again and lift your bottom right up.

Lift your hips way up and over. Push down with the arms and bend your knees and you'll just keep going out every time and roll your hips away from your feet. Roll an iron out your back and then push your feet down to your bottom, down, down, down to your bottom. So I would like you all to finish in home except for Denise who gets to own things. Press out again with your legs. Nice from hips. Lift the bottom up right away. Push down with the hands to get that movement.

Keep your bottom where it is. Bend your knees down to your shoulders, knees only shoulder width. Roll your bottom down, away from your feet and drop each bone in your back onto the mat. Push your bottom down with your feet. One more time. Presale. Nice tight hips and lift. Bend the knees down. Roll your bottom away from your feet to not push into the knees. Use your powerhouse to press your back out and bend your feet to your bottom.

Okay, coordination is lat. Next, hold onto the handles. So Yup, you did good. A little bit different types of transitions here. Hold the handles. Bend the elbow so everything's in tabletop position. Lift your head and chest up and soften that sternum way down.

Nice firm, tight sit bones, arms and legs. Extend out long. Arms and legs go out. One open and close. Bend your knees to your chest. Bend your arms up. Inhale, extend out long open and close. Bend your knees. Keep your back long. Bend your arms. Extend out long. Hold it. Take your right leg and open to the side.

Bring it back without anything moving. Take the left leg out, bring it back. Bend the knees than the arms and last one extend out and lengthen and broaden the back. Left leg goes out and back. Nothing moves here. Rightly, goes out and back. Bend the knees deeply. Bend the arms, drop your head down and put your handles on the straps behind you. Step up and let's set up for long bops. So pulling on the straps. So take your box. Okay, let's have everybody standing on the platform and put your hands at the front of the box. Walk the hands out. That's it. Good to Bina.

Now press a carrot out a little bit. Bend your elbows and lower down to your shoulders are flush with the edge. Yes. Nice. Once you're there, reach down and hold the handle and for you, you will slide the hand inside. You want the to hold beyond the handle so the arms as long as can be on the ropes without any tension. More and more and more and more and more. Whoops, my mistake. Now lift your feet up if you haven't already done it and let yourself the spring, bring you all the way in so the arms along, but the spring is in now lengths and from the head to the tail.

Pull the arms back to your hips. Lift your shoulders, lift your head, shoulder blades are together, and release the arms back down. Now do not lift your chest right away. Pull your arms to your hips, just the arms. Now squeeze your shoulder blades together and open the collarbones. As you lift your head a little bit further, the shorter blades are back, back, back, back, and then release the arms down to your back. When should be from the shoulder blades and higher, not lower. One more time.

Arms go to your hips from your tail to your head, your long. Now squeeze the shoulder blades together. Lift your head just a little bit, not so high now. Shoulders up, shoulders up, shoulders up, not back and release. Better, better, better arms out to the site. I would like the two ladies here and Sabine and Denise to move back on the box. Tracy graves. The only category, the only one who's doing it right. More me.

Yay. Cause he's an experiment on the machine. Let's have you all slide your hands down. Okay. And take your arms out to the side and lift the arms up. Key shape, right? So from here, lengthen from your tail to your shoulders. Pull the hands back towards your bottom, squeeze your shoulder blades together and wrap the shoulders around your rib cage and lift your head and look forward. Open the arms out to the side. Now have a look here.

Let's do it harder. Internally. Rotate. Bring the hands back and I want to see this movement. I really want to see the shoulder blades work. So pullbacks to be not so high with your body. It's all the rib cage. Open the arms out. Knock that one more time. Arms to the side.

Squeeze those shoulder blades together as you bring the arms back. Squeeze here, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze and take the arms out to the side. Step off and set yourselves up. So backstroke, so two springs. You can either have a red and a blue or two red. You'll just have another spring color. I know it's really, this is for the simple minded among us. No sophistication at all. One screen to spring three springs or horse springs. Let's have your on your backs for backstroke, so lying down on your back, pull the handles with your hands. I'll get it for you guys.

Okay. You want your knees bet. Let's have the hands be bent above your forehead. Lift your head and chest up and soften the sternum. Try and get the shoulder blades off the box. Shoulder blades up. Push into the spring slightly. Lift your arms and legs up. Arms and legs go up.

Lift your chest more raw. Open the arms, the width of the box and pull down and scoop and reach. Try to touch your knees so the shoulders are stretched even more and then bend the knees and come back in without losing this scoop. Everybody lift your head and chest a little bit further up into the spring. Arms and legs go up, arms and legs open. Pull down and stretch towards your size and lift your chest a little bit further up so you stretch into the hands and come back in. One more time.

On the next go up, arms the legs open. Pull down and reach into the size. Lift your chest, fat's it. Push into the hands. Come a little bit higher and bend your knees and come back in. Okay, everybody hold the handles with one hand and see if you can come up to a sitting position. Reach down and release one spring. We're doing teaser next, so bring yourself to them. You're not going to go down and up at the beginning for you.

Bottom to the front of the box. Bend your knees, the knees. I want to and have all of you in diamond shapes. No hip flexors so the feet are up, the knees are out. How much of a scoop don't pull with the arms yet. Take the arms down to the machine is in.

Can you get your knees more turned out? Yes. How much can you take your chest? Yes. Let the shoulders come forward a little bit. Yes. Let the arms be long and down. Arms at [inaudible]. Hey, now without anything changing, pull forward. Keep that powerhouse working, bringing the arms down and it's hard.

BASIX is hard forward with the arms and down with the arms. Knees are bent so you don't use your hip flexors. Just your powerhouse and tall knees bent, knees bent, knees bent, just powerhouse. Handle. Tie the knees and down two more times and pull. That's it. And down. Good Denise. One more time, Paul. Hold it.

Hold it. Pull the ribs back so the back ribs open. Use that stomach and then slowly, slowly, slowly put your feet down, book the handles back. Take the box and put them back. That was good. Now when you would do it, pulling on the straps, I didn't see as much shoulder blade work as I would like. You know what? Just leave the box. Leave the box for a second. We're not going to repeat, but we're going to review what you really want to feel. Let's have all of you standing like this.

So here we are with like you're lying on your stomach. Bring the hands down. By your size. So right now, see if you can squeeze the shoulder blade so you're not arching, you're not shifting the ribs, you're just really isolating the shoulder. That's it. So I want to see this pinch of the shoulderblades even more. Yes, yes. So the, you really squeeze your Soda Blades together. And now don't flay the ribs.

Just get tall and see how much further you can take these hands back without anything changing. And that's your beginning. Come forward again, bring the hands down, squeeze your shoulder blades together, lift up through the top of your head and pull the arms back. But squeeze, I don't care how far back this hands go. I want to see the shoulder blade, ribs back, ribs back. That's it. And release. One more time. So the back bend is very, it's kind of the center of the shoulder blade to the neck, not the rib cage, not lower. One more time. Pull down, squeeze a show, debates Cathy, even more shoulder blades. Yes. Now just take your head up, take your arms back and think of the sternum coming high. And I don't care how far back. And then release. That's what you're trying to do in my interpretation of pulling on the straps, cause lots of different ways to do these exercises. Just so you really, what you're doing here is you're really isolating the shoulder girdle in contrast to the spine or the ribs. And it's uh, it's hard at first and later you have a fantastic back. Let's take the box, turn it sideways. We're going right into short box. So you want two or three springs and sit as far back on your box as you can to Sabina.

Way Back. I don't want the feet touching the frame. Yes. Good. So you're on like almost a hands with, from the edge. Everybody put your hands on your belly, lift your ribs as high up away from your hips as you can. And now think of this band right where the ribs, the floating ribs are down to the waist. Can you make that area full? So it's like you're lifting up at, you're curving over at the same time.

So the front ribs close and the back ribs open and you look down towards your belly. So back ribs. Yes. And don't lose height. Now Start Rolling backwards, keeping this beautiful seeker working and then come back up again. That's good. Denise. [inaudible] and again, roll back, roll back, roll back, articulating your spine and then come back up. Just come a little bit further forward on the box for you. And now this time any of you want to go all the way back into back bend.

That's fine. Scoop again. Get those ribs going and then roll back, roll back, roll back. And then let your head go back and let your back open. You'll come back up so you don't die. That's it. Stretch your arms back a wall. If you've gone back, stretch your arms over your head, bring your hands back and roll back up. Do you have anything wrong with your back? Do you go in the back? Vince? Normally you don't. You, your back is stiff or your stiff.

Okay, let's just do one more variation for setbacks. So you know back problems. Let's hold us. No, not that. Hold the side of the box. Hold the back of the box with your hands like this. So as you start to go back, push with your hands. So you use it to traction. Use it to create links. Now let yourselves fall back and open the chest.

Take your head all the way back. Open the chest, open the chest. Now lift your head. Keep your hands here and push to, and you come up up. You come and push. There you go. See, get that nice stretch. That's it. So it's a little trick to get the back open. Bend over. Yeah, grab behind the knees and pull down. Nice stretch.

Come back up to an upright position. Flat back, hands behind your head. Lift up. So again, there's this tendency when you lift up tall for the ribs to be open and you have to see so back and forth. So the front body in the back body's long. See if you could have your shoulders right over your hips a little bit further forward here. Kathy, black and lift. There we go. Now Nice type buttocks. Get everybody in other entire, yes. Now hinge back.

Stay nice and tall from the hips into the crown of the head and come back up and get a little taller and hinge back, bottom tight and come back up. Try not to be a backbend. Everybody look down instead of up on the way back, looking down at the navel. Come back up, looking down, not up. Then the over. Grab your knees and stretched down. So there's always a temptation to go into a back bend when we do that. So if you look down, you keep the trunk long, come back up again.

Hands behind your head, lengthen through the back body, narrow the hips, get even tolerant. Denise Chin down. There we go. So imagine a crown on your head. You're pushing the crown up. Everybody an inch forward with the tee. That's it. And now bend to the right and back, whatever, right you want. Then to the left, whatever left you want, and back and the first side and back and the other side and back. Try to stay over your own hips and the first side. That's it. So you don't lean back as you do this and the other side.

And back. Bend forward. Grab your knees, bend over, round your back. Do you want to be like a ragdoll nice and schleppy and come back up. Hands behind your head. Nice. Lift up the spine, fill up your back ribs. Everybody rotate to the right without the hips changing shape. [inaudible] to the right. Come back to the center. Lift. Roll to the left. Rotate to the left and bring the right ribs. Way, way, way around and come back up and lift again and rotate to the right and the left ribs. Come around, come around, come around and back and twist to the other side.

Really make sure both hips are weighted and back. One more time. Lift even more. Lift. Very long lift. It's fine to have more and more and more. Space and back. And last one, lift. Twist to the other side. Twist, twist, twist, twist back, bend forward. Grab your ankles, bend over, let yourselves relax. Just let go of all the tension in your body and come back up for tree. I'd like a little variation instead of doing your tree nice and beautiful.

We've already done a lot of work in the trunk. Slight round shape to start with, so your focus will be more into elongating into the hamstring. So all of you, just like you did at the beginning in round back, get your scoop and roll a little back of your sit bones. Now keep that just a little bit too nice. Just a little tiny bit. Now bring your right knee into your chest.

Get that knee as close to your rib cages. You can see your shoulders over your hips, but you're in a slight school pole behind the knee unless is a problem. How close can you get your knee to your chest? Now keep the knee there lifted, right, like up as high as it'll go. No hands, just floppy leg and down and lift again and down and lift again and down. Lift up again, grab your ankle, pull the leg closer into you so you have a little sandwich and flexing 0.3 times the stretch your hamstring and loosen up the whole hip area and just feel your belly lifting. But you are in a slight scoop. Now he in fact to the leg is right above your hip and then walk down the leg and go as far back as you want to and that they had in chest open.

If you can open the chest as well, lift your head and climb up again. Keep the leg right where it is. Lift up, lift up, lift up, lift up, and go down against square this hip. Let your head drop into your chest and then open at the chest open. If you can climb up again and all the way up. Flex your foot, grab your toes and lift and one more time. Go down. You Go. Very good. Down, down, down, down, down.

See if you can take your head back. Open here, open here. That's it. Let yourself fall in. Climb up everybody. Good girl. Head forward. First head inverse. The protect your chin, your neck. I should say. Good. Bend the knee. Put your tongue top of your thigh and bend forward and down to have the leg here. All the side of the box. Bend over and give yourselves a nice, lovely stretch into the hip. Change sides.

You don't have anything with your back, do you? Yeah. Okay. Cause I didn't know that. A little rotation. Able to degenerative disc disease. Okay. Yeah. All righty. Then the other knee in scope, very slightly. Pull the sigh as close up to your chest as you can.

Try to keep it there even more in if you can. Yes. And lift the leg and down and lift the leg and down and lift the leg and down and lift your leg up. Walk your hands up towards your ankle and flex some 0.3 time one and two and three. Now hinge back to the leg is right above your hip. And then from here on out, start walking down the leg as far back as you want to squeeze your hip slab squeezer hips and then lift your head first and climb back up again. So now we'd want to create a lot in the pelvis and then you pull the spine out of the lock, they have like a root and then you pull, make space for two more times down.

You go down, you go. Say I have this nice stability, keep the stomach in and see if you can create one linked in there, out of the low back and then come back up. That's it. And come back up. And one more time. Nice. Narrow hips. Just do whatever you feel you're comfortable doing. I would like you to give me links there. Acid. That's it. That's it. That's it. You can open your chest if you want. Yes. And come back up.

It's actually very nice. Bend your knee. Hold the sides of the box with your hands and bend forward and down. So what you want, you were doing now creating this length. Don't be afraid to let this happen because this is not down there. And it will start to unravel some of the, you know, compression.

That's you're kind of dealing with this. Let's have all of you step off. Take the box, put it back and Lee stretch series. Just knees off. So let's keep the foot bar down. You want to have two springs, either two red, one red, one blue. Let's have you all kneeling. Who was the one with the knee story? I know. And there's another knee, two knees. Can you just kneel? And so everybody kneeling, feet up against the head. Shoulder rest, hands on the frame.

So on the wood frame, on the sides. One hand, one hand, everybody give me Sabine. Get the toes cold way under you. Everybody get the heels back and I forgot your name. I'm so sorry Tracy. I want the toes curled under. That's it. Re now everybody round your back as much as you can that they had dropped right down and live the ribs as high up to the ceiling as you can and really tuck your tail under you. Keep your shoulders very wide. Sabine. Now can you get your heels back now can you lift your knees off the carriage two inches up and now push out with those legs.

Push and pull and push and pull and push and pull and push and pull. Scoop. That tail pushed him, Paul and Paul and Paul and pull lower down with control. Step. Step off at the springs that you want to for running. And did you feel your stomachs? Yes. Okay, good. And let's have you lie down on your back. Set yourself up to the bar.

We'll be up again. You want to be on the same amount of springs you had right at the beginning for the foot work and you have these middle safety things that lock in so that nothing falls apart. Make sure your headrest is lifted. So reach back and lift the head. Rest. Stop feet will be on the Bartos in heels together for me. Arms alongside. So set up just the way you where you want this long spine, long neck push all the way out with your legs to straight feed a parallel.

Now for me, feet are powerful. Narrow your hips. How high can you get your heels? Everybody up, up, up with the heels now. Then you write me and press your left heel down as far as it'll go. But keep your hips from lift up again onto both toes. Reverse it, press the other heel down, hips firm and lift.

Keep going and down and up and down and then down and down and now faster and switch and switch and switch. Now as you do this, check that your hips are firm. Check that your back is long, you're kind of getting back into your body again. You're balancing out the muscles, you're calming and cooling down the system, and you're getting everything stable and firm and anchored in, organized. To finish off. Very good. Bend your knees and come back in. Swing your legs to one side. Let's everybody go to the right. Come to a sitting position. Make sure you're sitting, hold up, have your elbows. Now when you set up, there's a tendency to want to stick your bottom out. Come up. I'll come over here so you can almost see.

So I'd rather you get into this round scoop, shift onto your legs and see if you can come up really with a long spine in the stomach supporting you. Yes. Nice. Okay. Turn around. Take a deep breath in and breathing out. Relax. Y'All did very well. Thank you so much.

Comments

1 person likes this.
I like this energetic class thank you!
1 person likes this.
Thank you Niedra for your knowledge and this excellent class. One question, you occasionally cue your clients, particularly when they are supine, "Check and see that your spine is long." From your perspective, is this simply maintaining a neutral spine position? If a client wasn't sure if their spine was "long," what might you ask them to do differently? Thank you so much!
Niedra Gabriel
Thank you ladies. Glad you enjoyed the class. Tiffany, this is a great question - lengthening the spine is unique to each person, for some it is elongating the hip flexors, checking the lats and ribs are aligned for more length, it is a concept that can be applied in relation to most joints that connect it to it, so it is not really neutral spine, actually that too is in my opinion an abstract concept as the amount of curve is influenced but the joints. so simply attempt to get as long as you can - including the neck and make space every where... hope this helps? i
Why don't instructors say what springs to use??? Sometimes I feel like this website is only geared toward other instructors. :(
Niedra Gabriel
Hi Elizabeth, I understand your frustration and will make every effort to remember to mention spring tensions when we film. Revisiting this class, I was working with 5 spring balanced body equipment and as I am do not teach or practice very often on these reformers I often allow the students to set up their own tension to their liking. If you are ever lost on what tension to work with always trust your body to tell you, if you feel like you are fighting the machine, it is too heavy, if you are flying off the machine, too light. Believe it or not, this is often how tension is set by the teacher.
1 person likes this.
This class had nice balance in muscles exercised. There was amazing explanation with what we were supposed to be feeling, precise instructions on how to move properly in the move and detail with modifications if there was injury. I felt I learned a lot about how a body works during a workout like this. But..... There was little cueing with regard to spring tension or time to feel what spring tension would've been best for you. The transitions between moves that moved the reformer were edited out. So there's absolutely no time to test a tension out unless you're in instructor and know what works for you in that move.
Niedra Gabriel
Thank you Lauren, I do understand your frustration.
This class was filmed for as an addendum for the group that came for a workout, and less for you internet students, so I guess there is always a pro and a con happening.
I will keep your comments in mind for future reference - thank you .
dThis video kept stopping and reloading continually. such a nuisance when you are trying to take a class. have used all the apps for my IPad but often run into this problem. class
looks great though
Trish ~ I'm sorry you are having trouble with this video. I have sent you an email with options that may help you.
"What you need"...a box is not listed but most of the class is practiced on the box.
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