Class #1698

Using Springs for Suspension

40 min - Class
131 likes

Description

Erika Quest teaches a Cadillac workout focusing on using the springs for suspension so you can find a floating element in the body. She includes many standing exercises to work on balance and stabilization and many others including a Roll Up with Suspended Legs. PA Instructor Portia Page makes all of these movements look easy, but they will challenge your entire body.
What You'll Need: Cadillac

About This Video

May 31, 2014
(Log In to track)

Transcript

Read Full Transcript

We're going to do some trapeze today. I am again joined by my dear friend and colleague Porsche page and I just want to talk to a little bit about how to get this guy or gal set up for efficient transitions when we're doing this class or when you're doing this class. So you'll notice that I have the slide bar quite high up. You'll have to play with this and vary it based upon libor length for yourself or for your clients. So please feel free to do that. We were on purple springs here, so leg springs with a single loop pretty heavy.

We will also be needing to use the trapeze for one exercise. I'm going to store that underneath for now. We will also need a pair of handles so make sure that you have those available to you and then we will definitely need the push through bar as well as to blue springs. You may feel the need to change your spring tension, maybe a little bit lighter into yellow springs at times. Um, and as we go through this, I will make sure that I mentioned that when we're going through class. So in the meantime, you're ready for a warmup to set that up. I want you to come over to the end of your trapeze table with the push through bar.

One blue spring portion is going to grab onto her push through bar. And again, depending on the size of your body or your client's body, you can play with where you want to set up. Let's have you actually bend your elbows Portia and draw the bar up and we'll begin with just some nice rolling. So bend the elbows, press the bar down, cruel the chin to the chest, getting just a nice mobilization through the spine rolling through. You can even go into a little bit of extension here, Portia. Great. And then exhale round that spine up. Feel the abdominals, blanket the spine as you roll all the way back up, just allowing for the breath to come into the body. Heal here.

Curl the chin to the chest, accessing the abdominals gently waking them up, feeling the spine. Extend feeling that length down the back of the legs and rolling all the way back up. Great. Let's do three more of these. So we'll go to five and rounding. Rolling down. Good lifting. The sacrum appears slightly and exhale the belly comes in and you rebuild the spine. One bone at a time. Two more times here.

Pressing through those hands. Yes, and rounding. Just enjoy these. We're going to stay on this side of the trapeze table for a bit and get into some leg work as well. And one more here. Press down and round and roll so that we get a bit of kind of rotation in here. Come on back up Portia, and I want you to just lean back slightly into your bar.

Take your left arm up and over and look at those fingertips. Good. And then come back to the bar and let's add in another cat stretch. Why don't we exhale, curl the chin round down and stretching through. Good. Scooping the belly in, again, really activating the abdominals. And then we'll take this over of course, to the other side.

And you can use that bar. Lean off of it a little bit and rounding two more times that we'll do one more to the right. One more to the left before we move into some heel lifts and some knee bends. So right arm lifts up and overreaching. Good. So finding just a bit of rotation around that middle back region.

Good. And all the way back up, using the breath and then that right arm's gonna rotate on reach. Great. And back to the bar. Perfect. So now holding onto the bar, Portia, I just want you to allow for the body to do some heel lifts and lower. So just getting a little bit of feeling through the ankles here and lowering down. Good. So rising up and lowering as you're lifting, drop upwards through the spine. Really feel that upright posture here. Two more times. Good. And last one. And then let's do five soft knee bends and nothing major here.

Just a nice knee bend to just check in on your knees. See where you're at there. Good. Last three and two. This is going to get a lot more intense. And last one momentarily. Let's do a heel lift and then lower the heels and into a soft knee band.

So we're just going to alternate those for a few. So lifting up, rising up onto the toes, grounding down through the heels and bending the knees. Softly. Good. Three more sets. So we did five heel lifts, five knee bends, and then we'll do five sets here of alternating. So two more sets, lifting, pressing through the big toe and the toe next to it and last one and bending those knees. Great. So now I want to take this a little bit deeper into knee flection and you want have a little bit of a lean off of this push through bar. And from here you're going to kind of pretend that you're going to sit down on a chair. So on an inhale, go ahead and do a nice chair, sit and then exhale, press up. And I already want to adjust Portia's po positioning.

So this is a good thing. So I want you to walk forward a little bit because the first thing that I saw was that her knees were not in a great position, they were coming too far forward or the toes. So please be mindful of that as you're setting yourself or your clients up for success going through these. So inhale, bend and exhale press and of course addressing what works best for you with the knee flection. Good. Last four and pressing up last three. Get ready because we're going to add in a knee lift after two more pressing, nice and neutral through that spine.

As you lift up and now sit down in your chair, press up and lift any, finding a little bit of balance. So this is kind of a march here. The cool thing about leaning slightly off of your push through bar and having that spring is that actually offers you a little bit of a assistance. And if you want more of a challenge, you want to be leaning less off of the push through bar. Good. Last two here, take you one meet up and last one. Fantastic.

So pulling you into a bit more of an athletic stance. Let's have you widen out to about shoulder distance apart. What you might find here as you can get deeper into your squat. So let's have Porsche lean back and here we go. Inhale down and exhale, press up.

Really feel that drive through the heels, the power through the legs. As you're doing these, inhale to bend and exhale to press. And again, you play with the range of motion that works best for you. Last two good and one. Now taking the hips even wider. I want you to point those toes out and open the hips into a nice wide stance and taking this into a [inaudible]. So inhale down. Exhale, keep everything active as you press through those feet.

Good and down and press. Shoulders are out of the ears and neck is nice and soft here. Great. Last two, Porsche and stay down or for me on this last one, hold that position. Lower one it and lift one inch. So keeping the con co contraction here through the quadriceps and the hamstring, really challenging and heating up those legs. Four and three good two and then all the way up, you're still smiling. So let's have you rise up onto your right set of toes, lift that right heel up off the floor, keep it there and carry on with those full repetitions.

Inhale down and exhale up. So we've just done a weight transfer. You're going to pick up a little bit more load through that left leg and a little bit more challenge. So enjoy that last three and again, get ready for those pulses and coming down hold and then little pulses. Nice and control. Don't rush through these. Resist that temptation. You want to really challenge yourself here. Three, two, an all the way up to the top and of course other side.

So that left heel comes up, the right heel stays down back into the full repetitions. And the Ken, we're going to about eight to 10 of these, maybe eight to 10 pulses. If that's too challenging, just take it down a bit, maybe known to as many or maybe omit some of the positions to more. Great. And last one. Hold it for eight pulses, go eight and seven lasts six and five Porsche's still smiling last too. And all the way up to the top. So guess what that means? I'm going to take her up onto both sets of toes full. Inhale down, exhale through the big toe and the toe next to it as you up.

Good. Really trying to keep those heels lifted and when the heels lifted, you want that stabilization of the ankle. This is your last one right here. So stay down and eight pulses and seven good, six, five and four last three, two and all the way up. Great. You're almost at your stretch, I promise. But I want to take you into a bit of a curtsy lunch here. So you want to take your right foot externally, rotate the hip and drive forward. Take the left foot, slide it back behind you, and come up onto the back of those toes. That back hip is also externally rotated. And from here we take a curtsy.

So inhale, bend those knees and exhale press. And you just saw Porsha adjust a little bit and that's totally fine. You'll start to figure out positioning here and what works best for you or your clients as you go through this last four. Good. Three and two. Great. This is I believe 10 if I counted correctly.

So let's switch to the other side. Bonus. Repetition. Thank you very much. And she did great. So she married her feet in that v position first, then slid that back toe back and inhale helps to Ben. Exhale helps depress engaging everything through the body, making sure you're drawing up through the top of the crown of the head, still trying to find that float element in the whole system. Last one here. Good. And take a break. So let's do a little bit of a stretch before we transition you facing the camera for side sideline. Okay. Take your right heel, bring it up onto the edge and you can see Portia's gonna need to take a mini step forward, which is totally fine. And then from here, she's just going to draw the push through bar down towards her foot and take a hamstring stretch.

And I will assist in cue here to drop that hip down and retract it back in to the hip socket. Bring that pushes your bar back. Take a nice inhale. And why don't you go forward to more of those as you exhale, reach forward. Good. And again, whatever range of motion works best for you. But this feels delicious, quite frankly. Great. And still having a really stabilize with the leg, that has to be your standing leg on the floor, coming back up Porsche.

And then let's take a figure four or a glute stretch. So now from here you want to actually be hanging off of that guy. So walking back, crossing one ankle over the opposite knee and hang off the bar and just get into that lovely glute stretch. This feels amazing. You might want to stay here for about four or five or 15 minutes, but do whatever feels the best for you coming all the way up. And of course let's do the other side. Good.

Taking that hamstring. So diving forward, drawing this hip downwards towards the floor and pulling it back into the hip so that you're really feeling a lovely functional link down the back of that leg coming back up. And then exhale. Can you go maybe a millimeter further through good. Allowing the body to relax your legs just actually did quite a bit of work and we're going to take you into some sideline work again. So this is a great, nice juicy break time for you. Good. And then taking a step back so that you're in that lean position a little bit and going into your figure four so you can see how she's actually hanging off of this bar and just getting a lovely stretch through the glute, the posterior hip. Then test it. Come on up to standing.

Turn and face the camera please. And from here we're going to go into some side work. I want you to walk away a little bit, Portia, and you're going to come back into that wide ple. A stance. Yes, that's great. From here I want you to do just that play down. So take the knee bend and then transfer weight over to that right leg and come out to a sideline position. Awesome. Good again.

And coming back down into your plea AA and then out to sideline. And this is really, really challenging and she's also having the, as she comes out, stabilize with that right shoulder and also with that right leg. Beautiful. One more. And then we're staying over. So she's gonna stay here and find her balance and just tap that left set of toes down to the floor and lift back up or towards the floor. Down and up. Good. You got three more in you.

So she's totally balancing on her right leg. She gets a little bit of an assist through that right arm. Last one, Portia. And then a few circles forward. Good. Up and over around that hip like you're tracing honey around the size of a pink grapefruit and reverse directions up and over. So you want these to be really active.

Three and two. Last one. Hold it there. Can you bend your knee towards your navel? A little. Inhale there. Exhale, shoot the leg straight back out. Stay nice and stable. Kind of reminds you of a star position on the reformer a little bit. Last two and last one you did. Amazing. So let's do the other side. Ooh.

So when you turn around just for efficiency sake, you want to try and set yourself up in a similar position. So take the plea a Porsche. Yeah. And then start to stabilize through that left arm. And if you have a little bobble and you need to move, that's totally fine. That's what it's all about. It's all about positioning in the body on the trapeze table.

It's different than the reformer because we don't have a moving piece of a carriage and things of that nature. Last one and stay over for me and holding strong here. Porsche tapping towards the floor, lifting up. So now left leg stabilizes. Left shoulder girdle comes into play here as well.

Shoulder comes into play and stay up there on your last one and circles forward. Good. Now your pink grapefruit is coated in marshmallow cream and one more reverse directions. Good. And up and over finding that apex at the top of the circle here. Last two you're doing awesome. Last one and give me five of those knee bends in and you reach good and four and three reminder that Portia makes us look very easy and last one and you did fantastic. Well done.

So that concludes what we're going to do with the push through bar off the side on the floor and we're transitioning now onto the table. So you want to take your blue spring off. I failed to mention I took the safety strap off here because we actually don't need it. We were not going to be doing any bottom loaded work with the springs but we do want to add in a blue spring back on Porsche. Come in line down for me and we'll put your ponytail off the back a little bit.

I'm going to keep Porsche on one blue spring. We're going to work some posterior abdominals here. You could easily add in an extra blue or go to two yellows if you'd like a bit more assistance. So reaching up, grabbing onto the outside of the push through bar feet are hip distance apart parallel. I want the low back to be in what I call the smashing the grape position. So the pubic bone is really tipping into wards the navel, the lower back is melting into the mat.

And let's go for some many roll-ups here. Take an inhale, exhale, curl the chin around that imaginary Mandarin Orange and roll up losing tension in the springs. But stay connected here. Yes, inhale lower just to where the lower back has smashed that grape. And exhale come straight back up. So you'll be hearing the click of this top loaded spring. That's fine. Great. So really working the deep muscles here and exhale, lift. Great. Let's do four more and exhale up cause we have more stuff to do last three but she's still smiling.

Last two and one. Fantastic. Lower all the way down. And I want you to leave your right hand on the Barre. Take your left arm, hover at right next to your hip. We're going to vary the RM position, very the Proprius proprio receptors and change your center of gravity here. Exhale again. Curl the Chin around that imaginary Mandarin. Lift up, open that left arm out, and look to the left. Good. Inhale, go back to smashing that grape and exhale. Go again, right? So really thinking of that left arm as a nice long lever here.

Stretching out longer from a polarity perspective through the fingertips. Last two, I think that's a, we're getting to about six ish here and one lowering all the way down. Give the neck a little bit of arrest while you transition over. So the left arm comes on, the right arm now hovers and exhale. You curl the chin to the chest. Take that right arm out.

Look to the beautiful water. Inhale lower to the lower back. Portia's is doing a great job here of keeping her pelvis in a nice, stable position. The pubic bone tipped towards the navel. Two more. And the hips still facing forward, even though we're going away from the body with that arm. Good. Take a break. Super. We're done with this guy. So I'm going to have you slide down and move closer to those legs. Springs. Now I talked earlier in the setup of where we had positions.

These legs springs, they're quite high and Porsche is going to bring her heels in. And I think let's bring the toes through and just kind of rest your heels straight in there. So you can also play with the position here. You can move it up higher into the ankle or keep it lower towards this base of the heel. Whatever works best for you. But now you can see that her legs are actually slightly suspended up off of the table. This feels very, very different. Take the arms up and all the way over the head and we're going to experience a roll up here. So bring the fingertips up to the ceiling, curl the chin, exhale, roll through the spine, keeping those legs suspended, stay nice and see curves here in the hale. And exhale, pull the pubic bone and really lower nice and slow bone by bone.

So we've totally upped the ante on the roll up with this. So, you know, exhale. It's not gonna lie and reaching forward. Inhale, nice and exhale, pull the tummy in. And we're of course not done quite yet. So give me two more of these and we're just gonna stay in this trajectory.

But you could play with rolling up towards one leg and over towards the other side and down, palpating the spine in different areas. It's, you know, there's lots of different options here. So play with that and have fun with it. One more inhale. Exhale, curl the Chin in and roll through that spine. Nice. Shoulders are out of the ears. Inhale at the top and exhale all the way down rate. So while Porsche rests here for just a moment, I'll explain where we're going.

We're going to take this into some knee bends and some rotation. Essentially it's the same movement and breathing pattern. We're just going to vary the position of the arms and the legs to challenge your oblique sling system, reaching the arms back behind you, lifting the fingertips up to the ceiling, curling the chin to the chest. As you roll up, she's going to now bend her knees, rotate the arms towards the front and the knees towards the side of that right arm coming back down and then she's going to go to the other side. So lift this is not easy at all and reach good.

Inhale all the way down, lengthening out. Feel that long stretch of the body there for that moment and lift and rotate. Nice, good control, great. And lift and twist. Slight twist. You're trying to keep again that sacrum down the hips facing forward the best you can. Two more. You got two more Portia? Good and exhale.

So kind of cool. She's suspended here. It feels very different through the bottom body and through the system and last one and up. Good. Great job. And lowering down and we're going to release the feet. We will move back to the table in a moment, but I'm going to have you come up to standing again and let's transition on over. So the cool thing is is that if you get these spring set up for that rolling ad piece, theoretically they should also be set up for what we're going to do next.

So turn face in a way and she's going to take the loops now into her forearms. So we're coming into a bit of a forearm plank. Again, this is a negotiation on body positioning, so we might have to do a little bit of testing here. Porsches in a slight lean forward. She has some suspension in through her arms, staying in a nice solid plank position. She's going to do a chest fly and you can see how she's negotiating, where she needs to be to make sure she can do this. Inhale the arms open.

Great and exhale. Nice. So everything stays nice and stable here through her body. She's just opening and closing those arms and kind of like rocking forward so you can see her toes are kind of coming more up into like a Doris, a flexed position. Great. Last two. So kind of a cool way to experience some suspension off this end of the trapeze. Seeing right here, Portia, let's go into some shoulder flection.

So just lifting those arms up and drawing forward. And you can see now she's found it like she's totally in her sweet spot, which is great. So it's the, the micro shift here is so small. Last two before we go into circles, the micro shift back or forward I should say is so small. And last one good. And then let's circle. So let's stay in that direction. Lifting the arms up. Good. Then opening 'em out and coming around and through.

Great. And lifting up. This is a really nice comfortable position to, to have the loop right at that forearm. Last three. Good. And around two more. And last one here. Great. And reverse directions open and through good everything stays super nice and stable. Porsche is doing great job. And last too.

And then final thing I want to do here before we turn and face the other direction is a bit of lateral flection. So she's going to open her arm a little bit wider and from here just start to tip that elbow towards the hip. Inhale back to center. Feels like you're turning a big steering wheel of a car. Right? Inhale and exhale. So now getting some mobilization through the spine. We've been holding everything nice and solid and stable for those other exercises so it feels good to move here a little bit, but still getting that lovely suspension into the springs with the forearms.

Nice Porsche two more and twisting and last one here. Awesome. Okay, so we're going to stay here but you can come on up to standing and we shall turn and face your loops. These are pretty heavy springs. As a reminder, we're going to use them with your hands, so if you need to, you could take these to a lighter legs spring or maybe one of the shorter, the shorter springs with handles would be completely appropriate here. And as I explained earlier in my intro, I wanted to make sure I mentioned that along the way because there's a lot of variation in variety depending on what your strength level is. Let's start with some reverse lunges here. So feet are parallel, hip distance apart, lifting up through that spine.

And from here you're going to transfer weight over to one foot. Reach back, lunge down. And as you come up I want you to press through the palms of the hands and give me a knee raise. Now Portia looks really solid here. I, she can see she's really working hard through her core. It's so interesting when you press back with those hands, how not only are your arms really activated, this is a totally compound movement that now through the core good, you got four more good and you lift and press chest stays nice and lifted here, right? We're not losing our posture. Good. Last two and last one, we could do pulses, but we'll move to the other side. So here we go. So she's set herself up for success in this position.

So it's just a matter of shifting over to that other leg. Inhale takes you down, drive up through that opposite heel and lift that opposite knee. Press back through the arms from side to side. You're totally different. It's okay. That's why we do unilateral stuff, right? And press awesome. You can see the backs of your arms working really hard here and that she's really having to turn on that cylinder as she presses back to warm empress and last one and press up. Great. Okay, so now the side lunge, we're transitioning to just one of the legs springs. You want to put yourself about center of the slide bar here.

And you can see how Porsche walked pretty close into the spring. So because this is a challenging spring, okay. And she, I want her to try and dig deep and try and pick up a big beach ball off the floor here and her sideline. So from here, take an inhale, big wide step with that right leg reaching down. Then she's going to come up and hover, lifting that right knee up. So let's take that knee lift there. Great. And as you can see, she's pushing really challenging through that left arm to get down towards the floor. As left, she's going to pick up something off the floor. Last three, you got this Porsche. So again, super compound movement, super challenging too. And she's doing an excellent job. And one. Great. So let's do the other side. Lather, rinse, repeat. So she's just turned around, switched to the other hand, started in that parallel foot stance.

She takes that Nice wide lunge out reaching. And again, you have to really focus on the deceleration of that spring turning on the side body muscles and coming into that lift the knee and the hover. Yes. And of course if you have to tap a foot here and there, that's fine. Last three, good Portia, two more reach. Good. Pick up that kitty cat off the floor. And last one here and left. Great job. Super. So there some lunging variations and some arm work suspended from this side of the trapeze table.

We're now going to transition you back onto the table with some trapeze work. This will be the only time that you need this guy. So we will do some piking here and some knee bends and then some pikes before we move into the arm hovers series. Okay. So as you can see, we're about two thirds on this bar setting. Um, and that would be great if you could set your trapeze up. If you're gonna run this whole workout all at once and Portia is going to bring, let's bring a little bit more towards the yeah. Towards the ankles.

And so she's gonna bring one foot in first. Yes. And then the other foot comes in. So she's found a really strong plank position. And from here we're just going to bend the knees, hollow the back out and draw the knees in. Inhale out. Super, super challenging. Stabilization through the shoulder girdle. And exhale, bring the knees to the chest. Last two and pulling deep into that core.

Last one here. Yes. Let me have you take a break by bringing one knee down and the other knee down. It's good to give your clients or yourself a break here. Shake out the risks can definitely be challenging on those risks. And now we're going into a pike. So same idea here, but I want us stay in a more neutral line of the spine.

So from tail to the top of the crown of the head, nice and stable, all contained together as she lives in pikes, the Seagram up. Good and inhale, coming all the way out. Porsche loves to be upside down. So she's, she's in her happy space here. Good. Porsha beautiful. Inhale. Exhale. Can you do three more? Okay. And inhale out nice and long through that line.

Last two good. And one more. She makes this look amazing. This is not easy. Fantastic. So challenging on the shoulders and go ahead and release getting out of that trapeze. Good. Why don't you go ahead and take a child's pose for me and I'll take this trapeze off.

So a little bit of minor set up needs to happen. Yeah. Yeah. We're taking these blue springs now coming in to where the trapeze was already set and adding in handles. We will need these blue springs and these handles for the duration of the rest of our exercises. Porsche, you're going to be facing the handles, the hands come into the handles and we want to set up in more of the Quadra head position. She's going to suspend into these springsK and as she gets into that like suspended position, she can then adjust the relationship of her hip to her knee.

Okay. Cause we want this stacked from here. Let's just see how it feels to reach those arms forward and back. So she's going to take the arms away from the body and then draw them back. And what you're going to feel here is all these little intrinsic shifts in the center of gravity. It's really unbelievable how hard she's working right now with this small of a movement. Good. One more. Staying in a nice neutral line here.

Then let's take a little bit of one arm work. So taking one arm forward, leaving that left arms stay static, and then the left arm goes forward. So again, just shifting angles in the trajectories through the body, changing what muscles need to activate and turn on to keep her in this perfect quadric head position. Last one, and then let's go on a diagonal, Portia. So right arm goes out as the left arm goes, so she's kind of coming on a bit of a diagonal right now, away from the body. Good. And opening and closing. It feels good to inhale as you reach out and exhale as you close. Let's do two more. So open and close.

Wonderful. Last one. How are you doing? You okay? Ready to go into some circles. Great. So now we'll take some symmetrical circles. So we've kinda confused the brain and for a moment with the asymmetry, let's go back into symmetry and circling around. So feeling how the shoulder girdle is moving here. She's getting a lot of different work through the arms. And last one, reverse directions. Arms go out, reaching forward.

And of course this is also very compound here. Everything is working hard through the core. Good. Last two and one last two things. You're going to do a chest press. The body will move down. Yes. Beautiful. And pressing up.

So you can see the springs are staying stable as best as she could keep them, but the body is lowering and lifting. Let's go for five. That was three and two. Fantastic. I wouldn't dare ask her to lift one leg off right now. Hold here. And tricep press where the springs move and the body stays stable. Okay, so you can see now or lower or we're losing the tension and the springs and then regaining it lasts two and last one. Awesome job. You did great.

That is not an easy series. Yeah, you did super good. So we're going need these guys again in this exact same position, but I want to do one other thing before we add in the final series of back extensions. So I'm gonna take this guy off and of course it's going to set ourself up facing you guys and then take that Spring and bring it above the head. So when she's in this position, both hands are going to be clasping. She wants to have very little, very little.

If no tension on that spring, this is a blue spring. You could change it easier to elect to a lighter spring. No problem. This is very challenging. The right leg is going to come out onto the table and the toe was going to tap down. This kneecap should stay facing forward to the best of your ability. And then from here, she's going to cylinder narrow in the waist line up, and then hinge over flexing laterally here.

And you might not get her huge range of motion, but let me tell you, this is so hard and exhale, but we want to apply all the properties of length. So grow tall through the top of the crown of the head arc over good. Last three and arking. Good Portia and two and last one. Perfect other sides.

So best way to transition is to try and note where that knee print is swivel around. So you're pretty even from side to side, your, your nervous system will thank you. So you're just kind of keeping your hat above your head and lifting up through that spine and exhaling over. So she's lengthening out her right side now while she's slightly condensing down on the left. Inhale and exhale. Let's get 10. So this is five and five more. Five good Portia, last four.

Beautiful. Three hip stay facing forward and one good job. Okay, let's finish with a bit of back extensive again, as I mentioned, we needed to transition out of that position with the blue springs for a moment. I always like to finish with back extensions that we'll come back in with the blue spring. These again could be maybe a little heavy for you, so feel free to lighten them up. Portia has really great back extension and strong arms.

We'll leave her here. She's going to lift her hands into these handles and if your shoulders will allow for this, she's going to put the forehead down and draw the arms up to the ceiling members through the arms. Come around. Yes, so this is a really luxurious stretch. If you can do it, it would be contra indicated for many, many people with shoulder problems. Just remember that from here. Portion is going to come in to kind of that Flying Eagle position. Arms come out to the tee and they reach forward.

She comes into back extension and she's really keeping that pubic bone pushing into the table, getting the abdominal wall engaged, supporting the lower back here, finding that nice long line through the middle. Thoracics here. Inhale to lower arms lift and exhale. You reach gorgeous. Last three, Portia, you don't need to do 15 of these, I swear. Good, great. And last two, you can see her cervical spine is in it, staying in a nice long line with the rest of everything else. So there is nothing that's being deviated and last one here and you reach now hold there for me, Portia. Can you just give me a little, press down with those hands and lift a little higher. Good. Inhale, two more of those. Exhale, press. Yes, you've got this last one.

This is your last exercise and lower all the way to the table. Take the arms out of those handles and I would love for you to sit in child's pose to get that lower back, to lengthen out, reaching forward. Just letting this whole region relax. Breathing into the back of those lungs. Great job. And you know me, we're going to do a roll down. So come on, stand on the floor with me and let's reorganize you.

So feed our hip distance apart. Think of that idea of vertical polarity here. Feeder, reaching down as the arms. Reach up, float the fingertips to the ceiling. Exhale again. Pour your body down. Feel how long you are after that delicious workout on the trapeze table.

You worked so hard. Take a nice deep inhale here and exhale again. Pull the tummy to the spine, rebuild restack the spine bone by bone, by bone. Lift those arms up one last time. Give me a flex of the wrist and let's celebrate. Open the test to the ceiling and draw the arms to the side. You did great.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Hi Erika,

What an awesome class! I especially loved all the arm work with the blue springs on the sliding cross bar.
Erika Quest
Awwww, thanks Rene! I appreciate it. Being my first Trapeze I was hoping it would be fun for all to watch!
1 person likes this.
Erica, this is an excellent class for my athletic clients !! Great cueing.
Erika Quest
Hi, Ellen! Thank you so MUCH. I appreciate you watching and I hope all is going well with you. xo
1 person likes this.
Great class Erika! I can't wait to try all of these exercises! Your cueing and setup explanations are very good
Erika Quest
1 person likes this.
Hey, Tianna! Thanks so much for watching. It was wild to have this class post while I was traveling to teach in Italy. One of the amazing things about Pilates Anytime, right? I hope you're doing just great and hope to see you soon! xo Erika
1 person likes this.
Great class! Suspension work is very challenging and Portia makes it look so easy! I can't wait to try this class again!
O V
1 person likes this.
Awesome class! Excellent cueing. it really challenged my deep abs . Thank you!
Erika Quest
Annie and Olga! Thank you for watching and your comments are SPOT ON! Much love, Erika
1 person likes this.
What a fabulous class! So many great challenges to work towards. It is so wonderful to receive such excellent direction with superb execution. My favourite class. Thank you
1-10 of 28

You need to be a subscriber to post a comment.

Please Log In or Create an Account to start your free trial.

Footer Pilates Anytime Logo

Move With Us

Experience Pilates. Experience life.

Let's Begin