Class #1839

Reformer-Inspired Cadillac

50 min - Class
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If you're looking for a workout that will challenge your strength while simultaneously refreshing your body, try this Cadillac Workout with Monica Wilson. Her focus in this class is to teach a workout on the Cadillac influenced by the Reformer exercises and order, finishing with the traditional endings of Breathing, Spread Eagle, and Pull Ups. This workout is not necessarily meant to replace a Reformer workout, but can be great done in conjunction with a Reformer workout, or on its own.
What You'll Need: Cadillac

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Sep 23, 2014
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So today I'm going to teach Rebecca a Cadillac workout that I enjoyed doing. The Cadillac doesn't generally have a specific order. You could actually do a whole reformer workout on the Cadillac. We're going to take bits and pieces of that today, but I'm just gonna overall work out her body, give her a good feeling and leave her really refreshed as well. But, um, you can also do this after a good reformer workout. It's not necessarily something to just replace completely a workout.

We have quite a bit of spring placement today, so if you want to set up your Cadillac ahead of time, that might help. I use Grotte springs, so that's what I am used to feeling the tension and working out against and Al also teaching my clients against that spring tension. This is a balanced body Cadillac and I have hung my grot springs accordingly. So, um, we will be using the push through bar and I have a push through spring up here as well as we'll do tower and monkey later. So I have my spring ready to go for tower and monkey.

I also have, um, right now the, what we call the roll down bar, it's hooked up to where we would generally have the arm spring. Some. I've lowered this bar to a level that is about the arm spring level. I will be taking this up and hooking it up there later on for chest expansion and other exercises. And almost immediately I'm going to grab these legs springs, raise this bar up a little bit higher and add my legs springs for her legs series, um, workout. So I believe, oh and then one last one is we'll be using the trap piece. So I have it underneath the Cadillac that I'll be pulling it out to do her traditional ending [inaudible] and bring down the fuzzies for a nice traditional ending.

So I think that about covers it of the extra springs that you might need to set up. So you might want to do that and then go ahead and start the workout. So let's go ahead and lie down onto your back. Great. And maybe slide back. Just a hair. Good. Now we're gonna do the hundred with our roll down bar. And you can either do it on top of your thighs or underneath your thighs.

And for you, I think I want to see it underneath your thighs so your legs are going to end up being higher, but you're really going to be pulled into your upper stomach and reaching long. Try not to touch your thighs with that bar. So go ahead and slip your legs over. Good. And I want you to take a breath into the mat and exhale. Lift your head as you reach that bar long and low and legs. Extend where they can and pump into three, four, five. Exhale, two, three, four, five.

Keep pushing into the crook of your thumb to keep reaching past those legs. Fantastic. Good. And two, three, four, five. And exhale. It's really warming up the stomach. There's no question there into three, four, five and exhale. Two, three, four, five. See if you can open your collarbones a little bit. Nice job. Really pushing down on the bar. Good.

Let's do 20 more and you'll be done in two, three, four, five. Exhale, two, three, four, five, one more. Really reach those, open those collarbones, scoop in your stomach, scoop, scoop, scoop, and then put it underneath your knees for a nice stretch. Bending the knees. Very good, good. Was that challenging? Okay, let's slip the legs out. Good men can actually do it from the spring all the way up on top. So all kinds of different levels that you can do the a hundred app, but you want to make sure that it's working for you. So if it ends up being too strong and fighting against you, then that might not be where you want them. So I'm going to add my legs, springs, and we're going to go into our legs spring.

So I sometimes keep the reformer in mind while I choreograph what exercises I'm going to use for my workout. So we would do footwork. I'm going to grab both of them at the same time. Bring both knees in at the same time and slip your feet in. Good. Go ahead and place up. Before you do that, I'm gonna slide. Elevate my bar just a little bit here.

Screw in it. When you lift in it. All right, there we go. That's where I want your springs to be. We're going to have the strap a little closer to the heel. There you go. And right there. Nice. Now you can place your hands right there and make a nice right angle. So bring your elbows in just a little bit. Bring this hand up just a tiny bit.

Perfect. And you want to push energy into those poles so that your chest can nice your bra strap or your upper back and be really engaged into the mat. You feel that? And I want you to just straighten your legs. Beautiful while zipping everything up. Let's go ahead and start with leg circles. So bring the legs up a bit.

Open and circle one nice flow and two and I'm going to let go and three and pulling down four. There you go. Pulling down five. Then Holt, reverse. Squeeze those inner thighs down one. Oh, you can go down further to use that powerhouse. Three. Good job and pulling in four and last one five and bend the knees and rest your arms by your side. You get a break in between each one. You're doing great. Put your hands back. Strong Springs, Huh? Okay. Oops. This one likes to be higher. This one likes to be lower. There you go.

All right. Knees apart and push into there so that, that's it. Good. That'll give you more strength. We're going to do walking now, so you're going to stretch forward using the backs of the backs of the thighs. You're going to go down one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and come on up. Okay, so we're going to take eight counts. I could have said that earlier to go down. So it's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, three. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and up to three. I love how you're keeping them down the middle of your body and work the back of the thigh or it reaches the glute. Eight and up. Two, three, four, five, six. One more time down to where it reaches. The bottom. Five, six, seven, eight. Anna, two, three, four, five, six, seven. And bend the knees. Rest your arms. Good. Nice.

So now we will do beats. We're going to squeeze the inner thighs. Hands go back, press in Nice and even arms. Love it. Extend out. Good. So you really want to press into those straps, not with the back of the knees, but with the thighs and bottom. And now I want you to open and close 10 times without clicking the heels. Banging them. I should say I'm gonna let go. And Five, four, three, two, one and hold. Keep pressing your arms into press down.

Reach a little longer as you lower. Lower. Lower right there at ten one one, two, three, four anchor five, six, seven. Squeeze the inner thighs. 10 hold. I want you to keep the legs at this level. Reach long and I want you to lift your bottom two years straight. Line from your feet to keep gifting. Keep lifting, keep lifting.

Hold here. Lower down a little lower with the feet and give me 10 there. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven reaching longer, nine, 10 hold tight, lower down your bottom, melting and bend your knees and rest your arms. Good. That is going to help you out when we do airplane in a second to really feel how do you lift your seat? Go ahead and put your hands back pressing anchoring into the mat. We're going to do bicycle if familiar with bicycle. Okay good. So we're going to keep the left like that and your right leg is going to reach up and reach out and then the left one's going to start good and then we're going to keep reaching.

I love to think about trying to pick up a million dollar check at the end of the mat and pulling it towards you and spring goes in the inside of the knee. Good question. Yes. One more with the right, reaching all the way to the end, trying to grab something and pulling it towards you. Feel those muscles and left and now we're going to reverse it and push away. And then I love to think that that has a stick of dynamite now attached to it and you've got to push it as far away from you as you can off that you really want to work from here. Lengthen everything out back to the site and see inner thigh, everything your powerhouses here.

Last one with your left and bend the knees and take a little break with the arms. Very nice job. Good. Now we'll do frog. So we're going to put your hands. So we're going to do what we call up. That was pretty good actually. We're going to do what we call a six count frog and it's, we're going to start with the heels right at your bottom. Okay, so this is going to be home. Okay, so the Cha, we do a four count frog and we do a six count. This is the more advanced one. It means that you're strong enough to pull your belly into your back and have that beautiful lawn posture when your heels are on the mat. Okay?

So it's all about keeping anchored in here. All right, so to start, we're gonna use your belly to pull in your knees to your chest. For one, go out to a 45 degree angle for two. Open with the carrot, a Cadillac for three pull down all the way to the mat for four. Squeeze all the way together for five and then keeping the heels there. Come back to home for six you've had it and you wake up all kinds of tiny little muscle groups and you're going to pull those, these in one 45 degree angle to open with control three down with control. Four squeeze everything together. Five, draw them into you for home. One more time.

[inaudible] being in one, wrapping and squeezing. Long to open with the outer thighs, back of the thighs. Pull down to the mat. Everything squeezes together and draw in. Good. Now we're going to reverse it. Don't forget to still use those arms and get nice and long as you go out. One, skimming the mat, open on the mat with control. Good up with control.

Squeeze them together and bring them in and heels back down for home and squeeze out. Long open control up. Squeeze those inner thighs together. Draw the belly and to bring those in. And heels go down. And yet one more beautiful. Go along. Open with control up with controls, squeezed together, dry it in and finish for home. Nice job. Go ahead and bring your knees in and rest.

Just so the airplane is a combination of rolling like a ball, short spine massage and Jack Knife, all kinds of things and long spine massage. All of those kind of blended and that's why I think about that one. Now think about footwork. Okay, let's do our light springs. I think about shorts by massage. Let's do airplane. Okay, so we're going to put your hands on back where they are and knees are a little bit apart. So we're going to curl into a ball. You're gonna use your valley to curl your tailbone towards you and touch the knees to the mat by your ears.

And then you're going to use the back of your thighs and seat to stay on this side of the bar and go up to a jackknife position. Beautiful. And now your knees, the back of your thighs and seat to lengthen out like a straight piece of steel. Keep going, keep going all the way. Keep pushing longer. So you're straight straight and you're going to roll down your upper back, your middle back, lower heels, go down to the mat. And just like that frog. Bend the knees towards your bottom and then it keeps going.

Curls into a ball, squeezes up right lengthens out. Push into those straps when you can to get that full length of your body heals. Come down one more time, curling into a ball up you go and reaching out nice and long. Really work those muscles and we're going to reverse it. So you're going to pop right on back up to that Jack Man. Keep it going.

Draw those knees in and this is the delicious part you kind of push into here. You actually can do this with be easier with straight arms and kind of making it harder. So why don't you go with straight arms, slide out a little bit. [inaudible] good heels down to the mat, reach out really long, squeeze that seat all the way up, up, up, keep it going. You can do it. I know you can and bend the knees and push and really enjoy articulating and you've got one more time heals down, reaching out. Hips are working hard and lifting up all the way up and drawing in.

And you did such a beautiful job cause you didn't clank a lot of noise over here. Push, stretch out and you're done with those. Great job. We're going to be done with those legs. Springs. I'm going to take them off. Good. And next we're going to do flying eagle. So you're going to turn onto your belly.

I'm going to get rid of this for a second so I can hold you. If you are by yourself, you could try doing two things. They're usually your Cadillac comes with a strap. We're gonna want you to side back until your ankles good. So usually your Cadillac comes with a strap and you can put it on over it and Tuck your ankles under.

Or You could try maybe slide forward to inch to demonstrate and grip with the foot. Or if you're just really that good, I'm flexible in your spine and strong in your powerhouse. You can do it just on your own. Okay, Rebecca. So hold just maybe a tiny bit lower on those. Yup. And start with your hands out to the side. Good. You're going to start by doing a big circle up to the ceiling, but I'll wait one second and then we'll, we'll, um, and then the reverse, we'll be going down with that circle. Okay.

So I want you to pull your belly and press your pelvis down to the mat. That's gorgeous. Lengthen out the crown of your head and now go into a beautiful back extension as you lift your arms and circle them back behind. And as they're behind you, really reach along the spine and then slowly melt down and up. So keep it continuous and back behind you and slowly melt down. Add one more up and pull behind you as you shoot forward like a rocket.

And then slowly melt down. Reverse it, go down with those arms, pull them behind you, and then stay up and lengthen out. Reach around forward as you lengthen out, and then come down to more reaching down. Good. Pulling up with the belly. Use that powerhouse. Reach long through those arms and down and one more arms down. Pull back, open those arms as I'd reach out the window to the beach, reach all the way to the ocean and leave the straps round your back and sit onto your heels. Fantastic. Good, nice. And now you're going to turn around onto your back and use these for backstroke.

So if you were on the long box, right, you would do backstroke. So I want you to put your hands in there just like that. And there's not, not going to be any tension for a little bit. And then there's going to be too much tension. So you want to really work with it and use your body. Bring your knees into your chest, use your powerhouse and lift your head up to your knuckles. All right, for one step one, you're going to straighten your arms and legs to the ceiling at the same time.

Open them about the width of the Cadillac. Let arms too. And now here's the punch part. You're going to circle them and now try to reach for your knees down. You go with those arms, reach for your knees and come up another inch, another inch and bend everything. Fantastic. Three more up. One, open two, circle down. Three, lifting up a little higher for four. Touch me for and bending. Six. One more, two more times and open and scoop and reached.

I'm those. Straighten those fingers even to touch me. Yes. Curl up one more inch and Ben and give me one more on your own. Up Open and circle down. Good. And then scooping in one, two, three and bend everything. Great job. Now it's teaser time. So we're going to do it on the push through bar.

I want you to go ahead and sit up, turn around so that your back is to me. Good and lie on your back. And I leave it hanging because it's really important to measure where it's barely passing over your forehead. So you could even slide back a, she has a teeny, teeny bit gut and then I'm going to hook up the spring. Okay, so go ahead and hold that shoulder with the part. Plug your shoulders into the mat, lengthen your legs on the Mat.

This is a really wonderful place to do the teaser and even to learn the teaser because you always want to be working against, not really against, I shouldn't say, but if your body, the muscles are working against the spring, then it really helps you. So we're going to pull open those collarbones as you bend the elbows to the side and get the triceps to get glued onto the mat. Can you get those back of the arms down, holding it right over your forehead. So try to really press down those arms. Good anchoring through here and now reach back as you exhale.

Good. How's this all feel good? Good. And now pull. Keeping your elbows low. Good. Keep your shoulders plugged in. When the bar comes home. Good. Lift the head up to look at your belly. Just the head. And now you're going to lift yourself up into the teaser position up.

Hold yourself from there and down with the legs and pull up two more. Up One more and hold. And now from your powerhouse, roll everything down. Head and toes touch. Good. Bend the elbows. Opening those collarbones. Let's stay really anchored here. There you go. That's so important. When you push the bar back that you're doing that and bending. Good.

We're going to end up doing a little shaving here first. Lift your head up and then the body comes up. Legs to hold in a little more into here and now do shaving, bending your elbows down one and straight and see if you can get all the way to as low as you can. End Up from your powerhouse. Yes, and hold and melt everything down from here. That's it. Reaching. Beautiful. One more bending. We're going to do what we call Combo, so we'll do one leg lower. One shaving, one leg lower. Hold on a second. Hold those collarbones open with your head down. That's it.

Really plug in correctly. Good. Now lift your head up and scoop up the legs at the same time. We'll start with the legs down. Up One hold. Arms down and stretch. Two good from your powerhouse and arms.

Very nice and last one, scooping in and arms. Now leave the bar there. Hold your are positioned. Scoop, scoop, scoop, reach for your toes. Good. Bring your hands behind you and clasp them and lower yourself down as you lower the legs and circle the arms to your ankle. Nice. Rebecca, I'm going to have you slide back about a hands with distance and we're going to do reverse push through. Okay. If you had a bad shoulder, not a good idea. So put your hands good. We're going to do it in both directions. Watch the hyperextending elbows.

[inaudible] good. If you could make them a little narrower, that would be better. But you want to keep it in your comfort zone. Two. So eyes on your belly and I want you to imagine that you can roll through your pelvis to go back, soften those elbows again and they'd coming back. So you're going to obviously work, oh, those are beautiful elbows. And now keep coming forward and let the shoulders get pulled up. Why? I'm gonna try to keep that right there. Is that okay? And now two more.

It's right here. That's it. And so I'm going to kind of break you from going any further so that you don't, you take it in the right joint, not in the elbow joint. Yeah. Open up the chest and shoulders and one more. Right? Right. There we go. Your left one is more stubborn than your right. Beautiful. All the way to stretch your head all the way forward. Yeah, and now we're going to stay here and turn the grip around.

So palms up perfecto probably didn't seem possible when he started, but now you can head down and roll through each bone. Imagine you can get your waistband onto that mat and then coming forward and think of spine, stretch forward and really stretching forward as that bar comes up and again and yeah, and coming forward. Stretch, stretch, stretch. One more elbows or looking better like in here and letting that chest get stretch. Letting those shoulders get stretched. Fantastic. Okay, I'm going to hold it here. You reach for your ankles and stretch. Good.

Now I want you to go ahead and turn around and lie on your bellies for push through on your stomach. So your legs are going to be over there and this should be like a walk in the park on your belly. There you go. It's okay. I was saying this is going to be a walk in the park compared to Flying Eagle. Okay. So I'm going to push it through and you want to be able to hold it about shoulder width apart. Good. And the bar should be hanging basically between the pulse. All right.

Start with your right facial cheek on the mat, Rolla. And I want you to be able to kind of have some energy pushing that bar. You got it. I'd love for, I think your thumb to be on one side. Usually we don't do that but, and then I'm just going to straighten you out. Good. And you want your belly pulling in and up and just really stretching.

Good. Alright. I want you to try to keep your head on the mat for as long as you can. As you're going up, you're going to bend the elbows and stay down as long as you can. Then when you can't any more, lift up using your powerhouse and use your parallels to push the bar up up up. Now keep your arms straight as long as you can. As you dive your head down, down, down, bend the elbow, switch cheeks. Good.

And stretch out long and bending the elbows coming up. Good. Good, good. And push that bar up up, up. Now dive the head down and keep those arms straight as long as again, then switched cheeks and we have one more set. Pulling back with all the right muscles, pushing that bar up with your powerhouse. Dive the head down. Really let it hang that sit. And then switching cheeks. Wonderful.

Last time. Bending and up. Good. And dive the head down, down, down, down, and switching cheats and good. Go ahead and let go of the bar. Actually don't. This was our fancy transition into push through. Okay. So I want you to, you know, do you know horseback? No. Did you say no? Horseback. Okay, so a big round c curve. Okay.

So you're basically going to use your bell, the bar to pull your belly into the biggest c curve. You can, that's right. You've got the right idea while you separate your legs and they are going to slide all the way to the side of the Cadillac down and forward. So and then keep straightening your legs and pushing forward. Good. And all the way to push through and not bad heels here. That's it.

And all the way up with the bar. Good. Okay. Heels really planted. Good, but not covering the inside of the pole so that you don't chuck your toe off when you go through. All right, so we're going to see that little powerhouse. Now we're going to pull back. Yes. Magine we're getting the waist. Eyes down. [inaudible] look at your belly and use the upper stomach to push down here. That's it. And stretch. Yeah, there goes those toes and stretch, stretch, cherish. And now pull back.

Really filling. Hang on. You want, you really want to use this spring right now. Trust me. You want to pull back into here and squeeze a seat? Curl it under you. So you can fill this part of your back. Fantastic. And then let the bar come up. That's it. That was a huge difference. And lift, lift, lift and coming back head. Wonderful.

Using that spring. And we're going to use that upper belly to go into a beautiful stretch and pulling back. And again, really use that sprain to curl your tailbone under, squeezing that seat, filling up that area. Wonderful. That's like delicious. And lifting up your chest. And one more scooping. And I love how you're keeping your shoulders in, plugged in and engaged all the time. They're never rising. You're really keeping good form there. And last one scoop.

Pull back more. Get the bottom to work. Push your heels into the bar. Yeah, wake up the back of the thighs and bottom and push. Push. Push. Nice job. Okay, we're going to do chest expansion now. So I'm going to get rid of, this is for a moment. Let it hang down and we're going to come onto this side. So I want you to kneel tall, an arms distance away from Yup.

A little closer. These are grot springs know. Um, so that are getting caught. There you go. Okay. So your an arms distance, maybe just an inch forward. Good. And you can do the advanced his knees together a little bit apart is where we were strong. Intermediate. You're not gonna be doing this exercise unless you're really strong.

I love the line that you have right now. You have a straight line from your knee all the way to the crown of your head, pulling in just a tiny bit more here. Good. Beautiful. Impress your hips. Pretend you're almost have your weight on the front of your knees. That's good. All right. So the objective here is to use those arms to strengthen your stomach so much that your neck is nice and loose in this. Okay. So keep that in mind.

I want you to pull that bar down. As you inhale, hold the bar down and look right, look all the way over your left shoulder. Look forward and exhale as you release the bar. That's right. And anyhow, pull it down with your powerhouse. Look left this time. Look right. You're still inhaling. Looking forward and exhale. Now, one more sec. Powerhouse and seat. Look right, look left, look forward and exhale. One more time in with the air. Look left.

Look right all the way. Look forward and exhale. Good for you. Good. Now I want you to go back about two inches and we're going to do thigh stretch. Okay, so you're going to have that beautiful straight line. Still good, but you're going to look down so that you could without messing up the whole line, just gaze down so that you can see the line of your hips. Good, good. So all I wanted you to avoid was doing a whole hunt shoulder or anything like that. Not no up rounded that good. And now a straight piece of steel.

You're going to hinge back from your knees and go for that thigh stretch. Go, go, go, go, go. Now lift the arms up and come back home. A straight piece. Beautiful. Bring the bar back down. Eyes on your hips and hinge back. Good, good, good bar lifts and squeeze your hips to come back up. Beautiful. One more and going back. Good, good, good, good. Let's just an inch or two and come back. There you go. That's better. Good. Now I want you to carefully, if you have good healthy knees, turn around and face, uh, have your back face this way on your knees. Sorry.

Cause we're going to do long back stretch. Come back another injury to [inaudible] and have yourself nice and center. Good. And now we're going to grab the bar behind you. Yep. You got it. Good. All right. Where does that bottom school ease at? Forward Scoop and then [inaudible]. Huh?

How you doing? Yeah. Okay. Would you say interesting? Feels like I should be a little farther forward, a little farther forward. [inaudible] mm, you can go a little Whitney another inch forward. Good. And now does it good. So don't right now we're slightly doing a little bit of an upper back bend, so come forward with the shoulders. Okay.

You're going to pull the bar down to your seat, try to pull the bar all the way up to your bra strap and then keep your elbows there as you extend and head up and tomorrow pool. Slide up your body. Good as high as you can. Keep your elbows there and use the triceps as you extend one more and we'll reverse it. Pool, squeeze your seat forward more. There you go. Slide up your body and then extend hold there and reverse. So bring the elbows up high. Get to your bra strap, slide down your body as you grow taller and leaner and resist as it goes away.

Bend those elbows up high. Pull it to your bra strap. Slide down your body, pulling in and up. Tall and lean. That's right. Releasing it one more time. Pull it up. But those triceps slide down, working the upper back, growing taller and releasing it. Nice job. Beautiful. Okay, so now we're going to have a little fun combining all of those. Turning around again on your knees and we're going to do, I'm rolling in and out. Okay, so we're going to come forward just a teeny bit. Good. Grab the bar. It starts off similar to thigh stretch. Okay, so you're going to gaze at your hip bones. Good.

And if he knows all these exercises have a really good flow to them. So we will see if we can get the flow on this one as well. So I want you to go ahead and go back in your thigh stretch. Good. And now hold it. There may be a little further and pull it to your chest. And now head down and scraped down your body, bringing your bottom forward over your knees. Bar Down to your knees. Down, down, down. Yep.

Bring your hips over your knees and control the bar here and roll up your spine. Good. And again, head Dan. Good guys. Stretch and pull. Pull into you. Bend the elbows and slide down as you curl over the bar. Roll over the bar, roll over the bar, roll over the bar. Good Street, arms bar comes here and round up your body. And one more time and rolling back. Good. And pulling it in.

That's it. And Go. And that's it. Good, good, good, good. Get your hips over your knees and bar down to the mat and then out and here. And we're going to reverse it. So you're going to use your powerhouse and you're going to go down with that bar holding your hips over the knees. Good. Pull it into you and now slowly go back into your thigh stretch.

As you bend the elbows, bend the elbows. There you go. Go back into your thigh. Stretch. Good. Go into a back bend here. Head goes back straight in your arms and come up in a backbend squeezing your hips. Good head to your chest. Good slide down. Almost closer to the springs. Good. Pull it in to you, Ben. Start bending the elbows and going back into a backbend. Go back.

Go back for hips first. There you go. Good back. Bend straight arms and come up with your hips. And one more. Try to stay a long boom. That's what I want to see. Pull it to your knees. Start coming back. Rolling up your body. There you go. Straight arms back. Ben, come up into a bat in a backbend. That was great. Nice job. You really pulled it all together. Yeah, Amanda.

It was the first time you you've done it. And then as it went and kept going and going and you've really got it. I really liked it. Nice job. So now we're going to do tower and monkey. So I'm going to put my safety strap on first. That's a nice little tree to do. Tower and monkey.

And then we'll do our traditional ending. So there's a lot of arms that you can do, a lot of legs that you can do, but I just did those today. Your arms feel like they're getting a workout. All right, so you're going to lie down on your back. Watch your head. Good and arms are going to be straight about this high, a little higher. There you go. And push out to straight arms.

You really feel like you're anchored into the mat. Now take the hands off and put them right here. Push it up and put your feet parallel few inches apart on the bar. Roll down your bottom. [inaudible] roll this down though. Straight in your life. Sure. Good, good. And arms up here. Good.

So I love teaching this a little bit more, bit by bit. And then um, you figure out what you really need on this exercise. I mean, you can leave out the parts that you don't need. So you want to really try to press my toe down and just start with the feet. Point your toes, flex your toes. Good. So the ankle is warming at points and it's hard sometimes to stretch that lower back where my foot is while you're just doing that with your feet. Okay? And I'll keep the fee and a strong point so that we strengthen this ankle, okay?

Both of them. And now keep your bottom on my foot while you bring your knees into your chest. So only bring them as low as you can and then straighten. So you're really trying to anchor that pelvis as you bend the knees in and straighten one more. Bending and straighten. Good. Now squeezing the glutes and the hamstrings.

Go ahead and roll up one bone at a time all the way up. Good. Draw the knees down, straighten the legs, push it up, and now you're going to roll down one bone at a time. Length and out. Push out to me. Rolling down. Good, good, good. The only thing I want you to be careful of is when you're up there, use your powerhouse to keep your hips up over your shoulders. Don't let your bottom drop at all. So go ahead and bend and upside.

Bend the knees once like a nice, straighten the legs, squeeze your bottom, roll up. Keep your bottom and belly working as you bend your knees down. Beautiful. Straight and using those hamstrings and glutes. And now roll down, pushing long through those arms, reaching, reaching. Good. Bend the knees. One more time. Straight. Squeeze up. Really is the back of your thighs and seat. Good. Bend the knees. Really work from here to straighten your legs and rolling down.

Upper back, middle. Good, good, good, nice job. Keep everything where it is, but bend the knees a little bit so there's less tension and you can pull yourself through from monkey. So you're gonna just Kinda skid through. Depending on what you're wearing, your arms are going to go the other side. I really want your head and shoulders all the way off that side. Keep it going. I know 10 good, a little bit more if you can teeny more. I'm looking for an alignment. Good.

And now you can put your hands here. So generally I like this bar to be what we call like the Guillotine and chopping off your bottom. And so that's what the alignment is. [inaudible] stance I find on the balanced body though my clients don't get the right stretch unless I a little bit. Pull them even off further. So now I want you to come up trying to really lift your upper body to your legs and now flex the feet and point and flex two more times. Flex and point and bend the knees and come down. God.

All right, tomorrow go on up. Really trying to pull yourself up to him and flex and point and flex and point and one more and come in down am last time Malia. And really lift yourself even as you flex. Grow Taller and point. Try to get your head to touch your toes as you go. I love it. And one more time. Get up yes and point and come on down. Nice.

All right. Take your feet off, slide back onto the Cadillac. And don't worry about any of this stuff because you just stretched out nicely. So I don't want you to, now you're going to bring your head to your chest and roll up the touch your feet. Good. All right, so I'm going to put away, I pushed through bar.

How was that? And I probably all need you to step off from Becca cause I need to get the trap ps for our ground traditional ending, which is feels so great. That is a lot of work. So you can add some cushioning onto the bars. Not gonna do that today. Or You could add a board. I always check the springs like this one. See it's all wonky.

And then that would could unclick while you're on. It would not be fun. [inaudible] so I need to move this the correct height for you. So go ahead and lie down with your head there and feet towards me. We're gonna start off with breathing. Slide down just another inch. Oh towards me. So your head's more on the, yeah, there you go. Good.

And this should be basically right over the middle of your calves. That looks pretty good. I go a little closer to your knees, but basically then, well that's the calf is closer to your knee then. Not really mid Shin, but over your calf, if that makes sense. Now you're gonna bend your knees and put your feet inside here. Have you done breathing before? Oh, it's one of the fundamental basic exercises that we teach, but it's so hard to teach that. Sometimes it gets lost, but I find myself doing the same thing, but it's really excellent.

So you're going to hold the roll down bar and we'll start off learning what your upper body does. K. So on the count of three, I want you to have straight arms and just pull down to your thighs as fast as, as on like one count. So one to go and hold two, three, four, five and slowly release for five, three, four, five. Oh yeah, they're strong, Huh? It's right there. We're gonna use your power els. And we're going to go one, two and pull down two, three, four, five and slowly exhale as you release three, four, five. So that's what your arms are going to do. Your legs are, you're going to try to think of, okay, I wanted perfect posture. Instead of like [inaudible], what do I want to feel in my legs and my stomach and my hips? All of that. Okay. You don't want to lift, push your back forward. We don't want to do that.

So that is something that happens a lot on this exercise. People just use their backs to come up. But immediately you want to think about using your seat in the back of your thighs and your inner thighs and your powerhouse and hips to lift up. So same thing up we go. But you really want it to be like someone stuck you with a PR. Yeah.

And hold two, three, four, five and you're gonna exit as you deliciously roll down every vertebra. Damn. Okay. So I think you get that. We're going to combine the two. So they meet and the idea is breathing. So you inhale and you keep inhaling for those five counts and they slowly exhale as you returned to home. Five is the easiest. And then we'll work to six. Since then we'll probably do two sets on seven.

Okay. So let's do five. So here we go and hold two, three, four, five and slowly. Exhale down to three, four. And let's go. Six, two, three, four, five, six. And exhale down. Two, three, four, five and two more. And up for seven. Inhaling for five, six, seven. Slowly it's hailing to think about that posture. Yes. Again, on this last one, inhale up to three. Inhale five, six, seven. And exhale down, lengthening, lengthening, lengthening, lengthening. And they're good here. All done there. Release. Good job. Bring your knees in, hug them in.

And now I want you to sit up and you're going to turn around. Mm hmm. I'm going to put this bar on the side. Okay. So we're going to do spread eagle now. We did Flying Eagle earlier, doing all the eagles today. All right, so sometimes this is can get a little uncomfortable, but for time sake, I'm not going to go grab a whole bunch of stuff. You're gonna put your feet turned out against their good. Good, good.

[inaudible] bend your knees and lift your bottom forward a little bit. Good. And grab on like right there. I think that's a good height for you. I might be able to bring it up. Just a hair. All right, grab up just a little higher. Okay, good. And so you're going to keep your arms and legs straight in this exercise and give me right now a really good seeker by straightening your legs and good.

So it's like, ah, you got to open this up. Okay. Keeping your arms and like straight start squeezing up your seat and you're going to make a diagonal. Your arch of your foot can start to slide down if you want. And you're going to hold your hips here, but pull back more. He squeeze actually your bottom forward a little bit more. There you go.

And now give me a nice upper back, then opening your chest, beautiful head to chest, and you go back into that beautiful c curve. Your feet can slide up and really fill this side up. Keep your tailbone curl. Dunder yeah. And now coming up back to that diagonal and opening up that chest. Beautiful Rebecca. One more. And you're gonna Really, let's keep that curl.

Let's really work on that. So yeah, that's it. That's what I wanted to see and coming up and lifting. And now come back to a straight body and take a step backwards to get out of it. Good. All right, so now we're going to do your pull ups. So you're going to take your arm and put it on top of the pole with your fingertips at the top corner. Yeah. Yep. Good.

And then you're going to add like another fist behind you. Either arm, go for it, Huh? And then put your grip right behind that and then line them up. You did it fantastically. So the first one, the pullups are going to be on the lower strap. So give me one leg and now stay there and really get your mind to your body and you're not going to lengthen your arms and hang right now. You're going to stay a little bit up and I want you to hold in your powerhouse and lift your other leg into the strap all the way up. Good, good, good. Nice.

And now I want you to pull yourself forward and up and then come down and do two more. Pull yourself forward and up. Beautiful. One more. Pull yourself forward and up and take a step forward. Good. Nice. And I want you to take the other one out. Good. And look at where your hands are. Turn yourself around and keep the grip exactly there. Good.

All right. So now we're going to do hanging pull ups and I want to challenge you a little bit and I want you to use your abdominals to bring both knees up at the same time and your hips help you to shoot forward. To put your legs on here. You're going to keep your arms bent. You got it. And now separate them so that they hook and hey, you start off in a hanging position. Good. Now I want you to think of a table and I want you to line yourself up like a table. Even your head looking at the squeeze up, a little higher here.

Beautiful. Now a backbend upper back bend. Nice. Now back to that table straight as a piece of note, your head has to look at the ceiling. There you go. And give me three pull-ups, pulling up one and two and pulling up thery and go back to a hanging head down. Good. And you're going to lift up just a little to squeeze your legs together and without a sound pool, both legs out at the same time in landing. Beautiful. Nice job you earned hanging. Nice.

So Undo your fuzzies and right where your grip was is where you're going to slide those fuzzies to cause. That is the appropriate distance. So you can re measure if you want. There you go. Good, good. There's many ways to get into this, but I'm going to help you. So you're going to lie on your back with your head that way you got it. And put your hands on those poles. Same like and leg springs and pushed a straight arms. Good.

Draw your knees into your chest using your stomach. Good. And now curl your bottom up towards you. Beautiful. And we're going to straighten one leg and put it in the fuzzy and straighten the other leg and put it in the fuzzy. Good. And now roll down your upper back and the next bone and the next bone. Good. And rest your arms down by your side. Good.

I'd probably have you slide back just a little hair [inaudible] cause I want you to really get to enjoy opening up this lower back and soften up those knees. Uh, there you go. And nothing is holding you. Sometimes I sway that back and forth the pelvis a little bit. So you really understand this is a release. It's post. You're supposed to just let go of everything. It's really important, especially for, so you want to enjoy, not bracing yourself at all and we're going to go to these feel secure.

Good. So we're going to go into our full hanging. So you're going to grab boat here. Yep. And you're going to pull yourself through. Good. And now pray. Take your arms, keep your head exactly like it is, and hold on this side. Good. Keep looking at your powerhouse as you pull yourself back further and further. Good. And slide down the poles as you go down. Good.

Now I want you to take these hands and press them on the floor, palms up, cause then that really makes you say, you know what? I'm not gonna push up or hold any energy. And this is again, super important exercise for women's. Really good to be inverted and to just absolutely stretch everything and release everything. How's that feel? Yeah. So you don't want to, there's many advanced steps to this, but we're not going to do those today, but we're wanting to not get hurting in too much blood in the head. If it starts to hurt you come up sooner. But let's do one more inhale and exhale.

Great. Now bring your arms back onto those poles. Bring your head to your chest, curl up a little bit. Good. And slide back onto the mat. Put your hands through and push back to straight arms. Good. Let your arms hang by your side. Good.

Soften those knees again. Stay Pretty Nice, Huh? Yeah. Good stuff. I know. And to get out of it, unfortunately, we're gonna draw your knees towards you and then you just stretch. So just lower your bottom on my thighs and just get to not tense up any muscles cause super important that you just got to stretch those and relieve them. So you get to actually let me do the work.

And I usually do a little circle each way and you are all set, right? Great job.

Comments

Really nice flow and cueing, Monica. Not sure about that Level 2, however.
Holly ~ thanks for the feedback! Did you think it should be a lower or higher level? To me, the exercises seemed intermediate in general.
I would consider it a Level 2/3 or 3, Maria. Yes, the exercises are mostly standard, but I have very few students (if any) who could do most of these with the pacing and variations. The airplane with leg springs, for example, was very challenging for me. I liked it; glad to practice it. But many students struggle with airplane using the roll-down bar so I probably would not use this version at all with students. Thanks for asking.
Holly ~ thanks for taking the time to respond. You are right, exercises like Airplane (especially with the Roll-Down bar) can be very challenging. I have changed it to a Level 2/3, still contemplating whether or not it should even be bumped up to a Level 3.
Wonderful class and great cueing!!
Michele M
Beautiful hanging back series plus back bend from thigh stretch ~ loved all of this practice! Thank You:)
Can always count on Monica for such great detail in explanation. Thank you !
Impressive Pull Ups! :)
This looked delicious! Can't wait to try it.
Fantastic flow thank you

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