Class #2058

Detailed Reformer Flow

55 min - Class
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Description

Get ready to work hard in this detailed Reformer workout with Ed Botha. He reminds us to eliminate unwanted tension while we are targeting the deep intrinsic muscles. In addition to the many exercises he teaches, Ed offers wonderful breakdowns of Side Overs and Short Spine Stretch, which will make you feel so good!
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box

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Feb 18, 2015
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So, hi, my name is Ed. I'm from Cape Town South Africa. And I'm going to be taking the two ladies through a reformer session. And uh, yeah, so let's enjoy together. So guys, we're gonna start with a standing roll down. So feet parallel wide in the clavicles arms down at your sides with your funders facing forward. Little bit of a softening of the knees and just think a little bit of length happening from the sacred. So we dropping down slightly with that sacral area. So not quite a posterior tilt, but just more awareness around the belly. Okay.

So we'll start with a roll down. Take a deep breath in and let your head be heavy and allowing your spine to respond better by Vertebra. Comfortable position. Stay supported from the center. So we still drawing in and up with the navel. Deep breath in and out-breath. Rolling back up.

Excellent. Stacking up tool and relax. One more time. So we take a deep breath in again, exhaling that said Haley, keeping the thumbs forward. That's an excellent. So it just gives you that natural external rotation. Deep breath in and exhaling all the way tall. Lovely. So we'll just take a B about a foot away from the end of your carriage. All right, we're going to go into a gentle little squad.

So we're going to hinge at the hips to shooting the hips back, slightly, reaching the arms forward and just before we reach the carriage and standing back up. Good. And if your arms in the way, you can just keep them by your side. And so let's do that 10 times, right? So we go foot two down. Excellent and good. And three. So down and up before I end up. Excellent. Four, five, good. Five more times and five.

Keep drawing it with a neighbor and fall. Super and three good. And to warming up those quads a little bit in the glutes and last one and one and all the way back up to standing unit. Take a little bit of a step back and then gently come down to seated on the end of the carriage. Awesome. So you guys can roll down onto your backs for me. Hmm. Giving yourself a little bit of a room away from the shoulder, wrist, arms down at your sides. That's an interest in a comfortable, neutral, natural position. All right, so I don't want you pressing your spines down into the mat. No effort.

All right. Just a softening of the ribs and a gentle drawing in of the Navel, right? So we're gonna start just with the left and we going to hover the left leg just off the foot bar. So it really drawing in with the abdominals. All right. And just started becoming aware of what's going on. You'll feel a little bit of work in the hip flexor. All right. Little bit of the abdominals and definitely slight support coming from the lower back, right? So it's just the little foot harbor.

Are we going to bring the foot back down? And we'll do the same thing with a right. So slight little raise. Good holding it and bringing it back down again. So left side again, slight lift and down. Awesome. And ride side and down. Good. One more on each side. So left side. So we'll just hold it. Just wait for the change.

Great. Become aware of the obliques, particularly those inner obliques and down and the other side. That's great. And then relax. Cool. So on the next one, what we're going to do is we're going to bring both legs up off the mat at the same time, not into the tabletop, still into that hovering position. Okay. And again, just be aware of what's happening through the abdominals. The lower back, right, the hip flexors again and particularly the bottom ribs.

So we want those slid down. Okay. So on three we go three, two and one and both legs. Just gently up off the mat there for me. All right. And this to me is a great prerequisite for our ladies method because we need to be able to hold our legs in the air. So if you can't hold them down here with good core stability and relax and we were looking for trouble in the low backs. Yeah. So we're gonna repeat that again. So slight lift. So just the hover. Good.

Going deep, deep, deep good. So every time the navel is drawn in for one hour, we've got each other and bring it back down for me. One more time guys. I ended up one more time. Excellent. Just keep the hold. We'll do five, four, three, two and relax. Good. And then just let the legs abduct to open up into a butterfly stretch.

So you're just allowing those legs to stretch for a sec. Cool. And bringing them back to parallel, right? So you're going to take your hands behind you and take hold of the polls and make sure you have a little bit of space between you and the shoulder pads. And we'll start left leg up again and then right leg up as well. Good. So drawing down with the ribs, it's a little bit more challenging, but this time we're going to bring the legs all the way up to the tabletop. That's super cool. Right?

So the tabletop, I'm just looking for those heels in line with the knees and a little bit of abduction, right? So we're going to start with the spine twist supine. So on an we're going to shift both legs over to the right hand side. So inhaling over keeping the opposite shoulder blade down on the mat and exhale, bringing the legs back into the center. Great. And to the other side. Inhale that across and exhaling. Good. And you can keep going for me in your own time.

Just making sure that you keeping the bottom ribs down right. We're not hyperextending the back and we pushing the top knee gently into the bottom knee. And when we come back in, we pushing the bottom knee gently into the top leg. So we using not just our obliques, but we've got a little bit of abduction and abduction going on in the hips as well. Cool. And again, we repeat excellent opposite shoulder blade. Staying down. One more hand back. Excellent. Take one leg down and the other leg down and relax. Good.

So you're going to lift one leg up to a table, top, hands behind that leg, and just lift yourself up into sitting and you're going to spend your legs into the inside. Cool. So just into the same type of room. Awesome. So have a seat right at the moment into the front end of the carriage for me. Cool. So what I'd like you to do is we're going to roll down and we want to get the base of our scaps right at the end of the carriage. Okay. So gently allowing the spine to move down.

Awesome. And then just pause when you're in the chest lift position. Cool. So we're going to bring the hands behind your head for me. Interlace the fingers, bring the left leg up to the table top and the right leg comes up to the tabletop. Excellent. Open the elbows slightly. Good. So they're in your peripheral view and not pulling on the next. I'm just going to bring those legs to the table top position and it's pretty important. You guys can just hold there for a second. I know it's work, but that's why we're here. All right.

It's pretty important that you're not too far back because with the legs being up, you can easily slide off the end of the character. On an inhale, we're going to gently lower our heads and our chest back over the end of the carriage. Going into a little bit of extension of the thoracic spine. So you shouldn't feel hyperextension in the lumber just into the thoracic. And exhale as we drew up. Oh, without pulling the neck. So we just supported so head into the hands, hands into the head, if that makes sense to you guys. And then breath in at the top. And then this time on an exhale we'll go back down. So exhale down.

And then we drawing the navel deep into the spine, keeping the ribs connected. They've made good idea. I'm going to bring those knees in an exhale as we go back up for me. Super. So your eyes are just pretty much looking halfway through your thighs. Take a deep breath in and out. Breath to lower yourself back down.

Awesome. So obviously we're working in the rectus abdominis that will be leaks. Take a deep breath in, exhale coming up. So we just want to constantly watch those legs dropping. Cool. But that's why I'm here. So we take a deep breath in and exhale, taking you back down. That's awesome. So let's just do one more time. Deep breath in and exhale to the hold. Super lower. One leg down to the mat.

It doesn't matter which one it is. Put your hands behind the five that's on the top and use that fight to push you back up into sitting. All right, cool. All right, one hand over your five. So let's put the lift over or the right over the left. Sorry. Yeah. And then give yourself a little bit of a twist so it just go into a slight rotation there. So really rotating from the thoracic spine, naval slow drawing in and up. And then let's change to the other side. So a little twist. Excellent.

And then back in to the same time. So we're going to roll down one more time. So down onto the lower back as a gently, gently, gently, gently, gently, and pause. Good. Bring one leg up and the other leg up. Excellent. Hands on top of the knees. Shoulders, drawing down away from the ears, right? So we're going to do the double leg stretch five times. So inhale is we reach arms and legs to opposites. Exhale, circle around and bring it back in. Good. Inhale to reach.

Exhale, good. Inhale to reach, reach and hold for a second and exhale, bring it back. We've just got two more to go. Inhale and reach. Good without dropping the level of the feet. And exhale, bring it back and pause there for me. Hands behind the head for me again. Lower your body down gently. So we're going down, down, down, all the way into our extension. One more time just to get the stretch of the abdominals and then exhaling, bringing yourself back up into your chestnut.

Left leg extends on the same height as the right leg, so these toes are still on the same line. We're going to change the legs slowly. One just slow changes for two and three. Good. Keeping on the same level for abdominals. Drawing in and uplift me. Five or another, a little bit higher and six, seven, one more and bring it back into a close and hold there for me. Lower one leg down to the mat, hands behind your thigh.

And then bring yourselves back up into sitting. Well done. It's over. We're going to have your line down onto your backs. Just hug your knees into your chest and I'm going to lift your foot bars up for you. There we go. So are we going into a middle hightower?

I'd say with the football on these balanced body reformers, sorry. They're all right. Clipping them in. And I'm going to keep you guys on three red springs. So that's three springs for those of you, um, working on either reformers. So let's start on the heels parallel, right? So I'm going to have you right on the edge of those hills. All right.

Just enough that you're not slipping off the edge. So it's about a fist apart there and what I want you to feel. So just think of standing on a flat surface, if that makes sense. Huh? All right, so this would be the floor level and so we don't want to change that floor levels. So we're going to come off this, stop us slightly for me. So we push off slightly off the stubborn.

So on a double inhale we're going to pump the legs twice and then on a double exhale we pump twice. So it's going to be in, in art out. Does that make sense? All right, so off we go. We're doing short little pumps in, in, out, out, good in, in art. Uh, again, we just strengthen a, you keep going strengthening the quads, right? A little bit of work from the gluteals, keeping the ankles absolutely steady. So concentrating on the feet.

So there's the intrinsic muscles of the ankles and the feet are working to keep us stable out. Out. Let's do two more sets. It's in, in, out art. One more time in, in an art and all the way back into the stopper and relax for a sec. Cool. All right, so we go into the toes parallel and what, what I'm going to use as our reference point is just pretty much this angle of the foot bar here. All right, so if I can drop your heels a little bit there for mirror. There we go. A little bit, Haley. So we're going down a little bit. Okay. So you're not in a full plant of flex position. You somewhere in between. All right. Dorsey flection, implant affliction. So again, come off the stop a slightly right and or if we go in, in out, ah, excellent. Keep going there for me.

Ah, we want to keep those heels stall. That's it. Ah, AH, and you've got your little bit of natural space in the lumber there. Super shoulders are relaxed, your fingers are reaching down towards your sitting bones and this will be our last one and return back in all the way to the stopper. Cool. Okay. So just let your legs hang over the end of the bar for a sec just to give them a little bit of a stretch out. Cool. Then we're going to go back onto the bar and into the Small v position.

So again, you're on the balls of the feet, right? Again, it said moderate plantar flex position and the heels are squeezing together and your knees aren't wider than your shoulders. Okay. So off the stopper slightly and off we go. Inhale. And exhale. Great to staying relaxed in the hips, so you don't want to go into a posterior tilt unnecessarily here. And it just gives the glutes much better leverage if we're in that absolute neutral position. That's it. Good. One more and relax. Bring it back in. Cool. All right, so we go heels open V so it's a little bit wider, right? Think of a little bit of abduction.

So little bit of induction so you can push into my fingers slightly. That's it, but without collapsing. All right, so this is really a good combination of the inner and outer thighs working together. All right, so we know that when we squat down off often on east collapsing or some people they bow their legs out here. We want to stabilize that. All right? So we eliminate that negative pattern. There's a little bit of a push off the stopper. Good. And again, we repeatedly go in to pumps and art. That's wonderful that it's still keeping your breath, that it's crisp, but still relaxed. I don't want it to create any tension in your body.

So particularly around the jaw. Nice and soft fingers are still reaching down at a, towards your heels. And like we said earlier, your enables drawing him for an hour. Good. One more cycle and super and come back in all the way.

So we're going to finish it off just on the toes in that wide position. So we've got the same width. I'm going to look a little bit wider for you there. Excellent. Lowering the heels a little bit, Haley. Cool. All right. Off the stopper slightly and off we go. Inhale, exhale, inhaling and exhaling. Inhaling, steady in the ankle joints. So we, we are working on these ankles. All right, so by keeping the heels absolutely still again, we're getting the work in the ankle joints. Good.

One more cycles. So inhaling and exhaling and bring it all the way back in and relax. Let your legs hang over the end. Shake them loose for a sec. Okay, cool. Right, so we're going to grab the boxes. All right. And we're going to put them in the short box position. While you're doing that, I'm going to put the foot bars down and I'm going to hook up all the springs just to keep the carriage steady. Great. All right. Awesome. So you guys can have a seat. Um, have you guys gotten along all the way?

You know what I would do is I'm going to put them in front of the shoulder rest, right? I just feel it's a little bit more stable. Okay. And we're not going to be doing anything too extravagant, right? So you're going to have a seat on your boxes and we're going to put the feet in under the straps. Let me grab that for you. There we go. Cool. Great. And you're sitting on the front edge of your box. Alright, awesome. Okay, so we're going to put the arms, we're gonna fold them over.

So this is in the genie position, like a Latin, right. And we're going to bring the arms up to shoulder height at the same time, going into a little bit of lumber flection. Alright? And rolling down just where you comfortable. So I want you just to touch that lower back on the box. Still drawing the navel in an app and then exhale as you bring it back up.

And when we get to the top right, you can sit yourself up and lower your arms, right? So lifting the arms up, lowering that had good into the lumber flection. If you can, touching the lower backs down, take a deep breath in and then exhale coming back up. Good. And then lower the arms. All right. Okay. So this time bring the arms up and hold them up for me. Awesome. All right, so you're going to roll back down for me to halfway. Okay. So just to halfway in pause just to halfway cool left arm. We're going to extend it out to the lift.

So the right arm is going to stay folded in front or the left arm. So we just want to bring the obliques in, wake them up a little bit, Huh? Okay. And then bring their hand back. Cool. And then the right side. So we do the same thing on the right side and I started feeling, are you leaning to one side, bringing it back in, try, stay centered, and then come back up to sitting. Cool. And then relax the arms. So let's repeat that. So we're going to go down again, lifting the arms up and pause. Good. This time, let's just challenge it.

Let's go a little bit deeper, a little bit deeper pause. So we're not quite on the lower back. So we're about three quarters of the way and then we're going to reach the RMR left arm. We started. Excellent. Fill the obliques, bring it back in. Good. You've got to hold it there for me and at the side, bringing it back in super and rolling back up and sitting tall and relax the arms for a sec. Cool. Last time I want the lower backs to touch. Okay.

So we actually want to melt that back down onto the mat. So let's go down on the exhale. Arms come up and the left arm goes out. Good. Without any lateral flection. Are we done? Can you go down a little bit early? There we go. I know you can. There we go. Hand goes back on and other side. Awesome. Bringing it back in and rolling back up. Lowering the arms.

Hands go behind your head for a second into a flat back. Right. So with a flat back, just be careful that we don't go into an extension back, right? So we just wonder long. We're going to call that axial in from the crown of the head down towards the tailbone. Yeah. So on an Enbridge this time we're going to hinge backwards and pause.

Good. Exhaling coming back up. That's super. So not too far back. We inhale as we go just to their pause and exhaling. Coming back up. Great. We do two more. Inhaling. So it's length. Good. You guys are showing a good position here and exhale and bringing it back one more time. So we'll go back and are good.

And what's great is you guys are both keeping your necks really nice and along. One more time. Let's do one more. So we'll go back and bringing it back up. Awesome. Andrew. Relax. Okay. Abdominals warming up. Okay, good. All right, so we can sort that out, right? So we're going to go into the side over the box, right? So I think both of you just face the inside first. The right leg is long, right? Sitting on the side of your hip. And I'm going to put the headdress down. Does your head raise down? Are you going to put your palm on the headrest? All right, so you're all the way over so you're not sitting on your sitting bones. Okay?

So we starting in a bit of a diagonal, right? So your top hand is behind your head. So we're going to do this assisted. Okay. So first thing, what I'm looking for is a really nice long line from the fire through the trunk. So what I'm going to ask Aaron to do is just to lie back a little bit with your upper back. All right? So if you're leaning too far forward, it's possibly that you want to work too hard in this hip flexor. Okay? The unit. Does that make sense? Hey, so we're looking for this real long line. Okay.

So all you're going to do on your in-breath is you're going to bend your bottom elbow and that's going to lower you down into lateral flection. That's it. Good. Just a little bend. And then exhale to press yourself back up. Good. Using your palm to assist. So we go inhale to go down super and exhale to Perez up and inhaling to go down. That's perfect. And exhaling to up. So you're using a little bit of your tricep and your shoulder to assist with that lateral flection. Awesome. So we do that again.

So we are going to go down and we go back up and pause at the top. This time we're going to take your bottom hand and bring it behind your head. So you're on your own. And we're going to do three times. We're going to go inhaling down, leading with the elbow. Exhale to come back up and only to your diagonal.

So I'm going to catch you over here and we go down inhaling. Good. And exhaling just up into that line. Good. So we go, inhale down. Perfect. Exhale and pause. Middle in. Put your hand on the headrest again. Super. All right. Now if you can bring your hand down to the mat from there and we're going to reach and have a little stretch over your side there. Maintain your top arm.

Good. Just allowing the lat to stretch out though. Bleak to stretch out a little bit of that it band of their top leg super. And you can bring yourselves back up to sitting. All right, so we've got to repeat to the other side. Okay. It's looking good. So remember you're just gently using that bottom arm. All right. I don't want it to do all the work, but it's there to give you a little bit of an assist. So we start in that diagonal set up, hand behind the head. Excellent.

And at the same time, it's a great place to start working on shoulder stability. So you really push out of that bottom shoulder. All right? So we staying nice and along through the two collarbones through the front day. Okay. So on your inbreath you're going to bend the elbow, slowly lowering yourself down to get a little bit of flection and exhaling to come up. So the movement doesn't have to be big at all. So gentle little press down, exhaling, bring it up super. And we're going down and exhaling coming up. So we do that twice more.

So try release a little bit in this hip flexor so you're not holding on and exhale to come up one more time and we go down and back up. Excellent. Haley, I'm just going to lift the bottom ribs. Yeah. Can you feel that again? Let's have a look at it earlier. Yeah, that's cool. Right? So bottom hand is going to go behind the head as well. So now we've got to work on both sides. Coke contract and we go down. Inhale for a little stretch, exhale to bring it up. Good.

Inhale to go over. Big Stretch and exhale to come up. Let's just do one more and over we go. Inhaling and exhale up. Hold hand on the head. Wraith for a second there, right? Let's go all the way over for the side stretch. Yeah. So again, just think of relaxing through that hip flexor, stretching out through this lateral band obliques. And let's cool. And you can bring yourselves up to Sydney. So you'd be, and if you don't mind taking the boxes and just putting them back to the, the head of the reformer. And I'll put the foot bars back up and I'm going to start them off with uh, two springs.

So two reds on the balanced body reformer. And if you can have a lie down on your backs for me, keep the headrests down and we're going to put your feet into the straps. Great. So you're gonna push away, Hook one foot in, keep some tension on the ropes. Guys, you're doing a great and hold the gap. So you're going to go into external rotation with your legs. All right. And bring the legs up vertical for me. Absolutely.

So bring it up as close to 90 degrees of hip flection as possible and in the externally rotated position with your hips. And then as you exhale, just bring your legs down to 45 degrees. So just a gentle little press down initiating the hip extensors or from the hip extensors. So we're going to inhale as we come back up just to 90 degree of hip flection and exhaling as you coming back down, right? So if you are working with someone who's a little bit tighter in or you feel a little bit stiff in their hamstrings, there is no reason why we couldn't bring our, this um, 45 the start position. So let's hold that start position and then we just gonna go down from there.

So we go down a little bit lower, but we've got to be a little bit more cautious of the lower back. And then we just got up to the 45 okay. So we're going to go down and bringing it back up again. And just using the extensors of the hips, press down and this time bring it all the way back up into your 90 degrees. Okay. So in the external rotation, you're going to bend your knees for me and pause.

So what you should see through your legs is a little diamond shape. Is that correct? Or a cot. Okay. So we want to keep that angle consistent and then we're going to press down with the legs in the external rotation down. Good. And then bringing it back up and a good judge or, or, or I guess gauge is where the, you don't want the straps touching your chest so that would mean you're going a little bit too far. So using the external rotators again and bringing it back up for me. Awesome.

So pressing down and bringing it back end up. Excellent. Pressing down and bringing it back and up. Super. Three more times we go, pressing down using the rotators and back up a little bit of the Nfis. Keep us squeeze through the heels down and bringing it back up. Good. Keeping neutral. And we got in down and up, a little bit of softening in the ribs there, any and then pressing down. Excellent. And bring it all the way back up and then straighten the legs up.

Okay, so we go circles down five times. So externally rotated. So we pressed down to about 45 and round and connected the top. So we're going to go down to the bottom and without cutting the head off the circle. So it's almost like you're doing a little bit of a diamond with smooth edges. All right, so we don't want to cut the top off the diamond, so we're going down much better.

Remember we spoke about drawing the navel in. All right, we're not, we're not even close to the OEM to keep the naval drawing in and up there for me. Excellent. And a little bit of activity and those arms. Cool. And then we'll finish at the top. Right now the same thing on circles up. So we're going without cutting the head off the diamond and back. So it's not just a straight opening this time we're drawing down and open at the same time. So we pulled down. So we initiate with that slide down movement.

So it keeps the tension and you can keep the external rotation. Cool. And we'll do three more there. Bringing yourself as close to 90 degrees of hip flection as possible, where you can maintain your sacrum on the mat. Good. And finishing it off. Awesome. Right? So lower your legs down to 60 degrees. And this time Dorsey, flex the feet and bend the knees into the frog. Alright, so we do the long spine stretch. I've got, you know, let's, we're going to move into the short spine stretch.

I'll do that cause I've got the two red springs on and it's a little bit better with the two reds than the long spine. So we're going to press the legs out to 60 degrees. Awesome. And then bring the legs up all the way over til we hit the stopper. So we connect. So I just want you to hang out there for a sec in the external rotation.

And I Haley, what I want you to do is to really relax down. Alright, so you relaxing with the lower back, but the hamstrings are getting a good stretch out there. So without the carriage moving, gently roll the hips up to the sky. And this is where you want to create a little bit of tension on the ropes. So you're going to use the hip extensors. That's it. Super Bending the knees and pause. All right, so we want some distance between our knees and our shoulders, right still in a little bit of Plantar flection with the feet right now.

From there we start rolling the spine down and the knees can draw further down into the shoulders and stretching are trying to keep the carriage still for as long as you can hold it there for me slightly. We're gonna wait for Aaron and their position. You can keep going down. You'd engage, you get engaged, you just taking your time, which is great. And then flex the feet for me. Dorsi flex. Right now we had our diamond shape from earlier.

We're going to keep that diamond shape and pull that away from you. And we returned back to the frog position. Pause. Yep, that's it. So we're going to press the legs out to that 45 or 60 degrees, bring it all the way on an inbreath all the way to the stuff. So we find the click and just hang out there for a sec. Still in external rotation. So getting that little bit of stretch down. Good.

So you want to be heavy here. Really dropped down. Excellent. And then on your outbreath roll up without the carriage moving. So we keep a little bit of tension on these ropes. I want you to feel the hip extensors again to the hamstrings, hip extensors, bending the knees, pausing. Super. All right. Carriage is those things though.

And you're gonna Start Rolling down for me. Vertebra by Vertebra. Keeping your feet above your eyes. There we go. Feel every vertebrae, every vertebrae, and then pause. All right, so we end up, I guess what the Yogis is like to call the happy baby position there and flex your feet. There's nothing happy about it. And then we draw the legs away from us back to the style. Cool. All right, so we're going to do that again. Exactly the same thing. So the legs got, you know where we're going. We bring the legs all the way up.

So we hit the stopper, we get the click. Excellent. Rolling up carriage stays. Stowe, keep the tension on the straps, bending the knees, pause, so we won't go too deep and then roll it down into their happy baby position. They're squeezing the heels together. And this is really important for me, this Dorsey flection of the feet. All right. Firstly, it's going to get those hip extensors to work a little bit harder, and it also protects the knee joint. Yeah, so let's move the diamond shape away and pause once the sacrum is down. All right, now from there, we're going to push out with the legs. We're going to bring it all the way to the stopper again, and we'll just do a little bit of work when we get to the top.

Exhale as we roll it all the way up. And then we're going to do five hip extension. So you're going to bend the knees and pause in the diamond. Good. And then straighten the legs up again, but keep a little bit attention against the ropes. So we're going to bend down and exhale pressing back in up.

So keep the little bit of tension. So we're going to bend, pause. Excellent. And [inaudible]. Good. And again, bend and Perez. Let's do one more. So we've got to bend and pause and press. Excellent. So let's finish it off by bending and then you're gonna finish off your spine stretch from there. So you're rolling the spine down.

So articulate all the way down, down, down. Good. Once you at the bottom, flex the feet and moving back to our site. Awesome. So we'll take one leg out the strap onto the bar and the other leg and in you go. Cool. All right, that's great. So we'll get you guys up into kneeling facing the football. All right, with both feet against the shoulder, wrists to start as, I'm going to take you guys into one springs at at one red spring. So both feet are pushing against the palms on the bar and then see if you can bring your left knee through and onto your left foot. Exactly. So a little bit of a step through, right?

So you're on the ball of your foot, keeping your knee directly above your heel and pushing your back leg away slightly. Right for a little bit of a hip flexor stretch. Okay, so by going a little bit posterior area with the pelvis, right, we get a little bit more of the hip flexors, so you're using your abdominals and possibly a little bit of engaging of the glute on the right side. Okay. Can you feel that makes a bit of a difference. Yeah, it's a really great stretch. Important stretch for us, right? And then a little bit of upper back extension. So we're extended through the thoracic and slightly tilted in underneath your right arm. You're going to bring that up to the sky for me. So just watch your balance, careful.

And then we go into a little bit of lateral flection and that gets the hip flexor a little bit deeper. Excellent. But still working the pubic symphysis up the right or the sacrum drawing down and under. Excellent. So a couple of breaths there. That's awesome. Good. One more and you can put your hands back down onto the bar and now into the hamstring stretch. Pushing away with your front leg, but keeping your pelvis on the same horizontal line. If you can straighten your front leg, that's super.

And then at the same time drive your heel under the foot bar a little bit and give me a slight bit of extension through the upper back. So every one I'm gonna ask you to do is to draw your right hip forward and your left hip back a little bit. Does that give you a bit more? That's the right answer. Good. Looking down slightly good. Haley, you can push back a little bit further with your back leg. Excellent. Good. Okay, that's cool.

And then let's return back to where we were. So backup, chest up or we'll do that one more time. So we take a breath in on your exhale. We pushing away. So driving through the front leg heel if you can. I always like to think pressing my heel under the bar, but without collapsing into the back leg. So, hey, you're doing a good job here. I like that. That you're not collapsing into the back leg.

Often find that people drop a lot easier into their hip flexor than they do into their hamstring. So do you guys feel secure there? All right, so what I'd like you to do from there is to go into a little bit of a rotation. So you're going to take your left arm off and we're going to twist back. Stay still extending the spine and you want to look over your left shoulder. Palm is open. So if I could do that, hey, there we go. Good and true. The sitting bone down a little bit and strip both.

You can just straighten that front leg a little bit. So Erin, I'm going to do that. They're just there. Okay, now straighten a little bit there. Okay. That's the money. Yeah. Okay, good. Okay, you got it. Awesome. Okay, hold that. Hold that and bring it back and relax and take a little Buddha. I Cam. So we're going to change the legs. I remember we took the leg through the hands. I go and if you guys, if you have any knee issues, I would recommend putting a pad.

But you guys were both seem pretty good there. So upper back extended first, remember the little bit of posterior tilt underneath? That's awesome. Right, a little bit of the glute just to give that extra little bit of stretch abdominals. Excellent. So hold that for a couple of breaths. Good. And your knee, your friend knee is pretty much aligned up over your heel and I'll push you back slightly. Excellent. Okay, so from there, let's go. Oh, I'm up.

So left arm is lifting and lateral flection. Still keeping the post area tilt. Okay, good. And the other thing that I haven't mentioned is, let's see if we can really push this heel back against that shoulder rest without the carriage moving there. Excellent. Right? Hands can go back down and then we go extending the front legs.

Are we pushing away leading with your sitting bones as it? So you're trying to create a little bit of extension in the lumber, but be careful that that extension doesn't translate into your neck. So we love having the long neck. All right. He always still driving under the foot bar. That's it. Good. Oh, so this is a great place for me to go into a squat. Ah, are you guys okay there? So just enjoy that [inaudible] right. So let's relax back in for a sec. So coming back in. That's cool. Okay, so we're going to do the one with the rotation again. Yeah, so we're going to push out with that front leg. All right.

Just careful that we don't let the back knee runaway and then we're going to take the right arm out behind you. So we twisting and that rotation is really coming from the upper backer. There we go. Palm. Are we good? Super. Just generally bring the arm up a little bit higher. So now we've got this long line. Okay. Yeah, it's also great on the pic. Okay.

If it's too low, you don't really get that Nice Peck stretch driving the heels down. I don't think I'm in a squat in this position for you guys and bring the hands back down. Cool. And you guys can return all the way and relax. Cool. Okay, so you guys could hop off for a sec. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to put a green on this one here and a red yellow on this one.

You said it hasn't got a green spring but that's more or less or are they similar? Are we going to go into a long stretch? Okay, so you're going to stand back on onto your carriages. Hands on the bar. Super. I'm in the heels up at the back and what I'm going to do is just make sure, yeah, you have a little bit of a space in between the soles of your feet. Perfect. So you're just in a, what we call a front support position. So slight extension in your upper spine. Good. And a little bit of a tilt in the pelvis.

So on an exhale we're going to push backwards on a long line. That's it. Good. And then inhaling as we glide forward on that long line, but let's not forget about the upper back. So if you can you go as close to the stopper as possible, but without obviously going over the end. So I want you to be comfortable and can you hold that position? If Marion said, let's just get you both in sync and then we're going to go back.

Now we're pushing away out of the shoulder blades. Good. Keep the post area till and then gliding forward through the thoracic spine. Good. So we go back again. So we've gotta push a little bit more of a tilt there from here with the pelvic. That's it. Good. That looks strong. It looks strong. And then one more time.

So we're going to push back and bringing it all the way to the front and then to relax. Push up into an up stretch. So that's a permanent position there, or similar to a downward facing dog position there. Good. Ooh, you good there? It's relaxed. Bring your heels down to the ground. That's an instate over there. And just push yourself up and back. That's it.

Just for a little bit of a cough stretch as well. Yeah, hands can go down onto the mat. So just one at a time. Excellent. Soften your knees a little bit and then gently rolling yourselves up. So we're going to call up one vertebra at a time. Excellent. Okay. So you guys can carefully just hop off the carriage is for me.

Good is obviously you guys just remember that the springs are quite loose so you want to be careful when you're jumping off. Okay. So what we'll start is with a chest expansion position. So it's Neely with your knees against the shoulder s okay. Facing towards the headrest and the springs will leave exactly as they offer. Now if you can take hold of your straps, but you're going to take your palms through the straps. All right.

And we take the palms through and then turn your thumbs inwards slightly. So we've got a little bit of internal rotation. All right, so we working with the lats and the lats. Obviously they shoulda extensors, but they also have the internally rotating element to them of the shoulder joints or dropping the sacrum. So as we exhale we just gently press back with those arms. So small movement, not too far at all. So it's just behind the hips and then inhaling you can bring it towards that stopper again. Excellent. So on the exhale we press back and inhale, bring it forward, keeping the shoulders squared off, right. So, although we are an internal rotation, we still wide across the chest. Super.

So let's do two more. We're going one good. And bringing it forward and to [inaudible] and bringing it all the way to the front. Cool. So you're gonna Hook your straps again there for me. All right. And while you're in that position, I'm just going to bring you a football down. So if you're doing this at home, you can just hop off and bring the foot bar down yourself just for save a little bit of time. I'm going to do it for the girls. So football down, and then you guys are going to turn to face the inside of the room again and onto the end. Okay. So we're going to go into a side kick kneeling position.

Okay. So we're going to reach down with your hand onto the headrest top hand behind your head. And then we're going to bring the legs out long and then lift them up above hip height. So we choreographed this earlier. We're not going to lie. And Aaron got the job of keeping her leg up higher than Haley, right? You remember that? Okay. So we're going to hold, so we to just bring the leg forward, Dorsey flex and then taking the leg back gently plantar flex.

Alright, so we're gonna do this slowly bringing it forward and back just a little bit more unstable than the mat and we bringing it forward and taking it back, keeping the abdominals engaged. Good. And bringing it forward and back. And it's obviously a little bit harder than the mad because of the raised shoulder rest. So it pushes you into lateral flection one more time. So you've got to abduct a little bit higher and pause. Okay. So what I'm going to do is there, so what I'd like you guys to try in this position is I'm gonna take your leg and I'm gonna pull you towards me a little bit.

So just feel their whole that and now I'm going to let go and stay up there. All right. That's the position I went to. Let's get out of that for a sec. So just lean over your palm again. Okay. So that's a little bit of a cheat. It's okay. But then we're going to bring it over there and that's where I want you to say, hold it up there for me. Keep the ABS in, draw them in tight, and that's much better.

Work on the abductors and relax and bend the knee and bring it in. So while you guys are there, if you guys could just turn back to the center facing this way, we'll do the other side in a sick and I'm just going to change it to one red spring. Thank you for one spring. And we're going to take the straps, feet against the shoulder rest behind you, and we'll go into the triceps first as I was sitting before we go to the other side. So if you can take hold there for me, Hayley super. And then you're gonna start with the hands up above your head. Excellent. Good. Keeping those ribs down there for me. So it's going to be a slight push forward with the arms. All right, slightly forward. So not too far above the top of your head.

So we're going to bend back in. So keep the thumbs together. If you can write, hold this and you shave the back and pressing forward, but you end up where your hands are pretty much in line with your forehead and then bending back in. That's it. And exhaling as we press up, good whole day, little bit in there and we're going back in. Good. That's much better. And then pressing up so not too far forward. Good. So it gives the illusion that we actually just pushing up in a straight line almost. Right? But there is that forward intention and the elbows can go a little bit deaf Marin. One more time and pressing it up and bringing it back. Excellent. Circle your arms round. Let's put the straps behind us.

Awesome man. And then we're going to turn to face this way to the art sides for the sidekick. So we are putting the hands down onto the shoulder, wrist, extending the leg out towards the foot bar and the legs can come up. You guys have got lots of room over here, so holding up abdominals, reach out of the hip joint. And then we're going to bring the leg forward.

Dorsi flex and taking it to the back. Plantarflex at Dorsey flex. Good. And I'm going to stop you just there and otherwise we go into the back and forward. Excellent. And to the back. Let's do three more. We go forward and to the back. Good. Okay, one more time. So we go forward and out to the back.

So it's a little bit behind us right now. Take it a little bit behind. Are we going to bring it in line again and then push towards me so we reach good. Hold. All right. And then pull yourselves back over the shoulder. Rest again. Legs Up. One more time. When we push and hold, they're good to keeping the height of the leg a little bit higher. A little bit high at Walden and lower the legs. Yeah. Excellent. Good job. I know a few get for a sec.

So if you guys don't mind getting the long boxes for me. So we're going to place them up into long box position and we'll start with the one red spring. So the foot bar, you're going to be lying with your chest just over the edge. We will start with a breaststroke prep. Oh, so you've got your palms shoulder with the pot. Excellent.

Your fingers are facing forward all the time. So we've got nice straight risks and then we want the back of the legs engaged. So headed, we're going to add duck there. Good. So you want to use a little bit of the glutes and gentle, a little bit of post Steria told for me if you can do that. Excellent. Right? So without lifting the spine, just pushing yourselves away from the foot bar. That's it. And at the same time, drawing the shoulders into their sockets. Excellent.

And then bend the elbows just to glide back in. Alright, so are we pushing away like you're on a block of ice and that ice block of ice is just sliding along the floor and then bending back in in. That's it. Super. And exhale to press. So as you pushing, there's a sensation of pulling at the same time. So that's the use. That's an of the no Trapezius as so you sliding your shoulder blades, putting them into your back pockets as you push away, squeezing the legs and coming back and in all the way and exhale press art and bringing it back in and relax. Cool. So what we'll do, I'm going to just drop one spring. Okay.

So preferably it would go to a yellow. This one's only got a blue here and so you've got a tough job ahead of you, but your manage. All right. So your right arm's going to go out into an airplane position. Okay. So you've got the left shoulder blade drawing down. So we don't want any change in the shoulders and just pressing away with their left arm. Good. So engaging the tricep and then coming back, legs, staying abducted, exhale to Perris away. Hailey, give me a little bit of the hip extensors at the back. Super.

That's much better. So you just want to feel like those thighs are still lifting and we do two more. So we go one. So we'll do about five per side and exhale for two. Great. And bringing it back in and changing. Super. So at the side and we're going to press away for one.

That's a two. Remember the push in the pool, feeling the shoulder blades drawing into its socket as you push up and exhale for too good. Good. Twice more please. Oh you got it. One more time. That's it. That's great. Work on the tricep and the deltoids, the pics and back in and relax. Good. So you're going to put your hands under your forward. There we go.

And use just relaxing and that position. Okay. So what we'll do is add actual eggs for me. So legs are together. Bring the legs up off the box. Super Try. Press the pubic symphysis, James. Aliens that we're using a lot of the abdominals.

Now what I'm going to challenge you guys to do here is to slowly very slowly start bending your knees, but keeping your knees together there and so slowly start bending, but without the knees coming apart. So we engaging the hip extensors or keep them can together together together. Pause and then lengthen. The legs aren't behind you, but keeping the knees up off the ground. That's a good. So bending, manning. Good. Haley, give me a little bit of a lift here. I feel like you've dropped slightly and then lend them the legs. Good.

So we really work into the hip extensors. That's it. Lifters legs up a little bit. Urn Layer we go, but keep them together. Awesome. So we got two more good and taking it out long. One more time. They have me holding a little bit of posterior tills, both of you. Good. And lengthen out with those legs and relax them.

Wow. Okay. You're getting pushed back onto your boxes, into a wrist position. Just to give the lower back, a little bit of a stretch out. Just let your neck go along. Good. And just dropping your sitting bones down towards your heels. Good.

And then you can carefully come off the boxes and we'll start facing the frantic game. So where we started, I, we'll just finish off with another roll down. Excellent. Okay. So you're standing up tall, shoulders relaxed. Again, I remember the thumbs up, slightly forward, little bit of a softening in their knees. Deep breath in and exhale, letting the head [inaudible] all the way down. Good. Remember the support from the navel, the promise we made in the beginning. Here we go, and exhale. Rolling it back up. Cool. Thank you guys.

Comments

2 people like this.
Such a lovely structured class with beautiful ideas and good cues of muscle usage. and…I'm now so homesick after hearing that divine accent and little 'van die pleas' expressions
Dankie Rene!
1 person likes this.
Awesome class!
Excelent teaching skills!
Thanks!
2 people like this.
I liked the short spine sequence. Breaking it down was extremely effective in improving my technique. Thanks for the great class.
Paola Maruca
Beautiful work as always. I agree with Stacey. I absolutely loved the short spine breakdown. When we think we know, there is always a new piece of the puzzle to add.
Thank you Ed!!!!
Very good class. Excellent cues. Thank you
loved the cues. great breakown of movements. Thanks
I got a thorough and deep work out from this class. Thank you!
My first Ed Botha class. Loved it!! Great cues I will be using these in class. Thanks.
R Y
Great workout but difficult - think it should have been rated at a 2/3 or 3.
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