Class #2320

First Time Session

75 min - Class
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This Mixed Equipment workout from Brett Howard is perfect for those who are just beginning their Pilates practice. He teaches a first-time session to Nicole using the Mat, Reformer, and the Wall. His clear explanations and vivid imagery make it very easy to understand the movements. He includes detailed break downs of exercises like the Hundred, One Leg Circle, and so much more!
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box, Mat, Mixed Equipment, Wall, Pilates Pole

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Hi, my name is Brett Howard. And today my body is Nicole. And what I'm going to do, it's going to take Nicole through a first time session. So Nicole actually has never done plots before. So this is perfect because I can actually do a real session with you. So, uh, before we start, do you have any injuries I should know about? Okay.

All right. So Nicole, I'm gonna have you start seated on the mat. Yup. Be Gif face me. And before we get started, I'm going to explain a couple of things, a little, a couple of things about plots and also some of the vernacular that we use, uh, implies the most important thing that we're going to work on is what we call the powerhouse. The powerhouse is your abdominals, your back, your pelvis was pretty much the center area right here. So, um, you have four layers of abdominals, the most deep entitle layers, your transfer subdominant muscle. And um, what it does, it decreases the center or the diameter of your center. And so when every exercise, I'm gonna ask you to either scoop or pull your navel to your spine. And that's just to really engage the transverse abdominals. So let me just see, you pull in really perfect. All right, we have a stance in plots. We actually have a couple stances, but one that I'm going to use quite often.

Something about plotting stands, which is heels together, toes about two to three inches apart. So it's really about this distance right here. And this stance here will happen standing. It can happen sitting, it can happen lying down. Many different, uh, uh, poses there. So when we get to it, I'll just go over that again. Sometimes we also have a parallel stance, parallel hip width.

We have many different stances, but this one's a little bit out of the ordinary. And last thing is, uh, we have something called the frame of the body, which is shoulders and your two outer hipbones, your greater true cantors. And this makes like a frame of the body. We want to keep the movement sort of in our frame. We wanted, we don't want to do large movements outside of the frame. So a lot of our movements, we're focusing on going center, getting more narrow.

All right. Don't worry. This will all come back as we go ahead. So the first thing I'm have you do is I'm going to have you start seated parallel hip width distance. You're going to have your feet tracking in line with your knees, your knees tracking in line with your hips. Perfect. All right. You're going to have thumbs with fingers. You're going to hold onto the back of your thighs and you're going to sit nice and tall as if you're sitting up against a nice flat wall.

I want your initiation to be your tailbone. You're gonna start with the tailbone. You're going to curl down one vertebra at a time, and your goal is to keep the elbows broad, but also to try to get as much of the small of the back onto the mat. Hold there. Now you're going to lead with the crown of the head. You're going to round forward leading from the head.

You're going to bring your nose in between the knees. Then you're going to roll up to your spine, tailbone, lower back, middle back, upper back, neck, head will be the very last thing. Okay? All right, so let's do that five more times. You're going to start with the tail and you're going to roll down one vertebrae at time, opening in the lower back, and try not to let those hands slide there. Perfect. All right, now lead with the crown of the head. You're going to round forward. Nice broad elbows.

Bring the nose towards the knees. Good. Now you're going to roll up against me starting from the tailbone. Imagine that I'm a wall behind you. Nice and tall here. Perfect. Once again, starting with the tail curl down. Keep those elbows broad. Try to get as much of that lower back into the mat as you can hold there.

Perfect. Now lead with the crown of the head. Rounding forward, bringing the nose towards the knees. Now roll up to your spine. Tailbone, lower back, middle back, upper back, neck and head. Let's do that three more times. Starting with the tail. Curl down as rode down. Let your feet spread on the mat like you just dipped pancake matter on a skillet. Yes, there we go. Now lead with the crown of the head and you're going to curl forward. Nose in between the knees.

Now rolling up tailbone all the way up to the crown of the head. Twice more. Starting with the tail, curl down, focusing on the knees, not rolling in or out. Perfect. And now curling forward. Nose goes towards knees and then roll up. Tailbone, lower back, middle back, upper back, neck, head. Last time, starting with the tail. Curl down, opening up the lower back. And then curling forward. You're going to bring your nose towards the knees, broad elbows, then roll up, tailbone, lower back, middle back, upper back, neck and head. Great.

You're gonna bring your feet together. Bring your knees together. You're going to reach the arms straight out in front, and then you're going to slowly roll down to your spine. One Vertebrae at a time, all the way down onto the mat. Perfect. All right, you're going to bring both knees into the chest. Take a nice hug of the legs.

Now one of the exercises which we normally start with is called the hundred. Today we're going to do 50 here on the mat. Then we'll do another 50 on the reformer. So I'm going to put you into the position. Then I'm going to take you out of the position.

I'll explain to the mechanics of the exercise, and then we'll put you back on the position and then execute the exercise. Okay? So what you're going to do is you're going to roll the head, neck and shoulders up, looking at your abdominals. Perfect. You're going to lift the arms up just slightly above the waist there. Great. Now I want you to extend the legs out to your working level here. Maybe a little higher, I think for today.

Now you're going to rotate the legs into plotty stand. So there's that plotty stance again. You're going to hold there for three. Hold to hold one. Now bend the knees back into the chest and rest your head. Great. So I'm going to have you bring your shoulders a little bit over to your right.

Perfect. And now what you're going to do in that position that we just held, you're going to hold that for 50 counts. While you're holding that, I know it seems like a lot, but it goes by quickly, so while you're holding that, you're going to be pumping your arms up and very vigorously from your back. So bring your hand right here for a second on your side. I'm maybe on the other side. There we go, and I'll start pumping up and down nice and vigorously and you feel that muscle of the going into your hand. That's what you're going to be pumping from while you're pumping. You're going to breathe in through the nose for five counts out through the nose for five counts. When you breathe in, you don't want to short staccato breath so you don't want to go.

You want a long breath in and a long breath out through the nose for five counts. I think of inflating and deflating the balloon. Also, when you're breathing, bring your hands onto your rib cage here. Think of your breath being like your ribs being like an accordion. Breathe out in, sorry. Now breathe out. And one more time. Breathe in. Breathe out. Okay, so we're gonna put that all together and gonna roll the head, neck and shoulders up. You're going to look at your abdominals, you're going to lift the arms, bring the legs out, rotate to Palati stance. Nice, long feet. Good.

And you're going to start pumping the arms up and down very vigorously as you breathe in with the air and breathe out. Two, three, four, five. Inhale and exhale, three, four, five in with the air and XL. Three, four or five, pump a little more vigorous. And exhale, three, four, five in with the air. And exhale, three, four, 15 knees into the chest and you can rest your head so that one buy quicker than you thought, right? Okay. So you're gonna extend the legs out onto this mat here. Oops, sorry. You're going to bring the feet down and then you're gonna extend the legs straight out on the mat.

Scoot forward a little bit so you can bring your feet underneath the strap here. Then you're going to scoot back. And today I'm going to do this in pla. Parallel stems. Sometimes I do this in clotty stents, but you're going to really focus on pooling your little toe back just as much as your big toe. You're going to reach the arms straight up to the ceiling. You're going to grab ahold of this bar here. Great number. Do you have this? Okay, so I'm going to let go. You're going to have nice long risks here.

And then what you're gonna do is you're going to bring your head up and you're going to look through the bar [inaudible] so we're gonna roll up. There we go. This makes like a little picture frame and that's your portrait. And you're going to roll back down. And once again, you're going to roll the head, neck and shoulders up. Now think of the head rolling through the arms and you're going to roll all the way up. So if I look at you profile, you're making a letter. See with your body, this is called c curve. Start with the tailbone. You're going to round down one vertebra, added time articulating through the spine.

Try not to skip any vertebra and then your arms are going to go slightly back past your shoulders as far back as you can without the rib cage. Splaying so probably about right there. All right, you're gonna bring the arms straight up to the ceiling. You're going to zipper those inner thighs together and then you're going to roll up leading with the crown of the head and you're going to reach forward into c curve. Good. Inhale, you're going to roll down one vertebra at a time articulating through the spine, and then arms are going to go slightly back to where you can control. Once again, arms are going to go straight up to the ceiling. Head goes through the arms. You're gonna roll up one vertebrae at a time.

And our goal is to have a nice sustained movement, never any quick jerky movements and a hold there. Relax right here. Perfect. And now start with the tailbone. Curl down one vertebrae at a time and exhale all the way down. And let's do that twice. More arms are going to go straight to the ceiling. Head goes through the arms. Inhale, rolling up an XL hold here. I'm going to give you a little bit of resistance.

I want you to relax the shoulders, but I want you to pull your middle back back. There we go to feel that resistance. So each time you come up, you want to try to feel that. Now start with the tailbone. You're going to curl down one vertebrae at a time. Try to not let those shoulders get too friendly with those ears and then arms are going to go slightly back past the shoulders. Last time. Arms to ceiling. Head goes through the arms. Inhale, rolling up XL.

Find that c curve. Hands forward, heels forward, but stomach back. Don't relax those shoulders. Good. And I'll start with the tailbone. You're going to curl down one vertebrae at a time all the way down. Nice. And now you're going to keep your grip. I'm going to grab a hold of this. I'm going to give you a little bit of a pool. Feels good, right?

She's saying yes. All right, so I'll take a hold of this and you can let go. All right, so we're going to do an exercise called the single leg circle or one leg circle. So what you're going to do is you're going to take your right leg, you're going to bend the knee into the chest and give herself a nice pool there. Great. So what you're going to do is you're going to bring this knee across the body, circled down, and come up one. This is just the warmup and across, down, up to across the body, down up three. Now reverse. Go straight down across one on your own, straight down across two, straight down across three. Great.

So that's just to help warm up the hip. Now you're gonna extend the right leg straight up to the ceiling. You're going to have nine points of pressure into the mat. Hands will be two. Shoulders, four head, stomach six, hips, eight. Your ninth point will be that long standing left leg there. Keep this leg nice and straight.

You're going to rotate the leg in the hip socket. Now you're going to turn the leg back to center from the hip. You're going to turn it out. You're going to turn it center. Tried to keep that a little bit more long. Turn it out, hold there. Now you're gonna lead with your inner thigh.

You're going to make a letter d with your body capital deep. You're going to bring the leg up, you're going to circle down and come straight up to center. So go across up to that left shoulder. Nice long leg there. Circle down and come up now on your own. Go across, down and come up. And again, inhale across XL, down and up. One more.

Now of this knee though, had an eye eye on it. I want that. I'd always look out that window. Perfect. And one more time of go across the body. Circle down and come up. Now we're going to reverse. You're going to go straight down. Make sure that eyes facing out yes. And Go crossing up on your own.

Down across to the left and go up down three. Yup, that's correct. And across and go up twice. More. Inhale and excelling. Go up one more time and yes. Inhale, exhale. Go Up. And now rotate back to parallel. Bend the knee and take a nice pool of your leg just to release that. It's more work than you than it looks like, right? People are like, she's not doing anything, but actually you're doing quite a lot.

Eventually that's going to look a little bit more like a circle. So you're gonna extend this leg out. Good. And now bend this knee into the chest and give yourself a good pool there. Great. Now you're going to bring the knee across, down and up, one and across, down and up too. And across. Down and up. Three reverse.

The circle goes straight down across the body, up one, down, two across and go up. One more time, down, three across and go up. So this side, I'm going to give you a little bit more stability because this is a total stability exercise. Ideally nothing is moving except for the circling leg. So the original name of plots actually was called [inaudible], the art of control. So the idea is controlling one thing. So another thing can move freely. So I'm gonna have you bring your right leg underneath this and nice active flex there. And bring your shoulders a little bit over to your right. You're going to reach back.

You're going to grab these wooden dowels that are on the side here. Great, and now you're going to really stabilize yourself. You're going to extend your leg up left leg here. I'm just going to bring this hip forward and down a little bit. Yes. Now, nice straight leg here. You're going to rotate the leg out in the hip. Rotated a parallel. [inaudible] try to keep that knee nice and straight and now from the hip, turn it out. Exactly. Turn it back to parallel one more time.

Turn it out. Long leg here. Energy from the Sitz bone all the way out through the heel and here we're going to keep the turnout. You're going to make sure this kneecap is always facing. That way you're going to bring the leg across the body, down and up and across, down and up and across on your own. Now, down and up. Inhale across. Exhale up. One more time across to the right, down and up. Hold there. Let's reverse. Go straight down and across, and we're going to work on your hamstring flexibility a little bit and down.

Now make this exercise a little easier for you on down and across. Not Bad. One more time. Down and across. Good. Bend the knee into the chest. Give yourself a nice pool of the leg. And now both legs will extend underneath the strap here. Nice active flex of the sheet arms are going to go straight up to the ceiling.

You're going to reach up, grab a hold of this. Do you have it? Okay, I'm going to let go. You're going to bring your chin to your chest. You're going to roll up nice and controlled for five counts. [inaudible] five, four, three, two, one. You can let go of this. Let your arms drop and then give you a little bit of a stretch here. Great.

All right, so we're going to roll up to your spine and then we're going to do a prep for an exercise called rolling like a ball. So what you're going to do is you're gonna bring your hands next to your bottom. You're going to scoot your bottom forward to your heels. You're going to grab ahold of your ankles, take your feet out of the strap, and now you're just going to balance on your seat there. Great. Now what you're going to do is you're going to open the knees, pull the heels into the bottom, let your head drop here.

Make your elbow some nice and broad out to the side and hold for ten nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one fee can come down. Scoot back a little bit and while we're up there you can scoot a little bit more back. Let's practice this next one. So what you're going to do is you're going to bring your right hand on top of your right ankle. You're going to bring your left hand on top of your right knee, left leg extends out straight out in front of you. Now lift the spine. You're going to pull the knee in.

Now change and bring your left hand on your left ankle, your other left hand on your left ankle. There we go. That's okay. The reason why we're doing this is cause it's a lot of coordination. So this is like our prep here. Now change right hand and right ankle. Yes. Change left hand, left ankle. You had it. Nope. The other left-hand America change right hand and right ankle.

Change left hand and left ankle. Perfect. So don't worry, that happens to every single person. All right, so you're gonna bring your feet together, knees together. You're going to reach the arms straight out in front and you're going to roll down through your spine. One Vertebrae at a time. Controlling that roll down. Great Ben, both knees into the chest and then I'm going to break this up for you a little further. You're going to have your feet rest onto my knees. Here is this position. Okay. All right. You're going to have right hand on a right ankle, left hand a knee.

So it's the same thing we just did. Just lying down. Now change left hand and ankle, right Henna. Knee change, right hand and ankle change. Left hand on ankle change. Right hand change left 10 by George. She's got it. And I'll bring your hands beyond on the base of the head. Hand on top of hand. Just like that. You're going to roll the head, neck and shoulders up.

Looking at your abdominals, right knee. It's going to go in as the left leg goes out. So this is what the legs are going to do in this exercise. Change One, change to change to change three. Now you're doing good. Just not like that. I had baba shaved three. You got that beat going on in your head and now hold here.

You're going to bring your right hand on your right ankle. We're going to put it all together. Left hand on your right knee. This is called the single leg or one leg circle. A one leg stretch. Sorry, not circle. You're going to broaden the elbows. You're going to pull change pool. Yes. Change too. I'm gonna let go on the next one. Change three, change three. Ooh, hold there.

Yes. Change where? Right hand and then go change left-hand and then go change, right. Change left. Change Pool, pool and pool. We're going to do two more. Change. Inhale, change in held change. Exhale, change. Xcel both knees and rest. That was good. All right, next one is called the double leg stretch. I'm going to break this one up as well. You're going to bring your feet, rest them onto my thigh here, and then you're going to bring your hands, place them onto the ankles. We're going to work on the arm choreography first, so the arms go straight back to the ears. Circle the arms and grab a hold of the ankles and give yourself a nice pool. Nice. And again, arms. Go straight back.

Circle the arms within your peripheral vision. Grab a hold of your ankles and give herself a nice pool. One more time. Inhale, reach the arms back. Exhale, circle, and now give yourself a good pool. Now hand on hand on top of one another. Hands on the base of the head. Roll the head, neck and shoulders up. Look at your abdominals. Now the leg choreography, both legs are going to reach out to me.

Think I'm like a target, and bend the knees and come back in. And your legs are arrows. You're gonna reach for the Bullseye. And now pull back in one more time. Inhale out XL and now let's put the two together. Our hands are going to go on top of your ankles simultaneously.

Arms back as the legs go out. Hold. Circle the arms to the shoulder height, bend the knees, and now grab a hold of the ankles and give yourself a good pool simultaneously. Out Arm circle first and the second arrived together. Pool on your own. Now inhale, reach. Exhale. Come in and grab those angles in pool. Yes. Inhale, reach, exhale, and improve. Let's do four more. Inhale, reach and exhale, and in pool.

Yes. Inhale, reaching out. There we go. Xcel and in pool. Let's do three more. Inhale, reach out and excelling in pool twice more. Reaching out and excelling and pull. Think of your ribs, integrating with your pelvis. One more time. Nice flat. Put in abdominal wall and pull and rest your head. That wasn't bad. All right, we're going to do one more exercise here on the mat.

You're gonna extend the legs out onto the mat. Let's bring the feet underneath the strap here and then you're going to scoot back. I'm going to have you bring your shoulders, just a hair to the right, reach up, grab a hold of this. Do you have that? All right, I'm going to let go. And your goal also is to make sure this bar is always even, do you want to make sure that this doesn't happen or this doesn't happen? So this is actually a nice a guide to tell you what your collarbone and your spine is doing. So you're going to roll the head, neck and shoulders up and roll all the way up for five, four, three, two, one, and I'll take that and you can let go. Drop the arms, relax those shoulders and roll up. So last exercise is called the spine. Stretch forward.

You're going to take your feet out of here. You're going to open the legs, bring each heel on the center of this moon block. So if I drew an x, it'd be right in the center of that x. All right, you're going to lift the arms up shoulder with shoulder height. Good. I want you to imagine that you're sitting up against a nice flat wall here. You're going to have active flex feet. All 10 toes, knees up to the ceiling. Now hold that for one second. In this flex position, let's make sure we're flexing more from the ankle. Less from the toes. Exactly. All right, so you're gonna squeeze your bottom and you're going to lift your spine up and touch my hand here and release. Squeeze the bottom and lift and release. One more time. Squeeze and lift.

Hold there. Now you're going to bring your chin to your chest. You're going to round forward. As you round the head forward, you're gonna reach your hands forward and you're gonna reach your stomach back. You're gonna reach the heels forward, ball of the foot back. Now you roll up against that imaginary flat wall behind you. One Vertebrae at a time. Squeeze the bottom. Lift your spine up that wall.

Now imagine there's big beach ball in front of you. Round up and over that beach ball leading with the crown of the head tried to touch the head in the sand in front of the ball. Now there's a table in front of you. Press your hands on that tabletop. Now you're going to roll up, but imagine your spine is like a pearl necklace. Stack one pearl on top of the other pearl up against this flat wall here last time. Squeeze the bottom.

Inhale and now exhale round forward and exhale all the air out of the lungs. Exhale, exhale, exhale over that imaginary beach ball. Now inhale, collect all the air as you roll up against that wall and exhale, release the arms. Good. Bring the legs together, shake out the legs, and you did a good job there. We're going to head over to the reformer. Okay Nicole, so this is called the universal reformer and I'm going to explain some of the landmarks to the reformer, but I'm also gonna explain some do's and some don'ts. All right, so on the reformer, this outside section, it's called the frame of the reformer and then what sits inside of it is called the carriage. All right, this is our foot bar. This is our spring bar and our springs are attached to that.

Then we have our shoulder blocks, head rest or head piece. We have our handles. Then we have our short straps here and then we have our long straps right here. Okay. Just so you know, some of the landmarks. Um, now let's start with the don'ts because I think the don'ts are a little bit more important there. All right, so one thing that you're never going to do is you're never going to get on or off their former, like I just did. You also never want to sit on the reformer like I'm sitting right now.

So it never straddling. The reason why is with our springs system and we're on a force spring system here that has all even spring tension. We don't always have them on. And if you lying down, he sit up that's going to move from with underneath you. And then it's very easy to post something in your lower back or inner thigh or a hamstring. So for safety, anytime you're on the reformer, you always want to have two feet on or off at one time. Never straddling, okay?

There's also going to be a couple of exercises that you're going to have your hands on this foot bar here. Now you see how my hands are right now. I have my thumbs with my fingers and I have long fingers here. This is how I want you to hold actually. And then in this position, I want you to not break in your wrist. I want you to think you have a botoxed despair, so no wrinkles. All right? Wrinkles, Botox. All right.

Now this is the position that everyone likes to hold just like this. And this is the wrong position. And the reason why I don't want you to hold this ways, cause when you're holding this way, you have a tendency to want to pull this bar. If you pull hard enough, that can happen or even that can happen and you can go falling. So anytime you're on here, thumbs with fingers, long fingers. Now I'm going to show you how to get on the reformer and then I'm going to have you do that. Okay? So to get on, since you are strong and healthy, I'm gonna have you cross your arms like a genie. Then from there, you're going to zipper up through your abdominals, zipper up through your bottom and inner thighs, and you're going to sit down nice and controlled here. Then from here, you're going to bring the arm that's closest to your shoulder block around the waist. This other hand, it's going to go on the shoulder block.

You're going to lie on your side, and then you're going to rotate until you're lying on your back. Just this position, I want you to start with, okay? Now to get off, you just retrograded. You roll to your side, you help yourself up, and you can use this hand if you need to. Then from there, since you're strong, you're gonna use your bottom. You're going to push your heels down, you're gonna use your abdominals and you'll stand up. All right? So we'll do that a couple of times a day, so don't worry if we don't get it perfect. So you're going to have feet together, knees together. Let's have you step a little bit over to the yes. Alright.

And then what you're going to do is you're going to sit down nice and controlled. Exactly. Yes. Now bring the inside arm, the one that's closest to the shoulder block around the waist, that hands going to go onto the shoulder block. You're going to turn on your side and then you're going to lie down and you're exactly where I want you to be. Now let's practice quickly though how to get off, but I'm not going to have you stand up. So you're going to roll to one side. Yes. You bring that arm across. You help yourself up. And now hold there to scoot a little bit over though to your right.

For right now, I'm going to do something just to work on your feet a little bit. Cause I remember you talking to me earlier that um, you want to do some footwork a little bit. So what you're going to do is you're going to sit as close to the front as you can hear. Good. You're going to cross your arms like a genie for today. But if this is hard for you, I might bring your hands down. You're going to bring your toes onto here.

Now what you're going to do is, I don't want this to get too far away from you. You're going to really use your Domino's here for your balance, and you're just going to do a little massaging of your feet back and forth. Maybe just the toes, actually. That's okay. I wasn't being descriptive there. So you're gonna go back and forth a little bit. One and two. Yes. And three and four and five. One more.

Good. Now what you're going to do is I'm going to bring this backward so it's right in the arch of your foot. Okay, let's do feet up a little bit. There we go. And you're just going to go back and forth and this actually feels kind of good. And now just don't, uh, go just in front of the heel. Yes. Good too. Maybe a little less. [inaudible] and to here.

There we go. That feels better, doesn't it? Right now what you're going to do is bring this back because if it gets too far away from you and then we're not using our trunk anymore. Yes. Now let's go onto the heel. Yep. And now just the heels. You're going to flex the feet and just going to go back and front, and that's nice as well. All right, so the next exercise, I shouldn't say this, but one of my former teachers, she calls this one the Jerry Lewis. So you're going to open your feet very wide on this bar.

Now you're going to bring your knees together and then just the end step here, you're going to massage back and forth, and that feels really good, right? Good. Now what you're going to do is you're going to bring your feet together. You're going to bring your soles of the feet flat together, like a prayer position like that. Yes. Now I want to bring it right in front of this bone here and just bitch behind this bone and your heel. You're just gonna go back and forth. There we go. Just to loosen up the feet there. That feels really nice, right?

You can say no. [inaudible] her. Okay, I'm going to take this and now your feet should be nice and supple now, so you're going to just a hair over to your left. Good. You're going to bring your inside arm, your right arm around your waist, the outside arm is going to go to the shorter block, lie on your side onto the back. And what we're going to do is we're going to start with an exercise called footwork. Now if you notice the reason why I'm being so stringent and so like you have to get on and off like that is that it mirrors how you should get into bed and out of bed, maybe minus this point right here. But, uh, when you're lying down in bed, it's always good to lie on your side, rotate onto your back and getting out of bed even more important. It's always good to go on your side and then get up.

So we just don't throw our body up. So we're actually trying to instill a lot of good habits here when you're coming to is, all right, so we're going to go onto the heel, onto the toes, heels together, toes apart, about two to three distance, uh, fingers distance here. And then you're in your plotty stance. I'm going to have my hands go here. Your knees are healthy, right? And now I'm just going to give you a little bit of pressure here and that should feel good on your back. Now do you feel the weight of your pelvis into that? Good. That's what you want to feel. Nice, strong weight there.

Now bring your arms right down by the sides. You're going to imagine there's a string at the top of their head and not yet, but you're going to lengthen from the string. You have a zipper that goes all the way up. You're going to zipper up and you have two rocket boosters right here, and you're going to fire with those boosters. Okay? And we're going to do with that altogether.

And you're going to keeping the toes here are gonna extend the legs out. Exactly during bringing the inner thighs together. Let's keep those heels together. Yup. And now bend the knees and come back in and again, extending out too and come back in. Now as we go out and in, we're going to try and never to accelerate or decelerate. So even timing, you're going to go out [inaudible] good.

And now you're going to bend and come back in and again, you're going to press out and come back in and you don't have to worry about any specific breathing. Just natural breathing will be good. And now pressing out and come back in. Now you have a little bit of hyperextension in the knees here, so I'm just going to make sure you don't go beyond straight. And now keep super glued in your heels there. Maybe just a little bit of insurance.

Let's give you this to squeeze in between the heels. That's your a hundred dollar bill. Don't drop that. $100 is a lot of money in these days. So extending out there and bend the knees and come back in and extending out and go back in. Let's do three more and extending out nice and gold back in.

Twice more out and go back in one more time out and go back in. Alright, so our next position is going to be the arches who are going to bring your feet together, knees together, and you're going to go just like that. And now because of your hyper extension, sometimes I have people here, some people times here, but because you're hyperextending stented and your knees, I'm going to bring a lot more further front and that's gonna prevent you from hyperextending. You're gonna wrap your toes over this like a bird on a perch. All right. And now, same thing, head zippering, rocket boosters.

You're going to slowly extend out and then go back in. Now as you go out, try not to lock those knees and now extending out. That was a better end goal back in. And then that's the other thing you don't want to do is you'd never want that carriage to bang and go back in and again. And it's normal for the feet to glow crampy in the beginning because you're not used to doing this position and again out and go back. In my teacher, she used to massage your feet like this as you're doing it and come back in. And what that does, it's a nice massage and come back in. Now as you go out, try not to let your hips talk and try not to let them lift.

But then also try not to do that either. So you want to keep equal weight here, here, here. Just press down. Okay. And now going out, let's do six more and out and come back in. We'll, that's okay. Don't worry and go out. But it gives you a nice suppleness of your foot. And again, let's do a couple more and in and out and into. More out and in. Yes. One more time. Out and in.

Now you're going to bring your heels against this bar here. You're going to flex the feet. All 10 toes are gonna go back equally and you can press into me here and now you're going to press out nice and controlled and go back in. That was good. And out and in. Nice. Even temple and in and four and in and five and five more and out and in and out. Don't speed up though. And, and in two more out and in last time out and go back in.

All right, so we're going to go onto the toes. You're going to have your heels together, toes apart. So would go back to that plotty stance. Knees in line with your shoulders. We're going to do an exercise called the tendon stretch. You're going to extend the legs out, but this time I'm going to hold the extension so slowly press out, hold them, and I want you to draw whole.

They're going to draw the inner thighs together. You're going to wrap right here and you're okay with me touching you. All right, you're gonna wrap right here. And then what you're gonna do is you're going to lower your heels for three, two, one and you're going to lift the heels for three two, one lower, lower, lower lift, lift, lift, lower, lower, lower lift lifting. It probably feels like you're bent right now, but this is actually your straight and lower for two three lift, two, three five two, three. Lift five more on your own. Magine my hand is here and wrap here. There we go. And lift, lift, lift, lower, lower, lower lift, lift, lift, and the of it, the knees soften a little bit. I'm okay with that today. And lower, lower, lower lift, lift, lift. Lower, lower, lower lift. Lift two more. Lower, lower, lower lift, lift. Hold there. Bend the knees slowly come back in.

Great. All right. How are you doing? Good. It's nice fun. I have a lot of people like that one is they're going to bring the knees in. Oh, sorry. I'm going to have you stay in it and you're going to give yourself a nice hug of the legs. Great. So the next exercise we're going to do is the other 50 of that hundred.

So keep those knees into the chest and you're gonna reach up. Grab a hold of this bar here. I'm not the bar of the handles here. Nice straight arms. And now what you're going to do just to get used to this, you're gonna press the arms down and hold and then lift the arms back up. And again, press down too, and lift up to this time as you press down, bring the head, neck and shoulders up as well. Exactly. Now, arms come up as the head, neck and shoulders come down. One more time. Arms down as the head, neck and shoulders hold there. This is a good position here. You're going to extend the legs out and now I'm going to have you lift the legs a little higher. Here. Plotty stands. Heels together, toes apart. Open the yes.

Perfect. Now pull up to the knee caps. Zipper up. Start pumping above the waist as you breathe in with the air. Breathe out. Two, three, four, five and our goal is to move only the arms. Exhale, three, four, five, keeping the carriage nice and still XL three I'm going to take my hand away. You're going to hold this leg yourself. Inhale and XL. Three, four, five. One more time and XL three, four, five. Bend the knees first and now arms come up as the head, neck and shoulders come down. All right. Good job. So we were on forest springs.

I'm going to go to two springs now and now I'm going to take this and you're going to hold your legs. All right. We're going to do two exercises. One is called the frog, the other one is called the leg circles. And it's going to set us up here. How are you feeling? She's feeling good. She says. All right, that's good. All right, so what you're gonna do is I'm gonna Place these on you. You're going to bring your right foot through here. They ever go.

Then your left foot here, and let me just make sure this hardware is in the middle here. You're going to open your knees and let the straps fall in between here. So now you have like little frog position. Arms are going to come down by the side. Now I want you to imagine that you're in a bowl of Jello.

So if I'm in Jello and I push or move anything, I'm moving through a very thick, dense substance. I can't really go too quickly. I always have to have a little bit of resistance. Okay? So imagine that I'm that archery target again, slowly press through, Jello up towards my heart here. Now moving back through Jello, you're going to bend the knees and come back in. Okay? And again, extending out very good and bend the knees, bow back in on your own. [inaudible] that's okay.

That happens the first time. And Ben and go in, moving through Jello press and pull back in. One more time. Pressing out and pool back in. This time we're going to press out and you're gonna hold. Good. Now I'm want you to imagine I took something and sliced your right down the middle of your body, the right half of your body, and then the left half of your body are going to be a mirror image of one another. So that means when we're moving, one side can't move before the other side can go wider than the other side. They have to work simultaneously.

So we're going to open the width of your shoulders. Now keeping the leg stretched lower the legs, so it's gonna look a little bit more like a box today. Bring your legs together. Lift the here. How's that? Okay, so I'm going to keep you at this height than today. So you're gonna open. You're gonna lower together and lift now on your own. You're going to open lower together.

Lift open, down together. Lift one more time. Open, lower together, and lift. Don't worry. That's hard the first time. This will actually get much easier. Very quick. Now before we reverse, I want you to imagine you have a glass of red wine that is on your stomach. And I'm so glad you're wearing a white shirt.

Imagine that someone just filled that glass, the glass of red wine right to the rim. Okay? And there's a rule you do not waste alcohol. So what'd you want to do is you want to pull away from my fingers here. Now balance that glass there. Don't waste any of the wine as we were [inaudible] reverse.

You're going to go down, open up together, down, open up on your own. Now down, open up together to more open. That's okay. Up Together. One more time down. Open up together. Bend the knees and opening those knees. Good. And that's your legs circle. I'm going to take this one, this one.

Keep the knees into the chest. Great. And then let's ease you back in. So here's your first test. You're going to roll to one side. So let's roll to that side. And then you're going to help yourself up. Okay? You're gonna Cross your arms like a genie, feet together, knees together, and use your bottom. And your abdominals to stand up. That was good. All right.

The next series we're going to do is called the stomach massage series. I'm going to bring us back to four springs. Then I'm going to have you s let's bring you back a little bit. Today I'm going to have you sit right on that pad here, so this time instead of lying down, you're just going to sit down. [inaudible]. Then bring your hands down by your sides and just turn facing me and you're going to bring both feet right onto that bar there. Great. All right.

Lift your bottom up for one sec. There we go, and I'll scoot a little forward. That will be perfect. Now you're going to have your heels together, toes apart, so we're in that plotty stance. Again, bring your hips just a little bit over to the, yeah, a little too much. That's just right. Okay. Like goldilocks, right? A little too much. Little too less. There we go. That's just right. Heels together, toes apart. Knees align with your shoulders.

You're going to grab the front of this carriage here. All right. Here actually, and then you're going to get a good grip there. You're going to broadly elbows very wide and you're going to let your head drop forward here. Let your body really round. So now that you're in that nice uncomfortable position, you're going to try to maintain that throughout. We're going to try to make sure that all the toes aren't are on that bar there. Nope, you had a good position there.

Now imagine someone just tried to punch in your stomach cause someone does that. I'm going to pull my stomach away so you go out to there. Now we're going to add that tendency. Actually let's come back in. Good. And again, you're going to press out. There we go. Bend the knees and come back in.

Now we're going to add that tendon stretch on that we did earlier. Okay, so you're going to press out hold now. Maintain your c shape here. Go to a little bit more straight so those legs are fully extended. Now lower the heels. Now lift the heels. Now bend the knees and come back in. And again, good strong arm there. Hold, lower the heels, lift the heels and go back in. We do six to 10 of these.

I'm going to do four more today. So you're going to press out hold now, lower the heels. Now lift the heels, bend the knees, and come back into the initiations. Always from your stomach and go out. Lower the heels, lift the heels, come back in. Let's do two more out lower lift and come back in. Now we'll do one more about hold there. Imagine your elbows are on a tabletop and then don't push into the table.

Keep them out to the side the whole time. One more time heals together. Out. That was better. Lower the heels, lift the heels, heels together, and bend the knees. Come back in. All right. Not Bad. So what we're gonna do is, let's see if you can hold on top of these blocks here. That looks good. All right, so you can hold this way. If it's more comfortable, you can do this way or that way. Whichever one is most comfortable for you all. I'm going to take a spring off. So we're on three now. I want you to really lift through your spine here.

Crack a walnut in between your shoulder blades. Imagine that you're balancing a book on your head and you're going to really use your arms here to make sure that the springs aren't pushing you back. Now same choreography. You're going to extend the legs by initiating from your stomach hold. Now lower the heels, lift the heels, and bend the knees and come back in.

And again out to now. As you lower, keep the heels together because they separate. That means you're hyper extending. Now lift the heels and go back in [inaudible] and again going out, lower the heels, lift the heels and go back in. And let's do three more. Out. Lower the heels, lift the heels, and in Nice, proud chest. Two more out. Lower the heels, lift the heels and go back in. Last time going out, lower the heels, lift the heels and come back in. So we did the round, we did the hands back. Now I'm going to take a spring off, so we're on two and we're going to do the reach shop. You're going to circle both arms around reaching towards my shoulders here.

Now you're going to really lift through your spine and now you're going to stretch the legs and go all the way out and hold there. This time we're not going to lower the heels. You're just going to bend the knees, come back in, and I'm going to reach, reach for each. Now, once again, going out. Now this time as you come in, I want you to come in and touch my hands. Go in and touch my hands and hold there for three, two, one, and again, go out. Keep those risks nice and long. [inaudible] good, and I'll come in. That's okay.

And now touch my hands for three. Now hold their shoulders down. Spine up. Yes. One more time. Go out and now come in. Lengthen the spine. Come all the way in, in, in, in reach for my hands. Hold their knees a little closer. Shoulders down. That was good. Since you worked so hard. I should have my shoes on here, but that's okay.

Grabbed my wrist. I'm going to give you a lost stretch. Lift your head up a little. There we go. This is your dessert cause you worked well. All right, you can bring the feet to the side and now cross the arms like a genie and standing up. All right, so what we're gonna do is we're gonna do another series called the short box series. So we're going to stay on two springs. Hmm. Keep that today. All right, so this is the one time when we're getting on, there's no really specific way to get on. All right?

So you're just going to sit here facing towards those windows there. [inaudible] great. And then what you're gonna do is you're gonna bring both placed them underneath the straps. Good. You're going to open your feet very, very wide. So these are always active and you have a lot of tension on your strap. You're going to be seated one hands with distance from the back edge with your bottom. Great.

You're going to wrap one arm around the waist than the other arm around the waist. You're going to grab your sides and round your back like a tight little ball. Good. You're going to relax here. Good. And now what you're going to do is you're going to start with the tailbone. You're going to curl under and you're going to keep your ball shape and you're going to roll like a ball backwards to here. Good.

Now keep that head forward. There we go. Now you're gonna Roll Front. All right, so imagine that you have a string right here and you have a string to your tailbone. Someone's going to pull the string. That's where your tailbone is. You're going to roll down. Now someone's going to pull the string that's attached to the head. You're going to roll back up. Good. Tailbone initiated.

You're going to curl under. That's it. And now head initiates. You're going to curl forward. Two more. Curling under. Stop there. Now curling forward. Yes. One more time. Curling under. Relax those shoulders and now lead with the head to come back up. All right, so nice and relaxed there. We're going to do the flat position now. So that was the round you're going to bring hands on.

Top of hand plays the behind the base of the head now for right now, extend your thumbs. There's two bones right there. Do you feel those? I want you to lift your spine exactly from with those thumbs. Ye exactly. Now you see how tall you are here you're going to now push your head back. Look, push your hands forward. Do you feel that resistance?

You want that resistance the whole time. You want that lift the whole time. Now maintain the lift and now have you ever driven before? Yes. Okay, so imagine that your body is like carseat and someone has just reclined it and you're going to hinge backwards. Hold. Now you're going to go back up to center. You're going to lift. Oops. What happened here? I'm going to get my barbecue sauce out soon and now hinge back and now come back up to center. Now relax here. Lift. Hinge back and up to center. Now on your own.

Squeeze the bottom. Lift in hinge. I'm going to take my hand away. Come up center. One more time. Lift in hinge. Hold there. Try and make your spine longer. Yes. And come back up to center and rest your arms for a second. All right, so we're going to do the side to side. So once again, hand on top of hand behind the base of the head. And now maintain your flat back here.

I'm gonna have your whole body pitch forward a little bit. [inaudible] Yep, go forward a little bit more. There we go. Great. And now what you're going to do is you're going to lengthen up. Still. Keep the hands here. Imagine you're in between two flat walls. You're going to go directly over to the right.

Now you're going to lift to go center. You're going to squeeze the bottom, lift your spine, and go directly over to the left and then length in the center. All right, and again, lift and go over to the right and center lift. Go over to the left center. We're going to do one more rest for a second. [inaudible] imagine that you're seated on the scale. Your rights cheek and your left cheek are going to make sure that scale stays balanced. So maintaining the balanced scale, you're going to bend directly over to the rate and then length in the center, you're gonna lift. Go directly over to the left length in the center. Now round forward, let your arms just draped down and come off.

And since you're working so well, I'm going to give you another dessert here. So that's what my teacher remodel used to call this. She used to call it the dessert. I don't give everyone a dessert. Only if you work hard or only if your package is absurd. So what you're going to have to do, um, since uh, I feel like we want to work a little bit on some hamstring flexibility.

I'm gonna break this one up a little bit and actually I'm gonna give you a modified version of this. So we would do something called the tree and we're going to do a little bit of a modified trees. You're going to take your right leg out and now you're gonna still keep this left leg though underneath. Not a problem. You're gonna bend the knee and lift that up and grab a hold of this with both hands. Good. You're gonna let this heel just drop down. And before we even do this, actually this what might, this is what my teacher used to do.

Try to bring your heel on this box right in front of your seat. Now hugin lengthen your spine. Yes. So if you couldn't do this, then we were going to do the exercise, but since you can do this, we can do the exercise. So you're going to bring your foot here, grab a hold of this now, nice tall spine. You're going to extend the legs straight. Good. And now bend the knee. Now I'm going to bring you a little bit forward here and now wrap those ribs here. Yep. And extend to and bend to and extend and stretch.

Hold there. Now we're going to make sure that we're straight, but not beyond straight. You're going to let your head fold forward towards your leg and one piece. You're going to roll backwards. Good. Now hold there. Little more energy through this heel. Good. Now one piece, we're going to roll up and you're going to lengthen your spine. That's a little scary, right? But guess what?

You're halfway done itself. Drop the head. And in one piece are going to roll back. Don't worry though, Nicole, I haven't dropped anyone yet. There is always a first, but have a good record so far and I'll lift up. Keep that leg nice and straight just for practice. I think I'm going to do a third one today. You're going to let the head drop forward.

Try to keep this like a long piece of steel and you're going to curl back. That's enough for right now. All right, and now around up. Lengthen your spine and bend this knee. Okay. All right, I'm going to take this. Let's bring that right leg, place it underneath, and let's do the test again. Bring your left heel. Place it on there. All right, so that helps me to see if we have any sightedness there. You're going to grab a hold of the strap. You're going to extend the leg and bend the knee.

Now lift here in a little bit more than now to more of the limerick. Extend and bend. One more time. Extend hold there now. Long leg adult lock here. Let your head drop forward. Good. Relax in here. You're going to curl back in one piece and don't worry, I'm not going to let you go. But also you have some insurance with that strap.

So as long as that foot is flexed, you're going to be okay and not length. And this is also where we have two straps just in case one gives out. Now let the head drop forward. Rounding back, this is better. Rolling up. You're getting a little bit more secure with this exercise. One more. Let the head drop forward. Rounding back.

Nice and controlled. Hold there. And let's have those ribs shift a little bit to the right. Exactly. And now rounding forward, lengthen your spine. Nice and tall. I'm going to take my hand away. You're going to hold there and vemone. All right and I'll take this and you can stand onto the floor.

Great. So we're on the home stretch here just a little bit more. We're going to do an exercise called the elephant and then a series of exercises called the knees stretches. So we're going to still be on our two springs here. And this is the exercise as telling you about before where you want to have thumbs with fingers, long fingers, making sure you're not grabbing that bar there, but also making sure that you're not broken in your wrist. So what you're going to do is you're going to step on, you can step on from that side. Bring your right hand right there. Now you're going to have a flat foot. You're going to bring your left foot here, bringing the heel here, but have your foot completely flat as if you're going to stand yes.

Now bring your left hand on. Then bring your right foot on. Good. Now you're gonna have good parallel position here. That's how these wrist a little bit longer here. There we go. And sometimes I think of cupping like this and that gives me a little bit more security. Now I want you to round your back like an angry cat. Now try to drop that tailbone a little bit more and for you, I think I'm going to bring you a little bit forward to here. Now stay there.

Push up into my hand here. Exactly. Let your head hang heavy like a ragdoll. Yes. Now this is not going to be a big a position, but try to lift all 10 toes up in the air. Yes. All right. So what you're gonna do is you're going to move your upper body. You're only gonna move your legs.

You're gonna press the carriage out to there. So it's not a big movement. Now three counts are gonna pull in, in, in using the stomach and your legs, but not the arms. Now I'm going to take my heel away here. I'm going to press out one. Now you're going to come in one, two, three, and out and going in, in, in, twice, more out and in, in, in last time. Out, in, in, in home. So that's the elephant. Now what you're going to do is you're going to slowly bend the knees and bring your knees down onto the carriage hold there. Yep. You can come all the way down though to see how your feet are right in or where that's come up for a second. All right, so come back down.

Bend the knees all the way down. Stop there. Now just how your feet are right now. This is what we call a forced arch position. You're going to maintain this for starch. You're going to slide this foot back against the shoulder block, then the other foot back. Great.

Now round your back like an angry cat. Dropping your head, dropping her tail. Pull up here, but relax here. Push into my hand there. Now this is our round position. Now you're going to reverse this head up, tailbone up. So this is like our happy cat. Round the back angry cap, so around a position. Try to broaden your shoulders. Push up into my hand. Now reverse that head up, tailbone up. That's our arch position. Round the back again, we're going to main keep this rounded shape, but let that spread and you're going to sit as close to your heels as possible.

Let's stop you there for today. You're going to keep your tail tucked under. Have you ever had a dog? All right. What happens when you yell at a dog? It drops his tail in between the legs. You're going to think of yourself being like a bad dog, and now you're going to press your feet out slowly to about there. Now bend the knee, bring the knees back in, all the way in.

So the work is on the end, so you're going to slowly press out with the feet. Now you're going to pull in with the knees. Yes. Press out with the feet and go in with the knees. Let's do five more pressing out and pulling into this at the knee. Stretch round for more.

Press out and pulling it ou and again, press out. Control that in and again, out. Control the in with the knees. Yes. Twice more. Go all halfway out. Now pull all the way in. One more time. Inhale, press out and exhale. Pool back in. All right, now let's reverse this position. You're going to arch the back.

Head up, tailbone up. Yes. Now what happened to that head there? Good. So I want you to imagine, let's first sit back though. So you're sitting as close to your heels as possible to there. Imagine that I put a glass of champagne on your sacrum here. I have to work on my analogy. Someone's going to think I'm an alcoholic, but a glass of champagne on your sacrum here. Don't spill that.

And then you have a diamond that's around your neck. Let everyone see that diamond. Good. So you're a high roller right now. So maintain that champagne, keep that diamond visible. And now slowly with just the legs, you're going to press your feet out to there. Yes. And you like champagne too. I see cause that was very good.

And now press out with the feet two and pull into, press out three in three. Press out, four in four, press out, five in five, three more press. And in two more. Inhale. Exhale in last time. Press and pull back in. All right, let's round the back like an angry cat again. Think of your tailbone dropping like that bad dog. And your head is heavy like a ragdoll. This time, we're going to keep your hips right where they are and now you're going to slowly lift your knees up in the air.

Two inches and hold two, three, lower. That was good. And again, lift and hold. Two, three, lower. Yes. One more time. Lift and hold. Now slowly push your feet to there. Now pool the knees in one. Press out, two into now on your own, press three in three, press four in four, press five in five press six. How you're doing in press seven you've been better right in.

Press out eight and in two more today, nine and in last time out and in, in gently bend the knees down. Good. That was very good. Especially on your first time. Not everyone can do that. So you're going to stand onto the floor. Great. Yep. So sometimes you'd have very good with that. Sometimes people can't do that exercise like that.

So then we have to do it here in stead on one spring. But you're very strong. So that was a very good. Okay, so we're going to do two exercises. One is called the running. The other one is called the pelvic lift. But before we do the running, I'm going to take you over to this window here. All right, now you're just going to watch me. So hold there. I'm going to bring my hands against this window. You're going to lift up onto your toes. I'm going to bend one knee as a drop, one heel than both come up. Then I'd been the other both come up. All right, so you're going to do that. So bring your hands against the window, and now you're going to bend one knee as you drop one heel. Yes.

Now lift both up. Now change one, lift both up to up. Two Up, three, up, three, two more. Four up, four up, five up, five up. Lower the heels. So we're gonna do the same thing that you just did here on the reformer. Okay? So you're going to cross your arms like a genie. You're going to sit down, bring your right arm around the waist, you have the right arm, and then bring that hand there, lie on your side, and then on the back. Great. All right, so this time we're going to have feet together, knees together.

Bring your hips a little bit over to your right. Great. Now you're nice and square so that if you noticed, everything in this room is shaped like a square. And that's actually for me because I can see if you're a little bit too much to one side or the other side. So our goal is to always be in center of all the squares here. All right? So I'm going to have you slowly extend both legs out.

Hold there. Now what you're going to do is you're going to bend this knee, your right knee as you dropped your heel. Now lift both up, hold now the other and up one up, one up, one up, one uphold there. Now we're going to do seven more, but we're doing a little bit of a just that's for later. Okay? So what you're gonna do is you're gonna bend one knee and lift both up. Now the other knee, both up. That's better, right? And now bend and up. Then now that you have this, let's go a little quicker. So you're going to go down, up and up and up and up and up and uphold.

We're going to do three more. Bring your hands against you like this. Now, press your hands in and notice if you have any sort of right-left movement. So go down, up, down. That's better. Down, up, down and up. And now bend the knees. Come back in. That one usually is everyone's favorite exercise though. I thought so. So today I'm going to have you, we can do this on the arches or the heels. I'm going to put you on the arches today and then just feel that weight there.

Great. Now what you're going to do is you're going to maintain the pressure against my hands. You're going to bring your arms down by the sides. You're going to slowly, very slowly curl your hips up into the air to there. Now roll back down. We're going to do the same thing, but this time we're going to try not to move the carriage. You're going to curl the tailbone up. Yes, and rural back down. Let's do that twice, Morgan, to curl up to the bottom ribs to there in rural, back down.

One more time and curling up and hold. Now make a prayer position. Just place it underneath here. So this is roughly the position I want you. It's a little higher than I like, but it's roughly where I like. So you're going to think of that pair position being underneath your hips the time. Now let's bring the arms down though. Push into my hand right here a little bit, right? Yep. Low. Lower there.

Now maintain this position. You're going to slowly press through Jello again. Pressing out. Good. Now slowly come back in through Jello. Yes, and again, pressing two and slowly go back into good. Now let me bring this down a little bit more. Let's lift this a little bit more and let's do a couple more pressing out. Good.

And Go back in. Let's go a little slower out through Jello and in through Jello. Out through Jello or molasses or Taffy. Something very sticky and come back in. We're going to do five more. Donald Squash in my hand here though, and go out. That's okay.

Just don't do it again. I'm kidding. Now go back in. All right, let's do four more extending out and go back in three more out and go back in. Hold there. We're going to do two more of, imagine that there's a string attached to your tail. Hang from that string and go out and go back in. One more time. Extending out and go back in. You're gonna hold there. Keep the carrots. Still. Roll the spine down.

Yes. Both knees into the chest. Give yourself a nice hug there. And that's the reformer. So you're going to roll to one side. Help yourself up. Let's do that one more time. Just cause I want you to finish strong. So lie down for a second. Yep. So roll to the side. I'm kind of a control freak.

So let's bring this hand right there. Roll to the side. Sitting up, feet together. Knees together. Cross the arms and standing up. Perfect. Now what we're going to do, we're going to do one more thing today. We're going to go to the wall. Okay. Okay Nicole. So the last thing that we're going to do, what's called the wall, and it's going to be really great feedback for you. And um, what you're going to do is you're going to stand against the wall here and you're going to stand anywhere between one foot width and one foot length distance way. I think since it's your first time, let's do one foot length distance away. Okay? And you're going to bring your body against the wall.

Okay, perfect. Yup. And then I'm like, Yup, let's go to Plati stance. So what you're going to do is you're going to have your head against the wall and you're going to lengthen from are not from there, but from these two bones. Again, here, y'all separate processes. You're gonna imagine there's two strings there. There's two strings right at the temples.

There's another string at the crown of the head. You're going to hang from those strings like a marionette puppet. Then from there you're going to plaster your whole back against the wall. But to do that, don't talk. So if there's a little bit of space, that's okay. You're going to open the collarbone and let the arm sis drop heavy.

Let this drop heavy. Your jaw is going to be relaxed. You're gonna have a nice long neck. You're going to lift from your sternum, but I want you to just let your ribs stay heavy and dropped. You're going to lift up through your dominoes, but let your pelvis just float and drop there. Now from there, you're going to pull up through your knees. You're going to pull up to the back of your legs. You're going to pull up through your inner thighs, but while you're pulling up from that, you're going to push your heels down, your big toe down, really the bone below it, and then the bone that's right below your little toe.

Great that's have a little bit more lift from this string here. Maintain the same amount of pressure against this wall throughout. Try not to let any less or more happen and you're going to float the arms up to here. Now let's open within our peripheral vision, maybe a little bit forward. Yes, and go all the way down. Cause if we go too far back, then the ribs are gonna display. Yup. And again, lift the arms up, good. And then open the arms and go all the way down. And again, you're going to lift the arms up.

Inhale and hell go all the way down. Now we're gonna reverse that. You're gonna open the arms out to the side and you're going to go straight down. Yes. And again, arms out to the side. And now arms come straight down. One more time. Inhale, lift and exhale all the way down.

So let's do that checklist again. Are you lifting from these occipital processes, the bones right by the years. Crown of the head. Tempos hanging from string jaw, relax, long neck, collarbone, broad and down. Arms heavy like they're full of led. Sternum lifted ribs, dropped, dominoes, lifted pelvis, dropped, lifting underneath the seat, lifting up through the uh, quads, lifting up to your inner thighs and hamstrings, but pushing down through the heel, first metatarsal, fifth metatarsal. Now maintain that.

You're going to bring your head forward and let it just drop here. Now you want to make sure that everything else is going to stay. Still. Imagine I'm going to walk down your spine and you're going to roll in another vertebra down. Then another one, then another one. Then let's stop right there, right where my hand is here. I want you to breathe into my hand. Breathe out.

Good. Inhale into my hand. Exhale good, and I'll try to go one more inch down. Hoad that's good. Broadened here. Let your arms hang. Heavy, full of lead, and we're going to just do little pendulum. Yep. Nice and broad. Little pendulum swings like so no muscle work happening. Just letting that swing. Let's reverse one, two, three, four, five and stop there. Let yourself drape. Now stay there. Don't let this move.

Try to bring this against the wall. Now the next part against the wall, then the next part, then the next part, then the next part, the next part, the next part, then the next part. Then your neck and your head. Good. That kind of felt good, right? So lifting up from the head, lifting up from here and here. Broad here, relaxed in the jaw, relaxed in the neck, heavy in the arms, and now what you're going to do is you're going to rotate the legs to parallel hip with distance. Good. I want you to slowly walk your feet forward, but still main contact with the wall there. Yes, I think that should be good there. Now let's have your legs parallel hip with straight legs.

Good. Now this is like the first exercise we did on the reformer, the footwork, so you're going to maintain contact with that wall and you're just going to slide down the wall as if you're going to sit in a chair. As you slowly do that, you're going to slowly lift the arms up to shoulder height. So slide down the Walsh, lift the arms to shoulder height, household there to three. Now push your heels down, lift up from the bottom and let the arms come down. I'm good now is that pelvis still gums though? There we go. Now once again, you're going to slide down the wall. Maintain contact the whole time. Yes. Hold there. Now. As we do that, those arms are going to lift up to here.

Not a problem. Now hold there. Remember on the foot work I said you lift from here, you lift from your zipper. You lift from your rocket boosters, but just keep your back on the wall as the arms lower. Good. One more time. Inhale, you're going to lift the arms as you slowly lower. Hold there. Open the knees just a little bit. Yes, and hold for five, four, three, two, one, and brushed the wall as you come up. Great. All right.

Now what you're going to do is you're going to slowly walk your feet back to about this floorboard here. So go back a little more. There we go. Now let's go to Plati stands. Heels together, toes apart, maybe feed a hair forward a for it that way. There we go. That's okay. Now what you're going to do is once again, lift up from the crown of the head. Lift up from here more. Now stay lifted from here, but stay long here. Let your jaw relax. Long neck, burrata, collar bone, arms down. Now wrap here. There we go.

Lift up from your sternum. The stay wrapped and dropped right here. Lift up from your abdominals, the stay heavy and her pelvis. Pull the front of the thighs up. Pull the back of the thighs up. Pull your inner thighs up. Now push your big toe down. Little toe down, heel down like you're on a tripod on each foot. Now don't let this pressure change against the wall.

There might be little space behind your lower back and that's okay. Now what you're going to do is this time pressure, hands against the wall. Now what I want you to do is you can stay there, but you're going to slowly bring one foot up against the wall. Great. Now I want you to press your hands against the wall. Your foot against the wall, your head against the wall.

You're back against the wall, your pelvis against the wall. Everything is pressed, spreading out in the wall like you just dipped pancake batter on it. Now stay there. I'm going to show you what I want you to do and what I don't want you to do. You're going to press everything so far against the wall that it is stepped together away from the wall. That's what I want you to do, but I don't want you to do is do this. Okay?

So everything comes off at the same time. So press your foot, hands back, shoulders, head against the wall and step together in position. Hold there. Now in this position here, I want you to still lift up from the crown of the head. These bones here a little bit more. They're here at your job. Be relaxed. Let your neck be long. Collarbones broad and open arms heavy, full of lead.

Lift from your sternum, wrap through your ribs and drop the ribs. Zipper up through your abdominals. Let your pelvis be heavy. Lift underneath your seat. I want you to pull up through your thighs. Pull up from the back of the legs, but push your heels down big toe down, little toe down. Soften the knees just a little bit. There we go.

Maintain this nice long position and you are ready to walk out of here. Thank you. Very good job. They work.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Mr Howard if this young Lady has indeed not previously practiced the Matwork, then one has to suggest that her work is very good indeed.
Outstanding effort, and great Instruction.
Thank you.
4 people like this.
In my opinion, the pairing of an absolute beginner with a master teacher is such great match. If every beginner had an experience with a teacher as kind, encouraging and present as Brett Howard, the whole world would love practicing Pilates. Thanks for the class!
Outstanding teaching of the beginner system!
Lovely job! All these imagenary pictures give us some great ideas on how to enrich our cueing and ease movement. The mat and wall part is also very useful for pilates for children and teens! Thanks a lot!
Brett, you know I love watching your teach, and today's class was no exception! Great session, as always, with such gentle but informative cuing. Especially enjoyed your wall work! Hope to see you in November!
Thank you Brett!!! Learning from the best
1 person likes this.
Pour moi, Brett Howard est le meilleur professeur de Pilates que j'ai connu. Il donne des instructions très simples mais précises à la fois pour amener l'élève là où il veut. S'il vous plaît, invitez le plus souvent pour qu'il continue à nous donner des cours magistraux. Merci monsieur Howard et merci Pilates Anytime.
Thank you Brett & PilatesAnytime for this video! What a great piece to have for reference. Brett's experience, expertise and personality are a winning combination for a client's most important session.
WOW! loved this class. Its always a challenge to introduce the practice to new students. Enjoyed your PATIENCE, knowledge and experience. Learn a lot as a teacher today :)
Great review for new clients and teachers who are training newer clients. Thank you Brett Howard.
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