Class #2364

Unilateral Reformer

50 min - Class
180 likes

Description

Strengthen each side of your body in this Reformer workout with Meredith Rogers. She focuses on unilateral work to highlight the inconsistencies in the body so you can train to correct them. She includes many challenging exercises that require stability and balance like Control Balance, Front Splits, and many more!
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box

About This Video

Nov 01, 2015
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Transcript

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Today we're going to work on the reformer and I think I'm going to focus on a little bit of unilateral work, so that should be fun. Let's go standing facing the reformer. Have the box on the reformer. I have one red spring attached to the springs. Take the arms, reach down, turn the palms of the hands to face forward and then start reaching out to the side. But as you reach out to the side, continue to slide the shoulders down the back, reach wide to both sides of the rooms and then lift up through the arms. Reaching up, allowing the upper spine to extend just a little bit.

Press through the heels of the hands. Grow Taller through the spine as the arms come back to the legs. Reach again, palms of the hands, face for the lifting. So we just bringing awareness into the body. Taking a moment to start looking at your breath so we could exhale as we press the arms down, the size of the body, healing that with that pressure of the arms.

We expel all the air and then inhale, filling up, bringing the arms up overhead. This time, reach, interlock your fingers and lean towards your left. Just a little side stretch. Before we continue and lift up, reach up and over to the right. Inhale and exhale to lift up. Separate your hands, die forward. Bringing the hands onto the reformer. So we started here. We're in Nice deep trunk flection. Want you to tip your tailbone up and start to press the reformer out in front of you.

Drawing the navel back towards the spy and then exhale round the tail under and bring the reformer back. In. Inhale the tailbone tips up as we press the reformer out. Feel the shoulder blade slide backwards towards the pelvis and exhale curling back in. So use the weight of the spring to create resistance into that movement to create depth with your abdominals. One more like that. Reach out and down.

So that's so important how low you go. What's more important is the finding of a flat spine. So you could also try with that, doing that with bent knees, that would be appropriate. Take both hands to the left of the box, reach out with the pelvis as you press the box out. Feel the spine reaching down and up. Cross to the left. Then round, so trying here or attempting to hold the Pelvis Pretty Square.

As the spine reaches out, it dives over to the left. We get a nice side stretch there, round the spine back in. Come all the way into the stopper. Switch sides with your hands were on the right side of the box now and then you reach out. There's not a perfect arm position or hand positions to just do what feels like it feels good and suits you and feels comfortable.

Strong rounding and inhale, reaching out, trying to keep the weight of the body all the way over the heels so I'm not leaning into my springs, I'm standing on my legs. I'm moving my spine. To move the reformer find center again, one hand on either side of the box, press out into your back is straight and pause there. Draw the abdominals in and not feel the pressure of the springs. Help you stabilize the shoulders. We're going to take the left leg behind us.

Inhale as you exhale, lift that left, like I'll try to bring it up just as high as the pelvis. And then inhale it drops down. Exhale, shoulder blades down away from the ears. Pick that leg up and filled it as a left leg is lifting. The right leg is pushing down into the floor. And, and two more reaching up and uh, and last one reaching up and then pausing here round. Now you got to get the knee bent and it's going to clear that flip bar.

You got to Tuck in really little and they reach out. Spine lengthens, leg lengthens. Inhale, exhale, curl. Bringing the knee in and up over that foot bar and reach out. And again, exhale, curl and recheck. And then place that leg back down onto the floor.

And then around the spine. So we did five lifts of the straight leg, three bending of the knees. Here we go again. We're going to reach out if feeling that spine come long again, standing on the left leg, take the right leg back. Notice if you've shifted a lot from one side to the other. Now that leg reaches up, lines up with the body and comes back down. Chase the leg up with the belly button.

So I put pins up into the spine and feel the left like pressing into the floor as a rightly reaches up through space and down. Last two times. Lift and down. Last time lift from there we were around the spine. You had to get the knee to come right and over the top of that foot bar. Bring the carriage in and reach back out. Inhale, exhale, bend the spine. Then the knee, draw the shoulders down and Tuck.

It's like a single leg rolling like a ball almost in my brain. And reach out and last one curl [inaudible] and bring that leg back to the floor and then lengthen even lower through this finding right down, getting a nice shoulder stretch and then roll the spine. Feel the articulatory processes. You bring the carriage back into the stopper and then letting the arms relax or letting the arms let go. Roll yourself up all the way. Bring the heels together, toes apart, bend into a play and set your springs up. I'm an [inaudible].

I'm going to choose to use three full springs or three red springs. It's a little lighter than I typically go, but um, I have a plan heals together. Let go of the foot Parson all the way up. Lower the heels downturn, um, come onto the box. So we're gonna sit feet on the foot bar, reaching the arms forward. Inhale, press down and back through the feet. Exhale, roll the spine back. So warming up the spine or continuing to warm up the spine. Reach the arms, open the hearts, arms come forward. Spine comes back on. Once the shoulders are directly over, the pelvis.

Arms are still reaching forward. Abdominals are still coming back. We're gonna lift the arms up. Open the arms out to the side and around the spine. Roll the body back. You mean the feed anchor down into that foot bar in here? We reach up, open the arms, arms come forward. Exhale, curl the body. Finding the shoulders over the pelvis, lift the spine and lift the arms. Open the arms out to the side.

One more time around and roll back. Pressing the legs together. Inhale, arms. Open the arm. Reach forward, lift up, up, up, and reach all the way. Open the arms out to this side. Exhale to round the spine. Roll down through the center of the spine. Inhale, left arm, right leg lift and exhale down.

Inhale, opposite arm opposite leg up and exhale down. Fill that little foot sticky on the bar. And then you just said the last minute. You're able to pick it up off that bar. One more recheck. Yeah, and down. Pause to inhale. Exhale to lift. Oh, it's getting a little harder to lift each time. Yes it is. Lift all the way. Open the arms out to the side. Exhale. Push the air through.

Space Round. Roll back. This time left leg lifts, right arm cuts across to join the left arm and inhale to center. Separate the hands. Exhale, rotate the opposite direction and inhale to center and exhale, twist and inhale to center and exhale to twist and inhale to center. Pause and Nia, XO, rural, a lift back. Bend the elbows. Bring the hands behind the head. Inhale, exhale, turn towards the right and inhale, unwind.

So going through all full ranges of motion in the spine here. Flection, extension, rotation and center and lift and twist. Pressing the head into the hands, feeling that mobility of the spy center, Twist Center, twist center round right forward. Keep the hands behind the head. Give yourself a little bit of a spine stretch. Then reach the arms forward. Begin to roll yourself back. Come right down to the tips of the shoulder blades. Ben, one knee, take it in the hand. Then the other knee.

We're in the double leg stretch position. Ready to go. Inhale, arms out legs. Exhale, draw and deepen. Inhale, reach and exhale. Paul, fill the arms and the legs shooed out from the center of the body and the arms. Press through space to bring. Come back to the knees and inhale. Feel the stretch. Exhale. Feel the contraction. There's contraction in the stretch too though. That's certainly real.

Three more. Reaching out and back. Reaching. Yeah, pulling in one more. Reaching a pulling in. Pause. They're both hands on the left knee, right leg push down on the knee and down on the knee as you change, legs reach and [inaudible]. [inaudible]. Exhale. Exhale. Inhale in him, keeping the toes lined up with one another so one leg doesn't draw. They say right on the target and Axa x, I'll feel the upper back working as the hands. Press down on the knee, both knees and pause. Hands behind the head.

We'll rotate to the right first. So twist to his chest, twist, twist the legs just brushing past one another. Feel the feet reaching out into that same target we just spoke about. Feeling the rotation of the ribbons. Last five heavy head in the hands.

Wide Elbows. Feeling the focus of the rotation around the trunk. Okay, too. I think I may have lost count. I have to confess, this is our last time. Both knees come into the center of the body. Take the legs, bring the knees up into the body and rock yourself up. Take just a moment. Holding onto the backs of the legs, pulling the spine a lift the chest look up and come back to neutral. Come up onto the box, take the box off the reformer and put it away again. When I set up for my footwork, I set up with three red springs.

That's what I've got on there right now. So we're going to come down onto the reformer for some footwork. So coming all the way down onto our backs, I'm gonna lift my headdress up cause it helps me to see my feet. I think it's a good idea if you have someone else's eyes on your body to keep your head rest down. If you need your help, a little bit of help, that's a good option. Arms down. Inhale. As you exhale, press away and bend. So we create a rhythm and we do that with the breath. Inhale to come in. Exhale, navel to spine. Press away in Hilton.

Come in navel to spine. Press away. Feel that the arms are reaching long along the sides of the body so that the tailbone is heavy and the pelvis is being held in a neutral position. Last five, pulled that for pull back three and in two and in holding the feet nice and steady as though they're standing on a wall. Pause at the bottom. Lift the right leg, press out and bed. This is why I didn't set my spring up super heavy initially cause I knew that this was coming. So it's now this is a tough spring for me, but it's a good challenge. We're going to do eight. That was four, five so if I forget to count, well on the other side, that's the goal.

Last two and in last one. And and lift the foot, the left foot, the right foot comes down onto the bar. Re-Establish neutral pelvis. Find your center and reach and bring the carriage back and and bring the carriage back. Feel that the work happens in the back of the body before it happens in the front of the body, the front of the leg. Anyway, you can see I've already lost count. It's a good idea to let you know. I believe that there are three more to make eight and two and why bring the carriage all the way back in.

Replace the feet both feet on the foot bar, moving to the toes. Take an advantage of the fact here that the springs are a little lighter with both legs on the bar and use that to recenter yourself to re in examining the work through the center of the body to check in with the shoulders as the leg straighten. The heels are lifted as the knees bend. He'll stay still so we have maximum plant our reflection and then we let the feet let the work rotate around the ankles. We'll do five more harriers one and bet and two and Ben and three working all the way up through the top of the leg two and then one more time and bend. Keep the left foot on the bar, take the right leg and reach it straight out in here. As we exhale, we're going to press with the left leg lifts the right leg and bend, reach and press list and bend reach so that the lift of that leg comes from deep in the center of the body and rechecking with the arms and shoulders.

This is half way. We'll do four more. Lifting up and pressing away. Try and stabilizing that working lang okay to keeping that press, that heel of the pressing foot. Nice. And still, there's number one. Come all the way back in. Replace the right foot on the bar. Find your toes, stretch the left leg out in here. As we exhale, we're gonna press out with the right leg. Lift the left, like only lifting the leg to the point where you can really say authentic and integrous with the pelvis, not bringing the leg so close to the body that pelvis needs to come up. And here's number four.

Keeping that left like straight all the time. Five and six, and reach seven and reach eight and left foot comes back onto the bar. Separate the feet into a small v-shape. Check again with the pelvis. Check again with the backsides of all 12 ribs. Press out, squeeze the legs, the other end. Drag back in and reach. Feel that as the legs are being pressed together, we can generate breathwork.

Drawing that energy up through the trunk of the body. Yeah. And then we can drag the carriage back yet. [inaudible] keep the heels and nice and connected. Together. We're going to do four and back three and back to and back one and back.

Pause at the bottom, lift the right foot up, keep that hip an external rotation as we press the left leg to straight. The right leg will straighten out to the side and bent. And again, just managing the stability of the pelvis, keeping that pressing foot nice and still and bend sweets, both sides of the glutes as the leg straightens for more out and bend ribs down on the reformer, Meredith and bend last too, and bend and reach and bend coming all the way back. Find that Small v position first and then lift the left leg up. Here we go. Stretch, kick.

Ben didn't stretch kick and Ben [inaudible] both legs working, working differently, but definitely working here as four, five noticed the trunk that wanting to lean to one side six last to seven and bend one more and bent. Place that foot back onto the bar and then reorganize so that your feet are back into parallel alignment. So with the feet in parallel, press the carriage away, take deals all the way into the bar and lift all the way up from the back of the legs. Reach down and left. Feel that as the heels reach down, the whole spine is elongating and opposition. Feel that full range of movement in the foot. We'll do three more here, two more.

Okay, last time. So now from their stand on that left foot, get an ice and support or we're going to take that right foot off. We'll take the right foot just above the foot bar and take the left heel down and at five times down and lift a lot tougher here. Last too. Last one, lift place both feet onto the foot bar. Let's go down and up just once and then up onto the right foot.

Reorganizing. What do you have to do in your body so that when you lift your left leg up, nothing else changes? Probably for most of us it's something different, but I know for all of us it's bringing awareness towards the center of the body and just bringing awareness into that. That shifting of weight. This is our last one down. Lift up, hold both feet on the bar, bend the right knee, drop the left seal, meet in the middle and switch. Lift and change and lift and change in. Yeah, and exhale. So it's a long breath pattern that I'm suggesting.

Using one breath for both feet when inhale and one exhale for both feet and we'll do three more. Two more. Okay. I feel like unilateral work is a great way to highlight are the inconsistencies that we all have within our body. I'm just going to take my right foot down under the bar and give it a stretch so you could increase the stretch by holding onto the reformer and pulling or by taking the heel of the foot onto the foot bar and pulling with the foot that way and then we'll switch.

I'm taking that stretch under the bar and then left and in. Help yourself and you go down to one spring, one red spring, one full spring. I'm coming back down. Taking the straps in your hands in our hands since we are, oh, I didn't check my spring or my straps before I got onto the reformers, so I don't know if you've met me yet, but if you have or if you've taken class with me before, I don't like that, so now they're even. We're going to pause here in here. As we exhale, we're going to take right arm, right leg forward. Inhale back. Exhale, left arm, left leg forward.

Feel that the work in the movement of the arm happens below the shoulder blade and don't let the arm that's still lifted in the air. Get Lazy and float, float around. It won't have any spring tension. It won't have any strap tension, but it sees reaching for the ceiling. One more to eat side reach center, reach center. Now let's make that a little harder. We're going to lift the head and chest pause there. Take both arms at near the ears. Inhale and exhale. Press both arms down.

Inhale both arms reach up, keep the lift of the trunk and exhale both arms down. One more like that. Reach up and press down. Now both arms go, Huh? As we press, we send the right leg forward, both knees in both arms, up left leg forward, both knees in both arms, up right leg forward. It's interesting for me, what I'm having to try to work around is the same side arm. His leg that's moving is wanting to pull harder. So I have to remind myself that both arms get to work, but only one leg. It's just stretch one more, right lay center, left flay center, come all the way down and rest. So rolling to our side.

Coming up, let's reach down and added another spring. I'm adding a blues spring. So now I have one full spring and one half spring or a red and a blue spring. And then we're going to come all the way back down onto our back again. So from here, press out with one leg, put the opposite foot into the strap, and then both legs come into this strap. Okay.

Bending the knees into a frog position. So we're going to take that frog position and we're going to lengthen it about three quarters of the way too straight. And then I want us to inhale and bring that diamond shape that we've just created up, keeping the pelvis down and then wrap the knees, push the knees away from each other to move that position down. Inhale as we lift up and Xcel, can you feel the work on both sides of your hips symmetrically? Oh, here's something interesting we could try.

What about not allowing the heels to stay connected together, but the heel separate just a little bit and then try to do that same wrapping, making the feet move out at exactly the same pace. That's definitely more interesting. More challenging. Anyway, so here we go. Wrap the knees, keep the heels lined up so the legs work evenly but they don't get to rely on one another. We're going to do two more. Okay. Wrapping Range [inaudible] and last one. So now from the bottom, see if you can suck the, what do I want to say? Well I think about pulling my femurs up into the hip joints and then try to stretch both legs out without moving the reformer and then re bend your knees.

Feel the wrapping of the hips and lift, and then from there try to do that same thing. The legs stretch up. See that they straighten exactly at the same moment and bend. Inhale, exhale, press the legs away. It's kind of tricky and reach out in here. Keep the reformer stuff. Exhale, bend and reach back up. And again, reach stretcher, bend, lift, and stretch up.

Last Time Ben Heals are just next to each other. It's almost like they want to touch so bad, but they're not. They're not allowed as a barrier. And then stretcher, bend and lift all the way up. Bend your knees, take your hands onto your straps, bring the knees right down to the outsides of the body, and then press out into the knees with the hands. Flex through the feet, pull down on the straps, take one foot out, take the other foot out. If your headdress is still up, please take it down. Now that's important. We're about to head into some control balance.

So what I want us to do first is just get a little bit away from the shoulder blocks. Hold onto the tags that live just behind the shoulder blocks. We're all have our headrests down. We're going to lift the feet up. Inhale to take the legs out straight. Then bring the legs to vertical. Roll the spine over. We're going to do about two or three roll downs before we hadn't to the control balance. Flex through the feet, separate the legs and slowly roll down.

Feel that the shoulder blades are widening. Widening on the back. As the pelvis comes down, point the feet, legs come down and together. Inhale to lift and exhale. Rolling over, pausing there. Flex, separate and slowly dragging the body down. I think one more of those is in order for sure. Lift up.

We go up and over. Flex through the feet, separate the legs and roll the spine. Point the feet at the bottom. Legs come down in together. Here we go. Roll up and over again. Yeah, pause there. Take the right leg down into the frame, into the well, and then reach up balancing on the shoulders and lift the left leg up.

Give it a double pulse and change. Left leg down. Right, like reaching lifts up to the ceiling. Pull pulls, switch, pull, pull, switch. Oh, pool switch. Oh Paul, you want to use your back sensors. Use your hip extensors one more time. Hal. Reaching up. Take both legs into the air. Lift the spine. Take both legs over the face.

Watch the pelvis as the legs fold over. Smiths stays nice and stable. Keep the legs together. The flex the feet and lower the body all the way down. Bend your knees. Take a hold of the backs of the thighs and Rola. Alrighty, I'm going back to one red spring. Blue Spring goes away. I'm going to step up onto the reformer.

Take the right foot up against the shoulder block and the left foot up onto the foot bar and then press out into a high lunge. So the heel of the right leg is pressing into that headrest. That whole, this is pulling slightly up and forward and we're taking that nice hip flexor stretch from that place. We're going to keep the pelvis moving back on a straight line. Try to keep the back long and stretch that front leg holding, holding, holding. Bend the front knee.

We're about to take a balance. Prepare yourself for that strong back leg, strong standing like bring the arms out to the sides, straight in the front leg, holding your balance. Inhale, pull the carriage in, lifting up, up, up, and press out and pull in. Up, up, up and up. Brasa I'm taking my time because they helps me keep my focus and pull in up, up and presser and Ben not friendly. Pulling the body back forward. Reach the hands down. Step the left leg back onto the reformer. Find your long stretch position and pull forward as far as you can over that stopper and then press away and pull forward. I know we have the other side to do.

Don't start thinking that. I forgot. I didn't forget. I forget a lot of stuff, but I didn't forget that. [inaudible] pull in. Okay, one more read. Pull in. Okay. Step the right foot up onto the bar, pressing out through the left leg, lifting up and forth through this spine.

Stretching through that left hip flexor. Pausing. Taking a moment. Start to reach that right leg all the way out. All the way out. [inaudible] feeling the full length of the back of that leg. Keep the knee bent if you need to to keep the spine long and then we're going to bend. Find your weight over your foot. Dry Your abdominals and stand strong on both feet.

Bring the arms out to the side, straight in the front leg and then who to reach out and pull in and [inaudible] standing tall. The inner thighs are pressing together. Press out and back. Lifting. Yeah, filling the top of the head. Reach for the ceiling. One more. Reach down, down, down there. Hand lift. [inaudible] be careful with yourself here. I'm thinking very hard about being careful with myself. Reach out, bend the front knee. Reach the hands back down to the bar.

Step the right foot back onto the reformer. Lift the hips up. Bring the reformer into the stopper. Finding to settling into an app. Stretch position. So heels are on the shoulder blocks. I'm still on one spring, but you could certainly add a spring if you wanted to. Here we're going to pivot around the shoulders.

Bring the body into a long position. Pull the body forward, coming right into that stopper and then lift with a flat back and sit back. Keep that carriage stuff and reach out and pull for it. Strong legs. Yeah, lift up and one more reach-out. Poor forward and lifter. Let's take that in reverse. Take the body forward over the foot part. Keep the carry still. Press out and then bring yourself in. Pyramid, the carriage back. Come back forward over the arms.

Strong legs, strong ass. Press out and lift, Eh and forward. Last time or each cha left and forward. Bend your knees, slide the feet up against the shoulder box. Okay, bring the pelvis forward, finding your down stretch position and oppress the carriage away. Lift up. I'm still on one spring. I'm happy there. Chest is lifted.

Strong lengths and reach out. This could be our exhale and inhale. Bring that carriage back and lifting tall through the body and exhale Pressa and inhale to come in from there. As we exhale, curl this spy. Keep that carries nice and steady. Flats in the back. Press out with your arms. Careful here of your shoulders can be a little bit of a precarious position.

Press the knees on, bringing the pelvis down and lift all the way through. Hug that carriage and with your abdominals as you sit back straight in the back, press out with the arms, reach out and lift up. Yeah. And around one more [inaudible] flatten out the back. Press out with the arms navel to spine reach, ah, lift all the way up and around back.

If you have the option of using a yellow spring, that would be my choice. I don't have yellow spring, so I'm going to use a blue spring and we're going to do some side kneeling arms. So we come up against the shoulder blocks with the knees and take the arm and the hand that's closest to the straps. The opposite arm is reaching down the side of the body, pressing into the body and then exhale, take that arm and reach straight up and bent. India XL straight-A and Ben shoulderblades slides down the eye and draws a straight line into the air last to reaching up and bend and reaching. So this is an interesting series because we go from dominant to non dominant arm, we switch back and forth.

So now the opposite arm holds the strap. It's just in front of the ribs. We're going to take the elbow out and then reach out through the hand, bend the elbow and bring the upper arm back. Inhale XL elbow, straighten the arm bend and reach out. Keeping the elbow all the time a little bit higher than that hat last too working, focusing on the back of the shoulder, the post teary or deltoid and bend and come back in. Careful with the reformer as you move to the opposite side of it.

Well right. Uh, the far away hand continues to hold the strap. Gonna bend over, look down while you're there. Before we lift the arm up, make sure that the pelvis close to the shoulder. Black presses four and we line our bodies up. The shoulder is directly over the arm, the elbow is directly over the shoulder, pausing there in here and pressed raid.

The best part of this exercise in my opinion, is that stretch that side stretch right up and down that outside body and push pusha and Ben and Pusha and then and push up and bend. I'm going to round to the front switch hands. This is the hardest one for me. Keep the elbows a little bit soft, both elbows in here and then exhale, bring both arms up at the same time. And um, both times that and Dan [inaudible] feeling the dropping of the shoulders is the arms are reaching up last to lift and down last one lift and yeah, so the object of that exercise is to see if you can do it without anyone to being able to tell if which arm is moving. I think it might've been a little obvious which arm of mine was working, but um, or which arm was working, not moving. What? That's okay.

It's nice to have things to continue to work on turn sides. They're facing the other way. Take this strap closest to the shoulder black first. Bring it just outside of the ear Elvis in front of the strap and then dress straight line up and bend. Feel that the lifting of the arm is, is a direct result of the downward pull of the shoulder blade.

Here's three okay of five, so we did it by my account anyway, five on of each exercise on the other side and that's where I'll try to take us through here. Cross into the opposite hand with that strap, bring the out, keep that elbow nice and lifted and then bend and then back. So we go elbow, forearm, Elba, upper arm, upper arm, elbow bend and back. Again focusing on the back of that shoulder. That's where that rotation comes. I believe there to be one more. Reach out then and in stabilize your carriage screw to the far end.

Taking the Sass strap in the same hand, the outside hand, bring the hand to the shoulder blade, press the pelvis for get nice and squared Elba just above the shoulder. I like to look and see. Then the eyes go down in here and press straight-A and bend. Keeping that heavy shoulder blade all the time. Press and bent reach and Ben last two and Ben [inaudible] last one and bent.

Reach around the front of the body. Change straps, change hands, arms up in here and her reach both arms overhead and both arms overhead and down. [inaudible]. Feel the shoulder blade slide away from the ear and on both elbows or a little bit soft. Here's two more. Last one. Come all the way down. Set the strap down. Exchange the blue spring for a red spring and step off the reformer.

Take the foot bar down. Okay. Yeah, that to go into the side splits. So I'm gonna just start in this position. Since I'm right here, I'm going to step up onto the reformer on its frame and to hold the reformer still in step my right foot or my opposite foot out. If you're not left and rights with me, it doesn't matter.

Hold the reformers still nav. This is too wide for you. Come in a little bit. You want it to be able to keep the carriage still as you're rolling yourself up to standing. Bring your arms out to your sides and then open hold two, three and lift. Did you pull back in? Keep the weight on the outsides of the feet open and lift Baca. I don't know. Open rate on the outside.

Do they fee draw in through the center of the body? We're just gonna do three today. Hold two, three. Bend the leg that's on the reformers. Slide in. Take that same the foot that you just moved onto the very edge of the reformer holding onto the front and the back of your pelvis so you feel your pelvis cradled in your hands. Bend your knees. Sit still. Have weight on both legs here.

They're going to take the entirety of our body weight onto the leg that's standing on the frame. Then we're going to press out little presses, eight and set working that Gluteus medius five but remembering that we're never letting go of that standing like four, three, two, one. Come all the way in. Stand on both lay and stand up. Step down. I come around to the other side. So again, it's important that we step up with the the leg onto the frame first and then hold onto the carriage. Step out, find your position, keep the carriage style and roll through the spine to come up, bringing the arms out to the sides and then inhale, open, open, open and drawing and through the center of the body. Lift. Hold two, three and open in working through the insides of the thighs.

One more time in here. [inaudible] and exhale [inaudible] pause, Bend Care, fully. Slide that foot in and then you want to place it just on the edge of the reformer drawing and through the abdominals. Hands on the pelvis field, they alignment of the bones. Bend your knees, weight on both legs first, then shift over to the standing leg and then just eight little presses out when a field, a backside of that hip working. Seven, six, nice, easy movement. Five, four, three, two, one in weighted a body over both legs. See on that and step off. I'm going to continue to use a red spring or a full spring and I get my bar back rolling.

Can you do a little side prep? So when I take my hand here, the leg that's on the inside, the leg, the same side of the hand that's holding onto the bar steps into the front. See if you can stabilize your carriage here. So get ready and step up with the opposite leg. Starting with the office of the free arm down to your side. We're going to reach out.

Pull back. Okay. Head in line with his spine. Inhale. Yeah, XL lifting through the bottom side of the body to inhale for four and exhale back and last one and exhale back. [inaudible] step down. Try not to bang your carriage. Oops. Switch. Okay, so the hand comes first, then that inside foot you can get yourself ready.

You get your shoulders ready to step up and you're there. And then we reach out and pull back using the bottom side of the body to support this very challenging movement. Good. Seeing those bottom obliques. Really focusing on the stabilization of the shoulder and back. Last one and back. Step down.

Quiet carriage and stepped down. [inaudible]. So let's exchange that red spring for a blue spring or whatever light spring that you have. A yellow might be appropriate blue, certainly, definitely challenging. And I want you to scoot to the back, not sit back of your reformer, but so your feet can go over the back edge of the reformer and take the straps in your hands. So you may not have a great deal of tension right now depending on how short your straps are. But what I want us to do here is start with our elbows bent. So it doesn't really feel like much tension at all right now, which is good.

We're going gonna rotate in the shoulders. So that's external rotation. Gonna reach up and this is why I want you to be able to hold with your feet. We're diving backwards, keep the abdominals engaged, bend the elbows and rotate the arms back. Inhale to rotate. Exhale to reach up and back in heel to bend and back.

One more like that. And then I'm going to make a change. So we focus our extension right in the center of the bat bend and come back. And do that one more time. I didn't go into our extension. Pause there and then rotate towards me reaching both arms. The arm that's coming around is going to be reaching paths, the arm that's on the bottom and then find center and then go the other way.

Reach taking that Nice yarning action we did with the box in the beginning of class, back to center. Arms come down all the way, reached down and set your straps down, and then taking the arms forward. You should feel nice and light without the straps. That was a nice soft opening to the side. And again, one more time, two more times.

I think we deserve just feeling the breath, fill up the body, feeling the ease in which the body can move when it doesn't have to move against the challenge, but it's also important to remember the ease in which the body can move when asked to move against a challenge, taking the arms all the way down and coming down into a seated position. Thanks.

Comments

1 person likes this.
November is looking good with this workout! Great class to also feel what you need to work on. Thanks Mere!
1 person likes this.
Thank you Meredith- as always inspirational
1 person likes this.
Always amazing Meredith thanks
Sharon O
1 person likes this.
Thank you!
2 people like this.
I need to get over my fear of doing the standing front splits! Good challenge! Thank you Meredith!
Michele M
1 person likes this.
Loved it! Beautiful well rounded practice! Thanks Meredith:)
1 person likes this.
one of my new favorites. Also, the last time I tried front splits I couldn't do it. So made me realize how far i've come! Thanks.
1 person likes this.
I love this workout!
DJ
DJ
1 person likes this.
Such a soothing delivery made it all feel effortless! Great! Thanks
Many thanks to you ALL for taking class with me and sharing your comments!

Connie and Molly...I am ALSO afraid of front splits...
I don't know if you can tell but I was shaking in my boots... :)
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