Class #2436

Find the Spring in your Body

50 min - Class
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Description

Find the spring within your body with this Tower workout by Jennifer Golden Zumann. She teaches traditional exercises, but adds a twist by playing with the Pilates principles for each movement. She also shows how you can move as the spring so you feel more mobility throughout your body.
What You'll Need: Tower

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Dec 26, 2015
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Hello, this is Jennifer Golden Zuman. And today we are going to do a tower workout, um, for today's tower workout. Here are the items that we're going to use. We're going to use a roll back bar. We're going to use leg springs, arms springs, and then whatever you use for push throughs. And there's one more thing that we're going to use, which you may not always have set up, which is that we're gonna use a foot strap at the end of our machine cause we're going to do some roll backs. Really just using it as a mat for a little while. Um, because I want to keep this to a palatable amount of time.

I'm going to assume that you do what every pre Pilati is warm up. You need some breathing, some pelvic rocking, whatever it is that you do for your body before we begin this right now, um, we are going to start with some rollbacks with your feet in the strap so you can turn and face this direction. I'm going to choose to use exercises that are fairly traditional for the most part, um, and fairly familiar so that way you can play with the principles on exercises that I think are a common language for all of us. Sometimes I like to get far out there and creative, but for today I want to keep it mostly traditional with a few tweaks cause I can't help it. So we're gonna start with your legs straight and the feet in the strap.

And let's go ahead and just bring the arms forward. We're going to begin with a gentle roll back. And as you begin to roll down, I want you to feel yourself elongating from the inner leg up the front of the spine and allow the arms to extend back. Inhale as the arms and head lift, and then exhale to roll over your abdominal organs and stretch forward. And again, right back, I'd like you to begin to find the spring with in your body, within your tissues before we let the springs do that for us.

I want to find that springiness, that sense of elasticity and recoil in your body. And then we're gonna play with the elasticity of the body and the elasticity of the springs. Let's do one more of these. Rolling up, stretching forward, and then rolling back down. Great. When you get there for a second, take a moment. Feel the traction from your feet and feel the all of your ribs stretch just as though you were stretching a spring. And now roll up one more time. We're gonna do a single leg version of this.

This is something that I like to do, uh, to help teach people what I'm looking for in climate tree on the reformer. So let's take one leg out. Let's bring your hand behind the leg. We are gonna keep the leg bent the whole time. So as we roll back here, we begin to feel a big stretch, the inner leg and rolling down up the front of your spine. What you to keep a taught activity between the arm and the leg. As you roll back. Inhale, head, neck lift.

As you exhale, put pressure into your leg so your leg pulls you up and lift your spine tall. Good. And again, roll back. Feel a lot of resistance, like you're using your arm and your leg against each other to create space in our deep flexors of the spine in the hip. Good. One more time. Big Stretch. Feel like you're hanging from the strap as though you're going upside down.

Stretch away from your foot. Great. Switch legs. Yeah. Straighten up in between [inaudible]. So by putting the pressure of your leg into your hand, you can roll the pelvis away from the thigh and get a lot of space in that low spine. It's nice sometimes to pull your leg in and stretch, but that's not my goal right now. My goal right now, um, kind of matches along with this idea of exploring the front of the back.

Good. And a couple more. Let's start moving the pace just a little bit more. Starting to feel a little spring year, a little more active, a little more tense style. Good. After this third one, yeah, we're going to take your feet out of the straps and we're going to hold onto the roll back bar that's right here in front of you. Now this rollback bar. Um, there's a couple of ways to do rollbacks. I'm kinda digging lately, having the legs together. So I'd like you to play with this, with the legs together for right now. So we're just going to start with a straight roll back, lift up through your spine first. Take a nice full breath in, and then roll back. I like to have the thumbs around the bar.

I think that this is so awesomely human. I like to take advantage of it. And let's roll back up. So angle your head towards the direction of the springs. You're going up, up, up for your furthest moment, and then back down again. So now we're putting tension in the springs, stretching through the back, and then as we roll up, we're putting tension through the tissue of the spine and then right back down. So we're playing with the springs. Don't let the springs carry you.

Don't fight the springs experience and uh, work with the springs. Kay. Now we're going to do a sternum lift. So start with a small one. You're going to pull the bar towards your chest and it's a little bit of a hinge and a little bit of a back bend and then back up and then we roll back again. So it's going to be an alternating movement and as we get there, I should have told you, but when you get there, I want you to pull down there too. So we'll pull on both ends. It's a sternum lift and up and then a roll back.

And then a breadth and extent and roll up to more of these. Find the bounciness and rolly good. And you don't have to go with my bounciness pace. Go with your own bounciness pace. Good. Now, same idea as you rolled down, you're still going to give that pole, but as we roll up, we're going to pull the bar overhead instead, roll up, pull it and huge. It may move a fraction, it may not move at all, but give it a go. And again, keep going.

So all the wild, I want to get this sense of moving your body as the spring. Yes. Good. So it's active, very active. One more of these is good. Great. Okay. Put Your right hand on the center of the bar. We're going to do a twist back now, so your left arm will reach underneath the bar to start.

And I want you to really explore the spring as you twist and lean back and then bring it right back up. Same side, twist and lean back and bring it up. One more time. Lean back and up. Good. Other side, try to give a little more of a extension and ready. Go for it. And let's put that thumb around the bar. Just aim to the closer corner. So we're not aiming to the opposite side.

I just want you to reach out. So one more. Now we're going to alternate them. So put the hand on and lean to one side. Come on, lean to the other. A lot of things we do as humans is cross patterning motion.

So I like to make exercises. Do this kind of twisting action. Yes. One more to each side. Good. All the while breathing of course. And now turn your hands underhand and bend your knees. Okay.

You may want to scoot forward just a little cause it's going to be a lot of arm work as we roll back. So as you roll back, you're going to allow your arms to straighten. Go ahead and let your chest be open. Think of spinning the upper arm back to feel an openness of the chest. This little point right here where the where the um, Poncho of the chest and the Poncho of the back meat. That's a really nice place to think of spinning the arm to open up the chest and balance the front and back body.

Now you're going to bend the elbows and simultaneously curl your head up and then come back down. The elbows will not actually come to the floor though. Keep the elbows where they are. And as you round up, I want you to expel all your air. Really empty the lungs. Keep the elbows off the floor. Yes. And then back down. So this might be tiny, but you know what? That's okay cause I want you to really get the, the flex in the upper most spine. Let me clarify that. I want you to think about your multiple axles. So there's an excellent your ear, excellent. Your neck, excellent, your shoulders. Excellent. Let your breastbone. So you really get a roundness in the upper spine as you can go.

And then back down two more times. So take each axle right, even if the movement not as big, even if it's just the head and neck, that's fine. And then one more time, you're going to keep your head here and we're just going to do the arms. Inhale and exhale in. When you inhale, really inflate the whole back and then pump the air out.

One more I think should do the trick. Good. And Roll back down. Okay. Now we're going to do a squat to stand. So we're going to keep an upper hand on under hold and want you to scoot all the way back like pretty far because you need some help. So we'll see how far it is. If it works already. We'll see. So you're going to Tuck your feet in pretty close and you're going to bend your elbows and curl up and then continue coming up. Bring your arms up.

Yeah. And then right back down. So keep the arms taught like yeah, keep it tight. So like you're reaching the arms to the ceiling. As you lower yourself back down again. As you roll back, just go to like the mid right back, just the mid back. You don't have to bring your head down. And again, roll and upright and back down. What if we do like four of these with like some pace? Now get the heart rate moving. Yes. Good.

But we won't forget to breathe. Of course. Yeah. Oh, these are so much fun for me to watch one more and bring it down. Good. Okay. Now we've done a lot of forward bending. Now we're going to do a little bit of extension with a bridge. So for this you'll want to get a bit closer.

We're going to put the bar underneath your knees, still facing the same direction. What I like about doing this is I enjoy the sensation of allowing this movement of the knee during the bridge. So you're gonna lay on your back with your arms, by your sides. Good. Make sure your feet are our back enough. So they're close to close enough to the sitting bones that you don't start pushing back towards your head.

And you can enjoy the feeling of the springs assisting you up. Spin the upper arm again so you can anchor your shoulders, press down. So the whole from one hand through the back of the shoulders, back, body, arms, pressing down. Take a breath in and then just roll your hips up. Allow the spring to help. And on the first one, it's always like a exploration. What does the spring do to this exercise?

As you roll down, begin at your throat and allow the front of your back to fall into the hammock. So each vertebra just drops into the hammock of tissue in the back body as we get to the bottom. So go all the way to the pubic bone stretches and you stretch the lowest abdominals until they recoil back and help you up again. Good. So great.

Keep anchoring through the feet to feel a lift through the hips and on the way back down again, just let each vertebra drop. I don't care if they each touch the mat, I just want them to each articulate in their own space. One more time. We'll roll up. Good. Keep weight on the entire foot as we go. Avoid clenching the bum. That will change the pelvic position, right?

Get your openness from right inside here and then roll back down through each vertebra. Gorgeous. Okay. So here's how I'd like to get out of this. I want you to bring your hand one hand to right between your legs to hold the bar [inaudible] and then I want you to lift up your legs and open 'em out to the sides and bring 'em down. Yup, that's fine. Okay, so next we're going to go up to a kneeling position. Still using our roll back bar. So up onto your knees. Hands are going to be on the bar.

We're going to do what I call like a roll forward or a press down. Um, it's sort of like if we were going to do rolling in and out, but we're just going to do this rolling forward quality. So get your, get your human grip going, grab on. Actually kind of use it, use it to, because in this position, this helps to connect it right into your trunk. So you're going to start from the top of your head. We're going to roll down and push that bar straight towards the floor. Think of sliding your diaphragm over your Oregon bag to expel your air.

Then use your inhalation to bring you right back up again. Good. When you get to the, I want you to feel like you pull up the skin of your sacrum a little bit, just like zip the skin of your sacred up so your tailbone can relax back there, right? And then again, begin down, press into it. I want the spine to get really spiny, like each vertebras shows. Sometimes there's a few that like sake, try to get those to show and then back up. Press both shins down [inaudible] and when you get to the top, zip up your sacred tissue. Just straight up.

Sometimes we try to figure out like where there is neutral. So instead of trying to find the tilt, just open the open. The bottom. I'm going to use the fact that you're facing back. I hope you don't mind. I want to let the sitting bones and tailbone relax and instead just think of pulling the sacrum and the pubic bone up and then you don't have to fight with your tilt quite so much. Let's do one more of these. Rolling down, lifting up, up, up and gliding over your Oregon bag. Good. And then back up. We go back up.

We go finding each vertebra, stacking back on top. Okay. Now we're going to do thigh stretch, so you might wish to be a little further back. We'll see what you like there. And if for thigh stretch especially, I want to initiate with that sacred lift because if we tuck under, I'm worried that we'll compress in the lumbars a little bit more. So both shins down, avoid rotating your legs here. Feel this nice lift. When you live this, I want you to imagine this sort of strap of theraband up the front of your spine. So this is the back of the spine, but up the front of the spine.

And imagine it goes all the way to the tailbone and Kinda relax that. Relax the front of the tailbone. So the space between the tailbone and the pubic bone is free, is free to adapt to the resilience of the exercise. And let this lift. I'd like to bend the elbows slightly downward angle.

Pull the bar towards the chest and go ahead back like a string from the top of the head. Good. Hips up a little more and then bring it back up. Good. So she's got a lot of range, but I want to see more activity in here. Ready? So we're going to go ahead again. I want you to release your sitting bones a little bit and lift up the front of your back more. Yes. And then back up we go. Great.

One more time. Pull. Find the springiness. Yes. Gotchas. So elegant. And now we're going to do a twist back with this. So again, just like we did seated, we're going to have one hand on. Let's start with the left hand and we're going to lean it back and then bring it up and we go right to the other side. Now both shins firmly planted here. More rotation, then extension. Hang from the bar. Good.

I want to create a little more containment right here. She's got so much extension, so much extension that I'm not going to let her go there because it's going to bend right here with no problem. So I want you to zip that part of it. Don't bend there at all. Right? Look at your hand. Look at your hand as you go. If you can't see your hand. Yes, look at your hands. Good. Keep going. Look at the hand and go with it. Yes. Good one. Where do each side [inaudible] last one maybe. Unless that was even, I don't know where we were right there. Okay.

And let's go on into our legs springs now. So we're gonna just get this out of the way. Maybe I'll just even take it out of the way right now and we're gonna put the legs, springs, double leg, spring sole can put your head over here. Feed in the spring. Get these out of the way for you for the moment. All right, straps on the feet, hands on the, on the pipes.

I'd like you to press out so the arms are straight and the hands about a fist with the way from the bottom. The reason I want this is because I really like the closed chain that you create when your arms are working and I really like the feeling of both the hands and the feet converging right into what I'll call our star center, right where the PSOAS and diaphragm are meeting. So we're going to start with a movement called the dolphin or I call it dolphin. Maybe you have another name. You're going to keep the inner edge of the feet together.

Bend the knees to the outsides of the springs outside of the springs and yet put your toes down towards the floor, slide the legs out and then bring them up. Roll in the hip socket, spin into the socket and then right back. Bend back down again. Now I don't want to see the springs lifting you up. Create a constant resistance between the springs and your whole body, not just your legs, but your whole body.

So there's a constant resistance going on. Switch directions after those, those three. So now we'll go this sway and roll in the hip sockets and up. So this rotation isn't big. It's just a really kind of organic rotation. Like if my, if the feet were parallel, it would be straight. But since the fear together, they go to the sides a little bit.

After these three, now we're going to bend the knees again and now we'll go into more of a frog position. So now we're going to actually rotate. This is going to be actual rotation and we're not going to aim for the floor. Now instead of we're going to do like a butterfly movement. So press straight out, open wide again, keep resistance and bring them back in. And again, move through, move through water, move through something that provides a constant, a constant resistance switch directions. Now open and sweet and resist.

Good. And these ladies are doing an absolutely beautiful job. So they're not giving me a whole lot to correct. But what I would be having you think about is making sure your pelvis remains still and that each of the movement is felt up in these lines right here as well. Great. And now we're going to do a helicopter. So one leg is going to go up, one leg is going to go down.

This is going to be a slow helicopter. So first just hold here, get that low leg low and feel resistance in both. I want you to stretch both of the legs in both of the springs. Now slowly open them around, work them both the whole way. Don't let it go slack and good. And then the other way, avoid letting the legs cross. Just let them stop right in their own track. So now you may notice that one tends to go slack and it might be the same one both directions.

So now it's your job to feel that and to work with that bias. One more to each side. Work into both springs the whole time. Finishing up. Great. Okay, let's take those straps off your feet and we're going to set up our push through bar now. Okay.

The first thing we're gonna do is Kat, I'm just going to scoot these guys out of the waste, but don't get caught up. [inaudible] okay. And we're going to do a little bit of a variation with Kat. Oh yeah, I would like that up. I think I moved yours just when I was demonstrating there. This should be good. Okay, so we're going to do a little bit of a variation with the cat. When you round down, I'll go ahead and talk you through it as we go. So let's start rounding down as we might normally do that.

I actually like to pull the bar down first. So bend the elbows and pull the bar down first and then follow with the head and stretch forward. Now as we get here, we're going to, so the spine is flat, so I want to pull the sacred up and I want you to feel a relationship between the sacrum and the skull. And then we're just going to do a little, a little so as traction sensation. So you're going to lift up like swan up and exhale down. And as we go down, we want to stretch the front of the spy up through the chest and then back down. It's actually quite small.

So I want you to feel like these muscles here are supporting the rib to spine connection, creating a really nice lumbar lengthening. Good. And then as we roll back up, I want you to curl back a little bit and bring it up. Okay, we're gonna do two more of those. We're just gonna do three up and down as we go. Now that you've got that motion. So begin to roll down from the top of your head, lift up from your belly and rule. Roll over your Oregon bag and stretch forward.

Now less lumbar extension for you here, but I want you to lift your head. I want to feel this tot bow from sacrum to skull. Now lift the chest and then pump forward. Really breathe it. Last one, and then we'll roll back. Take your time and back up one more time. Good.

Rolling it down. Stretching it out, and inhale up through the chest. Exhale and again, and you lung gating the front of the spine. One more time. And you long gating the front of the spine and then roll it back up. We're going to revisit that idea later in a standing position. But right now, let's go ahead and do a swan. So you're gonna lie on your belly.

We're going to do a little peeking. Swan, little picking Swan. So you're going to lay on your belly with your hands on the bar. Okay. And all we're gonna do here is we're not going to bring the bar behind the head, nor are we going to come up very high because I want to focus on this upper thoracic. So you're going to let the elbows bend and you're going to lift your head right away and pick up over the bar. Just peak up. Yep. And then back down. [inaudible] good. And again, lift in peak. Little peak. Yes. And down.

So that should focus into that upper most spine. Quite a bit. Little peak. Good. One more time. Let's get this working right here for you. So it doesn't go as far because you're real bendy, right? Which is not so much right here.

So actually I'm going to take a little teaching moment for a second here because this is a great opportunity. This is such a common situation that Ruth makes sure you're in a safe position. I'm like, I'm just leaving roof to just swan all day over here. But this is a really common situation. So if we get too tight in the bottom of the pelvis and the lumbars bend too much, right? Then we're going to lose.

We're going to bend only here. So I want you to keep this completely still. I want you to lift your head right away, right away, and bend the elbows right there, right? And then bring it back down. So now she's not getting like the glory of a giant extension, but, but she will because now she's also going to get this. So I would say, you know, normally I would probably say for a couple months I would only have this, this kind of extension going on here for an exercise like this. And then she would build all the way up. Good.

Now let's do straight arms and lift up. So the head leads right away. Right away. Yes. And up with the arm straight. Good. And then back down. So keep it small. Just two more of these up. Beautiful. Last one. Let my hand come through the front of the body. So you spiral back, right? And then back down. Gorgeous guys.

Let's do a kneeling side bend now. So you're going to carefully come up. Yeah. And let's start with the um, left hand on the bar facing the side. [inaudible] yeah, we'll come up on the knees. So once again, I want to feel the sacred pubic bone lift. You're going to pull the bar down first, push it through, and then side bend over. Yup.

I didn't give a whole lot of description about how to hold the bar, so they're looking at me like, please give me some direction. So I'll, we'll give a little more direction this, this next time here when we bend, I'd like to see the elbow just a little forward and pull down and first get that arm activity because that fires up the lateral slings of the waist. And then over we stretch. I'm gonna not let her wander this way. If you're wondering what I'm doing here cause I want her stretch to be through her spine and not in a hip glide. Right like that. Thank you. And you're so good at that and come back up just like me. Just like me as special talent. One more time.

Yes. Yes. That was awesome. Did you guys see that? That was awesome. And back up. Let's do the other side now. No, I won't create your barriers over here on this side. I'm going to walk to her so I'll depend on you to do that and let's pull down. Good and over we go. Great.

So we're having the same flexibility issue where this area is doing most of the movement. I think if we really try to feel like the top of your pelvis is like nicely connected here, I think that's gonna make a difference. Let's see. Yeah, that's a different movement. Now let's do one more and we'll breathe. Great. These look gorgeous and back up. Okay. Very, very nice. It looks good on that side there.

So now we're going to do a stand up version of that cat that we did before and add a little little flair to it as well. So we're standing up, hands on your bar again. Give me that human grip. Um, I just, you know, I really think this is important so I want to stress it for a moment because I know a lot of people do this and I'm sure that there is a valid reason. I have two concerns with that. When we're putting pressure, I'm afraid people have to bend their wrist and then they lose this strength. Um, but additionally, like this is something that is really unique to us and I think we should, we should take advantage of it. So consider that and you don't have to change it. But consider if you like that idea. So we're holding on tight.

When we hold firmly, you should feel it right there. All right, now we're going to begin rolling the spine down, pressing down. And as soon as we are able, we're going to zip the sacral tissue up, zip it up. So you might need to bend your knees, which is fine. Good. So now we're in like a flat back, but this is helping us and supporting us.

So inhale, become up a few inches and really feel here. This connection of ribs to spine. Exhale, lengthen forward. Inhale up and exhale. It's a stretch this way, not just a, not a back and forth. It's a stretch long. And then roll up, right? So you feel the shift of the sacrum sends you back up.

Essentially your sacral tilt directs your spine. So now we're going to get fancy and we're going to do it with a single leg. So pick up your right leg and let's bring the knee forward first. So as we round down, we're curling a little bit and then I want you to press that foot back. Let's flex it like it's against something good. Yeah, that's pretty fun.

Now up a few inches and then stretch back out. So now the stretch is from the back leg all the way through your crown. I want you to let your neck be a little more like lift your head a little. Lift it, lift it. Yeah, yeah, there we go. So it your sacrum. After three pumps here, curl yourself back up again and bring it up.

Same leg, right back down. Tip, same leg. Keep going. Just tip it forward. I want you to feel the spine stretch like a slinky up a few inches and undulate long. Good up and undulate long. So you feel a ripple through your spine. Good.

And then curl it up. Great. And bring that foot down with do the other side. Ah, knee comes up. Yeah. And out we go from sacrum to skull.

Nice and long leg is extending out back. Good stretch towards me over here. Stretch over here towards me. Stretch towards me. That's what I want to see. Yeah, so it's not just up and down. It's out. Good. Curl it up and one more on the same side. Right back out. We go. Lengthening through both ends.

Yes. Up and down. Massage your stomach. Massage your organs with this motion. [inaudible] I don't want you to lose bowels, but I want this left hip. A little higher to the ceiling. Yes. Good.

And Roll it back up. Beautiful. Great. Okay, now we're going to do single leg springs so we can take down this far and when we're doing it on a tower or Cadillac in which you only have the option for a springs on the sides. If we were to put it in the center, it would just be too much weight. So we're going to put them right on the sides here and we'll just lay down with your back against, lined up with the back. Okay, so let's lay on your left side first. That way I can say right and left and it makes sense to everybody. I'd like your arm to be fully extended out. The other hand will be in front of your rib cage. Now this hand has a job, um, the hand that's on the floor in front of you, good and it's job is you help you get set up there. Good.

So this hand's job is right at this, at this line to zip up the sides of the ribs here. I want you to feel that as this arm presses, it activates the slings of the waist. So yes, we're using our legs, but I really want this to be a trunk exercise. So we'll start with the leg just coming up and down for four, just up and down. Now this should feel like a bellows, like I'm pumping the air out of her mouth here, one more and stop it about hip height and kick it forward slow and keep tension, and then bring it to the back. There's a little bit of a responsiveness to the pelvis as we move both directions. So this bottom leg is anchoring like crazy.

You should keep a solid point of contact on the bottom leg, but the top leg as it goes, there's a little bit of a response in the pelvis the whole time and one more time forward, good and back. Terrific. Now line it up with the other leg. Hold it here. Now this could be done if you want to balance more. It could be done with the other leg here. But the reason that I have the bottom leg in line is cause.

Now we're going to start lifting up that bottom leg. I'm going to lift this top leg so you could feel it plug into the socket. So find that, find that socket. So there's a little crease here where it slips in this way and that's where I want you to anchor. Now lift that bottom leg up and down and up and down.

Exhale to lift it. Maybe a little lower would challenge you even more. Good. Now keep the bottom leg up and the top leg is now going to kick forward and back. Yup. As far as it can with that bottom leg up. Two more. Beautiful. Last one. Good. Now carefully bend the knee to take the strap off your foot and then we will go to the other side.

Line yourself up. Give that front arm. It's job. Beautiful. Good. Now I want you to pull your sacrum up again a little bit. There we go. Well that's awesome. That was a really nice little difference right there. Let's lift the top leg up and down. Now a few times.

[inaudible] good. I want the leg to, I want the leg to move and I want the breath to happen. I don't want them to be separate. I want the leg and the breath to be doing the same exercise, not like the breathing is happening and the leg is happening. They are working together to compress, to distort, to compress, and to cleanse the abdomen here, holding it hip height at hip height and now we'll go forward and back. Keep stretching your spring as you bring it forward.

Stretch our spring stretchers spring. Yes, yes. Don't let it go slack. Good. Two more and one [inaudible] good and line it up with the other leg. Now lift your bottom leg up. [inaudible] do we need to move forward a little bit on this side? What do you think? Do you think you're going to fall off the back like yeah. Can you get on that?

I want to, I want her on this bony landmark at the bottom of the pelvis cause this side wants to roll forward. So I'm going to give her a little bit of a balance here. Good. Now hold that bottom leg up. Let's bring this guy down and forward and back. Forward and back two more times. And last one. Great. Let's take the strap off the foot, bend the knee carefully.

Take that off and we're going to move into some pretty fun arms stuff. Okay. So we're going to set up these to give a lot of help. These arms springs to give a lot of help. This is um, the first part of it, I called the archer, but after that point I don't have a name for it yet, so maybe that would be fun to put in comments. Tell me what it looks like and give me a name.

So let's all sit here and face face the sprays. You have to sit back pretty far. So do you remember earlier on we went up and down into a squat. So we rolled back and we came up from a squat and then rolled back down. This is the same idea, but it's one legged.

So it's kind of this like evolution to standing idea. So we're going to start by bending the right knee, right knee, back, left leg long k. Now you may fumble with this a little bit and that's, that's fine. I promise you it's worth it. Once you get the rhythm in your body, it's worth it. So we're going to start by pulling back with the left arm. As you pull back, I want you to really feel like an archery sensation so you're not rolling back, you're lifting back. And then the opposite side Poles. So we're going to start, we're going to put this in motion and let this build an engine. Okay. We're building a little engine of movement here, forward and back.

And then after a few of these, once you really get it going, you can't help but come up. So what comes next is we come up onto the foot to the knee bends yet, and then we go back to that again and we can't help it come up. And then back down and up. Let's do it with conviction. Yeah. And up. Okay. Now we can't help. Yes, but stand all the way up.

And then use the springs to take you back down and back. Up and back down. Yes. Give it a pull. Dig Down. Yes. Good. These look great. One more time. Yes, this looks awesome. These are so much fun. They're just so much fun. Alright, now let's switch legs. So first you got to get the engine going. The biggest problem is if you think about it, don't think about it.

Pretend it's like crawling where you just, when you watch a child crawl, they're figuring it out. But then they just, the engine starts and they just go. And that's what I want you to experience here. Ready? So pull it back. Yup. And then forward and forward and get the engine going. Let it start. Let the tissues of your body. So it's not just mental that you're visualizing. The engine going, I want your tissues to start feeling. Turn with it.

Turn yes a little bit. That'd be good. So you're, you're firing it up. So the spiral that's innate in your body takes you up now onto the foot when it's ready. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That the spiral takes you up. Yes. Get into the spiral parts and then maybe it takes you all the way up and it takes you all the way up. Good. Whichever position you land at the top.

Do It regally yes. Two more. Yes. Good. Last one. Good. And very nice. We'll finish standing. So the one thing that will get in the way of being able to do this exercise is just ankle flexibility. So I think I know where you can watch some videos on getting your feet stretched out and your ankle stretched out. So if you can, if you feel like you can't get over your foot, that's what you need to work on.

Otherwise it's actually quite accessible of an exercise. I do it with people, not even advanced was their ankles are loose enough. I do this one with them. It's a lot of fun. K. So now we're going to turn around and do some balancing exercises here. So you're going to hold onto your arms springs. You'll have to figure out how far I like that height, I think. So we'll see how it goes. Let me know if it feels like it's too high.

So you're going to bring your feet together first, and you're going to press out with your arms and you're gonna lean into it so you can find your position. Now again, I want you to find that Seagram to crowd connection. So you know you've got this fin like ligament up here, this fin like ligament right here. And don't Tuck it back. Let it be like it's sprung. It's sprung to your sacrum, right? And then you pull up the strapping tape in the front of your spine to match that. Well, it's great. So now we're going to slowly bend the elbows back and then slowly bring them forward without moving the rest of your body at all.

Each time you press feel like you're stretching the hip from the, from the flesh of the belly to the flesh of the thigh, up the front of your spine. Two more good. And I kind of wanted to have some oomph, you know, in case you haven't figured that out about me yet. I like some oomph. All right, so like let's give it some like some oomph. Okay. Now stay forward and now we're going to bring one back and forward. The reason I like oof is because it says to me that it's that the stomach massage is going on. So not speed, speed and room for different, I want to have constant energy going on with it. Yes. Okay. Now we're going to do an opposite leg.

So the one that pulled the elbow, that pulls back, that leg lifts up and then press back down the leg lifts and back down. Now on one level we lift our leg from here. But I don't want you to think about lifting from here. I want you to lift it from where you're. So as where your, so as meet your diaphragm. So literally like if I could start to touch my fingers to each other, that's where I want you to lift it from. Right?

Good. And one more time to each side and it should feel kind of like walking or running. So great. Great running training exercise. Beautiful. Good. And then bring your arms down to close. We're going to turn around and we're going to do standing chest expansion.

So we're still gonna hold on here. You may need to move back a little bit. Now this all depends on the height of your machine. If you're standing on a floor to a wall unit, you may need to be closer. We're going to pull back and spin the upper arm to open the chest and then bring it back forward. And again, pull it back. Grow tall and forward. One more time.

Pull. Dig into those handles. Dig into them. Good and forward. Now arise up on the toes with it up. Lift up the Delhi and resist to come down. And again, pull and up and resist to come down. Last one if can stay up. Oh, well, a little lower.

Yes. And Sir, go your arms open up the breastbone. Yep. Send that breastbone forward, but not the bottom of the rib cage. See if you can find the different circle the other way. Okay, good. Lower down. And our very last movement. Now as our heels come down, you're going to roll down, pressing down into those handles.

Tuck your head in as though you're going to do a somersault. I want you to be so curled up and put a little pressure into those handles as you roll your spine right back up. Good. And we are done. Thank you ladies.

Comments

2 people like this.
Wow I love this class!Thank you Jennifer
1 person likes this.
Fabulous on so many levels! Your enthusiasm is infectious! Did you use purple legs springs?
Maybe call your exercise, 'standing'? Lol...like 'breathing', much more complicated than it sounds.
Pele
1 person likes this.
I really liked the choreography of the class and lots of feel good movement and variations with rotation. What would have been nice would have been a warm up. I know we can go warm up with another class and take this one but why not let it be this one with this instructor?

At times I did feel that there could have been more flow maintained by not pausing too long to talk/talking us through stuff/ saving some of the teachable moments (valuable for many I'm sure) for an in-depth tutorial. Ha, but that's just me and I'm sure my opinion would be out numbered by the instructors who are here to learn to teach vs those here to workout and get a bang for their time.
1 person likes this.
Wonderful, Jenifer, your cuing is sooo inspiring and refreshing!!!
1 person likes this.
The archer to standing movement is very similar to a Turkish-Get-Up. It's an Archer-Get-Up or Tower-Get-Up.
1 person likes this.
Nice one....your archery sequence looks like it ends in VICTORY!!! Thank you for teaching me the transition out of bridge (w bb under knees). Thank you for teaching me chest expansion with circles behind you. Thank you for teaching me a subtle swan with PTB! cheers
sandyjgrant
1 person likes this.
Super, another fabulous class. It's going straight to my play list. Love all your sit-to-stand exercises. Your archer is kind of like a 'sling shot', although when you really let go, you're not giving as much tension as you give to the sling shot, so that's a bit misleading. It's that dang spiral again, isn't it???? :)
1 person likes this.
Thank you. Enjoyable class and great cuing!
Really enjoyed your energy and your obvious love for your work. Great class and wonderful cuing. Thank you Jennifer Golden Zumann
How about "rolling archer"?
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