Class #2636

Strong and Open Body

50 min - Class
136 likes

Description

Flow through an advanced workout on the Ladder Barrel and Wunda Chair with Meredith Rogers. She starts with the Ladder Barrel to mobilize the spine, then moves on to the Wunda Chair to stabilize. She then goes back to the Ladder Barrel to open up the rest of the body so you feel strong and long by the end of the class.
What You'll Need: Wunda Chair, Ladder Barrel, Mixed Equipment, Wunda Chair Handles, Hand Weights

About This Video

Jun 22, 2016
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Hi, today we're gonna work a little bit on the ladder barrel and a little bit on the chair I have for the chair, a some crutches available. So if you have those for your chair, get those ready. And I also have a pair of hand weights that I will be using a minor twos so you could do twos or threes. We're going to use them during footwork on the chair. But I'm just getting started here on the ladder barrel. Uh, I've set it up so it's all the way long. And so what I want us to do is just sit up, put your feet on the second rung down and sit forward on the barrel.

We're going to be going backwards, so make sure you're in a place that feels like it, feels it will feel good for your spine to go over the top. And so what I want us to do here is just take a hold of the knees, the front of the knees, and close the eyes for just a moment. Pressing back into the knees with the hands. Just feel here a sense of using the arms to elongate. And lift the spine. The head is floating up towards the ceiling.

The shoulder blades are falling down in the back. And then from there exhale and round backwards. You won't go backwards over the barrel yet, but you'll reach back towards it. So just going into spinal flection and then inhale, press into the hands, let the pelvis rock back. So the tailbone is reaching back into the latter. Braille is the chest is reaching up and forward. And then from there, exhale round the spine. So now the tailbones curling away from the barrel, the abdominals are pressing back towards the barrel.

I'm in a position where I can't really get my lower spine to touch the barrel, but that's okay. And then reaching up, just creating a little gentle mobilization. I'm pressing into the barrel firmly with my feet, feeling the feet against the bar. Maybe you could even think about pushing the, pushing the ladder away as you go into flection. And then coming back up, taking the arms out in front of you. Inhale. Now exhale, going into that same amount of flection and then begin to let your body go over the top. So we're going to allow the back to extend over the top of the barrel. Feels great, especially if you sit around all day or hunch over reformer all day or or any sort of rounding. It feels nice to go backwards. Bring the arms around to your side, bring your arms forward, looking forward as you roll yourself all the way up. So again, I'm not right on top of the barrel, I'm a little bit forward of the curve XL again to press into the legs, keep the pelvis still. As the spine reaches back, goes all the way back over the top. The arms come around to the side, the eyes start to come forward.

We press the arms through space and roll up. You could even use those two pound weights I mentioned for this be great. Be a nice shoulder opener, minor on the other side of the room. So I'm going to not do that right now. So reaching back, we're going to do one more after this. Coming around. Big Stretch. Open through the chest, reach forward.

Articulator sit tall. Last time. Inhale, exhale, roll down. Reach back. Notice that the pelvis doesn't change. It doesn't go backwards. As the spine goes backwards or slide up and down the barrel, it just stays nice and cemented. Nice and still bring your hands behind your head.

If this gets too tough for you, it's always an option to bring the arms out in front of you. I like the support with the hands behind the head for the neck as well as the challenge for the abdominal. So I want you to reach back and find your neutral spinal alignment from there. Inhale to stretch the body over the top x, uh, draw and, and who left? Just find that neutral spine. It's tough. So it's like being on the step barrel or the spine corrector, except you're not, you're floating in space.

So you have to really feel that there's a sense of heaviness with the pelvis, keeping the pelvis still and inhale to reach back. You can do this with the ladder closer to the barrel with a shorter position. It's a lot harder for your information and back. I'm just going to do two more excelling to lift up. Pause two, three, and back.

Last time, excelling to lift the head and chest. The 71 is just to hold. They're reaching the arms forward this to so the hands into a pointer in yellows, you reach across your left knee. Excellent. As you come back to center. Inhale as you reach across your right knee, notice here again that the pelvis is still in. You. Reach across your left way. Excellent.

As you come back in hills, you reach across your right leg. Excellent. As you come back in heels, you reach to the left. Hold there, take the left arm back, bring the left arm back to the right and center doesn't look like much, but if you're doing it with me, he'll know it's a lot. Exhale back and center. Inhale to rotate. Xcel to reach the arm back. Inhale, hands back together. Exhale, center. Inhale to rotate. Has a suggested breath pattern.

Xcel to reach in Hilton. Come back. Exhale to center last time. Inhale across. Exhale, reach back. Great place to warm up. Nice and tough. Excellent to center. Last time, reach across. Reach back, hands together. Find your center arms down onto the barrel. Press back with your legs and bring the legs together. We're gonna do some seated rotation here. Hands behind the head.

So I'm just pressing my feet forward into the, into the ladder. And what's Nice here is that you're kind of above the hip crease. So there's not a, for those of us with hip flexors, myself included, there's not such a challenge to sit with the leg straight. And so you rotate. Yeah, and center. Yeah. And grow taller. As you rotate, lifting off the barrel and center, lift up to rotate and center lift up to rotate.

Feel that rotation coming from the trunk. Feel that you can use the ladder against the feet to check in for stability of the lower pelvis. So we don't allow the feet to change pressure. We keep both feet twice more to each side. Equally pressed into that bar and center lifted you twist [inaudible] center last time, lifted you twist and center to the last time to this Sun [inaudible] and center. Bring your hands back down onto the barrel.

Scoot back down again. Arms in front or hands behind the head. I've for the reasons I mentioned before, I'm going hands behind the head. We're going over the top of the barrel. Exhale, lift up in across one direction, over the top of the barrel and up in a cross. We do this five times back. Find neutral and twist and back.

Fine, neutral and rotate. Watching the knees. Keep the knees aligned. Three more you can choose here how far backwards you want to go, right? Obviously the further you go back or I think obviously the further you go back to, the more challenging it is to come up and across. Here's our last two back. If you find yourself going so far back that you have to heave Ho yourself up, maybe make it smaller last time.

Okay. Twist and back up in a across and center. Take the arms forward. We have one more thing to do. We're going to reach over the back. That's giving us ourselves a little hiatus here.

Little break in between the two points of challenge. Reach around to the side. Yes, I reached back. Hands behind your head. Stretch over the top. Lift straight up to center. Hold Center, Twist Center, twist center. Take it over the back. Inhale. Exhale, lift, pause to inhale. Exhale, inhale, exhale. Three more times reaching back, lifting, twist center, twist center. Last two, reaching back, lifting up to waist center, knees stable last time for the day. For this, I don't know. We'll see.

Twist, I promise. And twist center. Take your arms forward. Take the body over the back, lightly supporting from the front of the body. As you dive backwards over the barrel, find your stretch. Come around to the side with the arms, reach ya hands on the barrel, slide back and just take a stretch forward. All right, so we're finished here for now. We're going to grab the chair.

So I have my hand wait to have my chair. I've set up on one top spring and one just below that, so four, three on my chair and a sit down right at the front edge of the chair. Lifting the feet up so that the heels come up onto the chair. Perching right at the edge. Bringing the arms down just in front of the chair. We're going to press the legs down. Reach the arms up, lift the legs up, press the arms down so the arms and the legs are going opposite from one another. Reach out, press down, no here as the width.

All chair work that what you're trying to accomplish. Yes, there's some leg work, but the spinal stability is the important thing. So maintaining that spinal stability reach, float the arms up and then pull the knees up with the abdominals like you would in any abdominal exercise. Reach back. We'll do two more. Push the weights away from you as they reach out and pull them towards the chair as they come down last time and back. Come onto the toes, arms out to the sides of the chair. High heels. I have to. Got to find my feet. Three, press the pedal down, arms out, and then pull back. Reach down.

So what's typical is there's a tendency to want to lean forward into the springs to get the springs to move. So I want us all to be really conscious of staying directly upright over the chair. Really conscious of not just letting the arms float through space, but keeping some awareness, especially on the down. Especially as you pull the weights into your body. We'll do four and left three and lift two man lift last time. Navel to spine out. Just caught myself leaning forward a little bit.

Keep the down for now as you come into a small v-shaped with your feet, bring the arms out to the side, palms up. As we press the legs down, we're gonna take the arms. Reach up and open. So right from just in front of the shoulders, reach and back feeling again the stability of the spine, the stability of the trunk. What do we need to do to find that we need to work co contraction for from the abdominals in the back. Extensors, lifting the knees. We're going to go four and open three and open.

Nice light arms that two pound weights do get fairly heavy after awhile for me anyway, last time and out. Keep your arms there while you adjust your feet to go out to the outsides of the chair. Turn the palm to face down. Press the feet down, bring the arms across the front of you and open and the arms press. So it's like you could think about closing a pair of doors with your abdominals as you bring the weights across and then opening. So the ribs and the breath mimic the movement of the arms. We narrow everything sitting the waist, and then we allow the ribs to expand as they arms reach out.

So here's four. Yeah, three keeping that nice strong energy through the arms, through the legs, through the spine. Last time, bring the arms out. I'm going to lower my arms down for a second. So we're going to go onto the toes. We're going to send the arms forward. Then the elbows, high heels. Press the pedal down and open the elbows to the side and back.

Press the pedal down. Open the arms out to the side. Try not to lean forward. I'm really struggling to not lean forward, just to be real. Press out and back, supporting through the trunk, reaching through the spine. I liked that little pause for me. I'm choosing to do that little pause at the bottom to reach the elbows further away from one another to check in with the alignment of the spine.

And we'll do four and back and three and back to and back and one and all the way back. Take the arms down, step off the chair. I'm just going to set my weights off to the side. Yeah. And then coming back, the chairman attempt to keep the same spring tension the whole class.

So we are going to press the pedal down. What I want you to do is organize so that you're right on the balls of the feet. We're going to do our cab raises here. So hands just to the front of the chair and from there shift forward so your shoulders are right over your hands. Deeply round the spine, drawing in and up through the waist. And now we're going to allow the heels to lift, but we have to keep the pelvis rounding forward so we go down and articulate through the foot.

So what you could think about here is using this as a prep for the pike, which is what's coming. So feeling how you can use the abdominals to pull the heels up and also how you can resist from the center of the body as the legs go down. And uh, it's a nice place. You can actually see what's happening. See the alignment of the feet, trying not to shift back and forth through the arms. So we will keep the shoulders right over the hands. And we're just going to do that two more times down and uh, and down. And uh, so finding your position, find the depth through the center of the body.

Let the shoulders move so they're right over the tops of the hands. Organize your feet so you're in a nice position to lift into the pike. Here we go in here and now we exhale and pick the pedal up off the floor. We're trying to reach all the way up to the top of the spring and then push the legs away from you. Draw in deep to lower. We're going do that six times. Exhale, deepen into the center of the body.

[inaudible] the head between the arms, press the pedal down and come down. And maybe six was a little adventurous cause there's more to come, but that's all right. We'll work hard and pressing down. We'll do three more. Exhale lift. And uh, it's helpful as you're lifting up to let the head go down between the arms down between there. I was like, you're going to turn into a somersault. I forgot what number we're, we're going to do one more. Okay. So lifting up pause at the top of the springs. Keep the pedal there, but then the knee, so it's like you're lifting off the pedal now as you reach up towards straight lanes. Inhale the knees, bend. Exhale, lift up towards straight legs. Inhale the knees bend, draw in and up. Three more in Hilton. Bend.

Deepen as you lift up. Trying to keep that pedal still too. [inaudible] one [inaudible] [inaudible] carefully lower. Way down. I'm going to give us two seconds for a break. Let me give myself two seconds for a break and then we're going to come back up again. So last time, last variation, come forward over the arms round in the spine. Use that depth to pick the pedal up off the floor. Come up as high as you can with your pelvis, pelvis hole.

Bring one knee into the body and step down. Trying not to change the bar. Pull the other knee into the body. [inaudible] step and exhale knee to the chest and Steph and need of the chest and step hard to keep that pedal. Still. One more. Pull in. Push the other leg away from you and Dan and pull in and down and hello are the legs all the way. Drop the heels down. Can come down onto your forearms and just reach back. Find a calf stretch and then bend one knee and then change to the other than the other knee and then both up. Turn onto your pedal, careful with it and sit down.

Small v shaped with the feet again. Heels up high, hands to the back of the chair. Scoot your body right to the front of the chair. Lean back onto your arms. Try to hold the pedal still here. As you articulate the pelvis up, lifting up nice and high, and then we're going to press the pedal down. But keep the body high and left. Press the pedal down, pressing the hips up and lift, press, lift and back.

Press lift and back. We'll do two more and back and one more and back. And then hold steady. Five quick, five, four, three, two, one. Bring the peddle down. Bring yourself onto the edge of the chair. So we're going to do a pushup sequence starting with the most easiest and working our way to the most challenging.

So we'll start here and then we'll get out the authorizers or the crutches. So I want you to put your hands just in front of, or just to the sides of your hips, and then push the pedal to the floor. Lift your body off, stabilizing your shoulders. So as you're bending your elbows, you continue to feel that you're lifting your spine up. So we're staying in control of the shoulders. Pick the pedal out.

Now as you press up, I want you to think of not going backwards. Towards the Cherub and instead of reaching away from it and Ben Drawing the abdominals in, press up and away from the chair. We're going to do six and bend up in away from the chair. I lied. We'll do five because there's more to come. So here's number four, reaching up and then, and number five reaching up and then bring yourself back onto the chair and step down. I'm going to set up my crutches or my pedals or my risers or whatever we're calling them these days. So here's one, I'm setting it on the highest setting, meaning that meaning the most underneath hole. And here's the next. So we're going to give our arms a little break here and go back to working our legs.

So I want you to come around and stand just in front of the chair. Just reach forward onto the, onto the handles with your hands, and then set up. Let's start with the right, like get it right, get the heel of that foot. You might have to adjust by when the pedals down, but we want the heel of the foot right on that pedal. And then we're going to place the left foot down.

We're going to bend the left knee, lean forward, so you can use these for balance. You can use your fingertips for balance or you can reach forward. We're going to lift that leg. It's a heavy spring style, and then press from the back of the leg as we put it back down and lift the leg and press down. So the harder part for me anyway, is not so much the lift of the leg, but are not so much the press of the lane, but being able to control the springs as they lift up. We're going to do two more bend keeping the abdominals working, press and bend and press. So now taking the hands just onto the these risers.

Want you to transfer down onto the toes of that right leg straight in both legs, lifts the back leg and pivot forward. Come back toes, come to the ground, heel comes down. Then both knees and lift the pedal. Four Times press. For those of you who know I can't count, that's my intention. Press up, reach back, both leg straight. Pivot. Now you could do this without hands.

I'm going to choose to use my hands today. Come back upright toes, articulate through the foot, both knees, bend, squat forward and lift. Two more. Press step. Stretch the back leg pivot. Come back toes roll through the feet.

Bend the knees, squat left last time. Press roll through the foot. Lift up, press back through the leg. Pivot, come back up, toes squat. Lift the pedal all the way up and step down onto the floor. Okay, so other side I believe that I did six of just the regular as hand four with the, with the little variation. So both knees bent, hands on the pedal, hands on the chair. Whatever you want to do, we're going to push that pedal down.

You want to be right on the heel of the foot. You want your hips to be back behind you and lift and push down and control the lift. So keeping it really heavy and Kia have the same spring. We have three more. Have the same spring that I did my double leg foot work on cause I want that leg to get challenged to more.

I'm just resting my hands. I'm not gripping. Last one, press down. Transfer the weight onto the toes. Straighten that leg. Pick the back leg up. Lift that leg, pivot forward. Come back toes, come to the floor. Both knees, bend, hips, reach back, pedal lifts. Press down. Here's number two. Roll through that supporting foot.

Reach up, pick the back leg up. Pivot is a nice place to play with. Not Hanging on at all. Back. Roll through the foot. Both knees, bend, sit back. When you sit back, it's a little harder to control that pedal. Two more. Press reach, lift down, sit. Pedal up. Abdominals in, navel to spine. Last time, press reach out, bend back, lift the pedal all the way. Step all the way down. Okay, so we're going to go back to our arms.

Here's our second pushup variation. I'm debating whether, which one I want to start with first, but we'll start with the IPEC push up. So we're going to press the pedal down when you want to be on your toes and you know, I want you to hold the handles and as you're going to lean a little bit forward and I want you to press them towards one, then we're going to press up, push the body up, lift up out of your arms like you're light on your feet. So I can actually lift my feet up here and let them float. Not going to, but I want you to press forward with the backs of your legs and lift your chest in. Reach back, find neutral. Then down we'll do three press [inaudible]. Find your lift. Find the back sides of your legs, arch the back.

Extend back and bend. Press reach up out of your arms as you press your hips. Forward, lift. Come back to neutral. Let's just step up onto the chair here. Turn around hands on the handles again, reaching down. Find One foot. When you're ready to lift that other foot, you need to be nice and sure that you're stable in your shoulders. So here we go. The elbows bend to the back of the body.

We straighten [inaudible] hold, press the pelvis forward, reach up, lifting the chest up towards the ceiling. Lot of work through the back of the legs. Come back, bend, Presa reach up and back, back to neutral last time. Then press up, reach up and back. Come on back through center bend and control your way back to the floor. I'm going to turn around on my chair so that you can control the pedal as I lift it up. So I'd like to do the, um, I'd like to do the control balance and the Jackknife.

But for that I'd like to have a mat because the floor is a little hard. So let's grab a map and then with these chairs that have the big wooden things in for any chair, really what I like to do is I like to organize my mat so that there is, um, some mat over the top of the chair. Now that doesn't mean I'm going to put my head on the frame. I know I want my head on the floor, but just to give my head some padding. I oftentimes use my ponytail for padding as well. So once the mat set up, we're going to come down onto our back, wiggle right back so that your head is just in front of that wooden place.

Reach up for the bar if you don't have a bargo into internal rotation and hold the top of your pedal. So here we go. We're going to bring the legs up, we're going to stretch the legs out. Once the leg straighten out, we lift them up, we roll over and tip the top of the chair. What I want you to do here is balanced on your shoulder blades. Keep one foot on the chair and send the other leg directly into the air and then change. So when leads reaching up, up, up, up, up in a way and up, up, up, up, up and away. I'm not just using the backs of my legs, I'm definitely using the backs of the legs, but I'm also using my back muscles, my back muscles to get that lift. We're going to do one more time to eat.

[inaudible] and then both legs down, drawing here, center, articulate the spine down. Three jackknifes so you roll down using the handles to create opposition. Feeling the spine. Move down into the floor, take the legs away, lift the legs up. Excellent. Your reach over to the chair and then both legs into the air this time. And then [inaudible] rolling down.

Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan, take the legs away. Stabilize your lower back, lift that rule over. Tip the chair and then reach up. Pressing up nice and high and then roll down. Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan. No Way. Last time.

Lower the legs as far as you can without losing your stability. Lift up, roll over, reach away. [inaudible] roll all the way back down. Once the pelvis comes down, we can let go of that chair. Hug the knees into the chest and impress the knees into the hands and Rock Your Sofa. Okay, we're going to get rid of the chair and bring the ladder barrel back. Okay, so back to the ladder. Barrel. I'm still on the widest setting. You could shorten it up a little bit, but it's, it's, it'll be fine for some of this, but it's going to be hard for some of this too, so, okay, so we're going to get up onto the ladder. Bear on once again.

I'm going to put my feet up underneath the, thus that first bar, and I'm just going to go onto my arches. Taking the arms out in front. So I'm pushing a little bit with the outsides of my feet and I'm pushing forward a little bit with the arts and my feet. I'm going to inhale spine stretch forward. We're going to round the spine down. Now what I want you to do is I want you to reach out and take a hold of that bar. So depending on your flexibility, this could be easy or challenging for you. For me, it's a good stretch.

So I'm going to use my arms to pull myself forward. I'm going to use my arms to elongation to my spine, so I'm looking for that nice flat spine. Then as I find that flat spine, we're going to take the arms up, naval back towards spine. We're gonna press the arms back. Two, three, four fat, lift up, arms open, arms press back across our stipulate down around. So what happens for me is that each time I go into that stretch, I feel like I'm a little closer to the bar.

I feel like I can get a little flat or a little closer to my legs. So that's what I'm trying for. Who reach out, arms float, abdominals back. Press five, four, three. Really lengthening out the spine. One all the way up. Open the arms with conviction or with energy. Press the arms back forward. We're still upright. We're going to do three more. Exhale, cheer round. Then Pool. Inhale to lift and read.

So you see I get a little closer each time, or maybe it's just my imagination, but I'm trying five, four as the arms pull back. So does the belly to one. All the way up. Open the arms, press the arms across the front of the body. Last to a round bend, Elan Gait. So in real life, if I were on the floor, this wouldn't out my spine would never get this close to my legs. I'm really enjoying this. So we go five.

It's just because my legs are a little bit lower than they would typically be on the floor. A little bit lower than my pelvis. When reach up, shake the arms open last time the arms round the spine, taking a hold of that bar, pulling forward [inaudible] out through the spine. Get as low as you can, but make sure you get into that flat spine position. Head down, arms up, and reach out. Two, three, four. If I lift up, arms out to the side, inhale, rotate towards me. Exhale, reach forward into the saw. So you slide off past that bar. Reach the arms up. Unwind Center in Hilti. Rotate the body. Excellent to dive down. Inhale, back arm reaches down towards the floor. Front term reaches out and forward, and then we unwind.

So what I'm attempting to do here as I reach out into that size to really maximize that long back, that stretch, that long body down, way down towards that leg and center and inhale to rotate. Exhale to reach down, arms stretching away from one another. Inhale arms, reaching away from one another. Reach out to come up. Find Center one more time through rotate and stretch. Paying attention to the the organization of the feet or the pressure into the feet and rotate to reach.

Lift to come center. I lied. I want one more. Twist this time. Take the hand on either the top of the ladder or outside and pull and then use that arm to find that flat back. Reach the arms on the diagonal. Lift up, unwind, inhale, twist. Exhale. Re take a hold of where it ever suits you. I like it on the bar, but I will go to keep the opposite pelvis down.

Pull forward, pull out, take the arms away from one another. Lift all the way up. Find Center, take the arms down, step down onto the floor. This is where it's a little bit tougher to have a shorter barrel system. If you made your barrel short, you might want to go longer, you may not. We're going to do some side over.

So I'm going to take my bottom foot onto that bottom rung and I'm going to lift myself up so that my pelvis is stacked right on top of the um, right on the front edge of the barrel. And take the forearm down for just a moment and then press the, the top leg into that top bar. So find your e lot long line hands behind your head. We're going to go over the top in here. Excellent.

Reach out over the top India. Excellent. It's out more than it's up over the top in hand. Exhale. [inaudible] out. Can we do two more? It's hard if you're working hard. We're right there together and up last time over the time and hold your up. Take that top leg out from underneath. Oops.

Almost lost my balance out from underneath. Lifted up. We're in the star star one armed down turn. So the arms are on the barrel though. The bottom arm is on the forum. The top arm is on the hand. When a push with my hand, I'm gonna rotate using the arms like a single leg kick with rotation to keep my spine lifted. And then we're going to press that leg back. Ten nine a strong through the bottom leg, seven, six, long and lifted through the spine. Both shoulder blades down here. Three here's two. Here's one.

Open yourself back out. Then that leg underneath and then just hook it. I Hook mine to the back end. It is going to take the body over. If you can reach down and grab that Pole, that might be nice. What I also like to do is to, with the leg hook to the back of the ladder is to roll my pelvis open.

And then what's also nice as though foot that still on the ladder to take that leg and don't just let it relax but stand on it like it's trying to reach down for the floor. As you open and open, uh, open the spine, Eh, oh. Then coming back to change sites. So turning around, we're going to go bottom, leg up, top leg up. And again, I'm pushing that leg into the, into the ladder, finding the long back, hands behind the head. We're gonna go over the top. On the inhale. Exhale, left. Use the bottom like to push. Inhale to go over the top. Exhale to reach out. We did five on the other side in my, I think I'm quite sure, and three and over and two and over. Here's the last one. Lifting up, hold there and do the Leng. Reaching up, up, up arm goes down, bottom arm onto the forum.

Top arm comes around onto the hand like it's going to do a pushup. We pushed the forum into the barrel. We push the barrel away with the the, the bent arm hand. Both arms are bent with the hand that's closest to the waist and we're going to take that leg up and back. So just exploring your full range of that. Uh, hip extensors. Four try not to go down too much, but it always out. And about five, six, reaching back and up.

Last three and two and one, come back, take that leg through, hook it to the back, reach over again. You can hang on. If you can fit it feels good to you. It's definitely not required. We're going to let the body reach back. I'm using my topic for support and then we're going to take that bottom leg and let it go. But don't just let it hang. Stand on the floor. Reach and not, not right underneath you, but kind of on the diagonal towards the ladder and then continue to open the body.

Uh, uh, and then coming back. Let's come down from there. Okay, so now for our back extension, I am going to change the orientation of the barrel to the ladder. So we're going to bring the barrel a little closer to the ladder. This is not required. It just helps me to work my back where I want it.

So I'm bringing it to about four, between four and five, five maybe as is the reality. Now that I look or halfway, maybe I make sure it's nice and tight and we're going to do this one. So we're going to turn facing the ladder. I just have to pull it across a little. It's a little crooked, which makes me feel crazy. As those of you who teach [inaudible], I'm sure can imagine.

So we're going to go all the way to straight legs. Look through the bar and make sure that your feet aren't off to one side, but instead they're just in the center. Some people like to hook under the bar. I'm, I'm going to choose to push my feet against against the the the pole from there. Now if you're taller than me, this might not be the right setting for you, so we all have to find the right setting for ourself. I just want to say that out loud. Hands behind the head. I want you to energize through your legs. Start to lift the head into the hands.

As the head lifts into the hands, we bring the back out into a long line. Then the arms reach out straight. We're going to bend the knee. Please reach up from that up position. We're going to start to go backwards, backwards, backwards, backwards. Reach back out. Long hands behind the head. Don't drop the head.

Go down the way you came up. So you reach down pelvis down first. The upper spine is still in a little bit of extension and then we go all the way down again. So we pressed the head into the hands, lifting the upper back first using the abdominals to support the spine as we lift up into a straight body. Then the arms reach. We could call that an exhale. Bend your knees, use the backs of your legs. So that's where the feet come in. The feet are pushing back.

The backs of the legs are reaching into the chair or reaching into the barrel. We're gonna reach [inaudible] I've backwards. Dive backwards. Dive backwards, shoot back out. Let both legs straight. Hands behind your head. Don't drop your head. Extend over the top. Extend over the top. The chest drops and the head drafts are going one more time. Here we go. Head comes up, abdominals in. Find your line, arms reach. Ah, knees, bend arms reach up, up, up, spine comes back, back, back. Reach out, hands back and all the way down from there. Take the hand. Take that, pull with your hands.

Just organize your back so that when you let your legs, Drake set a place where it should be a good stretch for you so you can use the harms to pull in. Alternately, what I like to do is to take one ankle, cross it over the other, and as I pull forward with my arms, I use the other leg to pull down on the leg that's on the underneath and then change, uh, and then coming all the way back, sliding off the barrel. Stepping back to the ladder. Let's bring the right knee, bend it and bring it in and over the top. So what's nice about the ladder here for our stretches is that we can really find alignment with the pelvis. Bend the elbows back behind you. We're going to hinge the spine forward.

Round the spine down. Okay, roll the body up. Hinge the spine forward. This works with the barrel and a little bit longer position. I just didn't want to take the time round down and roll when we're like that.

Lifting tall, hinge, [inaudible], round, articulate. Bend that knee. Same thing. So finding your alignment with your pelvic alignment hinge around [inaudible], hinge round, working with whatever breath makes sense to you. Rola last time. Hinge round roll. So that leg will come to the ground.

The opposite leg will come first into the body and then up to the top, squaring the pelvis, lifting the spine. Inhale, hinge, draw the abdominals and around forehead to knee and roll out. Keeping the bottom leg, pushing away. Straight. Hinge ground and rural Iowa. Hinge round and rural app. We must sit down enough willig work today that Lego mine is trembling. So dropping the knee out to the side, lifting the spine tall and round, Rola and curl over yourself. Keep the abdominals active.

Role at hinge. Round her roll up. Step that leg down. We'll come and stand right in the corner of the ladder barrel. Now this is too close to you. Feel free to push it away or also if it feels too close, um, feel free to come up onto a box of some description. But what we're going to do is we're going to take that inside leg up.

But the most important thing is if the barrels too close in your hip is height it maybe take the time to move it cause we want the pelvis to get nice and level and to take the hand from the opposite side to the, to the ladder. Then this arms going to lift up. We're going to lift the spine, drop the pelvis, reach over the top and then lift back up. Drop the hip, lifts the spine, lifts the ribs, reach over the top and back. Lift the spine, lift the ribs, reach over the top. Maybe you can reach for your foot and give it a little pull and then lift all the way out. It feels good. For those of you who know me, I don't stretch enough so this is little bit out of my box but I'm enjoying it. So the opposite light comes up. Again, check in with your pelvis. I use my hands to, to feel the bones opposite hand into the ladder. Same side as ladder. Arm Up, lift the spine up, drop the hip and reach and lift. Drop the hip. That's important.

Lift the spine. Reach over and up. Last time, reaching over, over, over and up and down. Leg down. Turn to face the uh, I'm gonna set. Turn to face the ocean. If you can turn to face the ocean, you should, um, turn to face the ladder. I'm facing the ocean, my world. Okay, so what I want you to do is take one leg up. So there were this, we're going to do in steps. First thing I want you to do with that foot up is think about pressing the pelvis forward and bringing the body up, right?

So we're working towards a little bit of a posterior rotation of the pelvis. Then I want you to bend the leg that you're standing on, sinking deeper into that stretch. And then if you still want more stretch, we can press back, press back against the bear on hold and breathed, and then stepping onto the supporting leg. Slide that foot down, bringing the other leg up. So again, once the foot gets there, we first lift the spine, try to bring the spine into alignment or a post to really tilt or rotate the pelvis. Then bend, then press back, uh, uh, and then step all the way down. We're done now. That's fine.

Comments

Nice variations on two of my favorite pieces of equipment
Z A
2 people like this.
Great workout. I really liked the variations and creativity. Feel so lucky!! Thank ypu Meredith.
Thanks Meredith! Love seeing more ladder barrel work. Your cues and flow were awesome!
1 person likes this.
Thank you, Meredith! As always, great cuing and creative variations. Challenging workout, but you sure made it look so easy. You are amazing!
Thank you all for your lovely feedback.
Jill you are VERY sweet. xx
Awesome workout Meredith! Love all the variations!
Clemencia Puerta
Lovely combination of Ladder Barrel and Wunda Chair!... Thanks again Meredith for your beautiful Classes ;););)
Thank YOU Clemencia Puerta!
1 person likes this.
Just purchased a used ladder barrel (a positive for  quarantine) and this was my first ladder barrel class on PA-- THANK YOU for the precise cues-- great class!
Cindy Hooray!  We need all the help we can get these days.  Enjoy your barrel.
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