Dynamic Flexibility Flow

Hello Pilates Anytime my name is Louise Johns and I have a studio with some business partners in Lafayette, California that's the East Bay San Francisco. And Stephanie and Rachel they're my friends and colleagues and we're here together today to do some reformer works dynamic flexibility as you know and lots of side lying stuff to help with walking, single-leg balance, and so forth. And we may get off track, we'll see what happens. We're using Balance Body reformers and we're gonna start a little bit classical just to kind of get us in the mode. Are you guys ready?

Three reds and a blue. Headrest up, or not. If you could lie down on your backs and place the feet on the footbar. Yep, and just kind of get comfortable. So, personal preference like I said, headrest up or down, you choose.

So, ladies and gents out there, press away from the footbars for me and just hesitate for a second. And kind of, I don't know about you but at that whole first moment I get a little bit organized and just for a second and bring yourself inside your body and get a sense of a really, really long spine. And image those springs, and those springs and your spine being really, really long together. And think about how can I make those springs longer than they are? Just take a second.

How do I elongate my spine from my head to my tail? Once your feel that your as long and that spring are as long as you can go ahead and bend the knees and resist yourself from getting shorter and then we'll start. We'll exhale, we'll press away on the balls of our feet. And inhale return. And exhale press and lengthen.

Find the length, and inhale return. And let's repeat, let's go exhale and then inhale. And some things that you should know about me is I have one speed and it's pretty quick. So, if I go too fast put me on pause and come back and get me when you catch your breath. Let's do three, yep.

And let's do two. And let's do one. And let's stay out long-legged and change foot position here. So let's place the heels of our feet on the footbar. Yep, bringing your feet in a nice vertical position and then go ahead, find the length, and then bend your knees towards me.

And then exhale press. And I'm going to allow you just to go back and forth. See if you can keep the heels really still in relationship to the footbars so the feet stay still. And then think about how would I press myself back if I didn't have any legs, where would that work come from? And I think that you may have heard that once or twice before.

Press away and put the brakes on. Press away, yes. And let's just go to the arches of the feet. I'm not gonna be any particularly picky, you can wrap the toes around prehensile like a birdie on a perch or you can just enjoy a little foot release. And then back and forth about eight times.

And again, getting that image of length. And getting settled into your practice, yep. And let's do four, little quicker maybe for me. Yes, remember hips, knees, ankles. Two, last time, and then stay out there.

Heels together, just like Alice she clicked her heels together. Little bit of rise up in the heel. Bend the knees, allows the sit bones to widen and exhale zip it up, and again, that length through the spine and resisting the springs. And again, if you had no feet, where would that movement come from? Very nice, and hips, knees, ankles for three, yep.

For two, yep. For one, hesitate. Legs in parallel, resist as you come down. Awesome. Dismount to your left.

With your right hand side, your right side, your right hand rather, put just one red spring on the top only. And let's put the footbars down. I'm gonna help Rachel here without knockin' her in the face. And we're going to lie again back down on our backs. So go ahead and lie on down, and let's do some supine arm work.

So, short straps in your hands please. And allow your legs to lay long and straight over the footbar. And this may be a little bit Benjamin like, if you know who Benjamin is, secret right there. So press yourself, your hands into your straps, just a little tiny bit. Press in and pause.

Zipping up your legs and thinking about where that work is in your body and then just let it go for a second. And again, exhale, think about where the work is coming from, your armpits, your abdominals, your inner thighs, and then return. We'll do one more the same. We'll go exhale and we'll pause. We'll take a little detour.

With that deep core activity bring one knee into tabletop and then the other. And then allow your arms to go all the way down to the seat. Hesitate, inhale return the arms to the sky and exhale armpits, belly, and down. And inhale. And exhale.

And now I'll allow you to continue at your own pace. Some of you like to go slow. Some of you like to go fast, so you choose your pace. Let's go for about another three seconds. Maybe one more time and then we'll circle, you choose your direction.

Arms out, level with the shoulders and then find the armpits down towards the seat. Inhale and exhale. Keep going. If you find that your lower back is getting tired just like Stephanie's gonna do here, she might allow her heels to come to her buttocks. Put the brakes on no matter where you are.

And reverse your directions, in and out. And let's just do four before we move on. Yeah, for three, belly and armpits. For two. One more time.

Arms up to the sky. Maybe legs up to the sky, you can bend your knees if you need to. Legs and arms going the same direction. So press the legs and the arms towards the footbar. You choose where you'd like to stop.

With your belly breath reunite them to the sky. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exhale lower down. Adduct, so squeeze your inner thighs together and then inhale, return. And exhale, some of you with a little help lowering the arms down, may touch the footbar and inhale return, and let's do four together. Exhale lower, hesitate, long spring, inhale.

And exhale, pause, Stephanie's gonna draw in there she goes, and up, and again, and she'll draw in, yes, yes and last time one, two, three and lower down. And pause and hold and inhale return. And on this very light spring, put your feet in your straps, bend your knees, hook your feet around your straps, yes. We just have one spring, red spring on the top here and I'm noticing that Stephanie go ahead and bend she has got two springs on there. So, just one red spring high.

Legs up over the pelvis, arms down by your side. So here, lower your legs down to your 45 degree position or imagine that your feet are on that footbar. That spring is very light, and then return. And then exhale lower, keeping the hips even left to right and then return. And again at your own pace, lower.

So if you're having too much of a challenge or you want a little bit more help should I say, maybe add the blue spring, or a red spring. More springs a little bit more resistance, less work for the core. We'll do one more time, super straight forward easy. And return and hesitate. Leg circles, make them small.

We'll go out and around, down and around. The bigger the circle, the more control you'll need on this light spring. And this is really just still the warmup so we're just getting ourselves connected that mind-body. We'll do one more time, hesitate where you are and then reverse go down around and hesitate. Down around then, hesitate.

Nice job and then four, deep abdominal control, hollow as much as you can, yeah, yeah, yeah. Two. One more time. Good job and release. Okay, here's the work.

Bend your knees, take your feet out of your straps, dismount to your left, and lets return our footbars up into the middle position. So in the Balance Body reformers that's that middle slot. And we'll have one red spring on the bottom only. So one red spring. And let's do seated mermaid, I know it's early but we'll do feet on the floor.

So put your right hand on the footbar and sit your bum all the way to the right hand side. Push away from the footbar and allow your feet to go with you, so take your feet with you. Take your left arm over your head. So again, we're in the classroom you've got a very important question, so we're picking me and then we're over. And then return, and you'll just rock over the feet.

So inhale go up, and then exhale, translating those ribs and again, inhale, keeping the feet still and then exhale, yeah, I'm gonna stand on Rachel's feet here so she rolls over her feet and return and one more time. Over, and return, beautiful. Come all the way in, lift your feet up over the shoulder rest, sit your bum all the way to the inside edge, push away. Get your feet firmly planted. Let's not move them this time.

Arm goes out, that will be the right, up and over, pause, and then return. We'll go three. Imagine you have no elbow, so we're working from the rib cage, the shoulder lifts, uh huh, and the ribs, and last time, one more time, up and over, and release, very good. Kneeling arm work. One blue spring.

If you have a yellow spring you can use a yellow spring on high, otherwise a blue spring. And let's come on our knees, just like Stephanie and Rachel are gonna do right here. And your left hand will be on the inside. And you're gonna reach down for your short strap. So here's the deal, kneeling side arm.

If it feels like you need more work shift towards the footbar. If you want left, shift toward the shoulder rest. And this carriage is a little slippy so just be cautious. Bring the strap out in front of you. Interlace both hands around the short strap and make a triangle with your arm, so nice scapular stabilization.

We'll rotate together towards the risers, that's the back of the reformer, the end. Hold for a second and then exhale with your ribcage obliquely pull across. And then inhale, let's allow our head to go with us and exhale and the ribcage and pull, yes. And again, inhale. Try to keep both arms nice and straight so the work really comes from the torso rather than using the arms to muscle through.

(exhales loudly) Yep, and get a sense of the right ribcage landing in your left front pocket. We'll do two more like that. And we'll pull across, very nice. Last time, and we'll pull across, and release. Draw a sword.

So you'll take your strap in your right hand and put your left hand on your waist. D'artagnan right? The sword is in your sheath, elbow high first. Pause, get a good strong rest and press the arm all the way out to the side. And bring it down, and reunite your sword and its sheath.

So we go elbow, upper arm, and pull. Now keep going and I can see that Rachel's, she's barely five feet, little body weight, so she may need a little assistance. So Rachel go ahead and use your right hand and pull that strap up, go overhand grip for me and then pull across. So this is a really nice way to assist so she can take it in the rest. Yep, little oblique one more time.

Yeah, good job. Now replace that strap back on your peg and let's do a little prep right here. So, kneeling side press. So place your left hand on the shoulder rest that's closest to you, yep. And then take the right arm all the way to the sky.

So, we're going to modify a little bit. We'll bring the knuckles in front of the forehead and I want you to think about your elbow being sky high and then press the right hand towards the sky, right hand goes up, and down. We'll just do that three more times. In this nice side bend with the right knee anchored. Two more.

One more time, pause. Now either stay there or grab the strap with your right hand and place the knuckles in front of you forehead, uh huh. So, exhale press that strap towards the sky and return it to you. So keep going as I jabber on here. So, it's a side bend with a tricep press.

What I like is the dynamic work that's happened just go on in the torso to keep you on your side. How ya doing ladies? Do three for me, elbow sky high. You can change the position of the hand if you'd like. Yeah, one more time, reach up, find that middle finger and stretch it as far away from your last rib as you can and then return, nice job.

Place it down, turn to your shoulder rest and do the other side. So what did we start with? Interlacing the hands around the short strap if you've got double loops, or around your strap. Bring your hands directly in front of your chest. Get steady, we go towards the right, toward the risers a little bit and pause.

And then find your ribcage, and exhale pull. (exhales loudly) And inhale. And exhale. When you've already learned the skills and now your on it, your like okay I know what we're doing. I'm moving my left rib cage, my oblique into my front back, front pocket, not my back pocket, but my front pocket.

Yeah, pull, yeah, using your rib cage as the vehicle, not your arms. We'll do two, I like to chat, we may do 100, one more time and we'll go over, yeah. D'artagnan in the house, put your sword in your sheath. Right hand, left hand, elbow high. Forearm and press, yes, and then return.

And you can see Rachel's already beginning to assist. Yep, back and forth. As we work that posterial oblique line all the way through you can see here on Stephanie she's doing a really nice job, all the way through that system. Yep, how about three, thousand, and one and two, yep. And one more time.

Good and release. And let's do the prep even though you know what we're doing we're still going to do the prep. The right hand goes on the right shoulder rest. The left knuckles to the forehead and I call this ahoy, ahoy out there. You're like hey what's on the horizon?

So hand goes towards the sky. Fingertips, and then return. Do that a few times, I'm just going to adjust Stephanie a little bit here, pressing the hips forward. One more time. Now either stay there or grab that strap so your left hand is grabbing the strap, ahoy.

And then reach the arm towards the sky, I call this pick me, ahoy... pick me, ahoy, pick me. So using imagery helps guide your students in class, you're welcome to say ahoy to your people if you like. We'll do three, reaching through the fingers, find that last rib, ask it to translate itself to the side. Two, yeah yeah, one more time.

I think they might have done it before. They're doing amazing. Okay, strap on your peg. Be mindful, step off the back of your reformer. And let's move into something more familiar.

We'll do the long stretch series. So headrest up please. And so there's a myriad of springs right? So a red spring high only, or if you know you're gonna need a little bit of help you can add that blue spring too. And so Stephanie's put her footbar, I mean you're not Stephanie, Rachel, I nearly said Makayla, Rachel, who's Makayla, Rachel's put her footbar up high.

She's a little bit more on the petite side. So, getting on the reformer, two hands on the reformer for me. And then, one foot on the headrest and then the other foot on the headrest, one, two. And of course if you need to put your knees down you can. So, when we first step on we unite the heels together, we zip up the inner thighs, have your hips in the position that your lumbar spine is supported, and I love ponytails because I can draw the chin towards the chest.

So, long stretch. Using your core strength exhale, press yourself away from the footbar. (exhales loudly) And then inhale forward. Now this time use your arms and press away. And forward.

And now this time find your quads and use those to push yourself away, and return. Think about which is the most effective, hopefully it's your core, exhale hold, inhale return. Integrate arms, legs, and core strength, press. Rachel can you bring your heels together for me? One more time, I've got eyes like a hawk.

Press away, hold, and return, hesitate. Be mindful, gently place both knees on the carriage simultaneously down. Bring your feet in front of the shoulder rest for down stretch. And then start by sitting the hips, the hips, the hips apparently now I'm of a different language. Sit your hips over your ankles.

So we're gonna do a little pelvic curl right? So, ask the pelvis to curl towards you, take your pubic bone towards the footbar and lift your eyes high on to the horizon. Pause for a second. And then inhale, press away from the footbar. Inhale press away.

And exhale bring it forward, good job. Keep it going, rock back and forward. We'll do one more time, rock back, and then forward and hesitate. Hold, if you'd like to adjust your spring and just go to the red spring you can for the next few, it will be lighter, a little bit more core strength. Press away.

And then inhale, eyes stay put, you travel back. Press, yeah, yeah, yeah, and up. Good, last time, press, and up. Put that carriage on the stopper. Draw your chin toward your chest, round back, put your heels toward your hips, your hips toward your heels, find your belly, and lift your legs up, your hips up in the air, sorry.

Lift up, so we're going to do up stretch. Now, drop down to a little kitten heel and bring your hips over your ankles and pause. And again, if you're challenging yourself, you're still on that one spring. Otherwise you may want to stop and put that blue spring on. Give me a plank, let's start there.

Chest over the footbar, chest over the footbar, yeah. So, go all the way in until you can't physically go in any more. We're going to do it in neutral by the way. Hips up towards the sky, kitten heel on the feet. So she's a little tiny kitten heel right here.

It's Friday, it's not Saturday night. Friday night we wear kitten heels. Okay, head's gonna stay in this relationship to the footbar the same, she'll press away into a plank of sorts, so press away, perfect Rachel. Stephanie's on it. Travel forward until you can't physically go any more.

In a neutral position, allow the hips to go up over the ankles. Now your challenge might be the same as Stephanie's right here. As we press out into a plank, try not to get any further away, yeah she's dynamite, she comes all the way to me, with her core strength she lifts her hips up, sit bones wide and high. On your own, down and forward, and continue. Find that relationship between the trunk muscles, the legs, and the arms.

Travel forward, maybe a little slower ladies. Up, over, out. And pause, hesitate, left foot on the floor, right foot on the floor, dismount, one, two. (exhales loudly) You made it! Okay, long back slide. I like a blue spring high.

You might like a red spring, if you're a little bit beefier or heavier, you've got a lot of muscle mass. We can always change the spring right? So put your bums on the footbar facing your shoulder rests. This can be challenging for some of you and so we're going to do a little prep together. Bend your knees and place your feet on the carriage.

Remember you're on a moving surface so it might move out from underneath you. Without moving the carriage, it may move a little bit, lift your bum off the footbar and come forward a little bit, and then walk your feet forward a little bit if you need to, I'm gonna have Stephanie do this. Crowns of the heads on the ceiling, lower traps really working, right? Hold it, now keep your upper body the same shape, walk your feet in front of your shoulder rests. Good, press the balls of the feet into the shoulder rests, slide the carriage forward, and go into reverse plank.

Not too far, not too far. Good, and then come back to where you started. Hips towards the footbar, exhale press on up, (exhales loudly) inhale come on in, do that two more. This is the most challenging part right because we gotta expand the chest, find those triceps one more time, lot of chest flexibility, hip flexibility and down, put your bums back on the seat, and shake water from your hands. So shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it.

Alright, triceps. So place the hands back on the footbar. Bend your knees and put your feet on the seat. And let's do that prep again. Walk your feet a little bit further forward than you did the first time, lift your bum off the seat, crown of the head on the ceiling.

So a little tricep press, bend the arms at the elbows, and then press. Bend, press, bend, press, got me? Bend, press weight. Put your feet on the shoulder rest. Go into your reverse plank.

Press it out, find your gluteals, bring your hips back towards the footbar, a little tricep press. Press down, scoop, and press, Rachel's on it. Slide on in, so we unite the movements together. Down, pelvic, reverse plank, and hinge, one more time. Down, reverse plank, and up and in and bums on seats.

And shake it off (exhales loudly). How did you do? They're sweating (laughs). Let's move on, dismount to your left. Let's come back into our long stretch series.

And we'll come back into a plank. So go ahead and put that red spring back on the top. You can have the blue one there if you need to. Feet in front of the shoulder rests, hands on the footbar. I don't care how you get there, I'm not looking, you'll be fine.

Hips up over your ankles, pause. And then allow your heels to slide down so that when we come into our plank, go ahead and come into your plank, your heels will naturally rise on up, and then when you go back up there, we kind of got that elephant shape which we didn't do before, but it's here. So go into a plank here, come closer over the footbar for me, yeah. And then hips high to the sky. So try not to let your head move any further away from the footbar.

Press into a plank, yes. So now we're controlling here with scapulas and then hips up high. Now, bring your heels down flat, as I said before and let the right foot come next to the left. As we prep for a little arabesque of sorts. So right foot on the floor, on the bench there Rachel.

Right foot, this is her right foot, she's gonna put it flat, alright. Alright so right leg's gonna go towards the sky. So think about being on all fours and you're doing that leg lift. And then just bring it straight back down again. And then take that right leg out.

Keep the right hip facing the ground if you can't because you're a little tighter like Rachel is right here, she's turning out, not gonna let her turn out too much, and then down, good. Shift both of your feet in front of the other shoulder rests. Let's keep the pelvis relatively level and take the left leg out behind you and hold. Good, evenly weight your hands. So push a little bit with the left and pull a little bit of the right and then bring it back down.

A lot of people, like Rachel, have a little trouble with this. Take that leg up to the sky. Try to keep both sides, let's roll this hip down towards this spot, yes, both hips facing the ground and get that leg up for me, and then down, good job. So, switch again to the other side. And so here, Rachel's kinda being sneaky and she's moving her hands very close together.

I'm gonna keep your hands out, as wide as you can, so here. So right leg toward the sky, we're gonna move the carriage now. If you'd like to roll out, roll out. Keep the left side of your waist long. Give me a plank, and tap that right toe down toward the shoulder rests.

You'll have more success if you come closer to the footbar, right leg high, carriage on the stoppers, yes, softly. Right leg down, tap, and up. So here keep going, we keep the body in one line and the glute lifts the leg high to the sky. There's a lot going on, it can be challenging, up. Point your toe for me there Rachel.

Rachel does a lot of running you can see those hip flexors, and release, put the right foot down in front of the other shoulder rests. And bring the left leg over. So we're modifying it, right for us regular folk out there. Left leg up to the sky. Here I like the heel down because it really, I can look under her leg, it really lengthens out the back of the leg and roll that left hip in a little bit, alright.

Rachel you got that left leg up over there? Alright, touch that head rest, go down into a plank and then inhale lift, push-pull a little bit with the arms, go down touch, and up lift. Yeah, yeah, yeah, two more, go down touch. I'm gonna give her a little assist. Up, lift, lift, lift, point your foot.

Last time, go down, and lift up, up, up, up, up, up and release, good job. After we've done arabesque of sorts let's work a little bit on the knee stretch series. One red spring on the top or the bottom. The top is going to be a little bit more challenging. And together we'll stand in front of the shoulder rests just like we are.

Two hands together on the footbar. Bring 'em all the way in and then that inside leg comes up on to the shoulder rest. And here's the trick, snug in that standing leg all the way to the carriage. Send the leg that's on the shoulder rest back behind you and pause. Take your left arm out to your side and put it on your sacrum, that's the back of your pelvis, and make sure it's level.

Put it back on the footbar. You're staying steady, bend the right knee in. And then press away, and continue, in and out. So it's a stabilization exercise, right? As you get a little bit more confident you can move the carriage back and forth.

Think abs, shoulders, leg move. Abs, shoulders, legs, abs, shoulders, legs, yes. Nice head neck control, so the head's not hanging out. Do three, build a little heat, two, one more time, pause, release. Other side.

Take your time setting up, so come to the other side. Stand slightly in front of the shoulder rests. Put two hands together on the footbar. Bring the inside foot up on the shoulder rests. Here's the trick, snug in the other leg, send the carriage back.

Before your starting take the arm out on the side, bring it to your sacrum, put it back on the footbar. Alright, bend the left knee in, and out. And be mindful, it's abs, shoulders, legs. And we press, and we press, and we press. Eccentrically loading your quadriceps so the quadricep might burn a little bit.

Trying to keep the hips even. We'll go for three... For two... For one and release, nice job, nice job, nice job, nice job. Coming off, shake out your wrists.

Let's just do a little chest expansion before we go on to the next exercise. A red spring on the bottom only. We'll keep the footbars here because we're coming back. On our knees facing the risers. Yeah, so here you can have your toes hanging off the end of the seat.

If you would prefer you can bring your knees right in front of the shoulder rests. Grab hold of the straps, and just for today, maybe you don't usually do this, I'd like you to grab over the top of the straps. So you get a little bit of a grip strength involved. So not too short. So be mindful that we're on a moving surface.

Find your core strength, and with your upper shoulders and the upper arms, draw your arms down by your side. So press back and pause. And then return and here we exhale. We find the upper back and shoulders. And return.

And Rachel really wants to use her biceps. But we're gonna try to get her to use her triceps. Exhale press back, wait, inhale, look right. Exhale look left, inhale return the carriage forward. Three more, exhale press, looking left inhale, exhale right, inhale forward, very nice.

For two, exhale press, inhale look right and left and return last time. Pressing back, inhale looking left, and right and return, nice job. Straps on pegs. Turn around we're back where we were. Hands on the footbar.

One red spring high. Just to give you an idea, we're going to be doing star, which is a side plank. If you need little extra weight, add that yellow. So go ahead and just stand up on the seat for me. Bring your heels halfway up the shoulder rests.

This is where we were before, and we're coming back into our plank. Which means your chest is over the footbar. Come back into your plank, yes. Press away into a comfortable position and hesitate for a second. Now it can be a little tricky.

Right hand in the center of the footbar, left hand goes to the sky, right foot adjusts, left foot adjusts, and you pause. The most important part for me is get those feet on toes to the nose drawing up through the rib cage. Pause, that's it, other side. Put the hand down, come back into your plank and hesitate. Left hand to the middle of the footbar, right arm to the sky, feet adjusts.

If you had skis on your feet I would want to see the names of your skis shining out toward the shoulder rests. And come back to the center. Come up into, the hips up high, into a little elephant, heels down. I call this the pit stop. Or just hang out in a plank.

Come back into your plank. Star again, we're adding on right? Right hand to the center, left arm to the sky. Let's try not to come any further away from the footbar. Inhale the arm over your head for a side bend.

Exhale back to you started. Come over the footbar and then back to where you started. Yes, inhale up high. Exhale back, last time, come from your core. Inhale up high, hold, left hand on the footbar, elephant, right hand over, heels go down, pit stop.

Breathe in, and out. Plank of sorts, chest over the footbar. Star on the other side, left hand, right arm, set it in place. Either stay right here, or side bend. Arm goes over your head, rib cage goes high.

And exhale, oh that was a tap on the head. Inhale over, yes. Two more, imagine you have no elbows, reach from the ribs, there you go, and down, last time. Reach from the ribs, hold, hand on the footbar, pit stop, hips up, heels down, and pause. Good job.

Can we add on, what do you think? Yes, okay I like it. Give me a plank. Find your star, right hand in the center, left arm to the sky. So, we do a side bend.

Side bend, pause. Come back. Good do one more time. Side bend, and down. Now, take your side bend, let the left hand touch the right hip and twist, and lift the hips up over your ankles.

What just happened, you're saying, oh my gosh. Decelerate as you come back into a star, pause. Good, do a side bend, do a forward bend to bring the right hand towards your right hips and sit on back. And back into a star, pause. Pit stop, elephant, plank, hips up.

Pause for a second. Breathe in and breathe out. I'm gonna add on another extra cue on the other side so just stay with me. Star, left hand in the middle, right arm to the sky. Find your skis, find your feet.

Can I see your feet, your skis, yes? This time before you do your twist, place your right hand on your left hip at the bottom. Think I'm gonna move that hip in a second. Take the arm back up to the sky. Do a side bend up, and return.

Here we go. Side bend, take the top hand, touch your bottom hip and here's the trick, push your hips back and I'm holding her carriage. Oh nice job Rachel. Decelerate out of the motion be mindful. It's a side bend, it's a forward bend, it's a twist and you thread that hand all the way out and return.

Let's do one more time, they're doing awesome. Side bend, twist, breathe out, over, pause, and then back. Give me a lovely plank, photograph moment. Find it, breathe in, and out. Dismount left, right ready, go.

(moans) (laughs) let's do some short box. Okay, so let's put the footbar down. Quick transition here. For Stephanie the Revo footbar here from Balance Body. I'm gonna move her carriage out.

Three reds in. On the springs and the strap. Let's sit side saddle so left hip on, right foot in the strap. Pilates Anytime needs to get some fuzzies. Okay, so when we're sitting here in the mermaid position.

Often times it can get a little crampy. Move yourself as far over to your left but have your right foot in contact with the carriage and here flexing your foot and bringing your heel as close to your groin as you can. If your knee bothers you, you can bring something up in here and pad yourself out. Bring the arms out to the side. I told you it's a lot of side stuff.

Make your star disappear off to the left and let's make a star, go all the way. Yep, up, up, up, up, up, and then back. They just said to me inside, what are we doing? Ahoy, bring your hands into the ahoy position. Remember that when we go over to the side the strap is going to catch us.

So flex the toes to the nose. Disappear off to your left and allow the right hip to pull, yep, and then return. Let's just keep the hands in the ahoy. I call this ahoy position Rachel okay? So inhale off, pull up on that strap, hold.

And then exhale, return. This time if you can manage, open the arms and create that star shape. Open the arms, good, and then return. Good, and we're just going straight. Open it into a star.

And then return one more time. Open it into a star. And return, they got it. Let's do the other side. Feed the right leg in, the left leg in rather, the right and return.

Take a little moment for setting up. Often times we speed through the setup and then it's a hot mess halfway through. Ahoy. Stephanie can look out to the surfers out there. Alright, think side plank.

Ready, go off inhale, pull up on the strap and then from your foot, your abs exhale, pull yourself up, yeah, yeah, yeah. Inhale go over, nose, naval, pubic bone and exhale. So Stephanie that's great a little bit more on the diagonal. Inhale on the diagonal, yeah, up, up, up, yes, and exhale. Maybe a star, or maybe not.

Inhale open the arms. Exhale coming back, two more together. Inhale pull up on that strap, and then back. And last time, pull up on the strap when we return here it is ask it to help you pause. Feed the right foot in, take the left foot out, other side.

We're on the home stretch. Take a second to get yourself set up. Since we're ahoying let's ahoy. We'll do it in a three step process. Inhale off the side.

Stay there, exhale, find a star. Now, take your right arm and side bend. Yep, come back all the way to where you started. It's three steps. Ahoy, inhale over, exhale star, inhale side bend, exhale return, very nice.

Inhale ahoy, exhale star, inhale side bend, exhale return. Last time, last time. Inhale ahoy, exhale side bend, star even, inhale over, and return, nice job, let's do the other side. Foot in, and again take your time. Yeah they look good.

Notice how your posture feels when we put our hands up against our forehead. It kind of lengthens out your back and gets you all set up. So, imagine you don't know what's coming, right Rachel? Right. Inhale off to the side in a plank.

Exhale find a star. This time keep your right arm still and inhale side bend left. And exhale pull yourself up, ahoy is the starting position. Inhale over, let the hip come up, exhale open star, inhale side bend, one lung breathing right there, exhale return, you got it. Two more, inhale ahoy, exhale star.

Inhale over, exhale return, last time. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

release, nice job, nice job. Are you ready to get off? Yeah, dismount. Get rid of your boxes and we'll put them all the way at the end. I'm gonna slide Stephanie's seat back in place.

Let's come back full circle where we started. One red spring on high, head rest up or not, lying on your backs please. Full circle, home stretch. Short straps or straps in hands. Legs lay them out over the footbar just as we did before.

Point your toes. Press into the straps a little bit. Find your lats and your belly. Adduct, so squeeze your legs together. Either with your legs straight or you knees bent bring the arms by your side and raise your legs up.

Hold, yes, inhale return. You can bring it into tabletop if you need to. Exhale. And return. So we came back to the same exercise, keep going, but because we've connected our bodies more it may feel like you can do a little bit more.

(exhales loudly) Good job, for three... Yeah, for two... One more time. Hold it. Bring the legs into tabletop, inhale the arms to the sky a little hundred prep just for fun.

Exhale roll on up, legs on 45 degrees, imagine that they're on the footbar and return bend the knees and bend the elbows by your side. Elbows by your side, yes. And then exhale, try not to come up quite so far Rachel, go down a little bit, yes, and then bend on in, elbows bend in tight. And exhale, press. And then return.

The next time exhale coming up see if you can maintain more of a neutral lumbar spine and make it more of a thoracic curve. And then bend, and we'll do three more together. Exhale, neutral lumbar spine, they're doing marvelous and back and last time, here it is. Exhale hold, breathe in. And out.

And then return on in, good job. Straps on pegs. Let's finish with a little hip stretch for lovely Rachel right here. Dismount to the left hand side. Let's place our footbars back up in the middle position.

One red spring on high. And let's take a lunge stretch together of sorts. So, bring both hands towards the footbar and bring them together. Let's place the right foot, and when we place it on the shoulder rest, rather than placing it in front of the shoulder rest, let's place it on top. It is important that you get the ball of the foot right over here for safety so it doesn't slip.

Press the carriage, let's put that red spring on the bottom, press the carriage back with that foot. And then bend the left knee forward and go down into a deep bend. So come on up, come on up, come on up. I'm gonna just change Stephanie's spring here for her 'cause that red spring is... You're gonna hop the left leg back and you're gonna press away.

She's gonna try to stay out of her lumbar spine. You're gonna straighten the right leg all the way out and get a little taller. So now you can see from the first time she's not so much in her lumbar yeah. So it should feel really nice across the front of the thigh. And then come on up, when you come up any way you like.

Exhale press down, press through the heels of your hand and then through the ball of your foot. So can you get a little bit more on the ball of your foot, there Rachel. Yeah wiggle, wiggle, wiggle. Return up high. Now use the ball of your foot press it into the shoulder rest.

High heel, high heel. Yep and up, one more time. We press away, so we're plantar flexing right? Now, flex the foot, this is dorsiflexion. And press the heel, yes, back and forth.

Plantar and dorsiflexion, notice how that makes the stretch change. Using your breath. When you're ready find a position that suits you come all the way up. Now you know what you're doing, let's do that on the other side. Come on around, hands together on the footbar.

Be mindful again, as I said earlier on. Put the foot right on top of that shoulder rest. Right on top. Push it back, hop the standing leg forward depending on your flexibility. Bend your front leg, bend it, bend it.

Step it forward. Yep, same exercise different side. Lift the belly up, yes. Push through the ball of the foot. Push, push, push, push, push, yes.

Rise on high, up. She pushes through the ball of the foot and presses it away. Draw the belly in yes. Inhale up. And then exhale.

So really being mindful, do two more. That we don't feel it through the lumbar spine. You might need to put the footbar up if that's the case. Drawing the leg back. Come back to the foot.

Push the foot away, pointing the foot to say flex. Plantar flexion, dorsiflexion. Now she's planting, now she's dorsing, yes. I don't even know if that's a word, dorsing. I think I might have just made that up.

One more time, find a foot position that suits you. Good and then reunite yourself up. Mermaid, we're on the home stretch. Let's make it light. Let's put no springs on (gasps) no springs.

So be careful when you sit down. So Stephanie let's go around to the front here. She'll sit her bum down as did Rachel here. Move your bums all the way into the inside edge you choose what side, no springs, push away. Put your feet on the ground and then keep them in the position.

Grab the footbar. Outside arm goes over your head, pick me. Side bend push the carriage far away from you, push it. Push it, you can let the hips come up if you like, it's good with me. And then return.

You choose, self-exploration. Inhale up, find the side bend, stretching out all that hard work we did. And back, and the feet will roll. One more time, up. Hold, and release.

Come all the way back in. For safety, put any one spring on you choose. Come on up and do the other side. So switch around, yeah Rachel, she's so fancy. She's gonna take her spring back off, as will you.

Make sure your hips are all the way into the side, press away from the footbar, put your feet on the ground, arm out to the side, inhale the arm over your head, and side bend. And imagine that there's a force, a wind maybe. Inhale, back and then the wind presses the carriage away, exhale. So it becomes more external, yep. And then back, two more, inhale.

Over, high and over, and a little self-exploration. And last time here, one, two, three, up and over. Looks like it feels really good. Straighten out that elbow, work through that finger and then return. Don't forget to put a spring back on.

Wriggle your bums to the edges of your seats where you are. So you're going to face that window there. You're gonna come all the forward there right on the edge of your seat, put your feet on the floor, cross your arms over. Find the sit bones of your seat and the heels of your feet and then one motion stand all the way up. Turn around.

Thank you very much. Good job. Good job.