Class #294

Advanced Reformer Flow

50 min - Class
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An advanced Reformer class that requires prior experience with exercises such as Tendon Stretch, Balance Control Front, and Twist. Other exercises that are less commonly taught are also included to challenge both your body and your mind. There are several advanced exercises taught in this class. Please consult a certified Pilates instructor to learn and understand these exercises. Practice here when you come back.
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box

About This Video

Oct 20, 2010
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Okay. Okay. So we're going to do a reformer class. I'm going to try to kick it up a little bit onto the advanced side of things, but kind of going to depend how we feel. We'll see. So start with the long box on. I'll just do a little bit of a warm up here. Um, place along box on. I am prepared to go into a little bit of foot and leg work already.

I have using a balanced body reformer. I have three red springs on, so choose the springs. You normally do that sort of average for me. Um, sometimes I go a little heavier, but not usually. Okay. Then have a seat. Foot bars are down, sitting right up on to the box, the feet. Um, if you can take them, let's just say arches, right, right in the middle of the box. Squeeze through the knees, sitting up tall and take a breath in. Inhale on the exhale, knit the ribs together. Draw the sitz bones out from underneath you. As you roll down and right here, keep the feet on the mat or on the foot bar. I mean if that's too hard, you may have to move down from there. Inhale, exhale.

We're just going to keep the curve to roll back up and I am going to straighten at the top. I'm going to move forward just a tad. Inhale, exhaling to roll back, keeping the collarbones wide eyes are forward. Inhale and exhale forward and lengthen up through the spine. A lot of instructors, and I'm guessing that's who's watching this at the moment, tend to overlook at their ads and lose the alignment in your neck. Keep your eyes on the horizon and feel your abs as you come back and lengthen up. Inhale, exhaling down [inaudible], all the almost celebrated and shoulder blades. Inhale, we come back up just sort of preparing the body. Then from here, sitting tall, take the arms out to a t position. Palms are up. Inhale as you rotate, getting a little rotation just to warm us up. Exhale, center, other side.

Inhale during this in place of my spine to a supine and exhale and inhale. Serving it out. Annex in your knees are still, they're not going anywhere. You're just rotating from the upper body. I've got some things planned, so we do want to warm up in the rotation. Now last 2012 and inhale, growing tall and center. From there we just draw the arms forward, roll down. When you get to where the mid back is down, bring up one leg.

It's an inhale. It's sort of a variation on the single leg. Stretch XL chain. Inhale, exhale, change and [inaudible]. So as you transition through the legs, your legs going a lot lower than it would be if you were on the mat because you can go through the floor. In this case, think of hugging the knees together or the upper inner thigh, maybe even more so, so you have the sense of the everything drawing for the middle of the body. Let's go for more little quicker and it's one and two and three for hold that front leg up. Take your hands behind your head, curl up just a little more, and then press the back of your head into your hand. Rotate toward that knee. Draw the inner thighs even closer together. From here.

It's a simple drawing of the leg toward the forehead with the breath. Pretty small. Keep that rotation. It's as if you're about to get up and and that's good. Bring up the other leg. As you transition other size, you find yourself falling back. Grab on, pull yourself up and rotate. A little more hand goes behind your head if it's not already there.

And exhale five, four, three feeling that work right through the obliques. One more and now we alternate. Let's go. It's press one, one exhale. Upper body is pretty stationary in terms of what the neck does. In other words, it's just going along for the ride with the rest of the spine. Let's get four more. One, one and two, two and three, three and here comes four and four. Back to the center from your knees are together.

Extend your upper back over the box. Now maybe as you do this, make sure you don't feel like you're slipping right. If you've got to move down, move down. I'm going to move down just a little. So how about we just rock up and make sure there we go. That it should be pretty good. It's a bit of a break. Now also be mindful that you don't want to release the whole body. Keep the abdominals engaged enough that your pelvis is basically neutral, but you're getting this passive back extension. All right, here comes the fun part. We inhale, prepare, exhale, rolling the chin toward the chest, feeling of the ribs.

Drop into the mat to come into your chest. Lift and again, stretching yourself over the back and exhale and inhale. I tried to keep the back of my ribs on the mat here. It limits the extension a little, but it keeps me under control and safe, which is kind of important. Alright, from there we're going to change things a little bit. Grab onto the knees. Right up top. It's the called the extended double leg stretch. We inhale, reach the arms and legs forward. Keep the legs there, Xcel, circle their arms around all the way. Inhale, hold and draw the knees and everything goes forward. Inhale, reach, exhale, dive back in her whole, deepen your contractions and then draw the legs and grab them at the last moment. Two more. Inhale, reach forward. Exhale, back. Inhale, reaching. Get that low back down and exhale. Last one. Inhale, exhale, inhale and exhale. Rocking yourself up. Sitting tall, slight change, yes or no.

It's a huge change actually. It goes like this. Inhale, have my feet together. Opposite hand and knee. It's a subtle downward pressure. I exhale and use the muscles of the trunk. Show. Rotate just a little further when you let go, don't bounce out of it. Inhale, return the hand. Exhale, center in how? Settle Down with pressure to assist the height or the length and the rotation.

Exhale, if you haven't in how, return your hand and back to center and inhale, rotate. Exhale, lengthen off that low back or turn your hand behind your head and center. One more. Inhale and exhale on Torque on yourself, right. Use mostly your own muscle and assist with the hand. Back to center. One more little series. Here we roll down, finding your shoulder blades. Bring one knee up, stretch that leg all the way up.

Take the other leg and reach down. Maybe you can get below the box here. It's kind of the nice part about doing it on a boxes. You get additional length. If you do that and it pulls your back up, it's not worth it. Right? Keep the back the way you would normally have it. Here we go. Hamstring pull one and [inaudible] reaching the leg long and low and pulse. Pulse, pulse, pulse.

Tried to get the lower leg down that it doesn't pulse, just the top leg does. Rich, rich. I'm only doing one more set. Here's one both legs up. Bend your knees, ruck yourself up and take the long box off. We'll use it again though, so keep it relatively close. I think I'll just put it over here though. Okay. Flip bars up to your normal foot position for me. High Bar, I use the two step. There we go.

Hit rest up and lie down the head rest. You could really choose to put it down and that might, it's a pretty easy case to make for doing so. So I'm going to let you decide for comfort heals or parallel. I work in neutral pelvis collarbones wide. Here we go. It's an XL length in away one and pull in mostly doing the leg work today to heat heat up a little bit for some other things I want to get in.

I'm exhaling on the way out. Again, feel free to switch that up every so often. It's a good idea to change the breath pattern. See, wake up your brain a little bit, do it differently with just as much precision. One more. Bring yourself back in. Keep your connections so you should be able to just slide the feet together. Exhale, press out. I went to the balls of the feet and in and out.

You definitely want to go to full extension. I'm not suggesting you lock your knees in that. I mean locking the knees is resting on the joint. Instead, connect to your hamstrings before anything else. Definitely kick in the quads. And here you're co contracting at the very end, so it's supported. Hmm. A couple more.

When you get to the bottom, do rest on the uh, bumper for a moment. Swivel. So you're in stance and we go full extension. Hang out for a second. I see too many people tucking here in an attempt to work their glutes. Stay in neutral, then work your glutes and here it is for RSL. Boom. Make the knees touch at the end. Make the length happen in front of the hips.

I think the breath be consistent. It can be at this pace. It can be a little faster. It won't be quite as deep. That's okay. One more and we come back in. Just go to parallel toes. I'm going right into calf raises. We'll stay out there. Check in. This is where people drop into the back of their knees. It's not okay. Contract the hamstrings so the knees begin to flex or they're at least could begin to flex, so the leg is straight from there.

We lower the hills under the bar and we lift up with one and can lift too clearly a calf raise. However, I'm going to invite you to find the rest of the body in this exercise. There's a lot that can be done. Drawing through the inner thigh, connecting to of course the powerhouse, and then maybe above all working through the feet, through the foot centers evenly lift and lower. Can you imagine lengthening your waist to stretch the heels under the bar? Just an image, but for some that works to connect to the middle. Give yourself one more.

Go to the high point and we'll go into running so it's alternating. The hips don't move. You might put your hands there. Don't let yourself get rocked to the side. It says knees reaching up. Here's a breath pattern for you. Inhale for two passes, no exit. Oh, inhale. Feel your feet. Let them work and exhale.

Okay. It's kind of quick, but you got to keep it under control and exhale. One more breath cycle. Inhale for two, and now exhale. Go Up to the high toes. Bend your knees. Come on down. Just rock yourself up. Swivel to the side. Take off.

I'm just gonna know. I'm going to take it to a red and a blue. You could just leave it on the two red, right? Come back down. Find your straps. We go away from the shoulder rest and we go changing it to abdominal openings. It's inhale, exhale, curl up as if you're going to do the hundred reaching into the straps, not from the hands, but from the shoulder girdle. Externally, rotate the hip and at the shoulder and we inhale and we exhale. Squeeze. Close.

I could've put the bar down. I tend not to because I know where I'm going, but you could, oh wait, how could it put it down? I know for the next one I have to put it down. Anyway, moving on. Who will know for next time keeping the body still. Take those arms almost out to the shoulders. One more time while, ah, bend the knees and down. So using your foot bar. Push shot. One foot in.

Walk into the other and your feet are in the straps from here. Check your positions, your back to neutral in the spine and I'll just let the legs drift up. I am an external rotation of the hip. Relax your feet. Soft point just for looks. Exhale. As we lower the legs down, separate the feet. They come around and up and exhale.

Name still somewhat in my mind thinking of preparing for a couple of things that are coming so we're not going to do a lot of rep. Yes. In fact that's it. Let's reverse it. Kick the legs up separate and and come round again, real easy place. Even if you don't hyperextend the knees to drive energy through the knees.

Let's not do that. Rather keep the knees. This is well, not soft, but engage the hamstrings just the smallest bit so that the energy continues through the legs and doesn't get stuck or drop out in the middle. This is the last one here. From here we come into a frog. Okay. You can go as deep as you want but leave some hamstrings. In other words, if you're real flexible, don't just collapse on yourself. Keep some hamstring involvement and certainly don't adjust the pelvis.

From there we extend the legs to the side. Carriage is pretty still. It might move a little bit. I bet you can keep it still. Again, I'm semi relaxed in the legs with the exception of a bit of a hamstring and drown the legs in without pressing up or down. It should be pretty significant. Inner Thigh Bend. If it's not, I'm guessing you're either pressing down into the strap or up. Exhale, add direction straight across. Oh, shaking already. Then stretch. It's an extension of the energy out the feet. So it's not just about getting back to the center, it's how long can I feel in the space that I've pained given that is the bones, the body. One more time.

Oh it can be reversed. So don't just let the legs get pulled. Reach out to the hip to let them come out to the side, draw the legs across, back into a frog position and then reach long. And I haven't given you a breath pattern cause it's kind of a, I've got three moves for two breaths. So I just extend the inhale usually and then exhale there. But it's up to you. One more. Here it comes and Lala from there into short spine. Put Your headrest down.

Okay, sure. It's fine. Technically begins in a frog. So let's start there. Find your hamstrings. They gotta be here. Exhale, press out. I leave my hips down in this version of short spine. I know a lot of you are used to letting the hips come up. Try it this way. Come all the way to the stop or now the hips have come up because I that they had to at a certain point for me, I'd still keeping a contraction through the glutes and hamstrings.

Not much but some, and I'm intending to keep the spine down. I didn't just get pulled up. Now it's abdominals as it feeds into the hamstrings to allow myself to lift up. Okay, so please check that you're not just squeezing your abs. It's very different. If you're just squeezing your abs, you're hanging out on your back and it's not a good thing.

Put some energy into the back of the legs. I'm still on the stopper. Inhale, bend a frog. From there, we roll the chest down. Keep the shape, bring the whole shape of your body down. Feel the articulation of the spine. When you can't go anymore, you may need to allow the spine to go without the legs. So you have a little bit of opening at the knee. Flex the feet, and now this whole unit, as one piece comes over as you press the sacred back into the table, far fewer words this time. Exhale, press out a one. Inhale, fold over. Find the stopper Xcel to PLM. Okay, Inhale Ben, deep in your abs, but make sure the hamstrings are still involved.

Like you're holding something heavy on your feet and down we go. Exhaling through here. Get as much of your back down as possible. Then inhale back to the starting position. Exhale, press. Inhale forward. [inaudible]. Inhale, bend, frog. Keep your back still as you do. And exhale can you get down, down, down. Flex your feet, keep the knee angle. Same.

And by the way, you did not straighten your legs there that that matters. Last one, three. Yeah, you still have the same amount of tension on the strap bend to come down. So if you are going to s lengthen the knee at all it, keep it minimal, keep it minimal. Even if you don't get your hips all the way down, flex and we press it over. All right, taking the straps off, knees and feet together. Place the straps in one hand and just swivel yourself up. We're going all the way around. I T I am taking off the blue springs.

I'm down to one spring and I'm going to get the foot bar out of the way. Now after all, scooting forward, I can't say exactly where, but we'll get an idea in just a second. You're going to want to be pretty close to your shoulder. Rest, um, abs and straps. I'm gonna take your strap just above the knee, so not really high above the knee, but literally just so it stays on. Take the other foot all the way through. Same thing. I have my feet inside the strap, so make it pretty holding onto this strap. Um, actually you don't need to do that. Find your shoulder as for most people, and it doesn't always work, but let's try it.

If you roll down and you can still touch fingertips, you're in a good spot. I'm gonna skip forward just a little. Typically that's how it works. Bring your legs up to tabletop. Okay. And then make sure your straps are pretty level. And at the higher end of things, hands are behind your head for support, we go.

Inhale, extend the legs out. Don't just grab it. The hip flexors here. Think breath and abs first. Exhale, knees toward the forehead. Inhale, extend out. And exhale. Inhale. So you, this is all about timing. Coordination isn't half of Pisces. So if you just instantly pull with the legs and don't think to stabilize first, it's going to be hip flexors and back almost instantly. So you want the sense of support through the back. I'm doing just one more.

Now it goes. Inhale, extend the legs out as you bend. Exhale, rotate to your right. The legs just come in the center. Then legs never change in how they extend in your body center. Xcel rotate, left. Inhale, center, and in. So you're alternating your rotation, the knees, despite what they wanna do, they stay in the middle. What do you then three more paying attention to your back. Maybe you build up to it. Uh, that's it. Okay. From here, knees are bent. Hold onto your legs, rock yourself up, feed on the head, rest taking off your strap. So good. Come around a place and let's grab the short box. Let's go into short box. [inaudible] I'm doing a version, we teach in the Bassey course that I love.

So it's kind of a precursor to the original version. Um, but I'm sticking to it cause I like it. I think a bit of a creature of habit for me. I pulled the big box a little bit away from the back edges. Um, if you're tall, taller or even if you're just used to it, you might prefer it there. I like the support it gives me with it in front, um, locking down the carriage a bit so that it doesn't move. And all that means is I'm putting all the springs on cause I'm not going to need them for a bit. Sitting back down, facing forward feet. Make sure your strap is on please, that the clips are closed, that your straps not worn out. And I have my feet together and I'm intentionally sitting at the front edge of the box. So that I can have a nice tight grip with the hands.

It's around back some thumb, right at the elbow joint sitting tall. First it's a to breath count cycle. Inhale, prepare, exhale. Draw the hips out from underneath you. That just allows the arms to fall where they need to. We'll roll back, check in, make sure it feels okay. Inhale, exhale, deepen your sense of contraction. Keep the curve and you just bring it forward and inhale, sitting tall. Exhale, roll back. I'm going to encourage you to use your hamstrings. If I do, I can go over more and feel quite good about it.

You don't have to go over their email down. Get that deep contraction, minimize hip flection has got to be there, but minimize it so it's not your focus and straighten. Inhale and exhale, hamstrings. You can reach the arms circle round and bring it back up. Okay. If you have pressure on your back, don't do this yet. It's, I've just started doing, I've been doing this 18 years, so, and the trick for me is the hamstrings are relied far too much on my hip flexors my whole life. That's enough of that sitting tall. Take your hands behind your head, flat back by flat back. We're not neutral, so we have a subtle little drawing into the, or at least I'm not neutral tonight. Slightly posterior tucked. Here we go. Inhale back still hamstrings by the way, that help. Exhale.

Inhale. Lengthen your back hinges. There's no articulation and up and inhale. [inaudible]. Yup. One more. Moving right into the twist. I'm skipping the tilt tonight. Inhale, rotate like we did earlier. Hinge back on the diagonals.

I'm not going straight back into the wall. I'm on the diagonal. A little the opposite hip. It's not meant to come up, but it kind of does a little. At least it's slightly unloaded. Don't try to lift it. Just know that if you have some less pressure there, it's not the end of the world and center in how road leaning out. So if I had a pole or a stick, it would be outside the reformer or at least toward the back corner and [inaudible].

Inhale to rotate and lean back. Exhale as you come up and center. Inhale, rotate and lean back. Exhale up and center. Taking out the right leg for hug a tree Bassey version. Love it goes like this.

I'm holding outside and I'm going more for the back extension than I am the pump of the leg. So its pulse. Once it till two, three, stretch your leg up. Be Gentle from here. You take this position back, take the leg or the tree to 90 degrees. Walk down into the wall. One, two, three. By the way, I am using the back of my leg here. Gently pressing. I'm not just pulling up on the strap. That's why you're seeing my foot and contact. Let's just come back up for this one. One, two, three.

Allow the forward knee to bend. Sit Tall, right back up on the sitz bones and we'll go again. It's pulse. One, two, three. [inaudible]. Try not to round your back there. Now you bring the whole thing back with a little tuck of the pelvis and start engaging that lower hamstring. Two, three option. You can just rest the arms or press into the box for extension and Chin to our chest as you roll back up. Two, three. Inhale. Sit down and pose. Hold one m two and three and stretch, bringing it back.

Walk down to three optional box with the arms or a circle, bringing it around and back up. One, two, three. I'm gonna give you a version I haven't given yet and it is. Turn the leg out. So went like that. Okay. Then the arm of the leg in the air, which I think we're all right. Life goes on the instep is hold the foot.

Take the free on the left arm and cradle the leg. Same idea. It goes. Just extend your back. One little hip, stretch to three. The leg is now in external rotation, but we're extending it up to the same place we were before we bring it back. Here's the difference. As I roll down, I'm taking the free hand and placing it on the outer edge of the box somewhere right about there. As I roll down the center of my spine, I allow the leg to go to the side, but I'm still centered in the box that matters. Then Tuck your chin, the leg comes back up as you roll, still holding on your backup, and we start the whole business again. It goes one, two, three, and stir.

Roll it back and open it up. You can also support, maybe if it's new to you, support the leg rather than let the arm rest on the leg. Chin to chest engaged to the mid line light legs, and we're back up where we started. And I'll leave it at that for today. You could always just stick to the one, you know, right? We're tall. I just cross the ankle over the knee for a little more of a hip stretch. Leaning your flat back forward and let's move on. Slice that leg, the right leg under the strap.

Take the other side out. It's worth adjusting. If you get going and you feel like you get crooked, it happens, right? It happens. It's all practice. We're tall, we go one, two, three. Stretch the leg a little tighter than normal. Draw the abdominals in. So there's your curve, not here, not at the upper back, not at all. And walk down to three. I'm encouraging you to feel the bottom of the foot on that foot bar.

Chin to chest and minimize it. Now walk up to three. Find your sits bones. Get Tall in here and come on. Let's go. One, two, three. Hold your position, but get along in the leg. Bring it back to 90 and walk down to three controlled circle of the arms if you're doing it, and up to three, bending the forward knee as needed. Inhale. And here we go. Last one, like this. One, two, three, looking for just a few millimeters more. Stretch each time, bringing it back and down to three. Energize it. Don't just collapse here. If you're going to arch, you don't have to RJ there by the way. And up to three.

Sit Tall, weigh up there, challenge it, and then turn the light to the side. Left hand grabs inside, left instep, right hand. Just kind of comes underneath and cradles bind your flat back and it's a gentle, I'm just sort of pulling the foot, the leg, but as one piece, don't just pull the foot towards me. It's, here we go. Exhale. Three little counts. Who one, two, three. Extend your leg. Now if this gets too tight, you can move your hand. No big deal. No big deal. Roll it to 90 degrees. As you open up, allow the light to come out to the side.

Be careful not to pull on the leg, just let it happen and then brings it back right back up. And refold it's one, two, three. Stretching it up. Bring it to 90 and open it up to 30 chin toward chest has you borrowing it all Baca. Make it feel easy and cross the ankle over knee. Sit yourself up tall, flat back or pretty straight back and guide yourself forward if you need it or want more. Alright, let's get rid of the box. Yup, that's right. Get rid of the box. Uh, I'm sorry. Keep your box. Turn it long box. We'll stick to the flow. You've got places to go.

So I were just going down again to one red spring pulling straps for us now. So make sure your boxes lined up. Those kinds of things do matter. Um, meaning squared on the carriage and centered on the carriage. As you come over the top, you're gonna lie down chest, just basically right at the edge. Take hold of your straps. Now if you have leather straps, you don't need to do this next step. You just hold higher because your hands won't slip. Um, if you don't have leather straps and you have them like I do more like a rope, take hold of the shrink wrap if you have that or near the end and wrap up once.

So now you have something a little more to hold onto. And I do leave space rather than super tight on the hand. It's much nicer. So you don't think about your hands, you think about your back, which is what we're going to work. All right, the setup. Draw the abdominals into lengthen your low back. Extend the hips so the legs are about parallel to the carriage. Uh, what?

Depressed the Scapula. Draw the shoulders toward the waist. Arms are turned outward or palm facing the wood or each other. However you see that. And here we go. We're basically level to the box and it is the shoulder blades draw down your back. The arms are straight. As they pull and you lift into upper back extension, arms are close to the body, palms facing each other or reverse it. Inhale, the arms go down.

You work this direction too, gang. Don't just ride home. Same start shoulder blades back the head. Get those arms up in close and and very common when you pull the shoulders down to bend the elbow. So you got to practice that and if you're alone you gotta look at it. Okay. If you, and this is so common, I don't really know why, but people get the shoulders and they bend the elbow so don't do that.

Yeah, I think I've been going up and down with my upper back each time. You could stay up for difference but I'm doing that range cause I'd like to feel that articulation of the upper back. Give yourself one more pair comes make a good and then down gracefully. Exiting the wrath of the hands. If you had one, I'm moving back a little bit on the box. So I'm basically shoulders at the edge of the box. Same setup in terms of the rest of the body. However, we're going to take our arms out to a t position. So you want them at the height of your box, not down here, and we pull to the back. Do not let those shoulders wrap forward.

They gotta be back. You may not get all the way to your body, but you try number one. I'm not really lifting my back this time. [inaudible] and you can hold the strap. I tend to go four fingers out just to demonstrate that I'm not doing a lot of gripping in the hands beyond what I need. I'm only doing two more. Cool. Maybe one. Here it is. Last one. Oh, it's been awhile for those. Put those back on the list of things to do.

All right, coming off. Now this time I really mean it. Like let's get rid of the box. Okay. Heading into some fun and it's going to be put your foot bar up to the high bar. I'm doing tendon stretch and I'm doing an actual stretch, so I think I'll start with the actual stretch. Um, but put it on the high bar because that's where we're going. So climb board, I have one red spring on still and we're placing, let's just do it this way. Replacing the left heel partway up. The shoulder rest doesn't need to be high.

The right foot comes up and it's straight out of the hip. Okay. If you need to get in slightly differently, that's okay. Just do it safely and there's not a lot of bouncing of the carriage. So that's just a little, you don't want the foot right in the middle, it just throws your hips more. Okay, so first part is that left hip flexor that we're going for. So make sure the back leg is straight. You're intending to take the pubic bone forward and slightly up.

So it's a feeling of trying to take your pelvis and then reaching the carriage away. So that's the first stretch. Breathing into it, taking our time. If it starts to ease up on you or you feel a little looser, just challenge it a bit. And it's always from my mind, opposition. As I gently reached the foot away. I'm taking the rest of me the other way, or at least I'm thinking about it from here. We just straighten the right leg. Take your time, try to keep the hips basically the same in space. Your back needs to be flat though. So if you reach your edge sooner, stop it square.

That's a long, I'm going to try and guide that right hip back just to the Lamar lengthening the neck. Maybe I can get back out there and then we're gonna bring it in. Lower the hips and let's change like so come to the stop if you can. If you feel crowded, you can leave the carriage a little bit away and take the right foot in. I'm a little bit away from the stopper and the other foot. Now what that transition I just did doesn't work for everybody depending on leg lengths and bone length. So if you have to bring the leg around the side, no big deal. Just again, do it safely.

You have weight distributed through big total, little toe on both feet. Don't roll out or in even without progressing the right leg back, extending your back. Even here, opening the chest, breathing into it, trying to soften the area you're trying. You really want to be stretching, which in this case is the hip flexor. Primarily. You'll feel other things. I'm sure they could dig deep. Inhale and then allow yourself to move back, heading into the hamstring. Stretch on the opposite side and have some sense of control with it. I'm, I'm pushing my edge here a little bit. Um, not being the most flexible person. Some of you can go for then that's no, that's great, but don't hang out on your joints. In other words, don't sync just for the sake of sinking.

Make sure that you have an awareness through both legs so you're not just going to drag yourself forward with it. The forward leg, you've got both of them involved. All right. Bend the forward knee. Allow yourself to come in and while we're here, take that other foot back. So we're in a plank and if you can come all the way to the stop or do and then initiate from underneath the arm. I have my inner thighs involved, my abs of course, and just back and forth. Inhale here. Exhale back. Make contact with heel to shoulder as no that you're there.

Energy is going through the shoulder rest and of course through the arms, through the crown of the head, and inhale just one more. And from here, all the way to the stopper, lower to your knees. If your feet came away from the shoulder rest, put them back and into your down stretch. Get as much of your feet, foot touching the shoulder rest as possible. You're not dropping into your low back. In fact, you're lifting up. Imagine doing it with no arms unless of course you're the client that I said that to and she actually tried it with no arms. Lift up, hit the stopper. The shape stays the same once you get going, so you don't want to really change your head position.

Just look kind of straight ahead, maybe slightly up. And what you're looking at will change as you move in space, but you're not changing your head. One more. Come all the way to the stopper. Keep your shape but back it up so you're on your fingertips. I'm on the stopper. My hamstrings are on fire, arms up and Wallah coming forward. Stand up. I'm still on one spring.

This is tendon stretch. Um, if you've never done it, now's not the time. You should have someone teach it to you that can help you. Okay? You safe. Promise me all five fingers are together. You could try 'em in. Some people should try it on a red and a blue. If you're using balanced body or two springs, um, it becomes a balance issue.

If it's too heavy, it becomes a different exercise. If it's too light. Well, there's problems with that too. Um, so as I said, don't figure it out here. Okay. I have my feet hanging off the edge pretty significantly. I'm going to stand up. I'm not really doing anything yet. In terms of the springs. What you want to do is get yourself centered, hips over heels or arches. Really in this position, it doesn't feel like I can hold on and in fact I can't, especially with this bar, it'll come with me. So it's, it's doing the best I can to reach for it and I'm using the balance of pulling the abs up. And here's one more piece to it. Here's this. The tendon you're stretching is in fact the achilles tendon.

So let's as we pull the abs up, press the heels down and curve the lumbar spine. Allow the upper back to respond. Shoulders, press towards hips, hips towards shoulders. Then the arms have to stay straight. We go into the tendon stretches. Inhale out. Keep the curve of the back. Exhale up. Find your balance. Yeah, take your time on this first couple and inhale. Hamstrings are working.

Oh, it shouldn't be that loud. I won't do that again. I don't think [inaudible] put this on the list of things to do too, and clap. The cue that helped me get the hang of this was to try to leave the hips as high up above the foot bar as possible. Even now, giving yourself one more time. Inhale out and up right and move your feet forward a little bit so they're on the carriage. Take your hands to the shoulder rest, right foot steps forward and you know we'll feel better as if we put that head rest back up to put the ball of your foot on. Actually no, you don't need to do that. You don't need to do that, right? But anyway, you're comfy. Left foot on the bar, straight Outta your hip. Push out to straight. Really straight to the back leg. Prove it to yourself. Look, feel. Then shoulders.

Our hands are just below shoulders. You've got to be ready at the shoulder joint. We're doing a balanced control front. When you take the right foot off, the carriage stays still. Your body stays, still put it in place. Toes are pointed. Xcel to send the arms out from underneath you. Body doesn't move one, bring it back.

Dude. Don't let your body lift and lower on. It's a different deal. You're stable through the shoulder girdle. I'm exhaling as I push out from underneath me. One more time.

Hands and he shoulders right foot forward again. Ben In the back leg. We get out how we got in and come all the way down to your knees. Okay. Almost there. Hmm. Side arms kneeling. Yup.

I said put your foot bar down. I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I prefer doing this with a yellow or a blue. I do have a blue, so I'm gonna use that and that audit, just fine mechanics are kind of everything on this one. So you may see me switch it out. Move the foot bar and not the foot bar. This spring bar currently from me is out or yeah, out closest to the foot bar, so I can have one more option to make this spring a little lighter, which would be to move the spring bar closer to the carriage. I'll see how I do and I'm not one for switching things around so I'm not going to go grab my handles. I'm just going to use the foot strap. All right, here we go. Sitting, standing, kneeling right next to the shoulder. Rest.

One foot is actually touching. Legs are basically straight out from the hips. Maybe a little bit of a tripod already. Feels heavy. Here we go. Deltoid reach. Yep. I'm moving it. Carry on. It'll take me one second. A little lighter and number four.

So this general depression of the shoulder blade as my arm goes up towards straight and may or may not get to straight. Rather stop the arm before you do anything weird, you want the body to stay the same. Just one more. Then you keep your position of your body switch hands that you're holding it with and it's the cross arm pull starting with a hand about center of your body. It goes pull the upper arm out and then the forearm for on Ben's upper arm comes back to the star. It's supposed to your side of the deltoid over the shoulder that I think about to start the action back of the shoulder, back of the arm, but everything else is working to help keep you still avoid. I am going to fake it. Avoid dropping that elbow a lot.

It's too heavy for that. You want to keep it maybe risk a line with the elbow would be a way to think of it. Uh, maybe below but try, try for in line. That's enough. Okay. I'm going to keep it in this hand but I'm going to move out. Try for the far edge of the carriage but that may be too far for some. Alright, so from here, before I get too into it, I want to press the hips forward so that their level, the other hand to the shoulder rest and then so you're in the side bend.

Equally weighted, right? Don't, don't lift off that knee. Equally way to see and get the side bend the upper arm points directly to the ceiling. Not overhead, definitely not a way. And that's what typically happens. All right, so you've done all of that. Look down at your hand, shoulder away from here and off we go. We just straighten the arm up one. Keep the upper arms still.

Now that we set it up too, avoid rotating the spine. You're meant to be in lateral flection, just a side bend. Last one here, finish that. Then the elbow allow the arm to come down and take it back in the first arm or the arm closest to the shoulder rest, extending the arms out. There's a subtle bend to the elbow, but it doesn't change, so you don't want to bend more as you go. All right, shoulder blade job.

I'm gonna move out a little tiny bit just so I have resistance from the start we go and yeah, no matter what spring you're on, the tendency is going to be the lean away from it and use your body weight. Nope. You got to almost anticipate it and lean into it to keep you looking straight. Real always says that he doesn't want to know which hand has the resistance. I'm still working on that one, but see if you can do it.

Hardest arm servers there is. I'm convinced. Of course someone will show me something new tomorrow and I'll say the same about that. Okay. Change sides carefully right up against the shoulder. Rest again, remind yourself that you have pretty light resistance there and don't bounce around, right? All right. Back is neutral. This hand position is quite close to your face. In fact, if you put your hand on your face or your head, drop, shoulders down and then just hovered the hand, you're in good spot. Here we go. Okay. Common to feel different on each side.

The most important thing is that you watch how you're doing it. Even if it's only how it feels. If you notice that you're leaning away or anything else, remind yourself it's meant to go straight up. You can see I'm stopping a little shy. I need that yellow spring to get all the way to straight, but if I did go, I'll try to go all the way straight.

It would not be pretty nor safe, so that's why you're not seeing that. All right. Here we go. I'm holding this handle just about mid trunk and I lead with this upper shoulder. It's just where my brain goes first and then I extend through the arm, bend the elbow, and then the upper arm and and one more finish it. Okay, bring it home. Move yourself out to the far edge of the carriage before you lift the arm overhead.

I recommend pressing the hips forward to see about getting in that long line. Um, tendencies are to throw that hip closest to the shoulder. Um, shoulder rest forward. It can be the other two people will pike, but check for the hips being levels best you can. All right. Then we take the arm up, the upper arm points to the ceiling. Your face is looking at the shoulder rest. Make sure that you didn't rotate when you did that. I think I just did.

There we go and we've shoulders down and we just straighten one. Okay? Be Gentle with that lower arm. In other words, don't hang out on it. That'll do it. Finish it. And then allow the arm to come down at once you get back near the stopper, replace it in the hand closest to the shoulder. Rest line up your body again.

Shoulders of course down. And we go to press the Scapula and [inaudible] and quiet is the heart of the exercises. Get more calm. You have to become, if you start breathing louder or Polen harder and straining, you've kind of have been told that either you're not ready for it or your mind's not in the game and see if you can talk yourself out of it if not, pick another day. Okay, next I'm going to play with a little twist. Twist. Yes. Twist. Again, you're not learning this today. You know this, we're just practicing. Um, I, I had the football or the spring bar outright, so I'm bringing it back and I'm putting on, oh, what am I doing? I'm putting on only one red spring, one red spring and I'm going to low bar. This can be done with no bar. It can be done on high bar. I'm going to do low bar and set up is everything. So I'm going to do my best getting into this and that is to place one foot on the foot bar. And sorry, rail just saw that probably it goes like this. Hand, hands, and then foot. Okay. So I have it at the shoulder, at the carriage and the foot is up on the bar. That's how we like to get into it.

I'm gonna do my best to keep the carriage still shoulders down, so I'm ready to go. Meaning shoulders are in place. It's gotta be a little jump on blaming my height that that's not really the truth. Okay. Off we go. Placing her foot over the opposite foot, squaring off those shoulders. You're in a bit of a twisted up stretch. Inhale, push the carriage out.

Rotate keeping a bit of an l shape to the body. Exhale up. Yeah, back as long here. If your foot bars down, you're not going to be as in much of an l shape. [inaudible] one more and then come down. I've stepped to the carriage to get out, especially when it felt as hard as that did to me. Other side, hand to shoulder rest, hand to carriage, foot bar, stabilize. Take all the time you need. Okay? You scared when you need to and here we go in nailing and bring it up. Use that little bit of momentum with the breath. Inhaling out [inaudible] kinda like the tendon stretch. Breath in a way. Last one and exit as gracefully as possible.

[inaudible] I think we covered everything. So let's end with our feet. Hmm. Parallel. Slightly apart. I forgot how hard the stuff can be in here, and exhale. Let your head fall forward. Try not to shift your body way back. You don't have to go all the way. Do what feels good, and inhale.

Exhale to bring it back up. Feeling the whole body, all the muscles as one inhale and exhale. I try to give myself a sense of release through the body, but somehow still meaning maintaining some support. Inhale and exhaling up. So the limbs are heavy. Still looking for space between the bones and just float the arms up and exhale coming up the front end. Yeah, and exhale, whatever you need. One more deep breath in.

Then exhale. That's enough. Good job.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Beautiful work Miss Kristi!
Excellent!
Very nice, I enjoy your workouts.
You have a nice voice, your intonation sometimes reminds me of that of The Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz!! LOL!
Whatever do you mean "my pretty!"
Thanks Summer!
Hello, it compliments the six best one!It would like very much to participate to me to a your lesson,unfortunately you are far!Salutes from Italy.
Hi Alessia! If ever you venture to California.... Please come take a class at Pilates Anytime! Thanks!
Love the warm up &, of course, everything else
Great class Kristi! Especially enjoyed the variations in the warm up :)
I gotta admit, I am madly envious of your Twist. Clean, smooth, effortless... the Instructor's Instructor does it again
this is the most exquisite pilates photo i've ever seen. just sayin, cover girl :)
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