Class #546

BASI Reformer Flow

55 min - Class
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Description

Join Meredith for this advanced-level BASI Reformer workout following the block system. Enjoy challenging exercises such as Control Balance, Jack Knife, Breaststroke, Long Back Stretch, and the Twist.
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box

About This Video

Nov 09, 2011
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Transcript

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Today we're going to work on the reformer and we're going to do an advanced performer class. So are you ready? Let's go. I don't think that we can do the cat stretch. Can we comes down here by me and see if we can? Yup, I think we can. But let's just step to the side. Just one step so we can do a couple of roll downs with a little bit of space.

So just standing up nice and tall, balancing the weight throughout the feet, swinging back and forth over the feet and just taking a moment here to collect yourself. Taking it in here. Had an x hair, letting [inaudible] do your mind link with your body and inhale. We're moving yet. So how letting the head roll forward and as the head rolls forward, we lift up through the center of the body and the shoulders stay pulled away from the ears and the hip. See just over the hills as we bend our way down into the ground in healing when we get there excelling as we lift one vertebra at a time, away from the ground rolling through the spine, stacking the spine over the pelvis. CMEs arrived just next to the [inaudible] body. As the head reaches up and looks forward on in here and I so feeling the abdominals engage right away, the spine bins into itself, supported by the front of the body, working. Inhaling, lengthen a little bit deeper and exhale as you come on. And with that you just are gonna step just in front of the reformer.

We've got one red spring on for the cat stretch. Christina and I are gonna lean back so we won't hit one another hand. Here we go. Rounding forward allowing the hands to just reach for the frame of the reforming up the frame but the carriage and then start in a very flexed spine already in a pike like position. And as we inhale we stirred, my springs are too heavy. Here we go. As we inhale, we stretched the back out, feeling the body long gauge, pulling the shoulders down away from the ears, and bending the spine back in the ribs. Lift up into the middle, back and in here feeling the shoulders work. Oppositionally they pull towards the waist. As the waist reaches up, the head reaches forward and exhale, guiding the spine deeper and deeper into that curvature.

Each time avoid the temptation to lift the shoulders into the year is when you come into that selection. Feel the shoulders drop away, down away from the years and the extension. And we pull back up. Just giving ourselves a little bit of a moment to warm up the spine, to warm up the abdominals, warm up the backs of La. And just to breathe for a minute. Two more, Christie. [inaudible]. Okay. And as the carriage comes into the stop, or now just continue, just rise up off the carriage. Rolling up slowly and standing up tall. Okay, so let's go ahead and set up the springs that we're gonna use for footwork. Now, I don't know, whatever you want. Three reds. I'm using three reds.

We may do some single leg work as well. Keep the bar down, but okay, so our legs are we gonna reach out straight, just reaching just over the front of the foot bar. You want to make sure you've got enough room to roll all the way back on the carriage and then just reaching the arms forward. We're going to just place the spine down into the carriage one vertebrae at a time and when we get to the bottom, just lay the head down, bring the feet up onto the foot bar and we'll start with five pelvic curls. So inhaling to prepare. Excellent as we lift the pelvis, rolling one bone at a time off the mat, pressing the arms into the mat as we lift up and in healing and excelling, allowing the chest to come first, feeling the bones of the rib cage precede the bones of the lower back and releasing the pelvis all the way to neutral. In inhale, exhale guiding the low back flat for us. That's our initial movement. That's pure abdominals. And then as the legs kick in, the spine begins to lift lightly off the mat.

As the arms press heavily downwards into the ground. Exhale, we guide the spine back down, creating the sense of making more length in the spine, in all directions and exhaling to left feeling the backs of the legs working powerfully here, feeling the reach of the arms and exhaling to come down and last to using the breath to create or dictate the pace of the movement in healing here and using the full extent of the exhale as we just bend one bone at a time. Back into the carriage. Keep the arms long last time he [inaudible] exhaling to lift up, keeping the knees parallel to the hips and excelling to come back down. Arriving on our back. Bring the hands up and hold onto the handles. Lift one leg followed by the other, gluing the legs together for the spine. Twist supine. We are going to go to the right first. So in healing there, exhale, feel a deep contraction through the waist. So now's our time to warm up.

You use these simple movements to get our spine nice and mobile nice and supported in healing to go across and excelling, to come back and drawing the abdominals away from the knees as the knees twist off to one side and excellent to come back and let's make sure that the knees stay lined up with one another. There's no deviation there and excelling to come back. Additionally, keeping the shoulders down is always a good challenge and important and Xcel to come back. Not only the shoulders down away from the ears, but the opposite shoulder blade on the mat last time and we come back through center and we placed one foot down and the other foot down. Okay, stretch the legs out straight. Lift the arms up over the shoulders in you're picking up the head and chest, pressing the legs into one another. We come into a full roll up here, rolling up, keeping the abdominals drawn back into the spine, finding the shoulders over the hips, exhaling as you guide the spine back down bone by bone, imprinting it into the mat, has the head, comes down the arms reach straight up for the sky. Lifting and curling, creating, lengthen the spine. Eve isn't even as it rounds and excelling to come back. And just three more here. Lifting and peeling, peeling a piece of tape off a wall and excelling to come back and stick that piece of tape or right back in. And I believe I said two more an inhale and exhale. Finding our way back down and lifting. This is our last one.

Inhaling and exhaling back down [inaudible]. So I'm going to add a variation to this movement and rural. Here's what we're going to do. Breathing into prepare. Allow the head in chest to lift up and at the same time as the lower back imprints pick up the left leg. Now we curl up, bending the spine into the neighbor's Steen just behind the pelvis and now we press back out, keep the leg up now and XL, we pull in and inhale to come all the way down and Hex hell to pull from the front of the body and press through the back of the body. And last two times pulling in and reaching out and taking us a little faster now and pulling in and reaching.

And now the head comes down and as the head and chest come back up, we imprint fine. And that implementation allows us to a lift and float the right leg and we pull in three slow and reach back out. Nice strong leg and pull in and reach back out and pull in and reach back out. Here's our faster ones. We lift and pull and press and lifted. [inaudible] oh, adding a rotation. Christie, going back to the left side.

Inhale, lift the head and just in the left, turn to the leg as we reached that right elbow, right into the left kneecap. And we're going to go faster now. I just want it to be clear and to west and Dow and pulling up at a working down and three, reaching down and to [inaudible] last time, reaching down and now they'll write like comes up as a head and chest come up and we come across nice and slow for the first one, reaching, tap that elbow and, and for a little faster. Here's what and back and really Hala. So it's not the leg that's pulling us up.

It's the contraction deep within the center. And last two times lifting and twisting. And last one, lifting and twisting. Say here with this side, bring yourself center, roll back. Bring your hand onto that leg. Bring the other leg up to me. Here comes the double leg stretch. We take it out and nice and brisk and and in here and blow all the air and in here and all the air. And for three, getting the arms nice and house to one single leg. Stretch for five Christie, reach and squeeze through the back of the extended lick and pulling the chest to the thighs. And two, and here comes a crisscross. Justify a cross, two, three, four, five, centered off stretch one lay down, stretch the other leg down, reached the arms for the sting lifted, and then we bend ourselves all the way back.

And let's take a stretch forward. Yes. Okay. And now we put the F. Oh, we have our springs on. Perfect. Now we lift the bar and I, we lie down for our footwork. I'm going to put my headrest up yet. Not all the way, just in that halfway position. I like my head rest up so I can see what's going on with my feet. It's just a personal choice. Okay, so my heels are lined up directly in line with my sitting bones, arms, nice and straight. Here we go. We're going to take this pretty quickly today.

It's out and pull back and pull from the waist. So we warm up the whole body here and the arms are not neglected. They're reaching and law and we feel how the quads lifts the knees as the legs extend and last four and three and we feel the heaviness and the ribcage and the sternum. And here's one. And we take it all the way back in and onto the toes. And the let's press out lifting the heels. Now the heels are going to be stay exactly where they are as we bend the knees in and out and out.

And let's challenge ourselves to come all the way in and touch that bumper. So once we set the heel position, they say very stuck. We worked through the middle of the foot. No and last five pull yourself in the in is, I dunno in my mind almost more important than the app because that's where we can get lazy, right? Pulling in and, and we come all the way in, swiveling the heels into Small v shape and now we squeeze from the hips, maintaining the neutral pelvic position here throughout the movement and presses zipping up the legs from the heels all the way to the groin and reach. Remember to pull in and out.

We just keep that rhythm consistent, keeping the backs of the legs strong. And we've got three more to go. One, checking with the shoulders and remember to use your breaths and back and heels coming to the outsides of the bars and we've got the heels wide. We're going to generate some inner thigh contraction and we slide out and in. I like the vision of just being velcroed to the carriage. Now that doesn't mean that I'm flattening my back into the carriage.

It means I'm powering the movement of the carriage from the center of the body. Well, quite obviously we're working our legs, but let's not neglect where the actual work should be generated from. How about three more supporting the knee as it extends? Don't let the knees go behind the ankles and last time year and bringing it all the way back in. Allow the toes to come onto the bar. The knees stay. Why continue to feel that inner thigh activity as we press back and out?

Okay. Again, keeping the feet nice and still here. Tightening from the hip, so powering the work from closer to the trunk than from the feet last two times and last one coming all the way back and bringing the feet into the middle of the bar. For kava raises, we're going to do progressive's today, Kristy to six so we take the carriage back, we pull the heels down and up and then we bend in and out again and then we go two times and don't forget it. The down. That's going to be really important to us, right? Focusing on the flexibility of the feet, the flexibility of the ankles and the flexibility of the CAS one and two, lifting from the entire backside of the leg and to come in and pressing out and five don't neglect that downward pull work in combination with the springs. So the springs pull you to some extent, but you pull on the springs.

Here's six. We're not going to come in after this. We're going to go straight into prancing. Here is four and five and six and now we drop the left foot and up. And as you change from foot to foot, feel how the pelvis is absolutely still the arms continue to reach. You get that big pulled downwards and five more and four and three, two and one and n.

Put the left foot on the bar. This is a p. This point you could change your springs to a little bit lighter. I'm going to be fine. Are you going to be fine, Christie? Okay, so we're going to bring the right leg into tabletop as the left leg extends, the right leg extends straight out and so the right leg mimics the work of the left leg except for it's doing so in empty space. Good and back, keeping that left foot nice and stable and again again powering the work from the hip and we have three to go. Keeping the ribs relaxed down and to getting a nice clean tabletop position on the way in. Bring it all the way in. Place, the right foot down, lift the left and we're off out and pull and see if you can feel the feeling of pulling that leg that doesn't have any resistance in it.

Five, six, last four, last two. And finally what place the left foot back down on the bar. Take the right foot and send it underneath the bar so as the left leg extends backwards, we bend the right knee, stretch it into the air, flexible feet point both feet and thread it through a little faster. Now out up flex point in bent up flex point and pull just two more. Christie, n n at flex point and eh and then just to be careful as you bring that leg out from underneath the bar, sudden the less like three we did six here we go, reaching out, flex, pull in and out, flex points and keeping the leg that's doing most of the work aligned with the hip joint. It doesn't go out or into the metal. Last two I last time, flex point and bend all the way back in. And then we just take the legs and we rest them on top of the foot part and then reach the arms forward and ruler. Yeah, bend over your springs and change your springs to a one red and one blue spring.

And we'll back down. Pick up your straps. Sorry Christine Minor. Quite even just the fussing with my straps, getting them to be even, here we go. So we've got the straps in our hands. We're gonna lift the legs into tabletop. We're going to go through a couple of hundred preps, just [inaudible] three so we XL not reaching with the arms yet, but instead lifting the chest and now the arms reach and they reach all the way into the foot bar and then the arms come all the way over the shoulders and that comes down. And lifting the chest to reach from the trunk, pressing the arms down in the lift the arms and then let the head go down. I don't one more time.

Lifts the arms and take the head down and now lift the head and chest again and hold. Now we open the arms and take the legs out straight and we bend everything back in and inhale and exhale and push to pull the arm and stay in line with the trunk. Meaning they don't go lower towards the ground. And last four and last three. And we keep the upper body challenged in the forward. Lift and hold the knees bent and bend the arms.

And now straighten the arms and the right leg and Ben both and straighten the left and Ben Balls and reach as you reach one leg straight. Keep the opposite leg in tabletop, but think about it, pushing into you. Press, press, press one more time. Both legs and keeping the knees in. Take the head and chest down. Coordination. Exhale, coming up into the a hundred position. Open. Close the legs, bend in and down. Here's the breath. Exhale to lift and open. Close in the we bend, staying lifted and down. Exhale, [inaudible], open, close, bent and three more open.

Close pull and yeah, and to open closed pull and ah, one more open close pool and placing the feet into the straps. I'm just going to go through our basic hip work series here, warming up the hips. So we start with the frog and these are just outside of the streps neutral pelvis. Here we go, exhaling forward and pulling and we generate some resistance as we come in and checking in with the arms, checking in with the neck. Keep it free of tension. Let's keep the feet full. Acts as they reach out and flexing as they bend in. And last three and last two add one more. Pointing the feet, lifting the legs, pressing both legs straight, back down, out around into the top.

And XOP pressing. We're getting to eight rotating in the hip joint and press and outer around reach as you reach down. Do so from the hip extensors last four out around to the top three. Trying not to hold a lot of tension in the feet so they're nicely, gently pointed. The airs one and reversed. Did I miscount. Yeah.

So we're reversing opening the legs, reaching down in together. Feel the heels connect before the leg starts to lift back up and reaching down and together and reaching down and together. And, and last four. Yeah. Adding the hip joint, getting a nice and warm. And last too.

One more. Okay. Take it down and hold it down for openings. Reaching out and pulling back. And as you pull the legs together, pull up from the center of the body. Press down through the ribs. The legs travel out on a horizontal line.

They don't go up or down, but just simply straight across and last for pulling together. Imagine that you're pushing 50 pounds together or 100 pounds, or I don't know. And last foot, I don't know when that's all. Bring the legs up. Bend your knees in. Take your feet out of your straps and place the straps into one hand so that if your head rest is up, you can place it down. We're going to go to the Jack Knife. So we've got our straps in our hands.

Are you happy with the spring that we're on, Christie? Okay, so you could do one spring. We're on one red and one be bringing the legs up to tabletop. We're going to press out on the legs and down with the arms in y'all bringing the legs up and exhaling to go over lifting up as we inhale, reaching into a nice vertical line and then exhale, just reaching down, slowly pressing the arms forward, bringing the pelvis down as the arms lift, lower the legs, bring them back to 90 rolling over as we exhale. Then right away we inhale into her jackknife and we exhale. Trying to roll from there. Straight down, keeping the feet just opposite the eyes, keeping the arms very, very straight and the legs go down in the arms.

Lift up and in here and exhale and inhale. We lightly press up so we feel the back extensors working the shoulder extensors, working the hip extensors are an important in this exercise. Last two times, lifting and over and inhale into the and exhale to come down. And Dan, I last one. Lifting and reaching over and inhale into the air and exit to come down and lifting the arms, bending the knees, place the feet down for a moment.

Put the straps down, hold onto the handles where you've just set your straps for control, balance, sending the legs forward, lifting them up, excelling to go through the rollover. So here we keep the elbows reaching out wide. We lift through the back extensors, bring the right leg into the well and the left leg into the air and feel that energetic double split in the legs and then change in space and push the top like up as the bottom leg pulls down and change. Keeping the body nice and stow and as we're changing fat and her reaching, reaching and to more work to keep the elbows wide and down. And here's the second half of two more and one more time on each leg and reach.

And then I'll take both things with control overhead and reach up and hold onto your feet and holding onto the tippy toes. We just peel the spine down, giving ourselves a little bit more of a stretch as we roll through. And then we're going to bend our knees and roll up and come up. Change to one spring place. Christine, one red spring. We're going to do the full lunch and a little bit about this work. Okay, so we step up onto the reformer.

I'm going to put the right foot up against the shoulder, the left foot up onto the foot bar. And then it, when you're lining yourself up here, assessed that that left knee is just over the left ankle and we're rising up through the chest and breathing and really anchoring through that back leg, keeping it nice and long. One more breath. And now we stretch that front leg out. Looking for a nice long spine here and breathing in and breathing and feeling the shoulders drop heavily down the back. And just one more breath. And now as we bend the left knee, we push even more backwards through that, right? Like, and we rise up through the chest holding and pressing out one last time, keeping the spine nice and long. Okay. And now we come in preparing ourselves, finding our balance, lifting up.

You just stretch that front leg out. And from there we go down and all the way up and down and focusing on the hip sensors that are on the bar or are you okay? And all the way of pulling from the front of the body. And one more time, Dan, one full one, reach, reach, reach up. We're going to take it down one last time. Come halfway up to come in. So there's our down and here's our halfway.

And then we pull ourselves in with nice control and placing the hand down and step carefully down onto the carriage and change sides. Sure. If that leg will ever work again, you see, I don't even know if I can pick it up to get it on the bar to be totally honest with you. But here we go. Alrighty. Okay. Keeping the chest left. So when you're stretching your hip flexes, you want to focus on back extension and we hold for three breaths and now we start to stretch that front leg. And I'm thinking about drawing my rights, sitting bone into my left ankle bone inside ankle bone and I hope I'm straight. I'm trying and let's bring it back forward.

Guiding the spine up away from that. Me Breathing in and out, keeping the back leg strong and taking it all the way back out again. And then we bring it all the way in. Here we go, preparing to balance, finding your center, coming up, arms to your sides. And now I just stir I that leg out and we lift up. Oh this is my, my good side I up. That will be fine. We go down, down, pressing the pubic bone forward as we go through that nice big stretch.

And then we pull everything back together, both legs working simultaneously and then we take it out checking the pelvis to make sure it's level and we lift up. And as you go into the stretch, be careful but see if you can take it a little bit more back, a little bit bigger each time. I know we left, I'm going to take it down into that stretch one last time. Coming halfway up, folding that front knee and placing the hands down and just stepped down into the carriage. Okay, we're going to do a little elephant variation today. Okay. So let's do the um, the, the elephant with the straight legs and with the flat back Bassey style. Okay, so the hands are on the bar. And from there we press our weight into our legs and we get that nice long back, Christie, just a little bit of up through the upper chest. Good. And, and now we just take the legs back on the inhale.

And as you pull your legs underneath, you feel your shoulder blades draw down. Feel the abdominals working powerfully here. Let's keep the toes up, lifting, bringing the heels into the carriage even deeper each time. Three more to go in healing back, exhaling, feeling the spinal length and forward and, and feeling this final length and forward and one. Okay? From there, I'm going to stop about halfway in. Okay, so still have parallel feet and we're going to round the back. A great big rounded back and we pull the shoulders down.

So we're in a pike position and now the feet both legs reach out again and underneath. Exhaling, piking up through the abdominals and in here, the ocean sparkling today, Christie and reaching out and pulling in. And last two and last one. And now we're going to hold in. What I want us to do, look down at your pelvis as you perform this. Bend one knee into your body, but don't let anything else change the foot. Just relax. The knee is being held up into the chest. Aha. And now take the left leg back again. And as the left leg comes in, you pull that right leg not closer to you, just energetically inwards. And inhale and exhale. We sink upwards into the, with the abdominal was an out for five and eh, and last two and last one. And now Christie, we're going to come in, we're going to stretch that leg out and stretch the back out.

So right in hip extension and in spinal, kind of a neutral spine position. And now bend the right knee in as you press the left leg back, bringing yourself into that nice round spot. Go back with the carriage enough to get a stretch in your left calf. And now we lift back out and we curl back in. This is our exhale here and in New Zealand, tobacco extension and exhale to pull in and inhaling and exhaling and got one more to go. Doing sets of five today and in.

Okay, so here we are. We're back in that round shape. Just let the left leg come back underneath. You, pay attention to your position. Place the right foot down with a minimum if not any shifting. And then float the left leg into the body, deepening the abdominals. And now just the right leg goes back and both legs pull towards you and inhaling back and we keep waiting over the legs but also over the arms and back.

And the head stays down throughout as do the shoulders and last to focus on your abdominals. That's what it's all about. Here's our one and now we start to stretch that leg out behind us. And as the leg goes into extension, we take the spine into extension and now we're going to curl in, pushing the right leg away. And in kneeling and exhale as we fold the spine and allow the light to not be, have a lot of energy in it. It just responds to the movement of the spine on the way in. So it softens and comes into the chest on the way out. It's another matter yet actively reaches up and last too, and back. Last time and back and now we hold it. Oh No, we come back in.

This is how we transitioned. Hold here. Bring the right leg underneath you. Step the left foot down. Take the hands off the bar and reached down for your feet. And we inhale here and exhale turtle all the way up from the top. We roll back down and won't put your hands on the football. Sorry, late call and come down onto one knee and come down onto the other knee. Feed her up against the shoulder blocks or heading into the down stretch.

Press the pelvis forward. [inaudible] a bias towards a tucked pelvis here as you arise up out of the upper back. And now we inhale. Sorry. Exhaling as we push the carriage back and feel the backs of the legs supporting the low back, feel the abdominal supporting the low back and out. And we will rise up and focusing on that powerful back extension. Oh, uh, uh, and three more reaching out, keeping the gaze forward.

Oftentimes we are tempted to look down at the ground, but what I find is that just makes the head drop. So keep the eyes and head. And how about one more time reaching back, lifting ourselves all the way in. I know we just lift up onto the fingertips and now we hold ourselves here and stretch one lamp. Oh, that's not a leg. That's an arm. One arm up. And now the other arm. And then we reach pressing the pelvis forward. I know, just bringing the upper body up and the arms to the sides. And let's get a box.

So we're getting almost going to get your box. We're going to do an arms series on the blocks today. We're going to start facing the foot bar. Um, there's a reason for this, so that's why we're not starting with chest expansion. So here we go. Take the bar down, I think, and I'm gonna, um, uh, recommend a blue spring. Of course you can always choose your own springs. I like blue.

Red would be pretty darn challenging here in my opinion, which is just my opinion. Okay, so here we go. Your arms are going to be down, starting down next to your sides. OK. And we're just gonna set up really tall on the box. We're going to bring our arms up, but keep the shoulders down and now we're just going into the hug a tree. So we open and we feel that as we open the arms, the entire body response. So we get not only the waist, not only the lungs, not only the ribs to expand, but can we let the whole body expand into that movement? Can we feel how we are gathering energy and back?

Nice and controlled and back. And we're going to do three more expand, but keep the abdominals in and left it and back. And one more time and back then just drop the arms down just to the outsides of the legs for a circle. We take the arms and if you feel unbalanced here as your arms come up to your ears, just hold onto the reformer a teensy bit with your feet until you find your balance again, reaching out all the way in down and exhale, feeling the shoulders down. The arms come all the way up to the years and there's a beautiful stretch available out there. So go ahead and explore that. Exhaling forward. Oh, however in that exploration, don't let the arms get behind the body as they come down, but as they go up, we keep them very, very straight and they keep the ribs pulled back.

And we're going to do that three more times. It's one of my favorite movements these days. It just feel so good. And two more. Okay. Christy, I'm tempted to take us into the horseback. Do you think we can do it on a blue spring? Oh, let's give ourselves a little more spring. Yeah.

Okay. So you buy your legs out straight and your arms are just to your sides. And before we get going, we're going to really round. We're getting get nice and deep in our, in our c curve and in here. And as you exhale, start the movement by just generating pressure backwards through the apps. And as you do that, the arms reach forward, but the abdominals continue to pull back and we just stay around. But we hover off the box and now inhale, keep the abdominals reaching back, the arms reaching forward so the strong oppositional can sense and exhale, reach the arms forward, but pull backwards with the ABS and rise just off the box. You've got a schoolies with the insides of your legs. And I reached out and three more pulling back, setting the intention of the exercise, letting a little light become come between your pelvis in the box and Dan and the last two times reaching forward.

And Dan and here's our last one here. Each forward pulling back, pulling back, pulling back and Oh wow, Chrissy, you got a little higher than me with your hands. Good work that the straps down were on the right spring. Now let's turn around. I changed my mind out of blue sprain as well as a red suit. And I've got a red and blue. Turn your body around.

We're going to do a bicep curl. We're going to hold the straps in our hands because you want to be on the front edge of the box before we get started, cause essentially we're going to end up lying on the box. So here we go. Let the elbows bent, roll down, keeping the upper arms connected into your body. We get the lower back to come into the, into the box so that we're in, say like the double leg stretch, upper body cruel position. So that would mean we'd need to lift our legs. And here we go.

So here are the springs pull you forward. Take advantage of that. Stretch the arms out and bend the elbows. Inhale and exhale. We want to challenge this. You could stretch the legs and the arms and bend both stretch the legs and the arms if there's any instability in the back. Keep the knees bent and exhale and last for two.

Pull deeply back and three and n and two and one. And now we hold the knees bent, but straighten the arms forward. And now we're going to roll up into the legs, into the teaser prep. So we arise after our straps are not as whether there are long. So that's making it hard for us. And then we find tension on our straps. Again as we roll back down.

And now let's stretch the legs and the body and inhale and exhale. Start bending the knees as the blow back comes down and stretch the legs in the body. Lifting up, up, up through the spine and bend the knees. Put the feet down. But the straps down for a moment lose the blue springs and I have just got one spring. It's getting nice and warm in here. It's a great option, a great teaching option for getting people ready for the, the other teaser on the box, right? Cause this springs instead of having to pull against the springs here, you're, the springs are helping you. Okay, so we're taking a hold of the straps who've got 'em holding on just above the buckles. Start with your arms just next to your sides.

Find a nice strong connected upper body. And now we just stick the arms back a little bit and in the health forward and as the arms reach down, they also reach back in the spineless up. And let's keep the leg squeezed together and keep the spine long again, reaching back. Don't let the arms get too far ahead of the hips as they come forward. We're going to do five more and back and forth and back.

And three, two, and one. Okay. I'm going to back up a little bit and hold just at the top of the, um, the straps. Yeah, exactly. And then Ben Spine forward and the spine forward. Bring the upper arms just next to your body. This is a tricep extension. Pretty simple. Simple, doesn't always mean easy.

And so we just straighten the arms back and we generate the work from the upper body. First from the shoulders, [inaudible] and back. [inaudible] keeping the body long and back. I last four, I last three, keeping the spine nice and straight and he was one. And then all the way in. And once again, taking a hold of this straps are just make sure that you're gonna, you kind of want to mark your position. Essentially where I'm going to take us is over the box to be quite frank. So the shoulder blades is going to be where we're wanting to arm our movement to, or a spine to go over. Okay, so let's come up from there. Now that we've set ourself up, so that might mean your, I like to scoop my feet right up into the box and use the box to push into from it so I can use my hamstrings. That's what I do.

And here we go. We're gonna roll down with straight arms. The palms at this point are facing upwards. We get the low back to connect into the box. Then we bend the arms and now the arms reach overhead. Keep the body still for now and now extend the spine over the top of the top of the box, reaching your arms nice and wide.

Enjoy that beautiful stretch. Allow the head to come up. And here's where I need my hamstrings to help myself roll up with control. We come all the way up to sitting and in here the palms face up. We're going to do two more. We bend the spine under, rolling back, pressing the legs into one. And here we just bend the arms and we take the arms up and now we allow the back to stretch over the tops. But don't arc through the ribs.

Keep the ribs down on the box. Oh, could stay there for about five minutes or so. But for the sake of time, we'll do that after we're all done. Let's do one more. Rolling back. It's a great stretch. Just make sure that when you just make sure that you're coming from the right place. Meaning if you're just arching through the middle back, so maybe not as functional as it could be. So let's keep the ribs down. Let's feel the shoulders open. Feel the neck release.

Take your time, lift the head and roll all the way. Okay, Christie, that's that. And put the straps down. Let's take the boxes off. Don't put them too far away. We're going to use them again. Okay, so the long backstretch. Yeah. How does that sound? It does sound like triceps.

Just think you'll never have those wobbly triceps that no one wants. Right? Okay. So Kristi just asked me if we could do a little more tricep. So we're, we're going to, we're going to do the long back strips so we hold the bars. So what we need to establish first is that we've got the shoulder control, but we know that we do. So you make sure that you do take the hips off the bar, step the feet out into the, uh, what are the shoulder rests? Put the toes over the top.

So now the back is long and straight and we bend the elbows in you and we roll the spine out. Exhale and can keep exhaling as we bend the spine back in, back in old Lillian in at the last moment we flatten out the back again and inhale Tibet and exhale, keeping the shoulders very stable. We roll up and roll back. And here we're using the backs of the legs to keep the pelvis lifted and keep that nice round shape. And let's do two more. Exhaling all the way up. Use those hamstrings.

Use Your glutes, use your abs to pull yourself in and keep lifting off the bar and flatten out the back. And here's our last one. Rolling. Pulling back. Oh the way. And now we just bend the knees and we come back to them. And now we're going to do the twist, but I don't think I want to use the bar today. So we're going to put the bar back down. Okay.

Okay. So you could do the twist with the bar on a low bar if you wanted to. For me, that just sounds like a little much for today. So we're, I'm going to put my bar down. You're going to do it on the bar. Christie is going to do it on the bar to show you what it's like cause he's gonna to try. Okay. So here we go. So we're gonna Start, we pulled up the, I've got my left hand, whatever hand you've got Chris, he's got a right. Anyway, one hand the other foot, the other hand, one hand on the shoulder, black one hand on the outside of the carriage.

We lift up without moving the carriage yet come into a nice strong pike position. And now we inhale, the carriage goes out, we rotate through the twists, looking over our back shoulder Xcel to come all the way up in it and inhale and exhale. I guess I have, it wasn't clear. Let's inhale and exhale. Start in healing now and excellent. Nice work. One more to go make it sharp. Coming all the way in and with control we stepped down onto the ground.

Very good. Christie. Oh onto the Keratin and the ground is fair. You've got your Barra and here comes the other side. Okay, one hand shoulder block, opposite foot, foot bar, opposite hand carriage, opposite foot crosses over that ankle that's on foot bar. And then we're in a pike with the shoulders down and we take the carriage and twist, looking over the back shield and twist back and knee and twist and twist back to lift in. And one more. No, two more. Okay.

Don't let me cheat us. Last one, twist and untwist to pull all the way and then bring it down and there we are. Okay. How about a little breaststroke restaurant? Yeah, the restaurant's going to be our grand finale for today. Christie. That one always makes me a little short of breath. That twist. Okay. So we've got a box on long box and they take a hold of the straps. Um, yeah, I'm going to use a red. Let me take the straps in our thumbs like so. I know.

Reach and put the hands on the front of the car. That's a box on the front of the box and lying down onto the box. Okay, so let's think about this for a moment. Keep the legs strong. Bring the forum's just outside of the upper arms. Okay. Keep the body nice and neutral for now.

And now we draw the abdominals inwards. The legs are as high as they're gonna get. So keep them exactly where they are. Inhale, stretch the arms in the spine up. Continue to inhaling as the arms come all the way to your sides. Exhale, slice the thumbs back to the elbows and come down and Inyo and around and try to make a straight line across as we come forward. And in you. And what I mean by that is try to not let the elbows go, uh, below the arms, below the hands on India.

Oh the way around. And exhale back and tumor it and all the way around bringing it back. Last one. Take a moment, take a moment, let the springs help you up a little more and bring it all the way and bend and get down off the box. Stepping to one side and stepping off to the other side and just carefully bring the carriage. Oh yeah. Okay.

Let's just stay right where we are. I just take a moment. I feel a little lighter than I did when we started. Let's just finish with three roll downs. So if we take the body forward, just integrating the work, thinking your body for a job well done, length and a little further towards the ground. And then we peel off and as we start to arrive standing, let's take the arms out and let's rise up onto the toes. Nice and light through the body and now allow the heels to come down, but continue to reach the fingertips in the spine, into the air. Growing longer in the body and now we die forward again, reaching out, wringing out the spine, and we India and excess to come all the way back, feeling the shoulders drop away from the ear, sending the arms forward, lifting up onto the toes, reaching longer and longer.

And now the spine goes up the head, the neck, arms as the heels come to the ground. And last one we dive over and then we roll up. Okay. All right. Thank you. Chris seed has fun.

Comments

CJ
1 person likes this.
wonderful class meredith, and you have a wonderful student Kristi. It was a joy to watch you both. great workout. thanks. blanche.
1 person likes this.
WoW ~ What an incredibly amazing class Meredith !! And you're right, it was fun and energizing and I can't wait to do it again !! Thank You :)
I love the new Reformer color, saw it the other day in Kristi's class and immediately had equipment envy ;)
I am not getting this workout Meridith? Its not showing at all. Just a blank page. Can you check it? Thanks Jamie
1 person likes this.
Ok, Never mind, I clicked it and it did play. Just no pic showing. So , no worries!
1 person likes this.
What a wonderful class! Some of the exercises I need to work up to but loved the challenge! Thanks Meredith!
Thank you for having fun with us ladies and for saying so :)
1 person likes this.
Great workout! The twist in the snake exercise is so difficult for me. I have a Pilates IQ reformer so I have to un screw the footbar each time. Maybe it would be easier without it. I'll try it next time. Thanks Meredith! My abs are still sore from your spine corrector workout 2 days ago. Loved it!
Wonderful class! I am wondering about the first move, a complete forward fold without warming up the back. This seems like a rigorous stretch to do without warming up. It seems someone with a less healthy back might not do well.
1 person likes this.
thank you! nice warm up. liked the transitions to change springs--roll ups. Nice challenging class.
1 person likes this.
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