Class #595

BASI™ Reformer Flow

55 min - Class
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Description

Ed Botha is here all the way from South Africa to teach us an intermediate Reformer Class taught in the style of BASI Pilates™. Ed offers clear direction and insightful cueing throughout the workout. Work deliberately and go deep.
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box

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Dec 22, 2011
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Transcript

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Okay, so ladies, we're going to go through a more of an intermediate to advanced reformer workout. We're going to try keep the flow. All right, so just stick to my keys. I'll help you guys with adjustment and changing the springs and we'll have a little bit of fun. All right. Okay, so we're going to just start with two roll downs. So you want your feet about hip width apart. All right, so let's, let's think about a fist. So our own first, we call that up ladies' hip with the parts of where our FEMA meets our pelvis, right? Not on the outside. All right, arms down by your side. Stems are facing forward and I sit in broad across your shoulder blades and brought across the collarbones. So we're going to take a breath into prepare on an exhale.

Let your head become heavy. We're going to roll the spine down, articulating it down one vertebrae at a time. Great. We're just going to hold it there for a second and you can go into your lateral breath. Just being aware of your abdominals. And mainly I'm going to ask you just to soften the knees slightly. We just want to watch for the hyper extension and we're gonna take one more breath in at the bottom. On the next exhale.

Really think of dropping your sacrum down and articulating the spine up one little bit at a time. Coming back to your neutral standing position. Great. And let's repeat that. We're going to do two more. We're going to take a breath in. Exhaling, slight softening of the knees. Head becomes heavy. Rolling the spine down. Just careful of rolling the shoulders forward.

Great. And taking a breath in [inaudible] and exhale, bringing it back up by say, dropping the sacrum so you feeling less. Sittingbourne sinking down spine is becoming tall. And at that top phase, I do want you to go into neutral, but don't forget about the abdominals. We're still engaged and we're going to keep that feeling for the whole class. So we take another breath in, inhale and exhale, and it's really easy to forget.

Why are we doing the paloney session and just go through the movements. But remember, it's all about the core strength, the engaging of the powerhouse, and particularly what we're going to call it, the transverse abdominous. So we're going to take a deep breath in and exhale, bringing it back up, softening the knees. Yeah, careful of that hyperextending dropping the sacred good. And then what I would ask you guys to do at the top, instead of just pulling your shoulders back, let's just loop them back slightly so we can give them a little bit of a lift and then they gently roll back. But we don't pull them down. We just let them relax into position there. We don't want tension. We do want the upper trapezius to be involved. So those muscles up just coming off the neck. All right, without any tension on them. When you start pulling down on them, that's when they create a little bit of tension. Awesome. Right?

So why don't you guys have a lie down for me on your reformers and I'm going to set up, I'm looking for a to Red Springs, so two fools springs head rests up. We're going to start on the heels. Feet parallel hands are down at your sides and we're going to go through some basic footwork. So again, I would just use about a foot first apart as easy hip distance. Great. And both of you can just, again, just open those shoulders slightly. You can turn the palms down no problem. And just gently softening the rib cage.

Often when we try and force the shoulders open, the ribs might lift and just think of that softening again. So feet are slightly Dorsi flexed, toes are relaxed. We're going to take a breath in to prepare on an XL, focusing on your hip extensors, being your hamstrings and your glutes. Gently pushing away with your legs till the legs off, fully extended and inhale, bringing it back in. And I do want to hear the click on the stopper. Here we go, and exhale to good and bringing it back in and exhaling three good. And you guys can just keep going from me on your own time.

And remember this is called footwork. So I do want the focus on the foot position. Make sure you have the contact equal pressure with both heels and really drawing up in the Tibialis anterior. So for those of you at home, it's the shins, right? So you feel the muscles of the shins working good and we'll do three more repetitions in this position, all the way to the stopper that stop. It just allows you to relax back into that neutral position every time. And to engage the hip extensors again. One more time.

Great. And bring it in all the way and pause, right? So we're going to go into our toe position. So we're on the balls of the feet, the still parallel. So we've got that first you're going to soften the heels a little bit. Good. Pressing slightly on the inside of the feet. Good. And we take a breath into prepare. Exhale as we push it out and coming back in all the way and exhale.

Good. So I would prefer it and you can just keep going. I would prefer it if you get used to working in a neutral pelvic position, not in a post Steria tilt. Right? So we do want a little bit of space in the lower back. Not necessarily any daylight but just a small gap, but the ribs are staying down and if you think of those sitting bones, those are propelling you away from the stop it every time. It directly towards me. Excellent. Great.

Lovely work. Good. We're going to repeat one more time. So we come in all the way to the stopper and taking it away and hold it hold. We're going to lower the heels into the carve so we think down with the heels and we're going to lift up one, lowering the heels all the way. Remember you don't want to bounce those heels too. Good. So we're getting off full stretch and three and I think opposite of stretching.

Think of drawing from the front of the Shins. Four good. Exhaling, five. Great. This is great work and six super and seven not forgetting about the abdominals and eight and keeping that breadth wide in the ribcage and nine and last one and 10 and let's bring it back into the stopper all the way. Find the click. We're going to take a breath into prepare into our prizes.

So we're going to exhale. We push out with the legs. On one long in-breath we do a full cycle and exhale. Good. And in breath and out breath. Excellent. I'm just going to bring those hands in a little bit. Good. And in breath and art breath. Good. That's great. Work in breath and out breath.

Last cycle please ladies. And in breath and out-breath and art and bring it back to the stop. I find the click great and we're gonna go into our, onto the left heel. So single leg work, left foot, right knee is just above the hip joint table top position on an XL. We pushing away with the left leg and one. So today we're just going to work in the parallel position and to and bring you back in and XL. Three grade in and four in and five. Good. And hold that position for me there. And what we'll do is we're going to take your right leg and we just cross it over the left and bending back in and we just take it into a little bit of a hip stretch there just for a few seconds there.

Yeah, it just helps to release. I'm doing a lot of hip extensor work. The rotators or the hips generally take a lot of work good and push out all the way. Again, switching legs for me, good to the tabletop position, bringing it into the stopper [inaudible] on the yield. That's perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Bring it into the stop and we take it again and exhale away and bringing it back into the stop every time and too good. We're, we're keeping the strength in the Shin and three and four. Coming back to the stuff, I want to hear the little click there. Good and let's hold out for five and let's go into that hip opener position there. Good. Having a little stretch and what I would recommend, and this is just a personal preference because sometimes I feel my knees come into in play in this position, flex the foot and lift the lateral edge of your foot and that kind of helps to protect the knee slightly. You feel that? No Chem.

So that's quite a strong position. You don't have to do it, but I like it. Um, and you're with me today, so here we go. Alright, cool. Let's push it out all the way and we're going onto the left toe. So toe position, right leg up again, and we're going to bring it back to the stopper all the way. Find the click. I want to hear that little click. That's it. Then we know that we've completed the whole movement and we're going to push out four, five, and one and coming back in and two good three and back in, uh, four. Great. One more time and five.

And let's just hold it out there for a second. Now we're going into obviously that external rotation position again with the hip, but the leg that's on the football, we can't forget about that and think of internally rotating slightly. So get that drawing from your inner thigh. The gluten mead helps in the TFL just to bring that leg back in slightly. Okay, so let's go into that hip opener again and let's find the flexed foot position, bringing it in to be, you can adjust it when you get back to the the stretch position. Maybe you're on the stop or maybe you're not.

We're just going to hold it there. Cool. That's awesome. And let's push it out again and we're going to switch toes on the right leg. Left leg is going to come up to the table top. Let's start at the stopper. So we're going to bring it in pause. So this is where you organize yourself. All right? And when I'm talking about organization, that's your setup, other ribs in the right position as your pelvis in neutral, other shoulders, nice and square. And let's take it from there. And we're going to push hard one and back. Good. Finding the stuff that and two.

Lovely and bring it in all the way and three good. And exhale four and all the way in and exhale and five. Cool. So we're going into the external rotation. That's it. Good. Flex the foot, bending in with the right leg. Great. And we also want to be aware of the pelvis in this position, but both of you are doing really well.

So obviously you don't want your hips kicking out to the sides rather than less stretch. But keeping the pelvis in line. Good, good. Just hold that for two more breaths. Inhale and exhale. And one more time and inhale. Exhale. And we're going to push it out all the way. Good. Or we can take the leg off and let's return all the way to the stopper. Great. And relax.

So let's just scoot a few centimeters away from or inches away from the shoulders rests. Okay. And I'm going to just load you up there with a one and a half spring. So that's four on this body reform. It's a red blue. And then we're going to take hold of the shoulder. Rest of the, the grips. Okay, so we'll put a little bit of tension on the springs. Slightly equal. You happy? All right, so the slight tension.

One leg up at a time. That's good. He's good at particularly in this game. All right, so we're going to inhale to prepare on an exhale, we just gently going to bring just the arms down by your sides. So working low shoulder extensors. Inhale, bringing the arms up and you want to find that perfect perpendicular position and exhale, bringing it down too. So we'll just gently a little warm up for the upper girdle as well. Inhale and exhale. Good.

Inhale bringing it up and exhale. Good. And let's pause down there. Turn the palms to face the body and we're going to take it into a t position. So we inhale all the way and holding their position. So guys, be careful that we don't go above the shoulder line, so we holding and exhale and inhale. And if you feel that you start internally rotating in this position, then you just keep the arms a little bit further away from the body as you come in. Closer and exhale. Good. So at this point you can always just to keep the arms a little bit further away.

Inhale into your t and exhale, bringing it up. One more repetition. Inhale and exhale. Good. Turning the palms back down to the mat. Lifting the arms up to perpendicular. Once again, keep the legs up to the table. Top abdominals drawing in. We're going to go into a hundred preps.

So on the exhale we're going to lift the trunk into flection. Exhale and inhale straight back, putting the head down. Good and exhale, lifting up. Good. Zipping up there and inhale, taking it straight back down so you don't have to wait for me. You can come back down and immediately exhale and inhale because you'll see the breath pattern. It's a short cycle. And exhale. You don't want to be holding your breath up there and taking it back down.

Let's go one more time and exhale and taking it all the way back down and pause and relax. Taking one leg down and the other leg down. Super. So we're going to take the straps, Hook them back on, and you can hop off the reformer for a second. Okay, great. And we're going to go into one full spring please. So one red string, and we're going to go into our reverse knee stretch. All right, so you're going to sit kneeling facing that way. Taking hold of the frame of the carrot.

Super. All right, so make sure your hands are slightly, before we started loading the carriage. So let me just cue you into this position to make it easy. So Mary, can you walk your hands a little bit further forward? All right, a little bit further. This is my preference for this exercise again. All right. Then we're going to gently draw the shoulders to above the palm so that might move the carriage slightly. You've got that sensation. Super. Alright, first we're going to go into a slide poster at aut. Excellent. So we've got a hold, so we've got to be strongly. So you want to feel those obliques engaging.

And on an exhale we draw the knees to the hands, deepening the hip flection and inhale back. Good. And exhale. Good and taking it back and exhale. Good. So there's a little bit of hip disassociation here. Although we keeping the lumber flection and the posterior tilt, we go twice.

Small one or were you going to take it back last one and exhale to bring it all the way in. Touch your hands, what the carriage and take it all the way back to the stopper and release. And then we're going to take it back into neutral position. And I find that there's neutral version of this exercises. One of the better abdominal exercises, the only, because we don't put pressure on the lumbar spine in that flexed position. So if you have any kind of spinal injuries, this is a great exercise to still keep the abdominals working, but keeping the spine neutral. So we're going to push out a little bit there.

If me Maria with the shoulder blades. Good. So let's load up the carriage again then on an exhale as the knees come in, think of lifting the tailbone slightly at the same time. So I want you to keep the little bit of curve in the lower back and taking it away. And when I mean curve, I'm talking about your low as, I'd like to keep a little bit of it. Exhale and taking it away. Good. Keep those shoulders down and exhale. Good. Let's do two more repetitions there. Inhale, taking the legs back and exhale, bringing it in. One more, one more. Inhale and exhale, bringing it in. Good work.

And let's take it out all the way and find a stopper and relax. Good. And you can roll it up from there. Super. So I'm going to have you lying down on your backs again. So I've added a half a spring and we're going to put the feet and straps and where you can push away from you. There are we gonna put the left leg inside. Put a little bit of tension on and the right leg.

And what I want you to just getting out of the habit of taking hold of the straps. So you hold it, you put the foot in the strap, and then you're gonna let go of both straps. Keeping the tension on the legs. Excellent. So you've got the hands down and we're going to start in the frog position there for me, please. So you're going to bend in with the knees. Good. Small V. All right. Not Too wide with the knees. Right? And remember where the reformer, we working at a little bit of a diagonal, so we gently pushing out, keeping those heels tight. That's what this exercise is about. An inhale, bending in for me. If the heels are not squeezing together, we tend to overuse our quadriceps when we pushing away. So we really want to get the focus on the hip extensors and the adductors of the legs, so the inner thighs.

So keep the little squeeze on the heels and inhale and exhale. So what I do, I'm going to try run my finger through and bending in at Meredith. She's squeezing those heels together. Can't get it through. That's great. And bending in there, man. He can, I feel it's, see, I don't want to get my finger through that and exhale. Awesome. Good work. That's great guys.

And inhale and exhale. Good. Super, super, super. An inhale and exhale. Good. And inhale and exhaling. Good. One more time. And inhale and exhale. And we're going to pause bringing the legs up to as close as 90 degrees as possible without your tail bone lifting up off the mat. So in other words, we want to keep our neutral position so it looks cool to have the legs vertical, but it's not necessary, right? So I do want that slight little bit of Lordosis in the back.

We're in slight external rotation. Still on an exhale, we're going to draw the legs down and we're dying down. Circle circling the legs round and bringing them back together. On an inhale and exhale, we're going down around and coming back and exhale down, round and back and exhale down, round and back. And Manny, you're in a great position here. So let's just show everyone we're going to go down with the legs in a straight line. We coming round.

And what often happens is people cut the circle and they cut the head off the circle. Boom. And then essentially what's happening if you just lost your resistance, right? So we're going to bring the legs down. Exhale. So imagine you're drawing more of a diamond shape and then we're coming back up to a point at the top. Lovely. That's beautiful. And exhale down and round and just bringing it up to the point.

That's great. And down and Ron [inaudible] and we're going into the up circle. So we go inhale, we drawing down and we're coming up on the SAGITTAL plane, right? That's why I remember that it's going to be called an up circle. So we're bringing the legs down and coming up. Right? So pause for a second. So at the same thing applies if you just open, we lose tension, right? So I'm opening and getting a little bit of that resistance.

Otherwise we may as well be doing this on the mat. Right? So that's why we use the equipment is to ride resistance. Resistance gives us strength. I know we got add super. That's great. I had down and round and round and both of you, you guys have got good control.

You've got good abdominal recruitment. So obviously you wouldn't take the legs too far down. If you can't hold the abdominals in and, um, let's go one more time. So we're going to take it down. Okay. And pause over there for me. We're going into some opening, so we just open up the legs. Inhale and exhale, bringing it together and pause for a second and touch those heels and it's, there we go. Good. Good, good. That's it. And inhale, opening up. Good.

It's all about the heels and bringing it back together. So you find a lot of people find that they can't keep the legs straight and touch the heels together. I'd rather suffer the knee slightly, but get those heels to touch and inhale. It gives you such good feedback when you feel the heels touching together and coming back. Super good. And Mac and connect. Exhale, right. [inaudible] and opening up good and less. You can do in plant a reflection, a little point of the feet or Dorsey flection. That's really up to you. Alright.

And opening up and let's pause. Take an art breath there. We're going to put the hands on the insides of the ropes. So just there, take a deep breath in. Yeah. Or you can turn your palms onto the reps and flip. Great, perfect. And breathe in. And you don't want to overdo this. Just be kind on your body, the exhale and just having chains, a little stretch there and you just give it as much as you need there. Inhale and exhale. And of course we just don't want to affect the pelvis.

So if you feeling you overarching or having to tilt for this not necessary, please inhale and exhale. Good. Let's bring the hands back down to your sides. We're going to add up the legs. There we go. Where are you working? That's great. And we're going to bring the legs up all the way and pause. Cool. So I'm going to take your headrest down and while we're in the flow here, let's just take it into a short spine stretch.

So guys, obviously when the hips go above their head in all above the shoulders in spinal articulation exercises, we don't want the headrest up. It's just going to compress the cervical spine. So we're going to start, let's go to 45 degrees with the legs so that you're a little bit ahead of us there, Mandy. But I like the enthusiasm. I love the enthusiasm. All right, so you're going to bend the knees for me into the frog position. Their super. So I'm going to promise you we're going to get a good stretch now. So on an exhale, we're going to push the legs out to 45 degrees more or less. Inhale, we're going to bring it all the way to the stopper and it is about coming to the stopper regardless if your pelvis lifts or not.

I'm not actively trying to lift my pelvis, I'm trying to keep my tailbone down and then exhale as we roll the spine up all the way. Good. And once again, this is why we do these exercise on the rough format. So we're going to hold there for a second because we have resistance so actively without pulling the carriage of the stopper. Use your hip extensors, that being the backside of your legs to pull gently against those ropes. And then we're going to inhale as we bend the knees, we still implant affliction, keeping the knees more or less above your eyes. And then exhale, just start rolling your spine down, keeping the knees where they are. That's it. Keeping the diamond shape that you see between the legs.

You can see the diamond shape there. Moni, super good. Tracing those palms down for me and pause just there. Now when you can't go anymore and you're happy, you can't go anymore, you flex your feet. That protects the knees once again, Huh? And then we draw the diamond away, dropping the sacrum and Posen. Look at that. We back to where we started. Here we go again. So we push away with the legs.

Exhale, we bring those legs up all the way till we hit the stop. I find you a little bit of stretch. Lower back. Stretch, hamstring stretch. Exhale, rolling it back up or you've come off the stopper. There we go. Click cool. Find a little bit of hip extension. This is your chance. A little bit of upper back extension. Possibly inhale as we bend the knees.

Good. So find this nice cut over here. Press the Palms Mandy, and exhale. And I'm just saying that because I know I've got the same thing. And roll down. Roll down, roll down, roll down, roll down, rolled out. Good. Find your stretch. Stretching out the low back. Opening the hips. Now flex the feet there. We protect the knees and we hinge [inaudible] and pause. I love it.

And we go one more time. So we're going to push out with the legs. You're on your own. We bring it all the way to the stopper. Find the Click Mary. Click an exhale as we bring it up. Super Inhale as we bend the knees. Good. And we pause and exhale as we roll it down.

Just keeping the knees or the feet above your eyes or the knees above the shoulders. Whatever works for you. Rolling was. Find out, keeping those heels together. That's been the theme of the day, I suppose. Flex the feet so far and rolling down, back into our unusual position and pause. Good. So we're going to take the right leg out and left and back in to the stopper. Uh, we can get you on. Alright, so you guys can hop out there for me for a second. So we're going to go into a full lunch, right?

So we need more or less as spring that we can use to support our own body weight. So I'm saying Mary's got a green spring here, so it's quite a heavy spring. And on this reformer, we haven't got a green springs, so we're going to use a red, yellow and that should give us enough support. So what we'll do is let's start with the left leg up on the football office. So stand on your carriage for me. Make sure it's secure. Put your right heel up at 45 degrees or just up at an angle against the shoulder, wrist. And generally this gives me an indication if someone should be doing this exercise or not. Just the setup. So on an exhale, if you can flex your hip enough to put your foot up on there, then it's a good idea to carry on with the exercise and Jasmine will just as good enough, right? So that's perfect.

So let's really work it into that back leg. So we're looking for a hip flexor stretch and what helps with the hip flexor to get the stretches just to switch on the antagonist. And that's the glute. So it's the opposite muscle. So if we fire up the hip, extends at the back of the glute, it does help to give a little bit of stretch on the hip flexor. Can you guys feel that? All right. And then the other cue is if you think of this, the back of the knee just lengthening up to the sky so you don't even think of straightening your leg. Think of the back of your knee, lengthening up, and that will straighten your leg.

And we just going to hold that for another two counts. One [inaudible] and too, right? So without moving the carriage, without moving uni, we generally are going to come out into a t position. So think titanic right there. Here we go. Great. That's super. And all we're going to do is haul, but you guys have lost the leg at the back way. So give me a little bit of length. Wonderful. Good hip extension.

Take another deep breath in. Inhale and exhale and bring it down and be proud of yourself. That was good work. All right. And we're going to go ahead and straighten the front leg for a little bit of a hamstring stretch. So the trick with the hamstring stretch is that we really get length lifting that sitting bone on the left side and that our pelvis stays on the same line.

So if you start dropping into your back hip flexor, that's a little bit dangerous and it's a little bit of a cheat. So you might miss it. A little bit of the hamstring there. We don't want to miss the hamstring. That's why especially I don't want to miss the hamstring. Most of us need that. Alright, good. And take one more breath.

Inhale and exhale. Good. So we're going to bring the leg back, bending the front knee so the front knee brings it back over the hill pores and then put your palms down on the bike if you can. We're going to take the front leg out into a front support position. So that means that both legs are eventually up on the back. And let's just hold our little line there and we're going to go into the long stretch. So from there the shoulders are above the palms. On an exhale, we move the carriage backward, we keeping our long line, we protecting the back by drawing the abdominals.

Some people might even say unite and each you engage your glutes slightly and we bring it back in. Inhaling coming forward. So the exhale is more of the effort and exhale. So we're going back, so slight posterior tilt, keeping thoracic extension and coming forward. Inhale and exhale. Good. That's lovely. And bringing it forward and exhale. And I've heard instructors say bring it back to the stopper. But seriously, we all got different shapes and sizes, so we've gotta be realistic. Shoulders above the palms is good enough. Let's go one more time.

Are we going to take it back right now? From there, let's hold and we're going into an up stretcher and I'm stretched as a permit. So we lift the hips up and we bring the carriage to the stopper. We have a little click. All right, and from the click, see if you can bring the other leg up onto the bar. So we take it in on an exhale. We're going to step the right leg up. Sorry. No problem. There we go. Cool. That's good. That's good work. It's challenging.

So are we going to keep a little bit of hip extension? So what did we do? We engage the glute knee, pushing up to the ceiling. Shoulders are, take a couple of breaths. Let's get that rectus for more so as all the hip flexors, just to length and out there. Cool. Right? So let's take it up into standing. Inhale and exhale. Bring it up. Lifting up from the chest. Good.

And pause and hold that position there. That's great. And is holding good. Many. Bring your torso up a little bit higher. Keep your pelvis where it is. So you're going into a little bit more thoracic extension, but keeping engaged. That's good work. Oh, and keep you there much longer.

Very straighten that back leg. There we go. You got it. And let's bring your hands back down onto the [inaudible] board. Let's go into the hamstring stretch. So we start moving away, pushing away with a front leg, keeping the pelvis the same height. You guys are doing awesome work. Seriously. That's great. Good shoulders are away, right?

How are we going to bend the front knee back in all the Wayne and pause. Good Holding. Let's put both palms down. Taking the front leg out if you can. Back to that front support position. And this time we bring it up into the up stretch. So we're going to lift it all the way up. Click the stopper. Great.

All that position. And guys, the key with the up stretches to stay on the stopper. All right. And to get the pelvis above the feet or above the ankle joint, so the legs as close to perpendicular as possible. So you might need to bend the knees, but we are good. So on an inhale we move the carriage away slightly, slightly and exhale as we bring it back in. Using again using the hip flexors and using the strength of the lower back.

So we take the carriage away, inhale and exhale, bringing it back in. And obviously their abdominals are holding and inhale. So it's really a co contraction of the back of their abdominals, keeping the long line of the spine and in breath and the shoulder joints gotta be stable and we've got to be pretty secure. So it's broad across the upper back. Inhale and exhale. [inaudible] if you can press down with it inside of your hands as well.

All right, good. And inhale and exhale, bringing it to the stopper. We working hard. We're going to do that one more time. So we take it, inhale and exhale, bringing it back in and pause, pause, pause. Right. And just holding there. Put your feet down flat on the carriage guys. And obviously you want to be careful with your balance here, right? If you have, if you get a little bit lightheaded, put your palms back down onto the carriage. Good. Bend the knees, wrap your hands around the back of your legs.

So you want to hold Alba Palm. So opposites bent knees and we just give the back a little bit of stretch. So we draw the abdominals in and from there you just think of lifting up with those sitting bones, lengthening the back of your neck. It's bringing it up and up and up and up and little band. Bring the hands back down. Inhale and exhale. Roll it all the way back up.

Soft knees, soft, nice, soft knees, soft knees, all the way up. Great. Okay, so why don't you guys hop off fifth meal, hold the carriage and if you align each grabbing a box over there. So from that side, super good. And we can keep it on the setting that you have. And we're going to go into a breaststroke prep position.

Are we going to use it for a little bit of shoulder work? So this is great. Perfect. So we're going to lie prone on the box. So your head is on the side. We're going to put the hands. Yeah, palms on the bar. Fingers are facing forward. All right. To make it as functional as possible. All right.

And I'm not working this really as an extension. I'm looking for you to just stay as neutral as possible. Drawing the shoulders away from the ears, right Mandy or, but what I do want is hip extensor work there. So if you can bring the legs up slightly. Great. Can you feel that? Yep. Okay, so they're going to stay active. All right, that's awesome. Abdominals engaged before you push, you wanna think of those shoulder blades sliding down into your back pockets and exhale as we press away at the same time.

Yeah. How's the weight guys? Is that doable or good and inhaled? Coming back in. Good. And so the elbows are pointing out slightly down. So that keeps the little bit of that external rotation of the shoulder girdle and careful of pushing into your back. Then man, you say you're lifting.

We don't want you to lift your spine up too high. So we coming back in. Remember I said for this one we're just going to stay more or less neutral so you can keep your heads up. Yeah, that's great. Take some weight off. Keep the hip extensors though. Thank you. And pushing out good. Finding the length and coming back in all the way into the stopper. Find the click shoulder blades or drawing down and exhale as we take it out.

Good. And bringing it back in all the way. Find the low kick one more time and exhale as we take it back. [inaudible] a long line and we're going to bring it back in all the way. Keeping those hip extensors, they guys and click analysts. Pause in that position. All right, so I'm just going to, I've taken off the full spring and I've put a light spring on, so it could be a half a spring, it could be a a quarter spring.

That's up to you. And we're going to take the right arm and you're going to just extend it out horizontally. So we've just got one arm shoulder away from me is, and what you want to look for is, is that you keeping your body straight. So we need to keep the obliques engaged. Adduct the legs good, keep the glutes a little bit of shoulder work and we're going to push away. They're just focusing on that left tricep good and coming back in all the way to the stopper. So find the click and exhale. Ah, excellent. And bringing it back in all the way.

So those lower trapezius or dro mid, lower trapezius or drawing the scapula down there, depressing them and coming back in. And let's go one more time and hold a careful of the winging of the shoulder blade, the Maryanne. Exhale. We're pushing it out there. Good. And fully straighten that on. Good, good, good. Let's see that it's straight straight. It's different in South Africa and bring it back in and all the way and find the stuff and change arms. Good work. Excellent. And it's hold it out there for me.

Good. So before we go, let's just double check as we are not doing back extension so you don't have to lift yourself in between, but we do want the hip extensors engaged. Draw your scapula down, slight external rotation of the shoulder and here we go. And exhale. That's cool. And bringing it back in all the way. Find the stopper. So bring it in, bring it in, bring it in. So first draw the shoulder, but there, yeah, can you feel that? You got it? Wow. So we packing the shoulder blade, we making it safe before we move. So that's the organization that we needed to do.

So we come in and that's why we work on the stopper. So we take, it gives us a chance to set things up all the time. Otherwise it just becomes pumping action and then little becomes a little bit more isolated in the triceps, not ideal for this exercise. And coming back in all the way. Have we got two more exhale. Good. And coming back in and last time and pushing away.

Good. Are we going to bring it all the way back in and pause. Great. And we're going to hold that position there. So what I'm going to ask you to do is just to fold your arms over the front of the box. Okay. So not in the bar. And I'm going to move the bus. I just move it out. Sorry, Mary, can I just take it away? Slightly set up. Sorry, I should've thought about that first. Can I just scoot you back? Thank you. Right. Thank you. And there we go.

So we're going into a prone position. So you're going to hold over the end of the bar left for me or the box. Excellent. So let's just keep the legs together there. Lift the legs up a little bit higher. So we back in that hip extensor position there and we're going to go into the single leg kick. So you know the mat work, we got the single leg kick, it's exactly the same thing. So we're going to start on the left leg.

So we take a long breath in. On an exhale we do two pulses on the left and two pulses on the right and inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale. Good. So we keeping those hips extended all the time. So it's a little bit of a stretch for the hip flexors, particularly to the quads and working in those hip extensors and a little bit in the extension in the thoracic spine. Keep it going and exhale and inhale.

Okay. Ah, the exhale. One more cycles of inhale. Okay. And the exhale. Good. And extend the legs out behind you, right? So we're going to take the legs into turnout, bringing the heels together, rod, bending the knees. So the knees open up. Great.

Are we just going into a couple of the hip extension? So you have a choice, either plantar flexed or Dorsey flexed feet. Dorsey flex does tend to hit those external rotators a little bit better. And on an exhale we gently, we just lift the knees up slightly one and inhale and exhale too. So guys, we need to protect the lower back three so we really drawing those abdominals in and for an inhale and exhale five good. And inhale and six we've got two more to go and inhale and seven and one more time and a and release. Just Lenten those legs out.

If you can push yourself back onto your box on your rest position to use the strength of those arms. Good. So you hooked up there and sitting back. Are we going into a rest position? Having a little bit of a stretch there? Let's stay with that for a few seconds. Uh Right. And you can roll yourself up there for me for a sec. A little both hop off into the inside of the [inaudible] and we're going into a hip rotator stretch again. So we're going to use the edge of the box.

Keep your foot lined up with the edge of the box. And we're just going to place the pelvis down. So watch I get my knee down. Okay, so that's the one part of it. Now get your pelvis back again, then turn the hips in. So I've moved getting this nice 90 degree angle knee in line with my hip. And then from there, if you want to sink lower you can and possibly maybe go right over.

Okay. So I'll cue you through it. So we're going to get the, Oh, you could go around. Yeah, sure you can smile. Alright, so what I'm going to do Mandy, I'm going to bring your foot right over the edge. Flex the foot. Yeah, there we go. Good. So first get the knee down gently. Just that without forcing it. All right? And then you're going to move the pelvis back slightly, then you turn the left hip forward. And then from that position we can push down gently and then the back leg has to do that internal rotation again, cause that's gonna help the front leg get.

Let's stretch there. Ah, that's really good. That is great. So for all of you that run or cycle, any real intense cardio, spoil yourself for this stretch as often as you can. And then let's just go right over. Just relax. Allow your body to flex. It's likely your upper body. It doesn't mean put more weight onto your knee. Just means dropping the spine slightly just to take the back extensors out a little bit and then relax and we come out and just easy taking that leg out and let's change sides there for me. So again, use the edge of the box.

It just feels good, especially after you'd done a little bit of hip extension a gap. So using that edge of the box just to give you a guideline. All right, cause that always reminds me to keep my foot flexed, to protect the knee joint. Super. And we'll have a little bit of a stretch. Our first time moved back with my pelvis and then I get my left knee down and then from there I start dropping my weight of my pelvis. There we go. Good. Good. And I, and I like what you're doing here when the, I like the fact that you keeping your lordosis. Just draw the abdominals in.

Cool. That's perfect. Alright, cool. That's it. And then why don't we fold over for a second. Ah, right. Okay. Some settling, a little stretched out that super, and we're going to run it up and up yet. Okay. So we're gonna turn the box.

I'm going to hook on all the springs, so we just secure the carriage and we'll do a little bit of a side over some lateral flection work. So why don't we have you facing in at the same time, right? So again, we use the butt, the edge of the box for angles. So we've hooked in under the foot strap and the top FEMA is in line with the edge of the box. All right, great. And I like what Mandy's done. She's put her hand on the headrest for support. So we were working at a diagonal. Okay. So just before we start, there's one thing that I, that I tend to see in this exercise and that is that people tend to overuse their hip flexors, right? So they're working in a little bit of a bent banana ship.

Try keep yourself as extended as possible. So you've got that long line through the smart. Are you guys happy? Do you feel both feel secure? Yeah. Yeah. Great. So what I would do if I was adjusting or CUNY, I just hooked my leg over someone just to secure them there. And we're going to take the bottom hand slowly.

We put it behind the head and we inhale. We're going down but we supporting from the bottom waist and exhale as we come up and we just draw the line one and we are going to inhale and exhale. We're going up to go ahead and inhale. Just think of length and not high day and three good. Twice more. Only two more.

Ah Oh and one more time. Last five then hold it. And I'll see if you guys can keep your pelvis though. And both of you turn your thoracic spines to me. And look at me since that is there. They keep the pelvis. Good flex slightly, and your thoracic. There we go. Turn back to the center. Put your forearm back down on the headrest and have a stretch, a side stretch. Pretty cool. Good work. Alright, we're going to do one more little stretcher.

We just take the hand. You're going to put it on the frame. Take the other hand, put it on the opposite side there, and just have a gentle little twist and soft. Guys, if you've got back injuries, please be careful when we flexing and rotating the spine. All right? But if you have a healthy, happy back, this could feel really good. Good. And then walk your hands back closer, all the way in towards you and lifting yourself up. And let's have you, well, you know what? Why don't we swap reformers? That would work, right? Yeah. So if we switch reformers and we can keep facing him. Yeah, that's great.

There we go. They're exactly the same. That's it. Just to confuse matters. M and M, here we go. So you have one hand behind the head. Good. Stay supported. This right. So remember the queuing is to get length, right? Keeping it out of the hip, flex as much as possible. You can secure the salt over here and I'm going to hold hand, goes behind the head. Great, good work. And off we go.

Inhale and exhale and watch you. We just coming to this long line, nothing more and inhale and exhale to go ahead. Remember abdominals. It's all about that abdominals. Inhale. That's the commitment we made in the beginning of the lesson and very good and they're coming in and exhale for last one and inhale and coming up and fat. Cool. So keep the pelvis still. Try. Rotate the thoracic. Good. Flex. The thoracic is an ability that we are looking inside now. Yeah, comedian and grind.

And then we go back to the center and take it down onto the form. Have your stretch, well deserved. Good. And this arm you're going to reach it. I'm going to bring it in line and the head back in line with the spine. Good. So we're going to go into our rotation again. You want to keep the pelvis stall, put your hand down onto the frame, lift yourself up so you're more neutral. Mary, lift yourself up a little bit, then rotate and then you can go down. If you want a little bit more stretch, then you can lie forward.

So I'd prefer it if we, if we don't rotate ourselves when we are already flexed down. So we first lifted up into a neutral position there. Just have a gentle, gentle little stretch up there. Good Creek. Okay. Are we gonna walk the hands back? Lifting yourselves up? Good. And relax. You're good. Okay. So you can hop off for a sec. Are we going to finish off for the back extension? All right.

Not Though we didn't do any back extension, but uh, we need a little bit more. All right, so I'm going to add one. Just have one spring on one red on this reformer, right? You guys can, if you want to get back to your, your spouse's gonna clear. No rules. All right, so we're going to go into a pulling straps. So I'm going to get you lying head down on the side of the headrest. Alright. And you want to find a comfortable position just on the edge of your rib cage. Right? And we're going to take hold.

And what I'd like to do is I like to hold onto the actual clip Mandy, so the actual metal clip. And then from there I wrap my hands once. Is that Okay Mary? Cool. Super. Yeah. Okay, so lower the body down. So let's start this in a little bit of thoracic flection. Okay. So we are not extended yet, so we're not extended. The head is down, the thumbs stay forward. So we're going to take the legs together. Let's give the legs a little bit of life. Why? Because we want hip extensors.

So we take a breath in. On an exhale we start lifting up the head and slowly reverse articulating upper spine and pulling those arms all the way down to your sides. Great. And bringing it down. Inhale. Good. So we are going to work. Exhale cause we've got resistance for this extension and exhale as we come up. So keep the leg, slide the active. So what I don't want to see, I don't want you to look like a banana when your head is coming up.

Then your legs are coming up, right? Try keep your legs in one position when you go down and coming down all the way. Good. So those legs are extending arms straight behind you and exhale coming up. Good. Find a long line. That's it. Super good. Opening up the shoulders. So that would be my first, first thing I would look for and coming back down.

So often we so tight across the chest and the shoulders that when we extend, we still in a rounded shoulder position and then we're not getting the thoracic extension we want. So we're going to go again. Exhale, make sure we square those collarbones off. So the Rhomboids have to come in slightly then man, you good. So the Rhomboids are those muscles in between those shoulder blades. Lovely. And bringing it forward all the way. How are we going to repeat one more time?

Ah, exhale. Bring it all the way up. Good. So what happened to the ad abduction? Remember we had those heels touching together earlier that seemed to have disappeared and Brea had forward. So let's just do one more for Mandy's heels. All right, good. Mary, you're gonna always do it. Some back extension. I know you love the Rhomboids being worked and here we go and let's go. Ah, so we drawing. So we've got lots, we've got back extensors, the scaps are drawing together with the Rhomboids and we hold careful of hyperextending your neck. I like this man, he good and bringing the arms forward. Ah, and unwrap the please just re hook the straps there for me. And again, we're just going to push back into our wrist position on the box.

And that's a good place to be. And guys, when you come up out of the back extension into your wrist position, we are obviously going into deep flection. So those work muscles are stretching out. So when you come out of your wrist position, it is so important that you roll up with your spine. So let's take it from there and we're going to roll it up so that those back muscles don't get a surprise and goes straight back into extension then that's better. Is that okay? So you always want to roll it out. Cool.

And you guys can hop off off the boxes and let's finish off where we started with a roll down. Right? So I think you were facing that way though. Correct? So we're going to stand parallel. I had to just give a little spread of those toes. So the feet are the hip width apart, palms are facing, your fire's thumbs are facing forward. So it really looks like the, the position we ended up with our pulling straps and we're going to take a breath in, zipping up. Exhale, dropping the sacrum head becomes heavy. Good without compressing unit. Pull their shoulder blades back. Slight you good?

Always a little bit of work there. Keeping the knees soft. Take a deep breath in and exhale as we roll it back up one little bit at a time. Keep a little bit of scoop, tilt, tilt, talk. So it's all good. Shoulders back a little bit there, Mary. Cool. And I'm just going to soften the rubes drew up in the sacrum. One more time, both of you inbred and art breath.

Okay. And in breath and out breath. Cut and hold and relax. Thank you ladies. Great. Thank you. [inaudible].

Comments

1 person likes this.
Really awesome. Loved the control and the cueing. Thanks so much!
1 person likes this.
Deliberate pass is very challenging! Loved the cueing.
1 person likes this.
Lovely. always amazing to see how deep you can go with a slower pace and lots of focus. Agree cueing is great.
1 person likes this.
I thought it said no props. The box counts as a prop. It's annoying when you are following a video then realize it uses props when it didn't say it does. Especially when I don't have that prop.
Melissa most professional Reformers come with a box so we don't include it as an addition nor think of it as a prop. You will find that it is common in most of our Reformer classes to pull out a box (so you know ahead of time). I thank you for bringing it to our attention that we may need to change this. I am curious, do you have a Reformer that you bought from Balanced Body , Stott, Gratz or another equipment manufacturer that supplies studios? Is your Reformer an in home version. This would be very useful information for us. Thank you!
Kristi, mine is a home version. Aeropilates from QVC. The box would be a separate purchase of $130. Are you telling me that all the reformer programs you have on this site has the box incorporated because the studio would have it? I'll be unmotivated to use the site if that's the case because I'd stop midway because I don't have the box.
Paola Maruca
once again a great class from Pilates Anytime. Through you, Kristi, I would like to thank the Pilates Anytime family once again for the amazing work you constantly put in each class you offer to us. From an instructor point of view, you are a wonderful source of new info and a great tool to improve my teaching skills.
All of you are true professionals and I feel very lucky to keep learning thanks to you
grazie
1 person likes this.
Paola M , I totally agree with your comments! Btw : my name is Paola as well and I'm Italian myself too living in La Jolla,California. The classes from Pilates anytime have enhanced my teaching tremendously, have made them fun to attend to, with lots of variations and most of all thanks to all the cueings given , to all the modified version of classical exercises, Pilates has become more fun to experience from a client point of view and accessible to anyone, no age excluded. Yes, thanks Kristi for all that and thanks to all the instructors involved.
Paola L.
Paola Maruca
Paola L....we should email each other :) I lived in the US for 10 years .... not in sunny CA but Washington DC...:)....
Thanks Melissa! I am going through all of our Reformer Classes to mark which ones use the box. So far most of them do with a few exceptions. Traditionally, the Box comes into play very early into a Reformer program (which is why we consider it part of the Reformer rather than a prop). It is more common to use the box than it is not. That said many times it is only brought in for one or two exercises. It's possible you could modify those few exercises and still take the class. Here are a few classes you that do not used a box you may want to try: 459, 491517. The last one has a Jump board as a prop thou
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