Class #825

Quick Wunda Chair

25 min - Class
74 likes

Description

Rachel is here once again with this short Wunda Chair class that pays particular attention to the connection of the soles of the feet to the rest of the body as a means of heating up your whole body and working deeply with the powerhouse. With a well established set up right in the beginning, you'll likely find all the exercises more effective.
What You'll Need: Wunda Chair

About This Video

Transcript

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Welcome class, everyone to please any time. My name is Rachel Taylor Siegel and I'm from the polarity center in Boulder, Colorado. We're going to do a chair, low chair class, um, 30 40 minutes. So with my two claims. Thank you. Alright, so we're going to start standing in front of your chair please. In parallel position and what you have arms down by your sides. Take a deep breath, exhale and shed tension.

You're gonna be in gravity so you feel the earth pulling through your feet. We need to lift your 10 toes up and feel the fact that when you lift your 10 toes up, your arch tones, your inner thighs tone your abdominal muscles tone a little bit and you're on that beautiful, um, trampoline of between the big toe joint, the little toe joint and the cocaine use bone. So you have that supportive power that comes up through the ankle, knee, hip, pelvic floor, up, all the way through to the diaphragm. You can feel that sense. So when you put your toes back down, you don't, don't lean on them, but stay on that tripod and leave your toes there for balancing. Okay. So pick them up one more time and keep them keeping them up.

Try and Relevate try and rise up, keeping your toes up [inaudible] and come back down. So start out a little bit small. Keep your toes up. Fifth and fourth one and fill that inner thigh feeling right through there. Coming up into your belly. [inaudible] right. So it's like you have a wall behind you and you're feeling nicely done.

Nice thing. Yes, exactly. And lower down. Very good. So we're going to have a sense of that feeling as we do throughout the entire chair class. Okay. So we're going to start with the foot ankle. So you're gonna bring your hands to the outer edges of your chair, right? Follow the foot comes up just to the side of the, um, uh, split paddle.

You push down and bring just the top of the Tibia to a stable place on the front edge of the chair and keep your hands down with your spine rounded. To begin, right? So as you inhale, you're going to press down on the paddle and as you exhale, you're going to permit the paddle up. And as you push down, think about cupping your heel downwards to the ball. And as you bring the paddle, as you let the paddle spring bring the paddle up, think about stretching your heel behind you. So you're going to cup instead of, instead of only pushing down, you're going to cup your heel down into yes and feel the sole of the foot. Very beautiful. And then as the panel rises, you're gonna reach your heel away. So that sense of sole support is going to come up underneath your hamstring, into the pelvis, especially on that working side. And then please untuck your sits bonds just a little.

And instead of pushing your calf back, bring me your femur back, your hamstring back, right? So as far from the stability of your knee as possible, you then you feel your tummy pull in from the sole of the foot. And then when you reach back your hamstring, you feel your tummy lengthen and pulling in more. So you have more. So as so then from that belly foot position, lift both arms and cross them in front of you. Eyes up a bit. Keep your hamstring pulling back.

Yes gently so that you feel your belly lift up. Squeeze your arms gently together and pull them into your body blades down. Eyes Up. Good. And as you continue, feel the sole of the foot talking to your left sole of your foot. So both feet. Exactly. Nicely done ladies. Last one. And exhale. Good. Round forward. Put your hands on either side of the feet, lift your foot off and change feet. Good. Okay, so you have you push down gently, you praise the top of your Tibia right there at the edge and very sturdy.

Okay, so the arms stay down and straight. The spine is rounded and you begin close to the foot bar. So you're going to feel the muscles that are right next to the boat, to the pad. Start to contract to push the foot paddle down and the muscles right next to the pad are going to be the first to touch it on the way. So as you push down, you cup your heel under like almost bird on a perch. And as you exhale, you pull your toes in one direction or the springs do and your heel goes in the other nice. Don't work too hard. You're just requesting this. Yeah, you're concentrating, you're working hard in your brain. That's your control ology. And as you, um, keep that foot garnering strength like that, you reaching both sits bones out.

So you kind of take your pelvis out of hostage and reach back here, standing femur bone almost behind your calf so that you have that lift, right? Which should make you feel your tummy come right zooming up the front of your body, which lets you lift your arms. You have all that leg and belly and pelvic support, right? And your arms do something for you. They pressed together and you pull them into your shoulder girdle and you can even pick your girdle up ever so slightly so that when you breathe, yes, you breathe huge, right? Fill it up.

So when the soul is changing, exhaling as you let the paddle up, inhaling, as you push down, you're reaching your hamstring back. [inaudible] letting the sitz bones rise. One more hot. Exhale, put the hands down to the sides of the seat. Let this foot come up in the panel. Come up very beautiful. And now using those feet legs we'll do for work. So you're sitting same springs, a high and a low toes apart.

Heels together, shoulder width, Kay. And we'll start. Let's start with the arms down by the sides, pushing in so that you can inside that arm pressure, you can grow tall and then take your foot from all the foot ankle and feel your heel bone kind of curving its way through the arch into the ball of the foot so that the tissue right next to the foot bar padding is very active. [inaudible] see one is many metal tarsals on there as possible. At least the fourth trying for the fifth. All right, and let see if you can begin the gesture with those arches. So the arches are going to start down. And when they do, you feel the belly rise up. Inhale, exhale, permitted up. Nice.

Don't work too hard. Breathe in and breathe out. Nice. You feel your sitz bones going street down or maybe ever so slightly forward. Right? And your arches more than your ball, your foot. Nicely done. Good from that length. How the springs feel to you. Good.

Bring your arms up, press them together truly and pull them into you and lift up just a little bit. So do you like if you were an accordion, your shoulder girdle is the top part. Your pelvic girdles the bottom. We're pulling your spine apart. Yeah. Gorgeous. Last one. Hot. Exhale. Bird on a perch. So you wrap your arches around.

You're trying to get your heel and the sole of the foot that's closer to your heel onto the fabric of the paddle. As soon as possible. Inhale the sole wraps, the heels go down. So walk backwards if you would in just a little nicely done and exhale come up. Good. So as you inhale, Danny, you push down. It's like you're taking your diaphragm with you and as you exhale, ah, excellent. In with the air.

And so if you pull your diaphragm with the pooling of the salt of the feet, what then gets to the opposition is the squeezing of the arms in the lifting and do less work. Right? Stand on your feet. Very beautiful. Two more. A, you keep those heels under, under, under as you come back up, up, up. Good. And this last time when you come up, really let that paddle take you as high as it will. Could it bring your knees to your arms? Good. And bring your belly deeper into your spine. You know that equipment goes where it will, but you're picturing it. Okay.

And then the heels go on and flex your feet and you flex your toes up and try and bring your big toes towards one another. They may not touch, but you're asking heels towards one another, even even as they push down. Okay. Arms can be here or if you wish, we can take them up here and you can feel a little bit of, um, traction to help lift you up through what you've been building. So the heels go down in a way from you pose to your diaphragm for your inhale. And the exhale is squished out of you by the springs rising up. Very good. Inhale, Nessel your head back into your palms and let your palms lifted away from exhale. Exactly. So nice in with the air.

Open the souls of the feet and feel the opening of the souls. Give you the ability to shed the tension and yes, and let you have the sense of the breath expanding out into your rib cage between your blades. [inaudible] ex. Good enough of that toes on. Push the pedal down to your legs are together parallel and your thighs are parallel to the floor. Okay, so you can come back down to your arms, to your side if you wish. And you're going to do the foot ankle once again. So as you push down, your heel is going to come around like your carving space. And as you let the paddle come forward in front of you, it's going to stretch the sole of the foot away from and you cup and you stretch. And so you're texturizing the sole of the foot.

Keep your fourth minute tarsal down. Don't worry about how big your range is. Feel instead the power of the arch coming up through the hamstrings, inner thighs, pelvic floor, low belly, pulling gently on the diaphragm. Good. Stay with pointed feet, which pushed the paddle down, maybe two there. And then keep the paddle there and lower and lift your heels. The paddle stays nice. Tommy's in sits bones are down and the soul is doing the same thing it's been doing from the very beginning.

So it's like if there's a spine in the sole of your foot, so you're going spine, all the articulating the arch. Nicely done. I'm going to let go. Beautiful. Beautiful. And you're breathing big anyhow. Nice. We have one more down and up in gorgeous and you let the paddle rise easy and you exhale every atom of done and come stepping forward. And we're going to do the standing push down. So you're in Palase v in front of your chair and you're going to face it. That's okay.

And in your Palase v lift your 10 toes up for just a moment and feel that beautiful trampoline sole that is now more powerful than it was the first time you felt it. Well, your toes down for balance but not weight support and feeling that the heel, the big toes reaching and the heels reaching for each other gives you everything that you just got from the last exercises. The arms rise up. Inhaling, you curl your brain, your four had nicely done. Straight arms hit the paddle and you exhale and you go down all the way. Inhaling and exhale. Let the springs bring you up until they close and go down and up maybe three times. So as you pushed down, did those springs feel okay to you? Amy will that first little moment there, but they were a little hard but you didn't. Okay.

So what you want to feel is last time down, stay down and staying down. You've got your hips on those feet that you worked so hard on and you're doing a handstand right now. You're going to bend your elbows three times briskly. Exhale for a couple. Inhale for the third one and then resist just a teensy bit, letting the spring lift you up and make it articulate your spine erect into a posture that your Tommy then takes over shoulder blades. Go down, arms go forward. I'm sorry, I end up, you are right and open. Exhale and nicely done. Standing right there.

Bring your right foot up onto the chair. Paddle for the pumping. Standing, pumping. Hmm. Is that too heavy for you? Okay. So let's change the springs maybe down a little bit. Let's go to a three and a three. What do you think you have it in a Tutu. Okay, let's go down into a tune from the tops and the bottom. Ours we are as we paint the numbers on. Okay. So we're going to um, bring the arms to here, right? Follow the foot comes on too. And when you put the foot there, as you approach the paddle with your foot, put your foot on there as if you're writing a poem and it, every cell of the ball of the foot has something to do for you.

Something to say to the paddle. And as you start pushing down, the arch is gonna tone and be that muscular muscles that are doing the work. So he'll stays a little highish, but you're pushing inhale down and up, and you can build speed so that eventually perhaps you do four for an inhale and for, for an exhale if that feels good, toes are relaxed, weight is on the trampoline. Nice. And it should make your belly scoop for you. So that's when you know you're right. Okay, so to prove that you're right, take your arms up and open and up and close. Nicely down ladies and take it up and rest. Beautiful. Let's do the other side.

So you're in your good foot position. Yep. The arches are working for you, Tommy. And straight up comes the knee and place the ball of the foot. Arms are crossed, pressing, pulled in and lifting. [inaudible] that lifting so much that we even notice, but lifting enough to free you to breathe. You Start Your arches down and as you explore that poetry of down and up and it's support coming up your leg into your hip, into your pelvis, and up your spine, nicely done, right? You could look over there and see people chatting. Right?

And you could look out over here while the leg is still working. Right and taking the ocean. Exactly. And you feel the souls come right up your legs into your hips and you picture your hamstring further behind you. Then your calf. All right. Similar to that rapping. Last one you did looks instead of arms so you can bring your foot down.

Very nice and arms down gorgeous. So let's do the upside down. Push up. Okay. So you're going to push your paddle to the floor. Hands. Yes. Go ahead and put your hands on the seat. That's always safest for people at home. Especially toes apart. Heels together.

You can do it in Polonia CV. Now we okay on these springs. Let's be, we all know that eventually we should do it with no springs. So we know we can do it on these lighter bits. Okay. So you have your hands stand from before and you've got your legs, your soul of your foot, which is more important than the ball of your big toe joint like you, right? And it's going to be the portal through which the springs come up to your belly.

Inhaling, the spring bar pushes through your arch and up your leg bones through your pelvis and exhaling down. Good. And as the paddle pushes you up on that strong arm shoulder stand, you bend your spine and as you go back down, you try and resist going down so that you articulate from bottom to top. So going up, you articulate top to bottom, put more weight on your paddle. If you can see Christie and I had a girl in your arches on the paddle. Nicely done. Let your tailbone curl down. That a girl.

One more up. Easy. Neck and shoulders. Strong feet and hips. Good. Last one down. Milk it. Even now when you get to the floor, put your hands on the back edge of your chair. Lower both heels [inaudible] and stretch back without pulling the chair with you. Stretch your hips back, your spine, your arms, so that you might perhaps get stretch, not only on, you could drop your heels. Yeah, you can get a stretch on your calves and soles on your hamstrings, on your butt, on your back, on your shoulders, on your forearms. You know, you could do a lot.

They're very nice now when your tummy and come back up and you're going to roll up into standing, you're going to put the right foot up on your seat for the up and down. Okay? So your bottom sole of your foot has to be very powerful. Okay, so it's, it's like you're cupping the heel bone through the foot into the ball of the foot. Almost like you don't need the paddle elbows by ears lift up and tall and your hamstrings are reaching further back than you think, right?

Maybe yes, as if almost they could go behind your calf excelling, not your shoulders, right? But your hamstrings and your thigh and down and up. Inhale to go up. You feel the right arch giving you a similar support as the left. Beautiful. And you're gonna reach back. Untack your sits again, reach back, right and put more weight on the paddle. The higher up you go, the more weight you could put on the pad. All nicely done. Good. We'll go down and up one more time and stay up and step to the seat. Nice.

At the top you're going to change legs reaching back. That's a low one. Sorry. Right. Ish. There we go. That's okay. Exhale down and inhale up. So as you continue, you feel the soles of both feet like Roman aqua ducks. You know, like so powerful, right?

And you straighten your standing leg and you reach your femur sits bone behind you. Nicely done. Last one up and now down and stay there, but round your spine forward. Put your hands on either side of your chair. Very good. And we're going to do climb the mountain front. Okay, so now as we do, um, climb the mountain, you're going to let your Shin come, skimming the front edge of your seat and it goes swiftly. Inhale for couple, exhale for a couple good feel that spring come through the sole of your foot. Like you have to keep your door open in your arch.

Good. Try and pull the chair seat a little to you and it will lift your spine up and rounded. Very nice. Last one and stand it down to the floor. Change. Eat. Okay, good. Okay, so the hands are down. Thumbs down too.

And as you begin skimming your Shin to the front edge, back up and down, you're going to pull the chair just a little bit, you know, in towards your body up off of itself. Right? And feel the scoop of your belly just automatically. And as you continue your last two breasts, you're going to put more weight on the bottom. Bottom arch. Like stand. Yes. And let that knee come up each time. Sorry. And then flip down other foot down and now we're going to do the upside down.

Push up. Okay. So you've got your toes apart. Your arms are really beautifully strong from the last exercise. Wait, we just did that. So we're pausing for a moment. You want to get off for a minute? No. Wait. So we just finished there. So I want to go up and down. I want to do the up and down side. So we paused for a minute and we, yes, it's five 30 so I'm just thinking, so we should finish it instead.

Um, let's see. So we came down from the climb down the mountain. So let's, so here you are, step off to the floor and let the paddle up carefully. Nicely done. Good. Very nice. So let's do two more things. Okay. So we're gonna come around and come to a one high spring or three or four, and we're going to do the reverse tricep press into the twist on hip for, maybe we'll need to bring you a little bit further forward.

So you have room for your feet unless you want to use the wall to put your feet on it. Does that feel good to you? Those springs? Yeah, I think so. Okay. Yeah. So when you, so as you sit, as you sit down, you're going to have that lift that you felt from the very beginning of the class. So you sit down and you're going to bring your legs up in front of you and the souls are contracted, right? Because you've done that to them. They have now worked that way. You bring your arms behind you and you inhale knuckles facing forward. Good.

And you come around and it's the arch rather than the quads and neath and you inhale, push down and exhale and then bend your arms. Exhaling for a couple years, getting back enough in hell for a couple bins and exhale for a couple of Ben's good, nice big open chest too. You're doing great. It's very hard sprain. Um, I'm good. You're good. Last one. Good. And then straight and your arms and let this paddle rising curl you forward.

Good. Collarbone over breastbone, breastbone and all the way up. Breastbone over rib cage, rib cage up. Bend your knees for a minute. Take a breath. You can skip back over there and then we'll going to do the twist. So your legs are straight out in front of you, your arms come out to the side.

So this twist, pick up and twist your spine and your lungs and curve and arc up and inhaling your breath. Palm faces his ceiling and as you push down on one hand, the other hand pushes the ceiling away. Exhale, [inaudible] lift your shins up, right. Bend good and return up. And let's come all the way up and sit. Arms out to the side. Sorry, maybe I should have choreographed that one a little bit better. Extend your legs out to the front. Twist to the left. Inhaling. Good. Let your palm go up to the ceiling. Flexed wrist. You arch up and over, but you twist so that you're standing shoulder.

Yes, you try and get your rib cage up on top of it and then let this spring bring you back up all the way and we'll do one more set if you would. Exhaling to the sides. Gorgeous. Here we go. Inhale, twist. Good. Keep the inner thighs squeezing and the sole of the foot giving that to you. Nice twist the rib cage. Look over your right shoulder at your hand.

Good. You want to add three pups? Yes. Keep the legs sturdy and lifted. Beautiful. And the last pump straightened your arm. Squeeze me and hold me good. And let the paddle push you up. Erecting your posture. Exhaling your breath. Squeeze me. Uh, there side.

Last time in with the air twists year-round. Squeeze me up, Amy. That a girl. Exhale. Good. Get that shoulder. Get Your Chin over your shoulder and your shoulder over your risk. Bob Pump three times brisk book with control. Push the ceiling. Oh away. Squeeze my hands. Curl up. Reach the spine to the ceiling as you lengthen the arms to the side.

Bend your knees and rest. Nice. Nicely done. Very good. So let's stand at the back and we'll do a push down from the back to finish. All right, so I think you need to go down. No. Um No. Maybe that's okay. Pleases are good. Is that what you're saying? No heavier than that. Okay, well we'll go there. Just be careful cause if it's a little light, oh no, I wasn't going to go lower.

Okay. So here you are. You can do Polonius v and you've got your balance on those arches coming up the bones into the hips at that tucking right. And you feel for that nice lengthy tummy. You inhale your arms up the sides, and you curl over the exhaling, reaching forward for the paddle. Good. And you do a handstand on straight arms, but you also do a leg stand.

Inhale, push, push it down. Exhale, let it come up. A little less shoulder girdle change and a little more spinal change. So as you go down, you're looking to all the right and as you come up, you're looking from the bottom up and you don't have to fake it. It happens to you. So as long as you keep your paddle up, your arms into your shoulders, good. Go down. One more time. Coming up last time, milk it up. Beautiful Christie.

Beautiful Amy. And then keep your souls right, which lets you relax your back. Take both arms forward all the way up, elbows to ears, blades down, soles of the feet. Exhale, open the arms to the side and down to your hips. Good. You too. Very nice. Fat. Yes. Thank you. [inaudible].

Comments

1 person likes this.
Rachel's Chair class demonstrates brilliantly how to better integrate the arches of the feet while doing the foot work on the chair. Beautiful cuing and clear instructions make this workout truly enjoyable. Thank you Rachel!
3 people like this.
Too much time "guessing" on spring settings. That should be determined before filming and should be clearly stated for each exercise.
Thanks Patty ~ The truth is (all of our classes, save one or two new ones in which the instructor was able to gather their own students) are in fact real classes taught in real time. The visiting instructor has time to play on the equipment prior to filming a class for us, but we do not give them the benefit of rehearsing with their students (they usually meet minutes before starting). We also think saying spring tension is important. That said, when instructors are specific about the springs of our Balanced Body equipment, we get loads of questions about how it relates to STOTT, Peak, Gratz, Pilates Power Pro, Allegro.... We will try to do better with stating whether or not the springs should be light, medium or heavy, but given our format, it may be that the teachers have to continue to sort it out on the fly based on the student abilities at that moment. We appreciate the reminder to be as clear as possible with how the spring tension should feel and what the form should be.

6 people like this.
I think that it is important to mention that the spring tension will vary according to the weight of the person using the chair as well as the apparatus. I do understand that it is important to state the spring but as an imstructor myself I think that it's improtant for the individual using the video as a training tool to understand the chair and the spring settings before attempting to do a challenging exercise.
2 people like this.
I agree with Lee, I have taught on 4 different models of chairs and each time the spring setting may be different. Those with a solid understanding of the chair understand like reformer, basic spring settings for leg vs arm work. The emphasis of this class has less to do with spring strength and more to do with tensegrity of the feet into the body. Thanks for sharing this Rachel!! Lovely!
Tracy M
9 people like this.
"Put your foot on there as if writing a poem". There are beautiful cues, and then there are BEAUTIFUL cues!

Rachel does a great job of showing how every part of you should be involved. Great class, thank you!
1 person likes this.
Amazing class! Thanks Rachel! Miss you a ton.
What a wonderful class, great cues, imagery and flow. Please have more classes with Rachel!
Such amazing word pictures that Rachel creates! This taps into the mind-body experience and makes that Pilates hour fly by! Thanks Rachel
2 people like this.
Beautiful session. I love your gentle spirit while displaying depth and confidence. I actually appreciated the spring adjustments along the way - done safely with ease - no need to be perfect.
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