Class #878

Strengthening Cadillac

50 min - Class
494 likes

Description

Courtney Miller is back! This full-body workout incorporates strength training with balance exercises and of course, the usual precise cueing and innovative exercise series you've come to expect from Courtney. Have your trapeze and triangle handles nearby to do the pike and the arms series with balance exercises. You'll also get some extra "seat" work in this class! Be ready to work out and have fun once you press play.
What You'll Need: Cadillac

About This Video

Oct 29, 2012
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Hi, I'm Courtney Miller and I'm so excited to be back on plot is anytime today I've designed a Cadillac workout for you that will work your whole body. It'll get your heart rate up. Um, I'm, you'll definitely perspire and um, we'll do a combination of strength training with balance exercises and we'll absolutely do some flexibility work as well. So join me. Um, today I've got a balanced body Cadillac and I'm going to begin with the roll down bar. I've got it loaded from the top, taking a seat with my feet against the poles I have my entire foot against, including the heel of my foot. My hands go onto the roll down bar with the sums to the inside of the eye hooks and my fingers to the outside. I begin by lengthening my spine. You may have to bend your knees here to find your neutral spine. Please feel free to do that. Let's just start with some breathing.

Inhale through the nose and exhale to press down onto the bar and feel the spine grow taller and longer. Inhale, releasing the bar up to more like that. Exhale as you press down, feeling the shoulder blades glide down the spine. Inhale through the nose. Last time I exhale through the mouth, connecting through my ribs growing tall, or as I press and inhale, the bar releases up. Adding a roll down. As I exhale, I press down onto the bar. I begin by rolling my pelvis away from my femurs, pressing my feet into the Poles, getting my lower back to press down into the mat. First my middle back, and then my head chest is open. Shoulders down. On an exhale, I'll bring the bar towards my sternum. Inhale, extend it to more like this. This is more of a breathing exercise than a strength exercise. As I exhale, I close and connect through my ribs, leaving the arms long.

I initiate by nodding my Chin and lifting my head on an exhalation. I roll through the spine, one vertebrae at a time, all the way over into a spinal stretch without letting my shoulders come up by my ears. And then on an inhale, I rebuild my spine from the base finishing at the top of my head. Exhale, be careful on this one. Everyone. I see this a lot. People initiate the movement with the cervical and the upper thoracic. Instead, stay long and exhale to roll back from your pelvis. The rest of the spine will follow my waistband touches down my middle back, my shoulder blades, and then my head. Exhale to pull.

Three times more of a breathing exercise than a strength. Exercise. Neutral spine relaxed through the hips and pelvis. Nod the chin, lift the head on an inhale. Exhale rural one vertebra at a time. All the way over. Watch those shoulders breathe into rollout last time here. So it's the pelvis that initiates the movement and I'm down keeping my neck long and my shoulders down the back three times I pull with an exhalation.

Extend the arms. Now just pause here for a moment. The arms are extended, but the are connected. So just be mindful of that. My arms are long, but only the length of my actual arm. No protracting forward. Now have the chin lift the head. Exhale, ABS, draw. Ian. As I roll up and over into a stretch, read into lengthen up and let's add some extension. I'll XCL roll from the base of my spine. Pelvis leads the way. Inhale as I pull the bar towards my sternum is what's lifting.

So I'm initiating from my mid thoracic and then length and nod the chin. Exhale, go all the way up and over in heel length and it feels so good. We roll back. Sure. Inhale, I keep the weight of my head on the mat as I lift my chest up, nodding the chin. Exhale, roll through the spine to come up and over and inhale. Last time. Exhale, rolling the pelvis away from the front of the femurs and from neutral I lift into extension and wide elbows. Be careful of the cervical spine.

Lengthen the arms, nod the chin, exhale all the way up and over and inhale to rebuild. Well done. Let's take our hand to the center of the bar and come into a sideline position so I don't have to actually move my feet here. I just rotate. My top foot will come a little bit higher, however, so it's about hip height. I'll start sideline in the center of the bed.

My hand is in the center of the pole. I'm going to begin with my pinky down and my head resting onto my arm. Breathe into prepare. Press into your feet. That's your foundation. Exhale as you lift that I am pushing into my bottom hand. I'm working more range of motion here than strength axial as I lift up and then he'll down last time like this. Exhale up and inhale down. Adding on. Turn your palm up on your bottom arm.

Exhale, lift the whole shape up and inhale. The whole shape goes down. Exhale, press into the feet and lift up and inhale down. Last time, stay connected through the shoulder on that top side and inhale down, adding a circular movement to it and a little more endurance. Inhale to prepare. Exhale, lift up, sweep the arm, look at the bar open, and then take it down again. We axial lift up, sweep the arm down, look at the bar, open the arm and release down. One more time. Press into the feet, find your lift, sweep the arm in front of the body open and take it down.

There's one more part to this series. Press into the feet. We're going to eat. Inhale to lengthen. Lift. Exhale, pull elbow to hip, one and two each time. Trying to get a little higher. Three and four last time. Five extend the arm, lift an inch and take the whole thing all the way down to rest. Excellent. Let's try the other side. So as I turned around, I switched to my opposite hand is on the bar.

My lower foot is the one that's in front and my higher foot about hip height is behind. I've got my toes pushing into the bar, starting line in the center of the bed. You can see from this angle how I'm not collapsing into my ribs, but instead staying neutral, keeping the hand down for three per se as you lift and lengthen lower. Remember here we're thinking of range of motion, flexibility. Be Mindful of that top shoulder. Set it down the back. When you activate through those lats on your top side, it better enables you to connect through your obliques, turning the palm up, three lefts per press and lift one and take it down.

Yes to really stretch through that bottom arm as well. And press. That's three. Here's our circle. So I push into my feet, find the foundation, lift up, I turn to the bar, circle the arm open, and take the whole shape down. Two more. Press into the feet. Lift, open the arm and a release. Last time. Harass into the fetus a lift. So we be in the arm, up and around, and a releasing down. Let's finish it. Inhale to lift up. Exhale to pull five for a little higher each time. Three, two elbow to hip one. Maybe you can lift an inch and take the whole thing all the way down to arrest.

Excellent. That has my obliques and my spine pretty warmed up. I'm going to move the bar down. I've got the cross bar right in the middle, so if I was standing, it would be about shoulder height lying on my back with my head towards the springs. Remember when you're on the Cadillac that the positioning of your body will change your experience of the springs. So the further I move away from where the spring is connected, the heavier it'll feel. I'm going to begin right about here.

So my hands are over my shoulders, feet, hip, distance apart, tailbone down. I'll begin by just pressing the bar towards my thighs on an exhale. Okay. And resisting up two more like this. I set the shoulders and press through my whole arm and back. Even though the bars in my hands, it's not my hands that are doing the work.

It's coming from my back and backup adding flection here. I'm going to begin this movement by pressing into the bar first, not the chin. Once I've got that tension, the springs. Okay. That's my cue to flex up. Inhale as I go back down. So you see it's not my opera body doing the pushing, it's the flection.

The higher I curl up, the further the bar goes towards my thighs. Nodding the chin, pushing into the bar. Axial as I flex my spine, the bar moves down to my thighs and inhale as quite challenging. One more like this. Start by pressing into the bar, nodding the chin, exhale and inhaling. The whole shape down. Let's add some single leg variations here. Extending one leg long pelvic stability will be very important on this one.

Press into the bar. Nod Your Chin. Exhale as you curl up. Lift the FI. Now stay in your crunch. The leg will lower and we'll pull the leg up to the bar. Shh. Three times one, two, three, like a rolling pin. I push up to my knees and then releasing the whole shape down.

Let's try the other side. Nodding the chin, extending the leg long. Press into the bar and flexing up. As I lift my thigh bone to the bar, staying in flection. The bar will rise up as the leg lowers and I pull one, two, and a three pressed the knees and take the whole thing down. It's a very challenging core work and remember, you can always move your body back or the bar down to re reduce the resistance.

Tricep extensions, pull the elbows into the sides. Draw the legs up one at a time into to tabletop. Pelvis is neutral. Nod the chin before the head comes up. Exhale, yeah, arms and legs go away. Bring them in. Let's press out 10 times. We can do it. 10 banded in, hug the inner thighs together. Tailbone stays heavy.

Work that pause when the springs are extended along. Keep the elbows hugging into the body. Final four and the three and two last time. A little hold if we can. Yeah, and release. Lowering the feet. Good job. We're going to take this into hundreds. The bar goes under the thighs. Think of a trapeze again, if you need to adjust your body by moving forward or back now it would be the time to do it. I'm going to anchor my tailbone in a neutral position.

Hold onto the bar so it's between my thumbs and point your fingers and lower the bard below my knees. Nodding the my Chin to prepare. Exhale, curling up. So in this position, the bar is not touching my thighs. If it was, that would be a lot easier, but I'm pushing the bar away, setting my shoulders down, my back to do so. Opening my collar bones, pulsing down for hundreds. Inhale, exhale and exhale. The more I can push the bar away from my thighs. The I know that I'm studying my shoulders down, my back and curling up nice and high in through the nose. Okay.

Three more sets in through the nose. Out through the mouth. Okay. And the last set? Yeah. Okay. Hold lifted away from the thighs and are released down.

Excellent. The feet can come out and we can come all the way up. Taking the chirpies on. So I've got the chirpies clipped on and hanging about one third from the back of the equipment. Today I'm going to grab a sticky and place it here on the lower part of the trapeze.

On the sling you may have a piece of equipment that has a fuzzy here or something a little bit softer. If that's the case, then you won't need bess. This next series is all about suspension. As we suspend ourselves using this Rippeys me the upper body, the weakest link, the weakest point will be the lower back. So remember that transversus abdominis. It's a three dimensional connection. So naval in and feel it wrapping and supporting all the way around to the back body. Let's get started. So I'll begin. Kneeling fingers are spread. Middle Finger points straight ahead.

Taking one leg back and placing my ankle onto the slang and taking the other leg back to me. So this is what I mean. If I allow my body to bow down, I'm gonna feel this in my low back. So stay lifted and stay connected from here. Five pushups. Inhale the band, harass up. One, two, keeping the head in line with the spine. Sorry, four and five. Let's take a quick little break. Maybe a child's pose. That exercise looks a little more challenging than it is.

Don't forget that the trapeze is supporting a portion of your body weight, so it's not just all upper body. Let's add on. The hands are down, fingers are spread. One at a time. We'll take the feedback from here. I'll [inaudible] my body, nodding my chin, scooping my abdominals in, pulling my feet towards my nose on an inhale. Lengthen back out. But I'm not done yet. I bring on one knee in towards my shoulder, the other knee in towards my shoulder and I'm ready to repeat and out. Find my stability. Find the stability last time and out. Pull in, pull in and release. Good job. Remember, you can always build up to the quantity that you do. Start with one and then build from there.

Now there is a variation that we can do onto the elbows and forearms. If somebody has wrist injuries, um, we'll give it a try. So I come down onto my elbows so my shoulders are right over my elbows. Again, I take the feet back supporting myself from the center, scooping the abs up and in. Let's just do the pipe variation here. Rounding my spine, pulling the hips up and in, lengthening out. Okay.

And Long. [inaudible] okay. Two more. Rounding, naval in hubs drawing up in in last time. Little hold and a well deserved break. Take a few deep breaths. Enjoy your child's pose or your shell stretch from here. I'd like to go into a series of exercises that we'll do standing on the floor using the lighter springs.

I'm going to use the yellow springs with the triangle handles, so grabbing the triangle handles and removing the roll down bar. So again, I've got this cross bar about shoulder height, one little bit shoulder higher than shoulder, wishing eyes a little bit taller maybe, but this will be perfect for today. So standing so that I've got the springs taught and remember you need to make this your own. The further back you go, the heavier it's going to feel. So I want you to play with it and make sure it is in line with what you're looking for. Feet and knees together. Inner thighs connected. I'm going to begin with a narrow row, so turning your elbows so they draw in towards your body. On an inhale, I bend my knees and my elbow simultaneously. Exhale, I press through my heels to come all the way up so it's an inhale chest open as I go down and exhale app. As I go down into the squat, I'm using the springs to help me stay up. If I didn't have them, I wouldn't be able to keep my shoulders over my hips as I am.

So it is a little bit of a game of seesaw, a little bit of a balance game. Taking it into a wide row. My elbows will go wide. Shoulders down the back, press up through my heels. If balance is challenging for you in this position, why didn't your stance exhale? So come up, close the ribs as you draw elbows back, hug the inner thighs together. We'll do one more like this can come all the way at turning palms up, adding a bicep curl variation. I'll take one like into a balanced position or a passe.

I'm going to step the leg back into a lunge, pulling my hands into a bicep curl. As I come back up to the balanced position I started, I rotate my palms out, similar to back rowing on the reformer, into the bicep curl and into the balance, curl and balance. Remember in every lunch, your knee never goes past your toes, your knee tracks over your midfoot. You use the hip extensors, the glutes and hamstrings, and of course the core muscles. Two more here by sub crow. Press, Bicep, curl, hold. I hinge my body forward.

Think Warrior three abs in and I'll pull the arms towards me and slowly open. Exhale like airplane on the long box. Exhale and inhale. One more time. Ho n and open. Draw the leg down and we're ready for the other side. Remember once I can feel very different than the other, so just take your time coming back into the lunge and bicep curl into a balance or my foot and my inner thigh. Connect palm space back. Step balanced and be mindful during your lunges to keep the knees tracking over the mid cheek and at lunge.

Lift two more. Okay. The higher the elbows during my curl, the harder holding. Hinge the body forward. Square the hips, chest down, back, leg up. Exhale, pull. Okay.

Inhale, open, exhale, and inhale and squeeze the back muscles. Two more. Last time. You can really feel how important it is to stabilize first and then recruit those strong movers, placing one of the springs down, taking it down a notch. Let's do some rotator cuff exercises, but bring a little spice to it.

So coming away from the equipment again, ensuring that the resistance is appropriate for you. The closer to the lighter, the further the more challenging. Hand on hip bend into a squat. Knees together. Parallel legs. Let's practice our external rotation four times. So I keep my elbow hugging into my body. My wrist stays strong and I have my elbow in a 90 degree position. One more, now that I've got that, the opposite leg to arm extends out.

How'd the inner thighs together for more? Four and three this is harder than it looks. Two and one bringing the foot down, horizon up, stay on the same side. Internal rotation, come away from the equipment a little bit. Hugged the elbow in hand on hip bend and get low. Let's practice it four times without the leg extended. Oh, on same principles apply. Keep the elbow hugging into the body.

90 degree bend at the elbow. Wrist is strong. Now we'll see our balance, extend the outside leg, stay low, use those core muscles, stabilize and then two more last time saving it just a little lower and rise all the way up. Let's try the other arm turning around. We'll start with our external rotation. You can see from the back now my elbows hugging into the side, hand on hip. The further the harder bending into a [inaudible] and externally rotating for four and a three.

My scapula stays flat onto my ribs, two and one opposite leg extends long and we press that for three, two and one come in, rise up, switch hands and don't forget to come away from the equipment you want the spring to at least be taught before you begin hand on him. Bend and get low internal rotation four times. Keep that elbow hugging and chest open. Chin up and oh one opposite leg extends. Stay low and we pull four and a three and two and one get a little lower and rise all the way up. I think that was my better side. From here.

We'll grab both springs for fence or lunging. So again, getting that heart rate up a little bit. Let's begin with our left hand on the top feed together and I'm standing towards the back foot of the bed, practicing the lower body first I'll lunge my outside leg forward and on a diagonal and then I'll resist to come back in. Be careful the springs don't slingshot you one more time. I step out bringing the arms with me and back in. That's the easy part.

Incorporating the upper body external rotation with the top arm and arm action with the bottom arm. Let's do it five times. Inhale to repair axiom and in caress, reach and in both arms going in the same direction. Energy out energy in two more. Okay, and last time we're not done yet though. What I want you to do now is switch which hand is on the top and continue lunge and press and pull it back in. I had that little pause when you're out there, you can do it.

Press and control press and all the way in. Let's try the other side. Turn around. So I now have my right hand on the top feed together. Straps are taught to begin. We'll practice the legs as if I was standing in the bottom left corner of the box, my foot stops and steps to the top right corner of the box and then back to meet one more time, lunge and control it back.

Adding those arms. Here we go, harass it at five [inaudible]. Shoulders down the back. Stay in control. Don't let the springs take over. Changing the arms so the opposite hand is on the top five and pressing both arms go straight and both arms go in the same direction last time and all the way in. It's a great way to bring some energy to those boring or old rotator cuff exercises. Let's do some work with the push through bar.

I'll remove the trim piece that's out of the way and I'm going to load the question to the bar from the top using one blue spring. Okay. Even though this spring seems like you never want to release it, it's loaded from the top. If you let go, you're going to lose control and it's going to go everywhere. Okay? So even if it seems like make sure you've got a good connection with your hands or feet onto the push through bar at all times. Speaking of feet on the bar, let's do that. So I'll begin by lying on my back. So speaking of feed on the bar, let's do that. Now I'm going to lie on my back.

Reach up and place the arches of my feet on the bar. Now I want my starting to position to be in a tabletop. So as you can see, I'm a little bit too close. I'm going to move my body back an inch or two and now my knees are right over my hips. The idea here is not about heavy load, it's about stability, specifically lumbopelvic stability. So feel your sacrum heavy and your abdominals in. Let's have hands down, palms down, nothing underneath the head. Guys, press up through the legs. Push your feet into the bar. Exhale, roll into a bridge.

Remember here that we're not letting the chin come towards the chest. Chin is up, glutes are working to help us stay here. Inhale to prepare, and then exhale as you roll down. Your goal is to get the tailbone down, pelvis neutral before you bend the knees again. Let's do that one more time. I press my feet into the bar and then I scoop pubic bone towards the sternum. As I roll in, articulate through the spine. Chest is open, Chin is up. Inhale, and then exhale. I articulate down, releasing through my ribs, my middle spine, then my pelvis, tailbone releases. Then I bend the knees. Now that you have it, let's add on, pressing the bar up.

Wait Til your legs are straight. Then articulate from the pelvis to roll up. Let's take the right leg up, keeping the hips square. Flex the foot, draw the leg back five times. Owen too. So three really lifts through that supporting side for, and last time five, placing the foot back down. Opposite leg comes up, flexing the foot, level the pelvis, pull it towards you five times. Use your breath and feel that stretch. Okay, one more.

Yeah, placing the foot down. Take a deep breath in. While you're here and exhale as you roll through the spine, one vertebrae at a time, releasing to neutral. Then bending the knees, bringing the bar down. We'll do that complete series one final time. It feels great. Pushing the bar up, pressing the feet into the bar and rolling through the spine. Chest, open leg and exhale. Yeah. Think of your scissors. Yes.

Okay. You use your apps to draw the leg towards you. Three, four hamstrings and glutes are burning. Five place the foot down, leg up. Paul, separate the legs of the one, two 34 and last time. Place the foot on. Lift the up before you go down and as you roll down, count your Vertebra. Upper, middle, lower.

Find your neutral and then bend the knees, pulling the bar down. Excellent. Hovering the hands and inch or two off the mat. Nod Your Chin. Keep the tailbone heavy. Exhale as you roll up from here. Practice pressing the bar down in a way and inhale, bending it back to table time. If you need a little support behind your head, your hands are there, so go ahead and try it. Choose which feels best for you.

Yeah. Remember what I was saying about stability through the lower back. As you push the bar away, be mindful that you don't anteriorly tip. Stay connected through those obliques. One more time, bringing the legs to tabletop and bringing the hands behind the head if they're not there already. Let's take one leg off, pressing the bar away. As I rotate towards my leg, that's in table top. Come back through center and center. Lots of stability required.

Lots of strength and endurance and rotate. One more with this leg up. Let's see how we do on the other side, placing the foot on opposite leg lifts. As I pressed the bar away, I rotate and then come back through. So we're recreating a mat exercise.

It's your oblique rotation. We're bicycle to more axial progress. I'm lifting my shoulder and crossing my rib towards my hip, not my knee to elbow. That's too easy. Let's do one more so we can feel that. Lift the shoulder, cross the rib cage towards the opposite hip bone and come back through center. Lowering the foot, lowering the arms, taking a little break. When you're ready, Knob the chin. Exhale, c'mon back up. Take the hands behind the head again. Let's take that leg back up. Press the bar away and extend the leg up.

This time as the bar comes up, leg will lower top pressed the left. It's a variation of our scissors and lower and per ass reach and lower. Two more. With each lifted this leg, I'm trying to get a little bit higher towards it. Bring it in and down. Opposite leg up. Harassed the bar away. As the bar comes in, the leg will lower to it and I lift. It's really pulling this leg to me using my abdominal muscles. Two more [inaudible] last time. Place the Furan, lower the head down. Release the bar up with grace and let's turn around. Teasers from the side.

Grab Ahold of the bar. Remember how I said it's very important that you don't release it now is one of those times, so hold on. Get a good grip. Even if it feels on the lighter side, I'm holding towards the front of the push through bar and I'm pushing it all the way through and coming to a sideline position. I'm lying so that I'm much closer to the front of the bed because I'm going to be rolling backwards. I don't want to roll off the back of the bed. I have to stay a little loose, a little relaxed through my wrist. For this one hand is on my thigh.

Spine is long and neutral head to with the spine. From here I'll inhale, press into the bar, lift my thighs in, shoulders up. So already I've got a lot of oblique work happening on an exhale and with a lot of control. I roll my pelvis back, lift my legs up and allow the bar to come up. Finding my teaser. Inhale to pull the bar down, come back to my sideline position where I'm hovering and exhale to release the whole shape. Now if it feels like you need to do a little adjustment, moving your body forward or back, now is the time to do it again. I press it down to the bar to lift up. Find your lateral flection first. Then using my low abdominals I scoop control as the bar comes up, pulling the bar down, coming back to my side position and lengthening, releasing to more pressing lift.

Okay. Up to the v Chest Open Chin lifted into the side cover and all the way down. One more press and lift and into the v could always add on here. Lifting close. Take it back to the hover and all the way down.

Excellent to turn around. Be careful as the bar comes up, swing your legs around and let's get into position on the other side. So my hand is forward of the bar. You can see that it's past the vertical poles. As I lie on my side, you're going to have to make slight adjustments so it feels right for your body. My pelvis is forward of the center so that I've got room to rollback top can on my thigh. Inhale to press down and lift up. Find your center and balance first. Exhale, roll back, control the bar up, reach to the toes, pulling the bar down.

Coming back to the balance legs as high as shoulders ideally, and then exhale as you release. Inhale, legs up, legs up. Find the lateral flection. Exhale. Remember in our teasers, run a posterior tilt. Lengthen through the neck and the cervical spine. Come back through and take it down.

Lengthen up as if I'm reaching to touch my ankles. Keep those inner thighs connected. We get a lot of strength from our ad doctors during teaser and the release last time. Lift up, roll up, and since we added on, we have to repeat a harm has come up and five times and are thighs squeezing bar comes down, find it and come all the way through. From here, holding onto the bar, I roll onto my abdomen. Again, it's very important that you're not releasing the bar.

My thumbs can go on the same side as my fingers and I align the push through bar with the vertical frame. My legs are separated about the width of the bed, pubic bone down and heavy nose down towards the Mat. Let's start with the Swan. Begin by drawing your shoulder blades down, your back, pressing down into the bar. Exhale as you lift through your upper body, even extension through each vertebra. Neck. Long. Inhale at the top and exhale as you release. Set the shoulders first, then press down to come up. It's if as if you're pushing into the floor to find your extension. Inhale and exhale. Resist.

One more time like this, sliding the shoulder blades down first, creating a longer cervical spine pressing into the bar as we lift up. Inhale and exhale, lengthen down. Maybe you need to continue with that exercise. Please do. Your spine will become more flexible and time changes earned, not forced, especially when it comes to the body to progress. Make the exercise more challenging. We can do a push through on stomach. We begin by inhaling to bend the elbows, bringing the bar behind the body.

Exhale, roll up with the bar, so I'm still pressing into the bar here. Setting my shoulders, abs in, Pauline the bar down to about nose height and then trying to control it through and not collapse. Let's do that again. Elbows are wide. The back of my head lifts with the bar and I press that. So now the bar is facilitating greater extension through my spine. Pulling the bar down and going through it.

One more like this. It's a great stretch for your shoulders if it's appropriate for you. It feels great. If it doesn't feel good, go back to the salon pulling the bar. Yeah, so pressing all the way through, excellent into a cat kneeling and still feel great. After all that extension, I'm going to keep the spring the same. Come onto my knees. I need to begin. So I've got some given the bar, I don't want to be all the way straight, so I'm going to come a little bit closer and my arms are long.

The spring is not engaged yet. ADDS in little bit of seek connection, lean back. So now the bars holding me up from here. My objective is not to flex at the hips. Instead I'm thinking of a post, steer your tilt, nod your chin.

Exhale, press the bar down. My femurs have not moved. I'm sliding my ribs towards my hips until I can't anymore. And then I can inhale to the long spine. Be careful here. I see people go too far, so just the two bars are in line of perfect. Press down, set the shoulders, close the ribs. Exhale, focus on articulation as I come back to that diagonal where I started and I can either stop here or I can push forward and enjoy a shoulder stretch.

If that feels good for you. Again, we lean back, keep the pelvis where it is, not the chin. Exhale, glide the ribs towards the hips. Femurs haven't moved until about here. Nice flat back. Then a scoop back to the diagonal [inaudible] and go forward into the stretch. If that feels good for you. Last time I'm leaning back.

Stabilize the lower body as I glide my ribs towards my pelvis length and no scoop rural back to the diagonal and release the Barra. Excellent. Let's work on our seat muscles a little bit more. So I'm going to use the purple springs, the leg springs for this next series, and I'm also going to use the cross bar moving the bar down so it's just a few inches, right about there is perfect. And then placing the springs on.

So we're going to start standing on the Cadillac bed. Be careful of that crossbar, taking that Spring and place it around the anchor of your outside foot. Again, the further you move away from the attachment point of the spring, the heavier, the harder the resistance is going to be. Our standing foot is just at the edge of the bed, so toes towards the edge and our knees bent. Our working leg is extended out. Turn the palms and towards you.

No need to wrap the fingers because your stability is coming from your center. Shoulders down the back, press out on your exhale and resistance. So this is a great series. I love standing whenever I can because we're working so much more of our anatomy in this upright position. I can feel my standing leg all the way down to my ankle and the intrinsic muscles of my feet specifically. However, I can feel my hip stabilizers and of course I can work, I can feel my working ab doctors on my outside leg. Let's draw a circle, press out like circles forward and in keeping the hips square in the shoulders, down the back.

Press and circle one more this direction and reverse forward and out in and down. Three, two, one, two and one. Now pressing out and staying out. 10 little pulses. One, two, three. Keeping the hips square, six, seven, eight nine hole, 10 precedence and resist. I would say my thighs are evenly fatigued already and we haven't even done the other side yet. Before we go to the other side though, let's turn. So we're facing towards the roll down bar.

Standing leg is soft outside leg as long, knees bent, hips square. Again, Palms Open here as I press it back on my ax, hale and forward. So think of your leg pulling straps series on the reformer. Everything applies except you don't have the reformer bed to support your position in your posture. All of that support is coming from your deep abdominals, Andrew stabilizing leg. This series can also be done with the arch of the foot and the strap.

It's really your preference whenever adding another joint into the mix. In this case, the ankle joint, you've just got more to stabilize. More to think about [inaudible] I guess the train runs on weekends too and hold it out. Little presses harassing 10 and nine eight seven six five four three two hold one. Rise up and place the spring down. That's how we do other side.

Placing the foot in the strap is around the ankle. To begin. The further I start away from the attachment point, the heavier it'll feel. This is a great angle for you to see if my hips are staying square or not. Remember I've got a little scoliosis, so this is a phenomenal exercise. Challenge my balance, palms open, axios, I press the Lego away and oppress. Be careful of shoulder tension here.

People will grip with whatever they can, right? So just let that upper body relax. Naval in use your breath sequence so that your breath happens before your movement. Yeah, two more last time here. Our circles, five in each direction forward and n, two three, four and five reverse out and around, and five. Here's our presses, 10 little presses, three, four sink, lower five, six knee over mid foot on your stabilizing leg to hold one and come all the way in and rotate. I feel the burn. Let's leave the strap around the ankle for the first set and then we'll change it to the arch of the foot for the second set like we did on the other side.

Bending, squaring abs. Then you may not even need both poles. Harass back and in parece. As I press back, I mindful to stabilize my low back, so if I lean forward, you would see might be a little easier, but it's not coming from the right place. The shoulders directly over hips stay vertical change so that the strap was around the arch of the foot. Same series, harass and prs. Stay strong. You're almost done.

Let's do two more and Paul set for ten nine eight seven six five, four, three, two, one and release. Excellent. That deserves a stretch. Let's come back through to our push through bar. I'm going to make it just a little bit heavier this time. You don't have to, if you only have the blue spring or you prefer to use it, go for it. I'm going to take the red spring and I'm going to load it from the top, starting in a seated position. Likewise, don't let go with this pole in this one particular you're going to be rounding forward, so if you did release it, the spring could come back and get you, so I'll make sure you've got a good grip sitting nice and tall.

Shoulders over hips reminiscent of how we started our session today. On an exhale, I roll from my pelvis, roll back in hills, who prepare, stabilizing the femurs like we did in our cat kneeling. Exhaling using the abdominal suppress forward in, through and on the red spring. That's not easy to do or it shouldn't be. Is that the shoulders? Inhale while you're here and exhale as you take your time, roll back.

Be careful it doesn't slingshot you from here. I'm going to take one hand to the center. The other hand under. I sweep the arm down and I look at him and then I follow it. As I look and I reach over to the other side, pressing through my outside foot for opposition. The arm comes back through, the arm goes under and if it's available to you onto the frame, mindful of the neck here, rotate through the ribs, Chyna progress and stretch and come all the way back up.

Both hands are on rolling back, nodding the chin, using your core muscles, not your elbows. Arms stay straight, harassed forward and through shoulders down. Inhale, this is a great time to feel the breath come into the lateral and posterior aspects of the lungs. Roll back, hand goes to the center. The arm sweeps back, the arm sweeps around. As I push through my opposite foot, as I come back and through the bar goes up. As I rotate, pressing down through my opposite hip, Chyna and one more each rural back restroom roll up. Sweep the arm around. Um, sweep the arm under. Go for the stretch, roll back from the pelvis, harass through rural. Follow the arm, take it back and through.

Okay. Under release. Well, I feel like I had a great workout. I hope you did too. We worked our Tush, we worked a lot of upper body, a lot of spinal mobility. Um, and the standing work was quite hard as well. So if you are progressing, if you found your a little bit wobbly, I was to continue, you'll get stronger. And, um, thank you for watching. I hope to see you again. Bye.

Comments

3 people like this.
Thank you! Fun workout with great cueing.

Courtney Miller
It's so great to be back on Pilates Anytime! I can't wait to hear your feedback. Thank you so much for joining me for this fun, full body work out!
2 people like this.
Thank you Courtney! This was a great workout! More please! =)
Cher
1 person likes this.
Great ideas with the rolling down bar. Love it !
3 people like this.
Major problems with this video...keeps stopping and screen goes black.
3 people like this.
Thanks, Courtney, I enjoyed the workout, especially the standing glute work! Your cues are great! Looking forward to more!
Thank you! This is now one of my favorites! I had to be creative with the trapeze work since I do not have a cadillac. I used my aerial swing for those. So much fun and I feel great:)
2 people like this.
Great class! Your cueing is awesome. I love all the variations to challenge stability!
Courtney Miller
Hi gang! So thrilled you are enjoying this workout! Tracy, did you get the video to play for you?
2 people like this.
Hi Courtney! the workout looks amazing. trying it tomorrow on myself! Thanks for creating fun and challenging workouts! I also had a problem twice with the video trying to play.. I look forward to more classes from you!!
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