Thanks to my amazing student Kaita who is a) really strong and b) really flexible and c) did this one-on-one (i.e. let me get really nit picky) after shooting a reformer class immediately before it. Rock star!

Damn, that was hard! Quivering. Kaita made it look far easier than it was.

Spectacular

Thank you both! And Holly, you're right - Kaita is amazing. *I* want to be as strong as she is someday!

Aww thanks! Mariska's expert instruction got me doing things I never thought possible. Somehow I was able to feel both strong and quiveringly-weak in every single exercise :)

Mariska you have such a great teaching style! Thank you for the noting the spring settings you use.

Thank you. My legs were shaking! Awesome workout!

Phew.... Hard but great ;) Kaita made it look easy with her beautiful form!

Your cue in pike to bring the hips forward helped me tremendously! I've been diligently working on using my deep abdominals after years of cheating with my hip flexors, so those little things are very important... Awesome class!

Thanks! JaiFit - I'm glad you found that cue helpful. That was a big "a-ha" moment for me when I was trying to figure out how to stay deep when lowering down from a pike. It's sort of like how you have to slide your pelvis under you when you're doing a roll down (i.e. lengthening your spine) - just from a different position. I find that when you are having trouble "finding your abs" in an exercise, it's helpful to think about what is happening in an exercise where it's easier, and then figure out the parts of the exercises that are the same.