Class #1037

Creative Tower Flow

35 min - Class
212 likes

Description

Lisa Hubbard guides you through a Tower workout with clear directions and cues. She teaches inventive exercises like a Reverse Monkey with no springs, Rolling like a Ball with the roll up bar, and so many more. This is a class you will want to repeat for the wonderful exercises that stretch and strengthen at the same time!
What You'll Need: Tower

About This Video

Apr 15, 2013
(Log In to track)

Transcript

Read Full Transcript

Hi and welcome to plots any time. My name is Lisa Hubbard. I'm here to do a tower class about a 30 minute program and I just want to go over how I have it set up today. We have the roll up bar on the third islet and then I have the long yellow springs on the fourth islet and then we have underneath on the fourth fifth, sixth, seventh is the leg springs that we'll use, utilize a little bit later, so we're going to begin with the arm spring, so go ahead and take hold of the arms springs. The legs are going to be parallel together, inner thighs connected. What we're going to focus on is spinal articulation.

We're going to begin inhaling, expanding through your lungs. Take a big breath here and now you're going to exhale. You're going to start to curl your tail under and roll your spine into the mat. What I want you to try to focus on today is keeping the feet still in the same exact place. Open your chest, but soften the sternum and the throat. Good. Let the shoulders broad and take a big breath.

Inhale and just curl to your shoulder blades are off the mat. Then you're going to exhale and you scoop the abdominals in and up and keep that beautiful c curve as you curl forward. Good and shoulders right over the hips and don't drop your head too much and take a breath. Inhale, expand the ribs and keep your feet exactly where they are. Exhale, lengthening the hip flexors, elongating the abdominals, open the chest, ribs synching together, and good. Let's do about six of those taken. Inhale, look forward now. Exhale, connect the inner thighs, round up, shoulder blades down the back. Take a big breath in through the rib cage, sideways, front and back, and then hollow back.

Keep your feet exactly where your are and lengthen all the way down. Open your chest. Great job. Let's do three more and inhale, curl the spine forward. I don't mind if the hands are facing one another or their palms are down at this particular moment. Take an inhale here, whatever, whatever feels right in your body. Exhale and keep those legs still elongate and head his last good. Last two, curling forward. Inhaling, deepening in printing.

The low back shoulders pulling down. That crowd of the head is a lengthening. So you have that beautiful energy from the crown of the head to the tail and then scoop and lengthen all the way back. Looks very nice and softening here and inhale, look forward curl. Let's just say this is the last one. Let's roll up to a nice, perpendicular spine. Good. Now you're going to hinge your body back.

Open your chest, sternum hollow in your low abs. So I want a little posterior tilt. Palms are going to face down. Now you're going to rotate towards your right side. Exhale and spiral. Your upper body goes deep as you can and then bring it back to the center and to the opposite direction. Rotate your upper spine. Good, look behind you and bring it back to the center. Good. And again, let's pick up the pace. Rotating, spiraling up and to the left. Exhale. Good. You're working your postier, deltoids, your upper back muscles, and the tricep.

Keep that rotation. One more each side. Exhale, delay your hand, move from the back and reach your arms. Inhale, keep your springs in your hand. I'm going to just have you fold forward. Exhaling, good to shake your head no and relax. Roll up to sitting and now we'll do a little arm, little more arm work. We're going to do the biceps, so hinge back a smidge. Palms flip up to the ceiling. If this, if you feel pressure in your elbow, you can lower the arms down, but go ahead and exhale, bringing the springs forward towards you. XL.

Gorgeous. Good. Keeping the ribs connected. Navel to spine core working. You can get a little more extension here, Kristin. Good. Beautiful. And Five. Nice. Candace and two. Let's do one more reach and hold. Good. Come up to sitting. Good and release your bar. Good. Nice job.

Excellent. Okay, we're going to take the the roll at bar now. Place your legs over the bar and your hands are going to be on the outside of the spring. You're going to have quite a bit of tension. We're going to do something. I played around with a rolling like a ball, so let's, let's go ahead and ta sit up for me please. Sorry, and take your legs together. Your Elvis are going to be wide, so you have a lot of tension so you're not going to work too hard here. Good. Okay, now curled the tail under and lift your feet off so you're in a balancing position. Now you're not going to move too much, but you're just going to curl the tail under and I want you to roll back onto your shoulder and then slowly come up into that position.

Very good and take it again in hell. You're going to rock back. Exhale. I think this is a great assist for this exercise. A lot of people have tight backs and this is a really great way to mobilize that back and really opening the low back, working the low abdominals, connect your inner thighs. Good in hell. Let's do three more rocket back. Good. No momentum here and last to lower your heels down a little bit, Kristin and last one. Hold your position.

Lift your feet, tabletop. Take an inhale. We're going to roll onto the backs just above your shoulder blades. Reach your arms forward, extend your legs 90 degrees or 45 we're going to go into the a hundred and ready and begin your breathing pattern. Inhale through the nose, five and exhale through the nose. Five. Keep your arms really tight towards your sides. The triceps and the back are working. The lats are connected.

The serratus and keep deepening the breath. Inhale, expanding out. Good. Exhale deep and in beautiful shoulders are open and pump a little bit lower. Good, and let's do three more in good. Exhale and two good, nice work. Exhale and last one in and exhale everything out.

Squeeze it out. Bend your knees and place your feet onto the mat. Good. Go ahead and keep the bar underneath your thighs. We're going to do a counter exercise. Arms are down and we'll go into a bridging position. Take a breath. Inhale, starting in neutral. Pelvic floor engages.

Transverse your core and then roll through your back. Roll all the way through the shoulders. Open your chest. Good, beautiful posterior tilt at the top. Nice. Take a breath. Good, stretching out the hip flexors, working the hip extensors, and then let the bar as you roll down slowly lengthen the shins and the knees out and find your neutral position. Good. Let's do for the feel good. Ladies. You like a Candace, Candace approves. Whoo. Rolling up. Let the bar. I like to play around with it. I like to kind of Ab duct and ady duct and kind of feel what new connections I can find with this and then roll it down. Finding your neutral spine, elongating, curling the tail under length into your neutral, lifting the pelvic floor, tightening horizontally in your transverse, and let's do it again. Let's do three more. Peeling up, working the back, the hamstrings, the abdominals, getting that beautiful stretch in the hip flexors. Take an inhale, expand laterally, and then Xcel. Cinch the ribs, hollow curl, good and neutral. Last to take a breath, exhale hollow.

Roll it up. Open your chest at the top. Beautiful connections, Christie, and take an inhale here and softening the ribs towards each other. Curling. This looks amazing and length into neutral. Last time here, we're going to take inhale, roll up. Exhale, keeping your connections, inner thighs engaged. Reach your thighs, long shins out, knees out, and roll it down. Exhaling, curling under, lengthening and good rest. Okay. You may take your legs out from under the bar. Good.

Now we're going to move into a little footwork. Let's do single leg. So what I'm working with is we're going to take the safety strap and we're going to set up for single legs and we'll use one red spring here. Okay, let's go here. So go ahead and lower it. Let me see. So like this? Yeah. Do you have it on the fifth one? I would say third or fourth year. Third we'll do third.

We have the third ring. Good. And then we'll take the red spring and bottom loaded and [inaudible]. Good. And we're going to line our backs and we're going to place the left foot heel under the bar, lengthening out your right leg. Good. If you need help, I can help. Okay.

Left leg under the bar. Let's go under the heel. So think about the heel pocket and then flex your foot. Lengthen that opposite, like let's go ahead and flex the opposite foot, getting the energy and opposition. So inhale, bend your knee with control and then engage the hamstring to extend the legs. Don't push with your feet, so you really want to find the connections before you actually make the movement happen. Press up, inhaling, controlling it down and then exhale up. We'll do about eight of these and you want to lengthen the left hip down, creating space here. Good and five.

And you don't want to go very low with these three good reaching out behind the leg. Knee. Good. And one more time. Great work. And we're going to bend the opposite leg. Place the heel under the bar, lower the left leg down the mat. Good and find your connections. Nice work here. Good. We're go heel pocket. Flex your foot. Inhale as you bend.

Enjoy the stretch. What I like about this program is that it's about 30 minutes and if you're working in your studio, you can just pop in the class, do 30 minutes, and then you're, then you get your work out in for the day. Let's do a few more. Inhale here and extend. Good. And last too. And up. Bend your left knee.

We're gonna take the left toes over onto that right side, crossing it over slightly on the toes. Don't go too far. Do with what you're comfortable with and lower the opposite leg all the way down. Beautiful. And we're going to bend the knee out towards the shoulder, out to the side. Get a nice hip stretch and extend the leg up. Let's do they like that. I like that one too. Stretch it up. Good. Same thing. Reaching that left, sitting bone down and delaying the action of the foot.

So you're kind of getting that glute medius area here and press it up. And in addition to that, so the stretch, so you get the work. And then this stretch. Let's do two more here and down. Good. Lengthening the opposite leg and last time here, and good switch sides. Bend your right knee, take it over to the left, lower the left leg down and externally. Rotate slightly and you're just going to bend the knee towards the right shoulder. Good and extend.

You're rolling. This is a great, she's getting a little Modi. I love it. And too, that's what I do. I'm a Moaner. I'm very vocal. Very vocal. Good. Let's do five more. So we'll do about eight of these. Good. Extend out.

Beautiful Kristen. Bend and extend. Last two, reached down and out. Good. Go ahead and bend your knee and take your bar into your hands. Take the leg down. Good. Lower it and release. Okay, we're going to do something called the reverse monkey. So we're going to come on out of there. We're gonna take the springs off and the safety strap. Second, we're not gonna use any springs. So you're going to take, so how we measure it is that the legs are extended parallel on your toes.

Hands are on the bar. Go ahead and fold forward and grab your, the push through bar. So you're going to get a nice stretch here, grab the bar, and then pull the bar in line with the, the the tower itself. So you may need to inch back a little bit. Now I want you to start in a plantar flexed foot. So point your toes slightly in parallel. Make sure you have a good little grip here. So you're going to bend your knees, initiating with your inner thighs and abdominals, round your back slightly and then start to extend the legs up as the bar goes up.

Suck. That's Linkedin, yes and no. Go ahead and filex your feet flat in the back. Beautiful crown of the head reaches out. Good. Now point your toes here and bend your knees. Use your inner thighs, your pelvic floor, and then with control you ease the bar back out. Good. Now flatten your back here. I'm going to add a little element.

You're going to flatten your back as much as you can. Getting those back extensors involved and then a deeper stretch in the hamstring. Go ahead and bend the knees. Rounding the spine. Good. Now with control, you're going to use your abdominals and your flexibility to float the bar up. Good. Now here as you flex, you're going to bring your chest towards your thighs. Good, gorgeous point. Get a nice stretch behind those calves and hamstrings and then bend, rounded and floated all the way through without the spring is a little challenging and they're doing really well.

So let's do three more and we'll pick up the pace and then coming back floated up. Go Flex, flatten your back. Point bend and roll it in. Good. This will really loosen you up here and last to curl back. Float those legs up. Good. Nice extension in the spine. Flex and point. Get that beautiful stretch in the legs and then bend.

Good job Kristen. And then all the way through. One more time here. Flatten your back. Let's add that element. Good. Nice. And Roll it back. I love when my students are groaning. This is fabulous. It makes me feel so good. Bless and point.

Gorgeous and [inaudible] bring it on through. Good and release. Great job. Take your feet out. Let's lie on our, uh, let's say on our backs and we'll do some strap work. Um, yes. I'm sorry. S facing that way. Yeah. On your no, no, no. You're right. This way. Okay. We're going to take left foot here.

Here's another right foot. We're going to start in frog. So let's start, actually, we're going to start parallel frog. So apart. So separate your legs. Now how does the weight feel here? Cause I have it on the fifth, sixth, seventh one. How does a weight feel? Just give me a, a little test here. How does the the spring setting feel? Good. Okay, so enough challenge. So we're going to just exhale. Extend the legs out on the same plane, but you're going to try to keep the distance equal.

So it's challenging unilaterally keeping in your neutral spine, working deeply into the hamstrings. And I can have Candace go a little bit lower at with the extension legs go yeah, on the same plane. So it's going to kind of feel like you're digging down. Let's do two more, keeping it equal. And then you also have the challenge of the springs because they're a little bit wider than your hips. So you're working outer thigh, inner thigh and extend fully. Good. Now let's pause here in the center. Perfect. Let's do one at a time.

Let's take it right and then left like you're marching. Stabilize your hips, stabilizing your pelvis, your pelvis is a big bowl. And imagine water in it that you don't want sloshing around. Lengthen the knee all the way. Looks good too.

One more each side and we'll take it together. Bend your knees, extend your legs. 90 good, nice. Now we'll go down with the legs externally. Rotate out, reach out, open and all the way to the top. Good. Okay, so we will have Christie doing the opposite. Now. Ready? Go down so we don't hit each other. Go down. Good. Now when she opens, you're going to go down. Ready?

It looks great too, right? Kobe thinks so and good. Stabilize your pelvis. Delay the action of the feet. So you really want to think about moving from your external rotators and the lateral thighs and down. Good. Take the legs together at the top before and then move down. Good. Yes. Nice. I S I think Christie sometimes does things a little fast, a little slow.

Do One more together, down and around. And now we are going to reverse the direction. The last thing is going go up, out and around. So you're going to exhale as you circle the legs around, taking the legs together before you reach them up. Good. Anchoring the pelvis. The ribs are soft. Looks really great. Good.

And notice that Kris, Kristen and Christie had their arms against the post, which are completely fine. Candace has her arms down at her side, which actually I think it would make it a little bit more challenging. Good. One more time. Out and around and together. Good. Bend your knees and release. Good. Let's take your right foot out. Left foot out, and good. Great job. Okay, let's do a side work. So we're going to take, um, the push through bar and we're going to add a blue spring. Uh, you can use the more sperm that you have, the easier it will be.

So what we need to do is just add a blue and I think, uh, on the second islet should be plenty. Um, so if we're going to do a side lift, um, yeah. Okay, great. Perfect. So we're going to lie facing the camera and I would like the right leg behind. You're gonna bring your feet under the strap. Love that train.

Yeah. And Go ahead and flex your feet and lift the heels up slightly. Take your right hand in the center of the bar and palm is going to face the opposite direction. Good Kristin. And the left arm is out. So you're in your best position here. Um, sideline. Hips are square, shoulders are square. Lift your arm all the way up.

So push the bar up all the way. Good. I'm just looking at the bodies, making sure that everybody is aligned properly. Great. Now you're going to bend your elbow, initiate from your lap, pull down, and I want you to press the arm through. Make sure that the thumb is right underneath that. I would hate for you to lose that and then bend your elbow, take it up, and now you're going to exhale. Float the entire body into a side lift, lifting the left arm up. Good and reach out and down, lowering the body. Great control.

Bend your elbow and extend here. We're gonna do six. Inhale here. Initiate the obliques and float the body up. Reach out and down and good bet. Great work. And inhale. These are not easy. And exhale up.

Keep that hips square. Good and arm straight. Great. Candace and low and last theory and exhale, float it up. Good. Reach out and down. And two more here. Shoulders pulling down. Upward rotation in the shoulder girdle. The ribs are hugging in good and then lengthening all the way down.

Hips are gorgeous. And one more time on the exhalation. Float the body. Ah, up, up, reach out and down. Great Work and release. Great work. Let's do the other side so we will take the left leg behind the right, fully extended and flex those feet. Make sure you're secure here. Good and left hand on the bar. The right arm floats out, ribs are together, beautiful. And we go, we go. Bend the elbow here. Make sure that you don't let go. You really want to pull the ribs in and have that upward rotation in the shoulder. Exhale, floated up all the way up.

Reach out and down. Good, nice control and lower. Bend it. Float the arms through. We're going to connect the ribs. Good and elongate the waist. Inhale, arms up. You can bring your hand in a little bit, Candace. Good and coming up. Good. Reach out and down.

Great Work and lower. And again, we'll do six of these on the side. Connecting the ribs, the public floor, the hips are square, inner thighs, reaching the legs out. Good reach out and down. And great jog and inhale. And I'm going to have Kristen bring her taught pit back. Yes. That's a good and breathing. Good.

And last, what do we do to good. Thank you. I'm so glad somebody's counting. And last to XL. We always have one side that's a little stronger. So good and out. One more time. Good. Make sure you're breathing. You don't need many of these, so let's go one. You will feel the obliques tomorrow and ready and take it up.

Good. Good correction, Christie. Great. She found it great and release. Good. Alright. Take your legs out. We're going to do a back extension now and we're going to go on our stomachs facing the push through bar. I'm going to push the bar down. Just watch your head here. Good.

And then bring your hands to the push through bar, shoulder distance. You can tuck your thumbs up under the bar and then extend your fingers parallel legs. You want to make sure the push through bars right in line with the the tower so you can come forward. Good. Okay, so we're going to do something called prone one, two, one and two. Let's start with prone one. You're going to articulate, imagine a marble right next to your nose. You're gonna Brush it away and start to articulate your spine, had neck and chest and draw the bar towards you and relax your glutes a little bit. And then release. Articulating down the ribs, chest, neck, and head. Good. So your abdominals are engaged, your glutes are not clenching. Inhale as you come up, brushing away shoulder blades, drawing down energy through the crown of the head. Get that beautiful arc.

And then exhale as you lower reaching the arms away, you should feel a little stretched in the shoulders, should feel nice and in hell. Lift the gaze, draw in and up and lift your chest. Great. And then lower. Exhale. Good. And I'm going to just straight now out here and inhale. Let's do one more coming up. As you draw the bar in towards you getting that beautiful back extension feeling that the collarbones are broadening and the sternum is lifting up and lower all the way down. Now we're going to add a challenge. If that's plenty for you, then stay with that for another few more repetitions.

We're going to bend the elbows out to the side. Start to lift the arms, lift the body and reach the bar all the way up. Good. Pause here. That's okay. Just do a few more. And then lower the body. And then with control you bend the elbows and extend all the way through. So Candace is going to stick with prone one and we're going to do a couple more prone tooth. Exhale as you come up. Good.

Inhale to hold. Good and exhale to lower the body. Bend the elbows and then the arms. Good. And let's do it again two more times. So first the arms, the body, the body, and then the arms. Good. Last time and arms. Good body, good, nice. And then body, get that beautiful stretch as a body lowers and then bend your elbows. Good and dressed good. All right. Roll up to a sitting position.

Good. Let's take this bar up. Oh yes. Um, this is the right spring I want to use. We're gonna do something called sitting forward. We're going to do a forward with the saw and the reach, so we'll end with that. Take your feet up against the a tower. Hands on the bar, flex your feet. Good. I'm going to add an element of pressing the push through bar forward, and then the chest goes in.

So this is a nice little stretch here. Now flip your tailbone out, get a little anterior tilt for a stretch. And now initiate with your abdominals curling under. Stretching that low back. Good. So deep flection. And then dive through. Good. Lift Your Chin up for me a little bit. Christian. Good.

Now give me a flat back here. Shoulders down. Good. Pull back. Exhale. Good. Let's do two of these and articulate up and then get that beautiful shoulder stretch. Good. Christie, she is, you have a lot of shoulder mobility. And then exhale, scoop. So the arms don't take use really the abdominals here. You're going to use a little bit of the arms.

Find that beautiful round back and then find your extension. So think from the tailbone all the way articulating through the crown of the head. Good. Now the abdominal scoop under tail curls center. Stretch out those hip flexors and lift. Good. Now we're going to go back. We'll add the reach of Donald's. Take you back scoop. Take your right arm out.

Good. Now go a little further and we're going to take it over. Arking our body over our head, reaching the heels into the bar. Unwind and add the Saul by pushing the left arm up and grab hold of that, that post, and you want a fireable open. I've been doing this with my clients all week and they just don't want me to stop touching them. Keep turning. Good release. Take the hand back up. Inhale and now go curl under.

We're going to do the other side. Dive forward and Nice, beautiful stretch in the back. Find your back extensors. Initiate with the abdominals to curl back. Tail under. Good. Reach your left arm out to the side, good palm is up. Get that stretch and now reach the heels and then curve in forward. Round your low back. You should feel this in the back, the side of the back, the QL, and then carve your way through.

Push the bar up and spiral into the SA rotating. Good. Grab hold of the bar and get that assistance. Stretch. Good. Unwind. We'll do one more and exhale, dive forward going into the forward round, back then the flap back as much as possible and the head is aligned. Roll it back. Tuck, right arm reach. And if just going to the middle is fine, keep it there.

Or you can add an additional stretch by going over good. And then carve out through to the opposite side. Grab hold of the bar spiral, pushing the arm up and creating more space in the body. Good. And then unwind. Take your right arm up last time, curl under dye forward. Inhale here, flattening the back. Good. And then use your abs.

Curl back, reach those legs out. Take your left arm. Good. Give me a posterior tilt here and then curve your upper body over, curl good. And then unwind. Carve yourself forward. Go into the saw, rotate, spiral around. Good. And then bring it back to the center and rest. Good. Great work you guys. Ladies, you are done. I hope you enjoyed the workout.

Have a great day. Yeah.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Fabulous! This felt yummy on my back! Can't wait to share with my clients! Thank You!!
2 people like this.
This is an awesome class. Going to share with clients this week. Thanks Lisa.!!!!
1 person likes this.
Great class! Tried it with my clients Today. Thanks
Lisa Hubbard
1 person likes this.
Thanks ladies! SO very happy that you enjoyed the class and hope that your clients will as well!
1 person likes this.
Thank you Lisa for another great class! I especially loved the diagonal single leg presses!
1 person likes this.
Lisa, thank you for another amazing class! Luv your outfit
Lisa Hubbard
Thanks so much ladies! Anne-Marie, I love those leg presses, too. Makes you really work to stabilize & feels fab! Sue, I appreciate being in the category of 'amazing'! Thank YOU! I was told to keep those pants on (I arrived in them preparing to change) but Kristi said to keep them on
1 person likes this.
Love this one! thanks for some great new ideas!
Lisa Hubbard
Thanks Leslie! Glad to be of service
Sharon O
2 people like this.
Thank you! Love the 30 min full body opening workout! Great cueing
1-10 of 51

You need to be a subscriber to post a comment.

Please Log In or Create an Account to start your free trial.

Footer Pilates Anytime Logo

Move With Us

Experience Pilates. Experience life.

Let's Begin