Class #1093

Tower for Fatigued Posture

45 min - Class
262 likes

Description

Tom McCook teaches a Tower workout that is great for fatigued posture. He starts with a warm up to mobilize the spine and then keeps adding challenging exercises till you get to the advanced leg series. Tom's class will seem gentle, but he actually makes you work very deep in your body.
What You'll Need: Tower

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Jun 25, 2013
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Hi, I'm Tom McCook. I'm here at piles any time with Amy Christie and Wendy. And we're going to do a class on the, on the tower wall unit to help you get set up. Let me just review where we're at with the springs for you to put them in the same place as we have them before we get into the exercises. So you have two short yellows up top with the roll down bar, you can have two long yellows at about mid level, which is the fourth I bolt from starting on the wall here with which looks kind of interesting. You have the handles on and you have the roll down strap that's attached at the other end of this, of the Mat.

So you're gonna attach both cause that's going to be the first exercise we're gonna use that for. Then you have two long yellows or two long purples, a foot with the foot straps on. And that's on the second eye bolt from the bottom. So that's your setup. So please put that as is. So we can start and these guys are going to have a seat and they're going to put this strap around their mid thoracic spine facing the wall. And some of these guys haven't done this so they don't know what's coming just like you. So from there, have your legs straight with just a slight bend and get right up on your sit bones. I'll get the remote and the ist and you're good to go.

So you're going to just put your hands on your, on your knees and just notice how you can feel the fullness of the strap and just soften the knees a little bit. And I'd like you to breathe wide and low into the rib cage. Have you feet about shoulder with the apart and on the exhale just soften the breastbone just to get a sense of your sitting posture and how the strap gives you feedback of your lungs. Expanding the rib cage. That's it. Do that for a few breaths. And what you can do with your arms, with your hands on your thighs, widen the shoulder blades out, like the reaching out towards your elbows into the straps. So you can breathe wide and low. Now on the next exhale, as you exhale, just flex back into the band to start to open the spine.

Let yourself roll into it. And as you inhale, roll up onto the sit bones back up to neutral. You can let the knees soften if you'd like, and again, XL to curl. So just mobilizing the spine, using the strap to get it to move before we add a layer to it. So inhale to lift and open. Notice how the shoulder griddle can easily slide around the rib cage and the neck can stay long throughout the movement. Now the next one is you come up, bring your hands behind your head. Now as you inhale, bend the knees and let the strap help you extend your thoracic and open the chest and let the elbows go to the back. Now XL, press into the strap as you widen and lower your shoulder blades in.

Lengthen your legs and curl seal curl back. Then inhale, lengthen up and extend shoulders open and lower. Exhale, curl and peel into the band. Feel like you're opening the spine in both directions. With the support of the strap. Inhale, lengthen up and open and XL to curl. Notice as you curl the shoulder blades, you're widening and lowering, so the next day, as long as you lengthen up the sit bones are widening.

The top of the chest opens and curl. Now the next one as you like the number, we're going to stay lifted. We're going to take an into rotation, still lengthen up and extend. Still extending. Turn to your right now in rotation and flex back into the band and inhale, lengthen up, extend, rotate to your left side and flex into the band and do three more each direction at your own pace. Equal pressure into both sit downs as best you can as you move and feel that nice slide of the shoulder blades or wa away from the ears.

As you move, you're just getting the spine to be warmed up. A little support from the strap and feedback. Shoulders low and wide. One more each way. And Curl. Yeah, your inner thighs as you curl to keep your pelvis aligned and last side, lengthen up and curl.

Very nice. As you come all the way up, come back to center and gently we're going to help yourself out of that situation, which feels kind of Nice. Now just take the foot strap off, but leave the handles on. Now the same configuration you just taken the strap off for the next exercise, which is going to be the roll downs when we had the long hand with the handles with the long yellows. There you go. There you go. Now as you hold the long yellows, put your feet on the push through bar with your legs together. That's when you'll have one hand in eastern adjust.

As you push down with the arms, grow tall on the exhale. As you start to roll down, also bend your legs and pull the bar to you as you roll down onto your back. That's it. Now take a breath at the bottom on the XL. Start to curl. Keep the legs bent. Imprint the lumbar spine curl is far as you can and as you get past that moment where you're past halfway, start to slide the legs long and as you inhale, press down with the legs. And the arms to grow tall.

XCL Peel back and pull the hamstrings as you lengthen the lower spine. An inhale. Exhale to curl, keeping the legs bent. Shoulders low and wide. Lengthen up tall and two more times. Curl back, pull. Feel how you can articulate through the lower spine with that support of the back of the legs. Take a breath, exhale to curl.

Shoulders stay low as you come up. Oops. There you go. It's hard to keep that bar. One more time. Exhale, peel back. That's it. Nice and smooth. Take a breath of the bottom. Exhale, peel back. Got It. Now we're going to take into the hundreds with your feet on the bars to take a breath and curl down.

Let the legs stay long this time. Now just at the bottom sense your posture. Let your head come down for a moment. Take the shoulders back and down and activate into the bar and towards the midline with your legs. Take a breath on the exhale. Think of your ears or we'll start to roll the head forward and reach into the arms. Keeping the base of the shoulder blades on the mat. Inhale for five beats through the nose. Exhale for five beats through the mouth.

Inhale for five. Exhale for five on the exhale phase. Get a sense of drawing the belly away from the inner thighs on the inhale phase. Breathe into your mid back. Do that for three more sets of breaths. I since smooth arms are long and toned and breath is fluid. One more set of breaths.

Take an inhale holding position. Exhale, curl all the way back up to a seated position. Huh. Now we're going to take it into water skier. So I'd like you to take your feet off of the bar and put both your feet over to the left bar and cross your right foot over your left. Now take both of the handles into your left hand and your right arm is just going to reach forward. So this is going to be lumbar flexion with a little rotation, but it's not a side bend to the, to this side, it's just a rotation.

So take a breath and a through your lumbar spine starts to roll back. About halfway back, rotate and reach back on the diagonal and try to maintain the long line through the body. That's it. Take a breath there. Exhale, pull the belly in and sweep the arm back up to center. We're just going to do that two times on that. Three times on that side. Take a breath, a little adjustment, and as you reach thinking you're going to stay long on both sides of the waistline, which is challenging and then sweet. That's it, Kristy. Then sweep it up. Squeeze in the inner thighs. One more.

Feel that you use your inner thighs as a support to keep the body from twisting too much or side bending. And I'm just going to pull you over here or a little bit. There we go. And then drag it up as you get to the top of the movement. Slide your legs to the second side and we'll switch. We'll cross the leftover right this time just enough to give you a little control, but not not so much, just enough that it gives you a little guide through the center line.

So grow tall on the [inaudible]. Push down a little bit, squeeze the legs, curl back, and as you start to rotate, try to stay in that line between your legs in your head. Take a breath there, pull the belly in, sweep the arm back along the path you came and arrive aligned where you began. On the exhale, pelvic bowl to the back. Rotate and reach short breath and sweep it forward. Very nice. One more time on the exhale curl.

Okay, there we go. That's it. Amy. Rotate and reach. Short breath and sweep it back up. Beautiful. Very nice you guys. Now the next exercise is called decline rotation. So you're going to slide back about a foot. Everybody's going to slide back and take the straps, one in each hand, and this is for your upper back.

And I'd like you to take your feet shoulder width apart and have the legs a little bit bent in. Your arms are going to be straight, so the whole time they'll be straight. So you might actually need to slide back a little further. That's it. Now this is for the upper back. I'll just show you with Amy for a moment. She's going to lean back about six inches. Now she wants to keep her arms retracted.

The tendency when we rotate is to pull from the arms. I want her to turn from her spine that's under the arms. So from up here she's going to turn, but the chest stays open and then inhale to the center. So when she turns, she's going to feel her upper back on the side. She's turning towards the neuro bleak on the other side, so the chest stays nice and open. This is great for fatigued posture for these muscles in the middle of the back, it overstretched and weak. So that's what we're working with.

Let's try that out. Saline back just a little bit. Retract the arm bones back to the top of the chest is open and leave them there. As you exhale, turn to your right from your upper back. Inhale to center. Exhale to turn. Feel upper back on the side you're turning towards and the obliques on the other side. That's it. And again, now this you're nice and long. You're also feeling your lower belly for support.

You're low ta and again, beautiful. You guys. That's it. That looks really nice. One more each way before we add to it, we'll add a deeper twist. This seems pretty fine for me, Tom. That's it. Now the next one, when you twist the next one, when you twist to the right, once you've got to your end range of twisting, then pull the elbow into the side. Then inhale to lengthen back to center. Exhale, turn from the spine first, then pull elbow in, close to the body.

Keep it tight and low. That's it. And then lengthen and again on the exhale, upper back turns you waistline. Then the elbow assist in a deeper twist and again, last one XL to pool. And then draw in. Sit bones are weighted. Very nice and then slowly help yourself up to release. Nice work. So for now we're going to go into para key progression.

So you're going to want to take a short red spring and we're going to attach it on the three eyebolts down. We'll have the bottom of the three. We'll have it right here. That's fine, that's perfect. And then we'll put the push through bar. What connect that to the push through bar. Now where you might need to do is make sure that your handles are out of the way. We'll just put them on the floor. So those are out of the way, both sides, so that way when you're at the bar won't get caught on the handles.

Now from there, what you're going to do is pull the bar down when you're ready and put your feet on the bar. So when your legs are straight, the bars in the middle of the [inaudible], right? And you'll have it on like the arches of your feet. That's it. And now when your legs are straight, just first just feel, oh, there you go. Yeah, yeah, that's you gotta watch for that. Yeah, watch that. Your attachments, you're on in an organized way and I just feel neutral in your pelvis and then just sense your posture in this position. Now interlace the fingers behind your head.

Now take a breath in on the exhale. Do an abdominal curl without changing the pelvis. Just peel up with the upper body. Now see if you can sense any abdominal curl that you can widen and lower your shoulder blades. Image that your back ribs are sliding up your back and as you inhale, bend the knees halfway in on the Xcel. Slide them long.

Inhale to bend, exhale and again feel like the back ribs. Have a conveyor belt going up the back in the lower belly, drawing away from the inner thighs as you slide the legs long. Beautiful, and you're holding your head from about four inches below your armpits for the show. The blades are open like a cobra and low. Nice. Now the next one, Ben, and hold the bending position and floats your right knee off the bar into a tabletop. Now on the exhale, as you turn towards your right knee, slide the left leg long in health, the center bending in Xcel to turn. Do four on that side. Feel as you turn, you're keeping the back low ribs on the map. Excellent. One more nice and fluid. You're working on leg alignment, pelvic stability and core strength. As you come back to center, put both feet on the bar, let the head come down for a breath. Take a breath, and exhale. Curl up to your position again. Now floats your left knee on the next exhale.

Slide the right leg long and turn towards it nice and fluid. Three more. Now we're getting warm. There we go. Beautiful. Two more strong and connected. Fluid motion. And one more. As you come back to center, bring both feet onto the bar that the upper body come down and slide the legs long and bring the arms along by your sides for the traditional parakeet.

So as you inhale that the knees in and with control that the legs go up on the next exhale from your tail. Let the tail chase the feet and peel up into a bridge. Now keeping the pelvis stable, strongly reach into your right leg and inhale tef to take the left leg to the back. Inhale back to the bar. Do two on each side. The back of the shoulders are nice and stable. The throats relaxed, the legs are strong. One more. And how? Back to the bar. Xcel sequence down through the spine in a fluid fashion.

Once the tail is all the way down, dry the legs down and slide them back down and forward. Now hold that position and see how long you can get through your spine. And as you inhale, take the arms overhead without letting the lower back shorten. On the exhale, let the arms come forward, roll the head off the floor and peel into our rollout. That's enough. Staying in flection. Reach forward and take an inhale on the exhale.

Squeeze your upper inner thighs and start to roll back down. Arms will stay about shoulder level sequence all the way down and arrive with your arms back on the mat. We're going to go into one more round, so inhale to bend. Exhale, take the legs up and peel through the spine. This time holding position, you're going to do three small bridges, so inhaled to bend the leg, small XL to straighten and see if you can keep the pelvic position the same throughout. So you got to hold the hip extension one more. That's it. Now from the long leg position, two leg reaches. Inhale, reach one, exhale to the bar, and healthier reach to the bar last too, and one back to the bar. Take a breath and exhale. Peel down through the spine.

Last time you're going to pull the bar through. One more roll up or backstage. As long as the arms go back, let the collarbones roll back. Exhale the arms forward, the head peels off the mat spine. PLLs this time, bend your knees as much as you need to to take hold of the bar. Now keeping your Chin dropped on the exhale. Start to draw your front ribs away from the legs as you lengthen the legs. That's it. Some you can lead them down. There you go.

And just do a very small bend. Inhale the band XL the straight in. Three more and focus on your center line. The front ribs pulling away from the legs and the back and the next day. Long and relaxed. Two more. Stay soft and the periphery around the shoulders and arms.

One more. That's it. And then with control, release the bar. Come up to a straight spine and we'll release the bar up to the start. Very nice. Now from there we're going to unhook the bar. Very nice hour. Yeah. And we're gonna do um, Swan with the roll down Bar Swan with the roll down Barstow. From here what we'd like to do is take the roll down bar with the short yellows and we'll put it down to this level, which is the fifth eyeballs from the wall side down.

And we'll see how that feels. If any time you're doing an exercise and it feels too heavy or too light based on your body size, go up or down one just to adjust it for yourself or the fourth one. Okay. The fourth one from the top. So from there you guys are going to take a wide hold on the bar and help yourself onto your, onto your belly. That's in slide backs. Your feet are actually off the mat. That's it. Now first thing, just organize your pelvis on the floor.

So what you'd like to do is anchor the front of the hip bones and the pubic bone into the floor of the tendency when we try to link in the lower back cause we tuck the telus. You don't want to do that. You want to keep the front of the hips anchored. Now let the head be a couple inches off the mat and as you inhale it, the show, the blades in the springs go forward and up. Now on the exhale, just glide to show the blades down as you engage your lower belly and your inner thighs and do that three times. Feel the glide. Feel like you're anchored in the middle of the body and you just feeling that connection to your middle back and fluid movement of your shoulder blades. Now the next one is you glide them down. Keep them down.

Imagine you're going to push a marble forward with your nose to start to arch up through the spine as you pull the bar down lower and come up through the upper back and then lead with the spine in length and down. Once the spine is down, release the shoulders forward and up. Just take your time with that Xcel shoulders down. Inhale the slide, the upper chest forward and up for the long neck. Lead with the spine to lengthen down. Feeling any strain in your lower back.

Make the movement smaller or engage the abdomen a little more, but feel like you're taking the chest down and forward to go up. It's like a wave. That's it. And then lead with the spine to come down. Now we're going to add a little party to it. So the next one, do the same thing. Slide the shoulders down. Come into extension. Press the bar low to the mat if you can.

If it doesn't feel too heavy now bending the elbows, pull the bar to the top of your chest and then reach it back long. Do that four times. Feel like you're pulling from the bottom of the shoulder blades. That's it. And if that felt too heavy, we can go a little lighter. If you're at home and you feel, oh my God, that feels really heavy.

One more everybody. Yeah, that connection on the bottom of the shoulder blades reach and then slowly release the bar up and then gently help yourself out. And I'll take these guys for you. That's it. Very nice. Okay, awesome. Now from there, we're going to go right into side Legwork, but first just press back to child's pose to stretch out your back for a moment. Now just get foldable and soft. Let your belly relax your neck. Notice any tension that might be being exposed and just let it go.

And then when you're ready, just slowly roll up through the spine and we're going to come down onto your side facing this direction and we'll put the front spring, the long purple on your top right foot. That's it. And as far as hold for your bottom arm, you can hold onto the backbar, which I like to do. And you can let your head rest on your upper arm, see how that feels for you. And then with your body, once you got the straps, you're going to actually have your, have the feet about six inches in front of the body, pinching from the hips. And then the top hand will be right in front of your chest.

That's another feeling you want to have. I'm just going to touch Amy's trick cancer. This is the top of the thighs. So this is the hinge point for the leg movement. So she's gonna lift her topic up just a few inches and I'm gonna step a little forward so I don't get kicked her on either side. And these guys are going to go into sidekicks. There's it with a front kicks.

It's going to inhale to the front, an XL point in reach to the back. And as you can see, she's in a really good job of, that's where the hinges without shortening the top waves. That's what we're looking for. The femur head rolls back in the socket and then it rolls forward. Energetically you can reach out of your sit bone as the leg goes forward.

Feel like the sit bone is going forward opposite the movement of the tail. Very interesting thing happening there. Okay, that's it dude. Three more. Hi. Since smooth and one more. Now as you come back to the start, from the top of both eyes going to turn out. So the heels come together and the feet are a little bit apart.

Now lift the top leg up about a foot and we're going to do very small circles to do small circles, a little more breaths. So the down like has to be very strong. So feel the work of the down inner thigh, like that leg is pushing up. That's it, Amy. There you go. One more that direction and then reverse checking with your posture.

Your Chin is off your chest, your breath is smooth. And one more. I back the Senate. Now we're going to do what's called the developing movement. So what's Amy's going to do? She's going to draw the sole of her foot, upper and seam, and then reach the leg straight out. Actually you can keep it on that same angle, just reach it out this way and then squeezed down with a flex foot.

So as the leg is lifting that your cantor is rolling back and down and then reach, that's it. The tendency. We tend to go for too much height on this one and we lose the hip rotators in the back of the hip. That's it. Let it be small, but really feel the connection to the back of the hip, keeping the pelvis nice and level and two more and one more. Awesome. Now from there we're going to add a little piece to that. She's going to draw her leg up the NCM again. Now this time she's going to reach your foot straight out this way.

Now from the back of the hip, lifted straight up to the ceiling and then squeeze it down to the leg. And again, draw up the INSEAM. Reach forward, lift from the back of the hip and squeezed down. Just two more. Drop up, reach out, sip on draws back, lift and squeeze down. And one more time. Last one, reach forward. Lift and squeeze down. Now just for a stretch, take your body to the middle of your mat. Just slide a little forward. Bring your legs back in line with your body.

Now just let that top leg reach in front of you, like an l to your body. Bring your arms at a chest level and turn the chest to the sky for a stretch and just take a few breaths there. Yes, right there, and just take a few more breaths there. It's a nice opportunity just to stretch your rotators and your side side of your thigh and hip. Let go of any unnecessary tension that side leg work can look easy, but it's hard and it's to actually feel it. Now when you're ready, roll towards your leg and gently help yourself out of the strap.

And we'll take the second side. I was setting up for the second side and again, line up your spine with the back end of your mat. Have your feet maybe six inches in front of the body. You can hold the bar that's behind you and just see if you can rest your head on the on your arm and watch the tendency of dropping your chin to your chest. You want to make sure that you don't do that, so you find your posture.

Now activate your inner thighs. Find that neutral position in the pelvis and at the top hand right in front of your chest, close to your body with the shoulder low, lift the top like up a few inches. Preparing for sidekicks. Inhale, kick to the front. Xcel point and reach to the back. So Amy's hinges right from the hip joint. That's, that's the moment. That's the place where the dynamic stability is happening. It's movement with stability is that counter movement in the joint of the pelvic half and the thighbone beautiful femur head rolls back as the leg goes forward, rolls forward as the leg goes back. Notice that's a dynamic interchange.

It's not about excessive bracing. It's about feeling that nice and through two more. And one more. Staying aware of your posture all the way through. Has he come back with the legs lined up on top of each other from the top of the legs. Go into turnout, point the foot, the top foot lightly and lift it up a few inches. Preparing for small circles. Now stir the leg. Feel the down legs. His tone is the moving leg.

Feel how that gives you a sense of stability. So the moving legs easier to control, smooth breathing, and then reverse. That's it. See how low the movement is. It's happening low in the body. The lower back is staying relatively still and one more. As you come back with the feet touching, now you're going to draw the foot up the end scene. Hold the knee at that angle, extend the leg long and squeeze down with a flex foot.

So feel the work is happening through the back of the hip. You're holding that as you extend the leg and then you're squeezing down nice and fluid. So you're watching that. The hip doesn't hike. It's these guys are all doing a really good job and they're extending from the underside. Last two shoulders, stay low. One more now, same movement. You're going to drop the inseam now reach the leg forward, lift to the sky from the back of the hip and squeeze down. That's it. Draw up, extend forward, lift.

Feel the back of the hip working and squeeze down through three more. Nice and fluid forward. Then up and down. Two more. That's it. And one and left.

Very nice. That slide you by in the middle of your mat. Let that, let that top like come out in front of you like an l to your body, preparing for a stretch and then just gently roll the chest open to the sky. Ah, just take a few moments to enjoy that after all that great work. Wonderful job you guys. Ah, that was a party. Huh? You earned the party. I was really good. [inaudible] just take a couple more fluid breaths.

Just let go of any tension around the shoulder girdle, the neck. Allow those hip muscles to release into length. And one more breath. Now lets your upper body go towards the spring to come out of it and then gently help yourself out of there. Uh, now we're going to transition to standing and we're going to do a standing leg exercise with the push through bar with no springs on it. So you're going to stand and take hold of the push through bar and you're going to straddle the mat in turnout with both of your legs in second position.

We might, yeah, we might take this. It's actually won't be in the way. It's okay. It's okay. Yeah. You can just straddle with your feet on the floor and being a little turnout. Comfortable range. Now be where your arms can be straight, but you're not hanging off the bar. That's it. So when you do the plea a, you want your head to stay directly over the pelvis and you want to see, you can get a sense of your knees tracking right over the middle of the feet. So make sure the turnout is an extreme.

It's actually comfortable and you're going to work those same rotator muscles that you worked in the last exercise. Who knew so. So take a breath to prepare and on the exhale descend straight down into a play. That plea, I and Steven get the legs parallel to the Mat. Now from there, roll up on the balls of the feet, lengthen the legs and lower the heels and again to send with the control roll up. Lengthen up. You use the inner thighs and lower the heels. We'll do three more. Nice and smooth. Roll up, extend and lower. And two more fill. You're getting the work close to the midline. The spine is fluid.

The head is floating up as you lengthen. And One more and left, Huh? And lower. Now we get to reverse. Now go up with straight legs. Descend into the pleading. Lower the heels length and from your femur heads. And again, rise. Descend. Feel the spiral of the thighs.

Reach down and lift and two more and lower. Reach into the heels and lengthen the legs. One more and lower and up. Nice. Now you're going to do three more to each side. When you're deep into the PA, you're going to let go with your right arm and turn the torso. But the hips don't turn with you. So I'll talk you through. Okay, so, so first thing, plea a rise up on the balls of the feet. Release with your right arm.

Now rotate and look to the right. Back to the bar and length in the legs. As you lower the heels, we'll alternate sides. We'll do three to each side. So lower Relevate release to the left. Turn from the waistline back to the bar. He goes, lower legs. Lengthen. Beautiful. Two more. Each side you have a control. Feel the center line. Turn through the torso and spine center and heels lower and lengthen. Beautiful.

And again, rise up. Feel the control through your inner thighs. As you turn center, he goes lower and lengthen. Oh one more. Each side. Rise up and turn back to center. He goes lower. Lengthen. Last one. Rise, turn center. He goes lower and lengthen. Beautiful work. Now from there, we're going to actually put on one red spring. You're going to put a red spring on the bottom, the third eye bolt from the top, and we'll hook. They'll push through bar on that for [inaudible] kneeling cat stretch.

Now what we may want to do is take the roll down bar and put it back up at the top so it's out of your way. That'll make it less confusing. Perfect for a gentle kind of sneak it in. That's the plan. And make it look hard. No one's going to want to join you. So when you, um, when you're ready from an alien position, slide back enough that your arms can be straight with your body completely upright. So you're going to start from a straight arm position.

The arms of the bar will be pulled down just a little bit. When you're ready, I just get a feeling before you start that when you're kneeling correctly and your pelvis is in neutral sense, that the sit bones are relatively narrow and the front of the hips are open. So you feel your inner thighs. Now take a breath, keeping the shoulders low on the exhale. Nod Your Chin and curl forward without changing the pelvis. Curl as far as you can, pulling the bar down before the pelvis has to roll over your legs. So curl now with control.

Allow the pelvis to roll over the legs and create a straight line head detail on the next exhale. Press into your feet throughout the sit bones down and roll up. Lifting the waistline and stacking the spine. But the shoulders glide down as the head floats up. We'll do two more like that. On the exhale. Curl waistline pulls back when you need to.

The pelvis rolls over the legs, straight line, head tail on the XL sit-downs, dry down, waistline lifts, shoulders widen and lower at the top. Feel the connection and again, head forward. Waistline back, beautiful. That's it. Feel that head tail length. Have a little still control through the back of your glutes and hamstrings through east centric Lee lengthening and now curl as you lift the waistline fluid motion. As you get to the top, reach the right arm to the side. We're going to do single arm that's that. Now connect the arms to each other across your back.

On the exhale as you curl forward, take the bar down, let the right arm go to the back. Keep curling. That's it. Now Inhale, extend head tail length. Exhale, draw the sit bones down. As you stack this by floating, the waves can float the right arm back to that side starting position. Just one more on that side. There you go. Exhale the curl equal. Work through the center line. Inhale to extend. Exhale, sit bones pulled down. Spine floats up. Center line is very active.

Yeah. We'll switch your arms. Beautiful. Work open to the side. Take a breath. Now as you curl, feel the strength through your midline. The neck can stay supple. Feel that head tail length as you reach industry line XL. Stack the spine is to draw the sit bones down. Opening the left arm to the side, and one more on the exhale. Curl.

Inhale to extend until length. Exhale, stack it up in a fluid fashion. Floating the arm to the side. Beautiful. Nice work. Now from there, we're going to take the bar off. We'll take it down. Okay. Yeah. We're going to do a short set of advanced legs. So for advanced legs, what we're gonna do is take the long purples, and this is based on body weight, so we'll see how it goes, but we're going to put it on number four, four from the bottom, I mean four from the top, excuse me, four from the top. Now when you're ready, you're going to come onto your back and put the straps on your feet.

That's it. Exactly. So this is called, this is an exercise called magician. Because you're going to look like you're going to be levitating off the ground. So when you're ready, you're gonna let the arms be long, but have a little bit above the plane of the body. So it's easy on the shoulders to hold that position.

And now let the legs go out to a high 45 and just in parallel. Now imagine now bring them right up to 90 let them come up to 90 now what you're going to do is as you extend the legs, you're going to peel the spine off the floor into a straight line from the shoulders to the ankles, so on the XL, reach in the legs and peel the spine up. As you inhale, roll back down and let the legs hinge back to 90 how's that way feel for you guys? Feel okay. Here you go. Okay, that's just show on the exhale. Reach into it and peel. Notice you don't want to have a lot of upper toe shoulder tension.

The a little lower. You're resting on the shoulder blades and then sequence down with control, keeping the throat soft, close to the midline. Beautiful. And just two more before we add something to that. So curl, nice line through the body in hell. The sequence down, excelling back to that starting position. Feel it's your hip extensors, your core, your scapular control. That's it. There's your magician moment floating and then sequence down with control.

Now the next one, you're going to come up and hold it. Imagine the pelvis is levitating and then stay in that position. You're going to draw a small circles without the pelvis going up and down. While you're up there [inaudible] that's enough. Feel that control through your midline, the back of your legs and draw small circles. Three in each direction and reverse. There we go.

And one back to center. Sequence down through the spine. Ah Nah. Now they're starting to feel the fatigue. Now we're just going to do two more. Were you going to do frogs while you're up there? And then we're going to do an airplane, which is a little different, but I'll tell you about that after. So on the exhale, peel up to that same line, going to turn out from the top of the legs. Inhale, bend the knees in towards the armpits. Xcel to lengthen.

Do that for five. See if he can hold the height of the pelvis, extend through the back of the legs and the center line. Good, nice and strong and fluid. And one more back to parallel sequence down through the spine. Huh? So airplane is similar to a short spine, but you're in a diff, you're actually is very similar. So what you're gonna do is as you pull onto the strap and bend the legs, you're going to peel the spine off the floor into the short spine position.

So you'll end up looking like you're going towards the rollover. And then once you're up there or you're going to send the legs towards the wall, high on a diagonal holding lumbar flection. Then your airplane moment is your reached the legs out to a straight line and they float down. And then when you're ready, you hinge back at the hips. That's a lot of words. So we're just going to see how we can feel it. So, so we'll show you with Amy. First thing.

She's going to start to bend the knees and then curl the lumbar off the mat. Now she's going to hold that. Reach the legs up towards the springs. Now reach out on an angle and control that a scent. And then when you need to your hinge at the hips to come back to the start. Beautiful. That's it. So actually let them be in parallel.

Just start to bend by pulling this way, like bend at the knee. Now curl the spine off. There you go. Then you find the hamstring, but still have a little spring tension. That's it. Then reach up. That's it. Ben. Reach out. Beautiful. So you got, the hard part is you're going from having sprint tents into not having, that's it. So use the spring tension to bend the legs and peel the spine off. That's it. Okay. Then reach up, reach out and fly. Or you go and here articulate, and then you articulate at the very bottom as, yeah. So you'll go as far as you can do a straight line, then roll through to release.

Oh, that's it. Three up, reach out, then articulate through, beautiful. Two more. That's it. That's it. Didn't know you were flying today. There we go. One more out. Beautiful. That's it. Organized chaos. I love it. And when you're ready, just gently help yourself out of the straps. Take your knees into your chest and rock around in your lower back for a moment, letting go of any tension. Wonderful work you guys. Now when you're ready, roll to your side to help yourself up to standing. To prepare for rolling in, rolling out chest expansion. So what we're going to use is the long, the short yellows with the roll down bar, we're going to put it down at a one, two, three, four, five.

We're going to put it fairly low. Okay, that's it. Now number five, we're going to start with chest expansion. So you're going to come to a kneeling position facing the wall and just find that you're going to want to be relatively close. It's going to feel like you don't, but when you pull it, you're going to feel the tension pretty quickly with those short yellows and you're not trying to arm wrestle the springs.

You really trying to work on posture and middle back connection. Say, I mean right here. Let's just go past the up, right, so, so first thing, just make sure your thumbs are on the same side as your fingers and get that Nice feeling you had in the last exercise of opening the front of the hips and take the head of the arm bones back. Now as you exhale, just pull the bar to your body and inhale 40 you might need to go a little bit back. That's this is the walking chest expansion. And inhale forward and exhale DePaul, and then pull. Now as you pull, feel like the shoulder blazers sliding down the back like a v to coming a slightly more in as you pull and you're dragging the arms down, but you're keeping the top of the chest open. Now let's add to that on the exhale. Pull. Now. Inhale, rotate your head to the right. Exhale center. Inhale the turn center and release and do three more and just get the sense that you're allowing the head to float on the end of the spine as you turn. So the neck tension is minimal. The tone is underneath the shoulders.

Jaws relaxed center. Gravity is nice and low. That's it. Last one. Now we're going to take that and movement into thigh stretch. So what I'd like you to do is on the inhale, pull the bar towards you. On the Exhale, lower your Chin and lean back.

Straight line from your knees to your shoulders. Inhale back up. Exhale, release and float your head. Inhale the pole XL. Nod the chin hollow back through the belly. As you lean in. Help to lift. Exhale, release and float the head. One more time. Inhale the pool. Exhale, nod hollow. Press into the Shin in health to lift. Exhale, release. Very nice. Now Rolling through enrolling are rolling in and rolling out is a combination of the cat. Stretch the thigh stretch. But when you do the arm lift in your back, you're going to lift your elbows like this opposed to low.

When you're leaning back and you'll have a little upper back extension, then you'll come back down the front of the body and roll back up. But I'll talk you through that. So first thing with the arms long. There you go. It's all good. You go now on the exhale, spine stretch forward and reached the bar to the ground, about a foot in front of your knees. As you inhale, pull it to your knees, slide it up to the front of the body. Go into throat, thigh stretch. Lift the elbows and look up. XCL Back Down the front of the body.

Slide it back on the floor, and then stack the spine back to your original or first place. And again, curl told the bar to the thighs. Slide it up the front. Feel the back chain. Open the chest back down the front of the body. Roll up with soft shoulders and neck. One more. Last one.

Exhale the curl draw towards you and stack and lift back down the front of the body. Beautiful and roll up through the spine. Beautiful work. Ah, and gently release. And we're going to finish right there like you to come to standing. Thank you for joining us. I hope you enjoy it and come back again to join us. Thank you so much.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Wonderful class! Love your focus on form, flow and breath.. So encouraging when you verbally remind us to go at our own pace. Love your classes Tom!
WOW!!! Amazing, beyond amazing.. Can not wait to try this class with my participants
5 people like this.
Tom has such a great teching style. I love his calm voice and amazing cues. Thank you for the great variations. He has a good balance of building strength without building tension. Not always easy to fing that balance. thank you!
Jennifer W
Love the class and always enjoy Toms teaching style!
Wonderful!!! Lots of great information and a clear flowing workout. I have a feeling this is one I will be repeating over and over!
Pele
2 people like this.
Amazing with lots of new stuff. Loved the lower body work that I feel gets watered down in many other classes. Great use of time. Great cueing without over wordiness.
2 people like this.
Love!
Great class thankyou Tom
Tom, you teach with such compassion and precision. As a student of Pilates, I feel movements in entirely new ways. As a teacher of Pilates, I learn refinement and deeper anatomical connections. Thanks!
Great class, loved all the variations! Can't wait to try it with my clients :) thank you!
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