Class #1402

Elastic Recoil Reformer

45 min - Class
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Description

Jennifer Golden Zumann teaches a class that utilizes traditional Reformer exercises to explore the concept of elastic recoil into the body, which is the natural resilience and rebound effect of our structural tissues. She hopes this will reinstate the restorative animal way of moving in our bodies. Jennifer also includes some thought-provoking wall exercises inspired by Robert Schleip into the workout. We hope you are moved by experiencing the traditional exercises in a new way.
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box

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Jan 18, 2014
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Hello, I am Jennifer Golden Zuman and today I have with me Qaeda and roof. And we're going to be doing a reformer workout. We're going to utilize traditional former exercises in order to explore the concept of elastic recoil into the body. And that's the idea of the natural resilience and rebound effect that our structural tissues have in order to restore the restorative animal like way of moving, um, in the reformer workout today. In addition to your reformer, we're going to use boxes and pull or ride and probably some kind of a sticky mat of some sorts. So you don't slide. I really like to begin doing something with the foot.

I think it's important to wake up the architecture of the foot because that really sets a lot of the interplay in a lot of the tissues of the body. So we're just going to begin with a sense of warming up the ankle. Where does sitting on the reformer, and we have a nice line with the lower leg just dropping down in the feet on the floor. And the first thing we're going to do is just roll the heel up. So we're going to roll on to the long bones of the foot to the head of the long bones in the foot, and then glide back down. What I want you to imagine is the the round surface bone in the middle of the foot, this fulcrum in the middle of the foot and how this tissue, how the bone slides up and down the bones of the lower leg are gonna slide up and down. So feel a strong anchor through the bones of the foot as you do this.

And then just tip back. So you're going to tip back instead, right? So we're gliding the other way into our doors deflection. So just rolling now back and then back down couple more times. Feel like you're rolling on that heel block. Feel the weight of the heel block. Now go back and forth and be aware to bring Nice weight into that fourth and fifth toe ball to the ball of those toes.

According to either Roth, we sort of have our two arches. There's the heel and that fourth and fifth ray, which makes a nice anchor. And then you've got the other bones that are stacked on top of it. So you've got like two arches, one on top of the other. And I want you to feel a really strong sense of that lateral arch as you roll.

Now we're gonna do a little jellyfish feet and this is sort of like making a dome of the foot. What we're gonna do is just slide it up and down and I want you to imagine that your foot is like a jellyfish. So it's different than a scrunch in that a scrunch, pull the toes towards the heel. Instead I want the heels and the toes to pull towards each other. So creates almost like a buckle and a lift of the center of the foot.

Let's just do this a few more times. Okay, good. Hey, now we're going to work on rolling down through the spine just a little bit. So starting nice and tall. We're going to visualize kind of a criss cross of tissue through back.

So from the arm, Chris, crossing through your back. And then for the purposes of right now, just thinking about it coming down through the legs, then want you to imagine that it's like a Web, an elastic web. So we're going to start inhaling tall, and then as you exhale, you're going to roll down and just feel that web stretch. Don't even do to forcefully forget some of the cues right now that you've heard. Sometimes we get cluttered with cues and just try to experience the sense of a crisscrossing web than let the elasticity of that web pull you back up again.

So it's not really a roll up. It's not really an articulation. It's a resilient spring back like you stretch a rubber bed. The rubber band returns to its size. Let's do it again. Stretch the rubber band Ziff lots of rubber bands here and then let them spring back to their size. Yeah, and let's do it one more time. Roll it down good.

And then let it roll back to its size right back up again. Good. Now bring your hands behind you. I like to kind of play with the hands and fingers just like I do with the feet. So I want the hands back and you'd be kind of on your fingertips to begin. Then you're going to push down through your palm and lift up through your chest.

So now we're coiling up those tissues a little bit more in these are stretching and then they're going to return to their size, right and against with a gentle extension. It's not so much of a back bend, it's more of a lift up, right? And then good. Really use the hand and press it down. Rise up, feel that stretch to its capacity. Find the web and then let that web pull you right back.

We're going to add a little bit of a load to it now and make it a little more challenging. So bring your arms up. Good. So now imagine you've got that, like you're sitting on the net and you stretch the net up. So I want you to be really aware of this webbing through your back, right? And you're going to coil forward stretching that web with you. Really up here. Stretch into this even more too. Yeah. And then let it pull you back open again. I imagine sort of a big a blanket or some fabric and you're stretching into that fabric.

You're wrapping your vertebrae into that fabric and then you let it lift you. So it becomes just a light resilience sensation one more time. And if you do that, your shoulders will just land. You don't really have to pull them down or roll them back. The bones are stacking up and they just land where they need to be.

Now we're going to move to the wall and do a couple of exercises at the wall to help bring out some more springiness. So for this next section, I'm really excited to share with you this really fun thing I've been working on. Um, it was inspired by reading some of the research that Robert Schlep has been doing about fashion recoil, about elastic recoil. And I was reading an article and I saw it in a book. He was doing some sort of pushups against the wall and I was like, hold on. Like my wheels were turning. I was like, I can work with this.

I'm going to do a lot with this. So here's what we're going to do. This is going to be about forced transmission. It's going to be about taking the force of the upper body of the force of your body against the wall and transmitting it down through your legs. The idea is if everything is in the right place, the forest transmit all the way through and it doesn't get sort of jammed up and joints. So we're gonna explore this and we're going to work on kind of this catlike movement. So let's turn around and face the wall.

You often have to start with some little bounces. So bring your hands to the wall and get a little little clip. You will see how close you have to be, but I want you to think about your hands as kind of a push off. Now, if we get a chain reaction, like if it looks like this, like your hips come forward, or if your head comes forward, then we got a problem. What we want to see is that your sternum comes forward and that we're transmitting the force from the arms. It's going to criss cross. It gets absorbed by this beautiful ligamentous structure in the Sacrum, which sends it down through the legs. This, this Fascia here actually crosses in part of it, wraps right into these sigh joints and then part of it continues out into the legs. So we're working with this sense of a pelvic pyramid.

So we're open between the pubic bone and tailbone. We're open between the two sitting bones and then we have this forced closure bringing the two sides of the pelvis against the sacred here, Louise, he's already giving spring here. It looks really nice. So it starts to get really nice and Bouncy, really juicy, really resilient. And then we're going to start playing with the two sides. So there's a trick to this guys because this an interesting experiment.

If you put your right hand right at that right sigh joint, so you kind of like put your knuckles right into it and remind that this side of your sacrum is balancing this arm, then you're really well balanced. Just for kicks. Take your hand off for a second and see. It's totally less balanced, right? It's crazy. Then you put the hand there and you remind that you're absorbing through here and sending it down. So you get this equal balance just by reminding that side of your sacrum.

Let's do the other side. And as you do it, you begin to feel that interplay of the front and back tissue. So your abdominals actually start working a little bit more. You get really light, really springy. Just do like two more now here with this side. Good. Almost think of lifting that tissue up. Yes. Oh my gosh. That was so great.

Did you feel that? That looks great. Now we're going to rotate with it so we're not going to put our hand there cause as we go with the one hand, you're going to turn and look the other way. Now start lightly and really use the hand. Use the palm. Use the fingers. Imagine the way a cat bounces. The idea here is similar to that of like a Yoyo.

So there's a moment where the Yoyo, where it stores the kinetic energy and then it rebounds back. So you have to find that Yo-yo moment. Yeah. Now finding the Yoyo feel that for you. I think Ruth, we found that that idea of forced closure was so important for you. All right, cool. There it is. Right? So it's a beautiful Yo-yo moment. Let's do one more to each side. Good.

And then let's turn around. So now we're going to do the back. And this kind of looks like ski, like ski jumping. So find the wall first. Cause sometimes you push off with so much gusto that you like go tumbling forward. So first is kind of go light, just little push off. It's very important that you don't push down, but that you push off. If your triceps aren't kicking, it's not happening. Okay.

And you bend into it. Get be a sprint. Yeah. Be a sprint. Be a spring. Isn't it great that Joe gave us springs to work with so we can learn to be springy? Right? So think about that quality of the recoil and expansion. Recoil and expansion. Yeah. Good. Let's just do two more of these.

Okay. Now this is exactly what we're going to bring to our reformer exercises now so we can find the same sprit, resilience in all the exercises that we're familiar with already. Now we are all spree and ready to take that onto our reformers with some traditional footwork. The forward that I'm into right now, and I go through trends sometimes, but most recently I learned from Debra lesson, Corolla, tree, air's footwork, which I love. So that's what we're going to do. So for that, the feet are together to begin and it's a parallel position. But in parallel I'd still want the knees to be just a little open. I want to think about honoring the hip angle and what that means for everybody might be a little bit different. But if you consider that your hip, the ball doesn't go into the socket this way, nor does it go in this way.

It goes, you know, kind of this way. So then when you bend and move, you have to find the angle of your hip. So just find a second to Kinda honor your hip. Take a breath in and as you exhale, feel that Sacremento low belly connection inwards and upwards. And let's go out on the inhalation, inhale and press out and exhale the comeback in. Now there's a beautiful cue that was a cue from Corolla, which is slide your foot into your shoe and then straighten your knee, slide your foot into your shoe and then straighten the knee.

So the heel drops a little bit because the intention is to strengthen ourselves into a position that we're going to stand in functioning. Let's just do two more here. Go ahead and one more. Okay, now let's come up to the heel position and again, the heels are going to be together and that the hips are just going to find their home, find their home and start moving here. I'd like you to give some attention to the way they hip rolls in the socket.

So I kind of picture like rolling paper into a typewriter so you feel this rolling down in a way and then rolling in and under. So you get the sense of the way that ball rolls in the socket. I think we can go a little faster and she goes feel and bouncy. Let's do one more. I think it looks pretty bouncy and let's come down now to rotated position and so on. This rotated on your toes or we could call it first if we want.

I still want you to have a strong sense of connection through that fourth and fifth metatarsal. So when you press out, the knuckles of the toes should pop up. We get a little dome. It's almost like the jellyfish foot that we did in the beginning. And again, drop your heel into your shoe and then straighten your knees. Yeah, so we're playing with a nice resilience through the ankle, the knee and the hip. Two more of these will be good. And then one more. Okay, we're going to lower and lift now. So bring the feedback together again and for lowering lift.

I like this to be sort of like that bird on a wire kind of position. So I want you to feel the feet draped over and when you stretch, imagine that you are telescoping the layers of tissue through your thigh out. Kay. Now reach the heels under, but only as far as you can still feel the strong sense of your feet on the bar and then pull back up. Keep those heels connected. You know, I think we're just a little high. Let's bring your feet down a little bit. Yeah, and under, let's keep the heels connected and up. It's really an attempting thing to indulge in the stretch, but maybe not right now. Instead try to feel that you're getting in tune with that webbing and you stretch into the web only to where it still has enough sense of rebound to pull you back up. You should feel it out here. If it's like calf, then we're missing a little something that might be cool to get.

It's just a shame to not get all that oomph up in the booty when you do this one. Let's do two more. Good. Now let's bend the knees to come in. Last one we'll do is out to the corners of the bar, so I want the nice meaty part of the heel on the bar. [inaudible] and again, we're going to find the juicy spot of the hip joint and as we go, oh, I have this cue that I love, that I learned from Madeline black recently, which is about the thigh bones. So the, the knee, this is, this is fun. The knee will, um, slow roll and slide. Then it will slide. Actually it's this way, Roland slide, slide and rolls.

So you can imagine the rolling and then the sliding sliding. Then the rolling. That should bring in a little more of an even activity through the thighs that let's just do one more here. Good. Okay. Now I'm going to take down a spring. So I'm going to move to two springs and I'd like you to take the straps into your hands, the handles into your hands.

We're going to bring the legs into a shelf position or tabletop position. And in this position as well, I like to keep the knees just a little bit open because I like to honor that hip joint. It feels to me like I can get a sense of connection when my hips are in their natural home. It doesn't mean that I want you to really rotate it. It means I want your legs in their own parallel. So we're going to move first on an inhalation.

You're going to inhale and bring your arms down and really re inflate the upper most back. Exhale on the Essenture contraction, so you're drawing up and in through your abdomen as the arms returned back up. Let's do it again. Inhale, good and exhale. It's just another way to do it. Sometimes I exhale on the way down. Sometimes I inhale, but I like to shake it up a little bit. I think it's good for the brain to make those little changes. Well, I know it's good for the brain. The research says so. One more time. Okay.

Now we're going to exhale as we do it, but we're also going to extend the right leg, keeping the head down still, so reach the arms and extend that leg and then bring it back in. Now again, we're going to look for a webbing. So imagine your leg is stretching, stretching into a web only as far as it can go before that web pulls it back. Perhaps that web connects up all the way where the diaphragm is, so when you stretch, the diaphragm's going up and the sleeve of the thigh is reaching out and then it pulls right back. One more. Good. Now we're going to go into the hundred so both legs are going to feel the same way. You're going to exhale, the diaphragm pulls up and it's like you're pulling up your tights. The way the legs reach out. Good. When you're ready, Jaco, let's, let's do it. Ready and begin. Inhale, two, three, four, five, exhale. No, certainly you could keep your knees bent if you prefer.

Whatever is best for your body. The most important thing is that you're still feeling a nice taffy, pulling quality in the abdomen as you breathe. If you find that you're bracing, then we're going too far. Then you can ease up in your hip joints and reduce the load of your legs. When you inhale, really expand up into that upper back and coil yourself forward. As you exhale, feel like you're pulling a sheet up the front of your spine.

Sometimes if we pay attention to the front of the spine instead of the front of the belly, it actually helps us get a little deeper. Let's do one more breath cycle. I didn't count, but maybe you guys are sure that we've done enough and then let's bring it back down. Good. Now I'd like to go into Jackknife if that feels appropriate for your body. So let's do Jack Knife. Let's start with the legs up straight. If you feel, you know like you've been doing this for a long time and stable, you can always start with the legs down.

But the first step I'd like you to do is to bring your arms down on the beginning movement. Then when the legs fold over, we're creating a springboard that we're going to press up into. So these guys are really working. Fold it back over again. I kind of like this version and then roll back down. I want you to look like a, like a Jackknife. So when you fold over, there's potential. So we fold over. Here's the Yoyo moment. Make that potential and open, yes, and then fold again and back down. Good. Let's do one more time.

We go over potential potential and up. Yes. And then back over. If your arms and your behind are not really, really working, there's more available. Good. All right, into coordination. Now when you take your foot bars down so they're not in your way. Okay. Bring your arms long by your sides. Let's inhale and bring your head up. Reach through the arms and legs. Open. Close, knees come in, elbows bend.

Now I think we can get a little bit more sense of elasticity. Imagine that you're inside a balloon, but you can breathe, but you're inside a balloon, so as you reach the arms and legs, you're reaching against something that wants to pull back again because that's kind of what your tissues doing here. You're reaching into the lattice and then it wants to rebound to more. I can see I'd like a little more of a coiling up of the upper body. You're sticky it. However you want to scoot down a little bit.

This is our last one in this position, so we're almost there. Good and back down. Alright, let's go ahead and put those down. Now and we're going to grab the long box to do another one of my new favorite exercises inspired by this bouncy stuff. So I'm going to put on one spring and the bar is going to be, maybe if you have a medium height you can do that. So if you want to put that up for me with one spring, I'm just going to demonstrate it really quick cause it's a little bit odd just to describe.

So you're going to lay down and we're going to get a nice extension position here. You might need a sticky if your machine is slippery and then we're going to jump this one jumps. So we're going to jump like this and get really bouncy. I want to keep doing it and then we're going to play with maybe coming up just a little bit. So different than when we do swan. Sometimes we keep the arms straight and pivot up because we're working on that storage of kinetic energy. We come up like that and it looks actually I think a little bit more like how Mr Pilati is looks doing his swan on the mat where he's just kind of rocking.

So this is fun. But where you do have to be aware of is depending on your machine, if you've got risers, make sure you don't have your legs wide or your toes will be very dissatisfied. Oh Oh ribs on. Yup. Ribs on. And I do start in that in position. I want to make sure your eyes have to stay on the bar so you do not smack your head, which is quite important.

And then we're going to look at this crisscross cross again. So we're going to prep ourselves in a prone position. Take a deep breath in. As you exhale, feel the sacred in the belly. Draw towards each other first. Let's get a sense of this support and feel that lateral work that we worked on on the wall bounces. It's really the same thing. Alright, now let's have at it. Let's move. Good. Lift your eyes a little bit. I want your cervical curve, your net curve to match your sacrum.

So we have sort of a relationship, a 10 style relationship through the whole back. Yeah. Feel really bouncy. Let's do a few before coming up. Do a few. Staying down. Feel the front hipbone stride towards each other a little bit. That's going to give you more support and use those hamstrings.

Lift into my hand a little bit. Yes. So everything is taught. Everything is working. When you're ready, now start bouncing upwards. If it feels natural, if it doesn't feel natural yet, then don't. Yeah, just keep playing with the bouncing. Let's just do two more here. [inaudible] right here. A little more good. And then come in. That's really nice to get your blood pumping, to move the lymph through the body and get everything moving.

So we're going to take the bar down face the other way and take this right into pulling straps while we've got a nice strong extension going on. Okay, so we're going to flip around [inaudible] yeah, that'll work right now. We're going to lie on the belly and let's grab the ropes with your hands and hold on the outside of the frame. Now before we move, I want you to let the upper body drop just a little bit and take a breath in. And as you exhale, imagine that tissue on your sacred. Again, drawing up. It's almost like suspenders to lift your leg. The belly draws in, Demita it, and even though you're on your front, those two front hip bones are connecting towards each other.

So we feel that vectoring inwards and upwards of the top of the pelvis. Good. Now use your legs. Now kick your legs and and kind of lift them a little bit. The legs are going to be the lever for the thrust of the upper body. So there's a propulsion lead by those legs to come back up.

Press into my hands. Use these guys. This is your lever up, up. Thrill the breastbone. Forward a little bit more so you feel like you're coming forward more than upwards. One more time, pull back. Good. And then back down. Okay. Now you're going to flip over onto your back and we're going to do a roll back kind of thing. It's sort of like doing double leg stretch.

So you're going to lay on your back now, but your upper back is going to be off the machine. Just the upper back, shoulders, head and neck will lay back. So hold the backs of your legs and lower yourself there gently. If it's, yeah, you want to find a spot that might be a little too far. That's going to be a very intense good. So the idea here, again, the knee is just a fraction open. We're going to roll back through the upper body. Want you to imagine I picture like pulling that like measuring tape.

I want you to draw it back and imagine coiling your head over the back of the machine and then start rolling the top of your head. Roll your neck, roll your upper sternum, roll your lower sternum and then go back down again. Length and back. [inaudible] when you go back though, don't let your friend body go. We're looking for the interplay of the front and back webbing. So when you come forward, this is recoiling in the back is stretching. We're rolling the vertebrae, each one spirals.

Then when you go back, lower yourself back through the front body and utilize it the whole way back. And then one more time, roll the head, roll the neck, roll the upper sternum, roll the lower sternum. Good. And now bring your hands behind your head. You're going to love this. We're going to do Chris Cross just like that. So we're going to go back first. Get that full opening, but don't let go of the depth.

And then as you roll up, you're going to roll to the right, extend the left leg and stay here for one full breath. Inhale deeply. Exhale, really expel every bit and then come back again all the way back. Good. Try to get the support in the front of the spine instead of the front of the ribcage. And again, that allows you to still have some movement other side, their rib cage movement. Feel the wrapping of the front and the stretching of the back tissue and then let it recoil that it pull you right back again. Good.

Let's do two more to each side, perhaps a tiny bit faster. Let's see. Can you expel everything? Live the diaphragm over the abdominal organs, just a little more. And then your lungs inflate. They can't help but take you back again. One more time. Go ahead. This looks beautiful.

Nice long movement. Good. And then bring it back down. Good work. Woo. Let's tell him off the box right now and you're going to take the box off. Okay. It's sliding off. We're going to put, we need to put sticky pads on this thing for you. Put it right on the side. Good. And I think this tension will be good.

We're going to keep this one spring on here and we're going to do the dapper chap series as I like to call it. So you're going to stand up. And first thing we're gonna do is just start moving up here. So come on up. It's almost like a portion of your gait cycle. A portion of walking. [inaudible]. Good. So for the first one, I want you to put one hand on your low belly and one hand on your low back. Good. So feel like you're opening your sitting bones a little bit, just a little, and I want you to use these hands to maintain your pelvic position and then just push that back just as much as you need to and as much as you can without altering that. And I don't mean I want you to keep it still.

I want you to keep it dynamically still. I want the opposing forces to be so strong that they are holding you still. That's different than being stagnant. There's life in that. Good. Let's do one more here. Then we're going to add a little bit of a an arm. As we stroll down the street and I want to see a reciprocation.

The sacred does a little glide sternum a little bit to yeah, find a position that you feel well balanced and you can bend that standing leg a little bit too. That's going to provide some balance for you as well. [inaudible] let that upper body like you know, free it up a little bit. It looks a little rigid. I think you can maybe let the lungs breathe a little bit more. Feel like the lungs are kind of walking with you.

Now we're going to make it a little bit bigger. So this is right. This is jumping hurdles. You're going to come down like this, really crouched into it, and then you're going to reach out and pull down and reach out. Now the spring is giving you the elastic recoil, so it's simulating that sensation you want in the body. Sure, yeah. If you have a lighter spring, just be aware of your balance. That's the most important thing. [inaudible] one more like this. And then we're going to take the arms across the leg as at Benz.

So you turn and then you're going to cast the spine up and out and let it pull back in all the while. Get a sense of your matrix so you don't go past the point where it feels resilient. That may be less than you know you can do, but that's okay because what we want to do is strengthen that ladder structure so it's organized. We don't want to stretch it till it becomes disorganized. Now we're going to do a cyclone. So you're going to come down and as you go out it's going to go up around and back in. Whew. Yep. And again press. It feels like you want to go the other way, but you can't, not till the other side.

[inaudible] strong sense of support through that sacred again and you should be feeling the back of that leg working in both likes. Everything's working. One more time. It'll be nice. Reach out around and in. Beautiful. Let's bring the box to the other side of the machine. Let's get ready to throw on down the street again.

Now you know what you're expecting so you can step up and remember you're free to bend that standing leg a little bit for some support. What it should look like here is that you're just kind of like in the middle of the step. That's all one hand in front of the other. This time [inaudible] so feel like you're making a sandwich between both hands. You're supporting that spine from both sides and then begin to just press. Now my two sides are completely different. Everybody's, I think sides are completely different.

The sooner we can give up on the idea that we need to have the two sides exactly the same, the then you can start making some progress. They both just have to work their best. They don't have to be the same because they're not. I'm sure if you were to look at the bones, they're probably different. Your organs are different. Everything's different. Let's do one more here.

Good, and now let's walk and down the street. Yeah, the arms should still swing straight ahead. They shouldn't go across. Good. Let's get a little more of this quality. This is our theme, right, so this booty can plump up a little bit as you push back. There we go. Now let's make it bigger. Let's come down and get ready to jump. Some hurdles. Reach and gathered back up. When you come in, here's where you're storing, you're storing the energy and then it springs to more storage and spring one more time and go right into taking it across that leg down and up. I haven't been to this one first.

For a client who was having a hard time playing tennis and getting that sense of rotation. So we kind of made this up as a way to develop an anchor through that back foot as we open up through that upper body. One more time and then we'll go into the psych clone and let's come down. Starts the same way, but it continues all the way around and in and again, press up all the way around and in one more time. Press up o the way around and in. Good.

Alright, now let's go ahead and step off for a second. We're going to put the backs back on for short box and we're going to grab our, oh, should we get this kind of a waiver? That's okay. Do you know what? I'm not too worried about the springs cause you know it's not going to move probably. So we're going to hold the pole right away. We're going to bring back what we did in the beginning where we received it and we worked on that sense of fashional fabric through the back.

Let your legs come out to the sides. There will come a point in which we go back with the legs. We'll be nice and taut. So press the legs out to the sides. So your abductors kick in and just begin by bringing your arms straight up. So again, we're sitting on our fascia blanket and we're holding it up with the other side.

I want you to really feel it. Um, well you can bend them right now. That's fine. They'll, it'll all kind of come together I think right now if they're bent, I think it's fine. I want you to feel this quality of fashion matrix behind you and then we're going to exhale and take it for now. Don't let any of your spine, we're going to round. Don't let any of your spine leave the blanket, slide your diaphragm and then let it come back up. Spring. Feel the springiness and again, bring it forward. Come forward, right and up. Tempting to go back instead of forward like this.

But I really want you to stretch the web and then let it lift you back up one more time. I call this the dynamic short box series because we're going to do stuff that we're quite similar to all of our other exercises on the short box. Little more in here. So stretch that Web, right? And then spring it back up right into there. Good. Okay. Now I want you to scoot back enough that your legs can be straight because what we're gonna do is stretch it forward so much that it takes us up and back into our hinge back. All right? It's just going to happen. It's just going to happen.

Ready? So coil it forward and let it spring up and back and up and forward and up and back and up and forward. Yes. Now get rid of some of the things you're supposed to hold and just start thinking about being supported by this interplaying web last one. Reach Long. Good. All right. And roll up in the middle should feel really nice.

And now we're going to do the same thing with a spiral. So we're going to come forward and then we come up. We're going to lift ourselves up into rotation and then so forth on the other side. And we're going to build that into our twist back. So first we're just going to come forward. And then when you lift it up, I want to specifically use this right to left side. So when you shorten this rubber band, you're going to come up and face, well, the other side actually. Yeah. If we're shortening this band, right, we're going to come up this way and then back down, right? And then this way, yes, and back down.

So just getting tuned with this, this is our thoracolumbar Fascia right here. We need to coil this and then, yeah, don't even go back yet, but you guys are ready to go back. It looks like your body's wanting to, so let's do it. Let's come up and [inaudible] dive back. I don't care if both hips stay down. I want you to go with it. Your legs are a solid anchor. Come up and cast yourself open. Yes. Good. And if you're really in tune with that tissue, it won't be too much back then. It'll be a reach-out. Gorgeous. Let's do one more to each side. Make it fun, make it invigorating, make it active. Great. Good work guys. I'll take the poll and let me, how do you switch to three springs and put your foot bar up again, we're going to do the short box series in the Corolla tree air style.

I'm not sure if box the stomach massage series in the Corolla tree air style, which is with the box on, so depending on your hips you may want a higher or a lower bar, but you squish yourself into this sardine can. Yeah, which I love. I love this one. As soon as I learned this one I was like, this is where it's at. Okay, so we're going to do that coiling up again. I want you to imagine that you are really spiraling the head, the neck, upper sternum, lower sternum, and try to really get the feeling of the diaphragm sliding over your organs. Yeah, and now let's just, we'll skip the lower and lift for the sake of the massage. Let's inhale back and exhale in and resist.

What I think sometimes we do when we're on the machine is forget that we don't really have to pull ourselves in because there's springs that are pulling you in. You get to find the balance between allowing the springs to pull you and resisting that action. So on the way in, allow the springs to pull you in the backs of your legs. Help you to resist that. One more time here. Fill up right up here with your breath. Really lift your upper wings so the upper lungs fill [inaudible] and then exhale way down low. Go ahead, bring your hands now by your sides and I like to stick my tail back just a little bit against the box. The box is a nice feedback for me to go flat back.

So if you stick your tail against the box, you press the arms down. Remember that exercise we did in the beginning? I want you to press those arms down so you feel a lift through the upper spine. Close up a little bit in the back of your vest, and then we go on here. Inhale back, exhale in. Good. Inhale back. Exhale in.

Let's do four more up. Three. Good. I think you can work less here and you can work more there. Yes. Now bring your heels out to the corners of the bar and carry on. Inhale back. Exhale in. Let's slide the skin up the top of the sternum just a little bit.

Yeah, to free up just a little more of that movement. One more time. Okay. Let's take off the box. We're going to come into a close and we're going to do it with impact. We're going to do a little knee stretch down stretch thing, so I'm going to switch you now to choose springs, which is how I like to do it and I'm going to make the bar just a little higher.

Okay. Hey, so let's come to the knee stretch position. We're going to do flat back knee stretch first because I think that it's important to establish that neutral position, so I want you to slide the skin on the sacrum up a little bit. Feel open between the pubic bone and tailbone and open between the sitting bones. So you can get your pyramid quality here. Now I want you to play with this a little bit guys. We're gonna, we're going to really think about these hamstrings.

It's like a pouncing kind of idea. So for a few times I just want you to go back and use these to bring you back forward. So you really kick these in. Good. So we're stretching and recoily stretching and recoiling. Now stay back. Hold. So now if we do the same movement, but the upper body is fixed, the carriage will move in. Stack, yes and resist. So right here, even though you're pulling in your gut, you don't have to pull on the springs. The springs are pulling you. So find the relationships. You can kind of surf the springs back in.

Good. Now we're going to press back and we're going to come up and down. Stretch. Yeah. And then go back again and pull in the knees. Stretch. Good. Out and up. I want you to imagine the spine is a little more liquid, a little less fibrous. So we can actually flow with you just a little bit more. Yep.

One more time here. Then we're going to continue it into the round, back and stretch. So this time we come back down and we go from extension to flection. Back to extension and back up again. Yeah, right back to the down stretch again. Yeah, right there. Down, stretch, round, back, back out to down. Stretch and up. One more of these beautiful guys.

Now just a couple of down stretches down and up and down and lift through that breastbone. One more time. Hold it up for a moment. Imagine that you're bringing yourself, you're wrapping yourself around a wheel and pushed with your arms strong. Good. Okay, we're going to turn around now we're going to do again another Corolla inspired exercise of the long back stretch. So you're going to, instead of having [inaudible], I think it's more like what I learned is tendon stretch. But we're going to have our feet out here and instead of going in a, in a box like motion, um, this is the cue is to vacuum under the bed. So you slide under and then you lift up and you really work on inflating round, so round, so round into this upper back that you just can't even believe you could possibly get more up there. Good. And again, we want to do is restore where the thoracic curve belongs.

Right? And it should be. It should be good up there. Keep the work in your feet too. Good. One more time. Lift, lift, lift. Right, right into my hand. Lift a little bit more, a little more, a little mark. C'Mon. I know you got a little more good. There we go. All right, come on off here. We're going to finish with one exercise that is inspired by Mary Bowen. Um, I made this one up because, well one, I like to have a nice closer that works for everybody, but Mary talks about the way cat will just lay on the ground and just get longer. And so this is a way of doing that. Um, you guys have loose enough hamstrings that I don't think that you will need to put it on a box, but you can put a box up instead. Actually, why don't we do one with the box and one without, so we can demonstrate both.

So I'm going to put the box up there. I want one light spring gotta be light cause I don't want it to give you a much, much resistance and you guys are going to be kind of pushed to Tush. I thought that's okay. We're going to stand here. Yeah. And what you're going to do is put your hands on the edge of the box or the edge of the carriage respectfully. And if you'd guys touched your hips, you know that you're taking your hips behind your heels, which we don't want anyway. So I want you to pivot the spine forward and just wait. Just wait here for a moment.

Take a couple breaths and look at that Spring beneath you. You see how that spring is stretching each coil. I want your spine to do the same thing so it doesn't get more bendy, it doesn't get more round. It just gets longer. And then lead with your pelvis and coil up. Let it lift you a little bit and then rhythmically right back out again.

So it's like a wave. Yeah. And again, feel it lift, and then it's like a wave. Let your spine feel the, around the spine. You've got like a Gel, like you can roll through that Gel. [inaudible] let's do one more time. Feel that beautiful length.

And then on the last one, you're gonna roll all the way back up. And I like to finish by bringing the arms out to the side. So just be aware of each other there, all the way up for a moment, and then exhale. And that's all. Look out, guys. That's fine.

Comments

2 people like this.
Wonderful Class Jen! Thank You for sharing all Your inspiration and that of many Mentors! I Loved seeing Ruth as well!
3 people like this.
I really enjoyed this class! All of the visualizations were helpful. Jennifer had such a positive aura of energy - loved her teaching. Thanks for a great workout!
Thanks Michelle! I'm glad you enjoyed the workout :)
Hi Margeaux! Yes, Ruth was so much fun to work with! I'm really thrilled that I got this opportunity to share the wisdom of my mentors.
1 person likes this.
hi! good lesson but...why the head piece is down during footwork on reformer....does she forget it? i think that is not intentional...but the mistake is not little...
tiziana masia -Italy
1 person likes this.
Love your vivid descriptions of the movements and your
Enthusiasm is delightful!
Where do you teach?
Thanks
Hi Tiziana! Thank you for this question. I, too, learned headrest up. Through years, I have learned many approaches from different master teachers and movement experts. What I have learned most is
1.) always teach the person in front of me, and
2.) Be certain of my goal (the "why")
My intention in Footwork is to build foundation for standing posture and gait. With that goal, I like to allow the natural curves of the neck. In modern culture, we spend a lot of time with "head forward" (driving, computers…) I use footwork to balance the front and back slings by extending the hips and opening the chest with head in line with the spine. They can then translate that awareness to upright positions.
If someone who is too tight to have the headrest down, I do put it up to accommodate.
Watching videos on PA, there are examples of both positions from wonderful teachers giving great classes. Just do what works best for you or your clients :)
Hi Jennie! I"m so glad you enjoyed the class! My studio is in Chicago.
hi Jennifer ,sorry for my late answer!
so..thank you for your explanation ..it makes sense for me and sure..first thing ..we always have to teach for the person in front of us!! but i am used to that when i change something of the classicity of the method I say it and normally i give an explanation of the reasons......that's it!! but the energy and enthusiasm in your teaching was great Tiziana
1 person likes this.
I really enjoyed this class and love your analogies! One can really picture what they are being asked to do.
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