Class #1569

Strong and Centered Cadillac

40 min - Class
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Description

Monica teaches an enjoyable workout on the Cadillac which focuses on good postural work. She includes exercises that can also be done on the Reformer including Long Back Stretch, Thigh Stretch, and more. This is a great, full body workout that will make you feel strong and centered.
What You'll Need: Cadillac

About This Video

Mar 23, 2014
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Transcript

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All right Mindy, we are going to do an ice Cadillac routine just for your body. Something not too long, but something enjoyable and I'll always get in a really good workout. Let's start off with the hundred. So you're going to lie down with your head right here. So there is a beautiful complete and sambal that you could take the reformer and put it on the Cadillac. So they call it reformer Cadillac, but it's pretty advanced. We're going to take bits and pieces of that today.

Okay, so we're going to start off with a hundred but, and I'm also gonna twist play with some things. Usually if you would do the a hundred with springs, you would do it with the roll down bar. But I want you to get used to your having your shoulders incorrect alignment. So I'm going to have you slide a little bit away. That's pretty good. And then have your legs together. Good.

And I want your arms straight up to the ceiling. Good and nice. Maybe come out just a little bit. That's good. And now reach your pelvis away from you a little bit. Awesome. Good. You feel that and I want your belly to pull in to the mat and up towards you. Good. And now I love how open your collarbones are.

Your shoulders are pretty nice into the map and your shoulders are, could use a little more thinking about those underarms going down to your hip bones so that they length in a way from your ears, yet still keep those nice open collar bones. There's the work and I want you to inhale and pull those arms down to your side. Good. And exhale into the mat as you come up with those arms and pulling down. So the belly is pulling in and up against those springs and control it at good and reaching. Let's not have any relaxation on this spring and go right back down.

Good. One more. Reach those shoulders away from the ears and coming up and then bend for a little break. Good. And now we're going to do arm circles. So you want you to reach your arms up to the ceiling, press those shoulders into the mat, really plug 'em in. Take a big breath and exhale, scoop. And I'm going to have you scoop in this time as you bring the arms down by your side with the effort. Yes.

And then inhale as they circle up and form more reaching long, beautiful, straight risks. By that you can stretch my springs a little bit longer and keep them lengthening as you circle up. And two more reaching them long and opening. One more time scooping in and you go right into the reverse. A little careful with the elbow. Soften it a bit. Feel the arm muscles more and field them.

Reach your shoulder nice and long away from your ear reaching. And one more time connecting a little more pulley against those springs. Good. And rest your arms down. Nice. Slide a couple inches. I did put the [inaudible] springs on here, so they can't really explain whether they're tighter or stiffer, but they're just, they just stretch differently and that's what I'm comfortable working with. So I like looking at your body against those springs.

So we're gonna keep everything like this and we're going to try set presses. So I'm going to have you bring the arm actually straight arm all the way down to the mat. Pull it in, stay there soft. Really feeling the back of your lungs on the Mat. Everything nice and reach those hands even longer. And with the tricep down, start bending the elbow and now straighten the arm using the triceps. Hold and bend the elbow and straighten the, I'm keeping those elbows as close to your body as you can and bending the elbow and straighten those arms.

Hold and two more bending and straighten those arms. Whole Nice job. One more time, a little more connection. All right. In this part of your back opening. And now hold those arms straight and reach them up to the ceiling. Good. And relax the arm. Very nice. So your arms, we actually worked them out before the hundred.

We're going to do the hundred with those arms springs. So I want you to bring the arms up to the ceiling. Good. And I want you to inhale into the mat and as you exhale into the mat, lift your head and a few upper vertebra, bringing the arms by your side. Use your belly to draw a knee into your chest and in the other, and then reach your pelvis away and start pumping a little less. Lock in those knees. Good.

So you can send your pelvis one way and draw the waist. Good. Good, good, good. I want you to bring the legs up. Just a hair. Soften the knees a tiny bit, little more. He keep them like that. So I can see this more. Yep. So I can, when you're doing the back to those inner thighs, you can scoop a little more because I want to see more curve in here. Curve. Curve, yes, but yet open collarbones.

That's very nice. Scooping in. We've got one more big breath and X. Soften those knees. Sorry. Not all the way. Not always that. Just a little soft for me. I want to see your scoop just a little more and bend everything. That was great. I liked that. Nice. Okay.

I'm going to take these and we're going to do legs springs. You're going to stay right there cause I'm gonna put on our legs springs and I'll probably lift up the level a little bit. So if you're not working with grots springs, you're going to want to adjust it to where you feel good resistance for you. All right, I want your hands back here. There you go. Good. Okay. And we're going to put these springs on your feet. Grab them.

And good job doing both legs at the same time. Such a well trained, keeping your body in good symmetry. I wanted him crossed actually it's a manager led me through a beautiful routine with them. Cross the little BEPS is fun, but no, not today. Okay, great. So a little right angle with your arm and the heel of the hand. A little higher with this hand is going to push into the springs so that you really can feel the back of your lungs on that Mat. Good and nice. Long Spine.

And I want you to have nice traction, relaxing the feet of your pelvis, reaching out, really thinking like footwork about footwork and bending in. Good. So you're using your pelvis and the hips and the outer thighs to go out. Good. So that's really good. Now I want you to challenge yourself by lowering. Nope. Opposite. Feel that sacred. Feel your tailbone little more centered with those knees so they're not so wide and go out reaching. Yes. And now as you bend in, keep that sacred, nice and flat and draw and with your powerhouse and three reaching and drawing it in. Yes. Think length always.

So reach that pelvis. Reach long and pooling in with the powerhouse. Excellent. Give me one more reaching working. Those are thighs in seat and pulling back in. Great. And rest your arms down. Very nice. Now we're going to do like circle. So you're going to reach, put your hands back.

I was just warming your body up for good traction, pulling in and gonna reach out. Excellent. Soften those knees a little. Good again, dropping this tailbone. Yes. And now bring the legs almost up to the ceiling. And then open them and then circle them and up you go. Good. We're opening about the width of the care of the Cadillac, reaching long through the hips. Good.

So this is actually really good postural work. And one more time because your whole frame has to stay in place and reverse. And then you're working your legs incorrectly with the pelvis. Very nice. Reaching long those legs without compromising. Yes.

And two, one more time and bend those knees in and rest your arms down. How'd that feel? Good. And we're going to put your hands back. There's enough break, Huh? And you're going to push into it into them and then reach out. Let's drop the tailbone a little bit. Yes. But let's lift the legs up.

It is hard. That's it. Stay there. Soften the knees just a tiny bit. And with your belly pulling in and up, you're going to use the hamstrings to walk down for eight counsel walking. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and down to really reaching those five bones out of the hips. Well, the hip stay nice and quiet and two more sense if we really feeling where the back of the thigh connects to your seat. And one last one, Belize. Pulling in and up and keeping those tailbone down and bend the knees in for a break and rest your arms down. Nice. Very good. We're going to do beats now, so you're going to put your hands back good.

And I'm going to challenge you to do the first step with your bent arms. A second set with straight arms and the third set with the lifted seat. And you're going to go out. Good. But drop the tailbone. Yes. Soften those knees, Huh? Good. And now squeeze your legs down an inch and now 10 beats. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10.

Drop that tailbone down. Bend the knees back in and then push out to straight arms. Nope, that legs are eight arms a little lower with the hands. Good. Bend the knees back in. There you go. Good. And make sure you're still pressing into here with those hands and scooping and knees a little narrower. And now go out reaching that pelvis and 10 beats here.

Perfect. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Good. Now keep reaching those legs, but lift the pelvis right on up, scooping up. [inaudible] bring the, and you're going to bring the legs down. Reach, retreats. Lower legs. Yes, right there. And ten one, two, three. I'm going to let go. Four, five, six, lift seven, eight, nine. Hold and roll down your spine and bend your knees. And that was really good. Rest on your arms. How'd that feel? Good. Challenging. Challenging. Good. All right, so we're gonna um, we're done with our legs. No, I want to do bicycle. I love bicycle for you. So put your hands back, keeping actually the long arms on this one. Good. And I want you to reach the right leg up and forward, reaching that pelvis. Good. Soften that knee. Yes.

And I'll start the left leg. Bicycling. Good. You're trying to reach down onto the mat and pulling something at the edge of the mat back towards you. So keep the heel on the mat, that's it. And pull whatever it is in to you. And then the other legs going and it's gonna drag like a million dollar check all the way back to your seat. And this leg is going to try to pick it up and pull it back to your seat. Good.

And last time with that right knee. Good. And now we're gonna reverse. So now you've got to push that check off the care off the Cadillac because it has a stick of dynamite on it and you want to really get rid of it. So you're gonna try to push it as far away from you as you can, lengthening your waist and lengthening those hips and stretching out that right leg. And now your left. And let's do one more good energy through here. And one more left to even it out.

And Ben both knees in. Great job. Rest down your arms. We're going to take these straps off. Good. And we're going to do flying eagle. So I want you to lie down onto your stomach. So go ahead and flip over onto your belly. Good.

And slide back until your feet are off. This back edge, just your onto your ankles. Good, good. And you're going to use these nice heavy springs to help you. The legs rings good and you're going to have him hanging off the side. Good. So we're gonna start up a little different than um, pull straps where you would think pulling down to open the chest instead.

Think about Swan, where you would come up, right? So the arms are going to be doing a nice circle, but they're going to be circling forward and then yes, and then back. Okay. As you do a nice back, then I'll help hold you for a little bit, but eventually you do want to be able to just press your pelvis into the mat and press those legs into the mat to help with your back extension. So pulling the navel in an up, go ahead and pull it all the way up to your storm. Lift your head, lifting your chest and pull as you push the chest forward and control down and circling the arms forward and up and the stomachs presses a sternum forward and controlling it down. One more this direction and we'll reverse it up and pulling back those shoulder blades. Beautiful long neck and controlling it down. Let's reverse it.

Pull back those shoulder blades and we lift the belly lifts up off the back of the arms, keeps circling and reaching through those fingertips. We're going to hover next time a little longer. So you're going to pull it. Yes. And keep the butt body hovering as you reach all the way through the fingertips and then come down. Nice. And one more, Mindy. Beautiful pulling back, stomach in and up. Big Circle with the arms up to the ceiling. Reach long and down.

Leave those straps round your back and sit onto your heels. Beautiful. Good. And we're going to flip over for backstroke. So you're going to turn over right here and your head's going to be right here. That's it. And they're kind of odd because you go from zero tension to a ton of tension.

So we're going to bring the knees into your chest and we're going to have your knuckles together right here. Lift your head up there. But the most important thing is just pulling the belly in and up. So you're gonna reach your arms and legs up. The legs are loose. Okay? Soften those knees and pulling. Good. Open the legs and arms and then circling down.

Good just to there. Soften those guys against so you can pull it. And now see if you can curl up one more inch along more. And then bend. That's what I wanted to see. And up one, open stomachs in two coming forward for three and curling up for four. Curling up five and bend on six and two more up without locking those knees open. Reach the legs away from the pelvis as said. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful and bend. And one more time stomach pulls it open. Watch those lofty [inaudible] and your belly is going to pull in an under your bra strap and bending. Good job. All right, we're going to let go of these and we're going to go to the other side for teasers. So you're going to sit up, spin around.

I brought it down to the lowest level. I say I, but I really made you guys so I should be honest. Okay. And um, watch yourself. It's gonna pass just over your forehead. So that looks like pretty good alignment. And I'm going to add this spring. Okay. And just a tiny bit more centered. Great long legs. All right, hold onto that shoulder width apart. Plug in your shoulders. Beautiful. Slide your shoulder blades a little bit away.

It's all about the shoulders right now. Okay. So we're gonna keep breathing into the mat. Wonderful. And we're gonna feel the back of your shoulder and start pulling it down to the mat. Yeah. More in the back of the shoulder. Yes. Now all the tricep hang it right there. And I need to elbows to be going to the side as you get the tricep, tricep, tricep, tricep, tricep, everything down. Good.

And now I want you to take a breath and exhale. Pull into my hands here. As you reach your arms back, reach, reach, reach. Good. Good. So you have this nice laying thinning, lengthening, linkedin, and pulling back. Keep those triceps down. Excellent. Keep the collarbones open. Good, good, good, good. Now I want you to slide back an inch cause we could have used a little bit more of a stretch. There we go. And we're gonna pull it open. Those collar bones. Yes. While keeping your spine straight.

Good. And keep your shoulder blades reaching as you push away. So beautiful length all the way from here, all the way up. And now you're going to pull back. That's it. Still connecting here. Open those collar bones more open. Yes. Use your belly to lift up your head. Chest, your head, not your shoulders.

Keep those down. Good. Curling your ears between your arms. Good. Drawing this belly this way. Go ahead and lift the legs as simultaneously as you come up for teaser. Keep using this to lift up, up, up, up, and now lower the legs down and from here up and lowering them. Good and scoop in. And one more. That's it.

And hold. And now we'll all the way down. Reach away from those like stretch them down. Head and toes touch at the same time. Good. Open those collarbones and bending and stretch back and bending and straighten the arms with control. Head Up. Lift the legs. Three shading. When you're here and good.

Think about your shoulders. They pulled down. Yes. And the stomach pulls in and the shoulders pull down. Hold and roll away. Scooping and reach. Reach those legs long, long, long. That's it. Last set. Bending, scooping more.

Stretch away from your powerhouse and bending. That's all right. As long as it's okay on your shoulder head, but hold it there. And now from this back line, lift your legs as well. That's nice. Nice. Nice. That's a beautiful v Combo. Now down with the legs one. Oops. Sorry. That was bad. Cue On my part. Just likes down up once. Now arms only.

Yes. And all from your powerhouse though, from that back line. And that's it. Feel your legs reach away and one more at the arms. Now hold yourself there and slowly take your hands off of the bar and reach for your feet. For the teaser. Yeah. Cross your writing ankle over your left. Place your hands beat together behind your back and try to pull in and up and reach forward your spine as you go forward. Reaching, reaching, reaching that. So they want a nice swan lake all the way back to your ankles.

Opening those arms. Circle back. That's it. Good. Now we're gonna see now we've gotten quite flat here. So we're going to pull back a little yet just cause I want you to get that stretch too. Good. Now slide back until you touch my hands. Just a few inches a with your bottom. Move your seat back. Good. And we're gonna do the reverse push through. So put your hands, palms up first. Good, good.

Is that okay on your shoulders? Okay. UNCROSS your ankles. Sorry. Good. All right. You're going to post them. You can have the thumb on one side. Yes, go ahead. Alright, so now the, what I want you to get out of this is trying to get these bones on the mat. So you're going to look down at your, Flex your feet, push your pelvis away from you as you pull each bone into the mat, push your yields away, breathe into that joint right into here. Ooh, that's nice. And now keep scooping in and come forward.

Good. And lift in that area as you open those collarbones. Yeah. And coming back down and send your pelvis that way. Breathe into each phone and your are your elbows. Okay. And coming forward. Your left one is just a little hyperextending. Okay. You don't like to hyperextend at all? I don't know why that would ever keeping your elbows just a little bit soft.

See if you could do it more in the shoulders. Yeah, that's nice. That's good. And one more time. See if you can keep your elbows like that and reach your pelvis away as you scoop. So nice to teach you again and scooping back forward. Watch that Le [inaudible] good.

And lifting and opening those collar bones. Good. Where to bring it down halfway. Switch the grip so that the palms on top now. Good. And again, three more. Working on breathing into each one. But send your pelvis that way. Yes. Soften that left arm a little. Can you, it's hard in that position, Huh?

And then coming forward when you can try to think about that and lifting the bar up as high as it allows for that stretch. Coming back. It was good for a second. And I'm gonna put a, hang on right here. Yes. Feel your shoulders. You're good. You don't have to over-exaggerate, but I'm just going to hold like a splint and there, that's it. And now coming forward. Good.

And lifting from your powerhouses, those arms come up. Good. And I see and one more time. So your arm stops lifting and just the lower part of your arm lifts. So you got to keep lifting. Oh you got to keep lifting your upper arm and coming forward.

Good. Scooping in. Good. And now we're going to keep lifting this part to bring the bar up. Keep [inaudible]. That's about as far as I want you to go then. Okay, good. Alright, nice job. Go ahead and reach for your ankles. I got the bar. Thank you. Good. All right, so we're gonna start with the bar right here between the Poles.

And usually I like it on the ball of your foot, but because you just had foot surgery, I don't want you to cramp up because your feet are trying to grab on too much. So we're going to soften your knees a little. There we go. And now draw the bar back. Good. And we're gonna extend the legs and now keep reaching the legs. And now we're going to take the right leg for a little double pulse, one, two, and back. Keep an eye on your hips. Are they square?

Are they long right to don't let the hip hike up to you left to hold it, soften those knees a little and now length and really soften your sternum, soften your chest bone, get it to go down, get the next bone really articulate, beautiful laying in your pelvis, away from you as you bend the knees and reach it away from you. And this is my favorite and most delicious part for me is how you reach that pelvis and get that stretch and drop back to you. And we'll do another set. Starting with the left leg. Once you're up sending your ipps away from you left to really keeping those hips square, they don't lower. So nice job and the other leg has to work as well and hold with a little softer in the knees and reach that pelvis away from you as you soften that chest phone.

Yes. And you roll down those lungs. And each phone and Ben, and then we do one more set. So we'll start with the right again. Next time. Drawing in and up. As you deliciously reach that pelvis away and coming back with it, drawing it towards you bent first, stretch the legs, then reached the pelvis away, right leg first one too. Good. Enjoy that hamstring stretch again. No hiking in those hips. Reach them away as oh, that was nice.

And reach it away as it comes up and hold. And now melting down, softening that chest bone rolling down. Great. Great job and bending and reach that pelvis away as your powerhouse pulls in and up. Nice postural alignment too, and pulling back and extending and last time, squeezing and lifting and reaching and left to one to reach that leg. Long right to reaching good and left.

No hiking in that hip. [inaudible] good correction. I like it. And rolling down soft and reaching. And that's what this exercise is about. When you're challenged to do just one leg, can you keep them both nice and stretched? We're gonna finish this one by transitioning into the push through.

So you're going to bend the knees, drawing it. You just like you have been doing straight in your legs again, deliciously reaching in. This is a great way to really help you with your role up to understand how the back of the legs have to work. So you're going to bring your head up and you're going to pull in and up as those legs. Push that bar away and curling Malala.

Grab onto that bar and put your feet on the poles carefully on the outside. Good. All right. Little soft in the knee. Heels against the Poles. Pull your toes back off the Poles, but a little light in the knee. Good. Good. Yes. Alright. The push through. So you know, lift off your bottom. Drawback the waistband as if you're going to get the waistband onto the mat.

Can we try to curl that tailbone under more, more, more good. And now lifting up from your pelvis. Lift up, lift up, lift up. Excellent. And so I want, I know this is a dancers. It is a dancers, a correction, isn't it? That you're so flexible that you can make your heels fly up? That's good. All right, well we're going to try to keep them down and we're gonna scoop in here. Shoulders. Beautiful. Drawing that back. Good. And this is again another way to help you with that roll up.

And now use that upper belly to pull in and up. Good. Really Nice. And keep lifting in enough as you stretch. Nice. And now we're going to pull back. I want you to resist the bar with your pelvis and I want you to keep sending your pelvis to your heels and push your heels. You haven't ran Aha there. Exactly.

And now lift up up in the chest. Up from the obliques. Yeah. And give me one more scooping in shoulder blade. Send your heels to those bars as you push down. That's a great cue for you and pulling back. So the back side of you is really working as well. More and more.

Yes. And then reaching it up. Lifting, lifting, lifting, lifting. Good. All right, let go that bar. Very good. Alright. I want you to do chest expansion and thighs stretch and long back stretching, rolling in and out. You want to be an arms distance from the bar. So maybe in a little closer cause these springs are not friendly, right? So okay. And the knees are going to be hip with the part. I would go over to your left just a little bit. Sorry, my left.

There you go. And bring your knees forward. Just a tiny bit more. Good. All right, so I love how your pelvis is and you're almost thinking about being on the front of your knee, which is great and your belly is pulling in and out. Now try the what I want you to think about drain chest expansion is not actually expanding your chest. The first thing I want you to do is just to really feel your belly pull into your back against these springs. So you're going to inhale and bring those arms down to your hips.

And now look right, look left, look forward, and exhale again. Pull your belly into your back and look left this time. Look right, look forward and exhale. Good. So you can do that. So now after you add your belly, then see how open you can get your chest. So in hell, pulling your belly into your back. Now opening. Look right, look left, look forward, and exhale. I want this hipbones a little more forward. Both of them. Yes.

One more set in with the air belly into your back. Look left right forward and exhale. Great. Slide back about three inches. That's good. And we're going to check thigh stretch. I'm going to keep switching the names, so I want this alignment is beautiful and you're gonna Scoop and look down at my fingers. Okay. Pull down a little bit on that bar, just a tiny bit, just so your shoulders plugin and I want you to keep lifting. You're going to hinge back from your knees.

Don't go back just with the upper body. I need all of this to go back. So take it all back. Take this back with you more and more and more and more and more and more. Good. Lift your arms up and come forward as a solid piece. Good. And bring your arms back to where they were. Pull in and go back, back, back leading. Feel pull your belly away from your pelvis, arms up and come home with your seat. Yes.

Did they even go into a backbend on there? Okay, so keep all the same control pulling in. You're going to go back, pulling your belly in and up away from your palace. Keep going three more inches with that bomb. Now Open Up. But don't push that out. That's it. Head to your chest and come on up leading with those hips. Good. One more of those. And scooping in, not so low with the bar. Just that tiny. That's okay.

And that's actually going to be in two exercises and pulling in. Keep pulling this back so it's your pelvis is a little more back there holding it there. Open your chest without pushing that belly out. Open those collarbones head to your chest and come on up. That's a beautiful line. Arms Up. Good. Now I want you to carefully step [inaudible] so that you can turn around. You're going to kneel that way. You shouldn't really kneeling now kneel back up. Good. That's it.

Four inches back. Not so much. Sorry. Somewhere in between. Okay. Little forward. And I know, I know. Okay, so nice and tall and you're going to hold onto the bar behind you. Good. Try to narrow the grip a little bit if you can. [inaudible].

Good. So this is long back stretch. So I want this beautiful line that you had earlier. Take this right hip a little forward drawing in and up. And now bring your shoulders a little bit more forward. That's it. Good. But keep pressing the hips forward. Alright. Okay.

So this is like long back stretch on the reformer. You're going to pull the barrel down, the barrel, the bar down to your hips. Good. Now slide up your body using your arms. Yes. Slide up the bar all the way to the back of your shoulder blades and extend the arms and to more pool it down. Slide up to the shoulder blades and extend.

Nice. And pull down. Slide up, keeping those nice open collar bones and extend. And now you in reverse it. Pull right to here with those triceps. Staying high. Beautiful. Push down as you lift your chest up and extend those arms pool pushed down as your powerhouse lifts up too. And it was this one more time. Lift your elbows as high as you can. Pull it up to your bra strap if you can't sly down as you grow taller, taller, taller, taller, and control it away. Excellent. Nice job.

All right. Only even at B K I want you to step off again and we're going to turn around for one more exercise with this, it's called rolling in and out. So you're going to put your knees here and then we're going to do our finale of breathing in the roll down, which is very nice. Okay, so this is not an easy exercise, but super good. Really great hamstring and seat work. Really great lifting in enough. Okay, so do you remember how to do this exercise a little bit? Vaguely. Okay.

I'll try to walk you through itself. Beautiful Work here. Try to keep your hips as much as you can over your knees and you're gonna lift your belly in and up as you slide the springs all the way down to the mat. Good. Then slide that bar to your knees and then start sliding up your body as you go back into a back bend all the way back back and bending the elbows. There you go. Extend the arms and come right on a good.

So I forgot to tell you to bend your arms. So scooping in and up. Sly down. So you're really lifting up. Beautiful. Pool. That bar. Get those shoulder. Yes. And now start bending the arms, scraping your bodies. You go into a backbend. Watch that belly and lead with the hips. Good. One more time. I love it. Scoop in enough. Pull with those arms. Pull with the open those collar bones.

Good. Start going back. Hedging back into your back bend. Nice. Extend the arms better and come up. Then we're going to do the reverse is if you had a long ponytail, we're going to pull you back to the mat. Pulling from your yes all the way to the mat. Bend the elbows as you start bringing, curling into yourself.

Slide it down and lift your bottom over your knees and then control it and roll up your spine. That was great. Control and back. Bower. Our House pulls away, pulls into you, head to your chest, curling over that bar, lifting your seat over the knees and controlling it away and you only have one more. Rolling up looking good and use those hips and the belly. Those big power. Yes. Pull into your curl over it, sliding, shaving off your body as you go. Controlling it back and now roll up, roll up, roll up and excellent men knee. Very nice. Good. I want you to, you're going to end up lying down on your back and the head is here.

I'm going to get a few things. The trap keys for our breathing and breathing. I kind of have been not friends with most of my career, which was a long time to not be friends with an exercise. I find that it tightens me up more than anything. I get all tight in the shoulders and not, I don't, I feel the stretch on the way down. But recently I've been starting to feel the stretch on the way up on the way up as well. So I want to see if I can get you to enjoy that as well.

So this is about [inaudible] correct distance. [inaudible] straighten your legs on the map please. Good. And so this should hang about mid shins. I'm going to do that about right there for your body. Very long torso. Yes. Okay. All right.

So now we're going to bend the knees and put the ankles right in here and your head is about is perfect where it is. I want the ankles a little more in there and then the feet turned out here. So what I kind of usually do is I just lift up and I kind of just clench everything and that's really bad for my body because I can fire up those, um, hip flexors and, uh, glute muscles and they're angry at me for quite awhile. So I want you to be better than me and to think about reaching your pelvis as well. Okay, so your head's perfect. Just a few inches from the top of this again is not the easiest spring.

So I'll help you. We'll do five count of five, then a count of six, a count of seven, then a count of Eight. So on when I counted three to make it more confusing, you're going to lift up and we're going to hold it for five counts and then we'll slowly exhale for five. So on the soften those knees, cause we're going to use this on the count three one, two, three, lift up and inhaling. Two, three, four, five and slowly exhaling down two, three, four. We'll go from for six and it's up to good. Now think of that pelvis lit reaching, soften those knees a little bit and slowly exhale down, reaching more, reaching more. That's it. And we're going to go for seven and it's up good.

The bellies really pulling in and up away from that right pelvis seven and exhaling down, lengthening two, three, four, five, six and last one for eight up. So think about being tall, so a little overshot. There we go. Thinking about when you're standing and you want this nice, nice alignment and [inaudible] I'm going down. Exhaling down to three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Great. Go ahead and bend your knees to your chest and let go this bar.

And I want you to sit up, spin around, and we're just going to do the roll back. So you're going to put your feet there and I'm going to get this out of the way. Good. All right, and I'm going to have you start the first one with bent knees, so scoop forward. That's enough. Good and beautiful. And I want you to head down and let's see how much you can lengthen your bottom to your heels. Reach. Use those hips to stretch your pelvis to your heels.

That's it. And get right. One bone at a time. Good. Now push through the heels as your belly pulls in and up in the opposite direction. Again, getting that really nice, tall spine and then head great shoulders. Keep pulling away from those heels that are pushing in. Good, excellent, and two more and inhaled to start it and exhale to go and enjoy all the way down. That's beautiful. Really push those heels away. Inhale to lift your head and then exhale to roll up. So just a little extra time through this area on this next last one.

Yeah. Send your heels away. Send your hips that way. Roll through each bone. Stay nice and even good. Inhale to lift your head up so and now spend that little extra time breathing in to each joint. They're pushing those heels away. Good, good, good, good.

And reaching all the way and just leave that bar there and roll on up to a tall back. And you're all finished. Thank you so much.

Comments

Excellent, I enjoyed and felt each exercise. Love to feel this way when we finish class. Really good. Thanks Monica Wilson!!!
For those of us who do not work with (and do not own) Gratz springs it would have helped if Monica had given more details of resistance being worked with - other Instructors on Pilates Anytime do give indications of spring tensions! Difficult to keep up with the pace as there is a high percent of spring changes (which obviuusly has to be done by the practitioner) therefore I had to keep stopping the video because of these factors - therefore there was a significant loss of flow...... Very disappointing in comparison with other Instructors. The Cadillac video I worked with yesterday was excellent - as I said in my comment!
HI Linda, Monica uses Gratz springs because she is used to the feel of them when she teaches. Balanced Body Cadillacs have some weight options for leg springs but other than that they are essentially the same. The Arm springs are the Arm springs, the leg Springs are the Leg Springs, The Push through springs are the.... etc... I think it may have helped if Monica would mention how the spring tension typically feels in a particular exercise (light medium or heavy) but sometimes we don't do that because ultimately it is subjective. You also mentioned their was a high percentage of spring changes in her class, but in the 41 minutes I believe I counted 5. I think if you compared that to other classes you would find that to be pretty standard if not fewer changes than normal. I wonder if the edit where we faded on a few of the spring changes made you think she was doing something off camera in the set up that you couldn't catch up too? If so, we're sorry for that.
wonderful class!!! Thank you Monica!
Monica Wilson
I'm so glad you enjoyed it!

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