Class #1810

Unilateral Combinations

30 min - Class
122 likes

Description

This challenging and fun Tower workout by Michael Fritzke and Ton Voogt will help you find length in your body. They teach fun combinations focusing on unilateral work so you can work both sides of your body evenly. They also include progressions of different exercises, including Reverse Chest Expansion, so can practice and build strength in your body.
What You'll Need: Tower

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Transcript

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Hi, I'm Tony and I'm Michael and welcome to the tower workout. So we have the spring settings already set up so we have the rollback bar on the height for your regular roll down. Um, whatever that may be for you. The leg springs are quite high today and the arm springs are actually attached to the bottom. Okay. So the Armstrongs and the bottom leg springs rollback bar to push through bar. We're going to use as well with the spring on the top.

So if you're able to set it up already, set it up so we have less moving around to do, um, and already that's about it. That's it. We remove the boxes if you have boxes on your wall unit, because we all need them for this workout so you can take them out. I think we need to get started. Let's go. Zell, you're going to be sitting with your feet against the Poles and just hold on to your rollback bar. There you are. You're going to soften your knees, you're going to kill the tailbone under and slowly articulate through the spine. Just massage in your spine as you go. If by any chance you moved away from the polls, just cheat a little bit and come back against it right now.

Soften your knees. Allow the spring to help you to roll back up so there's roll back up all the way articulating through the spine. There you go. So curl the tailbone under. Think of the Sitz bones reaching for the heels and the yields reaching for the Poles. So you're going to lengthen all the way from the back and then roll up right away leading with the crown of the head, curling yourself back up, allowing the springs to help. One more time. Rolling down. Curl it under. Press the heels forward. Keep those legs in the back of the legs.

Really active. Then length the neck. Curl back up. Roll yourself back up. Now bring the legs together and bend your knees. There you go. We're going to go halfway down, so we're going to curl down. The pelvis comes horizontal and the bottom of the shoulder blades hit the mat and then you roll back up. Whoops, not all the way and curl up all the way.

There you go. Curl the tailbone under. Still thinking of those sits bones. Go into the heels and then roll to the base of the shoulder blades and then roll yourself back up. I want you to pay attention of where the pelvis sort of like curls under and where you have that strong contraction when the pelvis is flat and then roll yourself back up. Now we're going to go to that strong contraction feeling, so roll down and find it and hold it there without moving anything. Lift the knees up into a tabletop position at the same time.

Then place them back down. I guess I have to be more specific and we're roll back up. Roll back up, roll back out. So it was a feet on the floor and roll back out. There we go. So roll back down. Yeah, you go. Keep the legs together. Pull the abdominals in a little bit more to bring them in. Tabletop them. Bring them back down and then roll yourself back up last time.

Roll down, curl under. Find that strong contraction. Lift the legs up. Now stay here. Stretch the legs out and start your a hundred pushing into three, four, five and exhale. There you go. Try to keep an even bounce on the spring. Don't get it. Let it get away from you, right? Keep it nice and long.

Don't overturn out your legs. Keep reaching and keep pulling that abdominals in. Try not to bounce with the upper body. Just the arms are doing the pumping. How many have we done? Ah, we have a counter.

Good and keep breathing. Inhaling and exhaling. If you want to make it a little harder, there's lower the Lexa little bit more. If you want to challenge yourself and why wouldn't you? We must be almost there. Then bend your knees and place the feet on the floor and roll yourself up.

Once you're up, you let go of the bar. Turn yourself around and lie down on your back. Yeah, your legs are bent and hip width apart. Hold onto the bar again. The robot bar still. There you go. And we're going to start with just inhaling. Bringing the bar down towards your knees doesn't have to be all the way down.

Just get that connection. And then slowly on the exhale, let the arms back go. Use your whole inhale to bring the bar down. Hold it for a second and use your complete exhale to release the bar back up. So it's inhaling, bringing the buy down. Hold it for a second and use your whole exhale to take or leave the arms where they are. Banking is a little bit more, and we're going to lift up into shoulder bridge.

So we're going gonna just a body goes up, inhaling, hold it and leave the buy exactly where it is and then soften the throat and use your whole exhale to roll through the spine. Back Down. Beautiful. And inhale to curl all the way up. Use the whole inhale. There you go. So control your breath, soften the throat, melt into the sternum and roll back down. Let's do it one more time and curl it up. Inhaling, holding it up there. Press those knees far forward. Soften the throat in the exhale. Roll back down.

Now we're going to put it all together, all together now. So inhale bar goes down, body goes up. They all meet in the middle. Then exhale, roll down, and then release the bar. There you go. So try to make it all being coordinated in the, I'll bring it all up and lift and exhale. Soften the throat and slowly roll down.

So make sure that the inhale and the movement and the exhale and the movement come together. One more inhale were lifted off. And then on the exhale, soften the throat and roll it back down. Bring the legs up into a tabletop position. We're going to lift the head up into a crunch. We're going to do the coordination. Press the legs out in the bar, down.

Reach, open the legs, close the legs, bend the legs in, release the bar and Therese back out. Open and close tabletop release to gather out. Open and close. Bend and release. Last time to gather out open and close. Bend and really place your feet or your legs over the bar.

So you're going to bend your knees and bring your knees all the way around and then place your feet on the floor. There we are. Hold onto the pulse. Now, depending on your strength, you might need more tension or less tension. If you want more attention, just move yourself further away still until the arms are straight and they'll create more tension and that might help you. It might not. You have to figure it out on your piece of equipment. There you go. So what you're going to do is you're going to bring the knees to your ears. You're going to roll all the way into watch like a little ball and are pressed with the arms into the pole and roll back down, right?

So we're just going to build it up first. Roll in, think of the knees coming to the ears, hips, come all the way off the mat and then roll back down, pressing away with your arms. One more time, roll all the way in. Make it nice and smooth, and then pressed with the arms and roll back down. We're going to add on one step. So we're going to roll all the way in. Once you're up, you're going to point your feet down and the pelvis forward to get into that straight line. Then bring the knees back to the years and then roll back down the same way we just did. Very nice. Here we go. Roll in knees to the ears.

Then bring your feet to the floor and push the press the pelvis forward. Then bring the knees back to the ears and then roll back through the spine. One more time. Roll in all the way, feet to the floor. Pelvis goes to the wall behind you. Bring the knees back in and now we roll back on down. We're going to add on one more step. We are going to roll in.

We're going to press the feet down, pelvis forward. You're going to stay in this position or you're going to go straight down, soft landing on those toes and then soften through the throat to roll back down. Bring the knees back to the ears. Lift up, feet down, pelvis forward. Go Down Straight and now like the end of your shoulder, Britches roll back down all the way. Tailbone back down and then bend back in again.

Knees to the years, feet to the floor. Now we're going to go down. What are we going to stay here because we're going immediately reverse it. Get up, bring the knees to the years, roll down, feet on the floor. Roll up in like a shoulder bridge. Now lift up, push knees to the ears and roll back down. We have one more to go, so lift up into the shoulder bridge. Lift all the way up, knees to the ears, roll yourself down and then hold onto the rollback bar and take your legs out from underneath and slowly let go of the bar and grab onto your leg springs which are already set.

If you're at home, we set them on the high setting. Now once you have your feet in, what you're going to do is hold onto the bar. You're going to press with the palm of your hand into the bar. If you have your arms bent, it's easier as they all been their arms or if you straighten them out, it makes it harder. The reason we do this is to bring the arms up is it helps stabilize the shoulders, heaps the backlog, and also keeps the rib cage down south.

Bend your legs into a frog position. Now the niche should be no wider than your shoulder, so it's not a wide frog. Now push out and now instead of bending your legs back in, think of your legs folding in and sending your sitz bones back out this way. So you keep the pelvis long and stable. You stretch out. As the legs come in, they bend in the Sitz bones.

Go out towards the end of the Mat. You feel that to keep that length band out? Good and let it fold in. So think of folding. Don't think of bending two more. Stretch it out long and let the legs just fold in. Sending the sitz bones out towards the edge of the mat. One more out.

Good. And the legs, just bold. Stay there. What we can do with two legs, we can do with one. So now we're going to simultaneously stretch the legs. One leg frog out. So they're passing. Now try not to get the hips good and stretch, stretch. As you fold in. Think of that leg folding in.

Go ahead and go ahead and breathe. Keep pushing in. So the ribs with your hands so the rib stay down. It will help stabilize. Keep the back long. Good and relax and relax your legs in. Then let go with your arms just to give them a break cause it's a lot of work on your back. If you're really doing it, then bring the arms back up there.

We're going to stretch the legs out to a 45 degree angle. Now hold it there. Stretch out a little bit more. There's that leg. He feel the difference. You guys are all holding out on me from here. You're only going to open 45 to the edge of the mat and keep it there at that 45 degrees. Just open and close. Keep pressing in. Good. Open, close. One more. Open, close, and again. Now we're going to do it with one leg.

The right leg only five times open. Close. I always bring it back to your midline of your body. Good. I lost count. I never count. Is that three. This is four and now the other leg, I wouldn't want you to be lopsided and this must be three. Since you're the counter, good for always. Need one in a group.

Good and bring it in and let your legs just fall in to relax. From there, we're going to push back out. Push out to get a little bit longer. Yes, there's that length circles. Let's circle going up first. So circle open down and around and close up and around and close up, around and close. Hold it there. Reverse the circles. Go down and around, down. Do not let the springs keep the tension. You're going to high. You don't want to go too high that you release the springs and relax.

Bend your knees back in for just a little break. Break is over. Stretch back out. Now, theme of the day, what we did with two legs, we can do with one leg circles with the right leg. Go Up and around. Keep the other leg totally stable, very nice, and let's just do three. Now let's reverse. Go down and around and up, down and around and up. Interesting verse. That's a good choice. Good. Stop.

Other leg up, down. Let those springs go. Keep the tension. The trick to keep the tension is keep pushing out in the spring. Reverse it down and around and up. Good and relaxed. Let the legs fold in.

Now listen carefully. You're going to push out to 45 do not scotch. Your Springs. Push out more. There's the length. Open your legs to the edge of the mat. Bend the knees up towards the armpits. The feet will flex. Bring the heels together. Push it out.

Long open band. It's just a variation on the frog. That's sort of, since you work so well and so hard, you deserve a little break. A little stretch. Now, only thing you want to watch out for is as your legs bend in, you don't Tuck [inaudible] and stretch out long. Not to say anything about a certain girl wearing blue, but an open band. Brewing it back in and just relax and take your feet out of the springs.

Yeah. Then the roll yourself up. And we're going to do the arm springs. So we're going to actually be standing and remember does springs at the bottom today. So just hold onto the handles. There you go. Now if you feel ambitious and the iron springs are not strong enough, you could also use your leg springs, right? So choose wisely.

Um, you can also just stand further away. That will also increase the tension. You can be either in parallel or impolitely stands, whatever makes the strongest connection for your body. The arms are slightly in front of you. And we're just gonna start with the basic bicep girls. So he's going gonna pull it up and then bring it slowly back down and bring it up and down.

Let's do it one more time and then we're going to go slightly change it. So what I want you to do is have the arms, like that sort of thumb is up and out. As you bend it, you're going to turn in and as you lower it, you rotated back to where we came from. So the thumb is up. We're going to bend and rotate it. And then bring it back down and rotate it back one more time and curl up and curl back down. Now keep the arms straight. We are going to the chest expansion. Just press the arms right as far back as you can and then look to the right.

Look to the left. Look to the front and slowly release it. And for acid backstay nice and tall. Look, look for runt and release. One more set. Press it back. Now Watch out the ribs. Do not go forward, but that the arms go back right, so don't go towards the spring. One more time to be even. Make sure that the rib stay down and relaxed. As relaxed as they can be. Here we are, we're going to do pull ups.

So you're going to have the arms in front A's. Gonna lift the elbows. So turn up. So from here the live bent and pull back. Think of it a pull back and release back down and pull up. Think of the elbows lifting and then releasing it. Lift the elbows up. And one more time.

Bring the our bows up. Now we're going to combine those two. So you're going to first start with the chest expansion. Bring it behind you. Then behind you bend the arms, lifting the elbows up. Once they cannot go any higher, you angle it to the front and release them back out and we can go again. Press it back, lift them up, lift those elbows, and then bring it to the front. One more time to run. Then we reverse pull back, lift up elbows. There you go. And then release it. Let's reverse it.

Lift the elbows, get the arms behind you. Try to keep it behind your history in those arms and then release it. Here we go. Lift it up, bring it back. Press the arms behind the body to relax. One more time to be even pull up. Bring it back behind you.

Press it back, and then release. Make a quarter turn. Now, um, let's go to the camera and you're going to have both handles in one hand. If that is too much, depending on the tension of your spring, you only want to hold on to one handle. You want to keep the spring tension as close to the midline or inline with the arm, so if you do two springs, you're going to be standing in the middle of the mat. If you're going to have one spring, you're going to have to move forward or backwards on your mat in order to stay in line with the spring. Okay, so adjustment. Immediate, I'm stays absolutely straight.

You're just going to press it right next to your body. You hold it for a second and then release it back. Try not to lean as we go, right, per arrested in and hold two, three and then release one more time. Perez and hold two, three and then release. We're going to make a little circle, so we're going to press it all the way against us.

Tried to keep the arm against you when you lift the arm up and then release it back out. Bring it all the way against you. Bend the arm, grow all the way up, lifted elbow, and then really set, bring it down against your body lifted elbow and then straightened out. Let's reverse it. Bring it up as high as you can. Bend the arm into what your armpit now, keep it against your body should press it all the way down and then release it. Try not to release the arm, bend the elbow in. Now keep it against your body as you president. Keep it against, keep it against, give it against, give it against your hands and then really is one more time.

Bend it in and keep it against you to press all the way down. Diego, Diego, Diego, you got it. And then release it and turn around for the other arm. What you do, here we go. Say Nice and dog and per precedent, and really so you feel a difference between one arm and the other arm, right? [inaudible] what's that all about? M press it all the way against you. Hold it nice and tall and then release it. We're going to do the circle.

Press it all the way against you. Bend the arm, keep it against you, give it against you, give it against you, and then release it for us at all the way in. Now there we go. Bring it all the way up, up, up, up, up, up, up, and then relax. Is that one more time? I think, right. Press it in. Bend the elbow, lift the elbow, keep it against you, and then release it. Let's reverse it. Here we go. Almost done. Bring it in. Keep it against you guru.

Think of growing taller and then really spring the elbow all the way in. Stay nice and tall. As the arm goes down, you go up and release one more. Bend it in against you. Body Perez at present, present, present, present, present, present, and then face me and have once handle in each hand. There you go. Good. We're going to do the reverse chest expansion. So you're going to have the hand legs in plotty stance.

Have the arms slightly behind you. There you go. So now the first thing you're going to do is try to get the arms in front of you. So just harass them forward before we can move on. We have to be able to bring the arms in front of you, so release the spring and adjust your position if necessary. So for acid in front of you. Now you slowly going to lean forwarding and keep lifting the arms.

Keep lifting, keep lifting, keep lifting, giving, lifting, keep lifting. And then her slowly roll back. I guess we have to adjust again. That's okay. That's how you know, right live and learn. Here we go. Bring the arms in front of you. Now slowly start to lean and keep those arms active. Keep designs.

That could be brave. Be Brave, be brave, be brave, be brave. And then slowly rock back. Let's do it two more times. And here we go. Get yourself together and go press, press, press, press, press, press and slowly release. Last time. Here we go. And give it everything you've got. Here we go. Push, push, push, push, push, lean, lean, push, push, push, lean, lean, lean, push, push, push, lean, Bush, lean and relax all the way. Go gracefully. Let go of the spring.

Well there's definitely room for improvement isn't there? So you're going to get the push through bar and um, add home. We've put the spring on the highest hook on this one. So it also depends upon your machine cause. For this exercise we're going to do today, you want as much extra little help as you can get.

If you put it lower, you won't have as much help. So choose wisely. Life is full of choices. Your choice, you're going to lie down if you've done on your backs. If you've the teaser, it's the same place that you start for the traditional teaser I and on these um, while units. Let's start with the head almost at the back edge of the mat. We already did our homework. We figured out that it'd be the best place for the three of you to make you look good. From here, all you're going to do is bring your legs to a tabletop position. Good with your legs together.

Legs right above stare at your thighs are right above your hips. So it's totally that tabletop. From here, all you're going to do is curl up trying to keep your legs there. Press your legs together and come up all the way. Your legs will move a bit, but try not to move 'em too much. Good. Now remember how towns started. Let's roll down and find that strong contraction just before the shoulder blades go all the way down. Hold it there. Come up a little higher. Yes, there we go. You wouldn't want to miss out. What'd you and from there, just take the legs and the legs. Will Jess go down to touch the floor and up from there.

Hole that and roll back down with your upper body. Come up all the way. Try not to move your legs. Roll down. Find that sweet spot, that strong contraction right before your solar blades. Now take the legs. Just go down and lift it up. Good. And Roll your body down. One more time with feeling.

Wow. Roll down. Find that sweet spot. Lower the legs down. Bring them up and roll all the way down and keep the legs there. We're adding on because we can roll up all the way from there. Roll down. Find that contraction. Lower the legs down from there.

Slide them out long along the Mat. Slide them back into table tabletop and lower your body down. Come all the way up. Rise. Lower the legs. Down. I mean lower your bodies down first. You did such an incredible rise.

You made me lose it and full the legs and bring it back in hold and then roll it back down and roll it up all the way. Roll down. Find that strong contraction. Lower the legs down. Slide them out long. Slide them back into table top and lower the body down. Adding on roll all the way up there going. Oh, great.

Up there. Roll down to your shoulder blades. Lower your legs. Slide the legs out long from here. You guessed it up to teaser. Everything goes up. Good. Everything goes down, but you only go to your shoulder blades where you start. Isn't that fun?

Then drag your legs back in God and lower your body down. That was not your feet. Josh. Your body and roll all the way up. Two more times with feeling. Yes. Lower down. Find that strong spot. Lower the legs, stretch them out long.

Everything goes up. Beautiful teaser. You've got camera's on. You from there. [inaudible] over everything down just to the shoulder blades. Yes. Drag the legs back in and lower down the grand finale up of the teaser. That is roll down just your shoulder blades. Lower the legs down, stretch the legs out.

Long up into that teaser. Hold it there. Let go of the bar. Reach for your feet. It should be a beautiful to that. That was a great porter Bra. Then slowly lower yourself down going forward. He had to work for that one. Then here and relax and roll up.

Then you're going to turn around for the cat stretch, which is my favorite exercise. You're going to kneel right in front of the bar. You're going to come a little bit closer. I'll get here. So you're probably, you want to try pushing to just once through, cause you're gonna push. You want to make sure the spring doesn't get stuck, so you want to be able to push it straight without the spring catching. I think come a little bit closer.

If you only want to be about six inches from the bar, so what you're going to do, then you can all see me. You're going to push the bar up from there. You're going to think of contracting. Think of bringing your pubic bone in towards your nose and you're gonna Round and bend your elbows and you're gonna round back into the cat. Good. And stretching your arms here rounded from here with straight arms, but not sitting from here.

You're gonna send your sitz bones back as you push the bar forward and lift your chest, and then you're gonna round back. There's a reason for ponytails. Bend the arms and come back up. Now there are only two times the arms bend going down and coming up. That's all you have to remember. You got a lot of extra bend from there.

Push the arms up. We're starting straight arms. Here's time number one that the arms bend, they bend. You can tract you rounds. You're in the rounded Kat from here. Push the bar forward, lift your chest and send your sitz bones back. That's the feel good part. Round forward.

Bend your arms to come up and let's do that one more time before we add on. Sub Bend the arms around back, sir. Ratchet through lifting the head and the chest. Yes, round, back. Bend the arms and come back. One more time with feeling round. Push it through. Lift the chest and the sits bones back, and then you round brewing it up as promised.

Here comes the good part from here. Press the bar back. Think of a thigh stretch going back, hinge back. Think of bringing your pubic bone forward. Now push the bar down more. Bring your pubic bone up to your nose and arch back. A big arch. Yes, from their comeback.

Flatten it out and push the bar straight up. Now let's put both parts together so we round into the cat stretch. Ooh, it feels delicious. Sit Back, arch forwards and it, yes. Round. Bringing it up. Stretch the bar up. Hinge back. Think of a thigh stretch. Push the back more. Lift the sternum.

Yes. Push the bar up and relax. Very nice. Let go of the bar. We're gonna come up standing. So what you're going to do is you're going to grab, pretend I'm holding the bar. So you're going to grab the bar right in the center. From here, all you're going to do is get back a ways for what you're going to do is pull down and squat, pull back. It won't tip over round. You can sit all the way on the floor.

It's a great stretch. From there, push the bar, come up to the bar is going to come just to here. Then push the bar down, send your pubic bone forward. And so just stirred them up. Press and round and round and just s round. Yes. And then here's and drop. Press through and one more time round. [inaudible] feeling good and come up. Dropped sits bones, downs in the pubic bone forward and relax as Romana would say.

That was an elegant sufficiency, good work.

Comments

2 people like this.
Teaser variations were great for strength. I have never mastered the reverse chest expansion, gotta keep working on that one. I always love you guys. You make every class fun!
1 person likes this.
It was great. I don't think I was elegant but there was sufficiency, as romana would say. Thanks for all the details about each exercise. Love the tag team.
Always love your way of teaching. Great to have the education programme of you in Holland years ago. learned so much of you guys.
Fun and challenging as always. Miss you guys!
Lynn G
You guys make me giggle! Tag team and fun. Thanks!
One of my favorites! Loved the cues and the encouragment. Doing with one what we do with both was awesome!
These guys are GREAT
1 person likes this.
This class was perfect!!!! Not too short, not too long. I feel like it gave me a great workout and was incredibly informative. Highly recommended!!!!
I left a comment yesterday after I completed the class. But I have to say the next day I am sore! I can't remember the last time I was sore after a pilates class! Awesome!
OMG you two are fabulous! I laughed so much and my body received a good workout. Thank you!
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