Class #191

Reformer on the Mat

30 min - Class
60 likes

Description

Meredith teaches a Reformer class on the Mat based on the BASI block system. All the blocks are covered. The following are just some of the exercises you will practice in this class: Stomach Massage, Hip Work, the Rowing Series, Long Back Stretch, Mermaid, and Pulling straps 1 and 2. Enjoy!
What You'll Need: Mat

About This Video

Jun 18, 2010
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Transcript

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Hi. Nice. Let's start standing. We're going to do, I'm reformer on the mat today. I'm gonna try to fit all movements, all sorts of stuff in 30 minutes. So I'm going to have to do my best to talk fast. Here we go. All right, so take a moment and give yourself a minute to bring yourself into the room to let go of whatever else is occupying your head space. Shifting forward and back just a couple of times until you find the place where you feel weighted equally in the front, in the backs of your feet.

Breathing in. We're rolling down on the exhale, feeling the head dropped down, the abdominals. Pull in, reaching forward with the spine, but lifting up through the abdominals is top of the head is reaching towards the floor. There's an inhale at the bottom. Exhale as you scooped pavilion. Press the pelvis forward rural one vertebrae at a time, sitting all the way up and inhale again sitting. This is standing, excelling to move. The further your spine goes down, the more the abdominals pull up towards the spine at the bottom. See if you can go just a little further to challenge the stretch. Then start the breath. Feel that action of breathing, of lifting up through the middle is what literally pulls you up.

We're going one more time excelling as we go down, folding forward, keeping the shoulders away from the ears, keeping the focus on staying evenly weighted through both sides of the body. Exhale, we come up and with that as we come all the way up to straight, we're going to go straight into footwork. So outside linings of the feet, parallel arms reaching towards the ground. As you lean back, as you sit down, take your spine forward and lean back like you're going to sit in a chair. From there, squeeze you touch, everyone should feel it and then we just press up. Inhale, bend the knees. Exhale, press out. Every time you go down there, keep the back of the leg strong. So all though you're more, more than likely to feel the friends of the legs working some. It's not.

The focus focuses on the hip extensors. You're pulling your ads back. It's in my mind, the feeling of being pulled back from the waist and the spine just transferring itself forward. The arms are actively pressing down, actively pressing back. Uh, how about two more and there's no really squeezing in the shoulder blades. It's more of a downward pressure. Stay there. Pull the abdominals in, hinge a little forward and lift the heels. We go again. Inhale, we bet. And press and still leaning forward with the upper body as you damn good. Getting work in both directions. Higher the heels, the heart, the balance will be. So go ahead and pick your poison there.

Last four. Sorry. Those glutes strong. Lisa, watch at your knees. Don't poke towards one another. Saying at the top we're going straight into the small v position and we go and we press school. He's from the inner thighs and bed to press.

I forgot that I was trying to go quickly. So even though we're speeding up the process a little bit, can we still find control? Can we apply the principles of concentration and efficiency and balance, even though we're perhaps moving a little faster than I would normally choose to. Last three, two working in both directions. That's it. Separate the feet, not super wide. That is why it is a foot bar. A little bit wider than your hips. I'm as forward. Here we go. Bending back, drag the heels inwards in both directions and that in that way, tapping into the inner thigh muscles. Finish the extension of the legs.

So you want to be upright as you're all the way you can lean back just a little at the top. Keep the inner thighs active. Keep the ABS, act us last for her to lift 3:00 AM press two and what? Allowing the feature wise you. Yeah, we've been Helene way forward and then up to the body shifts and comes back up. Ray, leaning forward. Stick in the hips way back like you're gonna sit down on something.

Keeping the back strong. Last four Siri too. Coming up, lower the heels. Walk the feet together. Parallel legs. Shift a little forward at the ankle. Join, lift up. Strong. Engage. To the entire backside of the like and rise up onto your toes and looking for full articulation of the foot. Has Your heels come down towards the floor? The top of your head reaches a and as you're coming up onto your toes, give yourself a little bit of chest expansion action, so just down and back with the arms down and back with the arms.

A little bit of balance involved, not totally in control me. You'll find it on the next one. Last one, hold at the top. Bend the right knee, lower the left heel down. Come up onto both toes and change. It's up to go down and vision that that's your head is filled with helium. It's light. You're alive on your feet and thighs are actively pulling towards one another.

Arms are continuously reaching down. We're going two more times. There's one and here's two, and then and both feet down, coming straight down to the map. It's roll all the way down onto our backs and go straight into the pelvic curl or the bottom lift. We breathe in. Exhale, articulating through the spine, feeling the hamstrings start to work immediately. Inhale at the top, starting from the Chester. Roll yourself downwards, reaching the arms energetically in the direction of the spine. Find the tailbone. Inhale to exhale and roll out.

Focus on the inner contraction of the inner thighs or the contraction of the inner thighs. Anyway, rolling down Steve. Three more year. Rolling up. Hold at the top. See if he can tuck just a little bit more and send energy out towards your toes. Oh Man. Cramp, cramp, cramp. Come down. You make your way down. I'll have to collapse last too.

Rolling up, maximizing the work through both legs and down. Here's our last one. Coming down. From there, we're going to come straight up into a tabletop position. Arms are going to reach up over the shoulders. Then keeping the whole set of the ribs on the ground.

The arms reach overhead for the hundred prep. Exhale as you lift your chest, follow through with the arms and then reach them actively in front of you in menial to come down, but work your way down. Exhale, we're coming on and knees stay bent for now. Pulling down and lifting. So here we go. Accelerating the pace. Little bit faster for fat and down, no less precise for and back. Keeping them ribs down as the arms. Reach overhead. Two more. And we're going to hold the lift on this one and send it into the hundred.

So stay, stretch your legs out. Reading into breathe out. Two, three, four, five and in and deepen two, three, four, five and and beautiful three pumping from where the arms connect to the back. Four two looking for more. Don't have a lot of time. So give it all you got here. Squeezing or deepening the contraction of the, yeah. Last three, two, one.

Oh to bend the knees, lower the head and chest. We're going straight into coordination. It's an XL to lift head, chest open and close the legs. Inhale, bend the knees, stay lifted and continue. Inhaling to come down. One full breath cycle XL up. Open-Close bend and rest or rest I don't think is inappropriate. Word. Lower I think is better. Ah, open, squeeze, pull and open.

Squeeze Pole and a control. The opening of the legs, keeping the pelvis steady last too often. Closed Pool and one more open. Close Pool and bring it all the way down. Stretch the legs straight out front. Raise the arms up over the shoulders, lift the head and chest. Press the rib cage down.

Curl yourself forward and take a stretch. Okay. Heading into rowing, sitting down tall arms are going to stay right out in front. [inaudible] imagining that you have some tension to pull with your arms. So we're going to inhale and bend the elbows pulling open in the back. Exhale, curve the spine down. Find a place that you can maintain with control. Inhale, internally rotate. Press the arms back. Exhale, fold forward, but reach the arms behind you. Inhale, let the arms lift up and reach all the way around for the people in the shoulders down. Rola. Bend your elbows. Inhale, exhale, curve downward through the spine. Inhale the arms open to the side. Exhale, we fold for Lisa.

Remember to keep your arms relatively low at first. Then, ah, turning the shoulders in the droid to bring the arms forward. Keeping the spine long. Exhale to articulate the spine and bend two more. Rolling back in heel reach. Putting pressure on those imaginary springs. You reached down and back to the base of the spine. Inhale. Now how your arms lift. They start to circle in the shoulder during your reach forward and you roll last time for the day. Ben Krueger.

Open full arms, big arms back. Inhale up around and forward. Exhale, Tacoma. Turn the palms to face up this time. Inhale to bend. Contracting through the biceps, keeping the shoulders down. Exhale, we once again roll down as we do the arms drop down to the size of the waist. Inhale, as you exhale, start coming up inflection, and then extend through the spine, sending the arms up, and then as the arms come forward, we sit up tall. Bend your elbows. Exhaling as you curl down through your spine and heel. Intensify Xcel to start coming up. Now lifting the chest, reaching the arms up, up, up, up that straight right there. Let's do three more. Bend, shoulders down, deriving back through the ams in heel. First more strength. Exhale, reach on. It's trying to send the arms almost behind you and then drop him down. Last two. We bet. Working Imaginary Springs. Oh, let's drop down in here. Start exhaling, extend up, up, up, up.

Let the spine be weightless. Last time Ben and around and in here to exhale, stretching up, up and drop the arms down. Bend your knees, open the knees out to the side and take a quick stretch forward. We're going to separate the two rowing series with the semicon size series, so you have a couple of choices. You can keep your feet on the ground, which is going to be my choice. Or you can lift your feet up. That creates more of a balance challenge. I'm free now. Just reached down and rest your hands. Let me start over and these are bent.

Heals her together and feed her up off the mat. Curve the spine away from the thighs. Press the ribs back and breathe in as you send your legs forward. Lightly pull back with your ads, but keep the spine steady and heal. We bend, we pull back. It's a little harder on the way back. Exhale to press in Hilton. Paul Xcel to pres. Yeah, Neil took guide, glide, drag the heels toward you with your abs.

Press and hall. Stop there. Lean back, keep the spine round, lift the feet up just a little bit. We're going to go four more times. Pressing and pulling back and belly button back as the legs. Reach forward and pull in and again and using the arms lightly to help you find your balance.

And then place the heels back down. Sit up tall. Arms on a high diagonal, keeping the spine long. This one's a little bit hard. Are we press ah, and we pull it and press squeeze the inner thighs in Poland last two. Trying not to, trying to be light on the feet. It's a little hard with the mat there.

And Paul might have you meet better with your feet off the mat a little. What do you think is, yeah, so it maybe even just scoot forward on your mat lace. Oh yeah. So they can actually move along the floor. Let's do just a couple more. So spine straight push. Oh, it's so much easier without that sticky mat press. And by easier, I mean easier to feel easier to find. It's definitely not easy to do.

One more. And Paula, should we lift that? Lean back a little? [inaudible] and press Tupac and press two Paul. Three more to Paul. Two to Paul.

Last time to Paul Raelene, a little Ford. Place the feet back down. Okay. Rowing Front went into. So let's bring the feet together. I'm going to have your arms bent at your sides. So you start here by reaching the arms for the shoulders are heavy down the back, the thumbs or the hands are gonna reach down. You touch your turn, that backs of your hands towards one another. And as you press down through space, you get taller. Squeeze your bottom, lift up even straight or inhale. Then exhale, stretch the shoulders.

Pull away from the hands. Inhale, reach, touch. Next. So list and finish. So the shoulders are going through internal and external rotation. Stretch forward. Reach down and touch. Lift up and turn the pounds to face forward as you come around last to bend. All right, progress less.

Guide the spine taller and down. Here's our last one. Rich. Touch. Lift and around. Okay. Do you need to bend your knees for a second? Ideo running front too. It's involving and we're looking for spinal flection and extension.

The elbows a once again are bent to the sides. I'm going to start with my knees bent. Breathing in. As you breathe out, take this entire piece forward, pulling the belly button back as the spine travels over the thighs. Then inhale, stretch the arms and the spine simultaneously coming into back extension excesses. Sit Up and circle the arms to the sides in heel. Fold the elbows. Exhale, fold the spine for lots and lots of Ab work. Inhale, reach up. Exhale to sit on and camera and [inaudible] and stretch foe rounding the spine, sticking the tail bone. Now reaching the arms off.

Positionally looking for that long straight back and then you continue coming up and around. Let's do two more bend and annoying to sit up and around. This is that everyone. Okay, go forward. Long spine, long arms abs in and then we come up and then we reach your, put your hands behind you. Let's do the long back stretch. We're going to have our knees bent instead of strain. That's how we're changing the exercise here. Think of that. You need to use your legs quite a bit in this exercise, but you also want to consider the stabilization of the shoulder joy.

So what we're going to do is pick up the pelvis right now. The back is straight from there. Start to press the pelvis up towards the chin, talking the tailbone. And as you continue talking, you're gonna start to travel your knees out towards your feet. You're looking ultimately for a long line from knees to shoulders. From there, we're going to reach the chest back down, but we're trying to defy gravity and lift up out of the floor so the next stays long. The shoulders stay down at the very last moment. Release the tailwind to neutral. Exhale to move again. Inner thighs, strong, sending the knees, you gotta use your hamstrings here it's like you're pulling your heels towards your fingertips. Lifts into the shoulder stretch and then coming back, lifting up away from the ground, scooping lots and lots and lots and lots of abs that look gorgeous. You guys.

Good shoulders, stability. Let's do two more. Rolling. There's the energy forward with the body or that it travels in a forward direction. Anyway, and exhale sir, come back. [inaudible] last one for the day and exhaling to come up. Reaching out, reaching out, reaching out, pause. Can you talk a little, can you press the hips a little higher? There's our hip flexor stretch and coming back all the way.

Releasing the tailbone and sitting down. Take a stretch forward, roll back, slide your feet and bend your knees. Hands. Let's go hands just to the tops of the knees now and then curl the head and chest. Sta. Now from there, go super solid in your center and see if you can't relax the legs up in space. Hands are behind the head or out in front. We're going to externally rotate the lower the legs a little and then here's our frog or hip work. We bend and squeaky and bend.

Shoulders down, had heavy in the hands and the schoolies and Paul that makes up the blocks a little cause I felt like we needed a little bit of a break from our amps before pulling in and school pleasing, depressed, forward and pulling and squeezing. To press forward. We're going to more times here. Heavy hands, light lengths. Heaviness in the legs is in the hip joint. Stay there, point your feet, lift your legs up, press them back down. But adamantly keep your back flat. Inhale up and around and touch. Exhale, we go down. Inhale up around and squeeze. Exhale down.

Strong backs, strong abs by strong backs. What I really mean is flat last too. When Morgan, oh the weapons squeeze, go the other way. Reaching down into gather and pour and open and down and together and drag that and again, again and again. And then and last three and tomorrow. Last time.

Bend your knees, lower your head and chest down. Take your hands, make a little triangle with your hands and place them just at the base of your spine, Kinda right underneath your low back at your sacral ILIAC joint for openings. So the hands are going to force the hips up into a little bit of a Tuck to [inaudible] for support of the spine. We open the legs and we squeeze them back together. Don't just think about legs. Think about abdominal sets. What's supporting you? That's what stabilizing you and that's what we're thinking about using to close the legs up as of course, we're working our inner thighs.

Now let's involve more thinking about where the shoulders are in space. Are they starting to hunch up into the years? We're going 10 more fast out. Squeeze to squeeze. Strong x four and five. Squeeze six pole. Did I say 10 really? Last two I guess it seems like a lot.

Now I want to bend the knees. Hug the knees to the chest, placing the feet down on the ground. We're heading up into a pelvic curl. Articulating the spine. Here it is. We're rolling yourself in healing to hold. Lift onto the toes. Roll yourself down. Hello? Are they? Yes. Orally, herself. That staying at the top.

Pick up the left leg. Stretch it to the ceiling. We're taking it down on the exhale and bringing it back. Paul. Down to Paul. Yeah, Paul, press the lay down to lift it lightly. I last too. [inaudible] one more. As you lower it down, folded into place, checks restabilize pick up the other leg, stretch it up, and then it's just down, up, down, up. It presses down in, it floats back. Last three to [inaudible] one her reached down, folded in. Take a breath and slowly articulate the spine into the ground all the way.

All righty. Reach around for the backs of the thighs. Rock yourself up. Turn your body around onto your hands and knees. So we're going into the long stretch and here's how that's going to go. We're going to start by just finding a front support position.

Shoulders or just under or hands, or just under shoulders. Nice strong, stable bodies. Lisa, just set your a little bit round in your thoracic. Come up with your ribs only now inhale, reach forward with your toes. Exhale, push back through your heels in, reach forward with the toes. Exhale, press back. If you want to really challenge it, you could actually roll all the way over the tops of the feet and all the way back. Yeah, so yeah, I'm not sure that that's appropriate for me today, but it's there for you if you want it. And last two to pull back.

Here's the last one to pull back. Bend your knees to the ground. Turn and face me for the mermaid hot summertime. I'm thought to the sides. We're going to go over to the side. We're going towards the knee that's more pointed, reaching and allow that hand to come down. Reach from the rib cage. Just allow that arm to float as you turn. Stretching through the back.

Not go into fast on this one cause I don't want to rush through it. It feels too good. Exhale to lift on. Stretch over, lift back up. I teach this one all the time. He was just thinking that. Inhale and goes down. Ring out the spine. Turn that top rib all the way around. Bull shoulders are well away from both ears. Inhale as you unwind, exhale as you defy gravity lifting up off the ground, bringing the arm up.

We travel over to the side. Let's do it again. Reaching on, arms out, reaching out and touches Reyna. So yeah, although there is a stretch involved, it's really strong abdominal work in all ranges of motion. Lift to reach over and comma and reach. Oh and last time, bring it out. Bring it out in the crass and then coming all the way out. It's going to um, adjust the feet so that they go to the other side for a straight back. Sit bones down straight to the sides. Inhale as you heard, reach out through that bottom ramp. Please.

Sand turn from the rib cage. Really Meaty. Even try to reach past the arm that's supporting you in Yellen wide. Exhale, float. Raise that back arm and stretch out. Re-Engage. I have lifetime. Extend out. Touch down. Turn open up and to go last two. Don't forget the way up is also, I know bleak contraction stretching, anchoring with the bottom, shinny NGOs down. Wring out the spot.

Let me bring it home. I only left out. No, is that the last one or is this the last one? One way [inaudible] and then back. Okay. I'd like to do back extension but I'd like to do it on underneath. We're gonna do the pulling strap work. Um, just because it works better cause you want some space.

So I'm going to go this way you can guys can just face in so your knees parallel to one another. Now we're talking about back extension and we always want to talk about not just going for the low back. So what I'm going to ask for you to do is to press the pelvis forward into an imaginary service draw surface, draw the abs in, arms are going to reach down on us. Something just fell on me on a slight diagonal. Now as you pull your arms back, you want to drop the shoulder blades down. As the arms begin to come near the hips, we just allow the chest arise up, it's small, it's controlled, and then the arms go and the ribs pull down and we go again, drawing the shoulder blades down, sending the chest slightly upwards, but don't let the pelvis dump forwards and reaching caught on really strong upper back exercise.

It just lists just a little bit. Keep the back of the legs strong to support the low back, the abdominals strongly. So lift the chest up just a little bit like you're gonna point it to the ceiling. And one more time, reaching the arms down, sending the chest up, up, up and forward. And then bringing the arms back. Turn the palms to the sides. All the same rules apply. We got back a legs, we got habs working.

Pinky fingers down, starting in a neutral spine. As you press your arms down, you raise up, it's small, it's barely anything. It's just a sense of perhaps getting taller than the arms go back out and you to return to neutral. And then you press arms sliding down the back, reaching the chest up the eyes. And then opening back out. And again, the pinky fingers come in where they come just to the sides of the body rather than behind and then out. You guys look really good pressing down, pressing down, and last time for now, for the day. Anyway, pressing down, stay there and just little presses back button more down than back with the arms. It'd be a chest expansion, a little pulsing movement. Back is strong. Pelvis is neutral. Raise your arms up, dive. So ARD, put your hands down on your mat, roll over your feet or Tuck your toes under, roll back so that you're sitting down on your heels. Press the heels down into the mat. Let the spine fold forward.

Take a moment there with slightly bed needs to just let the low spine relax the muscles along the lower spine to relax and have water falling out over the thighs. And with that we exhale to come all the way up to the top or reformer on the map.

Comments

good basic workout!
Nice 30 min. workout.
4 people like this.
It doesn't matter at which level or at which speed she instructs...Meredith has the most delicious and graceful transitions between exercises!
WOW! Thanks Joni!
1 person likes this.
Nice effective workout when your are pressed for time!! Thank you.
1 person likes this.
Awesome class! So great to be able to do reformer work on mat - just what I needed! And meredith, love your imagery and guidance throughout the class. Didn't even need to glance at screen- felt like you were here in the room! Thanks :)
Thanks for your wonderful and kind words ladies. So glad to be practicing with you!
1 person likes this.
This is a great morning workout--full of energy and movement for waking up and starting the day feeling strong.
1 person likes this.
Great sequence to revisit pilates regularly again after breaking my arm several months ago. A little modification goes a long way. Thanks Mary, Michelle
Thank you Lisa.
Michelle, I MISS you!!


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