Class #1978

Playful and Challenging Flow

70 min - Class
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It's important to laugh, because laughing is breathing. Blossom Leilani Crawford's playful personality will keep you laughing while you are working hard in this challenging Reformer workout. Because she jumps right in to the class, Blossom recommends trying a warm up before you take this class. She throws in a few curve balls like Martha Graham and an exercise she learned from Sarita Allen, so it is important to make sure you are safe and ready for those challenges.
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box, Small Tennis Ball (2), Knee Pad, Pilates Pole

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Hi, I'm blossom Laelani Crawford and I'm here with Jim and Rowe. We're very serious about our reform or we're going to do today. Very, very serious. Um, we're going to just get started right off the bat, headed right into footwork. Hopefully you've done some sort of warm up, which he definitely has. And let's get started. So footwork on the springs of your choice. Two one four. It's up to you. Um, I'd like to start in a parallel position, so out and then when you're ready, inhaling and exhaling as you come in. He's gonna try to remain calm and breathe cause we've got a long road and use as the least amount of energy as possible to do foot.

You're just looking at alignment, trying to get both legs straighten and bend at the same time. And I'm going to do my best to count to 10, 10, no, eight, nine, nine. So close out. And then when you're ready. Inhaling. And excellent. Yes. So in this position it is with the toes curled, but again, don't use all the energy. Just lengthening the foot. Right? [inaudible] keep breathing as you go out in, I think this is 10:00 AM I wrong again? [inaudible] so we're going to do nine out of there with your ready spelling. It's important to laugh because laughing is briefing. It is, it's like I'm not laughing, I'm exercising, I'm stay all the way out there and straighten those legs.

So right now one of the things I want him to really think about his little toes up to up toward the ear. So just a couple more like that. I really helps get those legs internally rotated cause usually we sort of externally rotate so hopefully he feels a little more inner thigh. Good toes on only 10 inch shots. He's going to lift his heel really high, lower and lift the heels [inaudible] and so one of the things I look for is if the legs are locking and so you can sometimes just feel them and so he's going to not lock in his knees and not bend them too much. And hopefully you feel your calves working as you lower and lift and breathe. And even when you lower energy out of the top of the head. Yes.

[inaudible] good. And he's doing this really great thing with his shows. He's actually sort of reaching them forward as opposed to knobbing them up or lifting the toes. I want you to keep those toes connected and make sure you have all five toes represented. Even if you have a teeny tiny little toe. Yeah, let's do heels in the corners just as a little change up and let's just go out and an open cause sometimes that feels good and let them use go. Why? Keeping your pelvis down. Just five of those place breathing is good. Just like a summer's day at the beach.

Two more exhaling as you come in. Pelvis is still one more come all the way and you're going to transition to arm circles [inaudible] so you have to take the foot bar down. Who can do that with his feet and then change your springs. Might even want to change your head rest now. So we're gonna do a little Cathy grant thing.

You're going to bring the into the chest. You can cross your feet at your ankles. Arm circles, pull down to the hips, out to the sides and ceiling. And as he does this, he's going to try to keep his rib cage connected to the floor the whole time as opposed to lifting the ribs off, which is what I like to do. And just projecting onto you. Do One more here. [inaudible] give me straight arms up to the ceiling, uncross your legs. Give me a big inhale. And as you exhale, head, arms, legs, reach into your hundreds position. Let's pump eight inhale, four five, six, seven, eight. Exhale.

Inhale for five, six, seven, eight. Exhale. And as you're pumping, you decide if you're doing a v of your feet parallel. And if you're parallel for me, ideally keep the heels apart. Jim, I'm going to ask you just to work your feet. Lift, point those toes, lengthen those toes. I'm doing this on purpose cause I know that this is not easy for him. Just two more sets. Inhale. And as you exhale I'd like you to go, Shh, yes, do it one more time. And he can do that. Exhale without making a sound too, and he's sitting in a percussively. Exhale. When he's done, straight legs and straight arms are going to go up to the ceiling. Here we go. Hands full down to the mat. Bring the legs up and over. Inhale, and as you act a length in a way like the NOI, linkedin, the way legs go down as the arms go up. Take a moment here. Listen. Again.

Arms pull, legs go. Exhale, lengthen. Chest away from the chin. Lengthening, lengthening, lengthening, legs down, arms up. Two more times. Arms, legs, [inaudible]. Exhale, Jim, keep your rib cage connected as you go to do that first pole, which is hard. Go arms, legs, stay over, go over a little bit more. Gym. Yeah, there's the back stretch. I'd like for him. Reach like up toward the ceiling. Give me a v of the feet and he's going to come down and say three, four, keep counting with me. Five, six, seven. He's reaching when his bum touches down, bend the knees, bend the elbows and rest. Oh, hunt breast rest. Yes. He needs a little moment. Inhale, and as you exhale, go into your full hundreds position. Open and close the legs.

Once knees bend in and the arms, Ben, reach it forward. Open-Close you decide that you're parallel or rotated, but keep it consistent. Like I feel like my friend who that right. He's got sort of a little bit of both going on, but you're gonna try to keep it consistent. Yes. Knees and Ben last time, go forward and stay there. Stay here. Right leg moves once and back in left leg moves once.

Do that one more time. This is from my friend Steven Feather huff. And I love it because it looks really easy, but it is not. Bend the knees, bend the arms and rested all the way up my friend. Go to one spring and let's go to rowing please. So into the chest to begin sitting up nice and tall and it's a little, my emphasis is a little different. So just keep Alyson. Hmm. So right now his machine is home. He's sitting up tall, the elbows are bent and the straps are taught. Inhale. And as you exhale, start to lower, open the arms and hold.

You're going to lengthen the rib cage up and over. Hook the thumbs one Ben and stretch. Circle the arms around. Grab onto your ankles. Give yourself a pull in this moment. Don't dive length in the back of the neck up toward the ceiling. That's the angry turtle. And now with this angry turtle in mind, give yourself a pull. Exhale with a stomach in. Use Your Tummy. Sit up tall.

Don't move the machine until you start to lower the spine. Exhale to roll. Open those arms and you were not going to push out into those. Shoulder stands are way a friend of mine used to press his feet into the shoulder. Stands to hold on. That's a technique, but let's try not to do that at this time. Do you know my friend there to lower down? Yes, he likes burgundy. Hinton's open the arms laughing. He's breathing.

Yes. Hook the thumbs one Ben and stretch. Yes. Keep the zip as you circle the arms. Really grab on and keep that angry turtle. Beautiful. So you see how he's getting that nice length. Use Your Tummy. Sit up tall. Get ready for the next one. Bicep curl. Nice. Change of the legs. Bend the elbows as you lead. Lifting, lifting, lifting, lifting. Yes.

Take your time. Slowly. Get Taller as you come up. Take a moment right here. Stay here. This is the hardest part. He's like, I want to go now. Not yet. I know now. Openreach Ben and stretch. Now stay here when you go to release. Internal connection as you release, as you release, keep those angry turtle head. As you pull, use your tummy as you sit up tall. This is the hard spot. Again, pull as you lean back. I don't care how low you go, I just want that internal lift. Take your time. Watch those shoulders. Yes. Open the arms.

Press Bend and stretch reaching. Let the straps take you home. The springs do some work too. Yes. Use Your Tummy. Sit up tall. Yes. Last one. Here we go. Leaning, lifting. Beautiful. Take your time. Sit Up nice and tall and this is what you're reaching for.

Just that sitting up tall moment. Open the arms. Reach out as you circle one Ben and stretch. Tommy is internally connected. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Grab onto those ankles. Exhale with the stomach in sitting up nice and tall.

Turn around when you're ready from the chest. [inaudible] coming with me. So reach forward. Inhale down to the mat. Reach up to the ceiling, lifting up tall and open the arms. Reach forward again. Yes. Down to the mat. Reach up to the ceiling or an old in the arms. Kathy would say thumbs to the nipples. Yes. And again, reach forward.

It makes me smile every time for some reason. Yes. Can we do one more bend the elbows reach forward. The hard part is sitting up tall and especially right here. He is not going right there. This is the moment. He is not going to his highest point. I want you to lift up tall in the back.

Now go to your high spot of the arms and open the arms. Thank you. Jim. Dropped your head. Flex the feet. Hands to the hips. Think of painting the front of the machine. Drop the head. Stay right there. Where's my angry turtle or do you feel that extra length? Hopefully start to sit up tall. Take your time. Take your time.

Find that sitting up. Tall moment. And then from there, lift inside. As you reach up, open the arms. Drop the head. Two more to go. Breathing. Yes, you can relax the feet a little bit. If they're getting tight. Open the arms. Yes, you got one more. Drop the head. Exhale with the stomach in angry turtle right now. Good.

He's doing such a good job with too of keeping those risks flat. Open the arms. Bend the knees for Hubby tree please. [inaudible] open the arms. Yes. Breathing for me. It's often not about the movement. It's about the release. It's this part that's hard. Rest. One more. W I lied. One more. Stay there. Open the arms. Switch the cross of your legs.

Flip the palms for a hook. The thumbs. Get ready for shading. [inaudible] yes, keep going. Pressing. So as he's doing this, I don't care about the arms again, it's the spine lift up tall. So if you have to make your push forward, the range of motion, little smaller to get a little more lift here, I'll take it to more tall. And the spy. You got one more friend lifting up tall. That's enough because I'm the nubbies behind you.

We're going to get ready for the swan. So, um, foot bar stays down. Go to two springs, get your sh long box and place it in front. And ideally I'm going to show you how to set this up. So, um, get a pad. You want the pad at the front edge of the box and if you have to um, squishy balls or tennis balls, they're great right now and you put them on their headdress and let's show them the two different places to stand. So let's show the one that you don't like as much so you could stand on the wood part. So come to the, you like the, yeah, you could stand on the frame, which I like, but Jim, no, that's enough.

And then walk your feet back to the other one. Oh, or you can stand on the football. My suggestion is, is to try the frame one first because the foot bar moves until you get used to it. It's kind of funny, and if you're home alone by yourself and you don't have another teacher dress in a matching clothing, you can. You can also sneak your feet underneath this flipped bar, so he's grabbed onto the balls. You're going to keep your hands down. Here's the first test. You're going to lift and lower your heels as you lift and lower your fields. Are you moving the carriage? Hopefully the answer is yes.

Then you grab the balls, which she's already done. You end with the heels back. You open the arms out to the sides and hold. Here we go. You straighten the legs to push out. I'm gonna leave 'em alone. Nipples to the box. Cathy would say, start to come up. Reach up to the ceiling. Give me a big exhale. Straighten the legs. Push out, and I say right here, nipples to the box. Reach Warby toward. Start to come up.

Don't we bend those knees. Don't you bend? Don't you bend that you bend. That's it. Open ends. You're taller, taller, taller, taller, taller, and again, legs. Nipple. Yes. Crystals like together. Pretzels, like when you can come up anymore. Bend the knee, then reach up to the ceiling. Chin comes up. Last one, go. Yes. Now here we go. The leg stay straight. You come up when you can't come up anymore. You bend the knees when you can't come up and wear heels. Back. Heels, heels, heels, hands come down. Yup. Balls go down. Lift your booty up.

Pushing down into the box. That's it. You changed down to one spring. Remove your pad. By the way, for some gentlemen they like to pad a double pat on the thighs. For this situation. I don't have that so I don't know, but it's a good tip. So here we go. Getting ready for pulling straps you will hold on. Is High up the straps as you can? Yes.

The machine goes home and since I'm here sometimes if you get your little pillow between the legs or if you really want, you can do a ball between the heels. Sorry Jenn. Here we go. Pulling down along the sides of the machine. Stay right there. The thumbs are with your fingers. The wrists are flat. Die Back into a few more. Take your time, Jim reaching [inaudible]. Take your time to reach the apex of the movement. Beautiful.

Lengthen those legs to go down two more times. Take your time now. Don't lift the legs higher. Lower them. In fact. Aww and dive back in. Sometimes I feel like we're pulling. We're trying to arch so much that we almost do too much in the legs and dive back. In. Slide your hands down the straps to a t for t straps. This is the hardest moments, so when you're there, really reach out to the side.

Draw. Reach those shoulder blades away from you. Lift your head up and angry turtle. Start to pull and release. This is a one that builds, so you start small and it gets a little bit bigger each time. He's got three more to go and maybe a little bit bigger, a little bit closer to the thighs.

Reach the shoulder blades away from that back. Two more to go yes and reach it away. One more. He's going to stay up there. Give me a big exhale and that's enough rest who I'm going to take the tennis ball away for him and get ready for backstroke and teasers. So add another spring on. Sit to the front edge of your box.

[inaudible] hold on backwards. Yes. Now stay here. Jim. Don't lie down yet. So this is a nice moment that I think often passes. You're going to keep, you're going to take a look at the legs and when you go to lie down, use this as your center line. Yes. As you hum to lie down. Take your time. Pressing the legs. Yes. Yes, yes. When you get down there, take a little moment to stretch cause I think he deserves it. I better get out of the way. Uh Huh. Yes. I like untwisting the straps as well. So he's gonna stay there breathing.

And sometimes I even let people reach back. Go for a little stretch for the pecs. Yes. And down to the side. Just a couple more times like that. And he's going to really exhale one more time because he knows what's coming and it's a lot. Here we go. So when you're ready, bend the elbows. And at this moment here, I know I'm a stickler, but I want nice flat wrists.

I know he's like, what are my wrists doing? Right? So it's sometimes a little more forward, like revving the motorcycle up. So when you're ready, bend the knees into your chest. Give me a big old inhale again, I'm to just backtrack a second. New slightly more open gym and bring the thighs towards you. Don't be afraid of messing with the position to get something like that, just because it's supposed to be this. His hips might not be saying that.

So his hips might be asking for that. So let's go for a little bit of that. Yeah. Then that feel better. You don't have to say that just because you're on camera, but yes, I know when you're ready. Inhale. And as you exhale, my friend, you're going to lift your head up from where, where, where, where, and I saying here, because I want to make sure his pelvis stays down. This is enough of an exercise, but we're gonna move on. Arms and legs up. Inhaling up, exhale, open. Reach forward and hold, hold, hold and come back in. Inhale, reached gym open.

Yes. I love the precision that you're giving me, but now I want you to lengthen beyond those lymph beyond, yes, open and reach forward and reaching to me. Reaching to me, reaching it. That's what I'm talking about. Ben, back in. Here we go. Lengthen to me. Reach to me. Stay here. Open the arms and legs. Let your head go back. Bend the arms and legs. Head comes up the head going back as a Corolla. Thing that Kathy learned from Corolla. Yes. Bend the arms and legs.

Lift your head up. You got one more. Stay there and open. Take your time. Take your time. Take your time. Take your time. Bend the arms and legs. Lift your head up. Unfortunately. Have to change your springs, my friend down to one. Ideally is getting ready for the teaser to go for your nice mini stretch for a moment. This is what I would get to do in Romanos, but that's not what Cathy would do. You bend your knees into your chest. You start again in this position. Yeah, watch my wrists. I'll do the straps.

When you're ready. Arms and legs up to the ceiling. Open the arms and legs come up into your teaser position. Take your time. Hi. How's it going? Oh good. Hello? Hello. He's going to lower down and below. That's exactly he's saying it in this nice little hello. I always think of like, yes. Anyway, say up here. Arms circles. I used to think about, Kathy would talk about why she started smoking and she said that's how you would get to meet men back in the day.

And so I was thinking of a man coming in and be like, hello, can I have a light? Hello? So you're circling in both directions by the way. Crucifix and slowly come up, up, up, up, up, up, up. Take your time now. Really get all the way down to the bottom gym. Really open those arms, open those arms, open those arms and come back up as much as you're open. You're going to keep the rib cage on the floor as you get down there.

Keep it down. Keep it down. Keep it down, keep it down. I know and slowly come back up. Stay here. He's going to bend his knees into his chest. I'm going to help my friend cause this is not easy for him. You're gonna press the shins forward. Curling the belly back. Flex the feet.

In fact, you use the arms and you inhale and as you exhale, you slowly lower down with control. Woo. Yeah, you can do it. It's the burgundy. That was exciting. Yeah. Seize. You never know he was practicing that one. All right, let's move on. Um, let's see. I am so confused. I don't know what to do.

So let's do horseback and we're going to do a new funky horseback actually. So have a seat. You're four fingers away from the back edge and it really threw me off. Damn. Actually he does it like that all the time. All the time. All right. So again, with our little Kathi emphasis here, so he's four fingers away from the back edge. This is a little different. So when you're ready, you're going to bend the elbows by your side and stay here. Good.

You're going to start to lift the booty round the back and start to reach up. Beautiful. Stay here, Jim. Can you curl that? Let the feet go forward more. Lift them long and long. Gait the neck where in the arms down and have a seat. That's all it is. You bend the elbows to start to lift up. As you push your hands up up. Use that tension. Now stay right here.

The legs want to rotate, but he's internally rotating and then he's going to have a seat back down. Good. You got one more to go. Let's get behind that angry turtle, that length of the back of the neck. So as you come up, you're going to, that's it. Lengthen that neck leg from that neck. Beautiful. And have a seat back down. So remember that lifting, curling position as you turn around and we'll all, we've got two more horses to go cause that's what you want to do is three horse backs. There's actually like four or five apparently, but we're just gonna do three. Easy, easy. So a little Kathy variation. Yep. So when you are ready, you're going to lift up. As you reach forward. By lift up, I mean your butt lifts up. Opening arms, flex the feet and have a seat down the knee. Face for the whole time.

Reach forward. Lift the bum. Find that rib cage lift. Yes. Open the arms. Flex the feet and have a seat down. Two more my friend. [inaudible] flex the feet as you open the arms and come down. Last one. You're gonna stay up. He's gonna stay out and you're gonna stay up there and circle the arms. One, two more. [inaudible] when you reach our feet to me, come on. Yeah, we reversed the circles. Good.

It is hard to keep the feet forward each time. But you're gonna think of tape measure. Rest done. The launch stretch series. Let's move on. So you're going to hook the nubbies on the, or hook the handles on the nubbies. Remove your box. Two Springs for me. You can also go lighter.

It's up to you at least obviously at least one and then a foot par up again. If you are really tall, you might want to explore second gear as well. So full push up position. I want you to feel the rise of the headdress underneath the ball of the foot and I want you to lift the heels up so that the heels are right over those toes. Keep that nice long spine. Lift the head. Here we go.

Inhale to push out energetically reach the heels back. You're not going to lower them. That's all it is. A few more times. Go ahead and so my friend here, when you come in, you're gonna really think if I'm that lifted the rib cage, think of exhaling right at the sternum to come in. Lengthen, lengthen, lengthen. One more time as you come in. I want to feel the energy lengthening out of the heels, heels, heels with control. Kneel down, feet against the shoulder stance.

Please really slide those feet back. Bring the hips forward and just look straight ahead for now. Good. Can you bend the elbows and maybe let the chest come forward? Yeah, let's break a little rule. Very good. Feel the heels even right now, the downstream push out. Inhaling. Take your time. Slowly come back in. I'm doing a mean thing. I'm pulling his heels back so he has a lift. Lift, lift, lift, lift. Two. One more time. Push out. When you're ready. Keep pressing back. Keep pressing back. Keep pressing back. Keep pressing back. Beautiful.

You're going to stand up on the machine. We're going to do a little Cathie variation. I was known as the pregnant lady, either upstretched or elephant, I don't know. And he is. This is perfect for Jim who has a nice tight back like a lot of men do. So he is trying to bend his knees and arch has low back. You know the Winter Olympics, you see that beautiful ski jump.

That's what I'm trying to get. Now when people try to do this, they try to lift their head up. It's not that. It's a really hard thing to do. Jim, send your hips back another inch. Yeah, here we go. You're going to push the carriage out. Take your time and you bend the knees. That's the exercise. Pushing those hands. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. So do you see, and hopefully you can feel the stretch of the lower back and it's actually made, it was made up on a pregnant woman and it does feel great when you're pregnant.

Men Don't appreciate that. It's called the pregnant lady exercise, but it does feel great for the low back. Adding on, you're gonna push out the straight legs and stay there. Keep the leg straight. Come in with straight legs, lifting the hips, arching the back. It's even harder cause the hamstrings are tight. Bend the knees. Don't have bend the knees yet it goal out. Don't worry about bringing the machine all the way in.

I care more about the back arching. So that's what he's doing. Push out. You're going to keep the leg straight and you keep coming until you feel that the back can't come anymore. Bend the knees. Last time I said that last time, didn't I keep coming and keep lifting hips. Keep lifting the hips. That's about all he's got. Good. When you're ready, step off the machine, take a little breath, little mop up and then let's do elephant. And I'm gonna throw a curve ball at you. Forgive me. No. [inaudible] he is. Ah, lift your heel. See. Okay. I love it. Lift your heels halfway up. The shoulder stands. Yes. Without shifting in your way. You're thinking this.

You're trying. You're going to bring one knee into your chest. You're going to extend the leg behind you. That's it. Push the carriage out. Inhale. Take your time. You're going to think of lifting leg as you come in. Three more parallel leg back there. So big toe down. Big exhale.

You got one more and the hard part is to lift the leg as you come in with the little they lived, they lifted, lifted, change sides. Both feet. Take a moment. Don't go right away. Don't go right away. Take a moment, Ben. Then the, I don't want to know, even though I know what leg it is, I don't want to know. [inaudible] I say [inaudible] because I can tell. I can. I don't want to see, no, you can't do that. He can't go into, he's got to find that lift. I mean it doesn't have to. You don't have to. I would like you to. Yes. Extend that leg behind you. Good. Now stay there internally. That leg, that's exactly a cush out. As you come in internally, spiral.

Find that lift good a few more times. It is so hard to find the internal spiral as you come in, but it's really great hamstring work by great. I mean hard. Yes. You've got one more gym, a little more lifted that back leg. Live, live, live, live, live, live, lift. Come all the way in. That's enough. Thank you very much. Long back stretch. Please shake your wrists out a little bit if you need to.

Get yourself ready. We're going to talk about this position. Most of the time this is done with bent elbows. When I was taught it by Kathy Gret, she taught it to me with straight arms. Let's do it and then I add a little wrinkle from my friend Jim here. I make him reach for the shower head rest, so that's what he's doing.

When you're ready, come on [inaudible] you're doing the reverse. Here we go. Say lifted. As you push out, come down now, lift out of the top of the head, top of the head, tell the head again, one more time out. Down in. And he's lifting, lifting, lifting. Stay here for a moment. Lower down with straight arms. So yes, the machine has to move, but that's okay. [inaudible] find your belt belt Bell Bell, Bell Bell Belt Belt. One more.

Take your time. Yes. Up, up, up. Take an extra moment. Rest. I was like a little bit of a runaway horse. So Jess at the last one, but you know it's not easy. All right, so after that, let's do 'em Suffolk massage place. His other favorite exercise. Do you need a pad? For most of us, I'm about gym. You sometimes superhuman pad underneath the booty. [inaudible] and he gets in in this way where he holds onto the shoulder, sends in shifts himself for a while.

He pushes the machine back so you can get really far for your own time. We straight and the lower end lift come in. That's my nice little sing song version. You can go faster or slower. It's up to you. But keep moving through it. Make sure you're not locking in those knees.

One more time after this take, maybe go to a lighter spring. Hold onto the shoulder stands behind you or just reach Jim. Shoulders are tight, so he just reaches and he's trying to get taller each time his back is tied to so it makes it hard. But you're doing your best. Keep lifting. I think that's enough. Go down to two springs now. Reaching both arms forward. Here's the hard part. No, no, no. Come back in love long, long, long. Yes. Now go and then you're reaching out of that low back.

It's not from the shoulder, it's from that low back. Two more times. Exhale to come my in, in, in, and you have one more right away to twisting. Here go right arm twist. Reach behind you. Look at that hand and come back and press the heels together cause that's your center point. Do One more. Set love. Reach straight in. Reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, reach. Yes. Last side, twisting through the waistline and come back and feed into the corners. Hold onto the center, drop your head. Exhale with the stomach in.

Ah, I'm giving him that cause his shoulders don't need to be involved right now. Bend the knees a little bit. Inhale and Jim stay here. Lets whistle as you exhale to straighten the legs. One more time. Beautiful one more like that. Big Whistle to exhale. Stretch. You deserve a stretch after that one for goodness sake. Okay.

Tendon stretch. So um, when I was taught by Ramana you put a pad at front of the machine but you don't have to and he's going to do 10 inch stretch and let's just have a seat on the machine. Let's talk about the position. When you put your foot, your heel on the front of the carriage, I want you to put it right at the front of your, if you had a big cowboy boot, the front of the, where that front of the boot would hit as opposed to the center of the foot, which is sometimes taught, I want the heel and that's what Cathy would often teach. So holding onto the foot bar, fingers are for it and just stay right here. This is plenty of work. Now exhale with a stomach in the toes are lifted. The feet are parallel. Keeping your head down for the first couple, you're going to push the carriage out. So this is how I was taught it by Romana.

Big exhale, curl, curl, curl, curl, curl. Two more times I made it. Three to see that one more. [inaudible] adding on. He's going to push out with his head down BF. I didn't [inaudible] say here. Lift the head up. Give you a big exhale. Drop the head as you go forward. Lift the head and keep the head and keep the head up. Keep the head up. Hit Up.

That's it. He's making it look so easy, but it sends the hits back last time. Beautiful. Great. You keep the rhythm going. Beautiful. Have a seat. That's enough. Ooh, that was good. Um, shorts. Fine please. Yeah. So flip bar comes down. Head rest is definitely down. And you should have two springs for me. You can decide what works best for you. Put your feet in the straps when you're ready.

And there are so many ways to skin, to skin, the short spine. So we're going to do several and we're going to sort of build to rest for a second. So Corolla style, the one that Kathy taught with straight legs at the legs come towards you. You should be getting a huge stretch right now. The legs are straight, the booty is down. You're gonna lift the leg up and over your head. Stay right there, just staying there. Push up against the straps. Exhale. Now what I'd like you to do is actually come down a little bit with the hips right there, giving the still another press up there.

Hopefully you get a different stretching your back, bend those knees open and as you exhale, come down, roll down in one piece, feet, hips, everything comes together. One more like that. Frog out and stay to the low spot with straight legs with the legs come towards you. You're thinking long spine while you're letting those hamstrings stretch, lift up and over and try not to go to that high, high neck and shoulder spot, but still get a stretch in your back. Maybe just a touch more that the machine come home, bend those knees, open feet. Doing that inner curl. Beautiful. And as you exhale, roll down.

Good. And then the way I was taught by Romana, here we go. Frog out. Start to lift up. Bend those knees. Stay here. Now Jim, you're going to come down. Boody comes down first heals. Follow. One more time like that. Frog out. Lift up. Beautiful. Bend those knees. Boody comes down first. I'm going to ask you for one more and we're gonna do a different way.

Coming down. When you're ready for all gone out again, you're gonna lift up right away. Good. Going to bend the knees just as we did before. Stay here. So a Combo, he's gonna start to come. You're in a start to come down a little bit in the torso. Add the legs, torso, then legs, torso, then legs. Your breathing. Lengthening. Yes, take your time. It looks like everything's coming down together, but it's a lot of ABS, a lot of ABS. Keep lengthening all the way down to the bottom and rest. Good. Let's take those off when you're ready. Semicircle. Ooh, my favorite.

So just drop. You can just drop them behind you or hook them on the nubs. It's up to you. And if you need to put a shoulder, uh, or a carriage blocker, now's the time to do it. And so here we go. Jim does a very fancy lift. I just smooch say here. Breathing in this position of your hips forward, heels lifted. Can you lower the heels and inch? Lift the hips, trying not to arch the back more, but lifting the hips and stretching the front of the thighs.

I like to do the reverse first. So keep the booty lifted as you push out. Stay there. Torso comes down before the button, torso down before the, but that's what Cathy would shoot. That's a Kathy highlight. Keep pushing till this arms. Keep pushing into those arms. Keep pushing it until those arms. Yes, stay right here Bree. Come in, scoop up butt lifts before the rib cage. Come forward. Come forward, come forward. I'm gonna give him a little extra low. Keep the hips lifted, push out. Try not to arch the back. More good torso comes down before the hips.

That's it. You have to use those arms, then you have to push into those feet the whole time. Keep pushing, keep pushing, keep pushing. When you think you're down, taking a little extra love and do another extra half inch for the ribs. Come in and scoop up, up, up, up, up, up, up. Reverse it. Now roll down. Torisel before hips. This is a hard one to keep those arm straight. Yeah, cause the hips usually want to go. It's torso before hips. Beautiful. Torso to hips. Good. Push out. Stay out there with a booty down cup. Yeah, push out. Keep the booty down.

Hips lift before the rib cage. Hips lift before the rib cage. Yes, come back in. It sounds so silly, but those little details. Last one. Love. Yes. Torso tips took me like a year to understand why Kathy kept yelling at us when that Mi push out. Stay here. Hips to torso. Come all the way in. Circle the arms around. Hold onto your ankles. Here's another opportunity to pull down on the heels. Lift up in the hips.

Now when you lift up in the hips, don't arch your back. If anything, find the belly connection and lift the pelvis to stretch to the front of the thighs. Circling arms around, bend your elbows, pull yourself back. Woo. Chest expansion that time. So go down to one spring. Ideally. Yes. Good. Kneel down. Now this is also Cathy style. When I did chest expansion with Cathy or when I did it with Romana, I got to hook my feet at the back edge of the reformer with ms thing. That's Kathy. You brought your knees all the way up against the shoulder stand.

Hi. Hey. How's it going? Good. Now the other thing I'd like to mention is let's talk spring. You can play around with, if you have one arm, it's stronger than the other. You might want to play around with the location of the spring. Um, Kathy used to have five springs on a reformer, so she would do a center spring. So just play around if cause it does make it feel different. So you know, just put that in your bonnet. Here we go. The breathing is inhaled to pull back.

You decide how far back you can pull. Exhale to one side. Inhale Center, exhale to the other side center and then release a few more times. Inhale to pull. I used to do this and Kathy used to say to me, take your vaginal muscles up out of the top of the head. I don't know what I'm Ah, you can, he said he'll think of something, but you know. Yeah, but you know it Kinda worked. Oh yeah, you can do that on the next one too. Yes. Yeah. He's like, oh great. I can't wait to take mine. Anyway. You have a pelvic floor anyway, so when you're ready, add more springs for thigh stretch please. So for me, at least three springs, you're gonna kneel back down the knees go right back against the shoulder sands as well. And the way Cathy would choose, this was very specific for me.

She would say, take your thighs away from the shoulder stance cause we all want to just lean back. Think of taking your thighs away. Go for it. Love thighs, Leigh. That's about it. Take your time to slowly come up. And for me, this one builds, maybe go back a little bit farther the next time. And on the way up. By the way, there's no lifting the arms. It's the lift in the torso, torso. Let's do that again. Can you do that one more time with those beautiful. He stays in his long line. He keeps the long line and looks up to the ceiling. Chin comes up. It's hard to keep the line. Yes. Find your belts. Now he's going to go for the full when he's, you're going to go with low as you want to, and if you, when you take your head back, you can go for the full extension of your back.

Yes, look straight ahead. Try not to live inner thighs. Find that valley. Find the ribcage, find the ribcage, find the ribcage. Whew. And take a little moment. So now we're going to do the arm circle facing in the other direction. I'm going to go warm up a little bit so that I'm ready for this next bit that I really want to show you myself. So I just did a little arm warm up, getting ready to do this. Next bit. We're going to, I'm going to do the arm circles facing the foot bar and I'm going to show a couple of other variations that I really want to show you myself.

So pardon me for, but it's still burgundy so you won't notice that it's a different person. So the arm circles you're very familiar with and when you do these arm circles, I want you to really keep that heel connection. And if you can't get this kind of flection in your foot, you could even put a little ball back there or maybe a little towel folded up to keep that heel connection cause that helps me get my booty. Here we go, reach forward, open the arms out to the sides and just breathe. One more time. Inhale to reach forward out to the sides. I'm only doing two because I got a lot of circles to do. Reverse.

Reach out to the side and reach forward and down to the hips. One more. Keep it cool because here comes some fun stuff. Bring the arms down. Cathy would call this Martha Graham. So you're going to round your spine. Start to reach. Come all the way up to kneeling with the arms up. And as you open the arms, you're going to curl the spine.

Think Martha Graham and the pleadings start to reach ward coming up, kneeling, open, curl, curl, curl, curl. One more time, reach forward, come all the way up to kneeling. And then right here, round take, measure. Curl the belly. And believe it or not, there's a reverse. Here we go. Come all the way up to kneeling. Your arms are high. Curl the spy down. Two more times. Reach Martha Graham. I envision that big fabric curling back, curling back, curling back. So adding on. So it comes from Martha Graham.

This comes from Sarita Allen, who also studied with Kathy and she very generously attended a workshop on the reformer. I did. And she said, well, what about that other one? I said, what are you talking about? And she said, let me show you. I said, okay. So you start to reach, you start in your Martha Graham. You started with a rounded position, you reach forward. Here's the crazy part. You lean your hips forward into the spring and strap. And when you get to your apex, you go into a backbend heels, go back, round the spine, reach forward from here.

This is the crazy part. Heels go back, hips go forward. Kathy would say elastic band from [inaudible] pubic bone to the chin. Open the arms and take the pubic bone with you. One more time. [inaudible] reaching the heels back as the hips go forward. Take the, the [inaudible] pubic bone with you. Take it with you to get with you. Whoa.

And now I'm going to have my trustee Jim come back cause I'm exhausted. But hopefully you're not and you've got to try that really fun exercise in snake twist. Kathy had a very specific way of doing the springs and it would be, I would be remiss not to talk about it so well obviously just get back in here. This is the man. I'm a woman. Um, if a man, generally speaking, if a man did snake twists, they would have the spring on the arm side of the machines. That makes sense. So if you line up here this, it would be this spring that you would use for a, for a man, for a woman, you would put it where the foot is. So hopefully that makes sense to you. We'll do a tutorial about that sometime in the future. I'm just kidding.

So you want to go that way? I can. No. Flip it so that you don't have the booty to them right away. It's going to happen, but you know, so here we go. So he has the spring on the arm side. Play around with it. If it doesn't feel good, then change it. Okay, here we go. So you're crossing.

Really drop that head by. You're angry turtle. Here we go. Push out. Big exhale. Watch those elbows as you lengthen and slowly come back in. So remember, elastic band to the pubic bone. Here it comes again. Alaska fan from the pubic onto to the chin. Stretch it up. Stretch it up. Stretch it up. Do One more like that. Curl. Beautiful Big exhale. Lifting the chin in, chest, and you really curl to come in. Lifting, lifting, lifting, lifting. Stay here. Change sides. Please. So when you change sides, unfortunately you had to change springs. Totally worth it. To me it's a really, this is an exercise where you can really feel the difference on the pull of the machine with the springs changing. Okay, so here we go.

Just hopping up is enough. But if you want to add on, here we go. Push out. Big exhale, elastic band stretching up and come in in in two more. Go big. Exhale. Soften in the elbow and curl. Take measure tape. Measure tape. Measure one more to go pushing out Catholics and get a good strong, he'll drop the head and Kirlian curl in, curl in. Stay here. Run another breath.

Step off the machine. So the next one that twists you. We changed the springs again. He's going to come around. And so let's do one Romana style one Cathy style. Yeah. Say it again. I will. Don't you worry. Okay. So here we go. So you come up into the position, oh, let's talk about the hand. So in snake, the hand line up and twist. The hand goes to center.

The hand closest to the feet goes to center. Here we go. [inaudible] pipe owner. What goes across? You're going to push the carriage out and stay far out. Go farther out. Farther out. You're going to twist the body, look over your right shoulder. Start to come up, lift the booty up and close. That's how I learned it from Romana for Kathy. Sao, you're going to push out about halfway, maybe a little bit more.

And you're going to go [inaudible] down. Lift it up one more time. Woody down. Lift it up. Close the machine and step off. Change sites. So Kathy added a little rhythm, kind of a, you know, um, fancy, fancy, but also you never get to bring your weight down cause it's like down, up. Here we go. Romana style first. Push the carriage out. Tumultuous. Lift the booty.

Close the machine. Yes, here we go. Push out again. Twist woody up, twist, get that good heels. You Go, booty up close. Close the machine. Close the machine. Close the machine. Rest. I need a ball for this. So when I did this with my friend Kim Hiroshi, she was like, I don't know what exercise you're talking about. And she was in the position, I'm just like this there. Same spring as the arm and I sort of, I just grabbed your arm and I put it the ball in her hand and she went, Oh yeah, I know what you're talking about. It was a nice moment. So when you're ready, straighten this arm, lean your head away. That feels so good.

And sometimes I throw in a little look down to the floor. Yum. Bring the Chin to the chest. Double Yum. This arm can rest. Love. Yeah. [inaudible] look straight ahead and now I swear we're going to do the exercise. Here we go. Pushing into that straight, right. I'm going to push and go for that nice big side bend.

I'm going to give him a little extra assistance. Yes, you're gonna reach the left arm up toward the ceiling and start to come up. Yes. Reach both. Actually. You can even let that tennis ball come down. Reach the right arm up to the ceiling, pull on the shoulder stand and get a nice length across that foot bar side of the body. Reach both arms up to the ceiling. And circling the tennis ball with both hands. You're going to reach up on an exhale.

You're going to twist to face the legs of the waistline through the waistline, not through the eyes, not through the head, not the neck. Yes, come back to center and here's the fun spot. You are going to lean away from the flip bar with your head and the tennis ball. The right arm finds the foot bar without looking yes, and again, push out. Push. Squeeze in that ball. Yes, keep going. Keep going more Jim, you got more? You got more. There we go. Start to come up. Reaching up with that left arm, grabbing onto the shoulder.

Stand with the left arm. Reach to the right arm up and lengthen that whole side up. Up, up. You can even add a little inhale. Bend that right arm. X tilted straightened toward me. Reaching. Reach up to the ceiling with both arms intertwined that tennis ball reach up, twist toward me. Big exhale through the waistline.

You could even do it with close eyes. That's it. Come back to center. Head and tennis ball. Go away from the foot bars. You find the bar other side. So you're gonna flip and you change the spring. Thank you Jim for reminding me. It was always safe. So the spring needs to be right underneath your shoulder. Yes, find it. And so while he's staying here, he's going to bring his look down to the floor, drop the chin toward the chest and get a little extra stretch for his neck and shoulder. Look straight ahead. And when you're ready, pushing into that hand, go up and over. Sidemen you keep going. Keep going, keep going. And when you think you're there, squeeze at tennis ball and go even more. Yes.

Start to reach up toward the ceiling with the right arm. Grab onto the shoulder, stand in front of you. Reach the left arm up and pull. Keep going. Keep going up. Monastery over. Butt Up. Yes. Start to come up. Reach both arms up toward the ceiling, intertwine the fingers and on an exhale twist to face the legs. That's how I remember. Yeah, some twists are bigger than others. Come back to center. Head and tennis ball goes away from the foot bar. Perfect.

Push. Again, I'm just going to add a little assistance. You can impress that ideal then really go for that stretch. The hip can come off. It's up to, you know we all have different hips, so you have to kind of deal with what you got. Start to reach up to the ceilings. That right arm. Grab onto the shoulder, stand, left arm reaches up and side bend over. Inhale, bend that arm. Think belt. Especially when you reach, reach, reach both arms up to the ceiling. Intertwining the fingers around the ball tool is to face the legs.

[inaudible] stop right here. Jim. Close the eyes. Everyone close your eyes. Insisting rib cage waistline. Yes, come back to center. Head and tennis ball. Go Away. That's it. Moving right along. So after Cleopatra, we're going to do dear Lord in Heaven, the second long box. So I'm help you concierge service and let's go to one spring and can we go to more of a central spring instead of an outer spring?

I prefer that and Jim's going to get into it. The Way Cathy taught me to get into it. So you're gonna take the handlebars off. You're going to have a seat on top of the box. Yup. And you kind of bend your knees and Hook the straps onto your feet while you sit there. That's it. And then he flips onto his tummy. Good. Yes. Bend the knees. Whole line. So then I know people do a, like a whole thing, but we're not going to do that. You're going to bend your knees, hold onto the straps behind you.

But I will tell you a little story while we do this. So, um, we're not going to go for the whole enchilada right away. We're going to piecemeal. It was just how Cathy taught it to me. And you're gonna lift the, so try to say parallel with the legs. You're going to lift the torso up and down in torso. My friend three times. [inaudible] soft elbow.

So you want to feel that connection and hopefully you're moving the spring. When I was first taught this by a long time student of Kathy's named Keith Saputo. He moved the spring this much and he turned his head cryptically to me and said, five years, stay there. I lift the thighs up and down. So if you're barely moving the spring, give yourself four more years. And you've got yes, that's it. And if you barely see him moving, that's he could move it more.

But then other things would have to happen and it's not really about that. So he's gonna lift the thighs, lift the upper body, and just stay here. Just breathing is enough. If you want to try to add the Rock, you're going to try to lift. That's it. And when you go to rock forward, drop the focus, lift the chin and chest. Good. Bend the elbow so you can push up against it. Beautiful. Two more. Last one. And that's enough free. Come on down.

Release the feet, extend the legs behind you. You can even kick the straps off while you're looking at the springs. Add a couple more on [inaudible]. So I like to go for three springs. I have a lot of health and ideally if you're nervous, you can put a pad on the bottom here. If you think you're going to knock your teeth out, but you're going to practice [inaudible] safely and not do that.

So when you're ready, I love this for Jim Shoulders. He's going to lift his thighs and arms off the ground and start to swim so he could go much faster. But I don't want him to, I want big slow. Sometimes I like to just see the way people like to swim. Exhale as you lift your head up. Cause if they like to go fast and I like to make them move slow.

If they'd like to go slow, I'd like to make them move fast. So mix it up a little bit for you. Inhale, as you look down, exhale. As you look up, turning out the legs. One more breath like that. Inhale, look down. This is how Cathy would do it. Exhale, turnout and look up and just rest. June. Beautiful. And I know that in theory his arms should get up, but his shoulders are not telling him the same story. So when you're ready, you're going to hold onto the sides of the reformer. The rails. He's gonna protect his teeth. Oh No.

A pad at the rib cage actually also helps to give you a little stick. Thanks Jim, for reminding me. So you're going to hold onto the sides of the reformer, pressing the legs together. We're going go for the grasshopper. So pressing lace together. You're going to lift the chin and chest up. I love starting here. Pressing those legs together.

Get a little momentum as you drop the head. Lift both legs up. Bend the heels to your bum. Stretch up, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap. The Chin comes up and you breathe. Two more times. Here we go. Start to lift the legs up. When you bent, stretch the thigh. Stretch them even more. And Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap. The Chin comes up. Push into the hands. Lift that chest up last time.

Lift those legs up high on Ben. Stretch up, up, up, up. [inaudible] and breathe. Breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe. Step off. That was good. So from there you go to do the short box, please. So you're going to remove the pad. The spring is can stay. You're going to go to the short box. Let's remove the handlebars. Head rest, come down, and here we go. It feels like Deja Vu. I wonder why. So have a seat on the top.

Feet underneath five of the first two exercises. So sitting up tall, round your spine. We're going to get build this gradually. Inhale to roll back. Exhale. Then maybe a little farther. Lengthen your spine. Love. Lengthen, lengthen, lengthen, lengthen it. You decide how low you go. Push out on those legs. There's another good time to use that. Pinky up. Few pressing out. Go a little lower. Maybe [inaudible] look up to the ceiling. Maybe breathing, breathing, breathing.

One more time. Go all the way back if you can. Inhale to roll back. Big exhale. I love using my hands here to help. Remind me to keep my belly going. Lift the head back up. Find that internal curl press and the ribs. Lift up the ribs, lift up the rib, lift up. You're going to drop your head. Reach the toes. Go for a nice stretch.

Exhaling with a stomach in using your tummy. Sit up as tall as you can. Both hands go behind the neck. Hmm. Yeah, no, I won't. Okay, so here we go. He's sitting up tall. The elbows are slightly forward. Lift the chin. Lean back. Inhale to lean back just to there. Exhale, get taller as you come up each time can get a little bit bigger, but that's about as big as it needs to be. [inaudible] take your time. Exhale few more. Let the elbows even come more forward. Ah, and let me feel the lift up, up, up, up, up. Two more in the flexing. Make sure it's the whole foot working, not just the toes. One more. Inhale to go back.

Exhale as you out of the top of the head and down through the tailbone forever. Ever, ever, ever, ever lean to the side. Tilt strikes. Let's actually put the arm down. Stretch. Reach that arm over. Go for a huge stretch. Both arms go over. Started to come up. Both hands behind the neck. Tilt. Yes. Put the hand down, exaggerate the stretch and then here comes the hard mean part. Reach over there.

Take your time to come up, up, up, up, up and rest. Okay. And now I'm going to go and get my magic Gondola Pole. So I'm, this is the Cathy grant version of around the world starting to the right. Yeah, we're, and it has, so you start sitting up tall and I call it the windup. This is not what Kathy College. So when you're ready, you're going to up and go across the body and you're going to flip, you're going to go back to the back corner, flip to the other side. So all the way up and wind up and go corner corner and sit all the way up.

You have to use those legs. One more set and corner corner. Yeah. And sit all the way up last time. Go Corner, flip and sit all the way up. And if your waistline does not feel rung up by that, nothing else will. I'm gonna come after you with a pole. Okay. Ready? Tree. Okay, I'm going to leave with the pole and I'll be back back. Okay. So my friend, oh look. [inaudible] sitting up tall, extend for three times pointing the foot. Thank you. Grab on, walk up to the key. F elbows are open. Rock backwards in hell to rock back.

Press the leg forward. Slowly come back up again. We're building rock back again. Walk down the leg, Chin to the chest at the very end unfurl. Keep that leg towards you. Look at the toe. Point the foot for me, my friend. Walk on a Dun Dun, Dun Dun. Sit up tall. One more of those rocking back. [inaudible] Chin to the chest and keep the chin to the chest as you walked down.

Keep going. Keep going. Big exhale. You can do all kinds of variations like grabbing onto the underside of the machine. Gave herself a pole. Lift your head up as you grab onto the leg and press the hip forward. Keep pressing, keep pressing it. Sit Up nice and tall. Let's do across the body. Bring this arm across the body so you're going to opposite arm, two leg twist and give yourself a big twist. Breathing.

Push the leg forward and almost bend the arm that you're holding onto it with. So you can lift up taller, taller, change sides. Good. Holding onto the underside of the leg. Get ready for the tree. I like to think of it as a shrub so I don't get so intimidated by it. Extend for three times. I wish I was joking, but I'm not.

Sometimes I call it the shrub cause every time I say tree, everyone goes, ugh. The tree. Yes. And slowly come up two more times. Rocking back. Fretting the leg board as much as you're pulling. Yes. Good. Big exhale. Unfurling the spine. Lift your head. Look for the foot climb. Bring it towards you. Bring it towards you, bring it towards you, and then sit up tall and the spine as you come up. Up, up, up, up. Last one.

Here go rock back. Yes. Walk down your leg. Keep the leg here, which is easier. Said in the debt. As you reach back to the back of the machine, give yourself a little pull. If you can, grab onto the leg with your hands. Pull it towards you. Lift your head. Climb, climb, climb, press, leg to sit up.

Tall left arm goes across the right foot and twist behind you. [inaudible] and so we always want to make it about the twist, but I'd like you to bend that arm you're holding onto it with and make it be about the waistline lifting tall in the spine in one more breath gym. And that's enough rest. Let's remove the short box and we're going to go to long spine please. So two springs foot bar stays down. Remove the box and you're going to get your long spine straps ready and make sure that you hook your handlebars into the other one.

Jim [inaudible] do you want to hook your handlebars back on and let's have that long spine shop. I'll do one. You'll do the other thank you friend. You thread it through the handlebar and the leather loop hook. Oh by the way, let's talk hooks for a second. When you hook, the snappy things should be on the outside. If you had the snaps on the inside, you would probably get one of these from Kathy. Like I don't know what she think you're doing. The snaps on the outside. So the way I think of this is just like rollovers and mat work.

Frog out low where the legs up and over your head lifting up. Good. You're gonna open the legs now. Chest away from the Chin as you come down. [inaudible] he's being fancy. Chest away from the chin. Roll in through your spine. We'll say that one for the grand finale. Bring the legs away together and up and over again. Inhale, lift up.

You're going to open and you're going to roll. It's about the articulation of the spine right now. Take your time. Take your time. Beautiful. Lengthening, lengthening, lengthening. Next one, please. Bring the legs together up and over again. Inhale, lifting up and now this is where you're going to get fancy. He's going to push into the feet and now we're doing legs to torso, legs and [inaudible] and he's going to still think legs, legs and torso. Legs the torso, legs, torso. Bring the legs together.

All you do. One more. Damn. So you have to do one more. Go for it. That's an XL, XL, XL. Stay low here and together. Open legs, reverse up and over. Bring the legs together now. Spinal Torso, two legs. Take your time. Torso, two legs. Yes. Torso, two legs, torso, two legs. The legs down. Open. Lift up and over again. Inhale, lift up. Close legs. And again, he's gonna roll in, articulate through the spine. Keep going, keep going, keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Down.

Open two in the other way. Up and over. So here we go. We're gonna bring the legs together. He's going to reach his feet. Staying there, legs to torso. So he's pushing into the feet and adding a little towards, of pushing into feet. Adding little torso. Yes. Open the legs. Go up and over. One last time.

Bring your together. Here we go. Legs, torso, legs, the torso, legs towards the legs, torso, legs, the torso. Rest. I'm gonna give them a little squish. If you want, you can even grab onto your thighs and just give yourself a pole. Knee stretches are coming up next. Oh boy. Take off the straps. You can just leave them behind you. Well, I'm Pentangle the lady sit all the way up. Go to two springs, ideally foot bars up [inaudible] and for me, I like the headrests up just in case you're gonna knock it all the way back there. I always think of Kathy, she'd say, don't you break my head rest. Don't you break my machine. Sit toward the heels. Yeah.

So you're going to breathe and just take a little moment. The least amount of energy cause it's a long road. This one, we're doing it Cathy. Sail out in end. Inhale to push out. Exhale to come in. So once you get your nice rhythm, bringing the machine home each time. Yes, keep it moving. You're going to slowly reverse the spine. Please. Taking your time long in the waist. Keep the chin up, keep moving the machine. Keep going. Round your spine. Slow, Leigh. Going to the round. That's great. And when you can lift those knees up. Shh. Yes.

Green belting each time. Two more in one more control and come down rest. Make sure you come in each time. That was good. If I may say so myself. All right, step off the machine. Go to four springs, let's do running. And then pelvic lift, you can ride on less.

I like a little heavier spring for running. So parallel legs again, you're going to inhale, go all the way to straight legs and just easy running. This is the cooldown in my mind. The calm before the next splitty storm. [inaudible] and again, make sure all the toes are making contact with the bar, especially the little guy. Yes and a little faster. Little bounce here. Good. And with one long stretch for the heel one. Yes. So do one lowering.

Lift the other heel up if the other heel up. Yeah, getting a good long stretch and kind of hang out there for a bit. Change size, lower that other heel and get a good stretch for that delicious. Lift both heels up, bend the knees, come all the way in. So sit all the way up. Go to Les Springs for the Pelvic Lift and make sure your headrest is down. Foot bar stays flat. Lie back down on your back. And let's do just one pelvic lift. I like feet together, knees together.

So this is not traditional, but I like it. Heels are apart, knees are together. Lift your bum up. Stay right there. If you're curling, try not to curl. Stick your booty out. Long Spine. Inhale to straight legs, pushing out heels. Pull down as you come in. Knees are together. That's one. Let's go for 10 of those energy out of the top of the head. Yes.

And it looks like he's doing nothing. And it probably feels like a lot on the inside. Yes. Such good feet too. This is that prehensile doming foot couple more by a couple.

It's probably like four more, right to make 10 I just have just like a count, like a, like a mini abacus right here. One, two. Anyway, slowly come down. It'll be jewelry. Okay. So when you're ready to step off, let's do some slits. So we're going to pick and choose from this list and we're going to do our favorite front split. Jim and I have a nice story about their front split stand up on the machine.

Jim had been coming to me for a few years and he got in this split position. Oh yeah. So when I was taught this by Romana, I was taught to put the foot down. I personally like it with the heel up and the knee in line. So it's a little different. So when you're ready to go out and in, so anyway, my, my pal Jim here was doing this front split and he said, where are you supposed to feel this? And I haven't, I was, I was kind of surprise. I'm saying that nicely now. Stay there. Come back in big x houses.

You bought three of those and then you can walk your hands to the top of the knee or cross your arms in front of you. It's up to you or hands behind your neck. I would have in a few times really straighten the back leg, especially as you come in as you come in. Lengthen that leg back there. I liked the level one more. Take your time. Here you go. Put your hands after this one on the outside of the foot bar. Kneel down.

So it was at this moment here that Jim said, where am I supposed to feel this? And I thought he was joking. He wasn't joking, so a lot of people like to lower the heel, keep that heel somewhat lifted. I want to feel this. He'll push out and sometimes I do this mean. Yeah, that's it. Then he can stay down. Go ahead and take your time to go on. This press is back. There's the stretch it across the front of the hip. Good. This leg pushes back the back leg. Push it. Then you add the front.

Some people get a little front leg pushy. I want that back leg pushing. There's a stretch across the front of the hip. Take your time to come in. Reach your arms up to the ceiling and stay there. Yes it stay here. Good. You're just going to think of pubic bone slightly forward. Look up toward the heads. I don't care about that. That's it.

Just to think of lifting the ribs up, lifting the ribs up. One more breath. Big exhale and bring the hands down. Change sides come up to standing again. Breathe left foot goes to the between the hands on the foot bar. Hop your other foot back so you're up in the heel but not too high. Yes, you're going to bend the front knee and don't lower the heel too much.

It's slightly lifted. Stay holding onto the foot bar out and in three times [inaudible] and so in my studio, this slapping of the thighs and international communication for straighten the leg so we're not, that's at one more and especially on the end is where he needs to keep that internal spiral. Stay right there. Walk your hands to the knee. Nice Gym. Cross your arms in front of you or behind your neck. Three times out in end, pushing out. Straighten the leg right there. Yes, breathing is good. I think the two long lines, one energy between heel and the knee and the other one of the spine had going up. [inaudible] that's the third one.

Put your hands on either side of the foot with control, lower than you down. Oh, there's my stretch. Just stay there breathing. [inaudible] lift the heel somewhat if you can. And even now this is plenty pubic bonus forward. Right? And when you're ready, push the back leg. Yes. Take your time to come in. And sometimes I hold here, I want to feel the back leg pushing back like yes. And slowly come in.

So before I feel pressure into my hand on his back, I want to feel the leg pushing. Beautiful and slowly come back in. You're in a walk onto your fingertips here. And in theory it's a backbone, but it doesn't have to be big. You can just reach up. Take the focus off. Now stay there. I'd like you to feel the lift of the rib cage, the pubic bone techie forward. And you just going to breathe. Two more breaths. Yep. One more breath. Keep lifting and rest the hands down. Good. Next one please. You're in a stand up on the machine, Jen. [inaudible]. Yes.

Turn around. [inaudible] let's do our Russian split. So put your hands on the shoulder stand again. And similar to the foot change that we did for the front splits. I'm gonna mess with this one a little bit. So let's do a left leg back on the foot bar.

And so in some places they do this, uh, in the corner. I personally want parallel legs. The ball of the foot is there, and after you get that foot, you're gonna lift the right leg up using your hands and walk the ball of the foot to the shoulder to the headrest. Sometimes you see some people like a mat underneath their gym does not. So you play around, so use the arms right now to help Jim bend your front knee. So that's the, that's it. That's the leg farther away from the springs.

Having straighten the leg and you're gonna push the carriage out a little bit. So it's better for the knee. That's a much better place. Just stay here and breathe this heel. I want a little more lifted. Yeah. So the heels almost right over the toe and I'm just gonna ask for a little bit of, so stay here. Most of the time the front hip is the one that you want back.

Use the arms a little bit, push into the ball of the foot, straight in that right leg. What I mean by that is push the carriage out and Ben to come back in a few more times. Yes. You have to activate this leg like cray. Cray. Yes, that's, that's a term. One more stay right there. Dropping the head. Lift the right butt cheek up to the ceiling. Give me a big exhale and push back out a few more times.

I like to stay here so you can feel that heal. Yes. And push back out one more time and he'll heal. Dropping the head. Drop in the head. Push out again with the arms and the leg. Bend the front knee three times. Bending and straightening that leg. [inaudible] take your time. Yeah. And then close the machine after this one with a straight, right like close. When she right blood. Cheek up to the scene. Right Butt. Cheek up, right blood she got, that's it. And push back out.

Straight and straight and straight and straight. And two more to go right butt cheek up as you come in. Closing, closing, closing, closing, closing. You got one more to go. Push out and slowly close. Close, close, close, close. Push the carriage out again. Bend the front knee. Bring the carriage closer in. You're going to lift the front leg. Bring it back toward us a little bit.

Lift the front leg, so the front leg that since you're going to lift the foot off the head rest and bring it back a bit. Yep. All of back a lot. Good. Close the machine and bring this foot down and change sides. Come up to standing for a second. I like to just sort of equalize for a moment and my client a towel maybe. Okay. Water. Okay. No, I'm just joking. I don't have water. Okay, so when you're ready, hands back down. Right foot goes back there. Keep that foot there and get your foot in a nice strong spot.

And you do get to put the ball of foot on the headdress. Here we go. Pushing out with the front leg. Bend the front knee. Three times I have taken it down to just a tap because I'm tired of saying straighten the leg and it's not the gym as to everybody. So when you're ready, keep the front leg straight. You've done that three times. Closed the machine thing, left butt cheek up to the ceiling, push out, push straight legs. Beautiful. One more. That's different, isn't it? Push out again and stay out there. Bend and straighten the front leg. Stronger side, Jim.

Ah, and then when you're ready, dropping the head of the shoe leg is straight. The front leg is straight. Close the machine. Say right here. Inner thighs are connected two more times. Push out and close the machine. You got one more to go. Ex. Exhale. Good. Bring the front leg back toward me.

Set the back leg down and come all the way up to standing. Ah, sip off when you're ready. Okay. So, um, we're going to do the balance control front. Yeah. So yes, let's go to one spring. Yes. And ideally a more of a central spring. You could also play around with the gears, but he's going to say in first gear, stand up on the machine again. When you're ready, put your hands on the shoulder stance, keeping your bum lifted and kind of pulling the machine towards you. Step back into a v of your feet or parallel. It's up to you, but I do want the legs touching. Yes. When you're ready, use the arms. Use your legs. Find your push up position and stay there.

I like to remind people that the, it's a diagonal line. You're going to go out and in three times with the arms. It's small gym. That's the three pushes. Stay right here. Three pushups. Innercise. One. Exhale. Two. One more tape measure right here. Lift the, drop the head. Lift the booty up. Close the machine. That's your Bray.

You're going to do it one more time with the arms. Push out. Find those legs. Yes. Three times three belt. Gym, two teeny. Even smaller would be better. Yes. When you're ready. Three pushups. Sh work those legs. One more. Drop the head. Close the machine. Big. Exhale, closing, closing, closing. Step down with control.

Slowly come up to standing. Three springs place. So we're going to do star and I did say three springs, but don't freak out. Those of you at home who know? Star. Um, we're going to do star without moving cause I really just want him to work though position and not actually move the machine. If you want to add the moving of the machine, you're welcome to do that. But were you going to keep it close? So three springs you're going to stay. Um, that's right. So whatever side your hand is on, that's the same side of the shoulder.

And you're going to be on [inaudible] come into your side position. Yes. I don't know. I have to stand here, but I'm going to. So when you're ready, head is in line with your spine. Two Times, arm and leg lifts up and arm or leg come down. Nice. Parallel to more actually. And take it down one more and take it down. Arm and leg. Go forward. Come back together one more time like that. Arm and leg.

Go forward. Beautiful. Back together a stay here. Arm forward, leg back and come together. One more time. Come back to center, have another moment where you're lifting and take it down. Oh cool. Ooh, that's deep. Let's come around to the other side. Yup. Alright, well I'm really glad we're not moving the machine. We, we are not. I'm definitely not. So when you're ready, my friend come into that nice side position and find that nice diagonal of your head. It ain't easy. Three times, arm and leg up, arm and leg down. And he's doing a great job at saying parallel. One more time and take it down. Say here, arm and leg forward.

Beautiful. And he's doing great job of not rounding his back and shake it down. Yes. And now we go arm forward, leg back. Take a little moment here, come back to center, lift your hips higher. Step down with control after this and take it down. Rest, Bri. So Jim, go down to one spring. Um, our grand finale is going to be jumping without the jump for Denta done.

Uh, I would say head rest up because we don't, we don't know how far we're gonna go. So the story is this, back in the day, and I mean, Kathy Grant's day before, they were lots of equipment manufacturers. There was no jump board. The jump board was a, something that was created later. Mr [inaudible] didn't create a jump board, so, but Cathy did have people jumping on her reformer just without a foot, without the jump board. So I want to sh end with that today. So, um, he's on one spring. I prefer one of the central ones. And um, just be careful. And when, uh, when you have a teacher, Kathy would actually hold the feet and guide you back. But I'm gonna not do that because we're professionals and so he's going to go to straight legs and come back and it's only one spring and you're going to inhale to go straight, exhale to come in. And as he starts to get his rhythm, he's going to find a little bit of a lift. And the hard part is he has to find the foot bar each time.

This is what I'm really grateful for. My big feet. Yes. And he's going to try not to look, I don't know why I'm jumping with him and yeah, so that I would just use the inhale. Yeah. Three more and two. Yes. One more. And come and hug one knee into your chest. Same thing with one leg. So you just start, just go out and into, oh, he's going for it. Forget the warmup. Yes. I guess he did do the boat. The boat. Yes. Keep going.

Two more good change side. So let's start slowly. So go to straight and come in. Yeah, just cause, and then you just sort of get the mechanics of it and then using the breath, using the inhale it float you up. Correct. In inhale five more. Okay. Really push rich. I want you to point the foot. [inaudible] Jim may have a dancer looking by, but he's not a former dancer. Just thought we'd, yes, you've got one more. Jim, come all the way in.

Put both feet down. Step off for a moment. Let's just have you and standing. Just stand facing and you know, let's have you go profile. Ah, lifting up nice and tall. When you're ready, you're going to inhale, reach up, grab onto one wrist. I don't care which one and pull the wrist over. Go for a nice side bend. You see you're just stretching. Oh, I can come back to standing. And then to the other side, I really believe in coming to standing after being on the reformer. It's really nice to come back to standing cause this is how we get around.

Hopefully reach both arms up. Inhale, look up to the ceilings, make a shower, and as you come down, sh ah.

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Comments

5 people like this.
Fierce advanced routine, pilates isn't just for mommies and people with injuries. Athletes check this out, if it looks easy it's cause these two are in ridiculous shape.
Z A
1 person likes this.
Thank you Blossom and Kristi??
Z A
2 people like this.
The smiley i intented to put came out as ?? ;))))
3 people like this.
You and Jim were both fierce and wonderful. This is a wonderful example of how Kathy Grants work furthered the work to a great place. A pleasure to watch. Thanks Jim!!
3 people like this.
That was awesome! Thank you so much for showing the forward arm variations. Very easy to follow along to, nice clear directions and pace. Especially love that you call out which variations belong to each lineage.
Best class ever! What a gift. I will watch over and over. Thank you for sharing!
2 people like this.
Fantastic class! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
2 people like this.
You make the best instructor-client pair ever! Awesome people
3 people like this.
Im speechless ……
that doesn't happen often… ever, really…
Ive only been on PA since Aug 2011 but I will say without a doubt this is the best class ever (for me)
Not many Instructors have your ease and comfort, its your wonderful sense of being with the practice of Pilates. Im totally not sucking up.. well, maybe… Thank You doesn't seem adequate but it is heart felt. PLEASE MORE !!!
2 people like this.
Thanks everyone! I am so glad you are enjoying this reformer workout. I am very proud of it and the hard work of the demonstrator Jim. He makes my job a lot easier. Aloha!
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