Class #2110

Finding Space in your Hips

45 min - Class
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Let your breath move you in this advanced Reformer workout with Debora Kolwey. She shows how you can get the most out of each movement by finding room in your hips and flushing out any unwanted tension. She teaches many challenging exercises including Headstand, Russian Squat, and so much more!
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box

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Hi there. I'm Debra Cole away and I'm going to be teaching Leslie Logan a reformer lesson. We're using a grots reformer that has four springs that are all the same tension, so you'll hear me say four springs, three springs, two springs are one spring. They're not different tensions and I there maybe sometime when I'm modifying slightly for her because she is recovering from an injury. So we'll be starting the foot work on three springs.

You're welcome to do four if you like. Okay, so here we go, Leslie, go ahead and reach the balls of your feet right up onto that foot bar. Bring your knees directly in line with your shoulders, and then on your inhalation, go ahead and press the carriage out. Exhaling, come back in, go along, inhale, exhaling as you come back in, really stretch out. Let the springs open and take you and deep, deep, deep flection at the hip, the knee and the ankle. See if you can close those springs all the way. Let's do two more.

Open the spine, stretch back, exhaling as you come back in and last time, come all the way into the beginning and come to the bird on the porch so legs and feet together in with your breath. As you go. Exhale as you come back and and really go for the flection and your ankles. So I'm going to lower your feet down just a little bit. Come back here for a sec and there we go. Breathe it in. Breathe it out. Stretch. Good. You could slow your pace down.

Just a hair. Go for more spinal lengthening and hip opening and less knee straightening. Use The power of the sole of your foot as you come back in two more times. Drawing the hips together. Two legs become one spine. There you go. Exhaling. Come in now. Light landing as you come onto your heels, flexing deeply, stretching the souls of your feet. Go ahead in with the breath.

Exhale as you come in, stretching long, exhaling, deep flection, deep flection in with the breath. Pretend you don't even know when those springs are gonna close. You have to keep closing him. Keep causing him. Gabe, closing them and letting your breath take you out. And then exhale. Keep closing. Keep closing. Little bit less sound on the exhale with the mouth.

Save that energy. Don't waste that energy with jaw tension. Bring it right into your center. Keep going in with the breath. Exhale, bring everything to center. Imagine as you come in, I might say, pick your feet off the bar and you'd be ready to do it. And with the breath, exhale, come in and now come onto the balls of your feet. Lift your arches up. Try not to grip with those toes back you go. And here we go. Lowering. One, two, three. Rise. One, two, three and lower. Two, three and rise. Good job. Start to think about your arms a little bit and rise two, three.

Feel the palms open to the mat. Feel the connection of the back of the arm up into the back of the shoulder, opening up your collarbones, opening up your chest, inviting that air and more and more and more and more. More and the next hail. Strengthen the whole back line of your leg through your heel. Two more times. Press off the balls of the feet. Go Long. Exhaling down, down, down last time. Now stay out there. Press that spring even more open even more, even more.

And then lift lightly the back of the knees. Close the carriage. Curl the tail. Draw your hips down a little bit to get away from the shoulder blocks. So tilt up a little bit. Pull from the back side of your legs. There we go. Lower your foot bar.

Take a load of your handles for the a hundred [inaudible] legs outstretched, long on on the foot bar. Exhaling into position. Here we go. Fill those hips, lift and pump. Two, three, four, five. Exhale, two, three, four, five just to the base of your shoulder blades. No need to go higher than that. Feel the space in your arm. Feel how you can pull up on that handle and open up the chest and then bend more through your upper spine. There you go. And float those legs up. Feel the connection from the sole of the foot all the way up into that rib cage into three, four, five. Exhale, straight, straighter, arms stronger in your upper body. There you go. Last time. Now, exhaling. Bend everything in. Curl yourself and take the handles in one hand. Pivot yourself up to sitting. Go down to two springs for the short spine.

So as you lie down, make sure that you get rid of your headrest. See if you can keep your knees into your chest during the transition. Thread your loops, and then without opening this spring, Spring your feet up into the straps. As soon as they're their heels together, pull down through the sole of your foot. Bring your heels in. So I want the strap a little bit higher up on the foot so it doesn't just rest in that space, right? But behind your heel. Okay, here we go.

Inhale, extend the hip. Exhale arc up and over. Lift the hips. Don't hesitate on that. Spring coming home. Bend at the knee. Roll the spine down. Exhale, exhale, exhale. Exhale. When you can't find any more spine and belly, pull the toes right on down. Inhale out to 45 degrees. Exhale.

Let your lightness free the springs to come in. Bend the spine. Sacred keeps going toward the knees, shoulders up into the blocks. Exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale. Try not to hang it all on the back of your knee. Bring those feet down two more times. Inhale, press it out. Exhale, lift it up. Good job. Inhale, suspend the pelvis. Widen through your upper back.

Exhaling as you come down. Roll, roll, roll. No hanging. Pull through those toes. Last time. Transition into coordination. Up and over. Good. Soften the face. Let the throat open. Field the width across your upper and the strength of your arms rolling down. Start to pull through the feet and now reach and grab the handles.

A finger in the loop. Suspend those legs as your elbows come in your head lifts. Point the toes in with the breath X. Stend open. Close. Tilt the tail. Squeeze it out. Close your springs. Inhale, go along Leslie. Get those hips to open up. Stretch them out. Open. Close, tilt. Exhale. Good job, Dan. Again, easy breath. Now a little faster. Inhale, open, close. Exhale, curl back in. One last time.

Rolling forward. Catch it just to the tips of the shoulder blades. Okay. And now go ahead and replace your handles. Step off for the stomach massage. So pivot around. I'll put your head rest up for you. You can put on your pad and we're going to do three springs. You are welcome to do for Leslie's going to play it safe a little bit today.

So go ahead and bring the feet up again. Don't allow your feet to roll away. Here we go. Take those outer borders and balance the weight across the ball of your foot. A little bend in the elbow. Ready. Inhale out lower lift. Exhale to come home. Inhale.

Feel the power of those legs coming up through the belly to stretch your spine. Yes, every time you lower and lift the legs, you could sit a little taller. You could use the strength of your arms to pick up your rib cage. Beautifully done. Last time. Keeping the heels highs. You Bend your knees and now see if you can reach between your legs to take a spring off, arms around to the shoulder blocks.

There you go. Lots of arm strength right now. Tip Back, tail up. Inhale out. You go lower. Lift, exhale to come in. And if you feel like it, if you can do this, you know, happily as you're going, move a little bit forward on your mat. Okay? So feel that lift. Okay, now, lots of arm, okay, you don't need to press your back forward, but you want to lift your chest up. So feel the whole sides of you heels high. Tilt the tail. There you go. So again, at any moment you could take your feet off, right? You could come in and lift your feet right off. Last time.

Do you want to go to one for the others? Okay, so stay there. Reach the arms forward. You wanna grab my wrist, give you a little stretch. Okay, so whoa, I'll just pull you. There we go. All right, so now you're going to stay up and forward and now you go, okay, stretch back. Feel the strength of your hips. And now exhale. It's like you've got a string attached to your belly button and I'm pulling you home. There you go. And exhale two more times. Big Breath.

You got this, and now you're going to rotate the front arm. Helps you come home. Don't stay there so long. Just open and come back. Easy now. Easy, easy. You've gotta you gotta be like a galloping horse, but uh, you know who is the one that came in on the horse without the clothes? Uh, lady Godiva on top. Yeah, there you go. Out You go. Come in. And last time open. Good job. Step off. Go ahead and pivot to the side. We're going to get the long box. So I'm going to lower your foot bar for you and keep your two springs.

We'll get ready for the swan. So the box goes in front of the shoulder blocks. Do you want this for your, your hips? Okay. All right, so come around from the back. All right, so step your feet up onto the wood-frame. Come into your [inaudible] v, push the box out so that you can lift yourself up and over and not hang down. Okay, so push this thing way out. Goodness Gracious.

Can you lift yourself a little bit further down? I want your whole body flexed more over the box. Yes, you good? All right. Now try to reach your arms into the, well, here we go. Breathe in. Use the strength of those arms to pick you up. Breathe in. Here we go. Palms up. You got it. There we go. Exhale. Good. Start to take the carriage out.

Lengthen your spine, bring your arms to your ears back again, keeping your heels together back you go. You can pull the springs home a little bit to give you a little bit more room. And now in with the breath as you go forward, stretch and release the spine. So feel my hand on the cross your Achilles and feel like I'm a strap that you're going to push up into. Okay, so here we go. Breathe in. Use the strength in your arms to pick your upper back.

Axial reach wide to the side. Inhale, think of your hamstrings coming up to the ceiling. Reach to your ears. Go and come right back. Draw yourself up and back. Up and back. Up and back. Up and back. Last time, forward you go. As long as you can. Pull the hips back and carefully closure springs. And we're willing to do two today. So step to the side.

Let's get rid of a spring for post wrap and t. So since it's a, since it is all the same, why don't you put one in the middle? One's on. Okay. So lie on your belly. Shoulders at the front corners of your box. Stretch your legs out behind you. Reach down the leather. Maybe looped these so they don't clank on the floor.

Yep. Okay. Let your head release forward so you get that same curve you started out with in the Swan and new germs. Way Down the frame. Okay. With your breath, start looking forward. Pull back on the strap. Keep feeling your arms. Pick up the back of the shoulder girdle. Open the chest. Exhale, reach forward and come home. Release your head in that completely at the end in with the breath. Pull back on those arms.

Make your hands move and then keep your hands moving. Let's do one more. Get the timing so that your hands start. There they go. The hands pick up the bat. Upper back even more. There we go. Leslie, your chest can actually go a little bit lower. There we go. That's the strength we're looking for at sailors to come back down.

And I'll slide to the loop for your tea. Arms out to the t. Feel nice and wide across your collarbones and lift your gaze. Inhale, pull to the hip. Breathe. Then with the arms up a little exhale, circle round and come back two more times in with the breath. Pulse. Stretch the chest, acts with the breath as you come forward last time even feel how those hips stretching forward can help you come around to the front. Take your handles in your right hand, step to the side of the box, and turn around and add a spring for the backstroke. So now as you step on, you want to have your tail right off the very edge.

You can pull with your feet a little bit. Roll yourself down. All that strength. Now you've got in your upper back is there to pick you up. Breathe in as you reach up out to the side, come around, reach for the kneecaps, and exhale as you come in, just to the bottom. Tips of your shoulder blades. Okay. And with the breath. Exhale, come around, pull forward, and now as you come back in, lift your tail. Exhale. So a little bit more lift in the, in the lower part, less having to come up.

So high up here last time. This direction, up to the top, out to the side. Come through, exhale as you bend back in. And now reverse it. Go long through those hips. Open them up, circle around, lift yourself up and curl into center. And with the breath, stretch it up. Circle it around to the side. Don't hesitate that moment. Exhale as you pull in last time. Easy throat, easy face.

Come around to the top. Feel that linked in, that suspension bend. Keep it as you transition into teaser called those handles. Pivot, round. Beautiful transition. Take one spring. So now we're down at one spring. Lay yourself off the back edge. Open the hips. Open the shoulders. Here we go. Lift ahead. Inhale your arms. Pick up the weight of your chest.

See if you can reach up to eye-level. Exhale down to the hips. Beautiful. That's it. Reaching forward. Feel how the hip strength pulls that Spring Open. Exhale down. Try not to fall your body when your arms go back. Keep reaching for the toes. Now enroll yourself down, down, down. Beautiful. Release the shoulders. Release the hips. Come right back up.

Picked the way to the chest up with the strength of the arms as you circled down and with the breath. Exhale. That's it. Feel your hips pulling back in opposition to the hands. Reaching forward. Find that suspension, tilt, tilt, tilt, roll, roll, roll, release, release, release. Last time you roll the head are going to reverse your circle. There you go. Feel how the seat of you can help you open that spring.

Close that spring. You got this and release down. Gorgeous. Take your handles in one hand and step off, and then we're going to go into the short box so you can just lay your handles in the well. Okay, we'll put the headdress down and I'm going to put this behind the little hardware for your height. Is that right? Yeah, that should work. So if you're taller, you can put the box behind the hardware and it gives you a little bit more length for your legs. I'm gonna add one spring doesn't really affect the exercise, but it keeps the carriage from slipping around. Okay, so legs pull apart and press down. Put your hands by the box for a second. Really lift your pelvis up and try to scoot your hips back. There you go.

And feel that lift, right? It feels good. So you're going to be sitting on your upper leg, wrap your arms around your ribs, and then curl your spine forward. Very beautiful. Okay, so we keep this fine spinal curve forward as we roll the pelvis back. So you want your sacrum reaching for the back edge of the box. Exhale, dive your head through and come forward in with the breath. Keep the strength of the hips pull apart, especially on the way up to give you that foundation to come back.

And you can really hold your body. You don't have to just make a shape so you're actually engaging your abs, your sides, your back, the whole thing. Would you like to go into a full back bend? Okay, great. Okay, so in with the breath, the further back you go, the more you have to press those legs down and extend the hip. Extend the hip, keep going in the stick my leg in there, and you get to roll over my thigh. Exhaling everything. Now Roll your head up and stay on me. Peel off me. You got this. Exhale all the way through. Beautiful. Take hold of your pole and reach your arms up. There you go. Nice straight wrists. Tilt back.

Keep your focus on the foot bar. Inhale and exhale. Lift that pole and come up. Great. Breathe into your back. Go, go, go. Exhale as you come. So the breath and the movement is coordinated. Open the hip. Good. Two more. Keep your focus down and flex. Flex, flex those ankles.

That's it. Last one. Breathe in, in, in. Exhale. Now curl all the way over and hook that bar over your toes. Pull back on your feet and push the balls of your feet into the pole. Feel those hips. Pull the way back the spine released. Way Forward. Roll yourself up to sitting.

Feel that lift and take a side bend to the right. Inhale. Feel your hips shift a little to the left for counterbalance and exhale as you come right back up. Shift to the left. Feel your hips as a counter balance. Yes. Beautiful. And come back up one more like that. Okay. Big beautiful breath opening through those ribs. Exhale, come right back up and then over you go. This is preparing you for the shifts in the twist.

Take a little sense of of a slight hover forward just to, you're not pulling yourself so far into your back and rotate now to the right, a smallish one at first. Go ahead and curl through the tail. Keep rotating the ribs and then exhale. Come home. Think of aiming the tip of the pole for the back corner of the frame of the equipment and with the breath. Feel that oppositional shift through the hips so you don't fall. Exhale. Let's do that one more time. Beautiful in with the breath.

Stay a little tilted forward here. Opposite hip helps get under you to hold you up. You got this exhale, come back up last time in with the breath over you go and then exhale come up. Are you interested in doing off the hip? We can do it. Okay, so you can keep a little slack. All right. Do Bring your legs together. So just a natural continuation of what you've just done. Give me some straight wrists so you don't throw it backwards. Yeah, exactly.

So you got it. So have a little forward feeling. So rotate and then keep rotating. Keep rotating, keep rotating and let that underneath hip pick you up. If you feel it all nervous, you can put your hand on the frame of the equipment and then exhale, come back up. Beautiful. Yeah, you got this. Inhale, rotate, rotate, rotate. Let your left hip kind of cut up underneath you. And then exhale, pick yourself up and come home. And I'll take that. And you can take your right leg out of the strap.

So Hook that elbow underneath and hold your right wrist with your left hand square. Everything off. Yes. And then tilt back a little bit to bring the weight of that thigh right towards you in with the breath. As you begin to stretch your leg up using your arms so that you know you're not just pushing into the back of the knee and let this flop a little bit. When you come down, let that calf release. Let the synovial fluid get its way through your knee. Inhale, stretch up a pop and you're almost using your arm like a rolling pin, right to keep pulling this leg up and release, release, release.

Good job. Easy in the shoulders, narrow through the hips. Feel that box coming under you to support you and release, release, release. Now on this one, let's stay up and flex and point the ankle and every time you flex, feel how the heel reaches from the back of the knee and the back of the knee reaches from the sit bone and everyone makes you taller and more open. Walk up to your ankle, tilt back till your thighs perpendicular to the box. Now we're going to start walking down the tree. So inhale, walk back, keep extending, extending. Release the top of your head, roll through the back of the neck key, bending forward, beautiful.

And walk up and up and up and up that leg. One more in with the breath down. You go this time, why don't you reach overhead and take hold of the frame? Or if you're tall enough, you can reach the back. Mm. Yeah, whatever feels good. I would hold underneath. Good job. Keep reaching this like up and up and up. Now go ahead and bring your arms forward and roll your head through.

Walk up and up and up and up and up and up and up. Come all the way up. Now. Keep lifting your ribs off of your pelvis. Flex your foot, interlace your fingers, press your foot into your hands. Doesn't that feel great? It's like really sets that leg in the socket. Okay, so then as you switch your, um, hand inherence step for the open the hip, don't drop the leg. Keep pressing the leg up into and then try to hold onto the little side handle. All right, so rule the pelvis back so you know your sacrum is level and then start to take this out to the side. That's it. Don't fall.

Keep pressing the leg into the hand and the hand into the leg. Beautiful. Start to curl your spine forward. As you come up, bending your elbow, I mean your knee into your shoulder and then you can cross the thigh and you can take your figure four. We really want to be careful that you don't hyper extend that knee. So hold onto those handles and pull your hips back. That's beautiful. And we'll do the whole thing on the other side.

So right foot goes in this strap, left leg comes out, really hook that elbow under there to get the support from the shoulder girdle and then breathe it in and exhale, let it float and breathe it in and let it float. Good job and inhale and let it float. Now last time, let this be just an extension of what you've already done. So flex and point and your leg, you know it's coming, right? So as you flex that ankle up, it's almost as if you can prepare for being tipped back. Exactly.

And that takes you from the tightness in the front of the hip, gets you around to the backside of that hip. And so now you can walk, walk, walk up to your ankle, point the toes, continue that feeling of being tilted back, pressed down to the back of the right leg. Start walking. Inhale. Inhale, exhale to release. Roll that head forward. Your arms are there for you to lift you up and up and up. One more time. Tilt. Stay long through that upper spine. Longer, longer, longer, longer, yes, gorgeous. And then reach back and give yourself a stretch. Let your tummy stretch.

Let your thigh stretch. Keep reaching up to the ceiling and then release your arms. Grab the back of your leg bend, walk it up, up, up, up, up. Put yourself higher and higher and higher and higher. Flex the foot. Grab the foot and pull down the leg into the hip.

Is the leg projects itself up into the strength of your upper body? Then switch the left hand into the in step. As the other hand comes to the outside, roll the pelvis back as you stretch your leg out to the side so you stay square. Continuing to lengthen down through this outer hip, little bit more. Reach from the groin to the knee and then start to bend the knee up into the shoulder. Two Kirlian. Beautiful transition. Cross it over.

Pull the hips back. That's it. You got this. And then go ahead. Step off. And we're going to remove the box for the long stretches. We're on two springs now and so I'm going to lower it down to one spring for the long stretch. Okay, so go ahead and put your right hand. Your left foot goes right in between left and then plant yourself right over your wrists. Inhale, take those hips, press the carriage back. Exhale, reach out to the crown of your head.

You want to be on the ball joints of your toes, not on the tippy, tippy toes. So what if you had this idea that you could actually lift the weight of your toes up? Yes. And that your heels are, they're not dropping, but they're energetically reaching back to help. Open up the length of your leg. Exhale as you come forward. That's it. Let the chin stay curled in, up into your throat. One more time. Keep the back of your skull up and this time as you come in, all the way, exhaling lower than these carefully and add a spring for your down stretch. So now you're bent up against those shoulder blocks, good strong arms, and with the breath as you take the carriage out and exhale, stretch your chest through your shoulder girdle. How light can your knees be?

Keep a little bit of thought to your inner thighs coming together. Reach your heels back and stay in this time. Walk up all the way onto your fingertips. Beautiful. Keep that height, but slide your hands down curly or head into transition into the up stretch. Lift the hips, adjust the feet. Inhale, press back. Good. Exhaling as you start to come forward, all the way to lift the belly and again in with the breath.

Press and come all the way forward and come home. So inhale, keep inhaling. Now lastly, until the carrot starts to close, exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale all the way to the end. Now we'll do the combo and with the breath. So press your heels back into the shoulder blocks. Start to extend your hips. Look forward. Try not to hang, and now press yourself back in extension.

Feel the shoulder block against your heels. You're going to need to lift your heels about three quarters of the way up those blocks and not let your toes slide. One more time. Press your heels into the shoulder blocks to extend the hips. Start extending your spine. As you make your way forward over the bar. Press back, feel your heels, press you back. And now exhale, curl. Come home.

And just lower the heels for the elephant in. With the breath, press out in. Press out. Pull in, let your head relax down. Good and exhale. Keep the strength of the arms into the shoulder girdle. Exhale last time. Now hold those springs in. Feel the weight on the ball, the foot rise, the heels. Readjust your feet for Arabesques so your heels are high up against the shoulder blocks. Take your right leg up toward the ceiling three times in with the breath.

Exhale using the back leg as you come in to actually tip you even more into this upper spinal curl. And now we'll switch sides. Keeping the strength of your arms right there, holding the weight of your rib cage up. Inhale x Hale. Open the hip, not arch your back. Exhale good. One more time to hold those brings in flat foot version. Bring your left foot and stand on the instep and the inner thigh. Here we go.

Inhale. Exhale. There you go. Keep a little bit more weight over your arms. You're going to be happier. Hold the springs in and switch legs. Good. Balanced that foot back. You Go. Inhale, exhale. Feel a little bit more of the backside of your leg holding that hip open. Yes, you got this, and now hold the springs in and come up onto the ball of your foot. Stretch your right leg behind you and here we go. Inhale. Exhale. Yes.

Easy neck. Exhale, stand on those arms. Do a handstand. Good. Hold the carriage switch legs. There you go. Press into the ball of your foot. Imagine you still had a block behind your heel. You got this? One more time. Big Inhale. Exhale. Now hold the carriage step across. Step your left to the floor.

Turn around and prepare yourself for long back stretch. Reach those heels into the shoulder blocks. Here we go. Bend the elbows a little. Press out to the pelvis. Exhale to come home. Inhale. Beautiful. Lift the whole body up. Inhale, you got it. Good. Now hold. The top is higher, less tucking, more light and lifted. Good. Just go up and out.

Come in and press through those arms and up and out. No hyper extension. There you go. Come all the way in. Pull it in, pull it in and carefully step to the side. Shake everything out. Shake it out. Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out. So for 10 in stretch, let's, I'm going to put the springs on the outer hooks so that you don't get caught on them and go ahead and put the black pad across the edge of your mat. Okay. So yes, fingers pointing forward. Just the from the back of your ankle. Bone off. Okay.

So same thing all curled up and nowhere to go. Press down through those hips as you go out. Keep pushing through the hips. Stay above the spring. Gorgeous. Exhale as you come in. That's really, really great. Inhale, push down to the foot bar. Go Out, come back in. And try not to turn your feet out. One more time in with the breath. Push those hips. Look up and let your chest come through a little bit. How's that? Yeah, that gave you some room in your hips. Did you wanna do that one more time? Yeah.

Good. Turn in please. And with the breath out, you go. Keep pressing through the hips. Look up, let your chest come through, let it open your shoulders for you. Give you room and your hips. And now actually I'll come home and step to the side. That was really, really good. Okay, so now go ahead and place your pad and your rest for head stance. Okay. Okay, so we're doing a little bit of a mix up order here. In the sense of we're adding in some level four exercises, some advanced exercises. We're not doing the super advanced order, so if you see some discrepancy there, we're just having some fun. Okay, so go ahead and place your hand. Oh, I see on the outside.

There we go. So top of the head in the crack, go ahead and come up onto the balls of your feet and take a moment there to feel the strength of your arms picking you up. And then wherever you're on the top of your head is pressing gently into the headrest. And what you want to feel is that the force comes up through the crown of that head and gives you your anterial anterior cervicals the front of you. You don't want to feel any pressure in this neck, right? You want to feel the power of that thrusts right up through your spine.

Okay, here we go. Breathing in. Extend your hip. Think of reaching your sit bones all the way to your heels. Axial. Now lift the belly and come home. Good. Use your arms to lift the weight of your upper back off your net. Keep reaching these heels back and then exhale. Yes, yes, that's the hip you want, right? One more time.

Think of extending your hips to me. Think of opening your hips down to the springs. Beautiful. Exhale. Now stay very, very, very curled. Step to the side of the equipment and turn around for the back headstand. Okay, so your head's in the headrest.

You're in your v on the foot bar. Hands are back. Inhaling, press up to the top of your head. There we go. Okay. See if you can think of your elbows going up and back. Same idea here. We're going to take the carriage out. Breathe that chest up higher and higher and higher to extend the hips and then exhale. That's beautiful. Pull yourself home.

If you feel comfortable and you can get the full extension in the knee, then you can lower and lift and exhale to come home. I want to do one more big, big breath. Roll those collarbones right up into your throat. Lower lift and not too slow. Come home now. Push down through those arms. Lift your head, roll your chin to your chest. Beautiful and you stay right there because I'm going to put you back in first gear so I can use the block for semi-circle.

So bring your knees to your chest. Okay, just hang on for a second. All right, so you can take your feet to the foot door and we'll try this. Alright, so take the hands to the base of the shoulder blocks. Okay. Lift the hips. You're probably a little sticky, right? Okay, so wiggle your way down to me. So you're on the ball of your foot. Reach your heels a little backwards and a little down and feel how the strength of your hips are closing the springs. Keep using that. Reach to the hamstring, to the heels as you roll your spine down. So breathe into the chest.

Roll it down. Go over the back edge of that carriage. Press back. Find your block. Okay, so feel braced between the block and the foot bar. Lift the tail and come home. Exhale. Exhale. The effort that gets you home keeps you in owls. You breathe in and roll the spine down. That's it. Keep the chest open.

Keep the strength. You've got this. Press back, feel braced, lift the tail. Exhale to come home. One more time. Keep reaching less talking, just lifting. Okay. Open the, as you curl your spine around that edge, press back. You're fine. Come back home. Yep. Easy. Now take, take a little breath here and see if you can calm yourself. All right, bringing these legs together. Reverse. Go Up.

There you go. Roll down. You got to use the strength of your arms to help you come low through the spring tail. Not, not front of thigh. That's it. One more time. Inhale. Feel that that breath literally takes you back. Rules you down. And then I'm just going to give you a stretch this time. So if you were going to do it yourself, you would let go and hold the front of your ankles. Okay, so lower your heels just a little and you give you a squeeze here. You're right.

That's good. Okay, now release your own hand. Hold and pull yourself back in and we're going to step off for chest expansion. Keep breathing, keep feeling your feet underneath you. Okay, so kneeling on the equipment. We're on two springs. I'm going to get rid of this plug. All right, so everything you just got out of semicircle, it's right here for you, right? So the, so the power of the ankle, the power of that foot coming right up into the back of the leg. All right, so feel as you breathe in, your hips are almost pulling the springs as much as your arms and with the breath, rotate to the side. Collarbone wides. Rotate to the other side.

Looks Center. Exhale, come home. Very beautiful. Nice straight arms. Paul, look to the side. Look to the side. Look, center. Exhale, come home. Pull now less squeezing of the back of the shoulder and more widening through the collarbones. Down your arms. Look, look and sent her home. One more time. Inhale, Hook those toes. Feel the power of the back of those legs. Yes, easy. Does it look center. Exhale. And now take your handles in one hand.

Sit back at a spring. So now we're on three springs and she's putting the pat on top of the springs, which says that we know she's going to do thigh stretch with an arch. All right, so tops of the feet. Press into the mat, drive into your shoulder blocks. Lift the hands up. All right, here we go. Inhale, get that spring inside you. Let it pick you up. Try not to squeeze your face. Okay? Keep your face open.

The breath can't get through you if you tense your throat and your mouth and your nose. Okay, let the spring emulate the lengthening of your spine. Exhale now your head onto that pad all the way, all the way, all the way. Now Roll the head forward. Connect into your center. Let the spring lift you up. Do you wanna do that again? Okay, so think a little bit more about your inner thighs, just so they don't start to slide away back. Pick yourself up. Sit your hips back to your heels. Keep going. Thigh, stretch, thigh, stretch, thigh stretch. Now keep bringing this spring with you as you extend.

That's right. Keep connected to the spring. Roll the head forward. Don't delay that part. Exhale as you come forward. That was very nice. Do you want to do back bend? Yeah. All right, so now we're going to go into two springs. So I'm taking one off. I'm going to put the foot bar back up. Do you need a spot? Okay. Alright, so big beautiful lift of those arms. Think about the upper body, right arch back. Go, go, go, go, go. There you go.

Grab a hold of that foot bar. So press your arms out and then pull them in two more times. Press out axial, pulled him in last time. Stay out and then pull your thighs back under you and close the springs and Perez and pull last time. Press and pollinate. Everything comes up. Curl yourself over and enjoy the flush that you just got.

That was gorgeous. Dropped the tail. Roll on up. And let's do arm circles. Okay, so I'll put your foot bar down. We'll go to one. Spraying. All right. Kneeling on the carriage with those feet bent up against the shoulder blocks. Stay in your feet. Don't forget them. Okay.

The strength of that ankle coming up into your hips. Ah, beautiful. Here we go. So inhale, circle the arms, reach up, and then exhale. Come around. Think a little bit of internal rotation to support that pelvis. Yes. And then feel that zipper coming right, right up under your chest. You got this. Now reverse it. Keep your hands a little in front of you. Everybody okay in there? Okay, we're great.

Get the left arm equally as much as the right arm. Do you think you can do shave the head? Let's just see. Good. Exhale. Bend the elbows. Take the thumbs to the nape of the neck in with the breath. Exhale, reach back through your heels. It's going to make you happier. And then exhale last time. Now come up.

Don't let your arms get stuck behind you. See your hands in your peripheral vision. Hug a tree. Inhale. Beautiful thing of those collarbones out to the thumbs flakes out to the fingers. You've got this look fabulous and that's it. Okay, very beautiful. Carefully replace your handles and step off. Okay, so now we're going to go into the overhead. Wonderful. Okay.

So go ahead and put your headdress down. I'm going to take you back to two springs. Ah, yeah. You get to lay down. Light up. Okay. So take the woody handles in your hands. Start with the arms up. Okay. Legs together. So it was immediately. Feel the spring open under you and Chi.

So inhale, rollover. Press up. Now relax to stand in your arms. You just made them super strong, right? And then float the legs down. Float the hands up. So roll over. Don't rush, don't rush. You really don't need to take the feet up. That's it. Now reach up into my hand. You don't have to take your feet past your face. They can stay. That's it. Go.

That's it. That's it? Yes. You don't drop your back, right? Let's do one more. Okay, good in with the breath. Roll over and then lift the hips. Untuck the pelvis a little bit and see if you can get longer in your ways. That really should feel a lot better. Makes it easier. Yeah, like intended stretch, right? Yeah. Good. Okay.

Just bend your knees and now bend your elbows and replace the handles. So we're just going to go into knee stretches. Okay, so pivot to standing. Put the foot bar up and the head rest up and we'll go all of them. Sure. He's down and he's off. Okay. Okay, so I'll start nailing and then again, nice and strong in the connection to your upper body sitting back. Go ahead, press the carriage out. Pull home out, pull home out, pull home. There you go. Good. Three more. Exhale. Exhale. Think a little bit. Inner thigh. Now hold the carriage. Look up. Extend your back spine.

Here we go. Inhale. Exhale. Keep pulling your toes forward. Keep pushing your heel back. Keep pulling the chest through. You've got this close, that spring. Last one. Leslie. Stay here now to transition into the knees off like up. Stretch, right? So you find that out for spinal curl.

That gives you the room in the hips that allows you to lift your knees, adjust your feet a little bit if you need to. And Pope and pull for this. The shoulders are definitely a little bit more forward. Good job and pull and pull more and more. Exhale, smooth breath. Figure out the smooth breath. Easy. Okay. And then carefully, carefully, carefully lower those knees down. Step to the side of the equipment. Put on one more spring for running. There you go. And now use this to just flush all tension out. Okay, so you're balanced across all 10 toes.

Feel your legs like Pistons on Tuck the pelvis. Just to little. Enjoy the lengthening of that distance between your hips, your pelvis, and your rib cage. That's it. Think about if you are really going for a run, you'd want your legs to be projecting you out in space, right? They would have to hold you up and they would have to take you forward. So you only want to be down, they'll be up. That's it. Stretch the spring, stretch the spring and work the ankle.

Work the ankle. Beautiful. Six, seven, eight, alright. Feet to the corners and we'll go for the bottom lift. So corkscrew those legs deep into your pelvis and then out you go. Go for that length again. Okay, open your hip. Flex and externally rotate. So it's just that of space, right? It's really not a high bridge or all you want to feel the length of you, your shoulders pressing, pressing, pressing up into the shoulder blocks, getting more external rotation, more open through the hip. Beautiful.

Keep going out, out, out close in. Keep going like you don't know if the springs are close. Keep going. Keep going in. See Two more. Keep going, keep going. Go, go, go. You see, have more and more and more and more and more rooms last time. Very beautiful. And then keep reaching, reaching, reaching, reaching. Lay yourself down. Long. Beautiful. Bring the legs together.

Pivot yourself up to standing and go get your Gondola Pole. All right, so step up onto the equipment. Take your left foot, right foot, line it up on the pad. Make sure you feel where the actual equipment is. You don't fall through the hole and then he'll tell your way out so that the ball of your foot is up on the headrest. Perhaps you don't need this and your heels down below. Okay?

So what you have to tell me is if you can stand up straight and not feel strain in your knee, can you control those springs? Can you hold the carriage through your hips and not be straining your knee? Okay, great. That's all I need to know. All right, so let's open you up since we haven't done any other splits yet. Today we'll do a little preparation. So go ahead and bend the knees, rotate out just like you're going back into your bottom lift. So the carriage side, first you're going to extend from the hip to the knee and then pull that heel under you in with the breath. And exhale, balance yourself over the center of your heel. All five toes.

And now the frame side. Press yourself out. Pull yourself in, press. And as you bend, feel that theme or getting deeper and deeper and deeper. Last time, feel the power of those hips coming together as you stand up. And here we go. Lift to rotate out, to bend your knees, press the carriage out both legs at the same time until your legs are straight. And then exhale, draw yourself home again. Let the breath help you have space in your hips. As you rotate out to bend, press out. You don't have to go quite so slowly and come back home.

Yeah, one more time. Bend, press out and kind of going on you. And now reverse. So center of the heels, all 10 Meta tarsals. Rotate, rotate. Use the stick to help stretch your belly up off that pelvis. One more time. Right out bend and come home. Now use the strength of the hips to flex that left foot up so that you can, he'll tell, he'll tell yourself in. Beautifully done.

Walk your right foot to your left and we'll do the other side. Okay, so here we go. Take a nice deep breath. Line your foot up, heel, toe, heel toe, your right leg out. So the heel is lower than the ball of the foot, right on this side. Let's dispense with the prep. Okay, so use the pole to help stretch your spine up off of your pelvis a little bit. All right, breathing in, rotate out too bent.

Feel two legs pressing out two feet. Exhale, come home, lift to rotate to bend. You got this. Let your breath help you. Press out through both feet. Think of both heels coming in under your sit bones. One last time. Bend. Press out and come home. Breathe a little bit into the back here. Reverse it. Now go out. Try not to lean forward. Bend under yourself and then come home.

Yes, you got this out. Turn out. Feel the two hips coming together in the back and lift up when mark. Yeah, go out. Feel as you bend that your femurs are coming into those sockets and strengthening you up through the back of the pelvis. And now you're gonna lift as he told the toes and heel, toe, heel, toe, heel, toe, heel. Tell Yourself, walk your left to your right and I think we should end with Russian squats.

Okay. We'll dispense with any other splits. Say That was a pretty good split, don't you think? Yeah. Okay, so go ahead and set up for the Russian, the Russian squat, two springs. That'll just put you back on your center. I think. Open your hips. It'll be beautiful. Okay. So you need to be able to get your heels down in a squat. To do this exercise in my book, so feet apart, you're about a third of the way in from the back of the Mat. You can use those shoulder blocks to help you squat down. That's it. So deepen, deepen, deepen, deepen that flection at your ankle. Okay?

Feel that depth of your femurs in the hips that you just got from doing Gondola hold. The leather. That's right. Okay, so feel the connection through your heel. As you press forward in the legs, pull the springs, let your chest get pulled through. It's Kinda like water skiing, right? So let your chest kind of float and then release the hand. Sit back. Time the squad, hips, knees, ankles. Beautiful.

Drive the heels into the mat to open the spring to lift the hips. Gorgeous. Lesley. Exhale. Float your way down. Deep Ankle. Deep Angle. One more time. Drive those heels to open this spring to lift your chest. And this is it. Float down. Exhale, easy mouth, easy face. Good.

Now let the spring clothes all the way before you let go of those handles and then push off your hands. Stand up and step to the side. All right. Beautiful. Gorgeous, beautiful.

Comments

3 people like this.
Excellent class Debora! Cueing spot on.
2 people like this.
awesome class Debora Kolwey and Leslie!
Fabulous job, Leslie! Loved this routine, Debora.
Pros!!!!! Thank you
1 person likes this.
Of course beautifully executed, Leslie. Debora I loved your cueing. I want to be you:)
2 people like this.
Great class, thank you. I liked how you kept the flow going and Leslie had beautiful transitions!
1 person likes this.
Great class Debora!
1 person likes this.
Lovely! Thank you!
I thought this was a poor introduction to new moves, personally. It all flowed so quickly, i wasn't sure a few times on not only what the apparatus was set to, but also where I was meant to be anatomically. She was definitely speaking to the student in front of her(yay for the student), as opposed to a general audience(boo for me). Sometimes the cues on were to feel things occurred long before I was in place. Not sure if I will retry at a later date, as I don't think I got as much out of it as I could have. Good class for them, not for an instructional video. Doesn't help that my reformer is a different brand...I'm more a C Miller fan myself, less bells and whistles, more results (perhaps Im just not ready for level 4/5 that fast!).
Amy ~ Thanks for your feedback. As a Level 3 class, this workout was not intended to teach students new moves, and it assumes that you already have a strong knowledge of the traditional Reformer exercises, their setup, and their order. You may want to try this Level 2 workout with Debora instead, which spends more time on the details of the exercises, and is a good prep for this Level 3 class.
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