Class #2121

Heart Pumping Jump Board

45 min - Class
270 likes

Description

Get your heart pumping in this Jump Board Reformer class with Kristi Cooper and Meredith Rogers. They tag team by switching off between jumping and strengthening exercises to give you a full body workout. They also sneak in a few Mat exercises they adapted to the Reformer like Spine Stretch, Spine Twist, and others.
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box, Jump Board

About This Video

Mar 28, 2015
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Transcript

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Hi there. We're back for another workout. We don't always know exactly where we're gonna go but we do have a bit of a plan today and it involves jumping. So have your jump board ready to go. And Meri'll take us into that.

We are on one red spring and we're gonna warm up a little bit. So grab your straps. Right? I'm on one red spring now. Now she's on one red spring.

All right, so all we're gonna do is just sort of warm ourselves up with a rollback. So the feet are on the shoulder rest. I'm gonna keep mine together for now then I may come apart a little bit. Holding up above the handles before we roll though, with your straight arms and your straight spine just inhale and grow taller. You may be off the stopper here, that's okay.

And then exhale and kinda let go. (sighs) Draw the knees a little closer together even if they're already touching and inhale and grow tall. We're not pulling yet but there is some energy coming through the crown of your head, through the tailbone, through the arms and exhale. And notice you can support that, this time as you inhale go ahead and draw the upper arms back just along side you. Grow even taller and exhale. Let the arms come forward.

Pretty small, it's just a sense of putting a tiny bit of resistance against this great posture. Inhale, pull. Exhale (sighs) And inhale, pull. Exhale but not fully to the forward release position. Just with a little bit of resistance, more than when we started.

Just look over your right shoulder as far as you can. Stay there. Take your eyes and try to reach them further back and see if your head can follow you. And then come through the center. And other way.

Just keep the resistance. It shouldn't be too heavy. Look left. Then let your eyes go further. Maybe your face will follow and then come back and release forward a bit.

Now we will just keep the arms straight. You're gonna just scoop the belly. For me it's like pushing the feet into shoulder rest and that's what's initiating the curve. Rounding back just a little. And then sit back up.

So it's more low spine. Inhale, prepare. Exhale, it's like a downward press of the feet, a scooping back of the belly. You may or may not roll much. The carriage might move a little.

And come back up. Exhale, take it back just a little. Just warming it up. And notice that when your shins or the calves are right next to the box, you can actually use that to your advantage to draw into the box just a little. So you might back up a little if you can't grab on at all.

And back just a little one. (sighs) And up. This time we'll go further. Here we go. Adjust as needed. We're rolling back.

If you feel like you have to scoot forward because your calves are there, do. Just roll to the midback, midback, trying to keep your feet on the mat. Inhale, exhale, scoop the belly, press backwards on the spine to allow your body to come back up and sit up tall. Inhale. Exhale, starting to feel a bit more flow like. (sighs) If the knees pop up, try to bring 'em down.

You might have to separate the knees. Inhale, exhale, bring it forward. And straighten up. (exhales loudly) Just adding the tiniest bit when we get back to the top. Inhale, take a moment. Feel the breath start.

Take yourself forward. This time as you sit tall on the inhale pull those straight arms back again. You can take 'em further than before. Exhale, scoop the belly, the arms will go forward. Roll back and down.

Inhale, hold at the bottom. Collar bones are wide. Exhale, scoop and come forward. And sit tall. Inhale, pull.

Exhale, as the arms go forward feel the spine get pulled to the back. We'll stay down here on this one. Inhale. Exhale, come up just a smidge. Just a little (breathes audibly) and back down.

It's as if the bones of the spine are being pulled backwards. Inhale, little tiny presses. Just tapping into part of our spine, our abs, our front body, everything. Give it three more. (breathes audibly) Arms have little to do with this. Two, one more.

Three, go down again. Inhale, we'll pick up the right leg this time. Exhale, scoop the belly. You can roll up with it. You can roll up with it.

So you bring the chest toward and down. Same leg. Exhale. (breathes audibly) And down. They'll be some motion of the carriage. That's fine.

And again three out of four. And down. If you are picking up the leg, which I think you are, pick up the foot too. Right, so it's not just the knee you're lifting. We'll change sides. Keeping those arms in place and up.

Meaning you're not letting the shoulders go back and forwards. (breathes loudly) Scoop. Or really it's the breath. When I keep saying scoop I mean think belly coming deep. And two, go. (breathes loudly) Let's do some alternating.

We'll just do six and so we'll start with that first leg. Right leg up, one, and down. Up two. You can minimize the motion of the carriage here. Here's three and down.

Here's four and down. From here go ahead and extend your spine a little, okay? Mindful of the jump board. If you have room go all the way back. Otherwise just enjoy a little breather.

Bring your head, neck and shoulders back up and roll all the way up and sit tall. Okay just set your right strap down. Take your right hand though and hold onto the left. All right. And again, making, you may have to scoot up a little.

You can even hold this strap and I think I'm gonna stay where I was to start. Left had behind your head. I'm still straight ahead, basically. From here we roll back and just have that arm out of my way. And then when I get down there this might be where you wanna hold with your calves a little.

Rotate toward your left a little, toward that strap. That's right. And then come up just a little, one. And down. I have the strap outside the legs.

You might want it just inside. I'm not sure that would really matter but just so that you feel that isolating on one side. Try not to lift either leg for four more. Keep the rotation, three. Try not to overuse the right arm.

Here's two, exhale. Finish this one. Come all the way up with it. Stay in the rotation. When you get to the top rotate a little more.

So that left elbow's kinda going toward the back. You almost wanna pull the arm to the right, but we won't. We'll just come back to center and change sides. Yeah, that was harder than I meant for it to be (laughs). But oh well (laughs).

We're just not gonna think about that yet 'cause we have eight to go. So we're holding on. Again I go outside but try not to swivel the knees to make the full opposition. Although that's not a horrible idea in general. Here we go, taking it down.

Straight down the middle as much as you can. Oh thank goodness I can grab that box. Hope you can a little too. Rotate to the right. Make sure it's not just the shoulders doing it.

And exhale we come up, one. Do your best not to let the right thigh come up more, two. (breathes loudly) Three. We're not coming so high that the hips should change much. There's four.

Keeping your head back in your hands. Four to go. (exhales loudly) Oh, feel the difference. (exhales loudly) Here we go. Come finish it, meaning a little pause there. Then come all the way up.

Keep it as even as possible on the hips. When you get up there continue rotating. Continue looking back again over that right side. And center. Yeah.

Good enough for now? Mmhmm. Okay. Jumping I think, right? Yeah, so let's take the boxes off.

And I'm gonna add a blue spring. So one red and one blue spring. Let's leave the headrest down for the moment. We'll do a little bit of spinal articulation. So coming down onto our backs.

Let's just rest the heels just under the top of the bar. And reach the arms down next to our sides. Now this is a great spring for jumping but it's gonna be hard for this. So get prepared. Inhale, prepare.

Exhale, feel the lower spine flatten into the reformer. Slowly start to curl the body up off the carriage, letting the carriage, hopefully trying to keep the carriage still. We'll pause here and inhale. Exhale begin manipulating the spine back down. Bring the chest down.

The back side of the ribs down. The lower spine down. And the pelvis and again inhale. Press down and back on the jump board. Like you're trying to pull the jump board towards your body.

Pressing up, pulling the carriage back and into the stopper. And then slowly, slowly articulating the spine down. And we'll just do that twice more. Inhaling to prepare, exhaling to articulate, peeling up. Hips press up nice and high so you get flattening through the front of the body.

Opening through the front of the hips. And down. And last one. Exhaling to lift. Pausing at the top and inhaling.

And exhaling as we slowly slide the spine back into the reformer. Okay, I like to have my headrest up when I'm jumping so I can see a little bit better. So I'm gonna go ahead and do that now. So let's walk the feet down on the jumper. About three inches down or something.

Push out so that the feet flatten and then straighten the knees all the way. So when we're jumping we're wanting to articulate through the foot. So I want you to bend your knees and bring the carriage in as far as you can without lifting your heels. This is gonna be the place where, where your end range. Do a little balancing there.

So we want to roll through the foot and come down to the heels each time. So the carriage won't come all the way in. Getting ready to go. Let's go. Let's do three bounces.

Two bounces. One and we shoot out. Stretch the legs, roll through the feet. So it's a toe ball heel landing. Reach, feel the quadriceps squeeze and lift the kneecaps as the legs straighten.

We'll do five. Four, finding that flat foot position each time. Two, one. Pause and center. Bring the heels together, toes apart.

And again, like I don't, for me I have less flexibility in my feet here. So I won't be able to come in even as close as I was before. And here we go. We jump, squeeze, land. Pressing the legs together.

And then that articulation of the foot which is what we're using to absorb the spring, absorb the impact. We're gonna do five more and then we're gonna alternate those two foot positions. Checking in with the shoulders. The ease in the neck. Two, one.

So now jump, land parallel. Jump, land in rotation. So the rotation isn't coming from the feet. Although the feet move as the thighs rotate but we wanna focus on feeling that rotation nice and high in the hips. Again, keep checking in with your feet.

Are they leaving that jumper at that very last moment? Try not to. We're gonna do three. Two. One.

Land, center and pause. The left leg's gonna stay on the jump board. The right leg's gonna lift up. We're gonna hold that table top position. Ten jumps on the left leg.

Here we go. Rolling through the foot. The rolling through the foot is easier to find with a single leg. For the reason that I don't know. (laughs) Maybe the weight of the springs help it?

Last two by my count. So let's switch in the air. And ten, nine, eight. Long arms. Easy neck.

Five, four. We're gonna alternate legs soon. Three, two. Meet the legs in the middle and switch. Meet and switch.

So the legs land in like a hundred position in the air. They touch together. They brush past each other. And then the other leg comes up to a table top position as that supporting leg absorbs the weight of the spring. And we do four, four.

Three, three. Trying not to let your reformer slide around underneath you. Last time. And, land on both feet. Oof.

Let me give us a little jumping break. Now Chrissy, you can take over. Okay so just back and forth just easy for a second. Just a few back and forth and then what we're gonna do is walk, well go out to straight. Walk your feet up just a smidge.

So you're not quite over the top. Maybe you'll have to shimmy down a little bit but I am still touching the shoulder rest a little. We're gonna curl up into the hundred. Yeah, it's fine. And inhale.

And there's a subtle downward pull of the legs. Exhale. In and you can almost get up, right? And out. And in.

Oh my legs are shaking. And out already. And in. And out, keep it going. Pick up right leg a little.

And out (breathes loudly). And in. And out Same leg, raise it a little higher. Up, two, three, four, five, out. Last time.

Up, two, three, four, five, out. Left leg, just hover it. I know it's gonna be more than a hundred. You're fine. And out.

Really reach the leg through the board. Push on it, stand on it. Here's the leg lift. Inhale, reach over the board even as it's lifting. Out.

Up, and out. Hold it down. Just raise the arms up. Arms down. Bend the knees and come on down.

Mm-hmm. From there feet up a little higher. We have the headrest up, don't we? Go ahead and put it down for a second. And when you get near the top your arches will go over the top of the board just a little bit.

Try not to count on it. Let it happen naturally. Inhale, exhale, peeling up. Again, yup. And then standing on your arms and your arches we press out.

Not quite all the way but the whole body will lower just a little. Then lift everything right back up and roll down. Just one more like that. When you get to bottom enjoy that, sort of, sink in the hips. Let the thigh bones be heavy there.

Then peel up around them so there's not much happening at the legs other than the back of the legs, and especially now. Inhale, exhale, press out. Then pull yourself in. We're not going down on this one. We're just gonna go out again.

And we'll press out, one. Pull in. Try and let the upper back, not relax but try not to hunch it. And up and the whole piece goes down and the whole piece rises. And out.

One more time. Out and then come back in. Here it comes. All the way in, check your feet. Are you rolling out?

Hit that stopper. Roll it down. When you get there bring the right knee in. Hug it in just briefly but then slowly, carefully, stretch it up. Ooh! Lower the left foot down.

So the right leg staying in the air. And you're gonna stretch out. So that it's almost like you're standing right with the foot underneath you but maybe it's a little higher. Slightly turn out the leg in the air. Heavy in the hip bone, again.

Arms are down. We'll cross over and circles. Careful you don't hit that board. Inhale. And exhale. (loud sigh) And (loud exhale) so I'm doing a full breath, inhale, exhale on that cycle.

Reverse it (loud exhale) inhale out, exhale it around. Up, hit the straight. Straight at the top, boom. (exhales loudly twice) One more time. From there bend the knee.

You may need to adjust the bottom foot so you're not perfectly parallel. I'm gonna turn my lower leg out just a little and cross the knee over. Little stretch. All right bring it back. You might need to adjust or come down if you need to.

Hug the left leg in first. Try for lower leg parallel. You know we're always in mat class saying keep that lower foot flexed. Here's a chance. Carefully straighten it.

Oh, that's a tighter leg. When did that happen? Man, okay, slightly turn out. Let go if you can. Crossing over on the inhale.

Exhale, down around, up boom. Same thing. (both exhaling loudly and rhythmically) One more. Other side, inhale around, keeping those hips as still as possible. One, two, three.

Here's four and five. Bend the knee. Swivel the lower foot outward if you need to and cross over. Okay, come on back. You ready to jump again?

I know what you're saying. I think I am, yeah. Okay so let's just reach My head was comfortable (laughter) Okay headrest up. So we'll start in that open v position, that small v position again finding the position where the feet can be flat on the jump board. When we jump we'll open the legs and then we'll bring them back to this position on our landing.

Here we go. Jump, land. So try to find that equality of movement through both feet or apart from that notice if one foot is more challenging than the other to land on. So it's a, it's a crisp open squeeze. We'll do four.

Three. Two. One. We're gonna cross the right leg over the left, land. Left leg over the right, land.

So I'm landing with my heels touching, my legs lined up, I'm crossing from my upper inner thigh. And creating just that nice ease of movement on the landing. Ease of movement on the landing. And we'll do four, four. Hmmm.

Three I hate the way you count. Three (both laugh) Two, two, One, one. Here's our single leg version here. Left leg stays on the jump board. Right leg comes up.

Both legs will straighten. Right leg will straighten up. Here we go. Kick, land. Two, three, four.

Five, six, seven. Full straighten that top leg. Nine and ten. That was really hard for me. Okay, so we go the other side.

And we kick one. And two. And reach. Four, five. Both legs super active.

Seven, eight. Nine and ten. Coming all the way down. And you're up Chrissy. That's it for that.

That's it for that. Okay good. We have to get our straps. So go ahead and just swing around. And while we're up, actually before we pick them up we might as well go to.

We'll try it with this. Keep it on the red and blue. You may need to lighten it. I may need to lighten it. You may not need to lighten it.

And then sit back up, nice and tall. You waitin' on me? Sorry my straps aren't even. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding, that was just for fun.

Okay. So we're taking the straps and we're doing spine stretch. It's pretty heavy. It might be too heavy. I have it in my hand, so it's not on my thumb. I think it will be okay.

Yeah, so, yeah Oh I see I think you'll like it better if it's the full hand in. Okay. so we're sitting tall and you're not going to squeeze the frame but imagine you could. Feet flexed, extend the arms forward. And let the strap pull on your arms. Right, don't fight the strap.

Let it put your arms in place and use your spine to hold you up. Inhale. Exhale we round forward. Go ahead. Keep reaching.

Arms can lower a little but it's about the spine reaching back through those shoulder rests. Keep the arms close together and sit back up. Exhale forward. (exhales loudly) The reason that anything is moving is because the spine is moving. Keep those arms plugged in.

Inhale, back up. And exhale. Go, go, it's so tempting to just use arms here, isn't it? Don't do it. Let them be strong.

And if they get too wide it's really hard. One more time. Reach, reach, use the inner thighs, use the inner thighs. And sit back up. All right, with that just come in.

Take the, oh I may regret this, take the blue off. We might wish I said the other. So we have one red on. And now arms are wide. All right, for a few just see how it feels.

You're coming forward like a hug a tree. And out. And forward. And out. Now kinda get a sense of the resistance.

When you're almost as wide as you normally can go take the weight in the right arm. The left arm loosens up. And now you're gonna turn so that the right arm almost ends up in the middle. And then back. Careful on the catch.

Drop to one blue if you want. Rotate the spine. Oh my goodness. The arm is just there as, like, a tool for the strap. Sitting tall, I caught myself sinking on that one.

Go, go, go. Reach the other arm, loose arm back. And center. You wish you were jumping down, don't you? Uh-uh No? I like this.

You like it? Okay. I do. It's feeling super hard for me today. It's hard, I like it though. One more then each way.

Or half a one if you count like Meri. (laughter) Oh no I guess it's one. Yeah, it's one. It's one. Oh wow, I'm a hypocrite, huh?

'Cause I always say one like that. All right, so then, close the feet up. If it's too long to sit like this you could straddle. But that's not so easy either. For an actual hug a tree.

And here, you know, imagine it's heavier. Try not to lean forward. Inhale, open. Grow tall, exhale (loud exhale) And open. Just wanting to get us off our backs and know we are gonna be there again and so it's the same idea when we're lying down.

(train whistle) Now keeping it forward, lean forward. Reach the arms up. We're going into salute or shaving. Thumbs and index finger together. Take the elbows wide, then, once you've got the hands behind your head, sit up a little taller, but be careful.

Heavy knees and extend. One, open wide. And two, feel the broadening of your back. So the arms kind of are the least of it. Three. (exhales loudly) Play with, almost like you don't have legs.

Where could you hold on if your knees weren't being pulled up? I have no clue but if you find out (laughs) let me know. One more time after this one. Up and down. Now, same thing.

It's gonna be even harder cause we're using short legs. Rotate to the left. Right arm forward. And back. And rotate to the right.

Wow, that's so different. A lot Got a lot harder. That's good enough. What about let's just, oh are you, is it my turn? Yeah.

What about if let's go back to straight legs. And let's do spine twists with extension. Okay, with this weight? Yeah, I don't wanna, I'm not gonna go heavier. No, I was gonna go lighter. (laughs) Oh, you can do whatever you want.

Yeah go lighter. I'm gonna go lighter. I'm not sure how it's gonna go for me, so. The heavy weight's actually nice 'cause it will pull you, can you reach into it with your back? But it's totally up to you.

I'll try this first. I'm going just thumbs this time. Okay, so sitting tall stretch the arms out straight Oh we had one and a half again, sorry We had one and a half before Yeah I think this will be perfect. 'Kay so let the head go down, rolling down just like before. And then start raising the arms up.

We'll have to start internally rotating them to stay out of the way of the straps. So reach the spine out into the straps. And then let's let the springs carry us back up. Stretching up into the straps and then open the arms. So kinda similar to rowing a little bit.

And bend. And stretch out. Round the spine forward. Flex the feet there. Reach into the springs.

Lengthen up through the spine. Find that nice long alignment through the body. Sit all the way up. Open up to the side. Let's do two more.

Two means two. Stretch out. (laughter) Round down. Elongate going lower each time. Just look after your shoulders here. Don't let the springs do all the work.

We've got to stabilize as well. Sit all the way up, down. Bend and through. Last time. Rolling down, reaching out.

Lengthening through. And this time as we come up all the way we'll just bring the arms all the way down, no bend. So you circle all the way down. Okay, so why, let's put the straps, I don't like the straps on the hooks 'cause then they bang around. And I'm sensitive to extra noise.

And a lot of other things. (laughter) So let's go back to a red and a blue. And come back down onto our backs. There's a word for that. It's an actual phobia, like when you don't like listening to people chewing.

That I like, swear Oh I swear to you I suffer from it. I have that one. I will figure out what it is. I don't remember. So we're gonna stretch the legs out.

Bring the legs all the way together. We're gonna go into some lateral rotation of the lower body. So bend in. Squeeze your tush a little. We're gonna go into a side to side action.

So we won't come back through the center. We're gonna start, we're gonna rotate the body to the right, the knees to the right, land on that side. And then over to the left. And then up and across. So allowing one side of the pelvis to lift.

Still keeping in mind you wanna roll through the foot. So it's not a flat foot. It's a nice easy jump. Chrissy and I are on a very slide-able floor and we're keeping our reformers nice and still. So we're trying.

Up and around, up and around. 'Kay come back through center. Okay I'm gonna try and teach this. We're gonna, see if I am coordinated enough to do it. All right?

So I'll teach, we'll go, let's just step to the left. This is what's gonna happen. We're gonna jump. We're gonna kick the legs around. Yeah so what I'm thinking is we jump, the legs kick around, and land.

Oh, where's Barry Manilow when you need it? I dunno. Here we go though. All right? I think so.

So, off, up and around. Up and around. It's fun! Oh I like it. Like a windmill. Fine to let that opposite hip lift.

Kick really straight through the legs. Up around and back. It's actually easier to get on the hip. Uh-huh. Somebody's making (laughs) a lot of noise back there.

(laughter) And then we'll just finish. Well, what, I think it's the blocks. Okay, that's it. Okay, so, just real quick while you kind of have your heart rate up and you're feeling like it's fun, let's go into something a little more frustrating. (laughter) I don't have a name for it.

Anyway. Just call it frustrating. Come with me and I will do my best now. So you, you, both feet are flat. Pick up the ball of the right foot.

No big deal, yeah? Just switch it. Right, switch again. Switch, no big deal, right? The knees are staying straight.

You have no problem doing that, true? True 'Kay good, both feet flat. Lift the right heel. Yeah, I know it's weird. And then the left.

So are you letting your pelvis rotate? Yeah, I'm definitely letting my, I'm trying to hike it rather than rotate it. But it's probably doing a little bit of both. In a minute it'll come, we're gonna blend them. So just kinda alternating that feel.

The point really is that the knees don't bend. Although I just did there. So go back to the first one. The ball of the foot is up on right. The left heel is up.

Now just roll through, not jumping and switch. No big deal. Roll through, switch. So now the hips shouldn't change much. All right?

If your feet are much higher, if you can really see them, I would say shimmy them down just a little. So that they're really right underneath you and try again. So right ball of the foot up, left heel. And just roll through. Just a little footwork.

It's more, once you get it, it's more painful than frustrating (laughs). For the ankle and feet we'll just do a couple more. And by couple I mean one. I'm gonna follow your lead. One and two, two.

Okay, since we're already here, go ahead and swivel sideways so you're lying on your side facing me or left. Can I steal one of the jumpings? Yeah. Okay. Head is resting Can I take my headrest down?

You can put your headrest down. I'll put my headrest down. Everybody put your headrest down. I like to lay on my arm. Oh actually I'm going to leave mine up.

I don't like that my shoulder gets in my way. So holding onto the shoulder rest with either one or both hands stretch out and which one are we gonna use? The top leg is what I'm using so the bottom leg comes in, into about 90 degrees and do make sure it's tucked up. If you are really tall you might want to move the foot out of the way since that jump board is there. And here we go.

We're pressing out one and two. Same cues with rolling through the foot. Four, nice stable spine, five. Six, seven, we'll do 15 here. Here's eight, here's nine.

Five to go. Get down there, one, and full extension, two. Go through the heel, three. 14, and 15, that's cool. Switch around to the other side.

Just roll on over. Stacking your hips, might have to move the hips back a little bit so that you can get your foot on fully. It does not have to be in the middle. I stretch out just to bend the lower leg and get really situated. Ideally the foot is right underneath you or slightly forward.

Bend and here we go, 15. Press one, press two. Get down there, three. Four, I'm trying to aim the knee over the toe. Sometimes it's worth looking.

Is this six? Seven. Seven, thank you. Eight, there's nine. Full extension, come on ten.

Last five. Push for one. You can get powerful. Two, three. Here's four.

And five. All right, come on up please. And come to your knees what do we have, what do you do reverse knee stretch on? I like blue. Blue, okay.

So we'll do a blue or a light spring. So we were on red and blue, right? Yup. So we're over on blue. And on your knees with your knees right up against the shoulder rest, hands out on the frame a little further, so that your hands are out beyond your shoulders.

Then once you've pulled the shoulders down a little bit just drag yourself forward so that you're over your arms. Without pushing the carriage any more forward see if you can pull the navel up to the spine and round the spine, looking down. From here now, watch your thumbs, we're gonna exhale and pull in, let the spine round and back. And exhale, feel, it's almost like you're trying to lift up off the frame. You don't bear down on it.

You lift up and create room, so that there's not a big hinge at the hip. The hinge, if you will, it's not really the hinge, happens upwards in the spine. Let's go a tiny bit faster. (exhales) And back and two. And back, three, keeping your heads down. Four, I dunno how many we'll do.

Here's five. Let's just do two more. Nice and strong (exhales loudly). And one more. (exhales) It's worth it just to do a few flat back here. So go ahead and flatten out.

Make sure you're not too far over your arms. Maybe a little. And now, without arching anymore, just engage the belly and drag it forward. It's as if the legs are going deeper into the hip socket. Just a few, kinda slow.

So you can feel that support, both sides of the body. We'll do three more (exhales). One more. (exhales) Give yourself a tiny break. So go on back and just walk your arms forward or whatever you need to do to stretch out. I've got, we're gonna do the oblique version of that.

'kay, that's enough of that. So come up and we'll go to the right side. So both hands on the right. I just got hand over hand. And then just swivel the feet.

You shouldn't have to change much else. Just swivel the feet over to the left. Shoulders are in place, just draw yourself forward. Give yourself that round and then some, both knees straight ahead. And maybe another way at looking at it again is trying to tuck the pelvis straight ahead.

(exhales loudly) And exhale forward. Watch the shoulders. We're just doing six here, five. Come on and six. Taking it back.

Other side. Wow, very hard today. Always hard actually. All right. If you get to arm-y, army?

Too much into your arms, it's just not fun. So you either go lighter if you have that option. We pull out, oh sorry. Feet to the right. Round spine.

And then it's as if you were trying to, I dunno, bend at the back more. (exhales) Three. (exhales) Four. Waist to the sky, two more. Five and six and back to the center.

And just take a little breather. You know what I want to do now, right? Since we're here. Pull ups? Mm-hmm.

Oh, I was just thinking about that. Yeah. I do too. Why don't you lead us through that? You teach it better.

Okay, as soon as I'm done itching my nose. All right, I'm ready. Walk forward along the frame up to the risers with your hands. Find a long, flat back. It's harder, this exercise, if you let your knees go out from underneath you more.

I'm gonna choose to keep my knees right underneath my body. And we're gonna slide the shoulders down the back pulling the head through the risers and then resist that as we come back in. And then slide the shoulders down. This is a great spring for me. It's just about the perfect amount.

I just got a really cool adjustment. (laughs) Good, what happened? Hmm? What happened? _ I just, really good neck back crack. Cool It's awesome.

So we're fixing Christy. (laughter) And working on upper back and our arms. All in one day's work. So I like to point me elbows down toward the floor. But they can also go wide. Like, you can play with a wide arm pull.

I prefer the low elbow pull. Let's do two more. And last one. Do you want to know what I want to do? Yes please.

As long as it's different than this one at this point. So let's walk ourselves in. Do you know Lisa's mermaid? With the straps? I dunno if it's Lisa's mermaid but that's who I learned it from, Lisa.

So let's do it. So, the blue spring is the right spring, unless you wanna have a lighter spring. You might want that. How does it go? Why don't you face me.

So coming in to the mermaid position. Forget about this one but it's really nice. So you're gonna take the strap in the hand furthest, in the, closest to the jump board. The other arm can just rest down on the headrest. You're gonna lift the elbow, reach out to a straight arm, and then lift the spine.

So we start sliding over. That bottom arm will bend. Letting the springs, careful there, come all, bring us all the way in. Then we're gonna round forward. We're gonna bend the elbow and sit back up.

That's my version of Lisa's mermaid anyway. So reach out. Lift up. Elbow bends. Careful with your shoulders there.

Round forward. Stretching there. And bending the arm to bring ourself back up again. Let's do two more. Elbow up, stretch out.

Lift, spread the ribs up off the pelvis. And round and up. Last one, reach out. Lift up and over. Round forward.

And coming all the way back again. How'd my arms get so tired from jumping? (laughter) That's what I want to know. I was just thinking the same thing. (laughter) All right.

Sit turning sides. Same thing on the other side and then Chrissy you can decide what we're going to do for back extension. Or we can argue about it. (soft laughter) We'll see what happens. Okay so the elbow comes up. The arm stretches out.

We lift the ribs, reaching up and over. Letting the eyes just travel down towards that bottom arm. I'm noticing that you have to change your hand a little bit as your going through the motion. Like as I'm coming up over I hold with my thumb. Uh-huh, yeah or that's what I'm doing.

You seem to be having just a fine time with your hand. I won't try. I adjust it here I suppose. And then I just hold on. Press on I guess Yeah I don't like that.

Feels, it's harder for me I guess which is maybe a good thing. Last time. Yeah I just get more freedom if I let my fists go. 'kay, so like once you get out there hook it with your thumb. Let your arms, fingers straighten and then.

Mkay, so that's that. Um, breaststroke-ish, the one? Yeah? Mm-hmm. With the box?

Mm-hmm. Okay, breaststroke, sort of. Without the straps, yeah? Okay. You lead.

I'll do whatever you say. Well we usually use the bar. Oh, I understand what you're talking about, yeah. I think that'll be fine. Okay so still light.

It could be heavier but I think we agree that it takes away a fair amount. I'm gonna stay. Yeah. I just don't know, is this gonna be too high? Okay, no, that's all right.

If you give yourself, push out a little bit. Yeah, exactly. You just have to come away a little bit from it so that you're not right into the bar. But hands are wide, elbows up as if this platform kit were an actual table. And then a subtle downward pressure with the palm is a nice thing to offer yourself as well as a sideward pull.

So it's just a gentle, I don't know, resistance there. So you have a sense of your arms and hands connecting to your back. Without rising up, just extend and all the way. As you come back in and it's that downward press of the palms and it's as if you're widening the foot plate until your head touches or gets near it. And out again.

Legs are energized. And in, nice and heavy on the ribs but maybe a little lighter on the hip bones. Or at least a subtle press of the belly upwards. Like, not overdoing any one of these pieces. I'm gonna do one more going to straight.

Then keep the arms straight, downward press, same idea but you're gonna arch up just a little. Bring the ribs up only when you need to and then take it back out and bend to come in. And push out. (exhales) A little press. You don't have to come in very far even, right?

It's not about the motion of the carriage. It's about what can you do even without the press of the arms. Down and bend to come in. Pressing out. This time the choreography won't be any different but just minimize that downward press of the palms.

Try not to use your arms. What can you do? And down. And in. Last one like that.

Sort of come in and up. Maybe not take a full range but bend your knees this time. And down. Do you need any more here? One more.

One more, same thing? And push out. This time as you're coming up bring the legs with you. So if they start to lift straight, keep the thighs pretty much down on the box but bend them. And everything stretches out.

Come all the way back in. Lift your head to get out of your way. And then let's just straddle the box up here. Come in kind of close so we can get some motion up near the foot bar. And then just push away, flex the feet, round the back.

Keep your arms straight and try to round the back more to bring the carriage more forward. And then at the last minute sit up tall, just let the knees bend or hang. Pull on the bar. Try not the thrust the pelvis forward but arch. And again, pressing out, let the spine round.

Go as far as you want. Then leave the upper body where it is and try to bring the spine or the carriage or everything forward by rounding more. When you've done all that, let the legs drop or hang. Pull yourself up. Take the right arm up.

Let it go a little further back. Follow it with your eyes. I'm definitely holding on with the left. You can even bend the left arm if you want. And then back to the center.

And down, other side. Get up tall first. And as you're looking back a little rotation's fine. Come on back and down. And then just a couple of deep breaths here, holding yourself up (exhales) and exhale.

One more. (exhales) I feel like we should be going somewhere now (laughs) (Meri hums cowboy music) (laughter) Thank you. (laughter)

Comments

5 people like this.
Whoo Hooo! Can't wait to do this tomorrow morning before my classes. Kristi and Mere, you are both so amazing and your classes always give such great takeaways. Love!
4 people like this.
Meredith, that syndrome is called misophonia!
4 people like this.
Wonderful class! I feel so energized! You ladies are great alone and even greater as a duo! Thanks! Keep them coming!
2 people like this.
I think this is my favorite class of all time!! So fun and dynamic thank you two for being so creative and having a sense of humor!!! I will share the love thanks for the inspiration!!!
3 people like this.
Really good! Liked your warm-up Kristi. I think I have that syndrome too....I go crazy when I listen to my husband eat almonds! Thanks ladies!
Fun variations, thanks!
2 people like this.
I am totally in love with this ladies!! And I can't get enough of you two teaching together. So good!! thank you for the awesome inspiration xx
Can't wait to try this. You two are so fun, and the work is great. Thanks for something to look forward to!
2 people like this.
Really fun class. Please make more and ladder barrel classes too.
I'm so happy you all are enjoying the dual teaching of Meredith and me. We did this together for years to keep up with teaching different things and learn from each other, but it got away from us over the last couple of years. It feels great to be doing it again and to have you all there with us! Thank you for the wonderful comments!
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