Class #237

Upper Body Theraband

20 min - Class
46 likes

Description

Amy uses the Theraband for upper body exercises and addresses the importance of the shoulder girdle and upper body strength for women. Mostly standing, you will work your triceps, biceps, rhomboid, and deltoids, and sitting you will be invited to apply external rotation/"draw a sword" into spinal rotation and extension. These exercises are perfect for someone who needs to build upper body strength but may have difficulty with weight bearing on the wrists. This class is a nice compliment to standing weight-bearing exercises focused on hip and spine strength and is good for women with Osteopenia or Osteoporosis due to the emphasis on length with strength.
What You'll Need: Mat, Theraband

About This Video

Aug 21, 2010
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Transcript

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I think we'll have a start with really is open up your theraband. Oh, you might want to go a little lighter than that. I just know your neck. What's been happening in the last week. In fact, the yellow may not be a bad idea. I just know that pinched nerve might rehab here on the yellow or nothing frankly. Okay, so here it is. You're opening up your theraband. Put your right foot again. I'm going to mirror you. I'm going to do my left right in the center of it.

We're going to lunge the front knee. Well, all right, ball of the foot. Amy. Here we are. Back leg is straight in parallel. Now guess what? We're back in our hinge. You thought we were done. I'm going to make you have you make a fist with the edge of the theraband and wadded up. Make a fist and then bring your elbows right up to your waist.

Yeah. Alright, we're going to do some tricep work. Let's do 10 repetitions. So you're pooling your tr, your arms, your forums, and fist back, and then bending at the elbows right at your waist. And we can exhale, might feel better. And inhale, bend and Exhale, stretch. You could also do this with just a regular hand weight, which we've done before. Stretch Ben [inaudible].

Can the sternum stay more lifted? You could think of maybe that long. Stick on your back again. So the ribs are in and extend just two more. And moving from the elbows. Press the wrist back and in. And last one press and in. Okay. Release the tension slightly. Step your other foot in.

And let's contrast that with bicep. So now in the more the front of the arms. Okay. And then same thing lunge. Trust is open, ribs are back, back leg is parallel. Buns are pooled together. So now we're bending the elbows but bringing the fist forward pretty much up to the shoulder. Yeah. And then lower with control and bicep curl and down. How about an exhale? So the back leg, recruit those glutes and sits bones.

Muscles together. So you've got the wrap going on back in the back of the pelvis. Act of hamstrings. For more open up the chest. You may have to put your shoulder blades a little more on your back together.

That's better. Two more times. And bicep curl. And did we have an accident? Did one rip and it did. Did you re did it tell you? Okay. Okay. Yes. Occasionally.

I know with jewelry and such that's happened before that there. Yeah. These are the things, or this is rubber that it'll get a little catch and little rip. Okay. Done with that one. Go back. Go back to the first, be careful. I've never had it happen in a class of mine. Um, but uh, that it could come back and you know, get you in the eye. But it's Kinda one of those things if it's going to tear and rip, you know, how can you get out of the way? Quick enough I guess, but be mindful. Okay.

So back in the first leg lunch, we're going to hold the hands again in that fist. Now open up your elbows, out to the sides, a little air underneath the underarms, chest forward. You've got the lunch, the hinge now. Oh, back leg, parallel. Heel flat. Thank you. Did you see it slightly turned out? You did. Thank you for catching me. She's paying me back.

That's it. You're doing okay. No, it's true. It's true. I tended open that hip and turned that leg up. Okay, so this is for the rom boys. The muscles between the shoulder blades on our upper back. Now you don't have to move much. We want to think of the elbows pulling up toward the ceiling and then we're going to go all the way to a straight arms down in front of us.

Really think elbows keep going. Elbows. You're going to point side to side and go up. Exactly. And then lengthen the arms down and forward again. Elbows out and up and down. Back leg parallel and sternum. Lifted Noun. And keep going.

We'll go a little more. Go out. Yeah, and down a couple more guys. Elbows out and up and down. Last time, elbows out and up and down. [inaudible] great. Okay. Over one more time. Switch your lunge. Okay.

Can I get right in the center? And then fist again, this is the tr, uh, chest expansion, which we've done before in here and on the reformer and other pieces of equipment. So, um, I'm going to have us turn our wrist this way. Make a hitchhiker thumb and pointed forward. Now we've done some triceps with bent elbows. This is actually straight arms and once again, you're in that hinge and we move the both straight arms back. It may not move much and then arms forward and we'll exhale today.

Press back and forward. So exhale. So as the arms are coming behind us, there is, we're definitely coming from the upper back. It's not that we really pinch a huge, you know, huge object between the shoulder blades, but there is a little bit of engagement up there, but the lats are also key. Pull them down for more guys. You don't have to move much.

Good. Three more and to, and last time. Good. Okay. That's enough of that. So just release. So I'm going to have this come to sitting for a little break. Oh, I see. Smiles finally. All right. So when we're seated with this today, I want to go ahead and open it all the way out, long on the floor and then sit to one side of it all the way to the side.

Yeah. PR Maybe Mirror what I'm doing. Yes. Have you all sit on that side of your, your band? All right. Now the opposite hand is going to reach around and grab the band. We are sitting on it and then you're going to grab the hint, uh, palm face up. So this, the elastic band is right across the hip and abdomen and you can keep your palm open if you'd like to or you could close and make a fist.

It's personal preference. Other hand on the knee is fine or even out on the floor on the side. And again, work your posture, seating vertical without the ribs pushing forward. We're gonna start with some external rotation, so elbow in towards your waist. And we open and pulled a band across. Okay. And then across the front of the body.

So other hand for there their go Lucy, you got it. Your left hand there on. Got It. And then bring it back this way in front of you. You got it there. That's it right there. And then we open. My elbow is attached. Oh, well I've placed it there. Yeah.

Yeah. This elbow is still pulled in toward my body and open and contract. So we're working the external rotators of the shoulder. Everybody just stay right here. Find your external rotation. Okay. I'm going to add another layer to it. From here. Move from your elbow. Now.

Pulls away from you. Reach your arms straight out, not higher than shoulder level, and then return elbow into waist. Three more of those and extend out. So can you lift a little more in your posture to bring the elbow back in? Good. Two more. Sync your shoulder blade and Horace your arm out. Bring your elbow back in so their shoulder stays level.

It's really action in elbow, slightly in the upper arm joint and in. Okay, so we're going to put those two together. Bring it back across the front. Inhale. We'll piece it apart. Exhale, full stretch. Inhale. It's a retrograde back in. Exhale across the front three more times. Who has grandchildren?

Oh, have you ever lifted those little tikes and had sore shoulders afterward? Wouldn't it have been nice to have more preparedness or preparation where holding their body weight? This not a bad idea to practice these exercises to help you with family projects. One more time or newborns. That's a whole nother category. Okay. So adding a little bit more into that. I have a client right now who's preparing for Prek or to have the baby.

She's really close and she's really, really, we're just working her shoulders a lot cause she's nervous about the wait picking up the baby and leaning over the crib, picking up nursing, putting down and not having, cause she has not very much strength in her upper body. So that's what we've been working on. Okay. So we've externally rotated and we're going to rotate down the waist and go ahead and just look at the fist. Look at the fist there. Okay. Draw the shoulder down and if you want, I'm going to have this. Go with it. Stretch the band. You may need to move your hand toward the end of the loop.

Stretch the band and now can you access more spinal rotation as you're pulling on the thera-band, can you open your chest a little more? Now we're going to retro grade. Come in elbow to waist [inaudible] turn or on spiral return three more times. Make it flow right in one movement. Re right into the next reach. Open your sternum and elbow in.

Unwind to face the front two more times. Open. Start to pull. Add the spiral. Lift your sternum. If you're maybe even looking in the back seat of your car or reaching for something on the seat. Who's done that? Uh Huh. Your functional. I know and rotate and stretch.

Reach. It's funny I give that that kind of very, we've all done that. We've all done that exercise and suddenly we've tapped in like, oh, we're doing a normal movement rather than a potties thing. Okay. Done with that side so you can just slide your band across. Sit on the other end.

You may choose to cross the other leg on top if you remembered. Which one was there. Fun with the theraband. Okay. Turn a cross around. Make a fist. We start with our elbow pressed in toward our waistline and on knee or out to the side. Ribs in dominoes, engaged shoulders are open and first just the external rotation of the Humerus, which is that upper arm bone we build on the exercise. It's an opening and close.

If you want more resistance on this, you just would scoot your hand, you know, have more tail. That would make the band tighter to pool. If you want less resistance, minimize the tail. Okay, and externally rotate and return. Let's take one more externally rotate. We're going to hold so that we added the second layer of extending the arms so their shoulder stays level. We really reach from the elbow away from the waist, feel that shoulder blade, pull down, lot of power in that lat and then bring the elbow back into the waist.

And again, let's exhale, reach out and inhale elbow. Ian, can you lift? Holler in your spine two more times. Exhale and reach and inhale and close. Elbow into waist and reach and elbow into waist. And then we'll add the third layer came all the way across. So no, no rotation yet. So inhale, try to keep that upper arm bone so that the inner elbow is facing forward. Reach the arm alone and then return elbow to hip and all the way across.

Three more times. Inhale, exhale, end reach. Inhale, elbow in and exhale across. Inhale, it's like we're meditating kind of as a meditation. Last one. Now we held adding a rotation. Turn. Reach into that arm, ask the sternum to come around. Look, look, look, look, look, keep reaching that arm back. Where's your shoulder blade? All right.

Now as we come back in and start unwinding, bring your elbow into your hip and returned to facing front and we'll take the forearm all the way across. So again, elbow extend, start the rotation, your obelisks working, but also the row, the row, a mid back extensors and the lat for rotation. And then elbow in, unwind and coming all the way to the front. Two more times. And open reach. Invite the wrist to lengthen like the ribs around. Lift the sternum and where is the belly button?

Where your shoulder blades and coming back in and around. And one more time guys. Really see that and see yourself reaching more, rotating more. Stay tall as you come back around the front all the way in to rest. Okay. Now let's come back up to standing for one last thing.

Bring your band with you and I'd like us to come back up the legs all the way together. We've done this recently with the green strap. That's not the elastic strap, the green strap that has the big boobs on it. Thank you. Have a great weekend. Yeah, I will. And yeah, hands probably a little wider than shoulders. Okay. And ribs in tail-end. Let's go ahead guys and take the band right up above the head and bend to the side in a side bend. And as we side bend to the right, let your left hip also lean out to the side.

Let this feel good. You know, I want us to definitely keep the shoulder blades down the back and all that good fundamental stuff, but open up this side and if you lean your hip out, you may feel a little more stretch in the waist and down into the side of the glutes. And then we'll come back up to vertical and we'll go to the other side and just raging over, finding a side bend. Squeeze your inner thighs together, squeeze your rear end and reach. Open up your side and let's come back up to vertical suing an inhale. Exhale. Sure.

[inaudible] up and over. Lean with your hip. Let me see more hip. There we go. And all the way up. And again, bending your spine, spine, spine, spine, spine, spine. Move your hip out to the side. Good and center. It's okay. And over solid legs. Press your hip out. Press so shoulders down and lift one more each side, up and over.

Open your side and stretched all last time over to your side. Stretching your obliques, contracting the obliques, and all the way to vertical. Everybody lower your arms for a second. Okay, final movement. You start with your, uh, their band up above the head. I need to, I know this about myself. I've got to go a little wider with my grip. Some of you don't need to, but yeah. And so what's gonna Happen? We're gonna pull the band and move the band behind our shoulders.

As for a chest stretch, if any of you experienced anything, you know, shoulder, elbow, wrist, that doesn't feel good. Just don't do this one. All right. And then let's bring you back up and above the head. Actually today I feel okay. I'm going to go a little narrower. Ready? Same thing. So it's up. Pull on it. So there's some wrong Boyd work again.

Bring the band behind the shoulders. Now if you could see yourself from a side view, what would you want to see? I saw a couple of you correct things. Yeah, we'd want flat ribs. We'd want a long lower back and not as stuck out tail and Toshi. Okay. And arms up, but not a tuck tissue either.

And two more times up pole and back behind the shoulders. Good. I know I've done it. I love that. Now. Yeah, Brittany's got a little idea. What if the band got narrower? Whoa. Woo. That's not for everyone. No, but it is for some. One more time and arms up. Thank you.

That was a nice, that was a nice little extra creativity. It's great. Right? So if you want it, you want to play with that. Let the band get narrow where that's actually very healthy. As long as the ribs stay placed where they should be placed. Yeah. All right, pool. Let's bring our arms up. We're going to take the, just the strap right down here and just a nice easy standing roll down. All right and let the head round. Take your time. Let the shoulders round, let the spine curve.

Ah, stretch those back muscles. Boy, we put a lot of focus on them today. Everybody just stayed there for a couple of breaths. We did. We put a lot of focus on her back extensors in the standing work, you know, and the pelvis and the lower back. So if you need to bend your knees right now to ease that a little, you know, take care of yourself to do so. Let the weight of the head hang. Let the arms hang.

Let's take one more nice deep breath and then starting that roll up from the entail bone and let it round down. Rotate your pelvis right up over the top of the legs. Sorry. Stand up to all the way into vertical. Nice. Open. Ready to go through the day. Posture. Thanks everybody. Yeah, thanks for your focus.

Comments

loved the class! a great short exercise for those who don't have a lot of time to do an hour class.
Hi Carmen.....yes, we try to put up classes that vary in length so if a person only has 10 minutes, we can provide the perfect class for that. Sometimes these short classes are just right and perfect to mix in with other activities ike coming home from taking a walk or jog etc. Glad you liked it!
Nice class, thanks. Especially liked the interaction with the class -natural and helpful cues.
Thank you Cathy! It's nice to hear feedback!
wow i loved this class, i can do it while my son takes a nap, though short it gives a great work out
Hi Nancy! Yes, that's perfect.....squeeze in these short workouts during naptime, brilliant! Glad you enjoyed it!
As a massage therapist these shoulder exercises were amazing. Exactly what I needed to do after a day of work at the spa.
Thank you Robyn! Keep up your Pilates education and training.....you'll feel every ounce of your effort and be amazed at what Pilates will do for your life! I look forward to hearing from you again!
Thank you! I feel so good after that. I enjoyed the movement and your teaching style!
Oh nice , that was super to end my day! Love the brand and got many ideas to try on my students. Thanks Amy.
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