Class #2715

Precise & Detailed Reformer

60 min - Class
122 likes

Description

Work on correct, healthy, and beautiful movement in this Reformer workout with Diane Diefenderfer. She teaches challenging exercises, adding smooth transitions between to keep the class flowing. She also gives a detailed explanation of the set up of the equipment and straps for exercises like Long Spine Stretch, so you can make the adjustments needed for your Reformer.
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box, Pilates Pole

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Hi, I'm Diane Diffenderfer and I am delighted to be back at Palazzos anytime. We're going to do a reformer workout program and it will be intermediate to advanced and we're going to go at a pretty good pace. So I hope you all enjoy it. I have here to helping me, Laura and Jia. I will be offering spring's suggestions, but of course when you're on your home reformer, you do what, what works for you. Um, and we are going to get started. All right, let's go ahead ladies and sit down nicely. Bring your feet through to the wooden ledge and we're going to roll down using our abdominals to go down Vertebra by Vertebra. Good. All right, good. Let's have you go ahead and extend the legs to the ceiling nicely.

Alright, good. And finding perpendicular and then using your good abdominals. Bend the knees and bring the feet to the foot bar. And we will start in a classic prehensile position. I know there's two versions of prehensile.

One is there's probably more than two versions. A one is higher on the bar, kind of massaging the knife under the in step. This one. I'd like to have the girls really grasp the toes and feel great connection in all 10 toes. Strengthening the metatarsal is really getting a good kind of clawfoot on the bar. We're working with the legs together. I like to have, unless you have issues where you need to separate your legs. We're going to work with the legs together. I'll stop talking in a minute. We'll get going but it's important to set up correctly.

So we are going to have legs together working on the inner thigh and I like to give the cue of thinking of one leg you have two but one leg, two legs working equally 50 50 to create one beautiful long symmetrical, gorgeous, streamlined body. Lets go ahead and press out and inhale and we're going to stay there for this first first one heels deep and exhale here. Get let your heels come deep, deep, deep, deep, deep and you get a nice Achilles stretch but do be careful if your knees are hyper extended that you don't lock back into the knees. So we want to really engage underneath neutral pelvis is hugely important. Use those buns. Keep the belly button to the spine, Chin lifted, breathe in again, and let's have you return. And we're going to go fluidly.

Eight repetitions and pressing now and Andean and press and the neck is long. If you were standing up, you'd be very elegant and tall and the inhale opens you. The exhale closes and prs and good use those seat muscles press and one more is your eight. And we're going to do little pulses. One, two, three, four. Breathe in, in, out, out. Really feel that pelvic floor and the seat muscles working. Good. Let's stretch to her.

Oh Lord. And exhale. Return. Those pulses are to give you a little more work on your vastus. Medialis see pelvic floor. Let's go ahead and develop the legs to the ceiling. Flex the feet and lower your heels to the bar.

Are working nice and high on the bar. Really? Yeah, really? Press in there. Don't let me push your feet off. Begin one and then, and eight times. Good. Thinking of the whole body. Relaxed at the top. Shoulders easy. Good.

So a deep flection of the feet is going to really work that anterior Tibialis. Yeah, and press into your heels and this is a good and pulses not fast. Two, three, four. Second, set three, four. Think of one leg. So you work your inner thighs forth, set, looking good, stretch long. Feel the belly. Now resist, resist. So you work the hamstrings. Nice ladies, devil, pay or develop your legs to the ceiling.

Come to relevant a or bowls of the feet on the bar. Nice. High in steps. So you work where you can as long as you're not sickling or pronating. Supinate ing, but very even and begin pressing one and in and too. So relevant as a dancer term.

I have done a dancer reformer program. It's another video. I encourage you to look at that, but everyone benefits from this nice high heel work really gets the calf outside of the leg. Good. Really work under the seat and this should be 8:00 AM good. Let's go out and hold now. Flex your feet down, one presser, seven more, two and up and down. Inhale lifts you exhale down and up.

We use different amounts. Sometimes I just want to keep this program moving today. Lift and you're lifting from your seat. There should be eight I believe, and come on up. And then, or plea a, a nice girls devil oppo to the ceiling. Now they're in parallel.

Now let's go ahead and turn out and back to parallel just to feel the difference. Do that again. Turnout and parallel turnout. So we see the turnout coming from the hip. Parallel turnout. Flex and come down to first position. So your first position is where you control your turnout.

You can go narrow or wider. Don't ever go too wide. It's a little hard on the back. Okay, good. And begin on and bend. Good. And we can call it a play, meaning to bend. And there's equal control in both directions.

I think that's important to remember. So you work the carriage, always, always good. No tucking, tempted to talk. I know you're fine. And even pulses. One, two, a little further. Four and second set three for work. Those seat muscles. Two, three, four, last set. Good. Now come on out there. Pull your in seams.

If you have pants on in seams together, your inner thigh should be tingling. Yes. Okay. And Ben, come on home. Great ladies. Hug your knees to your chest. Good. Alright, so in some of the other reform programs I do, I do more like in footwork. We do all kinds of single leg work. Not Today. We're going to move on. All right, so let's put your feet on the ledge. Bring your arms to the ceiling, breathing in and roll up nicely. Use Your abdominals and good.

We'll put the foot bar down and we're going to go to hundreds of different ways we can do hundreds. Most important is to breathe and to have good pelvic and abdominal connection going on. So the girls have on a red and a blue right now. Depends what reformer you're using. Okay, go ahead and roll down and we want to make sure we have our shoulders, your shoulders away from your shoulder blocks. Today we're going to do a series that I learned from Ron Fletcher, so without curling up Laura, she's going to, we're going to do four sets at tabletop, four sets at vertical, four sets at a lower angle, four sets at a lower angle and four sets as low as you can go. Toes at eye level hopefully. Okay.

Knowing that ahead of time helps and you're going to breathe in fours, so the breath is shh. Okay, not fives today. All right, let's have the arms at a nice, perpendicular alignment. Breathe in, leave your legs. Come on up into a good contraction and inhale. Three, four, exhale. Three, four second set. The arms are subtle. They're not flapping. Big, big movement and talked. Risked in line with your finger.

Good legs up, wrist in line with your forearm. One line, second set. Good. Two, three, four. Nice. Nat belly button is into the spine. Fourth set. Good and a little lower. One, two, three, four. Exhale, make sure you really get area in so we're not just making noise. Air Out, Arion, air out, air in. Nice girls. Good. We go another notch. Lower. Yeah. This is really more than a hundred. We're counting to two, three, four. Good. Real rhythm. That's what our breath is. It's our tempo.

Two, three, four. Good. And we have one more notch and one nice. Reach out through the shoulder, down in the shoulders, out through the fingers, toes at eye level. Good. Exhale. Pull that belly down. Last set. Beautiful. Yeah, and bend your arms and your legs lie down. Let's put the feet on the ledge. That was great. You should feel warm, energized, and definitely air raided.

Let's cross the right leg over the left. Casual Cross. All right, take your left. Hold your shoulder blocks. Take your legs over to your left and just stretch the back. This is a little bit of a break in between hundreds and coordination. You'll be grateful that you're doing this. Come back, go to the other way. Same legs. If this does not feel good on your backs or hips, don't do it. Yeah, most people really enjoy this moment.

Change sides. Cross your left over your right and go that way. You good? Feel good. It feels good to get off the back and twist a little bit. Center. Always use your abdominals to transition and other Eh, good. Come on back. We're going to do a traditional or they're going to do a traditional coordination. We'll do eight total.

Four with the legs coming to tabletop and four with the knees pulling all the way in. All right, so let's go ahead and bring your elbows by your sides and your knees at table. Tall legs at table top. I like the right angles we have here. Straighten your wrist out a little bit, Laura. Pull the scapula down. Lengthen the neck. We take air as you go. Let's, sorry. Let's take air and stay there. Exhale. Let's get more ready and then go ahead.

Reaching out. Inhaling, open and closing. Tabletop and arms. Head stays up and reach out. Good. Open, close table top. And then the arms. It's arms and legs, legs, legs, legs and arms. One more like this. Wrist, straight and good. Four more big breath. Inhale. Now pull those knees oil and use your belly and bend and reach. Touch me.

Yeah, good. Pull the easy in. So if your pelvis lifts a little bit, it's okay only because you're pulling your knees so deeply with abdominal muscles that that's what may happen in the pelvis. Pull those knees away and wait and wait and wait at rest. Yay. How do we feel coordinated? Good one. Okay, good. All right. We can segue right into short spine stretch feet in the straps. So we've used the girls, I didn't say it. Three reds for the leg and foot work.

You could use four depending on your herb reformer. They used a red and a blue spring for hundreds and this coordination, and they're still on a red and a blue for short spine stretch. Head rest down is key. All right, so there's different versions that I've learned of this. We're going to do one that I really like today for a lot of stretch of not only the back, but the legs, hamstrings, so the girls are going to inhale first on the exhalation. They're flexing in the hip and the back. We try to keep it down.

It may start to lift. It's okay. They inhale Wa while they're there and they exhale and curl up. Peeling up Vertebra by Vertebra. They've been to a diamond on the inhale without good. Dropping the knees. Good and rolling. On the exhale.

Open the neck and throat to bring heels in like a little froggy. Use your belly. Push through hold. Inhale one. Exhale, legs to hold. Inhale three. Exhale. Peel up then to the diamond. Good and roll down. You can see that Laura has her legs about over the shoulder blocks.

Heels in. Use that belly here to get the sacrum down and reach parallel. Inhale, hold one. Exhale, legs too. Good. This feels good. And how Pras the exhalation pools you up. Good Ben to the diamond.

So reach the knees. Yes. Heels deep and reach out. How? Once again, breeze. Now let the reformer help you stretch. Don't fight it. Yeah, not that you're fighting it. Throw it in and use the belly.

Think of your toes going through the ceiling. Nice. Bend and roll down. So again, you can really see Jia has her knees just over the shoulder blocks that belly pulls you down. How many did you do? Girls? Four. Let's do one more. Inhale, prepare. We love this one. Exhale. Flex in the hips. Lot of hamstring work, stretch. Good. Think of that. Tailbone up to the ceiling, then never dropped. Beautiful. And then Vertebra by Vertebra, by Vertebra. If you need more breath, take it. By.

All means heals in and push through. Oh good. Let's take the feet out. Lovely. All right, we're going to segue now into some arm work and some rowing. Okay. I've left out a lot of the inner thigh control in this workshop because I did so much in the last two. The last workshop that I did. Work workout. All right there on one. Read a head rest down. We're gonna start with some, uh, just basic bicep movement.

So you have a nice tall back and the arms are out and feel like you're offering something. So there's a lot of presence in, I like beautiful movement. Correct, healthy and also beautiful. Why not? Good and tall back. Watch your ribs, Laura. And let's do eight bicep polls, one and then two nicks and then good. So this exercise is as much for posture as it is for your biceps. Extend, good, pull and Nice.

You look beautiful and reach good. All right. And they're going to go into rowing and they have a space behind them, which is essential for the sacred to go to. All right, you're going to inhale, bend, contract and the arms go with you. Keep exhaling as you curl forward over your hips. Present the arms tall. Inhale, circle, pull around and forward you float. Stretch those arms. Inhale, circle around and head toward the knees.

Hands towards the ankles and stir Rach, rolling up and beginning rowing again. One, pull the arms contract into the chair. Uh, stand up. You're still exhaling. Good release. Tall. Present the arms. Turn. Pull them around. Round forward. Yeah, we don't want to flop you. You didn't flop. I'm just suggesting that you use your belly to go forward. And Sir, Oh and I'm going to give him a little stretch.

Sit Up tall and we'll go two triceps, man. One and through and to keep it moving through and press here again. Good example of work in both directions and through and press looking good through. Good and okay. Now we'll do the uh, rowing with the hinge back. So beginning the same way. Inhale and hinge back and uh, present the arms. Inhale, circle around and down.

Stretch hands back as you circle hollow. The belly, the good. I last time Paul. One hinge too. Good. Are each three circle around four? I don't know. I'm counting and you're moving fine or each. And Circle and stretch. Nice. Okay girls. Great.

Let's loop the straps over the poles and we're going to take the grippers for stomach massage and we're going to use two reds and the bar up. Make sure that you don't use it a too high of a foot bar. Sometimes we use a higher foot bar. If we have someone that's a little bit more petite, uh, shorter in stature, so they get a deeper knee bend when they're doing leg and foot work. But when you're doing your stomach massage, you don't want that bar up too high.

It's just not right to have your knees in front of your eyes. So they're going to work with fare bars, moderate height. That's what I would call this. All right. They're your nice and close, which is really challenging. Woo. Okay, let's put the feet in first position. We're going to take a moment and put the hands between, and I like to get a good setup here. So we have a gorgeous, tall back energy radiating into the bed and out to the ceiling. Good. And you're going to inhale again and use your abdominals to go into a contraction lifted up and over and begin one flex two or Ella of a return.

Eight times. You can help count. Good. Bring your arms a little forward. So I like the imagery of a nice a ball in here that you're wrapped over a ball. You're not going to squish the ball and you're not going to lean backward. Good armpits over the hips. You could round a little more. They're not the head, but the middle back.

[inaudible] good. I think this is eight flax. Good. Come in and hold. Put your hands right behind you and kind of undulate until your back is lifted. Show the sternum. Now you can do what GE is doing or you can put your hands down what Laura's doing whenever it feels better on shoulders and elbows and begin one flex, two rail of a return and two dpls.

That gives you a good calf stretch and good. So I love this exercise. It seems simple but it isn't. We're trying to elongate open up stretch space between ribs and hips. Open the chest beautifully good. I've lost count. Good. Last one and good last time. We'll make that the Latin numbers.

Not that important. A, you got a vague idea. Okay, let's go to teaser legs. Hello. Opened a second. Go ahead and straddle. We're going to do a little stretch here, which is not so conventional. Ron Fletcher always did this in between. I think it's a nice break. Let's put the hands on the bar. Watch the ribs and we're going to, I'm going to use this pole that happens to be here. Ha Ha. So let's find your spine along that pole. Yeah, watch the ribs. Laura has a nice back here. She has a tendency to arch.

Some times we're going to keep the pole with you or you're going to inhale first. Exhale, hinge forward. So we're in a very good straight line and back to perpendicular and hinge. Good. So if you don't have a pole or someone holding a pole, you're going to imagine there's a pole back there. Those knees are open and you've got your poll. So the next days in line with the spine. Good. One more ribs.

Yeah. Good G. Yeah. Right. Okay. And let's take the arm, reach the right arm back and get a little rotation just to feel good. Come back around to the center and rotate the other way. That's just a little intermission feeling good. Alright, good. Then put the hands inside your legs. You can use the wood, those ribs again. All right. Right. Arm Up and bend to your left shoe. Yeah, and get a nice side stretch and come back center and do the other side. Good. Working the turnout.

The legs are going to want to go forward. You're going to work against that using your external rotators. Come on back. All right, let's go to a lighter spring. Instead of the two, reds will work red and blue for the reach and the twist part of stomach massage. All right, go ahead gals. Put your legs back up and to first position. And I love this exercise. I love a lot of them, but I really love this one.

All right. I don't want you to reach to my shoulders and beyond through your back. So you're really struck strengthening your back extensors. Reach, pass me. Good and go and return. So there's no movement or flection in the feet and you want to make sure whatever reformer you have that you work fairly lightly.

You don't want to have a springs for this and reach and good. What's the one? One more as good and come in and hands to the shoulders. Inhale here, rotate right and center and those legs stay. He'll stay together. Alright, and center. Nice. [inaudible] laughed. Let's do one more each way.

Lift the ribs up and off the waist center last time. And good. Why don't you go parallel and push out and just stretch here. So this is one of these things that if it feels good to you, do it. And if it doesn't, maybe not.

Great. All right, let's come back. Put your feet back down. Uh, we need to change the spring. We're going to go to Jackknife. We're keeping, I'm keeping the pace going here. So are you getting feeling warm? Okay. Alright, let's have one spring. Um, Laura's using a green g is gonna use a [inaudible] red, one spring red or a green. So it's not meant to be heavy here. Rest down. We're good to go. And then we'll put the foot bar out of the way as well. Good. I love the Jack Knife. I know in the, um, original advanced, very advanced order, it comes quite early in the program. Depends what you feel good about.

I like to do it a little bit more midway through because it requires a lot of strength in the back and the abdominals. And I think you're warm enough to do it now, or you can go this temperature. Good. All right, let's go to tabletop legs. Alright. So please remember not to turn the hats. Yeah. All right, we're going to extend the legs out on a diagonal. Now you're going to move your arms and your legs simultaneously. Going back, rolling up tall, roll the spine.

Inhale, exhale down. Nice anchor and lower the legs. Arms Up. Inhale, arms, legs, exhale. Let's take a breath as you start your descent and then exhale as you roll. Anchor the sate crumb and two more. One a two and I'll try rolling down more straight.

Beautiful. Whew. Good. And yes, you're weaker. Well, nobody's awake during this exercise. The legs, if you're, if you're weaker, they may go back more. Lara's trying to roll down with her legs more vertical. So is Jia who that's Jeff and you've slid, but that's okay. That's plenty. We don't need to do 10 jack knives or overhead. Same exercise. All right, great girls. Let's come on up. We're going to go to a red and a blue for the long stretch series and we're going to do the long stretch, the down stretch, the up stretch, and the elephant. All right, so we need a red and a blue.

That's going to be pretty standard and a head rest up. Yes. And then I'd like you to stand at the side of your reformer and um, approach it the correct way. Whatever side you're on, you're going to put the far hand out and the near foot and the other hand and the other foot and your feet go in the crevice of the headrest. The heels are working downward ish. They're not going to be touching unless have extraordinarily long Achilles tendons. Okay? And I'm talking and you're holding this good. Squeeze the buttons. Lift your chin. We've got this pole here and there.

You're going to kill me for winking them. Hold this. But that's, that's okay. Head up a little bit. All right. And Go. This is why it's called the long stretch. Yeah, you're in a long line. Inhale. Exhale. Oh boy. Do you look good? Good. Good. Press the heels downward.

Squeeze the inner thighs. Press the shoulder blades down. And one more coming up. And that's plenty. And let's go troll. So lower with control. I love that. Good. Alright. A downstream, your knees or your feet, or to the shoulder blocks. Your knees are open. Now, important to do this correctly, go ahead.

Without moving your carriage. Bring your pelvis towards your bar. Boy, I really remember being taught this by Romana. Really squeeze the buttons. Pull the belly in so you don't lay into that lumbar spine. Yeah, that's a good example of not what to do. Pull the belly and then the arch of the body goes from the chin, sternum, ribs, belly, hip flexors, knees.

So you're like that. Beautiful. Is it called a bow? Sprit in the front of a ship. We're by the ocean, so okay, here we go. Inhale down. You exhale. Three, one, two, three. Again, keep the buns tight. Exhale, open to you're coming out of the water. Two more. We don't do a ton of these. One, two, three. Lovely. Last time. One, two. There's a lift. Hold. Inhale, contract the belly. Sit back on your heels and stretch the back.

Love that exercise. So g is stretching here, which is great. Laura's gone a little lower, kind of hanging back on the bar. They're both fine and you're sweating. Good. All right, let's go up to the up stretch. Yeah. So you're going to stand on a moderate, uh, relevant. A, you don't want to be, go too high for a moment on relevance. This really puts too much weight on the end step. So bring your toe. Yeah, good. Make sure you're not sickling. Your feet. Every part of the body is important.

Good. And she's here. Her head is in line with her spine. Do it wrong. Look up. No good. Tuck your chin. No. Good. All right. I could get that pole again, but I don't think I need to. Okay. Move the carriage back. One pelvis, sand forward. The head hangs and you brag back.

Inhale back. Exhale for very fluid movement again. One, squeeze the bones word and really lift the tail to the ceiling and back. This looks so good. We'll do a few more and sorry, and good. One more. Back and over. Excellent.

And pause. Come to flat feet and walk a little further forward. Good. Now I'm going to take a spring off so it's only one red or you could do one blue. We didn't do this elephant rounded back.

The hips should be over the feet. The shoulders should be over the hands, the light spring, maybe no springs makes it really challenging. Pull that belly in so you have an equally flex spine in all parts. Very good. Now with care, let the carriage, you press it back and then you pull it in with the belly. Good again back. And this is how I learned the elephant. Yes, it's a stretch, but it's really about that control.

Good. Pull the belly in to bring the carriage forward. So your challenge if at home is to try this super light. Pull in. Beautiful. Two more. You okay girls? You look good. You don't look like elephants, but you look good and good. All right, let me have you put your hands to the carriage. Bend your knees.

I'm going to add the blue spring and you're going to roll back up for a second to standing. Roll up to standing. Good. All right, and I just want to get them off of their shoulders for a moment. Excellent. Good. All right, let's have you shrug your shoulders up and down and good. Do that a few times just to review. They did the long stretch, the down stretch, the up stretch on a red and a blue spring and then I lightened it purposefully to a one light red or a blue or even what if you have a yellow to go. You can stop shrugging it to go even lighter to challenge the abdominals to pull that elephant in. Now we're back to weave. Yes, we did go back to a red and a blue. Let's go back now a little bit different. Put your, you're going to roll back down. Sorry.

And you're gonna move your feet back to the shoulder blocks. You can hold the bar and move back to the shoulder blocks on flat. Now Jia needs to be careful because of hyperextension otherwise, and it's, and she is a, we all need to be careful that we pull up the quads so we don't walk back into the Ne. And now if you are fine with your knees, you can really put the weight in the heels. Go ahead, back and forth. This is not the elephant. This is a high the stretch, which gives a nice stretch to the calves, hamstrings. We're just going to do this a few times for just for the stretching aspect of it. Shoulders are even and good.

All right girls. Now we're wanting to do some splits. So let's do some parallel splits. You can go back foot on Relevate, right foot up on the bar. So there's different controls. This is a kind of a basic split that I like. Let's bend into the front knee. Yeah, and you're going to hold the bar on this one and get a nice lunge. So you're stretching the hip here.

Bring the hips to the ceiling so you're in a nice scissor like position and press out. Inhale and exhale, return and for us and return. Good. Let's do four or five times. You all be careful on this one, that you're nice and warm and you don't let go. You got that. You would let go. Good. Let's go a fifth time and hold the extension carefully. Bend your front knee so you get a nice deeper stretch on the back, hip flex or good, and you'll change out of it carefully to the other side. Good.

All right, so lunging to start with the carriage at rest, you're going to bring your hips to the ceiling as squares you can, and go ahead. Inhale back, exhale forward. So there's a series of controls. I've done some of them in other videos. This is a actually a stretch, so I call it the parallel splits, which is exactly what they're doing. Do be careful because the parallel alignment is a lot of pull under that.

A front hamstring. Is this your last one? Stay there. Feel it. Bend the front knee carefully. Always use the abdominals. Good and nice ladies. Okay, let's step off and we're going to get the short box up. Good. All right, so the bars are going to go down, the boxes are going to come up, and I'm going to put all springs on, which we can use and have them there for security. We don't need the carriage to move anywhere, so we just go ahead and put all your springs on and we need to get the foot strap up from the bottom. Good. Good bar away. We're good. All right.

And so the way I learned this, if you're a little bit taller, you put your box over your shoulder blocks. If you're a little bit shorter, you put it in front of depends not just on your height, but on the proportions of your legs. Okay, let's go ahead and sit up there. Good. Pulls it the ready. Alright, so we're going to do a whole series first, the contraction. So first I want to talk about this for a moment. The back is tall again. I'm going to have the girls put their arms in the I dream of Jeannie position. I don't know if anybody knows what that TV show anymore. Going back a few years.

All right, good. Already sitting beautifully. This is so important to me that you approach each exercise or each movement with a sense of determination and intention. All right, so the feet are nicely hooked. Your inhalation is going to have you grow even taller. You should lift up off the Bach drag rollbacks.

Exhale back and forth a year. Inhale, lift and exhale. Boom. I'm not gonna Punch her in the stomach. I don't like that imagery, but it is as though there's a force pulling that belly that was better into the back and left ponytails. Help X, x, oh, Ooh. Lift like you're a dancer. Couldn't keep going. You're being partnered.

Yeah, and we're going, oh, hi. One more look. So good. Deep contraction. Rounded and lift. One more. One more. Again, when you come up, I want you to IX, come pause here for a moment. And then Vertebra by Vertebra. By Vertebra, by Vertebra. So what you don't want to do, I'm having a teaching moment here.

You're going to go back and then when you come forward, don't do that. Don't drop forward, sort of. And you will loom and then lift your head first. You know that kind of scoop thing. Stick your chin out. Yeah, we don't want to do that def. No. Good. You wouldn't do that, would you? Okay, good. All right, let's take the pole now. Oh No, let's do the full back band. Yeah. Okay, so advanced folks do be careful. You need to have space behind your sacrum. Hugely important.

Yeah, same breath. You're going to inhale tall. Lift. Exhale, contract. Good. You're going to go all the way back. Arms overhead. Inhale. Bring your hands folded and curl back up. I'm going to put this down in head rest in case you go further. Inhale tall. Exhale, contract. Oh good. Fall extension. Arms hands over the chest. Chin to the chest.

Rounded and that's enough. Ooh, I like that one. That is not for the faint of heart. Okay, let's take the pole again. Good. I'm using this here cause Laura's PR. Well your profile too, depending on what camera is on you now without flaring your ribs, put your arms up over your, over your head, by your ears. Yeah, if you can get here, fine. If that's going to cause the ribs to come out, then don't. This is important. Feel that now grow tall or along that pole you feel the difference. Do we see the difference now? Just kind of be straight, but kind of uninteresting. Yeah. You know there's a difference. Now be straight and ah, there's life in there. I love that. Okay, stay there.

Hold the pole. Shoulders down. There's your hinge. Inhale back. Watch the ribs. Exhale. Inhale back. These guys look good. Hey, exhale. Halla five times. Inhale, they're keeping their pole by their ears, which is really tough. Good. One more. Let the feet rest. Give me your, give me your pull. Hold onto it and I'll get you in a second. Jia?

You can bend forward as well. Good. Don't let go. Or I'll end up on the floor. Good. And Jia breathe in and out. Good. And Laura, let's go from the forward bend where, Gee, yeah, let's take a breath and roll up slowly. Bring the pole by your lap and take it back overhead. Good.

And we're going to do a twist without moving your hips. Go to the right one. Lean two, a three front for other side. This is a smaller twist. Both hips anchored and right. And you lean and you're up and face front and the left and you lean.

Nice. And again, the arms are equidistant from your head. Bigger twist. Go to the back corner. Woo. Good. Up and front. Good. I remember Ron Fletcher saying to reach your pole to the back corner of the equipment. That's a big, that's a long journey. Yeah. And I've seen him do it and it was something to watch. Good.

And rest. Good. Put the pole down. How are you doing? They're smiling. You're wonderful. Good. All right, let's do, um, the tree. All right, there's different trees. We're gonna do the tree in parallel, so make sure you've got the space behind your sacrum. Take the right thigh in your hand. Good. Good, good. Elbows open again. We've got the presence and Dev low. Pay three times. Inhale and exhale. You're good.

Inhale and exhale. Inhale and keep it. Breathe in. Grow Taller contract. Take the knee with you. Dev, low pan, arms open. Curl up, Chin to chest. There's your tree climate.

Flex the foot, pull the toes, pour the bra up and around. Good. Again, more on. We'll do two on each leg. That's plenty too. I like that your shoulders are down and 30 good. Keep it close to you like you love that leg contract. Interac leg with you. Take your leg with you. Take your leg with you. Good Open. Great stretch here. She ended chest. Exhale, climb your Turi.

Breathe how you like here. Flex the foot. Good. Arms up tall and circle and view. Beautiful. Other side, other side, two legs. Least we only have two. All right. Left leg pulled in. You may feel difference from side to side and begin devil pay one and in then two. Good. I like the lift in the head.

Three and take it. This is an exhalation. You're contracting. Reaching me. You need air taking air and curl back up and Xcel climb the tree. Good. Flex the foot. Lift tall as is. Arm with the leg up and Ooh, one more time. Devil.

Pay One and bend two and bend 30 okay, here. All right, inhale last time. Contract belly in your little far forward and good. Alright. And stretch. Chin to chest. Close the ribs. Curl up. Walk the tree. Climb the tree. Good. Flex a long tree. Tall tree and arrest.

Good. Aw, that's enough box. Let's take it off. It's okay. Good. All right. So as I said, this is fairly advanced workout. Everybody's favorite coming up here is the knee stretch. I have a little story. I'm a little, sounds a little sarcastic. I know it's not everyone's favorite. It's a difficult exercise.

It's hard to teach. It's hard to do. There's specifics to it that are challenging. Um, terrific exercise for strengthening the quads, VMO, good stuff. Um, for people that walk, hike, jog, dancers who jump just about for everybody to read springs. Um, I used to hate this exercise, I'm honest and I, and I finally learned it and I got it. And it really helped me with knee therapy. So, and what I loved about it is that even though while you're doing it, your legs feel like they're gonna explode. That little tiny muscles do not grow. They just get stronger. So keep that in mind folks. Cause I know, I know we feel this way about some of the exercises at times.

Let's go ahead and kneel girls feet in alignment. I'm particular about, I'm a particular about a lot of things but one thing I really drives me nuts is when the feet are sickled so let's not do that. It's all part of the exercise, right? You're going around that spine and sit darn close to your heels. Heres the curve. The neck is in line with the spine, right?

It stays in line with the spine. The shoulders are down and I like how the fingers are extended, which is going to encourage Lara not to dig into the wrist. She's going to really work that scapular area down and I'm going to use the pole again. Don't worry and scoop out the insides of this pumpkin here. I'm just kidding. Anyway, there is a nice scoop. Are you good?

Let's go. Thighs back and forward and back. 10 Times the pelvis is tucked good, not so fast back and good. Use Your buns and your belly and back and forward. Jia looking good and is that eight, nine and 10 stop but don't move. Okay, good. Now, Vertebra by Vertebra, release the pelvis and then one don't rush through the spine until here's the pole again there. Feel that pole chin.

Okay. So Ron Fletcher used to say, you pretend it's a funny story. You pretend like you're a chicken on a barbecue. And this is the barbecue poll. Is that, is that funny? And you see you stay on that thing. Okay. So if I were to put this through one hip, it would come out on the other side. Exactly. It's a good image. Really.

So don't move that and just move your thighs. Go back, hinge forward. Stick your butt out. It feels weird, Huh? Cause we're trying to tighten our butts all the time. Stick your butt. Tailbone sits bones. Face the back. Good. Back and in and I've lost count.

Oh well and good. And ten one more. She's honest. Good and stock. GI. Excellent. Round the back. Scoop the belly. Take your knees off just a little bit and go back and forward and back. Our favorite. Remember not to punch the kneecaps and back and in and good and in n bump bought the dump and a, I think we have two more and good and 10.

Woo. I'm glad you're laughing. That was good. You feel your size, don't you? I know. Okay. Let's now change gears. I'd not really gears, but let's go to two reds. Unless you need to change the gear.

No regular gear bar down to reds. We're going to do the long spine stretch. So again, I want to bring this exercise up. I haven't taught it in a, in a program for plot anytime yet. I love this exercise. In the old days, the old days we had leather straps that were one length only and we used to keep extension straps hanging over by the end of the reformer and then we'd extend the, we'd extend them, we'd add them. So balanced body and other companies too I guess have made these wonderful straps that can be extended or shortened depending on your person and depending on your exercise. I think sometimes we fail to do the exercise because we don't want to bother with the straps. But we should do it. So that is important.

So I think you all know if you have this equipment, want to do, taking it out of the cleat and lengthening the strap. So up until now for me, the way I work, this strap was at this length. I'm going to just show it again, taught over the shoulder block for hundreds, coordination, Jackknife, short spine stretch, all kinds of things are more work rowing, taking it out of the clique. We've now allowed the strap to Elongate and we do pretty much just eyeball it. So the straps are now about six inches longer, maybe, I don't know, eight inches longer. Go ahead and Fascinat and as I said at longer straps to red springs, head rest down. We're good to go. Long spine stretch.

I also know a version where the hips boost up immediately. Um, we're going to do a version that I like, which is to begin with your legs at 45 degrees angle. Okay, good. All right, let's really pull belly in. Take a moment. Feel where we are. Beautiful Neck, shoulders, and I'm going to have the girls go to perpendicular on the inhale. No farther, Ede Reno. They could roll from there. Exhale up. So you're going up and back. Kind of like an escalator. Tall.

Open to a small V. Inhale, start rolling down. Exhale. Keep your legs still at the equal. V, Anchor your sacrum circle and close. Inhale, legs to perpendicular. Use your belly right away. Oh, nice. Good up. The carriage will move as it does. Open to a v about the width of the wood-frame is ideal. Exhale, roll. Keep the neck open. Now you really have to use the belly. Now, circle and close. Let's do one more this way.

Perpendicular and good. Whew. Nice. So is good. Keep going. You can go as high as your neck, shoulders, flexibility and strength. Allow you circle and good reversing. Go to the V at perpendicular. Now go up from there. Think of your toes being pulled up, up, up, up in slightly back close.

Tightly work, those inner thighs. Exhale, Oh, send the tailbone out there. Use the ballet and the ham strings to lower. You don't use your belly, you'll strain your back open. Inhale, exhale, opposite, perpendicular, good. And your hips will end up right over your shoulders. There you go. Close and rural. You do this exercise, right? It's a great hamstring workout. Use your belly and your hamstrings. One more. Three. Each way is plenty good. And a few go girls. I like that. They're keeping a nice hold on.

The legs closed and oral. Glue the legs together. Glue the Good Laura. Right? Good. She Ho who? Good and good. Put your head rest up. Good. We're going to do a little bit of leg circles. Why not? Let's go ahead and turn out to first position. Anchor belly, good circles and been around and close and bend around and close up and the chin been around in together.

Good and up and around to gather and form more. Good. No wider. And here we go. And two more. Keep bolting that sacrum to the carriage. Flex your feet reverse and one hamstrings down and two and good and three ham. Yes and good.

And and reach and nice girls are each, so we could have done this after short spine stretch with shorter straps, but we can do it here as well. That's enough. Good. All right, let's take your legs back, take the feet out and we'll dismount dismount. How about roll-up first and then I'd like to have you all get ready for the long back stretch. I'm going to go ahead and do their straps while they do their springs and foot bar. So I'm making them long at this, uh, at this distance. And then they're going to rest at the polls. And you all know what springs you're doing for long back stretch. And my studio, we use a red and a yellow. I think we're going to use a red here. Red and blue.

Good. Did you do your strokes jr? I said I do. I will. Okay, so long, long back stretch. Super advanced exercise. Um, thank you. Hard to do well. That's okay. It's a good challenge. Let's do four each direction. Shall We? You good? Yes. All right.

My challenge, I've got long arms when I do it is to wash the shoulders. So if you, you know, do the best you can to keep your shoulders when you can really working down in the scapula. Yeah. All right, so let's come face your, Yup. Face your sha shoulder blocks and go ahead and get on. Get on the horse. All right. And thumbs and fingers forward. That's really rooted in my brain. We're going to have the hips high to start and push out.

One sit down too and return and push out. One breath and the one breath keeps the movement fluid, but high break and return. Buttocks high and good will reverse. Sit down. Inhale, push acts. I'll return. Well, you look good. Release. There's a moment where you really want to think of the pelvis going right down and up. One more. Sit. Push, eh. Oh God.

I still off as gracefully as possible. That was pretty graceful. Go like that for a second. Yeah. Long back stretches a doozy. All right, we're going to go now with two the twist, one red spring, or if you need another wait, that's fine. You could do the red blue. I'm a little unsure about what we're doing with your springs. I usually use one red in my studio. One Green is good. Okay, so let's see. Let's go ahead and do a yes. All right, left.

We're going to face that way. So a left foot on the back corner and then hand in hand, shoulder block in the edge. And then I always say if you have trouble getting up, you shouldn't. You're not ready to do the exercise. You girls are ready too. So go ahead and push and up and squeeze those legs. Hook the foot, flex it and go. Pushing out, lurking left over your shoulder and ah, and you don't really need me, but this is how I would guide it. Belly up. Four times the hips lower.

You look over your left and one more. Look over the left and step around. Good. That's a tough one. Other side? Yes. I didn't mention that. If you're, you don't need it. Okay. Yeah. Some people like it, some people don't. Depends if you're a little sweaty.

Sorry. All right. So let's go right foot up, hand in hand, step into it. It's almost better to not think about it too much and go look over. That's why it's called the twist. You twist left hip down and pool and good, nice and cool. One more, Eh, nice ladies. Okay, that's advanced, Huh? Let's do some stretches.

Let's do what we attribute this exercise to Eve gentry, one red spring foot bar up. So this is a wonderful stretch for the front of the hip, the hip flexor. And I learned that Eve gentry was the first person to begin doing this exercise. So I think that's pretty special. Alright, go ahead and put your right foot forward and your left leg back, back on the shoulder block, like the down stretch. Go ahead and bend the front knee. Uh, you want to make sure you don't lay into the pelvis. So by all means, use your belly all the time. You know, a little lower and go ahead.

Press out. Andean. Good. So there's different things we can do here. The knee down is good. Just make sure the alignment is nice and no, and good. Now press out a bit. Hold it, straighten your back, knee off the carriage. Good. Now breathe here and come forward with your knees straight. Good. And again, fairly low. Oof. It's too much.

Back off, right arm up and reach. Good and up and good. One more time. Isn't that a beautiful line and rest? Walk around to the other side. It's a lot of stretch on the hip flexor.

As I said, you really have to use the abdominals correctly in everything but particularly some exercises. It's almost dangerous if you don't. All right, so we're going to lunge forward with correct alignment and control and began such a good exercise. So many people have tight hips. Oof, we don't do a ton. We did three and then you did the fourth and you paused and you took the knee off and you breathed here and then you went forward. Good belly Polian and good and nice left arm forward for our dance population. This is like a first arabesque. Nice and good. Alright, we are almost finished but not before we do running in place. All right. Three reds headrest is up. Your foot bar is there. Let's have you all sit down.

Feed on the ledge and roll down. Good. So we're running in place to simulate walking or running out the door after your full bodies class. Alright, for Nice coordination and movement. Nice balls of the feet on the bar. Calm but strong. Go ahead, press out all the way. Inhale. I'm going to ask you to exhale there and feel that lean, I won't say mean lean and streamline body and exhale you did already. Good. And let's begin running.

Sure. Up, down, up, down, up, down, down and one and two and one and two and one and two. So it's very important that we do this with articulation of the ankles, foot centers, good alignment, good. And we want to make the effort on the up, down, down, and use your seat. Good. Almost like there's little pinpricks under your bottom two and change.

And two, last set, n two N. Good. Let's relevant A. Flex the feet. I'm going to give them a stretch. Just how we started class. So we've kind of come full circle. Relevate again, the seat tight and flex. Good while you're flexed breeze and come in good.

Put your feet to the ledge, your arms to the ceiling. Roll Up. Good. Swing your feet to the center. How do you feel? Pretty good. You don't have to say yes, but I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Wonderful teacher! Any chance for a mat class?
1 person likes this.
Diane gives clear and precise instruction. Definitely a challenging workout.
Thank you and I agree with Reina.
Diane Diefenderfer
Thank you for the compliment! I hope you enjoy the class and the challenges of some of those advanced movements.....believe me, I know they are tough! I have a mat/stretch/"feel good" class coming out next week....perhaps you'll check it out and hopefully enjoy!
Excellent class taught be a real pro. Enjoyed it immensely. Just what I needed!
Diane Diefenderfer
Thank you Maggie, for your kind compliment.
HI This the first time I have seen "twist" on PA. Thanks for that! How do you address tight hip flexors with the stomach massage series? I find it so hard to teach to many clients who are very fit and strong but just can't sit up enough in order to do this series.
Diane Diefenderfer
Hi Jeannene,
Thank you for your comment. I'll try to answer your question about the stomach massage as best I can. Yes, I too have had challenges teaching it for various reasons. Much of what happens is that clients drop into their rounded back, putting stress on the spine and contributing to even more flexion in the hips. You may try having them sit a bit further away from the edge of carriage to start with (and that distance all depends on their height, length of leg and hip flexibility). I often begin the series by having the student hold the bar with both hands placed between the slightly turn out feet, asking them to sit tall, feel length and lift throughout the (hopefully) straight spine, and take a few breaths feeling the lift. Then I have them contract the abdominals, thus creating the slightly rounded spine BUT lifting up and over into a proper contraction. I ask for the spine to be in the shape of a parentheses rather than a shorter "C" shape. to be cont.
Diane Diefenderfer
part 2 for Jeannene,
This lifted contraction not only helps the student really use and feel the abdominals or "massage" but as well may help get them out of sinking or overly flexing the hip flexors. One other thing.....pretty simple but important, I try not to cue for too long while the student is in the "ready" position since once they get moving and push the carriage out, the hips aren't as crunched as while the carriage is closed. Hope this helps and you don't mind this long answer!!! I have other videos on the site and some more coming out next week and next month. Best wishes to you. Diane
love the way Diane provides the instructions. slow and clear. one of the best classes i have taken. One recommendation, for us at home please call out the springs before start of exercise!
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