Recovery for Triathletes

Welcome to Pilates Anytime. I'm so happy to be here. My name is John Garey and I am today, going to take Jake and you through a workout for triathletes. I designed this workout using three different pieces of Pilates equipment. First we're going to be working on the Reformer.

Then we're going to move to the Cadillac, and then next we're going to move on to the chair. So, you can also do this if you have a tower. You'll be able to do the Cadillac section on the tower as well. So once we switch you can switch as well and just do that workout with us. This is really geared, and Jake is actually a triathlete.

He's done a couple of triathlons and so, I thought he was the perfect person to do this workout for today. And as you'll see, this workout is really geared toward, I would call it a recovery and core strength workout. So it's really great for your athlete's to do after their day of running, swimming, and biking, maybe the following day between their really heavy workouts cause you'll see we'll do some mobility exercises. We're going to move them in directions they don't typically move in. Those athletes move all in this direction, right in the sagittal plane, so we're gonna want to move to the side.

We're gonna want to get some rotation in. And of course we're gonna wanna mobilize in this direction as well. So we're going to move in all those directions. We're going to be in all different positions. So it's gonna be on your back.

You're going to be kneeling, you're going to be sitting, and you're gonna be prone. So, we're going to make sure that we're working our body through every range of motion possible. Are you ready to get started? All right, so let's get started on the Reformer. And we're going to do a warmup with footwork.

So I'm using a Balance Body Reformer today and I had three red springs on. So three heavy springs on, for Jake. And we've got the foot bar and everything set up for him, so make sure it's setup right for you. And we've got his knees just about over his hips. And this is a really comfortable position for him to be in.

Before we get started, we want to make sure that he has really good alignment through the spine just off the bat because that's really a most important part of our Pilates work. So first of all I have the headrest up and that's really tilting his head slightly forward, that's gonna help give him a better abdominal connection and then in addition to that, I want him to have his lower back not pressed down against the carriage. We want a little space between the lower back and the carriage, we call that neutral position there, and he's going to maintain that throughout. Our footwork's gonna be a little bit different today, so I'm gonna start with heels on the bar, hip distance apart. This is a really athletic position, actually sit bone distance apart.

So a little closer. This is a really athletic position and really comfortable for most of your athletes. I'm saying this is a triathlete workout but really it's a workout for anyone. Any of your athletes or any of your fitness people, it's gonna feel really good. All right, so, are you ready to go?

Let's get started. We're gonna press right through, pushing out, and then return the carriage. And I want you to exhale as you press away and inhale as you return. Exhale as you press and inhale to return. Now really what you want to focus on here is not allowing the pelvis to move while you're pressing out and coming in.

You're keeping that nice level pelvis and that space between your lower back. Now we're gonna do about eight of these. I'm gonna ask Jake to count for me so that I can actually talk about what is going on and really help queue and figure out where we need to go next and how we need to adjust it for Jake and for you. Are we good? I think that's just about eight.

All right, let's do one more here. And then come all the way, and what I want him to do is take his feet to the outside of the bar. So we call this second position, lateral rotation and from there you're gonna press out and come back in. Now think about your runners, your swimmers, your cyclists, they're not in this position a lot so we wanna make sure we mobilizing that hip in every direction. We wanna make sure the knees are tracking right over the center of the ball of the foot, really good.

And then come back in and that he's not snapping the knees at the end, he's really controlling that movement and keeping that lateral rotation, we wanna keep the lateral rotation, guys, throughout the whole movement, all right? Come on in. We're gonna come back to that first exercise again, the parallel position and we're gonna press back four times. That's it. And now, what happened that time, and I don't know if you remembered which foot you moved out first, but if you stepped out into the second position with your right foot, this time you're gonna step out with your left foot.

So come on in and then go left, right, good. And press out four times from there. Still maintaining that nice neutral alignment. Really nice job. Two more.

And now you're job is to come in with the left foot first. Press out for two. Good. Come on in and we're gonna switch it again. Step out with your right foot, press out for two.

Make sure that your feet end up where they're supposed to be before you press out. Come back in with the right foot, press out for two. Really nice, good. And come on in and step it out with one. I like to change foot workup with my clients and not do the exact same thing every time so their head is in the game when they're doing the work.

Now you're gonna go one here, Jake. So press out, come back in, press out, come back in. They have to think about what they're doing. They have to stay, keep that mind-body connection. You gotta really focus on that movement pattern.

You're doing great. Are you remembering which foot you're going out on. (laughing) All right, that's good. Let's do one more set. Press out and come back in.

And press out, nice. And then come all the way back in. From there we're going to go into your high half toe position. I'm going to keep the springs the same here for you. So high half toe means that you're at the end of the ball of the foot.

I'm also gonna do this not all the way together. We're gonna do it about slightly abduction, inline with your sit bones here. And I just wanna make sure that Jake is right in the center here. He's looking good. So it's like you're standing on your tiptoes here and you're gonna press out and then come back in.

Let's do that about five times. That's it and push through. So by changing the position of your foot that's on the bar, you're working the intricate muscles of the foot and ankle really good. For your triathletes it really helps to strengthen and mobilize the ankle joint. Yep, and then also when you're on the ball of your foot you're getting a little bit more quad work in there.

All right, so that was about it. Now you're going to add the lower legs. You're going to press out, breathe in. Exhale, reach the heels under, inhale to lift them back up and then exhale to return. Let's do that again.

Reach out and lower and lift and come back in. Now keep going. What I want Jake to really focus on is staying int he center of the ball of the feet here. Lift up. And then come back in.

So, we don't wanna see rolling to the outside or inside. We wanna really train in that nice parallel position, that ideal position. As close as we can get to that. Lower, lift, and come back in. Let's do that again.

Watch the knees. We don't wanna lock them. We want to keep them straight but we want to keep engaged in the quads and the hamstrings. Good. Lower, lift, come back in.

Really good. All right, now press out. We're gonna go into a little running from here. So one knee will bend, the other heel will reach under. Sometimes it's called prancing.

Down and come back up and do that again. You want the knees to go directly to the ceiling here. Reach up and lower. And again, stay centered on that ball of the foot as you're going down and up. That keeps everything parallel.

This is a great stretch for the back, the muscular chain in the back of the leg. So we're getting a really good stretch to the gastroc which can get really tight. Yeah, so this is more about that reach under, it's not fast, it's slow and controlled. And the hips are staying really steady. Really nice job, Jake.

Let's do two more. And switch. Let's do one more. Yep, on each side. (laughing) That's it, and then come all the way back in.

Now we're going to move onto a little sideline work. Still footwork but we're going to be in a different position. So I'm going to probably do as much footwork as you would in a normal class, we're just going to keep switching the position that we're in. So, let's turn to the front first, Jake. And then, yeah, what I wanna do here is, we can bring the headrest up, all the way to the top.

And if that's uncomfortable for you, you can put a block under your head or you can even reach your arm through the shoulder rest and put that under your head. Then, your top foot is going to be on the bar and we want it to be a little bit forward here. I'm not so worried about the toes being on there, I want him to be able to press through his heel. And then his bottom leg is going to be lengthened away. We're going to try to get as neutral as possible here.

So yeah, you can bring this hip forward slightly, right there. Yeah, so just adjust so that you see this nice neutral alignment. Or feel the nice neutral alignment. And then you're gonna push out and come back in. And let's just do five of those.

Press away and come back in. Now I like an inhale as you press out, exhale as you return. And we wanna keep the knee tracking over the toes, so right now we're in a little lateral rotation. Let's turn the toes down as well, parallel, and press out. We wanna keep that parallel position.

Beautiful. And press and come back in. Now hold it here. I want you to lift the bottom leg up and then lower it down. Push out with the top leg and come back in.

Now you notice not a lot of movement there on that bottom leg, but that's okay. What we're doing is we're engaging the adductors, We're engaging the inner thighs and you're getting a nice stretch across the IT band on that bottom part. Really, again, a great movement to do with your runners, your swimmers, and your cyclists. Come back in. It should feel good.

And lift and down. Good, one more time. Press out, come in and lift, and down. All right, perfect. Go onto your back and then we're gonna flip over to the other side and we'll do that same thing on the other side.

That's it. So from there, just stack your hips here. And bring your foot forward but stretch out that bottom leg. And we've got a nice neutral alignment in the spine here. Shoulders are stacked and let's just start with the top leg pressing.

Look for that parallel alignment here. Knee tracking right in line with the hip and the foot. Going right over the center. That's it. And press, now try not to dock the carriage just before you're going to hit home, you're going to press back on, your top shoulders roll back a little bit.

Bring your hand, place it right on the carriage for me here, yep. So that you're really stacked straight up and down. Press out, come back in. Now lift that bottom leg up and lower it down. Good, press away, come back in, lift, and lower again.

We're going to inhale. And exhale. Keep the breath pattern going, guys. Lift and down, and again. Reach, come back in, lift and lower.

Let's just do two more of those. Come back in. Don't lean back into that shoulder rest, No resting there. And press, coem back in and lift and down. Last time.

Coming in, lift and down. Okay, so we did supine. We did sideline footwork. Now we're gonna do kneeling footwork. It's one of my favorite ways to really make somebody have to think about the movement pattern again.

So what we're gonna do, we're gonna use just any kind of a cushion or a pad or platform extender that will raise one side up, just slightly. It doesn't have to be very high. And then I'm gonna switch this. I'm gonna go to two red springs here to kind of full tension, we'll call 'em full tension springs. And then, or heavier springs.

What I want you to do is come down on to one knee here, Jake. And if you notice, I put the cushion near the back of the carriage here cause I want him to kneel on that back of the carriage. Even further back. So stick that knee back there. The foot will go under the foot bar, that's fine.

This is side that the pad is on, that's your support side. Make sure guys, that you have your thumbs hooked around the shoulder rest so you're not going to go slipping forward on me. And then find this nice neutral alignment here. You're gonna take the other foot now and you're gonna put your heel right against the foot bar. Yep, that'll work.

And now, by lifting up this knee, just a little bit on the carriage, it allows me to make sure that the hips are level as you're pushing out and in, and he doesn't have to hike up that hip in order to get the knee underneath. Then push out. And come aback in, good. So it takes a minute because you've got to really focus on keeping your alignment through the spine nice and neutral and folding at the hip joint and the knee joint pushing into the center of the heel here. Yes, and again, you're gonna exhale as you press out here.

And you're probably noticing already that this isn't just a leg activity anymore. You're getting actually quite a bit of shoulder work in there to help you stabilize your upper body. And press out and come back in, good. Let's do two more there. Let's keep everything lengthened.

Don't let this hip start to creep up on this side. And come back in. All right, we're gonna switch onto the high half toe position, so right on the ball of the foot with that same leg. There you go, and from here, let's get everything aligned. I'd love to see you scoot this foot in a little bit closer here.

Right there and just shift your hips that way. Tuck your knee in a little bit. Yeah, right there, not your hips, right there. Good, and from there press out right from the center of the ball of the foot and come back in. So keep the high half toe position here.

Reach away, yes, and come back in. Very good, and press. Is that resistance okay? And, it's a little challenging huh? Press out and come back in.

And again. You can always adjust the resistance guys, as long as, this is kind of a strength move and as long as your form is good, it's okay to use a heavier resistance. But if you cannot maintain your body position, you cannot maintain proper form, you need to reduce the resistance. It's more important, quality of movement. All right, now press out.

From there, lower your heel, lift your heel, and then bend your knee and come in. So it's lower lift, right? Press out and lower, reach that heel down, lift it back up and come back in. Keep the abdominals nice and engaged here. Press away, breathe in.

Exhale, lower, inhale, lift. Exhale, come back in, beautiful. And again, reach and lower, lift and come back in. All right, last time. Reach, excellent job, lower, lift and come back in.

I bet you're ready to go to the other side. So here we go. We're going to switch the cushions over. So just put 'em on the other side. Kneel up on it.

Now if you don't have the cushions, you can still do this exercise, just be orally careful that you're not hiking your hip up on that side. Yep, heel on the bar and knee is off the carriage there on that side. There you go, everything is stable. Make sure everything's set, guys. And then press out, exhale, push through that heel.

Come on back in. Let's scoot this heel toward the center of the bar just a little bit more. There you go. And press from there. Push and come back.

And really nice, you want to keep that straight line, hip, knee, foot. Push right through the center, don't let this hip hike up as you come in. Whoop, see it hike up there? There you go. That's it, now pull your knee underneath you, just in underneath.

Yep, drop the knee down a little lower when you come in. Yes, there you go. Got it. All right, you got room. And press, come back in.

Let's do three more here. Press out, exhale. Inhale to return. Do that again. Exhale, press right through the center of the heel.

Yes, and one more time, press away. And then come all the way back in. High half toe is next. So dock the carriage first. And then switch onto the ball of the foot.

Not too much on the toes there, but perfect. And from there, push away, just high half toe and come back in. Now again, this hip is hiking up, so what I love, keep going, what I love about doing this single legwork, one at a time is you can tell differences between one side and the other. You can really tell if you've got a dominant side or a weaker side. And by working them separately, you can help to even out those imbalances.

And press away. So this side, a little bit tougher for Jake to stabilize on this side. You can see that rotation happening. So we're gonna work on that a little bit. How does your side feel?

(laughing) All right, so press out. Lower the heel, lift the heel. And then come back in. He's like, it doesn't have anything to do with my legs at this point. I think my shoulders are about to drop off.

(laughing) Lower the heel, lift up and come back in. Let's get that breathing in there. Inhale out, exhale, reach the heel under. Inhale, pick it back up and come back in. Really good, let's do two more and you're done.

Press out, even you out. Reach, up, and come back in and just one more time here, reach away, lower, lift and come all the way back in. All right, now we're gonna stretch that out. I'm going to take those, give me those cushions I'll put 'em over here to the side. I got 'em.

Perfect. Spin around and we're gonna do kind of a modification of the down stretch. So you're gonna be kneeling on the carriage and I'm gonna switch. I'm gonna put one blue tension spring on. That's a lighter spring.

And then I'm going to take the red one off. One of the red ones so I have a full strength and then I have like a 50% tension or a lighter spring on. From here, gonna keep the foot bar where it is, I want you to sit back towards your heels a little bit. Mm hmm and a rounded spine. Shoulders are relaxed there.

And get this round position. Now this isn't going to be the full down stretch. This should feel really good after what we just did. What I want Jake to do is to press the carriage out with his legs. And then lengthen through the spine.

So unraveling all the way until your thighs are almost on there. So really push back, push back, push back, push back. Now come up, drag the carriage in, coming up and from there, he's just gonna sit back toward his heels again and flex. So it's not the actual full down stretch, this is a really good modification of it though. So start with your knees, pushing back.

Then lengthen all, keep pushing back as you lengthen the spine. There you go, so you get that really good stretch here and now, drive upward with the sternum and then sit back and flex over. Beautiful. Let's press out, unravel, push all the way out, exhale, inhale, up, exhale, sit back on your heels, regroup and inhale staying there. Exhale, push through, use the glutes, use the abs, use the shoulders pulling back.

Inhale, up, and then exhale, sit back and stretch back. That should feel really good, yes? One more time. Press back. So we know in cycling, even in swimming, and in running we're all in this position, that forward position, so giving this really good anterior stretch and stretching the hip is such a great thing for your athletes.

All right, that's good from there. Let's go onto feet and straps. So, we're going to go back up into our two red springs here and take the blue one off. And you can lay down on the carriage, you're gonna put the straps on your feet. Slip these off here.

That's it. Very nice, push the carriage out. And let's put your feet in here. Now, this is another way to really help your athlete's kinda strengthen the core a little bit. Cause once your feet are in the straps, your legs can move all over the place.

So we really have to use the core here to stabilize. Keep this exercise a little slower. You're gonna inhale, bend your knees, come into like a tabletop position, and then exhale, press out on that angle. And do that a couple more times. Breathe in, bend in.

Now, Jake is doing an excellent job here. I want you to think about this here, too, as you bend your knees, you don't wanna drop your feet down so that the cords get all wrapped up in your legs. You wanna keep your feet high enough so that when you bend your knees, you're not hitting everything on your shins with those straps. And press out again, point your toes. And then come back in.

Now, we don't want a death grip on the reformer. We want a nice relaxed arms and hands. So just shake it loose there. Let the core do the work, not your arms. Now you're gonna press out one more time.

Exhale, press away and we're gonna add a lift to this. You're gonna lift the legs up. As you lift the legs, you're doing opposition here, your thinking of the hips sinking down. Now bend your knees back in. Good, and again.

Press out, and lift, sink the hips down. And back down, and come back in. Beautiful, again. Exhale, press out, fold at the hips, don't lift your hips as you bring your legs up. Then lower back down and come back.

And we're gonna add onto that. So press out and lift. Now from here, you're gonna take those legs and open them to the side an adductor stretch. Come back together, lower them back down and bend your knees back in. So press and lift.

So remember, we talked about moving in different directions. This is a really good way to stretch out the adductors, a lot of athletes are tight in the adductors as well. Press out and lift. Now stabilize the pelvis, open to the sides, stretch, come back together, really nice and then lower back down. All right, so now we're gonna do something called, I'm calling, walking on the ceiling.

So, if you're familiar with Pilates, we do an exercise called the stag, so this is really just a parallel stag. What you're gonna do is have one leg go up toward the ceiling as you bend the other leg into tabletop. Yep, you notice that both straps are still tense. Now press back out. And you can stay on that same side if you have somebody relatively new and you're just focusing on that one side or you can alternate.

Which is what we're gonna do. Inhale and then exhale. Press back out. Good, let's do that again. Inhale, come in, and press out.

So I want you to make sure you're keeping tension on both of those straps. You shouldn't ever see one go slack. Now this is the money here. You're gonna come up. You're gonna reach up for that strap on that long leg and you're just gonna gently pull on it and that's a great hamstring stretch.

And then release and then press back out. And switch sides. So when you pull, you're not pulling back. He's not cranking his leg back. He's actually sinking, he's cementing the hip down into the carriage.

So it's this way as opposed to back that way. It's gonna make a big difference on that stretch. So inhale, come up, exhale, draw down. Inhale, release the tension. And exhale, press out.

One more time. Inhale, come up, exhale, pull down. Inhale, release the tension and exhale, press back out. Perfect. All right, let's bend your knees and get those straps off your feet here.

That's it. And we're gonna come on up. And we're gonna go into a kind of back-rowing regression. So, let's go to one full tension spring behind you here. And I'll take one of those off.

So just one red spring on there, guys. And then you're gonna grab these straps here. And for this part, all you're gonna do, you're gonna start with just a roll down. So you're sitting up tall, breathe in, notice he has his arms rounded. And then as he exhales, he's going to articulate down through and pull your hands in toward your chest.

Let's turn your palms to face you. Yep, elbows can still be out to the side here. Yeah, breathe in. Exhale, take that whole shape over your legs here. And then stack the spine back up.

So Jake's got his legs crossed. If your legs don't fit in the shoulder rests, side by side, just cross them over, make sure that you recross them after every few repetitions. Exhale, roll down, hollow out through the center, tuck the tailbone under. That's a really good stretch for the lumbar spine. Breathe in, exhale, flex forward over your legs.

And then stack the spine up. You okay? You need to take a break? Nope. Exhale, roll back, scoop the belly, breathe in, exhale, flex forward over your legs and then stack the spine up and relax the arms.

Do that one more time. So roll down, inhale, stay, exhale, fold forward over your legs and then come back up. So you can see by activating the abs and the glutes as he rolls down. So do that one more time. You can feel that lower back stretch.

So really make sure you get that kind of almost a tuck underneath. Now go forward over your legs. Really nicely done. And then come all the way up. Now we're gonna add to that.

And you want to get your foot bar out of the way here. So I'm just gonna... Lift it up here for a second. And get it out of the way. From here, yeah, you're gonna put your heels on the end of the headrest here.

And you're gonna shimmy forward quite a bit. And you're not gonna be vertical here. Cause it's really, really, really tough to be vertical. You have to have a lot of mobility in the hip. So what I want you to do is kind of a bicep curl here.

Yeah, right there. And you notice that he's kinda back on an angle. So almost like if you know the teaser, he's almost in that teaser position. That's the start position, the abs are engaged right here. So you're gonna breathe in.

As you exhale, you're gonna do your roll down from here, so roll down. And just roll down, guys. And what I want you to find. Don't go all the way, just flex. Come up a little bit here.

What I want you to feel is that your just, bottom of your shoulder blades is on that carriage. They're not completely off. If they are, then shimmy forward a little bit because we're going to extend in a minute. Now roll up from there. All the way up.

Now just to that diagonal line. Let's do that part again. If you need to adjust forward, you can probably come forward just a little bit for me, Jake, if you can. Shimmy, that's it. And let's try that again.

So exhale, roll down, do your bicep curls, you roll down and let's make sure the shoulder blades are right there, yes. Really important for the next part. To make sure your position is right. And then come forward and then come up on that diagonal. Now we're gonna add extension.

This is so cool. You're gonna roll down, do your bicep curl here and then just reach the arms. They're not going toward the floor, they're going kinda toward the wall behind you and you can extend your spine back over, not too much with your head though, yep, and then drop your chin forward, bend your elbows, start rolling up through the spine and come all the way up. Let's do that again. Exhale, roll back down.

Now inhale, let yourself extend and reach, bend your elbows, breathe in for me and then exhale, roll up and now lengthen, breathe in. Exhale, roll down. Scoop through the belly, articulate down on that carriage, reach back. Good, bend your elbows, start to come up. Let the springs help you up and down.

Roll down, articulate through. Really good length. This is perfect upper back extension for your athletes. And then come all the way up to the top, really good, all right. Come all the way up.

And come on off there. Doing okay? All right, so from here, we're actually going to turn to the side now. And we're gonna do a little kneeling work. So, if you want to, if you're uncomfortable kneeling, you can stay seated, but if you're ready to kneel, you're gonna kneel sideways, this is the easiest way to kneel.

And you notice that the knees are gonna be about hip distance apart. The wider the base of support, the easier it is to balance. From here, we're going to keep just that one red spring on and I'm gonna have Jake hold the back strap and we're gonna do a little rotation here. So hold your arms in a circle and turn toward that pulley, then turn toward the foot bar. And rotate back.

Exhale, rotate around. Inhale to come back. Good, now a couple of things here. Jake's gonna keep going. We want the rotation to happen from the spine, so he's really focused on keeping his hips square to the front.

Yes, so he's got a little bit of rotation, that we're going to try to minimize that a little bit. Turn, rotate, exhale. There you go, and come back, nice. And let's do that again. Rotate, yes, and then come back.

Okay, from there. Now he had his hands separated which is great because he's not actually cheating with one arm or the other. We've got to make sure he does that on the other side though. What I'm going to do here is switch and have you hold the front strap now so that you can do the side bend. So your opposite arm reaches down your leg.

You hold the strap close to your shoulder, breathe in and then as you exhale you flex and reach right over your head. Beautiful, and then inhale, come back up tall. And again, flex over, reach right over your head, yes, and then come back up tall. So we did rotation, moving in that transverse plane, now we're doing lateral flexion, moving in the frontal plane, all directions that you wanna be moving in with you and your athletes. Reach over and come back up.

One more time. Reach right over, reach, and come back up. All right, now we're gonna turn to the other side. And do that same two exercises facing the other way. We're still gonna have the back strap here.

So holding onto the same strap, your hands are gonna be separated, and then exhale, rotate around, and inhale, come back. Good. So the hands stay right in line with your sternum the whole time and you look over your hands so your head and neck follow the line of your spine. Really good, abdominals stay connected, rotate, slowly bring it home. Don't lose that eccentric part of the exercise, the lengthening part of the exercise on the return.

You want to have really good control there. One more time and come all the way around. All right. Perfect, let's grab your strap now, front strap and hold it in. Breathe in and then you're gonna exhale, just flex over to the side and inhale, return.

Let's do that again. Exhale, flex right over to the side, and inhale, return. Really good. And again, exhale, over, and come back. One more time.

Reach, a really good one here. And come all the way back. All right. Excellent, now we're going to turn and face the front. We're going to change the position a little bit here.

Kneeling facing front is really challenging. But for a lot of athletes, you may find that sitting facing the front is also really challenging because you have a hard time getting up in that neutral position. So what I'm having Jake do here is an option, which is just sitting on your heels or you can sit on yoga block. And you're gonna grab these straps here and we're gonna start with punches. So, with punches, you want the strap to end up underneath your arm.

And I'm going to keep it on the one red spring for this one, so you're gonna punch both arms forward, it's gonna feel really light to you right now. That's okay, cause I just want to get the movement pattern in, make sure we're all connected, you're vertical with your torso, you're comfortable sitting in this position and press out. Now what I want you to do is press just with one arm. Good, so a punch forward. Now, super important, you don't punch across your body.

You end up with your hand directly in front of your shoulder, really nice, Jake. Keep going. And that way, the strap, if it's hitting your body, you know you're kinda punching across. It's super important on our next part, when we do our rotation. So what I want you to do is punch and turn away from your arm.

Now did you notice how the rope hit you that time? So you're gonna punch straight forward like you just did except you're gonna rotate away from it. Yes, and then come back and do it simultaneously now. Other side, rotate, yes. So it's almost like you're punching away from yourself.

And that will keep the rope from hitting you and it's also gonna open you up across that front side of the chest. Let's do that one more time, each side, you're doing great. How many is that, 150? Okay. (laughing) That's the last one.

And come all the way in. You're a trooper, I like it. Okay, so the next thing we're gonna do is overhead throws. You're gonna grab onto those, straps in your hands, the regular way and you're gonna bring your arms up above you, like you're holding onto, lets say a volleyball. And from here, you're gonna throw it and flex at the same time.

And then come back up. So I don't want the ropes to lay over your shoulders. Yeah, so you're gonna be throwing, kind of up on an angle instead of down towards the ground. Yes. Now lengthen the spine, stretch the abs, now flex the spine.

Yes, breathe in and exhale. Press away, we've got two more and then it's time to change equipment. So you're gonna reach away and one more time. I think we've moved 'em every way possible on this machine. Come all the way up.

All right, so next we're moving onto the Cadillac or if you've got a tower, we're moving onto the tower. Good job. All right, here we go. We're gonna work a little bit on the trap table, the Cadillac, or if you've got a tower, you're working on the tower. And we are starting with leg springs, guys, and we're gonna do a little walking.

Are you ready? All right, Jake, come on down onto your back. And, so, we have the foot, leg straps on, leg springs on, and we're gonna put your feet in them, and then as I put the second one on, you wanna make sure that you reach back for those upright so you don't go flying through. Here, stick that one on. Got it.

And if you need to adjust them, you can. And from there, got it? Now, from here, we want to have your hands just a tiny bit higher, a little bit up. And the reason for that is, guys, we don't want to pop the ribs, so if your hands are too low, you end up popping the ribs up, so just make sure you keep it right in that position where your ribs can rest down. Your legs are lengthened, and we're just gonna literally start walking slowly up toward the ceiling, breathing in for me, and then exhale walking down.

And do that again. Inhale walking up. And exhale walking down. So, this is, I would say probably a more beginner level exercise. If you notice, we're doing some beginner level, some intermediate level, and some advanced.

You may have to adjust some of the exercises for yourself. If you're not ready for the advanced, you can stick with the more beginner intermediate. And here we go with one of those advanced right now. This is called the magician series, and it's super challenging, but it's so great for your glutes. So, you're gonna breathe in to prepare.

As you exhale, you're gonna push into those straps and lift up. Not up too high here. We want a magician just like he's hovering there. There you go. And now you're gonna walk down, down, down, down, a little lower, good.

And then inhale as you come up. Beautiful. Now, to, keep going down and up, you're gonna exhale down. To really get this position, it's super challenging. He's making it look a lot easier than it is.

Think opposition. Your feet are pressing into those straps as far as they will possibly go, and your hands are pushing against the upright as hard as you can, so you're really lengthening out, and that's what gives you levitation look, which is why it's called magician. We can get the legs a little closer together now and then exhale, lower down one more time, and inhale, come all the way up, and then bend your knees and relax. So, in all of the sports that we do in triathlons, you do a lot with your hip flexors. This is a really good way to work the posterior chain.

I'm just giving you a little break there. Okay, so, what we're gonna do is, take these straps off and we're gonna move onto our side next. I love doing side lying work with athletes. You're gonna face the front there. Yup.

And then what I want you to do is just fold your arm underneath your head. That's it. And we want to make sure first that everything is stacked. I'm gonna let and have, actually, you keep your bottom leg bent. That's gonna help you with balance for this series of exercises for sure.

If you keep your leg straight, it's gonna be really super hard to balance. So, keep that bottom leg bent, and what I want you to think about is having your foot behind your pelvis and your knee in front of your pelvis so it keeps you stable from front to back. Then just take your top foot and put it in the strap. I got it. (laughing) And from there, adjust that for me.

That's it. You're gonna press that top leg out. And from here, you want one long line from your foot to your head. And we're gonna start actually moving in our kind of plane that we're always moving in. So you're gonna reach that leg forward, hinge at the hip, it's giant scissors, I call them.

And then pull it back. Now, you only want the leg to go back as far as you can without this top hip rolling back. So, inhale forward. That's it. Now, I want you to point your toe as you sweep back.

Sweep back, sweep back, good. And then do that again. Guys, what I want you to focus on is really pushing against the strap with your foot in both directions so that you're not starting to crunch the femur up into the pelvis here. You want to feel that, almost like opposition pulling away from the femur as you do the exercises. It's really gonna help you through that hip joint.

Let's do that again coming forward. Really nicely done there. And come back. I'm just checking the hand here, guys. You don't want to have a death grip on the front of that table with your hand, so try to keep the upper body loose.

All right, now, this works best if you have somebody helping you, but if you don't, you can do it on your own, just limit the range here. We're gonna do a little side kick stretch. It's one of my favorite exercises sideline. So, you're gonna come forward with that leg first, Jake. So, come forward.

Now what I want you to do is bend your knee, bringing your heel toward your seat, and then bring you leg back, bringing your knee to your knee. So, bring it right toward me, back toward me. There you go. And from there, you're gonna press it out, and then you're gonna bring it forward again, breathe in, now exhale. Bend your knee, bring your heel toward your seat, then bring you knee past your knee and then stretch it out.

So, again, if you're on your own here, this is super challenging to do on your own. If you notice, I'm giving Jake a little bit of help right at that stretch part, right where he's the most vulnerable. So, if that's the case, don't try to take your leg so far back behind you, each it more toward that opposite wall. And then press it there. And come through, really great for the hip flexors.

Really beautiful stretch for that. Last time, exhale here. And then come back center, and from here, we're just gonna do a little adduction work. So you're gonna lift that top leg up, and then pull it down. So, I want you to think about doing this work with your heel.

You're gonna push into your heel and reach your heel up and then lower it down. Keep your foot flexed the whole time. And what I want you to focus on is not allowing the toes to get higher than the heel. We want to keep it parallel, so lift up there, good. And then pull it down and away, try to make that leg a little longer if you can.

Inhale up, now push into the strap and stretch it down and away. One more time there. Breathe in, come up. And exhale, pull it down and away. Beautiful.

Let's bend your knee, and we're just gonna take this off here, and we're gonna switch to the other side. So we're gonna do this same thing on this side. We're gonna start with the strap on your foot here, top strap on your foot, and stack your hips. Got it? Bottom leg is bent, and you want the foot behind your seat and the knee in front.

So, why don't you scoot your hips this way so you're right in the middle of the table there. Good. And from there, you're gonna sweep the leg forward, bring it forward, and then sweep it back. But only as far back as you can stabilize the hip. Inhale forward.

That hand's already grabbing the front of the table. That tells you that you're probably trying to take your leg further back than you actually should. So, just keep that top hand kind of resting there. And if you feel like you're getting pulled back, just limit the range. It's about going as far as you can with good control, guys.

Inhale forward, good. And exhale back. That's it, good. And let's do that again. Breathe in, come forward.

Really good. And then exhale, pull back and away. We're gonna do that one more time. Breathe in, and then come back. Now we're gonna go into our sidekick stretch.

You're gonna come forward the same way. Now what I want you to do is bend your knee and bring your heel to your seat, then keep the knee bent and try to take the knee behind you, and then stretch it out. Good. And come forward, breathe in. Now bend your knee, bringing your heel to your seat.

Now take that whole shape back, and then stretch into that strap. Good, again. Breathe in. Now, this is an exhale coming here. Bring that whole thing back together and then stretch it out.

And I'm just giving him a little assistance with that spring there. And come in, and then press it through. Good, one more time. Breathe in, really nice. And bend your knee, come back, this should be feeling wonderful right here.

This is such a great stretch. And now come straight out so you're in one straight line. Your hips rolled back a little bit. Make sure they're stacked. You're gonna lift that leg up, pushing into that strap, and then exhale, pull it down and away.

Inahle, lift it up, don't roll the hip back, and exhale, come back. And, guys, make sure that your abdominals are still connected here, they're not just hanging out in the breeze there. Pull them in, keep them connected, and do that again. Reach them up, breathe in, pull it back down through. Good, you're gonna do that one more time, we're gonna finish up with that one.

Breathe in, lift, and then lower back down. All right. So, bend your knee here, and let's take that strap off. Really good job. And we're gonna move onto the push through bar on this side.

So, just bringing this up. Hooking it in there, yeah. Are you ready to go? So, you're gonna lay on your back here. So, guys, I just have one of the heavy springs on the push through bar spring from above.

Now, I'm gonna have Jake position himself so that his head's not right at the end here. I'm gonna have him scoot down this way a little bit. So, grab onto that bar for me. So, for this exercise, I like to, when he's holding onto the bar, I want to see that his, kind of hand is above his shoulder there. This is just a stretch.

So he's gonna bend the elbows out to the side and push it back behind you. Just get a good stretch there. It should feel really good, yeah? Now bend your elbows and bring the back back up. Now, you don't want the bar to slip out, so it should roll around with you.

Pull your arms down. You should roll your hands around that bar and press back. Keep a good grip on it, come forward. Now, Jake is doing a really good job here. I want you to think about, at home, pull that down again and press it back, as you press it back, do not let the ribcage pop up, you want to keep the abs connected so it stays right there.

Come forward and up. All right, a little bit too easy. We're gonna make it a little bit harder now. So, bring that bar back behind you, exhale. You're gonna start by bringing the bar in front.

Breathe in, and then we're gonna roll up with it. So you're gonna follow the bar up, and then you're gonna reach it up until you're almost in that diagonal line. Now, he's gone a little bit into the lower back here, I want him to drop back just a little bit. Then he's gonna roll back down through, pull the bar down and press it back behind you. Really good.

Inhale, bend the elbows, exhale, follow it up, and lengthen yourself up there, keeping connected, really nice. Roll down through and press it back. Good, do that again. Bring the bar in front of you before you start rolling up. Don't hike the shoulders into the ears.

Then start rolling down through the spine, articulate down and press the bar back. let's do that one more time. This is such a great exercise, mobility for the shoulder girdle, for the spine, strong abs, roll down through and press back. And then bring that bar up, I'm gonna grab onto it here and bring it all the way up to the top, and you're gonna flip over onto your front. This one's really difficult to do on your own, so grab a spotter or somebody that can help you so that you don't put your shoulder in a compromising position.

I'm gonna keep my hand rught above Jake's head so he doesn't lift his has as I'm bringing the bar down, which would not be good. Then I'm gonna bring it forward and I'm gonna have him hold onto the bar here, right there. So, from here, this is really awesome stretch across the front of the shoulder. I'm gonna have him bend his elbows and breathe in, and then all he's gonna do is float up with that bar, and then he's gonna push it back through, good. Now, if you notice, the push through bar is way through the uprights here, and I want to get it about even with the upright, so he's gonna shimmy back a little bit more.

Let's take your feet to the outsides of those uprights at the back end, yeah, and avoid grabbing the table with your feet, you want to keep the legs nice and loosened. From there, bend your elbows and come behind and then just float up with it and then press it back through. Now, with a lot of athletes, this is going to be enough of a stretch here, just this much of it. Bring the bar back behind you and float up. When clients start to get a little stronger, when they start to get more mobile through the shoulder, through the spine, you can actually come up a little higher, so come back behind you and then kind of press the bar up.

Now, you don't have to push it up, you can just guide it up until you feel the stretch, that's perfect, and then come back down through, and press back. let's do that again. Inhale, bring the bar back, now exhale, start to come up. And I don't want you to fight it, I just want you to let your arms float up. Good.

And then start coming back down through, and press. To make it a little less of an extension, we can move Jake or you back even a little bit further, so scoot back even a little further. I've got the bar just in case. Yeah, and then reach it forward. Now he doesn't have to have as much mobility.

So, here we go, coming back down through, breathe in, exhale, press up, and voila, he can come up a little higher. Then start to come down, the bar comes behind you, and then press back through. That's enough of those. I've got the bar, Jake, you can let go and push back into a shell stretch. Be really careful getting out of this exercise, make sure you don't overdo it with your shoulder.

All right. You feeling good? All right. (laughing) Your favorite part now, flip over, we're gonna work the hamstrings. We know that a lot of the sports that are involved in the triathlete are quad dominant and hip flexor dominant.

So we really want to get a hamstring work in there, so I'm gonna bring this bar down and Jake is gonna put his feet on it, so we're doing push through with feet. All right, so, from there, and again, I want you to scoot back a little bit, Jake. I've got the bar to help him as he moves back so it doesn't slip out. And this bar a really nice gripper on it, so if you don't have, if you've got one that's a little shinier, a little smoother, you want to put a gripper on it to make sure you keep it underneath your feet. From here, you're gonna bend your knees, and then you're just gonna reach the legs up right there.

Good, that's it. And let's do that again. Bend your knees to bring the bar down, and then push it forward. We're gonna go a little bit more onto the arch here, because you notice how he's really gripping with his toes, so I want you to crawl up there, a little more onto the arch. Don't scoot forward, I'll bring the bar back toward you.

Yeah, right there, that's it. Let's do that again. Bend your knees and then press up, and you notice, now he's got much more of his foot on there, it's much more secure, and then come back down through and push it out. Now, you may have to adjust your feet a couple times as you do this exercise, that's the most important thing. Keep your feet in the right spot.

Are you ready to roll up? Bend your knees, breathe in. Now push the bar up first, straighten your legs. Oops, got it. All right, let's try that again, let's start from the beginning.

So, bend your knees, bring the bar up, straighten your legs, there we go. now, roll up through the spine, articulate up. Good. Then roll down, articulate down. Let your hips hit first, then pull the bar towards you, and then push it away, got it?

Again, breathe in, bend the knees, straighten the legs first, guys, exhale, then articulate up, reach up. Roll down through the spine, articulate down, drop your hips, bend your knees and push through. Now, Jake's feet are about hip distance apart and that's fine. It's gonna feel more comfortable on a lot of you athletes if your legs are separated, if you want to bring your legs together, you can also do that if it's comfortable for you. Now, we're gonna add the single leg work here, I love this.

Bend your knees, breathe in, bend your knees and breathe in, and then exhale, straighten the legs, and you're gonna roll up here. That's it. Now, from there, you're gonna take one leg, you're gonna kind of scissor it back over your head and then come back down, and the other leg, scissor it back, and then come down. Now start to roll down through the spine first, legs long, and then bend your knees and press through. So, lots of work through the posterior chain here.

Got it? Let's do it again, breathe in, bend the knees, watch the ribs, exhale, straighten the legs. Now, guys, roll up through the spine. Now, start with the opposite leg. Take the opposite leg off and bring it back down to the bar, then take the other leg off.

Your goal is to keep the hips square. Don't sink down on that hip. Bring the foot back down, roll down through the spine, really hang onto it, bend your knees, bend your knees, and then press all the way out. All right, Jake. I have got the bar, you can let go of it with your feet, put your feet down, and I'm gonna bring that bar all the way up.

One more exercise with the push through bar, and with our Cadillac before we move onto the chair, we're doing side body twists. Now, this is a super challenging exercise, and so, what I'm gonna do is bring the bar down first, and then I'm gonna have Jake lay on your side, and what you're gonna do at home is make sure that you reach back behind you and have room behind you. So, you see where Jake is right now with all that room in front of him? That's no bueno, you want to scoot your body forward here, yes, you want tons of room. So, what I want you to do is just roll onto your back and make sure you stay on the table, and then come back up, because that's what you're gonna do in the side body twist, so make sure you're at the front here.

Now reach with your bottom hand and hold onto that bar. And you can scoot down a little bit, maybe a tiny bit further. Put your feet through that upright. I'm gonna hang on there. You got the bar.

I'm just gonna get rid of this spring here for a second. All right. We're good. Now, from here, the first thing you're gonna do, we're just gonna practice a side bend. So, you're gonna kind of draw that bar toward you, lift your legs and your upper body, and then reach back out.

You're gonna inhale as you do that. So, inhale as you push down on the bar, bring it back toward you, and exhale, lengthen back out. Now, you're gonna do that same thing, you're gonna inhale, start lifting up, now you start rotating, lifting your legs up toward the teaser, bringing the bar up and reaching up, then inhale, bring the bar back down, opposition your legs, reach away your arms, reach away, and then you gracefully come back down, (laughing) to the table, we might try that again. You good? Yeah, it's good.

Inhale, side bend first always, then exhale, lengthen up and reach. Good. Now, think opposition, Jake, you're gonna pull down on that bar and then you're gonna put your body weight into it and reach out with control. Beautifully done. Last time on this side.

Three times the charm. Keep your arms straight as you come up into the side bend. Nope, you're bending your elbow, so, keep your arm straight to begin. Now we've got it, now bend your elbow and then reach up. Beautiful line.

Pull back down, send your bodyweight over, and breathe, control it all the way down. We got it. All right, I have got the bar, and we're just gonna flip you around to the other side here. All right. So, what I'm gonna do here, guys, because I want to spot Jake on this is, I'm just gonna switch out for a second, this spring to the other side.

Here. How we doing, good? All right. All right, there. And that way, I can hold onto that side of the bar, and I'm gonna get rid of this leg spring on this side.

Okay, so, you ready to go? Let's review this really quickly. You want to make sure that you are toward the front of the table. Now, not too far front, you don't want to fall off the front either, but you've got plenty of room behind you here. From there, we're gonna practice our side bend first, so, arm is hovering above your leg, your body is in one long line, your arm is gonna stay straight on this side, and you're gonna just push down on that bar, kind of pulling it toward you, but with your scapula sliding down.

Yes. And then lower back down. And do that again. Breathe in, bring the bar toward you rather than pushing it away. Yes.

And then lower back down, really good. One more time like that. Breathe in. Flex, and then lower back down. I'd like to see more leg lift, but we're gonna get that right now.

So, here we go. Inhale, lift the legs, come up the same way. Now bend the elbow to bring the bar toward you, and reach it up, lengthen, good. And then pull the bar back down, start taking your body weight over on top of it, and lengthen out. Good.

So, remember, the side bend happens first. Breathe in. Now exhale, bend your elbow. And reach, good. Now reach the toes away from you.

Start shifting your weight onto your hip. And then lengthen back out. That was beautiful. All right, I've got the bar. You can let go.

That was three, right? Yeah. That was two? Okay, finish up, we gotta balance out. We don't want him walking around in circles later.

So, here we go. Inhale, side bend, now exhale, reach up, lengthen. I really think this is four. Then come back down, reach back out, and stretch out. All right.

If you did three on each side, that's great. All right, let go, and come on up. And we are now gonna switch it out and finish up with some chair work. All right, and now we're on our final stretch here with the chair. So, we're gonna do about six exercises on the chair, and the first one is a great mobility exercise called the ankle exercise.

Jake, you know this one. So, I'm using two heavy springs on the bottom hook, and for this one, I have the petal together. So, come on up here, Jake, and what you're gonna do is take one foot and place it on the bar there, and you're gonna put your knee right below your patella right on the edge of the chair. Your other leg is reaching back, and we want to get as square as we can here. Good.

And let's see if we can get this leg a little bit more parallel. Yeah, right there, perfect. And what I want Jake to do is just plantar flex, or point his foot, and then dorsal flex, really pulling up in. You're gonna exhale as you plantar flex, we want that nice neutral alignment through the spine, and then come back up. This is such great work for the foot and ankle, really good for mobilizing.

Remember before on the reformer, we did running and we did lower and lift. That's with a straight knee, that's gonna challenge, primarily, the gastrocnemius, the big fat one on top. This one with the knee bent is gonna get the deep muscles of the calf, so it feels really good, doesn't it? Really great for mobilization and increasing the range of motion there. Watch that you're not hooking your foot, you're staying right through the center of the ball of the foot as you go down and up, you don't want to see the foot sickle as you do the exercise.

Now, do you remember how mnay you did? Yeah. He does. So, let's go to the other side and do that same amount. So, just switch over.

And we're gonna match that up. So, first of all, make sure you're set, make sure you're nice and parallel, make sure your leg is straight, your spine is lengthened. Lift your head up just a hair right there. And from there, we're gonna do that mobility through the ankle joints. So, you're pushing down, and again, I love doing these, like, separately, these exercises with separate legs because you can really see differences between the two sides, and you can really improve on that side that has he deficit.

So, on this side, I would say Jake has to work a little bit more on not sickling the foot at the very end. Yeah, so, press right into the ball of the foot. You see that? You can see the foot kind of rotate as he was pressing it in and the heel kind of swing in. So, we don't want that to happen.

Yes, right there. Keep the weight right between the great toe and the second toe as you're going through that movement pattern. Are you almost even? Yeah? Let's do one more just to be sure.

And then all the way, come all the way up. All right, so, from there, we're gonna do a little cat standing side. So, I love this one, the cat is a really good mobility stretch for the spine and the hamstrings. Doing it from the side on the chair, we're gonna keep the same number of springs here. So, face the side, and you're gonna line your heels up with the back edge of the chair here, but not too close.

Just a hair, no, not, sorry, back where you were, so, line it up with the back edge, but just not right up against the frame of the chair there. Now, what's gonna happen is, he's gonna breathe in and as he exhales, he's gonna begin to articulate forward and place his hand on the pedal, his opposite hand is gonna reach back toward the ceiling, and he's gonna press down. So, what I like about doing this stretch on this direction, you can start to roll back up here and just, all the way up through, and come up to the top. Is that one side of the obliques is gonna be challenged more than the other. So he's really fighting against rotation, so he's working the rotator, you can keep going, exhale, roll down through, reach your hand toward the pedal, your opposite hand up.

So, you're working, really, through that mobility, but you're really challenging one side with resistance more than the other, and then articulate all the way up and lengthen up. He's doing a really good job of not letting his hips swing back. I want you to focus on that as well, not letting your hips swing to the back as you roll down so that you have to use more of your abdominals. These fingers reach up to the ceiling, good. And then roll back up, articulate up, all the way to the top.

Let's spin around and do that on the other side. Really nice. So, line your heels up, square off to the chair to the side, breathe in, standing tall, and then exhale, start articulating forward. Reach your hand toward the pedal, opposite hand reaches toward the ceiling, but not rotation, or minimal rotation in the spine and hips. And then start rolling back up.

And then come all the way back up. Now, there are a number of different variations that you can do of this exercise, but this is a perfect one for really helping to get the obliques engaged on one side and then the other, and really working on resisting rotation really good. And come all the way up. Great for lengthening the hamstrings. I think we have one more here.

Roll down through. And press, keep your weight centered on your feet, try not to shift into the chair side as well. Try to keep your weight centered, good, and then roll up through, control. All the way up to the top. Really good.

Okay, so, now we're gonna come around to the back of the chair here, let me just turn it around, and I'm gonna slide out the bar so that we have a split pedal, and then come right around to the back. We're gonna do an exercise we're calling swimming on the chair. So, come on down onto there, hands on the pedals, good. That's it. Now, what I want is for Jake's hips to be about two inches, in your hips, to be about two inches from the edge of the chair here.

So, not over the edge, and then legs lengthened. And you want your hands to be about directly below the shoulders here. Then float those pedals up off, there you go. And we're gonna come up into a slight amount of extensions through the spine here. So I'm gonna have him slide the scapula toward each other, keep the abdominals engaged, point the toes, keep the legs slightly extended at the hip as well.

Then you're gonna bend one knee, lift the opposite leg and then switch. A little bit of coordination. That's it. Sorry, I said knee, I meant hip. So you're gonna lift that hip.

There you go. And then switch. Yes, and then switch. Good. And then keep alternating.

Your head can come up up just slightly here, right there. And we want to try to avoid movement in the hips and movement in the spine. We want the legs and arms to do the movement here and the abdominals to stay connected. Inhale, and then exhale for two. Good.

And then inhale for two. So, slow, controlled. Swimming, really good for teaching that stability, working through the glute and hamstring, getting a little length on the hip flexor and the front. Yes. And working on scapular stability as well.

Now, straighten both the arms and legs and just reach up, lengthening up into a nice swan, and then release all the way back down, pushing the pedal down. Now, be really careful, the pedals are split. Bring one up at a time and slide off. Very good. And I'm gonna slide this pole back in, because I want to do one more.

That's a really good lat exercise. We're gonna just turn it this way, and we're gonna use the kneepads here, and you're gonna kneel on those pads right next to the, facing the side, yeah. And put your hand on the pedal. So, sit back on your heels there. That okay?

Yeah? Now, what I want you to do here is, it's a little tricep extension, but it's also a little lat work. So, from there, you're gonna push down. Good. And then come back up, so try to stay as centered as possible.

There you go. And press. So, you notice that the pedal is coming toward you as you press down, so you're not just getting tricep work here, you're actually pulling that pedal toward you. You're getting lat work and pec work as well. Love this exercise for working down that lateral chain there.

Good. And come back up. One more time. Press and come back up. All right, let's just spin around and do that same thing on the other side.

Feels good, doesn't it? It's especially good for clients or if you have a tendency to overuse the upper traps, and let's face it, who doesn't, that's where we hold all our stress, so it's really good for pressing down and activating the muscles underneath the shoulder, the opposing muscles, and to help release that. Now, we're leaning into the chair a little bit, I want you to center yourself. Yes, and then pull that pedal down and toward you, and back up. Beautiful.

And do that again. Exhale, press, good, don't lean. Come on back over here. And, last one, press, and come back up. Beautiful, really good.

Again, you can see a difference between your two sides when you work those. Come on up off there for a second. And now, we're gonna turn this way, and we don't need those pads, and we don't need this pole, we're gonna split that pedal again. And we are coming down into a plank position with your hands on the pedal. So, a push-up position, and bring that pedal down, so just roll down, you can walk out.

Right into a push-up. That's it, good. From here, super challenging, you can leave the push-up out if you want, but you're gonna come down into your push-up, exhale up. Now, lift one pedal and the opposite leg. (laughing) And then come back down with control.

Try that again. Go down into your push-up. Now let's try the other side. Slowly, slowly, control, control, control, and press down. So, what you're gonna notice as you're doing this, and you can just do the arm and leg part, you can leave the push-up out if you don't want to do the push-up is that, when you're lifting up the pedal and the leg, your obliques kick in like crazy to stabilize you.

Good. Now, I want him to do two more and I want him to really slow down that lift and lower right here. So, really slow it down. Work, work, work, work, work. And down, we're looking to make sure that the hips stay leveled, they're rotating a little bit.

So, come on down. Come on up. Now, breathe, exhale as you lift. Yes, inhale down. So, that exhale is gonna help you recruit those abdominals even better.

Let's do another one. Down and up. Slowly lift. And down. Are you even?

One more, okay. Down and up. I'm making him work right to the very end. Lift and down. All right, and relax down just for a second.

That's it. And guide those pedals up for a second. Now, we are going to keep the pedals split, and I'm actually gonna have him go into that plank position again, and I want him to put, we're gonna position the pads where he can put his knees down. If you've got a mat, you can put that on the floor as well, but this will work fine. And then, yeah, come on down.

This is his final stretch, really good mobilization. So, come into your plank there, that's it. And now, what I want you to do, push back into a pike, heel sink. Beautiful. From there, come back into the push-up plank position.

Now, you're going to lower one knee and drive the other foot forward right next to the side of the chair. Now, let the pedals push you into extension as you sink your hip forward. Really beautiful stretch down that whole side of the body. Now, you're gonna push the pedal down, lift your hip up, shoot your foot back into the pike position, right into your pike. Nice, good.

Now, don't overdo it with the shoulde joint here. Yeah, there you go. Now, you're gonna shoot the other leg forward, drop the knee down, let the pedals help push you into extension. Open up, abdominals stay connected, good. And then press back down.

So, again, these stretches with some assistance really help increase mobilization of the hip joint. Come forward. Yes, there you go, beautifully done. Come up, stretch back, sink opposition. The pedals re pushing you up, your hip is sinking down.

Come back down, press up. Go into the pike. And come forward. Nice adjustment with the shoulder, really good. Drop the knee, let the pedals push you as you sink the hip down.

Good. And then we're gonna finish going back up into your pike right into the pike. Good. And then come forward into the plank, lower your knees down, and then just guide the pedals up with control. Awesome.

Well, that's it. Beautiful work, Jake. That was a tough workout. Really good, I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you got a lot out of it, and I look forward to seeing you again. Thanks, everybody.