Class #2864

Refine Your Form

55 min - Class
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Focus on the details to connect deeper to your core in this Reformer workout with Alan Herdman. He teaches Ricardo and Rafael from Spain, in a class designed for strong men who want to refine their form. He adds many specific movements and props to make sure you can clean up your technique and deepen your practice.
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box, Yoga Block, Pilates Pole

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Hello, I'm Alan Herdman, and today we're going to go through a reformer class for guys who are quite strong. I'm working with an old friend of mine, Ricardo, and a new friend, Raphael. Now Raphael's English isn't brilliant, so Ricardo will probably tell him some of the things we're talking about. So if you hear Spanish, don't worry, we haven't changed countries. Okay guys, we're gonna start with the leg work.

So if you'd like to lie on the reformer with your feet in a parallel position on the bar. Make sure your headrest is up on this. (loud click) Let's have your feet in parallel, so the outside of your foot is in line with your greater trochanter, so it's completely in line with the outside of the leg. And allow your ankles to be quite soft. Let the ankles go.

And now just straighten your legs, stretch out. So we're gonna get into the position with the legs straight. So just look down your body to make sure your legs are in the right position. Can you look forward and just, no just stay there, look, bring your head forward, and just see where you are. You can look at your feet.

See we need to have a little more pressure into your big toe. So breathe out as you come down, using the abdominals, 'cause there's no springs to help you. And breathe in and stretch up, and come down, breathing out, and breathe in to stretch. Pull up through the vastus medialis each time, and come down, and Raphael relax your toes. Try not to do this, have your toes soft, and I want the heels to stay in one place on this.

The spring is so light, you have to really draw through your abdominals to come down. You can't use the pressure of the springs to draw you down. So it is in this area here. There you go. So this time take your feet, heels on the bar.

No stay out there, guys, stretch out. We're gonna change positions while your legs are straight, and have the center of the bar in line with your ankle joint. And now come down, now relax the feet as you come down. Let them go and dorsiflex as you go up. And breathe out to come down, letting the feet relax, and breathe in and go into dorsiflexion as you straighten.

And come down. And stretch. All the time, feeling a slight narrowing of your waist as you do it, so you're pulling through the obliques to help to hold your position. Let's hold it there. Now in a small V, stay up there Ricardo, place your feet into a small V.

And out. Lift the heels up a little on this. There you go. And come down, breathing out, and breathe in as you go up. I want your ankle, knee, and hip joint to work simultaneously as you go up, so every joint is working at the same time.

What about this? Draw in a little more, so it's in to straighten, out to bend. So what we're doing, we're taking the emphasis away from the legs, and placing it into the center of the torso for this initial series of movements. Okay, let's stay there, now place your heels on the outside of the bar. Now this time, come down quite slowly and open your legs as wide as you can, as long as the knee stays in line with the center of your foot.

Now hold it there, and use your adductors to stretch out again. So breathe out as you come down, and breathe in to straighten. Pull in here a little more. As you straighten your knees, feel the stretch going right through your torso through the top of the head. So you're elongating through the whole back.

And feel a lot of the work is coming from your back as you stretch away. One more time. Okay, stay here. I'm going to add, we're going to add two reds, so now we have two reds and a blue. Place your feet into the center again.

Whoops. Feet in the center, stretch out. Again, make sure your outside of your foot's in line with the greater trochanter. Have the weight right through all the metatarsals of the foot. Slightly wide.

And now let's do the walking, so bend your right knee, and push your left heel down. Hold it for a second, and change, and stretch, change, hold it there, stretch, and then go to the other side. So you're going to breathe in to change, change legs, pause, and then breathe out. So there's a slight pause when both legs are straight. Breathe in to change, change, and breathe out.

And change, and done. Change, and done. One more on the other side. And now bend your knees and come down. We're not going to do it today, but what I normally do, we'll do a series of exercises on a very light spring, and then we'll add the weight on to do the same amount of exercises, but on a much stronger spring.

We're going to do one legged's now, so you are having your one knee bent, and the other one stretched out in front of you. Now as you breathe in, you're going to straighten your left knee, at the same time bending your right knee to the chest, and straightening it up to the ceiling. So it's breathe in and stretch. Both knees, I would prefer them to straighten at the same time. So let's think of it kinda and one, and two, and one, and two.

So it's on an inward breath, so are you ready? So let's do four on the right, and four on the left. And one, and down, two, keep the pelvis square, breathe in, and Raphael keep your pelvis down, and stretch, and down, and stretch, hold it there, hold up, let's do one more, hold in position. Now dorsiflex and push into the heel, and stretch the back of your knee. Go on, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, and then come down and change legs.

Change over. That's it. So pelvis flat. On the inward breath, and one, and two, breathe in, breathe out, and one, and one and stay, now flex and stretch, and then come down. Good, good, good.

Let's put your feet in the straps and stretch your legs out. We keep it two reds and a blue. If it's too heavy we'll reduce it. Now stretch both legs out. Now we're gonna do this in a rotation, so straighten your legs, and rotate.

Now where your feet are now is the center of two circles, and so I don't want D rings, I want two circles. So we go down and around, up, and then down. So it's breathe in as you go down, and then breathe out to come up, and in, and around. You can make them slightly bigger, Ricardo, if you can keep the pelvis in one place. So down, around, and lift.

So both legs are working independently until they come into the center, and that's the only time they touch. Now let's go into the other direction. So this time breathe in on the top half of the circle, dorsiflex the feet, breathe out, and scoop the inner thighs together as you lift your heels, and then point. So breathe in on the top half, flex, breathe out, and pull the inside of your thighs together, and point and lift. Breathe in, breathe out, and lift.

There we go, and rest. Just bend your knees and relax for a second, just relax your lower back. Now let's stretch out. We're gonna do the frog, but I don't want you to bend your knees any more than when your thighs come at right angles to your spine. So breathe in and bend, opening the knees shoulder width, bend, and now without pushing into your heels, pull from the adductors, pull your inner thighs together to straighten your legs and stretch out.

Good. And bend, breathing in, have it flexed. There you go. And breathe out, and use the inner thighs, and draw the stomach muscles in. That's it.

Ricardo's inner thighs are shaking, so it means he's really working hard. And stretch. Let's try something else. Stay there. Have your arms up, so they're roughly in line with the center of your thighs.

Palms down. Now take a breath in. Now as you breathe out, bring your legs forward, and at the same time come forward into a chest lift, and reach your legs away as you curl forward. Reach. And then relax back down, breathing in, bending your knees as you do it.

And keep the dorsiflexion, and breathe out, reach through, working into the lower abdominals, and then breathe in as you go down. Two more. And breathe out and reach. Keep the flex. And down.

Last one. And lift. And why don't you smile when you're doing this, come on, come on, smile, and then go down and rest. Actually take one strap off. Take your left leg, and place it on the bar, and just hold on to the strap.

Straighten your leg. We're gonna use that other strap in a second. Now stretch this leg up, and I want you to put the strap onto your heel. Now keep this leg very straight, pelvis firmly in position on the bar. So have it into this.

Now from there, keeping your pelvis in one place, slowly bend the other knee, bend the leg that's on the bar, bend it slowly, and stretch the back of your knee, stretch the back of the knee, and you should feel a stretch into the hamstring. And now breathe in and straighten this leg. So we're gonna breathe out as we stretch, and bend, keep the pelvis in place, keep the pelvis down, and stretch. Now bend, now hold the other leg bent, don't move this leg. Now bend this knee, and now push it up to the ceiling a little higher than it was before.

Stretch it, bend, and push up, and straighten this leg. So bend your left knee again, no keep this one straight, bend your left knee. Now take your left leg off the bar and stretch it out, and just reach a little more. And place your heel down onto the bar, and bend your knee and come down. Change to the other leg.

So place the strap right around the heel. When it's around the heel, you just get a little more stretch in the leg. Stretch your knee. And bend, just slowly breathe out as you bend your right knee. Feel the stretch, feel the energy going up through the whole left side.

And breathe in to straighten. And breathe out and bend, bend a little more on that Ricardo. Yeah, that's it. And stretch, one more, bend, and stretch, bend, now hold the bend there, now bend your knee. Keep the other leg very straight, bend, and now stretch, and reach it high.

Keep this one straight, stretch it higher. That's it, bend again, and stretch, and straighten your right knee. Last one, and bend, get your full stretch. Now slowly take your right leg off the bar, and stretch it out in front of you, and just reach, keep the pelvis down, reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, push the other leg up to the ceiling, go on, push it up, push it up. Nice.

Bend and relax. I don't usually change the springs for my clients, but for you guys, I will do it. Take hold of the straps, take hold of the straps. Now lift your knees up. What we're going to do, we're going to as you exhale, you're going to pull your arms down, curl your head forward, and take the legs out as low as you can without arching the back.

But when you bring your arms down, I don't want you to think your hand's coming down, I want you to think of your upper arm pulling down. So it's the upper arm that pulls first, and then into the hands. So take a breath in, now as you breathe out simultaneously arms down, head forward, legs out into a turn out, into rotation. Stretch the legs, point the feet, flex hard to get the inner thighs, point, and then go back down, breathing in, bring your arms up, and breathe out and pull down. Stretch out, flex, point, and then back.

We're going to change it slightly, arms down, legs out, keep the pointed foot, open the legs as wide as you can, dorsiflex, and now pull the inner thighs together and lift forward a little more, point, and then bring your arms up, and take your head down. And arms down, legs out, keep the pointed foot, open, flex, and lift forward as you close, and then back down, and arms down, legs out. This time arms and legs together, arms out, arms open, that's it, flex, now lift the upper torso forward as you bring your upper arm into the ribs and close the legs. That's it, point, hold it, and beat, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and down. Last one, and arms down, legs out.

Whoa, whoa, (all laughing) one more, arms down, legs out, good try, arms down, legs out, now lift the sternum forward, arms and legs breathing in. Now use the upper arm and the inner thighs, and reach forward, come on, reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, point your feet, and one, and two, and three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and rest. Stretch your legs out again, turn the legs out, one, two, rather than ch, ch, ch, ch, ch. (and Raphael laughing) Okay, more energy. Yes.

Feet in the straps again, headrest down, two reds and a blue. Put your feet in the straps and just move a little away from the shoulder stops. Hold onto the bottom of the bed, so come down. Come down a little more, move your body down just so. (men speaking in a foreign language) Ricardo, I'm just gonna go through it with Raphael here, so just listen to what I'm saying.

Headrest down. (Raphael speaking in a foreign language) Yep, that's it. So parallel legs, take a breath in, do it with us, yeah, now as you breathe out, slowly bring your legs over, keeping the back flat for as long as you can, drawing in the stomach muscles. Now as you breathe in, turn the legs out, rotate the legs out, and push your feet up to the ceiling beyond your head, so the bed goes all the way down. Hold that position, bend your knees, and open them hip width apart.

Now from there keep the feet here, now slowly roll the spine down from the front of the torso. So you're using the front of the torso to roll the back down as far as you can. Draw the heels down, change into the frog position. Bring your knees in a little Raphael, and breathe out and stretch away, and stretch the legs, Ricardo, turn parallel, breathing in. Now as you breathe out, bring your legs over.

Sit in to get the stretch of the legs first, breathe in, keep your feet in the straps and push your feet up towards the ceiling behind you, breathing in, and turning the legs out. Hold your breath as you bend your knees. Now slowly, as you breathe out, roll the spine down from the front of the torso, flex the toes, draw your heels down, pause, breathing in, and then flex and breathe out as you stretch. Let's do that one more time. Turn the legs parallel, breathing in.

Breathe out, keep the pelvis down for as long as you can, breathe in, rotate your legs in the hip joints, and push behind and up. Hold your breath as you bend your knees, open the knees a little wider, and breathe out as you roll down, draw your heels down, pause, and then stretch, and relax, bend your knees, and take the straps out. (train whistle) Let's do the knee high kneeling chest expansion. We'll have one blue. So just take the two reds off.

Kneeling, facing the risers. Now with a high kneeling just make sure that the ear, the shoulder, the hip, and the knees are in a straight line, and you still have the natural arch, but support it with the abdominals. Now hands in the straps, and have the straps on your wrists so you're not gripping the straps. So it's not interfering with the shoulder line. Now as you breathe in, gently pull the hands back behind the hips, and when you get there, inwardly rotate your arms, pull back a little more, and lift your breastbone, and get a lift into the thoracic spine.

And then breathe out as you come back, and have the arms go, so you get a little more rotation when you get to here, on there, about there, and breathe out and pull back, rotate and lift. And forward. Let's do two more. Have your hands roughly in line with your shoulder line, and pull back, and rotate, and lift, lift from the sternum, keep the back of the neck long and lift from your sternum. That's good, and up, and back one more time.

Try and keep the shoulder blades slightly apart on that, and try not to squeeze the blades, keep them open, that's it, and now lift. That's good, and then back. Guys, when you do the chest expansion, it's not opener, it's keeping this open, the the lats are pulled down so you're getting the lift from your sternum. Drop your left rope, just put the strap down onto the side there. Now bring your right hand onto your shoulder.

As you breathe in turn to your left, and pull the left arm back, and push with the right hand keeping the opposite hip still, don't let the pelvis move, feel your diagonal pull, lift your right arm up, stay there, stay there, and turn a little more, come on, turn, turn, turn, center, turn the hand down, and push your hand to the floor, and pull it back to your shoulder, and breathe in, and turn. Breathe out, and lift your arm up, drop the shoulder down, breathe in, turn more, breathe out and come through center, turn the palm, and push the palm down, feel the pressure in your hand to get more work into this side as you come down. Let's do the other side. So breathe in and turn, watch this left hip, Ricardo, keep it still, and bring your arm up, turn a little more, go on, turn, turn, turn, this hip back, this hip back, breathe out and center, palm down, and push down, and then back onto the shoulder. Now use this hand to push, it's not decorative, so you need to use the heel of the hand to try and push you around a little more.

So turn, breathing in, push, lift, turn more, come on, come on, come on, that's it, center, and push down. Nice. Turn and face me, we're gonna do arm circles, actually you can come to the end. Let's have your feet flat so you've got the whole part of the, and now take hold of the straps. This time you're gonna lightly hold them, and come up to high kneeling.

So have your arms quite straight to here, so slight curve here. Now breathe out and curve your arms forward. Now reach your fingers and turn. Now stretch your fingertips forward, imagine your fingers are five inches longer, now breathe in to go up. Now hold it there, breathe out, and lengthen through your armpits, come on, lift, feel you're almost lifting out of your knees, and then breathe in, and then come down to your sides.

So breathe out and curve. Rotate your arms and stretch your fingers, long, long fingers, breathe in and reach, opening through your armpit as you reach, scapula down, lengthen, breathing in, open your armpits more, come on, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, and then all the way down. Two more, and breathe out, and then curve, turn, reach, lift, stretch, come on, more Ricardo, more, more, open, open, open, and down. Think of your neck lengthening as you lift up. Last one, breathe out, scoop, using the abdominals as you scoop, turn and lengthen through the front of the torso, and now open, open, open, and down.

Nice. Good. You like that one. Yeah. Normally it's just up and down, but I added this in, because it's an extra breath to do it.

Let's put a red and a blue on. Facing the other way, sitting, we'll do just one rowing. You want that down a bit, yeah. Sit a little farther back, Ricardo. I'm going to take your bar down.

Arms straight, palms, fists up towards the ceiling, arms parallel to the floor. Stretch your arms out, Ricardo, straight arms, there that's it. Now as you breathe out, bring your hands to your shoulders as you contract back, contract back. Now as you breathe in, straighten your back from the lumbar spine and stretch your arms out, and lengthen the spine, lengthen the spine, and lift everything up together, stretch your arms forward, and then rotate them back. So breathe out and curve, curve, that's it.

Now breathe in, rotate the arms, as you stretch up and reach from the lumbar spine, that's it, there, so we're leaning back, and now breathe out and lift up all in one piece, taking your arms down, and then rotate. And breathe out, and then curve. Now breathe in, rotate your arms through as you stretch up and lengthen, lengthen, that's it, pull out, and now lift all in one piece, and then down. Let's do two more quite quickly, and one, and two, lift three, and down, four, and breathe out and curve, stretch, now lift everything up all in one piece, and then down, good, and rest. (all laughing) It's not the traditional one, but I rather like the way it uses the lower back, but always from this curve, it's the back that sends your arms out, and your arms aren't here, right angles, see it's almost as if you're just leaning back, it's like the quad stretch with a bar, it's the same thing.

Let's put the box on. Long or short box now? Let's have the short box. In front. Now let's get these out of the way.

Sitting on the box and place your feet in the strap, and have your heels on the standing platform as much as you can. And knees together. Can you go a little further back on that? Yeah, that's good. Hands behind your head, elbows very wide, so you don't have to be clump, just have them about here.

Work the inside of your thighs to hold your position. Now as you breathe in, just feel you're lengthening your torso up, and hinging from the hips, and you're going straight back, pulling up through the stomach muscles, and breathe out as you come back, and breathe in, lift out of the hips, and back, pull up, pull up through here, pull it, and then back, and lift, and reach back, and forward, one more, lift, and then back, and forward. Now you're going to turn to your right, and to your left, so turn and go back straight over, come up, center, turn to the other side, and stretch, keep the hips square, keep the hips square, center, and back to the other side, and go over, straight over, up, center, and to the other side, over, lengthen through that side, keep the hip down, keep the hip down, come up, and back, so now as a finale turn to your first side, go over, come on Ricardo, over, now turn and face the ceiling, turn, to the other side, and lift, and relax. Turn to the opposite side, and slowly go over. Keep turning as you go over.

Flatten your back up to the ceiling, over to the other side, and then lift, and reach, good, actually while we're there, sit a little further back on this, and have straight legs, and have your feet away from this bar, so I want you to feel that you're pushing through the heels as you do that. Hold onto the bar quite wide, about to this high, just slightly in front of your ears. So what you're going to do, just let me show you quickly. You're in this position, dorsiflex, as you breathe out you're gonna contract down so your arms come to your thighs, breathing out, then as you breath in you bring your arms up, breathe out and take them down, and then breathe in and lift. So just hold lightly onto the bar, and breathe out, and then curve, lift into the curve, lift into the curve, keep the curve, now breathe in and lift your arms up, breathe out, and again from the lower back, breathe in and reach, and breathe out, and curve, keep the curve, pull in the abs as your arms go up, that's good, breathe out, and then breathe in.

And breathe out, breathe in and lift. Now hold that and turn to your right as you breathe out, breathe into center, turn to your left, keep your abs working Ricardo, center, breathing in, arms down, breathing out, and then breathe in to lift up, to the other side, and wouldn't you know, and breathe out, and curve back, not too far. And arms up breathing in, lift into here a little more, and turn, turn, turn, lengthen the whole torso, center breathing in, turn, center, arms down, and lift, excellent. (all laughing) Not allowed. On your right side, in a straight line, so what I want you to do, let me show you, I'll just very quickly show you the position.

You're going to have, I think maybe you need to put the box over the straps, over the shoulder stops. This leg is straight, the bottom leg is bent with your foot around your calf, underneath arm is on your shoulder, this hand is on your thigh, and you lengthen out, then as you breathe in, you go over, keeping the back straight, and then breathe out and come up only that much. So you're just moving quite a small movement. Actually, with your height I think we'll have it here. Facing this way then?

Facing to the center here. Actually go over and place your hand onto the shoulder stop, place your hand here, and now just position yourself, get everything in line, stretch this arm, now bring your arm away from the shoulder stop onto your opposite shoulder. And now keep the length and slowly go over, breathing in as you go over, and breathe out and lift, and in, and out, and in, out, in, and then out, good other side. Have you scoot a little lower down, Ricardo, on that. You feel it?

Yeah. I'll just put it a little further down. There's a tendency to roll forward on that, can you just bring yourself into this, yeah, it's almost as if you'll feel as if you're leaning back. Now reach out first, and go over, now breathe in and lift, you're doing four times just here, and then out. Come on, come on, come on, come on, that's it, and then down, and just shorten, right, and down.

Is this number four? You're hoping it is. It's fine with me. And slowly come up. Great, good.

And rest. Turn the box around, long box. Put it over the stops. No, no, over, just drop over the shoulder stops. Lie on the box with your shoulder blades over the edge, with your head at this end.

Yeah, it's not gonna move so that's all right. So your shoulder blades here, so on your back. Bend your knees and take hold of your ankles. Go all the way back. (Ricardo speaking in a foreign language) Scapula over, yeah, a little more, hold onto your ankles, open your knees a little, as you exhale straighten your arms and legs to about 60 degrees, both arms both legs in a line.

Now as you inhale, take your arms to your head, and arch the whole upper body over the edge of the box, breathing in, breathe out, bring your head up first and your arms around, and lift up, reach towards your feet, bend your knees, and take hold of your ankles breathing out. So breathe in and stretch up, arms and legs parallel, flex and turn out to have a little more strength through the legs, arms to the head, and reach way back, reach out of the hips, reach, bring your head up first, arms follow, reach up towards your feet, bend your knees, and take hold of your ankles. Breathe out and stretch up, flex and turn out, arms to the head, breathe in, and go all the way back. And now use the abdominals to come up. Yeah.

Bend your knees, lower down, and take hold of your ankles. Okay, another. (Raphael speaking in a foreign language) Blocks under the box. (Raphael speaking in a foreign language) (all laughing) We'll have a red and a blue like this. The long way, Ricardo.

Sternum over the edge of the box, take hold of the straps, and just reach forward so your arms are completely straight. You can wrap your hands around the ropes if you want to. So we'll just bring your arms back breathing in and lift through your sternum, and feel the pull into the thoracic spine, keeping the neck long, and then breathe out as you go back. Ricardo, not so high as that, go a little further forward. That's it, now stretch your arms out, head down, now breathe in and move from here.

That's it, that's enough. Lift your sternum a little more. Bring your arms forward, that's good, and then breathe out as you go back. And breathe in, lift the sternum, lift your sternum, that's it, and then breathe out. One more time.

You still want to sink into your lower back on that, Ricardo, keep this open a little more. So go down, now lift up, and lift, there we go, bring your arms forward a little more, that's it, enough, no more than that, and back. This time take your arms out to the T position. No, pull back first, pull back first, arms to your hips, now lift your arms out to the T position, out to the side, out to the side, lift up a little higher, lift up, and bring them back, bring your arms back to your sides, and then down. Just come to your hips on this, so come back, lift, pull the scapula down, now arms out to the side, and pull back, pull back to those hips, and then down.

This time we're doing the circles over the head, and go back down again, pull back, pull your arms to your sides, and out to the T position, now lift your sternum up and reach over your head and go forward, and then down, and back. So let's do this one again, so it's pull back, pull to there, T position, now lift up and over, lift higher, and then down, and back, and rest. Change the box and place it across the foot bar, stand up, let's have two reds and a blue on this. Just have this then. Yeah.

So have the box across. Just make sure it's into the center. And blue, two reds? Two reds and a blue. On your knees with your arms in the praying position on box.

Make sure your elbows are on the box. Dorsiflexion. Now round your back, think of a posterior pelvic tilt. Now keep that tilt, as you breathe out push into the feet, and take your legs away from you without changing the position of the back, feel the weight coming out of your knees, and push back, push, lift up through your abs, Ricardo, a little more, and push, a little faster, push, and bring your knees in, closer, a little more, that's it, and lift lift, relax through here, try and get the knees off, that's it, and bring it under, bring the back under. Hang on for a second, I need you to get a little more movement in the hip joints, so there's more.

Is it too heavy, do you want to take a weight off? No. (Raphael speaking in a foreign language) Just get a little more work into your hip joints, and now push out, pull up the abs, push your legs away, and back under, right under, come this way a little more, and then back, and that's it. Stay there, push out, now flatten your back, anterior pelvic tilt, knees down a little, Ricardo, and now bring your head up slightly, and do the same thing with a flat back, and push out, slightly bigger movement on that. That's it.

Bring your knees much more under you and reach, and back, and reach. Good. One more, and rest. Good. (all laughing) Come on.

Stand up. Now as you're up, put the box behind there. Put the bar in the middle, what I want you to do is to think of the scooter on this, but what I want you to do is to push it out, have your foot, this knee almost in line with the bar, and I want you to push out quickly. So you push, and then slowly come back under. (breathes out quickly) So it's a fast out and a slow in on three reds and a blue.

So push and then resist coming back. We'll do four in each position. And push, and slowly pull back, pulling in the abs as you come up, four and four, let the carriage come all the way back, (breathes out quickly) and slowly come back, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, and push, and other side, good. And now push, and slowly come back, slow, slow, slow, slow, and push, and push, and out, good, and out, and back and rest. Let's take the bar onto the lowest level, and I think maybe a red and a blue on this.

So you know the controlled stretch with the arms, so toes onto the bar, hands onto the shoulder stops. Controlled balance. Now let's start you up quite high to begin with, come on, lift up, it's almost in the elephant position, now from there, use a posterior pelvic tilt to get you into the position. So really work through here and through here as you push out and elongate the spine, and a slight tilt to the pelvis to get the back of the legs working. Now stay out there and just move your arms forward.

Push, and then pull back, really working into the upper back as you do it, but maintain this working here. A little more with your pelvis here, and stretch, and pull. Two more. Good, and back, and lift up, and take your feet off and place it onto the floor, and turn around, and feet to the shoulder stops, and the hands on the bar. Now high lift, hips right up to the ceiling as far as you can.

Heels halfway up the shoulder stops, just halfway on that, just about here. Now from there push the legs out, and go into a long stretch, and lift from the hips, lift the hips up and head between your arms, and come forward, let's breathe in as you come forward to the long stretch, and lift, and push, elongate the spine, elongate the spine, but don't let your hips drop too much. And lift. Now this time push your legs away first, so push your legs away and go into a much lower one, push the hips through and now come up over your hands with your upper torso, up, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, now lift the hips and push back, push away, push away, push away, push away, pelvis through and come up over your hands as far as you can, and lift, and push away, and come through, last one, and lift, and push away, and come on, up, up, up, up, up, up, and bend your knees and relax over your, just stretch out, stretch your back out, and stretch, okay Gentleman, thank you very much, that was great. (all laughing) (Raphael speaking in a foreign language)

Comments

Thank you Alan for a wonderful, strong class with clear cues. Loved the different resistance throughout!
Wonderful session! One question - on short spine, Alan, you say "use" the front of your body. I have found I can articulate down when I relax the chest, so not sure how to approach this.
Great work out for men, loved the variations on all of the exercises! I just had to lighten the springs a bit because I am not as strong as the two men in class but not bad for a lady!
Interesting workout which demanded a lot of control. At the start I didn't pick up on the springs but you got clearer as it went along. Will definitely try another of your workouts.
This is great! I am woman who does Crossfit as well as Pilates, I've found I tend to want to use my global muscles like a guy in Pilates more than my internal abdominals, so this class was perfect for me, I could feel the exercises forcing me into my core more than my big muscles, fantastic! Thank you!
You are my favorite! This was incedible work. Missed you in Denver ! Will see you at PMA in Ca.
Marie Artman
Nice class. And im a girl. Thank you :)
Enjoyed the class and anatomical cues. Even more of those please!
Also, would you mind explaining the reasoning behind doing the arm series prone with the box on an incline, i've not seen that before. Thanks!
Claire M
1 person likes this.
I wish he verbalised the springs with every change. It is a bit of a guessing game...
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