Class #2866

Alignment-Focused Session

70 min - Class
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Description

Focus on your alignment in this Mixed Equipment workout with Alan Herdman. He teaches Nicole, who is a reasonably new client, giving her detailed cues so she can make sure she is working correctly. When you work with proper technique, you can make sure you have a good foundation for your Pilates practice.
What You'll Need: Wunda Chair, Cadillac, Reformer w/Box, Mixed Equipment, Towel, Fitness Ball

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Hello, I'm Harold Herdman. Today we're going to do a class for a reasonably new client. Uh, we're going to work on the trap table, add the reformer and the chair. And my victim is Nicole. Hi Nicole. I'd like you to lie down on your back in the middle of the table. Okay.

When you get into this initial position, what I call semi Supine, it's important to make sure your student or your client is in a comfortable position that they, the they, the head is in the right position and the lumbar spine is protected. So we start with the feet roughly in line with the um, the hipbones. So the outside of your foot is in line with the greater recanter or the outside of the hip and the foot is fully down on the floor. So you're using all the metatarsal of the foot. We go to the pelvis and the pelvis is neutral.

So the whole pelvis is on the mat and you feel almost as if your sit bones are dropping down into the mat. The ribs are wide, the neck is long. Now with Nicole, I want to have her head slightly higher so it's more in line with the spine. So you need to use whatever padding is required for the shape of your client. Now with the hands, good to ask Nicole to rotate our arms out from the upper arm so she feels as a gentle stretch through the chest and holding that position. She's then going to just turn her hands in and slightly bend the elbows.

So this is open. Now to begin with, I'm going to just check with what's happening with the lumbar spine. I don't want to it to be pushed down and pushed into the floor. I want to be quite soft so I kind of necessary place fingers underneath this, the lower back. And to begin with Nicole, we're just going to breathe. So take a deep breath in through your nose as deep as you can, allowing the diaphragm to drop down and then slowly breathe out through your mouth. Just imagine you're blowing the straw out of a uploading the air out with a straw through a straw. So breathe in and breathe out.

Good. One more time. Breathe in and breathe out so you really feel it. Filling the lungs with air as much as you can. Don't think of trying to hold everything in and just allow it to open with the breath, like a pair of bellows. Good. Now this time we're going to organize it a little more. I want you to think from the top of the hips to the low rib.

Imagine you have a tie, a belt around your waist. As you breathe out, you're going to feel you're going to tighten that belt so you narrow your waist. So you take a breath in him and I just imagine the belt is tightening and you narrow the waist so it feels it's coming from the back around to the front. Breathe in and relax and breathe out and narrow. Breathe in. And I think if you can get another notch on your belt this time and breathe out, pull a little more, a little bit. Good, good, good. That's nice. One more time.

Breathe in and breathe out. So she's not thinking of pulling her naval to the spine or dropping the back down. It's just this feeling of wrapping around from the outside. Okay. This time we're going to do it just to gently stretch the lumber spine out. We're going to do a small pelvic tilt, but what are you going to think of? The same breathing as narrowing here, but we're going to think of the tail burn coming to the pubic bone, pubic bone to your rib cage.

So take a deep breath in and as slowly that tailbone, pubic burn pill, burn to the rib cage. Good. And then just gently take it back down and breathing in and breathe out and then slowly take it back down and think of taking it down from the front of the torso. A little slur this time. Breathe in, so tailbone to the pubic burns, so we get very low down here, pubic bone to the rib cage, and then slowly return. Last one, breathe in and narrow the waist, tailbone, pubic bone, rib cage, and then relax. Good. Just to release your shoulders a little, fold your arms like Sarah. Just very lightly, not quite so close as that, just a good shape.

And just draw the shoulder blades down. What I want you to do as you breathe in, just take your right elbow over, keep the shoulder down and feel the stretch through the left side. Breathe out and come through center and breathe in and feel the stretch through the opposite side and breathe out to come through center and breathe in and go over keeping the folded arms in line with your breasts, bumps in the center of the stone and come through center and over to the other side and back. Now this time we're going to take the elbow over and then we're going to circle the arms around the head and back to this side. So we breathe in. Now as you breathe out, think of this album making a quarter circle above your head.

You can allow the shoulder blades to come up. You come round to this side, still breathing out. The shoulder blades come down and you breathe in to come back. Now people want to get there. They want to sort of make a steeple with, I'm trying to keep the hands level. Okay, so to this side, breathe in. That's it. No, your elbow goes around, reached through the arms. Good and back.

And again, one more time. Breathe in a fearless stretch through here as you go. Stretch, stretch, stretch. [inaudible] yes, that's better and back. Nice. Last one. Now feel the stretch through this left side as you stretch up and packed out. Excellent. Arms by your sides.

Just to give you shows. Just loosen the shoulders up a little. Okay. Let's do a bridge. Place your hands on your hips so you'll have the thumbs around to the back of the pose. The fingers on the front. You've got to use your hands to really lengthen your waist. Okay.

I want you to think of the hip bones coming straight up to the ceiling. If you need to take your rest down. We'll see how it goes when you lift up. Okay, so just breathe out now. As you breathe in, just lift your hip burns up into my fingers, keeping the waistline very long. Using your, that's nice. Good. And slowly take it down all in one piece.

So it's coming down completely in one piece. Excellent. Whoops. Except that last little bit. Yes. Okay, so breathe in and lift. I just think of a drawbridge effect. Breathe out. As you go down and you're thinking of the lumbar spine, keeping the natural natural curb. Yeah, that's better. And breathe into lit.

Feel the stretch gently through the front of the legs, towards your knees, and then slowly go down all in one piece. One more time and lift. That's hold that. What I want you to do very carefully is as you breathe that, just tip the pelvis to your right center. Breathing in. Breathe out, tip to your left center, breathing in and then slowly take it down.

Just so we get that slight movement in the lumbar spine. Let's do one more like that. So breathe in, lift now, feel the length. Use your arms to stretch and tip and tip center. And then slowly done in this position, you can win after the tipping. You can either go straight down as we did earlier or go down sequentially through the spine. Okay. Place your arms by your sides.

I'm going to use a ball. Ideally the ball should be making sure that the, um, the lower leg is parallel to the floor ideally, but this is going to work just as well. And it's a way of getting people to feel that their low abdominals working. So Nicole, straighten your legs on this. Now you can keep your heel, keep your heels off. Because what we want to do, well, once the ball has come into the position to finish, we need to have the heels in the center of the ball not sitting on the front. Okay, so stretch out again.

Make sure the pelvis is in the right place. Still stay that leg straight. Hey, go take a breath in. Now as you breathe out, just feel that you're drawing the ball towards you through the lust. Ahmet muscles. Keep going a little more and just drop down into the floor and then breathe into stretch away. So as you pull, you're just feeling, you're pulling up. Think of working bit into the pelvic floor, but the lower abs.

So breathe out slowly, put it in a little more. Pull up, pull up, up. Now once you get to 90 degrees, just think of dropping down so you're working on each side and breathe in to go away and breathe out. Check that the tail burdens down. And Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul dropped down. Good. Yes, you feel quite deeply in the stomach muscles that good. And then back. Let's try one more. That's nice. Good and back. Let's keep the legs here on the right, on the ball. This time, key thing, the knees must stay together. So there's, there's a possibility in this position what we're going to do with that, they will slide apart. So you really try to keep them together.

So take a breath in as you breathe that, roll the ball towards your left side and allow the right hip to come. Don't lift the hip. Just think of the hip being pulled off, keeping the shoulder down. Breathe in here. Now as you breathe out, pull in on the right side to slowly bring the ball back. Continue breathing out and take it over to the other side. Hang on for what you're doing. You're, you're trying to, uh, you're anticipating where it should go. Okay. What I want you to do is to feel that the movement of the legs is bringing the hip rather than lifting the hip. Okay? So breathe in and out.

Breathe that the ball is moving. So the legs go first and the hip will come off the, yeah, that's good. Hold it. They're breathing in and are slowly. Breathe out. Pull through here and then come over to the other side. Breathe in and breathe out. Feel the pool going. Run towards the back using your obliques. That do you feel that? More of that time. Good. And over to the other side.

Breathe in and breathe out. Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, and through here. One more time. Breathe in and slowly breathe out. Very good. Bend your knees. Just take, take over your knees and gently pull them towards you. Okay. Roll over onto your front now. Okay. Having your feet just hanging over the side of the bed.

Let's just pull your thing down so we can what I w in this position, I want to place a folded towel just just above the hipbones. Okay. And this gives a support into the lumbar spine. Also. Sometimes in this position you would need to put a roll of towel underneath the arm underneath the armpit to support the upper back as well.

Okay? What I want you to do, Nicole, is from there. If you think just relax completely. I want you to feel where the, where the um, the femur joins into your pelvis, into the, into the hips, okay? Just at the point of the greater to counter as you breathe in, I want you to feel, or imagine they're being pulled together. So relaxed first, breathe in and pull them together. Poor, poor, poor, poor, poor and relaxed. Breathing out. So you'll see when she does this movement, when she does the squeeze, you see how the lumber spine elongates. She's not tucking under, which is just lengthening the lumbar spine and at the set, relaxed Nicole, let it go. And at the same time, the abdominal wall will lift and breathe out and relax and breathe in and bend and squeeze. Sorry, squeeze, hold and breathe out and just let it go.

So breathe in, pull together and hold for four counts. One, two, three, four. And then relax and again, and Paul, just relax through this part of your back. Keep this open and held and relax. Good. Stretch your arms out in front. Resting your forehead on the pad. Okay. And just very gently drawing the shoulder blades down, but not, but not too much. Just just be aware. My hands are on the scapular and I just let them go. Just pull down.

That's it. Okay. We're going to do what I call modified swimming. It's right arm left, like the same as the traditional swimming, but it's very much more controlled. So Nicole, what are you going to do? You're going to take right arm and left leg. Now as you breathe in, you're just going to float your arm and your leg up about two to three inches no more. And then breathe out as you go down. And the other diagonal. Breathe into lift, not too high. And then breathe out.

And other side breathe in. So we want the leg to lift, but not have too much work into the, into the pelvic area and Dan and breathe in as you lift and done once more to each side. Breathe in and lift. Just feeling of the scapular in place and lift. And Dan. Nice. Okay. Bend your elbows and place your head onto your hands. Just bend them out like this just to keep the legs the way they are.

Now as you breathe in, gently push into your lower arm and lift your breastbone and head away from the floor from the bed. So lift up now just gently pull down here as you do it and breathe out to go down. So we're trying to get a little more work into the thoracic spine here. So I'm just going to just gently put my fingers on each part of the spine where I want her to bend from. That's it. Draw the scapula down. Just a little good, good, good. That's it. And then relax. Back Down and breathe in. And lift and breathe out to go down and lift. And Dan.

So what I'm trying to do is to stop Nicole coming to highs that goes down into the lumbar spine. You felt that through this area of the bacteria. Good. Sit up on your hands and knees and just stretch your back out and turn it around. And let's face this side, straight legs pointed feet. We're going to do the road and you know the Rodin's. Okay. Right now I want, what I want you to do is from here is to feel it. You're going to go the into my hand to begin with. So just gently, hold on. I've got, we've got long yellows on here so then you're not going to be pulling too hard.

So take a breath in and as you breathe out, gently row your spine into my hand. And imagine your tailbone is sliding towards your feet and take the head back that you use our small pad again here. Now bring your upper back and head forward. Breathing in. Now breathe out and slowly curl up. Lifting into the curb. Lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift. Now sitting up very straight. Okay, let me see one more. Take a breath in and as slowly breathe out, keep the feet very long and stretched, softening into the extent of that or more and back. Now bring your head and upper back forward. Breathing in. I just feel you're pulling up and over my fingers here.

Lit Up and over and sitting up straight. Let me change this. I want you to take hold of the bar there. Okay, now curb your arms outwards. In fact, you're in in this position, drawing down through here now holding that position. Same thing. Take a breath in. Now breathe out and pull down. Soften through the chest curl, keeping the curve, keeping the curve that's better.

And I round your eye. Curb your arms again. Bring your upper back and head forward. Breathing in. Soften the chest. Now lift up into the curve. Lift and up. Straight to feel how that opens your back out a little more.

Let's try that again and re out. Imagine your tailbone sliding towards your heels, pulling away. Think of a slightly more of a narrowing, narrowing of the waste. As you come up, Chin up a little, Chin up. They'll go under reach. Okay, we're going to do it this time. You're not going to come up straight. You're going to curve over and reach forward towards your feet, okay?

But you can straighten your arms when you reach forward, but have them curved as you'd come up and go down. So breathe in and breathe out. Just relax the shoulders a little more. Yeah, and back. Head forward. Breathing in as soften. Lifting your sternum. Now keep the curve. Keep the curve and our stretch over. Straighten your arms as you stretch over.

Are you still held there? Now as you stretch over, Nicole, draw the shoulder blades down and just think of your spine stretching of. Bring the head up a little and just gently stretch. One, two, three, four. Breathe in, breathe out and pulled back through here. Don't come up. Don't come up straight. Just curl back. So keeping it a little tighter this time, that's better. And bring your head forward. Breathing in, breathing out.

Now lift into the curb. Lift, lift, lift, lift, lift and stretch over straightening your arms, scapular down. Don't balance. Just a gentle stretch. One, two, three. Breathe in that. Pull back from your lower back and slowly down. [inaudible] and relax. Okay, I got it. You can let go. I've got to come down this way. Move down the bed roughly. So this Ah, is um, let me see where it is.

You can come up a little higher. Not Too much. Yeah, take hold of that. Okay. Oh, I'm going to do it. I'm going to place this towel between your thighs on this. Okay. Okay. So you're going to do the push through by say the you breathe into.

Bend your elbows outwards. You breathe out and stretch. Breathe in to come back and then breathe out to go up. Okay? But as you breathe out, you're going to squeeze this pillow. It's not a pillar. It's a towel. Squeeze this towel. Okay.

So breathe in and bend your elbows outwards. Now as you breathe out, stretch away and squeeze this hard and keeping the panelists dance or get along. Stretch through here. Pull the shoulder blades down, bend your elbows, breathing in and out. Breathe out and reach the bar up and squeeze and bend. Breathing in. Relax the towel and I breathe out and I'll feel a stretch right from the towels through the whole body and elongate through here. But keep the pelvis down. Breathe in and breathe out.

Okay. Breathe in and bend and breathe out. To stretch. Going to change a slightly. Breathe in bend. Breathe out slowly. Squeeze. Reach up and curve the upper torso forward and reach. Still squeezing. Now pull your shoulder blades down, breathing in as you come down, and then breathe out and stretch.

No, breathe in. Now draw the scapular Dan as you bend, but keep this softness through here. Breathe out, stretch up and squeeze and lift. Keeping the tailbone down till under and that's it. And go down. Breathing in unsqueeze and stretch. Good. Okay, very good. I'll take this, I've got it set up and we'll go to the reformer now and we're going to start with some upper torso work. So Nicole, if you'd sit on the box facing the risers with the back of your knees on the box and just let your feet hang. I quite like the [inaudible] hanging so you can have the whole hamstring onto the, onto the, onto the box.

Place your hands through the loops. So the Lucas on your wrist and you, you're going to stretch your arms down. We're using a blue spring for this because I wanted to be an easier movement as not a strengthening movement. And I also had the, the loops on the wrist, so there's no tension in the arm. So your fingertips are stretching towards the floor. Now I want you to, from there is just a think of gently squeezing your hamstrings and your glutes and lift up a little more. Elongate the spine. Good. So we're trying to keep that Lens. Now as you breathe in, you're going to pull her arms just past the hips. Then rotate your arms inwards and pull back a little more and a slight lift of your breastbone. Not too far back, just about there.

So come, let's, let's go forward again. So slowly pull your arms back, drawing this gap in there. Now from there, rotate your arms inwards and let this stand them just a little more, but don't pull any further back. You feel that down in the middle of your back here and then breathe out as you go forward. I think I'm going to make it, I'm going to add a yellow on this and just to give it a little more strength. So slowly breathe in. As you pull back, rotate your arms, lift your sternum a little and feel the thoracic spine, but keep this part still and then breathe out to go forward.

Careful that you don't push forward like this. Your this is completely straight as you pull back and then it's just a lift from here, but this remains in a constant position. So pull back, feel a rotate, and just lift your sternum. That's just there. Yeah, and then breathe out. Remember to rotate your arms inwards as you pass your pelvis and rotate parts of the palms. Go out. Little more out there you go. And you'll feel the work into the lats there and then come forward and gently pull and rotate.

And then back one more time again, keeping this length you here and pull back. Rotate the palms outwards. Stomach and a little more. Yeah. Good. And then back. Good. Take this one. Just keep this spring on one, on your right arm. Same thing. And just rest this, um, and thought, let's hold on to this, but we're not going to use this one. Okay. We're just going to hold on to it. So you're going elongate the spine up again as you breathe in.

Turn to your right and pull your right arm back and the same thing. Rotate your arm outwards. Good. And breathe out to come to the center. Turn to your left. Turn the whole toss around, keeping the hips square and stretching. I'm done. And rotate keeping center and then back.

So what we need to think about, because as you turn this, the shoulder stay absolutely straight. There's no tipping and it's just a sensation of lengthening the arm. Okay. So we're keeping this open, that both shoulders in the same on the same level. So let's go to the right and Paul, you see how you want to pull down on this right side and center and breathe in and slowly turn and pull and back. One or two each side. I would keep this lat length and, and pool and back. And Paul, the show did litter and back. That was better. Okay, just give me the [inaudible].

Now in this position, bend your elbows and have your elbows slightly in front of the shoulders. Okay, so what we're going to do is from here, as we breathe out, we're going to open our arms out to the side, and on the inward breath we'll go into rotate the arms and lift the chest and little more drawing the scapula down. Feel the funnybone coming forward. Breathe out, bring your arms back, and then breathe in to come to the center and breathe out and open. Breathe in and lift, breathe out. And then breathe in. And again, breathe out to open, breathe in and rotate. Good.

Breathe out and breathe in. Last one, and breathe in. [inaudible] open fast. Sorry, my fault. Breathe out. As you open, breathe in and rotate and you feel the chest opening on that. Breathe out. And then in, so you should feel a stretch across here and down into the back here. Now we're going to work in the sense of you're back onto the run board. So let's change hands, palms done.

Now this time you breathe in as you open your arms and feel the shoulder blades gently pull together [inaudible] and then breathe out and just cross your wrists so that the shoulder blades open and breathe in and open. Pull the blades together and then breathe out and close it again. Opens the back and cool. Good. And then back. One more. Breathe in an open. Have you had this slightly forward, back pulled back and to go down and again and open. Keep the lens and cool. All right, good. Do you feel that in your run boys?

Good. If you could carefully stand out and I get rid of the box. Okay, I will do this with two reds and the blue and I'm going to have the bar on the nurse level. So that we've got that word versus to lying completely flat. So who'd like to lie on your back with your head here? Cool.

And your feet on the bar. Um, I'm going to change the gears. If you held that slick, it come down. It's all right. I've got you. Okay. So again, as we did earlier on the trap table, the parallel position is in line with the outside. Okay. That'd be all thighs. And I want the whole uh, metatarsal on your foot, on the bar, but not keep your toes very relaxed on this. Don't grip the toe, just keep them very easy. Um, make sure that the pelvis is done.

Great. The ribs are done and we have this softness here. Okay. Just straighten your legs out so we can see the position. Stretch both of their, can you stretch your knees a little more? Ah, yeah. What I want you to do is as you breathe in, is to come down, bend your knees and breathe out and stretch to feel the whole foot onto the bar and the weight keeps into the center of the toe. I breathe in to come down and breathe out and stretch.

Now this time, why? Now? When you come down, think of bending your knees without letting the bed move, sis. Let the knees bend and then move the carriage. Yeah, that's it. And stretch away and feel the pulling up into this part of the legacy. Do it.

Feel the back of the the inner hamstring is if it's pulling around to the front. As you come down and stretch away rich and come down. So it breathing in to straight. Breathe out to bend. Go stay up there this time. And I'm going to place your heels on the bar.

Now when your heels are on the bar, I want your ankle joint to be in line with the center of the bar. Okay? And now when your legs are straight, your feet are in Dorsey flection. Okay? But when you bend the bend your knees, you can relax the feet forward. Okay, so on the way down, thank you, Ben. You think of the knees bending first and then the carriage would move and relaxed feet now come into Dorsiflexion as you breathe in and stretch. Breathe out. Bend what you were doing when you straighten your legs.

You're trying to move your pelvis too much. You feel the pelvis lifting slightly, plus your hands onto your hips here and that feeling on the hips, on the Asi es shouldn't change. Okay, so don't think of squeezing. Just think of taking the legs out. Okay. Stretch away. Breathing in better. No. As you come down and bring out, lift your knees up first.

Lift your knees up first. Come on. That's it. Good. And then move. Imagine that the the FEMA is pushing down into the Acetabulum, into your pelvis. Okay. And breathe out to go up to Aussie flex and now resist Ben. That's it. Good. Yeah. Stretch away. You know what we did earlier of marrying the waste.

Think of that happening as you push away and come down and stretch. Keep you, keep the carriage still. Now lift your knees up into my hands. Come on, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift and bend and stretch away and lift your knees up and come down. You feel the difference on that and then, and stretch one more and come down. Get that resistance in the more and breathe out. Okay. Stay in that position. That's going to a small V on your toes and it just make them a little bit a little wider.

Now Bend your knees and come down out. Again, think of your resistance as you come down and open these about the hip. Lift your heels up. Let not too much, Nicole, just about the know. Breathe out and stretch stretched at Shit. That's it. Now resist coming down thinking the knees moving first before the carriage and stretch. So what we're aiming at is your hip, knee, and the ankle joints are working at the same time. No resistance with your knees. Okay?

Slightly wider with your knees and stretch and bend. You thinking into, come down. Keep the tailbone. Keep the pelvis in neutral and stretch away. Stretch the knees a little more. Yup. Good. Good. One more time and stretch and done. Excellent. Now place your heels on the outside. Okay, let's stretch your legs out. Let's get the position.

So what would the fit can stay absolutely flat on this because of the position of the legs. Now when you bend your knees to come down, I want you to think of a point on the inside of your thighs and you're going to aim that point over the in step. So as you breathe in, you're breathing out to come down. So open, open, wide, open wide. That's it. Now hold that position as you breathe out. Use the inside of your thighs, putting them together as you go out and stretch and breathe in and come down. Open out as wide as you can, but making sure the foot and the knee stays in line so that the knee is in line with the center of the foot and stretch away. No slight resistance. As you come to answer, the knees are going to start bending first and then you open wide. I use the inside of your thighs.

Use your doctors to push back so they're coming together great and back. Good and stretch out. You feel the inner thighs working a little more there and open wide as you come down and stretch. Nice. Bring your feet into the center again. The same position as you started on your and your toes.

Separate your feet a little sit. Now we're going to do the prancing. So what I want you to do is to have a point that you change and you have a point where both knees are together and then going down to the other side. Okay? So bend your right knee and push your left tool down. This isn't, let's do this on the outward breath. Now as you breathe in, lift your left heel up as you straighten your right knee.

And I want to pause. So lift up, pause with them straight. And then Dan. So rather than Greg, it's lift, hold and then there's a point. Yes, that's nice. Keeping the feet very straight and change and change and change. [inaudible] it be a little slower so you can get it. Nice long stretch and slow. [inaudible] and stop. Just a second. What I'm going to do is I'm going to hold onto the feet like this, so I'm holding your feet straight.

Okay? Nah, bend one knee. It doesn't matter which one you're going to do and take that on and lift and keep the weight into the big toe metatarsal as you go down and lift and done. Yeah, that's better and come up. And uh, cause there's a tendency for everyone to let the foot roll out. So we're trying to keep the weight into the center so that you're concentrating on your big toe on this up and down. Good undressed. Come down.

Now we're going to do, try a little coordination here. Okay. So you're going to have your left heel on the bar and your right foot stretched out in parallel. Okay. So as you stretch out on the ultra breath, you're going to, sorry, on the inward breath. As you stretch shot, you're going to straighten this knee and then this one to the chest and then up to the ceiling to get the hamstring working. Now breathe out and come down and reach and breathe in and stretch with the pelvis down all the way. And then bend. The temptation is to lift the pelvis to get the leg higher, but keep it down.

Bend and reach, Sh and back. So breathe in and stretch. Stretch both legs at the same time and bend and then come back and bend and reach. Shit, stretch. And then dad, stay out there on this one. Bend and rich, uh, hold it there.

Bring this leg down, stretch this leg up. I know. So Ben, birth and come down and reach and breathe in and lift rich up and then breathe out and stretch and lift. Try and get them straightened out. The said maybe to aim Sahar it became 90 degrees is good. Alright, bend. And if you get any higher, that's a bonus.

But the pelvis must stay flat. Bend and stretch. Sure. Good. That's nice. Bend and reach and lift. Breathing in and lift and breathe out that one more time and lift and reach and good. Lift your knees up and just hold, but move away from the show to stops and take hold of the straps is, does this feel heavy for you? Is it, is it already can pulling down, is that all right? That's okay.

What we're going to do is going to do the arm circles. So what I want you to do with your arms up straight, you're going to pull, I'm going to make it slightly lighter for you, so I've got a blue spring on for this so you can concentrate on the position. Now you're holding onto the straps and just have your feet and the knees bent. As long as the pelvis is done, just relaxed towards you, and I don't want you to be in tabletop, just drop the heels down. As you bring your arms down, you're going to pull off, push from this part of your arm first.

So you're pulling the upper arm down towards the bed. Turn the hands so the back of the hands is out, and then go out to the side and then bring your arms up. Okay? When you bring your arms up, try and keep the carriage in one place, so very long arms. Now breathe in and pull down from the other arm. Turn the hands, breathe out, and go out to the side and breathe in to come up. This time you're going to breathe out. As you come down. Turn the hand.

I keep your arms very long and use the outside of your arm and lift up and in turn out and then lift it one more time out in and [inaudible] uh, no, that's reverse it. So open reading art. Breathe in to come in, turn and then breathe out. Come up that way and into, open out to close 10 and in, out to open. [inaudible]. [inaudible] into close. Turn out to come up. Good.

So you feel that working more when it rather than just pulling your hands down. You've done the hundred before, have you? But we're not going to do it. Okay? So we're going to go into the hundred position. Okay? So what we're going to do, same feeling with your arms. Take as, take a breath in. Now as you breathe out, curl your upper torso forward, arms down and legs out to the, but I want you to flex and turnout. So toes flex the feet.

So you really squeeze your inner thighs together and join the tummy. Point your toes, bend your knees and bring your arms substrate. So we're just going to go into the position. So breathe out and curl forward. Tear that point.

Breathe in and come back and still feeling pulling down from this part of your arm and breathe out and lift the sternum and in to go back and out. Now stay that point your toes. Now open the legs wide, breathing in a flex and slowly use your inner thighs to cut back point and then go down. Good. And breathe out. As you call forward. Breathe. Point your feet. Breathe into open now. As you breathe out, bring your legs together, lift your torso forward a little more. And then dad, one more time and breathe out. Left open, breathing in flex and close and dad and relax. Okay, relax your feet.

Okay, moved on. So you're holding onto the bottom of the bed, just just onto the hair. Straighten it. Push out and straighten both legs. Okay, you've done the short spinal before, have you? That's good. If pressed on. Now give me your left leg first and your right leg and stretch the legs out. Point your toes. This might be slightly different to the way you've been doing it, but it's still the short spinal. Okay, so you take a breath in.

Now as you breathe out, very slowly, bring your legs over so you're getting a stretch into the hamstrings, keeping your knees straight. Stretch your knees. That's it. Now as you breathe in, slowly roll up on your shoulders, turning the legs out. Hold that position, bend and up your knees. Point your toes. Now slowly as you breathe out, roll down from the upper spine, keeping your feet where they are. Just gently stretched on using your stomach muscles.

Now draw your heels down, gently flexing, pause their breathing in, and then breathe out to stretch. Point and turn in. Breathing in. Breathe out and slowly come over slowly, slowly, slowly said, keep the pelvis down. Stretch the back of your knees. Now breathe in and slowly push up. Taking your feet over and behind your head. Hold your breath as you bend your knees slightly.

Open the shoulder width roughly. Now keep the feet here. Now Roll back down away from your heels. Just feel the tailbone dropping. Now when you can't go any further, draw the heels down to the back of the legs. Pause the head, breathing in and breathe out to stretch. One more time. Breathe in now. Slowly breathe out. Breathe in. Rotate the legs as you go up onto the shoulders, bend your knees and open. Holding your breath. Slowly.

Roll back down. Breathing. I'll just be, I'll trace fish and follow my fingers down your spine. I just get an extra stretch. Draw your heels down and then stretch out. Good. Bend your knees and relax and stand up. Yeah, I'm going to do this without any springs on Nicole. So Katherine, how you get on coming to kneel against here, facing that way. Let's see, Cole Ford and place your hands on the outside so your thumbs are on the top and round your back. [inaudible].

Now what I want you to do is as you breathe out, is to without moving the upper torso, I want you to pull your stomach muscles up to the spine and curl forward. And then back. Can you take your arm slightly further away? So you're [inaudible]. There you go. That's it. And a pull up and just you're sitting back a little. Just feel this lift.

Think of this lifting up and bringing your knees forward and then back [inaudible] and use the last omelet. Masters. Breathe out. [inaudible] can you take your way to further over your hands? There we go. That keep that position with the hands. Now it's smaller movements. That's better. You feel that a little deeper there and that cause before you were sitting back into your heels. So the emphasis is forward.

So lift and pull and then back. Okay. And cool. And back. Okay. Uh, back. Now what we're going to do, I'm going to put a spring. I could put a blue spring on now, flat on your back.

So let's, let's have a gentle lumper curve on this dinner. The other other direction. Okay. No, you're going to do the cat. Okay. So let's have a posterior pelvic tilt. Dropping your head at the same time and pull the bed towards you. Just a little and a anterior pelvic tilt. Flatten the back and stretch forward and then curl up.

Pull the bed and think of the work coming from your pelvis. So from here it's posterior tilt. Again, you're sitting back a little keep. It's the same as in the cat. You're going to try and hold the thighs, quad repaired and the the arm arms and ties in. Quad repaired. I just pull and lift better and go in the other direction and breathe out and curl and you see how you're sitting back. What I want you to try and do it on that is when it's really, it's just this, there's a slight movement in your knees, but not pulling all the way in. Okay, so the flat on your back.

No, I'm just going to keep the hips here now. Curl up. Don't sit back. Think forward, think forward and go in the other direction. Hang on, let me make this a slightly lighter. Flee, hollowed out the back and I just gently tip the pelvis and push up into my head just to there. That's good. And then the other direction and posterior tilt, curl up. Drop the head and anterior tilt and arch. That's better.

Do you feel the difference on that one more and curl up and reached down and rest back towards your heels and relax. Okay. Neil up and slowly stand off. Very good, Nicole. Now we're going to go to the chair, okay. Okay. Do you call if you'd lie on your front and come forward, place your hands on the bars and let's just check way or can you push your arms done? Well, what I'd like you is to come forward. So your arms or writings, that's good. And I've put the yoga block there to stop. You're going down too far. Okay.

Just feel a stretch the rest of the body you can at the lake slightly apart. Okay. What I would like you to do is keeping your arms straight. Just feel the length through the hole back. Uh, from there, allow the bar to come up and the shoulderblades just to come towards each other and then slowly push them away and pull back and push down. I just feel a slight pull down with a scapular here. That's it. Now I bend.

No, don't bend rubber. Sorry. Keep your arms straight and just pull them in and then stretch them away. Okay. And pull in. Pull them in a little more and open them out one more time. And then [inaudible] and shy away from that. Bend your elbows towards the rib cage and slowly come up and then push away.

Keep the back-pay low on this. So Banjo Elbers and just to think of lifting into my fingers as you come up, keep the back very long. That's nice. And then push away. And then when you got out this time, draw down through here. Feel lip. The head's coming away from the body.

Let the head up a little more so you get a nice curve through here. And then done so that one more. And then drop the shoulders, drop the shoulders, lift your sternum and done. Good. Now this time you're going to do this with straight harms, but what I want you to do is to press your pubic bone into the bed. But, but, but lift your hip burns off the bed as you, as you come up. Okay?

As you come up. So think of the pubic burning down down. They're going to breathe in and lift up straight. Like hang on, go down. Again, I want you to feel this curving first. So to come up a little slur. Now pull up a filler coke in your thoracic spine.

That's nice. Yeah, come on up. You come press into the pubic bone and lift your hip bones. Lift your hip burns right. And then dad also with that as you lift your pubic bone as [inaudible] as you press your pubic bone down and lift your hip bones, I want you to feel a stretch from the pubic bone up to your sternum. Okay. And let's get the curve here first, right? That's nice and relaxed.

Back Dad and lift. Good, good, good. And so we feel we feel an openness here as you do that. Okay. And lift relaxed through the thoracic spine. And Dan, one more time and [inaudible] and relaxed style. Excellent. Stay where you are.

I'm going to take borrowed. Okay. Not from here. Again, keeping your arms straight. I want your right side to come up. So you just turn, pull, pull the Blake down and center and your left side to come up. Think of that spiral we did when we were sitting on the box.

And uh, try and keep your center line as you do it. And then, and Dan and turn and done and turn. And I'm last one and two and done. Good. And sitting up. Bend your knees and sit down towards your heels. Watch the bye. Yeah, good. And just hold on. I just stretch the spine out and stand up. Okay.

Just standing in front place. One foot that, let's put the foot down first. Standing very straight and now slowly lifting this leg up. And Dad. Okay, so we're working at balance and we're working at the s the standing leg, so you have to be really pulled up on that. So we press the button first. That's it. No standing, very straight. Hips, squares, pause. Just have your arms. They slightly out to the side, palms facing inwards, draw up the stomach muscles and I'll slowly bend your right knee and push down. Do you see how you're going off to one side there? Okay. Right.

Let me just see. Okay. From there as straighten, push this leg down a little more. Move it into this position. Yeah, that's it. Now then. Well, just thinking, just the knee coming up. That's it. And fuck that. And Bend.

What is teaching you to do is that when you, you lift what you, what your body wants to do. As you lift one, like you want to go over to this side. So stay on this leg that you're not moving and think of the knee going forward and up. And then Don [inaudible] so don't think of your knee coming up thinking you're going away from you and better pull up into this leg a little more and now your knees going forward. Correct. Not your favorite exercise. Let's try the other side. I've got this one. So if just show, let me show you a second. So if I'm here, I w I feel as my Nico's forward, my body's going up and this leg is working really hard, almost harder than the one I'm pushing back and forward. Okay.

Yeah. This is going to be your homework, I think. Okay. Let me take it down for you. No, this is your yours. This is your important leg on this one, not knee. Going forward and feel your whole body going up as you do it.

And then Don and yes, and Dan, this is a better side. [inaudible] I think next time you do this, put the, um, the uprights into the chair and then just lightly hold onto them just to give you a little more balanced, but that is better. See, I want the feeling as if you're going to do this with your knee rather than pulling into yourself. So it's away from you at lift. [inaudible] and started master's in at the same time and lit. Whoops, the hip went up. And Lily and uh, let's go down again.

UNCURL your toes. Just think of your, think of the metal tassels on the bar. Ah, that's better. And then done. One more and lift and, uh, and relax. Think of the springs as a friend because you're worried about them. Okay, Nicole, thank you very much. That's great. Thank you.

Comments

6 people like this.
its perfect that you just took the video just as you are in a studio giving private lesson to a client, with all the corrections, breaking the routine and doing what she needs, teaching her how to use the right muscle, I believe there should be a series of videos like this here in pilates anytime for new instructors, its you Alan, love you, miss you :)
Michele B
I liked: "think of your toes as tassels on the bar" Thank you!
1 person likes this.
Alan Herdman is the teachers' teacher. Love the cueing! Can't wait to see more videos from him.
This was fabulous
Lesley J
Wonderful. Thank you Alan.
Thank you Alan for such great tuition class I have learnt a great deal - Antonio
Karen L. Burka
A true Pilates Mentor! Excellent basic cueing for building wonderful health for the body. I would call that fine tuning the motor....
Great cueing, thank you so much for sharing such knowledge. I've been teaching for 5 years now and I am amazed how many details there are in the footwork. Right this morning I was teaching a young client and I realized how difficult it is to teach the footwork and how many different  nuances you see in years. 

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