Class #3082

Mixed Equipment Variations

70 min - Class
134 likes

Description

Work on extension and equality in the hips with this Mixed Equipment workout by Peter Roël. He teaches a session similar to what he would do in his studio, making sure to use the space as you move your body. Because there are many intricate variations added to this class, this is a great one to watch before trying so you will know what to expect with the detailed choreography.
What You'll Need: Cadillac, High Chair, Ladder Barrel, Reformer w/Box, Mat, Mixed Equipment, Triadball, Hand Weights, Fitness Ball, Theraband

About This Video

Jun 06, 2017
(Log In to track)

Transcript

Read Full Transcript

Thank you for joining us. My name is Peter Roel and this is Colleen. We will be doing a session that we usually do in our studio which is including a Partial Mat. After that we will do a Reformer that will intersect partially with the High Barrel after which we will do some High Chair and finish with the Cadillac. So with that said I would say, let's start, yeah?

Yeah. Okay. As you can see we made our mats a little shorter with the purpose that we can slide our feet otherwise it's not going to happen. So we're sitting at the very edge in a Half Roll Down position. Sit up as straight as you can.

Feel the length through the top of the head and feel the space behind you. So all of this. We're going to roll through that lower abdominals, waistline, rib cage, comes to the floor and we exhale deep and come forward rounded. Now roll up lower abdominals, as if you're being pushed up from the front. So try to avoid rolling up from your spine.

And again. This time we're starting on top. (deep exhalation) Soften the chest, the rib cage, the lower abdominals. Deepen. Deepen more and come on over.

Again, pull lower abdominals, then the waistline, then the rib cage, the shoulders, back of the neck. Last one, to roll down flat. Down. Reach, reach, and in. Feel the legs tightly together, flex the feet, keep the bunions together and the heels.

Now rotate the legs out. The feet stay together and let that go. You'll feel your heels are coming out. Pull them back together. Separate the legs about three feet, relax the ankles.

Hey (chuckles). And rotate the legs in. Don't work. Feel what the rotation does in your hips, in your hip joint and how it feels in the back and in your sacrum. And one more time, stay parallel.

Now close the legs together. Again, don't do anything, just the legs out and come back in. You do that four more times, parallel, lead with the heels out and the toes to come in. Out with the heels, in with the toes. Out with the heel, in with the toes turned out, leave the feet and the ankles alone.

Out. So it's all up in the hip. And in. Just observe what it does to your neck, to your shoulders. Do you wanna do that?

You can't. And open and in and stay in. Rotate the legs parallel. Place your hands on your hips and your elbows gently press into the floor. Bend your right knee in.

Side it on the floor. Change and change, simultaneously. Again, observe what it does in the back of your sacrum and what it does to your lower abdominals, your inner thighs, your feet, your neck. This is your diagnostic for the day. Bring both legs in.

One knee comes up, the right one first. Leave the foot dangling down to the floor. Right knee comes up and place it down. Left knee comes up. Feel if your opposite hip is coming up or staying down.

It needs to stay down. Left hip stays down to bring the right knee up. Release the foot to your hip Colleen. So you don't use your thigh, yeah. And yeah, so you can release that and then it comes down and let, yeah there you go.

So it's really from very little quad and down and up and down, good. Up, now keep that right hip down to the floor, so it's rotate slightly down. That's a lot of work. Now the left side stays down. A little more up there, yeah, good.

And one more. Good, relax the thigh so you're not working here, yeah. And down, good. Last one. We'll do the Bridging.

Feet hip width apart, slightly internally rotated on the feet. So the outsides of your fees are parallel. Inhale, roll the pelvis up, then lower back, lower rib cage, upper rib cage, shoulders and pop that chest. Exhale, soften the chest, the rib cage, the waistline and the hip. Inhale.

One more time. Exhale. Pubic bone, waistline, rib cage, pop the chest, soften the chest, come down, down, down. Now inhale, we're going flat back up. Inch up from the shoulders.

Up and drop the tailbone down to come down in one piece. One more time up. Straight. Inhale and exhale. Travel down the spine.

Now inhale, straight up, soften the chest, roll down, down, down. And flat back up and flat back down, last one, good. Let the mat go, we'll unfold it and down. Then we turn around onto our stomachs. Feel the feet right underneath the pelvis and into the head.

Feet together, legs together, hands underneath your forehead, nice and brought back, elbows straight out. Now pull the chin into your neck while you're still on your hands with your forehead. Gently press down into the elbows. Lift the lower belly off the floor without contracting your buttock muscles and press the feet into the floor. Deepen the lower abdominals and bend your knees and relax it all.

Chin comes up. Back of the neck is long. Press gently into the elbows, lower abdominals. Turn the legs parallel and press down. And let it all go.

Chin into the neck, elbows, lower abdominals, straighten legs, press into the floor. Bring the neck up higher. Don't move the head. The head will follow the neck. Come down and let it go.

And we do the chin, the elbows, the lower abdominals, legs together, press down, the back of the neck comes up, head lifts because of that, and come on down. Last one, we're going on. Back of the neck, shoulders, lower abdominals, legs together, press down as if you're still pressing down into the floor. Your whole arms and that whole structure comes up. Lift the legs up just two inches and we beat the legs together.

And one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and lengthen through the top of the head, push out through the top of the head and reach through the legs out. Open and close upper inner thighs and in. Lower belly and in, and in. Gently press down in the elbows. Yeah, then the scapula goes right down.

And relax, excellent, good. Side lying. You can go onto your right side. Yeah your right side. I'll go on my right side as well.

The arm is here. You're lying on the side of your mat. You place your hands behind your head as if you're doing neck pull. Now pull the bottom hip up to your rib cage and lift the legs up. Now the sitz bones don't wanna move places where we don't want them.

They're on top of each other front, back, down and up. And you reach and come on down. You lift, reach and come back down. Push your head into your hands so the back of the neck is long. One more up.

You're still lifted here underneath that bottom rib cage. Place your top hand in front of your hip. Press your hip into your hand. We're going from front leg Front Scissors. And together.

Place the hand in the back on your sacrum. Push. And together. Keep the sitz bones and press and together. One more time.

Press and together. Lie down on your belly. Other side, hands behind your head. Reach through the shoulder blades. Lift both legs up.

Check if you need to whether your hips are equal. Most of us have the top hip back, so really pull this front, yeah. Lift and reach through the top of the head and down three times. And inhale. Pull in and feel those hips being instable, try to make it work.

We're going with the top hand against the hip and you bring the top leg forward and together. And then in the back and together. Inhale front and together. And inhale front and together. Excellent.

Lie down on your belly. Place your hands next to your chest. Arch up, round and sit back. Roll up from the pelvis, the waistline, the rib cage, the shoulders and head. We're coming to the front of the mat.

You can sit. Now we're going to do the Heel Slides with the Abdominal Arms. So we call them Single, Double and Crisscross simple yeah. And in and up. Inhale, bring your body up.

Reach through these elbows, up and we go Heel Slides. One, and two, deepen and reach. Let that head just hang into your hands as if you're hanging into a hammock. And both knees in. Inhale, reach through the elbows, exhale.

(deeply exhaling) Reach. (deeply inhaling and exhaling) And crisscrosses and reach, reach. Now my bottom arm pulls me over to the side. The bottom arm reaches through the shoulder, across the rib cage. Reach and reach and reach.

I like to close my eyes, because then I can really feel where the rib cage needs to go instead of doing it with my arms and my neck. And relax down. Roll up and we're done for the Reformer. So we just finished the mat and we will go on with the Reformer. You can see the set up was clean.

The feet are slightly pigeon-toed. All toes are on the machine with low heels. That's the only thing that's going to change. So push the heel down, as if you're standing on it. The band is there to give her an active parallel rotation while she pushes out.

The band is there to activate her upper back and her arms so the whole back is involved. To get into this, a little hassle this, I must say, but you get used to it. I like my headpiece down. Now open the knees. Place the feet.

Be careful for your wrists and we're pushing through to heel, out. Feel that your lower back is not on the floor. The tailbone is nice and heavy into the floor. Push against the band to go in and out. Inhale to go in, exhale to go out.

It will help you facilitate the rib cage into the body instead of starting to pop. And in and keep pushing those heels into the ball and in, out and in. We're going to the middle of the foot just underneath the toes. Nice long toes, over and again push out and come in. Just very simple breathing.

Nothing big. Use those arms. Use that pinky into the floor and feel your long neck. It's as if you're pushing your legs to the back of you so your hamstrings are engaged. And we're switching to your heels.

Now the ball has to come up, goes between the big toes. And on the heels, press down. Inhale out, exhale in. Inhale out. So I just changed your breath.

In, out, push through those heels. Feel that length right into your lower rib cage and in and out and out and out to come in, good. Goes back to the heels. Slightly pigeon-toed, all toes and metatarsals on the bar. Low heels and we're going down.

Feel the rotation out, especially on the down and rotate out and up and down. Up and down. Up and down. Up and keep that rotation in the upper thighs, right underneath the buttocks so you don't have the ball separating those heels and then coming together. And in and bend in.

Lose the ball. Lose your ribbon or TheraBand and second position on the heels. Let the knees just open where they can. Flex the feet, but don't overturn them out. Keep them in alignment with your knees.

Press the tailbone into the floor and you push out. Stay there. Flex those feet a little bit more and then breathe the knees open and out and reach open. Heavy on the tailbone and heavy bump. And in and in and in.

I prefer a little bit pigeon-toed and the toes kind of being here, so it activates the whole inner leg and it's more difficult to turn out too much. All right, we roll up. Take the middle spring out. Take your ball again. Roll down like we did on the mat, the Half Roll Down.

Ball goes between the knees. Put your toes and your feet together, pointed and claw them. I know it's not acceptable, but that's what we do. The ball is above the pubic bone. Tailbone is heavy.

You have some space underneath your back. Inhale. Bring the arms down. Reach forward and let it come up on an exhale. Inhale to the side, slice.

Exhale to come back up. Now inhale down forward. Reach, rotate the hands towards your body and exhale to open. Pull the shoulders down to bring the arms up. Inhale down.

Rotate the arms palms facing. Exhale to open. Pull the shoulders down. It's like a chest expansion, especially on the way down. And one more.

Rotate, lengthen and open, stay there. Reverse. Inhale, rotate, exhale up, slice it to the side. Inhale, rotate. Exhale up.

Open, rotate and up. Slice open. This is what we call snow angels. Inhale. Let the shoulders be in the back open.

Inhale, exhale, inhale and exhale. Inhale, reach forward. Bend the elbows. Elbows are halfway up your ribs. This is a preparation for your coordination.

Inhale, exhale. Work those lower abdominals. And we're going into the hundred. Inhale, head and shoulders up, reach forward, separate the legs. And one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10.

Keep that lower back on the floor. Rotate out. Rotate up. Feel the hips still equal into the floor. Rotate the other way.

And parallel, double attitude, single attitude and double beautiful cooling. Yeah, following is not easy. (chuckling) And in straight and lower band in. Done, ball gone. Feet, to facilitate speed I put my feet in the handles, yeah.

I actually love it because I can massage my feet a little bit. Now go to a 90-degree angle. Feel the backs of your legs push into your thighs, so you feel where the stretch is. Inhale down, open slightly, exhale up. Tailbone stays down.

Inhale, open, exhale, in. Inhale, open. They're boxes with sharp angles, so you need control. Reverse, up. And in, up.

Is one hip unstable? And bump, Keep that nice crease. Now rotate out and bend. Push out. Tailbone into the floor and out.

Tailbone and out and in, out and in. Colleen take a deep bend, tailbone stays on the floor. I'm going to show you the Short Spine we're going to do. This is from Carola Trier through ways of Deborah. You go let the legs be pulled, staying down as long as you can.

Then you roll up and over. Release the thighs and the hips. Roll down. And then tailbone comes down. That pulls the legs and then you bend in.

You push out, exhale. Inhale, let the legs be pulled. When you need to roll up and over release the knees and the hips, roll down with the spine, pull the tailbone down, that pulls the legs, bend the knees. And push out. Let it all happen.

Roll up. Beautiful, Colleen. Release and roll down. Keep the feet back though. Yeah and down.

Then pull the hips down, the feet and legs don't do anything. And then once your tailbone is down you bend. And then for you Colleen, a regular one. Roll up. Bend, deepen, exhale, roll through the spine and in.

We will take the straps off our feet for coordination. Legs to a 90-degree angle. Tabletop feet a little higher so you can see them. Inhale, straighten. Let the legs be pushed open.

Compress that space in between. Reach even further to bend. Stay in front of the hips and bend through the elbows. Inhale. Legs, reach the legs out, compress that space.

Reach through the arms and bend. Hold the breath and in, relax. All right, we go into rowing. You can do one or two strings. There you go.

We've been working on balance body material with three red springs for footwork and now we're going to two or one. Now the rowing, just take a look for second. It's slightly different because it's more choreography. You sit up straight, all same. Roll back.

Dive into yourself. Open the full hand stays on the handle. You go only forward into a Spine Stretch and not further forward than this. Now you pull. Full hand stays on the handle, so you're internally rotated.

You roll up and bring it into here. You go flat back, soften, over. Rounded, open, arch, over and again. Round flat back, once you're back, soften the chest, go. Flip over with straight hand.

Press over and around, same thing here, use the strap to reverse. Pubic bone, waistline, rib cage, shoulders. Over. Keep that focus. And then come up.

I've already done it, so I'm going to look at you, yeah? (chuckling) Good, all right, now bring the hands into your chest and round that. Yeah reach through the elbows and up. Open the hands. 'Till there. Keep it full hand, dive over to here.

Reach back, open and reach. Keep that internal rotation. Roll up and come in. So see if you can get a little bit more rotation in and pull back. The front of the body, soften the chest, straighten your arms forward.

You're not coming up. Yeah, just straighten forward. There you go. Turn the hands over. Dive forward, 'till here.

Reach back and around, still internally rotated. Now roll up. Pull the elbows open and in. Dive into your chest. Reach through the elbows forward.

Push open to the side. Pubic bone reverses, waistline, rib cage, shoulders. Dive over and up. And one more time. And dive into yourself on one, open two, dive over on three, Spine Stretch.

Reach back four. Go around on five. Roll up on six with straight arms and bent in seven to go up. Pull back, beautiful and reach forward, rotate, dive and push back. Same circle and pull back up, up, up, up.

And push up into the ceiling, yes and beautiful. And two, arch, reverse the spine. Yup and go and around and up, good. That was good. Yeah especially that reversing the lower spine, feels yummy.

That's Carola as well. You know you have to give credit where credit is due. So now we do California Rowing, such an appropriate place to do this. This is what we got from Kathy and the California Rowing she got because people visited from California and so she called it California Rowing, which is basically you roll back, your arms are straight, and you do three elbows open three. And three times straight, palms open three and then open high and in.

You do the same deal with the top leg in front on your obliques, bump and yeah and bump. After the third one you switch. Now you do the same here. Elbows, palms open and up and then you finish then you finish Here and then you go up, open, up open, up open. Reverse, we're almost done.

Yup, all right, and there we go. Roll back. Palms up and lead with your fingertips. Lead every time, push the arms straight. Feel the upper back rounding while you straighten.

Then palms open. I think I did four, should be three. Palms open, one, deepen. Let that back embrace you. Straight arms up on the diagonal and in, up, in.

Nice Colleen, and in. We're going to the left. Pull in. And keep that right hip down. And palms facing, elbows out.

You want to look kind of over your shoulder. Palms open, elbows out. Straight arms, diagonal. Straight elbows and on the fourth one, you switch to the other side, beautiful, yeah, yeah. Lean a little bit more into your right side, so your spine is still in the center.

A lot of us tend to go to the other hip, but you wanna stay on that side. And, good, be sure, yeah that you go straight every time. And one, and then we're going to do four changes. Left and to the right and to the left and to the right. And we are done.

Center and up and in, up, in up and reverse. Up, up and up and in. Dying Swan, good lovely, great. We'll go to box. There you go.

I'm going to have two red strings and I think you can too. If not, we will find out. So this time we need to change into the handles, or not the handles, into the straps. There you go. Now with the straps, this is the way I get into it.

One foot in the middle. One other foot is here, yeah. Place both feet, oops I'm losing one. Straddle, point and here. All right, good.

Now come forward so your chest is in front and your knees are barely off. Now lift your thighs and pull and pull. Press into the elbows, into the box. Back of the neck long like we did on the floor. This was the same, you press down with the elbows and that was 10.

We're going to do circles. In and in and in, in, in and reverse. In and try to keep those thighs as light on the box as you can so it goes into your buttocks as well and your lower back. And in. So we dropped our straps.

We have two-pound weights next to the machine and we slide back a little bit so our chest is on the box. Grab your weights, bend your knees and lift your thighs. You inhale. Palms face up to the ceiling and you straighten. Then you rotate to the outside, reach forward, lift the chest and head.

Keep the arms forward, bend your knees, come down. Rotate back, reach, lift up, rotate and down. One more time, lift, reach and forward and in. Now reverse. Inhale, arms palms face front, to the side rotate up and in.

Rotate, reach back, rotate and bend. Lower your weights and we're coming off the box. We put our handles back on for our backstroke and our Teaser. All right now I'll show you the combination. Tush at the very edge, Half Roll Down, arms come up through the center and in.

You go up, open, up to a Teaser. Roll down halfway. Reverse the Teaser into and from the beginning. Arms and legs up, dive through the arms. Open, reach forward Teaser.

Lengthen through the back of the neck. Roll down. Open the arms and legs. Push out into a Teaser. So what we tried to do, don't move the machine, dive through your arms.

Open, reach through the back of the neck. You come up. Since we're here, we can go down. Reach through the arms, push more, more arms. Yeah and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and open and in, open, in. You rock! And roll down. Fabulous. All right, yeah? Yeah.

Let's do the abdominal series. Yeah? Yeah. Regular. One and two and three, four, reach, reach.

Now feel that hammock idea from the floor in this as well, even though you're grabbing a leg. Both legs in tabletop. Now dive up, open, in one, two, three. One, two, it's a contraction in, out and contract out and lift. One, two, (mumbles).

Feel those hips still trying to stay as connected as they can. You want more stretch, you flex the foot. And up. If your head gets tired, you can always bring it up. Flex, rotate, point, parallel, down, flex and up, up and up.

Now give yourself that weight. From the sternum you work, reach bottom arm, bottom arm, shoulder blade comes around to push you over and over. Up and relax. We'll do this short box and side sit ups and the barrel. I like to separate for better base.

Come a little more forward so you have that sense of slipping off if you don't engage your legs. Open the knees as you did with your footwork, so you have a slight X abduction and reach the arms forward. Roll down and let's do that one more time. Sit up as high as you can. Now push with the legs.

Yes, that opens lower spine, the waistline and stay. Dive through your arms to come up. Deepen and come up, sit and push, yes, open that lower back and bump and reach through the elbows and roll up. And again, push back, back, back. Arms go overhead.

Arms come down. Pull in and up. Legs to push the pelvis, the waistline, the rib cage stay. Deepen, deepen yeah when it all moves then it's good. And push one more and up, twist to the right.

Let the left side push you over. And the right side pushes over. In and center to come back up, beautiful and in. One more time, push and up and reach. Lean and reach through the elbow to the other side and center and come up and in one more time.

Roll back, keep rolling, lower abdominals, waistline straighten the legs. Reach for the floor, straight hands. Push into it, good. Let the arms come up, not the head yet, arms, chin to chest and reach, reach, dive forward and spine stretch. (chuckling) Good yeah?

Roll on up, come a little forward for your tree. Excellent. Take one leg out. Now take one leg, I'll do the same in opposition and the other one pushes in. So you activate your other side.

Now extend the leg. One and two, we do it three times. Walk up, Spine Stretch back, roll back. Take it all back. The left hip pushes towards your rib cage.

That keeps you nice and stable. Roll down and climb down the leg. Take the arms off to the floor, push, straighten the leg and come on up. Pull that left hip up to your rib cage. That keeps you more in place, good.

And one more time. Left hip to the rib, yeppa. And down, reach, arms up and up, roll up and bump. Bend over, hands underneath your thighs together and back of the neck long, push up little, yes beautiful. So you feel that whole back going into space.

Roll up, yeah, other side. I need a little pad right there. So, fabulous. Yeah, good and up. And two, now a little more length through the back of the neck.

Push up to the ceiling, yes and up. And roll back. The rolling back takes the leg, not the other way around. Walk down. Pull that right hip up to your right rib cage.

Pull this up, yes. And come on up arms, head, shoulders, rib cage and roll back. Bump and done. This is all prep for your Single Teasers people. Pull that hip up and come on up, head and in, bump and cross over, hands underneath.

Pull the back of the neck up, open here. Yeah, good. And roll up, good. Side sit-ups, now side sit-ups, I'll do two versions. This leg is back.

Right leg is forward. Hips are against the barrel. Hands are behind your head in the neck pull arms. Reach forward. And you reach over, and you reach to come back up.

Push through the legs, over and up. Feel the backs of your lower ribs as a motivation to bring you up and down. It gives you more length here in the front. And bump, good. Now stay here, rotate to your right from your lower rib cage and change from your lower rib cage on the right so it gives you more this and pull back and lift up and back and lift up.

Take your focus up a little higher so you have more of an arch or mid-thoracic arch. Yes, and side and come on over, straighten the arm. Push through the heels down. Yeah, yeah, you have more. Other side.

Yeah? Same deal on the other side. So let this motivate you, these muscles. Reach over, over, over and reach through the elbows. So you wanna focus on the elbows pushing up and out and the heels down and out.

So you're always moving on the circumference of a circle. This is not a straight line. And we're going into the twists. And motivate and motivate. Yeah, let that be more of an arch so you're here and then reach up there and reach up here and reach there and in, good.

And over to the side. Reach. Feel the heels. And good. All right, excellent.

We lose the box. Okay, yeah, stomach massage. We have no pad as you can see. So the idea is that we pull us down into the mat elbows open and rounded, long back of the neck. You push out with both legs.

Place the metatarsals on slightly turned up, out. And you inhale to come in. And you exhale to go out. Inhale to come in. So you're running into your own thighs, but you're coming over every time.

And in, inhale, so feel the compression of the inhale and maybe even some discomfort and that's fine. Yeah, good. Place the hands in the back. I placed them a lot in the corners, so you can actually open more into an arch. And in.

And you can arch the lower back more. Chin slightly down, so long back of the neck. Out, in. Inhale, and inhale, inhale, last one, good. Now take your TheraBand.

You can move back, yeah. And you pull out and sit up. And you come in and you open the arms, out. And you open the arms, out. Open, out.

Now rotate and reach up, in and reach. Lift in the lower back. And reach up and open. Let the back turn you and in. Take the bar, slight tendon stretch.

A little running in place. And come in, tendon stretch. Tendon stretch on the low bar. Good, yeah. You sit on the bar.

Bring your nose to your knees. Pick your tush up by straightening the arms forward and then drop your heels. The legs come forward, that brings the hips down. And then you drop the heels and come in. So this is a Teaser.

It's all a Teaser. And in and push forward and up, excellent. Bend in and done, good. The bar comes down and we'll do overhead, yeah. Overhead, semicircle, long spine.

Good, legs down. And again, pull the shoulder blades down like you want to break a stick with your arms. Inhale, down, exhale, legs up and over. Inhale, bring the pubic bone to your nose, that brings the legs up. Roll down.

Arms up, exhale. Inhale, exhale, legs. Inhale, up. Roll down. Broaden the upper back, middle back, lower back.

Arms down and inhale arms, legs. Reach and soften, lengthen through the back of the neck. When you roll down reach the arms up with your shoulders on the mat. Excellent. Yeah, three times each.

Yeah. Forward back. Low bar, heels down slightly turned out. Now first thing, heels come down shoulder blades separate. So you can roll the pelvis down.

Stick your tush out to push out, then roll the pelvis, the waistline, the rib cage up. Keep the heels down. Come forward, let them come off when they need to. Roll down through the tailbone out. Push through the arms to bring it up and come in.

Roll down, out, up and in. Reverse. Shoulders are still broad. Reach. Don't move the platform.

Out, exhale, broaden the upper back, middle back, lower back, tailbone. And the last one, make it count, push and in. Let it go. Grab the ankles, drop the heels, bring the pelvis up and stretch. All right, we go back.

Again, use the handles. We keep the machine completely stable. We roll up, open, roll down, close. Reach up, open, roll down. Every time, pull into the hip bone with your femurs.

And down, pull, reverse, open, up, in and down. Up, yeah, bump and down. Rotate second position. I'll wait for you. Yeah, straight out of the hip, no movement, up, rotate, up, rotate more and in.

Open to the side. Bend the knees in parallel. Open the knees. Open to the side, tailbone down and in. Open to the side, pull, I have a building in my way, in and off.

Good. Knee stretches, so high bar, no sorry, middle bar. Yeah, we have the ball. This is a version from Kathy, circa 1985 and it's around it. It's a kneeling knee stretch.

Five, five, three, three, one, one, come up. 35. Oh! Yeah. (chuckling) I know. She had had it with that Pilates was not aerobic, so she said everybody, 35 minimum.

What are you going to say? Can I come back? And push out, pull in. And pull in, pull in and in, out. So make that the transition where you are in.

You make the transition now. And in two, and three, and one, two and three and one. And one, up. Look into the pelvis and we're going and one and two and three and four and five. I like to start counting backwards, makes me feel that I'm going faster.

This is the hardest for most of us on the shoulders. Did you count? No. All right. (Colleen laughing) Did anybody count?

Three, two and come on down and in. All right, running and pelvic lift. Lift with the part, whole ball of the foot. Push with a bent leg. Push and push.

Feel the top of the head. Feel the spine, the tailbone, up and up. Stay out there, High Releve. Press up from the upper back. Hips come up, straight legs, rotate out, bend in.

Break at the hips. I do it in a flat back, not in a rounded. Yeah, so you break nicely in, you can pull it in and in and in. Activate it on the in so you're more in your hamstrings, bump and bump. Roll down.

Excellent. Off, kneel down on the machine. Good. Hip width apart. One hand presses in and the other arm comes up.

Push into your own arm so it activates your torso. And change. In and arm up so it's all coming from the back, yeah. And in, bar comes down, two springs come out. Wait, what were you on?

We keep one red, yeah? Yeah. Place one foot here. Oh yeah, here. Yeah, there you go.

Yeah, just face me. Other foot, again, slightly pigeon-toed. So you push out through the outsides of the feet. And you push out and in. Just place your hands on your hips so you can feel the engagement, upper back and lower stomach.

Out and in. Out, stay out, roll down. Reach. Keep the machine and touch the floor. Roll up, pubic bone, waist line, rib cage, shoulders, head.

Reach the arms forward. Pull into the upper back, combre. And reach through the arms to bring you up, And skating, place one hand on the knee so you just stay there and you push out, in, push into it like you, yeah. And the more you over, the more stretch you get into your hip joint. One more and then you shift to the other leg.

And one and two and three and four, reach on five and in. And we'll switch machines. There you go. And you go one. Pull the lower abdominals in and feel this upper back connection.

In and one more. And in and out. Head, reach, tailbone is still under. And tailbone comes under, lower abdominals, waistline, rib cage, shoulders. And in.

And reach forward to bring yourself up. And two, and ? Ba dum, ba dee, ta dum ? ? press into your foot ? ? on the outside and shift. ? In, shift, in. (laughing) That's a brain teaser. (laughing) Bump and in. And we're coming up.

And it's the end for us. Thank you, brilliant. You're a beautiful mover. We're on the High Chair for pumping and climbing. This is after the Reformer and before the Cadillac.

Heels, again, slightly pigeon toed. As you can see I'm sitting slightly forward on my sitz bones. The other ball between the knees. And like in Spine Stretch, I use the risers to push back into a little bit so I can really pull back long back of the neck and I pump and up. Pull it in, pull it in, pull, and I feel the back of my neck really extending and long while my spine curves in both directions, from top to bottom as well as side to side curve.

Now we do singles from here. I always feel sad for that one ball, but then again, you know, it's life. Pull the hip back. So the extended leg needs to pull the hip back. And in and come on up.

Good, we don't need the balls anymore. And we go into our climbing. Into the center. Nice high heel. Elbows in so you can pull yourself out of your hips.

Right hip brings you up. Left hip pushes the bar down. Right hip up. Left hip down. Up and down.

When you feel secure, you go up through the elbows. And up and up and up and come down. Change legs. Drop the heels down, externally rotated upper thighs and in. Change.

Elbows come into the body. Up, down through the right hip, up through the left. Down through the right. Up through the left. Feel the back of the neck.

Feel your head and down and up and reach and lift through that left, lift through the left leg and lift reach and down. Pillow comes down. Drop the hips and carefully let it come up. And that's the High Chair in this workout. So for the final segment of the session we will do, in a sense, a classic ending like Circles, Frog Breathing, which I will do today with the ball to challenge my own stability a little bit more.

There we have it. Arm length away from there so you can really push out. And we start with some Frogs. Not too far in so you can really feel your tailbone and your hamstrings engaged. I like to point my feet so my arches are working very hard to keep that point.

Then some small circles. The challenge here is to keep your tailbone down when the legs come up. So there's a lot of work there. And reverse. And then some bigger ones just because you can.

And in, give yourself a little tight and roll up. We'll take the bar to the other side and our ball. Now depending on who you are, you can bring the ball in closer to create more stability, or I'm going to challenge myself and do it here. Break that bar. Inhale, bring the hips up, hold the breath.

Exhale, roll down and down. You can do this the same as with the bridge series, rolling up and then flat back down or flat back up, roll down. And the last one, reach and down. A few biceps curls. And up.

Arms forward, roll up. A little oblique Teaser. And in and finish and in. All right, for our last trick, we will go on the machine, arm length away like we were all taught so you don't hit your head and I like to take it even a little forward. And you tuck up and one, pull up, chin on the chest.

Make sure your buttocks come with you and pull in and up. And reach, up and change. Inner thighs come together. And in and out. Twist and up and up.

Twist and up and down. Bump, up, pull and in. And we're done. In this session I'm trying to work as much as we can on extension. The quality of the hips, whether a leg comes up or not, that we don't rotate and turn and that's constantly being challenged.

So those are the things to really keep looking at. That you work from the lower rib cage to turn instead of always into yourself. Use the space, not your body. Your body will do the work, but you have to use the space while you move. Thank you very much.

Comments

1 person likes this.
So interesting to see the definite influence of both Kathy Grant and Romana K. It's a wonderful combination. Very refreshing that it does not all have to be "one way".
Wow! Beautiful session..so inspirational. Thanks.
This is a perfect class !! Wonderful teaching Peter ..
1 person likes this.
Beautiful class! Thanks
Ingrid J
1 person likes this.
Yes, a beautiful class and movements! I saw the "shape" of the movemnts like the sphere etc. like never before! Inspirational! Thank you!
1 person likes this.
Wonderful class! Clear and precise teaching. My body feels wonderful. Back and hips are open. Thank you Peter!
1 person likes this.
Thank you. That was amazing. I couldn't do the end as I don't have that equipment at home but I still got a great workout :)
1 person likes this.
Wonderful class! The hammock visual cue was invaluable... My hips, back and neck felt great for hours after this class! And no better place to do California rowing...!
Cathy K
1 person likes this.
Great workout! Really enjoyed it and felt great. Nice usage of props to help "turn on" muscles that don't always work fully. I will do this workout again, perfect blend of equipment.
Thank u, Great work, loved Teaser with Backstroke and fun Rowing combos! Athletic! Super!
1-10 of 19

You need to be a subscriber to post a comment.

Please Log In or Create an Account to start your free trial.

Footer Pilates Anytime Logo

Move With Us

Experience Pilates. Experience life.

Let's Begin