Fuse Ladder

Hello. I am Mariska, I'm from Fuze plots in Washington, D C and I brought with me Abe, he's one of our senior instructors at the studio. And if you follow me on social media, you might know that we created a product and it's called the fuse ladder. Obviously we don't have one here. So we're going to try to replicate kind of what a fuse ladder workout is using a tower. Um, we're also gonna use the long box or short box depending on how you set it up and also a jump forward, which is going to mimic sort of the slant board that we use on the ladder as well. Um, Abe is one of our teachers of that class, so he's going to be my Guinea pig for this class. Um, sometimes in the beginning of the class we do a lot of climbing on the ladder. Clearly that's not going to work here cause we don't have that.

So our other warmup that we do is a lot of work against the springs. Um, but we're going to need to do is have the springs be basically looped together. So if you have the two straps from the springs, you take one strap through one of the loops and you just pull the metal end through and you basically create this, not, this is not necessarily my favorite way to do it, however. So if you have these short box from your reformer, this strap, you can actually use the strap as well, which is kind of nicer because it's going to be more of a flat kind of line. So first thing we're going to do is just hook this on to the um, long purple springs. So the only thing of the springs we're using is we're using the long purples.

We're also gonna use the roll down bar with the yellow springs, but the long yellows we're not using. And we took the push through bar off the tower so it wouldn't be quite as noisy when we're doing stuff. So first thing, we're going to lower this down a little bit. So I would say like medium height, um, probably about two there. And Abe is going to step into it. So He's facing out and we're gonna do a little bit of our warmup that we would do sort of a uh, running in place, which is kind of fun to do with the springs cause it kind of keeps you, um, it makes you feel like you're a little bit weightless, which is kind of a fun thing. So step forward, a little bit more space, some tension on the straps and then you have a little bit of a lean into it. Almost like when you're using the roll down Barton, you've got that lean, you're going to bring your right knee in towards you and left arm up, so reciprocal arm of movement.

And then just go ahead and switch and then we'll speed it up a little bit. So it's kind of a jog in place and you could go even faster than that. So literally like jogging in place. And then what's kind of fun is you kind of run out a little bit and then you run back in. It helps if your hair is this bouncy as apes Harris, we make fun of his hair a lot. So you go out and then come back and then you don't want to come back all the way until the springs close cause you want to keep it a little bit of tension on the springs the entire time. It's also a lot more fun to do that.

And then go ahead and return to center and then go ahead and just spin around one 80 to face the other direction. You're going to bring it a little bit lower options are you can do kind at your um, t 12 sacrum. You can do under your sacred water. You can literally sit in the spring, which is sometimes what I do for my clients that are more neuro clients. So we were gonna do some squats. So go ahead and we're going to squat down against the tension of the springs and then go ahead and stand yourself back up and squat down and stand back up.

Squat down and stand back up and you can keep going. We a lot of times we'll do the squats like this and then we'll keep coming back to squats. Squats are one of my favorite exercises. I think there something we need more of in our lives as a general rule. And now what we're going to do is, um, as you come back up, you're gonna do a little hop back, so squat down and then jump backwards a little bit. Good. And then go down and then jump forwards a little bit. Good.

And then hop back and hop forward. And it's similar shifts. You're jumping on the jump board. You really want to spring through your foot. So you want to land toe ball, he'll jump off, he'll ball toe. And Abe's really a lot better at this than me, which is why he's doing it. And I'm not. So I'm also, I told him I might fire him if he doesn't do a really good job.

So there's also job security as like a really important thing. So we're going to do a couple more like this and then do two hops back hot back, see if you can hop back further. And then two Hopson and hop in and hop in. And then two ops back going back and back. Good end two halves forward. That's a fun. I do. Two more.

Go back and back. Good and forward and forward. And one more time back twice and then forward twice. And then you're gonna do a quarter turn to face towards the camera. You can kind of adjust the strapping, either have it on your hip, you can actually also bring it up like underneath your rib cage.

We're gonna do a little bit of a sideline. So hands behind your head, walk yourself out a little bit cause you probably want a little bit more tension and enhancing and behind your head. And then side lean out so it's a little bit of a lean and bend at the same time. And then lift yourself back up and then side lean out. Good. And lift yourself back up. And then you're really reaching out cause you want to have 'em uh, enough lightness cause we're ultimately gonna lift that inside leg.

So we'll do two more like this. So you're reaching out and then lifting back up. And one more time, reaching out and hold. See if you can float your outside leg up. Just keeping a little bit of weight into that Spring. So if you need to be heavier, you can always walk out more, you know, lift that leg up. He shaking. I don't know if you could see that. I just need to point that out so that my other teachers, when they watch this later, we'll know that he was shaking on camera.

I'm go ahead and see if he can lift your leg up a little bit higher and we're going to do eight circles each direction. Good. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Switch at eight two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Beautiful. Come all the way up. One 80 to face the other direction. Tell me if you see any sharks, like kind of on the lookout for sharks because Christie took that great picture once. Go out a little bit further if you want a little bit more attention and then it's sort of a lean, like you're trying to get your head towards the ceiling, but a little bit of a side bend as well. So you're really putting your weight into your standing outside leg so that your inside leg lightens up some.

And we'll be able to ultimately lift off the floor when we need it to. And so then you lift your leg up. Just hold it there. We've got eight circles go. Eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight switch at eight two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Beautiful. We're going to take a turn now to phase that away and we're going to do um, non sucky burpees. This is like the only way to do a burpee that it doesn't suck all other burpees I don't find nearly as fun as if you have something lifting your hips up.

So you're going to go ahead and drop down into a plank, bending your knees, hop your feet back, hop your feet in, stand yourself back up. And to add the little hop in between. If you want to go out in and hop and out in and hop. Good out and in. And Hop. Let's do four more like this. And then at the bottom you'll stay down on the fourth one and we'll just do some pushups. Abe loves pushups. I take his class actually after, nope, before he takes my ladder class on Mondays I take his mat class and then he's really mean and makes me pay for what I made him do in my class.

He makes me pay for it in his class. It's a very symbiotic relationship we have going here. So when you are this light, sometimes, I don't know Abe, you got any hand claps in you, you're going to have a little bit more ability to do something a little bit more bad-ass like this. I've got like one clap in me, that's it. Go ahead and lift yourself back up and then you can slowly make your way all the way up to standing. We're going to go ahead and untangle these two. So we're basically just taking the short box strap off.

You're gonna give that back to me and then we're gonna change these back. Just putting the regular straps on them cause we're gonna use them in a moment. So, but first we're going to use the roll down bars. So go ahead and start facing away. So you're gonna face that way. And then you want to bring it over your head, but don't let it go cause then it's like a guillotine and that would be bad.

So you're going to step forward into a lunge, pushing out into the bar and then step yourself back in, and then push yourself up and bring yourself back in. So alternating sides, reach out on the, and then come back in and reach out on the left. And you just want to make sure that the knee, it can't actually go over the foot. That's like some sort of myth that happened once that you can have your knee go over your foot, but you want it to go through like the center of your foot and not kind of going off to one side or another. So, um, and he does a great job with that on the next time that your right leg is out, you're going to stay out. So from there I want you to, it's like you're driving a steering wheel. You're gonna turn the left side down in the right side up. And I want you to do five presses there. So bend, push one bend, push to three, four and five. Return to center.

So you're basically turning the steering wheel back to center. And then we'll go to the other side. So opposite like forward. This time your left arm is gonna go up, your right arm is going to go down. ABS, stay in bend and push and two and push bend three and push here's four and push last one, Ben five and push and then go come back to center. We'll go ahead and stand it all the way up and then turn around and face the tower and then walk yourself back here. This is a little balanced challenge. Um, I really liked using the role of bar like this because I think we could all use a little bit better balance than we have. So what I'm going to have him do is step back a little bit and then press down slightly into the bars.

We have a little bit of tension and you're going to bring one knee up in towards the bar and then you're going to shoot that leg back and you just pitch yourself forward. So you're reaching forward and the opposite leg is reaching back and then you're gonna pull back in and pull that knee back in and it can touch, it doesn't have to touch. And then you're going to go back out. Okay, good. And then pull to come back in. And then a couple more like this, we'll reach it out and pull to come back in. And we actually made his job a little bit harder here. Let's do two more because he's on a squishy mat and a squishy.

Matt's going to be a little less stable. Um, so we actually usually start class without a mat down. We just stand on the regular floor. Um, but then we have a mat down for later in the class and then you could go ahead and stand yourself all the way back up, lower that foot down. We'll switch legs. So opposite leg is going to come up and then you'll shoot it out. Totally normal for you to have one very gifted side and one much less gifted side. When you're doing balance exercises. I always say it's nice if you hit your much more gifted side second and not as the first side. We'll do what, three more, reach it out nice. And then pull to come in.

And he's really doing a nice job of regaining that stacked shoulders over hips over knee. So you want to come all the way up to standing up tall and then reach out and then go ahead and make your way all the way back in. Beautiful. Um, go ahead and let that go. We're gonna take a quarter turn now to phase towards the camera. We do a lot of quarter in class. You're going to start with a bar above your head.

You're going to go out into a squat going out to the right. So step two, a wide sort of wide second position and you have the bar right above your head and they're going to start by leaning out to the side and then come back to center and push your arms straight up and back down. So you reach over and up. Reach your arms, up and down and reach over. Nice and up. Reach your arms straight, up and down to more. Reach over, lift up, arms go straight up and down. One more time. Go over and up. Lift your arms straight, up and down. Beautiful. Step it all the way in. Turn around, face the other direction and we'll do the other side.

So you're stepping out in sort of a wide second position and then you're going to lean over keeping your hips still come back to center. Arms go straight up to the ceiling and then they come back down. Go over and lift up, arms go up and come back down three more times. Scope over, lift up, arms go up, arms come down twice more over and up. Arms lift and lower. Last one, over and up. Arms go up and down. Nice coming all the way in.

I'm going to have a grab the box and we're going to put the box a little bit further away than we normally would. So the box is basically going to mimic the step of the ladder. Obviously there's more than one step cause it's ladder. Um, but because a lot of goes so much higher than this tower goes, he needs a little bit more tension to do this exercise than he would have obviously, um, without it. So we're going to take these springs up really high and the s step of the ladder is a little bit further away than it would have been. So both hands are in the springs basically to create a little bit of balance, step your right foot up to the ladder and then we're just going to step up, bring it actually a little bit more end. Yep.

Step all the way up and then step back down. So here we would be pushing down on another ladder rung. We're just using the springs. Um, in this case cause it just works. Push down and lift up. Good. Push down and do two more like this. And then on the last one, step that left foot back a little bit further because we're going to come into a lunge. Good. And so you have your right leg forward, you're going to press your arms back a little bit, find a slight, lean forward with your chest coming forward, bend your elbows, and then push. Nice Bend and press.

You can always do this with lighter springs if you want them to be, not the purple springs, but if you're a boy you have to use the purpose. Press and press bend and press go. Let's do three more good and two and three. And then go ahead and get step all the way down. We'll switch legs. So he started a little bit closer cause we're going to do that kind of climbing thing. So you're gonna push down as you lift up. Nice. And then come back down. So really think about Dra drawing the top of your head up towards the ceiling.

So if I had his hair in a ponytail, I would just be pulling it straight up towards the ceiling. How far away from ponytail are we at this point? Couple months, a couple months away from a ponytail. We'll do a couple more like this. So you're lifting up beautiful and lower back down and lifting up and back down on the next one you have that hot back so that you can come into the lunch, find the lean forward. Good. And then instead of tricep presses, let's do circles. So we're just going to do eight circles, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Go ahead and come back and step your left foot to meet your right foot. Walk back a little bit more. And we're going to do a squat, but all the way to the floor so you can do a squat row.

So you're going to pull the straps in at the same time as you squat down. So you're going down good. And then standard all the way back up, lower down and stand it back up. So if you have like really, really tight Achilles and you can't do a really low squat, this is actually kind of helpful because the way you can get that lean back, you don't need to have such an extreme bend at your ankle. Um, but you can still go super low. Let's do two more and last one and then come all the way back up. You can go ahead and walk yourself in a little bit. Um, and let's go ahead and let those springs go. And then we're going to turn the box sort of on its side because we're going to do is create a, um, like a slant board because we have the [inaudible], we're gonna use a jump board force. So if you wanna get the jump board, get the jump board, we're gonna put it up at this kind of higher angle.

And then first thing, we're just going to do some regular, um, kind of plank pushups. So go ahead and hold on to the outsides of the jump board. Step your legs back into a plank. When your arms are narrow like this and you take the bend out of your wrist, it allows you to do some really nice tricep focused pushups. So we're going to think about tickling your ribs with your elbows as you bend down and lift back up and just make sure that you're not sinking in your back here. So it's a little bit of creating what's actually login.

The gymnastics world, we call it like a hollow body that you're really trying to keep your tailbone tucked under a little bit. Abs really pulled up towards your spine. We're going to do two more like this. Lift back up. One more like this, lift back up. Nice. And then you can go ahead and bend your knees, lower yourself back down. And then we're going to play around with this spring wait a little bit cause we're going to do a version of kneeling. Sidekicks, my least favorite classical plotters exercise of all classical plays, exercises.

Do you think that height would be good? Okay, so we're lowering the springs down the X. Um, and he's going to come to a side, forearm plank on his knees facing towards the camera. It just looks better facing towards the camera. And then go ahead and start by dropping your hips down. So bend both knees, drop your hips down. So bend your right knee as well. Yep. So basically you're coming into a line where you're in line from your shoulders to your hips to your knees and your feet are back behind you. And to push into the strap, use that tension to help lift your hips up.

Beautiful. And then you lower back down. Tap your hips. So use the spring lift up and then lower back down. Lift up and lower back down. We'll do two more and then we're going to add onto that lift up and down and lift up and down. Now we're gonna add that top leg kicking out as you lift to reach.

And then lower back down, lift, reach and lower back down. Last one, we're going to hold lift, reach and hold. Arm goes forward, leg goes back, and then you switch. Arm goes back, leg goes forward and switch. And most important thing here is you're trying not to sing into that lower hip. So you're trying to maintain that really long waist from basically the armpit of the side that's pressing down to the knee of the side that's pressing. Now let's do two more like this and last one, and then you can go ahead and bend your knee, lower everything all the way back down.

And then we'll flip around and do the other side. So facing towards the beautiful ocean. And then you're going to have your hand in the strap. And then again, we're lining up so the knees are basically aligned with the hips and the feet are bent back and you're gonna push down and lift your hips up at the same time. Good. And then reach and lower back down. Lift up and lower back down.

You got three more like this, we two more? Yeah, good. And one more. And then we're going to do three with the leg kicking out. So lift up, kick the leg, good and lower. Lift up, kicks the leg and lower lifts up. Kick the leg and hold. Arm goes forward, leg goes back, arm goes back, leg goes forward, good and switch. I find that the heavier spring is actually more helpful here.

So if it's a lighter spring, it doesn't give you that much to really work that lift against. Um, which I really liked this for because I think a lot of times when you're doing it just as a mat exercise, you start to sink towards the floor. Do you remember how many we did in Los side? I think we're about there. So let's do one more good. And then you can lower everything all the way back down. Good. Let's go and just, we're going to come back to that back board, but we're gonna move it out of the way just a little bit so you can just kind of push it over to the side. Um, cause we are coming back to it in mere moments.

But first thing we're gonna do is some sideline work. So we're going to have his feet pushing into the box and he's going to lie down. Um, you can be on a propped up head or you can be on a long arm kind of whichever feels better for you. And then, um, cause I'm feeling like this should be hard. You're going to take your top leg and put it on top of the box. Okay. So then we're going to start by pushing the bar down and lifting your leg up at the same time. Good. And then reach away. Good.

And push down and reach away and push down and reach away. Let's do two more like this. On this last one, you're going to hover your foot and don't touch the box. So this is a lot of things we do in ladder. It's like, don't touch this wrong, don't touch this wrong, but stay like right above or below it. Now you're just going to bring your leg forward, tap it down on the box, lifted up, reach it back, tap it down in the box. Go forward, tap and back. Tap just two more and one more and then go ahead and come all the way in. Go ahead and lower that leg down. Um, are you far enough?

Way With this spring to lift all the way up. Okay. So then we're gonna do a side bend where we come up. So you're gonna take your body up, beautiful. And then reach long in a way and take your body up and just try to keep your ribs pulled back a little bit. And lift up and down just to more lift up and down.

And last one like this, lift up and down. Okay. Other side. So your hand goes like right in the middle. And then you have your legs pushing into the box except for the top leg is getting on top of the box so that we can do that. Press down. So you're pushing down outside leg lifts and then you reach good and push down and reach. Push down and reach a couple more like this.

Push and reach and push and reach. Now push down. So you're hovering your life. I'm gonna Swing it forward. Lower tap and up. Reach, back, tap and up. Forward tap and back. Just to more forward and back.

And then you can go ahead and lower that foot down. Beautiful. And then you're going to take this entire shape and just lift it up and then back down. So think about taking your lower elbow and just reaching it further away from you so that you're not really crunching into, um, pushing more weight into your head. Cause you're only want to do that. And once you've done five, that's it. And then you can go and just lie down on your back.

And then you're just gonna rest your feet on the top of the box. But your legs can be all the waist straights. It's getting like a Suntan here too, cause the sun is like shining in nicely. Okay. So from there, I want you to begin to lift up into a teaser, but as you're lifting up, reach your arms up and overhead at the same time. So you're reaching up, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, arms, reach back.

And then as you lower down your arms, just kind of respond. It's like your body just naturally is gonna want to do this. We'll probably not because it's in the family of teaser. So whose body actually naturally wants to do that? Not Mine. Good and lower back down.

And then if you're feeling like extra spicy as a teacher, you give them this variation. So lift up and reach your arms back. We're gonna do five presses back. So push back. Good. Two, three, four, and five. Now reach your arms forward, round your back, more pushed down. Stop there. Come up a little bit. Push down and tap your legs, both legs. Just push them down. Yup. And then lift back up. Press down and up. Press down and up. Good.

Two more and one more. And then go ahead and you can make your way all the way up and out of that or down and out of that or however you need to get out of that comfortably. And then let's go ahead. And that was beautiful. Um, that was not as part of the program. He just threw that in. We're going to take the jump board and bring it back. So we're going to create that slant board again. And then, um, abe is taller, so we're gonna use again the purple springs.

Do you want them higher than this for, um, teasers facing out. Okay, perfect. Okay. So you can have a seat. What you don't want to do is you don't want to sit with your sacrum all the way touching the back board. You actually slide out a little bit so that you can find your sea curve, because we're going to be lifting your legs up and they're going to feel a lot lighter if your back is not smooshed into something. So we're going to take the straps, so hands into the strap.

So we're going to use this as a counterbalance to lift legs up. So we're gonna start with bent knees because it's just nicer. So press down and lift your knees towards your chest at the same time and then reach away. You can lower your feet to the floor. Try to maintain the shape of your legs. Push down, lift up, and then reach away and lower and push down and lift. And then on this next one, we're gonna go some straight legs. So push down, lift up legs are going to extend. We're going to do arms circles.

Eight each direction. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Switch for eight, two, three. Can you get alerts higher six, seven and eight, and then go ahead and slowly lower everything all the way down. You can go ahead and let go of the straps. Um, we're going to just do one last thing. So we're going to do a little bit of a stretch, but we're going to do a stretch as if we had the ladder with us.

So we're going to use the box and we're going to do a, um, we're going to do first some pelvic lifts because there'll just be easier than to go into a backbend, but we're going to do a full thoracic back bend with your feet higher than your hands. And the reason I like that, um, particular back bend is it's really good for those of us who like to dump their back bins into their low back instead of putting it into your thoracic spine. So go ahead and you can just bring your feet to the box first. We're just gonna do some regular pelvic lifts, so arms can be pressing down. And, um, basically where his feet are is good because that's sort of mimicking how we would have his feet if they were on the ladder, arms or buyer's side. Just go ahead and articulate your spine.

So curling as you lift up straight line from your knees to your shoulders. Beautiful. And then lower back down. So you go from your throat down to your tailbone. Uncurling good. A couple more like this pressing to lift and then lower back down. And one more like this press to lift and lower back down.

So Thoracic backbends are actually harder to push into then like a regular wheel would be to push into. If you are assisting someone, the correct place to assist them is to go behind them. So if like I was standing behind Abe's head and grab their shoulders and push, pull them up, almost like you're doing a dead lift, cause you also don't want to hurt your own back. Um, and then you can also pull them towards you a little bit. Abe ways, like twice what I weigh. So not quite, but um, and he can do this. So I'm probably not going to spot him unless it seems like I could maybe get him a little bit higher. So hands go back behind you. I tend to come up in one push. Um, but you can also lift up to the top of your head, which makes it a little bit easier to come up. So anytime you're ready. I know it's a weird position. Good. So, and he's got really strong arms so he can push up and this is what you wanna do.

You wanna push through your legs so the stretch really goes way more into your shoulders and it's hard to hold. So whenever you need to come down and Tuck your head and it's a little harder to come down. That was actually beautiful. I tend to just flop down and I tend to have somebody help me up into it. Go ahead and um, got one more coming up. One more time. And again, if you need a spotter, I need a spotter so you can always have somebody help you up into it.

And then slowly go ahead and lower all the way back down. Before I come out of any kind of a back bend, I like to hug my knees into my chest and do a little bit of a side to side with my legs because I think it just feels a little bit better in any way. This would be the end of class, so we're going to end on that, and I thank [inaudible] for coming all the way from DC to do that with me. He made it look way easier than I would've made it look quite honestly. Thank you.