Class #3583

Unilateral Wunda Chair

30 min - Class
398 likes

Description

Work on perfecting imbalances in this athletic Wunda Chair workout with John Garey. He teaches creative combinations, designed to increase strength and challenge stability. He also uses the split pedal in the Wunda Chair for creative variations to exercises like Swimming, Push Ups, and more.
What You'll Need: Wunda Chair

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Welcome everyone. Today we are working on the chair and this is all super athletic workout. I'm working with Aaron. Thank you for joining me today and we're going to get started right away, but I want to introduce the chair to you that we're using. It's a balanced body chair and we have a cactus setup, so on this chair we're going to be using primarily the two heavy springs and they are going to be attached anywhere from the top, which is number one down to about the third row, which is number three.

If you're using a different chair, I'll tell you where you should be feeling this so that you can adjust your spring so that you're getting the same work that we're getting or we're ready to go. All right, let's go. We're going to start with some really fun at least I think it's really fun leg work here. So the way we have it set up, the pedal is together and we've got one heavy spring in the Wa number one position. So at the top we're going to stand behind the chair here and we're going to be, you know, a little ways away from it so that when you put your foot on the pedal and press it down your knee, you might have to adjust yourself a little bit. Your knee is almost straight when you're in the kind of pointed foot position and from here, square yourself off and you can have your arms out to the side if that helps you balance, you can have them on your hips and you're just going to lift and I want you to get used to that resistance. What you're going to notice is as you press down, your body weight wants to come forward so you can help yourself. I want you to keep your weight back on your heel and as you're pressing down, you're going to feel a lot more of that work in that working leg. You feel that?

Yes. Feel it, Aaron? Yeah. Okay, good. I thought it was just me. Now you're going to press down and then when you bring them pedal back up, you're going to find your balance. This is the fun part. And you're gonna do a little kick to the front. Yep. So we'll do one press exhale down, inhale, lift, and then you can lean back a little bit to kick and press and lift. So think martial arts kick, but don't think like Keanu Reeves, like slow motion kick. All right, so we want to press down, no matrix GIC.

It's an actual kick. Yeah, that's it. And again, caress and up somehow I think I'm a martial artists here and I'm putting my arms in that position. You know your arms, wherever you want. Okay, now let's kick to the side. So we're going to press down first. Exhale, inhale to lift. Then you can lean over, watch where you're kicking, kick, and then come back. Just like that. Let's try it again. Press down, come up, kick and back. Now if you notice I did an adjustment here. So the first one I was parallel, but now that we're side kicking, I'm going to be laterally rotated on that leg. That would have been a good thing to remember the first time I did it. So you're going to press down and lift up on that balance. Hold your arms tight, kick and come back. Whew. Good. Save one more.

Press down. These are tricky and up. Now find that position kick and come back. Now we're going to be kicking to the back, so you're going to press down, lift. You're going to lean forward, kick back, and come back up. Yes, nice. And exhale down. Inhale up, lean, kicked back, and come forward. Now let's do one in every direction, so press down and left. We're going forward. First kick and back. Good. Exhale down. Inhale, lift.

Hold that balance. Kick side and back, and press and lift. Now you're going to kick back. Woo and forward that leg. You feel it a lot in the standing leg. I hope. Now let's switch sides to begin with. We're just going to press down and come back up and press now.

See if you can get your hips square here. Your bottom leg can be parallel or turned out and press and lift in your focus on keeping those hips as level as possible. Now we're going to lift and we're going to let our body move a little bit and kick forward and back. Good. And caress and lift. Find your balance. Kick and back. One more.

And lift and kick. Now we go to the side. So press down, lift up, kicks side. You're nice and come back. One side's always a little bit better than the other, right and up. Find your balance. Kick and back. One more. Exhale down. Inhale, lift, strong core, lean kit and back. We did it. Okay, now to the back for us and lift.

Now you're just going to give a little heel kick to the back. Yep. And come forward. And yeah, we got a little shoulder roll in there. We might have to add that and lift. Give it that good kick back and forward. We'll do all the way around now so it's down and look, keep the breath flowing forward and back. And now we're going side down and left and side and back.

And one more. Down and lift and back and forward. Yes, we're really good. All right, so now what we're going to do is turn around and I'm going to come over here and I'll just spot you through this. This is called a Bulgarian squat. So you're going to turn and face away from the pedal all the way to that side. And what I want you to do here is you're going to come back a little bit closer and you're going to take one foot and put the ball of the foot on that pedal.

Yep. It's really just a hold your leg in place. Now we're gonna do a single leg squat on this lake. So down and up. Do you feel too close? If you're too close, you can hop away. Yeah, there you go. So that way you get a little bit more range of motion. Remember your back leg is just being supported by that pedal.

You're not trying to bring the pedal down on this one. So inhale down and XL, single leg squats is a really good way to perfect and balances between the two side as long as you're doing them correctly on each side. So what we're looking for and you're doing a great job. Aaron is coming down and you want to keep that Neil Lang right in the center of the foot and you can use your breath and held down and XL up. Now the other leg doesn't have any weight on it, so you can kind of just make sure that that leg is kind of staying stable here. Yeah, and come back up and let's switch sides.

So let me just adjust this chair for a second. There you go. I'm gonna bring that other foot up. That's it. And now again, as you sink down, you're really working on keeping the pelvis nice and stable. You're going to kind of hinge your body a little bit forward. You want to keep the back as neutral as possible. And this leg is just kinda hanging out there.

Do you feel a difference between one side and the other, Erin and kind of range of motion and strength a little bit or you look perfectly balanced? Two more nailed down. Concentration is key here and all the way up. Good. Take that foot off. Really Nice. Now we're going to turn around and we're going to do what in fitness is called a pistol squat, so you're going to face forward and you're going to put one foot on. Now this one becomes a little trickier because what I'm going to have her do is actually bring the pedal down with her as she goes into the squat.

So it takes a minute. It's going to take you a minute to kind of coordinate that, but that's okay. Go down into your squat, bring the peddle with you. Yes, and then come back up and let's do that again pressing down. So now she's stabilizing the hip on this side because it's not really changing in position. If she's bringing that pedal down with her the same way that she's are the same distance as she's sinking down, you feel that and you can feel the gluten hamstring working on that side.

Now let's challenge her a little bit more. So you're going to stay down on this one. Don't get scared. You're going to press down and come back up. Keeping the squat on that side and two and three. Can you go for five and four nice, strong core and use your XL and now all the way up. Good.

And then change feet. That was really good. So if you notice she had a slight turnout, that's okay. As long as the knee is tracking over the center of the foot, we're good with that. Alright, let's try the other side. And you can have the person work or have yourself worked in parallel or turned out. It's whatever is going to work best for you or your client if you're doing this with your client and then come back up. Yeah.

And then come down sinking and come back up. Beautiful. That's it. And yes and again pull that leg with you. Really Nice. And Aaron is doing a spectacular job of not bottoming out. That's what I call when you kind of slam that pedal down onto the frame. She's doing really good control.

We stay down and we do five presses now stabilized. So really work on this leg, staying knee tracking over the center of your foot here. Good. And are two more and one more. I think we're good. And then come up with control. Beautiful Art. And come on out there. Now we're going to turn to the side and we're going to do our sumo squat version.

So for this one you're going to be turned out and you're gonna maybe come a slightly slightly this way and then take one foot and place it on there. And the same thing you did, I'm probably slightly in front unless you have a lot of external rotation in that hip. Yeah. So you're going to bring that pedal with you as you go down into your sumo squat and then come back up. Good. And again, sink, exhale and come back up. So we don't want to press the pedal down more than the range of motion of the opposite leg. So we're really bringing that pedal with us. Yes. Now this one is going to get a little harder.

So you're going to stay down and you're going to give me that for us. Surprise. Give me two more. We're just going to do three and one more. Now you're going to hold that pedal halfway. And then what I want you to do is find your balance point. You're going to lift and lower up on the opposite heel. Good.

The body stays still pedal. Stay still and lift two more times. Good. Try to roll into the center of the foot, not to the outside of the foot. That is so awesome. And then come all the way up. Now let's do that. Facing the other way. You got a high five for that one. That was awesome. Okay, so here we go. You put your foot on the pedal and you're turned out here. You got it, you got it. Okay.

And just the regular sumo squat pulling that pedal down with you. So exhale, pull and come back up. Yes. And again. Yes. And let's do two more here and then one more. Now on the other side, we just did three presses. We'll match that pressing down and coming up. And you can tell, right?

You can tell one side might be just a little bit easier than the other. This would not be that side and hold it halfway and up. Yeah, as beautiful and too nice control. Nice control, strong core, Xcel up. Inhale down and come all the way up. Really good. Excellent. Okay, so now we're going to move on and we're gonna move on to our hands on the chair for the next part. I'm going to keep the um, spring. We're going to change the spring tension just a little bit on this one. And um, for me, uh, mine's going to be a little different than yours.

So you did one heavy on two and one heavy on three, I believe, and I did a heavy on two or three on both sides. And then you'll need to adjust yours to whatever is going to work best for you. Sometimes you got to give it a try first and then see how it works. So we're gonna do a elephant straight back. So what we're going to do, be very careful stepping up onto the pedal here and placing your hands on the, the back of the chair, top of the chair. And I keep my feet about hip distance apart here.

And you're going to be in the high half toe position. Then you're going to lower your heels down. Inhale. Then you're going to exhale and you're going lift up the pedal here. So coming up and try to keep your body in a straight line. So don't lift your head up too high. That's it.

And then bend your elbows and come down into a push up and come back up. And we'll just do two more and lift and one more. And lift. Now from there, take one leg and reach it back. And then do your push up again. Keeping that back leg lifted. Don't drew bit two and three and then we'll switch the other leg and down and up. One and two.

Now put your foot down, lower the pedal slowly. Step one foot onto the floor and then guide the pedal up. Yeah, as strong girl. I like it. All right, now we're gonna move on from there. That's super challenging. We have to split the pedal, which means that we want to make sure that we put the same, the springs on the same side. So what I would recommend is to go to the two, heavy on number three, and then we split.

All right. Now for this one, it's frogs back, hips up, so you're going to have a seat facing that way and let's put your feet on the pedals and you can be, yeah, backside is good. Now we're going to do this in parallel today. There you go. Normally it's turned out. We're going to do an parallel, so what I'd like you to do is kind of hold your hips up there and push your hips right up and hold the pedal there. Good. Now from here what we're going to do is press both pedals down for three. Is that okay? And two, and you're holding those hips up and one.

Now we're going to do a little runny, so one goes down as it's coming back up. The other one goes down. That's it. Reciprocal and holding the huddle step, holding the hip steady. Three strong core and two and one. Now both paddles come up and lower your hips down. Lots of high fives. It's this one cause that's another really hard one.

Excellent work. Now we're going to spin your chair around here and we're going to move into a little hips on top of the chair, pelvis on top of the chair series. So for the first one, we're going back into our, um, hold on one second here. Let me get this set. Yeah. So for this one, we're going back into the pedal together. Yeah. And we're going to go with just one heavy spring on the top here in position one. And that one can come off. Yeah, that'll do make it easier. There we go. And we'll do that on this one as well. So we can take oops.

Pedal together. Okay. So that care doesn't go crashing down. And I'll put that one up at the top. Okay. All right. So the first thing we're gonna do is our torso press sitting. So you're going to have a seat here and to be in the safest position, I call this sitting on the edge of your seat for this exercise. So you want to be all the way forward so your sit bones are right on the end.

That gives you all this room to roll back. Then start with the backs of the hands right against the top of the chair. So turn back that way. And then if you can bring your legs into tabletop and you can hold them in tabletop or straighten them out, it's up to you and you're going to reach back and you're gonna roll back. Make sure you've gotten room behind you guys. Don't fall off that chair.

Then sink into it. Flexes fine. And we're going to do a single leg stretch one leg in, and then switch. And you're going to inhale for two and exhale for two shoulders open and strong. And again, one was that now both legs and table will reach them up and lower them down and lift them up. And Xcel lower them down and lift them up. And one more time.

Lower down. Lift up. Now circles open out in a round and up. Open out and around and up. Two more around. Shoulders open, abs in and legs up. Bend your knees. Roll forward and up. Beautiful.

Okay, so now we're going to go back into a swan dive. So we're going to be flipped over the other way. So for this one, actually let's do our side bend first. We'll keep the, the, the resistance the same. I'll show, I'll actually talk you through this one. So come onto the side of your hip and put your hand on the pedal. Yeah. And just go into a side plank. There you go. Now you can either have your hand resting on the chair or you can have it hovering above your legs and you want your hips stacked. Then you're going to flex the spine and bring the pedal up and then length and back down.

Good. Now come up holding the hip steady and down. Okay. When you come down, bring your head. Yeah. So you end up in that one straight line and come on up and lower down. And what I'd like her to do is inhale on the way up. And as she exhales, she's going to use those bottom obliques to connect. Beautiful. One more time. Come on. Up and down. Now you're ready to take this up a notch.

Come on up to give me a salute. Hand in front of your forehead. There you go. Now holding that there, lift the top leg up without moving anything else and lower it down. Keep the hips stacked and give me four more. And if you want, flex your foot and reach your heel up. Three. Good. And keep breathing. Lift up two and one more. And then down, point the toe and use those bottom obliques and lengthen all the way back down, down to the bottom. Beautiful. Okay, we're going to have you flip over and do that same thing on the other side. Really nicely done. Excellent. Okay, so right there on your side, and let's just start with the very simple sideband. Simple but challenging.

Head in one long line, pedal hovering. You're going to flex up and then you're gonna use those bottom obliques to lengthen back down. That's it. And you're going to flex up without letting the legs droop. Good. Or the hips roll back and come back down. Really Nice. Come up. Inhale and let your head go down with you. Exhale.

And two more are up and down. Now, one more. This is the challenge when we're coming up, you're taking your hand on the top, you're flexing your foot and you're reaching up five. Everything else stays steady and lower and four and a good and three really nice, really good position. Two and one more time. That's it. Now leg down and use your obliques. Exhale and come down into that bottom position and carefully just put your hand on that pedal or the top of the chair and come on off there. That was so good.

Now we're going to split so we're not leaving. We're going to split, split the pedal and Jesus rights. Okay, so we're going to go into, make sure to clarify myself around here. Going to go into two of these heavy springs on the third one because we don't need a ton of resistance on this. And then c'mon into the swan position. So your hips are going to be on, but they're going to be about an inch back from the edge and your hands are on the pedals. Your legs are going to be separated and laterally rotated. And then um, we can start in this extended position here. Now what I want you to do is rock forward and you're going to move the pedals slightly and then come back up.

But you're going to rock forward like the swan dive on the mat in one piece. So your legs will lift and then come back up. Yeah. You kind of bend your elbows a little bit as you go down. Yeah. And come back up a little bit more glute action here. So lift those legs a little higher. Yes.

And come back up and just try to keep the length in the back of the neck to hold that right there and come back up. Beautiful. Was that position okay? Resistance felt like it was supported. Okay. So come on back up. Now we're going to go into part two. You're going to go into one long line. So you're going to push the pedals down and come into one long line. Yes. And you're gonna do swimming legs. So just the leg part alternating, holding that pedal down. Yeah.

And it can be slow because they're going to be slow in a second. Yeah. And then bring them level. Now we're gonna do swimming arms just by bending one. So reciprocal bend and stretch, holding the torso still good. And you can inhale for two and exhale for two. Just keep your breath flowing. That's the most important part. Now come back to center.

We're going to do opposites, arm and leg. So yes, and then switch. You did that perfectly. So as the right arm bands, the left leg lifts, and then you alternate. Still trying to keep that position. That's it. So that's part three. Now we've got part four. So even out we have going into the swimming swan. So you're going to come up into your extended position.

Now you're going to rock forward lifting those legs up. That's it. So stay extended and let's do your swimming legs and arms here and switch and switch and switch to lift a little more here for me. Yes, that's it. Beautiful. And two more really nice. And now even everything out, come all the way back up and then press that pedal down and relaxed back. Good. So come right off the back here. Put your hands over the front. Now don't pull too hard, but just come into a standing shell just to give your lower back a little love there. Beautiful job. Really, really good. Okay, so from there we're going to go into our plank work ready for this.

So I'm spinning this guide back around about here, I think, and we're going to put this back in. Wouldn't be one of my let it and GV. That would be really hard to do what we're doing if I put that pedal together and we still got the same resistance on, I've got two heavy on number three. I'm going to match that on my side. Ready for some pushups. Alright, here we go.

So the first thing we're going to do kind of comes from the Mat. It's a roll down into a plank. So you're going to stand behind your chair, you're going to roll down through, place your hands onto the pedals, impress them down, and then walk back into your plank. Yeah. And then let's just walk forward and you're gonna roll back up and we'll do that again here. All right, so standing behind. Yeah, you're going to roll down. Press the pedals down, get that nice stretch and walk back. Okay. So your hands should be right underneath your shoulders.

And we want your feet to be about hip distance apart. Just tried lifting one pedal and the opposite leg and lower down. Beautiful. And other side bereaving in as they come up. Exhale as they go down. We got that. Yeah. And one more time up. Yes, and down. Now we add that to a pushup so you know. Yes we do.

You're going to come down and do your push up and then as you come up, one arm and one leg lift and then they come back down and you switch. Inhale up, exhale down. Inhale up. How are we doing? Good. Exhale down. One more. Up and down and just come out of out of your pushup. Yeah, we're good. Okay, good. From an air, make sure your feet are about shoulder distance apart. Good.

And what I want you to do is start to lift your front arm here and turn into a side plank. Beautiful. Now we're going to come out of the plane first. Then we're going to press the pedal down. [inaudible] now to the back here. Rotate and reach. Come back first and for us. Good. Rotate and reach. Stay there, Pike your hips and go into your twist.

Come back and rotate back into your plank. Press down other side. Rotate up. Pike your hips. Reach under, come back, rotate back to your plank first and press down. We should do that one more time cause it's super fun. Rotate. At least I think so and not come back.

Reach under and back. Now rotate out and exhale. Press rotate. Breathe in. Exhale, under and back. You okay? Rotate and press. All right, now be careful. Remember when you pike, you want to keep your weight. It's like you're going into a handstand, so keep your weight more in your arms and from there you're going to shoot your front foot forward. Place it here, back, knee down. Let the pedals push you up and sink your hip.

Stand a curl the toes under again. If they're not, lift your hip. Go onto the hands, pike, come forward with the other foot. Lower the hip and let yourself stretch out. Ahh, come down, curl the toes under. Let's do that again. Pike and shoot the other foot forward. Now opposition, the pedals are coming up. Your hips are sinking. Yeah, and down, up your reward.

Come forward, pedals up. Hips sinks, yes. And then down now pike, walk your feet towards your hands. Head down and roll up to the top. Ah, take your feet apart about shoulder distance and roll down through the spine. Just about halfway. Push the pedal down. Now from here, bend your knees and then extend the spine from tail to head. That should feel good. And then flex again in a roll up till the top. Let's do that again. You're going to exhale, flex forward. Press the pedal down, find that nice rounded position and then soften the knees, extend the spine, shoulder blades, pull back. Good.

And then flex again and roll up to the top. Let's slide this in and put the pedals together and finish with a really nice standing rotation. So arms out to the side, you're a little bit, and heels are lined up with the back of the chair, they're perfect and you're gonna reach toward your pedal. Breathe in. Now you're not probably not going to reach the pedal or you're just barely going to get there. Rotate toward that pedal. Put a hand on either side and push it down as you push it down.

You want your back hip, your outside hip to go backward, not forward. Now come back up. Turn back to the side, arm over your head and come all the way up to the top. Let's do that again. Breathe in and reach. Now rotate, exhale, and press the pedal down. You want to think opposition here, so you want to feel this hip dropping your head drops between your arms. When you feel a really nice stretch right there. Now start coming up on the side.

Take that arm back over your head and then come up to the top. Beautiful. Let's do that one more time. Breathe in and reach. Exhale, rotate. Resist that back hip coming with you. Drop your head between your arms and then roll back up, turn to the side and come all the way up to the top. Beautiful. Let's turn around and do that. Facing the other way. So that's the best, right?

That's your reward. Heels lined up in the back edge of the chair. Breathe in and reach for the pedal. Now rotate. Take a hand on either side. Drop your head down and get that flection with rotation. Guiding this hip back that way. Good. And then roll up head between your arms. Bring that arm back over your head and then come all the way up to the top.

Two more. Breathe in and reach. Exhale, rotate. Press down. Just relax your head. Good. And then rolling back up. Turning back to the side and coming up to the top. You've got one more. Ver even and reach XL. Rotate as you press down.

Really keep that hip reaching behind you and then roll up through lexing. This mine turning back to the side and coming up to the top. You're a trooper. That was really, really good and thank you so much for joining us. I hope you enjoyed it and I really hope I see you again soon. Bye Buddy.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Great fun and challenge class, thank you John Garey. You being so happy and excited for us made it even more easier then it looks. It was lots of fun to do this class with you.
Lori
Always an exciting day when there is a new John Garry class! Love your encouraging teaching style and your fun personality. I will be repeating this one frequently. Thanks!
Fun and creative!
Loved the unilateral variations and thanks for making me split the pedal.
Love this class John Garry. Erin is strong and adorable!
1 person likes this.
I love the variations to make the chair fun. I also really like Johns classes, becasue there is way less emphasis on lumbar flexion. In fact he does a lot of work to get our whole back extensors much stronger. This makes practical sense since we live in too much flexion.
Simplement génial!
Très énergique et très amusant.
Thank you very much :)
Super inventive. I enjoyed this very much
Awesome! I loved that end side over twist!
Great class! I always love when the chair is included. And John I Love your athletic style and fun spirit!
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