Functional Reformer 2

Hi. I'm Tom McCook. It's a great pleasure to be back here at Pilates anytime. I'm here with Aaron and Aaron, and we are teaching I'm teaching today a a reformer class with a focus on the relationship between the hips to the feet along, we will do some interesting stuff with the collarbone and relationship just to being efficient when you move. It'll be a full body flow, and my recommendation to everybody is focused on fluid movements, being joyful and enjoying the process. So you're gonna need a couple Franklin balls or four inch squishy balls like we have on the floor here, and we're gonna put them up close to the reformer.

Standing Footwork

And just go back and forth nice and fluid like that. That we're just starting by simple mobility of the ankle, and just get a sense that you don't wanna grab with the toes. You wanna go for a nice smooth glide in the ankle joint, primary joint in our body for force absorption. When we step, we wanna get nice fluid moving in that joint. Now, we're gonna add to it, so they're gonna press forward on their feet, roll to the outer edge of the feet, back to the heels, and then roll to the inner edge.

If you know, we're just getting more of a circular movement, which is affecting more of the joints, and get a feeling that when you're doing it, you're not trying to over distort the ankle, but you're trying to roll around the rim of the ball to get a nice fluid motion through the ankle joint, and to even get a sense when you're doing that, to even keep the back around, and also notice that the whole leg turns with the motion of the ankle, like a long pull See the pull, when the ankle rolls out, the whole leg turns out. When it turns in, the whole leg turns in. So that's mobilizing also your hip joint, bringing some synovial fluid to that. Now when you come to the middle, Now, reverse. Go inside to the back, and then outside and forward.

Still feeling the role of the whole the whole leg bone. Press into your hands to lift out of the shoulders so you're not caved into the wrist. Let the back of the neck be soft. Even while you're there, start to increase your breathing, see if you can breathe a little deeper, a little lower, start to warm up your body just with your breath. Do one more.

Now as you come to the middle, as you slowly lower the heels, bend the knees, reach back through your tail to come into a flat back, and instead of looking forward, draw your chin in and ups, you lengthen through the back of the neck as you open the top of the chest. Now as you lengthen the legs, press into the front of the feet and round the spine. And again, as you lower, ankle flexion, knee flexion, hip flexion, wide sit bones, open chest, long neck. And again, round and press. So now we're working through the whole body from the feet up.

And again, heels, knees, wide sit bones, long spine, open chest, long neck. Two more times. That's it. And feel as you extend, as you open the top of the chest, the collarbones draw back slightly. And as you round, the collarbones go forward, and the shoulder blades wrap and lower. Just do one more.

Nice and fluid. Now as you come to the center, I want you Tom, with bent knees in a in a flat back, slowly shift your hips to the right and lower the right heel as you lengthen the leg. Feel how you're loading that lateral hip and you're getting a little more load into the lateral part of the leg. And then back to centers, you bend both, shift to the left and bend the drop the left heel as you straighten the leg and load out into that lateral hip. And just do two more each side at your own pace. Find the middle, shift and lower.

Still feeling that you've got contact with the ball in the foot of the stretch side. There you go. Last side, or one more if I'm behind. There we go. And then gently, when you're ready, carefully step off the balls. Not just our joint warm up for the beginning.

Now we're gonna take the long box and put it short ways across, and you're gonna put it over the shoulder blocks so the box is against the steel bars. So we'll take this guy like this. You're gonna put your foot bar in middle bar. So it'll be like so. And this is a preparation to get your hips and foot connection.

Prep for Foot & Hip Connection

Press into your elbows to open the back a little bit so the chest can be open, but the back is connected. Now press that right leg long and hold it out there for a moment. Now while you're out there, what you want is you want the heel to invert, meaning the inner heel comes up gonna let it roll that way. There you go. And now feel how that drives the whole leg rotating out and helps to turn on the glute. And then bend and come in, as you come in, let the inner heel drop towards the bar.

That's e version of the heel. Now press out again. Feel it invert and feel how that drives the whole leg to the hip, and take it nice and slow like that, and that's what we want to happen. That's an action that we want to be involved. That's the drive that happens that creates supination.

Starts from the rear foot. And let's do four more on that side like that. Feel like the inner heel comes up the inseam, the whole leg lengthens, and you feel the hip extend. So you can start to see that the foot is directly related to your glute firing correctly and your hip extensors extending the leg in an organized way and do one more. And there's a very subtle rotation of the pelvis towards the leg that's straightening.

It's not staying square. When we walk, the back leg rotates back slightly, and then come in and we'll take side too. We're gonna do two sets. The first set will be on the heel. The second set will be on the ball of the foot.

Now we'll take now we'll take side two and just feel your alignment. And again, press out nice and slow. Just hold the first one. Feel how you're lifting the inner ankle bone up the inseam, so you can get into that lateral heel and then feel the whole line of the leg. And then bend and come in.

And feel all that happens as the leg is straightening, and then it's fully inverted. Take it nice and slow. Think of the sit bone comes in on that side, and there's a slight rotation of the pelvis towards the ceiling on that extending left leg. Nice and smooth. And do two more.

This is relevant to your ability to be able to extend your knee fully and not have the foot stuck in pronation and hip extension. Do one more. And as we come in, we'll go back to the first side, but we're going to go onto the ball of the foot on the on the right foot, but different than maybe you're used Tom. When you go onto the ball of your foot, you want to not just be on your toes. You want to see if you can get that fifth ray, which is the bone below the little the little toe on the bar.

And when you press out, let the heel drop, and just press out and hold it there for a moment, where you're not in high heel, let your your heel go towards the bar and hold it there for a moment. Now think of the same action with your heel, the inner heel comes up, but the forefoot is turning down into your big toe so the heel will be a little lower. Now feel that and that. Little, little, little more ankle, but keep the big toe. Feel like that's what you're going for.

You don't wanna lose contact with the front two foot points as the inner heel comes up the inseam, and then bend. And just take it slow. This might be new for you to feel this. Just feel that action of the foot. Four foot turns into the big Tom. So the forefoot is doing what's called eversion as the heel is inverting.

Like that. There we go. And that little toe point gets jealous if you leave it out. So you gotta include it. Now let the heel be a little lower.

And just yet, challenge yourself to not go into super high heel, and you'll feel how you can keep those foot points, your leg will feel a little stronger when it's extended. That's better. Nice. One more. That's it. I will take side too. I bet that'll make your sacrum feel better too.

I will take side too. Take it nice and slow. Just the first one, just press out and hold Tom, make sure the heel is not super high. Now just feel how the inner heel is coming a little more up the inseam of the leg, and the forefoot is turning down into the big toe. And then bend and come in.

And just get a feel for that. Now a little bit like that. There you go. A little adjustment there. That feels very different, doesn't it? That's great.

There you go. Two three more four foot turns into the big toe, heel comes up the inseam. That's the locking mechanism of the foot that makes it more of a lever when you're supinating and extending your leg and pushing off when you walk. One more. And then you come in.

Very nice. So now we're gonna gently come off, take the boxes away, and we're gonna put the jump boards on now we are ready for a little more fun on the jump board. Alright. So now we're gonna move on to the jump board. So we have a jump board set up. We'd like to put on a red and a blue spring. We'll play with this weight, then we're gonna go down to a loud lighter weight, and you're welcome to have the head rest up for this for your body position.

Jumping Prep

And those are your key three points to stay on the cart when your feet are flat. And just take a couple small leg bends without losing those three. And then straight. And get the feeling that when you bend, that the inner heel goes closer to the floor like we did when we were on the bar, and the floor foot swipes out And as you straighten, the four foot swipes in and the inner heel lifts, and the arch follows that. See if you can feel that.

Enter heel goes down. Four foot swipes out. And as you straighten the four foot swipes in, the inner heel lifts. You guys get a little feel for that? Now take your hands like this, like, right in front of you and imagine the bottom of your hip bone, the bottom of your heel of your hands is your sit bones.

That's your pelvis, and it's kind of angled like this like a like a bowl. And when you bend your legs, the bottom of the bowl opens and widens, and then the bottom of the bowl narrows. So you can sense that the bottom of the pelvis is opening and stretching as the foot is stretching, then it's narrowing as the foot is doming and lifting. Can you sense those two at the same time? That's what you're going for. So that's eccentric loading of the hips and feet absorbing elastic energy.

Than releasing and orchestrating your legs. Now, the next one, as you do it, keep narrowing the sit bones and lift the heels, and then lower and bend. And when you when you lift, hold the lift for a moment, just imagine at that moment that your tailbone has come a little bit forward so the space between your pubic bone and your tail has gotten smaller, and the sit bones have come in maximally. So when you jump, that's the moment when your spine is the longest. Then as you bend, feel the widening, feet and pelvis.

That's it. Now just let your arms come long and just stay with that image. The tail goes more towards the floor as you bend, Tail comes more towards the pubic bone as you straighten. So now we're going to go through roll through, so press and straighten, relevate up onto the balls of the feet with the heels lifted, bend the knees, lower the heels and lengthen. And just go for a nice fluid action, hips, knees, ankle, when the heels lift, keep those front two foot points. There you go. Nice and smooth.

Two more. And one more in that direction. Then when you on the next one, bend keeping the heels low. Roll onto the balls of the feet, extend with heels lifted, and lower the heels, and go for nice fluid action, ankle, knee, and hip, nice and smooth. That's it. Okay. A little heavier on that hip.

There you go. That's the one that wants to go its own way. There you go. Again, that sense of that fluid action through the hips, knees, and ankles at the same Tom? That's it. Now do one more. Now, I want you to go into jumping, but instead of thinking that the goal is the jump, the goal is to land well.

So just bend your legs small amount and just feel how the foot is widened and swipe out, as you go to jump, see the foot swiping in, and throw the card away, and then land very lightly, and only bend the knees to the degree that the heel doesn't lift at all. That's it. I feel it's like throwing it away, landing light, as you jump the sit bones narrow, as you land the sit bones widen, nice and smooth, exhale into the jump, inhale to lower. That's it. Five more. Nice and fluid. And two. And one. Very nice. Now, come all the way and help yourself up and take off the blue spring, so you just have on one red.

Double Leg Jumps Parallel

Double Leg Jumps in External Rotation

That's it. There you go. XL through. Image when you straighten and jump, your spine is at its especially your lumbar spine is at its longest. That's it.

Now jump from in turn, I'll jump from first position to wide and then from wide to narrow. That's it. Nice and smooth. Let's do four more. And three, feel that nice fluid action, foot to hip, and two, and one, lengthen down and rest just for a moment, and we're going to finish with some single leg. So with single leg, we'll start straight.

Single Leg Jumps

There you go. And one more. And then switch your legs. Take your time. And just, again, extend through. Feel the foot swipes in as you throw it away.

As you land, the foot widens, There's a swiping out of the forefoot, there's a swiping in. There we go. Two more. Now from that straight position, jump and land in alternate feet jump from one to the other. That's it. Nice and smooth. Two more in parallel.

One more in parallel. Then transfer right into turn out and continue. There you go. Feel the whole foot absorbing, throw it away, still breathing nice and smooth. Two more each side. One more each side, and rest.

Beautiful work, you guys. That was good. Now, from there, we're gonna come up and we're gonna do some arm circles in hundreds. So let's can go anywhere from one red spring to all the way up to two reds, so I recommend like a red and a blue, and we'll keep the jump board on for this particular exercise, and then we'll take it off after we're done with that. So when you're ready, you can take the straps in your hands, Now with your feet on the jump board, just take a moment before you lift your feet Tom lengthen your lower back from your tailbone to your belly button into the mat. So you have more of a lengthened lower back.

Arm Circles

The top of the chest is open. One more in that direction. As you get to the top, reverse, open, down, and together. There you go. Nice and smooth. Two more, you guys.

Fluid motion, you're aware of your contact Tom the mat. Now as you ride back at the top, bring your heels together, but open your knees about six inches. And on the exhale, roll up with your upper body into the hundreds as you press your legs long, inhale bend to come back down. And feel as you roll up, you're peeling up with the torso, you're zipping up the center line, the sit bones narrow as the legs lengthen. One more. On the next one, we're going to hold for the hundreds.

Hundred

Three more sets of breaths to you guys. Two more sets, strong inner border of your arms, and one more set. Hold on the next inhale, exhale bend the knees and control the return down. Very nice. And we're going to put the straps on the poles, roll your side to come up, and we're going to put the long box on for pulling straps and tricep press, and we'll take the jump boards off. So now we're set up for long box pulling straps, but before you lie down, I just want you guys to put your left hand on your right collarbone.

Pulling Straps

So you're gonna come on to your belly. We have on one blue. And then reach your hands through the straps and hold the bottom of the rope right above the buckle. And have your hands outside the the the the the rails of the reformer. Now just take a moment and just come into a straight line, anchor the front of your hips and the pubic bone towards the box, lift the leg slightly, and just draw your nose and your chin straight up so you feel the neck lengthen.

That's a now on the exhale. Drag the arms back to your sides. Now, the arms back to your sides, focus on drawing your clavicles back, now slide the upper chest forward, and then lengthen all the way down. And we'll take it nice and slow like that. So exhale draw straight back.

Draw the clavicles back as you extend and open the top of the chest with a long neck, and then slowly lower. Take it nice and slow like that. Feel the arms are long and heavy. The clavicle draws back, nice long neck, smooth motion. I feel you're really targeting the muscles in the upper back with length through the spine and getting nice strength and activation of the upper back, but not shortening the back of the neck too much.

We want to get more length into the back of the neck, which tends to be short in modern lifestyle. That's it. You'll notice when you take the collar bones back, you're less likely to contract your pec muscles, which get in the way of getting your shoulders back. Do that two more times. Nice and smooth.

Long heavy arms, long toned legs. One more. Drag back. Retract the outer border of the clavicle, energy out the top of your head, and lengthen all the way down. And just take a momentary rest, let your head drop just for a sec. The second exercise is tricep press, but you'll get into it the same way.

Tricep Press

Keeping the top of the chest open, the back of the neck long. As you press back, imagine you launch out of the top of your head energetically. Nice and smooth. Three more. See, if you can also find on the exhale phases, you press back your upper inner thighs, lower abdominal wall. Three more.

Nice and fluid. Two more. Beautiful work. That's it. And one more. And then slowly return to the start. You can place the straps on the poles, Now we're gonna transition off of the long box.

And what you can do when you come up, this is a quick transition, if you feel any tension in your back, just come on up to standing, and then put your forearms on the box for a moment in standing. And as you press into the box, just round your lower back for a moment just so you can release any lower back tension that you might have built up that you're experiencing, just for like a breath or two, because we're gonna transition into what's called stomach massage now. Now from there, we'll take the long boxes off, we'll put them to the back of the reformer or wherever you're doing it at home. And we're gonna go to low bar, which is the low setting. And with low bar, we're gonna have on two reds in a blue for stomach massage. In the stomach massage position, you can sit depending how your ability to get your head over your pelvis, you can be fairly close to the edge, maybe six inches away.

Round Back

As you bend and come in, hollow in like you're pulling the knees to the armpits. And again, lengthen out, lower and lift. And floated in. That's it. I would even bring a little more of your foot up on the bar so you've got that fifth ray on the bar. That's it.

There you go. Feel a nice broadening across the collar bones. Feel a connection right there. Pull that down into my hand. There you go. Beautiful.

Feel as a connection from the underarm, across your waistline to your inner thigh, especially as you zip up the legs. That's your anterior oblique sling. Feel that, two more. Great way to open up your back and tone the center line and make your hips more flexible. Now as you come in, just take your fingertips back on the mat, and just take your as you lengthen up the front of the spine, take the collarbones back and lengthen through the back of your neck like you did in pulling straps.

Flat Back

Three more Tom. Feel that nice, clear articulation of the ankle and the foot as you lower and lift. Two more. Beautiful work. Keep breathing nice and smooth all the way through, and one more. As you bend and come in, reach down and take off the blue spring, we're going to take it into rotation, but before you do rotation, just hold your knees for a second and grow nice and tall and then reach your arms forward. Now inhale to prepare on the exhale, pull along and rotate your torso to the right.

Twist

There we go. Nice and smooth. Gotta even you out and try it on the other side. That's it. Yeah. There we go. And one more each side.

There you go. I have to get you on the other side. The other side is a little jealous. There we go. Back to center, like that, and now just slide your feet, your heels wide on the bar and hold the middle of the bar with your hands.

Monkey

One more breath while you're there. And then very slowly, help yourself in and up. And then help yourself out of that setup. We're gonna go back down to one blue spring. We're gonna turn around facing the straps for rowing back.

Rowing Back

Now lift them slightly up, and then to the front like a butterfly stroke. Slowly, roll up through the spine as you get to the end. And again, inhale draw the hands into the chest. From the pelvis curl, use your pelvis inner thighs abs, inhale open, exhale start to press, forward fold, use your abdominal wall. That's it. Now start to lift the arms up.

The shoulders come back as the arms go forward. And then roll up through the spine. We're gonna do two more, nice and smooth, inhale in, exhale to curl, inhale to open, start to press back, feel the collarbones going back. Not as much because your inflection. Now as you open them forward, feel how you're getting that nice fluid articulation in your arm to shoulder blade joint, and then roll up through the spine.

One more Tom. Inhale in. Exhale to curl, inhale open, exhale, press back forward fold, lift up and forward with control, circle. Very nice. Now we're gonna go into flat back. So in the flat back version, imagine the first movement is you wanna have your arms up level with your shoulders. Now just draw your collarbone straight back.

So you feel that little bit of retraction wakes up your middle back and keeps your chest open. Without dropping your elbow at all, bend the elbows halfway. Now, keep that retraction. Press your legs down and do a flat back hinge. Now start to lift the spine and lift the arms up and forward.

Forward fold. Release the arms long to the outside of the cart. Now press the arms straight back, hold it back there. Now, bend at the elbow and bring the back of your hand to the back of your pelvis. Press the arms straight back, pull the collar bones back. Open the arms and circle forward.

Roll up through the spine, and again inhale to bend, exhale to hinge, reach up and forward. That's it, smooth motion. That's it. Press the arms along to the back. Feel how you're connecting to the underside of your shoulders. Bend at the elbows.

Pull back from your mid back as the collar bones draw back. Open, circle to your feet. Roll up through the spine. We're gonna do two more. Inhale to bend, flat back hinge, press down with the legs, reach up and forward, grow taller. Forward fold, long, heavy arms, press back.

Bend at the elbows, start to pull the collar bones and shoulder blades back to reach back, open, circle one more Tom, inhale to bend, exhale to hinge. Lift up and forward. Forward fold. Long, heavy arms, press back. Bend at the elbows as you breathe in.

Pull the blades and collarbones back to reach back. Open circle. And roll up through the spine. Beautiful. Now, we're gonna do something new called the saw on the reformer. See what? So put this put your right strap on the pole, and with your left hand reach through the strap and hold the bottom of the rope with the opposite hand. So you're gonna you're gonna it's not the same side hand. Do it with the there you go. So I'm let me give you the choreography.

Saw

As you start to come to the center, lift the left arm up, now spiral into the saw. And again, start to stack the spine, pull in with that right shoulder blade, let the elbow be in tight to the body, That's it. Now, as this arm comes up, you'll come to center, and now spiral into the saw. Feel the waistline pull back, the arms pull away from each other. And again, as you pull So you pull that right elbow, keep it in tight to the body, turn around the torso. Leave that a little lower.

There you go. And then as it comes up, you'll start to lift the left arm up. Turn and spiral into it. There you go. Feel the arms pulling away from each other to deepen the stretch. Just one more time. Pull in, turn, add a little bit of a smile right there.

It's feeling kinda good, and go up turn, reach. Exactly. Beautiful work, you guys. And we'll take that too. That's all about the love. And we'll reach through.

Now think of what you're doing is you're Tom you can think of the ends of your collar bones are are opposing each other while you do that, so they're swiveling around the torso. So as you reach forward with your left now, take your right collarbone back, look towards the back arm, and let the back palm face in towards the midline of the body. So you'll go that way. There you go. Now start to come up through the spine, start to retract left shoulder blade, pull it in and reach the right arm forward.

As the arm goes up, come to center, and then move into the saw. Fill that fluid action around the torso. All your torso muscles are involved. Retract, reach, you're spiraling around your heart. Given a little bit of love, there we go. Nice and smooth. And we'll do two more.

Draw in and turn. That's it. As you're coming to center, you can trolling it, the weight of that upper arm is resting on the on the shoulder blade, reach into it. One more Tom, stack and pull back with the left. Feel that moment. Go up.

Turn and reach. Beautiful work. From there, we're going to transition into thigh stretch. So for thigh stretch, I recommend a red and a blue, and we're going to come to a nailing position facing the straps with the knees against the shoulder blocks. And in this position, I want you to reach through the straps again and hold the beginning of the rope so your arms will be above the body, and you can have a little support from them.

Thigh Stretch

Now imagine there's no change on the exhales. You engage your glutes, hamstrings, and inner thighs lean from your knee joint, inhale back up. And again, exhale back, inhale back up. There you go. That wakes up those thighs. We're thinking, why does he have me do this? I think we know now.

Here we go. Two more. One more. Now, we're gonna add to it. So let me show you real quick. So you're gonna you're gonna go a little less.

Now the first action here is you're gonna retract your clavicles, then extend your thoracic spine. And if you want, you can lean a little further, but lean from your hips and your knees, not from your neck. And then you'll come back to neutral spine and come right back up. So first feel that thoracic flexion lean slightly. Now retract the clavicles then slide the heart up the front of the spine Tom move into extension.

And then back to neutral and float it back up. We're gonna do two more. Come into flexion first, lean from the knee joint, retract the clavicles, slide the heart up the front of the spine to extend, feel your middle upper back, beautiful, back to neutral, and float it back up. One more time. Retract or actually don't retract lean.

Now retract. That was a test. Slide the heart up the front of the spine. Beautiful, back to neutral, float it back up, and rest. Now we're gonna take it into chest expansion, which will feel really nice after that. So I'd recommend you take off the blue, make it a little lighter.

Chest Expansion

Just do that five Tom. First bone to move is the clavicle, and that draws the shoulder blades closer to the spine, but the neck is nice and long, and you're open through the top of the chest. That's it. Arms stay fairly tight to the body. Following what the clavicles are doing.

Now, the next one is you draw back, keep them back to where you can hold it, and then with an easeful neck, turn your head to one side, back to center, second side, back to center and release, and we'll do that three more Tom, lead with the clavicles, then float the head to one side, center, second side, center, and release, and two more times. Fill that initial movement of the collarbone's leading, the shoulder blades in arms, then then the head, center, turn center and release, and just one more. Drag it back. Turn, center, turn, center, and release. Beautiful work. Put the straps on the poles Turn around and put on, you'll have on two outside red springs. We're going to do short spine. If that's too heavy and you want a red and a blue, that's fine. That's what we're working with today.

Short Spine Massage

I recommend you have your head rest down if it's currently up. Now, I'm gonna give you a lead in to doing short spine if you're having any challenges with flexing your lower back, I'm going to show you how you can do a modified short spine. And if that feels more appropriate for you, you can stay with that. Otherwise, we'll go from there into the full short spine. So for the modified, just press the legs out to 45 degree angle and parallel just do a couple hamstring arcs. So just let the legs come straight up to 90 or a little less, and then pull back down, and do that a few times. Just get a sense that you can open up that back chain that was just contracted through those other exercises. How's that feeling on your lower back? That's it. Now, next one, pull down and go into a circle.

We'll just do three in that direction, then reverse, get the sense that you're hinging at the hips as you come up, the back of the pelvis is widening. As you lower the sit bones are narrowing, just like the leg work and jumping you did earlier. One more that direction, and then as you get to the top, reverse, open down and together. Nice and fluid. You're still aware of your posture from the previous exercise, and one more. Now, as you come up to 90 or a little less, go into turn out and bend your legs about an eighth of the way, really small leg bend. That's it. Now imagine when you do this version of short spine, you're not going to let your feet go back at all.

And what I recommend to start is hold on to the steel bars. That's it. Now just set the shoulders low. And imagine as you start to narrow the sit bones, let the tail reach towards your feet and curl about six inches off the cart from the bottom of the spine, and then inhale to lower. How's that doing it Tom feel okay? Yeah. Make it if that's what you want to just stay with that today, you can just stay with that. Yeah.

And just feel like as you curl, sink there, and even press these together so you feel the support. That's it. So this is an option. You can stay with this version, just gonna do two more. It's also just a nice way to lead into the short spine of opening up the lower back through the action of the pelvis.

If you're planning it to go to full short spine, you're gonna press the legs out to a 45, or stay with that version, then bring the arms long by your side. Now as you inhale, let the legs come to 90 on the exhale, let the tail chase the feet into short spine. Inhale Tom plie. On the exhale soften the breast bone, use your abdominal wall to roll the spine down. As you get towards the bottom, draw the heels towards the butt to get the tail down, to open the sit bones, then press long.

And just do three to four more like that. Nice and smooth. And when you get Tom, you feel like you've done enough, you can even just do frogs a few times after just to kind of smooth that out. That's it. There you go.

And we'll do two more short spines if you're doing the full. You could also just be doing frogs or the modified version at this point. And one more, whichever version you're working on. Nice and smooth. Feel that nice fluid action initiating from the bottom of the pelvis.

As you roll down, you're using the abdominal wall, long, heavy arms, and if you get to the bottom, you are good. Now, as you bend your legs, slip your hands into the straps to take the straps off your hands or off your legs and put them on the poles, And we're gonna take it into a modification of corkscrew. Who knew? So I want you to hold the steel bars again and bring your legs up into tabletop. And instead of tabletop, let them be about two thirds straight. That's a now, as you glue your legs together, imagine you have one leg.

Corkscrew

You're just waking up all sides of the waistline along with the centerline and the bottom of your shoulder blades mid back. One more each direction at your own pace, think one full breath for each circle. And again, and one and last one. And then bend the knees, draw them into your chest. Rock up to a seated position when you're ready, and then up to standing, and we're going to take that into the long stretch.

Long Stretch

Inhale out, exhale in. Now feel like you're pressing the bottom of your hips towards the bar the whole time. That's it. Feel how that connects you to your core muscles and your inner thighs a little bit more. Just two more. And one more. Nice and smooth. Now we're gonna take it into a version of Arabic.

Let me show you really quick. If you don't mind stepping off just for a sec, I'll just do my demo in my non warmed up version. So you'll be like this. You'll have your heel halfway up. You reach the leg out, and as you push out, lower the plank, and then reach. So think of the arms, don't really move in space.

Arabesque

That's it. Now as you reach into that back leg, set the shoulders low and lengthen through the back of the neck. Now connect to the bottom of your shoulder blades. And imagine you're gonna hinge from your hips as you push out lower to a plank and zip your legs together. Now split the legs to come in. Imagine your arms don't really move in space at all.

It's all hips, lower half, lower a little bit more, and then zip it back up. Feel the split to come in, feel the platformers your hands Tom your mid back. And again, two more. Feel the sit bones narrow as you lower Tom help you keep your lower back long and feel your core support. Last one.

And then all the way in, and then gently switch sides. That's it. Reach back. And I really feel that platform of the scapula, the connection of your mid back as you reach lower the pelvis and narrow the sit bones. Widen the sit bones to come in, keeping the top of the chest open. And again, feel there you go.

And as you split, feel that hip can come up a little bit. There you go. Two more. Excellent, you guys, one more. And in, very nice. And then split for the last one.

And gently release now step off Tom the right side of your reformer, we're gonna do a lunging stretch. So we'll keep the weight. We'll go down to a red and a yellow, and we'll put your inside right leg or left leg against the shoulder block in a lunge position, your front foot will be up by the foot bar. Now let the back knee be on the cart for a moment and just bend your standing leg and feel your three foot points on your standing leg. And let your pelvis slightly turn towards the back leg with the back knee on the cart.

Eve's Lunge

As you push out, reach your left arm up and side bend to the right, and then come in as you lower. And again, do that four times. Pelvis turns back to the left, That's it. Beautiful. And you'll feel that a whole lot more when you do that. There you go. Two more.

And one more. This is opening up the hip flexors, and the lumbar spine. And we'll take side too. Nice work. Nice work.

Just take your time with your setup, have your front foot up by the foot bar. As you bend the front knee, feel your three weight bearing points, feel how the foot is moving into pronation so the heel is coming closer to the floor towards the inside front, and let the pelvis turn slightly back to the right and press that right hip into your hand to feel the action of the back of the hip. And as you go down, feel like you're gonna keep that. You're gonna let the pelvis continue with that feeling, and then come in so you feel how now you can even reach into that back foot and connect the foot to the hip. On the next one, as you're going out, you'll take your left right arm up and side bend into it, and then slowly come back in.

There you go. Feel that rotation of the pelvis back to the right as you side bend to the left. Just two more times. There you go. And one more. Beautiful. And we'll finish with mermaid, so we'll go down to one red spring.

Mermaid

It's all good. Now, just first one, think of when you press out that your shoulder blades are gonna lower, just do a pure side bend And I want you to image that your collarbones are rolling back like two logs in the water, and then come back in. And just take it nice and slow like that, side bend up and over. Both sides of the next day long, think of doing less with the neck than the rest of the spine, then come back up or not more than the rest of the spine. There you go.

Now, the next one is you go into it, go into the side bend, and go into a spiral and reach under the weight bearing arm with the free arm, into a twist, and just hold the twist for a couple breaths. Breathe into where you're feeling any tension. Long, easeful neck, and then slowly come all the way back up and in. And then we're gonna finish with where you'll side bend and bring your free arm to the bar. Once it comes to the bar, open up the weight bearing arm wider.

Now, start to retract your clavicles as you open and lift the chest to come in. Now feel them widen and lower and go forward as you flex down. And again, they retract as you come up into extension, and then as you widen the lower feel the spine flex one more time. When you get to that low place, stay low, Now we inhale bend the elbows wide, exhale pull away like you're pressing from the middle of your upper back with nice long neck. Two more.

And one more. Feel like it's coming from that lower border of the scapula. Slide your weight bearing arm back to the midline, come back to the side bend, lengthen all the way up, and do a counter stretch the other way for a couple breaths. Like, like this. Here you go. I like that one, though. That was I look good.

That's good. I could add that one in. That will take side Tom. Nice work. And you get the ocean. Here we go.

So nice and slow, just go into a pure side bending and feel the shoulder blades move away from each other, and the neck can stay long on both sides, then lengthen back up through that two more times. And again, on the next one, as you go into it, go into the side bend, then spiral and reach under the weight bearing arm and do a twist. And breathe into the twist and really feel how you're still letting the shoulders wrap, let the neck lengthen one more breath, and then all the way back up and in. Next version, you'll take your free hand to the bar, open up your weight bearing arm a little wider. And again, initiate with the show, the girl drawing back through the collar bones to come up into extension.

Pull the waistline away as you widen and lower the shoulder blades and the collar bones will go a slightly forward. And again, lift and open, down and forward. One more time. As you get to the low place on this next one, stay low, and then bend the elbows wide away from each other and press away from the middle of your back, feel like your waistline's pulling away for your arms to lengthen. Two more.

And one. When you get to straight, slide your weight bearing arm back to the midline, back to the side bend, come all the way up into a counter, stretch the other way. And then we'll finish by helping yourself right up to standing. And in standing, just get a sense of having your feet right under your sit bones, lift all 10 toes and just feel your three weight bearing points that we started with and let the knees be soft, let the feet come down, and just feel the toes come down. No. So you can stay on those three points to a small leg bend. And then just do one roll down, peel into yourself nice and fluid.

Roll Down

And as you get to the top, Just close your eyes for a moment, center the weight. Let the breathing drop lower in the body. Knowledge yourself your good work today, you guys. And thank you, everybody. Hope you enjoyed. Hope Tom see you again on Pilates anytime.

Thank you.