Class #3963

Functional Reformer 3

50 min - Class
662 likes

Description

You will focus on strength and flexibility with this Reformer workout by Tom McCook. He continues on with his Functional Movement Series, encouraging you to listen to the details so that you can have high-quality form. He includes creative variations to exercises like Pulling Straps, Elephant, and much more!
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box

About This Video

Dec 20, 2019
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Transcript

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Hi everybody. I'm Tom McCook. It's a great pleasure to be back here at Cloudy's anytime. I'm here with Amy and Erin and the class today will be a reformer class with a focus on strength and flexibility and high quality form. So I want you to enjoy and pace yourself, listen to what I lead you through and um, I hope you really enjoy. So we're going to start with footwork. So we're going to come onto our back.

We have three Springs, two resonant blue or three reds, whatever you prefer. It's in middle bar. And the first thing we're going to do is actually just come up onto your heels and as a warmup for the pelvis and lower back, we're just going to start with taking a few deep breaths. And when you breathe in in the beginning, let your belly wall move just free then to your length and your width. And on the XL phase, let the front of the body just fall into the back of the body. Just use.

Take a moment to let go of superficial tension and let your breath literally like the new your spine as you breathe in, and just let the moment in this first moment just expose any superficial tension you're holding jaw front of your shoulders, your neck, and just start to let it melts. Now in the next X, as you start to follow your belly wall in and curl your tail towards the back of your knees to lengthen your lower back into the, into the mat. Then inhale, tip the pelvis forward into a little bit of an arch. So if you consider your tail six o'clock your belly button 12 you're moving in between 12 and six and just go for a nice even quality of movement to warm up your lower back. That's it. And it's two, a couple more nice and fluid and one more. Now find that place where you feel like you're equally weighted on the back of your sacrum and just pull your legs straight and keep them straight. Oh yeah. There you go. Now keeping your legs straight and your pelvis in neutral on the XL.

Pull one knee to your chest without changing the shape of your lower back. Then inhale back to the bar and just two, five each side. Focus on connecting into your standing leg. Yeah, there you go. And we're alternating sides and get the feeling that when you lift your knee that you can pull your knee even maybe slightly above 90 without taking your tailbone towards the ceiling. So you get a nice clear crease in your hips. That's it. Nice and fluid.

Now on the next side, whatever side you're on, bring it in and hold it and put your opposite hand against the inner inner knee and just have a light pressure into it and pull yourself in to the start. Now on the XL, feel that press and pull your leg long. Inhale back in and feel that relationship with the back of your standing leg, your inner thighs, and then finish through the front of your thigh on that strong leg. Do that for two more. Yeah, you can keep the shape of the lower back, relatively the same. There we go. And then as you come in, we'll switch legs and you'll take your foot. Take hold that inner thigh and on the XL and the press pull your leg long.

That's an, you can even keep your hand there if just to see you give you that feedback in the second set, we'll do it a little bit differently. But just to get that feeling, Oh, I'm waking up my center line, little more of a focus on the back of the legs and then finish through the front of the legs. And one more. There we go. Now come back to your first side on your heel again. But this time you can just have your arms long and knee. Fold that first, that other leg. Now Xcel, pull it long at this time as you come in and reach the free leg under the bar and then pull yourself in. And as you pull out, fully develop the leg up to straight and then back under the bar. And if you feel like you can't get the legs straight without changing your pelvis, just have it a little bit. Ben, focus more on keeping the shape of the lower back, the same, and let the legs start to open through reps. There we go.

And do two more. Okay, good. You guys. That's it. One more and then as you come in, we'll switch sides. Let's get that feeling of knee folding and now pull the leg long. Reach under the bar on the end and then fully develop. There you go. Nice and smooth. Breathe your way through it. They give as you're breathing that you can keep your energy low in your body and keep the next soft. Two more and one more. There we go. Really good.

Now as you come in this next time, come onto the ball of the foot on the first side, but what's different the way I want you to do is I want you to get the metatarsal bones, the first and the fifth up on the bar, so the bone behind your little toe, get it on the bar. So you're going to be maybe be higher on the bar than you're used to. I do the exact same movement. Pull your leg out. Now this time as you straighten up to the ceiling, hold there, lower your weight bearing heel below the bar, lift up as you bend in, come in and reach the free leg under the bar and again, go out lower and lift the weightbearing leg and then come in nice and smooth. And as on that weight bearing leg when you're lowering and lifting, keep that leg nice and toned. That's it. And two more.

There we go. One more. Awesome Ben, and come in. We'll go right into side too. Now we're getting warm, nice and fluid. Actually you got that little toe, big toe ball of the foot on the bar. Pull along. Reach up. There you go. Now lower lift of the weightbearing leg as you come in. Reach under the bar. There you go. Nice and fluid. Yeah, the strength of the standing. Like imagine on the standing leg that your sit bone is coming in closer to the midline and you'll feel the connection of your glue.

Your hamstring. There you go. Just two more nice and fluid and one more. Awesome. As you come in. Now go into first position on both feet. That's another. Just feel the back of the pelvis as wide right before you start and as you exhale, zip up your legs and then draw yourself back in and get the feeling when you're, when you're going out that the spine is getting longer, like you're energetically pulling your body away from your feet as you zip up the center line. There you go. Just two more on the next one. Go out and hold it as you hold it. Turn your feet into parallel and as you lower your heels, imagine your head is tractioning away from your heels like you're creating a little more space.

Do that for five reps before we come in and we'll do one more set. We'll do two sets of five, that's it, and one more. And then Ben didn't come in one more time. Extend out. Feel that tractioning lowering and lifting. Use the whole back of your leg. Get the feeling that you can. Maybe have the knees slightly bent with the tone of your hamstrings and glutes.

Clear glide in your ankle. One more. Now drop both heels. Now slowly pull yourself in with the heels low and press out and do that one more time. There's a little bit of love for your calves and drop the heels and pull yourself in. Awesome, you guys. Now from there, I want you to change your spring set into two outside red, so take off one of the Springs and then we're going to come back down and put the straps on your feet. So now we have two outside red straps on your feet and you'll, you'll, you can describe the straps when you're ready.

You could have your head rest up if you want it now. Now when you're ready, just press your legs out to a low 45 in a little bit of a turnout there. You're going to find neutral again. Now as you inhale, go right into frog. Bend the knees in towards the armpits. Exhale the straighten and think of it as along with a hip leg action that it's a breathing exercise. Fill your lungs and then empty your lungs like an accordion.

Fill the rib cage expand. You're effecting your immune system, your diaphragm. You're getting everything to move inside now. Rhythm, fluid, bringing life to all the tissue to more. And one more. When your legs get to straight, this next time going to parallel and go right up into leg circles. Inhale up the middle. Exhale, open and down. And on the down, focus on keeping the back lower part of your ribcage, close to the mat. Nice and fluid. That's it. Fluid motion.

So opening up our legs, preparing for the next exercise, which will be hundreds, frog and then stomach massage. Just saying, here we go. One more that direction. That's that. And as you get to the top, reverse, go straight down the middle. Open up and together. Still keep the breath nice and low. So think of breathing into your width so you feel the shape of your width. You can fill up your body into your width.

Feel your width on the mat. One more. As you come back to center, bend your legs and slide your hands into the straps. Now if at home, if you needed to change the weight and make it lighter for this arm series, you could you get down to one red and a blue or one red or you can keep it on two red. You guys good with two reds? Awesome. So from there, just take a moment and imprint the back low ribs and set your shoulders on the mat. Widen low on the exhale. Just pull your arms straight down and go into a couple arm circles all the way through the circle. Stand into the strap. That's it.

Nice and fluid. One more in that direction. And now reverse. We'll do three the other way. Just feel you're connecting your arms to your torso, to your pelvis. One more. Now when you get to the bottom, hold that and just take your knees about shoulder width apart or armpit with apart, but heels together.

That's now just slowly let the arms come up to shoulder height. Now on the exhale you're going to roll up with your upper body as you press your legs out to a high 45 inhale, back down nice and fluid. As you stand into the arms, connected all the way down to your inner thighs. Two more nice and smooth. Beautiful. One more. That's it. Now, as you lower bend your elbows, preparing for coordination and bring your knees in parallel together as zip up your end seams. Turn on the muscles under your arms and help to prepare. Exhale, curl up. Slide arms and legs long. Inhale, quick, open, close. Exhale, bend the knees. Inhale, bend the arms. Let's do four more. If you needed to, you could put your head down each rep or keep it up for the whole set in that last elbow bend. Deepen your curl slightly. If you can. There you go. Two more and one more. Awesome. And then lengthen Dow. Put the straps on the poles.

You're going to help yourself up and we're going to put the bar on low bar, preparing for stomach massage. Now if you feel like you needed a sticky mat for your butt, that would be an option too. Otherwise you might slide, but we're going to go with that one cause these guys are pretty skilled. So we're going to go to reds in a blue and then have a seat facing the bar with your butt, maybe six to eight inches away from the edge and then puts your feet and turn out on the bar and hold the the the front of the frame that's a now round your spine especially right behind your belly button, the see and keep your head over your pelvis. Pull your elbows wide and turn on your shoulder blade muscles. On the inhale, pull your legs long on a long exhale. Lower the heels, lift the heels, bend in. Come in in hell out long. Exhale, lower lift and bend and feel like you're drawing the waistline away as you zip up your center line. Nice and smooth like that. Feel how you can keep that pulling back through your belly and inseams throughout the heel. Lowering, lifting. One more.

That's it. Now from there you can either bring your fingertips to the mat or to the blocks. Whatever feels appropriate for you because you don't want to lean back. You just want to try to sit tall, draw your shoulder blades back. Same exact movement. In this shape. Inhale out. Exhale, lower lift, grow tall to come in and again, that's it. Nice and fluid.

You feel how you can use your upper back and use your belly and inseams and add a little smile. There we go. That's it. Just saying yes to more. That's it. And one more. As you come in, lean down and take off your blue. We're going to go into the twist that start with your arms at shoulder level out in front of you and connect to them the way you did with the arm circles. Take a breath on the X. As you slide your legs long, rotate your torso to the right. Inhale the growths hall to come in.

XLF. That's it. Inhale. Then do three more East side at your own pace. Feel how you get the sense of zipping up your legs before your spine goes too far so you feel like you keep your pelvis square to the bar and the rotation is just rib cage up. That's it. Nice and smooth. One more you side. Beautiful. Last one. And as you come in, I'll take your heels wide on the bar and then take your hands onto the bar.

And as you drop your head, slide your sit bones back to lengthen your legs and just take a few breaths into the stretch and let your breath go wide and low into your rib cage and get that feeling that you can relax your neck, even relax your belly. One more big breath everybody. And then when you're ready to spend and come in and help yourself up, we're going to put the long box on for long box series and we'll, we'll put the foot bar down once you're ready, because we're going to do a pulling straps. What we're going to start with the backstroke. So for the backstroke, I recommend just one spring and you'll grab your straps and have a seat towards the front of the box with the straps into your hands. There we go. And then when you're ready, help yourself down onto your back and put your hands in the straps. Put your, put your hands on your knees. There you go.

There you go. There we are. Now right there. Just do an AB curl and wide and lower your scapula and look at your belly and get the feeling that you're, you feel the support from under your arms down to your inseams. Now on the inhale, arms and legs reach straight up to the ceiling on the XL circle, arms and legs, and arrive down at the hundreds position. Inhale, bend everything in. Exhale, hold. Inhale, reach straight up. Exhale, circle, arrive. Inhale, bend, exhale, and just two more straight up circle curl. Now go a little tighter in the curl right there. Bend the knees, bend the arms. One more. Inhale, reach, Xcel, circle arrive.

Hold then, and bring it all the way in. And rest. Nice work, short and sweet. Now we're going to help ourself up. You can just drop your straps and we're going to go down to either one blue or one red. Whatever you prefer for pulling straps. We're going to go down. We're actually on one. Ready? We're on two. Oh my God, that was strong.

Here we go. Here we are. This happens. So we're going to go. Let's go to one blue cause. I want to sh we're going to work a little on a different style of doing it. Sorry about that. Now, now you're going to, now you're going to come onto your belly facing the straps and take the straps outside the rails and reach your hand through the straps so you can hold the part of the rope that's right above the buckle, so you'll get a little more range out of the motion. Now in position, just get a sense of reaching back through your legs to open the front of your hips and just let yourself come down so you're just in a straight line that you're not extended at all and plug your arm bones into the joint. Now imagine your arms are these long, heavy poles on the X.

As you start to draw your belly wall in, pull the poles back by your sides and held back down and think of doing it without any back extensions. Just think you were like a rocket on the exhale. Pull straight back. That's it. And imagine as you pull that the energy goes out, the crown of your head, that your spine is actually getting longer from the pole. Now the next one, pull all the way back and keep them back. Now as you inhale, start to slide your heart forward to lift your head as you blades. Come in a little bit. Exhale all the way down to the start. Inhale to prepare. Exhale, glide the arms back.

Now let the inhale take you into extension. Exhale all the way down. Now take a breath while you're there, while you're at the and on the exhale, go into a full motion where you pull back and extend on the exhale. Inhale all the way down. One more time on the exhale. Inhale all the way down. Now go to the end of your exhale while you're down.

Now do the whole movement on the inhale. Pull an extend on the inhale, XLR. We down. Feel the difference. Feel how it affects your body. Go for good form all the way through. One more inhale, let it lengthen you into an open chest. Traction all the way down. Now slide your hands to the lightest part of the strap. The very end of it, we're going to go into the T press, but we'll get into it a little differently where you'll get into it the same way you did the last exercise. So just start by on the Xcel. Pull your arms all the way back to your sides.

As you pull them all the way back to your sides, rotate your palms to face the floor and pull your scapula tips a little more in towards your back. Now inhale, open out to a T. exhale, pull like you're going to reach deep into your back pockets. As you pull your arms back, inhale open to the T, maybe a little below the shoulders and then back. Focus on that backward motion more than the forward motion and energize out the crown of your head and also start to zip up your legs even more as you pull back like your spines, a tube of toothpaste and you're squeezing it right out the crown of your head to more Sensodyne. Here we go. And like then all the way down. Nice work you guys and arrest. Uh, and we'll put the straps on the poles when you're ready. Now just come up and we're going to switch to short box.

And for short box we'll, we'll go with three Springs. And um, yeah, when you have a seat, you'll put your feet under the straps. Little counter movement. The focus is a spine strength. Now in this position, have your um, have your, um, you're welcome. Have your been pretty close to the front edge and then press into the wood to straighten your leg so you can push the carriage away. That's an injust. Cross your arms in front. There you go.

Now just grow tall and as you grow tall can track the bottom of your so you get a little lift. And on the XF from the bottom of your pelvis, feel your sit bones narrow to curl back. I take a short inhale on the exhale. Curl over your belly button to go forward. And then inhale, grow tall. Feel the action from the bottom of your pelvis as you reach out of your legs. Short breath. Now curl up and over your center. Pass, neutral.

Inhale up tall. One more time. Feel that action low in the body. Short breath. Exhale and over and grow tall. Now take your arms out in front of you. Now just practice on the exhale. Go up, and as you go up, think of you're still, get that lift out of the bottom of your pelvis. You get taller. Inhale to lower on that Xcel. Fill that up.

There we go. One more. Exhale up and lower. Now do it on the inhale. Inhale up now on the exhale, activate into a flat back hinge, back. Inhale. Grow tall to come up as tall as you can. Exhale back. That's it. We'll go right back up again. There we go, and no worries.

Exhale back. Inhale, grow tall. Now keep your arms up and go right back again. Beautiful. Two more energy out your heels, out the crown of your head. One more and lengthen up, but the arms lower for a second. Now just practice. Just practice this a couple of times. Take your arms up and imagine from your rib cage up, you're going to turn, but your pelvis doesn't turn it all.

Just practice turning a few times and let it be relatively small, like you're turning around a tight center line and the pelvis doesn't rock from one sit bone to the other. It stays centered. Now you're going to do that and lean back just saying, so here we go. So, so in the middle. So inhale, lift, grow tall. Now Xcel spiral to your right and lean back. Inhale up and center. Exhale, turn left and lean back. Inhale up and center. Two more. Reach weights your own pace. Notice as you're turning, you can keep your arms plugged into the shoulder joint and the neck nice and long. That's it. One more each way. Really nice. Last one. Now lengthen all the way up. Beautiful. Now we're going to go into side mermaid.

So for side mermaid, why don't we all face in and you'll put the foot that's under the strap forward and then slide your butt a little back. Now just play with taking your leg that's under the strap and turn the toes towards the ceiling to feel how that allows you to drop your hip and then turn it back to parallel. Do that a few times. So what's going to happen is you're going to go from turned out to parallel when you go out to a side plank. Now from that turn, from that turned out position, reach your arms out. Now as you start to go out that you foot, go to Parallon. Just go into a side plank and hold and then come back and just feel like where you're generating the movement from is your pelvis. Just play with that. Feel like, Oh, the first movement is just the side plank and then come back. That's it.

Now in the next one, go into the side plank and hold it now from your rib cage up, turned down towards the floor, back to center from your rib cage up. Turn towards the ceiling back to center. Now bring the low arm across your midline and slowly side bend into the well. Come back to side. And as you come up and over, let that leg turn out and let the hip drop as you side bend and reach towards the foot bar. There you go. Nice and smooth like that. So then again from that starting position, go out to the side plank, feel it rotate down, back to side, rotate open, back to side, side, bend into the weld, reach across the midline with the low arm, back to side. Now up and over towards the foot bar.

Let that hip drop to give yourself more room. There you go. Just one more length and I'll feel that strong side plank spiraled down. Back to side. Spiral. Open, back to side, slow side bend into the well with strength and control. Back to side, up and over towards the foot bar. And take couple of breaths here just to decompress a little bit more before we do side to one more breath. And then when you're ready, lengthen up and we'll set up for side two. Nice work you guys.

Really nice and just remember at home that the key is play with the, with the initial movement before you go into the full flow, get that connection of the side plank cause that'll keep your lower back healthy. You'll get much more out of it. So feel how you're dropping that hip and just practice going from there to the side plank. As you let that leg go to parallel and then come back and again and you can even go a little further out here I think of like right there. There you go. Then come back. Nice and just take it nice and slow like that. On the next one, go out and hold now from your rib cage up, turned down back to center from your rib cage up. Turn open back to center. Now let the lower arm come across the midline as you side bend into the well back to center and now up and over towards the foot bar as you let the hip to ROP and the leg turnout. We're going to do that two more times.

Lengthen up to center. Shift out to the side plank. Spiral down, back to center. Spiral. Open, back to center. Slow side bend into the well, back to center, up and over towards the foot bar. Beautiful. That's it. And we'll do one more. Feel that strong side plank. Rotate down. Back to center. Rotate open back to center. Slow side bend into the well back to center, up and over towards the foot bar holds for a couple of breaths.

And when you're ready, just gently help yourself up. Great works. And now we're going to take the boxes off preparing for the long stretch series. So long stretch series will go on middle bar and I recommend um, anywhere from a red and a yellow to two reds. So I would say for you guys, probably a red and a yellow and um, the first position you'll be is you'll have your head rest up and your feet will be in the crease of the head rest with the balls of your feet on the crease. So they're going to come up to standing on the reformer and then step your feet into the crease and come into a strong plank. Now in the plank, zip up your inseams and widen and lower your shoulder blades on the XL from the bottom of your shoulder blades reached the bar away. Now on the inhale, pull yourself in, exhale away, and put a big value on your leg strength. Use your legs a lot. You're in seams. That's it.

Breathe into your width as you come in. That's it. Just one more you guys. I might've noticed it feels a little lighter. Now as you come in, we're going to go to the ups stress, but let's make it a little heavier. Let's go to a blue and a red so you can just step forward for a moment. Now change the weight to a red and a blue and then come up to stand on the on the, on the on the cart and put your heels halfway up against the shoulder blocks.

Now before you move the cart, feel like you're pulling the cart in and as you look back towards your legs, let yourself around your lumbar a little bit and widen the lower your shoulder blades. Still feel like you're pulling the cart in. Now start to press the legs out as you curl the tail down and arrive in a plank on a long XL. Come in all the way over the bar. That's it. Now still excelling. Drop your head and round back. Let the hips shift back over the ankles and again, inhale legs and spine. Exhale, draw yourself all the way in and around back.

That's it. Just two more. Feel the connection to your middle all the way through. Inhale, legs long, exhale, and you use your side body. Drop your head and round back up. One more. Inhale, legs long. Exhale all the way in. Round back up. Now from their floats, your knees down for the down stretch and for the down stretch. Start in a flat back knee stretch position with your hips, a little bit behind your knees, maybe about six inches behind and a straight spine. That's an imagine.

The major hinge here is your hip joint, so all you're going to do on the exhale is press your knees back to create a straight lines from your knees to your head. Now as you inhale, lift the top of the chest forward and up and pull yourself in. Now keep your gaze up, hold the shape and exhale. Push away. Inhale in and up. Now keep the tone from your inseams to your mid back. Imagine your spine is getting longer. As you come in. There you go. Two more nice and fluid.

Feel that nice strength of the back chain along with your belly wall. One more beautiful from there. Come to standing for single leg elephant on single LF and I recommend you have your feet about six inches in front of the shoulder blocks in your feet together. This will be a different variation and bend your legs and stick your butt out so you feel a deep hip crease. Bring your spine into neutral. Now feel like your shoulder blades are setting down your back. Now reached one leg straight back and press your heel through an imaginary wall.

That's enough. Feel like that back leg is straight and strong and the only thing that's gonna move as your standing leg. Now push your standing leg out about a foot and then pull it back in as you reach into that back leg. Feel like your shoulders are gliding down your back and just slide your heart a little bit forward so you feel that you're getting a little more work into your mid back. There you go. Beautiful. One more. And then slowly switch your legs. Nice work.

Feel that nice opening in your upper back and chest reach back. Press through that back heel. Now inhale, press out. Exhale, pull yourself in from your head to your back leg is like a strong line all the way through. There we go. Nice and strong. Two more and one more. Awesome. Now from there, just help yourself down. We're going to change it down to one red for chest expansion and for chest expansion, we'll kneel facing the shoulder blocks and you'll, you'll reach through the strap and hold right above the buckle. The way you did for pulling straps. Now put a big value on using your leg strength. So in this first part of it, get a sense of opening the front of your hips and toning the back of your hips and abdomen. Imagine your heads directly over your pelvis.

Now imagine the first bone to move when you pull back is your clavicles. So start to draw your clavicle straight back as you drag the arms back and then slowly return and really feel that if the shoulder blades come, if the collarbones come back first, your mid back gets turned on right away and there's much less tension in the neck. There you go on the next one, pull back and keep them back. Keep that connection. Just rotate your head to one side center. Second side, center and release. We're going to do that three more times. Pull back, strong fluid, neck turn center, turn center, and release in two more. And really feel that you've got that full action of your postural connection, your back, your legs, and your arms working together. Easeful neck. One more.

There we go. Awesome. Now we're going to add a little weight. I'm going to help you guys out here. I'm going to put on a blue, so at home, put on another blue spring because we're going to take it into thigh stretch. So for threat thigh stretch, you might be thinking, Oh my God, am I going to have to pull my arms? The answer is no. So, so what I want you to think of is leave your arms up there, take a breath, and imagine you're going to go into the shape you would do when you do the hundreds. So on the Xs, you nod your chin, pull your waistline back. Now lean from your knees, holding that in hell backup and really keep the front of your hips open as you need.

As you lean, you go, Oh there's my thighs. Cause you're not letting the lower back substitute at all. And you're saying yes Tom. I agree. Here you go. Two more. One more like that. Awesome. Now the next one only go back, uh, a third of the way.

Go back a third. Now hold what you're doing with your legs and open the top of your chest. Now just pull your left elbow back and turn to the left single arm row and back to center. And then pull on the second side. You're going to do two each side holding the position sail out of those thighs. And I'm my God. One more each side. And your back.

Last one. Back to center. Float yourself back up in the last set, you're going to do a wide roast in the wide row. Your elbows will go like this. The key thing when you're in the stretches, you won't let the ribs go with you. So same setup. You're going to, you can just lean back small. Now retract your shoulder blades and pull your elbows wide. That's it.

Do that for five. Fill your abdominal wall back of your legs, back chain, all working together. Good. Two more and one more. Back to center and float it back up high. That's a lot of love. Now put the straps on the poles. Now we're going to go right into glute strengthening. So for glute strengthening, we're going to go with you guys are going to go with three Springs, two reds and a yellow, and at home, if this feels too heavy, you can go down to two Springs, but it's a very strong position.

I'll show you just the setup really quick so you'll be like this. Your hands will be like kickstands. Your front foot will be up where your toes are in line with the beginning of the cart. And then you're gonna pull your hips back. It's your arms will just be straight. Now this leg is just the moving leg. You're going to fully extend it focusing on your hip extensors and I'll talk you through that.

Biggest muscle in your body needs a little bit of work. So first feel that your arms are just straight, and imagine that your standing leg is not going to bend at all and you could even walk yours a little further forward. Amy, there you go. Now let that back maybe off the cart and just sense that your arms are like kickstands and on the exhale, just press that leg straight. Standing leg. Standing leg will stay bent the whole time. Yeah, that's, that's it. Now press away. Okay. And then come in. That's it.

They give your standing leg is growing roots your arms or kickstands and feel the press from your glute. That's it. Now add the left arm out to the side like a tee off your body. There we go. Just three more and two and one. Awesome. They'll come in and go to side two. Great work. I'll agree. I look really good. So have your toes.

You might even slide your foot back just a little. There you go. Now just have your standing leg bent. Your pelvis is in neutral, pulled back in your knee. That's close to the carriage is in the air. Arms are like kickstands on the XL. Press long. There you go. Feel the power of your hip and the connection to the ground. That's it. Let's do four more.

There you go. Now add up that arm out to the side. Thank you Amy. There we go. And two more and one. Excellent. Nice work. That's what we want now. Now we're going to take the foot bar down cause we're going to go to standing and make sure you move your, uh, we're going to move the gear out of the, uh, to second gear so that the, this guy's out of the way.

And let's go with one red spring. Yeah, there you go. There we are. Perfect though. And why don't you come around to this side and I'm always step onto the dock before you step onto the boat. Here you go. And then now, now this one we're going to, it's going to be in a split to start, so I'd like you to shimmy your foot out to put it all the way against the shoulder block if possible. There you go. If you need any assistance that can help you guys out, and if that feels too far, go to where you feel like you can manage it.

That's fine right there. Now, right there. Now just feel neutral in your pelvis and as you reach into your legs, feel the four corners of your feet and bring your arms up into like wide. Show the blade rib cage arms. Now press out and focus on pulling yourself up and in, in hell on the out. Exhale up and then feel the connection to your feet all the way through. That's it. Just one more. One more and up and in.

Now walk that foot back in so it's right up to the front edge. That's a lot happening there. Now. Now put your hands on your hips and do a very small, very small squat where you tip four and on about a 45 now shift your weight towards the platform side. So you're going to keep your weight there. Now drive the other leg long that says, this is preparing for what's called speed skater. Now add on that reaching leg. Add that arm forward, the other arm back.

So you're adding a little bit of a torso rotation just like you're on the ice speed skating. Here we go. There we go. And ice and fluid. Feel the strength of your standing leg. So the moving leg can be fluid two more and one beautiful. Now as you come up to straight, stand up nice and tall and just push the cart out about a foot and hold it there. We're going to go into the saw. I mean your goal is to keep the card still reach your arms out at shoulder height. Now the XL flex in reach towards the cart side foot. There you go. Either way is fine cause you're gonna, you're gonna alternate.

Inhale, have tall XL flex and reach. Decide to and now feel that that sense of waistline pulling up, you're still connected to your legs and feet all the way through to more each side. So focus on flexing and rotating over. Just hinge. Let the back of the neck length and as you go down, that's it. That's it. One more read. Said, there you go. This is good work. There you go. That's it. One more. Last side.

Strength with mobility and connection. Lengthen all the way up now. Gently step off the back before we sweet. Get ready for side two. Good job. And then just consider when you, when you put your foot on the dock, when you're going to be shimming and your other foot outs to have your foot that's on the dock lined up with where your other one's going to arrive. Make it cute. You better on this side. There we go. Now just get that feeling of alignment. Action into both your feet.

Bring your arms up into ribcage, arms. Inhale, depress out. Exhale, zip up the center line. Imagine you're getting taller right up through your pelvis, out the crown of your head. There we go. Two more. There you go. That's it. One more beautiful, and as you come all the way in, shimmy that foot back into the edge. That's even part of the exercise. Now as you do a 45 degrees squat, shift away towards the platform and now extend the cart side leg. That's it.

Do a couple of those before we add the arms and when you're ready you can add the arm on the slide side is going forward. Other arm backs. You feel a little bit of a torso rotation towards the bending knee side. There you go. That's it. Now you're loading your hip and foot on the standing leg. You've got mobility, strength, and stability all in one, two more and one. Awesome. As you come up and in, press out about a foot, preparing for the saw. See if you can hold the cart, take the arms.

Then on the exhale, flex in, reach that the back of the neck. Lengthen. Inhale back to center. Press down to come up and do three each side. Feel your way through it. That's it. Nice and fluid. I feel the lift of your waistline as you fold. There you go after the one you're on. Do one more each side.

Feel the connection. Stay low in your body. One more each side and last one now really nice and lengthen up when you're ready. And then gently step off. We just have a few more. So now we're going to do split lunch. So we're split lines. Let's put the bar in middle bar. We can keep the gear right where it's at and let's just go with one red spring and you're going to step inside the machine.

You'll put your foot against the shoulder block. Push away, then puts your foot does on the floor up close to the Springs. Just come to a straight line like this where your front leg is straight, back leg is straight and your body's in a line from your head to your back leg fairly well. You'll push out then, then the front knee to come in and up like a circle. And I'll talk you through that. You're going to love it now, straight, straight, and both your legs, but let your torso tip a little forward so you don't feel like you're in a backbend. That's enough. Set your shoulders. Let the back hip slightly rotate open cause that's what happens when you walk and reach into your back leg. Now as you reach into both legs, push away into a comfortable range. Now keep reaching into your back leg.

As you start to bend your front knee, come all the way in, then come up and image you're taking your pelvis into this circle. The back leg stays active the way through. Your breathing stays nice and fluid all the way through to two more in that direction. That's it on the next one. When you come in, when you're almost all the way in with a bent leg stall for a moment. Now on the backside leg, take that arm up overhead and do a small side bend towards the front knee and breathe into that. There you go. Make sure it's comfortable, fluid, you're working, but there's no strain. One more big breath.

Lengthen all the way up and in and we'll switch. Is that a nice to have it square inside the machine like that? There you go. There you go. Perfect. First, start with both legs. Long torso. Tilt it a little forward. Let the back hip rotate slightly open and turn on the glute on that backside.

That's, and now as you push out, use both legs as you bend the front and you keep reaching into the back knee to come in and up. That's it. Nice and fluid. Move with your breath and let their range be. Only go back to the degree that you can. Keep your back glued active. If you feel like you're losing it on the back loot, make the range a little smaller because that'll keep you from straining your hip flexors and get inappropriate stretch. That's a two, two more. There you go. One more on the next one.

As you come in, about two thirds of the way, hold, keep the back leg active. Take the backside, arm overhead, do a small side bend and breathe into it. Breathe into the whole length of that long side. Keep reaching into the back leg. One more big breath and then lengthen up and in help yourself out of there. We're going to finish with mermaid, so for mermaid, why don't we have a seat facing in towards the middle end of Z seat, but you'll have your legs folded back. We still have on one red spring.

Now this foot position, our leg position was uncomfortable for anybody. You could fold your legs in front or put your feet flat on the floor. Now she can have her hand on the bar, both hands on the bar. Now just practice doing a pure side bend and then come right back up. Just two, three of those.

Challenge yourself to energetically keep the outside hip energetically heavy and then lengthen up. Now the next one, go into the side bend now spiral and reach under the weightbearing arm and do a twist for a couple of breaths and just breathe into that twist. Breathe into where you feel like your body could use a little more space. One more breath and then slowly back to side and all the way in and all the way up. And on the last version, you'll bring your free hand to the bar side bend. Bring your hand to the bar. Now open up the weight bearing arm a little wider.

As you bring this hand all the way to the bar, slide it open. Now lift your upper chest through your arms. As you press down on the bar, opening your upper chest. They'll pull your waistline away to go down. Do that three times in health. Forward and up. Exhale, pull away. Feel as you're coming up. Your shoulder blades are slightly coming back towards the spine. As you go down, they're widening and lowering. Now stay wide and low and then inhale.

Bend the elbows away from each other. Exhale, pull away from the bar. Just two more times. Feel that connection across your mid back into your waistline. One more. Slide your weightbearing arm back to the middle. Come back to the side bend. Lengthen all the way up. Take hold of the shoulder block and do a counter.

Stretch the other way and take a breath or two. Here we go. And lengthen up. When you're ready, we'll go right into side too. Nice work. There you go. And just start inside too again with just some pure side vans. Go for length and connection. Just take your time. Just do three pure side bends and feel. As you're going into it, your shoulder blades are going down your back and out towards the armpits, so both sides of the neck can stay long. Feel that sliding out.

There we go on the next one as you go into it, then at a spiral and reach under the weightbearing arm into a twist and breathe into that twist. Feel how you can open up your ribcage from the inside with your breathing. The neck is long and then slowly return back to the side and back all the way up the last version that you'll do, the side bend. Then bring the free hand to the bar, rotate down to the bar and then open up your weight bearing arm a little wider. Now lift your upper chest through your arms as you press down to come up into extension. Then flex down, pulling the waistline away nice and fluid. Two more times. Feel the blade slide back.

Then feel them widen and lower as you go down. One more to the body. Parts are moving in a fluid, connected, organized way. And then exhale down. Now stay low and inhale, bend the elbows wide. Exhale the straight and tell good and two more. And I'll feel the blades widen as the body pulls away. One more on this last one. Slide your hand back to the mid middle of the bar.

Go back to the sideband, lengthen all the way up and do a counter stretch to the other way for a few breaths. Taking hold of the shoulder block. Yeah, one more big breath. And then when you're ready, lengthen all the way up. Help yourself up to standing. Will finish standing as an integration with gravity. So in standing, lift all 10 toes off the floor and feel your key weight bearing points.

The ball behind your big toe ball behind your little toe and your heel. There you go. Now as you sense the hus, let the toes lengthen down. Close your eyes and just take a few breaths where as you breathe in and press into your foot points. So you can also lengthen and straighten, relax your jaw and acknowledge yourself for your hard work. Nice work. Everybody. Hope to see you again. I'm glad he's anytime.

Comments

Amazing! I’m so happy I was nice to myself and took the time for this class today. Thank you very much!
Great class! Loved all the variations.  Especially liked Mermaid on the box and the thigh stretch.  Loved the whole class!  Thank you:)
Z A
1 person likes this.
A gift🙏🙏
Mercedes L
Just finished it and I feel amazing. Thanks so much! 
Kate A
I loved the twists/stretches at the end. This class had a great flow, and was perfect for a full body workout!
1 person likes this.
Thanks for this wonderful class.  I love all of your classes!!
1 person likes this.
What a lovely Christmas gift that was! Really improved the connection from my feet to my core that i tend to struggle with. That video together with Madeline Black's Foot Workout (which i feel is nice to practice before in order to wake up the perception of the feet) will for sure be something i come back to often next year  
Awesome, thank you.. Watched couple of times!!
Thank you very much for that precious Xmas gift!!! I wish you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas and a very happy, healthy and joyful new year, dear Tom McCook. 🍾🥂
Michele M
Just what I needed too! Hope everyone’s holidays are filled with love, joy and cheer:) Thanks Tom! 
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