Class #4919

Back Body Reformer

35 min - Class
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Have fun playing with extension exercises in this advanced Reformer workout by Carrie Pages. She teaches accessible versions of these challenging movements so that you can build up to the full expression of the exercises. She includes variations of exercises like Snake, High Bridge, and much more.
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box

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Hi everyone. Today, we are gonna go through a back body workout, which means we're gonna be doing a lot of the extension work from the advanced content. And I'm gonna be teaching you some doable ways to get this work in your body so that maybe one day you can get to the full expression of the full exercise. Some of these advanced exercises are really, really tough, take care of your body. We are gonna start with footwork.

We're gonna start with a lighter spring than you're used to for footwork though. So we're gonna be using two yellows in a red or two mediums and a heavy for footwork today for Olivia. she's in Pilates V stance, and she's just gonna go ahead and do one rep, push up to the top and just pause there. So we're gonna actually take her into a bridging position now. So she's gonna lift up, prop up onto her shoulders, and then from here, the hips stay at this level and she rolls in with her exhale, and she's gonna inhale, take that carriage to the top.

Exhale, she comes in and inhale, take it to the top. Sometimes when we're going through our footwork, when our back is all the way down, the back just relaxes and really falls and melts into the mat. I like this as an option to start to wake up the back body so that it is ready for some of this extension work. Inhale up, exhale it in, you look great, inhale up, exhale it in. This is eight.

Exhale, use those glutes. Exhale in, last one is 10. We're gonna roll it in. She's gonna hold there, roll through the spine Olivia, get that nice articulation, bring the tailbone all the way down. And then bird feet, knees and toes come together.

Now wrapping the toes over the bar like a bird on a perch, you're pulling downward with the feet, same pattern. She'll slide back first, pressing into the arms, she'll prop up onto those shoulders a little bridge like shape and then she bends to come in, exhale. Inhale, takes it back. Exhale, then two, inhale it back, exhale three and good. So in this exercise, we're letting the back work.

Don't be afraid to let your back exercise, it's part of the body and it needs it. Take it up and in, up and in, two more, inhale, exhale in, last one. Come on in and hold. Just stay there, roll with control, enjoy that articulation. And then walk up to your heels.

So on the heels, you'll find a slightly higher bridge position. She'll slide to the top first. Then from there, she just digs those heels down and props up and she comes in and that's, I like how this one feels. So you've just got a little bit more of an elevated position because of where your feet are positioned on the bar. Good, and let that inhale take you out.

Exhale it and inhale out. Exhaling. This looks great, up and in. Three more Olivia, inhale, exhale in, up. And in, last time, take it up, bring it all the way in, we pause, roll through that spine, come all the way down, finding that neutral, make sure you locate that, then find your Pilates V stance again.

And we're gonna slide to the top. Now we're gonna do the heel lower lift here on the bridge position, this is tricky. So she presses into the hands, props up onto her shoulders. It's a petite range, heels go down maybe two inches and then rise right back up. Press two.

And it starts to feel a little swan-like here. And you're gonna be okay with that. If it's not a perfect neutral, that's gonna be okay, we've got a lot of extension coming. Let's go ahead and get that feeling in the body. As long as you're in a pain free range, you're fine.

Down and up, down and up, two more, down and up, last one, down and hold, stay there, articulate through your spine. Yeah, it's a small articulation, but it's there and you're hungry for it. And bend those knees, (chuckles) come all the way in. Nice job, Olivia. You can come on up to standing and we're gonna go through some long box work next.

So I'll get the box and we're gonna do just a quick swan on the box just to really get her extension warmed up. So lay on the tummy, we're gonna do hands on the corners of the box. She'll just bring your hands on, we're on one medium spring, push yourself back Olivia, let your arms straighten. Good, now I want you to feel free to let those legs be separated for this. She's gonna take those shoulders, slide 'em back and down and she floats her head and chest and just inhales up for that first full swan of the day.

With an exhale, take it down. That's all it's gonna be today, just two more like that, swan right back up, inhale, let the spring guide you in, nice lift of the gaze, exhale, lower yourself all the way down. And one more time, inhale takes you up, open through the shoulders and the chest, exhale all the way down. Now just bend those elbows, roll yourself in. Olivia, you can go ahead and lower your football on your own.

Now for the next series of exercises, we're gonna do a triceps extension, we're gonna do pulling straps and T. You may wanna play with your spring a little bit and lighten it up. So I'm gonna have Olivia go to one light spring. Feel free to keep that spring as heavy as you like it. Go ahead and lay on the stomach there, reach up for the straps.

And we're gonna do our tricep extension with the hands as high as you would hold them for pulling straps. So for me, that's as high as I can hold the straps while still keeping my hands on the outside of the frame, and Olivia's demonstrating that beautifully here. She's gonna give me some energy through these glutes and let those legs just lift to the level of her body. Olivia, from there, pull your elbows up into your sides to get ready for that first tricep extension. We're only doing three of these.

She stabilizes her shoulders as best she can, head's gonna stay elongated out from the shoulders, she extends the arms back, one, and then she bends, she extends, two, and then she bends and she's gonna do one more like that. Three, and she bends. Now, remember that exercise for later, go ahead and release down Olivia, getting ready for pulling straps. This is completely straight elbows. She slides her hands down along the wooden frame, inhale, she floats up and then exhale, she takes that down.

That's lovely. Again, keep the front ribs down, but don't be afraid to lift the back. Beautiful Olivia, take it down. Once again, keeping the palms facing into the body, try not to rotate the arms up, gorgeous. Exhale, take that down.

Now she slides her hands to the very ends of the straps. She's gonna take her arms up and reach them out to the side, getting ready for T. I'm actually gonna have her slide her hands all the way down to the ends of these clips. What that does is gives her a little bit more range so her arms can be straight and her fists all in alignment with her shoulders. Go ahead and go for your T.

Inhale, arms back, exhale. So really resist that temptation to hold high on the straps for this. Work that stability through the shoulders as you're moving your arm. One more time, three and then return. Now release all the way down Olivia.

Rewalk the hands up high. For a little sassy exercise here, we're gonna do a combination tricep extension pulling straps and T. So if you've never seen this before, here we go. She's gonna take those arms, pull her elbows back, go through a tricep extension into extension of her back like pulling straps. From there, she circles those arms out, flips the palms downward and then returns all the way to start.

Beautiful job Olivia, again, pull through a tricep extension, lift the head and chest, open the shoulders, circle those arms out, around. And she releases that all the way down. One more time. Inhale, pull it through, it's a nice range of motion. Lift up with those arms, around and release it down.

Hook your handles on the poles Olivia, that was beautiful. And Olivia, you can go ahead and stand up and we're gonna move on to rocking next. So for rocking, I'm gonna teach you a great, well, a way to get your feet into the straps and be able to flip onto your stomach. There's no perfect way to do this. The spring is actually gonna get a little bit heavier for this.

We're gonna make it a medium spring. If it's not already a medium spring for you at home, make that adjustment. You're gonna put your feet in your short straps. So if you need to thread the foot strap through the handles, go ahead and do that. Now Olivia, I'm gonna ask you to sit on the box with your feet right here on the headrest.

So if you don't have a teacher with you, this is how you're gonna do it. You're gonna cross your straps and put your feet in those straps. Whichever strap is on top, you turn towards that strap, lay on your stomach and then keep try to keep the straps on your feet. So that's the tricky thing, you've gotta figure out which strap is on top, turn towards it, she nailed it. (chuckles) She nailed it.

That is a lot easier, she made that look very easy. It takes some practice and I'm even gonna be a good friend and just get 'em on our feet real good. So for the rocking exercise, I wanna first start with a great prep for this exercise. Simply cross those arms in front of you Olivia, you're gonna do a Pilates V stance with your feet and in this position, all I want you to do is do your best to find neutral with your pelvis. A slight pressure of the pubic bone down with a little lift of the tummy.

First thing, before you even bend your knees, I just want you to lighten your thighs on the box so that you don't feel the edge of the box on the thighs quite as heavy and then release down, and then you'll feel that pressure on the corners of the box. Press the thighs up again, you just wanna get the thigh bone raised up and then lower those thigh bones down. On your third one, we're gonna raise the thighs and we're gonna hold. Now from there, girl, you're gonna bend those knees and try to pull your heels towards your seat and then extend those legs away, keeping the thighs lightly placed. Here we go again, we're gonna pull, now this exercise is gonna get real exciting in a moment.

This is a great way to build the strength needed for the full expression of the exercise. She's gonna pull again, three. Now bringing those heels as close to her as possible, she's now gonna take her hands and reach back and try to reach back to grab those ankles or feet. One arm followed by the other. Now she's gonna try to prop up into a little extension, gaze goes up, squeeze that hiney, hamstrings are strong, now release down out of it Olivia, let the head drop a little.

We do this again. She's gonna lift up, she's gonna really push up those shins into her hands, pull her hands on her shins and then take that down. You got higher that time, that was really good. All right, now here on this third one, we're gonna implement the actual rocking, so she's gonna press up and when she's ready for it, she pushes her feet even higher and just rocks a little forward and then rocks a little up, rocks a little forward, rocks a little up, rocks a little forward. One more time.

Yes, girl, and good, release that down and relax. I'm gonna take these straps off her feet. You could simply straighten your legs and drop them down at home, right into swimming. Extend your arms out in front of you. Gorgeous, give me that activation through the seat you just had.

A little lift of your chin Olivia, just barely. Now swim, inhale, one, two, three, four, five, exhale, two, three, four, four, five. Inhale two, three, four, five, exhale, two, three, four, five, you pause. See how much extension you can get now, lift and lift and lift and lift and lift up and release it down. Whoo. (chuckles)

She really lifted up on that last lift, didn't she? That was beautifully done. Send your feet to the floor Olivia, bring your hands to the box and get a nice counter stretch there. That was lovely. Good.

All right, we're gonna take the box away. We're gonna change our springs to two medium springs. The exercise is semi-circle. So the foot bar comes all the way up for this as well. And then she's just gonna lay on her back.

And the best way in my opinion to get into this exercise is to just let the backs of the knees hang on the foot bar. Then she puts her hands up and she's gonna wiggle her little hiney down into the springs. That's it, and she pushes the carriage up over her head. So there's a few different ways to do this exercise, you can do it lots of different ways. Today, what we're gonna do is pretend that there is a little block back there.

So sometimes you put a block in, so the carriage stops about two thirds of the way back. But today, Olivia's gonna use her imagination, she's gonna pretend there's a block there and she's only gonna extend her legs two-thirds of the way, not all the way straight. Walk your feet up onto the foot bar, Pilates V stance with those feet. You're gonna find a nice high bridge there. Olivia lift up, up, up, up, up, up, up.

When her hips are in their highest bridge, she's trying to get as close to the foot bar with the carriage as possible. With a really strong energy through the arm, she's gonna breathe in. As she breathes out, she rolls her spine down to the springs. Now we're really gonna let that tailbone drop down, she's in extension here almost like a swan like shape, the bottom's on the springs, she drags the bottoms on the springs as she rolls back two thirds of the way, pause there. Notice her butt is still down.

Now from there, she does a pelvic tilt, pulls her belly to her back, tucks her tail. And this is just a major articulation through that spine to come up. She stayed back there, that was amazing. And she rolls in, in, in. So here we roll down again, articulate through that spine.

The hips go down, as if they could go right between the two springs. She stays on those springs as she rolls back, legs are strong, arms are strong. Now that carriage does not move as she pulls her belly to her back, tucks her tail and rolls up to the top and rolls all the way in. And we go again, exhale, roll that down. Beautiful.

Finds the springs, that's important. Stay on those springs. You should feel 'em on your hips as you go back. Good Olivia. Stabilize your carriage, tuck your tail and roll up.

Gorgeous and then roll in. This exercise has a reverse, we roll back. You go two thirds of the way and pause. That carriage doesn't move. You roll your, this is the hard one, you roll the spine without that carriage wiggling at all.

Find the springs with the tail, stay on the springs as you roll. Stay low, stay low, stay low, stay low, tuck and curl to come up. Want you to really focus on that on this second repetition. So the carriage goes back, inhale. The hips come down, exhale.

Now she finds that spring with her hips and she stays on those springs. Then pull the tummy, tuck the tail, curl to come up. Good, you all right? Oh, you got a spring stuck to you. Thank you. You're welcome.

And then I'll get her organized here and now she'll go one more time. Inhale, takes it back, good. Exhale, she was really on those springs if her t-shirt got stuck on it, that was great. Roll in. Good.

And then pull the tummy, tuck the tail, curl to come right up. You have an option here for a deep stretch, reaching one hand towards one ankle, other hand to the other ankle. Option to stretch here deeply through those quads. And then she just wiggles back a little bit, bringing the shoulders against those shoulder rests and release. You can hug your knees into your chest.

So really taking your time on that exercise is so important. Making sure you're getting through all of those ranges of motion of the spine. That was really nicely done. The next exercise we'll go through is the snake. And we're gonna do a progression for snake using the long box.

Olivia, you can change that spring to your medium spring, your yellow spring, and the box is going to come onto the side of the reformer right here. Olivia go ahead and walk around. And for this progression, what we're gonna do is use, lace the hands on this side of the reformer and she's gonna stand with her feet basically about right in line with the foot bar. So rather than standing on the foot bar today, we're gonna do this more doable, but feels just like snake exercise. The foot position gets a little fancy.

So she's just gonna take her right foot and cross it in front of her left, and then she's gonna tippy toe both of those feet. Bring the hands down, one hand then the other, yeah, now tippy toe the feet. (chuckles) That was asking a lot balance wise. Put the hands down, then tippy toe the feet. So the tippy toeing of the feet makes a difference when you go into the extension portion.

For the first part though, Olivia, just roll your carriage out about two thirds of the way. Yeah. And then all I want you to do is exhale, recruit from that core and roll yourself in. So for the snake, we're just doing this pike part of it first, she's gonna do that two more times. Inhale, she takes it out.

She could maybe go further, and then she exhales to come in, Go again like that, inhale, roll it out. And exhale, roll it in. Now option for full expression of snake, she's gonna roll it out about as far as she did and then stabilize her carriage as she snakes through, going into an extension there, shoulders open, gaze goes up and out. Then she draws her chin in and pulls up with those same muscles like that pike sensation to the top. That was lovely.

Do it again. Inhale, take it out. We can exhale and snake it through. You wrap your thighs, use your legs there. Gorgeous, chin pulls in, inhale, exhale, you lift up, up, up.

We go again, inhale, start to roll it out, exhale, wrapping through those thighs. You extend up. Chin pulls in and you curl to come all the way. Let it click. Yes.

(chuckles) And then you're gonna come on out of that Olivia, you can step down to the floor. Nice articulation, up. And we'll take the box around to the other side, and do the other side. So again, that's a really nice progression. Sometimes that extension, you'll feel like your body's got it one day and doesn't the other days.

I just really like that little pike half version that we did first. So here we go, let's do the side. Yeah, go ahead, cross the feet, bring the hands down and then you can find that tippy toe position of the feet. With an inhale, roll the carriage out. Gorgeous, then with your exhale, pull it underneath you.

Really send that carriage back, connect those arms to your core, take it out, inhale two. Exhale, pulls it in, in, in, in. Again, inhale, take it out, three. Exhale brings it in, in, in, going in through to the extension now. We inhale, start to roll it out.

With an exhale, she snakes through, open through the chest and shoulders. Draw the chin into the chest and curl yourself up, up, up. Again, start to take it out. Lengthen out and wrap through the thighs, let the legs assist you. Chin pulls in and we curl to come up.

One more time. Inhale, start to go out, exhale, take it through. Gorgeous. Chin pulls in Olivia, nice. Bring it all the way up.

I'll stabilize that carriage for you as you bring yourself all the way up. All right. So we're gonna move on now to a variation on back bend. So I'm gonna put the box away. And we are going to take all the springs off and we're actually gonna roll the carriage basically out of the way.

So this is a very unique way to prep the exercise back bend. Olivia's gonna come down onto her knees. And in this position, she'll just take her arms up to the ceiling above her. In this position, the first thing I want her to practice is, can she move her arms back behind her head a little bit without extending her spine at all, then return the hands to where they were? Just do that twice more Olivia, press those arms back a little.

Good. In a back bend, that's so much of the flexibility that's needed so we're programming that first. And go ahead and float 'em forward. Now we're gonna move those arms back. From there, she's gonna do a small spinal extension.

From there, she's gonna reach her right hand back. Her palm is flipped up to the ceiling above her. Now from there, she's just gonna hold. See if she can get a little more extension. Gorgeous.

Then she's gonna come back to that little bit of rotation, use those strong glutes. Olivia, send yourself back up to start. Beautiful. Here we go again, start with the arms, a little lift of the heart in the chest. Now rotate. Good.

Now the palm is flipped to the ceiling. That's necessary for the progression of the exercise later. She reaches that arm, figures out how much extension she can get there, turns it back. Squeezes that seat, sends herself right back up again. Gonna do that one more time.

Flowing it a little more. So ready, arms start it, take it back, do the rotation. Then see, could you possibly find that bar with the other hand? Undo that and then bring yourself up. You see where this is going?

She's gonna do it again. Whoops, that's okay, take it back first and then do your rotation. Find it. Maybe it happens on this side. Can you find that bar?

Then come back and bring yourself up. Lay over your carriage, get a counter stretch. So that's two progressions, we're gonna get one more in here, which would be where we go back, hold the bar, bend and straighten the arms three times. And it's a big, big challenge. So arms reach up.

Beautiful. Arms go back. Start to lift that heart and head, and then rotate. Bringing the hand there. Good.

Now bring the other hand there. She gets a hold of the bar, palms are to the ceiling, she pushes straight, she bends, one, pushes straight, she bends, two, pushes straight, unrotate. Yes, use your booty, bring yourself up. Why don't you round over, take a moment. Beautiful.

Okay, so she's gotta do it one more time to do it to the other side, the arms go up. She lifts that heart and head. Gorgeous. She twists. Maybe she finds the bar and if she can find it, maybe she adds bend and straighten, bend and straighten, bend and straighten, undo that rotation, bring yourself up and lay over your carriage and relax.

So you can see there's a lot of little building steps to being able to do that full expression of the exercise, which she did so beautifully. But she's been working on it, and really we've been taking a class through these progressions and you do get stronger, so play with it at home. All right, moving on, we're gonna do the control pushup next. So for control pushup, we are on one medium spring. She's gonna stand on her carriage facing the shoulder blocks, hands will come down to the shoulder blocks.

And I'm just gonna stabilize her here for a second. We're gonna break this up into a few different moments. So just listen for the cues. Breathe in to prepare. Chin to chest, curl down, exhaling, hands onto the shoulder blocks.

Now Olivia, walk your feet up to the foot bar, find Pilates V stance with your feet on that foot bar. Basically in this position, we're just in a nice pike. She's gonna think, close that carriage as tight to the stopper as she can to really find her core. Now she's ready to move. I'm getting out of your way, babe, you're gonna roll that carriage out and find a plank.

Good. So from here, she can just drop her head and pike right back up again. This could be progression one, we take it out again Olivia. Tuck your chin, bring it up again. She's gonna take it out on a third time and we're gonna hold here.

She's gonna maintain the plank, chin down just a little baby, good. Now take that carriage and push it away from you a few inches. Let's bring it under you. Inhale, she just presses it out. Exhale, she brings it under.

Inhale, she presses it out. Exhale, she brings it under. I want you to draw your chin in, pike yourself up. Step your feet down for just a moment to take a quick rest and I'll stabilize your carriage. Just hold right there.

Okay. Walk the feet back up again. From here, she's gonna roll it out, find that plank position again. Now all she's gonna do is stay stable everywhere, except for now, she's lifting one leg up. Use that glute max from earlier, put that foot down.

Other leg comes up. She puts it right back down. Again, lift it up, bring it down, and again, lift it up, bring it down. Chin to chest, pike yourself up. Step your feet down, take a quick rest again, just a little moment there.

Gorgeous. Guess what? We put it all together. So now as the carriage goes out, a leg goes up and then she returns to the start position. So the feet walk up.

Beautiful. I'm getting out of your way, you find that plank. Send the shoulders down, energy out through the top of the head Olivia. Breath in to prepare, let's exhale, lift one leg, push the carriage out, inhale meat in the middle. Again, switch, good.

Inhale meet in the middle, again, exhale. Inhale meet in the middle, again, exhale, meet in the middle, hold, chin in, pike it up, and you step down, take a rest. You get to totally rest. Yeah, so gorgeous roll up would be nice, good. All right.

So now we're gonna turn around to do control push up front. So turn around, have a seat for me. And she's just gonna put her feet up on the foot bar for this one. So you wanna put your arches on the bar and then this one gets a little bit tricky depending on your body proportions, where you need to sit to be able to get into the exercise. Olivia, what I'm gonna ask you to do is put your hands on your shoulder blocks and start to kinda wiggle so your bottom comes forward a little exactly.

And then that way, you might be in a better position to get started. Go ahead and stretch the legs out straight. Okay, now here's the trick. What we're gonna try to do is send energy down through those hands and she's eventually gonna prop up. Now, if the carriage is too far behind you, you can float it in, this looks great.

Go ahead and sit right back down. Good. Okay. So we're gonna do that one more time and then we're gonna go right into the lifting of the leg. So press yourself up and you're gonna hold there.

Keep the carriage steady, lift one leg up, put it down. You wanna watch that the leg on the bar is not locked. Careful not to lock back in that knee, switch. End down one more with the right leg. Sit down, take a quick rest.

Good. Sometimes I think the rests are like, yeah, just. (laughing) Yeah, you get tired even in the start position. All right, so now when we go up, we're just gonna press the carriage back a little, bring it under and then we'll put it all together. So yeah, just kind of stretch your leg straight.

There you go. Prop yourself up. Good, from there, she's gonna try to roll the carriage back a little and bring it under. Push it, two, bring it in a little. Push it, three, bring it in, let's sit down, take a moment.

Good. Okay, now as promised, we put it all together. Two sets of it, press yourself up. Good. And we go one leg lifts as you press back.

That's so lovely. And she's built up that coordination so nicely. One more set, press it. And then last one, press and gorgeous, hips come down Olivia, rest, nicely done. Why don't you reach forward, hold the bar with the hands, round your spine, just stretch, you'll probably slide a little bit, but that's okay.

Very nicely done. Go ahead and roll in. All right. Now the next exercise takes a little bit of an adjustment of your hair. If you're like me or Olivia, and you've got a bun on the top of your head, 'cause you're actually gonna be doing another bridging exercise where you're gonna stand on the top of your head for a second.

So Olivia's gonna pull her hair out of that bun and I'm gonna bring her box on. We're gonna stay on just the yellow spring here. And yeah, she's just gonna bring her hair down low. So she's just putting it in a low pony. So it's out of the way.

You're gonna lay on your back and just bring your feet up onto that foot bar. And yep, scoot forward, and you're gonna roll all the way back onto your spine and kind of bring yourself to where the top of your head is resting on that headrest. Then the hands come up and back and onto the frame. Just like that. So the elbows are pretty bent here.

All right, 'cause you're gonna be standing on your hands here. In this position, the first thing we're gonna do is just think of lightening your head on the headrest. Yeah, so you don't wanna be resting a ton of weight. Let it feel light and get the lightness by strengthening through your arms. Now Olivia stay like you are, but pick your hips up high like you're in a bridge.

There is a little weight on the head, not a lot. And then she just comes right back down. Good, how do you feel there? Good. You're good?

All right, so, I mean the arms are gonna get tired y'all. Here we go. Lift those hips up again. Good. Now really squeeze glute max.

Think to yourself, could I push my arms straight if I had to? And go, push those arms straight. Gosh. (chuckles) You got me, ready? Push straight.

There you go. She's gonna see if she can stretch her legs a little straight. Then she's gonna bend her knees. Slowly lower her head gently onto that headrest and roll all the way down. Now draw your chin into your chest, curl yourself through a second and give yourself a little stretch there.

Good. She's gonna take a moment here and we're gonna practice that one more time. Yeah, because she's got the strength for it to push into those arms, it's just your brain sometimes tells you that you don't, but here we go, roll on back. Good. There you go.

Sometimes creeping the hands a little closer to your shoulders is helpful, but I say that knowing that that's also hard place to move. So I just find the closer I get my hands to the box, the better off I am in the long run. All right, here we go, squeeze that seat, lift those hips up. Good. Lightening in the head, lightening in the head and then push those arms straight.

Yes, she did it without me. Hold there Olivia with those nice stretched legs, bend the knees, lower yourself with control, gorgeous and roll through, draw the chin into the chest and curl yourself right back up again. Why don't you hold that bar, roll back and stretch there. Good. Probably sliding a little bit, but that's okay.

Good girl. So that was high bridge. You can just work through those different progressions there and maybe one day you'll get there. I will say that I love a good friend in the studio to come and give me a little prop on that first one to build up my confidence, but you can get there. Let's roll in, let's do running next, Olivia.

Wow. (chuckles) All right, so I'm gonna take the box away. We're gonna go back to the same springs that we had four footwork. So two mediums and a heavy two reds and a yellow, or two yellows and a red. And I hate to burst your bubble here, but it's not gonna be simple running, this is gonna be running in that bridging position.

So this is a nice way to finish out this mean workout. We're gonna stretch those legs straight, push to the top. All right, take a moment there, pressing into your hands, you prop up onto your shoulders. This is almost awkwardly small. She lowers one heel as she lifts to the other.

Very good Olivia. She's got a good range of motion there. Sometimes you just feel like you can only move it one inch or so. Yes, this looks great. So we breathe in and we're just still building that strength in the back body down through the low back, that mid back, glutes and hamstrings.

Breathing in and out, breathing in and out. (exhales sharply) Three more sets. Good, just, yes, letting that breath just calm you from all of that challenge that you've done today. Inhale, go ahead and pick both heels up. Let's keep the hips high, roll in.

And then from there, roll down through that spine. Beautiful. That is gonna cook you for today for your back body workout. I know some of that was really tough, I believe in you though. Keep working on those progressions to build up to the full expression of the exercise.

Thanks so much for working out with us today and I'll see you next time.

Reformer Workouts: Breakthrough to Advanced Reformer

Comments

1 person likes this.
Thank you Carrie and Olivia! That felt terrific and especially loved the box assist for the snake! Not sure if my body will ever do a full back bend but it was fun trying. Will come back to this workout many times!
1 person likes this.
This class is so cool! Love these progressions and into the backend, thanks Carrie!
Becky C
Fabulous workout and cueing!  Love these fun progressions!  This one is going into the favourites folder for sure! 
Susie T
Million love

Thank you for this class. Love how you explain the exercices. Is it possible that there is a different size in balanced body boxes? I felt soooo far from the headrest and the frame. I added a yoga block under my head and tried it like that. Feels good on the back. I can fell I have work to do for my lower back! 
Diane Duvall
Love this!  Especially the progression of doing Snake standing on the Box.  Have never seen that before and will be teaching it this way as a progression from now on.  Also Footwork and Running in a bridge is amazing.  Thank you so much!

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