Class #5116

Strength and Agility

40 min - Class
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Description

In this class, Jamie Isaac focuses on athletic qualities, such as being agile, powerful, and explosive in order to adapt and respond to your athletic environment. Jamie plays with reps, rhythms, and tempos of Traditional exercises across multi-planar movements to develop the resilience of your muscular and connective tissues, improve our coordination, and prevent injury. The winning athlete is the one who can react explosively and move efficiently in all directions!

This class can also be done on a Tower Unit.
What You'll Need: Cadillac

About This Video

Oct 11, 2022
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Transcript

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So the type of strength that we train is gonna depend greatly on the activity that you're training for. So in this workout we're explore a variety of strength training movements across the Cadillac that are gonna bring that power into your movement, not just for the sport that you're training for, but hopefully to translate into your everyday life as well. So let's begin with the push-through bar and top load this one, and we'll start on our backs. Now it's really important on this that we get the feet to connect with the bar as fully as possible. So hopefully you've done your foot exercises before and had a little warm up, but let's see if we can get our feet so that the balls of the feet are connecting with the whole of the foot bar.

And then just reach in our position, just press your heels together, scoop the abs, and we'll start with a little bit of footwork. So just bend the knees and then press the legs away. And we repeat, just reaching out, looking to get that bar as far away from us as possible. Reach it away, drawing the abs in and up. And I'm also pressing my shoulders and my palms down into the mat.

Let's do two more. (Jamie inhales) (Jamie exhales) And now with our legs out, we transition to our arches. Okay, let's do the same. Press the bar away, reach, keep the thighs, feet together as much as you can. So that also draws us into the center line as well, we stay nicely connected. (Jamie inhales) (Jamie exhales) (Jamie inhales) (Jamie exhales) And you'll feel this is very different to doing our footwork on the reformer. There's less resistance and because of that, there's also less support.

So you have to work really strong with your powerhouse, shoulders included. Last one. And now for heels, I'm gonna recommend that we bring our hands behind the back of our head and curl up here 'cause this is pretty intense. We really are just hanging out there. And let's just bend and straighten the legs, press away.

And press, you're gonna feel very much like there's no support here at all. You are creating all of the power, all of the support. Reach the legs away. (Jamie inhales) (Jamie exhales) Let's do five more. (Jamie inhales) (Jamie exhales) (Jamie inhales) (Jamie exhales) Two more. (Jamie exhales) Last one, bring it in, and now bring the feet on for tendon stretch and just push the bar up this time. So press your palms back down, just bring the bar towards you, and then point it away. And again, draw it towards you.

Press it away, keeping the legs long. And try once again, see if you can keep all of the balls of the feet on the actual bar, in contact with the bar for the whole time. (Jamie inhales) And it's easier said than done. (Jamie exhales) Let's do two more. (Jamie exhales) Last one. (Jamie inhales) (Jamie exhales) And then bring the bar back down again. Reach the bar away from us, stretch it away. Let's do a little bit from the ab series here.

Single leg stretch, bring one knee in, and your nose up to your knee. Now I'm hugging the leg in, stretching my other leg away, looking for that opposition. I'm gonna change all the way out here. Can I keep the bar quiet? Can I prevent the bar from coming back towards me by really reaching in opposition?

Once again, aim in as well to keep the balls of the feet pressing down into the bar. (Jamie exhales) So we're getting all this ab work and at the same time, really working the opposition through the body. (Jamie exhales) Last one on each side. (Jamie inhales) (Jamie exhales) And then into double leg stretch. Bring the knees in, reach the arms away, stretch. Reach, reach, reach.

Sweep the arms around, bring the legs in. Reach in again. Sweep the arms and bring the legs back in. Really stretch it out so we're connected here and reach in both directions. Two more. (Jamie inhales) Inhaling here, exhaling to bring it back, last one.

And bring it all the way in. Let's return the bar up, and roll up to sit. I'm just gonna unclip my push-through bar and let that sit here so that I can spin around and use the rollback bar. Placing my feet up on the uprights. Sit as tall as you can. (Jamie inhales) Good grip on the bar, scoop your abs and let's just start with some rollbacks.

We're just rolling back, and exhale to come back up. (Jamie exhales) Sitting tall at the top, see if we can press our heels into the uprights and keep that connection. It may not stay that way, they may not stay connected, but we're trying to keep them connected. Now this time we're back. We're gonna pull the bar to the chest three times. (Jamie inhales) And on the third one, let's hold, straighten the arms, scoop the abs, and rolling all the way up, stacking tall at the top.

Let's repeat that again, abs deep. Lowering back, pull into the chest. Two more, holding on the third one, hold it. That's it, feel length through your body. Straighten the arms, take an inhale, exhale, roll back up again.

(Jamie exhales) Sitting tall, one more rolling back, just roll it back. Coming straight back up again. And sit nice and tall. Now imagine we've got fish down by our ankle and we're gonna spear for that fish. So reach forward, let's roll down the side of the body.

Come all the way around up the other side to spear a fish on the other side. Come back through the center. Let's repeat in the opposite direction, reach, scoop, lower down through the side body and up through the side body. Now you'll notice I'm keeping my arms straight. If you bend your arms, it means you're muscling through the work.

So let the torso, let the obliques and the abs do the work, not the arms. One more in this direction now. Roll it back all the way back. Coming all the way up, sitting tall again. Now let's go for a little flat back.

So I want you to reach the bar up. Keep reaching, keep reaching. Press through the seat, pressing through the heels. Can you hinge back? How far can you go back taking the bar with you?

This is tough work. So it doesn't have to be a large range of movement. I just want lift here, don't leave the bar behind. We'll do one more, up and back, and reach. Now let's bring a counter movement to that spine stretch forward.

Scooping the naval back in and up, let's reach the bar forward towards the uprights, hold. Press down, touch the ankles three times. (Jamie inhales) (Jamie exhales) (Jamie inhales) (Jamie exhales) And then stack the spine up like building blocks, and again, up and over reach. Touching the ankles or working towards the ankles. It's gonna depend on what springs you're working with here. This time let's hold as close to the ankles as possible.

Keep it there, and use the abs to stack the spine back up tall, then bringing the bar up. You will feel that in the core, you really will. It's gonna be an intense sensation if we get this right. So let's do it again, reaching forward, reach for the ankles and then stack the spine up. Then bring the bar up.

So let's build on that, let's combine the two. Let's start with reaching up overhead for flat back. Let's reach it back, now pull the bar in. Come all the way down. Can you keep the bar on the thighs?

As you round forward, stack the spine up. And again, let's lift up, pull it in, reach it up and over with the body, rolling up to sit tall. And again, lift it, pull it in, rolling up, press the bar down. And once we've done it that way, we're gonna do it the other way. So reaching forward, draw the bar in.

Now lift, lift, lift, let the bar and springs bring you back, round and forward. Scooping as we lower ourselves back, pull it in. Lift, stretch it up, last time, like we're turning a big wheel up and over. Pull the bar in, you can use the arms now. Use everything you got, all the way up.

And we're sitting tall, nicely done. All right, so from here we're gonna move on to the leg springs and see if we can get some of that same connection moving from the lower limbs. Okay, so over onto my back. And place your feet into the loops. Now, I wanna show full intention with this exercise.

So I'm gonna grip my upright, so you can have your hands flat. There's different ways we can place the hands for a different connection. But for this instance, I want that full body integration. So grip your tower with your hands and we'll start with just frogs. So hold the body strong, reach the legs out, bring the legs back.

So we're reaching in opposition and connecting through the arms. Draw your elbows in towards one another. The springs are gonna want to bully you back. So you've gotta be the boss. You've gotta show them who's boss.

So just resist as you bring the legs back. One more time, let's reach out for leg circles, bring them up. Bring them out around and together, working through biggest range of movement we've got. (Jamie exhales) (Jamie inhales) (Jamie exhales) Still pressing out with the arms. (Jamie inhales) And let's reverse the circles. Press down, out, around and together, going as big as you dare while staying connected.

So as we talked about, we're looking to increase the strength, increase the efficiency of our body and our movements. And to do so, we gotta be connected. So we're working from a stable base. One more time. (Jamie inhales) Bring the legs out. Now I'm gonna bend the knees in for a moment.

Just take a beat, reconnect, and then straighten them up to the ceiling. Lowering your right leg down, I want you to press it into the mat and bring it just to the edge of the mat, turned out. That's like our standing leg. Let's push through that. But also you'll notice I'm pushing through the arms as well.

So I've got this whole connection through the entire body. Leg circles across, down, around and center. And again, let's repeat, (Jamie exhales) doing three in each direction. Let's reverse it, this is challenging. We've gotta disassociate that stabilizing of the pelvis and the rest of the body with the movement of the leg.

Let's change legs, press the left one down. Staying connected through the arms. Cross down, around, and up. Deep abs, here we go, one more. (Jamie exhales) And reverse.

(Jamie exhales) Two more. Last one. And then bring both legs up to the ceiling, very nice. Now bend your knees, place your toes on the mat. I want you to push your legs strong.

So we're gonna use the springs to give us that feedback to really find that opposition and that full body integration. So still holding the uprights, hugging the elbows in really strong, let's reach the legs out long on the mat. And now push as hard as you can. Now you can hold here and just resist the springs. That's more than enough.

But if not, you want to turn the heat up and come with me, I invite you just to bring the legs up a little ways. Now press the seat up and away and see if we can hover our legs out, hold. Hold, and lower back down. Let's do that one more time. Bring the legs up, working everything in the entire body.

Here we go, press, press, press, and lower with control. Bend the knees in, and let's take our feet out of the leg springs. I'm still gonna utilize these springs though, so I'm turning over and seeing if I can keep that connection when I'm working in extension. So turn up and over. Head down, and just reach up, and we're gonna grab hold of the straps.

Just hold and choke onto the straps here. Forehead down, pull in straps. So working from the back of the body, pull the arms, lift the head, the chest, and the shoulders. And then return, reaching the arms down the side of the table. Let's do two more.

Draw on them back, lift up, find that length, find that opposition, (Jamie inhales) and down. (Jamie exhales) One more time, give those arms a pull. And then we'll do three more. But we're gonna turn this into flying eagle. So pull the arms, lift up, come up, stay lifted as we come over.

And again, pull, lift, flying over the top. (Jamie inhales) (Jamie exhales) Let's reverse it, up and pull. And lengthen to return. Up and lift. Lengthen to return, one more time.

Lifting the front body, pulling with the arms and lengthening to return back. Let's take rest position. So take the seat back to the heels, scoop your abs back, and just stretch it out. (Jamie inhales) (Jamie exhales) From here, let's move into doing some work with just the arms. So I'm gonna swap out the leg springs for my arm springs.

There we go, all right. So for my arm springs, I'm using like a heavier arm spring, but you can use the springs from your rollback bar, and I've also lowered them down. Now, all that that is gonna do is just change where the load is coming from. So you can think about the athletic pursuit that you're working towards, and you can move that up and down to fit the activity that you're training towards. So, I'm gonna come onto my back.

Ready to do my arm works. Now once again, if you wanna work harder, move further down the caddy. If you wanna work a little easier, move a little closer to the towers. I think about here works for me. Arms up to the ceiling, connecting my shoulders down into the mat, pressing past my hips and back to the ceiling, looking for that control.

Stabilizing so that the arms are free to use their strength to move the handles in the springs. (Jamie exhales) (Jamie inhales) Two more. (Jamie inhales) And down. (Jamie exhales) Now I'll take my arms out to the side and make big angel wings here. Just sliding the arms, hands into the hips, reaching the arms back with control. And if you want to, we can play as well a little bit with the rhythm and dynamics of this.

Instead of just moving at the same tempo, let's work a little faster as we bring them to the hips. Let's press in and then resist back slowly. Press in, and resist back slowly, one more time. Press in, and then resist back slowly. Bring them back to the center for arm circles, out, down, around and center.

And once again, you can play with the rhythm and dynamics to fit the activity that you're training towards. Let's reverse those circles, down, out, around and back through the center. Still keeping the back of the shoulder, pressing down into the mat and definitely staying connected to my powerhouse. Last time, let's reach past the hips now and stay there. Tricep press, just bend and straighten.

(Jamie inhales) (Jamie exhales) Two more. Arms up, now just to add a little more difference or a little change to the way the load is coming, I've crossed my springs over and I'm gonna repeat, reach and pull. So just reach past the hips and back up. And this just challenges the arms and the shoulder stability in a different way with the point of the spring coming from a different angle. (Jamie exhales) Let's do one more.

And then bring the arms all the way up. All right, rest the springs. Come up to sit and turn around. We'll do a little rowing while we're here. All right, get yourself in the the right placement once again to work against that load, and let's start just by stripping back the choreography.

So we're just scooping and pulling into the sternum, keep the elbows up. Coming back up again. And again, scooping back, pull into the sternum, and all the way back. We'll do one more of these, press back. And let's do two with our full rowing, scooping back.

Arms come out and behind us. Now really press down into the mat. Feel that stretch, shoulders drawing down away from the ears as we fly up and over and take the fold. Let's repeat that. Scoop back, (Jamie exhales) reach wide, press back, lift up, and over, and fold.

Bring your arms to 90, but rather than flat back here, let's stay scooped and come back. And I want to grip on these handles now as I'm rounding back. So I'm not hinging back, I'm rounding back, keeping my elbows lifted. I wanna push them both up to the ceiling now five times. Let's press up, press up one, and two, and three, and four, and five, come back up to sit.

Let's repeat that one more time and let's have a little play with the arms. So once again, scoot the abs, reach the legs away in opposition. Instead of both arms, let's alternate, kind of like uppercuts. And if we wanna speed it up, we can do, how many more can we do? You're gonna feel the fatigue kick into this.

So keep the quality, (Jamie exhales) and come all the way back up. That's a fun one but it's a tough one. So I'm gonna step off for a moment, continue with the arm springs, just giving you an option now. We're seated facing the other way. So sometimes to get the pelvis in the right position, it can help to sit up on a box, or if it's available to you, sitting astride the Cadillac as well.

And it's gonna depend on the width of your caddy. Okay, so for me, I'm gonna sit here, sit bones off the end of the box, cross-legged, and that's gonna allow me to lift my spine up tall for the shave. Reaching my arms forward and behind the back of my head. Now abs connecting, let's work strong as we reach. You can really lean and press into the springs, press into the handles.

Let's do two more. (Jamie exhales) And one more. And then bring the arms wide for hug a tree. Elbows up a little higher than the fist and it's like we're picking up a big tree stump. Let's reach and just grab that tree stump, take the arms back, exhale, grab the tree stump. (Jamie exhales) Inhale back, one more like this, and then let's change the breath, this time breathing out as we hug.

So, sorry, breathing in as we hug, here we go. (Jamie inhales) Exhale as we come back. (Jamie exhales) And that inhale helps us expand through the back of the ribs. Really opens up the back body. One more time, big inhale.

(Jamie inhales) And then exhale back. (Jamie exhales) And let's step off the caddy, move on to a little standing work. So the stand work with the Cadillac is not only a lot of fun, but it's great for our athletes. It brings 'em back into contact with the ground, which is key 'cause we're now training in an upright position, which may be more applicable to the event that they're training for. So with the arm springs, everything that I do here, let's have some fun with it.

But of course you have an open invite to experiment and explore and modify these to meet the needs of whatever you're training for. All right, so let's start with a little chest expansion. Standing tall now, even though we're moving the arms, this is gonna be all about the body. Can we reach it in opposition again? Heels down, head through the ceiling.

As we breathe in, (Jamie inhales) look one way, look the other way, center, And then exhale as we bring the arms back. And again inhaling, (Jamie inhales) we look, we look, center, and back. One more time, inhaling, (Jamie inhales) And reaching back, let's turn the heat up on that. Let's step back just a little, see if we can challenge our balance as we do the same exercise. Press the heels, pull the arms in, lift up onto the toes.

And then look, look, and center and back. I even wobbled a little on that one. Let's stay connected for this next one. Inhale in. (Jamie inhales) And let's look, look, and center, and reach the arms back with control. Now separate the feet, let's take a look at a squat.

So let's get those elbows up. We're gonna use the resistance of the springs to support us. It allows us to get nice and deep. So let's squat down as deep as you can go and then pressing to come back up. Let's do four more. (Jamie exhales) (Jamie inhales) (Jamie exhales) Lengthen up. (Jamie exhales) One more. (Jamie inhales) (Jamie exhales) Now the thing about a squat is it's great as an exercise on its own, but we can make this apply to what our athletes are doing.

Maybe they're jumping. So let's take a little time just to break that down. So let's come into the squat this time and then think if I want to take off, I'm gonna have to push, come up with a bit more speed. Come down slow, pressing up with speed. Let's do three more, press up.

Two more. (Jamie exhales) And maybe for this last one we'll come all the way up onto our toes and lift down. But what goes up has to come down. So let's use our squat again to work the deceleration part of the exercise. So once again, we're up tall on the toes. Let's come down from speed and slow it down as we'd lower down, come up tall.

And then slow down. Come up tall. Slow it down. Come up tall, two more, working strong with the arms as well, slow it down. So we're taking the energy out of the exercise, (Jamie exhales) and then coming up nice and tall.

You'll feel that challenge through the entire body. Okay, let's do a couple of roll downs just to work in our position. Stand tall, chin chest, and then roll down, like wallpaper, just peel off a wall, roll it down. Rolling back up. (Jamie inhales) (Jamie exhales) Head comes up, and again, up and over. Reaching down, press into the springs.

This time, see if we can just touch the toes and back three times. (Jamie inhales) One more, and then abs deep, rolling back up, press through the heels, through the heels. Roll the shoulders, and the head comes up. Now let's revisit our chest expansion and continue to challenge our balance. So stepping back just a little ways here. Arms by the sides, let's come into an arabesque.

So initially you might wanna just go into your arabesque and see how that feels, and then pour the arms by the side. Find that length, reach, coming back, let's try the other leg. Come into the arabesque first. So we're balancing, but still reaching from our head to our heel. A little wobble there, let's do that again.

Let's come into that arabesque and then reach with the arms. And then coming up to stand. And then it can be fun to add a little pistol squat with that. And I'm gonna do a demi pistol squat. I'm not going fully into it.

One leg reaches out just a little ways down, a little ways up. Bring my arms back, find my arabesque. Reach through the head, reach through the toes, bring the legs back, let's try the other side. Other leg reaches out. Just a little demi squat coming up, just to keep that control. (Jamie inhales) and press into the arms, reach through the body.

Bring that all the way back. Let's do one more on each side, here we go. Coming down a little deeper this time, pressing up. Bring the leg back, and reach, reach, reach in opposition, (Jamie inhales) changing legs. (Jamie exhales) Last one, stay strong, a little deeper.

Press it up. (Jamie inhales) And reach in opposition. The body's working, the supporting leg's working, the arms and shoulders are working. And come all the way back through to stand tall. Okay, let's take our springs and change where we're taking the load from. And I hook 'em down on these very low clips for something more conventional to what you'd see in a gym or a fitness space, a bicep curl.

So feet apart, softer in the knees, and then stand strong and tall and connect. Reconnect with that powerhouse. We're gonna use all the energy we've got. Here we go, just bend in for one, and four more. (Jamie exhales) (Jamie inhales) Three. (Jamie exhales) And two. (Jamie exhales) Last one. (Jamie inhales) (Jamie exhales) Now let's see if we can add a little bit of a push as we did when we were seated on the Cadillac.

So here we go, let's bend the elbows in and press them up. And again, bend them in with the the bicep curl and then push with the whole bodies, everything working. And again, bend them in, press up. Let's do two more. (Jamie inhales) And press. (Jamie exhales) Last time, bend them in, press up, (Jamie exhales) and resist them back down. So now I'm gonna take these and clip them back up at shoulder height.

And this is the fun thing about this end of the Cadillac, or if you're working on a tower, you can be as creative as you want to be and explore, make it work for you. So I want to add some rotation into my trunk now. So, you take hold of the handle, take a wide stance, and the first thing I'm gonna consider is the action I want to sort of develop a pull or is it a push? And that's gonna change the way I grip the handle. So for me, I'm gonna take it as a pull for now.

I'm gonna take my first hand to it, the other hand in to support. And then I'm keeping my body, my hips as square as possible just to make that, facilitate the twist through the trunk, here we go. So I just rotate 'em, and back. And again, and back. Trying to keep the arms in the same place the whole time with the main hand pulling on the spring, one more.

And then of course, let's turn it around. Standing tall, square the hips, and let's rotate. And resist the springs back. Remember, you're in charge, you're the boss. (Jamie exhales) Let's do two more. (Jamie inhales) (Jamie exhales) And one more, and rotate that.

Okay, turning and facing the tower again now, or facing your Cadillac, we'll take the nearest hand, and we'll assume a position of a split squat. And what I'm gonna do now is work towards a full sort of exercise but break it down into little components. And you'll find that this is a great way of introducing more complex choreography without making it all about the choreography. It's more about like getting each moment within it correct before we move it on or progress it on. So just from here, the first thing I'm gonna work on, gotta get my arm straight, sorry, is working on pulling into the hip.

So I'm just gonna pull into the hip. And again. (Jamie exhales) (Jamie inhales) And two. (Jamie exhales) And last one, and now holding the arm forward, bring the hip in, and I'm working on the squat part of this, or the split lunge. So just squatting down and back up. And again, with control, down and up. Three, and two, (Jamie exhales) (Jamie inhales) and one. (Jamie exhales) And now to combine those movements, let's pull and squat.

And again, pull and squat. And three. (Jamie exhales) (Jamie inhales) And two (Jamie exhales) (Jamie inhales) and one. (Jamie exhales) And then let's repeat that one more time and add a little bit of that rotation that we just worked on in as well, bringing the opposite shoulder across, here we go. Let's curl in. (Jamie exhales) (Jamie inhales) And again. (Jamie exhales) (Jamie inhales) And three. (Jamie exhales) (Jamie inhales) And two. (Jamie exhales) (Jamie inhales) And last one. (Jamie exhales) And then what we've done on one side, let's repeat on the other. So to begin with, find our split position and work initially on just pulling the arm into the hip.

So we pull into the hip. And again, pull into the hip. And three more. (Jamie exhales) (Jamie inhales) Getting this motion correct, last one, before we progress on. Now pull it into the hip and add the split lunge or squat, whatever you want to call it. All right, here we go.

So it's down, and up. And down, and up. And again. (Jamie exhales) And I'm feeling more stable, last one. (Jamie inhales) (Jamie exhales) And now combining the two together. Let's pull as we go down and reach.

Pull, (Jamie inhales) connecting every part of the body now. Everything's working to make sure this is not just stable but efficient. One more. (Jamie exhales) And then let's add that little bit of rotation as we pull in. And back, and pull in. (Jamie exhales) And back, and again, three, (Jamie inhales) and two, (Jamie exhales) One more, and up. And we'll step back towards the Caddy now for some more conventional Pilates exercises.

So taking hold of both of the handles now, we'll step forward for the pushup. And once again, even though we're moving the arms, the key thing here is can you keep your body straight and strong? It's all about posture. So arms in, elbows in, lean into the wind a little, working strong from my head to my heel. And let's press forward, and back.

And pressing forward, and back. We repeat that, press it out, and back. And let's do five more a little quicker. Let's press out, and back. Four. (Jamie exhales) And three. (Jamie inhales) And two. (Jamie exhales) One more, push, hold it there, hold it there.

And then bring that back with control. Take the arms wide, let's have little stretch while we're here by doing an exercise called butterfly. So, heels together, same connection through the whole body. But this time we press into the springs, but we get a glorious stretch through the side body, keeping the hips square and look into that bottom hand. Let's keep that connection in the springs as we twist and reach to the other side.

Find length, pushing out through this top hand. And again, keeping the connection, stretch, reach, reach, coming back through to the other side. You're working but you're stretching. (Jamie exhales) Back through, one more on each side, here we go. Stretch it out. (Jamie exhales) And through to the other side.

(Jamie inhales) (Jamie exhales) And then bring the arms back to the chest. And it wouldn't be tower work or standing arm springs without boxing. So once again, find that pushup position. Lean into the wind a little, stay strong. And without rotating the body, let's keep ourselves square and straight.

Let's just reach and punch and punch. And this is all about can you move your arms, but with the body being under control? Strong, straight, stable. Let's do a couple more with the arms moving quickly now. Just work, punch, keep the body straight, keep the body strong and long.

There's two more. And then bring the arms back with control. That's great work on the end of this tower, or on the end of the Cadillac. We're now going up onto the Cadillac to finish. So to round off this workout, I wanted to get a little bit of hanging pull-ups in.

Now if you're working with a Cadillac, that's great, we've brought the trapeze up. But if you don't have a trapeze and a Cadillac, maybe you're working with tower or springboard, we can still find the same shapes in space in other places. So we can do our spread eagle here. Or you can, likewise, if all you have is a door frame, it still works the same. Get your feet up against the door frame.

All that changes is the hands will have to go inside the door frame. So let's do the spread eagle first, find our shapes in space, and then turn it upside-down. Work with the toughness of gravity as well and do some hanging pull-ups to finish. So if you're with me, let's just stretch out. So take the hands about waist-height, once again, looking for that length in your body.

I've got my toes up against the bars. Abs scoop back and we round them back. Just finding almost like horseback position. And then keep the arms straight, lift your hips forwards, arching backwards, chin to chest, and then pull yourself back in. Let's repeat that, so we're working, scooping back, lift the hips forwards, upwards, shoulders draw back and down, (Jamie inhales) chin to chest, and then coming up.

Let's do that again and add a little knee bend in there, just to add a little stretch to it. So we scoop, we round back. Now bend your knees, press your hips forward, arching back, and then pull yourself in. Okay, and then to add the pull-up section of this, bring your hands a little higher, just lean back. And to get the work against this, you might wanna do a few more reps.

We'll just do four here, just pull in, and pull in, and pushing away with control. Two more to do. Last one. (Jamie exhales) I'm gonna turn myself around 'cause I've got the comfort of this Cadillac. So I'm gonna do this with my feet up on the trapeze. So take a moment, let's do this with as much control as possible.

Good grip onto the bars. See if you can float your legs up rather than just jump them up. So let's bring them in, reach them out, land them on the trapeze, and lower ourselves down. And straight away, we sort of feel that we're in that horseback position. Press your seat towards your feet, point your toes, and let's go back into that arched position.

Just stretch it back. Chin comes to chest again, and lower ourselves down. So you can see the same shapes in space as our spread eagle. So let's repeat, lift the hips up, arching back, and then the chin comes to the chest. And let's do three pull-ups here.

We pull up for one, (Jamie exhales) and two, can you keep the trapeze quiet? And three. (Jamie exhales) (Jamie inhales) And now we're gonna take our seat down, bend the elbows, so we're pulling up, and lift the legs out. See if you can hang, bend your knees, and come down to stand with control. So the last thing that we'll do is lower ourselves down to the floor. Let's do that with some control as well.

So it's not as hard as doing a pull-up. But a great way of working towards a pull-up is to do it in reverse and let gravity for once be on our side. So a good grip on the edge of your Cadillac, stepping off, and we're gonna keep the elbows in. Step off the side of the Cadillac. I know, take that leap of faith, and just hold.

And now we're gonna lower as slow and controlled as we can. (Jamie exhales) All the way down. As slow as you can be till you meet the floor. Finish standing tall, separate the feet, just roll the shoulders back. Take a moment just to scan through the body, feel where your body's worked and hopefully you're feeling stronger, more agile, and more ready to take on whatever your athletic endeavor is.

Comments

Lori
1 person likes this.
Appreciate this as an “active aging” Pilates participant.  Also loved the tips for people who have tower reformers.  Thanks!
Emi
Emi
1 person likes this.
Love this!!
1 person likes this.
Thank you, Jamie! That really energized me. :)
Carolyn D
1 person likes this.
Really enjoyed the variations - I have some new things I can build on as an instructor and practitioner.  As the workout progressed, nice job of explaining "why" the springs were at the chosen height/weight.  Adding some context about load and height of springs to the early part of the workout would be helpful. 
Jamie Isaac
Lori Thanks for joining me in this workout! Glad the tips helped too!
Jamie Isaac
Emem So happy you enjoyed this! I hope to share more Pilates with you
Jamie Isaac
Maggie R Yes! Glad you feel energized by the power of Pilates! Thanks for working out with me.
Jamie Isaac
Carolyn D Thank you for working out with me. I'll keep in mind regarding the spring load and height, but in the meantime, feel free to reach out with any questions from the early section and I'll happily do my best to provide some context or reasoning behind placement etc... 
1 person likes this.
Thank you Jamie, love all the positions, seated, standing, laying down, prone
Love the pace and strength training flow.
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