Class #533

Full-Body Strength

60 min - Class
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Description

Join Amy for this level 2 Reformer workout as she creatively incorporates some Mat pieces layering them onto the Reformer for "variations on the theme". Pieces like Double Leg Stretch, Single Leg Stretch, and Criss Cross are all put in with attention to deep scapular connection as well as some Upper Back Extension with Shoulder External Rotation. Other exercises include Side Lying Legwork and Feet in Straps, Kneeling Side Kicks, and Single Leg Kick. Amy also offers traditional pieces like Kneeling Arm work, Thigh Stretch, Short Spine (from the Diamond position), Cleopatra/Mermaid, Oblique Side Overs, and Control Front (variation). This full-body workout is a perfect balance of strength work plus complimentary stretches. Enjoy!
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box, Pilates Pole

About This Video

Oct 03, 2011
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Transcript

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Okay. Hi there. I'm going to do a reformer class this afternoon and there's a little more arm work in today's workout than I sometimes offer. So I'm going to choose a yellow spring for most of that. You're more than welcome to do a blue. When it comes time, I'll, I'll talk about that a little bit. So to start our footwork, I'm going to have us use a stick to hold in the hands a little bit of organization for a shoulder girdle and three red is what I'm working with. So feel free to add a little more or less, less if you need to.

So with the stick, I want us to put this right in the palms of the hands and just take a second to rotate the shoulders, open the upper arm externally rotated poems up, lightly holding the stick. And I'm going to use this also to pull my arms close into the body and feel that connection of the inner triceps, the lats and my upper back extensors a little bit and just checking the ribs and bringing those down. And lastly, the stick will be also a nice reference for the sitz bones and reaching the sitz bones out toward the stick rather than curling up. So I've been finding this a nice reminder of neutral pelvis. So I'm starting with a wrapped foot position and prehensile. I'm gonna go with eight extensions. Inhale and exhale.

[inaudible] feeling the rib cage widen in toward the arms as I breathe in. I'm also working with my head rest down. I just prefer that down, but feel free to keep it up. So feel I'm actually going to change it to 10 reps here with the legs. Says we'd take a couple more. Getting the heels to reach down and heels to reach down.

Alright, and pointing the feet and extend my knees right up to the ceiling. Reaching the sits bones toward the stick. Really feeling the sacred anchor. Inhale, flex, and then bend the knees to place the heels right to the bar. Inhale, stretch and [inaudible] feeling that nice level pelvis reaching toward the stick with the sits bones. Keep drawing their arms close into the body, the abdominals back to support the spine.

Elongating the waistline right left front and back to more extensions. Inhale, [inaudible] and [inaudible] in the feed. Again, links to the ceiling. I'm going to hold the legs up here. Inhale externally, rotate the femurs and exhale back to parallel. Couple more times, rotating outward and exhale back to parallel. Inhale turnout and exhale.

So really feeling that femur focusing on the femur rotating. Now here, flex the feet. We're going to bend the knees. Place the feet to the foot bar in Pele's. V Narrow the knees, no wider than shoulders. Heel slightly lifted, pressing out and stretch and feeling that focus of abduction on the legs. Nice broad collarbone. So this stick also, I'm just the width of it. I'm thinking of my chest broad and open. Nice engagement in my upper back. Talking those ribs down.

Last one, press and all the way in. Now extend the carriage again. I'm going to transition us into a little calf work. So pivot up on the balls of the feet and lower the heels and lift the heels and lower. Think of contrasting the front of the Shin and the back of the Shin or the front and the back again. And inhale. [inaudible] Nice, elongated body.

Three more press last one. Do Relevate re-pivot to first position and bend the knees to come back in. So from here we're going to take the toes, point them and extend the legs out to that straddle. It's not the whitest straddle that you could do when you feel muscle control to hold the legs there. Inhale, flex and exhale point. So the femurs are outwardly rotated, working the feet and ankles, feeling the sacral anchor, reaching my sits bones toward this stick.

One more flex. Let's bend the knees, heels to the bar. Now this is a lot wider than you know, classically where a little narrow on the turnout. Want us to go wide so that we feel the opening of the, of the hips and the challenge to not tilt the pelvis. So really flatten that down. Bring your ribs down, inhale and exhale. Add doctors working to bring those legs energetically to the center and Press Eh, no.

[inaudible] two more. Press and open. Press and open again. I'm going to take the feet, appoint them, reach them out toward the sides, flex the feet. Now bring the thighs up to the ceiling of instill in turnout. Roll to parallel. Just pressing through the balls of the feet. Now bending the knees and metatarsal to the bar. Inhale, stretch and return. Inhale and stretch and in length and fold [inaudible] and in that Nice, expansive inhalation [inaudible] last one. We're gonna stay up and a little walking in place.

Double breathing in. Inhale, inhale. Exhale. Exhale down, up, down, up, down and up and down. So a lot of times we'll focus on going down in the stretch or we'll see. I see people doing that. I want to pull up, focus on the up of the ankles. Lift, lift and lift again, and up and up. Both feet should be working evenly against the bar, up and up.

Last too, and lift and bend the knees to come all the way down. All right, so I'm going to have this take the stick off to the side. I'm going to come up and drop my springs down. That was three reds. I'm going to do two red and one blue and go back down person, single leg pattern, right ball of foot on the barn, parallel left leg just in a tabletop to begin palms face up. I won't hold the stick, but it's there in my mind and extending out and dropping that sacrum down. So I'm going to shorten the extensions just to eight repetitions and we'll be pulsing the quad here in a second.

Then they add any extension and fold, knee extension and full and the last two and lift. Now leg stays tabletop. We'll just pulse [inaudible] four, three, two and last one. Then the final extension all the way up, extend the leg, bend the knee, and then coming back into the stopper and changing feet. You're we go for eight plain extension. Then we pull [inaudible] and in so pretty good. Nice work, balancing quad, inner thighs, hamstrings, and the stretch. So even on this leg, I'm feeling trying to connect my hamstrings to bend this knee and the last one holding tabletop pulses. You don't have to make it all the way into the stopper or all the way full extension. It's focusing on that nice work of the leg and four, three, two and all the way up. Extend fully stretch through the waist.

Let's extend the leg, a nice breath in and then exhale as we come back into the stopper. Okay, another single leg. I'm going to put the right heel on the but instead of in line with my sit bone, I'm going to externally rotate it. It's halfway over to the foot bar, the corner of the foot bar from me, and then the leg is tabletop. So I'm going to start focusing on external rotation on the pushing leg. Meanwhile, this femur dropping into the side of my tummy, really strong tug, holding the pelvis stable for more press and three so suddenly I'm exhaling on my extensions and pulses and way inhale [inaudible] four, three, two and one same transition stretch.

Let's extend the leg then the knee and coming all the way in. Okay, heel slightly on the diagonal. Tabletop parallel and inhale and exhale. So when one legs turned down and one is parallel, there is an opportunity to lean on the pelvis. We want to try not leaning. So I've got to focus on my opposite hip, this side of my abdominal wall, holding that femur steady, like a nice anchor there. So I'm going to take the pulses and inhale, inhale, exhale, exhale.

[inaudible] four, three, two and last one. And transition, stretch. Extend the leg, feel that femur down in the hip. Bend the knee and all the way. Yeah. Okay. So I'm going to take us to a little bit of bridging and heals in line with sits bones. Half a bridge for me for right now I'm going to take just a halfway up to thinking about my bra line. Now try to relax my glutes, keep the hamstrings active and that deep scoop of course in and up through the tummy. Little pushes from into eight of them.

Little Push and little push. Thinking of that nice curve of the lower back, which is my work always deep scoop here. Inner thighs are working to steady those legs and a little resistance in here. And last one, if I rolled down lumbar flection, little deeper work there and all the way to neutral. So if I do one more pattern, I'm going to go up to a bridge.

Full bridge or pelvic curl. I'm still on two red and one blue. Just going to hold for a second. So yes, the line in the front is important, but the line in the back is important too. So we don't want to have that. That low back hanging, curling under. That tail is slipping under. Now just take right like to tabletop for little pushes of this leg.

I'm going to keep it small. Feel free to go a little bit bigger if you want. I'm trying to keep my flection in my low back, which is keeping my abs turned on my glute working. Here's the last one in place. The heel down, hips go up a little higher. Correct. The dis drop if it happened, left leg comes up, little push four and three and in two and in last time, flex and in place, the heel down, arms reach to the ceiling and I slow flection articulation coming down through the back all the way. All right, so we're gonna move away from the foot work and the legs coming up and dropping this spring. And I take us everybody to one red foot bar down am also working today just with the long strap and the loop instead of the handle.

Some days I do with a handle that today steps, so some abdominal work. Let's bring our knees to tabletop. Straight arms right up to this ceiling. Take a good inhale. Just one curl upper body. So on the one red spring, it's a lot of play here. I'm going to focus on reaching the arms long. Now do my to breath. Cycle of pumping three four good and my legs to the ceiling and keep the pumping to wrapping sake. Sacrum three four legs down. So it's a third of the way down to eye level three, four and a little lower.

Halfway down to eye level three, four and last level here of challenging my stability of my lower back. Sure. Three, four [inaudible] and last breath cycle. And I'm going to take the arms up, bring them back down, bring the knees in. Tabletop, double leg stretch from the mat. We're here. Arms and legs up open. Exhale and crawl.

So trying to keep that upper body position stable, deeply flex through the low abs to full the hips. I'm gonna take the legs just a little lower for two more from the low belly. Last one, stretch open. Oh in palms, face down, single leg for 10. Those those lats really pulling down toward the pelvis. So as we work, nine and 10 both knees coming in.

Let's rest the chest down and just take a little breather. So I'm gonna lightly lower. My feet wiggled down just the Scotia. If you feel like you've jammed up now, different grip. If you have your hands go through the straps, reach back for the tape. Be careful. These don't drop on your face.

And I'm going to do a little shoulder girdle work here. So knees will be to tabletop. I'm starting at the bumper, but my arms are up above me in a kind of like a letter v position is going to show you that. But I think you guys will get it so I can see my arms and my peripheral vision. As I look up, I don't want to bend the elbows. What I want to feel is the scapula pulling or contracting the muscles around the scapula down chesting broad and arms coming toward the hip.

So my upper arm is in external rotation and then reaching for the walls wide, allowing the Scapula to widen on the back. So again, one more kind of slow. We're going to pull [inaudible] and in and open and wide. Feel your scapula widen on your back. Two more with chest lift. So the exhale and inhale and the exhale. Scapular first resist that. Years to bend.

The elbows are probably going to want to, but try not to an open, I'm going to add a little trunk rotation to the right. Extend the left leg. So bringing a little crisscross into the pattern and left rotation and extend and right rotation, just the upper trunk. Trying to keep that pelvis stable again and of course last time to the left hand and all the way down. Okay. So let's hook these straps on. Let's police them back and then coming up.

I'm gonna grab a high bar now. Yeah, so that last position, starting position was here as my arms were back against the shoulder rest and trying to draw it down through the scapula. Okay. So I'm going to bring us to a kneeling position now and hands on top of the bar. We're going to work into more of the triceps in shoulder, upper back extensors as well. And I'm going to come down to a kneeling position and aim the forearm and elbow, almost like it's going to peak underneath the foot bar and think pull. Push up somewhat. Okay. So if I bring my torso down, I want to start with a nice flat back, nice engagement of the upper back. You're looking straight down for the frame.

Let's inhale as we extend the elbows and exhale as we flex. Very tempting to push with the legs. So it's really just elbow extension and elbow flection and extend and bend. And press. Things are going fine. I'm going to vary this a little bit. I mean now I'm going to reach my forearms even farther down, almost in line with the side slant or the foot bar press and dip under.

So for me this is working more of my flexibility really of my shoulders and my elbows. Press bringing that chest down to more progress, challenging the flexibility and extend and bend rounding through the spine to come up. Okay, so I'm going to move, this is the section I'm going to move into yellow spring. Uh, I like it yellow. You can use a blue I think for control and form. The yellow feels good for me today and no red. Okay. So let's have a seat and we're facing the back of the reformer.

Knees will be bent and feet just flat on the headrest. Same, uh, kind of grip earlier. So we're still placing the hand through the strap, holding onto the tape and starting with really nice lifted spine. You're sitting right up on your sits bones. So a little bit of work for the shoulder girl here. Quite a bit. Want to have us bend our elbows and reach those elbows side. So I'm thinking towards you with my right one to the brick wall with my left scapular depression. Just holding there for a moment, feeling this nice steady support of the back.

We'll come to this each time with two five prep movements so we can exhale on the pool and exhale, reaching the elbows out. Sternum up. Definitely want to think about the support and use of the upper back. It's going to increase in adjusted second and last one, let's pull. Okay, upper arm external rotation. I'm going to have this think of kind of think of a hitchhiker thumb's going back and rotation so my thumbs are facing in humeral rotation out and back to somewhat of a neutral shoulder level. Three more external rotation of humorous and back to neutral [inaudible]. So all this right now I'm just thinking of a relatively upright spine, if not really nicely upright spine. And last one, I'm going to rest my shoulders. We'll add upper back extension to it.

So same beginning. Pull the elbows out, inhale there, exhale. Now as we rotate, think of the upper back. The lumbar should still stay pretty stuck. That's the upper back extension. Shoulder blades down, thinking chest to the ceiling. Come back through the starting position.

Elbows are out and arms reach forward two more times and we pull out externally. Rotate those humorous. Think upper back. It's right behind the sternum lift. That'll control my ribs. And inhale and back to the start. And one more time. Flex and pull.

Rotate and reach. Opening that chest and flex at the elbows and coming straight ahead. Alright good. So coming into the next series, I'm going to come up onto the knees and work the triceps again. Same grip through the straps. Now little variation on the theme.

Really we could be all the way up for regular chest expansion. Just going to have a start down a little bit lower. Feeling the chest reach forward and pre pull the elbows a little higher above the back. Alright, so from here, extending through the elbows again, one, let's take eight of these. It's nice and light. We can get that extension. And three Billy's up. Elbows are high, shoulders are depressed and and last one and up and in and body comes up.

Okay, let's place the left strap down. We'll go into some of our familiar kneeling side arms. So we'll go with our jaw sword first. Set up for me. I'm right in the middle of the Mat. I know we can either be here or here. Let's stay right in the middle. Inside the arm is by the hip.

I'm going gonna do five repetitions. And again I'm going to focus on that thumb being up throughout the draw a sword. So I connect into those external rotators of my shoulder. Three my hamstrings are working and for the abdominals are working hand five changing hands, nice and swiftly right into the inner arm reach. So again for me, you're going to see me only go up about halfway up. I need to control my shoulders. So this is my range today.

Four and fine. And then hand in the other strap. Now taking the inside hand onto the head. Rest, take that upper arm. Nicey overhead. Enjoy the stretch for a couple of breaths. Alright, so that deep a side flection open the chest. I like to look down to the hand, get that elbow to the ceiling, palm up or closed five repetitions of working again from the elbow.

We'll theme today and extend def upper arm stays relatively if not perfectly stable and straight in one place. So we're really moving from the elbow up and last one and then I'm going to add a little variation of here. Take that arm. I'm going to close the fist. No, do a big circle. You're the hands on. A big giant grandfather clock arm is going to come up overhead. Pull through that overhead reach. Big Circle. It's important to keep those abdominals in here to not stress the back and stretch circle.

And two more times arm comes overhead. Extend from the elbow circle and last one, an arm over head pool and a big circle around. Okay, other side. So again, I'm right in the middle of the Mat. Draw the sore to draw a sword first, even weight on the knees.

I've got some resistance going on in here. Inside the arm. Steady. So we have exten and return scapula staying down a little retraction from me and [inaudible]. [inaudible] five changing arms right into that inside hand. Elbow forward, Trunk Square. No twisting or cheating in the trunk. And arm reach and down and extent helps me to have a little inward inner pressure on the palm. And two more in reach and up and [inaudible] and arm overhead. Changing hands. Looking down.

Enjoy that stretch for a minute. Tuck those ribs in. Engage those hammies. Here we go and we have press. I'm gonna change my grip. [inaudible] Ah, ah. Trying to keep that arm overhead as much as possible. Arm being humorous for from the elbow. And Five. Okay. Closing the fist. Mike in this circle around, it's a great next stretch right there.

You'll feel that they're taking the arm up first. Extend from the elbow straight. Arm New the circle. That's a great neck stretch and up three and around. [inaudible] and up on four. Open around and last one and five all the way around and down. Okay. I'm gonna place the strap down to make us change of my springs.

I'm going to go into thigh stretch. So thigh stretch for me. I like a red, red, and yellow. I'm going to stay with today. Same grip. Okay. Ah, five repetitions. So squeezing the legs in toward the center line. If you only know shoulders nice and stable and we start inhale as we hinge and exhale, lift the arm slightly to pull up. Very tall on top of the knees and reaching back.

When I think about expressing my chest, just a little, bend the knees to go a little farther down. Slight lift of the arm and up. So all of that arm work. Nicely engaged here. Keep those shoulders back. Triceps, lats, deltoids, chest, everything active up in the upper body and back. Lift one more and back. Good stretch and the quads. Lift and center. Okay, whoa.

So let me take us now into getting back down on your back feed in straps too. Red, no yellow, pressing out, stepping in, starting in a diamond position with the legs again, that external rotation, we're back into some nice anchoring here. If the sacrum arms long by the site, I'm going to continue working. Palms face up, so just from this position, the anchor of the feet together. I'm just focusing inner thigh, not outer Kwai, not hip flexor right here. If I can bring in my sits bones a little bit towards each other, I'm going to do five repetitions of going from the diamond to a parallel and rural, rotate through abduction and externally rotate to the diamond carriage. We'll move a little bit relief. Again, we're doing for moral movement, the gliding of the femur or rotation externally and rotating in and external rotation. [inaudible] really trying to govern this from here, right in the hip joint closing to parallel, rotating out to turn out one more time, two parallel. I'm going to hold this there. Circles of the legs coming, 90 not all the way. I want us to stay engaged in the abdominals, not coming up to such a hikes, a stretch of the hamstrings, so that's about my anchor down circles for five down and around down.

Feel free to take your circles a little wider. I'm going just a little wider than the frame. Four and five. Erection for five turning out. Now a lot of lateral hamstring feel it shifting to add doctors and lift lateral hamstrings. Shift into those ad doctors.

Really concentrating on what it feels like to move those legs. One more this direction and left back down to about 45 or my challenge point where you have that stability of your Elvis and s ribs, little bow and arrow. So if we start in the external rotation, we're opening out, I'm going to bend the right knee. Now, point your flex the foot, it's up to you. I like a point today he'll in line with this knee sacred is anchored both legs add duct and bring it into the center. And again, you're trying to stay on that horizontal line. You're not going higher, not going lower at duct and it's an inhale [inaudible] whole body's active. I've got that sense that my waist is getting stretched. Each x, each pool of the springs longer through my waist.

Three more. Last one on the right side. Last one on the left and sent her back to a diamond. Okay, I'm going to take a diamond short spine, little variations. So here I'm going up through my hip flection, keeping that diamond and just rural in through with control coming down through the back. So again, we've got to get that flection motion up in the upper spine.

Articulation for me, I like to feel when I get about the base of my ribs, then I start to bring my leg does a shape down from here and here. Now a little transition through the magnets back to diamond. Ah, I feel so good. My low back and a anchor and stretch. Three more. Picking the body up and controlling that motion overhead and thinking the chest.

Ah, reaching the Vertebra. Four, that's the matte surface. And taking the legs down and the transition parallel. Turn out two more guys and up and over. Yeah. [inaudible] this version of short spine for my body keeps me very involved through my core the whole time. I can't really cheat and let go of my abdominals.

And for me that's really important to keep stretching and opening my lumbar [inaudible]. Oh really? Pulling from there. Oh, all the way through. And the period on the sentence right there. All full ad duction. Okay, let's take our feet out of the straps these down. All right, so I'm going to go into a sideline piece now and one red spring a lie on my left side.

You can have your elbow bent and your head on your arm if you like, or you can take that head all the way down. I'm pretty well through the shoulder rest space here, so this is going to go on my right foot and the bottom leg stays bent. I'm going to take this leg into an external rotation. Now by bottom leg, I've got it angled so my knee is almost right to the corner of the Mat. Just works for my size and as I take the leg up, I'm going to go for a big stretch in the adductors, the back of the hip, and just enjoy that for a moment. His hand is resting on the shoulder rest. Okay. I would caution on those of us that have some flexibility.

This could be very hyperextended, so we've got to be a little careful. What I'm going to think about doing to support my knee is just think of shortening my lower hamstrings, a little just engaging. So right now I feel like I'm definitely in my muscle, not locked in my joint five times is all I'm going to do. Find my external rotators right here. Back of the light. Back of the hip. Okay. Not very low. Don't let this come dropping in front of the shoulder. Wrestle, control it, but go back up for the stretch.

We want the arc overhead here and then again, oh, a very specific place. This leg is coming down on the diagonal. Three more [inaudible] [inaudible] there's a fairly decent amount of abdominal work here as well. Feeling those obliques, feeling the core, ah, and lift. And to take one more from this position and and up. Okay, so similar to you also from the trapeze table, food vendor, knee and flex the foot. I'm going to put my elbow here just as a little reference to find a little more turnout in that hip and then five times extending through the knee and flex thinking knee behind shoulder and extend from the knee. And Bend as if I'm pushing up on the foot bar with my foot pushed through bar from the Cadillac and two more and in trying to get a little more rotation and extend and in last one and extend and in and how handy the hand is here to take the strap off the foot. Okay, so the other side, just going to spiral around using the foot to help push you out.

[inaudible] okay. Knee down on the bottom is bent, top leg is externally rotated. And then we'll take the leg over the chest and again, enjoying the stretch through your glutes, your hamstrings, adductors. Now, all right, now again, I'm going to recorrect my knee so I'm not hyper locking or hyperextending. I'm gonna feel muscle move the leg and five times one and overhead, go for stretch, shortening the muscle fibers there to pull that leg down, keep the external rotation. So instead of thinking the pull from here or even here, more proximal to your pelvis, two more to go. Leg goes up. And like I said, there is a fair amount of oblique work going on.

Last one here and pull and Lyft. I'm going to think about 90 degrees there. Flex, use the elbow if you want to open up that hip slightly more and five extensions one and flex the knee, two and three. [inaudible] and force a lot more challenging I think in a way here cause this rope moves a lot. It's different than on the push through bar when you've got your foot on a stable surface. And the last one in extend feeling the squeeze from the glute and then bring in the knee down. Okay, so we're going to move into us kneeling side position and I want the low bar for this [inaudible]. I'm gonna come up and do kneeling side. And again I'm going to aim for about fist with the way from the shoulder rest, arms out to the side, nice and lifted through the body, the side bend and bring another mat exercise in here.

So taking a body into a sideband, lean under that hand on the bar, lift that outside leg out to the side and then opposite hand behind the head. So right now I've got my supporting arm bent. I want to extend it and reach toward my foot side. Okay. And just hold that leg up. Trying to find that parallel alignment ribs in. Let's do five little lifts of this thigh. So we have one and two.

Ah, three and four and five. Flex the foot coming forward, little forward point and sweep the leg back and flex forward and points. Weave the leg back. Three more flex and was and Matt work. When I think about not having much weight on that hand [inaudible] one more forward and back.

Bring the fine line with your hip. Now flex the knee, try to keep that sigh up. Bring your body up balance for just a second and lower the Fi. All right, coming down a little Cleopatra. So my Cleopatra today is using a low bar. Some days it's a high bar and I want to get right on the side of that hip, hand down and looking profile.

So getting that nice cervical rotation and as we press away from the bar, opening this whole waist side down, almost getting stacked up on top of the hips. That's a good, fair amount of shoulder support here. Pulling that lat down, thinking of yawning the waist, like a jaw opening up toward the mat. Now as I come up, I want to think of going up and on a spiraling into this waist, feeling that old bleak squeeze here and rotating over. I'm gonna do five of these up and pulling in to that waste, keeping that profile and up an inhale up and pull into that waist. And one more. Opening that waist up. Lift and pull in.

Now take the other hand to the shoulder rests. Pull yourself up in a nice sitting position and side bend. I'm going to take my other arm in, assists that stretch, tuck those ribs in, and now bend the other elbow, getting that draping over the sea shells in the rocks. Okay, and all the way up, let's take the other side. So coming up onto the knees about a fist away, arms to the sides thinking Matt worked for a second and side bend, reaching that hand or the foot bar, sneaking that leg up. Take just a second.

You're parallel. Reach toward the foot. And we have pulses for five one and ah, and five flex in front backs. We have a reach of the heel point and extend from the hip and reach through the heel and thinking of abs and glutes. Three more pull forward. And when you can think of less weight on your, uh, the hand that's on the bar with a straight arm back and last one guys, forward and back. And then bring your mind leg in line with hip. Now Bend your knee, keep it sigh up. Bring your body up. Keep that thigh up and down. Okay.

And the Cleopatra Shins close, nicely balanced on your hip holding here and profile. Opening that left waist now to the mat should feel really nice. So once again, we're going to think up curve and pull into this waistline. So a little bit of rotation in the pelvis and square and up. Little pull into the pelvis. Three more square [inaudible] last time and up and pull in. All right, hand on the shoulder rest, nice lift of the body.

Get this arm close to the head, not head to the arm. Lift. Merge that into that. Nice Arc. You can use that other arm to help you tuck those ribs in and to rape the arm overhead. Breathe deeply into the stretch of that back [inaudible] and coming out. Okay, so we're gonna take the head rest up, get into a little weight bearing on the hands. I'm going to lower the bar all the way down and a little variation again on f. Oops. A theme of a control front. So instead of having the bar up and hands on top, I'm going to have the Barlow and hands down low.

So same mount one foot. See where you're putting it right in the middle of the reformer. Slide the carriage out so you establish that relationship shoulder above rest. Pull that carrot steady as you step up and just enjoy being there for a second. Squeeze into the inner thighs. Reach that sternum forward.

I'm going to take three extensions, three to five of the carriage. The more you push forward, the more vulnerable that low back is [inaudible] just right underneath the shoulders and you press [inaudible]. [inaudible] solid lap and shoulder work. Who last one had thoughts of doing some pushups here. I'm going to go for it. I'm going to think wide elbows though. Okay. Why dobos elbows wide. My head's going right. The tween, the shoulder rests and gum.

Good for one more push and lift and knee down and all the way in. I believe that's a fine Rep. A variation of the normal. Oh right. I want to do my short box. So I'm going to grab the box myself up here. All Springs. Just a steady arm reformer instead of the whole short box series. I'm going to go with some stretching. Okay, so just a little ad duction or adductor stretch and some pure formats.

One moment, forgot my stick cause I am gonna do side overs here in just a second. So there. All right, get back. We go. So if we take my left leg out and hold into a pure form of stretch, so for me that means up on my sits bones right now, right hand holding the left foot and I'm kinda hugging outside of that knee. Now I want to push my foot. It's flexed. Push the foot into this hand and I'm pushing towards the wall over here.

So I've got this, this big stretch on the hip. I don't want it lean off of it. The more weight I can sink into it evenly, the better. And I'm just going to hold it for about three breaths. [inaudible] working on that nice tall back, opening up those muscle fibers, all that tissue around my hip. All right, and I'm going to change it other hand. I'm gonna open the leg.

Now these boxes have a strap on the outside edge, so I'm going to hold that and I'm going to take a flection of my spine taking the leg out towards the side. My foot is held into that strap. I'm trying to do a pelvic tilt, getting that pelvic tilt. So now I'm feeling adductor stretch, lot of hip flexor, stretch quad, Iliacus, lots of good stuff here. I love this. I'm going to take myself farther over feeling good about it today. Taking that nice deep stretch and coming up, healing, sinking those abdominals, bringing the leg around back into the Piriformis.

So we have a pulse pulse, three times flex contract, feeling that articulation, that opening of the chest curl. Swing that laying around. One more time, reaching the foot toward the wall without the shoulders turning and one and exhale two and exhale three. One last stretch on the foot and the hips. Taking our body over. [inaudible] enjoy that stretch and coming up. What's really nice about that too? I can just, if in case you're not thinking about it, you want to be right in a center.

I found myself a little bit over here, so while I'm back, I'm looking, trying to center myself, which put that stretch nicely over there. Perhaps I was leaning away from it because of that tightness on that side. Likely. Oh my hip. Okay, so the other side in hug, you're sitting up right first. Got a good flexed foot reaching the sole of the foot across toward you. So the first set we do, we held it and took some nice deep breaths.

[inaudible] really feeling that opening up [inaudible] okay. Changing hands, holding a strap. So if you flex your bottom foot on the way, open the leg toward the side of the right side, pelvic tilt. Try to get that leg open. Knowing what I just said on the last one. Hopefully as I extend over the edge here, I'm in the middle of the reformer. Whoops, I'm here now.

I am all right and coming up. I'm going to sink. Staying on this side of my body. [inaudible] and Piriformis. Let's add that little pole. So I have a reach and reach and a reach change. Lex contract opening the leg.

[inaudible] extending through the sternum. I got it. And coming up [inaudible] one last pattern and reach. Wow. So I know that that's not really that traditional. It just seems something that seems to be working for myself, my hips coming up and all the way around. Okay, so a little side over work. What I'm going to choose here is the stick. I'm going to face the wall first.

That puts in the strap. I'm gonna shoot for three to five repetitions. So they lean over, finding that nice stack position. Reach this hip toward the foot, get a nice connection there. All right, my other Shin is level with the box. I'm going to put the bar up. I'm holding the ends. I'm pressing in a little bit and just finding the diagonal.

That's my ceiling. I'm not going to come any higher into side bend. So this is the ceiling of the movement. Inhale, as I bend over, stretching those obliques. Find the exhale. Ah, and over reaching out through the stick. If this were a squeegee, that's the shower door. I'm trying to square. You do that. Shower door.

[inaudible] last time. [inaudible] [inaudible] and now your direction. [inaudible] stacked then reaching toward the heel. Arms lifting. Okay. And inhale and [inaudible] reaching to the opposite end of the reformer at all times. Out and up. Three Morrison over an exhale and left and two Morin over.

I just heard myself say Amy ribs in Tuck those ribs in and over and lift am a three lease. Okay, I'm going to have us turn the box sideways. Long box [inaudible] she, you're right in the middle. High Bar, one red, one blue spring. Actually a little back extension and some single leg kick. So as I come down, chest on the box, hands on the bar, legs engage, not too high to bow the back head. My forehead is right skimming the top of the bar. So what I'd like to do first is just extend my elbows once again. Now, not the highest one. I'm only thinking about the base of my rib.

Staying against the mat of the box here from this position, Matt, work against single leg kick. So the exhale. Exhale. Ah, when a think of the chest staying open and lifted and the legs not just flopping down, but I'm thinking of reaching to the back of the reformer reach, almost putting more emphasis on my straight leg stretch, stretch, stretch. Let's take four more on one, two, three and four. Now both legs, three times. Pool in and reaching back and pull in and reaching back. And last one, pulling in and reaching back and then bend the elbows.

Let the chest come down. Little transition. Bring yourself up to a little back or the ball shell position. This feels delicious to let the low back open turn it almost pull my pelvis down over the edge. We're visualizing that scooping that Tomi up. So the last piece I have for us is some stretching, another little bit of stretching hamstrings this time. So let's put our box away. Hamstrings, hip flexors.

I'm going to go low bar one green spring or red. I'm going to face the back of the reformer. Alrighty, so I'm standing here. My hands are right on that. Uh, shoulder rests. I like the Mount of putting my foot back on the bar first. I like to see myself putting it there, but a little weight in the hands and then step on the ball of the foot. It's just starting up.

The ramp of the headrest is holding that nice long line of extension from the hip out through the heel. So we don't want the heel to far back. Get right up on the ball of that foot and feel that abdominal support for the stretch. Okay, now let's work front leg, extend through the knee, getting that hamstring stretch and bend. And if you can find the back extension and sternum lifting. [inaudible] knee just over heel. Two more times. [inaudible] last one. I'd like us to stay straight with the knee. Bring the carriage in, square the hip, the forward leg. Almost always that hip is swung forward. Pull that sits bone back. If you need to look, that's fine.

Keep the other leg engaged and let's come back out with a straight lane and plumbing coming in. Let's see. Inhale out and in. Last one is stretch. Now from here guys, let's re bend the knee stretch one more time. That nice long hip extension. Put weight in the hands. Come up off of that foot. We'll change sides.

Okay, so scooting and Karen Jo, just enough, your knee is above your shin. Got a good long hip extension back. His engaged, pulling his hip back a little bit. Okay. And extending. So as the hamstrings are tight, sometimes the back, we'll want to reflect that in round to make this a little more successful, which is more important to straighten of the knee, straightening of the knee or the back extension. I would say the back extension. So I felt myself cheating a little on the first side. I'm going to come up a little one in my hands, work my back extension.

Now I feel my hip a little more and a bend, but that's me and you not be, you stretch and bend [inaudible] and I'm pretty certain if you're teaching this to other clients, you'll see that in them as as well. So as we keep the leg straight, now let's pull the carriage in, squaring the hip and working that back out again. Flat back, square the hip and pull chest goes down slightly and I'm feeling my laps now, pulling my scapula down three more times and pulling in. Okay, here we go. Hand in and out and last one pulling in and out. And then again, re bend the knee. It's the period on the sentence. Knee above the ankle. Put weight in your hands. Coset Karajan and lift off.

Okay. Thank you very much. Hope you've had a well balanced workout.

Comments

1 person likes this.
absolutely loving it :)!!!!!!
1 person likes this.
Mamma mia ! Thanks Amy it's a such wonderful class. I'm Polestar teacher and really love your verbal cues . You usually don't use imagery cues don't you?
And, In sidelyng position the bottom ribs are totally on the carriage , not space. isn't?
Grazie infinite
Monica
Great Class. It helps a lot to know the type of tension for each exercise. Thanks !!
Amy, thank you for this great workout. It definitely a great program to work shoulder stability and strength. (local stabilizer .....global..). I like you use cue of thumbs direction. I also like the way you work on hip opener. Thank you for sharing/teaching this great workout. I hope that you will teach more classes like this on PA.
Pele
I think it's your best by far. Thanks for keeping us moving. Definately a good balance of talk and movement. I loved the creative variations. More at this level and pace.
1 person likes this.
Dont know what to say!! This was really excellent . Focused, controlled and I really appreciated all the arm and shoulder work! Nice to see elements of cadillac plus mat on the reformer! The stretches at the end reminded me unfortunately how tight my hamstrings are..got some work to do to get to that level.. .amazing Amy.. ty .
Amazing class! After an intense 1.5 hour long soccer match yesterday, this workout really opened up and realigned my entire lower body while stabilized and strengthened my upper body. Thank you; I haven't felt this balanced in a long time...
Hi Shari! That's all... just wanted to say hi and thanks for checking us out! Good to hear you're still playing soccer!
Thank you so much everyone! All of your feedback and comments are so valuable to me and I truly appreciate them. Monica, I do like using visual imagery.......I guess in that class I didn't use so much of that. I often visualize in my own mind, but perhaps the cues aren't coming out verbally! No, I wasn't lifing the ribs off the Mat in the side-lying position in this class. Because I was going for a larger range of motion in the hip, I was allowing the ribs to stay down. My pelvis wasn't completely 'stacked' either, intentionally.
Luissa.....I do try always to tell which spring I'm using, yes, very helpful to know!!
Glad the thumb direction cue was helpful Loretta and Pele...thank you...I will plan to do more classes at this pace for PA.
Thank you Jamie! I always enjoy hearing from you.
Shari...so glad your felt so realigned and balanced after taking this class...what a nice compliment.
Amy, I was so happy when I turned on my computer and saw you had added a new class. Wonderful as usual!
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