Class #5352

Upper Mobility EXO Chair

20 min - Class
44 likes

Description

Gia Calhoun guides your through an upper body Pilates flow utilizing the EXO Chair, Slastix, and a Mat. This class is designed to target the abs and arms, with no weight bearing on the legs. Experience a perfect blend of conscious strength training exercises and movement to enhance spinal mobility, while fostering upper body strength and stability.
What You'll Need: Mat, EXO Chair, Slastix (2)

About This Video

Feb 14, 2024
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Transcript

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Hi. I'm Gia, and today we're gonna do an exo chair class using the slash 6. I've recently sprained my ankle. So, I can stand on it, but I'm not ready for any weight bearing exercises yet. So we're just gonna do, movements on the mat because I still wanted to move, and it's a great way to work abdominals and arms without actually putting weight on my legs. So we're gonna get started with the classics. I have them, the 2 our short slash yellow plastics with the handles on the, front high, little ring, and you're gonna lie on your back.

I'm gonna grab my plastics in my hands. My head is just right up against the front of the chair, just so that I have a little bit of resistance, but it's not too much. I'm gonna bring my legs up to tabletop. Shoulders are plugged into the socket. I'm gonna imprint my spine into the mat. Pulling my abs in and up.

Just take a deep inhale here and exhale. Gia send to yourself one more time. Inhale. And exhale. And the next inhale, I'm gonna lower one foot down toward the mat for a little toe tap, exhale to pull it back up to tabletop. Inhale other leg lowers down, keeping that ninety degree angle, exhale to lift it back up.

Inhale lower. Egg sail lift. Gia keep alternating legs lower and lift. As I move in the legs, paying attention to what my low back is doing. It's not arching.

I'm pulling into my abdominals for support. One where each side keeping the shoulders on the back. One more. Now keeping the legs together, I'm gonna lower both feet down toward the mat. You don't have to touch it, and then exhale to come back up.

And he'll lower just as far as you can go without arching your spine, exhale to lift. Let's do 2 more and look up. Last one. Now keep the legs in tabletop, take a deep inhale to arms up. This time, legs stay still, you're gonna exhale as you push your arms down.

Keeping your head down by on your mat. Inhale arms come up. Exhale, press both arms down by your sides. And lift. So the nice thing about this last six is they're not connected. Like, you would have this on the reformer. So I'm really trying to work both arms evenly.

And trying not to twist my body or do anything weird. So it's just my arms pressing. 2 more. Trying to keep the wrist straight. So I'm not breaking at the elbow or the wrist.

The next one, we're gonna add a chest lift. So inhale arms come up, exhale press the arms down, curl your head up. And he'll arm some head come back, exhale, press down, curl up. So again, I'm trying to stay nice and straight on this chest lift, With this last six being separate, I can feel my body wanting to shift to one side. See, I wanna try to stay as even as you can.

2 more. Last one. Hold it up. We're gonna go on a single leg stretch. You're gonna stretch one leg out. And then alternate.

And switch and switch really reached that opposite leg log. I can't reach through my foot, but you should reach through the feet, really extend all the way out to the opposite wall and switch. Reaching the hands as far as you can, curling up a little higher. Last set. Both knees Gia, arms come up, rest your head down, take a breath, and then exhale push down, curler head up for double leg stretch.

Both legs stretch out and then pull it back in. And reach. And in. Inhale stretch. Exhale bend.

Greech. And then 2 more. Last one. And then arms come back, head comes down, lower your slastics down, hug your knees into your chest, rock side to side, And then we're gonna come up to a seated position. So we're gonna do a seated exercise so you can move your slash 6 Gia out of your way.

And then I have my spring set up 1 on 2, and then you wanna be about arms distance away from the pedal. And kind of adjust as you need to Gia to make the exercise work for you. So if you can, flex your feet, I'm just gonna go where my foot can right now. You're gonna bring your hands onto the pedal. Shoulders are on your back again. Abs are nice and engaged now that they're warm.

Take a deep inhale here. To exhale, you're gonna lift your spine tall and just push the pedal down. Think of pushing from your back, not just your hands. And he'll arms up. Exale press.

So I'm trying to stay on top of my sits bones and press. So I'm not leaning back or leaning forward to press. I'm just growing up through my spine. And it's okay if the arms bend a little bit as long as you're pulling from your back and not just your hands. 2 more.

Last one. Now, we're gonna add a bit of a spine stretch. So as you push down, you're gonna round your back pull your navel into your spine, let your spine come into a c curve. And he'll lengthen your spine back up as the pedal comes up, exhale push down round into your c curve. Inhale lift. Exhale around.

And lift. And around 2 more. And, room. Last one. Now sitting up tall, keeping your spine straight again, we're gonna release one hand from the pedal.

The other hand is just straight in front of your shoulder on the pedal. Same thing with one hand. So sitting up nice and tall, exhale as you push that single arm down, inhale up, and press. So it might not go as far as you did with Gia double, And that's okay. Keep reaching that opposite arm as long as you can. You have 2 more pulling your ribs back so they're Ribs are right on top of your pelvis, switching hands, reaching the other hand out to the side, long spine, inhaled the top, exhale press.

Inhale and exhale. Trying to push the heels into the floor or into the mat. And press 2 more. Length in the spine, last one. Good. We're gonna turn around.

We're gonna do a seated press facing the away from the chair. So the legs are gonna be straight out in front of you. You're going to push the pedal down. You can kind of adjust you need to go. You don't want it to be too far behind you where you're getting too much, in your shoulders.

If you wanna be able to move the pedal with, nice control. So legs are glued together, straight in front. You're gonna inhale as you bend the arms, lift the pedal up, exhale, push the pedal down. Inhale lift, exhale press, and lift, and press. So each time I'm trying to get a little taller pulling the ribs back still so they're not thrusting forward. 2 more.

And press last one. Now we're gonna add a little extension just to get the spine moving. As you push down, you're gonna lift or chest up, extend your spine. Come back to neutral as your arms come up, and then push down. Lift or trust. And then neutral as the arms come up, push down and lift.

2 more. And push and lift your chest, think of the sternum coming up to the ceiling. So it's more the upper back than the low back arching. You're gonna bring the pedal up, turn your hands to face the other way, and then just let your head come down for Gia little stretch. So it's a nice little shoulder stretch and a spine stretch as you reach your head forward towards your legs.

Roll up. We're gonna grab your slastics again. And we're gonna go into part of the rowing series from the reformer. You're gonna start with your hands right by your waist. You're gonna reach your arms out to a high diagonal, push them down toward the mat. Arms come back up to the ceiling, circle around back to your waist, pushing out and down and up circle back to your waist, lengthening the spine and lower, lift up, around back your waist 2 more.

Reach and lower and up circle down to your waist, last one, lengthen and up around Good. We're gonna go into hug a tree. So arms out to the side, nice and bent. You wanna make sure you can still see your fingers and your periphery. Setting up nice and tall, you're gonna close the arms hug your tree and open. You can choose your breathing, whether you wanna inhale or exhale on the close, Whatever feels better to you, I change depending on my mood usually and close and open for more.

And 3. 2. Last one. Gotta hang up your strap or hang up the strap. Put your classics down.

We're gonna lie down on your back. Your head Gia, again, away from Gia in front of the, front of the chair. This time you're gonna hold on to the chair. Legs are gonna come up to tabletop. Again, you're imprinting your spine into the mat. We're gonna do a supine, rotation.

So you're gonna inhale as you bring both legs over to the right, exhale as you come back up to the center. And heel both legs over to the left, and then back up to the center. So I'm trying to keep both shoulders on the mat. It's getting a little rotation. So we're trying to move the spine in all directions.

We had a little extension. We've had some flexion. Now we're doing a little rotation. And right? And center 1 more.

I'm using the chair to kinda keep me grounded and center. Legs up to the ceiling. We're gonna go into a cork screw. So legs are gonna go over to the right, down to the left and then back center. Other way, left down to the right and center, 2 more each way.

Again, trying to keep the shoulders stable, letting the hips come off the mat when needed, Left around, right, and center 1 more each way. And center last one. And then hug your knees into your chest. We're gonna take a little stretch break. Keep your right knee into chest stretch.

You're left leg out on the mat. Let's rock that leg side to side. And then you can put your right hand down onto the floor, cross that leg over to the left, stretch your back, Try to keep the right shoulder on the mat, and then come back up to center. And switch legs. So Gia gonna hug that left leg in.

Right leg is reaching out on the mat. Just rock that left leg Side to side, loosen up your hip. Since I've been injured up and seated a lot, so it feels good to just stretch a little bit, move, lengthen my legs. Left hand down, cross that leg over, to the right, left shoulder stays on the mat, into your little twist. Read into that stretch, and then come back up.

And you can keep your hand on your knee and use it to help you roll up We're gonna turn around, and we're gonna go into, Gia little more ab work. So grab your slastics. You're gonna bring them with you. And then you're gonna lie down on your back. So you wanna be, right in front of the chair facing it, I have my feet on the pedal just resting.

So it's my legs are a mountain tabletop. If you wanna be a little closer or a little further away, you can adjust as needed. Gia just wanna make sure I have a little bit of, resistance with the slash 6. So I'm gonna do a little bicep curl. So I'm gonna curl my chest up just to get my abs engaged then I'm just gonna bend my arms for a bicec curl and stretch and bend and stretch.

Pulling my abs in every time I pull the plastic toward me and stretch for more. And 3, 2. Hold the sauce one in. Hold. Crop a little higher. Hold for 5, 43, 21, lower down, place your classics down.

We're done with those. And then I'm gonna bring my feet to the top of the chair now right above the pedal. We're gonna do a little bit of a teaser. I'm using the pedal or the chair to help me just so it's not, all of my abs. I have a little bit of, support from the chair. So arms are gonna reach up.

I'm gonna re roll up, reach toward my feet. If you need help, you can always grab onto the backs of your legs. Gia up nice and tall, reach for your toes, and then roll down. So you can do this without your feet on the share if you'd like. I just want a little bit more support and roll up, and then roll back Two more like this rolling up. And then roll back and check-in my position, make sure I can reach the pedal.

Cause from the next one, we're gonna hold it up. Grab onto the pedal. You're gonna push the pedal down and lift. Again, I'm pulling into my abs as I press the pedal down. I think it pulling from my back again Gia like we did when we receded earlier. We have 4, 3.

2 last one, and then roll down one bone at a time. Hug your legs into your chest, rock side to side, and we're gonna roll up to a sitting position. It's gonna be our only spring change of the class. Gonna lower down to 1 on 1, and we're gonna do a seated side bend. So I'm sitting pretty close to the front of the chair again. You don't wanna sit so close because the pedal is gonna come down, and you don't want it to just hit your side.

I'm gonna use my forearm just because I am seated, and I feel like if I use my hand, my shoulder would be up by my ear. One one forearm on the pedal, the other arm out to the side. I just have my legs, reaching out in front of me. If you wanna sit in an actual mermaid position, go for it. Gia gonna push it down with your forearm and then bend over to the side. Trying to keep both sit bones on the mat and then coming back up to neutral.

And then watching the ribs, make sure they're not pressing forward again as you bend over to the side, and then back up to neutral, 2 more. Reach trying to get a little further each time, making sure neither shoulder is up by your ears, last one. Hold this one down. You're gonna turn to face the, pedal. Gia a little rotation.

Come back to the side. Turn up to your face's ceiling a little bit. Open your chest. And then back to side, and then come all the way up, and then we'll turn around to the other side. So I kinda have my legs straight in front of me.

My forearm is on the pedal. Other arm is out to the side. See it nice and tall. I'm gonna push the pedal down, reach over into my side bend, again, keeping both its bones on the mat, and then coming back up. To vertical, and then pushing up over side bend, and then back to vertical. 2 more.

And then back up. Last one, this time you're gonna hold it down. You're gonna turn to face the pedal. A little rotation. Come back to the side.

Turn to face the ceiling a little bit. Open your chest. Back to your side, and then coming back up to vertical and release the pedal. Good. We're all finished. I hope you feel like you've moved a little bit.

You've gotten movement in all ranges of motion of your spine, and Gia hope that you feel good. I'll see you next time.

Comments

Gabriella D
Love it, thanks !

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