Class #5353

EXO Chair Abs and Arms

15 min - Class
33 likes

Description

Challenge your arms and abdominals with this quick EXO Chair workout by Gia Calhoun. She designed this class after spraining her ankle to keep the rest of her body moving without weight-bearing on her feet. Even though it's a quick class, you get a lot of movement in as she uses no spring changes to help you keep a nice flow the entire time.
What You'll Need: EXO Chair, Slastix (2)

Transcript

Read Full Transcript

Hi. I'm Gia, and we're gonna do an exo chair class. We're gonna use the classics a little bit today too. I've recently sprained my ankle. So, this class is gonna include no weight bearing on your feet. It's gonna be a lot of abdominals arms, but we are still gonna do some legwork just without putting any weight on our feet. So we're gonna start with the warm up of abs.

So I'm gonna lie down on my chair. You wanna make sure that you're Hips and shoulders are supported on the mat or on the top of the chair, and then bring your legs into your chest. Just come into a little bit of a ball Chest is lifted up. Try to keep your chest here. You're gonna stretch your legs out, stretch your arms out by your side.

The legs are glued together, and a pump the arms for the handrail. So you'll inhale 2, 3, 45, exhale 2345, inhale, and exhale 2345. Inhale, arms are pumping nice and strong, exhale, It's getting nice and warm inhale, and exhale. Squeeze the legs, squeeze the glutes, exhale. Inhale, and exhale.

We have 4 more, and exhale. 3. Exhale reaches arms and lays a little longer too. Exhale. Last at inhale.

And exhale. Hug your knees into your chest. Let your head go back if that feels okay to you. Take a breath. And then curl back up into your little ball.

Elbows down by your side, we're gonna go into coordination. So you're gonna stretch your arms and legs out, open close your legs, Ben your knees in. Arms come in. Head stays up. Reaching out. Open, close.

Bend the knees. Bend the arms. Reach out. Open, close, curl a little higher as you bend, and bend the arms and reach out. Open, close, bend the knees, the arms 2 more reach, been close, bend, and arms last one. And bend. Good. Hug your knees into just one last time.

Let your head go back again if that feels okay. And then come on up. With control, you're gonna rock up to a seated position, and we're gonna go into a side bin. So it's a little bit like a mermaid. So you're gonna have one leg in front of the chair, one leg out to the side with that foot on the floor, reach both arms out to a tee, shoulders down. Now that your abdominals are nice and warm, we're gonna take a deep inhale, keep them lifted as you've reached down toward that pedal. Reach over into your side bend.

And then coming back up, and then back to your tee. So reaching up and over to that pedal, reaching to that side bend, and then come back up to vertical. 2 more. Reach up and over. Press the pedal down. Just keep that hand right under your shoulder.

You can have the finger facing out if that feels okay to you. Reach. Oh, and by the way, I have my springs, one on 2. I didn't say that before. Good. We're gonna turn around, turn to the other side. So one leg is in front. The other foot is just out to the side. Arms are out into a tee, lifting up and over, and then coming back up and center, and looked up and over.

So I'm still engaging my core muscles. Just getting a nice opening through the side of the body. And lift up and over, and lift back to the tee. Last one. And then back up.

Good. So we're gonna come back onto your stomach now. We're gonna have no spring changes throughout that class. And we're gonna keep that one on 2 for the entire class. If you need to make any adjustments, though, feel free to. So I'm on my stomach. My hands I'm gonna push the pedal down.

My hands are right under my shoulders on the pedal. My legs are apart, but if you can keep your legs together, go for it. We're gonna come hover the pedal up just a little bit, find a nice neutral spine. Pull your ribs back and pull your abs in, and we're gonna keep this long spine as you just bend your elbows, lift the pedal, and then push them down. Bend and stretch. Keep reaching the legs long.

Try to have energy through your feet. My legs are or my foot's a little bit, restricted with the mobility. So I'm just reaching out through my legs as much as I can. 2 more. Last one. Keep the arms straight.

You're gonna lift the pedal up by lifting your spine. And then lower down. And again, lift your spine up. Shoulders are back. Lower.

We have 4 more. And lower. And 2. Lower. Last one. I've come back to that hover, find that nice neutral position.

One arm's gonna stay in the pedal. The other hand's gonna go out to the side. Nice t position with that arm that straight out. You're gonna bend straighten the pedal with one arm. So as I'm bending and straighten with one arm, trying to keep both hip bones on the top of the chair.

I feel like I wanna rotate a little bit, so I'm trying to resist that. 2 more. Last one. Keep the arms straight, lift the pedal up, and then lower down into that single arm swan, and lower. Two more.

Lift. Lower. Last one. And come back to that neutral position. Switch hands. Other arm's gonna go out to your t position.

Adjust your hips if they've shifted at all at all. And then we're gonna bend and straighten this other arm, keeping the spine nice and long, even in your hips, We'll do 4 more. And 3, 2, Last one, arms stay straight, lift the pedal up by lifting your spine, and lower. You'll notice the difference between the two sides. One side, it'll feel a little bit easier. Last one. Bring the other hand down Bend your arms, pull the pedal up, bring one hand to the top of the chair, and then push yourself off with control.

And then you're just gonna bring both feet down and sew a little counter stretch around your back. And then we're gonna come up to a side lying position. So you're gonna use this elastic for this one. So I have this elastic, the short yellow one with the handle, just on that front, top hook. I'm gonna bring this, classic in my hand with my palm facing out, and then I'm gonna push the pedal down with my other hand. And, again, I want my hand just under my shoulder.

You can feel free to adjust as you need to. So the hand of the plastic is gonna just reach up toward the ceiling, and that's just gonna be your support. Both legs are reaching out long. I have my legs glued together, and I'm gonna pull up into my abdominals and into my obliques and lift the pedal up for a little side bend. And then lift up and lower.

Lift lower. Good. We have 4 more. 4. Watch the ribs 3. Make sure they're not thrusting forward.

And 2. And one, come to a little hover. You're gonna bend the arm and straighten, keeping the spine, nice and neutral. So I'm trying not to bend at the waist at all at this time. Trying to stay as straight as I can. We have 4 more.

And 3, 2. Last one. Hold it down. I'm gonna lift the top leg up and lower and lift. Again, trying to keep that hover of the pedal and lift for more lift. Lower, 3, and 2.

Last one. Good. Bring the pedal up. Lower that slastic down, and we're gonna turn around to the other side. So I'm gonna grab that slastic. Again, it's on the, front, the top loop on the front. I'm gonna push this pedal down.

I want my shoulders right over my hand, and then the legs are straight out. This hand of the slastic is gonna push straight up toward the ceiling. And then from here, I'm gonna lift the pedal up and then lower down. And lift and lower. So I'm bending at the waist, trying to use my obliques to lift and lower. Good reaching the legs long, so they're not just hanging.

There's energy throughout the legs. 3 more. And 2. And one come to that little hover, and we're gonna bend straighten the arm and straighten. Ben, stretch 3, and do 8, 4.

Keep the night nice long spine. 3, 2. Last one. Gonna keep that hover with the hands. Lift the top leg up. And lower.

Lift. Good. Trying to stay stable as you can on that side. It's a little bit of balance, but this elastic is helping to keep you stable. And 2 more.

Last one. That bend your arms, bring that slapstick down with control. I'm gonna go into our teaser. So we're gonna put the classics down for now. We're gonna use those again in a little bit.

You're gonna sit forward. Gonna make sure you have room to roll back. And then I'm gonna keep my legs in tabletop. You can feel free to have your legs out to that diagonal or straight out if that feels better to you. So Your legs are in tabletop.

Plans are gonna go on the pedal. You want your fingers facing in as much as you can. And we're not using the arms to push the pedal. You're using your abdominals and your spine. So you're gonna round your back, roll back, and that's what moves the pedal down.

And then you're gonna roll back up. And, again, roll back, pulling the navel into the spine, roll up. So ideally, you're keeping your legs where they are. Trying not to move my legs with me. Just trying to roll away from them, rolling back. And, yep, roll back and hold this time.

And then we're gonna bend and straighten the arms and bend. Stretch. 3, 4, 4, more pulling into the abdominal still, Try to deepen that c curve in your spine. Last one, and then roll up. Take a breath.

You're gonna bring your feet down for a second and just round forward. Shretch. We're gonna grab one slash stick now. It's in the same spot. I'm gonna grab this back one.

You're gonna have that in your hand. One hand's gonna be on the pedal. Time, I'm gonna turn my fingers to face out. I'm gonna keep my legs in tabletop, but again, you can straighten your legs if that feels okay to you. Just like before, we're gonna reach this elastic straight up to the ceiling. Gonna help give us support.

So we're gonna go into our rotated teaser. So you're gonna roll back into that rotation, push up into that slap. And then roll up back to, tabletop. Rolling back, pulling into abdominals, so it's not the arm. It's your spine and your abdominals pushing you back. 2 more.

And roll and lift. Last one. And then roll up. Good. Lower that slapstick down. And then we'll go into the other side.

So And we're pushing that plastic straight up to the ceiling, legs and tabletop, hand is on the pedal this time the finger's facing out. Reach that arm up. You're gonna round your spine and roll back, and then roll up. Just like anything, one side's gonna feel easier. This one's way easier for me than the other side.

Let's do 2 more. Back up. Last one. And then lower that plastic down. Bring your feet onto the floor.

You're just gonna round forward. Just let your arms and head hang. It's breathe. Take breath. Round up one bone at a time.

Set nice and tall. Roll your shoulders back. And you're all finished. Thank you for taking class with me. I I'll see you next time.

Comments

Michela R
1 person likes this.
Short, but intense :P 
It was great, thank you!

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