Minimal Flexion Reformer

Hello, everybody. Welcome to Palaz anytime. I'm Tracy Mallett. This workout is all about a strong body with minimal amount of flexion. In fact, most of this class does not go into flexion, and that means there's no stress on the head, neck, and shoulder. There might be one exercise we might go into a slight cat.

However, everything else is minimal. No flexion. So for those that have trouble going into flexion because of head and neck and shoulder injuries or spinal injuries. This is a great cast for you to do. There's just one exercise where we're going to a cat, and you'll just keep in a neutral position. So let's get going. Alright.

We're gonna make sure that we have our weights today because I am going with weights. I've got 2, £3 weights. I'm gonna be doubling them up. So let's get down. And I'm gonna place the head rest up. We're going for leg work today with our classic, weights. So for this, I usually have 3 reds and a blue because I like to work a little bit here.

So that's entirely up to you. You have to find a weight that's suitable for you, but I'm on 3 reds and a blue. If you wanna go a little lighter, a little heavier, that's up to you, but we do need a classic leg work to start. We're gonna add these lovely weights to spice it up a little bit, so we'll get that head rest up. We're gonna roll onto the reformer.

Let's place the heels on the bar. Now just wanted to press your elbows down into the mat. The heels are on the bar, and we're gonna press the hands down. We're gonna start with a pelvic tilt here. So we're gonna take a deep breath in, exhale, pelvic tilt.

And then come back to neutral. So your pubic bone's going towards the belly button. You're gonna feel those lower abs. We exhale. Inhale rocking the pelvis into that posterior tilt.

And back again, one more. Feel that lengthening through the lumbar spine, and then we come back to a neutral position. Bend your elbows or palms are facing inwards and push out. How does that resistance feel? Does it feel good? If you need to make an adjustment, good to make an adjustment now before we start.

There we go. So we're going to full extension. Now let's reach the arms straight up to the sky. And then bring it back up and down. So think of that full extension of the leg, the lengthening, the quad away from the kneecap. So in that lengthened position, squeeze the top, squeeze the top of the thighs without moving the pelvis.

We're trying to keep more of a neutral position as we extend. Let's do a couple more. One more, hold the arms out, and now little pulse is mid range of motion. So in the middle, that means you know all the way full extended, and, you know, all the way bent so the carriage is closed. You're staying in that mid range of motion.

There we go. And then last one fully extend, and then we come back down. From here, we're going onto your toes here. Keep the arms elevated. Push out and in. Now keep the ankle joints still.

Now we're gonna add the arms. Bend the elbows as you bend the knees. Everything extends together, everything bends, and breathe, maintaining pelvic stability, elbows over your shoulder joint, Now focus on the medial part of your foot so you can feel the inner thighs. So it's equal weight over 5 toes. A little bit more weight on the big toes so you can feel the inner thighs and bring everything in alignment. So we're not pronating.

Are we good? Can we do a couple more? Last time, hold it at the top. Ready. Little pulses. 5432. Now one more full extension.

Drop the right heel down. Drop the left heel down, drop the right heel down, and keep going. And a little prancing here. There we go. Keep the arms elevated just to work those arms a little bit more. Spice things up around here, and 4, and 3, control that heel underneath the carriage.

And then one more, both heels press down and we sigh. Oh, so good. Relivate up on your tippy toes. Bend your knees and bring the elbows down. Into your little v position here, make sure that's too wide.

Arms back up again. Palms facing inwards now push out and in. Now open the arms and pull in. This looks like a little hagger tree. Don't take the arms too low down. Otherwise, you put a little bit pressure on your shoulder joint. There we go.

And then exhale and draw those abs in. Are you squeezing, zipping those inner thighs together? As the pelvic floor lifts up, And the pelvis stays completely stable. Taobon is anchored into the mat, and we're feeling our inner thighs. The heels are connected.

Let's do a couple more. One more, everybody. Holdy here. Ready, arms stay up, and we pulse, go. D, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, mid range of motion. And a 5, and a 4, and a 3, and a 2. Okay.

One more. Whoo. Zip up in the thighs. Don't move the heels. Now drop the heels down or rellivate. Drop and down.

You're gonna feel the outside of your calf. It's actually the promules they are called. There we go. Sometimes when you're stretching them like this, it feels like this cold water running through the your veins. Have you ever experienced that? Stretching.

There we go. A couple more. One more. Bend your knees gracefully, elbows come down. Now put your heels nice and wide. Beautiful. Push out.

Now what we're gonna do is reach that arm straight up, put your palms facing outwards, and we're gonna paint a rainbow with the hands. So everything bends, and you're painting the rainbow. Okay. Our boss bend, pushing up. There we go.

So we get to target the arms a little bit. Like I said at the beginning, if you want to use heavier weights, absolutely. I'm all for strength training. Super important as we age. To keep building muscle mass and protect those bones.

So I'm totally for that. 4 more, 4, 3, 2, Now hold it up. Pulse. Go. Duh. Mid range of motion.

Press into the heels. Fill those in the thighs. Duh. Duh. And 5, and 4, and 3, and 2 full extension. Whoo.

And we come back down again. Last set, onto your toes is we're here. Okay. Albums pointing inwards, and we push out. Now take it down and press up. There we go.

And just to finish off on the elevator here, just pushing up, Add in that little extra weight gets that heart rate up a little bit more. That makes us think about, upper shoulder girdle, drawing the scapula down, your shoulder blades down to your hips, Remember your arms are connected to your back, and then we can get more abdominal workouts through intra abdominal pressure as we draw those abs in. One more. Hold it here. Ready for our last little pulse in section here.

And go. Tada. Tada. Tada. Keep the weight over 5 toes, including your big toe. There we go. Tada. Tada.

Okay. 5 more. I'm a terrible counter 5, and 4, and 3, and 2. Are we ready? Push those legs out. Watch the heels, and then bend and come back in. Beautiful. From here, take your weight into one arm, hold on to your shoulder rest, and push yourself up. We're gonna take one spring off.

So I'm actually gonna take the blue spring off. So I have 3 reds on now. We're gonna come back. Back into single leg. So right heel is on there.

Left leg is going to be extended. Elbows bent. We're gonna push out and then drop that leg down. Push out, drop that leg down. Just adding those arms again, just add that little extra flair here and back.

Reach now. Be mindful to keep the pelvis stable. As you lift that leg. So depending on your flexibility, it's gonna dictate how far that leg goes up and hopefully we can get it to a straight line, but it might not quite make it there. Alrighty. Let's do 4 more.

We're doing it 4, 3, 2. Now, one more holder here, drop the hands down, flex the foot circle away from the midline of your body. So join a circle on the sky, moving your femur within the hip socket, and then we go the opposite direction, keep the pelvis still And there's a continuous circle, like a little whip around here, inhale, and exhaling freely. Let's do one more. Hold it there.

Point the toe, bend the knee. Hold it there, keep your hands where they're at, pelvic tilt, and bring it back, little pelvic tilt, bring it back, little tilt, try and keep that carriage still, You can do this, keep that carriage still, and we go up and down. Can we do 4 more, 4? Keep that big toe pointing to the sky. You got it. All in that hamstring, one more, and then we bring you back down. Fantastic. Alrighty. Reach that other leg, elbows bent.

Alright. We got it again. So we go. Up, lower the leg. Everything reaches up, and then everything lowers. Remember it's your stabilizing leg that's working, that single leg squat.

So always gonna be one leg stronger than the other. So it's so important to work unilaterally in your practice. There we go. Watch your hip is not hiking. Drop that hip down so we're not hiking the hip. There we go. Can we do a couple more?

And let's do one more. Hold it here. Flex your foot, bring the elbows down. Now we're gonna circle. You can bring the lower arms all the way down.

If you need a little bit of support there, this is gonna make it a little bit more challenging. Right? So I'll let you decide And you'll circle in the way from the midline of the body. Alrighty. Should we go the other direction? And exhale. Inhale. Classic leg circles and exhale.

Inhale. And exhale. And inhale and exhale. Point the toe. Bring the carriage back safely. We're here. Are you ready, pelvic tilt? And we're gonna go up into your bridge and down. Do not have to go very far?

Just a little lift and a little lower and a little lift and a little lower. Doesn't have to be big. It can just be a little pelvic tilt. And if you don't want to go into a bridge, just do a little pelvic tilt. There's always modifications if today you're just not feeling it.

There we go. Can we do a couple more? Let's do one more. Just hold it there. Feel that hamstring dying.

With my nice soft calm voice, and then we were and down. And we're feeling fantastic. Alright. We're gonna turn to your side here, and we're gonna roll ourselves all the way up. Beautiful. We're gonna stand up.

We've got 2 weights here. We're gonna progress with a little bit more legs. We're gonna leg phase here. We're gonna take it to 1 red spring. So we will know the scooter, I hope, and knees are together, the knees hovering, and let's just put the inside hand forward. Now we're just gonna push the leg back.

Now I've gone for a red, Some of you could go a little bit heavier, but I'm going through full range of motion. I want that back leg straight. So if I load it up anytime a little bit more, it's a little bit more challenging. And then the form in the pelvis goes. So let's just keep it at one red.

Don't worry. I'm challenging you. Bobby added red and the yellow. That's fine. Let's add a row now. Row. So I've doubled up the weights.

So this would be £6, right? There we go. Push back in him. We're gonna do about 5 more here, 5, 4 in that row, 3, exhale 2, and then exhale 1. Now we're gonna test our balance. Hands come up.

Ready? Pitch slightly forwards to counterbalance and push back in in. So now it's gonna get a lot more challenging. Now you'll be thankful that you're on that red spring. There we go. Elbows high.

Now if you feel comfortable, we're gonna take it to a next layer. Otherwise, you stay here. We add a rotation. So that would be your last layer here where we rotate. You see it's testing my balance. There we go. We're rotation and in, and we excel on the exertion.

For 4. And again, for 3. For 2. Ready. And for 1.

Come back down. Drop the knee. Put the little weights down. I'm going for this because my class always love this flow, so I'm going for it. We do our flying cat here, bring the foot forwards. Ready. We pull up.

Straight leg. Sometimes going simple is the best. And we keep that back leg straight. Let's see if we can go a little bit faster and a little bit more dynamic. And then if you feel to take it to that next level, knee up and cat this time, so that means you're rounding through the body, rounding, and rounding.

Let's do 4 more here. 4, and 3, and 2, and 1, drop that leg down. Bring the knee in. Lower. Turn that foot out.

So my hips are turned diagonally. Lift that knee off. If you wanna put your hand down, go ahead and push back in that curtsy. It looks easy but there's a lot of balance going on here. That's why I suggest popping your hand down.

And then when your body's used to it, proper ception set in, I think I'm good now. Okay. I can put my hands to preposition. There we go. So feel good here. I'm stable, but I've always got the bar here.

And I'm in that current position working that glute maximus. There we go. And press Let's do 4 more, 4, and 3, and 2. And give me one more. I'm back. Beautiful.

Then we're gonna do everything on the other side now. So let's pick up our weights, make our journey to the other side. Got my double weights here. First one, put your foot back against the, shoulder rest. The other knee is exactly the same position, but it's bending, semi bent on the stabilizing side. We're in the scooter position.

The hand is down. Shoulder blades are pulled back, and we start to pushback. Now I know this feels a little light. Remember, this is your first base here. So this is where you're warming up, giving your body ready, to go for more of those advanced exercises or the intermediate advanced exercises that we did that really will test your balance. So let's add that row and back.

So you can see my spine is in neutral. I'm in a strong neutral position, functionally, I'm stabilizing, and moving at the hip to hip extension, and then your knees extending. Oh, hoo. Let's do 4 more. 4. 3. A little bit more dynamic.

2. And that gives me one more. Ready lift up. This is where you get challenging. Are we ready? Hold that weights. Pitch your body forwards.

Need that body forwards. Now push back. You might need to adjust your stabilizing for a little bit further forwards. If you feel your balance is off, elbows high, get your body forwards, everyone, so you're not going into that lower back. Now remember, you can either stay here, or we're gonna take it up.

That one little extra notch rotation to the stabilizing leg. There we go. Lovely rotation. So that glute medias, your glute on your leg you're standing on is working super duper hard. Keep going. 4 more. 4, and 3, and 2. Ready. And 1, and bring it back. Drop the knee down, place those weights just out the way here.

Remember, the outside leg comes forwards now, near the foot of the reformer. Our starting position is here for your flying cat, arms stay straight, back leg is straight, bring the carriage in, and just lift that leg. So you can feel the lower abs and lifting my hips off the my abs are lifting my leg. And it's a pike. So keeping your arms straight, keeping your back leg straight is really the key to this exercise.

Now we're gonna try, take the knee, towards your chest. This time you're rounding like a c curve, just like you would in an elephant position and you're curving with a little bit more dynamic. We're gonna get that heart rate up. Keep it going. 4 more.

4. I'm speeding it up. 3. And 2. 1 more. And down, bring that knee in.

Last is the currency. Outside lagonally rotates. My pelvis is going diagonally forwards and lift that knee up and find where I feel comfortable, body's slightly pitch forwards, and I start to push back. Feel comfortable. Make sure that front leg is not too turned out.

And then when we're ready, or maybe we won't be ready, put your hands in prayer or keep your hand down. There we go. And we're pushing back. Woooo. Woooo. Woooo. And you got 5 more. Keep smiling.

5, and 4, and 3, and 2. You got one more. And then we ring it back. The key is to keep smiling. When you smile, it makes everything easier.

That's my key. That's why I'm always smiling. Alright. Come back down. Now you know my secret. Alright. We're gonna go into abs now.

No flexion. So we're gonna just keep the headrest lifted, okay, because we're gonna keep the head rested right on that headrest. And we're gonna go into one red, which we still have, which is great. So we're still ready with that red spring. We're gonna roll ourselves down.

Bring our feet up onto the bar, let's take the front strap. Press into it, feel the arms connecting to the back, the lats, the serratus, the abs, That's your start position. My arms are connected to the back, then I can float the knees up into chair position. Alright. We're gonna press down. Now because we work in single arm, when people are red, maybe too challenging, so maybe a blue would be a good alternative.

So we're working your apps here, but keeping your head safely down on the headrest. Beautiful. Now the opposite leg to the handings shoots out, and then it comes back to chair. Easy, right, reaching that leg out and bring it back. So the further the leg goes away from the center, of your body is the harder it's going to be. Right?

It's gonna challenge your core. So those levers, those long levers are way towards the bar. And then you've got the connection with the abs from your arms, to your apps and that leg reaching out. Let's do a couple more. One more.

Hold it there. Bring that leg up and down, up and down. If your abs are lifting your leg up. There we go. Reach the fingertips towards your feet. Two more, one more, everybody, and then bend the knee back into chair, place one leg down, onto your bar, the other leg, and bring the hand back.

Switch sides quickly. Alrighty. Ready. Lift up first. Find that connection. Float one leg up.

Float the other leg up. Oh, we got it. Now just press down. And back. Think of your lats pulling down, your scapula pulling down to your pelvis, your intercastles wrapping around, and your abdominals really going deep into the spine, you're pulling in and lifting the pelvic floor at the same time. So everything is coming together like a canister.

Now the opposite leg to the strap goes out, and then it comes back in again. Shoot that leg out, and then back in again. Latham fingertips towards your toes. And the other leg is in a perfect chair position, shin is parallel to the sky. That's non negotiable.

There we go. 4 more. Oh, there you go. The sun just come out for me. 3 more. Two more.

One more. Hold it there. You got it. That leg comes up and down. Up and down. You do not need to go into flexion to work your abs.

Absolutely. We work in our abs all day. Stabilizing as we walk functionally, Let's do a couple more. One more. Lift that leg up, bend the knee back into chair, bring that hand back up. Now taking both hands.

Last set here We will reach the legs out, lengthen the legs up, lower the legs down as best as you can, bend the knees in. We reach out, lift the legs up, vertical, lower the legs as far as you can control it, bend the knees in, arms come back, and lengthen. Use those abs to lift up. Lower down, see if you can hover the bar, and then bend the knees, arms come back. A few more.

Keep the connection with the arms in the back. Here we go. That connection will really help you get into those abs. Bring it back. So pressing down, reaching your fingertips out towards your big toes, lift up, and down, bend the knees. Can we do one more? Absolutely.

Ready. Read his legs out. Holdy here. Beat 8. 765-432. Hold it there. Lift those legs up. Bend the knees and bring the arms back. Well, there you go.

I felt my abs, and there was no flexion there, no tension in my head, neck, and shoulders. That's a winner. Right? Come all the way up. Alrighty. We're gonna move on. This time we're gonna put our box long short ways. There we go.

So place in our box, short ways. Okay. Make sure that even each side, there we go. Now I'm gonna put the Reformer on a red spring. We're gonna be on a red spring.

Some of you might need a little bit less, but I'm gonna put on a red. We're gonna be using the lower bar and the upper bar here too. So there's your platform and your bar. So we're gonna step up First of all, grab the box. Imagine your fingertips are wrapping around. And as you wrap around, you're pulling back so you can connect your arms to the back again.

Put your left leg right on the corner of the platform. And then the opposite leg is gonna go straight up on top of the bar. So we're gonna start as the carriage is closed. I'm gonna relook out. My head is in line with the spine, and I'm gonna push out and in, and I'm lengthening out and in.

And out. So I'm really wrapping my fingers around the edge. I'm in a plank position, strengthening my core in a neutral position. Okay. Let's do a couple more.

One more. Hold it here. Switch legs. Other leg, bring the foot up. You're ready. Carriage is closed.

Now push out and in. Think of that length in the neck so you're not dropping your head. It's a tendency that we all do. The head is part of your spine. Remember that. So when we say length and spine, you should lengthen the neck too.

That laser beam is hitting right in front of me. 4 more four reach that leg out. It's like a single leg. That lower lace got a lot of load on it. 2, and you've got one more.

Bring you back down. Both toes down. Come up, onto your hands. Push out into your plank. Now we're gonna bend your elbows, lift up, and bring the carriage back.

Pushing back out again, the hands underneath the wrists. Now push the carriage slightly forwards and bring the elbows down, we lift back up, and then everything safely comes back. We go out, push the carriage slightly forwards as elbows come down, lift up, and this is particularly challenging for me. My upper body is a lot weaker than my lower body, So this is one of the exercises that I really like to do. It's simple, but totally works.

When done correctly, it's a very challenging exercise. Keep the shoulders away from your ears now. Push the carriage just a little bit as you dip. Oh, let's do one more. Get that into that long plank, push press down, lift up, and bring the knees to the carriage.

Oh, that was challenging. We're gonna sit down sideways here, and we're gonna come on to the top. So in that little mermaid position, now I do recommend this to go either a blue or a yellow spring. So I'm gonna lean down. I'm gonna take it to a blue spring Some of you may need a yellow. Alright. Going into some arm work here.

So the elbow is lifted. We're gonna go up and over into side bend, and then we come back down again. And then we go again into side bend and back. So you're reaching over in that lateral flexion and coming back. Now we're gonna add on. So we go over, bring it back, reach the arm out by step co. See how my elbow stayed in line with my shoulder joint.

We go over, bring it back, reach the arm out, bicep curl. And again, side bend, brewing you back, bicep curl. And reach Back. Bicep curl. One more.

Over to the side. Lift up. Now here's your bicep curl. We do 4 here. 4. XL 3, XL 2, nice and tall, and then XL 1 reach the arm out, rotate, and we stir in the pot.

Love this. Stir in the pot. Alvar's Wade. So we rotate and then bing towards your chest, like a circle. There we go. Stir in the pot.

There we go. A couple more, and then we stir the pot. The other direction. Let's go the other direction towards your body. Stir in that pot.

There we go. Albows. Hi. You can always go to the smallest strap too to make it a little bit more challenging. There's always that option. One more, and then come back. Bring that little strap down and just go up into side flexion into your mermaid here.

And now rotate this a little bit into extension, and then come back. Let's quickly go to the other side. Once again, you're in that mermaid position. Left outside hands. You can probably put your hand on your hip, or I like to put it on the box, like, right here in front of me. So we go into our side bend, and then back obliques, shoulders, biceps, And that nice stretch.

Alright. You ready to add on now? In, open, bice it, curl. Go. Over your head. Bring it in bicep curl. And over your head, bring it in bicep curl elbow in line with your shoulder joint. Yeah. So I'm on one blue spring right now.

And out and in, let's do one more lateral section. How we go? Now 4 bicep curls go. 4 exhale 3. Keep thinking nice and tall. 2.

Ready one more. Oh, back out. Oh, the arm reaches. Ready. We're gonna stir the part. Stir it.

Reach, follow your arms, make it nice and big. There you go. Nice and big. You can take the smallest strap. Like I said, it'll make it a little bit more challenging.

If you find this a little too light right now, take the smallest strap. Remember, there's not one spring that fits everything, but I try to keep it on minimal spring changes. Now reverse it just so that we can keep moving and flowing. There we go. Stear in that big pot.

Can we do 3 more? 3 Give those elbows high, shoulder blades pulled back in opposition. Alright. Can we do one more? Last time. And amazing.

Put that strap down. Alright. Let's go into a little stretch here. Actually, I'm gonna go the other way because it feels good. There's your stretch. Either or we know our mermaid stretch. Perfect.

And let's come down. Alright. We're gonna move that box away now. Box is gone. Alright. We're gonna come back up onto the top here. We're gonna go with 1 red spring.

Okay. Once again, we're going in, put your hands on the bar for us, and then lift yourself up. We take in your right leg back, left leg forwards, and it's on a split lunge. So you're here on that split lunge. Okay? Now we push back into that back leg and boingy back. So you're pushing back and in.

Pushing back. So be mindful that your arms are strong. Arms are connected to your back. Now we're gonna go into this lovely little combination flow, or you can just stay here. We can do four of these. So it goes four.

3, 2, wait for it, hold it there, step that leg down, stretch, and then lift, come back up. And we go again. Push Keeping that spine extended. K. One more. Ready. Lenthin. Drop that leg down.

Stretch it out. Use those abs to bring it back. Bend the knee. Push back. 4. 3. 2. Holdy here. Step down. Stretch.

Bring it back. There's those apps. And we go. 4. 3.

To stretch that back leg, step it down, stretch it out, and come back. Hold it here. From here, we're going to step that front leg forwards, bring that leg in, transfer with that leg back, and we push back into, I call this, it's like you're at the race track and you're doing the hundred meter sprint. And you're in that racing block, your abs are lifted up off your thigh, and you're reaching forward, doing that nice straight spine again. 2 more.

And one more and bring it back. Beautiful. Now we're going to move it. So we're gonna switch. So the opposite leg goes forwards now. So here we are in that lovely position.

Right leg is forward. Left leg is back. Now let's everybody get into our spine here, nice and extended. Pull the shoulder blades down. Pull those abs up against your thigh.

Pull up away from your thighs. We've got that nice space here. Are we ready? Push back in. So that front foot is on irrelevant.

And we pushing back. So all the work is in that back leg. And this is a prep. For a lot of times, we do the rabbit. You'll see that done a lot, and this is kinda like a prep for it.

Now we're gonna go into that flow. So we do 4 in, 3 in, 2 in, one step down, extend abs back. And 4. 3. Look forward. 2.

Pull back step down, stretch, abs. Pull back. That is the abs. Ben the knee. We got 4. Oh, this is fun. Duh. Hold it. Step down.

There's your stretch. Use your apps. Pull back up. Got that. Let's try again. There are 2 more. One more. Hold it.

Step down. Lift up. Ready. Let's do one more for good looks. I know you all having fun here. 4. 3, where those legs are crying.

2, And then one more holder here, step down. There's your enjoyable stretch. Come back up, and you got it. Now from here, we're going to bring the leg forwards. And now your back leg we're pushing. So you're on the starting block here. Abs are lifted, and you're pushing back.

Keep that spine straight. Arms are pressing back to connect your arms to the back again, and you're pushing back in that scooter, building strength in that back body for 4, and 3, and 2 and you've got one more. And then we come back. Amazing. From here, just walk the feet back and just give yourself a little bit of a stretch.

Yes. So that nice stretch. Beautiful. And then from here, we're gonna come down, and we're gonna take it to one blue spring. I'm gonna bring the bar down, and then we're gonna come all the way down.

We're gonna work our side of leaks here. So let's keep the headrest down. I'm gonna reach the legs out nice and long. Alright. We're gonna lift up, and I'm going to reach the arms straight up and down. So now I can feel my obliques, make sure your feet are slightly forwards, If this is too challenging, you can come all the way down and roll down so your head is actually on the headrest, and then you can add a leg lift.

Leg lift. So you have obliques that hold in you here, and just look forwards towards me. Let's do four more here, 4, that leg up, 3, 2. Hold it here. Hold. Top leg goes behind, and we're just gonna hold it here. I'm just gonna lift those legs up just a little bit.

Tiny. It's very tiny. Can you feel those obliques? 4, 3, 2, and 1. Good oblique work. Here we go. Take the strap, wrap it around your in step, lift up nice and tall, hand behind your head, and we're gonna point those toes. We're gonna go forwards.

And then back, we will know the drill here, forwards and back, keep the pelvis as still as you can, inhale forwards, exhale back, come out of your shoulder, lift it up, and the underneath oblique, and inhale forwards. Hex our back. You got 1 more. Inhale forwards. Bring it back. Now diagonally forwards. We bring that leg up to your ear, we hope, and then we press down.

So you're in an external rotation here and back. So the leg is diagonally forward. So pop that leg diagonally forwards and rotate at the hip joint. Get out your shoulder. There you go. Pull your scapula down. And, bacs, this is a lot of flexibility here.

3. 2 more. And then you got one more, right, one more. And then we do our little Jane funder here. Some of you will know who that is.

There's the stretch, your Jane funder move, and then we take it away and we bring it down. Oh, nice little flow there. Turn to the other side. Okay. Pick that hand up. Reach up. Now reach the legs out long to the side, and we go out.

I've got my feet slightly in front of my hips. It's just a little bit more comfortable. I can feel my obliques, and I'm not going into the lower back. So it's a safer option. Because what happens if you put your legs right out to the side, a lot of times they migrate behind your body, and then you go on into your back. So it is better to get your feet slightly pointing forwards. There we go.

Keep looking forward. Feeling those obliques. Alright. Let's do a couple more. Are we ready? Straight up.

Hold it there. Top leg splits behind. Then we just do a little lift. It's very tiny, but it's in the obliques, but those arms are working super hard. 5, 4, 3, 2. Hold it there. Straight. Fill those obliques and then bend and come down. Next, place it around your in step.

Push that leg forwards, and ready point the toes. We go forwards. And back, sweeping the leg forwards and back. The most important part here is that you keep the leg the same height, you pick a height, and you keep that height, your hips are stacked, and you are lifting up on the underneath oblique here where your shoulder pulled down a back. So there's no pressure in your shoulder.

Alright. So there's some cues that we really want to really make happen. In your body. It's all about your form alignment. Alright. Let's do one more, slow and controlled. Now we go into our external rotation here. Ready?

We lift up and then down. So I'm lifting up. I can get my leg a little higher for my external rotation to come down. Remember, it's not about the height of the leg It's about the execution, keeping that hip away. And there we go. Let's do four more here for and 3, use your hamstring to press down. So that's your cue. That's your feeling here.

Your hamstring pressing out in a way. Alright. Can we do one more pressing out in a way? Now going into your little photograph here, there's your photograph. 54321. Take it away. And bring it back.

Last but not least, We're here. We're on the right spring. Your knees are against your shoulder rests. We're gonna walk forward. We're gonna hold on to those rises, and we're doing a pull up in that lovely extension to work. That mid upper back and our posterior deltoids to finish off our class.

Alright? So we walk up. We hold on, and we're looking forwards now. Scoop out those apps. Now bring your elbows towards your headrest. So in your shoulder rest, you can see my elbows are hitting my shoulder rests and back. And this is all about your back.

It's all about your back, arms, bicep, triceps, all about that thoracic extension here, but be mindful. Pull those abs in. There we go. Let's do about 5 more. As a modification for this, if your knees don't feel up to it, you can always put your box long or short and do it on a box too, just to elevate your body a little bit more. Okay.

Come on. You got it. You're a needy home. 2 more. One more. Reach, now safely come back home, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, and roll ourselves all the way up. Reach over. It's a lateral flexion, and then switch to the other side.

In that stretch. Let's do that again. Reach. And then reach. Beautiful work. Good job, you guys today.

Come back. And I just want you to reach the arms out, stretching out. So remember that class was all about no flexion. However, we did do cat in that flying cat, That was the only little bit of flexion that we had in it, but you can always do that in a neutral spine. So it proves you don't always have to go into flexion to work your abs. You are working your abs and your core every day.

It's how you put your mind to it and how you understand your body is working to control your balance, maintain alignment without flexion. Alright. Hands by the side of your body. Just gonna reach up over your head into lice. The hands come up, lift up nice and tall. It's going to irrelevant.

That transverse was working super hard today. Your inner core muscles, your inner unit, and then come back hands behind your head, rotate. Remember, when we go into flexion, We're working the pretty 6 pack muscle, but we're not really working those deep abdominal muscles that stabilize to its fullest capacity. So this is why it's good to work both. If we can, but obviously some of us cannot work into Flection.

Hold it here. Release and give yourself a round of applause. I hope you enjoyed that class. I'm fantastic for being here again, and I look forward to coming back again. Look, the sun came out for me in sunny, California in December, the only place in the world that is so beautiful all year round. So come and visit us one day. We're here in Santa Barbara.

Have a great day, and I look forward to seeing you again.