Closed Chain Reformer

Hi, everyone. Today, we're gonna do a reformer workout. We will be using the magic circle a little bit. We are not gonna start with it, though. So I'm just gonna set my circle to the side for right now. I have my spring setting on one blue on this balance body reformer, and I'm gonna actually go in the well. So I'm gonna step inside, careful, don't stub your toe, guide myself down to the floor with my hands on the frame, and I wanna get my back right up against the frame here.

So I'm trying to sit up tall and just get my orientation for sitting neutral with my pelvis in this position. So you may even find that it's helpful to wiggle your seat back an extra inch so that you can really lift up. Now, what I'm gonna do is reach forward, grab the silver poles with my hands and try to stack myself up here. Later, as we engage as we work with the magic circle, I want to create a connection to the shoulders here that we're gonna use when we actually squeeze the circle with our arms. So one of the things that tends to happen is we tend to pinch those shoulder blades back a little bit too much sometimes. This exercise is gonna help to kind of teach us to get our shoulders, a little more in the joint here.

So I'm gonna first allow the spring to pull my arms forward while keeping my back up against the frame, and then I'm gonna exaggerate drawing my shoulders back. So here, there's maybe that little bit of, like, pinching of shoulder blades just to get the two extremes so we can find neutral. I'm gonna do that again. I'm gonna let the carriage pull my shoulders forward, and then I'm gonna pull the carriage towards me. My arms stay straight.

Do that one more time finding those two extremes. So in extreme protraction of the shoulder blades, and then an extreme retraction of the shoulder blades. Now from here, try to find your neutral, which is a little bit harder than it seems. You're gonna start to allow your spring to shorten just a little bit Let the shoulder blades find their little place against your back and grow just a little bit taller. Your elbows will flare out slightly as you pull the carriage towards you now, try not to lose your contact of your back against the frame, and then send the carriage away from you.

The whole time I'm doing this, I'm trying to create stable shoulders. So what I like to think to myself is my shoulders are stable. My arms are moving. So I'm gonna breathe and move the carriage away for me, breathe out pull it towards me, breathe and send it away. Breathe out, pull it back. One more, breathe and send it away. Breathe out, pull it back. Now, still trying to stay as organized in those shoulders as you can, leave your left hand on the silver pole, put your right hand on the side of the frame. Now, one arm variation. Carrie, obviously a little harder, because it's same spring, but one arm, but you try to again keep that shoulder blade nice and stable.

I like to keep it stable and just think I'm moving my arm, stabilizing my shoulders. Still thoughtful on the right shoulder, the one that's not working. One more makes six. I reach it away. And then without falling apart, I'm gonna grab with both, reorganize anything I may have lost, put the hand on the side of the frame, and then I pull with my right arm. That elbow is just slightly pointing downward.

It's not super wide to the side. And you'll really start to notice how one arm is dominant because you'll really feel a little freer and stronger in one side than you will of the other. No worries about that. Just recognize it. And six, reach it away.

Now, hold the hands again. Having worked really hard and figuring out where the shoulders go, make sure you don't forget how that feels, let's go ahead and relax now. We're gonna nod the chin into the chest just like the spine stretch from the mat work and let the carriage pull you forward getting that nice forward bend. Now roll yourself back up grow nice and tall. Take it forward. Again, first, it's a nod of the chin into the chest.

Then we stretch through that upper back, middle back, low back. And then if you're lucky, you get a little hamstring stretch Carrie. Guide yourself right back up. Take that one more time. Should nods to chest. Spine articulates down and bring yourself right back up.

I'm gonna take my right hand and just hold the shoulder block for a second so that I can get my left hand easily on the silver pole. Right hand comes onto the frame, and I can take that into a nice little twist here stretching over my gaze's back. And then I'm gonna come back up, stack over my hips, switch arms, stable shoulders at first, use this as an opportunity to practice that, and then take it forward again. Stretch it over. Bring yourself back up, switch hands, stack the shoulders, and then exhale.

You can let it go a little as you stretch. Bring yourself back up. Other way, stable shoulder, inhale, exhale, takes you forward. Coming all the way up, and you're right back to middle. To reinforce that nice work in the shoulders, let's just do three more of these pulls.

Like I said, when we add little squeezes and presses out on the magic circle with our arms, this is what I want us to always come back to. This nice strong feeling here in the shoulders, third one we hold, memorize how strong and stable you feel across your back and shoulders. And let's let that go, reach forward, eventually letting go. And we're gonna stand up. So I always call this getting out of the bathtub.

It's just like just like getting out of the bathtub. You can gather up your magic circle now. And let's go ahead and set our foot bar up for footwork. And I'm gonna also set my springs for footwork. For today, I'm gonna choose three reds.

And as a setup for our footwork, don't forget how we work the shoulders. Place your feet on the platform Carrie, and put the circle between your knees. We're not gonna spend a lot of time here, but what I wanna do is create a connection to the core that helps to squeeze the circle. So breathe in to prepare. As you breathe out, give the magic circle a squeeze, and think to yourself I'm gonna draw my sides in like an hourglass shape and drop my navel to my spine all at the same time.

Open the knees, so it's a given that the inner thighs are working. Exhale. Use the breath to connect to the belly and feel the sides and the low belly work. Open the knees inhale. Squeeze exhale. Again, that long exhale facilitates this movement and helps you find a greater and deeper connection to your center.

Just two more of these. Inhale. Please note my pace here too. I'm not just squeezing rapidly. I'm taking this really slow. This is only my fourth squeeze, open the knees, inhale.

Squeeze on five. Draw the naval down. Draw the sides in like an hourglass shape. Hold don't forget that connection, release the circle. I'm gonna turn the handles up and down, go through the circle and put my feet on the wide part of the bar here.

In this position, I'm going right into a bridge. So we'll make sure that headrest is flat. Press down into the feet, lift the hips, and just take a second kinda getting organized up there. See if you can find a slightly better, position of neutral, so drawing the naval in and turning the tailbone under. Now we're gonna hold up here, and we're actually gonna press out on the circle.

So now bringing some awareness to our hips and release the circle inhale. Do it again. Press the thighs out feel the hips come alive and release I like to call that my side, honey. And again, press it out three. A little scoop, the belly tuck the tail as you press. Release, press it out four.

Little release. And one more, press it out. Hold five. Now just do eight little pulses wider than you already are. Eight. Building strength and awareness in the hips, because we're gonna think about that as we do our footwork. Seven, hold on. Eight and bring that back down. Now let's put all of this together. So we are gonna start with the hands on the inside of the circle like this.

The hands are pressing out against the handles, and my elbows are squeezing in. I'm in Pilates v stance with the feet, and I'm gonna take one breath to find the connection to the belly that I had when I squeezed the circle and the connection to the sides of the hips that I had when I pressed the circle out. And then we go and bring it in. Two. So trying to make this feel extra special today, try not to just go through the motions, but how can I bring extra special life to all those different parts of my body? The backs of my shoulders are strong and alive, my abdominals are working deeply, and my hips are strong.

This is nine, and ten, bring it in. Now go to bird feet position with the feet, raise the arms up same pressure out on the magic circle. Find the center, find your hips, press your hands, and go up. Bring it in two. Inhale, exhale close your springs, And how can you make this extra special?

Press those hands wide on the circle. Use your breath. Eight nine, 10, bring it in. Walk up to the heels, and now I wanna hold the circle and I'm gonna give it a little squeeze. Mindful that we're not pinching the shoulder blades together too much but we're using the back and the strength that we felt at the start of the class is focus here.

Take it up. Bring it in. Two. Carrie. Use the breath control, steady squeeze on the circle, shoulders broad abs alive, hips alive. Let's leave the carriage in put the circle down for one moment and just put your arms down beside you.

This is a little four part variation on footwork. Slide back still on your heels, flex your feet. While on your heels, raise your hips up so you're in a little straight leg bridge, bend your knees bridge a little higher, roll down through your back. I think this feels glorious. Let's do this four times only take it slow.

Push out. Press into your arms for extra support as you raise your hips high, bend your knees, keep those hips high, roll down through the back two more, send it out. Dig into the heels rise up, keep the hips high, close the springs, roll the back down, and we do a fourth and final rep, take it back. Press it and lift almost a little higher, roll it all the way down and rest. We're gonna sit up, grab the magic circle, and do some kneeling arm work with the magic circle.

Change the spring to just one blue You could always go a little heavier or a little lighter, depending on your reformer at home. And then I'm just gonna grab the right strap with my hand, get nice and organized here so that my toes are curled forward, I'm gonna have the strap in my hand and the magic circle in both hands. Now, here again, we're thinking back to that strength and that broadness across the back that we created earlier. Just holding here send energy through your seat, send your hips slightly forward, and just give the circle a little squeeze. I wouldn't squeeze it very hard, release with an inhale.

This time, find that same connection to your side body. Think my sides draw in like an hourglass shape, release inhale. Do that twice more, exhale a little squeeze and keep the shoulders broad. Now this time we squeeze on our fourth one, but we press the circle out. Bring it back in a little release inhale.

Squeeze it and press it. Bring it back a little release again. Squeeze it. Handress. Bring it back.

A little release hand we squeeze, press it out. Bring it back. Now add a rotation. Let the equipment spiral you around to the right before you come back to middle, squeeze with the right hand to come back, extend and bend again, rotate. Rotate. Rotate.

Squeeze come back. Reach it out, bring it in. This is three. Let the equipment move you. Then you move the equipment. And one more time, oh, bend the heart in the chest as you twist, squeeze a little on the circle, press out, bring it in.

We're gonna sit back, put that strap down, grab the other strap, get yourself organized here, breathe in to prepare. As you breathe out, give the circle a squeeze full exhale, release with an inhale. Now remember to stay broad across that back, exhale squeeze the circle gently. Inhale now find that center. As you squeeze the circle, think, draw the sides away from your tight leggings, release inhale.

Squeeze. Now from here, send it out with the squeeze bring it back. Little release. Squeeze, press it out. Bring it in. Little release.

Squeeze forward. Back little release and squeeze forward. Bring it back at the twists, rotate left, let the equipment give you that little assisted twist, then squeeze the circle, press it out, bring it in again, left. Rotate. Try to keep the hips pretty still. Come back, extend, and then it's hard.

Try to keep your thighs and your pelvis quite squared as you rotate. Come back, squeeze out. Bring it in. Last one. Rotate, left. Come back, little squeeze out, and in. Now I want you to grab both. Hold in here. We're gonna use a little circle to help us find or a circling movement of the arms to help us find even more connection to the core.

So squeezing the circle with both hands, we're gonna send it out. Then take it down and scoop it up from the belly. Two, down, scoop Carrie down and feel that connection through your middle as you circle your arms up the front, four down, reverse it. It goes down and scoop from the belly to bring it in. Two, out, bring it in. Three, out. We're still with a steady squeeze, and four, bring it back. Sit back, hook the straps, and let's grab the box to do short box next. So I'm gonna get my foot bar out of the way I'm gonna bring the box against the silver Pages today. Have a seat still utilizing the magic circle.

We can stabilize the reformer with a few more springs and stack the feet under the strap. Holding the circle in your hands. Again, we're kind of tying everything together that we've worked on today. So think back for a moment when we were sitting in the well down on the floor. See if you can find that same lift out of your hips that you had there. Now breathe in And as you exhale, give the magic circle a squeeze and find your little c curve in your shape. Now let's lift up out of that again, breathe in. And I want you to make your c as capital c shaped as possible not a lowercase C. So I went a long waist with a pelvic tilt and a nod of the chin to the chest.

One more time, grow out of it. Now we find that shape, and this is now our start and our stop. So for short box round, we're gonna breathe in. Send the circle away from you as you roll through your back. Breathe out, hug the circle back in towards you as you bend your arms. Inhale, send it away from you.

Exale brings it forward. Inhale brings the body back. Exhale brings the body forward. Inhale sends the body back. Exhale deepened through the middle.

Now think back to our kneeling arm series, send the circle away, now lift circle around, lift deepened through the middle. Similar sensation here, that was for reverse at one, around two, around three, four, and hold bring yourself back up. Now hold the circle up above your head. Growing nice and tall here flexing through the feet, we're gonna inhale to prepare today the exhale is gonna take us back for flat back, then the inhale sets us up. Exale Pages it back.

Inhale brings it up. Two more like that. Bring it up. Now on this fifth one, we hold. Do not change how you're positioned from your head to your tailbone. Lower the circle with an inhale, lift it with an exhale. Inhale lower it down, lift it, inhale three, exhale, lift, create more length, four, create more length.

Lan more is five, and lift, sit all the way up, circle comes right in front of the chest for an assisted twist, grow tall breathe in. Exhale twist to the right, give the circle a little push. So now we're getting a push to assist our rotation. Inhale sit tall. Earlier, the strap was wrapping us around. Now, we're pushing ourselves around. I love this.

Push with the left hand, resist with the right find that rotation right back to middle breathe in to the left. Your right back to middle one more set, to the right, to the middle to the left, to the middle. Going for a variation on climb a tree, leave your left foot underneath your strap, put your right foot on the handle of the circle there, find a good position, and then you're kind of trying to find a little spirit of teaser here. So I'm wiggling my hips a little bit so I can really get my pelvic tilt. All I'm gonna do is start with my shoulders strong and organized, inspired from the start of class, and breathe in. As I breathe out, I'm just gonna send the leg up and bend the knee down.

Send the leg up. Bring the leg down. Now on the third one, I'm gonna send my leg up. Notice how my arms are bent right here. I'm gonna leave my knee straight, but not move my leg where it is.

I'm gonna send my body away from my leg, pull myself back up. Send my body back. Pull myself up. Send my body back and hold. Leaving the circle where it is, put your right foot right under the circle.

Lower it and lift it, tap the circle two, lift Carrie, lift four, lift and five, up, lasso the foot and guide yourself up. Bring that foot down. I surprised you didn't. You'll catch it on the next one here if you didn't get it on the first side. Make sure you've got a good grip under that strap.

Start with the shoulders, back and down. The knee bent and a little bit of opposition and resistance through the upper body. Breathe in to lift the leg up. Breathe out to bring it down. Breathe in to lift it up.

Breathe out to bring it down. Breathe in to lift it up. Then send yourself away. Bring yourself up. So my legs stay steady, I move away straighten my arms, and then I come up.

On my third, when I come down, put my foot under the circle, and it's a lower exhale one, lower exhale two. Lower keep that spirit of a teaser for And five, bring it up, lesser the foot, guide yourself up, and put the foot down. Alright. We're gonna put the circle away for just a second to get organized for the next exercise. I'm gonna also put my box away. And change my spring.

So I'm gonna go back to one red only. Nothing else. And this is gonna be a standing lunch series on top of the reformer. So make sure that you've got everything set up, safely for you, and step up onto your carriage with control. We're gonna turn and face the back of the performer And I'm gonna put my feet not quite on the farthest point of the back of the carriage, but I don't wanna be quite in the middle either, so a little behind middle.

I'm gonna put the left foot back on the platform. And on this reformer, my heel rests really nicely on the foot bar. Whatever we position you're in in your space, just make sure that it's safe and stable. I'm gonna hold my hands on the inside of the circle, like we did in footwork, And once you've got your hands organized there, I want you to take your time to press out on that circle and find that same width and strength across your back that we had earlier. From here, we're gonna go out into a lunge pressing out on the circle, finding that low lunge, and then bring yourself right back up.

So if you want it to play with your springs, you can obviously lighten this or heavy it, however feels best for you. This is three pushing through the back heel. This is four. I'm still pressing against the circle with my hands. Now on the fifth one, I'm gonna come down and hold And then I'm gonna take the circle in my hand, reach it for the shoulder block, and I'm gonna find round shape in my back. So for me, this has a little spirit of knee stretches round.

I'm pressing with energy down into the circle that's coming from my belly. Four, extend it out, and five, extend, and we hold again. Let's come back up, just hold the circle in your hands, guide yourself up, and we'll get ready for the other side. So I'll step forward with my left, back with my right, my hands go on the insides of the handles. And really organizing through those shoulders, I want this to really be full body and not just legs. So as I press out on the circle and go into the lunge, I've got that energy through the back leg, finding my low lunge, and then inhale.

Coming back up, exhale pressing out, inhale brings me back up. Exhale, this is three, and I come up. Four, bring it in. Now on five, I'm going out. I put the circle in my hand, reach down for the shoulder block, and then I go in and out.

Two, I always think this is so fun because it's never the leg that's moving that's working. It's the leg that's staying still. So this left hip and thigh area is working so hard. Find that rounded shape. Last one, bring it in, now go back out and hold, bring the circle back in your hands, and guide yourself up. We're gonna step down now and go through elephant.

Now I'm gonna bring the foot bar back up for elephant, and I'm gonna do a yellow and a blue. The magic circle is gonna go between my ankles. So stepping up, this takes a little fussing around to get it just right. So just kinda work with your shoulder blocks and all the things you gotta do. If you can't quite get all the way against your heels against the shoulder blocks because of the circle, that's okay. Just adjust and find a nice firm grip from your hands.

Before you flare your toes, I just want you to let your head hang down and go for that nice, puffed up round shape in your back. Now, most of us are really accessible to find the round shape in our shoulders. See if you can actually allow your shoulders to get pinned back But then find the curve of the spine from your pelvis, scooping the belly up, dropping the tailbone under. With your next exhale, Carrie and lift your toes off that Carrie, And now from up high in the inside of the thigh, give the circle a squeeze. Now release that and squeeze a second time. It's small. It's not big.

Now on the third one, we're gonna squeeze and hold. We're gonna move the carriage back with an inhale, hug the circle, draw the navel up and in. Inhale. So letting the squeezing of the circle help you to access that scooping of the belly, and the dropping of the tail. We're doing all eight repetitions today because for me, each repetition truly builds on the one before it.

I'm able to work just a little deeper with each repetition not allowing my focus to wander. I'm staying focused on my body. How much can I get out of this movement? This is seven. And this is eight.

Bring it in whole for a moment. Find that deepest connection to your middle grab that circle and step down. So I love that connection. I'm able to tie together from all of the squeezes that we've done. Really helps to find that connection and elephant that can be hard to find without the circle.

So I hope that worked for you. The next exercise we're gonna do is a variation on bottom lift. So I'm gonna go back to my three reds, lay on my back. And for today, a little, different setup gonna be on my tippy toes with my tippy toes on the corners of the bar, and then the circle is actually between my heels and not my ankles. So that is can be tricky to do. But trust me, it's super fun.

So we're gonna hold right here with an inhale, and go ahead and find your pelvic tilt and the lift of your hips up into the air. Before you push back for your first repetition, give the circle a little squeeze. Now push yourself back and maintain, it's basically that same yearning and elephant of the scooping of the belly and the tucking of the tail, but there's a squeezing on the circle that helps you access that core Carrie, especially today. We do it again. Squeeze the circle first, then push out. Squeeze the circle a little more and then come in.

Note the pace. Don't get rushy. Sceeze, go out, have a moment of magic at the top, squeeze, come in, have your moment of magic right here. This is only four. So if you're at eight or nine reps, I want you to slow down for at least two or three repetitions. Carrie doing all eight squeeze, press it out.

Squeeze, bring it in. Squeeze, press it out. Squeeze, bring it in. We've got two more. Take it out. Bring it in.

Last and best, guide it back. Guide it in. Hold one. Don't rush it. Hold two. Find a little more magic. Carrie, roll all the way down and rest. Alright. We're gonna come up now.

I'm gonna get rid of the magic circle for the next exercise. And we'll lower the foot bar down. We're gonna get it out of the way, and then change our spring. I'm just going to one blue for this. You don't want this terribly heavy. You're gonna turn and sit on the frame for this exercise and straddle the apparatus.

So take a second to just get kind of organized where that feels okay for you. So I actually will be queuing a little hugging of the calves against the frame, so make that adjustment And if you need blocks or anything, you can also grab that. You're gonna grab the strap as well. So I have the left strap in my right hand, kind of like the opposite of what we started the class with. So I'm gonna pull that shoulder back and be inspired by the earlier work across my back. I'm gonna hug this, the, frame a little with my legs to find that little inner thigh work and that connection to the belly.

So you could see that whole shape just got nice and connected. I'm now gonna take my left arm and just reach it up high to the sky, and let the support of the spring and the carriage allow me to take a little extension here. Then I'm gonna flow this into saw. So I'll reach my arm forward, gaze back, look at the hand behind me, and then I'm gonna come right back up. And then take that into that little seated extension, bring it up. And then I am gonna let the shoulder go, but I'm gonna be aware of that I'm that I'm doing it.

So let the shoulder go a little, then come back and get nice and organized, raise the arm up, nice extension, bring it up. Nice big saw. Now go ahead and let that strap hook on the silver pole give yourself a little extra assisted twist by holding your block and bring yourself up, grab that other strap. Getting it into the hand, and as always, we know one side feels better than the other, so don't rush this Take your time getting organized, brought across your back, raise your arm up, take that into that nice extension. Almost feels like the reformer is your little helper there. Reach the arm back.

And then you bring yourself back up and just open through the chest, you're just hanging from that spring. Bring yourself up. Guide yourself down. Take it up one more time. Send it away, and then hook the strap and give yourself a little extra assist.

You're gonna bring yourself up. Thank you so much for joining me for that reformer flow. I'll see you next time.