Functional Full-Body Flow

Hi. I'm Gia, and today we're gonna do a straightforward reformer class, where to get moving. So we're gonna start with footwork. I have three red springs and one blue spring on, but you can do whatever springs you like for your footwork. Lie down. Your headrest can be up or down. I have mine up. And we're gonna start in a prehensile position.

So you're gonna have your toes on the bar, legs glued together. You're gonna grip the bar with your toes and then reach your heels under. You wanna try to maintain that position for the whole exercise. So inhale as you stretch all the way out, reach the heels under the bar, exhale as you pull all the way in. Inhale reach long, exhale as you come in.

So find the length in your legs, lengthen your spine, reach your arms towards your feet, So you're already getting your whole body active and in. Reach under the bar with the heels. Two more. Really fully stretching the legs. Last one, then we'll come on to your heels. You want your heels right at the edge of the foot bar, pull all five toes back on each foot, and then same thing. You'll inhale the stretch, exhale to pull it in.

Inhale reach. Make sure you're using the backs of the legs to pull you in so your quads don't take over. Inhale lengthen exhale to pull in. Keep pulling the toes back, especially the pinky toe, last two, hugging the midline with the legs. Now we're gonna come back to your toes.

You're gonna turn your legs out so your heels are together, toes are apart, wrap around your legs from your glutes, and heel stretch long, exhale to come back in. Inhale. So you're wrapping around that leg. Or both legs, hugging the midline as you stretch. We'll do four more.

And three, keep your breathing going so I could feel that naval point into the spine, warming up your abdominals still. And back in. We're gonna stay turned out. Come on to your heels on the edge of the foot bar. You're in second position nice and wide. Again, rotating from your, glutes, and you're gonna push out and in or your hips, I should say. You'll rotate from the hips.

And reach out, knees are tracking over the toes. We'll do four more. Just like when you're parallel, you're pulling all five toes back. Last two. Last one. Now you're gonna keep the legs wide.

Just turn your legs in so your inner thighs are touching. Make sure your feet are turned in just as much as your legs, and you'll push all the way out and then back in. So when your legs are straight, they're apart when they're bent, they're together, and back in. Still flexing the feet. Four more. And three. Two.

Last one. Now we're gonna bring the legs back together on the balls of your feet, lift your heels up nice and high. We're gonna do 10 and stretch. We're gonna increase, one at a time. So you're gonna push out one time, throw your heels under the bar. This back up, bend your knees come back in. Now you're gonna push out, you're gonna lower lift two times.

Lower and lift, and up, bend to come all the way in. Lower and lift three times. Make sure you're using your glutes to lift you up, so it's not just your calves. And then back in, we'll do four. We're gonna go all the way up to seven. And two, three, four.

And then back in. This is five. Reaching the legs long. Two, three, four, five. Two more sets. We have six and five.

Four hugging the midline, two, one all the way in. Last time for seven. You should start to feel the backs of the legs by now if you haven't already. Four, five, six, and seven. Just hold it there. Heels under. He can bend one knee, push the other heel under a little bit further.

And then switch, get a nice stretch in that calf, and then both heels up, bend your knees come all the way in. We're gonna come on up, change your springs. So I'm gonna do one red, one blue, and you can do whatever you'd like. We're gonna do the hundred. So it's good away from your shoulder rest just a little bit, grab your straps, legs will come up to tabletop, Press your arms down just slightly so they're right your hands are right over your shoulders. Plug your shoulders and take a deep inhale.

As you exhale, press your arms down, curl your head up, stretch your legs out, and we'll pump your arms. So you'll inhale two three four five exhale two three four five inhale. And exhale two three four five inhale. Keep the arms helping strong exhale. Enhale. Try to curl up a little higher.

Exhale two three four five inhale. Getting the shoulder blades off the mat, exhale two three four five inhale. Lower your legs a little bit if you can. Exhale two three four five. Enhale. Hug the inner thighs together.

Inhale two three four five. Exhale. We have two more sets. Inhale. And exhale. Last one inhale two three four five exhale two three four five hold. Croep a little higher.

Bend your knees. Arms come up. Take a breath. Now you're gonna bring your arms down by your sides to start. Lakes are gonna reach out to your diagonal. Palms face you.

We're gonna do a snow angel. So you're gonna open your arms and legs to a v. As you close, you'll curl your head and shoulders up. Lower down as you open, exhale curl up. And open. Still reaching the arms and legs long, finding the length in their whole body, exhale curl up. Four more. Open.

Squeeze everything together. And three, and curl. Two, try to keep the arms and legs as straight as you can. Last one. And then bend your arms, bend your legs, and then we'll hang up your straps. We're gonna come on up. We're gonna get the box.

So we're gonna do long box. You can keep the springs the same, or if you wanna make a little lighter, you can. We're gonna do a little arm press. So you want the box right against the shoulder put shoulder blocks, lie on your stomach, and then you want your chest just right off the box. Hands are in line with your shoulders with your fingers facing up toward the ceiling. Just gonna push all the way back and then come all the way in.

Lakes are reaching long, so they're active. And in. If you find that you're slipping or you're wearing clothes that are slippery, you can always put a little gravy pad underneath you. Just for a little bit more stability. Four more. And in three, try to keep the shoulders away from the ears. Two, last one.

Now we're gonna take off a spring. We're gonna do a single arm. So you can do a red or a blue. I'm gonna do a red. The other hand's gonna go behind your back.

The hand on the foot bars just is gonna stay right in front of your shoulder. You'll push all the way out and then back in on the single arm. So the goal here is to keep both shoulders even. You don't wanna rotate your upper body at all and in. Push and in one more and in switch hands.

So the, hand on the foot bar is going right in front of your shoulder. The other hand's behind your back, and then same thing. You'll push it out. And try not to lift your spine up as well. So we're trying to stay square and we're trying to stay neutral. Reach and in two more.

Last one. Now both hands on the foot bar right under your shoulders again, shoulders away from the ears, push out a hold, keep your arms straight. You're gonna lift up into a swan, and then lower back down. Keep the arms straight. Same thing lifted.

Spine up into your swan, and lower legs are still active. They're not hanging. Pulling the abs in with you to support your low back. Two more. And lower. Last one.

And lower. Bend your arms come all the way in. And then we're gonna turn the box to your short box. So you can bring the box in front of the shoulder rest or right behind. Whatever feels best to you. Add on another spring.

Or more than one of you needed it. I wanna grab the strap underneath the foot bar. So you're gonna have your feet in the strap, feet are flexed. I like to push my feet out and down just so I don't grip in my quads or hip flexors. Make sure you have a little space behind you. Arms are gonna come up to a genie position, inhale as you lift a little taller, exhale round your low back and roll back.

Exale push down in your legs and push out as you roll up. And you don't wanna let the legs do the work. So keep pushing them down so that you can focus on pulling your abdominals in and lifting you up. Rounding. Inhale as you go back, exhale as you roll up, and lift at the top, two more. And roll up. And lift last one. Try to keep the shoulders relaxed. No tension.

They're gonna keep your back flat. So hands are gonna come behind your head. Sholders are still down. Make sure your elbows are wide. Lip up to go back.

And then lengthen even more to come up, inhale as you lift up to go back, and then back up. Again, I'm still pushing out and down with my feet, so I'm not using the front of my legs. And lift. Two more and up. Last one. Now we're gonna add a twist to this. They're gonna twist to one side hinge back. And an all the way up twist to the other side hinge back. So I'm trying to keep both sitting bones down on the box.

I'm just rotating from the waist. Twist and reach. And up one more each side. Twist and reach. Nice. Last one. And then all the way up, go ahead and round forward Just to reach towards your feet.

Rest here for a second. And then when you're ready, roll up. We're gonna take your box off and we're gonna go into some knee stretches. So bring your strap down, bring your box off to the side. And then we're gonna do one red and one blue spring.

If you wanna do something else, you can do that as well. So you're gonna have your hands on the foot bar, feet against the shoulder rest. Make sure your toes are really tucked under and your heels are reaching toward the shoulder rest, and then sit back towards your heels. We're gonna start with our round back. So shoulders away from the ears.

Keep pushing into your arms, and you're gonna push your legs back and in. Back and in. So we already did that round back on the box. So you wanna keep that position really hollow out your abdominals as much as you can. Two more, and we'll go straight into the flat back. So think of sticking your tail out and out and in with the legs. Still pulling into the abdominals.

So just kinda mimicking the positions that we did on the box. Last two. Now when you go knees off, so round your back again, you can bring your weight forward just a little bit, and then knees off as you come out and in. Try to keep the knees close to the carriage so you're not lifting all the way up. Keep tailbone coming under you. Last two. And then knees down.

Go ahead and bring your feet together. Needs apart. I just push back into a little child's pose. Take a breath. Roll up. And then we're gonna take off one spring. So I'm gonna keep my red spring on, take off my blue, feet against the shoulder rest again. This time, we're gonna grab the straps.

So coming up to a high kneeling position, again, you're toes are tucked under your heels are reaching toward the shoulder rest. Arms are slightly bent. You're gonna reach the arms forward, and then pull them back. Arms reach forward, and then pull back. So you wanna make sure you're not sitting back toward your heels like we were in these stretches.

Keep pushing your hips forward so the front of your hips are flat and reach and back one more. And then we're gonna make a circle with your arms. We'll have circle really. So you're gonna go forward out to the side and then down by your hips. Forward out and down.

Two more in this direction. Last one. And then we reverse out, forward, down. So the body's not moving, just the arms, shoulders are staying away from the ears. Last one, Go ahead and sit down on your heels, hang up your straps, and then come on off.

So we're gonna lower the foot bar down, and then we're gonna go into some Russian splits. So I'm gonna do one red, one blue. You could do a green, or you could do two reds if you need to. We're gonna stand up on the carriage, hands on the shoulder rest. One foot's gonna go on the foot bar. So you wanna make sure your toes and your healer on it so that's turned out.

The other foot's gonna come forward on your headrest. Make sure your headrest is up if it was not already. Sholders are down. Come into this nice long lunge. Keep your hands on the shoulder rest for now.

You're just gonna reach your leg forward. And back. So you straighten and bend. So as I'm doing this, I'm trying not to go up and down with my body. My thigh is kinda staying at the same level. Two more like this.

Now you can keep going with your hands down, or you can test your balance, bring your body up. You can have the opposite arm reaching forward, and then same arm as leg reaching out to the side. Same level with your head the whole time. The leg stretches out and in. So I'm getting a little bit of a stretch on that back hip flexor. And then four more.

Try to deepen that lunge, three. And two. Last one. And then with control, bring your hands down to the shoulder rest, bring that foot back to the carriage, and then bring your other foot forward. And we'll switch sides.

So your back foot's gonna be on the frame turned or on the head on the foot bar turned out. Your front foot's gonna be on the shoulder, the headrest, right in that little crevice, find that long lunge, shoulders are down. Think of lengthening your spine. And then you'll push out and in with the leg. Push out and in. Good.

Reach and bend. Four more. The ring, make sure that back leg is staying nice and strong. Two, not letting it relax. Last one. No. Stay here if you need to, or you can come on up into a vertical position. Deepen that lunge, and then same thing here.

Front leg goes out and in. Think of really standing on that back leg as well. So you're stable in between both legs. Four more. Three.

Two. Last one. And then bring your hands back down to the shoulder rest. Bring your foot back to the carriage and your back foot forward. We're gonna keep the same springs. I'm gonna bring my foot bar up just to make it easier to bring my feet in the straps and also for the end of the class.

So you're gonna lie down. Bring your feet in the straps right on your arch. Now we'll start with frogs. So heels together toes apart, bend your knees all the way into your chest, but keep your tailbone down, and then reach your legs out, and then back in. Keep your knees in line with the toes.

Think of rotating from your hips again just like you did in the footwork in the beginning. Four more. And three arms are reaching long. Still finding length in the whole body. Now push your legs out in a hold.

Let's point your toes. You're gonna reach up and around in a circle. And up and around. So trying to keep the legs as straight as you can without locking them tailbone is staying down on the mat. Four more in this direction.

Three, rotating from the hip still. Doesn't have to be too big. It should just feel good. One more. And reverse.

Open out and around and down. Try to make the legs make the same size circle. So you don't want the more flexible leg to go wide while the other leg isn't, going as big. I usually try to match the smaller movement to get more control. Last two, and last one. Bring the soles of your feet together.

Go ahead and stretch your inner thighs. You can bring your elbows on your knees and push your knees out to the side as you pull the straps toward you just to get a nice stretch. I'm still trying to keep my tailbone down as much as I can, so I'm not changing my spine. And then when you're ready, take your feet out of the straps, hang them up, and we'll finish with Eve's lunge. So you're gonna have just one spring on, one red spring.

You're gonna have one foot on the floor at the front of the carriage. You have the foot against the shoulder rest. You can bring that knee down and just push back and stretch your hip. Think of tucking your tailbone under you as much as you can, so you're not dumping it into your low back and you're getting more of the stretch in your hip flex sir. Now from here, bring the carriage all the way in.

I'm gonna bring my standing leg back. So it's about in the middle of the carriage, and then I'm gonna bring my knee against the shoulder rest this time. From here, you're gonna push back. And if you can reach your foot, go ahead and grab it. Give yourself a little quad stretch.

If that doesn't feel good, you can always just keep your knee on the shoulder rest without holding on. Breathe into that stretch. It should feel really nice after those knee stretches. Come all the way in, and then we'll walk to the other side. So your standing leg is all the way at the front. Your foot's against the shoulder rest. Tuck your hips under as you push out and stretch out your hip flexor.

As you're stretching here, try to relax your shoulders. A lot of times people like to tense up their upper body, but you wanna stay as relaxed as you can while you stretch. Think of your posture. Come all the way in. And then bring your standing leg back. Bring your knee against the shoulder rest.

And then if it's available, you can grab onto that foot and stretch your quad. And then slowly come back in. Go ahead and stand up next to your reformer. Arms are down by your side, standing up as tall as you can. Take a deep inhale.

And exhale. And thank you for taking class with me. I'll see you next time.