Full-Body Foundations Flow

Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. Hello, Familia. It's your girl, miss Michelle. Sims back with you in Pilates anytime for a wonderful little workout I've created for you called Upwork. So what we'll be doing here is progressing our workout as we get acclimated to our wonderful reformers. So we're gonna have fun. We're gonna get in touch with ourselves and really get to the nitty gritty of the workout that we're doing today. Yes. Alright.

So starting off, I have my footwork springs on. I'm on a balance body. So, for me today, I have three reds and one blue on. So whatever your machine is, go heavy because we want the carriage to be steady. Alright. So I'm gonna come to a kneeling position on my carriage. I have the headrest down because I'm gonna have my feet between the the shoulder blocks.

Depending on your machine or what you're doing, you can opt a different way, but I'm gonna push my hips back to child's pose. And if you have your foundation, your what's this thing called? Platform on or you have a platform, you can reach the hands to the platform form, you can reach the hands of the foot bar or just go low on the carriage. So I'm gonna go to my platform and lower my chest to the carriage and lower my chest to the carriage. I'm in this child's pose, and I'm just really stretching and lengthening my arms, my triceps, biceps, making my tailbone reach to the back of the reformer, and just getting acclimated and feeling the carriage here. And maybe I'm nodding my head.

Yes or no. Up and down. Good. And when I'm ready, I'm gonna come up to all fours, isolate the ab position. So again, I'm on the carriage. I'm pulling my abs up towards the ceiling.

And I wanna go into a cat cow. I have my feet pressing against the shoulder blocks, and then I'm gonna tuck my tailbone under, and my gaze is gonna go between the legs looking back at my ankles. Hello, ankles. And then reversing that half circle opening my chest really presenting my beautiful necklace and tailbone goes up to the ceiling, pulling those abs in, and then curl and tuck under. So I'm gonna do about five or six of these so you can keep moving through this as we go. Just really feeling yourself supported on the carriage and really feeling one with the reformer.

It's my favorite thing to do. I consider it like a centering exercise because I know I'm on the carriage, but I also feel safe. Good. About two more. Really moving through the spine.

I like it. And last one, really exaggerate that angry cat back. That's what I call it. Angry cat. And then curl under. Yes.

I love it. And then come to neutral spine. Just carefully step off to the side And then we're gonna go into a position where we're laying down on the reformer. So go ahead and carefully lay down. Spring stay the same. I'm gonna pull my head rest up really quickly. Yes. Head rest is up. And my feet are on the platform.

So here, what I want you to do, my feet are on the platform, or if you feel comfortable, you can go to the footbar. I'm centering myself here in this position, feeling the carriage, I want you to notice the back of your ribs onto the carriage. Want you to notice where your tailbone is in space where your hips are in space. And if you have a curve right under your your bottom, you maybe wanna fill that in with a small pillow, a rolled towel, or something that gives you that support for that arch in your back. Otherwise, feel your body onto the carriage and just take a second resting your arms to the side and just breathe in and out about three cycles. And when we're focusing on the breathing as you breathe, think Pilates lateral breathing, think belly breaths, and think just regular breath.

And when we say lateral breathing, we're thinking inhaling. And as we exhale, the sides of our ribs expand as we breathe in and out to really get more breath moving through the body. Let's do two more breaths. Delicious. And last breath here. Just rises and falls. Great.

Now take your feet onto the foot bar, and we're gonna go into our footwork. So make sure your knees and hips are nicely aligned at about a 90 degree angle. Toast come onto the foot bar, heels come together in a small pilates b. We press out. As you press out, feel how you're feeling, and see how that is pulling the belly in.

And we're gonna go about eight to 10 types. So keep moving through this for your footwork, your initial toes on. Pressing in and back, breathing in and out as you bring the carriage home. And I like doing I know there's different prescriptions for how many you should do, but I like eight to 10, depending on what I'm doing, because it gives me about three to kinda figure out how I feel in that movement. And then the other remainder ones, I go, okay, now this is where I'm hitting my stride.

Beautiful. Bring the carry home. Go ahead and put your the arches of your feet onto the the foot bar arches on the feet. Think about a bird on a perch, feeling the ankles kinda curving under and the toes curling over and press away. So again, about eight to 10 of these. And when you're doing this, I want you to feel where is your hamstring connecting to your seat. Right? So belly's pulling in.

Top of the head is reaching away towards the rear of their former, and I'm doing all this, the glutes, the hamstrings, the abs, everything's working in concert. I'm not counting. Y'all know I can't count. So we're gonna say this is gonna be ten ish and bring it in. Carriage comes home.

Bring in the carriage home. Now go ahead and give a little flex to your ankles. So ankles are flexed toes come towards you and really find your seat because when I do that, I kinda have to readjust myself. So my heels are on, and I'm pressing away. Careful not to lock the knees and softly bring the carriage home. So again, eight to 10 of these, and also focus pulling that belly in feeling the back of the ribs onto the carriage, connecting to the breath, rubbing your belly, and your head at the same time.

Good. And I'm really feeling this in my my glutes right here. Really feeling it. It's something about that flex ankle that really gets me feeling it. I'm gonna do two more. Good. Good. Good. My favorite one, the last one, bring the carriage home, toes come onto the foot bar, I have them parallel.

So like a number 11, I'm gonna press out, and I dip my heels under the bar to get that stretch. Now I have wobbly knees, so I gotta make sure I don't lock those things out. So we lift and lower. Yeah? Lift and lower. Oh, it's so good. My favorite.

Lift and lower. I'm kinda doing like a Pilates b first position. You I I said parallel. If you see my feet, just ignore me. Do what I'm doing. Do what I say, not as I do.

And, oh, this feels good, and it also feels like a feeling. Alright. Bring it one more up and then bring the carriage home. We are all the way home. Now our next exercise is going to be a bridge. So you have options here. If you have the platform on, you can stand for the platform, or my favorite.

Leave it at the foot bar. So depending on how you feel today, to decide which one of those two you like. Yes? So hands are at your side onto the carriage. Let's do For shiggles, let's do the platform. So from here, I'm gonna have the middle of my foot because this is a smaller platform. So I'm gonna come up.

My hips will come up towards the ceiling, pressing my shoulders nice and square, head stays neutral to the middle because I don't need you to look at the screen. You hear what I'm saying. So here, lift the hip points up, pull that belly button in, and then lower. So we're here, we're lifting and lowering. We're gonna do about five of these. If I do 17, ignore me.

So five. Yes. So on that way up, squeeze the tuck, squeeze the bottom, and just really feel where the hips are landing, and where your shoulders are in relationship to the hips. Yes. That might be six. We'll do one more. Good and bring it down.

So the next one that we'll do, because I'd like to get our hips acclimated to what's going on. The lifting lowers one. Now we're gonna roll through the spine articulating up and curling down. So from the hips, tailbone rolls up, scoops up, comes up to the top, and from our breastbone around the diaphragm, we're gonna roll down our spine and our bottom finds the carriage. Yes. So, again, give me that scoop up, scoop up, scoop up, scoop up, pull it in from that chest roll down your spine.

Do three more of these. Take it up. Strong square shoulders, pressing into the shoulder blocks, and then roll through. I like this one because I really feel my glutes turn on. And my abs are like, what are we doing? It's a little different orientation, but I like it. Alright.

One more. I think I actually counted on this one. That might have been a lift and lower. I'll do one more for good measure. Curle this time, Mychele curl up. Curle. Curl, curl, curl, and then take your time and curl that down, o m g. Is it burning?

I'm burning. I don't know what you're doing, but I'm burning. So we're done there. So I'm gonna step off to the side, just swing over. No teaser today y'all. I'm gonna pop off at least two of these reds because it's a lot. I'm gonna go with a red and I'm sorry, a blue and a yellow.

Because what we're gonna do now, I'm gonna, like, modify a single leg stretch. So let's talk about it. Let's lay down. Carefully lay yourself back down. The springs may be a little bit light.

So if you need more, feel free to do that. I'm taking both of my feet to the foot bar, and I'm gonna show you from my left leg. Put your loop onto your foot, and here's where it gets interesting. Find your midline. So pull the belly button in I want the straps of this the the handle to be on the foot, but I want that the strap to kind of track inside of your thigh. So when we're doing this, think of a single leg stretch, but I want you to See if you can keep your foot on the footbar, otherwise, let it hover underneath.

That might be a little bit much. So here, you're gonna pull that knee to your chest, press away. So this is a unilateral movement, which may feel a little bit advanced, but I think what's important here is that you learn to see what it feels like on one leg first. And the springs are fairly light, so you can feel that feeling without being too challenged. And even though I'm doing this light work here, I'm feeling it on my left side. So here I'm gonna do again about five to ten, eight to 10. I don't know.

Whatever it is, really feel that leg pressing out unilaterally feeling that one side of the body. This is gonna be my last one. And that side's like, I'm done. Foot bar with the where is it? Right foot. Take that one off.

Let's do the other side. I don't know about y'all, but I'm sweating over here. Who said this is foundation? Oh, I don't know who said that. Alright. So other side. So the strap is on the foot. You're gonna have that midline centered and have that strap tracking inside the thigh, find your little nice pull there, d comes towards the the chest, and then you press away.

See that? So I'm kinda like having my hands here just as a guide. And really getting a stretch in my inner thigh. So a little adductor work, and a little bit of a challenge, a challenge. Good. Good. Good. And I'm trying to keep my legs pretty level.

So if it looks crazy, I'm sorry, but we're practicing out. One more. And find that foot bar, bring that leg home, take the strap off and ride the carriage home. There we go. We have the the straps where we want them now, and we have the springs on where we want them. We're doing a I think I said, sort of blue and yellow.

So we're gonna stay there at the blue and yellow. So in the next exercise I'm gonna do, it's just a double leg stretch. So it's some of the series of five, but not all of it. So I'm gonna push away a little bit from the foot bar my fingertips are gonna come up to the ceiling where I have a little bit of of traction onto the, the straps. I'm gonna roll my head neck and shoulders up just a little bit, and my toes will come to a tabletop right here. Keeping that there, I'm only gonna do three of these.

I'm gonna extend the legs out and then bend them in. App check. That's all we're doing. Take it out, and then bring it in. One more y'all. Take it out.

And then bring it in, and then take your fingertips where they are. Curl the head neck and shoulders up. Keep the leg that tabletop and then reach the fingertips towards the front of the reformer. Come up as much as possible. Keep that there and feel that reach through the straps fingertips are really reaching, really hard, and long, and find the length from the shoulder girdle all the way to the fingertips.

Boy, the sweat is real, we're gonna hold it for three, two, one, bring the arms back up, rest the toes on the foot bar. Oh, if you can find the foot bar. Alright. So that's one thing that we're doing there that felt really good, but now we gotta work on our arms. So for working on the arms, I'm gonna leave my feet on the foot bar. So if you have the same feeling here, we're gonna find where we can choke up on the straps, roll the head neck and shoulders up. Hello.

And I want the feet at tabletop and then reach your hands all the way down to the mat. So we're gonna lift and lower. So we did the reach. Now we're just gonna lift and lower. If this is a lot for your neck, go ahead and let your head come down.

We're doing about five of these because there's more. That might be 47, one more ab check, and then rest. Yes. One more, and then we're off of this. Okay. Let me make sure where we are. Yep. That's where we are. Alright.

My dears. The head is on the headrest as we were. Figurehips are still up to the ceiling. I want you to take your arms to the side. Like the letter t, and make sure that they're right at the level of the shoulder blocks.

I don't want them to go beyond the shoulder blocks. So stay there, and I want you to just let one foot hover off of the foot bar and see how that feels. Yes? Let's try let's switch alternate a little march. So you have pressure. You're pushing your hands into the straps.

My my palms are facing the front of the reformer, and now I'm gonna try both feet off of the foot bar. So now I feel that resistance in my arms. Yes. Alright. We'll do a little t close. We're gonna close, bring the hand towards the hips, lifting through the head and neck, and then bring it back to a t. We're gonna do about five of these.

Again, pulling the belly button in, taking your time to really feel what's going on in the shoulder girdles, what's going on with my abs, arm my legs together. Where am I feeling this? All this is happening at the same time. One more graciousness. Good. Bring the fingertips up to the ceiling. Rest the feet on the foot bar.

Excellentente job. Alright. One more here. Triceps. So from our triceps, I'd like you to go ahead and try that, that position that we did earlier. So take that one foot off the foot bar.

We still have our fingertips up in the the loops, and we're pressing it so we can find a little stability in the carriage. Take the other foot off. We're at table top. Bend your elbows and bring your elbows to the carriage. I'm lengthening for my neck to get a little bit more proud in my chest, pulling my belly button in towards the carriage, and my fingertips are up at the ceiling right now.

I'm gonna turn my triceps on by taking my fingertips towards the front of the reformer. So it's a tricep press. So think about 90 degrees right there where the elbow is, press back. So this is, again, is a challenge. I went too far there right there.

And it's a challenge because the abs are coming in. The chest is nice and long. The neck is long. Proud chest, I should say. Hips are on hips are screaming.

And here, I'd like to do five to 10. So whatever I did, keep going. I'll do two more with you. If you stopped, just, you know, make it look important. Last one. And I'm feeling everything. My feet are gonna find the foot bar. Yes.

My goodness. Place your straps on the pegs and then roll yourself off carefully step to the side and think about the meaning of life. It's roasty toasty up in here. Alright. Gonna come back over here and bring my feet to the platform. I have a nice long reach of legs, so they say I have long legs. I have my bottom close to the the shoulder blocks here. Really nice and tall.

I'm gonna put my arms up. Hopefully, you can still see them in the shot. So my arms come up, relax feet, and then I wanna take a stretch forward. Maybe you get to the foot bar. Maybe you're only gonna go so far. Maybe you wanna just bring your hands to the carriage and do that same stretch.

Maybe you wanna reach here. Maybe you wanna go. I'm gonna touch my ankles. Maybe not in your practice today. Mhmm. Mine here. Any so you have it here.

And also, considering if you have really tight hamstrings, make your stance a little bit wider than your hips, and leave a little bend in your knee so you can really get to that. So there's more access for you there. And I'm really I'm plumping the front, so I need a little, to pull in. So I'm pulling by belly, but back towards the back of the reformer, And I wanna take the the foot bar and just really stretch because we did a lot of shoulder work. We did a lot of ab work. And then maybe on the way up from the foot bar, if you're there, find extension here, pulling the belly button in, gaze goes up to the ceiling, or if you're using the carriage, bring your hands back to the shoulder blocks, and then really just bring the top of your chest up, shoulders go back and find extension.

We did a lot of flexions. I want you to have that extension, and then find the stretch again. Come forward. If you didn't notice, this was your break. It's your break.

And then Find that extension. I'm gonna even just I like the way this one felt too, but this one felt really good. Sholders down. Chest forward, arching the back, elbows slightly bent. And then we'll do one more cycle through, take that stretch forward.

I really liked the extension. That feels really good. I didn't know it would feel that good. Almost left good out. Thanks Nicole.

Well, I'm an extension here. Belly button pulls back. Think about a proud chest rolling the shoulders down and back, looking up towards your ceiling, whatever you're working with. And if you're here, again, proud chest, Look at my elbows, pulling back, close to the body, and then extend, lift the test. Maybe press into the carriage and find more length in your thoracic and lumbar spine. Yes?

Delicious, and then a reset, bring everything home. Awesome. I'm gonna come facing you now, or maybe I should go the other way. We'll figure it out. We have two sides. So carefully stepping off to the side.

I'm gonna leave the springs as they are for me. I like a little little bit of resistance there. If you want it lighter, you can. We're gonna go into a mermaid ish stretch or a mer person stretch. So for me, mermaid normally we we come and bring our feet to the shoulder blocks and we stack If that's not in your practice, leave that one at home. And that's more of an advanced ish move.

So I like to do a z Sims, almost like a pigeon. So my back leg is on the shoulder blocks. My front leg is kinda in line with the front of the carriage, and I find a tall spine here. This is comfortable. Stay here. One more option if you choose to take it. I also like crisscross applesauce here.

So if crisscross applesauce feels good for you here, or if none of this feels good, you're like, not today, Michelle, go ahead and bring your bottom towards the front or the the side of the frame, and you can do that same stretch to the side. Yes. So stepping back, I'm gonna go back to my Z set. So you have several options, pick the one that works for you. Go into my z set. Have the same springs on.

Tall tall spine. I'm gonna take my hand as close as the foot bar and have it kinda in line with the shoulder. My other arm is gonna come out. I'll push the foot bar away. The heel of my hand is pressing into the foot bark, and then I come up using my obliques aside of my body to come up, and letting my hip close and open the spring. So take it up and over. Reaching long. The top of your head is still a part of your spine.

So if you feel like it's disconnected, go ahead and make sure that you keep the head in line with your spine. So this is what I mean here. So if I'm here, look at my head. I don't want that. I want your head to be in line. Think of a straight line with your spine.

There's your stretch. I normally do three, but I was talking to y'all, I'm a do one more for me taking over. The hips push, hips bring the springs close, grab either the shoulder block or one of the pegs, and then counter stretch the other side. I have my elbow near the carriage and really stretching through the side body, and then come out of it. And then I'm gonna carefully step off and go to the other side so you can see it from the back. Oh, alright. Same setup.

So again, pick your crisscross applesauce, your z sit or your traditional stacked mermaid. I'm going z Sims. So my back leg will be against the shoulder blocks. You can really see the orientation in my back here. So nice, not this. Nice and straight.

Bring that arm to the foot bar, arm out to the side, press away using the hip. Top of the head is stretching long through the spine. Use the hip to slide and close the spring. And again. Good. We have two more to go.

Closing it. If this feels really good, take your time here. No rush. No rush. Last one.

Nice stretch. Swing the hips, slide them there, grabbing onto the shoulder, block, or the peg, reaching over to the side, elbows low to the carriage. And you see that stretch to get my head a little bit better. Yes. Pull it closed and then come back. I'm gonna place my footwork springs back on.

So my three reds and my blue. To steady the carriage, stepping off carefully to the side. And I'm coming back into my quadruped position. So quadrupeds kinda, and they come back to the child's pose, feet are between the shoulder blocks, hips sit back, arms reach to the platform in front of you or the foot bar. So you're gonna feel the stretch hopefully from the triceps, the back of your arm, the shoulder girdle was getting a stretch.

You're finding a little more length through the back body. Lower back is getting a little release there too. A little extra bonus I'd like to throw in. Whether I'm on the the platform or I take a hold of the foot bar, I'm gonna bring my this is my left hand. I'm gonna bring it to the right corner ish of the reformer, and I'm gonna twist my body. So it'll open up a little spiral there.

So the intercostals, everything is getting a nice little warm up, the serratus muscles, everything. And when you've had enough there, bring everything back to center or to neutral. Try the other side. So my right hand will go to the left corner of the platform or through the foot bar, reach the other hand over and twisting. So that is my cervical spine, my thoracic spine, getting a nice little twist.

A little rotational movement here. I like it. Good. One more breath here. Then unwind yourself, find neutral, find center, and then find more stretch, more length. You want to feel like you're almost getting your armpits towards the carriage, That's gonna give you more stretch, releasing your head and neck and shoulders, and really let that come between the arms resting. One more breath here.

And when you're ready, go ahead and set yourself up, bring the hats to the carriage, and then bring your legs up find that ISO ad position or that box position that we started with for your cat cow. I have my legs again pressed against the shoulder blocks. My shoulders, so my wrist, my elbow, and my shoulders in one great line. So from here, I'm also holding my hands are wrapped around the the front of the carriage. So from here tucking the tailbone under, looking through the legs, I'm finding that I have a little more flexibility in my spine. I got a little more juice flowing through it. So, again, that half circle towards the carriage, half circle towards the ceiling, gaze looks up.

Belly button pulls in. And really on the on the way up, from the cat cow. I want you to really let the hips splay. Open those hips. Let the bones really separate, maybe press back and find a little more stretch that you're gonna get in the glutes.

We'll do two more. Really exaggerate both directions. This is the angry kid I was talking about. Like, cat, angry. And they go the other way. That exaggeration.

Now, if you want extra credit for next time, on the way up here, if you turn your elbows towards each other, you open up your chest even more. I got a bunch of tricks y'all. Good. And then bring everything to neutral. Give yourself a second. Go ahead and sit on your bottom.

Step off to the side. Move your hair. That was a great foundational workout. I hope that you find more friendly things on your carriage, on your reformer. It was a nice introduction.

There was a burn there. There was a roast there. So, hopefully, you felt it. The next exercise, series that we'll do is gonna amp that up just a little bit more. So, hopefully, you had fun. Get ready for the next, and they'll see you over there.