20-Min Abs & Glutes Reformer

Hello, Tracy Malley here with Pilates anytime. For this segment, we're gonna start with a little warm up, and then we're gonna be going into some spicy work for the hips, the thighs, the hip flexors, the glutes, and of course the abs So let's sit down, do a quick little warm up here. First of all, let's address the spring so we can get ready for our little first segment. You can do this on a blue spring or you can do it on a red spring if you want a little extra challenge, maybe start with the blue and then head up to a red. I am gonna do on a blue spring today just because I'm filming all day.

But if you're on that little extra challenge, you can always go up to a red. There we go. So I'm just gonna pop it onto a blue here to get ready. We're gonna sit in the middle of your reformer, sitting up nice and tall, shoulders stacked over hips, Now from here, all we're going to do is initiate from the lower pelvis as we slide the sit bones forwards towards the heels, and then we stack back up again one vertebrae at a time. And again, inhale, exhale. Enter that c curve and back, but what we want is not to collapse.

Think of lifting, hop and over. As opposed to collapsing. So there's a big difference there. Let's try that again. So the pelvis goes underneath you, and you're lifting in up and over into that big c curve.

We hold it here reach forwards towards me and just move a little marching movements just to bring the femur into the hip socket as the knee comes towards the chest. Let me do a little march. And then as we feel more comfortable, we take our hands behind our head, interlace the hands, and we go into a little march. And then as we feel a little bit more warmer, we add a little oblique rotation. Still maintaining that deep sea curve, though.

We haven't come out of that yet. Pretty intense. We fill those abs, but we excel exertion. XL exertion. Let's do a couple more. One more, hold it here, reach the hands back forwards again. Let's go quick down a little bit further, a little bit further, a little bit further, a little bit further, knees up, hands behind the head, repeat it.

Down and up. We're doing our little marching place. Just to warm up your core, your midsection, get ready for the workout. Let's do a couple more Last time, bring the knees up into chair position, right leg scoops down, lifts back up, left leg scoops down to the floor, get that stretch through the slow ass, scoop down, back to chair position, screw down, keeping that pelvis relatively quiet. It's gonna move just a little bit as we take that leg down into a little bit of a hip extension.

And again, Can we do one more? Hold it here, reach the arms back around the back of the legs, lift up a little higher, clear those shoulder blades off the reformer, and then we're gonna slowly use our apps, roll yourself up with control and balance and lift up. Alright. Moving on. So we're gonna come back, sit right in the middle. We're gonna grab Our loop, we place our loop around the mid thigh.

Scooping forward just a little bit so your sit bones are way forward, and we're gonna come all the way back, your knees are bent, your elbows are bent, we come up into a chair position here. So look my elbows are bent and I'm in that relatively c curve position here. We're gonna tick tock side to side. So we call this the little tick tock. So from Mart, Matt's pilates, this is like your knees side to side or your knees waist.

We're trying to keep our knees together, ankles together, and we're moving from the center of your body or obliques. So the hip lifts just a little bit as we go side to side. The elbows are bent, still maintaining that c curve. Now we're gonna add on. We reach, bend, reach.

Ben. So you add that little flick with the feet, reach. And again, little flick and flick couple more. Look towards your feet. Bring you back to center into a little bit of like a single leg stretch here. We're gonna come back to this again in a minute, but we're reaching that single leg stretch in four and three And two, and one more back to chair position.

Now if you feel comfortable, we're gonna try and balance. There we go a little challenging because the spring is pulling us that way. Right? The spring here and the resistance is pulling us there all the way over to the side. So you gotta be really mindful where we're moving from here. Hold it here. Find your balance. Hold it here.

Now see if you can reach the hands up to the sky and lift the legs up in your teaser and then bend your knees and then come back down again. Beautiful. From here, we're gonna sit back bring the opposite leg up, hold on, shin, seek her position. Now reach that leg out, flex the foot, and it goes a little bit out and a little bit in. So, yeah, you can really feel your hip flexor, your quad here, and you're having your adductors bring the leg into the midline of the body. Remember that seeker of position always Just holding on to your shin here, kinda connects the arms to the back.

So we've got that nice strong core connection. Let's do a couple more, feeling those legs, of course. And then from here, we're gonna push out as if you're pushing the door shut, abandon extension, abandon extension, abandon extension. We do four and three and two and one, and then we come down. Whoo, mighty feel that quad.

Now take that loop around to the other side now. We're here. So it's around your side. We come back again. Now for this one, we're gonna take this leg, bring it back and hold onto it. Can you see? So I'm back in the same position, but the foot's behind.

Now, bend that knee and we're just gonna go into abduction. So this would be more attainable for most people. However, if you want to flex that foot just like we did the other side, so we're reversing it now, Now the focus is a little bit more on your glute medias, your adductor. Right? Before it was more about the inner thigh. Now it's more about the outward thigh, but yes, those quads and hip flexors are working. So press the knee to the chest.

Beautiful. Can we do a couple more? And now a little different this side, we hold it here. We're gonna do a circle. So we go abduction, lift up and down away, lift up and down. Away, left off and down.

Now reverse it in up and out. Still maintaining that pubic bone to belly button in that secret, resist your thigh with your upper body, Are you ready? One more. Hold it here and then bring it down. Pretty intense, right? The next transition, we bring that leg back. And we bring our forearm down against the shoulder box, the knees, bent. So connect the upper body to the lower body, feel those obliques lifting. You got it, and now we do our little lift in the down.

So here we go to work into our glutes. Now be mindful that the knee is in line with the hip and we're reaching the thigh bone away. Up and down first is this movement here. You're up and down. Now we're gonna add on to that.

So we're gonna layer one, kick, in, bring it down, add a lift, kick, in, bring it down, add a up, kick, in, bring it down, and a up, kick, We've got a couple more and an up kick. One more. Now hold that kick. We bring it down. Kick down. Kick.

Down. That's it. Keep that shoulder. Girdle organized, so we're lifting up out of your reformer, super important that we're not collapsing, hold it here, and then bend that knee and bring it down. Obviously, if you really want to, you could carry on a little bit more, but I'm gonna move it. I love my transitions.

So we're gonna come around here. Bring your butt as close as you can towards your shoulder blocks. Hands behind the head. You remember us that it's coming again, single leg stretch. So you've got that little extra added resistance here, and it's a really lovely transition.

And now we're gonna add oblique twists towards the strap. So your cue is rotation towards the strap. There we go. Do a couple more. One more.

Let's go straight up pelvic tilt. So here's your pelvic tilt, pubic bond to belly button. We're trying to lift the legs diagonally over your head, lower abs, your wheel is turning, your pelvis is a wheel. The sit bones are going right underneath, and they're trying to touch underneath touch your heel bones. That's kind of what we want to envision.

Let's do a couple more. Are we breathing? One more. And then we bend our knees. We push ourselves up safely and then we take the strap down.

We move to the other side, first of all, inside loop, move your butt towards the edge, you're in the middle of your reformer, hands come back, elbows bent, knees up, ready for our tick tock. So our little tick tock, we're going side to side. Remember, pubic bone to belly button, those little lower abs are on fire. And we breathe. Now we're gonna add that little flick kick, flick kick, flick kick.

Kind of feel like you're a little dolphin here and you're flicking your dolphin tail. I'm taking inspiration from the view I have here, and flick kick. The hip is gonna move just a little bit off over the reformer. There we go, flick kick. And flick kick.

Bring you back to center. We can do our little single leg stretch. Remember it's right here to match the other side. Keep the elbows bent, keep that relatively secret of spine. Let's do one more, chair position, see if we can walk ourselves up, see if we can interlace the hands up and see if we can extend those legs challenging and that little teaser position here.

And then bend the knees and come back. Nice work. Now we're gonna sit back just a little bit. We're gonna bring the outside leg. Hold on to your shin.

Now get into that secret of position knees up, flex, and now flex that foot. We're gonna go out and in. So you remember this is about the inner thigh now. Because in a minute, we switch to the other strap and it becomes about the outer thigh. So your focus should be on your inner thigh moving the leg to the midline of your body.

Your spine is in a c curve, your hands are on your mid chin, and you're connecting your arms to your core here, your abs, and we are working it. It's not easy. We're gonna do one more, like a little windshield wiper, flex the energy out through the heel, hold it here, bend an extension. We're pushing that door shut and are really focusing on their lower abs here At the same time as I'm pressing the heel out. Three, two, are we breathing? I hope so. One more that leg is dying, but we love it.

And then we come back. Woo hoo. Now we move the strap to the outside now. Right? So it's the outside leg. Now, once again, I wanna line myself up kinda next to the shoulder blocks a little bit here.

We're gonna bring the inside leg. We're gonna hold onto the inside leg. And we're gonna extend that outside leg kind of opposite to what we just did, and then we abduct. Now if you feel this is too challenging, what I usually say to some of my clients is hold on to the shoulder block, and then hold on to your knee because that helps them become a little bit more stable. Both hands on the shin is obviously going to be a little bit more challenging because they've got to stabilize through the midsection because you're reaching that leg out against resistance.

So this is looks easy until you do it and you realize it's not, but it's really strengthening your quads and your hip flexors, so we love it. Now, one more, remember this time we're going to circles. So let's go up circle around. Keep that circle small. And if you need to hold on here, you can. Look, I've got my hand here.

And let's reverse it opposite direction. I'm just doing four and four I think four reps each side is quite adequate. It's enough. One more. Hold it here.

Drop that knee down. Definitely a nice little challenge here transition. Gonna bring our leg back, shin, on your reformer, hand on your shoulder blocks, and we're gonna lift that knee up. So we take the knee down and knee up, knee down, knee up. So remember, try and take the leg away from your body so your thigh bone is away from your chest. So it's doing that longest possible arc.

Let's do a couple more. So this is working intensely into the glutes, but don't forget your obliques are lifting you up Now we add the extension. So we layer in on the extension. So the carriage moves, the carriage doesn't move, and then the carriage moves. So as you extend that leg, be mindful to keep the carriage still.

Because otherwise you're gonna be moving. It's all about stability here, strength, control, stability, beautiful. Up, reach that diagonal and back down, up, reach the diagonal up. Can we do one more, hold the diagonal? Now keep the carriage relatively still. There's your control, And can we do four more with that control?

Four, and three, the upper body is strong and stable. Your shoulder girdle is organized. And we got one more. We hold it there because we can. We bend the knee and we bring it down.

Favorite transition here, whip the legs around or say whip, take the legs around. Hold on to your loop, put your butt as close as you can towards the shoulder box, hands behind the head ready for single leg stretch. There we go. You can adjust that strap a little bit more into your mid thigh. And here's your classic. Now remember when you're doing classic single leg stretch, your inner thighs are swishing against each other.

Your head is like another wheel, and we're lifting up and over, so we look in towards their thighs. You shouldn't be looking to the sky. Now add you a bleak twist. You twist towards your strap, and it's your shoulder that's twisting not your elbow, so get your shoulder girdle rotating, and you're looking in the direction your torso is rotating. Come on. You've got a couple more, and let's do one more for good luck.

Bring you back to center, and then bring your hands down and then lift yourself up. We didn't do the pelvic tilts, which is fine. You don't need to because we're gonna be moving on to more work now. So let's stand ourselves up and let's move on to the next segment. Now we're going to move on to work a little bit of back extensions, some thoracic area here and also the back body into the glutes and the hamstrings, but our first focus is our mid thoracic. So we're going to go for some short box here. So I'm gonna grab my little box, and we're going to do a short box now. Safety comes first, look at your box, make sure it's equal on both side. That's super important every time you bring your box like this, you make sure there is equal both sides.

Okay? Safety is everything. Let's put most of your springs on because we're not be using it for any resistance. We're using it for stability right now. So we're gonna step up. Your setup is you're pressing your feet up against the bar to create connection with that back body.

So we're gonna go forwards to here. Now I'm gonna be in external rotation, so turning out at the hips and pressing the feet up against the bar. So my body is relatively forwards depending how long your legs are. Right? And then what I'm going to ask you is just put your hands down onto the railings and just lift up in that extension. So can you feel your glutes and your hamstrings connected?

Now from here, we're gonna go straight forward so you're relatively in the neutral position here. Now press your pubic bone down into the box. You're gonna feel the connection with your glutes and your hamstrings here. Let's take the hands behind your head. Now, first of all, we go down into the well, and then we lift up into like a relatively neutral position here.

Down, and then up. So you are in extension, but not excessive extension. And we're just gonna do a few more, feeling that back body. Now the next one, we're gonna hold it here. We're gonna reach forwards biceps to ears. Now palms are flat. We're gonna increase that extension as we lift up.

Press your pubic bone into the box, squeeze your glutes because your glutes are lifting you up too. And then we go forwards, and then we bring it back down again. Take the hands behind your head. We lift. We reach. Lift up.

There's your back body. Reach your hands forwards, and then come back down. Place the hands back behind the head. Let's do that one more time, diagonal position, hit your ears to bicep, palms are flat, lift up a little bit higher. Now this time you're gonna reach forward, take your hands down and we go straight back up again and back straight back up again and back straight back up again, and back. Now one more hold here. Swim.

Five four three two one and come down. Put the hands on the railings, lift yourself up. Now walk your feet out onto the top. Are we all there? We're gonna scoot ourselves a little bit further forward so that your pubic bonds towards the edge of the box hands go down, and we're just gonna do like a little lift and then a press. If you need to adjust yourself a little bit more, go ahead, elbows bend as we rock, and then back.

So it's super simple, but it's also super challenging too because we gotta keep that spine relatively still, but the elbows are pressing down towards the railings, and you're in a like a arc position, your glutes and your hamstrings, and lifting that lower lower body up. We hold it here and we beat the legs if you can. If that feels too difficult, just keep your legs wide. Hold it here. Flutter kick.

Eight seven six five four three to hold it, lift yourself up, and then slowly walk yourself back and just drop your head down and enjoy that stretch. What I love about that routine here It's all attainable. It feels safe, and it's working your middle for back, and also your lower body too. It's your whole back body. Put your hands.

Here, And that's to step down. One little extra stretch to come forwards, and you're just gonna reach lower your body. Head down. Hold on to your little railings here. And then just see if you can just let your legs hang down and enjoy that stretch for four, for three, for two and four one.

Hands come up, one last stretch, back into your back. Super important to stretch out your back. Cat, round, roll yourself all the way up, and then come back. We're gonna finish off with a roll down, roll down, and then exhale roll yourself back up again. Awesome work. Now remember, if you started to feel that in your lower back a little bit much with this, you can always bend your knees, move your body back a little bit so your range of motions a little bit less.

Remember that because that would be a great modification for that specific exercise. Hope you enjoyed the workout. Look forward to seeing you again right here. Goodbye.