20-Min Inner Thighs & Arms

Hello everybody. Welcome to Plates anytime. I'm Tracy Mallett for the first segment. We're gonna be sideways. We're gonna start with a little warm up and then we're gonna go into some arm work.

So gonna get the reformers set up at one blue spring. For some of the arm work that we're doing, you may need to take it down to a yellow spring. If you have a lighter spring, play around with it. I'm on a blue today, but if you need to go a little bit lighter, you have the capacity to do that then absolutely. So first of all, we're gonna move your sit bones towards the edge of the form, and I look where I am in the reformer, I'm right in the middle of your reformer.

So make a point of where you are. We are actually taking the back loop, so not the front loop, the back loop. So I want you to pull on that back loop and roll yourself down so you're in that chair position, bring your hand and place it together. So it's like this little rounded little ball here. And we're just gonna take the arms to the side and back again. So we're trying to keep the pelvis as still as we can and just moving the arms away from the riser, and we're gonna look at your arms, look at your hands, and we breathe.

We exhale exertion. Let's do a couple more. One more bring the hands back into your center point. Now, we're gonna reach your arms straight up as the legs go out and then we bring them back in again. So you can feel that we form we're trying to pull you. It is challenging.

So maybe just Keep a semibend with the legs as we come out. So the arms are going away from the midsection of the body. The hands are going kind of straight up to the sky. Let's do one more. Hold it here and then going into your single leg stretch. Reach the arm out to the side and press up and down.

So now you've got this multi functional activity going on here was reaching the arm straight up and down. We're gonna do a few more here. Three. I've got my hand on my hip just to stabilize. Two.

And one, hands together, roll yourself up. There you go. A little fancy schmancy there's a little fun. We're gonna bring your knees into like a little z position here. I still got that back. Loop. Alrighty. So we're here. We're gonna go into a bicep curl.

So let's start the flow off with a little bicep curl. Reach the arm out. Your palm is facing the sky. Really draw your shoulder blades down. Away from the ears, you're sitting tall.

So we're gonna do about four more of these. So you got your bicep curl here, elbow in line with the shoulder, a couple more. Now we're gonna add on. We cross the hand as we reach, bring it back out again. So the arm crosses the body as we go into that side.

Flection there, lateral flexion here, and the arms come out. So we cross the midsection of the body. We reach towards the bar, and then everything unfolds back out again. Feels really good, working the arms, the shoulders, trying to sit up nice and tall as always. Reach out. Can we do one more? We're gonna add on.

Arms are out. Now we do a lovely rotation. Rotation back. Reach towards your bar in that lateral flexion. Let's try it again. Palms facing up.

Rotation, look in the direction you're moving into, working to those obliques, and lateral bend here. And we're breathing, open out, reach up and over so we're not sinking into that underneath oblique. There we go right here, lift up and over. Let's do one more. Add in that lateral flexion.

Hold it there, and then release out. Let's take the opposite hand And we're just gonna do a little elbow forearm wrist. Elbow forearm wrist. Let's do a couple more. So you're unwinding the arm.

And we're gonna do one more elbow forearm wrist holder here, grab hold of it, and we're just gonna go up and around. So you're in your circle now, kinda hugging a tree, bring that round circle. Now look where my body is moving to. It goes diagonally forwards. It lifts up and goes back again. Diagonally forwards, keeping the weight on that underneath thigh.

Now ready for the transition. You're gonna do one more. And release from here, we're gonna turn. Keep it in your outside hand, so opposite hand. Now we go into our underarm grip here and then back again.

So you're supinating the arm. Sit up nice and tall. Put your hands down onto the reformers to give you a little bit stability, equal weight on your sit bones. Now from here, we're going to go into an extension and then we bring it back and cross over your midsection of your body. Supernate, reach back and up. Now if this is too challenging, which it is, then you can either go to a lighter spring or Don't do the full extension here, and just keep it in a supination. Reach, can we do one more for good luck, underarm grip, supinate reach, and then just let it carry through, through, through, through. And release.

Let's move on to the other side. So we're gonna go to the other side here, get into the middle, scoot your butt way forwards. We take the back loop Alrighty. So we're gonna wind ourselves down, roll roll down, bring it up into chat position, grab hold of your loop here, and we go over. I love this exercise because You're disassociating your upper body because it's rotating, and your pelvis is staying relatively stable.

Now see if you can take your eye line with it. So you're looking towards your hands as they're moving and breathe. Let's do a couple more. Last time, but to send another arms, go straight up and down. Now if you wanna add the legs, you can. If that's too challenging, just do the arms.

So you could just be here. If you wanna go for that extra challenge, add the legs, Keep looking towards your thighs. Couple more. One more. Hold it here.

Release, and we do a single leg stretch. So you're shooting the arms straight up, elbows bent. The hand is down on your reformer for stability, look towards your thighs, reach the arms straight up overhead, couple more, one more, and bend the knees, roll yourself up. You could always put your hand behind your head for stability there or a little bit of support for your neck if you wanted to also. Let's move on into your z position here.

Beautiful, lift up nice and tall, and let's start with the bicep. As we reach the handout, and we're in that z position, so we start with the bicep. The elbows are just below your shoulder joint and you're sitting up nice and tall trying to isolate that bicep, right, just the bicep. Remember, full range of motion. Let's just do about one more.

Now we're gonna add on. So we cross, reaching that lateral flexion, we bring it back out, and we cross reach towards your bar in that long lateral line there. Doesn't that feel good in that side stretch as you reach up and over? And then we bring you back to start position and again. So it's bicep curl, then over your head, bring you back.

Don't forget your bicep curl. Go. Reach. Don't forget it. Can we do a couple more? There we go. Let's do one more if we can.

Of course, we can. Hold it there, and then bring it back. Now we're gonna add on. So we do. Rotation. Bring it back.

Reach and out, and rotation, back out, reach, and back. So you've got that lovely rotation here working into your obliques over your head, and give those arms as straight as you can. Can we try one more? Adding those together. And then come out.

Now from here, take it into the other hand. And we go elbow for arm, wrist, wrist forearm elbow. Look towards your hand, back. Couple more. So elbow for wrist, wrist for elbow, this is your last time.

Hold it there, grab hold of the loop, hug in that little ball, and now we're gonna come across There we go. And we're gonna add the circles. You're ready for those lovely circles that we just did? So we go circle up. This is my favorite.

I always love the circles because it just really mobilizes your shoulder joint. And trust me, we all need this. Doesn't that feel good? Follow the hands. Breathe. Feel good movement. One more.

And then back. Now transition, rotating, flex your feet. Alrighty. Let's do our super nation here. So it's opposite hand to the opposite loop here. So we're going across your midline of your body. Right? Now, like I said before, you could just stay here.

You could add some more resistance if you wanted to and just keep it here. Or we're gonna add a little bit extra challenge here, which would be here. And then back again. Now if you have someone or you have a little bit of shoulder issues, then I wouldn't recommend this, just keeping that super nation without the little rotation. I've got my hand on my hip just to give me a little bit more stability there. So it's super nation, rotate look diagonally back.

And super nation, reach. And if you really wanted to, you could go that nice stretch too over there, which is kinda nice and that little unwind Didn't queue that before, but if you wanted to, it's really nice. One more. Last time. And then we come back.

Put both of those loops down. And then we're gonna slowly unwind. Roll yourself up and we're gonna stand up. We're gonna move on to the second segment. Moving on for the short box series.

So we're gonna grab the short box. Now for this, I'm gonna go with the blue spring because their focus is inner thighs. However, if you feel like you need a little bit more help, a little bit more support, then obviously you can go for a blue. Now place the short box, make sure it's even for safety right against the shoulder blocks. Now, we always stand up. We stand up on the stationary side first on the platform. Now, I'm gonna put my knee in the middle.

If you want to make this more challenging, take your knee further away to make it easier, bring your knee closer towards the bar. So I'm gonna go right in the middle there because I can. Bring in my knee in line to match my foot. I'm gonna come all the way up. Just put your hands on your hips to start as you test the water as you take your leg in and out.

So I really like this because I feel supported. I'm working my inner thighs. And I wanna close the carriage. So you go out, close the carriage. Now if you feel comfortable, you can take your hands behind your head or like that definite lift, your head is lifting up to the sky and your knee is down into the box. Do we feel those in the thighs? Woohoo. We're gonna do a few more, and then we're gonna add on to this.

So as we go out, we hinge the hips back and then we lift back up again. So your hips are hinging back towards your heel. And you're hinging at your hip joint. There we go. So you're going into hip flexion here, hip joint, and then we come back up again. So it's really good functionality here over your hip.

Giving that little stretch right here and strengthen as we come up. Let's do a couple more. Reach out hinge hinge hinge one more time. I feel that. And we exhale and lift all the way up nice work. Close the carriage, walk the hands around, knees on top, right again in the middle.

Put your foot right forwards, arms are either side. Of your leg. Now from here, press your pubic bone forwards. Use your abs to roll yourself all the way up. Either place your hands here for stability or you can put your hands behind your head.

Now from here, we're going to work that front thigh. It's your front hamstring. So, yes, we're on a light spring, but I'm working the hamstring. Think of drawing your heel towards your box. We don't have to load the springs up. Sometimes it's harder to go light and really focus on that isometric contraction.

As you reach out and then we pull it in. Let's do a couple more. Last time, Now hold it here, press your pubic bone forwards, get that soas stretch, your hip flex stretch, and then lift up. See my legs are shaking a little bit here. And then we lift up, shoulders over hips, we bring the hands down and we bring the leg to join the other legs.

Your knees are bent. Now from here in a quadruped position, legs are connected. We draw the shoulder blades down. We go into like a swan. And now, pelvic tilt, bring the carriage in.

So we go out, pelvic tilt in, swan, reach out, pelvic tilt, In. Are you ready? Swan pelvic tilt in. Swan adjust out a little bit. Now draw the pubic onto the belly button as we pull back. And draw the shoulder blades down, reach out in that lovely arc position, and curl one more time.

So we're reaching out a little bit of extension there, and then we curl using those abs to bring it back in. From here, we're gonna turn. We're gonna put both hands on the corners. We're gonna come back, right leg in front of the left leg here, and we go out into your swan as we push out into your swan. And then we use the abs to curl back up again.

And again, so we go out into your swan, bend the supporting knee, sit here so that knees bent, and again, push out. Swan, curl back. Now if you wanna carry on to go into your snake, you can go from here, twist, center, back, reach out, drop the head on that twist, drop those hips, back to center, curl back up again. Let's do one more for good luck. We reach out, twist hit your center and then use your obliques to pull back up again.

Step down. Step down. Let's turn. We're gonna step on the stationary side first, knee in the middle, Keep that carriage close, hands on your hips or behind your head and start to move. Really focus on drawing the inner thighs together, so release your glutes, try and disengage your glutes and your hamstrings, and really focus on zipping up with those inner thighs. That's it.

As the inner thighs pull together, the pelvic floor pulls up, Lots of levels. It's gonna get to that top flight right to the top. We're gonna do one more. Now we go back hinge and up. So think of reaching out to the crown of the head. The spine stays relatively straight. It's like a flat spine, and it's a hinge.

So it's a nice little crease in our hip. It's hip flexion. You're flexing at that hip and then you're zipping everything together. So we go out, flex at the hip, there's that stretch, and then we come back together. Let's do two more.

Last time and then we bring it into center. We close the carriage, we reach towards the bar, and we gracefully gracefully turn around. Get that knee in the middle, find where you are for us, press your pubic bone forwards. Now push the carriage away so you feel that hamstring engage, right? Now keep your body forwards, keep your carriage still, find your balance, hands onto your hips or take your hands behind your head to make a little bit more challenging.

We push out and in. So here's an incredible amount of balance. So this is definitely, in my opinion, intermediate to advanced, in my opinion, and back. It's all in that front hamstring, and then you're stretching out through that soas, the back, your hip flexor, Keep nice and tall and smile. Think of the heel, tracking towards the box right there. It's pulling you in, pulling you in with that hamstring.

You've got one more. Hold it here. Now press your pubic bone forward. Squeeze your glutes and that little left. Pretty intense hip flexor stretch. I'm shaking because it's pretty intense for me.

Bring the hands down. Put the knees on top. Now from here, super simple. We're gonna go out into a plank position. Elbows are externally rotated diagonal behind your body, and we're just gonna do a little push up and back.

A classic push up, trying to keep the carriage as still as we can. Trying to keep good stability in our shoulder joint so we're not syncing between the shoulder blades. Always a bit challenging for me. Couple more, all the way down, all the way up, one more. All the way down, all the way up.

Bring the knees in towards the chest and enjoy that stretch. We're not out the woods yet. We've still got our little swan to snake prep. So from here, we're gonna step down. Take your hands on the corner of your box. Right?

If you need a little bit extra help, you can always take it up a little bit heavier. Hands are on the corner. Knees bent. We reach out diagonally, and then we press the pelvis forwards, and we reach up into that swan position, and then we use our abs to pull back again. And again, inhale out, feel that swan position there looking up, and back.

Great prep for some of the harder moves like the snake twist. And then out. Now let's try and add that little twist. Okay? So we're ready. Reach out. Hold it here. Keep the carrots still.

As you look towards your feet, rotate back and bring it in. So stop. Don't move your hands. Just rotate your hips. Your hands are not moving. You come back and then you lift up. Let's do it again.

So try not to push your hands out. You hit that position here. Then you rotate using your obliques, look towards your feet. You're hit back on that diagonal. Alright. Still one more for good luck.

There we go. Are we breathing, rotation, back to center, and up we go. Step down. Step down. I'm gonna walk around here. We're going to go into the well, and we're just going to push away into stretch.

There we go. Hands of forwards. Awesome work there. So remember, we might not never get to those advanced exercises but this is a great way to entertain to be able to get into those advanced exercises. And believe me, that was not easy. And roll all the way up.

Reach up arms over your head one last roll down towards the floor. Roll all the way back up, reach overhead, last time rolling down, rolling up, reach over your head. Fantastic work. Give yourself a little bit of a clap. Thank you for joining me. I hope this inspired your practice and maybe also your classes too.

Thank you so much. Goodbye.