Fluid Tower

Hi. I'm Misty Lynn Cotton, and today we are doing an intermediate ish tower session. What I love about this session is that I really try to put in elements that just let you move and breathe freely while you're addressing some of the sticky spots in your body. So let's get started. We're gonna begin straddling the tower, and you have a choice here. I'm a little bit will call me diminutive in height. So I like to put a block on either side.

That said, if you're taller or you've got super long legs, you might not need the blocks. So the blocks will come underneath your feet and you'll slide in to a comfortable place and grab your bar here. Before we go anywhere, it's likely to find this and it's very esoteric, so feel as if you are bending your bar to wrap your armpits around. You'll hear me use the cue, rotate your armpit forward. Think about rotating the back of your armpit so it's looking at the wall in front of you, and then return to neutral.

We'll do this three more times as we settle in this position two and one. Now we'll bring the bar up. Grab a blue spring, and we'll do one from each side. And I want you to think about that rotation of the armpits forward as we go into seated cat. So I'm a little close to the bar here.

The idea is I'm sitting up tall on my sits bones to begin. My armpits are rotated forward, and my wrists are neutral. You can wrap your thumbs, you'll pull the bar down, and press through, then you'll nod, curl up and over your own pelvis, but stay on top of your sits bones. At the very bottom here, we let the pelvis tip forward a little bit and start to extend through the spine continuing to rotate the armpits forward. Naw, the chin to the chest to return, scoop, keeping the armpits rotated, pelvis stacks, and then we bend the elbows through the side body and press up. We won't hinge yet.

That's coming up, so be ready. Rotating and pulling down as we inhale, press through, nod, exhale curl, scoop, looking at your navel, and then extend reaching through the sits bones all the way up through the crown of the head and the tail, opposition. Inhale, exhale starting from the head. We're nodding. We're curling. Pick up the thoracic spine.

Keep the armpits rotated forward. Let the arms push the bar up, and now hinge forward. Channel your inner smooth criminal here, you are leaning into the wind without taking that extension there. Return to your sits bones. Let's do one more here, pulling down, pressing through nodding, scooping, and stretching hold here.

More scapular work, we're gonna move your blades together and apart, resist the urge to flex the elbows I really want to, but I'm on best behavior today, two more. One more. And then I'm gonna deepen into a hinge here nod scoop. Now I'll sit behind my sits bones roll up and press up into my extension, really lifting up and out of my low back, seeing how long I can get by the end of the stretch I'm gonna be five eight. Just kidding.

I'd like to do one more thing here. We're gonna take a stretch. So you'll pull the bar forward. This time, we'll just hinge forward and through. Keeping your backhand attached to the bar, you'll grab your pull, and then you're gonna inhale and twist.

Look over your shoulder and allow the rest of your spine to join you, then square back up. And inhale twist reach longer. I'm going for five eight, like I said. So I've got a lot of work to do here. One more. Rotate and twist and stretch.

I'm thinking of my sits bones shooting across the room so that I can get to that five eight. And then I'm gonna square back up. I'll do the other side here. Grab the pole, reach and stretch. I'm allowing my shoulder blade to pull away from my spine. And then I'm pulling it back toward my spine squaring up.

Twist and reach longer, longer, longer, and square. And last one, reach. Sadly, all good things must come to an end so we come to the bar. Get longer, and then we scoop. Starting from the head. Nodding. Scoop behind the sits bones just because it feels good.

Lift and lengthen up, smooth criminal here stretching through rotating the armpits, So we're gonna come out of this position and roll over onto our backs for supine arms, but we're using the bar here Find the rotation of your armpits forward and bring your heels in a little closer to your rear. I'd like for you to find the place where your spine is neutral and released. And then from here, we're going to separate the blades and pull the blades back. Three of these. Every position we're in, whether we're laying on the scapular, they're in the air or the arms are overhead, requires a different engagement.

So The reason why I like to start with those scapular movements is so that we can feel what they do with and against gravity. So we're doing the same thing over here before we go into the arms, really working to keep the ribs stable Then we're going to pull the bar through curl up, sit tall, lift the bottom of your breastbone. From your pelvis, scoop and roll back. Widening your back as you go down without slumping through your neck chest and shoulders. And that is the technical term, slumping.

So rotating through feeling like you're bending the bar, Scapular flat to the back gaze goes to the naval, you're scooping your rolling, you're articulating up. Inhaled here, start from the pelvis, scoop, roll, articulate and push the bar through let's take a stretch here, lift the ribs. That's over. Bring the ribs back down, bending the elbows, keeping them parallel. Pushing the bar up, nodding, chasing the bar with the top of the head will come up and hold. Let's inhale to slide the legs away, flex point bend the knees in, scoop and roll back, bringing the heels the rest of the way, pushing the bar through, keep the rotation, pull the bar down, naw the chin to the chest, scooping, curling, and lifting up both legs, legs sliding, pressing through the backs of the legs without displacing the chest and ribs, exhaling, pulling the heels back under you, scooping from the pelvis, rolling back through the spine, and stretch here.

Now we'll just roll up I'm going to change the spring of the bar. So what I'd like to do, we'll just take off one spring here. And as you lay down on your back, I want you to think of your hips being just forward of the bar this way. So when you put one foot up, you'll be able to flex the ankle and release the ankle without having to displace the hips. So now that's exactly what I'm gonna do. And I'm trying not to let this spring clash and bang and make a lot of noise.

And my shin is burning here immediately, but I'm still thinking about all five of my toes reaching into the bar for as long as I can in this plantar flexion, I'm sorry, in this dorsal flexion, and now we'll hold. Think of this hip staying neutral pull the bar toward you keeping the leg parallel. We'll do four more of these. And as you're going, check into where you're holding excess tension, see if you can let it go. And one more here.

Whoo. Release the bar. Don't let it slam around. Shake it out, but don't rest because we've got more fun to do here. Stretching through the ankles, making sure the pelvis is neutral. We're flexing.

And if you're anything like me, your two sides feel completely different. So the adjustments that I have to make here, I didn't have to make on the other side and vice versa. Three more here. Really working to keep the knees straight here. The hamstring is turned on, and now we flex.

I'm pulling the bar toward me, and then I'm lifting back up. Creasing in the hip to let the femur fall into the back of the joint. I do three more. And two, really making sure that my ankle, knee, and hip tracking is in a straight line. Not a zigzag.

That's enough of that. So leg comes down and let's roll up to sit up. Make it pretty, big breath in. Gen of the chestnuts have scoop and curl. Grab your bar for a quick stretch.

Time to move on. Now it's we're gonna jump into what everyone loves to do, which is the rollback. So grab your rollback bar, and we're going to use the yellow springs for this. So I'm going to bring my blues out of the way. You can either lie them down beside you as I am or you can leave them hanging. But I was taught Good Spring maintenance is key.

So we're going to attach the short yellows to the high grommets. I prefer to do this, as you said, I'm not a tall person with my legs slightly wider than hip width. As I'm sitting tall here, I'm thinking of staying on top of my sits bones to begin, then I'm exhaling. Think of sending your pubic bone towards your nose, roll back as far as you can go without affecting the ribs and then start allowing the ribs to come with you. As you roll back, pause here, Take a big breath in.

And now exhale continue to send the pubic bone towards your nose. I'm trying to keep all of the tension out of my back because I don't need it. I come flat to the back. My shoulder blades are heavy. Inhale, Not the chin of the chest and exhale. I'm curling up. My pelvis doesn't come to the party until it's time.

No one wants a premature pelvis. We're just coming up to sit tall here. Three push downs with the armpits. So we're actually pulling from the pits and two more resisting the urge to rib thrust. And here we go again, big breath in.

Exhale from the pubic bone. Curl. Now note, if you're anything like me, you may wanna squeeze your tush really hard, but you are not spongebob, so your butt should not be square. Nodding the chin to your chest as we're curling up, look at your feet. See if they are staying level as if your feet are on a board or if you're rolling in and out on on the ankles.

This time, we'll stay round. We'll reach for the upright poles. And as if there's a hook through my navel, I'm really stretching in opposition here. Adding on, big breath, exhale, hollow the belly to roll back, continue to feel like you're breaking that bar. We're going to roll back here and stay.

Now pull the bar to the bottom of your breastbone keeping your chest nice and wide. Three, two, one, nod, curl, roll up, staying round, reach long over your legs, hovering the torso over your legs, one more like this, scooping round. We have three. And two wide collar bones, wide rib cage nodding the chin to the chest as we come up, peel each vertebra one at a time, up off of the mat, roll forward through and then roll up to sit tall, adding on. One hand's gonna come to the middle of the bar, and the other one's gonna wrap around the belly. We'll roll down here scooping rounding, holding.

The goal is to keep the bars level as you can. So you've gotta use your whole inner and outer shoulder to do that, nodding and rolling up. Staying round. I'm rolling back down scoop. Rounding.

Hold. Give me three single arm pulls here. My range is a little shorter. Two. One, keeping the armpit rotated forward, nod curl all the way up, switching hands at the top, wrapping the arm and scooping back. And rolling back up.

This time, we'll add the pulls at the bottom, exhale hollowing the belly, sending the pubic bone toward the nose, find each vertebra one at a time, shoulder blades flat, and we pull three. And two, and one, nod curl all the way back up to sit tall. I mean, round, and then roll up to sit tall. Our next trick, crossing the wrists, sitting up nice and tall. We take a big breath in. We exhale start to scoot back As we scoop back, we're going to bring the top arm up, and we're gonna look back over the shoulder, and then we're coming back up with a tall spine.

And stretching over. We'll do this same side one more time. Rolling back, reaching, scooping, stopping, I'd say at the top of the tailbone or so, and then rounding to come back up. And sit tall and switch the cross of your arms. The arms cross so that it's easier to keep the bar level.

Big breath in, exhale scoop, rounding, reaching, stretching, and then come back up. So I take a little wee extension at the top, but it's not about the extension. It's about how much rotation I can get from my navel up through the crown of my head. I come back over and stretch. One more in this series.

Can you tell it's one of my favorites? So this time, I'm hinging back. Really working hard to stay on my sits bones and keep my ribs connected. From here, I'm going to scoop to roll up. Reverse it.

I'm going to roll back down. Now I have to come up in a flat back. Hanging forward around, We'll do two more of these. Hanging back flat. I like to call this Dracula. As if he's laying in his casket, I'm rounding to roll up.

I'm reversing it to go down round. And then he's climbing out of the casket to come up, sitting tall, one more hinge. How long can your spine be? Finding the floor, nodding curling on this reach up really try to reach to and through your uprights. Reverse, rounding back?

And up? And release. Now it's time for footwork because this is Pilates and all. So just to make sure, These blocks are out of the way. And then I'm gonna take the rollback bar off, put it out of my way, and then I'll grab this bottom spring here. If you don't have a low spring, it is absolutely okay to use two blue springs or a blue and a red or two reds, whatever you have on your device at home.

Then you'll bring the safety chain strap, consider your height. That's how you're gonna consider where to loop it, and then we'll clip it in. If you have tighter hips, you may wanna clip it higher so the bar isn't as low. Then when you lie down, Rule of thumb is one, you don't smack your head on the bar, and two, you slide back somewhere about the edge. Let's take that safety strap and put it out of the way, and then you'll bring your heels to the foot bar.

We're gonna start rotated wide here. Arms down. And as you bend your knees, we're slightly turned out. As you bend your knees, think of the knees and the toes being in the equal amount of rotation flexing and extending, maintaining your connection with the tail on the bar. For more here, really extending through the hamstring, so I'm flexing, and I'm pressing into my hamstrings to straighten the knees. I'm not allowing this to be just a knee action. Two and one more here.

Now we'll bring the heels to the heel pockets. That's where the heel, bone, and the arch, and the heel come together. Find this position. Let your forefoot relaxed and then flex the knees. And straighten two and three.

Check-in with your low back. As you're flexing your knees, try not to let it press into the mat. Instead, think of your sits bones reaching away to the far walls. One more here. Now we'll come to the balls of the feet and turn out. Let your little toes be on the bar.

It's important that that little toe is connected. And we'll start with flexed ankles, hug the inner thighs together. If the heels don't touch, that's okay, but the inner thighs must. And then from here, we'll bend, we'll open the inner thighs to straighten we're sending the energy up the sits bones through the backs of the knees to the heels, and two. And three.

Just two more of these here. We'll press up and hold on one, and now we're going to point through the ankles. The weight is going to be a little bit different here. First, three toes is where I like for it to be, and we'll do the same thing. Five and four, three, two and one.

Flex the ankles stay here. Hold this stretch for a second. We're gonna hold the stretch in turnout, thinking of the thighs wrapping around, kinda like what we did with the arms earlier. And then we're going to come to parallel, all 10 toes on. Same thing. Stretch. And as you stretch, really think of the soles of the foot being level, not rolling out to the outer ankles or pronating through the mid foot.

Bend the knees in. Grab your bar so it doesn't whack you and then slide straight out and sit up. So we're gonna disconnect this whole situation. Try to go to the same side as the spring, unclip it, and then make sure to put your safety chain back up and out of your hair because we're going to prone next. You can stay with your yellows.

I prefer to do this on the short blue springs. I like a little extra reminder for my shoulders. So I'm putting them back up top. Connecting to the top, eye bolt, and then coming down with grace and dignity. One hand stays on.

I find my bar in line with my uprights. I wrap my arms around, and I'm just gonna lay with my head at the level. So I don't want my head to be below my shoulders and my elbows because that's not natural. I want my head to be up toward the height of my hands, rotating my armpits forward. Here, legs are long, not wide, sits bones width.

And then from here, all I wanna do is bend my elbows. Feel it. And stretch. So this is just acclimating to what's to come. I'm allowing my shoulder blades to stay wide my elbows to go wide in the bar to come to my head ish.

Without displacing my shoulders adding on here, stay. Let's rotate the armpits forward. Keep your thumbs wrapped, lifting through the crown of the head first. Continuing to lift as we climb up the wall to the swan. To come down, think of the bottom of your breastbone, reaching forward to the forward edge of your mat, to come back down? The head is the last thing to arrive, and then the first thing to depart.

So the gaze goes up the wall, face goes up the wall, throat goes up the wall, shoulder blades are wide, and I'm coming back down bottom of the breastbone stretching forward. Let's do two more of these because they feel amazing. Look up the wall. Coming up coming up. Coming up. Check in with your buns.

Have you gone spongebob style? Coming back down? Remember, Swan is a very individual thing. So my swan might not look like yours and yours might not look like mine, and that's okay. What's important is that we're never compressing the low spine. Get longer. Get longer.

Get longer. And hold it down here. We're pulling the bar back again. Lifting the head here and stretching the elbows back for a chest stretch. Hold it for four and three and two and one. Barr's gonna go forward.

Holding it here, we're above the levels. So think of the bars being nose height. Hover the legs up. Swim. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, We're lifting the legs from the under butt, not from the toes, two and one.

Come down, stretch forward, and then press back to release. Quick child's pose here, rotating the palms up, sitting back. And then we'll step out of this gently, slowly gently take all the time you need. And moving on, now we're going to sit. Feed are to the poles on this one. Again, if you're super tiny, you may wanna put a foam roller in front and rest your feet on that.

But I'm going to reach here for the polls. This looks similar to the arm exercise we did earlier. This is seated push through. We'll start in the smooth criminal lean here. Then we'll exhale scoop the belly.

Pull the bar down with the armpits, press forward and through. Head comes up to the level, scoop the rollback, and come up We'll take a stretch here, reaching for the pole looking underneath the armpit. Come back through, find the pole push up deeper, scoop pulling the bar down from the armpits, pressing forward and through, stretching that the head come to the level, rotating the armpits, stretching through your medial ankles so you don't look like someone broke your legs, scooping back. Coming up. Here we go again. Find the bar.

Look underneath it. Here's the thing. Try to keep the weight even on both legs. You're reaching up through the top arm and looking underneath the armpit. Let's do that again.

Coming up, scoop, forward through, scooping back, and reaching up, getting tall, long five eight. I feel it. It's coming. And coming back up, stretch and scoop round under pushing forward and through Head to the level's shoulders open. Scoot back. Push up.

Reach. Get taller and stretch. My hips should still be even equal pressure into the poles. And then come back up. Hold this position for a nice long stretch.

Now we're going to step out of this and come into seated side bend. This is always a little tough to line up, but I like to think of my arm being somewhere around a right angle here. Rapping the thumb is a little challenging for a lot of us here if we have bad wrists or whatnot, but you really wanna find that some wrapping for safety. From the armpit, we're pulling the bar down. And pushing up. Just a prep.

My finger's still here because I wanna make sure my serratus anterior is working for me. Adding on. I'm gonna pull down, press through and side bend. In my side bend, I wanna look like a rainbow, not a slash. Come up, press the bar up sit tall. Again, pulling down side bending over and coming back up and pushing up, adding on.

We're coming to a z sit here. Now things are gonna get interesting because I wanna keep my hip down as I'm pulling down and I'm side bending. Now let's add a little bit more. Stretching up into a diagonal, my hip is lifted. I'm okay with it.

But to come back, I wanna get that sits bone back down, bending and coming up. Pushing through one more like this. Pulling down, keeping the hip down, side bending hip is down, reaching through hip is up. And then I come back into that side bend, bending and pushing up. Now the bonus, I'm so excited.

We're gonna do the breakdancer here. And slide my hand back just a little bit for good measure. I'm pulling the bar down. I'm side bending. My hip is down. As I push through, my hip comes up, and I'm reaching for the bar.

Now we're gonna get fancy. Lights come all the way around through elbows are still straight. I'm gonna come back around to the center, find my poles, and come up here just to give ourselves a stretch before we do the second side. Remember what I said, About your seated position, find the armpit, find a few presses through so you can figure out if you're in the right place or not. I'm clearly on my stronger arm on this side, and I'm not gonna complain.

So let's move on, hand behind the head, ribs stay balanced over the pelvis, stretch through the arms, pull the bar down, side bend, rainbow. Come back in and up. Think about keeping a little extra weight into your outside foot. Pull down, side bend, rainbowing again and coming back up adding on. Z sit. Try to find the sits bone down.

Here we go again. Pulling down, side bend keeping the hip down, pulling up, pressing the bar up, keeping the hip down. And again, side bend, and press. This time, we'll find the rainbow and the slash side bend into your rainbow. Now the hip comes up into your slash.

This armpit must stay rotated forward so we don't shlump. The hip comes down first, elbow bends, come back up. Again, pull down. Press arc slash. It's a little bit of an undulation. Unfurl bending and come up.

Here we go. The big kahuna, the breakdancer. We're pulling down. We're side bending. We're slashing and reaching elbows are straight. We're coming all the way through to the other side.

We're coming up, finding the poles, pressing up. Now we're going into the bridge, scooping back, finding our dragon, finding our scoop, and then look, I'm pressing up and I'm extended. Come back down to the top of my head. Find the floor, push back up and stretch. You may lose your pants, and that's okay because you're at home. Big breath in.

Rotate your armpits forward, exhale scoop. Pull down from your armpits. Start the scoop and slide, roll up into your bridge. Now on this one, we're coming to neutral, single pull up and back. Extend through your thoracic spine. Find the floor.

And slide back, stretch up, and release. We're gonna end with something gentle ish. So we'll keep one of these blue springs on or yellow if that's what you kept. Now we're gonna sit facing away from your tower. If your shoulders are tight, this might not feel great for you.

Make good choices. This is nice because I get to open my chest in a way that I haven't been opening it, and I find my sits bones. Now I'm just gonna roll forward. And take the bar up and forward and scoot back two more. And back.

Watch this back here, widen your collar bones, widen your shoulders, keep stretching through your toes. When you come forward, think of coming up and over, not down. And then I'm gonna go more over by lifting the bottom of my breastbone into my spine. I'll pull back, roll back. And to dismount, I'll sit up tall.

Make sure I've got a good grip and let the bar float up. Thank you so much for joining me on this workout. I hope you had as much fun as I did.