Full-Body Inter. Reformer

Hi. I'm Maria. Welcome to my workout. Today, we'll be working just with a long box. Set up your machine with the foot bar up and set up your springs for footwork. I'm also have my head rest up. So come on to your back.

We're gonna start with the heels wide. Just take one moment here to settle allowing the back to relax into the mat. Inhale and on an exhale that start driving through those inner thighs. Pressing the carriage out and in, creating length as we move. Really listening for that breath here.

Let's come in halfway. Let's take little presses here up and up, allowing the back to be nice and long on the performer three and two, press out all the way, all the way in. Pilates v position heels are up, squeeze those heels, wrap the legs to move, and in. And two, and in creating your own rhythm. It's okay if it doesn't match mine.

Try to feel that connection to your breath. I always say the breath is the soundtrack of your movements. Last one here, halfway down, little pulses here, really trying to move the carriage from the hip joint, not the knee. For three, and two, press all the way out. One, pull the trunk even a little bit more out of the hip come all the way in, pivot the feet parallel, press out all the way, and that's just lower and lift. Notice I said lower not drop.

The weight is going right over the first two toes. And now recommit to that core engagement, so pressing the back towards the carriage. That doesn't mean we're tucking under It just means we're elongating that lower back. Last one here, come all the way in. We're gonna go to some bridging, reach behind you, bring your head rest down.

From here, let's tuck the tailbone under, peel your hips up to the sky, and then roll yourself right back down. Inhale, exhale tuck and bridge up, and then peel it back down. Tuck and bridge up. Stay at the top. Roll down just on the right side of your spine.

So notice you're in a little rotated position. Come square at the bottom. Tuck and peel up at the top. Roll down on that other side of the spine and square off at the bottom. One more each way, tuck to peel up, pulling down on one side, no tension in the neck, and back up to the top, and then peeling yourself down on the other side, pull your knees in, and rock yourself up.

We're moving to a supine flow. Bring your machine to one red and one yellow spring. Your headrest can be up or down, and you can also keep your head and shoulders up or down throughout this little flow. Come on to your back. Grab hold of your loops.

We're gonna start holding on to the shoulder blocks or handles. Lakes are at tabletop. Inhale, lift one hip, rotate over one direction. Pause here. Exhale, pull yourself back to the mat.

And inhale, we come up and over. Both waistbands are long. And exhale, pull yourself back to the mat. Take the hands to the ceiling. Inhale here exhale lift to your perfect ab curl, really establish that position and lower down.

Let's do one more here. Exhale to lift long arms, chest is fully lifted. And lower down. We're going into the break, the bar series. So we're gonna lift into that ab curl, reach one leg under the foot bar. Now vigorously push that foot bar away.

Continue to deep in that contraction in the center of the body, hold, hold, hold, hold, but you're reaching like crazy, come slowly down, right back up into your ab curl. Take the other leg under the bar. Push into the bar. Pull the knee into your chest, intensify, deepen as you're here, and lower down, moving on, inhale here, exhale right to your ab curl. The first leg comes under the bar.

Push the bar away. The top leg goes up. Let's flex it and pull the leg in in in in in. Keep pulling it in. Keep pulling it in.

Even if it doesn't move. Keep pulling it in. And lower down. No resting inhale. Exhale right back up. The other leg goes under the bar.

Push it away. Top leg up. Flex it hard. Pull the leg into you. It may not even move, but keep trying to pull it in. Keep pulling it in.

Keep pulling it in. Everything comes down, grab hold of the shoulder blocks. Lakes can be at tabletop or legs go straight, inhale up and over. And then exhale pull back and inhale up and over. Everything nice and stacked for me here, guys.

And exhale back. Lakes to tabletop, hands to the ceiling, Maybe your head and shoulders stay down, mine are going to stay down now. XL, lifting to the ab curl or the arms go down. Take one leg under the bar, push the bar away. Free leg goes to the ceiling.

Let's flex it. It's not high this time because we're going to a leg circle. So we circle the leg around and up. Around and up like you're polishing the ceiling. Keep pushing the bar away. Two more here, keep reaching through those arms, and lower down.

Inhale here, no resting, exhale right back to that ab curl. The leg is under the bar. We break the bar top leg up, flex the foot. And now polish the ceiling. Around and up.

Around and up. For three, keep those hips still. And four, and up last time. And up and lower down. Grab hold of the shoulder blocks. Take the legs to the ceiling.

Flex the feet. Open the legs as wide as you can, and now actively push push push them open. Should feel a little different and close. And again, the legs open, so we're passive at first and now get active. Use those outer glutes and close the legs.

Last time here, the legs open, And now you press, you get active in the stretch, and we close the legs. Open the legs about hip distance, and you can bend the knees if you'd like. Hands to the ceiling, we're gonna add a little oblique curl. So as you exhale, rotate up and over to one side, two hands on either side of that thigh bone, and lower down. And exhale up. And inhale. Listen for that breath.

Exhale up. And lower. And we're trying to get both shoulder blades just off the mat, guys, exhale and inhale equal work on the up and the down. Two more here. XL and inhale last time. And exhale and inhale legs go back up.

Hold on to the shoulder blocks. One big stretch open. Close the legs and bring the feet to the foot bar. We're changing the grip here. So bring your loops together, take an overhand grip.

The arms are straight. The shoulders are out of the shoulder block. So I'm gonna push the carriage out a little bit So I have this nice straight line. Your goal is to not move the carriage and not let those shoulders come up. Bring the legs to tabletop and stop.

From here, the two legs go down. The legs come in, the tail lifts, don't let the carriage move, inhale down, exhale in and up. Continue to move like this. And just notice how much focus it takes to not pull with those arms, really staying honest in your actions, making sure that back is staying as still as possible. Last time here, Two feet down. Take a second.

Second set, and of course you can take the legs straight. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do. So take your legs straight or legs to tabletop, and the legs will lower. And lift. Really be aware of what's happening in the back and lift.

And inhale lower, check-in with those shoulders against the shoulder blocks. Don't let them touch. Control the lowering, control the lifting. Should have a lot of heat in your body now. Last one, Bring the carriage in, let the arms open, take the two knees over to one side, enjoying that nice stretch that release in the back, and take the two legs over to the other side.

And come back center. And that's the end of that flow. Rock yourself up. We're moving now into a vertical flow. You're gonna be on one heavy spring or red, or maybe even a green.

Head rest is down, foot bar is down. Come onto your knees, pick up the loops, and then bring your feet against the shoulder blocks, get that pelvis neutral, hands to the waist roll the shoulder heads back. As we exhale, we press those arms out, and we control to come in. Always that feeling for me of spinning the biceps up. The creases of the elbow point right to the ceiling.

Continue with that nice breath hearing the soundtrack of your action. We have one more here, and now we add a squat. So the hands come in, you squat, you press up. So the intention here is a little different. We're transferring the power from the legs through to the arms, really important skill for sports, and just everyday life, frankly, hips, arms.

Inhale, hips, arms. I know it's a little heavy. You could always push yourself back on the carriage. Last one. Bring your hands by your side. We're going to tree hug.

You can stay here if you'd like. Or join me and have a seat. The arms come wide. We exhale to pull close and we inhale to open. And I want you to really bias this towards your chest.

The tendency is for people to roll forward with their shoulders. Don't do that. The heart is high. We're working as we open. We're working as we close. Last one, tricky transition.

Left rope goes down. You're gonna move over to the right cross the arm behind you and bring it to the other side. Now, push the carriage out and bring that hand to your waist. So it's sort of like a scooter ish kind of a setup from here, initiate with the arm. Push the arm forward and then use your leg to assist you with the rest of the range and come slowly back in.

Again, the arm starts it. You probably can't do it just with the arm. Use your leg to help. And come slowly in. Now, we're keeping this slow and controlled so that you always have load on that arm. And in, just one more here, arm, leg assist, bend that standing leg, and come all the way in, turn and face your machine, and then come all the way to face the back.

The feet are off the edge. Maybe you stay in the loop. Maybe you choke up just a bit. Let's keep the other hand on the waist and just a simple row. I always like to do palm up so it biases the work to a little bit more external shoulder rotation.

And then option to rotate in the direction of that load. Now that does require a little bit more balance. Notice I always like to take this little hold. Almost always, I anchor the shape. Last one, and we're gonna repeat all that on the other loop or the other side.

Pick up the loop. Maybe you choke up. Maybe you don't. And we're gonna start with that simple row feeling scapula to arm. Right? So the action starts with a feeling of being connected to your upper back.

Whenever you're ready, add that rotation, or maybe you don't add it at all. Make sure you give me that little pause Feel that shoulder blades slide into the spine and allow the head to rotate with you. Last one here. Okay. We're transitioning. We're coming off the machine.

Keep holding that loop. Turn yourself around, and we're ready for that little scooter combination on the other side. So I need my leg to help me so I get my hand to my waist. I'm nice and tall, initiate with the arm, but the legs definitely is helping here, and right back up. And again, arm to leg.

And in, keep the tension on the rope. I know your leg is going to want to take over. Move nice and slow. Takes a kind of a lot of controllogy here, right? To really figure it out particularly if this is new for you. Notice how the mind kind of struggles with, oh, what am I doing here?

And we come in, put that rope down. Turn yourself face. Forward. Come onto your knees and grab the loop closest to you. Hands around the loop, upper arm pinned to your body. Right? Do some rotation.

So we rotate to the foot bar, and we rotate to the back of the machine. And for right now, I'm trying to isolate the rotation in the thoracic spine. So I noticed my hips are relatively still. Just a choice I'm making today. Crown of the head is going up.

See if you can have equal weight on both knees, and resist the temptation to get the arms involved. They are really just holding on to the load. And come center and stop. I call this stirrupot. It's literally what it sounds like. Notice it's not a big circle.

So the arms are doing all of that action. And my body is absolutely still. If you're a hotshot, go ahead and reverse the circle. I'm gonna continue just with this one direction. I don't think I've ever said hotshot before.

It's funny how things happen when you're on camera. Last time like that, and we're gonna go all the way around. We're gonna do the other side. Put that loop down. Always careful in your transitions.

Pick up the other loop. The upper arm is pinned on your body, and we begin rotating. Palvis is still, crown of the head is up. Create your soundtrack with your breath. Don't let those arms take over.

Last time, come center and stir the pot. Now whatever you did on the first side would be great if you did that on the second side as well. Equal weight through both shin bones. Maybe you're now worth deciding to reverse your circle. About the distance of your shoulders is the side of the circle guys.

Last one here, put that rope down turn and face forward. Now, we're gonna back you up a good amount. Sit yourself down, hands to the shoulder blocks, and then lift into a little camel pose, pull the shoulder blades together, head to the ceiling for me. Pull the shoulder blades together, and then have a seat pick up the loops. So we're kind of far back because we're on heavy tension. Hands are by the side from here.

We scoop those arms out and forward, and we lower down, finding that anchoring place. The arms reach out and up shoulder blades are wide. Caller bones are wide. And lower down. Let's do one more here.

And again. And lower down. Let's add extension to that now. So we take the arms forward We anchor, and now we lift the chest up to the sky, and come on down. And again, the arms come forward, pause, and we lift up to go back and lower down. In tension here is more up than back.

The arms come forward and go up. And back, bend your knees, put the ropes down, and let's just come into a gentle child's pose here, breathing into the back and the sides of your body. And that's the end of this flow. We're gonna go into a short box flow next. Pick up your box.

Now you know all machines are different. So work out for yourself where you typically do a traditional short box flow. For me, it's over the shoulder box. We're gonna have a couple of springs on the machine just so it's not bouncing around, have a seat. The strap is going over your feet, and you're gonna just rest your feet on the ledge to begin with.

Take the arms up, lift the chest up, and now arch your back as you lay way out and over the feet, drop the head. Just feeling that nice stretch in the lumbar spine, Now, reverse that curve, go flat to come all the way up. The hands can stay overhead or come behind the head, inhale here, exhale hinge straight back. Stay there. Inhale and exhale all the way vertical. Inhale here. Exhale hinge straight back. Stay there.

Take a breath. And yes, I shake when I do this too. And all the way up. And one more time hinge back, wrapping the front of the trunk, and all the way up, take the arms up. Let's do that stretch again, laying way out and over. Take a breath into the back of the ribcage, and then coming out and all the way up, hands can stay up, or hands behind the head.

From here, we're warming up with just a simple rotation and come back center. Be honest in your rotation right now, that's something I say a lot to my clients, and rotate getting tall and center and rotate getting so tall and back center moving on. So we rotate. We add the hinge. We hinge straight back. We come all the way up holding the rotation and center.

We rotate We hinge straight back. We come all the way up and center. Again, rotate straight back. All the way up and center. Rotate hinge back all the way up and center. Now we change the pattern. Stay center.

Hinge back. Stay right here. Twist one way. Center. The other way, center, lift yourself up. Stay here hinge back.

Opposite direction, turn, center, turn, center all the way up, lift the arms up. Let's take that hamstring stretch again. Get out of your upper traps. That was a cue for myself. Flatten as you come out and up, lower the arms down, pivot to camera.

We're setting up for side over. So I like to tuck my foot under and sit on the side of my hip, measure yourself, So you're not too low. The two hands come here, here, or here, knock yourself out. And from here, we side bend over and up. And I want you to go into your full range So I am bending both directions today.

That's interesting. I don't always do that. Fitting between those two Plains of glass, you know this. You've heard this before. Last one here.

And then pivot face forward, hug that knee into your chest. Give yourself a nice little lower back stretch, hands to the ankle, extend the leg out, flex in point for three, and two, and one, hand to the instep. Open the leg. Grab hold to the side of the box. From here, we're gonna tuck and we're gonna go back. So my intention here is just the stretch.

You advance clients. You can go all the way back into the full extension. I'm not gonna even show that today. And we come all the way up. We lower the leg down second side.

So I like to tuck the foot. I sit on the side of the hip. I make sure I'm not too low to begin. Place your arms. And here we go, we go over and up. And I just wanna make sure that everything is controlled. So I'm minimizing a swinging action Push yourself a little bit. So maybe some of you have two arms up.

Feel those planes of glass. Last one, come all the way up, turn and face forward, hug the knee in tight. That gives me gives me a little relief. Hands to the ankle, stretch the leg out, drop the shoulders, Watch your foot. Like, this is a real thing. Keep your focus here as well.

Hand to the instep. Hand to the side of the box. Open the leg. Maybe this is it. This is a much nicer stretch. Maybe you come into full extension.

And come all the way up. We're gonna use the box for a little mat work. So you're gonna have a seat way far forward on your box. And now when you lay yourself down, we want the head and shoulders off the edge of the box. So find that for yourself, bring your legs in, and let's do a little scissors. Take one leg up, one leg down.

Stay here. And we scissor for two. For three, catching the leg drawing it in. Those of you that have the flexibility go to your full range. For five, four, three, two, one, legs to tabletop hands behind the head. Reverse curl. We go over the box. We lift up. We go over and we come up.

Take your gaze to the ceiling and keep supporting your head. Pause at the top, we add a toe tap, so we toe tap, and we come up. Really pay attention now to that spine. Keeping the lower back as stable as we can last time. Knees in, come all the way up.

I always like to have a ground finale. So come back down. The hands behind the head, ground finale in this case is two legs, of course, So the legs lower as you go back and you pull up. I'm gonna scoot back a little further. You guys keep going over and up. And again, we go over and big exhale up.

Inhale. Inhale. Xhale. And exhale knees in, rock yourself up, inhale take the arms up, and exhale, press the arms down. That's the end of that flow.

We're going to move on to prone flow, turn your box to the traditional long box position. And the inspiration for this flow is breaststroke, but you're going to have your machine very light. So I'm going all the way down to a yellow spring. Listen carefully to how we get in because this works best with your clients. I've tried it.

Pick up both loops that are on one side of your body. And now the loop that's furthest away from you, put it down. Bring your hands forward to the edge of the box. And lay down on the box. I know that seems like a lot, but that's what works best.

I'm gonna start with my hands here right at the edge of the box. Chest is off. And as I inhale, I'm gonna lift all the way up to an up dog. Yes, it's a little yoga. And we're going to come down to neutral. And again, I'll end up with the chest, pressing through the hands. The legs are straight, pelvis totally off the box.

And lower down. One more here, a big gulp of air in, and lower down. Now set up this arm in external rotation, the shoulder and external rotation. You can keep the hand down on the box and begin pressing the arm straight out over the head. And I'm just trying to maintain a neutral position in my body Some of you will immediately take the hand off and move with two arms. So that is always an option or just this little support with the free hand.

From the overhand position. We reach the arm and circle it all the way back to the toes. We bend the elbow back to the start. We shoot the arm over the head. We circle the arm.

It goes all the way back and back to the start. And again, this could be with two hands. We circle. We come all the way back. Stay here. Lift the heart this time. Lower down, free hand to the ledge, and the back hand does a bicep curl.

So you have two hands to help you now. Inhale, that arm straightens, you lift up, and you come down. Many of you are just gonna stay here using the two arms to help you. If you have the strength, the front hand comes off, so you lengthen up, I barely move and come back down. And again, lift up. I'm keeping my hand down and lower, but you guys take that hand up.

And lower down. From here, straighten both arms, reaching them in opposite directions. This is a little rough. The arms stay straight. Circle the arms one arm overhead, one arm behind you, and then all the way back to your start. And now bring your attention to what's happening in your spine. Pull long, long, long, Make sure you are still active with those legs.

Resist the temptation to slide around on the box. Now, you know why we only have one yellow spring on. Maybe you can do a blue Maybe you can do a red, but typically pretty light tension. Okay. To come out of here, move carefully, bring the hands back to the front of the box. Slowly come up to your knees. Bring the carriage in, that loop goes down, carefully reach for the other loop.

You can see, I hope how this could be problematic. Bring your hands to the front edge, everything slow, lay yourself down second side. Here we go. So we shoot out and slowly in. Now the position of the legs is gonna really depend on you. It is a little bit more user friendly if the legs are slightly apart and externally rotated.

And maybe you're just starting this the first time you teach it just with the overhead push. But eventually getting to that circle pattern continue flowing for me, either the straight over the head action or the circle. Maybe two hands are moving the whole time. This time, circle the arms, everyone circle the arms, and lift the chest up, up, up, lower down, put your fingertips to the front ledge. Take a bicep curl with the back hand.

You have the two hands to help you, you lift up, and you lower down, very doable like this, challenging, but not out of range for most of your clients. And lower down. And again, if you're a professional, reach that arm out and up, take your full extension. Last one here now stretch the back arm back reach the front arm forward. And here we go, making those circles.

Reach and reach. One side is definitely gonna be different than the other guys. Pull those abdominals into your back. See if you can engage the glutes to help you find a little bit more stability, reaching long through the arms, an awareness of what is happening to those scapulas. Last one here and we're gonna transition out The hands come to the front. So you have control of the machine.

Slowly carefully, come to your knees, bring the carriage in, and you can just let the loop drop. I don't say that very much. Now, we are coming back down, hands to the ledge, bring yourself all the way forward, all the way forward to your hip bones. Push the carriage out. Let the chest go into the well, lift the legs up.

Stay here. The legs lower we pull in, and we take it out. So it's up to you here. If you wanna stay neutral or if you wanna add some extension to this, reach out and up. And take it out. I'm gonna stay neutral and really just work the extension of my hip, reaching out, and that we've already done a lot of extension in the thoracic, in the lumbar spine.

So I'm biasing it towards the hip. Last time here come on in, step your right foot down to the ground, scoot over to that side. We're just gonna take a little quad stretch here, catch with whichever hand makes sense. And that's come up and over to your other side. Bend the knee, catch it.

And come on up. That's the end of the prone flow. Take your box off. And after all that extension, I really wanna round out my back. So we're gonna use short spine stretch as a cool down, bring your machine to two reds.

Head rest of course is down. The loops are ready for you to pick them up onto your back. And I am gonna do something I don't do very much. Push yourself out. This is how I teach to get into it.

I'm gonna do the classical, version of short spine stretch. So the legs come out, the hips lift as soon as you can, You find that overhead shoulder stand. I'm gonna use my hands for a little support because I feel a little tight right now. Bend the knees the distance of the shoulder blocks. And now I'm gonna compress and peel slow. Now I'm doing it real slow because I'm using this as my cool down.

I'm gonna flatten my sacrum to the mat, squeeze my heels to the sit bones, and take the legs out and lift right up again. See, I'm just giving myself a little support here. That's all I really need. For my body to deepen and relax into this stretch, peel it down. It's something that should feel good on your body, guys.

One more, lifting right away. Peel yourself down. Stay at the bottom. Find happy baby position. Grab hold of the loops and plug those knees in towards your armpits.

Take a couple of deep breaths here. And then remove the loops, roll yourself to the side to come up. That's the end of today's workout. Thank you so much for joining me, and thank you for your support.