Advanced Full-Body Reformer

Hi. I'm Maria, and today I'm here with colette, lead teacher from Body line. We're gonna be doing an advanced flow. I have my machine on one red or one heavy spring. I'll be working in an element's loop, a compact loop with a handle, but any loop will work. I'm gonna also preset my sticky pad.

Let's begin. Turn and face your carriage, you're standing, and your foot bar is down. Bring your hands to the edge of your carriage, take a deep breath in here, and take the carriage out, feeling equal weight on the hands and the feet, And then round your back to bring the carriages. Stay here. And again, launch yourself out.

The back goes flat. Hold it. Really lift those sit bones to the sky. Tuck the tailbone under, take a nice round cat position. And again, pressing out, and then rounding the back, dropping that tailbone down. We're gonna change the shape.

Push out, you're gonna stay out. Inhale carriagin. You lift the chest into swan, and we take it right back out. Big breath in, lift, and take it out. And one more time, big breath in, and take it out. Now from here, just allow your weight to fall forward So you feel that stretch move down into the lower leg in the calf.

Let's take a nice deep breath into the sides of the ribcage, long, slow exhale, round the back, slowly bring that carriage in, bend the knees that the tailbone drop. The carriage comes in, pick up your footbar, place it in the low bar position. And then come around and have a seat on your carriage near the front of it. Now the machine is super light. Lay down onto your back.

Have some space between your shoulders and the shoulder blocks. Feet are in first position heels are glued. Slowly squeeze those legs out straight, wrap the legs, take the hands to the ceiling, take a breath in here, and on an exhale, take a beautiful roll up. All the way to the top of your roll ups. Stay here.

Tuck the tail, round the back, ring the carriage in all the way. Getting the pelvis under the knees, if possible, from your abdominals, push the carriage out. So a little feeling of a stomach massage here, tuck the tail, bring the carriage in all the way, slide the hips under, and then pressing out from the abdominals. Last time here, notice if you push too much from the legs, you'll go flying. So really control this from the abdominals, wrap the legs, shoulders are dropped.

Moving on. Pull the tail under. Roll yourself halfway back. And pause. For us, the left hand goes up, feel a ceiling of lengthening through that top arm, and now we twist around that axis and center, and we rotate and center. Rotate. And there's a feeling of that top arm staying still.

Everything moves around it. So we're never sacrificing on the length here in the spine. Last time, paause two hands forward, come back to the top of your roll up, pivot the feet parallel, reach for the foot bar, take a monkey stretch, and it's fine if the knees bend here. Do whatever works for you. Wherever you're at, take the legs back straight, turn out the legs, squeeze the heels, tuck the tailbone under without compressing. The other hand goes up, you get a little taller.

And now we do that same rotation across and center, and twist. Never sacrificing here on the length in the spine. Squeeze those heels, it'll keep you honest in your body Two more. Maybe you roll back a little further for the last two. The hands come forward.

Come to the top of the roll up. Pivot the feet parallel, reach for the bar, and take a little monkey stretch that's dropped through one heel, taking that calf stretch, and let's go to the other side. Taking that calf stretch. Bend your knees in. Bring yourself in.

Get rid of your sticky pad. The foot bar is going to go down. And we're going into rowing facing back with a flat back. Headrest is down, legs are straight, five fingers distance behind you. Pick up your loops, and bring your arms to 90 degrees. From here, we hinge straight back.

The arms come with you. And come straight up. Let's do that again. No extension in the lumbar spine. So a little feeling of a tuck and then a lengthen back.

And all the way up. Last one here, tuck and hinge. We're moving on. Come up. Open the arms. Turn the palms out and dive forward. Pull the arms way far back behind you and stay right here.

We're gonna open the arms to a tee. And we're going to exhale and pull the arms back, like you're squeezing on a magic circle, inhale, and exhale lift the abdominals. Now we're never losing tension on the rope, I want you to feel the connection here to your lat one more inhale and exhale. From here, turn your palms to the floor, reach the arms back behind you up and all the way forward, grab the soles of the feet and give yourself a little stretch. Okay. Now let's flow with that.

Arms to 90 degrees. You're nice and vertical. We hinge straight back. We come up, we open the arms, turn the arms, dive forward. Big circle back behind you, up, and over the top, one more like that, back to vertical, and we hinge back and we come up.

The arms come forward. The arms turn. You die forward. Big circle up. And way over your toes. Cross your ropes.

I'm going to use my handles, straddle your feet. So I don't want there to be any tension in the ropes and just stand yourself up. So you might need to push back a little bit or choke up a little bit. From here, we pull the arms back to a row and back forward. Exhale back for two And Ford, continue like this.

And you might consider lifting one heel up for a few of these. Some of you might do this whole thing with your two heels up. So play around with that. But don't sacrifice what you're doing. I always want that little pause. You're lowering your legs.

See how you can use your legs here to transfer power to the arms. Last one like this, the arms go forward, have a seat uncross your ropes. Come onto your knees for me. And step your right foot forward. Now, your hands are on the shoulder blocks, curl the back toe under, and just float yourself off the machine.

Stay here. And determine for yourself if you're gonna stay up or down. Lower back down. So you could stay down. Put your hands into your loops. I'm gonna use handles.

And again, lift yourself up. From here, we begin a tricep pull. So the arms pull back, and they come forward. You stop when you run out of tension. The arms pull back and forward. Now, many of you are gonna put that left rope down.

So you'll have a much heavier load on one arm, pull and forward. Removing slowly, because we're also challenging balance, and we don't want to lose the tension on that rope. Last time, if you were holding two loops, put the left one down, slowly come vertical and hold it here. We're going to a row, and you might need to choke up on that loop. Pull the arms slowly back and forward. Again, a lot of balance here.

Pull two and slowly forward. Bend deeper into your legs. Three, and forward. And four. Just one more here. You should have a lot of heat in the legs.

The arm goes straight, put that rope down, stir hands to the shoulder block stretch both legs straight and enjoy this moment of a little hamstring stretch. The front foot moves back, and both heels are dropping over the edge of the carriage. A little dancey transition come down to your knees. Push your hips forward, and we're gonna do a little reverse body roll. Back with the arms come all the way up and over, pick up your loops and prepare for thigh stretch.

Palms are up. Tuck your tail, hinge back from the knee and pause and begin your bicep curl here. And you're maintaining that nice connection from the crown of the head to the tail. Maybe you bend the knees and you hinge back a little further. Shoulders are wide.

The breath is effortless. Last one here, sit yourself up hands to the shoulder blocks cross your ankles and have a seat. The hands are straight in front of you now. We're doing a straight deltoid pull. Press and come back center.

Reaching east and west more than behind you. And then you're gonna stop when you run out of tension. So it may not be full range. A little pause Always that anchoring moment for me. It's a huge part of my style.

Seems like nothing, but makes a big difference. Hold. Last one, and put the ropes down. We repeat all of that on the other leg, whatever leg you didn't do. So come on up.

One foot is forward. One foot is back. Curl the toe under. Let's just do our little balance check. So float, hover, feel that out.

Are you gonna stay here? Are you gonna stay down? Lower down, pick up your loops. And again, lifting up. Hold it here. And we're gonna start pulling those arms back and back right in line with the shoulder.

So I'm not bringing the carriage in all the way, guys. The range is being determined by my own range of motion. Now many of you will put the right loop down and do it just with one arm. Double the load. The back is flat.

Last time here, now if you had two loops in your hands, put that right one down. You might change your grip on that loop, come vertical, and we go into a row, and we pull in, we hold, and the arm goes forward. Okay. So make sure you're not allowing any slack When that rope, if that rope were to go slack, that's a moment that you're gonna feel incredibly unstable. See if you can commit a little deeper into your legs. Crown of the head to the ceiling.

Keep your focus. Really strong gaze is gonna help you with your balance. Last one, Bend forward as you put that rope down, hold on to the shoulder blocks, drop your head, taking that nice hamstring stretch. The front foot moves back. The two heels drop off the edge of the carriage, and I do have some weight in my hands.

Here's that nice transition. Come down to your knees. A little body roll. Push your hips forward, sweep the arms back, open the chest, come up and over the top. Unusual transition happening.

Pick up the right loop. Turn to the right cross your legs, and you're gonna come to the front of your carriage, and you're gonna bring your two hands into the loop. Now really pitch yourself forward and plug the elbows in. So your body weight is gonna help you here. We're gonna push the arms out over the head and in. So a little tricep press. Keeping the back as long as you can, but it's probably gonna be round.

And then bending the elbows in as close to the nape of the neck as you can. So we also get that stretch in the tricep. And now something very unusual The arms go straight and stop. Slide that loop right up and over your shoulder. Stay leaning forward.

Hands to the front of the carriage. And swivel those legs around and behind you to the right. So we're here in that long diagonal. Hold that diagonal hands behind the head and rotate to me. Wow. Okay. Now from here, nothing changes.

You rotate towards the ground and you rotate away. Notice we're never coming upright. And we twist long spine. And we twist, press that elbow back. And again, we rotate, and we rotate option also use arms so we can rope in here And as you rotate, keep those arms up, it's a much bigger load.

Open. I'm gonna go back to the simpler version. Open and rotate one more everyone. Rotate and rotate. Come back center. Put your hands down.

Maybe lean a little bit further forward. Pick up that back leg. It can stay bent or it can go straight and lift it up. Two, three, four, right from that glute need. Six, seven, eight, big transition, sweep those legs all the way around in front of you and scoot yourself back.

Hands to the hips. And now we're gonna build rowing front. So round your back and sweep the arms forward. Just stay here. Drop the shoulders. Biceps are up.

Sit all the way tall. And again, sweep the arms forward. Pull the abdominals in. And lift yourself up. And again, exhale, sweep, and all the way up.

Let's do the full exercise. So we dive forward. Stay here. Roll slowly all the way up through the spine. The arms reach the spine lengthens push the arms down.

One more here, dive forward. Roll all the way up. Reach for the sky. Press the arms down, slide the loop down to your hand, pick up the other loop, tree hug. So we pull close and we open. Controlling that carriage, remembering always.

The Joe called this Contrology. Not a great name though, right? I really prefer Pilates. Two more here. Last one, the hands come behind you to the shoulder blocks, put your feet to the carriage, lift yourself up into a tabletop position, really pulling those shoulder blades together. Have a seat, cross your legs, release the loops, come up and forward hands to the platform, and step into a plank.

Hold it here, connecting those heels, to the shoulder blocks, pulling the spine long. One hand under your nose, pivot on your feet into a side plank. Many of you will just hold side plank. Some of you will lift the hips, you'll reach through for twist, and you'll come back to side plank. Collette's gonna demonstrate that again.

She's gonna lift up and twist. She's gonna come back to side plank. We go back to our plank. We're gonna bend the knees in. We're gonna take a child's pose.

Deep breathe into the sides of the rib cage and back up. Find your plank again. Find a moment to really connect and pull that spine long. Whatever side you haven't done, the other hand under your nose, pivot on your feet to a perfect side bend, and now maybe you lift the hips and you twist And you come back, Colette will do it again while I breathe and I hold, and we come back, pivot back to your plank, bend your knees, bring the carriage in, cross your legs and sit about halfway in your carriage, pick up your loops. Bring your legs to tabletop, a little modified teaser now. So the arms scoop up.

The pinkies touch and the hands come down. Back up for two. And open, right back up for three, and open, right back up for four. And open, and last time, up for five. And we're gonna come in cross your legs, and then put the opposite loop down.

We're ready for that whole tricep series, shoulder series on the other side. So get ready for your second side, lean way far forward, two hands into the loop, and now we bend and we stretch. Again, lean into the spring. Not something we say much in Pilates, but our body weight here is gonna help us manage that load Doing as full of a bend as you can on the elbows so we do get the stretch as well. Last one here, Stay here. Here's that transition. Slide the loop right up and over your shoulder.

Keep your fingertips at the edge of your carriage. Swivel your legs behind you. You might need to scoot forward a little bit. Get yourself situated on a diagonal, and now maintain that diagonal and rotate. Handser behind the head.

Now from here, we rotate down, and I am using this back leg to help me a little bit back to the diagonal. We rotate shoulder blades east and west, and we spin on our axis and rotate, and really feel the pressing back to the rotation, and we get long. And we rotate, carriage, almost still, rotate down, spread the arms east and west. Rotate, maybe the arms go up, and back to the t. Reach the arms like wings.

Rotate, choose your arms. And center, and rotate, and center. One more, rotate, and center put your hands down. Lean a little bit more forward. The leg can be bent or the leg can go straight right over the headrest.

Lift that leg up. My leg doesn't move. I'm gonna bend my leg. Lift. Lift. And you might be running into the, you might be running into the rope. Three, two, one, wherever you're at, swivel the legs all the way around and in front of you, use your hands to scoot yourself back. Hans are at the hips.

Here we go, rowing, dive forward. Enjoy that stretch in the lower back. Inhale to lift and exhale to dive forward. And up. And again, exhale and die forward. Shoulder blades wide and up.

Moving through the whole thing. Die forward. Roll all the way up. Hands to the sky, press the arms down. One more here, and we dive forward and peel all the way up.

Press the arms down, release the loop. We're back to tree hug. The arms come east and west and pull the arms close and open. And two. And three, maybe taking a little over cross of the wrist, if you need it a little bit harder, a little over cross.

Last one here, Come on in. Put your hands to the shoulder blocks. Step your feet to the carriage. Lift yourself up, up, up. Oh, I feel so good on the hips now to open them. Have a seat.

And again, pushing straight up the knees reach forward, and have a seat. Cross your legs. Put the loops down. We're gonna pick up your bar We're gonna bring it up to where it would be for your footwork position. Come on to your knees. Round your back.

It's very light for this. Keeping the back around, adjust the feet so you can lift yourself up. Take the carriage out and pull it in all the way in back out for two And all the way in tuck the tail one more out for three, all the way in, lift your hips up, take your feet flat for a minute, a little soft stretch. One side. Reading into that top lung, and then to the other side.

And two hands to the bar and lift your heels up. So you're in a feeling of a pike. From here, come to a plank position, shoulders are over the hands, and then take your hips back up. And again, plank, and lift the hips back up. Bring the right hand center.

Pull the right knee into your chest. Turn it out and extend it up behind you. Hold, hold, hold. Now we're gonna add that action or just take the leg down and up. So the leg goes down, you're in plank, and you lift up. And the leg goes down, you're in plank, and you lift up. One more time, the leg goes down, you're in plank, and up. Stay here.

Bend that knee and reach it so so far behind you. Two arms are straight. You're rotating the lower body. Carry the leg all the way side, and then step all the way down to the floor and set up for so as stretch. A moment of recovery here in our so as stretch. Hold, hold, hold.

And we're going to go to a beloved new contemporary exercise. So stretch the back leg straight. The front knee comes into your chest as you come into a plank, and you lower down. So maybe you stay with that. One more like that.

This shouldn't be too tough for you. So we're gonna add challenge by taking one hand away. So we lift a plank. Oh, and that opposite arm comes off. And we land.

Collette's gonna demonstrate it again. She's gonna lift up. She's gonna remove that arm and she's gonna come down. Slowly bring the carriage in. We gotta do all that on the other side, everyone.

So step yourself back up. To your up stretch position. You're pulling the carriage in so tight. The leg you haven't done yet, pull it into your chest. Turn it out.

Pinky toe to the ceiling, both arms are straight. From here, you push the carriage out to a plank. The shoulders are coming over the wrists for this. That's important. And come back in.

And the leg may be just lowers. You come into plank shoulders over wrists, and lift the leg up. And again, find your plank, lift the leg up. Keep reaching last time, plank lift the leg up, bend the knee, and then reach that knee away from you, open the chest, shoulders stay square. You should have a really nice stretch to the whole trunk, but hold a carriage in.

Carry the leg all the way side, step down to the outside of the machine, and set up for so as stretch. Use this moment to recover Okay. The back leg goes straight now. And good old contemporary pike. So we lift the knee up. Hold, hold, hold, get the carriage in, and we lower down.

Many of you will remove the hand. I'm only doing it once. So we lift Oh, we dig the hand away. And we land. And again, lift, remove the hand.

And here we go. Last one, lift, take that hand off, and come back down, and bring that carriage in. Step back to your machine slowly and carefully because the machine is light. The heels go against the shoulder blocks. The hands go to the carriage. Walk your hands back, grab the shoulder blocks and drop your head. Now, I'm allowing my weight to come way far forward because I'm holding on with my hands.

The knees can be bent. You're looking for a feeling of traction in the back. Just release your head. A couple of deep breaths, really feeling the lungs on your breath. Hands to the carriage, step down, have a seat facing camera, palms down on your knees.

Just a moment or two here. To feel the clarity of your mind and that sense of being integrated, mind, and body. We are done for today, everybody. I hope you enjoyed that. Thank you so much for joining me and colette.

Thank you for your support, and thank you being part of Pilates anytime.