Hip Strength Reformer

Hi. I'm Zola. Today, we'll be doing a reformer workout that focuses on hip mobility and stability because both are important. I will be using an over ball, a magic circle and a sticky pad today. And I'm on a studio reformer, and I'll be starting with four springs for footwork. On this one, I have three red and a blue.

Let's get started. So go ahead and lie down. Like I said, I love to start with footwork. You can have your head rest up or down whatever you like. Heals together, toes apart, glue those heels, press them into each other.

Try to release that tailbone down. Take a nice inhale on your exhale press out and pull in and flow with it. Good long legs. Pull the carajen, not letting the springs do the work for you. You drag that carajen with purpose. One more. Good. Come in.

Let's change to arches. No fidgeting, press out right away and pull it in. Enter thighs hugging legs and feet together. Every once in a while, just peek down. Make sure your feet are centered on the bar.

Four and in full three. Two. And one, come on in right away, change to the heels. Again, no fidgeting, get right to the position so we can stay in our core. Press it out and pull it in. Find the back side of those legs to help you pull the carriage in.

Two more. One more. And we go to tend and stretch back onto the toes, heels together toes apart. Length in the legs. Heels go down, but try to go taller into your spine and heels lift up. Again, heels go down.

The feet are in a v because of the wrap of the outer thighs. And up. Good, down, down, down, and up, up, four more, four, and lift. Three, and two, one more time, lift the heels high, bring your carriage in. Now, I'm going to grab my over ball. Place it under the hips.

So headrest down first of course. Feed on the foot bar, use that to lift the hips up and make sure the ball is pretty much under the sacrum. And when you feel secure, arms by your sides, and then the heels are wide on the foot bar. And there's a slight turnout, so don't fall into that turnout. Stay lift it and stay engaged and continue to press out and pull it in. Now, with the hips lifted, you get a bit more stretch in the front of the hips as you press out.

But make sure that ball doesn't make the lower back arch. So we're really hugging the belly button into the spine. Good. Let's do five more here. Press it out. And pull it in. Four. Drag it in. Three.

Good. We go all the way out, but halfway in this time. Now pause. Turn your legs out as far as possible by using the outer hips, the wrap of the outer hips. Good. And then go to an internal rotation. If you have to adjust the heels on the foot bar feel free, they will move around.

And then again, alternate going as far out as possible, and then inner thighs squeeze internal rotation. Try your best to keep the carriage from moving back and forth as you do this, but just lubricating those, hit feels pretty nice, but you're still working because the carriage is a little bit pushed out one more time each way out, out, out, press the thighs down to the ground, and then squeeze the inner thighs. And then go back to that natural turnout, press the legs all the way to straight and pull the carriage all the way in. Nice. Put the arches of your feet on the foot bar just so you can lift your hips up and let the hips come back down onto the mat. Let's do a spring change here.

So I'm going to do two red springs, and we'll do some bridging. So arches of the feet on the foot bar, make sure the head rest stays down, place the ball high on the inner thighs. Arms long by your sides, and let's roll the hips up. So curl the tailbone under and peel the spine off of the mat lifting the hips up to the ceiling. Make sure there's a gentle inward press on that ball.

Roll your spine down. Good. Relax the tailbone at the bottom. And then again, starting with the tailbone curl, the tailbone under, and roll the hips up. I will not require you to keep the carriage all the way into the stopper But wherever it does go, wherever the carriage goes, however far, it goes back. Keep it there. One more time.

Roll it up. Enter thighs hug. Don't let the knee, splay open as you lift the hips And at your highest point, make sure the pubic bone is higher than the hip bones just so we're not sinking into the low back. From here, just squeeze your ball, 10. Squeeze nine.

Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and hold the squeeze, press the carriage out, and pull it in hamstring curl. Again, press it out, and pull it in. Three more of these. I'm only going as far out as I feel like my back isn't going to start arching. Gonna drag that carriage in one more time.

Bring the carriage as far in as you can control and then roll the hips all the way down. Take a little break with your legs, give your hamstrings a moment, and we get right back into it, arches of the feet on the foot bar. From here, again, roll your hips up to the ceiling. Start to shift your weight just a little bit to the left so you can lengthen the right leg and then put that foot down. Readjust the hips if you need, shift a little bit to the right, lengthen the left leg.

I'm gonna do that one more time each side, stretch the right leg, put the foot down, and lengthen the left leg. And put the foot down. Adding on, can you lengthen the right leg? I'm going to just flex the foot and press that right leg into the left. Three two and one, bend the knee, put the foot down, readjust the hips if they've shifted, and lengthen that left leg. I'm gonna flex my foot and then hug that left leg into the ball.

Squeeze three more. Three two, and one, bend the knee, put the foot down, readjust the hips, and then roll your hips all the way back down. Nice. You can take the ball away just so you can hug your knees to your chest. And then again, give yourself a little hamstring stretch. Good. From here, we will be coming up another spring change because we will be doing arm.

So I'm still going to use two springs But instead of two red, I'll do a red and a blue just to lighten up the load a little bit and also foot bar down. We'll keep the over ball. Again, placing it under the hip, so the head rest continues to stay down. Lift those hips again, make sure it's under the sacrum, a place where you feel balanced. And when you're ready, you can bring your knees into your chest.

Grab onto your handles or your short loops. Stretch the arms straight up to the ceiling. Now from here, press the arms only as far forward as your fingertips get over top of the shoulders and then bring your legs to tabletop. You'll feel you have to connect the core a little bit more to balance on top of that ball. From here, the arms press down, right leg shoots forward.

Arms lift, bend the knee, and switch sides. So doing that single leg stretch as you press the arms straight down, exhale arms press down, leg shoots up. And bend, hug the inner thighs in the middle. Press. Good, four more times, and never letting the fingertips go past the shoulders as they come up. So you can stay connected to your back. One more each side.

One more like this. Then we try to do double leg stretch. I'm gonna do heels together toes apart as the legs shoot forward, and then going back to parallel tabletop. Good stretch the legs forward. And then bend it in.

Three more of those. Press out. Belly pulls in and up. Bended and lift the arms. Exhale. One more like this. Good. Bend the knees. Now, don't move the legs.

Just press the arms all the way down to your mat. Let them connect. Shoot both legs up to the sky. We do scissors or single straight leg stretch, one leg down, one leg up, and switch. And switch, and switch, switch for three, and two, and one, both legs come up, heels together toes apart.

Keep reaching the arms down. Can you make them a little bit longer? Stabilize the hips wrap the outer thighs, inhale legs come down. Exhale legs come up. Inhale legs go down. Exhale legs come up.

Three more. Inhale long legs reach. Exhale lift, push the heels into each other two more down. And up. One more. Lift the legs.

Bend your knees, lift your arms up. Good. From here, let the carriage come home. We will briefly put the loops back onto the pegs just so we can take the ball from underneath the hips and place it between the ankles. So knees to chest, ball between the ankles, grab onto those short loops again. We do a little variation of coordination, so elbows come down by your sides, bring the thigh bones all the way to your chest, and then lift your chest up forehead to knees. Inhale, stretch the arms and legs.

Squeeze the ball three times. Exhale bend chest the knees, lift taller longer through the arms, and then bend the elbows. Again, inhale, squeeze three times. Exhale, bend the knees, bend the elbows. Again, two more. Bend the knees, bend the elbows one more.

And rest your head. You can go ahead and put those loops back onto the pegs and bring yourself all the way back up. We don't need our ball anymore, so go ahead and place it down. And for me, I'm going to keep my spring on one red and one blue. We're going to do single loaded legs. If you feel like you need a little bit of a lighter spring, go ahead and just use one spring on the medium side.

You can lift your headrest back up if you like it that way. I'm taking the right long loop and placing it on Just the right thigh. So let it slide above the knee. And then find tabletop with the bow legs. Now, the hardest part here is keeping the hips even and stable as one side is loaded only. And this rope is gonna wanna pull the hips back and shorten the side of the waist. We're going to be fighting that the whole time.

So from here, we go to a shoulder width knee, but the heel stay together. So sort of a turned out frog shape, and make sure the knees start right over the hips. So already, I'm using my right glute to keep the hips even. You can even take a peek up. Make sure the waistband of your pants is going straight across. Now from here, I march that right leg down using that glute and then bring the heels back together.

I'm staying on the right side, just dipping the right toes down towards the springs without changing the spine and fighting for my life to not move the hips as the leg comes back up. It's really easy to shorten this side of the waist. Try to keep the length there. So my glute is already on fire. Trying to just stay stable here.

Good. Continue. But this time, as the right leg comes up, the left leg comes down. Good and switch. Keeping the sides of the waist so long.

Switch and switch. Good. One more each side. And last one. Good. Bring those legs back together and go to a parallel tabletop flexing the feet.

Same idea, keeping the hips stable as the right leg or the loaded side presses up and comes back in. Same idea using the back of the thigh, using where the glute meets the thigh to press the leg out and control it in. Good one more time. Press out. Let's hold. I'm gonna point the toes just for fun, stretch the left leg up.

And then scissor switch the legs. Scissor switch the legs. Switch and switch. Good. Four more. And three. Reach long through the legs.

Last one. Good. He'll bring the knees to the chest. We'll switch sides. Let's put the other leg on first or the other strap on the leg first. And then we'll remove.

The first side. Same idea. Find your frog shape, but knees right over the hips. And think about the side that's loaded. That waist needs to stay nice and long.

You can even peek down, look at your waistband, make sure it's even. And then just the left leg comes down, and left leg comes up. Good. Reach it down. And of course, the opposite side, the side that's not loaded stays nice and stable. For now, at least. Good one more time. Good. Now as the left leg comes up, the right leg reaches down.

Don't let the hips twist. Down, and control it up. Don't shorten the side of the waist. I'm fighting to keep my hips from twisting here, and I feel my glute on the loaded side a lot. Good. One more each side.

And then we bring the legs to our parallel tabletop flex the feet. Readjust if you feel like you've lost that evenness in your hips, and then stretch the left leg forward. And then bend that knee with control. That rope really wants to pull my leg back So you have to resist that pull and bring it in. Hug the inner thighs together every time they return home. Good. Let's press the leg out and hold. I'm gonna point the toes stretch the other leg up to the ceiling and then scissor switch the legs with control and switch and switch, all thinking of hugging the midline with the inner thighs so the legs don't start to splay out to the side, which is very easy to do.

Good. And then we bend the knee. Let's slide this loop off. You can kind of find the platform with the opposite foot, let the carriage come in with control, and let's bring it on up. Let's do a spring change.

I will do one red spring. We'll be doing arms lying on our long box. So Go ahead and grab your long box, and we'll also need the over ball. So don't forget to grab that too. Long box on the reformer.

Over ball goes in your hand, lie on your stomach, head towards the back edge or the back of your reformer. Reach back. Place the ball between your ankles. You wanna be in a spot where your knees are hanging right off the back edge or your chest is right in front of the box. The knees stay bent, and I'm gonna place my hands on the frame of the reformer right underneath the shoulder. So I can push down into the hands, pull up in the belly and lengthen the spine.

Now from here, I'm I'm gonna flex my feet just because it feels better for me in this position. The goal is to not sink into the low back. So I'm really thinking of the pubic bone pulling up towards the belly button even though I'm lying on my stomach. Now from here, just lift your legs off of that box, and then bring it back down. So lots of glutes pushing into the ball, stabilizing those hips. Good. So if you're tight in your quads or in the hips like me, your thigh bones might not lift that high.

And that's okay. And it's okay if they don't lift at all, but you're really feeling that work pressing the heels up to the ceiling as much as you can without sinking into that low back. Three more. And two. One more time, you try to keep the thigh bones lifted, even if it's just an inch, even if it's just a half an inch, Now extend the legs out as much as you can and then bend the knees.

The thigh bones stay lifted as you extend as much as you can. I really feel the backside of my legs right here. Good. Three more. Extend as much as you can. And bend. Two more extend.

And bend one more time. We extend and we hold point through the toes and then go to a parallel position. So think of the inner thighs rotating up towards the ceiling. We do pulling straps now. So grab your ropes. Have the handles on the outsides of the frame, arms stay straight, pull the belly button in, and then reach the knuckles down to the floor, and back towards the hips, shoulders down the back, and then return home with control.

Every time I go back, I'm thinking of dragging the knuckles on the floor to reach back, and then bring it forward. Good exhale press. Inhale return. Let's do two more here down and back. Pressing into that ball one more time.

We hold it back. We do tricep press, so bend and press. Bend and push three more. One more. Keep the arms straight, return them home. Nuckles reach down to come forward. And we do t pull.

I'm gonna slide my hands down to where the short loop and the long loop meet. Arms reach out to the side. Now, my start position won't be here. It'll actually be arms in line with the shoulders, readjust your legs, push into that ball, and then reach the knuckles out to the sides of the room and back, lifting the chest. And then return just back to where your shoulders are, Good. Inhale. Inhale.

Three more of those. Two more push into that ball. I'll try to keep the lift of the legs one more time and return the carriage all the way back home. You can take these handles put them into the well, and bend your knees to grab your ball. Step off of your long box.

We change long box to short box. You will not need your ball. I will add a few springs just for stability. Let's put on an extra red from here and slide your feet under the loops in front of your springs. You want the strap tight around the ankles.

You want to press the ankles outward into the strap. When you do your short box exercise, you want the stability of the hips to help you work the rest of your body. So from here, stack your palms. Place your hands behind your head, push your head into your hands, hands into your head, and use that to lengthen the backside of your body. Right? The elbows come just a little bit forward So we can stay connected to our backs, shoulders, stay down. And from here, we go into a little flat back, one inch at a time, so lift taller, use your glutes hinge back just a little bit, and then we go a little bit more, and a little bit more.

And then we come all the way back up. Remember to hug the front ribs into the back ribs, and again lengthen going inch back a little bit more, a little bit more. And then come all the way up in one piece. Keep pressing outward into that strap. It helps lengthen to lift up and back one inch a little bit more. A little bit more.

And then bring it all the way back up, switch the cross of the hands. We go all the way back in one piece this time, lengthen the spine, and hinge yourself back, and bring it on up, and hinge it back. One more time, lengthen to go back and bring it on up. Good. Sit up really tall. Twist your ribs to the right.

Don't let your hips go with you, and then bring it back to center, lengthen a little bit more, twist to the left. And bring it center. As you twist to the right, I'm almost thinking of my right heel pressing forward. Just so the hip doesn't go back with me one more time to the left. Good.

And then we add a little reach. We twist the ribs to the right. Hold that twist. Take a reach hinge back. Both sits bone. Stay down on your mat.

Come back up and center. Take it to the left. Sit bone. Stay down. Reach it back. Up.

And one more each side, lengthen more. Squeeze your glutes. Press out into that strap, twist the ribs. Reach. And one more time, we twist and reach bring it up back to center.

Give yourself a hug around the waist and readjust if you need. Press outward into that strap again. Now, as you look down towards your abdominals, make sure you don't crunch the spine to do that. We can stay lifted in the sides of the waist and look down at our abdominals, right? So curl the tailbone under. We round back. Maybe you go to that extension. Maybe push the elbows into the front of the box to extend a little bit more. Good. Give yourself a hug, chin to chest, roll it up.

Good. And again, curl the tailbone under, rounded back. You extend. Maybe elbows into the box just because it feels nice. I get a little bit more length out of this. Give yourself a hug and roll it up.

One more time. Heels are reaching forward. The strap is still taut. The shoulders down. Chest is open. And then just a little leverage for a good stretch down here.

Give yourself a hug. And roll it up and sit up tall. You can step off of your box now. And let's take our boxes back. And come back. We're gonna be doing side lying work.

So I will do one red spring. If you want to go a little heavier or a little bit lighter than that, the red is more of a medium. Feel free. But definitely just one spring and also grab your over ball. So place the loop, long loop over your leg, just like we did before above the knee, and then take your over ball, place it behind your knee. So you really have to work the back of the leg to keep that ball there.

I will be on the forearm, of course, option two lie all the way down on your side. Fore arm adds a little bit of shoulder stability work. And top hand can be on the shoulder block hip wherever feels best for you. I'm gonna put it on my hip right now. So find kind of a tabletop with your legs, lift both sides of the waist, and then lift your top leg hip height, and then back down. Good.

And we just lift and lower. So the goal here is to push the back of the thigh into your strap so that the carriage doesn't move so much. It stays as steady as possible. And again, don't forget about the side of the waist closest to the carriage. Keep lifting away from that carriage really easy to forget as we move on and the legs start burning.

So lift that leg hip height and we hold. We take the thigh bone to the chest and then we press the thigh bone back. I'm thinking heel to seat here, opening the front of the hip, and then thigh bone to chest, and then take it back. Good shoulders away from the ear, especially on the side closest to the reformer, front and press it back. Keep going as the thigh goes back, we're thinking of not arching the back and finding that stretch in the hip.

Two more. One more. Press the thigh back. Try to get that straight line from knee to hip. Readjust, lift out of that shoulder again and squeeze your ball. Squeeze. So it's like you're kicking your heel to your seat. You squeeze and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze. Let's do eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one, keeping the front of the hip open.

We lift and lower from there. We lift and we lower. Good. Up and down. Lift. Maybe kick the heel back a little bit more.

Lift from there. Three more. Three feel the burn in that outer hip and then bring the knee forward and rest. Good. Take your ball out, take your loop off, and let's go to the other side. And that was just a quick set. One more side to do. Good. So find that strap, put it on the leg.

Ball behind the knee. Don't lose your ball. Good. And I very much like to sink down into the shoulder. So actively think about not doing that. Right? And then lift your top leg up and down. Good. Lift.

And lower. We're trying to keep the carriage as steady as possible pushing the back of the thigh into the strap. Good. We lift and lower. Let's do three more times. Two. Good. Keep that top leg hip height.

Bring the thigh bone to the chest. Think of your heel reaching back to your seat as you lengthen the front of the hip. Good. Thy bone to chest. And reach.

As the thigh bone comes to the chest, don't crunch in your sides. Gotta keep going forward, and press press press. Forward. Three more. Heal to seat, open the front of the hip.

Squeeze the glute. Two. Good. One more time. Front. And press it back. Try to keep the front of the hip open here, lift a little taller, and then squeeze that ball. Squeeze and squeeze.

Good. Four, eight, seven. Four, three, two. Now keep that squeeze. Keep the length in the front of the hip. We lift up and down from here. Depending on the strength and the openness of your hips here, your leg may or may not go very high.

Good. Up and down. Last one. Good. Bring the knee into the chest. And remove the ball in the strap. You can put your ball away again and grab your magic circle. So changing to two red springs lie down on your back.

We will be using these straps on the feet again. I will lift my headrest because I like it that way. I kind of have to put the magic circle on my chest. We put the loops on the feet first. Make sure they're a little bit closer to the heels than the balls of the feet.

And then the magic circle, just like a halo will go on the outer edges of the feet. Don't let it go all the way down to the ankles, just the outer edges of the feet. Now, my feet are flexed, make sure that magic circle is secure, heels reaching up to the ceiling and try to keep your ankles' knees and hips in line, tailbone heavy. Good. From here, I just press outward with the outer hips. Press out and press out. Try to keep your carriage stable and steady. Make sure you're not favoring one hip or the other.

It's really easy to tip to one side or the other here. Good press out and press. Can you change the shape of your magic circle to an oval every time you press out and out? Squeeze. And the press, of course, like I said, is coming from all the way up here, not from the feet. Let's do five more. Let it burn.

Three. To, now hold that outward press, bring the legs down, and bring them back up. Good. Trying my best to keep the magic circle and ovals definitely easier said than done, down the legs, and up. I feel lots of burn on the outer hips, down, and up. Make sure you're breathing.

Really easy to hold your breath when things are burning a lot. Let's do one more, press the legs halfway down. Good. And then we bend the knees. Keep the legs parallel. So the strap should go right over top of the knees or the shins. Good. Keep that outward press of the outer hips and press.

Good bend. And press, and of course, as the knees come closer to the chest, we're trying to keep the tailbone heavy, so the pelvis isn't tipping back. With the legs. Let's do three more. And two, one more time. When you stretch the legs, try to get both legs to straighten at the same time.

Good and then you can bend your knees and say bye bye to that magic circle loops off of your feet. Let the carriage come home and hook your loops back onto the pegs. Come off of the reformer. I'm going to leave my springs on the same two red. Keep your magic circle. Place your right shin up against the shoulder blocks, and you can kind of shimmy your opposite leg over to where pretty much the springs are.

One leg is turned out. The leg up against the shoulder blocks is pretty much parallel. Reach your arms forward. Let the circle frame the chest and give a gentle inward press of that circle. Now from here, let the hips come straight down to the floor as you bend the knees and push the carriage out, feel the hips opening up, and then bring the carriage in hugging the inner thighs into each other.

And again, press the carriage out. The hips go straight down. We try to keep both hip bones pointing straight forward too, so no twisting of the hips, and an inner thighs squeeze to bring the carriage in. Let's do a couple more here. One more time.

And then for the next few, we'll add a twist. Let's twist towards the supporting leg come back to center, and then twist away from the supporting leg. See how the twist feels different when you go from one side to the other. A little easier to twist towards the supporting leg, a little bit harder to twist the other way. Good.

Let's do a couple more here. Good. Feel the hips opening up. It's a nice stretch, but the inner thighs still have to work to bring the carriage in one more each side. Twist. And twist. Good. Bring it all the way in.

I'll shimmy my supporting leg back towards the center so it's more under my hips standing up. Let's go to the other side. So knee that goes on the carriage, goes up first, shimmy the opposite leg outward, bend your knee, reach the arms forward, sit up really tall. And then think of going straight down as the carriage presses out and then pull it in. I think I can go a little bit further than that pressing the carriage out a little bit more and we try to not arch that low back as we do this. Right?

So only go as far down as you feel your tailbone pointing straight down to the ground. Good and bring it all the way in. Adding that twist, I go towards the supporting leg. And then away from the supporting leg, but hips still go straight down. It's a little harder for me on this side, twisting, inner thighs hug to bring the carriage in, and twisting.

I'm trying my best to use both legs equally in And I'm finding it harder to do that on this side. Let's do one more each side. Lift tall, press the carriage out. And one more. Good. We bring it center.

Carriage comes in, shimmy your standing leg towards the center and then step off. And You don't need your magic circle anymore, put it away. We will lift the foot bar, and Russian splits is next. I'm keeping my springs on the two red and grabbing a sticky pad to place on the head rest so I don't slip. I'm putting it equally on the headrest and on the carriage so it covers that crease. Hands go on the shoulder blocks first, stand directly on top of your performer.

I like to do heels together toes apart and really pull yourself away up and away from the shoulder blocks so the weight of the arms isn't pressing downward into the shoulder blocks. Now from here, right foot goes on the corner of the foot bar, toes on the frame, heel on the foot bar. And then using those strong arms in my stomach, I hop that left foot forward. Ball of the foot on the headrest, heel is on the carriage. Square off your hips, press equally into both legs, go into a lunge so that the ankle is right under the knee. Pull the ribs away from the thigh and drive the carriage forward and back two more of these.

Keep the shoulders connected to the back as you do this. Keep the back leg strong. Easy to forget about that back leg. Good. From here, come on up, find your balance, and the hands go right behind the head, or maybe in a genie pose, square off those hips again, drive the carriage forward, and back. Two more. Forward.

And back one more. Good ankle underneath. Find the shoulder blocks with your hands. Use your stomach to hop the whole foot on the head rest, bring the carriage in. Square off the hips, and then two straight legs, press the carriage as far out as you can.

And then hips go up to the ceiling, try your best to keep the hips square as you come in. And again, press the carriage out, get that stretch. And pull it in one more time. Good. Carriage comes all the way in. Good. Use those arms nice and strong.

Hop that foot back to the center and then take your foot off. We do the other side. So again, find that connection to your core corner of the foot bar, use your arms, use your core to hop the foot on the crease of the reformer. Bend your knee, ankle right under the knee, pull the ribs away from the thigh and then drive the carriage forward and back. Two more.

Good. From here, find your balance hands behind the head. Square off those hips, front ribs to back ribs, forward and back. Two more. Find the shoulder blocks with the hands.

Hop the foot forward. Bring the carriages, re square those hips, and then press out equally with both legs. Pull the carriages, hips come up to the sky. Good. Push that heel back into the foot bar as the leg reaches forward in the front. And then scissor those inner thighs as you bring the carriage in one more time.

Get that big stretch. And then come all the way in. Done. Use your core, hop the foot back to the center, take the foot off. And step yourself off with control. And that's it for today.

Thank you for joining me. I'll see you next time.