Spiral and Stabilize

Hi. I'm Zola. Today, we'll be doing a reformer workout that involves mostly unilateral movement and twisting. Both challenge stability and twisting just feels nice. I'm on a balanced body studio reformer, And I'll be using a sticky pad today because we will do stomach massage. I also have my box with me. That's all you'll need.

I'm starting with footwork. So four springs for me, that's three red and one blue. And I like my head rest up, so it's lifted. Starting with toes, heels together toes apart in a b, press your legs out and pull it in right away starting that footwork, getting that flow going. Exhale out, inhale in.

Or whatever breath you like to do, you can also inhale to lengthen, exhale to bend, mimicking the springs. Let's do one more here. As you come in right away, change to the arches, no fidgeting, press out, and pull in. Toast reaching over the bar, heels pressing down. All the way out.

Control that carriage in. Make sure the springs aren't doing the work for you. Let's do three and two and one come all the way in right away changing to the heels. Flex the feet. Press the carriage out. And of course, you're allowed every once in a while.

Look at those feet. Make sure you're centered on your foot bar. Make sure the pinky toes are pulling back just as much as the big toes are. Collar bones wide. Let's do four more here. Four, pull it in. Three, lengthen out.

Last one out and in, tend and stretch back to the toes, heels together toes apart. Lengthen your legs, stand tall in those legs, lower the heels down, but grow taller through the spine. Lift the heels up. Press the heels down. Squeeze the heels together to lift them up.

That v shape of the feet comes from that slight wrap of the outer thighs. Down, down, down, and up, up, four more times down, and lift three and lift two more. Last one heels lift high, let the carriage come in with control. To transition, let's place the feet on the platform below the foot bar, reach the arms up and roll yourself up to seated with control. Swivel yourself around.

Let's change to two red springs for some unilateral footwork. Swivel yourself back around and reach the arms forward and roll yourself down with control. Place your toes on the foot bar heels together toes apart again. Make sure you remember that the carriage is lighter as you push yourself out. Don't go crazy.

Take your right foot off of the bar length in the leg. And just hover it a couple inches over the foot bar from here. Bend the left knee. Press it out. Going for hip stability here. So as you bend and stretch, the left side, you're not crunching in the left side of the body and the left side of your waist.

Keeping both sides nice and long. One more time. And then we added lift of the leg as you press out. Can you arrive at the same time with both sides down? And up two more down.

And up one more. Both legs stay straight. Flex both feet and point both feet. Tend and stretch single side. As you point and flex the other foot.

Good. Two more of these. Moving both feet at the same time. Point through the toes, keep the leg straight. Reach it long to return the toes back to the footbar.

Let the carriage come in one time and press it out again. Going to the other side. So hovering that left leg above the footbar. Feel that connection to the lower abdominals and then bend. And press it up. Try to get the carriage all the way in every time.

Three more here. Two and one adding that lift of the left leg try to arrive at the same time down and lift down and up two more. One more. Out and hold, flex both feet. Point both feet.

Working the feet. We don't get to do that in our normal everyday lives working the feet. So Now is your chance to get them nice and strong. Good point through the toes. Keep both legs long.

Reach the left leg down. Find the foot bar. And then bring the carriage all the way back in. Good. From here, we do the 100. So I like to shimmy myself away from the foot bar a little bit, from the shoulder blocks a little bit.

Find your handles. Reach your arms up to the sky, reach the legs up to the sky, heels together toes apart. Now press the arms just enough to get them right over the shoulders. And from here, I press the arms down, curl the chest up, but keep the legs lifted. As I inhale, I lower the right leg.

As I exhale, I lift the right leg and switch sides inhale, exhale. That's 20 inhale. Exhale. 30 inhale. Exhale.

40 inhale. Halfway there inhale. 50 or 60. Sorry. 70 inhale. Exhale one more each side, inhale down, exhale up, connect at the top, one more inhale down, exhale up, connect.

Good. You can bend your knees, lift your arms and rest your head. Let the carriage come home and briefly put your loops back onto your pegs. We do another transition reaching the arms up, rolling yourself all the way up to seated for another spring change. Silver yourself around. I'm changing to one red spring and one blue spring and also lowering the foot bar.

Just making it a little bit lighter. Swimble yourself around. You can put your feet on the foot bar, reach the arms forward. And then roll yourself down with control. Good.

Going to frog and leg circles. So feet in the long loops. If you have long loops and short loops. Heels together and toes apart arms by your sides, get the tailbone down on the mat, and then from there, press up and bend in. Keep those heels pushing into each other and only bend the knees enough to keep the tailbone nice and heavy.

Find that long line stand tall in those straps. Let's do one more press out and hold. We do leg circles, so lift the legs up. Are you still pushing those legs into each other? Then you get to open them no wider than your reformer, press down long legs, squeeze them together to close, keep that squeeze to lift, smooth out those circles, squeeze to lift.

Squeeze to lift. Good. Bring your legs straight up and reverse those circles, squeeze to lower. Open and lift. Squeeze to lower. Open and lift.

One more time. Bring the legs together and bring your knees to your chest. Let's lower the headrest down. Take off only the left loop, peg that And on the right side, change from long loop to short loop. We're going to do short spine with just one side loaded. Now, bring those heels together again. This rope is going to wanna make your hips twist off to the right try to avoid that.

So you really have to find the backside of that right leg to keep the hips even. Press the arms down into the mat. Press both legs out to that high diagonal, push the legs into each other and start to lift your hips into your short spine. Let the carriage come home. Now slide the left toes down the leg towards the knee until the ankle can get over the thigh.

I flexed that foot I bend the knee to the shoulder block, but I keep pressing the left thigh up to the ceiling. Push the foot into the strap to roll down through the center of the spine. Once the tailbone is down, I bring the heels together again. Connect. Again, press out, lift up and back. Try to keep the hips even.

Slide the leg down, ankle over knee, figure four. Lead comes down to the shoulder block, but my left thigh keeps pressing outward. Get that stretch. Roll through the spine, good, let the hips come down, bring the heels together. Let's put the other loop on first before we take the right side off going to the other side.

So again, even out those hips first, press both legs out to straight, lift the hips, try to keep everything centered, slide the toes down the side of the leg, ankle crosses in front of the knee, figure four. And bend the left knee to the shoulder block, but keep pressing the right thigh to the ceiling, roll it down. Find your frog position first and press it out. Lift up bend back. Slide the leg down, cross it over, get that stretch as you bend the knee, and then roll it down. Good. Bring the heels together first.

And then you can take that rope off, let the carriage come all the way home, and loop that actually grab your handles again. Let's do coordination. I'm holding on to the short loops. I bring my elbows down by my sides, forehead up to the knee. From here, inhale stretch the legs out. Hold your breath, open just the right side, open just the left side.

Open both sides. Close the legs, bend the knees, exhale, bend the elbows. So you're holding your breath for a long time. Inhale stretch. Open left. Open right. Open both.

Bend both knees, bend both elbows. Two more times. Inhale. Needs, elbows one more. Left, then right. And both, bend the knees, bend the elbows, rest your head.

Pag those loops, bring yourself up to seated with control, sit up tall. Spin around, let's do another spring change. I'm taking off the red so now I only have one blue spring. I continued to face the side of the reformer. I lie myself all the way down on my back and I take the loop that's furthest away from me, place that long loop all the way on my thigh, bringing my legs to a tabletop position, taking my hands behind my head. Now from here, try to keep the hips and the knees in line with each other.

My chest stays lifted. My knees twist away from the shoulder blocks, and then just come back to center and continue to twist. And come back to center, keeping the inner thighs hugging each other, feeling the obliques work to stabilize the upper body, but also to move the thighs away from the shoulder blocks. Let's do one more twist, twist, twist, and bring it center. From here, keep the chest lifted, lengthen the right leg forward, and then switch.

So single leg stretch. Keeping the chest up and hands behind the head. The carriage stays pretty steady here. Let's add a twist twist your ribs towards the knee that is bent criss cross twist and twist. Four, four, four, and three, two, and one. Then both knees, you can rock yourself up with control.

Slide that loop off of your leg. We'll hold it with that right hand or the hand that's closest to it. Come up to preferably a high kneeling position. I'm unable to do a high kneel, so I'll keep my hips down on my legs or on my heels, you can also sit in a cross legged position if kneeling isn't for you at all. So from here, we go into a hug position, hold the hug fingertips in front of the sternum twist your ribs away from the back of the reformer, come back to center and open that hug.

So close the hug, twist come back center and open. If you want more tension, you scooch a little closer to your springs. If you want less, scooch a little closer to your shoulder blocks. Keep going twist. Untwist.

Let's do one more like this. We close the hug, then we twist, untwist, and open. Now for me, I'm gonna get a little bit closer to my shoulder blocks. Placing the right hand on the hip, grabbing the loop with the other hand, and I draw a sword. So shoulders continue to face the front, I draw my sword, and I bring it back home. Good. From here, reach.

If one blue spring feels too heavy or too much for your shoulder, try to change to that lighter spring. Good. Let's do three more here. Reach and stretch. Keeping the shoulders over the hips, reach and stretch. We're not using any momentum here.

It's all strength through each and stretch. And bring it back in. And we do the whole thing on the other side. So, peg that, turn around. Scooch forward and lie yourself down. Of course, the closer you are to the springs, the more tension you'll have I like to be in a place where once my loop is on the leg, my loop or my rope is in a straight line, so it's not cutting off on a diagonal.

Lakes go to tabletop, hands go behind the head. Good. Twist away from the rope. And then just come back to center and twist so the legs are pressing into each other and then twisting away. Trying my best to keep the chest lifted and centered as the lower half moves. Good. Keep going twist. And center. Let's do two more one more time, and then single leg stretch.

The leg reaches away. And then we switch keeping the carriage stabilized here. I feel my side body working like crazy to keep this carriage from moving. And then just add that twist, criss cross and twist and twist. Three more. Three two and one. Bring it both in and then come up with control.

Changing the loop from leg to hand, holding on to the short loop. Coming into your position of choice, I'm gonna scooch a little closer to the springs this time. Good. Open the arms. The elbows are lifted and rounded. Find your hug.

Pause. Twist those ribs. Come back center, and we open. Twist. Remember you lengthen the spine to twist. And again, close and twist.

Back to center. And open. Continue. Let's do one more. Good tree. Twist the ribs back to center and open.

Good. Switching hands. I am going to scooch closer to the shoulder blocks. That hand goes on the hip now. Sit up really tall shoulders down the back, hug the front ribs into the back ribs and draw your sword. Try your best to keep the shoulders over the hips.

Really easy to try to compensate by moving the upper body, but use those arms. This side is much weaker. And elbow pulls and lift. Try trying not to use any momentum. Good. Let's do two more here.

Elbow pulls. You lift it up. Bend the elbow and return. One more time. Elbow pulls. Lift it up.

Bend the elbow and return. Let the carriage come home and peg that loop. Let's step off of here. Going to another spring change, I'm changing from blue to a red, taking that blue off, and also lifting the foot bar, grabbing the long box. Let's lie down on our stomach facing the footbar. I have my whole thigh bone supported on the box hands on the footbar right in front of the shoulders.

So try to press the legs into each other, reaching them long, gently pull the pubic bone up towards the belly button, belly button away from the mat. Press the arms out to straight A lot of times when we do this, we shrug the shoulders into the ears, right? So, pull the shoulder blades, the scapula down the back, and then just bend the elbows. Just feeling the weight of that one spring, pressing up. It's not very heavy. For now at least.

One more time, press out and hold. From here, we lift up, reach the legs, pull the belly away from the mat. The carriage comes in a little bit, and then lower it down. Inhale to lift. Exhale to come down.

One more. Inhale up. Exhale lower. And then let's bend the elbows, pull the carriage in. I'm doing a spring change here, going back to blue, taking off of the red, just a little bit lighter. Let the left arm come a little bit more in towards the center, just an inch or two.

Right hand goes right under the forehead. Palm faces away. Sholders reconnect to the back. Press that single arm out. Shoulder stays down.

Pull it in. Two more of those. Press out. And pull it in. Last time, press out and hold.

This time, I lift the chest and twist to the right towards the bent elbow and then lower down. And come down. Lift and twist, untwist and come down. One more. Bring it down, let the carriage come home, switching sides.

Left hand behind the head. You can reconnect those legs, reach them long. They should be on fire. Press the arm out to straight. And bend.

Two more pressing up. The shoulders are square to the floor right now. We press out and hold, lift and twist to the left this time. And then bring it down. I have much less twist on this side.

So this is very telling. One more time, lift and twist to the left. Come back to center, let the carriage come in with control, and then we can step off of here, changing from long box to short box. For this balance body machine, I'm keeping the box in front of the shoulder box. I'm just gonna add some stabilizing springs, so I just add it two extra red just so the carriage doesn't move around on me.

And then I'm placing my feet underneath the strap. Sliding back, so the strap is taut, and let's place the palms palm over palm in front of the belly instead of that full hug position. Look down towards the abdominals, and then curl the tailbone under start to round back. I'm only gonna go back about halfway and then come right back up. Pressing outward with those legs.

My legs are working just as hard as anything else. Roll it up one more time. Round it back and roll it up, sitting up tall, hook your thumbs, reach your arms up to the sky. Pull the shoulders down, lengthen out of the sides of the waist, and then hinge yourself back and bring it up. Again, reach it back, and bring it up.

One more of these. And bring it up. Good. Now we lean forward and go side to side. So lift up and over. I'm creating space in both sides of the body.

So I'm not trying to crunch on the right side. I'm trying to lengthen and bring it back center. Lift up and over to the left, both sits bones stay down and then bring it up. One more each side up and over right. And center, last one to the left.

And center for twist and reach, I'm going to switch the cross of my thumbs, twist the ribs to the right, and reach it back Bring it up in one piece, and then untwist. Lang them to twist left. Reach it back. Bring it on up. And one more each side, lift and twist, and reach.

Bring it up and center. Last one, on your reach, you let your pelvis take your body back. Pelvis brings you up, and then center, release the arms. I'm sliding my right foot from under the strap, hugging that knee to the chest. I'm bringing that forearm underneath my thigh.

Sitting up tall, and then extend, and then two more. Lipped up. We lift up and we hold hands to the ankles, flex the foot, forehead towards the shin. Take this whole shape back, heel to the sky. Let the strap catch you. And then I'm gonna just adjust so my right hip is reaching more forward so they're square.

And then walk the hands down. I'm just going halfway today, and then bring it up, and take it down, and bring it up. One more time, take it down. Bringing it up. Before we finish, I'm taking my right hand to the outside sorry, left hand to the outside of the right foot.

Twist open get that stretch here, and then my fingertips go down towards the floor, heal to the sky, really big stretch, and then bring that up. I'm just gonna do that one more time, twist it down. And bring it up. Keep your left hand where it is. Come back to center.

Right hand goes on to the opposite side of your foot. This is a really big stretch. You bend both elbows and bring your shin towards your forehead, forehead towards your shin. Enjoy that stretch. And then you can bend your knee and switch sides.

We do it all again. I'm hooking my forearm Under the leg, holding on to the wrist, sitting up really tall, bibons stays where it is as I extend three times. Extend and hold. Hands to ankles, flex the foot, forehead to knee or shin. This whole shape goes to the ceiling.

I try to readjust. I want even in square hips. Climb the hands down. I just sink halfway. I try to keep my belly button pulling down as I round up and over my belly button. And walk it down.

Walk it up. One more time. Walk it down. Climb it up. Good. Let's sit up tall. Right hand goes to the outside of the left foot.

Twist your ribs open to the left. And we hinge this whole shaped bat, deep stretch, and then bring it all up. Good. And again, take it down, and bring it up. Untwist left hand to right side of the foot. Sit up really tall, bend your elbows, forehead towards the shin.

Good. And from here, we do our side sit ups. So I'm keeping my right foot in the strap. Turning to the left. My thigh is parallel with the back of the box. I like to place my left hand on the head rest just so I can find that nice diagonal.

My hands go behind the head. I do five regular sides sit up straight down and straight up. Keeping my hips stable and anchored two more. One more, find that diagonal pause, twist the ribs down to the well, and then dip yourself down. Now try to twist your ribs up to the ceiling as much as you can and bring yourself up. We twist down to go down.

We twist up to come up one more time. Down to go down. Twist up to come up. Now twist down one more time and then take your stretch. Very much deserved.

Walk your hands up. And we'd do it again on the other side. So like I said, I placed my hand on the headrest finding that nice diagonal top hand behind the head. And we go down five times five. Three more.

One more like this, then we add our twist. We twist to go down. We twist to come up. Got two more and twist. Twist. We try to twist without twisting the hips with us. Right?

Twist to come up. Now twist to the floor and take your stretch. Big breath here. Climb your hands up. Good. And we're finished with the short box, so let's return it.

And setting up for stomach massage, keeping the foot bar up, but I'm going to gear the carriage back one notch just to give me a little bit of space. And also, I'm doing this only on two red springs. So my pad goes on so I don't slip. I sit as close to the front edge as I can. Now, know that it feels very light to start, but we're adding some unilateral work to this.

So let me readjust. Toast on the foot bar heels together toes apart. Now try to lengthen the waist and then round yourself forward. We press out, down, up, and in. Out, down, up one more time like this.

Now bring the carriage in, push out one more time. Now, we're taking that right foot off of the foot bar, letting it go a little bit below the foot bar, continue your stomach massage with just that right leg, similar to the footwork we did earlier. One more time this side, bring it all the way in, and push it out, switching sides, reconnect the heels to find center, and then heel goes down, heel goes up, pull it in, press it out, heel goes down, heel goes up one more time. Pull it in. Now press it out just to switch position. So toes on Bring the carriage in, reach the arms up and around to go to flat back.

So continue with both legs lengthening the spine this time, keeping the chest and the chin lifted. One more time. Good. Press out. We hold. Right leg comes off of the footbar. We lower and lift.

Pull it in. Press it out. Down. And in, press it out. Pull the carriage in, press it out to switch feet. Continue on the other side.

Lower the heel. Lift the heel. Bend the knee. Push it out. One more time. We push the carriage out and hold. Alton toes on the foot bar, bring the carriage in, reach the arms up, sit up tall. We push straight out.

And straight in just like normal, two more. Pull it in one more time, shoulders over hips. Now, we lift a twist to the right. Bring it out. Bring it in. We lift a twist to the left.

Again. And again. One more time each side. Last one. And we take a quick stretch hands on the footbar, stretch the legs and drop those heels.

And let the carriage come all the way home. Let's make a little change. We can get rid of that sticky pad. Gear the carriage back in. I'll keep it on those two red springs, but the foot bar needs to come down and also make sure that headrest stays down.

We're doing corkscrew. So lie back down Place the hands on those pegs. Reach the legs straight up to the ceiling. Let's do heels together toes apart. Keeping the hips down to start.

Let's let the legs start to tip over to the right, circle down. Around to the left and back to center, and keep alternating over, down around and up. Let's do one more each side. One more. Alrighty. Going to the full version.

So start to lift the hips up to the ceiling. Good. Roll down the right side of the back, corkscrew those legs down, up the left side and straight up. Over, down around, and up, over, down around. This will be the last one down the left side of the back. Down around.

Up the right side. Center. We go down through the center of the back. Good. And you can hug your knees to your chest. Very nice. Roll yourself up with control.

Let's do another spring change. So I'm doing one red spring, going into some side lying leg work. So I'm starting with my left leg. So I'm putting my right forearm between the shoulder block and the peg with my elbow on the headrest, climb up, place the foot in the long loop. Option to hold on to the shoulder block or your hip, whatever you need.

It up really tall. Now, from here, just press the leg out. Now, this time as you bend your knee, make sure the strap stays in front of the shin. Good. Find length in both sides of your body.

So you're not sinking down into the shoulder, right? And bend. Good. Keep going for us out and bend it in. Let's do two more here. This last one, you'll keep the leg straight. Lift it straight up and down. I'll put my hand here.

So it's not in the way of the rope. And lower. Three and two. And one. Now pause. Reach that arm up to the sky.

Now as you sweep the leg forward, twist your upper body in opposition. Get that stretch. It feels nice. And then bring everything back to center so the heel presses back. The arm goes up and we pause. And we do that again.

So sweep the leg forward open the chest. Good and press back as you lift up really hard to not sink into the shoulder. So it's a lot of work going on here, controlling that spring as you twist the upper body. And press it back up. Let's do two more of those. Reach, reach, reach, and twist, open it up. It should feel nice and be hard at the same time.

We do one more. Reach, reach, reach, reach. Bring it back to center. Good. And let's do the other side.

So switching sides with control, elbow on the head rest. Climb up that rope, loop on the foot. And before we start, find that lift, press the leg out first. Find the length in the sides of the waist and then bend the knee towards the chest. Keep the rope in front of the shin as best as you can.

Good. You bend. Press it out. And bend, and push. One more time. We press out and hold, and we just lift up and down eight times.

Trying to touch my heel to the opposite wall in the room, reaching long. Three, two, and one, we pause, reach the arm up to the ceiling as I sweep the leg forward and the side kick, I twist, and then bring everything back to the center. And for more of those twists, keep that leg lifted the height of your hip, and then press it back. Try to move everything together and twist. And bring it back.

Two more. Twist, thighs are burning, glutes are burning. One more time. Reach back. And bring it center.

And bend that knee. Slide the loop off of your foot. Place it back onto the peg, and let's step off. We're doing another spring change. I'm just adding an extra light spring, so I have one red and one yellow.

And we're also lifting the foot bar back up so we can do some scooter. So I like to start with my hands on the foot bar to find the placement of the legs. My thigh bone state even with each other, And once I find all of that, heel presses up against the shoulder block, and I'm gonna place my hands on my hip, finding a hinge, bending the right knee, and pressing that carriage back and in with control. Out. And in, your your leg only go gets to go as far back as your spine stays long.

We don't want any arching in the low back to compensate pressing that carriage out. Four more. Three more. Three. Right leg is steady and stable. One more. Carriage comes in.

That knee comes down. You can place your hands on the footbar, walk that foot forward toes even with the springs, and let's just press the carriage back for a stretch. My arms are straight and strong like a plank and I try my best to keep my hips even. If you want more, put a little bit more weight in your front leg, and then stretch the back leg all the way to straight. And then we add some twisting here.

My right hand stays on the footbar. I do an open twist first. And then come back to center. Hand comes off the bar twist. Come back to center.

Bring the carriage in with control, and we go to the other side. I'm just gonna hop on over thigh bones even again. Really try to get the heel up against the shoulder block. People's feet have different flexibility. So try your best to connect the heel to the shoulder block.

My hands are gonna go on the hips and then press the carriage back. And it. Back. And it. Trying to keep the rest of the body as stable as possible.

Let's do four more four. Lots of back of leg. Two. And one carriage comes in. My hands will go on the foot bar. I hop my standing leg forward toes even with the springs.

Let the knee come down with control. Press the carriage out into your big lunge. Try your best to keep the hips square and the arm strong. If you want, you can lift that back knee straightening the leg a little bit more, and then go into your open twist. So my right hand will twist open to the right.

Coming back to center, left arm twist to the left, deep twist, bring it back to center, and bring that carriage all the way in. Step on off, and you are finished. Thanks for joining me today.