Conditioning Reformer

Hi, everybody. I'm Tom Cook. It's a great pleasure to be back here at Pilates anytime. I'm here with Elena and and Kayley, and, we're gonna do a functional reformer class with the jumper, and this will be a full conditioning workout We'll move at a deliberate pace. We're gonna start with your jump board on with no springs, and then we're gonna jump with no springs. Now I'm kidding.

We're gonna stand inside the reformer with no springs to do a warm up for your spine, then we'll move through a flow. So take your time through. We're gonna move at a nice pace. We'll do some intermediate exercises. So, we're gonna have some fun. So let's take the springs off, and you guys are gonna stand inside the reformer facing the carriage.

With your hands on the front edge. So you'll be, you'll be in here. There you go. All good. And be pretty close to the jump board when you forward then, just make sure you're you're not gonna hit your butt on the jump board. So you're just a little bit forward.

That's it. Now, just as you breathe in, start to bend your knees, reach your tail back, and reach the carriage forward straightening your spine. Now as you exhale, start to round your back, lengthen your legs and look back towards your feet. And then inhale to go forward as you extend and bend, and then exhale to curl and lift through your center. You start to warm up your spine, your shoulder girdle, opening up the back of your legs. Nice and fluid like that.

Now add to it on the next one, go forward the same way, same exact movement, But when you're rounding, at the end of rounding, lift your heels off the ground. And then lower the heels, bend the knees, open the chest, and then round back up nice and fluid. It's failure. You're working through all the joints from your feet to your head. I just do three or four more like that. Just get that nice extension and flexion.

Here you go. Feel the length of your spine, feel the connection to the balls of your feet, and do two more. Feel as you round your sit bones narrow as the waistline lifts, as you arch, feel how the sit bones widens. You're stretching the pelvic muscles and then round all the way up. Good work. Now nice and slow.

Help yourself up from there. Out of your reformer, and we're gonna put on three springs. I recommend two reds and a blue. When we do the jump work, if you need to make it lighter, because we will be doing some single leg stuff. You can do that. Also, we'll start with two reds and a blue. And I recommend you put your headrest up at, like, a notch. Just for that support.

And then come on to your back and put your feet on the jump board, but have your heels up on the top edge and go ahead and, like, like, right on where you're still on it, but then straighten out your legs and have your feet about sit sit bone width apart. There you go. That's it. You can bring your feet a little closer together. There you go. Perfect, though. So this is gonna be to warm up your ankles and and strengthen the front of your shins, which we, which we tend to not train very much. So with your forefoot, let your forefoot go forward to the jump board.

Then pull back from your shins. That's it. And do that for about 15 reps. These are decelerator muscles. We wanna get these to wake up. They also help your ankle have better flexibility. That's it.

Notice as you're doing that, the tendency is gonna be to do a lot of it from the toes. See if you can do it more and more from the shins in less and less from the toes. That's it. That feels kinda good. Here we go. I just do five more of those. I said nice and fluid.

Probably start to feel that fatigue in the front of your shins pretty soon. Do one more. Now next time you let if you go forward, leave them forward. Now we're gonna go into what's called toe flexion extension waves. So with your forefoot, grab an imaginary pencil, hold the pencil and pull back from your shins again. Release the pencil and wave your foot forward.

Grab the pencil and pull back, release the pencil and wave forward. Just two more in that direction. Now you're getting that work into the forefoot along with your shins. One more. There you go. Now next time as your foot goes forward, release the toes, now pull back without holding the pencil.

Now while you're back, grab the pencil and go forward, then release it. Pull back, grab the pencil, and wave forward. Just two more. There we go. And one more.

Great work. Now from there, slide your feet down and have your feet just a little bit below the top of the jump board. And we're gonna go in just a little core activation sequence just to give you awareness of to use your core when you jump. So put your hands at the level of your pubic bone and go straight out to the side. You're gonna run into a bone called your greater trochanter, which is right way down here.

So it's like think of, like, at this level right there. Pretty low. And that's actually the level of your pelvic floor. So we're gonna call that point number one. So without even moving as you exhale, take a breath in as you exhale. Just imagine those two points narrowing towards the center line. Notice if that helps you feel the bottom of your pelvis in your center line a little bit.

Do that for a couple breaths. Nice way to connect to your body and your center. And as you're doing that, picture on your feet, you have three key key weight bearing points, the ball behind your big toe, the ball behind your little toe, and your heel, like a triangle on both feet, and have the weight pressed into all three as you feel that activation. Now we're gonna go right to point number two. So keep your middle finger on point number one.

Point number two is the front of your hips, which is a little higher, your ASIS's. Now we're gonna include one and two. Who knew? So on with number two, you're gonna include feeling your lower belly wall. So now it's pelvic floor or lower belly. Still with that awareness of your feet.

Picture you're just getting a little longer, a little more connected to the center line. One more breath like that. That's it. Now put your pinkies on point number two and your thumbs on point number three, which is gonna be the front of your ribs. So you'll shift up. Otherwise, you have to have hands the size of Michael Jordan to hold all three points.

So, such so now as you now just include, we're just gonna image point number one, but we're gonna include point one, two, and three all narrow towards the midline as you exhale. Not like you're bearing down. You're just feeling those inner support muscles. And do that for two more breaths like that. There you go.

Really nice. Now bring the arms long by your sides. We're gonna go right into roll throughs. Now as you exhale and feel the one, two, three, lift both heels up, bend the knees, lower the heels and press long. Do that four times in that direction, exhale up, lower in bend, and get that nice fluid action. Hips, knees, ankles, waking up the middle one more.

Now next time, press out from a high heel position while you're all the way in. So come all the way in. Now stay in high heels and press out. Now lower your heels and only come in as far as you can without your heels lifting. Then roll up to the ball of the feet and press long. Good.

Do that two more times. That's it. One more. Excellent. Now come up to straight. We're just gonna get a little preparation for your jump.

So picture when you lift your heels, lift your heels for a moment, hold it there. Picture in the moment when you're jumping, you're gonna have combined it with your a sail in picture, that's the moment where your spines to add its absolute longest. So your tail is slightly up and you feel in the one, two, three. And picture the the jumping is more about the landing than the jump. So as you lower your heels inhale to bend just a small amount and just throw it away through the exhale and throw it away. Let yourself jump.

There you go. You can let your that's it. You can even, like, right off. Beautiful. There you go. Fully lengthen the legs. Every time you jump. We're gonna do that for twenty five more. No.

Five more. That's it. There you go. Fully lengthen one more. Now hold the center with the leg straight and go into turnout.

Have your feet pretty close together. Now we're gonna do the same jump and turnout, but again, small bend as you breathe in, exhale throw it away, fully lengthen every time. Feel that connection. There you go. Fully lengthen. Good.

Two more. And one, go back to parallel with straight legs. We're gonna go into a staggered position. So one foot a little high, one foot a little low. And we'll jump and alternate 10 each way.

So basically 20 jumps. So bend, exhale jump and switch. And then you can land in the switch. There you go. That's it. Nice.

There you go. Fully lengthen every rep. That's it. Throw it away. Look at your feet or your hands. That's it.

There you go. Land like a cat. Three more each side. Yep. And two and one. Good work.

Now we're gonna go into single leg, but we're gonna do just think again, it's just a it's a progression of extending the leg and throwing it away and then landing with control. So bring your right knee up into a tabletop position and put your left hand against your inner knee. And that's and we're gonna do what's called the diagonal press. So just as you exhale press the hand and the knee into one another so you can feel the connection across the center line of your body. Now just bend and stretch the standing leg just a few times without jumping just to feel how you can fully extend and then lift the heel. And lift the heel at the end of straightening.

That's it. Now do six jumps. That's it. Four, five, one more. Great work. Take a moment to switch your legs. Find that diagonal, press on the second side.

Start with the standing leg straight. And now just bend and stretch for three. Just get that connection before you do the jump. One more. Now add for six jumps.

Good. There you go. Beautiful. Fully extend. Two more. And one. Great work.

Now as you come in, we're gonna make it just a little change. We're gonna go down to two springs, two reds, because we can. And then come on back down when you're ready. Now start with your legs straight one more time. Now at two springs, you're gonna jump from parallel to turn out back to parallel with your feet close. And we'll just do that for for 12 reps. So bend, throw it away, turn to turn out, press away, back to parallel.

Get that feeling of fully extending, landing like your cat, nice and light. Fluid. Good. Throw it away with the feet. Feel that one, two, three as you extend away. Three more.

Two and one. Now as you get back to straight legs, come into parallel with your feet close, and you're gonna jump with from first to second, meaning close to wide on the jump board. And we'll we'll do, 10 in parallel, 10 in turnout from first to second position. So bend on the inhale. Jump and open, jump and close. Nice and fluid.

That's it. Find the fluidity in your legs, the connection to your breathing. That's it. Beautiful. And then to turn out in the out. Good. There we go. Three more.

And one, back to center. Now from the center position, we're gonna do a jump and do a single cross. So in in turnout, you'll jump cross your ankles once and land and alternate the cross. And we'll do that for 12 reps. Bend and throw.

Just one cross. That's to fully throw it away before you cross. That's it. Nice. There you go.

Beautiful. Four more. Two, three, and one more. Now we're getting warm. Good work, you guys.

Now from there, we're gonna go down to one red spring. Because we can. And this will be inflections. So I'll talk you through that. So you'll come on back down.

Now bring when you fully extend your legs, bring your hands behind your head and come to an abdominal curl with your upper body. And let your legs straighten. There you go. That's enough. Picture that you wanna bring the back of your waistline into the mat and up your back slightly and wide and lower your shoulder blades so you can support your head from the muscles under your armpits.

There you go. Now just keeping your feet in parallel, just bend and jump in parallel for five. Just get a feel for that. Feel how you can jump without losing the length in your lower back. Throw it away. That's it. One more.

Now go right into turnout and continue the same form in turnout. That's it. There we go. Two more. And one. Now as you come in, just let your head come down for a moment. Now that we're gonna two more sets here.

You're gonna jump and do a side split and close for 10 and then jump and do a front split six each. Hands behind the head. It's like when you're ready with straight legs, inhale to bend, jump in open, and clean. Now, that's it. Fully extend the legs. Fully extend before you jump.

There you go. Fully extend before you jump. Two more. And one. Now go right into one leg up and back alternating. Good.

Beautiful. That's it. Four more to each side. Three, one more. Great work, you guys, and rest. From there, when you're ready, we're gonna have you roll to your side, help yourself up, and we're gonna take the jump boards off now. So if you guys, you can just give it a light, screw, and then take it off. And then we'll take it over here to this side of the room just so it's out of our way.

Great work, everybody. And now from there, at home, you wanna put your bar in middle bar. Second hole from the second setting from the top, and we're gonna go through a bridge series. So I recommend two reds and a blue again. Yeah. Absolutely.

There we go. Two reds in a blue spring. And then when you come onto your back, put your head rest down. There we go. And for this version, come on to your heels with your feet about six inches apart, arms long, and just take a couple breaths to arrive back in this position, center the weight on the back of your pelvis, set the shoulders back and down, relax your neck. And on the next exhale initiating from your tailbone, curl the tail towards the back of the knees into an articulated bridge.

Take a breath at the top. Now you use the top of your abdomen as you roll down to lengthen your lower back. Inhale as you release the tail towards the mat, exhale from the pelvis curl. Like it's a wheel rolling back. Take a breath at the top, and then lengthen down nice and smooth.

And just two more like that. Feel as you're going up, you can add tone to the back of your shoulders, but you can relax your neck and jaw, and peel down nice and smooth. One more. Even quality on both sides of your lower back, and then length and back down. Good work, you guys.

Now the next time we come up into the bridge, we're gonna add marching in the position. So the key thing, so you don't over to use your hamstrings. Think of using your glutes and your inner thighs. Now, in the bridge, just float one knee. Do three sides. Take your time. Slow it down. That's it. One more each side.

Take your breath in the center now roll back down. Now the last set, we're gonna reach one leg out in line with the other knee. And as you lift it towards your head, you'll push the bar away. As you come in, you'll reach it back out over your knee. We'll do that for four reps before we switch sides. So take a breath, curl up into the bridge, reach one leg out in line with the knee. Now as you press away, lift it towards your head.

As you come in, back out over the knee, four reps. That's it. Breathe all the way through. One more. Back to the bar. Roll back down through the spine before we do side two. Take a breath at the bottom.

From the pelvis, peel into the bridge, reach the second leg, press away as you lift. Over the knee. There you go. Nice and smooth. And one more. Back to the bar, roll back down through the spine, slide down onto the balls of your feet, and just gonna go through some running before we move into our next sequence.

So right on the balls of your feet to come a little lower. There you go, even way down here. Press away. Now from that pressed out position, just run-in place nice and smooth. That's it. Really get that feeling of pressing into those two front foot points. And challenge yourself to take the bounce out of it. That'd be very deliberate.

And on the bending leg, press the shin forward as you press the ball of the foot into the bar and get that feeling, you can keep your knees tracking straight ahead. There you go. I just do one more and let one heal drop and hold for a couple breaths. Just get the breaths to drop lower. And on your stretch side, what you can get a sense of is get a feeling that you can take your sit bone at the bottom of your butt in towards the midline.

So you'll feel a little contraction in your glute, which will feel a little more connected through your whole back of your leg. Now lift and switch sides. That's it. And then nice and smooth when you're ready. Ben and come in, we're gonna go through some arm exercises. So I recommend you guys go down to If you have anything going on with your shoulder, may go light with one red. Otherwise, a red and a blue or a red and a yellow.

What I would recommend, and then we'll come on back onto your back and take the straps in your hands. And again, for arm work, if you guys at home, if you need to have your head rest up, that's totally fine. So that's, so now with the feet and the straps, actually put your feet back on the barges for a moment. I want to give you guys that feedback that we worked on a moment ago. So just take a breath and feel your one, two, three.

Now as you feel the one, two, three, keeping that awareness float up one leg at a time. Now bring your heels together, but have your knees about six inches apart. Set your shoulders low. We're gonna do what's called 100 prep. The legs will stay the same.

So your arms will just stay straight up to the ceiling. Now on the exhale, come into an ab curl till your arms are parallel to the ground. Inhale to lower. So you can keep your wrists nice and straight. Excelling to the curl. Feel like you're sliding your breastbone towards your pelvis to lift your head.

One more. Now for the next four, same exact exercise, but as you're curling up, press your legs out to a high 45. And as you lower, bend again, nice and smooth. That's it. Connect to the underside of your arms, down to your in seams.

One more. One more, and nice and strong. Now as you lower, bend your knees and bring them, bring them together, bend your elbows and have your elbows just spent halfway where your hands are directly above your elbows. So bring your hands a little lower. There you go. Pull the elbows in tight, set the back of the shoulders on the mat for coordination, inhale to prepare, exhale curl up, extend your arms and legs long, Open close your legs, bend the knees, bend the elbows. And again, curl and reach, open close, bend the knees, bend the arms, and that open close, keep the back of the waistline on the mat as best as you can.

Good. Two more. That's it. And one more. Stand into your arms as you come up. Good work. Put the straps back on the poles, and we're gonna do a version of the rollover.

So slide your shoulders maybe an inch or two away from the shoulder blocks. Make sure your head rest is down at home. Now you're gonna hold on to either the shoulder blocks or the steel bars. I like to hold on to the steel bars personally. And take your knees up into tabletop.

Now take your legs straight up to the ceiling and point your feet. Inhale to prepare from the tailbone, exhale into a rollover till your legs are parallel to the ground. Now inhale open your legs shoulder width, flex your feet, and roll down slow through the spine. At the bottom point, draw the legs together a little below 90, exhale into the rollover. Inhale open flex. Traction down through the spine.

Take your time. Inhale pointing together, exhale back one more in that direction. Open flex traction down. Now as you get to the bottom and bottom together in point, we're gonna reverse, inhale, open, exhale to the back. Draw together and flex the feet.

Now go down slow. It's a deeper stretch when the legs are together. Open point. Exhale to the back. Draw together and flex, traction down.

Breathe through one more inhale open, exhale to the back. Draw together. Sequence down slow. Bend the knees and rest. Good work.

Now we're gonna help yourself up. We're gonna go into rowing front. So for rowing front, I recommend either a red or a blue If you have anything going on with your shoulders, start with a lower, lower weight, and we'll sit facing the bar with your hips right up against the shoulder blocks with your legs long. Now at home, if you need to sit up on a wedge or something so you can extend and get up on your sit bones, that's fine too. Take the straps in your hands, and we'll start with the straps in your hands with your elbows bent in your hands by your armpits.

Now, get right up on your sit bones, grow tall. Now on the exhale, press your arms to shoulder height and turn your thumbs down. Inhale touch the mat, exhale lift all the way up overhead, grow tall, reach out into a circle, inhale to bend, exhale to reach, inhale touch excel lift, grow tall, reach into a circle. And again, inhale to bend, exhale reach, touch, lift, and circle. Two more times. Nice and fluid on the exhale reach, touch, lift, grow tall. Hint of a smile.

We're having amazingly good time. One more time. XL reach. Touch, lift, and circle. Very nice. Now we're gonna go round back. So turn your palms up, have your hands close to the mat.

And picture when you roll, you're peeling your spine off an imaginary wall. So as you inhale start to roll your head forward, push down through the shoulders and reach forward into spine stretch. Now keep your hands at shoulder height and roll back up through the spine, touch the mat, lift, and circle again. And again, inhale, start to curl, exhale reach, reach stack. Keep your hands at shoulder height. All the way up.

Touch the mat. Lift and circle. And two more times. Inhale, curl and reach. Stack the spine, keep the hands at shoulder height, touch, lift, grow tall, and circle one more, inhale curl forward and reach, stack the spine, touch the mat, lift, and circle. Good work. Now we're gonna go to hug a tree.

So if you can cross your legs and sit, go for that. If it's uncomfortable to cross your legs, you can keep them long. Now reach your arms straight out in front of you a little bit below shoulder level and bend your elbows like you're hugging around a big tree broaden across your clavicles and feel like your armpits, your your shoulder blades are pulling out towards your elbows. Keep the shape of the arm. And as you breathe in, open away from the tree, exhale wrap around the tree like it's back to front, inhale to open, exhale to wrap, grow tall as you pull forward.

That's it. Two more times. Nice and strong. That's it. And one. Great work. And lower. Good work. Put the straps on the poles.

We're gonna grab the long box. For teaser and back stroke back stroke first. So I'm gonna put the foot bar down for you guys. And I recommend we keep it on, one red Put the box in the long box position. Now before you come down, take hold of your straps in your hands, and then have a seat on the box with your hips on the front of the box facing the foot bar.

There you go. So you're gonna lie, you're gonna have a seat. There you go. That's all good. All good. Now slide pretty far forward. All the way to the front.

And carefully help yourself down onto your back. Once you come onto your back, take hold of your knees with your hands and the straps. Maybe a little further back because I don't want you to go off the front edge. There you go. That's it. Now as you hold your knees, you Take a breath and on the exhale, do an abdominal curl and look at your belly, imprint your low ribs broaden across your chest just the way you did in in in the last exercise in the hug of tree.

Now, bend your elbows and have your hands and elbows shoulder width apart, arms bent at 90. Little higher. That's great about there. Imagine that the spine doesn't change. Inhale arms and legs straight up to the ceiling.

Circle the arms and legs out to the side and now arrive in a low hundreds and hold bend the knees, bend the arms, inhale arms and legs up, circle, arrive in that strong low position holds, bend the knees, bend the arms. Just two more. Inhale reach. Open, circle, arrive, bend the knees, bend the arms one more time. Inhale up, open and circle, arrive as you lower as you bend, take hold of your knees for a moment.

Now really slow. Set your shoulders back and slowly let your head go back because that's okay for you since you get a momentary break. That's it. Now we have the fun stuff. That was pretty fun too, though. I kind of personally feel like that exercise is harder than teaser.

So because it's more tension, time under tension. So now for the teaser, the legs don't open when you come up, and I'm gonna give you a little feedback for you. I'll give you a little support for your feet. But as you come up, So you're gonna scoop the shoulders down, but the setup is exactly the same. So take a moment, come into your lap, curl, take hold of your knees, curl up with your upper body.

Now bring the elbows into that right angle, inhale arms and legs up. Circle just the arms, scoop down. And as you come up, curl right up into teaser. That's it. Rids control roll back down and let the knees bend and arrive back at your starting place. Come into your ab curl. Arms and legs up, circle the arms, curl.

There you go. And nice and slow, roll back down and rest. One more time, arms and legs up. Circle, arrive. Beautiful with control, roll back down, and rest. Good job, you guys.

We're just gonna do like 25 more of those. That was really good, you guys. Now, carefully, help yourself out of that setup. You can let the straps go. There we go. And we're gonna change our positions where we go into the breaststroke and then single arm presser.

For this one, we're gonna put the bar in low bar and go down to one blue spring, and now take the straps in your hands before you actually actually for this one, I'm gonna get the bar out of your way. Sorry about that. We will need it for the second exercise. I was getting a little ahead of myself. There we go. So now from here, you'll come on to your belly.

Now once you're on the box, let your arms come down by your sides with your palms facing the floor. So let your arms lengthen down by your hips. So let them come all the way down here. Now turn your palms to face the floor and wrap your fingers around the straps so you're actually holding it. Now take a moment while you're there, and on the exhale, feel you one, two, three here, lengthen through the back of your neck.

Now on the exhale, all I want you to do is bend your elbows and bring your hands to your shoulders. Inhale to straighten. Do that three times. Now start to feel the tone of your inner thigh muscles. One more.

Now, next time on the exhale reach all the way overhead. Open the arms out to the side without any extension, just open and all the way back to your hips. So let them go out to a t, then back to your hips. X. So so let them go all the way back to your hips. Now exhale bend your elbows again and reach overhead.

Circle them out to the side and back to your hips. One more time before we add to that, exhale bend and reach. Open out to the side. Now in the last version, rest just for sec, you're gonna extend the spine, but you're only gonna you're gonna wait till your arms are out to a t a little bit below the shoulders before you slide your heart forward into extension. So first action starting your same setup, palms facing the floor. Turn your palms down.

There you go. Now on the exhale, bend your elbows and reach overhead. Open to the side when they get to your shoulders, now slide the heart forward into extension. Slowly lower, exhale bend and reach. Open, extend. There you go. Get that feeling of tone.

And again, two more times, exhale bend and reach, open and circle extend one more time, exhale bend, open extend, and rest. Good work, you guys. Carefully help yourself off of that setup. And we're gonna put the bar in low bar finally. And now we'll do the prone press with the same weight, one blue. We'll come back onto your long box on your belly facing the bar and put your put both hands on the bar a little wider than shoulder width.

That's it. And just and think of for this version of the x as you're not gonna arch your back at all. You're just gonna be like a straight line, like a, like a strong body line. Now take your right arm down by your side, and have your palm facing in towards your hip, and bring it right up to the height of your hip. Now just practice so you can actually some more like, like long, but just like back like that. That's it. Now as you exhale, just press the weight bearing arm straight inhale to bend. Now practice bending, keeping the shoulder dropped.

So you don't let the shoulders shrug north towards your ear. Now add to that, turning your torso towards the down arm as you press without arching. Like you're swimming. There you go. That's it. Now add to that lifting your leg on the weight bearing arm side.

There we go. Three more times. There we go. Nice and strong. Feel that connection across your back. One more. Good work. As you come in, take a moment to switch your arms.

Left arm long by your side, feel your body line. Now, just exhale just to press without rotation. Just feel that. Keep your body nice and straight. That's it. Feel that connection to the underside of your weight bearing shoulder. So you can connect into those scapula muscles.

Center line. Now, next one, add the rotation towards the down arm. That's it. Two more. Stay nice and low with the torso. Now add that weight bearing arm leg lift as you turn. Three more.

There you go. And two, and one. Great work, you guys. Very nice. As you come in, help yourself up to standing, and just take a moment to put your forearms on the box standing with your palms up, bend your knees and round your back for a couple breaths. Just lift your waist line up and just decompress for a couple breaths.

There you go. And if you can't even round and lift here, so you'd get that all to stretch. There you go. One more breath there. And then from there, we're gonna take the the the boxes off, we can put them towards the back of your reformer. And we're gonna go into, stomach massage.

So for stomach massage, we'll keep the bar in low bar. We're gonna go to three springs, two reds, and a blue. Then have a seat facing the bar with your with your hips maybe about 10 inches away from the edge of the edge of the edge of the frame, and then put your feet in the bar and turn out and hold the front edge of the moving carriage Now picture, even though you're flexed, you wanna keep your head over your pelvis so you're not too far back, but pull the waistline back and up, widen and lower your shoulder blades and feel those muscles under your armpits. Now, we're just gonna do one rep slow. So slide a little forward if you can.

Pull your legs long and hold them long for a moment. As zip up your inner thighs, keep that zipped up feeling as you lower and lift both your heels. Now from the lifted position, bend the knees and come in. Press long. Lower and lift both your heels, and then come in.

Now add your breath inhale out, exhale through the lower lifting and bending the command. Long exhale. Inhale out. Lower and lift through the exhale and come in. Good. Fill that fluidity in your hips, the zipped up feeling in your legs, fluid ankles, two more times, widen through the chest, set the shoulders low.

One more. That's it. Now the legs are gonna stay the same, but I want you to put your fingertips on the mat behind you. Palms facing forward and pull your shoulder blades back and see how tall you can sit up. That's it. And do your best to not lean too much into your arms. Think of pushing with your arms to push yourself forward and up.

Now same action, inhale, press out. Exale lower lift and bend to come in, grow tall on the end. That's it. Inhale out. Lower lift and bend. Good. Four more.

Nice and fluid. That's it. Adding that hint of a smile, you're saying, god, my body is enjoying this two more times. That's it. And one more.

Good work. Now when we do the twist, you won't you'll take the lowering lifting out. So take both arms to the front. Now, growth, don't bring it all the way in as far as you can like that. Now sit up nice and straight without holding on. Now, on the exhale, straighten your legs and turn your torso to the right inhale in and up.

Exhale away. Inhale in. There you go. And again, pull away, lengthen in. Pull away. Length in a good, you guys.

Two more reach side at your own pace. Feel that connection. Hip stay square to the bar for the rotation from the waistline. One more each way. That's it.

And last one. Great work. Ben and come in. Good job. Help yourself off of there. And we're gonna go into kneeling arms. So for kneeling side arms, we'll go down to one blue. Now if one blue feels too heavy for anybody, you can do this with a yellow, but we'll start with a blue, and we'll face we'll have you guys both face in with your knees against the shoulder blocks in a kneeling position.

So you'll face this way. Now take the strap, this to your left right there. There you go. Now we're gonna start with the sword. So when you open the front of your hips, take the strap into your hand that's close to the footbar and have it in front of your opposite hip. So you'll have it like over here.

That's your official starting position. There you go. Now on the exhale as you reach down into your legs, lead with the elbow and pull like you're drawing the sword, inhale to return. Nice and fluid. Feel it across your body. Feel the connection into your legs.

Keep your head directly above your pelvis. That's it. There you go. One more before we change it a little bit. And you can get strong in the pull, like lead so you get a little strength in that pull. Good. Now next time, from the starting position, just add a little flexion and rotation towards the strap. Now as you pull, add a little rotation as you look towards your hand, So you combine that flexion and rotation with extension and rotation.

That's it. Two more times. That's it. Nice and strong. One more. There we go. Excellent.

Now take the strap into your other hand. And as you reach it up into a hug of tree, bring your other hand behind it. You can be, yeah, you can take this one right behind. Oh, there you go. Perfecto. Now set your shoulders low and wide.

Now bring your hands just a little lower. Now picture you're gonna turn from your ribcage so your hands are gonna stay in the center of your chest. So as you exhale, turn towards the foot bar. Inhale, go past parallel the other way. XL to turn.

That's it. Do your best to keep your hips square to the front the whole time. And feeling more and more that you're turning from your back to front as best you can. Keep your hands right in the center. Feel a little bit of that. There you go.

There you go. Two more. And one more you guys. Nice and strong. There we go. From there, take the strap into your hand that you still have it in.

We're gonna do overhead press. So you can take your free hand on your hip. And have the elbow down dropped close in towards your body. And on the x's, you go down into your legs, reach the arm overhead. Ashley, see you're actually, oh, sorry about that.

You're gonna stay in tall kneeling. So you'll be like this. Think of you. You're not gonna side then. You're just gonna reach overhead. That's coming, though.

That's it. One more. Now let's do three where you stay until kneeling, but you add the side bend. That's it. Two and one more.

Nice and strong. Great work, you guys. And we're gonna go over to side too. Nice work. So we'll turn around and face the other way.

Take your strap, come into tall kneeling hold it with the strap that's close to the foot bar. And have your hand so you can hold it with this hand. There you go. Now have your hand in front of your opposite hip and connect down into your legs and your kneeling posture on the exhale lead with your elbow to draw the sword. Control the return. Keep both sides of the neck long all the way through.

That's it. Nice and fluid. Two more. And one, do your best to keep the shoulders level. Now add from the beginning, beginning position, add rotation down towards your hand. Now extend and rotate and look towards the arm as it goes up. So you add a little bit of rotation in both directions.

That's it. Two more. That's it. One more. Last one. From there, take the strap into the hand that's furthest away from the jump, from the bar, and bring it into a hug a tree position in front of your chest and bring the other hand behind it. Widing and lower your shoulder blades and broaden across your chest.

Now on the exhale from your waistline, from your ribcage turned towards the foot bar. Slowly, you can go past neutral the other direction. That's it. Feel that connection to the underside of your scapula. Pull those down into my hand. There you go.

Good work. Stay tall. Try to bring the head up and over the pelvis all the way through. Just two more for those back ribs lift up your back. And one. Good work.

Now keeping the strap in that same hand, we're gonna go into overhead press. So stay in tall kneeling. And on the x as the shoulder goes down, the arm goes up. Inhale to bend, nice and fluid. That's it.

Two more before we take it into a side bend. And one, Next time, up and over and side bend towards the foot bar. Just two more reps. There we go. And one more. Excellent work, you guys.

Put the straps on the poles. And we're gonna take it into the up stretch, down stretch, and elephant. So with this one, we're gonna put the bar in middle bar, just the same as footwork. And for this, I recommend a red and a blue. If that feels too heavy, you can go to a red and yellow.

And we'll start standing up on the reformer with your hands on the bar and put your heels halfway up on the shoulder blocks. And bring the carriage all the way in, but bring your hips back over your ankles. Now make sure your hands are wide enough that you can keep your shoulders dropped. Now just practice lifting your waistline up a little bit. So it's less of a downward dog is more of a lifted waistline and look back towards your legs. Your neck is long.

Picture in the in this exercise when you push out your arms don't move. So on the exhale, press your legs out, curl your tail down and arrive in a strong plank. All the out to a plank, all the way out, all the way out to a plank. Push out more. Push out more. Open your chest to the front.

Now come all the way in over the bar in the plank. Does that feel too heavy? Okay. Now, Pike back up. Bring the carriage all the way in. Now push out and arrive in a plank, lower the hips more, even more.

Now come in over the bar, all the way over the bar, all the way over the bar, tuck your chin and go up and back. It'll feel like you're getting ejected when you come over the bar, push out. Now pull yourself in over the bar. Use your side body. Tuck the chin. Go up and back.

Press out. Arrive in that strong plank and pull yourself in over the bar. There you go. Now, lower your knees to the mat, and we're gonna go into the down stretch. So now for the down stretch, you'll start in a flat back knee stretch position, so your hips are gonna be about six inches behind your knees before you even move the carriage. Just sit back. So be kind of like be like your hips back here instead of over your knees.

Now imagine that your arms don't move, on the exhale, push your knees back until you have a straight line from your knees to your shoulders. Now lift your chest and look up with your chest. Pull yourself in over the bar holding that shape. Keep looking up. Push back out.

Look up the whole time. Keep looking up. Keep looking up the whole time. Open the front of your hips. That's it. There you go.

Two more. Now we're getting it. One more. All the way up. Good work. Now with control, help yourself up to standing again for round back elephant. And I recommend you put your feet about six inches in front of the shoulder blocks with your heels flat.

Now take your hips. I'll come back just a little further. There you go. Let your hips be over your ankles instead of are over your toes instead of over your ankles and round your back. Now keeping your back rounded without your back changing, push your heels back without the heels coming up at all, lift the belly to come in. Fill that lift through your waistline. That's it.

Three more. And one. Only push out to where the heels don't come up at all. It's gonna be super small. Now transfer into a flat back.

Reach your tail back. Now push back again without lifting your heels and lift the tail and the sit bones to come in. Keep the top of your chest to open. There you go. Two more times. And one. Good work, you guys.

Carefully step off. We're gonna go down to two outside red springs for semi circle. We're working. And for this one, we'll put the bar down to low bar again. So you just have a little more room. And now as you come on to your back, I want you to drape your knees over the bar.

I read it's your knee joint. There you go. And then come on to your back. Now put your hands on the shoulder blocks. Now as you push your legs down, lift your hips out of the off the seat and press the carriage out to your arms or long. That's it. Now carefully, one foot at a time, put your heels on the bar about a foot apart.

Now bring the carriage all the way in by curling into a high bridge. Come all the way in as far as you can. So that's your starting position. Now on the inhale, press your legs long. On the exhale from your spine, articulate your hips down into the springs.

Inhale bend the knees to come in, exhale curl to the high point of the bridge. Inhale slide long, exhale articulate down, bend and curl to the high point. Just do two more in that direction. Breathe all the way through. Nice and smooth.

One more. Now as you come up to the high point this time, pause at the high point. Take a breath. Now reverse directions, go down with your hips into the springs, inhale to press long, curl to the high point, pull yourself in. Sequence down slow. Two more times.

That's it. There you go. One more. Nice and fluid. Now this time, when you're all the way in, stay in. And if you can, you can either take your hands either to the frame on the side of the reform or one at a time or to the bar if that feels doable or even the ankles. Now send your tailbone towards the back of your knees and keep the hips high. Feel that stretch.

Press the back of the shoulders into the mat and relax your neck. Take two more breaths there. That's it. Now really slow. Take one hand back to the shoulder block.

Then your second hand and slide yourself onto the carriage, and just rest for a couple breaths before we change positions. Good work, everybody. From there, we're gonna transition up to standing. So when you're ready, roll to your side, help yourself up and put on just one red spring. And we're gonna do what's called lunging chest expansion.

So facing the shoulder blocks, you'll put one foot on the headrest. The other foot will be in a lunge and put the straps on your wrists. So, literally on your wrist and have your arms down by your side with your arms long. Now before you go into pulling it all, get a connection of your alignments with your kneeling leg, the knee that's on the carriage, feel like you're pushing your knee back to turn on your glute. You start to feel your connection to your glute on that back leg. Your toes can be tucked or untucked, whatever works for you.

Now picture the first bone to move is your clavicles. So as you draw the clavicles back as you exhale, pull the arms a little bit behind you. Inhale to return, stable in your lower half, connected in your upper half. That's it. Do two more before we add head rotations.

One more. Now next time, pull back and hold the pull. Very slow with an easy neck, turn your head to one side, center, second side, and release. Two more times. Pull first.

Add your head rotations. Back to center and release one more nice and smooth. Pull turn, center, turn, and release. Take a moment to switch your legs. Find that tall kneeling posture return the hip on the weight bearings on the kneeling side, center your head over your pelvis. Now first bone to move again is the clavicles, draw the clavicles back.

Keep the arms long and close to the body and return. Stay nice and open in the top of your chest long through your neck. One more before we add the head rotations. Now next time, pull back and hold it. Slowlyly turn your head to one side.

Center, second side, center, and release, and just two more at your own pace. Feel your way through it. Stable in your lower half. Strong in your upper body. One more.

That's it. Great work, you guys. Good work. And as you come in, put the straps on the poles, we'll help yourself up from there. We're gonna go into standing now. So we're just gonna put the bar down so it's out of your way.

And we'll keep the spring tension the same, just one red. And when you do standing, make sure you stand up on the platform first before you step onto the moving boat. And have your moving side, have your foot in the middle of the carriage for this particular to have this foot way out in the middle. So it's gonna make you work a little bit more in your adductors. Put your hands on your inner on the front of your hips. And on your pubic bone, just lift the pubic bone up a little bit so you feel like you're not gonna allow the lower back to arch.

This is side splits. Now with your arms long by your sides as you push out slow, let the arms reach out with the legs. And then grow tall to come in. Press into all four corners of your feet. Nice and strong. And that's it.

Four more of those. Nice and smooth. Grow tall as you come in, even effort on both sides, two more. That's it. And one more. Now as you come all the way in, shift your weight towards the platform side so you can slide your foot back to the edge.

There you go. And then line up your feet with each other. It'd be right up to the edge if you can if you're okay with that. Now this one is this is called side skier. So start it up straight and bring your elbows in close with your palms up. Do a 45 degree squat. Now shift your weight towards the platform side, so it feels like the knee is right under your sit bone. Now just straighten the carriage without the body moving.

That's it. Now on the straight leg side, take that arm forward the other arm back. And this arm can reach back and let it straight and just like you're a speed skater. Here we go. Feel that fluid action.

Feel the strength into your standing leg. So it helps you with the driving leg. Two more. There we go. And one. Now as you come all the way and just straighten up just for a moment, Now go back down now without moving the carriage shift your weight towards the moving side with your legs bent.

Now, see if you can keep that knee right under your sit bone. Go slow at first. Now push the platform away and do your best to keep the knee right under your sit bone so that leg doesn't scoot out from under you. Take your time. Now add the straight leg side arm forward, the other arm back. Nice and fluid.

That's it. There we go. Three more. And two. And one.

Great work. As you come up, we're gonna take it into, the right angles of your arms like goal posts, palms facing your face. Now as you push that into your side split, reach up into a high v, and lift up with your heart and look up. I do a flat back hinge, arms to the back. Release your head and arms and roll up as you draw the carriage in. And again, bring those arms up into that right angle, press out into your side split, reach up, look up, flat back hinge, arms to the back, release the head and arms, roll up in a fluid motion, just two more, up and out, flat back hinge, arms to the back, release the head and arms, strong legs and core roll it back up one more.

And again, open reach, flat back hinge, release the head and arms, and roll it back up. Good work. Now carefully step back off of your reformer. And we'll come around to side too. And we'll step onto the platform first and put your moving side foot in the middle of the carriage and just look down, make sure your feet look even with each other, you're in parallel.

Now feel that lift of the front of the pubic bone. And on the inhale, reach out into your side of split, arms and legs open, grow tall to come in. That's it nice and strong. Five more. Go for equal reach into both of your legs and feet.

Grow tall to come in. That's it. And two more after the one you're on. Reach into it and grow tall. That's it. Last one now.

Nice and strong. Now as you come in, bend your elbows with your palms up, go into a 40 actually walk your your moving side foot in right up to the edge. Here you go. Now go into your 45 degree squat. Now shift your weight towards the platform so that knees right under your sit bone. Drive the moving side away.

That's it. Now on the moving side, send the moving side arm forward, the other arm back. Control the return. There's a little bit of spine rotation, but your hips are staying square to the front. Three more. That's it. And two.

And one more. As you come in, come all the way up. When you go back down without moving the car, shift your body weight towards the moving side, see if you can keep the knee under your sit bone and drive the platform away. That's it. Now add the platform side arm forward, other arm back. Strong in your standings, bent leg, So you can drive into the moving side.

Three more. That's it. Two and one more, you guys, nice and strong. Come right up and in. We're gonna go into the last exercise and standing, bring your elbows up in right angles, go up into your high v as you go into your side split, flat back hinge, arms to the back, release the head and arms down and roll up as you draw the carriage in.

Three more times. Reach as you open flat back hinge, release the head and arms, and roll it up nice and smooth. Just two more. That's it. Excellent. You guys.

One more now. Last one. Nice and strong. And roll it right back up, good work. Carefully step off when you're ready. And we're gonna put the bar up in middle bar.

We're gonna finish with mermaid. There you go. And we'll stay with one red, and we'll face we'll face this way as you sit in your Z seat position with both legs folded back towards the shoulder blocks. There you go. That's it. Now as you put you in on the bar, just get a sense of sitting up nice and tall. There you go. Now as you reach out, side then, towards the bar, and then lengthen back up.

And do a few where watch the tendency of dropping your head down the front. Keep looking straight ahead when you side bend. Now next time, side bend and wrap down to the bar and bring your free hand to the bar and open your hand up wider on the bar so it's shoulder width Now keeping your shoulders low and wide, open up your weight bearing arm a little wider on the bar. That's a now bend and stretch both arms for three reps. Bend the elbows and straighten.

Good. One more. Now next time you straight and hold the arms and legs straight or the leg, the arms straight, now slide the heart towards the bar to come up into extension and flex down from the top. Do that three reps, and they'll come forward and up. Exhale down. One more time.

Now as you get to the low point, take the weight bearing arm back to the middle of the bar, come back to the side bend, lengthen all the way up. Take hold of the shoulder block with that free hand and do a side bend the other way. Take a breath or two there. And then nice and slow, help yourself up. We'll take side too.

There we go. And just take a moment just as you get set up. Just start with a few pure side vents like you're opening up your side body like a fan. Get that feeling that you're keeping your gaze straight ahead so you don't drop the head to the front, which is tends to be the tendency for a lot of us. Feel the shoulder blades move down and away from each other on your back.

Next time, wrap down to the bar. Open up the weight bearing arm a little wider. Now, friend that position, bend and stretch both your arms. That's it. Nice and strong and fluid.

One more. Now in this last press, hold the press, now slide the heart towards the bar to come up into extension and flex down from the top. There you go. Two more times. That's it.

And one more. Next time you get to the low point, stay at the low point. Take the weight bearing arm back to the middle of the bar. Come back to the side bend. Lengthen all the way up, take hold of the shoulder block, reach up with the other arm and side bend, counter stretch.

Good work. As you finish, come on up to standing. We'll finish standing on the floor with your feet right under your sit bones, lift your 10 toes off the ground. And as you lay them down, unlock your knees, and just let your breath drop down into your lower belly. Since alignment ease, Now I'll just stop your good work today, you guys. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Plates, anytime.

I hope you enjoyed.