Connected, Strong Tower

Hi, everybody. I'm Tom McCook. Great pleasure to be back with Pilates anytime, and I'm here with Katie, who'll be my model today. And this is a tower class, full body, flexibility, and strength. With some work we're gonna do in the beginning to lubricate the spine and get better mobility with the support of the springs. So I have a setup for you that I like you to understand before we start.

We're gonna use to start the short yellow springs and have a foot strap from a reformer attached to that or a strap You can also get a wider strap through balanced body. They have those also. But have your level b when you're sitting on the mat, have the attachment just a little bit above your head, which relates to the joints in your thoracic spine. You're also gonna wanna have the roll down bar that's on the floor right now. Have two long purples with the foot straps on there, and then have your long yellow springs with handles and have them attached pretty high up because we'll get to that shortly.

But the setup in the beginning will be with the strap as a starting point. And then have, have at least one either long, short blue or short red. We'll use, we'll use those also. And as you should see over on the left, you want an exercise ball. And then if you don't have an exercise ball at home, you could use an arc or a long box to put your feet on just to elevate your hips when we do bridging.

The ball would just make it a little more unstable. So from there, I'm gonna have Katie have a seat with her feet against the against the tower bars, and I'm gonna bring this strap around her back. And she can take her arms outside of that. And that's their setup in the start in the beginning, I just wanted to put her hands on her thighs, and she'd just get a sense of sitting up. If she needed to, she could bend her knees a little bit, but she's pretty flexible.

So that's not area, but at home, it's fine to bend your knees. Now all she's gonna do on the inhale is grow a little taller. Now on the exhale from the pelvis and spine, press back into the strap and let the elbows bend away from each other. And then inhale to lengthen back up. And think less and less neck and more right from there as you pull back, pull the waistline back.

That's it. And then lengthen right back up tall. And get the feeling when you round the back that you can reach out of the legs. And then grow tall and feel a little retraction of the shoulder blades. That's it. I wanna have one of these in my living room when I'm watching TV.

That's it. Really feel good on the spine. Do one more like that. Till you can open the lower back to the back and lengthen up. Now take the arms to the front, and as you lengthen up into extension rocketing forward, lift the arms and arch back over the top of the strap as you lower the arms press back into the strap again. And again, lengthen forward and up, exhale to curl back, shoulders wide and low, lengthen up, and then flex one more time.

Now the next time you lengthen up, we'll add rotation, lengthen up. Now just from your breastbone up, turn to your left, as you press back into the strap, lower the arms, one to the front, one to the back, curl. Now lengthen up, turn to the middle, side two, lower and curl. Nice and fluid. Get the feeling from your belly button down.

You stay square to the footbars or to the uprights. From the rib cage up is where the rotation happens. That's a nice mobility through each section of the spine and the shoulders. Just one more after this one, one more side, and then peel back. Beautiful. Now as you come up to center last version, bring the hands behind the head, Now as you flex back, widen the lower of the shoulder blades, keep the chin a little bit off the chest, lengthen up, open the chest.

And again, curl widen and lower the blades. Lengthen up. Nice work. Just two more. Great exercise to teach people how to flex with length before you have them do more traditional stuff. One more.

Now as you lengthen up, you can lower the arms. I'm gonna help you self out of that strap. Very nice. Now from there, we're gonna do upper arms. So I'm gonna take this attachment off so it's out of the way. And then we'll take the push through bar, and we're gonna put the blue spring on.

Katie's gonna come on to her back with her head at this end. There we are. I'm just gonna give her the bar and slide your body just a little bit this way so your shoulders are right under your, right above your, or below your hands. Now just take a moment, center the weight on the back of the pelvis. And as you breathe in, telescope the arms towards the ceiling.

Now retract the shoulders into the mat and do that four times nice and smooth. Feel as you're going up, you're breathing into the sides and the back of the ribs, and then imprint the back of the shoulders. Now the next time after you in print, keep the shoulders back and bend the elbows out to the sides, take the bar behind you. That's it. Now slowly control the return.

And reach back up to the ceiling. And again, retract, bend wide, reach back. She's doing a good job of keeping her lower back long. Her ribs dropped. Control the return. Just one more. Retract and bend.

Control the return. Now with the arms straight, keep the back of the shoulders on the mat and from your pelvis on an exhale curl into a bridge. Take a breath at the top. Starting from right below your breast bone, use your abdomen to lengthen down. Let the tail be the last thing down.

And just two more like that. Nice and fluid. Breath at the top. Sequens down nice and smooth. And one more. There you go.

Nice and fluid. And peel down. Nice. Now we're gonna go into an upper body full sit up. So when you curl up, watch the tendency to let the head go too far forward. So as you exhale, float your head, curl forward and keep your head back in between your arms and keep coming up.

Keep coming. Take a breath at the top. Now from your pelvis, roll down. And, dude, just that portion, two more times. Nice and smooth. Head comes back a little.

There you go, and then peel down. Excellent. One more. That's it. And traction down. Now we're just gonna do two reps where we put the whole thing together. So telescope to the ceiling, set the shoulders and reach back.

Control the return from the pelvis, peel into a bridge. Sequence down slow and smooth. From the upper body, roll up and reach into the bar. Take a breath, now peel down slow. Nice work just one more time.

Arms to the back first. Control the return from the pelvis, peel up sequentially. Peel back down. From the upper body, roll up and reach, breath, traction down. Nice work. And I'll take this for you.

We'll disconnect this guy. That's a great way to start for a lot of your clients. It's also a nice assessment tool to notice how their body is doing in a safe and comfortable way. Now I'm gonna give Katie these long handles. So at home, I recommend you set them up at the top of the tower with long yellows with handles.

If that feels too heavy, you can go a little lighter, a little lower. Now I'm gonna give her the ball or you could use an arc and she's gonna put her straight legs on the top and just get a sense in the beginning of Settering the weight on the back of the pelvis, set the back of the shoulders. And without even moving, just actively on the exhale, press into all four limbs. Just feel like, okay. Can I press into all four in an even way?

One more time like that. That's it. Now the next time, without lifting the hips, pull down and open the arms out into a circle. Do three in that direction. Keep it nice and open across the chest. And now reverse.

That's it. Feel the connection to the centerline of your legs long through your spine. One more. Next time, as you press down, reach into the legs and peel into a bridge. Breath at the top, sequence down nice and smooth. Beautiful. That's it.

Just three more times. Before that nice, even quality left to right, at home or if you're doing it and you're feeling yourself pulling to one side, that usually giving you feedback that that's the side that's working more, add more tone into the second side. That's it. One more time. Nice and smooth. Yep. Great work. Nice job.

I'm gonna take that away. We're gonna turn around, come up to a seated position using those same handles. You'll you do roll downs with these guys with your legs bent, feet flat. And if you if you feel like it's not enough support, you can slide back a little bit. So now as you push down from the pelvis, peel down onto your back nice and slow.

Now at the bottom, as you breathe in, shrug your shoulders north, Let them slide down as you curl up, keep the neck nice and long. Grow tall at the top. Beautiful. See, we're just using a little bit of support, not a lot. So it's a lot of work for getting the abdomen. Then again, shrug at the bottom, slide them low and peel back up nice and smooth. One more. That's it. Shrugg, shoulders down, curl back up.

Now let your legs lengthen and do three more. Grow tall, push down from the pelvis as you curl down reach through the legs. Shrug at the bottom, slide down and peel off the floor nice and smooth. Good work. Two more. That's it.

Excellent. Great work. One more last one now, and peel it right back up. Beautiful work. Now as you get to the top, let your feet open about six inches, small bend of your knees from your hip joints hinge back about six inches. Now we're gonna do wide rows.

Now pull the elbows wide like you're pulling an imaginary bar to the center of your chest. And then straight and do that for six reps. Have your hands just a little lower. Little lower. So there you go. So you really feel that across your upper back.

That's it. And as you're doing that, feel how you can actively draw the abdomen in so you feel that front to back balance. Good. That's it. One more. Now, sit right back up tall as you're straight and now gonna lean back into that same position to do what's called decline rotation. So the arms are straight.

The shoulder blades are flattened on the back. Now turn from your spine, keeping the arm straight. Now this one, the arms will just stay straight. It's very different movement. It's pretty small.

Feel how you re that's it. Fill you really getting into your back muscles. Muscles along the spine. Two more each way. Yep. That's it. Top of the chest is open.

One more each way. Last side. And then lengthen all the way up now take both of your feet over to the left and cross your right foot over your left. Hold both of the handles with your left hand for water skier, reach the free arm forward, grow tall. Now from your pelvis, curl back, slowly sweep that right arm out as you look towards it, sweep it low, connect to the underside of your shoulders to come back up. Just two more on that one side, nice and smooth. That's it. Beautiful.

Full body. One more. There we go. And sweep it low. Connect your shoulder blades to your legs, and then we'll switch sides.

Take hold with the right, left foot over the right, grow tall on the inhale, feel your inner thigh muscles, curl back slow, sweep the left arm out. Sweep it low. Feel those underside muscles as you come up. That's it. Just two more. Nice and fluid. Really nice work.

Good work. There you go. One more. Sweep it low and arrive at the top. Good work. Nice job. Now we're gonna turn on to your side facing this way for side leg work.

So she's gonna take this spring. And put it on her top left foot with her head down this end. There you go. And then with her bottom arm, she can cradle her head with her bottom arm and put the top hand on the mat close to her chest. Now straighten both her legs.

And let your bottom leg go about six inches forward of the body. Now the back leg, the top leg, I have her straight off her shoulder. And what I wanna do, I want her to reach into my hand, pull the hip away. So now both sides of the waist are equally long. So I feel like the hinge is at the top of leg.

And with a parallel leg, I want her to lift the leg straight up and squeeze it back down without the pelvis changing. That's it. There you go. So you got the support of the spring, but you have to stabilize your pelvis. Do three more. There you go. Nice and smooth like that.

There you go. One more. Now hold it about a foot, point the foot, and stir a circle keeping the rest of the body still. We're back to the lake circles. There we go. One more in that direction, and then reverse.

Yep. There you go. Now hold the middle as you flex the foot, kick forward into a side kick, point and reach to the back. That's it. Get that feeling of hips stay stacked all the way through as the leg goes forward. Think you keep reaching out of the sit bone. As it goes back, feel how you're opening the front of the hip.

One more. Next time is to go to the back, hold the leg to the back, and do small circles to the back. That's it. Two more. And now reverse. That's it. Just two more. Now really slow. So she's in the middle of the mat, staying in the middle of the mat, take this leg out in front of you like an l to your body.

Now really slow turn your torso open to the ceiling for a stretch. And with your bottom arm, you could even take the spring if you wanted and pull that foot towards your shoulder to get a deeper stretch if you wanted, relax your head, relax your torso, take a couple breaths there. There we go. And then nice and slow, turn the torso back towards the spring and help yourself out of that setup. It will go to side too.

Short and sweet. Here we are. So press away. Cradle your head with the bottom arm. Bottom legs about six inches forward of the body.

Top leg is straight off the shoulder, and then pull the leg away. So you feel how you just leveled the pelvis left to right. And as she reaches into the strap, she's gonna feel the hinge as of the hip joint without letting the top waist shorten if possible. That's where the the line of the femur. That's it. Nice and fluid. There you go.

Three more parallel. You don't get as much range in parallel, but you work your lateral hip more. One more. Now as you lower to the start, point your foot and stir a circle with that pelvic stability failure using all the muscles around the hip and waistline, postural line, one more in that direction, and reverse. That's it.

Back to the center hold, now flex the foot and kick to the front for side kicks, point and press to the back. That's that the hips are stacked. As the leg goes forward, reach through the sit bone. As you reach to the back, open the front of the hip. Good work. Two more.

And one. Next time the leg goes to the back. Hold it back there. Standing to the strap. A small circle to the back.

To work the back of the hip a little bit more. One more in that direction and reverse. There you go. Three more. Awesome. Now, staying in the middle of the mat. Take that leg out in front of you like an l to your body. Slowly turn the torso open and just take a few breaths there for how you were just reaching the sit bone away to feel that hip.

Get a nice opening. Very nice. And then carefully help yourself out of that setup. Now, we're gonna go into advanced leg springs. So for this, this leg series, you guys, you're gonna wanna have the springs, the long purples attach pretty high, and it's really dependent on body weight. So I recommend you either on the tower, either all the way up or one below the top.

And then you can kinda gauge it based on your abilities. And how it feels for you. Now Katie's gonna come onto her back with her head down here and put the foot straps on her feet. There we go. And now she's gonna hold on to the tower bars. The key thing with the tower bars is you don't wanna pull with the tower bars, you wanna press into the tower bars and let the elbows be more straight up and down. So that way, you can keep your back open.

So your scapular open on your back opposed to pinched. So your back is stable. So what she's gonna do on the exhale phase, as she reaches into the spring, she's gonna curl the hips off the ground forming a line from her shoulders to her feet. Now, really slow sequence down as you come back to 90 on the exhale reach away as you bridge. There you go. Nice, Katie. That's it. And peel down.

Think of using your exhale. And think of just pushing to your arms. You'll feel how you'll you you won't have to work as much with the arms. There you go. That's it. One more.

Now next time up, hold the up. Now small walking. Breathing. That's it. Two more breaths as you kick.

One more breath. Hold the center and roll back down. How's that spring tension? Does that feel okay? So now we're gonna go up. When you get up to the top, we're gonna go into turn out and do frogs. Just four reps.

I'll bend in towards the shoulders and press long. Good. There you go. Two more. And one. Sequence down through the spine.

Now we have airplanes. So for airplane, I want you to just do a little prep. So pull your legs down just a little bit like there. Now imagine as you start to bend at the knee, your legs will come a little bit towards you and you're gonna curl your tail towards the ceiling. So the hips will come up.

And just roll down. Just do that a few times. But really feel that connection. I'll press that's it. Now roll down. Now press them away again.

Now find that balance of as you bend now curl. See, There you go. If you know how that's a little different, you'll feel more of the back of the legs than the abdomen working together. That's what we wanna work on. There you go. Now next time as you do it, let your tail go even more this way.

Now reach the leg straight up to the ceiling, reach away, reach away, and then lower. Now I'm gonna raise the springs a little higher because I wanna give Katie a better fighting chance on this one because these are hard. So this is all part of the practice of learning what's working for everybody. So we're going one higher. There we go. We'll put that on her feet again.

Now hold the bars. Now just press away for a second. Now don't do the full movement. Bring your hands a little higher. Let your elbows go a little bit forward of your body so you can set your shoulders.

Now as you start to bend, curl the tail. Now keep sending the tail up. Now keep the tail lifted reach up now reach out into the springs and then lower. Beautiful. That's it. And again, bend, curl, reach up, reach out.

And just two more. Bend and curl, reach up, reach out. Now do them the last one, think of reaching your legs a little more that way before you reach out. So you'll get more lift. That's it. Now reach out.

And lower. You got one more in here? Here you got one more. Bend and curl, reach up, reach out. Beautiful, and rest. We just flew. Now we're gonna help her out of the straps. Nice work.

From there, we are gonna go to kneeling hip extension, which will feel really good after that. So for kneeling hip extension, we're just coming back to using our strap. So for this exercise, we're gonna use the short yellows, and I'm having it pretty low, like, around waistline level when Katie is kneeling. And she's gonna come inside of this facing away from the tower bar. She'll turn towards me and have that across the front of her hips.

Now come forward enough that you feel like this tension in the springs. That's it. Now all you're gonna do without sitting back too far, just hinge at the hips hinge with the flat back and let the arms go back. Now press into the strap and come up to tall kneeling. That's it. And again hinge. Now feel how you're using your hips, your inseams, your postural muscles to come back up.

There you go. Two more times. Press forward with the hips. There you go. One more before we add. Now next time, try to stay forward over the knees hinge without sitting back and bend your elbows like goal posts with your fingers facing down.

So now hinge from the hips flat back, come down with your upper body. Now bring your elbows straight off your shoulders. Now hold that. And from the back of your shoulders, spin your hands forward, let them go like, go like this. Now, we're slowly on the exhale reach overhead into a high v. Bend the elbows.

Rotate the palms back to the start. And again, spin, exhale reach four more times. Get the feeling of using your upper back. Your lower belly, your postural muscles, two more. That's it. Excellent. One more.

Spin, reach, bend lower now from the hips pressing of the strap to come up. And then we're gonna help you out of this setup. There we go. There we go. No worries. And I'm gonna take these guys out of the way so we have more room. So now from here, we're gonna do roll downs, swan, not roll downs, swan with the roll down bar.

And we're gonna use the same short yellows, but we're gonna bring it a little lower. We're gonna put them on the third eye bolt from the top, and then take the strap off and put on the the the roll down bar. And I'm gonna have you pull back a little further this time. So I know we're moving equipment around a lot. This is how you get used to using this stuff, and it's actually really useful.

So she's gonna take hold of the roll down bar and come on to her belly. And then slide a little further back, Katie. Just a little bit, give yourself a little more room. There you go. Now anchor your hips, lift your head a few inches. Now from the shoulder blades reach towards the hands.

Slide the shoulders towards the hips. And just practice as you're doing that, especially on the exhale phase, drawing the lower belly away from the mat. Feel the tone of your inseams. That's it. Now the next time, set the shoulders. Now slide the heart forward.

And as you come up, keep that awareness for your abs, then lead with the spine back down nice and smooth. There you go. Set the shoulders first. Slide the heart into extension with toned legs. Really nice. So she has a lot of extension, beautiful.

Listen to your own body as you guys do it. Do two more. That's it. Really nice. One more. Nice and fluid. Excellent. Now the next time, only come up about halfway.

Come up halfway. Now set the shoulders and bend your elbows wide pull in the bar below your chin and straight and do that for six reps. Keep the tone of the legs. Connect to your middle upper back. Yep. There you go.

Two more. And one with control, lengthen back down, nice and smooth. Now we'll take the bar for you. Now press back to a child's pose to stretch out your back for a moment. Now we're gonna make an equipment change, you guys. We're gonna do the tower.

So for the tower, we're gonna set up the long purple springs, the foot springs, and we're gonna attach them to the bottom of of the reformer or to the behind the, the mat, and then attached to the back of the push through bar. So we're attached to the back. Straps are taken off. Now for this one, you dealt, you do need to use the safety strap for your everything turns out okay. So in this setup, we're gonna lift the bar and put it on your thigh.

Now I'm taking this strap wrapping around the middle of the bar, and you just wanna have it set up so it's maybe just a little bit above your knee. Doesn't have to be super high because you wanna be able to bend your legs. So wrap it around one time. And then attach it to the appropriate loop. Lot happening there.

Now she's gonna come onto her back with her head down here. I'm gonna lift the bar so she can put her feet on the bar. Now hold the bars the way you did for the advanced leg springs. Now press your legs long. That's it. Now, now, and when you guys do it at home, if you feel difficulty dropping your tail, keep your legs and just straighten to the degree that you don't have to take the pelvis with you at first. So all I wanted to do in the beginning is just inhale to bend the knees, exhale to straight, and do that for four.

That's it. Now let the elbows come a little off the mat so you can set your shoulder blades. Now next time, straighten point your feet. Now from the tail, curl into a bridge. Now, in the bridge, keep the tail lifted, bend the knees, straighten the legs, roll down with control. Once you drop the tail, flex the feet. And again, press tailbone to the feet.

Keep the tail lifted as you bend, reach up, sequence down nice and slow through each section of the spine. There you go. And just two more times, drop the tail and flex the feet. Press, curl, bend with control, reach up, sequence down nice and smooth through the spine. There you go.

Drop. Go for even quality in the back of the pelvis one more time. Press and curl, bend, reach, sequence down nice and smooth. Good work. And I'll help you out of that setup. Nice job. From there, we'll take the strap off.

We'll change the springs again, and we're gonna do some standing work. So I will come around to the back to take the springs off, which is easier. So we'll take these away. We're collecting a lot on the floor, but it's all good. Now from here, you guys, we're gonna come around to the front, and we're gonna do standing chest expansion.

So we're gonna use the long yellows, and have them set up at the top of the tower. Long yellows with the handle. And Katie's gonna come to standing up on the mat facing the tower. Take the straps in our hands. Now step back just a few inches and start when you do a simple plie in parallel, keep your head right over your pelvis small bend.

That's your starting position. As you press into your feet to straighten your legs, pull the arms back by your sides. And then bend as you reach forward. And again, pull and feel like with the upper body, the first bone to move back is the clavicles as you pull. That's it. Do three more.

Nice and strong. Good. And two. Excellent. One more. Now from there, step back maybe a foot further. Turn your palms up and have your elbows just a little bit below the shoulders and retract your shoulders.

Set them back, we're gonna do plie or squat with bicep curl. So keeping your elbows at that same height as you exhale bend the arms and sit into a wall squat. Straighten as you come up, nice and fluid, bend and lower, lengthen up and straight and beautiful. That's it. Four more times. Nice and fluid. There you go.

Equal pressure into your three foot points, ball behind the big toe, behind the little toe in the heel, all the way through. Two more. Excellent. One more now. Now from your starting position, let your arms lower. You're gonna do what's called a ninety ninety lunge.

So you're gonna let the arms lower to my mid torso. As you step one leg back, let that knee bend straight down and bend your elbows towards you. Come all the way back up to the start. Altinate sides, do foreach leg. Back up nice and smooth.

There you go. There you go. Good work. Feel how you can turn on the gluten hamstring on the back leg. To keep your form. That's it.

Excellent. Two more each side. Nice and smooth. That's it. One more each side. Really good.

Now for the next two each side, as you're going down, just bend the elbow on the front knee side and turn towards it. Come right back up. I'll alternate that for two each side. Excellent. One more each side.

And last side. Great work. From there, we're gonna do rolling in and rolling out. So you're gonna come to a kneeling position. Now rolling in and rolling out is typically done with holding on to the push through bar, but we're gonna build it using the same springs.

So the first thing you're gonna do is just thigh stretch. So as you take your arms a little bit in front of you, do a little bit of spine flexion, meaning like the hundreds, open the front of your hips, and just pull your front ribs back. Now as you exhale, just lean back into thigh stretch, and then come back up, do that three times. That way, you're keeping the lower back long. You feel a nice opening in your thighs.

One more. Now we're gonna do rolling down. So in the next exhale from the top, curl down, bring your hands about a foot away from your knees. And then roll back up to that three times. Nice and smooth.

That's it. And curl right back up. Really get that feeling of setting the shoulders low. Stand into the arms. And roll back up. Now lean back again into your thigh stretch and hold it there for a moment.

On the exhale, pull the elbows wide, lift your heart straight up, and then reach forward and float back up. Do that two more times. Lift the heart, and then reach forward. One more. These are all the components of what you're about to do. And then float back up.

Now the next time, we're gonna put the three together. So on the exhale, you'll curl down, bring your hands to the floor about a foot away from your body. Slide them towards you. Lift up through the front of your body. Lift your elbows and lift the heart.

Press back down the front of your body. Let the arms go forward and roll back up. And, again, on the exhale, curl forward to the map, slide the hands towards you, open the front of the hips, lean back, lift the elbows, lift the heart. Press forward. And roll it back up.

One more time, curl forward, a little bit away from you. Now pull it towards you. Now press the hips forward, but lean back. Lift the elbows. Lift the chest.

Press back down the front. As the arms go forward, roll back up to tall kneeling. Good work. Nice job. Now we're gonna come up to standing and turn around the other way.

So now standing arms facing away, we're gonna start with what's called upper arms. So you'll take your elbows up in front of you at shoulder height shoulder width. That'll be your starting position. There you go. All good.

Now with your elbows up at shoulder height shoulder width, picture on the exhale, you're gonna lean a little forward from your pelvis and press the arms to shoulder height. Now let the arms go straight up overhead. Pull back down to shoulder height and bend the elbows again, and let them bend in close. And again, press long. Reach up from the bottom of your shoulder blades.

Pull down and bend. Let them bending. So keep the elbows right up if you can at that level. So you have to use your shoulder blade muscles the whole time, then go up. Pull down from these muscles, now bend the elbows right in place so that hands will just go up this way. This way. So the elbows will kind of stay in the same spot.

Press lift lower. Now keep the elbows in the same location as you bend the elbows. There you go. Now you got it. Awesome. Excellent. One more time. And press and lift, lower, and bend. Now take your arms down to your sides and bring your heels together in a small v.

This is armed circles. So as you slide your shoulders down, scoop your hands forward. Now as they come up to eye level, turn the palms forward, go up overhead, and reach out into a circle. And again, scoop down and forward, reach out into a circle. Three more.

And circle. Good work. Two more. Nice and strong. There you go. Excellent. One more now. Last one. From there, we'll finish with punching.

So you bring come back to parallel with your legs. Now as you step forward with your right leg, punch with your left. Come on. And you can leave that back leg straight. So I think of the back leg stays long. That's it. There you go.

Nice and smooth. Good work. You can even turn that palm down. So you're very official. There we go. And again.

Nice. So opposite arm and leg. That's it. Now we're talking. Now go forward and hold it. Now as you hold it, switch arms, then come all the way back.

So you'll punch twice now. Go forward. Punch twice. Come all the way back. Do that two more times.

Opsid arm and leg, same side arm and leg, all the way back up and in. That's it. And again, and lengthen all the way back one more each side. Opsid arm. There you go. And punch. Good work.

Lengthen all the way up and in good work. Now from there, we're gonna stay in the lunge, step into the lunge and let your arms go behind behind you with your elbows bent. You're gonna do a version of a bicep curl. So pull your scapula back. Leave your upper arms back and bend at the elbows and straighten for four reps.

That's it. One more. As you straight and step back, and then switch your legs and do side too. Step, retract the upper back. Feel how you get a nice stretch in your biceps as you use your postural muscles. Two more.

One more. Great work. From there, we'll face out this way. You'll face sideways. Put both of the handles in one hand and bring your heels together.

So this is a side bend so that you won't tend to bend as far, but you'll get a sense of tone in your body. So take your left arm out to the side. And as you reach it up overhead, pull the strap towards you and side bend towards the tower bars, and he'll back up to that four times on that one side. Feel the tone of your legs, and lengthen back up. Good work. Two more. And one more now, last one.

Great work, Katie. Then we'll turn around for side two. Take a moment while you're there, reaching out and up, side bend as you pull. Beautiful. That's it. Feel that connection. Feel that connection to your legs. Good.

Two more. Three. Beautiful one more last one now. Now, the last exercise, you're gonna face the tower have hands in one of each strap. This is a standing roll down. So have your feet about a foot apart. Take your breath as you set the shoulders, tuck your chin as you curl down, stand into the arms, have them about a foot away from the body, And now as you press into your feet, press the tail forward and roll back up to your starting place.

Just do two more reps like that, fluid, connected, and strong. Take a breath at the bottom, press down into the limbs, and peel back up. And one more last time. Breath at the bottom, restack from the bottom up. Very nice. Then you can just take the handles up to the top there or just let them come down and rest.

Step off onto the floor. And just take a moment when you're standing to center the weight on your feet, and just take a moment, let your breath drop down into your lower belly, sense your posture, your breathing, and acknowledge yourself your great work today. Good work, everybody. Hope you enjoyed, and we hope to see you again on Plates anytime. Take care.