Strong Intermediate Reformer

Hi, everybody. I'm Tom McCook. It's a great pleasure to be back at Pilates anytime. We're gonna do a reformer class. You're gonna wanna have a stick for when we get to the short box. And this class will be a functional flow. We'll work on stability and strength and alignment and a little bit of good mobility.

So we're gonna start with footwork. So I recommend three or four springs because we're gonna do single leg work. So I'm just gonna put the stick on the floor behind me over here. Come on to your back. And put your heels on the bar about sit bone width apart.

You can do it with your head rest up or down, depending on your alignment, and just take a moment to settle The weight into the back of the pelvis and an even alignment. Take a few breaths to arrive. On the exhale phase, feel how you can settle into gravity and just come into feeling yourself. Now really slow on the exhale initiating from your pelvis, just do an arch curl of the pelvis, curl the tail towards the ceiling, inhale and tip the tail towards the floor. Feel that mobility, in the pelvis, lower back, even quality, just five or six times. Notice you can do that and relax the neck.

And the shoulders. One more. Now hold the steel bars. Set the shoulders back, lengthen melt your front ribs down a little bit. And as you breathe in, let your knees sway to one side.

Exhale to the middle. And think of, let your legs move as far as they can before the pelvis moves, then allow the pelvis to rotate. Then bring the back of the waist towards the mat. Let the legs follow, legs first, then the pelvis, pelvis and lower back, legs follow. I was just waking up, mobilizing the muscles around the hips, and the lower spine one more each way.

Now as you come to the middle, we'll do a few bridges, arms long, take a breath, curl the tail towards the back of the knees, peel into a bridge. Slowly sequence back down. Just three more times. Notice how you can keep your chest open, shoulders down, and we'll do one more. Sequence down. Now, staying on your heels, straighten the legs.

And I'm gonna put my head rest up a notch so that I like it better for footwork. Now while you're here, just take a moment to bring up one knee into a tabletop and bring the opposite hand to the inner thigh or the inner knee. So think of the goal in the single leg work in the beginning as to feel a full activation from the back of the leg to the front of the leg every repetition and feel that diagonal line from the, lifted leg across the waistline. So you get that front to back sling. Now exhale, pull yourself in with the standing leg.

Five reps. Clear fluid motion through the hips. One more. Now from here, bring the arm down. Now as you come in, reach the free leg under the bar, and back to tabletop for five.

Feel that back to front action on the standing leg. One more. Now for the next five, fully develop the leg to the ceiling, even if it's slightly bent. And then back under the bar for five. Don't force the legs straight where it changes the shape of your lower back.

One more. Place that foot on the bar, bring up side two. Opposite hand to the inner thigh. On the x, as you press them lightly into each other, pull yourself in with the standing leg. Inhale out. Feel that back to front relationship.

Two more. And one. Bringing the arm down. Now five reps under the bar, back to tabletop. Sense your posture.

One more. Last five fully developed the leg to the ceiling. So you got that element of stability through the standing side. Mobility through the moving side. One more.

Now, as you switch legs again from the stand, from the straight leg position, come on to the ball of your feet, and lift the first leg up back into tabletop. Now we're gonna reach under the bar and fully develop the leg in one motion, inhale to come in. Now on the exhale fully develop. Touch the bar and lift with the up leg, flex and point both ankles, bend and come in, and again lengthen out, touch lift, flex point both, bend and come in four more times. Touch lift, flex point, bend and come in.

Feel that connection to the middle of your body. Flu in motion through your joints, two more. And one. Keep the leg toned on the lowering and lifting. Now lower and switch legs.

Connect into the ball of your feet. The big toe ball, little toe ball, lift up your second leg. Now reach under. Fully develop. Touch the bar and lift.

Flex and point both, then and come in. Five more. Touch lift, flex point, then and come in. Nice and smooth. Move with your breath, touch lifts, flex point, bend and come in two more.

Nice and smooth. Stay with your focus. One more. Touch lift, flex point. Ben had come in now from the in position.

Swain just change your feet again, and then lengthen back out to your first side. One more set of the same setup, but we're gonna do leg circles from here. So come in and come under the bar, fully develop and hold. Now just go side to side with the up leg without the pelvis going with it, stabilized through the pelvis, the back of the shoulders, the standing leg. Now inhale into the midline, exhale through the circle.

Brief pause at the top each rep. Two more. Now reverse. Last two. Then and come in.

Take a moment to switch your feet. Press back out to the tabletop position. One rep come in under the bar. Fully develop and hold. Side to side. Feel that connection fluid in the hips.

Toned through the legs, toned through the arms, easy in the neck, inhale through the midline, exhale into the circle. One more in that direction and reverse. Last two. Last one. Lower to the bar, bend and come in.

Now come onto the balls of both your feet. Press away. Now just unlock the knees, but tone the back of your legs in lower and lift both heels for 10. On the lowering phase, picture you're getting longer through the crown of your head. Keep the length through the lower and lifting.

Last three. One. Now, at the high point of this next one, go right into running. Make it deliberate. Take the bounce out of it. On the bending leg, press the shin forward.

On the straightening side, take your sit bone more in towards the midline, which helps you prevent over pronating your foot. On the dropping heel side. These tracking right over your feet. One more each side. Then drop one for a few breaths for a stretch.

And switch. Then in command, roll to your side. Help yourself up to change the springs. Go down to two red springs. Help yourself onto your back and put the straps on your on your feet.

Now with the straps on your feet, press out to a low 45 once you're ready. Center the weight on your pelvis, bring your legs into parallel, arms long, ribs dropped, are really slow that the legs come up towards 90 without the lower back changing if possible. Now as you pull down, follow the waistline muscles in. So just feel that front to back support. Just two more.

Now from the low point, inhale open, exhale close. Turn on the midline, centerline of your legs, back of the shoulders, one more. Now we're gonna take it into circles, inhale up the middle. Open down and together. Go for an even quality through both sides.

One more in that direction, and reverse down the middle. Open up and together. Tell you're creating a balance left to right, training the body to use each side in a uniform way. One more. Now pull down to a low 45 go into a small turnout, and as you zip up your inner thighs, reach away with your feet, float the arms about six inches above your body wall, take your breath, now roll the head off the floor for the hundreds curling up, look at your belly, tone the arms, and inhale for five beats.

Exale for five. Breathe wide and low on the inhale. Exale, follow the abdomen in, lengthen the back of the neck back, even though you're drawing the head forward. Inhale for five, exhale for five. Four more sets.

Two more sets. One more set. As you lower, put your headrest down. Hold on to the steel bars. Take your legs up towards the 90 and bend your knees a quarter of the way or an eighth of the way.

So this is short spine prep. Now you're not gonna pull hard with your arms, but they're just there to give you a little bit of support. Wrap the elbows forward, now on the exhale from your tailbone, curl the tail towards the feet, to round the lower back, sending the feet straight up, inhale to roll back down. Nice and slow. Feel how the bottom of the pelvis narrows as the tail lifts. Getting that sense of opening up the lower back.

Two more. And one. Now if it feels better for you, you could stay with that version. Otherwise, we're gonna go into the full short spine, so pull your legs down to a low 45. As you breathe in, let the legs go towards 90, exhale, let the tail chase your feet, inhale the plie, let the tail go more towards the knees. Now roll down slow.

Draw the heels down to drop your tail, slide the legs long back to parallel. Inhale, exhale curl, plie at the top, roll through slow and smooth. Slide the legs long. Just three more times. Feel that balance of using your inner thighs, your abs, the back of your shoulders.

Keep the neck soft. And just two more. One more everybody. Nice and fluid. Now as you arrive at the bottom, just to keep moving, we're gonna slide the straps off of your feet into your hands for coordination.

Pull the elbows in close, knees together, feet together. Elbows bent just halfway, set the shoulders back and down. Exale curl up, slide the arms and legs long. Open close, bend the knees as you bend the arms, lift the tail a little bit more. And again, inhale out, open close, exhale through the curl.

Four more. Feel like you're reaching through your elbows when you bend your elbows. One more. From there, place the straps on the poles, help yourself up. And we're gonna go into kneeling arms.

So for kneeling arms, I recommend you go down to one blue because this is a little more challenging. And when you kneel, you're gonna kneel facing the bar with your feet against the shoulder blocks and sit back carefully and take hold of the straps in your hands. Now with control, come up to tall kneeling. In tall kneeling, sit your alignment. So from your knees to your ears, you feel like you're relatively straight, bend your elbows slightly.

Now from your hip joints to a small hinge, Now as you start to extend your hips, which means to open them to the front, scoop your hands to eye level. Lower the arms first, then add the hinge. Feel the scoop is coming from the bottom of your shoulder blades. Feel the activation of your hips. Three more times.

So we got a balance challenge, and alignment, and connection to your core one more. From here, come in to hug a tree, hands a little below the shoulders. Feel your alignment get long through the spine, inhale to open, exhale wrap around a tree. Feel it's coming from the back to the front, brought across your clavicles, Three more times. And two, and one.

From there, place the straps on the poles and grab your long box. But before you grab the long box, put your foot bar down so it's out of the way, and change your spring tension to one red. For back stroke and teaser. So I'll grab the long box. Now as you put the long box on, Make sure it's centered on the mat, and now take hold of the straps in your hands, and help yourself onto the reformer, onto the box, take the strap in each hand, and just slide your hips towards the front edge of the box, not all the way to the front edge, but pretty close.

And take a moment to slowly come on to your back and take hold of your knees with your hands. Now as you hold your your knees, think of like double leg stretch. So as you curl up, Peel up, imprint the back of the waistline, zip up your legs, and think of hollowing your armpits wide and lower the shoulder blades. Now bring the fist towards each other, set your shoulders. And as you breathe in, for backstroke, arms and legs straight up, Open the arms and legs, circle down, find that 100 position, hold, bend the knees, bend the arms.

Inhale up. Open circle. Feel the body line. Bend and bend. Two more. Nice and fluid. And one.

Last one. Open circle. Then, and then now hold your legs. Retract your shoulders. Let your head go back.

If that's okay for you. Take a breath. Curl back up for teaser. Now set your shoulders. In the teaser, the legs don't open, but the arm movement is the same.

Ben the elbows. Now arms and legs straight up. Circle open just the arms. Now scoop down. Curl up and find your teaser.

Now as you hold, just lower and lift the arms for three. A little bit of a bend in the elbows. Small v in the feet. Now hold, lower and lift the legs for three without changing the lower back. Now hold, lower the whole body.

Open, curl back up. Three reps. And one. Slowly lower and come in. Help yourself off. Put the straps on the poles.

Now from there, we're gonna go directly into pulling straps. So we'll change the spring tension. Actually, we'll keep it the same. One bread. If you need to go lighter, you could go to a blue. You're gonna lie on your belly facing the straps. Reach through the straps and hold just above the buckle so you get a little more range out of your arms.

Now with your legs and that small v, take your shoulders more towards the ceiling and then down. So you're brought across the chest. Now just take a breath and feel that connection to your lower belly and your inner thighs. On the next x, I'll pull the arms all the way back. Now take the back of your shoulders more towards the ceiling.

Then slide your heart forward and up, lengthen all the way down, keeping the chest open. And again, exhale back, shoulders back, heart forward and up. Length and down smooth four more times. And three more. And two and one.

Now we're gonna go right into t press, slide your hands to a lighter part of the strap, pull your arms all the way back again, set the shoulders towards the ceiling, turn the palms towards the floor. Slide the heart a little forward. Now slowly open out towards the tee. From below your shoulder blades pull towards your back pockets. Five more. Two more.

And one. All the way down. Put the straps on the poles. Help yourself up. Now just take a moment.

Put your forearms on the box and round your back for a second. Just a short decompression. Slowly come up. From there, we're gonna go into short box. So we'll turn the box into the short box position. Put on three or four springs so the carriage doesn't bounce around. Doesn't matter what springs.

And then grab your stick and have a seat with your feet under the straps. Now sit towards the front edge of the box push out into the strap so it's toned. There's no slack and straighten your legs. Now sit right up on your sit bones with long legs and have the arms low with your hands a little wider than shoulder width. Now grow tall. Feel you can press down, tone the bottom of your hips.

And as you breathe in, reach the arms up overhead, exhale to lower three times. Next time, uphold, inhale reach. Now from your hip joints hinge forward on an exhale. Now inhale curl spine stretch. Exhale, hands at shoulder height, roll back.

Inhale, lift the arms. No change in the spine. Reach your head towards the bar, curl over your middle. Restack your spine, inhale the arms up, grow tall, lift, lengthen, exhale hinge, inhale curl, exhale roll back from the pelvis. Inhale, lift, exhale up and over your middle.

Restack one more time. Inhale, lift, exhale hinge. Inhale, spine stretch. From the pelvis, curl back with tone, legs, shoulders are wide and low, lift, exhale up and over the center. Reach back the spine. Now we're gonna go into rotation.

So in rotation, just practice taking the arms overhead. Now the tendency can be to turn from the arms. Picture you're gonna turn from your rib cage up, opposed to turning from your arms, turn from your ribs, keeping the hips stable. Just do that a few times where you're not rocking on one hip or the other. The hips are staying relatively still.

Now we're gonna rotate and lean back in that rotation, but you lean straight back. So on the inhale phase, reach the arms up overhead again, exhale rotate and lean straight back. Inhale up and center. XL turn and lean. Inhale up and center two more each way.

Exhale lean. Inhale up and center, exhale turn and lean. One more each way. Last one. Lengthen up, lower the arms.

From there, we're gonna go into leg press. So for leg press, we'll take the box off, put it out of your way. Won't need the stick anymore. Now put your bar up in middle bar, second hole from the top. Just like footwork.

And for leg press, we wanna work on hip strength. So I recommend in the beginning, do use at least two reds. I'm gonna use two reds in a blue. I've been doing it for a little while, but you'll probably be able to do that too once you get used to it. So when you're in this position, Your front foot on the floor will be up a little bit like half of your foot will be forward of the moving carriage.

Your other foot will be against the shoulder block. Now sit back into an imaginary chair, but your knee stays off of the carriage. Your arms are like kickstands. So it's a strong position. Now drive with the moving side to fully lengthen the leg. No change in the spine.

Two more before we add. Now take the free arm, the outside arm by your hip, now go into opposite arm and leg reach. Five more. One more. Guess what? We're gonna make it a little heavier.

We're gonna add another spring. So you can either do three reds two reds in a blue, or you could even add a fourth spring. But just focus on. It doesn't matter if your legs straightens. It folk it matters that you turn the muscles on in the back of your hip with pelvic stability.

For strength, gradually, your range will increase. But you wanna get that firing action through your muscles that tend to get weak from modern life. So no strain. Set the shoulders low. We're just gonna do six reps, exhale depressed. Two more.

And we'll take side two. So side two, I'm going back to two reds in a blue. You could do two reds, two reds in a yellow, Whatever feels appropriate for you. Sit back into that imaginary chair. The knee is off the carriage.

Arms are straight. Strong body position. XL to press. Absorb into the front leg as you drive into the back leg. Two more.

Now hold the and bring the outside hand back by your hip. Opposite arm and leg reach. Last three. If you're open to it, go to a heavier setting, either three reds or add an extra yellow. Come back into your sitting position, knee off the carriage for six more reps, exhale to drive. Last two. Very nice.

From there, Actually, we are gonna use your box one more time. So it'd be a little different position. So you're gonna use your box in what's called the the tall short box position. Not traditional. So it's a cross, so it's tall, but it doesn't take as much space up.

So we're gonna go down to one red and one yellow for a series for the upper body and the hips. So when you're here, Have a seat on the box, and put your heels halfway up in line with your sit bones. So this is your starting position. Now from here, you're gonna lean forward. Put your hands in the bar and lift your hips so you're kinda like a jockey.

Set your shoulders now really slow. Press back into a strong plank. Control the return. One more. Next time, press.

Now look back towards your feet as you pike up. Back out to plank. Bend the knees into the start. Press pike, press, and bend. One more.

Now as we press out to the plank, this next time, we're gonna finish this sequence with four push ups. Press out. Now as you come in over the bar, pull the elbows towards your hips. Press away. Four reps. Two more.

And one. Pike up one last time. Bring the car as in as far as you can. Hold for a breath or two. Bend the knees, help yourself off with the reformer.

Now take your box away. When you're ready, put your foot bar down, So it's out of the way for standing exercises. So in this position, I recommend you use either one red or one red in a blue, and a yellow. So not too heavy. And step up onto the non moving part of the platform first, then put your other foot in the middle of the carriage. Make sure your feet are even in parallel.

Set your pelvis, grow tall. And as you breathe in, arms and legs reach out. Now zip up through your center line to grow tall to come in. Inhale out. Feel how you have to use your inner thighs to control it. And again, we have a train to test your focus. Two more.

One more. Now as you slide on to the platform, slide your moving side to the front edge. Just now your feet are closer. Now from here, we're gonna go into a twist while you push up, minimize the rotation of the pelvis turn mainly from your ribcage and your shoulder girdle. So float the arms up with your palms up.

And as you inhale to press out, rotate the torso towards the carriage, exhale back in, alternate your rotation. Press evenly into both your feet. Nice and smooth. One more each way. From there, bring the elbows and close palms up.

Lean into a 45 degree squat, center the weight a little more on the balls of the feet, and shift your weight towards the bar side. Now extend that outside leg. Add the that arm on the on the inside leg. Add that arm forward other arm back. Feel how you're absorbing into the standing leg as you reach into the moving side.

Last two. All the way up and in. Now as you go down again, shift your weight on to the moving side without moving the carriage. Do your best to keep the knee under your sit bone, push away. Feel, hey, you have to stabilize as you move.

Now add on the straight leg side arm forward, other arm back. So I have that little bit of a torso twist. As you move. Last two. And one. Up and in, last exercise in this position, bring your elbows up.

As you press out, reach up into a high v, open the top of your chest. Flat back hinge arms to the back, release the head and arms and roll back up and in. And again, press out and reach, flat back hinge arms to the back, release, strong legs, fluid spine, two more. And one. Roll it up in a fluid fashion, and then carefully step off to move around for side two.

Come around to the second side. See step up onto the platform first and put your foot other foot in the middle of the moving carriage. Align your feet, align your pelvis and head over your spine. Inhale out, exhale up and in. Stay connected to the centerline of your legs.

All the way through. Two more. And one. As you come in, shift your weight towards the platform, slide your foot to the edge. From here, we'll go into side rotation, side splits with rotation, so float the arms up at shoulder height palms up as you press out, turn the spine towards the moving carriage, and back in nice and smooth.

Stay tall. Feel that relationship between your hips and your waistline. One more each way. Bend the knees, move into your 45 degree squat, elbows in close, shift your weight towards the platform, now extend the other leg, and the same side arm forward as the moving side, other arm back. Last two, last one, lengthen up and in.

Take a moment. Now as you go back down, without moving the carriage shift onto the moving side, keep the knee under your sit bone, slowly push the platform away. Get a feel for it before you add the arms, then add on the long leg side arm forward, other arm back. Absorb into your standing bent leg all the way through. Last two. Last one.

Up and in, bring the elbows up at right angles, grow tall. And as you push out, reach up, open the top of the chest, flat back hinge, arms to the back, release the head, and roll up in a fluid fashion. And three more. Nice and fluid. Just two more. Nice and smooth with strong legs. One more.

Carefully step off. Put your foot bar up in the high bar, the top setting. And put your long box in the short box position on the carriage for a version of mermaid. So you're gonna put it on so there's a space between the end of the box and the shoulder blocks for your knee, because you'll be in a kneeling position with the other leg over the front of the box. So put the leg that's closest to the shoulder blocks in that space and drape the other knee over the front of the box.

Now level your pelvis, reach out. Now as you reach up with the arm on the block side, reach down into that knee to side bend. And then lengthen back up. Feel like you're getting heavier in that outer hip as you side bend. Next time, go into it and hold it. Now, bend and stretch the weight bearing arm.

As you get heavier in that outer hip as you press. Last two. Now next time you press, hold the press. Just from your rib cage up, rotate forward. And back to side three times.

Next time, wrap forward. Now pull the waistline back as you reach into the limbs for two extra breaths. Feel that nice stretch through the lower back and the outer hip. One more breath. Back to the side, lengthen up, to a counter stretch the other way.

And we'll help herself off take side too. Come around. Put your second knee in that space between the shoulder block and the box. Level the pelvis. Make sure you're not letting your back arch. Reach out, reach up.

Side bend as you reach down into that outer knee, lengthen back up. Watch the tendency of dropping your head to the front when you side bend, keep looking straight ahead. Now hold, bend and stretch the weight bearing arm. And as you press away, get heavier in the outer knee and hip. Two more.

And one. Now hold the press from the rib cage up spiral forward. Try to avoid shrugging your shoulders north. Now inhale back to center, do that three times. Rotate back on this last one.

Come forward and hold. Now pull the waistline away from the reaching arms and breathe into that for a couple extra breaths. One more. Slowly back to side, lengthen up and do a counter stretch the other way. Lengthen all the way up, come up to standing.

Take a moment in standing now just to connect to the ground, put your feet right under your sit bones, center your body, lift all 10 toes. And as you lay them down, let your breathing drop, And just take that moment to align, connect, notice your own aliveness, acknowledge yourself your great work, and thanks for joining. I hope to see you again soon, and be well. Thank you, Pilates, any time.