Cadillac for Scoliosis

Hi. My name is Caitlyn Tower, and I'm gonna be taking you through a class on the Cadillac that is for scoliosis. Specifically, we're gonna be working on strengthening your weaker side, lengthening your tighter side. So we're gonna be doing a lot of weak, strong, weak. So let's go ahead and lie back onto your back. You're gonna go head at one side, feet at the other. Just let your arms release down.

Now if you have scoliosis, you probably already know what your concave side is or the tighter side that you tend to lean in towards. And then you obviously know the more open weaker side, but let's just feel it for a second. Take your arms down, You can shut your eyes if it feels better. Take a full inhale, and exhale, release. Now as you're breathing here, just kind of feel a natural breath and a rhythm, I want you to feel which side is pressing into the mat just a little bit more. For me, my tighter side is my right.

I tend to shrink through that right side, and my left side is a little bit longer, but significantly weaker. Another breath and exhale release. So we're gonna sit all the way up and we're gonna do a little roll down to start in the middle for class today. You're gonna bring your feet onto the poles. Reach forward for the roll down bar. And I have the balance body springs on here.

We're gonna hold on to either side. I want you to lift up as tall as you as you can. Plug the shoulders onto your back round forward here. And hold. Your weaker side, I want you to think of pulling into that side of your c curve and stretching out through the tighter side roll back, scooping in, low back, middle back, all the way down. Head will hit, and they'll curl back up rounding.

And you might feel just a little bit of a wobble from side to side. I know I do. And there's times where it's been worse, and let's go back again. I've had teachers that'll lie on the reformer and they think a leg is longer for me. And usually it's just coming from my back into my pelvis through my legs round up So it's something I'm actively working on, especially having after having a baby, my right side. I tend to hold her more on that side. So I feel it all the time.

I have to work on strengthening this imbalance through my left. And curl back up scooping round forward. So now that we've kinda felt side to side, we're gonna pick your weak side and we're gonna keep starting with that side. Take your left or your weak side into the center, bringing that hand on, take your opposite arm over. And all I want you to do is press through that weak side pushing down to lift your spine up and release again pressing down. Scoop in and release one more time.

Press hold curl forward, and now start to roll back. We're gonna go into our single arm roll down all the way down. Hold here. You're gonna stretch your right arm all the way behind you side bend over to the left. So to that weaker side for you, you're gonna take the opposite leg over and cross it. And this is such an awesome exercise because not only are you strengthening through the weak side, but you're stretching open the tight side.

I want you to pull your stomach in and try to keep equal weight through your hips. If it feels okay, turn your head towards your top arm and we breathe in. And exhale out. Again, breathing in and exhale out. We're gonna take that leg all the way back to the pull.

Bring your body back to center. Cross that arm back underneath your ribcage, and then we curl up slow. Try to stay centered with your shoulders and your hips. That's also gonna help your alignment. Now let's try your strong side right hand comes in the middle. Or the strong side for me.

That is the right. You're gonna press the opposite arm in and go ahead make sure you're right under your sit bones now. Press down three times with that strong arm and release you might find it's significantly easier. And for me, it definitely is. Again, pressing down, hold, now, curl forward round, reaching, now roll back, all the way down, low back, middle back, upper back, We hold here, stretch your left arm behind you, side bend over and actively stretching out through that top arm, slide the leg over and cross. Take a moment. Breathe into both sides here. And maybe you feel your weak side.

Try to pull that down into the mat and exhale. And again, full breath and exhale. And one more time. And exhale. Now take that leg all the way back to the pull.

Bring your body back into the center, cross your arm over and curl up. And we're gonna go back to the weak side, taking the left hand or the weak side on opposite arm crosses over, we press down. We'll go a little faster this time. We press and release. As you press, you lift your spine, release, try to keep the shoulder onto your back, press, hold, curl forward round.

Keep your shoulder plugged onto your back, roll back, low back, middle back, upper back, your head is gonna hit, take the opposite arm behind you side bend over and cross the leg over top, turning your head towards the top arm. Now, again, tune into your body here. Your weak arm needs to be pulling back onto the mat. It's probably gonna wanna hover off. You wanna keep your shoulder blade connected to your back scoop in and stretch through that tighter side, not just through your leg and your arm, but actively think of almost like your spine is getting pulled apart, creating space, breathing in, and exhale out.

And now let's go ahead and take that leg all the way back, cross your arm back underneath and curl up rounding forward. Now go ahead take both hands back into your regular roll down position. We're gonna do a couple more through the middle to center you off here. Roll back, low back, middle back, upper back, and see if you can feel just a little bit of awareness through that weaker side and curl up Around forward, one of my teachers always calls it my dip dee do because there's really a little hole on the left side of my backwards weaker. And so sometimes I'll put a prop underneath a pillow But today, what we're doing in class is trying to strengthen it without pressing something into it.

I want you to just feel that side and try to engage it roll back, scooping into the weaker c curve side, head hits, Now we're gonna hold here today, bend your elbows wide and straighten. Again, bend wide and straighten one more time, bend wide and straighten now hold straight arms. You're gonna press straight down opening the chest and up again, press down. And up one more time, press down. And up now a gentle press down to engage the back of the arm and the blade.

You curl up right through the middle shoulders or square, hips or square. And you exhale round forward. Let's let that roll down bar go, stretch forward grab onto both sides of the poles, let your head release down, and try to almost pull your spine backwards, pulling back through the weaker side to open it up. And release. Good. Okay. We're gonna go ahead and go onto our lower half here. I have the Grats leg springs on.

You want a heavier spring for your leg spring. I would say about to shoulder height when you're sitting on the Cadillac maybe a little bit higher, and let's lie back. Head goes down and make sure your arm distance width away from the poles. You want your elbows pointed in when we reach your arms back. Now we're gonna start with the weak side. So I want you to grab.

So we're gonna do the weak side, but you're gonna grab the opposite spring, which is a little bit tricky. So I'm gonna cross my right spring onto my left foot. Press your arms back into the poles, straighten your bottom leg out, and try to square off your pelvis here, pressing through the poles and pulling back through the weaker side into the mat. Your stomach is pulling back on that side. We press out. Just doing a leg, press out, and bend back in trying to keep equal weight through the hips. Again, press out. Now fill in the weaker side. That little diptity do You don't want any space underneath and two more, press and in.

Now hold it all the way out there, press stretch. We're gonna point that foot, take it up to the ceiling, reach, reach, reach, reach, turn out the hip, and let's circle. You go across the body down around and up. Let's keep it a little more narrow so we don't wanna go wider than the Cadillac here. You're gonna cross over. Reach down, try to keep your bottom leg stable, and maybe lengthen out through that side. This is your tighter side that is stabilizing you.

And one more time, reach around, we reverse open and cross over. And up again open, cross over, and up, and two more. The catalog is always just the best. It really is out of all the pieces in the system. It feels like a massage. So enjoy it really lengthen out through your body here.

Feel the hip massaging in and last time reach, crossover, and upend the knee, we're gonna take that off. And you're gonna grab the other spring. We're gonna go onto the tighter side, the stronger side. Take that onto your foot onto the strong foot. Press out through both arms.

Take your bottom leg down and stretch out through the heel. Start with your leg, press pressing out. We reach And and and this is just our prep to kinda wake up the legs here, reach and and and two more press. And and and last time press. Now let's point the foot, take the leg up. And we're gonna cross over the body, down around, and up. And again, cross over the body, down around, and up and trying to keep space in your spine as you're moving the leg and lift.

And two more reach and up and last time, reach and up reverse open, cross over and lift. Elbows are pointed up to stabilize your shoulders and lift. And again, reach across and up last time, reach across and up bend this knee and go back to your weak side. We gotta do one more set to build a little more stability through this side. Press your arms back into the poles, flex your bottom foot reach out long through the hip, and we press out reach and in. And you can really do this through your whole pilates practice. If you're on the reformer and you're doing pull straps and tea and your left side feels weaker, you do a couple on your left, then your right, and then your left.

So it really can You can create change quickly if you focus on this. Reach and hold. Point the leg that is out stretch. Take the leg up to the ceiling, reach reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, circle across the body, down around, and up. And again, across the body, down around, and up again, two more reach, and lift, and last time, reach, and up, we reverse open, cross over, and up, still breathing fluidly, and up. And again, reach, cross over, and up one more time, and up. Good. Bend this knee in.

Let's bring the springs back onto both feet. So just go on to your regular side, the right spring on the right foot, left spring on the left foot, and then press your arms into the poles here actively reaching heels together toes apart We're gonna center the hips off the legs off the spine off frogs pressing out reach, trying to go 45 ish and bend. And again, as you press out, pay attention to your back. Are you connected evenly through your rib cage and maybe a little bit lower towards your lumbar? You wanna keep equal weight across your back here pressing out. And in pelvis is long the whole time and out and in. Now hold it all the way out stretch.

Stay there. Open circle, squeeze, and lift. Open. Make sure your legs are coming together evenly. And up. Open and circle squeeze. If you need a look to make sure you're in the center, please do so. I can't tell you how many times I'm with clients and they're off to take a photo of their legs because they don't believe me.

They're like, No. There's no way that my legs are that much to the right or to the left. I'm like, they are. And then I show them reverse. Press down and squeeze together and press down.

Squeeze together right through the middle. And through the middle, finding symmetry, and through the middle, one more, and hold. Now we're gonna separate the legs about two inches, and we're gonna do beats here. You're gonna open and squeeze together. And again, we're just trying to move the legs equally here and keeping the back as stable as you can, especially through that weak side. You wanna pull back through your powerhouse on the weaker side.

And three more, three, and two, and one, hold. We're gonna walk down. You're gonna do little walks walking one, straight legs, two, three, four, five, six, down, seven, and eight walking up, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Let's go again. I want you to start with your weaker side. We walk weekside then strong. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight walking up with the weak side. Again, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Let's go faster.

Same thing, weekside first. Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, and up to three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and up to four five six seven eight hold bicycle. The legs start with the weak side. I almost just started with my stronger side. It's so tempting, and it's all it's pretty much automatic. Right? And reaching out, hug the elbows in and stretch stretch stabilize the pelvis. I like to keep the bicycles low so you don't wobble through the hips and then wobble through the spine, reverse, try to start with the weak side and press.

And our weak side is usually also just very uncoordinated and reach reach three and two and one, take your legs up to 90. Let's take a stretch. I want you to open outside to side. If you can grab onto your straps and pull those legs open into a nice split here, breathing. Drop your pelvis down for a deeper stretch.

Good. And pull those legs all the way in. We're gonna take these off, sit yourself all the way up, and we're gonna actually grab your arm springs. And we're gonna put these on. So I'm gonna take my legs off and we'll put these guys on. I brought my little my fluffy arm springs.

These are the grots ones though, so they are a little bit heavier. We're gonna bring this down. I would say about six inches lower. Than where your leg springs were. Right about here is good.

We tighten the sides and let's keep flowing through this. Lie back. We're gonna go feet, flat down, heavy pelvis here. Now grab that weak, weaker side. You're gonna hold onto the handle, and you want a little bit of tension when your arm is up.

I'm gonna place my right hand, my stronger hand on my hip so I can feel if there's any shift in my pelvis. Heavy long tail, ribs are hugging together. Now you're gonna press down. With the arm, reaching actively out to straight arm press, take it up. I always shake when I do this, and I know that means I'm doing good exercise for myself and press down and up just one more time.

Stretch open the coils of the spring and then try to keep them as open as you can for as long as you can and hold. Bend the elbow tricep, press down. Try not to move the pelvis here and bend. Press down. Try to get the palm to touch the mat. Tricep is pushing down and your elbow is actively reaching towards your toes. And bend. Little shake and back rest. Place that down.

We're gonna come back to it in a second, and let's take that right side in, reaching your stronger arm up to the ceiling. Take the handle, the hip, you're gonna press down, hold, reach out, take it back up. Again, we're pressing with that stronger arm and back up. Again, press almost feels too easy, but you don't wanna scoot down and start messing around with making this side harder. We're trying to even everything out. So we're working at the same level here. One more.

Press and up now, bend your elbow, push down through your tricep, reach your right elbow or your strong elbow towards the edge of the mat, and pressing down and bend, pressing down. And bent and down. And bend last time, press and bend now. Let's let that go. Reach back for the weak side. One more set.

Stretching that arm up. Press down. Try to keep everything even. I know it's hard. You're gonna wanna twist and press and up and press and up and two more press and up and last time press and up and the elbow, four presses here pushing down four and back resisting the way back three and back and two.

And one more time, press and back. Reach for both springs. And let's go. Let's even you out. Press both arms all the way down and see if you can feel and both arms back up. See if you can feel that weaker side reaching a little bit more. It's more engaged now.

More awareness and two more press. And back and last time, press now. Let's hold down here, bend your elbows from here. We press straight down for four and three and two. And, Ben, last time, one, hold the straight arms go right into circles.

Open your arms outside to side. Take your arms up to the ceiling, and we press down and open. Another thing you wanna look out for here, and you can hear it. Are the springs shutting at the same time? You wanna hear the coils close at the same time, and it's so hard to keep that precision, but it's important. Reverse.

Open. Press down. Keep them moving together and press down and together so the equipment really can help you out here and up and last time press and up, bend your elbows, curl chin into chest. Let's bring your knees in. The 100. We're gonna press everything out and reach pump your arms into three, four, five, and exhale to three, four, five, and in, and exhale. And in stretching out through your arms and exhale and last step, full breath, and exhale reach through the weak side, hold, bring everything back in Good.

Let's place those springs down. You're gonna sit up and let's attach your push through bar so you can click this guy on. Good. Good. Good. And we're gonna sit down with your feet onto the poles here. Really pressing your heels in.

Take your weak arm up. You're gonna hold. Your opposite arm is just gonna come around your rib cage to square you off. You're gonna curl back holds your shoulders, hips are aligned, and you press and reach. Again, it's always so much harder on that weak side.

You crawl back, trying to keep your hips even. And press up at that diagonal. Again, curl, scoop in, reach forward, and curl, and up just one more. We're gonna do three each side scoop and exhale shoulders are square and up other hand comes on the strong side. We lengthen and really lengthen through this tight side, curl back.

And press through stretching, knuckles are forward, and up lengthen this part. You really wanna stretch out through wherever you're feeling that tightness, mine's right at my mid back and curl, scoop in, and press stretching over and lengthen up And one more time, curl scoop, and exhale press through reach, and all the way back. And you guessed it, we're going back to the weak side, curling back round. Scoop in and stretch over and curl back and lengthen up again rounding in and stretch over. Round back.

And up last time and reach and curling back and up, take both hands on, stretch up lengthen your back curl and scooping, you're gonna press both arms through and just thinking about how can I pull back through my c curve on my weak side and stretch through my tight side to square off, round back, lift up, Just two more curl, push the bar through, scoop in, and reach shoulders onto your back, round back, and lift? And some of this will start to just happen in your body. Our bodies are so smart when we start to activate through that that weaker side. It's gonna turn on. Now let's take a counter stretch.

You're gonna press down, lift head up. Chest up, open, and press two more. Extend. Open your chest. Lifting, lifting, lifting, and press feels very much like our swan and press and open and reach good. Flip onto your back. We're gonna go into teaser.

Reach up for your push through bar. You're gonna straighten your legs out in front of you. Bend your elbows, bring the bar behind you. So this one's a little bit different. We're gonna do the weaker side at the top.

So you're gonna bend both elbows straighten shoulders are onto your back. We lift how we normally would through our teaser. Your weak side is gonna stay on. Your opposite arm is gonna stretch forward. Bend the elbow.

Oh, and trying not to wiggle. Bend press one more. Press take that arm back, roll back low back, middle back, upper back, bend your elbows, press behind you. We're gonna do the strong side at the top. We reach it up.

Shoulders onto your back, exhale curl, curl, curl, strong hand stays on, weak arm stretches forward, bend and press. It's almost too easy, but it's good. We gotta work both sides and lengthen that arm back up rolled down. Low back, middle back, upper back, and we push behind you, ribs stay connected into your mat, and one more time with the week. We lift, holding here, bend the elbow, and press, bend and press one more.

Press arm comes back up. Roll down. And push behind you. Let's do one through the middle so you feel nice and square. Never enough teaser and curl uplifting everything. Hold here. We're gonna lower the legs and bend the elbows and press.

So I'm finding my deepest c curve as I lower the legs, bend the elbows, and I'm trying to really press up or up to the ceiling. One more. Press hold, roll down. Ben the elbows push behind you. You're gonna close your spring.

And we're gonna go into mermaid. So I want you to come kneeling today. There's a couple different ways of doing this, but we're gonna do kneeling, knees shoulder distance width, and we're gonna go ahead and really scoop into your powerhouse finding that lift your weak arm is gonna start straight on. You're gonna take your opposite arm across the rib cage pressing that elbow in. You're gonna push the arm straight down, activating underneath your latch and control it back up. And again, press down and back. A little shake.

Press down hold. Stretch your opposite arm up to the ceiling, lift up and then exhale stretch over opening up the tight side again. This is such a great exercise because you're working both strength and length and back up. And again, press I always find myself somehow rhyming in these classes strength and length and back one more time. You got it lift. And over now hold, bend this top arm.

Turn your head to the side. Scoop in letting the weight of the arm take you maybe a little bit further. Look back forward straighten the arm out and come all the way back up with control. Other side. Let's go ahead and take that stronger arm on. You're gonna take your opposite arm across your rib cage and you're gonna press down three times. Press and up and press and up one more time.

Press and back now, extend the opposite arm up. Press. We reach over and back up and two more. Press reach over. And back. And last time, pulling in through your lowest c curve shoulders onto your back, hold, bend your top elbow, turn your head, keeping your shoulders as square as you can.

And try to not sink into this tighter, stronger side too much. You don't wanna collapse and straighten the arm out. Come back up. Let's go back to the weak side one more time. Bring that hand on to take your arm across your body. We press down three times, pressing down, and back, and pressing down, and back one more time, press.

Hold it, stretch up and over. And since this is the tighter side, we're gonna do a couple of extra stretches at the end for this side. Again, press exhale reach up and over hips are square one more time. We press scoop in and hold, bend, turn your head like you did before, and now we're actually gonna twist. Whoo. Your elbow reaching towards the bar. Hips are gonna try to stay square and then look back forward.

And again, and that's kind of actually the next stage of this. We've been working a lot on strength and length. So the next step would actually be spiraling for scoliosis and twist to get that tight side to move and back one more time, twist. Yes. And back straighten the arm, look back forward and come all the way up. Good. Let's do cat to center you off.

You're gonna go arm distance with the way. Both hands on. Hold to your shoulders onto your back. Pull in through your center, try to open the front of your hip, press down, curl in. You're trying to keep your hips all over your knees as you scooping around. Round round, round, round, round, now start to arch. Lifting head, chest, opening your mid back here.

And now as you curl back, your tail comes under. You round all the way back. Press your feet down. Push push push, you're gonna feel your hamstrings. And again, we press.

You curl, scooping, roll through your spine like you're rolling off a wall head. Upper back, middle back, lower back, and then you take this into a beautiful extension, lifting, and curl. We're gonna just do one more time here. You scoop in and you press and you curl and arch and curling back round. Round round.

Now bring it back. Press down, lift your chest, take one counter stretch here, and release beautiful. We're gonna go ahead and come to the front edge of the Cadillac to set up for a standing arm series. Okay. We're gonna finish at the front side of your caddy, and let's go ahead for today. We're gonna do shoulder height for your roll down bar.

And I want you to stand an arm distance width away You're gonna grab onto your roll down bar, holding on with your weaker hand, cross the opposite arm over, and we're gonna pull down, holding, holding, holding, holding, open the shoulder up scooping in, and exhale release. Again, just two more pull knuckles are wrapping around the bar, neck is long, stomach is in, and back one more time. Pull. Hold. Are your shoulders, even are your hips, even think about your box holding that shape and back other side, holding on with your stronger arm. We press the opposite arm in.

You pull down hold, hold, hold, and release, again, pulling in hold, hold, hold, and release last time. Again, this is like a piece of cake on the stronger side and back. Last time going back to your weak side, we pull and stick with it here, scooping in stand tall, and back again, pulling in scoop, scoop, scoop, and back and last one pulling in scoop, scoop, scoop, and back now face the front. You're gonna hold on to both sides for your squat, bringing your elbows up to 90, legs are hip distance with shoulders are back. We're gonna finish nice and square here with both arms up. You're gonna start to sit back back. Back.

Now control up back as long. Both sides are even. You hold here. Flip the palms. Scooping in, staying leaning forward, you're gonna press down towards the floor. Pull the bar towards you without leaning back, take the bar back forward, roll up.

Tail goes underneath, opening your low back. Flip the palms. Let's go again. You sit back, back, back, come back up, up, up, flip your palm, scoop in, press down. Pull the bar towards you, and back, roll up roll roll roll roll roll roll. One more time, we lift, and you sit back.

You got this and up. Flip your palm scoop in. Press down. Pull the bar towards you. And back rolling through the middle of your spine, back up, take heels together, toes apart, and let's go arm distance width. So scoop forward just a little.

Open your chest. We're gonna finish with your chest expansion. Let's say looking forward today, no look look. Just pull the bar down, open your chest stand tall, see if you can engage that weaker side, lengthen your tighter side, control back. And again, pull scooping in knuckles to the floor, open your chest and back. And again, pull open your chest, scoop scoop scoop.

And to release, and you guys are all done. You did an amazing job. Thanks for coming.