Class #626

Innovative Reformer

65 min - Class
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Description

Distinguished instructor Madeline Black returns to Pilates Anytime to teach a Reformer class full of innovative ideas and great cues. Class starts with some great low back, hip, and hamstring stretches. Learn valuable information throughout the class that is sure to have you understand the exercises and your body more thoroughly. Thank you, Madeline!
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box, Bolster, Theraband

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Okay. Reforming class, I would say beginner, intermediate level with a few advanced. So are you guys ready? Yes. We're going to start a little warm up for the spine. So we're going to take the springs off the carriage. So the carriage is unweighted and you're going to sit down in the well of the reformer. I would like your sit bones to be on the edge of the reformer, but not so far forward that you're going to fall off, right. But that you're able to sit upright in a nice vertical position from the top of the head through the tailbone. Very good.

And then just hold onto the carriage with your hands gently, right? So just take a breath in. Feel your length of your spine. Relax. Exhale. As you exhale, start to curl. I want you to feel your sit bones curling and moving the carriage towards your heels. So it slides just a little bit. Inhale, push your sit bones back, moving the carriage slightly backward. Good. And again, exhale, curling in and the whole time, the shoulder girdle, staying right over the pelvis and inhale.

Feel the verticality as you move through. Let the sit bones reach back. Good. And exhale again and curling such. It's a gentle movement, oscillation of the spine. Inhale and reach back and we're gonna do one more exhale as you curl in. Now we're going to go into a little hamstring lengthening from here.

So start your sit bone motion back. Change your hands to the wood part of the frame and you're going to straighten the legs. Keep your feet on the floor so you get a little stretch in your feet. Then go ahead and flex the ankles so your toes are coming up. Heels are flexing. Hold the frame and then reach back. Nice long spine. Don't curl the spine and then go through the feet, balls of the feet, toes. Then the knees, drag the Kerogen and bring your body upright again and again.

Curl for spring. The sit bones in. Feel the hamstrings working here. Bring the pelvis up, push the pelvis back with the sit bones again, straighten the legs, right. Feel the feet flat at first and then flex the feet so the toes reach up to the ceiling. Nice. Now to enjoy a little more stretch. Go ahead and bend the elbows and lower your torso, but keep the spine in elongated position so some of you might not move very far. Very good. Go through the feet again. Balls of the feet.

Then the knees pull the sit bones and bring the torso upright. Very nice. One more time and curl bringing the pelvis under you. Push the carriage back with the SIP bones. Pressing back straight legs hinge from the hips. This time maybe deepen the stretch a little more. Bend in the elbows.

Lower the torso. Go ahead without rounding in the spine. Very nice. Good. Go through the balls of the feet, bending the knees, pulling the carriage in, bringing the torso upright. Very nice. Great. Let's do a hip stretch. Come on out and we have the bar in the high position. So come standing facing your bar and we're going to start with the right foot and we're going to take the right foot and bring it across the bar to the corner and hold onto the bar with both hands. Now two ladies are nice and open, so easy for the whole leg to drop down. Many of you might find that your knee is going to be up here because your hip isn't as open. So just let it relax here.

You can also add a very nice little bolster here to rest your knee on the pet. So I highly recommend that because not everybody is open and if this is a comfortable position for you, you can again lean forward from the tour. So keeping the spine long, not curving in the lower spine, just increasing the hip flection, getting a nice stretch through the Piriformis and the external rotators of the hip. Just take a couple of breasts here and as you exhale, maybe you deepen a little more, just depending on your flexibility. If this is enough, you shouldn't feel tension in your groin area in the hip flexor. If it's feeling tense, they're back off the stretch a little bit. Okay, let's switch sides. Alright, and let's bring the left leg up.

So the left foot goes across the bar to the corner, knee resting on the bar. Very nice. Make sure your pelvis is level. And again, if you need a pillow, support your knee. Don't let your knee just hang in space and go forward and just breathing naturally just to release, saying again, monitor how much tension you have in the groin area that should be relaxed and not tensing and gripping in the hip if it is back off the stretch. Very nice. Take a couple breaths here and exhaling and come on out. Now we're going to do a hip flexor stretch or what would be called a so as stretch. So we're going to go to one light spring should feel very light.

So we're in the second gear here. So we're using a red spring on the hook. Maybe you want to use a blow. We're going to use a pillow for our knee and I'd like you to stand with your right foot close to the frame of the reformer left knee on the bolster toes against the shoulder rest if it's possible with your metatarsal. That's the toad joints. If we can bend them a little bit to get a little toe stretch, we want to try to get the metatarsal on the carriage, not the tops of your toes there. All right, so checking the pelvis here to make sure we're level. All right, so what I'm going to have you do is you're going to start to bend in the right hip here. That'll standing leg is bending, you're folding at the hip, the carriage is sliding back.

Very Nice Torso is just upright and it will actually feel like you need to lean forward a little bit forward. So the back stays long and not extended back. Very nice. So we're only going as far as the pelvis stays level, it's not very far. It's not going to feel like a big stretch. Now remember, 75% of your weights on that bolster. And what I'd like you to to do is put your hand, your left hand on your hip bone here.

And what I'd like you to do is try to just drop that hip bone away from your ribs so that the carriage actually moves back a little further. It's not forward, it's back very good. And then just bring the kerogen all the way in. Bring the knee forward. So stretching is a lot like making pancakes when you make pancakes. And you put the first pancake on the grill, that's usually not a very good pancake, so you throw it away. All right.

So I find with this stretch, it takes three times to really feel where the release is happening. So don't worry. The first one is our first pancake. So we just threw it out and we're going to start the second one. So here's the better pancake. So push back. Yeah. So feel the pelvis level. So what I'm asking you to do, and I remember 75% on the weight is on your leg.

That's important because it's really holding and stabilizing your hip joint. And what I want you to do is drop that left hip away from the ribs. So you're lengthening between these two points. Very nice. See that's much different, isn't it? Great. And then just bring the kerogen. Nothing special. Yes. The second one makes a difference. All right, third one's a charm. Pushback that pelvis level, feel your weight on the knee. Good. And again, now the Ilium, which is what the hipbone is called, we'll move away from the ribs.

Very nice. And then come back in and I want you to stand up for one moment and feel how long your left side is. Just stand there. You're going to feel really crooked. You feel the length on that one side death. So let's go ahead and do the other side. Great. So your left foot is now close to the reform.

Remember that leg has to be very close. 75% of your weights on the cushion, their pelvis is level, and go ahead and push back and you're pressing back actually by bending in the standing leg hip here this way. Very nice. Just to the point where you feel that you can maintain a level pelvis this way. All right, and now what we're going to do is allow the right hip bone to drop away from your right ribs. Very nice. The carriage slides back a tiny little bit. It's a very interesting feeling. Okay, and then bring the carriage forward in up. Okay, that's your first pancake on the right side. All right, here we go again and push back. Good. Keeping that pelvis level. Very nice. Remember, keep your weight in that knee. All right?

And now you're just moving this hip bone ever so slightly away from the ribs creating the length in the Fascia there. That's what you start to feel that kind of an unusual stretch feeling. It's actually kind of a fashionable lengthening. All right? And bring the carriage back in and we're gonna do one more and back again. Very nice.

It's a very small movement that I'm asking you to do, but it's a movement that's very specific that really feels like a wonderful opening through here. Very nice, Amy. Great. And bring the carriage. Very nice. Come back in and stand on both legs. Just make sure you're even now from side to side. Yes, very nice. And feel how you can stand upright. Now we're going to be able to work our hamstrings and our pelvic floor a little better because that area's a little more open.

So now we're going to take the bar and just flatten it out. You got to make sure of whatever kind of bar you have that the standing platform is free. We're going to put the pad. It makes sure you have a pad on here. If you happen to have a standing platform for your reformer, then you can use that. But the pad is fine. We want very light springs. So I'm going to pick just a blue spring, which is a light spring. Um, so what we're going to do is kneel. And for some of you, you might want a pad for this bar, but you guys are Tufts. So what you're gonna do is kneel here in one knee on the reformer just to blow. It's going to be super light, right? Yep.

Are you okay with that? With your okay? Yeah. Okay. So find your postures in this position. You're okay that your rib cage is right over your pelvis. Now we opened the front of the hip here, so it should be fairly easy for you to feel upright in the front with the ribs, right over the hips. Good. And what you're going to do is just, it's a small movement. You're going to slide the carriage out, keeping the pelvis up, right? So we're opening up not only to add doctors, but your pelvic floor, a little bits opening, and then what you're going to do is draw the carriage in. If you through the pelvic floor all the way up through the top of your head.

So you had that connection through there, it should happen automatically and you're okay. All right. It's always good to adjust so that you're comfortable. Good and pushing out. Very nice. Now from here, start from the abductors draw in. Go all the way up to the top of the head. You should feel the spiny long gate and two more times and push out.

Good. And it's nice. You can do a nice exhalation as you come in. So exhale, draw in and up. And we want to make sure that we have the shoulder girl. I know it feels like you're gonna fall forward, but you're right on that brink of being nice and vertical. Very good. And you feel the pelvic floor working? Yeah, because it's light. It's not an adductor exercise. It's really one for that pelvic floor. Very nice. Okay. And come out carefully. Bring your hands down. Hold onto the reformer.

Step off carefully. Very light. Okay, I think we're ready for some foot and leg work. All right, so let's set the bar up, right Swain, and you want to have a height that you're most comfortable with. For some people it's in the middle or low. So we'll have to see, uh, I want to start with some hamstring activation prior to the foot and leg work. So we're going to do a light spring again, so you can just keep the light spring one bullet. You're gonna lie down, feed on the bar in a neutral position. This is what I call the hovering bridge. So it's very much, you're just floating the pelvis. The feet are going to be in a more neutral position.

So that positioning for me means here's your heel right at the top of the heel towards your arch. But right in through here, there's a bone in here that we want to hit that's right in front of the heel, right? So it's right there. So you're not on the heel directly, but slightly in front. And then the Achilles tendon, I want long. So think of that the whole time, even in the foot where you don't have to lift your toes up, the toes don't lift up, but we want to feel that your Achilles tendon is long so that we're in the ankle joint itself and not not working through the toes. Great and arms are by your side. And let's just relaxing the rib cage down a little bit so you don't have to hold yourself in this position or whatever's a natural breath position for your ribs. Now what you're going to do is find that pelvic floor that you just did from the last exercise.

So engage through there and float your pelvis barely up. So you're tight, your pants are going to stay on the carrot, but you're unweighting your pelvis without tilting. So drop your tailbone, lift your pelvis straight up. That's it. So two points right here. That's it. That's it. So you're neutral. Very nice. Your pelvis is just hovering like a little hovercraft over the water. So push the carriage out.

Now try to keep the hovering feeling the floating pelvis all the way out. You don't have to go too slow. And pull it in. I guarantee you you don't want to be too slum and out. Good. Hold it and let your tail be heavy. Yeah, let it be heavy. Yes, we're really feeling hamstrings and you're activating the hamstrings up high at the sit bone. Very nice. Keep the hovering. Good. Two more times pressing out. Go ahead and, and last one out and, and, and lower it down. Rest. Yep. Finish at the bumper.

Okay. Rest. Okay. Roll onto your side to sit up. So you can change the springs for your foot and leg work spring. So that varies from person to person. I prefer to do, um, like three medium springs or for some of you it might be to medium in one light, but three medium springs is nice. So you're gonna lie down again and we'll go back to that neutral position on the heel there. Who? The Achilles Long. Now I'm going to give you a, this is a theraband but you could probably use a belt as well, but they're advanced. Nice. This is just to give you a feel. So you hold this, you're going to cross the strap and hold it there. Okay, so I've got one for you, Amy. So here you go. And you just cross it and you want it mid thigh on the hamstring, the bulk of the hamstring muscle. So you're gonna pull it a little bit.

So you've got some tension. It's not about pulling it so that your knees go in. It's not that at all. It's more for creating the tension in the band. Your knees are gonna stay over the second toe, right? And what I want you to do first before you slide your carriage out, I want you to press your thigh bones down into the band. So push on the band with your thigh bones and then slide the carriage out.

Keep pushing on the band and go press out. Press down on the band. So again, it's that hamstring activation all the way. Now as you come in, folded the hip and drag that carriage in, keeping the resistance on the band. Okay? And let's go again together. Those who can do it together, Emily, little faster, Emily, and coming in very good too. And pushing out, keeping that activation. Can you feel the back of the leg? Yes. Keep that resistance the whole time. Press out, pull it and very good. Press out. Pull it in. Very nice. Push out.

Pull it in. We're going to do two more. Push out. Pull it in. Now remember I said Achilles long feet. Just relax. Push out. Pull it in and rest. Very nice. Okay. Take the band away. So now you've got a feel for the hamstrings. We're going to go to the Small v position.

So I would like your big toe ball and a little bit of your little toe. Also on the heels are just relaxed down. You're not pushing them down or lifting them up. And I want you to feel most of your weight towards the big toe and the second toe. So that may bring your knees in a little bit. But what you want to do is contrast that feeling.

You guys should be a little wider. Contrast that feeling of the feet now by pressing your thighs out without changing the weight of your feet. So do you feel now the muscles activate on the outside of your hip? Exactly. So we want a coke contraction of the deep muscles on the outside of your hip, which are called deep gluteals or external rotators with the adductors working together to co contraction. So you want to feel this with this. Very good. All right, we're going to keep the feet nice and quiet and you're going to feel as if the band is there and press on the band, but it's not really there, but you can imagine it. Very nice and pull it in. Keeping the tailbone heavy, keeping your weight on the big toe balls. Bring it all the way into the bumper.

Yes, with the resistance, press out. Pull it in. Resist the reformer. Good and out. Good and in. Nice out. Excellent in the due to more pressing out and in. Keep that weight on the big toe ball. Press out.

You guys are doing great with your heels and in and rest. Okay, let's go to a wide position on the heels. Good. All the way in the corner. I like to go to the width because of bars. Not that wide. All right, great. Now you want to find the alignment of the knee over that second toe. So some people tend to overturn out the lower leg. Okay, so be careful of that. And again, you want to feel that activation of the outer and the inner hip with a tail heavy. It's a little more length in the front member. That stretch we did with the so as we want to keep that length there and keep it activated. Here we go again. Pretend the band is there. Push out, push on my hands. Good. And in slowly resisting.

Good press out and in. Good. Press out. Good Emily. Nice and push out and in. Very nice. Push out and we'll do two more pushing out and and good. One more. Pushing out. Great activation. Good and in. All right, come back to the balls of the feet. Now onto the bar. Now we have an option here. Um, if you're a person who, uh, leg alignment is fairly straight and it's not knocked need, which has an x shape to it, then you can do it with your feet together, which I like to do with your toes wrapping around the bar and the inner ankles together. All right? Now if you had that knocked knee position here, it might be a little more difficult.

So you will need to have your feet a little bit apart. And the challenges is the ankle. So if you're working at home, uh, if you could put a ball in through here, that's very helpful. Uh, if not, um, if you don't have a ball, then you just have to really stabilize both ankles and be very conscious of that. So I'll hold my hand here for Amy so you can see what that looks like. So go ahead and push out and keep your legs together and, and very nice and out. And the nice thing about having something to help you stabilize your ankle is it helps keep the alignment of your feet from the big toe ball as you're going in and out. So that when you push out you don't roll to the little toe side. Good. And try to keep this and that's it.

It's a lot of work in the legs and out and in. Good. Drop your heels a little bit. Yup. Cause they're staying really quiet and in one more time. Excellent. This really works. The gluteals out here, especially when you get the legs very straight and the outward position and come all the way into the bumper. Nice. So if your feet were together, separate them a little bit and we'll do a little running in place now. So push out with both legs. Bend the right knee, left heel under.

Just stay there for a moment. Just rest. I know I said running, but let's just stretch the cap a little bit and now lift with both legs, lift both heels up and then bend one knee and drop under gut and just hold it for a second for a stretch. And now we'll go running a little bit and push and lift to feel a lift in between. It should feel like you're almost going to jump. You're going to push off and jump, the carriage is going to slide. You're not really going to jump but good. So the accent of the lift is the up, not the heel under.

Very nice. Let's do a little quicker now at one at two and lift. Lift. Good. You should feel it from the heel through the back of the leg, all the way up to the sit bone. Very nice. Great. And drop both heels under the bar now and just let it stretch. And if you have your trainer with you at home, they can give you a nice stretch of your heels and bending the knees as you come in. Come all the way and wonderful. Okay.

Bring your heels back up and we're going to switch to two red springs. I'll do it for you in the essence of time. Okay, so two heels here. We're gonna work on a bridge series. So I call this one a long bridge. All right? So what we're gonna do is first come up into a bridge position, then you're going to push the carriage out, lengthen your body down. So by the time your legs are straight, your whole body's resting on the carriage again and then you just come in like normal. Is your head rest up? Yeah, let's put it down. Okay. All right, so here we go.

So without moving the carriage now to red springs is light for this, you have to really work those hamstrings again. So coming up through the pelvis without moving the carriage, hit the pelvis as high as you can. Great. Keep some weight on your shoulder blades is something I've been really working with lately is really keeping the weight here so that you work through the hip extensors. Very nice. Push out, lengthen out, keep moving the carriage and adulating out. You're lowering your body down so it's nice and long so you could get this continual length through the body. Good. And then bend and come in like a normal footwork exercise. And again, coming up, very nice and pushing out. Lengthening.

So this is the kind of line. Keep going, keep sliding, keeps sliding, keep straightening the legs, keep straightening, keep lengthening, keep lengthening, keep lengthening, keep lengthening. Very nice and come in and we'll do one more like that. Make sure you keep the Achilles tendon long. Good. Come up Achilles tendon long. See the difference. Ah, you have to work the back of your legs more. Yes. Yeah. That's a really important cue to feel that good. Lengthen, lengthen, lengthen.

Look at that. Waistline is getting longer. Beautiful all the way. And now we reverse it. So when you hit the bumper, push back out. Now you're going to float the pelvis up into the bridge and pull the kerogen as you lift and lift and lift and lift and then you come down or you can roll down or you can go through a neutral position. And again, push out. Good. Now lifting straight up as you bending the knees now and you keep the pelvis coming up, keep it coming up and keep pelvis lifting good to the bumper.

And then a neutral pelvis would look like this. You would let your tail drop first. Easy and down. One more time. And push out and lifting up. Good Pelvis, very nice lift. You keep lifting and floating and then coming down.

Very nice. So we're just going to do with some simple bridges now. So come up to bridge again, but keeping that sense of the length that you have. So come up very nice. And then push out length and pull it in. Good and out. Good. Now peak moving. These two beautiful bodies here, doing great job.

And I want some pointers that you need to monitor and that is your feet. As you're doing this, keep going. So you want to make sure you don't roll out to the little toe side. As you push out, try to keep the knees over the toes, lifting that pelvis each time as high as you can. Keeping the shoulder blades on the mat of the carriage. Okay.

And bring it in and come and down. Rolling down. Excellent. Okay, so now we're going to grab the handles, right? And we're gonna do some simple arm circles. I want to do a little sequence. I love doing this. I'm going to do one red spring. All right, I'll change it for you. All right, I'm going to do some arm circles. Okay. And then from arm circles, we're going to go into the hundreds. Then from the hundreds we're going to do coordination and then we're going to finish with a corkscrew.

So it's a little sequence that I like to do once you know it nonstop. Okay. So don't pull the carriage out yet. Yeah, bring, come into the character. Yeah. So the hands will be at 90 degrees. Now you can bring your knees up to the tabletop position. So let's just very simply pull down out to the tee position and pause at the tee here. Pause. Now don't move the carriage anymore.

Just bring the arms straight in and pull down out to the tee position. Stay at the tee, don't move the carriage. Bring the arms sense. Very different when the carriage doesn't move down, out and in one more time. Pull down very nice key position. And uh, okay, we're gonna reverse it. Go out to the side, pull down, up, and then to the tee position. They're gonna move and they're gonna do it three more times.

They're doing it well. And again, some of the things you want to be thinking about is the anchor point of your rib cage. So when the arms come up, it's very easy to arch the back and let your ribs float off the carriage. You want to just have a sense of very heavy kidney area here, floating ribs, really staying anchored into the mat. Okay, I'm going to do a little hundreds prep now. So we're gonna bring the arms out to the tee. Now what I'd like you to do as you exhale, you're going to pull the arms down. I just want you to drop your sternum down, adjust, lift your head up slightly.

Keep your shoulders on the mat and in circle. And then as the arms come up, lower your head down, pause for a second, look at the ceiling, right? So as your arms go out to the side, when you pull down and start to curl, watch your eyes scan the ceiling to maybe where the sidewall meets your ceiling. That's where it focus your eyes. They're very nice. And then bring the arms up and reverse your eye. Focus up to the ceiling again. So look to pay attention to where your eyes are and out and XL and want it to be a small head lift. It's not a big movement. Not a big curl. Very good.

And of course the other option is you don't have to lift your head at all. Good. And we're going to do it one more time. It's a nice prep for the abdominals. Exhale, that's it. Pull. Think of your eye focus and lift up and lower your head down. Pause right here. We're going to go into your version of the hundreds. Um, well not totally your version. What I'd like you to do with your legs, all right is when you come into the hundreds, the lights are gonna straighten.

And what I'd like you to do, you can lower them a little bit if that's comfortable or keep them here. But I'd like you to feel the inner edge of your toes, like little velcro pieces are here and I've velcroed your feet together. So you're very active here and you're very active in the hips at the same time. So your legs are working extremely. 100% I wouldn't say extremely hard, but just really working, being present there, ready and breathing, and exhale, two, three, four, five, and in. Now, where's your focus?

Your eyes will tell you a lot where your neck position is and asked. Very good. So your eye should be just looking straight forward, maybe at your kneecaps. Good. And exhale. Good. Every time you breathe out, feel that abdominal wall fall towards your spine. You don't have to pull it in, but just let it drop with the exhale. Good.

Keep working your legs. So you're pressing the inner feet. Velcros together. Yes, and exhale. Good. If you get tired, you can let your head go down. We'll do one more. Go ahead and bending the elbows. Lower your head down. Rest for one second if you need to to keep your legs up if you can. Emily. Yeah, bent knees. That was fine. Yeah.

It's more of a challenge to have to hold a rest position in between because you're still working as opposed to just ugh, you know at the end. So unless you're really tired and need to put your feet on the bar, that's fine. But if you could just hold the position in between, if you really need to let the tension of your neck release or catch your breath, it's really good. Elbows are in and down by your side. And what we're gonna do is exhale. You're going to curl up to the a hundred position again and extend your arms good.

And you're going to hold that position and you're going to just open and close the legs quickly. But bend the knees, hold the position. Great and head goes down in elbows bend. Very nice and exhale up into the hundreds position. Hold the position, good. Open and close the leg, bending the knees, elbows, bend, head goes down. The opening, closing of the legs is more of an abduction.

Bringing your legs together and again, and up. Exhale and up. Good. So just open a little bit and squeeze in. Then the knees almost in. Head down. Very nice. One more time and exhale it up. Good. Open and close. Bend the knees, increase your curl a little bit. Nice. And then good. And I'll take the handles and put them on the little posts.

They're behind you and hold the shoulder rest for me. All right. And we're going to bring your legs up and together. So we're going to do, we've got our velcro on our feet again. And what I'd like to do is we can just go in and do a little bit of a circle. So the hip's gonna roll over towards the left hip. Now for some of you that will be enough.

And then you're gonna roll towards the center. What I'd like to see is that you have a strong connection from the pubic bone all the way up to the sternum, not shortening but connected. And then you're going to roll your pelvis over to this hip bone and draw that in to come up and then reverse it. So roll to the right hip bone down. Now connect here. This is the most important place right here and over to the other side. And uh, and again, an over, down, side, up center. Good.

And to the other side down. Good. And keep this long connection here for between here and here and in center. Good. And again, one around circle and up. Last one out to down circle. Beautiful up and the knees. Place your feet on the bar now. Very nice.

Keep your feet together and your knees together. Arms by your side. And we're just going to do a little nice way. So let your knees fall to the side just a little bit and you can actually look in the opposite direction. And they'll start from your rib cage first. So the rib drops, hip drops, knees come back. We call this a nice way. So it's not a big twist, but you're just letting your knees way.

And then we're drawing in from the rib, then your hip and then you need, so it should feel very relaxing after what you just did. One more time. Each side. Good. And come back in. And last one. Very nice. And that can, all right, come on up. So we're going to work the arms a little bit here. So we're gonna use the box now. So we're going to take the bar and actually put it down this way and you're going to use a box to place it across the bar in this way.

Okay, so you've got to make sure that the box is on the bar part and that it's stable. There we go. So it's very stable. So check it. You don't want it slipping off. And we're going to take a quadruped head position on here. So you're going to kneel down and place your elbows on the box and yeah, light springs. So we've got to read it. Read it on the second gear is fine. One red spring is great. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, we want it light. Yeah.

This is going to be a core challenge, but also a nice stretch for your shoulders. And we're going to have the palms flat. Actually, I'm going to start talking about the wrist and elbow a little bit. All right, so back up. A little bits of your hands are really on the box so your hands aren't floating off the box. Have them on, they're good. You want your elbows in line with your shoulders. So there'll be really scooped it.

And for some people that's really a big stretch. Shoulder blades are nice and wide. Chest is nice and wide. Okay. So at first you're going to hold the shoulders in this position stable and just press your legs back. So push back. Good. But you want to keep your, your ribs connected here. Very nice. And then dragged the kerogen has a little like pre knee stretch here. Yes. And again, so see how far back you can go. Opening your hips even more, Emily, if you can keep going more without dropping it very good. And then bring it in.

Right? So the goal would be to come to a full, fully extended hip without an arch in the back. Very nice. And then pull it in here. You're working this so as, especially if you keep your pelvis in neutral, bring it all the way in. They're making it look very easy. This is a nice challenge. Okay, we're going to do now we're here at the bumper. That's fine. Now keep your legs where they are and push with your arms. So now your arms are gonna push it.

Feel the stretch and only go as far as you're comfortable and feeling stretched in your shoulder and then draw your body in over. So now you're working the connection of the armpit muscles into the rib cage. So there's a connection of your core from your armpit through the ribs. Can you feel that? As you're doing that? Yeah. Press into the arms. As you press back, the shoulders are upperly rotating so they're getting a nice stretch. And again, only do the range that's comfortable in your shoulder. No pain in this one.

One more time. All right. And come back. Very nice. All right. Now we're going to push the legs back into the hip extension. You're going to hold it there. This is more like our down stretch, right? And you've got it.

Emily pushed back and pushed back and pull it and keep your um, position of your hips. Just the arms and push back arms. Good. So the pelvis stays in this position and pull it in. Nice challenge. Good and back. Excellent. And pull it in. We're going to do one more because we've got more to build on here. And last one and pull in and then bring the knees in and take a little rest for second. Excellent. Alright, now we're going to do a one arm side version of this. So yeah, full face side play. Show arm on the box, and actually have your palm facing forward this way. All right, now you're going to have to be in a little bit of a position where your knee, this knee has to come to the middle of the carriage, right?

And this knee will be off the carriage matching that knee. So you're in a side plank. You got it. So you really, your weight is on the one knee. Can you feel that? So this is straight this way. Good ribs are connected this way and that's nice. You're holding your hip like that. This is great. Shoulders are still wide. Now this right here is even hard to hold, but here we go.

You're gonna push with your arm, push out just a little bit and pull it in. Pull in, pull in Pullen. Yeah, no compression in the shoulder here. Feel the strength. Now here's the thing that reds gut. So for some of you, they're doing this again, making it look easy, but lift the rib cage up off yes. And then bring the rib cage over the arms. So think of it more from here that the rib cage is lifting up. That's it.

Doesn't that make, creates more space in the shoulder joint. One more time, lift the rib cage good and come back and rest. Come down. And let's try the other arm the to turn around. So it's very easy to be in this position and have your ribs sunk down onto your arm like this and pushing like that. So the idea here is to lift your rib cage up and hold that position, creating space in your armpit. Okay. All right. So you're on your one knee, the other knee is matching here.

Pelvis here. Very nice. Here we go. Great, Amy. All right. And now think of that ribcage lifting up. Yes. Just can you feel the space in your armpit there? Yes. And now bring your torso back over and very nice. And you know, if you inhale as you push out, actually feel what that does when you inhale.

Inhale will lift through the rib cage and create that lift for you of the rib cage, creating space in the armpit so that you have the space to do this movement without compression of the shoulder joint. One more time. This is a good prep for your star, for the advanced teachers. All right. And come back in. Very nice. Good. Okay, so now we're going to go into, I'm going to swan, so we're going to take the box, put it on the long direction. All right. And we'll have the bar. We'll probably put it in the second one. You want the bar so it's slightly higher than the box or close to the same and um, one red spring, right? It's not. So you're gonna lie on your stomach.

You want your chest just off the edge of the box. Hands on the bar. Now what I'd like you to do with your legs, okay. Is I would like them almost to the corner of the box, not too wide, but just have that feeling this way, right? And what I want you to do is feel the thigh bones actually spiraling inward a little bit. Great. So the sit bones are actually wide. Yes. All right. And the heels will be in line with the sit bones at the same time.

The body will be low, right? So your head won't be on the bar. So don't drop your neck. But you want your torso and don't lift your elbows so much. Yeah. So we don't want this compression of the shoulder. So we want the width. So there's a feeling in the arm that there's kind of a rotation.

This swipe rate. So you're going to feel the body. So we're looking for a flat line. Very nice. So your legs are engaged, right? Feel the front of your groin into the box without too much effort. Very nice. Now just push out with straight arms. Push out, feel the shoal. The blades stay low, right? So you're just flat. Good.

And then come in. I just want you to feel that position. Very nice. And again, great. So you're working the same muscles you just did on your elbows. Can you feel them when you push out? That's really important that we feel that. Be careful that you don't lift your elbows too high up. That causes compression in the shoulder. Very nice. And come in next time you're going to push out with the arms straight and then you're going to keep the arm straight.

Lift your head and chest up just until your lower ribs come to the box, right? You're at the bottom of your lower Rez. No higher than that. And then push away. Flatten yourself out long and bend the elbows wide. So I just want you to come to the lowest ribs only and push out. Good. Keep reaching. Now lift your head and chest up and the lower ribs.

Stay on the box. Beautiful. So it's an upper back work here. Yep. And push away. Look at the floor and bend in one more time and push out. Nice and lift up just to the lower ribs and come back and bend the elbows. Now for some of you that might be as high as you'll come, but let's challenge these two women right here. So push out. Now you can come up to the bottom, to the top of your pelvis here, if that's good for your back and then push away nice and elbows, Ben.

But for many people, this lumbar extension is not advisable, so you can stick to the lower ribs. It should always feel good. Never have any strain or pain. Very nice. All right. And Bam, we would do one more wish out and lift and push away. Okay. And now we're going to have a little fun here and Ben, not that we're not having fun already or to stay here. Now this is a challenge. All right? I was playing with this earlier today. Keep your body in this, uh, vertical position or it's actually horizontal, but your central, I know arching, no Swan I want you to do is push your arms away and push away.

Like you're going to jump and extend your arms and float for a moment in the air. Jump. Yup. And really push and outstand your arms. Really be active. That's it. Yeah. Extend. Feel like you're superman. Exit. Good. Emily. Push good. Get a little more flow to the carriage. See if you get the curses, just like you're floating. Suspending an air. Nice. Keep the shoulders wide. Good. Nice float. Yes. It's like swimming in the water.

Good. Two more times. Nice. And come in and rest. Excellent. Come on up. Very nice. Okay, let's do a little knee stretch series, right? So we're gonna start with the kneeling on the carriage again. This time we're going to want more of a medium feel.

So we want to read and maybe a blue, you guys are in the second gear. So if it feels too light, you know you can always change it. Mid Exercise. Okay. So at first, take a kneeling like a quadrupedal neutral position. So you're going to be back. And I do like there's a slight angle of the knees back like this. Right?

And I want you to feel that you've got the base of the second and the third finger on the bar. Okay. Right. And the fingers can be off. They can be elongated off the bar. Very good. I want the wrist to be straight to across. Not, not lifted so much, but I want this line. Just see what I mean. So play with this for me for a moment here to your elbow creases here. Go ahead and roll them out. Yeah, so that they're facing this way.

Can you see what happens to the line of your wrist? Okay, so I want you to now really roll them in. Go in, in and, and, and see what happens to the pressure, right of the wrist. So we don't want either one. We kind of want it in the middle so that we feel that this line, this is an important line across the wrist right here. That it's nice and straight. Yeah. And then you want the weight at the base of the thumb, the base of this finger.

All right. And you want the feeling that these arm bones are moving inward, but at the same time, can you move? Can you push these are upper arm bones out against me. Push out here. Yes. Do you see the contrast? Yeah. Now look at the triceps. They're really engaged. Nice. And you'll have more muscle engagement in the lower arm this way, which will help create a more support for your wrist. All right. So here we go.

We're in a flat back quadrupedal positions and a little more hip flection. Very good. So we're going to do 10 motions where you're going to inhale as you push out an exhale, come in and in and in. But try to maintain that arm activation. Good. Keeping this so as working with you. Good.

Lightly tap the bumper. I lost. Count lightly. That's okay. And come into the bumper and stop. And now curl the back like we did in the beginning. Just a little bit. Not so much in here. Don't drop. Yeah, right. I want to just the tail bone dropping income back a little more in this way.

Very good. Let's try the same thing here and, and, and, and two and three. Good. Real good. Deep exhale from the lower belly. Not exhale from the diaphragm so much, but from the pubic bone. Can you exhale from the pubic bone? Good. Two more. Very nice. And stay in and now push all the way back to that hip extension and we'll go into down stretch. So push the thighs all the way back. Nice straight arms. There we go. Just like we did on the box.

But this time your arms are straight and bring the carriage up and forward. Lift your body up off the bar and push back. Good. And lift. Think of those arms, right. The idea of the lower arm moving inward and the outer arm outward. And lift the chest. Good.

Watch your elbow creases little bit in. Go ahead and keep moving and see if you can find that. So when you come in, there we go. Yeah, I try to get the triceps a little more. Yeah, there you go. And push out here more with your arms outward. Yes. Push. Yeah. Do you see the difference? It lines up. You were hyperextending a little bit. Very good. And come in and now curl the back and put your feet flat on the head rest behind you. And just sit back in a little child's pose for a second. Yeah.

And you can have your feet flat on the head. Rest is kind of Nice to Tuck your toes in. Yeah, just to sit for a second. Very good. Come on up. Great. So we're gonna put the box on and do a little bit of a lateral abdominal exercise. So put it in short box position. We'll want all the springs on cause we don't want the carriage to move.

We're going to sit sideways on the box and we'll have the front leg in a bent position, right knee in the front corner of the box here. Kind of what we did on the box. Is that too far away for you? Or they got the strap in the circle. There we go. Alrighty. Now put your hand down on the head rest. Just so you can get yourself situated. Now for some people, this is scary because your foot, you have to trust that your strap is going to hold you and it will, you just have to trust.

So you have your hand here and I bring your other arm behind your head. So hit. This is a place where it's safe for you to work on the position and the alignment. So we want to feel the lower ribs in the arm. We don't want that elbow to come back too much. If your elbows back, then you're contracting more in the lap back here and then you have less of a chance of connecting into the oblique. So it's just what we want. So if your elbow comes forward, you're connecting into this muscle. We've been working with the box into the rib cage. Can you feel that?

There you go. You want to maintain that connection. And now lift the other arm off. Bring your hands behind your excellent and you are going to be working your hips. So go down a little further and then exhale and find a straight body up long, not side bending. There you go, go down a little bit. Exhale, find the length. You want to feel the connection from here to here. Good and over and exhale it up. Good, very nice.

And over. Exhale, connect here. Nice, good one more over exhale and come up. Put your hand back on the head rest and then reach arm overhead and get a nice long stretch. And just enjoy that and go, oh that was hard work. Very nice. And you can even turn a little bit like, just let your head go. Give yourself, you can hold onto the wood-frame there and just give yourself a little stretch. Beautiful, great. And then easily come out. Just release your foot and come up.

Let's do the other side. Very nice. Okay. You didn't find that one side is really different than the other ones. So again, look for that alignment. Put your hand on the head rest so you can find that position and remember to connect that armpit into your ribs. Very good. Parallel leg, very strong. If you are working the lateral hip here too. Here we go. Arms up, lengthen, end. Go over, exhale and come up. Very nice. Strong legs.

Good and over. Feel that connection of armpit into the rib cage. Go ahead and up. Exhale, find the length of the body. Good and up. Great. One more time to be even excellent up. Find the length, hold it and place your arm down and enjoy the stretch.

Very nice, nice length. And then you can turn your torso, hold the frame so you get a little stretch, a little extra stretch here. You can take your right hand to the other side too and just, Oh, enjoy that stretch. Very nice. Great. Great guys, come on out. All right. All right, so we're going to take the box and put it on the floor next to the reformer. And we're going to do some standing lunches now. Yeah, so you can put on the side. That's fine. Yeah. All right. And we'll do, uh, one medium spring. All right, so this is going to be a bit of a balance here. What you're going to have to do, so you're going to come get the box really close to the reformer, right?

And you're going to stand up on the box and you're going to place your standing like very close to the reformer and the back leg is going to be bent here. And then you can find your position here. Nice and straight. Yeah. Okay. Come on up. All right. Very simply, what you're going to do at first, so this is a balance right here, just to be standing in this position. Yep. So you have your arms out might be helpful or you can have your arms here. Check your pelvis and what you're going to do at the same time as you push back, you're going to bend in the front leg and do a lunge. The knee stays, right?

Yeah. These days, right over your ankle here as you've been back through here, stay lifted and come back out. That's a challenge. Now we'll, we'll help you keep going, you guys, is to keep your weight on the first two or three toes here, especially the big toe in the center of your heel or it's going to come up when you come up. That's at standing up. Good and banding back. Very nice and pressing. I've tried to push the back leg a little more so you get a straight little straighter leg. It's like a warrior pose. Nope, your box moved. Her sticky mats under the box might be a good idea and come up. Good. Take a little deeper band. Good. Now if you feel really balanced, let's add a little arm swing to this. So as you go back, right, you're going to swing your arm. So the arm forward opposite arm forward. Good.

And come back [inaudible] try that again and adding the arms. Good. It's a good balance. Good. You don't have to lift your arms too high, but just it's like walking here and let your shoulders twist towards the front leg. Let them twist a little bit. There you go. But your head is still forward so you keep looking forward. Twist the shoulders as you go. Good. Very nice. One more and twist and come up.

Very good. Carefully step onto the box first. Very good. And let's switch to the other side. So once you feel balanced, then you can challenge yourself with the arms swing and then add a rotation. But only when you feel secure. Right? That's a good balance challenge. All right.

Make sure you're standing like as close to the reformer so you're really have your legs in line with the hips. Good. Alrighty. Here we go. Just first with the hands still, just press back. Feel your position and standing upright. Good. And press through the back so you feel hamstring. Gluteal. Working [inaudible] and the support of this hip as you're moving.

Very nice. Good. Keep your focus straight ahead if you can. Yup. Nice. Great. And one more. You guys look pretty secure. Should we add the arms? So the opposite arm. So if your right legs in front, it will be your left arm and come up. Good. And reach.

Nice and up and reach and up. Good. Add the twist. Huh? So your shoulders are going to twist, but your focus is still forward. Still look at me. Yeah. Your face. Yeah. It's just like gait. If you were walking down the street, your shoulders will be moving. Focuses forward. Yup. Feel the balance. Very nice. One more time. Excellent.

Nice. And come on. All right. Come on down. And we're gonna do a nice stretch for that. Um, we're going to do up stretch. So we'll take a red and a blue spring and it should feel like a medium weight. And uh, the bar can be in the middle or high depending on your shoulders. So you're gonna come up and stand on the carriage.

Your balls of your feet are on the carriage. Put your heels against the shoulder rest. Great. Now for a moment, I want you to feel those shoulders again. So I'd like your shoulders to be forward more. Actually, not like a downward dog in yoga, but the shoulders a little bit more, not quite over the risks, but fairly close. Yeah. So it's going to be less stress on the shoulder joint. Great. And the elbows, not just a little bit. Yeah. So you're going to feel that all a straight line across the rest and the head will be in line with the spine. For right now.

These are the things I want you to think about in this position is your inner thighs, the inner thighs moving backward behind you. Okay. Not squeezing together, but it's as if these two lines are moving backwards. Sit bones are high. All right? So you're going to keep your shoulders stable. Push the carriage back so you feel the hamstrings working. Inner thigh bones are moving back. Good. Now, exhale and bring the hips for now.

Lift with your quads, pull the carriage to the bumper with your thighs. Good at push back and yeah, so come up to come back up. Keep moving. Emily's good. She had my hand cue. So stay here for a second. Stay here at the bumper. So you want to feel these two? No, don't move the carriage. Move these back more. Bring no, don't move the carriage.

Bring your thigh bones back if you can't. There's this stretch. Do you feel that? Yeah. You have to let your sit bones go up a little bit. Nice. This is not elephants. This one has a nice long spine. There you go. Now you're pushed back from the top of the hamstrings. The thighs are moving back. Very nice. Now as you come in, you're going to be pulling the quadriceps up by the knees, pulling in through the belly. The lower belly pulls in good and out. That's it.

That's better. Any good? Can you feel that? Yeah. You have to do a few more because Emily has been doing the whole time we're talking so you do a few more and you can rest. Very good. Come on up. Do three more. Come on up. So you want to do about five, five of those at least. Okay. Now we have a choice. We're going to, we use the box. All right? And we're going to do a Serita's arm exercise. So what I call it, and probably a light spring. Uh, so I have it on one red because it's in the second gear.

So we're going to sit down very simple. You can sit cross legged so your hips are nice and open. And at first I just want your hands to be in this position here and then bring your arms forward. Great. So we want to feel that connection of the head of the humerus or the shoulder bone into the socket. Okay? So if I placed my hands on the little pinky and here, so if you can imagine I'm doing this to you, all right?

I want you to bend your elbow and at the same time push my hands away. So the Pinky, go ahead and bend your elbow and the elbow are moving together. You see, so now you're making like a u shape. Okay? And the back is staying. Why the shoulder blades are not squeezing together and you're reaching out through the elbows wide. There you go. And then from this position, pull your arm straight forward from the pinkie so that your second finger and your third finger in line with the center. Yeah. So you go, it's like you're pushing someone away. Your back is winding.

Can you feel that nice and why? This is work without the weight. Yeah. Now as you come forward, you're lengthening forward creating length in the front and the outside of your arm at the same time. So we're not doing like a fly thing like that. So we're not shortening in here, right? So we don't want to see this shortening here, right? We've got the width. We want to keep the openness of this space in the armpit. There you go.

And then pull through the pinkie side of your arm. If you think of the length of the Pinky, you're going to get very strong triceps. Yeah, restaurants. Okay. Now with your weight. So start with the palms down. There you go. Um, fingertips are going to be facing this way. Very good. And just start in the out position for me. So find the same thing. Uh, I prefer if you hold the handle and not stretch so you don't overstretch your thumb. Great. Now you do have to find that like you're s this second knuckle here actually your third one. Hmm. See if you can find your wrist line.

So there it is. You see the wrist line there? You see how that and that's going to activate that. Yeah. So be careful not to cock uris this way. Good. Here we go. And pressing out, opening the chest to opening the back. Inhale. Exhale en Paul. See if you can pull and stretch through the arm without closing down the armpit and out, pressing out, out, out, out, out and exhale, pull forward and keep the back nice and wide. Great. And Ben and exhale and pull forward.

Good. And you want to keep those scapulas nice and wide and again, keep them. Why keep them wide? That's far enough. Don't go too far back and press. You don't have to go so far back. Two more times. Keep the width. That's far enough. Xcel keep working through here and you feel that connection again from the armpit into that rib cage. So we're going to do one more and rest. Oh, very nice. Okay.

Let's come up and take the box off and we're gonna do kneeling, chest expansion. All right. And then I'd like to add a thigh stretch with it. So, um, we need to have enough weight, uh, to support a little bit of our body weight, but not too much that we can't pull and create tension. So I'm going to suggest that we do a medium, like a red and a blue, but it's in the second gear. So the bar is closer to the, the, uh, springs. Not too heavy, but it has to be enough to support you. All right? So kneeling now facing your risers and you're going to, we need to shorten the handles as well. Okay.

So take a hold of them and stretch your arms straight out there. Hold the handle, act for that. Like you're going to hold it. Okay. And then bring your arms out and see how droopy the ropes are. So we need to tighten them up so that when your arms are extended, the ropes aren't droopy. So that looks like to me approximately where this first hole is on this reformer. So sometimes you can make uh, an eye, you know, for where on your machine is a good place to adjust the straps.

So I'm going for this first eyeballed here that's on the machine and that was twisted. So, and always double check your straps to make sure that the same. That's perfect. Okay, great. So when your arms are out [inaudible] right? So now in this position you want to have your shoulders, and this is the tricky part, you need to bring the shoulders over the hips. Yes. Which means you have to have that openness in the front hamstrings and gluteals working to support the back pelvic floor is lifted through the front.

And that's something that actually would just happen when you get that pelvic in the nice. So you're really on the front of your knees. It's one of those tipping points where you feel like don't be afraid, you're gonna fall forward, becomes a fear piece here. And, and just relax. Breathe. Right. If you have fear, you're not breathing. So there you go. See, you're in great alignment now. Don't worry. All right. First just chest expansion. Just, just the arms. Exhale, pull back.

Is that too heavy or is it okay? It's okay. Going forward. I know it's like I'm borderline heavy for this exercise, but too heavy for you. Okay. That's fine. That's good. Let's try that one. It's just the red. Yeah. Okay. And it might be able to add the thigh stretch. We had more said. Okay. Amy, your springs. Okay, good. And you don't have to pull the arms past body.

I'd like for you to just pull them to, they're right next to your body so your shoulders can stay open in the front and the back. Very good. Great. And maybe this is your exercise and this is all you do. Try for me a little closer together. Less than v. Thus angle. There Ya go. Different. Yeah. Good. Yeah, you can play with angles from here to here. This, this here. Okay. Two more times. Nice. I know these simple movements. When you watch from the outside, just look like you're not doing much, but the whole body is engaged and it's as you know, cause you're feeling it.

It's extremely, uh, total body engagement. It's hard, hard work. Okay. And bring the arms forward now. So Emily, I am going to add a little spring cause I think you're gonna need it for the next one. All right, so now bring your pelvis forward. Again, hold the straps out in front of you. Don't pull on the, on the reformer. What I'd like you to do is just start to lean straight back. You're going to open the front of your hips, only go as far as comfortable feeling that stretch. So you try to be a flat plank reeling back and then bring your body forward.

Just play with that for a second. So you want the back of your head and the sacrum. So bring your head back even open yet set. There you go. Nice. Good. And then bring it back up. Very nice. Yeah. Make sure the head moves with you, the back of the head and the sacrum.

And you're just bending at your knees, keeping your body in that alignment. Great stretch. Good. Now you're gonna go back and hold it for one moment. Hold it as far enough and I'll pull the arm slew a little bit towards you like chest expansion, Poles, straight arms, just a little bit, and go forward with your arms and then come back up just one time. That's fine. Pull the arm straight back this way. Don't go out to the V. All right, so arms forward, weight, arms forward, hinge, back, pull just a little bit towards your thighs. Nice. Bring the arms forward. Forward arms and body up. There you go. Good. And he'll hinge back.

Pull the arms, holding the position, bring the arms back where they were, and then bring your body at one more time. Excellent. And back all the position. Pull the arms, come forward and bring the body up and rest. Excellent. Alright, come standing up. Alrighty. We're going to take the box again and we're going to put it in the long position. I got two more things to do. All right. You're going to sit on the box facing this ones. Nice and simple. Yep.

And I'm going to take the straps again. All right. Let's see if they work in the short position. It might one red spring is fine. So we'll just take off the loose spring and basically bring your arms up so the palms are facing up and make sure you can see me any. Okay. And what you're going to do is you're basically gonna bend one elbow, like that's okay. So that this arm stays level with the floor and back. Okay.

What the other arm's going to do at the same time, his chest expansion, chest expansion, and bringing both arms back to where both palms are and then you switch palm down pool. Now if you have the right tension on the a ropes together, they never should get slack. So pull, pull n pole. That's right. So it's very easy for one of the ropes that go slack. So see if you can, that's it. Keep the ropes really intention. Bring your body a little more forward. There you go. Nice and pull. Excellent. I always make this joke with my clients about going, Eh, that's kind of the food bank. You know, I'm from New York, he can do that kind of thing. But that's what happens.

We don't want the elbow to drop. Yeah. The elbow is actually lifting as you're doing a bicep curl. Right? Elbow lift. Yeah. Good. And again, I like to about 10 repetitions. Very nice to finish on the arm. Probably your left arm. Yeah. So one more.

You're both in sync here and finish. Very nice. Excellent work. All right. Put the ropes down and we're going to finish, uh, with uh, doing a nice cat with the box to stretch our spine and our hamstrings. So come stand on the end of the reformer, right and fairly close to the reformer. And what we're gonna do is you're going to start from the top of your head and just let your arms hang. You're gonna allow your head to drop and you're going to curl down and let your arms come forward until they land on the box. Great.

And then stay in that upper back curl. Nice. So you're going to push the carriage out, push the box away, and the long gate through the top of your head. Let those sit bones come back. Inner thigh bones coming back. Keep reaching and lengthening. Push the box away. Now keep some tension on the box. Keep reaching the box away. Start to curl from your sit bones again, curls, you feel the hamstrings. You bring your pelvis up over your feet, resisting the boxes that comes into you.

Get the width of your shoulders and I stretch. And then come up and go again. Head down and push out. Let the sit bones go back. Let your inner thigh bones move behind you as you reach forward through the arms. Good. And look down at the floor a little bit. Good. Keep that length as you curl from the sit bones. So creating a nice opening. Let your head hang. Let your shoulders widen and uh, and one more time. Inhale, exhale and reach out.

Nice inner thigh bones reaching back. Feel the length of the wet waste and lengthen through the box. Good. Inhale there. Exhale curling back and then find your feet. Keep rolling up. Release the box. Bring your shoulders over your pelvis.

Look straight ahead. Take a breath in. Good work. Good workout. Good. Thank you.

Comments

2 people like this.
Amazing! Such new wonderful tools. my new favorite! love love love your warm-up and pancake theory:) One day soon Ill make it to your Sole to Spine workshop in Sonoma. Thank you!
2 people like this.
WOW! This was a great workout. I love all the props! And the cueing was amazing! PA you are awesome......keep them coming!!
10 people like this.
PA on-line instruction is so appropriate and timely, its an absolutely brilliant idea that we are able to have access to this caliber of instruction, what a privilege to watch and listen to Madeline Black teach a class! This kind of instruction is especially important to me because I live in a fairly isolated location, Maui, and there is not much opportunity to take continuing ed. unless I fly to the mainland. Thank you Madeline and Pilates Anytime!
6 people like this.
Amen and I will second every thing Arlene said! How lucky we are to have this wonderful Internet community and access to such brillant instructors. Not to mention the variety of talent that comes in the door. Its so nice for those of us who cant make workshops to have access to such wonderful talent just by turning on our computer! TY PA for being here. I know I say that alot .. but when u see something like this here it just makes you so thankful.
Ted Johnson
Nice job catching the train in the class image!
3 people like this.
Madeline, thank you for continuing to educate us on exercises that work the femoral glide. This was very valuable after viewing your workshop on hips. My crush on you gets bigger everytime I hear you teach :) Seriously, after having trained under Michele Larsson and Eve's work it is a much welcomed perspective on fundamentals you have provided to us on this site! Little gems we all can cherish! Thanks PA.
We have a crush on Madeline too (especially me!)! BTW Angel, Michele Larsson is coming to PA on April 6 and 7 to teach and talk about Eve Gentry's work and of course her own. Join us in the studio if you can (having no idea where you live).
I second Ted's thought... AND everyone is smiling! That's like lightning striking twice! Well done Perry!
Thank you to all of you for participating in this online community. The fact that you talk with us, share your feedback and keep coming back is what gets people like Madeline here. We feel blessed to be able to work with instructors of her caliber and equally so to share it with you.
I am so excited, it is wonderful to hear about Michele Larsson! She is a dear woman with so much knowlege to share. I unfortunately live too far to join in person but will be eagerly awaiting her videos online! This is a fabulous community of teachers and I am sure Joe would be proud. I refer all instructors to the site and find it to be like having a mini Pilates conference available to us each day! Thanks again for all of the hard work you guys put into this!
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