Strong Base Reformer II

Hi. I'm Courtney, and welcome back to the second class in my six part series. We're using the reformer. We're also using dumbbells or hand weights, and this whole series is gonna continue to build So if you haven't done class one, go back there and do it. This is the second class. We're using two sets of weights today.

One is light. One is heavy to medium. I have a five pound set and a 12 pound set. Pick what's right for you, and we're also gonna use the box a little bit later. Let's get you started. We're gonna begin with a reformer flow.

You want heavy springs on. I have all of my springs on except for the yellow, so I've got three reds in a blue. We're doing footwork. Have your bar set in footwork settings and head rest up if you like it up. Lie on down, and we're gonna begin with our toes on, heels together toes apart.

You know it, you love it Pilates v, push all the way out, resist to come in. So we're going out to straight legs. The backs of the knees are gonna connect, and the fronts of the thighs are gonna pull up. While we push in and out, the spine stays very stable. So I wanna remind you, this series, the series of six classes, is about building the foundations and building a base first. So in class one and class two, this is class two right now, we are gonna talk a lot about form and technique.

So if we have to slow things down to really feel it in our body, let's do that. The next time you push all the way out, hold, remember, backs of the legs connecting, spine feels long, and bend the knees to come in, changing the foot position. So I now have toes wrapped legs together. Push all the way out and come in. I want to feel the muscles in my feet working.

So I think of a bird on a perch, push all the way out. My feet themselves should not really move too much. So the axis of movement is at my hip and knee push out and come in. Are you straightening your legs all the way? I want you to ask yourself that because that's a question I ask myself when I do this. I wanna pull up and find that length.

If you're somebody who likes to count, 10 is gonna be your number for reps. One more time, push out, and come in. Changing the position of the feet, we have feet together, heels on, squeeze the inner thighs, push all the way out, and come on home. In this exercise, I'm using my muscles to push, but I'm also using my muscles to break. So I wanna slow the spring recoil as I come in.

Pull and push. Pull and push. How are you feeling in your back and in your core? Connected. Arms are long and strong, three, two, and one. Find that length and come in new position, toes on, heels lifted high, ankles connected, knees together push out, try to keep those heels lifted high.

So in this one, I have to work extra hard to lengthen the legs. Really pulling up through the knees, really pressing down through the toes, If I was standing on the floor, I'd be standing on my tippy toes trying to get as long as I could. Like, I'm looking over somebody's fence, and I wanna check out what's going on next door. I really wanna stretch up And then come in. Four, three, two, press and hold one. We're gonna drop one heel.

So now we're using this heavy resistance of this spring to find length through the whole back of the legs. Both heels lift, one drops, both lift, one drops, and you can go as fast or as slow as you want. There's a moment where both are up, lift, drop. Lift drop. Three, two, and one more each side.

Get that nice stretch and bring it on home. Okay. You learn the reformer roll up in class one, so you know it. Arms go up. On an exhale, you roll all the way up. Shoulders are down. Crown of the head is forward.

On an inhale, you take it down. So it's one long exhale up. And one long inhale down. We're not gonna do too many here. Just enough to mobilize the spine and kind of connect our movement with breath.

Let's do one more. Roll all the way up. I want you to stay up and reach under your legs. So if you remember, I started with three reds in a blue, I took my two reds off. So I now have one red, one blue, roll yourself halfway back.

You wanna be in whatever tension you like doing the 100 in. So that's one red one blue for me, float the legs up, squeeze your back. So I want you to find this position first. Back is strong. Chest is open. Hips are tucked under, legs are squeezed together.

Extend the legs. You can be in Pilates V. Now reach along with the arms and hold and breathe. Five. Four. Three. Two, and one, roll it all the way down.

Okay. Reach back, grabbing your straps. I want you to place your hands in the short loops. If you have them, you should feel a significant amount of resistance here. The headrest could be up, if you like it up. We're doing a little supine arms.

So squeezing the back to pull and continuing to squeeze the back when you lift. If I don't, if I squeeze to pull and release to lift, I lift too quickly and I lift too much. See the difference? So I begin with hands over shoulders. I squeeze the back to pull and I keep squeezing my back to lift.

Four As the arms pull down core tightens, three. Two, and you know I'm squeezing my back because my shoulders are not squished up into the blocks. So see if you can feel that in your own body. One more time. One. Keep your arms down.

Lift your head neck and shoulders and find that abdominal curl. Bending your elbows, arms and legs will extend at the same time. Push. And bend. Exheel push and bend. So my elbows are squeezed in. Chest is lifted. Exheel push.

The lower you send your legs, the harder you're gonna work, three. Two, and I like to finish with the hold, maybe even drop those legs a little bit, and bring it in right into arm circles. So same position that we started in with the hands over the shoulders, arms open to a t, come in to the sides and back up. Notice when the arms open, the carriage doesn't really move. So I go t in. T in. Try one more in this direction.

Reverse out, up, down. Again, my shoulders are not squeezing into those blocks because my back is working. I'm keeping them pulled down. So even though you've got your hands in the straps, this is a back exercise. Alright. Let's finish the one that we're on.

Pull the arms down. Meet me back up into your abdominal curl. Two things are gonna happen. Leggs extend as the arms lift up. Hold the curl.

And then exhale arms drive down as the knees come in. So inhale like a double leg stretch, exhale to scoop. Inhale up. Exhale down. Three more. Three Two, one, and take it down. Now we're not done with the core work, but we're gonna do a little break.

So put your feet in the straps. I've got them in the long loops. If your headrest is up, pop it down so we can go upside down. If this is a new exercise, follow me. If you know short spine, you can go into your own flow. So short spine has a lot of parts.

Part one, legs go up, hips stay down. You feel a stretch in your hamstrings. Part two, you wanna deepen the stretch and try to get the carriage to close. It may not close. Depends on how you have your rope set up, and your leg length.

I like my rope short, so this carriage probably won't close. Then part three is you roll up onto your shoulder blades. Carriage is closed. You bend your knees for part four, making a little diamond. And then the entire shape of the body rolls down.

But you're trying to roll with control one bone at a time. And before you press the legs out, you want to come back here into this neutral alignment where the tailbone is heavy. So when you press, you feel like you can press from your core. So one more time slow. Part one is you're stretching the legs.

You can lift the legs as high as your hips stay down. Two, you deepen as much as you can. Three is the roll up. Everybody wants to get here. Then you bend, little diamond, and then you're intentionally rolling down.

Finding length in the spine just like we practiced in class one with the articulating bridges, push out. Now you can go with a little bit more, fluidity if you like to. So you're not really breaking down the parts, it's like they all blend together. Like, there's no end, no beginning, almost feeling like a circular motion, but still hit each part of the exercise. And when I roll down, it makes me think a lot of the articulating bridge, where I'm not just trying to get down as quickly as I can, but instead pulling my hips away from my shoulders to find that length. Let's stay down for leg circles. I'm in parallel for this exercise, legs go up, open, down, and around together.

Up, open, down, and around together. The goal here is to disassociate my lower body from my upper body. So another way to say that is as my legs are moving, nothing else is moving. It's important that we learn this for the next few exercises we're gonna do in this class. And for the classes that we have in this series.

Let's reverse. So I go down, open, together, and down. Now, one of the beautiful things about the reformer is exercises like this. Right? So this is how our leg bone is designed to move. It's a ball and socket joint. So it has this ultimate movement potential. But a lot of times we just go forward back, forward back, walking, right? So this might feel foreign if this is a new exercise for you, but enjoy it because it's how your body was meant to move.

Alright. One more time. Nice, and you're not getting out of here within another core exercise. So slide your hands into the straps For this one, I like my hands in the long loops. This is overhead, and we are gonna go into another inversion. So send the legs long, pull the arms all the way down to the carriage. Then on an exhale, roll to your shoulder blades, legs parallel to the ground.

Separate the legs about the width of the machine, flex the feet, and then try to roll down slowly. Like we practice in short spine, upper, middle, lower. And then you can send those legs as low as you can stabilize and lift the arms back up. So I pull down and power up. Separate the legs flex the feet, and then roll down.

I'm really working hard to keep my legs straight, rolling one bone at a time, and I leave the legs low. Now here's a mistake I see a lot. I'll wanna pull the arms all the way down, and then use my arm strength to help lift up. If my arms aren't down on the mat, it's really hard to get up. So if you're having a hard time in this exercise, try that move.

Pull the arms all the way down. Lift, separate flex, and then roll down. Awesome. And then to finish this, you can just straight those legs over the bar. We're gonna hook up the straps.

And to get off the machine, one reformer roll up is all you need, exhale all the way up. All the way up we go. Alrighty. It's time to grab our weights. We're gonna start with our heavier set. So for me, I've got these 12 pound weights.

I think this is a great place to start. You might wanna level up a little bit, fifteens or even twenties. We begin this flow with the same dumbbell series we did in class one. This is so you can really dial it in. We're starting with squats.

You have two options. You can squat in a wide stance externally rotated, like I'm showing you now, or you can be in parallel, slightly narrower, still wider than the hips, I think you should try both, and then pick the one you like the most. I'm going for the turnout today. In this exercise, my back stays long and straight. And I'm only gonna go as low as I can keep that spine long and straight.

So that's my limiting factor. He'll stay down, inhale when I lower, exhale when I lift. I really wanna drive up. So the work here is the power up. Straighten the legs all the way just like you practiced in footwork earlier.

Last one, and done. Now we go into our step back lunges. Pick a leg to start on. Step back. Drop that knee low.

And rise to come up. In class one, I talked about the difference of leaning forward in your lunge versus staying vertical. In a nutshell, if you lean forward, you're targeting more glutes on that front leg. If you stay vertical, little more quadriceps or front of the thigh, on that forward leg. Keep the chest wide.

We come back to this dumbbell series three times This is our first set. Last two, and take a big step back right into the other leg. Now you might notice one side feels harder to balance, or one side feels a lot more coordinated than the other. Totally normal. I feel it too. Hello and lift.

I just wanna note that even though I lean forward to target more glutes on my standing leg, I'm trying not to round my back or collapse in my shoulders. Three. Two, and one more time. One. Okay. So now we're gonna go into our RDL.

We're doing it with both feet down, but as we progress together, gonna come into more challenging variations. So now is the time to really hone in. Feed are anchored. I'm kinda pushing out a little bit with my legs. I soften my knees as I hinge forward.

I can only go as low as my back can stay flat. And then I wanna use the muscles in the backs of my legs, glutes, and hamstrings to help me come back up to a vertical stand. This is a great exercise to create length in the back body. And strength. Pinch your shoulder blades together, especially when you're down here, inhale lower, exhale lift.

Inhale lower, exhale lift. What I want you to notice is how much I'm shifting my hips back. So it isn't the squat. I'm sending my hips back behind my heels. And my weights are coming close to my shins. Going down, knees are bent, lifting up, legs are straight, two more.

One more. And up we go. I like to stand with the feet together for my row, getting low, leaning forward. Pulling the elbows up, hold and squeeze, and resist down. Don't collapse down. Don't release down. Up squeeze down with control.

My back is still firing, even when my elbows are straight. Another way to feel this in your body is keeping the front body wide or the collar bones wide. When I pull my elbows up, I'm thinking abdominals, they lift up simultaneously to the elbows. So together I lift. Pull up.

Three more, three, two, and one more. One, and rise. Good. I hope that these exercises feel familiar. That is the goal. Because until they feel familiar, I don't wanna make them more complicated. That's why we're doing this for two classes in a row. Okay.

So you have your lighter weights. We're gonna go into our lateral raises. This is a forward reach up and down, out to the t and down. So I'm gonna turn to the side again. I want you to check this out.

I am not leaning back Right? And I'm not lifting my shoulders or I'm trying not to. I'm gonna turn it from the side or from the back here. So you can see up shoulders stay down, back, shoulders stay down for the most part. Up and up.

Let's do three more. If you're ever unsure if you're wiggling, like you don't have a trainer there to spot you, stand against a wall. It'll tell you exactly how stable you are. One more time. Forward, And one more time aside. Really good. Okay.

So we're going into bicep curls next, feet together. I can soften my knees. Elbows are in, curl up. Resist down, curl up, resist down, and you can really feel that co activation. When I bend my elbows and exhale, I'm also engaging my core. This is a really important thing to learn not just for the weight training part of these classes, but once we get on the machine, right? Because if we're doing bicep curls and we're in a position where our balance is challenged, we need to co activate those abdominals so we feel stable while we're doing the curl. Remember, when we're on that machine, the carriage is moving. Three, two, and one.

Time for some tricep kickbacks. So I wanna use gravity to make the exercise more impactful. So I lean forward, pulling the elbows up, pressing back until my arms are straight, and then bending with control. I don't want you to over bend, so you're not gonna get anything more from the exercise by coming here. Straight in the elbows, bend, just past 90 is perfect. Ribs up, find that co activation, arms, and core working together.

Crown of the head reaches forward, hips, pressing back, Just because the rest of the body isn't moving doesn't mean it's not working. Right? So I'm focusing on my arms, but there's a lot more going on than just the triceps working. Three more. Three, two, last one, and we're done with these weights. For now, back to our reformer.

So our second flow on the reformer One red spring is a great place to start. You might adjust it as you go, and we'll be kneeling facing front. I like my feet together and my knees wide for this exercise and my feet are back against the headrest. I'm using my long loops because that's what I prefer. We're doing an upper body flow. You could use your short loops.

We practice this exercise in class one in a low seated position. We're adding another element here. So as I push forward, my hips will come up. And then as I bend, I resist in, turn your palms up, pinkies and thumbs level. I'm not leaning forward, I'm lifting up, and the lift is really coming from my seat behind me.

Inhale down, exhale up. Now in class one, we added an open close. So stay up. Open. Keep the ribs closed and the core tight close. And bend. Good. Do it again.

So it's a big push, pinkies up, find that stretch in the pecs, close, and bring it in. Three more. Push. If you don't like the seated squat, you can do this staying up, which is harder or staying down. Modified. Push open.

When you close the arms, it's not just a chest exercise. When you close the arms, you wanna make it core by exhaling. And engaging those abdominals. Now, you can pick to stay up or stay down for this next one, lean forward. It's our shaving or salute, thumbs and fingers connect. As I push forward, my fingers come apart, my thumbs stay together, thinking shoulders down. Core tight.

When you push your arms straight, can you really straighten them? It isn't that dissimilar to when we do footwork. When we push out on the footbar, I'm asking you to straighten your knees all the way. When we push out and this exercise, I'm asking to straighten the elbows all the way. Three, two, and one, I like to circle to come out, hook up the straps, elephant is next.

So place your hands on the bar, step up onto your feet, and walk your heels back against the shoulder blocks. Now in this exercise, you want your hips to be aligned over your heels. So depending on your proportion, you may have to step your feet a little forward. Right? I want you to find that place where your heels feel like they're under your hips. We're gonna round back elephant today, so pull your ribs up and drop your head down.

When I teach this in class, this is the cue I give. I walk over to the client. I take my fingers. I push on their ribs up as I take my hand on the back of the head, and I gently guide the back of the head down. So coming into that position all by yourself, inhale push, exhale pull. Keep the heels down.

So the work is not the push back. It might even feel light. The work is to pull forward. Using your core and your breath to pull. I wanna feel a stretch in my back Work in my core.

This is teaching my body how to do a proper pike. It's really important we learn these biomechanics. One more time. Nice. Knee stretches are next.

So lift your heels up, lengthen out to a plank position. If your shoulders, feet are against the shoulder blocks, that's great. If not stay where you are. Push back. Both knees come in. Both legs press out.

In push. The secret to this is leaning back. Notice when I bend my knees in, I am not losing tension. That's because I'm pushing into my arms, straightening my elbows, leaning back. Four. Three.

Two, one, take the knees down. That was great. Okay. So for down stretch, I am gonna adjust. I want my feet against those shoulder blocks. I wanna feel the heels pushing against them.

I like to start this exercise in my round back elephant shape, so I would give the same cue. Ribs pull up, head drops down. Get your ponytail out of the way. Okay. From here, you're gonna lengthen by pushing through your legs and finding your plank position. Push back, push back so the thighs get low, hips are low.

Lift the chest, lift the gaze, bring the kerogen through extension. Keep the shape as you go back three times. One, Keep the shape. Two core is tight. Three. Round into the round back elephant.

So I push and I lengthen. I find that place where I can go back. I find my extension, then I keep it. Like a boomerang, keep the shape. One, core stays tight. Two Bring it in.

Three, and we'll do it one more time. So from here, notice that my upper body stays pretty still. I'm pushing with my legs. Hips go low, length, and eye go low. So now I've established my low point. Here's my high point.

Connect the dots. Push, pull. One, two, Three, and bring it all the way in. Nice. Okay. So let's leave one foot against the shoulder block. Bring one foot up. I like my shin right against the bar. I find that it helps with my alignment. And extend the back leg.

So before you let go, I want you to find two things. Your inner thighs squeezing in and your glutes squeezing under. This is gonna help your vertical lift, right? Alright. Keeping the spine long. Let's lean and lift for these. One, two. My arms frame my face.

Three. And four. Then hold the vertical lift. I'm getting a big stretch to the front of the hip on my back leg. Maybe I can touch the knee to the mat without moving the carriage four times.

That's two That's three, and that's four. Fold over. I like to be in a plank for a little bit here, kinda settle in, pull the ribs up, shoulders down, This would be a great time to not get some push ups if you wanted to. The opposite foot comes forward. So before I let go, I always find my foundation.

So it's gonna be inner thighs squeezing in, glutes, squeezing under. I feel good, so I lift. Then I leave the arms framing the face, lean and lift, four, three, two, And then I hold the vertical. So right here, I feel a big stretch in my hip, but as I go through the movement, even bigger, one. Two.

Three, and four. Hands go back, feet go on, find that solid plank position, and take it down. Okay. Back to our weights. This is our second set. Same as before.

Repetition is really important. Right? So I have the dumbbells high, wide stance. Sending the hips down, lifting up. This is not an upper body exercise.

I'm using the weights to increase the load and challenge for my lower body. So I really feel like I'm powering up through my legs. Low, lift, low, lift. What you might find too is that the more you do, the lower you can go. Right? Your body's kind of adapting in real time. So you're warming up those muscles, Maybe it's a confidence thing.

Get low, lift up. One more time. Nice. With familiarity and exercise, we become confident. That's when we can start really progressing. Here's our lunge's back.

Step and lift, and I'm staying on the same side. Left, down, and up. So it isn't the back leg pushing me up. It's the front leg. Right?

So I wanna shift my weight into that front leg, find that vertical alignment. Down, up. Finding somewhere to look is really helpful with balance, last two. And one. If you normally do this kind of work, wearing athletic shoes, it feels a bit different and bare feet.

Inhale down, exhale up. Lot of work in the muscles, and run the arches of the feet. Lower, lift, down, We've got four more here. Four. Then into our rows. Three.

Or no, into our RDS. Two, then our rows. One. K. Feet hip distance parallel, send it back, and up. My favorite version of this is single leg version, and we're gonna do that.

In the next two classes, in class three and class four. But we gotta learn it bilateral first. Both legs down first. I kinda feel like I'm pushing out with my legs a little bit. Helping to fire into my glute medias.

So when I say I'm pushing out into my legs, you can kind of imagine a booty band or a resistance band around your thighs. That's a great prop to use in this exercise. If you're not feeling your glutes and you have a booty band, try it. Same as what I'm doing right now, but with that band around the thighs and a little bit of tension, just enough to wake up those glutes. Last time.

Okay. Here's our rose. Get low, lean forward. It isn't the same if you don't lean forward. Right? I don't have gravity. As I lean forward, I'm bringing my spine close to being parallel to the ground.

I have to work harder to pull against gravity. Don't forget that squeeze at the top. And that co activation of the abdominals too. So abs, arms together, four more. Four, three, two, one, and we're switching out for the light weights.

It's a very satisfying feeling to be done with those heavier ones. Your lateral raises go up and out. So one of the reasons we are spending extra time on finding form and alignment is as we progress together, these exercises will become more complex. And at the end of the series, we're gonna do a lot of these on the machine on a moving surface. So sometimes it's good to know the big picture. Right? So right now, we're focusing on finding that stability, finding that form before we add anything else.

Little bit of softness in the elbows for me is key. Two more each forward and side. One more. Forward and side. Okay. Our bicep curls, I'm gonna show you from this side, a little bit bend in the knees, because what you'll be able to see is how stable I'm at least trying to keep my spine.

So the common thing is people lean back, when they curl. And if you're leaning back when you curl, that would be an indicator. It's time to exhale, and tighten the abdominals. If that's a new concept to you, think about your ribs as being left and right sides, or your core is being left and right sides. And every time you curl up like this, you want those left and right sides to come towards each other. Three, two, and one.

Good. With form, you can feel those. Okay. Triceps. Kicking it back, bending. This is a movement that we do a lot in reformer repertoire. So it's great to have the opportunity to do what the dumbbells, feel the differences, And I really think that this is gonna improve your reformer work when you do it on the reformer.

Straight elbows doesn't have to be a big bend. Straight elbows come in. Elbows are high and squeezed together. The back is working. Three, two, and one, and rise to come up. Okay. We are done with those dumbbells for now.

We're gonna grab the box. So I'm gonna switch to a blue spring for this flow. Although it could be done on a red. Just saying. Box is gonna come on long box position.

We are gonna use those straps, so make sure that they're accessible to you. If getting on this box is new, you wanna get on hand hand, hand, hip, hip. That looks like this. Hand hand. Hip, hip.

Okay. So a blue is on the lighter side for the upper body part of this exercise, which means I want you to choke up pretty high on these ropes. The higher you hold the heavier it feels, And to get started, you'll wanna drop your head down as low as you can. If your head can touch that headrest, you're you're good. This is where you wanna be. Chorus tight, legs are long.

On a breath in, you lift the chest, you lift the arms, you hold. Arms really close to the body on a breath out, you lower. On a breath in, you lift and hold, and on a breath out, you lower. Lift up. Now the lift is really coming from the back, not from the neck, not from the head.

The legs are alive. They're not gonna relax. The legs aren't gonna change shape. This is a back exercise. So I really want you to feel it and concentrate on the back.

One more time. Lift up. And now we stay up. Check it out. You know it. You love it. Elbows in.

Here's your kickbacks. You're so good at it now that you're really gonna finesse that little bend, big extend. You know to keep the elbows high and the back engaged. Four, three, two, last time. Never a bad idea to add a pause.

Squeeze, lift, and release. Okay. Hook up the straps for now, although you will be getting them back in a second, so don't drop them on the ground. Walk the rails. Until you can reach all the way up to the pulleys and risers. From here, keeping the legs alive, we're gonna learn a pull up.

So as I exhale, my elbows bend until I tap the box. I want you to feel your shoulders squeeze together and draw away from your ears. And then keep your shoulders where they are as you straighten your elbows. Check it out. I can go further back by releasing my elbows, but that's not the exercise. So I'm gonna do it one more time slow for you.

Put hold. Set yourself up so your shoulders are down and back. And then as you extend, the elbow, the shoulder doesn't move. Alright. Let's go. Chorus stays tight.

The box is a good reminder to keep the abdominals engaged because if you feel your core muscles relaxing into that box, time to pull up and flex the core. Three. This is a back exercise. Two, and one. And then the way you get back is the same way you got on. You just slide or walk your hands back. And close the carriage.

Meet me on your hands and knees. We're gonna use one of the straps again. You can pick the one that you love the most and walk over to that side with your knees. And then you're gonna place your foot into the long or short loop. Just note that if you choose the short loop, you are choosing the path of more resistance, but you can do it.

It's only a blue. So hips are staying behind the shoulders, hands secure on the box. I always like to get going like this. So I find my lift first, kind of square off, settle in, and then I do my best to keep my back really long and straight, and then I swing the leg up. We're gonna do 10 of these. So you should notice some consistencies between what we do here on the reformer and what I'm doing on those dumbbells.

Right? Like when I talk about the RDL, sending the hips back, keeping the spine long, Only lowering the chest as low as the spine can stay long. So kind of similar cues here. The leg can only sweep as low as the back can stay stable. Three, I like to lift that leg as high as I think I can without twisting my hips, two. And one. Now sometimes I do something fancy in between doing these sides, but we're not gonna do that today.

So go right over to the other side. Well, it's really fresh in your head. So don't forget the exercise. Alrighty. Walk over, knee under hip, hips, behind the shoulders, good position with the arms, settle into it, and now keep the back as still as you can. Remember, it might get better the more reps you do, so you don't have to push it in the beginning.

Kinda warm up, teach your body the move, and it'll adapt. Go low, lift high. My upper body's still engaged. My core is still engaged. And I'm trying not to lean too much into my stabilizing knee.

Three more. Three two, and one more. One, and take it down. Alright. So you can hook up the strap And then do a little switch here. We're gonna transform this box into a short box.

And for me, with the setting on this machine, I'm gonna have it over the shoulder blocks like this. So you know your machine, you're gonna wanna set this up for yourself. Add a spring or two, so the carriage feels as stable as you want it to be, and then take a seat on the box. We're gonna start with some, short box core work. And then move into our side bends.

One of the things I want you to note is this exercise is meant to be started with bent knees. The bent knees is gonna give you more movement and freedom to go into that c scoop. So this isn't gonna be the setup, locked out knees, bend the knees, little bit of space behind you, right where you wanna be. Reach your arms forward. On an exhale, start the movement from your hips, rolling back, back, back. As far as you think you should go today, on an inhale lift the arms. On an exhale, dive forward and hold.

Now remember our reformer roll up position, pull the core back, reach the head forward, shoulders down. It's all the same. Same here. Roll back. Lift the arms. Re belt. What I see a lot is the movement starting from the upper.

When the movement needs to start from the lower part of the spine. Rebound. So I go pelvis, low back, mid back, hold, And then I start with the upper, and I rebuild pelvis, low back, mid back. Hold one more time. Roll back, lift, dive forward, and rebuild. Let's do the windmill that we learned in class one, roll back.

Big inhale, exhale to return. Big inhale, exhale. When you breathe out, I want you to fully empty and tighten. Three, two, and one. Arms go up. You go over. Rebuild. Come all the way up.

Now we're gonna do one more part here, and this is the flat back hinge. So it should remind you of the flat back bridge versus articulating bridge. So now you're using your core muscles to really stabilize the shape of your spine. So I'm not gonna roll on this one. I'm gonna lean, then lift, then lengthen, then lower.

That one makes you shake. Lean, length, lengthen, and lower. We'll do it three more times. As one shape, I tilt, then I keep everything tight as I lift. Then I keep my arms by my head, by my ears, and lower. Two more. Lean, lift, lengthen, One more time, tilt it back, lift it up, best posture, and take it down. We did it. Turning to phase one direction for your side bends on the box. So one foot stays in the strap, one knee comes up.

I have, taught it and done it in a balance if you love this, do it. Today, I'm here. So I like to start finding my long line. Pressing my foot into the strap and notice that my foot is kind of turning down. So if this is my foot, my hand, I'm turning it down. It's gonna roll my top hip forward.

Once you got that part, you're good to go. Down and up. 10 times. Two, chin off the chest. Three, the trick is to get low. Four, don't be afraid.

That's drops caught you. Five. Six, seven, three more. Hips are staying stacked, two more. And on one, you stay up. Take a nice little stretch.

And let's do the other side. This is the last exercise in our last reformer flow. So this is when you wanna bring it. Alright. Here's my start. Roll the hip forward.

By keep the chest open. Ready to rock. 10 lifts. One, two, three, four, Five, pull your shoulders down. Six, and seven, legs not moving.

Eight, nine, On 10, we can stay up. Take our stretch. And we're done here, but not here. So come off, grab your weights. Let's go. Last one.

Into our squats. Wider parallel, 10 of your best, more if you can. Add weight. If you have a set of weights at home, do the class a few times, and then level it up next time. I've got twelves.

You could do this with fifteen's, twenties, 20 fives, down, up, four, three, two, and one more time. Lundine back. You're really good at this one now, which is good because we're gonna do a lot of lungine coming up. Lean into it. Power up.

So most of the work is my front leg lifting me up. Like, I might eventually do this. Okay. Hope I didn't spoil the surprise. Push. Push.

Three, two, one, other leg. Now I could have mentioned this at the beginning, but I don't think I did. You could totally do these exercises without any weights at all. If that's what you feel like doing, you should do it because doing something is better than doing nothing. So don't not do the exercise because you don't wanna do the weights.

Do it without them. Three two, and one. Alright. Let's do it. So soft knees, my spine stays really straight. And the backs of my legs pull me up.

One way to help you keep your back straight is by kind of pulling up or at least staying active through the pinky finger side of the hand. So I'm gonna go forward and hold. So if I kinda pull up through the pinky finger side of my hand, it kind of helps me settle in or engage or find my back. And once my back is engaged, it's a lot easier for my spine to stay straight. Lien, lift.

Three more. Three, two, one row. Up and squeeze with control down. Remind you of those riser pull ups. Yep. Totally lean the chest forward.

Squeeze squeeze your inner thighs together, lift your tail feathers, and pull your abdominals up every time the elbows lift. Two more, one more, and switch mode. You ready? We're almost done. You're ready for class three? Yes, you are.

So in the third class and fourth class, we go into our progression. So we take what we've learned in the foundations and we build on these. Now, this is a great place to stick around for a while. So if you wanna come back to these at any time, is never a bad idea to finesse your base, to build confidence, to build strength, These are great exercises right here. You don't need to change anything.

One more up. One more out. In and down. So again, finding the abdominals here is super important. Coactivating finding the length going all the way down, and the stability in that upper arm bone.

So just hinging up the elbow. The elbow's a hinge joint. So you can think of a door hinging on a frame. Right? You close the door. Open.

Close the door. Open. Your body is the frame. Your arms are the frame, not nothing moving there, your elbows the hinge. One more time. Same thing goes for the triceps.

Elbows are squeezed in. Lean forward to get more out of it. Small bend, big extend is gonna give you the most bang for your buck, shoulders down. That was a cue for myself. Courtney shoulders down.

Back strong. Bend and push. Not in a rush. Almost done, but not in a rush. Four more.

Three, two, and one, take it down. You made it. So that's our first two classes of the series. All about base. You did great. I'm gonna see you for class number three, and I'm really gonna push you, but you're ready for it. So I'll see you there. Bye.