Precision Reformer Strength

For today's reformer workout, we are adding the dumbbells for extra feedback, variety, and a whole lot of burn. Now I've got two sets. I've got five pounds and three pounds. Let's get started with some classic footwork. But we're gonna add a chest press.

So I'm gonna go a little less on my springs than normal. I've got four springs on lie on your back. Make sure you have those dumbbells handy, and let's begin with some compound movement toes on the footbar, let's begin heels together toes apart. And as you bend the elbows, keep the knees bent, press out straight legs, arms over the chest, and let's flow. It's in, and it's out. Right away, make sure that your shoulders are out of the blocks. So feel free like me to take a little scoot forward and continue to flow.

Bend and straighten at the same time, inhale and exhale. Let's do a few more. Man, this is so much better than doing push ups, but the same muscle action, compound movement, notice the springs, notice the dumbbells. The body is gonna notice the muscle confusion, if you're doing it right. One more time, bring yourself in and switch to the arches right on the middle of the foot, toes wrap over, heels wrap under, and row your arms in.

Now when the arms are bent, the legs are straight. When the legs are bent, the arms are over the chest and let's work. In and out. Inhale and exhale. Man, just saying that one is a challenge.

I hope you're feeling the burn already. Get those inner thighs, zipping together, and I have my five pound weights, not to brag, but when you work with these dumbbells, it's really important to add resistance. So I want you to squeeze into your muscles as you press out and in, work the lats, your postural muscles, make sure those inner thighs stay together so much to think about. And that's what's gonna make this workout go by so fast. We're gonna have so much fun.

Well, we'll see about that. We're definitely gonna get a nice burn. Hold yourself in halfway and just do one arm at a time. Try to keep yourself perfectly centered. Well, easier said than done.

I can feel my body weight shift from side to side, but if I pull in my abs, it really helps. One more time on each side. Push yourself out. Let's switch to the heels but let's go into a wide second position and let's mimic that with our arms and a chest fly. So get high on the heels, flex the feet as hard as you can. And with your arms over your heart, I want you to open and then close.

So you're gonna press out straight legs, open your chest, and then close at the top. Do that a few times. Again, always feel free to scoot a little forward, nice and wide open, giving somebody a hug Somebody you love. Let's do a few more like this before we hold and isolate the exercise. Noticeing that softness in the elbows. The nice stretch in the chest.

What a great way to start things off today with one another. The last one, hold yourself halfway out. Just the arms a little up and down. I'm gonna loosen up my grip so I put the work into my arms, the chest, the biceps, therefore, the triceps, everything has a little role here. Now hold it here, bring the knees together, internal rotation, bring your hands at your heart, and I want you to press out and in.

So you're pushing against the springs, little pulses, and then you have your heartbeat. Oh, so sweet. Underneath all those strong Pilates muscles. I'm a softy deep down. Yeah. Heart feet out and in.

Let's do a few more. I hope already you've tried footwork and these are some new variations on your classic footwork just to mix it up to keep the body guessing. Let's do one more. Turn out the legs. Push yourself out.

Bring yourself in. Let's go into a runner. So you're gonna push yourself out on the toes For your running, I want you to lower the left foot, bend the right arm hammer curl, and then switch. So opposition one foot down, one arm down, and switch. Try to keep your elbows fixed.

Of course, the tendency is to drop the arm to make it easier, but we aren't interested in making things easier for ourselves. We do pilates because we want to find the hard in everything we do. Including this little runner. Let's try to go a little bit faster. Run away from something. My demons, just getting one more time on each side and bring yourself all the way in and gently rock yourself up I'm gonna grab a set of lighter dumbbells for some abs here and also I'm gonna preset my springs for arms and abs, so I'll go too heavy and put your legs over the foot bar for some high c curve action.

So your legs are comfortably over the foot bar and your job here is to find the c curve in the spine. So shoulders down the back holding the weights in front of you. I want you to round back tuck the tailbone Find the first vertebra that you can on the mat. Open your heart. Open your arm to me. Port a bra. Hi there.

Bring it back to center and bring it up. So it's round. Port a bra. Follow the gaze. And then bring it back and lift. We'll do this a few times.

Again, we're already feeling the arms and the legs from footwork. And now what we came for those Pilates abs, the powerhouse, baby, what makes everything possible in Pilates land. One more time, and we'll go for a deeper challenge. I'm here to pump you up with some biceps. Take that right leg out, hold it, bend the arms and extend.

Find a c curve in your spine. So feel free to dip back a little bit. But not to dump into one place in your back. You want that evenly distributed curve. Apps pull in two more biceps before we go into a one legged teaser.

Right leg straight arms parallel with the leg. Let's come down down down and lift up up up. Good. Keep the arms parallel. I in line with the foot at the top and then just slide a little down and and a little up. Notice the dumbbells.

How what that does to the shoulders. Make sure the shoulders continue to stay down the back that you're not using your neck or overloading your traps here one more time. Bring it up, place that foot down, take a moment, more for me, and let's go back to the other side. Round yourself back, set up that bicep curl, lift that left leg, for an additional challenge. I mean, so many points of resistance here.

I don't know what to think about first. So let's start from the ground up. Lakes are nice and even. Squeezing onto that foot bar for extra support, abs pulling in and up, protecting my back so that I can isolate and work these guns. How do they look to you? Nothing wrong with a little self love.

Get that left leg out straight and let's go down a little and up a little. This is gonna be so helpful when we do the variations of teaser. There's quite a few, as you know, but this one is gonna fee give us some specific feedback, especially through the upper body with the use of these dumbbells against gravity. That is gonna be a lot different than working with the springs, although the exercises mimic each other within the system. Whoo. That left leg is starting to shake. Luckily, we have one more.

I'd be so embarrassed if you saw me shaking. Put the foot down. Awesome job. Okay. Speaking of which, dumbbells verse the springs. Let's have a little battle here.

I've got two red springs ready to go, but first, let's do the 100 with the dumbbells. Don't. Done. I'm sure you're so excited for that. But the but the tabletop position at the start, imagine you have those handles in your hands, but look, they're dumbbells, but in your mind pretend that you have the handles and the springs below you. Curle up off the shoulders into that low c curve, palms down, start pumping the arms down, down, down, down, down, take a deep breath in.

Take a deep breath out. I notice it's very difficult to keep myself from shifting forward and backwards. So I'm gonna pull my navel to my spine as I breathe. Try to press my arms down, down, down, down from the back from my lats. So I'm feeding into that strong back shoulder connection.

Let's take two more deep breaths together. Exhale, everything out. Deep breathe in. Anything that serving you out, out, out, out, reach, reach, reach, bend the knees, lower the head. Let's try coordination with the dumbbells as well.

So again, imagining you have the springs, you have the handles in your hands, legs and tabletop, grab those imaginary handles, curl up, straight legs, open close, bend and lower. Let's add the breath. Inhale, hold the breath, open close the legs, the distance of the reformer, pull in, lower down and bend two more times. Open close, exhale lower last time, make this one the best one yet. Now that was all rehearsal.

Let's go to the springs and see how it feels in the body and maybe some of those subtle differences we feel. Grabbing your handles. Let's try the 100 with the spring, but right now deep breath, get very in tune with the body. Let's see how it feels. Lakes in tabletop, curl up off the shoulders, legs shoot out, familiar movement.

Oh my gosh. It's so much easier to keep the carriage still. Pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump. Deep breathe in. Deep breath out. I felt like we were just here. Oh, yeah. But at the same time, it feels completely different. Keep pumping.

XL everything out. A few more times with the breath. I am burning up the spring's ad resistance. I'm able to find a little deeper connection to my abs the second time around. Let's do one more deep breath and exhale everything out.

Early exit, but wow. I really felt that one. So now with your core double leg coordination, the legs are in tabletop. We already rehearsed this legs bend, curl up, open close, bend and lower. Wow. I find it's a lot easier to keep the flow with the springs mimicking the muscles.

Open close, bend and lower. There's some sort of peace within against the springs, curl up, open close, point being it's important to do your 100 coordination, all of your exercises both on the mat, and on the reformer. It's all the system. Everything is connected. Place the foot down.

Take a moment. Put your hands into a diamond shape, and let's put the feet into a dye the legs into a diamond shape. So that we can do our double straight leg lift, but make sure that you have that neutral spine on the mat. That the shoulders are out of the blocks. We just have a little bit of resistance in the arms in the spring below us. Let's do two more So important to do these healthy perfect form leg lifts for the low back strengthen hip flexors in the right way.

Last one. Now open up that diamond shape, take one hand through one hand out for the criss cross. We're just gonna take a few alternating from side to side. Taking a little moment away from those dumbbells, but don't worry. We're gonna grab them right after this, curl up, reach through, enjoy the use of the spring to get a little bit deeper with every repetition.

We are working the transverse abdominis that wraps around us helping us lift and twist, making all of our favorite things in life possible, whether you're pickleball or tennis. This exercise Pilates makes it all happen. One more time from each side. Awesome job. Let's continue with some arms, but you're gonna go ahead put those loops down. Come on off to one side, and we're gonna grab our box.

Because we're gonna spend a little time for forward facing arms and I want us to be nice and comfortable on our seat because our body is gonna have enough to think about one dumbbell, one spring, one loop, one one one. I'm gonna do one heavy. I'll do one medium. I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm doing a blue here. It's gonna be tough. We're gonna go first for serving arms The thing is we're gonna have one dumbbell in the left hand and the loop in the right.

So your first goal is to use your ab muscles and sit up as tall as you can. The seat should feel, like, kinda lit up underneath you, abs are pulling in and up, and for your asymmetrical serving arms, we're gonna lift forward and pull in. And your goal here for the next few reps is to convince your body that the resistance is even through both the right and the left side. Now your body is on to you. They're like, what are you doing to me?

I'm giving you an imbalance so that you can recruit all the muscles to fix it. As easy as that. Give the body. If you want the body to change, you give it a reason to change. Can I get an amen?

Alright. Last one. For the hugs, hug in front of you, and then open the arms out and squeeze. Inhale open at the same time, the same distance I'm watching you at home. Press your feet down. Continue to light up your lower half so that you can sit up as tall as you can.

Feel the shoulder blades wrap. The tips of the shoulder blades tap behind you and squeeze. I'm already feeling the arms. My goodness. Last one, hug. Let's go for the solute. Diamond shape, make sure that ropes behind you at the nape of the neck and a little forward hinge, inhale wide with the arms, exhale press through the high diagonal.

If this is too much or you feel like you're manipulating yourself, you can always go from the forehead, but those shoulders gotta stay out of the ears wide down your back. Let's do two more before we try some circles and we do it one more time. Hold the arms out. Small little circles to the front. Keep the carriage still.

Easier said than done. Go for the reach into the spring, reverse it. Notice how the right and the left side feel different, and then make them feel the same. Bring it in. Switch sides. We're gonna do that one more time, and we're gonna give each side a chance to feel the difference in resistance.

So right away, we're back to serving, serving up those mocktails, press out and in. It's January as we film. So I'm just making a dry January joke here. But whatever you're into, let's serve it up, press it out. Cayenne pepper, ginger, squeeze out.

Let's do a few more serving arms before we go into our hugs. Remember to squeeze the arms evenly My arm, my right arm with the dumbbell is feeling the effects of the spring. So I noticed that this time, it's a little more challenging. Let's go two more and hug. Now when you hug, I want you to keep that lineage so the shoulders higher than the elbow, higher than the wrist.

Imagine that water is trickling down your arm. Tendencies that we're gonna drop the arm here. So I want you to compensate. And that is gonna challenge the muscles in your back shoulder. And also encourage a little bit better posture.

Right? That is that classic show girl arm. Nobody has better posture than the show girls. Let me tell you. One more time, deep thoughts with Dane.

Let's go for the salute. Make sure that rope is behind you. Don't forget to hinge forward. I always need a rep to remind myself, but finding that hinge forward will help you connect in the right places and take it out of your back. So with that forward hinge, the shoulders stay wide down the back, shave the nape of your neck, press out wide.

Just a few more before we circle. And do I have some fun lunges coming up for you? I do it all for you. Last one, arm circles will do about eight in each direction. Remember, not all circles are created equal.

These circles, small. Palms up external rotation, small circles, do the next two without moving the carriage, and switch small circles, breathing, Amazing last, two, and one, take a moment, take it all in, see how your right side, your left side feel, and let's go for some challenging lunges. Now for our lunges today, I want you to take your foot bar to its lowest position or whatever reformer you have at home, make sure you have that standing platform as an option. I'm going on one light spring less is more. One blue spring will be plenty challenging for me and I'm gonna grab my light dumbbells as I set up my box to the side of my reformer.

So I'm setting up to the left side of the reformer. The box is lined up with the top of the carriage. Grab your set of dumbbells. We'll do some shoulder raises, overhead presses, So, you can always switch it out or if it becomes too much. Do the exercises without them.

Take your left foot to the top right corner of the box and take your heel into the headrest. Now with your lunge today, I want you to add a slight forward hinge thumbs up for the shoulder raise and then palms down as you lift. Thumbs up hinge forward one long line through the crown of your head into the foot. So I really want you to press your heel into the shoulder block, toes down into the mat. And keep that connection strong to the back so that you can connect to the front.

Now reverse it. So now the arms come up, palms down, and then thumbs up on the way up. Do that about four more times before we go into a repeater. Last two, Long reach. I think on this last one, we can go a little bit deeper into the splits, thumbs up, bring it up. For the repeater, palms up into those familiar serving arms we just left off on. You're gonna take yourself back for your repeater, right leg back, right arm forward, let's pump in, let's pump out. In and out, squeeze in and out. So we're working in opposition, challenging our mental acuity, but also once we find that flow, it starts to feel somewhat natural like running that cross force production, find that rhythm.

Maybe you can increase the tempo. We have about a few seconds left here, thirty seconds set before we pulse it at the bottom. Now here's the burn zone. That we all live to fear. Lower yourself down, hold the weights like a goblet squat and tap your knee down into the carriage.

The weights will help the postural muscles stay intact, give you a little feedback on the upper body, so that you can stack your hips over your shoulders. Keep the carriage still, even if your teacher isn't right now. Last one, hold. Bring yourself up. That standing leg is feeling the burn.

Next, we're gonna take our side work. So your left foot on the standing platform, safely put your foot onto the mat and let's turn that leg out. So 90 degrees, left foot forward, right, toe out. We're going into a little warrior two moment here with a shoulder raise. So look to where you're going. And then bring yourself back up all the way to stand. Namaste, yoga anytime anyone, eat your heart at.

All the way in. Let's do that a few more times. Stack your right knee over your right foot, take a moment, hold for the photographer, demonstrate that control. A lot of things happening here. Talk about compound movement.

Squeeze it back in. I'm getting very serious now. I'm in my yoga Zen. Let's do this one more time. Comment below. Do you mix up with your yoga and your pilates?

Or your Pilates purest. Great. Let's go for our middle splits. Now, we're gonna include the Arnold with this. So an Arnold is an open close and a press. So follow me with the middle splits You're gonna come out, field goal the arms, hold it, squeeze in, out, and then all the way back up.

Got it? Good. Squeeze those arms. Let me see those biceps. Here's a bump.

You up. Squeeze out. This exercise Arnold Swartzeneier made famous. Well, he wasn't on the reformer doing the middle splits while he did it. I'll tell you that much. Like us today.

His disciples. Let's do this two more times. Out hold in and up. Last time, squeeze in, squeeze up. And lift.

Let's do our boxing to honor Joseph Pilates and his boxing background. We're taking our forward hinge, one arm forward, one arm back, slide those arms along your body. The benefit of doing this on the reformer, we are getting feedback in places we didn't know existed. Right? Just by keeping that carriage in, all of a sudden, our arm series on the mat starts to feel a whole lot different. If you notice my legs are shaking, that usually doesn't happen when I do my boxing.

One more time, bring yourself up safely, come off the box, dismount, salute the judges. And let's do side two. Bring the box to the other side. Safly pick up your box. Set that box up nice and tidy next to your carriage.

Line them up. Perfect. And let's go right away for those lunges on side too. I love that we get to repeat these exercises. I'm expecting even better on side two. It got to see side one audition after all.

Bend that standing leg hinge forward. Remember the thumbs come up first, and then the palms come down. Let's find that full split hinge hinge hinge work against the spring. You know what? I take that back. Make the spring work for you.

Come on spring. Tell me where I need it. Humans perpetually tight in the hip flexors. I know I'm not alone there. Let's reverse this. Palms down.

Thumbs up if you're having fun. Oh, yeah. Long hinge up. So something as simple as lifting your arms up and down actually is not that simple depending where you are rotating in your shoulder, The body needs it all internal, external. Nice. Let's do one more Remember, I want that full split on the last one.

Let's go for the repeaters. So you're gonna hold it back halfway, standing leg, stays bent, left arm forward, left leg back, and let's start pumping thirty seconds on the clock in and out. Let's work for tempo. If you can control the tempo, control the spring, that is a great sign. Make those weights work for you.

Squeeze those arms. We want that even distribution of burn from head to toe. Pump it in. Pump it out. Last few seconds here before we go into the pulses, and I better not see that carriage move.

You know what I'm talking to out there, bring it down, lower it down, get that heel to connect, and pulse it down. Down. Down. Toasty baby feeling the burn. Tap it down. Back is up against the wall.

Tail bone down. Tap the carriage. Tap the carriage. Tap the mat. Tap the mat. Four, three, to hold it and bring yourself up. Let's go into our warrior two yoga pilates hybrid yoga pilates moment here. Take your left toe out, right toe forward, bend the left knee as you reach out and bring yourself back in.

Looking forward, stretching Making sure that standing leg that standing knee stays behind that second toe at all time. Tendency, your body will start to favor. Rolling in supinating out. Let's try to keep everything perfect. I don't ask for much, really.

Just perfection. Hold it out. Let's do those bicep curls. Come on. I know you want the view. Squeeze it in. Yes, Arnold.

You have to bump you up. And enjoy the most beautiful view. Oh my gosh. It feels so good to be alive right now. Squeeze in. Let's tell ourselves that as we get through the last two middle splits with that arnold. Bring it back in.

So now legs are parallel. Little in on the carriage, arms begin overhead, come out to the field goal position, hold the middle splits, on that one light spring and bring it up. Good. Rip it apart. Hold open close and lift. When you repeat this workout, feel free to add weight to your dumbbells or maybe it feels good where you are today.

Just that little change of resistance can make all the difference Let's really squeeze and add our own resistance so that those three pounds feel like boulders. One more time. Hold it out. Squeeze in and out, bring it in, and hinge for your second set of boxing, hinge forward, long spine abs in, one palm up, one palm down, snake the arms in, and switch snake the arms in and switch. Keep your Pilates box intact.

Notice the left inner thigh having to work more than usual, having to keep the carriage in so we can accomplish this with good form keep this up just a few more. Buying the two way stretch. This is boxing. Don't forget to add a little bit of a punch as you bring it in. Push out and in.

And take one more on each arm. And let's finish class at the wall. Safeway coming off the reformer. Now if you don't have a clear wall, no problem. Do your final work At the center of the room, I'm coming to the wall. The first goal is to get your entire back connected to the wall.

So for some of us, we may need to walk our feet further out or closer in but see if you can get the lumbar spine, the thoracic, there's a nook in the back of the neck, find the longest two way stretching your back, pull your abs in against the wall, heels together toes apart, and breathe. Arms circles, circling the arms in your peripheral vision, arms come up, out, and down. Good. Add a cycle of breath. Connect the inner thighs and the glutes, and keep that connection against the wall one more time. And let's switch directions.

Notice the difference on each side. Working against the wall will keep us honest and help us find that strong back shoulder connection as we finish our workout and continue the rest of our glorious day, one more big circle, again, arms in the peripheral to make sure that we keep that back shoulder connection and stand tall against the wall with those wide shoulders, rolling down the wall with some circles of the arms, chin to chest, peel your back off the wall one vertebra at a time. Peel reluctantly as you dive forward. Let the weight of the dumbbells, decompress the shoulders, feel the weight of the arms, and gently circle the arms in one direction as the head hangs heavy. Circle the arms the other direction with a little initiation and then let the arms continue to be heavy with a tight hold of the dumbbell, of course, and then let the arms hang and gently roll yourself up bone by bone, back waist, one bone at a time through the ribs, head comes up last.

This time, let's roll down and really feel each vertebra along the way. So first let the head hang heavy. Then one bone, two bone, find the space between your vertebra, find that forward flexion as you pull your abs in and up, let the arms hang heavy, permission to breathe, permission to be, and then find your breath, roll up back waist into the mat, imprint your spine on the way up, bone by bone by bone, taking a deep breath, and stepping away from the wall. Let's come back to center. Great job. Let's meet here on the center.

And heels together toes apart for some final chest expansion, roll your shoulders back, stand as tall as you can, reach those arms behind you, look to the right, look to the left, Look center. Reach your arms forward. Make sure you add that deep breath. Inhale deeply. Look to the left. Look to the right.

Look forward, exhale center. Take your arms, roll your shoulders back. Stand proud. Thanks for working hard through all of the compound movements through all the different ways of feedback. I hope you feel this in new ways in your body, and I hope to work with you again soon. Great job.