Fluid Reformer Tower Combo

Hi. I'm Meredith, and today we're gonna do some of my very favorite things to play with on the reformer tower combo. So what's important to start with is let me tell you a little bit about my setup. On the, obviously, I have a box. On the reformer, I have one blue spring. We have the push through bar set up with two blue springs.

Just near to where the push through bar is on the tower. I have arm springs with handles, short yellow arm springs with handles. And then down at the very lowest connector on the tower, I have some long yellow leg springs. So those are all of the springs and there won't be a lot of spring changing going on here as everything is set up as it needs to be for this class. So shall we get going? We're gonna start coming to this side of the reformer and bringing the arms down next to the sides of the body.

Taking a moment. Checking in. I have my eyes closed just for a minute. Just feel my body in space. Feel the legs are strong and active.

The arms reaching down to the sides of the thighs, the top of the head reaching up, and we're ready to move. Open the eyes if they're close and in you. On the exhale, allow the arms to start to reach forward towards the box. They'll land on the box. Find yourself into a pike shape in your body.

So there's activity in the abdominals pressing into the box with the arms. And from there, we take the spine out. Reaching down with the spine, keeping the pelvis just over the feet, and then we'll bend the elbows wide let the spine lengthen a little bit more there and then stretch the arms forward and lift up. As the spine is coming up, push down with your feet and forward with your arms all in a attempt to find a deep connection in the body from the pie shape, start to roll up. Let the arms come up with the head, with the body, and then take a big open circle lifting the chest.

Opening the chest. And then as the arms come back down, they reach forward. The head goes down. Hands find the corners of the box. We lengthen out through the spine.

Once again, keeping the hips right over the feet, supporting that downward action in the body with a with a connection from the front of the body and bend the arms, lengthen the spine as you stretch your arms forwards and lift up. Rounding articulating, letting the body leave the box or the hands leave the box roll up, reach up, get a little taller, open the arms, big open circle. And then as they start to come down, they reach forward. The chin comes into the chest. The abdominals are active.

We lengthen out finding a flat back. And then taking that flat back down. Head reaches just between the arms. Really lengthen as much as you can there and then around. Float the arms away from the box and up over the head and bring them all the way down this time. Keeping the same spring on the reformer will come to sit on the box.

So one thing just to be aware of with the reformer tower combo is Just knowing where your equipment is, knowing where your springs are. There's a lot of float that happens because we have springs from both directions. So it's important that you look after yourself. So sitting up nice and tall. Arms shoulder distance on the push through bar, we take an inhale.

On the exhale, the pelvis rotates under to bring the box underneath the bar. You can push down on the springs a little bit. Try see if you can get the low back to touch that box and inhale and exhale roll back up spring from behind pulls and we just return into that upright position in the body and inhale. And exhale as we rotate the pelvis, pulling with the abdominals, stabilizing the shoulders, squeezing the legs together, finding the low back, inhale. Now, because the spring pulls from behind, it's very easy. Just let the spring be in charge, but we're not gonna do that.

We're gonna come up and return back to straight with the shoulders right over the pelvis. One more the same. Roll back. Inhale. Xhale resist the pull of the springs from behind.

There's a lot of opportunity to really deep in there. If you're curious about that, I'm always curious about that and inhale. Making a small change. XL to round starts the same. Little down push on the spring.

And this time, as we exhale, instead of coming up to straight, we'll bring the body up into a c curve. From the c curve, we'll bend the elbows to straighten the body, and then we'll straighten the arms. And exhale into the c curve or rolling back, finding flexion, feel the imprinting of the lower spine, and then bring that shape up So when the shoulders are right over the hip joints, we come up to a straight back by bringing that arms in or pulling into the bar and then straighten. We'll do that one more time. And exhale rolling. It feels nice.

Really fluid in the body. That's what it feels like to me. And then roll, establish the c curve. As you bend your arms, you can think of pulling apart on the bar. That helps us get a little bit more deep into the connection of the upper back muscles and straighten.

Another change is coming, but it starts the same. Roll back. Three of each. Roll up see curve. This time as the arms bend will reach out through the spine. So like a spine stretch forward, and then as the arms straighten will return.

And exhale round. And inhale to exhale to lift. Controling the spring from both directions. Flatten the spine as the arms bend. And then as the arms straighten the body just comes right back to that upright position and last one round.

Take deep as a suggestion. That's what I'm telling myself round up, flatten the spine as the arms bend. Lift the spine as the arms straighten. And last thing, last change always starting the same. Go back.

As the body's coming up, think of pulling back in the direction of that backward spring with the abdominals. Let the carriage come back. So now we're very close to the legs. Bend the arms, bring the chest to the bar, we're arching up to bring the pelvis underneath us and straightening the arms there. And round, exhale, legs squeezing together.

Pressing down into the feet and inhale. And exhale as we lift passing through that c shape and continuing the box back as the body leans forward. Bend the arms, chest lifts up towards that bar and we arc our way back up to straighten the arms last time round. And lift. I was thinking about one movement, becoming the next movement.

Really feel fluid in your body. Pull in Find the upper back arch up and straighten the arms from there. So that's that carefully as you bring the carriage in. Be careful as you bring the carriage in. Let the barca.

We'll take the box away. I'm just gonna leave it here next to the reformer because we'll use it again later. I'm gonna add a red spring, so now we have a red and a blue. Come to sitting on the foot bar. And you wanna sit so that your sitting bones are anchored.

Sorry. I have an itch. You wanna sit so that your sitting bones are anchored right in the front of that foot bar. The feet are on the carriage in dorsey flection. Pull up on the foot bar, lift the spine, bring the legs to a 90 degree angle, and then straighten the knees. And bent.

So the arms are super active here, lifting the body up, the abdominals pull back as the legs press forward, feet stay in that dorsey flexed position, and reach. A lot of work here in the spine, a lot of activity in the arms, and of course the legs. A red and a blue doesn't seem like much spring, but here it It's a nice challenge. Reach out and bend and reach out. Lifting, feeling the sitting bones wedged up against the foot or last two.

Elbows are bent pulling up on the footbar and in. Last one. And come back. We're gonna go onto the toes. Wanna get it wedged right in the front of that carriage, active through the arms, and we press out.

And back. And as the legs straighten, we have that full plantar flexion in the feet and as the knees bend and just keep the heels still and reach. I'm thinking a lot about the center of my body working and reach. And in. It's a full body movement and reach. Resist the carriage and so the feet come just under the knees and reach and back.

Reach and back one more out and in. Swivel the heels together and press. And pull. And squeezing the heels together, keep the body upright, keep the arms active. As the carriage goes forward, the abdominals pull back.

The spine lifts up. There's a lot of things to think about. And press and bend and lift the body and bend. And we'll do three and in. And two, working the springs in both directions, never letting the springs be in charge.

And one, and in take the heels apart so you're back in parallel, press out and you can lower your feet and lift and lower and left. So really pulling underneath the carriage and lift and pulling underneath the carriage and lift. And we'll do four and left. Finding yourself centered. Interesting to pay attention to the sitting bones and see that they're evenly weighted against the bar.

One more. And then we'll alternate walking, prancing, and down. One foot goes under the other one pushes up and alternate. And this is particularly interesting where the sitting bones are on the bar, are they moving? Are they still?

Are they equally weighted? Those are all things to consider. What are the arms doing? Are they still active? Lots to think about. We'll do two and two.

And one And one. Lift up with both feet and bend the knees and step onto the carriage and bring the reformer. All the way closed. Super fun. The next thing that we're gonna do is get off the foot bar and remove the red spring. So we're back on the blue and then We're gonna come and fetch our leg springs.

So we'll get on as beautifully as possible. Best to hold both springs in one hand. Bring yourself onto the carriage. And then once you're there, you can get organized and centered. The feet will go into the straps.

This one is really fun because it's there's a lot of float in the carriage. So what we need to think about as we start to press out is it can be a really super vigorous press. You have to kind of explore out, especially just on this first one. If we push out with the legs too vigorously, the carriage will just bang into the back of a reformer. So we wanna just be really mindful.

He'll squeeze together. The backs of the legs work. The carriage floats. And then we find the extension. And pull.

You have to control the spring on the way in as well and press. I find this very fun. I hope you're enjoying yourself. And bend. You're just managing the spring and reach out. Feel the abdominals like they're glued to the reformer underneath you. That helps with that float and bend One more time. We'll hold the legs out when we get there.

Bring your legs up. Again, take your time. Just feel Where you are in space keeping the pelvis anchored on the reformer, we're gonna push down same rules apply of to explore. Open the legs. Come around, control the spring.

Feel the backs of the legs engage as you press down and forward with the legs. Open the legs. Come around, control, and press down, and open and control. One more time push. Let the carriage float.

You have to really think about these movements. A very mindful. Open, reach down. Come together and up. I find it useful at the end of the range of the springs. Just to do a small pause, let the reformer settle and then come.

You'll see you can't rush this. Well, you can. You just won't be very successful. And up. One more.

Open, press evenly through both legs and up. And then we're gonna press to about a 60 degree angle. Let the reformer settle and open out to the side straight out. And pull back and open out to the side. Pay attention and pull back. Lift through the waist as the legs come together and two more and pull in.

Let the reformer settle. I'm laughing because it's fun last two. And last one, making a change as the legs come together. So we come together. We're gonna start at that 60 degree angle, lift one leg, press the other leg down.

Both legs are very active. Helicopter the legs. Reach all the way around into the opposite scissor and then come to that 60 degree angle and reverse. One leg up the other leg down, active through the legs, reach around, explore. Come all the way back to the opposite scissor and return and go.

Alternating. Explore. Keep the arms active to keep the body centered on their carriage and back. We'll just do one more helicopter. And around.

And back and once we arrive at that angle, we'll bend the knees. Back to the frog position, moving into the short spine, take the legs out. Start allowing the carriage to come in. The spring will pull, but it's not very heavy, so it doesn't help too too much. Once the carriage comes in as far as it can, we roll up.

Pressing down with the arms as the spine lifts up. Bend your knees tuck in tight. So we're in like a rolling like a ball shape here. And then keep that shape as you roll down using the front of your body to move the back of your body through space. Drop the pelvis down and reach out. Keeping the legs straight fold in half.

Let the carriage close. Roll up and back. Keep a little tension on the springs. You have to just stand in those loops. Bend in get small.

Stay small as you roll down. Massaging the spine. Drop the hips, let the reformer settle, and push two more. My favorite thing about this, particular machine is how much you actually have to pay attention. There's no room to let your mind wander, and I love that.

Bend in. And peel down. Let's do one more. Reach out. Manage the float, fold, close the carriage, go up, bend in, tight, and down.

Feels so good. Take one foot out. Put that leg down. The other leg comes out. Put that leg down. Transfer both straps into one hand.

Bring the carriage home. This is where it's a little tricky where you have to manage springs from both ends. And then we'll let the springs go. Try not to bang the carriage around Meredith. Okay.

So the push shoe bar is gonna come in handy again, but we wanna change the spring. So we're gonna go to a yellow. We're gonna come onto our knees. Best thing is just walk up the outside of the frame to take a hold of the push through bar. So once again, we've got shoulder distance apart with the arms and then we're gonna let the body go forward.

So you're on a diagonal line. Gonna pull wide with the arms, bringing the head out over the bar, bring the elbows in, feel the shoulder blades draw down towards the pelvis as the arms straight in, and then we'll pull again. Wide arms. Elbows come in. Feels like a massage to me.

And pull, feel the upper back working. And in and at. Staying nice and low to and down and just feel that oppositional scapular stability as the springs pull pull from behind one and in. I have to keep reminding myself not to just hyper extend, so if you're flexible in your spine, you might think about that as well. Bend in narrow.

Pull open the arms and straighten. So we've just reversed. Pull in narrow. Pull from the back of the body less so than the arms. Reach out and straighten.

And pull. Stabilizing the scapula, rotate and reach. We'll do two more. Feeling the abdominal support the forward action of the body. One more.

Open and reach. So it's just a yellow spring but it just feels like so much work to me. So now what I'm doing is I'm holding on to the frame. I'm letting the push to bar come up so that the carriage can close. And then we're just gonna need to step off just briefly and take down the push to bar. As the pushu bar comes down, we wanna collect those arm springs.

Bring them with you. And we're gonna come to a kneeling position on the carriage. Again, because springs are coming from both directions, I know I've said it a bunch of times, but just pay attention. Move. With intention. Okay. So we're sitting down on our feet here.

Got our arms and our springs. And what we're gonna do is take the arms back. So here is our starting position. Where you have the tension on the springs, you have the reformer is floating, and then we're gonna push down and back. Oh, it feels so hard.

And forward. Just about to the maximum to the knees and then down and back. Down and forward. Find your back muscles. Don't hyper extend Meredith, pull and reach. Trying to sit right over the tops of your feet.

Two more only. Pull Really good lesson in managing the the eccentric contraction as the arms come forward. Last one, pull and come back. Bring the arms in the front. We'll bend the right arm and pull down with the left.

This one feels great and then come back. There's that float again. No rushing. Bend the left. Pull down with the right and float back to center and rotate.

And back. So you see how they can't really rush through it. Pull and back and Paul floating on the reformer and back and rotate ring out the spine. And, okay. What we're gonna do here is turn the palms of the hand face up. Keep the arms as they are the upper arms still and bicep curl.

And control the open. Turn the palms down and pull wide arms and reach and bicep curl. You could think of using the arms to lift the spine and reach and wide arm pull and control. And two more pull. Open. Pull wide.

Control. Last time, pull. Open. Pull wide. And back.

So to change where we are in space, this one's a little tricky transition. You wanna take the straps Let the carriage come in. And the carriage has to move a little bit as we turn all the way around. Someone finds a cleaner transition than that. Please write to me and tell me what it is. Okay.

So we've got the pelvis down again and how I position myself as my sitting bones are pressing up against the shoulder blocks. And then from here, we'll bring the arms forward in like a punching position, and we're gonna go push. Turn the palms in and open. Control. Pull back and then there's sneaky amount of abdominal work here to push which I love.

Oh, Ben. I mean, you can find a lot actually, pull and bend, but you do have to put your mind into your muscles push. And open. Control and control. And push and open.

This is where it's the most challenging to control for me. And in. So what I mean by that is as the arms are going out into that Haga tree position, have to continue to reach wide, wide, wide through the shoulder blades. Don't let the springs be in charge. Come back. Keep the arms straight. Bring your arms up.

Open your chest, a little bit of thoracic extension as the arms open, and then return to a straight as you go back through that hug. Lift the arms, the body's on the diagonal. Then we take that little bit of thoracic extension, the springs from both directions help there. Feels amazing. And then back to center.

We'll just do two more. Well, take your time here to find the float. So I just caught myself rushing a little bit and I you can. You have to just collect it again. Pause, collect. And then make sure you know where you are as you begin each repetition.

Open back through center. And then from there, we're gonna reverse it into it the opposite direction of circle. So we open, take the arms overhead, but this time as we press down, we're going into spinal flexion like a pike pushing the spring away. And then as the arms open, we'll unwind back into that diagonal lean, take the arms overhead push down, hike round and open. Controling this spring.

It's only a yellow, but it feels hard. Arms overhead. Push, pull back through the waist. Find that float. Open.

List. Bush and open. And then we'll bring the arms in. Take the springs in one hand. Be gentle with the machine and with your body as you unwind yourself there.

Let the carriage come close. I just hold my carriage in so it doesn't make a bang. And then we can just get rid of those springs. Okay. And now we need the box again. Put it on the reformer.

Get on it. Walk with your arms up the sides of the frame until you have the push tube bar in your hands. And then what you can do there is you can use the foot bar just to get organized, find your positioning in space, and then let the legs lift up off that foot bar. And we're gonna bend the elbows stay low in your body as you bring the bar underneath the forehead. Pull in with your arms as you lift up and reach back out.

Got my left leg being lazy. I ran into that footbar. Gotta keep it up. Meredith. Pull back. The bar comes just underneath the forehead.

Take the elbows down. Use that action to lift up a little bit more into your upper back. And then take the body down as the arms reach out. It feels great. Pull wide arms.

Bring the elbows in to lift up. Reach out through the arms. Do more. Pull. Elvis come in. I'm still pulling on the bar. Using that spring from behind and reach.

Last time, keeping the legs active. Pull down lift the body. And reach out. Take the hands down. Can put the bar back.

Oh, get it better placed in a second. And then just glide back in. Come up off of the box. And then we're gonna finish with the push through bar. So putting those two blue springs back on You could consider just making sure that your arm springs are out of the way of the frame.

So just get them right to the side of the frame so they don't get in the way. And step in. Taking the hands onto the push through bar, approximately about a 90 degree angle at the elbows. Elbows to shoulders. We're gonna push the spring down.

That's nice and nice and strong. Take the head down. Actively push the spring away. As you roll down into your pike. Then lengthen the spine and reach down flattening the back.

The springs will pull you into a shoulder stretch. Feels great. Start gathering through your abdominals, pushing the bar away even as the spring start to engage, press into the pelvis with the backs of the legs. Keep pushing down on the spring. Come to standing, and then as the elbows bend, allow the springs to take you into a backbend.

Not just the springs, of course, but I think you know what I mean. Push down. I'll say it better next time anyway. Head goes down. Active arms. You need them. Don't let the pelvis go back.

Get that pike. Then lengthen out. Control. Control. Now here the springs will start to pull. So just be mindful.

Take yourself down. Push down with your feet, collecting the springs, find your abdominals, Very actively using the arms, getting the pelvis over the feet. Coming back up as the arms bend, resist the pull of the springs from the mid back And then as the spring start to pull up, let the chest go with them. So it's not that you're using the springs and doing nothing in your body. You're using the springs to deepen into that upper spinal awareness.

We'll do two more. Roll down. I'd like to do about 17 more, but no time. Reach out. Just feels great.

Feel the flow in your body. Use your arms a lot. They'll help you. Stand, bend, and then use the spring to maximize your upper back bend feel so amazing and push down last one, unfortunately, and roll. Again, you just have to be in control here.

But if you're willing to really pay attention in your body, really think about the muscles that you wanna find here. It's the arms, the abs. There's a lot of room for exploration on this machine. So as you lift the bar for the very last one, You're I'm giving myself permission to really explore that range in my body. And then we'll just push down on the spring, come back upright.

Turn so that it's nice and safe to let the push through bar go and that is the end. I hope you liked it.