Fiery Flow with Magic Circle

Hi. I'm Delia, and today we'll be doing a workout on the reformer using the magic circle. We're gonna start by placing all of your footwork springs on, and that's gonna be very dependent on you. So I'll just let you know what I'm doing here. I have the footwork springs on three red or three full springs. And just for reference, I also am using an allegro two reformer, and so I move the bar one notch closer for my height.

We're gonna start seated to warm up the body holding the magic circle into your hands and holding the outside of the handles. Just as a quick review, you've got handles on the outside and some of the magic circles have handles on the inside. For some of the exercises we'll be doing today, it will be more helpful to have the handles on the inside as well, for comfort, but not necessary. We're gonna start by holding the circle out in front like you're driving a big truck, taking a deep inhale breath, and just pressing the resistance in that circle. So if you press the resistance in, it's gonna help to fire that center part of your body, that core, that inner unit that we like to use in Pilates.

So just give it a couple of squeezes here. And then let's reach those arms up towards the ceiling for a nice little stretch, bringing the arms into flexion, and then bringing the arms back down. It is not necessary to push on any resistance on the circle, For all intents of purposes, this just keeps the arms nice and wide. Making sure as the arms come up as you warm the shoulders, that you don't bring that neck forward and just create a nice smooth movement of your shoulder. Taking the arms out in front of you, we're gonna go into a little retraction and protraction of the shoulder blade.

So with long arms, let's squeeze those shoulder blades together, and I'm actually gonna just swing around for you guys to see the back of my body on this, so we'll squeeze the shoulder blades together and apart. That retraction of the shoulder blade is synonymous with spinal extension, and then you'll protract the shoulder blades pulling them apart And that is synonymous with flexion. And I'll turn back around so we can continue. Round your body forward so that we could breathe forward in this position, allowing the shoulders to glide up to the ears And just hang here for two breaths inhale through the nose, and exhale through the mouth, and one more inhale. And on your exhale, let's just sit all the way back up. Let's do one more set.

Bringing their shoulders and arms forward to protraction, nodding your chin, flexing the spine, allowing the spine to stretch inhale, and exhale. One more and then sitting up nice and tall. Let's take the arms up to the ceiling to warm up in lateral flexion. With the arms above the head and the arms in your peripheral, just take it to one side. Letting your head drop towards your bottom arm, and then over to the other side.

And we'll do one more moving the spine in all directions here before we get started, and then over to the other side. Or as we come back to where we started, and we'll move into the spine into a little roll back. So arms out in front, I'm gonna sit towards the front of my carriage, make sure the sits bones are on. You'll roll your spine back, making sure that your feet are anchored to the floor, and the arms will stay the same height as the shoulders, and then you'll just roll back up. We're not gonna go all the way back.

We just wanna move for that spine tucking that tailbone under. And allowing that natural articulation of the spine to happen in flexion. One more time, and we'll add the resistance of the circle. So I'll roll myself back, feet feel grounded. I'll bring the circle towards my chest, give it a little squeeze, and then sit back up and reach twice more.

Inhale at the top, exhale roll back, give the circle a squeeze, and then back up. Make any adjustments to your feet so you don't feel like your feet are coming off the floor. I just made some adjustments to mine. Or to squeeze and then back. A little rotation now. I had to scootch forward.

I slid back a bit. I'm gonna roll back. I'll take the circle towards my chest and just do a nice rotation with the spine. Again, moving the spine in different planes of motion, and exhale one more to each side, and then back towards the center, sit all the way up reaching those arms forward And one more thing here, let's add a little extension to the torso. We're gonna bring the circle towards the chest, feel the shoulder blades glide together gazing up towards the ceiling to open up that collarbone and find extension.

And then reach the arms forward. Let's just do two more elbows bend gazing up towards the ceiling and the extension, and this feels good one more time, bringing the elbows towards you. And then releasing the arms forward. A great little way to warm up the spine. We're gonna go on to footwork. Again, like we I said in the beginning of the class, my footwork springs are on.

My foot bar is set. My headrest is down, and I'm gonna lie right down between The shoulder blocks. For the first set, we're actually gonna utilize the inside part of this magic circle, and I'm going to place my legs inside, bringing the circle above my knees. Please be careful ears to where you press the circle. You don't wanna put pressure onto any of the ligaments of the knee.

My knees are gonna be about hip distance apart. My arms are long by my side. I'm gonna start with the legs in a tabletop just for a few nice ways. So taking the leg slightly to the right as center, you can hold to the sides of the frame of the reformer, warming up through the spine, the lower half of the back, and rotation, or you can grab onto the shoulder box if that gives you a little bit of support. Taking it inhale as the legs most like to the right.

Some would call this a supine spine twist. It's a little bit of a tongue twister and back to center. One more inhale breath. Exhale and one more to the left. And then place your heels onto the bar.

That's a great way for you to find the right position with the circle. Get yourself ready to be using the circle for footwork. And then also waking up that lower half of the body in rotation and stability. So now the heels are gonna go onto the bar, the arms are down by your side. And then just for all intents of purposes, make sure that you feel like your spine is in the right place before you start pressing back.

Let's just do one press back. I'm gonna press the carriage back and make sure that my legs are comfortable here because as soon as you press the legs back, There's a tendency maybe to go medial with the knees. You still wanna feel like you have a little bit of pressure onto the outside of that circle. So I'm gonna press from here. Now just go on to your regular footwork with your heels onto the bar.

What's nice about this exercise is it does wake up the outer slings, the lateral slings of the legs, so you'll feel it up the leg from the ankle to the hip. Just be really careful here that if you already have a tendency to rotate the feet out or supinate them, that this might also exaggerate that. So keep the feet nice and flat as you move through the legs. We're gonna bring the carriage in about halfway and pause, and you should feel like you have the most resistance here. Then you're gonna give that circle a little extra push out, a little pulse out squeeze.

This is going to activate the outer part of your thighs. Just make sure that movement is coming from the knees and that again, you are not rotating out with the feet. Let's press back and reset and then return the carriage. Sliding down to the balls of the feet into your high heel, we'll find that by taking it to your highest heel soften it about a quarter inch so you're not locked out in the ankle joint, and then press back from here. An extend and bent. Again, the same rule applies to the feet, making sure that you feel that circle is nice and secure on the outside of your legs.

And at any moment, this is uncomfortable. Continue with the footwork, footwork without the circle. We're gonna do that twice more. Last one come in about halfway, and we'll do it again. A little outer thigh exercise here, moving through the knees, breathing in, breathing out, emphasis on those, a, b, doctor muscles, and that's go ahead and press it back for a little reset.

I'm gonna place the heels back onto the bar for some bridging. We're gonna roll through the spine by tilting the pelvis back and then rolling up into a high bridge, reaching the knees towards the top of the toes, and then rolling back down. Now depending on your resistance and also your height, your carriage might move a bit. Just try to keep it as steady as possible. As you're rolling up through the hips, to find a nice long line, get a nice little stretch in the quads, and then roll back down.

We'll do that one more time, tilt the pelvis back, roll up into a high bridge, Let's press the arms down as the arms come towards that extension. Eyes gaze at the ceiling, and then you'll roll down this time about halfway. Find a neutral position with your lower Buckmaster though you're trying to dip your tailbone towards the carriage, but you're at a hover. From here, you're gonna press the carriage about halfway back. This is gonna give you a nice hamstring burner here. We'll go for six repetitions only.

You have three more. Two more. One more. Let's bring the hips all the way down and return. I'm gonna grab a circle with my hands, take that off the legs, and put the balls of the feet back on. This time, I'm gonna come into parallel legs about fist distance apart, holding the circle. We're gonna go into a lower and lift of the heel.

So as you press the carriage out, reach the arms up towards the ceiling. Lower the heels too towards the, or underneath the bar. Lift the heels for a little calf raise, and then bend your knees. One more time before we add the coordination of the arms. Extend the legs at a high half toe. Lower the heels, dorsey flex, lift the heels, bend the knees.

Let's add the circle. So we press back as the heels lower the circle comes towards the chest. As the heels lift, the circle comes towards the ceiling, and then you bend. And again, inhale, and exhale two more. This adds a little bit of coordination.

It's like tapping your head and rubbing your belly and reach. Now go to your pilates v, and now let's take the circle. And we'll place the padded side on the sternum and then the arms will wrap around the circle like you're in first position ballet arms. From here, we'll press back with that pilates v and then return. Now you don't have the, circle reaching up towards the ceiling.

You could press into it. So it'll create a little bit of stability through the shoulders. And I know that if you have too much resistance on the legs, sometimes some of this arm movement feels like you're being shoved against the shoulder blocks, so make any adjustments you need to there. Let's go in about halfway and this time we'll just pulse the bottom to the heels in the short range. A lot of emphasis on the quads, keep squeezing through the heels. This will be a nice little wrap of your thighs for four and three, two, and one. Let's extend the legs long.

And then return. The circle's gonna stay in your hands while we do a little bit of abdominal works. Let's let the legs rest for a moment over the bar. Reach the arms up towards the ceiling. And then from here, you'll lift your head and shoulders up and flex reaching the circle towards your knees with the top of your thighs, keeping the lower part of your ribs in contact with the carriage, roll yourself back.

Two more, nod the chin, exhale to flex, inhale to hold, and then exhale to return. Last one as we nod the chin, lift the head and shoulders up Now we'll hold this position with our torso. On the next one, we're gonna lift the head and shoulders up, reach the circle towards the legs and lift the knees up into a tabletop position. We're gonna extend the legs at a single leg stretch, holding the circle right above the shins at a hover as we reach through the legs. Making sure that that leg that reaches away from you is nice and strong.

You can add some rotations here from side to side for four, three, two, and one back to center, balls of the feedback onto the bar, and release. We're going back to the lower half of the body. This time, the circle's gonna come to the inside of the knees, which is gonna force the legs to be quite wider with the heels on. I know that there's different sized magic circles. So if you have like a smaller one and it's more comfortable for you, you could choose to use that.

Make sure that that circles above the ligament side of the knees, that medial side of the knee. So as you press back, it should be mainly those outer thighs with the toes turned out and release. So more inner thigh here. And exhale. Again, finding that nice neutral pelvis is easier if you make sure that your ribs are placed and that lower back usually follows suit. And now because the circle's inside the legs, you wanna make sure that you're not over rotating in or pronating with those feet.

We're gonna bring the circle in about halfway, and you'll give it a squeeze and hold. Emphasis on those inner thighs and that inner core, three, two, one, and then reach to extend the legs to reset, and then you'll slide down to the balls of your feet. Back to your high half tone, not your highest heel, about a quarter inch softer, and then press back from here. Some of the feedback that I get from this exercise is that sometimes those inner thigh muscles are a bit sore. So it's almost like you're putting that pressure on as though you were on the foam roller. So if you feel any sort of discomfort there, try not to squeeze a circle too tight or just remove it altogether.

You've got three And two, last one, return the carriage, and then squeeze the circle about halfway in, eight seven six five. You've got four Two more. Last one, let's reset by extending the legs back and then returning. We're gonna keep the balls of the feet on here while we do a few bridging as well. In this position, So roll those hips up into your high bridge, reaching the toes over the hips.

This is a wider bridge. So it'll give you a little bit more extension at the hip. Just be careful not to go into too much extension of that lumbar spine. Let's do that again, tilt the pelvis back, roll yourself up one vertebra at a time, making sure to land right on those shoulder blades, and then roll back down. We'll do that one more time. Tightening to that pelvic floor, the circle helps as you roll up.

That should give you a little bit more glute engagement here. We're gonna roll about halfway down. And then from here, try to maintain as much neutral pelvis as possible. And we're gonna press just halfway back. Keep pressing into the arms.

This is a great excuse to work those arms, actually. You've got three more. And two And one, bring it all the way in. Roll yourself down, and that concludes the footwork. We're gonna use the circle to stretch the leg.

Let one leg go. Take the foot into the inside of the circle anywhere you'd like, giving yourself a nice little stretch. You can point and flex the foot and give that hamstring a stretch and take it over to the side over the midline. Get a little IT band stretch or glute stretch. And then you can also hold the side of the frame and get some inner thighs and we'll switch. So left foot goes on, give that hamstring a stretch, flex and point the ankle. And then take it over towards the midline so that you get your IT band to stretch.

There it is. A little bend of the knee will give you a glute stretch. And then over to the other side, we'll give you an inner thigh stretch. Alright. Let's roll ourselves up to the side. Okay. I'm gonna stand up, and we're gonna take the foot bar down to work on some of the upper body.

So I'll take the football all the way down for safety reasons because we'll be moving around kneeling around the reformer, and it would be better if the football is out of the way. I'm gonna take it to a blue spring or a half spring. And again, screen load is a suggestion. So whatever works best for you, you could make it harder or easier. We're gonna face backwards. So backwards would be facing the blocks of the reformer.

For this exercise, I do want the feet off the back because they do hook a little bit, so it'll give you a little bit of safety. Also, it'll give you a little bit more mobility with the straps when you're further back. Grubbing onto the left strap, and you can hold on to the shorter loop or the longer loop depending on your arm length and how much resistance you want. So you'll hold the left strap with the left hand, the circle you're gonna hold in both hands. So you don't have to hook the circle around the strap just hold on to the circle. From here, let's drop the heels down to make sure that we're in good position.

I want you to fire your glutes to come into that hip extension. Once you're here, you could stabilize and just give me a few rows. This is not a lot of resistance, but what you're trying to do is to try to keep your spine as tall as possible. You'll feel that the left side is working a bit harder muscular wise than the right side. We're gonna stir the pot next.

So as you reach the arms forward, rotate the torso to the left with the circle, draw the circle in towards the ribs, rotate back to center, and then release the arms. So this could be a big pot of soup. It could be a cauldron, whatever relates to you, reach it out. And again, rotation, back to center, and one more. Make sure that your chin and your sternum stay in alignment as you make that rotation.

We're gonna reverse it. So circle towards the chest, rotate to the left that elbow reaches behind you. You're gonna circle around trying to keep that scared as steady as possible as you rotate with those arms out and back. For two more inhale and exhale. Last one and then back to center.

Let's place the circle or the strap down for safety onto the shoulder block and rotate. So now the strap is going to be on my right side. So I'm gonna hold it with my other hand. I'm gonna grab onto the shorter loop. I might have to grab the longer loop depending on this shoulder, but I'll scoot myself a little closer to the blocks for safety.

The circle now handle down is going to be on the carriage. Bending the elbow, let's go into a little overhead reach. The one arm pressed to the air is to challenge your spine so that it doesn't rotate. So you're working all the stability muscles of your spine, your abs, and your back. Let's add a little lateral flexion, but I am gonna grab for the longer loop.

I'm gonna reach up and stretch to the side as I gently squeeze the circle down towards the carriage inhale to reach exhale to stretch. Try to stay nice and tall without rotating. Two more inhale, stretch over, and last one. And return. Next one requires a little bit of balance. I want you to come down to your heels.

Rotate to the front. We're gonna go back to grabbing the circle with your right hand. I'm gonna grab the I'm gonna keep it at the long loop, I think, and I'm gonna hold on to the handle. Placing my feet up against the blocks for support, I'll come up, make sure my hip extensors are fired from balance, and I'll press the carriage out. This way is gonna be more challenging. So if you added resistance when you're on the reverse, gonna feel quite heavy in this direction.

We'll just do one more and then we'll stir that pot. So first, bring the circle out in front, rotate towards the side of the rope, bring it back into your chest, and back to center. And three more inhale and exhale. Keeping that head, rib, and hips all stacked at the same time. Last one.

And then back to the middle, reverse to the right, reach it out and circle. Make sure that the arms extend before you rotate to get that full range of the shoulder two more. And last one and reach and return. We're gonna place the circle down or the strap down, excuse me, to the l hook, And you can give yourself a little stretch on that shoulder. We're gonna go around the world. So instead of turning back around, we're just gonna start facing this direction.

So you'll reach back, grab the straps. Holding the longer loop for this one, holding the handles. Coming into hip extension, so kneeling. I'll press that circle forward. Trying to keep the circle centered.

I am giving it a little bit of a squeeze. It's helping me stabilize. Now I'm gonna reach the arms forward, and I'm gonna circle around, stir the pot, and back. We'll do that twice more inhale, exhale reach. Last one, and then reverse it, but start centered, then rotate left, then straighten the arms, keeping that elbow soft so the bicep sists that rotation, and you're not just into that rotator cuff.

You've got two more. Last one. And then back to center. Now you've got the strap in the correct hand. You'll turn face the other direction.

I'm gonna come in towards the blocks with my feet hanging off the back and go right into an overhead press. Just four. Last one, the palm faces me. I'm gonna come into that lateral stretch. And return for three more.

Making sure you stay nice and tall with that spine and press gently into that circle. It'll create a little bit of support and feedback. At the same time and release. And now back to where we started, we're gonna turn around face back, and we're gonna have the strap, on our right hand just like it was before. And the circle out in front. I'm hooking my feet towards the back.

I actually am gonna grab a shorter loop for this one, and we're gonna bring it back into the rose. So like I said earlier, it is a little bit easier on this resistance facing Buckmaster one more. And now reach those arms out. Let's stir that paw for the last time to the right, bring the elbows in, and three more inhale, and exhale. Two more squeeze as much of the resistance of the circle that you need to help you stabilize and activate your abs and reverse circle in, rotate.

It's important that you guide the arms with the rotation of the torso and not that elbow, the elbow might have a tendency of bringing your spine too far back. And then back to the center. And that concludes your nearly arms. I'm gonna place the strap over the l hook and keep the bar down at its low bar position, add all of the resistance on. And we're gonna go to some short box work.

The box is gonna come short ways up against the block. If you are taller and need a little bit more space for your hip, Then you're gonna bring the box over at the shoulder blocks. Just make sure that it's up against the blocks and doesn't slide off for safety. I'm gonna have a seat and place my left foot inside the safety strap. And sit back towards the back third of the box.

The circle this time is going to be in front of you just like this. So from here, we're gonna find that nice lateral movement of the mermaid. You're gonna send that right shoulder away, which is the shoulder that's closest to the back of the reformer. I'm gonna float my strap leg up, make sure that it's parallel and active through the outer thigh. And then just flex over and giving that circle a little squeeze, and then sitting back up and dropping that sits bone. Let's do that again.

Inhale and lean with the shoulder. Exhale and flex give the circle a squeeze. And then back up and drop the sits bone. Two more. Inhale. Nice long spine.

Hooking that foot, making sure that it does assist you. On the next one we're gonna stay over there. So go ahead and lean Give me a little lateral flexion. This time, grabbing with the right hand, let's place the circle in between the frame on the floor. So you're actually being held up here by the circle.

The left hand or my left hand is gonna be behind the head, and I'm just gonna give that circle a little squeeze. So it's a little bit of an assist off the floor. So depending how much room you have for that circle, you might have to move it slightly at a diagonal. You'll do one more exercise here. Come back with that long line and see if you can float the circle up just an inch or two. Creating a little bit of an alley oat almost. Which is really gonna target that's left side.

You have one more and the last alleyope, you'll reach your arm over your head, come all the way up, and then just as a counter stretch, take that circle up and over. And now we're gonna turn over to the other side. So I'm gonna rotate towards the back. I get the beautiful view here for this one. We're gonna bring the bottom again towards the back third. Be careful not to tip off the back.

My strap foot is slightly forward, and I'm holding the circle right in front of my chest. And you could see that my shoulder blades are active here. I'm gonna lean in my left shoulder towards the back of the reformer and then find lateral flexion. And then come all the way up and then having a seat. You'll see that my strap leg is not only holding me here and active as I flex over, but it also assists me on the way up by bending that knee.

We'll do that twice more. And if you remember from the other side, we stay out there on that fourth repetition. Here's your last one. We stay here. We pause, we bring the circle down towards the floor and then place the free hand behind the head. From here, just press into that circle to increase that lateral flexion.

And then back up. So you get a little bit of feedback. What you don't wanna do is press the circle too much. It'll kick you up and not have control. One more time. Now we'll do a little alley ope.

So you'll bend that elbow, lift it slightly and then press it back down. So it'll burn right there between the right rib and the right hip, and then make sure you make any adjustments you need to if it's not targeting that lateral side. And you feel it towards your back. This is your last one. You're gonna alley ope, and then counter stretch, right, bringing that circle overhead.

And then release that is the last of the mermaid. I'm gonna turn the box short ways or excuse me long ways at short ways now. So I'm gonna turn it long ways. No use of spring. At this point, we're gonna be using the circle for resistance. I'm gonna turn with my head towards the foot bar. I actually had a client, joked with me the other day because I used to I say front back window door, and he has no clue what I'm talking about.

So the front of the reformer, is the foot bar. Okay? You're gonna take the circle now and you're going to wedge it between your ankle and your bottom. Now, this is not perfect for everyone. So if it doesn't work for you, just put the circle down. Is to activate the hamstring, but it is a nice place to find awareness or a nice tool to find awareness for the hamstring and glute where it meets. We were where we want to activate that muscle. So starting on all fours here, hands down onto the box, knees under the hips. If you can keep that circle in place, we're gonna lift that circle up into hip extension.

And you're gonna do a few squeezes here, hamstring squeezes. And this is as far as I can get my leg up without losing the circle. Now I'm gonna take that knee in, but I am gonna adjust it just a teeny bit. I'm gonna take that knee in towards my chest and up into hip flexion extension just for four. Two more, keep those hips square, heart between the thumb, last one, and then place the knee down.

And let's grab on the side handle of the circle. I'm gonna take the right leg behind me now into hip extension long, take my right arm out in front of me. So you should have a long line from the circle to the foot. From here, I'm gonna lower the circle under the shoulder as I dip the foot towards the well and then come up into that little modified swimming exercise. We have two more Last one, hold the long arm and leg, and let's just pulse the leg up for eight seven six four three two.

Go ahead and place a circle with a little rest and just do a quick cat cow before we move on to the other side. And now we're gonna take the circle and place it between the top of the ankle or the top of the heel, I should say. To the glute, gluteal fold. Hands back to the box, shoulders wide, knees down underneath the hip, and then you're just gonna bring the leg up and give it a little squeeze. Be careful on form of the torso. Because the first thing people do is lose form because they can't handle the props.

So just make sure that the prop feels comfortable here. Now let's take that knee in towards the hip and then back up. And then in towards the chest and then back up. So you're finding that hip extension. You can do a round back extended back if you'd like, or you can keep your back nice and flat. Last one, and then place that knee down and grab that circle.

So now I'm gonna hold the circle in my left hand. Drop it to the side as I take my right leg into extension. And then reach my left arm forward into flexion. As my right leg goes towards flexion, my left arm will come towards extension. And then I'm gonna reach and bring it back in.

And reach and back in. Two more. On the next one, I'm gonna reach that circle out, arm up, and then pulse that right leg for eight seven six and four, three, two, and one, and then bring that knee in. Let's drop the circle. Do a quick little cat cow flexing through the spine, extending through the spine.

And then we're gonna take the box off. So the next exercise, the feet will be in the straps. So if you wanna prepare for that, I'm gonna keep I'm gonna take the foot bar actually up. To its normal football position and switch to my hip work springs. For me, it's too full or too red springs.

So lines two pint on your back. We'll swing the legs over the bar, and this could be a little precarious to get into. So what you wanna do first is you wanna take the straps and put the straps on your feet first. Once the straps are on your feet, Then you'll take the circle and you'll place it to the outside and hook it with the right above the ankle. So it keeps the legs separated about hip width apart.

Let's extend the legs out and make sure that you feel comfortable here with your arms long by your side. Let's just try a few lower and lift to make sure that the strap feels secure. The circle feels like it's in the right spot. And that you feel comfortable here on the carriage. We're gonna go into full short spine.

If short spine doesn't work for you today, then you go ahead and keep moving up and down with the hips just like we're doing right now. So we're gonna start with the legs at a 45 degree angle. Arms are long and arms intently pressing into the mat. As the legs come towards you, I want you to allow the spring load to stretch your hamstrings and roll your hip organically off of the carriage. Then once the carriage hits the stopper, you're gonna roll all the way up to your shoulder blades and the legs will be slightly behind your head.

In this position, your legs should be heavy, your back should be light, and your abdominal should be engaged with your eyes between that circle. You'll keep the tension, bend the knees until you're at a 90 degree angle with the knees, and then keep that position as you make your back heavy rolling yourself down until your knees are right above the hips and then extend your legs out. Let's do that again. Inhale hips hinge. Exhale, once you find the stopper, you roll up. Inhale, you bend the knees.

And then exhale keeping the knees bent, you'll roll yourself back down. Two more, legs towards you, scoop into your belly, eyes up towards the ceiling, bend those knees at 90, making sure that this distance between the heel and the sits bones is the same, and then press it out. Last one, stretch the hamstrings, stretch the back. Again, legs are heavy, knees bent. And then slowly roll yourself down. We're gonna do the reverse.

So you're gonna bend your knees in a tabletop. Imagine that you're sitting on a chair. That chair rolled back. So you're rolling back with that chair. You'll extend the legs long towards the ceiling.

You'll start to roll your spine down, but now that your legs are long, they might be a little tight to try to reach the hips down. So you could press a little bit onto the heels to find the sacrum to the mat and then extend your legs out to that 45 degree angle. It's an inhale to bend. It's an exhale to roll up. I actually like this direction better. Extend your legs long.

No slack in that rope. Really find length in each spine and each vertebra and then back out. Two more. Inhale. Shush. Inhale to reach. Exhale.

Like your back is trying to give the mat a bit of a massage and then one more and roll yourself up. Extend your legs and then roll yourself. All the way back down. Hopefully, you were able to maintain that circle around your ankles. I'm gonna remove the circle. I'm gonna hold it in my arms and I'm gonna go into a quick stretch.

So your legs are back out to that diagonal line. And you'll open your legs wider than the reformer. If it's available to you with your knees, I'd like for you to bend your right knee and find the, floor with your right foot on the outside of the frame. Once the foot touches the floor, you can grab onto the other strap to control the stretch. What I want you to do in this like a herky position almost is feel the right hip opening up, allowing the right hip to rotate slightly anterior.

So you're gonna have a little bit more space here at your back. And then to get out of it, you'll have to push with the long leg so that way you can take that foot off the floor safely and then over to the other side. And you can release and hold. This is one of my favorite stretches. It really does help stretch that hip flexor so as you can repeat as many as you'd like, but we're just gonna do one set here.

And I'm going to bring the legs back together. Removing one foot off the strap, placing it on the bar makes it a lot easier, placing it on the shoulder blocks. And that concludes the hip work on that. We're just gonna end with a little standing lunge. So let's go to your preference and resistance for standing lunge.

Mine's gonna be one full spring. I'm gonna stand holding my circle just like I have been. On my right hand or with my right hand, I'm gonna place I'm actually gonna place the straps back onto the hooks to get them out of my way. My left foot's gonna go up against the blocks. My right foot's gonna come forward in the line with the foot bar and my left arm is in front of the shoulder. That's an important cue.

Make sure it's not far out there. Let's just start off with a little stretch. Once you feel like you have the right resistance and this feels good, as you press back, you can bring the arm forward with that circle like a little toss. Don't actually toss the circle. Just reach it forward.

Two more, and then we'll hold a rotation stretch. On the last one, just hold, pause, bring that circle out to the side and behind you looking over that opposite shoulder, pushing into the heel of the hand on the bar to increase that rotation and then bringing the arm back. I'm just gonna step over, sometimes frowned upon, but over the carriage. The foot's gonna be onto the block. The left foot is forward. You're holding on to the handle.

Right hand is in alignment with the shoulder, and I'm just gonna press back a couple of times, make sure that I feel comfortable here. And then I'm gonna add the toss of the circle forward. Very similar to the movement that we did on the long box. One more. I'm gonna hold that stretch, rotate pushing into the heel of my right hand for an additional stretch. And then return.

Well, thank you guys so much for joining me today, reformer with a magic circle. I hope you enjoyed it.