Classical Int/Adv Reformer

Hi. I'm Kathleen Mangan. Today's class is an intermediate advanced classical reformer class. It's designed to be challenging, fast paced, and finishes with push ups at the end, so don't expect it to wind down. You'll be working the whole time. You ready?

So I'm on a grots reformer today, and I'll start footwork on three full springs. Take a seat right at the front edge of your mat. Swivel around so you nestle into those blocks, heels together toes apart, press out one time and just hold it. Squeeze your heels together, anchor your ribs and take a big breath in On your exhale, relax any tension that might be creeping up into those shoulders and bend back in. Press out nine more times for your full 10 reps and eight.

Your heels are high, your ribs are driving down, and your shoulders are very relaxed. Going for five more, make sure you return the carriage all the way, and two Try not to change your pacing as you just switch to the arches of your feet and continue. Eight more repetitions. Squeeze your feet together, connect into your seat. Five more.

You've got length through the crown of your head, last two. And quickly shift to your heels, 10. And nine. Press your heels together. Feel your tailbone driving down.

Feel your ribcage driving down. Your shoulders released. Last two. And for tendon stretch, come back to the balls of your feet, press out and pause, make those adjustments again, anchor your ribs, lengthen your neck and relax your shoulders, take three counts to lower your heels, lift in one. Go three, two, one, lift in one.

Continue with that tempo. The slow reach of your heels really helps you connect to your deeper, low abs. Last time, and lift change your rhythm, lower in one count, deepen your waist, lift in three. Lower one and lift up, up, up again. Keep your heel squeezed last two and last one.

Bend your knees. Let's set up for the 100. Grab your handles. Lower that foot bar, scoot out of your blocks just a hair, and we'll start with the legs low and your arms straight up in one count. Press into position, and go for it.

Big breath in through your nose. And full breath out through your nose. Again, We're here for eight more repetitions, so keep those heels pressing together, keep reaching through your wrists, and try to keep yourself from bouncing. Easier said than done, but just bring that awareness to your upper body. Keep it steady and still.

Connect into your seat to help support the weight of your legs. Deep in your stomach, try looking at your waist, watch it sink in on your exhale. Let's go two more. Last time, give it one final press, and then rest. Let's go into overhead.

So take two handles into one hand, swivel up, and you'll take out one spring and lower your head rest. And I always like to warm up to overhead a little bit, so I'm not gonna start with the full version. Lift your legs for your first one straight up. Your arms up legs up. Take your arms to the mat, your feet go overhead until your legs are parallel to the floor. And for now, just roll down.

Don't lift your legs yet and return to that same position you started in. We're building up to it. Press into the mat, go up and over with your legs, roll down. It's kind of like the rollover on the mat. This time, you can lower your legs all the way. Repeat.

Come up and over. And roll down. Lower your legs all the way. We're gonna build up to the full version here point up, roll it down, lower your legs, lift your arms. Two more.

Back up. Lower your legs, lift your arms last time. Get those hips high, higher, higher if you can. Roll it down, and rest. Going into coordination, curl up your head and shoulders, inhale press, open close, pull your knees in, and your elbows. Two more press, open close, knees, elbows again last time.

Exhale, breathe out, and rowing, take two handles into one hand, swivel all the way around, turn around and take out one full spring. So you're left with one full spring. So start with your carriage completely in. Pull the handles as you rock your hips under you. So you move and pull at the same time.

Stay put with your torso. Press your hands out. Push back behind you. Get as much out of it as you can. Keep pressing back.

Try not to move your carriage. And I like to bring my arms low so you have somewhere to go as you push up and around, reach forward towards those feet. Repeat a little quicker. Round and pull. Press push back.

Take your arms back. Lift your waist. Circ around. Last time, round and pull. Go to the side and press.

Take your arms low so you get them high in opposition. Come around. And 90 degrees. Elbows high. My carriage is still in. Everything moves together, hinge, stretch up, lengthen, and sweep forward, down, back and around.

Go a little further on your next one. Come back up. Hinge, stretch your arms straight while you're back, lengthen forward. Keep tension on your leather, sweep down and around and back. Circle around.

Last time, even further, go flat back. Hinge, stretch, lengthen in one piece. Push your legs sideways. It will help. Sweep down and around, all the way up and reach forward.

Alright. Hook your handles up. You can swivel around, and we'll go from the chest. Your thumbs are inside the handles. Your chest is broad. Reach to your diagonal.

Lower straight down, inhale, lift through, all the way up, and press growing taller. Two more inhale stretch, widen the back, exhale. Inhale, press one more time, inhale, exhale, inhale, and press. From the hips, this is my favorite one, dive forward. Press all the way like you're trying to touch your springs. Keep pushing towards the spring hooks.

As you roll up your arms return, press wide. Two more dive first, dive and press. Push back in your waist. Try to keep that carriage back until the last possible moment. Last time, press. Pull back.

Come through and wide, and shaving and hug. For a little extra challenge, you can scoot forward off the blocks, lean into it, press your hands forward, your thumb and pointer finger touch, and press. XL, inhale, bend, exhale, press. Go three. Try to keep length in your back.

I don't do this perfectly, but I try. Hold, open your arms to the side, switch your legs for the hug, inhale center, exhale open, and in. Out, expand your back, expand your chest, expand your back, and chest last two. Last time hold, Try to load those springs a little bit more on your way open. Don't let it return yet. Even now, don't let that spring return.

Don't let it return. Don't let it return and rest. Oh, boy. Hook your handles up. We've got swan Okeydoke.

So come to the back. You'll grab your long box and two pads. And place it on as centered as possible, and I just put the pads right here on the front so I know they're not gonna slip around, and they'll definitely be wide enough for my legs. So I'm gonna add a second full spring. First, I step up to the frame and my heels are on the footbar.

The balls of my foot are on the frame. I'm actually gonna put the balls of my feet inside the frame. Press the box forward enough so that it's right at the top of your thigh, not quite at your hip crease. And I'm gonna shape my body very much like I'm on the ladder barrel. So the tailbone is pointing down My knees are hugging in a little bit.

And I'm gonna break this down into stages, but first, make sure that my feet feel nice and solid here. So here we go. Connecting into the seat, lift your whole torso up. Initially, the knees stay bent open your chest, lift your stomach and round back down. Reverse those arms. Go back.

Lean into it. You've got plenty of spring to help support you. Reach forward. Lift the stomach, come down. Repeat that much. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, reverse in, and up and in, and let's move into the full swan, inhale up, and open. Reach up to the ceiling, shoot your legs straight, push against the box. Give me a little extra lift, and bend your knees.

We'll just do it one more time. It's hard. Squeeze your seat, lift your stomach, come up. Your chest opens. Stay high at the chest as you reverse your arms and push. Push those knees straight. Lift your tummy off the long box, add a little extra stretch, lift your waist, bend your knees, and you made it, put your hands on the box, push yourself back.

You can just squat off that foot bar while you get rid of your pads. Toss them into the well. Take out one spring and come right back for pull straps. I'm gonna feed my hands through the handles and walk. My hands is high up the leather straps. Is I can without shrugging.

And then I'm actually gonna let my legs drop a little bit so that I'm better able to lift my stomach. And then I'll keep them low as I pull back even if they touch that foot bar, I'm not so concerned about it. I'm more concerned about keeping the lift at my tummy. And let's do two more. Pull back, lengthen the neck, lift the stomach.

And return one more time and return. Going into the t pole, I just move my hands down so they're at the bottom of the leather, and I repeat the same ideas at the stomach, but my arms are now wide. Two more and lift the waist last time. Come back and rest. We'll transition right into backstroke.

So I'm moving from one spring to two full springs, and I'll hold the handles behind my body so I don't load the springs. While I sit all the way at the front edge. And then recline back, setting up with my hands and knees tucked in. Here we go. Inhale, lift, exhale open. Inhale hold. Exhale come back in. Again, up, open reach.

Curl up just high enough to stay long at the mid to low back, but curled up at the shoulders. Two more, inhale, exhale, inhale. Ben back in. Last one. Ben back in.

Transitioning into teaser. Two handles come into one hand. I swivel around. Take out one of those springs. And lie right back down.

We're gonna keep this very standard today. Pull back in your center as you lift your head. Press into the handles. And put your focus less on choreography and more about keeping the lift and length through your upper back and the back of your neck. Meanwhile, see how high you can get those arms.

One more time. Challenge yourself. Don't let yourself sink back, lift those arms, and then roll all the way back. Draping yourself back over the box. Come up again, peel your back up, arrive.

Keep your back, tall and lifted. And see, just how high you can get those arms without losing it. Go go go and then roll all the way back. Two out of three. Here we go. It's the last set.

Come on up. Same thing. And two and three. Now, lift your arms so much that you have no other option, but to roll down. Alright. One of my favorite exercises is hamstring curls.

So I swivel all the way around and I pull the leather loops right through the handles And then I cross my straps. Keeping my heels down, I'm just gonna flex my feet so those loops hang right over my feet, and I have to go quick. Otherwise, I'm gonna lose the straps. So I come half sideways and then full flip onto my stomach so that the loops are still in my feet. I'll do two feet right away. So I'm gonna add a second spring, second full spring.

I'm also gonna wiggle forward even more. Tiny little bit of my knees is poking off the back end, and then I'm gonna link my hands, walk them high up my upper back, upper back, like I'm doing double leg kick, and then I pull. And I lift to lengthen. I pull, and I lift to lengthen. My hands being at my upper back serve as a nice reminder To get that upper back to extend, go about five more, and four, lift those knees.

Keep your back up. I'm guilty of doing too much at my neck sometimes. So again, my hands are a nice reminder to lift from my back. Last time. Alright. So we'll transition to horseback.

So take out one spring straddle the box with your feet flexed and you should be able to grab the handles relatively easy off of each foot and position yourself slightly in front of the back edge press into the box with your thighs, and take your hands right next to your hips. Your chest is still broad. Length in first, and start to find your reach squeezing into the box and try to develop a little bit of a sense of height off the box. Work three circles. One, two, three, hold and sit back down, flex your feet. Let's go again.

Start with a forward hinge, find your leverage. Grab that spring with your powerhouse. Squeeze your seat. Three circles. One, two, Three, try to get your belly hollow, your hips rounded, and sit back down. One more time, lengthen forward and press.

Find the lift under your hips. Your circles can be very small. Focus on your center and hold and sit back down, flex your feet. Alright. Moving into the long stretch series. Toss your handles into the well.

Get rid of your box. Grab one of your pads from earlier. And first, build your equipment from front to back, lift your foot bar, Add one full spring, so you're on two. That headrest comes up, and then the pad goes right on the headrest. Setting into position for long stretch, grab the front of your footbar, already brace your shoulders, step your feet one at a time between the blocks, connect into your seat, and imagine you're pressing that carriage back with your legs.

Come forward with strong legs, strong glutes, do two more, and press. Third time, come all the way in Step one foot forward, take out one of your springs, replace your hand, hold on with your center, step that foot back, do two more reach, and pull, reach and pull. How about a third one? Why not? Press back and all the way in. Step your other foot forward.

Put that spring right back on. Step back into your plank. Give me three little push ups. One. And up, and two, and up, and three, and up, hold. Open your chest, hinge forward.

Rest on your knees so you're in position for down stretch. Inhale press. Exhale, lift that chest, press through your legs, and lift that chest one more time, and up, up, up and find your up stretch. Lift your hips, your heels go part way up your blocks, shift your hips forward just enough. So you have a little hollow space at your waist, even though your hips are high.

Squeeze that footbar, press through your legs, lower your hips, come all the way in, fold yourself back with a little loftiness at your waist, come through up, two more reach, lower, push in to your heels. Last time, lower, push in to your heels and pause. Stepping into your elephant once again, work your weight towards your arms so that your tailbone slopes. Your toes are lifted. Let's keep it simple today.

Just push out for 10 repetitions. Let your head dangle, digging deep into those heels, connect into your seat with purpose to shift your hips down, last time, and hold, and rest. Step off. So for long back stretch today, special treat, you get to take out one spring. So place your hands on that foot bar and sneak your heels up right into the little crease between your shoulder block in the mat, present your chest. Bend, press with your arms first, and I want you to push that carriage even further as you roll your hips up.

And then return it back. Your chest is proud. Bend. Push. Reach forward through your heels.

Lift your hips even higher. And return. Let's go a little quicker. Bend. Press push and return reverse. Push, bend your elbows, and stretch straight. Work through the heels.

Bring your hips back last time. Work down into the heels to lift up through the hips and return and push and step off. Oh, boy. Alright. Coming forward into stomach massage, I've been enjoying doing stomach massage all variations on only two springs, and here's why.

Once you sit into position at the front of the pad, and you hold under the mat and set up your feet, you can find a tremendous amount of lift in your lower back. So focus not on hanging on for dear life, but on lifting up and forward and through. Your elbows are wide, your chest is wide. Work your feet, bend in, press lower. Lift, bend, eight more times. And again, put your attention and your awareness, on creating that up and over sensation all the way from your hips to the crown of your head.

Four more, and three And two, last time, come all the way in. Stay in while you set up your hands on those blocks. Thank goodness. They're there. Lift your chest.

Add your feet, and nine. Keep your gaze straight ahead. Be careful you don't start to think your high just because you've lifted your head. Keep your chin level. Go five, and four, and three, still connect with purpose into your seat.

Right here, come all the way in, reach up and over for your reach up version, and lift that low back. Without shrugging your shoulders. Again, add your twist, right arm back and hold. As much as you're reaching back, reach forward with your opposite arm, come back in, Reach back with your left, forward with your right, keep rotating, come back in, and twist, return, twist one more set, reach in two different directions. And stretch.

Come back in. You may give yourself a little hamstring stretch, and then it's time to do tendon stretch. So I'm gonna pull the pad forward, hands go to the foot bar, and my heels drop just inside the bed while my toes still stay down. Let's do one slow. And I'm not making it my objective to get the carriage out, actually.

I'm making it my objective to get my feet forward. The more forward my feet go, the more my hips happen to lower. And then I'm gonna bring my body over my feet. I'm not trying to return the carriage ever. I'm moving my body.

So my legs push forward. That makes my hips lower. My body comes forward. That makes my hips lift. And then I keep going with that idea three more times.

Your body comes forward. Feed from forward. Body comes forward. And short boxes next. So I'll lower the foot bar.

I don't prefer to use the pad for short box, so I'm just gonna put it right back down in the mat. And then I'll lower the headrest and grab the bar and the short box at the same time. Put the box right between the blocks and these little metal hooks, and I'm ready to go. So taking a seat on the short box, My feet are pressing out as hard as they can possibly press to wake up my hips. I'll wrap my arms around my waist and go right away into the round.

My feet once again are pushing wide. Rock back and carve out your waist as you round forward. Go again. Round back maybe go a little further and try once again to carve out your waist. Feel free to use your arms as an actual tool to do that.

Round back. This time, if you wanna extend, you can come right back up carve out your waifs. Come forward, and grab your bar for the flat back. Once again, your feet are pressing out, glutes are on, hinge it back, and come right back up. Don't worry about going low.

Focus rather on reaching up and out. Come right back up side to side hinge slightly forward. Same thing. Keep it small, but keep your length. When you go to the front side to the right, push down in the right calf, When you go to the left front, push down in the left calf.

It just gives you a little bit more support. Press down to go up. Press down to go up. Same idea for your twist and reach. Twist as you lean back, feel the mat at your calves, feel the strap at your feet, press into those points, and twist, and reach and up and center one more time, and reach, come up and center, rest. Tree, unhook your right leg, allow your hip to slide under you ever so slightly.

And let's stretch that leg out, climb up to your ankle, flex in point, give me some rolls, and then pull yourself in closer slide that hip under you as you climb down your leg. Press into your grip with your thigh. Come back up. Go again. Get deeper into the stretch.

This time you can add a little upper backbend if you wish. Bring yourself up. Come all the way up. Same thing one more time, deepen the hamstring stretch. Clime down.

Use your grip as leverage to square off that right hip, come all the way up, and rest for your other side. Left leg pulls up. Same thing. Bring that thigh super snug to your torso. You're using the weight of your leg to activate your back, stretch and lengthen that back against the weight in the pull of your leg, and circle reverse the circle, and then hold and deepen the stretch, rock it on back, feel that pressure of your thigh and your grip. Bring yourself up and sit tall.

Two more times. Work the stretch in your thigh on your hooked leg side. Try not to let your supporting foot be passive, your supporting leg. Third time, keep that supporting leg strong and straight. Open the chest.

Come all the way up, sending your leg forward into your grip, sit tall, and then rest. Alright. So we're gonna build into side sit ups. I've got one foot hooked in the strap, My other thigh is fully supported on the box with my knee roughly at the middle in the front. I have enough tension on that strap where I really don't need my hands at all, and we'll start with my hands cross at my chest and do three repetitions. So get low with the shoulders and come up.

Two more just like that. And then we'll build the intensity. Take your hands behind your head. Three more. And up and two, and up and three, and hold, build the intensity.

Give me two long straight arms, palms clasped. One, and two, and three, And you can twist to release all your energy, one hand on either side of the frame, take a big breath in, and exhale. Walk your hands up. Prepare to do the other side. So the other foot hooks, my top foot, my thigh is fully supported on the box with my knee roughly in the middle. When I hold myself out and away from the strap, it has enough tension to where I don't need my hands.

I'll start with my hands crossed at my chest. Three repetitions. Lower the shoulders, lift the shoulders. And two, And one, changing the intensity. Let's up at a notch.

Take your hands behind your head, three repetitions down, and up, and two, and up third time, up the level one more time, take your arms long and overhead, clasp your palms three times, and one, and two, and three, and twist it out, stretch it out, bring one hand to either side of the frame and release your body down into the well, and walk your hands back up. You made it. You can free up your foot. And getting ready for shorts mine, I no longer need the short box. So I will put it back to the back of the reformer. Get my straps ready.

I'm double checking my springs. I've got two full springs on. My headrest is certainly down, and I'll lie on down and adjust the loops once I'm on my back. So I'll pull the leather loops right through the handle to catch the handle. Same thing other side.

Now I've got my loops And to set up my feet, I wanna do it at the same time. So I'm gonna keep my straps still, tuck up my knees, rock my hips up, put my feet in the loops at the exact same time, and roll down into my start position. From there, stretch your legs to your forward diagonal, press into your arms to take your legs up and over behind you. Keep tension on your straps as you bend your knees. Roll up a little higher here as a matter of fact.

And then stretch your hamstrings as you roll your hips down, down, down, and pull your feet to your seat. Repeat, stretch forward, lift up through your arches. Bend your knees, lift your hips higher, unwind, and pull your feet to your seat. Three more forward up. Bend lengthen and pull down, last two up, bend, lengthen those hamstrings, pull down.

Last time forward up is a little different, hit your final high position with your legs and then let your legs drop a little bit, flex your feet, let those loops slip right off your feet, and going into semi circle, roll down with control, bend your knees and find that footbar with the balls of your feet, your heels are together, toes are apart. Press into your blocks, lift your hips, and slide yourself down your mat. So your arms are long and straight. Your heels are high. You've got a fantastic stretch through the front of your thighs.

Roll your spine down into the springs. Feel the springs against your hips. Press out. Keeping the carriage 100% still while you transition and roll up and then return. That's key.

Once you roll down, and stretch out, stabilize the carriage with even pressure of your legs while you roll up. Your hips are high and return. One more time, roll it down, snake your spine into the well, roll it up and bend all the way in reverse. High hips, high heels. Roll it down.

Feel the springs. It's okay. Don't avoid them. Roll up. Send your hips and knees forward two more high. Roll it down.

Get low. Roll it up last time. Roll it down. Dust those springs with your seat. Come forward through and up, that was your last one.

Lift your arms. You have several options for a stretch. You can hold your heels. You can hold the frame. You can hold that foot bar Whatever helps you get the greater stretch that you need without, of course, jamming your back, pulling that waist, and then lift your arms up, and you can slide yourself back and take a big breath. Alright.

Moving on into chest expansion. So I'm gonna keep my two full springs on, but I wanna grab a pad and put the pad over the spring hooks. Alright? And then grab your straps, shake out the handle, and kneel onto your carriage with your toes strongly hooked over the edge. Now your setup is such that once you rise up and lengthen those hips, you have no choice but to lengthen those springs.

So they're already sprung. They're already loaded. Work your hips forward, work your way ever so slightly forward, and then pull. It's not easy. Look to one side, then the other Come center.

Try not to buckle at the hips as you return your arms. Grab with those toes, connect into your seat and pull. Switch sides. And look and center resist your springs. One more set. That's two. Pull.

Look. Center. Resist those. Springs last time, pull. Hamstrings are on fire, look to your right, then your left, look center, slowly return your arms, and then you can rest.

We move forward to get into position for thigh stretch. I'm just casually holding the straps while I turn around behind me. I have to add a third spring. I put the pad back over the spring hooks. I'm about to do an extension, and I don't want my hair to get caught in those springs.

So I snuggle up to the blocks. I walk my hands higher so I have even more tension. I connect into my seat and look ever so slightly forward to work my first hinge. I go for it. And then upon my return, I bring my body up towards those blocks.

I don't just let the springs have their way with the carriage. Shift forward with your kneecaps, move those blocks. As you hinge back, there's always opposition. I'm moving those blocks forward with my knees. And then I try to keep them forward as I come up re returning those springs with a lot of reluctance.

Third time adding a back extension hinge, shift those knees forward. I'll lift my chest up, arc back, bring my head in first, lift the stomach, lift the arms. And I'll do it one more time. I think I'd like a little more tension so I'm gonna grab my hands of hair higher, and then I hinge, moving those blocks forward, I open my chest to support myself in my back extension, bring my head in, stomach strong, lift up, and rest. Alright. Moving on. Okay.

Moving into snake and twist, I'll remove the pad, and you have the option to do snake and twist on two or one spring. I'm gonna select two springs today. It gives me a little extra support. However, there's always an exchange of energy. So that means part of it is gonna be harder with the two springs.

Part of it is gonna give me more support when I come back. So again, I'm opting for the two springs. So I also opt not to put a pad on the foot bar, but I'll bring one hand to the shoulder block. My other hand goes exactly across from it, and I like to position my foot so that my heel is right in the corner. So that I have full length of the footbar under my foot for support.

Putting weight on top of my left foot, I lift my right foot and cross it over. I have a very strong shoulder engagement here. I rock through my hips, press the carriage out, and open my chest. And like elephant, I'm gonna lift from my center to bring that carriage back in. I push in combination with my leg and my hips, and I press out opening the chest.

I push down in my hands to come back in. Adding the twist, pushing from the left leg, I press the carriage part way out, rotate my hips, almost like I'm sitting down. It's touching, but there's no weight on that hip. I swivel up. And in one more time, push and swivel, unswivel, lift the waist, set my feet to the floor.

And roll up to prepare for the other side. All the same ideas, I get a good solid grip with that hand on the, block. My opposite hand goes exactly across from it. My foot is exactly on the corner. That way I know my setup is the same from side to side.

I put my weight into that foot, hop my left ankle over, and I'm gonna go for it. Pushing through the leg and my hips. I press out, like elephant, return back in. Again, rock through those hips, squeeze the glutes, lift from the middle, return, adding the twist, press halfway out, swivel my hips down, come out of it, keep that carrot still. Whoo. Last time, swivel my hips down.

Come right back up, return, ah, yay, yay, step to the floor, and roll back up. Alright. So before I continue, with corkscrew, I'll set up my straps for long spine massage, which I will do later, and that way they're ready to go. So I pull my canvas right through the handle and the loop. Same thing on the other side.

The canvas goes through both the handle and the loop. Once I link it shut, I pull it tight to make sure that when I do hook these up, my metal is exactly on the outside. And for now, I'm just using these tiny little pegs that should be fine. And then I'll come on to my back for corkscrew, and I'll do the big version right from the get go. So I'm still on the two springs, by the way.

I'm pulling against the metal handles behind the blocks really firmly so that my elbows are wide. I'll start with my legs up to the ceiling and take a jackknife to get them up and over behind me. My feet point up to the ceiling. I teeter to the right. My legs go forward with control, all the way over to my left, and then I roll up pushing into my glutes.

I've got space under my chin. I'm not crowding out my shoulders, come around and up, to the right, go forward, left, and up. Left forward. Right. One more time. Let's see if we can get bigger circles.

And left. Hold, lower straight down the middle, and TikTok. Take those legs to the right while you gaze to the left. Come back to center. Reverse legs to the left, look to the right, your elbows are wide, and come back.

Again, see if you can go a little further. Don't be shy about using your arms too. Keep those elbows pinned down. Let's do one more time each way. You're always looking to the opposite side.

And come back up, and we're ready for long spine massage. My canvas straps are already there. I get to put them on my feet at the same time just like short spine. I double checked that the metals on the outside and then I can pull down into position so that my tailbone is heavy. My arms are long and we move.

Press your diagonal. Roll up and hit your high candlestick position. Separate your feet. Reach forward through those big toes as you roll down with control, come together, roll up, separate push, try to get those hips to the ceiling. Let's do four, so one more.

And reverse, note, to have more control means I'm not gonna go super wide with my legs. They're only about as wide as my frame of the reformer. I've done four each way. I can bend my knees. Lift that headrest back up and complete the long extension strap series with five frogs and five small circles both directions.

My circles are symmetrical. They are small. My hips stay down no matter where my legs are, in space. Then, bend your knees, grab the canvas straps tightly from both sides so they don't slip around. Take them up and over behind you.

Toss them. Come on up. And you're ready for knee stretches. The foot bar comes up. The springs are on two full springs. My head rest is already up.

I'm gonna do the round, the flat back, and the knees off. All for as much flow as I can. So instead of doing three sets of three different exercises, I'm doing 30 sets of one. Here we go. Rounding out the back. Sitting low, knee stretches.

30. Carve out your center. Keep those shoulders broad. Four more in the round position, then we've just got 20 more and flat back, connecting to your seat, so you tighten your stomach, and five. Your chest stays open.

Last two, knees off, hover those knees. Barely off the mat. Push into your heels. Oh, five. Three, one, hold and rest.

And the fun part is I'm actually not gonna add springs I'll keep the two, which will make running kind of buoyant and fun. So parallel with your feet, press out gently because it's light. And just feel think the word buoyant is like a perfect word to finish up a hard reformer, but do remember there's more We're not cooling down just yet if you remember. It's just a it's just a pause. One more set.

Both heels high. Come all the way in. You're still on those two springs. Bring your arches to the corners of the footbar. Imagine you're pulling the bar with your feet so that you don't press the carriage out before you're ready.

Then press out pull with your feet. Notice how my toes are long over the front of the foot bar. I'm not shoving my heels against the bar. Press out pull yourself forward. Feel those hammies. Go four more, and stretch, and three, and stretch, and two, and stretch last time, roll it all the way down.

Okay. Like I said, there's more. We're onto the control push ups And you have options, you may gear out once, you may also gear out twice. So I'm gonna opt to gear out once. If I go an additional time, that's just gonna give me a little extra space between where my hands go and my feet go, which makes the springs feel a little lighter. It's a little harder to push against. But for now, like I said, I'm opting to gear out one time.

I'm gonna use the block, push the carriage forward, and put the block in place. Okay. So my hands go right to the blocks. I'm grabbing where I feel like I I simply have the most support and I have the best grip. And then my feet, I have to kind of plan ahead a little bit So that by the time I step up my second foot, my feet are in the middle, I'm gonna put my weight on my feet, and then I connect into my seat and press out so I'm gonna push a plank.

I'm gonna move that carriage, keeping it very small forward three times. I pick up one foot. Same thing. Three, two, one. Step it down, pick up the other foot. Three, two, one, step my foot down. Three, baby push ups.

Two, keeping that carriage still. And then I lift from my center, close the carriage completely. That way I can step to the floor with the utmost control, no banging, and then step off. Now, for the reverse, I'm gonna gear the carriage all the way back in, so I push it out first to get rid of my gear block. And then I pull the bar all the way to the front.

My springs don't change, but it will feel heavier. Then taking my hands to the blocks, my positioning is important. If you're right on top, you won't be able to push back. You're gonna load your wrists much too heavily. So I'm coming a little precariously forward initially.

I'll put my arches on the footbar, but that way, I have room to push back. And then I push back and kick. Do one more time. Each leg, then add a semi circle, up, circle around. Up, circle event round. Reverse.

Reverse. Ugh. Dips. Three times. Hold. And step off. You made it.

I hope you stuck it out with me. Thank you so much.