Fluid Wunda Chair Flow

Hi. I'm Kathleen Megan. The window chair is often used as a tool to address unique needs. However, I've designed a class that takes out the guesswork of what to do next. It's designed to flow your body through all of the body orientations that you would do in a traditional classical pilates mat with minimal spring change. So let's get started.

Beginning with the 100, you'll sit right at the front edge of your chair and use your chair as your mat. Stretch your legs out long and straight. Connect into your seat. You may start your 100. Big breath in.

And a big breath out. Only nine more to go. Keep those glutes on to help support the weight of your legs and press into your heels. And seven. And breathe out.

With the smaller chair as your mat, you're able to get those arm pumps to fill a little bit more depth of space. Use it, big breath in, and exhale. You obviously also have much less support So it's quite the challenge. Here we go. We're almost finished. Keep your chest high.

Cloots on. Last time. Hold and bend your knees, you may grab your legs and rock up. So to transition into what would be the roll up, we do the push down. And I've got the chair set up on one middle spring already. I'm gonna step a little closer than my full foot's length. So about half a foot's length away, heels together toes apart.

My arms come to the ceiling. I'm likening this to the roll up as I'm rolling down into the pushdown, my hands go to the pedal, and I bend my body forward to press the pedal. I lift from my center and that hip curve to come back up and press and lift, and press, and lift one more time, press and hold. My weight is as far forward into my hands as I can get and still move that pedal three times, and two and hold, lifting from my center first. I round through the hips, round through my back, and I roll all the way back up.

Now if I were to do the traditional mat order, next I would do the roll over. So I'm still on one middle spring, and I'm lying down onto my mat holding the pedal. The one middle spring has a little bit of give, but it's not very stable, so I have to find the stability in my center. Taking your legs up to the ceiling, your hips and your feet go up and over the chair, press into the chair, feel your feet on it. Separate your feet.

Roll down, keeping that pedal stable. Come forward with your feet and right back up and over. Glide your feet over that chair to work your stretch. Roll down. Come forward together.

Let's go two more. Slide your feet on top. Separate. Roll down. Come forward in together one more time.

Feel that chair, and now reverse the direction. Let's flex our feet on the reverse. Find the chair on top. Come together stretch, roll it down. Point, open lift flicks, find that chair, roll it down two more times.

I'm working to keep that pedal as stable as I can, and it's only semi sprung. Last time, find the chair, come on top with your feet, and press roll all the way down, bend your knees, let go of the pedal, and you can bring yourself all the way up to standing for what would next be your single leg circles. Instead, I'll do the standing press down. So I measure myself out about a full length distance with a slight forward hinge at the hip, just ever so slightly, and I'll take my hands for now just at my hips. The pedal is very, very light, so I'm gonna pull it down and towards me to pull my hip into that socket and lift it up and through.

Again, I pull down and towards me deepening the waist, finding length in my lower back and up and through. On the third time, I pull it, and I suspend it. It's not all the way down. It's not all the way up. And I work to round my body keeping my hips square as low as I can get, stabilizing the pedal, and then I lift it two more times.

Pull back in that hip Put pressure on the side of your foot without letting the pedal collapse. Round forward, roll up and lift the pedal one more time. Pull dive forward, keeping steady pressure on that pedal as light as it is. It's very hard not to let it collapse all the way. Roll up, return your pedal, stand firmly in your supporting side, take that leg up three times, and step it around. Phew, give yourself a little break in between.

Other side, cross the leg over You're on the side of your foot, a little rotation on the supporting foot, and a matching rotation on the lifted leg. Again, pull the pedal and your hip back into that socket and return. We'll do this three times working square hips and a tall center. Now we add on, pull down. You've got that pressure on the side of your foot. You're not letting the pedal lift.

You're not letting it drop to the floor, you're getting low, roll up, and return the pedal. Again, pull down, grow taller through your center, dive the crown of your head towards that knee. Work your balance, work your hip stability, roll up, and lift the pedal. Some of you may be able to get your head down a lot lower than I'm able, but this is This is where I'm at today. That pedal is in the middle. My head gets low.

Roll up. Record your pedal. Lift that leg. Now three times keeping your hips square one. And two, And three, cross it over, shake it out. So I've opted to omit rolling like a ball.

So instead, we'll go forward into your ab series once again on top of the chair. Here we go. Starting with your single leg stretch, your knees are in, chest up, stretch one leg out, give your bent knee a double pull, and switch, and pull pull. We'll go six sets total So three more and use your grip on your shin to help you lift your chest a little higher. This is our last one going into double leg stretch, Reach your arms one way your legs the other. Huge expansion.

Exhale empty your lungs. All of the air out. Inhale stretch. Exhale all of the air out. If you wanna add on a little something fun here, hold your legs out, let your upper body go into a yummy backbend, pull your knees back in, curl up.

Same thing one more time inhale stretch. Take your upper body back over the chair. It should feel so yummy. Bend right back in and hold. Going right into scissors, grab an ankle, double pull.

One one. One one. Two two. Two two. We'll go to six sets. Try flexing your feet for your last three for a little deeper stretch. Last one.

And let's take a break before a lower lift. Quick break. Just hold behind the knees. Go right back down. Your knees in, your legs up, take your hands behind your neck. Let's do three, two, one, and a up again, two, one, and a up, a three.

Two, one, and a lift, just one morph, and a up, and a crisscross, and crisscross. Whoo. That loss of mat behind my shoulders really makes a giant difference. Hold behind your knees, and rock up to sit. Alright. So you're still on one middle spring. It's time for spine stretch forward.

So position yourself so that with a straight back, you have to hinge slightly forward to get the palms of your hands on the center of the pedal, flex your feet, and initially just focus on your lift, the lift of the back. The pressure from the pedal creates lift from my seat to the crown of my head. And then as I release the tension, I try to keep that lift. Go again, connect into your seat. Everything from your base of your hips to the crown of your head is levitating.

Come on up. Let's go one more time and press, find your lift, grow taller, and then pour a little bit of your energy out down and forward without slumping in your back. Roll up and sit tall. Let's go one more time, press down, connect into your seat, and then start to create so much lift that your energy starts to pour out of the top of your head. Roll all the way up.

And rest. Now to connect the dots to spine stretch to your open leg rocker from the mat, you have to come off of your sit bones and behind your sit bones with a little shift of the hips, and then you can lift right back up. Do that three more times. Use the pull back of your waist and the shift of your hips to move the pedal. I'm not doing it with my arms.

I'm doing it with my center. Two more times, curve your hips to drag that pedal towards you and lift Last time, pulling at the center, try to pull your lower back and your belly as far to the back of the room as you can, and roll up and sit tall. Great. So going into corkscrew, come back to your back and lie on down with the same subtle pull against this very light unstable pedal. Take your legs to the ceiling and then invert your feet right over to the top of the chair just like you did before.

This time, slide your legs over to the side Come up to the opposite side. Come right back up and graze the chair. Go the other direction. Come right back up and graze the chair. Let's add on. Point your feet to the ceiling.

Use that pedal as light as it is to help you stabilize. Come over on top, point up to the left, come around, and up one more set, teeter to the side, come forward, teeter to the other side, touch the top and a lift last time, come around, and up, higher, higher, higher, roll right, down the middle, and rest. You can rock up and prepare yourself For what would be the saw. So we'll do the push down from the side. I'm gonna line myself up the middle of my body with the front edge of my chair.

Take both arms to the ceiling. Rounding forward, I lower my left hand to the pedal while my right hand keeps going to the ceiling. Keeping my hips square, I lift the pedal and press. Lift and press one more time, press hold, pump three times, keeping my hips and shoulder square, and hold, start your roll up sweeping your top arm down and come forward and together with your arms when it makes sense. Going into a crossed version, now my outside hand comes to the pedal, and I still press it down squaring off my shoulders and hips, and I lift it three, and down, and two, and down, reaching up with my back arm, three pumps, one, and two, and three, hold, lift from your center, lose the tension on the spring, and then roll up with both arms when it makes sense.

Come around to the side. Let's go the other direction Both arms come to the ceiling, glutes on, sweep down to the pedal with your inside arm. Your outside arm reaches up, lift from your center. Working your square hips and square shoulders is harder than you'd think. One more time, press and hold, go three pumps, two, one hold, lift up, returning both arms to the ceiling at the same time, going back into your cross position.

Your left arm goes to the pedal. Your right arm reaches high and a lift and press and two Keep that tailbone rounding on your way up, press and hold three pumps, one and two and three hold, lift right through the middle. Take your arms up to the ceiling. Come out wide to your side. Alright. So we're ready for swan.

So grab a pad to keep you from sliding and put it right at the front edge of your chair. Note, I'm still on one middle spring. I haven't changed at all. So shift your body weight forward so that your hips come to the pad, and your hands are wide towards the front, outermost part of the pedal. Connect into your seat.

Drop back with the heels of your hands and extend your back. Link them back down, pulling your stomach in. Go again and allow your feet to drop a little bit. So that you're able to connect into your seat and not just overuse that lower back. Go again, come on up, lengthen back down, do three pumps. One, and two, And three, now we'll go all the way into the dive.

Lift high with your chest. Now lift your legs to take you down. Press into the pedal to come right back up. Lift the legs to keep you down. And up third time, chest up, come high, pick up your stomach, lower your pedal, bring one hand to the chair, carefully step your feet to the floor while you lift the pedal.

So now in place of single leg kick, we'll come down onto our backs for some hamstring presses. I'm still on one middle spring. Lie on to your back. Place your feet onto the pedal together completely so that you're at about 90 degrees at the knees, and you'll pull the pedal all the way down to the floor and pause. For now, remove one of your legs, and then command the pedal with just the one side and pull down and stretch up.

Pull down and stretch up. Notice if you're wiggling your ankle. Try to avoid changing the pressure of your foot on the pedal or the way your foot is oriented. Pull down and hold, swap legs. So we just did five. We'll do five on the other side.

Extend the knee ever so slightly. Pull the pedal completely down. Four more, And meanwhile, your free leg is just up, and it's meant to be relaxed. If you have tight hamstrings, you can keep that knee bent. I don't want you to have a straight leg at the expense of gripping your hip.

One more time, press and hold. Now in place of double leg kick, you'll bring both feet down again, separate your feet ever so slightly so they're about hip width apart. And you'll start by freeing up the pedal and then push down into your arms to roll your hips up. Your chest should be stretching, your hamstrings on. Now keep your hips high, pull the pedal towards you with control, try to get it to the floor without that little flop.

Roll your back down and then lift the pedal. Roll your hips up, press back through your shoulders, pull in with your feet. Snake your spine back down and lift it up. We'll go one more time. Roll your hips high.

Pull with control. And roll it down, lift it up. Now we get to do the reverse, which is actually the harder of the two. Pull down, roll your hips up and get that pedal in the air with your hips still in the air. Roll down. Two more times. Pull roll your pelvis and back up and press.

Roll it down. Last time, pull that pedal down. Roll your hips up and go for it. Get that pedal high. Roll your back down and rest. You made it.

Rock yourself up, and we do our first spring change. So come around to the back. I've got it on one middle. You need two springs. I'm going to select one top and one middle.

So I'm actually only moving one. I don't need my pad that's been here anymore. And I'm going to do in place of thigh stretch table is a perfect exercise to connect into the back of your legs and stretch the front of your hips, just like thigh stretch does. So I push into the back of the chair with my hands, my heels are together, my toes are apart, that pedal is up. In one swift movement, I work to get my hips up, I already feel the thigh stretch, I'm gonna do 10 pumps here, one, up, two.

Each time, I'm trying to get my hips a little higher, and my knees a little lower so that I actually stretch the front of my legs. Of course, in combination with all that hamstring work, two more, and hold, roll it down, give yourself a little break. We'll blast forward ever so slightly, and in place of shoulder bridge will do table with one leg. Same setup, press into your arms, lift your chest, get your hips high, pulling the stomach, reach one leg long and forward, five presses, four, three, two, work to keep those hips square, and replace your straight leg. Switch sides, five, four, three, two, one, replace, and melt your spine back down.

Take a breather. Step off, we've got yet another spring change. This one may be a little more unexpected. In place of neck pull, which articulates the lower back, we are going to do a version of teaser that is no springs. So I've taken off the springs while I'm holding the pedal. I've not let it go.

It's completely all my weight, all its weight is in my hand. And I need the pad in place for the teaser I'm about to do. I hold the pedal up with my hands and I sit towards the back curvy edge of the chair. Again, I've got that pedal with my fingertips, and I'm gonna pull my knees in, stretch my legs out, and let my arms straighten. So I've got a pretty good grip on the side. Just like neck pull, I rock backwards through my lower back, and then I pull forward.

Instead of all my body weight, I also have the weight of the pedal. Rock back. Bend that lower back. It's key, curl forward, exhale two more times, rock through your hips, feel the edge of the chair against your lower back. Curl forward, bend that lower back.

Last time, rock through your hips, let that pedal go, and pull your stomach in, and then all you do is bring your thumb back to the top. You've still got the weight of the pedal. And we're gonna switch those springs back to one middle so that you can let go. So moving into what would be spine twist, I'm leaving the pad there where it was. I'm leaving my new spring setting, which is one middle spring.

And instead, I'm gonna do part of the twist series. So pressing the pedal down, my right hand is in the middle. I'm gonna take my free hand and bring it to the edge of the pedal so that I can walk my right hand to the back of the pedal. Both arms are straight, but I'm only on my fingertips of my front hand. My feet flex. I'm twisted as much as I possibly can be, and I'm gonna lift that pedal like a swan, a twisty swan, and press it right back down.

Two more times, lift up. And lengthen down. Third time, keep your feet glued together and press. And then to continue, we get to split the legs. It actually should help you get a little bit more rotation Try to keep your legs level as you lift that pedal.

They'll want to balloon up and down. Don't let them. Come right back up, big twist, stretch into a deeper split. Come right back down. Third time, work your back extension while you're twisting your spine, lengthen back down.

Your feet can come together, bring your right hand back to the middle of the pedal, your front hand to the chair, and press yourself up. Same thing other side. My hip goes right into the middle of the pad. Initially, I push the pedal down with my hand in the middle. I establish my strong straight legs And then I can bring my other hand to the pedal to widen my back hand.

They're both splitting the pedal evenly, and then extend your spine, come on up in that twist, lengthen back down. Go again, lift up, open the chest, work to keep your feet glued together. Third time, keep your length, double up your twist, and then split your legs Get a little twistier if you can, come up, and lengthen back down. Keep reaching through your back leg and lower. Third time, come all the way up, up, up, stretch into your biggest split so far, bring your back hand to the middle, feet together, one hand to the chair, and press yourself all the way up.

Alright. Let's add a spring. So I'm taking my middle spring, and I'm leaving it as is, and I'm adding a top spring. So I'm left with one middle and one top spring. And I can get rid of this pad, and I'm coming around into tendon stretch, which will turn into a one legged tendon stretch to line up with your side kicks.

So your hands come to the front of your chair. Your feet will be on your arches, press the pedal down, stand, and really secure your grip there. So your hands aren't passive. Grab the front of that chair. And then shift forward just enough or pardon me, shift backwards just enough to lift that pedal and then lower your hips.

Let's go two more times. Lift that pedal. And lower, again, up, and down. Here's where we get to our side kick series, the outer hips. Shift your weight into your right foot. Quickly swap out your left hand and your left leg.

Lift up three times one, and two, and three, take that leg back, o one, and two, and three, take it side, o one. Two, three, and quickly swap it out, quickly swap out your second side. And here we go. Up. And two, and three to the back. One, lift your hamstring of the free leg.

Up back to the side, o one. Two. Three. Quickly swap out your feet. Take a seat and lift that pedal up.

Okay. Moving on, in place of swimming, we'll do both flying eagle and swimming. So come to standing and back around to the back to take off that top spring so that you're left with one middle spring again. Here we go. You're back onto your mat, onto your stomach, and you can lie down so that your arms are very stretched to get the heels of your hands on that pedal.

This is one of the few times that you're shrugging, and it's just to feel the full length of your back. So that when you do the exercise, you feel the complete opposite. You feel the connection into your back. Now I'm not dropping the pedal all the way. It's still hovering so that I'm in my muscles, not just resting on the pedal.

Lift your arms, lift your stomach, rest back down. Allow that shoulder stretch to happen. Connect into your seat, pull down against the pedal, open your chest, lift your stomach even more. Lift the pedal, find your length, and rest back down. Third time, come right back up and hold, pick up your legs ever so slightly, go for your swim.

I'm still loading the pedal with the base of my shoulders, but it's helping me lift my back. Take a big breath in, and a big breath out, one more set, big breath in, get a little higher, big breath out. And lift the pedal, lengthen back down. And you can take a quick little break to stretch out your back, maybe walk your hands from one side of the mat to the other. And then rise back up, and we go into side bending.

So kneeling mermaid, Come about an arms with distance from your pedal, knees are together, stomach pulls in, your outside arm can lift high. Lift your energy before you go to the side. And put your body weight into that pedal noting that your weight is even on both knees, and then come up, let your hands slide back so you're fully neutral. Go again, lift ups at tall, find greater lift to move the pedal. Maybe you get it a little further this time.

Come all the way up. Third time, lift up, create length and space in your back, come all the way to your side, come through and up. Now here's the fancy way to get out of it. Cross your forearms, flip your toes, and push yourself off your knees to standing. Coming around to the other side, we'll do our fancy way to get into it, cross your forearms one over the other, Look down so that you're aiming your knees right in the middle of the mat in front of the chair, kneel down, and then set yourself up.

Again, find your lift and length. Use that to move the pedal. Work to keep your weight even on both knees. Come on up, go again. Lift up and sit tall.

Press into that pedal. Your knees are pressing together also so you're in those inner thighs come all the way up third time, come on up, add your side bend, get a little deeper, a little deeper, a little deeper, come through and up, give your arms a little fan around to cross your forearms, flip your feet, shift back with your hips and push yourself up to standing. Okay. Moving on into twist teaser, which is a good correlation to boomerang. Take a look at the top of your chair. Draw an x from one corner to the opposite corner of your mat and picture where the little diamond is left on your chair.

You'll place your body in that line, in that diamond shape. So one of your seat bones is on, and one is certainly off, but it won't make a difference because once you lean back behind those sit bones, you've got full support of the chair. My inside foot is crossed over. I'll take my inside arm up and over to find the pedal. My outside arm lifts and in two long separate reaches with my legs and my arm and opposite directions, I roll onto my right hip, and I reach low past my arm.

I come out with my high arm, work that energy to bring me back to my seat, do it again, lift stretch in two long separate directions, roll onto your hip, come past your opposite arm with a twist, reach long to come all the way up, Let's go one more time, reach away, roll onto that opposite hip with control, sweep yourself around, come all the way up, and reach both fingertips towards your toes. Other side. So again, you've got that x. There's an imaginary line and a diamond, half a diamond that's created with that. Sit your body into that shape. Shift behind your sit bones and bring your inside leg crossed over.

There should be lots of room off to your side so that you can roll. Take your inside arm up. Find the outside of the pedal. Reach to the ceiling. Roll onto your hip and reach past your hand on that pedal.

Get low. Get twisty. The more you reach out, the more control you'll have. Two more, lift, rock onto your left hip, reach all the way around past your free arm, or your pressed arm, come through, and up Last time, lift, stretch, and roll. Twist past that arm on the pedal, come through all the way up, Let go, reach forward, and rest. Alright.

Control balance, one of my favorites when using the chair. Lie right back down to your mat. You've done this a few times now. Grab hold of your pedal and pull it halfway down. Take your legs to the ceiling and then lift up and over, find the inside of your chair and put pressure up against it.

And then sweep your right leg to the ceiling and you should be able to get your hips nice and high because you have the support of the inside of the chair. Square off your hips. Lower that leg. Switch sides press your other leg up high, pull in your stomach, reach your hips square and lifted, and lower. Let's just do one more set. Reach to the ceiling, maybe a little extra forward here since you can.

Come back down last time. Reach up, up, up, come back down, recover slowly. You can cross your legs and come to standing. And we'll finish our mat sequence with a few more exercises, turning one middle spring into two middle springs, and we'll do push ups. So today's version of push ups, you line your body up with the front edge of the chair. That is your center line. One hand to the top, one hand to the pedal, and you have to bend the arm that's the top to get your shoulders square.

Walk yourself out into a plank, give me five push ups. If you keep your body in line with the front edge of the chair, it will feel like your arm is going to the side a little bit. That's correct. And hold, lift your hips, and come back up other side. So again, I'm using the front edge of the chair as my center line.

One hand is in the middle. One hand is to the pedal. My hand that's on the chair has to be or the arm has to be bending to keep my shoulders level. I'll walk out and do five push ups. Meanwhile, the front edge of the chair stays in my center line the whole time. Last two, and hold, lift your hips, walk your feet forward, and come on up.

Last but not least, So I've left the chair on two middle springs, which is a little different if you're doing going up front in mountain climber than you possibly learned, but we're gonna go with it. So step the pedal down. One foot to the back of the chair. Shift your body weight forward. Pull forward with that back leg.

Keep your front heel heavy. Let's do four times. Three, and two, and one, hold it. Now, lower your pedal to hover off the floor. Round your body down.

You've got a 90 degree bend in this leg, and then we start to pump for mountain climber, seven, six, five, 432, one, rolling up eight, seven, six. Five, you're halfway there by four, three, two, one, eight to the top, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, Two, one, going down. Two, three, four say hollow in your center, six, seven, eight, changing legs. Other leg up, bring your whole body into an upright position, gather your energy, glide that pedal up. And lower.

We did four on the first side. Let's do four on this side. That's two. And lower. Three four Here we go. Lower your pedal to hover off the floor.

Round forward, we've got eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, rolling up. Eight, seven, six, five, halfway, three, two, at the top for eight, up, seven, up, six. Five, four, Three, two, going down for eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Oh my goodness. Oh, we're not done yet. Little grand finale for you. Walk your hands to the back for pull ups, shift your body weight forward, get those glutes on, pull your pedal up, round through your hips, and lift, and lower, carve out your waist. Squeeze those heels.

One more time. Hold. Hold. Hold. Lower your pedal all the way. Walk your hands back to the middle, and lift your pedal, and you guys are all done.

Great job.