Classical Creative Reformer

Hi. I'm Kathleen Mangan. Today's workout uses the classical reformer order. You'll be moving a lot on one side of the body, which is great for extra challenge and coordination. You may be moving on one side of the body, but you'll be sweating everywhere. Come join me.

Okay. So I'm here on a Grotz reformer. You'll need a short box and the bar. As well as two sticky pads. And let's get going. So I'm on three full springs to start with footwork.

Lie down onto your reformer, starting with heels together toes apart, And you may begin, press out to long straight legs, release those shoulders, anchor your ribs, and bend back in. Press out nine more times. And keep those heels super lifted the whole time. Go four, and three, and two, and one. Come all the way back in changing your footing, right to your arches, you may press out, and give me 10 total. So you've got about seven more to go.

Keep the back of your neck long. You can scan your body for any tension that doesn't belong there. Go three, and two, and one. Come back in, change your footing. Come onto your heels with a hard flex foot, and 10 presses. Your shoulders are wide, your palms are pressing, your stomach is drawn in nice and strong.

And the glutes always initiate that press. I'm gonna throw a little surprise at you, bend back in, hold off on tendon stretch, grab your handles, leave your foot bar up, and set up for your 100 with that foot bar up. Press forward. Reach, take your big breath in, and a big breath out. Try pushing down on that foot bar to deepen your ab connection keep that deeper ab connection and then try lifting your legs again.

Keep pumping, work your breath in, and out, and in. And out, try pressing your feet down again, turn those glutes on, lift your chest, and then keep all those things happening, but lift your legs right back up. Just a smidge. Let's go two more times. And breathe out last time, and hold, and rest.

We'll move right into short spine. Again, I'm leaving my foot bar up for now, and I'm coming up to take out one full spring. So I'm left with two full springs. My headrest flattens down. And then I put the loops right over the arches of my feet.

Put those loops on at the same time by lifting your hips and pull your heels down. Here we go. Press long and forward and up with control, maintaining tension on that leather, bend at your knees, roll down unfolding as you go, and then pull your feet to your seat. Four more, press roll up. And bend, roll down, and feet to seat. Three more, press out to go up.

When you bend your knees, keep your neck long and relaxed, When you pull your feet to your seat, keep your neck long and relaxed. Last two, and bend. Roll down, recover last time. Press into those shoulders. Keep your neck long.

Your throat soft and relaxed. Your face relaxed. And roll down and pull. Great. So take the loops off. And for now, you can pull your handles forward, but hook them right back up on those tiny little hooks.

Lift your headrest right back up, and your feet go back to the foot bar For the last variation of footwork, which we haven't done yet, which is tend and stretch. So pull into your center. You're on the balls of your feet. Start with five. And four, and three, anchor those ribs, and two, and hold.

Now you're slightly turned out, lift your right leg up. You'll cross and do single leg circles, but as that leg lowers, so does your supporting foot, circle it right back up, cross, lower, lower, lift, lift, cross, lower, lower, lift, lift, rotate ever so slightly in both legs. Last two, you can smooth out the timing a little bit more. Now that you have it, reverse, open, circle around, lower, lower, lift, lift, open circle around, and up. Three more. Stay strong at your center. And two.

And one, hold. Lower that leg. When you put it down, your heels should be back in your original position for tendon stretch. Switch sides, cross first, lower, lower, lift, lift, cross, and around come up. Three more. You can smooth out those edges. Now that you've got it, last two.

Reverse, open circle around and a lift. Four circle around and a lift. Last three, and up, and two. Last time, hold once again. When you put that foot down, you should be right in your tendon stretch position.

Give me five more lower and lift. Last two, and one, bend your knees, come back in. Now you can lower that foot bar. And we've got coordination. Grab your handles that you put right behind your shoulder blocks, scoot down just a hair, and here we go.

Inhale press, open close, bend your knees, bend your elbows, inhale press, open close, bend your knees. Now let's switch things up just one leg at a time. Inhale press open the right leg and close, again, right, and close one more time, and close, bend your knees, bend your elbows again, press, add the left, and together. Push into your hands still. Keep those hips in your shoulders square, bend your knees, bend your elbows, and rest.

Okay. We're going into the second half of rowing. And you'll need just one spring on, so I'm taking off one full spring. And for shaving and hug, I'll sit. First, I'll snuggle up right up against the blocks.

And then work five sets of shaving. So your thumb and your pointer finger touch, your shoulders are down. All of your fingers are squeezing into each other so that your hands shoot forward like an arrow. And two, and one, open out to your side for just three sets of a hug. Go three.

And two, and one, and hold. Then cross your feet, the other one on top, shift forward and repeat. So you're several inches forward away from the blocks. The whole sequence will feel much more challenging by scooting forward. Give me four more sets of the shave, and three.

Again, all of your fingers are squeezing tightly together, and hold, give me a long line from your tailbone to your fingertips, open your arms, and give me three more sets of the hug, and open, and to push and open last time, hold, push out, and expand your back a little bit more, look at your spring and see those coils open up, open out wide to your side with control, and rest. Alright. Hook your handles up. Lift your footbar. And we're going into a front facing swan, where you'll need two pads and your long box. So place the long box down right in front of the shoulder blocks, and I just put my pads on top so that my body doesn't slide around.

You could probably get away with one pad I just prefer too. So then lie on down, facing your foot bar with your hands right at those corners, I'm not even really gonna grab it. And the reason is I wanna be able to let my hands spiral as I press. So my first action is to squeeze those heels together, lift the stomach, and then press out long and straight. Once I'm straight, I feel my shoulders funnel into my back, and then bend at your elbows, let them spiral out.

Press long, straight, and forward, and bend. Let's go two more and bend third time, rotate those elbow points to face the floor, and then come up in a back extension, press right back out. Again, lift and press. Last two up and press, last time, and press. Add one of each. Bend and straighten your arms.

One time. And press, lift straight up one time, and press, and bend, and stretch, and up, and press, last one, bend. And stretch, lift up, hold, hold, come in higher, come in taller, pulling your stomach more, and you can bend your elbows and rest. Moving into pull straps, lower your foot bar and take your two pads, and just get rid of them. That headrest can be down.

In today's pull straps, you'll actually be seated facing the back. So plant your heels on the headrest, but all the way into the box so that your foot position actually fires up your hamstrings, the muscles underneath your legs. Walk your hands up the straps towards the little buttons, your heels dig back, and start with a strong steady pull back. Pull those heels back also. Return your arms with control.

Go again. Pull back, lift your chest. Return with control. Let's go two more. Pull back.

Stay tall. Stay tense in your center. Last time. And return. Then change your grip, come out a little further so you're close to the bottom of the loop, and you'll make a semi circle of sorts with your arms. Don't be as high as your shoulders, definitely be at a lower angle.

But pull wide before you go back, go wide and towards your front. Think curve with your arm. You're working towards a semi circle and go three and pull, come out and front, and out, and back, out, and front one more time. Keep those heels pressing into the box. Last exercise, pull the loops through just like short spine again so that you've shortened your grip essentially and hold your palms up inside the loops. Bring your elbows right into the nook of your waist, keep a right angle at your elbows, and pull sideways, and then back to the front.

Pull sideways, and back to the front. So you're spinning your upper arm in the shoulder socket. Go three and return. Go two and return. Last one, maybe go a little bit further and return.

You're all set with that. Let's go into backstroke. Take your handles into one hand, and and add a second spring, a second full spring, and then each hand holds the handle while you sit all the way to the front of your box. Almost no box left. And then roll all the way down, bending your knees in, and your hands, and your straps are right over your your forehead. Here we go.

Lift up on one. Open two. Reach on three. Hold four. Hold five. Push more to bend in six.

Again, up, open, reach, and bend. Two more inhale, exhale, inhale, hold, try to curl up a little bit higher, and bend last time up, open reach, and bend. Going into teaser, two handles into one hand, swivel yourself up, take out one of your full springs, and you can lie right back down. Alright. Here we go. Pulling in at your center.

Roll your whole body up with your feet. Let's work those arms up and down three times. We're warming up to it. One, and lower. And two, and lower, and three, hold, roll it back down. Come right back up.

Let's work circles with your legs, just two each direction, lift, circle around, lift, circle around, reverse up, and up, hold. Now one circle around, lift, one circle around, lift, reverse, under out up and around, under out up and around, hold, roll it back. And we've got one more set. Come on up, roll it up. This is the salute.

Flip one palm down. Bend both elbows. The low palm goes towards your eyebrow, the high palm goes towards towards your hip. Press forward and up and switch. Bend both elbows.

And press, bend both elbows and press and flip last time, press and flip, roll it back, and rest. Alright. Flipping around to the back, let's do some hamstring curls. So cross your straps, pull those loops through once again, just like shorts mine. We're making a lot of good use of this setup today.

Flex your feet so your toes point up, go swiftly so that those loops don't fall off. Shift to one hip, and then just flip over and point your feet quickly. So now just adjust those straps if they moved on your feet a little bit. You're looking down at your springs, add one back on, put your forearms one over the other, up against the middle of the box. We'll start with both hamstrings at the same time.

Give me 10 poles. Find as much length out of those springs as possible as you're extending. And then pull in as tightly as you can. We've got about five more to go, and four, and three, and two, and one and hold. Now we are doing singles today.

So take out one spring. Catch just a little bit of tension in one leg that's not gonna work, a lot of tension in the leg that is going to work. And pull, and lengthen, and pull, and lengthen, keep this super deliberate, lift the thigh of the working leg just one more time. Pull, and lengthen. Switch side. So I'm keeping just a little bit of lift in my non working legs so my strap stays on.

And then I pull on the back leg and pull trying to lift the knee and lift your abdominals so that you're not using your lower back. You're using your hamstrings. Last time, and then carefully straighten your legs, you can let them slip off your feet. Poop and step off. Alright.

Moving into the long stretch series. We'll get rid of the box, bring it to the back, And I need one of my pads back, so I'm grabbing it now, and building my equipment from the front to the back, I'll lift the foot bar. Add one spring, so I'm on two full springs, and then I lift that headrest and put the pad on. So here we go, starting with long stretch. Your hands go to that foot bar, wide with a very strong squeeze with your fingers, set up your feet right away between those blocks.

Give me three sets here and then pause. Press through the legs and return, connect into the seat. Press through the legs. And return. Go again, press and return.

Now pick up your right leg. Keep the hips level. Press and return press through the supporting leg and return, step that foot down, switch, press, and fire up your supporting leg. Let's even things out again. Do two more and return last time. Come all the way in, and then come in so far forward.

You have to rest on your knees your carriage has been completely quiet the whole time, hopefully. Here we go. Connect into your seat. Open that chest and lift your body. Press through your heels and lift your chest. Let's go one more time.

Reach through those heels and lift your chest and hold. Get another inch out of it. And then fold yourself in half. For your up stretch, your heels are semi high up the blocks, your waist is hollow. Let's start with just two. So press out through your heels.

Lower your hips. Come forward, and up, press through your heels, lower your hips, come forward, and up now, take your right foot and hover it right above the block. Your hips are still square. Press through the left heel, lower your hips, roll it up, left, lower your hips, roll it up, and change, and right, lower your hips, roll it up, and right, lower your hips, roll it up. Step into your elephant, come a little far forward, so you're not totally in those blocks. Lift your center with heavy heels, Press out for now five times. One, and two, and three, four, stay still at your shoulders and pause.

Let's go around the world twice each direction. Starting with your right leg front, one, two, to the side. One, two, to the back, to the side. Step down, change legs, left leg. One, two whoops, one, and two, I let my springs boss me around for a moment. Last time, and step to two feet, and then step down. Next up, long back stretch.

I'm leaving the two springs on. We'll just go one direction today. So place your hands on that foot bar with a firm grip of your fingers, flex your feet, puff up your chest. Let's do two straightforward. So bend, press roll up. Return.

Bend, press roll up. Return. Here's the kicker. Bring your right heel on top of the bot block. Bend and press. Roll your hips up, return. Bend and press. Push through that left heel and return.

Switch sides. Bend and press. Push your right heel. Return, bend, and press push through the right heel, return, and step it down. You made it. Let's pull that pad forward.

For stomach massage. And again, we'll be doing some single leg for stomach massage. So I'm gonna leave it at two full springs. We won't go up any springs, not any more than that. Okay. So you're seated right to the front of your mat, your hands grip underneath. As usual, your feet go to the foot bar, find the lift in your back, start with two repetitions.

So press out. Lower and lift your heels, bend in. Again, press lower lift and bend. Press a third time, but remove your right foot. When you lower and lift your heels, your heels almost touch still. And bend.

So you really keep both legs in line with your center line. One more, bend in, and then press out, recover your right foot, switch to the left, lower lift, and bend. Notice if your hips start to skew, if things start to change, find that center line with your free leg. Last time, lower lift, recover, bend in. Put your hands on the blocks behind your back.

Same sequencing. Press out twice as usual, and bend. On the third one, lower your right leg, continue the movement with your left. Three, and up, and bend. Two, and up and bend. One, and up. Put your foot back and bend.

Press out. Swap out your left leg, lower lift, and bend. Reach. And bend, work the squareness at your hips. You can peek down every now and then. Last two, and bend, last one, lower lift, recover your foot, bend in. Don't change a thing for your reach ups.

Stay on those two legs. Press. Last two. And one. Add your twist, right side and bend. And left, just sweep through it, lift through your lower back as much as you can last time, and press, and give yourself one final stretch with your hands on that foot bar stretch through those hamstrings because we're about to do tendon stretch.

And bend your knees. Let's come back in. Okay. So for tendon stretch, just simple pull the pad forward. We'll go into a series of first doubles, followed by singles.

So here we go. Your hands sneak around behind you onto that foot bar. Step your feet up and position yourself on your arches right away. Let me tell you in advance, let rhythm be your guide. Rhythm saves. So press forward and up.

Forward and up one more time. Now swap out your left leg and your left arm and do two, press and lift, press carry that leg around behind you, press, and up press and up. Now go side, and back, side, and back, go back, and side, back, and side. Bring that foot down. Replace your right foot with your right arm and give me two, and up and two, and up that leg goes back, and pull back, and pull side, and back. Side, and back, back, and side, back, and side come around. And you made it.

Step off. Let's go into short box. Get rid of your pad. It got rid of itself for me. Bring it back.

Lower your foot bar. Lower the headrest, and then come grab your short box and your bar, and place it on so that it's right inside of those little metal circles and the shoulder blocks. I'm still on two outside full springs, and I'm going right into the round where I've got the strap to the sides of my feet, and then wrap your arms around your waist. Curve from the hips, and round forward. Keep those glutes on, rock it back, and forward one more time, rock it back.

And forward, and then reach up for your bar, go right into it. Flat back and come up. Your feet press out wide. You feel your glutes on, and side to side. Press down into your calves against the edge of your carriage to wake up those hamstrings one more time.

And side to side. Last one. For your twist and reach, we're gonna add a little something special, a little around the world. So twist and reach flatten out to the left and up and center to the left and reach, get long, and twist, come up and center, adding on one more time. Twist to the opposite side.

Come all the way up. At this time, bend down towards your back leg. So you stay facing the left. Come all the way up. Twist and reach, flatten out.

Come all the way around to the front, come up, come down towards that back leg, and up. Let's do one more time a little quicker. And bend, come up, stretch, flatten out, twist, come up, bend towards the back leg, sit tall, and stow your bar underneath your knees. Let's go tree. We've got three variations of you today, stretch your leg out, wake up those hamstrings, flex and point your foot with a little ankle roll, and then pull yourself in tighter, do your first tree squaring off those hips. Come all the way up and sit tall. Then take your back hand to the side of your foot.

Maybe your leg doesn't get all the way straight, maybe it does. But whatever happens with that leg, lift up your lower back, and then hinge back in your twist. See if you can touch the floor. If you can't, that's okay. Come all the way up. And then swap out your same side hand.

Now for the heel, I'm holding on to the handle on the other side of the box, and I'm gonna now go wide for a big side stretch. Stretching out the hip flexor of my supporting, hooked foot, as well as the inner thigh of the other side, and rest. Other leg. So fun. Make sure that strap is tight, work your three stretches just to wake up those hamstrings first, climb on up with a flex and a point, and ankle roll just to wake up that foot, pull yourself in tighter and take that yummy stretch back extend. Come all the way up, climbing up your leg.

And then your opposite foot, in this case, my right hand goes to the outside of my left foot, and I twist and push my leg as straight as I can get it, and I'm always working for lifting my lower back. And then I'll teeter over and try to touch the floor, come all the way back up to sit tall again, and then swap outside. So my same side hand holds the heel. I've got the handle on the side of the box. I go out wide to my side, and I go on back for a really yummy hip flexor stretch.

On my hooked leg, inner thigh stretch of the other, I come all the way up and then rest. Okay. So we've got side sit ups. And I'm positioning myself. I'm scooting, actually, as far to this edge of my box as I can. So I'm guaranteed to have a tight strap at my foot.

My other leg is right in the middle. My knee is in the middle, and my foot is hooked under my knee. I'll take my hands behind my head and bend to get down and bend to come up. I'll bend to get low. And bend to come high.

One more time, just like that, and lift. Then I'll stretch out and get long, and I lengthen to lower and I lengthened to lift, lengthened to lower, lengthened to lift one more time, and then I'll walk my hands out to either side of my frame and release. And we'll go into the other side. So I'm once again pulling myself as close to that back edge as I can. My foot is hooked very tightly.

I feel confident that strap has got me and my other knee is right in the middle of my box. I'll take my hands behind my head. And now I'll arc to get low and arc to curl up. I arc to get low I bend at the waist one more time before I switch it up. Now I'm gonna get long, and I lengthen to lower, lengthen to lift, lengthen to lower, length into lift one more time, and then I get to rest my hands on my frame, and I relax.

Alright. And you may walk yourself back up We are done with a short box. So I'm gonna grab the bar, and the box, and walk it to the back side of my reformer. And we'll blast forward in the order a bit and go right to mermaid. So my foot bar goes up. I'm still on my two full springs, and then I'll position myself right up to the blocks My knees are mostly stacked for the most part with just a touch of space so I can really get my right hip down.

And then my right arm comes up, and I get long to press out. Come all the way up, See if you can catch your balance for a moment, and then pull on that front block and counter stretch right off the bat. Come back to your balance in the middle, and press. And up and balance and stretch and up and press and lift and catch and stretch. Last time, up, and press, this one's a little different.

You're gonna lower that top arm down, and give me a big twisty long stretch. Come all the way up like a swan, press out one more time, come up, catch, and counter that last stretch. Other side. Spin around, scoot up right next to the blocks. Very close, your knees are mostly stacked with just enough space to energetically reach that left sit bone down.

Your left arm comes out, and side stretch, and up, see if you can hold your balance, and then pull against that front block. Really pull. And up. Let's go two more times. Press and lift and balance and pull, again, up, and press and balance and pull last time up, and press hold. Lower your left hand to the foot bar, press out. So you're in a big giant twisty stretch.

Come forward and in like a swan. Press out one more time, go to your side, come all the way up, and finish with your counter stretch. Alright. So once again, we're moving forward through the order all the way into knee stretches. So my springs are already fine.

They're on two outside springs, I'm starting with the round, but the trick today is that I'm gonna take my right hand behind my back and kind of coax my hips into this downward pointed shape using my hand to ensure that I'm doing it. Let's try five pushing through that left arm. O one, and two, feel your tailbone stay down with your right hand and hold switch sides. My left hand is pointing my tailbone down, five times one, and two, and three, and four, and five, and hold. For flat back, you go back to two arms. Let's even things out. And come in with a little bit more rhythm, and five in, in, and three, and two, and one, and knees off.

Prepare for single leg. Here we go. Stretch and two. Three, four, five, hold the carriage out, step it down, tuck your other knee in. Here we go. And five, four, three, two, one, hold it out step in.

Five more just to even things out on your double leg. Three, and two, and one, hold. Come in and rest. Okay. Running.

Thank goodness. Lie on down. Make sure that head rest is up. You're on the balls of your feet. This is just to bring you back to harmony in your body from the tips of your toes to the crown of your head.

Pull everything into your center and work those feet. Go five, and four, and three, and two, Last set, both heels high, come all the way in. Let's finish up with five sets of pelvic lift here, nice and standard, roll your hips up, and press away and bend. Keep those hips curved off of your mat while your shoulders stay broad, and your chest still stays open. Last time, come all the way in, and roll it down.

And before we finish up today, we've got one more side body exercise to do. It's star And today, I'm gonna allow you or maybe even ask you to gear your carriage out once. So I'm gonna remove my third spring, lift that foot bar, shift it forward, and get my stopper to hold it in its geared out position. Now the first thing we're gonna do to make sure that we're ready for star is just work the balance. So add all of your springs.

So the carriage doesn't move. It just wants you to set up your balance. Bring one hand to the middle of the foot bar. You can wedge your other foot at a sort of diagonal against the block. Shift your body weight over your arm and hover your free leg over the block.

Lift here, lift your hips, and then carefully step behind you to get off, come around to the other side. So your hand goes right to the middle of the foot bar. Place your foot at a diagonal. Expect the carriage once you are on lighter springs to move, which is why you want to shift your weight over that foot bar. Lift your hips to see if you can get a little bit more height, then bend your top leg carefully step around you And if you made it, you'll keep going back to the first side, and we'll do the full star.

So remove two springs. You are left with two full springs. Your hand goes to the same place. Your foot goes to the same place. That carriage feels a lot different now, though, so still press your body weight over your hand.

Let's press out and lift the leg and the arm. Two times. And up, your leg and your arm both go forward. As you press, your leg and your arm well, your arm goes forward, your leg goes back, And again, and to finish, take your leg and your arm together, they go up together, step to the floor with your leg, keeping that carriage quiet, and then just round forward. And stretch that hamstring.

Let's do the other side. Carefully place your hand on that foot bar. Your foot wedges to the block. Go slow and with control. Notice I'm going very slow.

You've got your balance. Start going out to the side. Two times to the front and front. Next up, your arm goes forward, your leg goes back, recover, and go. Now, your arm and leg go together.

They lift up together. Your leg steps behind you to the floor carefully, and you round over into that hamstring stretch. And it's official. You're all done. Thank you so much for taking my class.