Dynamic Ladder Barrel

Hi. I am Lara Hamlin here for a fun ladder barrel class for you today. This one will be pretty short and sweet. Listen to your body. Please modify what you need. There'll be some fun, more easy movements, and then also some challenges towards the end.

So I have my barrel set up where it's not slipping and sliding around the floor. This part is secure. My ladder is a appropriate distance for my body. Make sure your setup works for you. From here, we'll start seated.

Facing our ladder, sit on up there, and then hook your feet underneath the top rung where your heels can press into the rung beneath it, and then your hips scoot down a little bit. That way we're not right on top. We'll start with a little bit of our short box abdominal work today. Reach the arms in front, take a deep breath in, soften those shoulders, scoot from your waist and begin to round and contract back. I like to get my low back, the back of my pelvis really anchored to that barrel inhale to stay.

Excel low belly draws back, shoulders come over the hips, and then we lengthen back up tall at the top. Starting with this really simple abdominal work inhale and exhale to round and contract. I always hate to say it, but it's like you got punched in the gut. Your heels press forward. Your abdominals scoop back.

Those shoulders stay soft. Breathe them. XL, just scoop and curl back forward, lengthening tall through the crown at the top. Inhale. Exhale to round back. Maybe this time, taking it a little bit lower.

Maybe the mid back anchors to the barrel, inhale exhale rolling forward, rounding through the spine, pulling that belly button and waist back, inhale to sit up tall. Exhale, we scoop and curl. This time, maybe getting a little bit lower. Heels press forward. Abominals pull down to the barrel.

Spine wraps over the barrel. Maybe your head and arms reach all the way overhead. Inhale arms up, exhale chin over the chest slowly progressing to that full arch and extension if and only if your body is prepared, warm and ready. From here, we'll move into our flat back. So scoot your hips back a little further, bring those arms to eye dream of jeannie position, press into your heels, squeeze underneath your seat and zip up through the waist. Inhale, we take our flat back hinging back from the hip, exhale, we lift back up to vertical shoulders, pull down, arms, press into one another, inhale to lengthen and hinge back, exhale to lift back up to that beautiful tall spine for three, and up. To lengthening through the crown of the head, ribs drawing away from the hips, and ribs drawing towards one another. One more time, lengthen flat back, and exhale to sit tall.

From here, another little arm change, hands behind the head elbows wide, lift a little taller through the waist. We're moving into our twist. Inhale, we twist to the right. Press that left heel forward as you hinge back and reach long behind with that right elbow. Coming back up squaring off through the sit bones moving through center. Inhale, we twist to the left, press right heel forward as you draw back in that left oblique.

Chins stays lifted off the chest. We lift a vertical and move to center. Again, inhale twist. Axial reach, inhale lift, exhale center, one more leg that's left, and reach, lift, center, taking our around the world. We twist right lean back, stay low, chest to center to the other side. We lift twisted, move to center, reverse deep breath in. Deep long exhale to lower, square it off, twist from the waist, lift and move to center one more each side, inhale, exhale, challenge your breath capacity here.

Reach further. Lift and release those arms. Moving into our tree. Let's open up those hips, scoot a little bit lower to where you started for if you choose to roll all the way back. Right knee comes in hands behind that right hamstring, roll your shoulders back, point through your toes, leg extends high on the inhale, pull it into the chest as you exhale.

My left heel continues to press forward. My right sit bone and butt cheek reaches forward to square off through those hips. Right leg stays long, walk your hands towards your ankle, curl chin over the chest and forehead to right knee, right heel to the ceiling as you begin to shift back. That right glute continues to press forward. Clime on down that leg.

Let's go about halfway to start deep breath in. Exhale, climb up the leg as you breathe out. Two more times. Option to go a little bit lower. Maybe you stay holding on to the leg. Maybe those arms reach back. Inhale, sweep those arms around, exhale roll up through the spine, climb up to that ankle, well, once more rounding back, left heel presses forward, those left toes stay firmly wrapped around the bar for support, climb up your leg, reach the forehead to the knee, bend into the left knee point through the right toes, lift through your heart, hold that leg up, let's zip up through your waist, arms overhead, deep breath in, exhale bend that knee in to rest.

Second side, right foot firmly into our ladder, left knee in towards the chest, shoulders roll down, left leg extends for three. For two. On one, we keep it straight. Climb towards your ankle, forehead to the knee elbows, bend to the sides. Left glute reaches forward.

Left heel high to the ceiling. Begin to climb down that leg, rolling down through your spine, trying to square off through the hips, inhale and exhale, climb it back up. Deep breathe in, exhale, maybe taking it a little further this time, keeping those hips square. Maybe it's an extension of the arms. Keep reaching up through the heel, climb up deep and through that waistline once more inhale, exhale.

Beautiful stretch for the leg, for the back opening through the shoulders, working deeper into our core, make your way back up, tall at the top, bend into that right knee, point through your left toes, lengthen through your spine, reach the arms up inhale. Round back in towards that leg as you exhale off. From here, we're gonna walk our feet down to our lower rung. I like to bring them all the way down and then slide my hips down. We're gonna do a little bit of core work that you could do over a boseu ball over a small spine corrector.

But today, we're using our ladder barrel. So roll back and think of the middle of your back being at the very top of this barrel, feet are down, legs, hips, glutes completely relaxed the entire time. That is key. Hands behind the head elbows wide. That way we're really supporting our head and our hands and not gripping in our neck or our shoulders. Now I have this beautiful stretch I'm opening through my chest and I'm fully released in my hips, my pelvis, my sacrum.

Take a breath in to prepare. Lift just the chest up to about horizontal parallel to the floor. You'll notice that my hips stay relaxed into the barrel. I'm not clenching and my glutes are tucking. Inhale the chest to lower as an inch or two, exhale the chest lifts as I knit my ribs together focusing on those upper abdominals for three and lift.

Things straight up towards the ceiling, lift through the heart too and up one more time back and up to stay. Now we keep the chest lifted. We'll do the same thing, but with our lower body with some pelvic tucks. So your inhale here without released pelvis, exhale small pelvic tuck. It's tiny because I'm not using my glutes or my hamstrings, then I'd be up here, but then I'd be working the back of my legs versus my pelvic floor. So release the pelvis back, feel your low transverse abdominal scoop to curl and tuck in how pelvis releases. You might not even see any movement happening, but can you really connect deep into your transverse abdominals into your pelvic floor.

If you do it right, you will feel this tomorrow even with just a few repetitions. Hold the little tuck of the pelvis. Take a breath and lift the chest a little higher, and then exhale lift and twist to one side. I'm keeping the tuck of my pelvis. I'm keeping my pelvic floor.

My low TA transverse abdominals engaged. That's keeping my pelvis, my hip bones square to the ceiling. So it's just a small twist over the ribs. Inhale still lifted at center, exhale, little twist over the right ribs one more time each side breathe in, lift and twist. Feel that shake, inhale, working deep core muscles, exhale. Come back to center.

Lift the chest higher, maybe scoop the belly, lift the pelvis a little higher, with control, release the hips, and release the head back to that lovely stretch. Really challenging to do that work correctly. You'll know if you did or or you didn't, you know, be honest with yourself. Scroll all the way up with control. Lower those feet down.

We'll do a little more oblique work and a lovely side bend stretch. So the side of the leg The leg that's closer to your ladder comes back. Your front leg comes in front, and then lay your body down. So think hips over. We'll take our stretch to begin.

Ribs release over the barrel, right arm all the way overhead. Heels pressing back. I like to reach for this top hand, give myself a little extended stretch and pull. Breathe and breathe out, feel that whole outer IT band, outer glute, medial glute waistline lengthening. From here, hands behind the head elbows wide inhale, lift from that right oblique as you exhale.

Lowering back down, ribs hover or tap the barrel, exhale working from that right waist. Lateral movement here, side bend, exercise. For three and left. For two hips, collarbone square to you, one more over, and reach for your ladder. Take a side bend in the opposite direction, opening up that bottom waist, and then coming all the way up, spinning around for our other side.

So your feet stay where they are. If you turn to face your ladder and turn over your right shoulder, then you'll be set up for your second side, and you won't have to worry about the foot alignment. Moving into our second side, right obliques lower, left arm reaches overhead, left heel presses down and back to really elongate through that leg line, reaching for that top wrist if you can. Give yourself a little extra extended stretch and pull. Reach through the limbs here, open up through that side waist all the way through the side of the armpit out through the fingertips.

It should feel so, so good. From here, see if you can stay low and bring those hands behind the head, little tuck of the tail to make sure we're engaged to support our low spine, deep breath in to prepare, exhale, we lift from the waistline, inhale, we lower to hover or top the barrel, exhale to lift. As always, range of motion doesn't have to be huge here. We wanna make sure hips are staying square and released. Work is coming from the left oblique for two. One more up and over and lift to stay.

Take a hold of the ladder, reach that inner arm up, up, up, and then come all the way up to stand, and this time face your barrel. Moving into some extension, hyper extension of the spine for our swan, pelvis will be on the barrel. Feet come to the pilates stance heels together toes apart position towards the lower rung. Again, kinda depends on your height leg length here. I like to aim for about a 90 degree bend of the knees to start somewhere around there is a usually usually a good starting position. And then allow your body to drape all the way over your barrel. Arms overhead.

This part should feel so, so good, especially after the work we just did, opening up through the back and across the shoulders. From here, press into the feet squeeze your glutes and heels together. Be gonna float those arms up by the ears. Me stay bent. We begin to lift on the inhale. Take that back, bend as you exhale.

Inhale, start to reach forward on a diagonal with the chest. And then shoot those legs out arms to a tee. Now I'm in a long line flat through the body almost like a plank. Squeeze your legs together. Think of keeping them as straight as you can as you start to lift up up up up up arms overhead. Breathe it. Start to bend your knees round through your spine, zip up through that waist.

You slide back down to your starting position without just collapsing work against the gravity. We do it again. Inhale, we start to lift up. Acts, so we take our back bone. Inhale reaching long, exhale shoot it out. Squeeze the legs together, lift up up up up. Acts, I'll pull your abdominals up and away from the barrel as you lower onto it twice more lift and arch reach behind you, reach it forward, lengthen through the spine through the fingertips, inhale arching back, exhale pulling belly up and in, rounding contracting over the barrel once more.

Keep it fluid and back. Beautiful movement, beautiful exercise here. Make sure you can slide on the barrel. A lot of it has to do with the material of the pants. XL, belly pulls up we round and release. If you have a bar down here, you can hold it.

Let your legs hang. Give them a little shake. Allow the back to release. Take a moment here. Okay. I'll let it go.

These in between moments. That's why we love this barrel. Move your body all the way back. Land those feet flat on the floor. We'll stay facing.

Scoot your feet back. Let's go to parallel alignment with those legs. Hands on to the ladder. I like to have my palms facing forward, slightly pressing forward with the hips back to open through chest and shoulders. We'll take our stretches from here.

So right leg sweeps over to the left. And then up onto the barrel. That way we don't hit a foot and we focus on square pelvic alignment. Right hip drops down, belly zips up, right heel presses forward. Roll those shoulders back.

Beautiful stretch just here. If you can reach your arms up, take a breath in. And fold up and over that right leg, allowing hands head to release, keep flexing up through the toes, releasing through the hip, through the hamstring, and glute. Simple stretch today, deep breath in, exhale, maybe allow your chest to release a little further over the thigh, and then reach your arms forward and your body all the way up. And open wide. We'll turn over our left shoulder.

Right leg moves towards the front corner. Left leg turns out underneath us. That left hip lined up in line with the left heel and our ladder. Keep reaching your right toes to the ceiling. Left arm to the ceiling, inhale, slide that right hand along the inner right calf, and then think of reaching your left fingertips towards your right toes. Open up through that left side body without rotating from your hip. So my left glute keeps squeezing forward.

I'm still active in my body as I open up using the breath inhale, stretch a little further as you exhale. Coming all the way back up, point through the toes, take the ladder with both hands as you rotate We'll carefully bend our right knee down towards the floor and take a quad stretch here tucking the pelvis forward pulling up in the waist. If we're here, yeah, well, it's not cute, but then you're not getting any stretch out of this. So squeeze your seat forward. If you're tight here, I know I am, you're gonna feel this.

The more you press your hips forward and draw your legs together, the more you're actually gonna open up that right quad and especially the right hip flexor. Often, we're super tight so as area up in here, that's what we need to open up and stretch. Deep breathe in. Deep breathe out. Carefully take that foot off.

We'll spin around to do the other side. Feet parallel, palms pressing into the ladder, collar bones are open, left leg swings over and up, square hips, toes to the sky, deep breath in, stand a little taller as you exhale. Reach those arms up and start to fold forward over that leg, allowing the chest to release, keep that left sit bone reaching towards the floor and your left toes reaching towards the ceiling. Breathing into the stretch, never forcing anything. Acts, I'll take it a little deeper. Arms reach forward and all the way up.

From here, hands come back, left leg swings towards that front corner, and then I rotate to face you turned out on both feet, right knee tracking over right middle toe, left knee over that left middle toe. Reach the right arm up, lift through that right standing leg, and then stretch up and over sliding towards the inner calf. I like to take my gaze up to loosen through the neck, through the shoulders here, keeping that area soft, deep breath in. Can you flex your toes further up to really open up the back of that leg? One more breath in. Acts, I'll come all the way up.

Continue to rotate over the right shoulder, point through the toes, left knee lowers down to the floor, press the pelvis towards the ladder. Pull your belly button back to your spine and open through chest and collar bones. Deep breathe in. Think legs squeeze together, glute squeeze together exhale. One more inhale, feel that nice stretch through the front of the left quad, through the front of that left hip, and then carefully step all the way down.

Like should feel a little longer and looser as we move into some overhead work, be cautious. Make sure your chair is stable and not sliding all over the place. Sometimes we prefer to have it backed up against a wall. So safety first here. Allow your feet to separate about barrel width, maybe hip width or slightly wider, soft bend of the knees so your tail is anchored to that barrel. Reach your arms up and then dive forward.

Chen over the chest fingertips are going to reach for our pull that's underneath here or whatever you have that you can grab, knees can always stay softly bent, but pull your chest towards your thighs, feel this rounded shape of your spine. It's important we find this in between this set. Take a breath in, start to bend your knees, roll back up, reverse where you came from tucking your tail underneath you, start to round your body back over your barrel, reaching your arms up and overhead, and then reaching for your top ladder. Now if you have super broad shoulders, maybe you choose to go a little bit wider here. I always like to start at this top ladder.

Allow your shoulders to open up through your armpit, through the front of the chest and the back of the shoulder blades. Deep breath in. Let your feet, your legs, maybe shake out and hang a little bit. First and foremost, we wanna make sure we're comfortable with this mount of extension, hyper extension of the spine. Feet anchor back down, start to slide away, reach your arms up, peel your chin over chest, use your abdominals to round forward back to that forward fold. We're diving the head between the knees.

We're reaching our hands back for that pull, taking our forward stretch. Yeah. Feel the difference. You were arched. Now you're rounded, contracted. We want those areas to feel good in the back and supported. Bending into the knees. We do it all over again.

Breatading in. Breathing out. This time, maybe you take it to a lower rung allowing your shoulders, your spine to open a little further. Again, listen to your body. If this feels great.

If not, also great. Deep breathe in. Deep breathe out. Feet heavy into the floor, start to roll back up chin over the chest, taking it all the way back to that forward fold. Maybe that is all you do today.

It feels wonderful on the spine. If you've been standing vertical, maybe teaching yourself a lot during the day. Great way to end your day and your practice. Adding on, little more fun, little more spice, rounding back, reach for whatever wrong you feel solid with. Now make sure it's not just you're pulling away, but I like to kinda scoot myself forward or backward rather more. So I really feel like I can both press and pull.

You have to have strong grip, strong upper body to stabilize here, legs squeeze together. From here, pull your abs in, start by drawing your knees into your chest. Safe way to get here, press your palms into that bar, and then reach your toes back over your chest. We're gonna start with a roll over. Start to reach your toes towards the pole.

Maybe you touch. Maybe not. Once you arrive, press your toes there. Press your palms there. Flip your left leg up. Little bit of scissor work for those legs.

Feel the link through them. Reach through your toes. Lower your left toes down. Keep pressing hands and foot into the ladder and back into the barrel. Right toes reach up.

It's a little scary. That's okay. How fun is that? Joseph Pilates wanted to still a little fear in us. No surprise there. Both toes down back into the barrel. This time, left leg lifts reach it to the sky, right leg lifts to meet it.

Can you press your hands into the ladder? Squeeze your legs together, press your back, your upper back into the barrel and press your pelvis forward. Can we become vertical jackknife breathing? XL start to roll your spine back down into the barrel. A lot of ways to play around with this. These can always bend if you feel pressure in your spine. If you can, those legs lower straight use your core breathing. They hover, exhale curl back over, right back up to vertical toes to the ceiling, hands into the ladder, back into that barrel, fill your whole body working inner thighs glutes core. Upper back, really strong.

Begin to roll down through your spine. Maybe those legs continue to reach to the ceiling. Head is heavy. Can we do it one more time, deep breath in? Exale belly pulls down the legs float back and up. Think of a tall, beautiful spine.

I have no idea if I'm vertical. I hope I am, press the pelvis further forward, press your back into the barrel, reach your toes up, up, up, take a breath where you are, exhale roll back down bone by bone, upper back. Middle back, low back, lower those legs with controls, stay connected in your core, allow your feet to separate and release to the floor. It's there. I promise you. Release your arms, start to slide on down.

We reach our arms up inhale, chin over the chest, exhale. Take your time. Try not to get out of these positions too quickly even though we've come challenged. Towards the end, we kinda wanna, like, throw our bodies out, take your time. Enjoy this forward fold. Allow your body to release, head hangs heavy, knees soften, chest softens over the thighs, deep breath in, deep breath out.

Soft bend in those knees. This time we roll all the way up to vertical, arms can stay heavy towards the floor in four. Me stay soft, bone by bone through that back three. Head will be the last thing to lift to. Shoulders roll down, stand tall.

Hopefully, not dizzy on one. Lot of upside down work today. Of course, there's always more we can do on this super fun piece of apparatus. But that is all I have for you today. Have some fun with it.

Be safe and enjoy.