Full-Body Magic Circle

Hi. I'm Zola. Today, we're doing a reformer workout that's more on the restorative side. I'm using a magic circle today, and I'm on a balanced body reformer starting with one blue spring. Let's get started. Let's walk to the front side of the reformer standing pretty close to the platform. My thighs are almost touching the foot bar here.

Reach your arms up to the sky. The legs are hip width parallel. Soften the knees a little bit and roll the shoulders onto the back, take an inhale. Exhale round yourself down, keeping your hips over top of the ankles so we're not shifting forward, and the hands go to the front of the carriage. Let's just press the carriage up and lengthen the spine.

Open the chest, lift the chin, maybe do a little wiggle. And then to come back in, you curl the tailbone under, relax the head. Carriage comes home. That feels good on the upper back. And again, press the carriage out.

I'm going to a flat back here, little cat cow, sits bones reaching up to the ceiling, and then to come back I curl the tailbone under. So my abdominals are engaged here. Relax the head. One more time, press it out. Just waking up the spine, waking up the body, and then roll it back up. Take your hands off the reformer, roll yourself all the way up.

Circle the arms down, and let's go into our footwork. So grab your magic circle. I'm gonna lift my head rest up here because I like it that way. I'm changing my springs to red, a green, and a blue. And I'm placing my legs through the circle going on to my toes.

Now Place the paths of the circle above the knees on the outer thighs and then press into that circle. Toast are on the footbar parallel. Now press the legs out to straight and readjust the feet so that when the legs are long, you're still pressing able to press into that circle. So make sure you're not sickling the feet or supinating the feet, stand tall in those legs. And from here, continue to bend, and stretch.

So in this position with the feet kind of wide parallel pushing into the circle, it's very easy to favor the pinky toe side of the foot. And we're just trying to avoid that. Two more here. Bend and stretch one more. Bend and stretch. Let the carriage come in.

Same thing on the arches of the feet. Press out and make sure you're still able to push into the circle when the legs are long. And continue to bend and stretch. Back ribs are heavy. Caller bones open wide.

Two more. One more. Come all the way in, and then go to the heels. Same thing for resting out and pulling in pinky toes pulling back. Outer hips working here. Four, three, two, one more time all the way out, all the way in. Go back to your toes for a little tendon stretch.

So legs are wide. They're about hip width apart. The heels go down. The heels go up. Heels go down.

Heels go up waking up those calves, opening up the Achilles tendon. Out or down and up three more, down, down, down, up, up, up, as you go down, feel the stretch, use your seat to help you lift your heels one more time. Heels come up and carriage comes in. Now from here, take the legs out of the out of the circle and roll yourself all the way up for a spring change, one red and one blue or you can do two red depending on how much tension you want today. Reach your arms forward and roll yourself all the way back down.

Place your heels on the bar. Keep the circle in your hand and just press the legs out to straight. Once they're straight, just make sure you're centered. Right leg comes to tabletop, right hand on the opposite pad. My left arm will just stay by my side.

Find the scoop of the abdominals and use that to squish into your circle three times. Three, two. One hold that you do one bend and one stretch. Thigh bone pulls back palm presses forward three. Two. One.

Bend and stretch. Do that two more times. Squeeze three. Two. Hold the squeeze as you bend. And as you stretch one more time, squeeze three. Two, one, bend, and stretch. The circle goes into the hands.

The arms lengthen up to the sky. And so does the leg. I have a little turn out in that leg. As the carriage comes in, I lower the leg. As the carriage goes up, I lift.

Arms are stable. Squeeze into that circle using not just the palms, but the upper back. Two more. Down. And up one more. Down, press out and hold. We do single leg circles here.

Cross the leg over. Down around and up. We don't have the support of the arms on the mat, so maybe the circles are a little smaller than normal one more time. And then four times the other direction out. Down around and up.

For three. Standing tall in your left leg. One more time out. Down around and up. Find your heel on the footbar.

Let the carriage come in. Give your hip flexors a moment. And then press right back out. Place the pad on your thigh and on the left hand. Arm reaches by your side on the right side, and we do three squeezes.

Squeeze three. Squeeze two. Squeeze one. One bend and one stretch. Squeeze three. Squeeze two.

Squeeze one. One bend and one stretch. Keeping the waistband of your pants going evenly across Meaning the left hip isn't hiking up to your ribs. Good one more time. Squeeze and squeeze. Hold the squeeze as you bend and as you extend. Grab the circle, stretch the arm, stretch the legs.

And leg goes down as the carriage comes in, press it out. Try to let both legs arrive at the same time. Squeeze into that circle. Two. One more time, lift and hold single leg circles over, down around and up.

Three, two. And one, reverse your circles. I'm trying really hard. To keep my right hip down on the mat as my leg circles. Two more.

And one more time over, down around and up. Take the heel on the foot bar and bring the carriage all the way in. From here, I thread my legs through the loop again, and then take my heels on to the foot bar. I'm just keeping the feet relaxed. I'm not flexing hard or anything.

Just let them relax. And heels are hip width apart pushing out into that circle. So from here, just press out again. Press out and hold and press out. For eight tailbone heavy, Don't curl the tailbone under to press the thighs out.

Five more, five. Squeeze and hold for three. Two. Now hold the press From here, make sure your head rest is down and roll the hips up into a bridge. So curl the tailbone under.

I'm only lifting as high as my low ribs can stay down first. And then I roll right back down. And again, I lift. Maybe I lift a little bit higher this time. And then roll right back down.

Staying low to start just so I can make sure I'm not pushing with my upper back, and I'm truly using my glutes and my hamstrings to roll into my bridge. Good two more, maybe. You go even higher as long as the tailbone can stay curled under. On this next one, lift and hold. Keep pressing out into that circle.

Caller bones wide. Press the carriage out and pull the carriage in. Keep the tailbone curled. For us out and pull in. Maybe your carriage finds the stopper, maybe your carriage doesn't.

Two more here. For us out. And pull in one more time out with the carriage, curl the tailbone under to pull an in pause here, pulse the hips up for ten and nine. Eight carriage stable for six and five. Four, three, two, and one. Roll the spine down. Good. From here, we take the magic circle on the inner ankles.

Hold that nice and tight. Reach back and grab your handles. I'm going to lift my head rest back up because I like it that way. And I'm gonna just shimmy a little bit away from my shoulder block, so I have some space there. Starting with the arms straight up to the sky, legs, and tabletop, I'm keeping my head down as I press the arms down.

Inhale to lift and exhale to press. Watch the tracking of the knees over the ankles. You don't want the knees to fall inward. You don't want them to open outward. Try to keep them straight to railroad tracks.

Good. Now press down and hold. Start to circle the arms open to the side around and up. Press down. Circ around. If you want to add chest raises to this, be my guest but I'm going to keep my head down today.

And then reverse the circles. Take it open around and up. Three more here. Open around and up. Circle. Keep squeezing into that circle gently.

One more. Lift the arms up and press them right back down hold. Palms face in. You inhale to open. You exhale to close. Using those armpit muscles to squeeze the arms into the sides.

Out. Squeeze it in one more time. Open squeeze it in. Palms down right away, tricep press. Can you push the arms into the straps a little bit more than bend. Press bend and press. Three, two, and one. Stretch the arms.

Reach them a little longer to lift them up to the sky. From here, just one chest raise. Stretch the legs out and squeeze your circle 10 times ten and nine. Eight and seven six five four three two and one. Bend your knees and lift the arms. You can put your feet down and put your loops back onto the pegs.

Place the circle into your hand so we can do a nice roll up to seat it. Swipple off to the side and lower the footbar down. One red spring grab your long box. So I'm just gonna place my circle down right here first long box on the reformer and head rest will go down. Have a seat on top of the box grabbing your magic circle.

And we're just gonna think of posture here. You're holding on to your circle. Your legs and hips are at a 90 degree angle, and your arms are reaching forward. Try to keep the shoulders over top of the hips, narrow the sits bones, squeeze the inner thighs. Just squeeze your circle from the upper back.

Squeeze eight. Squeeze seven, six, and five. Four, three. Two now hold the squeeze. We do a half roll back.

So rotate to the pelvis under, curl the tailbone, and start to reach the waistband of your pants down to the box behind you, and then roll right back up. I'm thinking forehead toward my thighs. And then I sit up tall. Again, starting with the movement of the pelvis, round back, keep the arms reaching, keep the collar bones open, and then roll yourself up, up, up, sit up tall. Again, rounded back.

Squeezing the inner thighs. I'm trying to keep heavy feet here. Back side of the legs working and then roll it up. Good. Round back to your point of control, a place where you can hold it for a little bit, and then lift the arms up and lower them down. Inhalo.

Exhale down. Arms up shoulders down. Are you still squeezing into your circle? Two. And one, I have the shakes. Roll yourself up, up, up, sit up tall.

Take a breath here, and you go right back to that half roll back. Sholders down the back. This time, I twist the ribs right. Look at those knees. Did one knee jut forward? It's so correct that so they don't change.

And then twist the ribs to the left. Hips don't go with the ribs. Twist right. And twist left. Good. Four more times.

Four Keep the tailbone reaching toward your knees. Two. Last one, come center roll yourself all the way up. Rest your arms for a second, scoot your hips a little closer to the front edge of your box. Reach the arms forward and carefully roll yourself all the way down.

Needs to chest. Your head won't have anything to support you. So if you need a break, you can always do an extension over the box, but be careful with that. Cur chin to chest. We're doing the series of five with the magic circle starting with single leg stretch. So keep the circle over top of the shins. Left leg reach forward.

Right leg reaches forward and keep switching. Try to not hit your circle with your shins as you switch the legs. Little game there. Four three two one knee spin, double leg stretch, arms back legs forward. Inhale.

Exhale. Just two more out. And one more. Single straight leg stretch arms up, legs up to the sky, tap tap the right leg, tap tap. Tap tap the left.

Lake comes to the circle not the other way, four more, four Three, two, one, bend the knees, put the magic circle in between the ankles, hands behind the head, lift the chest a little bit more, legs up to the sky, and heel lower for double straight leg stretch. Exhale lift. Down. And up. Two more. Lower and lift.

One more. Ben your knees. Grab your circle. Knees together, chest stays lifted. I twist my ribs to my right, left hand up, right hand down, stretching that left leg. So that magic circle always goes to the outside of the bent knee.

Former times. Twist four. Twist three. Two. And one bend both of your knees and very carefully rock yourself up to seat it. And let's turn to face sideways on the reformer.

I'm changing my spring to one red spring, and I'm grabbing my short loop. My magic circle goes under my chest on my low ribs here. Holding on to the handle, and then wrapping both arms around that circle. This magic circle just reminds me to move everything in one piece. So find center first sit up tall. My heels are pressing down into the the carriage, hip width apart, and then twist your ribs over to the left, and then only come back to center.

So I'm hugging this circle, and this circle allows me to actually move from my core, from my center and not just push with my arms, twist, Keep the length of the spine. Keep weight equal in both of your heels as you twist. A lot going on here. Two more here. And on this next one, twist and hold.

From here, just little pulses. Little pulse. Just lessen the range of motion. Four more. Twist four. And three. Two, and one, bring it back to center.

Now take this magic circle between the inner thighs. Keep the inner thighs squeezing into that circle, and then I'm threading my arm through this short loop. Clasping my hands, taking the hands behind the head. Find your tall posture again, and then we side bend toward the springs, and then come up. So the more you side bend toward the springs, the more the opposite hip presses down. The opposite sits bone presses down into your box.

And think of a rainbow. As you go over, you lift up and over. Let's do three more of these, lift and bend. Keep squeezing your circle, lift and bend. This next one, bend and hold, twist the ribs down to the well.

Or to the springs, and then come back center. Twist to the springs, and come back center. Three more here. Carriage is stable. And again, I'm trying to really twist from my ribs and not just from my neck.

Or my shoulders one more time. Twist. Come center. Come all the way up. So take your hand out of that loop. Put the loop on the peg just so you can turn to face the back of the reformer. Feed are on your head rest.

And I'm placing the magic circle back between my inner thighs. My feet are in a heels together toes apart position, and I reach down, grab those short loops. Sit up really tall. Again, we're thinking posture here. Press into the circle and then just press the arms straight back and straightforward. Just a few reps here. Again, all about length, all about posture.

Press One more like this. Now pause, reset on the next one, press back and hold. Look to your right, neck roll, circle the neck all the way down to the left, come center, arms reach forward. So just adding that neck roll to your chest expansion. As you press the arms back, widen your collar bones, look to your left, chin goes down to the shoulder, down to the center of the chest, over to the right, come center, and come forward.

Two more of those. As your neck rolls, you're keeping the carriage stable, keeping the collar bones wide, keeping your tall spine, come center. Sweep forward one more time. Press. Look and big circle. Center and come forward.

Now from here, handles back on the peg. Turn the other way. Leggs are hip width. Hold on to your magic circle. Put it on your chest.

Grab your strap. And then hug that magic circle. So, again, tall posture, twist the ribs, and then just come back center. This side is feeling a lot harder than the other side. So pay attention to things like that. What's your stronger side? What's your weaker side?

Let's do four more of these. Lift to twist for four. Twist three. Keep both sits bones equally pressing down as you twist one more time. Let's twist and hold.

Find a little bit more length and little pulses. Eight. Seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one. That was a struggle for me. I'm taking the magic circle between my thighs. Thetting my arm through the short loop clasping my hands, hands behind the head. Again, find your amazing posture, open chest, squeeze your circle, and then side bend to the springs.

And then control it back up. Up and over. Remember, we're a rainbow, so lift up and over. Girl taller to side bend. For more like this, are you still squeezing your circle?

Are you still pressing your heels down? Try to not twist very common to twist the shoulders down as you side bend. I just did it on the last rep. Two more. This next one, try to hold it over.

And now we can twist. So twist the ribs down to the springs, and then come center. The side is also tighter for me. Twist the ribs down to the springs. And then come center.

Three more of those. Twist twist twist, and come center for two. And one more. Come center, come all the way up. Let the springs close, hook your loop back onto the peg, and step yourself down.

Let's put our magic circle down for a second and change the spring to one blue spring. We are doing breast stroke keeping it simple. It's a very advanced exercise, but it's still accessible on that light spring. So I'm holding on to the long loops. Face the front of the carriage.

I'm stepping my outside foot forward. So I can use my arms to open the springs and hold on to the front of the box. Lie straight down onto the top of that box, and you want most of your thigh bone supported. So my knees are hanging right off the back edge. Squeeze those legs together, roll those shoulders down and back and pull the abdominals in and up.

From here, we do a double leg kick. So squeeze the heels to the seat three times. Three, two, one, lengthen the legs, stretch the arms forward. Now if you can lift up into a swan, if you can't just keep the arms reaching forward, and then circle them out to the side, bend the elbows, grab the box. Easy, peasy. It's three, two, One, stretch the legs, reach the arms. Maybe lift the chest.

Maybe circle the arms out and in. Good. Two more. Three, two, one. Stretch, reach, lift circle and grab. One more time. Three, two, one, stretch and reach. Maybe you lift circle grab. To get down, just step straight down to the floor.

With control, let the springs close, let the carriage come home, don't let it slam. And then you can put your loops back onto your pegs and take your box back. Next, we are lifting the foot bar up. I'm changing my blue spring to a red spring. For a little balance control.

So from here, place your hands on top of the shoulder blocks, make sure those arms are connected to the back, and then step directly on top of your foot bar. Try to be as centered as possible first thing. So you don't have to make any adjustments later. My legs and feet are together. My hips are to the ceiling, and I roll the hips down to a plank. Now from here, just press the arms forward.

And pull them back shoulders under over wrists out and in. One more. Come in and hold, lift the right leg. Two times. Go forward and back. Forward and back. Switch. If one leg is too much, keep both feet down.

One more. Forward and back. Foot comes down. You roll the hips up, and then roll back down to your plank. Think less of a pike, more of a roll tailed on to heels and roll it down. One more time. Roll the hips up and roll the hips down.

From here, step directly down to the floor with control, and let the carriage come in with control. Grab your magic circle again, and I'm keeping my putting my spring on a blue. I like this lighter spring here. And coming to a kneeling position, actually a seated position facing forward. If you can kneel totally kneel. I cannot kneel, so I'm gonna do this in a crisscross applesauce position. So I have my magic circle.

I reach back. I grab my short loop. And I hold on to my magic circle. So one side is loaded, one side is not. Sit up really tall and just press the arms forward and bend. So nothing crazy here.

We're just working on symmetry. Only one side of your body is loaded, but can you keep that spring or keep that rope from pulling your body to the right? Good out, and in. Let's press out and hold. Lift the arms up and lower them down. Inhale to lift, exhale to lower.

Three more up, and down. Two more. One more time up and down. Arm comes down. Now we twist toward that rope. So twist. Keep your height of your spine.

Keep your length. And then you're only allowed to twist as much as you can come back to center without lifting the shoulders without compensating. So inhale twist and exhale bring it back center. Again, inhale twist, exhale center. Two more. Last one.

Bend your elbows. Let's do the same thing on the other side. So just working symmetry here. Grab that circle, sit up really tall. Maybe switch the cross of your legs if you're sitting crisscross applesauce.

Now from here, just press straight out. And I already feel that this side is a little bit harder to stay centered. My body wants to twist toward that rope, but I'm not gonna let it. Two more times, press and bend. One more stretch out and hold.

Start to lift the arms up and lower down. Inhale lift. Exhale lower, really reaching through that left arm up. And down two more like this. Inhale grow taller.

Stay tall as you lower the arms, one more. Then we go to our twist, twist left, left, left, and pull it back to center. So much obliques here. Over and center. Three more times. Inhale, exhale push two more.

One more time. Bring it back center, bend your elbows and put that loop back onto the peg. One red spring here to take that blue off, put on the red. And put your magic circle away. Let's do some mermaid because it feels great.

So mermaid those legs, you have the option to stack the legs directly one over top of the other. If this is too much for your hips, just stagger the legs, top leg more forward at the bottom. I'm gonna give the stack a go. Shins up against the shoulder block. So wrap the shoulder, the left shoulder on the back, right arm up to the sky.

From here, pressing the right hip down, hugging the ribs into each other, side bend. And then come all the way in. Good. Reach over. Keeping this shoulder wrapped on the back, and then bring it in. One more time, up and over.

Carriage comes in. The best part is the counter stretch. So grab your shoulder block and wrap your arm around your head. You should feel fabulous here. Start to side bend, pulling yourself down toward the shoulder block.

And then twist the ribs down toward the shoulder block. And then try to twist the ribs up to the ceiling. You're catching the sun, living your best life. Again, twist the ribs down. It feels amazing. And twist the ribs up to the sky.

One more time, twist down and twist up. Good. Come center, let's do cleopatra which also feels amazing. So continue to face this way, but take the toes, all 10 toes on the front shoulder block. I'm taking my left hand back on the footbar, but my right hand is like a seat belt holding on to the front of the carriage. Now equally pushing with my arm and my feet or legs, I press the carriage at him looking up to the ceiling.

And as I come in, you're pulling on that front of the carriage and getting a big stretch in your left side body looking down toward your feet. It feels amazing. So press the carriage out and pull it in. One more time. Press it out. And get the stretch as you pull it in. Oh, that feels the best.

To go to the other side, face the back of the reformer gracefully and switch. So starting with mermaid, either stacking or staggering those legs. Arm reaches up, front ribs hug the back ribs, push the carriage out side bend, and then come in, in, in, in, two more here, up and over. And bring it in one more time. Come all the way in. Our amazing counter stretch.

Hold on to that shoulder block. Wrap the top arm around your head, and then side bend over toward the shoulder blocks. And then twist the ribs down. You'll feel a big opening of the thoracic spine of the ribs. And then twist the ribs up to the sky. Catch the sun. And again, twist and open.

One more time down. And open. Poof. Con center. Let's do cleopatra, so scoot your hips forward. Take your toes to the shoulder block.

Hand on the foot bar. Seat belt your left arm in front. Look to your left. And then press the carriage out with the arm and the legs. Look down as you bring the carriage in and get your stretch.

Again, look up. And look down. One more time. Push and pull. Oh, that feels so good. Okay. Continue to face the same direction.

Just step right off of the reformer. Change your spring. Actually, one red spring is perfect. Hands on the footbar, right foot up against the shoulder block. From here, we press the carriage out, find your lunge, get a little stretch here going into flying lunges. So make sure the arms are strong like planks, like a plank, and then really push into that back leg so it's nice and straight.

Now as the carriage comes in, keep your back leg straight, and just lift that bottom leg up to meet the top leg, and then come right back down to your lunge. And then let the bottom leg meet the top. So just a flying plank. One more like this. Now from here, if you want more, you just let the leg come a little bit higher, more like an arabesque.

You bring it down and lunge. You sweep it back, lift. One more time. Down and lunge. Sweep it back. And on this last one, you can just take a little hip lunge. Let the knee rest.

Let the hips drop. And then keep your left knee over the left ankle. Enjoy the stretch here. If you want. Right arm comes up to the sky for a deeper hip stretch. Eyes come forward, hand comes down.

Carriage comes in. Go to the other side. I'm gonna walk around for safety. Left foot on the shoulder block, find your lunge. Good. Arms are strong, like you're gonna do a plank because we are.

Push into that back leg, sweep the bottom leg up to meet the top, and then find your lunge. Two more like that. Lags are even at the top. One more time down. Sweep it back. If you want more, you sweep the leg much higher on the next three.

Sweep. Lower down. Sweet. One more time. Sweet.

And then you take your stretch. Let the knee rest on the carriage push with the heel. Lift the chest. And if you want a deeper stretch, lift that back arm or your left arm up to the ceiling. Eyes forward hand down.

Carriage comes in. And that is it. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'll see you next time.