High Beginner Express

Hi. I'm Tracy Mallett with Plates anytime. We are going to be doing a high beginner express. So first of all, one red spring, get a short box. We place it right here. Make sure you've got equal distance between each side so it's nice and safe. I'm gonna adjust mine just a little bit, and it's against the shoulder blocks.

Let's step up, place the feet on the headrest here. Make sure your sit bones are closer close to the edge here. We're gonna start with a a rollback. I want to actually put your hands on your hips here. You're sitting up nice and tall, and I want you to initiate from your lower abs, and we're gonna go into that pelvic tilt. So we start nice erect position, shoulders over hips, inhale, exhale, tilt, inhale back to neutral.

XL tilts. So you're sliding the sit bones underneath you towards your heels, and then we come back the same way as we went down. Let's try that again. Tilt that wheel of the pelvis is turning underneath me. And let's go a little bit deeper this time. So we go again. Sit bones, shortening towards the heels.

And now I want you to present the arms forwards to here. Hold it here. We're gonna lift that right leg up into a little tabletop and bring it down. But you're still maintaining that scooped position here. Just a little warm up. Focus on your breath.

Two more. Reach your hands forwards. Still maintaining that c shape with the spine. Got one more. Press your palms up to the sky. Hold it here and now roll back stack your spine one by one. Now we're gonna pick up your loops here.

I'm gonna choke it up. I'm gonna hold on to the ropes, and we're gonna do a little pull, so I'm in tension there. Once again, we go exactly what we were just doing, sitting up tall, the wheel of the pelvis is turning in that scoop position first, then we continue our journey down. And then we come back up the same way as we went down with spinal articulation. We go again. This time we hold it down there.

That pelvic tilts, find that letter c position here looking forwards, right leg lifts, left leg lifts. Right leg lifts. And we keep here. We're keeping that scooped position. That's it.

Two more times. Let the spring hold you a little bit. We hold it here back in that scoop position. Now, curl, curl, curl each vertebra stacks one by one. Now, we're gonna add on the hands go behind the head now, so the elbows are wide.

Now, once again, the elbows come slowly together as we initiate from the lower abs, we're rolling down. Hold it here. I just want you to open and close. She's just opening the elbows diagonally out. And every time you open, you can feel those abs having to stabilize a little bit more. And we breathe gently.

Give that scoop position so you're maintaining that deep scoop with those lower abs super important. One more. Find it here in that beautiful scoop position. Curl back up. Now this time the elbow is open and think of a little bit of a high release. Let's do that one more time.

So initiate from the low abs pelvic tilt. As the elbows travel forwards, as you roll back, keep rolling back, find that scoot position and let us see, open and close with those elbows. And now see if you can, it's a little bit more challenging. Maybe you wanna add that little knee, or maybe not. A little bit more challenging there. Four more.

Three more. Two more just a little march in place. Fundamentals here. Hold it here maybe a little bit deeper. Hold it here.

Tremble, tremble, and then we curve up and over that big beach ball. We finish off with that high release, find that high release, and then we come back to an erect position. Beautiful. Let's just close the carrier to put those little loops down. We're gonna turn around going to some footwork to start with our legs. So we're gonna put on two red springs.

So we're just gonna push the carriage away and take a seat into it. Yes. So you can see your butt is right in the middle of the carriage, and I'm pushing against the box. Now what I want you to do is bring your hips a little bit further forwards. If you feel that it hits you in your lower back, not so great, grab a little pad and put a pad right here on the corner of your box. Otherwise, come up, come up. We're gonna find our v position here. I'm gonna reach my hands forwards.

Palms are flat. I'm just gonna push out and in. Remember, if it hits a little uncomfortable here, just pop a pad here. Now feel the legs. You're in that external rotation here. Squeeze from those inner thighs.

Imagine the pelvic floor was pulling up like an elevator. So heels are connected together, draw from the adductors, your inner thighs, and forwards. Now we're gonna go into some pulsing now, like mid range of motion. So we go pulse. Paul, if you wanna keep your hands here absolutely, keep your hands here. Otherwise, reach forwards. Find that lower belly scoop there.

Reaching forwards. Keep it going. Yes. I'm very bad counter, but we're gonna do eight more because we feel like it. Right? Feel that we're running those legs. Good.

I've got you. Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, now one more full extension, squeeze. And then we come back downstairs where you at. Now we're gonna rotate. We bring it back. We go the other side. We rotate.

Feel lovely to open up that front of the chest. Now see if your gaze can go a little bit further. Can we reach a little bit further? Yes. Look at that back corner of your reformer.

Can you see your back riser? Yes. And we're gonna do a couple more. Reach back. Last time, and back to center.

Put your hands down. Now we're gonna adjust ourselves. We're gonna go a little bit wider. Now this is gonna feel a huge stretch, which is great in your adductors here, but also in your hips. So I'm really opening up my hips here.

Place your hands down or hands up. You've got two choices. Right? We push away. So this is fantastic mobility in your hip joint. Here we go. If this feels a little bit comfortable right now, just keep your hands down.

But look at your heels. Your heels are staying still, so you can kinda eye your heels to make sure they're not moving. So our ankle joints are stabilizing. The beauty of pilates, keeping that stability around our ankle joint. We're reaching forwards.

I'm still at slight scoop here. Four more for three, I'm reaching two, pulse, da, da, da, da, we have that rhythm, da, da, da, We keep pulling. Yes. We're keeping it going. We've got eight more. We got eight and seven and six and five and four and three into this, your last one. Squeeze.

Squeeze those quads, lengthen those arms. And then we come back down. Reach your hands around. Put your hands down as you adjust back into center, press both heels down. Once again, hands forwards or hands down.

We're gonna go into pedaling here. Alright. We're prancing. Heels are down. Now we're gonna take your hands behind your head. Good. Now we're gonna add a rotation, rotation.

So as that knee bends, beautiful rotation, To get that nice stability through the thoracic spine, we all need it. Four more here, ready, four, three, two, and one. Press both heels down. Enjoy. Now if you're able, some of you are gonna be here, and that'll be a great stretch. Some of you can go a little bit further forward.

Some of you can even go to the full monkey here. Press your head down and see if you can rise and flex. Find your stretch, and let's just hold it here for five, four, three, two, one, and then lift up. Find the oppositional stretch Fantastic. Bring your knees in.

Now we're gonna step off. Hold on to your bar. Step off. Let the carriage close gently, and we're gonna come up. Now I'm gonna add on gonna be doing some side overs here. So I'm gonna add on another spring.

So I've just got three reds on here. Okay? I'm gonna bring that bar down. We're gonna come up onto the side box here for side line. If you're nice and tall, you can place the box over to give yourself some more space. So we always say if you feel a bit cramping when you're doing this because you need more space, so just pick up your box and put it over your shoulder box. Otherwise, you're gonna find your foot strap And we're gonna bend down knee here, and I'm gonna flex that foot. The hand goes down onto your headrest here. Now I'm shifting my hips and my hips are square. Now get this top hand, pop your hand behind and push it slightly forward so your hips are stacked.

I want you to keep your hand here and keep that tension on that underneath leg with your foot on the foot strap. Think of that length, lengthier, lengthier, ready. We're gonna go into it. We're gonna reach that hand goes down into the well. We're just gonna lift up a few inches and then back down.

My hand is here, and I'm keeping my hips square. That hand is assisting me to make sure that my hips still because if your hips start rocking and rolling, we're gonna go into your lower back. Now if you want a little modification, we can just tap and lift, tap and lift, or if we feel like we can, let's go down. This is probably one of the best oblique work that you can do for your waist. Can we do four more? Whoo.

XL four. XL three. XL two. Keep that bottom leg long and active. One more for good luck. We place our hand down.

Foot goes down. Just going to a nice stretch. Beautiful. Rotate, get that nice stretch through that lower back, back to your side, and then we come back. Let's go to the other side. So find your setup here Remember, foot is flexed, hand is down, pop this hand, and I'm gonna just pop my hips forwards like that.

So I'm just making sure my hips stay square. Ready? Release the bottom hand into the well. And then we're gonna come up a few inches and then down. So remember with side bending here, that lowest rib is moving towards your hip joint. You can always tap here a little bit more support, so I use this a lot.

For my beginners that just feel a little uncomfortable or a little scared. Don't worry your leg is not gonna go anywhere. I just gotta keep active. Footies flexed underneath that foot strap, but don't move that lower leg. Just side bending here.

That's where the movement is right here side bending in your oblique. Three more. Two more. One more. Hold it there and then come back down. Fantastic.

Read that arm out, rotate diagonally forward to stretch out the q l there, and then back to center, and then we're going to release. We're gonna come off Now we're gonna take it to one blue spring here or you could go to a yellow. We're gonna work the inner thighs now. So make sure you've got a pad here. We're gonna bring our knee onto the pad and then the knee goes against the box.

So I'm on a light spring here. I'm gonna actively work my inner thighs. Just put your hand right here on the box and just guide out and in. Yeah. So I'm out and I'm just kind of exploring. It feels a little strange because we're working our inner thighs.

This hand is here just to keep ourselves feeling a bit safe. And then as we feel a little bit more confidence, put both hands on the hips. There we go. Now I want you to focus on zipping from those inner thighs. Push the hips away.

Once again, from the lowest ribs, focus on the inner thighs. Now if you feel that not much in your inner thighs, take it down to a yellow spring, absolutely. Now we're gonna add on to this little combination here. So what happens is we hinge back. We go out and in.

So we're hinging and we're going out and in. Hinging out and in. Now we hinge, lift up, bring it together. Hinge, open the carriage, lift up, shoulders over hips, bring it together. Hinge back.

Open the carriage, come up, squeeze together. Hinge back, the carriage is closed, now the carriage is open, keep the carriage still as you hinge the body back to a right position and back. Can you see the carriage has stopped? The carriage is moving. Now it's stopping. We're keeping it still as we come back one more time. Back, open, up, add in. Now this time, hold it out.

Post da da da da da for five, for four, and three, and two, and then we bring it all the way in. So remember, that's your pre exercise to doing it standing. However, when you feel ready, you can always go to a standing position specifically if you have any issues and that doesn't feel comfortable. Of course, we can go to a standing position because you've got that box there. The foot against the box should feel a little bit more comfortable. Alright. Let's go again other side.

So I've got my knee, the knee against the box. Hand is down just to feel safety. And then if I feel that I'm able to do this and I feel comfortable, we're gonna move our hands to our hips. You gotta feel comfortable here. Alright. That's why I love the box being here because I've always got that box there that no is there to rely back on to.

K. Keep the hands on the hips. Oh, definitely feeling my inner thighs. That's for sure. And once again, I'm on a blue spring, so you can make this more challenging by going on a yellow spring. One more time, and we're gonna add on. Close the carriage, hinge, sit bones to heels, out and in.

Couple more, and then we're gonna go into that nice little combination. Okay? So we go out, we come up to a new rep position, and then we close the carriage. Carriages close as we hinge back, we open on a hinge, we come up to a rep position, and then we come back. We go back. Think of lifting up out of your knees, so there's no dead weight into those knees.

You're lifting up. It's almost like you're levitating two more. We're magicians. We're levitating the last time. Now we've gotta get out to finish off with a pulse.

Six, five, four, three, two, and burn burn burn and come back, lift up, finish it off as you started. We step back safely keep that carriage closed and we step back. Fantastic. Let's just do a little bit of a stretch. It's gonna come back just a little stretch here. Perfect.

And now I'm gonna move the bar up We're gonna go with one red spring here. Okay. We're gonna come forwards. We're gonna make sure your pubic bone is kinda right on the edge of the box here. We're gonna go forwards.

And all I want to do is shoot forward just a little bit here, so my chest is over the box. Now I've moved the pubic bone towards the middle of my box, and I'm going to lift up my legs. So you can see where I'm at. The pubic bones towards the middle of the box depends how long we are, but our chest is over the box here. So I want you to externally rotate those legs white. Are we there? Beautiful.

Hands go down. Now we're gonna lift up into your extension, and we're gonna start to swim. Feel the external rotation of your hips, and we're swimming. Now your biceps are right by your ears. That's kind of our goal. So think of lifting your biceps towards your heels.

Everybody, press your pubic bone down into the mat. Super important so we're not clinching with our lower back. And then we come back down. Hands, we reach all the way down to the box. We lift up.

We open our arms, come back down. We go again. Lift up ears to biceps, circle around. Reverse it, up, and then down, inhale in that extension, and then down one more, inhale extension, and then bending down. The job, bring your knees back.

Find that position here. Your pubic bones on the end here. All I want you to do is lift up into a swan and find that extension. Amazing. And then come back.

Now we are going to take this box away. So let's put the box away here. Okay. We're gonna go into two red springs here. So now we're moving on to the carriage.

Gonna put our feet in the loop. So we've got two red springs and we are pushing away right foot arch goes into that right loop, bend the knee, keep that leg steady before we move on to the other leg. Alright. So with the the legs along, look in front to see where the ceiling meets the wall, and that's kind of where we wanna go to. Alright? Find that neutral position as best as you can, tailbone, very heavy arms are pressing down and active. We're just gonna go up and circle out down around. So I want your circles to be about the width of the reformer, not too big, much bigger than the reformer.

So a little bit more in control. And let's reverse it down around and out. Think of the legs, very active energetic legs. In other words, we are not passive. Everything is energetically working.

We got one more circle. And now from here, we're gonna bend the left knee, reach the right leg out, and then everything closes together at the center. So think of the heel coming towards this pubic bone, and then we reach and everything pulls back into that midline. We go back again, flex one foot, point the other, and then point both toes. We go again.

Flex and point. And back. Let's do a couple more. Flex and point as a little coordination here. Flex and point Now we're just gonna do our open and close, which is called our little smiley emoji here, down and together. Now we're gonna add a little bit something a little different.

We're gonna close the legs, reach the hands, and lift your head and neck and shoulders off the mat. Now we're gonna bend our knees, you're in like a little froggy position here, and we're gonna hold it here. We're gonna start to beat those arms. We're gonna do inhale two three four five, exhale two three four five. Inhale two three four five, exhale two three four five.

Press those arms down from the shoulder joint in exhale two three. Four five. Inhale two, three, four, five. One more time. Inhale two, three, four, five. XL two, three, four, five. That was the fifties.

And then we reach the legs out. Open the legs. Reaching the hands in the middle here. Just want you to lift up, bend your knees, and then reach diagonally out. So I've got my head lifted.

If that's too challenging, guess what? Bring your head down. You can always have your head down, or we can add a little bit of abdominal work. And we're doing our open leg frog. Couple more. One more.

Lower your head, arms down, point your toes, bring the legs together now coming in to parallel. Remember that head rest is down. We inhale 90, exhale press down. Inhale, ankle knee, and hip in alignment, hamstrings press down to where the ceiling meets the wall. We inhale, find your vertical, And then we go back. Now we're gonna experiment, see if we can go a little bit further.

So now the feet are going diagonally over, tailbone stays down as best as it can. Now find your hamstrings. So your pelvis is gonna move a little bit. Of course, depending on your flexibility of your hamstrings. Now we're gonna add like a baby pelvic tilt.

So we go diagonally over already. Tailbone comes down and back. If you need to bend your knees a little bit, absolutely. So we hit diagonally overhead as best as we can. A little pelvic tilt.

And then down. Remember the pelvis is the wheel. We come to just over our head. Now the wheel of the pelvis is going to turn as our lower abs, preparing ourselves for more intermediate and advanced work, like your short spine. And your long spine.

Now this time, I want you to stay there. I'm still looking to the sky. We're here. Press your arms down and we go up for eight. Four more. Press those arms down as we're lifting our position with those lower abs stretching out that lower back.

Last time, hold it there. Lower the hips as best as you can. Now find your hamstrings, not your lower back, find your hamstrings, back to vertical, back to that diagonal to where the ceiling meets the sky. The ceiling meets that wall there and we open. I always use that cue a lot just so people know where your legs are in space.

Don't wanna be too down to the carriage, and we don't wanna be too high. We wanna be right in the middle there. Where we can stabilize with our pelvis, our lumbar pelvic stability. Just hold that stretch now, tailbone down heavy. Alright. We can bend the knees now.

Find your froggies. Now I want you to push your knees away. Beautiful. And then let's come out, put your feet down, put your little loops down, bring the knees into your chest. Now we're gonna roll to the right side, roll up. We're gonna go into one red spring, your foot is forwards towards your football, hand is down. We're gonna reach that leg out into a lunge.

Okay. Now we're gonna go into a nice lunge. Now from here, I'm gonna reach the outside arm up to where my ears are holding it there. And now we come back up, bend the knees. Let's go again.

We push away. Reach the arm by the ear. Find that extension. Now as the hand comes down, we're gonna bend the knee and go into a curved position. We push back.

Reach the arm up. Back leg is straight. And now the hand goes down and we curve like a cat. This time we push that leg back here, stay in that lunge, keep that back leg straight. And we're gonna bring it in and relevay.

Bring it in relevay. Now I want you to find that pipe position, that cat pipe position that we're just in. Now we lift that leg up, cat, pike, keep that back leg energetic, and straight. Couple more. Keep that back leg nice and straight and energized. Last time, one more. Hold it there. Hold.

And then slowly bring it back. Gorgeous. Let's go to the other side. So foot against the shoulder block. Now, just gonna push that leg backs, that nice energetic back leg. Right? We're here.

Let's find that stretch. Now think of that pubic bone going towards the bar here, so we're not sinking into that lower back. Now I reach the hand forwards here and that nice reach by set by the ear. Hold it there. So I'm reaching with my fingertips. I'm reaching back with the heel.

And then from here, I'm just gonna come up. And we're gonna go again. We push back. An energetic back leg, get your hips squared off, that long waist. And now this time, we're gonna go into that cat position here so you're resisting.

We go again. Just reaching back. You can reach the arm forward. It's kind of a nice reach pull, and then going into a cat here. Now we go back into that lunge.

Arms are reaching forward, so now we go into that cat. And we're gonna add a relevay. That back leg is long and energetic. And we're bringing the carriage in, but the back leg stays straight. So you can see my shoulders are moving over to where my wrists are to get ready to catch me.

In that pike. So if you keep that back leg long and straight and energized, you'll be in fantastic shape. Try and bring that carriage all the way in. Taking the weight into the shoulder girdle. Three more.

Last time, keep those arms strong. Hold it here and bring that knee in. Fantastic. There we go. We're gonna literally come back to the center here feet hit with the part. And we're gonna go into a roll down, and we're rolling down, reaching down towards the floor. And then slowly stacking the spine.

We gotta realign the spine. The head is the last one curl. And we're rolling ourselves all the way up to a straight spine. Still one breath. XL out. Fantastic.

Thank you for joining me. Hope you enjoyed some creative, but all attainable flows for you. Just to feel a little bit more comfortable in your practice as we progress. Look forward to seeing you again. Have amazing day. Goodbye.