Graceful & Grounded Reformer

Today's the day. It is girl time. Just as a reminder, this class is one that Mary and I started doing together partly because we just love working out and collaborating mostly because we like being together. I can speak for you. Yes. Okay. And so we're really happy you're here to join us. It's a loosely structured class.

And the reason for that is so that we can learn from each other, that we can ask each other questions, and hopefully you will be enjoying it along the way. Let's get started. Get on your own machine. Oh, and there's a lot of that. So we're setting up our reformers with three red springs or medium to heavy. Okay? I have, let's go ahead rest down.

We're gonna just do a little warm up here. Lying on your backs. Situate yourself, let yourself feel the mat. Your heels are on the bar, sits bones distance apart, and solidly there. Right? Because we're about to do a pell of a curl, but for now, just inhale. And for a moment, exhale and just sort of notice your heel pressure, your sacrum pressure, your rib pressure, and maybe even your arm pressure, and that's all appropriate.

Inhale. So let me connect it to the mat and exhale. Deciding how you want to feel at the end of this. Sometimes that plays a big role. We're gonna roll on this one, inhale prepare.

Start the exhale and just notice how it kind of allows your body to do what it wants to. Just rolling up, a subtle downward pressure on the heels, reaching into those knees or those knees forward, so you get the long line of the front of your body, hold, inhale. And as you exhale, come down sequentially. We're not overthinking anything. We're just trying to go one bone at a time and feel good, inhale.

Start that exhale. Just notice that the abs actually fall. And then if you pull with the abs, you're gonna start rolling up. Step into your feet. Check yourself out now.

Look down your body. Can you tuck the pelvis a little more here at the top? Maybe step into the heels more and acknowledge your hamstrings? That's right now. I'm about to cramp, inhale.

And exhale. I do think sometimes from the front of my body. I think the throat softens, the chest, the sternum, and so on down all the way. And again, inhale. Start the exhale. Not a whole lot of weight into the feet just yet. But use them when you need to.

Keep rolling. Don't just pop up. Looking graceful. I think that's my theme. I keep saying it in my head. Inhale? Look to be graceful. Well, yeah, I'd like to be more graceful in my life so I should practice it.

Go down. In my body. It'll help. Really? And all the way, let's do two more and exhale to peel up. And you will have to make little adjustments in your body. Right? So I often these days need to think about my upper arms a little more, hold at the top inhale, and exhale melt your way down. The springs are heavy.

So if you're moving your carriage, you want to rethink how you're moving, which is to say a little less push and a little more drawing in on the middle. Last one up. Risks are down theoretically. Fingers are long. You're helping yourself out inhale and exhale roll.

It down. The backside of the body matters. That's what part of that warm up was. Just take your arms up for a moment, reach the ceiling, let the shoulders fall, turn your palms to each other and open wide. Why? I need that stretch.

So I'm giving it to you too. Thank you. Come back up with only one more. It's just like that wingspan, how long can it be, not over straining it. Stay there. Then fold the arms, grab the pegs or your shoulder blocks pick up the knees, put them together, and we are rotating to the left, inhale over, and start that breath again, exhale come back to center. Nice little warm up for the spine, inhale.

Knees are lined up, exhale back to center. Doesn't have to be big, but you do want to keep the knees lined up. So that means that opposite hip is gonna lift and you start the exhale and it's almost like right now I'm thinking swaying palm tree. It's like up and over and then the base is strong and the rest of the body just sways back to the middle and again inhale. Exhale.

By the base being strong, I kinda mean I definitely mean that the shoulders stay down. So that's sort of a dictator of how far you go. Exhale center. Last time each way. And one finish it, one to finish it.

Right on. We're going to keep the knees up. You might have to scoot away from the shoulder rest a little. I don't think so, but let's just hug the knees in close curl your head up. Get really close to a tiny bit of a rock. Maybe a little bit more of a low back. Release if you need it. And then what we're gonna do is the double leg stretch ever so slightly differently.

It goes like this. You reach forward Let the legs touch your bar. Press down a little and allow that to elevate you, then pull it back in. Hold on to the knees. You can hug them closer.

Just keep them at 90. Let's go faster. Inhale, touch down. Use that as an assist and come back. Inhale reach out and come back now then either do the same thing or reach the arms behind you as you go. Let's go. Inhale circle the arms around and grab on.

Inhale reach the legs down for an assist and back. And and pull one more like that in and pull same idea. Hands go to the right knee, extend the left leg down. Now here's a lot of fun that can help and press into the bar. And you could also press the shin into the hand and look how much you get some help. Yeah. I believe this is Mary's idea.

Thank you for this. Let's switch. Take a second to kind of feel it in each side and we'll go a little faster. You won't be able to press hard on the bar, but you can try. Let's go. Pull and pull and pull and I typically am doing like I'm inhaling for two changes and then I exhale elbows are wide in, in, and out.

Out couple more. In. And I think I'm starting to count like you. Is that true? Yes. Both in, stretch them both forward and out. Pull it back in, take your hands behind your head.

Support your head. You need to take it down. Take it down just for one second because I want to. I was trying to fool you. Girl right back up.

It's the same idea with the crisp bus. So go ahead and stretch the layout, pull the right knee in a little bit more, or whichever knee you're using, and get up there, switch to another one kinda slow. Does it matter if it's a back of your knee or your calf? I think it depends on your height. Yeah, I think it's just too, but I'm just curious. Like, I think if you have a calf, you have to be a little more careful not to bend the knee to push. Let's go switch and switch and A short people have a little more to deal with.

How about four? Four? You are counting. I know. Congratulations. I win. Uh-oh.

Last one and then fold the knees in. And why don't you take it from here, Mary? Okay. So we're gonna do a fun little variation on footwork that I enjoy who will start on the heels. I think it's nice to have the head rest up for this one just because you'll wanna be able to see your feet. So I'm choosing to have my head rest up. I choose you.

Okay. Arms are down, heels are on the bar. We're gonna press the carriage out, keeping the feet still and then pull in. We'll do that four more times. Reach out, staying connected to both sides of the pelvis evenly. Three and pull the carriage.

Maybe not so heavy for double legs, but what's gonna happen as we stay out on the next one. Now this is where it can be interesting. Stay out. Get really organized in your pelvis, stand on your right foot and without changing anything else, bring the left leg in and bend the right knee. And and pull in keeping the pelvis level and push.

We'll do five if I can count to five. We'll see. Right now I know there's two more but yes. We'll see how long that skill can maintain itself, hold it out. Put the left foot down. This is where it's helpful to have your head where you can see a bend in one time.

Just reset. Push out, organize, lift the right leg and bend and press. Pull in, reach out three activating through the arms, staying connected to the center of the body, two, and last time. Step all the way back down so both feet are on the bar and bend it. Do the same thing on the toes. So bring the toes down onto the bar five double leg presses. One and bend.

Holding the heels still. So they're lifted as you push out and then the heel stay right as they are as we come in and three and bend. Two and in. This is it. One, stay on the right leg, organize the pelvis. That's where it's kind of interest.

Thing for me. That's hard for me with the weight. Yeah. Uh-huh and bend. Push out. Fully extending through the knee. Two. Holding the other leg still.

Three. I can count to five if I say it out loud last time. Push out. That's why I'm doing it. Both feet down. We're coming in remember One time push back out.

Here we go. Organize. It takes me a minute to do that. This one's hard. Right leg comes up and we go in and at in and reach three. Two, this is not my stronger side last one. Same.

And reach out. Both feet come back down onto the footbar. We bend in. Go into the small v shape. Feel the rotation in the hips, the squeeze of the heels to activate the inner thighs, five. Pull the spring.

Four. Working in both directions. Three, So when we take the other leg off, we're gonna keep it in external rotation. So here it comes. One, the right leg stays on the bar.

We lift that left leg, keep it externally rotated, anchor the pelvis on both sides and we go. Five. Four. Christy likes to move faster than me. Sorry. That's okay. I'm ready to keep up.

It's good for my brain. Two. And here it is. Hold both legs down one time in. I'm just excited. I hate me too. And then we change and we go. Five.

You keep the I'll keep the pace with you. Fourth. It's a good challenge for my brain. Three and two. Keep that other leg active last one. Both feet come down. We come in, return to parallel.

Push out. Both feet stay on the bar as we go under and up fully articulating through the feet. I like to wrap my toes around the bar as my heels go down because my feet are tight and it feels good. Just do two more. And then we'll go into alternates, pull, and pull. So really maximizing within that tempo is a full stretch underneath the bar. That feels good today.

Yeah. I don't wanna stop at five I was going to but we're not going to. We'll do three more on each side. One one two and three three pause on one side. Give yourself just a tiny more bit more time in that stretch. Change to the other side. A little bit more time in the stretch.

You're welcome. Come in and then we're gonna bring the knees into the chest lift the head. Bring the knees right in and rock. You're welcome. You're welcome.

I was gonna make Christy roll up, but I decided I'd be too good. I just let you know. Right. I know. So you'll have to roll down the. I know. So change your springs, go to one red, one blue. Keep your legs where they are.

You have little faith. What? You're my friend and you have little faith in me. Watch this. Let's see. Hold on. I'm short. Go go go go slow. Oh, I'm still going there.

Put your feet into the straps. Oh, well done. Like, the new girl temporary. Okay. So what we're gonna do here is with the feet and the straps, stretch the legs long and then bring them to up. Oh, I'm so tight. Okay.

It will improve. So, bend the knees into a long diamond shape. Feel like very actively externally rotating in the hips, and then we're gonna do a hip hinge there. So we hinge down. And hinge back up. Keep the external rotation.

Use the external rotation to create the hinge. This is so simple and I'm shaking. And come back. This is good, and or what? It feels good. Good. So we're gonna do, let's say two more. Rotate to press.

You wanna be active in that movement. Last one. Rotate to press, and then come back up. So what we're gonna do from the top is we're gonna stretch the legs back to straight. Keep the reformer totally still.

Fold back into that long diamond shape and then hinge. Now, here's the fun part. Can you stretch your legs out to straight without moving the reformer? It's possible. Sucking the thigh bones deep into the hip joints.

Did you raise a feet? I did not. Okay. Keep the feet where they are as you fold back into the long diamond shape and come up. We'll do that twice more through. Stretch straight up. It's easier, they don't move the reformer.

Then the knees keep the reformer still hinge in the hips to press down and then try there pulling from the waist, stretching the legs out, keeping the reformer steady and bend again holding the reformer still last time reach up. And stretch up and open the knees and hinge and stretch. And bend and lift and straighten and five leg circles pushing down first, coming around. And whoa. I'm laughing at my socks because I went all the way over onto one side of my pelvis. Oh. Three.

I wasn't laughing at you, but maybe you did something. I was thinking it was stronger than normal. Last time. And then we're gonna go the other way, press down, come up through the center. Checking in with the rest of the body what are the abdominals doing?

I like to think about my abdominals pulling the carriage more than my legs are pushing the carriage. Last two, Reaching away. Last time, reaching away pausing at the bottom. Okay. With the lake straight, we're gonna fold in half. Try see if you could come all the way. Oh, thank you Christy.

Take the head rest down. Come all the way into the stopper. Roll up, pressing down through the arms. Bend the knees towards the shoulder blocks and roll down keeping the feet above the eyes allowing the thigh bones to drop down next to the ribs and then bring that through in a hinge. Press out. We'll do three.

Fold in half. Maybe a little easier for me every time. Title body, lift. I feel like as as I gracefully age, just get tighter and tight. Oh, it's your thing too? I'm tighter. Well, now it is and come through. Can we share? Of course.

Get one more time, folding. Tatching down. Keeping the carriage still as you lift up. Keeping the carriage still as you bend your knees. Keeping the carriage still as you roll down.

And then at the very, very end when the pelvis is as low as we can, we take the hinge. Great. Let's take the feet out of the straps. K. Let's put them back on the pegs. How's that for a sick way?

Come on up. We'll do a little bit more of a stretch from here. Take off. I'm just so you only have one red spring, a one medium spring, do a little kneeling stretch. So putting, your one foot back at the shoulder rest closest to the side you're stepping off of, and the The foot on the ground is near the leg of the reformer or forward more forward if you're really tall. I like to start really upright up on the fingertips for me that already starts to give me a stretch in the hip flexor if I think of drawing the pelvis and forward and under. Now then we're gonna push into the shoulder block and maybe just drop down rather than travel with it to get that stretch. Do you feel it? Uh-huh. I sure do. Cool. Go a little further then.

Okay. Then I'm inking I'm feeling the front foot on the floor. Okay. Keeping the carriage where it is for a second to draw the pelvis back. Now, you can let the carriage slide forward. Come into a straight leg from the floor and then stick your tailbone out. Little bit of a roll into that hamstring.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Then reverse it a little bit, roll up, start to send the carriage back, bend the forward knee, and find that hip flexor stretch again. Again, I'm kinda down on the right layer of the leg on the floor. Tuck the pelvis first, so I'm still feeling a little bit of a stretch. Being said, I'm pretty tight there.

Roll forward as you straighten the leg on the floor. And then hinge to a flat back keeping that leg straight. If you need to, you can keep the carriage out a little bit. And one more, roll forward, come into that lunge, feel the chest lifted, everything lifted. Your light on your hands. Oh, sorry. I shouldn't have said that sooner than I could.

Reround. You can move the carriage a little, find the straight leg on the floor, and then just flatten the back. Right. Let's walk around the other side. You first, my friend. Okay. Foot Up against the shoulder block.

Try to let the toes be down and the heel up against it as best you can. It's not always totally possible. Yeah. Me too. Okay. So we're starting foot near the front of of the reformer come into that long back extension. Yes. Before we're gonna add that little extra inch here, but think about drawing a pubic bone maybe toward the sternum a little bit.

And if you can, push into the shoulder black a little more. Barely. You can feel it even if you can't see it. Alright. From here, this is where I was drawing the pelvis in and rounded straightening the leg on the ground. So I'm gonna round back straight leg and then to maximize the hamstring, I tilt the tailbone upward toward the sky.

Reversing that round the pelvis start to bend the leg you're standing on and push the carriage out to get back to where you were. Again, light on the hands. You can use them, but light on it. Pushes, find a stretch, make it feel good, start the rounding of the pelvis, move the carriages you need to, you get a curve through your whole spine, and at the last minute, you tilt the tailbone up. One to go. Round, stepping into the feet, the foot on the ground.

I've never done this before. I just did it the other day at home because I it just was, you know, when your body tells you, this way I want. Yeah. And the trick was trying to remember it. Yeah. And then from here around the pelvis, this is our last one, extend the leg. So it's not that intense of a hamstring stretch right here, but then you get to control it.

And again, you can push the carriage back if you need to. I do not. Me neither. Okay. Cool. Let's do some side work. Okay. Now that our legs are, stretched out a bit and worked for that matter. This side, I don't know if we have a name for this, but Just following along.

Here's what we're doing. For me, I'm a little shorter than Mary, a lot shorter, probably, but I'm gonna say a little right. I'm going about in the middle. You may have to adjust this. What we're gonna do is a side action. We're only on one spring still.

Take the arms out to the side. You're gonna hinge over, lean over, round over, to find the bar. And then from there, we're gonna start to push it out and the top leg will land on the bottom leg. You can bring the foot with it until you're in a nice long plank. Can you go any further? Are you good? Yeah.

I can go. There you go. Like you're making a tee with those arms at the armpits. Okay. Then just slide in a little. Almost all the way up and go back out. In fact, we can come all the way up, but I'm gonna keep the arm on. Okay, for two more like that.

Come up till your body goes to vertical. You can set the knee down if you can, but I'm leaving the arm on so you might not be able to just one more like this. Nice long line on both sides of the body. Come up. And now we'll add a little bit of fun, more fun. Press out, knees line up, stabilize, rotate, and bring the carriage in.

Oh, there's that contraction. Come all the way in if you can. Then push it back out as you reopen to the t position, and we'll come up. This time, we will take the arm off just to find the t and oh, good. We both banged. So that's part of it, Sue.

You go ahead and bang it. Here we go. We hinge over. Think I think underneath the armpit to kinda get this going, lean out, line up those knees, rotate and draw the carriage in. As much as you can. Go right back out.

And come up. We're gonna know that we're gonna land. We're gonna get your best to land south. It's hard getting out of that one. And up. That's better. Yeah.

One more over. Press it out. Nice and long. Here's that rotation, drawing the carriage back to the stopper, as close to it as you can, If you get all the way, you could even kinda lean back a little as long as your bar doesn't come with you. And then we'll let go reopen.

Come on up. And be grateful you get to do it again on the other side. Yay. Yay. Let's just turn. That was a graceful exit that I did not follow on plan. I should have done that.

Next time. Here we are. You'll adjust as you need to with where your knees start out, arms are up to the side like that t and and that they're gonna basically stay that waist, your body that tilts into it. So here we go, find the bar, hand about middle of the bar, start to push out, let the legs line up. And just come back in. I left my arm on the bar.

Let the knee go down if you can. You don't have to come all the way up. And again, push it down. And come back in. One more like that.

Push out. It's not really about how far you go, but if you want more of a rotation on the next one, you would want your knees a little closer. But be aware of that after the first one. Here it is. We press out, knees are lined up. Rotate to its bar, drawing the carriage in, in, in, do what you can. Oh, I just love this one.

Another Meredith idea or for me anyway, reopen it and come on up the first one. We did come up on these, didn't we? Yeah. So let the knee land and you're up. You're committing to two more, lean into it. You're committing to two more. I am. I am. I hope you all are with me. We rotate.

Oh my goodness. And then reopen. Solidify, know where know where you are in space as best you can and come on up. When you get near, you can start to lift off that hand and last one over. Push out.

Here's your rotation. If you get that carriage all the way in, you can actually pull on the bar a little and draw back. Coming back into. We're gonna open up one more time. Press it out.

Graceful exit. This time, Christie, and we come all the way in. Me goes down. Arm goes up and we toss it to Mary. Okay. Stay on the same spring. Turn to face the risers. And just bring your knees right near to the shoulder blocks but mine are together and we're gonna just sit down on our feet.

If this doesn't feel good on your knees, you of course could just stay high up high on your knees, but I'm gonna start us from here. So you're gonna hold high on the strap or or you can hold on to the actual rope. I'm just holding. I like these that were the there's two fuzzies. It's a nice grip. But you don't have those, so bummer for you.

Bring your arms back straight back, working from the middle of the back. And then just straightforward. Stop a little shy of the shoulder block. And then again, find your connection to your mid back muscles and use those muscles to pull back on the spring. We're doing one more.

And then we're gonna make a change. So we go. Set the shoulders. That's my, advice to my own self. Stay connected to the back as you come through.

So the change happens here. Do the same exact action. Chest expansion and hold. Press now down with your arms. Pull them very close to your body and go into a thoracic extension.

Come back to center and bring your arms forward two more times. Set the shoulders Meredith. Pull back. It's my right shoulder that's very naughty and push down arms very close and thoracic extension. Come back to center and the arms go forward. I'm gonna do one more time. Pull back. I get more out of it if I keep squeezing my inner thighs together because I was resting on the first one.

I was just trying to manage my shoulder, lift into your extension. Come back, but now I'm doing the legs. And bring the lines forward. Yeah. Good. Hang up the stress for just a second turn all the way around.

For me, this spring works perfectly, but if you want a lighter spring, you could certainly switch to a blue. We're gonna sit the body so that you have your sitting bones in the front of the shoulder blocks. So you wanna be able to lean back into them, pick up the straps. Start with your arms down at your sides. And then we're gonna bring the arms up.

You have to lean a little forward. Thank you. Reach overhead. Let the spring pull you into that, shoulder stretch. Is that what that is? Come all the way around. What kind of stretch is that? It's a shoulder stretch reach forward.

Continue to lean on the diagonal. It's a good challenge to the middle too. I mean, not severe, but it's nice. It's like in the wind. And then come back.

One more time and then we're gonna make a change again. So forward leaning into the wind as Christie says. Super straight elbows and come around. So here's our change. It starts the same. We go forward.

Now here as the arms come around, let the spring pull your upper back into extension. Pause at that t position just because it feels amazing. And then as the arms continue to come down, just return to a neutral position and go forward. Really nice. Two more times only because that's all we have time for. So Explore.

I'll I'll go slow at my pace. My pace. Yes. Just feel that stretch should feel really good and then come all the way down back to neutral last time. Reach forward. Go up. Here it is.

The very last one. And then come all the way down. You just reach back and hang up the straps. And that's that. That's good enough for today.

Thank you, Mary. Thank you all for joining us.