Class #858

First Time Session

40 min - Class
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Description

Karen teaches Jo her first Cadillac lesson. Jo's Pilates experience consists of a handful of mat classes and a couple of Reformer classes, but she is still new to Pilates overall. In this well paced class, Karen uses her expertise to demonstrate sophisticated concepts like engaging the Transversus Abdominus, Spinal Articulation, Shoulder and Hip Stabilization, all while introducing a new apparatus into Jo's Pilates experience. We've marked this class as a level 1, but we think a student of any level will enjoy the depth of connection you can get in this class. Give it a try!
What You'll Need: Cadillac

About This Video

Nov 06, 2012
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We're back again with a first time lesson with Jo. She's never been on the Cadillac before. Is that true? That's true. Okay, so yet we don't actually as she is just sat on the Cadillac for the first time, so we're going to start this lesson line on your back with your head right here. What I'd like to do first with you is remind you of a couple other things that we've gone over in the past or that you've experienced on the mat or some things you may have experienced with a reformer lesson or two. Let's go ahead and bend your knees and put your feet flat. Take an inhale. As you exhale, just let the shoulders relax down towards the Mat.

So I want the shoulders to kind of relax down towards the floor. Good. I'm going to put my hand on your tummy again. Take an inhale and as you exhale this time, imagine your belly sinking away from my hand. Remember a while back, we put a weight on there or a sandbag or something so that you can just kind of feel your abdomen sinking down. Nothing is clenching right now. Your jaw is not tight. Your buttocks isn't squeezed. Monitor your neutral pelvic position. You've done this before.

We're going to put the hands right here. You'll notice in this position that your palms and your fingers are relatively level. I'm gonna take you through a little spinal journey right now. I like to call it. So you're going to pull your tummy in. As you exhale, curl your buttocks underneath you and start to roll your bottom up. You'll notice that now your fingers are higher than your palms. Hold right there. Broaden the collarbones. Very good.

Regroup the scoop in your tummy right here and then curl up any bit more. Pause right there. Feel the awareness in the back of your thighs. Feel the awareness in your buttocks. Stay right there for a little bit. Press the two big toe joints down, and then slowly roll your spine down. Roll your Bra Strap area down first.

Then the next part of your ribs and the next part of your low back. And we segmental [inaudible] roll down the spine. You may have heard bone by bone before in the mat class. So with your hands down by your side. Now take an inhale and exhale again.

Sink the belly, curl the tailbone up one last time and give it a little pause right there for just a second. Get regrouped in your thighs. Notice how sometimes there's a hurry to kind of just push your pelvis up in the air, but I want you to take it on a journey up in the air so that you really engage the legs in the back of the thighs. Imagine that you're pulling your heels towards your bottom as you curl your buttocks up anymore. Now pause right there for a second. I'm going to play with your arm position. I'm going to turn your arm bone out. You'll notice how that drops that shoulder down.

Can you look right here at my hand? That's it. So he gets not up nor down. Just straight ahead. Now make this hand be a little karate chop into the mat. And now when you press that mat down, you feel the back of your arm a little bit more rather than the rounding in the shoulders. That makes sense. And then slowly roll yourself all the way down. That was like an advanced fundamental because I gave that cue to you while you were up in the bridge, but you didn't have any trouble with it. So let's try it again with your bottom down.

So we're going to take your shoulders, they're going to open up. You're going to imagine that your arm bones are rotating outward. Yes. So you're not really squeezing your shoulder blades together and nor are you sticking your chest up in the air. It's like your arm is a little Sushi roll or something. And we're just kind of rolling that out.

And then take your hands and just press the palms a the side of your hands down as opposed to your palm. So when you press the side of your hands down, you'll notice that the back of your arm is a little more active. Can you feel that? And now if you can turn your palms down without disturbing your shoulders, then you go ahead and do that throughout the work. When I say arms down, you may choose to have the Pinky side of your finger down or your palms down, but I'm going to try to pay. Notice here that your collar bones are nice and broad and you feel that posterior shoulder connection. Does that make sense there? Okay, one more bridge. Press down. Lift your bottom up that now lift up as high as your pelvis and your thighs are level with your ribs. So come on up because this will become a live on the cap.

There you go. Pause right there. Big Inhale. As you exhale, roll your chest bone down. Keep reaching these knees. There you go. Head. Nice positioning of your head. Roll your spine all the way down. Very good, very good. Nice job. I'm going to take this roll down bar now. Okay, hang onto that with your hand. You got it. Don't let it fall. Just hold that right there. [inaudible] grab, grabbed the other one with that hand. Hold it right there.

Now pull that bar towards your thighs just a little bit. Feel your knuckles reach long. We've had that same too in the reformer before. Open up your collarbones and now press the bar down. Feel your arms. Do the work. Yes, hold right there, very good. And then let the bar release, but you still keep tension on it. Inhale, the bar presses down. Exhale, it releases. One more time. The bar presses down. Hold right there. Imagine Joe, that your wrists are staying nice and straight and you're stretching that bar apart like you're trying to stretch the bar side to side. Nice job if you will.

All that work in the arms. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Good. Hold that right there. Take this leg long on the mat. So now flex that foot. Reach Long. Now you're in math class. Okay, men, picture yourself in Mat class, but now you're holding onto is spring. Take this left leg, reach it up in the air and then lower it down.

Reach it up, and then push it down into my hand. Wash it down, push it down. Good. Last time up. And then last time down, bend the knee in. Pause, release your arms. Rest. Inhale, exhale, Perez. Again, not a long rest. You're nice and strong. You're a beginner, but you're nice and strong. This is really important that we get the exercise to kind of meet your body. Hold yourself right there, lower the leg down and then bring it up. Good.

Inhale, lowers it down. Exhale, scoop the belly, bring it back up. Nighttime, last one, press and then lift, and then bend the knee. Put the arms down. Excuse me, the leg down, and release your arms right there. Nice job. Move yourself a little bit further away and I'm going to take this bar. I'm actually you hang onto that bar, mint or lower this down just to Todd. So why am I doing this as a first time reformer? Excuse me as a first time Cadillac lesson is I want you again to get the relationship between your arms and your core. You've done this on the reformer, so we're just re grouping some fundamentals here. Press the arms, feel the connection in your arms. Yes.

Feel the connection through the top of your core. Yes. Fold this knee into a tabletop. Full this knee into a tabletop hold. You're in Mat class again. The exercises called single leg stretch. Take this leg away from you. Inhale, switch the other leg in its place. Good collar bone.

Stay open working the legs while you hold the arms. Notice you're still doing core activation even though you're not curled up. So important to understand the length of the abdominals in this neutral position. Two legs come in, lower the feet down. Release your arms in. Pause right there. One more. We'll do double leg stretch and we'll move on. Press the arms again.

You know these exercises and concepts from the mat work, which I think is very, very important. Take one leg into table top. Take the other leg and give your heels a squeeze together. I call this exercise. Give the baby a ride to the ceiling, so press your legs up to the air and then bring them in. Now press the baby away a little bit further. Good. Can you lower your legs and press the baby away further and come in?

Go Up to the ceiling again for us. And then last one, lower the legs down. Release the hands. Pause right there to how your arms tie into the core. Feel how your legs challenged the court. Very nice awareness. Roll yourself on up to sitting. Turn around and face this bar place. We're going to take the bar up to a high level. Now I always check my springs and it's a good idea as a client.

Always check just to make sure nothing is caught so it doesn't kind of jerk you one way or another. Pressure legs out in front of you. Go ahead and put your feet on the Poles here and hang onto this bar right here. Put your hands on the outside. There you go. So take an inhale here and as you exhale, just start to roll your spine down to the mat and pause. Just right there for a second there.

Let your head come back to my hand a little bit and just nod your Chin down there. You're going to hold that shape right there. You should start to feel a little scoop in that valley right now. Now continue to pull your tummy in. Enroll this part of your spine down to the mat, down to the mat, down to the mat, and just pause right there. Take a big inhale. As you broad in your shoulders, go ahead and lift your head and look at the bar.

Take an inhale and as you exhale, feel your ribs closed. Kind of like a garage door down towards your pelvis and roll your trunk up. That was a little quiver age. If y'all that inhale again. Exhale, knuckles. Stay straight, a gentle, pressing down with the bar. Just a gentle pressing to engage your arms and then start to roll your buttocks underneath you. Take that time, pause, roll, pause, and then the rest of the way.

And now this time just to give your arms a little bit of a challenge. Pull your elbows wide. That's nice. And then let it release, but don't let go of the bar. Okay, one more time. Pull. Inhale and exhale, release. Lift the head. Look at the bar. Big Inhale as you exhale, take time, curl. Take another inhale. Oh, much better this time. Gee, if you, how your abdominals kind of sunk in rather than bulge out. Very good. Inhale again. Exhale, knuckles. Press down, roll, roll this piece back. That's it. Pause. Let your head come back a little bit.

There you go. Roll this piece down. Pause, hold. There's that work. There's that tricky spot right there. And then roll the next piece down. Very good, very good. And come all the way down to poles with the arms. Go. Inhale, pull. Exhale, release. Elbows wide, broad chest, very nice. And lift the head. Look at the bar, take a big, big, big inhale. Exhale, curling. Very nice job. Just like that. And we'll let that bar go.

Okay, so nice control of the spine. Okay. Since you did that so well, we're going to get that a little challenge. Hold that bar for me right there. I'm going to lower this bar down now. So it's always fun to teach a new client. A little bit about the mechanics and a little bit about the physics, if you will. So if you notice, I've taken the springs from a pie which gave you a lot of support down lower. So it's going to be less support. Now, can you imagine that?

So now when you start to roll back, springs aren't really gonna help you too, too much. They'll help you a teeny bit, but you'll feel what I mean when you do the exercise. So pull the tummy in, rural yourself back. Pause yourself right there. Okay? See how the tension isn't the same anymore? Good. And then roll yourself back and back and very good and very good. Head down. Pull the bar into your chest one more time and then release. And now lift the head, curl the trunk, and then roll yourself up. Nice job. So you feel that challenge there.

One more time like that. Arms out and then roll yourself down. Just like that. Just roll yourself down and give that a little pause right there. Now don't roll down anymore. Let your ponytail come back into my hand just a little bit. But glance at the bar. Hey, nice job. Regroup right here. The scoop, that's it.

You get that quiver, you fee. I call that curling to the quiver. You're doing a great job and then lower yourself all the way down, all the way down. Whew. Nice job. Lift the head and then curl yourself all the way up. You're good with that. Yeah, that feels good. And everything. Okay, we're going to take this bar off and we will switch to a handle or a strap here. So we're going to move this up here. One more little variation.

It's just good for you to see some different connections here. So take your hands in here. Now take your arms out to the side like so and pull them back a little bit there. So let's do that same awareness as you brought in the shoulders. Feel your pinkies kinda turned down a little bit and you're, yeah, they, if you have that, that's really good in the back of the arms. Now continue to press your arms back there and roll yourself part way down.

[inaudible] press those arms, back. Press. Those aren't hold right there. Hold right there. Get regrouped. That's it. Hold no drop bed. You're good. You're good. Hold right there. Hole. Get that quiver. Know. Yes, you're doing really well. And then curl yourself back up. A lot of times the holding is the hard part. Three inches at three times. We'll move on. Okay. Arms come out to the side a little bit.

Now remember before we have to kind of connect through these rib, there you go. Now pull your arms back. Oh sweet. And then roll yourself partway down. Stop right there. No shoulder blades rounding. Oh my gosh, very good. Now pump that arm three times. One, two, three. Pump this arm three times one, two, three. Pump that arm one time. Hold it.

Turn to the right one half inch. Come back to center. Release this arm a little bit. Press left arm a little bit. Turn, hold back to center. Bring yourself all the way up and rest right there. Yes. Even though it's the first time on your Cadillac, these exercises aren't really hard. They're using the same concepts, but we're just kinda challenging it with one arm and the other. Could you feel how that talked to your obliques? Just a little bit.

They're very good. I'm going to take these away. Put your head here now and lie on your back. Okay, so we'll switch now to what we call the legs springs and you'll see some similarities in the leg springs here on the Cadillac, much like you did with your legs in the straps on the reformer. Lower this bar down just a little bit. These are purple springs. These are kind of heavy springs.

Okay, so let's take your right leg and put it in here. Now remember when that leg was in the strap on the reformer, you have to press your leg into my hand, engage the back of your leg and push that leg away. Ooh, nice job. Do you feel like you're in a slingshot? Do you feel like you're going to shoot out that way a little bit? Okay, you're going to be all right with that? Yeah, let's, we can take your hands and put them here. Okay.

Let's bend your left leg in and put the leg in here and press your legs out. Now here's an interesting thought with your hands over your head. Go ahead and bend your knees in and rest just a second with your hands over your head. It kind of invites your spine to arch. So even though your hands into the polls may help you feel more stable, I feel like it may be arching your back in such a way that we're actually trying to avoid. So what I'm going to do is have you keep your arms down by your side, move your body back to your heads at the very edge. I'm going to lower your springs down to make that be a little less tension.

I can also change to a lighter color spring, but I think this will be fine. Let's press your legs away. The better there. Yes. You don't feel like you're going to shoot off the back. I mean the tension is good. The tension is good. Okay, so let's squeeze the heels together. Good. Now Monitor the position of your pelvis. Remember we did this on the reformer, so you'll see how your pubic bone is curled up.

So let's bend your legs into a frog. Hold right there, and then put your buttocks down. Drop your buttocks down. There you go. So there's that neutral awareness again and sometimes it just rears its head and it kind of puts us in that til when we don't really notice it. So that's really a good idea. You do a nice job checking in and go ahead and put your arms down by your side. So when I say to QT, you drop your bottom. Does that make sense?

Because everybody needs a different cue. Some people say lengthen tailbone. Some people say arch your back. Whatever the cue is, I as your teacher, just need to be sure that you understand it. So when you start to curl up in the exercise, I might say, Hey Joe, can you drop your bottom down or lengthen out your pelvis? Does that make sense? If I say that? Okay, so go ahead and take your tenure on that quiver already. Take your legs out towards my hand here, press and then reluctantly bend the knees back in just to 90 degrees.

Very good. Eight times go. Here's two. Exhale, press. Keep your bottom heavy. There you go. Keep the belly pulled in. Here's halfway done. Reach long through your toes as well. Zipping up right in the center thighs touching good. Doing a good job. Looking right here. Two more last time. Go out.

Stay out and pause right there. Now can you make yourself even longer? Whoa. You sure can. Can you lengthen down your pelvis just a little bit more? Oh, that's hard right there. Feel that work now. Open and close your legs. Keep tension on the springs open and then pull them together. Push the legs apart and then pull them together. Good. Like my hands are resisting you. The springs are resisting you.

Take a look at the springs. Don't let them get wobbly. Keep equal tension. Oh, much better. Could you see that? You saw that little difference out and then in, how about two more of these out and then in and then last time out. Last time in, bend the knees all the way in. Let your spine stretch. Let it round. Pause right there. That exercise we did with the heels together with a little bit of turnout and have you press your legs long again. And this time I actually want you to turn your toes in and your heels out.

Pause right there. The how now that gets the medial part of your leg and the medial part of your hamstring. It kind of catches you by surprise because in the back of the thigh there's three hamstrings, a lateral one, a medial one, and a central one. You should feel this middle one more now. Now in this exercise, you're going to press your legs straight down and then reach away to come up. Good. So I feel like you're rolling through your pelvis again.

So you want to check in with that pelvis. Put your head. That's what I want right there. Now when you let your legs come up, don't let your buttocks lift. There you go. So you want to crease right at the hips. If you need to put your hands there to double check right up here on your pelvis. Let's regroup real quick. Bend the knees in. Pause. Drop your bottom down. There you go. Okay, so never a bad idea to stop and regroup. We're not in any hurry.

No one's in her race. There's not a right or wrong. It's just a way to keep your legs nice and connected to the back of your buttocks, which in turn strengthened your buttocks and your thighs, which in turn helps your low back. OK, so toes together, heels apart. We're still in this variation. Press your legs out. [inaudible] there you go. And you caught it right away. Did you feel yourself? Catch it. Very good. And then bring your knees back in.

Let's just do the frog version out and then we won't do straight legs. We'll save that for another time. You have complete control here in this variation. Bend the knees in. Very good. And then press out. Good. Now turn the toes in and the heels out. And now do this version. But just the out and in phase two, how it's still the medial part of your thighs. They're very, yeah, you've already corrected that last time. Very good.

And then bend the knees all the way in and rest. Can you feel your legs come alive? They're a little bit. Okay. One more variation on the legs. They're going to be parallel. So we've done turned out, we've done turned in and now we're going to do parallel legs. Point your toes over the straps.

Do you remember the exercise we call on the reformer called bird foot, where you kind of wrap the forefoot down and we really had to press through that big toe on that left foot. Can you feel how me just changing that foot position, you can kind of feel that come to lay low alive all the way back there. Hold right there really well. Nice job. So from here now in parallel, take one leg a little bit further away from you, your right leg and take your left leg a little bit further towards you. Good. And then this is called the scissor. So you switch and you switch and you keep lengthening down your buttocks.

You keep dry. Oh there you go. You feel how that's getting that whole connection there. You're doing really well. You're not tensing your neck. Open up the collarbones a little bit and now we're going to turn this into a little bit quicker. Point those toes and it's going to go one, two, three, four. Keep tension in the springs. There you go. Five, six, seven, eight. Bend the knees in, relax down. Nice job there. So we feel that awareness there through the whole legs. Kevin, to take this way, we're going to come back to the legs and standing in a second.

I'd like you to roll yourself all the way up to sitting. We're going to come to this bar right here. This is called the push through bar. Okay? The spring comes from the top. Your legs will be out long here against the pole and this is another one of those tricky things where we say, sit up tall. Okay, so just take your arms out in front of you and let's see what this exercise looks like. You know the exercise and the map called spine stretch, where you press your arms down and you round yourself forward retina. We round forward. There you go. Aha.

Hold yourself right there for just a second. It looks really good there. Now remember we want to pull back from the ABS. There you go. And now return yourself to vertical and just come right to there. Take your hands on the bar. That's kind of the, this way that, that's kind of the, the, the movement that's going to occur here. This exercise is called push through. So you're going to take, that's a hold right there. Now I'm going to help you bend this down on your, you feel my hand here.

I want you to try not to lean back into my hand so I know you're gonna bend your elbows. You're going to stay vertical. Hang on, hang on. That's it. There you go. That's it. Just like that pause right there. Got It. Okay. I remember in the reformer when we kind of occupied your arms and you sat up and you said, why is that hard? Right? Can you feel your, you're telling me working right here. Good. You're doing a really good job. You're nice and elongated in here. This looks really good. Just hold that.

Can you feel the challenge of your arms? Kind of pull into your truck without moving your trunk? Just straighten your arms a little bit and let it come back in a little. Good. Good. Inhale, Eh, good. Appreciate that. That's a challenge. Yes. Good. Pause right here. Take your left arm out to the side. Yeah, I'll help you with this one.

Take it all the way out to the side. Do a t, take ava and that's it. Have a look at that arm. Did you make sure you know it's out to the side. There you go. That's it. Hold this arm right here. Hole. That's it. You got it. You're holding the arm working. You're doing really well. The trunk working good. Can you give it a tiny little pump?

I help you down and lift and then down and lift. Doing a good job down in lift, and then take your left arm onto the bar and pause. Take your right arm out to the side. I'm spotting the bar with you. You're holding that right there. I'm going to check and remember. We don't want to sit on the edge of your paraniem. You want it?

That's a very good. Okay, so few. When you sit in vertical, that's it. You're right. You got to bring that shoulder back. You're right. You got it. And then press down a little bit and then no bulging abdomen. Oh, good job. And that one more time down. Good. And then lift two hands on the bar and then let the bar come up. Take your hands away. Give yourself a little rest. Just a second. Ooh, nice awareness. Yeah. Okay. So hands on the bar again.

This time to bars. Going to start here and you're going to lean your torso back much like you ha. You hung onto that roll bar. Just lean your torso. [inaudible] kind of eyeball the bar there. Imagine you're pulling the bar apart with your arms. Hmm.

Let's have these shoulder blades come up. There you go. Now Curl your lowest spy. Exactly. Stopped right there. So no more rounding up in here. I want you to feel it. Start to get into here. So pull the belly back for my hand. Backwards away from your head. Oh, nice job. Okay, got that little connection there. It looks really good.

Now you're going to press the bar down about this much. Yeah, that's it. Feel that little connection through there. Working the arms, connecting to the trunk. Very good. One time. Present. Hold. Big. Inhale. Big exhale. Straight knuckles. Straight wrists. Long wrists. There you go. Good correction. Hold, quiver, quiver. Good. Take another big inhale. As you exhale, press the bar down, Jo and spine. Stretch forward.

Round through straight elbows, straight elbows. Lift the head in line with your spine drop. Make your neck longer. There you go. Pause right there. Now come up out of this a little bit so that you're working and minimize hanging. Tighten up the legs. That's it. So like there's a little ice pick right here and you want to pull away from my hand. Yeah, that's it. Pull the bar apart with your arm.

See if he held that exercise is actually a little bit different. It's not hanging forward in your hamstrings. I re this is so fabulous. Let the crown of your head press into my hand. Good. And then start to roll yourself back up. Roll back, pause, come backwards. Come backwards. There you go. Pull the belly in. That's it.

Hold right back in here. Good. Press down this much. Three times. Press, press, press, hold. Big. Inhale. Exhale. Bar Presses. Round yourself through. Now with control, don't just fall forward, but stay scoop. Remember that ice pick underneath your belly. Very, very good. Pull the bar apart with your hands again, this is very unique. She doesn't have tight hamstrings at all. Stretch through this part of your low back ice. Pick right in here.

Bring yourself all the way back up just to vertical recognized vertical. Let the bar chrome up and let it go up in the air and now you're going to hinge forward in your hips as the bar comes up. Hang on, hang onto that bar. There you go. I'm going to take your neck back. There you go. Pull the rib packaging back just a little bit more, Joe. There you go. Just like that. Now take that whole shape and angle it forward.

I'm going to have you come back again, so I want you to angle it forward from your hips and not from your spine. Lift up the chest a little bit. There you go. Good. Now pull the bar apart with your arms and pretend Joe, that you're going to pull this bar out of those poles that you're going to pull it behind. You. Remember on the reformer. When I elbow stay straight, just like you're going to pull this bar away from you, you're going to pull it off of the rungs. I want you to engage these arms right here like you're pulling. Hang on. Okay. Like your hand is going to be pulling the bar this way. Oh, okay. Okay, makes sense. Yeah, so we're going to come back through the chest here a little bit. There you go.

Now stay right here. Now pull the bar backwards. There you go. That's, that's it. You feel that work in your arms. You held that levels up. That looks really good. Take an inhale here. As you exhale, start to roll backwards with your waistline taking your spine on that same journey, the bar's gonna press down. Take an inhale here. Press the bar down and round through. Hang onto that bar. Nice straight wrist crown of the head, reaching long ice. Pick underneath your belly button there.

That cue seemed to work for you and then roll yourself back and then control the arms up. Take the whole spine, hinge it forward. Pull this. Let your head stay in line with your shoulders there yet. Go engage these ma. That's beautiful. Good. And then last time, belly pulls in. Rolling yourself back, pressing the bar down and the press it through. Last time you're on your own. Progressing through [inaudible]. Nice. Sounds very nice.

Crown of the head long. That's it. So you feel this whole length in through here and then unroll yourself all the way back and then I'll take the bar. Oh, nice. Nice job. Reach your arms out in front of you. Close your legs and roll yourself slowly down to the mat. Very good. The next exercise, we're going to do a little push through exercise with your feet. Okay. Okay.

You feel all right? Okay. It's challenging, isn't it? Yeah, I think I finally got that one. You think you understand that? All right. That's okay. We have lots of time. We have years and years to do lots of lessons. Your feet are going to go on here with the bird feet. Remember the bird feet from the reformer. Okay. And just to let you know, this bar really should never push through these two poles here. Okay? I mean, if you're doing a tower class or something and it's a large class and you need to pay attention to that. Arms down by your side. Ben Vinnies [inaudible] hold your legs right there. So we've been in this position before, so I want you to hold this. That's it. Nice bird fee.

Drop the heels down a little bit. I know that sounds kind of picky, but you see when you start to pay more attention to the feet, how it ties into your hips a little bit. Can you kind of feel that there? So you're going to press the bar away and then pull the bar back in. Very good. And then press the bar away and then pull the bar back in. You got it. Now let the bar come further in. Let the bar roll up in the air. Press your feet, lift your bottom up. She puts Savara. That's it.

It's going to catch your thighs by surprise here. Hold right there. Like there's water pouring over your toes. Feel the thighs engaged. Really good. Scoop that bedtime. There you go. And then keep reaching away. As you roll your spine down, the head stays. Looking right here. You take that time to roll that spine down. Roll through the pelvis.

That's it. Bend the knees in and then press the bar down and through with control. Almond. Spot it for you. Hold right there for how it wants to let go a little bit and then bend the knees back in. Let's do that one more time. Press the bar all the way up in the air. Hang on, hang on. Let the bar go straight first. Engage those legs.

Tighten up your quadriceps. That's nice. Tighten up the thighs. Press Away with the legs as you roll. That's fine. Upward doing well. Nice control. Pause right there. Can you get longer? Yes you can. Can you scoop deeper? Yes you can. Can you take this leg off of the bar and just bring it to the ceiling?

Just hold that one breath. Bring it back down to the bar. Repress, right lift left, hold, and then put that leg down. Take a big inhale. Exhale. Roll your chest bone down, roll your rib cage down, roll your low spine down. Everything comes down. Put your knees down. I've got the bar. Nice job. That was really good awareness. Really good awareness. Alrighty. Good to come to your knees. Now face this way you're going to come up to high kneeling.

Can you come up to high kneeling and face me? So come all the way up. Yeah, I just want to measure this about shoulder height here. There you go. Okay. And now you can move back a little bit further. Go ahead and take that handle and hook it onto one of those hooks for me. There you go. And then bring yourself up to your knees. This exercise is called chest expansion.

So you're going to move forward just a little bit. [inaudible]. Good. Now from here in kneeling, it's Kinda like in sitting. So we're gonna have to work to take this part of your rim package right here, right where my hands are backwards. There you go. But didn't take your pelvis forward. That's it. There you go. And then take this part back a little bit more. There you go.

And then take this apart, forward a little bit more, and now lengthen up your chest and your shoulder a little bit more. Little bit more. There you go. Hold right there. Oh, that's a work now, isn't it? That's really good awareness. That's real. It don't. That's it. Hold right there. Now you're going to open up the chest, but pulling your arms backwards, pull your arms backwards, and then release. Inhale, pull your arms back. Exhale, release. Press those shins down. Pull the arms back. Nice straight wrist, and then release. One more time.

Pull the arms back. Hold yourself right there, Joe. Hold yourself right there. Take your pelvis forward to Ted. Hold there. Turn your head though the right and don't move your left shoulder and then turn your head to the left and don't move your right shoulder and then look, center, and then release and pause right there. Woo. Okay, we're going to do that about three more times. Okay. I was a lot of work. So what we're doing is we're trying to fine tune the position of your spine and let you try to notice where the position of your spine is when you work your shoulders. Okay, makes sense. Okay, so Shannon, hang on. Shins press.

So a lot of times you might want to correct your spine by tucking your bottom underneath you and stuff. Do you ever feel like you have to do that? So what I actually would like you to do is, is you need to change the upper part of your ribs and tilting your pelvis won't change that. You do a good job when I cue you backwards. There you go. You feel that? Now you can lengthen your tailbone down a little bit. The other direction, eh? There you go. Now press the shins. Oh my gosh. If you just hold that, that is major exercise all through your spine. Yeah.

Oh my gosh. Just keep holding that lengthen out. Your called. Oh my gosh. Very good. I've said that a lot already, but this is really good. And then press the arms back three times. Press one, release two, three, hold. Inhale, turn your head to the right. Don't move your left shoulder. Exhale, center. Inhale, turn your head to the left, move your right shoulder, exhale, center, and then release the arms and pause right there. Don't go round. That's it. It won't erase anything you've just created. Okay, so let's try to keep this all the way through with these next, this next repetition. Okay, you're in good position here.

You'll notice that she might be leaning back a little bit here, but I'm going to cut her some slack in her hips just to give her the awareness here in her spine. Okay, so arms pulled back three times. Inhale, release. That's it. Exhale, two knuckles, nice and straight. That's it. And the last time, pull. Hold. Turn your head to the right. Don't move your left shoulder. Turn your head to the left. Don't move your right shoulder and then release. Listen carefully, let go of the straps. Don't change your shoulders. Don't round your body.

I know I'm saying a lot of don'ts, but you're, you're okay with that, aren't you? Just maintain that feeling because that's not a common feeling to you. That's a challenge. Feelings that make sense? Hold that right there. Very good. And then sit your bottom all the way down and restaurant there. Oh, nice. Nice job. Okay, one more set of exercises.

You're going to stand up here. Okay. Again, this exercise is called standing leg springs. You're going to step on this box here and stand up. I'm going to take this spring here. He put your right leg in it and just flex your foot now before. Yeah, that's it.

You can start to feel how that leg pulling back is going to challenge your left thigh a little bit. So the challenge here now, Joe, is to keep this rim packaging back. Very good. Now pull this leg backwards and then release it and then pull this leg backwards and then release it one more time. Pull it back and hold it right there. Feel the connection through this gluteus muscle, this hamstring muscle. Feel the stability in this muscle. Let's not lose this rib. Can area go now? Just grow tall, grow tall. Don't lose these rooms here. That's it. There you go.

Hold. I know that's hard. Now hold that leg there and pulse it about five times behind you. Five, four, three, two, one. Release the leg. Oh Mom. Oh Mama. That's hard. Okay. Now we have to move the box to the other side. So why do this exercise? Well, this exercise teaches stability in one leg, mobility and other, but all this is in relationship to your spine. You feel how your spine wants to pull into extension a whole lot.

That's one of the reasons why I haven't chosen to do a lot of extension exercises here because I've noticed that her spine actually prefers extension. So we're going to flex this foot. Lengthen up your torso. So when your brain, Joe hears the word lengthen, I sometimes see that your, your body hears to arch when you say grow up tall. Okay? But if you will, I'd like you to think for a second. Um, that the lengthening really comes from way inside here. These ribs come back right here. That's it. Not your shoulders, just as red package. You're doing a good job. I know it's getting a little bit tiring and then pull this leg back.

It's a different kind of work, isn't it? And then release [inaudible] and then really so it looks good. And then pull back [inaudible] [inaudible] red packaging back. Oh, there you go. He how much more work there is in the leg when you keep your spine in alignment.

One more time. Pull back a little bit in hold. Lengthen up. One more time. Rib packaging back. Oh my gosh. Very good. Hold right there. Now release it just a hair and then pulse it. Five Times. One, two, three, four, five. Relax Down Mama. Again. You okay with that? Okay. Now we're going to turn around and face the other direction. Okay, so step off the box.

Let's step on here with your right leg. Let's have your left leg into here. I call this one like kick a soccer ball. Hang on, I'll just, I'm going to change this up just a little bit. Okay. This is another really nice core awareness. As we get the leg doing, and I'm sorry you're gonna have to step down for a second to move the box forward. It's kind of one of those imperfect positioning things.

Go ahead and step on there. Now you got to get the tension. Just so there you going to flex this foot [inaudible] so everything gets connected here. There you go. So these ribs come backwards a little bit. There you go. Nice correction there. Pelvis stays facing forward. Now pull this spring forward. Hello forward. Hold right there. Yeah. Can you feel how, how you press that forward, how the belly actually needs to pull back. Can you kind of feel that there?

Release it just a tad Joe, just a tad and then kick it again. That's it. And then kick it again three more times. Kick one kick to kick three. Hold, hold. Hold the leg. Pull the belly in. Lift the pelvic floor up from the bottom and then release that leg all the way back. Yeah. All right, let's switch sides. I'm going to move this box over this way. Step on there with your left foot.

Right leg comes in here. Flex your foot. Okay, so kick that leg forward a little bit. Hold right there. Feel the kicking forward with this leg. Kind of gives you a little pulling in and you're telling me right here, hey, you've gotten yourself in alignment all by yourself. I didn't regroup. I mean you did it yourself. So just that awareness, okay? That word is actually called proprioception.

You can use that in a game show sometime if you want, if the ability to recognize where you are when you walk out of here, you know where your spine is. So you try to stay away from some of those old positioning patterns. Okay, kick again, kick again. Feel the strength of stability in this leg. Feel the mobility working in this leg, and feel the big old core challenge right here. How about three more and how about two more, and then last time, and then release that leg all the way back. Very good.

And then step down from there. Nice job. Okay. Bring yourself back down. Lie on your back for me. Very good. Got It. Alrighty. So bend your knees, put your feet flat, press your feet down and curl your tailbone up and roll on up into a bridge. Oh, [inaudible].

That's it. Hold yourself right there. Broaden your collarbones. Good. Take a big inhale and then as you exhale, slowly roll your trunk all the way back down. You do that one more time for me. Roll yourself all the way up and then slowly roll yourself all the way back down. Very good. This last exercise we could have done first to get you on awareness of your hip separation, but sometimes I like to do it last almost as a little relaxation. Could you hang onto that for me? Do you have full control of it? Yeah. Okay.

Just hang on to it for me. There you go. It's always good to ask. Make sure you have that. Oh righty. So I'm going to take the bar now. I have it. You can let go. Move your head back that way just a little bit. You're going to take both of your feet and your legs.

You're going to put them over here like you're a little kid on the playground this way. [inaudible]. Exactly, and pull it right underneath your knee. Creases. There you go. And then just restaurant there. Let your arms come down by your side. Is it relatively level there? So can you feel how the weight of the springs is kind of distracting your thighs a little bit, and then your buttocks kind of rest down. So your spine is being stretched up a little bit, but you're not much work right now. The springs are helping you.

Can you feel that? Take an inhale. Exhale, relax your shoulders. Very good. One more time. Inhale. And one more time. Exhale. Just let the heels drop. Dance. This is kind of a little relaxation at the end. Again, it just kind of gives you a little bit attraction. Even if I kind of pulled up on this just a little bit, you feel how that kind of relax as you down. Big Inhale, and then big exhale. Very good.

Alrighty. And then I'm gonna take my hands in here. Take your legs out of there and bring your feet all the way down and restaurant there. All righty. Very good job for your first Cadillac workout. You're welcome. You're welcome.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Really nice! Great cuing. Yep it's all in the details...
2 people like this.
Thank you for the clear and concise cues. Loved taking this class!!
What a beautiful session, as always great cueing, love your style of teaching Karen! Lovely student good body awareness.
3 people like this.
Great class with great cues.
2 people like this.
la la loooved this! Thank you!
2 people like this.
Great class, excellent cues! thank you.
Karen Sanzo
To all of you who take time to comment on sessions that are posted on PA...a BIG Thank you.
NEW for 2013 will be my Beginner's Blog. It's in the works.
This client on this particular session, was indeed new, and was very, very connected with her body. Her listening skills were superb, too. We don't always get that with new clients. Keep your cue toolbox open and ready.
2 people like this.
Karen, great work.. I always love to see your work! I agree, your 'beginner' was extremely connected...she made the workout look easy. :) Of course your great cueing helped her too. Thank you so much for 're-educating' us to see the work in another perspective. Hope to see you again soon.. planning a trip to your home town this year?
Tunde M
2 people like this.
I loved this workout so much! I love the calm , exact cueing .. everything makes sense , clear and easy to follow as for a teacher such as for a client!
Thank you Karen! its an honor to learn from you!
1 person likes this.
I love this class, and learned so much much from your cues! It is so good to go back to the basics! Thank you, Karen!
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