Class #1646

Powerhouse Wake Up

50 min - Class
135 likes

Description

Meredith teaches a Reformer workout focusing on unilateral exercises that will wake up your powerhouse stabilizers. She flows through Footwork, Series of 5 on the box, side-lying leg work for the glutes, Semi-circle, Knee Stretches, and unilateral arm work, among other exercises.
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box

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Apr 29, 2014
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Hi, today we're going to do an intermediate level class on the reformer focusing on unilateral work. So standing in front of the reformer, taking any on reach, the arms overhead. Yes, allowing yourself just a moment and bringing the arms down to look in words. Connect with your bodies and your minds and reaching the arms up, elongating through this spine dive forward. Place the hands on top of the box. I have a blue spring connected to the reformer gonna.

Take the spine into an elongated position. We're going to allow the box to reach out so we dive down and create a nice flat spine. Inhale and roll the spine out. So I've just given us a two breath pattern and I'm going to turn it right now until one breath pattern. So at the top Ilan Gate, feel the pelvis, reach out, feel the spine stretching down and forward, and then exhale, feel the movement generating from the pelvis. We curl the spine back up, showed us slide away from the here, reaching and drawing in and one more reaching rippling into a long flat back. And then feel the roundness ripple through the spine as well. And from the top, take the right hand over towards the left hand.

We're going to reach out through the pelvis and then as we press out through the box, we take the spine over to the left and then curling the spine back in. Just one more time on that side, reaching, feeling the body twist and reach around to the left and excellent. Nice. We pull back in. Coming back through center. Let's do one in center reaching holding here. Inhale, bend the elbows wide. Feel the ribs, the front ribs reaching up towards the back ribs. Exhale to press out. Notice that the weight is just over the feet and the body isn't leaning forward.

In fact, as your arms go forward, feel homeless that you're putting more weight back onto your legs in healing to bend and exhaling to press. Inhaling to bend and exhale to press. Find an inhale and curl the spine back and then reaching across to the opposite side of the box. Elongate reaching out through the pelvis, reaching long through the excellent as we ran, drawing down, allowing the head to just hang heavy, so I'm keeping my pelvis pretty squared, but trying to lengthen and rotate through my torso and excellent to come back. Finding our way back to the center one last time, reaching the spine law and we'll do those arm beds again. Front ribs, reaching up to backwards.

Wait on the legs, bend the arms, stretch the body longer. Inhale and stretch. Drawing up into the spine with the navel and three more and two more and last time and rolling back. Softening the knees. Let the knees just rest against that foot bar using them for stabilization.

As we roll the spine all the way back up to the top, I'm going to set right now my springs up from my foot work. I'm going to be using three reds in a blue and then coming up to sit up on the box. Feel the feet on the Bach on not on the box, the feeder on the bar. Feel the feet on the bar, reaching the arms out in front of us. Inhaling. First we exhale drawing away from the fingertips with the abdominals.

Then bring the spine onto the box and that nice round shape pausing at the shoulder blades. Take the arms out to the sides. Exhale, press fear from the body. Reach the arms forward, roll the spine up, fine shoulders over pelvis, and then open the arms and lift the spine. Exhale as we press the spine into around position and curl backwards. Inhale, we breathe the arms out to the sides. Exhale, we press the arms back into the body. Feel the shoulders come up over the hips, and then inhale. Elongate the back. Two more times. Round spy, so we get those little moments of extension reaching the arms, bringing the arms back, mobilizing through this by curly, curly, curly, and reaching out to the side. We're going to stay at the bottom on this next one. So we wrapped, we roll back, we hold there.

Turn the palms down just off the shoulder blades on the box. Lift the left leg in the right arm and press those limbs back down. Press into the bar with the left leg. Lift the opposite side and exhale the arm that's not lifting is reaching forward. And we're doing this in an alternating pattern and press and reach.

Taking the arm nice and far without allowing spine to falter and reach and back and reach and back and pause in here and rural the spine. Finding shoulders over pelvis, taking the arms out to the side, lifting the back, take the arms up overhead, give the back a little arch, take the arms forward, roll the spine down, turning the pumps to face down. This time as we lift the left leg, we'll reach the right arm across to the left and then back to center. Reach the left arm across to the right and back to the center. So we alternate. The opposite arm comes to the arm that's close to the leg. That's lifting and reaching across and center and reaching across and center and reaching across. Last time and center. Pause in in here.

Xou Rural. Find shoulders over pelvis, lift the spine and bring the arms out to the side. Take the arms overhead, roll the spine backwards. Rounding now on finding that nice position. Just off the shoulder blades. Float the legs up into the hands in your reach and exhale back double leg stretch. We take the arms and the legs and we pulled. Just maintaining that nice consistent flection in here. Reacher exhale back. Inhale, reach up.

Exhale back. Inhale, reach, ah, XL back. Last two, we take it. Yeah, and last one. [inaudible] and back. Take a hold of the backsides of the legs. Do a little Rock, little rock, little bigger, rural up just to the edge of the box. We bring the knees into the chest, lifting through the spine, so finding a little balance there, finding a little back extension and then pressing the thighs into the hands. Dry in through the abdominals as we now control ourselves back into the box.

Six back into the box. Both hands on the left knee. Take the right leg forward. Life tows line up with one another and we change one and the trunk. The height that the trunk mean remains totally consistent throughout. Here's three of five. Four.

Now we're making a change. The straight leg is going to go into hip extension. It's going to reach under reach down. As the bent knee comes just underneath the hands of the bent knee is not coming all the way into the body. We're using the hands on top of that. Nita, pull the body up into the leg. Last one, and on this side and had both hands to both knees, hands behind the thighs, curl the chest forward. Do a little rock, small and then rolling. Uh, so here's the tough part for me anyway, finding balance, finding balance. Bring the knees into the chest, lifting the spine, feeling the elongation, feeling the upper back working. And then we press the knees into the hands.

We draw backwards through the waist. Draw backwards through the waist, finding your position, hands behind your head. Same patterning for the crisscross up first with that straight leg and across feeling the rotation happens through the trunk at the ribs. Here's three and three. Here's four and four.

Here's five and five. And now we take that leg down. But the leg that's up doesn't change. The bent knee doesn't change. It's just the light that's reaching. And three and four and four and five. And five both knees come back, take the arms forward, stretch the legs either slightly bent or straight and we roll through this spy roll through this spy lifting all the way up, all the way, finding our balance at the top, bending the knees, placing their feet down on the bar, lift all the way up, hands behind the head and we just take it into a little rotation here.

So just seated rotation. Exhaling as you open up and twist. Inhale, center, exhale. I guess we rotate and twist and in health to center and we feel the elongation of the spy and inhale to center and rotating. I feel that the head stays heavy in the hands, not changing the positioning of the head. We're just simply moving the spine from side to side. Notice the alignment of the knees. Keep them still. One more time to eat. Sigh on a cross and center.

Stretch the arms up and open the arms out and we'll come up off the box. Cutting around and setting up the bar. We'll do some footwork now, so lying down on the reformer all the way. Okay. Feet on the bar, arms at our sides, head nice and long. Organizing the pelvis into neutral and we press the carriage up.

It's going to lift my head and organize my feet. So I'm sure that I'm straight and bent. Press and pull back. So we, the work being generated first through the back of the legs and then being generated through the back of the legs as we pull our way back in, keeping the tail on, pressing down and back and keeping our feet still as though we were just connected. Tool wall. We'll do five and Ben stretching out four and back. Remembering to support the need. Joy and bend two more and bend last time and bet coming down onto our toes.

So the metatarsal joint, Holmes just around the top of the bar. Stretch out, find your plantar flex in there and then hold the heels still as we bring the carriage in. Reach out. Feel as though the spine is velcroed to the reformer. The reformer doesn't move without generation of awareness through the center of the body. The abdominals are heavy but terrible on his death. We're breathing through our movement.

Last five and back reach. And as we bring the carriage in, focus on continuing to elongate through the spring. So there's a resistance pattern there. Last two and back. The very tops of the hips connect and back. Swivel the heels together and these shoulder distance apart. We continue from there. Reach and pull in and reach out and pull in length and resist checking in with the arms with the neck, releasing tension from the rest of the body while we concentrate on just warming up our larger muscles.

Last for long waist and resist. Wrong way. Dust and resist last too n last time and [inaudible] bringing the sheet to the outside edges of the bar. Feeling Energy and energetic drawing together with the insides of the like stretch and Paul. Notice the how this [inaudible] feel.

Equal pressure in the back, back sides of both sides of the pelvis. If you have any doubt, put your hands on your own pelvis feel. Is it dropping on one side? Is it straight across? Last for gliding, a resisting, gliding, a resisting last too and back. Last time and back. And now he just reached out onto the toes.

I've noticed that your feet aren't turned out more than your knees. So the knees are aimed just over the second toe and we stretch out keeping the pelvis heavy and Paul at reacher and ribs are soft [inaudible] seven times. Thinking about relaxing the sternum as helpful to keep the ribs and correct alignment. So all I mean by that is that you're not creating a lot of arching through the middle of the back. I didn't said the middle of the back is soft on the reformer.

We'll do four more here, reaching out and and reaching and then notice. But the knees extended precisely the same moment last time, reaching out, bringing the carriage back, come back to the center of the bar on the toes. Reach out from here. We'll just go straight into [inaudible]. So we go all the way down and up. We're going to do 15 of these. And so noticing the alignment of the feet.

If you're unsure, it's worthwhile, I believe to lift your head up for a moment and have a look with a fee working evenly. Are we rolling to the inside or the outside of the fee? Oh, I hope someone else's counting besides for me cause I'm going to have to guess. So I'm guessing that that's 10 we'll do five more. Lifting through the entire backside of the lay. Again, notice if the shoulders are start creeping up into the shoulder blocks and try to keep them as easy as possible. Last one here. Finding the lift onto the toes.

We now alternate the feet so the left heel goes under, we meet in the middle and the right heel goes under and meet in the middle and switch, lift, switch left. As you continue this movement, keep the pelvis very steady. All right. Chin down and up and down and, and so, yeah. And yeah, and and for, for I really get that full reach under the bar. I think sometimes we cheat each other to cheat each other, cheat ourselves out of that beautiful stretch. Last two times and one more. And then just pausing here, giving yourself just a moment to stretch under the bar.

I like to hold onto the frame and the reformer pull the with my hands a little deeper so this stretch increases and then we'll just do that on the other side for moment. And then coming back up. Ben Even needs to bring the kerogen rolling to our side. I'm taking one. I'm going to take the blue spring off, I mean back down onto our back, right heels on the foot bar leg reaches out over the foot bar. As we press the right light out, we're going to lift the left leg up.

So we just holding the pelvis stuff and then we lower. So the right like stretches the left leg, lifts a pelvis, stays heavy and, and reach out in uh, and, and reach out and up and down. We'll do three more. And I was looking for control. Noticing how this side of your body feels. It could be very different on the other side.

Lower down place the left heel on the bar, right, like reaches over the top of the bar. Very simple movement pattern. The left leg straightens, the right leg comes up and so one leg is working through hip extension. One leg is working through it flection and reach. Again, noticing the position of the pelvis on the mat, noticing how high the like can come without the pelvis being affected. We have three to go here, reaching back and lowering down and reaching back and lowering down and last time and lowering down and then place the right toes on the bar and glide the left foot underneath the bar. So now as the right leg straightens, the left knee is gonna bend. Kick up.

We're going to flex and point both feet and then thread that leg under the bar. Then kick flex point thread through bend reach flex point bend under reach, flex point bend under reach, flex point stable pelvis. Two more petitions reaching through. Stretch kick flex point bend under to come home. Take the left foot onto the bar, take the right foot underneath the bar. Here we go on the other side and the right knee.

Reach up. Flex both feet point and reach under finding that fully straightly flex reach and threat. Press up, pull, reach and press, ah, reach flex point. And I'm noticing the straightness of the top leg. Last three kick, flex point and through to reach flex point through all different side hold different body for me on this side. Sure. Some of us feel the same. We're coming all the way back in. Once again, rolling to our side, helping ourselves up and lowering the springs to whatever suits you for abdominal work. I'm going to go now, red in a bloop.

So coming all the way back down onto the reformer. Picking up the straps. I forgot to check if my straps or even something I always like to do before I start. I'm fine now. Okay, so setting the arms just over the shoulders, lifting one leg at a time. Inhale here. As we exhale, we press through the chest, reach the arms down, stretch the leg that bend the knees in, lift the arms up and take the head down. Exhale, suppress. Inhale, reach x, help, pull, lift and exhale. Press and reach and bent and and press. And reach and bend and, and press. We're going to hold up this time. I'm going take the legs up, bend and press away. Lift bent, and press away. Lift bent, and press away. Lift, Bend, press away. Let's take that in. Reverse. Bent, kick, push down, bent, stretch reached down.

Then keep the arms reaching. Keep the spine lifted. Last two and DA. Last one down. Bend the knees and lower. Exhale, lift, head and chest. Stretch the legs up. One leg reaches down at tips, the bar and reef kick. Tip and reach. Just as pulling forward toward that lifting leg. Here's three and three. Two and two.

One and one legs. Up, knees bend and release. So from here, open up the knees, take a breath in. You're going to inhale, prepare. As you exhale, lift the spine, rotate towards me. Let's see, I'll have to choose left or right. We're going to lift and rotate to the left. The right arm reaches through the legs and then we come down through center x a lift and rotate to the right. The left arm reaches through the legs. Ooh, watch the pelvis Meredith and reached down. So it's easy to let the pelvis become less stable as you're rotating from side to side or it's a little easier. Fear to perhaps see and come down or feel a reach across and, and reach across. And uh, one more to east side.

We reach across and we reach across and down. Oh, that's quite enough. Okay. So rolling over to your side, helping yourself. Huh? I'm going to take you down to one spring. We're gonna lie all the way down on our side. [inaudible] take your top leg and put it all the way through this strap.

Stack the lakes together, Ilan Gate and make sure that the spine is nice and straight. We're just going to take the top knee and open it out and lower it and open it out and lower it down so we keep the trunk nice and still and open and uh, and hold, stretch the leg straight, then the knee back and lower the knee down with the knee first. Kick the leg out, then back in and lower down and reach and stretch. And then and uh, and reach and stretch and bend and down. One more reach, kick, stable all the time.

And I'm just going to take that bend knee and reach up and, and uh, and I have my hand on my pelvis, so I feel that there's zero movement in it. Two more last time. So now we're going to do that with a straight leg, which is a little heavier in terms of gravity. We lift Ah, and, and Ah, and yeah, three out of five, two. And why? Oh man, bending that name. We're going to make three hip circles. So you're gonna bring the knee into the chest reach, press it back. So moving through the hip joint and forward and lift up, press back and roll through the hip joint and forward one more.

Press back and reach around and then reverse. So we go back, reach left and dry and the reach up around. And last one, it feels good to get that full range of motion through the hip for me at least it does. And then taking your strap. Use your bottom like to help you suppress out yourself. Enough freedom in the strap so that you can slide your leg out and take the strap in your hand.

Okay, so stacking the knees on the straps coming a little bit from in front of us. So we've really got to work. It's not going to pull our body in that direction. Then we're just going to take that armaments, lie down the side of the body and inhale to rule existe XL. Slide the arm down the side of the body and inhale through resistance. So feel that this trunk stays very stable.

We're getting a lot of really strong work through that right stabilizing shoulder. Just gonna do two more and last one and then release all the way up. Bend the elbow. Is that the strap back? Okay. And turn sides coming all the way down onto the opposite side. Line down on the bottom arm, taking the tops strap closest to you and placing it over the top of the knee, stacking the legs, sacking the spine, finding your position. And then we just open the knee. The feet are together. This moment, open the knee. The spine is straight. Open the knee and down last to reach, holding a nice strong connection to the front of the body.

And now we lift the knee, kick the leg up, bend the knee back in and lower the knees together. Nigos stretches at Ben's and I'm a left kick to stray. Read. Bend and come down last to reach. Ah, Ben back, lower down.

Last one, reach, ah, Ben back, lower down. Lift the whole leg in one piece and he stays bent. Ah, and uh, and two and, and three and, and four and tailbone has reaching backwards. And now we take the leg out straight and we lift, uh Oh. For me that's about 50 times harder. Here's three and two and one and [inaudible]. Bring the knee into the chest, make a circle, reaching any upper around and back and center and up around than back and center up around and back and center. And then reverse. So back lift, reach the knee forward, take it back, left, reach around and forward.

One more back left. Reach around and done. Good. Help yourself out of the strap. I use my bottom like against this a frame, giving myself that space to get my leg out of the strap. We held the strap in our hand, stabilizing the shoulder before letting the springs, letting the arm hold the springs, keeping the bottom side of the body lifted, and we just press down and reach, resist and pressing down, sliding the shoulder blade down the back and wrist again. It's really working.

That stabilization specifically as the arm comes up is where I find that to be more particularly challenging. I'm gonna do three more here. Oh, here's one. Yeah. Two and uh, three and reached down and set the strap back. Turn onto your back. I'm going to keep the same spring. We're going to do this semi-circle.

Some people prefer to do this on a heavier spring. So if that's you, it's time to change your springs. If not, we're going to slide ourselves out. Pressing the arms up against the shoulder blocks, setting the feet up onto the bar in a small v position. Press up nice and high with the hips to open up the front of the hips and then start rolling spine down. So we go through that full articulation process, reaching back into the well with the hips, press about three quarters of the way back and then start to articulate this final, rolling yourself back up, keeping the elbows nice and strong and bend and lift the hips up. As we bring the kerogen from there, we start with the chest, we roll the spine down, keeping the feet still.

So sometimes as we're rolling up and down, the heels are gonna want to move up and down. And when I like for you to think about if you would please try to keep the heels down or still as the pelvis is lifting up and now we bend and come in and we from there hurled oh and reach out and articulate that. And then now we're going to take that in reverse so we press out, we are tickled. Get the spine down all the way, reaching and pelvis back. Then Dan [inaudible] and roll the spine up again. Keep the heels heavy. Keep the heels down straight. Arms press out, round spine down, all the way reaching back. Bend and feel the hips on the springs. Roll Rola, lift.

Press out, roll down, all the way. Bending. Last one, roll up, press out, peel the body down. Ben Dinesen. Roll the spine up for the last time.

Take the hands away from the shoulder blocks and start to walk them along the frame so you can reach for your foot bar and then press the pelvis up nice and high to really get that nice stretch to the front of the hips and just have a breath or two here. And then letting go. Reach back and slide if you're not sticky, the carriage back underneath. Yeah. Okay. Help yourself up. Stand on your feet and place your right foot up against the shoulder block. So finding a long spine, press that right side backwards. I need a nice strong hip flexor stretch from there.

We're just gonna take that right leg back. We're going to try to stretch it all the way to straight and then we're going to bend and put it a little further behind us and then reach back. Stretch that like all the way to straight, pushing through the heel and then then put it down. [inaudible] one more time, reach back, take that leg out straight. Reach down with your opposite hand and then flex the foot that's on the floor and just start to press out, lowering yourself down towards the hamstring and the hip flexor. Stretch from there. Then the front knee. Then bend the back knee, putting the back knee down, both hands onto the foot bar, lifting back up into your hip flexor stretch.

Lift the left arm off the bar and reach note. Put the left hand back down. Reach the right arm off the bar. Sometimes I get a little confused and then just stretch over to the left. The right hand comes back down. We bring the carriage all the way in and step down.

Walking around to the other side. Neon the carriage spine erect. Press the thigh backwards. That's fine. That's hip flexor. Stretch. Feel the lift through the waist and then stretching back and bending down and feel that every hip flexor open as he press back and then, and one more press out inside hand comes to the frame.

We stretch out both legs there, lowering ourselves down. Keep that back like nice and strong. Ben, the front knee, then the back knee, bring the carriage back in, right hand stays on the bar, left or on the lifts off. Reach and stretch to the right, I don't know. Lifting back up. Bring the carriage all the way in. Come up onto both knees, both feet up against the shoulder blocks, pressing the pelvis forward.

We press out through the kids a carrot into the down stretch. We lift through the spine, bringing ourselves all the way. Try to pull the hands apart on the bar and reach out. It's as though you're trying to stretch the bar apart and in addition, try to lift up like you're coming up against a solid surface and press out, lift up, reaching up and back two more times, making sure that we're supporting the spine with the front of the body. On one way, reaching up and then just rounding the spine back, sitting back towards the heels to a nice rounded shape.

And we just take the carriage out and a resistant and ah, resisting and resisting and resisting. And now [inaudible] one more. So from here, come across with your left foot towards your right foot in a wedge, the left foot up against the shoulder block and let the right foot be just outside. Take the right hand around towards the left hand. So you're on the diagonal now here. And then sit back into your knee stretch position.

And from there we just press out and then we draw and bringing the carriage back in. Just focusing on a more oblique movement in [inaudible]. And exhale, feel both sides of the wastes working here. And inhale to reach out and exhale to pull back and inhale to reach out. Exhale to pull back. I really liked this last one. Reach Ya, pull back. And then we're going to just transfer through center. So swivel the legs around to the opposite side.

If just wedge up against the shoulder blocks. I've got the leg that's on the inside line, pushing against the shoulder blocks. The other ones, pretty free. Round spine. Inhale, the carriage goes out and exhale, we pull it back underneath and inhale, we reach out. But you want to maintain that rounded spine all the time and reach out and draw feeling just that diagonal line through the center of the body pulling back. Last one, pulling back.

Cool. And Roll up from there and turn your bodies around. So we come to the shoulder blocks with our knees. Reach up through the straps, arms are stray going to in here and just take it straight into chest expansion. Feel that the shoulders are directly over the knees. So even just holding your body in this upright position is, that can be a balanced challenge, which we want.

Again, pressing back through the arms, lifting up through the spine, back through the arms, lifting up through the spine. We'll do three more and to, and one. So now we'll take it with a little rotation. This is going to be a tough spring for that, so feel free to lighten up your spring if you want. We're going to reach the left arm back and down, turn the body and center and then the right arm reaches in the spine rotates in that direction and center. And we'll couple more times. We'll do two more to eats.

I feel in the rotation and center feeling the rotation center. Make sure that you're starting the rotation from the waist and of course the arm has to work very, very hard here. Well let's make sure that we're not neglecting the work through our trunk and center. Come back, place a straps down. Turn your body around. I am going to like my spring for this. Now I'm going to take it to a blue, reaching back for the straps, bringing the arms to the sides of the body. Inhale, take in the arms all the way up towards the ears and reaching around to the sides and I get excellent. See how it's reach up.

Feel the whole spine elongate as the arms reach and then around to the side and again, scooping up the air, trying not to allow the body to waiver back and forward as the arms are coming up near the years, we try and keep them very straight, very narrow. We feel the rotation and the shoulder joint at the top and we'll do two more reaching up. Okay. Reaching out and open and now we're going to reverse that. They're gonna take the arms out in [inaudible] and then just sliding down the front of the body.

Feel the stabilization of the scapula reaching up and down the front of the body. Yeah. Reaching up. Yeah. Down to more reaching out and up and [inaudible] reaching out and not pausing here ans behind the head, bending the elbows, elbows wide. Head back into the hands. When you take the arms, straight-A and Ben Pelvis presses forward, spine is stable. Press straight up and hit the backsides of the legs working to help you hold your body. Still straight-A and bent.

Straight up and bent. And the last two bent, holding the arms up, separate the arms and very slowly reach, touch the sides of the room. As we lower the arms all the way down, sit back on your feet, place the straps back and sit sideways on their former. I'm going to keep the blue spring for me. If I had a yellow, that might be a choice. That would be a better choice for some of us, but I don't, so I'm going to just deal. I think blue is fine for me, but if you have a yellow, that might be a choice that will work better for you. Okay, so take the strap, the one that's closest to you in your hand. We're going to do a little mermaid variation.

I have to credit my friend Lisa Hubbard for this one. She taught it to me and I love it. I absolutely love it. So we're going to take the arm out to the side and I had just the hand away. I'm holding. So right now I'm holding with a fist, then take it out to the side and I'm gonna Hook with my thumb. And then reaching up through the spine, letting the elbow that's free of strap Benz.

We get that nice stretch to the side of the body. Reach forward with the arm and then brewing it back in. Take the arm, reach up, fold the body over, let the opposite arm that's resting on the carriage bend. Reach forward and then, and, and bring it back. We'll do two more. It feels good, Huh?

He Cha he hung a lifting a looking down at that bottom hand. Bull shoulder stable. And I just one more reaching at reaching up, folding over. And then as we come to here, we'll just drop the strap down. Don't, we'll take that arm, just push out on a forward diagonal. As you're pushing on that for dry diagonal, draw back against it and then start to bring it around through the center. Reach through center, drop the arms, let go of the hands and roll all the way back up.

So just turning sides now. [inaudible] taking the strap from the front. Hello train. So you take the arm out and why our lifts up the bottom of a Benz. We get that. Nice, Nice, nice, beautiful stretch. Looking down at that bottom arm. Reach forward with the arm.

Then bend the elbow to bring the arm back into the body. Take the arm out, reach out, lift up through the spine. So we open up that whole side body, turning the head to look down, reaching forward and bringing the arm back to the body. Last two, reaching out. Now I being up in over and then reaching through to Cita. Last one, reaching at. Stretch up to go over, looking down. Take the arm forward, set the strap down, take a hold of it with your free arm. Pull creed, opposition abdominals to arms and reached through center with that.

Drop the arms down and roll up all the way. So stepping down off of the reformer, retrieving the box. Finished with just a little bit of back extension. So the, one of my favorite ways to um, do back extension is this, it's a restaurant prep. So we'll start with the blue spring. I was lying down on the box, placing the hands on the foot bar so that the risks are in line with the elbows.

The legs are not dropping but not lifting off the box either. Just in line with the box and the head is in line with the spine. Press down into the hands just a little bit to Ilan, gait this spine and lift up and then start to stretch the arms out in back. So feel that the arms are reaching to straight as a result of the downward pull of the shoulders. And then as you bend your elbows feel that they are almost trying to stretch the bar and then doing that again.

So much reaching out and bending back. Okay, so this is a beautiful feeling as it is reaching a and bending back. But what we're going to do now is we're going to reach down and take that spring away. Now be careful here. You don't want to pull on your bar. Okay? Keep the bar very still. Keep the body, just eat it. Just lifted into that. Nice new, a slightly lifted back extension. I'm still on my rims.

We feel that we have to control as we stretch the arms out. And then here's this really beautiful, powerful, simple back work as we drag the reformer back into the stopper and inhale, feel the shoulder blades draw down the back, right, so you want to control it. I want to just let that former get out from underneath you and then pulling, dragging Elan gating the body as we, or maybe even just just giving yourself just the tiniest bit more upper back extension there as you come in and we'll do that two more times. Reaching out and sliding in. Lift the chest just a little bit on this one. Yeah, supporting through the front of the body and one more. We'll lower the spine down just a little bit. Pressing the reformer away.

We'll start the harms. Lift the chest as we come through, reaching up. I'm coming all the way in. Allow the legs to relax. Reach down in places spring on the reformer just to keep it still. Step off to the side of the box, standing on your feet. Just taking the arms up and out, reaching up, looking backwards.

Bring the arms out to your sides and then diving forwards. Zero. You're diving into a beautiful pool. We've round at the waist, reached down, take a breath and roll ourselves up, and one more time like that, reaching out and not pressing the arms out, reaching the chest forwards, back extension, and then it's flection of the spy and are going to soften the knees here and rule the spine up. Yeah. I hope you enjoyed that. Had it.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Beautiful Class :) Thank You Meredith
I enjoyed the flow/transitions of magic 5
and side lying clam series kills every time !!
Cher
2 people like this.
Great class. Love side leg series
1 person likes this.
What a beautiful class. My body needed that after standing and bending over clients all morning. LOVE the variation of mermaid from Lisa Hubbard...that felt AMAZING and I will be working that into my own practice as well as that of my clients. Thank you!
1 person likes this.
Like always it is raining in germany and I was in a really grumpy mood before doing your class and now I'm just happy...
Thank you, Meredith.
1 person likes this.
Meredith you are awesome!!! Beautiful class as always, I like so much to see you during your work!!
1 person likes this.
Love your style Meredith! Ab work on box was great, and love the end mermaid!
1 person likes this.
Thank you! Beautiful class, excellent flow and teaching style.
1 person likes this.
Great class! Loved the leg work.
1 person likes this.
Really enjoyed the flow of the class, Meredith! And that mermaid, amazing!
1 person likes this.
Absolutely gorgeous. Like writing poetry using your body. I love your classes, Meredith!
I constantly end them sweating and exhausted, and yet stretched out and calm. I've said it before, but I'll say it again: to me, you are the embodiment of everything Pilates is. Absolutely wonderful.
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