Class #3868

Back Care Reformer

30 min - Class
821 likes
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Open up your back and chest with this Reformer workout by Tracey Mallett. She uses the Foam Roller to help you connect to your center while doing movements you already know. She also includes wonderful stretches that will make your body feel long and slinky.
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box, Foam Roller

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Transcript

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Hi, I'm Tracy Mallet. Today we're going to focus on [inaudible] on the reformer. So all you're gonna need is your reformer. We'll we'll need a box and a foam roller. If you don't have a farmer, it doesn't matter.

Just go along without the foam roller, not a problem. If you do, it really does help open up your back, open up your chest, and really focus into your core a little bit more. Alrighty, so grab your foam roller and you're gonna place your foam roller on the top of the bed with the top part of the foam roller on the headrest. All right. Then we're going to put three red zone. Um, for some people that might be a little too heavy, maybe you go to reds one blue for right now, because you're on the actual foam roller. If you're not on the foam roller, then you can add a little bit more spring. But on the foam roller, either two and a half, that's two reds, one blue or three reds. I'm going with three reds today, so let's get down onto the reformer.

And really there's no grace fail way. Going onto this, just get onto the reformat. Get your butt towards the end, placing my psycho, my tailbone right at the end and I'm going to gently roll down on to the foam roller. So the head is on the top of the foam roller and it just must have a little bit more. And then from here I'm going to put my right foot on the, on the platform and put the opposite four onto that foot bar there. So you've got your foot bar heals on the football. Now we're going to take a nice deep breath in. On the exhale we're going to lift that right hand, float the right hand up, and then press it back down onto the reformer. Inhale, exhale, float the opposite hand up and then bring you back down.

Keep going in opposition. You right, press the hand down and then the left so you can feel your body shifting from right to left. We want to try and minimize that shift in and try and keep it completely still. So as you lift the arm up, the opposite side of your body is having to stabilize a little bit more. So as you lift that right arm up, the left side is stabilizing more, and then in our position, that's just a two more. Float that right arm up and then flow the left arm up and then bring both hands down onto the, onto your reformer.

Now we're going to lift that right knee up into chair position. Chin is parallel to the sky and then bring that foot back down onto the bar and then the other side, lift the left knee up and then bring it down. Let's do that. So you float the right knee up into chair and down. Exhale as you exert energy to get more core contraction opposition. Again, lift that right in HF position. And then the opposite ne, that's going to go a little bit more challenging. Lift that right knee up.

Try and float the opposite hand up and then back, and then again, the left knee comes up, float the right hand up and then down. Try that again. See if you can float the omnia up at exactly the same time and then back XL. Inhale. Let's just do one more on each side, shin parallel and that down. XL Dual, the ABS in focus. The work is coming from your core, the arms and the legs, the secondary and float those hands down. Relax the head, neck and shoulders.

We're going to try and float that right arm up and take it out to the side. I can feel the openness in your chest back to center and then down again. Opposite arm you left off, float up, palm facing inwards, palm facing out. Take the arm out to the side, back to the center and down. We lift up and feel the chest opening and your opposite side of the body is stabilizing to hold the body on top of that foam roller because wouldn't that be a nice blue proof? I fell off this foam roller and then overrun. Once again, if you're watching today and observing before you do it, this looks very easy, but I'm warning you it is not easy.

It's a lot of core control and focus. My hamstrings are working hard too cause I'm pressing the heels down into the bar to help me stabilize a little bit more as I'm keeping a neutral spine. And when the arm travels out, the opposite side is stabilizing even more. And then back place the heels once again on to the bar. Inhale here, exhale, we're gonna push out and then back. It's got a lovely footwork here now because we're on that foam roller, you want to focus on that neutral spine.

The towel bones down in to the foam roll. They've got a slight arc and then my chest is nice and open over the foam roller so it feels so nice on the upper body that's float the hands up if you can. This is too challenging. Put one hand down on the reformer. Now we're going to try and open the arms out and then back. So it's like a second position, but your hands should stay in your peripheral view.

That's it. And let's just do one more open and then back. Bring the hands down as you transition on to your toes. On a low heel, low relevant. Keep the ankle joint still. Exhale, push out.

Now as we're pulling in, it's your hamstrings. Have a pulling you back. Your core is stabilizing and the hamstrings are pulling your back. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Now as an option, if you feel that you have the strength in your abs, you can float the one hand up. Float the other hand up, and we can open. This is all optional. Can keep the hands down onto the reformer.

Good. Breathe XL out in how? Back? Just a couple more Xcel out in how back. Exile those arms out and then back slowly float the hands down and you'll pull out his v position here. Inhale, exhale. Extend the Nice Rooney back. Extend the knees. Now focus on your heels glued together and pressing out those inner thighs.

As you extend the knees, squeeze in those inner thighs together. Once again, you can float those arms up. It's your choice. Open the arms to second position out to the side and back into first and out and eh. Okay, good. And four and three and two and one come down. Float the hands down from here. Come back into parallel heel on the floor.

Bring the right knee up into chat position. I'm going to try single leg, so you're going to push out in that single leg. Now focus on that neutral spine. Open up through the chest, hands down. Now if you feel that you can, you're going to float the opposite arm and down. So the opposite arm is floating up and then coming down and up. Good. Exhale up and three and two and one come down. Switch heel, opposite leg chair position and XL.

Push with that heel and back. You'll find one side easy than the other always. And our job is to try and be as a symmetrical as we can. Focusing on that core stabilization, the ABS, stabilizing everything else is secondary to this to your core two abdominals. Now flow the opposite hands as the opposite hand to the leg that's is lifted.

Okay, exhale up. Inhale down. I just do formal if you can, four and three and two. One last time. Awesome. And then come down. Bring your toes onto here, push away, flex the heels underneath the bar. Now while you're in that beautiful calf stretch, perfect time to lift up. Open the arms out to the side in that stretch, elbows bent.

Hold in that position there. And we're going to bring the arms in and then open into your out in, and then open two more in. Open those arms to the side, elbows bent. And then bring the hands down. Relevate up on GTB toes. Bend the knees and come back. We're going to slowly, gracefully try and get off of this lovely foam roll.

I'm going to skim down like this and get up. It's put that foam, roll that away for the time being. We're going to bring it down. Okay. All right, let's flip the head rest up. We'll lie back down again. I'm going to take this springs now we're going to go for um, two reds, two red springs or one red, one blue.

I'm on two reds, so it's rolled down. We're going grab our lovely straps. Take your right leg in, keep the knee bent and your left knee in. So first of all, let's think about our hamstrings here. We want to stretch out those hamstrings.

So I'm going to ask you to hold on to these guys right here. Going to hold on to your ropes. From here, we're going to take your legs to where you feel the stretch in your hamstrings. So by holding on helps you feel a little bit more comfortable to go into that stretch. Now you all feeling your hamstrings right now. Now focus on dropping that tailbone down and anchoring the tailbone down into the mat. So you're gonna feel the length in the hamstrings and that.

See if we can walk up the ropes. And as we do that, the fee to going towards your face and at the same time in your mind's eye, you want that tailbone down there is your stretched very simple hamstring stretch. Hold it there. Very important to stretch out those hamstrings. They're attached to that, to your pelvis. Flexibility's the key for lower back issues. And that's released. Now we feel a little bit more stretched.

We're going to place the tailbone down hands, and we're going to go up into some circles, some circles. Now we're going to keep the circles very small, very controlled. Inhale up. Now while we're in that circle, we have to remember to stay in a v position with your feet. So you in external rotation of the hip joint. So you always moving through a v position.

And then as we reverse it around, the feet are active in the straps so you're not passive in the straps. You're active. That means your FEMA is reaching out of the hip socket continuously and you'll stain in that external rotation of the hip, pressing down with the hamstrings and opening up. Just do one more. And then from here you open, flex the feet. We're going to bend and then push out. So in that open position here, like an open frog.

And the reason I love the open flock frog is because it works. The adductors, the adductors, stronger adductors goes into your pelvic floor, into your core. Stronger core, stronger spinal stabilization, strongest spine. Um, press out through [inaudible]. Inhale in, exhale out. Inhale, bend the knees. Exhale out one more and press the energy out through the heels. Beautiful.

Bring the legs together. You're in a parallel position. Flip your head rest down for me. All right. From here we're going to bend the knees into the chest. We're going to roll up. We're going to read those legs over your head and then we're going to roll down slowly, slowly press the legs down, Ban the knees in, roll up over your head, reach the legs up and then roll down slowly through the spy and again, band and Raul and that stretch.

Now wants to grab your hips and hold it. That and that lovely stretch. Open up your lower back and that lovely stretch here. Hold it here. Slowly release. Extend the legs and roll down.

Slowly tailbone down. Press the legs down. Now we're going to go into a full version here, more regular version that you would normally do. Your legs are straight. We're going to roll up over your head. We're going to bend you a nice in your frog, roll the pelvis down, keep your feet where they are, and then draw the heels towards the bat and press out.

Now we're going to slow it down a little bit. Slow it down. Try and get the carrots to hit the stop at first before you roll all the way up over your head. Now we're going to bend the knees here. Now low down, Taub on down, and hold it there. Just wanting to hang out and you're gonna take your arms and open your arms out. Bend the elbows and come back and hold that stretch. So your towel bone is trying to anchor down, but your feet are going in the opposite direction.

This is stretching out your hips. And then from here, place the hands back by the side of your body. Bring the heels towards the Bert and extend out. Nice work. From here, we're going to come out of your straps, grab them, put your feet down, and then place on the top. Okay, we're going to roll all the way up. Now my legs feel like Jelly Cause I stretched out. I feel really slinky.

You know that feed in that why we love plot is so much cause you feel slinky. All right, so we're going to grab our box and put our box on the top. So now we're gonna work on our mid back. We've done a little bit of core stretching out through their hips mobilization. Now we're going to work through the mid upper thoracic spine for posture to open up the back and work on strengthening your mid thoracic spine.

Get some mobilization there. So we're going to move this up out the way. I'm going to be on one red spring. Step Up. Now your chest is over the edge from here just to start with. Just going to reach the hands forwards and you show the blades of pulling down and back towards the hips. And I just want you to look up as if you're looking up to the sky and as you look up, you're going to gently pull on the reformer as you go into that extension and then slowly come back.

So your gaze is important here. As you gaze and walk, look up, look up and hold it there and not mid thoracic spine. Keep those arms straight and then come back. We're going to go a little bit faster now. So we XL lift up and down and up and down. And so you, as I say up you extending the spine, keeping those arms straight for more like that three, keep that lower body relaxed too.

And one more. Hold it here, hold and then come back down. Repeat the arms in front of you. Take your left hand in front of your head, onto your forehead. The right arm is going to rotate around and then come back to center. And again, your palm is flat doing external rotation that show the joints and you rotating around. And then we come back. This is a two more lift up that spine and back. One more time.

And then slowly switch, rotate. Keep your palm flat, pull your scapula down, external rotation and look as you rotate and back, reach up through that spine. And then back one more time. Scapula pull down. Palm is flat, rotate. Yeah. Back to center, both hands in front of you and then place the hands down. He was ever a little break.

[inaudible] and then Ben both knees. I'm going to try and grab hold of our feet and give yourself a little stretch in that quad stretch. Press your pubic bone down into the box. Now come up to a slight extension and they'll try and press the pubic bone down into the box. The knees try and elevate a little bit depending on your flexibility. This is a quad stretch.

Okay, and then release from here. We're going to take hold of the straps. Got You ropes. Now inhale here. Exhale, go into your extension. Bend your elbows, extend and then come back down again. Drop the hands, downs the flow. Extend through the crown of the head, bend the elbows high. Extend those elbows and bring the arms down. Now focus a little more through that thoracic spine. Try not going too high.

I have to minimize my extension as I come up. Try not get so high walking through mid the rassic spine, just kind of where the middle of your t spine is. Back tricep extension, extend and back and again, back tricep reach. Can you do one more scapular drawers down first before you even move and bend? Extend and then come back down again. Nice work.

Place the handles back on here. From here we're going to come off and just come to your side. Reach your hands forward, send your hips back soon. That nice stretch your is a by your biceps. And from here we're gonna round like a cat. Pull back and then extend and again round and then extend. Slowly.

Roll yourself all the way up. I'm just going to circle the hips to the right just to release the lower back and then circle the hips to the opposite direction. Move through this hips and relax. Bend the knees and let's see if we can take the hands to about here and we're just going to do some circles with the arms and now move the body and then go the other side without moving the body. Just your shoulders. This is your halo where angels now and then take the body [inaudible].

This is one of my actually favorite exercises I really, truly do after sitting at a computer a lot. I just sit there and do this and then hold it here. Relax. All right, let's move your box away. Now let's put it back. Okay, flip the head rest up. Awesome. And we're gonna put as strap back. So we're going to put a little a bar back. One Red Spring, okay, we're going to come down and lower down.

Now we are on top of actually on top of your reformer shoulders against your shoulder. Rest as, pick up your straps. Okay, now press your hands down into the straps. So you're pulling your shoulder blades down towards your hips. Now your arms belonged to your back, so before you even start, get that connection. The stronger the connection with your mid, upper back, this stronger connection to your lats, your threat as an into your core will happen as you lift your right knee up, and then you'll left knee up. So now I can feel that resistance. I feel my abs working already. Now from here, we're just going to press the arms down and then bring it back. Exhale down.

Now be mindful that you're not moving from your hips. Your hips is still cause you'll see a lot of people will move like this and maybe you feel like your hips are moving. Well, this is not what we're looking for. We're looking for stability, which is a lot more challenging and it's more about stabilizing through the core. Then going into a pelvic tilt. Now we're going to add the head, so we're going to layer at the head. Take Note, my pelvis is not moving. It's just the arm.

Exhale, lift your head, neck, and shoulders off the floor. Now the third step is optional. Extend the legs and don't go so high to straight up towards the sky where the ceiling heats hits the wall. [inaudible] scooping out those abdominals who reached in the arms out. [inaudible].

One more. Hold it there. Hold and then bend the knees. Reach the hands back straight into our coordination. XL. Open, close. Bend the knees, arms. Then add. Exhale, open, close. Bend the knees, arms. Then at XL, open close.

Bend the knees and then head XL open, closed. Bend the knees, arms and head. Take the feet down. Slowly puts your little straps back. We're going to turn around to the side. I'm going to be side towards you and it'll be in a little knees are bent and to take your front strap and I'm going to press down once again, so now I'm focusing once again on cool the arms and core.

So when I'm in this position here, I'm pressing down and then I'm going to try and lift my leg up. So I'm going to go into a clown and back Calum. So I'm going into the glute media, so that stabilizes the pelvis. I'm working my last semester Raiders as I bring the arm down, which is going to emphasize a little stronger core contraction. So they have a lot of things going on.

Right now I'm focusing on keeping the pelvis stacked and stable. Let's do four more like that. [inaudible] one more [inaudible] and then down, turn around to the side, place the strap down. Let's turn to the other side. All right, take that front strap. Needs it bent hand onto hand onto your shoulder. Rest.

All right, so we're going to start with pressing down and back. Remember Lat, depressed first, oblique abs. Now once we've got that going and we feel good, remember just rest over shoulder. Then we can go into your clam. I'm back there.

So you lift and then back Lyft and lift. So be mindful that your arm only goes to shoulder height cause if you take it any higher then you will crash. [inaudible] awesome job guys. Keep going for exhale. Three. Yeah, two and won.

And then come back down. Not so easy as it looks. Is it? Put that down and we're going to lift all the way up and come up to your side. Now we're going to see if we can just come to the side of you reformer like this. Flip this little guy down and we're going to finish off with a nice stretch. Place the hands in front like this feet hit with the part. Just going to push out and then round like a cat.

Push out in their extension round like a cat. And again, lengthen, lengthen, lengthen, lengthen. Round like a cat. Two more reaching out without reform or sending the tailbone back. Now resist in the performer as you come back into that lovely roundness of the spine. One more time. Reach out, look out into the horizon. I have a beautiful view, jewel, the abs in as you resist the carriage coming in.

Awesome. Royal South, all the way up. Let's finish off with a lovely roll down to finish off that awesome stretchy, Slinky Cass Fi. Hit with the pots and take a deep breath in and we're going to ax out chin to chest and roll down. Thanks guys for joining me in this class. Slow, subtle. Oh, I like slinky. There you go. Slow, subtle and slinky. The three essays. Let's do one more. Inhale here.

Exhale, Chin to chest. Roll down and then slowly roll all the way up. Ah, I think I've grown like 10 inches. Can you tell like how tall I am now? I think I might even be as tall as my kids now. I'm so happy. That's it. I'm going to be more polite is now because I feel taller. All right guys. Gotta laugh. Have a great day. I'm glad you had fun with me today. Remember, look at all my other workouts. Have lots of videos on here for you. Have a great day. See you soon. Bye.

Comments

Eimear G
1 person likes this.
Lovely class and ideas. Such a lovely backdrop and all the blues!  I’m wondering how my clients would get on getting on and off roller on reformer! All in the detail, eh x
2 people like this.
great wake up for upper back....and everything connected to it!   Thank you
4 people like this.
LOVE LOVE LOVE this workout.  Perfect after a weekend of traveling and feeling tight.  I also LOVE your blue/pink combo, including the hand straps.  Nice touch.  Thank you for a wonderful workout.  Great way to start my week.  
Terrific workout for opening the front of the shoulder and strengthening the back and lateral lines!!! Absolutely what is  needed in our forward -focused culutre. The Lat/Serratus /Oblique connection is my favorite area to focus on. Thank you!
1 person likes this.
Felt great afterwards..Always love your classes. Can't wait to use in my men's class for low back pain!
1 person likes this.
Love the variety and great stretches for back extensors.
Wondering your thoughts if I used a 1/2 foamroller for the reformer?
Thank you again for a complete session under 30 minutes 😍
2 people like this.
 The arms belong to the upper back. I love that! Thank you this was a good class. And I love these short yet effective sessions! 
Renae Yes, absolutely!! Thank YOU!
Connie Connie AWESOME THANKS SO MUCH!
Kelly YAY! thank you 
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