Class #5005

Power Abs and Leg Circuit

45 min - Class
310 likes

Description

Find the power in your abdominals and your legs with this Reformer workout by Courtney Miller. She uses heavier weights to bring a fusion of fitness and Pilates together during her floor circuits. She also focuses on finding stability and strength while you challenge your endurance with a continuous flow.
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box, Hand Weights (2), Pilates Pole, Theraband

About This Video

Jul 18, 2022
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Transcript

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Hi, Courtney here. And I am back again with my friend and fellow teacher, Wesley. If you took our last class together, it was killer. We are doing it again. We're back at it.

We've got our weights. So we're gonna do a floor circuit three times using weights. They're pretty heavy. You've got 20s, I've got 10s. Use what you have or don't use anything at all.

And then we're gonna be hitting the reformer 45 minutes, full body workout. He asked for a lot of core. I'll do my best. It'll be fun. Let's do it.

Okay, so we're gonna start with that floor workout. So first things first, grab your weights and we're gonna put them at our shoulders and stand with the feet together, neutral spine, pull up through those knees. You're gonna take a parallel wide stance. Send the hips back, sit low, tail feathers pressed back, and you're just gonna rise and step that right foot back in. And we're gonna repeat that 10 times.

So we go low and lift, and inhale and exhale. Keep going, Wes, you're doing 10. I'm already stopping my workout. (laughs) So the idea here is the resistance from the weights, making it a little bit heavier to power up using your glutes, keeping that spine nice and long. And when you get to 10, you go on the other side.

So you're stepping together and then wide parallel, up and together. Yep, so remember the curves in our spine are meant to absorb shock and impact. You don't wanna flatten those curves out. We're not tucking. We're keeping the chest broad.

We're keeping the tail feathers back. Really importantly, we're keeping that lumbar curve in the low back. How we doing, are we close to 10? He did it, okay. Wow, that went by so fast when I'm not actually working out.

We're gonna take a wide second position now. So second, meaning those toes are turned out. Bend into a plie or a squat. As you come up, we're going across the body, lift that opposite heel, come back down. Now you can ditch those weights at any time here, guys.

Inhale down, exhale up. I am rotating. I'm pivoting my hips and shoulders. The higher you reach that weight, like Wes is doing, the harder it's gonna be. So keep it low if you want.

Three. (breathes deeply) Down and up. (breathes deeply) Two. (breathes deeply) Down and up. (breathes deeply) One. (breathes deeply) Down and up. Nice, all right, we're gonna ditch one weight, hold onto one and take a wide parallel stance. Sit deep and low, flat back hinge. So I want you to stay low for this. You can drop that weight right down.

Get the hips low. You're gonna draw that weight towards your shoulder, as you lift your shoulders over your hips, looks like that. Then you use your hips, press up. Using the power of your legs, come back to that low squat, hinge, weight goes down, grab it with the other hand. So you go flat back, power, deep squat, hinge.

Flat back, power, use the legs, and down. You could do a little hop to get into that low squat, down, little up, push, sit low, up. You could do this without the weight and down. Keep going. Sit, mm-hmm, down, stay low.

Get the weight to the shoulder. Then power up with the legs. Flat back hinge. Get it up to the shoulder, power up. Yes, one more each side.

Awesome. Even yourself out, and then you can roll those weights out of the way for your next flow. For the next flow, we're gonna be using a pole. If you have a wooden dowel, that works perfectly. Wes has a red spring on, I've got a blue.

Maybe we could go heavier, but we're filming a video. So we're happy with this tension. Grab the strap that's closest to you. One way to make the resistance heavier without changing the springs is use the short loop. Long loop, a little bit lighter.

Come on back. Take an underhand grip, hands shoulder width. Take a wide position with your legs. We're gonna sit deep and low into a squat as you pull the pole towards your navel. Lean back, lean into the heels, good, rise to come up.

Do it again. Row and rise. Down and up. Keep going. Down and up.

Yeah, so it's a narrow row. Collar bones are wide. If you remember, last time we did some wide rowing. We did some single arm rowing. It feels a little different.

Toes pointing forward, weight into the heels. You've got four, nice. The heavier the resistance, the easier it is to lean back and keep that spine vertical. Last one. And then I want you to stay down and stay in that row, release the arms but hold the squat and then pull those elbows back.

Pull and stretch, good. Keep going, Wes. There's a co-contraction. So as the elbows pull back, you're pulling the navel back as well. That means the arms and the abs are working together.

Try to lean your chest back a little bit more. Yes, weighting into those heels. Four, nice, three, two, and one. Come up and take a little break. We've got some bicep curls coming up.

So same position with the legs, deep and low squat. This time though, you're bending the elbows and pulling that rope right towards your forehead all the way up. Full extension of the arms, full extension of the legs. Let's go. Back and up and back.

So he asked for core and I'm giving him arms and legs. But it is core because there's that co-contraction. So as you bend your elbows, you're pulling everything in, finding the stability, finding the balance. The higher you lift your elbows and the more you step back away from those risers, the harder you work. Let's take it for four.

Nice, and three. And we're gonna do that same hold into, well done. And one, go to a squat that you can hold. Let's do eight bicep curls. Just curl it in.

One, curl it in two. Squeeze the shoulders down and back, three and four. Shift your weight to your heels, sink a little deeper, that's five. Almost there, we're changing two abdominals in three. Nice, and that's two.

And that's one. Rise to come on up. Kind of shake it all off. Good, okay, so you'll wanna hold the pole and the loop so you don't lose that connection and then take a seat on your machine facing back. Feet are onto the headrest.

You're gonna want some room to roll back so you don't roll off your machine. And then go ahead and roll back into your abdominal curl. Shoulders are gonna be off the carriage and you'll notice that strap's gonna be to the outside of your thigh. So bring it to the outside. Yep, exactly, easy peasy.

We're gonna reach those arms overhead. There's a hold here and then bring the hands back down. Five like this. So shoulders working, abdominals working, endurance, right? With the abdominals to hold.

Notice, if you're curling the tailbone towards you or the pubic bone towards you, anchor the pelvis down. Exhale as you reach. Now, from here, we're gonna take those legs to tabletop. And as we reach our arms out, the legs are gonna extend. It feels like we're getting pulled off to one side.

We kind of are, but we have to use our obliques to stabilize the best we can, five, here. And then we have a little cross diagonal pull. It's kind of fun, one more. I want you to bring the hands or the pole towards your shins. Sweep your feet underneath, so you're going on a diagonal.

So we're reaching our arms away from the direction of the rope. You see that? As the arms reach on an angle, the legs reach on an angle, hold, nice. And then bring it in, five of these. Curl and reach.

If you need to take breaks, take breaks. I know it's a lot of endurance to stay in the chest lift, but honestly, the resistance is kind of helping us stay in this curl, two, right? If we flipped it around, it would be harder. Hold the arms, bend the knees in, and then send the legs long on that diagonal. Five, four, three, two, and one.

Sweep those feet back under and help yourself come up to a seated position. Bravo, you're gonna hold onto the loop and to the pole. So you can come off the machine without losing your little setup. And then from here, we're gonna take the inside knee. So for me, that's my left knee onto the carriage.

Yeah, and then my right leg using a little power momentum is gonna rise to come up, nice. Now grab the other loop so you have both and lock yourself in like it's gonna be a scary rollercoaster ride, cool. And then you could use the short loops if you wanted more tension or let me know, I'm more than happy to give you more springs if you like. Bring the pole up towards your chest. Stay vertical as you push forward and then bend.

And as you push forward, think about pushing down through your pinky fingers and bend. Big press and down. So keep going, Wes. This is kind of like when you're doing wall push-ups, it's a push-up like movement. You're training the serratus anterior, keeping those shoulder blades fixed down the back.

There's more, if you want to. You can curl your back foot underneath you and you can come up to standing as you push out and come to hover. We're gonna do five more. Five, four, three. (breathes deeply) Driving down through that front heel, two, and one. Go halfway down if you're up and flip your grip.

And now you're just gonna reach forward as if you're doing offering. So forward push. Five, four, I'm just trying to hover that back knee. Ooh, it's burning, three, two, and one. Take it down, take a break.

We're gonna come out of that lunge and into a wide seated position. So take your time to get there. Flip your grip, good. So we are talking about this earlier. You could have your hands to the inside or the outside of the post.

If you have your hands to the inside of those loops, make sure you kind of pinch the loops with your pinky finger. So you feel like you're not gonna lose one off to the side or like Wes is showing you, you can take a wider grip and that's definitely nice if you've got wider shoulders. All right, let's dive into it. We're doing a seated squat with a tricep extension. Inhale down, exhale up.

Keep going. So this should almost feel like your bridge as far as the lower body is concerned. There's a posterior tilt. There's this sensation of drawing those frontal hip bones up, good. To isolate your tricep, you have to keep that upper arm bone real stable.

So it's not a drop of the elbows. You gotta push up and out. Find a target, like where the ceiling meets the wall in front of you. Three, two, (breathes deeply) and one. (breathes deeply) And take a break. All right, it doesn't have to be graceful, but you do have to step the other leg forward.

So when you're ready, find that. Let's see, pressure's on Wes. Got it. Nice. Start with your presses.

Push and bend. So you're pressing down through the pinky fingers. The pole is extending straight out from the chest. Shoulder blades down and back. It's a great push-up prep because we do have some push-ups planned.

So we're getting ready for it. If you're adding the lift, make sure your back foot can be on the headrest, feeling secure, stable, and safe. Five, four, (breathes deeply) three. (breathes deeply) So again, that co-contracting, everything's working. Two, one, I'm gonna go halfway down. We're gonna flip our grip and we're gonna reach forward as if we're doing offering for five, four, three, getting tired, two, one, take it down.

We're gonna go back to that seated squat. If you are doing a wider position with the hands, now you can do a narrower position. So just slightly targeting that tricep in a different way. So if you wanna slide, slide, slide those loops in, taking your hands behind your head. And then again with that squat and press.

Perfect. Nice. It's good. Cool, my microphone almost came off with that. There we go, little fixaroony.

Okay, keep going, Wes. My microphone just happened to come off during one of the hardest exercises. Okay, we got five. We got four. Stay with us, guys.

Three, cool. Two, one. Good, take it down. So you're gonna ditch the left, keep the right. You're gonna go to the other side.

So just make sure you're on the other side of your machine so we can even out. We have the narrow rows, still in the same springs. Take that underhand grip about shoulder width and don't be afraid to step back a lot 'cause the tension actually helps you. Let's go, sit low, narrow elbows, rise to come up. Down, up.

Digging those elbows back, keeping the chest lifted, down and up. Lot of movement in today's class. Lean back. It's okay to pinch the shoulder blades together when you're pulling those elbows back. I know sometimes we talk a lot about fixing the shoulders, but in this exercise, there is retraction, you're squeezing.

You just don't wanna over protract as the arms reach forward. Cool, we'll do two more and then we'll stay low. Nice, knees right over toes. You did one more, not two more. Everyone does that.

Okay, stay low, and then just the row, pulling. As soon as you give the glimmer of hope that you're about to change exercise, people are like, okay, now, lean into it, Wes, lean back. Good, close those ribs. That's it right there. Do you see that ears, shoulders and hips in one long line?

Two to go, nice. One more, big pull. And rise to come up all the way up. Good, so in this position, it's almost like you're doing a wall squat. You're leaning back, trying to find that alignment is hard work.

Bicep curls. So back into that same position. Keep the elbows high. Sit low, try to pull that loop towards your forehead. Rise up, Wes, when you straighten your arms and then curl and squat.

So we're going down, coming up, yep. Going down, coming up. Legs are not getting a break. Arms are working, abdominals stabilizing. Four, three, we will go into that ab series again.

So there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Two, good. Now go down, stay down. Just the bicep curl, elbows nice and high, curl it in. Good, reach even higher, Wes.

Try to get that pole towards your forehead. Even higher. Pull towards your forehead, yeah. If you sit lower, it's easier to get that pole higher. Three, nice, two, good, quads working.

One, rise, reset. Roll up the shoulders, good. Don't lose your setup. Take a seat. Let's do the other side.

All righty, so make sure you have room to roll back. Lie down. The strap's gonna be to the outside of the right thigh in this case, and we're just gonna do the straight overhead reach and then back. So I don't know about you, I have one strong side and I have one coordinated side and they're not the same. This feels like my not coordinated side.

Okay, and then from here, take those legs up and then add the legs, reach out and in. So much harder on this side. Is this harder for you? It is, it really is. (Courtney breathes deeply) And we're doing about five of each.

The lower you let your legs, the harder you work. Okay, so bring it in. Now swing those legs under. And this is actually easier for me to stabilize. And then as you reach the arms on a diagonal, away from the ropes, the legs kick away, and then bring it in.

And the legs kick away and bring it in. So I definitely feel light in one hip. I've got weight shifted towards one hip, kind of reminds me of slalom ski on the jump board. The next time we reach back, we're holding the arms, we're bending the knees, in and out. Keep reaching back through those arms.

Four, three, two, and one. Bring it in and then use a little bit of momentum to help yourself come up. Awesome, go ahead and hook up the strap. We are done with this for now. Maybe it makes a reappearance, likely not.

Let's say goodbye to it. And we're back to our floor series. So find your weights. You feeling good? Yeah, feeling great.

Cool. Legs are on fire. Hew, he said legs are on fire. Okay, so grab your weights. Place them at the shoulders.

You don't have to use them. This is adding additional lift, additional tension as you come up. So we're going wide parallel squat, weight transfer to one leg, step it in. 10 on each side. Down and up.

Down and up. Keep the neck long. So keep going, Wes, 10 on each side. It might help to have something that you fix your gaze on while you're up and then something you fix your gaze on while you're in the squat. Maybe it's gonna be like six inches lower.

The neck is staying long. Don't kink the neck when you're in the squat. And he's right into the other side, good. Down, together and up, down, together and up. Shifting your weight back, sending the hips back.

Almost feels like you're going into or really trying for that anterior tilt. Good, and then we're in our wide, wide second. Second referencing the turnout of the legs. Bring the weights towards the shoulders. Again, we go low, up and across.

See how that heel comes up? Up and across. Reach down if the tension's getting a little bit too heavy. (breathes deeply) Flat back, neck long. Five (breathes deeply), good (breathes deeply), four, knees over toes.

Easy does it. Three, that makes no sense at all. I don't know why I just said easy does it, 'cause it's not easy. Two, one more each side, Wes. One, bam, one, bam.

All right, there's no cheating on Pilates anytime. Nice try. One weight or none at all, parallel wide. So get low, lean forward. You gotta get here to use your legs to get here, down.

Get here, power up, down. You can do a little hop, push, down, down. Hop, push, down, down. Weight lift, down, down. So for me, the challenge is just reminding myself, lower body is doing 80% of this lift.

You got five. Go for it. Four, I wanna see your spine drop parallel to the ground, then lift. Three, yeah, it's like a dead lift meets a squat. Two, good, one.

Nice and take a break. Cool, move those weights out of the way. Let's grab our short boxes. All right, so when you put your box, beside your machine in preparation for the next few movements, just make sure that the frontage of your box is in line with the frontage of your reformer right towards that foot. I still have a blue, Wes still has a red.

Notice our foot bars are down. We're ready to go. So reach up, placing your hands down in the box, spread the fingers wide, step back. Find your shoulders right over your wrist and just start hopping your feet out and in, and then find a tempo that works for you. Out, in, out, in, out, in.

Now hold the out and then take one hand up to opposite shoulder, put it down. Jump in, jump out, opposite hand. Jump in, jump out, lift. Jump in, jump out, tap. Jump in, jump out, tap.

Jump in, jump out, tap. Keep going. You can go as fast or slow as you wanna go. It's a weight transfer exercise. You have four points connected to the floor or something stable.

When you lift an arm, you have three points. Therefore, the core has to work hard to stabilize against it. Four, nice, Wes. Three, good, two, awesome, one. Keep your hands on the box, feet together.

We're going into mountain climbers. We're doing three variations. First is a walk. In, in, in, in. You can stay here.

Next is a jog. In, in, in, in. Third is a run. Pull, drive those knees in through your arms. Drive, drive, knees forward, Wes.

Get 'em through those arms. He's gonna be so mad at me. Five, pull those knees. Four, get 'em in like you're doing knee tucks, three, two, one, rise up. Shake it off.

Good, very good. Okay, so we've got one foot on the floor, opposite foot against that shoulder block. It's light tension. So this is not so much about that lower body. We're giving that lower body a break.

Press down into a low lunge. Your tilting forward, close the ribs. One hand goes to your wooden platform, one hand goes to the box. The leg that's on the floor sweeps up and back. Hold this.

Notice that I've got my elbow bent a little bit on my platform arm. Yeah, I'm trying to level up those shoulders. Feel free to add a push-up while you're here. Put your foot back down. Lift your arms, bring it in.

Do it again. Dive, lift, push-up. Land, lift, keep going. So there is a bit of a differential between the height of the machine and the height of the box. We're a little soft in that elbow.

No big deal. Lift, good. Push-up, get that foot forward, good. Give me three more, Wes. You can do it.

So getting that leg to come forward is a really important athletic conditioning movement. Wes is a surfer. So in order to pop up, he needs to have that quick reaction to drive his knee forward through his chest. That's why the next time we do the mountain climbers on the other side, I'm gonna be even meaner about getting those knees up. Feeling good? I'm good.

Okay, before we do the box series, let's kneel and face back. We're gonna do some elbow taps. I just wanna say to everybody, it's harder on a blue than it is on a red. I just want them to know I'm working harder on this one. So if this feels like it's in your low back or too much, add spring, okay?

So you've got your hands wide and flat onto the carriage. Press out, find your heels together, toes apart. I'm having deja vu. We may have done this last time. Push forward, tap both elbows down.

Lift both elbows up. Pull your hands underneath you. Get those elbows to move up at the same time. Tap, lift, tap, lift. Hips tucked, tap, lift.

Five to go. Five, good, four, nice. Same time, Wes. Three, two. Good, those wrists are gonna get a break.

Give me one more and take a break. Rest, recover, good. Okay, so before we do the other side, place your box on in long box or excuse me, short box position. And because Wes is longer in his body, he's gonna place the box over the shoulder blocks. Do what works well for you.

I'm adding a spring to stabilize the carriage. You might decide to do the same thing at home and take a seat on that box for an abdominal series. Let's go ahead and hook our left foot under pivot towards the camera and then bend that knee up. Yeah, and if there's another position you wanna take with your leg, like crossing behind your calf, go for it. All righty, so let's start with a stretch.

Take your right hand to the headrest. Take your left hand overhead. Good, maybe you can get your right hand even lower towards the floor. Wes does this variation in class and I love it. You wanna do that three, two, one, lift off?

Yeah. He said yeah. Okay, so I'm gonna use my hand on the headrest. So you get low and you actually push yourself up three times with your hand to find that lift and find that stability. Then you take hands behind your head.

Your training wheel is gone and you're just going for it. 10, nine, eight, keep going, seven. He can't see me, so he doesn't know if I'm still doing it or not. Six, five, four, three, but wait, there's more, two and then go down and hold it. Your one long line go lower, Wes, lower, lower.

Hands behind the head or forehead. Rotate towards the floor. Rotate towards the ceiling. Give me five. Good, twist and twist, four, twist.

He's working hard, you are too. Stay with it, you're almost there. There's another thing we're gonna do. So just face forward one long line. Reach your arms overhead.

Give five, Wes. Both arms reach. One, you got it. Two, stay with it. Three, stay square.

Four, big stretch coming up. Five, twist, hands onto the frame. Breathe it out. Wes specifically asked that we do this series. Take a breath, take a moment.

Maybe cross your left arm over to that white rail, breathe it out, and then we're gonna flip onto the pelvis for swimming exercise. You'll have to figure out what your balance point is. I think navel somewhere towards the middle of the box is kind of what works for me. Hands onto the white frame to start. Legs long and strong.

Just the legs. Just the legs to start. Up, up, up, up, up, keep going. Most people who do the swimming exercise are bent in their knees. I watch it over and over again.

So stretch your legs straighter than you think they need to go. Pull up through your quadriceps, pull up through your kneecaps. Keep swimming but take your fingertips to your forehead. Good, I want you to imagine that you're allergic to the box. So your ribs and your abdominals are pulling up and away.

You're as light in the stomach as you can, you're pulling up. Now as you swim your legs, Wes, we're gonna reach the arms forward. One, two, three, and four. Bend two, three, and four. Reach for four, bend it in.

Three to go. Reach for four, bend it in. Legs up nice and high. Reach for four, bend it in. Two to go.

Reach for four, bend it in. One more, reach and hold. Now incorporate those arms, 10 seconds. Here we go, opposite arms, leg. 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

Done and take a break. Awesome, bring the box over to the other side. You know, when you say you wanna work your core, you gotta remember that you have the back core, not just the front. Align the box at the front of your machine. Big stretch up.

Gotta take those breaks when you can. Hands on, step it back, elbows a little soft. Let's just do the hop outs first. Out, in, out, in, out, in. And then when the legs are out, pause, opposite hand comes up to shoulder.

Hand comes down, you hop in. You hop out, opposite hand comes up. So it's out, in, touch, out, in, touch, out, in, touch. And you can really go fast with this. I mean you can just bump, bah, bah, like a TikTok star.

Like, put on a good song, doo, doo, doo, doo. 10, nine, we're doing mountain climbers again. Eight, seven, good. When your elbows are a little soft while in a plank, your back is holding you up. When your elbows are locked out, your wrists are holding you up.

So keep those elbows soft. Last time, Wes, and finish those feet together. Start with your walking pace. Take a break if you need to. Walking us in.

So let's establish those knees pulling in. It's not just the hips working, the abdominals too. Jog, pull, pull, pull. Run, drive them in. Forward, forward, forward.

You're thinking forward and up. 10, nine, eight, seven, lean into it. Yeah, six, five, four, three, two, made it. Shake it off. Good, yeah.

So you know, in a yoga class, when you're in three legged dog and you have to step through, that's that. Yeah, it's hard. We added our springs so the carriage didn't wiggle. Let's make sure we take that spring off. So I'm back to a blue.

Wes is back to a red. It's a light tension. So you're not gonna stay here and do a ton of these, okay? We're just gonna press out, lean into it, close the ribs. One hand on the wooden platform, one hand on the box, sweep the other leg up.

I try to kind of level out first and then down 'em. Get the foot down. I like to lift everything. Lean, lift, drop, and come up. Lean, get the leg up, square off those hips.

Nice, push-ups are always optional. Take 'em out if you don't wanna do it. It's just as beneficial to dial in that plank and get your left glute to work, to pull the leg up and off the ground. Let's do three more. Nice.

Cool. Be careful when the leg lifts that you don't go into anterior. You gotta kind of scoop while you're in a plank. It's like a proactive cue. Give me one more.

Nice, and then bring it on in. Good, shake it off. We're gonna go into another series of those elbow taps and I'll show you what I mean. Wes, take a second. Do whatever you need to do.

So when you're in a plank, I'm just gonna do it here, we know that gravity's pulling us down like this, right? So we have to fight that sensation by pulling everything up, okay? So when you are in that plank, even though it might feel like you're over-rounding, being over-rounded is better than being extended. All right, break over. Let's do it.

Hands on, press out. So these are those elbow taps. See if you can get 'em down at the same time. Down and up. The secret is to push forward and down.

Forward and down. (breathes deeply) Five, four. (breathes deeply) Three, it's hard to stay tucked. Two, one. (breathes heavily) Done.

The boxes come on. Additional spring to stabilize. Stretch time. We're sitting the other way. So we've got our right foot hooked and up on the box.

Take a stretch for a second, square off, breathe. One of the best ways to get a real good deep breath is in this lateral flexion position. So especially for athletes getting this mobility laterally in the spine, super important. Okay, ready? We're gonna do our three pushes and dive into it.

One, two, and we're up. Hands behind the head, 10 times. (breathes deeply) There's a cinch when you go down, there's a cinch when you come up. Two, three, four, keep going, five. Energy through that heel.

Six, get low, rise up. Good, seven, that's eight. I don't wanna start counting backwards. Nine and then go onto one long line. You want a break?

One long line with the spine. You're twisting down and you're twisting up. Five, four, three, rotation, two, stay facing that palm wall. Give me five reaches. One big, two.

You can do it. Three, this is an isometric hold hard work, four and five. Take a break, hands down, breathe it out. Take a twist. Awesome, it really feels good to walk your hands forward on that frame so that the strap is pulling you one way and your hands are pulling the other.

Then go ahead and do that cross tap. Yep, cool. We're gonna go back onto the stomach for another hip extensor series. Find that balance point. So if you're heavier in your upper body, you might scooch back a bit.

I saw you kind of moved back on the box a little bit. Whatever works for you. I like my legs apart. I know a lot of you like them zipped up. So do what feels better for you.

And then from here, only the arms are moving. So start with your arms in goal post. Squeeze your shoulder blades behind you. First, forward and back. Five, neck is long.

Four, legs higher and legs straighter, good. Three, two, one. Now we go forward to a T, forward, pull the elbows back. Forward to a T, forward, pull them back. Forward T, keep closing those ribs, forward to a T.

Good, now from here, last one, reach your arms all the way back. Turn your palms up and the arms and the legs lift like you're doing the a hundred. Up, up, up, up. Chest higher, thighs higher, navel in. Just because you're lifting up in your legs and arms doesn't mean that you're shortening your spine.

Can you feel that? So keep your chest up, Wes, and just your arms and legs. Like, both at the same time. Yeah, there you go. Good, up and up.

So pubic bone stays anchored. Five, four, three, two, one, and take a break. Nice, push it back. Very good. Okay, we're gonna place the boxes back towards the back of the machine and we have a floor series to do, but before we do it, we have a band and we're gonna wrap it around the shoulder blocks.

You've seen it before. We did it in the class that I did with Rachel. Just leave that for later. If you can color coordinate your loops and your booty band, I mean. Extra points. Extra points.

Okay, I'm gonna do this one with you. The whole thing. Grab your weights. So we've got a wide yet parallel stance. Sit low, feet together, 10.

I barely put weight on that leg as it steps in. Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, other side. Step it in, 10, nine, eight, seven, knees over toes, six, five, four, three, two, one. Good. Well, that is hard if you do all of them.

Wide second, bring it in. Get low, punch across. (breathes deeply) Pick up the heel, pivot. (breathes deeply) Down and up. Five, four, three, using those obliques to twist, two, one more each side, one, one.

Ditch a weight. Never to be seen again. Roll out of frame. Okay, so down low, wide parallel. You're gonna go into a squat, up, down, floor.

Into a squat, up, down, floor. Into a squat, up, down, floor. Up, down, in, power. Legs burnin'. (breathes deeply) Up, three more.

Two, one. Bye. See ya. It's like a mic drop. It's empowering.

Let's change our springs, Wes. One yellow or one blue. One blue is harder. Be careful as you step in, guys. Face back, arms up.

Take a breath. Ahh, hands to the box. Spread your fingers. You could do your elbows if your wrists are tired. Hook both feet behind both booty bands, not the one closest towards you.

I feel like there's like an extra inch of work if you do both. Knee tucks, bring 'em in, bring 'em in. Remember, keep that scoop. I'm gonna show you an advanced version if you wanna do it. Single leg, four, three, two, one.

Step one leg out. Cool, use the risers. Then that leg steps up under the box and stay low as you pull the back knee in. See if you can let go. (breathes deeply) We got a combo coming up.

Ready, Wes? Keep that back leg straight, rise up. Go low, one knee tuck, send it long. Rise up, get low, one knee tuck, coming up. Four more.

Rise, tuck. Anything intuitively you wanna do with the arms is the right choice. The machine is pulling your right hip back. So you have to try to keep the hip square. Notice there's a lean forward while in that lunge.

You're loading up that glute. One more time, Wes. Get low, pull in. Awesome, use the risers to help you step back. Take a second.

Take a breath. We'll do the same thing on the other side when we're ready. So Wes, can you show them knee tucks with a twist? Yes. Side to side alternate.

And I will do that single leg version. Let's just do a couple regular so everyone can get in the groove. Hook your foot, find your plank. If you're comfortable with the knee tucks, keep it. If you wanna do a twist, you're pulling both knees to one elbow.

If you're doing single leg, it's like a bike. Five (breathes deeply), four (breathes deeply), three (breathes deeply), two (breathes deeply), one (breathes deeply), step down. Yeah, you don't need to do a lot of those. Then step up, stay low. Hold on if you want.

Pull the back knee in. When you're ready, let go. Establish those hips and then when you're ready, we'll add the combo. So you rise. You're low, knee tuck, and up.

You rise, pull and up. Keep going. Be clear in your head which is a push and which is a pull. So he pulls his leg towards him. He pushes his body up.

He pulls with his hips and abdominals. He pushes with his glutes. See if you can feel the difference. Four, nice. Three, good.

The tracking of the knee right over that midfoot. Two, awesome. One more. Great job. Step in, step back.

Take a moment, recover. Cool, come on out of there. Wes said he didn't wanna do it, but we're gonna do it anyways. We're gonna do feet and straps. Huh, my favorite.

What a surprise. Add on some springs. We already have a yellow. So why not add two reds or a green to what you have? I'm gonna do two reds, no yellow.

What are you gonna do? Two reds and a yellow. Two reds and a yellow. Let's keep the headrest down. Lie down.

Nice work, everybody. All right, place the feet in your long loops. Loops closer to the heels than to the toes. How do you feel with long spine? Love long spine.

He loves it. Okay, let's do it. So hands down, hinge to 90. Get that hamstring stretch. Deepen, roll up, close the carriage.

I know everyone does it a little bit differently. Separate the legs, externally rotate. Keep your hips up like you're in bridge and use the box of your legs to push until you feel like you're levitating and then control the spine down. Reminds me of magician on the Cadillac. Legs together, you hinge, you stretch, you roll, close that carriage.

Separate, externally rotate. Use the backs of the thighs. Try not to push into the back of the head too much. Legs together. One more this direction up.

Up, separate, reach for the toes. You're going for open hips. Now we're gonna roll up with the legs apart yet parallel, and then roll down with the legs together and turned out. Push, push, push, legs apart and parallel. First, we stretch.

Then we roll, zip it. Keeping the shape of the body long as you push down, hence the name long spine. One more. Up, up, heels together, toes apart. Open through the front of the hips.

Control the kerplop. Let's circle it out. If you want your headrest up, put it up. Five in each direction. Find a calm breath.

Just cool down. And then reverse. Abla was telling me this one, a really good cue in this exercise, think of the center of your pelvis, your middle, not the front, not the back, staying anchored down. Like, I visualize the middle of my tailbone on the machine. Okay, let's finish with froggies.

Heels together, toes apart. I like doing these in an abdominal lift 'cause I like seeing that I'm able to keep my tailbone and my pubic bone down and then just get that movement at the hips. Stop the knees before they come too close to the shoulders. Five, oh, we'll do Wes's favorite stretch, four, three, two, and one. So head is down if it's up.

Go out to a V. Keep your left leg straight. Internally rotate your right leg. Bring the heel to the outside of the frame. Toenails to the ground, quad stretch.

So good. This is gonna be like a 75-minute video 'cause we'll just stay here for 20 minutes. Just be careful when you get out of it, you wanna push with the leg that's straight. So this strap over here is kind of loose. And then into the V you go, internally rotate, toenails to the floor.

You can pull on the ropes if you'd like. Try to keep the hips heavy. We did great. That was fun. I always like to come off the machine with the reformer roll up.

Lift your arms. Take a breath in. Up you go. Awesome. High five.

I was gonna say that was easy, but I didn't actually do the whole workout. That was good. It was a good workout. I think I sprinkled in a little bit more legs than you wanted me to, but- It was worth it. Thanks, guys.

We'll see you back again.

Comments

3 people like this.
Amazing! So hard. Love the heavy weights. Courtney your cueing was super strong and even though I’ve heard these cues a million times they ALWAYS help me get more out of the workout. So THANK YOU. Loved the tip about the middle of the tailbone being anchored. THANKS FOR ALL THESE NEW WORKOUTS. I never get tired of seein a new Courtney workout.
Whoa, that was a good one!  Thank you Courtney!!!
Love the Pilates/gym workout blend.
I love this series! This is another terrific addition, great energy, great cues, flow, and challenge!
Mel H
Amazing amazing amazing Thankyou, I loved the extra weight work, nice to add that bit extra to my Pilates workout to amp it up 😍
Courtney Miller Hi Courtney, I have seen you work on many different reformers, which one would you recommend buying? Thank you
Z A
Loved this soo much🙏❤️
Hi Cortney amazing class thank you
Great class!
Challenging class great workout! 🙏
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