Tower/Reformer Combination

Hi. My name is Meredith, and thank you for joining me here today. We are going to practice some creative variations on the reformer tower combo. And the way this class is organized is so that we won't have to spend a lot of time readjusting the spring setting. So let me explain to you how the the machine is set up. On the reformer springs, we have one yellow. I have one yellow. There are two blue springs connected to the top, on the push shoe bar.

At the very bottom, connection on the tower frame. I have yellow arm springs with handles. And then two up from there. I have purple leg springs. And the settings that I just described will just stay consistent throughout the class.

Towards the end of class, we are going to use a box. So good idea to have one of those handy. Ready? Let's go. So stepping into the frame of the reformer.

Taking a hold of the push through bar with the hand starting with the elbows bent to the sides. Take a moment. Allow me to take a moment. Find the connection of your body to your feet. Feel the body lifting up in opposition to that connection with the feet and push down on the spring.

Roll down through your spine. As the body is going down, the arms are actively pushing forward into that push through bar. We're rounding, rounding, rounding, rounding, rounding, rounding, bringing the shoulders just in line with the pelvis and inhaling. XL begin to roll back up, feel the feet pushing down, feel the arms pushing forward, stacking the spine, keeping the shoulder blades connected to the back of the body and bend the arms and push down. Rolling the spine down.

So it's up pike like action with the abdominals lifting in opposition to the down push of the arms and the legs. We inhale finding that deep round shape with the spine. Exhale roll through the spine pressing the pelvis forward, continuing to feel the activity through the arms. And then as you bend, feel the back of the body working like you're pulling the barre apart super wide elbows and push down one more exactly the same. Round the spine.

Deepening deepening deepening this first moment, these first moments or our opportunity to find our mind body connection. Roll through the spine. Feel the activity of the arms. Stand tall, bend the elbows wide, scapula wide. Making a small change at the bottom, push down.

Roll down through the spine. This time, pass through that pike shape, bringing the body out into more of a long back. Staying here as we now bend the knees, stretching through the shoulders, and stretch the legs, and bend the knees inhale, keeping that back nice and long, and exhale to straighten and bend the knees and exhale to straighten and then with straight legs begin to recollect the rounding of the spine. Once again, keep that very active energy out through the arms. Come all the way back to the top and take one hand in the center.

Turn to face away from the push you bar, to face the side of the push you bar, other arm overhead. Doing a side bend here, we reach over. Inhale. Exploring that stretch, exploring the range through that side of the body, and then exhale as you come up, creating a straight line with your body. Reach over. Think up to go over.

Pelvis is just above the feet, exploring into the stretch. And then as you come up, feeling the work happening in that side of the body and really consciously pressing that push through bar away to keep the scapula on the arm stable to keep the scapula of the arm that's holding the push shoe bar stable. Not very clear, but I think you know what I mean. Making a rotation. We're going over in you.

As you exhale, let the push you bar come towards the body reach through and take that rotation in the spine. Come back to the side stretch on the inhale and exhale once again to come back into that upright spinal shape. Inhale to reach over. All the time, keeping that connection to the underneath of the shoulder blade on the bottom arm. Come back around.

Maybe you'll lean a little deeper into the stretch. I'm trying and lift up. And inhale reach over. XL to take your rotation. I'm letting the push shoe bar come towards my body to maximize that rotation.

Come back around. And all the way up. Bring the arm down. Turn to face the push through bar to change hands and then change sides. Taking the arm overhead.

Pressing actively through that underarm and reach over on the inhale. Take your time. Explore the stretch, exhale to feel the connection in that upward side of the body to stand, and we go inhale over. Really opening the side of the body, exhale to stand. One more, inhale over, active through both arms.

Exhale to stand. And here's our rotation. We go over. We take the upper body around. Let the push you bar move towards the body.

Reach actively through that upper arm and come back around and back up to standing and inhale to go over. And exhale as you rotate, ringing out the spine. Come back around. Come back up. Last time, inhale to go over.

XL to take your rotation, deepening, enjoying the stretch, come back around. Come all the way to up, turn to face the push through bar. Keeping the push through bar in both hands once again, roll down through the spine. Deepening into that rounded shape. We'll take it all the way out long.

Feel free to use your full extension of your spine there. Just taking a stretch. And then round back up pressing the push through bar away from the body as you come all the way back up to standing and bend the arms, lift the springs. And step out. The next thing that we're gonna do is we're gonna collect those arm springs.

Just be careful with yourself. There's springs coming from all different directions. That's the trickiest thing in my mind is being safe on the equipment. As we're changing from position to position. So positioning your body with a little bit of space behind your pelvis taken in here, allow the spring from behind to pull the body forward and feel the abdominals pulling back towards the spring from behind.

As we exhale, we'll begin to roll down. So there's that little bit of floating action in the reformer on the reformer that we have to control with our focus, inhale at the bottom, in a chest lift. As we exhale, we'll resist the pull of the springs, come forward, feel once again as the reformer pulls back and the body goes forward. There's a lot of abdominal connection, and exhale. Go back. There's a point where the reformer wants to stop moving.

So just know that that might happen, but keep it fluid. And reach forwards, pulling back through the center of the body, shoulder blades on the back inhale, and exhale rotating the pelvis. Feel the fluidity. Even if the reformer keeps stops moving, you just keep moving your body and roll back up one more time. That's the fun part I feel of the reformer Tower combo is finding where you're having to move the reformer.

Sometimes it pauses. There's some little bit of floating sometimes. So you just have to really focus on the movement in the body and allow the machine to come with you. We're gonna bend the knees scoot a little bit more forward so that you have plenty of carriage behind you We're gonna lift our legs in a minute. So just that's why we want some space.

We're gonna roll back. Bring the small of the back onto the reformer. You're now in a chest lift position. Gonna bend the arm. Let's go right arm bends.

Left arm reaches forward. Take rotation. Inhale to center. XL bend the left arm. Reach the right arm forward.

There's really no possibility of rushing on this type of workout on this machine specifically because you really have to organize yourself in relationship to what the springs are doing and how they're pulling. So take your time. Feel the fluidity in the body and control the springs in both directions. Come back to center. We're doing one more to each side.

Rotate and reach. Come back to center. Rotate and reach. Come back to center. Pause in the center.

Bring the legs in. Stretch the legs long. The lower they are, the harder it is. You'll decide. And we inhale, and we excel, two, three, four, five, and in for the hundred.

XL, two, three, four, five, and in. Just tried to lower my legs a little bit, but that's pretty much it for me. If I'm gonna be honest with my stability and in. And out, two, three, four, five, the arms just flutter. And out two, three, four, five, and in. And out two, three, four, five, and in. And out two, three, four, five, and one more breath cycle.

Two three four five in. Two three four five, exhale bend your knees. Keep the legs there. Roll through your spine. It's helpful to look where you're going.

Come up into a teaser with the knees bent, and keeping the legs exactly as they are roll back down onto the reformer. Oh, it's not easy and go up. Lifting the spine. And go down, rotating the pelvis, getting the low back down, and go up, reaching up at the top, really flattening out the back. And go down.

One more time to come to the top. Here it is. Find the spinal shape. Take the legs out straight and bend the knees. Carefully bring your carriage in.

So I just hold the handles in one hand. Let the carriage come all the way back. And then we'll get rid of those springs. Keep them there. We'll use them again.

The next thing that we're gonna do is we're gonna stand on the reformer. So, again, be careful. Take the push through bar, know that that carriage is gonna move underneath you. Position the feet in a parallel position with the body in an upright position. I really hope I'm making the shapes that I'm describing. I have no way to see.

What we're gonna do here is we're gonna bend into a squat. Let this spring from behind. Pull the carriage back and then stand back up Find an upright position. And then from that upright position, take a thoracic extension. The carriage might move a little as you do that.

Return to a straight back and squat. And stand and extend the spine and center and squat. And stand. Finding up right. Finding up right and extend.

Kinda have to feel into your positions. We'll do three more bend. Go low. Go low. Go low. It's fine for the push two bar to come with you. And stand and pull with the upper back.

The carriage will move towards the push two bar. And center and bend and squat back and stand. Former just floats underneath his pre fun and arch for me. And center. One more time, bend.

Golo. And stand. And extend. And center. We'll do that three more times. Bend, sit back.

Stand up. Take the chest forward. You can think about this as your footwork and two more bend and stand. Lift. We're gonna make a small change on this final repetition.

Sit into your squat and hold that position, please. And now we do a little up and a little down and a little up and a little down. Nice and steady. Nice and steady. If your legs are getting tired, you can come up a little higher.

We want the legs to get tired. This is exercise. After all, last two. Last one, stay in your squat and pull. And reach.

Finding your balance, bend. And stay connected to the center of the body there is a certainly a strong element of balance here. So look after yourself last two times and reach last time and reach out. Stand all the way back in that upright position. I'm laughing because it's hard.

List into your extension and return back to straight. We're gonna stand into the right foot. Let the left arm come across and let the left foot, the toes of the left foot just come to touch the back of the reformer. We're gonna try and go straight down here and what straight down feels like is a little backward lean and stand. And keeping the shoulders on the back straight down.

And stand and straight down and stand. Oh, two more straight down. And push into that heel. One more time straight down. Straight up, making a change.

Lift the back leg coming into a pivot around that supporting leg. Super active with the back leg, the reformer moves. So again, please take care. Come back to upright. Lift the back leg, pivoting around that supporting leg.

The push through bar goes down. The back leg lifts, and we come back up. Take your time. I'm taking mine, find all the pieces, find your connection, find your balance, letting the reformer move, letting the reformer move, making a change. Go into that hinge. Stay down.

Bend your supporting leg. Straighten the supporting leg, come all the way back up, and go again. That lifts the back leg. Find your line. Bend straighten and come back to the top.

One more to go. Go into the hinge. Bend straighten. Come all the way back to the top and step that left leg in. Bring the right arm across.

Take the right leg to the back of the reformer. Here we go. We go. Straight down. I'm just pointing through my back foot so it just folds underneath me as I go down and stand and bend straight down and stand. And straight down, lean a little back, and stand, and two more bend, and stand One more bend, and stand. Here comes our hip hinge.

You gotta keep that carriage underneath you, and we go. Lifting the back leg. Letting the reformer glide. Keep that back leg super active. And then as we pivot, we let the reformer glide back. And here we go again.

Press up with the back leg, lean into the push to bar. Very active in that back leg, and come back in. One more like this. Go out with the link. Let the reformer glide.

Bring the reformer back. We've got our knee bends coming. Here we go. We go out into our hinge. Active through the back leg as we bend. Push and glide and hinge.

And bend, back leg strong Meredith and push, and hinge. I don't know if any of you talk to yourself, cue yourself, but that's what I do. I think about it. Tell myself to do better when I feel like I'm not doing the best that I can do and we reach up. We come back in.

Step onto the reformer with both feet. Find your center. Extend your spine. You can go for it this time, pushing down on the springs to bring the reformer in towards the push through bar. And come back to straight and bend the knees. Scooting forward on the reformers so that the knees come up against the shoulder blocks.

We're gonna do the thigh stretch. So what I want us to do is we're gonna posteriorly tilt the pelvis so you round the lower spine. Think of it like you're coming into a little bit of a chest lift. Now, keep that chest lift idea as you hinge back, bringing the body down in one straight line. Hold to inhale. XL, bring that straight line back up.

These come underneath the shoulders and we'll bend the arms. And as the arms straighten, we go rotate the pelvis, flattening the low back, and we hinge. And hinge. This one's fun. And pull in and reach forward and reach back in a straight line and bring that straight line straight back up return to a neutral position and pull and reach and rotate and hinge.

And hinge. Bringing the knees underneath the shoulders and pull and reach Last time, rotate hinging from the knees. Taking that thigh stretch, eccentrically working through the fronts of the thighs to come back up to the top. And pull and reach. The easiest way to get yourself down from this position is just hold the push you bar in one hand come to the frame and let the reformer come in.

We need our arms springs again. So let's get them. We're gonna sit towards the back end of the reformer. But once again, you wanna give yourself about a hands with the space behind you. Just preparing for something that's coming in a minute. So taking the arms out to the side of the frame of the reformer, feeling the body lifted in an upright position.

We're doing our chest expansion here. So we pulled down and back. It's not easy. And then resist. So the spring is pulling from behind. You've gotta control that spring and pull down and back. Control the way forward.

Feel the connection to the upper back before the arms start to do anything at all. Control the way forward. Two more. Down and back. Down and forward.

One more. Down and back. Floating on the reformer, but not easy for the arms. Bring the arms all the way up, turn the palms face up and bend the elbows. You can feel that you lift into the elbow bend straighten.

And then a row. Pull back a little easier that one. And forward. And pull and control the spring. And pull a little break and reach and pull lifting the body up, up, up, and reach trying to maintain that upright position all the time. I hope I'm doing a good job.

I promise I'm doing my best. Control, eccentrically. Working through the biceps as we straighten our arms, there's one more to go. Bend the arms. Straighten the arms.

Bend the elbows. Wide, straighten the elbows. Now, bend just the right arm and pull down with the left. Come back to center. Ben just the other arm and pull down with that other arm.

So the one arm's bending up. The other arm's pushing down and the rotation doesn't come from the pull of the spring. The rotation comes from the center of the body from the waist. And then we have to control from that same place as we do rotate back through center. Again, we've got springs pulling from both directions. So we wanna just always feel that we're in control of our movement all the time last time and reach and pull and take the arms forward.

Bend the elbows. Bring them right to your chest. Round through your spine. Coming down to the small of the back. Open the arms.

Press the arms towards behind you as you take your head out towards your feet. Start to come around with the arms, pulling the shoulder blades down the back as the arms travel back in front of the body, adjusting the hands as need be, and lift up tall. Bend the arms. We're doing this three times. Let the spring settle and go down. Roll.

Reach out. Pull back with the arms. Reach forward with the head. Reach around to the front. Gotta have a lot of shoulder stability for this exercise.

So not for everyone. Lift all the way up tall and bend Curl back, bring the keep the handles right against the chest, and reach out and go forward with the body. Come around with the arms, control control, control, abdominals deep deep deep deep into the spine, and then back up to straight. Take the handles into one hand. We're gonna turn all the way around.

So I'm just reorganizing the handles so that they're in one in each hand. As I sit to face the opposite direction, positioning the pelvis right up against the shoulder blocks, finding the upright position in the spine, and then bringing the arms out to the side. Exhale to bring the arms across the front, hug a tree, and control the open, and pull back through the abdominals as the carriage floats. And control this break. This is what I was saying a little earlier where we're gonna have a lot of awareness so that we're not just So that we're working from a place of stability and integrity. One more.

Across the front, Back out from the out position, bend the elbows, bring the hands to the temples. And we pull the scapula back as we push straight out. And then wide elbows control, that's bring and feel the shoulder blades reach back as the arms stretch forward and bend. Not easy. And push.

And bend. Do more push and bend last time push and bend bring the arms down. Bring your hands in fists. Of course, fist we're holding handles to the thighs. Reach forward along your legs. Reach out into the spring, extending the spine.

Bring the spine up in a hinge and circle all the way around. Bend your arms. Push out. Length in the body. Again, we have to navigate that carriage wanting to move from both directions.

Sit up. This is the hardest part and circle around. One more. Push forward. And lengthen the back. A lot of abdominal work here, please.

Sit all the way up in a hinge and bring the arms all the way down. Fun, also hard. We are done with the armsprings for now. So I'm just gonna let my reformer move. I'm gonna take those away.

And while we're on this end, we're gonna take the leg spring. So there is not really a beautiful way, unfortunately, to get into this exercise. So just bear with me. You wanna hang on to the spring. You're gonna lay on your side.

Towards the back of the carriage, I just lay down on my arm, but just kinda thread it through the shoulder blocks. So, again, we have that situation where the spring is pulling. So we will have to have a lot of control here for this next series. We're gonna put the foot into the strap. Once you start to bring your knees so that they're stacked, you'll kinda get a feeling for how the reformer is gonna move. The hand that's not underneath the head is gonna hold onto the shoulder block in the front and push.

Feel the spine in a neutral organization, a neutral alignment, and then that top leg's gonna push out. And control in. If you push too hard, you're just gonna end up banging into the frame of the tower. So or the frame of the reformers, so you have to just be nice and controlled. It's kind of like feels a little bit explorative. Like a little exploration. Where am I? How close? How close? How close? But feel that full extension of the leg.

We don't wanna compromise there. Last two times. Push. Just for those of you who Get a little bit upset when I don't count while we're doing five of each repetition. So if I lose my count, which is not out of the question, just know there's five of everything. Here we go. We're gonna go forward.

Spring pulls you into a stretch, but then you've gotta pull the carriage. That's the challenging part. The carriage kind of suspends a little as that leg goes into hip extension and then go forward. Don't forget about that arm that's in the front. Push with it.

And back. Reaching out in back and forward. Don't let this Don't just ride this spring on the way forward as what was in my mind. It's like really feel that even though the spring is pulling from the other end really control that movement, I think this is four And then, oops, c, c, c, I went too fast. It's it's a good lesson.

Started thinking about what the next exercise was. Here it is. We control the spring. Lesson learned, come up, around to the front, and pull. Control. And go actually hang it.

Quite happy that that happened so that there's a very clear demonstration of what happens when you're not in control. So you can't push too quick. Around to the front and two more back reach out. Up Last one back up. Of course, where there is circles in one direction, there will be circles in the other direct don't forget about that front hand. Go forward.

Go up around to the back and down. And forward push with arm. Control. There's again a little suspension there, but then we have to pull the carriage. And forward.

And around. Almost banged the reformer again last two, but I caught myself. It takes a lot of concentration. I'm happy to give a good example of that. Last one.

Forward. Up around and back. And then the knee. You just turn the knee open to almost like a figure four hip stretch. You can push away at the knee just briefly and then that's a really nice place to take your foot.

Out of the strap. You can just come in from there. I hold on to my strap just because I'm trying to avoid banging and dropping, but you can organize as you need. Okay. Other side. So remember that we need the spring before we lay down or it's impossible.

Body goes towards the back of the carriage. The foot goes into the spring. And then we'll give ourself just a moment to organize through the spine. I want a nice straight back, active through the arm and we push and bend. Concentrating on moving nice and steady on that reformer and bend and push.

And bend twice more. Press and bend. And when the leg is straight, hold it straight and bring that straight leg forward. Control and press back. And forward.

Lakes just travels about hip height to the front and to the back and forward. Active through the arm and back and two and back I did it again. One more. So here's where our circle will happen. Control Meredith.

Come up. Yep. Just takes a little body awareness, a little awareness of the springs, a lot of concentration. Back up. Around and forward and back up. Control to the front last two in this direction.

And around. Last one back. And around. And then center. Doesn't feel easy to this body.

Go forward. And are around and reach into that spring. Try to resist bending the back. Keep that back nice and stable forward. Up around to the back.

Oh, my leg is shaking and forward. And around to the back, stretch out. Last two. Forward and up and around to the back. One more time forward around to the back and bending the knee Bringing the foot to the knee or wherever it works for you.

Take a pause, give that hip a little stretch. And then remove your foot from the strap. Slide in. Come up, softly return the spring. It's a it's a little tricky. Okay.

Now we need a box. Same spring as promised, long box. Very simple back extension coming. You're welcome. We're going on to the box.

Just at the just with the chest just off the box. Walk up the frame and take a hold of the poles, the tower pulls. So I didn't bother taking my leg springs away. They're just floating on the outside of my hand. Doesn't bother me.

So we're gonna bend the elbows wide. Keep the ribs down, but lift the mid back. Lakes are active. Feel the shoulder blades reach down the back as the body goes forward. Engage through the shoulder blades.

Draw them down. Bend the elbows. It's a small back extension. Keep the front of the ribs, press down as you lift your chest forward. And then feel that there's, of course, oppositional work as we return the carriage back and then active through the legs, lifting the spine. Controlling the back.

Last two like this pull. Really try to maximize that upper body sensation, upper back sensation and return. And last one, pull. Pull the bars apart. That's something I like to think about.

And come back. And then just take your hands back to the frame of the reformer. Let the reformer come back. Come off the box. And then sit.

Reach for the push through bar, and we'll finish with just a spinal wave. What we'll do here is we'll begin with the pelvis. We'll tuck under, bringing the box out towards the edge of the frame, deepening into that lower spinal area. And then begin to round forward resisting the spring from behind, but also at the same time allowing it to pull. Bring the body down over the sides.

Bend the arms lifting up into tension, and then just bringing the body into an upright position as the arms straight and exhale to round the spine tucking under, flattening the back. Pressing a little down on the bar just to find shoulder stabilization and go forward. Pull the abdominals back with the spring that's pulling on the reformer and then arch up. Up into that upper back extension or back extension, really, the whole spine, and then just allow the body to settle into straight as the arms reach forward. We'll do three more to complete our workout.

And come forward. Just feel the body moving like a wave. It comes from one shape into the next shape. We take that extension. And then reach out.

I said how many more we had to do, and then I promptly forgot. Let's do two more. Maybe we get one extra. Maybe I'm exactly right. Who knows? And go forward.

And I was just thinking about my back extension. It felt so good. And arc, lifting, and upright as the arm straightened. This is truly the last one. I promise.

Go down. Go forwards. Reaching out. And come up. And reach back out to straight again. Allow the reformer to come back into its home. Let go of the push you bar.

And I hope you enjoyed that. I enjoyed that. Thank you for joining me.