Class #990

Strong and Long Flow

35 min - Class
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Description

Erika teaches a workout that focuses on being strong and long. On the Wunda Chair, she adds different stretches to the Footwork series to get your whole body moving. She then moves to the Reformer with great exercises that work on shoulder stability. You feel get a full body workout with this class!
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box, Wunda Chair, Mixed Equipment, Pilates Pole

About This Video

Mar 21, 2013
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Hey everyone. It's Erica quest again. We're going to do a workout that's going to be called strong plus long. So the first portion of this workout is actually going to be spent on the chair and I'm here today with Porsha page as my muse and the second port part of this workout. We will then eventually move on to the reformer. So you ready to get started? All right, so let's warm up. So Porsche, you're going to go ahead and face the chair and I'd like for you to, your feet to about be about hip distance apart parallel. You want to look for your outside foot here to be kind of in line with the foot pedal. We have the chair. I'm actually set up a little heavy to start.

So let me switch that. We're going to start at one spring on three, okay. Because we're just going to be doing some mobilization of the spinal column with a little bit of rotation. So on an inhale you're going to take your arms up and on an exhale you're going to begin to pour yourself down towards that pedal. The right hand is going to come down and touch the pedal.

As you depress the pedal down, you're going to unfold and open the body up to the ceiling. Good. And then roll back down. And then you're going to come all the way back up, releasing the pedal. [inaudible] taking a nice arm sweep here. That up and over. Good. And then let's come back up. Inhale and exhale again. Pouring down from the fingertips, just letting the spinal column, I feel Nice and syrupy and you're going to unfold in a row. Take good. And then come back down. Good. And roll all the way back up. Okay.

Taking the arm forward, arms forward, up and over. Last one here. And you're going to stay down. So inhale and exhale. Diving down. Good. Not Pedal. Good. Opening an unfolding. Good. And then rotating back down, but not letting go of the tension. Good. So now just going into a bit of rotation. Yeah. Here. Exhale, depressed.

The pedal down and left. Good, great. And left rotating. Good. Finding that nice line through the fingertips. One more going back down and then rolling all the way back up, taking the arms forward and up and over. Great. And then of course you want to do the other side, so come round again. The outside leg is kind of situated right near that foot. Pedal in alignment.

And then again, inhale, arms come up from the fingertips like syrup. You're going to drip downwards towards that pedal, pressing the pedal down and opening and reaching into rotation. Good draw back down, rolling and articulating back. Back up, trying to find what's happening in the spine right now. And again, inhale and exhale. You Roll, depress that pedal, opening an unfolding on an inhale. Good. And then rolling all the way back up. Last one here and then you're gonna stay down.

So arms come up and x, hail down. Good. Wrapping that body around that imaginary stability ball here and lowering but not losing tension in that pedal. Pressing and reaching. Good. Last two, and just feeling that rotation and that links through the finger tips. Last one, good. And then all the way back up, articulating, restocking the spine, bone by bone. Fingers come up and over. Great.

So now we're gonna move on to a supine warm up with the back on the chair. The best way to get into this is to sit the sitting bones really close to the front edge because you need all of this surface area and you're going to be lifted. And then um, your scapula's slightly hanging off the back edge of the chair fingers to support the neck. Come back behind the head and you're going to find this nice forward fold here. So she's going to lift up into as much flection as she can. And then all we're going to do, here's a few leg drunks.

So keeping this 90 degree angle of the leg, you're going to inhale, drop the foot down, exhale, pull it back up, meeting the inner thighs at the top, inhale to lower, exhale to lift. Good. All the while trying to keep this forward. Fold to the body, connecting the breath in, and exhale, pull two more here. Inhale, we're going for endurance. Last one. Inhale. And now we're going to switch to a leg change. So inhale, drop and exhale. Switch the legs. And Change. Good and change. Now remember, if that's too low for you or your clients, just modify this by not going as low with the toes. Five, four. We're changing into rotation momentarily.

Rotate towards the knee that stays lifted and hip stays stable here. Elbows, nice and wide. Lots are drawing down and think armpit to hip bone here, not crunching. Last four, three, two and one. Hold back at center. Grab onto the backs of the legs with the hands and roll yourself back up to a standing position. Beautiful. So there's a nice warm up for you. We're going to now switch the positioning of the, or excuse me, the springs on the chair. Two, three, three. So you have your on three on one side, three on the other side.

And we're going to go into some footwork. We're gonna do some standard positions, but what's going to be a tiny bit different here is we're going to add on some stretches. So you're going to start on your heels, Porsche, and let's talk about set up on the chair. We're on a a balanced body Combo chair. And so there's a pretty much a little bit of a smaller surface area. So I want her to bring her sitting bones as close to the front edge as possible without falling in, of course, to the spring area.

And that's gonna also be dependent on what you or your client's knees can do. As far as knee flection is concerned, heals are going to be on that foot. Bentyl hip, hip width, distance apart, and you're going to start by floating the arms forward. Great. From here on an exhale, you're actually, pardon me, you're going to reach your arms out to the team, the palms of the hands face down. So sitting up really nice and tall and on an exhale as you depress the pedal down and you're going to press the fingertips towards the floor. Good.

And on an inhale, you're going to pull that pedal up and lift the fingertips to the ceiling. Exhale presses you down. Good and inhale, you lift. Good. Exhale. We're going to go to 10 here and inhale, thinking about really lifting upwards to that spine and pushing down through the heels in that point of opposition. Good. Last one. Exhale. You press and inhale. Good. Relax the arms for just a moment while we set the feet.

The toes come onto the foot pedal and again, you want to set the toes so that the balls of the feet are on there. But really it's just the tippy toes because as you press the pedal down, you need very little surface area so you can do a test repetition. That's totally fine. And now we're going to go into some nerve stretches along with footwork. So floating the arms up. She's in a nice plantar flexed foot.

The ankles are nice and stable. And from here you're going to flex the wrist, depress the pedal down to lift upwards to the spine as you open the chest and stretch. Good. Inhale, you're gonna lift the pedal, draw the arms forward, and exhale, flex and open clavicle opens here. You're getting a lovely stretch all the way through the front of the arms as you're doing this. And of course it's great for um, wrist and for, um, not plantar fasciitis. The other thing that happens in your wrist when you're using too much of your mouse. Last three, flex and open. Get last to carpal tunnel there I remembered, and last one. Good. All the way forward. Relax the arms again as you reset your feet because yes, your arms are actually getting some work. Yes, you're going to go into a small pizza slice or a small slice of apple pie with the heels.

Keep that nice connection through the heel so you can find the inner thighs. Great arms are going to again, come all the way up over the head. Yes, and you're going to flex your wrists at the top, pressing the pedal down, sprouting slightly open to the ceiling as are your period of favorite flower or your favorite vegetable. Flex and open as you press down. Good and inhale, lift. Exhale, flexing open. And you really want this sense of float of the rib cage that she's really just likely setting her rib cage on top of her waist. Right spinal column reaches as she pushes down through the pedal.

Good. Last two, flex. Press down at open. Good, and last one. Good. Excellent. Last two positions of your footwork. Your heels are gonna come to the wider parts of your foot pedal and we're going to add in a bit of rotation so your arms float forward and from here you're going to depress that pedal down as you flex your right wrist. Open your door and twist slightly to the right, but don't lose your pelvis. Inhale, come forward, lift up through that spine, flex and open your door and rotate. Good.

Inhale and exhale, rotate. Great. Inhale again, you're really watching for this nice neutral spinal column and that upward spiral spiral out of the top of the crown of the head. Good. Last four. Inhale. Exhale. Slight rotation. External rotation through the legs. Three good. Last two, good Portia and last one here again last time, relax the arms. Draw your toes onto that foot pedal pedal. Again, you can give yourself a test repetition cause the terror is a bit different than the reformer here. So you want to make sure that you have your feet set.

Slight plants reflection again through the feet and now we're going to do a little bit of that sprouting. But adding a little bit of lateral flection here, not so much that we leave or lean. Okay? It's much more of an arc. So you're going to lift the arms up nice and long through that spine. And then from here, as you press the pedal down, you're going to flex your right wrist. Look to the right as you draw that arm down. Good. Inhale, lift back up and exhale to the other side.

So really try and find that length right now down the left side body and then the right side body as you're gently contracting the intercostal muscles on the arm that draws down good and up and out at the top of the crown of the head. Good. Last too. Back up, and last one here. Good. And relax your arms and take a break. So we're going to go ahead and move into some piking so you can see this.

I'm going to spin the chair so you get a nice side view here. We're going to do some full pike variations and I'm going to leave the chair set on three three but you would want to adjust this for whatever works best for you or your clients. And Porsche is going to depress the pedal down all the way to the base of the chair. We're going to do a bit of spinal mobility here and ankle mobility along with the first three full pikes. She slides her hands to the forward edge of the chair here and she's going to reach her heels down into a dorsiflexed position.

Spinal column is nice and flat here, maybe even slight extension cause it just feels good. And then on an exhale she's going to begin to curl the pelvis as she rises up onto her toes. Set, sets the soldiers above the wrist and scoops the belly in and pikes up. Good. Inhale, lower all the way down. All the way. Yes, I'm going to give you a little break here just to kind of get into this movement pattern. Good. And then from here, exhale, rounding the lumbar spine, shoulder girdle above the wrist, scoop the belly in Ama lift. Good lowering. Good. And last one here. And she's going to stay lifted and rounding, scooping, lifting, lifting, lifting.

And then we're gonna do five by not touching the base of the chair here. Last four. Exhale, lifts you shoulders. Stable eyes, gaze between the legs. Last two, exhale, pull blanket that spine with your abdomen. Good coming all the way down and take a little break because we're going to switch into just a subtle variation.

So instead of taking rotation by actually swiveling the legs on the pedal, all I want to do is why didn't you out a little bit. So we're going to set one set of toes in line with the springs. The hand stay exactly the same and that opposite leg comes back around and is behind the ankle. Five repetitions. Exhale to lift. You may have to adjust your foot here. Inhale and exhale. So you focusing really deeply on one side of the obliques and it's the side that the leg is crossed behind. So right now it's Portia's left side. Last one, exhale. But all the same principles of the exercise apply.

Nothing else changes, but you're just picking up different muscular structure. Good ticking. Inhale, regroup. Exhale, curl the chin down and lift. Nice. And for super three, she's still posterior here. Two good and one great all the way down. And then dismount and slowly let the pedal lift.

Remember there's quite a bit of weight on there, so you want to make sure that you're safe about getting out of this exercise. We're going to now move into a little bit more abdominal work and some full body and some planking. We need to change the weight and we're going to move this to one screen on the top, which is one on four in my language. So from here, the best way to get into this is to approach it in a quadric head manner. So come on down and she's going to take her left hand and put it on the pedal. Depressing the pedal down and setting the right hand so that your shoulder with distance apart. Now she's safe to go ahead and find her plank position. So sliding the legs out into plank from here on an inmail.

She's just gonna bend her left elbow, nothing else moves. Exhale, press down and hold and then you're going to rotate around and reach up with those fingers. Good. Come on back down. Good. Inhale to bed and prs. Good and rotate down. Reach. Good. Three more like this. Bending and pressing, good. Rotate, twisting and reaching. Good. Last two.

Now watch the low back here. You want to slightly tip the pubic bone to keep that lumbar spine supported if you're having any back trouble. And last one. And of course this is a full body experience that you'd never want to take somebody into this that isn't already good and go ahead and draw down onto those knees. Rise the pedal back up and we'll do five more to the other side. So it's one arm. Push up with one rotation and decide plank. If you want to add on to this or you know, add in just arm repetitions, absolutely feel free to do so. But this is challenging in and of itself.

So she sets up. Inhale here, exhale, pressing down, rotate and reaching up. Good. And again, nothing moves. It's like there's a body cast on you and you're just lifting and lowering that arm. So inhale, moving that right arm, pressing down and rotating, reaching, using these interior obliques here. Good. Last two, Bend and press controlling that pedal and reach. Good. And last one, you got it. Inhale, bend. Exhale, press good. And rotate and reach. Fantastic Balance Back Down into quadro pad safely, letting that peddle come back up.

And now we're going to finish on the chair portion with a bit of cat stretch. So on your knees, the best way to get in is to come in from behind. And let's talk a little bit about the setup here before we enter into the movement pattern. The knees are hip distance apart, so structural of course, and we want to try and retain as much of a relationship as we roll down from your hip to your knees. So watching the temptation to push that Tush back. Okay, we're going for a posterior abdominal wall. So from here you're going to inhale, take the arms up, exhale, begin to dive down and pour yourself towards that pedal.

Finding the pedal with those hands. Keeping the belly scooped in. She's going to press the pedal down. Go into slight extension here. Inhale, exhale, pull the belly back in. Good. And then she goes again. So you're going to do five here. Inhale, just undulating back and forth between flection and extension. Exhale, you pull good. Last two, great. And last one here. And then she's going to come all the way up, releasing the pedal scoop and Medallian. Good. Taking the arms up overhead, reaching them wide, and then we're going to experience just a subtly different trajectory. So you're going to lift the arms. Inhale, exhale against like syrup through your fingertips. You're going to roll down, you're going to take your right hand in the wide part of the pedal.

Cross the left hand over. Same exercise, different muscular structure that you're going to find. Exhale, so a little bit more unilateral through the back extensors and the posterior adds. Inhale, justified. Exhale, pull last two and exhale. Last one, especially on the last one. I like to be here to really help pull the belly in, roll all the way up, taking the arms up overhead all the way back around. It's an opportunity to reorganize. Inhale up and exhale like a, you dive down to that pedal. Good.

Inhale into slight extension and exhale, pour good. Last four. Good. Pull the belly in. Nice Porsche three and pull. Good. Again, I'm watching this hip to knee relationship too and she's going to come all the way back up on that last one. Exhale, pull the belly in. Good. And one more reorganization, lifting the arms up and over and that's the strong parts. And now we're going to go ahead and move onto the reformer and work on the long part. Okay, so now we're moving on to the lawn portion of this workout and I wanted to make note that you're going to need a dowel eventually again in this, so make sure that you have that handy. I'm going to set mine down for now.

And as you can see we've set up the reformer with the long box already loaded the foot bar down and you have a blue spring on. We're gonna do a gluteals kneeling sequence with one foot in the strap. So Portia's gonna come on to the quadriped head position and I'm going to help her in with the strap that's going to come onto her foot. This is a challenging series and a definitely a full body experience. So we're not going to do 55 repetitions.

We're going to do about six repetitions of each sequence. And what we're looking for here is good relationship and good setups. So you want to look for this hip to me relationship, so the knees and super forward. And of course we want great shoulder stabilization cause that's gonna come into play when we lose a point of contact here momentarily. From here, she's in a nice flat back position. She's going to transfer her weight over to her left knee and exhale, press straight back, activating that glute Max. Inhale, bending the knee, hovering it above the box. Exhale, press again, not coming so high that you're going to grab onto this lumber spine.

We really want to keep a nice stable belly to support that area. Good. Last one, and until you reach from here, the lever stays straight. You're going to inhale, sweep down, and exhale, reach down through the toes and press back up to your starting position. Inhale to sweep, really stabilizing with the shoulder girdle here. Utilizing that powerhouse to keep everything stationary so that you're not bobbing and weaving. Last three exhale. You reach up. Good. Last two and you press right.

We're only going to six here. Remember last one? Exhale, hamstringing gluteal, and then bringing, bending the knee back in and we'll get you set for this third and final exercise. She's going to tip her me in towards her other knee and the foot is going to come slightly wide and we're going into internal rotation of the hip. Exhale. She then presses back out slightly on a diagonal just to pick up a little bit of different muscular structure. Still activating the glute Max here. This gets very challenging through the upper body because now that subtle angle has shifted things entirely with her neural transmitters and last one, and also the center of gravity, of course. Great. So from here we did six in each position.

We're going to take this strap off of your foot and we're going to hand it to you and bring it into your hand. And we're going to go into a tricep sweep from here. A nice straight arm. So I'm going to have you grab on actually to the tape up, higher up a little higher. There you go. From here, you're going to keep the libor nice and long. Everything stays the same. She's just going to exhale, reach down in the lift. That pinky finger comes up to the hip.

Now I have her on the tape on a blue spring. If that's too heavy, you would just slide your hand further down along the handle to lighten the load a little bit. You could even try this with a yellow spring, but as you know, that lightens the carriage. Let's do two more and that way your, that in that case, you're gonna want to really slow things down so you don't get that ricochet effect. And last one, exhale. Great. So the number six is our sweet spot here for today and we're going to switch to the other side. So she's going to set herself up and now we're going to lather, rinse, repeat, and use that left leg as the moving part and the rest of the body stays nice and stable. So setting up shoulder girdle, nice and stable. Look for that relationship from hip to me. And exhale, bent knee, press to extension, pushing out. Good. Inhale activating the hamstring and the glute Max here. Good. This is three, pushing out through that heel, trying to really create that longer energetic lines through the body. Good.

Last two. And then we're going to leave the lever long and go into a plantar flexed foot and do a nice straight leg sweep. So here we go. Inhale coming down and exhale. You lived back to that starting position. Beautiful. Inhale. So we're looking for nice stability through the shoulder girdle.

Nice core activation. Here again, if your client or you are feeling this at all in your lumbar spine, you want to slightly tip that pubic bone to support the abdominal wall. Last one, inhale and exhale. You lift it, bending the knee back in. Getting yourself ready to set up for the internal rotation piece, tipping that knee in towards the other knee. And exhale, reaching out on a slight diagonal. Good. Inhale, exhale, reach. Nice. Pull this knee in just a little bit more. Yeah, there you go. Three more. Three. This changes the center of gravity. Remember too, and last one here.

Good bending that knee back in, releasing this guy, grabbing back onto the tape. Would that left time your your left hand. Nice Street Libor for six repetitions. XLU, reach down and lift. Good. And inhale. Finding the Latiffe Hummus here, the serratus and the trisect. Inhale wall of course, using the whole rest of your body to stabilize the movement. So congratulations. Last three. Exhale, you lift.

You can see this hip to knee relationship has not changed, which is great too. And the last one here, great. All the way forward. We're going to go ahead and replace this strapped down. We're going to now move into a bit of full body integration or pardon me, actually we're not. We're going to go straight into um, and I standing lunch. Now you don't need to have this box up here, but we're going to use it today for a variety. Uh, I'm going to change things out to one red spring and we're going to lift the foot bar back into play. And of course it's going to come around and phase for foot bar. And this, uh, left knee in this case is going to go down on the carriage and the foot is going to just lightly tip onto the top of this box.

This is going to really accentuate the opening of the quadricep tier. Your right foot is forward and the right knee is stacked over the ankle as she comes out. If this is too intense, you lose the box. Then you put the foot up against the shoulder. Rest. Shoulders are nice and stable. Hold here and just give me some breath. Lift that chest, breathing into the back in the bottom of the lungs. Good.

Two more. Inhale and exhale, blowing out any undue tension you may have in your body. Inhale, and now on this exhale, you're going to lift out of that hip, straighten out your front leg and tip your toes towards your nose. Rocking back into Dorsal flection. And a little pressure on the inside of that heel. Really feeling the hip drop down and retract in getting a lovely functional length down the hamstring. Breathing here. Exhale. And on your next exhale, you're going to bring the carriage all the way back into the stopper and we're going to leave you on balanced. I'm just kidding.

So let's move to the other side. Lather, rinse, repeat. And again, setting yourself up. You should be able to better see her front foot here and as you may or may not have seen on the other side, we're really going for that nice relationship from me. Cap To ankle, so we don't want the knee to go over the toes. Holding here and breathing right. Shoulders are relaxed, chest is lifted. You're oxygenating the back in the bottom of the lungs here at exhale, blowing out any stress that you may have in the body. Good. One more. Inhale. And on that exhale, send your carriage back. Going into that hamstring, tipping the toes towards the nose ups. We're losing that box a little bit. Good.

And retracting the hip, the hip down and in. Good. Inhale and exhale. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale, bring the carriage all the way back into the stopper. We'll need this box again in a little bit. So we're going to go into some full body integration and then we will bring the box back in for some lateral flection and some back extension.

So I'm going to put the box back down and we're going to move on to one green spring. This is a variation on a really wonderful, challenging exercise called front support. So come on up to standing. I'm going to put my foot on the carriage as I always do. When anyone comes into the standing position. So you're going to stand, and the best way to get into this, you're going to be facing your risers. The heels of the hands are going to come down onto the shoulder rest and let's talk about wrist placement, right? We don't want her cranking down on the wrist, so she wants to translate the load out through the fingertips. One set of toes comes back onto the foot bar. Once I feel like she's stable, she's going to then send the carriage all the way out with just that one leg and then find her plank position, bringing the other leg back up.

She's in a parallel foot stance. From here, she's going to transfer weight to her left leg, letting the right leg float up. On an inhale, she presses out one time with her arms on an exhale. She keeps the carriage stable as a stable and draws down and through reaching that good. Again. Inhale and exhale. Super challenging exercise so we only go to four. Inhale out, exhale, sweeping under and reaching.

Good and last one. Inhale, nice and stable through the shoulder girdle. And exhale. If you'd like to take a break here, you absolutely can, or you can just switch to the other side. So inhale, pressing away and exhale. Drawing down in through good reaching back. Nice long line through those toes. And exhale, sweeping under this hip will drop slightly. We're back to neutral here. And then you're gonna twist under slightly and reach good. Last one, Portia.

Inhale out, stabilize here and exhale and then safely dismounting by putting one foot down on the carriage, drawing it back to the stopper and then releasing the other foot. Great job. So moving straight into an arm work sequence. With the Dowel, you're going to come and sit on the very edge of your, uh, your carriage. We're going to change out to a blue spring or maybe a little bit forward to the edge of the carriage here, cause you will be going into a bit of flection. So as I mentioned, we're on a blue spring here. And before we actually add the Dowel, let's do a little bit of Ron Boyd's.

So you're gonna hold onto those straps, get this to you in a second. Arms are slightly softly bent, Koch contracted, if you will. You're sitting up nice and tall. I want you to feel like you're perched on your issial. Tuberocities that if I was behind you and my hands were on your ribs, I was helping you float your rib cage on top of your waist as if your spinal column was like a lamp post, right? And it's just lightly on top of it.

On an exhale. Then you're going to glide the arms out in that horizontal polarity. Inhale forward, really activating and braiding those rhomboids together. Good. Inhale forward. Nice Portia, and exhale wide. Good. Watching the tendency to be in the upper traps here, drawing down in the lats, finding the lower trapezius last to exhale, squeezing those inner thighs, lifting up, finding your initiator with through the powerhouse. Good, and then from here we add an Adele and we're staying on a blue spring here.

We're going to start with a little bit of an extension piece, so we're focusing on the shoulders here. The shoulders are certainly going to kick in. Elbows are straight, but not hyperextended. She starts sitting up nice and tall. She stays sitting up nice and tall, but she's going to then exhale, begin to lift that bar above the head and take slight extension through the mid thoracic and the upper thoracic. Good. Inhale forward and exhale. It's kind of like that gentle slight back dive is that as if you were on a springboard and you were just getting that start to the back dive movement, right? Last three. And you reach good, super challenging on your shoulders last too. And your back extensors. Inner thighs are squeezing together. Last one, reaching up, good coming all the way forward.

And now we're going to take this into a bit of flection. So you're going to start with what you just did. So inhale, you reach now tipping off of those issial tuberocities, rolling back, bending the elbows, drawing deep and through in deflection. Good again. Inhale takes you up and then exhale Benz, those elbows flex the spine and rolls you forward cause so start to find this beautiful circular pattern through the body. Are you still connected with your inner thighs? Check in on your system. Last two and exhale and the last one up all the way down and through.

And then of course we got to go in the other direction. So you're going to start inflection, bending the elbows, and then reaching up into extension all the way through. Good. Again, pulling that body, that bar into the body as if you're shaving your body with that bar so deep and in deflection, and then reaching up and through last to pull in and reach. Good and last one, pull and reach all the way up. Great job. We're going to lose that dowel. Replace the straps down. We'll need them for the final exercise. Come on up to standing.

We're going to load all of the springs, move a short box back into the equation, and we're going to do some side sit ups and a little bit of rotation added into that. So we're gonna set you up on your side. You're gonna grab onto your safety strap and hook your top foot in. The bottom foot's going to slide underneath and anchor. Now we're looking for a nice stack tip and no leaning back on an inhale. You're going to cross your arms over and take yourself over. Exhale, reaching long through the top of the head.

You Ark up just to that nice high diag and all piece. You don't want to crunch these intercostal muscles. You want to keep them in length. Good. Last one, inhale and exhale. Here's where we add rotation. So we're going to do rotation for three. You lift up, you rotate, elbows are bent. Inhale, come back around. There's one inhale over. Exhale, reach out and up.

Rotate. Good. Inhale and last one up. You go rotate back and all the way down and let your client or yourself have a nice reward by putting your elbow down and opening up that side body. Good. Other side [inaudible] so we're going to do lateral flection and rotation facing the other direction and then we'll finish you out with a little bit of breaststroke. So crossing, not bottom leg underneath the top, like again, looking for that nice stack tip here. Inhale over. Exhale, reaching long and lifting. Good. Inhale and exhale.

Let the intercostals sort of fan out here and then arc them up in length. Last too. And you lift. Good Portia, last one and live. Let's add rotation in. Here we go for three. Lower down, lift and rotate. Good background the chest. Inhale over, lifting, rotating. Good. And last one, you're almost there. Lift, rotate. Good. And here's your reward. Put that elbow down and stretch out that side. Body opening the intercostals.

Good. Excellent. So let's spin the box to a long box. We're going to obviously take off some weight and we're going to move into breaststroke. So I believe we're going to go one red spring here and the setup will be on your stomach, so prone with the head facing the foot bar and I'll help Porsche in with the straps. You want your chest slightly hanging over the front edge of the box. So right on that xiphoid process area, maybe a two bottom ribs squared off in the box. And you want engagement in recruitment of the hamstrings, the calf muscles and the gluteals, but not so much that you're completely overusing them and impinging on the low back. Okay. So to keep you out of your low back here, I want you slightly tipping the pubic bone in towards that, uh, box.

And then you're going to dip the thumbs down through those straps and bring the thumbs up to the shoulder girdle. From here. It's a really long inhale. So here we go. Inhale, you reach forward. Inhale, you reach all the way down. Find the pinkies to the thighs as you rise into back extension. Exhale, you come back to that flap back again. Remember, this is your last exercise. So extrapolate every ounce of every repetition out of it. Inhale, you reach all the way around. Good. And then those elbows gliding those hands on with thick, wet sand all the way around. Good.

And then last two, you reach. Squeeze those inner thighs if you can. If it doesn't bother your lower back and bend. And last one you reach forward. Inhale up in the back, extension and bend. Great. Go ahead and hand me the straps. You can slide off of the box and we will move around to the front of the reformer and finished with a little bit of a reorganization roll down.

So from here, just think about your feet. Grounding the heels down into the floor. Hip distance apart. Parallel that tripod of support. From here, you're going to inhale. Let your wings take flight. Fingertips are reaching to the ceiling. Begin to drip downwards through those fingertips.

Rolling that body around an imaginary stability ball, letting the shoulders go at the bottom. Take a nice deep breath of gratitude, upwards into the spine. Exhale, pick the belly up into the spine. Use it as a means for support for your spinal column. As you roll all the way up, arms come back overhead. Good. Flex those risks. Sprout open with the chest, slightly reaching to the ceiling, finding that link and you're all done. Good job.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Loved the arm/wrist work with legwork on the chair. Lots of challenges on the reformer, great class thanks Erika!
Pele
1 person likes this.
Love your fresh ideas.Stuff I haven't seen anywhere else. I tend to get bored with routine stuff. Can you do a tower or cadillac class?
Jennifer W
2 people like this.
Great class! Fun and interesting. Thank you!
Erika Quest
Thank you all! It was fun to bring in the chair on PA. This was my first mixed media class. Pele, I would love to do a Tower or Cadillac class! I will keep this in mind when I return in the future. All the best and thanks for the feedback! Love, Erika
1 person likes this.
Erika, this was my first class with you but hopefully not the last. So creative, easy and graceful flow to your work. Thank you!! ps...you were BOTH great!!!
2 people like this.
Forgot to ask. My equipment is Peak....one blue, red and two yellow springs. You mentioned one green spring....what would that be equivalent too??
Erika Quest
Hi Patricia! Thanks so very much for the comments. If you liked this session, then I'd encourage you to try my two other reformer workouts. Similar cueing, but lots of different repertoire and creativity! Yes, Portia is a BRILLIANT mover. Watch for her on PA in the future. On your springs, I would say that the Balanced Body green spring is equivalent to whatever your heaviest spring is on your Peak equipment. The scale from heaviest to lightest on BB equipment goes: Green, Red, Blue, Yellow. I hope that helps! All the best.
1 person likes this.
Thank You for yet another wonderful class Erika :)
I enjoy combining equipment in one workout for the variation and always seem to walk away with more energy... the flow was perfect and I really needed the wrist work.
1 person likes this.
Well that got me sweating!! I too love the arm work on the chair! Not sure if I am stronger after a few days off, but one of the most challenging things for me is keeping my torso 'lifted'. The arm work seemed to really help me with that! Thank you! :)
Erika Quest
Yugonda, you are so very sweet. Thank YOU for watching and to both you and Jai for commenting. I really appreciate the feedback as it helps me for any future PA sessions I may be able to film. I'm glad you like the arm work, Jai. I find that it definitely keeps you 'lifted' while doing the footwork as well. And, you get a bonus stretch for your chest and ulner nerve. Much love, Erika
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