Teaser

Let's talk about the teaser. The teaser is performed on the reformer on a box. It's a challenging spinal articulation exercise that also requires some coordination with the arms, so some arm strength, and some spinal flexibility to be able to articulate through the lower spine specifically. Spring tension can be very relative to the individual Some people like a little bit of a heavier spring. Like, to me, a heavy spring would be a red for this exercise, and some people prefer a blue. You can I think those are the two choices that make the most sense? If the spring is too heavy, it just blocks the movement essentially.

So you wanna have a light enough spring that you can use the spring, but also not too heavy of a spring that it's impossible to lift the arms through space. I think that's everything I need to say while I'm here. So the way I have been taught to set up is to sit on the box and take the straps. Holding on to the sides of the box, we then position the body to where the shoulder blades are right at the edge of the box. Now, important to have a good setup here first because when we set up the exercise, we're gonna ask for the spine to be in thoracic extension.

Now, this can be a little challenging for the next, so we want people to as soon as they're set up, be ready to get going. The legs then come into a tabletop position and we set up that thoracic extension. Important to keep the head between the arms and not let the head drop back. The legs then straighten. The back is flat.

The arms circle down and start to come forward. As the arms are reaching forward, The body is articulating up, and we come up into that balancing position trying to hold the arms parallel to the shoulders. On the way down, it's important to be able to articulate into that flat back. I think about really pushing forward into the straps to use that opposition for my abdominal muscles, and then we continue back. And into extension, reaching around.

I've set my legs to the point that I know that I can manage where they are, meaning not lift them or drop them. Some people have the capacity to have their legs higher in space. I just know this exercise in my body, so I have positioned them where I know I can keep them still. Circle, push the straps, articulate up, try to find the arms parallel to the ground, exhale roll down, reaching forward into the straps And then also here, important to manage where you're letting the spring actually closes, and we just have to keep moving through the shapes. So we wanna have the control to know where the springs stop but keep the movement going.

To come back, to exit, we can bend the knees in, let the straps go. And simply just rock back off the box teaser. Good luck.