Breaststroke

Let's talk about breaststroke. Bread stroke is a challenging back extension exercise performed on the long box on the reformer. Springs are relative. I personally prefer a red spring. Many people enjoy a lighter spring so they prefer a blue. So you can decide what works best for you.

The hand position is also important. We were and I'll show you again when it's time. But we wanna have the just the thumb in the strap, not the whole hand in the strap. So that will come into play a little later, but I'm just making note of it now. And then also to note The action in the exercise, I'm just gonna do it while I'm sitting here on the box so you can see it facing forward is the hands will be in the straps and we were wanting to press into the straps with the elbows.

So that creates an external rotation focus in the shoulders. The action from there is as the arms reach, the body goes into extension. The arms then come all the way around in a circle. They finish next to the sides of the thighs, and then as the elbows are bending, this is the part that gets lost. As the elbows are bending, the thumbs come towards the shoulders, and we wanna really drop the elbows down into the strap.

So again, that external rotation focus I sometimes talk about the action in that final motion as being like a windshield wiper type of a type of an action rather than going under and in, which is a common mistake. So let's look at the exercise. To get in, we stand on the ground. We take the straps in our hand. So here, once again, the position is on the thumbs, as I mentioned, just a little while ago.

You wanna put some weight into your legs because what we're gonna do is we're gonna pull the box and put the hands down. Now the we've got spring now, so the carriage isn't closed. So you just have to manage that spring, and this is the most safe way to do that. Once the hands are on the box and the body can come on. And the body is positioned with the edge of the box just so about at the bra line is a good way to think about it.

So here we have the picture of that external rotation sort of an idea that I spoke about a minute ago. We we this is what we're not looking for. And then the that feeling of pressing the elbows down into the straps is helpful there. The movement. The arms reach as the body comes into extension. The arms come all the way back around aiming to the sides of the thighs with the pinky fingers.

My body is still in extension. And then as I bend, here's that windshield wiper action, the body goes back down. Inhale to reach through the arms. Continue to inhale as the arms circle around body stays in extension. Exhale thumbs to shoulders, elbows to straps, body down. To exit the exercise, you reverse the way you got on.

The hands come down. The body steps off, so I'm using my arms to hold the spring still And then once I'm all the way off safely, then I can gently allow the carriage to close. And I can put the straps down. The breaststroke.