PRO | Studio Essential Lunge Flow

Hi. I'm Courtney, and I'm so glad to be back on Plates anytime. Today, I have a class that is going to be challenging and it's athletic in nature, but I'm also gonna take just a little extra time to break down some of these movements. You may have seen these movements in classes with me before this, and we're gonna focus today on the setup, where you're supposed to feel it, and how you can modify it. So just a little bit more information today. On some of these fun, challenging, and athletic moves that you've come to love from my classes. Welcome back. We are starting with one red spring on, and I've got that foot bar down.

Today's class, we're also gonna be doing what I'm gonna call around the world. So we're gonna be moving around the machine a lot. Starting beside your machine facing front with some lunges. So inside foot goes against the shoulder block. So real quick, where your standing leg is is going to impact how heavy this resistance feels. If you want it to feel lighter, you step forward, and if you want it to feel heavier, you step backwards, hands on hips to start, lean forward and fully straighten that back leg, and then rise to come all the way up. I want you to notice the front knees bending forward.

And when I do this move, I like to be really close to the frame of the machines. I can actually feel my calf on my front leg against the machine. I've been known to use a prop here too. So you could use a ball or just a cushion, kind of fold it up, and you can place it between your calf and the frame, to give you that tactile reminder of where that knee is meant to track. The back leg is going to fully straighten, and this is a common correction that I give to my clients.

When they get here, I want them to pull up through the front of that back leg pulling the kneecap up, pushing through the heel, and finding that straight leg. Let's add some upper body. So as I go down into my lunge, I reach forward, and then rise up. And there you can't do it wrong. There's really no specific upper body movement, you can circle the arms, you can cactus the arms, whatever feels good for you today. But I do want you to know that by adding the upper body, you're increasing the challenge, you're adding more coordination, more body parts into the mix, more things to think about.

Big push out and rise to come up. The next time you're low, stay low. Now if I've got the foot bar up, I'll typically hold on to something, but I really have to use my strength, my core, my endurance, to hold this position as I bend the back knee in and out. When you do scooters, you have a few options. This is my full range scooter, so I'm bringing the carriage almost all the way in and kicking it back.

If that works for you, keep going. You could also do an end range scooter. Let me show you what that looks like. So I go to my long little bend, kick it. Kick it. And this is gonna work that back leg a little bit in a different way.

Pushing back, I'm focusing on pulling up through the kneecap. Three, strengthening the quadriceps, two, and one. Come all the way up. Keep your standing leg on the ground, pivot so you're facing side. Take that carriage foot, door side flexion, flexion against the shoulder block.

So I can see here that I've naturally externally rotated This is so I can kind of set up and square my hips. Find the setting that works for you. Hands on hips, bend that floor leg as you kick that carriage out. Now, what's different here is I'm intentionally leaning my my chest forward and sending my hips back, and then rising to come up. So I am not trying to stay vertical in this position. I'm intentionally leaning forward in this flat back hinge.

It's gonna give me more range of motion and sit deeper in my squad. We wanna have that same sensation of the knees, traveling over the mid foot, and that same reminder to straighten that carriage leg all the way as you press out. Adding the upper body, if you feel like it's the right choice for you. I'm gonna do a forward reach, and bring it down. Langthen through the fingertips, and bring it all the way down.

As I go low, I'm kinda centered in my weight. I'm not leaning too much to the carriage. I'm not leaning too much too much towards my stabilizing leg. I'm just trying to drop straight down. See if you can feel that in your body. Two more. Big kick and rise.

Get ready to hold the next one. Now from here, the only thing that's gonna move is that carriage leg, and you have those same options. So do you like a big movement? This is gonna present a challenge with stability. Flexing the hip, bringing the carriage almost all the way in kicking it out. This is a full range of motion, or that end range is a small bend, and focuses on finding that straight line, pulling up through the knee, four three, two, and one rise all the way up. But wait, there's more.

We're gonna be facing front again for our curtsy lunges. So it's now the opposite foot that's stepping back. So this outside foot is going to go against the shoulder blocks. And again, you'll see me intuitively kind of shift my body so I feel squared off and balanced. These are things you don't want to over queue and you don't want to overthink. In fact, you might have to move a few times to find the best position.

So settle in is what I call it. Do a couple. Step a little bit forward or a little bit back. And find that positioning where you feel solid. The same foundations apply.

So bending deeply into my front leg fully straightening. And I want you to be aware of that in your own body. Is that back leg straight? Here's a question you ask yourself. Can you straighten it more? If you soften the knee a little bit, and you straighten it, did you get a lot of movement there? Should be all the way straight. Let's add those arms when you're ready.

It's an overhead, and bring it in. So I was saying earlier that anything with the arms goes, this is a progression. It's more to think about but it's also more activation through the core and through the shoulders. If this is messing you up and you feel like you're not able to focus on what's happening back here, keep the hands on your hips until you're ready to add that next that next step. I love this one because again, I can feel the frame against my calf. It really helps with alignment on that front leg.

We're gonna stay low, and we have those same two options. This is a full range. See how it's coming all the way in. This bigger range of motion is challenging my stability. It's making me feel more wobbly.

And then you have your end range and you can pick which one you love or do them both. Baby bend, focus on straightening, lengthening, pushing energy through the heel, energy through the crown of the head. We're gonna do something special coming up here. So don't rise. I want you to do two more. And hold.

Hands go down, one to the platform, one to the floor. This front leg using your core is gonna come up and cross behind. From here we pike, lift the hips up, drop the head, bringing the carriages close to home as you can, and lengthen out to your plank. Exhale to lift, and inhale to lower. As my hips come up, my shoulders stay over my wrists.

This is a red spring, so I'm getting a lot of assistance on the lift. Three. Two, what a way to wake up? This is just the warm up folks. One more. One, see if you can get that foot back down where it was when you started.

And rise up with control. Those awesome. Okay. So here's the around the world part. We're now coming to the front of the machine facing back. Let's take the same leg that was just kicking. So for me, that's my left foot. Toast go on to the carriage, and I'm standing really close to that foot bar.

I can even be touching it. Again, as a tactile cue to help me with alignment. Keeping your heel lifted high, hands on hips, push the carriage all the way out. And bring it in. Now, right away, you're gonna feel two things. You'll either wanna lean forward. It'd look like this, or the carriage spring will make you wanna lean back.

It'll look like that. So your goal is to stay as vertical as you can. And one trick to that is anticipating the sensation of getting pushed. So I know the spring is gonna push me backwards. So I fire up that front body to stay as straight as I can.

And you have to do it a couple times to have that anticipation, right, to know what to expect. So that's why we have that settle in process. Add the arms reach up. Bring it in. Reach up. Bring it in.

I'm really strong on this standing leg. Reach it in. Two more. Reach up. And on the next one I want you to hold. We're gonna flex our foot, so there's your door side flexion. But as you do that, rotate towards the leg, I'm doing my best to keep my hips pretty square, and I'm actually trying to pull this hip back a bit, and then plantar flex.

Okay. So I'm gonna push first. There's my stability. Flex and open. Try not to lean back or forward and bring it in. And you're gonna do a few, and the more you do, the more you settle in, and bring it in.

So pushing down into my stabilizing heel, flax open, pull this is all core work. One more time. Push, flex, and pull. Pivot the body 90 degrees. So that foot still stays on. You're nice and close to the bar, use it if you'd like, and then flex your foot against that carriage edge. Use what's around you to help build proprioception and spatial awareness, especially if you don't have a trainer there with you.

This is a great way to use your machine to help you with form. Two things happen. Standing leg is gonna bend, hips drop low. This is very similar to what we did. Facing side, bring it all the way in. Kick it and rise. So my awareness is dropping my hips back, leaning the chest forward, loading up the glute on the stabilizing leg, and rise, straightening the carriage leg all the way as I push This will come in handy later when we're doing quicker dynamic movements, incorporating this lunge.

So we're building the awareness and the muscle memory pattern to push, find that straight leg. Let's add those arms. Reach, and bring it in. Play with different arm variations, and bring it in. Push.

This is all core work. So we wanna get out of that narrative where we have to lay down, put our hands in the straps, and use two pine abdominals to strengthen the abdominals. Right? This is an awesome way to strengthen the core functionally three dimensionally and dynamically. The next time you're low, let's stay low, and let's add that skater press. Open your arms to the t, adding in that rotation.

So every time you kick, rotate away from the leg, and away from the leg. This is not that different than our skater standing on the platform. But from the floor, we might be able to have a little more confidence Get a little bit deeper, increase the weight, find your edge and push yourself a little bit more. Three, two, And then last hand like this, push through the heel. Bring it and bring it up. Okay.

There's more. It's the exercise that never ends. Rotate. So now you're facing front. Make any adjustments you need to, the narrower your stance. The more your balance is gonna be challenged. Keep those hands on the hips, press out and rise up. Again, I'm using the machine.

My calf is touching that bar. I can feel it on my hamstring right now. Rise to come up. I've got my hands on my hips. I can feel if I'm staying square or not and rise to come up.

Straightening the back leg all the way is kind of the theme here. We got three. I love to work somewhere around eight to 10 repetitions. For me, I'm waiting for this a moment. It's like, I got it.

I feel it. That's it. And then that is my green light to add on something more here at the arms. Reach and rise. Reach and rise. Some arm options, cactus, looks like that.

Chest expansion, pull the arms back open. Looks like that. One more time, and stay low. Not so different from what we did on the side, a little bit more tricky. Hands go down again, and that leg has to come around.

There it is. Onto the bar. Hips come up, height goes down. There is that pike, lengthen it out. Exhale up, and inhale down shoulders over wrists. Big scoop.

And take it down. Three. Two. And one more time, pike the hips up. Let's see if we can get that leg all the way back. All the way back. It's almost there and then rise.

To come up. Alrighty. Let's do that same thing again on the other side. So we started with the most basic of our floor lunges. One foot on the ground, one foot back against that shoulder block, hands on the hips, kicking it, and rising. And the real work here was teaching our body to find that length through the back leg.

Not only am I strengthening my posterior chain, when I find that straight line, But I'm opening up through the front of the hip on that same leg, adding the arms, reaching them forward, and back. Notice how I lean forward. So you could do a lunge in one of two ways. Lleaning forward will use your body weight to load the glute on your standing leg, like this. Staying vertical, loads more quadricep.

And it requires more hip flexibility like this. I love to target those glutes whenever I can, so you'll typically see me lean forward, but one isn't right, and one isn't wrong. They're just different. Hold it, back leg. Do you remember our options? So full range, about stability, control. Mid range, is about finding the straight line, pumping it back, pushing through the heel, pulling up through the knee.

Four three two, one, and rise. Pivot, and settle in. So I'm a bit turned out in my standing leg, door safe flexion, and that carriage leg, foot right against that shoulder block, bend into the standing leg, kick it out. There's the adductor stretch rise to come in. Push. If something doesn't feel right, it isn't. So change it. Push.

There's nothing wrong with pausing, resetting, and coming back into it. Adding the arms, leaning forward. Leaning forward allows me to get more range. I can drop lower, send my hips back. Pushing all the way up.

This is a whole body move, lower body, upper body, core balance, heart rate getting up. Let's hold the next one low, and you got big or full range of motion, chest is forward hips are back. You also have the option for your end. It's kind of the same as what I said before. One isn't right, and one isn't wrong.

I'd like you to pick what do you wanna work on today? Focus on straightening, focus on pulling up through the front of the leg, really working those vast ease, or challenging stability and balance. One more time, and rise. Here's our courtesy. So foot goes to the floor.

It's the outside foot now that's coming against that shoulder block. And as I bend into that standing leg, carriage goes back. I can feel the frame against my leg. It gives me a little bit of security, a little security blanket, but a reminder of where my body is in space. That's one of the beautiful things about working with this this machine is you get those reminders of where you are.

There's no mirrors in here. A lot of the studios we practice in don't have mirrors. If they do, you have one angle, right? So we want to build this awareness. So then we can take the Pilates principles that we learn in our class and apply them to everyday life. Kick it back and rise, adding the arms, big reach, and sweep. Find your breath pattern.

That's something we haven't talked too much about. Generally speaking, we'll exhale when something feels challenging. So when you exert or hit the gas pedal, that's a good time to exhale. Full range, or mid, or excuse me, end. Kick it out.

Kick it out. Straight leg. Push it out. Four three two. Let's try that pike.

So the hands go down, but they're staggered. This is gonna create a stability challenge in the upper body. One to the platform, one to the floor. The floor leg comes up crosses behind. X, heel hips come up, head goes down. Inhale.

Hips go up, head goes down. Inhale lengthen shoulders right over wrists. It really helps if you drop the head first, look towards the belly button, or look towards the toes. Three. Two. One more time. One same foot that was down comes down, see if you can rise up. Nice.

Alright. Let's come to the front of our machine. So I now have that opposite foot forward For me, it's the right, toes go right onto that front edge. Hands on hips so I can feel where I am in space. It's a whole different leg. So I want you to consider it as a whole new exercise.

Chances are you're leaning a little bit forward. Right? Cause you now know it's gonna kick you back. So you're like, oh, I don't wanna go back. I don't wanna go back. So you end up leaning a bit too far forward.

So let's just visualize shoulders over hips. And hips over heel. Good. Pull all the way up through the front of that leg. Two more like this.

One more time. Are you ready to add on? So door side flex carriage leg, rotate towards the leg, and open the arms. Pull that hip back, get a nice little stretch, come back through center, and bring it in. So we're pushing, dropping, lifting, bringing it in. This choreography is not that dissimilar, from stomach massage, kind of. There's variations of stomach massage where kinda like this.

Totally different muscle activation. But choreography is not that different. Okay. One more time. Push drop. Pull and bring it in. So the legs kinda stay. The whole body pivots.

Right? These transitions will help create more efficiency in your classes as well. If you're a teacher in group Pilates, reformer classes. So just by pivoting, I can get there faster. So I'm gonna lean into it, extend the leg all the way, drop straight down, and rise to come up. Push and rise. Energy through our heels, both on the ground and on the carriage, adding the upper body when the time feels right, rise.

This is also a really fun place to stay and hang out. So if you like adding on, you could hold, do a little swim, and rise. Great way to activate the glutes. Glutes are part of our core. We haven't done any crunches today.

But we've been working our abdominals this entire time. I mean, that's so cool. Let's hold the next one all the way out. And then here are your options again, big, in, out, stability in that opposite hip, abdominals engage, core tight, back on, or end range, kicking, kicking. So I'm keeping that tension in the spring.

Four three two, and one come all the way in. Okay. Nice. So again, we keep the feet. We rotate the body. Makes it really easy when you're in a room with a lot of people, we're now all on the same side. Use the machine as your guide.

Same options. Where do you want the torso? Your forward lean will weight the glute on the front leg. It'll create more length than the lumbar spine. So if you feel tight in your back, you might prefer this, but you won't stretch the hip quite as much. If you're staying in a vertical orientation as you go down, more quads in that front leg, more extension, the lumbar spine, and more stretch, and extension opening in that front hip.

You got options, two more like this. Back leg all the way. Or end range. Kick it. Kick it. You know you're going down. Might as well visualize yourself going there. Three, two, hold.

The hands go down. So this is gonna take some core. You gotta swing that leg around. This is a little better the second time. Sholders over wrists hips up.

Head down. So the carriage is assisting this pike. This would be more challenging if I was on a lighter spring. Three, two, and one. See if you can bring that leg all the way back.

And rise. I love those challenges. Can I do it? I don't know. It's different day to day.