PRO | Fiery Bridge with Small Ball

Grab your ball again, and set up whatever tension you like for bridge. I know it can be a particular thing. I like a red and a blue. The same tension I do my 100 on, I know lots of people prefer two reds. A little bit heavier.

Lie on down. The ball is going back between the inner thighs. Heels of the feet are on. Let's do some articulating bridges without pressing back. So roll up, stay at the top, close the ribs, squeeze the glutes, roll down. The whole time you're gonna squeeze the ball. Roll up.

Close the ribs, squeeze the glutes, roll down. If you're particular on these muscles that are firing and what's working, then it becomes really automatic after a while. Right? In the beginning, you have to really think about it. Popping the ribs and forgetting to activate the glutes is really common in a bridge, and then all we feel are hamstrings. Or maybe we feel it in the low back. So I hope those two things help keeping the ribs tight and keeping the glutes on. Let's hold this one up, presses back all the way back.

One thing I want you to notice is as I push back and my hips drop so do my knees. So I'm gonna pause here and you should see a relationship between my knees, my hips and my heels. And then as the carriage comes in, my knees and my hips they come up together. So there's that position, and then lift. Now that you have that solid, add the squeeze of the ball, really hug in from the upper inner thighs.

Again, that's gonna help us to better connect into our core, into our abdominals. Five, four, three, two, one more time. Big lift, big exhale, and then roll the spine down slowly. We're gonna go into some real similar choreography we did in footwork, squeeze the ball behind one leg, take both feet on. Instead of pushing back, I want you to lift back up into your bridge. The ball will stay if you keep the carriage closed and then lift the leg that has the ball up. Practice tapping it down and up without moving the carriage or your hips.

Four three, two, one. Now we're gonna add a press back as we simultaneously tap. Looks like this. And then I'm gonna lift the ball and bring the carriage in. So I press back, tap, and lift. I'm trying to keep my hips up. Two more. One more.

Chris, and bring it in. Like can go down, hips can go down. And before we do the other side, grab the ball in your hands, curl up nice and high and send the legs to the sky. We're gonna scissor the legs as we bring the ball through one, like a figure eight, scissor, bring the ball through the other leg. So scissor scissor.

Good. Kick up, kick up, kick up ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, to and done. Those are fun. Squeeze the ball between the inner thighs, lift the hips up nice and high. Keep that squeeze, practice your presses back and lifting really high. My feet are about the width of my hips. So avoid having your feet too wide. Otherwise, your legs are gonna be knocking in, your knees will be turning in to squeeze the ball.

So you might wanna narrow your feet and then really work to keep those knees hugging in. Our inner thighs, again, help us to connect through our abdominals, but our inner thighs help to make up our pelvic floor, which is the base of our abdominals. So as we squeeze, there's a sensation of lift and connection and stability. Last three, two, last one, and roll it down. So now we're gonna take that ball behind the opposite leg. I always like to get into the position with both feet, on that bar because that way I know I'm nice and stable.

And then from that stable spot, I just try to hold it, and let's practice those taps. Four three two one. Now add the press back as the leg drops, and everything pulls in and up. Carriage in, leg up. Carriage in, leg up.

Four, three, two, one. Foot goes down, spine goes down. Before we come off the machine, grab that ball, put it between your ankles. This exercise is jackknife. So arms are gonna stay down, push into the carriage, legs are gonna go long.

We're gonna lift the legs overhead. That's typically on an inhale because we want the exhale to power that move. Right? That's the hardest part of the exercise. To squeeze the butt, get the leg straight up. Then I keep the ball or my toes over my nose, roll the spine down and lower. If you wanna change the breath, you can.

Inhale here. This is another a helpful tool. You can take your hands, put them behind your hips to help you find that lifted position. So my voice shouldn't really change, and I should be able to lift my head when I'm here. I don't have a lot of weight on my neck or head. And then I control down. See if you can do two more. Inhale.

Inhale and exhale. Last one. All the way up, legs parallel to the ground, big squeeze, big lift, roll it, roll it, roll it with control, and you can rest the legs over the bar, arms to the sky, a couple of reformer roll ups just to kind of clean the slate all the way up and down. Again, exhale up. And down. One more time, exhale up. And you can stay up. Alright.

Come on off.