PRO | Power Kneeling with Dowel

Swive off to one side and grab that wooden towel. It's time to use it. So reminder, we're on one blue spring. Thread the dowel through the loop, short or long, short will be heavier, and step back. We're gonna go right into a balance challenge. Inside leg comes up, standing leg is strong. Press the leg back, reach the dowel down.

The goal is not to move the carriage yet. I've just got a little bit of tension, enough to kind of find my stability. This is not that different from the flat back hinge. We just practice. So think of the spine staying as one unit.

As I kick back, you'll see I kind of bend into my standing knee. The reason I'm doing that is it's helping with me with my stability. It's helping me recruit into my glutes on that standing leg. And let's do one more. This is a core exercise. So keep the abdominals tight.

Hold everything steady, back leg touches, and lifts. Now as I kick that leg up, I'm really focusing on glutes, not my back. I'm pushing into the dowel or into the pull, And I'm kinda pushing more into the outer edges of my hand, like the pinky finger side because that helps me widen through my chest. Four, three, two, and one. We're gonna take this balance up a notch. So that leg is gonna step back as I come into a curtsy and back up to a balance. Into a curtsy, and up.

So a little trick here, if you have just a bit of tension in that rope, you'll feel more stable. If the rope is loose like this, you'll feel more wobbly. So you use it just to aid in that little extra support that you need. Three, curtsy lunge, two, and one. Nice. Both feet down. Now I want you to step back so that the carriage is pulled out. The more it's pulled back, the heavier this is gonna feel, take an underhand grip, parallel stance a little bit wider than the hips, two moves, squat, and bicep curl, and lift, keeping that back nice and flat.

The higher you lift your elbows, the heavier the weight will feel. So super easy to modify by dropping the elbows. Stepping backwards to make the weight feel heavier, and stepping forward to make the weight feel lighter. You got lots of options, lean and sit. Four we're gonna see this pop up again in a second, three.

So we're learning it on the floor first. Two, and hold one. Just the dial going up. Five, four, three, two, one and rise to come up. Alright. Keep that dowel in your hands. We're gonna take our inside knee down onto the carriage bed.

Outside leg comes up onto the headrest. I want you to find a lunge position that you feel stable in. Reach with an overhand grip, reach the arms overhead and hold. Now it's really common to wanna arch and lean back. So stack the shoulders right over the hips.

Let's do it again, exhale lift and inhale lower. One of the things I love about using the dowel is I feel really strong, like power when you use this prop. Four more. Try widening your hands if you're getting any neck tension. Three, two, and then one more like this. One.

Okay. This is a great place to stay. You don't have to add the elevated lunge. If you're going to curl your back foot underneath you like this, so you can rise up onto the machine. The trick is to keep tension, tension is your friend, it aids in stability. So we remember the bicep curl we practice from the floor.

Now we're adding a bicep curl with the lunge come all the way up. So this is the place where I feel most stable. So you wanna come up, have tension, keep those elbows high. And then I come about halfway down, and right back up to where I was. Pressing into my front heel, shoulders over hips. Five, four.

This is like a ninety ninety lunge, so I'm staying vertical. Three. Two, and then hold that halfway down, find the bicep position, pulses up. Five, four, three, two, one, and take it down. That's awesome. Okay.

Keep the dowel and keep the loop. Both knees down and twist your body to the same side that your loop and your dowel is on. Let's be in a wide kneeling position helps with stability. I like my outside hand under and my inside hand over, but you can switch it up. Start in a low squat on an exhale, lift the hips and rotate towards the foot bar. Now, I want you to notice how far away the pole is from my body.

So my arms are almost straight. This is going to increase the challenge, and I want you to do at home too. That pole should be straight up and down vertical. Five, four, three, Two, and one more time like this. One.

Well done. Keep everything as it is. You might have to hold them both so you don't lose your loop. And then turn your whole body to face towards your foot bar. Let's come into that same wide knee position with the hips low. From here, I'm gonna reach my hands to the outside of the loop. Thumbs are under.

Dow in line with my chest, two moves, hips, lift, forward push. Now it feels like the loop is trying to pull me off to the side, and it is. So right now I'm working to not rotate. I'm working on staying straight hips and shoulders square getting this forward push action. Not unlike a push up.

Three Two, and then one more like this. Let's stay up. One. I'm gonna bend the elbows, stay lifted. Rotate towards attention.

I'm stopping the loop from sliding off. So if you need to readjust, readjust now, rotate back through center, push, bend, and twist. So if you're feeling your neck, that is an indicator to pull the shoulders down, activate through your back, this type of work should feel like a synergy with the back and the front working together, not just the front. Three Two, we're gonna do one more upper body move here. And one.

Awesome. Take a seat. I like to slide the loop a little closer to the middle. And then I'm gonna reach it overhead holding on to both to the outside of the loop so it's not gonna slide both hands on. Lean forward, practice the move in a low position you're kind of in that flat back hinge again, spine as long. And then if you're looking to add on, you have two options to do it. One is a seated squat, lift the hips every time.

You extend at the elbows. The other is to stay up in the lift. Down and up. Staying up, it will increase the challenge in the upper body work. Going down and up will increase the challenge and coordination and the quadriceps, right?

So I want you to decide what is gonna be better for you today. What are you looking for? Four, three, two, and one. Take it all the way down. That was great. Okay. So you don't lose this.

Just keep the loop on. Put it in front of your shoulder blocks, and it'll probably stay. No guarantees. We're gonna kneel sideways on the machine knees together. I'm kinda halfway at that carriage mark.

Arms come up to a tee. Hand goes on to the foot bar, and I'm leaning. I want you to check out what's happening. So my outside leg is not even on the mat anymore. So when I'm in that lean, it's not even on the mat. I'm gonna push out as far as I can stabilize and only come about halfway in.

So I'm in a side plank position, coming about halfway in. And then once you're feeling good with this, you're gonna add a leg extension. So as I press out, that leg extends, it's like a little baby star move, and extends. I'm trying to keep my spine in a long line, head, spine, hips, then I'm gonna extend and hold, rotate in the torso, come back to where I was, and bring it in. This is one of those ones where the small movements are powerful and bring it in two more.

Press twist and bring it in. Last one. Side plank, rotate, and bring it all the way in. That was nice. Both hands go on to the bar, stand up. You're still kind of in the middle ish, and I'm gonna cross my ankles like this. Okay. From here, shoulders over wrists, push all the way out.

So you're gonna side plank. If you wanna fiddle with your feet, make some adjustments now is the time to do it. Sholders over wrists. Tuck the chin, lift the hips, bringing the carriage in, and pressing out. Xhale big scoop to lift, and inhale lengthen out.

So I'm on that blue spring, not getting a ton of assistance from it. Press out. Bring it in. This time press out and hold just the knees, in, out. Like a knee stretch, in, out.

Four, three, two, hold one, pivot, traditional plank position. From here, we're going into mountain climbers, carriage doesn't move, in, in, in, in. When it comes to mountain climbers, you've got some options as far as speed. Do you wanna go slow, medium, or fast? I would consider this medium. Three, two, and I want you to keep one leg in.

That foot can go down on the floor. Okay. So we're gonna go into a little lunge combo. This one's fun. We're gonna work going to work the inside and the outside of the frame. So into the low lunge, think of that as your home base, lift up to your pike, bring that leg to the outside, into the low lunge.

So those are your two positions. Pike, low lunge, pike, low lunge, hips up, come to the inside, hips up, come to the outside. Four, three, two, and one, bring it all the way in. And bring it down. That's fun. Okay.

Let's do the same thing on the other side, so come on off. You're gonna use that dowel, so switch. Let's do our best to recreate the same thing on this side. So a little bit of tension, We're focused on stability, and we're training our standing leg. So a little bit of tension. Inside leg comes up.

And this is the one where I'm kicking back, flat back hinge, and rise. So by pushing into the outer edges of my hands, like the side where my pinky fingers are, it's promoting more of an opening through the chest and more engagement through my back muscles, and that's really helping me stabilize in this position here. Lift and press. Two more like this all the way up. Coming into that soft knee.

Last time, hold the low. So we're tapping and lifting the leg, really working disassociation so the whole upper body and the spine and the core, super stable, the axis of movements at the hip using the glutes to lift. Five, four, three, two, One, we're gonna take this balance up a notch. So there's our upright position. Come back into that curtsy and up curtsy and lift. So one of the reasons we're practicing balance on the floor is because it's our intention to be standing up on miscarriage.

So it would be good to work out any of the kinks right now. If you're feeling wobbly, find that awareness. It's almost like a sequence of muscle activation, right, you're teaching your brain, stabilize while in that balance position. Last two, and one, wide stance, step back so the carriage is pulled out. So we're gonna call this an active spring, underhand grip, two moves, bicep curl, low squat.

Lean back. So it should feel like the weight is helping you to stay vertical, lean back and lift. Keeping the elbows nice and high will increase the tension. Dropping the elbows lower will decrease. Four more. You might feel some cardiovascular output.

It's by changing levels, by dropping your body really low and rising back up. We get the heart working, burning some calories. Stay low. Just the arms. Five, four, three, two, one, and up you go. Okay. So keep your setup. Inside knee, down, outside foot forward.

We're calling this proposal position, and we're gonna test and see how we feel on this side. You never know until you try. Reach and lower. Overhead, and bring it down. Reach and lower. Try not to arch or lean back.

Reach Two more times. Rip cage feels closed. Last time like this, and I think we're ready to go. If you're gonna rise up, you might have to scooch your back knee forward just a little bit. So there's a place for your back foot, underhand grip when we do a bicep curl, and the most secure spot is the up, two straight legs, and tension.

So don't take your time to get here. Pop up, find it. And then the most wobbly spot is here where you're halfway down no tension. So up, and lower. Have like a visual, where do you wanna bring that pull?

Is it to your nose? Is it a little bit higher? Forehead, eyebrows. Try to continue to aim for that same spot. Three.

Two, and we're gonna go halfway down. One, just the curl position, five lifts, four, three, two, one and rest. Arms are working. So you wanna keep this set up. When I transition, you see me hold both together, so I don't lose the loop. Turn your whole body to the side.

So this is the one we're in that wide position so we feel more stable. I like my outside hand low, my inside hand high. Big rotate, coming back through center. Big twist back through center. Keeping the arms as far away from you as you can get them and keeping that pole vertical straight up and down.

Rotate. I think this is a great teaching tool. If you do this move without the pole, and then you do it a few times with the pole, the next time you go to do it without the pole, you'll get it. Right? Because you know what you're looking at, you know how to keep your head and sternum in line with something, and the pole gives you that visual of how to stay vertical in your spine. Last time, and bring it in. Without losing the setup, turn your body to face front, and come into your wide kneeling position.

You want the pole to be in front of you and check it out. My hand is to the outside. This is so this loop can slide off. Can't go anywhere. I'm stopping it. Alrighty. Practicing our pushes forward, all the way forward, not letting it pull me and coming back in, push, and press.

And then adding that seated squat, hips come up when you press. I'm watching that poll, and I'm trying to keep it horizontal. I'm watching to see if I dip it. Even though I'm primarily working through one side, I'm still doing my best to feel my shoulders, feel my chest, feel my obliques on both sides. Three, get ready to stay up with me. Two, and one, bend the elbows. Pull in line with the chest. We rotate towards attention, rotate towards the bar and push.

I like my elbows wide. Push, inhale here, exhale here. That's my breath pattern. Four, three. These are your push up muscles working.

Two. So if you don't like doing push ups, this is your jam. One. You get all the benefit without having to do a pushup. Slide that loop a little closer to center. It comes back behind the head and I'm locking it in by taking my hands to either side.

This is a flat back hinge, so lean forward. Practice what it feels like with the hips down. I want you to notice that upper arm bone, so I'm not dropping it. And I actually get a lot of help here because if I hit myself in the head with the rope, I know I probably dropped my elbows a little bit too low. Adding that seated squat.

There's an option. Or staying up. For me, the choice is do I wanna work power in my upper body or do I wanna challenge coordination and whole body integration? And I switch it up day to day. Ribs are closed. Neck is long. Two more.

And we're gonna put that dowel back. One more and take a seat. Alrighty. Let's place it in front of the shoulder blocks. It's likely not gonna go anywhere. Nailing center ish, both knees down.

And then I've got one hand onto that foot bar slightly forward of the shoulder. It's a light tension. I lean and what happens is I right away transfer, so I'm now supporting myself just on one of my legs. Push and bring it in. So I'm pushing out as far as I feel like I can stay strong, stable, and in control, and then I bring it in, not all the way, practicing the push.

And then when I feel good about that, I add the reach and bring it in. And reach. Big stretch reaching fingertips away from toes. And on the next one, let's have that rotation. So here I am in that baby star position.

Hips don't move. It's my chest, that's rotating, and bring it in. Lots of shoulder stability required here, rotate, lift, and bring it in. Press And in, let's do two more. Find that side plank, rotating from that thoracic spine, and then this one will be our last one.

Rotate and bring it home. Both hands go on to the bar nice and wide rise up onto the feet standing right around the middle is what works for me, and then I'm crossing this outside leg back. So that's the leg position that I like. But again, you're gonna settle in. You might change a few things. Okay. So I'm in my plank, shoulders are staying over the wrists, practicing that pike, squeezing my inner thighs to press out. Drop the head, lift the hips.

Inhale lengthen, exhale bring it home. So I'm not pulling with my arms. Arms are fixed. I'm stabilizing with my arms. But it's the changing of the spine and the engaging of the abdominals that's closing that carriage. On the next one, hold, and tucking the knees, in and out.

As you press out to straight legs, think of it as an exclamation point, squeeze the inner thighs, four, three, two, and one. Bring it in and pivot. So now this leg, my outside leg comes down onto the ground, and I'm in that lunge position. So lunge as home base, come back to it each time, pike, swing the leg open, land to the outside. Pike, swing the leg in, land to the inside.

And once you feel good about that choreography, you get to pick the tempo and rhythm. Hips high. Drop it down. Drop it down. Four, I'm staying high onto my toes on that back foot.

Three, two. One. And done.