PRO | Go-To Standing Warm Up

Hi. I'm Zola, and today we'll be doing a standing rollback bar series that you can add to the any part of your tower or Cadillac workout. As you can see, I am on a balanced body tower. I'm using the short yellow springs here with a rollback bar attached. The springs are at about the height of the shoulders. If you have the option to go a little bit higher than the shoulders, I would do that.

But as you can see, mine stops at about shoulder height. My rollback bar has the hardware a little bit inward on the bar, so I'll be placing my hands on the outsides of the hardware. But the arm should be about shoulder height. Starting with my favorite exercise chest expansion, make sure you're in a place where you can pull the bar down toward your thighs without fighting the springs, but with it still being a challenge. So standing in your pilates v heels together toes apart, The arms are reaching long.

I'm wrapping my hands around this bar with thumbs wrapped on the other side. I inhale to prepare, and I exhale to press the bar down to my thighs. Inhale reach the bar, but don't let the springs close and exhale again. Press the bar down to the thighs. Working from the upper back, as the bar pulls down to the thighs, you want the chest to open, hence the name chest expansion.

So inhale reach forward and exhale press. As I continue to press the bar down to my thighs, I'm pressing my heels actively into each other and down into the mat, equal weight between the balls of the feet and the heels. Let's do three more here, inhale reach forward, and exhale grow taller to press the bar down. Two more inhale reach, Maybe the arms reach even longer to press the bar down to the thighs. One more time, inhale reach, and exhale press.

Adding a little bit more here. Inhale reach the arms forward. This time, press the bar down as you lift the heels, keeping them pressing together. Inhale heels down arms forward. Exhale, use the press of the heels to help you use your seat to lift.

Inhale reach, and exhale press. Three more not forgetting to move the arms with your upper back widening those collar bones as your heels lift. And down. Press up. One more time. Heels press down with control. Push the heels together to lift up.

Hold here. A little balance challenge. Now let's do the 100. Inhale, two, three, four, five, and exhale two. Three. Four, keep going. Inhale. And exhale. And exhale. Sail. Lots of things to think about here.

I feel lots of back body, lots of upper back, lots of seat. I also feel my hamstrings. I'm really pushing my heels together. I'm wrapping my outer thighs around, keeping my arms reaching long. Knuckles pointing down toward the floor. So I'm not pushing into the back of the wrists.

Keep going, inhale, and exhale. Inhale. And exhale. Can you keep your front ribs hugging into the back ribs? Crown of the head lengthening up to the ceiling. Arms reaching long.

The key is length here. Inhale. And exhale. One more breath. Inhale. And exhale. Lower the heels.

Reach the arms forward. You can let the springs close for a second to give it a little shake up. Going to full chest expansion, reversing the breath to challenge the breath. Let's inhale to pull the bar down to the thighs. Hold your breath.

Look to the right. Get a little stretch of the neck. Look to the left. Look center and then exhale reach the arms forward. Don't let the springs close. Again, inhale, press the bar down.

Hold your breath. Look left. Look right. Center, and exhale reach. Again, inhale, press hold your breath.

As you look right, left shoulder pulls back a little. As you look left, right shoulder pulls back a little. Center. Exhale. Reach one more time. Inhale. Long arms press wide in the collar bones.

Look left. Look right. Look center. Exhale lift. Good now. From here, bend your elbows into your ribs for a tricep press. Keep your long spine.

Press the arms down to straight, and then bend. I'm gonna take a little step back here so I can get a little bit more tension. Press back I'm also taking my thumbs to the other side of the bar for a little bit better of a connection. So keep the elbows in place as you stretch the arms, lots of tricep here. Make sure you press the bar down, hold the arm straight for a beat before you bend the elbows again. So you know you're not using any momentum here. Let's do five more press for five.

And bend and press for four. Resist to bend. Don't let those springs close. Three more. Press grow taller as the arms lengthen. And press for two.

One more time, press it down lengthen, bend with control. Going into standing footwork. So I'm flipping my grip. My arms are still the width of my shoulders. Bring the elbows up to a 90 degree bend.

Make sure your springs are long, but also make sure you're not hanging back into the springs. I'm trying to keep my shoulders over my hips, over my heels, that nice straight line in the body. So keeping the shoulders down and back, this is another place where you have to use the arms. I'm also still in my pilates feet. Think footwork toes on the reformer. So shoulders roll down and back, I bend my knees, keeping my heels down, thinking tailbone to heels, and then I come all the way back up pushing into the heels. Again, bend your knees.

Keeping the spine long and the chest open come all the way up to standing squeeze at the top. Again, bend coming down. And stretch. I'm trying to not hang into these springs. I'm still using my own body, but my arms are working to keep my elbows lifted. And the springs are opening and supporting me as I go down. Keep going down.

And push into the heels to lift. Let's do two more here. Keep the shoulders pulling down. You're gonna wanna make the upper traps do the work for you keep them released. Good. Let's do one more.

Take it down and bring it up. As you change your feet, you can let the springs close, give your shoulders a shake. I'm going together in parallel now. Keeping my feet flat on the mat, shoulders roll down and back. My arms are in a place where when I'm standing straight up and down and I have a 90 degree bend, I feel my stomach working to keep this posture.

Continue to bend, inner thighs hugging this time, and stretch all the way up. Bend tailbone to heels, and come up. Make sure you are breathing. I feel lots of upper back here. Four more in this position.

Take it down. And push it up. Three more. Inter thigh squeezing. Down for two. And one more down. And up, let the springs close.

Shake it out. One more position. On the toes with legs together in parallel. So a little bit more balance. Find your 90 degree bend. You may have to step back a little bit, shoulders roll down and back.

And again, tailbone to heels, and then stand all the way up. Down. And up. Like you're sliding down a wall, try to not lean back as you go down. Down. Four more. Bend.

And stretch my arms are starting to shake three. Last two. Lost my balance there. Stay lifted one more time. Come all the way up, heels down.

Shake it out again. One more thing, tendon stretch. So go back to your narrow Pilates v. Find your 90 degree bend. Find where the springs are open just a little bit.

Shoulders rolled out and back. Just lift the heels up and press them down. I'm using the energy of my heels pushing into each other to help them lift off of the mat. Lift up. And, four more here.

Squeeze to lift. Keep rolling those shoulders down and back resetting the body. Two more. Two. And last one. Lower down and shake it out.

Flip your grip for some roll down. This feels really good after that footwork series. It's gonna get a little closer to that bar again. Think of a candy cane. I'm bending my upper back as I curl my chin to my chest, scooping the belly in and up.

The arms stay straight and I'm punching my knuckles straight down to the floor. Try to keep the arms underneath the shoulders and then roll right back up. Curling the tailbone under, articulate the spine, and stand up tall. Again, inhale, exhale round it down. Keep the wrap of the outer thighs and try to lengthen the tailbone down to the heels as you roll down. Roll yourself up.

And again, round it down. Press. Try to not push with the back of the wrist. I see this a lot with the knuckles pointing forward. We want those knuckles to press down toward the floor. Keeping the upper back around it.

Stand up tall. And again, round yourself down. We're thinking about the press down on the one to chair or spine stretch forward here. Caller bones are wide. Chin is not tucked into the chest. There's a little bit of space.

Stay down here. Press the bar toward your shins. Reach the arms forward. Again, press and reach. Can you let the movement of the bar pulling back to your shins happen from your powerhouse?

Three more. And press the bar to try to not lean back. One more time. Take the bar underneath the shoulders and then roll yourself all the way back up, stack your spine. Standing up nice and tall.

And there you have it. That is your short rollback bar standing series. I'll see you next time.