PRO | Spine & Glute Focused Flow

Hi. I'm Tracy Mallett. Welcome to AppPro Tower today. And if you can see, we've got it all setup, which is very important if you are teaching in a group format for tower that you have your setup, precise, and we keep as many movements as we can within that setup. Okay? Obviously, if we're teaching private, we have much more leeway to move around. But in a group, we have to really couple those exercises with the setup for successful flow.

So I've got my box set up right at the end here because that's gonna come into the second part of the flow. Now with the springs, I'm going with leg springs today. So we've got purple ones here, and I've got it towards the top Obviously, there's a little one higher here. Depending on the length of your body and strength. Just have it top loaded.

So I'm going for here, but top loaded either here or here. Okay? So I'm facing the tower here just to start off with the feet are going against the poles. Now we're gonna grab your loops and wrap the loops around the elbows here. Gonna place the hands behind the head interlace the hands. So I want you to go into tension and then come back.

So you can see my shoulders are stacked over my hips. There's no tension there. But as soon as I hinge back, There is my tension. Can you see that? So I'm right in tension now. And as I'm in tension, the elbows are in my peripheral view, I'm still kind of neutral position flat back.

Now I'm initiating from the lower abs. We're gonna go into our pelvic tilt on the exhale. So we inhale exhale pelvic tilt. So now the springs are pulling me and I'm going in opposition, which is fantastic because it can really start lowering one vertebra at a time as we roll down. And then we're gonna roll back again back to no tension elbows wide.

So let's try that again. So hinge, curl. Keep going back as far as you can go. The tension is pretty strong here. You're not gonna go too far back, and then we're gonna curl back the way we came.

So you used to do this a couple of times so they're understanding that rollback, releasing a little bit of that lower back here, and then rolling forwards. And then coming back to an extension. Now we're gonna keep that lovely flat back. So we go flat back. Keep going. Keep going.

Keep going. As far as you can go back. Got tension there, and then I'm curling, curling, curling, curling, back elbows wide flat back. Curl. So now I can get that lower abs activated lower back on the mat and come back again. We're going into tension here. Now try and get that lower back.

There's that scoop breathe. Now reverse it. We curl back, keep the elbows where they are. As we hit that lowest point, the elbows are wide, and we're gonna come up flat back, flat back, and forwards. You can work with lighter springs.

Maybe you've got two sets of leg springs, and maybe you can work with that lighter leg spring, which would be a yellow. If you're able to do that, or if you've only got one set, then you're gonna go with the purple. Let's do one more. There's that back extension slightly and now. Lower abs. There's that pelvic tilt.

You can see I'm working really hard to articulate the spine to come back to a straight spine. And release. So if you do have yellow springs and you've got two sets, you can always set up a yellow and a purple here so they can use the yellow for what we just did. And then they're gonna use the purple for the legs, depending whether you have that luxury in your studio. Right? So now I'm just gonna keep with what I got.

I'm gonna move my box a little bit further forwards. So depending on how long your body is where the box is gonna go. So I'm gonna guess I'm gonna be about right here. So keeping the loops where they are because we're gonna be going into some advanced work here. We're gonna start with the prep. So right foot is in the loop.

The left foot, the arch of your foot is on the corner of your box. Okay? So I'm pressing down. I feel the tension. The arms are here. Now we're just gonna hinge up. So I just want you to hinge up and hinge down.

And I'm keeping that leg diagonally out. My goal is to try and get the knees somewhat close together. So I'm never out of tension. I'm always pressing the arch of my foot into the loop out so the hamstrings are engaged. So I'm prepping them for when we come to another variation of the magician series, but a little different, out and in. So I usually do about eight to 10 reps here so they can feel those hamstrings.

And then on the last one, we hinge up and we drop the leg down and back. So I'm cueing them to really press the leg out and down. Try and keep the pelvis as somewhat quiet as possible. They need a little bit of help. You can always pop your hands on your hips.

Remember, not to push the box away. You're pushing down because I've had some students try and push away. You gotta press down. So the box is not gonna go anywhere unless you push it away. Now we can wrap it up.

We can go into circles. Definitely, that next layer, and we've gotta really work on the anti rotation with the opposite of glute med and then go in the other direction. Trying to keep as best as you can, the pelvis is stable and disassociating at the hip joint. We hold it here. You can do lots of different variations.

I've even done a bend and extend there to with the hips lower, or we can bend, push out, can flex that foot as long as you don't lose the loop, which I've had that happen before. So we can do I call this shut the door. In and out. Fantastic and back. People absolutely love it because it's automated.

Those hamstrings just like kick in, but it's attainable so they can feel it. Alright. So let's go with the other leg. So make sure your arch is right on the corner and you're pressing down, not pushing away. Otherwise, the box is gonna go on its little journey. Alright. So we're here. Ready, triceps, lat serratus, we press down.

Find your tension, intention. We go up and down. So you cue them to be intention before they start moving. Otherwise, their leg is everywhere, they're like this. So you've got a cue that their intention, and then they're hinging up and down.

So they're feeling their hamstrings. And then I usually do eight to 10 reps here. And then we hold it up here, and then we do a tap down and back. Now this is such a great prep for all of our feet in straps. Specifically your magician series.

You're really focusing on the hamstrings holding them, pelvic stability here in the air as you're floating. Remember now we can go into our circles, our leg circles, and then we reverse with the leg circles. Right? Always remember hip knee and ankle joint in alignment so the knee's not displacing out. Always a little gentle reminder of the add up to here. That frontal sling working one more time.

We hold it here. Remember that flex and point, and you can add that down and up if you want. So we go down. Push the door shut down, push the door shut. And you're just going down and back.

Alright. By this time, they're already dying and they're probably giving up on it right now. Alright. Remember you don't need to do all this, but here's some nice variations. Alright. Now we'll lower down and bring the legs back. Now depending on my class level, if I feel that they can go a little bit more, I take it to this next level.

If not, this would be enough. But for today, we'll go into that next level. So I'm bringing them both now. Both feet. Now remember your arms are on your little poles here, and I'm pushing away. So I'm pushing away.

If you need to bring your arms up a little higher, if you need to bend your elbows, you can. However, is wherever you find the best stability with your upper body. For me, it's pushing away. Now I'm gonna go into parallel position. Talbone is heavy into the mat.

Now I'm pressing the legs down on that diagonal. Keeping the legs floating the pelvis up, so now we're in that diagonal line. Those hamstrings are working to hold us in that diagonal line. Look, I'm pushing two dimensional pushing there, there, and then reaching out to the feet. Now we're gonna bring the right knee to your chest, and then the left knee. So kind of what am I doing? What is this?

Single leg stretch, like little pistons. I always remember Mallett is accurate saying that little pistons. There's your single leg stretch. And we're keeping the hips elevated in the same position. We haven't gone up and down, and we're reaching the legs diagonally out, not to the sky diagonally out.

We do four more, maybe we can pick up the pace, maybe four. And three. And two. And one, reach the legs out and beat. Be. Be. Be. Be. Be. Be. Be. Be. Be. Be.

Hold it. Last little icing, we're gonna reach the toes out, think of lengthening out, see if we can go. Go. Go. Can we reach those legs out? Can we touch the box? I did. Can we come up to that diagonal line? Can we go again?

Reach out. Imagine someone's pulling your feet, they're holding your feet, and you're lengthening out into that actual elongation, and then coming back one more time reaching out, pushing away from those polls in that longest possible point, we come back onto that diagonal. We finish it off. We hinge the hips down. Keep your feet where they are at. We bring them back to start position.

Bend down knees, take the loops away. Hold on to those knees. That is definitely a killer for those hamstrings. Sit yourself up. So you can see I progressed it. Obviously, that last bit is not going to be for everyone.

That's probably going to be a journey to get there. However, that first work preps you to be able to have a stab at doing some of the advanced work. And if not, the journey is fantastic getting there. We might not get to that, but that journey is fantastic. So we also have to remember that. It's the journey.

It's not the destination. It's the journey with what Pilates gives to us is the journey. I hope you enjoyed that. My new five year class to teach is the tower because I feel it's like a mat work on steroids with a little bar esque there, but it's just a fantastic class to teach. So hope you enjoy as much as I do.

I'd love to hear your feedback, and thank you for joining me. Bye bye.