PRO | Plank Flow

Let's go into some plankage. Now we're similarly gonna use the short box, but we're gonna place it at the front of the reformer. So let's change to one blue spring. An added difficulty challenge is one yellow, and let's put this box at the front of our reformer. I'm gonna wedge it between my foot bar and my carriage like this.

So make sure that the carriage is nice and secure. As you see, we have this incline, and that's gonna be very beneficial for us as we go into our long stretch. Now make sure your shoulders are directly over your wrists your feet are in the shoulder blocks. Your abs are engaged, and let's go out and in with straight arms. After you do your first repetition, make any adjustments, make sure your fingers are spread out that you're gripping the box, and it's so nice on my wrists and my shoulders, not to be on the mat, not to be on the foot bar.

But this incline, it's just taking the weight load out of my shoulders and helping me find a really strong connection, feeling that wrap under my arms, that serratus anterior muscle that connects my shoulders down my back. Option, you're gonna lift your knees and perform this in a full plank. And I love in this flow that it can easily drop to the knees on any given day. I'm gonna take that option right here. Last two, see how far you can reach for that eccentric moment of stretch.

And then draw it back in. Now that we've established that strong back shoulder connection, let's do some push ups on the box. Again, so nice to have my hands on the outsides of the box here, and then my shoulders are already down my back long neck push the carriage out halfway, chest touches the box and lifts. Try to point your elbows back 45 degrees and keep that chest expansion as you lower and lift. And, just because I'm on camera here, I guess I have to show off some full push ups here. Inhale down, exhale up.

This is my beach body. Yes, Santa Barbara. I'll be out there soon, but first I need to finish my pre party pump here. Last few push ups. Any of you still in a full plank out there? In hill town, I'm going back to the knees.

Last one. Exhale. Let's push back for a quick child's pose, a little decompression. And now, not all planks are created equal. We're gonna go down to the forearms, and this changes the center of gravity Forest is the transverse to work a little harder. Luckily, we've got the box.

We've got this incline to make things a little more comfortable for us. We're gonna push out halfway. And right away, go for that long stretch. I'm gonna call this a saw. Little out, a little in, a little out, a little in.

If you feel secure, then I want you to practice with your legs up, adding your body weight into the exercise, but only if you feel you can keep your back neck long, your shoulders out of the ears. Again, no shoulder earrings. One of my favorite Pilates cues Let's do two more and then lower on to the knees. Cerratus anterior shoulder blade push ups. For your shoulder blade push ups, lower your chest and lift your chest lower and lift.

So we've got our long stretch and our push ups on both our wrists and our forearms. This is so good for the neck to detach from the shoulders, but you have to make sure you are not doing the dip. Even my strongest students after a few repetitions, those old habits start to creep back in. And right here on the reformer is where we fix those things. And this is so important for our posture.

Last one. Great. And now for the plank recital, we are going to take advantage of the space that we have and go for a full pike up. Again, a benefit of having our box at the front of the reformer push yourself out and using that extra space in your hip flexors, pull the abs in and up, tap the carriage to the box if you can, crown of the head to the mat, and then push yourself back out. Let's do that again. Modifications have already been laid out for us.

Inhale, exhale, tap the box. Use your core set muscles so you're thinking about the powerhouse the muscles wrapping around your waist around your spine to pull the hip straight up to the ceiling. Last two. I'm gonna perform a headstand on this last one, up, up, up, and then last one push yourself out. And enjoy that stretch.

So we worked the front side and the back side and gave ourself plenty of variations so we can repeat this workout for many workouts to come.