Interval Jumping Reformer

Hi. Today we are going to do a quick jumping interval class on the Reformer. I feel like a lot of us find ourselves short on time, and oftentimes you need a quick energy boost, and this is a really good way to do it. So let's get started. Centering yourself over your feet.

It's always worth it, in my opinion, to just take a moment to connect with your body. Feel the feet on the ground. Feel the spine reaching upwards. And inhale. And as you exhale, let's bend the knees and curl the spine.

We feel the body reaching inwards in both directions. And the knees are just softly bending. As you come down, feel that there's equal pressure on your feet. Inhale, exhale. Curl through the spine.

As we pass the pelvis with the spine, we can start to straighten the legs. Lift the spine tall. Inhale, exhale. Curl the spine in, folding the knees forward. So feel that the knees and the abdominals are moving in two separate directions.

Folding the spine. Inhale, and exhale. Stretching the spine back up. Planting the feet down into the ground. Lifting the eyes one more time.

Inhale, exhale. We curl the spine inwards. Feel the shoulders draw down the back. Feel the weight equally positioned over the feet. Pause at the bottom.

Take a breath in. Now lift. Exhale. OK, here we go. I'm already set up on 1 and 1/2 springs for my jumping.

But we're going to warm up with a little bit of abs first. So you want to sit towards the front edge of your box. And I have my feet down on my headrest. Taking the arms forward, exhale. As you exhale, feel the spine come down into the box underneath you.

Imprint the lower spine into the box. Keep the shoulders off. Reach the arms up and around. And curl inwards into your own self as you lift up and sit tall. I'm crooked.

I'm going to scooch. Here we go. Exhale. Roll back. I'm pushing my feet down into my headrest, and almost pulling the headrest towards me a little bit with my hamstrings, just to help me stabilize.

And lifting up, and sitting tall, and inhale. And curling the spine. We just create a little bit of mobility. Arms reach way back, and around, and up. And again.

Exhale. Curl the spine. Take the arms up, and around, and lift up. Exhale. And rotate towards this way, and roll back.

And take the arms up as your body comes through center. Rotate to the opposite side. Roll up that side. Sit all the way up in rotation, and then find center. Inhale as you rotate away.

Exhale as you peel the back down into the box. Inhale. Lift the arms through center. Rotate the opposite direction. Exhale.

Curl the body up. Keep grounding through the feet. Lift in rotation, and rotate through center. Inhale. Swing side.

Exhale. Roll back. Inhale. Arms up and over. Exhale.

Roll up that side, and find center, and swing side. And exhale. Roll back. Looking for a little bit of ease in this movement, just moving the spine in all directions. Let's do that one more time.

Inhale. Rotate. Exhale. Curl. Inhale Inhale.

Lift. Rotate. Exhale. Roll up that side. And center.

Last time. Inhale. Exhale. Roll back. Reach up.

Come around. Roll up. Lift up and center. You want to be on the forward edge of the box. We're going to roll back.

Once the low back comes, we'll pick up one leg. Pick up the other leg. Find a nice, strong, connected position. Reach for the double-leg stretch, and around. And reach, and around.

And reach out and pull the thighs through an imaginary heavy substance. So you feel as though there's a barrier, maybe a net, that they're coming against and pushing against a little. And reach out, and reach into the imaginary net. And reach out, and around. And four, and around.

And three, and around. Two, and around. Heading into the single-leg stretch, here we go. Stretch one leg, one, out, and out. And feel that you're pulling into that same imaginary net, as you're reaching through it with the straight leg.

And the body is all the time curling up and into the thigh. And we reach, and reach, and reach, and reach. And four, four. Three. Keep that body nice and high.

Two, two. Let the arms be active. Hands behind the head. Reach up for the crisscross. Try not to let the knee come past a 90 degree angle.

But instead stop it there, and lift the body towards it. Reach and reach. Now take the straight leg below the box, and open through the front of the hips. Reaching down, reaching down. Two more.

Last one, last one. Find center. Stay center and just a little lift with the trunk. And lift, and three, and four. And take hold of the thighs and just rock, gentle rocking.

We're not coming all the way up. Rocking through the lower spine. Find your way back to center. Stretch the left leg up. Take is with your hands.

Reach the opposite leg down. And switch. Reach and switch. Reach. And reach that straight leg down below you, down into the frame, into the well.

And three, three. Four, four. Five, five. Hands behind the head and kick, kick, kick, kick. Three, four, five.

And we rotate, rotate, reaching across the body. Three, four, five. Bringing the body back to center. Bending the knees. Taking the arms forward.

Reach one foot down. And reach the other foot down. Here's the biggest challenge of them all. Can you get up. Put your hands on your knees and lift your back.

Lift your back, looking up at the ceiling. It doesn't take long to warm up. OK, I'm going to keep my box nearby, cause we're going to use the box a lot today. Then we come onto our back, all the way. Settle in.

Press out with your legs. Look for alignment. Assess that the feet are just right underneath you. Bend the knees. Feel the line of where you can keep your heels down and where the heels want to lift.

And I want you to just be able to find your heels every time. So let's just reach, straighten the legs, lift the heels, lower the heels, and bend the knees. Just a couple of times. Push in to the heels. Reach out.

Lift on to the toes. Roll through the feet. And bend. So we want to challenge that, coming down, rolling through the foot to a flat foot every time. We're going to jump now.

Here we go. We reach and land. Reach. Every time you land, you land through the foot. Toe, ball, heel.

And as you jump, reach through the hip and reach through the arms. And stabilize through your center all the time. Reaching, jumping in parallel at present. Reaching, and reaching, and reaching, and reaching, and reaching. And feel the energy in the air.

Give yourself enough time to create that rolling action in the foot. Small V position. Reach. So keeping the heels connected together all the time, we pull the legs together. And then rolling through the foot to land.

Pull together and land. Reach. So the upper inner thighs and the tush is where we're focusing our energy, our zipping-together energy. Feel that the heels zip up through the thighs, all the way to the pelvis, every time. Five.

I'm not counting, I'm just going to where it feels good. Three, two, one. Parallel. Remove the right leg. Jump with the left.

Reaching out, reaching out, reaching out. Now this time as you jump kick, jump kick, jump kick. Kicking that leg straight out. Last one. We switch sides.

Jump five times. Two, three, four, five. And jump kick, jump kick, jump kick, jump kick, jump kick. Last one. Jump kick.

And now exchange legs. So they meet in the middle, and meet in the middle. Meet in the middle with straight legs. And then we bend the leg that's coming towards us to about a tabletop. Reaching out, and land.

Out, land. One more like that. And then first position. Remove one leg, and then same thing. So we just do little changes, little changes.

Reaching out. Both legs straight and land, both legs straight and land. Four, three, two, one. Land on both feet. If your headrest is up, place it back down.

Allowing the heart rate to settle. We're about to come into some pelvic curls, bottom lift. So if you feel as though you might need a bit more spring, now is the time. So we curl the pelvis up, lifting up. I'm on the arches of my feet on my jump board.

Reaching up. Keeping the arms pressed down and back. Lifting the spine into one long line. Here Inhale. And exhale.

Rolling down. Feeling the articulation of the spine, trying to keep the Reformer held still underneath us. Reach all the way down, all the way down, dropping the pelvis. Inhale. Exhale as we lift up.

Feet reach down, carriage pulls in. Hips lift up, arms press down. Inhale. And exhale. Lowering the body.

Keep the arms reaching towards the edge of the carriage. And lifting again. We're going to stay up this time. Going to reach out to about 3/4 of the way to straight, and pull all the way back in. Reach out and pull all the way in.

And reach out, and pull all the way in. And lifting higher. And reach out. Pull all the way in, lifting higher. Last one.

Pull all the way in. Hold yourself in. And slowly brings the spine down. Turn to your side, help yourself up. Take your box, put it on the Reformer.

I'm going to lower to one red spring, and sit on the box. We'll need the straps. Grab the straps. OK. So we sit tall.

I'm holding just above the buckles on the ropes. The arms are just next to the body. The spine is straight. And we guide the arms back and lift the chest. Lift the chest.

And again, reaching back. Keeping the spine nice and strong. The arms very straight. We'll do three more. Two more.

One more. Bend forward at your waist, keeping you spine long. Elbows just to the sides, not behind you, but just at your ribs or slightly in front of. And now we straighten the arms, and straighten the arms. Holding your shoulders back all the time, working from that nice supported upper body position.

Going into the tricep extension. Four more. Three more. Two more. One more.

Come all the way up. Take the arms out straight. Inhale. Exhale. Rotate, and center.

So feel that the spine initiates the rotation, and then the arm comes into play. And rotate, and center. And rotate, and center. Initiating movement from the trunk, every time. Last time.

Lifting the spine. Coming back, set the straps down. I'm going to add another spring. I'm adding a blue spring here. Taking the straps in hand again, roll back onto the box.

Lift the legs one at a time. Curl the spine forward here and allow the spring to give you a little support. And then we just bend the arms. We'll start with the knees bent. Bend the arms.

And bend the arms. And now straighten the legs, and bend the arms. And bend the arms. And bend the arms. And now take one leg down, and bend the arms.

And reaching that leg away from you as you pull the upper leg towards you. And switch legs, and pull. If you're not able to keep your lower back stable on the box, the legs should please stay bent. Both legs up. Both legs down.

Last one. So we straighten out the arms. And we lift the spine. Rolling up, rolling up, rolling up, finding the teaser. Bend the knees.

Place the straps all the way down on the floor. Take the box off. Set it to the side. We're back into the right springs for jumping, and here we go again. So coming back onto the Reformer on your back.

Starting in a small V position, press out all the way. Once again, come in carefully, finding the line where the heels can be all the way down. So that's your marker. We're going to jump. Open the legs, and land.

So we split, land, split. And we try to keep the Reformer very still. So how do we do that? We need be very light on our feet. Very light on your feet, and light on our landings.

Reaching out, reaching out, reaching out. Ooh, that wasn't very light, Meredith. There we go. Four. Three.

Two. One. We bring the legs together. And jump. And now twist from the waist.

And twist. And two. And two. Good. Rotating in the hips.

So one hip may leave the Reformer a little bit. That's alright. Rotate also from the waist. Keep the arms strong and long. Find energy and power, but also control.

And we'll do four. Three. Two. One. Center.

Small V position. Cross the right leg over the left. Left leg over right. Right leg over left. Left leg over right.

Nice light landing. Heels down every time. Reach. Reach. Cross.

Don't think about the feet crossing or the knees crossing. Think about the tops of the upper thighs meeting one another, alternately. And cross, and cross, and cross, and cross. And three, and three. And two, and two.

And one, and one. And land. Turn to your side. Help yourself up. Come on to your knees.

Hands on the jump board. Feet up against the shoulder blocks. Ooh, a little slippery up here. We're going to do the down stretch on-- my preference is one spring. But if you like a little heavier, one and a half would be just fine too.

Or too. So we take the carriage away. And we pull the spine through. I feel like we need a little extension in our lives. And we reach out, reach, reach, and pull the spine through.

Lifting up away from the jump board, as though the jump board was one long line, coming up into a wall. Reaching out and lifting in. Reaching up, reaching up. One more. Come all the way back in.

Holding here, lighten up the hands. Reach one arm around and back, all of the back to the shoulder block. Take that arm off the jumper and reach overhead. And then windmill the arms back. And we go the opposite way.

We follow the arm with the spine. It reaches back towards the shoulder block. Then the other arm reaches up and we open up the front of the body. And then we windmill the arms back. And yes, turn around.

Careful with this next one, it's tough. If you're slippery, you might want to stickies for your hands or your feet. I've removed my springs. I have zero springs. OK.

You want to start pretty far forward with your arms. We're going to come up into a plank position. So stretching out through the legs. Give yourself enough space so that you feel like you're not going to slide off the Reformer. Bend your arms and straighten.

Bed and straighten. Bend and now lift yourself up, pike up. Pull the carriage all the way underneath you until your heels come down, if you can. And reach out. And pike up, head down.

And down, and lift. And back. I'm just going to move my hands a little bit more forward, we'll do two more. And lift. And back.

and lift. Heels come down, abs pull up. And find center and bend your arms. And up, and two, and three. Bend your knees to the Reformer.

Make sure you're starting all the way at the end. We're going to do a little side piking. So same position to start. Finding the hands, straightening the legs. Roll to the inside of the front foot and the outside of the other foot, and pike.

For three, and down. And two, and down. And one, and down. And find center, and rotate, and pike. And the lengthen, and pike.

And lengthen, and pike. And lengthen, and find center. And knees and stretch back. Come up. Just be careful when you're moving around on your Reformer when it doesn't have any springs connected.

I'm putting one red and one blue spring back on. We're going to do out last jumping set. So we're going to do it on our side. Headrest is going to be down. Lying on our side.

So lie on your arm. Line your body up in a straight line, with pelvis slightly behind your shoulders. Bottom leg just tucks in. Here we go. We jump and land, rolling every time through the foot.

Reaching out, reaching out. Last two. I like my free hand right here on my shoulder block. And rotate the hip and jump, and jump, and three. So as your hip is rotating, you just need to make sure that the pelvis didn't come with it.

Last four, three, two, one. Find center and come all the way in. Help yourself up. Turn around. Lie back down.

Head on the arm. Scooch the pelvis back so it's behind the shoulders. Set the foot on the jump board. Check that you're not overextending through the ribs. And we jump.

You'll feel there's that moment of freedom in the air. Moment of freedom and then you land lightly. And reaching out. Opposite leg is just resting underneath us. Two, one.

Rotate the out to the out. And two. And reaching out, reaching out. Last four, three, two, one. Come all the way in.

And helping ourselves up now. Take the blue spring away. Put your hands on the jump board. Put your inside foot just up against the shoulder block. Your knee is on the jump board.

We're going to bend our outside leg. Going to stay upright as we take that thigh behind us. Treat this as a back extension exercise as well as a stretch. Don't just dump the back into it. Pull back on the ab support.

And now straighten that knee. Reach all the way out, and bend, and straighten. Reach all the way out. And try as you're coming back to put the knee a little further back each time. And reach all the way out.

And back. So now we take the same arm-- so my left knee's on the carriage. I'm going to lift my left arm. We're going to bend to the right. Take the arm behind.

Make a big circle. Look at it. Bring it forward, and come in. Step around to the other side. So I've got the opposite foot up against the shoulder block.

Knee down. Front knee bent. Pelvis reaching forward and under. Now you just take that knee back. Keep the spine lifted.

Don't rely on your arms to hold you up. So they're just almost pushing the jump board away a little. You don't need them at all. So you don't have to be where I am. You can go lower.

I just don't want you to back bend to get there. Not now. Just for today, anyway. OK, so we now lift the knee. Straighten it all the way, as straight as you can.

And bend in. And reach it up. Take it all the way, as straight as you can. Keep the front knee reaching forward in opposition. And bend.

And one more. And now we place that foot down. Same arm as carriage leg. And we reach up into the air first, and then side bend. And then start to take the arm around to the back.

And then back to the jump board. And come all the way in. I'm going to leave this spring attached that I have. It's one red. And I'm going to lie on the box this away.

So you're going to have to push out a little bit right away. Let's take your hands to the outside of the jump board, and lower your body so that you're straight. Feel that the legs are energized, and the abdominals are drawn in. And then bend the elbows wide to the sides. We're going to stretch the chest forward and straighten the arms.

So I don't want you to lift up super high. Stay about at your ribs. Bend and lower. Feel that you're trying to pull the elbows apart. And then push, drawing the elbows slightly underneath, and reaching the chest up.

I've never done this before. It feels good though. And we're reaching the arms straight, reluctantly peeling the chest forward, and now from there, now we lift the back. Push the jump board into the Reformer is the feeling that I'm getting. And reach back.

And take your eyes in the direction that you wish your spine to go. Lifting, lifting, and down. And one more. Lifting, and down. Carefully bring yourself in and off the box, stepping to the side of the Reformer, and standing on your feet.

Take the arms up, reaching up, reaching up. Gathering up the energy you've created. Take the arms out to your side and take a swan dive forward, reaching up through the top of the head. Round at the waist and bring the hands towards the floor, and then lift the back up. And one more time.

Reach up. And push out. And round forward. And roll up.