Pelvic Lumbar Dysfunction

Hi, I'm Carolyn Anthony from the center for women's fitness and we're going to do a reformer class that I normally teach to my older women. Those are sort of post-menopausal. I actually designed this for myself, but everybody else seems to like it. So I'm going to come bring some of it here to you today. So we're going to set up, you're going to be lying on the reformer and I would like your feet hit with the pot and the balls of your feet on the bar. Both of you. I have three springs, but go ahead and do whatever feels comfortable. You want to be able to move with ease of movement.

You don't want to be straining to do anything. All right. So what we're gonna do right now is you just, both of you just going to take a nice deep breath into your bodies and as you exhale, allow your whole body just to relax and release. And again, deep breath in any which way. Yeah, and exhale, just relaxing and releasing your body. And again, keep it going. Inhale, exhale. Slowly.

Allow the back of your head to relax against the headrest and feel the tension leaving your net. Okay. Find your own rhythm with your breathing and every time you exhale, go ahead and relax your body even more into the character. Okay? Now make sure you can feel both of your shoulder blades on the carriage and you can wiggle around trying to find it and deep breath in and on the exhale, relaxing the back of your rib cage into the mat rather than the front.

And Go ahead and feel the back of your pelvis on the Carey and loosening the tension in your legs and make sure you can feel the whole of the ball of the foot on the bar. And I want you to release the tension in your ankles. Just let it go. Both of you take a deep breath in and on the exhale, just release the ankles. Allow the heels to come towards the foot bar. And now I'd like you to take your breath in between your tailbone and your pubic bone. Inhale on the exhale, bring the tailbone towards the pubic bone. There's no movement in the pelvis.

And again, deep breath in between the tailbone and the pubic bone. And on the exhale, just think about the tailbone coming towards your pubic bone. And again, inhale in between the tailbone and the pubic bone and exhale, tailbone to pubic bone. This time bring your pubic bone towards the chest. Very gentle movement of your pelvis. And as you inhale, just allow your tailbone to release towards the carriage.

Exhale, tailbone to pubic bone, pubic bone to chest, and inhale to release the tailbone back to the carrier just as a gentle rock of your pelvis. Exhale, tailbone to pubic. Burn pubic bone to chest and inhale to release the tailbone all the way back to the carriage. And one more time. Exhale, tailbone to pubic bone, pubic bone to chest, and inhale to release the tailbone all the way back down to the carriage. And again, exhale, tailbone to pubic bone, pubic bone to chest. And this time you're going to start rolling up through your spine. And as you lift the pelvis off the carriage, you'll bring your sit bones together, your hip bones together, the bottom of your rib cage together, lengthening through your fun front body.

That inhale right at the top of the movement. And on the exhale you're going to start from the back of your throat, releasing your spine, keeping your pubic bone pulling towards your chest. As you slowly roll back down through your spine, coming through the lower back, releasing into the pelvis. Inhale to release the tailbone all the way down to the carriage and you're going to allow your back to arch slightly as you do that. Inhale in between the tailbone and the pubic bone. Exhale, tailbone to pubic bone, pubic bone to chest, pressing the spine into the carriage before you lifted up.

Sit bones, hip bones, bottom of your rib cage, connecting all the way up. Inhale at the top and as you exhale, think about coming down from the back of your throat, dropping each vertebra back onto the carriage. Keep the pubic bone pulling towards your chest, coming all the way down. Inhale to drop the tailbone towards the carriage. And then one more time and exhale, tailbone to pubic bone, pubic bone to chest rolling all the way up through your spine.

Sit bones, hip bones, a rib cage together, lengthening through the front body. Inhale at the top and exhale from the back of the throat coming back down really in the bottom of the rib cage together. Hipbones sit bones together as you come all the way down and inhale to release the tailbone. And from here just staying in this parallel position again, dropping the heels, releasing through your legs. Take a breath in between your sit bones on the exhale.

As you lengthen your legs and press away, you're going to bring the bottom of your sit bones together. As you press hip burns, ribcage connect. And on the inhale, bend the knees to cut. Bring the carriage back and exhale. Press away. Sit bones, hip bones, ribcage engaging and inhale to bring it back. And again, exhale, press away. Keep releasing into the seat, dropping those ankles and exhale to come back in. And again, exhale to press away and inhale to bend the knees, bringing the carriage back in. Keep it going. And exhale, pressing away and inhale to bend the knees coming back in and feel this coming from your hips and exhale to press away and inhale, bending from the hips, bending the knees, dropping that tailbone towards the mat as you do so and again, exhale, press away and inhale to come back in. Just one more time. Exhale, pressing away and inhale, bending to come back in to stay here.

Without moving too much, you're just going to bring the heels together. You're going to rotate the thigh deep in the hip socket. Take your feet just a little bit further apart and from here, inhale to start on the exhale, press away thinking about rotating that hip deep within the hip socket, the backs of the news coming together and inhale to bend to come back in and exhale pressing away and inhale, flexing to come back in. And again, exhale, press away. Rotation right from the hip and inhale to come back in. And again, exhale, pressing away and inhale, bending the knees. And two more times. Exhale, press and inhale to release.

One more time. Exhale, press and inhale to release. Stay here. Go ahead and take the feet right out onto the edge of the foot bar in a lateral rotation. So I'm going to take this balls of the feet on the bar and from here, same thing. Inhale to start. Exhale, press away. Think about bringing the sit bones together as you do this. And on the inhale when you bend your knees and come back in, feel your sit bones coming apart and that's going to work your pelvic floor and exhale, pressing away, bringing the sit bones together and on the inhale coming back in.

Keep that deep rotation in the hip socket. Exhale, press away, rotating really deep and inhale, opening up the pelvic floor. And again, exhale, sit bones come together, pelvic floor closes and inhale to open and do two more times and exhale, press and inhale to release. One more time. Exhale and inhale to release and stay. We're going to go and turn the knees together, bring the knees together and bring the feet into medial rotation. And from here you're going to inhale on the exhale, press away.

You're going to really rotate the legs. Knees come apart. At the end of the movement and then inhale to come back in. Knees come together. When you come back in on the exhale, press around. Feel that deep rotation medially in the hip socket. Knees come apart and inhale to come back down.

Keep the knees together as you come back in and again, exhale to press away and inhale to come back in. Knees come together. Good. Keep that feeling of the thighbone really rotating inwards as you press away and inhale to come back in and again, exhale, press away and inhale. Return the carriage back. Let's do this one more time and exhale pressing away and inhale to come back in and go ahead and stay here you go. To bring your feet back into a parallel position.

Still keeping the balls at the feet on the bar hip with the part dropping that tailbone slightly towards the carriage you're going to inhale. To start on the exhale, all I want you to do is bring your sit bones, your hipbones and your rib cage together. And again, deep breath into your body and on the exhale, sit bones, hip bones and ribcage together. Deep breath in and exhale, press the carriage away and stay out here. From here. Inhale on the exhale. Let both heels come under the bar. Calf stretch under and inhale.

Press all the way up and exhale, dropping those heels under the bar, stretching your calves and inhale to press up and exhale to bring the heels under the bar and again, inhale, pressing up and exhale, pressing. Under. Inhale, lift and exhale. Press. Inhale, lift. This time just bring your right heel under, bending the left knee and prance. Inhale up and exhale under. Inhale up. Exhale and a inhale lift. Exhale. Under inhale, lift, exhale, and inhale.

Exhale. Inhale, exhale, nice and easy. Inhale, exhale, couple more. Make sure the whole of the ball of the foot is on the bar, up and under, up and under. Two more times last time, pressed both feet up and go ahead and bend the knees and bring the carriage back in. We're going to turn on our sides. I'm going to change this spring to two springs. I have two reds. Turn on your size for me and you're going to bend the underneath leg and you're going to place the top foot on the bar, the hole of the foot on the bar.

Make sure you're comfortable and make sure your stat one on top of the other for me. Hold onto the shoulder, rest with the underneath arm or both. You can hold on for dear life if you wish. Um, and then from here I want you to take a breath in. On the exhale, you're going to press the carriage away with the top leg and inhale to come back in and exhale, pressing away, trying to keep your hips, that one on top of the other. Inhale to bend and keep your knee at hip level. And exhale, press and inhale to bend to come in. And again, exhale, press working from the hip. Inhale, bend, and exhale.

Press and inhale, bring it in, keep it going. And exhale, press. Inhale, bend. One more time in this position. Exhale, press and inhale to come in. Stay here for a minute. You're going to laterally rotate that leg out and bring the heel forward a little bit on the bar. You're going to put the heel on the bar. Don't overturn out the foot, but make sure that your your thigh bone is turned out.

So from here you're going to inhale and exhale. Rotate that leg out as you press away and inhale to come back. And again, exhale to press. Inhale to return, and exhale, press away and inhale, rotate that leg out even more. And exhale, press and inhale, rotate and again, exhale to press and inhale to bend. And exhale, press and inhale to bend.

One more time, and exhale, press and inhale to come in and stay here. This time you're going to rotate everything inward. Bring the ball of the foot onto the bar, drop the knee down medially. Rotate the thighbone. Inhale for me, and Exhale, press away the heel going up to the ceiling if you can, and inhale to drop. Heel goes up to the ceiling. Exhale, press good and inhale to bend it in. And again, exhale to press and inhale to bend. Exhale, pressing away and inhale. Bend. Couple more times.

Exhale to press and inhale bend. One more time. Exhale to press away and inhale, come all the way in and you get into like this. You're going to take the foot off the bar and just place it together. You're not going to do anything with your legs. Now I am going to change this to one red, but feel free to tell me if it's too much or too little.

What I'd like you to do is grab hold of the strap and maybe take it to um, a little bit higher here. Still staying on your side. We're going to hold on to the rubber bit, sets it. So from here, go ahead and bring your elbow down towards your chest. Level, your elbows up to the ceiling and we're going to do a lap pull down in a sideline position. So we're going to you really holding on for dear life there. Is it too tight? No, I don't know. Okay. Bend the elbow towards your waist a little bit. Stay here. Stay here. You're going to inhale on the exhale.

You're going to bring your elbow towards your waist. You using your lats and your Serita's Santeria, that's it. Inhale to come up. And again, exhale, press good. Try and keep the elbows bent. Inhale to come up. So working from the shoulder underneath you. Exhale, pull and inhale to lift. And again, exhale, pull, inhale, lift. Keep going. Exhale, pool and inhale, lift.

Exhale, pull and inhale, lift. And if you'd like to, you can now do lateral flection as well. Exhale, pull and lift. Head, neck and shoulders up off the carriage. There you go. And inhale to release. If you want to just use the arm, that's fine too. And exhale, pull the arm. Continue Rib cage to hit. Bring your head, neck and shoulders up into lateral flection. Good and inhale to come down. And again, exhale, arm, head, neck and shoulders if you wish.

Inhale to come down. And again, exhale, pull and inhale to come down two more times and exhale elbow and Paul. Inhale to come down. Just one more time and exhale Paul and inhale to come all the way down. Go ahead and release the strap. Place it back here. And from here, very slowly come up onto your hands and knees.

I'm going to change the spring back to two reds, but feel free to use whatever feels good. You're going to space the straps. So you're going to kneel up on the carriage. You're going to place your hands. Come right back for me. There you go again to the hands, either side of your shoulder, wrist, um, on the carriage. And I want you to bring your knees back a little bit further so that your spine stays nice and long.

You're going to pick up your right foot and place the heel on the bar. And this is all backwards. Piece the heel on the bar. There you go. Alright, now you really want to hold onto the abdominals in this position. So I want you to feel that you have an x in front of your body. So your oblique is coming down to the opposite hip across the front of your body, holding your stable. And from here you're going to take a breath in. On the exhale, you're going to press the carriage away and let me know if that spring tension is too hard for you and inhale to come back and exhale pressing away.

You don't have to straighten the leg all the way. That's absolutely fine and inhale in is that feel right for you. Exhale, press so the knee can stay bent. You don't have to go all the way out. Inhale to come back and and again, exhale, lengthen and inhale to come back in and keep it going. Exhale, pull and inhale to come back in and exhale pressing away and inhale to come back in. Just stay here for a minute. If you wish to continue with just the foot, that's fine.

Otherwise go ahead and take the opposite arm out in front of you. Extend it forward and this is going to make her use your abdominals even more. And again, it can be a small range of motion. It doesn't have to go too far out. Exhale, press, good. Inhale to come back in. Wonderful and exhale, press and inhale in and exhale.

You don't have to do 10 of these. You can only do about four if you wish, and exhale, press and you can stop any time. Inhale to come in. Let's do one more exhale. Press it out. Good. Inhale, come all the way in. Take that foot off the bar, sit back on your heels and just stretch your back out in child's pose for a minute and take a nice deep breath in and exhale to release. Take another breath in and this time you're going to exhale. Roll up through your spine and place your hands back onto the carriage.

Bring your knees back for me and let's take the other heel up on the bar and off we go again. To take a breath in and exhale, press away. Inhale to release and exhale, press. Inhale to release, and again, exhale, press e to release. Exhale, press and inhale to release two more times and exhale to press away. Inhale to release. One more time in this position. Exhale, press and inhale to come back in. Take a moment. You're going to take the opposite arm away.

Hold onto the abdominal tightly, take a breath in and exhale. Press away and inhale. Coming back in and exhale, press. Inhale back, and exhale, press. Inhale back. Exhale, press away and inhale to recover. Let's do two more if you can, and exhale, press good. Inhale in one last time. If you can exhale, press away and inhale, coming all the way back. Go ahead, sit back on your heels and take a deep breath into your spine.

Inhale and exhale to relax and release. And again, nice deep breath into your spine and as you exhale, think about allowing those sit bones just to release back down. Good. Take a breath in and this time on the exhale, rolling up through your spine. Good. And you're going to come onto the other side for your side legwork. And we have two springs for this.

You're going to bend the underneath deck and place the top leg on top in parallel. Make sure you're stacked one on top of the other. You're going to take a breath in and on the exhale, press the carriage away, working from your hip. Good. And inhale to fold. And again, exhale, press and inhale to bend. And exhale, press yes. Inhale to bend. Exhale, press.

And Inhale, bend two more times and exhale pressing away, and inhale to bend one more in this position. And exhale, press away and inhale to bend. Stay here. Go ahead. And we're going to laterally rotate and bring the heel forward on the bar. And from here you're going to inhale. Exhale, press away trying to get a little bit more rotation in that top hip. As you bring it in, you'll feel that drop into the socket. And exhale, press away and inhale to bend, rotating deep in that hip socket. And exhale, press away and inhale to bend to come back in. Keep it going, and exhale, press and inhale to come back in two more times.

And exhale, press and inhale to come back in. One more time. Exhale, press and inhale to come back in. Stay here and let's go ahead and rotate it all the way in and put the ball of the foot on the bar. Dropping the knee down in the heel, goes to the ceiling. Inhale and exhale. Press away, sending that heel up to the ceiling as much as you can and inhale to Ben to come in and exhale, pressing away and inhale to bend to come in again, pressing away and inhale to come in and exhale, press and inhale, bend two more times and exhale, press. Inhale, release. One more time pressing away and inhale to come in. Stay here.

Go ahead and take that foot off the bar. I'm going to change this down to one red. You're going to pick the strap up closest to you and bring it over overhead with the elbow bent for your lap. Pull down. Good. Inhale for me, and exhale, bring the elbow towards your waist and inhale to release and exhale elbow to your waist and inhale to release. And again, exhale elbow to your waist. Inhale to release and exhale pool and inhale to release.

If you want to stay doing this movement, that's fine. Otherwise you can do your lateral flection. Inhale, release, exhale, elbow, head, neck and shoulders. Come up and inhale to release and again, elbow first, then rib cage to your hip and inhale to release. And again, exhale, flection, and inhale to release two more times. Exhale Paul, and inhale to release.

One more time and exhale to pull and inhale to release. And Go ahead and release that strap. Coming back onto your backs. I'm going to give you two reds and you're going to put the straps lie back on your banks and put the straps around your feet. I have you on two reds. Is that okay? Boy. Okay, you're right with that. Okay, good. And just to do a stretching out here, take your legs into parallel.

Um, stand by your sides. And from here you're going to inhale, fold at the hip, drop that tailbone to the carriage. On the exhale, press with the backs of the legs, taking both legs back down. That's it. Not using the feet, but using the strength from your hips. Don't go too far down. Inhale, come up a little way. Dropping into the hips and exhale using the backs of your legs to press down. And again, inhale to come up.

Thinking about pressing with the backs of the thighs, not your feet. And inhale to come up. Dropping that tailbone down to the carriage. Yes, and exhale to press away and inhale to come up. To stay here. Go ahead and rotate your legs out. Same thing though. Now you're still going to press with the backs of the hips. Exhale, pressing down. Leave your feet out of it and inhale to come up. Feel the rotation in the hip socket as you press down and inhale to come up and again, exhale to press. Inhale, lift. One more time. Lateral rotation, press and inhale to come up.

And you guessed it by now. Yes, medial rotation. Good and inhale. Exhale, pressing down. It's so important for women to work all the way around your your hips and inhale to come up. Really feel the rotation deep in the hip socket, not the feet. And exhale, even as you're pressing down, think about it rotating even more and exhale to press and inhale to come up. One more time. Exhale, press okay, and inhale to come up to stay more.

Good. I'm glad you, I've got, I've got another one here. Again, especially for women with the hip sockets here. This is what you're going to do. You're going to be starting your parallel position and press down. We're going to do hip openers, but here's what I want you to do. You're going to laterally rotate as you take the legs out, but you're going to bring them up slightly and then as you come down, it's like a scoop. You're going to bring the backs of your heels together, so it's a scoop down and up. So you're really getting into the hip socket and exhale to come back in.

Now I'm going to add onto this. You're going to drop down into the hip socket. As you come up, I want you to immediately start to rotate. So you're going to bring your legs together in a medial rotation, bring them together. That's it. And then from here you're going to go out the same way and rotate into your lateral rotation. So again, you're doing a scooping action with these hips and it's an inhale to open scoop down and up. As you come around in that circle, you immediately rotate. So you bringing your knees together in the front. That's it.

And then take them out in that media rotation. Start to rotate laterally as you bring the backs of the heels together. Does that feel okay on you? Yeah, and again, it's a scooped down for a smile and then you're going to bring the legs together in a medial rotation. Then you're going to take them back out and bring them around and just one more time. You're going to inhale, take them up like you're going to do a circle, but you're going to medially rotate them in. Good. And then send all the way out and press the backs of your legs together.

Good. Bring your legs into a parallel position. Bend your knees. How can these for me, you can take the straps off or leave them on and you're going to take a deep breath. Is there, you can leave them on and exhale to release. Quick rest because you're going to do one last exercise that will probably, you probably won't like, but it's okay. I'm going to take one of the red springs off, so just give me a little bit more room here and you're going to take one strap off. Give me a bit more room here with the spring. Thanks.

Take one strap off. Now one leg is going to go. The leg without the spring is going to go underneath the foot bar. The other leg is going to go straight up, and from here you're just going to do single leg lifts, so you're going to inhale and exhale. Press the leg down, so you're going to keep the other leg activated. Inhale to come up and exhale to press. Inhale, lift you every time you exhale. You want to think about bringing the rib cage, hip bones and sit bones together to hold your body steady. Inhale to come up. We're just going to do four and exhale to press and inhale to come up. Now this last time we're going to go into a different exercise.

You're going to press down on the exhale and do very small circles. Inhale, exhale around. Inhale, exhale around holding onto your abdominal muscles like Khorasan. [inaudible]. Inhale, exhale around. Would you fall in one direction and then change directions. Inhale, exhale around. Inhale, exhale around. Inhale, exhale around. Inhale, exhale around. Last one. Go ahead and bend that knee in, both knees in and you can change straps for me, and then you're going to straighten both legs. One goes underneath the foot bar, that's it. So just leg lows and lift. Inhale, exhale, pressing down. Keep sit bones, hip bones, ribcage engaged to hold you steady and inhale to come up and exhale to press it down and try not to have too much tension in your shoulders. Inhale to come up. And again, we'll just do four.

Exhale, pressing down and inhale to release up. One more exhale, press down and go straight into your circle. Small circles. Inhale, exhale around. Inhale, exhale around. Good. Inhale, exhale around, and let's go the opposite way and inhale. Exhale around. Inhale, exhale around. Inhale, exhale around. Inhale, exhale around.

Let's do one more just for good luck and go ahead and bring both knees in. Take that strap off. Good. Huck your knees to your chest. I'm from here. Just take a deep breath into your body. Inhale, as you exhale, bring your knees closer to your chest, stretching it back out, and again, deep breath in and exhale. Bring your knees to your chest, breathing out.

One more time. Deep breath in, and exhale to release. Go ahead and place both feet on the foot bar. Keep your knees and your feet tight together and you're just going to drop both knees to the right on the inhale, stretching across the back. Inhale over and exhale, bringing those knees back to the center. Just stretching that back out and again, inhale over and exhale. Coming back to the center.

One more time on each side. Inhale over and exhale, pulling back to the center one more time and inhale over and exhale back to the center and just rest. Good. Well done.