Lengthening Reformer

Hey everybody. My name is Amy Katie and today we're doing a reformer class. The only profit you'll need today as a box, and I'm going to introduce you to the AME for both Amy's not to get confused. We're going to start at the very end of the reformer today on a blue spring, and we're going to warm up, so you're going to stand about hip width apart. At the end of the reformer. We're going to start circling those shoulders around and take the hands on the shoulders, drawing it with a circle of the elbows.

Lift those arms up slowly. Take the arms behind you, bend the knees, grab onto that carriage, push it out. I want you to go into an arched position, stretch those hamstrings, and then bend the knees. Draw the navel in, tailbone down to roll up through the spine. Take the arms above the head. One more time, circle the arms around and we'll repeat from the top. Rolling the shoulders for one hands on their shoulders for to reach the arms up and bend those knees. Hands. Go onto the reformer. Press it out. Dye forward with the head, arch the back.

Draw the Navel and drop the tailbone down. Pull that carriage back in and round all the way up. Take the arms above the head. Inhaling, exhaling the whole time. Now what I want you to do is to step back with your left foot and you're going to take your right foot onto the bar. We're going to do the PIRIFORMIS stretch. We're going to start first with our hands on the bar arts, the back slightly with a deep inhale, and then exhale, Chin to the chest.

You're going to reach down towards the reformer. You're going to push that carriage out and hold it right there. Ah, that should feel divine. Round up. Bring that carriage and slowly take the hands to the bar. Arch the back again. Inhale, and then exhale to into the chest. Reach Four. We're still in our warmup phase. It will get brisker in a moment.

Bring that carriage back in. Rolling up to the hands of the bar. Let's switch legs. You're going to take the right leg behind you, bringing the left leg to the bar, take that right leg back. If you can. We're going to arch the spine first. Inhale and exhale. Chin to the chest, hands onto the reformer. Press that carriage out. Reach that back heel down towards the floor, rolling back up. Bring that carriage in. Softly round up through the spine arch. Inhale, and then exhale, reach forward one more time, and exhale. Draw the belly in.

Stabilize those shoulders should feel yummy. Arch to the back, and exhale coming off. Now we're going to step facing. You'll face the outside. You're going to take your left foot onto the reformer and it turned out laterally rotated position. Toes are on the very edge of the carriage. Take your hand in front of your leg. Reach that right arm out to the side. As you straighten the reformer with that leg, push the carriage out.

You're going to bend over to come up. Inhale, bend that knee. He was still lifted and then go into the opposite direction and stretch. You mean look down towards your feet too? We're doing a little balancing act to unwind. Grab on to that bar. Stretch, reach you. Long Gate. Inhale, exhale, come up. Yeah, and over to the other. So we'll do it one more time.

Go out a little bit deeper if you can. Amy, I know you're loving this stretch. Reach towards that leg and then come up in that knee. Stretch to the other side before we go to the other side. Come up to standing tall, grab onto that reformer. We're gonna face me, so turn around towards the back. Yes, we're legs are going to be separated slightly. Hold onto that bar if you can reach it. Bend the knees. Inhale, draw the belly n round your back. Inhale. Exhale.

Lengthen out to the spine arch and inhale, contract and ruling up [inaudible]. One more time. Bend and exhale [inaudible] and then turn. We're going to use the right leg. This time we're gonna put it on the reformer. Toes on heel is lifted. Reach those arms out. You're going to extend the carriage out straight into a stretched out position and then come up, bend the knee, grab onto the bar for support and look down towards the floor.

Go a little bit further each time. We're just going to do it three times. Reach long and then come up. Bend. Ooh, one more time. Reach it out, mom. Go deeper, deeper, deeper. Reach towards that leg coming up and bend that knee. Stretch. One more time to this side and then take that leg off.

We're going to face the reformer one more time. I'm going to go down into this beautiful stretch here. You're going to go into an arch and then I'm going to walk up. You're going to walk back. I'm going to come up into the arch and stretch. Beautiful.

It feels so good and step back and arch and I'm going to pull onto the foot bar so I get a good stretch in my hamstrings. Stretching forward, lifting up, and then exhale. I'll let you do one more. Stretch up and rest. Let's come over this way. We're going to sit on the reformer at the very edge. Now we're going to do leg and foot work with a little bit of spice. We're going to add, let's do you know, three to four springs. Whatever works for you, and we're going to say, rollback. Let's start sitting, sitting up high on the sitz bones. Inhale, exhale, contract back.

[inaudible] rest your hands on the carriage. Scoot down a little bit. Okay. To start with, we're in a devil. Pay both legs. Straighten them straight up to this ceiling. Let's flex both feet. Arch through the point black point. Okay, two more.

And keep those feet flags. Inhale, keep those legs together. Bend the knees, find the foot bar, and then relax into your neutral position. We're going to take a breath in here and then exhale. Press the carrot out. Okay. All the, wow. I want your focus to be glutes.

Our glutes were firing those glutes when we push out, but don't forget, contract those glutes on the way back in, right where the hamstring connects to our glute muscles. Press. We're gonna do two more. Come in halfway. Pick up those hips for me. Straighten those legs out. Keep the legs straight, relaxed down on that carriage. Come all the way back in halfway. Pick it up. Press away and come down. One more time.

Lift those hips up. Press away. Squeeze those inner thighs and lower down and rest. Okay. Extend those legs up for me again. Let's turn out. We're going to flex in a rotating position. Yeah, two really think of reaching those legs out of those hip sockets. Keep the feet flex, bend the knees.

Let's go right away into our Palazzi Zvi position. Inhale here. Press out always. I call it zipping our legs up, but we go beyond zipping the legs all the way through the top of the head. Let's just do two more. [inaudible] last one. Alright, come in halfway. You're going to pick up your hips and straighten out those legs.

Lower down through the spine. Bend the knees to come in. Pick up those hips. Exhale, press out, lower down and come back in. We'll do it two more times. Lift. Try to make sure the hips are stable in the air. One more time. Lift. Exhale, press.

Inhale lower and bend those knees to come in. All right, take those legs back up to the ceiling. Turn out into a v. We're going to open the legs and flex point to close. Open to flex, pointing to close. Two more. One more. Now we're going to go out wide with our feet. Flex, bend those knees and Durham to the carriage, or you could do one. Okay. All right. Press away on an exhale here.

I really want you to think it's so easy to cheat in this position. I used to do it. I am thinking I'm digging my heels into the foot such that I'm putting a divot in it. As in Golf, right? When you do a golf swing, you leave a divot in the ground and then those inner thighs are squeezing together all the way from the heels up to the pubic bone. Draw it up to the spine. We'll do two more. All right? Come in halfway. Pick up those hips for me.

Straighten out those legs. Draw the spine down. Bend the knees to come and halfway pick up the hips and press lower down. Squeeze on the way back in. Don't forget just as much effort on the push out as you lower and pull in. Last one at press, lower end. Pull it in.

Good. Let's take the legs back up to the ceiling. We're going to stay in this position parallel. We're just going to flex and point and flex alternating feet. Are you burning yet? A little bit. Little bit. All right. Keep both people X. Bend the knees. Our legs are together.

Heels lifted this time. Exhale, straighten out the carriage. Bring. Excuse me. Straighten out the legs. We're going to lower the right heel under. Just stay right there. Breathe in. Sink a little bit lower. Pick up that heel. Lower the left heel down. Inhale, and on the exhale, sink a little bit deeper.

We're gonna [inaudible] pick up the pace and switch and switch running in place. Let's do four more. Three, two tiny in those glutes each time. Pick up those heels for me. Breathe in. Bend the knees and come all the way back in. Okay. Swing the legs around. Come up to sitting. Let's change our springs too. Let's just do one red.

You can do a red and a yellow. Some reformers have red, yellow, red, and blue, green. Whatever works for you. We're gonna roll back down and we're going to do a series of abdominal exercises and arm work. Here we go. So let's sit up first. Breathe in. Exhale, roll back down, and behind us are our straps on our poles. We're going to take those arms straight up to the ceiling. Pick up those legs to a tabletop. Really make sure you're truly a tabletop.

If you can see your toes, lower them down. Scoot down just a little bit from the shoulder rest and just put a little bit of tension on the straps so that your arms are truly vertical. We're going to breathe in here. We're going to bring our arms down, lift our head, neck, and shoulders off, and we're going to hold this position right here. Inhale, exhale already out. One more time. Breath in and exhale. Lift lower down. Now separate your knees there in a position. We're gonna come forward into forward flection.

The left arm is going to go in the center. The right arm is going to go on the outside of the right leg, lower down, and continue to alternate lower left. Now I'm thinking of using my armpits, for lack of a better word at this point, to do the work. My back is engaged. Shoulders are stable, hips are stable, ABS are working. One more and lower back down and rest. Keep the legs at tabletop.

Take the arms out to t position. We're going to bring the arms in and extend those legs out. Good. Repeat one more. Hold it right there, and we're just going to pulse the arms. So we're doing the one hundreds, a little bit different. Slight turn out of the feet. We're going to breathe in five.

I really want you to try to keep that carriage still so that you're really squeezing under those armpits. Really pulling those abs in, engaging those back muscles, lengthening those legs as long as you can out the door. One more time in two, three, four, five out, two, three, four and rest. Then those knees and down we go. Let's replace the Poles. We're going to sit up again and we're going to grab boxes. Before we do that, let's put on at least four springs for stability in the carriage, and let's put our foot bars down just so we have a better access of the straps. So we'll grab the boxes.

Where do you do short box work? Now for me, I'm a little bit taller. I'm going to put them over the shoulder rests. Amy's petite social, put it in our traditional position. Let's grab on to the straps. Pick our feet underneath, and I'm going to scoot back.

So such that my metatarsal arch is covered by the straps. So aims, I'm going to have you scoot back just a little bit more so you can really pick those fita sitting really high on those sits bones, right? Not so much that you're gripping, but sense that you're really allowing those sitz bones to melt into the box. But your spine is growing tall. We're going to take the hands on the shoulders. We'll just start with round back first. We're going to take a deep breath in, squeeze the pelvic floor muscles first, contract the transverse and round back.

We're going to come up, grow taller and taller, and then [inaudible]. Good inhale. She's going further back than me. A little bit of competition there. All right, inhale one more and exhale. Now I'm going to add from here. Take your right arm and you're going to reach it forward. So we're going to start working a little bit on o obliques.

Take him back to the shoulder and then reach forward and back. Inhale and exhale, reach. I'm really trying to reach for Amy. Inhale. Exhale, reach for an add on to it. Yay. Where to take the arm back behind us. Reach back hand to the shoulder, reach across. Inhale, so flow, smooth and reach. Deep breathing. Okay, and reach one more. Okay, hold it here. Now we're going to reach to touch that arm again. Shoulders, you're going to reach back, but this time I want you to reach up and over.

Reach for the ceiling and then we're going to reverse it. Go back, reach up and over and again. Inhale back. Exhale, Woo. One more. Inhale and app and rests and we have a hole in the other side to do so where to go back into that round, back. Let's just do four of those to get centered again. You should really be feeling those oblique muscles working and back.

You going further and you did all right. Back and forward. Lengthen up every time through that spine, yes, and back, and now we're going to reach back to the left and then that hand is going to reach forward out and reach back again. Lift and reach. Inhale, and then exhale one more time and read. Adding the arms so the hand is going to go back down towards the floor to the shoulder and reach and reach across. Really use the abdominal muscles, the back muscles.

Everything's working all the way through the top of the head, down to the toes. Now we're going to take the arm back, reach the arm up and reach all the way out. Yes, and back in linkedin. Try to scrape the fingers on the ceiling and again, and I'm all about length. I'm all about reaching. People. Think I'm a lot taller than I am because I reach and reach and reach and rest. Okay, relax. Those legs are now going to face to do some more oblique work. Sideline. Yes.

Take the hands onto the shoulders just to get centered. Remember when we do our sideline box work, I like to have the booty off the box and the toes. Really parallel. It takes it out of our hip flexors and puts it in the right spot. Our love handles. So we're going to lean into the well and we'll exhale and left.

Go over again, grow taller so you have the support of the strap and that will help you lengthen out through that spine and left. We're gonna do it one more time. Inhale and lift. Guess what? We're going to add arms. So take your right arm, touch the outside of the reformer and bring it back up to the shoulder. Again. Touch and reach few more. Now we're going to add the arms further, so we'll touch the outside of their former rotate and reach up towards behind you. Go down, touch the reformer, rotate through the torso and reach again. Down and up.

One more, but wait, there's more. So we're gonna reach across over to the left side of the reformer. We're going to unwind ourselves. Arm stays straight, opens out bootie cheek, goes to the box and look behind you. Right arm. Stay straight, rotate all the way to the left side of the reformer. Unwind like a corkscrew. And look back. One more. Inhale, beautiful and exhale.

Really reach those fingertips long rotating from the center and rest that stretch over to the side. Either grab onto your headdress or the reformer and this do quick stretch. I haven't stretched you guys since the beginning. Then take your hands on either side of the reformer and just rotate and put your head down towards the headrest. Just stay there for a second. Reading. Okay. Round up. Unwind yourself. We have another side to do.

Okay. Hands on his shoulders. Pick up the foot. We're going to inhale over an exhale. Left Jess getting herself centered. Inhale, lengthen out long. We'll do it two more times. Okay. Take the left arm, reach it towards the left side of the reformer and then open out.

Rotate and again, really grow. I'm growing longer in this fine and reaching further. One more. I think I skipped something, but that's okay. We're going to rotate all the way to the opposite side of the reformer and we're going to unwind. Arms stays open. Booty cheek reaches towards that box. Keep the arm straight, rotate towards the opposite part of the reformer. Draw it up, grow taller, grow longer, take it all in. Inhale and exhale. Open yourselves up.

We'll do it one more time. Inhale, and then exhale. Oh good. And come back to the center. Go ahead and put your hand down. Stretch out. Amy, are you doing okay? Are you I'm fine. Good. Take the hands to the reformer. Rotate towards it. Bend into the well and just stay there for a second. Breathe.

Okay. And recce. The next thing we're going to do is some back work on the box. So let's step off the box. We're going to walk around and we're going to change where to put the foot bar up to the second rung. Keeping, oh, excuse me. The top rung is gonna do backwards lock side into place.

Now wants me for a moment to get into this position. I'm going to go onto my knees, then I'm going to lay down on the box and Hook my ankles to the outside of the foot bar. All right, very nice hands. We'll go onto the shoulders again. We're going to lower down towards the wellest. We were going to kiss the headdress and we're going to lift straight up.

[inaudible] [inaudible] down again and left. Let's just do it two more times. One now take the right hand, touch the inside opposite of the reformer. Touch the right hand to the right shoulder and then extend the arms up. Good. Rotate down. Touch the floor. If you can reach it.

Hand on the shoulder to reach up and down. Ooh, this is good. Lift the back touch and reach each time. Try to grow a little bit taller. Get a little bit higher. Hold it up. Tiny pulses. Lift two, three. Beautiful Four. Come on Amy. Six. Come on, seven, eight and lower down. Take those arms out.

Hang out both hands on either side and just stretch before we go to the other side. This is a really good oblique workout. Narrowing that waist. Draw the hands back up to the shoulders. Let's do four in this center. Breathe in and lift. One more time and left. Good. Reach the left hand to the opposite corner of the reformer.

Take it to the left shoulder and reach up behind you. To the back hand on the shoulder, reach and twist and open. Again, deep breathing. I'm getting really warm reach each time. Keep getting higher in that back if you can.

Last one and don't forget we're going to add pulsing. I know you're so excited. Here we go. Retreat to three Wasa shoulders, squeeze those glutes. Six, seven, eight and again, hands on the reformer. Stress forward. You okay? Whew. All right. Walk yourself back. Just put the knees down on the carrots. It's start and if you can keep your hands on the reformer and if you can reach the uh, the back of the reformer.

We're just going to go into an art, stretch out what we were just working on. Inhale. And then exhale, just stick the booty out. Cat Camel again, art and then go into that deep cat. But that's not the cat. That is the camel art in hill. And exhale. All right, hands on the box. Let's take it to a long box position. But before we do that, let's take this foot bar down.

[inaudible] we'll do one red spring long box and we're going to lay down hand, leg. And leg. Now we're going to pull, first thing we're going to do is grab onto the wood. If it doesn't bother your low back, you can squeeze your legs together so that everything is activated. We're going to pull forward engaging our serratus anterior, a k, a bras village, and Paul. Now when I'm thinking of doing also is pulling my belly button up.

I love the visual of a piece of ice underneath my belly button. That's great. And pull. We'll do it two more times and one. Let's take both hands to the left side. We're going to pull into our oblique and I'm pushing down on the carriage and I'm lifting my upper body up off of the box slightly, and we'll do two more of these. One more and gently swing those arms around to the other side. We're going to breathe in. Exhale, push down and lift.

Okay, beautiful. Amy. Two more. Last one. [inaudible] and come all the way back in. Grab onto the strap above the handles for me. We'll just do a quick set. We're gonna do some circles, so we're gonna pull the straps behind us.

We'll lift and lower back down. Beautiful swimming, stroke, lift and lower. Good. Two more. Hold it up with your arms behind you. You're gonna stick. Keep those arms behind you, but you're gonna learn down to touch.

The reformer back goes down and then exhale, lift up. And I want you to also start to think of lifting your legs a little bit lower, grow a little bit longer, pull the legs off and abs in. Two more [inaudible] one more time. And Amy, I want you to hold it up there as if we're going to take a picture for Pilati style magazine and I want you to lengthen out through those toes and I want that head hovering. Look down at the reformer and pull those arms back. Grow longer, lift that back higher. Inhale and exhale, lower down and rest. How was that mean? Okay, let's hop off the box and we'll take them to the back.

Okay. Coming back to the carrot, we're going to do some arm work and we're going to do a balloon. So a sit down, change our springs. Let's start facing each other. We're going to sit back, criss cross, apple sauce or leg straight out in front of you, whatever works for you. And we'll grab onto those straps. Now we're going to do hug a tree, which normally we do on a red, but we're going to change it up a little bit, right?

And we're gonna take the right arm in, keep slack on that left arm and rotate. So one arm, it stays out to this side and yes, and then come back center. Inhale. Other side, right? Are we making this look effortless or what? And exhale, rotate. Reach that right arm across.

So it's coming from the low back into those obliques and how we're gonna do it one more time, right? One more time to the left. [inaudible] all right, now doing salute. Guess what? We're going to change that too. We're going to keep the hands here and we're going to rotate up towards the ceiling and come back. So I'm hinging forward slightly.

If that works for you, just watch that. You don't hurt yourself with that strap coming back to the center. Rotate. Beautiful Ribs are in [inaudible]. One more to the right and left. [inaudible].

[inaudible] okay, bring those hands in for serving. We're gonna rotate and keep rotating and keep rotating. Keep rotating and keep rotating. Keep reaching, and then come back in. Inhale, and then exhale. So I'm reaching across the body and I'm turning, turning, turning, and reaching in Hill. [inaudible] it's like I'm using a towel that's wet and I'm ringing it out right around my waist. I'm ringing out that towel and then come back in and rest. Good. Let's turn around and face the back. Putting those straps on.

The poles will stay on the blue. For now. You're going to going to extend your legs straight out in front or crisscross cross. Whatever works for you. We're gonna take those straps and we're going to do a bicep curl. We're going to sit tall, we're going to breathe in here. We're going to go into a round back position.

Now the right arm is going to bicep curl. You're going to lift to the back, but the arm stays bent and your honest slight diagonal and then come back. So we'll do that again with the left arm pulls in first device that tip over to the right arm, stays bent and come back. Inhale, pull and exhale. [inaudible] I bet I'm going back further than you Amy. Inhale. Exhale, reach tip. One more time to the right with the right arm I should say.

And then we'll do to the left. [inaudible] back to the center. Good. We're gonna round forward. We're gonna pull the right arm back. This one's a little bit tricky and we're gonna look behind you. That's it. So what this is like a true swimming stroke, I think.

Pull back and center pullback [inaudible] center one more each way. [inaudible] gorgeous. Gorgeous. Now come back to the center. We're gonna take both arms behind us. Swing the arms up, circle around to come forward. Belly is scooped in. Lengthening those arms behind us.

We'll just do two more of these just to get back to our center. Okay. And one more. And come all the way back in and round up. We've done a lot of fun stuff today. We're going to step off the reformer.

Let's put our foot bar back up to the second rung. This time we'll do one red only one red. We're going to do the lunge, Eve's lunge, other names for the lunge, so we'll stick the right foot on the silver harass. Now we're going to push back and go into the arch because I love to flow. I'm going to contract forward as I bring that carriage in and straighten that front leg. I'm going to go back again, arch.

[inaudible] well, guess what? We're going to add arms, Ha and forward. Good. So take that left arm off. We're gonna reach that arm up and arch and then we're going to contract forward. Actually take that arm behind you. So you did a little bit of range of motion and forward.

Well and again, now go back for me to take the hand out in front of you. We're gonna take both hands over to the right side. We're going to straighten out that front leg as best we can and reach our head into the well. Doesn't that feel delicious? [inaudible] inhaling, been that friendly. Slowly draw it in using those abdominals.

Now we're going to walk around to the other side. I'm glad you're smiling. All right, left it on. Starting with our easy lens, reaching back. Try not to sink into the back and then contract forward trading, straightening that front leg. Inhale. Oh, beautiful. Exhale. What is it? Just the best ever and and one more. And exhale. Let's add that arm. We're gonna reach that arm back, arch, and then contract. Reach the arm behind you full range and inhale and exhale.

Okay. Yeah. Wow. Let's just do it one more for fun. I think we only did three, but it just feels so good. Okay, both hands. Go to the left side. Straighten out that front leg and we're going to lower down into the well.

Whoo. Love that stretch. Hold it there. Relax into that stretch. Inhale and exhale. Come up. Okay. Slowly. All right. We're going to end class the way that we started class or we're going to stand right back here and this is actually going to feel really good because you should be nice and warm and stretch. We're going to start rolling those shoulders. Take the hands on the shoulders, reach the arms up and contract.

Take the hands to the carriage and press it away. Go into your arched position, contract in slowly bring that carriage in roundup and then take the harms behind you. All right, we're going to skip forward to the pure form of stretch. We're going to step back with that left foot. Take the right leg on and how does that feel? Good. Can you sit in that a little bit more? Hands on the reformer. Push that right carriage away. Reach that left heel down towards the floor.

My goodness. Pull the belly in slowly. Draw the carriage back in. Take the hands to the bar. Stay in that same position. Lift the chest and arch. Breathe. Beautiful. Stepping back, taking that left foot on, and if you can hop back, great. If not, it's not a problem. We're going to breathe in. Reach the hands down to the carriage and push it out. Income rounding up slowly back in. Release that carriage.

Softly, hands onto the bar. Art and it really reaching my heel down. Oh goodness. All right, coming back up. We're gonna face. The left foot is going to go on to the reformer. Let's take the toes on hand. We'll stay on the reformer.

Reach that right arm out, straighten that leg, go into that beautiful stretch to start reaching. Bend the knee. Come up. Let's do it again. We'll go a little bit lower. Reach a little bit further. Oh, doesn't that feel divine? Let's add a little bit of arm so we're going to go to the other sides of the other arm. Reaches is good. Last time. Best time, right reach, reach. Try to touch the nose to the knee. Lengthen up and then we're going to step to face each other.

Feet slightly apart. We're going to grab onto the bar round. Forward. Inhale. Exhale. Lengthen up. [inaudible] and are. Inhale, bend and exhale. Last time. This is so good, right leg stretching and up arch. Last set. We're going to turn facing away from each other. Let's put the right toes on.

Hand onto the bar. Push that carriage out. Stretch over. Well come up first without stretching. We're just going to go back over again. Go little bit further. I'm pulling for Ya. Come up now. Go as far as you can, right. Hate me now. Love me later. Stretch, stretch, stretch, reach, reach, hold, and then come up, grab onto the bar with your left hand and stretch all the way over.

Good will come up and rest. Okay, we're done. Thank you. Thank you guys.