Spine Corrector Release

Hi, I'm Kara Reeser and we're going to do a combination of spine corrector and mat work. Some traditional, some stuff I've made up, some stuff I've acquired along the way from different teachers that I admire and I'll try to be really clear about what's, what if I can remember and I have my, my pal Amy up here that we're doing. There's some stuff that I want to teach out, so she'll help me with that. Um, so we're gonna start actually with um, a Kathy grant exercise, which is called the barrels sit up. Okay. And I'm going to just, I'm going to modify it a teeny bit because we usually wear ankle weights and we don't have any right now, so I'm going to put you guys make it a little easier balance wise. Um, but when you do this at home, you feel free to put your feet under, shop it, and really come to the very edge of the barrel. But we're going to start with Amy like this and I'm going to show you how I would do it if I was at home and then we'll get in a little bit more. But basically she's going to start at the very edge, so you guys will turn around when we get to this and she's going to bring her arms here and the goal of the exercises, as she starts to tip back flat back, she's going to slowly reach her, say chrome for that barrel as she's coming back flat back and she's going to curl her tail and come for thing and she's going to try not to slide down the hill and she did a fabulous job and then she's going to take a big back bend.

There's a wonderful set of straighten your arms and just stretch it out. Great. And then crossed her arms and come back. She's gonna lift up. Come back for a second. Maybe she's going to lift her head. And then this is what I want you guys to think about. Figure out when you feel like you're in a straight line here.

And that's when you're going to try to float up straight. Yeah. Up, up. Uh Oh my heels up. I know. So I'm gonna hold her feet. Now. You guys are going to be in deeper too, so it's not going to be as hard. Here we go. So she's going to go back. She's going to search for the barrel. Beautiful. She's going to take a long, big back then. I love that luxury is Becker. And you can circle her arms right to there. This is what we're gonna do. She's gonna lift your head and then she's going to get to where she feels like she's in alignment with her pelvis. And then she's going to float it up.

Do your best. Great. Beautiful. Right? So everybody turn around and let's get started. So you guys are going to sit in a little bit deeper. Yeah, you're gonna sit in deeper so that it's not quite as you know, challenging. And Cross your arms please. And just take a moment please to just sink in. I want you to feel your feet grounded. I want you to breathe.

I want you to widen your rib cage as you're breathing. Two, three and exhale. I want you to feel where your crown of your head is and I want you to send your eyes straight out on the horizon and you're going to start to slowly tip back, reaching your sacrum for the barrel. Use your inner thighs, zip lock your legs together. Please. Everybody find that barrel. And once it's there, take the shape of the barrel into a big back bend. Yeah, Marriott's, what happens? He does. Sometimes we're like, wow, and stretch. Good. And then circle the arms and cross some. Bring your chin to your chest, find center, and then take it all the way up. Uh, uh, uh, beautiful. Take a deep breath in. Widen your ribs and exhale. Take it back.

Good lengthening through the crown. Good. Letting your eyes float down as you go and arms out. Take a big back. Look at the person behind you. Good. Circle your arms. Crossed them. That's right. And lifted up. And once you feel like you're centered, then bring the whole thing up at once.

Yeah. That takes a lot of control, right? One more time. So here we go. And I'm just standing on your feet to give you a little support. There you go. Perfect. Beautiful. That's great. And take a big back then. Good. And this one is very, very supportive, isn't it? So it feels good. Yeah. And then cross chin to chest.

Now get your eyes straight out as you come and float that up. Amy floated up. Good you guys and harassed. Beautiful. All right, we're doing laterals now. So you're going to face the side, you know, all face the ocean side and she, she's going to, you're going to face out though and you're gonna have one knee bent and one leg straight. And Go ahead and pull your barrel a little bit, Amy. So you have space. The rest of you are fine. Now check it out.

You're going to use your legs squeezing in to help keep your base. Again, this should be easier if we had ankle weights on, but we don't. So we're going to use our side body like there's no tomorrow. This a Kathy grant exercise lateral sides. So you're going to start actually with your arms out.

This is the arm choreography we're gonna use. Take your top arm up and you can follow along. Pretend you have something in this hand and you're going to inhale and put that something in your top hand. And then you're going to take open arms right here, center breathing. Now you're going to transfer this hand out over the barrel to this side and then take the shape of the barrel arm up. Beautiful. All right, arms up. Here we go. We've got three. So take your top arm up and here we go.

Lower arm comes up up and said if you had a little diamond, you're going to put it in the other hand and you're going to reach it up. Great. Now you're gonna take this hand and take that lateral exactly, Mary. Ground your feet. Use Your sitz bones. Take it over. Exhale all the way. One more time. Take it up. Reach that hand. Come from the underside the best you can. Guys, keep breathing, smile relaxed.

He can open perfect Dabrye arms and then take it out. Good. Nice. Keep your vest on, Karen. Aha, Babe. That's your right and ass good. One more time. Take it up. Yeah. The more you use this foot, the more you use those sitz bones. That's it. And arms open. Good. Now stop right here at the top.

And everybody scoot forward to the berry lip of the front, right? We're gonna do a little stretch. Now you're going to go over the barrel, right? And she's going to basically rotate. She's gonna open out and stretch everybody. Good. And then come back to your side body again. Good. Take a deep breath in. Open it out. Beautiful stretch. Exhale. Bring it back and draw the belly button in. Inhale, open it out. Let your rib cage really open.

They're exactly Christie, gorgeous everyone, and come back. Beautiful. Good. Now open up and we're going to turn to the other side. Laterals facing the other side. Great. So now I want you guys to feel, if you really hook in with this supporting leg and this foot and you hold your sits bones snuck, you will be able to keep your Bella stable and still side bend.

We don't want a lot of pelvis moving around here. Okay. How's it feel so far? Good. I think so. Nice. Let's take it over. So I love this first position cause my ribs are really getting mobile, right? And so I pretend I have something precious in this hand and I lift it up. Inhale and I open port of bras side. Exhale.

Inhale. Transfer the top hand to the bottom hand. That's it, Mary. Acts. Hell God. Take the top arm up again. Inhale, make that transfer. Puts your best on tape. Measure. Do all your Kathy grant's song there. Good. Beautiful guys. Inhale, transfer it. Good. And you get to choose. That's right Karen.

You get to choose what angle you want to make that transfer. You know, for some of you you could go probably horizontal for the rest of you might have to go in the high diagonal, you know? So we're going to make Amy really go out on the horizontal plane to make that transferred so much harder. Oh, that's right. And rest. Scoot, come up again. Sorry. My bad. Take it up to porter Brock Christie's right. Take it up. Port abreast hides scoot forward for your twist to stretch.

Yeah, so I like to come right up against that. Exactly. Exactly. And then that top arm swings over and then you'd it open the chest wall. Breathe. Good guys. Please keep that breath going. Inhale. Take it forward to the side. Get your alignment back. Exhale. Take it over. Beautiful. That's right.

Gorgeous. Let your head go. It's okay. They let your head go. Let your body really take the shape of the barrel. Cathy talked a lot about that when we were on the barrel. I love that image. You become the shape of that equipment and coming back.

Great. And everybody come up to seated please. Easy. Does it? Good. Scooch your barrel so your head can be here in your hips. Can be on top of the barrel please. So now we're going to sit into the ledge for a second to go into the hole, right? And we're going to get ready to go into the series, which is scissors, bicycle, helicopter, quad, stretch. A couple of other things like that. Okay.

And because we're in a small take container, I'm going to stagger you in terms of what we're doing. So just stay tuned. So I'd like you to take a deep breath in, spread your ribs, rollover that barrel, and then slide it out. So your sacred is on the top. Nice and smooth transitions. Take your legs straight up to the ceiling. Good.

Let's start with the little bicycle. Right leg goes away from you first inhale and go. Exhale around bicycle first. Nice and slow and breathing. Now what you want to do here is use those hamstrings to open the front of the hip, right?

So the leg that's reaching is activating in the back of the hamstrings. Exactly. Perfect. Now reverse it. Stretch right now. You're still opening the front of your hip. Keep your breath going. Ladies. Take your chins off your sternums. Look back if you need to to protect the space under your neck.

You want to make sure your Chin's up a little Amy? Yes, you have space here. Beautiful. And take both legs up to the ceiling. Middle Group. You'll do scissors with right leg coming towards your face. And Group. You'll do a helicopter, right? Leg splits and side people come around.

The other guys just keep changing. Some middle guys, just do your splits and change. Good and big helicopter other side. Good. We're out of sync, but it still looks awesome. What you want to do is not let your pelvis rock around on that barrel.

Right? So we're really trying to move the legs. That's right. So you have to think about where are my sitz bones reaching in space. Right? So as you come around, even your legs are changing. Your sitz bones are still reaching for me. That's better. Good. Now side people and people, scissors, middle people, a little bit of helicopters.

Everybody gets a chance to open their hips in this way. Now take your chins off your throat, lady. Stop looking down your own body. Aha. That's right. That's it. So when we're in those inversions, we don't want to Tuck that Chin and yeah. Beautiful. Great, lovely, great. And rask. Good. Bring both knees into your chest for a moment. Great. I just want to play with the little bit of hamstring activation here.

So you're going to have your right leg, a tabletop, and you're going to bring your left leg down to the lip. Yes. And I want you to, to bring this to table, I want you to push that supporting leg down and lift your pelvis up that barrel teeny bit. Just try and breathe two, three, four and come down and switch legs. You see where I'm at, right? And push that down. Don't go overboard, Karen. Just keep it simple and push and just float it to two, not your throat. Three, four, and down. Now put both feet down. Keep it simple guys. I just want four grams of weight off that Barrow.

We're just getting those hamstrings ready. Two, three. That's it, Amy. And relax. Good. Go ahead and push the barrel away. So your head is at the end of the Mat and your feet are on the barrel. So scoot your heads all the way back.

[inaudible] and let's get to the place where we know that you can straighten your legs and on this for you, Amy, that might be a little compromised because you'll keep your knees bent. Okay, great. But let's start guys, even though you know you can straighten your legs, right? Let's start with your knees bent and do bridging. Now we're going to do bridge with kicks, so you're going to come closer to your barrel. That's it. Her on it. Now guess what? Here's the fun thing about doing this at this studio. I'm going to bring this in a teeny bit, babe, to see you have a little more traction is if your barrel goes shooting across the room, you pushed on it too much.

What I'm going to ask you to do right now is do a shoulder bridge. Everybody curl it up. Take it up. Big, high shoulder. Bitch. Don't look into your own body, please. Good. Now think about pulling that barrel towards you, right? Don't push it away from you and roll down breastbone away from your chin.

That looks great. Inhale, pull that barrel towards you in your mind's eye. Open the front of your hips. Let the shoulders be back, but not down your back. Just back into the mat, right? So you don't have to work your shoulder blades down that way. Yeah. And then roll it down. Good. This looks great you guys. I love this version of shoulder bridge. It really gives me a chance to open my hips.

We're gonna add kicks one more time. So the pelvis is really gonna change here. That's it. Now take your right leg up to the ceiling. Once you're up and everybody keep it up there, flex your foot and reach it. Inhale, lower it down. Exhale, kick it up. Inhale, lower. Open the hamstrings. Exhale.

I met front of the hip and inhale acts hill and hamstrings. Actually, depending on what stroke you're in, down and then the knee and put your other foot down. Breastbone away from the chin. Roll down and have a moments rest. No, it looks great. Good. Everybody remember to keep your chin off your throat during inversions.

Please curl up. Good. Oh No, I hear those barrels squeaking guys. Pull them in. George, you pick up your other leg and then go lower and lift. Exhale. Inhale. Lower. Exhale up. Inhale, lower. Exhale. One more. Great guys. Bend the knee. Put the foot down and roll down, right? Nothing easy about that.

Scoot back a little bit and what you're going to do now is plant your heel on the mat and the balls of your feet on the barrel. I love this. Sit Up. You can do this. Sit Up on the wall. You can do it with a friend foot to foot, but it's a wonderful way to be more successful at your sit-ups. Okay, so your knees are going to be slightly bent like this and let's put our inner thighs together and let's cross our arms and everybody first just lift your head and look straight up at that barrels hump please in pause. Good. We're going to come up nice and slow. Come up one more little band and hold.

Use the barrel, but don't over push it. Come up a little more and hold a little more gorgeous. Use that barrel to help you up. You go everybody up. You go up, you go, up, you go. Yes, that was great. I know.

I don't think it's always about being able to do it. It's about trying. Yeah, lift up. Breathe in. Even on TV guys, we can make mistakes. Here we go. Rolling down. Rolling down. Take it easy. Use the barrel. I have weight on it so you can really use it. Right. You feel how they gave you that rotation of the pelvis? More. Good. Nice.

Karen. Good team. Inhale, lift up and all the way through. That's it, girlfriend. I got Ya. There you go. There you go. And take it back. Lengthen it. Beautiful guys out of the crown. I had reach it. Push more. I know this is slippery for you. That's good. One more time please. Up. Inhale. Good Christy.

Pull and push at the same time and lift it. Crown head. Everybody crown the head, crown of the head, crown of the head and down you go. This is beautiful. Now what's going to happen is you're going to take your right knee into your chest. You're going to stretch your hamstrings. You get a little break here, right? And you can keep that other knees slightly bent. We'll keep that slightly bent. Yeah, so you still have your heel on the mat, the balls of your foot on the barrel, spread your toes and have a sense of both pushing and pulling into that surface. It's really fun to have that dynamic relationship to the surface.

You're stretching your hamstrings ladies, so your legs are up. That's okay. Good. Circle your ankles. There we go. Both directions. Big Breaths. All right, so we're coming into trees, so your legs going to stay straight. Let's go ahead and lower it a little bit. Use that barrel in the same way. Lift your head and walk it up. Walk it up, pick up your nipples, nipples up, nipples up, nipples up. Here I come. Good.

And again, take it down. Bring this foot lower right there. I've got ya. There you go. Right. Well because your barrel slips. These guys are in sticky mats here at a disadvantage up again, up, up, up. That's it. Christie. Lift your nipples up, nipples up, nipples up. Everybody knows where that is and walk down.

Oh, that's a, that's a real Kathy grandkids. Yeah, and rest. Good. Now straighten your bottom leg. Except for Amy because she can't, I'm going to bring hers up here just to let it rest a little bit. Single leg circles in a certain way. What we're going to do, take the leg up. Stand up on that surface, right? You're going to take your leg out to the side very slowly for three count. One, two, three, exhale. Three, two, one.

Bring it back in. How now you're using that supporting like take it out to three. You use that supporting leg to keep your pelvis in the platform you want you desire, right? So you're on that raft that I talk about, right? Nice. You guys. Now we're going to cross it. You're going to go over to three and recover two, three and over to three and recover belly reaching back.

And one more time really in that standing leg guys, I love that standing leg and bend that knee into your chest. Roll up to seated to switch legs. Great. So my teacher Kathy used to say this thing tells her, she'd say if she was standing over you when you were doing something with your lower body and she took a picture of your face and shoulders, she would never know how hard you were working down there, right? So what that means is that you can't be doing your circles and your leg balance of it and be like this in your upper body. Right? So let that residual tension go. Trust yourself.

Take it back. Hamstring stretches on the other side. [inaudible] Nice. Great. You got it. You got it. Now go ahead and just breathe and roll that ankle around. Yeah, you guys have some new long hamstrings in this room. Nice. You couldn't hold your leg if you want to pull it closer to you. If you want to challenge yourself more. Nice. Breathe. Now everybody check and take that chin off your throat.

It's a real habit to look down at yourself. You want to really look at the high diagonal, almost like, yeah, exactly. Great. Now lower the leg. You're going up for tree. You're coming chin to chest. Use the barrel, Amy. Yup, that's it. Up you go up. You Go. You got it. Yeah. Hook your foot more now. Yeah, like really use it and then down. Now Hook it. Yeah, I should feel you.

Yeah, you want to use it? That's what's gonna help you get through that hard spot. That's why it's interesting. And then hook it. Push up on it. There Ya go. Good girl. That's it. You got it. Perfect. What more time down you go.

Good. Arms down by your side. Take the leg out wide. Two, three, hold and up. Two straight supporting like Christy. And take it wide. One, two, three, and three. Two, one. Stay with me. One, two, three. Now check. Did your booty drop into your raft? Pick it up and bring your leg back. That's it right now you're going to crossover two, three. Hold up. Two, three. Breathing. Good. Now that looks better than the upper body's guys, right?

So you just work in that lower corridor. That's beautiful. Great. And across one, two, three. That's it. And Great. Take that knee into your chest and row up to seated. How's that feel? That looks quite nice. I'm liking it.

Okay, so the next thing we're gonna do here is you're going to do roll over and you're going to use the barrel also. So I'm an attorney me around and she's going to put her hands on the Wood Ledge. Right? So we're getting there. We're just using this as a surface. This is ours. Right. And she's going to take her legs up to the ceiling. Right. And what she's going to do is she's going to feel the sense, go ahead and straighten your arms, Amy.

So you're at the very edge of your Cadillac. Yeah, she's gonna to push and pull this surface. As she comes up and over, she's going to touch her feet to the barrel, lift them back up into almost a jackknife and roll it down. Using that barrel push and pull. Again, these are just creative ways to give yourself more support. Okay. So she's both pushing and pulling up as my guest to be successful with this. I Dunno. Is that what you feel? Yeah. So she's gonna. So let's take position. I'm going to hold her cause her, her machine is small. So here we go.

You guys find your own way. Take your legs up to the ceiling. Let's all stay together. Please take the legs over to the barrel and touch it. Good and hold. Touch the barrel now. Lift the legs up. Nice team and roll it down. Chin away. That's it, Karen.

It's okay. That's how much it takes and take it up and over. Yeah. If you're pulling your barrel towards you too much, you learn something about yourself. That's the whole idea. It's not about being perfect. I hate perfection. Yes. Enroll down. You know? Then we'd be like done. Then what would we do? There you go. That's it. Inhale over. One more time. That's it. Touchdown.

Reach it up. Open the front of the hips. Acts Hell. Take it all the way down. Great. Open your legs wide and come up to seat it. That's at scoop back for spine stretch. Take your arms up to the ceiling and use the barrel as an image for reaching over in your spine.

Stretch, curling. Now this is all, keep going everybody, but to the audience watching what Amy's doing is also a nice option is using the back of the barrel and up you go. Good. So this is usually your inhale phase, and then your axial phase is the rounding over belly button to the lowest part of the waistline. Good. Stretch it out and then stack it up. Beautiful. Good. And one more time. Exhale. Great. And up [inaudible] good. Take your arms out to the side and let them settle. Great.

Okay. So we're going to do a little bit of flip planking and floating now, so bring your barrels in a little bit, see how that's going to work for you. But we'll, and I'm actually going to jump up here and demo this because it's, the words are too hard. Um, so we're basically going to come in first to a little bit of a cap position. So you're going to hold here and we'll just do a little bit of cat and cow rounding and arching. Then you're gonna float your cat and we're going to do a little bit of holding and reaching. Okay. Then you're going to step out to full plank in the need to bring your hands up a little bit higher and we'll do some pushups. Okay.

So finding a good position for your cat, for your cow standing. So in this case, yeah, shins down. That's right. So let's all start in an arched back, looking out, and then curl your tail slowly and around over and push that barrel away. Good. Now reverse your tail. Ground Your Shins and come back into extension. Good. And again, push the shins curled around.

That looks great. And released the tail and then stretch that chest wall out over the barrel. But straighten your arms. This is a great place to feel. Feel that serratus anterior. That's right. And around using your pelvis.

Great. And around. Great. So now talk your toes in under. Get a little closer to your barrel so you can float your cat. So you're gonna float that cat and lift those knees up. This is a great prep for knee stretches on the reformer.

You can round your upper back a little and pull your right knee into your nose and hold two, three end down and the other leg. Curl that tail. That's it. That's it. You guys beautiful and down. Put your toes down, put your knees down and arch your back and a cat. How's that feel? Yeah. You see how that position works, right? It's like everything from under here. Let's take that one more time.

So you're going to float your cat, bring your right knee into your nipple, drop your nose, touch your nose to that area and push in those strong arms. Do not bend your elbows. Big Breath, big strong breath. And then put your foot down and change. Yes. And if you need to do a little less, that's fine. Yes, that's it. Squaring off big. Push strong arms and foot down. Body down.

Arch your back. Reverse the curve. Woo. Nice guys. Let's pull out into a full plank. Now your hands are more at the top of the apex of the barrel. [inaudible] yeah, I like plank here. Put your feet together. Good. I like plank here because it's really hard sometimes to tell where we are.

You know? And this is a nice position. I actually hold the wood ladies on these barrels. Yeah, that's it. Good. So let's do a little bit of leg pull. Front to lift your right leg and lower the heel and lift and lower and lift will the three times lower and lift and other foot and a little bit of leg pull and lower and lift and lower and lift. That's it. Carry. Nice lower and lift and put it down. All right, we're going to do a couple pushups. Do your best nipples to the barrel. Inhale. Exhale, push up. Shoot. Use your breath please.

Shh. Two more. Nice. That's right. Go as far as he feels good for you. That's all that's necessary. And then please push back into a downward facing dog or elephant. Stretch and breathe. Let it go. That's right. Let your hamstrings lengthen and let it go.

Big Breaths. Letting it all release. Beautiful. Good. And then go ahead and roll up to standing right from there. Not Bad. I'd like to do a swan to finish up today. Um, so I'm going to ask you actually to spin your barrels around this way and you know, I'm taking this swan and at the end of your mat, I'm taking this swan from the way that swan on the low chair deals, um, or swan on the roll down bar or push you bar sometimes pills.

So I'm just going to, I know that that's a little dangerous for me, but I know where I'm at. So we're going to start here and we're going to bring the head to the level of the breastbone first. That's a cue that Cathy used to help us know not to start with the head to low. And then I want you to really use that barrel to push up with straight arms into your swan and then back down. Now your hands are gonna slide a little. You see how my hands are changing a little.

I probably would have started in a little more. So I'm gonna go up really pulling that all together and then taking it back down. Let's give it a try. I like to use the wood on these barrels. If you want to use the vinyl, it's up to you. It's no rules there, but full expression of the exercise for you. Yeah. Yeah. Full expression of exercise for you and I've got your backside here, Darling, and up you go guys. Head to the breastbone first. Now up.

You go into your swan. Good. Now let's lift the backs of your legs as well. Thank you. Beautiful. Nice. Exhale down you go. Good. I'm really into using the backs of my legs on these swans lately. So float those legs up. Keep your knees super duper straight and lift up.

Let's Zip our inner thighs together just for fun, Huh? And exhale down. Mary, let your eyes track up a little bit more. That just that habit. Take your legs out a turn out my love. Everybody parallel, parallel. Parallel it up. Parallel it up and up you go. Now we're going to do a really grand exercise here. Stay up, bend your knees. Don't cramp your hamstrings. Bend your knees, lift your chest wall, nipples to the barrel and stretch the whole thing out.

Lie down on your belly. Pull back into child's pose. Yes. Open your knees for your child's pose and let your body sink down. Breathing. Whew. How's that feeling? Great.

So you're going to just roll up to seated. Good. And we're going to turn around facing each other. Good. Perfect.

So just to just take a little bit of stretching here in the legs to close. So you're going to bring your legs together. What? Yeah, so just lengthen out. Find that sense of center again and let's all move forward. We use those hamstrings a whole lot today, so we're just going to let ourselves let those out.

Big deep breath. Yeah. Big Deep breaths. And then stack it up. Good. One more time. Drop your head and then bring it over. Bring your chest wall over the feet. Good. And then this time just walk your hands over the right knee breathing. That's it. Let your heads go and then walk it back to center and walk it over to the other side. Just letting it go.

Just letting all that stretch, all that tissue release. Come back to center. Great. Roll up to seated. Find Center. Trust yourselves. Good. You're going to bring your feet together, Amy, and I'll face each other and you're going to come into a squat [inaudible] and put your hands down. And now just rock back and forth. And let's just let the backs of the ankles go in the backs of the calves a little bit rocky, and then we're going to slowly straighten our legs and just let yourself relax. Ragdoll hanging.

Hm. [inaudible] big breathing. Now from your tail, you're going to start to curl up. Let your head dangle the whole time trip coming up. Rolling one vertebrae at a time, or that's actually not really one vertebra, but just up through center.

Good. And lift your arms all the way up. Let that torso stretch and take a little side bend towards the ocean. There we go. We're just coming back to the upright position now. So back to knowing where we are in the vertical plane with all that we did. And I'm John and thank you [inaudible].