Create Space in the Body

Hi and welcome back. We're going to explore the reformer flow and our focus is going to be on a noticing how we can deepen for one and an understanding around the root. The rowing, some of the rowings, which you find are really difficult for people with upper body support and not over gripping or overstay paralyzing. And a, another, uh, looking at a short box and, uh, some ways of creating release through the hips. So we're gonna of course begin with a way of just warming up and a, before we do foot work, I'd like to thank HCA and Jennifer for being here with me. We're going to be, we're going to do a series that I call the rolldown series, the standing, uh, Bettany roll-down series. So they'll both stand up and one foot is on the reformer, the other is off. And this is also a setup that I use when we go into snake.

Um, and when we're actually holding onto the, the reformer. But, um, but here, just that sense of waterfall down the back, internal, lift up the front. You're allowing your inhale. Exhale and just dive over, keeping the [inaudible] tail heavy. Keep your tail heavy. Feel your feet [inaudible] as you go over, feel that waterfall down the back and then soften both knees. You're soften your standing leg rather than stay there. Just kind of stay there. Inhale, soften. Exhale, straighten your standing leg and stay there and just feel yourself pour over more. Inhale the soften. Exhale as you straighten your leg, keep your knees soft and feel your foot beautiful. That's it.

Seal your foot opening and feel your knees soft as you straighten your leg. How does your knee release in two directions so you're not pushing back through the knee. You're creating an internal support for the knee. That's it. Yes. It also noticed it as you soften that and soften that standing leg. You get a release in the bent leg hip.

Then from there, widen out the foot that's on the floor. Take it away from the reformer more just to the place for your body that you feel a good release from foot to foot and then go toward the foot on the reformer with your hips. So you keep your body just hanging down and then go toward you coming from the standing floor on the floor toward the foot on the reformer, and then come from the foot and the reformer toward the other. That's it. And you're still hanging over as you go back and forth. You going from one to the other feeling the weight, your body weight.

You want to feel how that release allows you to get more and more softenings through your back. How's your back open? It's so gonna feed your footwork and your hundreds and your short spine. All of those first flection exercises. And then from there you come back to center and then heel, toe, heel, toe that foot back in, bring it back toward the other income, standing under yourself and then press down to come up, pouring yourself back into your foot, feeling your tail heavy. Beautiful. And then the outside arm comes up, right?

And it goes over your head to side then, right? So you're opening up. How do you allow the little lift of the rib as your hip releases down? Stay there. Inhale, soften the standing leg. Exhale, press down into the foot and feel your rib lift more so there's more space that's created three times. Inhale, exhale. Feel your foot and feel your rib lift away. That's beautiful.

The Rib lifts up as the hip releases down. That's it. Yes. Fabulous. Good, wonderful. And then press down to come up. Good. They're very good. Yes. And then let's change sides. Do the same thing. So your inhale, float up, exhale and dive over.

That's it. You're finding your hover. You feeling that roundness? How does your back open? How does your belly naturally fall back toward your spine? Inhale, soften your standing leg. Exhale as you dive over hovering.

Inhale, soften, exhale and hover over. Notice that you can release more and more out of your hips. Feel that release over. Beautiful. That's it. And then take your leg, the standing leg on the floor, away from the other one. So you're just creating space and see what works for your body, what feels like a good spacial orientation. Then from there, you go from one foot toward the other, opening up, allowing your hips to open.

As you press you one and release and you press through the other. That's it. Feel the weight shift. Allow the deeper release of your head and hands toward the floor. This is wonderful. That's it. Feel the outer border of the foot you're moving away from. That's it.

To keep that lift through the interview. That's it. Yes and wonderful. And then come back to center and then he'll show that leg back in underneath you keeping the rounding and then release your tail down to pour yourself back into that standing leg. You come up and then the outside arm floats up and you side bend over. Never right. Inhale, soften the standing leg.

Exhale as you release into that foot and float. Beautiful. That's it. Sensing the flow to the rib away from the release of the foot. That's it. Inhale, soften. Exhale. Beautiful. Yes.

And then from there press down to float up and just place both feet down on the floor, come up to standing and just notice how you've created a very, very powerful opening for your body to receive what the reformer has to give. Okay. So now you lie down for footwork. Great. So both [inaudible] and Jennifer have chosen three red springs for their footwork. And then we'll see where we go from there, what's appropriate. So from here, we're creating that down to create lift rather than just the push.

There's a release that creates lift, right? So going out, syncing the out and the end and I'm going to give you just a tiny little bit of release so that right. Sensing that weight through the heel, allowing yes, allowing the tail and the heel to have a little bit of what? Yes, yes, yes. See how that soften your knees just a little bit. There we go. And the softening. So I'm giving just a little bit of support, right?

Which is allowing the [inaudible], the release of the knee. How do we let the Nigo, how do we be in our feet? And then go head out Jennifer. Right. And all I'm doing is giving a tiny little bit of release. So basically if you think a little bit heavier into your heels, so don't push back through your knees and then come in and out as you go out. Very good. You see how that's less knee? That's it. Yeah. So right now she's feeling a lot more hamstring and glute in her thigh rather than [inaudible]. [inaudible].

Right. Let me give you a tiny, a little bit right here. So imagine that you're releasing them my hand. Yes. And then stay in my hand as you come in. There you go. Yes. There there's, yeah, down the back. You see that that'll allow, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes. And now your shoulder blades are releasing. Yes. Your heels. That's it. Good.

And now, now you're going up just a little bit higher to bird on a perch. Right? And opening, softening the foot around the bar. What's so important about footwork, which is why we're, we're starting here, is it's contextual. You see, we're always looking at what is my relationship to gravity and if what you automatically do is just do the same thing all the time, all the time, and you never question how you're doing what you're doing, you're going to get the same results, which may be how your hips tight neck. So you want to see how can, how can your neck be soft? How can you chest be open with the main two questions we're always asking is what can I let go of that I don't have to be doing and what's just enough effort for the movement. Don't have to do 10 pounds of effort for a one pound movement.

That was one of the things that Joseph [inaudible] said, you know, which is very interesting for a muscular guy. And then stay in. Now go to your heels, reaching through the whole foot. So keep your hips heavy. Right? Allow heavy hit. Beautiful. That's it. Yes. And as you come in, keep letting your hips be heavy, heavy, heavy and things sit bone to heal and go out. Sit Bone to heal. Beautiful. That was it. That's it. Yes. It though to heal. That's it.

Because the body knows itself. Body knows how to support itself. We don't have to do a lot of things. We're getting in touch with the genius of our bodies. We're getting in touch with how our bodies work naturally, which is having a conversation with our bodies rather than controlling them.

Very, very different. And actually I think it's really more consistent with the what Joseph flood, his vision was. He tended to work more muscularly, but I think he had an intention of how do we, how do we empower ourselves? Whole body health. That's what he always talked about. Beautiful. And then come back and I'll go onto the ball of your foot. Okay.

How was your back opening as you go out, back opens as you go out and come in. That's it. How your feet widening. Very good. Very good. With your knees softening. Nice. That's it. And I'll stay all the way out this time. Stay out. Put your hands on right inside your hip points, right in here.

The front of your pelvis. Come right inside and sink in and up as you lower your heels. So straight, straight legs stay all the way out and lower your heels without tightening your knees. How does the lift happen from inner ankle, inner thigh, internal belly along the front of the spine to the inner ear as you're releasing the down the back? Yes. So you can feel the relationship between the two. They're not things, it's not a thing called down the back.

It's a relationship and that relationship has a natural rebound. It's the down, the births, the up. You actually get lift when you release. You don't have to do anything. This is fabulous. And then come all the way up and then run in place and allow your heel to release. Beautiful. That's it.

Allow the down to give you lift. Yes. Fabulous. And then bend your knees and come back in. That was gorgeous y'all. Yeah. Now take your handles and as you take your handle for hundreds, see how the weight feels. You going to first of all, release your arms down in long by your side. So we want to get the down. Yeah, let's take a spring off. You're welcome.

So have that sense of the down and sense the back of your arm. If your knees bend at first, right, widening through your chest. So, ah, yes, yes, yes. So the back of your arms. Yeah. That's getting more connected. That's it. How does your hand get connected through to the waterfall? That's it. Now keep the waterfall as you curl up.

Keep the waterfall down the back giving you lift. That's it. Yes. And allow your head to drop back in my hand. Just a tiny there. That's it. So you get that back of the arm? Yes. Now from there, pump your arms down and up from that internal lift. That's it. Yes. Yeah. I bring your knees in just a tiny, a little bit more there. Yes. Yeah.

That's feeding this. That's it. And keep asking that back of the arm to the shoulder blade to belly. How do you get that down? The back up the front. That internal lift to straighten one leg. Straighten one leg without your knee tightening. Yeah, bring it up just a tiny little bit. Keep widening out your back. That's it.

Yeah. Feel the back of your arm. Keep asking the back of your arm to open so your shoulders dropped down a tiny bit there that see how they give you lift. That's it. That's it. Change sides. You'll notice what we're playing with. We're playing with the feeling of what is it that I'm doing? How am I, this is not right. Wrong. I'm not correcting. We're not correcting. We're actually playing with communication.

It's a communication that we're playing with. What's happening that I can deepen that sit each side. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Good. And then bend your knees and come back in. See how interesting that was? Yeah. And now take that to short spine. So headdress down, two springs.

So what's most important here is to feel how the down gives you lift. Press down through the back of your arm as you float into the strap right now, keep the up. Sit Bone to heal. As you bend your knees, inhale into your back. Exhale as you curl away. Release your throat, release your ribs, release your spine. Your ass. Yes, yes. And then low belly pulls your heels down. Low belly, low. Loots yes. And inhale out. Exhale. Floating up and over for yes, right. Inhale, Eh, eggs. All right, so hop in your eyes. Soften.

How can your chest soften going out and a little less turnout, right? Yes. Ball. The big toe reaches to the ceiling. As you inhale, exhale, stay against the strap and allow the back to lengthen. Lengthen. Lengthen. Yes. And feel. Sit Bone to heal. Pulls the heels down. Stay in. Yes. Great. Good. Now Bend your knees. Take your feet out of the strap, right. We're going to take that to rowing's.

So set up for rowing's. We're going to use some small weights. Let's first of all do it. And how do we take this down? Yes, so often with rowing's, the tendency is to use too much effort for the movement. It becomes about gripping the strap or about gripping the shoulders, gripping the neck, tightening the ribs, tightening the belly. So we're going to use that.

Lift the inner ear lift, inner ankle, inner thigh, internal belly along the front of the spine to the inner ear, up to create a sensation of waterfall down the back. So notice how he's feeling. A sense of connection with the strap. Now, from there, from the mat rather, and now just hands here. Allow your inhale, exhale and begin to curl, softening and widening. And only go to where you feel the shoulder blade to deep belly and then open out to the side. Inhale, exhale and begin to die forward, right. We're looking at relationships here. How does the die forward?

Stay in relationship with the reach back and then from there, keep diving. Keep diving, keep diving. Yes. I keep dropping your shoulders right there. Shoulders down. She'll keep diving forward. More. More, more. Yes. Allow your chest to open. Allow your shoulders to open there. That's it. Yes. Now keep that and sit up. Inhale up. Exhale, curl.

Right. What can be less effortful? Very good. Yes. Soft chest, wide chest. Very good. Very, very good. Yes. And not keep the chest open. Yes. Wide. Clavicles that's it. That's it. Keep the waterfall down. Excellent. Yes. Inhale up. Exhale. Yeah, right? Yes, yes.

And open out now wide and dive over. Over. Over. Yes. No. Right here. Keep diving. Keep diving. Keep drawing back. Keep drawing there. See how that's much more waterfall now, keep going forward. Keep going forward. Now from here, feel the weight in your hand related to your shoulder blade. There you go. There you go. Keep your shoulder blade. Do you went there, see the difference?

That's it. And then sit up. That's it. That feeling is crucial for when you put your hand in the strap. Yes. See how that's much clearer. Good. Now take your strap. Great. Now we're going to put the strap around the not the hand that around right above the elbow.

Right? So with it, right above your elbow, you're doing the very same thing. It's the same motion of waterfall down the keep the lift of the inner ear. Inhale, lift up, exhale as you curl. And then from here releasing back.

Right. And then feel the release as you go forward. Yes. And then just let that strap you right above your elbow there. That's it. Let it go above. Yeah. Right. So let it be right here. Yes, that's it.

Yes. Back. Good. And open out. Inhale. And now dive forward. Go over. Over. Over. Yes. Good. And now reach back. Keep reaching, yes. Feel the wings, the wings of your scapula. That's it. Keep diving your shoulder blades back, back, back, back, back, and then come up. Yeah. Yes, yes, yes. Good.

Now put it in your hand. Beautiful. Beautiful. You see how you're creating it more and more and more. So it's the relational balance between the, the weight in the hand, the way here. And how does that relate to the weight of the waterfalls down the back? Right. So now play with the traditional strap.

How does the waterfall down the back encourage the dive of the head forward? Yes. Yes, yes, yes. And keep the waterfowl down the back as your hands go forward, forward, and then feel the internal lift. Bring you up. Just gorgeous y'all. That's so fun. Wow. Wow. What are you noticing?

Do you see how you're just getting much more open, right? Yeah. Yes. And notice how your joints are soft. Yeah. It's not a lot of work. That's it. Yeah. Jennifer was saying, it just doesn't seem like a lot of work and yet she feels like it's really working a lot. Yeah. More right. What are you noticing here? It just feels really good in my, my shoulder.

Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Well it's just gorgeous. It's gorgeous how you're each your, each embodying the movement in a way that feeds your body. Yeah. Beautiful. And then let's rest there. That was fabulous. Great. Let's take that to short box. Yeah.

Yes please. And then you'll see where you want it for yourself. For legs. You might want it behind here. [inaudible] right. You might need it behind the behind that too. Yeah.

Because your legs are longer. Yeah. So the distinction we wanted to look at here is often, often it's hard to write, not put a lot of tension here and here. So let's put the dowel right underneath in front of your sitting bones here. Right? So you'll feel it for yourself. So you put it right in front of your sitting bones. So you'll feel how you're, you're stimulating your hamstring and that relationship of the articulation of the pelvis on the legs, you're stimulating that, right?

So you can lightly hold the Dowel, right? And just kind of right. And just kind of touch it front or back or side. See what feels good to you. Inhale, lift up, exhale and begin to curl as you roll. Right? Find that release. And then inhale up. Exhale over right, and press out under the strap, right? Feel the outer border.

See, we want the outer border of the legs stimulated, right? And the outer periphery gives us lift medially. Yes. Right. How to get the openness. Get space to allow. Yeah. Right. So feel how that gives you more lift.

Yes. Good. Yeah. Now from there, just take your arm straight up. Put them behind your head, right. And keep that. Keep the up. So now you're lifting up out of your sitting bones, but keep that same softness. You tail is heavy. Lift up. So inhale, lift up out of the sit bones. Inhale, lift up to go back. Look forward. Inhale, exhale and go taller to come in, right. Inhale, lift up to go back. Reach out through your feet. Out, out, out, out, out. Yes. Yes. You see how it opens up your hips? That's right. Press out to go up. Lift up, up, up. Up and open, open, open, open, and come back in.

Yes. And now reach up and over and inhale up and inhale, lift and good. And I'll come back to center. Exhale here, right. And now inhale to the side. Inhale, lift up and feel the hip go down as your rib lifts up. Exhale, center, right. So feel the release, give you lift. Inhale to lift up. Inhale up, up, up, up, up, up. Exhale. Inhale, lift up and high, especially left arm.

Reach up, up, up, up. There you go. Yes, that's right again. Right arm lifts. As you go up, keep that left hip. Drop. Drop. Yes. And very good. Yeah. Good. Now take the dowel out. Good. So see and come back and then put your feet under, right. But keep the dowel and we're gonna do a gentle twist. I know, right?

Do you see the sensation that you've gotten from that internal support? Seed out. Press out. Inhale, up, turn. Exhale. Slowly release, release back, back, back, and inhale, lift. Exhale, center. Inhale up and release your tail. Release your tail. Released your tail, released your tail. Yes. And inhale up and center, right? Inhale up. Let your t, there you go. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

And inhale. Exhale. That's right. Feel the reach to the feet. Let your tail release to a, give you lengths to go somewhere. That's it. And then come back to center and round. Just let yourself go forward towards your feet, out of your hips. Come forward out of your hips, right. Allow your hips to release.

Allow your tail to release as you're releasing forward. That's it, right? And then release down to come up. And you can put that dowel right in front of your box, right? Right foot. Come out of the strap. You want to sit back so you can float that right knee up.

Stay up. Say forward, right? And Yep. So sitting tall, sitting up, right? Feel the spines, not just a leg exercise. It's a spinal movement. Stay Tall. Inhale, soften your knee. Exhale, the hip goes down as your head and foot go up.

So connect the hamstring to your spine. Inhale, soften. Exhale. The hip goes down. Ah, Nice. Yes. You feel how that's deeper? It's not a leg thing. It's a spinal. It's a whole body movement. That's it. Now stare right there. Circle your foot. Yes. Feel the whole foot spiral it.

Yes. That's it. Once again, it's not just the ankle, it's the whole foot. Go the other way. You're leading with the baby toe. You're leading with the big toe each day. Ah, Nice. Yes. Yes, yes. Feel the helix of the foot. That's it. Point in flex. Beautiful. That's it. Yes. Yes.

And then you keep releasing. Bring that leg with you as you release back. Right. Send the right sit bone towards your left foot. As you go back, you're opening up that left hip. Nice. That's it. Yes. And then you look forward and you keep this hip open and keep reaching that right. Sit Bone. Keep her and walk up. Send that light on high. Reach that last yet. See that? Keep this open as you come up.

That's it. Right? And going down. Right. Keep reaching the right sit bone toward the left foot. That's it. Opening up that left hip. Yes. And then as you come up, very good. Keep this left hip open. I'll, I'll reach that right hip. Reach the right hip. Forward. Forward. Forward. Yes. Yes. Very good. Yeah. Good.

Take your leg across your body, right. Lifting up and spiral would stay tall. Come up. Yes. Right now. Stay up. Stay forward enough. Soften your knee. Inhale. Secrete the space. Exhale.

Go deeper into your spiral as you straighten your leg. Yes. Inhale, soften your knee. Exhale. Go deeper into that spiral. That's it. Yes. Inhale, soften. Exhale. Go deeper into the spiral. Yes. And then come back to center and change sides. That was lovely. You are stars. So good, isn't it? Yeah.

Turns it off. Turns on the relationship to gravity. Good. So the first thing you want to do is relationship to the strap. Relationship to the sitting bones. Stay Tall. Inhale, soften the knee. Exhale, straighten from a whole body lift. Feel the down. Give you lift. Yeah. You get the widening, the opening.

How do we get the waterfall to create lift? It's just what's happening. We're getting in touch with it. There's nothing to do. Just get in touch with it. That's it. Beautiful. Yes. Now stay there and circle. Spiraling. Spiraling.

Yes. Feeling though big toe, baby toe. You're either leading with the big toe or the baby toe on your spiral. Beautiful. Yeah. Feeling the whole foot feeling. Well, all every bone in the foot moving. Beautiful. That's it. And then from there, releasing back, bringing the leg with you as you go back and feeling that hip opening on the right, sending that left sit bone towards your right foot. Yes. And from there, reach that left. Sit down long, long, long.

Keep opening up that right hip. Yes, that's it. Right. Send the left. Sit Bone Long. Reach it. Reach it. Reach. Keep opening up that yes, yes, yes, yes. Good. Right. And keep reaching through that left foot. Keep reaching through that left foot. Oh budding. Ooh. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Good, good, good, good. Yes.

Right. Communication from that left sit bone to your right foot. That's it. Yes. And then coming up. Gorgeous. And then the rear leg goes across spiraling. Right. And you want to feel the internal lift. Stay up, keep lifting up. Right. How was your head connected with your foot under the strap and with your foot in the air? Stay there. Inhale, soften the knee. Exhale, move into that space. You're creating space as you inhale and soften the knee.

As you exhale, you go deeper into the spiral. Yes. And inhale. Exhale. [inaudible]. Right, right, right. One more. Inhale. Exhale. Fabulous. Yes. And then come back to center and coming all the way up.

Luvo gorgeous and step off. Fabulous. Yeah. Let's finish with front splits. Okay, so football up two springs. I think you're right. Yup, that's it. Yup. No one goes there. Yes. Two Springs. Right.

Good. So you're getting on and one foot forward, one foot back on the, against the shoulder rest. So front splits in this direction. Yeah. So one foot is here. Now come forward into your lunch there. Feel the down, the back up the front.

Feel your neck soft from there. And let's have yes, good. You both have the same leg from there. Send your left sitting bone back away from your left foot to straighten that leg. Keep reaching through that left sitting bone as you go out. Yes. And then come in. That's it. Send the sitting bone back as your head comes forward. There it is.

That's it. Yes. To feel the integrity. The body's integrity. That's it. The sit bone releases back to release the foot forward. Yes. Yes. Good.

And then come in and you can either stay in here if that feels good or you can come up, you can come up into, does that feel good to you? Which one? Yeah. Coming up. See what feels good to you. Come up into a, an open standing lunge. So you're letting go with your arms to come up, right. And you're in that position. That's it. And then you just straighten your front leg, keeping that left set, reach, reaching back.

The left sit bone goes back and it stays back as you come forward. As you bend the knee. Yes. You keep reaching back through that left sitting bone. How is your right hip opening? That's it. Yes. Feeling the, yeah.

Excellent. Right. And then reach up with your arms re age. Yeah. Beautiful. And then come back in and release your right knee toward the mat. Just see what feels good to you to release down.

Great. And then side bend over to the left. You're opening up. Yeah. That right hip. Opening up the rib, right. Feeling that opening. Yes. And then come back to center and change sides.

Right? So first we stay low. We stay low because you want to get that sense of the internal support of the hip releasing back to straighten the leg. Right. And you just feel it. You're creating a conversation. You see what feels good to your body. There's not a should.

What there is is an invitation and then the body is the body. As your body bills. This conversation suddenly goes, well what about this? Why don't we just do this? And suddenly you find yourself doing things. Well, how do I do that? Well, you listened to your body and you built it in a beautiful way. Yeah. And then from there, this is a big move. It's a big move to lift your knee off the off the carriage from internal lift.

Yeah. And then from there to go out to feel the internal lift taking you out and just feel right that right sit bone reaching back towards your left foot. Very good. Very good. That's right. Building it, playing with it, feeling the up, give you support, feeling the down, give you up. That's it. Feel how your body's giving you more and more each time. Wonderful.

And then come in and release your left knee and you can reach up. Right. Stay up and then go over into a side bend. Releasing and opening. Yeah. Wow. That was gorgeous. Thank you so much.

And thank you. Bravo.