Intermediate Reformer Flow

Welcome. I'm Sharon Gallagher. I'm here from Mill Valley, California, where I own internal fireplace. And I'm here with Mira and Mary. And we're going to do intermediate reformer. So I'm just gonna have you girls, uh, lay back on your carriage and place your feet into a v. Excellent. The placement of the feet is really important in footwork, so you want to make sure the pads of the toes are standing on the bar, not the toes, not the toes, grabbing the bar. Excellent. So I like to set people up by pulling their toes back a little bit to activate the arches. And then you can relax your toes once you find that connection.

Excellent. Hook your tailbone down into the carriage and see if you can let your femur bones settle deeper into your pelvis. Excellent. And then I want your pelvis to be the thing that opens the spring. So you're gonna inhale back. Exhale, pull in with the backs of your legs. Re Anchor that tail. Inhale back.

And we're going to go with a little bit of flow today. Nice. So this is part of your breathing warm up as well as working the feet and activating the whole body. Try to think of this as not a leg press, but it really is the center that opens the spring. So the tail has to grab the carriage a little more so the legs get to stay heavy and let them stay heavy as you come back in. Nice. Good. Tune into the widening of those back ribs into the carriage. So the other part that grabs the carriage is the lowest of the back ribs.

Excellent lift. Nice. Last two. Beautiful. And stay all the way in arches on the bar. You're gonna make a little bird on a perch foot so that heels wrap under the bar all the way. Balls of the feet. Wrap over inner thighs together. Inhale back. Good. See if your tail can grab the carriage and pull back in. So the legs aren't really doing all the pushing. It's the pelvis.

Hook your tail. Yes, lift out. Beautiful. It's the pelvis lifting up and out of the feet. Nice. Keep working for that deeper curl around the bar. So the heels have to maintain their reach, balls of the feet, continue to reach and make sure that the feet and the inner ankle bones don't come apart from each other as you go. Right?

So that inner thigh line is what's pulling itself up through your pelvic floor. Beautiful. See if you can avoid pressing down with the knees. The knees only pull up. Nice. Mary. Yes. Two more and an excellent heels on the bar. Good. Flex your ankles as deeply as you can and let that feel like that's part of what straightened to your legs. Inhale back. Beautiful. Exhale and inhale back.

Less knees, more ankle. Come back in. Try not to push with your knees. See if you can flex your ankles deeply. There you go. Right. So lift off of my hands with the balls of the feet the whole time, right? More tail, more ankle, less knee. Yes. So the knee really only works on going up through your pelvic floor better.

Yes. Excellent. Let this feel like a whole body breath. So inhale stretches out beyond your body. Exhale, pull yourself back together. Good. Your shins should be a little bit on fire. Hopefully right now.

Good. Feel that pinky toe, I just especially pulling back towards you. Nice. Inhale, lift. Last one. Great. And now balls of your feet on the bar again, you want to be in that active arch position. Knees all the way together for your basic tenants. Stretch. Keep your heels right where they start.

Inhale back now lower the heels under in three. Exhale, two, three. Inhale up. Do three XL unnerved two, three and so that three count to me is about keeping connection to the balls of the feet, not popping your heels up, not dropping your heels down. Everything in your body goes up. When your heels go down, everything else is going up. Can you be less in your glutes, less in your quads? Yes. And feel that center line working great and nice. One more and stay under grabbed the would. Give yourself an extra little pole. Try not to shove your knees down in this policy if you can.

Still feel this lift of the inner thighs and then come back in with your heels trying to reach under that bar. Beautiful. Yeah. Good. Use your feet to take your foot bar down. If you're gonna scoop your belly legs, go straight over the bar and you're going to grab onto your handles. Great. Make fists around your handles and imagine that this cupping feeling of your palm sucks your arm back against the shoulder bites.

Your armpits are hollowed out from that place. Anchor your back ribs down into the carriage. Good. Let your legs remember the work of footwork. So wrap the backs of your legs together. Activate that, and exhale yourself up for hundred and here we go in x. Now I like to really let the arms free here. So big, big pumps fist around your handles even here. So you're still thinking armpits back. Poems back into the armpits.

Big Pumps. Can you use your pecs and your lats less and make your spine curl more good. So find the angle for your legs that allows your low spine to stay anchored. Beautiful into the carriage. Let this stretch back right.

So the resistance sending this backward away from your feet. Good. Imagine like a hammock that's tied to two trees. You have the back of your skull tethered on one end and the backs of your legs tethered on the other. Stretch it apart the whole time and let your breath do it. Big Pumps. If you can. Less pex pump higher than your pelvis.

Take your eyes a little higher. Yes. So it's longer. Two more good. Try to keep those ribs stable as you curl and come on down. Excellent. Come all the way back down. Nice. So I like to do a little in between.

Sometimes I do it before a hundred sometimes after just to deepen the understanding of a hundred so we're going to do it here. Put both handles in your right hand. You're just going to do a little teaser with your legs off to the right side and dropped down to two springs and lie back on your back. So not part of the traditional order, it's more of a beginning exercise. You're going to go knees into your chest and we're just going to focus on the connection of the back ribs to the carriage vis around your handles. For anyone who's done pet a pole work before layer. I'm settled down. Yes.

This is going to feel like you're sliding up the petty pole. So on your inhale, as your arms pulled down, I want your back ribs to try to slide back out of the pelvis. Keep your head down actually yes, and exhale back up. So it's less about the arms and it's more about decompressing the spine. So find this first squished my fingers. Good. So as you start to pull down, let this keep it's contact with the carriage and feel it stretch backward with the help of this resistance in your hands and then keep that space as you come back up. We'll do two more. Inhale down.

Good knees can just be all the way into your chest instead of the tabletop position, right? Just to take the pull off of your ribs, right. And one more inhale, do compressing the spine. Exhale back up. Excellent. We're going to take the arms out like a t. Same feeling. So the back ribs have to be down on the carriage first so that the resistance doesn't take you into extension. But it takes you into that decompression.

Exhale back out. And I like this around the handles. So your palms match, your armpits hollowed out. Yes. And exhale, two more here. Inhale, taller, more space between the ribs and the pelvis. Inhale and exhale. Beautiful girls. You're going to take your arms to the ceiling. Again, just take your elbows right down by your sides. Same feeling here. So the rib cages down as you take weight into your hands, feel those backwards. Scoop back. Inhale, exhale back down.

So keep your elbows on the carriage all the way down. Your arms will get straight. Ish. Yes. So the, the elbows and the whole upper part of the arm. Continue to press down. Nice. One more. Let your ribs really settle. Almost like a concave chest. Good. Now we're going to use that to curl up. So we're going to go on the inhale. Keep those elbows down.

Inhale coil up and over your sternum as those rib cage scoots back. Come back down. Exhale. See if you can hear your own rib cage scoot. So feel it. Feel those backwards. Push into the carriage. Beautiful. And back down. One more. I'm going to have you stay up there. Good. Exhale, bend as you stay up there.

So the elbow stay in contact. Inhale, they stay in contact. That's beautiful. Exhale, bend one more time to straight. Inhale. Now from here you're going to float your straight arms up. Exhale, try to keep that curl of your spine. Inhale, pull back down. Keep that same curl of your spine. Exhale up. Inhale. Last one. I call this deconstructed hundred.

So sometimes I teach this beforehand and excellent, and come on down. Beautiful. So now we're going to transition the straps for frogs and short spine. You're going to thread your strap through the handle. Great.

And an easy way to do this is to gram onto the the handles back here behind or grab onto the leathers behind the handles and the other hand, we'll pinch the straps. So one hand back here, right? And the other hand here, pull with your arms first. So you want this hand out of the way so your feet can easily, yeah, loop in. And then your feet just slip right in. Nice. Once the straps around your feet, your arms come down, and you're in your frog bird on a perch around your stress, so you're a little bit longer than the top of the foot. You want to make sure that the knees stay shoulder with the part so that your hamstrings are activated a little higher. Yes, you're standing in the resistance. Inhale your legs out.

Exhale back in. Good. Try to feel like the straps are pushing your legs into you. We're doing the frog today with the headrest up, so all the way out straight. So as the straps push your legs into all the way straight, keep going. It helps your rib cage stay settled.

Let the inhale widen your back ribs into the carriage. So knees a little more narrow. Peels a little higher. So this will be above. Inhale higher, right Xcel. And so the straps give you support. One more beautiful, excellent. Take your head rest down. Good at the backs of your arms.

Just feel completely anchored down into the carriage. Here we go. Inhale legs away. Curl your tail as you toss your legs over. Exhale. Lovely. Now this is a deepening of the curl of your spine here. So inhale, curl your tail to bend your knees. Lovely Mirror. Stand in your straps and peel your spine away from your feet.

So keep your feet above your face if you can. You keep your hamstrings active by standing in those straps. And then pull your hills to your button. Inhale, press out. Exhale, curl from the tail. Excellent. So those hamstrings, stay active as you coil deeper here. Nice. Keep those hamstrings on here as your chest and your upper back and your mid back. Begin to bend. Nice. Three more. Inhale out. Exhale, curl.

Beautiful. Okay. Try not to let your ropes go slack the whole time you are plugging into your feet. So the feeling is that you're going around the outside of this stretch. Use the equipment to help you. That's it. Nice pull. Pull your feet into the strap as you bend your knees. Yes. And keep your feet standing there as you sink your chest. Lovely.

One more. Um, coil. Nice. Let your sternum sink here. Yes. And try to keep tension on those straps. Nice. NPO through. Beautiful. Your hands are going to go in the handles, ready to use them. So grab on to here and then you pinch the straps with your hands to slip out and right Elvis down by your sides. Curl your upper spine up for coordination.

So I want you to be in a tiny little coiled ball here. Can you get your knees into your eyeballs by bending your spine, not by creasing at your hips. Good long wrists from here. Inhale out. Open. Close, deep curl of the spy. Knees in bend the elbows. Good, nice and slow. Inhale out. Open, closed. Try not to make that tight. Go for the movement. Inhale forward, wide. Open, close, deep coil. Then bent tumor less tight. Yes. Can You keep it parallel on this last one? So you open in parallel close and then deep curl and a nice and put your handles down on the lip. The pegs. Beautiful. Okay, so we're going to do stomach massage. So come on up. You're going to add, usually it's three or four springs. So for both of you, I'm going to have you choose. If you want to start with three or four, someone my size, I would do four.

Good. You want the springs always to help hold you together to add a little more strength but not to fight you. So you just have to find what works for you. So all the way forward, really, really all the way forward because you want to feel like you're sitting on your sacrum, not your sit bones. I think you could be more full folded that. Okay. That's okay. I am going to have you open the springs a little. So go just a tiny bit more forward. Yes.

And then bring your feet up a little higher so that your balls at your feet grab. Yes. So you can press out a little bit to get your hands to the front edge of the carriage. And then as we start going, your spinal start to open up more elbows can bend to the sides and here we go. Inhale back, lower lift, exhale, curl. I want that XL curl to happen in the belly first. So I should see, can't really demonstrate that one right now, but I should see this pulling in of the belly before I hear the sound of your breath. Right? Make it real. Make it a real forceful exhale, right? Yeah. Big Full Movement, right? Any part that's tense that you don't need, just let it go. That's better, right?

And Curl. So you have this very active drawing under while you have this very active lift up and over and beautiful. One more excellent stay there. You can take your arms back to the shoulder blocks so that shoulder blocks are really there for opening your chest. They're not really there to lean on. See if you can draw your shoulder blades together here and know that this advances to hovering the hands. So that's what you're working towards. That light pressure here. Inhale back, lower left. Exhale, curl the tail.

The more you keep curled under, as you go back, the less you start to get pushed back. Whereas on Tully, so let your tail stay drawn under, right? Feel the wrap of the backs of the legs as you straighten. So more rotation. Beautiful. Which gives you more vertical, good lower lift. Exhale, curl. And just for fun, if you're up for it, try, try hovering. We'll try the last two hovering those arms. You've got to squeeze your shoulder blades together. Lower left. Exhale curl.

You can always put your hands back down. And one more time. Wrap with the backs of the legs. Stayed curled under lower lift. Exhale, curl. Excellent. Drop your other outside spring and then arms up by your ears. Good.

And an added challenge is always to drop your springs without taking your uh, feet down the arm. Stay connected to the shoulder blades here, but the backrooms are going to lift up and forward. So round your spine. Forward there. Yeah, round up and forward. Good. And inhale back. Exhale, curl under. So we're going to keep those heels lifted the whole time. Inhale, exhale, curl. When you curl, can you get your whole sacrum underneath you all the way underneath you?

I think you could get more forward. Yeah, it'll be, it'll do more for you if you're forward. And keep your heels lifted three more and crawl under. There you go. Try to get all the way home if you can. It's okay if you get pulled back a little bit. It's okay. You're just working with that sort of up and over and under at the same time.

Last one. And and stay all the way in. Let your palms face down. You're going to inhale, twist, open to the right. Exhale, curl. Go all the way forward. Good. Inhale, get tall. As you twist left. Beautiful. Lay your arms. Feel like magnets drawn back into your shoulder blades. So the movement is more spinal.

Good. Last one here to the left. Excellent. And I like to take a stretch here. So you're going to grab onto the bar, let your feet go parallel, dive into your legs. Nice. Try not to let your knees fall through on this one. It's very easy to kind of drop into a hyperextension.

So instead let the machine plug you together, right? Use those low quads to hold your kneecaps up. Beautiful. Good. From here. Deep curl of your low spine to come back in. I want you to come and slowly feel that stretch for the low back. Excellent. Once you're all the way home, heels together, arms are gonna float up. We're going to do our little challenge of circles.

So we're going to go inhale, reverse to the side. Reverse to the ceiling. Reverse good. Swing your legs off to your favorite side and come on up. Good. Excellent. Okay, so now we're going to do our long box. Um, because normally in the intermediate series you would go to the lateral to do swan. We're going to actually do swan on the long box, which is a little bit more advanced.

So we're going to have foot bar down two springs, and you want your sticky pad on that front edge of your box. Okay, good. So you're going to stand up on the wood. Your hands are going to walk three quarters of the way down the box. Crown is down, tail is down. Good. Open your spring's a little bit, and then you're going to bend your knees to place your hips down on the front of the box. Walk your feet down into the space and you want to stand in a small v where the balls of the feet are on the wood. Good.

If you feel like you just don't have space, you could always do this from the foot bar. It's more challenging because it's a little more spread apart. Yeah. Walk down just a tiny bit. My rights have more connection. Beautiful. Now keep your knees a little more narrow and then hover your belly up off the box. Right. Your body still down. Nice. Take your arms straight by your ears. Good.

See if you can find a little hover here. So you're gonna feel a little tail curl to get your ribs off the box, right. Curl. Curl under this way, and pick your belly and your ribs up. So you're just hovered over that box. On your inhale, your belly is going to pick you up first. So knees down, belly up. Keep going all the way up. Less back, more belly, more from here.

Open your arms out to the sides. Exhale, shoot. Straight forward. I'm just going by the ears. When you go forward, go come down. Weak. Yes. So your belly, your ribs are up there. Beautiful. You're going [inaudible] bend your knees here. Come up for your second swan. Lift up. Keep the arms narrow on this one.

Let those arms externally rotate as you pick yourself up. Go straight forward. Straighten those legs all the way and come on down. So that was one round. We're just going to do one more. So arms are by the ears. Find your hover where your ribs in your belly are held up off the box, right? Very see. Curvy. Yes. Use that tail curl under.

Inhale, lift yourself up with your belly with bent knees. Excellent. Hamstrings, down, belly up, hamstrings, down, belly up. More. Open your arms out to the side. Look up, and then shoot your arms by your ears as you go. Straight forward. Good. Bend your knees. Lift up a second time. Beautiful. Bend your knees more so it's less back, more belly. Exhale straight forward.

Nice. And come on down. Great. Hands Underneath your shoulders. Good. You're going to press out a little bit with your legs from here. Your arms are really gonna power that box forward away from you to come up in a pushup position. That's it, Mary. Push. You got it. You got it. Lift your ribs and round in. Dive your eyes into your chest.

Excellent. You're going to drop a spring here. Toss your sticky pad aside. And I want you to plink your body back out just so your shoulders are just beyond the edge of the box, right? Bend your elbows to come down. So just a little more forward. That's it. Great. And then grab the sides of the machine. Control yourself in. Nice.

Great. So I think of that swan coming first in the series to really open up the front of the hips so the legs aren't dragging your back down. So activate your legs, feel the hip creases. Press into the box. Yes. Hipbones down into the box. Excellent. Hold your legs up. Take your hands through the handles and grab the straps. Beautiful. So the more grounded here, the better press into me, right?

So we want activation here in the low back. We need that and we want your legs to hold themselves up. Beautiful. From here on your inhale, you're just going to drag those straps back alongside your thighs. Pull your chest forward and open. Let your eyes come forward and exhale back down. Good.

And again, inhale, pull. Keep those hip creases down. That's it. Beautiful arms, right to the sides of your thighs if you can to squeeze your shoulder blades together and come on down. Beautiful. One more time. Inhale, feel the chest go forward. I'm going to get you right here and we to come a little lower. Yes. So the spring really pushes into right there.

Shoulder blades into your back pockets. Awesome. And come on down. Beautiful. Slide to the end of the strap. Arms out like a t, right? And you can just grab onto the strap. Like over. Yeah, with your arms out like a t. You want to feel the arms are externally rotated. Yes. Inhale, you're going to pull those straps to above your body if you can. Right. And then externally rotate and come back out. Nice. Beautiful. Inhale. I have such strong models. It's amazing.

And exhale back out. Nice. Good. And Inhale, Paul. And in a perfect world, you're really reaching for this place above your butt, which is could happen someday, maybe, yes, and round over and breathe into your back. Excellent. Take your handles and just put them both in your right hand. You're going to lunge off to the right side of your machine. Add a spring with your left hand for backstroke. Good.

And then you just want to put your handles in the right hands behind your back. Set your hands on the box and sit on the box. Come all the way forward. Great, good. And when you roll that, try not to pull your resistance with you. So just go ahead and roll back. Keep your arms back there. Take your knees with you. Good.

So here's our tiny little ball again. You want to bring your knee, your knuckles together above your head. Good. Let your hands come all the way up above your head. And in trying to get the pinky fingers together, it really makes the elbows lift up and out of the shoulders. Great knees into your eyeballs. If you can inhale arms and legs to the ceiling open.

We're going to take an exhale here to go forward and together, palms down. The arms are in the same line as your thighs, and then exhale fold in. We're going to do one more with two breaths like that. Inhale up open. Exhale forward together. Inhale, curl a little higher. Exhale fold again. Now we're going to take a breath out, so we're going to go inhale up, open around everything reaches.

Exhale n one more. Inhale up, open around reach. Exhale and reversing. Inhale forward, open. We're going to go. Exhale to close the spring's completely. Then together, then fold in. Inhale forward open arms and like stay straight as you close the springs completely. Then together, then in Nice one more exhale and deepen on the end. Take a little stretch back.

Good. Take a little breath there. We're going to transition the spring. Both handles in your right hand. Teaser your legs on your box off towards your right side and drop a spring and twist yourself back. Great and so hopefully that got your arm pits off the back edge and if it didn't, you can adjust just barely off the edge with your armpits and your legs are down. The arms are going to be in a tee at the edge of tension, so this surround your handles good and your head is hanging back.

So just like you came into a hundred by activating everything this is down. You're preparing before you go. Centre is prepared to get you up there on your inhale. Pull yourself all the way up for teaser palms. Face the ceiling and the arms in the same diagonal as your legs if you can, which gets you a little tip back on your sacrum. There we go. Exhale lower.

Just the arms. Inhale, lift the arms. Now Challenge Yourself. Try to be a little tip back on your sacrum. Exhale. Beautiful. Inhale, lift. Exhale. One more time to lift into the handles. Keep lifted into the handles. Feel the spine stretch back away from the legs. Keep going. Stretch your spine back away from the legs to peel down. Stand in your hands.

Yes. Once your low back is down, the arms and the legs come together. Nice. Good. Two more. Here we go. Inhale yourself up. Exhale, open and down. Now this could start by being [inaudible] small circles in front of you. And it advances to being big circles up by the ears and out and around.

You. Just want to make sure it doesn't get to a place where it takes you out of the connection of the belly. Once you've done three, stand in your hands, stretch your spine back. Beautiful girls and all the way down. Nice. Are you getting stuck on something a little. Okay. And last one. Inhale yourself all the way up. Exhale, lower your arms. Inhale around and up.

Exhale. Now the challenge when your arms go down is to not lean back. So you've got to go up and over just like stomach massage teaches you to do and then stand in your hands and stretch back. Beautiful. Okay. Oh, a big stretch back. Take your straps, let them drop inside your well, putting your straps. Good. And then curl on up. And we're going to do short box.

Good. So for you, do you usually go over, let's try you over and we'll see for you if we need to go. Yeah, just send to your box a little bit more, right? Two springs at least two is sort of the minimum. I don't mind a little movement of the carriage on, on short box series.

So two two's good. Your stick is waiting for you for the second exercise. And then you're going to slip your feet into the strap. Good. You should have a sideways hand of space behind you.

So if you don't have that, you're good. Yeah, you're really good. I would scoot you back. Let's get you back even a little, little more, right? And then when you flex your ankles, you can bring your legs a little closer together. Try to get your heels more forward than the balls of your feet, right? Um, for you. Try not to fall through your knees.

So I'm gonna have you go a little apart and I want you to avoid pressing down. I want you to lift back. Okay? So here we go. Hands. Just go into the front of your rib cage. Keep those deeply flexed ankles and exhale round forward, up and over your arms. Yes, and from here you're going to inhale uncoil your low spine to the box. Beautiful. And then exhale, curl yourself back.

Nice. So you can see Mary's going for a full backbone. So this advances into that full backbend. Inhale, roll back. You want to make sure that your low spine is getting in full contact with the box hers is, and then curl back up. If you're not, then, then you're still working up toward that version. Inhale, roll back. Lowest belly connects the low spine. Yes, around the edge. Beautiful. Then curl. Feel the recoiling happened from the spine. Yes.

We'll do one more. Inhale, roll back. Now here, keep your arms folded like a box. Go all the way back. Take a little extra stretch. Take that box over your head. Then you're just going to rebound the arms. Come back to the front of the ribs, the back of the neck stretches along, and try to use your spine more than your hips. Good. Excellent. And reach for your stick. Nice. Take your stick over your head. Good. [inaudible] let's go a thumbs with the fingers. Imagine you could snap the stick apart.

So feel that outward pull and let that settle your arms. Nice. Stand in your sit bones really firmly different than squeezing your butt. See if you can find how to not speak the butt, but ground the pelvis. Inhale back. [inaudible]. Exhale right back up. So to me, the first thing is the sip on. Stand to go back. The sit bone stand to come up. Inhale, back. Exhale good. And the other part is the back breathing.

So you're inhaling those back ribs up out of your pelvis and exhale yourself right back up. Beautiful. Two more. Inhale, really nice. Can you do less backbend and have more? I'm going to take your stick with, oops, hold your stick. I'm going to help you. I want your back ribs to lift. There you go. Now sit bones and backwards. Lift to come up. Beautiful side bend. You're going to go inhale to the right front, diagonal. Exhale to come back up. So same thing. I want you to, and you can go a little apart for this one. Yeah.

I want you to really go four down with your pelvis, up and out with your spine. Less from the extension, more from the lift of the back ribs. So feel the backers lifted out of the pelvis. Front ribs drop. Yes. And come back in here. Was that your third set or your second set? No idea. None of us, no. Okay.

Let's do one more. Inhale. Good. Exhale. Try to really go for it. Yeah. So that your ribs go off center and come back on center. Yes. Okay. Now we're doing the flip back to escalate. Shoulders drop. The spine gets lifted. Inhale, twist to the center of your reformer.

Exhale right back up. So let that twist take you into your hinge back. Inhale, twist, go. Exhale, wrap again. Beautiful. Inhale, twist, go. And I want you to feel the inhales in the back ribs more than the front ribs. There it is. Beautiful. Yes. Last set. Nice. And inhale and right back up. Excellent.

Take your stick down and you're going to turn to your right side for sidemen. Good. So that left leg is going to scoot forward. You want to feel like you're, you could scoot out on your box a little further this way. Yeah, so that you can find the spring or the strap and then slide your foot forward so that your heel feels really hooked into that strap too. Yeah, yeah, and you are in the air not standing on anything, right. That right foot's going to hook around your calf. Yes. The very tops of your inner thighs squeeze together, hands behind the back of your neck, elbows forward. Let your hands traction your neck out of your spine.

You're going to traction to go down. As you inhale all the way down, if you can exhale traction to come back up so it's less than the outsides of your body. It's really in the center of your body. Inhale over, pull the center longer. Exit. Pull the center longer to come up. Beautiful. Good. Inhale, reach to go over, exhale up, and we'll do one more. Inhale over. Take your right hand to the floor. Take your left arm out. Maybe you can reach the end of the carriage fingertips. Lift that left leg up into the strap and just feel that lovely side stretch.

Good. And then your hands come back behind the back of your neck and exhale yourself up and we'll go to the other side. Yeah. Deep stretch. Here we go. Every, okay. Leg forward. Yeah. Flex that heel. There we go. And hands behind the back of your neck, right.

Take your hands to the neck instead of your head. Yes. So you get to pull the occiput. Long inhale as you go down, pulling yourself taller, pull yourself taller to come back up. Exhale. Beautiful. Yes. Inhale down. Feel the width of your back ribs and exhale back up. Nice. Last too.

And all the way down. And take that left hand to the floor and take your side bed. Nice. And lifting that right leg up into the strap. So you anchor the stretch. Great. And then hands behind the back of your neck and exhale yourself back up.

Beautiful. Keep that right foot in the strap. Turn to face. And we're going to do climb tree. Good. So scoot back again. You want the sideways hand behind you have space. Good. And then you're going to hook your left leg under your left elbow and try to get a vertical line. So I'm going to have you back on your sacrum a little bit. So this, this leg starts in a vertical line. Scoop your belly, right? So there's a deep hollow at the bottom, and then you're still trying to lift your spine onto that leg from here without pushing the knee away from the chest.

Float the lower leg bones up onto that line. Nice and bend. See if you can do that without pressing your knee away from your chest. So the quads act like police, it's a police system that pulls those lower leg bones onto the vertical or close. Mine doesn't quite get vertical. Yes, go to where you get point and flex, right? Try not to push that knee away from your chest. Good. Nice. And then three circles and rivers. Keep trying to close that space. Yes. Nice. And then from here, keep along foot. Climb up your tree.

Now from here, this is still vertical. I want you to hang your body back until you can get a straight leg. To the ceiling. Yes, using your police system. Beautiful. Now we're ready for climbing down. Inhale, climb down. Keep reaching through this heel. Good holding on and XL.

Climb back up right when you climb up, pull your spine longer. Beautiful. The leg reaches up as you climb down. Inhale, climb down. This back line of the leg is trying to go up and you're going to use that to pull yourself back up. Nice. Good. And you get married at the showing, the backbend version. Inhale, climbed down. We're going to actually do that, both of us on this third version all the way down. Now you want to make sure, again that your low back is down. If you're taking that version, go ahead and grab underneath the machine with your arms.

Give yourself a pull. Nice. And then take your hands back behind your thigh and climb back up. Beautiful. And we're just going to take a stretch here. Grab your left hand on the inside of your calf. Yep. Or foot.

Grab the handle. You're going to go straight back keeping your scoop, your belly. Once you're back there, open your leg out. So you're trying to open in a way that doesn't side bend your pelvis. So at first you go straight back towards you so that you can maintain the external spiral of that leg. Beautiful. Reach through your heel from here. Curl your spine forward. Leave that leg back there. Try to get your spine more forward than the leg.

Keep coming up all the way. Bend that knee behind your shoulder and cross over your other leg. Take a stretch. Good. You can bring this heel back to the edge of the carriage and still hold onto your strap and it's going to give you a deeper stretch. Good flexing this front ankle also helps protect that knee.

Good. And Stack yourself back on other side. So here we go. Hook that leg underneath your right arm. And in your first setup you want to make sure that your femur is vertical. So you may be a little bit rocked back, kind of stomach massage, ish. Yeah, good.

And then your spine is still trying to pull itself up and out of that, just like stomach massage, float that leg up. Nice. And then feel is unique hip pressing or is it pulling? We want it to pulley. Good. I would get this elbow underneath your knee all the way. There you go. Right. Stay up there. Point and flex and point and flex. One more.

End Point and flex three circles. One, two, three. Lovely. And one, two, three. Good. And from here, climb up your leg. Good. Trying not to push the femur away. You're going to hang your body back to allow that leg to pulley into a straight line. Establish the reach of that back line of the leg and climb down. Inhale, [inaudible] and climb up. Exhale. Good. Yes. So feel the relationship of, as the backline of that leg goes up, the back line of your body is supported. As you peel down. This is connected to this, right, and it stays connected as you peel yourself back up.

Good. Pull yourself taller. And on this last one we'll take that longer back bend and then all the way down. Now you can back then on all three. It all depends on if your spine is ready for it. On that first one. Good. Give yourself a little pull by grabbing underneath the machine.

Excellent. And then hands back to the base of the leg and climb back up. Nice. Grab the inside of your calf or foot. Grab the handle on the side and stretch back first that it comes with you. Good. Keep your pelvis square externally. Spiral the leg to reach it out to the side. Lovely. Nice, good. Feel the reach through your left heel. So that's what's getting a big, huge stretch.

Here's that left so as and then curl your spine forward as your leg stays back there. Lovely. Bend that knee behind your shoulder. Cross it over and stretch. Go ahead. Good folding forward. If you want to take a deeper stretch there. Pinky toe edge of your flex. Yeah. Great. And come on up. We're going to do our long stretch series.

So let's take the sticks away. Take the box away. I'm just gonna um, give them a high bar while they're transitioning just to save a little time. And then you want to grab your sticky pad, put it on your headdress. Head rest is up. Good. And [inaudible].

I, I tend to like to center the springs. Um, so I liked the two centers. Springs on this. Good. So here we go. You're gonna go close. Hand forefoot your closest hand, your furthest foot. Establish your plank line. Your long stretch without opening the springs. So bring your pelvis where it needs to be. Yes. Then you put your other foot, other hand than other foot down. Beautiful. So heels also together. Stand in the pads of your feet a little more so you might have to flex a little.

Okay. Pelvis down, wrap. Good. And here we go. Inhale, open the springs with your legs. Exhale close with your belly, right. See if you can stand in your feet to make the springs open. Yes. And then feel the belly pull you back closed as you continue to stand in your feet. Lovely. Inhale back. Exhale in beautiful all the way in every time. Closing the springs, three more. Inhale back. Exhale, doing great. Good. The arms don't work as hard as the body works.

So leg line, belly line. Last one here. Inhale back, let your heels drop back a little bit. Mural. That's it. Exhale all the way home. Exhaling all of your air. Lift your belly, lower your knees. Heels are going to go back against the shoulder blocks. Good. So your toe joints are in that deep stretch. Good from here, pelvis, all the way forward to the foot bar and I want you to just like in your swan on the box, pick your belly up through your rib cage. Less arms more held us forward. Lift your belly. There we go. Keep that.

Inhale yourself back almost like you're sneaking underneath something behind you. And then exhale, pull yourself up and over it. So keep your pelvis forward. Drive with your hamstrings to open the carriage. There you go. Beautiful. Stand in your hamstrings to pick up your belly. Beautiful. All the way up with your belly. Last one. Inhale back and on this exhale, let it pick you up to your fingertips. So keep going up. Keep going up. Good. We're going to go right arm up. Pick your left arm up.

Take a kneeling back then to your comfort. Open your arms out and around. Good. Exhale hands. Go to the foot bar and lift up for your up stretch. So here are really important that the heels establish their connection halfway down. Yes. So they're really leaning. And that lean comes from the sit bones driving down. Good crown down, tail down.

Let your arm settle into the shoulder blades. Round your spine. Round your spine. Yes. Good. So you're trying not to round your spine by pushing through the shoulders. Find a little more connection here and letting them settle. Yeah. Good. Okay. The hamstrings initiate. So inhale, dig those heels into the carriage to open the springs. Get your pelvis way down, keep your eyes on your chest, exhale all the way in with your pelvis down.

And then transition first through your upper spine, mid spine, lower spine. Try not to release the tail. Beautiful. Inhale, press back with your heels. Try to keep that upper spine rounded on that so it's a little different. Yeah. And then dive into your upper spine with your crown to transition through it. Beautiful. Inhale, stand in your heels mirror the whole time. Yes. So when you're coming home, your heels are pushing back.

And then transitioned through pelvises last inhale, Perez out. Keep the connection to your hamstrings the whole time. Upper spine. Yes. Keep those hamstrings on mid spine, low spine. Last one. Inhale, press back. Exhale all the way home before you transition. Beautiful, lovely girls. You're going to go heels down, toes lifted up. If you have the flexibility in your Achilles, you can try and get the whole ball of your foot to stay lifted and not not so apart. Lean forward so the weight between your arms and legs is equal.

Yes. Lean, lean on your arms. Don't push with the arms. Let them settle. Good. Press with your legs. Inhale, press back. Exhale, curl in and in and try to get a little bit of a tempo going in in, which means you can't push back really far because then it's really hard to pull yourself back together. Stand in your heels and your heels more. Heels, heels. The whole time heals to come in. Yeah, better and in all the way. Good. I want you to go back up to that half point and find that connection of the backline of your legs by digging your heels into the shoulder blocks. So flex into the shoulder blocks a little. Yes. Take your right leg through the headrest and up as high as you can.

Good. Now keep a memory of elephant in your body. Yes. Good. So you're going to press back with your left hamstring line and then split your legs and Curlin with the belly. Just like elephant press back. Try not to hang on your rib cage. So press your chest towards your knees a little, little more, right.

And then come in. Hm. Right. So try not to leverage with your rib cage. Use your low belly and all the way in. Beautiful. Bring that leg back down other side.

So there's a lot of uh, internal workings on this one. You want to make sure that you're not hanging on your rib cage. Inhale, press back with your right hamstring. Curl in with the low belly. As this reaches higher, beautiful, and press back and in. Nice. Split it apart. One more. Nice. And come all the way. Take that foot flat and down.

Flat, heel down, toes lifted up. Right leg goes back behind you. So now this is a little bit deeper because it's a flat foot. If you can hold ball of your foot is off and same thing, press back and scoop as you pull in. Nice. Press back and scoop. Lift that right like higher. One more. And go ahead and switch legs. Left leg back.

Good. Square your pelvis as much as you can here. Try not to hang in your low back. So pick this up square and press back. Curlin with the lowest belly. Yes. Good. Low belly and split. Yes and excellent. Now from here you're all the way home. Closing your springs, your left legs, gonna Bend, Cross over your center and land on the floor on this side. Good.

Yeah. Once it's on the floor, flip over your right shoulder. Four long back stretch or your left shoulder. So we're going to go hands on the foot bar, heels against the shoulder. The heel connection's really important. So make sure you find that first good shoulder blades are drawing together.

Try to get your heel connection all the way. Good. Bend your elbows, lower your pelvis down on your inhale all the way up. Open your pelvis. Exhale in. Do you want to do one spring? Okay, this is two or one spring. So yeah, you might have to adjust your springs here. How are you doing Merrill with with that? Yeah. Okay. Think of your leg. Pull back in your mat work. That's the shape you want to get all the way up there. And I'm reverse. Inhale, open the pelvis, open the chest, exhale all the way down in and up.

Let your elbows bend. Inhale straight arms here and then come down in n up one more. And so I like to say it shouldn't be obvious where you're leveraging, its the whole back line of your body that leverages and step off. Excellent. So we're going to do semicircle. You can just take your sticky pad off. We're going to do it from a high bar.

So add a spring, two springs. Yes. Right. And you want your two outside springs actually. So there's room for your Bum and light on your back. Great. Good. Now this can be done with a bar down or bar up are up to me is a little more spinal articulation bar down's a little more hamstring work.

So we're going to do spinal articulation version today and hands back to the shoulder blocks. Good. You're going to press back with your arms to push your pelvis up in to a bridge. Good. And sometimes you just kind of have to walk your shoulders, especially if you have a lot of skin connecting to that upholstery. Good. Let the machine plug you together. So the first thing you wanna do is let your arms come into the shoulder blades.

Let the machine bring you home. Feel the sit bones lifting from underneath. Yes, right as the belly pulls back. Beautiful. Within the compression, you're going to articulate your spine down. Settle your chest. Good. Exhale all the way down into the springs without losing the connection to your hamstrings. So don't bother them out. You're going to press back. Oh, I forgot to put the up locks on. I think you might be okay. And press back. Try not to go all the way to straight. So go to the bent, curl yourself back up. Good and come all the way in.

We'll see if that gives you enough when you come all the way in each time. Big Quad stretch and then peel down from that quad stretch. Good. Good. Press back. Now, press into your block as you articulate from underneath. Beautiful and come all the way in.

That compression gives you a sort of a direct right into your center message and peel down. So even hear, feel how that compression does that. Let your ribs settle. Good. Press back. Connect to that. Yeah, connect to that. Use it beautiful to come all the way forward and up. Keep those heels flexing back as your knees come forward.

Keep your elbows straight if you can reverse. So lean into your shoulders. Good. Find that block. If you can, then peel through, come all the way in and curl up. Doing okay. All the way back. So use your legs. They're all the way back. Good. Find that block. Use it as you peel down and come all the way in.

Curl from underneath. Yes. All the way forward. Beautiful. One more and back. We're going to have a late, a late tap on that. Good. And all the way up. Now you're going to give yourself a little decompression here. So first of all, those sip ons are trying to lift from underneath, right through the front of your hips. Flex your ankles. Yes. Good. Excellent.

Nice. Reach your right hand to your right ankle. Grab on left hand, sink your chest, reach your knees, up and out. Yes. Good. Excellent. And then take your left hand back and your right hand back. Pull yourself back onto the carriage you might have to walk and then peel your spine down the rest of the way. Hug your knees into your chest.

Good. And when you're ready to come on up, you're going to take your foot bar down and we're going to kneel facing the back. So you might have to fish your handles where straps out of the well. Now there's two ways that you can do this, which is all the way up against the shoulder blocks or you can hook your toes off the edge, hooking the toes as a little more advanced. So go for what feels right for you today. Two strengths. Yes.

So if you are hooked, you're going to grab on and try to press your pelvis forward. If you're not hooked, you're gonna press the full length of your shins down. Yes. Right. And that helps keep those hamstring super active. Beautiful. So you want this straight line of the sit bones driving down the belly lifting up. Here we go. On your inhale, you're going to pull the arms back behind your thighs, open your chest, look to the right, look to the left and exhale center. Good. And with the chest expansion position, keep going. As I talk, I always think of superman coming out of the phone booth pulling his shirt open.

So it's like really where the emblem is, right? That's what you're trying to open. It's rare in life that we really get that open pressure pelvis forward to support opening this. Yes. Good. Beautiful. And Center pelvis stays first thing in space. Like a matador. Yes. Squeeze your shoulder blades. Left and rain.

Last set here. And Paul. Good. Rotate. Yeah. Felt that little adjustment there. Pelvis forward. So you're not hindering back. Last one, Paul, look left. Look right and center. Beautiful. Sit back on your heels. Use one hand to add a spring for thigh stretch.

Both of you are going to walk your knees forward to the shoulder blocks. This is one of those exercises where the springs help you. So don't be worried that it's three springs. They're there to help press the full length of your shins down and hips open. Good.

Now you're going to feel the back ribs pick themselves up as you inhale back. So keep standing on your shins. Yes, keep standing on your shins the whole way down and then stand on your shins and lift yourself up out of the pelvis to come back up. Beautiful. Right? And inhale. Try not to arch it less but squeezy more hamstrings. Yeah. Yes, yes, yes. Okay. Now try not to arch your back. Back.

Ribs lift up and out. That's it. Right? So what brings your pelvis forward is not a rotation under. It's really like it moves forward in one piece. The front triangle of pubic bone hipbones and the sacrum move together in the same plane. If you feel up for doing a back bend at the end of your last one here, go for it.

You have to get the hips open before you open the chest and then you will come back out of your extension and press with your shins to come up. Beautiful. Nice. From there, I'm gonna have you turn around, kneeling, drop down to one spring. Good. Same feelings. So chest expansion sets you up to support arm circles. You're going to get your matador pelvis going, right? So it's not a tuck under, it's open. It's pressed forward in one plane.

Right? Pull your arms in front of you and they're going to stay in front of you a little bit the whole time. So you have help from here. Inhale your arms up, exhale or out. Keep the pelvis in front of you. Yes, hamstrings on the whole time. Inhale. Now trying not to let your arms get behind your sideline. So the more they stay in front, the more your abs are getting activated by the spring. One more. Inhale, lovely pelvis stays forward. Exhale, we're going to reverse it here. Inhale up. Good. And here's the hard place. I think palm space, the ceiling.

Keep your pelvis forward. Good. Two more. Inhale, pelvis stays forward. So hips are open. Stand in your hamstrings. Yes, that's it. One more. Inhale and exhale. Nice. Okay, so put your spindles down. I know we're kind of pushing our time here a little bit. So we're going to do leg circles in lung spine. So two springs head rest is down. The transition of the straps here is that the long loop goes through the handle and the leather loop at the same time. So you have these, your foot strap goes through both and hooks and then you want your hardware, your metal on the, on the outside.

So again, the leather and the handle are next to each other. The loop goes through and hooks and the metal is out of your way on the side. So there are your loops. Head rest is down. Great. Yes. Great. Lying on your back. You back down. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

We're going to slip the feet into the loops. Great. The arms that we just worked on are really important in this exercise. So that connection of the back of the arm to the carriage. So we're going to start feeling that in our leg circles.

So keep the strap close to your heel, which helps keep this connection of the backline of the leg. So do that by having that active arch around the strat turned out in your v. We're going to inhale the legs down. Exhale out and around. When you go out and around, reach that back line of your leg longer. Inhale down. Exhale out and around.

Now your range is determined by your ability to keep the ribs anchored, right? And to keep that tail anchored. Inhale down and around. We're going to do one more reaching the backline longer. Lovely. Reverse. Inhale out and around. Exhale, reach to come up. Good. Tryna to inhale around. Exhale up. Three more. Inhale around.

Exhale up. One more. Good. Keep your legs together. Close the springs all the way. So both of you, your headrest is down. Yes. Great. From here, keep your springs closed. You're going to curl your tail and lift your spine up. Keep going up, up, up, right. You're going to separate your legs.

Now pull with your feet first and try like going into a standing back bend. Push with your arms. Good. Can you get a complete diagonal plank line out here? Think of this as extension. Keep going. Keep going. And controlling yourself down is the hard part. That was lovely. Standing on your feet the whole time you're coming down. You have lovely good.

And then legs come together. Close your spring's completely good. And Carl. So there is a more advanced version of this where you start to round out the corners. We're, we're not going to do that version today. Curl up. We're doing this spring's closed. Completely Open. Little wider than your machine.

Standing your feet and pull yourself into a back bend. Yes. Good feel how the activates the whole back line of your body and control yourself down. Beautiful. Mira, this is a very challenging exercise and you really can't tell on these bodies how hard it is. They are working really hard and curl up and open. Press through your feet, lift your pelvis up. Good. Stand on your feet as you lift your pelvis to peel down. Yes. Right? Yeah. Good. And then you're just going to bring your legs together. Reverse it.

So open your legs apart. Close your springs completely from the springs closed. Don't let your ropes go slack though. Curl the tail forward. Lift up then legs together. Now you get to open your spring. So push with your feet. Feel that center line pulling up through your body.

Stand in those arms. Gorgeous. I'm really not helping press into your feet a little more though, so try not to lose your feet once you start to articulate. That's it. That's it. Yes. Good and open all the way closed. Curl up.

Good legs together. Stand in your feet to lift herself up. Good. Think of your extension going higher on your back and good and last one here. Open apart. Close the springs completely. Curl yourself up. Legs all the way together. Pull with your feet. Open your legs apart. We're going to do one last one to drop the springs off.

Close your springs completely. Curl up all the way. Keep your springs closed here. If he can bring your legs together, then you're going to take your right leg toward the floor to drop the strap off your foot. Good. And then bring that leg back up. Take your left leg down, drop the strap off your foot and bring that leg back up and peel your spine down. Lovely girls. Hug your knees into your chest. After that exercise, we get to do knee stretches, which really helps to counter the work there. So come on up.

We're going to go high bar two springs and this is more of a briskly done exercise. So here we go. Knees down, feet against the shoulder blocks. Super rounded out through pelvises. Yes. And the legs power back at first. Inhale. Exhale, curl in and in. Can you get your carriage to touch home each time? So less for less far back and in, right more in so the accent curls all the way home.

Less shoulders if you can. More legs. Yes. Two more. And go right into your neutral spine and press and good. Less back. More in, less back. Yes. So it's a small push back. It's a full coming in till stays up. Right. Good. I just want your neck to feel like it has an arch right and that it's nice and long. So feel traction. Good.

And in shift back a little bit. Round your spine again, dive into yourself, pick your knees up. Inhale, press back, exhale curl all the way and try to get your legs straight. If you can curl all the way in. Nice. Hover those knees just two inches off. Beautiful girls and in all the way, lower down. Excellent. And lets do running and bottom left for springs. Head rest up.

Good balls of your feet on the bar. High Foot. This is also meant to be done briskly. So legs all the way together. Good. Inhale back. Good and working through the ankles here. Bend your right knee, left heel under and lift up to switch. Now here's where your habits of hyperextension will appear.

So you want to really try to work through the feet, not the knees. Yes. So when you push with the pad of the foot, it sends a message to pick up this center line of the leg instead of the knee. Kept driving down. Good. Just a couple more and up and switch and up and switch and upend. Switch a little quicker. Good. As you're doing this with your legs, feel those back ribs stretch back out of the pelvis.

Feel the length of the back of the neck. Increase both heels up and bend your knees to come in. Arches on the sides of the foot bar. Good. So just center of your foot arches. Good. I think of this as the Shavasana of the reformer workout.

Curl your tail up energetically to me. This is letting your upper body ground. So let your pell, sorry. Your rib cage settle. Yeah, right. And find that little curl. The tail pelvis stays off inhaled back. Exhale, curl in. So you let your upper body there, right lean. Now can you do less? But yes, more hamstrings. Inhale back.

What allows your legs to get all the way straight without arching your back is really finding hamstrings more than but less but more leg. So get all the way out there. Yes. Good. So you get that long. So s two more. Inhale settling like you're lying in a hammock all the way in one. We're in h a n n. O. The way.

Inhale here, and exhale. Peel your spine down. Excellent. And let's come on up. We're going to do the side splits. Take your foot bar down. Now you can use a sticky pad kind of pinched underneath your strap if you need it. A pad here, or you can use a sticky pad on your carriage. Traditionally the foot goes all the way up to the shoulder block.

For someone your size, probably you don't typically want to work that far. It's one or two springs depending on how you feel today. Yes. Good. I'll move this out of your way. And here we go. So you're standing up on your carriage. Let's go. Yeah. Both of you. With your right shoulder.

You can stand in the center of the carriage until you're set right shoulder to the blocks and stand on up. Put Your Foot on the pad, and then he'll tell your foot out to the block side. Good. [inaudible] roll your weight. Really exaggerate. Rolling your weight to the outer edges of your feet. And what that does is it gives you support here. This is super active to pick up this inner thigh line that's really important.

Arms out to the sides. Inhale, open the springs. I want you to find the place that the springs hold you. And then from there, exhale, pick your center up to close the springs. Nice. Three more. Inhale, roll the weight to the outer edges of your feet. Again, pick yourself up from your center all the way closed. Beautiful. Inhale, right lift. Nice. Inhale out. Roll to the outer edges of your feet.

Mirror. Yes. And one more and excellent. So, um, I like, we're gonna do one less variation here. You're going to inhale open. We're gonna pick up the flowers. So stay open, round down. Try to keep your carriage still springs open. And then curl yourself back up. Spring, stay open. Take your hands to the front of your chest, arch your upper spine. Good. Open your arms out and bring your head in line with your spine to close the springs again. When with your springs closed, round down, pick up your flowers. We'll keep that hamstring line. Good. Curl yourself under.

Nice. Open the arms out and he'll tell yourself back in. Great Stan to the carriage to switch sides so you can adjust your pad. Good, good. So that foot that's on the wood can kind of cup around the corners of the wood, the other foot, heel toes out. And you want to make sure the outer edges of your feet are rolled into what they're standing on. So see if you can find a little bit more. Yeah, outer edge down, upper inner edge lifted and arms out to the side. Here we go.

Inhale, open the springs, fine the support first, and then pick yourself up with your center. Good. Inhale out. Exhale. Pick yourself up. Nice. Inhale, exhale up. Right. So try to find the vertical lift of this so it's less in the legs, right? The feet are working hard. That outside foot. Really Roll. Grab it with your pinky toe edge. Nice. And on this last one, we're going to stay out there. Inhale, stay there, roll down. Exhale, scoop up the flowers. You're going to curl yourself back up as you inhale.

Arms come in front of your chest, come into your high back release, and then open your arms out, out to the sides. Good. And your head stacks up to close your springs. Keep your springs close, round down. Pick up your flowers, curl the tail under. Nice hands to the front of the chest. Lift and open the arms. Heel toe back in. Good. And stand to the carriage. Nice. Uh, so typically here we would do our front splits and our front splits.

Kneeling to finish off. But today we're going to end here for you. So great working girl. Good job.