Balanced Reformer

Hi, today's is such a special day because my friend Chris, he's here to work out with me for the first time in forever. So thanks for coming, Christie. Um, we're going to start with the box and we're actually gonna utilize the box quite a lot. Um, today we have a blue spring connected to the reform and Renin Santas at the back of the reformer near the foot bar, or is this the front? I don't know. Near the foot bar anyway, so take the arms up, reach up through the arms, reach up through the spine, and take just a minute as you press down through your arms to gather energy up through the ground, through the legs, through the spine. Inhale, feel the arms, reach up, breathing in, feel the lightness through the body, and exhale as the arms press through space. The spine gets even longer, even later. I'm going to take the arms up one more time. Breathe in now. Exhale round through the spine until the hands are right on the box.

Elongate the back. Coming into a neutral position with yourself. Fine. So we haven't pushed the box out yet. We've just flattened the back and now reach out. Hinge from the hips to take the box forward. As you exhale, draw in, rounding the spine.

Curl the back to bring the box back into the stopper. Okay. He'll the tailbone lift. Come into a neutral spine again. Feel that the shoulders are well supported. Inhale, reach out, hindering from the hip joint, drawing in and up through the waist to support the spine. Exhale, curl. Feel the pelvis move in the opposite direction as we bring the box in.

We're going to do that one more time. Elongate the spine. Lift the pelvis, reach out, hanging from the hips. Exhale, curl the spine in. Re elongate the back and take the right hand over. Next to the left hand. We're going to reach out a long through the spine on the diagonal here. Feel the right side of the waist. Stretching. Exhale, curl the spine, keeping the pelvis reaching. Just straight ahead. Elongate the back. Lengthen the spine out, diving the spine down and over to the left.

Exhale, curl the pelvis back in. Once you get all the way in, take the right hand to the right side of the box. Travel left hand over to meet the right hand in. Here we go. Lengthen out the spine. Take the box forward, looking for a strong shoulder stabilization and exhale round. So in my experience, there's not really a perfect place for the hands, so find the placement of the hands that allows you inhale, reaching out to work with a good solid, stable shoulder girdle. Exhale, curling back in. [inaudible].

Take the left hand back to the left of the box. One more time through center. Reaching out long. We're going to pause on that low, long line. Inhale, allow the knees to soften. Try to eat, elongate the spine even further, and then exhale. Press through the backs of the legs straight in how? Let the knees soften. Tilt the tailbone. Exhale, stretch the legs, drawing in through the waist. One more time. Inhale, soften. Exhale, stretch. One last inhale and exhale, curl the spine. And as you feel that box come to the stop or allow the knees to soften there and then just roll through the spine. Lifting all the way up. Let's set up now for footwork, so set your springs up.

I'm going to choose to use three reds and one blue spring. I'm going to leave the bar down for now. So sitting at the front edge of the box, it's going to be kind of a quick workout, quick, strong workout. Arms forward. Inhale, lift the spine. As you exhale, create a rounded spine. Begin to take the spine back over the box.

Feel that you go just to the tips of the shoulder blades. Inhale, take the arms out wide. Exhale, bring the arms forward and roll back up. We're going to take the arms wide at the top too. Opening through the chest, press through the arms, curl the spine, round the spine down. Inhale, take the arms that y exhale, press the arms forward. Drawing deeply. Roll the spine up and Elongate. Lifting the arms out. Exhale, press the arms forward. Curl the spine. I'm making a change.

We're gonna take just the right arm out and back. Just the left arm out. Feel the relationship between the moving of the one arm and the conscious efforting that you have to do to stabilize the trunk. Last time we take it forward, we will roll up all the way we lift. Open the arms, take the left hand towards the right hand, twist the spine.

Exhale, round the spine down. As you inhale, open the left arm back to the left. Cross over there, a breath in there somewhere. Find it. Exhale, roll up that side and unwind. Arms and a t going the way we just came. Right hand to left. Yup. Roll down that side. We're going to unwind and center. Our arms are back in that t position. We crossover, we roll up and we opened back out. We're going to do that one more time through, so go left hand to right round the spine.

I like to push it down and backwards on the foot bar with my feet a little bit. Creating stabilization. Reach across Rola lifts, tall. Unwind last time. Round down, open up, reach across roles. Hello, unwind. Lead the arms here and now as you exhale, roll down and try to work with, keep the arms wide.

They can always come forward. If you need to modify this, go all the way down to the lower back. Float one lega float the other legs up both hands to the knees. For the double leg stretch. We reach out and Paul and rich and Paul and rich and Paul and two and Paul [inaudible] and hold. We take the right leg forward. Reach [inaudible] switch. The hands that are on the bed.

Knee are pressing downward. Encouraging the lift of the spine. Three and two coming up into the crisscross one. Here it is. Hands behind the head. We were rotating to the leg in the air across, up and across. Two three a five for a five, five or five find center, hold center wrapping.

Hands around the backs of the leg. Curl a little higher. Hands reach back behind the head. Legs kickoff. We're going to take them away. We're going to bend and kick up. Take them away. Pull and kick a three of five, kick up two bend and reach one bend and reach. Reach up for the left ankle, calf reach and switch and switch.

Really take advantage of that hip extension going down below the box. Three, three, two, two, one, one both legs in the air, reaching for the toes. I imagine that you're climbing a mountain, reaching all the way up and then at the last minute bend the knees reached for the backs of the legs and a rock yourself. And with this fine. I'm warm. You weren't good. Let's put the box away. Uh, we're going to put the foot bar up now and prepare it for some footwork. Before we do foot work though, we're going to do a few pelvic curls.

So go ahead and leave the headdress down or put it down if it's not already there. [inaudible] placing the heels of the feet on the bar in here. Draw down, flattening the spine into the carriage. Then roll the spine up. Feel that the knees are trying to stretch and reach just directly over the ankle. Inhale to pause. Exhale to roll the spine down. I feel the elongation of the spine, the neck and the pelvis. Moving in opposite directions. Spell the strops neutral.

Inhale and exhale. Flattening through the spine. Reach not just down with the arms, but also away with the arm. So we just create a little bit of hip extension. Allow the body to be out of flection for a moment. Okay, around the spine, coming all the way and really seeing the pelvis down and back. One more time. Excelling to left.

Pause. They're going into a little bridging. We're just going to lift the left knee. Keep it bent, and just just hinge. Exhale to pull up in her. Tap the foot bar with the heel XL to pull up. Tap, pull up using that supporting like to help keep the pelvis level last one. So now as you put that foot down and doing so with utmost control so that as you're ready to pick the other leg up, there is no necessary shifting and down. Unnecessary shifting and up. Inhale to exhale.

Inhale, two. Exhale. Last time here, lifting up. We're going to place the foot. We're going to inhale. You're going to heal this. Why give yourself enough time to make a rurally matter, this last one, and drop the pelvis all the way down. K heading into footwork. You can have your head rest up or down. It has has to your choice. Here we go. Feel the backs of the legs, engage and stretch. Hold for a second.

Feel the elongation of the spine and then bend in and then reach out. So we're not going to pause every time, but I want you to mentally as you straighten your legs every time, pause an elongation and then feel that as the knees are coming into a bent position and we're trying to keep the springs long. And in that way we create resistance on the springs reaching and coming back, reaching out and coming back. Last two and last one. So we've been to all the way in. We're going to move to the toes here, setting up the feet, reach out, take a moment, find your alignment, find your neutral pelvis and then feel, feel that the feet are maximumly plants our flex and then keep the heel. Absolutely still is the knees bend, reach out. Stretch.

And Bet. So although we're in a full point at the top of the extension, the feet don't lift up and down as the knees changed position reaching out again, remembering to eat, elongate and feel that we're always trying to hold long springs. Last two were reached Ya and uh, heels come together was about to add another one. So squeeze the heels together, activate the inner thighs. We reach out, wrapped through the legs and pull and reach, wrap and, and feel all the time that there's a heaviness, a sense of anchoring through the back of the head, a very strong connection through the inseams of the legs, both as they squeezed together and also as they begin to separate. So that attitude control never goes away. Last too. And, and reach out and back. Hold here, take the heels to the outsides of the bar, find heavy pelvis, find a little adductor squeeze and we reach out from here.

Stretch and bend. Concentrate on the action of the knees extending and make sure that they're straining at the same moment. In addition work to make sure that the knees aren't bowing behind the ankle, but instead they see right over the front of it as they straighten. To avoid going into hyperextension. Feel the heaviness through the front of the ribs and the heaviness of the spine on that moving carriage last two and last time shifts so that feed her on the toes and we continue from there. Reach down. Remember to maintain that sense of guiding energy in Warren's, not just through the legs but through the trunk.

Feel that the waist is always a part of. Each movement is always elongating. The arms are always elongating. Last four work just as hard, maybe harder on the weight. And last two and here's our last one. We come all the way in. Bring the feet to the center of the bar, heavy up the ribs, heavy up the tailbone. Press out. Take both heels all the way into the bar and lift all the way up.

Go all the way down. Notice if you tend to roll into the inside or the outside of the feet and look for alignment throughout the foot. Don't allow the springs to pull your heels under the bar, but instead work your heels under the bar with the front sides of your shins. Feel as the heels go down that there the elongation upward through the spy. We're going to do four and lift three and lift two and lift one and hold into prancing. We've been one knee, drop the opposite foot. End Up and down.

Lift to threat. As the feet are changing, make sure that the pelvis stays very steady every once in awhile or often check in with the front of the ribs. Are they arching off the matter? Are they heavy against the mat? Every once in a while, check in with the connection through your waist. Slide the ease of which the neck is lengthening on the map behind you. We'll do four more repetitions.

Here's one and one and two creating a rhythmic movement here. Three and last time. Lift up all the way. Bend the knees to come in. Turn to your side. Help yourself up and take your springs down so you just have one spring connected to the reformer. Now let's take the foot bar down as well and turn around. So going back into a similar patterning that we started with, take the arms.

I'm holding onto the m straps just above the buckles of my feet, pretty far out along the head rest. And I've given my space self a little space behind me. Arms reach out straight. We're gonna Inhale, going to bend the elbows, taking the hands just in front of the elbows. Take the arms back straight. Inhale, exhale, curl the spine. Rounding down. So I've given us a pretty for giving weight. Inhale, exhale, curl up, or forgiving springs.

So what I'd like for us to do from the round spine is bend the elbows and lifts the back and then reach the arms and around the spine. So what I'd like for us to do with, um, with that spring is to use it to help us go really deep. Like you're peeling up off the reformer, find the rounded c shade, then the elbows find a straight back. Reach forward, round down. Exhale, pause in here and Curl Baca. Rounding the spine over the pelvis, bend the arms to left. Take the arms back forward again. We're going to round the spine again.

We're going to do five of mini curls in three different places. So starting in the center, I want us to curl the body forward without changing the carriage. So just intensifying the roundness of the spine and down and intensifying the roundness of the spy. So it's not necessarily an up and down curl, but more of a forward bending inwards. Last two here and last one. [inaudible]. So we're going to come down, we're gonna rotate towards our left, making sure that the pelvis isn't shifting and that the knees aren't shifting.

And then we just curl five little curls there. Down and forward and forward and yeah, and to squeezing the legs together and one Brittany down. Find the center, rotate over to the other side again, look for stability. And here's our five curls here. One down, curling inwards and down. Three and yeah, and last time here, come back through center. Okay. In a role of have a very short hiatus.

Bend the arms this time. Keep the elbows bent, and then lift from the center of the back. Looking upwards. Going into a slight back bend. Stretch the arms out straight. Curl the spine backwards. Pausing there. Lighten up on the feet and slide them a little closer to you. Make sure your lower backs connected to the carrot.

We're going to float the legs off and we're going to reach and tip. Don't go so low that you can't save a wise your spine. So it's not important to me that you go all the way down. Just one more hole there. Rotate towards your left. Hold your right leg very still in. Just reach down.

Tip the left leg on the mat and bring it up and reach down and bring it up. And one more reached down and bring it up. Find your way to center. Rotate across to the opposite side, right leg down analyst, right like, yeah, send the spine and the leg closer together as you lift one more and down. Come to center. Place one foot down. Place the other foot down. Roll yourself all the way back up. Lift the back, bend the elbows.

And one last time we bend just behind the brawl and lifting the chest. Lifting the eyes. Take the elbows back a little further. Stretch the arms out straight and set the straps down. So we're gonna lie down on our side for a little sideline hip work. I'm going to start facing inwards.

So you want to move, you can use the straps. Yeah. So you want to position yourself on your side and you want to have your hips pretty far back. I don't know, I might've gotten mine just off the edge of the carriage. You're going to take your bottom, like use your bottom link to push out so that you can put your top foot in the strap that's closest to your face. Then stack the legs and you can either lie down straight on the arm or I like to bend my elbow and just lie down on my arm there. So from here, take the top of him, press away. So you've created a nice long spine. Lift the top leg and turn the nice just underneath the strap and then delay the press into the feet as you press through the hips or just engage as all I'm saying. And then we reach out.

Just tracing the line of the reformer and then as the leg reaches out, feel the whole body, the whole side of the body, lengthen and work that side body for support as the knee comes in and recheck and bat and reach out. So feel that the energy comes from the hip and that there's no pushing or forcing through the knee. Last too, and last one, we're going to keep that like straight. Now we're going to start taking it into extension. So we reached back. The strap will come very close to your face. I'm actually pushing my strap into my body a little bit and then take the leg forward as far as you can without changing your spine.

Connect just underneath the glutens. Lie the leg back, feel the spine elongate as the leg travels backwards and bring it forward. Again. Access, stretch out. Yeah, and come back. I didn't have my hand resting on my hip. I like to do that just to make sure I might, Paul, this isn't changing. Your arm can really be anywhere you wanted in front of your body, on the carriage arresting on your side. I've got two to go.

Reaching back firing just below that happened last time. We're going to come forward. We're going to fold the knee bend, so the legs match now and now just lift the top leg and down. And now here I'm trying to keep the character. We are trying to keep the carriage very still.

So we're just opening from the hip and opening from the hand. We're you do that four more times and three and to, and one [inaudible]. So take your strap in your hand, give it a little slack, flip onto your back. Okay. And let the strap pull the leg.

So I'm just going to bring my opposite foot down onto the frame and then I'm going to let my foot just rest in that strap and let my leg come towards my body for a stretch. So now if you take your opposite hand, I've got my right foot in the strap. So I'm going to hold this rope with my left hand. I'm going to take that leg across my body for a stretch and then push out with the bottom like so. You'll have enough slack again to let that foot come out.

Bend and come all the way in and we'll change sides. Okay, so we're setting up for the other side. Again, give yourself enough space in a backward direction from the front of the reformer so that the strap isn't going to in your way straight arm or a bent arm with the head resting on it. And then we're going to take that top in reach long so that the spine is long on both sides. From there, lift the top leg, the Nigos just underneath the strap and we reach out through that way and we bent. I find that if you try to not just push the leg out right, not force the leg out, but instead almost ease the leg through space, the work you'll experience will be much more valuable. Here's the last three. I just caught myself putting my head in a funny position so maybe we should all check in with that. And last one. So we take the leg out straight.

Now we're going to take it to the back so that strap will come very close to your body. If not press into your body. I like to push my strap into my hip and work against that strap to see if I can get a stretch here, my hip flexor. Then it goes forward and then we draw back elongating the spine. So even as the leg is pressing behind us, right? I just spoke of this strap pressing into the pelvis.

The pelvis is pressing forwards into the straps. Spine is not changing. Breathing [inaudible] keeping the light high enough so that it doesn't run into the shoulder block as it comes back last two times. Exhaling, reach, keeping the spine dre still reaching forward, exhaling back, take the leg forward bend so that the knees are matching and then just take the leg into abduction. We're just opening the leg and uh, and push the bottom way into the reformer. And all the while the spine hasn't changed, hasn't rounded, still reaching long. We're still lifting the bottom waist. We have three of these to go. One and two and three. And that, in my opinion is plenty. I think Christy's too, she says, so flipping over, taking the strap in your hand and just let the, um, let the leg that's on the frame bend or relax and just guide that leg into what feels like inappropriate stretch for your body. If you're very flexible, you could even pull down quite a lot or as much as you wish onto your strap.

From there, keeping the pelvis down, we're going to allow the lake to come across the body. So again, opposite hand to leg holds the strap. You could even use the same side arm to stabilize on the frame of the reformer here. And then push with the bottom like the one that's against the frame so that you can take your foot out, come all the way in and set the strap away. Roll to your side and help yourself. We're gonna put up the foot bar. [inaudible] we're going to do some long stretch Combo pushups. Um, I'm crest for torrential and partial to a light spring on these, so I'm going to keep my red. Um, I know that you sometimes like to have a red and a blue. So, um, it's hard both ways.

So heavier is me. Heavier is maybe harder for the arms and lighter spring is maybe harder for stabilization. So there's some information for everyone and we can all change our mind in the middle. So let's step up. I'm going to take one foot back at a time and place them into the head rest and we're going to lower the body over the foot bar. So nice strong center. We're going to do three variations of this. We're going to bend our elbows wide, push out, stay low, and then bend a wide elbow.

Bend over the foot bar coming in. Press out, stay low and wide. Elbow bend over the foot. Bar One more like that. Press out. Stay low. Wide Elbow Bend. Now we're going to push up to straight arms. I'm going to push the carriage away. You're going to bend that wide elbow bend and we're going to pull back forward straight in your arms. Push out wide elbow bent, pull in over the foot bar and press up. One more wide elbow bend, pulling and stabilizing to the waist. Here comes a reverse for three bent reach-out, and then it feels as though as the straight, and you're coming higher over the foot where, because you have straight arms now that press out, reach up over the foot bar. Last one, reach out, lift up over the foot bar, come all the way in.

Step one foot in sand on that leg, and then walk both feet out against the shoulder blocks. No more pushups, no more pushups. So if you have a heavier spring and you want to lighten it now, it'd be the time we're gonna do the elephant. So willingness to press back into our heels and then elongate the spine. Line the Badia, and then just reach the heels back and lift the toes just a little bit. As you stand in your heels to bring the carriage underneath in, we take the carriage back and XL, we pull back in in how we take the carriage back.

So using that flat, that long flat line in the spy to challenge a stretch to the hips. One more time. Now let's change that position. Bring the R, bring your spine forward so you're rounded and you have equal arm and leg pressure connection around the spine. Deeper in. He'll take the legs back without shifting arms and exhale, draw in from the waist. Turning this in. Inhale again to more of an abdominally focused or a different abdominal focus.

In the exercise, I'm going to do two more. Oh, and one more. And then coming all the way in, bending the knee, placing the knees down and sliding the feet back up against the, uh, what are those? What are those clients? Oh, shoulder blocks. Shoulder rests. Okay. It's helpful to have someone who knows what things are called. Okay, so who went to press the hips forward for the down stretch to lifting through this spine? We take the carriage back and we elongate. So avoid pulling yourself in and said, push the bar forward and lift away from the bar. What I mean by that is to, sometimes we get into the temptation of pulling the shoulder blades together to bring the spine in. And instead I want us to think of, or my idea of this is that instead of doing the pulling of the shoulder lay thing, we slide the shoulder blades a partner and we send the chest through the arms to more reaching through. One more reaching through.

Oh, and let's sit back to send, Tuck the toes, let the forums rest on the bar for a moment and sit back towards your heels and then rolling up through the spine. Step off and grab the box. We'll do a quick arm series, some sides and some back extension. That's what's come in. So we're going long box. I have one red spring on. Think the, let's take the bar now. So lose the bar sitting on the front of the box. Uh, with your feet on the headrest. [inaudible] reach down for the straps. I'm going to hold once again above the buckles.

Elongate the spine through the waist, draw in and back on the center of your body. Start brand by bringing the arms just in front of the hip joints. And from that place we're going to pull behind us. So the arms go just in front of with straight arms and then just slightly behind the hip joy and just that very small controlled range of motion should be quite a challenge and we reach back and reach down to go forward and reach back and reach down to go forward. We'll do three more lifting to and last one. From there I take the arms out in front. We have the straps coming on.

A small diagonal are going to rotate. Let's say towards me first. You're going to bend the arm closest to me. Take the opposite arm and reach it forward so it's like a bow and Arrow and then find center, make it work, start initiate from the waist and then continue through and inhale center reaching across. Reach out through the opposite arm, lift the spine long and tall and find center. Notice the legs here, keep them still and back to center. We'll do two more to each side reaching around and also forward. There's a tendency here to lean back a little bit.

So just look for that in your own body and use the arm that doesn't have tension on the spring to guide your spine or your idea of the positioning forward. Last one, you're not going to come back to center. You're going to reach down and place the straps down. Okay. I'm going to keep this spring. It's still a red. It's going to be tough. You could always shift to a blue, but we're going to turn around.

We're going to do some hugging trees and then we're gonna do some breath stroking and then I'll surprise you. Yeah. Okay. So sitting here, I'm um, yeah, I, I don't know how I'll fair either, but we'll find out if we both fail. We'll just stop. All right, so reaching the arms that lift the spine and then bring the arms around to the front and inhale to open. So feel that there's first an initiation backward through the waist and that enables you to help to stabilize your spine as your arms are traveling forwards. Okay. Reaching the shoulder blades down and wide.

How about three? More. And this is our last one like this. And then we're going to open up the arms. We're gonna bend them, we're gonna reach them forward. So I've turned my palms to face down as the elbows are bending, keep the elbows still as you reach your arms out straight, find just a tee position. And then Ben from the elbows, hands going forward just in front of the elbows or it is working to keep the arms lifted. Working to not shift forward into our straps. How are you going, Christie? Good. Yeah, I knew we could do it last three and open and two and open and take the arms all the way down. All right, Chrissy, turn the box so that it's sideways for side overs. And then I'm going to let you choose at what our back extension is going to be that you can think about it. So let's do five of these and do them really well. And here's my idea.

So we get lined up, we'll put our hand on the head rest, get that leg in the strap nice and solid and push up into the strap a little bit. Find a long waist top hand behind the head. We're going to do the first three with the hands behind the head. The last two with the arms straight. Yeah, here we go. So we'd go all the way over and then we reach out and all the way over and reach out. Find that long line and all the way over and recheck.

Here we go. Stretch to the yarn and we take it down and we reach up and down. You reach out and control the descent. Five, four, three, two and stretch. Oh, I kind of don't want to come away from this part, but I'll ask. I'll get things with then let's switch sides. Okay, so we get lined up. That set up is court and right.

It gets you ready for the whole exercise so that my top hand behind the head, the next on straight. Once you're ready, bottom hand comes up. And here we go. Three with the hands back. Reach long through your body and over a long through your body. And Oh, and here we go, Christie arms and we take it all the way down and reach out. And all the way down and reach out and here it has. Control it.

Five, four, lengthen with three, two and stretch. That's a collective side. That one. Okay. Finishing up with back extension. Christie, what's it going to be? Okay. Chrissy says the breaststroke, so I like, I like one red for me. Okay, so one red spring is what we're choosing. When you take the straps, going to hook this on through the straps.

We're going to pull out on the box, hold the edge of the box. That's feeling awfully heavy button and climb on. Okay, so lining on long straight legs. Bring the arms so that the upper arms are very close to the body. Think here of dropping the elbows towards the straps.

Then lifting the hands up a little bit. Then we reached the spine out. We lift the arms, we keep the spine lifted as we bring the arms all the way around and then keep the upper arms very close to the body as we bend in. Lower inhale, reach up, continue to inhale as you reach open. Arms close to the body and exhale and three more reach and feel the beauty in this movement. The difficulty for sure, but also the beauty, the freedom. Keep the arms close to the body as we been. Last one. Reach.

Reach around. Hands stretching. Hold here for just a moment. Let that Jess get a stretch. And then Ben placing the hands down on the box. Don't rush off. Yeah. And just let the legs relax for a moment. And then when you're ready, step to one side, control the box in.

Set the straps down. We'll finish where we started. We had a blue spring on at the beginning, but I think we can do red. Yeah. So we'll just, we're gonna change it up a little bit though. So we're gonna start rant. [inaudible] we're going to go down round. So Pike your way down. Then elongate your spine at the bottom and extend the spine.

Reach up over the boxes. The box comes in and then when you get there around pipe down, lifting up through the center of the body. [inaudible] the body. So there, I've got my head kind of aligned up with the box and we're going to reach up over the box with the spine. Quite a, quite a lot of buff the box actually. Yeah, you got it. Round your spine. Last one. Richa Cresa [inaudible] press the box away from you as you extend through the upper spine. And then as the box comes in, you just a moment, find your weight on your feet, lift the arms off about three cha and open the arms out to the side. And just one more time, we'll take the arms forward. Inhale and Max [inaudible].