Lower Body Reformer

Hi everyone. It's Amy and I'm here to do a jump board workout. Pretty concentrated on lower extremity. So hamstrings, quads, glutes, things like that. I do have a ball is pretty squishy ball. It just happens to match my outfit. Uh, I got lucky, but if the real for a pretty squishy kind, so I prefer that. If you have that at your ready, just see it has lots of give. We'll be doing that when we're supine and using it for certain props between the knees. Other than that, that's the only proper working with, with this class.

Let's start warming up our feet. So I want you to just, I'm sitting on my reformer. You can sit, you can stand, just lift your heels up and down about five or six times. And I'm just watching my own tracking. I'm trying not to supinate or pronate and just trying to keep those heels nice and line knees in line. Just a little bit of a wake up for the base of the foot, right up into the base of the toes. And then as you're up there, kind of roll side to side. Now you can roll across that transverse are too, just kind of underneath the, the ball of the feet. It's fine with me if you let your knees move. This is really just to get some movement in your foot and ankle. I know, just alternating lift a foot and roll some circles there.

Both directions. Squeeze your toes, release your toes and squeeze and release and squeeze and release and squeeze and release in second foot. So lifting and circle. You don't have to do all these. You can do your own if you want, but just to get some movement down there before we load the feet, um, with the jump board and as you curl those toes, really give a good squeeze if you're going there. Okay. And then I do want to have you strike your heel in front. This would be one and not too far in front of you. Keep your knee bent, roll to the outside edge of your foot. Not all the way out. Don't want you to drop your leg on this one heel and just that lateral, uh, uh, bridge of your foot and then try to roll your toes down until you're all the way flat footed and lift about five of them heel out to the lateral border.

Then if you can get pinky all the way across to the big toe and lift again, heel and outside edge and roll. So really getting that some nice stickier articulation. Now skinning some motion in the uh, in between the joints of the toes and metatarsal. And we'll do that on the other side. So heel, lateral border, pinky toe forth, all the way to fifth each, but it's probably going to be different. This is a whole exercise in of itself.

We could do another time really breaking this down. Heel, lateral arch. And again, one more. Okay. And then lastly, my fits, cramping, lift again and just hold and I want you to do, we will be doing this position in some of the jumping or the not jumping, but leg presses on the board. And I don't want you to get so high with the heels that you roll out. Okay. And you'll, you'll see that in the movement on the jump board in a moment.

So when you're lifting, some of us have very mobile ankles. I'm one of them and I can lift up and just really roll out. So I'm not building strength that point. I'm actually inviting a little instability and possible injury if I were in real life. Right? So I want to train in a better alignment of course. So for those of us that have that mobility stay a little lower, heels not so high off the floor and in a minute off the board if you have stiffer ankles and ankle joints and calf muscles, uh, build it a little bit. See if you can lift those heels just a tiny bit more.

You may experience some, um, sensation, I'll say in your calf. You want that? Okay. Just a little bit again, let's just do kind of 10 maybe pumping up in the heels. And for me it doesn't feel like a whole big challenge yet. I'm just warming up just but I am trying to feel that nice back line of my ankle and into my calf. Okay, that's it. Little foot warm up. I'm going to face the back for tiny bit of abdominal warmup, so about a hand width or two behind me picking up the straps.

I happen to like holding onto the black tape most of the time for just a basic roll back and these together is fine. Little bit of space is also fine with me. You're warming up. Bring your shoulder blades just kind of right onto the side, back of your back, breathe into the width of your chest and take a breath there and then just lightly roll back. I'm going to take a slightly small c curve to begin you like two small ones before I start moving much. This is a great chance to check in also with yourself and looking and feeling for being even on the sides of the pelvis and back when you roll back. That might reflect on how you're lying on the mat as well.

So I'm going to go a little bit bigger. I'm going to think of inflating the back of my lowest couple of ribs on my back and use that inflation to move further and center. So it's really a sense not going down so much as going backward. So yes, I rolled back off my sit bones, but I'm also trying to just really try to move the spine back into the c curves so it's not so compressed. It's a long c curve. I'm going to have us do two more just opening up straight arms but not locked a broad set of shoulders deeply feeling the abdominal contents coming to my lower back. Okay.

And to the right of the knees and about four times just getting on this oblique side. Why? Just exhale, roll back. So I am kind of going more on the side of my right back. My pelvis hasn't shifted though. Still fairly evenly weighted on the sitting bones and pelvis, but more of a subtle twist going on around my rib cage. So four on the other side.

So trying to inflate those last couple of ribs on my back as I roll. Inhale, let's go two more. Keep your legs relaxed if you can. And one more time and last little bit, we'll come back to the center. I'm going, Noah kind of changed my grip and do I reversed it. So my thumb is facing up. That's gonna allow me to do some bicep curls. I like this with some abs.

So I'm going to come back again trying to get right on the seat room. Now hold that position and 10 bicep curls. Exhale. I should have told you. I'm sorry I did not. This is all been on one red spring and crawl. So every time you're about to crow full, those elbows pull the stomach back a little bit more if you can. Last for curl three and two and last one curl.

And let's go ahead and roll all the way up. Set your ropes down your handles down. We're all back onto our back. This is where you're going to need your ball. One of the Times. Yeah, that was all in one read. So for now, let's add another red. You'll have two reds. Head rest can stay down. So I want you to place your feet.

Parallel toes for me are going to be right up at the top of the jump board. I do have some space between my knees. Lift your pelvis and set that ball and you're going to put yourself on at right your sacrum on top of that ball. So because it's a little squishier, it's more Rowley. I have to control it more. So that's kind of part of the reason for this squishier ball. Okay. So I want to focus and get us into our hamstrings before we do our jumping because it's so quad heavy.

So right now I'm going to accentuate if I can, I can more of a pelvic tilt, try to maximize as much as I can with my abdominals, but then ask a bit from the back of my legs all the way from the back of my knee up to my sitting bone. All right. And I want you to do that as well. And just focus for a moment. We're not going to do full extension of the knees cause we could come out of this tilt. So let's just push back and come in pulling in 10 of these. So I want to think this as my hamstrings are governing the push as well as the pole and I'm pushing and I'm pulling, I can go a little faster for five and four and three.

And so this pattern last one is going to happen again in a Palladio's v same thing. And I'm pushing and I'm pulling and push. My heels are also very firmly pressed together. That's tapping me more into my upper inner thigh and also the back of the inner thigh. Okay, so five a little faster. It's a push in a pool, a push and a pull. Push and pull for last one for five and pause.

Okay. Hips standing, your legs, your hip with the part, your hips. Okay, so that's really important. Take a look and see the outside with the view is where your feet are. Gonna stand, pelvic tilt, five slowish pull. Push. Now, if you can't keep your heel on the board, do to assured Achilles tendon or ankle stiffness, that's okay. Do the best you can. I'm working toward it. Okay, well five a little faster. It's a push and pull, push and concentrates stomach in hamstrings, strong four and five and in.

Now we go right out to the top corners. I happen to have the big jump this maximus jump board. So I'm happy about that. I have a wider stance and as much turnout as I wanna work with pelvic tilt five slowly and pull that, I want you to think of where you just put your rotation. Keep it, try not to increase it or decrease it. Keep what you just put one more slowish and five one and in pushing you probably felt a little change of muscle effort through all those positions from hamstrings to glutes, um, in various places are right now as we're wider turned out probably a little bit more than the deep external rotators, which was the point. Okay, so let's come in, lift your pelvis and take the ball away from there. But now place it between your knees and give it a pretty healthy squeeze. It's up to you. If you want your head rest up or down.

I'm going to keep mine down. I'd like you to go onto the balls of the feet. Now, push the carriage all the way out and just simply lower your heels. So we're going to establish that heel lift position that we did sitting. And I want you to rise your heels and just hold again not as high as you can if you're real mobile, little higher if you need to work on that flexibility. Now I'm going to squeeze that ball and I'm going to come in about halfway and I just want to sit there for a couple of moments. M Y to squeeze, isolate this contraction here and add a little work from around the sit bone, the back of the thighs. And you're going to be feeling length here.

Probably a little heat and concentration in the inner thigh. So what I have with this is I just want us to do three to five inch pulses back and forth, back and forth. So one way to think about this too with your foot is of if you're a high arched person or mobile ankles, you should have your pinky toe, knuckle or metatarsal on the board. If you're so high enrolling off your foot, you may not feel that they're spread your toes, spread the base of the feet. Here we go. Slightly think of inkling, angling in your knees. Now just think it. Slight internal rotation and we're pulsing and pulsing and pulsing and I really do say, I'm sorry with this, I have not counted. I'm going to call it now last two.

That might've been like 16 pulses or 20 same thing in pilates. V with the ball. Okay, so it sits a little different. So push and pull. Let's go to 16 okay, we'll do it together. And five, six, try to continue squeezing that ball while you do this. Pele's V so eight, seven. Hey, my heels are pressed together, concentrating back of fires, inner thighs when I'm also feeling the front quadricep as well. And that was our 16 okay, now you can't use the ball for hip width hip with the parallel.

I think you would understand that your feet are wide. Heels are lifted into that little forced arch with the feet and just simply holding the ball and little pulses. And two, three. So I'm on two reds. You could certainly do this with more. If you felt the need, it wouldn't go any less than this really. Now, some of you may be feeling your knees at this point, smaller range of, so lighten up your weight if so, four, three, two, and one, and then toes in the corners. Make sure that fifth toes really reaching out. Establish your turnout. There is mine, and push and pull. And two. These are tiny. Three, four. Once you've determined your turnout, no more, no less, please. Seven and a more.

One and two. Three sitting bones are not as wide open. I don't have a tuck going on and six and seven and eight. Okay, heels down. Walk your feet in, right into parallel all the way together. Okay, now let's just start some easy jumps, meaning spring out feet. What I want you to do is focus on your feet, not the height of your jump. Articulate and push through the toes.

So I'm keeping these jumps kind of small today on purpose, so it's a little different focus. Okay? And then that was our 10 I believe. Let's go to first position, really small [inaudible] v, pretend that ball is still there. So there there's still that slight connection in the space between those knees, nine and 10 hip with the part one and two accentuate your strong feet. Strong ankles. Five let your ankles glide. So ease up how you land.

Take some of the stiffness out of your ankles. That was our 10 in the corners. Now I've got gotta look up one, push two push three and roll through those feet. Five and six and seven, eight and nine and 10. Land in the middle. Come on up and just drop down one of your springs. So I'm gonna take off one red, add the blue and we're going to go back down and take a look at a little single leg here. So if I start with my right leg parallel your lower down, a little bit, left knee and tabled hop level pelvis.

I'm going to do three jumps off this right leg and then CLM together for a brief transition and land on my left. So it's just a one, two, three up, shades, four jumps up, excuse me. And down. And for three, two here's the CLL to gather and land and no one to really concentrate three ad on your feet and how they're connected to the whole rear line of your leg. Let's keep it going for more patterns like this. So feet to seat three and four and push. So I like to also think that I almost start my junk from my butt muscles and two and three seal the legs and one.

So this pattern is just going to be cut in half now. All right, so two jumps, one and together land one together and Land Dan one together and land and one to gather and land for more hand to you could certainly be doing larger jumps if you felt the need and one and two. Okay. Same pattern in a Polonious first position. So how's that going to look with this? Opposite leg? I'm gonna just to lift it out in this kind of little bit of an attitude position. Here I go for four and three. Two they go together and land and one, two, three to gather and land and spring off the feet.

Articulate through those joints of the foot and ankle. Two, three, four more patterns. And then we'll cut it down to the twos. When in the air there you want to stretch the knee muscles. Stretch the knee stretch. Okay, one more for jumps. We want strong knees here to stand three.

So now I'm in two jumps to switch gender one and seal the layer one and together and one and together. And one we have that four more times and to jump and suspend in the air and jump. Not a lot of time to suspend with this spring combination. And let's land right there. Okay? Take your ball in your hands. Went to the stand in the middle of your jump board.

Angle your feet to the right or left. So if you've gone left, bend your knee slightly, Bend your elbow slightly and twist your ribs or rotate your ribs to those side where your ball is to the right and straight and just do that eight time. So I want you to feel the twist from your spine and ribs. My elbow is or bending, but I'm thinking more about trying to turn. Can't turn much here on purpose, but you can set the intention internally, charge up those obliques even though it's a very, very small range of motion. Okay? In a minute it might be a little bigger when we jump.

So eight the other way you're, we go hand one, two. So I am allowing that left elbow to come down a bit for so almost like I'm saying to my right obliques to leftover weeks twist and seven. Let's put a jump into it. Okay. And jump little 80 bitty with the feet too. Try to keep your ankles close and your knees close together.

Now the ball is nice and light. What if it were a little heavier? You'd have to kind of absorb this weight pool slightly down and down. Wow. Letting go into one hand and the other hand. Why? Because it's good for our coordination and dressed. I Hate Morin one and two and three and four and six. This is our last two jumps today. All right, so we're going to take ourselves up to sitting for a moment. Hmm.

Probably have that nearby take off. I'm going to take off my red today for some hamstring work. Sideline head rest for me. We'll go back up. Get your strap. So we're going to transfer our mind a mat class for a second, Ron or side. We're gonna do front and up and down in some clam shell.

So what to balance our lower extremities can't be all quads. So right now I'm going to bend my bottom and you get it another way. Look at my own alignment leg and hip height. If I can. Easy neck and shoulders. I'm going to hold onto this head rest. It feels good to me. Or shoulder rest.

Now let's bring the leg forward without bringing the tailbone under width. We're just going to keep those sit bones pointed straight out to that jump board. Concentrate on hamstring, not the back of me, the belly of the hamstring. Okay, in pull until your leg is in line with you. Let's do eight of those good hip flection. [inaudible] good length through the whole body. Easy hip flection. You could certainly do this with heavier weight.

Sometimes it's the less weight, the more you're working, you know in your, in your body. You don't have to need work such heavy springs all the time. Sometimes the lighter weight is more to stabilize anyway, last three, just getting an easy crease and easy stretch. Use those long hamstrings. Now to move that leg last two and last one and then I'm going to keep my leg down down there near the board. Externally rotate.

Now it's not quite aligned with my hip because this might come in front of the shoulder rest, so use your discretion. If you want to look up for a moment and just see where your leg can angle kind of in line with the jump board corner. That's a pretty good bet and they'll allow your leg to be kind of supported and taken into further range, possibly because of this long supportive strap. Now again, not the knee. Where are you going to resource the pool from is more up in the upper leg muscles in her thigh, hamstring and around your sit bone. So eight of these and lower and we lift [inaudible] lower. And if we don't want tension in the neck, the jaw, the ears, the head, keep it all down in those lower extremities.

Five and six. I have a yummy stretch coming. I think it is at seven last time. Alright, one should have been the knee parallel spine and take the strap with your um, take, get off your foot certainly. And now let the strap go for a second roll toward it and just kind of allow it to slide a little bit. What I'm trying to get to is a little, uh, lat and tricep stretch. And now if you reach your leg behind you, you might in intersect the jump board. So just be ready and allow a little more torso rotation, a couple of deep breaths. And you want to lengthen this front line from shoulder to obliques? Yeah.

All right, we're not quite done. I want you to put your knee through this or your whole leg strap up at your knee, knee to knee, ankle to ankle. And let's go for it. Eight and seven and six. Good. Tony now deeper in the rotators.

I'm five and six and seven and Aiden, hold and lift. I want you to do five circles of your thigh. One direction. Actually on this lighter weight, we can go for eight. What the heck? Everything else else has been eighth or certainly close to that five and six really pressed back. You using that backside, that seven and eight, the back of that hip press, we have to reverse the thigh circle, press back into those rotators to being mindful that the whole body stays relatively quiet or still isolating the hip joint, the back side, and seven and eight. Okay, we're done with that on this side. Let's flip it over to the other leg. So come on up. So we started with front, then turn out up, down, a little stretch and then the clamshell.

Just move this per second on a we go. So again, is it starting on the sole of the foot? You want to stay parallel here? Get yourself set. You're on the side of your hip, bottom me bent. You're organized in your alignment.

And here we go slowly to carry the leg forward. Again, a tailbone does not come with as it doesn't roll under you. Keep it pointed toward the jump board. The sit bones also are not bound and tucked together. Just let them relax. Somewhat. Concentrate on your hamstrings, dominoes and hip flexors here. Definitely hamstrings are on stretch and contract for length.

Five lengthen and six last two seven and last one eight. Pause when the leg is near board, turn out. If you want to take a scan, make sure it's kind of in that diagonal. Here we go and up. Let the stretch happen and come down and up. Let the stretch come down their leg and I know no one's collapsing their abdominals.

You're not collapsing your side body. It's okay if your leg isn't going as high. Go where you can control your alignment. Get the work in the musculature. Seven here's the eighth one and eight. Okay? Bring the knee in, pick the strap off the foot, choke up on the strap, roll a little toward it as you reach your back leg behind you. And then I'm reaching in the opposite direction.

So I want to allow my thoracic spine to rotate slightly. Gesture that leg, really stretch. Feel it across the front line of your obliques. Okay, last sequence or those little clamshells. So up around the knee, knee together, ankle together. And we progress.

And to three. Some people ask if the the inseam of the foot should stay touching. It's up to you. I like my heels together really? And seven and eight. However, the leg and circles one press back to press back. Three, four and five and six, seven and eight the other way for eight. So the next exercise we're about to do is thigh stretch.

Can't re forget those. And five and six. Seven and eight. Alright, so taking their me out of the strap, we are gonna need a little more spring for this. I'm going to give myself another spring. So I've got a blue adding another spring, which will be my red. And today using the ball, put that right between the knees against.

So we're kind of coming full circle here. We're almost finished with this lower body focused workout. So as you're up on those knees, hold onto the tape again, dare yourself to be a little more on the front edges of your knees just a little bit. Uh, I don't want you to go so far that you fall. Of course, no one would want that, but I just want to get us away from kind of being comfy back here on the back of the Patella. So if you can guide yourself closer to the the front edge, that's great. Your hamstrings will kick in. They should squeeze your ball for more knee support. Here we go. We certainly don't need eight of these.

I'm going to say five. Okay. Get on the front of those knees. No, you have to zipper up the abdominals. Leaning back. I'm looking out the window. I don't want to take my head up. That doesn't work for me. I like to look straight ahead. Squeeze the ball. Broad chest, you know on this today I might be able to do for eight dare. I do it. I'm going for four more. They don't have to be as big of range.

I want to keep my hip joints opening up. [inaudible] trusting my strength and my quadriceps last two seven and ate all the way to the top. Let's hook those straps last bit, guys. We're going to sit down on the edge and just do an easy figure. Four straps. So an ankle over knee, your choice, man, just hold [inaudible] good. And then switching sides. Thanks for joining me.

Hope you've gotten a little lower body workout and I will absolutely see you next time. You know that. I love the jump board, so stay tuned. I'll see you soon. Bye. Bye.