Integrity of the Torso

Hi, I'm Susan Sulk. We're going to be doing a reformer class. This is Nicole Tarro who works with me at [inaudible] Palm Springs, and you all probably know I'll have fe Christy Cooper. So we're going to start a in honor of Ron and our living bodies, taking a, taking a little uh, breath, little breath work. So you're just going to stand at the end of your reformer there in Christy. You can just face me. Yeah, right at the end of your reformer. Yup.

And I'll face you. Okay. We're just going to take the arms. We're going to take a breath in to prepare on the exhale. You're going to raise your arms up on the inhale. They come down on the exhale, they rise up on the inhale, they come down on the exhale, they rise up and you're going to hold that exhale, take a breath in and arms wide to come down. Good. Just a little reminder of the breath.

We're going to be using the modified Fletcher breath, which for me is a little sip of air in through the nose. Just enough, as I say, to sustain life. Nothing big. And on the exhale you want to fully, uh, narrow the ribs, sink the belly, and in for me the breath, the audible breath, the Fletcher breath is a cue. It's when I'm working out for me, it's a cue. When I hear that breath, I know I need to narrow my ribs, sink my belly. For me, the sound of that exhale is the sound of the belly sinking the ribs drawing in, maintaining the integrity of the spine. So as we're working, we're going to work on length in just for a moment, just stand heavy on your bones. Just uh, John Q public style, a little slump, little drop. And now from the bottom of your feet, I want you to lift up your inside ankle bones inside of the legs, up in between your legs, inside your hip bones, inside your rib cage, inside your shoulder girdle, through the neck, out the top of the head. And whether you're standing up, lying down, you're going to be working on this, uh, what I call a live weight versus dead weight, which we did live weight lifting up and up and up and working to recreate our tendency. Human nature when we work hard is to Tuck the chin.

You're going to make sure you've got a nice little curve in the back of your neck. And, uh, if you're anything like everybody else, I'll have to tell you a time or two about that. So just go ahead and take an easy sit down. [inaudible] we're actually gonna start. Ron said that, uh, Joe one day gave him her permission to straddle the reformer. So I'm gonna have you straddle and we're just preparing for, uh, some leg and foot work with just an interesting way to come down onto the reformer. So you're going to start with your arms. Thank you. Three S, three springs on, um, you're gonna bring your arms wide [inaudible] and Christie, you may have to scoop tiny bit more forward so that you fit here. Okay, so you're gonna start with your arms wide. You're going to take an easy breath in. On the exhale, you're just going to take a low belly scoop and just round back on the inhale.

You're going to come back up to that beautiful, tall sit. Exhale, rounding back, and we're always working on opposition lifting up. And what I mean by that, your head is still reaching towards the ceiling as your belly is pulling in. Head lifts you up, coming right up off your sitting bones practically. And then rounding back, you're going to stay here. Take a breath in. You're going to bring your legs up around two, a nice little balance.

You're gonna open your legs, bring the feet to the floor and sit up tall. Exhale, you're going to rock back and bring the legs to a balance. You're gonna inhale, lifting up, sitting tall, and placing the feet. This is your last one. You're gonna round back. Bring those legs up to the balance and poor Nick's gonna have to scoot when she gets there. Thank you.

And you're going to take four exhales to lower yourself down. Move on the exhale. Pause on the inhale. Exhale, you move. Inhale, you pause, exhale, you move. Inhale, you pause, last one down all the way. That's okay. And bring your feet onto the bar. So I think, um, sequencing is very important and I'm not talking about this exercise to that one, to the next one I'm talking about. For me, the breath, the exhale starts the belly sinks and then you move. Yeah. Um, so we're just going to take this and I'll have more to say about that.

So toes are over, heels or under, and lift your toes up for a moment. So you know that you're not going to be using them. They're just wrapping around. You shouldn't have your weight on your toes. Um, uh, Ron and I had a quarrel about this, but I take the exhale on the way out. And the reason why is that I want when you come to your extension for your ribs to be as narrow as they can be for your belly to be as flat as they can be, abs to be as flat as they can be when you're out at your extension. So you're going to just going to take an easy breath in. On the exhale, you're going to press away and on the inhale you come in and again, and we're just going to do six of these. Of course at home you can do eight, 10 whatever you want and you guys are going to count for me cause I'm busy.

I think you got two more of these. Two more [inaudible] and last time here you're going to press out in the hole. You're going to stretch your heels under the bar. On an inhale, on the exhale, you're going to lift the heels, stretch them under. As you inhale and exhale, you lift and head still reaching toward the back of the reformer. As the heels come under and your sitting bones are still reaching toward the foot bar as those heels lift and last one, thank you, Christie. Heels come under and you're going to bend your knees and come on home. You're going to reach your legs up toward the ceiling and you're going to flex on the inhale and point on the exhale and flex and points and three Morin point.

Tip your tail down as you flex. And as you point, beautiful, shift Christie two more so I can't count. And last one, flex your feet and keep them flexed. Bend your knees and bring your heels to the bar. If you need to pick your head up to know where you are. By all means do, I'm tend to be a little crooked myself, so I have to check. Um, and Christy bring your heels up.

Ron used to like those heels precariously high on the bar. Okay, so I wanna just make a point with Nicole that when you press to your length, I want you to think of ad. Go ahead out. Nick, you're going to draw your ribs this way. I'm literally pulling her this way. And she liked so many of us overworker quad. So she's going to drop her tail a little bit. And as she comes in, she's gonna think go ahead and come in that she's being pull this way as she comes in.

So working your opposition and I'll come swoop you as you're moving Christie, cause it feels good, easy breaths to prepare on the XL. You press away and draw everything down toward that foot bar and coming in and pressing away and in. And even though you're in parallel, imagine that you're going into a little turnout that's going to keep those legs nice and tight into your pelvis. I think you got to more and press and last time you're going to press and hold. Now take a moment, wrap into as though you're in a turnout, even though you're in parallel.

Christie's got those happy overworking quads as well. This is my little footwork that I, um, developed for this. You're going to extend the front of the ankle and then flex plantar endorse a flection. Yep. So you're only going as far as you can main tain control. Nicole's going through a full articulation of the feet.

You can also do it keeping the toes pulled back. Let's just take one more of those. Stay in your flection. Take a moment to take inventory is what I call it. Long neck, low shoulders, narrow. Waist. Belly is flat. You're not in a tuck. You've got that tailbone down, and then you're going to bend and come on home.

This is a little Ron Fletcher foot stretch. We've got three springs on, so you're not going to go very far. You're going to put the balls of your, you're going to put your toes under. You're going to wrap your ankle bones together, wrap at the knee, wrap under your hip, and you're going to take a press out only so far as it feels good and come back just about four of those. This is for you. The more you pull in, the less weight is going to be on your feet. [inaudible] and one more is good. Yeah. Beautiful. And come on back. You're going to put your feet on the bar hip with the part balls of the feet on [inaudible]. So I go into Pilati Zvi from this position.

And why is because I see so often people just put their feet like so when in fact this is a rotation of the thighs open, which brings those heels together. So I like the body to be able to, I'm going to bring you a little bit wider apart. I like the body to be able to feel that distinction of moving from the hip to the heel as opposed to just positional place. So go ahead and kick into your turned out position. Nicole has a, you know, wide beautiful dancer turnout. I'm going to have her bring it in just a tiny bit. One of the main things, uh, that Ron taught me is that there's the local movement. We've got our legs in our turned out position and we're pressing out and coming in. Really this is about the fise opening in the thighs.

Closing the turnout starts at the hip, but it moves through the heels. So to keep yourself honest, you're gonna think of the inside of your heels maintaining their relationship to the ceiling. Yep. Or You could think sometimes. I think of my feet in cement, but that's not very pleasant thing, but you want to keep those feet right where they are. You're going to take an easy breath in and on the exhale you're going to pull your inner thighs tight together. And on the inhale you're going to open. Exhale, you're going to press to your length. And I like to couple things. We are so beautifully delineated side to side, we have pairs, shoulder girdle, rib cage, pelvis.

As the FYS pulled together, pull the ribs narrow. So both are doing the same action Pfizer drawing in ribs are drawing in. So put those two things together and one more time, press out. And when you get there, you're going to hold, we're going to do two bits of footwork here. First, you're going to barely lower your heels under the bar and lift them up and we're going to go at a good little clip. You're gonna go and up and up and that up isn't coming from your feet. It's coming from a little squeeze beauty full under your bottom.

Imagine your inner thighs could pass through each other. Not just come tight, but move right through each other. Last one, leave the heels high. You're going to turn to parallel. Lower the heels, lift the heels with the heels high back to turn out. Halfway in, pressing out parallel heels lower. They lift back to turnout. Halfway in last one out parallel heels lower. They lift. Turn out and coming on home.

Bring your knees into your chest for a little stretch. Give them a little swirl around few times this way in that I believe it was on Palladio's. Anytime a Deborah lesson told a story about what Joseph Pilati said to Corolla, that if he wanted this to be about your legs, he would have put the wheels on the foot bar. But he put the wheels under the carriage because like I said about um, sequencing the breath starts, the belly pulls in. Our job in [inaudible] is to try to initiate everything from the middle out to the extremities. And, uh, Rebecca Leone one said to me, the periphery is a lie. Dear.

I think our job is to let the surface go, to find the depth. And I think that the extras of what's underneath the exercises is what really is for me, the lifelong pursuit. You learn the exercises and then you deepen and deepen and deepen what you're doing. So we're going to go to balls of the feet on heels lifted and my apologies ahead of time. We're going to do our heel lower and lifts series, but we're going to go one through six and then back down to one. And then we're going to walk in place. And here's where Roms, a description of working locally and working globally is very apparent.

Your calves are going to die if you're working all from your feet and calves. So you have to think of lifting those heels from your belly, from your inner thighs, from your intention of your head, reaching up toward the ceiling. We're going to go easy breathing. You're going to keep breathing. We're not going to um, keep the breath specific. Just keep breathing. As I mentioned before, that exhale for me is a cue. Am I gathering my ribs? Am I sinking my belly? Am I stretching my spine as long as I can honoring the curves while we stretch.

So heels are going to start high legs, I think feel like a Geisha with the very tight skirt, pencil skirt all the way down to your ankles. So you're going to press away your heels lower and lift and you come in and press away and you can go on your own twice under an up, under an up and in, and your calves will start to tell you when you're not working your inner thighs and your abdominals enough. Yeah. So you're going up to your fours and you're going to be mindful that those knees don't roll inward. And the way you keep them from rolling inward is working as though you're in turnout, even though you're in parallel working those hip rotators to keep the thighs absolutely still knees together. If you can nick some other lifetime. Yeah, six and then down. Yep. It really forces you to work globally to work from your middle.

Once you've taken your last single, you're going to keep your heels high and you're just going to take a nice easy walk in place. Hmm. Back in the old days, this is where Ron would tell a story, a very long story forgetting that we had just done that and we were, yep. Just take four more and last and both heels under for a stretch bend one knee. [inaudible] there are two ways you can give yourself a better stretch here. Go ahead and switch [inaudible] so one way is to take the heel of the opposite foot and then point that toe. You feel how that pulls you. Yeah.

[inaudible] yeah, you can kind of pull yourself. Can you feel that nick? And the other way is go ahead and switch feet. [inaudible] is the one that's not working. You put under and you've straighten this leg and flex this foot and it pulls. Feel that. And if your leg bone is loose at the top, it's gonna roll your thighs inward. So grap there you go, wrap onto your bottom and then bring that foot on and come on home.

Beautifully done. Take your feet comfortably on the bar [inaudible] of hip with the part and let both knees fall to one side. I think it's as important to let go and know how to do that as it is to engage. Sometimes, sometimes harder to let go than it is to work hard. Make sure you think of your abdominals bringing you through center to the other side. And while you're here, I'm just gonna sake of time.

Take a spring off here and then coming on back to center. Okay, now I haven't used these growths, so if we were going to go legs in this trap, let's do, we're going to do a hands and straps and then we will, um, Oh, you've got yours right here, handy dandy. Love those. How right? So arms are going to come up toward the ceiling and I'm keeping the exercises simple because I want you to think of the mechanics of how you're doing things. So I like to give the body a reference to the work that we're doing. You're gonna leave your feet on the bar, you're going to take about a three inch pole into your straps.

I want you to set your shoulders down, arm connected to the shoulder blade, connected to the waistline, rib cage, pelvis. You're going to hold the arms where they are. You're going to hold the carriage still and you're going to bring your legs to your tabletop and your body just gets that point that those abs have to support the legs. And we're going to do three with the breath going one direction, three in the other, because I want you to feel again, important for your body to feel the difference. The breath makes a huge difference. So we're going to take a breath into prepare. On the exhale, you're going to pull your arms down. On the inhale, you bring them up down on the exhale, up on the inhale and go ahead and open up your fingers.

Since we don't have to really grip, let's actually take one more poll. Land your arms down, stay there, take a breath. And now the exhale brings the arms up. Very different feeling and uh, changes the work. Let's just take two more and clearly I've moved us to fours cause I can count that high. Last one. Bring the arms up, bring the arms wide, take a breath in, exhale the arms to your hip and inhale them wide. And I like to think of my shoulder blades staying rather still and sitting nice and heavy toward the rib cage. You're not pulling the shoulders down. Hold the arms here. Take a breath in. Exhale the arms wide.

Inhale to the hip, exhale the arms wide and we're picking up the tempo just a little bit. And Yeah, and let's take this last one. Arms wide. Take a breath. We're moving into arm circles to the hip, forward and around. And three more here to think of pulling from your belly first from under your bottom. This is the last one. Arms come up. You take a actually s inhale here.

Exhale here, cause I've lost track. Now you're going to inhale the arms down. Exhale, they come around. So it's the opposite breath. We use [inaudible]. And you're going to remind yourself to make that little curve in the back of your neck. I think of if I had a drop of water on my forehead, it would fall into my hair one more time. All the way down. Arms to your sides. Now we're going to keep the breath simple here.

You're going to bring your elbows to bend for your triceps. Pull your knees in towards you. We're going to take the legs with the arms, so flex your feet. As you extend the arms, you're going to extend the legs inflection. Exhale, extend. Good. Inhale point. As you bring the legs back, exhale flexes. You take the legs forward and back. Now to temple five and in and four belly pulls down before the legs go forward. And let's take your last one. Good. Bend the knees in.

Place your feet down. Take your knees open and your arms open for a little butterfly stretch. Hmm. And tip your toes forward. So you get that nice stretch of the inside of the ankle.

Great. Hm. And then consciously using your abdominal muscles to bring the legs back. All right. Just going to take some simple abdominal curls. So you're going to scoot a tiny bit away from your shoulder rests.

[inaudible] so I like to think of the mechanics of the movement. For me, an upper ab curl, the belly sinks, the front of the ribs, drop the back of the ribs, lift the head reaches toward the ceiling. So what we're gonna do is we're going to take an upper ab curl on an exhale. We're going to inhale, stretching our back a little higher. Exhale, sinking our belly a little deeper, and then coming home. Okay, so we're just going to do four of those and it really is taking that extra breath to prep too. Perfect the movement. All right, legs to your table, top arms up toward the ceiling.

You're going to take an easy breath in. On the Exhale, the belly sinks, the front of the ribs, drop the arms, come down, and you lift. You're going to take a breath in and see if you can lift your back a little higher. Exhale, sink your belly a little deeper and length in it. And the inhale bring. Oh, and again. Exhaling up. Inhale, you think of lifting the back and dropping the ribs. Exhale, sink the belly. Inhale, you go home two more times.

Exhaling up. Inhale, you stretch. Exhale, you sink the belly and go home last time. Exhaling up, take a breath and stretch and lift that back. Exhale, seeing the belly deep and home you go. We're just going to take simple single breath with the legs reaching forward. Inhale to prepare. Just gonna do for exhaling up for and return trying to use all that little fine minutia work you just did. Applying here, you're going to take two more and you're going to hold that next one and hold good. You're going to take a breath here on the exhale, the arms lift and they lower and they lift and they lower.

As you lift the arms, climb that upper ab curl up and lower and last one and lower. Bring the arms wide, the knees in and the feet to the bar. Beautifully done. Just take both knees to one side and the other. Yep. Nice. Easy. Good, good, good.

So now we're going to do a little bit of leg work in this trap, but we're gonna do single leg work. So I'm going to take a spring down. Um, and let's have you put your right foot in the strap. And you can put, just put your left strap handy there. [inaudible] so what one of the beauties of [inaudible] is whatever is the most obvious part of the exercise is usually not what it's about. So, and God bless, Joe says he uses our arms and legs as weights. My understanding after 30 years of trying to figure out this work is that when the arms are moving, the goal is to stabilize the shoulder girdle into the rib cage, into the waistline, supported by the pelvis. When the legs are moving, it's really about stabilizing the pelvis into the waistline, into the rib cage. So, uh, I love this quote. Uh, Jose Lamone, the American choreographer said, uh, that we, our body from the waist down near the horse from the waist up. You're the rider. So as a horsewoman, if my upper body is moving with the Horse, I'm gonna fall off.

Same thing here. Your shoulder girdle, rib cage, pelvis, abdominals have to stabilize, maintaining the integrity of the torso while the legs are moving. So right leg is up toward the ceiling. You're going to bend your left knee and bring that leg to join both legs together. And we're just gonna do threes. Your goal here is has very little to do with your legs and everything to do with keeping your pelvis stable. So in parallel, legs come down and up three times and and you want to move your leg down by pulling the back of your leg and your bottom toward the floor. This is not about your heels coming down. It's about the back of the leg.

Take your turnout in three up and down in turnout, up and pole. And of course that free leg has a harder job than the strapped leg. You're going to land your legs to your forward. You're in your turnout, you're going to take your simple plays, your simple frog. And here too, I want you to think thighs, close thighs, open size, close thighs, open. Last one, press to straight legs. Same exercise with straight legs, thighs, open, thighs close. And you can flex and point and last one into your circles. Keep them small, up, open and around.

Small as your operative and to more pole. And last one. Bring the legs all the way up to reverse down, open and around. Yup. Reaching your waistline long. The, so as starts right under the ribs. So from there you reach, let's take this all the way down and stay. Here's your reward. We're going to take some little stretches.

You're going to take your left leg, cross it over your right leg and a figure four stretch and bring that right like towards you. Hmm. Just taking a nice easy stretch. And whenever you're taking a stretch, especially for those who are very flexible, Nicole's very flexible. So I'm going to encourage her to keep pulling her pelvis this way, to keep pulling down this way as she's taking her legs over her. So you're working both ends.

Jose Lamone also said you have to create a fixed point against which you stretch. So for us, that fixed point is reaching the hip down. So now you're going to unfold that left foot. You're going to put the ball of that foot on the bar and you're going to let the heel come under [inaudible]. You're getting a nice stretch. You're going to take that strap in your right hand, your left hand is going to come onto the thigh.

You're going to keep that by where it is. As you take a nice stretch open and that hand is on there to either give you more stretch or to protect you from overstretching. So taking that right leg wide is only so good as you can keep that left hip anchored. So it's not how far can the leg go, how far can it go? Maintaining the stability, the other side, using your abs to bring that leg across. You're going to take the strap in your other hand, and here's our fixed point against which we stretch.

You're going to pull that right hip down and reach that leg across. Yep. You're getting a nice stretch to the outside of your hip. You may want to pull the strap towards you a little bit. When you get there to add insult to injury, you're going to sickle your foot and then you're going to, I see it as a tug of war. This leg goes over, that hip pulls down. Keep it down, take it over.

So you're going back and forth both ends of that stretch and then you're just going to bring that leg up. You're going to take that foot out, put that foot on the bar and do the old switcheroo mindful, but nothing fancy. Sorry Ron. Okay. Ron talked about your relationship with the reformer. This is your partner. Yeah, that's okay. Oh, all right. Opposite side. Now that you've got the hang of it, we'll be able to move right through.

Bring that right leg up toward the ceiling with that left leg. Get your hips nice and stable. I always say the most important moment of every exercise is the moment before you begin so you know where you are. You're where you want to be three times likes. Come forward on the exhale and then they come up and two more.

And I started to say before you really want to think of the legs starting right under your rib cage. So it's that whole length turned out three times. [inaudible] straight. It's like she got stick straight is Nicole used to say last one, bringing the legs forward for your simple please. Three PA's. Inhale. Exhale. I think of a theraband around my FYS. I have to pry it open. Circle between my legs. I have to close it. Pry them open and close. Now straight legs pointed you open flexes, you close, close the ribs, the belly, the pell, this. Yeah.

So it's not your heels. You take that all the way up to where the leg connects. Circling after your third and three whole different story on this site. Hey Christy Cooper. No, I didn't see a thing and uh Huh. Yeah, it really informs when you go to both legs. Good. That's your last one. Take that right leg. Cross it over your left and your figure four. I don't think I forgot anything. Could be [inaudible] and again, especially those of us who are dancers, we cheat.

We cheat beautifully. So I'm going to have, yeah, Nicole already brought her legs back a little bit and then she's going to take that. Yeah, good, good, good. And then you can bend that left knee a little bit if you like. [inaudible] gives you a little better stretch. And here too, the knee bends. Then you've got a tip your tail down.

[inaudible] I was a, uh, on a flight and the stewardess said, your baggage will shift during takeoff and landing. And I was like, yes, yes it will. So we have to restate to where we want to be. Take that right leg unfolded. Put the ball of the foot on the bar. [inaudible] draw that left leg towards you. So you've got your left leg open. And in a perfect world, that right hip is down and [inaudible] go ahead and Rob Peter to pay Paul. Take that left leg open, leave it there, wrap that right hip down. One of my other favorite quotes is Ida Ralph who said, sometimes you have to go or at eight to know where it is.

And so it helps to go off and come back on. It informs your body. Now we're going to take that leg up. You're going to switch hands, left hip stays down. Now as you take that left leg over. So you've got a tug of war between the leg going over and the hip staying down [inaudible] and that's how you have to work at leg over, hip down, like go over hip down.

So you really are what I call fiddling with that stretch there. So you're getting the full range as best you can. So well we are. Let's go ahead and bring that leg up. Put your other leg in the strap.

So you're going to have both feet and straps now, hmm. And bring your legs to your forward. Take a little scoot away from your shoulder rests. We're going to do a simple pattern. We're not gonna do our breathing one hundreds here.

We're just going to take about five abdominal curls. This is a great way for those of you who struggle with your hundreds. If you have your legs in straps, it allows you to really focus on what your upper body is doing. So legs are at your forward. You're just going to float your arms up off the carriage.

We're not gonna do the hundreds breath. You're just going to take an easy breath in, keeping the legs in the carriage, still exhaling up into your upper abdominal curl. Good and return. And again, think of those shoulder blades sliding down your back as you reach up. And let's just do two more. Careful not to roll the shoulders forward as you come up.

Beautiful correction and last time and coming on up and return. Great. I'm going to have you bend your knees into your chest for a moment because I'm going to add another spring. I forgot to put it. So, wow, those are tight. Great. Thank you Nicole. Pretty easy for me. Okay. So here's what we're gonna do. Um, I feel like I'm asking forgiveness a lot.

I don't know if any of you who have been doing the work have ever reversed your short spine, but it feels darn good and re reversed. So many things. I figured why not? Okay. So we're just gonna do two short spine in one direction too. In the other, there are so many versions of short spine. I just want to do wrongs here, uh, for the traditional direction. And then we're going to change it a little bit.

So press your legs to your forward. Head down. Thank you. So for the sake of simplicity, Ron always taught when the legs go over, you're in parallel, you turn out. But we're going to keep the legs in parallel and turn out just for simplicity. Okay, so I just want to describe what Ron did. So Nicole and Christie, you come along, legs go over, hips go up.

[inaudible] you're going to lift your hips a tiny bit. As you bend your knees. [inaudible] now leave your heels where they are and you're going to roll your spine down. The legs will come to straight by virtue of your ass moving away from your heels. You're going to tip your tailbone down. Bend your knees in a big old ple AA and press the legs forward. Let's do that two more times. Legs over, hips up.

Now see if you, I want you to take your knees to bend without folding your legs onto you. So think of it more as a turnout. There you go. Leave the heels where they are. Roll the spine away from the heels. When you get your waistline down, you tip your tail out, you dig your heels down and you press forward. Good. One more. Up to tempo, legs over hips, up legs, bend, spine rolls down and dig down and press the legs forward and through.

Good. Now going to reverse this. Okay. So your knees are gonna come to your shoulder, rests in your tail is going to go towards your heels. [inaudible] you got it. Then you're going to extend your legs and you're going to roll your spine down with straight legs. Pull the legs forward from straight. I want to say one thing before we go again. The nature of bringing your legs over, and this is where physics is involved a lot in this work.

If she just takes her legs over, all of her weight's gonna shove down into her throat. So I want you to think of your hip lift starting as a swoop this way, and also a swell this way. So you're keeping that reaching away from the throat as you go. So knees to the shoulder, rest, tail to the ceiling. Beautiful. Extending the legs up and rolling the spine down, one bone after the next tip for your tail out to bring the legs forward.

One more time, bending in, curling the tail up, extending the legs and rolling the spine down and coming forward and through and bring your knees into your chest for a stretch. So just for the sake of time, uh, do try at home. Uh, we're just gonna do one in each direction. Just so you have this. And then we're going to carry on. So this is just a leg circle with a hip lift. So you press your legs to forward.

You're going to send your legs over in your hips, up, legs over, hips up. You're gonna open your legs to the widest part of your circle. You're going to roll down, keeping tension in the straps when your waist gets down. Finish your circle. One more in this direction. Over and up. Legs Open. Roll the spine and sweep the legs forward. We're reversing.

Open the legs wide. Send the hips up, close the legs. Carve your belly haul low to take the legs. Tip your tail, the bring the legs forward last time. Beautifully done. Doesn't that feel good? Good. And coming on. True. Okay. So when Nicole first worked with me years ago, um, we would drink a little wine and play in the studio.

So this is part of our red wine stretch series. Um, so here's what you're gonna do. And people who have knee issues, please don't do this. Yeah. So you're gonna take your legs to straight and we're just gonna move right through this. Bring your legs to your forward. Diagonal toward me. Yeah. You're going to take your legs just to the width of the frame. We're gonna start with your right leg. You're going to rotate that leg inward.

[inaudible] hold onto the strap for safekeeping. You're going to bend this knee as far as you can. The foot is going to come to the outside. Leave that leg right where it is. Now you're gonna let this, like, I don't like putting the foot down. Nick teaches with the foot down, which is fine.

I like to get to the top of that foot. [inaudible] there you go. So left leg is why, again, wrapping that hip down, if you want a little more stretch, you can bend that left knee a little bit. Yeah. Tip your tail out behind you. Yeah. And that holding of the strap is to keep you safe.

So bring your left leg up, pull on the right strap so they're slack, and then we'll go to the other side. So you turn, you rotate the leg inward, bend the knee as far as you can before you start moving. Just then, there you go. Then you take that thigh down. Feels very, very good. [inaudible] yeah, and of course, if you're very flexible, you're going to be mindful not to give in to that hypermobility, which can be as challenging as being too tight. So creating slack in the strap on that left side to come on around, and you can take your legs out of feed, out of straps, and put your straps where you want them down. Hang them up. And let's have you just roll to your side to come up.

One spring on. We're just going to do a little variation on, um, pulling straps or chariot poles. So we're going to go onto our knees. You're going to go onto your knees, you're going to take a hold of your straps. Um, I like to hold on the leather. Yeah. And uh, you know, it's uh, you can have your knees up against the shoulder rests, uh, which is very supportive. You can also come slightly away from the shoulder rest, which is a little more challenging. And yeah, we're just gonna start simply. Now, so much of this work, every time we pick up a strap, every time we put our feet on the bar, we are creating compression compression. It would be easy to pull those straps and let all this madness happen. So for me, the job of Peloton is to lift up and out of compression, which we're constantly gravity pulling straps.

So your job as you pull those traps as to lift and stay open and length length is your operative word. Easy breath. Exhale. You're just going to pull the straps behind you, wrapping your chest wide and your shoulders back and again, and pull and return. And two more. And last one. Just hold that pull. Since here, let's take a tiny little hinge back, little hinge and come up. And again, hinge back. Stay there.

One more little notch back and come up. Put that quad stretch. We just did two good use first notch, second notch notch number three. And up. And last one, one, two, three, and four. And beautifully done. Put Your, uh, you can either put both hands on the shoulder rests or one hand, you're gonna put your right foot on the headrest. Hmm. And you want that left knee far enough forward so that you can tuck your toes under. Okay, so we're going to do a little standing here.

So you're going to give a pull of the straps. [inaudible] leave that pull. You're going to rise up and come down almost all the way to that left knee three times up and come on down. And your goal is to keep the carriage still keep that little pull. Good. This last one, you're going to come up, you're going to stay.

You're going to pull the straps three times three. Yup. Sequencing is the same. Exhale starts belly sinks, and then you move. This is your last one. You're going to hold a nice little pull on those straps and you're going to lower yourself down and down and down. Gorgeous hand. Bring the straps forward, take your hands, switch legs, and of course in the studio we will, you know, do six or so of these.

So finding your placement before you go. Very good. Shoulder girdle, rib cage, pelvis are the bony structures that support your spine. So do so. You're going to take a little pull of those straps and you're going to rise up. Then come down three times and you will feel your weaker or stronger side here, big time. Last one coming up and three little poles, three [inaudible] and bend your knees. By all means, a bent knee is going to give you a little more stability. Last one, you're going to hold that pole as you lower yourself down. Gorgeous. Great. And hands. Yup.

Come on down and let's just reserve those straps and go ahead and step off. We're going to do one more thing. It's a scooter series with a little variation. Um, let's, let's see. Okay, let's, um, let's bring the spring bar back to what would be high gear. I think we want to get lighter than the one. I want it lighter. Yeah. And we're going to put two springs on. Okay.

So let's have you put your right foot on the shoulder. Rest of you are going to come around as needed there. Okay. You're going to start with your standing leg slightly forward of your working leg, both hands on the bar and bring your hands on the bar, but bout shoulder with the part so that you can keep the chest open. Okay. And uh, that lift of the Chin and that little arch in the back of the neck important to me. So do it. Okay.

So you're just going to press your right leg. You're gonna stay right over that left leg. The right leg is going to press to straight. The knee comes off and bend. Is this too heavy? And Straight and bent. If two springs is too heavy, by all means, one, one and a half.

This is your last one. Press and hold. Now you're going to move the carriage by taking a plea, a on your standing leg, pressing [inaudible]. And I want you to think up and out as opposed to up and down. Beautiful shift, Christie. And last two, last one. You're going to press out and hold and you're going to bend. Then straight that right leg, knee bends and straightens. Yup.

Four, three belly lifting up unto you. And last one, hold that leg straight and bring the carriage home. Bend the knee and come on in. Okay, so now your going to turn, you're going to take a quarter turn to face your reformer. You're going to put your foot on top. The top face of the shoulder rests and Christie to get a little more the the, uh, the farther you are toward the shoulder rests, the more work you're gonna get. Don't, don't go too far, but you may want, there you go. [inaudible]. Okay, so let's, because you can, and this is a perfect place to show.

In a perfect world, you're going to stay over this leg. You're not going to let that happen. Yeah. So be nice to keep your arm on the Barb. We're not going to, you're going to take a nice little, you can have your hands on your hips or you can be uh, arms like a slight, uh, bank in a airplane. So you're going to press that right, like to straight and bend might be too heavy cause you're petite. No harm, no harm. Taking a spring off. Yup. Last one. You're going to press and hold the leg straight.

Now you're going to take splits. Push with that standing leg. Now coming right back up over this leg is the hard part and two more pressing out and coming up. And one more timeless. Press out and stay. Now that right leg is going to bend and straight. Remember you're in parallel, so that knee's going to go forward. Good. Last one. Press and coming right up over that standing leg. In a perfect world without doing too much.

You're going to take another quarter turn and you're going to be in turnout on that right leg. Turn out on the left leg and if you need to hop forward a little bit. A little, yeah, yeah. There you go. Yup. Straightened Ben. Pressing forward and back. Yeah, and in order not to go with that leg, you almost have to pull yourself back as you go forward. Last one, leave the leg straight. You're going to take your split pressing out and coming. Tried to get right back up over that leg. And again, push and coming back. And one more time.

Push and coming. Lifting your head up and up and up to come on in. And then you're going to take that right foot off and step it down. You're going to turn around into your Eve's lunge position. Just one last stretch here and I'm going to teach him my little crossover.

So left leg is far forward. Nice. Long stretch out into your eaves. Lunge. Yeah. And again, I'm going to have Nicole come in a little bit rather than sinking. I'm going to just shift her hips a little bit rather than having her sink that right hip down. She's going to think of that sitting bone going out rather than down.

So she's going to push away. Yep. Trying to go out rather than down. And it's hard. Yeah. [inaudible] good. Just take that left leg to straight. Push a little farther. Flex that left foot. Nice. Big Stretch. Good. Put the left foot down. Bend the knee. Come on in. Now I'm gonna show you my little crossover here.

I got tired of seeing people after they did that. Come around like so. So you take this foot to the center space. Left leg is gonna Cross over the right. You're going to keep your hands on the bar and just sit back onto your hip, onto your heels. Let your head drop. Take a big old breath into your back.

Exhale it out. Now you're going to put your weight on your left knee and Shin and you're going to unfold that right foot to the floor and presto. Changeux a Voila. Exactly. Okay, so left leg is going to press to straight the NIGOS. Off the Nigos on. Same thing we did the other side and three more and two more. And last one, press the leg to a straight right leg presses out and you come forward.

And two more out. Every time you press out, lift your belly up, up, up, up, up as you push. Good. Last one. Press out in. Stay left knee bend and straight. Four and three and two. Picking your belly up. Yep. Gathering those ribs. Good. And bring the knee to bend and come on home. Quarter.

Turn for your parallel and we're going to move right through this. No, no hands on the bar. Hmm. Left leg presses to straighten. Bend Straight and bend two more. Last one. Press and hold right. Like pushes you into splits and you come right back over that leg. And again, you caught it. Think of your head lifting toward the ceiling.

Yep. Think of that left thigh pulling towards your right side to bring you up. And this is your last one. Stay. Bend that left knee and straighten it. Four and three. Lift yourself up. Lift your belly up and last one good. And bring the carriage home.

Take your quarter, turn to your turned out position. [inaudible] take a little step forward. There you go. Okay. And standing over that right. Hard not to lean into that leg. Yep. Four Times. Press and return. See if you can get taller each time you go. Yeah.

And of course that tall starts weighed down here. Leave the leg straight and go into your splits. Reaching forward and coming [inaudible] back forward and back and [inaudible] leave that stretch forward. Bend and straight that left and press and three and press and last one. Press lifting up to bring that carriage home.

And you're going to take the foot out. You're going to turn back around to your Eve's lunge position. [inaudible] right, like comes forward. And I'm going to, I'm going to show this to you, Kristy. So I'm going to put my hand here. Go ahead and put your knee down and you're gonna press out into your lunge without pushing down into my hand. Keep the knee down. Yup. You'll find it. There you go. There you go. As opposed to that.

Yeah. Yup. Okay. So you're just there. You're gonna straighten that right leg. You're going to flex that right foot. You're gonna make sure those ribs are up on to you. Yup. Nice. Long neck with an arch. Yeah. Hard not to lean into here. It's a challenge. Yeah. And then you're going to bring the carriage in.

You're going to take that foot to your center space here, right? Like crosses over the left. Just carefully. Sit back, take a big breath into your back and exhale. One more time. Big Breath in. And exhale. Put the weight on the right knee, right shin, unfold the left leg. Good. And you're just stand.

Let's have you just turn to face front or whatever you want. What I want you to do is take a moment, knees together, feet together, and I want you to close your eyes [inaudible] and you're going to feel yourself shifting this way in that and this way and that. That's you finding center. Pull those ankle bones together. Pull the back of the calves together, lift up the inner thighs up past the pubic bone in between the hips, ribs out the top of the head. Little curve in the back of the neck. Take a big breath in and exhale. Open your eyes. Thank you very much.