Balance in your Body

Hi, I'm Michael King and welcome to the reformer glass today. Today I've got Malcolm your head and he's going to be in the class with me. So what I want to start, first of all, by warming and preparing the body, have your feet powered up and just remind your body, lengthen the spine and put your feet into a parallel. Now pushing your big toe, a little toe heel into the floor. Just bring your weight slightly forward in front of the ankle. Now for the spine, lifting the arms up, take a breath in. As you breathe out, flex the spine and lifting up again. Flex the spine and lifting up.

There's two ways we can do this movement. One is we can take the keep the pelvis lower than the shoulders, so your shoulders above the pelvis. Here we're focusing a little bit more on the lumbar spine or we can take the arms down and have the shoulders below the pelvis. Try either one of those and just feel where you feel that your back is the most tight. Both of them. You're tilting the pelvis and okay, connecting the center. Breathe in and breathing out. Just one more time. This is really good.

If you've been sitting a lot today before starting the class with us. Now turn around and we're going to start now. Circle the arms back. This is an area buddy which gets really tight and I love to get this moving. Before we start on the reformer cause we want to get all the attention free of the body before we start circling the arms back really out as you go back and here focus on your rib cage. We want to think about the ribcage in a good alignment with the pelvis so you're not sticking your rib cage out, know pushing it forward, but you're keeping that rib cage in alignment.

Now if you feel is a little bit too far back, bring the vacate slightly forward. Either way, put the rib cage and pelvis into good position. Breathing in and breathing out as you circled back. And the last thing you want to do before getting on a reformer is just move the arms from side to side, rotating the thoracic. Just turning the body. Now from here, let your hands just hit the side of the body and rotate and turn with the out and breathe the air. So again, getting the spine movement movement in the spine is really important and it's going to really help your program on that reformer by doing a little preparation. Before you get on there, just one more time to each side and then come back to the center.

Now come on through reformer on the reformer. What we're going to do is we're going to set our springs is today we're working a little bit more progressive and we're set the springs on medium spring just to spring tension in for Dave with Malcolm and working on two red and a blue. Now as we're going to be working the feet, we're going to start first of all with the legs extended and just circled its feet around and open the toes out. We did our preparation for the spine. Standing here. We're doing a little preparation for the ankles and the feet as you're circling the toes, make the movement as big as you can, keeping the knees still.

We could do 10 in one direction and then reverse and do 10 in the other direction as you're circling around. Get to them. The space between those toes be the outage you circled with the n and then take it to a point flex. So if we're the foot flakes, take it through and point the toes with the as flags and point and lengthen and stretching out. Breathing in and breathing out as you pointing. Again, 10 times is good for this, so you've got some nice relaxed feet before we start working them in a very specific position on the reformer. Five more times. Breathing out and Lenten as you're doing this, don't forget the spine. Keep the spine law so we're not just focusing on just the feet. We can start bringing that upper body into it as well in and breathing out.

One more time and then coming back. Now as we could take the legs into the position, we want to start in that v position and we want to make sure that the ankles are in a good stable position so you can flex the feet down, take the feet up into a point and take about halfway. So we've got a very fixed neutral ankle. The knees about shoulder width apart, arms down to the side, and what does it start falling do with the foot series is start with a full extension of the out and really in as you come back down here, remember we're maintaining neutral spine, so there's a little space underneath your back. Every time you do the movement, what makes this an advanced movement is you're thinking about more things. Every time you push your way, your spine lengthens. Every time you push away, your shoulders drop down and you're keeping that center engaged. Now whether you're working from the pelvic floor or whether you're working for the naval, the spine, choose one or the other, but keep it working.

We're going to resist the spring's coming down, 10 in a v position, extending out and then coming back down. We'll do two more times, really hour and really in one more time with the out. And now we need a demi play from here. Just come halfway down halfway and push out. This is really good for focusing on the wrapping around at the top of the legs. Again, maintain the ankle position. Your heels are fixed, your pelvis is fixed.

As you're doing that Demi Pa breathing out and with the ID, check the shoulders, stay relaxed. Keep that center engaged and keep the work. One more time pushing out and now come all the way back down. Now as see in the next time. Take one knee out to the side so one knee lifts up, you take the foot back down, place it exactly in the same place and change onto the other side. Reaching and commedia. Nana said a leg extension. Reach out extent coming back, reach out, extend and come back. Now we're going out to heel flex, so reach out, extend, flex the feet, point, lift up, and then come back down.

Reaching out, extend flex point and come back up and let's go to parallel position now and we're going to repeat the same sequence on parallel, pushing out, reaching and coming back down, breathing in and breathing out, lengthen out reach and coming down here we want to make sure that that big toe is staying connected on the foot bar so you're breathing out, reaching and breathing in. Lengthen and coming back 10 times. The breath I would ask you to try to achieve is out. Come down, breathing to come back. When you really feel confident in the movement, switching the breath to breathe in as you extend is going to be an extra challenge. The extra extra challenge comes from maintaining that center. One more time. Keep pushing out, lengthen and now take it to a demi place. They come down small movement and out.

Really feel the work on the back of the legs. Feel the ankle stable, shoulders melting down the back and keeping the spine long. Breathing and pushing out foot series is a great way to balance the body. And I'll try and make sure that all the clients I work with, if able, uh, do the foot series one more time. Push out and come back down. Now we're going to take into a single leg, knee lift, push out reach, and then come back down. Change onto the side. We're working in parallel. The same thing with the leg lift. So knee lifts first, extend the leg stretch and come down.

Change the other side of Anson and come down. Let's have the heel flex. Lengthen leg up first, flex the feet point and come back down reaching out. So we're testing the stability of the center. Flex and down. One last thing with the cake lends the like up flex first point kicked down, up and change back. Reaching out, lengthen, flex down, up, kick up and come back down please. The feet now are the heels on the bar and go to parallel on the heels.

Now the higher on the foot bar, the more you're going to challenge that posterior chain muscle. So breathing out, push your way. Lengthen and breathing in. Come down, check the whole time. The shoulders are not pushing up against the shoulder pad. If you find that you do push up against the shoulder Baz, one thing you might want to consider is just shifting the body away from the shoulder bed and not touching them that way.

Then it's going to make sure that you're not creating more tension in that upper body. Breathing out and coming back down 10 full times. Breathing and pulling, lengthening and can be back there. Keeping the center connected and remember that core work is constant. Whether you're working for the pelvic floor or whether you're working for the center, you're keeping the stability of the spine breathing out. Let's go into demi place halfway down, down and push out here a little bit more focus.

Work into the back of the hamstrings. Keep the resistance work against the springs. Remember, 50% of the springs should be you and 50% of the work of this should be the springs, so make sure you've got balanced between the two. If you find your legs getting too tired, load the springs down one more time. Pushing out, come all the way down and now from here, Ben, one knee, lift the leg up and place a foot back out changing or this side.

We're going to test the lower back by bending the knee. Stretch that leg up to the ceiling, keeping the neutral spine at a sign. Then the knee lengthen and come back down. Let's try this up. Now with a kick reach, kick up and back again. Other side, little Anson up, kick up and back and let's take the legs. Now it's a second. With the second position, get the heels as wide as you can. Open the knees, maintain the neutral so we shouldn't see here is don't let your rib cage pop up.

If your ribcage is popping up, you've gone too far. Keep that alignment as we did standing with the rib cage and pelvis and now breathe out. Extent, push and come down. Lengthen out. The spine is long. Every time you bend the knees and come back down, stretch your spine further. 10, four legs, stretching out, breathing, push.

I'm coming back down. Thinking about the shoulder placement. You can either have the hands towards your hips or the palms down. Sometimes the hands to the wards or hips is going to give you a little bit more shoulder placement. We're going to progress this now into Demi's extend and then slightly come down.

Reach and come down and push. The legs are wrapping around with the out open and yeah, every time a little bit further with the legs. One more time. Now come down and now as you extend, bend one knee, bend one knee and come back. Other side. Reach now with the knee. Lift up and extend the leg. Remember what testing the lower back, the space of the low back.

Reach and lengthen. Come back up now from here lil and set up and our kick. Push up and back. Change reaching up. Kick up and come back down and release back. Now please the knees together parallel and now put the legs together. Put the feet together parallel. Take the toes down.

Now from here we're going to do the heel raises. From here. Lengthen out. Now connect the center, set the position, and now low the heels down and then push up a little bit dynamic today. Push and lengthen and down. I would try not to let those legs turn it. So keep your legs parallel engaged as eductors. Keep the center fixed. Push up under every time going low the heels.

Make your spine longer down and push region lesson two more times. And now let's take it into prances, into walking, alternating legs. Pushing out. Yeah. Okay, good. The focus here is the lift up. So push up and down, up and down, up and down. Lengthen up for rush two more times and lift up. And now bend the knees and come down. Now have the feet open. Parallel. I'm going to ask Malcolm to keep the same springs on today. We're going to extend the legs away. I'm not lowing. And now from here, fixed the pelvis. Fix the spine, lift one leg up into a knee bent. It's a tabletop position. Now keeping that bend the other leg. Come down, breathe in and breathing out.

Push away reaching out so we could do a few repetitions just to check the pelvis and just to check that leg movement pushing out. One more time. Now staying on the same leg. Take the leg straight underneath the bar and stretch out. Come back up to the same position and stake it down below the bar, pushing up and up. What we're trying to do is fix it to meet the same place each time we are very specific. Lift up, push and down.

Lengthen up and down. I'll take it up and above the bar. Reach and now above, pushing out. Lengthen and above, reaching up and push lengthening out and push more time. And now alternating wall below. One lift and one above. Again, warm below center. Remember, this is not just for the legs, this is for that center. This keeping the shoulders down, up a lengthen. One more time. Reach. Take it above the bar. This time come up and hold it up.

Stay change legs, so place it firmly. Lift the other leg up. Now fix the spine. Start a few repetitions. Just keeping that tabletop position, keeping the center connected, lens up and DHEA. Breathing in and breathing out. One more. Now let's take it just below the bar below and come up and hit the same place and down below and hit the same place.

Checking that you keeping that neutral spine with the en. Everything up. Push and lengthen. Reach and yeah. Let's say next time above the bar. Push about lengthen and above shoulders. Keep in the center for us.

Now let's alternate below. Come up and above and again, breathing in and below and above. Remember, the other ankle is fixed. Keep the stability and the other ankle pushing up. Lengthen below. Reach one more time. Up Below. Lengthen up above. Come up. Let's place both feet up.

Hold it both feet on the bar and now just let the heels drop down. Bend the knees and come down. Lift the heels up. So semicircle, push up, reach and flex and lift. Pushing up. Reach and flex and reach. Coming down two more times with lifting up. Push and down. One more time. Lengthening up, reach and down and bend the knees and stay down.

Now we're going to do the short spinal and we're going to play with the sequence. Today. We're going to lose, first of all, set the arm length. So with the hands in the ropes, what I'm gonna do is just shorten the rope down slightly just to give it about a 90 degree angle. And then with the other rope, we're going to check and see how it feels. Do they feel equal? Which one feels longer? Live left? As long as I'm going to pull that through, just give a little bit more shortness. Better. Okay. All right. So with the short spinal for what I find is the lower you can take, um, the, the ropes down onto the riser, the more challenge is going to be, I'm going to let Margo try this on about midway first, we're going to stay on a median spring tension and we're going to put the feet in the bar instructs, and then the other foot and a strap here. Now as you bend the knees down, let me just start, actually, I'm going to take a blue spring off. I'm going to do just to two red first.

Yeah. Just a little bit more easy on that. Now with the short spinal arms down the side, get a little bit of a space between you and the shoulder pad. Now I'm going assist first. So with the legs out straight, we're going to take the feet over the face, let the carriage come all the way down, pushing up, bend the knees. And now the two versions one is just letting the pelvis roll down first and then bring the heels down and then pushing away. And that's one variation of the short spinal. So you're separating that last piece again, taking the feet over, bringing down, getting a lengthening through the back of the legs, pushing up, bend the knees and the other various you can try is keeping the body in one piece, rolling down and lengthening out, pushing out. Now we can alternate.

There's variation. So the first one, taking over, pushing up, bending the knees, connecting the center. Now rolling down, bringing the heels down and pushing out again. Feet over the face, lengthening up, turning out, wrapping through the back of the legs. And from here, keeping the straps tight. Roll down in one piece and pushing out one last time. The two variations. Rolling down and pushing out. Up. Bending the knees. First one, keeping the heels fixed, roll away, let the spine articulate and then pushing the feet out. Second one, taking the feet over the face, pushing up, turning the lights out, rolling down, curving down, and then extending the legs out. And just pausing it there for a second.

So we're going to take one foot out the strap. Take this foot out and we're going to do exactly the same movement as we take the feet over. So one leg now is free to take the feet over. Pushing up, lengthening up. Now from here, bend the knees. Now the first variation. Roll down curve. Bring the heels down and pushing out again, keeping those legs connected, pushing up, turning up, lengthening. Now keep the rule down in one piece and pushing out. One more time. Pushing out, reaching, taking the feet over and pushing up, bending the knees, separating, keeping the heels fixed. Roll down.

Bring the heels down and push away and less time taking over, pushing up a lengthening, taking it down. They knew the knees and rolling and are staying on the same leg. Extend and take this leg and cross it over the other leg. So here we're going to give a lot more dynamic stretch through the back of the hamstrings. Now same thing, taking it over, rolling down, pushing up extent. Bend the knees, fixing the heel, roll the pelvis away first down. Now rolling the heels do out and pushing out.

So quite a lot of stretch through Michael's hamstrings. They're pushing out ankle, glutes, pushing over anther, pushing up. Oh, I'm thinking now bend the knees and now from here in one piece rolled out, this is going to be much easier. So you've got like a center connecting. Let's shoot that one more time. Taking over, pushing our breathing out to extent. Taking a breath in as you bend the knees. Now fixing the heel roll away. Keep that heel fixed.

I'm going to assist a little bit pushing down and pushing out. And one last time in one piece. Rolling over, lengthening up, push. Bend the knees and roll down. Pushing out. Now we have one last thing before we do the other side is with the legs extended together here we're gonna do a split at the top. So we're gonna take the feet over, push up onto the shoulders.

At this point, the free leg is going to split open to the side. Now both legs are pushing out, goes far as you can. Let stay there and do three times. Open out second time, pushing out. Third time reach coming down. Bend the knees, roll down and in one piece come back down. We can add a bicycle variation to that. Taking over, lengthening.

Connect the center, pushing up, reaching. Now taking the leg out to the side. And now from here he goes far as you can then the knee and push for the foot. So you're pushing the foot away. Stretch the leg out. Come three times. Reaching over, lengthening, bend the knee, push away, stretch and come back up. One more time. Over. Bend the knee, push out, bring the legs together, bend the knees. Come down, bend the knees rolling down and extend or just stay there before we change.

Let me tell, take this Roath put it on the leg that's been free. And now change onto the other side. Sorry. Here, let's try a few again with the legs connected together. So breathing the two variations. So taking it over, pushing up, lengthening up. Bend the knees. Now rolling down away from the heels.

Bring the legs down and pushing out. Now what you'll find is one leg is going to be a lot more stable, lot stronger than the other side. So why don't you be aware of your body as you're doing this movement, which side feels the strongest? And then in one piece, be aware that you're staying in the center. If you find you're pushing the legs off to one side, bring awareness back to keep that body in the center as you're doing it down now, feet there, roll away. Bring the heels down and pushing out. And again, taking over, pushing out. We'll do this three times. So six altogether.

Pushing out. Bend the knees rolling in. One piece coming down. I'm pushing out. One last time, taking over Hershey and lengthen it app. Now from here, bend roll away from the feet coming back down. I'm pushing out and taking it over again. Little Anthony push up. Connect the center.

I in one piece, rolling down and pushing it out. Now cross the leg over and from here again, same movement as we did before. Drawing the feet down towards your face. Now let the carriage come all the way down. Push up using the center. Bend the first one, the more difficult. Roll away from the foot. Bring the heels down, let the pelvis come all the way down and then push away. So you've got to make sure that pelvis hits the bench before you push away.

Lengthen up now in one piece. Push it up, stretch, bend, and then roll down in one piece. This is much more easy to stay connected. Pelvis touches and pushing out. And again, taking over. Pershing lengthening up. Now bend the knees, keep this rope tight. Now come away from the heel. Roll down, bring the heel down so he goes as far as you can, pushing out, stretching. One less time. Take heat over, push up and stretch. Bending in one piece it, roll down.

Articulate the spine and pushing out and uncross the legs and bring the feet together. So take the feet over the face. Push it up. Now from here we're going to push up and with the scissor three times, push away. Lengthen one. And when the legs together and again pushing to reach through this foot and together, bring in three. Come back, bend the knees. Roll down away from the feet and heels down and pushing away.

And again, pushing up. This time we can add the bicycle variation. Push up, lengthen up, reaching open. Now bend the knee and now push the knee away from you. Stretch the firm. Feel the length through that front of the leg through the quadriceps. Push. Bend the knee. Reach away, Anthony pushing up. And again, one more time. Tiggy over. Bend the knee. Reach away, lengthen up and slowly come down. Then the knees reaching out and pushing away. Now just to release, after that, we're going to put both feet into the straps.

We're going to take some circles. So keeping the feet fixed. First of all, power legs. Now set the body, lengthen in the spy and now open the legs out and bring the legs together and squeeze the legs. Now this is the one where you've, you take those, the ropes down lower. Under the riser you're going to get more work, not just on the front of the body, but also through the back of the body. You are lengthening out, stretch the spine, point the toes, push and lengthening, breathing in and breathing out. The single strat work can also be applied to the single leg circles. We're going to bring the legs together, but you're going to have to start with a smaller circle first.

So from here we're going to circle around and bring the legs together. And what I want you to do is explore to see how far you can take that leg out, keeping the body controls on the center. One more time. Breathing in and breathing out. Lengthen and cam come back. Let's change on the other side. Bend the knee and now take this foot out. And again, start with a small circle.

Circle Open and together again, you're gonna be really aware of which is your strongest side. Really work it, lengthening, push really it and where the hour one last time in and breathing out. Bring the legs together and now bend the knees and let's just finish with a frog. So frog with both legs as a release, taking it down, bend those knees down. Play an extent. Find the height of the legs that you can take and maintain that neutral spine reaching out, open and Dow landing. This is a bit of a strong focus work, so a little bit of as a reward. What I want to do now is with the legs up to the ceiling at 90 degrees, we're going to hold it here and now open legs three times.

Open one and close. Open two and close on the third time. Stay Open. Put your hands on the top of the ropes now without pushing the ribs downwards. Push the ropes out and push down with the rate of resistance. Keep the resistance of the ropes and as slowly close the legs, place the arms back down. And again, three times.

Open one and close. Open two and close. Open three stay open. But the hands on the ropes. Breathing in and breathing out or pushing down. Taking the arms out, resisting it as your closing. Two more times, three openings. First each time trying to stretch a little bit further. Breathing in and breathing out. Strip further and out in stretch further.

One more time. Stay Open. And our hands on the ropes. And this time keep the tension. I just bend the knees slightly and now extend the leg straight, pushing out. Bend the knees and extend, pushing out. Stretch [inaudible] and are. Hold the stretch.

Keep the resistance and slowly close and bring the legs and bend those knees down. And let's take the legs out. The straps, put the feedback on the football and slowly come to a sitting position. Now we're going to go into mermaid position. So with the leg against the shoulder pads. And what I want to do here is I'm going to take the, uh, the football desk slightly lower down and let's just start with a rotational mermaid. So from here, please both hands on here. As you breathe out, stretch and lengthen the spine, push your way, and then slowly come up and lift up and your extension. Breathing in. And again, breathing out. Push away, long extension and lengthening up. Breathing in and again, breathing out. Push away.

11. One more time. Breathing in. Push your way. And stay down here. Now keep the shoulders there, just bend the elbow, soften the air both and push out in the lesson out with the breathing out. Reach away. Push your ACR, the slide in the shoulders, down the back, pushing out. Reach and down. Breathing it without reach. One more time. Lengthen and slowly come back down. Now we're gonna take into springs to blue spring.

I'm going to take the ropes and we're going to add in this moment position a little bit. First of a rotation. So from here, as you turn, you're going to take the arm out and open the arms, pushing out to the side, come back and wrap the ropes around. So the top arm is going to come over. Push and lengthen and open back and coming back and rotating in. Now what the position was, try and get to is from here is open out, open out to the site, and then stretch wide.

Now lift the chest to the ceiling and just lift backwards slightly. Come back up and reverse and come back. So got this lovely rotational work going on here. Extension in this spine, keeping the neck long. Push up, come back, reach and coming back down. One more time. Breathe in and breathe out. Lengthen. I'm pushing out. Now this is the first part of the movement, but we're gonna try now is then from here we're going to lift up into a kneeling position. Now we have to use the center. So breathing in, breathing out, push up and little lengthen up and reach out. Stretch, come back Lenson and slowly come back down again. Is that last Peter the Movement? Control it. The breathing in and breathing out, pushing up, lengthen out, reach and use the center. Oops.

Yeah, absolutely. With it. Yeah. So we're adding a yellow. So we had just a single blue. We're going a little bit of resistance and adding a yellow. Now a bit of assistance. So as you're turning reach and little Anthony push up. Good.

Can we back and controlling? Lowering down one more time. Breathe in and breathe out. Push and lengthen up. Reach. Remember your springs are there to be changed. So if you need the extra help on the exercise, have the extra spring. But if you've got a little bit more energy one day and you can lower this, bring lower back down. Some mockers. Get dry now on a single bloom.

Breathing in and now, no, no competitive here. No crossfit here. Pushing up, lengthen up, reach and slowly come down. Beautifully done. Let's try the other side. Let's see. So sort it around. So the first thing we're gonna try is just the mermaid on the other side, just for the upper body, without the the ropes. Good. Now hands on the bar and from here length. And a push away.

So reaching out and along spine. So you really feel that the knees pushing down and you're stretching the spine, extending, coming up with the it and breathing out, push away, connect the center and each time the spine gets longer, reaching out we met. Every time you do movement is an opportunity to move that movement better. So they'll just keep it in the same movement. Challenge yourself and push yourself to go a little bit further.

Breathing in and now breathing out, pushing out a cleanser. And up. Next one we're going to stay down and we just do the elbow flex. So from here bend and push out. Stretch again, but in and breathing out x day again, breathing in, breathing out fresh. Well I'm fun. Connect Center. One more time. Push, reach and come back down. So let's put that extra yellow on and we're going to try now with the ropes, with the assisting. Can't help yourself now. We just need some help.

When you need the help, you've got a put the hell bod pushing up now. First of all, staying down. So we're just opening the chest and pushing out. Lengthen. Now watch the back of the neck there and lift from the chest and now come back. Bring the arm over and release down. Breathing in. I can do this sometimes if you feel you're fighting, the springs are gonna say lifting up. 50% of the work should be you and 50% of the worship of the springs.

Lifting up open and brush. Reach open and back down. The breathing for this is take a breath in as you turn and breathing out. Breathing in as you come back. Remember we're not walking beginning. We're working at vans, so the in-breath is going to help me facilitate that movement, the rotation, but you have to be connected at center.

If you feel losing the center connection, switch the breath around to breathe out. As you turn, I would say out to learn a movement in to challenge it, reaching out, push open, and then coming down. Now we're going to add this spring and we're going to go up onto the knees. So shoulders down, center connected, pushing up, lift up, use the ropes. Open out. Coming back, reach up and slowly coming back down again. Breathing in breath is always good. Holding breath is not good. When students asked me, which is the right breath, I say the only bad breath is not breathing. When you breathe in, when you breathe out can change a movement. Pushing up. Out-Breath is going to help in breath is going to challenge. So pushing daff.

I'm going to try to more of these. Pushing up, lengthening and reaching back can be back. Lift and coming back down. One last time center and make the move a bigger. So push open, open, open, open length and reach coming back up slowly coming down and releasing out and just coming off the roof format. Okay. The next movement we do is on the box.

Now this is a very popular exercise with my clients. They love doing this. We're going to do the assisted teaser before we do the tease at naked alone. So from here I'm going to take the football down. I'm going to put all the springs on cause the carriage is not gonna move and Michael was going to lay on top of the box. Now you want to be on the box and towards the back of the, I'm going to put my foot on the football. Am I going to use my legs, my shoulders? Give me for your legs.

And now from here you're going to push up into my hands. So breathing out your little gap. So I'm here first of all, helping with assisted teaser. Now as Malcolm's doing this, I want him to think about the waste staying long so the waste is long and the chest is open so you're not crunching in or getting too many creases in your t-shirt. Lengthen out, breathing in and breathing out. This is a great way to facilitate the teaser. For some of you, somebody who's, we've got a very tight lower spine and maybe you're not quite as strong to do it on their own first, but progressively we're going to start doing this movement and lower. But before we do, we're going to take it down, circle the arms back, reach back, coming up, pushing on the hands and the lens now. So we're still getting that help, lifting up, reaching and circling back, lengthening. And coming up. Now, eventually we want to be doing this movement alone, pushing out, reaching out.

So this system has really helped connect to where you need to be working, which is the center. For me, the highest point of the legs is when the toes should match the eyes. I find if you lift the legs too high, it's very easy for those legs to do a lot of the work. Let's try this again. Take it down. Reaching back, circle, learn footing up and coming back down. One more time around. Now this time as you come up, we're going to come up. Hold it there. We're going to add a rotation. Turn to the side, open and lengthen out. Come back. Other side.

Open turn can be back and roll down and circle back. Lengthening out. Let's try that one more time. Reach and turned to the side. Turn and lengthen. Reach, turn and lengthen. Reach and slowly. Now just roll down. Bend the knees, hold the position, keep the scapula. And from here we do the one leg stretch. Reaching out as lengthen out and reach.

Now I'm going to ask Michael to reach his arm straight here cause I don't want you to pull that knee in. I wanted to keep the connections to the Scapula is just touching the box. The waist is long, reaching out, pushing out, lengthening out to changes to breathe in. So breathing in, breathing in, breathing out, breathing out. Two to breathe in. Two, two. Breathe out, pushing away, reaching couple more times. So in, in with the out, breathing out. One less time in, in breathing out with the out in the soil with the lace together.

Roll to a sitting position and put the foot and lets come off the box. Now from here we're going to come into the standing off the reformer section. I would try this first of all on a blue spray. Now it's called the karate kick. I'm going to go from a first position, we're going to take the leg up onto this shoulder pad and we're going to be pushing away just taking it low. So the first level of doing this is really when your foot has got a lot of help by being against the shoulder pad.

We're going to progress it in a little bit further in a few minutes, but we're going to start from here. Breathing out, lengthen and curl in. Now as you curl back round the back end, reach long and try and get the body long. Stretch out and pulling it, reaching and back. Breathing out, breathing in and pushing away. The standing leg on the ground is going to move a little bit that it's going to turn slightly. Don't keep it rigid, but keep the knee about the same height so you're not going up and down. You're staying low. It's almost even imagine there was a limbo bar and you're staying below the limbo bar as you're reaching away.

One more time pushing out and then can be back and stop and change. You can run to the other side, so we use the end of the couch to set this up. The end of the carriage. We've take the foot onto the shoulder pad, bring the body forward, set the body up, connect the center, and now with the out reach long and curl back. Breathing in and again, breathing out long and reach every time. The movement gets longer. Watch the back of your leg, stretch through the spine. Really it again, breathing out, push and down, lengthening out, really in out, and Ian. Four Times. Push and come back.

Good one last time. Check the center, push, stretch and slowly come back and come back to the first side. Now the next level is when they come at the end and we're going to put the foot. So the pelvis is really at the foot bar. Your foot is on the end of the carriage. And from here, bring the foot a little bit further onto your heels on and now there's less help with the stability of the ankle. So you've got to put a foot over the edge of the carriage.

From here we're going to do just five. Take the body forward and breathe out and reach away. Lens and out and breathing in and breathing out. Good. Three more times. Push. Reach. Lengthen. Good. One last time. Breathing in and breathing out.

Now let the leg come back in. Turn the body and we're going to take it back. Lunch seven here and reaching away and then come back here and breathing in, breathing out, push away, and come back in. Breathing in and breathing out and you're trying to make the movement as big as you can regionally on forward. Lengthen the spine and come back up again with the in length in the spine. Long Spine. Stretch and push up. I'm pushing out.

Reach one more. Stay down the next time we're reaching Holly and I stay there now with the back knee bend and push to the back leg out and again, back knee bend and push out. Reach Away Ben and push center connected. Reach four more times. Push Oh four put your way. Three push your way to one more time.

Push out and let the leg slowly the carriage come back in and let's come around and do the other side on the front. Yes. If mark was going to be able to walk out of this, so turning out so foot against the football heel down. Now connect the center and now breathe out. Lengthen. I'm breathing in and again, breathing out. Lengthen. Remember quality of movement is what we're looking for in the blood is method.

So we want to make sure that you're controlling it. You're not just kicking the leg. The work is coming from the center and you're stretching the leg as far as you can. What do you do to move in for the first time? This is going to be new for you. Let your body get used to it first and then try and challenge your body to make it better. So longer spine and reaching out.

Use the shoulders down the back. Try and get the back as flat as you can. One more time. Reach, come back in. Now change the foot and take it to a lunch. Stretching back and now pushing both legs reaching. So this first part, the torso is going to go up and down. You're reaching out lens in the back leg and really the length of leg is fixed.

So you're pushing longs to the heel, pushing out, reaching and lengthening out. Two more times with the in with the out push. Lengthen. One more time. Stay down. Hold it. Now with a back knee. Bend the knee and push out. Reach again. Push again, lengthen out. Everything's coming through the center.

Push away as if you need the assistance and then you can always get the football to put the hands there and pushing out. Reach brush two more times. Push lengthen one more time and slowly come back down. We will say a good student. Always adjust the movement. You know if you're losing, if you're losing the quality. Then again, use your hands low the springs. Adjust, but make the quality the most important thing.

Let's come around to the first side again. Now we're going to put the football up. I would do the lunch with the leg lift, so I'm going to try this again on a blue and a yellow, but remember you have to choose your, your own springs. Find out what's helping you, what's challenging you. The leg is on, the floor is bent, the back leg is lifted and we're going to push back three times. Push away one, push up. Push your way to push your way. Third Time, put your way as you come back, lift the front leg and lift the leg up, pushing up and again, three times one and again to lift up three and now keep the leg down the next time I'm pushing it back three times. So we had three with the leg down.

The goal is not to try and let your shoulders come too far. The further back you've got the shoulders. As you lift that leg up, the more challenge is going to be and lift up, pushing her reach. Lenson up, push back, reach, push up one more time and come back down. Now this time keep both legs straight, both legs straight. I'm pushing back, extending that front leg.

So you get the hamstring stretch as well. So push back, stretch the leg, stretch his leg. That's it. That and then come back up. Straight leg. Push Lenten up. Straight leg up. Control two ball. Push. Reach one more. Lengthen and stop and release the carriage. Slowly control and come to the other side.

So set the body up. Yeah, we don't have too much compression. The lower backs. If you've got long arms, you can either take the football a little bit lower, but try and keep that neutral spine. Now lift the knee up and now let's do three first back. Push back, lengthening out, a little adjustment me lifted and breathing in and I breathe out and lift up. Brush. Now here we're trying to find out how far back you can go. So the next time you come back, lift the leg up and lift up. Push and push down.

And again, lift the leg up. Up. Good. One more time. Now keep the foot down and again, pushed back three times. Hurting at and lengthen. And now we're going to try with the leg lift. Push back, bend first, push back. Same as we just did. So push back and now lift the leg up. I'm going to keep, stop that, that [inaudible] push to farther, but you can.

The more work you're using the center pushing up. And now come back down. And now just, just do straight legs. So both like straight center push. And now lift the leg up and up and push down. Reach. Good and Lenten up. Good. Senta shoulders, sliding down your back, reaching up a formal times. Push down for lengthen.

Three, lift the leg up. Push two one more time, controlling on and stop the movement and come back up. Good. After that intense work, let's put the football down and let's do a release for the spine. Come to the end of the reformer keeping on the same springs. We're going to lean forward. Place your hands on the carriage. And now from here for the spine, push the carriage forward.

Keeping the heels down. [inaudible] so it's a little bit like an elephant position. From the top of the reformer. Your heels are flat and you're pushing the carriage. Breathing out. Push away and reaching, pushing out.

Lengthen and reach. One more time with the in. Breathing out. Lengthen and not come back. Let the carriage come in and now roll up. Slowly come into a balanced, circle the arms up. So circle up, open out, and as slowly roll down and push your way. Three times. Push your way. One push away too. Good. One more time. Push your way. Three slowly come up. Now roll up slowly. Rolling up onto the toes, lengthening, circle the arms back, reaching down at this time. Come forward.

Place hands and carriage. As you put your way, lift one leg behind you. Stretch out and come back here and breathing in. And again, breathing out the one leg back. Push and back. Now this time, hold it and roll up slowly coming up, up into the toast or aging out. It's a bit of a balance challenge here. We're going to take the left arm, put it across reaching, and now push away. Keeping the feet down. Push your way out. Come back up and change hands. Roll Up. Circle the arms at the top and no cross over and push away and reaching out.

Lengthen out. Lengthen and coming back. Rolling up and circle out and down. Rolling down. Push the heels down. Look up to the hand. Rotate and Linden up. Coming up and circle out. Take you back down.

Rolling. Push away. Lengthen out. Lenzen coming back up. Rolling. And can we back up and flex the spine and just curve the spine. We're going to finish today with some standing work on the reformer. So I'm gonna ask Malcolm to come around.

Always step on the stables out wooden platform. First we're trying to blue and yellow, and I'm going to start in a rotated position. So up on the top. Now from here, turn your legs out slightly so your toes are pointing outwards. Now just to get used to the movement and the springs, we're going to test the springs arms out to the side. And now just open the legs out. I'm cold. Come back in about five times.

Now remember the less springs you've got, the more you're gonna be using those adapters. The more springs you've got, the more you're going to be using those quadriceps. So challenge your body where it needs it. I always tell my clients, we're not here to train those strong muscles in Baladez. We're here to train those muscles. You're not working. That's a whole book. Technique for me is balancing the body. Now we're gonna open the legs a little bit more to turn the toes out a little bit more. It's a little bit more rotation.

And now we're gonna take it about halfway, halfway in the hold it now here without the carriage moving. Bend the knees and now come back up, Lenten up. And again, bend the knees. So your goal here is to use that body to keep the carriage still pushing up and down. How low can you go? Keeping the back stable, taking it down, breathe the air, and with the hour breathing in and breathing out. This time come up and then bring the legs together. So let's just do one of those one single one. So open the legs, bend the knees one time down. Keep the carriage, they'll come back up and then bring the legs together again. Open.

Bend the knees. Keep the carriage still lift up and bring the legs together. So open, fully open all the way. Now bring it halfway back, and now bend the knees, lifting up and bring the legs together. One last time. Open. Come in, bend the knees. Now hold it there. Now we're going to lift the left heel up and then lower the heels down.

Now the right heel pushing up. So it would take you a little bit more focused on holding it. Lifting up. Try and keep the carriage still lengthen up. I'm pushing. Yeah, reaching out, up, lengthening away and coming down, pushing out. One more time, reaching and down. Now with the left leg, you're going to stretch and turn out to the end of the reformer. Push and reach, and then come back to the center. Breathing in, pushing a regional lens. And so as much as you can that you're trying to keep that velvet stability, pushing out, lengthen, reach long and coming back. Breathing in and again, breathing long and reach this time. Go out to the side, reach.

Hold it there. Now lift the chest up, lift up, come back and release back. One more time. Lengthen out, lift the chest up. Turn the hands up, come back and leave one buster on. Perfect. I know every time is the last one, but this is gonna be the best one. Reaching out. Lengthen. Stay. Now lift the chest up. Slowly come back and release down. Let the carriage come in. Step back off. There's a section at the carriage and turn around to the other side and coming back out. So stepping up first into the center foot in the center, shoulders down. Now set the body up.

So here just as we did at the beginning of the class, your pelvis and the rib cage check the rib cage is not pushing forward. If you've got strong back muscles, those muscles are going to try and do everything. So as much as you can, let the rib cage set the lines to the back so they're tilting bat, not closing in that, that'll ease your obliques too much. But just tilting back now from here, arms out and now just set the size of the movement by pushing out the hour and then slowly coming back, reading it. And again, breathing out, push away, keep in the connection. The center again, lengthen out, reaching out. One more time, cause your way. Come back in and hour halfway. Fix the position. Keep the carriage still bend the knees and then come back up and again, bending the knees and come back up again. Bend the knees, keep that carriage.

So there's a duct is a really going to have to work to keep that carry. Still. Push and lengthen. One more. Come back up and now let's put that together. Bring the legs together. Now open the legs out to the side. Full movement. Come back halfway. Fix the carriage down.

Lift up and close back in again. Open out as far as you can. Come back halfway. Bend the knees, take it down, lift and close back in two more times. Reaching out. Push in, bend the knees down, left and come back in one last time. The best is the last open. Come back, bend the knees down live. Now stay down this time. And now just lift the heel on the football and change and lift up and yeah, so as much as possible, keep the carriage still breathing out. Push an hour, lengthening, reach and push. Good. [inaudible].

Slide up, brush, lengthen out and then bring the legs together. Bend the knee and finishing with that left knee. Bend, rotating to the door, pushing out the stretch. Shoulders down, breathing in, breathing out and rotate. Push. As you rotate, lift the chest up. Up and come back. Breathing in and again, breathing out, rotate, push and back. Four more times. Lengthen and back. Shoulders down, long neck. Good. Just a couple more up, a little bit more rotation. Turn the body torso further. Further, come back one more time. Breathing in, breathing out.

Push your way and this time come back. Let the legs come in, step back of the carriage first and come around to the front of the uh, the reformers still on the front of reformer. And let's finish it. We started with just a little bit of ability. Everything we're doing on the plotters as equipment is to train your body to be better off the equipment. So we have to use what we've been doing today. Think about the stability we've been focusing on. Now, lift the arms up and again, as we did at the beginning, flex the spine and curve and again, taking you down. Keeping that balance between strength and mobility is the key. You know, if your body is too tight, we need to get more flexibility into it.

If your body's not strong in some areas that we need to focus on those areas. As I said earlier, it's not the strong muscles we need to focus on. It's those muscles you are not using if you're a runner, if you do spinning, if you're doing other activities which you're using your legs a lot, lower the springs when it comes to the reformer. Don't just train your legs as you would do in the other activity. One more time, taking it down, lengthening up and now facing the front. Just circle the shoulders first, releasing out, opening out.

Bring the elbows in, open the elbows back, pushing the elbows back and then our fully stretching the arms, lifting up and circling back. Big Range of movement. These should be done every day. You know, if you can't get to anywhere, watching blows anytime, any class, then these circles should be done in any location. Make sure you keep the upper body open. It will help with breathing. It will help with tension. It will help with the whole upper body placement. One more time and then come back and just take one last breath.

Taking breath in and slowly breathing out. I hope you've enjoyed this class today on plus anytime and I hope to see you again soon.