Class #2030

Reformer on the Cadillac

45 min - Class
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Description

This Cadillac workout is one of a series of classes that Niedra Gabriel teaches to enable you to perform traditional Reformer exercises on another piece of apparatus, or in this case, the Cadillac. For students, the goal is to give you a bigger repertoire that you can do if you don't have a Reformer, and for teachers, the goal is to demonstrate how a group class can be taught using all available equipment in a studio at once. Enjoy feeling the Reformer exercises such as Footwork, Short Spine, Rowing Series, Backstroke, and Long Spine Massage in a new way on the Cadillac!
What You'll Need: Cadillac, Foot Stopper

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Apr 02, 2015
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Good afternoon. I'm here with my good friend and peer. Rebecca of the, this class is part of a series of three classes to introduce the concept of delivering a group class where you utilize the studio equipment, something that most small studios are not doing yet. And I feel could be a great opportunity to offer more types of services to studio owners and give challenging workouts to clients that aren't in intermediate level, that would like to take more classes, maybe paid less money, but get a good solid workout using equipment. So what we'll be doing in this class is going through how to do when intermediate level reformer on the Cadillac or on the tower. If you have a tower, um, they will be the same class down on the chair and then we're going to put it together. We former chair and tower or Cadillac, depending on what your studio has, one of the things that you will need to, as a person learning this routine, you will need to adjust your piece of equipment that you work with to work with your client. Whether you have balanced body or you have grots.

So you have stock. Each of us has different equipment and they do vary. They vary in spring tension and in dimension. So there's some subtle modifications that you may feel you need to do. Please do make them do. Keep an open mind, use your common sense and run through the routine a few times until it clicks in and you understand what you're doing with your client. Very popular. I found this, this concept in very high demand with studio owners, whether you use it just as a class or use it as a group class, have fun.

And we're going to start with the reformer intermediate level being done on the Cadillac or the tower. So Rebecca, you would lie on your backstory, put work, place your feet in the straps so you would use the straps. Hold on to the Poles above your head. I like the hands a little bit higher than your shoulder level and you anchor the ribcage down into the mat. Bring your feet a little bit lower down and press out with your legs and bring the legs back in and press out so they keep going. So you're going to do 10 of these. So she's basically doing footwork.

The first Pilati stance position. If you want to make it more challenging, Rebecca, you can bring your hands down by your sides and keep on going and that's up to the client or the student because it's a little bit harder to do it this way and I believe you're close to 10 and come back and bring your hands back over your head higher than your shoulders. Now Bird on a perch, the knees and feet together. Hug the midline and curl your toes over so you're wrapping them and press out and keep the legs tight together. Press kind of challenging when you do it on the legs springs. It's really fun and surprising those muscles that we all want to feel suddenly waking up and working really hard. And Rebecca for you, make sure you're really focusing and getting the feet to work properly. And eight, I believe and I and one more time and 10 okay.

If you need to rest for a minute, give your legs a hug with your hands, pull them in and put your hands back. Very short rest. Flex your feet or as though your feet are against the board, narrow the sit bones together and press out. Again. Push and pull and push and pull and push and pull and push and only to hear and presence. If you can get the legs a little lower down and in and press and in and press and in. Back to Pilati stance. Press out with the legs again and point your feet and flex your feet and point and flex are, we're doing the tendon stretch on the reform equivalent of it and press and flax and press and flex and press and flex.

Last one, press and fat flex and bend your knees and come back and give the legs a hug. Next exercise is hundreds, so just like you would do it on the reformer, lift your arms up to the ceiling, lift your head and chest and extend those legs out and bend your knees and come back in just for a minute. If you find that, drop your head back. If you find the tension is too tight in the legs, you move yourself further up and let's have another try. Lift your head in chest, extend your legs out and start your pumps and that's it. Very hard on the powerhouse.

There's a lot of variations that can be done with this. For the person doing the exercise. You can also bend the knees halfway to tabletop if you want to know she doesn't want to. Okay, so she's staying right here. Keep pumping those legs. As you can see, it's really hard if she brings her body further in this way, the pressure is a little bit less. Um, this is why it's good to run through this a few times and figure out the angles for yourself, for the client where you can really challenge it. Last exhalation, bend your knees and come back in hard work. That's why your intermediate clients are going to love the workout.

Now short spy massage. I would like you holding the poles above your head. Press a little bit further out with your body. Extend the legs out. Lift up into the spring with your bottom. Lift up, lift up, lift up, and then you finish it. Bring the feet over. You're out of the spring. Bend your knees down towards your shoulders, opening the knees, the width of your shoulders.

Roll your bottom down and bring your feet in. Extend the legs out again. Lift the hips up. Float. Can You keep floating the legs over? Good girl. Bend your knees. So you do have to let the exercise in the spring tension and then push your bottom down. Press the legs out again. Lift the hips up, up. You go over. Bend your knees down low. Close to your shoulders.

Roll your bottom down. This is where you massage your back. Push your feet down. One more time. Extend the legs out. Lift up and over. Bend your knees down. Roll through the hips and press down. Now get your feet out and hold onto the straps with your hands.

We're going to do a little test. You could, we could switch to hand springs or we can stay just as they are. Um, I think Rebecca, you will need to move down a little bit. Bend your knees for coordination. I'm going to go for coronation, starting tabletop. With your elbows into the mat, lift your head and chest up and extend your arms to the Mat. Legs out, legs go out, open and close the legs. Bend your knees, then your arms. Lift your head up again. Extend, opening close. Bend your knees, keep your head up if you can. Last one, extend arms and legs out. Open and close and bend and Ben Drop your head down and give your legs a hug.

Now you are going to be shifting over to arm springs again for the studio owner working with the clients. I highly recommend you educate your student to do this, but it will take a few lessons for everybody to know where to put if you can. Using a bar here helps. So Rebecca, you will sit with your feet up against the block and hold the arm springs with your hands and you are going to go into the first rowing, which is a scooping position. So scoop and pull back into the spring. And you can use a pressure into the legs to stabilize. You stay. They take your arms out to the side, thumbs down, push strongly dive your head towards your knees and try to bring your thumbs behind your back. Sweep all the way up.

And now you have the pleasure of grabbing the board. Drop your head way down and just stretch into your back. So you pull back from the board in yes and come back up. Roll back again, roll back, take your arms out some stouts. Stay here. Push with the arms, push back. Now bring your head forward.

I like the thumbs touching. Do not lock your elbows. Love there. Now extend from the shoulders into your fingers. Lift up. Do not lock the elbows. Work the arm muscles. That's it. Sweep the arms around. Grab the bar or the whatever this is called. Pull away from it.

[inaudible] pull away so you, yes, you scoop and lift up your belly. Come back up and one more time. Roll back, rounding the spine, arms out, sums down. Push and come forward. Scooping and lifting the belly. Note. I like that. And switch up all the way around, all the way around. Big Circle. Now pull back and open your back. That's it. Come on up. And now the next one.

Elbows, shoulder height, lift high, flat back as you go back as far as you're able to go, come back up. Now. Keep a nice long spine. Stretch your arms out. And as you've been forward, I want you to keep along back cans, go down, pull them down and back. You can bend over. But now instead of having a rounded back, you want a long that, don't lock your elbows. Work the muscles. And from here on out, it's very similar. You lift, circle the arms all the way around. Wrap the the third, know what to call this. But if your head in, chest up, no, hold here and pull your chest forward so you have a feeling of an extension in your back. Nice and long. And now keep that long extension and pull your head towards your legs.

So you try to get your head to touch your toes. So this variation, your spine is long. Come back up. Nice. Lifted elbows. Have a go again. Lift out of your lower back and hinge back. Hinge, hinge, hinge, long back. Come back up, lift from the hips. Stretch your arms out in front. Reach down like you're trying to touch the floor, but keep along back. Thumbs, touch big. Circle up all the way around. Grab the board, lift your head, pull your chest towards your feet and then bend over, lengthening down and come back up. And last time, lift your chest.

Bend your elbows, hinge, hinge, hinge, hinge, hinge. Power yourself up. Reach out and pull down and back with those arms long spine. Lift your arms up all the way around. Grab that board, lift your head and look forward. Stretch and pull down towards your legs and come up.

Swing around his face the other way. Whoa. Nope. You going to sit. You're going to be doing, reaching from your, your shoulders. So you will need to go a little bit further back if I know what's gonna happen in your body because this gets tougher and tougher. I think you should go for the back cause the spring is going to be pulling you back and you would be fighting hard with the powerhouse. So press up now. Push that those hands down to the mat.

Stay in the spring as you come up and then go out lifting that spine but stay in the spring so you keep the hands a bit in front of the body so you feel the spring tension and down. Start again. Reach out long lifting from in the spine, up through the crown of the head. Push the hands down, lift up from the powerhouses. The hands come up. There's a point of go out of the spring out. Now push up, push up, push up, maybe move a little further forward. I think the spring is a little light for you. And last time this variation, press out Paul.

The heads that you see an inch difference is and so and you want to challenge your powerhouse. That's the challenge of it. Now reaching from the hips, flex your feet, strongly scoop your navel and slide your hands out. Press and roll up, trying to stay forward. In the spring. Lift up. You're finding the tension up with the arms all the way out and down, all the way out and down. Again, scoop and slide forward. Reach those hands for now.

Keep pushing the hands away from you as you straighten the spine. Keep lifting into the spring up all the way around and down and last time scoop and slide forward. Staying in that spring. Try to reach beyond your feet as you roll up. Yes, roll up Rizzos arms long. Lift up all the way out and to how sitting cross legged, hands behind your head saving. Cross your legs. Make sure you have index, finger and thumb. I would move a little further forward so you feel the tonality of the sprint and lean into the spring.

Lift up the waist and spine and press those arms forward and up and back. So keep going. You can move back a little bit if it's too much for you to function and pull and back and just keep going. And by the way, clients love this. It's another way to do the exercise. They get to challenge themselves in a new way. It's stimulating.

It's waking up the nervous system and you have to kind of juggle a little bit to feel that exact sweet spot where the tone is just enough to challenge you and not enough to overwhelm you or make you lazy. Right? What we all want? Arms to the side. Cross your feet the other way. Take a big breath in, lift and close those arms and keep the back. Move back of it. Lift up the spine, try to stay lifted in the spine as you close the arms and open and close and open and try not to lose height. It's okay. We are making, imagine you're hugging a tree here and close. Yeah, it's a very big tree. There you go. We're to redwood tree. Okay. And dress down. Very, very nice. And you going to go into doing swan using the roll down bars.

So I'm going to take the board away. Let's have this set up. This is really like flying ego on the using roll-down bars. So let's have you hold the spring on the outside. Make sure your body is in the middle of the Cadillac.

The feet are nice and long and just for a minute, Rebecca, first of all, drop your forehead down. It's a lot of times people can't even get their forehead down. Huge stretch here and just for a minute, lift your head up and double check that the pressure into the bar is even because we often have one side very different from the other and make sure because I can see you Rebecca, that you're swinging the bar to the left. Get it in the middle and I'm going to check that you're in the middle with your little body. Okay, looks good. Okay, so drop your head down. Here we go. Nice. Long spine, pressing the hip bones into the mat to the sacred is buried, but long lift your head and chest.

Pull the shoulders down and slightly together and push. Lift your arms up and lengths in the trunk out and dive your head down between your arms, keeping the arms long and again, lift your head and chest up, shoulders down, lifting way up. Lift the arms up and lengthen out through the crown of the head. One last time with your head up. Push down to lift, lift the arms up and lengthen all the way down and just sit into your heels for a minute to stretch into child's pose and relieve everything. And the next one pulling on the straps where I'm pulling on the straps and t.

So you're going to use arm strings for this. Very much like Flying Eagle using arms springs. So feeder over the edge, the arms are going to be even and long. Very nice. Lift your head slightly and start pulling the shoulder blades down the back as you lift the chest, the Popo Popo pole. Take the arms out to the side and then release attention dop. Drop your head back down again and pull down with the arms and lift a little higher. Lift out of that lower stomach.

Arms out wide and lower back down. Fantastic exercise for women cause it makes these lattes work. And this upper back start to get active all the way out and down. Now t shape is the same. You take the [inaudible] side and pull them towards your hips, lifting Paul and reach the arms back out again. Release.

Drop your head down and if you want to, Rebecca, you can move a little further forward for this one. So the arms will be starting a little bit more like yes, more like a t, but what's that? The shoulder, the Delta doesn't roll totally forward. I want it slightly. The shoulder blade going down your back as you pull back, squeeze your shoulder blades a bit, that's the girl opening the collarbones and then release the tension. Dive your forehead down. And one more time just like that Paul and lift and dye your head forward and release down very, very nicely. Let go of this springs.

Sit back into child's pose. Just give yourself a little rest. Okay Rebecca. So I'd like you to like back on your back using arm springs for backstroke. You'd be on the on. If you're on the reformer, you'd be on the long box and you want to be quite close up to the top hole. Actually we want a little, just close attention so maybe not so far up.

You're going to be closer here. Hold this and you will be in this position. I think you need to be a little bit further down. Bend both knees into your chest, curl your head and chest up into your powerhouse. Lift your arms and legs up to the ceiling, arms and legs open and then pull down and reach as best you can and bend everything in if you can.

If your arms and legs up open and I'll try to reach to your thigh so the arms are low and come back in one more time. Arms and legs lift open. Now try to reach the thighs. Hold, hold, hold, hold and come back in. Oh, okay. Okay. Drop your arms since springs arm springs down and you will be doing teaser next and we're going to set up the push through bar for this so you'll swing around. Let's have you on your back with your shoulders right under the bar.

Hold the bar with your hands and the legs will be long. Okay, Rebecca said we're going to do teaser next. We'll pull the bar towards your face and stretch the arms over your head. Bring the bar back to straight and roll yourself up to teasers. Stay here. Pull the bar behind your head three times and one, and two, and three, and roll down. Scoping your naval head and feet touch at the same time.

Repeat the movement bar goes over your head. Forward. Roll all the way up this time. Hold your keys and lone. Lift the legs three times and one, and two, and three, and row everything down to flat. Now pull the bar through. Lift up the full teaser. Roll all the way up and arms and legs together and one, keep your head forward and now that's it. And three in the glamour exit.

Let go of the bar with both hands reached towards your toes. Bend your elbows, bring the hands behind your back class. Stretch and float the feet down and your head down towards your knees. Take the arms out to the side, grab your feet and give yourself a lovely little stretch. Very, very good. Come up to standing up there. Oh, actually, I'm sorry, just roll over into plank pose because we're going to do long stretch now.

So just bring yourself into a plank position and stabilize your shoulder blades onto your back. And I would turn open the fingers a little bit more with the index fingers pointing straight forward to have a nice base. And now press your heels as far back as you see you rock back and bring your heels as far forward as you can even roll over your toes. One roll back again. Do not let your pips go up and down and pinch your little bottom and forward.

So you want to feel like a steel rod here air. Nothing moves back and forward. One more time and back and forward. Bend your knees down. Sit into your heels for a minute for child's pose and then come up onto your knees holding the bar. So this is the equivalent of up stretch on the reformer.

Your knees will be hip with the part a little bit wider part. Very good. Now scoop the navel and bring the bar down and drop your head forward and see if you can press your back out. So you extend way out nice and long and retrace your steps. Scoop your navel in rounding. Lift yourself up into nice long spine and gently press down into the bar.

And lift your chest up. No. Right here. Lift up. Look at the sky. Yes, but make sure it comes in your upper back. Good. And then come back to straight and repeat this. So you scoop from the top. Extend the spine out. Keep the hips stable as you scoot back. Good, good, good. Let the head drop into follow the line of the spine and then push down gently to get more length in the trunk. Very good. One more time. Drop your head, scoop down and press way out with your body.

Scoop your naval back in fro roll, roll, roll, roll and push the bar down to lift. Way Up. Very, very good. Now sit down and you will set yourself up for reverse monkey for the equivalent of up stretch. So you will bring the bar through. And this one, sometimes you have to fiddle a little with your client as to where their bottom is cause a lot of the spring tension in the body size are factor. Whether they're closer to the edge or not. That's it. Bring it in and see if you can straighten your legs up and sandwich up close to your legs lifting.

And I'll try and stay with your shoulders over your hips as you bend the knees. Good girl down. You go down. I'm going to give you a little hug and purusha afford. I think you need to move a little bit back. Okay? This is what you will have happen.

Fiddle till you make it work and lift way up. I want to see much more lift now. Bend the knees and see if you can push through. Say, I have to throw your weight forward. That's a girl. He's almost yes. Make them work hard. Why not what I know and press up.

So a lot of control and a lot of one more time. You're really starting to get it. So there's a certain amount of throwing the trunk forward into the weight to be able to get the pressure coming all the way up, all the way up, all the way up. Very good. You're done with this. So I suggest letting the bar go up hard. Huh? Come up to a standing position. You will be standing actually on the Cadillac.

So you're facing the roll down bar. Reach your arms up to the seating, no bar this, this act, and then roll your hands down to the mat. You can do this on the floor as well because it doesn't have to be done on the mat. And Walk your, put your hands flat on the floor and walk your hands out. Walk your feet out. So you adjust some of the walk. Your feet actually come into a long flat position. Walk. No, do not. Take your and keep your hands right where they are and walk your feet to back to your hands. Lifting your hips up and don't wobble your hip side to side.

Walk in, walk in, walk in, walk in. How close can you eventually, some people get their feet here and the hand stay there. That's it. Walk your feet back again. Walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk and walk forward again. Now walk back again. This time, keep the heels down to pressing into, no, we'd say went toe heel, tried to get heel toll. So you're into the heel, into the heel. Yes, yes. So you really stretch out the back part of the leg. Very good. Now when you come forward, as soon as you can start just getting the heel, the toes are lifted off the floor, off the floor, off the floor, and one last time, all the weight into the heel. Try not. That's it.

So a lot of work deep into the Achilles tendon and the calves and a lot of work into the hips. Very good for the hips and forward you come forward, forward, forward, forward, forward for good girl and roll up to an upright position and just be aware that right behind you here you have the bar. Don't knock your head. Good girl. Okay, next one is stomach massage. Everybody's favor. You're going to use the leg springs and you're going to have lots of fun and work really hard. So here we are. You will have to sit with your back to this leg springs. By the way, you can always use arms springs instead of legs.

Things you need to bring your bottom way back. Stomach massage. So you know in the reformer we sit in a scooped position so you have to sit, you have to sit. Yeah, the light. Yes. On your feet. Yes, and we were going to have a test run to see if these springs are too strong for you. You work really hard in your powerhouse. What's that? Then they will act well I think on the outs. Try it out. Try it out.

I want your hands as far forward as you can. I think you're going to need to move your bottom a little more back. Can you lift your feet up off the floor and push out with the legs? Push. That's it. Now Push. Flex your feet. Your hands will be there. You want your hands as as forward as you're able to have them in a yes.

Now let's see if you can add the flexing point. Point your feet or flex point and come back in. Exactly. There it is. Press flex point and come back in two more times like this. Press flex point and come back in last one. Flex and point and come back in.

Now can you get a long lifted back? Same thing. The legs be high and push again and lift the chest, flex your feet point and come back in and press flex point and come back in press, flax point and in and four flats point and in another four blacks point. And this is very nice, very challenging on the trunk because that's spring tension. It's throwing you way back. So you have to really work with the stabilizers and the hips to keep from being thrown backwards. I think this is your last one.

Now can you do it without him? And I'm going to do something just rest a second. I'm actually, because Rebecca is slightly shorter than me and we have a kind of um, Cadillac that you can adjust the height. I think it's a little bit more realistic and fair on her to have a slightly lower spring. So what's that? You're gonna think about it. Okay. See if you can figure out where you need to be.

I'm used to, okay, let's go for it like that. Have a go press out and back. No flexing point. Just push out and try to lift your back. That's a girl and press and lift your back cause everything is pulling you down and press and one more just like this. Lift up as best you can and come back down. Okay.

Get your feet out of there. A lot of challenging work, I think nobody complained. Sometimes people complain I'm doing stomach massage and I don't feel like step up. I think you felt your stomach. So next one is going to be short box. I am going to bring this board back for the legs and we use the roll down bar for that one, right? So won't be long. And the first part is just like rolling back.

So you're just going to hold the bar, round your head down, scoop and roll back to the mat, roll the flat and roll back up and roll down again, massaging your spine, connecting everything into your powerhouse and roll back up. And one more time. Rolling down and rolling back up. Now the next one, see if you can get your arms with the bar over your head. Some people like to have the legs a little bit wider apart. Occasionally you may even need to bend the knees a little bit, but I want you to lift the way up. And as you hinge back, you try to keep the [inaudible] yes and come back up and lift up first and then hinge back, lift and hinge and come back up. And one more time.

Lift out of those hips and hinge and [inaudible] come back up and let the bar go down for a minute. Drop your head and round four just to relax. Come back up, hold this whole the bar and you're going side to side. So you take the arms up over your head, lift out of the sacred room, and then he in sideways so there's no forward-leaning. It's a lateral bend to the side. If you can come back up and you're doing so well here cause you're taking the bar as you do this, you want to think of a frame so the arms and the head is a frame and you're taking the side bend from the trunk muscles.

So the waist and the ribs are working. You're doing this really well cause temptation to use the arms just to move them and not make the trunk be the source of the movement. And I think this is your last side. And come back up. Let go of the bar, bend over. Just rest your trunk for a minute. Let your head drop if you are, if I work privately with someone, I always give them a little massage because they worked so hard and now twist and reach. Not very dramatic to watch but very hard to do. So you will bring the arms up, lift up and rotate in my direction towards the ocean and try and hinge out that way. Come back up. Yes. Wow. She said lift, twist, press and good lift, twist and hinge and back and lift.

Twist and hinge and back in one more time. Lift the Brita. Push, pull, try. That's it. And hinge and last one, lift, twist and hinge. And come back up. Let go. Bend over. Relax your head and shoulders down and take a little deserving. Yes. And now bend.

Now we go for trees. So you can have one foot here. Bend your other foot into your knee. No Bar, just solo, just like in the mat. Put a whole, I would hold it. Hold under the knee. Yes. Just check that both hips are nice and even and lift your leg up and down. Three times one and two and if it up and walk your hands up towards your ankle.

Keep balanced on both hips. Flexing 0.3 times to three. Keep that weight into the left hip. I see. Veering to the right. Then you're going to climb down the leg and lay yourself down flap. And as you do this, bring this leg to a vertical.

So check that your hips are nice and square. See if you can roll up without moving your leg. This is going to be tough for you but if you, you can cheat and bring the leg this way but eventually the aspiration is to be able to get up without it, which means a huge amount of both flexibility and strength in the body. You're going to climb down that tree again down, down, down, down, down to flat. Good. And lift your head up and climb up.

Er, er, er, er, er, and lift one more time round your spine. Even as you go down now narrow the hips, anchor the left leg into the mat so you get that foundation and then see if you can float up. Very hard to do actually when we take all this support away, okay, I knew she could find her way. Sandwich your head and your they close to each other. So try just give yourself an extra little stretch. Bend the leg, placing the foot above the knee hole the sides of the Cadillac.

Check that you're nice and square and just bend over. So this is your fight. It's a hip stretch. It's an opportunity to really even out the hips. Check that one leg is not going into different place from the other. And then change sides. So same thing again. Pull the knee in, check that you feel straight and even and lift the leg up and down.

Three times one, two and three. Walk your hands up to your ankle. Flexing 0.3 times one, two, three. Keep nice and squared and walked at. Climb down the leg even in Nice work. What you're doing because you're keeping those hips nice and square. I would suggest checking that this is not, it looks a little over cross and see if you can climb up nice and even and you just do the best you can and go down again.

Good girl and climb back up. It's still easier. One side's always diff easier. One more time. Go down. And this time when you go down, check the, just finish the walk down it. Just check this because we've in inflection all this time.

There's tensity to hold attention here. Widen the shoulders, so for that's it. So which forces the trunk to do more work without gripping into the shoulders. Nice lift. Give yourself an extra little sandwich stretch. Then the foot, place it on top of the side. Check that the hips are nice and square and have the hands evenly on the side and evenly bend over both legs.

Very, very good. And then come back up and very nice. Okay, so thank you Rebecca. The next one which will be paralleling the knee stretch series. If you know any stretch series on the reformer we doing just frogs on your backs. Not exactly the same, but in the similar vein to put your legs into the leg springs.

I'm going to move this back so with one can make a lot of noise for you. I would take the hands above your head and press yourself out a little bit more cause you're nice and strong just slightly. Instead of holding, see if you can lengthen the arms and just plug them in. It just activates a whole upper body as well. And bring the feet a little closer to your bottom, just a little bit lower and press out and in with your legs.

Press and come back in. I just keep doing this movement and as you do a check that the kneecaps are really facing your armpits, not wider. So I would say you're too wide. So it's more of a frontal work that set for. So if you were thinking, you know, when we're doing knee stretch, the knees are really frontal. They were park, but they're frontal.

And very often in pilates, people over externally rotate the KNEECAP, but they're not really getting the thighs working in an intelligent way from the hips. This is looking very nice and in, and one more time like this and in. So from here, just pressing out to now lake circles would be next in the sequence. So lift, okay, open the legs up and together. I usually start this with, I'd like you to start opening the legs, opening them out and bring them down and together and lift. Open the legs out and down and together. Now keep doing this and see if you can keep your legs always out.

Never bring the legs right on top of your hips, but keep the angle, that's it. So it's a smaller circle and also less big a circle. Right now you're reaching quite wide. So maybe just the width of the Cadillac and check again that your kneecaps are not over-rotated out, but they are very correct. Correct. So there's this very, very slight v of the knee, but the is not hindering out. Now we're verse it, press down.

So keep doing the movement and the concept of where to place the kneecap is if you bend the knee, the knee should come towards the armpit or the top of the shoulder, not off to the side. Most people aim out to the side, so they're not really taking maximum balance. Advantage of the legs. Part of the muscles don't, Oh, do not get challenged the right way. Much, much, much better. What you're doing now and last one just like this and then bend the knees in. Now airplane or if we do on the reformer, we do long spine massage, which is kind of like leg circles but rolling up and rolling down. So extend your legs out. Can you lift your hips up and come all the way up?

Right top and then open the legs, hinge them out into, know, lift your hips and see if you can press that lights of that way. Pathway and lower down. Rolling. So you bring the legs together and roll up. That's it. Open the lakes and reach them out to try to get the legs into the spring tension as soon as you can. That's it. So you're in a plank and rolled down.

So try to have very minimal role versus a lot of undulation open and you have to a little bit clamp with those. Yes. Now can you roll down keeping that angle? Yes. Lovely. One more time just like that. That was awesome. Lifting up. Open the legs, lock them into your hips and roll down. Bring the legs together and reverse it.

Take the legs out and see if you can lift the hips. Good girl legs together. Try to get yourself out into this floating plank. Worth the buck and down. Good. And again, open the legs, lift up, bring the legs together, float the legs out. Nice tight hips and roll yourself down. Good, strong woman here and roll up together.

Legs out and roll. Roll, grow down. Very, very nice work. So in the classical method that I coming from all of these exercises, we're preparing you for very frankly, gymnastic and athletic moves where you actually do it without springs. So the trunk control that you need is absolutely phenomenal. Not many women ever get there. Not many men get there.

But that is the direction of all these exercises. So challenge yourself to really articulate down very minimally and stay out there. Built huge stability into the trunk. And I could see him getting stronger with each one, which was great. So get your legs out of here and you will do running in the push through bar and we will have you attached on a lower spring. So you're just going just like the you do in tower where um, you can, you'll have your legs at a 90 degree angle at this.

Get this safety chain set up. Very good. And you will lie on your back head here and your feet will be, let's get this. Just A, I think we'll get this off to the side. Okay. Push the bar up and put both feet together in the middle. Good. Let go. Hold the pose above your head. Extend the legs to straight and press your hips down.

So where the head is depends very much in the flexibility of the person you're going to do your running here. That's it. So he, the nice way to feel the stability into the hips. I want to see full reach, a point of the feet in B. That's it. So you really work the articulation. Can You keep your tailbone down there? I know your hamstrings get tight, you want to keep pushing down and just so people can see if people have very tight hamstrings, you can pull your head a little bit further that way. So if you pull close, I'm not sure if you can. Good. Same thing.

Press press. Yes. Yes. So the further in the person is the less extreme, the angle into the hips and depending upon what the hips and hamstrings are ready to do. Very, very nice. Okay. Bend your knees and come back down. Okay. So the last exercise on this routine is what unreformed would be breathing, I'm sorry, would be pelvic lift. And on the Cadillac is normally called breathing.

So you will place the track speed up. And let's have you do, I know we measured this, but let's have you double measure cause each person's position that right. I have a feeling we need to get you with this bar a little bit closer in. That's good. Now with your arms out again, because the bars a little bit higher. I think that's better. Okay, let's have you hang this and lie down on your back and put your feet up here.

Okay. And that's, let's have you pull a little bit further up. An ideal world. We want the bar hanging straight down. So you need to bring your head a little bit closer up there. And that looks just about right.

So the bar is hanging down headers here. Hold the bar with both hands and just to 10 press. Check the tension, pull the bar, your thighs and back up. And then roll your hips up. Roll. Keep the hands where they are. Roll the hips up and roll the hips down and pull the bar in towards your thighs.

Don't lift your hips yet. Keep them long and back up and roll the hips up. So you tuck the tail underlay to the spine and lift up. Very nice and roll back down. No, as you rolled down Rebecca, make sure you roll all the way so you lengthen into the tail. You don't stay in a tucked position. So, so one more time. Stable truck.

Just pull the bar towards your thighs. Bring the bar back. Now you Tuck your tail as you undulate up, pushing into the heels and then roll back down. And I would combine both movements together to roll your hips up as the bar comes down. Yeah and hold and hold and hold and roll down through the spine. Letting the bar go up and again, tuck the tail and pull.

Reach those arms long from the shoulders. Hold, hold, hold and roll back down. And last time Rebecca, I would like you to soften the elbow. Just attack of a tendency to hyper extend. I know those tricks cause I do that myself. You want to really work into the arm muscle, lift the hips and keep the rest long. Much, much, much. Do Not hyperextend the elbow. Keep it soft. Good girl. And then roll all the way down. Roll, roll, roll and relax and get your feet out.

Let go of the bar, bend your knees into your chest. I just do a few rolling like a ball just to relax your spine. Just back and forth and back up and back and up, and I can come up to sitting and thank you so much. You were an awesome student. So have fun with this. It's again, if, as you can see, to matching the reformer, it's a great workout just in its own right. It's a little bit new and different and Funky and challenging, and I haven't met anybody yet. We didn't really love doing it, so I have fun with it.

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Comments

Loved this, thanks!
Niedra,
Hi my name is Shiri.
I want to share with you that you are my favorit pilates instructor((:
In regard to class 2030 I tried to do the short spine stretch with the yellow and the purple spring and could not manage to do it right, usually I have no problem to do that kind of exercises.
Do you have any cuing/recommendation that will help me succeed on doing it the right way?
Thnx,
Shiri.
Niedra Gabriel
Ma Shlomech Shiri? ( I am Israeli too - so always happy to know a fellow israeli is on this site.)
Regarding your question I am not sure what spring tension you are using ( I don't know what yellow and purple springs are like) .
If the springs are too soft or too hard or too long it can affect your ability to do the exercise. Your hight, can be a factor as well.
What type of equipment are you using? who is the manufacturer?

I need more information to be able to make suggestions to you. Please do write again and perhaps we can sort out what is going on for you.
Really enjoyed this class
Most favorite instructor yet! Wonderful class.
Niedra Gabriel
Glad you enjoyed the workout Casey - your photo is awesome! I looked at your bio and love your enthusiasm for learning and fitness.
Thank you Niedra! what a wonderful fun class. You and Rebecca work so well together, and I love the fact that you stop the session to help cue her into better alignment. Always a client.
Niedra Gabriel
Thank you Patti, yes, real class, real cues and Rebecca is a wonderful student.
Love that this was workout was geared toward a group class. So challenging on the Cadillac!!! Wow!!
Niedra Gabriel
Thank you Keva, so please you found the workout a pleasing challenge.!
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