Therapeutic Reformer

Good afternoon everybody. I'm, I've got my good friend in student sandy here. She has been having some back, um, comp pain, some hip discomfort, some knee discomfort. So we are going to be doing some therapeutics for the lower back and for the legs before we get into a reformer workout to stabilize her structure, um, and make sure that the right muscle groups are firing when she actually gets to do her movement and a full PyLadies workout. So right now she's lying on the floor with her feet right up against the wall. And the alignment here is very crucial to reestablish the bones correctly in the hip sockets. Um, I'm Sandy, I very much want the line of the feet right now will feel very unnatural because I'm taking from the outer heel to the little tall, uh, to make those two lines completely vertical.

And let me just do one other thing. I'm getting a block. This can be a pillow. This can be done at home. In fact, I will want Sadie to do this at home. And first just hold this for a second set because I'm just setting you up the arms. I wanted a 45 degree angle to your body with the palms up and relax because your spine right now is a little bit tight. I'm going to put a little support under your head to create length.

Um, that's almost too much for you right now. That looking good as a spine, unravel the ribs, the ribs, well relax and the head can lie long. The natural curves will be in, but the rib cage will be resting on the floor. It often is not now totally opposite to what you've been told all along. I want you to really relax your belly. So don't use your belly at all and just squeeze this block and then release and squeeze the block and then release and keep doing that.

And as you do that, keep checking that you're not working the pelvis at all, but you are allowing the stomach to be relaxed. So you start to wake up these femur bones and stabilize them into the hips. That's it. Keep going. So we're just kind of jump-starting the body. All of us flip flop around and we can slip out of optimum alignment. And what happens is in the body takes in compensatory programs and it starts to use other muscle groups. Very, very common.

I hip flexes taking over for us because there's a civilized species who sit too much. These muscles are always working and other muscles atrophy or stop working. So then when we step up and we start walking or running or exercising, these are still the dominant muscles, not the other ones that are supposed to be firing. When we do our daily living in this body the way we're supposed to be. Now I want you to squeeze in, just hold and Jess hold very nice, very calm, but keep squeezing.

So we actually in in a sense like the fatigue, keep checking that you're not gripping in your buttocks, you're not gripping in your stomach and you're just working those inner thighs. And if you can in your minds, I want you to check, are you doing even right and left side? We usually have a dominant, stronger egg and we want to reeducate everything to work evenly. Very good and I'm going to take the block out. That was great. Now still with this very unusual feeling, you are going to feel like you're pigeon toed. Let the knees come in towards each other and now as you roll the knees out evenly, you're going to roll onto the side of your foot so you just let that sit.

You go as far as it comfortable but not move the features roll onto the side and then bring the knees together again. Now this is not muscular. This is just a relaxed floating movement of the bone in the socket and it is all initiated from the hips and roll out and roll together and roll out and roll together and roll out to Sandy. You're doing good. Just keep on going just like that and just be aware that both legs feel the same. This is good for beginners, good for elders, good for athletes, good for dancers, very simple, really no sweat. Kind of re establishing the body double checking, especially if you're well trained, not to use the stomach. We are so rig and that muscle just kicks in and to allow the pelvis to be very relaxed.

Now we're going to come back to a vertical plane and you will move the feet wider apart so you're about an and make sure again that we're taking this line from the outside because your feet will want to move out for most of us and that's already a form of a misalignment of blue weight bearing structure. I would say that this foot has to move out more and this foot in just a little bits of both legs that even now you're going to start again in and you will roll out and roll in and roll out and every time you come in at and glance at your feet to make sure they're still going straight up and not starting to roll out. Good, good, good, good. Just allow all of this to happen and out and N and rolling out. Very good. Rolling in, rolling out.

Very soft in the hip socket. Nice and even joint movement often brings a lot of relief for any kind of lower back problems that can be starting to be stimulated and irritated because of some kind of imbalance. Also, when the pelvis starts to twist, it can help gently encourage it to slip back where it belongs and one more like that. Very, very nice. And Sandy. Now bring your feet back so they're lined up evenly in line with your hip. So I will bring your feet closer together. That's it. Your knees, right opposite the hips. Good. There we go. Now that will be a foot Smith. Now working into the outer leg, we're going to slip your feet through.

We're going to come right back to the same place you were. Let's get this right above the knees. Check that the placement of the tension is, this looks good, right? Right. So I know it feels funny in the feet and now just start pressing out. See why. If you're doing this at home, you want to make sure that femur bones are mined up exactly with the hips so you're not slightly out and you're not shifting and the kneecaps are going straight forward. So just keep the tension pressing out. Check. Again, picture both hands are out and relax. The left hand rolled out.

Make sure so you want to press and hold it and check that the belly is soft, the spine is long, the shoulders are relaxed. You're not introducing tension into other parts of your body. And I can already see looking at sandy that there's a certain amount of strain in her feet because their feet are not used to going straight ahead. And if she's got knee problem, that doesn't surprise me. Usually stems from the hip.

The bone start to torque and what happens in the joints and structure breaks down. If we can reeducate the structure back to weight bearing in an even balanced manner, we can go out and have a youthful, exciting life again. Don't we all want that? So keep pressing out. No, don't, don't Paul. I actually just want that pressure out. That's it. You just holding the position now while you're holding that position, Sandy, get the class at the hands together.

Just lift them just above your shoulders. Have your knee, elbow straight if you can. And now take the arms over your head, towards the floor all the way, all the way, all the way, all they keep those elbows straight and bring the hands back up. I haven't seen sandy in a long time. I'm remembering those tight shoulders. So you're going to press those knees out and choose, move back and forth. I don't care about whether the hands get to the floor, but today I want those elbows locked. So we start to arm pits and side of the lat muscles that are very, very tight. So and again, very common because we tend to go forward to this contracts, the rib cage drafts into the internal organs and we want to release all of that.

So there's lots of space and movement in the upper trunk area. Nice. Long elbows, nice presser pressure out with those knees. Very good. Good. Starting to loosen up a little bit. Homework, Sandy. Homework and up two more times. Just like that. You're doing great. Press and up and one more time and press and up.

Fabulous. Now this is a very funky position where the fingers are curled, the thumb is out. This is just to stabilize a whole palm of the hand and the wrist so it's not mobile and involved because now we want to restore. We've worked the shoulder joint and stimulated it this way. Now we want to work at laterally so take the fingers and kind of press them close to your knuckles and take the elbows all the way to the floor and the palms will be this way so they're facing front. Relax your belly. If you get tie your legs tired so you can rest the muscles.

If you want to work extra hard, you can press out now bringing the elbows and see if you can bring them towards each other to touch and then take them back out again all the way towards the floor and up again and take them out again. Very nice and wide. Now as you do this, try not to tighten the muscle. Yes, so that the hinge of the ball and socket joint in the shoulder starts to be loosened up again. Again, a lot of times the whole joint is moving around, but it, the joint itself is not free. Very good and Oh, very nice. A few more times and out and out. Very good and out and out. Very nice. One more time and out. Excellent. Sandy.

So going to get the knees out of here and I would like you to come up to a standing position. I'm going to get a chair because we're going to repeat two things with you sitting. So I'm getting a chair. This can be any kind of chair, but in this case it's a yoga chair, which doesn't matter. I want you to sit just on the edge of your sideways so everybody can see you. Place your feet identically to the way you'll have them before.

So hip with the part and the heels right under the knees. Yes. So they're just going straight ahead. It's as though you are on the floor, right? This is going to be between your knees. Now this is the interesting thing. I want the sacred them rocked forward. There is a the first Vertebra, um, or I should say the cartilage between the two vertebras at right on top of the sacred, going into the lumbar spine is a wedge shape. It's like this, it's not square. So this area I've set say it's like that, not like that. Look at this. It's like this, not like this, which means the human body is designed to have the curve, but the curve is right here. We take it up here, which is too high and it shortens the lats and puffs out the ribs at the compensatory program too. Having lost the curve down here.

So see if you can float these ribs back in space. Not The shoulders, but the bend over a little bit. Yes. In fact, bend over a little bit more and that it's right now. Sandy's created lengths in here and now see if you can keep the curve down here and slowly float your body to upright position again. And I want you just to feel that you're sticking your bottom out, down pretty good and move yourself back. So now your stack, now she stacked up on top of her own skeletons, which means this bones are going to get strong cause they are weight bearing.

I just want you to hold this position and gently squeeze that block. Let the hand flop down. Okay. Relax your belly because we don't want to be using the stomach right now. We want to jumpstart the back muscles and these muscles up here and just squeeze and hold and I'm going to bring your feet just a little bit further forward in space so that the heels are right under the knees.

Squeeze and just hold and look how much nicer and straighter her upper back already is. Um, she, when she walked in today, she was more forward. So the energy going up the spinal column is starting to be increased, which is a good thing. As a species we tend to be rather slumped over nowadays, cell phones and all the rest of like computers. So we have attempted to be collapsed and everything gets weak. As a result, we no longer walk around in this elegant manner that the human body was really designed to be. Babies walk like this, up to about three years old, indigenous people carrying heavy weights, weights on their head, women with big hundred pounds of weight on their head. A baby on this side and other bag. Gorgeous, not tired, stimulated by the work rather than exhausted by it.

This is looking really great, Sandy. Okay, repeating the same thing with the strap. So bring the strap up just above the knees. Let's, I think. Let's get it a little bit tighter. That's it. So feed the going straight forward, right? And now same arch right down here. Yes, that's it.

And now I want you to press that your knees apart into the strap and I'm hoping you're starting to feel a widening of the pelvis and a widening of the bone. Sometimes there's Cindy, you get this sense of space. Yes, no, I'm telling you what to feel right. But this is looking very, very good. Just keep pressing out and it starts to wake up the muscles, which happens then it suddenly was to go for a walk. The right muscles would already be ready to kind of jump in there and wait, bear for her. Um, sometimes they just, we, our body just stopped working and we need to lighter matched into the system. And you're looking very good. Just a little bit longer.

And then relax. Oh k sandy. So what we will do now is go into reformer workout and get you going with that. Oh, okay. Sandy. So now let's have you lying down on the reformer. This is a grads reformers. So this is a new experience with Sandy. She's never been on one. In fact, most of the times she does. Matt doesn't show, okay.

So let's say we are starting with foot work and we are just doing the regular traditional alignment. I want all five toes on now. Right now I want you to slightly grip behind your knees that a, don't talk, but just feel, it's like you're pulling in so you tighten behind here. Place your arms nice and long by your sides. On the mat, on the floor, and keeping your belly scoop. Keep this tonality in the legs and press out all the way til you're nice and law and bend the knees to come back and priests out again.

Press and come back and watch. The kneecaps are only shows. That's it. So the pointing to the ceiling, they're not pointing out five and press out and back and keep going to you. Never have a moment that you're pausing. You're just warming up the tone of the muscles two more times just like this. This is very good. And last one. Okay.

Moving on to middle of the artists called bird on a perch, because you're going to be extending, I'd like you to press your heels together. Squeeze my hands. Everything is squeezed tight. So you want to think of the shinbone say now this is the trick part right here. Don't talk, don't talk. Remember that block between your legs. Same feeling. Just move it towards each other and out. You Go.

Press and come back and press. And now you get to pull your belly in, but feel the length in the trunk. So it's a funny feeling. Just getting a sense like a little corset round your waist round your spine and those long feet draping over. Keep the heels pressing towards each other. Don't let the heels come apart.

If you can keep your big toe joint together and your knees together. Lots to think about knees together, everything together. So you're tracking those bones straight forward and straight up. And again, keep those ankle bones together. And one more time. Very good. Moving onto your heels.

Flex your feet strongly. Let's get them right. So I want you to think of a little dime between the ankle bones pressing. Don't forget, come back in. You're doing good, but don't forget this. And again, and flex a lot. Flex, flex, flex. That's what I want to see. And for key, that little toe, especially in this leg pulling up and six and seven, keep those ankles together and eight, Aha. Much better. Nine one more time and 10 back to tendon. Stretch all five toes on the bar.

[inaudible] stance so the toes are slightly apart. Yes. Not Too wide with the knees, your buttocks nice and tight. Your bally long and press all the way out and pause. Nice long legs. Keep the knees long and straight and lower your heels in my direction.

Lower them down. I'm going to give you a stretch. Lift them up, lower them Dachau, lift them up, lower them down and up. So as you do this, keep going sandy. Feel how you're pushing into the feet in order to get the lift and how you're stretching the backs of the legs every time as you lower down, keeping the hips from so you're pulling the hips in and see if you can get a sense of the legs connecting all the way into your trunk. Two more times like this, press and up and one more time and a bend the knees to come all the way back in. And let's have you hold the handles. By the way, as a garage reformer, I have sandy on three springs, not for all spun tensions are the same. And I'm moving here to two springs. Now bring both knees into your chest and just to have a sense of what this going to be like.

I'd like you to pull the shoulders away from the spine for like you're trying to touch the ceiling now thi see if you can contract between the arm bones. It's like you. Yes. So you get into the pecs. The hands is still this. Why now? Keep that sense of power in the front body and reach the hands long towards the window. Bring the hands back up. Now your ad or UK lifting your head up in the air. Good. So lift, try to touch the ceiling. Yes. And I'll stay that high and stretch those hands. That's it. As the hands come up, drop your head back down.

So reach to the ceiling and then long to the window and back down and again reach and long and back down as you do it. Feel the ribs going backwards and your belly coming in and down. And one more time like that. Reached to the ceiling and long and back down. Now keep the hands here.

I'd like to take a deep breath in through your nose and as you breathe out through the nose, breathe out without, without, without, without, without, without, without contract. Contract contract tree to get to see me as you mean squeeze more, air out, another breath in, widen the rips, and again breathe out. That's it. Try to figure out how to get even more air out, even more air out. So you work deep in the diaphragm again. We then and breathe out, out, out, out, out, out, out, out, out, out, out, out, out, out, out, out, out. Now you will do the same thing lifting up in the air.

No pumps today. This is a big precursor to hundreds, but once you up in this shape, it opens up your ribs a little bit more in the back. And I want you to use the shape to try to get more air out so you can kind of compress more deeply into both the stomach and the rib cage. So you lift up the same way, lift way up, and then here you are, and take a deep breath in here. Fill up the lungs and then breathe out. Go for it. We thou, we got to keep pushing into the hands and try to empty the lungs out in. Squeeze all around this band right at the floating ribs.

When you have no more chance to breathe out, you take a breath in. You can stay up if you can and breathe out again. And one more just like this. This is really good. Sandy tried to stretch the breath out even further. Try to get more air, more. Pull the belly in. Pull the belly in, pull the belly in, squeeze all your internal organs and then rest all Kay.

Hard work. You hold that one. And I'm setting you up now for frogs and leg circles. So tell me, how did that feel? I could feel it a lot here. Almost burned. She said she could feel it right around the diaphragm. Floating ribs. Almost like a burn. Okay, that's good.

We want that. We want that area to wake up because it gets a little kind of under worked. And then people try to take deep breathing, but the diaphragm actually doesn't know how to work. So frogs and leg circles push out with both legs. Lift one leg up, put it in the strap and push out with it.

Bring the other leg up. Yes. So now heels will be together. Toes are reaching along. No, no, no. Don't lift your legs up. I'm bringing the struck down. Arms along by your sides. Then both knees towards your shoulders, open your knees out a little bit to the straps would be in the middle. So not to why you see that's the alignment.

We want the kneecaps going right towards the shoulder rests. That's the exactly where the hips hang good in the socket. Now find your belly, find those little muscles here without talking and extend. Your legs are going to go out where my hands are wrong and then bend the knees back. Same way they, that's it. Not Together, but close and press out again and back. So try to do this with a sensation of floating with the leg.

Bones not gripping. Your power is in your belly. Extend. So the legs are reaching long and far. Extend and back and now extend all the way out with the legs. Hold this position in a few leg circles. That's it.

Where you lift up, not to turned out with the knees open. Now tighten your buttock muscles. That's it. And from your hamstrings. Reach the legs. I say you tried to touch me and lift long, long reaching out. Yes. So you feel the body getting longer. Remember what you wanted to be taller.

This is the beginning and wrong. Two more lessons than you're five foot 10. I promise the impossible. But people get longer and tolerance. Fun. One more time like this. Now, just to stretch the hamstrings a little bit. Bring the legs up to the ceiling all the way up.

Bend your knees in towards your chest. Knees like me apart. Knees slightly apart. Extend the legs out towards me again. Flow the legs up. Feel it how the lower back is lengthening. When you do this, bend the knees and again, extend. Lift up and bend. Now I'm leaving your feet. You're going to do it on your own.

Extend and lift and back. See, you're massaging the leg muscles, massaging the back, not tightening the muscles but elongating them so they start to, you start to feel like a sinewy cat and yes, that's it. So any tightness that you're feeling, you're just softly kind of waking it up, getting the rust out of there. One more time like this, and bend the knees. That will bend the knees. You can't bend the knees. Oh, okay. Put your feet on the foot bar. Okay, now bring yourself up to a sitting position. Swing your legs to one side and step off. Next one is called stomach massage. I'm sure you've done this one before. Very basic.

All this leg work that we were doing lying down, you will be doing sitting. So we're going to check where's a good place for you? So I want your bottom here, putting her back onto three springs. [inaudible] put your feet first on this wooden structure. Why don't you to put your hands on your sides, lift your bottom up and very slightly.

Take the tail and the bow and just ring it under. So you're sitting just between your sit bones and your, so you're not in that lovely arch position. We worked with it before, but a slightly rounded lower back. I think we need a little bit more here because now we want to stretch out all of this area, which gets very tight. Now put your hands in one here and one here. These ribs are going to go backwards. So Sandy, the floating ribs, I want you to think just like hundreds, similar shape.

Can you bring one foot up, one foot up, feet and knees are going to be shoulder with. Can you bring the carriage all the way in? No one for me ever. Okay, it's really tight. Tight back, tight. K round your head. Let your head drop and pull your elbows to the side.

Good. Now as you press out, press out and use a stretch of the springs to round you and come back and press out and press into this part of your back. Shoulders away from your ears. Otherwise good. And come back and press out again. So she was saying that it's hard for her because her back feels so stiff to get into this press and deepens like someone's pulling you backwards. And as you come back you stay there, press out again and back. Press out again. And back. And one more time like the sandy press out and back.

Very nice and moving you into one spring. Keep your feet here and let, can you take your hands back and put them up on the shoulder. Rest one. Now shoulders are okay. So when it's yourself up as tall as you can, there's your five foot 10 body. I could see it lifting all of this up even more.

Broadening the shoulders, but lifting your head up. So now this part of your back, I want you to think of pressing it forward and your belly still in. Good. Push out with the legs. And as you press out, lift, bend the knees to come back and priests out and lift to you're stretching that waist and back. Press out and lift and back. Pre-Sell can pull the belly up even more and back three more times like that.

Press out and lift and back. Now keep that right hip down as you work. So both legs even and back. You definitely have an inch or two in you that you can bring back. I can see that cause as you're lifting here, last one, there's so much space opening up in you and back.

You did good. Swing your legs to one side. Make sure both feet are on the ground. Hold your elbows with your hands. I want you, that's it. And get your feet right in front of you. Just the way you had them before. Now you shift onto those feet. Don't let your knees come together, so I want you to stand up. You will shift over the toes. Good. That was great.

Oh, okay. Let's have you sit with your bottom here and feed in the strap. I'll get your stick and closer. Okay, we may move. Let's see what's happening to you when you wake on your bottom. Back to the straps are I see them tight enough. You know what? I'm going to move the box forward more because it's a different, very different body size. This machine from the kind of bottle reformer I know you've been on before, I would like your bottom about here. So one hands with from the edge.

Let's see what happens to you. Feed in the strap. Now, what I'd like you to do is bend your knees a little bit. Yes. So what's the feeling will be that you're bending in, pulling in, and this is looking good, sitting up nice and tall. So just hold the elbows for a minute and lift your waist way up. Way Up. Good, good, good. But that's a girl.

Now just here, like someone's on a string is pulling into the waist area. Round back right there and then come back up and sit up tall now with belly and that's it. Just to there and come back up and sit up tall. There's your vertical. But now I'm going to give you something hard to do. Here is my hand. When you pull and round your back, you don't lose touch. Don't lose touch with me.

So you will have to figure out how to pull the waist back. That's better. Come back to straight here straight again. Pull the belly back and that's a girl just like that. And come back to straight two more times. I would not give this to a brand new person.

Sandy's kind of worked at lessons before so she can be challenged. That's it. And up. So you see how you can change the shape of the spine without collapsing into it. So now something a little bit more challenging. You'll do the same thing and roll back a little bit. So why don't you two?

That's it. And now go roll yourself back. Roll yourself back, road yourself back, and then come back and sit up nice and tall and again, belly roll and come back and lift and again and row and come back and lift last one and roll. Come back and lift whole behind your knees with your hands and just bend over. Relax your head, relax your shoulders. Just kind of feel like a little ragdoll. Come back up to a sitting position. Hold the stick with your hands.

I want your hands, the width of your shoulders. Nope. Widen the width of the stick. Let's put it that way. Can you feel the shoulder blades down your back? Yes. Nice lift here. Now without anything changing, tighten robotics and get taller. That's it. Relax again. Lift. Relax.

One more time. Lift. Relax. Now. Same thing with the arms coming up. Lift, relax. Keep the hands here. Lift, relax and lift, relax. And one more time lift. I'm going to give you a little stretch. Stretch those elbows. Absolutely.

And bend over. Relaxed down. Nice. Let the shoulders go. Let yourself go soft here. Now's where you let go of all the technique and just kind of go, ah, feels so good not to do anything. Come back up one more time. Lift the arms up over your head. Lift way up and twist towards the ocean and back and lift.

Twist the way and back. And one more time towards the ocean and back and a way and back. One more time towards the ocean and back and a way and bend forward and relax down. Nice and long and soft and relaxed. Very, very good. You will step off.

And your next one is the elephant to stretch out the backs of the legs a little bit more. So I'm s you are still on two springs. I'd like you to stand. We're going to do a test run. Your heels will be here in your hands here. So put your hands down and I want those feet with the same line, little toe to heel lined up and pressure into the outer foot. To the inner arm. Yes. Can you lift your toes up in the air and really press the heels into the met carriage? You know what, Sandy, let's have your feet a little closer in.

Yes. So same thing. Pressure into the outer foot. So the arches lifting their, lift the toes up and press your heels down very strongly down. Stretch your knees even more. Can you straighten? Yes. Now your head is dropped and pull up off my hands with your belly. Tighten your bottom and push the carriage away. Six inches.

Press out and bring the carriage back and press and pull with the belly. Press and push from here and back and press. Keep this wide. Yes am press and press two more times am press last one. And Chris. Okay girl, step off. It's just sit down and lie down on your back again, putting your back onto three springs. In fact, I'm gonna move you to four for running. So actually four springs, so head down feet. We'll be together now.

Knees are together. You're looking nice and even I want the head rest up to lift your head from unit. That's it. Good, good. So you want this? Yes. Nice sense of firmness. Press all the way out til your legs are straight, all the way out. Different, stronger position. Now Bend one knee and presses heel down. And right here I want you to force this arch up.

Yes, like that's it. Now press all the way up to the both heels are straight. Both knees are straight and reverse it. Other side. Yes. Nope, you were fine. I want this full articulation of the ankle. Lift up and press lift up and press. So there's this point in the middle where both knees are straight and then you press up. Press good. That's the idea, Sandy. Try to smooth that out now so you're not like stuck staccato but fluid.

And the only thing is check that your hips are really at Kurt so they don't move and dance when the feet are doing their little dance and press. Yes. Now full range of movement in the feet though. Don't compensate for the feet. Getting a nice workout, press, press, press, press, press, press and press and press and press. Very good. Sandy. Bend your knees and come on in. Swing your legs off to one side. So you're sitting.

So you come up to a sitting position. Make sure your head is up. I want you to hold onto your elbows to stand up. Good. And stand up. Hands down. Okay, so I think this was a nice lesson for you. You did very, very well. Thank you so much. Thank you. Enjoy.