Spirals & Circular Movements

Hi, thank you for joining me today for Reformer Workout, we're gonna begin kneeling onto the Reformer. I have it loaded at the moment. We're gonna just go into some spinal mobility. So we're gonna start with Cat Stretch. So your hands are gonna be on your shoulder rest, knees right underneath the hips, shoulders aligned, take a breath, inhale.

You're gonna exhale just round your spine forward. And inhale through an extension, lets flex the feet. Pointing as you curl the tail under. And we'll just do five. Drawing the shoulders down.

I'm using the shoulder pads to get out of my wrists and to draw my shoulders open and my collar bone's wide. Good, lets just do two more here. Opening and curling. Nice to move this back. Open the chest and then pause here.

Lets go into a spiral, so thread the needle. Let's go over, taking your left hand, bending your right elbow, lets just rotate and twist. Keeping your hips up, just pause here for a moment, you could rest your head down. And bring it back and go to the other direction. We'll just do four in each direction.

Nice spinal twist. And rotate. And one more time. Spinal twist. Feels nice.

Take your hands back to the shoulder rest. We're gonna wag the tail so bring your knees together. You're gonna lift your right leg up. You're gonna wag the tail looking at the foot and then cross it over. You should feel this stretching in your back, in your waist, just follow your gaze.

Lets do one more. And bring it center. Good, other side. Let's lift that leg and cross it over the midline, looking over towards that foot. And open go as far as you can.

Little wag the tail. Flexing the waist. One more. And bring it center. Sit back onto your heels.

Use the shoulder rest to pull and stretch into that low back you're gonna lift and then you're gonna arch back sitting back into like a child's pose. Pull up, curl undulating through the back and reach back, sit. And last three. Arching and curling back. Rolling, one of my favorite moves here.

And last time. Arch back. Good and sit to the side. We're gonna do a little abdominal work here. Little nice isometric contraction work.

We're gonna keep the feet down onto the bar to start with. Reaching your arms up towards the ceiling. Lets just lift the chest, reaching your arms down towards your side. We're gonna just do little lifts. So like think of a continuous movement as you go over and over.

Shoulders are relaxed, just nice little contraction, resist as you go down. Lets do two more. Hold it here, right leg up, left leg up. Lets do five more here. Five.

Four. Lift. Two. One. Extend your legs and five more.

Up and over four. Try not to go down too low, keep it continuous. One, lower your legs about eye level, nose level. And curl up. Two.

Three. Four. Hold five. Externally rotate, flex your feet, reach your hands and lift up. Little pulsing up.

Reach up. Curling your tail up. Scooping three, reaching, four. And five. Bend your knees, take it in.

Take your arms out to a T position holding on to the frame now. Good, or you can hold on to the post which might be a better position. So lets rotate the knees over to the right. Stretch both legs. Bring it center and bend.

Take it over to the left. Extend your legs. Center and bend. Inhaling. Nice and extend, exhale.

Bend, one more, inhale. Extend the legs, exhale, bring it back. Bend your knees and rest. Roll over to the side. Push up, now we're gonna do some foot work.

So I have my springs loaded to pretty heavy. So I have three red and a blue. And we're gonna start with some parallel heels. So lie on your back. Feet hip distance apart.

Arms down at your side. Initiate the movement from your hamstrings. Extend your legs, fully extending and then resist as you come in. We're gonna do eight today. Two, doing a little bit of the shorter program for those of you that don't have a lot of time.

Last three. Inhale, tracking the knees try to keep your feet still. And one more. Fully extend. Pause here for a moment.

On the toes, so we'll go on to the toes. Extend the legs out. Try to keep your ankles still here as well. And extend out. Think about not only using your hamstrings but your abdominals.

And lets just do four more. All the way fully extending. Last three. Two. And one.

Bending the knees. Take your heels together in the Pilates stance. Good, wrap and extend, find your inner thigh connection and resist coming home. And take it in, two. Reach out, three.

And four. Lets do four more. Five, last three. Already feel this two, one more. Out and one, pause here.

Now we're gonna start in wide heel position. We're gonna move through parallel and external rotation. So we're gonna go out parallel. And then bring it in in external, and back to parallel. So you'll feel this in the hips not only in the hips but in your hamstrings and quads as well.

So parallel out, bring it around and parallel and out. So I'm getting external rotation and back to parallel. Lets do one more. Out, excuse me, and in. Hold it here now we'll go onto the toes.

We're gonna start in external, and move into parallel. Lengthen the legs out and then bring it parallel. Excuse me, and in, two. And out, bring it in, three. Last three.

Externally rotating back to parallel. One more time. And bring it home, good. Take the feet in the center. You're gonna stretch the legs, lower the heels down, and lift it up.

Lower the legs, so for your calf raises, we'll do eight. Three pressing up all the way. Keeping your ankles in alignment you're not supinating or pronating. Hold it here. Let's go in a V position a little bit wider.

And lower the heels down and lift up. Keep those inner thighs connected. Think about reaching those heels forward. Five. Lets do three more.

Three. And two, one more time. And one, bring it in. Now we're gonna go into your internal rotation, so internally rotate. Toes and balls of the feet on the bar.

Extend your legs. Adjust if you need to. And we're gonna lower the legs and lift up. And down, two. Just eight.

Keep breathing. Half way done. Last two. Lower and lift, one more. Up and bring it in.

Last thing, lets go into prancing. So extend your legs, keep your hips still and lower, stretch it out, lift and down and up. Little quicker on these. Breathe. Bring your legs in.

Stretch. And rest. Good, I'm gonna sit up and adjust my weight for a little abdominal work. And I'm gonna utilize the box for this section. So I'm gonna take it down to just one spring.

If you're a male doing this class, you may wanna do one and a half so a red and a blue. So I'm gonna grab the box. Place it like so. And I'm gonna lower the head rest. And I'm gonna lower, just the foot bar and take back my red.

Okay so we're gonna set up, sitting on the box facing the risers, you're gonna take your straps over your legs, so go ahead and take it over your knee. Get ready because this is challenging. So we're gonna lie down on our back. And adjust the straps, take your hands behind. I'm gonna want to wiggle my way back a little bit so I can open my upper back, ah, yes.

Try not to arch your low back like this, really connect. Lift your chest, you're gonna lengthen the legs out and up. Exhale down. Inhale, float it up. Exhale.

Inhale. Last two. One more. Hold, gonna give you a break. Pause.

Open your chest. Lift your chest. Lower and rotate, one. And to the other direction. And we'll just do, lets stay high.

Keep nice and lifted. Keep rotating. Rotating, just one more time. Bring it center. And come up to sitting.

Challenging, right? Okay, we're gonna go into two more. We're gonna lower down. Hands behind your head. Extend your legs, float it up.

Bend and out. Two. Three. Four. And five, reversing.

Up, down and in. Lift, lower the legs and pull it in and lift. Three. Last two. One more.

And up. Bend your knees, grab your thighs and come up to sitting. I think that was good enough. Okay lets go into some hip work here. I'm gonna have you go back onto your carriage.

Onto the carriage, I'm gonna move this away, momentarily. You will see this box again. We're gonna do some hip work, so lets set our springs at red and a blue. Or a green and a blue. Coming back.

Lying on your side, rolling down. I'm gonna push out. We're gonna start in a little diamond position. Get on there. Okay good.

All right, so lets start in a diamond. So just open your knees out. You're gonna just float up. And then draw the heels together and wrap down. Inhale, you wanna maintain a neutral position and then just wrap, little effort.

But effective. Up. And down. And lets just do two more. Pressing, keeping those heels pressing together.

Go a little further. And down. Good now lets pause here, we're gonna go, stretch the legs. Let's go into little Tinkerbell, or Peter Pan. Just bend one knee.

And bring it center. And open, I love this one, it really opens up your abductors, inner thighs it feels amazing. Love it. And bring it across on the same plane. The leg coming in, you really wanna draw it in to the midline here.

And one more. And now lets go ahead and take it up. You're gonna bend, just like you did with the abdominals, you're gonna do with your legs. Reach out three. And four.

Love this one, too. And feels nice, five and, lets do eight. Last two. And then we'll reverse the direction. and bring the knees in, extend up and lower.

Just like we did with the abdominals. Three. And extend four. And five. Last three, draw it in, extend and lower.

Seven, one more. And eight. Good now lower the leg, you're gonna take your left knee, open, bend it. Right leg is out to the side, then you're gonna sweep it up to the center and then alternate. Take it around.

Around the world. Three. Four. And five. Bring it and reverse.

Bend the right knee, take it up, bring it around to the other direction. And three. Four. And five, whoopsies. And I have to do one more.

And good, now we'll start, we'll end this series with little circles. Lets do six. Down, reach out, let's flex. Together. Reach out, flex, three more.

And then we'll reverse it. Take it up and reverse, open. Out and around. Up. I'm gonna go a little bit further than 90.

I can keep my tailbone down. Here. Might not look like it, but it's down. And one more. And around, take it together.

Okay, now we're gonna go into some spinal articulations. So for safety precautions, you're gonna take this headrest down all the way. Lets see, we're gonna start lets go ahead and do a little beginning of a short spine position, so you're gonna roll up, lets take it parallel. Bend your knees and then you're gonna curl and extend up. Up.

Lift. Bend. Like you're a fish. Diving into the water. Up, float it up.

Bend. Scoop, scoop, scoop. Extend. Lets do two more. Last one.

And release. Good, bend your knees. Take your foot out. And we're done with the straps. Okay, all right lets do some arm work.

I'm gonna set my up for one red. We're gonna start facing this direction in a seated position, legs extended. I'm gonna have my feet just slightly over and I'm gonna start sitting tall and then I'm gonna curl back so lets start with the first one. Nice and lifted, I like to keep my hands facing the frame. I'm gonna draw back and forward.

And back just to get into my triceps and my lats and my posterior deltoids and all of that good stuff. Lift, reach back. And back. Lets just do a couple more. Last time.

Here, good, now reach your arms forward, excuse me. I'm gonna actually feed my hand through hold it like this. And I'm gonna take my arms out to a T. And open. And bring it across into a T.

Working my back as well. One more. And hold. Now I'm gonna curl back. And we're just gonna spiral rotate.

Center, and to the other side. And center and think about going up and center. Rotate, center. One more time. Bring it center.

Scoop your arms up. And bicep curl. And two. And three. Six, lets do eight.

Keeping those elbows on the same plane, if it doesn't bother you. If so you can always go down here. Good, okay, we're gonna turn around face the opposite direction. So, extend your legs. We're gonna do Serve A Tray, so arms back.

Bring it forward. Bring it across. And in. So just reach, open, stretch. Bring it across and in.

And three. Four, lets just do six. And last time. Forward, out, across and bend. Okay, we're gonna do a single arm tricep.

So we'll just set this down. And I'm gonna put my hand on my hip here. Give me some feedback on where my position is. I need to lift up a little bit more. Three, just little single arm.

One side is definitely different than the other. Five. And I think six is good, since we've already done a bunch. Okay other side. On the diagonal keep your wrist in that neutral position.

Initiate with that tricep. And follow through all the way. One more. And you're working your postural muscles as well. And done with that.

Okay, great. We're gonna finish off the class with the mermaid, little spiraling mermaid we'll add some more triceps there and then we'll a back, so I have the same weight. One red, and I'm gonna just bring my feet in today. I like to change it up every once in a while. So my hand is in the center of the foot bar.

And I'm gonna just do it now. Because I think I could use it. We're gonna just take the arm up and just do a little stretch. Feels really good. And then bring it back.

So we're gonna start going out hold it here come across, find the stretch, bring it around, holding the carriage in and then bring it all the way in. So lets do five like that. Take it for two. Out, across, around and up. Three, keep this arm parallel to the floor and then from your trunk, and then find the stretch here, pushing into the bar and up.

Lets do two more, and then we'll add on. Here, here back out, and in and inhale. Exhale inhale, and exhale. Lets go out rotate, take your arm wider. Now you're just gonna lift turning, spiraling this way towards the window so towards your right.

Inhale. Exhale push down. Pull up, spiral, feels really good on the back. And twist. Last two push out and pull in, spiral good and one more.

Out, and away. Spiral open your chest, and good. Hold here, eight triceps. One. Three.

Four, I'm into the triceps lately, obviously. Last three. Three. Two, one more time. Push out, lift, and bring it center.

Okay, I'm gonna turn around and do the other side. Okay so bring your shins up against the shoulder rest, you're gonna come out and we're gonna do five this way. Unwind and come in. And out, inhale exhale across inhale unwind. Bring it in.

And three. Nice rotation, stretching. Unwind, bring it back. And two more. Bring it out spiral unwind and one more.

Before we add on. And bring it in, so now lets go out. Hands down, open. Now you're going to spiral the other way. And push out. Luxuriate in this because it's so good for your back.

And three. Lifting, pulling, pushing down into the foot bar. Push out, shoulders draw down rotate and one more. And up. Push out and bend lets do eight more.

Three. All the way full extension. And one more. Lift and bring it center. Okay.

All right, now to the box. We're gonna end with reverse swan and then reverse swan two. Okay, so we're gonna take the foot bar down. Just for safety precaution, just load up your springs here. Or actually, pardon me, I take that back.

We're gonna unload because we need to pull the carriage out And away from the springs. So bring your box against your shoulder rest. You're gonna come on to your chest. Chest just right at the edge of the box your hands forward legs are together and your abdominals are in. You're gonna draw your shoulders down and your just gonna pull yourself out and up.

And then release slowly, resisting the spring as you come back. And lets go out, starting from the low back, mid back, upper back, find that broadening in the chest, the shoulders, and then lower. Lets do three more. Pull it in and slowly down. Last two.

And inhale as you come up. Exhale as you lower. One more, inhale up. Pull it in, pull it in. And lower all the way down.

Good, okay. This is a little variation. I don't know where I got this, but I did, I got it somewhere, I didn't create it, so I'm sure you've seen it probably somewhere, but I really like It, it's fun. We're gonna use our arms as well. So we're just gonna bend our arms and go in the well.

And lift and then I'm adding the pull. That's what I'm adding. And then you're gonna bend. You're gonna lift the legs. Up, it looks impressive, right?

And it's fun. And lets do three more. Inhale. Exhale. Forward.

And two. I feel this all over in my back pulling that carriage in, it's everywhere. And slowly come out of it. Thank you for joining me. I hope you enjoyed.