Advanced Reformer

Thanks for joining me today. We're going to play around with a little bit of advanced work on the reformers. So, um, what's most important in my opinion is that you look after yourself to um, practice safety and modify for sure if anything doesn't feel right or seem right or seems too hard. Um, I recently spent the weekend with my teacher, realized Sokowitz and am newly inspired, so I'll share some of that with you now. So I have one spring set up on the reformer, one full spring, a red spring. We'll just start sitting in an upright positions as threading the legs through the shoulder blocks and taking a hold of the straps in your hands just above the hardware and then just lifting up through the spine.

Feel that there's energy through the legs, energy in the lift of the spine, energy running up and down the spine. Inhale and XL just round the spinal most, allowing the spring to pull the spine slightly forward so that the shoulders go just over the hip joints. And then inhale, rebound, sit back up. Exhale again, round the spine, allowing the shoulders to travel forward. Over the pelvis. An inhale lifts Baca and again, we'll do one more like that. Exhale, draw the navel back towards the spine. Feel that the spine is long as it reaches over the pelvis and inhale to lift back up and this time, exhale, going backwards, letting the pelvis shift under, rolling down, using the weight of the spring to help us really control that down movement into the carriage pause.

Inhale as you're parallel to the floor and then XL rounding up, rounding up, bringing the shoulders into that same position we just left. Bend the elbows, lift the spine. Inhale, straighten neon. Exhale, hook the heels around the head. Rest, roll the spine backwards. Pause. Inhale, the legs are active, the abdominals are absolutely active. Xcel curl the body, lengthening the spine, drawing the abdominals in towards the spine, and then bend the elbows. Lift this spine and reach the arms forward.

[inaudible] and roll the spine back. You can create a little bit of down pressure on the strap. That's helpful in here. And exhale, rounding back [inaudible] and then the elbows lift the spine. We'll just do two more. Reach forward. Roll the body back. So just getting the body nice and ready. Nice and warm.

Starting simple and XL. Forward shoulders over pelvis. Bend the elbows. Lift the spine. Inhale, reach the arms forward. Last time, Xcel rounding down. Tail Tuck, sender lower spine comes into the mat. Inhale to pause. Exhale to round forward. Then the elbows lifted the spine.

Now take the arms out straight and hold the arms out straight and press back five. So heavy spring for this four but totally manageable, doable. Last two, one more. Reach forward. Round the spy. Roll the body back. No. Feel that the lower spine comes into contact with the carriage.

And then think about deepening that position. Deepening, pushing more into the carriage with the spine to float the left knee, the left leg. Inhale, exhale. Then the knee. Reach the chest to the knee and Inyo. Reach back out. Lower down. Exhale, bend the knee. Imagine that you're pulling spring with that leg and inhale to reach back down. And exhale, pull and inhale, reach, and exhale, pull resisting the upward movement of the trunk.

And exhale, pull and inhale down. Take the leg down to the carrot XL. Roll the spine all the way up. Shoulders over pelvis. Bend the elbows, lift the spine, straighten the arms around the spine, roll back, let the lower spine come into contact with the reformer. Float the right leg up and curl. Need a chest and reach and need a chest and reach out and hollow.

Create a scooping action through the center of the body and reach out. Last to exhale, curl. Inhale, reach up. Exhale, curl. Inhale, reach down with the body. Place the leg down. Xcel. Roll the spine up. Bend the elbows. List the spine. Stretch the arms out. Xcel round forward again. Roll back. Find the lower back against the reformer. Once again, floating the left leg, just small, just hovering it off the reformer and then turn towards that leg as the knee bends and crosses the body. And then an exhale.

Turn into that way and, and turn into the leg and down. Last two times. Really use the help of the spring to find a deep connection. Last one, rotate place. Lay Down, find center. Lift the other leg up straight away.

And now we rotate into that way and straighten it out. Lower down and rotate, twist and stretch out to come down and who rotate. Twist, keeping the shoulders down. Not only working on the way up, but also dragging your way back down into the reformer. Last time. Rotate. Come back through center. Place the leg down. Roll the spine. Then the elbows lifted the back. Stretch the arms.

List the chest and bring the arms forward again. Hang up the straps. Set yourself up for foot work. I'm going to choose to use three full springs and a half spring or three reds and a blue on a balanced body machine coming down onto our backs. The headwinds can be up or down as to your preference. I'm going to have mine up today. Heels of the feet on the bar, arms down long along the spine.

Take just a moment to settle in, so inhale with no movement and exhale. Just feel the weight of the body, the weight of the bones dropping into the reformer, setting up for movement, flexing the feet in here and press out and bend. Press out and pull the reformer in. Feel that you're not just working on the out, but you're also working. As the carriage comes back. We stretch.

Keep the body long as the knees are bending. Hands, stretch and bet. Last four, reach out at the end range. When the legs are strict, feel that full length of the spine, the tailbone dropping down last to stretch and back and reach and back. Moving to the toes, keeping the legs parallel. Press out with the legs, lift the heel that nice and high. Make sure that the evenly lifted and then keep the heels there as you bend and reach and pull. So we use our footwork to prepare to warm the body up for the more challenging movements, which I promise you will come later. Pull in creating a rhythm, an equal out time and in time.

And last five. Feel the arms reach, feel the quadriceps, support the knees as the legs. Straighten two more on my heels. There's still in that one spot where we put them in the beginning. Last time, come all the in Small v position with the feet, knees in line with the shoulders. Reach out, feel the connection of the heels together, gathering energy through the inner thighs, the wrapping through the back of the leg. Again, a length of the arms, so there's always something to check in with. Always something to look for. So we create a full body experience with every movement.

Bringing awareness to the breath. Exhale out. Inhale, pull in. We'll do three more. Feel the length in the whole body to work harder on the weigh in on that on the way and one all the way back in heels to the outside of the bar. Knees in line with the shoulders, a little bit of sliding the feet towards one another on the foot bar. Not actually moving them. Just creating energy out and back in stretching.

Pull in, reach and pull back. Feeling that energy, feeling this body start to warm up. One, two, five and six. Keep the check-in. I just caught myself with my ribs arching up off the mat there. Maybe you could look for that. I lost count. We'll call this two more.

Yeah, maybe Santa will bring me a better counter for Christmas and, and then toes on the bar. Knees, the same position, stretcher and drag. [inaudible] and [inaudible] and Paul have to resize. Your knees are bending Rachel longer through the spy and [inaudible]. Okay, I'm on wondering for pulling back at three, dragging back in and two dragging back and one coming all the way back. Replaced the feet into the center of the bar, reaching onto the toes again, press out from that high lifted heel position. Take the heels under the bar for three, two, one, two, three down to just creating that rhythm.

And I'm choosing three counts so that we don't rush the stretch pool. So the springs assist you. Here is your heels go under the Barba. I want you to, or as suggestion would be to feel that you could pull the on where the springs pull you will be on where the springs point. So you create work and left. We'll do form our way down. So feel as the hills go all the way into the brother Brent. Additions, engaging last two and ah, one more and up and then prancing.

So we drop one foot lift ball, drop one foot lift ball, create that down, up, down, working both sides. The for me, that's bending that foot pushes into the foot bar to try to really elevate the heel. And then the heel, the straight laid, flipped pulls underneath the bars. You, you're working your feet, working your feet. We'll do five, five, four, four theory, checking in with the pelvis, keeping it still two one, one both. Heels up, bend the knee, stretch the legs out over the foot bar. You could keep them lifted in the air or you can rest them down onto the foot bar. We're going to roll ourselves [inaudible] I'm going to Jurate my knees over the foot bar, pull the bar, lift the back [inaudible] and then just reached down to change springs. I'm adjusting my springs to a red and a blue spring. Our one full spring, one half spring. I'm going to give myself that delicious upward lift again.

Reach forward, reach up with the legs, roll the spine down. Then the niece. Reach back for your straps with your hands. Okay. Taking the arms just above the shoulders. Lift one leg, lift the other leg, creating stabilization in here. Prepare. Exhale. Curl the head in jester.

Inhale to come down. Exhale, correct. Are All the head and chest up. Just getting nice and warm. Getting Ready for some more challenging movement. One more exhale. Curl the head. Jessa pause here. Stretch the legs externally. Rotate the legs. Inhale, legs out, arms up, reach out. Exhale, pull in your legs out. Arms Up. Exhale, schoolies together and reach.

Feel that the heels don't drop or lift in space. They just trace a straight line as they go. [inaudible] and a straight line as they pull back and we'll do four. Watch it. The arms don't drop below the body that they stay right in line with the body.

Last two, the trunk is lifted. It stays strong. One more hold. Bend the, reach the arms, lower the head and chest in here. Exhale, stretch out. Open the legs. Reach through the length, close the legs. Reach outside, bend the knees and exhale. Lift the chest, reach through the legs, reach out side of the length, then the knees and exhale left.

Reach through the leg, reach out side of the legs, then the knees and lower down. Two more. Exhale left. Reach through the length. Reach outside the legs, bend the knees and down. Last time. Exhale left. Hope you feel your abdominals. I sure do. Reach through. Reach Ya. Then the knees lower the body. Hang up the straps, lift the arms, straighten the legs.

Try to keep the leg still lift up. Roll through the spine. You get stuck hanging onto your legs. Draped the knees over the foot bar. Pull the back up. I'm going to reach down and take away my blue spring. So now I have just one for spring. Reach forward, legs up, roll down. And Ben, the needs to put the feet down onto the bar. Take the right foot into the strap, just the right foot, and then lift that leg up. So it's para perpendicular to the floor.

It's not choreographically advanced, but the advanced in that we're challenging the stability of the trunk. Okay. So from here the left knee is bent, the right leg presses away the rest of the body with Sta and comes back up. We'll do five press away and lift back up and press away. Reaching further, reaching right out to the foot bar. Last two.

I almost believe that I can touch the foot bar if I just reach far enough. Last one. So from the top, take that bent knee reaching down underneath the foot bar. So here the timing is challenging. So the foot bar is still there. We've got to figure out how much do a front leg moves in order to clear the foot bar. So we start pressing the right leg down.

The left leg reaches under the foot bar, n up, we scissor the lait and down and under and press the right leg down, lift the left leg up and reach and through and try to time it just right. So you don't run into the foot bar and reach. I run into the footprint almost every time, just so you know. Four. But I'm trying and that's what counts. I'm trying not to just draw the leg. Right. We want to control both directions.

Huh? Stay here. Keep that leg active. Stabilize the pelvis, take the leg when the strep out to the side and back leg in the strap, out to the side, nothing else changes. And back out to the side and back and to and back. Hold. That's by nice and steady. Last time and back, press down with the right leg. Lift the left leg, come to the foot bar. Bend both knees, take the right foot out of the strap, hang up that strep, pick up the left strep, but the slid in. So we just get prepared for that by starting with the right leg.

Just Benn creating stability. I'm going to work with just a slight softening in the knee so you reach that leg down and ah, and what you may find, I mean it's certainly true in my own experience in my own body is that one side feels like a whole different body [inaudible] so I try not to think of them as good or bad bodies. Just different once. I might be a little harder to create stability in last time. So now the light comes up, the right leg reaches under the bar and here we go. We press the left leg down, feel the right leg come just under the foot bar, and then we create this as are split. And then the right leg passes, the left leg reaches under the bar and we come up into that scissor and press draw in from the abdominal, lift that leg and then reach through.

Keep both like strong. You want the hip extensors, the back of the leg, the back of both legs to stay strong and reach through. Oops, I just touched the foot bar and again and down last time up. So we go back underneath the bar, hold there, stay strong in that lower leg, take the up light out and back. For me, what wants to come up the most is the opposite side of the the ribs, the thoracic spine, the upper spine. So I'm monitoring that. I'm sure you're doing your best to monitor what you need to.

This is number four or five. Five of five. Okay. Come back, press down through the left leg. Bend the right knee, put it down onto the bar, then the left leg, take the foot out and come all the way in. If your headrest is up, it's important that it comes down now, cause we were about to head into the Jack Knife. So I'll take mine down. All right, bring the arms up in front of the shoulders.

Take one leg out on into a Da Angle where you can support your spine. Send the other leg out to meet it. As the arms press down, the legs come up to 90 degrees. Inhale, exhale. Roll the spine over any of the legs. Reach down into the well and then the legs reach up into the air. We create a nice long line in the body. And exhale, roll the spine down, reaching the legs away from you, away from you. Oh, away from you.

As the tailbone touches the leg, start to move down the arms. Lift on. Inhale, lift the legs, lower the arms. Exhale, roll over. Inhale, drop the legs and then feel the back working. Feel the backs of the legs. So I'm not just reaching the legs. I'm lifted through my spine. And then rolling down, staying active through the arms.

Lower the legs. Lift the arms. We'll do one more. Inhale lift. So rollover legs go down. Start thinking about lifting the back right now. Lift it back, and then press the legs up towards the ceiling and press the legs away from the body and lower slowly. Damn. And bring me on his back and bend the knees.

Place the straps back and help yourself up. Let me go into a stretch. So this comes from the full lunge position in a stand up onto the reformer. Well step the right foot back up against the shoulder blocks and we'll lift the left foot and place it down onto the bar. So lowering the body into a lunge position. Keep the back leg very straight holding and just finding a stretch there.

So from that place, the left leg starts to straighten. The pelvis goes straight back. We're endeavoring to keep the back long holds here. Now Pike with your abdominals, round your spine. Pull that back leg in.

Hold that stretch. Press the back leg away. Lower back down and bend pushing that right heel back against the shoulder block. Let's do that one more time. Just pausing here and finding that stretch. And then the left leg starts to stretch the spine. Sing as straight as we can. Round the spine.

Pike, that back leg again, flying the stretch here. You're in a perfect position to look at the alignment of the pelvis. Press back out, been pressing the heel back and up against the shoulder block. And then I like to come down out of it by bringing the knee down into the reformer and lifting the spine. Just get all really great, um, hip flexor quadriceps stretch. And then we'll switch sides. So stepping back up, stepping the less set up against the shoulder, bla lifting the right foot to the bar and going into the lunch.

So again, the back of this leg, the back of that left like a strong heels pushing into the shoulder block. We start stretching out that front leg. The pelvis comes straight back holding the stretch, finding the long spine, round the spine, pull the kerogen, push the carriage away, and Ben and reach out long spine Meredith, round the spine, brewing the kerogen [inaudible], Cresa, [inaudible] and Ben, Dan. And then see if you can just drop that knee down into the reformance sides a lot tighter for me. Breathing into this stretch there. Take that foot down off the foot bar. Place it against the shoulder box.

So now we've got both knees against bull shoulder blocks or both feet against bull shoulder blocks. Both knees down, roll through the spine. Come forward with the Bovis. Lift the chest, press the carriage away, and then lift up and back. As the carriage comes in three times we [inaudible] and left up in back pushing like you're reaching away from a brick wall with your body. And one we're recheck. Yeah, pull in. So now keeping the reformer still roll the spine. Articulate back.

We're piking the knees and with the abdominals hold flatten out the back. Now press out with the arms of the body. Comes parallel to the foot bar. Please look after your shoulders here. It's not easy. Reach out with the lanes. Lifts the spine all the way up in through. Exhale, round the spine. Inhale, flatten out the back. Exhale, press the spine down. Inhale, press the legs out. Exhale, lift up, up, up, up, up and around. Creating a breath for each movement.

Doesn't matter what it is. Continue to breathe. Reached through last time around, flatten, reach, yeah, press down, lifting all the way and then start to lift up onto the fingertips. Reach one. I'm reached the other arm. Open the arms out to the side, lifting the chest at. Nice open back and bring the arms all the way down.

I'm going to change here to a blue spring. We're going to do some reverse knee stretch with a surprise blue spring or a half spring, so the knees are up against his shoulder blocks, [inaudible] and the hands you want to have pretty far forward on the frame just to give yourself enough space for this movement and then we're going to shift forward bringing the shoulders over there in front of the hands in front of. Then we're going to round this. So we'll just do a few reverse knee stretches to start. Inhale to come back. Keep the spine round. Exhale, connect with the lower abdominals.

Feel the movement of that spine. Feel the flection of the spine last time. And exhale, knees come under. Now hold here. Don't change anything. Keep the right knee on the reformer. Take the left leg to the back and round the spine under the leg. Can't lift very high cause we're trying to keep the lower spine round and round and around. Whole.

Set the knee down. Control. Okay. Take the other leg back, curl and back and curl this and, and curl this one back. Keep it stable. Knee comes in deep in the curl. Deep in the curl. And then really?

Yeah man. Let the spine arch and then walking up to the rises with the hands. So as the elbows come down towards the body, I want us to lift up into an arch and then [inaudible] reach back out. Find a flatbed. So either shoulder blades down, draw that you've done. And I was in arc, the spine up. Hurry, chat. Yeah, or less fine. Uh, Chan. Yeah. Two more abdominal strong. Here we go. Lift. Huh?

And back and lift. 'Em and back. You're a careful as you take your hands away from those risers. Come in with control. And then I am going to exchange that. Yeah.

Blue Spring for a red spring of fall, spring. And we'll turn around to face the front of the reformer, the back of the reformer. Face the straps. Pick up this drafts with your hands. Find a straight body, a straight back, and bring your arms out to your sides. So just didn't feel right on my hands. I'm just going to adjust that. So what I want us to do is bring our arms just in front of the body.

A little wider than the reformer. I'd say halfway between the shoulders in the reformer. We're going to press the right arm up and the left arm down. Try to hold the spine steady. Coming back through the center. Press the right arm down the left arm up.

Oh, okay. Fine. Center. So we want to stabilize the shoulders, stabilize the spy. We'll just do that one more time on each sy reaching and reaching. Now we're going to add a little rotation too, or a rotating towards the arm that's going up. So the left arm with for me pulls down the right arm reaches and we rotate the spine and find center and rotate towards the arm.

Pause and find center and rotate to wards the upon pass and center and towards the upper arm. Pause. And last time twist. Look where you're going and twist. Look where you're going. Pretty simple choreography, but certainly not easy to do on the arms for me. Okay, so we're gonna turn round, we're gonna sit at the back.

So lining the pelvis right up with the shoulder blocks. Take the straps in your hands. Okay. And I want us to go palms of the hands face up. Elvis pretty close in towards the waist. You know, reach the arms out in front of us. Keep the palms face up, take the arms open to the sides. Hold the spine.

Still lead with your pinky fingers here. It's a beautiful stretch across the chest. Come back across this center and bend and press out, shoulders back, and open, abdominals in and bring the arms back and bend and reach. Ah, open, open, open, and come back. And in stew tumor reach, ah, open the arms. Lifts the spy.

Now lift the spine arch. Come back to center. Arms come across and bend in. One more. Reach out. Keep the spine still open the arms and then lift the back. Bring the arms back, keep tension on your ropes.

Come back two straight arms come forward and arms come in. [inaudible] take the hands, turn them around and lunge forward. So you're in a flat spine reaching over your legs. First fingers in tongues together, making a triangular shape over the top of the head. And we're going to India. We're gonna feel the shoulder blades draw down as the arms stretch and Ben and pull back through the abdominals.

Reach and Ben and reach and Ben Shoulder [inaudible] slide down. I don't think about this as pushing forward with my arms in my brain. In my mind what's happening is the Scapula is going down. It continues to go down on the arms of respond. They don't go before the shoulder blades are in the right place.

Let's do tumor reacher and then reach, ah, hold here, lift the back up, bring the arms around to the side. Exhale, bring the arms forward. Inhale, lift the spine and lift the arms open out to the side and back. So the hard part about this is holding that spine in that same position, not a long position for a long amount of time. Specific amount of time app. Uh, hen back last time up, out and back. Bend the elbows.

Set the straps down. Step to the side of the reformer. I'm still have one spring on them. And to keep that for the next exercise, we're going to do an exercise called the shoulder push. If you've not done it, probably just stick with this shoulder push as is. But I'm also going to add arabesque. So how that goes is you kind of come to your knees, okay, back your knees, up towards the back end of the riff, form it.

Be careful with this. One. Forearms down on the reformer. Heels of the hands up against the shoulder blocks. Take one slip to the foot bar and press out while that slit is there, just make sure that the shoulder elbows are right underneath the shoulders. Strengthen that leg, stand on that leg. Keep everything else still as the opposite leg comes back to the bar and that we exhale. Press the arms forward, one and back and two and back.

Three and back and lift up. Bringing the top of the head down into the, down into the carriage, trying to get nice and flat. Come back forward. So here's the arabesque. Stick with the shoulder. Push. If you want left leg lifts up. Let's lift it one and two and three. And now lift the leg, lift the spine and do [inaudible] and lift. The leg. Head comes down between the arms.

Bring the shoulders underneath the the Sh, the elbows underneath the shoulders. As you're coming down, lift and Dan, set that foot down. Let's come up once in between, all the way through and then back forward, right? Like lives up one and two and three and lifts away. Try attempting to bring the carriage all the way in and down. Lift and down and lift up and down and bend the knee. Bend the back knee. Bring the knees and okay, take the arms out. Okay.

Just sit back. Stretch the shoulders. I'm coming up. Okay. Keeping the same spring. We're going to take the foot bar down to the low bar for the twist.

So I have a sticky because I get slippery, so I'm gonna use it for my foot. Sticky goes on the bar. One hand comes to the shoulder block. If this is much easier without the bar, so lower the bar. Do you need to one foot on the foot bar, inside leg on the foot bar, outside arm on the shoulder block from there. Take the other arm to the carriage. Get Ready, make it smooth and seamless and controlled. Lift up. Step through. Feel the length of the spine here.

We're going to take the carriage out. Inhale, rotate, look back, come back and come in in hill. As we reach out. Exhale as we reach around. Inhale, come back. Exhale, come in in heels. Uri Cha Xcel to reach around in here and Exhale, careful as you come down. I like to take the long way around. Same thing here, sticky for the foot if you need it.

You can also use stickies for your hands. They get a little slippery as well. So foot on the foot, bar, hand on the shoulder block. Try to keep the wrist right over the top rather than sliding it down. Other hand on the inside of the reformer. Here we go. Find your center. Step in and inhale.

Push into the foot bar with your feet. As you rotate, reach back and lift in here. Rotate. Reach back and lift. Last time in here, rotate, rotate back. Keeping the carriage still through those rotation. Bring it in. Step in, step down. [inaudible] so I don't want to tell you a little secret.

I had every intention today of doing the snake on the hybrid as well. That's just not going to happen. So I'm going to do it on the low bar. It's possible to do it on the hybrid. But why don't you come with me on the low bar today? I just don't have it in me, so I'm going to honor that. And it's plenty challenging on the low bar. So here we go. Snake, same hand position, foot hand, and Oh my God, so much easier to step up onto this bar.

Here we go. So seeing cares, we push out, lower the spine, lifts the gays and pull in. Inhale, lift up and back and inhale, lift up and back again, stepping down, taking the long way around for the other side. So things that are important in this exercise to help you stabilize are the use of the back of the length, especially as the spine drops into that extension, the use of the upper spine, the upper back to support the shoulders. Inhale, keep the carriage still reach through, push the reformer way a little and then lift back on in here. Lift back up. It's a beautiful stretch. I think [inaudible] and lift Becca and then stepping to the floor, Eh, standing on your feet. Yeah, feeling the weight of the body. On the feet. Yeah.

Closing my eyes and just feeling the energy of the work that we did. Moving through the body, taking the arms out to the sides, reach the arms up, bringing the arms out to the side, lifting through the chest, reaching out, bend down and in. Yeah. And exhale, bringing the chin to the chest. Rolling the fan. That's been the knees here as we go down. [inaudible] inhale, soft in the [inaudible] body. Excellent. So standing up, reaching out, branching [inaudible] food.

It's nice to start. Simple to end. Simple. Bringing the arms down. Thank you.