Unilateral Reformer

All right, you ready? I'm here with you to work out with you today. I don't have a partner in crime. I am your partner in crime and this is going to be a fun, full-body, filled with unilateral opportunities, Reformer workout for you. You're going to need a pair of weights.

You can choose the weight level of your choice. If you are at home and you don't have weights, pick up a couple of water bottles, pick up a couple a cans of food, totally fine with that. Set them down next to your Reformer. You'll need them at the very end of the workout, where we're gonna do some creative things. So save those and we need the short box as well so have that handy.

Set yourself up for foot work, but I'm going to give you a little disclaimer. You're going to be doing double leg and single leg at the same weight. So you may wanna go a little bit lighter, than you're used to. I'm on a Balanced Body Studio Reformer. I have a red, a green and a blue on for me.

And once you've set yourself up, let's go ahead and lie down. You can leave your headrest up or down, whatever feels good for you. And situate yourself onto the carriage. Shoulders are nicely up against the shoulder blocks, your heels are up on your foot bar, about hip distance apart, parallel. Feel free to nod your head forward and give yourself a check.

Relax your arms down by your sides and the first thing I want you to do, is notice the back of the body by pulling the shoulders back into the carriage. Expanding that chest towards the ceiling. Draw the toes upwards towards the knees and when you're ready, take an inhale, drink that air in and here we go. Exhale, press equal weight through those heels. And inhale, pull the carriage down.

Controlling in each direction. And I know what you're thinking, you're already like wow this is kinda light for my foot work and I'm okay with that. If you wanna go a little bit heavier, you totally can. But in four more repetitions, we're gonna switch this into a march. Last three.

Connect the breath into the body. Last two, try not to let there be much of a pause at the top or the bottom of the repetition and now we march. So press out with one leg, lift the other. And land and switch. So you'll notice that that weight gets substantially heavier, the minute that you switch into the unilateral or the single leg marching.

Good, that was four. Let's do four more. I'm gonna go for eight full and eight marches in each footwork position today. And I hope that I count them all out for you properly. And press away.

Good that concludes your heels. So slide down onto your toes, staying about hip distance apart parallel. Now let's talk about your ankle stability. I don't want the ankles or the heels dropping too low but they're also not too high, so find a happy medium here. Find the stability through the ankles, connect through the big toe and the toe next to it, that line and exhale, press all the way out.

And inhale down. Just gently starting to get some heat into the legs. We gotta a lot of work to do here but it's gonna be really, really fun. So we just wanna start with this lower torso. Four more repetitions.

Keep breathing. Exhaling on the way out and inhaling on the way down. Last three. Good and last two. The breath is a mechanism to really connect you into your core activation and start your marching.

And press out and land and other side. Out and land, good. If you need a nanosecond to kind of do a micro adjustment on that foot bar with your foot, that's totally fine. Just try and keep the pacing and the flow to the best of your ability. Two more.

I think that gets me to eight, I hope so. And last one. Good bring the carriage back down. Now stay on the toes and externally rotate from the hips, draw the heels together, you've heard me say it before if you watch my classes, connect the heels and find a small pizza slice, right. Not a New York pizza slice, but a small pizza slice.

Feel those heels pressing into one another to connect you into the abductors and carry on, exhale, press. Little bonus squeeze at the top of those abductors is gonna get your quads to fire up. So feel that connection. And squeeze. Try and keep full deep breaths of air, coming into the lungs and out of the lungs.

With every repetition. Cleansing out the body. Good, last one here and now you're gonna slightly unhook the heels and exhale, go into the marching. And the knee now tracks in line with the shoulder on that side. Find the pizza slice as you land and then go to the other side.

Good and four, and last three, super and two, stay with this. And last one, excellent job. Bringing the heels to the wider parts of your foot bar. From here, toes draw to the knees to get those shins fired up, that tibialis anterior. Keeping that again, nice neutral pelvis, neutral spine here, if your headrest is down and carry on, pressing out and pulling back in.

Legs should be getting nice and warm and if they're not, then maybe you went a little light on your springs this time and next time you can take it up a notch and challenge yourself. Good and the last three and then we march. Three, two and one and we take into that marching, away we go. And now again, that knee is gonna track in line with that shoulder but it stays a little wider, right so we've opened up your base of support and you might start feeling a little bit of activation happening here when you lose that leg off to the side a bit. Last two, actually no last two here.

So that we're even, one to that right leg and one to that left leg. Good, bring it back down and slide down onto your toes in the wide stance. So again, we're focusing on stability of the ankle, finding the line through the big toe and the toe next to it. Send your carriage away. And inhale down and exhale.

Even though this is foot work and we love it and we know it, really stay focused here. Connecting that breath first in, before you start the repetition. Really feeling the core activate, good. Let's do three more. Good and two and pressing away.

And last one and here we go, we march for eight, right leg goes first. Left leg lifts, good. So you're accomplishing your double leg work and your single leg work here, in each and every body position, which is kind of nice 'cause you get a lot of opportunity to work on that leg, that might be a little bit less strong. I call that your smart leg, right because that's been your lazy leg your whole life. Last one here, great job.

Last thing to do before we get in our feet into the loops, is to bring the toes back to the mid-line of the body. And about hip distance apart, press away. Extend the legs out, but don't lock the knees. Find that co-contraction here and just begin some ankle mobilization, reaching the heels under and then rising up, finding again the line between the big toe and the toe right next to it. You can always nod the head forward and check your foot position just to make sure that you're tracking right underneath those hips and remember, our hips are not super wide, we're talking structural here, our hip bones.

Four and three. And two and one. Bend one knee, straighten the other and press up and switch. So a little bit of jogging here or running. Really feeling each calf work independent of the other and the backs of those calves should be feeling nice and warm.

And let's do eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two and stretch, hold there. Take that length all the way down the back of that calf. Really allow the springs to give you that traction and that release of the muscular structure. And switch and hold for a couple of breaths here. (exhaling forcefully) Great job, bring your carriage back down to the stopper.

I lied, we're not putting your feet in the loops quite yet. But we are gonna drop the weights. So come up to sitting. And take yourself down to one spring. I'm gonna go to one red spring.

We will be putting your feet in the loops momentarily, unilaterally, but first let's do some jumping off of the foot bar. Now the shoulders are gonna be away from the shoulder rests a little bit. And from here, I want you to exhale, nod the chin to the chest, lift the head, neck and shoulders. Now remember you're really activating from here, this is not a neck exercise. From here, you're gonna press away, leave the foot bar with the feet, and just jump.

And feel this core activate here. Enjoy that little floaty period of time while you're off of the foot bar. Good. And five and four and three and two, good and one. Now from here, bring the fingers back behind the head, lift one leg into tabletop and just start to do some single leg.

Keeping that head nod and support the head with the hands. Exhale as you fly off of that foot bar. And press. And press, good in four, you're gonna rotate. And three, good, two and one and rotate to the knee that bends.

Spot that foot bar as you come through so you can have a nice landing. And then add in that rotation. You're going for about the ball of the foot here. Good, six and five and four, well done, three, two and one, excellent. Lower back down.

We remain on one spring. Pick up one of your loops. Press away and put one foot in. From here, both legs come into the tabletop position. Your leg that is unloaded stays right where it's at, as you exhale press out through that loaded leg.

And pull it back in. And again press away. And pull. So we've unhooked you here and we wanna work your hips independent of one another. Good let's do two more of these.

Press and last one, press, now start to reach that other leg out and alternate. So same movement pattern but just bringing a little bit more awareness into that hip now that's unloaded. And four more. Four and three, and two, good and one. Now leave this leg out, lengthen through the top of the foot, extend the opposite leg out to meet it and notice what happens right here through your core body.

Then leave this leg strong and long if you can and lift the leg up that's loaded and lower it back down to meet the other. So you're really challenging yourself here to leave this leg out isometrically, if that's too much at any time, you can bring it back in to the tabletop position as a modification. Good, last two, think this will get us to about eight repetitions and one and now we're gonna add in a double leg bicycle. The unloaded leg joins us in the journey. Lift up and press down.

The challenge here is to try and keep the legs similar to one another even though one leg is loaded and the other leg is unloaded. So you're gonna feel, different muscles have to activate through the core to help you with this. Three. Good and reach up and two. Bend those knees and reach, keeping access to that sacrum on the carriage and one, what goes in one direction has to go in the other.

So bend those knees, reach the legs away and lift back up. And bend, ooh a little bit different, going this direction for me. Might be for you as well. And press away, keep the inner thighs glued together and working and bend and reach and remember your range of motion is contingent, upon your pelvis staying on that carriage. Last two and bend and reach and last one.

Bend and reach away. Excellent, transitioning over to the other side. So from here, bring that loop off of your foot, pick up your other one and switch over to the other side. I'm a little bit wound up, I could feel that already on my rope so let's fix that. Make sure you check your ropes as well.

Now again remember we started here. So we'll start here on this side as well. And exhale, pressing out and pulling back to that tabletop position. In this position, I have the toes drawing up towards the knees, in more of a dorsiflexed foot. So I hope that feels good for you as well.

Let's do three more here and then we'll start alternating. And last two, great and last one here and then we're gonna start to alternate. So that unloaded leg extends long as that loaded leg pulls in. Press. And last four, and then we keep that unloaded leg out.

Three and two. Check in, check on your chest, check in on your chest. And make sure that it's nice and open. Now marry both legs up to one another. And again, this unloaded leg stays where it's at, as the loaded leg lifts and lowers back down.

Woo, different side entirely. No judgment, this is your workout so don't judge yourself if you need to pull back at anytime and modify, bringing that knee into the tabletop position on the loaded leg, by all means you do that. Good, three more, inhaling up, exhaling down, finding that lovely length down the back of the leg that lifts and two, and last one, from here bend the knees into tabletop, reach both legs up and then lower. Good and bend. And reach and lower.

Oh wow. So that line of pull feels very different on one side and I'm noticing it, I'm sure you are as well. And four more. And hopefully you're waking up different muscles to help your righting responses, keep you facing upright towards the ceiling, on your Reformer. Last two.

And press and one, reach, press down. Now reversing lift the legs up, bend both knees and shoot them away. And lift and bend and reach. Good, this is three. Let's make it to eight.

So we're halfway there. Right now, four more times. Lift, bend and reach. And three, good. And press and two, and press, last one here.

Bend the knees and press away. Great job. Go ahead and lower that unloaded foot down. Unload the loaded foot. And bring yourself up to the seated position.

We're gonna transition now. I want you to put a blue spring on and take your red spring off. I'm calling this a little bit of an around the world flow here. We're gonna be working unilaterally with a leg and with an arm. So follow along and we'll get started.

What I want you to do is lie back down onto your carriage. I find the best way to transition into this, is actually start on the carriage itself, with the shoulders up against the shoulder rest but not super tight. Pick up one of your loops and you're gonna bring it all the way up to your knee and then pivot. Once you're here, you can keep your arms reaching forward or you can support the head with your hands. As we go into your abductor muscles, opening and closing here.

But of course keeping this forward fold of the upper body as you're doing this the whole time. So challenging the flexion forward. So check in on yourself because at anytime you might be starting to fall this direction and I want you to stay lifted because your abdominals are doing it, not because your neck is doing it. Three more, three, good. And two and last one.

Now we're taking that loop off of this knee. Putting it down on the peg and automatically picking up the one behind it. Taking a beach ball, bringing it off to one side of the body. We work our oblique slings as you exhale, pull across. The head can go with you here.

And exhale. The idea is to keep the knees, oh my gosh, facing up to the ceiling. And not letting them tip from side to side. Let's get four more of these out. Four, good and three, keeping that nice steering wheel or beach ball shape of the arms.

Last two and last one here. Very well done. Go ahead, put that loop back on your peg. Bring yourself up to sitting and turn and face your shoulder rests. Now we're staying unilateral here, that's part of the theme and the flow of this workout.

We're gonna do both legs but one at a time. So you wanna take one loop, thread it over, bring it up above the knee. So it's like you're putting a bracelet or a garter on. Slide yourself pretty close to the shoulder rests. Now I'm choosing to leave the foot bar up, I'm about 5'8", 5'9" and it works for me.

If you need to move the foot bar down at anytime, that's completely fine. Slowly and carefully roll yourself down onto the carriage and make any needed micro adjustments, clothing included. Lift the knees into the tabletop position. Place the hands on top of the knees and we're gonna do a little double leg stretch with one leg loaded right here. So you reach away and pull around.

Inhale on the reach, exhale on the circle, pull. Inhale on the reach, exhale on the circle, pull. And you'll notice again, what's happening on the core activation or your core body with having one leg loaded. Last three and two. And one and slowly bring yourself back up to that seated position with control.

Transitioning. Out and in on the other side. 'Kay, again with control. You wanna slowly bring yourself down. Into that nice tabletop position with the legs, with that forward fold of the upper body.

Put pressure down through the palms of the hands and then inhale, feel that length from your arms to your feet. And circle and come back to center. Inhale to reach, exhale to pull. Good, reaching away. And pulling back.

Last four and notice if this side feels different, again you hear me saying this, don't judge yourself right. We're not made by Mattel, we are all individual and that's such a good thing. Last two. I think I'm counting right and maybe I gave you a bonus repetition and last one, congratulations and I'm sorry if I did. Bring yourself all the way back up.

And take your foot out of that loop. Now we still have a few things to do on the other side. So from here, transition. We're gonna begin with the arm piece and then we'll load up the leg. So slowly lower yourself back down.

Find your sweet spot. Grab the back loop, take your beach ball, bring it over, tabletop with the legs, remember these knees stay facing up and exhale. Twist and inhale back over. Now the further you move down the carriage, the more challenging it's gonna be with the load, so just know that. If next time you want more challenge, you move closer to the foot bar.

I'm feeling pretty good right where I'm at right now. Last two. And last one. And then finishing with those abductors here. So from here, we're gonna take that front loop, bring it up to that knee.

And opening and closing the legs. And exhale. Again are you sinking in that forward fold? If you are, try and pull yourself up a little higher. Because by this time, your abdominals should be really feeling this.

In the beginning I know you were like, (sighs) I know Erika I got this, but now, you're probably like okay, are we done yet? Last three and two and last one. And you survived, well done. Bring yourself up to sitting, let's take this leg safely out of the loop. Leave your headrest down if it's down and take it down if it's not.

It's time to add a spring. We're on one blue, I'd like to suggest that you add a red. We're going into some spine articulation. So lying back down onto your back. Get your shoulders cozied up against the shoulder blocks.

Lift up your loops and place both feet in. So short spine massage. We all know it, we all love it. So let's bust out a couple, a few repetitions together. And then we'll add on some pulses.

So from here, bend those knees in towards you. Don't lose connection with the sacrum here, yet press away. You can either take this as a hinge, if you'd like to or you can try and keep this nice boomerang shape if you will and articulate and roll yourself all the way up and over with control. Bend the knees in, trying to keep those ankles above the face and exhale, roll and unfold that spine down on to the carriage, bone by bone by bone. Really enjoying that deep lumbar flexion and pressing out.

Let's bust out a couple more. Articulating, good. And bend those knees, keeping 'em in line with the shoulders and not too far out. And exhale, unfold as if you're lying down each and every vertebrae, one at a time. Good and one more like this.

Press away. Baby, baby hinge if you want it, then use those abs to get yourself up and over. Now bend the knees. And I want you to stay here with me. And I want you to push into those ropes and bend.

If you're seeing my left leg shaking a little bit, you are absolutely correct that it is. So find those hamstrings, find those gluteals. Then come back in, that was four pulses. Let's unfold, unfold, enjoy that. And we're gonna do one more pass-through with four more pulses.

Exhale, fire up the backs of those arms. Bend the knees, find that sweet spot and then load into those loops. Press and press. Woo, I got a good shake going on, I hope you do too. And one, wonder which side is my smart side, huh?

And unfold all the way down. Good, bone by bone by bone. Excellent job. Let's transition out of the loops and we'll make an adjustment as well on your spring tension. Loops come over those pegs.

Bring yourself up to the seated position. Now we're gonna do a reverse lunge stretch before we move into some arms. So let's take it down. I'm gonna recommend that you take it down by half a spring, so I've chosen one red. Safely enter into this.

Because we're on a moving piece of apparatus, what I like to do is, place my heels of the hands on the shoulder rests and I am gonna lift my headrest here because I actually like to put my ball of the foot on part of the headrest and my heel on the carriage. And then I reach back and give a little external rotation here of that back foot on the foot bar. Now watch the hyperextension of the elbows. From here, we're gonna come into a nice externally rotated lunge here with that back hip externally rotated and that front knee tracking right over the ankle. When you're ready and if you want it, you're gonna extend out further, enjoying that length and drop that hip down, retracting it into the socket, feeling that deep stretch down the back of that, that leg and then bring the carriage into the stopper.

If you wanna deepen your stretch, do it now by reaching down and holding onto the carriage and drop your head towards your knee. And then from here, let's reverse it one time. So safely bring your hands back up onto your shoulder blocks. And you're gonna come back out into that lunge. Nice and strong, a beautiful pose here.

And then extend, extend, extend. Breathing, oxygenating the muscular structure and then bring the carriage all the way back in. One last time, you have the opportunity to take a deeper hamstring stretch. And then place the hands on the shoulder blocks, safely take that foot off of the foot bar, walk your headrest foot back to meet and then we'll transition over to the other side. And remember, you can't judge yourself.

Because this side is totally, wow, is totally different. Yes Erika, this side is totally different. So from here, finding that nice bend of the knee above that ankle on the carriage foot. Opening the hip behind you. And watch the hyperextension of the elbow, shoulders are nice and stable.

Extending that front foot forward. Getting that nice length in the back of the carriage leg, retracting the hip in. And then all the way back into the stopper. And boy, oh boy, I took it on the other side, so I'm gonna have to take it here. But wowee what a different leg.

And breathe. Drop your head weight if you'd like to. And then come back safely to the shoulder blocks and we're coming back out forward into that lunge to start. And stretch that leg forward to the best of your ability. And then all the way into the stopper, keep breathing here.

This is functional elongation right, we really wanna promote that functional length. Good, hands come back up to the shoulder blocks. Safely transition that foot down onto the carriage. And take a step off. Okay great job.

So we're moving onto one blue spring. I'm gonna recommend that. And we're going into some unilateral arm work, 'kay so I'm gonna set you up facing the shoulder rests. Now here's the deal, the toes are going to dip down into the spring box. Don't let that make you nervous.

You have options here, the less tension, you'll just grab up onto the handle. More tension, you'll grab up where the thumb is closer on the tape or on the ropes. And from here, we're just gonna start by pressing into the shoulder rests, firing up that shoulder stability on that one side, setting the hips right above the knees and starting to just do a nice pulling of the ropes. Activating the lats and the back of that tricep, right the posterior head of the tricep, as you're lifting. And as you're lowering.

Good, give me two more of these. And give me one more. And if you're daring, you may want to give me a leg extension and come back in. Woo, so this takes it up quite a bit. So slow down your pace, trying to keep the quality and try and keep the flow.

And press, good. Now put that knee down and give me four kick-backs. Press up for four. You got this. And three.

And two. Last one, I just said four, not 40. Good job. Other side. Place that loop down.

Remember always give yourself a check here, you wanna make sure that your hips are above your knees to the best of your ability. When you set your other shoulder up, make sure that you really get that nice press through the hand, get that unilateral shoulder stability, happening for you. And I like to translate the load through my fingers so my wrist isn't as cranked. And from here, we're gonna just start a nice pull of the straps here. Keeping the core activated, even in this all-fours or quadruped position.

If it wasn't, you would see a lot of movement through my mid-line right now. I hope you're not. Good now if you want to, you're gonna take that unilateral with the leg extension. Woo, that stability hip is working super hard for you. And let's do one more here please.

And reach away. Good, bring that knee back down. And again we're going into those kick-backs so come up and give me four. Bend and press. Four and three.

And two, well done, last one here. And last one. Excellent. So now place that loop down. We're gonna switch back over to the other hand.

Turn, you still need your knees, a bit far back and the toes off the back edge or the side edge now of the rails. I want you to put your shoulder block hand, down onto the carriage and I want you to thread underneath that arm and lift up the loop. From here you're in a nice flat back position. And we're gonna work the posterior deltoid as you thread that needle and find the back of the arm lifting up to the ceiling. Staying nice and stable with that stability arm as well as your hips here.

This is an exercise I have to give credit to my usual partner in crime, my dear friend P-Dog or Portia Page. We met each other years and years ago. At a conference where we were both teaching and this was an exercise that she taught me. So thanks to her for this one. Last three.

And give me two more and then we're gonna switch hands, so that we don't over-fatigue. And last one here. Great job. Excellent, so now you are gonna switch hands but I want you to move forward. So the knees need to come forward, closer to this rail.

And you're gonna sit in a low-kneeling position. You can stay here and do this entire exercise. But if you'd like to, I'm gonna rise up into high-kneeling. So the hand comes up next to the face. And you're gonna exhale, lift.

Laterally flex over and come back down and lower. Okay, so if that knee flexion feels good for you and you can accomplish it, then go for it. And lower and exhale, drive up with that fingertip, with those fingertips, laterally flex over and come back down, last three. Drive up and over, reaching. And down.

And last two. Up and over and back down. Last one here. And exhale, you reach. And laterally flex and come back down.

Now we have to do those two exercises on the other side. But let's transition. So bring your feet up against the shoulder blocks. And pick up both sets of loops. Now you want to try and reach the heels into those shoulder blocks.

Come up into high-kneeling, we're gonna do some up-circles and some reverse-circles. So pinky fingers are right up next to those hips. Slightly drop the tailbone, ever so slightly to open up the hips here, 'kay. And then exhale, reach the arms up. Shoulder distance, rotate at the top and come wide and down.

You should always be able to see for now, at least in this exercise, your fingers in your peripheral vision. Exhale, you reach up. Rotate and wide and down. Good, four more and then we'll reverse for eight. And last three.

Good and two. Picking up that pace a little bit, now that you're feeling confident. And one, the reverse gets more challenging, you need immediate pressure into the palms of the hands. Then rotate the backs of the hands at the top, draw down. Seven more.

Good, finding that breath. Thinking of lifting up through the top of the crown of the head growing tall, that those ribs are just lightly set atop of that waistline. Last three. That should be about eight or so. Last two.

And last one here. And wide and down. Good, so now from here, you need to put your pegs, your loops back on your pegs and we'll transition and do those two exercises on the other side. So we'll begin with the thread the needle. So, reaching underneath that arm, find a nice flat back and from here, exhale under, back of the hand reaches to the ceiling here and inhale underneath that abdomen.

Again, keeping the body stable right. There's no movement, you really still have to find that core activation here, this is a full body exercise. Four more times. Good and last three. And pull up.

And two. And you got one more here. And then we'll switch over to the other hand. Moving again forward on your carriage just a little bit. So that the knees are closer to the rails.

Switch your hand, bring the hand up next to the face. Up into that high-kneeling. And lateral flexion and back down. And exhaling up. And over and back down.

And lifting and reaching, woo. And back down. Let's do three more here. Lift and arcing. Trying to keep connection with this lat so that that upper trap isn't creeping up into your ear.

Last one here. And lift and over. And all the way back down. Great job, okay I'm gonna have you drop your headrest down. You can opt to stay on a blue spring, that's what I'm going to opt for.

And we're going into some full body integration, not that what you have been doing isn't full body. But you need to move your foot bar down out of the way. And when I say out of the way, I mean all the way down out of the way, 'kay? So let's be safe about this. So what you wanna do is come up and stand on your carriage, keep your fingers on your rails to keep it a bit more stable for you and bring your toes all the way to the front edge and maybe even a little bit over.

'Mkay, so you're kind of gripping the forward part of that carriage or the edge of your carriage. The heels of the hands are gonna go on to the wide parts of your foot bar now. Stretch yourself up to the ceiling. Right, nice and round through that spine. Feel that whole back line of the body here.

Many, many times we see this shape in Pilates. Inhale, let the carriage come away a bit. Exhale, pull it back in. Nice and controlled. Just starting to get yourself familiar with the spring.

Upper torso's not moving right now. Just feeling what that blue spring feels like. Now you can stay here or you can come with me. I'm gonna take it all the way out. Finding a strong plank position.

And then I'm pulling it all the way back up. Inhaling out. Exhale, dragging the carriage in. And away and pull it in. Now last one.

Stay out there, hold. Strong mind, strong body. Bend those knees. And straighten. Inhale, bend, exhale, straighten.

Kind of a variation on a jack-rabbit here. Two more times. Last time here. Pressing out and bring it all the way up to the stopper, all the way back to the stopper. Shake out your wrists.

But you're not done. Swivel those feet. They don't need to be flush against the carriage, you might still actually need a bit of those toes. Changing that direction of the legs, or the angle of the legs is gonna completely change where you feel it in the body. So from here, let's take four small ones.

So you can start to feel where, in your oblique slings, are you gonna start to have to really challenge yourself. And here we go, all the way out. And all the way in. Inhaling out, good. And exhaling in.

Good, 483 more. And pull it back in. Two more and then we stay out. Slightly snakey, slightly twisty, I don't know what we call it, it just is what it is. Good, let's stay out there and hold, you know how we do, we bend and straighten.

'Kay bend and straighten. Feels incredibly, incredibly challenging. On those obliques. Good last one here and back out, pull all the way in and give yourself a little bit of a break. 'Cause we got one more side to go.

So swivel those feet, try and get yourself as even as possible, on this other side. So that you feel pretty much the same challenge and then take it out and in, small ones for four. And three, watch the shoulders, don't let 'em creep into your ears. And two, keep that strong mind. And keep that strong body and come with me, all the way out and all the way in.

Woo and inhale on the way out. Are you hyperextending your elbows? I don't know, check in on yourself. And all the way out and all the way in. Last one and we do those knee bends so take it away.

Find it and here we go. Inhale, bend, exhale, reach. Good, five more. And four, keep the control. And three, two, and one and congratulations, return to the stopper and safely take a step off of your carriage and shake out those wrists.

Well done. All right so we need some weights. But before we start with those, I want to put all of the springs on, so let's do that and you'll see why momentarily. I want you to make sure that your headrest is dropped down now so that you don't have to do that when we put a short box on. And you're gonna lock your foot bar into place.

'Kay, once you've done all of that. You can go ahead and have a seat on your carriage. And we're all different shapes and sizes, so you need to set yourself up to where this feels good for you. I like the foot bar where it's about in my, middle thoracic area. First we're just gonna begin with some nice shoulder mobilization.

So reaching those arms forward, on an inhale you're gonna take a nice overhead reach. Feeling that lengthening and open the chest and come back around. And again, reaching back, and open and around. Three more. Allowing for the shoulders to mobilize, the chest to open, last two.

And getting a little bit of that thoracic mobilization as well. Last one and around and through. What goes in one direction has to go in the other so here we go. Open to the t, reach back behind and draw the arms forward. Now I'm using about two pounds, you can use heavier, you can use lighter, you can use nothing if you want to.

But I want you to really create that sense of thickness through the air, that you're not just swinging the arms around. And through, one more time. Good and pause. Now here's the deal, if you want it, I'd like for you to try and take a reverse plank here. So rise up, find a reverse plank, keep your head facing forward slightly, 'cause we don't want you dumping your neck back.

Arms are lifted, backs of the legs and glutes are turned on, you're gonna take some scissors with the arms. Reach, pull it back. And reach, pull it back. Reach and pull, reach. Finding that sense of opposition of one arm reaching back and one arm reaching forward.

Pull and four, good, three, nice, two and one, if you need to lower down at any time, please do so. Opening the chest and back to the ceiling. And open, so earlier we worked the posterior side of the arms and now we're working a little bit more, the pushing movements, we always like to work the back of the arms first to get that chest open. Last three and reach and two and reach and one and reach. And lower all the way down.

Very nicely done. So we need a short box. And you will still need your weights so. Place those forward towards the end of your carriage, grab your short box, we got two more things to do. Two and a half technically 'cause we have to do both sides.

Place your short box on, over your shoulder rests. Now leave your foot bar up and leave it locked. We're gonna work the lateral line, 'kay. And again, we don't have to do 483 of anything. So we're looking for five really good ones.

Now the foot bar is up and this is gonna serve as your safety strap, 'kay. So this leg is going to anchor, underneath your foot bar. From here, the arms come out to the t position. You're gonna inhale. That foot bar might move a tiny bit, don't worry it should be locked in.

Inhale, reach all the way over and exhale, lift up and reach the arms up. Out to the t and reaching, lengthening out that upper lateral line. Exhale reach, good. Here we go and three more, over, exhale, up and reach. And last two, over, I'm feeling this.

And lift and reach and one more. Keep those hips stacked ladies and gentlemen and lift and reach. Excellent job. Lather, rinse, repeat. We can do five and then we got back extensions.

So turn around, please. Set yourself up for success, remember that top hip needs to remain stacked and not rolling back, this is not a hip flexor exercise. Gather yourself, channel that inner athlete. Here we go. Take it over, inhale, exhale you lift.

And arms go overhead. And out to the t. Inhale and exhale, lift and reach above the head. Good, three more. Good, don't judge your sides remember.

And two and beautiful job, last one. And lift and reach. Well done. So final thing to do. Is some back extension.

We're staying with the box and we're staying with the foot bar. So, bring the legs wide, hook the heels under. Slightly push the pubic bone in towards that box to support your lower back, dive over that box and bring your weights to your thighs. From here we move into back extension. As you grow tall through the top of the crown of the head, lift and take your super person cape away from you.

And all the way back around and lower back down. Good, lifting up and sweeping the arms forward if you can. And all the way back to the hips and back down. Three more times, up and reach. And to the hips and up higher.

And down and two, lifting, reaching, letting the weights help you pull up higher and lower and last one. And up, reach forward, make it your best one and lift, reaching behind you and lowering down. Take your weights put them down. Hands come onto the rails, safely slide yourself off of the box. Come to the standing position.

Find a spot where you can do a roll-down. Find your feet, think about your big toes. Your little toes and your heels. Gather that energy up into your arms. Exhale, begin to roll the body all the way up and over, a nice big beach ball or stability ball.

Find that length, allow the spine to relax. Release, re-organize. Give yourself a lotta gratitude here. And then exhale, use those abs as a means of support to rebuild your spine, bone by bone by bone and as I always like to end, draw your arms above your head, flex your wrists and open your heart center towards the ceiling. Thank you very much, it's been a pleasure being with you today!