Strengthen and Align

Welcome, everybody. I'm Tom McCook. I'm here with Erin and Kristi for a Reformer workout I hope you enjoy. We're gonna do a flow. It'll probably be somewhere between 30 and 40 minutes, and we're gonna start with footwork, and we're gonna do two reds and one blue spring, and the bar is in the middle bar.

These guys are gonna set that up, and then they'll come down to their back preparing for footwork. And they're gonna come down and have their heels on the bar in line with their sit bones. Arms are long by their sides, and resist the heels down on the bar lightly just to sense the back of the legs, and as you inhale pull the legs long, and on the exhale pull yourself back in. Imagine you initiate from the back of the legs, and you finish through the front of your legs, so you feel the whole leg each repetition. And on the exhale in feel a little hollowing of the belly so you're helping to empty the lungs.

And we'll do three more. Inhale out, exhale to draw in. Nice fluid motion, and one more. As you come in, slide down onto the balls of the feet. Same alignment, heels just a little higher than the balls of the feet throughout.

Inhale, pull your body away from your feet. Exhale, draw yourself back in. And press into those five metatarsal heads, so you feel how you're reaching into the feet as you pull away from the feet. Nice and smooth. So we're just beginning with aligning the body, sensing what's happening, and using footwork to align and connect.

Do two more, and one more. As you come in, rotate the heels together. Knees just armpit width. Inhale out, exhale draw yourself back in. And notice when you're straightening, you're gonna get a sense of straightening the top of the legs before the knees.

Zip up your inner thighs. That's it, nice and fluid. Inhale out, exhale draw in. Nice and smooth. Two more.

And in, and one more. As you come in turn back to parallel and slide up right at the top of your arches, so you can wrap your balls of the feet around the bar, and the heels are gonna stay low for prehensile feet. So inhale, pull long, dropping the heels right away. Then exhale, pull yourself in, keeping the heels low so you get a little calf stretch, also working the front of your feet. Inhale out, exhale draw in.

Feel that relationship between the back of your legs and the lower part of your abdomen. That's it, three more. Nice and fluid. And two more. And one, I'm traveling, here we go.

Now we come in (laughing). And now from there come wide on your heels in second position. And have your knees tracking right over the middle of your feet. And now pull long as you reach into the bar, and then draw yourself back in, feeling the back of the pelvis widening as you come in. So you don't tuck as you come in.

That's it, nice and smooth. Equal pressure into both sides, your breath is fluid. Now the next one, go out there and hold it out there for a moment. Now from the top of your thighs go into internal rotation, and then bend and come in in internal. At the bottom go to external and press out.

And feel like you're initiating that movement from the top of the legs. The feet and the knees are following that. One more in that direction, and then bring it all the way in. And now press out in internal rotation. Come in in external rotation.

Nice and smooth. That's it, three more. Fluid motion, two more. And one more. Come back to the center, back with your feet in line with the sit bones on the balls of your feet for heel lowers.

So again, press your legs long, and keep them long. Have a very slight knee bend, but keep the tone in the bottom of your glutes. And as you exhale, wrap your feet around the bar to lower your heels. Now rise up, and let's do that for 10 reps. And as you're lifting, feel like you're not tucking and arching.

You're feeling that lift is coming from the connection to your hips and lower part of your belly. And the feet are wrapping around the bar with control. The whole back chain of the body is involved. Last three, and two. From the high point of the next one, go right into running in place.

That's it, and as you run, feel like you're pressing the shin forward on the bending leg, and on the lowering leg you're pressing the top back of the thigh towards the mat. That's it, so you feel an action through the legs that creates lift. That's it. Couple more each side. And then lower one for a stretch and take a few breaths.

If you'd like to get a deeper stretch, you can hold the side rails and pull, or you could hook your foot onto the bar. Do whatever you prefer. You have choices. One more breath. And then switch and take side two.

Again, you can hook or hold the side rails, or just do what you're doing. Breathe into it. Soften around your neck and your jaw, and then gently release and come in. Now come up onto your heels again. We're going to go into a bridge series, so let's put your headrest down if it's currently up.

That's it. Now take a breath. And we're gonna take two breaths to go up, so on the exhale sink right above the pubic bone and curl the tail towards the knees and curl up about halfway. Take another breath. Sink more and traction your hips towards the back of the knees to curl up higher.

Inhale at the top and use your abdominal wall to roll back down. That's it, we're gonna do that two more times before we add something to it. Two breaths on the up. Exhale to curl halfway, take another breath, sink and curl more like you're tractioning the lower back. That's it.

Take a breath at the top, and then articulate down. There we go. Nice and fluid, one more. Take a breath, curl to the halfway point, tractioning and lengthening your lower back. Take another breath, so curl all the way up.

Breath at the top. Use your abdomen to roll down, especially as you get toward that bottom, really get the length in the lower part of the lower back. Nice, on the next one we're gonna curl up and we're gonna march in place at the top of the bridge. We'll just take one breath to go up now. On the exhale, curl to the top.

Inhale holding. On the exhale float one knee. Inhale back to the bar. Do three each side. That's it, nice and smooth.

Notice you're keeping the pelvis level, and then the second side (exhales). That's it, nice and smooth. Back of the arms are strong, but the neck is soft. Back to the bar, take a breath, articulate down through the spine. Now the next one, when you come up you're gonna reach one leg straight out in line with the other knee, and then as you press into the bar, you'll take it towards your head as you push out.

You'll take it and don't worry about how far you press out. Only go to where you can keep your lower back the same. So take a breath, exhale, peel up into the bridge, hold that line, now inhale, reach one leg straight up in line with other knee. As you press out lift it towards your head, and then come in and reach it back out over your knee. We're gonna do four reps like that.

You can just keep it in the air for four, that's it, nice and smooth. Three, one more, back in, back to the bar, take a breath and roll back down through the spine (exhales). There we go, take a breath. That's a hamstring party (laughing). Take a breath, they're all invited.

So on the exhale curl up one more time. Now on the inhale reach the second leg. On the exhale as you press out slowly, lift it up as you reach into the bar, back in and out over the knee. Three more. Nice and smooth.

Two more. And one more. Back in, back to the bar, take a breath. Exhale, articulate down through the spine. Now we're gonna translate into a little bit of arm work.

So we're gonna have you help yourself up and take off one of the red springs so you have a red and a blue. And if that feels too heavy, you can go down to one red, or you can go heavier two reds, so I'll let you decide, but why don't we just go with a red and a blue if that feels good to you guys, and come on back down onto your back, and put your headrest up for this one, just a notch. And when you're ready take the straps in your hands. Now keeping your feet on the bar, pull the shoulders down a little bit so the carriage is a little bit in the air. That's it, now just take a breath and exhale.

Imprint the back of your waistline into the mat and float up one knee and then your second knee. Now see if you can keep that awareness of like a ring at the bottom of your ribcage, that area, right where the ribcage meets the lower back, stays close to the mat throughout. On the exhale draw the arms to your mat. Inhale open out to the side and do a circle. Exhale down.

That's it. And keep the fronts of the shoulders open, the neck long, the breath fluid (exhales). Two more in that direction (exhales). As you get back to the top, reverse. Open, down, in, and up, that's it.

Staying aware of your waistline, staying open across the chest. Two more (exhales). One more (exhales). As you come back to the start with your arms straight up, keep your heels together but open your knees about six inches. We're gonna do Hundred prep.

So take a breath and on the exhale roll up with the upper body standing into the straps. Hold on the inhale, exhale roll back down standing into the straps. Do two more before we add leg movement. Exhale to curl, hold on the inhale, exhale down. One more, on the exhale curl, hold on the inhale, exhale down.

Now the next four as you curl up, you're also gonna slide your legs to a high V, and then you'll hold it there for the inhale. So on the exhale curl and slide your legs to a high V, breathe in, exhale back to the start. Three more. On the exhale curl, hold on the inhale, exhale back to the start. Two more times, on the exhale curl, hold on the inhale, exhale down.

One more, on the exhale curl, hold on the inhale, exhale down. Very nice. You can put your straps back on the poles, and help yourself up and grab your long box. And you're gonna put your long box across the back of your Reformer probably about a foot past the end of the headrest. So it'll just be ...

In the short box? In the short box position. That's it, just like that. Now we'll go down to one red spring, and you guys will be like this, you'll be kneeling with your forearms on the box. One red.

Now this is for your lower abdomen, glute, ham connection, so in this position, the starting position is you want your hips directly over your knees. And instead of thinking of dragging your knees forward, I want you to think of lifting your lumbar up to pull the cart forward (exhales). That's it, now keep lifting it as you return the knees. That's it, so you really feel how you're using the bottom of your glutes and hamstrings and the lower belly. That's it in the feet, now we're gonna go a little slower.

Now in the return, keep that lift. That's it, there you go. Now we're talkin'. That's it, so really feel that focus is lower belly. That's it, shoulders are wide and low.

Now the next one is gonna get really interesting, so next one pull and hold. Now as you hold, slowly reach your right forearm forward off the box and then back to the box. Come on. (laughing) And then your left one, just one more ... (faint talking) And back to your left, just one more each side (laughing).

I can't do that again. There you go (laughing), reach and then, that's it. Ooh! As you come back to center release it. Now we're gonna do one more but a little different. It's the same setup, pull forward again.

Now this movement's gonna be really small, so as you pull it forward and hold it, slowly reach your right knee back, and then back in. And then your left. And back in, one more of each side (exhales). (laughing) Back in, last time. Back in, and rest, very nice.

Now from there, we're gonna take it into pulling straps. So we're gonna put the long box on the Reformer. That's an eye-opener. Now we're gonna put the foot bar down now. (laughing) Now for this one, I recommend either a red or a blue.

We'll go with a red, and you're gonna lie onto your belly facing the straps for pulling straps. Have your heels together, feet in just a very mild turnout, and take hold of the straps, and then walk your hands up on the rope a little bit so you'll have a little more range. That's it, now first, bring your head up in line with your spine, and just float your feet up slightly so you feel the back of the legs turn on. And just feel that line from your head to your tail. On the exhale, as you stand into the ropes, pull your arms to your sides.

Inhale, back to the start. And for the first three, don't even add extension, just feel like you're gonna stay in a straight line. Just feel how you can create that nice line through the body and feel the pull that's coming from your sides, your mid-back, your toned legs. One more. Now the next one, once you're all the way back we'll add extension.

So on the exhale pull back, now inhale, slide the top of the heart forward, exhale all the way down to the start. Inhale to prepare, exhale draw back. Inhale to extend and open, exhale all the way to the start. We're gonna do two more. On the exhale pull (exhales).

Inhale, lift and open. Let the breath lead it, exhale all the way down. One more. On the exhale pull, inhale lift and open. Exhale all the way down.

Now take hold of a lighter part of the straps. So you can walk your hands either back to the very end or close to it, and open your arms to the side like a T. And with your arms out to the side, have your palms facing the floor, and with your upper arms externally rotate 'em like you're wrapping your biceps towards your head. Now tone your inner thighs, and imagine you're gonna pull from the bottom of your shoulder blades. So as you exhale pull your hands towards your back pockets, then inhale open back to the T, keeping that sense of control and length.

Exhale to pull. Let's do four more, on the exhale pull. Imagine the pulling is actually launching you out the top of your head. Two more, on the exhale. And one more, exhale to pull (exhales), and lengthen all the way down, beautiful work.

We'll put the straps back on the poles, and help yourself up, and we'll take the boxes off. And we're gonna go down to one blue spring. And we're gonna do kneeling arms facing the bar, so you're gonna come to a kneeling position facing the bar and take hold of the straps in your hands. There you go. (laughing) And I recommend you tuck your toes under you, just from that low sitting, from your low glutes, just come up to tall kneeling.

We're gonna start with offering, so bend at the elbow so your hands are elbow height, and on the exhale reach out to mid-chest level. And inhale open, and from your back to your front, wrap to the front. Inhale to bend. Exhale reach, inhale open, exhale to close. Feel that support of the hips, inhale to bend.

Three more, and reach, open, close, and bend. Two more, exhale reach, open, close, and bend. One more, and reach, open, close, bend. Now reach out to mid-chest level and turn your palms to face each other. Now bend the elbows away from each other, and imagine that you have something pulling your arms forward out into the bend the whole time that you open, and keep the bend the same throughout the motion.

So inhale, pull out. Now exhale, wrap around a big tree, keeping the collarbones open. So feel that's a full-body exercise, with that back to front wrap (exhales). There you go, nice and smooth. Three more, that's it.

Energy out to your heels, sit bones pressing forward. One more, from there we're gonna go into salute. So take the straps above your upper arm and bring your first finger and thumb together at about forehead level. And you're gonna press up on a diagonal. So feel it just leaning very slightly forward.

Now on the exhale as you feel your shoulder blades go down press up on a high diagonal. Inhale to bend. Now if you can, keep your first finger and thumb together, but if you feel like you can't keep your shoulders down, you can let 'em come a little bit apart. Exhale out, feel that mid-back connection. Three more (exhales).

That's it, nice and smooth. And two, beautiful. One more, you guys (exhales). And then just with control come back. We're gonna take the straps and put 'em on the poles.

And then we're gonna do seated rotations, so we're gonna put the box back on in the long box position. And we're gonna keep it light, we're gonna keep it with one blue. And you're gonna have a seat, both of you are gonna face this way. You're gonna face sideways, and you're gonna have your seat with your feet like this. Just sitting flat, nice and tall.

Try that (clearing throat). Now if you're doing this and one blue feels too heavy, you can go down to a yellow. So you're gonna take the strap to the back side, which is a little different than we're used to. That's it. Now take your strap-side hand and bring it into the crease of the other arm, like so.

There you go. And then you're gonna have your arms crossed and then you're go like this and make a wish. (laughing) That's it. Now sit up nice and tall and press into your heels, and just feel when you press into your heels, you're gonna lift through your lower belly and your lower back. And imagine that when you turn, you're gonna turn from the muscles close to your upper spine and your waistline, not so much from your arms.

So on the exhale, just keeping the shoulders slightly back, turn towards the footbar, and inhale back to the center, that's it. This isn't really that hard in the beginning, but just to give you a sense that when you're turning, you're turning and you're starting to feel both sides of your upper back. The muscles close to your spine when you turn towards the bar and the muscles really close to the spine are working on other side of the spine, the part of the spine that's away from the foot bar. Your long, big back muscles are on the same side. So your multifidi and all the other big guys.

(laughing) Now we're gonna add an oblique twist, so turn towards the bar and hold it. Now imagine on that weight-bearing arm, you're gonna set the shoulder down and then push the hand towards the bar, and then slowly come back, whoa. It's okay that it's small. And again, exhale turn, set the shoulder, and press. Let it be small, there you go.

And we're gonna do three more. On the exhale, turn, feel that connection to the bottom of the scapula as you press. That's it, and again, really feel the down of your shoulder blade as you go to press. That's it, one more. Exhale turn, and press.

Beautiful, there we go. And we'll take side two, nice work. That's right in there. If you need to shift your box a little bit, please do. There we go.

And have a seat. Take the strap that's towards the back side, which should give you a little more pull, and put that arm in the crease of the other arm, upper arm, and then just set the shoulders a little bit back, and just feel like you can press into your heels and create a nice line through your spine. On the exhale, turn, sense that you're turning from the spine and waistline, as opposed to turning from the shoulder girdle and arms. Very different on this side, huh? That's what we're lookin' for, good feedback.

So, turning from close to the spine, the muscles close on the spine, you're turning away from. The longer, bigger muscles on the side, you're turning towards. And then the obliques. That's it. On the next one, turn towards the bar.

Hold it, set that shoulder low and press towards the bar with the weight-bearing arm. That's it. Nice and slow. Connect to that underside of the scapula. Draw that into my hand, that's it, even more if you can.

Now pull that into my hand. There you go, now press. That's it, that's it. And again, now pull that into my hand. That's it.

Two more, you guys. Nice and fluid. That's it, last time. Beautiful work. And we'll put that back on the pole, and this'll be the last time you'll take the box off.

And we're gonna set up for standing leg presses. And this one, you want to go heavy. So we're gonna put the bar in middle bar. And just from like a relative perspective, you can think about the springs. Basically, three springs is about the equivalent to your body weight.

And we wanna get really strong in our glutes and hamstrings, so working light is actually not that great as far as the level of strength we need for life. So we're gonna go with two reds for today. And when you practice, you can even work to going heavier than that. So go with two reds, and you'll be in a lunging position like this, with your standing leg bent, but this knee'll be off and your arms are straight like kickstands. And you're just gonna fully reach the leg back.

And it's okay if it doesn't fully straighten, just don't let your back arch, but I'll talk you through that. That's it. So standing leg will be bent, arms are straight, and the back knee will be off the cart. That's it, now just feel that line through your body, feel the strength of the standing leg. Now slowly push from your low glutes and if you can, fully extend, and then bend.

That's it, that's it. So this is a little bit of glute work goin' on there. There we go, that's it. Now as you press back, imagine that right as you get to almost straight, lift your ASISes of your front of your hips up so you don't let the lower back shorten at the end range. Two more, one more.

Now, we're gonna do three more, a little stronger out to the side, and you're gonna do three more presses. Nice and slow, feel it? (laughing) Totally. One more (laughing). It's my hip! And slowly come in, and we'll switch sides, nice work.

And now we're gonna take the second side, so your front knee is bent, your back knee is off the cart, arms are straight like kickstands, and you have a nice straight spine. You're gonna lift that knee off the cart a little bit. And imagine that the hinges of the hip joints, you have a pole through the hip joints, side to side. Now exhale, press out, and really feel like as you get towards that end range, you're just gonna feel a slight lifting in your ASISes so your lower back stays long. That's it, there you go.

And think of the work as more from the top back of the leg, less from the foot. It's coming from the top of your thigh. That's it. Just do three more before we add the single arm, and two more, that's it. One more, now open your right arm to the side, connect the arm across your body from your lat to your glute.

Two more (exhales), and one more. Beautiful. Alright, now from there we're gonna keep the spring setting the same. Two red springs and come onto your back for short spine. And once you come down, make sure the head rest is down, and you're gonna put your straps on your feet.

That's it. Now lengthen out the legs into parallel, bring the arms long, and just sense the length of your spine, and as you slowly bring the legs up on your inhale, let the legs come towards the pelvis. Now exhale if the tail chase your feet as the pelvis rolls off the mat, and the legs go slightly behind you. Inhale, plie, legs bend, knees over into the turnout, exhale roll down through the spine sequentially, use your abdominal wall. As you get to the bottom pull the heels down to get your tail all the way down, and then slide your legs long.

Back to parallel. Inhale to hip hinge, exhale to curl. Inhale to plie. Exhale, use your abdominal heavy strong arms as you roll down. Pull the heels down to get the tail down, slide the legs long.

Three more times. Exhale to curl. Inhale to bend. Traction down through the spine like your breastbone's moving away from the chin. Pull the heels down, and reach long.

Two more. That's it. Inhale to bend, articulate down, think of your breastbones moving further away from your chin each time. Draw down, and lengthen one last time. Inhale, the legs come up, exhale the tail chases the legs.

Inhale to bend, exhale articulate down segmentally, use your abdominal wall. As you get to the bottom, bring the soles of your feet together. Now take hold of the straps and just feel like you're drawing your feet towards your chest, and reach your tail and your knees away from your chest. And just take a couple breaths there, down into your hips, and let your belly relax, your neck relax, and just soften as you give a little hip stretch for a moment. Now holding what's called the D ring.

The D ring is right at the end of the strap. You can put your middle finger in the D rings, and just slowly straighten your left leg out to the side, keeping the right hip weighted. That's it. Just keep a couple breaths there, and if you can if you have the range, contract your quads, your thigh muscles, on that left side. And just take two more breaths.

There we go, that's it. And then slowly bend back to the start. Now slowly straighten out your right leg, but keep your left hip weighted. It's okay if it doesn't fully straighten. You can also go a little higher if you feel like you need to.

Couple more breaths. One more breath, and then slowly back to the center. Help yourself out of the straps. We'll put 'em back on the poles. Roll to your side.

We're gonna come to standing. We're gonna do a couple standing exercises. So we'll put the foot bar down, and we'll go with one green spring. And actually we're gonna put the bar in, put the gear in second gear so we can have this outta the way. There we go, this side, so that's the ...

There we go. Actually, why don't we go with a red and yellow, some people might not have a green. Or a yellow, so just kinda medium heavy? Yeah, medium heavy, yeah. Just put on a green one?

Yeah, why don't you just do a green, that's a good option 'cause that's all you've got. (laughing) That's the only one. Now come around to this side, you guys. And you guys are gonna step up and make sure when you step up, you step onto the dock before you step onto the boat. One foot here, one foot here.

Wouldn't be good to step onto the boat first. Now step that foot right to the edge. And imagining that your feet are in parallel, that you're swiping your feet in, and feel how that turns on the back of your hips, and as you're inhaling, push out, reach arms and legs out at the same time to the side. And exhale, draw up and in. That's it.

And again, inhale out, exhale in. You get a sense, it's heavy, yeah. I wasn't gonna say anything, but I knew it was coming. (laughing) We want some strong hip action there. It's okay that it's shorter range 'cause we're workin' on strength.

That's it. Two more. Notice when the eyes get a little bit bright when it's heavy. There you go. Now bring your elbows in close to your body with palms up and just do a, like a quarter squat.

Now push the cart out about a foot and hold it there. Now keep both legs still bent. That's it. Now slowly straighten your outside leg, and instead of pushing from your lower legs, feel like the knees are moving further apart to straighten the outside leg, and then bend. Do that for six, feel like it's coming from the hip.

There we go. See, if you just did it from your lower leg, you could do that all day with your quads. (laughing) Three more, there we go (exhales). One more (exhales), very nice. And up and in.

Now reach down, and change the springs to one blue spring. Take everything else off. So now this is gonna be more for your inner thighs and the adductors here, you have really big adductor magnus in the back of the thigh, so I want you to go in a very slight turnout, really small, and then feel like you're opening the front of your hips and you're toning the bottom of your glutes. Now press out, as far as you comfortably can manage, and now to come in, squeeze from your back inner thighs to come in (exhales). That's it, and press out.

Feel that connection from the back of the inner thighs and then up the front of the spine. There you go. Inhale out, and exhale. Feel that, like a tube of toothpaste right off the top of your head, brrp. There you go, three more like that (laughing).

That's it, squeeze it up. Two more, inhale out, exhale up and in (exhales). And one more, and exhale up and in. Beautiful work. With control, step off the back.

And let's come around to your second side. And we'll go back to that heavier setting (laughing). And you're gonna want that yellow so it's a little lighter. Thank you (laughing). That would be not so fun (laughing).

And now remember you're gonna step on the dock first, the platform, and then right on the edge. And just get a sense of the feet swiping in so you're extending the hips and you're turned on through the back bottom of the glutes. And inhale arms and legs out, and exhale up and in. And imagine your arms are like wings that are connected to your back low ribs. So they stay wide and full as the arms come up.

That's it. And again, reach into it, and lengthen up and in. There you go. Three more, strong and connected. That's it.

Two more. There you go, beautiful, you guys. One more. That's it. Now from there bring your elbows in close to your body, do a quarter squat, press both knees apart evenly and hold it out there about a foot.

No worries, there you go. Now hold, now think of you're gonna take that outside knee and push it further apart to initiate straightening the leg. That's it. And have a slight lift in both ASISes as you start to feel the support of your obliques. That's it, there we go.

That's it. Three more, you guys. Nice and strong. That's it. One more.

As you come up and in, bring the cart all the way in, and lean down and shift your spring setting to one blue, taking off everything else. And now from here, you're gonna be in a very slight turnout, you feel like you're wrapping the legs but you're lifting up through the front of the abdomen. And then pushed out evenly through both legs. Now use the back inner thighs to draw in as you lift up through the front of the spine. That's it, and reach out.

And then zip up back to front. There we go, nice and smooth. There we go. That way you don't have to worry about it, there you go (laughing). Just go crazy, Erin.

(laughing) That's it. It's all the way out. There you go, as far as you wanna go. It's all good. I'm not competitive.

(laughing) Two more, there we go (laughing). That's it, and one more. Nice and strong. There we go. Beautiful, you guys.

Now gently step off, put your front bar in middle bar for front splits. And for front splits we'll go with a blue and a red. And then come to standing on the machine with your hands on the foot bar. And now put your left foot on the bar and then slide your right foot back halfway up on the shoulder block in parallel. That's it.

Now come into a lunge, where you push the cart out a little bit and you lower the pelvis. And then, keeping the pelvis low, round your spine slightly. Now keeping the pelvis that low, slowly lengthen the front leg, leaving your hands on the bar. Just do that for three. That's it, now bring it right back in, keeping the pelvis low.

Keep the back leg strong all the way through the motion. That's it, nice and fluid. You're working on keeping your hips level. One more. Now as you come in this time, keep your front knee right over the ankle, stabilize the cart, and slowly bring the upper body up and open your arms into a T.

That's it. Now slowly press out. Now keeping the front leg as long as you can, come up and in. There you go. Back out, and bend to return.

We're gonna do two more. Press out evenly, lift up, keep the back leg strong for balance. Reach back out, and bend to return. One more. Press, lift, press, return, hands back to the bar, and we'll switch sides.

Nice work. Well, that was a nice little surprise. (laughing) Ooh, okay. Now lower the hips so you're low, your front knee's over the ankle, you have a little bit of spine flexion, your back leg is strongly reaching. Now we exhale, press back through the front leg, keeping the hips low.

It's okay if that front leg doesn't fully straighten. And then return. That's it. So the shoulders can stay low and wide all the way through. That's it.

And in, and one more. Nice and fluid, hips are square to the bar all the way through. And then in. Now, keeping the front knee over the ankle, stabilize the carriage and slowly come up to standing, arms to the sides. That's it.

Now slowly press out with your front leg. Slowly lift up and in, keep the back leg strong, press back out to the split. With control, bend to return. Two more times. Press long, lift, press long again, bend to return.

One more. Oops (laughing). Okay, you gotta press long (laughing). And come up and in. Back out to long, bend to return.

Hands on the foot bar, and gently help yourself off. And have a seat facing the middle on the side for Mermaid. And we'll put on one red spring. And why don't we do the traditional Z seat, where you'll have your ... There you go.

That's it. And think of energetically, you're gonna be drawing the sit bone down on the sit bone that's furthest away from the foot bar as you side bend. So take the arm that's furthest away from the bar and take it straight up overhead. And then put your other hand on the bar. Now as you exhale, push the bar away, side bend, keeping that outside sit bone energetically drawing down.

Inhale lengthen right back up. We'll do that three times before we add rotation to it. So feel that. Anchoring in the hip, and now lift the ribs up to come up. That's it.

And one more. Go over, and now lift the ribs up to come up. That's it. Now on the next one, we'll add rotation, so side bend over. Now wrap down and take the bar with both hands and open the weight-bearing arm up a little further on the bar.

Now as you inhale, slide your heart through your arms as you come up and in into extension. Exhale, pull the waistline away to flex. Do that three times. Inhale, slide into extension. Exhale, pull the waistline away to flex.

And one more time. Inhale to slide into extension. Exhale, come down into flexion. Now hold it there, inhale bend the elbows wide away from each other. Exhale pull the body away from the arms to straighten the arms.

Do that three times. So you actually will stay low for this one, there you go. That's it. That's your head down, no, just kidding (laughing). One more.

On the exhale slide long. Now take your hand back to the midline. Come back to the side bend and lengthen all the way up. Take hold of the shoulder block and do a counter stretch the other way. Take the arm up and just take a couple breaths into that stretch.

Breathe into that length. One more breath, and then lengthen all the way up, and we'll switch sides. Nice work. Nice and fluid, just get a sense now that your hip furthest away from the bar is just energetically gonna be drawing down. It can come up, but you're just keep it, we'll add a sense of weight.

Now reach up with the outside arm, exhale side bend towards the bar. Now inhale lift the upper ribs up to bring yourself in. And again, side bend over, now lift those ribs up to come in. That's it. One more.

Go over, and then lift up like you're opening the fan of your ribs. Now this time, go over and stay over, and wrap down and take the bar with both hands. Open up the hands on the bars a little wider. That's it, now lift from the spine. Inhale slide your chest through your arms, coming up and in.

Exhale pull the waistline away to flex. Let's do that three more times, or two more times. Inhale forward and up, long neck. Exhale back, waistline, lungs empty. One more, inhale up, exhale pull away.

This time, stay in the low position. Inhale bend the elbows wide and press from the bottom of your shoulder blades to straighten your arms. Two more. That's it, feel like it's coming from a low place. One more.

Slide your hand back to the midline. Come back to the side bend. Lengthen all the way up. And do a counter stretch the other direction. Take a couple breaths.

Nice and smooth. And then lengthen all the way up. Now come to standing on this side of the Reformer. We'll finish standing up. And I'd like you to with your feet right under your sit bones.

I'm gonna have you just bend your knees slightly, and starting from the top of your spine just roll down through the spine. At the bottom, feel the weight of your head as you nod it a few times. Rotate it a few. Take a nice fluid breath, and starting from your sit bones feel them draw down as you stack the spine, letting the head be the last thing up into the line posture. As you get to the top, center the weight onto your feet.

Let your breathing drop a little lower in the body, and relax behind your eyes. Acknowledge yourself, your hard work you guys. Good to see you all, and hope to see you again. I hope you enjoy the class. Thank you so much, goodbye.