Restorative Cadillac

Hi, I'm Ruth Alpert, and today we're going to do a restorative Cadillac workout. I'm dedicating it to Kim Wyatt who sent me a comment, uh, on my restorative foam roller class and asked if I had a restorative class on the equipment. And I was very intrigued by that and I've created something for the Cadillac. Um, it's, it's the intention here is to get inside your body and feel what you're doing rather than an Oompah hard workout. Uh, it's a great thing to do when you feel especially tired, but you still know you need to move or after you've been traveling or ill or any of those situations where you need a calming, Serene Movement experience, we're going to use, uh, uh, the trapeze and the arch. Uh, if you have those, get them ready and let's get going. Follow along. So we're gonna start by lying down with your feet on the bar, no springs and just swing. I'm a little, I need to be a little closer there.

So you want to s to swing, release your sockets and the Cadillac is squeaking just like a playground, which hopefully you have fond memories of. So you want to be close enough that when your knees come in, you can really get the release here. If you're too far away, you're just gripping the bar and you don't need to count it. Just do as many as it takes to release your sockets. And of course I could do this all day long. So I'm going to arbitrarily stop it right here.

Then you can do a little sit up and now we're going to go to the regular regular old fashioned rollback. So you want to bring the bar up. I have a particular thing with the rollback. I start with my knees bent and my heels against the Poles and the first thing I do is push my heels into the polls, which connects right through my sits bones and into my tail and into my pelvic floor. So that's my beginning. And then I follow it through with the rest of my spine and exhale and come up and knees bend and start again with your feet and legs. So you do that again.

I'm pushing into my legs and I rolled back. Now the restorative part is when you come up, hang, just hover here, feel the spring. Really put your sensation into the spring and feel how it pulls through your shoulders. And let's do that again. So you rolled down. Okay.

And exhale. File and hang from the springs. Relax into the springs. Michelle Larson always used to say ride the springs and meanwhile my abs are working by default, right? My abs are connecting just because of my position and one or two more times. Okay. Ah, this time we can roll continuously up, but keep that feeling and you're just pushing into the polls, lengthening everything out.

Ah, hurling up from the springs and one more time rolling down and stay down. Then you readjust if you need to arm poles. Yeah, to feel the connection of your elbow to the bottom tip of your scapula. And again, no more than 10 I gave up counting when I turned 40 so I just go by what feels right. And then this one, your elbows come down, your shoulders squash, and you get right between the shoulder blades that is get so tight, especially when we're bending over reformer all day and you get a little bit of a spine extension. Actually, it's quite a bit more than a little. Just feels good. Stick your ribs out. How often do you get to stick your ribs out?

Good. And then one or two more of these just to recenter everything and then curling back up. Okay, next. Put that back there. Next we have what we used to call the reverse tower. I come from the generation of Cadillacs when there was an actual chain and it was really simple. So I'm going to move this off to the side. One red spring from the bottom.

Okay. So reverse tower in the sense that I'm facing the other way from where the tower would normally happen and I like to have my pelvis under the bar and I push the bar up so that I'm a right angle more or less. And we do basically footwork what would be footwork on other machines here we used to call it bend and stretch. And the reason for me doing it facing this way is that it gives my leg, my hip sockets and my legs a greater range of motion and more ease. And also because what I'm going to do afterwards happens from this position.

So I do parallel, and this actually I do count, but I forgot to count, but you do 10 of each position. And because I'm a dancer or was a dancer, I get to the, I have a built in Pavlovian count of Eight, so I do two more in, I call it 10 and then v position one and two. And you just want to feel all three joints, your hip sockets, your knees and your ankles gliding easily as if they're well-oiled. Problem is I talk and I lose count I the two sides of the counting part of my brain is so different than the talking part. Okay. And why, why do you can do on your arches if you like, or your toes. And this is 10 bird feet.

You can't go quite as far bird feet, but it's still a good, it's really important for your feet per feet for me is one of the most important of all the positions. And then heel lowers and you can actually do a really nice Combo of Barbie feet, bird feet, Barbie, feet burned feet, Barbie, Lichen and Barbie doll. She's in those permanent high heels, Barbie feet burned feet, Barbie, feet, bird feet. And then from the Barbie feet, curl your spine. Cool. And curl down and roll up right from your tail and through your vertebrae. This is major hamstrings.

So if you are reactive in your hamstrings, be careful. Good. And then you can clasp your hands behind your head and curl up. Yeah. And Yeah. Wow.

And then you can curl your tail and do a little rocking horse. Just be careful you're not squishing your chin. Support your head. Really let your head rest come down and release. I just recently figured this out.

Y'All might've figured this out a lot sooner than me, but a good way to get out of this is you push your feet on the Poles and then you can come up so much easier than the Palati squiggle. Um, monkey is the next one. This you have to squiggle so you protect your head. You slide way back. I'm, I have a very strong preference that I do it with my shoulders completely off and I have long arms so I can pull this off. If you have long legs and short arms, maybe you only get to here, but I can get all the way up. I want to be in my teaser position. I want to be on my sacrum and not my lumbar. If, let me just get a little pedantic here.

If I'm here with my shoulders on and I curl up the pressures in my lumbar, so, which my back does not like. So I, I go way off the back end of the machine and I come up. And then if you want a hug, you can point your feet and get a nice pull through your shoulders. And I just got an adjustment in my foot. So it's stretchy elastic. Just go in for the ride and then bend and be careful of your knees and slide yourself out. And don't clobber your head.

Okay, let's take this down. Oh is take the spring off first. It makes life a lot easier. I'll just put this up here. Okay, so this next one is sideline. Go ahead and lie on your side. You're going to be in a straight line, completely straightened out the is banana, but in a complete straight line, lift your top leg two tro, cantor height and length and out and release in check your head that your head is not curled forward. That way that you're really lengthen in the back of your neck and you link them out. Use a pillow if you need to.

Okay. In linkedin out and release in. So when I'm doing this I'm thinking my, so as is getting longer. Okay. Down the back, up the front sacramental.

Well actually from the top of my head, I'm going down all the way through my sacrum and tail and it's going around the corner of my pelvic floor and then up my so as to my face, good and other sigh. The way I check whether I'm straight, I just take a look and then I lie down top leg up and lengthen out and release in and lengthen out and release in and lengthen out and release it and out and in and out and in and out and in. So you're taking all the compression out of those sides. Good. Okay. Now we go to the push through.

So set your push through bar up with one. I have one red spring feeder here and I like the version where you bend your elbow, elbows and push forward and bend your elbows and come up and then lean back. Drop your scapula and find your arch, stretchy arch and bend your arms and go forward and curl up and lean back. Press down like a little bit of a lap push. Oh, that feels so good and forward. Good and come up. Um, drop back.

Okay. Yeah. And one more like you're squeezing a sponge and then big old car sponge and then you squeeze it and then when you let go it fills back up. Good. Saw his next and this is old fashioned saw. Yeah.

Lately when I've been doing saw, I'm getting a real appreciation for the push Paul that's inherent in it, right? It's really about pull this hand on the pole is pulling and this hand is pushing and the push up lifts your ribs and that's what allows you to twist. It's closed chain. You really need to have that contact. You can also do it. Um, another version that I was playing around with, let's get this out of the way. Um, turnout, hug the sides of the polls. Again, hold onto the bar and push this one up. You're still pulling and pushing and you can get an even bigger twist to each side, but it active legs makes a big difference. You really want to, like you're riding a horse, you dig in with your legs.

I don't know if it's like riding a horse. I've never ridden a horse, but it's what I imagined. So you push up and pull against this one to get a good twist out of it again. Very sponge-like. Oh, it feels so good. Okay. And then you can go back to a circular saw, right? There are lots of versions of this.

So I would say just do the one that feels good to you. About three on each side, right? And then the other side three. So you push up. This is my tighter side so I need a little more time to feel into it. Okay.

And push up. Be careful with this hand on the pole that it's low. If you have that hand too high up, your shoulders will go up with it. So I have my hand just a few inches above my foot. [inaudible] good. Okay. Okay, so next we're going to leg springs. We're going to start off with the regular usual series.

Set yourself are arms length and I don't like my hands this low. It puts my shoulders by a arm socket in a funny place. So I like my hands higher up so my uh, humorous can fall down into my socket. When you put your, these are the purple springs, which I like. Glue your feet together and you just go down. Now the difference in quality here is again, to feel the springiness of the spring.

So you push down wherever you can without your hamstrings, you know, objecting and ride the springs coming up, press down. Your work is on the way down. But ride the spring, let the springs pull your legs up so you get this release. I'm actually a little too close and press down and ride up and pressed down right up and press down. This is three and four and five and circles on two and you can actually feel the momentum of the springs three, four. So the rhythm changes five and reverse down, up, down, up, down, up, down. I think this is fine and you can do some, I like frogs this way. The, and the pushing in and out doesn't do a lot for me, but again, ride the spring slit.

Your work is on the way down and just up release on the way up, even if it bangs just to get the release. Here's something that, um, try it and see if you like it. It's one of my favorites. I made it up from my body blowing, willing talk about riding the springs. I'm just flying and it's okay to clunk down because it's the rebound. You hit the bottom and you rebound up. Just feels really fun. Good and rest. And then a nice stretch in here.

I do let my arms drop down. Be Very, very careful. This is extreme on your low back on my body. It feels delicious, but if it's too much for your back, if you have any low back issues or history, it's a really big twist. So maybe leave it out if it doesn't fit you. Make sure your knees bend as you come through center so you don't stress your lower back. Me, I could stay here all day. Okay.

Just that feeling of my legs hanging in the straps, that somebody else's holding up my legs. It's a really okay. Oh boy. It's really an important feeling. Our poor legs are locomotive, you know, they work so hard and for them to get supported as so amazing. Okay. But this is being filmed in. It is a class. So I have to move on side stretch.

Um, there is, you know, your basic simple side stretch going this way. It's good to have a box under you. Um, all kinds of side stretches. But the one that I'm particularly liking these days is one I made up for a client who had a herniated lower disc herniated disc in her lower back. Let's get this out of the way. So you're gonna bring your hand from the back to the front, holding onto the pole.

Your feet are close together and your upper arm is on top. This alone and my head is resting on the pole. So this alone might be enough of a side stretch for somebody with a back issue. But if you want with your body, you can bow out through your pelvis. And just go for whatever needs to be decompressed and the other side. So again, bring your hand to the inside. Start with your feet together.

Your top arm comes up to the pole and a full body, right your whole body. Just be careful of this bottom arm that you're not bracing into your shoulder. And if this is uncomfortable, you can play with where you put your arm. Just make it so that, oh, there we go. Yes, my whole side and I get the feedback of my whole body all at once and I can even let this foot roll. That feels good.

Okay. The next thing we're going to do is spine extension. With the baby arc, I'm going to get a yoga mat for machine etiquette. [inaudible] I like putting mats underneath boxes and arcs too. Um, because they do leave an imprint in the vinyl and uh, and you, you know, you want to preserve your equipment as long as you can. So as I say, it's machine etiquette. It's just to be kind to your machine and keep it as long as you can. No spring bars hanging.

I come up onto the arc and where exactly you are on the arc is totally your dimensions, what fits you, but you're here and just go all the way down and get a good stretch and then connect your abs, drop your shoulders and go down. This is a swing but you don't have to kill yourself. You can go slow, but the angle of the arc allows your tailbone to drop. I have my 87 year old client doing this and it works really well for her and as I say, you could, if you want to do a swan rocking, you can get a little more vigorous, but that gets into my lower back. So for me, I'm just going to stretch and then one more slow, one pulling up in my abs. Good. And then you can also drop down and just get your upper back by pressing your elbows into the arc and release and press your elbows into the arch.

Good. And then just relax. Hmm. Part of what makes this restorative is that you take time in between each exercise to just rest in the positions. This is going to be a stretch for your feet. So you turn around and just kneel back.

We all feel that we're so tight in our calves and, and killies tendon and hamstrings, but I'm finding more and more and more the tightness is in the top of the foot, in the pointed position because we're constantly inflection, especially in southern California where you live in your car and you know that gas pedal. Um, and so this, I'm aiming this for the top of my instep. Ooh. So wherever it fits your foot, play with different positions. That's a good stretch. Let me come up a little bit higher and you could, if you want to, you know, lean back a little, just whatever really opens up that top part of your foot.

Yeah, there we go. Good. Okay. Just a few more here. I'm going to take the arc off. Okay. And take the yoga mat off.

You know, it's one extra step that you have to put a mat up and down, but it's really worth it. Believe me. Okay. Spread Eagle is next. Um Hm. Let's do spread Eagle from this end. And don't take this out of the way. Don't kill yourself.

I can't tell you how many times I've hit my head into this bar. So just in fact we're gonna put it on this side and I'll do spread eagle from here. So waist high or higher and you lean back and just hang. Oh Man. Put traction into your low spine and pelvis and feel that oppositional pole and then bend your knees. Tail comes curling right through into full extension.

And don't hit your nose and hang back. Feel the traction in your spine just from gravity and the opposition of your hands and curlier tail without dropping below your knees, right? Your tail is at your knee level. You uncurl it into a full arch. Connect your shoulders back, get taller as you come up. Wow. This time I'm not even, I'm an inch taller and hang back. Yeah. And Bend your knees.

This is actually a great prep for hanging up, which we are going to do very similar to hanging up and it's organization. Good. The next one is on the trapeze. So let's set up the trap fees and I'm going to pull this a little further out for now. Up there. These are just stretches on the high barrel we called them the ballet stretches. I think you can have you, you know for me it's the perfect tight.

I'm in a right angle here. If you're much taller, this might not be much of a stretch, but you can stretch this way. The one I like in particular sideways, your foot comes all the way to the front, so your leg and your standing leg goes back. So your leg is really more diagonally front and then you can, oh boy, sorta like the side splits on the reformer and you can go both ways. Right in here is where I'm feeling it, but it feels really, it's that, Ooh, it hurts. So good feeling and you just link the note and come back and careful getting out. I'm just going to turn around and you'll see my back.

It's easier than changing everything. So you're here again, your standing leg as and backs so that this can drop, right? You want your hip to really settled down in the socket, find the angle where your femur is in your socket and then stretch it out and come back in. You can even go the other way a little bit and stretch it out and notice if one side feels different than the other in whatever I've been teaching 36 years or something. I met one symmetrical body in that whole time. Good. Next we, the last thing we're going to do is hanging up because you can actually do that and make it feel like a stretch, so feed her in the top. This is the best part.

Just like in Spread Eagle. Just hang. Just letting your the traction in your low back. Open everything up. Let your shoulders come up. Who Cares? Just hang. Then find your tailbone, press down. The first thing I do is I press down into the bar, my tailbone comes up and then my shoulders connect.

I'm in my plank and then my shoulders connect that lap press. Oh yes, and then you come to your plank and you hang down. Usually for women. The first thing that gives out is your hands. I can probably do another one do to do, and actually this feels pretty good too, huh? You can swing you to do, to do, to do, just don't, to get too vigorous, you'll end up going out the window and find your tail and come up.

Connect underneath the support from underneath your body. Connect your shoulders into a fuller plank and hang tractioning your spine. Okay. You can do more if you like. I'm going to stop it too. Okay.

And thank you very much.