Create an Active Center

Hi, I'm Michael King and we're here for the reformer session today. G is Johnny me and I'm going to put it through a session. Before we get on a reformer, I would like you to warm up. So if you turn to face the end of the the football, have your feet slightly parallel and let's just start just with a few arm circles. And just before we get on the reformer remind our body about the placement of the rib cage above the pelvis. The spine is long reaching out, opening out, so you're really opening the shoulders.

It's always good to get the body prepared before the work. Otherwise the tension goes into the upper body. As we start working out foot series opening out. Now from here we're going to open the arms to the side. Just bring the arms forward in front and out to the side now and your proof, your vision. Just slide the arms up and down, sliding up and down, pushing down.

So we need to have movement in the Scapula. The scapula need to move. So don't think of that handsome much. Think about the shoulder blades going up and down. So we love to get the shoulders working. We need to keep them engaged when we're doing the foot series.

So we need to get them prepared by doing the alternating, make it down and forward and down and forward. Reach a forward length. And now we're going to alternate. We're going to go one and the other side. Push. Now again, as you're doing this, make sure your spine is long. Make sure your centers engaged, check with your weighted. The body is made sure it's in the middle of the feet as you're alternating one side and then on the other side, pushing out, breathing in and breathing out. And then let's put that together. We go in our single, out in our single back again in our single back.

Breathe in single bag. Just a few more. Ah, single back. One more time in our single and next one is we're going to lift the hands up and down. Push and back. It's a little, we call this ventilation when you get the air circulating. So really feel you're pushing the air, lifting up and down. Elbows are fixed really in and breathing out. Push the lengthen up.

One more time outdoors. Alternate that up. Down. Push again. Center. Watch the rib cage. Connect to center, pulling up, reach up. And then I would've put all four together. We're gonna pull in up. Alternate hands up and out. We go in, up alternate hands up and out. As you're doing this, think about the what we call the four diaphragms.

The arch of the foot is the first diaphragm. The pelvic floor is the second diaphragm. Your third diaphragm is the breathing push. One more time reaching out. And now from here we should have their hands just together. So by now we should have a nice feeling of warmth across the upper body. Lengthening out, reach the arms out to the side, reach. Take the arms down.

So please your hands on the football. Make sure your football stable, bend the knees, and just gently round your back and do a small flex first. So as you're doing this, think about the pelvis and then rolling back up. So try not take it into the thoracic, make it the pelvis. Tilting. You're curving as you're really pushing back into that lumbar spine. As you're lifting up, pull up and then reach up, bounce onto the toes and open out again.

Hold the football brewery curve the pelvis. Lengthen slowly rolling up, out and down. Now we're going to add to this flexor body, curved down from here. Lift the heels center, heels down, roll back up. Curve and open out and again, hands on the football round. Tilt the pelvis. We'd like to talk about the pelvis. Been a happy dog sticking back, a sad dog tilting forward. You've got really sad dog pelvis. Curve back up. Lengthen and reaching out. One more time. Curve the spine. Now Flex it now hold it here. Now keep that body fixed.

Watch the neck and now just lift the heels up and back down again. Lift the heels up and back down. Tils in that pelvis. Get as much curved the pelvis as you can. Breathing out and breathing in again. Breathing out really in one more out and breathing in and then slowly roll back up and lifting up. Now without doubt, one of the most successful and best movers we can do is the full squad. So you can use the end of your reformer for this roll down.

Take the body down into the floor, sit, tilt the pelvis under and now slowly roll back up and lengthen. And again come to a balance. Now I've got any knee issues. You find your range of movement that makes your body, that makes it comfortable for you. I'm using the full squat tilting under round, lengthen and up. And as you become more progressed at this movement, you can do with just one hand. So just one hand on the foot bar I lengthen.

It becomes a little bit more strength based as your length in the app. So one handle has changed hands and we're reaching now pull up a then and reach and out. So preparation is really important. Let's do two more times. Curling down. Push, ah [inaudible] and open. One more time. Reach, curve up. Lengthen and region.

Now we're going to use the reformer just to get that through that back chain. And we've taken the springs off. I'm going to put my reform of bar down just to give you a little bit of space and we're going to bring the body over the reformer and I'm doing this in a very yellow spring. So just reach over, hold the base of the carriage, place the heels down, and now as you breathe out, push the carriage away from you. Lengthen and now draw the carriage back. So there's two points of lengthening. One is through the top of the spine, the other is through the heels. So you get this nice stretch through the posterior chain, pushing out and lengthening back. Really it. And again, breathing out, push away, and again, breathing in and breathing out.

If you have any tension or in your lower back, then you can always do this with the knees slightly bent, so the knees slightly bent, you'll take a little bit of stress out of that lumber spine, curving and rounding up two more times. Push away. Let that out. One more time. Breathing out, push and rolling back up and come to a standing position. Open and circle the arms out. Now the variation progression for this is now put one foot over the football and now put the spring back on. I'm using again, just the light is yellow spring. Place the hands on the foot bar and again, push the carriage away.

Now if you're a little bit shorter, you might need to put the foot bar down to give you length or space to be able to do this movement. We're going to do this 10 times as you reach away. Think of the rib cage pulling back so you're keeping that rib cage in place so you're not letting the lumbar spine arch reaching out. So again, your focus here is right through that Pasteur chain. Breathing out, breathing in, and again, lengthen. Push your way. Come back up one more time. Up and stretch and pushing out. Now we're going to add a room rotation to this.

You're going to take your opposite arm across, lift the free arm to the seating, and then reaching away. Now from here, again, you're getting that rotation but made sure that ribcage is tilting back, coming back, breathing in, and again, breathing out, rotate, tilled and push out. So you're stretching as far back as you can be the end. And again, breathing out, push through the hand, stretch up to the seating, uh, again in and lengthen. Keeping that center engaged. Again, breathing in one more time. Push out this time we're gonna hold it. Check the length of the neck. Reach through the top of the hand, pushed through that back here. Keep that ribcage tilting backwards so you're spiraling back into the incidence by breathing out. Push, push, push, push, come back.

Let me take hold of the couch and we're going to change legs. So again, you can take the spring off if you're on your own home at home, working out. Then obviously taking the spring off and once you're in position, then you can hook the spring over again. There's a lot safer way of getting into this position we don't want to do is have that carriage come back and hit you on the shin. Breathing out as you push away again and you're pushing with the p the base of the hand. So really push with the base of the hands of the fingers are relaxed. Again, the spine is long. Each time you do the movement, push into the heel and lengthen the spine.

So I always like to use a lot of visualizations and of course the visualization here is the spine is being stretched like elastic, pushing further each time when in and breathing out. Did you push say five to 10 times is a nice preparation and then adding the rotation. So opposite arms, take the a hundred cross, lift the arm up to the ceiling and then reaching away. Breathing in. Now here, one nice cue is that you imagine the Scapula, the shoulder blade pulling across, so it's not their arm. This lifting you are theirs. Lifting up is the shoulder blade that's rotating you and lengthening up so the arm just follows that scapula. Again, we're watching that ribcage.

Breathing in and breathing out. Push and stretch again, breathing in and breathing out. Lengthen, pushing out. Two more times up reach. One less time up coming back. Now bring the hand back in. Let me take the hold of the couch.

If you're on your own, take the spring off, then bring back now just again, hold onto the ball from here. Take the lay slightly behind you. Again, just a nice little preparation for the upper body. We're going to do a modified pushup, so bring the pelvis forward and from here bend the elbows and bring the chest down towards the bar and then push it back up again. So we get that upper body working. We did some nice mobility work and now we need a little bit more stability work as you go down. Begin to start lifting one leg behind you.

So there's kind of an adaption of the push up and the leg Paul breathing out and with the it lengthen up. I never really like people just coming in and getting straight on the reformer because really you haven't thought about the body position. We've not prepared the body. If you've been working all day and you've come home, we need to get rid of all of that out of the body before we get the most effective workout on the reformer. Pushing out two more times. [inaudible] one more and then come around and come back and come sit on the reformer.

We're going to go lie down on the reformer and lay flat on your back. We're moving onto the foot series. What I want is I want the feet slightly turned out so your knees are just shoulder with the elbow softened. So again, we've done this nice preparation for the other upper body. So if you lift your arms up to the ceiling, lift shoulders up, drop the shoulders down, lift the shoulders up, drop and down, and then keep that engaged as you bring in the arms down. I prefer not to touch the shoulder pads because that way then I know that you're going to be using the center. If you use your shoulders to push out, you can take away some of the work from the center.

Now today we're going to play with rhythm. So with the foot series in the first position, I'm going to ask you to push away for one count and then slowly for three counts come back down. So we're adding one, count out, three coming back down, breathing out as you push away, really in as you come back down. So what we're doing with the spring, we're pushing the spring out and then we're keeping that work on that return, pushing the spring out, keeping that work on the return. Again, pushing out, lengthen and reaching out. Every time you do the movement, I want to be thinking about the spine, staying long the shoulders, staying down the center, staying engaged. We've got a nice space underneath the lower back, so we're not imprinting on the reformer. We're keeping that neutral spine. The pelvis is neutral and you're breaking from the top of the legs. 10 Times.

We'll do two more. Push out, pushing down. One more time, push out, and then come down. The next time we're going to push out and we're going to do to come halfway to demi, place a halfway. And then from here we're gonna do a little pulse pushing out. Now here with his little pulses, what I want you find is really feel that nice connection with the center. So we're keeping the tension engaged. Think of the pubic bone.

Think of the tail, the Sacrum, the tailbone, pulling towards each other. So you're using that base as you're doing the movement, pushing out and then coming back down. Now come all the way down and go to parallel. On parallel. We want to be on again on the instep, so a little bit lower. We're going to find a neutral ankles or lift the heels up.

Take the heels down to flex, and then take the heels halfway. Fix the heels and again, dynamically push away. One, three counts coming down to three and four. Push out to coming down to three and four and again, pushing out every time you come down as an opportunity to make the spine longer. The foot series is a great way of balancing the body. It brings alignment back.

We might be doing all these other activities in our life and really by focusing on that body in the foot series, it's a very important part of the program, but also was a really important to me is together work on the return so you should feel the back of the legs really staying engaged. The you're not relaxing the back of the legs as you're doing the work, pushing out and down. One more time, reach and then there and now little pulses, halfway demi play, pushing out, reaching out, out. Keep checking your shoulders, make sure the spine is, keep the center engaged. Watch your breath pattern reaching out. I always like to say the reformer is a breathing machine. They're really, we're training our diaphragm as we're doing the movements, so we have to use the breath to power the movement. Pushing out. Lengthen. Good. One more time and now come back down.

Now on the heels, lift the heel on the bar. Again, we don't want to have a fully flexed foot. We don't have a fully pointed foot. We want to take the foot about halfway, keeping that fixed, connect the center and again, push out, reach and then coming back to three and four out two, three, and four. Uh, make sure you get that full range of movement. So as you're coming down the reformer comes back to that full range each time. So you will keep in the length of the muscle lengthening thing out reach and good center every time the shoulders are coming down. And remember the space that you've created between the arm and the rib cage is really that you're allowing that to stay engaged.

You're not pushing down using the triceps. Good. Two more times. Pushing out reach. Now one more time. Lengthen out. And I come back down. And now halfway here. Really feel that deep work. Keep that pelvis engage. The goal is not to let it relax the pelvic floor so that tailbone, the sacrum pulling together as you're doing the movement, reaching out.

Good. The feets in relaxed, not too, too much tension and not flexing up too hard, reaching good. And then all the way back down. Now let's get a second position. We're going to keep second parallel first so your knees are parallel and then keeping the neutral spine open the knees out and see how far you got with your range of movement. Now g has got, she's a dancer, so she's got good range of movement here. You find where you can go that you are able to keep this position of the rib cage and the rib cage and the pelvis connected and again, pushing out and then coming back down. We're going to just five of these pushing out and then coming back down.

That is center. Use that, always it. Use Your hands if you want to feel the back of your legs. They should feel those muscles being worked as you're doing the movement. Now, next time as you come down, bring the knees together and now push away and open the knees out and then come back down again. Knees in open, and then come back down. Get as much internal rotation and then open out and lengthen out. Good push and reaching. I guess center, ribcage and spine.

The visual is that every time you go down the spine gets longer. So you're really keeping that length of the spine pushing out and then come back down. One more time. Reach, come back down halfway. Demi, PA, and again here we've got our little pulses. Just pushing out. Lengthen even on this. Think of the arch of the foot that really that you've created tension on that arch on the pelvic floor, on the diaphragm. And then for the top of the mouth, the roof of the mouth is the fourth diaphragm that we're really pushing up through the spine lengthening and then coming back down and put the legs together. Now parallel, push away, heel raises from here, drop the hills down and then lift up again. Drop the heels down and lift up each time.

Going further through the bar each to find the time, length in the spine, further reaching up and out. Really in really hour or more time. Push down, lift up, bend the knees and come down. Take it to first position. So we've got our plot is v pushing out heel raises. Now keeping the heels together, wrapping the legs behind. Now be careful not to squeeze the loos. As you lower the heels down, you're pulling the inside guys together.

So breathing out and breathing in. Lit Up again. Squeeze those legs together as you lift up the hills together and keep the inside thighs pulled together like magnets. Breathing out and lifting up again out and lift up. One more time. Down and lift. Don't know. Going into plea, Acer, come down into the heels down. Bend the knees, ple a good all the way down, bit on the heels. Lift the heels up. Relevate. Push out. Squeeze to get that movement.

Heels please coming down the most in part of this as every time your legs come together, close the legs without using your glutes. Keep that connection. Breathing in and live in. Up Heels. Stretch out. Good long spine in and breathing out. Push away. Reach down. One more time. Lengthen, reach fresh, and then coming down. And I go back to Paolo. We're going into our prances, into our walking.

Push away from here. Parallel heel and push. Now here the focus is the pelvis. So as you're going from one leg to the other, keyed the pelvis, still focus on that tray of glasses so that use balancing on your, on your pelvis. There's not going rocking from side to side in and breathing out and push good length in the spy. Connect the center for rush. Good, and now come bow down, bend the both knees, go to first position again and again. Reaching out, legs out, legs together, and now prance is out to the side.

Push an out. Is it going to be a little bit more challenging? We have to really focus on that pelvis thing still. As your knee alignment goes to the side, pushing out, reach the ACIC. Good. Push into the heel, inhale and essentially as the heel goes down, stretch the spine. Lengthen, push, reach out. Good formal times. Push down.

That's it. One more time and now bend the knees and then come back down. Okay, we're going to do a little bit of jumping work. Now. Normally we would use the jumping board for the jumping word. Today I'm going to use the bar. Now, this is really good for challenging proprioception, but of course, depending on your level, if you feel you need the ball, if you need the board, then go ahead and put the board in. We're going to start with a first position and I'm working on a very light spring. I've got on one single blue spring.

We're gonna start with a small push away when the hour and then come back down and now we're going to add a small jump push and back. So every time your goal is to hit the metatarsal ball of the foot on the bar in the same position as you, get confidence, make the jump a little bit bigger, but don't make it faster without and breathing, breathe, and brilliant pushing out. And Ed, it's a great way and a great challenge for that proprioception. But again, you have to really aim that foot every single time on that football pushing out. Now as you get confidence, you can continue with this, but if you'd like to try going to single legs, we can then wandering out of the side, land on the foot, the same foot, about three times, pushing out really in and then changing to do the other foot on, three times pushing out and lengthen. And it's a very soft feeling as you're doing it. Very gentle, very elegant, pushing out first three times who has long spine. Now we've got their head down. So again, we're challenging the spine to give his alignment with a head up, it will be a little bit easier, but really I would encourage you, if you don't need the head up to try with the head down and now we're going to alternating alternating and push and down and lengthen and push.

Now we're going to begin to start taking the leg out to the side so as the leg goes out and reach out and lengthen. So the light goes out as it gets, as the knee goes up. So there's a little bit like a bicycle effect. So pushing out, really out Prash and lengthen, pushing out. Good. Now remember if it gets too difficult at any of these stages, go back to one of the previous level. Or if you feel two legs is to more difficult, go back to using both legs at the same time. Rethink, add and push center and add push.

And now let's all go back to two legs pushing out. And now as we jump, we're going to begin to take the both legs open to the side. So the same time open out push and the back. Push and back again. Breathing out and breathing in. Lengthen out long spine, long legs. Imagine there's a camera looking right down at you from the ceiling and the your lengthening, your keeping on face relaxed. We got up, pull out his face.

We're not stressing our neck, we're keeping the spine long. Reaching out and lengthen. The last thing we're gonna do is as you jump out, we're going to do some beats. So do beat and down. So with beat the Lego crossing and down, but you're inside thighs are staying together so it's not an open lake. It's a small movement reaching out. Now just keep checking on this position there. We're not overusing the triceps, pushing down and reaching and back the outer cross and down.

Lengthen and down, reaching up. Good. Two more times or more time. Push and slowly bend the knees and come back down. I'm going to put a red spring. I'm on a red and blue spring here. We're going to do a couple of single legs slower.

So parallel legs really out. Extend the legs out now from here, then one knee up. Now from here, fix the leg first. Fix the ankle, let the leg come down, play, bend the knee and come down. And now push away. Just do about two or three. Just keeping that leg fixed, reaching out the ankles fixed here, the knees fixed here. Now the next time we're going to push away and as you go down, take the leg below the bar, push and then come back to find that same position and again below the bar.

So you've got to know where your foot's going to, your cleanly, putting it through and then lifting up cleanly, placing it down and lifting up, reaching again. Just soften the elbows. Make sure you're not tense in the shoulders. It's easy on that jumping work for the shoulders to take over. We've got to keep reminding that your body, that is the center that's doing it. Now with the leg that's going through the bar as you go through, turn the leg out and then bring it, Paolo, go through.

Turn the leg out so the leg on the bar stays parallel. It's just the leg going through the wall. You're adding rotation. You add a little bit of icing on the cake with this one as it goes through flexor foot, then point and lift. You're going to get that point in the right place. Otherwise you'll stub your toe on the football and it's not very pleasant, so go through and flex again, pushed through and lengthen. Challenge here is pelvic stability.

We want to key that pelvis is stable as we can. The whole trunk, the shoulders working. One more time. Lengthen, hold it and change legs. Other side, pushing up again, breathing in. Now you remember, you can always change your springs if you find it's too much for your legs. If you find it's all leg work and you're losing that connection with the center, the goal is to change the springs. Get it the work into the center. Here we're focusing on the fixed ankle. We're focusing on that fixed knee now as you go down next time, put the leg under parallel, pushing up, up, and then pushing through. Also, the sensation is as you go below the bar, the leg gets longer, so lift up and they'll go through and longer.

Ah, shh. Nice clean movement. Quality of movement is what we're looking for with this method. It should look easy. It's not. It should be controlled. You should be using all those principles. Now begin to add a turnout. Turn, flex point up, flex through, point up again. Lengthen. Feel the back, the space underneath your back. As you're doing the movement, breathing out and breathing in. Lengthen. Reach. Good.

Just a few more times to balance out is very important. We get both sides of the body working equally. Otherwise we might have finished with one glute bigger than the other and that's not a very good look, especially in the summer when you're the beaches. Although you do see it a lot. When you go to the beach, you do see a lot of people with bigger glutes than one. One's bigger than the other.

I'm sure it's because they're not working in their balanced in their Plata is so we must keep up a lot, is balanced for our glutes are the same shape, pushing out, lift and then come back down one more time, lift up, hold it, place both feet on the bar and then come back down and we've got one less of the foot series to do. Of course jumping in the middle today is we're going to go to the heels now on the heels again, don't have the feet fully flex, don't have them fully pointed. Have about halfway again, keeping that now so we've got not too much tension on the top of the foot. Extend both legs. Then one knee up. And again, just do about two or three just to get the movement started to check the body. So you're checking the shoulders, checking the spine, check the lower back.

Now as we extend the next time the leg is bent, lifted, lift up to the ceiling. And now bend the knee. Come back down. Good. Now as we go up, flex the foot and stretch through the back of the leg. So you've got some nice lengthening through the hamstring as you're reaching up, pushing and Baghdad Yazzie lengthen. Good. Let's lift up this time. Hold it there. Now with a straight leg up, kick it down and lift back up. And now bend the knee. MPA come down and against. We addict, kicked the up, kicked down, lift, and then bend the knee.

Clean up. Flex point, and then back down again. Up Flex point and then back down again. Reach, flex, push and back. Good. Lengthen up. Good. Two more times. Up Kick. Lengthen and back. One more time. Reach.

Lengthen. Hold it there. Stretch up to the cities. Stretch. Stretch, stretch under the spine. Push through the heel. Change legs. Other side. Lift the knee. Now from here again, check the body, do two or three just to get the movement started. This is gives you time to focus on the spine. Focus on the shoulders, focus on the lower back, keeping us space under there, and now we're going to begin. As you extend to stretch the leg up and then come back down here. You're checking that you're not sacrificing the space under the back just to get the leg up. If you have, you've got very tight hamstrings or very type of Stuart change to the back and can't lift the leg up straight. Then just keep the knee bent pushing out.

We're going to add the cake, so lift up, kick down, up, and then come back again. Clean, push, reach and back up. Lengthen. Shoulders Down Center. God. Find a breath pattern that allows you to lend on the spine. Breathing in, out, or really out, whichever you find which way works for your body. Allow the breath pattern to keep moving.

Don't hold your breath is the only bad move. Bad Way of breathing is not breathing. All the rest is giving you options. Push up. Lengthen. Good. Two more times up. One more reach, push and slowly come back down. But both feet on the bar, stay on the heels.

And what'd you get to do? Preparation for the shoulder bridge. So we're going to tilt the pelvis under. Lengthen up. Now I'm giving you a little bit of assistance here so the carriage is not moving. If you were at home, don't let your carriage move and then rolling down. If it is moving, it means you're using your legs too much and not the center. Now on this shoulder bridge, get that pelvic tilt. Tilt the pelvis you Lendon lower back, then lift up. Don't Miss Pelvic tilt.

The pelvic tilt is the key to the length in the lower back and are slowly rolling down. Articulate the spine all the way down and then releasing it back down within and breathing out. As you tilt the pelvis, lengthen up, push reach up, and then slowly rolling back and agree to your variation. That pelvic of the shorter bridge prep. I want you to put the legs together. We're going to roll out the same way. Squeezing the legs together. Lengthen up. Now the top of the movement, we're going to tilt the pelvis.

I'm going to lay the spine down Warner's side vertebrata time. So your role in the spine, just on the side that's enrolling down, come to the center and then lift back up and then reverse it away. So it's almost like the pelvis is turning to face either the front or the back. So it comes to the center and lift up and reach. Turn the pelvis, rotate and rolling down. So you've mentioned the muscles down the side of your spine down each side.

As you're lifting up, you're laying one side of those muscles down. Wrong side. Squeeze the legs together, reaching and then lengthening. Breathing in and breathing out, pushing up, rotate and rolling down. Good. Two more times. Oh, lift. Rotate. Let the pelvis roll down.

Good one last time. Lengthen. Let the pelvis roll down. So again, the goal that is not to let the carriage move. So the work is really into the spine. Now I'm going to reduce it down to just a blue spring. As we go into the upper points of the center section, I want to check the length of the ropes. Make sure that equal more or less, if not, you could have to adjust them slightly.

What I want to do is with your knee one knee bent, fix the spine into neutral and now lift the second knee. Squeeze the legs. Now from this neutral spine, I want you to bring the arms down, imprint the back, come out of neutral and lift the head up. Now when you're lifting the head up, the base of the Scapula is touching the mat and then lie back down. So we're going in that of neutral from a neutral spine entrant. Lift the arms up and reaching force. Squeeze the legs together. Now here we want to keep the waist open. Don't close the waist, keep it open, and then rolling down.

Take a breath in and breathing out. Again, it's a base of Scapula. We want those deep muscles working with the superficial muscles. Lay down. If you find that you're pushing your abdominal wall out, it means that you're not using those deep muscles. Lengthen and reaching back. Now you could continue with this position with the head down, any neck problems if the flection is not for your body than always liked to find adaptions and finding ways for you to be able to do it. So with the head down, just bring the arms down. But aside, so this would be your option at home is if you find that the flection really doesn't work for you with the head down, again, you're going to have a good opportunity of still working, not just those front of the abdominal muscles, but the back of the trunk. Breathing in and breathing out. Now it's up to you either keep the head down or lift the leg up, lift the head up. But as you lift up, you're going to extend one leg out, come back down, and then bend down. Now in one movement, head up, arms down, leg out, and then back down. Now with the head up.

As you lift up, you imprint, and as the leg goes down, don't take the leg so low that your back comes away. You've got that contact with the back reaching out. Now we're progressing this as we go into progression, we're going to try the two legs as you reach out, lengthen and then back down. Bend the knees and again where the outlet lengthen. So your lower back is touching. As you go out. I want to add a rotation.

So arms down legs were a turnout. Flex the feet now point the feet and bend the knees and come back down again. So we're building into off big hundred position. Score, ease and down. But as we're doing it, we will those inside guys together. So as you flex the feet, pull the inside thighs, wrap the legs around and then back down just two more times. Reaching out. Lengthen point. One more time.

Lift up this time. Hold it there. Turn out, flex the feet. Now your lower. Your scapula should be touching. Your lumbar spine should be touching the mat. If you've got your head down, you're keeping neutral spine. Now point the feet, hold it there. Just open the legs out and flex the feet together. Again, open and flex. Good. Start with the legs first and then from here we're going to add the arms.

Open the arms and now close the arms again up and then squeeze the arms together. Flourish and flex in. Ahh again. Breathing in. Breathing out first, two more times up. One more. Hold it there. Now stay there and now just with your arms, we're going to do our a hundred in for four in for five out for five, 10 times. Now try and make it as gentle movement with the arms. Remember the slower, the slower.

I think g needing a rest. I appreciate it a bit. Do Od. The slower the arms the more we're going to get into that diaphragm. So we're going to go back to the a hundred now. So we're going to live the head and shoulders up.

Now from here we're going to go breathe in two three, four, five with af two three, four, five. Now in for five as you breathe out, flex two, three, four, 5.234, five hour, two, three. Good. Squeeze again in two, three, four, five and flex. And now let's really have a gorgeous time and go slower. Go in two, three, four. Time flex two. So bigger breath. Slower breath.

More diaphragm in two there a good again, flex and flex school easily. Get a squeeze. Squeeze. Squeeze. One more time. This is it. It must be the 10th time. Push. Lengthen, lengthen, lengthen. And I flex to hold it now check everything, check the back, check the Scapula, check your legs, squeeze the legs together and then slowly bend the knees and then relaxed down. Gorgeous. So take it just a couple of deep abreast for side, but the needs together just in the rock, the knees from side to side. We did push ourselves a little bit today. Again, you know if you want to modify it, we want to lower the springs, but the head down, the most important thing with plot is I believe is you find what fits your body and that. And remember though, the things you normally like, the things you shouldn't be doing is normally things you don't like.

They're the key movements for your body. They you should be able to be working on. Okay, we're going to put the feet in the straps now and we're going to go into short spinal. Now I'm actually going to keep it on a blue spring. I don't want to be doing too much loading on the spine again. Shoulders away from the shoulder pads, legs parallel. We're going to take the feet over now with the shore spinals today we're going to let the carriage come all the way down as you go up, turn the legs out, push up. Good. Wrap the legs around now bend the knees, open the knees slightly.

Keep the spring tension roll down. Now we're going to roll the spine all the way down and then from there, lift the pelvis back three times. Pelvis down, lift the pelvis up, pelvis down, laying the spine out, pushing up. One more time on the third last time rolled down. Drill the heels down and then pushing the legs out. So over parallel, parallel legs over the machine's going to come all the way down.

I'm giving you a little bit of assistance. So I've pushed the carriage down. As we go up, we turn out, squeeze the legs together. Good. Then the knees pull the ropes towards you. Now rolling down. Now here's the thing. Rolling down. Lift the pelvis up again. Rolling down.

Lift the pelvis up. Three times. Roll lift, and then slowly rolling down. He's down and pushing out. So this is a variation on the shorts by now. Parallel over. And now from here, turnout. This time what we did on the shot on this um, shoulder bridge. We're going to apply here. We're going to bend the knees down.

Now we're going to roll down first in the center. Then we're going to come back out. Now the next time we're going to turn the pelvis and roll to the side. So you're lengthening through the side. Come back up, rotate to the other side, rotate. So it's a very subtle movement. Come back now through the center. Come back down, rolling and pushing out. The sensation is lengthening.

She as you're doing this movement here, core legs, key point here, sacred pushing down into the mat. Now to push up turnout. Good. Rotate out. Bend the knees. Now keep the ropes tight. Roll the velvets down. Lift the pelvis up. The second time we're going to turn the pelvis to the side and lengthen one side. Come back up, rotate to the other side.

So small tilt to the pelvis. Come back, come down through the center. Bring the heels down. I'm pushing away. Good. We'll just do one more time. So squeeze the legs together. Turn the legs out. Push up now from here, bend the knees and now roll the pelvis down. First Time, come back up, rotate to the other side.

But she down, lengthening out, breathing in other side, breathing out and coming back down through the center. Rolling down and pushing out and bend the knees and let me take the feet out of the straps and put the feet onto the foot bar lengthening out and then coming to a standing position. So it would come off the reformer. Now come to the site. We're going to use the ropes. And where did a standing lunge. Now for this, I'm going to use a very light yellow spring and you're going to hold this rope on the same leg that you're putting the cat, the foot on the carriage. Now what we have to work here is we have to get the distance of the rope and the distance of the leg.

So what you might have to do sometimes is if you find the quickest way of changing the rope length is just hold further up rather than have to keep adjusting the adjustments of the ropes behind. Now from here, start in a standing position and just test the arms. So we start with a little bit of tension on the arms. And now from here, push the arms together and push the leg back. And again, breathing in and again, breathing out pool. So the rope is pulling. You've got equal work between the upper body, the center, and the standing leg pushing out reaching. Now we start up, then we begin to start tilting forward.

So you're bringing it more into a good length and neutral furnishing out. Lengthen out, breathing in. I'm breathing out a shh. Good length and out. Thank you. Good. Two more times. Reach [inaudible] one more time. And now release the rope and take the foot off.

Now turn and face the rope and we're going to pull diagonally back. So with the same arm as rope, we're going to pull behind you and then reaching back again. Pull behind, lend her back. As in, now we're keeping the spring tension, so we're keeping that resistance pulling back one more time, Paul. And now change onto the other arm change. And now pull back to the side. Pour the has it. Lengthen back. Good. Control it.

We're trying not to let that carriage hit the bottom. Pushing back. Good. Reaching one more and pull. And now push the arm back straight behind. You push back and lengthen. Now this is really about control. So you've got the movement of the carriage. You've got the resistance, the rope. As you're pulling with the arms, begin to lift the heels up again, Paul and back again. Paul and I, that's it. Sent a push up again. Lengthen, breathe. Pull back. Acid. Two more times.

Ah, one more. Up and now bring the hills down. I bring bringing the same arm, lift the arm up, and we're now going to do bicep curls. So if we need to adjust it slightly, go step a little bit further backwards, reaching out. And now with the arm pull back and reach as it lengthen up. Now the opposite arm that you're pulling, we're going to lift the knee up and back and lift and back. So this is very similar to what we do on our tower. Work on our Cadillac, a trapeze at the end where we're working for the control in upright position, pushing out, breathing out and breathing in again, up 11 reach.

And now with the leg, this lifting, we can take it slightly behind you and then lit the moon. Big Range of movement becomes a little bit bigger, push and back. So a bit more of a lunge behind lunge down control. So again, we use the center, control, the movement brief and back flush again, a anthem. Of course, this is great to do. If you do have a tower at home or you have the wall unit, there's a great to do it on the wall unit. But if you only have the reformer, this is how you adapt the reformer to bringing other standing work.

Breathing pushed four more times up and back. One more, uh, one more for look, push up, reach and then bring the legs together and come around to the other side. So we do, we repeat the same thing on this side first with the lunges facing that direction. So full on the bar and again from here just adjust the body position so you feel you've got equal work between the lower body and the upper body and then pushing out acid and reaching good. I would keep low with your springs. If you've got too many springs on, it becomes all about the lower body. We really used to say we want to cap that kind of equal balance between upper body and lower body work. What's keeping the challenge?

What's keeping your balance? What's keeping you in the center? Is your center connect to the center? In every movement with the out and breathing in again, pool and back. Now, repetitions are up to you. Normally I aim to do between them 10 to 20 depending on how you feel that day. Again, a day when you're not feeling quite so energetic, then keep the repetition a little bit lower. And again, speed is really relative to your breath.

So as you breathe out and breathing in, the breath is pairing that body, pushing out again, reach, lengthen. Good. Two more for four. Rush. Key the arms working. One more time. And now turn around, face the machine. And we're going to do this. Pull towards the inside arm first, pulling back and breathe. That's it. Again, reach. So again, if you need to get a little bit more range of movement, take your hand a little bit higher up on here so you can get that arm straight. And now pulling back. That's it.

So you're getting that full range as you're doing the movement. Bri again fall again. Lengthen and under rotation is the ribcage that's turning you. So that bottom rib is turning as you go round everything out and push. Good.

And now we're going to change hands and now pull back the side again. If you look at g as she is, she just slightly angled to face the reformer. So really we want the position to be as square as possible so you're not pulling the arm awkwardly to the side. You're, you're able to use the tension from the rope here. I've got these settings about halfway up. Again, if you're a little bit shorter, a little bit taller, you might want to adjust the settings here just to give you a good alignment of that rope as you're pulling back. And now as we're doing it, we're going to change the Bicep, um, for Ah, get again lengthen. And with the Bicep we could begin to say the opposite arm.

Opposite knee up frosh. Again, here we want to use again, oppositional force, lengthen and back. Breathing and back. Good. And from here, now we're going to take the leg a little bit behind lunch and then pull up. The work is done on the lowering. So lower with resistance, control up, lower the resistance control again. Yeah, I'm push. Good. Reach out. Lengthen the spine. Control, lengthen and control. Breathing and push. Good.

Just about four more times four and dad, three and dad. Two. One more time. Lift out this time. Hold it, hold it. Check the position, lengthen and then come back down and release the arm out. Good. I think what we reward you with now is a nice mermaid. So come on, lay on here. I always think the Mirman is such a nice delight, especially with the rotational mermaid first with your hands on the ball. Push away, lengthen out. She's deserved this. After all that hard work, she's going to get nice lengthening through the spine and then she comes back up, lift up through the chest and then come back and again reaching back.

Now here, what's important is as you lift up, you don't let the pop. Don't let the chest pop out. So as you come back up, the chest is going down. The rib cage is tilting down as you're lifting up. So all the work is going into the thoracic, the upper back again, pushing back, lengthen and lengthening up, reaching chest down, lengthen the spy. Now this time, push away, stay down, bend the and push away again. Stay down, slide the shoulders down, reaching out.

Good. So again, we've got yellow spring, very light spring. So it's not about creating tension, it's about being able to challenge that shoulder stability as you're doing the movement. I'm breathing out everything in two more times. Push one more reach and then slowly come back and lift up ribcage down and release and swing around to the other side with the mermaid. We want to try and get as much as you can. A square pelvis, your pelvis is facing the side of the carriage. Now turn with the upper body a reach and stretch away length and a half and then come back up. Good.

Breathing in and breathing out. Length away. Good reaching and back. Lengthen and come back. So again, you think of the rib cage going down. Think of the center pulling with the out.

I'm breathing in, lifting up again, breathing out and bring the in. Good. This time stay down was your way. Whenever I'm here, soften the elbows and they'll push away. Slide the shoulder blades down the back. Good. Connect the center. Think about your breath out to go away. Come back, breathing out.

Push reach and lengthener. Good, good. Shoulders down. The spine stays long. Reaching out two more times. One more push out. Now this time come up. Lengthen, reach and releasing. Back Down. Good.

Turn around face to the other side. Put your head down on 'em. Put your elbow down on the side here and swing your feet down here. So put your feet down towards the football. Good. Yeah, come down on to elbow. And now we're going to take the front rope here. I'm going to take the front rope over the leg, but the leg inside and we're going to take the f, the foot strap up to the knee.

And now with this angle, bring the feet slightly back. Lift the knee up. I'm going to start with the clam. With the clamp position, the feet should be just maybe a little bit lower there. That's it. First of all, lift the knee up and now bring the knee down and now lift the knee up. Now with the clam, we want the pelvis to be as far forward as you can. We want the work to be out the shoulder so you're really lifting up out of the shoulder blade, the length up. It's a small movement where you're going to really start feeling the back of the legs as you're turning around breathing and then coming back again.

Lengthen up and back two more times. It's a clam variation, pushing reach and then come back. Now lift the leg parallel and now just push the leg behind you and they're bringing the leg forward and again, push the leg back and bring the like forward. Good again, I've not put a heavy Springer. I really wanted it to be a light spring cause I want to be keeping the resistance and keeping that movement quality as you're going through it.

Breathing and back with the top arm. Now lift the top arm up and then reaching up to the city for rush and lengthen out. Reach, breathe and back. Now Nice little movement here. Circle up and circle around and push and reaching back. As he said, we've got three movements here. We've got the clam, we've got the power, little leg push back.

And then here we've got a nice circle. There's reaching up. This is a nice reward for dudes today for putting up before. Let me put her through this very gentle beginners program. Just getting at, not begin as at all. You had to really be working a little bit progressively today.

We wanted to really, you know, look at the reformer learning the regular repertoire, the standard repertoire is such an important part of your learning. But then after that, bringing some variations in to really spice up or to challenge your body one more time and come back down. And let's just change over the other side reach. So we set this up and you'll be able to see from the back. So the elbows in the middle, if we were to move further down the carriage, you'd be having a little bit more range of movement.

But today I wanted to just say on this, so your elbows on the shoulder pad, set the body up, get the feeding line with the pelvis, lift the rib cage and now lift the knee up. And then bring the knee back down. Get acid. So with the clam again, as you're rotating, you're rotating without squeezing the glute again and push really out and bringing in Lenzer. Good. Reach two more times, one more. And now lift the up parallel and I'll just push back slightly. That's it. If the arm gets into wages, lift the arm up out of the way. Reaching out.

Here's when the such is gorgeous you. You can wave your hand. Wave to the dolphins as you're reaching out to the ocean. As you're reaching out, look out to the distance. Lift that rib cage up. Lengthen Center. No Buddha. We don't have dolphins. In my view. We have traffic, so we waved at the traffic. Here we have dolphins. It's much nicer. Lengthen that. Push, reaching love.

Then good. Two more times. Good. One more reach. And now with a circle, circle around again, lifting up and circle back. It has it really key again, center. Remember the challenge of this method is to use your center in every movement. Whatever the movement that sent is switched on. It's like cutting a light on, turning the lights on and it stays turned on.

Today we don't try to package a strong center cause if we talk about a strong center, we think about a six pack. What I like to talk about is an active center, a center that's working with movement. So your centers engaged as you're doing the movement, it's not held, is not braced, is not tense. It's working. So you've got is switched on just like the light is staying constant. It doesn't flicker, it stays turned on.

Lighting you up as very much like the center. We need to light you up with that center. Um, come back down, take the leg out, that's it. Good. And then just slowly come off the reformer. Step to the side of the reformer lifting up. Just turn facing me a little bit. Just a bit of a release to finish. Bend the knees curve back up and again, release down.

Come back up again. Breathing here, release. Ah, one more time. Released down. Lengthen up. Now circle the arms. Just release the upper body. We've walled the body with a bit of mobility. Open out, open, open as it Lenzen. Good. Take a breath in and slowly bring the hands together and thank you very much, GSE you next time. Thank you.