Core Connection Strength

Okay, here we are, Eric's second workout, we're gonna be doing it on the reformer. We wish we had ions of ions of time to do more, but keep checkin back, they'll be more sessions. Starting with the reformer here, I'd love to do a warm up. I love to do step ups onto the box. So go ahead Eric, and just kinda start one leg up and one leg down.

Okay, just keep doing that. And sometimes speed makes a difference and sometimes that gets a little bit tricky. So we're just gonna keep doing this. Now adding the hands behind the head. And again, the hands behind the head make for along core, make for a little bit more activity through the center of the body.

And now end Eric, with your left leg up on the box and now add a heel lift of the right leg. Good, and then come down. Several times, go heel lift and down as if you were gonna step up to step over. I'm not gonna have him do that today, although we have done it, we're not going to do it today. So he gets his calf raised, his calf engaged, hip all the way to the buttocks, and the come on down and switch legs one more time.

So again, as you raise up and down the trunk stays long, the right foot pressing down, Keep those toes down, good. And keep the heel down, keep everything down as if for a million dollars you could just step up and step all the way up and over the box. And one more time. And then lower yourself down. Very good, take the other leg up on the box.

This long box has some benefits to it other than some of the typical exercises. Now, with your hands behind your head you're gonna raise up the heel, twist your torso to the same side that your knee is bent and then come down. Do that three times. So it's inhale, up and rotate, exhale, back and down. Inhale, up, twist to me, beautiful.

Exhale, back and down, last time. Inhale, and then exhale, switch legs. Gets the legs, the core, the calf, the legs, the trunk rotation, go. Inhale, up, twist right. Exhale, back and down.

Lift, calf, thigh, buttocks, trunk. Very good, last one. Lift up and over, and then back and down, and release yourself, right there, very good. We'll take this off, come to lie on your back, please. Okay, coming right into some arm core preparation work.

We're gonna take this, why do I call it core prep? Well, I call it core prep for the athlete because typically they, they not often, whatever, I'm not gonna make any judgment, but oftentimes what happens is it's always the trunk curl and the criss cross or the bicycle exercise that becomes the core prep. So again, I like the arms to come straight to the ceiling, engage, I'm going to have a green and a red spring on here. A green and a red spring and then as he pulls his arms, his legs come right off of the bar. Take your legs off the bar, good.

And just hold that right there. Big inhale, big exhale. Bend the knees into the chest to raise your arms up, okay? Again, arms pushed down, legs reach away. Exhale, belly sinks, knees come in.

Two more times like that. Arms push, legs reach away, exhale. And then do that one more time. Arms pull down, legs reach away, exhale. Pause right there, belly sinks down.

Lower raise this leg, touch the bar, raise it up. Good, last one, left leg down and up three. And two, and one, knees bend, arms flow. Rest your legs on the bar, pause right there. Now taking one strap away, switching this arm to the cross over arm.

Okay, and you know what, I'm gonna actually move his carriage out just a notch. There you go, and then one green spring 'cause he's on one arm now. Take this leg up off the bar. Scoop your belly, take the other leg up. There, that was a good scoop.

I hope you could see that, it was really, really good. Now this arm is gonna pull down and out a little bit and then up. Inhale, pull down, good, and then up. Notice no movement of the legs, no movement of the spine. Good, and then we do that one more time.

This will make five total. Go down, stay down, hold that down position and breathe in, good, very good. And sink that abdomen down, very good. Let the arm come all the way up. Feet come down, and pause right there, we'll switch hands.

Doing a cross over, gettin those obliques, so the strap is coming from the opposite direction. There's a little bit of tension here, legs come up off the bar and pause, very good. And then pull that arm down and out, very good. And then come up five times. And sink the belly down.

Very good, give the heels a little squeeze. Very good not movin the chest. Very good not movin the neck. Two more, good and then last one. Go down, stay down.

Very good, stay down. Add that breath right there, big inhale, expand your ribs, big exhale, sink the abdomen. Very good, he worked so hard on that and made such great connections. One more time, inhale. And then one more time, exhale.

Very good, let the arm come all the way up and put the feet down. Good, I'll take this. Come up to your hands and knees please. And you're going to face this foot bar. So on your hands and knees, we're going to start.

I'm gonna move this down. And we're gonna start this little quadruped series here. Move your knees here to the edge. Very good, and your hands come right here to the edge of the bar, very good. I'm just gonna check this.

Now we could fill the empty space underneath this carriage here. But if we're not gonna be here too long I'm gonna have him press that down. Very good, you already feel the challenge in your trunk. That right, nod your chin right here. Flatten this out just a little bit more, the other direction please.

There you go, nice long here. Now as if your arms were going to push to that wall in front of you, move your carriage back. Stop and then pull forward. Very good, just three times like that. This distance staying the same.

I'm givin him resistance in his head. Last time back, and then last time forward. Feel the trunk, feel the arms, feel the reaching through the head. Pause right there. Now keeping your arms still, your head still, move your knees out and in a smidge.

That's enough, and then pull in, good. Don't move the spine, push legs and then pull legs. Different kind of core challenge, very good. And then one more time out. One more time in and pause right there.

Take this left hand behind your, excuse me, this right hand behind your head. And hold right there. Now with this one arm, push this left arm away from you. Move out, stop, and then pull in, good. Inhale, push out, stop, and then pull in.

Now two more, this time Eric, push out, twist to me. Push the carriage, twist to me, and then return the twist and return your carriage home. One more time, arm pushes, hip angle stays, open the chest, twist to me, return the twist. Bring yourself all the way back in. Right hand comes down, pause right there.

Left hand behind the head. Without moving, this hip angle stays. It's this arm angle that changes. Go like you're pushing this arm away and then come in. We'll add the rotation in a second.

Do one more out, good, and then come in. And the last time, push away, twist to the left. Inhale twist, exhale return, bring the carriage home. Good, last time, inhale, twist, good. And then exhale, and then return your carriage home.

Two hands come down, sit your bottom back on your heels, round your spine, rest just a second, there. Woo, very, very, good. Alrighty, bring yourself up to your hands and knees again. Hands here, you need a little towel? Are you getting sweaty here?

Little bit. Okay, let me get you a towel. No falling, no slipping on the reformer. This core work, he's shaking. He's quivering all right in here.

He doesn't need me to talk about that anymore. Now, this arm comes out in front of you and your left leg reaches out behind you. And all your going to do is not let the carriage come apart. Fabulous, just like that inhale. Just like that exhale, lower this leg a tad, but straighten your knee.

Yes, beautiful inhale. Abdominal wall pulls up in exhale and then everything comes down. Pause right there, switch sides. Beautiful alignment through the neck, the crown of the head, the other leg comes out and long, long spine, nice glute, nice thigh. Don't raise so high, but straighten the knee.

Beautiful job. Inhale big, get longer, exhale, get narrower in your waist. Last time, big inhale, last time exhale. Everything comes down and then step off the carriage. I will get the long box.

Okay, come and sit here on the box now. Put your bottom here, put your feet right here. So one of the things about contractions that we've talked about is that the body has to round back and sometimes it has to go into a flat back. And you're really understanding those really well in your body and in your brain because pilates has been mental exercise for you as well, right? To study things a little bit differently.

Take these handles. I was gonna give Eric a quick little ride because the distance of the carriage now isn't as important as it was before. So I'm just gonna bring it back in so that he can have a little bit of tension right there. So we have one green spring. Your arms will come out to the side like so.

So it's kind of a chest expansion arm engagement, right? We've learned that before, the lats and the arms. But you're going to roll your spine backwards. Go, arms will pull as you roll your spine backwards. Fabulous job, feet stay down, feet stay down.

Good, and then curl yourself up. Very good, just three times. Everything now will be in groups of three. Feet press down, roll, fabulous. And then return.

And then one more time. Arms press, roll backwards, good. Hold the roll, lift this leg up, hold. Do not change the shape of your spine. Take the other leg up, do not sit up tall.

Hold the flexion, exhale, two legs come down. Return the straps, sit up tall. Now we have a flat back or a hinge back, however you like to look at it. The arms will come up to this high bicep position here. Your fingers will reach a little bit higher towards me.

Narrow your elbows a little bit. Now with this long torso and long chest that we've learned already before, lean your body back from your hips. That's an inhale, beautiful job. And exhale, return, that's lovely. Inhale, lean back, and then exhale return.

Last time, lean back, this is the third one. This is a challenge, hold that shape, one leg lifts up, don't change the shape of your spine. Other leg lifts up, big challenge, hip, trunk, scoop, very good. And then bring yourself all the way down and then release. I go very good, like I did that exercise right now.

Okay, one handed, same exercises, one handed. I'm gonna put one strap down. We're gonna keep on the same side this time. Two arms out to the side, but only one hand has a strap. Roll down three times.

Knees reach away, pelvis goes back. Watch your face, bring your face up. Nod your chin a little bit, there you go, and then curl up, that's one. And then here's two, articulating the spine back. Good, and then bring yourself up.

Pull the shoulder back a little bit more, rounding the spine not the shoulders. Not the shoul--, yah, oh, very good. And thing bring yourself all the way up. Okay, switch hands, rounding. Pull the arm back, arm bones back.

Very good, rolling, good. One, and then return. I'm gonna touch your head a little bit, lengthen your skull, now roll back your low back, but don't let this, that's it. Whoa, you feel that little bit of difference. Sometimes the weight of the head, 15 pounds.

His might be a little bit more 'cause he got a lot of brains. Okay, one more time, go back, stay back, hold yourself right there, big inhale. Exhale, return yourself all the way up. Now, the whole thing about the head business, sometimes the head comes forward as a counterbalance, okay. Now we do a high bicep, this is right arm, right.

Now we have a high bicep. Both arms can reach up. So leaning back, one arm, can you feel how it's more work on one side? Good, and then I didn't mean to ask you while you're in the middle of the exercise. And then again, crown of the head long, spine long, leaning back, sacrum stays, good.

And then return. And then last time. Very good, and then return. Switching hands. One more variation here.

Will hang that up there. Arms high, good. And again, go back and when you come up, keep the length when you come up. It take it out of your hips and more into your spine and your abdomen, keeping the up. Yeah, that's it.

So we're keeping the up as we go back and we're keeping the up as we come forward. Just one more time. Inhale, go back. And then exhale, return. Fabulous job, you can come off of there.

Very good, so step off of the reformer. I'm gonna take the box off. And you will come now to your knees facing this way. So one of the things about the reformer that I find when people start to get really, really sweaty, sometimes I take another sticky mat and I just, this is a sticky mat cut in half. And I just put it all the way on here like this.

Okay, so come on to your knees. Can you reach down there and add a red spring to that? So he has a red and a green spring and I do teach my clients how to use their own springs and how to change their springs. And that way when they get into a group class, they're able to move a little bit quicker. So put your feet back against this please.

There, now sit your bottom back, round over my hand, you're hands will stay on the bar. The exercise is called knees stretches. Broaden your shoulders, good. Lift your buttocks up off your heels a little bit, but round your spine in the other direction. You got it, good.

I'm gonna have you lift your face a little bit and then meet my resistance right here. So again, oxa put away from C7, that's gonna be key. We'll talk about that in our next tutorial. And we're gonna round the spine here. So keeping this shape, push your legs out and then pull em underneath you.

Ha, good, inhale, push, and exhale pull. Abdomen comes in. Very dynamic exercise. Exhale pull, inhale, keep that spine rounded. So don't move your, yes, that's it, don't move, push, that's it, and then switch to pull.

That's very nice, just like that. That's a good correction there. Three more. And then two more. Good, and then last one.

Good, now come in and stay in there. Get regrouped here, round that spine, good. Let's take your left arm out to the side like a T. Building on our one armed challenges here, fill up your back right here with a little bit of rounding. Yeah, little bit of rounding, less in the shoulders, more in the trunk.

Good response to cuing there, very good. Now, two legs press out. Push, two legs pull in, good. So just keep doing that. The one armed knee stretch exercise really is very obliquey without really realizing it.

Scoop, pull this backwards, two more. Scoop here, pull this back here, last time. Very good, and then other hand comes down. Stay regrouped, right arm comes out to the side, broadening the shoulder, lift this up into my hand a little bit. That's really nice, and then push out with the legs.

Pull in with the abdomen. Thighs push, belly pulls. Keep goin, inhaling and exhaling. Long strong arm, long strong trunk. Three more.

I can't count, I am the worst counter. Two more, I probably shouldn't say that. Actually, I'm a wonderful counter, there we go. Last one and bring yourself in. Two hands come down on the carriage.

Okay, now sitting your bottom back, lengthen your chest out into an extended posture. I'm gonna let Eric extend a little bit more past neutral, so he really understands the whole lengthening in the front of the body. He's pushing down on his hands to the floor to keep his chest lifted. Go, legs push back, legs pull under. Good, legs and then abdomen.

Without curling the buttocks, right? So that's almost a little bit more challenging there. Three more like that. Good, and then two more. And then last one.

Left arm out to the side for five. Pull in and push out. Yeah, careful, stay strong right through. There you go, nice shoulder. Two more.

And then last one, switch hands. Left hand down, right arm out, push and pull. Thighs and then belly. Don't let that belly sink down. Minimize, yes, any sagging.

Two more. Very good, and then last time. And then that arm comes all the way down and pause right there. Round your spine one last time. Pressing your feet against the shoulder rest, getting ready for knees off.

So your abdominal pulls in so deep, your knees lift off that carriage that much. Give me five out and in, go. Push and pull. Keep your belly pulled away from my hand. Yeah, that's it.

And then two more. Good, and then last one. And then bring yourself all the way in and then lower yourself all the way down. Nice job, go ahead and step off of that carriage over there. And we're gonna add our one legged work here with the spinal journey from rounding to extension.

So I'm just gonna give you a little picture of this first here, 'cause the reason why I have this moon box here is because this particular reformer isn't really, really high and Eric's tall, so I'm gonna have him come here and get in alignment and he's just gonna put his leg on top of this short box here. And Eric, we're gonna start like, this being in a rounded position. And then when he pushes the carriage back, he's gonna come up into an extended position and then return and come back into flexion. Okay, so this is a new exercise for Eric. Again, it's challenging the unilateral movement here, so this will go down to one spring now.

So let's be sure that you're comfortable in this setup. Okay, you're foot will definitely go back here, against that. So get the feeling first with your hands on the bar. Kind of scoop in the belly and kind of just push that leg out and in a little bit. And you can kinda feel that.

Can you feel that there? Okay, now come to bring your hands behind your head. Round that spine how you learned how to do so nicely. Yay, beautiful. And then as that leg goes back, your chest lifts up and then resist the leg back in.

As you scoop the belly, pull the carriage all the way back into the stopper. Five times, that's one, go. Inhale, arch chest, and then exhale, return the leg. Bring it in, inhale, press leg, open chest, and then return, good job. Catching some surprises on that standing leg.

Two more times, press the leg, open chest, and then nod head, bring it back in, last time. Big inhale here, open up, keep this buttocks forward, keep this butt, yes, very good. And then nod the head, bring yourself all the way down and then switch sides. Okay. So take a minute to get the good connection here.

It is surprising how much it takes on that standing leg, huh? Okay, so get the shape. If you teach your clients the shape of exercises, then other patterns, I mean the same patterns start to present themselves over and over again. Alright, so kinda get that feeling. Now, hands behind the head.

Good, inhale, press the leg, open the chest towards me. There you go, and then exhale, nod yourself down. Five times, good, inhale press. Open chest, and then exhale, come back down. Very good, inhale press, open chest, and then nod head, pull belly in away from your shirt.

And then last time. Press, inhale, open, open, open, open, open. And then return bringing yourself all the way back, nice job. Bring yourself off of there. Let's take that box away.

Very good. Okay, now come to sit on here. We're gonna leave the sticky pad on here. Doing a little bit of stomach massage for our rotation. We're gonna have two red springs.

Actually, I'm gonna do green, red, and blue. Have a seat on the carriage. This is another new introduction for Eric. He's been working through some tight hips. Stomach massage is a top exercise for a lot of people.

So move your bottom back just a little bit. And see, can you put you feet up here today? Let's just see what that looks like or what that feels like. Heels together. Drop down on the balls of your feet.

Move your bottom in just a little bit. There you go, and take your hands to the front edge of the carriage. And then round your spine, that's good. So less of the head, oh, nice, good. And now from here, press your legs back.

Straighten out your legs, push your carriage back. And then as you exhale, like you're pulling your entire carriage home, you're closing the carriage. Bend the knees and bring the carriage back in. Good, inhale press away. Exhale, come in.

Can you think a little more up and over your belly, up and over your trunk, there you go. And as the knees come apart, think the thighs are massaging your stomach. Good, inhale push. And then exhale return. Hey, that's gettin better.

Let me have your hands please. We're gonna add a little rotation here. So inhale, press out, twist to your left. Go inhale, press out, twist, and then exhale return, reach to me. And then inhale press, twist to the right.

Two straight legs, exhale, twist to me. Now with the dynamic breaths, like two snips. So you go inhale, sniff two times, sniff, sniff, good. And then come back. So the sniffing breath gets you more.

I'm lettin you go now. Go, you're on your own. Sniff, sniff, opposite arm stays reaching this way. Opp, there you go. And then bring yourself all the way in.

Continue now with elephant and one leg arabasque. So come to stand here on the carriage. Stand all the way up. And then we have one green and one red. I'm gonna raise the foot bar for Eric since he's a little bit, a lot a bit taller and hamstrings are a little bit tight.

Hands come down on the bar, feet against the shoulder rest. Okay, now lift up your toes for me. Tighten up your knee caps and your thighs. Hold that shape right there. Lengthen your occiput.

Some of these cues you've heard before. He really responds, this nice rounded spine. Want you to really feel like you're standing on your hands. There you go, and then you're standing on your feet. And then this abdomen pulls in a nice rainbow shape right here.

Holding your hands still and your shoulders still, move your legs backwards, inhale, and then pull em forward, exhale. Much like when we did knees stretches, we held the upper body still. Nod your face for me, look towards you shins. There you go. I'm gonna press into the crown of your head.

This really works well for you, dynamic exercise. Good, inhale and exhale. Inhale, quite that carriage, good. Two more like that. Good, and then last one.

And now go out part way, stay out and hold. Take this leg in between your shoulder rest and reach it way out behind you. So with a nice, I know, it's hard. Hold right there, now this leg by itself. Three times go, one, and two, and three.

Come in, stay in, hold. Now lower raise this leg three times. Down lift one, and two, and three. And then bring that leg all the way down. Pause right there.

Inhale, exhale, scoop the belly, round the spine, tighten the legs. And then push the carriage out part way, pause. This leg comes right in between there, reaches out long. From these arms standing and this leg standing, get longer, straighten the back of this knee. Yes, and then this leg, three times, push pull.

Where's that belly? Good, and last one. And then hold that leg in, lower raise this leg down lift. From the whole thigh, and last one. And bring the carriage all the way in and then step down.

And we'll get the long box. And we kind of tie this now into our front body lengthening over head press adding one arm. So you're gonna come here to lie on your tummy your head is here. Always looking at the different shapes of the spine that we can get in. So put your hands next to the bar.

And Eric, here where you forehead is on the bar, I almost want you to think that your pressing your pressing your forehead down to the floor, almost like you're trying to pull your neck backwards. Oh, that's a little too much, let me, let me. Actually, he's going a good job without a lot of cuing. Show them what it would look like if your neck were really extended, like your head would lift up. We don't want that, so the head is down and then his face is parallel to the floor.

So just from this position, just tidy up your legs. They're looking really good, you understand that. And then push your bar forward as your carriage goes back. Good, and when you come home you're head should just barely raise the top of that bar again. Okay, inhale.

This is not a heavy spring right now. It's just getting a motion pattern going. Okay, so go out again. Good, now you're gonna stay right here and now I want you to shrug and unshrug your shoulders. Broaden, yes.

Remember we talked actually, in Eric before, about the absence of the shrug. Good, and now settle into more of a rested, yes. And now we add a lower trap exercise here. His head is ideal in this shape. He's not lifting it up too much, he's not hanging it.

He's using the back muscles here to hold this shape. Now we're gonna go to this lower trap here. Gonna lift this arm up off five times. One, two, three, and four, and five. Put that arm down, other arm lifts.

Just waken up this lower trap. This can be a sleeper muscle on a lot of folks. Good, up and down. And when we stay on the same side, over and over again we work on strength rather than alternating. Good, last one.

Good, and then bend your elbows, bring yourself all the way in. Going into swan now. So press your carriage, straighten your arms. Now as you lift up your chest Eric, the box will move forward. So lift your chest, arch over my hands.

The box will move forward, beautiful. And then take your arms, press them out, lower your body down. Golly, that looks really good. And then bend your elbows in. Go do that three times.

Shoulders sink down, that's it. Let your chest rise up, there you go. Look, there, nice line. And then bring yourself all the way back. And then bend your elbows in, last time.

Pressing arms, lifting chest. Dropping shoulders, beautiful. And then lowering yourself all the way down and then bringing yourself back home. Good, taking your left hand behind your back, pressing the back part of your palm. Not the palm, but the back part of the hand, pressing it into your sacral area, lift your elbow up, right arm presses by itself.

Keeping it on the same spring. Right now it's on a blue and a red, and then come in. Again, working here on tying the relationship together equally. Go push, even though it's just one arm trying to think equalness back here and then come in. And then last time, go out, stay out.

Hold yourself there, one arm swan extension. One arm swan extension, good, hold, beautiful job. And then lower yourself all the way down. Good, and then bring this arm back to the pole. Or back to the pole, back to the bar.

Right arm comes behind you. Shoulder blade, that's lovely. Good, and then bend that elbow. Your head barely grazes the bar and then you press out. Thigh connection, all these connections here.

Good, and then come in. And then press yourself away. Very good, and then come in. And then last time, press away and stay away. Kinda settle into this blade here.

Press down on that left arm as the chest lifts. Keep your right chest open. Beautiful job, hold yourself right there. Push your arm out to lower your body down. And then bring the other arm back to the foot bar and bring your box back home, very good.

Alrighty, now bring yourself off of there. And instead of doing the long stretch for Eric, we're actually going to do the leg pull. Okay, so come and have a seat here for me. I'm gonna put it on two red springs. Feet will come here, bottom will come here.

Again, another new exercise. Thanks for trustin me to teach it to ya. This time your plank is gonna be with your hands here and your feet are going to go on the foot bar. I'm gonna talk you thought it, okay? So come and put your hands.

I'm gonna get ya some sticky pads here. Or actually, let's just use this. I think that'll be good, you're used to that. So the hands will go there. There you go, thumbs with your fingers.

Can you feel where the shoulder rests are there? Lift your bottom up in the air. Take one foot back on this bar. And then your gonna start to push the carriage out slowly. The other leg will come up there to match it.

There you go, that's it. And then lower your pelvis towards your hand and hold yourself right there. Drop this chest down, beautiful. Now move your arms out and in. Five, four, tighten your legs.

Three, good, two, and then one come in, let your butt rise, take one leg down to the carriage. And take the other leg down to the carriage and pause. And we'll do it one more time starting with your right leg first this time. So I think we started with the left, yeah? Press it out.

Nod that head a little bit. There you go, get yourself loaded. There you go, drop your belly into the, there you go. Drop your pelvis, tighten up your thighs. Good, and then five times out an in.

One, and two, and three, crown of the head long, yes! Four, last time, five, let your hips crease up and let your bottom come down, and let your whole carriage come home from there. Woo, very good, step down to the floor. So again, some new exercises for the athlete doing different things. Now we're gonna do semicircle. People often think semicircle, oh, it's super advanced, but we saw his bridges, he knows how to bridge up, articulate up, he knows how to neutralize up.

So now Eric, come and lie down here on your back. I'm taking the stopper because for semicircle there's a misunderstanding that you could hold the carriage still and just go out and undulate through your spine. But I'm takin this stopper and I am taking it in one notch. So that when I explain to him when it goes out he's gonna hold the stopper there. Eric, the semicircle exercise you have done before.

Okay, your feet, the two red springs, I've added a blue one. We're gonna see what this feels like to him because he's a little bit heavier. Your feet come over the bar, I'd like to start like that where you're resting, yeah. And then your hands will go behind you. Remember, this is the one where you kind of push that carriage all the way out.

Let me know what that spring tension is like and I can maybe take the blue spring off or not, what do you think? Does it feel kind of tight? Yeah, okay, bring yourself in. So we're gonna keep it on two red springs. Because really it's not about the spring tension, it's about the correct spring tension to get the body through the undulation process, what I like to call spinal journey, okay?

So push your hands, like this. So everything is kind of on the side. Thumbs on the side, fingers on the side. Press your carriage out from underneath you. There you go, good.

Now crawl your feet to the top of the bar. And you can separate your feet a little bit first. Key connection here, elbows long and straight. Good, settle yourself in. Now, drip your buttocks down towards the spring.

We haven't lost anybody in the springs yet. Now, press your carriage back til you feel the stopper. That's the catch, now hold that and curl your bottom up. It's closed chain at both ends. Beautiful undulation, hold the carriage, hold the carriage, hold the carriage, stop.

Now bring the carriage home with resistance. Your knees are gonna lift high. You're gonna get lengthening through here. And now drip your chest down. Holding the carriage.

It may move a little bit 'cause you're so long. Get your buttocks down, get your bottom down. Crease through your hips, beautiful job. Press out slower, you'll feel the stopper. Keep goin, hold the stopper, straighten elbows, engage your lat, yes, and now curl and reach you bottom up, stay long, hold, bring the carriage home.

Keep reaching your knees long as you drip your spine down. Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, yes, all the way down. Last one in this direction. Out you go, find the stopper, gage your arms. Your neck is doing so well.

You're not overworking your neck. Curl and reach up, good, hold and then bring it on home. And now stay here. Now go out with your bottom lifted. Hold the carriage here, drip yourself down.

Drip down but still hold long, very good. Take your butt all the way down to the springs, all the way down. Good, and now come on home. That's it, and now curl your bottom up. Nice job, there we go, good.

And now press out. That's it, and now drip down. Lengthening all these lats, all that lat, there you go. The spinal journey helps all the muscles that attach to the spine, I mean to the lumbodorsal fascia, all those little things in there. Last one, come on up.

Press out, there's so many things I wanna say in such a short period of time. You're doing well. Hold yourself there, drip your spine down. Drip it, hold the carriage, hold the carriage, hold the carriage, good job. Bring it on down, bring it on down.

And then bring it on home. And then lift your bottom and then pull that carriage underneath you or shimmy yourself all the way back there. Woo, very good job. Okay, roll to your side and one more exercise for ya. Okay, so roll to you side, come on up.

And come to kneeling on the carriage now, facing this foot bar. So we've been progressing Eric all along to the standing exercises and we're eventually head to standing front splits, but we're gonna start with just the kneeling front splits here. So Eric, take your left leg and put it up here. So we know he's got his hip mobility because we've warmed him up with his hips, we've done all sorts of things in the mat work. We've done different things like that.

So now, keeping this hip long and your chest lifted, press your carriage out. Just whatever you think I said. This is something I do with my clients. So just press out and come in. Now do you feel which leg is working more?

Yeah. Okay, you decide which leg is working more and then just use the other one. Because one isn't right or wrong. Some people will push more with their front leg to push back. Some people will push more here because maybe they have more glute power.

But what I really wanna say is push equally with both legs, but sometimes you don't know what push equally is until you feel which one was more. Okay, so have at it. You can push equally with both legs if you can or feel which one wants to push more. Good, nice focus right here. So push equally with both legs.

Good, and then come in. I like how this connection is staying. The front of your right hip is staying long. Very good, oh nice. And then last time, can you go out there and stay out there?

Nice focus, hold there. Hold for five, can you take your arms behind your head. Four and three, we're all about the arms behind the head. Two and one, return yourself all the way home. Hands come down, switching legs, very good.

Okay, so again on this side you're gonna watch this open hip here, when this hip stays nice and open the glute is able to fire predictably there in it's preferred response. So press yourself out. By no means is he thinking tuck your bottom or anything like that. Good, and then bring yourself in. Five times, chest open, shoulders back, back long, very good.

Good, take the hands behind the head for the last one. Good, press both your legs apart. Good, stay there, inhale. Notice he's not sagging into his back, he's got a nice glute action here, nice lift at the belly here, looks really great. Bring yourself all the way home.

And then bring yourself all the way down. And turn and face the camera and have a seat. Or come this way, or wherever you wanna be because he be done. You did really, really well, great job.