Scapula Placement

Hi, I'm Cara Reeser and I'm here with Amy and Laura and we are gonna do an up level chair class together. Okay, so at home this is what you need. We're gonna start with a relatively low weighted spring to warm up. I'm gonna suggest you definitely have a mat or carpet at the base of your chair for this first part because we're gonna be laying on our back. And throughout the class you're gonna need a sticky pad and I would also suggest, if you have one, to bring your fit ball along, but we have those off camera right now.

Okay, so here we go, ladies lie on your backs please. Okay, so I want everybody to push their pedal down and your gonna be on the arches of your feet. And you wanna be close enough that you're gonna be able to get a successful shoulder bridge to the pedal. Yes, you're gonna feel that, so yeah, but come on down. We haven't started yet, I'm just sayin', there you go, just, yeah, so they're finding their place.

So find your place and let's just start with some breaths. So get your breath on and I want everybody to figure out where their scapula are right now. Don't pull 'em down your back, but please do bring them just like a little closer to your spine, 'cause we're about to start bridging and I like you to bridge into your scapula and not back onto your thoracic spine. Okay, so we're gonna start. You're gonna pull your pedal down, if it's not already down.

And you're gonna start in the shoulder bridging. You're gonna roll up and everybody think about their knees going towards the chair. You're gonna bridge up keeping that scapula wrapped around your rib cage. Take a couple deep breaths ladies. Let your rib cage really expand while you're breathing and you're gonna roll down and as you roll down, think about pulling that pedal towards you so your hamstrings are super engaged.

Once you come down we're gonna do a couple of hamstring curls, so you're gonna lift your pedal up, all the way, as far as your chair goes, and then pull it back in, bring it down. Good, big breaths again, bring your pedal up. You might have to change the angle of your foot, but that's okay and then you're gonna pull it back down. Press it down and one more time take your pedal up, good, and pull it down. Super and come up into another bridge.

So you're gonna bridge up, take a full breath in, good, take a full breath out to come down. Okay, so now we're gonna do some knee folds. So we're gonna bring our right knee in and down, good. Inhale, left knee in, and exhale down. You gotta really keep going, gotta really stand down so that pedal doesn't move, and down, and this is your last one, and down.

We're coming up into another shoulder bridge, ladies, so you're gonna curl up, try to reach your knees further, and just try to complete that shoulder bridge even more this time, exactly, and then exhale, take it down, good, let's open our legs everybody. Soles of the feet together, keep your pedal down. We're goin' to low frog and low frog bridging. Okay, so let's start with bridging. So this is a different type of bridge.

So depending on the girth of your butt, it might not come off of the mat, but you are gonna get that scapula wrapped around. You're gonna lift your pelvis as high as you can get it. Good, take three deep breaths. Now these guys can really do that, wow-ee, and roll it back down, we like that, and let's bridge up like that again, and up. Good, all the way, good you guys, and down.

So now low frog, pick the pedal up with your ankles, let it come up all the way so your knees will start to straighten, bend your knees, pull your thigh bones towards the mat and use those external rotators and let's do that again. Away, two, three, pulling, and then push those knees wide, good, one more round of that, stretch it out. So you gotta flex your knees to pull it in, but then you have to open your hips. Now stay there and give me another one of those bridges up. Everybody's pelvises up, deep breaths, again, wrapping that scapula back, so Laura, a little bit more, yeah, there you go, see then you get a little more space behind your neck, which is really a good thing and back down, bring that pedal up, super Amy, good.

Now bring your legs in parallel ladies and gentlemen or whoever else is watching. Pull your pedal in just slightly with your knees. So you feel that sort of belly of your hamstrings contract. We're coming up to the 100, pulling the pedal in, heads up. Yeah, depending on the kind of chair your on, she's gonna use her heels, and your gonna go, inhale, two, three, four, five, exhale, good, and let your shoulders relax, they don't pull you forward.

Exhale, good, now really think about what it would be, Amy, if you kept engaging your hamstrings. Pull that pedal down a little bit, that's right, let your shoulders be soft, one more set, pull that pedal down a little bit, yes, and lie back down you guys, wooh, bring your pedal up. Good, come into the position of teaser with your legs up, you know, depending on your chair again, you might have to have bent knees, it's okay, but we're gonna do pike with press, or whatever you call it at home, it's fine. So just roll back ladies, on your rockerums, on your pelvis a little bit, yeah, and then I want you to keep your alignment tall through the crown of your head everybody, and just give me a little bit of an arm press, inhale, and exhale. So just a small movement right now.

If you wanna roll back a little bit, you can, but I don't want you to flex your upper back too much. Right, so this is just a little variation. Pull, good, good, and one more time, yeah, a little rocking on the pelvis, but an upper trunk length and rest, good, good, everybody come out of that position and the next thing we're gonna do is go to the top of your chair, grab your fit ball. We're back and we're upright now, okay, so we took our yoga mats away. You can keep yours down.

It was easy for us to take them out for now. We now have our fit balls nearby 'cause we're gonna use those and I brought these guys up to a high spring, one high, you guys, you know your chairs are different. This should be not too difficult to push. So we're gonna start with standing roll down. I like to work in parallel 'cause I already did a lot of ballet, and your gonna lift your arms up, inhale, good, exhale, your gonna roll down, right.

So then push that pedal down, they're gonna sequence through their spine and stay down. Bend your elbows, inhale, and pull the pedal up, exhale back down, good, inhale, bend your elbows up, exhale, back down, two more, inhale, bring that pedal to the crown of your head, keep your head down and one more time, bend your elbows, and now both arms straight, you guys stand in those arms really strong, now come up by changing your pelvis, right, your coming to standing, your arms are coming down to your side and up again, we're gonna take that again, inhale, exhale, your goin' down, again, think of the crown of your head pushing that pedal down, not so much scapula, yeah, and bend and straighten the elbows, yeah. Go ahead and stretch your hands out so you're pushing equally through your hands if you can, beautiful, and one more time, you're looking for the scapula to stay wide on your body. So see if you can feel that, roll up, here they come, all the way up, arms up, good, let's do one more, three is a good number for this, you're gonna go down again, try not to shift your weight too much on your foot. So you wanna stay in the center of the foot, practicing that pushing an pulling, again, equal weight across the hand will be helpful for the shoulders and forearms here.

Straighten the arms all the way, and roll up, arms up, one more stretch, let's interlace our thumbs for a second, everybody, let's just take a little high back bend, grounding your pelvis, come back to center just reversing that curve and coming down for side bends. Let's sit on this end of your chair, ladies. Let's do the one, with the leg out. So you're gonna have one let bent and one leg out, grounding that foot, arms out by your sides, right. So now everybody get your center, right, 'cause it's really easy to start in a shove forward position, so rib cage stays over the pelvis and here we go, inhale, take it over, big side bend, externally rotating that upper arm guys, and then back up, yeah.

I know, your chair is high right? So because her chair is high, I'm gonna really encourage you to shift your weight a little, right? Because we really wanna bend, so you have to adjust for the equipment you're on, so if you wanna let your hips tip at the end and get that luscious stretch that's okay, all the way, good, and then come back up, super, alright, we're gonna take your balls out everybody, ha! Take your fit ball, put your legs on that fit ball and we're gonna do, starting with your knees bent, put your legs together and pull that fit ball in towards your sits bone, right, so it's almost as if you're about to do rolling like a ball. And that's sort of what we're gonna do, except for you're gonna roll back and stretch your legs out, so arms out to the side, supine roll backs, here we go, push the ball away as you push the pedal down, yeah, full full press, good, and then as you come in, pull the ball in, come upright, bring your arms out, good, again, push the ball away, extend the front of the hip and lie back. Good, and on the way home, you come up, you draw that ball in and you reach yourself tall.

Keep your legs pulling one more time. Really extend the front of the hip fully. Let your sacrum come on down, great! These gals are excellent at this and come all the way up, pull that ball, pull it, pull it! Take your arms out and we're adding on. Take your right leg up to a half teaser, alright now, as you go back that right leg's gonna come into your chest. You're gonna roll back, push the ball, yeah, super fancy, yeah, and then coming up, switching that, draw the other leg, stretch the leg, lots of brain work here, arms up, keep breathing, trust that you're learning, keep going.

You're doing three on each side, right, you wanna make sure your sacrum is hitting the mat on the way back, so you need to scoot forward if that's not true for you, good, you guys feeling each other there, nice unison, synchronized swimming, exactly, and all the way up, good, good, put that foot down on the ball and scoot forward if you need to adjust a little bit. We're gonna do the other leg, take the left leg up. Okay, now try to keep your pelvis on the level, equal, here we go, pulling super hard, yeah, okay, yes, good, and up so you're pulling the ball in as you're reaching the leg into that half teaser position. Yeah, try to hold that leg up, use your quads again, switch, I know, I know, I'm sorry. And all the way, pull, good, lift your arms up and let your head reach up.

Let that help you hold yourself up, last one, I'm tryin' to get you through it, you can do it, everybody, you can do it, alright, up, good. I do do this myself, so I get it, it's not lost to me one bit, and foot down and rest, good, side bends on the other side. I'll take your balls and get them outta your way. Great, and so, there you are, you're sitting up, you've checked that rib cage, it's over your pelvis and here we go, side bends again. Super, good, that's right! Amy you can tip it over a little.

Externally rotate the upper arms guys, and back up, center, good, inhale, take it over, good, reach it, you can let the weight of your head fall for that stretch, exactly Amy, and up, and one more time. Take it over, really nice, and up. Keep that bottom foot grounded if you can, come back to facing back and put your feet on your balls again. Right, we're gonna do twists. So the ball is just there to help you.

If the ball is going side to side, that means you're not twisting, it means you're shifting, right, so the ball's a nice guide for this. Arms out to the side, twist to the right, good, and take it over, again, you gotta fully rotate your pelvis everybody, so let your hips extend, twisting your spine, breathing, and back up, and center, good, and twist, big breath, good, oh they went to the same side, nice. Good, so Amy you could get that pelvis under a little more, don't fall off the chair, and up, let's do two on the other side and go over, yeah, that's it. And that gets your pedal down more to, yeah, so make sure again, we are fully rotating the pelvis. It's sorta like a theme of my visit here.

Pelvis' gotta move if you wanna move the spine, so keep it under, yes, good, and up, great, and rest. Good, come on off your chair and you can take your ball away and ladies we're gonna go to swan next, so put your spring on where swan from above feels right. So I would say it's probably still about a high spring. Now we're gonna move right into grasshopper from this swan so I'm gonna ask these gals to put a sticky pad underneath their pelvic rim, but first we're gonna start with the shoulders directly over the wrists, okay. So let's figure out what our shoulder blades are doing.

So bring your trunk to neutral, meaning, you know horizontal plane, and everybody in the room and on TV, let's wrap our scapula towards each other and let them collapse a little bit, yeah, and then I want you to let your scapula separate. Right, so I'm just getting you to find that movement. So collapse your scapula together a little, and then separate, and one more time, collapse them together like a real slob, it's okay, and then separate, now keep 'em separated and I want you to come on up into that swan. So you're scapula stays wide. Now what if you picked your legs up ladies?

You would have to use your hamstrings and your butt, and back down, good, come to the horizontal plane, beautiful, and back up, eyes, ears, nose, ribs, open the hips, whoo-ee team, and back down, looking great, and one more time, I sometimes like hold my friends feet and pull 'em up, yeah, and down. Good, let's go to grasshopper. So I want you to bring yourself to the top of your ASIS, so the part, the naval side, so actually back up Laura, right there. Yeah, because you can hook on that to get your legs up a little higher which makes it fun. Okay ladies, gaze up, everybody gaze up.

Keep your cervical spine in extension, pick your legs up like cray cray, and get your chest to come down, bend your elbows, good, right there we have it, you'll get it. Now stay there, hold on, everybody stay and then come back up, straighten your arms. Bring your pedal up a little bit Laura, there you go, oh yeah, it's hard on that Gratz machine. And back down, good, lift your legs, good, chest down, legs are up, now bend your knees, straighten your legs, clap clap clap, and bring that puddle up, whoo! Beautiful, and again, dive it down, and bend and straighten and clap clap clap and hopefully you're breathing and having fun, I think it looks great. All the way up, yes, they had to slide back, you might too, one more time, up.

There they go, bend and straighten and up. Gorgeous, come all the way off. Whoo! Good job, 'kay we're gonna go to some standing sequence. So now we're gonna go to one heavy, one light, one high, one low, however you talk about that, but you need a little bit more weight, 'cause we're gonna be standing on those legs, okay. So we're back and now we're going into our standing sequence.

Ladies, push your pedal down, on TV, push your pedals down for pumping. So a lot of people hold their arms here. You could create another variation, but let's bring the pedal up and let's keep our pelvis' relatively equal in the plane and space and push down and up. Inhale, exhale, yeah, try to breathe. So what's so fun about doing hard shit is that you have to try to stay calm.

You know, if you stay calm, during really hard things, it makes it sort of balance out. Push down, hold it down, lift that heel and step up for up and down. Whoop, no hands, nice! Keep your hands behind your head and let's do five. Inhale, yeah, now really straighten that back leg, good, good and keep it calm, keep it easy, up and down, yeah, good, relax your jaw, let yourself go. Two more up and down, good, try to really tighten up the quad, exactly, heel high in the back, good, now we're gonna switch to mountain climber, bring your arms forward.

We're gonna keep an elongated spine and now it's that back leg articulating. Hip flection, knee flection, somewhat of a stable ankle everybody, so little bit more, two more, oh they've got it, they're in canon and good! Take your hands, step back, we're going to angle the knees. So we're alternating movements, alternating the legs and flow, so here we go. You can have your hands down on the chair for this one everybody. You've done hard work there, and just work that.

There you go, so down and up, so what's happening here is your trying to keep everything else pretty calm. Really working that ankle and the foot. Keeping your pelvis at the level, boop boop, yup, there we go and good, enough. Come back to two standing feet, take a deep breath in, exhale, and let's go for pumping on the other side. We like to start with the pedal down in my world.

So I can figure out what I want for my ankle. I'd like you to stiffen your ankle so it's not changing and here we go, up and down, right. So what I mean by that is the ankle's not the mover, the knee and the hip are the mover. You've got the two sits bones reaching in the same direction, trying not to hip hike. And yes, I know your quads are burning, it's okay.

Good, and push down, and hold it, good, here they go, up. Step up take your hands, nice job ladies. Stiffen that ankle again, and here we go, up, inhaling, good, exhale, and this is where you start to do that calming breath, like my quads are killing me, my hamstrings are dying, right, my balance is challenged, and you calm yourself down with that breath, last one, up and down. I say last one, but you're going to mountain climber, so that's not very nice, here we go, you gotta hold that leg. So that top leg is relatively stable, you're trying to get that, ooh, ooh, yeah, right there, booty's on the same plane and step down, floor, foot and ankle, use your hands and let this almost be like a relaxation moment for your quads, although it's gonna work your quads on that leg, yeah, good, big breaths, super you guys.

Two more, it's alright, I know, good, and come up, stand on both feet, good. Super, yeah, just let that kind of relax. We're gonna go to some side stuff now. So we're gonna face this way and we're gonna start. If you have on of these chairs with a pole, I suggest you kick it in for this one.

It can be a real burden, nothing against the chair, but we're gonna start with a side pumping this way. So we're gonna face this way, okay? So again, at home, if you need to adjust your springs, that's fine, go ahead, yeah, stand a little closer to your chair, yeah, and almost so the pedal is centered to your inner thighs, exactly Laura. Now take the leg over for cross pumping, and you're gonna go down and up and up, down and up, that's it, down and up, breathing, down and up, one more, good, press the pedal down, keep it down and stand up for side up and down. Take your hands behind your head is I think actually just fine.

If you wanna take your arms out for balance you can, and here we go, up and down side standing. Super, right, now if you can't get up, get off your chair and get the springs heavier, so you can be successful because that's what matters here, is that you can actually do it, pelvis under, one more. Good, stop at the bottom, good ladies, what you're gonna do is take that top leg off everybody and cross it over kind of like you're doing snake on the reformer. Take your hands to the corner, straddling the corner with your two hands, so actually let's straddle the corner, that's the corner, that's it, here's the corner, it's okay. I mean we haven't talked about corners today, how do we know?

Alright, so let's go on up, drop your head, you're gonna come up, try to bring your pubic bone towards your naval, yes, and down, upside down pushup. You can do twist your hips under on the way up and a little bit out on the way down or not. I mean that's sort of an added, good, one more time ladies. Let's get you up and down together twice please. Down and up and down, good, and find your way off that pedal.

Easy does it team, let's all go to the other side for that same sequence on the other side. So you're gonna push that pole in if you have one, that's it, and get your stance in front of your pedal and get close enough that you're not having to lean forward to push the chair, yeah, that's better Laura, great. And I think we had our arms out to the side or here, alright, excellent, so here we go, inhale, pushing down, exhale, good, in, ex, good you two. Now keep both sits bones reaching down and breathe. Remember the theme, when things are hard we breathe and pretend nothing's happening.

That's it, that's good for your nervous system, good, and press down, hold it down, come on up, take your hands behind your head, you've got this thing, nice, up and down, there you go, nice, yeah, super. Using the hamstrings guys, everybody push and pull with those hamstrings back here, good, yeah. Good, and one more time up. I know, and good, take your leg across. Sort of nice not to have to use your legs in this moment, and then drop your head.

Now remember, you can twist your pubic bone if you want, it's up to you, but you're gonna go up, yup, and down. What I do is I bring my pubic bone a little bit forward this way and then back under. I pretend I'm a barber shop pull. Alright, good, and your heads are dropped, yeah good, your shoulder blades are wide, your pushing pushing pushing into the surface of that chair. Good, and good you're gonna come on down when you're ready.

Good, how's that feeling? Okay, so we're gonna finish with an inversion sequence, okay? So I think I'm gonna ask us to get into our dolphin first, so I'll just let you know this isn't a commonly taught, I made this one up i think, although somebody else probably made it up too, but you're basically gonna have your forearms here, pushing here and then you're gonna be working your inversions on your forearms, okay. So that's a dolphin in yoga, we're just bringing a little yoga love to Pilates, we like to share the love here. Okay so what's beautiful about this exercise, is you can really get that wrapping of the scapula, right, so you're gonna go ahead and find your position.

I want your elbows pretty narrow, so yeah, and don't grab onto the edge there cheater, alright so let's go on up, head down, yeah, look at these gals, whoohoo, nice and down, good. There in a nice Pilates V, I didn't say that, but you could try that, that might help you out. You're super trained to do that and you guys need to be trying to really squeeze your elbows together. You'll feel those start to slide out as that serratus gets fatigued and rest, straighten your arms, stay in position. Let's do regular upside down pushup, but it will get more interesting than that, I promise, so wherever you like to take your hands Amy.

I hold on the outside Laura, I don't know about you, but let's go on, oh, they're changing, here we go, there they go, and they're gonna go up, for three, two, one, and down, two, three, one, and up three, two, one, and down three, two, one. One more, good, big breathing, okay, let's get the party started. Take your right leg out, give it a try. No, out this way, give it a try, really high up, and see if you can do it, it's super hard. Nice, Wooh! And down, one more, you've got this thing ladies, drop your head, and down, switch legs, Wooh! Alright, super hard, I know you gotta pull up with the quad, I know you're getting tired, it's why you're working out, let's go.

Good, up, up, drop your scapula, there you go, and down, straighten your knees if you can, I know it's a lot of demand on the quads and down and put both feet on the pedal and just like little princess soldiers, turn around on your chair for pendant stretch on the pedal, it's okay, there we go, alright, we're gonna finish with pendant stretch. I think that'll be just perfect, and then we'll do a little relaxation to finish. So how do we find this pendant stretch? It's really gonna depend on your chair at home. You wanna clear the back of your leg if you can.

I go on my arches, some people have to go on their heels. Let's drop it over, okay, so you know, again, it's a lot more quad demand than we often think. Yes you can use your tummy, but you're definitely using your quads. Pull that, we pull it up, here they go, up up up. Oh yeah, good, little bit of variation.

Amy's on her toes, Laura's on her arches. Whatever you need to do to be successful. What you wanna do is try to load your arms and pull that pedal up, good you two! I'm gonna ask for one more, just one more everybody, there we go, perfect, come on down, have a seat, good. Bring your pedal up, good, let's just come up to standing for a moment, good, and just face your chair, maybe step a little further away from the box. Good, and at home I want you to do this too.

So just close your eyes for a second and just feel sort of what's turned on, what you worked. Drop your head and you're gonna step back a little so you have a little more room. Drop your head and roll down. Good, and then from that roll down, I want you to bend your knees and lift your heels and just go into a little teeny ball. I don't know where I did this recently, but I really liked this little teeny ball, and then stretch it up and roll it up, good.

We used our legs a lot, good, let's just do that one more time, everybody just roll it down, good, and then go into that little teeny ball and just let yourself be in that ball for a second, let you drop your head, feel all the joints flexed and the legs like that and then stretch them back out. Drop your head and roll up. Good, you can get a hamburger now. (laughter) Good job you guys! Good, thanks everybody! (clapping)