"Triple A" Reformer

You all know that this is my favorite time of year. I've taught classes to ghosts. I've taught classes to zombies. I've even done a Cadillac class that's been on the site. Check it out if you want to. This year we're going steam punk and a client that I get to work with today has traveled miles and miles to get here.

So I'm going to bring my client and come on in. Let's, let's just check this out. Mm hmm. What would you like to work on today? I heard it's, uh Huh. Okay. Ah, yes. The triple a workout. That would be the arms, the ABS and the ass. All right. It looks like my client has changed his clothes. He's ready for class. So please, I want you to lie down on the reformer and get ready for your footwork.

Even though you're here for your abs and your arms and your ass, we still need to warm up and do a good clean foundation to, to start. So you're lining your legs in parallel. You've gotten some good training. I see. Lengthen your arms please, and take about three deep breaths before you begin. Uh, planning a good session brings in breath and centering. We're going to work your precision on your arms, your abs, your back, your ass. All right, John and want you to do 10 extensions of your leg.

So take the carriage out as you inhale and pull the legs forward. Exhale and lengthen and bend. Good. Feeling your spine getting nice and long on the reformer bed. Your feet had been crammed in those boots for, I don't know how many galaxies and dimensions and things.

So let your toes spread. Feel as though you can widen the base of your toes, widen the base of your feet, and really feel the foot bar underneath your skin. Good. And put your heels there. Parallels still same thing, even though your toes aren't touching the where. I want you to concentrate on your heels now. Don't mind my hands, but flex the ankles and push the carriage back as you inhale and exhale coming in, good and press and and feeling along the spine, abdominals that are toned, kind of start priming your workout even with your foot work. So your abdominal muscles in back towards your lower back.

Start sensing the arms. You're about to do a lot of loaded arm work here. So your shoulders back, your collar bone wide. Thank you for counting and let's have you go pull out his v and he does know the Pilati Zvi balls. If he'd on the bar and knees. Why? Just in the width of your shoulder frame. Here we go, presses. Inhale, lengthen. Squeeze your heels together. John. Heels lifted.

Remember just like you were in your boots, get your heels up. Here we go. Nice. Linkedin. And then my client loves skulls. So there's these nice wide open eyeballs on his pants. It's nice like floral decoration here.

Keep your eyeballs on your shoulders wide, John, open and fold the carriage in. And then one more. Press out for me. Please press pivot on your feet to parallel and then just lower your heels now to stretch your calves. Sure that that feels good. After being in those elevated shoes for so long, let's just do 10 up and down. Lift and lower lift and lower. Lift and reach. Good lift.

Started thinking about the 100 that you're about to do. We're starting to work on your abs next. All right. Trying to achieve some of the goals that you came into session with and nine and 10 [inaudible] bend your knees and come all the way down. All right. For some reason I'm feeling nice right now. So I'm going to change your springs for you. Do you remember in your, uh, training where your springs are for the 100 no. No.

Usually we like our clients to remember that. So I'm thinking it's probably to red springs. So I'm just going to take a guest or bring your knees in please. Thank you. Now take the bar down out of the way and leave you with two springs. I would like you to put your legs long on the, over the bar.

Remember that all the way down and then reach behind you and grab your straps. Okay. And as you grab those straps, you're going to put the palms of your hands in the straps. Perfect. Okay, so let's prep for your 100 I don't want you to actually do the 100 yet. Think about though, the the concept that you came in with, right? Your goal, you want to use your gum as you want to strengthen and work your abs.

So take a deep breath right now. Just exhale and flatten your belly. Nice. More. Two more breaths. So more abdominal flattening. If you can. More like you're wearing a tighter a corset here like I've got on and press. Are you ready to do the 100 from here? Let's try take another breath. And as you exhale, John, lift your head, lower your arms and lift your legs up.

I may need to help. Good. Now stay right there. Keep reaching your arms toward me. Let's get into some of those. Our muscles curl a little higher with your abdominals. There you go. Let's start the pumping. Inhale for five and exhale, three, four, five. You keep pumping and breathing. I'm going to come around and give you a little bit of hands on work.

Good. So feel your upper back, bending forward, stretching forward, your flattening down. Now you may be a little too high on your shoulders. You can come down just a little. There you go. Lift your legs a little higher. Focus on your abdominals. Do you know what cycle you're on? [inaudible] 70 he's being honest. Exhale, three, four, five, left. 82 three, four, five and XLT. Four five. You're almost there. Three, four, or five.

Let's say. Exhale all the air out. Good. Bring your knees in, lower your head, and just keep your arms straight up to the sky. Okay, so good. Let's you're warming up. Let's just keep your knees here and I want you to do eight more. Just curl up with your chest, lower your arms. Exhale, curl.

Inhale, lift and lower back. So arms lift, head goes back. Focus on the abdominals. You're here to work your abs, but you're already starting to work more into your arm muscles. John, feel like you're reaching out through your knuckles, past the skulls on your pants four more times, and reach and lift and reach and lift. It's okay. Usually they don't make noise though, but that's okay. Last one, curl. Now. Hold right there. Squeeze. Curl a little higher. Nice. Okay. Arm is up. Head down. Let's go arm circles. Okay, take a breath. First.

So arms are going to come straight down again by the skulls on your pants. Open your arms to nice, wide t and then arms above your shoulders. Let's do five total. So here's the second one. So even though it's starting to build into your arms down, you're still working your abdominal. So flatten. If you like that, I don't know what visual you're using. Maybe six pack, eight pack really doesn't matter. It's what's supporting your spine, right? There's your fifth one, I think all the way around. Pause with your arms to the COO. Now reverse it. Inhale out. Good. Exhale, arms in and up. Inhale out.

Press a little flatter belly though. Exhale last to really reach for the windows and close. Last one. Inhale. Exhale. Now I want you to pause right there with your palms face down. Take another breath in. I often do. This one is a little add on.

So curl your chest up. Okay. Do you do mat work? Nope. No Mat work. Reach your right leg toward the skeleton please. All right, so you have to do single leg stretch since you don't know the mat work. Start changing legs. Exhale, change. Reach to the skeleton. You might be an ancestor of yours anyway. I don't really know. Stretch.

Can you curl higher though? There you go. Let's go a little faster John for eight and seven try to kick it. They're four and three two, one both knees in. Nicely done. Arms Up, head down. I'll let you take a little rest. Good. Okay, so let's move on.

I'm going to move into I think the long box series for John. So John, you can put your straps down and again, I am being a little nice today. Go ahead and come on up, but I will let you change the spring for yourself. But the one red spring on you can take one spring off. There we go. Actually I will let you put your box up and being a little too nice. All right, chest on the box. Collarbone, right in line here for pulling straps.

Good thing the boots aren't on because you'd kick the skeleton back here. Okay. Grab the straps and I want you to put you just let your head rest down. Let your shoulders round and just hang over here for a minute, okay? Before we do the pulling straps, I want you to breathe in and out three times. So even though it's a back exercise, focus on those abdominals staying up, up, up inside your body. Take another inhale.

I'm going to let you exhale John, and start pulling your arms back. Lift your chest, lift your chest. Now this is not good enough for me. I want your arms close to your back. Use your arms a little bit, but lift your chest lift. There we go. And then all the way down and round over at the bottom. Okay, here we go. Hold the straps. Lift. Use your arms, hold, hold, hold and take it down.

So that was two, three to five times is plenty. If you're doing quality work, which I know you're doing okay, all the way though. Don't miss that detail. That's right. And going into back extension, we know where those shoulder blades are. So slide him down to your ribs. Here we go. Good. Go pull your arms. Lift your chest. John's got great training and down all the way.

One more time. Pull the straps, lift the chest and I'll stay right there. Stay right there. Bend your elbows, Bend your elbows right around my finger and then extend them. Let's do eight times with one. You said you wanted to work your arms. Here we go. Three shoulders back, John. Four. Fantastic. Four more. Five work in your arms.

Six. It's going to look really nice when you get that second tattoo on last one and lower your arms all the way down and your chest. You're just gonna rest here for a minute. Good. He's doing well. So the t press, I want you to take your hands all the way back in the straps and you can make knuckles in your straps there. Okay, nice. All right, so arms are lifted about the height of your back. You're doing great. I'm just going to have you sense a longer neck. I have ripped people's heads off before so I'll be a little bit careful now.

Stroller blades down your back as you start to pull your fists towards your hips and just hold, hold, hold and open again. Five Times. Shoulderblades initiate. Remember they go down. Good. Do you want it harder? Can I make it a little more challenging? No, no, you're fine. Would you stop fork? Bring your arms up. Okay. You're doing fantastic. Let's do this. You came to work out, right, so rotate your arms this way. Yeah, that's going to work a little bit more in the back of your shoulders. That's what you wanted. Go ahead. Pull the straps better. Nice, drawn and open. Last two like that.

Pull and open. Don't forget the belly hole and open, and then go ahead and give yourself a rest. Good. Please hang the straps up. Roll over onto your back on the box or step off and turn around. I've done it too. That's okay. Hug your knees into your chest.

We all have our own ways of learning, right? It's okay. Okay, so if you are here to work your abdominals, I want you to curl up higher. Okay? Now let's give your neck a little support. Please place your hands behind your head. Interlace your hands. Okay, now it's just keeping up the upper body. I want you to take both legs first and just reach toward the skeleton. Take a breath, exhale, curl in and crony curl higher.

Let's just do five total. Inhale, stretch and exhale contract. It's kind of like a double leg stretch from our mat program, but stay down on your shoulder blades a little bit there and then curl one more time. And do you know Chris Cross goody does no Chris Cross. Take one leg toward the skeleton. Cross the other chest toward this knee and hold. Okay, open your elbows. Think of a skeleton, right? Bring this chest toward that skeleton curl higher.

Curl it girl, other side and just pause for a minute. Goodness. Slowly change, twist and twist. So I'm going to hold your elbows so that you don't close your elbows. Yeah, use your waistline. Use your abs a little faster. John for eight and seven and twist and twist. Good. And four and three and two and one.

Hug your knees into your chest. Let your head go back and or ass. Good. Do you remember the teaser? He does. I'm going to help you with your legs. Do you want to use the straps for teaser? I think you should. Okay. I think your game improving to have a lot of vigor today. Zest and vigor as Mr Pilati said. Okay, but here's the deal. I think it'd be better for you right now. If you scoot yourself back on the box.

I don't want you to fall in that dimension. We have no idea what's down there anyway, so that's better. Okay, so knees to chest, arms out. You're on a, on a cross kind of and lay your head back, arms all the way down and head all the way back kind of passive. And let's bring the carriage all the way to me stopper. Good. Okay. So you start doing a sit up. Your arms will drag along. You're going to stretch your legs toward me. I've got you.

I will not let you fall. Curl higher. So we're, we've got you in a nice challenging position right at the edge of the mat. Now I want you to use your arms and give me some bicep curls. Curl and extend. Curl and extend. One more curl. Good. The whole roll back or use your belly. Good.

Now I've got your legs. You Open your arms up, let your head go back. I've got your legs. Okay, I'm going. The skeletons right behind me. Let's go again. Sitting up. Sweep your arms up. I've got ya. I've got ya. Hold. You should see the look I'm getting right now. Roll back.

He's lucky. I'm helping. Ready. I won't help quite as much, but I'll help a little. One more. John, you're doing great. You're here for abs arms and, but we're going to get to the boat work in just a minute. Lift your arms a little higher please. Good and roll all the way back. Nicely done. You can drop the straps behind you. So we're getting ready for some long stretch series.

He's breathing. This is good. All right my friend. So long stretches the plank. You remember the plane? One Hand, one foot goes back on the head. Rest first way back here. Second hand, second foot. Okay, now hold the carriage in. I want you to step your feet a little further back cause you're almost going up the hill of that head. Rest, right, so you feel how your toes can bend right into that space. Okay, heels up a little bit for me. Now from there, John, lower your hips into more of a push up position right there. No more. Okay.

Now let's kind of clean this up. Look toward the skeleton a little just with your chest, bad or okay. You sense my hand. Try not to rest on me. Push back from your shoulders. Inhale Andrew off for reducing shoulder blades to hip pockets. There. Little bit of that rhythm. Inhale off my hand though. Exhale.

Inhale. I'm just going to fix up your alignment. It matters. It's going to help your shoulders work more the way they want to work. Nice form. John, how's it feeling? Can you pull closer to the bumper all the way? Pull, pull, pull right here. Pole. That was five, but let's go one more.

Actually it was probably six or seven and you're going to come all the way in, quiet the reformer and set your knees down. Great. Okay. The next one is your down stretch. I know you've done this one, so separate your feet and they're right against the shoulder rests. Okay. It's a great exercise for the arms and your back, your chest, everything you're asking for. So before we move the carriage, open up your collarbone. Good stomach back. Think long in your low back. Excellent form John. Really Nice. Okay.

Push from here again. Backward. Stay looking past the top hat on the skeleton. Push [inaudible]. Good. Now when you come forward, come forward. Pull with your arms again the same place. I'm going to resist you a little bit. Can you squeeze your butt? Thank you. Push back. Inhale.

So arms, abs and butt. All going on in this exercise. Arms, abs, and the butt. Three more. Inhale. I happen to have a little prop here, so no stomach here. No stomach. Thank you. Pull it back. Pull that stomach back. Inhale. Don't make me use the sick. Really. Right. And pull forward. Oh, nice. John, one more time. Push. You could probably do a little more, but work on the return. I'm thinking. Squeeze your skeletons right here.

Squeeze. Squeeze. It's great. Okay. Excellent. John. Let's go into the elephant next, right. So elephant is standing up on the reformer. Flat-Footed. Okay. Just had a Matt, a visual of you and your boots and how much taller I wouldn't be able to cue you. So this is good that we made you take your shoes off. Okay, good.

So my hand is right on your abdomen. Use your abs for a minute and pull away from my, my hand. Okay. Skeleton. Squeeze again. So squeeze. Excellent. No. Are Your shoulders up by your ears? And if so, relocate them down by you're away from your ears. Okay, nice. A little less of that. Perfect.

What is going to move the carriage is the contact of your heels against the shoulder blocks. And this squeeze right there. Good. It's little push when you pull the carriage in and think of this, pulls it in. So if you pull off my hand, the carriage comes home. You push from here, you pull from here, go push and pull. Good John. Push. Yeah. And as you get more skilled and maybe you know more time out of your boots, your heels will get flat. Yeah.

I want you to think of dragging your heels in the mat to pull a carriage home. Hmm. Heels drag the spring closed. Let's do two more and last time. Very nice. Put your knees on the Mat and just rest for a second. Boom. Nice. Okay, so I'm thinking more arm work. We'll get back to some amps in a minute.

So let's see. Can you reach in and take one of those springs away? So John is fairly strong, but I'm going to have him work on just one spring for the kneeling chest expansion. Actually I don't think so. Can you put the other one back on? Yeah, that's too nice. That was the other dimension. Turn around please. Knees, hands, maybe pass the tape. Okay. So in the chest expansion, your abs are still active, but they're mainly playing that role to help you kind of stay balanced and stabilized in your back so that you don't get short right here. So abdominals are active. Okay. Back Muscles for sure.

Arms for sure, but a little bit to give a little bit of, you know what? All right, pull your arms back, John. Just where your fists are, right? The side of your thighs a little more. That's where we start. Pull back a little bit from there. Pull and return. Good pull and return. Good.

Strong springs equals lots of good work for you. Can you squeeze your butt a little? Okay, we're going to add the head turn. I know you know the head turns. So pull it the arms and whole. I'm gonna help you right there. Turn your head to look out. Good. Look across the other way. Center arms go front. A little three more.

Hold O, shoulder strong. Excellent. Turn and turn and center. We've got two more patterns. I don't know if you do any combat fighting in your in galaxy or your, your place or dimension, but think of how much strength you would need if you were to going to do any kind of battle. Good. Release your arms. Nicely done. John. Let's do some side arms. Draw a sword. So I think I might have you just put this strap down and I'll take one of the springs away. We will work on one spring for this. So let's turn and face out.

Very nice. And then put that strap exactly in the front hand. Make a fist and put that fist right. Kind of not right on your navel, but out in front of your navel. Just like that hole for a minute. So anytime you're on your knees, maybe you could back into there. It's more challenging not to, but if you, if you want to stay away, okay, so glutes, please squeeze them together. Abdominal support your back. And this is your sore drawing. So exhale and draw your sword.

Inhale, return sword. I'm a thumb up Gal. You know that thumb up like that. Rotate your arm is stronger shoulder, good and replace. Where's your stomach? Where are your, don't want me to get the stick. He, he does. Actually, I heard it. So I'm going to just there. So just for that, three more reps please. Five is fine, but pull back away from that stick. You know that's better. That's working. Last one.

Breathe. Exhale. Okay. Switch hands. She your, you're off. Pretend you're going to shave your ear off. Ready? So the exhale, you reached the arm up close to that ear and lower. Now I'm just going to let you hear the sound good. I won't put it in front of your belly, but you know what it is. Bull x sale five times. So this is five or you could go all the way to eight which equals what you did on the first one. What do you think? Eight fives going forward.

Yep. Shave off your ear last time. John. Up and down. Let's change arms. Great. You're doing a nice job of continuing. Good breathing through your session. Staying focused on your breath. Okay, so before we start, let's get alignment focused here.

Good stomach is into support your lower back and give your your butt a little bit of work right there. Hold that. And there you go. Exhale som up. That's right. So guess that arm in external rotation. Rotate. Try to keep it that way as you draw the sword. And three what? Oh, I see some abdominals not active enough. There they go. And Five, I'll just get more right in front of you as six, seven. I can't wait to wait. Right. My post-workout notes for your session. Other arm.

Inhale, prepare. Exhale. Shave your ear. N One. So if you could get a little closer to your ear without elevating your shoulder. Some of the form we're looking for without elevating the shoulder. Yeah, let's, you can keep that down a little bit or rotate it toward the window. You've got two more. Seven and Nice. You can put the strap down. So I'm going to give your your glutes a little bit here. Okay.

I want you to work this one. So stay in the knees. [inaudible] turn to face this way. [inaudible] Tuck your feet back. Okay. You can tuck your toes down. Heels against the shoulder rest like we did a few minutes ago almost. Let's go with this way. A shoulder rests. Yeah. Okay.

Come on in. I'm going to add a red. All right, John, make a cat that position. Okay. Cap Back. So you're going to feel me my hand and wrapped it around your rib cage. I want you to pull yourself back like so. Okay. Squeeze your Tush Open. This is really nice. Now.

Same thing about the feet to get into the seat muscles. You've got to actually push your feet back. But don't do the carriage yet. Think about that. Right? So here's this push against me. Can you push from your glutes though? Yeah, right. So it's gonna be here that pushes the carriage and it's going to open the springs. Go push and pull. Stay around.

I got to get a little more handsy here. Push and but under, oops. But under, make a c there. Go Push. That's it. And push from your butt. And then I can see when you little work on this. That's all right. Go push from your glutes. Pause for a minute. You may feel it more. Nope. Stay there. You may feel it more. If you pull, you bring your weight back.

Pause. So sometimes working with a new client, the cues, it takes a second for us to figure it out right before you move the carriage. [inaudible] sit back a little further now. Okay. So I'm not going to let you come toward me because I'm pushing you this way, but I do want you to move the carriage, so if your muscles go there and that is, pull it in all the way, not as far out there, John and and we got it. Let's go from a rhythm going out and in and out and in. Good and out and in and, and, and do more out and in and out and in.

Okay. It's going to get a little more fun. Take one foot and put it right here on the ball of your foot. Okay? However, the other knee up. Nice. Push the carriage back from this hip. Let's go. Push and pull and push. Nice.

John pulled three more push. Pull from your glutes. You wanted to work your ass. Push and pull or the glutes. Push, pull and change. Feet. You can stand to do it. The [inaudible] wall of the foot on the front foot.

Can you crouch low or you'll probably feel it more. There we go. And push and pull. Stabilize your shoulders, belly to the spine, glutes pushing the leg. That was five. Come all the way in and rest. Okay, wonderful. All right, one more exercise I think for your to balance out.

Some of the gluteal muscles are on the side of your hips, okay? You never know when you're going to need to do a good karate kick. So I'm going to lower this for you John, and I want you to, we're on one spring now, step here and then maybe somewhere in the middle of the map. Okay. Now what I'm going to do is stand away and I'm just going to let you hold a carriage there. Lift your arms up to a tee position, make some fists.

I saw all your um, jewelry on at the beginning there. So just kind of push out through the fists. Make some muscles in your shoulders. Okay, good. Don't forget the ABS are right in against your back and I'm going to have you push the carriage from the side of your hips. Let's do six Reps. Push, come on. Good. And pull all the way in. Hold, hold, hold and push from your hips right here and keep doing a little karate kick or something and pull.

Keep the energy out through your knuckles and push and hold. Okay. And Push. I'm want to make it just a little harder in a moment. And cool and push. And Paul. Okay. Lower your arms for me instead of this foot being way out here. Step it right in against the edge. Okay, now bend your knees just a slight bit and tip your chest forward just a slight bit. This is called a half skater. Okay, so it's good to emphasize this leg doing the carriage movement.

This leg is your stabilizer. Okay, so you push the carriage with that left leg and think through your heel. Good John, and push. So the eyeball right there on your pants, looking straight out and push. If it doesn't feel hard enough for some reason, you can bend lower. That's what I thought. Tip further forward. Good.

Push right here from his teeth. Push exactly in and push and in the look of determination, building your glutes and for what's your belly? Three and two. Nice John. Last one. All the way in. Now I'll hold this. Let's have a little trust moment. Step onto that mat. You can turn around. Let's do the first one. Yep.

You're off part. Okay. Does. Yep. No, you lift your arms up, make knuckles, keep the kerogen ready. Push the carriage out. And even when the carriage comes in, you're making those knuckles. Pull the carriage home and push can, don't feel. Be afraid to use those glutes there. You did push. My client has very focus. As you can see, he's keeping his goals in check. When he came for a session four. He's not getting distracted and thinking, what's next? I don't think. Do you remember the half skater? Here we go.

So he doesn't close that carriage. Lower the arms. Put the foot halfway right on the edge. Okay. Bend your knees, tip your chest a little forward. All right, so the leg you're standing on over here is this the stable leg you're going to push the the other one. Good two. This one doesn't move. Three and four. You did several of these because you were able to go a little lower. Go a little lower. That's it.

Let's go for more John and push and push and push and push. Very nice. All the way in and rest. One last exercise. It's the rollover. Does that ring a bell? Okay. Step backward. Watch the head down there and there we go. You're going to come onto your back.

I've just decided I'm not going to have you use any straps or any springs here. Lie in your back. We're going to consider this kind of a cool down for your spine, but it is still some abdominal work. There will be a little bit of shoulder work to help you and you actually, you can squeeze your glutes. Okay, so one last, bring your leg straight up for me. I'm going to step inside this reformer just to give you some assistance and I'm going to be reaching my hands here to grab your legs. Okay, so you're going to take a deep breath through your nose and start putting in your legs toward me. I'm going to help you roll now. You're fine.

The one thing I want to do is just lower your legs a little bit. So almost like we're going to create a horizontal line in space. Your legs like the reformer. Nice job feel okay. Lengthen your arms, squeeze your glutes, flex your feet. Good. Breathe in. Now I'm slowly gonna roll down with your help you.

I'm going to guide you right down the center of your spine. Remembering that alignment matters. We want to keep it even. All right? So if you keep lowering your back to the mat and your hips, can you do it without my hands on your feet? Yeah, that's some ab work. Good. Nice. John, lower your legs just a little. Are you up for two more? Okay. Legs, two 90 use your strong exhale.

Legs overhead and down a little. That's okay. As you get better, there'd be less piked up at a little more like this. Flex the feet. Inhale and whole. Who just came into our galaxy here? Oh my God. Do you have a visitor? Did you have someone come and meet you after class?

I think so. Lower your legs a little bit. I you. These characters I train. Come on overhead. Lower your legs. Now your last opportunity to flex your feet. Now pretend you're in those boots and push them toward me there. Okay. I'm going to lean on you a little bit. Let this feel like a stretch.

Good. And I hope you rebook another session with me because I think you're a fabulous client. Bend your knees before you walk away. Bend your knees towards your chest and just rest. Okay, my friend. You're all finished. Thank you very much.