Athletic Conditioning

Welcome Pilates Anytime Everyone. I am John Garey, and I'm here today to take you through a reformer workout that I designed. I call it my secret weapon. So, it's one that I designed as I'm getting my body ready for about the leanest I've been in quite a few years, maybe since I opened my studio 15 years ago. And this is a workout that I enjoy doing.

I feel like it really worked my body from head to toe. You're gonna see that I'm gonna be working upper body, lower body, and core throughout, and we're gonna be moving in every direction. So let's get started. I'm gonna begin with footwork. And for my footwork, I'm using three red springs on the balance body reformer here.

And so you may need to adjust your springs accordingly if you're using a different reformer by a different manufacturer, or depending on your fitness level. So I'm gonna get started with my headrest up and my foot bar up, and I'm gonna come down onto the carriage on my back, and I'm looking for that neutral alignment from my tailbone, up through my cervical spine, and then of course the head rest is up, so I have a slight head nod. That actually helps me get a deeper connection with my abdominals. So you're gonna see I start with my traditional footwork. Toes apart, heels together.

My knees are gonna be about shoulder distance apart. From here, I'm just gonna breathe first just to help recruit the abdominals. So inhale through the nose, and then I exhale like I'm blowing through a straw. That's gonna help me get the deep abdominals, and I'm gently lifting up on those pelvic floor for a nice core connection. Then I'm gonna next inhale.

I'm gonna press the carriage out, and exhale, return with control. Lengthen away and come back in. My goal here is really to start to bring that attention and awareness to stabilizing my spine, and it's neutral position while I mobilize the hip, knee, and ankle joint. So I'm lengthening away, zippering the thighs together, and then coming in with really good control. Don't let the springs do the work for you.

You need to stay in control of those springs the whole time. So about 10 to 12 repetitions here. Let's do two more just to be sure, pressing away. Come back in one more time. And now I'm just gonna change my leg position.

I'm gonna bring my legs together and wrap my toes over the bar. From here, I lengthen away, and draw it back in. Again, I'm keeping my heel still in space. That actually means that I'm moving through the ankle joint here, and starting to work the intricate muscles of the feet and ankles. When you're on the balls of your feet, you're gonna feel those quads working and I can feel mine warming up right now, reaching away and coming back in.

Let's just do a couple more here. Again, keep the breath flowing, inhale out. Exhale to return. One more time we'll reach away and come back in. Now I'm just gonna switch my foot position again.

I'm going onto my heels. From here, I press out and come back in. Now when you're pressing from your heels, it's a really good opportunity for you to engage the glutes. So feel like you're puling yourself away from the foot bar, rather than pushing yourself away. That's gonna help you get more engagement through the glutes and hamstrings.

We've already done quite a bit of quad emphasis. This is gonna emphasize your hip extensors, the muscles behind the pelvis. And from there, I'm gonna press out. Let's just do two more here. This feels really good.

I can feel my body warming up, and then come in. I'm gonna switch my foot position again and go into my high half toe. So this is different than toes wrapped. I'm at the end of the ball of the foot. I first lift up my heels.

I'm gonna drop them about an inch down, because my goal is to maintain still in space as I press away. Here we are, back on the balls of our feet, which means we're getting more quad work, but I still wanna feel those glutes and hamstrings engaged, lengthen away and come back in. Keep the breath flowing. Now you may not move as quickly as I do. This is really a good phase for me where I can still keep control of the pelvis and really feel the muscles warming up.

And that to me is what footwork is all about, really connecting and getting your body ready for the more challenging work to come. I'm gonna move right into my lower lift. So I'm gonna inhale to press out. Then glutes engaged, inner thighs connected, abdominals connected, I reach the heels under and lift back up, and then draw the carriage back in. Now I'm gonna press out.

This time I'm gonna reach under two times and then pull the carriage back in. Reach out, obviously this is really good calf work. I'm gonna go three times. Every time I go out, I'm gonna increase the number of times I lift and lower, until I get to 150. Just kidding, we're only gonna go to six.

I'm on four, reaching under and pull back up, and then press out, and I'm on five. And they're on fire. (laughs) And then we're gonna do three and two more, and one more, and draw it in. Make sure you keep that about connection, inner thigh connection, and glute connection to keep your thighs from rotating as you do the work. And we've got three more here to finish for six.

And whoo! One more for good measure. Lift and pull it in. Now I'm gonna put my heels on the outside of the bar, second position, lateral rotation, pressing out and coming back in. This is gonna feel great. After that, lift and lower here.

Just make sure you maintain your neutral alignment and your lumbar spine, a little space between your lumbar spine and the carriage. Pressing away and exhaling back in, and one more. Now, we're gonna go into single leg work. From here, you can either reduce your resistance by one one. Of if you feel strong enough, you can stay there.

I'm gonna stay right there because I'm gonna do three of each of these next exercises. So let's set up. I'm gonna put the ball of my foot in line with my sit bone. I'm gonna keep my hips nice and leveled. And my gesture leg is gonna stay table top and I'm gonna press out and come back in.

And two, and draw it back in, and three. Now I'm gonna right into my bicycle, reaching that leg over the bar and then draw back in. Exhale, two. Inhale back in. One more time, reach.

And now for my third exercise, I'm gonna press out and I'm gonna just reach the leg to the ceiling, stretching the hamstring, really getting those quads and hip flexors engaged here. Reach and come back in. I've got one more here. Reach and press, and then come all the way back in. Alright, that leg is toast.

Let's even them out. I'm gonna take the ball of the foot in line with the site bone. Other leg is table top. Exhale, recruit. Inhale to press out.

Exhale to return. Try to keep the heels still in space and press right through the center of that ball of the foot. Right between the great toe and the second toe is a really good place to focus your energy on that working leg, and then we go right into our stretch. So inhale and exhale. Inhale, reach, and exhale.

One more time. Reach it, lengthen and come all the way back in. From there, I'm definitely gonna change my springs for the next one, and we're gonna move on to our hundreds. So I'm coming back. I'm gonna reach back for the straps here.

And for this version, I'm not gonna do the regular version of the hundreds. I'm actually gonna start with an airplane. So let's build this up piece by piece. First, make sure you're not right against the shoulder rest. Bring your legs to table top.

You can maintain your neutral. Or if you feel like you can't maintain neutral here with this open chain with your legs up, you can tip back and go into what we call an imprint, a slight tilt back in the pelvis. It's gonna shorten your abs and put you in a stronger position, but let's hold neutral for right now. I'm actually gonna do my hundreds from this side position airplane, pulling down on my exhale, reaching back out on my inhale. So I'm gonna flex my torso up, hold my hands just below shoulder level here, breathe into prepare, and then exhale.

Five counts. Inhale, slowly return. Exhale, reach away for five. Inhale, slowly return. And again, reach, try to keep the upper body flexed without going into that lumbar spine.

Keep it as neutral as possible here, and come back in, and again reach away the legs, as low as you can stabilize the pelvis. Come back in. We've got five more, reach, and inhale, come back in. And four, reach away, and come back in. Your abs should really be warming up, and reach, great.

And come back in. Use that exhale here. And come back in, and last one, reach away, and come all the way back in and lower down. Whoo, all right. So from here, I'm gonna keep the springs the same, the two red, and I'm gonna take the straps, place them on my feet here.

And I'm gonna go into table top position with my legs, find my neutral alignment with my spine. Breathe in. And then in my exhale, I'm just gonna reach the legs away. So just a little bend and stretch here. I'm gonna point the toes over the straps as I reach out.

Inhale to return. Exhale, reach. Inhale to return. Let's do that a couple more times. Reach, and return, and reach, and return.

Now I'm just gonna turn the legs out here, and I'm gonna do the same thing in lateral rotation. I love being in straps because you get a lot of the same work you do in footwork, but of course it's more challenging because you have to really focus on not letting the legs move all around. You want to really keep that steady, really fluid and controlled movement pattern. From there, I'm gonna reach the legs out. Now I'm gonna reach back, lower my headrest because I'm gonna go into my short spine.

So this one starts with my legs and lateral rotation. Pelvis and spine neutral. As I inhale, I rotate the legs to parallel and hinge them toward me, and then on my exhale I'm gonna articulate up through the spine, sending the legs up over my head. Then I turn the legs out, bend the knees, roll down through the spine. Pull the feet and sit down, and press out.

Let's do that again. Turn the parallel and hinge. Articulate the spine up. Turn the legs out, bend the knees. This is an inhale.

Now exhale, press those heels together. Keep the carriage still. Then bring everything down and press out. One more time. Turn the parallel and hinge.

This should feel really good. Now relax the arms as you use your abs and your glutes to articulate up. Then turn the legs out, bend the knees. Roll down, pull the feet into sit down, and press away. Alright, we're gonna take the straps off of the feet.

Put them in the hands. We're gonna keep the resistance the same. I'm gonna scoot away from the should rest. I'm coming up into my flex position. Legs are table top.

And I'm gonna draw my elbows right by my sides. From here, coordination. I'm gonna inhale, reach everything away. Now I'm gonna turn out and be three, two, one with the legs. Turn back to parallel and bend the knees, and then bend the elbows.

And again, reach, beat, three, two, one. Draw the knees in, flex the elbows. Let's breathe with this. I'm gonna inhale, then exhale, exhale, exhale. Inhale, just the knees bend.

Exhale, flex the elbows. Last time. And beat. Draw the knees back in, flex the elbows, and then release down. Alright, use the straps to help you come on up, and we are just gonna face the back now and change our resistance.

So I'm gonna go down to just one full tension spring here. And I'm gonna do an exercise called teaser on the carriage, reverse teaser. So I'm scooting forward and I'm gonna position myself. Now you're gonna have to decide what the best position is for you, but what you want, this is what I recommend, put your feet on the headrest here and roll down. What you wanna do is position yourself so that when you're in this bottom position, your shoulder blades are just off the edge of the carriage.

So you have room to move. And one other thing that we need to do is lower this foot bar down. So let's move this out. That's it. And we're gonna keep that one spring on, and there we go.

That's gonna be a little bit safer. So from there, I'm gonna grab onto these straps, and I'm actually gonna start. Let's roll down. I gotta make sure we're on the right spot. Now guys, what I want you to be careful of is if you've got longer hair, you don't want it to get caught on the spring, so you wanna make sure that you tie it up.

I don't have that problem so we're good. I'm gonna start just off the back of my sit bones, and I'm gonna lengthen my spine. So think teaser position here. And I'm gonna begin with my feet down. So we're gonna get into this slowly.

I'm gonna begin to roll down. So I'm tilting the pelvis back. I'm bringing my lower back down as I begin to bring my hands toward my shoulders. Then I'm gonna extend back over the edge of that carriage as I reach my hands. Not by my ears, but kind of toward the opposite corner of the ceiling behind me.

Then I start to flex the elbows. I start to articulate up through the spine and I come up behind the sit bones. Now you can stay there or you can bring your legs to table top, or you can stretch your legs out. Here we go, roll down. Breathe in.

Exhale, reach. Breathing in, and then exhale, roll up, and balance. Let's do that again. Exhale, roll down. Inhale, reach.

I know I switched the breathing. Inhale and exhale up. What really matters is that you don't hold your breath. Let's try it again, roll down, exhale. Inhale, extend.

Exhale, right back up to the top. Beautiful, last time. Roll down through. Reach and roll up to the top and finish. I love that exercise.

Okay, let's move onto the next one. So for the next one I'm actually gonna use the maple pole. I got it right here. And if you don't have one, you can still do this exercise without it, but you'll see in a minute why I absolutely love this piece. Now you can shorten your straps here if you need to.

This is actually good length right here. You'll know when you start the exercise whether you have the correct length. What I'm gonna do first, I'm gonna keep the resistance just on the one red spring. I'm sitting back close to the end of the carriage, but I've got some room behind me here, just about hands width distance. From there, I'm gonna start sitting up ton top of the sit bones, and I'm just gonna do this kind of high row I call it.

So elbows are angled, not lifted up above shoulder level, just below shoulder level, and I'm pulling in. This is really just to help you activate the back extensors. You're gliding the scapula together as you pull the bar back and getting that good mid trap and rhomboid connection. You can even hold it there for a second just to get those engaged. Really great for people who sit at a computer all day or for long periods of time.

I would be one of those people. Now from here, we're gonna hinge. So, in order to do this, I want you to just do the arm part first. So we're actually doing a reverse curl just like that. So the palms face down.

Your hands are on the outside of the strap, and you just curl back. You're gonna combine that with a hinge back of the pelvis, and then come back up. Let's do that again. Hinge back, strong core, and come back up. Now we're gonna stay back there this time.

So you're gonna hinge back. Now connect with the abs. I have my legs on the outside of the shoulder rest which I prefer, because I can get a little adductor work there. And then I'm gonna push that right over my head. And exhale, press, holding the spine still.

Press. We're gonna do two more. Press and one more time. Press it up there, and then hinge forward. So you can see why I kept that one red spring on, because that's really challenging when you get into the full thing.

Let's do it one more time. So hinge back. I'm gonna breathe in. And then exhale, press. So this is a variation of our back rowing, straight back, right?

Reach and I'm gonna do two more. Really great for the shoulders, for the triceps. One more, and then I'm gonna hinge back up. Okay, from there, I'm gonna shimmy forward just a little bit, just an inch or two. So make sure you've got room to roll the pelvis back down there.

And I'm flipping my hands over, palms up. Now, I'm gonna start the round back version of the rowing. And what I'm gonna do here is roll down as I pull my hands toward my shoulder. So I want the pelvis to be rolled down. I want the abs to be scooped in.

I want the shoulders to be open, and the elbows to be flexed, lifted and reaching the elbows toward the opposite wall. Then I reach the arms out, and I pull in for five, and exhale, four. With the maple pole through the straps, it's actually gliding around those straps, and it's really helping me to keep a nice strong neutral wrist. hold the last one in, and then I'm gonna fold forward, and then stack the spine back up. Let's do that one more time.

Exhale, roll down. Flex the elbow. Inhale, reach the arms long and pull in for five and four. Really hollow out the abs, and three. Use a little bit of adductors so your legs are pressing against the shoulder rest.

Hold the last one in. Fold forward, and then stack the spine all the way up. Alright, from there, I'm gonna take the straps and actually just put one over the shoulder rest. Then we're gonna work the legs a little bit here. So I'm gonna stand up facing the reformer.

And I'm using the strap on the same side, and I'm gonna put it right in the middle of the pole there. The hand that's closest to the pulley is gonna go above the pole. The hand that's closest to the foot bar side is gonna go below the strap. And from here, I'm gonna get a nice athletic stance, and I'm gonna be far enough away that I have to turn toward that pole. Then keeping my arms stable, I'm gonna push with that leg, that outside leg here, this side.

And I'm gonna push and rotate the hips and extend the knee. Press, this is really good for the glutes. It's really good for the quads and the hamstrings. Press. I'm not really rotating my spine here.

I'm turning my pelvis and everything is coming with it. Let's do two more. You should feel it in the legs if you're doing it correctly. Press and back. From there, I'm gonna keep everything the same, but I'm gonna come on to the carriage.

Be careful, you can also do this seated if you're not secure enough kneeling on the carriage. Then I'm gonna change this up. So instead of turning my pelvis on this one, I'm actually gonna rotate the spine. So I want my hips to be square to the front. I'm gonna hold on to that pole, form a circle with my arms, breathe in, and then exhale, rotate, and come back.

Now I'm gonna keep my eyes right on that pole, and keep it vertical. You wanna think of your spine like that pole, staying straight up and down, not wobbling all around. Keep it straight up and down, and turn with it. The arms come with you, rather than doing the work. They're stabilizing and you're obliques are doing the turn here.

One more time. Alright, now let's do the pull push. So from here, I'm gonna give myself a little bit more range. And to do that, I scoot closer to the spring end. Now my arms are straight.

I pull it in toward me, and I push it away and come back. So, right across the front of my body and then press it away. Now I'm getting arm work. So you notice what we did here. We started with mainly leg work.

Then we worked up to the center of the body, and now we're working more the upper body focus. Press away one more time. Press and come back in. Alright, now we've got match that on the other side. So, coming off, I'm gonna do the same thing, grab the strap on the same side.

Feed the pole through it. Adjust my hands, bend my knees, and secure my legs and space, and then rotate and press with this leg here really working those glutes. Push and come back, and exhale and come back. And again, press out and come back. Let's do two more.

Really push with that leg and back. And one more time. Press and come back. Whoo! Then I come on to the carriage and now we do our spine twist. So same position with my hands, hold the arms in a circle and rotate.

Notice I have the back strap here. That's gonna allow for more range. Rotate, inhale, come around. Exhale, rotate, inhale, come around. Keep the pole vertical.

Keep your eyes on it, so your head and neck follow the line of the spine. Let's do two more, focusing on the oblique work here, and back. Then shimmy a little bit closer to the edge of the carriage. Hold the arms long. Pull them in front and then press them out.

And let's use an exhale to push through. Inhale back. And again, press through and come back. We've got three more. Press and back.

Really good back, then really good chest work. Let's do one more. Pull and press. And come all the way back through. Okay.

So put that strap away. Be careful. You're gonna turn and face the front. Now, for our next one, this is gonna get really challenging really quickly. So I'm gonna just keep that one red spring on.

I face the foot bar in my front rowing position, and then I take strap on each side here, like so. Now you can keep your legs straight out in front of you. You can fold them in front of you like so as well, which is what I'm gonna do. Then I'm gonna scoot forward so I am not leaning against the shoulder rest. Really important, guys, you wanna be just in front of the shoulder rest.

Then grab on the outsides of the strap and begin with what we're calling a chest press. But as soon as you begin this, you're gonna realize that this work is actually in the core. You're gonna feel your abdominals working to keep you from sinking bank. Your back extensors working to keep the spine lifted, and your hip flexor is working to help you keep your pelvis in place. So let's just do two more, and one more.

That's enough because we've got a lot coming up. Now we're gonna switch our arm position, so check it out. I'm holding over the top of the strap. I'm gonna switch it now and take my hand underneath for the next exercise. So that when I lift the bar, the strap is above my shoulders.

I'm gonna keep my elbows bent, and I'm gonna lean forward as far as I can with that lengthened spine. I don't wanna be sunk into it here. I wanna be lifted up. And then I'm gonna press out by extending the elbows. I exhale press.

So, obviously triceps, but your lats are getting some work here, too, by holding that arm in place. And three more and back. Two, so it's similar to our salute. And one. Now I'm just gonna bend half way and I'm gonna sit up as tall as I can, breathing in.

Then I exhale, flex over. I'm flexing from head to tail and then I'm lengthening back up, from tail to head. Again, exhale, flex. Inhale, lengthen back up. Let's do it again.

Exhale, flex over. Only come down as far as you can until the straps hit your shoulders, and then come back up. If they're hitting too early, try lifting your arms a little higher. Let's do three more. Exhale, flex.

Inhale, lengthen up. You should be feeling this in the rectus abdominis and the obliques. Lengthen back up. We got two more, let's do two more. Exhale, flex.

Gotta love the abdominal work. One more time. Flex over, you made your own about machine, and then come all the way up. Bring the bar down in front of you so you can take the strap safely off one at a time, and place them back here. Whoo! Alright, so from there, we're gonna move on, and we're gonna go into our long box series.

So, take the box, and you're gonna place it right in front of the shoulder rest here, and let's get the straps out of the way so they don't get caught. And again, what's really great about this entire series of exercise is that I'm really staying with the same spring. Now you can adjust it up or down, but I'm gonna stay with that red spring for this next part. When you get onto the box, guys, you wanna get on as safe as possible. We take so much care with all of our exercises, and then we get on and off the equipment in kinda funky ways sometimes.

So I want you to think off is thigh on the box, not knee. If you kneed, you have to do a bellyflop. So make sure you put your thigh on the box. Then when you're resting in the correct position, your chest is off the box and the bottom of the ribs is on. If I was wearing a heart rate monitor the chest strap, it's right where the edge of the box is.

I'm gonna reach up the ropes. Now for this exercise, I'm gonna keep my spine. I'm doing plow, but I'm gonna keep my spine in one long line. I'm still working my back extensors, I'm still working my glutes and hamstrings just by holding myself in this straight line. Reach my arms up, and then I'm gonna pull back and release forward.

Keep the spine in one long line. Keep the abdominals engaged. And what I wanna do... Let me pick these up so that I'm not making as much noise here. What I wanna do as I pull back is glide the scapula together, and then lower back down.

Let's do that again. Pull back and then lower back down. Let's do two more, back, and lower down. Now don't finish this one, hold it back there. Make sure shoulders are open.

And all I want to do is rotate the humerus so that your palm ends up facing the floor. Take them out to the side and pull back right into airplane. Inhale out, exhale, pull back. Breathe in. Exhale, pull back.

Keep the abs connected. Don't lift the chest. Keep the body in one straight line from your head, down to your toes. Keep everything tight on that posterior side of the body. One more time, pull it back.

Hold your arms there. Turn your humerus so that your palms are again facing your side. Flex your elbows. And tricep presses for 10. Exhale, nine.

Eight, and seven. So your rear delts are working, your lats are working. This is such a great exercise. Let's do four more, three more, two more, last one. I'm gonna get one more in there.

Press and then release down. So from here, just to give your back a little stretch, put your hands on the headrest and just flex forward over that box. Breathe, and then come all the way back up, and we're ready to move on. Next, we're gonna go into our reverse knee stretches. So I'm gonna take this off.

I'm gonna grab these pads because I'll need them in a minute. And same spring. So, I'm gonna come on to my knees with my knees right against the shoulder rest and I'm gonna slide my hands up. So what I'm looking for here is to see how far forward I can take my pelvis in front of the shoulder rest and still keep my spine in a lengthened position. Make sure your shoulders are out of your ears.

Your abdominals are engaged. Keep your spine long and just fold the hips to bring the carriage underneath you. So think of sticking your but out to pull the carriage in. Knees come underneath. Five, and exhale, four, and three.

You're not just gonna feel this in the hip flexors. You're gonna feel your abs, you're gonna feel your lats you're gonna feel your triceps. Now I'm gonna add to it. Instead of keeping the spins straight, as I begin to pull the carriage under with my knees, I fold my hips under and drop my head, rounding my spin, and then lengthen back out. So from a neutral alignment to flexion.

Exhale, flex, and inhale, release back out. Woohoo! And exhale, pull legs. Feel the abdominals work here, and lengthen back out. Let's do two more. Bring your hips and your ribs close together and then lengthen back out.

We got this one more time. Pull it in, flex, now hold it there. Little pulses with the abs, five, and exhale, four, and three, and two. A little deeper, one. And then lengthen back out.

Now, just take the left hand, bring it over in front of the right hand, and we're gonna do a little oblique work. So from here, you're gonna pull in, flex, and come back out. Let your head drop to your arms as you pull in. So it's really what we did in our second exercises, but now we're focusing on the obliques on this right side. One more, and flex.

And lengthen, and then we just take the left hand over. Bring the right hand in front of it, and balance ourselves out there. Pull in, flex, lengthen back out. And again, exhale, pull. Be careful, the shoulders aren't going up into your ears.

Think lats here and back, and exhale, three, and back. Your goal is to bring your pubic bone on the top of your head as close together as possible. One more, and release all the way back. Oh my goodness. That's really tough.

Alright, we're moving on from there. We're gonna bring this foot bar back up. I don't know about you, but I am working up a sweat. Okay, so, I'm gonna put this in here. Be very careful.

It's still only one spring. So what I'm gonna do is put my hand son the foot bar first to safely step up onto the carriage. Heels down, spine rounded, and you wanna feel your weight on your feet. So, here is what your arms should be doing, and then you just place them there, elbows down. From here, keep everything the same, press the legs out.

Pull the feet back underneath you. Keep your weight in your heels. Only take the carriage back as far as you can with the heels down. And come back in, breathe in. Arms relaxes, breathe in, pull it in.

Keep really pulled up through the abdominals, two more. Try not to hit the stopper, control it. One more. And in, whoo! And come down from there. All right.

So from there, our next exercises is gonna be our long stretch. So I'm gonna do this a little differently than you may have seen it before. I'm gonna take that foot bar out of the way again. Here we go. And I'm gonna take these pads.

I'm gonna use the platform here. I'm gonna add a little cushion to it. And from there, I am gonna take my feet against the shoulder rest. Now again, one red spring, you may need to adjust that, depending on your strength and your size. So from here, I wanna make sure that the heel of my hand is really secure, and I'm looping my fingers over the front there, and I'm gonna push back into my plank.

Now, it's harder than it is on the foot bar, because more of your weight is on your upper body. My feet are against the shoulder rest. I'm gonna press back, lengthen away, and then come back in. Press only as far back as you can stabilize the spine, and then come back in. If you're lucky, you can kiss the springs and come back in.

One more time. Press away and come back in. Now we add a push up. We go down into our push up, we press up. We lengthen back and come back in.

Go down into your push up, press up. Back and come back in. One more time, down and lift. Press back. I always laugh when it gets hard and then go all the way back in and then lower your knees down.

For some reason, I find a lot of joy in that. Okay, we're gonna move on now. And from there, we're gonna move into our knee stretches. So I'm gonna start with my hands. They can be on the platform still, but I wanna get a little more range here.

So I'm gonna put them on the sides of the reformer, right on the wood. From there, neutral spine, press the carriage out, bring it in. Exhale, bring it in. That's it, and this is a warm up. So, out, bring it in, don't hit the stopper.

Two more time. Neutral spine as you do this. It's your little break, because now you're gonna do that without your knees touching. So lift the knees off, pull it in, pull it in. Again, a little more challenging than on the foot bar because more weight is on your body on your arms than on your feet here.

Let's do five, and four, and pull it in, three, and two. Now watch this, hold it out there. Pike, lift, out, knees, return. Lift, out, knees, return. Two more.

Lift, out, knee, return. One more, we can do it. Lift, out, knees, return, then slowly and with control lower the knees back down. Whoo! We are ready to cool it down, alright. So, we're gonna bring this foot bar back up.

That was awesome. Okay. I meant the whole thing, not me. Okay, so, that felt really good is what I'm trying to say. Alright, so I'm gonna turn my legs back.

I'm gonna keep that one spring on facing the side. And it's time for us to get a little breather. We're gonna do a little mermaid. Reach your arm up, stretch over to the side. Come on up and down.

Because what man doesn't wanna be a mermaid, okay? And reach up the other side, come over and up. If you've got a sensitive male, just call it a side bend. Reach over to the side, come up and down, and go to the other side. Reach and over, up and down.

Alright, real men do mermaid. Okay, now I'm gonna reach up, go over to the side. I'm gonna rotate. And here, I'm just gonna bend three times. My spine is flexed, my elbows are angled down.

One more time. Arms stay straight. I'm gonna push down on that foot bar, extend the spine, press all the way out. Oh my gosh, that feels great. Rotate to the side, come up, lower down, finish to the other side, and over.

Let's do that again because I kinda race through it. You're gonna inhale up, exhale over and turn. Inhale to bend the elbows. Exhale, press out. Do that three times.

On the third one, keep the arms long. Push down on the top of that foot bar so you extend your spine and rotation. Slide your scapula back. Press back out, flex. Slide back to the center and rotate to the side.

Come on up. Exhale, the arm goes down. The other arm goes up. Reach over to the side. Lift up and lower down.

You're just gonna spin around, face the other direction, and let's do a regular mermaid first. So from here, breathing in. Exhale, reach over. Come back. Think length here, lengthen up, and then over, and up and down.

Let's do that again. So think length through this whole side, reach up. Then length to this side as you're going over so you're not collapsing over. Come back up and down. Reach, lengthen over, up.

Let's add that rotation. Breathe in, exhale, start to laterally flex and then rotate. Hand on either side of the foot bar. Three bend and stretches with the elbows. Really feeling that lat stretch on that outside.

One more time, press down on the bar. Lift your thrust, draw your shoulders back. Press back out. Slide back to the center, come all the way up. Let's do the other side.

We've got one more to even this out. Breathe in, exhale over, and rotate. From here, bend and press. Three, and two, and one. Going my way.

And then press back out. Side back to the center, come all the way up. Reach up and over up and down. Alright, let's roll out those hips. So, for this, I'm gonna go to my three red springs again.

Headrest is down. I'm gonna come down onto my back on the carriage and put my heels on the bar. Breathe in. You should start in a neutral alignment. Make sure the headrest is down.

Exhale, articulate the spine up. Roll up to the top here. Now, once you're at the top, hips open, lumbar spine neutral, push the carriage out, keeping this lumbar neutral so your hips will lower. And come back in, raising up. Find your stopper.

Hold the carriage there as you articulate all the way down, and breathe, exhale. Stay there, breathe in. Exhale, press out. Inhale, come back up. Exhale, roll down.

Three times the charm. One more time. Exhale, breathe in. Exhale, press back. Drive the carriage back in, lifting the hips, and then roll down from top to bottom, and release to the bottom.

Now come on up here. And what I want you to do is start with just one heavy or one red spring. And then we're gonna take one foot against the shoulder rest here, and your other foot is gonna go up on the foot bar for a little single thigh stretch. Now from here, just make sure you're in contact with the foot bar with your fingers, and don't put a lot of pressure on your hands. Lengthen your spine, push through the back leg, and then lengthen away.

Stretch and then come back in. You're gonna exhale, push through that back leg, and stretch, and the come back in. We've got one more here. Back leg leads the way, and then just let the front leg stretch. Come back in, be very careful here.

Find your knee with the hand on the same side. Lift your other arm up and just give yourself a bit of a stretch. Back and return. Alright, let's go to the other side. So I like to have the heavy spring on, the side that I'm kneeling on, so that the carriage moves more smoothly.

Then I'm gonna put my foot against the shoulder rest. My opposite foot right up on the foot bar, and find the length in my spine to begin with. Then push with the back leg. Let the front leg lengthen. And then draw back in.

You should feel really good on the hip flexors after all of that work we did to them. Press away and come back, and we're gonna do that one more time. Lengthen away, reach come back in. Now again, find your stopper first, then hold on to your knee. Lift, balance, find your stretch, and then release down.

Be careful coming off of there, and that does it for my not so secret weapon anymore. I hope you enjoyed this workout. It was super fun for me. Thank you for joining me. I'm Pilates Anytime.

Good bye everybody.