Reformer on the Mat

Hi, I'm Zoey Trap, Peak Pilates Master Trainer and Program Director. And with me is Connie Borho, Peak Pilates Master Instructor and Leadership Team Member. She's graciously agreed to be my student today for reformer on the ball. You can think of this as the poor man's reformer. So let's get going.

Connie, turn and face the window. Take a big breath in, lift the ball up over your head, establish your Greek Column, cross one foot behind the other, lower the ball and yourself. Take your feet upon to the ball and roll onto your back for footwoork. Now, you wanna make sure your feet are up on top of the ball and not on the side of the ball or they're gonna slip off. Belly deep, take a big breath in.

And, exhale, pull back in. Stretch out evenly and return in. Work right through the center and in. And one more time, and in, and arches. Pull your knees together and stretch out.

Work the abs in opposition. Press all the way down into the hamstring, that's it. Stretch out and back in. And one more time and come in for heels. Move one foot at a time.

And push from the tush and back in. Press heel to seat. Hold even in the pelvis, one more time. Pull in and go out for tendon stretch. Stretch out.

And one, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. Reach through the heel, reach through the ball.

One more time. Reach out and stay here, go into Pilate Stance Hundred. Bring your chin to your chest, reach your arms long and pump. Inhale and exhale. Now press into the ball a little bit and fire up your seat.

And exhale. Breath in, breathe out. Fire up the chain in the back of the legs and exhale. Big pumps in with the air, out with the air. Breathe in, come right down onto the tips of your shoulder blades.

And last time, breathe in, and breathe out. And head goes down, bend your knees in, Short Spine Massage. Take the ball with your ankles, get a good ankle hold here. And let's just start this with a building block. So bring the knees up, press the ball out, and bring it back in.

And press out. Now you can either stay here, bring it back in, or let's advance it. Go out, lift up and over, tighten your seat, bend the knees, and roll your spine away, away, away. Press out one. Lift up and over two.

Bend the knees three. And roll away, away, away. One more time. In with the air, out, lift, bend the knees, and roll all the way down for Coordination. Take the ball in your hands.

And pull your knees into your chest and we shoot it out, one. Open and close the legs, bend the knees, bend the elbows. Out, open close just the knees, then the elbows. Inhales, exhale, exhale more. One more.

Little beat, pull it in, and pull it in, and rock right up for the Rowing Series. Go ahead, Connie, roll over your knees. And come up on top of the ball, bring it behind you. And take a seat. Sit with your feet wide for a little better balance and bring 'em closer together for a more challenging balance.

Rowing one. Inhale, pull your arms in, roll back, open the arms wide, dive forward, straighten the legs, lift the arms higher and circle down to the toes. And curl back in, roll back. Stretch and scoop. Wide and in reach, lift higher, and return around, and one more time.

Pull back with your abs, open and dive, and lift up higher and come around and sit up tall for rowing two. Bend the elbows. Inhale, lean back. Exhale, shoot out. Stretch forward, butterfly the arms around, belly deepens, and come back up to begin again.

Lean back, lift up, stretch out, circle the arms around, belly deepens, and come back up. And last time. Inhale, stretch to the corner, find the C-curve, reach it around. And come up for From the Chest. Inhale, press the arms out, and down the spine grows, lift in, scoop and stretch.

And press out from the chest. Keep the eyes steady and right on the horizon. And one more time. Out, down, lift, and now from the hip. Flex your feet and press out.

Lift up, up, up, up, up, up, up. And widen the arms, come home. And press out, belly deep to me. Lift up tall and widen. And one more time, push out belly deepens, and around, and then reach down for Shave the Head.

Lift the arms up. Look straight ahead, and elbows wide. Keep lifting the spine higher, higher, higher, one more and open for Hug a Tree. And inhale, exhale. Bring the pelvis back to me.

And one more. And come down onto the floor, turn around for the Long Box. Lie on your abs for Hand Curls. Bend the knees. Now, what you wanna do is really connect the heels into the seat.

Press the pelvis forward, scoop and press, press, press, release. And deepen the abs and press the pelvis into the mat and release. And press the pelvis down as your work the hamstring, and one more time, big press, two, three, and straighten the legs. And come around for Swan. Take the ball, kneel back, and place your pelvis on the ball.

Flex your feet and just start with the hands on the floor for more stability. Inhale, and just widen, eyeballs to the ceiling and come down. And now bring the hands onto the ball. And inhale, elbows pull backwards, lift up, and come down. And one more time.

Inhale, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift. And come down and press back for a little quick rest. And then return right onto the ball for Pulling Straps. Keep the feet flexed, reach out, so I'm gonna give you a little point of reference here. Now inhale, pull yourself up, and exhale down and long.

And inhale, keep the seat tight, and one more, eyes go to the horizon, lift and return for pulling straps two. Inhale, palms stay toward the floor, slight circle. Pull back, think knuckle to knuckle our little fingers touch. And belly deepens, come off, and take the ball for Backstroke. Cross your feet and roll right over yourself.

And bend the knees. And go up on one. Head up, two. And open the legs around, reach the ball, and holding, holding, holding, fold in. In with the air, go up.

Circle, and scoop, and stretch, and stretch, and stretch, and come in. And press out long like a canoe, hold, hold, hold, and come in. Reverse, out, two, three. Circle around. And fold in.

Eyes stay steady into the center, circle around and in. And last time. And come down and put the ball underneath your feet for the Teaser series. Lie on your back, palms facing up. Press into the ball, activate the seat, and inhale, curl up, pump the arms one, keep pressing, two, and three, reach through your fingers and toes and roll down reluctantly.

Lengthen, and come right back up again. Circle the arms from the back. Around and lift the spine tall. Hold and reach through the fingers and toes and roll down, down, down, down, down, and come up, big breath. Reverse your circles.

And you think you're almost done, but you're not. (laughs) And roll all the way down and come up for a little fun. Come up for Windshield Wipers. Roll the ball one way, I know you love me and go the other way. Pull the abs back in opposition, work around the center.

One more and come back to center. And roll all the way down. You can thank me tomorrow. Short Box. Bend your knees in.

Take the ball with your hands and rock up to a seated position with your legs long in front of you. Let the ball rest, keep the arms long, and bring the chin to the chest and roll all the way down. Reach yourself into the mat and use your abs to come off the mat. Keep reaching out through your heels. And pull back down, long and strong.

Paint a stripe on the mat. And pull your ponytail over your head to go forward. And one more time, down you go. And come all the way up, hands to the side of the ball, lift up for Flat. And hinge back and sit taller.

And hinge back, grow taller. And lift the ribs off the waist. And one more time. Stretch out of yourself, and side. Center.

And reach out, lengthen both sides of the waist. Think armpit to the corner. Again, one more time each side. And lower the ball, release the shoulders, and then, lift up for Twist and Reach. Pinch your bottom, twist.

Reach to the back corner of the mat and come up. See if you can keep the arms by the ears. Twist, lift, and reach and scoop it up. That's it, send the tail under. Lift, twist, and pull up.

And be dynamic on that up 'cause you don't wanna get hung out. And reach and lift out. We only hang out laundry. (laughs) And come on up. And take a seat on the ball for Tree.

Now if you're balance challenged, you can stay on the floor for the Tree. Again, feet wide. A little easier than feet in. Connie's gonna hook her right elbow under the knee and the other hand steadies the ball. And I'm gonna stay away from the ball and let her struggle a bit.

Pull the sits bones together and kick the leg, one. kick the leg, two. Kick the leg, three. Climb your tree, one, two, three, now stretch up. Lift up, lift up, lift up, and sit like a man.

Hook the knee and the elbow. Just go wide, round forward. Take a breath and come up, belly deep, feet down. Reclaim your balance. Pull your sits bones together and then take your left side.

There ya go. And kick, one. Pull your abs to me, two. Last time, three. Climb your tree.

Lift the waist. And sit like a man, hands to the ball, take a breath. And Side Situps. Turn, and put your right knee down, extend your left leg out. And then, you really need to ground this leg.

If you're having trouble, you can go against a wall. And start with your hand on the floor and come up. And now bring both hands behind the head, a little more challenging. I'm gonna come up, and put my foot right here for Connie to press into. And she's gonna come up, and think of lengthening out through a diagonal line.

Make yourself taller, taller, taller, and turn your body, take a little stretch here. Yeah. And then come up, kneel on both knees, and swing the ball to the other side. Hip against the ball, hand on the floor is the easiest. And then start by reaching out, and then climb up a little higher on the ball, and you can take this incrementally so.

Up and long out. And work for a nice square box and then take your well deserved stretch. Stretch, stretch, stretch. And we're so glad we're done with the short box. Come up for the Long Stretch series.

Why don't you go back a little bit on the mat. And you can stop anywhere along the way that you want to, but place your pelvis on the ball and shoot out. Let's do the first one here, so feet up. And press back and pull forward. Try to keep the legs horizontal.

And take a step out, go a little further. Pull the legs into the center line and go out with the seat and in with the abs. And maybe a little bit farther to the end of the mat, and press out in one line, and one more time. And now come all the way back in, walk one hand at a time, and kneel down for Down Stretch, hands on top of the ball. Inhale, eyeballs look up.

Push your pelvis into the ball, scoop, and then bend and straighten the arms, four. And three, that's it. And two, everything nice and strong together. And hold. Bring the chin to the chest, roll up for the Elephant.

Flex your feet, lift your toes, and align the hips right over the heels. Put weight on the big toe side to fire up the inner thighs, and then slide out with straight arms and pull back up with the abs. And slide out, keep the hips right over the heels, try to shift your weight a little more forward, out, that's it. Scoop it in. And use your abs and lats to pull you in.

And one more time. And let's go to Stork. Lift one knee up toward the nose and out and in just two times. And in, good job, another leg. And knee to nose, and out and in.

Glue those sits bones together, and bring the foot down. Arabesk two. Bring a leg behind you, flex it, and reach into me. Pull the hip crease back, out and in, one. And out and in, two.

And bring the leg in. Other leg comes out. Reach to me. Square the hips. And out and in.

And one more. And come all the way in. Turn around and sit on your ball for the Long Back Stretch. Take the feet apart for a wide base of support. Now we're really gonna challenge your triceps here.

And your stability. Lift your hips off the ball, and dip. Bend your elbows and straighten and lift. And bend and stretch up and lift. Push the ball through the floor.

And sit back down, well done. And the dance of the pads continues. So take yourself down for Stomach Massage. Feet, again, high on the ball. And hands round.

Lift your pubic bone all the way up to your naval and go out. Point flex, and pull in. And stretch, point flex, and in. Keep using your hands to generate more length in the spine, one more. And now reach up to your toes, bring the hands behind you.

Lift tall and pull in, go out. Flex and point. And flex and point. Steady ready, one more. Stay here and reach into me.

And bend your knees and come out. Keep reaching to me, come on, come see me. And one more. Now, bend the knees in and twist. And come in and twist.

Press down into the ball, twist one more. And twist, monkey stretch. Take your ankles, fold forward, breathe deep, and keep your feet right here. Take your hands behind you for Tendon Stretch. Feet in pilates stance.

Lift your hips up, nose to naval, and come through and press. Pull in and press. One more time. And gently sit down. Overhead.

Take the ball with your hands, adjust on the mat a little bit, and roll onto your back with the ankle grip. So, ball in there. Now, stretch your legs away a little bit and bring your arms up to the ceiling. Step one, just bring the legs in, arms come down. And return longer.

So you can stay here, or advance it. Press down, lift the hips up. And then roll down, long and strong. And reach the ball and the arms away. And over up.

And fold and come down. And one more time. Go over up, hold the ball in the ceiling as you roll all the way down and bend your knees for Semi Circle. Take your feet wide on the ball, kinda position them up and we go. Lift the hips up, one.

Press the ball out, two. Bend the knees in, three. And just do that a few times. There ya go, one more. And now let's advance it to full semi.

Up, out, articulate down with long legs, and then pull in. One more time. Up, out, articulate down, and come in to reverse. Go out. Lift the hips, pull in, and roll down.

And one more time. Out, lift the hips, in, and down. Chest Expansion. Cross your feet, roll right up, and hold the ball in the air. Now, ready, pull the ball down.

Look to the right, look to the left, and exhale fully. In with the air, look, look. And return. Pull the ribs in and one more time. Empty all the air out.

And hold the ball there for Thigh Stretch. Flex your feet and lower your chin, lean back a little bit, and come forward. Think of hinging back from your gluteal folds and one more time. And then come up and put the ball behind you. Put it between your ankles and your seat.

Flatten your feet. And then kind of hold onto it there. Reach your arms out in front of you. And your hands can either go low or high, however you prefer to do this. Reach back into the ball, drape yourself back, and bring your chin to the chest first before you come up, one more time.

Come back, and gather the chin, the chest, the ribs, the waist, and round forward. Take the ball with your hands and take a moment of rest. Breathe into the back and then come up for Kneeling Arms. Place your pelvis into the ball, lean into the wind, flex your feet. And pull your ribs away from the ball and the palms face up and pump the arms, one.

And two, and three, and circle the arms. Work from the upper back and stay lifted away from the ball, and reverse at the eyes. Pull down and lengthen the spine, and one more time. And hands come to the ball. Let's go onto Corkscrew.

Cross your feet and take the ankles around the ball. Arms can be down and anchored, and let's just start with corkscrew one. Grip this with your inner thighs and do a small circle around, and scoop and stop and reverse. Let's advance it. Come around to me like you're doing the rollover, and then roll down all the way, pelvis flat, and circle the legs around to the center.

And pull down and then circle around sweep the legs, reach the ball behind you, pull your abs in opposition to come down, circle the legs around, pelvis still. And last time. And come down and circle. And bend the knees in to the chest to finish. Take the ball with your hands, cross your feet and flip right over for the Knee Stretch series.

We're gonna do this two ways. So option one. Come into your C-curve, really round back here. Hollow out your abs and bring your head up into my hands, there ya go. Now, sit back just a little more, Connie, and we go straight arms.

So roll, no straight arms. So you're gonna pull up. There ya go. And you round down. So it's just a little different than the knee stretch on the reformer.

And one more, and then flip your tail the other way. Lift your pelvis and come in. And come in. Press into the ball lightly, and now hold. Get your hands on top of the ball, turn 'em sideways a little for knees off.

Lift up and bump the ball with your right knee, left knee, that's it. Keep the knees low instead of on top of the ball, bump low, one more. And hooooo. Let's do it on the ball. So stand up, take your knees onto the ball.

Come into your long stretch position, go out, and in. Pull out, and pull in. One more time around. And now flip the tail, and come in. Sits bones high, pull in.

One more. And now take your time and move one foot at a time into Knees Off. Bend your knees, pull the ball underneath you. Eyes in, pull your eyes to your abs, head down, and go. One foot at a time.

And we go out, pull in. Head to knees. Knees to head. Awesome, one more. Now, quietly step down.

One foot, other foot. And take a nice stretch there. Bring the ball in front of you and take a minute, yeah. That is really, really hard. So if you don't feel confident at home, don't do it.

Alright, here we go. Let's stand up nice and tall. And hold the ball in the hands for running. Bring your feet together. Releve up, belly deep, and bend one knee and lift, and lift.

So use the ball here like a power circle. Give it a little hug, and lift, and prance, and lift, and lift, and come down. And here we go for Pelvic Lift. Cross one foot behind the other. Roll right onto your back and take the feet wide on the ball.

You've worked really, really hard so I'm gonna give you a nice exercise before we do Pelvic Lift. Let the feet and knees open a little wider here. And then keeping the pelvis flat, just slide out. So just a nice stretch for the hips and the groin. Work evenly through both sides.

(sighs) It's like dessert, right? (laughs) And one more time. And then bring the feet, make sure they're up high enough on the ball and wide for Pelvic Lift. And hips go up to the bottom rib, go out. And pull in.

Press out, and in. Good job with the seat. Keep pressing into the ball and come right down here on this bottom rib, there ya go. Hold the bottom ribs like they're a big, wide band. And one more and then come all the way down.

Take the ball with your hands, rock up to a seated position, and then come to a stand for the Side Splits. So face forward and really lift out of this right hip. Bring your left foot up onto the ball, turned out. And square off here. And then extend the leg out and pull it in.

And extend out and in. Keep rolling the knee back. One more time. Now hold here, go out with a straight leg. And take a nice side stretch, like Ballet Stretch series.

And then arms go wide, bend the knee in, and take the ball to the other side. Take a minute to lengthen out of the left hip. And roll the knee open and we go out an in. Think of moving the ball from the seat and the high thigh verus the foot aligning all the way down. And then hold out here on this next one and stretch up and over.

Reach, reach, reach, and open the arms wide and bend the knee, come in. And turn to face me for the Front Splits. So, feet in pilates stance, lift up, and hold onto the ball. Reach the ball out, and again, use it like a power circle. Bend your right knee in and then lunge back into Front Splits position.

Yeah, anchor down through this heel and lift this back arch up. And then straighten the front leg and bend the knee. And keep reaching through this back leg, keep the knee bright, and one more time. Bend the knee, stay, inhale, reach the arms over your head and bring the ball down into the front knee. Put the hands on top of the ball and then lunge out.

Move the hands out, keep the knee up. Knee up, knee straight. Yeah, and go out, and in, yeah. Out and one more time. Now keep the arms straight here and straighten the front leg.

And then bend the front knee. And straighten the front leg. And bend the knee. Work to bring the hip crease back and one more time. And this time, bend the knee, bend the back knee, turn for lunge.

Put the ball right into your right hip. Lean into it. Hold there, and pull your abs in and think of curling your tail under. So you've got a big stretch already and then bring the right arm up alongside the ear and stretch over to me. Reach up to me, reach up to me, reach up to me.

And the hand goes to the ball and then drag the other leg in to pilates stance. Eyes in, head down, and curl all the way up to start again. Hold the ball out, lift the other leg up, and then reach it back into pilates stance. Lift the back of this arch and kind of nail down the pinky toe side. And straighten the leg, and bend.

Keep pulling the back leg forward and the front knee back as a squaring mechanism. Go down, hold, and put the ball on the floor. And take it out. Bend the front knee, and just take it out. Keep the knee bent, and one more time, there ya go.

And now, go out, stay out, and straighten the front knee. Little bit like Russians here and then bend the front knee. And now come up. And now go out and keep lifting this right hip, one more time. And come all the way in.

Bend the knee, keep it bent this time. Bend the back knee, rotate to lunge. And put the left hip in the ball. Pull the belly deep, send the tail under and reach the left arm way up high. Turn the arm to the air and the ear to the arm and stretch over, over, over, and bring the hands back to the ball.

Slide the ball slightly forward and pull back into pilates stance, head down, look at the ball as you come up. Thank you and have a great day.