Play on the Tower

Are you ready to play on the tower? I am. Here we go. So what we'll do is just start standing in an upright position. Look down at your feet before you go any further, and just make sure that they're facing forward straight ahead.

And then organize the bones of the knees over the ankles, the pelvis over the knees, the shoulders over the pelvis. The top of the head reaching towards the ceiling, the ears reaching back and up. And take the arms out to the side, and reach out wide so that you could in our imagination, touch both sides of the room, or touch east and west in an infinite direction. Reach the arms up, allow the chest to come with you. Press the arms back out wide, creating energy through the arms, lift the spine back up so it comes back upright, take a breath in...

And exhale, bring the chin into the chest, and as you roll down, feel that you're lifting through the center of your body. So just taking stock of where you are in space today, where you are in your body. Dropping the top of the head towards the floor, elongating the spine down, inhale. Exhale, lift through the center of the body, push down with the feet as you roll yourself up. Bring the arms, again, out to the side, up to the ceiling, to the sky, reaching up, drawing the abdominals in for support.

Push the arms out to the side, start creating moving energy in your body. Inhale. Exhale, chin comes into the chest, roll the spine down. Lifting in opposition through the abdominals, checking in, or checking out, maybe. Checking out from whatever else is going on, besides from within you.

And rolling up. Giving yourself permission to be 100% involved with... This moment. Reaching out, reaching up. Interlock the fingers, turn the palms of the hands up, and then reach up and over to one side.

As you exhale, round the spine, allow the arms to just fold, fall into the center, complete the circle, reaching to stretch the opposite side, and lift up. And inhale as you reach up to go over. Exhale, draw the abdominals in, feel the spine hang forward, reaching down towards the floor, and then over to the other side. Lift all the way up, bring the arms apart, and down. I have set up on my tower the roll up bar...

About shoulder level. The purple springs, purple leg springs, about... Arm pit level. And two red springs on the bottom for foot work when we get there. So that's how we're gonna go today.

Take the roll up bar in your hands, lengthen and stretch out through the legs, we're gonna bring the bar into the chest, and lift the spine up. Take the arms forward, as that happens, articulate into a rounded spine, and then roll the spine all the way back. Feel the legs are stretching out in front of you. The spine is being placed on the mat. The head comes down, the head comes back up, inhale.

Resist the pull of the springs as you roll up, allowing the springs to pull up, or pull you up, but you stay connected, stay connected, committed to the center of the body. Inhale, lift the arms up, lift the spine up, and the elbows. Exhale, reach forward, round the back, roll back, again, stretching the legs out... Infinitely longer. Laying the back of the head down.

Inhale, the head, chest, and spine. Exhale, work into your flexion, rounding the spine up. Keep the eyes more forward than down. Bend you arms, lift your back. Inhale, arms forward, exhale, articulate.

Rounding down. Laying the spine down. Inhale, head, chest come up, find your abdominals. Exhale, round. Shoulders over the pelvis.

Inhale, bring the bar into the chest. Stretch the arms forward one more time, exhale to roll down. Roll down, roll down, roll down. And lift the head and chest, and articulate the spine up. And bend the arms to lift the back.

Take the arms out straight. Roll all the way down onto the mat again, tucking the tail under, working through the lowerest, the low part of the spine. I suppose your spine has a lowerest spot too, doesn't it? Gonna lift the head and chest up here. Connect into the abdominals, resist the pull of the springs as you roll up, keeping the pelvis in a neutral alignment.

Inhale to roll back down. So from the chest lift position, we curl up a little higher, the bar goes just over the knees, and inhale down. And exhale, using the breath to create depth through the body. And lift. And down.

We'll do about five more. Up... And down. And curling in, four. And down.

And three. Keeping the shoulders soft, keeping the work happening through the center of the body. Last time. Lifting up. And coming back down, and then rotate to the left, bringing the right rib across towards the left pelvis, the left ribs towards the left pelvis.

We lift in rotation, and inhale down. And exhale, lift in rotation, and inhale down. And (deep breath). Using the breath, the exhale breath to lift, the inhale breath to lower, or whatever breath makes sense to you, but make sure that you're breathing, and make sure that you're using your breath to create muscular awareness. Last two.

And... One. Coming back through center, rotating across to the opposite side, sliding the right ribs towards the spine, the left ribs across towards the right side of the pelvis. We lift, and come back. And. (deep breath) So don't just allow the springs to do your work for you, as you know, you wanna feel that there is constant attention into the concentric, as well as the eccentric contraction.

The shortening and the lengthening contractions. Last four. Feel the deep connection at the end of the exhale. Three. And two.

And last time. Come down, come through center. Lift up high enough so that you can lift your feet off the mat, and put your feet over the top of the bar. Leave the bar, and roll down. And inhale.

And as we exhale, we're gonna roll up into a pelvic roll, or into a bridge. Feeling that the springs are pulling us forwards. Pause as you inhale, lifting the hips high. And then as you exhale, allow that pull of the springs to give you a little bit of traction as you wind your way down through your spine, dropping the tailbone all the way down and back. Again, breathing in.

Again, breathing out as you articulate up, heavy heavy connection through the center of the body, light through the arms, wide and open with the shoulders, and exhale to roll down. And inhale, we'll do three more. Exhale, articulate, feeling the springs pull the knees forward, let the springs continue to pull the knees forwards as you lay your spine back down into the mat. Working specifically in that lower spinal area, dropping down, inhale, exhale, curling the pelvis up. Pressing up high, inhale.

And exhale to roll down. So here's our last one. That's too bad, I love this exercise. Exhaling to lift the pelvic curl. One of my most favorite things to do.

And exhale to roll back down. As the pelvis is coming down this time, lift the head and chest, and reach for the bar. Bend the knees into the chest. This is tricky, I don't know if I can do this very beautifully today, but we're gonna see. We're gonna roll like a ball with the bar.

So I'm pulling my knees in towards me, I'm pulling the bar in towards me. I'm deeply rounded in the lower back. Press the knees into one another, inhale, rock back, and exhale to come up and balance. Inhale, bring the bar with you, rock back, exhale up, find your balance. Inhale, rock.

Exhale up. We'll do two more. Rock back, and lift up. Last time. Rock back.

Lift up. Slide the bar out from underneath the knees, and put it away. So I'm actually gonna take that down, 'cause I want it to get out of my way all the way. So we're gonna set up the safety strap now. And we're gonna bottom load the push through bar.

All right, so, we're gonna lie down on the mat. Scoot right back to the end, and push the bar away. So we'll start on the heels of the feet. Organizing ourselves so that we are able to press the pelvis down and back. And then notice, if by attempting to press the pelvis down and back, the center of the back is lifted, or the ribs are lifted, and let them be heavy as well.

And then bend the knees, inhale. Press the pelvis down, stretch the legs up. Inhale, this is a really opportune time for you to check out what's happening, right? Check the ankle alignment with the knee alignment, the hip alignment with the ankle alignment, that will be manifested in the knees. So we just look for those nice straight lines.

Bend, abdominals draw in, bar goes away. And bend, abdominals go in, bar goes away. Just last one, inhale to bend, exhale to press to straight. Come on to the toes. So we'll push up with the feet, so the feet stay and plantar flexion here, and we'll bend and press the pelvis down, stretching the bar away.

Inhale, pull the bar in, and exhale, tailbone down as you reach up. So just doing a full range, a working range on the in, working range on the out, and bend, and press, we'll do two more. And last one. From the top, allow the heels to swivel together, keep the toes on the bar. Press the heels into one another as you bend.

Tailbone presses down, legs stretch up. Inhale, bend, exhale press. So again, feel the sense of dragging the bar to you, let that be maybe more work than the press the bar away. Drag the bar towards you. Press the bar away.

And we'll do four more here, stretching away. And three. Abdominals drive as we push the bar away. Last two. And one more.

So we're gonna step the feet out wide, resting the heels on the bar, and bringing the feet out to the outside of the bar. Bend the knees, drop the bar down towards the pelvis, drop the pelvis down as you stretch. Feel as you're working through this range of motion, there can be a sense of actually trying to slide the legs together on the bar. Inhaling as you bend, feel the inner thighs contract, slide the heels, the legs together on the bar. And we'll do four.

And bend. And three. And bend. Drawing down and back, two. And last time.

and then coming back to the center of the bar on the toes. Just work through our full foot range. So going into dorsiflexion, and then rolling into plantar flexion, and pull back. And reach forward, and pull back. So feel that you're not just letting the springs pull your feet down, but you're actually using the muscles in front of the shin, in the front of the shin, to pull the bar beyond where the springs pull to, to accentuate and exaggerate the stretch through the back of the legs.

Just last one. And we'll alternate our feet, just five to each side. Bend, pull, meet in the middle in the high. So we meet in the high position and switch. Meet in the high position and switch.

Up, and then down. And up, and then down. We'll do two more to each side, watching as the bent knee comes straight through the center of the body. Last time. Just pausing there to give a stretch, letting the weight of the springs press the pelvis down, feel this stretch through the whole backside of the leg.

And then change legs, and just sit with that stretch for a moment, letting the weight of the bar press down on the legs. And then bend the knees. Take the feet out, remove one spring. Bring your hands underneath the bar. I'm moving just a little bit further back.

We're gonna head into the bottom loaded roll up. So pressing the bar away, pointing through the feet, pressing the legs together, lift the head and chest, look in front of you. As you exhale, roll yourself up all the way until your body is sitting up straight. Bend the elbows, feel that elbows are slightly in your periphery there, turning slightly forward, feel that you press the bar up by pulling the scapula down, and then as you start rolling down, feel the shoulder blades wrap around to connect into the rib cage. Keep the head just above the spine, and roll all the way down.

Inhale as the head and chest come up. Exhale as you look in front of you, and roll up to an extended spine position. Bend the elbows, lengthen the spine up as the arms reach up, and then exhale as you peel down. Peel down. Peel down.

And we'll do that one more time like so. I'm scooting myself back each time. Head's gonna end up hanging over the end. Gonna roll up, stabilizing the shoulder blades. Bend.

Press. And now, roll down. Roll down, here comes the surprise, stay on the low back, slide the knees in, stretch the legs out, and lift the legs up. So keep the body lifted against the spring, take one leg down. So we scissor split the legs.

And pull back, push forward. Pressing the bar up with the intentional flexion of the spine. Last time. Both legs up, externally rotate the legs, and then both legs down, keep that lower back still, and lift. Both legs down.

And lift. How low can the legs go before the low back wants to lift, that's where you're challenging yourself. And lift. Last two. And pull.

One more, down. And pull. Come back to parallel, bend the knees, feet go down, legs stretch out, and the body comes all the way down. From there... You're gonna stretch the body away until the arms are straight.

Gonna bring the feet back underneath the bar. So again, trying to find a place where the tailbone is heavy, if not all the way down. And we're gonna press the bar away from you energetically as you now roll the spine up. Up, up. Using the abdominals for support, but also, there's a lot of back extensor work happening here.

Use the hamstrings for control as you bend. And stretch. And now come down. Rolling away, reaching the spine long on the mat. As the pelvis comes down, cape the shoulder blades down.

Flex the feet. Point the feet. Exhale, roll the spine up. Inhale at the top, bend just to about 90. And stretch.

And exhale to roll down. Again, use the push away with the feet, the push away with the feet to create challenge through the back of the legs. Dropping all the way back, all the way down, we'll do two more. Exhaling to roll up, straight legs. Inhale at the top, bend, stay connected to the center of your body.

Stretch up. And down. Down. Down, scapula wide. Feet in alignment, Meredith.

And last time. Rolling up. Resist the urge to look at the feet when they're over the back of you, so you're not lifting your head, you're not flexing your cervical spine. And exhale, rolling down. I guess...

All the way. Flex through the feet, reach for the bar, and pull down. See if you can straighten your legs all the way. Keep the bar in your hands, take the feet off, and come up. Let's undo that bottom loaded spring.

Undo the safety strap. And put that out of the way. We'll come down for a little bit of hip work. So lying down on our backs again, taking the... Feet into the straps.

Arms again, reaching overhead, heels pressed together, and from there into a frog, so press out and pull in. Feel that the heels slide on a straight line, and in. The ribs are soft. The tail is down. There's always tension on those springs, always tension on the springs.

We'll do three, wrapping from the back of the legs. And two. And one. So now, press the legs down, up, around and together. Down, up, around and together.

And down, up. Working the legs independently, but cohesively. Independently but evenly. Good, from the top, reverse. Go out, down together and inhale.

Open, press down together, and inhale. Open, press down, keeping the arms strong. Just gonna do two more. And last one, so we'll do a little one sided challenge now. Keep the right leg where it is, lift the left leg up.

Out, and down. Up, stabilizing the pelvis, out and down. Up, out and down, reverse that. Go out, up, press together. Out, up, press together.

Out, up, press together, both legs come up. And now press down. Left leg stays, right leg comes up. Open, and down. Inhale, open, and down.

Inhale, open and down, reverse, go out, up, and press together. Out and up, oh, one side might be a little bit less stable than the other, I've found my unstable side. And back together, both legs up. And bend, take the feet out of the straps. So, somewhere close by, you should have your roll up bar, let's grab that.

Put it back up. I'm putting it, again, on the hooks that are just... Slightly higher, a little bit higher than my own shoulders. And take that bar and scoot back. So what I want us to do here is take a breath in.

As we exhale, we're gonna press the bar to the hips. Turn and look over one shoulder, center. Turn and look over the other shoulder, center, and resist. And press the bar down. Let's change the direction of the head, turn, center.

Turn, center. And forward, two more. Press down, feel the center of the back working. Head.. Center.

Head, center. Arms forward. One more, press down. And head. Center, and head, center.

And forward. Scoot back a little bit more, gonna bring the bar into the chest as we hinge back into the thigh stretch. Gonna press the bar down the front of the body, bring the bar out in front of you, just about underneath the shoulders, and then roll the pelvis us, pressing down on the springs creating like, a reverse pike, until you're upright. Bend the arms, hinge. Press the bar down the front of the body, roll over it.

Comes down just underneath the shoulders, and then we continue to press it down, down, down, down as we lift up. Let's do two more, pull in, and hinge. Press forward and down. Continue to push down as you lift up. And one more, pull in and hinge back.

Press the bar down the front of the body. Bring it in front of you. Roll up. And... Straighten up.

I have a pair of handles nearby, I didn't tell you about that, but that's a surprise, I suppose. So here they are. If you need to go get yourself some handles, go do that now. So I'm gonna hook my handles up to my yellow springs. Short yellow springs.

Bring my handles with me, and turn around. So, bringing your arms out to your sides, hinge forward at the knees, and take the arms out in front of you. Turn the arms down, reach up with the arms. Open the arms. And come across the center.

Inhale as the arms reach, keep the body stationary. So once you find your lean, then nothing happens, you just stay nice and still and press through. And inhale, reaching up. And open, and center. And inhale, reaching up.

And open, and center, last time. Reaching up, leaning into your spring, and open, and center. Now we'll take it the reverse. So we go out. Up, press in front of you.

Keep the shoulder blades wide on the back. So they'll rotate, but they don't come together. Stay out to the outsides of the body, abdominals are working. It's quite a heavy spring, for me anyway, you could make it lighter by scooting back, or heavier by scooting forward. Always in charge of your own springs.

We're gonna do two more. And press down, last time. Out to the side, up overhead, and press down. Bend the elbows, re stabilize. One arm goes forward, and forward.

For now we keep the trunk still. And three, of five. Two, of five. One, of five. Let's add rotation, so we twist.

Center, twist. Feel that the rotation's happening in the spine more than the pelvis, try to keep the pelvis still. Three. And three. And two.

Two. One. One. And all the way up. Take the arms down for just a moment, and bring one leg forward.

Organize so that leg slightly in front of the knee, the foot's slightly in front of the knee. Lift the arms up overhead, rotate the pelvis under so it's slightly in a slight posterior rotation. Keep the springs back, so as you hinge forward into your hip flexor stretch, you get a little shoulder stretch as well. Pressing the shin of the back leg down into the mat, keeping the glute of the back leg strong. Push with the front leg, and take your arms down for a moment, put that leg down.

Switch sides. Arms reach up. Don't fall over, Meredith. Abdominals in, a long spine, and hinge. If this is too much on your shoulders, you could go out to the outside.

I like the up overhead position, that feels good to me, pushing the shin down into the mat, squeezing the back of the leg. And push through the front leg to come up. And put those away. Let's actually take them all the way off. I need one red spring, I'll take it from the bottom.

Could also choose a blue spring here if that's a better choice for you. I don't think I want it at the top, it's gonna go... On this almost the highest notch. All the way to the top is gonna be a little too heavy for me, make sure your leg springs are out of the way. So placing the feet, we'll keep them in a little bit of rotation of the hips, and a little bit of external rotation just to avoid the push through bar.

Starting with the elbows bent, gonna press the bar down. Roll backwards. Push into your feet, lift your chest, so you're back into a flat back, and then extend the spine back. Up and back. Come back through your around back, and push the bar forward over the legs.

Pause there to inhale. Roll back. Hold. Take the left arm off the bar, keep both feet on the bars, reach that left arm out around and back. Circling the arm to come up near the ear, side bending to the right.

Reaching energetically through the left leg. Take the arm back around to the side, come back to the bar. Stay in rotation, in posterior tilt with the pelvis and a round lower spine as you take the arm, the right arm off the bar, reach behind you, and then allow the arm to start rotating upwards, or rotating around towards the head, side bending to the left. Reach back around, back to the bar, and then bend your elbows to sit up. Press down.

Roll back. Deepen, find a stretch. Lengthen out to straight. Press slightly downwards on the bar as you reach up and back through your spine, up and back through your spine, and then come back to straight, and round spine, and take the bar forward. That's actually...

Lighter than I thought, so it might be fine to have the spring attached to the top. And back into the round spine, left arm out. And back. And then up and around overhead. And back.

And obliques bring us home. And then right arm reaches out and back, pushing through the right leg, side bending to the left. Oh, this feels so good. I hope you're enjoying it as much as I am. Reach back behind you, come back through center, and bend the arms to sit up.

I am actually, for the next bit, gonna let the spring come all the way to the top. So we're gonna take the bar now, be careful with the springs, bring it through, and lie down. I like to make sure I'm in the middle. So from here, bend the arms, let the elbows from slightly down into your periphery, lift the head just off the mat, but now, keep the head hanging down as the arms stretch up, then lift the spine up. Allow the head and the spine to drop back through, bend the elbows wide, and send the bar forward.

So, inhale, bend the elbows. Don't squeeze the shoulder blades together, if anything, separate them more to straighten the arms, and then lift the spine. And then drop the head down between the arms. And bend the elbows, and release back through. Two more, inhale, elbows bent, and arms stretch, exhale, lift the body up.

Inhale, drop the body down, and exhale to follow through with your arms. Inhale, elbows bent. Exhale as you lift your spine up. Inhale as you drop back through. Exhale, this time keep the body lifted, take the arms out in front of you so you're up in thoracic extension, lift the legs off the mat, flex through the feet and beat.

Beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat, working through the hips, working through the abdominals to support the spine. Point the feet and make a circle for eight, seven, working through the hips. Four, three, two, one and reverse. Down and up. Working the heels together, trying to make...

Similar sized circles, if not completely even circles. Last four. Three, two, one. And take the legs down. So to come up, we're gonna bend the arm, I'm gonna let one arms come down for support, bend the arm and take the spring up.

Come up onto the knees, and just for a moment sit back into a resting position, a child's pose. And then roll your way up through your spine until you're up on your knees again. Scoot into the bar, put the hands on the bar. Draw the abdominals in and up. Push the bar down.

And now from there, begin to roll the spine down. So we're working to keep the hips right over the knees. You're gonna reach out with the spine. Shoulder blades down, abdominals in. Inhale.

And then press the pelvis forward, right as you get... Through the lower back, that's where it's the most challenging, you wanna get the hips right over the knees, come all the way up through the body, and bend, and press down. And draw in, focusing inwards, focusing inwards as you reach out. Feeling support from the front of the body as you lengthen the back of the body, and then roll back up, push the bar away from you, push the shins into the mat. Up.

Bend. And one more, pressing down. And reaching through. Elongating outwards. This time, take the body down further, get a little shoulder stretch.

Come back to your straight line, tuck the pelvis under, push the bar away, get the hips over the knees, and come all the way up, and bend the arms, and take the bar down. And we'll finish the way we started. Standing on the floor. Not falling over, like that. Finding your way over your feet, taking the arms out and up.

Reaching up over head, allowing the chest to lift up. And then push out. And take the head down. And then roll down. Tucking in again.

How do you feel now? Different? The same? Utterly transformed? I don't know.

And roll up. How do I feel? I feel easier in my body right now. I hope that you do too. We'll do that one more time, taking the arms out and up.

Reaching back. Out to the side, down to the legs, down to the floor. Keeping the pelvis right over the feet. Right over the feet all the time. Pause there and inhale.

And exhale to lift. Thank you for taking class with me.