Reformer for Basketball

Hi, I'm Troy McCarty. This is my student, Shelby. Today, we're gonna explore a class that we do in Cleveland a lot. We work with the basketball team there, so it's a big honor, and we work with very, very, very tall athletes, all right, so thanks for clicking and giving me a chance to work with you. Shelby, if you'll lay down, we're gonna start with footwork, so I have three red springs.

Usually with my ball players, I put on that blue, but we're gonna work with three, and we're gonna put our heels up on the bar, and we're gonna be parallel right across from your two seat bones, right. So usually when I put my ball players up on the foot bar, I'm amazed, because usually here's there feet, and some of them I've never seen feet that size, so I'm starting to put in my head, "My word. "What am I gonna do?" And then when they start pushing the spring out I'm starting to take myself and back away coz I don't know if my springs are gonna be able to handle it. But I have Shelby here so everything is fine, right? So I have the heels on the bar, we have the toes over the knees, right?

We have a nice placement of the pelvis, a good placement of the upper torso. That upper torso in basketball is very very important because basketball players have to brace their torso a lot in order to throw the ball, catch the ball and stuff like that. So you'll hear me throughout my class talk about bracing the torso. So please enjoy. Take your inhale let us exhale let's go ahead and push the carriage away and stretch one, and then pull the carriage back in.

And push two, good and pull it in. Press three, good, and in, and four, good. Pull it back, press five and back. Press six and back, press seven and back, and press eight, good and let's just hold. So these ball players, just getting their feet out of their shoes and up onto the foot bar is incredible for them.

Cause they usually have these big, big Nike shoes and they stuff their foot in there, and that's how they move throughout their day. So they're finding that strengthening the feet is a very very valuable thing. And the other thing that we do is while they are having their heels up on the bar we hold that foot into a dorsiflex because that is the position on the court they've gotta really hit a lot, a lot of that stopping, and quick movements where that knee goes forward, and also jumping from that position. So let's do four more and we are gonna go and flex and go ahead push, good and then we pull it in good and press, good and pull it in, go press good and pull it in let's do one more, just a little bit different, right so you are feeling that flex right, good. Let's go down to your toes, again the heels match the gear bar, right, so I want those heels down by where you put the spring on so we isolate in the hips also that is that position again that we are after for the basketball player.

That flex of the foot let's take our inhale please and let's exhale push up stretch one and then pull it back in and push two, yes and back in, lovely. Go three, good, and back in, go four, good and back in press five, excellent press six, good, press seven, press eight, two more please, press nine and one more and press ten, very good and back in. Now we are gonna lift those heels up, right so save on your toes so we are gonna go up to a high half toe there. So that placement of the foot again is very important I really preach that 60, 40% of you watched my other videos the 60%, 40% keeps the ankle in place. We concentrate on the knees being over that second toe for our ball players.

So lifting up let's go ahead and push up and stretch one, good and pull back in press two, good and in, press three and in press four and in, press five and in, press six and in press seven and in, press eight two more, press nine, one more and let's press ten and hold here. Let's lower our heels down and stretch and this is where we usually grab the heels to really give them a big big calve stretch and we push back up, good. And we go down two, good excellent and back up we go down three, good and we bring it back up. We don't let our players pound down and we try to keep it slow because we know that we are using the current muscles to enhance that jump to enhance that foot. Let's do two more please, one and back in and one more and two, very good.

And bring it back in, bend your knees and bring it in. Now let's put our arches on the bar and let's curl those toes over alright, so that is an incredible, incredible position for their feet coz again they are intrinsically waking up all those muscles. Remember when your feet touch that bar every time we push away we are activating different muscles in that foot. Here we go, let's take our inhale and let's exhale. Let's push out and stretch one, good and wrap those, good and go two, good and in go three and in, go four, good and in, press five and in press six and in, press seven bring it in we open, we close the string, go nine, let's do one more please, and ten, very good and bring it back in.

We've done a lot of parallel work, we take them out to a second position. Not a lot of turn over is needed, alright. But we want that hip bone, that femur had to move in that hip socket a little bit as if they were on the court moving around, right, so we push out and stretch and one and again we are looking at the flex of that foot and bring it back in. Go two and in go three and in, go four good, pull it in, press five and in, press six and in press seven and in, press eight two more press nine one more press ten, very good and bring it back in, let's go to parallel again. So we are gonna be upon the heels again alright, so this is the exercise that we do alright, so if your client is not a basketball player you wanna trade I might consider lowering the spring down but with our ball players we keep the springs where they are at.

So we take our inhale and we exhale we push the carriage way in bring it in now hold. You gonna stabilize, you are gonna bring this leg up to a table top position and you are gonna slowly bring this back in, keeping this foot flexed. Two heels so we go from two feet, push out bring the other leg up, good, we keep this foot flexed and we pull it back in, there is that flex position again. Two heels press up, lift the leg up, pull it back in two heels, press out lift the leg up, pull that back in. Let's try that on the toes so lay and heels down.

So that's important here is that dorsiflex that ankle that we are after, alright? We push the carriage away one we lift the leg up to a table and we pull it back in reaching the heel, good. Two feet press, legs up, pull the machine back in and with two feet press, legs up and we pull it in good and we go two feet and legs up, very good and we pull it back in, perfect, alright? So just some simple things that we do with the footwork again I am working with three reds and a blue with my ball players that dorsiflex is a very important position that they want. So we are gonna go into this is simple 100 so right, well there is really nothing simple about the hundreds but we teach those everyday.

So let's go ahead and we are gonna bring your hands up, alright and we wanna pull the arms down below the shoulders, right there. And we have the heels touching the knees so separate a little bit. Let's prepare our body with a big inhale and during your exhale pull your arms down extend your legs so that your upper body comes forward. Now think of air in your armpits there, yes, and that's this right there and we pulse go, one two much better, two two three four five three two three four five three two three four five four two three four five four two three four five three four five five two three four five six two three four five six keep it and seven two three four five seven three four five eight two three four five eight two three four five nine two three four five nine two three four five, 10, nine eight seven six five four three two and reach, bend your knees and bring that carriage back and return. And so those arms pulsing that torso not moving.

There is that stabilization of that torso bracing the torso, throwing the ball holding that torso still. How about some co-ordination, alright? I love co-ordination, co-ordination never gets easier. To me I've been doing Pilates since I was 16 years old, co-ordination is always always a struggle for me. So bend your elbows down alright and then your legs are table top and we just open your knees a little bit alright?

And then let's bring the knuckles all the way back towards this shoulder, it's a big range now watch that that doesn't get into your elbow joint alright? So we pull the arms and extend your legs out your upper body comes forward, one, good. Reach those knuckles further so keep this, open close your legs one two bend your knees bend your elbows and curling to a little ball curl curl curl and again two and reach we open we close and we bend and we curl go three and push those legs open close bend and curl go four and press open close bend and curl lets do one more and five we open close bend very good and curl, excellent. Good work. Alright, so we are gonna extend our hands back up to the ceiling what I want you to do is, let's take this strap and put it round your elbow joint, right and let's reach back and grab the slack up.

Alright so this is still tight and then reach back and grab that slack up alright, so make those tight if you can, yeah there you go. So here we have, alright, so what I wanted to do here is I wanted my basket ball players to really find these muscles through here, alright? So they really had control. Legs up and table top position, alright? And those who are place correctly, all we are gonna do is pull those arms elbows down one and hands stay in this position right, and then back up, simple movement, two.

Good and back up go three, good and up go four, good and up one more and go five, very good and bring it back up. Now, when you pull your elbows down, just extend your legs out and bring your upper body forward into that forward flexion. Inhale, exhale reach one, elbows touch down there good and then return and exhale two and reach and return go three and reach good and return go four and reach good a little different feeling one more and go five good, and return very good. Now put your legs down, shake your hips out just real quick right and let's bring your legs back up to your table top position. Okay so we have the knees just a little bit open heels are touching let's take our elbows and let's make circles around one.

Let's just do five and go two, excellent go three perfect, go four good and five let's go the other way. And one around, and two good go three, go four, one more and five, alright, lovely. Good, let's go ahead and just slip out of those, go ahead and stand up on the floor for me, alright? So we are gonna go into our long box now and I'm gonna go to one red spring. So we are gonna take the box and we are gonna put it on long and I usually put a sticky pad up on my box so my athletes are not slipping and sliding away alright?

And what I want you to do Shelby is I want you to lay down on your stomach with your chest over and we are gonna reach and grab these straps at their little black tape portion of the apparatus Alright and then we have the hips down, alright? Now, hold your body just like it's in the supine position there, right so it's neutral, we are right off the edge so if I was to flip Shelby take every form and flip her off and put her on her feet she'd be in a perfect posture right now, alright? I want you to pull your hands back towards your hips with the axel here, alright? Good and then back in, alright? So I'm not doing inhale coz I'm not gonna do anything with the spine at the moment.

I'm making the effort, I've changed the spring an exhale so we go press good and we open those shoulders, good and back in. And press, good and back in let's do two more please, good and press, excellent, and back in and one more and go press, very good and pull back in, alright, now, we know that the strong arm can sometimes lead to movement so we are gonna take that out of the picture we are gonna do one stretch. Let me change you to a blue, we've been working all day let's change to a blue. So this arm is free it's gonna go down and stabilize alright, now we are gonna work with this arm here and we pull back to the hip, we keep the torso stabilized, one, very good. That shoulder opens and two we are not breaking at the wrist, good, go three and press, good go four and press, let's do one more please.

Try to hold that torso, the hip bones are pushing into the carriage, go five, very good and bring it back alright. Let's try the other side alright? So let's drop that down alright, here we go and we go one, nice. And back in, go two good and back in. Go three, good and this is an excellent exercise for the ballplayers coz again we have that torso absolutely still, they are working through the arms to correct muscles.

And five, perfect and bring it back in. Nice work okay? Go ahead and stand up on the floor now, alright? We are gonna do some more rounds so let's go ahead and take the box away. We are gonna stick with the blue spring for now.

Usually with the ball players, I'm working a red and sometimes a red and blue, alright? I'm always very conscious of shoulders, shoulder injuries, I mean, no way do I wanna give these guys injury with the type of contracts they have, alright? So we really really cautious and we go to very very the only time you will hear me say this word, conservative route, alright? So go ahead and you gonna kneel down here and so your knees right here, your other knees here we are gonna face the front here so go ahead and kneel watch this there is a blue spring. So we are kneeling, alright and what I want you to press the hip bones forward just a little bit and pull that waist up, alright?

And now your hands, your hand goes here, alright? And this hand is on your hip, okay? So we are gonna take this hand now and bring it to us right here, exactly. It's a soft fist. Now I want you to hold everything absolutely stabilized and extend your hand up to the ceiling one, perfect and pull it back in, good.

And go two, so it's just the arm moving, the torso is absolutely still, the spine is nice and still and stabilized. Three, good go four, excellent, good, go five, good can you do one more? Sure Troy, I can go six, very good and bring it back in. Now, let's go ahead and cross this strap over to this hand, alright? Now this hand goes on your hip, this is kind of like the sister movement to this arm movement.

So we draw a saber, we go out and reach reach one, the spine stays still and try to keep the strap a little bit in front of you so it doesn't' hit your body. Go two and reach and lift up, good. Go three and reach, nice. Go four and reach, let's do one more here is your last time that's very good, Shelby. And go five and reach, excellent, good.

And bring it back in, nice. So let's try the other side. So go ahead and turn, face me I have the carriage for you move around, we grab that when you are ready Hand on the hip, this hand on the hip helps support the lower back. We have the torso absolutely still. Here you get a good view.

We are working these muscles through here as this torso stays absolutely still. Let's inhale please, exhale push up and stretch one, good and pull back in. And two, good and pull in. Go three, good and pull in. Go four, good let's do one more please.

And go five, perfect and bring it back in. Let's switch over to the other hand, alright the other hand goes on the hip. Here is the spine here is the shoulders. We press out, we lead with the elbow joint we extend and we are not breaking at the wrist. Very nice but keep it a little bit ahead so it doesn't hit our body.

Strap burns are hard to explain to people. Two, (laughs) and go three, good and go four, let's do one more, very good and go five, perfect. And bring it back in, perfect. Go ahead and step onto the floor for me. I'll hold that, we are gonna go into a short box now, usually because of the length of the legs that I am dealing with I bring the machine all the way back I put the box way back here.

But I don't have that length so we are letting this be normal. Not that being tall isn't normal. So we are gonna go ahead and sit on the box. And then we are gonna put the feet underneath the strap. And then again I like to see my students kinda sit a little bit forward on the box the feet goes on the wood portion on the reformer and they press outwards into the strap.

So it serves two purposes. First I am getting some work through here which I like to give, the other thing is, I'm not letting them use their hip flexers in order to move their body. By pushing out it kinda releases through here alleviates a hip flexer situation for me makes me as a teacher, able to concentrate more on those abdominals and my student too. We'll start with this basic roll down, alright? So we lift the spine nice and tall, we inhale filling our back wide with air.

We exhale we pull the pubic bone, we roll the spine down we have some tension back there, yeah but not too far, take your inhale exhale we bring the body back up and we lift the spine up nice and tall. We inhale, we exhale we hold the pubic bone back, we roll the spine down, we take our inhale, exhale, we roll the spine back up, good. Take your inhale now and exhale and let's roll down let's hold and then just hold right there. Take your arms out to the walls, bring your hands behind your head with your fingertips touching, your elbows come forward, chin up just a little bit and we do a little pulse, one, pulse two three, good this four so you notice that she is bringing the sternum forward and returning six, it's not down here it's up here in this upper body seven, eight, two more, nine one more, ten and roll back up keep those arms there life the spine up and let's take an inhale exhale let's roll in and hollow and scoop chin up just a little bit and we pulse one more time let's do eight two, three, four, five, six, seven, very good and eight, good. And then we roll back up and return And return your arms back down relax, good.

We are gonna grab our wrist like this We are holding the wrist. We are gonna take an inhale, lift that spine all the way up to the ceiling. Exhale you gonna pull your pubic bone back and you are gonna roll the spine down and we hold right here we are gonna do some obliques now, We are gonna do our rotations so we go rotation over here. Now I want you to take a look at this elbow it's a nice elbow, right? And we go down towards a corner of the spot.

So your torso goes out this stays on the carriage. This part over here is absolutely stabilized. We go down it's like we close the rib here and we open it back up and we close, there you go and up you feel that, right? Four, year and back up and go five good and back up, let's see one more please and six, very good and back up now center and then roll up. And let's try this one more time on the other side.

Nice and tall we hollow a scoop, scoop that we rotate over. Now this side of your body stays on the carriage and we go down one, excellent and back up. And two and just focus right there the whole time and back up go three good, and back up. Go four, and back up, go five, let's do one more please, good and six very good and bring your body forward and then roll back up and just release your arms relax mode that was good so again, just hitting those obliques it's just a small torso movement while the other side stays on the carriage box. We are gonna go into one more exercise.

So we are gonna go spear fish so the arms are wide and this is over your head right there. So we wanna be able to keep the head in the center of the stick. There is a nice lift of the torso up to the ceiling. We are gonna take an inhale we are gonna make a rotation over here and I want you to look up here now we are gonna take this part of our body and go on to a lateral flection, let your hip come off there, good. And we pull the hip back down and we bring the body center and we return.

Now during that rotation we wanna feel the spine go (makes hissing noise) right up to the ceiling, that spiral or corkscrew so here we go, we rotate the spine good, now look up at that wrist and this side starts it and we go up and over, right and this side will come off now we pull this hip back down that's a big oblique good, and we go back in center. Romana actually taught me this exercise she would tell me that let the hip come off pull the hip back down, alright. This is also another good exercise for the ball players again it's that torso bracing I can't say that enough, that is one of the main elements that these guys are faced with when they are handling the ball. Rotate the other way please. So we go up and over, that's a nice lift we go over we are focused right here that hip comes off we pull that hip down yeah, good and we bring it back to center and let's rotate again, rotation and this side goes up and over the hip comes off that box and the hip centers back down and good work and bring your stick back down.

Your last exercise, just hold the stick up and let's just do a simple hinge. So I have my, I have Shelby all lined up. Ear, shoulder, mid rib band hip nice and lined and we are gonna do a hinge starting at the hips so we go back. One we hinge, good and we come back up and we keep this lifted, that torso long hinge two, yes, very good that's it and we go three, excellent, good and back up, go four let's do one more please, good and we go five, good and bring it back up, very nice. Go ahead and step off.

If you were chained to tow red springs, and I'm gonna bring the box off this and then go ahead and lay down. So normally I have to bring the box to the front of the machine because their legs are so long I have to stand on the box a little bit to help. So we are gonna get into the leg straps. So let's go ahead and bring one leg up and the other leg and again we position the straps way down by the mouth of the heel. And send your legs up to the ceiling.

And then we wanna stretch those calves and we find that they stretch. I let my player kinda be in this environment it's a stretch, it's also a chance for them to get some reverse circulation. I take a moment and I talk about the body, about the shoulders, you know, about the arms reaching down and the neck nice and soft. And the other thing too when I'm working with these ball players, is I try not to tower over them, I'm always, I guess I'm on camera today I'm not gonna do it, but I always try to bring my body down, this way and talk to them on the same level so they don't feel like I am this bossy, older Pilates teacher yelling at them all the time. I want them to come back, I want them to experience Pilates I want them to get it in their bodies so I have figured our some psychological ways to help with that.

So we have the legs straight up, we have that long stretch and we are gonna pull the legs down softly, one, very good and we pull back up, good. And we go down two, good and we pull back up and we are reaching those legs long three, now feel that length and we are reaching it back up and I'm really trying to give them to feel the stretch, challenge the abdominal and it's a nice big long movement and we open the legs to the width of the hips. We go down softly, one, keeping that pubis nice and stable and we go two, good work and reach, it's the backs of your legs initiate the opening of the spring, the front of the legs that close the spring, four, and we go five very good and bring it back in. Now we are gonna go into circles. And I challenge my players to make a big circle, I also challenge them to hold that pelvis absolutely stable.

We open the legs out and around and we circle one, good work, excellent, good and we go two good and we go three, nice. We go four one more and we go five, good and back up straight out it was lovely and go one, excellent. Go two, that's it and go three good, go four using both legs equally you are not rushing into the center with one leg and go five, very good and bring it back in, good. Now we wanna open the legs out to the side, we wanna stretch out, and now pull the legs back together and we wanna open one more time we push the legs out and then we pull the legs back together let's bend our knees and let's come out of the leg straps. Now you gonna stay down.

And I'm gonna bring these back here so they are just out of the way. This is what I mean by box I want you go grab your pegs, and we are gonna do a stretch, they love this next exercise. Because they are pounding round on the court so much they get so compressed in their spines so I'm holding, I want you to roll your spine up slowly, one vertebrate at a time so go ahead and lift, come right off and come up to lift just a little bit past the shoulder blades there. Now really hold on there Shelby. Now roll down through your spine.

Yeah, this will keep them coming back to you. Take your inhale, exhale and the days I work with them is the day I don't have to go to the gym because their legs are so heavy and roll back down, let's do one more. Does that feel good, yeah. Take your inhale and exhale we roll up to the spine, good, we hold them we do a little rotation , I'm always pulling on the top leg and back to center, we rotate the other way I'm always pulling on that top leg back to center, and we roll the spine back down very good and bring it back in. Good, go ahead and step in on the floor We are gonna go back to a short box on the machine.

And we are gonna use just one red spring. Normally with my players for this exact exercise I would add in a blue spring sometimes two red it depends on the strength of the back of the leg. We get orders from our head guy that we report to please work their glute medius, please work their glute medius three times this guy says and we always work the glute medius for him. For some reason basketball players seem to be weak in that area, so we are gonna go to a kneeling position. You gotta get your foot in the right place.

I want this leg straight, alright? And this is here and what I love about this is that we get this thigh so close to the torso and it's a big long range of movement I'm after. We hold here and all I'm gonna do is just press the carriage out, pull it in. Push out, and pull it back in, alright? First go ahead and try that.

So support your leg straight, yeah. Right here we lift the chest just a little bit. Eye level out here, and we go ahead and we extend back one, good and bring it back in. And extend two, excellent and back in. Go three, the body stays still, good, go four, good go five let's do one more and go six, very good and bring it back in.

I'm gonna take the spring down to a blue now and we are gonna do a little bit of torso stabilization as we do this so you have a good feel on that box that is not gonna move around. So you are good, and you are gonna hold your body like this on a diagonal and your hands are this way and we are gonna do the same thing and we push, one a lot more challenging there's a bit. Good go two, excellent and back in. Go three, perfect, back in, go four, good back in let's do one more please, and five lovely and bring it back in. Let's try the other side.

So we are gonna go back to the red spring and we get the foot against it, we are looking up the knee line we see that knee lined up with that second toe we have the players put against it, you wanna make sure that that box is stable, you don't want the box flying off as you are doing this. Eye level out here so we see that neutral spine that natural neck, we push the box away, one, good and back in. Push two, good and back in, hip stays down, three, good and back in, go four let's do one more please, good and we go five, perfect and back in. Now let's go in towards torso stabilization please. Now we hold here, alright?

Now this is gonna be absolutely still and we push the box away, one, and back in. Good, we go two, nice and back in go three, good back in go four, lovely Shelby, one more and five, splendid. Very good, and back in, perfect, go ahead and step off there, alright? So I'm done with the short box and we are gonna go to a red and blue spring and we are gonna do some plank work, alright? So you go ahead and step up there and you are gonna go on to a releve foot and you are gonna put your hands on here, exactly and I just hold the carriage as my players get on and we are here.

Now what I want you to do is I want you to send your legs back and plank your body out. Good so we are here, this comes on this and we are tight back here, shoulders are nice and open and the neck is in position, right? So I'm looking for the neutral spine, we are gonna bend our knees and bring the carriage in one without changing, don't let the bum come up. And push back out, good two, this is a challenging exercise for them, good and back out and go three, good keep that bum where it is and you notice I have my fingers on the lower spine, I wanna make sure that keeps the neutral position four, one more very good and go five, very good go ahead and lift your hips and bring it back in alright, good can we show it one more time? This time what I want you to feel like is that you are taking the bar and you are kind of pulling it apart so a little bit more engaged in that upper back.

Go ahead and extend that carriage back, this straps down, kinda like lift up through your sternum, yes, now we are in a position. Now make this a nice chewy movement so go ahead bend and bring it in now don't let the bum in, don't lose this lower abdominals, good, yes two excellent and go three, we are pulling the bar back apart and we are pulling those calves down at the same time let's do one more, that was very good excellent work and bring it back in. Nice, right go ahead and step off for me. I wanna have your leg down on the carriage now I'll do your springs for you and we are gonna go three red springs. And let's start with the heels on the bar and let's move out so I love this exercise for the ball players because they are out on that court taking a lot of physical abuse, you know, if you watch, you see them being pushed around you see elbows, you see things happening, hips running in and I feel coz they are pounding down the court that their spine is always getting so compressed so I wanna help alleviate that situation and I also wanna build some glut strength for them and getting that glute medius a little bit major glutes and I wanna articulate in the hamstring.

So let's take our inhale please, and during your exhale we are gonna curve the pelvis up slowly one bone at a time, these start reaching this way good and we want to keep that flat foot there, take it, inhale and exhale and we lover down and we are touching bone but shoulders stay nice and open so we wanna keep the humorous, the bone in the shoulder joint in the middle. We don't wanna take it and push it out so think of that nice and open nice beautiful width, lovely presentation through here as we are doing that. Let's inhale please let us exhale and let's curve the pelvis up slowly bone by bone, good. Let's take right, inhale and exhale let's roll the spine down softly, good. And we take our inhale and exhale, we roll the spine up and knees reach out long and we roll down, yeah, kinda feels good doesn't' it, yeah, let's do one more.

Take your inhale and exhale and we roll the spine up, very good and now we are gonna hold there, right and pull the navel in. Bring this leg up to a table top without letting that hip now what we are gonna do is just a little pulse, we push back and forth one, and we are just finding the hamstring we are finding that low glute muscle just a couple of times, good, how about one more, good and back in and bring your heel down and just roll the spine down slowly bone by bone, perfect. Let's inhale, let's exhale, let's curl up, good and now we lift the other leg up, right we are not dropping hip, this is still still this is active, it's not a loose leg, it's active and we do a little pulse and we are hitting here, go two good go three, go four and go five we put the heel back down and then we roll we get those vertebrals to come down the next vertebrals the next vertebrals and then we release that pelvis, very good. Let's go into the base of your toes, let's push the carriage weight to extend the body up, one heel down and one heel lifts and we do running, good, press power sustain, nice and still they are strengthening the ankles and maintaining the torso, remember, I remember Bruce telling me this was also a chance to kinda think about long spine, lengthening of spine but still using abdominals, good. Excellent, okay, bend your knees and bring the carriage back in.

Go ahead and stand up on the floor for me over here we are gonna go to one red spring now and we are gonna do a thigh stretch that we do with them. Now, the stretch is not for everybody, they gotta be able to handle some flexion in their knee but it's a good stretch for our players. You gotta remember I'm working with a very very healthy body, okay. So we are gonna use one red spring. I want you to come over to this, no just stay on this side, great.

Your foot goes against the shoulder rest, your hands are there and this foot is forward, alright, right so we all teach this as a basic thigh stretch so go ahead and push away and stretch. We hold these shoulders down we lift up in the torso a little bit and they are just getting that nice stretch through the hip region of the body and let's bring it in. Now we are gonna try it again, so let's go ahead reach down and that's there. Now what I want you to do is, my foot is gonna sneak under here we are gonna bring this foot off and I put my foot here so my athlete doesn't move and we are gonna bring this and we are gonna do a little bit more stretch, you okay with that? And you can feel that right?

And we just give a little assistance here , pulling the heel towards the bum and always communicating with our player, good work and bring it back in and we place it back down and we bring it in, good. Let's try the other side, so again that's not for everybody coz that's a lot of flexion in the knee cap. So we start with the basic and we go down hips are square, we are still pulling up through those abdominals, knees resting, eye level always out here, hands are just gently pushing down on the bar so you hold that torso nice and lifted. And then we bring it in and I'll come around to the other side here and then we do it again. So we go down, we get this nice lovely placement and my foot is gonna go right here and you gonna see the back side of me, sorry.

And then we go ahead and we just kinda bring that heel and I think you can see that so we are just kinda increasing that stretch and you'll notice where my foot is, this is a little bit against me so the knee doesn't slide. We bring it back down and we bring the carriage back in and that was a wonderful class. Thank you so much, alright? Thanks again for watching me. Check out my other videos, thank you.