Pilates Arc Reformer

Hi guys, I'm Anula. And I'm going to be teaching this reformer class to these lovely people, Danni, and James. And what I'd like them to do is come down to lying on their backs, feet up on the foot bar, heels together, toes apart. They're on three red springs right now. And what I want them to do is bring their seats as close to the arc as they can, interlace their hands behind their heads, and drop back and over the arc, and breathe.

And like many of the classes that I teach, I like to start with a little bit of breathing, and not doing a whole bunch of movement. So on your inhale, just try and let your body drop into the arc, into the equipment. Exhale, try to unclench anything that's clenching, let your elbows drop back to the sides as much as possible, open up the front of the chest, open up the front of the throat. And breathe. Great, you guys are good breathers.

On your next exhale, I'd like you to bring your elbows up towards your peripheral vision, and then very gently, without moving the carriage, come up into your abdominal curl. Good. Inhale, and exhale, drop back and over the arc. Inhale, and exhale, curl up. Good, and then inhale, and exhale, drop back down, and do that a few times on your own breath, just kinda getting into your body.

Try not to rush your movement. And drop. And again, exhale coming up. And drop. From here, I'd like you to add a leg movement.

So, on the exhale, as you curl up, you straighten your legs into the foot bar. Inhale, bend your knees. Drop your head back. We're gonna do that a few times in a row, and as you do this, you might find out that this is three springs, are too heavy, and you could always get up and change your spring tension. Mm-hmm, good.

And then, what they're sort of feeling as they're doing this, is that the feedback of the spring is pushing them back into the arc, and giving them something to curl up against, is what I imagine is happening. And coming back down. Good. And let's try three more, curling up, coming up into your curl, and dropping down, you don't have to be on the same timing. Good.

And down. One more time. And down. On the next one, I'd like you to come up and stay up. James will join us.

Great. Now look down at your feet, and lengthen your right foot underneath the foot bar. Point your foot, bend your left knee, bring the carriage in, exhale, press out for five. And bend. Exhale, four.

And bend. Exhale, three. And bend. Exhale, two. And bend.

Exhale, one. And bend, and then put your right foot back onto the foot bar, lengthen out through both legs first, wait for me. Yep. Take your left foot under. Point your foot, and bend the right knee.

Exhale, press out for five. And bend. Exhale, four. And bend. Exhale, three.

And bend. Exhale, two. And bend. Exhale, one. Both feet on, heels together, toes apart, bend the knees, drop the head back, take a deep breath.

Inhale. Exhale, nod and curl. Good, straighten your legs. Great, from here, I'd like you to take your right foot underneath the foot bar again. Good, now bend your left knee, come all the way in.

On your next exhale, as you straighten your left leg, you'll pull your right knee in towards your chest and turn to the right. And come back out through center. Exhale, turn. Two, and back. Exhale, three.

And back. Exhale, four. And back. Exhale, five. Foot on the foot bar, head goes back, bend both knees.

Inhale. Exhale, nod and curl. Straighten your legs, left leg goes underneath the foot bar. Bend your right knee. And press out, left knee to chest, turning left.

And back. Exhale, two. And back. Exhale, three. And back.

Exhale, four. And back. Exhale, five, find center. Left foot to the foot bar, bend your knees, drop your head back, inhale. Exhale, nod and curl, straighten your legs.

Good, from here, I'd like you to lower your heels under the foot bar. Exhale, lift them up for eight. And seven. And six. And five.

And four. And three. And two. And one. Look at your feet, parallel your feet, and lower your right heel under, bend your left knee.

And switch. And two. And three. And four. And five.

And six. And seven, let's do 10. And eight. And nine. And 10, bend your knees, and drop yourself all the way back.

Okay, so both of them have sticky pads underneath their upper back, because for what we're doing next, you tend to slide slightly off the arc, so let's see how this goes. Head stays down, arms go up towards the ceiling, and then your arches are going to come up onto the foot bar. Great, let's have your palms face in. Great. On your next exhale, what I want you to try and do is lift your hips up into a bridge.

Good, and then gently lower yourself back down. And lift yourself up into bridge. And lower down. Good, and if you find that you're sliding, just reorganize yourselves. And up, but, they're pretty sweaty, so they're not gonna slide as much.

(laughs) James is pretty sweaty. Speak for yourself. And, down. Three more. Great.

And, two. And, three. And all the way down. On their exhale, they're going to lift up into a bridge. And come back down.

And exhale, lift up into a bridge. And pause in your bridge for a moment. Good, now if you feel like this is something that's appropriate for your neck, head, and shoulder compartment, pick your right leg up into table top. And down. And left leg.

And down. And right leg. And down. And left. And down, let's do one more to the right.

And down, and one more to the left. And all the way down with your hips. Fantastic. Good job, you guys. So, I'd like you to do this thing that usually never happened in reformer class, is I'd like you to straddle your machine.

So you come up into a seated position, and take your legs out to the sides, and just, that's how we're gonna transition, I apologize. So, I'd like you to put a blue spring on. And take the rest of your springs off. And then gentle roll back to where you just were, hands behind the head, feet up on the foot bar, heels together, toes apart. Good.

From here, scoot back a little bit. Yeah, good, you're good. From here, I'd like you to nod and curl up, hands behind the head for a moment, and then reach your arms forward. Great, straighten and bend your knees three times, so you're on this like majorly different spring tension. Mm-hmm, two.

And three. Good, now bend your knees. On your next exhale, I'd like you to jump out. Let's jump out for 10. Woo, and nine.

And eight. Seven, good. Six, I feel it. Five. Four.

Three, they're working really hard to do this. Two. And one. Bend your knees, pause for a moment. Inhale, we're adding arm choreography.

Exhale, we jump out, we open the arms out to the sides. One, and back. Two, and back. Three. Nice.

Four, this looks easy, it's really hard. Five. Six. Seven. Eight.

Nine. And 10. Come on in, rest for a second. Inhale here. As you jump up, right arm goes up, left arm goes out.

Inhale, we go. Exhale, one. And back. Switch it, two. And back.

Exhale, three. And back. Exhale, four. And back. Exhale, five.

And back. Exhale, six. And back, grow a little taller. Seven. Eight.

Nine. And 10, and hands behind the head, you drop it all the way back and you rest. And you catch your breath. Hang on, that's particularly mean. Inhale, and then on your exhale, roll up, send your legs over to the right side of your machine, and come up to standing.

Good. Grab onto your straps, mm-hmm, and then come to sit on the very top of the arc, like it's a little chair. Good. My personal preference in sitting on this is to bring the soles of the feet together, and knees wide to the sides. If you find that a different sitting position is helpful for what we're doing next, you are welcome to change what you're doing.

Mm-hmm, get your strap on, and then have your palms face forward. Great. On your exhale... (laughs) On your exhale, let's reach the arms up, in line with the shoulders, and lower the arms back down. Good, so you're still on the blue spring, it's still fairly light.

Mm-hmm, and come back down. Good. So the idea is to try not to sort of fatigue our arms too much here, and then try and work from the back of the body, whatever that means, right? We're trying to sort of imagine a universe in which you push your arms forward in space, and then find some kind of work through the back of you, so you're not burning out your shoulders too quickly in class. One more time.

Great, and let's take it into a little bit of a circle, so you'll pick your arms up, just like you're doing, pick the arms up, all the way up towards the ceiling. Circle the arms out to the sides, and then back down. Let's try five. Bringing the arms up, circling, palms face forward, and down. Now, if you want to add a little bit of extension, you pick your arms up, face the arms forward, lift your chest for a moment, and then circle the arms back down.

Let's try that again. Exhale up. If extension doesn't feel like a good idea, do not worry about it. And back down, and one more time. Nice.

And come back down. Let's have your palms face down, elbows narrow by your rib cage. Inhale here, and then on your exhale, I want you to reach your arms forward and drop forward over your legs. Mm-hmm, good. Take a deep breath, and then on your exhale, pick your arms up, in line with your ears, open your chest up to the wall in front of you, circle the arms out to the sides, and then bend your elbows again, palms face down, inhale.

Exhale, push forward. Good, pick your arms up, lift your chest. If you wanna add that little baby extension situation, do that. And bend, and push forward. Nice.

And lift back up. From here, pick your arms up again. Good, hands behind the head, bring yourself into a diamond shape, and hinge forward at your hip for a little bit of shaving. On your exhale, extend your arms to where the wall meets the ceiling, and bend your elbows again, for eight. Good, seven.

And six. Good, you can do the variation that James is doing, which is keeping his diamond shape with his hands, and you can do the thing that Danni is doing, which is separating your hands. She's protecting a shoulder injury, so she's doing what's good for her today. Mm-hmm. Good, one more time.

And great. Arms come down, you come back to sitting upright. So, this exercise looks like nothing is going on, but a whole lot is going on. So we're gonna take our arms up into a place where you can see your thumbs in your peripheral vision. Right, and I'm gonna look at you when you do this.

And then, from here, I want you to try and sit upright a little bit more. Yes, and then try to imagine that you can turn to the right, and then your left arm is going to take all of the tension of the spring, and your right arm is gonna lose tension. Now, yeah. Good. (laughs) And then find center. Inhale, exhale, turn, and find center.

And exhale, one arm takes all the tension, one arm loses all the tension. And center. And exhale, turn. Great, and find center. We're just gonna do this a couple more times, so you can really nail this point fully.

Yeah, good. And last one. Great, and find yourself through center. Mean as all heck, we're going to slide down. Good, if you need to go to the bathroom, now is the time to go to the bathroom.

This is a pretty mean situation. So, you're picking your sort of low back into the arc. And then, on your exhale, you'll reach your arms forward and fold your knees in towards your chest, into sort of like this tiny ball of pain. Think ball of discomfort. Yeah, good, so James is already in discomfort.

Yeah, and we're hanging out for a second, and then we're going to try and open the arms out to the sides. Exhale, hug a tree. Right. Inhale, open. Exhale, some kind of hugging situation.

Inhale, open. Exhale, hug. Good, and if at any point you've had it, lower your feet down, take a break, and I will judge you. Inhale, open. Exhale, back, one more time.

Inhale, open. Exhale, back. Open your arms, lower your feet down to the foot bar, take a rest. This is way more uncomfortable than it looks. Inhale, I know, oh, he's so sweet.

Exhale, curl up, push into your arms, pull your knees in. Right. Now, push into your right hand more than your left hand, and let your left arm go to the left. Stay through center. And come back.

So we're still playing with this idea of losing tension in one arm, gaining tension on the other. Losing tension on one arm, gaining tension on the other, hellscape. Inhale. Exhale. If you never speak to me again, I will understand.

And, back. One more to the right, one more the the left. Good, and one more. Great, feet down, arms up, take a second. Okay, inhale here.

Last part of this, I promise. Okay, curl up, reach your arms forward, knees to chest. Diamond shape in front of the chest. Bend your elbows, exhale, push. Eight, and bend.

I know, seven. Six. Five. Really, really sad that you came today, four. And three.

And two. And one. Feet down, arms go back, take a big stretch. From here, they'll drop their right strap into the well. Correct, and then turn onto their left side.

That's right, so stack your hips, take your right foot onto the foot bar. Mm-hmm, great, and then from here, I'd like you to push out onto your right foot. Take the strap that you're holding onto and bring it on to the arch of your foot, in the most graceful way you can imagine, like that, great. Left hand behind the head, right hand on hip, bend your left knee, whatever, bending your right knee and your left knee also. Yep, bend them, all of them, all of the knees.

Bend them and rest your legs, thank you, okay. Set it up, so think hip over hip, shoulder over shoulder, head in hand. On your next exhale, I want you to pick your right leg up, and then extend it out. And bend it in again. And extend.

And bend for two. Good, think parallel to the floor, no higher. And three, that's right. And four. And five.

And six, imagine you're pushing up onto a step. Seven, and push the step away. And eight, pause, take your leg forward in space, exhale, pull it back in space. Inhale it forward in space, try and keep it as parallel to the floor as possible, and back in space. And forward in space.

And back in space. And forward in space. And back in space. And four more, one. And back.

And two. And back. And three. And back. And four.

And take the loop off of your foot, let it go down into the well behind you, take your right foot onto the foot bar, keep your hands in the same configuration. Right foot on, left hand behind the head, right hand on your hip. On your exhale, just test out the water. Straighten your right leg again and bend it, and then just kind of feel your spring tension, which is not very much. Good.

And one more. And get ready to jump, inhale, exhale, we jump off, for 10. And nine. And eight. And seven.

And six. And five. And four. And three. And two.

And one, bend the knee, inhale, exhale, we jump, and we pick the leg up an inch. Jump and pick it up for 10, what? And nine, good. And seven. And six.

And five, bunny hops. Four. Three, gentle jumps. Two. And one, come all the way in.

Good, take one leg over the other, and break for a moment. So from here what we're going to do is come up into a kneeling position facing James' side of the room. Right, good. And James, come two inches forward on your mat. Do you need a towel underneath your knees?

Great, okay. So I like to set this up in a way where James is gonna take his hand and touch down onto his arc for a second, and then take his right foot onto the front corner of the foot bar in a turnout. And the setup for this, he's then gonna come upright, hands on hips, yeah, and what we're trying to think about doing here which is really asking quite a bit of everyone is to try and turn out from the hip and try and keep the hips square to the wall in front of you which is not humanly possible necessarily, but it's just something to strive for. So you can do any arm balance helpfulness that you want, arms out to the sides, hands behind the head, inhale here, and on your exhale, you're going to try and push out. Mm-hmm, and then come back in, that's right.

And just get your bearings. And press out. And come back in, and you're sort of imagining this little tug of war, your right knee is trying to go up in space and your right hip is trying to go forward in space and that's not necessarily available, but it's a thought. Yeah, good, three more for a total of eight-ish. Mm-hmm, which is a number.

Good. And one more. Great, and then come back and pause. Hands behind the head, both of you. If you find that that's not available, I'll understand, and on your exhale, press out.

Great, as you come in, turn your upper body to the right. What? And press out, that's what's happening. Inhale. Exhale, bend.

And extend for two. And three. Nice. Four, James is speeding up 'cause he wants us be over. Good.

Good, and last one. Right, and come all the way in. He's like, "I'm not doing the last one." And then lower both knees down. Step forward on your reformer so you're standing on the wood floor. Turn to face the foot bar, take the right foot up against the arc, and take their left foot in line with their right knee.

So James, take your left leg forward so it's in line with your right knee. There you go, good. Hands on hips is fine, and then from here, they'll bend their left knee and lunge back in space. You can hinge forward a little bit if that's a good idea for you, and then come back up to standing. And lunge back.

And stand up. And lunge back. And stand up, good. And this is three. And up.

And four. And up. And five, nice. And up. Breathing.

And up. And last two. And last one. Great, and lower your right foot down to the wood floor, walk around to the other end of your machine. Now we're gonna do lunging on this side and we're gonna do the whole thing so it'll be reversed, right?

So you have something to look forward to. Inhale. I'm kidding, so don't be mad. Exhale, we lunge, for eight. And seven, so they're sending their right knee forward, their left knee back.

And six. And five. And four. And three. And two.

And one, very nice. Bring yourself back through center and come to lie down on your right side, sorry, come to kneeling, come to kneeling facing Danni's side of the room. Good, and then take your left foot onto the front corner of your foot bar, right knee underneath your hip, and we're still playing that game of like left knee up, left hip forward, arms wherever you want them, and press out. Good, and back in. I'm just gonna be here, just be friendly and spot you.

And press out. And come back in. Good. Mm-hmm, good, try and flex this arm. No, I'm just kidding.

(laughs) Good. Good, so this is a bicep exercise. (laughs) Good. Two. And one, come all the way back in, take your hands behind your head, press out one time, and then as you come in, turn left.

And come back. And turn left. And come back. And turn left. And come back.

And four more, four. And three. And two. Lovely, and one. And lower both knees down.

Good, you come down to lying on your right side. Mm-hmm, great. You're welcome, and then take your right hand behind your head, left foot into the strap. Beautiful, beautiful transitions, you guys. Inhale.

Exhale, press your left leg out, and bend the knee. And I say this in class sometimes, and I hope this doesn't get edited out is where you want to imagine that you're pushing a small child away from you. Do you know what I mean? So you're not harming the child, but like you're just sliding it gently across the floor back to its parents. And I find it changes how everybody moves to the rest of class.

Yes, good, two. Just slide the child away, it's like a five year old, which is like, "Go." Good, that's right, and bend. From here, you'll lengthen your leg out and then take the leg forward in space, exhale, back in space, and you guys are moving so differently now, I'm sorry I didn't say that earlier. Good. And three, good.

And four. Mm-hmm, just slide it away. Good. And bend the knee in, take the strap off, let it drop into the well, I know, and then take your left foot onto the foot bar, hand configuration is the same, mm-hmm. And on your exhale, straighten and bend your knee for three.

Just get your bearings. And two. And one, inhale. Exhale, we jump for 10. 10.

And nine, if you turn out a little bit, I'm not mad. Good. Four, Danni, you can let your left hip come forward a little bit, that's right, two. And one, we jump, and we kick the leg up an inch. That's right, mm-hmm, good.

And good. Great. Great. Nothing to say here, two, and one. And feel your feelings, great.

Lower your foot down. Set your feet onto the wood floor in front of you. And let's do a tiny bit of a stretch. Let's take the right ankle to the left knee, fold forward over your legs and see if that does anything. And switch sides.

Great. And release that. Come up on to your knees facing the arc. Mm-hmm, great. And after we did all that glute work, generally I would say that extension isn't an awesome idea, but we're gonna do it anyway.

So lie down on the front of your body. Mm-hmm, and grab onto your straps. Thread your hands through the loops, and hold up fairly far up on the rope. Let your arms drop to the sides of your machine and drop your head down. Now, this takes like a fair amount of futzing around in terms of where your rib cage is, 'cause this is not a super comfortable position.

So if you need to come off, just come off, don't worry about it. Bend your knees. Mm-hmm, so pick your feet up literally. Great, and then yes. And let's try that.

Let's try a little bit of a turnout. Yes, good, and then make a V. Great, and Danni, do the same thing James is doing. Great, on your exhale, what I want you to try and do is pull your arms back, lift your chest up, and lower back down. And then Danni's lifting up quite a bit and then James can lift up not as much if he doesn't want to.

You're gonna slide off, yep, and down. So, perspiration is a problem. Exhale, lifting up, good. And down. And exhale, lifting up.

Great, so it's sort of like pulling straps, but different. And exhale, lifting up. And down. And one more time, lift up and pause. Mm-hmm, now from here, I'd like you to bend at your elbow.

Exhale, extend back for eight. And seven. And six. And five. And four.

And three. And two. And one and come back down. Take your straps down, let them go. And then put your hands on the wood frame in front of you, palms facing forward, fingers facing forward.

Great. On your exhale, pull yourself forward and come up into some type of swan-ish situation, lifting up and dropping back down. Exhale, pull, lift your heart up, adjust as needed. You want sticky pads or anything? Okay, and back.

And exhale, lift. Good, lift, lift, lift. And back. Let's try three more. Exhale, lift.

And back. And two more. Nice, and back. And one more. So good, and all the way down.

From here, pick yourselves up, and then let's come up so your hands are wrapped around the front-ish of the arc. Let's go back a little bit, yeah. This takes a little trial and error, so let's find out. And we're on a blue spring, and I would say that that's very light for what we're doing and you might enjoy that, and you might not enjoy that. So take your right foot back up onto the foot bar.

Correct, inhale here. Exhale, extend your right leg, and pause. Good, now, you're going to come up into a plank type situation, but if this feels too light, I'll come up, yeah? Do you want more spring? Great.

Danni, do you want more spring? Great, okay. So here we are, we're trying this again, inhale. So James is on a red, Danni's on a blue. On their exhale, they're going to press themselves up into a plank.

What? So nice, good. Now from here, what I want them to do is send the carriage forward an inch, back an inch, forward an inch, back an inch, forward an inch, back an inch, so hard, forward and inch, back an inch, forward an inch, ah! Two more. And one more. So lovely, and lower one knee down gently, the other knee down, let the carriage close with control.

Totally badass. Come up again. (laughs) That's it, that's just the one, no, come up again. (laughs) Good, and don't fall, and here we are. Heels together, toes apart, and we're going to point our feet and come forward an inch, flex our feet, go back an inch.

Point, and flex. Point, and flex. Point, and flex. I'm just here for moral support. And flex, two more, I love you.

Point, and flex, last one. Point, and flex, and we dismount with so much grace and control and we go into a tiny child's pose type movement for relaxation purposes. So good. Take two full, three, two breaths, three breaths. Inhale.

And exhale. One more, in. And out. And gently roll yourself up. Good, and then turn to face the other side of your machine.

Come up to standing on your carriage. Great. Danni, you might enjoy a blue spring, but you might want a red, so you'll futz around with that. Hands on the foot bar. Good, take your heels up halfway up your arc.

Fantastic. On your exhale, press out into a plank. And bring your plank forward, just forward. And back for three. And forward.

And two. And forward. And one. And forward, close the carriage, pick your hips up. And press back out into a plank.

Exhale, pick your hips up. And press back out into a plank. Exhale, pick your hips up. And press back out into a plank. And let's just do one more for fun.

Pick your hips up, and lower your heels down. Yes, great. From here, this gets a little wonky, and that's okay. So what I want you to try and do is keep your upper body situation above your foot bar and turn both feet to your left. So, yep, and then you're gonna actually sort of stagger your legs right, yep, turn it all the way to the left, and then turn this one all the way to left and then all the way up against the arc, what?

And close the carriage and straighten your legs. This is mean also. Inhale here. On their exhale, they're gonna press out maybe three, four inches, maybe more than that, yes, and then pick themselves up and then press out a couple of inches and pick up. Good, inhale.

Exhale, three. Good, inhale. Exhale, like a dagger up here. Good, inhale. Exhale.

One more. And turn it the other way. Mm-hmm, great. And try and press out a few inches. Exhale, pick it up.

Inhale. Exhale, up, good. Inhale. Exhale, coming up, I feel it for you. Great, one more time.

So nice, bring your feet back through center and pause. Fold forward over your legs. You can grab onto the very front end of your carriage if that's something you like to do. Mm-hmm, and again, Danni's still on a blue spring, James is on a red, and he's so happy to be on a red because what we're going to do is take our right hand to the center of the foot bar, turn both of our feet back to the left, and press out into a side plank, left arm up towards the ceiling. Whoa! Inhale, so pretty.

Exhale, thread the needle, close the carriage. And coming back out for five. And four. And three. And two.

And one. Close it all the way. Good, transition to the second side. Woo! Right arm up. Inhaling.

Exhale, thread it under for five. So pretty. And exhale, four, they make this look so easy. And three. So good.

And two. And one. Great, and close, and bring yourself all the way off of your machine. Mm-hmm, great, and then what I'd like you to do is sit on your carriage facing that way for a moment. And then what you're trying to mimic is a pigeon position in yoga, so you'll sort of turn, bend your right knee, yep, great.

And then take your left foot forward, and take your hands on to your foot bar, on your exhale, I'd like you to press yourself out and fold forward over your right leg. Yes, so you can do what Danni's doing, which is lengthening her left leg and you can also keep your left knee bent, I don't really mind. You're just trying to find a stretch and you're going to try and hang out there for three seconds. So stop moving, good. Stop exercising for a second, okay?

(laughs) And if you feel like you're falling off or something doesn't feel right here, you can just come up and fold forward over your legs, it's not really a big deal, you're just breathing. And gently close the carriage, mm-hmm. And send your right foot to the wood floor, bend your left knee and just transition to the second side. Mm-hmm, that's right. Hands onto the foot bar, and anything that feels pleasant here, you've worked so hard, just do something pleasant.

Good, and then stay there and breathe. Yeah, so you can do what Danni's doing which is taking your hands down to the wood part of your machine, you can do a little twist jobby over here. I don't have an agenda, just breathe. And take your hands back up if they're not up. Close your carriage with control.

And that is our class for today, thank you so much. (all applauding)