Alycea's Personal Practice

Hi there. Uh, I'm Alicia and Garrow and we are here today at parties. Anytime I was going to, um, do my own workout for you to either jump along with or just watch as teachers, we forget about ourselves and don't always have a lot of time to care for our own bodies. But self care is so important and it always reminds us of why we came to the work in the first place. So anytime I get a last minute cancellation or I'm just a free hour in my schedule, I make sure to at least spend half of it, uh, revisiting the apparatus and kind of feeling my way through what's going on in, in my own body, um, as a student. And we are all always students. Uh, that's different day to day. So even if you have a regular practice, you should take time to practice just listening to your body. So you might hear me talking through it and feeling for things, and that will inform what exercises I choose to do or choose to omit. Uh, so let's go for a ride. Okay. Uh, so we're gonna start with classical footwork.

Uh, which is my, my Go-to, um, Romano, we said the springs tell your muscles what to do. So I always feel like starting with reformer is the best way to sort of turn everything on. And I'm really uptight about making sure my feet are even and that clients are, can cause foot work, sets up your whole workout for the whole day. So I think even if I get interrupted or the client I thought wasn't coming shows up that even if I just get in footwork, I feel like I'm in good standing. So I'm always sort of checking in with like, are my heels sliding around or is one knee straightening before the other?

And that sorta gives me a clue to work that out by the end of the foot work. So then on to arches. Hi archers. I'm always really into like powerhouse mode. Like what if I had no legs? What if I had no feet? Could I still move the carriage with my abdominals?

Right. And that's a cue I'd like to give to clients as well. [inaudible] Henan heels and this part always seems to get shorter range of motion. Like the body gets kind of lazy after all those Reps. So it was feel like this one is the most important to sort of work through the length and the up or leg [inaudible] and then down to 10 is judge again working on that he u alignment, make sure one doesn't slip under the other guy. I see this one a lot getting sort of shortchange like either one end or the other being one count.

I really hold fast to that low or low or lower left. Left, left. So you get everything you can out of it and not shortchange it. But I always felt like asking what would yo do you know, what would he do? Full range of motion for everything. I can't imagine he abbreviated anything. [inaudible] [inaudible] alright, now Jeanette, ready to warm ups with the hood road. Just a little space [inaudible] oh sure. To follow my own cues, not to let my head Bob around. So we all do as clients.

[inaudible] if that's available, it's good to lower the legs a little, see what's going on down there. [inaudible] and then just one moment to stretch the leather strip, pull the carriage out. We should spray. Oh, I didn't bring it all in time for the yummy stuff. Oh, little short spine massage because I'm never sure how much time I'm actually going to have. I sort of make sure to put you, it's fun. So you've been at the beginning of the reformer overheads a little kind of early on for me.

I usually take one or two frogs just to sort of feel whatever apparatus I'm on and then go into it. Ah. This is where I think, depending on what exercise I'm obsessing around teaching, it always sort of comes up in one of these exercises. Oh, upside down. I'm like, Oh look, it's rolling like a ball. Ah, that low back and so tight from standing all day.

It's a good thing to take a little bit of time and really dig into it. I don't think we pay attention enough to, that's like that's an inversion. You know, you're upside down. It takes a bit. Stickies happen coordination. If I had a nickel for every client that comes in and says I'm coordinated, we're all on coordinated [inaudible] ah good.

And I think today, just based on what I feel, I'm going to stick with the front rowing and not do any back rolling. So working on getting up out of that low back because this is so tempting to just kind of rest back there [inaudible] oh and that visual here for me is so key. Like checking in on the spring, I can see it right there. So I'm sort of like, oh could I keep it open? Can I keep it open? Get again. So there's always some kind of connection between those springs. I find that's hard on them cause they're underneath you so you're not always really tapped into them.

But if you can really base and to know what's going on with the spring, I have a better workout all around and we're on that moment is always when I hear Ramana's voice when I go over and out and she's like well with the arm, cause of course I don't want to do that. Good. Let me move on. This is just about the time things start to sort of speed up organically. Like oh you're going to, if I start a little slow, I feel like a little tempo sort of kicks in at this morning. Another sort of easy place on my body where I feel like I lose torso control.

So I'm always sort of looking for that in my students that there was an ex excessive like movement down through the zone, but something's really lengthening and then ready to hug. Yeah. Yeah. And just by way of imagery come Romana would stand right there and say push me away. And so you have to knock down, but you'd also be afraid cause you don't really want an auger down. So that was kind of fun.

So why don't we sort of imagine are there like push her down, which is just plain silly, huh. So I want to get the box. I do some things on that. Yeah, it's been a long season. I'm definitely feeling that tight, lower back. So these extension exercises are really, really, really key. This is something I see all the time too, is everybody seems to be hanging out down here. And I'm like, no, no, no.

Go down and grab the lunch. A little noisy [inaudible] and then change it to the T. Ah. I feel like that's probably the most commonly hated exercise. Ah, yeah, definitely ready for back. I'm always amazed by people who don't sweat during holidays where there's articles I see that are like the no sweat workout. I'm like, who are you talking about? Who are you talking about?

My first blog is workout with sweaty and everyone's since Ah, oh reverse today. I'm just going to stay with this pottery. Oh, ah. Which brings us to say it with me. The dreaded teaser. Okay. So I've been working on this in kind of a new way for myself. It's not perfect yet, but that's what makes a students forever, Huh?

Ah, timing is everything. So I think head feet so I can see them and then I work into the spring to bring over his leg up all at once and then down. This is the key. Push the spring off them push. It doesn't ring up first. We'll bring up it and watch the feet set down before you let it go. It'll be so great if there were just one set of those right? Oh but no.

Oh [inaudible] reach opened the spring. Oh, let's call that to two. Sounds good. Right? Awesome. I think we'll do a short box now. I've sort of love hate relationship with the short box. I feel like no reformers complete without it. And yet it seems like it would always be good to just give it so working my legs, I like to really think about working side to side and I always think if I could break that strap, that would be the goal. So really working outward on the strap, big deep hug, pushing as hard and working just from that first goal, which is to be level with the box and then a little deeper each time. Ah, [inaudible] and we're going to flip back. I'm a slider.

There's all these big discussions about whether or not to use a pad these days. It seems to be like the big debate pad or no pad. I think back in the old days when we used to wear those slippery shiny, tight, we all use the sticky pad. No, we have some choices. I've sort of let go of the pad, never leave it out. I never leave it out because we never get to bend this way in real life.

Everything's forward, sometimes back, but mostly forward. So this is that like key and then I get really uptight about twists and usually take it a little bit smaller and a little bit deeper, a little bit more twisting, try to see what I can get out of it. So there's not so much about that reach, but even more about the twist. So if I can go up and then up a little more up and around and then add on from there. Rich [inaudible] and the eyes are so important. Omanis told me, say, show me the whites of your eyes when you were doing those rotation exercises.

It makes such a huge difference. You see? Really see where you're going. You can actually feel all your muscles kind of going with you. All right, so treat time as, since this is something that can kind of eat up your reformer time. I really try to sort of just flow through it. It's like rowing, right? There's a few things that can just take so long. [inaudible] and then cause I miss going to dance class and sometimes throw in a little side stretch a little side tree.

Ah, good thing we only have two legs. It's kind of a relief. Kick your back up. Whoa, whoa. Trying to kick that back up into leg. Less leg more back. And then I like on my body, this leg wants to shift so I'm always trying to get it down the mid line [inaudible] and then spill off the box. Yeah.

In one of those cheats I'm always seeing is this like resting with the forums on the box. I'm always very sensitive and I don't do that myself and amazing. And there was always a sort of self-congratulatory moment when the box is done. I feel like that's a good marker for whether or not you're gonna quit your workout or keep going. I'm going to take a little long stretch series and see what comes out today. [inaudible] and then Dan stretch really working open chest.

Oh, it's winter in New York now. So getting that chest openness so much harder than normal. Yeah. Wow. I think everybody forgets this is a breathing exercise. Double up for up stretch and I've been working to keep my heels actually a little lower on this than usual just to see.

I get a slightly different stretch in the calves [inaudible] that one just really never gets easier. Well we some part of it, it's just going to be a challenge forever. [inaudible] elephant I think, right? Everybody's favorite. Well nice focus here is also to try not to do so much leg work. Like what if you actually couldn't bring the kerogen with your legs at all and you just had to lift up so high that the carriage came in on its own.

So sort of less of this and more up and like making room for the calf to come. Oh Nice. We're going to move straight to stomach massage. I'm going to keep it at three today for my own body. Always an option a just in case that lower back is feeling cranky. I do still try to sit as close as possible mostly cause I was always sort of humiliated by Romana doing this in her silk jogging pants with no sticky pad. So sort of have inferiority complex about it in a good, okay.

This is always where I sort of tap into that. Oh right. It's supposed to be rhythm of your heart, rhythm of your heart. I'm going to keep it on three. So hands back, my shoulders are still, no, other than the things I've been working on here is that idea that you're not meant to just rely on the blocks, but to sort of unweight yourself from them. So what does that look like? Like do I really need them? Maybe not take a couple of test runs like that just for fun before we move on to flap. Okay.

And then adding a twist, of course, the key Oh and one yummy stretch just because, so 10 instructs comes next. I'm a big fan. Nothing fancy, but I'm sort of obsessed with weight distribution and teaching. So this is actually another way that kind of gets me into that headspace of it's all about weight distribution. It's not about the stretch at all, but just about where you put your weight so that if I'm forward and the carriage is in here, then that's where my weight is. So even though I'm holding on, I'm not back here, which is where everybody wants to be. So that's a no, we push the carriage out in front and then try to fold in half and bring your wheat forward, forward, forward. So like again, I'm barely holding on here. It's just that shift of the weight shift of the weight forward, forward, forward [inaudible] yeah and again up and over, up and over get the carriage. I call it done and I am feeling like a little semicircle might be a good thing right now. So I'm going to add a stopper just for fun.

Sorry. And come on in. This is also one of those spinal articulation moves that I think we like gyp ourselves out of. Cause there's just so much more to do. So like from the peak of it here, so what I see normally is everybody tries to tries to sort of lower down from this mid back or maybe somewhere below the ribs and you, you miss all that higher stuff there. It's not the low hanging fruit, it's the higher hanging fruit. So up behind the throat. And I really do think and then behind those upper back and then all the ribs and then when you go down you just really get like so much more spine. It's way more gratify depending on where up and over.

And I will ever be hearing just the springs. Does the springs, does the springs get in there? And this part too is that you're really meant to go into the springs and get that opening of the back. It's really like being on a spine. Correct. Okay. And one more on top behind the neck. Behind the shoulders. Well ain't no ribs. Oh good. Let's take a couple of reversed the other way.

And this is all about locking the carriage out, lugging the carriage up all the way. So it doesn't move. Not even turning it side. [inaudible] same idea so that you don't miss any vertebrae. Hey, last one. [inaudible] hi. One little stretch cause it's so good. I always see people popping their heels up for this.

But if you keep them down and then grab your ankles, you get a much deeper yummy stretch and by now you're pretty slim. It's like, oh, it's time to come up, right? A chest expansion seems like a good idea. I may skip some of the other ones because I had a knee surgery a couple of years ago and it's still not quite where I want it to be. It's getting closer. But the thigh stretch is kind of still an issue.

But I want to take my chest expansion very seriously upright. Huh? I'm a little bit persnickety about this too because how am I getting yelled at for giving the cue? Look, so not look, but stretch your neck. Stretch your neck. Look ahead so that it wasn't just about turning your head. It's not choreography. It's actually an exercise.

My knee actually feels kind of good. So, and that can happen in your own workout. Like maybe, maybe it's okay. Maybe I'll go for it today. So don't be afraid to challenge yourself a little bit when you are really kind of tuned in and listening, like maybe that's available because it's still a little Janky for me though. I like to keep my feet together. See what comes out. Wish me luck. Lift and hinge. That's not that bad today.

Ah, maybe with a couple more weeks it might be there. Oh, awesome. Oh, you're so proud when it's getting better. We're still proud of ourselves. So I'm going to jump ahead because I normally don't have a whole hour anyway. And there's a couple of other things I don't want to leave out, but I'm going to jump ahead too long span and then finish up. Cool.

Happens in the best of families. Drop my, he's loop. So I'm going to jump ahead to lungs, mine knee stretches, running and pelvic lift, and then grab another, lest I get to reformer centric. I always say the reformer is not PyLadies bodies is a system. So you're just working out with a reformer. You're missing all the rest of it. Make sure you get around the room because that's no fun.

You're great at the reformer, but you're really bad at every other apparatus. You want to actually train your body to be equally bad or good at every apparatus at the same time. Same Level. Ah, okay, so we're going to go up [inaudible]. Okay. This is one of those moves that gets better with Roberta, so by the time you get to the third one, you're usually doing it, but I still hear him on his voice saying stand into the straps, stand into the straps.

So I put much foot power as I can until those blogs drops. Yeah, and a little shake is good for the body. Okay. Okay. [inaudible] yeah, I'd like to go down like that little way. Oh, and a couple of circles to end the party. [inaudible] I'm going to take these off.

These judges. This is not a reward exercise, but I do usually feel like by the time I get here, I'm like, yes, that means it's going to be over. Just kind of a good student set. Right. Okay. Here we go. [inaudible] and for myself it's always about kind of racing the springs. So rather than kind of like waiting for something to happen, like I'm in charge. Yes. Ah, high knees off everybody's favorite, no banging. And we ready cute little transitions for running so that you never actually ended up standing.

Okay. You want to set if you're not huffing and puffing by the time you do running and you working out hard enough or fast enough. So that's always my gauge and I am definitely out of breath, public left. Okay. And this is what I play with for myself with less springs all the time.

But I think for today my body's calling out for some [inaudible] we're gonna move on because the mat is the heart of the matter and I think actually the hardest to do. I pretty much never get on the Cadillac without doing some mat. So I am going to actually just start with a quick ab series, add a couple more things and then I'm going to grab some springs and move on. You might ask why is she doing the abdominal series? And I have the same question. Uh, it's just one of those like taking your vitamins everyday or do the op series.

So I'm gonna start with the single leg storage and this is definitely where I think of all that full range of motion rather than these pretty poses. I see. Sometimes I always think like for sure Joe wasn't making like pretty shapes, he was just trying to get like the fullest, most extended, deepest range of motion he could get out of the body. So even here, even if my tail comes up just a little bit, that's kind of where I'm feeling like it's a good spot. [inaudible] I always take my time with this one. Ah, just feel like there's just a little bit more to good for all the power.

Oh, before we throw it all away. [inaudible] Ramana, let's say if you can hit your head then just pass that by and go to your ear. I never really got there. Huh. And then the last two uglies uh, good idea on the catalog too, to use the props to gauge where to go. So like I'm using the rollback part right now. It's clearly lower, lower, lower lift, lift, lift, lower, lower, lower who? Lift, lift and then again whites of the eyes.

And then don't they just set up cause what? We don't want to rest, right? I think it's fine. Structures Order [inaudible] oh he's working on getting the head lower. And a good gauge for that too is you really don't want to get your head out there, but somewhere between your knees and your groin. So it's pretty close. She means you really have to scoop in on yourself and go down and then down again and then down lower. Oh, so close.

Huh? Not there yet. Let's see. What do you think? Can you get it here? And a little bit of extension. I think I'm going to skip forward to a little neck role. Sort of become obsessed with this exercise even though it's basic, just because again, like everybody's so in their phones and on their devices, we just can't turn our next anymore.

So I started to put it back in my routine even sometimes during this instead of Swan. Ah. And we're really working that 90 degree angle with the arms. Uh, big circle. Big Circle, big circle. [inaudible] how my students are starting to say things like, oh, it makes me dizzy.

Oh my God, it's a bad sign. Oh, I just think we're losing all the range in our next, we're not gonna be able to drive anymore then what'll happen. Huh. Okay. So it's springtime for me. Yeah. Come on. Things I like to do. Uh, okay. Yes. For one, rolling stomach massage because I need as much assist as I can get in that low back or speculation. So I'm going to shoot me no way from the Bulls [inaudible] and I'm going to crisscross, cross my feet just cause I feel secure that way.

I usually like to take just a couple of these, like reach the bar away just to get into that links and spine [inaudible] and then go into the exercise. I'm going to go upside down. There it is again, rolling on the ball, knees to the ceiling and then push away, push away, push, wait, watch the chin to the chest and here it is again. It's like that semicircle moment where you can really roll down all the way to that low back and start all over again in and up and over, knees to the like, and then reach away, reach away, reach away, and then I'm thinking behind this rope behind the upper back, well in the ribs all the way down there, and I can one more time come up and we'll reach, reach, reach, and maybe it's time to do the reverse and in roles, do it all the way down. Roll, let all the way down and up and in and role. Definitely one of my favorites. I'm going to come up right and revisit that by stretch because while I was able to do it somewhat on the reformer, I feel like I could get a little bit more out of it if the carriage wasn't moving. I'm just trying to stay tuned into what Margot do needs. Right now. I'm set up, I'm still working with my feet together. If it feels good, I'm going to open my legs and go more parallel, but let's see what, what happened. Oh yeah.

That's so much better for me right now. And the springs are nice and tight, so I'm getting a little, a little give. I might even go a little back then. Style last one. Huh? So good. Alright, so I'm like springs, I think might be the way I'm going to Tuck this away so that it's not hidden away. I'm back again.

See how that feels. Yeah, so bad. All right, so let's take a couple of circles to start. Kind of like using the top grid, the metal poles as a gauge. So don't go too wide. [inaudible] I feel like every body has different feelings about how straight to go with the knees here. Do you want to know what to lock them out and overwork the quads? But you also don't want to let them be too soft and mushy. [inaudible] let's take a walk.

[inaudible] oh huh. So we were taught always alternate big moves with small moves. So we do nice juicy circles and you do a little walking. Then you might do big, nice long bicycle, which means coming up next would be a smaller move. Oh, that top leg just doesn't want to come back up to where this rooting is.

Slack. I think that's just the hardest part. Okay. So what little small exercise should we do next? I think beats [inaudible] Ooh, the springs are shaken. Imagine if they could not shake [inaudible] [inaudible] okay. Okay. And maybe some circular frog to finish.

[inaudible] this one gets skipped a lot. [inaudible] [inaudible] scrape in with the feet. Hand up together in with the feet. [inaudible] press together and AH, awesome. Maybe one last standing exercise cause I do like to always end standing so important to end standing so that you bring the work into your body, into your teaching, into the rest of your day. So one more thing, just grab it. A little chest expansion with the bar. Is there sort of like our basic go-to moves. Make sure you keep [inaudible] in your body. Ah, so good chest expansion. Again, I'm still kind of working that side to side range with the neck.

All upper back muscles on. Press the bar down and stretch the neck one way and the other way and then center and blew the bar. And again, press oh, so now kinda integrating everything. Breath and strength and control, range of motion, all the beautiful things. Look below. Ds is known for, and final one. Oh Allah magic. Oh done.