HIIT Reformer Fusion 2

Hi guys, Courtney Miller here, and I'm here with class number two out of a sequence of three classes that I've designed that are a fusion reformer-based class. This class is going to use some high intensity interval training, which is also known as HIIT training, you'll see a little bit of yoga in there, and of course, everything we do is gonna stem from our amazing foundation of Pilates. Let's get started. Now this is a tough workout. I'll give you lots of opportunities to take breaks, and to make modifications, but my suggestion is that you grab a towel, I have one, and that you grab some water.

Because you might get a little parched. The towel's gonna be for later. I'm also using a band in this workout, so I have a light resistance band. Grab one of those as well, and you'll see how we sprinkle it in throughout the class. To get started, we are going to have one yellow spring on.

That's a light tension, if you're not using a Balance Body apparatus then you'll want a quarter spring. Stand with your toes in line with the front edge of the carriage, and take your inside leg back against the shoulder blocks, make any adjustments you need to so your hips feel level and square. So this is a little standing yoga flow. On an inhale, the arms will lift as the heel lifts on the standing leg. On an exhale, bend into the standing knee as you lean forward creating length and space in the spine.

Back leg is super straight, you're opening up through the front of the hip. Inside hand goes down to the inside of the rail, outside hand lifts up, little rotation in the spine, heel drops. Look up at the hand, take a few deep breaths, and pull your left hip back. On an exhale, windmill the arm forward, both arms reach finding length, come all the way back up to where you started, and give yourself a little thoracic love. Opening the chest, and the whole things starts again.

Breathe in to lift, arm and heel. Breathe out to lunge, pitching forward, tightening the tummy. Breathe in, hand goes down, arm goes up, open, drop the heel so you can really get into that twist. Press into the bottom hand, press into the front heel, pull your left hip back. Exhale, both arms come forward finding length again.

Inhale rise up, bend the elbows, lift the heart, drop the tailbone, one more time. Inhale, the heel lifts, the arms lift, exhale knee bends, notice that the leg is not traveling forward over the toes, get long here, get low. Lower the heel, place the hand, lift and twist, pulling the left hip back. Really work to straighten that back leg, 'cause this is a warmup, so we're trying to open the front of the hips in preparation for what's to come. Exhale stretch, reach, find your length, inhale lift, and open.

Exhale. Change of springs, I'm gonna add a blue making it a little bit heavier, and taking away that yellow. That back foot is now gonna lift so that it's on the top of the shoulder block. Bend into the front knee, send the carriage back, get a little lower. Now this is more about power, arms are forward.

Little bend and exhale, press. And press. With each push of the carriage, reach through the fingers. With each push back of the leg, reach for the crown of the head. Pressing for four more, so ten in total, three, two, and one.

Bend into the standing knee a little bit more, lift an inch. Drive that heel down, back leg is straight. Glutes are active here. Think about working all the muscles that you would in your footwork. Plus, all the muscles that you're using to balance.

On the next one hold, long with the arms, and resist to come in. Pivot and turn so you're facing on a diagonal. Hips should still be square. Take that foot into a dorsiflex position, arms down by the side. Press out through the leg as the arms go forward.

Bend into the standing leg knee, but notice as I do I'm shifting my weight back and towards the carriage. So I'm not here, I'm actually pushing that standing leg back. Inhale to lengthen, exhale. Inhale to press, exhale to sit. (exhales) Let the hips go back.

Reach long through the arms, inhale to lengthen, exhale. (exhales) So we should be feeling some heat through the upper back as well, not only the legs, two more times, inhale. Exhale. Sit low, drive the seat back, lift up using the power of that standing leg, last time. Lengthen.

Lift and come all the way in. And all we have to do is the same thing on the other side, feels lovely. Don't forget to change your spring back to what you started with, which is a yellow, or a quarter spring. So we want that light tension to begin. Align your toes with the front edge of the carriage, send the inside foot back against the shoulder block.

Feel free to make little adjustments here, the hips are square. On a breath in, the arms lift, so does the standing heel. On a breath out we press back with the carriage, bend into the standing leg, and pitch forward finding neutral length through the spine. So we're not up in extension, reach. Heel goes down, inside hand goes down, outside hand goes up.

Now you can totally feel the work that you did on the other side, 'cause this side's gonna feel a little tighter, a little stiff until you warm up and balance between the left and the right. Reach forward, come to standing, and open the chest. Do it again. So the arms lift as the heel lifts, close the ribs, find your center of gravity. Bend into the front knee, pitch forward.

Hand goes down, arm goes up, twist and open. Can you straighten that back leg a little more and pull your right hip back. Both arms reach forward, find your center, lift up, and open the heart, one more time. Inhale, the arms lift, the heel lifts, exhale, keep that heel up, challenge your spatial awareness, here, challenge that balance. Heel goes down, arm goes down, open it up.

Push into the floor, try to stack the hands one above the other, push into the bottom hand to lift and open the chest just a little bit more. Both arms forward. Lengthen, press through the heel, rise up, and open the heart. And take it down, just a quick little change making it a little heavier, changing from that yellow to the blue. And instead of having the foot back against the shoulder block just lift it so toes are on top of the shoulder block.

Bend into the front knee, push forward with the arms. So you feel that feedback, you feel the spring trying to drive you forward, so counteract that by leaning back into it, driving your heel to the earth, bend and press. And press, now it doesn't have to be a big bend, here, because the emphasis, the purpose, is the extension of the hip. So work to push, and open the glute, push. Excuse me, open the hip, squeeze the glute.

Four more. Three. Two. And one. Standing leg, get a little deeper in that lunge, deeper.

Straighten the back leg, think about the spine. Don't forget about the upper body. Three. Two. And one.

Rise up. Definitely feeling the heat, pivot turn, dorsiflexion, so toes are up. Adjust so that you're in a comfortable, externally rotated position with your hips square. Hands are low to begin, inhale. Leg extends, arms lift.

Exhale, bend into the front knee, lean forward, get low here. Stretching the inner thighs, pushing the standing leg so the carriage moves back. Lift up, and lower down, do it again. Inhale, exhale (exhales). Inhale, and exhale.

Now remember, we're warming up for some pretty big movements, some powerful movements that are coming up. So we want the muscles in the feet, we want the muscles in the ankles and the calves to feel challenged. So if you feel a little wobbly, that's okay. That's all part of the warmup process. Reach, sitting the hips back, reaching the arms forward.

Don't be shy to lean back. Lengthen up and lower one more time. Reach. This is the calm before the storm, by the way, enjoy. Breathe, it's all coming.

Lift up, and lower down. We're warm. So, we have our first high intensity interval circuit, or HIIT circuit. We're gonna do this circuit three times all the way through. It'll make you sweat, you'll get a mini-break in-between sets, and then we'll move to our reformer flow.

Let's get started. I'm leaving the spring tension on, that's one blue spring. Take a seat onto your carriage for a moment, opening the feet nice and wide. Lift up from this position and sit back down, easy breezy. If this is where you'd like to continue, please do.

To increase the challenge, we're gonna sit not all the way down, but to a hover. Extend the arms, and as we come up, we jump, the feet come together. It's a star jump. So we sit low, lift, sit low, lift. Yeah, not complicated, but not easy, either.

Ten times. Pull, and sit. In, and out. Four. Three.

Two. One. Sit all the way down. Grab ahold of your strap. Remember, we're on a blue spring, we don't need to change it.

Come back into a C curved position, lifting the legs up to a balance. Interlace the fingers, looking towards the spring, exhale, rotate towards the foot bar. Keep those elbows lifted, inhale back to center. About eight of these. Work to stay stable through your body.

So notice if your legs are shifting a lot. Now remember, we're not looking for perfection, we're looking for progress. So what you might notice is as you continue this workout, these little adjustments become easier to make. Exhale as you twist, inhale. We'll do two more of these.

Rotating towards the foot bar, and last one. Good, hooking up that spring. Now there's a third part to this series, that's hands onto the rails, feet go forward, hips go up, tricep dips, we go down, we go up. I love these because not only do they work the back of the arm, but they open the front of the chest. Now if you'd like to increase the challenge here, we add a kick.

Kick one leg when you go down. Kick one leg when you go down. Lift, and lower. Kick up, and lift. Kick up, and lift.

10 in total. Inhale down, exhale up. Two. And one. Take a seat, guess what?

The whole thing starts again. Now you're welcome to take about 10 second breaks in between these sets. I'm just gonna jump right into it, that was probably a 10 second break right there. Jump right into it literally, here we go. Together and sit, ten times.

Send the hips back, drive yourself up from the floor, so feel like you're getting your energy from underneath you. Five. Four. I'm only smiling for you, if I was at home, I might have a different face. Two.

And one, take a seat. You don't need to take any changes here, you're sitting towards the center of the carriage. Scoop roll back, finding that C curve position, legs are coming up, exhale as we rotate towards the foot bar. And exhale rotate. Now, again, even though these are strong, powerful movements, precision is key.

Inhale, exhale twist. Try to keep those legs still, and disassociate the upper body, rotating from your center. Two more, about eight in total, and one. Good, we hook the strap up, take the hands to the rail, walk the feet forwards. Option to add your kicks.

Kick when you go down, kick when you go down. Lifting in opposition to your tricep dip. About 10 in total. Four. Three.

Two. One. Take a seat. Little mini-break, now would be a good time to get a sip of water. Last set, last round of these, we can do it.

Lift and hop, squat. Down. Knees over toes. Feel for that carriage behind you, keep your chest lifted. Four.

Three. Two. One. Getting warm, yeah? Grab a hold, you know what to do.

Deep in the abdominals, lift the legs. Think about your precision improving with each set. In Pilates, we do not typically do multiple sets of one exercise. So now we do have the opportunity to really understand the movement, to really feel it in the body. Don't let your fatigue take over.

Mind over matter, you are strong, you're gonna do this, and you're gonna do it well, yeah. 'Cause that's when it's most effective, right? Last one. And take it down, we have our tricep dips, optional kicks. Kick when you go down, keep the chest wide.

Eyes forward. And you will work more muscles if you're smiling. Down and up, five. Four. Three.

Two. One, and take a seat. Phew! We did it, three sets, piece of cake. So we'll leave the blue spring on. My suggestion for you is you move your foot bar down for this next reformer flow.

So it's just out of the way. Come into your seated mermaid position. The trick here is you'll wanna move away from the shoulder blocks. So the shoulder blocks don't get in your way during the exercise. So here are your beautiful mermaid legs.

Placing a hand on the platform slightly forward of your shoulder, go right into your mermaid stretch. Keep the shoulder in a strong position and the chest open. Do your best to anchor that outside hip, so there's my hip up. Try to anchor that outside hip. And a sense of heaviness is more important than it actually touching the ground here.

Not all of us have the flexibility to get that booty down, but we are all able to feel heavy on that side. From here, I want you to rotate towards the well, taking that hand under, grabbing ahold of the frame. Now pushing with your platform hand, and dropping the head. This is just a stretch guys, it's gonna help open up those shoulders, and you can play with where the hand is on the rail. You may notice that one position gives you that oh so good stretch that you know you need.

Come back through your mermaid, lengthen all the way up to vertical, and stretch in the opposite direction. We'll do that one more time. Press away, heavy the hip. Rotate towards the springs, thread the needle, grab ahold. The more you push with your platform hand, the more you will stretch, and it feels really good.

Really good. Come back through your mermaid, lengthen all the way up to vertical, and stretch in the other direction. Okay, with reward comes work. So we got reward first, now it's time for work. Laterally flex, that's a breath in.

This time you rotate but you don't go all the way through. Take both hands onto the platform, open the hands so they're shoulder-width apart. My goal is to square off my shoulders to the platform. That's my goal, though, and some days I'm closer to that goal than others. So work with what you got.

Lifting the back leg up, sending the back leg behind you to fire into the obliques, the glutes, and the hamstrings. So keep pulling that heel towards your booty, lifting the leg eight times, the whole leg, not just the knee, up, and up. Now this is your chance to start to improve that length in your spine here. As you work the leg, don't just give up the upper body. So it's participating by creating traction.

Two, and one. Carriage comes in, the leg goes down. Keep the leg down and just enjoy a stretch. I know what you're thinking, this is really nice of Courtney to do. It is.

But there's some more stuff coming up, so don't you worry. Lifting the back leg up again, this time we're gonna be pushing the back leg back, back. So before we were going up, now we're going back. So I'm reaching towards the ocean with my toes. If you're having problems lifting the back leg off the carriage, push away from the platform a little bit more.

But again, your goal here is not just to work the booty, but also to create that length and traction in the thoracic spine. Think about doing your up stretch. Two, and one. Bring the carriage in, press back and enjoy. All right, that was the fun part.

Now that leg extends through the shoulder block. Keep that mermaid leg, bring your supporting hand slightly forward of your shoulder, press yourself out. Now we're no longer trying to keep the hip heavy. Instead we're gonna allow that hip to lift so the hip bones are almost coming to a stacked position, not quite. Soften your stabilizing arm, lifting that leg, hand can go on hip, pulsing up, up, eight times.

Try to find length through your spine, shoulder in a strong position down your back. Three, two, hold for one. Pivot, take both hands onto the platform. Keep your back leg lifted. Back leg lifts higher as the chest goes down.

Back leg lowers when the chest comes up, but the back leg never touches. This is the evil part of the exercise that I know you were anticipating. The back leg lifts when the chest goes down, the back leg lowers but not all the way. Let's do two more. Lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, and lower.

One more, try not to let the head droop. Lift, and bring it all the way in. That's intense. Pivot so you're sitting on both sit bones, lift the arms to the sky, lean forward and take a stretch. In through the nose, out through the mouth.

Okay, I wish that I could say, we're just gonna do the other side now, nope. We got more to do, grab that strap. Now, if you have straps that have the D ring where you can fold the strap, hook it up, and shorten it, then do that. Or if you have another option to shorten your straps, perhaps actually shortening the rope, then do that. But I'm not gonna do either of those.

To save a little bit of time, all I do is I take the loop and I thread it through, and there's my smaller opening. I thread my foot through that, and... Whoopsie, I didn't mess that up, there we go. I thread my food through, and then what I prefer to do is kinda cap it over my heel. It doesn't look pretty yet, don't worry, it's getting there.

Pivot turn, so you are facing towards your foot bar. And now you can see, hopefully, what's happening here. So it's a shorter strap, my foot is securely locked in, I didn't need to make any crazy changes to the equipment. Leg lifts, I'm in a four point kneeling position, hips are square, bend the knee pulling the heel towards the booty, and extend the leg. Bring it in, and send it out.

Exhale pull, inhale. Try to keep the femur high. Exhale as you pull the heel towards the seat. Drawing the ribs up (exhales), soft through the elbows, make this whole body. On the next one, go for your hamstring curl and hold.

Bring the knee under the chest, flex the spine and pull, knee to nose. Lift the leg, keep the curl, extend. And bend. And if you're not shaking, then I think you can work a little harder. There should be a little involuntary spasm (laughs).

And pull (exhales). Or maybe you just have a really, really strong tush, and that's awesome, too. I'm gonna do two more. Knee to nose, I feel abs, here. Flex the foot (exhales), one more.

Knee to nose, and flex. Extend the leg, plantar flex the foot. Keep the leg lifted so the spring is taut. You'll bend your elbows, the leg will lift up, and it'll go back down. Exhale.

And inhale, try to create like a little see-saw action here. So when the leg goes up, the chest goes down, and when the chest comes up, the leg goes down. Three more. Two. And one.

And now we really are done, you should be finished in that glute. So let's take that strap off. Before we go to the other side, let's take a stretch. Hook that guy up for later. Both hands can go onto the platform.

Keeping your knees under your hips, push out with your arms, lowering your chest down. Let it open. So shoulders are wide here, don't pinch them up by your ears. You can even push the carriage back a little, anteriorly tilt the pelvis, and pull it under you. Is this a stretch for the booty, no, does it feel delicious, yeah, it's a reward.

That's how I look at it. Little press, anterior tilt. And pull. And it almost erases the memory of the terrible things that we must do on the other side. Here we go.

So there is your mermaid legs. Don't forget that we're away from the shoulder blocks enough that this leg can lift without catching. So find your best vertical alignment, placing your hand on the platform, go all the way into your lateral flexion, driving the hip down. There's the hip up, there's the hip down. It's not touching for me, but it might be touching the mat for you.

Thread the needle, grab ahold of the rail, push with your platform arm. This is about stretching the back and the shoulders. Pull the belly in and up. Come back through. Lengthen all the way back up to vertical.

And we do it again. Inhale to find length, exhale to thread the needle. I got a little pop there in a good way. Inhale. And exhale.

To come up, last time. Push... Thread... So I'm pushing with the platform arm. Remember, you can adjust where the hand is on the rail to change the stretch.

Come back through lateral flexion and come all the way up. All right, going into our pretzel. So we laterally flex, rotate and take both hands onto the platform. So for me, unless I do that shoulder stretch, deepening the rotation and opening up the back body, it's quite hard for me to get my hand pushing into the platform. So something to consider, right, you might wanna just do that a few more times to open up the back body so that this position doesn't feel so rigid to you.

Back leg lefts, so the shape of the leg stays the same, we extend at the hip by pushing the leg back, and the whole shape lifts up. Not just the knee, the foot as well, up. You're using this time to create length through your thoracic spine, you're catching your breath. You're breathing into your back and sides. Remember, when a movement seems relatively simple, we don't shut our brains off, we keep scanning the body.

What can we do more, how can we improve, where can we engage. And take it down, bring the carriage in, press the carriage out (exhales). Really try to push through the arm, through the side that feels the tightest. Lengthen to come all the way in. Same thing, the leg will lift, you can press the carriage out if you're having problems getting that leg up.

The shape of the leg pulses back. We're doing about eight repetitions per variation for these, pressing back on an exhale, tightening the tummy, think of your spine almost like a corkscrew, as it spirals it gets longer. From the crown of the head out through the tailbone, and one, we bring the carriage in, and we press the carriage out, push push push, lengthen and breathe. Come all the way in. Taking that leg long, through the shoulder blocks onto the headrest, taking the hand slightly forward of the shoulder.

Press to a side-lying position. Squaring the hips ish, so we're not trying to keep the hip down, we're allowing the hip to come up. Soften the elbow, square off those shoulders, lift the leg, up. Now usually, check out my leg here, 'cause what I'm looking for is my hip flexor wanting to take over. We really want that leg to stay between the shoulder blocks, or if anything moving slightly back towards the shoulder block behind me.

Keep the leg up, take both hands on, widen the arms so they're shoulder width. The leg lifts higher as you go down, and the leg lowers but not all the way. Exhale. And inhale. See-saw.

Try not to let the head drop. Keep a banana shape with your body. Three more. Two. And one.

Could you stay there and pulse? Yes you can. Am I going to? Nope! (laughs) I'm gonna stretch. Okay, so we've got the hip extension, the leg curls on this side.

So this is the leg that's gonna be going into the strap, so you might just wanna leave it. Here's my loop, I just reach through and I'm grabbing the rope, and that makes this little circle here. And this loop is what I'm putting my foot through, and I like to have my heel go through so it just feels more secure for me. La, la, la! And then we pivot turn. And now it's stuck in there.

Now you may wanna play with the length of your straps here. If you've got really long ropes, you might wanna shorten them a little bit. Leg lifts, it's good to have a little bit of tension when you're in this position. Exhale into the hamstring curl. Do your best to square your hips, if you are working with a client, you're gonna wanna help them find the square hips.

If you're doing it yourself, just know that your right hip, so in this case your working leg, your working hip, it's gonna wanna lift. 'Cause your back is gonna say, hey don't worry, I'll help with this, and you have to say no. I want my butt and my hamstrings to do the work. So using your back, using your core to stabilize, but doing your hamstrings using your glutes to keep the hip extension and do the curl. Okay, so we keep the shape, we bring the shape under the body, flexing the spine, knee to nose.

Really work to pull that knee forward, keep the shape of the leg, and you go up. And up. And as you kick up, you've gotta tighten your tummy underneath. Three more. Flex.

Elbows are soft. Two. And, kick. And one. And kick.

Extend the leg all the way up, keep it high. So as you bend your elbows, the leg lifts up. As you straighten the arms the leg goes down. I'm gonna do four more, lifting like a little seesaw. As the chest goes down the leg lifts.

Two. And one. And bring it in, take a seat. Free yourself of the Pilates bondage, and you get a stretch coming up. Now while you're in this stretch, get your head over, get your head around going into another high intensity interval training circuit.

It's coming up. In through the nose out through the mouth, let the chest lower. So you can just keep the knees right under the hips. This is a great one for creating thoracic length. Or you can put the knees back a little, anteriorly tilt, pull.

Inhale, lift the hips, pull. One more time, pull, and come all the way in. God, we made it. Okay, so what I'd like you to do for the next one is bring your bar up. Now, you're going to have to have room to stand on your platform for your side standing work.

So on this reformer, I have the bar in the low setting. On an Allegro two, where you can move the foot bar, or an Infinity foot bar, you might choose another setting. But what's important is your foot can fit on here. You'll want one red spring on, and you'll need your short box. Okay, so let's put that on.

It's going to go in front of the shoulder blocks, snug all the way against, and you'll probably hear it squeak a little bit as it gets really smushed into those shoulder blocks. I'm just getting some extra time here for a break before I do this, I'm stalling. It's called a fake break, it's over though, okay. So here we go. This is a reformer burpee, if you haven't done a burpee on the mat then go for it.

I like it on the reformer, so I'm up in a releve position with my heels against the box, hands are gonna be onto the foot bar, thumbs on the same side as the fingers. Press out to your plank position. Two times, I'm gonna bend in, push back, bend in, push back. I'll do one pushup. Bend in, shift back, lift up, and it repeats.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight, like a dance. (laughs) One, and two, down and up. In, and up. Four of these, so I've got one more, or two. In, and up, I'll do one more 'cause I did lose count there. Push, push, one shape down, one shape up, in and up.

Okay, remember these are to get your sweating. From here we'll leave the spring tension, one red spring. Remember, this is what we needed room for, so there we are. I'm now side standing with my leg pressed up against the box. We're doing a speed skater variation.

This can also be done on the mat, but we're on the reformer. Bend into your knees, take your arms out like a letter T, press away from the platform, lean opposite hand to ankle. As you come through center come back up. Now push the box away, lean, tap the foot, and come through center. Now that you know it, you can go at your tempo.

Press and tap, press and tap. Press and tap, press and tap. Push out, pull in, press out, pull in, push, and press, I'm getting labor PTSD. Push (laughs) and press, one more each. Press.

And press. Pivot turn, face towards your box. No need to change a thing. Come onto your elbows and forearms. Now you may prefer a low plank to be with your forms in line with your elbows, you may prefer to bring the hands in, you may choose what feels best for you, but let's make sure our elbows are underneath our shoulders.

Mountain climber variations, both knees bend, one knee to the box, one knee to the box. In, out. Three. Two. And one.

Good, okay. Round two, three sets, right? So take a seat, face towards your foot bar, here's your burpee, lift those heels high. Phew, I'm already getting the shakes, it's a good workout. Hands on, push out, one, two.

One push up, bring it in, lift. One, two, one push up, bring it in, lift, two more. One, two, one push up, bring it in, lift, one more. One, two, down and up, in, phew. Here's our speed skaters, so one foot on the platform.

Good, whoopsie, I'm gonna turn around for you guys here, so we're even. Okay, get low get low, chest is lifted, push away from the platform, tap, bring it in. Push the box away, tap, bring it in. If you know it and you're ready to flow, go to your tempo. Push.

Pull. Exhale when you tap, two more. One more. And bring it in. Pivot turn, come down onto your knees, take your best low plank position, elbows directly underneath those shoulders, toes curled under at the platform.

Press out, bend both knees, knee touches the box. You come in, mountain climbers. In and out, drop the tailbone, guys, use the low belly to pull the knee forward. Pull, pull, pull. One more each.

Bring it in, all right. We've got burpees, and we've got mountain climbers. We're gonna skip that third set of speed skaters so we're not uneven, okay? All we have to do is burpees, mountain climbers, let's get it done. Push out one, two, down and up.

Bring it in, lift up, three more. One, two, down and up, bring it in, lift up. Two more, one, two, down and up, bring it in, one more. Push, push. Bring it in, sit.

Phew! If you wanna do a second set of those speed skaters, now's your time, just make sure you turn around, you do an even amount on both sides. I'm going into my mountain climbers. Kneeling, facing towards the box, elbows and forearms on. Push out. Bend the knees, tap the box, tap the box.

Drop the tailbone, you should feel the low belly assisting, here, five. Four. Three. Two. One.

And bring it in. Woo-hoo, take a break, towel off, drink some water, now is a good time to recover. Okay guys, we're leaving the short box on. Phew, dab dab dab, dab dab dab. Leaving that short box on, one red spring, I think you'll be happy with that, reduce down to a blue if you're feeling a little fatigue at this point.

What I'm probably gonna do is do one red, and then probably reduce down to a blue halfway through. So, you always have that option, too. Come to a kneeling position facing towards your pulleys. Taking your pelvis onto the box. I'd like you to be in a position where you feel like you can move your hips freely, so if you're too far off the box, your femurs are getting supported by the box, and it's actually a little easier.

So move down a little bit more than what you think you should, I'm right here, right to my upper ribs on the box. Now, you're gonna grab ahold of those pulleys, and you can drag yourself up, or, if you've got some spare time and you like to play on your equipment, you can go into superpower mode, reach for the pulleys, and jump and grab them (laughs). Sometimes I just do that to improve my mood, and it works every time. I'm gonna do a pull up and hip extension, pulling my chest forward, lifting my legs up, legs go down. Exhale.

And inhale. Exhale. And inhale. Don't be afraid to add a little hold there. Pushing the pubic bone down, think about the elbows tapping the box.

Three more. Two. And one. Now, I haven't mastered a superhero landing, yet, so I'm just gonna walk it safely in. Here's where I'm gonna reduce to my blue.

Now you can feel free to stay on your red spring. It's doable. And I'm gonna do the same thing, single arm and single leg. So I'm off the box quite a bit, superhero arms, and push with the toes, grab ahold. One hand comes onto the headrest, the arm that's doing the pulling, the opposite leg will lift, but both legs stay alive the whole time.

So I lift, and I lower, I'm gonna do six on each leg. Spine is long. Three more. I have to remind myself not to let the non-lifting leg collapse. And one.

Switching legs, switching arms. Both hip bones are heavy into the box. Lift. Two more, pull. And pull.

And again, I have not mastered the landing, so I'm gonna keep it graceful, lower down to your knees. We're gonna be standing in the well, so you'll have to push out a little bit, you can use your arms to do that, and come to a standing position. Now you can either stand off to one side of your spring, you can straddle your spring, it kinda depends where your spring is. But you want your feet underneath your hips. Take one foot onto the carriage, and I'm in dorsiflexion.

So in addition to all of the good work that we're doing in our body, we're also getting some good facial release in our feet. So standing tall, do your best to keep your shoulders over your hips. The springs are trying to make me lean back, so my body is saying, well, I'll just lean forward to counteract that. But my brain is saying, no, let's try to stay vertical. Let's try to stay vertical.

Okay, so here we are trying to stay vertical together, I'm gonna lift my standing heel as I push out, take a balance, and lower, not easy. Lift, and lower. Lift, and lower. And I'm trying to stay vertical, if I'm leaning forward, bad Courtney. Lift, and lower.

I've gotta close my ribs, it's gonna help me find more balance, two more. And... One. Okay, hands go onto the box, that leg that is up is gonna go back, so now I'm standing in a balanced position. Square off the hips if you can, pitch forward so your chest is parallel to the ground, bend into your standing knee, bend the elbows, extend the leg as you push through the arms.

Pull the belly in and up. Keep the head lifted. Last three. And two. And one.

Bring the foot in, place the foot down, let's roll on up. Take a little stretch if you need it. Switch legs. It takes a second to sort of find your center, it's okay to be a little bit wobbly, let your body correct itself. Just feel where you wanna be in space, shoulders over hips, hip over heel, abdominals in, tailbone heavy, find a focal point that's not moving, lift as you press.

And lower as the knee bends. And lower, my harder side. And lower. You know it's a hard side when no words come out. Focus, lift! And lower, I'm gonna do three more.

Really trying to control it, here. Two. And one. And take it down, okay, hands go onto the box, that leg goes back, square off your hips, get low to the floor, here, bend the elbows. When you push out, lift up.

When you push out, lift up. And lift. Okay guys, if you're starting to feel tired now, not to worry, there's a change coming up. We have another high intensity interval circuit, it will be the last one of this class, though. Push, last three.

Two. And one. To make your escape, you have to step to the outside and then bring the carriage in, had some few trials and errors there, so there it is. Find your band. So we're gonna make our band into a loop, not too big.

About the size of your smiling face. Well, it's a little bit smaller, isn't it, okay. There we go, it'll stretch. Place the band around the ankles, legs go through, we're gonna leave the box on. Okay.

Now my preference is to sort of push the box so that it's in line with the rail here. That's a little OCD, but you may also experience that, too, 'cause you are a Pilates enthusiast. And I think we share that, perfection. I'm sitting on the box, I'll be rolling back onto my back, my legs will extend, hands can hover, hands can go behind the head, you choose, I'm gonna criss cross eight times. One, the lower the legs, the more the core.

Stay lifted. Three. Two. One. The feet come down, I jump up.

Two steps to the reformer back, I jump up. Two steps to where you started, one jump up, and hopefully, you're right where your box is when you go back again. Eight times. The lower the legs, the harder it is. But be honest, guys, what do you see?

If you see bulging and lifting, or all you feel is your hips, you need to take those legs up a little higher. Take it down, one jump, take it over. One jump, take it back. One jump, take a seat. And criss cross, criss cross.

Push, push, push, push, Two. One. Over. Jump up. Over.

Take it down. Criss cross, criss cross, criss cross. We're gonna do two more sets of these, guys, get used to it. Over and over, and over. Take it down.

Over. You're up, take it back. Take a seat. Criss cross, criss cross, my band is traveling. Criss cross, criss cross, five, four, three, two, one.

Jump up, stay low, walk. You can put a little move in here if you'd like, and up. We all do that, don't we? It's a totally normal thing to do, and over, over, over, three. Two.

One. (groans) So are those noises, right? Totally normal. Over, you're up, and you're down. All right guys, say goodbye to this for right now.

Add a spring or two so the carriage doesn't move. This is still part of our circuit, our high intensity circuit. Taking the feet onto the platform, taking the hands onto the box. Bending the elbows, pressing up, lifting the hips through the arms. Bending the elbows, lifting the hips.

Bending the elbows, lifting. We go down, tendon stretch prep. We go down, scoop, get the booty higher than the box. Two more times. One more time.

And take a seat. (sighs) The whole thing is repeated again, if you'd like, but that's a really good high intensity circuit, I'm gonna move on from here. All right guys, box comes off. One red spring to begin, and then we will be making a change. And this by the way is your last reformer flow.

So if you're feeling it, you're good, you almost made it. Stand in front of your reformer, one foot comes onto the carriage. I'm in a parallel stance to start, bend into your stabilizing leg, just like we practiced in our warmup. Lean towards the carriage so your foot and knee stay in alignment. Arms can go forward, you're pressing, you're resisting, pushing out.

Shoulders are over the hips, so you feel a sense of lift and ease. You feel like it's a sense of ease, it's not easy. It's effortless, efficient movement. That's hard, and effective, pressing out. Knee is traveling right over the midfoot on that stabilizing leg.

Four. Three. Two. And one. You're up, there's a mini change.

Find your turnout. Both legs are turned out; you'll bend into your stabilizing leg as you push the carriage out, but you've gotta lean towards the back of the reformer, you see that? So that's where it wants to push me, and I gotta work those muscles to find that position, press it out. And out, like I'm really trying to center my weight over my legs, press, and press. Shoulders are over hips, abdominals drawing in and up, you know it, you love it.

We started standing, so it's sort of like we're going full circle, finishing standing. And press. Come all the way in, before we repeat this on the other side, you'll wanna take your inside foot onto the platform. Work yourself all the way around; let's get rid of our toys for now. Take the hands onto either side of the shoulder block.

Step forward a lot with your outside leg. Push the carriage forward, enough so you feel like you're getting a little bit of thoracic extension, little bit of up dog, but you're supported from underneath. Now this is a lovely stretch through the front of the hip on that back leg, isn't it, so feel free to stay here and take it all in for a moment. When you're ready, though, we're doing a reverse cardio lunge. The body will shift back, that lunching leg comes up into a pike, and we land.

Exhale. And inhale land. Don't be in a rush, guys. Exhale, and inhale. Work to get that foot forward.

There, that's where it should have been. Exhale. Forward, there we go. Three. Two.

And one. Nice, okay. We are gonna do the same thing on the other side, but we have a nice finishing coming up. So stay with it, stay with me. Standing beside your equipment, parallel stance to start.

Really putting into practice everything we've been talking about right, moving from your center, moving with precision. Push with the outside leg, body is staying centered. So I actually feel like I have to work a lot through the lateral muscles of my stabilizing leg. The lower you go, the more you're gonna work. Keep the chest lifted, shoulders wide.

Make it full body. Just for a moment, congratulate yourself, because you just finished a super hard workout. Be grateful that your body can take you through these awesome movements. Find your turnout. So you'll bend, push, and then you have to shift.

And then you stay, this sense of shifting over. And over. Shoulders over hips, abs engaged, tailbone heavy. Press, resist, you might be getting a nice inner thigh stretch here, as well. Three.

Two. And one. Come on up. Inside foot can go to the platform. Work yourself around so that your hands are straddling, if you will, one on each side of the shoulder block.

Now take a second to set up your foundation because this is where you come back every time. So knee is right over the ankle, I'm pressing just enough to give myself a little up stretch in my thoracic spine. Back foot feels good and secure, back leg is strong, hip is opening. Exhale, lean back, bringing the carriage home. Inhale, get the foot forward.

And push. And push. Four more. So I'm going from thoracic extension into flexion, using the abdominals. Getting the foot forward, not easy.

One more, we got this. Push. Nice, all right guys, take it down to a blue. Let's wrap it up. Straddle the reformer.

Come into a plie position, knees and toes out to the side, hands onto the shoulder blocks. Pull the carriage back even though it's not gonna move. Sit low. If you wanna shift side to side, get a little movement. Nod your chin, exhale, push to a flat back.

Kind of like we did earlier, let your booty lift up. Think about a little anterior tilt in the pelvis. Go into extension. Push. Roll.

Yeah, it's not so much of a break for the legs (laughs). Exhale push, inhale lift, exhale push, good. Single arm, cross to the opposite strap, or shoulder block. Lift. Switching arms.

Push. Lift. (groans) Done! Drink your water, enjoy the rest of your day. Hey guys, this is a three class collection, so this is class two. The classes all build on each other, so I will see you for class three.

We can do this, together, it's an awesome workout, have fun, and notice, too, that you're gonna get stronger and stronger the more you do it. All right guys, well done, see you soon.