Glute-Focused Reformer

Hi guys! Thanks for joining me. This class is designed around your tush, so everything we do is going to be work in the rear end. You're definitely going to feel some core stabilization in there and some hamstrings, but this is tushy time, and we're getting into the bottom.. So you will need a resistance band, and I have a lighter band, so pick what works for you. Remember you can change it out for a heavier resistance just to change things up.

Try to keep feel going. Try to keep moving. Feel free to take breaks when you need to because we are targeting in on that tush, and you will have some shaking and some muscle fatigue happening in that area. I have my Reformer set up for a bridge, so my bar is in the mid position locked in. I have two springs on and my head rest is down because the bottom is going up.

So when you're ready, lie down onto your back. Now, in a bridge my preference is to have my shoulders away from the blocks, and in this particular bridge we will be doing some fancy-dancy work with our arms, so you don't want to be smushed in there. For the moment just fold your band in half and reach your arms up to the sky about shoulder width apart. Heels of the feet are on. Start in a neutral position in the spine, so you might have to just release that tail bone down.

Feet are hip distance apart. Breath in to get ready to move. Exhale tighten the tummy. Scoop pulling the pubic bone towards the sternum, lifting the hips up, articulating through the spine. Inhale while you're here.

Reach through your knees. Exhale as you flex and lower. Now, what we're trying to do is turn off the front of the hips, turn on the back body. So if you've been sitting for a while today, we'll need to just do these a few times to find that muscular connection in the back of the body. Inhale while you're at the top.

You can even press out on the band a little, and then exhale using your breath and your abdominals. Release all the way down. One more time like this. Breath in and exhale, flex, scoop. Try to pull those sit bones towards your feet, and hamstrings are going to contract in position.

Inhale at the top pressing out on the band a little will help you to widen through your shoulders. And exhale rolling down upper, middle, lower back, and then the pelvis. Very good. Taking that band around the heels of the feet about equal extra of band on both sides. Heels of the feet against the foot bar, so the band shouldn't go anywhere.

Grab a hold so the extra band is going through the thumbs. This will help to keep your wrist in a strong position and come to a 90 degree bend in the elbows. Exhale, flex, scoop, and lift the hips back up. Hover the elbows. We press out as we do a bicep curl.

All the way out guys. We straighten the arms as we come home. All the way home. Exhale and in. Keeping the hips in a hover position when you're out, so don't go all the way down but work to get those hips back up when the carriage returns home.

Four more. (exhales loudly) Three. (exhales loudly) Two. (exhales loudly) One. Massage the spine down.

Work your way to the end of the bands, so you'll want a little reduction of tension for this next one. So work your way down to the end of the bands. There we go. Strong wrist. Bring that carriage home if it's not already.

Exhale, flex, scoop, and roll back up. (exhales loudly) As you press out, straight arms, lift, and hips go up as the arms go down. Press out. (exhales loudly) Work to keep the hips level here. You don't have the hands on the carriage to help you, so you've got to find that balance from your core.

(exhales loudly) Three. (exhales loudly) Two. (exhales loudly) One. (exhales loudly) And make sure the carriage is home as you articulate all the way down. Take one foot out from the band, so you have the band around the arch of one foot now.

You may want to choke up a little bit on that band creating more resistance. Creating more resistance is going to make this next series harder. The heel of the stabilizing leg is on the bar in line with your sit bone. Flex your foot on your gesture leg, anchor your elbows, and push to go up. So the band is restricting you, making it harder.

Inhale almost all the way down. Exhale up. (exhales loudly) Exhale up. (exhales loudly) So that pressing leg, keep it parallel, don't let the knee roll open. (exhales loudly) That gesture leg, try to keep it straight up.

(exhales loudly) To the ceiling. Let's do two more. (exhales loudly) And one. (exhales loudly) Press the carriage out. As the gesture leg taps down inhale.

Five of them. (exhales loudly) Lift, stay strong through those arms. (exhales loudly) Three more. (exhales loudly) Two. (exhales loudly) One.

(exhales loudly) And done. Not really. You've got two cheeks, so you're going to do it two times. Here we go. Other side.

So I've got the other foot in. Heel of the foot in line with the sit bones. Keep that leg lifted. Keep those elbows anchored. The more you choke up on that band the harder this is.

Pick it up. (exhales loudly) Lower it down. (exhales loudly) Keeping the carriage home if you can. (exhales loudly) Drive that gesture heel up by pressing your working leg down into the foot bar. Three more.

(exhales loudly) Two. (exhales loudly) One. (exhales loudly) Pushing out, leg goes low, lifting high. We've got five of them. (exhales loudly) Stabilize the arms.

Work to get those hips back up when the carriage returns home. (exhaling loudly) And take it all the way down. Nicely done. We're not finished yet. Grab a hold of that band again.

Fold it in half. Draw the arms up to the sky, just as we did in the beginning, and take the feet wide onto the foot bar. Heels of the feet are on and external rotation here. Inhale to prepare. Exhale, lift up.

Inhale, push the carriage out all the way. The hips will lower. Exhale, lift the hips up high, and like little butterfly wings open the knees by pivoting on the heels. Four, three, two, hold one, press out. Now I want you to notice something.

I'm not just moving my femurs. You see how I'm pivoting on my heels? (exhales loudly) My knees and toes stay in the same direction. (exhales loudly) Press out. Pull in.

If you're sliding do a little adjustment. Again, watch the feet here guys, pivot. Pivot, pivot, and press. This way there's no torque on the knee, right? The movement comes from the upper hip.

(exhaling loudly) Press and come in. Massage the spine all the way down and take a little mini break. Nicely done. Help yourself. Come on up.

Take that band. It will have a reoccurring role to play in this workout. Make a circle with it. And the circle should be about the size of your face. I always do that.

I always lift it up to my face. I could go beside me too. Take your legs through. Your feet through at the ankles. Okay, so our goal for this workout is to work that tushy like I already said, but that doesn't just mean hip extensions, so we're going to be doing a lot of abduction as well, opening up those legs nice and wide.

So come into a nice, wide stance lifting to your squat position. Lean back into your heels. Come up to standing. One leg goes to the side. Press back out.

Leg to the side. Press out. Five of these. (exhales loudly) You want to feel that carriage behind you when you go into your squat. (exhaling loudly) Keep the chest lifted.

(exhaling loudly) Stay low. You're going to take two steps. It's called a crab walk. Over to the back of your Reformer. One, two, now take a look where you are 'cause every time we do this you should get a little further.

Your steps should get bigger. One, two. Okay, here we go, bigger steps. Big, big. Where are we?

I feel like I'm in the same spot. And back, and back. Big, big, Back, back, it's burning. Over, over, back, back. Two more times.

Over, over, back, back. One more time. Big steps. Back, back, and sit down. Oh! I made it a lot further this way then I thought I did.

Now you will be doing that throughout this workout, so you have more times, more opportunities to get all the way over to that back. All right guys lets put the band down for a moment. We won't be using the band yet. Add a spring. A light spring.

I'm using a yellow. You could use a blue or a yellow for the next series. Your length of your straps definitely change the way this feels, so if you have shorter straps, actually move these in so they're shorter. A yellow feels really good. If your straps are longer, a blue might be better.

Okay? Things to think about. Sitting in the center of your carriage, the loop goes around the outside leg. The one further away from the pulley. Sit in the center.

Foot comes on, roll back into a C curve. Option to keep the leg on, but like I said you will get some whole body opportunities here so leg could come up as well. Inhale as the leg crosses the midline. Hips stay square. Exhale, open again.

Abduction. (exhales loudly) I have the hands just helping to stabilize my shape, so I don't twist. (exhales loudly) Could I do it without the hands? Maybe. (exhales loudly) Maybe not.

Right? Play with it. Inhale as the leg crosses. Exhale. (exhales loudly) Foot is flexed pushing from that outer hip.

I'm doing eight repetitions, so I only have to do two more. And exhale. (exhales loudly) And bring it in. Now that foot goes onto the floor. Come up to a standing position.

Your placement will change how this feels, so the closer you stand to the back of the Reformer, the lighter it'll feel. I'm just going to stay where I am, and you might see me adjust to find the appropriate tension. Hands on the hips. Leg is going in front. Exhale.

(exhales loudly) Abduction. Now, now that I'm standing, the work is not just in this pressing leg. So you can see me struggling to maintain my stability in my standing leg. (exhales loudly) Struggling may have been a little positive of a statement. It's hard guys! Exhale, press.

And exhale, press. (exhales loudly) My hands in this weird position seem to be helping, so I'm not going to change it. And two more. Exhale, press. And exhale, push.

Well done. Take a little, brief change, and take the strap around the arch of the foot. Pivot your body so you're facing on a diagonal towards your Reformer. Same thing. Step forward or step back to find the position that works best for you.

Get low here. Lean forward. Your standing leg is working big time. Arms reach long. As the leg taps back inhale.

Tap it in. I'm going to do five taps and then five hovers. The next time you do this workout with me, you may do the hovers the whole time. All right, or you might to the tap the whole time, so to advance it, the leg never touches the ground. Three more.

(exhales loudly) Two. (exhales loudly) And one. (exhales loudly) Rise up, leave the strap on that foot, and come to a kneeling position. You're kneeling sideways on the Reformer. Knee right towards that middle.

This is wagging the tail. Okay, so here's your tail. Cross it in behind you, exhale, press it long. Inhale, cross it in, exhale press it back. In (exhales loudly) press.

In (exhales loudly) press. Stabilizing leg working. In (exhales loudly) shoulders are over hips. (exhales loudly) One more and then your tail is going to stay straight. Inhale as the leg moves toward the pulleys.

Exhale crossing your body. (exhales loudly) Pull it in. Keep the height of the leg high. (exhales loudly) Four more here. (exhales loudly) Three.

Head is lifted and in line with the spine. (exhales loudly) Two. (exhales loudly) And one. (exhales loudly) Keeping the foot right in line with the sit bone, leg taps down, leg lifts up. Carriage shouldn't move or shouldn't move very much.

And up. (exhales loudly) Not easy guys. You're doing great. Take your time here. Tap and lift.

(exhales loudly) Three more. (exhales loudly) Two. (exhales loudly) And one. (exhales loudly) Foot goes down. Strap comes off.

And let's see how we do on the other side, so make your way around. If you remember we started in a seated position center of the carriage. You'll need the opposite strap, and it goes around the outside foot. You'll go ahead and find either a teaser position or a C curve position lifting the leg. Remember, you can have a leg down or you can increase the challenge with leg up.

You cross and open. The idea is to stay very stable through the torse. Inhale. (inhales loudly) Exhale. Keeping the height of that leg the same, so it's just like you're rolling a rolling pin over the countertop making your pizza dough.

Mm pizza! (laughs) Wherever you need to go guys. Go to your happy place. Oh I see dolphins! Exhale, press. And exhale. (exhales loudly) Last time like this.

(exhales loudly) And bring it down. All right, here's the hard one. So adjust your body. You're in a standing position. The most challenging is the balance aspect, so bend into that knee a little bit, hands on hips, exhale, the leg moves away from the midline.

There's two of them out there. Exhale. I feel like they're motivating me. They've come here to say, "Courtney, you can do it. Keep working your tush.

We believe in you." Exhale press. (exhales loudly) And press. (exhales loudly) And I feel like it's working. I'm getting the dolphin energy. I feel much more stable on this side.

I'll do two more. (exhales loudly) And one. (exhales loudly) Pivot turn. No major changes, just the diagonal of your body. Bend into your stabilizing knee.

Get low. Lean forward. As the leg taps back arms can go forward, so tapping in and tapping back. I'm going to do five taps, five hovers. You know the hovers are more challenging, so you can go there before me if you'd like, or you can continue to tap.

Exhale. Inhale in. Now this is a continuation from a class that I did for PilatesAnytime in my prenatal series, so if you didn't get a chance to watch those, there's more movements in this series in that class. Exhale, push. And exhale, push, rise up.

Great. Leave the strap. Come to your kneeling position. So taking that leg, cross. You can hang out here for a little bit if you'd like, and then kicking the leg on a diagonal, but you want to keep the height of the leg.

There it is. Inhale, cross, (exhales loudly), kick. Cross, (exhales loudly), kick. Hip bones are pointing down. (exhales loudly) In and out.

In, (exhales loudly), out. About eight repetitions per variation here if you got it. Two. (exhales loudly) One. (exhales loudly) Keep your tail long and draw it across your body.

(exhales loudly) Inhale open, exhale close. No momentum guys. Three more. (exhales loudly) Head in line with spine, so, yes, we are doing some whole body work right now. (exhales loudly) Bring the leg right behind your tailbone.

Leg is going to lower. Leg is going to lift. See if you can do it without moving the carriage. (exhales loudly) Inhale down, exhale up. Four.

Three. Two. How you doing? And one. Bring it in and lower down.

Well done guys. Okay, I want you to continue holding onto this strap, but make a change of your springs. One blue spring is what you need. For the next series you can either shorten your strap or, if you got a D ring, you can fold your loop over to make a shorter loop. I'm not going to do either.

Instead I'm going to just do a little trick that I came up with, so that I can go into the next series and out of the next series efficiently. I take the loop and open it wide. I reach through and grab the strap. Then I pull the loop and I've got this little circular area. This is where my foot is going to go through.

So to get into position I'm going to place my foot through, and I actually open up the loop so that you can see my heel is going through, and it's securely there. When you're ready pivot and turn. So you're coming into a four point kneeling, facing front position, and I think it will be even more clear here why that's important. So the loop is not going to go off my foot. In my four point kneeling position it's great if I've got a little bit of resistance in that strap.

To begin hips are square. Exhale hamstring curl. Now work to keep that femur up nice and high. Inhale extend. Let's do eight of them.

Pull to the booty. Keep the belly drawing in and up. Shoulders are down in a neutral position, so I don't mean to press them, but if they're up here, you're going to have to find that neutral alignment. Push down into the hands so that the sternum lifts. Again, work to keep that femur up.

On the next one hold the shape of the leg. Plant or flex as you bring the knee down. Knee to nose. Now this actually is your break in the series because as you come into extension you'll feel those glutes fire up again. And lift.

(exhales loudly) As you extend at the hip and kick that heel up to the sky, be mindful not to drop in the lower back. Sometimes less is more. Keep this work in the glutes. Keep those abs engaged. One more like this.

(exhales loudly) Extend the leg for swan kicks. So keep tension in the rope the whole time. As you bed the elbow the leg will lift up. As you straighten the arms the leg will go down like a little seesaw. And up.

No momentum here guys. Take your time and work from those glutes. And up. Three more. (exhales loudly) Two more.

(exhales loudly) One more. (exhales loudly) And take it down. Ooh! Definitely some work there. Let's go ahead and take that foot out of the loop. You can hook that up.

You do not need this strap again for a little while. And you might even want to take just a quick little stretch here. Opening up the glutes, leaning forward, whatever feels right for you. Let's go into the other side. So here's the loop.

Here's the leg that's going to go in. Put the hand through, grab the rope. I grab both sides of the loop to make a hole. My foot goes through that hole, and then I open up the loop so that it's around my heel, and then I can pivot and turn. Finding a strong four point kneeling position, leg is lifted, femur is parallel to the ground as you go for your eight curls.

Inhale, straighten, exhale, curl. Good job. It gets easier the more you do it. That little loop little trick. Exhale pull.

Inhale and exhale. Try to keep those hip bones pointing straight down to the carriage. And pull eight reps. (exhales loudly) And go for your knee to nose, so flex the spine. Pull it through.

Flex the foot. Kick the sky. Scoop and kick. Exhale pull. Inhale up.

Exhale pull. Inhale. Hip extension. Two more. And that working glute on this side probably feels more tired because it was stabilizing you as you did the other side.

Extend the leg. Exhale leg goes up. (exhales loudly) Inhale chest comes up. (exhales loudly) Make any little adjustments that feel right for your body here. Exhale.

Inhale. Four more. Four. Three. (exhales loudly) Two.

(exhales loudly) And one. (exhales loudly) And done. All right, take your time getting the foot out. Hook up that strap. And guess what we have coming up next?

Some of those crab walks, but before we jump into them let's take a little breather here. Foot on the floor. Flex, lean, open it up, grab a hold of your band. Your trusty band. Place it around the ankles, so here we go again.

Let's see how we do. Now that those tushy muscles are feeling a little fatigued. Rise into your squat position. As you stand, one leg abduction. It moves away from your midline.

Foot is flexed, toes point forward. Down and up. Down and out. When you go down shift back. Feel that carriage behind you as you go into your squat.

Five more. (exhales loudly) Four. Three. Two. One.

Stay low. Going this way. Big steps: one, two. Not bad. One, two.

Over, over, back, back. Keep the toes pointing forward. Stay low. Three more times. Over, over, back, back.

Two more. Over, over, back, back. One more. Over, over, back, back. Oh! And take a seat.

Good job. Now you'll still use this loop but for something different, so here's what I want you to do. So using your band again, keeping it in the loop, grab either your safety strap that your feet go under during your short box abdominal series or for some Reformers you can actually untie your loop and tie the loop around the platform. Either way you need this loop to go around something that's stable that's not going to move when you pull on the loop, on the resistance band. So what I'm going to do is using my safety strap, taking my loop, I'm just going to wrap one end under, and pull it through and up.

And what you'll be able to see now is that I can pull on this band, and it's not going to go anywhere. I still have my single blue spring on, and I'm going to come to a four point kneeling position facing the back of the equipment. I'm going to place one foot through the band all the way down to my heel. Come into a low position. I like to have my elbows onto the head rest.

Knee underneath the pubic bone lifting the leg up. From here I pulse up and up. Now the strength of your band, and the size of your loop, and where you hooked it will drastically change how high your leg can go. So don't worry about that. What you should feel is your butt is on fire.

(laughs) If you feel that, you're good to go. Four more. Three. Two One. And take it down.

Now just get rid of it. Forget about that for a second. Grabbing a hold of one loop, stepping off to one side so you can place your outside foot through the loop. Straddle your hands so you have your shoulder blocks in between your two hands, and adjust your stabilizing knee so that you feel centered. For me, that's right underneath my pubic bone like I'm a little tripod.

Sweep your outside leg up. Now notice that the leg is not directly behind me. It's slightly wide so that it doesn't hit my arm or the rail. The leg goes out to the side and the leg sweeps up. (exhales loudly) Inhale straight leg and lift.

Now I've got this long lever, so it is even more challenging now to stabilize my lower back. I can only allow my leg to swing forward as far as I can maintain the shape of my spine. Three more here. Inhale down, exhale up. I'm trying to keep my shoulders directly behind, excuse me, my shoulders directly in front of my hips.

Keeping the leg lifted, dropping down onto one elbow, the other arm stays, and I rotate my body towards the strap leg. So I was up here. I just came down. The leg lifts high now and I'm opening through my hips like an arabesque. The leg stays high as it goes forward and sweeps down and around.

Leave the leg height and circle down and around. Forward, down and around. Forward, down and around. Last three. Lift and circle.

Two. (exhales loudly) And one. (exhales loudly) And done. Take the foot out and hook it up. Before we go to the strap on the other side we've got that band behind us, right?

So now the opposite foot is going to go in, so I didn't make any changes. I'm just going to grab a hold of my band that's securely attached. Place my foot through the opening so that it's closer to my heel and come into my position. Now if you found that the narrow elbows was too hard to stabilize, place your hands on the rails. Lifting the leg up.

I'm going to go back to where I was though for consistency. Lifting the leg and pulsing it. 12 pulses up. Remember, don't worry so much about the height here. Just work.

You can feel if you're working or not. Keep that tension and focus on pressing up, up, up. That's the direction we want the butt to go. (laughs) Up! Go up! I wish I could just will it, but I got to work for it. Four, three, two, one, and slide the foot out.

Now just walk yourself over to the other side, grabbing your loop, placing your foot in. Okay, so we're straddling the block. I prefer my knee underneath my pubic bone. The leg lifts. Pause, it is slightly wide here.

It's not directly behind you, but your hips are directly behind the shoulders. Sweep to lift and inhale down. Exhale up. Inhale down. You will feel these tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after.

And exhale up. And inhale down. Four more. (exhales loudly) Three. The nice thing about this series, actually this whole class, is so much of the work is unilateral, so if you do have some muscle asymmetries, which we all kind of do, this will help to create more balance.

(exhales loudly) Taking the elbow down and opening looking at that back leg, sweeps forward and down. Yes, this second side feels so much harder because that leg was working to stabilize you when you did your first side, so it's a little tired. (exhales loudly) Up and around. We got this guys, four more. Lift high, come forward, and down.

Three. (exhales loudly) Two. (exhales loudly) One. Ah, and done! Take the foot out. Except we're not done.

I made a promise to you, and I said you're going to have three chances to do those crab walks. Grab a hold of your loop guys. This is the end. Unhook it, Pull it out. It's still in tact.

Size of your face. Take your legs through. Squat and lift. We got this. You're lifting up coming to a standing position.

One leg opens. You're shifting back. You can even touch that carriage. You're coming up other leg. Down and out.

Down and out. Inhale down, exhale up. Five more. Five. (exhales loudly) Four.

(exhales loudly) Three. Chest is open. Two. (exhales loudly) And one. Stay low.

Take it to the side. Big, big steps. Big, big. These make me smile. I think in another life I was like a country and western line dancer.

That's what I feel like. Open and open. Step, step, get low. Step, step. Four more.

Four! (exhales loudly) Let it burn! Three. Toes pointing forward. Two. And one. Last time.

(exhales loudly) And done! Take a seat. You made it. Say goodbye to your band. See you later. You worked your booty.

You did a great job. You did get some good core stabilization and a little bit of upper body in there too. This is a class you can come back to over and over and over again, and you can do it before or after your favorite PilatesAnytime class if you want to get a little more burn in the boot-ay. Thank you so much for joining me, and I will see you guys again soon.