BASI Flow™ Spine Corrector

Welcome to the BASI Academy. I'm excited to welcome you here to the fully equipped studio with BASI systems equipment. I want to thank Sherry and Cara for coming in to assist me with this class. Today, what we're gonna do is do a full workout on the spine corrector. We happen to be using a BASI systems spine correcter with springs on it.

I will use springs every now and again to show what you can do with resistance. However, if you don't have this spine correcter, there's no problem. Sherry and Cara will not use springs. They will, however, use little pink dumbbells at some point. If anyone is adverse to pink, any other color will do and we'll use those dumbbells at some point.

But you will see how we go through the full BASI block system and get a full body workout on a spine correcter. So, with no further ado, let's begin with our warm up, a pelvic curl. Allowing the body to sink into the floor, this is an exceptional position to do the pelvic curl. We will, however, add some arms to the pelvic curl. So, we reach the arms overhead keeping the trunk absolutely stable and bring the arms back to perpendicular, palms facing forward.

So, we reach the arms back again just stretching out the shoulders making sure that the spine or the rib cage does not lift to accommodate tight shoulders and bring the arms back to perpendicular. Inhale reaching back and exhale bringing the arms to perpendicular. And inhale reaching back and we exhale as you do a pelvic curl bringing the arms down to the floor and I ask you to push into the floor with your arms. Use your shoulder extensors to support the body. Inhale while you're up there and exhale as you articulate the spine reaching the arms away from the pelvis.

Inhale. And exhale as you curl the pelvis up lifting the spine, pressing into your feet, using your hamstrings to lift the pelvis a little higher, extending the hips, inhale. And exhale as you articulate the spine rolling down. Inhale. And exhale.

Bringing the arms down to the sides, lifting a little higher with the pelvis, drawing the abdominals in. Inhale while you're up there and exhale rolling down. We'll do one last one. And inhale. And exhale as you curl the pelvis up using the abdominals and then the hip extensors kick in.

And you're using the hip extensors, the shoulder extensors to support the body. The abdominals are drawing the pubic symphysis towards your sternum. Inhale. And exhale. As you roll down, taking the arms overhead, and circling them around to a T Position.

Squeezing the legs together, we do a spine twist supine as we go over, away from me, and exhale back to center. And inhale toward me. And exhale back to center. And inhale away from me and back to center. And inhale toward me.

And exhale back to center. Feel that stretch through the obliques. Keep the abdominals engaged to protect the lower back. And exhale back to center. Such an exceptional stretch, mobilizing the spine, stretching the abdominals which, of course, also need stretching.

And exhale, move the legs as if they are one. And inhale as you go over, keeping the knees stuck together, the thighs stuck together and exhale back to center. And inhale, bringing the legs towards me. Exhale back to center, glide the hands behind the head, and interlace the fingers so the head can sit in the hands as if the head is in a hammock. Separate the legs just slightly and inhale for a chest lift as you exhale to lift up.

And inhale, hold it up there. And exhale as you slowly go down. And inhale and exhale as you lift up, resting the head in your hand so there should be no tension but make sure that you're nice and high and that your eyes are looking directly through your legs. Inhale. And exhale.

And inhale. And exhale as you lift up. And inhale. And exhale. Now, we'll do another three, adding a pelvic curl to that inhale.

And exhale as you lift. Curling up into a pelvic curl while you're up there. So, we're stretching the spine, bringing the pelvis back to neutral and slowly down. And inhale. And exhale as you lift.

Inhale. Exhale, go into a pelvic curl. Inhale, lower the pelvis and exhale down. Inhale prepare and exhale lift. Inhale and exhale.

Into pelvic curl. Inhale lower to neutral. Exhale down. Inhale prepare and exhale as you lift. Inhale and exhale, curl the pelvis, keeping the height of the body.

Stay high, stay nice and high, bracing the feet into the barrel. Inhale back to neutral. Stay there as you rotate towards me, you go lifting the leg, one. And other direction, two. Inhale, exhale three.

Inhale, exhale four. Inhale, exhale five. Inhale exhale, six. And seven. And eight.

And nine. And 10. Putting the leg down, grasp behind your legs. Lift a little higher. Allow the back to sink into the mat, reaching the arms toward the ceiling, the fingertips towards the ceiling.

Hold it there. And reaching all the way back. Slowly bring the legs together and roll towards me into that nice slump over position. Extend the back, stretch the pelvis backwards into this squat and then rounding the back, resting the chest on your thighs. And inhale, reaching the pelvis back, stretching, palms facing each other and exhale.

Rounding the back. And inhale reaching, reaching. And exhale. And inhale reaching the arms, use the back extensors. Feel that the weight is more in your heels than on your toes, and exhale.

One last one, reaching out, feel the back nice and long. And round, and slowly roll up through the spine and that's our warmup. We now go into our footwork. So, we stand on top of the barrel. I'm gonna increase the intensity by holding onto these springs.

So, we start in this nice parallel position. It's almost, it's so comforting for the foot, to be stretched over that arc of the barrel. As we inhale and exhale. And inhale. And exhale.

And three. And exhale. And four. And exhale, keeping that beautiful alignment of the body. And six.

And stretch. And inhale. And eight. And nine. And 10.

Beautiful, so we do 10 in each position. We now go into a V position, a Pilates V position. As we inhale, bend, and exhale straight. And two. And reach.

And three. And stretch. And four. And five. And six.

Seven. And eight. Keeping the alignment of the body. Nine. Watch that you don't lean forward.

You're in a straight line. And 10, we go back to a parallel position but we move back so you're getting this beautiful stretch of the calves and we just do slight plant affliction. One. And then reach down. And two, and reach down with the heels.

Three, and down. And four, and down. And five, stretch the back of the legs. Six, down, the further back you stand, the more stretch you'll get. And eight.

And nine. And 10, and now we stretch just one as the other goes into plant affliction. And two and three and four. And stretch and six and seven. And reaching, lengthening the back of the leg.

And stretch both down, one more time. Using those quads, feeling that the knees are straight. Elongate the spine and we now go back to that original parallel position. And what we're gonna do now is a single leg, not easy. Of course, adding the resistance adds an element of challenge.

Lifting the leg, and one. And up, and two. And up, and three. And up, and four. And up, and five.

And up, six. Up, seven. And eight. And nine. And 10.

Very nice. Good, we do the other side. And I know this is tough. I'm feeling a little altitude sickness up here but we're all doing well. And one.

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

And seven. And eight. And nine And 10, and put it down. We step forward. And we go into our abdominal work.

So, we did the warm up. We did our footwork. We now do our abdominal work. If you could sit down, ladies. This is one of my favorite abdominal exercises, absolute favorite, because we're working the abdominals in such a unique range.

So, we roll down. Oh, yes, we inhale. And we exhale. Inhale. And exhale.

Inhale. And exhale. And inhale. And exhale. Inhale.

And exhale. And inhale. And feel how the barrel supports the spine. Inhale, the shape of this barrel allows you to go into that extension and be supported. Inhale.

And exhale, note that the lumbar spine never comes into flexion, inhale, which is so positive for certain spinal conditions. And inhale and exhale. I want you to truly feel this, feel how the chest opens out. Enjoy this moment. We spend so much time in a rounded position in spinal flexion and this allows us to be supported in spinal extension.

And slowly lift up one more time. And if you could simply ease yourselves down the barrel so that the little step is right on the coccyx or below the coccyx. You want to really be low. You don't want to have your bottom in the dip but rather quite low. So, we're going into a preparation for the teaser.

You'll lift the leg closest to me first as you go, exhale. And inhale. And two. And inhale. And three.

And inhale. And four. And inhale. And five, hold it there, ladies. Hold it, hold it, and gentleman.

Hold it, lifting the legs a little higher, little higher. The leg rather, there is only one leg lifted. Later on, we do lift both legs. And reaching back. Now, the other leg, and exhale.

Notice I come into a straight line here. I don't go further back than the straight line, and exhale. And inhale. And three. And four.

And five. Hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it. Lifting that leg a little higher. Reach the straight line and go a little further to give the shoulders a nice stretch. From here, we go on into our hip work following the BASI block system.

So, I'm going to put these springs here because I'm going to use springs. But you can do this without springs or you could even add ankle weights, quite legitimate. So, we ease ourselves over the barrel. Bring your feet into a frog position or rather your legs. Push your heels to the ceiling, feet dorsiflexed.

And inhale down and exhale up. And inhale down, notice that the legs are perpendicular to the floor. There's a tendency to bring the legs too close to your chest and you wanna keep them reaching up directly to the ceiling. And seven. And eight.

And nine. And 10, point the feet and we open out. And two, openings. And three. And four.

And five. And six. And, although, I'm doing 10, you could certainly do just five in each position. I'm certainly feeling it with these springs. And nine, if I counted correctly.

And 10. We do the scissors starting with the leg closest to me. So, we're coming forward, coming forward. The other leg goes backwards. So, pull, pull and, two, two.

And three. And four. And five. And six. And exhale.

Inhale, exhale. And exhale. And come to center And now we do the helicopter doing five in each direction. We go one. And around.

Center and same direction. Two And exploring the range of motion. And three. And notice the V position is always equal to front and back. And four.

So, you don't take the back leg too far back or the front leg too far forward. And five. And coming around and we find center, other leg comes forward. And change direction. And two.

And three. Remember, you can do this with ankle weights or with nothing or with the BASI system springs. And around and around, and five. That is our hip work and we certainly feel the hips. We go now into a parallel position into the spinal articulation block.

You lower the legs so the body's in a straight line. You inhale lifting the legs. Exhale as you roll over. Flex the feet, separate the legs. Take the feet toward the ground.

You don't have to touch, if you can, great. Bring the legs around, point the feet as they go through that 90-degree angle and come together. Inhale. And exhale. Here the legs are parallel to the floor.

Flex the feet, separate the legs and take them toward the feet. Toes towards the floor and then slowly around. And three. And shhh. Flex, separate down.

And lifting the legs to perpendicular to the flow and then we roll over, such a great rollover for those who find it difficult on the mat. And slowly, through the center, back to that straight line. Final one, we inhale. We exhale. Flex, separate down.

We roll through the back, point the feet, bring the legs together. We take the legs down into a slight hip extensive stretch or hip flexor stretch taking the legs into hip extension and then lift the legs back to perpendicular. That slight arching in the body, use your abdominals to protect. And lifting, this is particularly difficult with springs because, of course, the springs are pulling me into extension. I need to go into extension but with a great deal of control so there's not excessive pressure on that lower back.

And we'll do one last one. Such a very valuable stretch and bringing the legs up, bending the knees. I take the springs over. If you could put your feet down now on the step and, holding onto the handles or onto the sides of the barrel, there is no perceivable movement here. But I want you to feel your hip extensors working and how the hip flexors are stretching.

Make sure your hip abductors, your inner thighs, are working to keep those legs parallel. Get a beautiful stretch and slowly wiggle your way out, putting the feet on the top of the barrel. There's no real elegant way of doing this as you wiggle out, wiggle out, wiggle out, and slowly roll again toward me. Again, we're in that great roll down position. And, from here, we simply roll up through the spine.

From here, we go into the stretchers block. So, ladies, if you could stand in front and, gentlemen out there, in front of the barrel. We'll put out the leg closest to me, put it back on top of the barrel. Put your knee into the step, such a convenient place for the knee, and, if you can, if you cannot, put your hands on your knee for support. However, if you can, lift your arms and reach them toward the ceiling.

Taking the arms around, putting them alongside the feet. Dorsiflex that front foot. Keep your back extensors engaged as you take a hamstring stretch elongating the back. Bending that front leg. Bringing the arms up the front again.

This time, if you can, add a little back extension so you're reaching your sternum towards the ceiling. Again, take the arms around. Dorsiflex and straighten that leg. Bending the front legs, straighten the back one. Take support from the arms and put the leg on the barrel so we're in a push-up position.

I've never been one to miss an opportunity for a push up. So, we now do three tricep pushups. And one. Let's make it five. And two.

And three, keeping those scapular nice and still. And four. And five, we bring the other leg forward. You may have to just walk it a little and then take the knee into the step. My toes are tucked under on this back leg.

If you can do that, if you cannot, relax the foot. That'll also be fine. Lifting the arms up. Remember to breathe. We speak about Pilates being mind-body.

These are positions where we truly feel the mind and the body. There is a sensation, feel how open you are. And coming around. It's the kind of position where you just want to say, this feels so good. Remember to use your back extensors and the head is a continuation of the spine.

Bending the front leg. And, again, bringing the arms up. This time we'll add a little back extension, if you can. If you don't feel comfortable doing that that's not a problem. Just look straight forward.

Bringing the arms around. To the feet again, to the sides of the feet, and dorsiflex, take your second stretch. Bend the front leg, straighten that back leg. We're gonna go back into that front support position. From here, we lift the pelvis up into an up stretch and plant to flex the feet.

And then down. Use your abdominals together with your hip flexors, together with the back extensors, together with the shoulder flexors, the plant to flex of the feet. Don't forget anything. And slowly down. And three, lifting.

And down. And four, shoulders are working. The back is working. And five. And into that front support and now lifting the leg, pointing the foot that's closest to me.

We go up, leg pull front. And two. And three. And four. And five, hold it there.

Hold it, hold it, hold it. Let's add a little push up. And up, put it down. Other side, ready, one. And keep the pelvis still, two.

So, the leg won't go very high. Three. And four. And five, are we ready for our push up? Yes, and down, and up.

Putting the leg down, bring the foot in, bring the foot in and we do our roll up. We're now ready for our arm work block. We're feeling good, we're feeling warmed up. We're going through a full body workout on that spine corrector. Small, unassuming piece of equipment.

Put it under your bed, store it in the closet, full body workout. Okay, let's go. So, we now do our arm work. So, those are two-pound, the pink are two-pound. Mine is a three-pound.

I actually, at this point, would love a pink set but I don't have another pink set. So, ready. Up and down. And two. And down.

And three, and down. And four, and down. And five, hold it up there. Bring the arms forward and we do the overhead stretch. We roll down as far as you can go without the arms lifting, then bringing the arms around, lifting the head, coming into your C-curve position, shoulders above the hips and then straightening up and into the C-curve and roll back.

Two. And around. And around. And into the C and straighten up. And three.

And around. And around. And two more, four. Feeling the mobility of the spine. That beautiful range of motion in the shoulders.

And, last one, and drawing into the spine, peeling the spine down towards the barrel. Opening that shoulder and straightening up the spine at the end. Other direction, we roll down, taking it around. Shoulders over the pelvis and lifting up. And two.

And. And lifting up. And three. C-curve, straightening up. I love this juxtaposition of the flexion and extension of the spine together with that shoulder work.

And up, last one. Round. And round. And round. C-curve, shoulders over the pelvis and then the spinal extensors kick in.

Holding it, holding it, and lifting the arms for one last stretch up. And down. If you could put your weights back beside the barrel and if you could face me, please. We now go into some legwork. So, I'm going to add spring but you will feel it without springs.

So, anyone who doesn't have springs, it's no problem. Do it as Sherry and Cara are doing it or add some leg weights. Ready. Dorsiflexing the foot. And we work the gluteal by going up hip abductor and down.

And two. And down. And three. And down. And four.

And down. Sherry, Cara, are you feeling it? Yeah. And down. And down, and down.

And hold it out there. Yes, now, remember the head is just framed in the hands. You hold it here and then you bend a little in the knee and then push out. Keep that ankle in line with your hip joint, Cara. So, keep the leg further back as you bend.

It's a little bend in the knee and a little flex in the hip. And push, straight line. Bend the knee a little, flex the hip, and push out. And bend, yes, and push out. And bend, and push out.

And bend, and push out. Pointing the foot, laying it down, stretching the arms and we do lateral flection. And exhale one. And down. And two.

And down. And three. And down. And four. And down.

And five. And down. Stretching over, over, over, and take you hand in your other hand and reach over. Okay, so, this is such a wonderful stretch. Talk about a feel good moment.

This is a feel good moment. This is the mind, the body, the spirit. And, slowly, let's transition to the other side. So, I'll put on these springs. Those who have BASI systems equipment, notice that the handle, the strap, goes under the foot.

Again, this is just for framing the head. Keeping that pelvis nice and forward as we abduct the hip. One. And two. And lift, three.

And lift, four. And lift, five. Let's do one more and hold it up there as we bend and straighten, flexing the hip and bending the knees slightly and straighten. And three, and straighten. And four, and straighten.

And five, and straighten. And six, and hold it out there, hold it out, hold it out, feeling the heel stretching away from the body and pointing the foot, place it down, stretching the arms out down. Ready for lateral flexion. We lift up, exhale one. And down.

And two, and down. And three, and down. And four. Make sure you don't lift with the head. It's the obliques and the back extensors lifting you.

Five and stretching over and holding onto the hand. As you reach over the barrel and enjoy this feel good moment. Giving yourselves a nice stretch. Remember the leg is still stretching out. Feel the side of the body, the lateral flexes of the trunk stretching.

And slowly coming out of it. And you can, again, face me and we're going to lie on, we're going to be prone so we lie on our front side. We're going to do an exercise called the Swan. The heels are together, the knees are soft, and we have this nice rounding on the top of the barrel to accommodate for the thighs. Hands behind the head.

We articulate the spine as we inhale lifting the head, the neck, thoracic spine. Exhale as the feet point and the legs extend, straightening the arms. Placing the hands behind the head as you keep the body high and slowly down, exhale. Inhale, articulating the spine. Exhale, stretching out.

Inhale, hands behind the head and exhale down. And inhale, feel that mid and upper back working. Exhale, once the legs come up we feel more throughout the back, lower back, mid back, upper back. Bring the hands back behind the head. And down and inhale as you lift up.

And exhale, stretching the legs, stretching the arms. Hands behind the head, and down. And we'll do one last one. And inhale. And exhale.

Bring the hands back behind the head. Feel the abdominal support. And slowly down. Relax the arms. Put the knees on that little step and stretch the arms over the barrel.

And let the head relax. It's a wonderful stretch for the back, stretch for the shoulders, is no pressure on the knees here. For those who find it difficult doing the rest position, the typical rest position, you'll find this much better for you. Great stretch for the back and, slowly, put your feet down on the mat and roll up. We'll finish our session with three roll downs.

Inhale. And exhale. As you roll down bending your knees. Inhale and exhale. Rolling up.

Inhale and exhale as you roll down. Bending the knees. Inhale and exhale, rolling up. And finally, inhale. Exhale, this is where we bring the mind, body and the spirit together.

We've worked hard, now we bring all that work into this moment as we exhale and roll up. Roll up. Building your alignment like a strong tree trunk, proud, solid and firm. Thinking of that perfect alignment, aligning yourselves with gravity. And a big inhale.

And a big inhale. And exhale. And finally, inhale. Thank you all so much. Thank you Cara and Sherry, I appreciate your hard work.

Thank you all for sharing this time at the BASI Pilates Academy using our BASI systems equipment. And, as always, thank you to Pilates Anytime for providing this forum for professionals like myself to get our work out to the world. Thank you all.