BOSU® Reformer Challenge

Hi everyone, I'm back. It's Erika Quest. I hope you're ready for a supercharged full-of-balance challenges, if you want them, Reformer workout. It is a nontraditional movement workout. I'm really excited to bring it to you today.

I hope you enjoy it with me. Joining me today is Nico Gonzalez. Both of us will be moving with you. For this session, you'll notice that we are working on a Balanced Body Reformer. We have our Reformer set up with two red springs.

We also have a Bosu Balance Trainer sitting on top of the Reformer carriage, as well as a TheraBand tied to the end of the footbar. I'd like to talk to you a little bit about the Bosu Balance Trainer for those of you who are not familiar with it. It is a balance-training product. If you don't have one, that is okay. You can take this workout and omit the Balance Trainer for pretty much all of the movement sequences we'll be doing.

If you don't feel that you are ready for a labile, or a more unstable, surface on your Reformer carriage, because we are now dealing with a double-decker of instability, with the Reformer carriage, as well as a labile surface with a balance product, you may use something else, such as an arc barrel, something a little bit more firm, to accommodate what your needs are. For those of you who know me, and even if you don't, I will be a broken record. This is your workout. There is no judgments in this workout. This is a joyful time for you to move your body the way that feels good.

We're also using a TheraBand that is tied at the end of the Reformer. Let me show you how that's tied. You wanna find the middle point of your TheraBand and you wanna thread the two tails through and secure it to the center of your footbar. Not only is this in the center so that's even for you, but it's also a visual reference as we move through this workout. We're gonna begin facing away from the footbar just briefly and then we'll turn around and face the footbar and finish our warm-up.

All right, so, standing facing away from your footbar, I'm gonna have you come into a small pizza slice with your feet. Make sure that that TheraBand is nicely behind you and have a bit of tension and the tails in your hands. Before we start moving, I want you to address the body in the body position. I want you to thing about reaching down through your feet as you lift up tall through the top of the crown of the head and create that sense of axial elongation. That's just a fancy term for making that posture a lot taller here.

Think of floating upward through the top of the crown of the head and allow some tension to come into the TheraBand as you lift it up towards the ears. Now, bend your elbows and open your chest and draw the arms back down. I wanna connect you into the back of your body first. So, reach down through those knuckles, lift the arms up, and then open that chest. So many of us, unfortunately all of us, are coming in a little bit too forward these days.

We're bipedal people and we're always moving forward. We forget to think about going backward. So connect through the back of the body as we begin this workout. Lifting, good, bend those elbows, open the chest and come back down to the hips. Give me one more, please, as you lift up, (inhales forcefully) drink that air in, bend those elbows, come down and hands go down to the hips.

Now, just turn around. Face your footbar. I'm gonna have you have the gas pedal here, meaning you can choke up as much or as little as you'd want on your TheraBand, whatever works for you. Widen out your stance here to a bigger base of support and slightly externally rotate the hips meaning the toes are not pointed north-south, they are slight east-west here. From here we're gonna start with some diagonal arms.

As you lift one arm up and the other down gaining some tension into the TheraBand, and then take it over to the other side. Again, focusing on the back of the body first. So getting the backs of the shoulders warmed up. Feeling the opposition through the knuckles as one set of knuckles reaches up, the other set of knuckles reaches down. Good, and just breathing naturally here right now.

Just don't hold your breath. Aah (exhales and inhales forcefully) And reach, and we're gonna start to add in some lower body here in just a moment with some knee bends. Give me two more of those diagonal arm reaches. Reaching, and back down, and reaching and back down. Now on this next one I want you to bend the knees softly and then take the reach.

Bend the knees softly, and then take the other diagonal. So you're alternating that reach of the arms each and every time, and giving me a soft knee bend. We're not quite at the squat yet. You're just getting familiar with what's going on in your ankle mobility, the level of dorsiflexion that you can keep at that ankle joint when you bend your knees, and just noticing what's happening in your body today. Good, two more.

And reach on that diagonal, and, yes, your arms are gonna get tired real quick here. So, give that a rest. Grab up a little bit higher onto your TheraBand now. We're gonna take it into a deeper knee bend or a squat, if you'd like to. Remember, this is your workout, so do what feels good for you.

Arms are forward. You're gonna give me a deeper squat here and, as you rise up, give me a row. (exhales forcefully) Bending those elbows. Squat down, and come back up. Reach the arms forward as you squat. Keep your chest nice and lifted.

And, as you drive up, I want you to really drive through those heels. Down, rise up and row. Keep the shoulders outta the ears. Remember thinking about that nice tall posture as you come back up to standing. Give me four more and row.

And three, we're gonna add in rotation after two, and row, you got it, last one, and row. Now you're gonna add in rotation. Doesn't matter which side you start with because you have to do both, and switch. Alternating, so challenging your proprioception here. Changing where your body's at in space.

Still warming up the backs of the arms. Starting to get some heat through the legs. Give me four more And then we're gonna take a little bit of a rotation break. Last two. And, give me one more time.

Great, now you don't need as much tension. So grab towards the tails here. Step into the center, about hip distance apart parallel with those feet. Lift those arms out to the T position. And if you need to take a step closer to your Reformer footbar, that's fine.

From here, thinking about some rotation with spine twist. On an exhale, you're gonna twist (exhales forcefully) and try and twist a little further. And then back center on an inhale, grow tall, and exhale other side. (exhales forcefully twice) Center and (exhales forcefully twice), center, good. Blow, blow and grow. Blow, blow and grow tall, good.

Four more, I know the tops of the shoulders are heating up. Three, good. It's tricky, I know. Two, try and keep your pelvis facing forward, one. Good. Excellent job.

Give those arms a bit of a rest while we set up your lower body. We're not gonna be doing traditional footwork on the Reformer so I wanna get a few more positions here in your warm-up. Take your TheraBand. Gather it up and place both tails into one hand. We're gonna take this into a lateral lunge.

From here, you want your feet and your heels pointing forward, so north-south, right, as you take this. You're gonna step away to one side, touch the floor, taking your TheraBand with you, and then come back up and rise up. Again, down and up. So starting to really feel that leg that's on the floor, as your stability leg. And the movement leg as you reach away into that lateral lunge.

Now after four more of these, I wanna start to challenge you a little bit with a little bit of balance. And, two. Good, give me one more. And you're gonna keep going, but now, I don't want you to let the moving leg touch the floor. If you can, find that single-leg-balance moment as you're doing this, think about, woo, those sit bones, reaching back to the wall behind you or whatever is behind you at home, as you're doing these.

Noticing this side, because we're gonna do the other side. Four more times. Good. And three. Keep breathing, and last two. And, one more time.

From here, place that foot down. Switch the TheraBand to the other hand. We lather, rinse, repeat. Other side, here we go. So take it away and touch.

Come back up and stand. Now, if you need to make micro-adjustments throughout this workout, meaning the positioning in relationship to your Reformer, or the positioning on the Bosu Balance Trainer, that's totally fine. We'll talk about that as we go through your workout. Good, let's do three more. And then we'll start to take some balance.

I'm going for about eight to 10 on each side so that we're relatively the same and that you're not uneven. Last one. Now balance. Hoo! Which side is your strong side? Which side is your smart side? Meaning your lazy side or the side that has been used to cheating on you your whole life.

Four more. Four. Again, don't judge yourself, three, just notice it, because we're trying to challenge you to just make some gentle improvements. Last one. Good. Final thing to do before we move onto that Reformer carriage, is to come back into that small pizza slice of the feet. It's not a New York pizza slice.

You're gonna grab onto the tails of your TheraBand again. We're gonna take a curtsy lunge and a lateral raise. From here, you take it back into a curtsy lunge, you lift the arms. Come back up, find V, set it, other side. Curtsy lunge and back up.

Curtsy lunge, lateral raise and back up. You guys should be getting kinda warm now. Some gentle heat coming through the body. I know I am. It's a total body warm-up.

Multiple planes of motion for a reason. Four more, and then we're gonna add an arm drop. Three, good. Two, and the last one here, on this next one, we're gonna drop an arm. So you take the curtsy, you tap the floor.

Whoa, you come back up and find your V. Other side. Curtsy, tap, come up, find V. And whoop, and tap, and up, find V. Notice your balance.

Where are you struggling? Don't judge it, just notice it. Two more. Curtsy, and tap, come back forward, and V, last one. Curtsy, tap it down, back forward, and V.

Nicely done. All right. Let go of that TheraBand. But you're gonna need it again. We will incorporate it throughout the workout at times.

Make sure that it stays secured and in the center of your footbar. All right, so it's time to transition onto the Reformer carriage with the Bosu Balance Trainer. From here, the best way to do this, and you're gonna have to negotiate this with your body because nobody's body is the same. Everyone and snowflakes, and I'll give you some ideas of where you should be positioned, but do what feels best for you. Have a seat on your Balance Trainer.

Place your feet on the Reformer footbar, your hands on the Bosu, and slide yourself down. Now, you don't wanna be all the way at the rim, okay, or on the carriage. You wanna be slightly above it. But, with that being said, it may be higher or a little lower for you. The final thing that I wanna say, is clothing matters here.

The tighter the clothing, the more comfortable you are going to be. If you start to have a bit of a wedgie factor, give me a slight pull of the pubic bone in towards the navel. That does not mean you're tucking, it's just giving me a bit of a more supported neutral position and that will help. Now take your feet. Bring them up onto that footbar, right onto the outsides of your TheraBand.

You're on your heels. Your toes are drawn towards your knees, dorsiflexion of the feet,. You release your arms. From here, we're gonna press out. You're gonna lie back.

Take a nice big opening of the chest, and draw back forward. Again, here we go. Inhale (inhales forcefully) and exhale, open it around. Mobilizing the shoulders. Getting some movement through the legs, and also activating that mobility core here, getting some spine mobility.

Last two in this direction, and you know how we do. What goes in one direction ladies and gentlemen and friends, has to reverse, so here we go. Opening those arms, reaching and exhale forward. Again, if you feel this too much, or at all in your lower back, you're probably up too high, on your Balance Trainer. You need to move down.

Last three and then we're taking it straight into side-reaching. And, two. And, last one, good. Side reach, here we go. Exhale as you rotate, pause for a moment.

Get there and come back. Other side, rotate, reach, get there, and bring yourself home. Exhale, go (exhales forcefully) and inhale on the return. And exhale (exhales forcefully). I was nice.

I started it slow, but, if you know me, you know I'll start to push your pace and your flow a little bit. And amp it up. Give me two more, and then it's around the world. Last one. So it's the same start.

Are you ready? We go out, and around, and forward. Other side. Reach, hit and around and forward, good. Reach, hit your diagonal line, then take it and come forward.

Hit it, boom! And around and forward. Give me two more. You're rocking it. Here we go! And, again, and forward. Last one.

Push out, hit, and around and forward. I know what you're thinking. You're like, we're done. No. Slide down onto your toes.

You know I love you. So we have to change it a little bit more and make it a bit harder. Okay? Fingers come back behind the head. Support the head with your hands and the hands with your head.

Do not pull your head forward, rather, pull your head back into your hands. You take it back on an inhale. You open the chest, ah. Here we go. Exhale, blow it out (exhales forcefully), lift and press.

Good, inhale, do it again. (inhales forcefully) Exhale, blow and lift. Thinking of lifting and length here, inhale. That mobility core is telling you something right now. We're only gonna do 483 more. Last two, inhale back and exhale, good.

Last one. And exhale as you lift. Come all the way back in and give yourself a little bit of a break. Place your hands down and lift yourself up. Now, again, I know what you're thinking.

But Erika, we need to do rotation, right? Yes, we do. So we're gonna add in a little bit of rotation, and some single-leg work here, before we move onto the side body. So, again, it's the same movement pattern. Bring the fingers back behind the head.

Don't you like I gave you a little active recovery? You're welcome, here we go. Inhale as you go back, exhale as you press away. You give me that sling as you rotate. Come back center and exhale, lift and take it to the other side.

Now, I like to cue this from the back. Pull back to go forward. Find the back of the shoulder first, as you come back. And then let that rotate happen naturally. Last two, (exhales forcefully), good.

Last one, inhale and exhale. You, made it. Come back down. Give yourself a little bit of a break. Good.

We're gonna turn onto our side body because I lied. I'm gonna save the single leg for after we come back. I can tell we all need a break. So, you're gonna turn onto your side body, and we need to reset how we are positioned here. Make sure that your headrest is lifted up all the way.

This is gonna give you comfort for your elbow. You want your hip atop of that Bosu, but probably not all the way up to the apex. It depends on your spine length. If you can place your elbow down, and cradle that head in your hand comfortably, tucking the bottom knee up toward you and placing the top foot on the footbar, anchoring that heel, you should be pretty good to go. Let's test the waters here.

Keeping that front arm on the labile, or the unstable, surface for support as we get started. On an exhale, drive through that heel, press the carriage away. Now, I recommended two springs here. Adding the Balance Trainer, or any prop to the Reformer, is gonna make the spring resistance feel a little bit different. So you can add here, you can take away.

Again, this is your workout, so do what feels good for you, good. Looking great. Now let's challenge it a little bit. Extend your bottom leg out underneath that footbar, right? You've now moved a contact point.

That changes things. You press out and reach forward, thread the needle, come back under. And, again. Press away, and reach, and come under. Notice what's happening with that top foot.

Are you able to keep that heel anchored? Do you maybe need to reposition where that foot is on the footbar? I don't know. Just think about it. Last two, and the we're taking it into external rotation and last one.

Again, we're trying to get to about eight to 10 of these repetitions. Now, from here, let the bottom leg relax for a moment. Externally rotate that top hip so the toes are going towards the ceiling to the best of your ability. But, more importantly, you're really feeling that spiral of the bone. Now, from here, extend your bottom leg long again.

From here you're gonna press out and draw the heels together in a V position at the top. Inhale as you bend. And exhale as you press. Now, if you want it, and you're willing, you might wanna take this hand up to the ceiling and find your balance. Okay?

Again, taking away, woo, a contact point, changes everything. And you can see, I'm giving you a woo, because this is way more challenging. Give me one more and exhale press out. You did a great job. From here, we're done with the top leg, but we need to move that bottom leg up onto the footbar.

So, the bottom foot comes up. Take the time to set yourself properly. The top leg can just hang out on top of the footbar for now. Readjust your position and take that head and cradle it back into your hand. Now think about this bottom shoulder.

I was starting to feel that this shoulder was creeping up. Connect those lats down in your back. Make sure that you're being mindful of that. This top leg is now gonna lift. As you press through the bottom heel you come into a sidekick, and then you bend and come back to neutral, or even if you want a bit of extension here, take it.

Flex the foot, draw forward, and point press back. Exhale as you do this (exhales forcefully). Inhale as you do this. And exhale reaching. And inhale.

Every single time you change your body position, on a labile surface, you're changing your balance challenge. You're activating different righting-response muscles. These are all very good things. Last one here, inhale, and exhale as you press. And come back.

Now, we're staying on this side, but we need to drop weight. So, safely, come down, and transition yourself to a blue spring. One blue spring only. Once you've don't that, it's time to, again, readjust your body position, coming back up onto the dome, seeing which body position works best for you. You'll know it.

If you can, take both of your legs and bring them up onto the Reformer. Once you've figured that out, as I mentioned, micro-adjustments here, it takes a little bit of time sometimes, you can then take the front loop into your hand. And you're gonna gain a little bit of tension into that hand. From here, just start to lower and lift that arm. It's not directly down to the hip.

It's slightly forward. Because if you went straight down to your hip, that rope is gonna run into your nose, and I'm not trying to give you a nose job here, okay? Just lowering and lifting those arms, getting comfortable and familiar. Some of these body positions, friends at home, are gonna be similar shapes and similar movements that you've done in the past, perhaps. But, guess what.

It feels entirely different when you're using a different piece of equipment underneath you to challenge your proprioception. Last one here, and stay down. From here, we're gonna take it forward. And then press it back. And, again, your range of motion, is your range of motion.

I like to say this to my clients in my classes and I'll say it to you at home. Sometimes more is just more and more is not better and we're going for better here. So do better. Hold there. From here, try set press as you just bend at that elbow and press.

We don't need to do 483 of anything, even though that's my joke. Just make sure that you're really getting the quality of movement in each and every repetition. Three more times and then we're gonna move this loop onto your top foot, so get ready for that. Last one, and press, good. Take a moment and grab onto that rope.

Safely transition that loop to your foot. Once you're there, place your hand on that dome. Cradle the head in the hand. The rope will probably be right underneath the knee and we're just going to start to straighten out and then bend back in. Now, as a reminder, I'm giving you weight recommendations.

If, at any time, you feel like you wanna go a little heavier, a little lighter, feel free to play with what works for you. That's what's important here. Four more. Good. And three. Now I'm not gonna be mad at you on the last two if you wanna reach that top arm up to the ceiling and take away a contact point.

And, last one. Now, can you stay there? And draw the leg forward, uh oh. And then press it back. Remember, you can put that hand down at any time.

But this gets a little bit dicey 'cause you have to really feel your body in this side-lying position, good. Give me four more of these. And actually react and learn invisibly with that labile surface behind you. Good, I think we have about one more. Pressing back.

And I promise we're almost done, but we're gonna just do a few internal rotations. So find those knees together. Dorsiflex the foot and exhale, reach up and out. And tap, and reach, good. This is three, let's just take it to six, okay?

Nice, give me two more, and reach and last one. And reach, fantastic job. Safely, transition out of this. Grab the rope. Take your foot outta the loop.

Put your loop back down onto the peg. You know I always say, lather, rinse, repeat, but it's not time to do that quite yet. You know me. I like to transition you through, so you're gonna turn back around and face your footbar because we have to go back up in weight. Let's do it right now.

Go back to those two red springs. And now, you need your TheraBand again. So you're going to grab onto that TheraBand. Just kidding. I lied. Let go of the TheraBand.

Remember I promised you some single-leg work. We'll we're gonna do that now 'cause I gave you a little active recovery break. So bring yourself back down into that sweet spot that you found earlier. And if you're having any wardrobe adjustments, it's okay. Come down into parallel, toes on that footbar.

Bring the fingers back behind the head. From here, take one leg off of the footbar. Here we go. Inhale as you take it back. As you lift, you press away and you rotate towards the leg that lifts.

Are you there? I hope so. Bend the knee, bring the carriage back safely. Let's do two more. (exhales forcefully) We'll get to six total. And inhale, and exhale, press and rotate, good.

Switch your feet, three more to go. Here we go. Take it back, inhale, exhale, press out and twist. If you're seeing any Weeble-wobbling with me or you, at home, that's great. That's what we want, but be safe about it.

Good, active recovery, come in. Now it's time to grab your TheraBand. I want you to take it into a V position of the feet. Give yourself a moment, breathe. Bring that TheraBand into your hands, onto the outsides of the knees, pretty close to the tails.

Now, connect the heels together. Feel the adductors working. All we're gonna do is send the carriage away, open the arms, and back in. Inhale, exhale (exhales forcefully), go. Trying to keep that core a bit more stable now, so we're trying to omit that mobility over the dome, even though, you could do that.

That would be fine. But, for now, we've done enough of that. So let's try and stay lifted and a bit more stable. Last one here and then we rotate. So press out.

Good, here we go. Inhale here, exhale, rotate. Challenging your proprioception, alternate. Still working the backs of the shoulders, and the core, and, gosh, what aren't we working in this position? Last four.

And then we'll go into a bit of a diagonal reaching. Three, again, you might see similar shapes repeat. Last one. Good, diagonal reach with both arms now. Here we go.

Reach and come back. And reach, and come back. This is going to include a lotta arm work using this TheraBand in addition to using the straps on the Reformer. Give me two more, and then guess what time it is. It's time to then lather, rinse, repeat.

Here we go. Now we're off to the other side. If you don't remember that's fine 'cause I'm your coach, it's my job to remember. Turn over onto your other side. Your springs are already set for you.

You, again, wanna try and find the body position, excuse me as I turn away from you, that your other side was best set for. Notice that first as you're getting set up. Draw down in the lat, making sure that the head is nicely supported. Tuck the bottom knee up towards you, place the top heel onto that footbar, and we're just gonna start to exhale. Press away (exhales forcefully), and inhale, pull back in.

This is, remember, getting comfortable with the movement pattern and then we'll start to challenge it. But if you stay here this whole entire time, there is no judgment on you at all whatsoever. Good, give me two more like this and then we'll thread that needle. And, last one. Bring the carriage down to the stopper.

Take that bottom leg, send it underneath, just in front of the TheraBand, and then we press out and thread the needle, reach the leg forward, and then back under. And, again, reach and back under. And reach. Good. This is about four.

Let's get to eight of these. So give me four more. Four, then we're taking it where? External rotation, so start to prepare for that. Last two.

And, give me one more here. Bring the carriage down to the stopper. Set that top hip by bringing the heel up onto the footbar. The knee is lifted. That upper bone is externally rotated in the hip.

The bottom leg extends underneath that footbar and push away and adduct the bottom leg. Inhale, I lost connection with my lat on that bottom arm, so I'm getting honest with myself right now. You get honest with you. Remember, this is your movement journey in this workout. So check in, and make sure that you're being honest with where you're at in your own body.

Three more. Exhale as you press. Inhale on the return. And, two. We're taking the bottom foot up onto the footbar next.

And one, so let's do that now. Take your bottom foot. Bring it onto the footbar. Now, here's the deal. You want that heel anchored so if you need to slide the foot a little further forward to accommodate that, you can.

It's not a problem. Now, the top leg is gonna lift parallel to the floor. You flex the foot. Sidekick forward as you press out. And then point the toe as you come back.

And, again, pressing out. And, getting some nice hip flexion and a bit of extension on that top leg here if you would like to go there. And press away. Now, remember, I think I challenged you on the other side by lifting that top arm to the ceiling. Feel free to do that here, as well.

Last two. And, give me one more. Beautiful job. It's time for that spring transition. So, here we go.

Safely come up. Give yourself a moment of active recovery while you transition your springs and reposition your body. Up a little bit more perched on your Bosu. Set your elbow. Grab your front strap if you can.

And lift your fingertips up to the ceiling. From here, again, it's kinda that low Y position. The rope does not graze the nose. Inhale as you lift the arm back up and exhale as you lower. (inhales forcefully) Really focusing on the breath initiating the movement pattern here.

Focusing on those muscles underneath your armpit as you squeeze that imaginary pink grapefruit coming down. Give me one more. Stay low at the hip and start your forward reach. So, inhale as the arm moves forward, and exhale as you return to the hip. Good, and again, pressing.

Making sure that this arm feels very active as you're going through this movement pattern, right? You're on a little bit of a lighter spring. You can make it feel a lot heavier if you focus on the quality of movement. Hold here, at the hip, and give me some tricep presses. So just bending at the elbow and pressing through.

Bending and pressing. Keeping that elbow close to the ribs. But not super-anchored so that you open your chain up a little bit and challenge yourself. Give me two more. And then if you don't remember, I'm your coach.

This foot is gonna go onto that, this foot, excuse me, this loop is going to go onto the top foot. So grab onto your rope. Safely transition that loop to the top foot. Again, cradle the neck and the hand, set the arm, and start that knee. Straighten, and that knee bend.

And the rope goes right underneath that knee. Inhale on the bend, exhale on the press. And remember, here's where, if you'd like to lift that top arm to the ceiling, you're like, I got this Erika, I'm doing better on this side, well then go for it 'cause you can always put your contact point down and regress it at any time. On this last one, you're gonna stay out at straight. From here, inhale, slowly draw the leg forward, and exhale as you press back.

I wanna be honest with myself, and I think I got maybe three or four of these done with the arm up to the ceiling. And then I just realized, wow, that's just a lotta balance. So I'm putting my front arm back down to finish strong here before we go into external rotation. And press back, give me two more with that long lever. And press, last one.

Where are you taking other stress in your body? Let it go. Internally rotate. The knees kissed together. And exhale as you reach up and out.

Oftentimes when we put ourselves in challenging situations, we grab onto stress in weird areas. So can you think, maybe you're gripping you toes too much. Maybe you're not setting your lat down your back properly and your neck is taking it. Think about that right now, and see if you can breathe into it and let it release. Two more.

Bend and reach and, last one here, and reach up. You did great. Safely come out of that, grabbing the rope. Taking that loop off of your foot, replacing it back down onto the peg. I've got a lot more planned for you.

But we are going to move body positions. So, congratulations. Let's go ahead and stand on the floor for a moment. Oftentimes when we've been on an unstable surface for a while, it's good to stand up and ground ourselves. We have to change the spring anyways, so let's do that.

We're gonna move from a blue spring to a red spring. So, put on a red and take off a blue. Now, remember, I'm giving you weight recommendations. When you add anything to the Reformer carriage and every Reformer is different, you may wanna adjust to what works for you. We're gonna go into some knee stretches.

So let's safely enter into this. You're going to place your hands onto your footbar. And then you can bring one knee onto your Bosu Balance Trainer on or near the top of the dome. And the toes are going to tuck or touch the headrest. Now, give a look at where your knees are.

They might be down a few concentric circles towards the rim. And that's totally fine. Do all of us have the same length of legs? Absolutely not. Now, be careful of the risks here.

This is all about shoulder stability as well. We're gonna add onto this later on down in the workout. So, start to play with this movement pattern now. Set the shoulders. Push the footbar away.

Drop the tail and let the rest of the spine react hollowing out the belly. The head weight drops and here we go. You take it back (inhales forcefully) and exhale (exhales forcefully) hollow and pull it in. Inhale as you go back, and exhale, pull. And inhale.

Now these shoulder rests are really serving a great purpose for us right now 'cause we've got good contact points happening. Watch the hyperextension of the elbows. I'm being honest with myself on that as well 'cause I can tend to do that. Now pause for a moment at the stopper. Lift your toes off of those shoulder rests.

Changing that changes everything. Carry on, inhale, (exhales forcefully) exhale, pull. (inhales forcefully) Inhale back. (exhales forcefully) Exhale as you pull. (inhales forcefully) And back, pull it in.

Good, give me three more. And exhale, pull. And two, and pull. Now we're gonna make a minor change here after this last one. And it looks like this.

I want you to go into a position that I'm gonna call 70/30. I want you to take a step down the dome to one side with one of your knees, and move the other knee over. Remember, changing any body position or any slight trajectory, is gonna change where you feel this. You're gonna feel this more in your obliques. The arms stay where they're at.

You're still rounded. Here we go. Inhaling out, exhale, pull it in. (exhales forcefully) (Inhales forcefully) and pull in. Good, and again, if this one red feels a little light for you, then pick it up next time. Take it up a notch.

Two more, we'll go for six, and then we have to do the other side. (exhales forcefully) And, from here, transition over to the other side. Try and set that other knee similar to where the other one was so that you stay even and you get an adequate and equal amount of challenge. From here, six more. (inhales forcefully) And exhale pull. Now we're gonna take this into a more neutral spine position in just a moment.

But give me four more, (exhales forcefully) and three, (exhales forcefully), good. Two, really feeling that mobility through the back line of the body pulling in. Now come back atop your Bosu Balance Trainer. Now, here's the deal. Give your wrists a little shake.

Might be time for that. At any time, you can tuck those toes back onto your shoulder rests or place them down. More contact points means more stability, okay? Just know that. Now, take one hand, bring it towards the center near your TheraBand.

Take the other hand, and grab onto the tail of the other one. Now, let's set you up. Before you move, I want you to come into a more neutral, so, before, we really had this more of a rounded position. Find the neutral position for you, and as you press away with your loaded arm, you're going to open and rotate towards your TheraBand. Yes, woo, come back.

You got this. I got you. We're in it to win it together, yes, or yes? Coming back. I know I'm in it to win it.

I hope you're in it to win it as well. Last two, your inner athlete is here. And, last one. I think we did about five. And, guess what.

We will lather, rinse, repeat right now. Let's take five on the other side. And, again, no judgment. Don't judge yourself, don't judge your sides. From here, you go away, woo! Totally different side for me.

And bring yourself back home. Be safe as you do this. Take your time. Keep the shoulders out of the ears. Where are you adding stress into your body that you do not need to have right now?

Woo! Last one, it's only five and it's here. Great job. Excellent. Let go of that. Fantastic. It's time for another transition.

Step back down onto the floor safely. We're staying on one read spring. But it's time to drop the footbar. So, take your footbar out of its locked position. And, lift it and set it all the way down.

From here, we're going to move into some skating, okay? The best and safest way to get into this is to always set the platform foot first. So your platform foot comes on about directly in the center of your Bosu, and then safely place one hand on the carriage, one hand on the rails, and bring the other foot up. Now, in this position, you could stay right here, or you can bring the foot up on to those concentric circles of the dome and onto that labile surface. You'll notice this foot on the Bosu is now higher.

So give yourself a self-tactile cue. Find your two hip bones, okay? Notice where they're at in space. Are you hiked? Do you need to drop one down?

Bend your platform leg, tree trunk. Here we go. You push out and in. And out and in. You're gonna get a totally different sensation on the lateral line here, having this foot on a labile surface.

Your stability leg should be starting to heat up. Give me two more. And then we're gonna go into double leg. Last one. So here we go.

Press out, both legs go out. Stand it up and back in. And out, and, again, you can adjust your weight. We happened to keep it right here on that one red spring for this. But you could certainly change it.

Make it a little heavier if you wanted to. Two more. And then we're taking it into a Warrior Two position. And one, come in. Stand up on your platform leg.

Now, take your Bosu foot, externally rotate, and point your toes towards your risers, okay? This knee's gonna be a little bit bent. That's fine. From here, arms come out nice and strong. Reaching in opposition from your fingertips, standing up nice and tall, You're going to let the carriage go out.

Bend that front leg. Keep it there. Straighten, bend, come back in. Make it look good. Ready, here we go.

Out and reach and bend, return. Good, out and reach, stayed focused, in, return. Two more. Out, reach away, back in, and return. Last one, out, and reach away, beautiful.

In and lower those arms. Very nicely done. So, again, it's time for a transition. But you know me. We don't go to the other side yet.

We're gonna add in some more challenging planking here. So let's do this safely. If you can stay up on your carriage, please try and do so. But if it's an unsafe decision for you, get down on the floor and transition. From here, I want you to move both feet onto the carriage and both hands onto the footbar.

We have options here. You may set the heels on the Bosu Balance Trainer and the toes on the carriage. You may also move into a fully-labile surface by having both feet on that Balance Trainer. Choose what feels good for you. Set the shoulders down.

Watch the hyperextension of the elbows. And we take it out to a plank. Good, and pull it back in. Now, really feeling that pike happening, inhale. We see these shapes all the time in Pilates.

Inhale as you take it away. And exhale as you pull it in. Now come away and stay. Yes, here we go, now bend, and press. Inhale on the bend, exhale on the press.

(inhales and exhales forcefully) That's three. Give me three more. (exhales forcefully) and two. Strong mind, strong body. You've heard me say it before.

And one, hold it. Pull into the carriage. Now, come forward. Place your heels down, the toes onto the carriage. You're not quite done yet.

This is your little break to go ahead and shake out your wrists. Changing foot position changes everything, especially on a labile surface. So here we go. Take it where you were. You can absolutely just pivot here.

But, if you chose to come up onto the dome, then try and pivot there, okay? Here we go, take it all the way out. And pike, pull it up, blow. The breath drives the movement. And pull (exhales forcefully).

Good, inhale out. Exhale as you pull. Hold it, there's four. You ready? Here we go, bend, inhale.

Exhale, press. (inhales forcefully) This feels so different having these feet on an unstable surface. There's three, give me two more. And four. And five, come all the way back up. No breaking.

Pivot, straight into the other side. We got four planks. And pull it in. Good, and three. You got this.

And, pull. And two, I'm sweating with you. I promise. And one, pull, whoops, stay out there. I lied, you ready?

Here we go for five. Inhale, exhale press. Keep me honest, people. And press, three more, come on. Three (inhales forcefully) And two.

And last one, bring it in strong. Come all the way home and safely step down and shake out your wrists. Well done. A much-needed breather. But remember, now it's time to lather, rinse, repeat.

We need to go through the other side with our skating, single leg and double leg, as well as Warrior Two. So come on over to the other side of your Reformer. Let's mount this safely as we did on the other side. Platform foot comes up first. Use that hand to stabilize the carriage and then bring your foot up onto that dome.

Stand it up. We did it on the other side so we must do it here. Check in on your hip bones, right? Make sure that you have a nice evenness here. Again, it feels very different having one foot elevated on the dome.

From here, you have your stability leg. Bend both knees and then, from here, you're gonna push the dome away and pull it back in with control. Now thinking about that tree trunk, your stability leg staying nice and strong, and not drifting away, right? That's the whole purpose on that side. It's probably starting to feel a little warm.

Two more and then we'll take it into double leg. Last one, now double leg, here we go. Take it away, out press. Evenly straining the knees at the same time as you press and bend and pull in, good. And press, and pull.

Give me three more and then we'll take Warrior Two And last two. Good. Last one. Now, as a reminder, you're gonna take that foot and place it on the apex of the dome. The toes are pointed towards the rails of the Reformer. And, from here, again, give those hips a check.

When the carriage goes away, that Bosu leg bends. You keep it out there, then you straighten, bend and return it back home by using the inner thigh on the platform leg. So here we go. Take it out. Reach, bend, pull it in, good.

And take it out. Reach, bend, pull it in. Two more times. Take it away, reach. Now we're keeping it in a good range of motion.

You can play with what range of motion feels good for you. And all the way into the stopper. Great job. Safely take it down to the floor. So, the good news is, that we are done with the Reformer on the Bosu carriage for now.

It's time to transition the Bosu to the floor. All right. The Bosu has come to the floor. You can notice that I have wedged it underneath the Reformer a little bit so there's a little bit more stability, okay? There's one blue spring.

We're gonna do a sumo squat to a deltoid pull as well as a reverse lunge to a row. It looks like this. Place your foot on your dome. The foot that's closest to your footbar. Grab your forward loop.

From here, your footbar arm is going to come through, thread through that loop, and grab onto the tape. Now, widen out your stance. Slightly externally rotate at the hip. Take your free arm and reach it out to a T position. From here you're gonna give me a nice squat.

So you're gonna squat down, and then you're gonna give me a deltoid pull. Now your Bosu leg may not fully straighten, and that's okay. And you're gonna notice having that foot on the Balance Trainer is gonna change, not only how it feels, but also the body position coming in and out of that squat. Give me three. And two.

And one more. Now, transitioning from here. I just want you to pivot. The back toes stay on the Balance Trainer. The front arm still holds onto the tape or grabs up higher onto the rope.

Hand comes onto the hip. You take it into a 90/90 lunge, so you may need to make micro-adjustments with that front foot. 90/90 and then take it into a row. So a nice narrow row here. And watch it, as you're pulling on that carriage, just be cautious that you're really using that spring on the way forward, as well as on the way back.

Last two, and pull. And last one here. Bend and pull. Now, we're gonna do the other side, but not quite yet. I'm gonna have you place that loop on the peg.

You need to readjust the position of your Bosu. Pull it out away and just about center, okay? I think we'll keep it on a blue spring. If you wanna play with your weight, we'll see how we do. You're gonna be standing on your Balance Trainer facing your carriage.

Place the hands on the carriage close to the edges, maybe close to one shoulder rest and close to the edge of the carriage. And from here, all I want you to do, is start to take the carriage out, and take the carriage back in. Nice and controlled. Take it out on an inhale (inhales forcefully). Just make sure you're breathing.

Exhale with control. Inhaling away, woo! And exhale on the return. Remember that control. Remember this is a lotta full-body integration right now. Now, here's the deal.

I want you to take your carriage out and I want you to take your footbar leg and bend it in towards you. And as you bring the carriage in, extend that leg out. And, again, carriage goes out away bending your knee, and then extending as the carriage comes back in. Give me two more. Bend, pull it in.

This is a lotta shoulder work as well. A lotta control through that upper body. If you're not ready for it, you can keep those feet on the floor. Good, place that foot down. Last thing to do, before we do everything on the other side and finish the workout.

Step down. You need to move your Bosu again, and we're flipping it over. So, you're going dome side down with your Balance Trainer. And it needs to be pretty much centered between your platform as well as your carriage. You need to come around to the other side.

Safely, place one knee on the platform, one knee on the carriage. Come pretty far forward so that you can tuck your toes into both situations. Now, place the hands down onto the dome. They can be flush here, or they can be wide. From here, you're gonna press the Balance Trainer away and you're gonna hover the knees up.

And then just the carriage leg goes. Push it out. Pull it in. Exhale, push go, push. (inhales forcefully) and push (inhales and exhales forcefully).

That's four. Two more. Push away, pull it in. Last one, push, and give it a rest. Nicely done. So now you know what's coming on on the other side.

You're ready for it. Safely come on off. And we need to transition your Balance Trainer. So, come and grab it. Bring it over to the other side of your Reformer.

Again, we started with the dome side up and we were wedged because we have that squat-to-deltoid pull, as well as your lunge to row. Once you're set there with your Balance Trainer, pick up your front strap. Place your foot. Thread that loop. Grab onto your rope.

Nice wide stance here. Slightly externally rotated through the hips. We did about six or eight of these on the other side so reach that opposite arm out strong, squat. And here we go. Pull it up.

Again, focusing on the deltoid, posterior deltoid here as well. It's really important to focus on the back of the body. We lose contact with the back of our body a lot these days. Two more, and then we go into that lunge. Last one, and come up.

Excellent. Now, pivot. Back toes are on that Balance Trainer. Grab up a little higher. Step forward.

Hand on hip for the free hand. Take it into that lunge and pull back into that nice row. Now, woo, I can definitely feel the difference on this side for me and that that angle of the spring is really wanting to pull me off balance, and three. So hopefully my righting-response muscles stay with me. Last one, good, excellent job.

Give that a rest. Place your loop back down onto your peg. Pull the Balance Trainer out and away, but centered with the side of the carriage. Again, we're on that blue spring. Stand up onto your Bosu.

One hand comes close to the shoulder rest. The other hand comes close to the edge of the carriage. Again, here we go. We're gonna take it out (inhales forcefully) and bring it back home. (exhales forcefully) And take it out and inhale, woo! And exhale on the return. I think we went to about six of these and then we did three with the knee bend, single leg.

Last two. (exhales forcefully) Woo, this side is so different. Last one, now stay out there. Bend the knee in that footbar leg, and bring it back. Control as you go back into extension. And give me two more.

In (inhales forcefully), and control. And last one, and oof, in. Boy, strong side, smart side happening with me today. And set it down. Good job.

Final thing to do. Let's flip that Balance Trainer over. Again, make sure that you have about an even space so that you have room in between, or even, when you place your hands down in between your platform as well as your carriage. Come around. You're almost done.

You guys are doing great. I have one more fun little thing to do to conclude your workout after this. Place the hands down onto the wide parts of the platform. Hover up those knees. And here we go.

Press out and in. We did six. Five. Go, four. And three, I'm with you.

Two. And one. And lower down. And take a break. Good.

Now, we're done using the Reformer carriage. But we still need your footbar. Lift your footbar back up into place. Make sure that you lock it in, if you have the locking footbar. If you don't, you can still do this.

Bring your Balance Trainer back behind your footbar. And we're going to be standing on the platform side. I'm gonna coach you in to how to get into this safely. Because you have the footbar there for your assistance, it's a great way to do this. Place your hands on your footbar.

Take one foot. Press the Balance Trainer down. Stand up. Widen out the base of support. And if you start to feel like it's your jam and you wanna go for it, stand up.

And notice where you're at in space, okay? This really gives amazing invisible learning and amazing feedback to your body. Now, there's a TheraBand down there and I want you to find it. Pick up those tails with your hands. Now, adding this TheraBand might actually give you a little bit more stability.

From here, still standing up on that Balance Trainer, lift up tall and exhale, press back with those arms. Inhale, forward. Exhale, press back. Now remember, you have the gas pedal. (exhales forcefully) (inhales forcefully) You can go as much or as little as you like with this. Inhale and exhale as you press.

Give me three more. (exhales forcefully) Integrating the trunk into this. Your stability core is activated. Last one here. (exhales forcefully) Now reaching the arms forward, give me a knee bend or a squat, woo! And then stand it up and give me an upright row. Just give me seven more, and row. (exhales forcefully) (inhales forcefully) and six, you're almost done. (exhales forcefully) And five, you've been doing a lot of balance.

And four, this whole session. And three. And last two (exhales forcefully), and last one here. Great job. Now, you need to let go of that TheraBand.

Safely come down. Touch the footbar with the hands. Press one side down. Step off. And then you've safely transitioned off of the dome side.

Come into the center with me. Find a space where you can really ground and feel your feet. This whole entire session, if you've chosen to do all the balance challenges, is really that. It's an incredibly challenging on the body. So when you bring your body back into space and gravity, it's good to put your feet on something firm.

Think about your big toes. Think about your little toes. Think about your heels. Those tripods of support that are there for you every single day. Celebrate them.

Reach up in opposition. Let your spine react to that lengthening upwards. Give me one roll down. Thinking of going up and over a nice big beach ball. Let your arms be heavy.

Let the shoulders relax. Take an inhale when you get down to the bottom. (inhales forcefully) Exhale, pull the naval so far deeply up into the spine because you just start to activate the core and rebuild the spine bone by bone by bone. The crown of the head is the last thing to get to the ceiling. The arms float up in reaction to the length of your spine.

(inhales forcefully) Flex your wrists. You know I love you. Open that heart center. Draw the arms down to the sides. You're all done.

Boom.