Precise Reformer

Hi, my name is Dana Santi, and today I am going to work with the lovely Meredith on a workout that we're gonna focus a lot on the arm/back connection. Meredith was kind enough to do the tutorial with me so she has a little bit of an understanding as to where I'm going to ask her arms and all of that connection to happen. Okay, so first thing, we'll start with the footwork, and she's gonna put her feet-- You used to it there? You wanna go parallel? Whatever.

There you go, okay, so we're gonna take her arm and like we did in the tutorial I'm going to ask her almost to wave her muscles, okay, and work them in this up and down motion. So I want the tips of her fingertips here to press tiny bit into the carriage, just tiny. I want her palms to be lifted away from the carriage. I want the heel of the hand to press into the carriage. Little bit more, mm-hmm.

I'm gonna ask her forearm to have some energy that goes up, substance, and then I'm gonna ask her tricep to go down, and now I'm gonna ask the shoulder to go up, okay? But again, it's a cap, okay? There, and just press into it, but give it purpose, and then I'm gonna ask the lat here to go down. Okay, so now I know, and by her working this way, her chest is open, her shoulders are where they should be, and her arms are in a great position, okay? And that's all going to connect everything to her back so that it frees up this to just work where it should, okay?

So go ahead, try to maintain that as best you can. Press it out, and bring it back in. And again, and in. And three, and four, that's it, and five. There you go.

One more. And now bring it in, all right, now to your arches, okay? Now again, find it. Okay, sometimes we have to give ourselves-- Continue these, go ahead, press-- These body checks, okay? And there's nothing wrong with that, because from point A to point B, back to A again, who knows what could've happened?

There you go. One more. Okay, and then come back now to your heels, okay? See if you can find the arms and press it away. So a little bit, the fingertips are in, the palm is lifted, the heel of the hand is down, right?

That's enough work right there. But again, working the hand that way completely straightens out the wrist. So all of her muscles are gonna get the efficiency, the same efficient workout as they should, equally. Okay, back down to your toes, there you go, and let's keep it parallel. Okay, all the toes on, and now press it away, find it if you lost it, press it out, stay there, and now you're just gonna lower the heels down and lift 'em up, and lower, and lift, and lower, and lift, and lower, and lift, and lower, and lift, keep this lifted to the ceiling a little as you lower.

There you go, and lift, and lower, and lift, and lower, and lift, one more, and then bend your knees. Okay, we're gonna take her-- Bring your knees into your chest and bring her into this hundred position, so these handles are here for a reason, okay? It's the same reason the foot bar exists. They're here to help you to align you, okay? They're not just there for you to hold randomly.

They're there for a reason. So I'm gonna take her, and she has this. Turn your hand this way a little bit, there. So I wanna make sure when she holds this handle that she's got the same amount of space on this side of it as she does on this side of it, okay? That's gonna help me portray to her the alignment of where you need to go.

Okay, now, from here you can leave your legs down. You don't even have to worry about 'em, so just make 'em go straight. Okay, she's here, fingertips press in, the palms lifted, the heel of the hand has some presence. Okay, the forearm goes back, the tricep goes down. Okay, the shoulder, give me some love here, and then the lat there, okay?

So now she is in a great position, and all I'm gonna ask her to do is press your arms down, you can leave your legs down, and lift the head up and we'll go into your hundred. Now, find that same position here, okay? So now a little bit more in the heel of the hand, more here, yes, okay. Attagirl, and now pump and breathe. And exhale, and again, inhale, and exhale.

And inhale, and exhale, now, as you're thinking about it, okay, give yourself another body check and see. Am I taking my fingertips, pressing them in? Okay, now, as you're there, the fingertips, okay, are pressing into that handle, but the energy in the nail bed is reaching away. So that's reaching to me. Yes.

And then from here, don't let it go, keep the energy reaching where it needs to go. Bring the arms back up to the ceiling, keep it, keep it, keep it, keep it, keep it, keep it, and then release. All right, into coordination, so I'm gonna take you down to two springs here. All right, so again, here we are. Let's use these as our guide.

Elbows in tight, and I want you to lift your head up. Look towards your belly button. All right, from here, see this piece of wood? It's just gonna stay straight. It doesn't get to turn, okay?

Now, the energy in the nails. They press into the handle, and it reaches away from you. Okay, so now does this piece of wood look straight? No. (laughs) Aha! Find it, put a little love in the heel of your hand. There, okay, straight, now press those arms down, and extend the legs out.

Open, close the legs, now bend the knees in, continue the energy in those arms and then bend the elbow and then bring it back home. Okay, try it again, now you watch the handles, and press, open, close, bend the knees, keep the energy, and bring it back home. And press it out. Open, close, bend the knees, and bend the arms. Now, Meredith, do me a favor, you watch this one on the way out, okay?

This one's stubborn. Mm-hmm. Ready? Now, watch it, see where it went? Mm-hmm. Okay, try it again,

so she turned it, okay? That's what I'm trying to get her to avoid. Ready? Lift, and press. Open, close, bend the knees, now you watch it, keep it straight.

Aha, look how hard, and one more, now keep it straight, ready? And press it down, press, open, close, bend the knees, and bend the arms home. Yes, all right, my dear, sit yourself up. Ooh, we're not done yet, slide back. Okay, rowing, so let's do rowing facing forward.

Okay, and again, all I'm asking her to do is keep the muscles activated, okay, from where we talked about, and she's going to look at the wood part on the handles. That's such an easy, easy trick to teach your clients, because they can see it. If they watch it, they can see it and they can fix it. Okay, and we don't have to figure it out. Let's row, watch the handles, keep 'em straight.

So you're gonna reach a little bit more with the inside of your hand, right, to lift the outside of the hand. Okay, now, go slow, keep the energy where it needs to be, because we're gonna try to keep this angle here. So we go in and away, now freeze, go back. All right, take this, your fists, and open 'em up a little bit. There, now don't let the elbow veer out.

Okay, reach. And keep 'em-- Yes, yes, yes, now come to me, come to me, reach to me more, all right, now check it out. Fingertips in and away, palms lifted, presence in the heel of the hand, right? There you are, now, come down and keep those arms straight. Touch the carriage, go ahead and touch it.

Yes, now, energy in the nail bed, right? So the fingertip in, reach the energy away. Reach it away, reach it away, now freeze, look at your handles. Make 'em straight, there you go, and now lift up, lift up, lift up, and now press it open, press it open, press it open, keeping it straight. Okay, come back down, let's try one more.

Okay, so here, so now I'm gonna take-- So she's a little bit in here, I'm exaggerating, so I'm gonna make her fist, her hand, line up with the elbow, okay? And now in and away with the energy, and reach, now watch, watch, watch. You don't have to go fast. Keep going, reach, reach, reach more. More to me, now check it out.

You got everything working? All right, go down, go down, keep it straight. Yup, you keep watching, you keep watching. Now, in and away, come back up, come out to me. It's way more fun out here, that's it, come on, more, more, now go up, go up, go up, and now go open, go open, go open, and then come back home, yes, okay.

So now let's change the shape of where her arm is. So cross your legs. Okay, and we're gonna hug, okay? So your arms are gonna go out to the side. Just because they're here, okay, and not in front working this way, it's still the exact same connection.

So the fingertips go in, and the energy goes away. All right, and it's gonna stay there. Now lower that arm a little bit. Mm-hmm, now where is that? Put a little love in the heel of the hand, then your forearm, down, present, love.

More, there. Okay, now, with that, just keep the arms straight, okay? Take it, and just take a breath with it. Inhale, now get all the way out here to me, and make all four knuckles touch evenly, 'cause that way we know you're in a good spot for Meredith. And then open it back up, attagirl.

And again, inhale. Come to me! And then exhale, now watch, don't let that go too high. Go down here a little more. And inhale, and then exhale. Now change your breath, and exhale.

Mm-hmm, and inhale, that's it. Keep that connection over there. And inhale. And exhale. And one more time.

Energy in and away, and now it continues in and away, in and away, in and away, in and away, in and away, and then release, yes. Okay, all right, go ahead and step off. So now we're gonna switch the position, and I'm gonna put her into pull straps. All right, so lie down on your stomach, and your shoulders are gonna line up here. Slide back a bit, there you go.

Okay, so now we don't have a handle, right, to see if we're straight or we're not straight. 'Cause I'm gonna ask her to hold the leather. Okay? So from here though, I want her to reach really, really far out here, okay? And I'm gonna have her thumb stay on top.

Now, the trick is she's doing the exact same hold, okay, the exact same energy on the leather that she was doing on the handle. Okay, so from here, this pinkie, okay, has to work really hard for Meredith because it likes to veer in, okay? So I'm gonna focus and make her put a little bit more brain power on that pinkie in keeping it where it is, okay? So from here, your palm works up, down, up, down. Yes, okay, you with me?

Mm-hmm. Now, keep this position and reach down to the floor. That's it, now don't let it move, don't let it move, keep it, make that pinkie work more. That's it, and then release, go back down, and come back home. Look how hard that is, okay?

She's strong. Now pull the abs in, keep that up and away, there you go, and reach, now make that pinkie work a little extra for you. Uh-huh, now don't break it, and reach this more back here. More, yup, come on, don't muscle through. That's it, it gets right into her tricep way more.

And then release. Okay, now this time do one more, and don't even go back that far, okay, so from here, reach, and now start pulling from back here. Reach this back more. Now freeze there, that's it, reach, press this down more, reach that. Yup, hold it, and then release down, and long to the front, okay?

That is a lot of work, right? Mm-hmm. So now, without thinking, do one how you would like to do one. Just go for it, just go, just do it. Well, you're trying to be real neat.

I know, I wanna get it! Sloppy it up, try one more, ready? Just do it like you would do it, okay? So where in there was there any work, right? She missed it. There was so much juice in there and it just was bypassed, and that's what we have to avoid.

Now that I will you save yourself, redeem yourself, and do one more. Make it work, that's better. And again, it doesn't go far, it doesn't, because we're gonna make it there, and then release. Yes. Okay, do it this way more and you will be able to go back further, where you want to, okay?

All right, now your T. So I'm gonna have you here, and you're gonna hold the leather, and I'm gonna put your thumbs right on these rivets, okay? If she had shoulder issues, I would slide her arms back, but she doesn't. Now lift up here, there, okay. And so now she's doing the same thing, her arms are out to the side, all right?

Everything's happening where it should be. Give me this, and now give me this. Yes, now lift the arms up a little higher. Now keep this shape, lift the collarbone up, and now reach back. That's it, hold it there.

Hold it. And then release it open, good girl, okay. Keep reaching this, there. All right, try again, and reach it back. That's it, hold it, and then release it open.

Okay, one more time, and reach it back. And release it open. Okay, rest your arms down. Slop it up. Okay, I rest my case, right?

All right, one more time, make it pretty. And... That's it, keep reaching to the inside of that one hand there, the right one, yup. And then release it. Yeah, okay?

All right, so now let's take these and we're gonna go into your teaser. Okay, nothing dramatic, we're working for the arms. Okay, so I'm gonna have you sit here. Okay, grab the handle from underneath, and grab it from underneath. Okay, so I will hold your legs, thank you.

All right, so now from here I want you to take your arms, hold it straight, you're gonna watch those handles to make sure they stay straight, all right? Now move your fingertips, your pinkie fingers, over into the inside there a little bit, yes. Okay, energy in the nail bed goes in and away still, and now take the arm, keep it there, you watch it, you watch it, now the moment they start to turn, okay, fix it, and if you can go further, go. If you can't, don't stress. Fix it, there, and now go further, up, now fix it, go up more with the arms, more with the arms, more with the arms, fix it, and then bring 'em back down.

Yes, and try that again. And in and away with the energy. That's it, don't smash the palm, put a little bit of love in the heel of the hand. That's it, keep going, and now fix it, yup, and go more, fix it, uh-huh. Go more, fix it, and then come back, and bend your knees.

Thank you, my dear, yes. (Meredith groans) Okay, step off. Okay, now let's go into your long stretch. So I am gonna have you step on, hands here, and I want you to put your feet in where the neck piece bends. Ooh, I'm sorry. Ooh, no, no.

All right, so here she is, right? Same thing as if she was holding that handle. So the fingertips are in, and the energy from the nail bed is reaching way out here, okay? So now palm is lifted, heel of the hand has a little presence. Bring this to me, bring that back to you.

Get into me here, more, yes! This goes up, and this goes down. Get it, you don't lose me here. Now, you watch, don't change the shape. Look where your arms are. Take a peek, okay, there, now press it away, don't let 'em change, you're there, you do it, and then come back in.

Now lift your heels up a little more. (Dana groans) There, walk your toes back a little, okay, keep 'em lifted. Now, you ready? Give your arms a check, and press it away. Yeah, and then bring it back in.

And again, now you watch 'em, press it away, good girl. And bring it in, that's it, now do one more. Let's try to get those heels up. Now leave 'em there, it's like, what's that infomercial? Set it and forget it! (laughs) One more, I lied, don't use that, come on.

And then come back in, and then kneel down. Yes, okay? I know, I know, I know. All right, down stretch, hands here, feet pressed back. Okay, reach the hips forward, so now go ahead, check 'em out, right?

Fingertips, lift the palm away more. Yup, here. Now keep it, keep all the presence. Now we don't even have to worry about it. Use your heels and move the carriage.

Now inhale, now exhale, keep those heels pressing into the shoulder blocks. And again, use your heels, press, inhale, and now exhale, exhale, exhale, that's it, tap into here more. And inhale, give this to me, even though it's out there. Give it back to me, there, and then come back, keep with me, keep with me, keep with me, and then release, elephant. Stand up, okay?

Heels are down, now let's take a peek again. So nice and even, equal pressure on each of your fingertips. The energy goes into the bar and away. All right, from here, lift the palms away. Heel down, heel of the hand is down.

More, give this to me, yup. And now reach down, there it is. Okay, so now keep this. If she keeps this working where it is, all right, this is gonna go in the shape that it needs to be. Now, more here.

So not-- Nope, it's gotta reach there, okay? Now stay there, and push it away a little, and then pull it back in, and keep reaching, that's it. And again, inhale, now give this and work this more. Yes, and again, inhale, and exhale, give me more fingertips. More, and inhale, reach that energy away from the nail beds, bring it back in.

Mm-hmm, and one more, inhale, keep it there, keep it working, now pull it back in, thank you. Yes, okay, step off. All right, change the hand position, and we're gonna go into the stomach massage, okay? So have a seat. Oh, no, my bad.

All right. So just for the sake of lines, let's keep you parallel. Okay. So here her hand is gonna go here, okay? But again, it's the same thing.

Here we are repeating it in a different shape. Different part of equipment. So find it, take a second, no stress. Okay, don't worry about the carriage. Now, fingertips, palm, heel of the hand.

Okay, your forearms come to me, and your triceps go back. More, there. Okay, presence and presence. Okay, and now press it away, you don't have to go fast. Lower down.

Come back up, now find 'em, thank you, bring it back in. And again. Okay, so more here, work this back more, work this forward more. There's no locking, right? Keep 'em both, they need air, they need space.

And press, attagirl. Lower, lift, and bring it back in. Now check 'em, and press, lower, lift, and come back in. That's enough, all right? Now take your hands back.

Okay, so here we are, what is this, right? Fingertips find a spot on the reformer to get each fingertip proper placement, okay? Each one is treated equally here, there you go. So now fingertips in and away, palms lifted, palms lifted, palms lifted, keep going, lift it more. Lift it more, so here, so now reach, reach your fingertips away from you, there.

And now put a little presence here. More, there. Keep going, you're almost there. I'm gonna prove a point with you! Fingertips in, palm away. There.

Little, little, little, lessen it up. There. Okay, so now reach this, and reach this to me, back to me more. There. So that's going to like naturally unlock her joint.

Okay, if it's worked in the right spot, we would never have to cue, "Unlock your knees, "unlock your elbows, unlock anything," if it was working, right, the muscles in this wave. The muscles work the bones. Okay, here we are, so now give me more here, and more here. There, now go for it, and try to maintain it. Mm-hmm.

Keep it, attagirl. Yes, okay, reach your hands forward. All right, so here we are. (laughs) Nothing, okay, but again, yes, there it is. So fingertips down, up, there it is. Mm-hmm, now, there.

All right, now stay in midair out here and push the carriage away, and you don't have to lower and lift on this one, just go out and in. So now stay with me there, and bring it back. Now check it out once in a while, and press, and bring it in, there you go. Press, and bring it in, just keep it straight, see, one line, there you go, straight across. Uh-huh.

And press, and bring it in a little bit. Stay there, a little bit of love there. There you go. And then release, yes. Okay, all right, step off.

All right, let's do your short box, a few things on there. Have a seat. All right, feet in. All right, reach through the heels, that's it, and push out here a lot. Keep that strap nice and tight so we don't have to worry about it.

All right, she's gonna roll back. Here she is, she's hugging, okay? Same exact thing, so you have to think about them even though they're here, right? If they were behind your head, wherever they are, they have to work that way, okay, so now roll back. Mm-hmm, now check 'em out, set it all up, and now round, come back up, and I just want you to roll right over your hipbone.

Just right over it, that's it. Keep going. Now roll back again. Keep 'em, okay, where are they? I don't know, something happened back there.

Attagirl, come back up, and just roll right over your hipbone. Yup, just right over it, right over it, right over it, attagirl, find 'em. One more, roll back. And then come back. And release, okay, grab the pole.

So we're gonna mimic the handles. It can go out a little further, all right. So you're here, but now we have to bring that up. I'm gonna have you, for you, put your thumb on the same side, okay. Now lift yourself up, reach this in a little more, reach this there.

Okay, here you are, reach this down. Uh-huh, all right, so now she's nice and even. Okay, work the muscles where they need to go, and now I want you to go straight back, and then come right back up. And again, straight back, and come back up. Now, the energy in the arms when you go back is gonna go here, so keep presence over here.

Keep presence, that's it, now keep presence back there as you come back up. Thank you, one more time. So they don't have to move, there's just presence, and then release, yes. Okay, grab one leg for your tree. Okay, she's gonna take it, and she's gonna extend it, and bend.

Now take your hands, and they walk up with purpose. Okay, there is a reason we walk up that tree. Now, find it, okay, so now bring this-- Yup, and give me this here more, yeah. So it's gonna go right into my fingertips. Okay, so now we unlock that, right?

Drop your head down, and now take your hands and walk down the tree, okay, using the arm. Now walk back up the tree. Mm-hmm, and each hold exactly. You can go there, stretch, and just do one more. Walk down, walk down, so don't lose the heel of the hand on your way down, but don't lose this either.

Right on the tricep, and now walk back up again. There it is, top of the head, you can go towards your knee. And then bend, let's try the other side, okay? It's like climbing a rope, right? I would try a little bit harder if I was climbing it than this (laughs).

And extend, two, three, walk up. Mm-hmm, keep going, okay, now find it, attagirl, drop your head down, and walk down and away, there you go, I got it. And now come back up, you can roll right over that hipbone again if you want. Keep walking, top of the head to the knee, find your arms, and one more, walk down. That's it, and then walk back up again.

Watch 'em, that's it, make those triceps work. Give them love. And then release, yes, all right, step off. All right, now we're gonna go back, we're gonna use the foot bar again, and we're gonna do knee stretches, okay? So kneel down.

Okay, she's gonna come back to me. So now, exactly, now you can see what's going on, okay? Fix it, right, energy goes in and away. So go there, yes. Now from here use those heels again to move the carriage and bring it back in.

And again, and bring it back in. So work here more, keep this back, yes, and again. Keep the palm away, mm-hmm, get into those fingertips, one more. Okay, now from here she's gonna open, make this line, set it, right, get it in there, and now watch your wrist periodically and push it away. Use the heels and bring it back in.

And use it, and bring it in, that's it, and again. Mm-hmm, keep this to me, yup. One more, and then release, yes, all right, go ahead and lie down for running. All right, so way back, right from footwork. So here we are, they're gonna be better, cleaner, neater.

Go down towards the toes. Okay, give them a little purpose, all your points. She opens her chest, quite lovely, and push it away, keep it there, lower one heel, lift one heel. That's it, and now keep working the back of these lats here. That's it, and then bend your knees and come back in.

And now your pelvic lift. Okay, and from here, lift the hips. There you go, now keep it there, find all your spots, and press it away, and bring it back in, and press it away, that's it, and bring it back in, and press it away, and bring it in, one more. Bring it back in, maintain it, and lower down your spine, let your spine kinda chase that tailbone all the way, all the way, all the way, and then step off to the side. And let's do the last part of your front stretch.

So I'm gonna have you come back, and I want you to kneel. You're gonna put one foot up, and one foot back, so you'll be on your left knee. There you are. Okay, so here we are, right, exactly. You've really gotta hold that bar with some purpose.

There you go, palms away, little love, little love, lot of love here for you, we're gonna work on that. Here, and then here, that's it. Now keep that, mm-hmm, all right, here we are. Keep it there, don't let it move, okay? And now push through the heel, and reach back, stay there, okay.

Now reach this left hip, or your right hip, down a little. There you go, hold it there, and now bring it back in. Okay, fix the arms, make 'em work, that's it, and reach through the heel, hold it, that's it, hold it, and then bring it back in. Mm-hmm, now from here stay there, take the arms. Now, with purpose, reach 'em out away from there.

That's it, fingertips, palms, heel of the hand. Now you watch with your eyes here, and now you follow these strong arms all the way up to the ceiling. Follow 'em with your eyes, keep following 'em. Keep following 'em, they're strong. Nope, keep looking at 'em.

Now, follow 'em back down, you watch 'em, give yourself a check. Fingertips, palms, heel. Uh-huh, keep this straight. And then follow 'em back down, and switch your legs. Okay, here we are.

She's set up. Energy is still going in and away from the bar. And now use your heel, press it back. That's far enough, and I want you to reach this hip down. There, more, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Okay, now fix your arms, there you go, there you go, and then come back in. Mm-hmm, and one more time, reach this down to my hand here. Yup, and then fix the arms, there they are, make 'em work. Reach, hold it, uh-huh, get into this right, yup. And then come back in, and now from here, make 'em strong.

Reach. And now you follow 'em, and you follow 'em, and you follow 'em. That's it, you can lift up, you can keep going, there you go. Now follow 'em back down, watching the lines. Uh-huh, and bring 'em all the way down towards the bar.

And we are done.