Reformer/Tower Variations

Hi, thanks for joining me. Today we're gonna play with some reformer tower variations, we're gonna do some just basic reformer stuff, we're gonna do just some basic tower stuff, and we're gonna be creative, so, let's have fun. I've got the reformer set up with one red spring and the foot bar's up because we're gonna do some foot work in a little bit. Going back here, I have the roll-up bar attached about head level if you're seated, so, there, there I have a red spring for later, some purple leg springs set up here. So, one, two, three, four.

And I think that's all the information that you need. So, let's come around to the front. Stand up tall. Take a deep breath and just prepare. Taking the arms out to the sides, reaching the arms up, allowing the chest to lift.

And then reaching the arms out to the side, allow them to be light, bring them down. And again, just one more. Just setting up, setting up for the movement experience, letting go, tuning in, checking out. All of those things to me mean the same thing, and what that means is to just bring yourself into the space and be present. Inhale. As you exhale round down and find the edge of the reformer with your hands.

Once you're there, quite round in the spine, we're gonna inhale and allow the spine to reach out, elongating, lifting the navel to the spine. And then exhale, draw the abdominals in, resisting the carriage as it comes in. Inhale, allow the tailbone to lift, draw the abdominals in, reach out, find a nice flat back. And exhale, push the reformer away energetically as you curl through the spine, allowing the neck to drop or the head to drop and the neck to round. And inhale, reaching out long.

I'm trying to keep my legs just stationary, so I'm not leaning forward into the foot bar, or leaning backwards, just trying to stay nice and steady, in an upright position over my feet as we attempt to loosen and orient my spine. Rounding up, we'll just do that twice more times. Inhale, elongate, you might notice that you can go a little lower each time. You can bend your knees if you need to. Exhale, curl, curl.

I know I'm leaning forward if I find myself running into the foot bar. So use that as a marker. Inhale and exhale, bringing the carriage all the way in. Once it comes in, touch and roll up onto your feet. Leaving the same spring, we're gonna walk to the back and grab the roll up bar.

So, just look after yourself here. We've got a moving carriage and some instability, so, I'm not saying we can't do it, I'm just saying be safe and careful. So I'm gonna sit down on my reformer, I've got the roll-up bar in my hands. Taking the bar in the hands, make sure that you're sitting far enough forward so that you've got a little space to roll backwards. From that place we're gonna bend the elbows, pulling the reformer towards the tower, opening the chest.

Take the arms out in front then articulate the spine down. This feels quite nice and it feel quite unique. So, rounding down, imprinting the lower spine into the mat, inhale and then exhale, draw the abdominals in, roll the spine up, find shoulders over pelvis and then bring the bar into the chest to lift the spine. Take the arms forward, inhale. Exhale, round through the spine.

Reaching out through the legs in the opposite direction. Imprint the back, inhale and exhale, roll the spine up. Keeping the head just above the spine rather than dropped down between arms is what I'm attempting to communicate, and then bend the elbows and pull that reformer. And then inhale. So, it's an interesting combination from the springs from the front and springs from behind.

It's nice, it give you give in both directions. Exhale, curl up resisting the pull of the springs and inhale, lift the back. We'll just do two more, it's a nice arm work, that. Exhale, roll back. Inhale and exhale, roll up.

And lift the back and reach forward, keeping the navel pulled back towards the spine. One more time, roll back, tucking the tail under. Reaching out through the legs, bringing the bar down. Inhale and exhale, roll up, and bring the bar into the chest, lifting. And now keep the bar in the chest and take a dive backwards and just upright, arms forward.

Exhale, pull the arms back and extend the spine up and back. Take the spine upright, bring the arms forward. One more time, pull in, extend the spine up and back. Come back through, take the arms forward. So, we're gonna bend the knees, I'm just holding the bar like that 'cause my mic has fallen off and is behind me.

I'm just gonna put it here forward now so that I can put my lower back on the mat. So, lifting up, and now from here, the knees are bent, the feet are flat, we're gonna roll back, imprinting the lower spine into the carriage. Coming into what feels like a chest lift position. Neutralizing the spine, we're trying to drop the tailbone down and then from there curl. So the bar comes just, just to the level of the knees and then we drag back down.

And just to the level of the knees. It's nice, it feels good to be on this moving, moving surface in this exercise, it's an interesting perspective. So, dragging the springs and then curl and dragging the springs and then curl. And we'll do just a few more. Feel that the feet are anchored glued to the mat.

I like to pull my feet towards my body. So you can play with that and see if it helps you at all. You could also think of pushing them away from your body, it's a different sensation but both enable for depth, in my experience anyway. Last two. My personal experience, not my life experience. And down.

My immediate experience is maybe the best thing to say. And up and down. Now from the down, let's rotate left, keep the pelvis square and lift up and go back, watch for the kneen shifting. Shifting knees will typically indicate there's some shifting happening in the pelvis. So, keep the lower body quite still.

And back, and there's dolphins, which is exciting for me. And back. I like it when the dolphins come to play. Last four, pulling in as you go down. And three, pulling in as you go down.

And two, and back, last time. Come back, find center, rotate and lift. So, your gaze goes just, just over that outside, or I guess the inside spring, however you think about it. So just looking passed the knee and pulling down. Lot's of stability everywhere except for the spine, which is mobile but also stable, I suppose.

And we'll go four, and pulling down. And three, and pulling down, and working deeply. I often like to remind myself and also remind you that the only person who can challenge your body to utmost is you, and how do you do that? You can only do it with your mind. Your mind and your muscles but your mind specifically.

And then roll up all the way. Rounding, allowing the springs to pull you forward into a stretch. Then take the bar, step off to the side and carefully allow the carriage to come home. Okay, so let's set up the reformer. We're gonna go into some footwork now, so whatever springs that you enjoy for footwork.

I'm choosing to use three reds and one blue. You'll of course know what you like, and then lying down. So just regular old footwork. Arms down, inhale, neutral pelvis, press the carriage out and bend in. Then reach out, holding the feet still.

Feeling that there's equality of weigh between both legs. And so we just use the footwork to warm up our bodies, to continue to warm up our bodies. So we just did the little spinal movement, now we're warming up the rest of our body because there are challenging things to come today, mark my words. Just two more times, long straight arms, zero tension in the neck and shoulders. Last time, and then we come in.

And just moving on to the toes. Pressing out, so in that straight leg position, the feet are pointed. And then as we bend we have to allow the ankles to change to enable the heels to stay still. So there's not a change in position of the heel, the heels stay exactly as they are. There's just a reorienting of the ankle joint.

Ribs are soft, spine is long. Last two. And one, coming all the way back in, bringing the heels of the feet together, then wrapping the toes over the bar. Breathing in and breathing out as you reach out and bend. And reach out, wrapping from the back of the leg and reach out, keeping oriented through the spine, nice and long and out and pull back.

So we exhale and inhale and we use our breath to create a movement rhythm. A relationship between our movement and our breath. We'll do three more and resist in, and two more, and resist in and last one, resisting in. Come all the way in, take the heels to outside of the bar. Flexing through the feet, feel a little drag together with the heels, activating through the inner thighs and reach out and pull back.

Every time you go to exhale draw the abdominals away from the spine, trying to create space between your clothing and your skin. So if you have very tight clothing on, that's definitely a challenge but it's an interesting way to try to.. Just be conscious all the time of the connection to the center of the body. Keeping the neck long, the fingers soft, and bend. Two more, and bend, last one, and bend, onto the toes.

Keeping that open V position, reaching out and in. And abdominals and bend, and reach. This reformer has like a little noise that it makes that feels like I'm on a boat. I'm enjoying. Maybe yours does too. Inner thighs activated, so, four.

Create as much resistance on the in as you create on the out. Two, and in. Last time coming in. Come into the center of the bar on the toes. I'm just gonna lift my head and check my alignment.

Press out all the way, take the heels all the way under and roll up, all the way under and roll up. Deepening that abdominal connection, keeping the shins just underneath the knees, meaning not behind the thigh bones. The shins are aligned with the thigh bones. And we'll do four, lifting from the back of the leg, the glute, the whole back of the leg. Last two, and one more.

Lifting up and then alternate, there's up and then down, up and then down. Reach and then back, meeting in the middle. So prancing, maximizing the stretch as the heel goes under the bar. And we'll just do five, up and stretch. Feel the foot of the knee that's bent pushing in the bar.

And three, and two, and one. Taking the heel down underneath the bar, allow that calf muscle to have a nice stretch. And then continue to feel that the heel's reaching down but allow the knee to start bending, taking the stretch a little further up the calf. And then reach under. Other side and then allow that knee to bend, taking a little different stretch.

And then come back and come in and come up. So, let's go to just one spring. I'm gonna use a red, you could use a blue or a red. This is maybe the.. Just be careful.

Take the spring and hook it around the shoulder block. The carriage will move, leave it there. Take up the other spring. So we're just gonna lie down and this is, again, a moving carriage so we want to make sure the straps are ready for us. Careful, lie down.

And then we're gonna take the feet into the straps. So I'm on my reformer bed, I've got my tower straps. And, again, it's just a little bit of a different experience. So, we have a sliding carriage instead of a stable carriage. And we have the opportunity to work bilaterally.

And then here we go we press the carriage, press the legs out straight and bend. Keeping the heels connected, press the legs out straight and bend. So stabilizing, press out and bend. So it's a little trickier to control than having a stable carriage, which is the benefit, I suppose. We'll do three, stretch, resist.

So, you have to control both directions so you're controlling the rate of resistance, you're controlling the movement of the carriage. Last one, hold the legs out straight. I'll just wait for carriage to stabilize. Take the legs down, reach out. Control as you bring the legs together.

Again, working bilaterally, so one leg could something completely different than the other and just watching for that. Pressing down, reaching around and up. Just do three more, pressing down, navel to spine. Reaching around and up. Two more, pressing down, keep the carriage still as you separate then reach around and up.

Last time, it's a big stretch forward me, for my legs, not for my imagination. And then we'll come to center and we'll reverse that. So, open, press down. So it's a different feeling in this direction, the carriage is a little lighter and looser. Pressing down navel to spine and lift.

Open pressing down, it kinda feels fun, it's floaty. And lift, pressing down and lift. Three more, concentrating on the alignment, concentrating on the orientation of the pelvis, two. Last one, so now taking the legs up, turning them to parallel, we're gonna take the left leg down. Reach the right leg up, try to hold the carriage still as you helicopter your legs and then come back in.

Do three, press the left leg down, using the hip extensors, keep the carriage as still as you can as you circle and come back in two. And one, whoop, gotta find your stability. Hold that stability as you circle and back. Now let's take the right leg down. Find the stable carriage, open around and bring the left leg up.

Press the right leg down, stabilize the reformer, rotate and come back, last time. Right leg goes down, stabilize as you rotate and bring the legs back up. Once you get there, bend your knees. Taking a breath in here, as you exhale, press the carriage away. Begin to fold your body in half, allowing the carriage to come in as far as you can and then start lifting up and carriage will come all the way into the stopper.

Bend the knees at the top and roll away from your feet. Bringing your body down towards the reformer, and then bring the legs through and hinge. Take the legs away, fold your body in half, lifting up to bring the carriage in. That's a little bit of a control thing too. And then roll away from the feet.

And hinge the legs across the top and through, last one. Press out, whoop, Meredith keep your heels together. And fold in half. And lift up and bend and roll down, all the way. And then once you get there, hinge through.

Carefully remove your feet from the straps. And then bend your knees and bring the carriage in. And come, and just drop the straps behind you and help yourself up. Okay, so, we're gonna do some up stretch. I'm gonna keep a red spring, that's the spring I enjoy for up stretch.

So let's step up on the reformer. Bring the heels just up above the shoulder block. It's about halfway up. Soles of the hands, or heels of the hands on the bar and line up with your head between your arms. From that place take the carriage away, keep the spine stable and exhale.

Draw the abdominals in to bring the carriage back. Inhale reach out, draw the abdominals in to bring the carriage back. Inhale, reach out, draw in. And now we're gonna go into up stretch two, where we keep the shoulder girdle still and pivot around it, lowering into a plank and then keep shoulder girdle still as we pivot around. Inhale as you find your plank position, pressing through the legs.

Exhale as you lift back up. Last one, inhale as you reach out. Exhale as you lift back up and then reach out. Come forward, all the way over the foot bar until the carriage comes to a full stop. Lift the hips up, reach out.

Pressing back through the heels as we bring the carriage all the way in, full stop. And lift up, one more. Press out, pull all the way in and full stop. Lift up, bring the feet down. Just be careful, there's not a lot of there.

Take the left leg out to the side and around and up. Let the pelvis rotate as you bring that leg around. Enjoy the stretch, you're welcome. Bring it around, bring the other leg out to the side. Around and up, bend it, allowing it to come behind you.

Reach back around and step into the headrest. Lowering the body down, you're gonna bend the arms. Push out, stay low, bend back in. Push out, stay low, abdominals in. Bend back in, push out, stay low, bend back in.

Press up, push out with straight arms, bend, pull in low. Press up, push out with straight arms. Bend, pull in with bent arms, press up. Last one like this, press out with straight arms. Bend, pull in and press up and now bend.

Push out, pull up over the bar with straight arm. See if you can come in to the stopper. Bend, push out over the bar with straight arms. And one more, bend, push out over the bar with straight arms, bend your knees, organize your feet up against the shoulder blocks. Tucking the toes under and bringing the feet flush against the shoulder blocks, into the down stretch.

So, we just reach out, pressing the hips forward, lift up and back through the chest. Press out, press back through the legs. Lift up and back through the chest. One more time, push out. Reaching through the legs, press up and back through the chest and then untuck the toes.

Rest the forearms on the bar and just sit back. Stretching the shoulders. Maybe you feel a stretch in your back or a stretch in your quads or whatever. Maybe you just enjoy resting. And then let's come up.

So, we're gonna take a few minutes to make a tower and then we'll be back. Okay we're back! I have a red spring on top, I have some arm springs with handles waiting for me out of the way. And what we're gonna do is, we're gonna come onto our backs. So lying on your back, take the bar in your hands. So, proportionately we're all slightly different, but the set up forward me, a good set up for me, is almost directly vertical over my shoulders but just slightly backwards.

So lift one leg up followed by the other. Curl the head and chest up, so you're in a nice high lifted position. Inhale bend the arms, take the bar overhead, straighten the knees. Exhale, bend the knees, reach the arms up. Inhale, bend the arms, reach behind you.

Exhale, push the bar up and inhale to reach, and exhale to push and inhale to reach. So, you wanna keep that up energy on the bar all the time, and three, try not to drop back as the arms go overhead. Two, it's a bit of a shoulder stretch. And one, and then back pushing up on the bar. Take one leg out and then the other.

Stopping the bent knee just passed a 90 degree angle. Lifting up into the bar. Reaching energetically, feeling the legs brush by one another, almost like they're magnetized. And here's four, four, holding the weight of the bar. Three, two, and one.

Now take one hand into the middle, the other hand behind the head. You're gonna push the bar up as you create rotation. Change and push, and rotate and lift. And rotate and lift. Oh, not easy, you say? I'm well aware. And lift and up and over.

Thank you to my teacher, Rale, who taught me this. And three, three, lift and twist, two. Try not to push your head forward with your hands, rather, drop the head into the hands. And one and one, bend both knees, come down, take the bar back and rest. Okay, so, that was super fun right?

So let's move on, let's get our arm springs. Mine were on the floor because they would have impeded the movement of my push through bar. I'm gonna hook them up one, two, three, down. So, essentially for my height, they're just about in line with my chin. So think somewhere between shoulder and chin level.

Turing around, taking the arms out to the sides, and then just finding a lean forward. So, we're creating a straight line with the body, we're gonna bring the springs across the front and open. Exhale, pull the abdominals back to take the arms across the front. So keeping that lean forward just consistent. So I'm not backing up and moving forward, I'm just leaning into the springs all the time and gathering the spring tension with my abdominals.

Just do two more across and open, across and open. And then cross over, lift the arms up. Open..oh I just got a crack in my upper back, how fantastic. And reach up, shoulder blades wide. Allow the shoulder blades to rotate and bring the arms across.

Inhale, lift, abdominals in, open exhale across. Inhale lift and open, exhale across. We'll just do twice more, up, out and around. Notice if the arms are moving at the same rate. My left arm likes to move faster, so it reminded me to remind you.

Out, overhead, we've reversed now. Push away, pull back with your abdominals. Out, allow the arms' shoulder blades to rotate. Reach up, press away, open out, reach around and up. And press away, and three more.

Around and up, and press away, and two more. Lifting up and press away, last time. And out, reach up, press away, bend the arms, take one arm forward and change. Keeping the body very still in space and keeping the elbows and the shoulder blades wide. One more time on both sides.

Bend both arms, take the arms down, scoot forward, bring the elbows back, again, leaning in, find exactly where you want to be and then bend and reach. Push down in the shoulder joints or, in other words, feel that you're stabilizing your scapula before you start moving your arms and pull. And reach in beautiful shoulder stretch here. And reach, and we'll go, four, and three, and two, and one. Turn around, bring the arms just in front of the body.

And then lifting the spine, press back and forward. Down and back, trying not, as your arms are going behind you, to lean back, rather, keep the body erect, right over the tops of the knees, and feel that downward reach through the arms. Last four, and three, and two, narrowing through the waist, and one. So once we're finished, we're gonna take those springs back off because they'll be in the way if we don't. And just set them to the side.

Then take the push through bar and load up the spring on the top and have a seat on your mat. So, I'm gonna orient my feet up against the poles. I'm just a little turned out because the, the relationship of that bottom hook is, is making it so I need to be. So we exhale, push the feet forward into the bar, as you round your spine deeply, deeply round the spine. And then take the bar through.

Inhale, elongate the spine, come into a flat back. Exhale, push the bar away, control the movement of the spring, stay round through the lower back, reach out, inhale, exhale, take a side bend. Inhale, reach back out, exhale, cut across, push the bar up and find your saw. Come all the way back to the bar, inhale. Exhale, pushing through the heels, take the bar down and forward.

Inhale, elongate the back, exhale, round the spine. Almost feels, almost as though you're hanging away from the bar. Take the left arm around and back. Bring the left arm up overhead and side bend you're welcome. And then back to the side.

I just assume everyone likes that as much as I do, maybe you didn't, but that's okay. And then sit up all the way. We'll do it one more time through. Exhale, round the spine, push the bar through. Inhale, elongate, pressing the knees into the mat.

Exhale, round. Right arm again goes out. Comes up and over, reaches back out, cuts under the bar, across and we find that nice extension of the back. Come up to the bar, exhale, round deeply, deeply, pulling the abdominals in. Take the stretch forward, inhale, lengthen out.

Exhale, push into the bar with your feet. Round back, open the other way. Lift up and over, there's the dolphins again. Reach out. They hung out with us the whole time. They must like us.

And then reaching up nice and long through the body. And then coming all the way back up. So now we're gonna come up onto our knees. Okay, so once we're on our knees, we're gonna press the bar down. So keeping that shoulder stabilized, the bar's gonna stay down until we're done.

We're gonna lift the opposite arm up and then inhale, reach up and over, drawing the bottom shoulder blade down. Contracting the bottom obliques, reach up. Now here's where it's kinda tricky, that's where the springs want to boss the torso around a little bit, so just watch forward that. Inhale, reach up and over. Pressing through the opposite knee.

Exhale, bring the arm down, lift the body and inhale. Reach up and over. And exhale to lift up. And then inhale, reach up and over. And exhale, rotate the spine, so you're turning and you're reaching through the frame of the tower.

Come back, and up and inhale, reach over. And exhale, reach through the frame of the tower. Come back and lift up, and just one more, inhale. And reach through the frame, and come back. And come all the way back up, and once you do, go ahead and bend that arm, lift the bar, turn sides, stretch the arm down low.

The left arm, or the other arm comes up and over you're reaching across again, anchor through the bottom knee, keeping the scapula wide. Lift the arm, control the torso and we come just to upright, press the shoulder blade down, side bend with the lower abdominal muscles, meaning the obliques on that lower side. And then reach up, staying nice and controlled. One more, inhale reach over, and exhale, come back. And now with rotation, inhale and exhale, turn.

Wrapping around the body, come back and come up. And, whoop, stabilizing the shoulder Meredith. Go out, reach through the tower. Come back through and lift. Last one, reach out, inhale, exhale turn.

Inhale, come back and exhale to lift up. Bend the arm, lift the bar, turn front. Just bring the bar with you as you come down onto the front of your body. So arms are out long, the legs are out long. We're gonna lift the head, draw the abdominal muscles in, start pulling the spine up and forward.

So just for the moment, maximizing the extension of the thoracic spine, the middle spine, and then reach back out, extending the legs long behind you. Again, the head lifts, you think of rolling a marble with your nose, lifting up through the crown of the head. Allow the bar to be soft, meaning don't push down on it, allow it to just feel almost as though it's helping you. And then reach back down, we'll just do one more like that. So, reach out and up.

And reach back down, and then bend the arms. Reach the arms up, follow through with the spine, inhale, drop the body through, exhale, bend the elbows and take the arms forward. Inhale, elbows wide, take the arms up. And lift the back and drop the body through the arms. And exhale to reach through.

And inhale, bend the elbows, wide shoulder blades, elbows slightly forward, arms come up. Lift the body, take the body back through, bend the arms and release. And then just lift the bar up, let it go, and press back, sit down onto your feet. Pausing here for a couple of moments. Breathing in and breathing out.

Just settling in, and then as you exhale, roll all the way up, and enjoy your day.