Day 5: Strong Arms

Okay, today is class number five of your 30 session challenge. And I'm so glad you are still with me. We are going to take what we did, kind of a little slow and methodically and our class number four with our arms and put it on the reformer. We're going to do almost a complete re intermediate reformer moving really quickly. I don't want you to think so much how perfectly you're moving from one exercise to the next, but I do want you to keep your flow up and we're going to add rowing and some kneeling arm work in this series. Okay. About leaving out the splits from the intermediate. So let's get going.

Moving nice and quick. We're going to be on four springs for our footwork on a garage reformer play with your springs if you have a bounced body or other ma, um, reformer. All right, here we go. Drawing our belly in and up. We are bringing our mind to our body and we're gonna lower ourselves down and roll into position. Feet are employee stance, arms from into the mat. Collarbones open knees, shoulder with apart. And here we go. We're gonna pull out and draw it in.

I'm thinking about pulling my lower belly below the line of my hips, up to the back of my ribs, stretching my spine up the crown of my head, using the back of my thighs and seat two more dry in the carriage in last one and switch quickly to arches and now again, not perfect, but moving and back of the thighs powerhouse in and up, working evenly to strengthen and balance our body, right? All these is what all things are, what we're thinking about. The three pulling in to get in the heels under the bar one and up to heels and out and pull those toes back on the way in, but still, let's be very aware. What are your arms doing? Are they progressing into the mat? Do you feel your belly pulling to the back of the ribs that are helping to purchase your arms?

Are you growing tall out the crown of your head? Let's do one more and down to chose for the tendon stretching out and down. Two, three or stretching and belly in and all the way up to the crown of your head. Yep. Reach those heels under the bar. Squeeze those in highs. Get that lower belly Dan to three. Squeeze those inner thighs.

Get that lower belly up to three stretching arms from into the mat, belly from into your back. Really moving with a purpose. We're going gonna do one more down to three scoop. Hold for a second. These are your legs for the a hundred draw the kerogen. We're going to slide a little bit away from our shoulder pads.

Lower our headpiece and our bar simultaneously. While you grab your handles, elbows are down by your side. That's where they should be. Okay, and we're going to inhale, lift your head and then exhale into position. Eyes on your belly and exhale and pumping with vigor. That's 10 just like we did with those arms springs.

We're reaching our shoulder away from our ears, reaching those handles long and low. That's 40 in with the air and yet back in the arms. I'm going to want you to start thinking about your serratus. Those are the muscles right on the side of your body, under your underarm. Try to use them. Reach those handles one more and we'll prepare for short spine massage. Both handles in one hand. Juror up. Ooh, two springs. That feels so lovely on my tailbone. Okay, here we go. Loop the leather through the handle.

You should know all these transitions, both legs at the same time. I do have some classes that go over reformer transitions if you need help. Okay, here we go. Full inhale. Full exhale. Press your arms down into the mat and here we go. Inhale to start. Exhaling over in with the air and squeeze out all that air.

Okay. Bringing down your heels and from arms. Wring out the lungs. Yeah, yeah. Two more. Reach those arms long on the mat. Last one in with the air lengthening to come up and heals coordination. Grab your handles, slip them off. Elbows like the hundred. Head Up.

Here we go in with the air. Open. Close. Exhale. Exhale. Long arms like arms springs. Yeah. Region. [inaudible] breathing is inhale for two.

Exhale for two. One more. Rowing. Both handles in one hand. Set up and get into position. Dropping a spring along the way. All right, hands with behind us and we're going to take both of those handles. We're going to have our elbows nice and lifted just like we did when we did our arm. All our arms springs. All right, so squeeze those inner thighs. I want you to think of the spine corrector being behind your lower back.

Let's start by curling back our lower back. Open the arms. Press the shoulders back. Now stretch forward as those arms push back to your tailbone. Lift the arms big open, collarbones and shoulders reaching until you get to your ankles again. Squeeze rural it back. Nice open collarbones.

Push back your shoulders. Keep pushing them back. Reaching nice and open. Lift into a big seeker. One more back open. Press back. Come forward while pressing back.

Lift in the powerhouse as you circle home, right angle three reps. Here we go. Keep trying to lift up your elbows. As you go back, open those collarbones. Press back. Your shoulders and belly goes all the way to the back of your ribs. And exhale, squeeze out that air as you exhale home. Two more tall spine hands. Pull the shoulders away from the ears. One more.

Okay. Reaching long control from the back of the ribs. Use your shoulders to reach your arms out. All right, let's start working on those serious. So we're going to put your handles down. Spin around, long legs facing forward.

Hands from the chest is what this one's called. All right, here we go. So those using right here, we're going to connect those muscles to our arms. Here we go in with the air. Exhale in with the air. Inhale. Inhale, inhale, and exhale. Two more from the chest up. Press down, grow taller. Keep growing, Gabe, growing taller, opening those color roads, opening those shoulders, and you have one more moving that spring. Take that spring out.

Keep it out. Keep it out. Flex the feet from the hips. Here we go. Stretch forward. Roll your spine up. Stop with the arms in front of you with Nice Open collarbones. Reach longer. The arms. Lift Taller, grow taller, stretching that Spring and down. Two more.

Roll up your spine like spine. Stretch forward. [inaudible]. Inhale, inhale. Inhale. Exhale here. One more. Get the Serita's to work. [inaudible] connect all those muscles.

Okay. Reached to the walls and we're going to go into shaving. You're going to cross your legs as you circle forward and bend the elbows behind you and shaving one. We're going to keep moving this spring. Just keep it moving. Try to bend your elbows behind you. Always the powerhouse in to more eyes up and with your arms forward and up and switch legs.

Opening the legs for the hug or the bug that we did with the arm weights. We're going to inhale and we're going to exhale. Ramana always used to stand next to you. Then you'd have to push her away with the back of your arm, holding her breath and exhale and inhale to push away. Opening the collarbones, lifting the elbows and exhale. Open the shoulders. Collarbones lift the elbows. One more.

Your arms should be burning and wrath. Let's set up for the long box. You're on one spring still. You're going to keep it. I'm going to grab my bar and Tuck it under my box so I'm ready to go. We're going to leave out swan today. Just keep moving along.

Here we go. Nice and centered. Keep it on one spring. I'm going to get on my box from this Ed. Walk my hands out, just shy about top third of the box and I'm going to go out into a pushup or plank position and lower myself down in a solid piece. Grab your hand leather, grab your handles, slide in, let your feet go and slide into position. Here we go. So pressing like you did, push through on the stomach. You're going to press your pelvis down, scoop your belly in and use your belly to pull up against your shoulders that are pulling back. And two more.

Reach down, reach back, keep your arms working, reach down, reach forward. One more, pulling back, stretching forward, and ti put your hand inside the loop, keeping the handle if you can, and stretch out to the side. Separate your shoulder blade, separate your shoulders, reach through your fingertips, ain't pull up and reach back out. Anchor that pelvis ant, reach back. One more. Anchor it. Use Your upper back, not your lower. Let's transition for backstroke. Both handles step off to the side. Mine are a little cot. There we go.

Add a spring with your free hand. We're on two springs now. Face the front of your reformer. Take a handle on each hand behind. Let's use your arms here. We're going to make a fist or a flat hand foot. Same Nice shoulders and open collarbones. As we come here and low, bring your tailbone to the front edge.

Lower yourself down. Here we go. Backstroke. Anchor those shoulders right and forward and forward and forward and bent to tempo up. Open forward more, more, more and bent. Two more strong. Arms forward and more. More, more and bend last time up. Powerhouse. Back in the thighs and up and bet transition for teaser. So I'm going to slide up into a teaser. Twist and drop a spring.

All right. Throughout the spring. Turn back around and unfold. And we're in this position ready to go. Keep aware of your arms. Strong arms, not lifting up by your shoulders, connecting to the back of your riffs. And we'll use your breath. Here we go in with the air to start.

Exhale all the way up. [inaudible] and three pumps. Feel those arms from last class. One more open. Collarbones keep reaching your arms forward as you roll down. Reach, reach, reach, unfold.

Let's do three circles like you do with your arms springs head and exhale up. Yeah, and circle one and circle two. [inaudible] one more. Get those Serita's in there. Reaching forward as you roll down. And we'll do the reverse head.

Yeah. And circle line. [inaudible] one more and rolling down. Reaching forward everything. Now I'm done with my handles, so I'm gonna roll up in a hang them off my back edge setting up for short box my head pieces down.

Turn my box and you use a pad. Grab it. What about hands with distance? Make sure it's centered at a spring. Let me back to two springs. Now grab your safety straps. Here we go foot and we're ready to do our rollback lifting into a c curve. As you inhale and exhale all the way down, exhale three more. You can add a back extension reaching, maybe pull on those handles. [inaudible] if you're a long and tall enough, you can touch the floor and do a pushup.

Okay, I can barely get my fingers. One more. Try to keep them away from your ears. Let's do flat back. Grab your bar. I'm going to slide it inch back. Okay.

Here I want you to feel like you're snapping your bar in half so you really feel those are muscles. Nice collar bones. Squeeze the back of the seat and connect that with the back of your ribs and we're going to lift up and we're going to slide up an imaginary wall as we go back. Belly is in and up like you're pulling out your reformer and flowered three more and strong arms. Okay. Be Aware where your spine is cause we are trying to get back our standing arm springs and we need to know where we are in space, side reach or side bends. Here we go.

Lifting Andover, we did a lot of these in class number four we did in the push through series over, over, over and up, which turned into the mermaid and then we did it. Side bends in our arm. Weights, lifting up, staying up, going over as far as again and drying yourself. Center one more set. Still snapping that bar and half. Hope you're feeling those arms burn. They're connected to your powerhouse. One more.

Inhaling and exhaling. Rest for a moment. We're going to do the twist. I want that. The arms to continue. This beautiful straight line doesn't change in our twist. Here we go. And keep that line and up and twist. [inaudible] so you're going to use your powerhouse to reach through your fingertips and keep reaching as you come up. Don't sink, reach and keep reaching. One more set.

Reach and keep reaching. Last time, no tangent in your neck please. A lot in your powerhouse though. Stretch right tree, sitting up tall. Slide your right leg and here we go. It's stretch and bend. Stretch, bend. Hold it up. Walk Up. This is like your single straight leg. You don't want to be up here.

It's a back stretch, right? We're going to roll back with that leg. Here we go. Leave the leg and down you go. Yeah. In with the air except [inaudible] two more. I hunched a little there.

[inaudible] and just like the hug, you can let your arms go all the way back on this one. So we're going to roll down the lower back and reach and then forward all the way over and then stretch. Picking that apple off the tree and switch legs both legs. Nice and square. I bring up my left and here we go.

Stretch and bet staying tall. Shoulders down, chest up. Stretch forward over that leg. Rolling back. I hit, got stuck a little there and yeah, ah, in here. That's him. Yeah. Make sure you ground your pelvis square first off so you can safely go into your extension. One more. I'll go into a full extension all the way forward and stretching.

Okay, let's get rid of our box. We're ready for the long stretch series. You're going to bring your pad down, flip your box a little bit, grab it evenly, and let's put it back and then we'll set up our reformer from this side. So lift up the head piece. Put your pad on two springs already. So we're set and now we're ready to begin hand hand-foot with strong arms here engaging all of this. Let's see what we can do. Foot in between the shoulder pads as I put my left hand, straighten that leg and let's have a solid base here and we're going to use that solid base to bring up our other leg. Yeah, so now we're going to use our triceps and everything.

We have to go out and pool in and push and pull. Think of your arms springs, use your like that. Try to find yourself in space. Is your belly hanging? Is your lower back arched, hold the long line and kneel down. Separate your feet for the down stretch.

Try to get the heel against the shoulder pad ball the foot on the mat. Hips are forward. So nice opening here. Here we go in with the air and exhale, concentrate on those arms. They stay straight so that the rest of our body can work. Now depend on them less and come up into your back bend.

Walk up arms and we're going to do up stretch both hands. Slide the feet a little forward with the ball, the foot heel on the shoulder pad. Now right now I am a not in correct position so make sure you are, we're going to get those ribs to round up. Take a breath and exhale and secure them in place so we can use our c instead. C down, pull up into those ribs and Fuld and seat down, pulling in and fall. Keeping the ribs here very hard.

Start with the tailbone to curl up instead. One more pulling up into the upper back ribs folding elephant. Susan, very good shirt for to show you guys form but I will try to do that. So pulling up my feet are a little forward because of my hike. Strong arms back of the thighs. Scoop back with I scoop.

This is the pull up on the one that chair too. One. We're ready for stomach massage. Alright, let's bring the pad down. Add two springs, and here we go. We're going to sit down and get ready to rock and roll. Hand. Same thing as rolling like a ball. None of this open collar bones, elbows pointed out to the side. And here we go and it's out down left. And I'm watching my arms, but I'm really pulling out with my powerhouse. Get a nice moot fluid movement. This isn't a slow exercise out, down, lift in two more watching my arms.

Drop a spring, both arms at the same time. Open up and reach here. And here we go. Oh, you know that this, the goal is supposed to not have your arms resting, so use them as least as you can and use the back of your thighs and your powerhouse. Two more, no hyperextending elbows. Last one. Chest lifting and bring both arms forward. Drop a spring and exhale in with the air out. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

One more and we'll add a twist. Strong arms twist. Reach one arm behind you. One arm in front and Pullen. Collarbone. The collarbone is what I'm trying to go. Woo. And Eh, staying upright. One more set heels up.

Squeeze those legs together. Okay. And last one and all right, stepping off. We're going to set up for semicircle and our frog and leg circles. So I'm going to add some straps right here real fast.

So after I do my semicircle, I'm going to do my frog and leg circles. Okay? Sure. APPS. We went over this a little bit in the second class on the reformer, making sure you just go as quickly as possible. You can hold on to them or hang onto them and hang them up.

Either one headpiece up two springs. Let's lie down close to the well so that we can get ready for our, um, semi-circle. Find your positioning. I need to do knuckles, not just pushing with my hands because I am not very tall. So I'm going to slide down a little. I'm going to lift up, slide down more, and then push my knuckles. I think this is important to include today because of the ribs.

So we're going to take a breath and exhale, squeeze that era so that we know where our arms start, which is right there, and we're going to go down as low as we can out and come up in a straight line and down. Okay. Arms trying to stay straight and down, low to the shoulder to the mat. Okay, try. You might have a limitation in your range of motion, but your goal is to have them down low on the mat street. That's the reverse and two more from the back of the thighs and hips.

The last one, when you concentrate and arms come forward to stretch on your arms, they really let you get more out of your powerhouse. Super important. Slide back or inch your way and get ready for your frog both legs in at the same time, putting them on long arms. Nice and flat. Here we go. Forward. This is your little break powerhouse in and out. We're going to do two more and then we'll go into leg circles and strong arms. Allows your belly to stay in right?

Allows you to feel the back of the thighs pushing into those straps. One more, and then we'll reverse. Okay. And then we're going to go into our kneeling arm series one more and let's stretch [inaudible]. And now we're going to slip off our straps, but hold onto the black ones and see if you can unhook the connector.

Come up with them in your hand because we don't need these anymore. So we're going to put them away. We're going to grab our handles and we're going to hang them up. And we're going to put a pad over our springs to protect our head when we do our work here. So you're going to kneel down facing the head piece. It's going to be a little hamstring work that I actually want to get into later in our series.

But Hook those feet like you did on the press down on the one to on the Cadillac and use here. All right, grab your handles so you can grab the handle and leather at the same time. And we're gonna squeeze forward. Open those collarbones chest expansion. You did this in the weight series in with the air. Look over your right shoulder. Look over your left. Look forward. Exhale.

Okay. Get those Serita's in there. Skim the side, your body with those. Did you guys see all those dolphins? All right. Skim the side of your reach down and long laughed forward and exhale. One last one in with the air.

They're playing out there and exhale. All right, you're going to sit on your bottom. Add a spring, take the pad, add and just in case your hair gets back there, bring your knees back up to those. Um, shoulder pats. Get a straight line from your knee. Thigh, hip, ribs. Everything's straight and strong and we're going to do thigh stretch. So looking down, hinge back one straight line, strong arms lift and go forward. Nice. Open collar bones. Here we go. And lift and go forward. We're going to go for a full back extension. Really opening those collarbones. Here we go. I know you can do it.

Opening, head and lift. All right, turning around. We're going to step off. Drop two springs. We're getting closer to those standing arm springs by kneeling down, finding what our back of our size, what our hamstrings have to remember how to do and our bottom. Alright, three arm circles coming forward and try to go all the way up to the ceiling and open one more, reversing it. Two more and last one. Notice my spring cap moving and that's enough for today. We're going to get rid of these handles and set up for knee stretches.

Neff arms. That is okay. Put your pad down at a spring. Lift your bar up. We're going to do 10 10 and 10 and then running and pelvic tilt. Ready to start cooling down. We're almost there, but strong arms. Upper back rounded. Here we go. Really pay attention to my strong arms, allowing my powerhouse to work. Three, two and out and switch. Open.

Lift my chest up. I'm thinking of push through on my stomach, back of the thighs, working three, two and lift and stable upper body so my legs can go freely. Okay, two more. Oops. And last one. Lower down. I'm going to keep it on too, and I'm going to lower myself down into running and I'm out. And right now I'm officially [inaudible] cooling down, but don't the germs. Take a break.

Press them down so that you can lift your power house all the way up your back, all the way up to the crown of your head, releasing any neck tension. Last set and bending, pelvic tilt, lifting and strong arms. Okay? Don't let them get a break. We've got seven more. Okay? The back of the thighs and seat lays in your tailbone away.

Pull your pelvis away from your ribs. Get length in your lower back too. Last one, and exhale. Squeeze in the air out, hugging the knees in, and you are all finished with class number five.