Day 6: Flexibility

Casey, you had been working hard and we've done a lot of arm work and we're gonna get ready to do a lot of leg work. But before we do that, I want to really work on your flexibility both on your spine as well. But mainly today is about your legs. It's not going to be too long of a session today. Uh, we're gonna get a little bit of a workout with, um, the, I mean really challenging your powerhouse, but a lot of stretching. So if you have a very stiff spine or concerned about it, you might want to. And with the exercises I'm going to start with instead of, um, beginning with them. Also, you might want to grab a bar from your reformer or you can grab a ball to do your short boxes. You need something in your hands, whether you're going to press against a ball or magic circle, anything exciting or you could use your bar. All right, let's come over onto this side.

You can start with your feet right against the barrel. But I'm going to take my um, fee a little bit forward for my flexibility of my spine. I am a very stiff individual. I'm going to slide down and get my pelvis nice and square and then I'm going to start rolling back. So if I don't stretch lower back, middle and do PyLadies, I become very, very stiff. Exhaling. Okay. And we're warming up for our short box here in with the air and really allowing exhale, squeezing up the air.

I'm going to lift using my powerhouse in the back of my thighs, into my nice c curve and stretch forward without moving my pelvis. And then I'm going to go all the way down, allowing my tailbone to go up to the ceiling two more. And, and with the air and x, your money used to always say I had a very nice, strong, straight Peruvian spine and, but if I work hard, just like you, I can keep it rather supple and flexible. Maybe not acrobatic, but okay. Able to do Joe's work one more. And with the air, inner thighs, pelvic floor, really feeling one vertebrae at a term and exhaling, if I was in a garage barrel, I might be able to grab the rungs because of the alignment.

This one I have on number seven, I don't know where you like working on your barrel, but I haven't slid out to number seven. There's little measurements inside. Okay. Stretchy and I do some side stretching now. All right, I'm going to hop on here. You can get on it in many different ways. I'm going to hop and I'm going to grab the middle of my run and square off my body. With that, grab this top rung and then lengthen my legs and let my legs just hang down.

If you want, you can grab the next one too. So I'm going to have my top leg lift at hip level and I'm gonna squeeze my inner thigh and two and three and then haying down stretching. I said I'm gonna you hold onto this run I think and I'm going to lift hip. Do that one more time. Powerhouse, inner thigh and hold and then down stretch, stretch, stretch. And I'm going to flip over onto my belly, you know, hold onto this second to top rung and just [inaudible] let my heels hang down and stretch my spine like my tailbone has a weight. And then do three little circles and reversing them.

You can go one way or the other. Just loosening up my body and I'm going to go to that left side. So I'm going to keep this middle run. Grab the top rung to start and square off my body with that pole. Maybe grab the next one down and let my hips, Oh yeah, my right side.

Really enjoys that. And then to lift my right leg and squeeze one, two, and three and Hain. And one more time, leg up. One, two. Try not to use your arms, but just your power house and hanging hanging. Now we're gonna let those feet slide down to the floor. Turn our back back to the barrel and stretch without your pelvis moving and then stretch all the way down.

We're trying to limber up again and I'm going to separate my feet so that they're parallel and reached through [inaudible]. And then round up. Hope you enjoyed those. And we're going to get ready for some short box here. So I'm going to grab my bar and I'm going to sit down. I want you to pay attention to this, uh, bolt there.

Again, you guys are all instructors so you know how to do this, but we're going to stay in front of that bolt on this first one. I will not be using this. I'm going to just put it here. Ready to be used. Toes are tucked under. I'm going to start the first one with my hands right here and I'm gonna Scoop. And here we go. We're going to roll back our lower back and then our upper or middle a nether and in with the air index. All right, hugging three more.

[inaudible] starting to think of my horseback too, cause we're going to do that in a moment. Taking my elbows like so. Limbering up. Stretching the legs. Okay. Rounding up two more and reaching my arms. Hugging and one more [inaudible] I'm just making sure I'm going one bone at a time and we're ready for the flat backs. I'm going to reach forward. Grab my poll, come back just a hair and straight arms up.

Let's go three more. I'm not using my legs, the quads, at least. I'm really using my seat and the back of my legs. Try to turn off those clots. Rest side, reach up strong arms and exhale. Exhale over, over, over one more set. Lifting the powerhouse over lifting and rest.

Now we're going to do the twist, but I'm going to add a little variation that my friend Trish Garlin taught me. So we're tend, you have the bar in your hands when you're twisting because I get, like I said, very stiff in my spine. So this helped me a lot. So I'm gonna pretend I have it lifting up tall, twist to the right, and then I'm going to put my hand in the middle of the barrel and I'm going to reach out using my powerhouse to lean on that arm, twisting more and coming up and twist with my powerhouse. Place that arm right in the middle of the barrel behind me. Keep twisting as I go out.

And Becca feels delicious. Twist, hand, twisting, twisting with the powerhouse. And again, twist hand two, listing, lengthening, adjusting. One more. [inaudible] a long and up. And last time reach and up. And I'm going to take my bottom back and strip.

Sure. Let's go for the tree. So we're gonna do leg ballet stretches in just a second, but we're still gonna do the tree right now. Alright. Sitting up nice and tall. We're going to take out that right leg and stretch and bed. If you're against a wall right now, it's lovely to slide your foot up and down that wall.

Climb up until you get to your ankle. Stretch forward and roll back. So you're pushing your heel from your seat, pulling the leg up to the ceiling. Draw the belly into the barrel and go down. Yeah, reaching that leg up in with the air and exhale, Yay. And two more square enough. My hips here, pushing that heel.

There we go. You can reach back. Leg stays up. You can cartwheel off if you would like. I used to love doing that. I'm going to get back to that.

[inaudible] so you can touch your arms. To the floor and just cartwheel off. Go into your split and then mount backup onto here. Very doable and stretch. We're going to do side tree, so we're going to pretend we have a handle here and we're going to open and we're going to roll back. Then come forward, bend the knee behind you.

Cross it over. Nice and tall and stretch other like bottom. Pushing the heels away. Yeah. And pulling out the left and stretch and bend and stretch. And then hold it up and stretch forward. Push with the right hip and sync the belly into the back in with the air.

Exhaling all the way back up. Stretching back. Okay. And one more [inaudible] pick the apple off the tree and we're going to do a side tree again. Jenny, we have a handle. Open and roll back your pelvis.

Yeah. Delicious. Bend the knee behind you. Cross tall. Structural. We're ready for some side set up. So we're going to push your in to get rid of this bar.

Hmm. I think it's okay. Actually right here. I'm going to take my bottom left foot. Let's say bottom cause it's going to go on the bottom rung in the middle. And because I'm a not as flexible, I'm going to put my front foot top foot closer to the front. You should have a one over the other though. And I'm going to line up my hips, but my hands behind my head and do some sides set ups to get my waist going.

Here we go. And out to even and and out. One more hand up all the way down. Reaching out and up. One more like that. All the way out.

End Up other side. Okay. Bottom foot in the middle. Top a little forward. I'm hoping to get my hips anchored in square. Long Waist, hands behind your head, out.

It's up. If you're against the wall, you can also do this with your foot long against the wall and all the way out and as close to your knee as you can. One more. Okay, great. And we're going to turn around and do swan and then we'll do horseback. So I want you to put your toes on the bottom rung, heels to get on the next one and just hang. I love to feel like my knees are being pulled to the floor and I want your pubic bone against the barrel. I want your arms to lengthen to the floor.

And now you need to create a tunnel and your lower belly to lift up and go into Swan. Here we go. We're going to live dep and exhale and reach long and exhale the straight legs bend when you need to. And inhale, reach am lifting your tummy again and exhale and reach. Yeah. [inaudible] forward. And Bet one last one in with here. Open that chest, open that upper back, going all the way back. And great job.

Come down and we're going to get some horseback in. I'm going to do some more bent leg and then with straight leg. So we're going to get up. Our one leg straddles the Om barrel, so I'm going to come up and a lot higher than my grads, but that's cool. Alright, bet. Knees like a jockey. You're gonna use your inner thighs. You're going to hug the barrel, okay? And we're going to use your lower belly, your pelvic floor. Under the start.

We're going to put your hands here and get into a nice lifted c curve. Okay? Lifting, lifting, lifting and dressed doesn't look like much, but it will. And squeeze those in her thighs and draw that powerhouse in all the way up into your upper back and dress. Now I'm gonna reach my legs long, flex my feet and bend my elbows by my side. All right? And we're going to, I want to see a ripple effect through the body.

As you point your toes, you're going to incorporate every muscle. All right? So here we go. We're gonna point and lift up into our c curve. K, squeeze those inner thighs. Draw that pelvic floor. Let me see that ripple effect and circle one and two and three, and come down for a set. Good job. We're gonna do that one more time. Squeeze. Nicey curve. Try to lift off that seat. And one, two, three. And here I'm more concerned about your c curve than how high you're lifting up.

All right? And we're going to step down and enjoy some ballet stretches. It's time. So we're going to put this bar away and we're going to put your back and heels against the rungs. I'm going to start with my right leg. You can place your hands here, you can place your hands here, you can place your hands here. I'm going to put my hands here because I'm a mom and my shoulders love to roll forward and I always have to work on it.

So I'm gonna pull my belly in and swing my right leg, cross my body. Right now I'm pushing with the ball of all my toes lifting. My Arch heel is down inner thighs. So my standing leg is really working and I'm going to lift through my powerhouse, up to the crown of my head and exhale forward in the up and lifting, trying to keep your hips as square as you can. If this is really too hard for you, then you can put your feet on the rungs behind me.

We're going to do three of these and I'm going to show you the ballet stretches I'm doing, but you can do less and you can do more if you know more. Go for it. We're going to do some splits. So I'm going to put my hands here and I'm going to keep my hips, my hips square and slide and pull back with those inner thighs and slide and pull back. And one more. All right, now I'm going to bend my front leg and I'm going to place the foot right towards the other side. Try to get that hip square again. And three more forward bending. Lift that standing leg, inner thigh through the powerhouse and exhale. Okay. And and lift. Ah, two more.

[inaudible]. Watch yourself on those rungs. Are you shifting to one side or are you staying nice and centered? Very important and left. All right, we're going to straighten that leg and I want you to lift onto the ball of your foot using your inner thigh muscles. We're going to rotate, so my back is gonna be to you. I'm going to lower my heel and then I'm going to open my toes and that returns me to a turned out Peloton stance. I'm going to use my hands, just stretch and push my pelvis forward, making sure I'm over that standing leg.

This leg can be down the middle of your body if you're so flexible or a little forward. But the hips need to be even lift that left arm up, up to the ceiling over you. Go and, and switching up to the ceiling over and trying to get your arm as close to your head as you can. Lift all the way up, over, over, over, over, over, over. Go where you can and then a little more. Don't pull anything. And one more [inaudible] and one more this side. [inaudible] all right, you can do some side splits and you can also bend the knee and stretch with it. But I'm going to turn and do my arabesque stretches.

So I'm gonna lift up on my heel. I'm gonna turn my back to the barrel and I'm going to lower down. This barrel is too high for me. So I'm going to prop myself up on to the rung to get myself more square. Find your range of motion.

I'm going to split out and I'm going to pull in and now I'm going to split out and I'm going to stretch my toe and lengthen and pull in. Now I'm going to try to grab my foot once it's back there. So I'm going to here and I'm going to keep lifting with my chest, pushing with my right hand and grab and try to square off as I lift and then extend and come down. Now I'm going to bring my foot down, just kind of in the middle, getting my knees even and really end my ballet stretches on my right leg by aligning my body perfectly and stretching that right quadriceps and hip flexor. Cross the foot behind. Turn around and do the whole thing over again. So both feet are here and we're going to circle that left leg and cross down the middle of your body's square off, even at your hips.

Standing legs working hard. It's gonna push into the floor and lift the inner thigh. Lift the arch, and we're gonna lift in your powerhouse to go up and forward. Exhaling. Inhale up. Exhale, lift. Inhale up to mark and up more of an upper back bend, right?

Not a lower, one more. Try not to lock your knee, but use your inner thigh to lift up. And we're going to split and pull back and we're going to split and pull. Try to keep my hips even and use those inner thighs. All right, I'm going to cross my leg and give myself a nice hip stretch here. Evening out both hips. Okay.

Hands staying here and lift and forward. We're gonna do three rising up, trying to feel my powerhouse. Really lifting, not crumbling and stretching forward, but I'm trying to use my inner thigh to lift my powerhouse. Lift up and we're really working hard in my center right now and I'm going to straighten my leg and I'm gonna lift up onto the ball of my foot. I'm going to turn towards you this time. I'm going to lower my heel and turn the toes out and I'm going to use my hands to stretch my hips forward. You can either put your hand here or here, I'm going to do it here. Can I get a better stretch right now? And I'm gonna to lift up everything, lifting up and stretch over and switch, Eh, so I'm far from a ballerina, but I really enjoy stretching out my legs so that I can start really getting back into all my challenging advanced exercises that we know and do and love.

But when we get tight, sometimes we stay away from them. So that's why we're taking a break right now and getting a lot of stretches in. All right. Again, you could do side splits or bend your knee and put your foot on top. But we're going to do our Arab best, so I'm gonna rise up, turn, always trying to do everything with control. Lower your foot, and if you can be an arabesque, good for you. Otherwise you're going to raise your foot there and I'm going to split out and I'm going to pull forward.

My split out is trying to get my hips even and facing forward, trying to touch this bar. That's what I'm trying to go for. And I'm going to go out and try to touch my toe to my head or Omanis to pull my ponytail to my toe and come back. One last time. You're going out. Totally the head pushing with my left arm, lifting, stretching, and coming back now for the biggest stretch. And we're gonna put the foot down in between the barrel and the wood.

And now I'm going to put my hands here and get my body in alignment. I want my knees together. I want my hips and pelvis pushing forward, my belly lifting my chest. How's it feel? Okay. All right. We're done with those. Nice job. We're gonna finish kind of how we started.

So we're going to come over here and like I said, if you have a stiff spine, maybe you fast forward and you can read you the series I did in the beginning. I'm going to do a backward stretch. I'm going to grab onto the rungs and I'm going to do some leg circles. And finished by Ben Bending forward. Alright. Wish me luck cause I think I have to hop to get to those rungs.

So we're going to go back and then I get to hang from the top rung using always my powerhouse and then I'm gonna hang slide into position. Uh, and I'm gonna let my feet circle one way. Kinda like corkscrew. You can even grab the one below even better. And then the other always pulling your bed. But let's do some circles. One, two, three and reversing. I'm just keeping it in a range that feels good and you can make them bigger.

If it feels good. And now I'm going to let them haying I'm going to slither down to the floor and I'm going to start coming up. Yeah. And like I said, I'm going to end really scooping and lifting and stretching that lower back and then going all the way down again. Okay. Ending where we started separating my legs, reaching through, and I'm going to round up always as if someone's pulling me up by my waist and I'm going to push my hips forward and walk off with beauty. And grace. Hope you will too. Thanks.